Facultad de Enfermeria

The Rhinella margaritifera species group consists of 17 species of toads distributed in tropical and subtropical South America and eastern Central America. The identity of some of its species is poorly understood and there are numerous undescribed cryptic species. Among them, the status of Rhinella margaritifera is one of the most problematic. Its range includes lowland rainforests separated by the Andes, the Chocoan rainforest to the west and the Amazonian rainforest to the east. This distribution is puzzling because the Andes are an old and formidable barrier to gene flow and therefore should generate vicariant speciation between disjunct lowland populations. Herein we clarify the taxonomy of populations of the R. margaritifera complex from Central America and the Chocó region of South America. The morphological and genetic variation of R. margaritifera was examined from 39 populations from Chocó, 24 from the upper Amazon region of Ecuador, and 37 from Panama, including the holotype of the Panamanian R. alata. Phylogenetic analyses were performed based on mitochondrial genes 12S rRNA, 16S rRNA, and cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) and the nuclear gene Tyrosinase (Tyr). The genetic and morphological data show that Panamanian and Chocoan populations are conspecific. In the phylogeny, populations from Chocó and Panama form a well-supported clade. The morphology of the holotype of R. alata falls within the variation range of Panamanian and Chocoan populations. Based on all this evidence, we assign the populations from western Ecuador and Panama to R. alata and demonstrate that the unusual distribution pattern of " R. margaritif-era " on both sides of the Andes was an artifact of incorrectly defined species boundaries.

Several studies have stated that people's attitudes towards organ donation are influenced by factors such as knowledge, education, and religion. Many people could donate if they knew about the benefits of organ donation instead of wasting it. That is the reason that this study sets out to determine the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs toward organ donation among Brazilian and Ecuadorian Social Media Users. A cross-sectional study was conducted, assessed through a self-administered, anonymous and validated survey, and distributed through social media. Four hundred and eight individuals participated in this survey, 72 (17.6%) were Brazilian, and 336 (82.4%) Ecuadorian. The participants' ages were between 18 and 59 years old; 360 (88.2%) participants were willing to donate an organ, whereas only 300 (73.5%) agreed to give their consent to donate their deceased family member's organs (p < 0.001), and 48 (11.8%) of those people were not willing to have a donor identificat...

Este artículo analiza las interacciones de la \emph{fanpage} de Facebook del Instituto Nacional de Donación y Trasplante de Órganos, Tejidos y Células (INDOT) del Ecuador, para observar el tema de la donación como objeto de diálogo en sectores de la ciudadanía ecuatoriana. Se optó por dos análisis: primero, considerar métricas de la \emph{fanpage} como seguidores, reacciones, compartidas, registro de visitas, número de administradores y evaluaciones; segundo, un análisis lexicométrico aplicado a los textos de publicaciones, comentarios recibidos y descripciones de las imágenes. El Análisis de Reinert fue ejecutado con Iramuteq como mecanismo de precategorización y después interpretado por los investigadores. Ambos análisis se aplicaron a una matriz de datos recopilados entre el año 2012 y junio del 2020 creada de forma manual. Los resultados mostraron que la \emph{fanpage} tiene una visibilidad aceptable para la población ecuatoriana y buena evaluación. Sin embargo, no se refleja un...