Search

This article aims to analyze how the prevention of HIV infection in Colombia -- from the 1980s until now -- has taken place, given that it is one of the main measures to control infection. We present the epidemiological context in the world and in Colombia, the development of the prevention of infection, and conclude with some reflections on the gaps and realities of what has characterized HIV prevention in our environment. Methodology: we analyzed papers and scientific articles in Spanish, English, and Portuguese from 2000 to 2016, available in PubMed Lilacs, Ebsco, Medline, Justor, and Scielo. Seventy-five articles were reviewed out of which twenty-nine selected. Conclusions: HIV prevention must move from the assistance-based approach to policies that promote human, social, and economic development, without leaving aside the fact that the general population is at risk of acquiring the infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the result of a documentary and bibliographic research carried out in the general archive of the Latin American Episcopal Council, Celam. It focuses on its contribution to ecumenical dialogue during its sixty years of history. It presents the people involved in the process, the contributions of the General Assemblies of the Episcopate and their main theological and ecumenical emphasis. It also highlights the evolution of the concepts, the influence of the Ecclesiology of Communion and of the missionary discipleship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are few studies on pathological gambling (PG) tests and prevalence for Colombian population. The aim of this paper was to obtain both psychometric properties of the Pathological Gambling Short Questionnaire (PGSQ), as well as to calculate the prevalence of pathological gambling (PG) for a non-randomized sample of university and technical courses from all Colombian capital cities. Results showed a PGSQ good internal reliability (0.74) and convergent validity with a cognitive distortions indicator -r(5618)= 0.462, p < 0.001-. The prevalence of possible pathological gamblers was similar to other studies which have used broader measures of pathological gambling (19.2%). Men, youngest people and members of low social class had higher scores in PG. According to these results, it should be confirmed PG prevalence with other measures, in order to boost legal and socio-health actions for prevention of PG in high risk groups and to know utility of PGSQ for Colombian clinical samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how the sexist attitudes are related to the assumption of responsibility, as well as the predictive capacity of this variable with respect to the aggressors' minimization of the harm and a lack of attributing responsibility of 129 aggressors convicted in Spain for gender violence. There was applied the Scale of Attribution of Responsibility and Minimization and the Inventory of Ambivalent Sexism (ASI). The results indicate that a high percentage of aggressors tends to assume the responsibility for the violence exercised and do not justify the aggression. Likewise, there has been stated that the aggressors do not present a high number of sexist attitudes. Nevertheless, sexist attitudes allow to predict the minimization of hurt of the aggressors. The conclusions redound to the importance of intervention with this population, given the efficiency of the programs in the assumption of responsibility and in the decrease of sexist attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper was to test the predictive power of the channels of communication used by fitness monitor, the intrinsic motivation and the enjoyment of the activity, in the commitment of fitness. 287 gym fitness were involved in the study to which were analyzed the degree of perceived communication and the communicational barriers with the monitor, the intrinsic motivation, the enjoyment and the level of sport commitment. The result of linear regression analysis showed that the use of channels of communication verbal, no-verbal and the avoidance of communication barriers, as well as high levels of intrinsic motivation and enjoyment during the practice, predicted a future commitment of the participants. In this way, the use of effective communication strategies by the fitness monitor during the interaction with practitioners would increase the motivation of individuals allowing a greater adherence to practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses Emotional Intelligence (EI) in Colombian Primary School Children depending on their location (rural or urban) and gender. The final sample consisted of 1451 students in fourth and fifth grade of three provinces in the Boyacá department. Emotional Quotient Inventory: Youth Version ([EQ-i: YV]; Bar-On & Parker, 2000) was used for data collection. Both the reliability and validity of EQ-i: YV have been determined for this sample. The main results revealed differences in EI according to location. Overall, EI was higher in urban than in rural settings. Also, scores on the interpersonal and adaptability dimensions differed by gender. Additionally, the need for future research and development of Social and Emotional Learning programs in schools is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper researches motivation for physical activity in the framework of the goal orientation theory. This work is based on data from 786 students. Hierarchical cluster analysis allowed identifying four goal orientation profiles. The most adaptive profile (high task, high ego, high expectancy) is associated with the best results. Students with high motivation for physical activity, ego, and performance expectancy are concluded to obtain more indications of support from their relatives and peers for physical activity practice, perceive themselves self-effective to complete this activity, claim their better self-perceived fitness, and show more frequent physical-sports activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social desirability seems to enhance well-being measures because individuals tend to increase the degree of their satisfaction and happiness resulting in response artifacts and in a serious threat to the validity of self-reported data. This paper explores