Universidad Indoamérica
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Quito
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INDOAMÉRICA es una Institución de educación superior con más de tres décadas al servicio de la ciencia y la formación de profesionales de excelencia. Nuestros orígenes se remontan a los años ochenta, cuando fue constituido el Centro de Estudios de Computación “Servisistemas Informáticos Indoamérica”. Su nombre, INDOAMÉRICA, expresa un profundo sentido de pertenencia a la cultura latinoamericana, lo cual constituye la base fundamental de nuestra identidad.

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Effects of a dual intervention (motor and virtual reality-based cognitive) on cognition in patients with mild cognitive impairment: a single-blind, randomized controlled trial

2024 , Buele, Jorge , Avilés-Castillo, Fátima , Carolina Del-Valle-Soto , Varela Aldas, José , Guillermo Palacios-Navarro

Abstract Background The increase in cases of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) underlines the urgency of finding effective methods to slow its progression. Given the limited effectiveness of current pharmacological options to prevent or treat the early stages of this deterioration, non-pharmacological alternatives are especially relevant. Objective To assess the effectiveness of a cognitive-motor intervention based on immersive virtual reality (VR) that simulates an activity of daily living (ADL) on cognitive functions and its impact on depression and the ability to perform such activities in patients with MCI. Methods Thirty-four older adults (men, women) with MCI were randomized to the experimental group (n = 17; 75.41 ± 5.76) or control (n = 17; 77.35 ± 6.75) group. Both groups received motor training, through aerobic, balance and resistance activities in group. Subsequently, the experimental group received cognitive training based on VR, while the control group received traditional cognitive training. Cognitive functions, depression, and the ability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs) were assessed using the Spanish versions of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-S), the Short Geriatric Depression Scale (SGDS-S), and the of Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL-S) before and after 6-week intervention (a total of twelve 40-minutes sessions). Results Between groups comparison did not reveal significant differences in either cognitive function or geriatric depression. The intragroup effect of cognitive function and geriatric depression was significant in both groups (p < 0.001), with large effect sizes. There was no statistically significant improvement in any of the groups when evaluating their performance in ADLs (control, p = 0.28; experimental, p = 0.46) as expected. The completion rate in the experimental group was higher (82.35%) compared to the control group (70.59%). Likewise, participants in the experimental group reached a higher level of difficulty in the application and needed less time to complete the task at each level. Conclusions The application of a dual intervention, through motor training prior to a cognitive task based on Immersive VR was shown to be a beneficial non-pharmacological strategy to improve cognitive functions and reduce depression in patients with MCI. Similarly, the control group benefited from such dual intervention with statistically significant improvements. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06313931; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06313931.

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Ab Initio Calculations of Chitosan Effects on the Electronic Properties of Unpassivated Triangular ZnO Nanowires Oriented along [0001] Directions

2022 , Thirumuruganandham, Saravana Prakash , Cuevas Figueroa J.L. , Baños A.T. , Mowbray D.J. , Terencio T. , Martinez M.O.

In recent years, both chitosan and ZnO nanostructures have been identified as potential antibacterial substances; however, the potential applications of chitosan adsorbed on ZnO nanowires have not been explored and could offer exciting new perspectives for both materials, for example, in biocompatible electronic circuits. In this work, we investigate the effect of chitosan on the electronic properties of triangular ZnO nanowires (ZnO NWs) from a theoretical perspective. All calculations were performed using density functional theory within the generalized gradient approximation. We considered six different positions of the chitosan molecule (CS) on the nanowire surface. We varied the amine position of CS, viewing it parallel, perpendicular, and at a 45° angle with respect to the NW axis. Our results show that all configurations are chemically stable; moreover, the interaction of the NW surface with the OH radical of CS creates flat states within the band gap energy of the ZnO NWs that might resemble p-doping. In addition, these states induce changes in the band gap energy of the ZnO NWs. All NWs show high chemical stability regardless of the CS position; hence, the adsorption results of all NW assemblies appear to be chemically favorable. © 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.

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Inclusive education in higher education: Proposal for a model of care in Ecuador

2021 , Delgado, K , David Alfredo V.P. , Jefferson S.R. , Beatriz C.B.

