Effects of homicide timing on test scores: Quasi-experimental evidence from two cities in Colombia.

This study examines the effect of homicides around schools on the standardized test scores of fifth and ninth graders (N = 4729; Mage = 12.71 years, SDage = 2.13) using a quasi-experimental design in two Colombian cities. Exposure to homicides occurring within 7 days of the test and within 500 m of the school decreases test scores by 0.10 SD. Effects show a greater sensitivity to timing than distance, becoming null as the time to the testing date increases but remaining consistent across larger radii. Since students in the study are on average exposed to 12.1 homicides per year, even short-lived learning losses can accumulate to impair learning for substantial portions of the school year. Findings are discussed, considering previous empirical work.

College integration and social class.

What is the impact of social class on college integration? Higher education institutions are becoming more diverse, yet the integration of underprivileged students remains a challenge. Using a social network approach, we analyze the general integration of low socioeconomic status (SES) students, as well as how segregated by class these friends are. The object of analysis is the extreme case of an elite university that, based on a government loan program (Ser Pilo Paga), opened its doors to many low-SES students in a very unequal country, Colombia. Using a mixed methods perspective, including a survey, 61 in depth interviews, and ethnographic observation, we analyze friendship networks and their meanings, barriers, and facilitators. Contrary to the literature, we find that low-SES students had, on average, the same number of connections and were no more isolated than students from upper social classes. Also, low-SES students' networks were not more segregated, even if relations with the upper classes were less likely and required more relational work than with middle or lower class friends. This high level of social integration stemmed from the intense relational work that low-SES students engage in, so as to fit in. Middle class friends act as a catalyst that can enable cross-class friendships.

Effects of Indirect Exposure to Homicide Events on Children's Mental Health: Evidence from Urban Settings in Colombia.

Exposure to neighborhood violence is an important risk factor for the social and emotional development of children and youth. Previous work recognizes that violence may affect children indirectly via secondhand exposure; yet, few studies have aimed to identify and quantify these effects, especially in settings like Colombia where youth is chronically exposed to violence. To address this gap in the literature, this article implements an empirical strategy where geographically specific and time-stamped data are leveraged to identify the effect of indirect exposure to homicides on fifth grade children's social and emotional outcomes. Sample participants (N = 5801) represent the fifth-grade population of boys and girls (50.7%) in two major urban areas in the country (Mage = 11.01, SD = 0.75). We hypothesize that the effects of exposure to neighborhood violence on children's social and emotional skills will be consistent and negative. The findings indicate a consistent negative effect of indirect exposure to homicides on children's emotional functioning (i.e., emotional regulation and empathy), as well as on the prevalence of avoidance behaviors. However, contrary to theoretical expectations, the results do not support effects on children's levels of aggressive behavior, nor on the beliefs and attitudes that justify the use of aggression in interpersonal relationships. The findings are discussed in light of predictions from social cognitive models and their implications for developmentally and trauma-informed interventions for youth.

Classrooms in Peace Within Violent Contexts: Field Evaluation of Aulas en Paz in Colombia.

Classrooms in Peace (Aulas en Paz) is an elementary school-based multicomponent program for prevention of aggression and promotion of peaceful relationships. Inspired by international programs and socio-emotional research, it includes (1) a classroom universal curriculum, (2) parent workshops and home visits to parents of the 10% most aggressive children, and (3) extracurricular peer groups of two aggressive and four prosocial children. Activities seek to promote socio-emotional competencies such as empathy, anger management, creative generation of alternatives, and assertiveness. A 2-year quasi-experimental evaluation was conducted with 1154 students from 55 classrooms of seven public schools located in neighborhoods with the presence of youth gangs, drug cartels, and high levels of community violence in two Colombian cities. Despite several implementation (e.g., about half of the activities were not implemented) and evaluation (e.g., randomization problems, large number of missing data, and changes between treatment and control groups) challenges, positive results were found in prosocial behavior and in reduction of aggressive behavior, according to teacher reports, and in assertiveness and reduction of verbal victimization, according to student reports. Furthermore, implementation cost (25 US dollars per student per year) was very low compared to other programs in developed countries. This study shows that the Classrooms in Peace program has an important potential to generate positive results and highlights the challenges of implementing and evaluating prevention programs in highly violent environments.