social desirability bias in self-reported subjective well-being, controlling for several sociodemographic variables such as gender, age, education, marital/relationship status, and employment status. This is in order to test whether social desirability has incremental validity in predicting some well-being measures. Three different facets of well-being are proposed which deal with subjective happiness, general life satisfaction, and gratitude and loneliness, respectively regarded as a positive and negative emotional response. Through a web-based survey a convenience sample of 170 participants completed an online questionnaire including measures of social desirability, subjective happiness, life satisfaction, gratitude, and loneliness. Correlation analyses and two-step hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted. All well-being measures show modest significant correlations with social desirability ranging from 0.235 to 0.309, except subjective happiness. Social desirability accounted for from about 3% to 6% of the variance of these measures, after controlling for socio-demographic variables. Social desirability seems thus to play little role in well-being self-report measures, as revealed by previous studies. Some limitations are discussed, as well as issues about social desirability bias in online investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A substance user's readiness to change is fundamental to the success of psychological interventions and treatments. Preserving neuropsychological functions is an integral part of moving towards readiness, yet few studies have evaluated the influence of cognition on a user's motivation to change. Therefore, this paper aimed to verify the possible correlations between a user's cognitive deficits and readiness to change through examining cocaine/crack users. This study analyzed a sample of 113 chronic cocaine/crack users' performances on the WCST and WAIS-III subtests, the URICA, and the Readiness to Change Ruler. The results showed significant correlations between the presence of cognitive deficits and lower levels of motivation to change. Multiple regression analyses revealed the influence of cognitive test performance on the increase of readiness to change among the participants, suggesting a direct relation between the preservation of neuropsychological functions and a stronger willingness to change in cocaine/crack users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work analyses leadership from the perspective of Social and Organisational Psychology, with scientific, empirical, objective, systematic and likely replicable rigour. The literature on leadership features a large number of diverse and heterogeneous sources stemming from several different disciplines. However, there is no agreement on what leadership is, nor is there a single explanatory model of it. This paper describes how leadership is investigated, and three dimensions are mentioned that it is expected that all theories on leadership address: leader, followers, and context. 68 studies from works published by Iberoamerican authors and covered by Redalyc and Scopus fulfilled criteria. The systematic analysis of these works had three stages: the delimitation of the search strategy and the selection of the studies; systematisation and lemmatisation of the text corpus, and statistical descriptive, unidimensional and multidimensional analysis. Results compiled using SPSS and SPAD show important contributions made by the studies in the last decade, with identification of their basic components, their theoretical explanatory models, the different methodologies used, the development of associated psychological variables, and the organisational aspects mentioned by the scientific literature in terms of leadership in organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daily life demands constant making judgments or decisions. Some of those decisions may be more or less complex depending on ethical, social, historical and political context of social factors and the interaction of these factors with subjects who judge. The aim of this article is to show how Functional Theory of Cognition allows detailed cognitive decision making process analysis, in which they operate: the valuation of stimuli, integration of psychological representation of these stimuli and finally, explicit answer. This process of judgment meets three rules: addition, multiplication, average, for observing the functions that are generated between the factors involved in decisions and issuing a judgment. This theory has had important applications in the areas of clinical psychology and health, political psychology, sports psychology and developmental psychology, areas in which the paper presents the most relevant findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this paper was to provide new evidence on the effects of valence on recognition memory of emotional pictures, on the basis of rigorous experimental control of stimulus material. Valence was manipulated using pleasant and unpleasant pictures, keeping arousal constant at a high level. A reference condition with a neutral value in both dimensions was also included. We found greater discrimination and a more conservative response bias, as well as slower recognition decisions, for pleasant pictures. Also worthy of mention is the high positive correlation between response times and discrimination measures just for such pictures. These results would be consistent with an adaptive interpretation based on motivation and personal relevance of emotional information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This paper presents the functional design and kinematic synthesis of a recent version of an electric stair-climbing wheelchair. Wheelchair.q: The proposed device represents the latest evolution of the 'Wheelchair.q' project and introduces several improvements over previous designs. This updated solution has greater stability during stair-climbing operation, and it satisfies the safety requirements introduced by ISO 7176-28:2012, "Requirements and test methods for stair-climbing devices". The main improvement presented concerns the regularity of the user trajectory during stair-climbing, which ensures a more comfortable perception. This