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The new social movements in Latin America are exhibiting search processes of equality and social, ethnic, epistemic, sexual and gender, in-built multiple forms of domination that characterize the dynamics of contemporary global capitalism contexts difference. The paper proposes that new other epistemologies that display some contemporary social movements are a clue dense relationship between the production of knowledge about the phenomenon and recent collective experiences of social liberation, or put another way, varied daily praxis forged some other forms releasing political epistemology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

En Latinoamérica las estrategias de reducción de pérdidas no técnicas de energía han impulsado la implementación de los sistemas de medición centralizada (SMC). Los SMC, además de incluir las funciones básicas de un sistema AMI, se caracterizan por integrar la medida de múltiples usuarios dentro de una caja diseñada para su instalación en postes, con el fin de restringir el acceso de los usuarios al medidor de energía. En la actualidad la mayoría de los equipos SMC disponibles comercialmente presentan una mezcla de tecnologías, cuyas interfaces y modelos de datos son de carácter propietario, lo que genera un grave problema de interoperabilidad, en parte, originado porque los estándares internacionales están orientados para su aplicación en medidores de energía individuales. Se propone, entonces, en este trabajo un conjunto de estándares al nivel de tecnologías, protocolos de intercambio de información y modelos de datos que pueden ser aplicados en SMC. The non-technical energy losses reduction strategies have stimulated the development of centralized metering systems (cms) in Latin America. Furthermore to include ami systems basic functions, the cms embed the measurement of multiple users in a cabinet. To avoid the utility customers getting access to the energy meter, each cabinet is mounted on top of an electrical pole. Currently, the major commercially available cms equipment is setting up with several technologies, which involves owner interfaces and data models. This issue generates an interoperability problem since international standards are based on measurement architectures for the use of individual meters. This paper proposes a set of both information exchange protocols and standardized data models that could be implemented in cms equipments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper deals with the experience acquired during the implementation of Radiation Safety and Protection Program for the safe operation of a plant for production of isotopes such as the Isotope Centre. Considering the importance for the radiology community of that experience, this paper presents the evolution of requirements for this program and provided valuable experience that can be useful for other centres in Cuba and Latin America with similar radiation hazards during the use of radioactive materials [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to provide a basis for rethinking the approach of development in Latin America through the changes linked to the crisis of industrial capitalism and the ongoing transition toward a "cognitive capitalism". The analysis is organised in three parts. The first one sketches the structural crisis of the industrialist paradigm inherited from development theories during the period 1950-1980. The second part stresses the constraints and challenges implied by the new shape of international division of labour based on cognitive principles and on the strengthening of intellectual property rights' systems. Finally, the third part tries to identify certain features of a post-industrial development strategy for Latin American countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the result of different ethnographic research conducted from 2007 onwards. It addresses a specific case study within Argentinian contemporary regional migration processes, from a relational, cultural and socio-political defini-tion of the concept of violence. The above case is that of the Bolivian immigrant workers of both sexes, who are victims of transnational human trafficking networks, who were recruited in origin and reduced to servitude under conditions close to slavery, in clandestine textile workshops of the city of Buenos Aires and its metropolitan area. In this context of social vulnerability, the risk situations for the health of these people are increased, including their suffering from serious illnesses and accidents, and even death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multidimensional concept of the right to the city involves a pursuit of community and participatory urban experience. This perspective is evident in the theoretical frame but complex in its applicability and translation into concrete facts of everyday life of men and women who live, work and circulate in Latin American cities. This paper aims to make a combination between theory and practice through a case study in a middle range city in the Andean North-Patagonia - Argentina. Strategies as regards participatory patterns, relationships and tensions between local scales (municipality) and neighborhood (neighborhood councils) are been analyzed. Even with its flaws, incipiently, these associations tend to improve the right to the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the mediation of language is discussed in the social representation of the autonomy of the Latin American University in development politician citizenship through scientific and humanistic discourse that should permeate society emancipatory interests. The educational processes that are generated at the university are understood and oriented towards and by social actors to play discursive roles in line with the social sense and the common interest resulting of deliberation and consensus in obtaining politics in society. In the twenty-first century it is necessary that the university education in Latin