The advances of inclusive education in the university are implemented in an irrelevant way, despite the provisions of the policies and their foundations, for a university that guarantees in all students the learning, skills and competences they need. To try, the Social Model of Inclusive Education is proposed; which allows identifying its management, by calculating the effectiveness index, uses the cause-effect structure among three variables: i) Policies in inclusive education, ii) conditions of students and iii) attitudes towards students. The indicator variables are derived by developing items that allow the collection of information, formalizing a mathematical model of structural equations. The model was applied in Ecuador, at the National University of Loja, showing that the management effectiveness index in inclusive education is 72.8%, related to a work of greater weight in variables such as: i) Policies in inclusive education: Equal opportunities, support from the university, principles, capacities, comprehensiveness, development and new approach; ii) conditions of the students: political affiliation, judicial past, diversity, identity, learning problems, disability and superior endowment; and iii) attitudes towards diversity: Curriculum and assessment of learning. Concluding, on the importance of inclusive education. © 2021

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Trust: Tacit Strategy in Organizational Management

2021 , Suárez-Morales L. , Narvaez G. , Suárez S. , León R.

The objective of this article is to reflect from the theories of Management and Social Psychology on the concept of trust in organizational management, those tacit elements that frame performance. Coleman’s Rational Action Theory, Simon’s Organizational Management Theory and Mintzberg’s Organizational Structure Theory. The methodology was based on the qualitative approach, the type of research was exploratory, using the technique of documentary analysis of bibliographic review in the database of Scopus and classic authors related to the topic. 232 small businesses were tested. By way of conclusion, organizational trust consolidates the management and strategy of the institutional fabric, as a tacit substantial part from the schools of thought of functional administration. Equilibrium theory, the theory of cognitive limits, which proposes confidence as an organization’s performance strategy. © 2021, Associacao Iberica de Sistemas e Tecnologias de Informacao. All rights reserved.

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E-learning and M-learning Benefits in the Learning Process

2021 , Cóndor-Herrera, Omar , Bolaños-Pasquel, Mónica , Ramos Galarza, Carlos

This paper elaborates around the perception that students have regarding the learning process based on technological means: e-learning and m-learning combined. The experiment’s sample consisted of 16 students between 9 and 12 years old (37.2% female and 62.5% male). The results showed that most students are in favor of using technology to improve their motivation to learn, which significantly improves their willingness to complete learning activities. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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Validation of the GAEU-1 Acale to Assess the Learning Management of University Students

2023 , Ramos Galarza, Carlos , García-Cruz P. , Lepe-Martínez N. , Del Valle M. , Bolaños-Pasquel M. , Cruz-Cárdenas J.

Introduction: The self-management of university learning encompasses a series of aspects that allow students to be conscious and autonomous in their professional training. Objective: In this article, we present the process of creation and validation of a scale to assess essential factors of this phenomenon: self-management of learning, conscious motivation strategies for learning, perception of academic performance, and techniques for deep learning. Method: The design is a cross-sectional quantitative process with the purpose of carrying out validity and reliability analysis of a psychological measurement instrument. The research was conducted with 1373 university students from Chile and Ecuador. Results: The scale consists of 19 items that conform the four factors mentioned and whose results indicate adequate psychometric properties, allowing it to be applied in the Latin American context. Novelty: This research proposes a new instrument to assess the self-management of the university learning process, which contributes to carrying out new research in the university educational context. © 2023 by the authors. Licensee ESJ, Italy.

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A geographically weighted random forest approach for evaluate forest change drivers in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon

2019 , Santos, Fabián , Graw V. , Bonilla S.

The Tropical Andes region includes biodiversity hotspots of high conservation priority whose management strategies depend on the analysis of forest dynamics drivers (FDDs). These depend on complex social and ecological interactions that manifest on different space–time scales and are commonly evaluated through regression analysis of multivariate datasets. However, processing such datasets is challenging, especially when time series are used and inconsistencies in data collection complicate their integration. Moreover, regression analysis in FDD characterization has been criticized for failing to capture spatial variability; therefore, alternatives such as geographically weighted regression (GWR) have been proposed, but their sensitivity to multicollinearity has not yet been solved. In this scenario, we present an innovative methodology that combines techniques to: 1) derive remote sensing time series products; 2) improve census processing with dasymetric mapping; 3) combine GWR and random forest (RF) to derive local variables importance; and 4) report results based in a clustering and hypothesis testing. We applied this methodology in the northwestern Ecuadorian Amazon, a highly heterogeneous region characterized by different active fronts of deforestation and reforestation, within the time period 2000–2010. Our objective was to identify linkages between these processes and validate the potential of the proposed methodology. Our findings indicate that land-use intensity proxies can be extracted from remote sensing time series, while intercensal analysis can be facilitated by calculating population density maps. Moreover, our implementation of GWR with RF achieved accurate predictions above the 74% using the out-of-bag samples, demonstrating that derived RF features can be used to construct hypothesis and discuss forest change drivers with more detailed information. In the other hand, our analysis revealed contrasting effects between deforestation and reforestation for variables related to suitability to agriculture and accessibility to its facilities, which is also reflected according patch size, land cover and population dynamics patterns. This approach demonstrates the benefits of integrating remote sensing–derived products and socioeconomic data to understand coupled socioecological systems more from a local than a global scale. © 2019 Santos et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Near-shore island lizard fauna shaped by a combination of human-mediated and natural dispersal

2023 , Salerno, Patricia E. , Chan L.M. , Pauly G.B. , Funk W.C. , Robertson J.M.