result has been achieved by introducing a cam mechanism between the frame connected to the locomotion unit and the seat frame, which properly manages the seat orientation. With an appropriate cam profile, it is possible to compensate for the oscillations that are introduced on the wheelchair during the climbing sequence and allow the user to obtain a translational trajectory. Results: The proposed design and its working principle are first described and illustrated through schematic and graphic representations. A brief explanation of the procedure for obtaining the cam profile is also given. Two different architectures for the cam mechanism are then compared, and the advantages and disadvantages for each solution are identified. Finally, the kinematic wheelchair performances are tested through a simulation conducted in the MSC-ADAMS multibody environment. Conclusions: The results obtained with the simulation show the effectiveness of the proposed solution. The wheelchair is able to climb a staircase in a safe and regular way. Following studies will complete the design of the wheelchair with the aim to build a prototype for demonstrating the proposed working principle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This paper presents a monitoring and control system prototype using the internet protocol (IP) for a residential lighting layout. The prototype aims to develop energy efficiency processes by reducing electric energy consumption without decreasing user comfort and quality of life. Methods: The system is based on a web application to remotely turn the power on and off, which enables the monitoring of its consumption while being grounded in a prospective analysis. The prototype has hardware and software components. Results: The prototype has hardware is implemented with the Arduino® platform, which enables the assignment of an IP address using an Ethernet Shield card. This address provides bidirectional communication possibilities. The device is connected by a data acquisition system, which is designed and constructed to measure energy consumption from voltage and current measurements using an ADE7763® integrated circuit and an ACS714® current sensor. In this physical structure, a web application has been developed to monitor consumption and develop a control process with communication protocols through power line communication (PLC). Conclusions: The main contributions of this investigation are grounded in the use of economics and small devices that will enable low-cost energy-efficient project development in both domestic and industrial electric installations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Audience fragmentation has become a recurrent theoretical framework in the early 21st Century, used mainly to depict the new complex and dynamic relationships established between media and consumers. However, some academic studies have been published which expand on the meanings and implications of the so-called fragmentation from the perspective of the audience. This paper is based on empirical research undertaken in Colombia among young people (17-24 year-olds) who live in the ten most important urban areas of this country located at the north-west corner of South America. A mixed methodology was used, combining quantitative and qualitative methods with a statistical sample. Conclusions support a theoretical proposal based on what the authors call the three dimensions of audiences' fragmentation --intramedia, intermedia, and transmedia fragmentation-- as a way to understand the new relationships established between media content producers and active and participative consumers, beyond the media-centrism paradigm and closer to the revival of encoding/decoding communication process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows that, although people in the Middle Ages resorted to vengeance and private wars to solve conflicts, there were also controls other than violence. Therefore, Norbert Elias is wrong in attributing an uncontrolled aggressiveness to medieval society. Historian Marc Bloch is also wrong to suppose that violence was the consequence of an emotional instability or the uncivilized nature of the Feudal Age. On one hand, we claim that the progressive consolidation of monarchies and a renewed administration of justice since the twelfth century contributed to the reduction of violence. On the other hand, we state that this did not prevent private acts of justice from pursuing a purpose similar to that of the monarchy: peace above punishment. Finally, we conclude that these centralized powers, the papacy and monarchies, promoted their own violence against internal dissidents and Islam: the crusades, extremely violent wars. These theses are developed using the historiographic method, that is, the contrast between studies on violence today and in the Middle Ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implications of the armed conflict in Colombia seem to be mitigated by initiatives of symbolic construction of memory, which tend to go beyond the theatricalization of memory. Undoubtedly, these initiatives contribute to ensuring the non-repetition of the violent events that gave rise to them. However, they usually do not provide spaces for reflection on the daily lives of victims, which are reconstructed through elements such as language. Based on stories told by some of the women of the Trujillo's Association of Relatives of Victims (AFAVIT), this paper aims to analyze how life is given meaning day by day, as well as the resources used to achieve this. Supporting this is the problematization on the role of language, which reflects the constant tension of survivors between telling what happened to prevent repetition or not telling it to avert the dangerous effects that threaten their physical and emotional well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1944, the government of the self-ploclaimed «June Revolution» installed a Military Zone in the basin of the Gulf San Jorge (Argentina). Its purpose was to militarize central Patagonia, as its vast and perpetually disputed oil wealth meant this territory needed to be safeguarded. The Military Government (GM) caused a series of important transformations; the analysis of the work environment in Comodoro Rivadavia shows one of these transformations. This paper will show that, during the MG, workers claimed the values of oil nationalism promoted by General Enrique Mosconi in Fiscal Oil Fields (YPF) between 1922 and 1930. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author faces the Biblical narrative of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar with narratological tools. He reads these texts (Gn 11,26–25,18) in the context of the Second Temple canon. The author believes that the complexity of all characters, their moral ambiguity and the intraceability of Abraham’s seed question some rigid ideas about the cultural and narrative identity of Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church and later magisterial documents have identified and further developed four “principles of the Church’s social doctrine”: the dignity of the human person, the common good, subsidiarity and solidarity. Since these concepts are very different and can be associated with different traditions, it is not always clear how they should be interpreted. Based on magisterial documents, this paper delves deeper into the notion of a “principle of the Church’s social doctrine”, distinguishing the sense in which each of these principles may be called as such, and paying attention to the way in which human dignity can be considered a specific social principle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the prevalence of girls in the U.S. juvenile justice system, compares national and international incarceration rates, and reviews the profile needs of justice-involved girls. The authors offer their Model as an example of how to develop a gender-responsive approach to girls in the justice system, including a description of how the model was operationalized in a community in the United States. Critical developments and emerging opportunities for each of the Model's components: advocacy, model programming, public education, training and technical assistance, gender responsive tools, systems accountability, and evaluation are highlighted. Lessons learned are offered as a springboard for conversations about how the international community can individually assess their needs and resources and work together to improve the response to girls. The paper concludes with recommendations for choosing, evaluating, and implementing best-practice approaches for meaningful reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, it is presented the results of the first three years (2005-2007) of the application of Restorative Justice (RJ) in the Brazilian juvenile justice system. To this end, it was made a bibliographical and documental researches, so all data used in the paper has not been collected directly by the authors. Good results are verified, despite the almost complete absence of publicity given to the work developed in the country. It was also noticed a considerable lack of dialogue between those who are responsible for the programmes, the legal actors involved, and the local Universities. For even better results, it is suggested that all institutions involved improve the dialogue between them and encourage scientific researches of their own practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper was investigate the relationship between executive function and functional capacity and determine predictors engines for decline of executive functions in elderly patients with AD. A total of 24 elderly patients with EA were evaluated to estimate predictors engines. Descriptive statistical analysis, Pearson Correlation and multiple linear regressions was used. Executive functions related to the flexibility (r = 0.54), static and dynamic balance (r = 0.48) and with the agility and mobility (r = -0.41). Regression analysis pointed to balance and flexibility as predictors engines deficiency executive functions. The decline of balance and flexibility can predict the prejudice of the executive functions of elderly with AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper was to analyze the training needs and career guidance, as well as the guidance received in the adult population in the Spanish region of Castile and Leon. This work is part of the R & D project "The orientation of the vital and professional project in adulthood: Needs analysis, assessment of employment services and identification of best practices". Currently, the importance of vocational dimension in personal and social welfare is now recognized. The sample consisted of 375 subjects, mostly unemployed or in a position to improve their employment situation. Through the SPSS version 20 program, data corresponding to the descriptive statistics were obtained, as well as reliability values obtained by Cronbach's alpha coefficient, the correlation analysis, and the ANOVA findings. The results showed a positive relationship between the satisfaction with the career followed and the content of training. In addition, it was found that the importance of training content fits the profile of the participants in the training process. Subjects with a lower level of studies showed significant differences in training needs in relation to subjects with higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological and pharmacological treatments for eating disorder involve personal and health costs. In this paper we study the various reasons that may be associated to abandonment in both types of treatments in patients diagnosed with a disorder of eating behavior and the kind of neglect: neglect after evaluation, early and late abandonment. On the other hand, we analyze whether there is any relationship between the diagnosis and the type of abandonment. Various characteristics (age, sex, diagnosis, motives and types of neglect, and satisfaction with the unit eating disorder) in 212 patients treated at a specialized service in the treatment of eating disorder were examined during a period of two years. Our data support the hypothesis that the rate of abandonment of the most common treatments is delayed type, motivated by the improvement of the disorder of eating behavior, while no verified that there is some relationship between the diagnosis and the type of abandonment. Our results indicate that the reasons for dropping out are heterogeneous. You can set two