America, as a process of academic formation, allow the transformation of the political order through the relationship between theory and praxis, between techno-scientific and human action emancipatory thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the early sixties the term 'marginalisation' began to be used in Latin America in the social sciences to refer to the heterogeneous and inequitable effects of the processes of industrialisation and development. The term began to be used in the front-line between two paradigms in conflict, allowing for two different forms of interpretation: the notion of social or cultural marginalisation developed within modernisation theory, and the notion of economic marginalisation developed by dependence theory. This paper aims to review the characteristics that the concept of marginalisation acquired within each of these conceptual frameworks, focusing on works by Gino Germani, José Nun and Miguel Murmis. Last of all, the paper outlines the main arguments included in the contemporary form of the concept and its potential applicability to current circumstances in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the role of local and global publishers within current Latin-American cultural production. The paper focuses on the editorial success of Cuban writer Pedro Juan Gutiérrez, as an example of global distribution of a dirty bestseller, and on the status achieved by cult Colombian writer Rubén Vélez, in order to examine the most significant tendencies in the local and global Latin-American publishing industry. Furthermore, it offers a reflection on the promotion and distribution of these authors through the houses that publish them: Anagrama (Barcelona) and Babilonia (Bogotá). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a group of Latin American texts and films from the last two decades which show growing social, political and economic inequality in the continent, together with cultural practices and experiences, from an urban perspective. With the configuration of space in the Latin American city as the central theme, the paper explores the way in which these narratives reformulate classic notions of urban design with the scope of presenting, in their place, a distinct space, with specific codes that act as alternative forms of avoiding the influence of globalisation and neoliberal policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we study the presence of calendar anomalies in the main Latin-American stock markets, for the 1993 to 2007 period. The literature has shown that the detection of those effects may depend on error distribution assumptions (Baker et al., 2008), and that their existence could be due to a problem of data snooping (Sullivan et al., 2001). In response to these problems, Cho et al. (2007) introduced a robust non-parametric test, which was adopted in this paper. Results show that calendar anomalies: Monday and Weekend Effects are present in the main Latin-American stock markets, and they are statistically significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper analyzes some aspects of the history of Hungarian-Spanish American literary relations. The paper highlights the problem of bibliography, mentions some travelling books written by Hungarian authors about the American countries, details the diffusion of Sándor Petőfi's in the American continent and presents the some special cases from the literary life of the Hungarian Diaspora from the Spanish speaking countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the experience carried out by a confederation of Higher Education Institution (IUS) operating in six states of Latin America. To achieve the goal of new model of teaching and learning based on "learning process" and shift the paradigm of learning as "centered teaching", the Higher Education Institution have defined a new profile of the university teachers. This action expresses three characteristics presented in this paper: the first refers at the profile as "product" of a Community of Thought; the second refers to "participated process", a working model that allowed the co-construction of the profile with the teachers, the administrative and the human resources staff of the universities; the [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the principal concepts of social class, occupation, and social stratification, and their contribution to the analysis of the social determinants of health (SDH), and reviews empirical studies conducted in Latin America that use employment relations as an SDH. The review focuses on studies of the relationship between health and social class based on neo-Weberian or neo-Marxist perspectives. A search of the BIREME Virtual Health Library and the SciELO database found 28 articles meeting these characteristics. This relative dearth contrasts with the profusion of papers that use these approaches written in Europe and in the United States, with a long tradition in the analysis of SDH. In this regard, the political and programmatic implications of research on social class and employment relations are different from and complementary to studies of health gradients associated with income and education. Globalization of employment relations requires the development of new concepts to explain and measure the mechanisms of action of the SDH going beyond what is strictly labor related; in particular, the importance in the current Latin American reality of the impact of informal work on health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an updated overview on the teaching of social responsibility in Mexico, and his record in Latin America, to identify other teaching corporate social responsibility, is really a priority for Institutions of higher education, likewise are the main considerations that have guided the higher education Institutions to carry out training processes in corporate social responsibility, in this paper highlights the main definitions adopted this term as well as some major findings that have identified certain "trends, initiatives