Socio-economic, socio-political and socio-emotional variables explaining school bullying: a country-wide multilevel analysis.

Why do some countries, regions and schools have more bullying than others? What socio-economic, socio-political and other larger contextual factors predict school bullying? These open questions inspired this study with 53.316 5th- and 9th-grade students (5% of the national student population in these grades), from 1,000 schools in Colombia. Students completed a national test of citizenship competencies, which included questions about bullying and about families, neighborhoods and their own socio-emotional competencies. We combined these data with community violence and socio-economic conditions of all Colombian municipalities, which allowed us to conduct multilevel analyses to identify municipality- and school-level variables predicting school bullying. Most variance was found at the school level. Higher levels of school bullying were related to more males in the schools, lower levels of empathy, more authoritarian and violent families, higher levels of community violence, better socio-economic conditions, hostile attributional biases and more beliefs supporting aggression. These results might reflect student, classroom and school contributions because student-level variables were aggregated at the school level. Although in small portions, violence from the decades-old-armed conflict among guerrillas, paramilitaries and governmental forces predicted school bullying at the municipal level for 5th graders. For 9th graders, inequality in land ownership predicted school bullying. Neither poverty, nor population density or homicide rates contributed to explaining bullying. These results may help us advance toward understanding how the larger context relates to school bullying, and what socio-emotional competencies may help us prevent the negative effects of a violent and unequal environment.

Social centrality and aggressive behavior in the elementary school: Gender segregation, social structure, and psychological factors.

In this paper, we build on key findings in the sociological literature regarding different patterns of association between social centrality and overt aggressive behavior in the context of same-and-cross gender social interactions. We explore these associations in a population of urban elementary school students ( Age ^   = 8.62 , SD = 0.69, N = 848), while addressing claims that the role of psychological factors is overstated in this literature. Our results indicate that, on average, social centrality is positively associated with aggressive behavior for boys, but negatively for girls. We also find a moderating effect indicating that the proportion of male peers with whom participants are reported to hang around, as well as their own gender play a role in the association between social centrality and aggression. These findings are discussed in the context of an ecological perspective on human development in which interactions among individuals, their social groups, and key environments are viewed as central to shaping developmental pathways.

Advantages of Robotic Right Colectomy With Intracorporeal Anastomosis.

Through retrospective review of consecutive charts, we compare the short-term and long-term clinical outcomes after robotic-assisted right colectomy with intracorporeal anastomosis (RIA) (n=89) and laparoscopic right colectomy with extracorporeal anastomosis (LEA) (n=135). Cohorts were similar in demographic characteristics, comorbidities, pathology, and perioperative outcomes (conversion, days to flatus and bowel movement, and length of hospitalization). The RIA cohort experienced statistically significant: less blood loss, shorter incision lengths, and longer specimen lengths than the LEA cohort. Operative times were significantly longer for the RIA group. No incisional hernias occurred in the RIA group, whereas the LEA group had 5 incisional hernias; mean follow-up was 33 and 30 months, respectively. RIA is effective and safe and provides some clinical advantages. Future studies may show that, in obese and other technically challenging patients, RIA facilitates resection of a longer, consistent specimen with less mesentery trauma that can be extracted through smaller incisions.

Robotic right colectomy with intracorporeal anastomosis: experience with 52 consecutive cases.