different profiles of dropouts, one linked to improvement and to temporary disability, and other related to various reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to identify whether the components involved in different processes of social learning, both imitative and non imitative, evaluated in appetitive contexts can be identified in an aversive context. This identification will allow us to appraise the goodness and/or limitations of the concepts and their heuristic value. The paper begins with the definitions of learning, individual learning and social learning, followed by the definition of the different processes of social learning in appetitive contexts, with emphasis in conceptual and experimental difficulties. Then, the definition of the different processes of social learning in aversive context is proposed and the paper concludes with a discussion about differences and similarities in both contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is a review of the literature about the influence of child abuse on the formation of attachment representations. It describes the main theoretical assumptions about the effects of abuse on the defensive processes, memory systems and attachment strategies. These elements are discussed trough the presentation of an integrative model which is contrasted with empirical studies. It shows that child abuse affects the quality of attachment representations; however the studies do not take in to account all the complexity of the phenomenon of abuse. Theoretical issues discussed in this paper are marginally tested in the research reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing and implementing collaboration strategies in supply chains contribute to global and local improvements of its members. This paper studies the impact of information sharing in a dyadic supply chain (one supplier and one manufacturer), each one with several available resources to schedule production orders. Various scheduling rules are proposed under dynamic environment that considers available information for decision-making. These methods are analyzed using discrete-event simulation models. An extended experimental study is carried out on a great number of well-known instances from the literature. Some intuitive statements are verified through the experiments about the importance of information sharing within the whole supply chain. One great contribution of this paper is the quantification of these benefits. Also, the experiments show other results that are not so much intuitive. For instance, this paper shows that there is no significant statistical difference between the best scheduling strategies for each collaboration scenario. This is mainly due to the fact that it is not always easy to know how and what type of information must be considered to be shared for the decision making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to revisit some connections drawn from literature and others identified directly, between accountancy and the Theory of Communicative Action -henceforth TCA- as described by Jürgen Habermas, with a view to favouring an extension of the social role of accountancy towards social understanding and integration, and not just to globalisation and economic integration, as it is presented today. The paper, making use of TAC concepts, states that accountancy can be the product of social efforts aimed at creating a dialogue between companies and socio-economic actors. It compares in a critical way various concepts drawn from both volumes of the TAC with notions on the role of accountancy regarding development and neoliberal globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyze how professionals of palliative care -a branch of medicine specialized in the care of dying patients- define, plan and disclose the "terminal" status of patients with advanced cancer diseases. The article is based on ethnographic observations and interviews with professionals in a palliative care service in the Buenos Aires city. The paper analyzes the tasks of definition and projection of the dying process and the way professionals disclose information about the dying prognosis. The analysis of these practices shows how the "end of life" is constructed in two ways: as a stage of psychological preparation for patients and families (and therefore an object of professional intervention), and as gradual process culminating in death. [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]

On the grounds of today's psychoanalytic field distinction between the classical symptoms and the "contemporary" ones, this paper inquires into the formulation of contemporary symptom notion itself. Considering the broad scope of the Freudian distinction between psychoneurosis and the actual neurosis symptoms, the paper speaks in behalf of the thesis that it'd be wrong to regard as symptoms the responses through which the subject submits point blank to discourse imperatives--for the symptoms serve as objections against the Other, and their relation to juissance is based on a structural lack: ajouissance-minus [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an interdisciplinary experience on the conception and development of a digital repository for historical research about media in southwestern Colombia. It takes stock of social research-oriented repositories in the world, Latin America and Colombia. This paper traces the beginnings of what has made possible to convert a database of restricted use into an open access repository for research development. It also develops a comparative analysis between the experiences of the creation of university institutional repositories in the Netherlands, Venezuela, the United States and Colombia. Finally, this paper will discuss the most sensitive issues that underpin the creation of repositories for the historiography of methods and processes of communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper account for the main collective actions undertaken by two women networks in Colombia: Women's Peace Route and the Colombian Women Initiative for Peace, during transition justice process and the implementation of the Justice and Peace Law (2004- 2009). From a sociological approach to the political process and the gender category, this paper