and actions of institutions" in front of the scope of corporate social responsibility. The paper is organized into five different sections, the first section presents introductory type questions and the main reasons that encouraged the development of the project and have made it possible to establish the background to the corporate social responsibility, the second presents the main definitions that have provided authors and national and international concept, the third section lists the topics and indicators of corporate social responsibility, a fourth section presents the teaching of social responsibility in Latin America and describes the initiatives undertaken by universities around Latin America, in the fifth section presents the main higher education Institutions have undertaken corporate social responsibility initiatives in Mexico, finally have some final thoughts on the main contributions of institutions of higher education in the teaching of corporate social responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes constitutional design as it pertains to the powers, composition, selection procedures, and duration of the mandate of supreme courts and constitutional tribunals in 17 Latin American countries between 1900 and 2009. The analysis is based on an original database that contains the text of all constitutional articles in the central organs of the judiciary. The paper relies on this information to demonstrate to what degree the job stability of magistrates can be explained in terms of the institutional conditions that regulate the judicial system. Our analysis emphasizes that the survival of magistrates is determined by the stability of the constitutional framework, rather than any specific legal content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technologies 2.0 are changing the spaces dedicated to interaction and participation in cyber media. The goal of this research is to determine the adoption of cyber journalism features and web 2.0 in media in Latin America. To achieve this objective this paper analyses 19 digital media in the region, based on two studies held in 2010 and framed on the project «Cyber media in Colombia and Latin America», which is supported by the Universidad del Norte (Colombia) and recently by the Universidad de los Andes (Venezuela). The study uses the method proposed by Rodríguez-Martínez, Codina & Pedraza-Jiménez (2010), which has been tested in previous research by the authors of this paper. According to the results, a good part of digital media in Latin America are incorporating web 2.0 tools, but there still exists notable quality differences in the ranking proposed between the best rated media (Colombia and Mexico) and the worst rated (Chile and Bolivia). This ranking allows, for example, to clearly identify how digital media in Latin America have important weaknesses in their general indicators, like accessibility mistakes, popularity and visibility levels; and in their specific indicators, in special those related to available resources for information deepening and interaction tools. As authors state in the article, showing these evidences of inequality can orientate future plans of Latin-American cyber media, especially if indicators related to users' active participation are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hondo transboundary river basin is a territory shared by Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. There is not enough information about mechanisms of cooperation in water issues in the river basil and the reasons that prevent this process. Nevertheless, we know about the existence of factors of conflicts that limit the cooperation. This article describes the factor of conflicts and their bonds with the cooperation around die water. The construction of the analysis was based in the grounded theory, with the use of the semi-structured interviews and the participant observation as tools of data collection. The data obtained was analyzed by a codification of information based on: the anthropic conflicts, their relation with the cooperation and the institutional paper as part of die factors of conflict. For the location of key stakeholders and the elaboration of interviews, it was necessary to take advantage of a hemerographic analysis and the existing relations as a result of a previous work in 2003, besides applying the technique of "snow ball" to identify new key stakeholders. The paper tries to highlight how existing potential anthropic conflicts in the river basin may affect processes and attempts for cooperation in water issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the obvious social and economic differences in Latin America, this paper establishes that the purpose of the company is not only economic gain, but also the service and social development of the community in which they are immersed. Faced with this dilemma between service and profit, more ethical than strategic, the paper offers a number of examples where companies achieve better results in the long term establishing the emphasis on service. Finally the paper shows the case of Grupo La Norteñita, which has developed members of one of the poorest indigenous communities in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes to reassess the idea of meritocracy as central element in professional bureaucracy oriented towards citizens' needs. However, the proposal found many problems in Latin America related to the changes within public administrations, the dissimilar actors implicated and the different sectorial interests involved, etc. This is due to the fact that Latin America has not been able to follow a step-by-step process of public administration transformation from "Particracy", to rigid meritocracies, and flexible meritocracies. Latin-American institutional life is not tidy; the picture that best describe their most weak bureaucracies is nor rigid bureaucracy neither flexible one but the coexistence of the weakest elements of both worlds: clientelistic arbitrariness and rigidness. The