Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Introduction. The limited structuring of available knowledge on the practices and references of Technological Surveillance (TS) in dissimilar contexts, the diversity of management objectives, the opportunities offered by the social web technologies,and the growing demands of Cuban organizations for knowledge generation in order to implementthe Guidelines of the Economic and Social Policy constitute motivations for searching standardized alternatives of TS, guaranteeing its generalization. The scientific problem is: the existing TS references lack a standardized structure that allows them to be comparable and its generalization for applications of different complexities, limiting the capabilities generation in organizations to find the required knowledge for the solution of dissimilar needs and objectives. The hypothesis of the research is that a TS model based on social web technologies and patterns associated with the TS’s Critical Factors (CF) will allow to generate and systematically increase TS capabilities according to objectives and scenarios of use supported. The general objective is to design a TS model based on patterns associated with CF, verifying its usefulness and usability. Methods. The TS Model based on patterns associated with CF, called MOVTUP, is conceptualized by definitions, scope, objectives, principles; the model has four procedures to: generate patterns; implement TS patterns in usage scenarios; provide feedback and improve the pattern catalog; to establish support with social web technologies. Results. The MOVTUP was approved by groups of experts, compared with 61 references, verified in 30 case studies, validating that it allows generating and increasing TS capabilities, demonstrating its usefulness and usability.

Introduction. The university academic year group (CAAU in Spanish) is the university management instance where the institutional objectives are concretized and the university substantive processes converge to conduct the teaching-educational process; its functions are oriented to the integral formation of the future professional; however, there are difficulties in the concretion and coherent articulation of its educational actions. Methods. Empirical, theoretical, and statistical-mathematical methods were used, systemic-structural-functional modeling and experimentation were assumed to validate the hypothesis proposed. Results. The theoretical-functional logic of the organizational management of the CAAU was unveiled with the objective of favoring the educational influences in the formation of the students, which was expressed through the relationships and interactions between the prescriptive process of the organizational context, the projective of its organizational structure and the valuative of the collegiate decision-making, which allows reaching the formative sustainability in such management. As some conclusions was with the implementation of the proposed strategy, the coordination mechanisms for the materialization of the educational actions generated in the different formative scenarios of the CAAU were improved, with the dynamics and harmonious performance that propitiated student protagonism and progressive transformations of students, which promoted growth, both individual and collective of students and teachers.

Introduction: Endoscopic Keyhole surgery for cranial base tumors represents a philosophical evolution of neurosurgical thinking from great craniotomies to small ones with controlled drainage of cerebrospinal fluid. Objectives: to describe theorical concerns that support Keyhole approaches and present the results of the case series. Method. A descriptive study was performed in 56 patients with skull base tumors operated on by Keyhole surgery in the anterior, middle and posterior fossa. The tumoral resection, clinical evolution and main complications were determined. Global visualization and global maneuverability areas were described, such as its determinant and influential factors.Results. A high total tumor resection rate of over 85% was achieved with minimal complications; a significant facial nerve restauration in retrosigmoid Keyhole and satisfactory cosmetic results in supraorbital Keyhole were obtained. Conclusions. Keyhole surgery based on physical, mathematical and biomedical laws constitutes an excellent and promising surgical philosophy.

New or insufficiently considered evidence is valued for historical analyses regarding the presence of marabú in Cuba. Estimates made on the subject by previous authors are critically analyzed. A herbarium record corresponding to the plant in the national territory is disclosed, which precedes the previously estimated date by 27 years and a focus of early expansion in western Cuba is confirmed. It is shown that science was not unaware of the presence of the plant in the country from the first moments, but this did not translate into an early warning. The first explicit references to invasive behavior occurred between 1910 and 1915, but by then it had expanded considerably and total extirpation was no longer possible.

Introduction. This paper summarizes the contribution by the Technical Group for Modelling and Epidemiology to face COVID-19. The objective was to create knowledge and scientific evidence to support the Government’s decision making, the health system and other sectors. Methods. Implementation research from a transdisciplinary perspective was carried out, with epidemiology providing the guidelines. Tools were developed to identify the magnitude and dissemination of COVID-19 in the country, as well as the analysis of the risk to get sick and severity; also, tools for the evaluation of the measures implemented. Results and Discussion. Improvements were made to the information systems and the Covid19CubaData platform was created to standardize and visualize the data. Prognosis mathematical models were developed. Geographical information systems were used to identify vulnerable population groups and stratify interventions. The impact of the actions was evaluated with a clinical-epidemiological analysis, as well as the use of big data techniques on mobility and real time estimation of the effective reproductive number. Multilevel and artificial intelligence models allowed for comparing the behavior of the pandemic in Cuba and the world. Indicators were brought forward for the de-escalation of the actions. The equity in the country’s response to COVID-19 was evaluated. Conclusions: the epidemiological research done, supported by modelling and the information systems, was useful for the government and the Ministry of Public Health to effectively face COVID-19.