discusses how gender ideologies inform new ways of mobilization affecting discourses, purposes and repertoires of those claiming identities and defending human rights. The main conclusion here is that the feminist influence in redistribution and acknowledgement claims for victims from the armed conflict have encouraged collective actions that begin to modify their relationship to the State. This is proved by their achievements at Court and social acknowledgement victims have gained as social actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around the world, healthcare organizations have had to accommodate to national and international regulations governing work and health. This process has been accompanied by the introduction of knowledge and practices coming from social and administrative sciences. In this encounter between the liberal reforms and the particular ways of managing the workforce, the circulating meanings play an important role because, to a large extent, the agendas, programs and interventions geared to towards workforce management depend on these circulating meanings to succeed. In this paper, meanings about work, worker, organization, human resources management and hiring that are currently circulating in a human resources department of a university hospital in Bogotá, Colombia, are presented. The qualitative design used in this paper aimed to collect the circulating meanings as well as their emotional correlative elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper inquires into certain theoretical lines of argument in order to rethink the analyses of some alternative communication projects under way in different Argentine inland cities. The characteristics of some established radio and digital newspapers, produced by young men and women from urban milieus, problematize the ways in which social, political, and discursive matters are to be approached. Thus, in this paper, we propose a dialogue between the different post-structuralist perspectives in order to ponder on the relationships established between power and resistance based on a 'rhizomatic' conception of the social issue. On the other hand, we recover some Latin American reflections on alternative communication in order to connect them to M. Foucault's proposal concerning the indissoluble link between power and discourse. Finally, we sum up with a few key methodological approaches from which we consider that, both the political and discursive dimensions of social processes, are articulated into a social-discursive perspective once it has been clearly understood that ideology is always present behind any sense or meaning which has the imprint of the social conditions that produced them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the findings of a research project on youth's practices as expressions of citizenship. Based on or rather starting from the relation communication/politics, our paper is an account of how to identify the processes behind the construction of political agencies by youth collectives. We analyze the organization models, the actions undertaken, and the different forms of communication with which the members of juvenile groups attempt to generate a political agency of sorts vis-àvis the social vindications they demand via collective action. Finally, the paper describes how, through communication processes, the extent and diversity of the participant youngsters citizenship skills. We highlight the problems and difficulties these groups face vis-à-vis their latent presence and permanence in political life as well as the educational potential of such practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both the call for and the public's answer to the marches of February 4 and March 6, 2008, as far as mobilizations in Colombia go, can be considered the two citizen mobilizations of biggest impact ever. Mass media were decisive actors in both spreading news of the marches and persuading the citizens either to join them or not. The research team of the project Press representations of the social mobilizations of February 4 and March 6, 2008, compiled the news of the marches published in three daily papers distributed nationwide: El Tiempo (the main national paper), El Colombiano (produced in the country's region with the highest social mobilization's rate), and the weekly Voz (which represents left-wing political sectors and is owned by the Communist party). This article presents a classification and categorization of information from a discourse analysis' (DA) perspective and approaches the results obtained by the qualitative categorization of the information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to assess the explanatory power of graphic representation by visualization of social networks. We analyze outcomes generated by the software tool UciNet and NetDraw, in order to explain networks outcomes using principles for effective interpretation of graphs. The internal characteristics of the major "jihadist" groups formed in Spain, are taken into consideration/account for analysis in the present paper. Our study examines the relevance of social interaction during "jihadist" militancy and the characteristics and implications of structure within a network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to account for the ways women integrating the free software community in two countries from the global South negotiate with feminizing paradigms imposed to them by the collectives interested in popularizating free technologies. Through an ethnographic approach to vital experiences of women in the Indian collective Linux-Chix, and holding a dialog with the experiences of non-organized women in the free software community in Colombia, this paper suggests these negotiations are going to be materialized primarily in the constitution of survival strategies from which certain civilizing projects are particularly vindicated, some of which seem to promote a Western paradigm of female subjectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the operational cycle of a workers' compensation insurer in Colombia. It explains the basic characteristics of complexity which are presented in systems like occupational risk, and proposes the use of system dynamics as an alternative to model