paper explores possible solutions exemplified with reform experiences of civil service in Latin America during the last decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the constitutional legislation and the indigenous rights in Latin America. At the beginning, the paper make a historical reflection of the concept of self-determination and the recognition of the ethnic and cultural plurality of the States, as well like as the notion of legal pluralism and democracy of citizenship. It concludes that the reformulation of the Latin American States necessarily will have to reach the legal systems, making them more sensible to the ethnic specificities and the indigenous rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes some features that the problems of care have and the relationships with these problems and the welfare regimes in Latin America. For this, the paper describes the demographic transition effects, population aging, changes in the family and poverty. Based on data from ECLAC and UNESCO of 16 Latin American countries, I argue that the problem of care results in a double process of de-familiarization and commodification. The paper concludes that the characteristics of the state devices and the social policies system design, assume that woman is equating to family and for this, the welfare regimen has got an implicit policy of care, which is not derived from any model of social justice and develops new forms of stratification and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies a series of practices and experiences taken from massive regional infrastructure projects sponsored by the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank). In an effort to contextualize the idea of a megaproject, it describes what one is, demonstrates its importance to the community where one is built, and investigates the relationship between the community and the megaproject itself. In addition, the paper takes a deep look at regional experiences, the training required to execute large projects, and other associated needs. Furthermore, insight is given on key elements of project preparation, types of organic changes that take place in project execution, and how these changes can be anticipated. Lastly, a few brief case studies of regional experiences are given to emphasize various lessons learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The present paper will try to summarize the history of Latin-American psychoanalysis, which through many decades promoted, and in a certain way established, developments and conceptualizations that were recognized “officially” in Anglo-Saxon and European psychoanalysis only the past years. Or only known but not ever recognized, as such contributions permit a trough convergence between the “new” and the “older” founds. Development: The development of the paper is sustained in clinical labor, particularly themes which makes through the importance of the counter-transference in psychoanalytic session and psychoanalytic processes. Those were extensible worked from authors like Racker, the Barangers, and E. Pichón Riviere, and the river-plate psychoanalysis in general. In other words, these are conceptualizations, in between the finding of a through own subjectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the role of Simón Rodríguez, especially that of his work American societies, from the perspective of the social actors who would have intervened in a national and republican inclusive project. With an in-depth knowledge of Rodríguez's ideas relating to indigenous and Afro-American populations, the paper argues that his project would have best represented the construction of pluralistic societies more in tune with the libertarian and democratic ideals that motivated the independence movements in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims at setting out some of our research team's theoretical concerns. The team is made up of part of the teaching staff of the School of Social Work, UNC. Its main research subject is difference within Social Sciences and its related meanings, such as unity, totality, otherness, ownliness, and so on. Different sources from a varied field, such as education, politics and gender , are analyzed in this sense. Within this framework, in this paper we propose a debate about the work "The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation" from Jaques Rancière, in which Joseph Jacotot's educative experience is analyzed. Jacotot was a French teacher exiled in Holland that had the challenge of teaching French without any knowledge of Dutch language. We consider that Rancière's contribution poses a different and controversial perspective about equality and inequality within the pedagogical relationship and the emancipation processes. The author understands that these processes are realized through the emancipation of intelligence since a conscious act of will. In the light of our research team questions, which entail the tension between rights and exclusion within the educative field, his work brings a lot of questions to us. We aim at analyzing this perspective from other authors' arguments, such as those of Boaventura de Sousa Santos, which allow us to debate and contextualize Rancière's ideas in the light of different Latin-American educative experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on Pedro Henriquez Ureña's teachings to present some reflections regarding the philosophical practices used in nineteen-century Latin America. These practices were transmitted by means of orality and gestuality and therefore, they can't be studied merely by accessing the authors' publications. In the paper we suggest some alternatives on how to study the practices of the transmission of philosophical knowledge. This issue is related to the emotional dimension of Latin-American philosophy, the relationship between rhetoric and philosophy and the existence of philosophical "styles" or "ways of doing" philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparative view of the training