Introduction. The indiscriminate use of conventional fuel favors the use of combustible gases that reduce the negative impact on the environment. Objective: To expound the fuel gas purification methods developed in Cuba, in particular, biological and membrane filtration methods, based on the use of waste materials, wastewater, solid waste and natural products. Methods. To reduce contaminants, biological methods were used, based on the use of two liquid gas contact pieces of equipment (bioreactors: packed bed column and laminar flow tray tower (TBFL)), using wastewater and membrane technology synthesized from natural materials (zeolite) and waste (borosilicate glass) at different scales of the research developed. Results. The methods developed are physical, chemical and biological. They are based primarily on the use of waste materials, either liquid waste where they take advantage of the benefits of the microorganisms present in them or solid waste or natural products that make up ceramic membranes. They have lower investment and production costs than those traditionally used. They have been successfully applied to biogas and gas accompanying oil, achieving removals of hydrogen sulfide (H2S(g)) over 98 %, complying with current standards for this purpose (less than 0,1 % by volume), as well as reducing the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2(g)). As a conclusion, Cuba has methods of purifying combustible gases with waste and natural products that are within the reach of developing countries.

Background: Awake craniotomy surgery (ACS) is actually an effective neuroncology tool. Objective: To describe the treatment process in which ACS, with tridimensional identification of the tumor using neuronavigation and brain tissue contrast, associated with the endoscopic view, allowed for the safe maximal resection of the lesions. Presentation: Three patients are presented with diagnosis of brain tumor (2 glial tumor and 1 meningioma) surgically operated by awake craniotomy guided by minimally invasive images and endoscopic view. We used images, neuronavigation, view and magnification damage identification; magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Brain Lab navigator, endoscopic view methods and tissue contrast (Fluoroscein). Conclusion: The harmonious combination of those procedures for a common purpose in awake surgery is a feasible, valid and safe option in our context.

Introduction. The Network of Studies of Cuban and Latin American Cultural Identity is created with the objective of uniting wills in the process of systematization, assessment and visibility of existing research results and envisions the conception of new research nuclei in the analysis of the complexity of the phenomenon. This article describes its structure: composed of a nucleus or foundational node to which five nodes are associated: educational institutions; childhood-youth; cultural practices-local development; tourism-heritage and the media of social communication; as well as its operation given by the relationships that are established among them. Methods. The methodology used is qualitative. The participatory action research method is used, complemented with other empirical methods and modeling to formalize and give concreteness to the Network. Results.Theoretical methodological design of the Network of Studies of Cuban and Latin American Cultural Identity, as well as the determination of bases for the creation of an Identity Observatory. As some conclusions the network turns the diversity and complexity of the studies about cultural identity into a fortress for the production of scientific knowledge in a collaborative environment that allows and encourages the flow and visibility of research results.  

Introduction. The implementation of reforms in the agricultural sector since 2008 and, above all, during the process of improving the Cuban economic and social project, started in 2011, brought about changes that in little time outdated part of the rural-agrarian knowledge created by social sciences since the late xx century. The purpose of this article is to offer a summary and some insights about the most recent conceptual, methodological, and empirical contributions of social sciences to the multidimensional analysis of the agro-rural processes, emphasizing the institutional network. Methods. Critical review of 30 articles resulting from research and the traditional methodologies of the social sciences were based on more novel methods like collective construction of knowledge, Reflexive Analytical and Participatory Mapping of Sustainability, participatory and multi-criteria techniques, among others. Results and Discussion. The examination carried out corroborates the renovated capacity of social sciences to explain the complex processes that take place in the rural-agrarian context during the process of updating the economic and social model. It also demonstrates the capacity of social sciences to contribute both theoretical and practical proposals, in a more visible way, to the management of development at different levels. It would be desirable that the social rural analyses open up to the theoretical basis built or enriched from a critical and decolonial perspective of knowledge, as well as to dialogue with other proposals coming from the Epistemologies from the South like “ecology of knowledge”.