Género y trayectorias profesionales de las médicas de familia en Andalucía, España, a comienzos del siglo XXI / Gender and career paths of female primary care physicians in Andalusia, Spain, at the beginning of 21st century

El objetivo de este trabajo es estudiar, desde una perspectiva feminista, la diversidad y homogeneidad en las trayectorias profesionales de las médicas de familia que ejercían en Andalucía a comienzos del siglo XXI, a través del análisis de los significados que ellas mismas confieren a su desarrollo profesional y de la influencia de los factores personales, familiares y laborales. Realizamos un estudio cualitativo con seis grupos de discusión. Participaron 32 médicas de familia que se encontraban trabajando en los centros de salud urbanos de la red sanitaria pública de Andalucía. El análisis del discurso revela que la mayoría de las médicas no planifican sus metas profesionales y que, cuando lo hacen, las van entrelazando con las necesidades familiares. Esto se traduce en que sus trayectorias profesionales sean discontinuas. Por el contrario, las trayectorias orientadas al desarrollo profesional y a la planificación consciente de metas son más frecuentes entre las médicas que ocupan cargos de dirección en centros de salud.

The purpose of this article was to study, from a feminist perspective, the diversity and homogeneity in the career paths of female primary care physicians from Andalusia, Spain in the early 21st century, by analyzing the meanings they give to their careers and the influence of personal, family and professional factors. We conducted a qualitative study with six discussion groups. Thirty-two female primary care physicians working in urban health centers of the public health system of Andalusia participated in the study. The discourse analysis revealed that most of the female physicians did not plan for professional goals and, when they did plan for them, the goals were intertwined with family needs. Consequently, their career paths were discontinuous. In contrast, career paths oriented towards professional development and the conscious planning of goals were more common among the female doctors acting as directors of health care centers.

Recovery of silver residues from dental amalgam

Dental amalgam residues are probably the most important chemical residues generated from clinical dental practice because of the presence of heavy metals among its constituents, mainly mercury and silver. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to develop an alternative method for the recovery of silver residues from dental amalgam. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The residue generated after vacuum distillation of dental amalgam for the separation of mercury was initially diluted with 32.5 percent HNO3, followed by precipitation with 20 percent NaCl. Sequentially, under constant heating and agitation with NaOH and sucrose, the sample was reduced to metallic silver. However, the processing time was too long, which turned this procedure not viable. In another sequence of experiments, the dilution was accomplished with concentrated HNO3 at 90ºC, followed by precipitation with 20 percent NaCl. After washing, the pellet was diluted with concentrated NH4OH, water and more NaCl in order to facilitate the reaction with the reducer. RESULTS: Ascorbic acid was efficiently used as reducer, allowing a fast reduction, thus making the procedure viable. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed methodology is of easy application and does not require sophisticated equipment or expensive reagents.

Factors affecting chemistry of reduction-mediated 99mTc-labelling of monoclonal antibodies and polyclonal human immunoglobulins.

In developing a new method for preparing a radiopharmaceutical for clinical investigation, a thorough understanding of reaction stoichiometry is crucial in optimizing the labelling chemistry. Factors determining labelling efficiency of the 2-mercaptoethanol (2-ME)-mediated 99mTc-labelling of antibody molecules were elucidated using anti-tumor monoclonal antibodies of different IgG subclasses (i.e. IOR-CEA(IgG1), M170(IgG1), 3F8(IgG3) and EMD (IgG2a)) and polyclonal human immunoglobulins (Sandoglobulin). Antibodies which were sensitive to 2-ME reduction (i.e. required 500-1000 molar excess of 2-ME) could tag 99mTc with high efficiency since they possessed abundant reactive sites (i.e. sulfydryl groups) for 99mTc binding. Reduction sensitivity of antibodies was unlikely to be affected by IgG subclass and could be rated as follows: Sandoglobulin > IOR-CEA > 3F8 > M170 > EMD. Concentrations of the reduced antibodies for effective labelling appeared to be related to the reduction sensitivity, i.e. 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 mg/ml were required for labelling of IOR-CEA, 3F8 and M170 respectively. In addition, susceptibility to 2-ME reduction seemed to reflect the rate of antibody labelling. For 2-ME resistant molecules, i.e. M170 and EMD, successful labelling could be achieved by using a slow 99mTc reducing agent such as SnCl2 instead of SnF2 which reacted more rapidly. Since 2-ME generates reactive sulfhydryl groups that are distal to antigen binding sites, the immunoreactivity of the modified antibody was not affected by the effect of reduction.