of economists in Latin America, analyzing curricula, commonly utilized textbooks, professors' time-commitments, teaching methods, and the use of technologies and computational tools. Also, following the approach of Colander (2005), the paper presents the results of a survey of Economics students, creating a socioeconomic profile of them and examining their attitudes and opinions. Among the regularities found for the five countries, particularly notable is the lack of connection between students' expectations regarding job market demand for economists and the actual demand by employment sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that the global economy has produced changes in the hierarchical configuration of urban systems. The emerging organization tends to be more open and set up more horizontal relations among cities. There are some evidences that indicate the relative insertion of the main Latin-American cities in global networks. The paper shows the empirical evidence available to Latin-American cities and, specially, related to the Argentine case. It evaluates the tension between the historically forged trend toward geographic concentration of population and economic activities in the metropolis of Buenos Aires and other somewhat more recent trends towards dispersion, emphasizing the role of intermediate cities. The paper concludes reflecting on the importance of flows between cities, the patterns of spatial dependency between them and the role of public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study concerns a detailed review of published papers on rare-earth elements (REEs) in soil-plant system. Such studies have been carried out mainly in Europe and Asia and are relatively scarce in Latin American countries. Nevertheless, the interest in evaluating the uptake of REEs in soil-plant system is continually increasing. This is due to the fact that fertilizers contain high concentrations of these elements. Different techniques have been used for sampling, experimental work and REE determinations. However, we consider that the data handling has been rather statistically deficient. This review elaborates on the following points: (i) general characteristics of the REEs; (ii) bibliographical review of sampling and analytical techniques actually used in 37 papers with an emphasis on the statistical deficiencies; (iii) examples of the application of statistical methods (confidence interval of the mean and significance tests of Fisher F and Student t) based on two of the compiled papers. The first application showed that the original authors did not apply any statistical methodology to evaluate their data quality and that there are systematic differences between the data analyzed in their laboratory and the certified values of the reference material. The application of significance tests to the data from the second paper demonstrated that there are significant differences in the mean values of Ce and Eu (only these two elements were exemplified) in plants from different sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper approaches the concept of "praxis" as stated by Ignacio Ellacuría, examining it in relation with the main concepts that Ellacuría presents in his work. This concept of "Praxis", fundamental at the moment of approaching the topic of historical reality, last and absolute object of the philosophy, needs to be supported by a series of elements that are rescued in this paper. For doing that we will consider some components of this "praxis", its conditions and its place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically evaluates the results in terms of economic growth and structural transformation of the new economic model implemented by most Latin American countries since the early 1990s. The new model, which had macroeconomic stability and export orientation as its core components, has been unable to develop more dynamic comparative advantages in the current global era and, as a result, has resulted in lower rates of economic growth than in Asia. The paper closes with an analysis of the impact of the current financial crisis in the region. It highlights the short-term costs, but also acknowledges the opportunities that the crisis is creating to promote a greater number of new progressive development alternatives that place more emphasis on the role of learning and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys the recent literature on the methodologies that have been used to evaluate the distributive and poverty effects of trade liberalization in Latin America. Our survey classifies the large number of papers on the subject according to the welfare measure they use: inequality (on wages and household income) or poverty. Our survey shows that a sound methodological approach evaluating the welfare effects of trade liberalization should take into account: the degree of tariff to price transmission, all income sources (not only wages), employment effects, gender and regional heterogeneity of the impact of trade, and second-order as well as general equilibrium effects. Two methodologies represent the latest efforts in this direction: (1) Income generation models with an explicit relationship between changes in tariff and changes in household real income (Porto, 2007), which are capable of testing the different transmission channels linking trade policy and inequality and poverty; (2) The Macro-Micro approach (Bourguingon et al, 2008), which combines a CGE with a micro-simulation model, evaluates the welfare effects of trade policy, taking into account general equilibrium effects. These two approaches can be combined to get the short- and long-term welfare effects of trade policy, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the findings of a review of 51 Latin American empirical studies on television audiences published between 1992 and 2007 in the most important journals in the region. The analysis compares the studies according to their theoretical approach, research techniques and type of television content. Findings