BACKGROUND: In laparoscopic right hemicolectomy (LRC), extracorporeal or intracorporeal (ICA) anastomosis can be performed. Several authors have suggested advantages to ICA. This study reports our transition to and our experience with robotic right colectomy (RRC) with ICA. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From June 2009 to September 2012 we performed 58 consecutive RRCs, of which 52 were with ICA. Data were prospectively stored and retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: Twenty-eight female and 30 male patients with a mean age of 71.6 ± 8.3 years (range, 52-89 years) were studied. Indications for surgery included adenocarcinoma (n=30), adenoma (n=20), diverticulitis (n=1), and Crohn's disease (n=1). For RRC with ICA (n=52), mean operative time (OT) was 193.2 ± 42.2 minutes (range, 123-239 minutes). Mean estimated blood loss (EBL) was 47.8 ± 59.5 mL (range, 5-300 mL). Mean length of hospital stay (LOS) was 3.7 ± 3.2 days (range, 1-21 days). Mean extraction-site incision size was 4.61 ± 0.78 cm (range, 2.5-6.5 cm). Mean lymph node harvest was 20.7 ± 8.2 (range, 6-40). Mean specimen length was 18.9 ± 7.2 cm (range 10-37). No intraoperative complications, conversions, or 30-day mortality occurred. Nine postoperative complications (19.1%) occurred, with one anastomotic leak (1.7%). For LRC with ICA as reported in the literature, OT ranges from 136 to 190 minutes, EBL ranges from 0 to 500 mL, median LOS ranges from 3 to 5 days, complication rates range from 6% to 15%, with ileus <22%, and conversion rates are <5%. CONCLUSIONS: RRC with ICA is safe and feasible. OTs and outcomes compare favorably with those published in the literature for LRC with ICA. The robot may facilitate transition to ICA, and if future studies confirm advantages of ICA, the role of RRC may gain importance.

Efecto de la recuperación nutricional en las concentraciones séricas de óxido nítrico, malonaldehído y tnf alfa en el niño desnutrido grave

Introducción: Como consecuencia de la desnutrición, se producen alteraciones que comprometen la respuesta antioxidante y la inmunocompetencia. El objetivo del presente estudio es evaluar el efecto de la recuperación nutricional sobre las concentraciones séricas de Oxido Nítrico (NO), Malonaldehído (MDA) y TNF-α en el desnutrido grave. Metodología: Se estudiaron prospectivamente 47 niños con edades comprendidas entre 2 meses y 8 años, distribuidos en 27 niños con desnutrición grave de tipo mixto y 20 controles, que asistieron al Servicio de Educación y Recuperación Nutricional del Hospital Chiquinquirá de Maracaibo-Venezuela. El NO y el MDA determinaron por ensayo de Diazotización y derivados del ácido tíobarbitúrico respectivamente, y el TNF-α mediante la técnica de ELISA. Resultados: Las concentraciones de NO y MDA no mostraron diferencias estadísticamente significativas con los controles, no obstante se encontró un descenso en estas concentraciones cuando se compararon con las obtenidas al inicio de la terapia (p ≤ 0,0001 para NO y p ≤ 0,001 para MDA. Los valores séricos de TNF-α presentaron significancia estadística en relación con los controles y al inicio del tratamiento (p < 0,0001). Conclusión: La terapia de recuperación nutricional incide en la disminución de las concentraciones séricas de NO, MDA y TNF-α, debido probablemente a la suplementación de vitaminas y micronutrientes administrados durante dicho tratamiento.

Introduction: Alterations involving antioxidant response and immunological competence are consequences of malnutrition. The aim of this study is to assess the effect of nutritional recovery on serum concentrations of nitric oxide (NO), malonaldehyde (MDA) and TNFα in the severely malnourished child. Methods: 47 children were prospectively studied (2 months to 8 years old): 27 children with mixed type severe malnutrition and 20 controls who attended the Department of Education and Nutritional Recovery at the Chiquinquirá Hospital in Maracaibo-Venezuela. NO and the MDA were determined by Diazotization trial and derivatives of the barbituric acid respectively; TNF-α was assessed by the ELISA technique. Results: NO and MDA concentrations showed no significant difference with controls, although there was a significant decrease with respect to pre-treatment values (p ≤ 0,0001 for NO and p ≤ 0,001 for MDA. Values for TNF-α were significantly different from controls and pre-treatment values (p< 0,0001). Conclusions: Nutritional recovery therapy affects the decrease in serum concentrations of NO, MDA and TNF-α, probably due to the supplementation of vitamins and micronutrients during this treatment.