Aim: Island biotas provide opportunities to study colonization and adaptation to novel environments. Islands, especially near-shore islands, may have a long record of human habitation such that some lineages result from human-assisted introductions. Here, we combine phylogenetic analyses with fossil data and historical specimen records to reconstruct colonization histories, characterize among-island divergence and assess the role of humans in shaping the evolutionary history of lizards inhabiting a near-shore island archipelago. Location: Channel Islands and adjacent mainland of California, United States. Taxa: Western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis), southern alligator lizard (Elgaria multicarinata), common side-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana). Methods: We sequenced mitochondrial DNA (ND1, cyt-b) from each of three lizard species, covering their entire island distributions plus the adjacent mainland. For each, we estimated diversity within and among each island, obtained maximum likelihood bootstrapped phylogenies, constructed haplotype networks and tested for population expansion. We used museum specimen records and microfossil evidence to infer colonization scenarios. Results: Sceloporus occidentalis is characterized by a single island-colonization event, and exhibits the deepest divergences from mainland relatives and the highest among-island divergence. Elgaria multicarinata and Uta stansburiana each have at least three distinct colonization events, with fossil and historical data indicating that some of these occurred after humans arrived to the islands. Main Conclusions: The evolution of Channel Island lineages for two lizard taxa has been mediated by ancient and contemporary anthropogenic activity, while the evolution of the third is shaped by natural dispersal and vicariance caused by sea-level rise. Genetic divergence corroborates the treatment of S. occidentalis as an endemic island species, Sceloporus becki. The unique histories of these three taxa are synthesized with other Channel Island lineages highlighting that taxa inhabiting islands with long histories of human activity should be carefully studied to assess the role of people in facilitating colonization and subsequent gene flow. © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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Chemocoding as an identification tool where morphological- and DNA-based methods fall short: Inga as a case study

2018 , Endara M.-J. , Coley P.D. , Wiggins N.L. , Forrister D.L. , Younkin G.C. , Nicholls J.A. , Pennington R.T. , Dexter K.G. , Kidner C.A. , Stone G.N. , Kursar T.A.

The need for species identification and taxonomic discovery has led to the development of innovative technologies for large-scale plant identification. DNA barcoding has been useful, but fails to distinguish among many species in species-rich plant genera, particularly in tropical regions. Here, we show that chemical fingerprinting, or ‘chemocoding’, has great potential for plant identification in challenging tropical biomes. Using untargeted metabolomics in combination with multivariate analysis, we constructed species-level fingerprints, which we define as chemocoding. We evaluated the utility of chemocoding with species that were defined morphologically and subject to next-generation DNA sequencing in the diverse and recently radiated neotropical genus Inga (Leguminosae), both at single study sites and across broad geographic scales. Our results show that chemocoding is a robust method for distinguishing morphologically similar species at a single site and for identifying widespread species across continental-scale ranges. Given that species are the fundamental unit of analysis for conservation and biodiversity research, the development of accurate identification methods is essential. We suggest that chemocoding will be a valuable additional source of data for a quick identification of plants, especially for groups where other methods fall short. © 2018 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2018 New Phytologist Trust

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Analysis and improvement of the usability of a tele-rehabilitation platform for hip surgery patients

2019 , Pilco H. , Sanchez-Gordon S. , Calle-Jimenez T. , Rybarczyk Y. , Jadán Guerrero, Janio , Villarreal S. , Esparza W. , Acosta-Vargas P. , Guevara C. , Nunes I.L.

The Tele-Rehabilitation platform for hip surgery allows patients to carry out part of their rehabilitation at home, without the need to travel long distances to a rehabilitation centre. A lack of usability that may prevent effectiveness, efficiency, and the satisfaction of patients, may lead to problems of confusion, error and delay, or even abandonment of the physical therapy. To perform the usability analysis, a set of heuristics were selected relating to aspects such as navigation, visual clarity, coherence, prevention of errors, user guidance, online help and user control. A cognitive walkthrough technique was also applied. With the results of the analysis, the design and implementation of improvements were performed. The web interfaces of the Tele-Rehabilitation platform were evaluated once again and compared with the baseline to ensure there was an improvement in usability. © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019.

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