show that cultural studies is the most popular theoretical approach, that television and daily life, and the mediations are the topics covered the most, and that many studies still lack a solid methodological base. The paper presents a diagnosis of the strengths and weaknesses of current Latin American empirical research on television audiences and points out the need for more methodological rigor and emphasis on ideological readings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Galatheidae and Chirostylidae are two of the most diverse and abundant families of decapod crustaceans, besides penaeid shrimps. These families contain 869 species around the world and live from shallow waters (less common), marine bottoms on continental slopes (more common), to hydrothermal vents and abyssal plains at 5000 m depth. Eleven genera and 161 species from the Neotropic, and eight genera and 43 species from Colombian waters have been recorded. Currently we have few taxonomic and systematic studies on these groups in spite of their ecological importance due the species richness and abundance. The main goal of this paper is to compile the most important bibliographic information from galatheids and chyrostilids from the neotropical region, including local and regional data, synonymies and current information. This compilation was made from papers and other regional publications and also with the material revision from several international museums, including the Museo de Historia Natural Marina de Colombia. Results show that the majority of species from Neotropic waters (67 species) are distributed in Florida, Central America, Caribbean insular territories and Colombia; 20 species are Neotropical-wide, 12 are restricted to insular territories and three to Central America. The remaining 46 species show a discontinuous distribution throughout the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latin America has been dominated by growth expansions that, more often than not, have ended in crises and protracted periods of stagnation. This has led to poor growth performance during most of the past century. This paper reviews Latin American growth experiences and discusses some particular areas that help to explain why sustainable growth has been so elusive in the region. In particular, it discusses the role of openness and intraregional trade, the role of institutions, macroeconomic stability and inequality, all factors that are central to resume and maintain growth. The paper also discusses more general issues related to growth, such as the importance of protecting property rights and having an adequate structure of rewards to effort, which includes equal opportunities. Finally, a brief overview on current macroeconomic developments is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a conference paper by Domingo García Belaunde titled "La democracia constitucional en América Latina y las evoluciones recientes del presidencialismo" and delivered at the Encuentro del Instituto Iberoamericano de Derecho Constitucional at the Universidad Externado de Colombia in Bogota on April 23-25, 2008. The paper discusses constitutional democracy and changes in the presidential system of government in Latin America.

Clinical Engineering has been seen as a professional activity but there is an academic divulgation interest that has made it to be included as a theme in biomedical engineering conferences. The papers presented in the last five years in academic events at national, Latin-American and international levels, were analyzed to observe the Clinical Engineering development and the tendencies that could be obtained form these presentations. According to the main Clinical Engineering activities, each work was classified. In total, 29 papers were presented in the national conference, 71 in the Latin-American and 317 in the international one. Most of the national conference works were on Technology Management, while for the Latin-American meetings were on Technology Assessment and in the international one, including telemedicine, on Technology Development. The medical assistance is changing from a mainly hospital environment to a diffuse one, spread into smaller health providers or even as homecare; this represents new challenges to Clinical Engineering to be solved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Centered in the New Testament, this paper presents a biblical and theological reflection, in order to give a content to the keyword «communion» and to show its impact on exegesis and theology, on ecclesiology, spirituality and pastoral work, on the life and actions of pastoral agents. After an approach to the different meanings of the term «communion» in Latin America and in some documents of the papal Magisterium, the author directs his attention to a syntactical and semantic reflection on the terms «community» and «communion» and on their pragmatic implications. This paper focuses on a theme of great importance for the Church of the present time and its implications in a globalized world, and especially for the Church of the American continent, which, faithful to this inheritance of communion, prepares itself for the 5th General Conference of CELAM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, certain governments and civil society organizations are taking part in processes of building up policies, programs, and projects. This situation opens a way for the appearance of quizzes about each of them responsibility for these activities. This article analyzes the concept of shared responsibility and tries to find out the proper definition for the interaction among actors, the way it is established, the values and attitudes that it promotes, as well as the rules, the management mechanisms and the resource distribution that rule that mentioned relationship. With regard to the establishment of this kind of relationship, this study presents the main aspects of some experiences that were carried out in Mexico City, as well as the challenges that the developed strategies and