Primary Joint Arthroplasty Surgery: Is the Risk of Major Bleeding Higher in Elderly Patients? A Retrospective Cohort Study

Increased risk of bleeding after major orthopedic surgery (MOS) has been widely documented in general population. However, this complication has not been studied in elderly patients. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the risk of major bleeding after MOS is higher in elderly patients, compared with those operated at a younger age. Methods: This retrospective cohort study included total hip and total knee arthroplasty patients operated during 5 consecutive years. The main outcome was the occurrence of major bleeding. Patients with other causes of bleeding were excluded. Relative risks (RRs) and confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated, anda multivariate analysis was performed. Results: A total of 1048 patients were included, 56% of patients were hip arthroplasties. At the time of surgery, 553 (53%) patients were older than 70 years. Patients aged >70 years showed an increased risk of major bleeding (RR: 2.42 [95% CI: 1.54-3.81]). For hip arthroplasty, the RR of bleeding was 2.61 (95%CI: 1.50-4.53) and 2.25 (95% CI: 1.03-4.94) for knee arthroplasty. After multivariate analysis, age was found to be independently associated with higher risk of major bleeding. Conclusion: According to European Medicines Agency criteria, patients aged 70 years are at a higher risk of major bleeding after MOS, result of a higher frequency of blood transfusions in this group of patients. Standardized protocols for blood transfusion in these patients are still required.

Sensitization and Disposition to Change Facing the Challenges of the New Educational Circumstances

This article is about the necessity of an up to date vision in teachers’ training. It starts with the latest studies and advances surrounding learning-along-life term. It presents a set of topics inspired in the contributions of new fields of study connected to learning. Such contributions, as neuroscience, should be considered in the decisions related to future teachers’ training, thus favoring the transformation of the pedagogical practice. Awareness and disposition to change are essential requirements for teacher trainers who will drive investigative processes and pedagogical proposals generation; all of this according to the new and dynamic knowledge society.

From Traditional Assessment to the New Competency-Based Assessment

The evaluation of school students has always attempted to estimate the effort, abilities and learning of students. However, at the beginning, evaluation consisted in measuring the progress of the student’s behavior compared to a desirable behavior. Later on, different changes in evaluation benefited the processes addressed to assessing the academic achievement of students and learning itself. Today, the demands of the contemporary society are vast and numerous: students not only require knowledge, they need to develop skills, values and postures. Postmodern education requires individuals to develop different talents and competencies to grow in every way. Therefore, evaluation should respond to such needs promoting an ethical, technical, reliable assessment of the student’s competencies, thus providing more fair and objective, qualitative and quantitative judgments. This dissertation project is the result of a literature review of several authors and the daily work of teachers in the Centros de Educación Media Superior a Distancia [High School Distance Centers] of Morelos, Mexico.

TRANSPOSITION OF FEMALE REPRESENTATIONS FROM THE OLD WORLD TO THE NEW WORLD

This article intends to perform an analysis related to the female representation in the first texts produced in American soil, in the period of the “discovery” of America and the first contact between cultures. The main texts of chroniclers approached are: Jean de Léry’s Viagem à Terra do Brasil, from 1578; Hans Staden’s Suas viagens e captiveiro entre os selvagens do Brasil, from 1557; João de Azpilcueta Navarro’s Cartas avulsas, from 1551; and Simão de Vasconcelos’, with Cronica da Companhia de Jesus do Estado de Brasil, from 1663. In this approach, our interest is to bring to memory the ways that the Europeans reacted when facing the existing cultural differences in the shock between the cultures, especially when facing the practice of cannibalism by the autochthonous people, and the way that the Europeans transmitted, through writing, these experiences to their compatriots. Highlighting specifically the way the women are presented in the reports at issue, bringing also a few illustrations, produced at the time of the first encounters, which allow the direct link of the autochthonous woman that practices the anthropophagic ritual with the figure of the witch that permeated the European popular imaginary of that time. Supporting the theoretical foundation of the proposed paper: Manuel Fernández Álvarez’s Casadas, monjas, rameras y brujas: la olvidada historia de la mujer española en el renacimiento (2002); Thomas Bonnici’s No limite da feminilidade: assassinas e bruxas – a mulher na sociedade inglesa dos séculos XVI e XVII (2003); e Kramer e Sprenger’s O Martelo das Feiticeiras (1486).

Is the Marlboro man the only alternative? The role of gender identity and self-construal salience in evaluations of male models

This research examines how men react to male models in print advertisements. In two experiments, we show that the gender identity of men influences their responses to advertisements featuring a masculine, feminine, or androgynous male model. In addition, we explore the extent to which men feel they will be classified by others as similar to the model as a mechanism for these effects. Specifically, masculine men respond most favorably to masculine models and are negative toward feminine models. In contrast, feminine men prefer feminine models when their private self is salient. Yet in a collective context, they prefer masculine models.These experiments shed light on how gender identity and self-construal influence male evaluations and illustrate the social pressure on men to endorse traditional masculine portrayals. We also present implications for advertising practice.