Late-childhood foundational cognitive skills predict educational outcomes through adolescence and into young adulthood: evidence from Ethiopia and Peru.

We estimate associations between foundational cognitive skills (inhibitory control, working memory, long-term memory, and implicit learning) measured at age 12 and educational outcomes measured at ages 15 and 19-20 in Ethiopia and Peru, using the Young Lives data. The estimates adjust for rich sets of controls and include measurements of children's baseline abilities. For a subset of the outcomes, we exploit within-household variation. Working memory and long-term memory are consistently and positively associated with subsequent domain-specific cognitive achievement tests (measuring specifically numeracy, vocabulary and literacy achievement) in both countries, university enrolment in Peru (long-term memory) and lower secondary-school completion in Ethiopia (working memory). Inhibitory control predicts subsequent math-test scores in both countries, grade attainment (Ethiopia), and university enrolment (Peru). Value-added estimates show that these skills play roles during adolescence, with the memory-related skills predicting higher domain-specific test scores (Peru and Ethiopia) and grade attainment (Ethiopia), while inhibitory control has associations with math (both countries). These results provide additional evidence to justify the importance of promoting investments in cognitive skills throughout childhood and adolescence, and elucidate how such investments impact educational achievements.

Functional delineation of the luminal epithelial microenvironment in breast using cell-based screening in combinatorial microenvironments.

Microenvironment signals are potent determinants of cell fate and arbiters of tissue homeostasis, however understanding how different microenvironment factors coordinately regulate cellular phenotype has been experimentally challenging. Here we used a high-throughput microenvironment microarray comprised of 2640 unique pairwise signals to identify factors that support proliferation and maintenance of primary human mammary luminal epithelial cells. Multiple microenvironment factors that modulated luminal cell number were identified, including: HGF, NRG1, BMP2, CXCL1, TGFB1, FGF2, PDGFB, RANKL, WNT3A, SPP1, HA, VTN, and OMD. All of these factors were previously shown to modulate luminal cell numbers in painstaking mouse genetics experiments, or were shown to have a role in breast cancer, demonstrating the relevance and power of our high-dimensional approach to dissect key microenvironmental signals. RNA-sequencing of primary epithelial and stromal cell lineages identified the cell types that express these signals and the cognate receptors in vivo. Cell-based functional studies confirmed which effects from microenvironment factors were reproducible and robust to individual variation. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) was the factor most robust to individual variation and drove expansion of luminal cells via cKit+ progenitor cells, which expressed abundant MET receptor. Luminal cells from women who are genetically high risk for breast cancer had significantly more MET receptor and may explain the characteristic expansion of the luminal lineage in those women. In ensemble, our approach provides proof of principle that microenvironment signals that control specific cellular states can be dissected with high-dimensional cell-based approaches.

Desigualdades de género y las redes de apoyo social en pacientes con tuberculosis

Las desigualdades de género y las redes de apoyo social relacionadas con la tuberculosis conllevan asimetrías de poder, distintas oportunidades para gozar de salud en unos y aumentar la vulnerabilidad a enfermar en otros. El objetivo de este trabajo fue examinar las desigualdades de género según redes de apoyo social en pacientes con tuberculosis. Se realizó una revisión sistematizada en fuentes de datos digitales como Google Académico, SciELO y PudMed. Para la búsqueda se utilizaron las palabras clave: género, desigualdades, redes de apoyo y tuberculosis. Los resultados se limitaron a artículos científicos de revisión y originales, publicados en idioma español e inglés de los últimos 21 años. Se sostiene que las redes de apoyo ante un episodio mórbido resultan condicionadas por las diferencias, pero, sobre todo, por las desigualdades de género dentro de las estructuras sociales. Se concluye que la mayoría de estudios no vinculó la tuberculosis con el género. Las redes de apoyo social cumplieron con una parte fundamental en el proceso salud-enfermedad de las personas con este padecimiento.

Gender inequalities and social support networks related to tuberculosis lead to power asymmetries, health disparities for some, and increased vulnerability to disease for others. The aim of this study was to examine gender inequalities according to social support networks in patients with tuberculosis. A systematic review was conducted in digital data sources such as Google Scholar, SciELO, and PubMed. The search terms used were: gender, inequalities, support networks, and tuberculosis. The results were limited to review and original research articles, published in Spanish and English in the last 21 years. It is argued that support networks in the face of a morbid episode are conditioned by differences, but above all, by gender inequalities within social structures. It is concluded that most studies have failed to associate tuberculosis with gender. Social support networks played a fundamental role in the health-disease process of people with this disease.

Strongyloides stercolaris en lavado broncoalveolar / Strongyloides stercoralis in bronchoalveolar lavage specimen

Las estrongiloidiosis es una infección parasitaria frecuente en zonas tropicales y subtropicales. Suele ser asintomática y limitarse al intestino. Sin embargo, pueden darse casos de infección extraintestinal diseminada y potencialmente fatales en pacientes inmunocomprometidos. Se presenta el caso de una paciente diagnosticada con estrongiloidiosis mediante una muestra de lavado broncoalveolar procesada con los métodos de cytospin y citología convencional...

Strongyloidiasis is a parasitic infection found especially in tropical and subtropical regions. It is usually an asymptomatic and limited disease of the gut. However, potentially fatal cases of disseminated hyperinfection in immunosuppressed patients can occur. We present the case of a female patient with strongyloidiasis in bronchoalveolar lavage specimen processed as cytospin preparations and conventional cytology...