methodologies face. The application of new internal control approaches has been already taken by rules and norms from diverse fiscalization methods in several countries of the American continent (the most notorious case seems to be the Act Sarbanes Oxley, in the United States). The latest control models are being progressively included as a basis for the definition of fiscalization procedures in different countries. This paper explains the way that this framework may be actually used through two different action lines, which are separated but complementary. They can be used both in the Public Sector and private companies for: the development of organizational institutional diagnosis and the establishment of intervention plans, as well as fore the continuous monitoring of internal control structures as a method for contributing to management. On the other hand, the present study presents real cases of practical use of the COSO Model in Latin America. These cases support the work hypothesis created by the author, as well as the features that the writer has identified in projects that have implemented this tool in diverse organizations. Through these examples, and the case description, it can be understood the way the COSO Model, as the object of the current study, should take in order not to remain as just an abstract or academic concept. The COSO Model presents an integrated framework that influences organizations in a concrete and direct form. It covers a place that had not been occupied when considering control under the old concept. Finally, this paper tries to develop the integrated COSO Model framework from a practical point of view, and not only theoretical. Besides this, the article emphasizes the usefulness of the Model concepts as an especially managerial tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document reports progress made in compared research about the environment, barriers and prospects facing small and intermediate size companies in eight Latin American countries, although only six are presented in this paper, namely Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, El Salvador and Panama. The first section briefly presents each country's business environment in terms of prevailing concepts, the overall business universe and its trouble spots. It also aims at establishing a general typology of companies. The second section reviews the study's methodology while the third chapter deals with the elements for doing business in each country (this paper deals only with the financing, human resources and technology components). Finally, it presents some reflections about the condition of small and intermediate companies and some guidelines for public policy actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The profound structural changes in society over recent years are reflected in the deepening of social, economic and political inequalities, which have characterized our reality and that of several Latin American countries. In this social setting, violence appears as a disturbing phenomenon due to its varied expressions and environments of development. This growing social vulnerability fosters delinquency resulting in a safety crisis as its major effect. The widely accepted relevance of current insecurity in the field of social and legal phenomena requires a response from government as well as social organizations. Its effects on the restriction of social well being and its massive implications deserve to be included in research agendas with the objective of integrating research and intervention strategies. Unsafe city life is a problem with great incidence in human beings, politics and economics, and it questions the capacity of government and control entities to preserve human rights. Therefore, the incidence of this phenomenon is twofold: it affects the quality of life at an individual level and the processes of community development at a collective level due to their political and economic impact. In this paper, the final version of the Unsafe City Life Questionnaire (Cuestionario de Inseguridad Urbana -- CIU) is described. It attempts to be a specific psychological instrument which measures insecurity, considering insecurity as the current phenomenon that affects the health of urban inhabitants in the city of San Luis (Argentina). This paper deals with theoretical foundations and psychometric characteristics of the inventory, and it provides the scales resulting from the administration of the CIU to a large sample of young people divided into two groups: crime victims and non-crime victims. From the statistics viewpoint, the reliability of the questionnaire, i.e. its internal consistency, has been studied and demonstrated using the alpha coefficient. To examine its stability and structure validity, we factor analyzed the answers. Also, the degree of discrimination between the groups was studied by the analysis of mean differences taking into account, in this research, the influence of gender. The CIU is a tool meant to discover and/or prevent the consequences of stress caused by violence. Thus, it will be possible to make psychological interventions on the impact produced by the direct experience or by the threat of crime. The results have been highly satisfactory showing that CIU is a reliable, valid and precise instrument for clinical practice and psychosocial research. We hope the CIU is taken into account when specific policies for protecting the young are laid down. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the argument that the educational systems in Latin American were inefficient, international politic and financial organizations promoted reforms to modernize the educational system in the region, using a free market logic. Chile was used as a laboratory for those reforms, which afterwards were applied to other Latin American countries. This paper analyses the argument that educational quality would be improved through competitiveness as a strategy to privatize the educational system by transferring its financing form public to private sources to the detrimental of the national system of education. Finally, this paper examines the modernization process and failure of the Mexican system of education organized from a free market model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction to technologies of information and communications in the processes of academic peer-reviewed information exchange will necessarily produce a change from the paper pattern to the electronic one. CENIC Journals, Biological Sciences and Chemical Sciences, were the first Cuban journals to be published in CD-ROM. However, the need for indexation of the serial publications from the Ministry of Higher Education in full text database in Internet, with the aim of obtaining a wider visibility of Cuban science, has been manifested. This paper had the aim of knowing the opinion of authors and readers of CENIC journals, about the kind of full text database available in the World Wide Web where they should appear, as well as evaluating the skills of the researchers for search, recovery, organization and elaboration of electronic documents, and basis of these analysis to create the procedures for the publication of CENIC Journals in Internet and its incorporation to Fuente Académica database, belonging to EBSCO Host, one of the most prestigious database at international level. The researchers with the degree of PhD in sciences propose the publication of CENIC journals "in electronic pattern in prestigious database". On the other hand, researchers from all scientific degrees coincide in "not recommending" the publication of only the electronic version this is , they coincide in the need for keeping the printed version, and only the researchers with a lower rank propose "to increase the run" The culture of work with remote database handlers of bibliographic references and personal digitalized libraries from the researchers and members from the CNIC Board Committee was assessed as BAD or FAIR. An the basis of the personal opinions collected the procedure for the publication of CNIC Scientific Journals was performed in WWW, used in the EBSCO project' Digital Journals for the popularization of Science and Technology for Latin America and the Caribbean" [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to locate the origin of the history of ideas from XIX century in Colombia, in the interpretative intention of the authors of the second half of the century, who have the intention to give meaning to historical facts using a conceptual structure taken from different ideologies or philosophic currents in vogue at that moment in Europe, without stopping in the purely descriptive or historical interest. In the twentieth century we will be studying relevant authors or publishing their original studies to complete a certain canon of representatives from the intellectuality of the epoch. The question is for the criterion which defines the selection and the mode to link the ideas in general and the philosophical in particular to the development of the cultural and social processes. The paper shows some alternative hypotheses that take the contributions from text science and other contemporary disciplines that consider the study of the ideas of the XIX century without falling into the totalizations that have been censured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The starting point of this article is the recognition that crisis is a constant when analyzing Latin America. This article asks how do political democracy and economic liberty interact in this region, considering that both are fundamental to development. After an analysis of Latin American diversity, the paper poses the question "Has the "end" of history reached Latin America with the liberal reforms in the region in the 1990s?", and concludes that the actual crisis is not due to a failure of the liberal model but rather to its limited application and lack of transparency. The paper ends with the suggestion that the region needs the "Chilean consensus", less orthodox than the Washington Consensus, but whose foundation is the transformation of the country's mentality, forming the base of its success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the time series properties of the return of American Depository Receipts (ADRs) issued by Latin American companies. Specifically, we examine the presence of nonlinear trends and chaos. The motivation of the paper is twofold: First, we use a micro data set, wich can avoid the problems encountered by previous research of nonlinearity an chaos in micro financial data. Second, we choose returns of Latin American ADRs because of its unique characteristics, wich might make them to behave differently from the U.S. capital market as a whole. Even though the powerful BDS statistic strongly suggests the presence of nonlinearity in the Latin American ADRs returns. The BDS statistics, applied to the standardized residuals of the EGARCH model, rejects heteroskedasticity as the cause of nonlinearity. On the other hands, the locally weighted regression indicates the presence of chaos in the Latin American ADRs returns. Our results are relevant because previous research has failed to report evidencr of chaos in stock returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries in Latin America have made nanotechnology a development priority in their public policy platforms. The main feature of these public policies is to provide support for nanotechnology research and development, aiming to forge ties between public institutions and universities and the private sector, to boost innovation and competitiveness. These public policies do not take into account the global context of strong capital concentration in which nanotechnologies emerge, and which makes it difficult to be competitive within the framework laid out by these public policies to develop these technologies. This paper analyzes the direction of public policy in the international context, and also suggests policy alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]