those characteristics. The paper uses the causal loop diagrams to present the basic structure of the operational cycle model. We concluded that the operational cycle has important feedback cycles, time delays, and nonlinear relations that affect the understanding of the real system. Thus, the use of system thinking and formal simulation models are useful tools to understand and improve decisions in real systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an image synthesis algorithm for rendering views of a real scene taken with a virtual camera which is located between two real cameras. Specifically, this paper presents how, under certain conditions, a pair of views is enough to obtain a full set of possible views by following the line that joins their optical centers (baseline) without reconstructing explicit 3D models. Test results show the viability of the proposed algorithm for simple scenes (an object with a simple geometry, which is opaque, and does not present any occlusions). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is compiling some of the main methodological axes around which a research on political violence incidence on daily life of peasants in the Macarena sierra, located in Colombian Western Amazonia. This text aims to bring some elements to the methodological debate addressed by several anthropology works made in local contexts affected by political violence. Written as a research report, this paper presents several results of our work, the analysis framework used and the main features defining ethnographical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the language employed by disciplines that study organizations (business administration, organizational theory, organizational studies, etc.) must be carefully cultivated for strictly methodological reasons, given that the language in which theory is expressed affects the theory positively or negatively. Therefore, as an example, the paper shows that the expression administrative process is erroneous and even harmful. The paper discusses the efforts of philosophers and social scientists who have studied the aspects of scientific language in general as well as the language of their respective fields and it critically analyzes proposals by important thinkers who have broached the topic of problems with the theoretical language for organizations. Such analysis includes efforts seeking to standardize administration terminology made by authors such as Urwick and Koontz; propositions by Astley, Daft, and Wiginton who argue that studying organizations requires an ambiguous language, given its complexity (within the "linguistic slant" that has permeated organizational research, in which Alvesson, Cooper, Gergen, and Thatchenkery have also participated); and Simon's thoughts, who set out to build a vocabulary that would enable describing organizations for scientific purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is common to analyze deficiencies in employment quality by using the variables informal employment and underemployment. The former term is understood to capture the problem from the company perspective (demand) whereas the latter captures it from the worker perspective (supply). This paper examines how related those variables are to employment quality in the Colombian urban labor market. To do so, the determinants informal employment and underemployment are analyzed together using an econometric model that incorporates the correlation of the terms of error (bivariate probit model). A high correlation was found between the two variables and they, in turn, are related to low income levels, low educational levels, deficient work conditions, and low technological development sectors. This is the first paper on the Colombian labor market that analytically examines informal employment and underemployment together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the determinants of incumbent failure using the game theory. In the suggested schema, an entrant firm decides to confront a monopolist firm by offering second-generation technology. The firm with the monopoly offers first-generation technology so it must decide whether to enter second-generation technology into the market or not. The paper concludes that the share of the existing market and the expected magnitude of the demand that will remain with the older technology are barriers against an established firm deciding to invest in an innovation. The probability that an established firm would invest in such innovation is inverse to the entrant firm's probability of success, to the amount of the investment, and to the magnitude of the profits that the established firm would make with its current product if the entrant company is successful. The article illustrates the theoretical exposition by using the results of introducing mobile cellular telephony in the telecommunications industry in Colombia [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the new trends in the higher education system in Colombia, this paper raises the question of how the introduction of credit systems may transform the management system of a university. To answer that question, the paper introduces the case of Universidad del Rosario, one of the most traditional universities in Colombia, transformed its institutional setting to implement this system years before the legal credit system requirement to do so even existed. Reviewing the unsystematic literature on this topic and introducing the concept of credit systems, the paper provides a model which systemizes managerial change due to credit systems into four categories: (i) governance and structure, (ii) culture/values and institutional identity, (iii) managerial practices and techniques, and (iv) the relationship with the environment (internal and external). The paper also presents concerns about cultural and institutional particularities which may affect and distort the expected impact of introducing a credit system, and it finally observes how important it would be to consider process dynamics when dealing with this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights the ability of eco-hydraulics to improve the understanding of the fluvial ecosystem dynamics and the assessment of the aquatic habitat in the context of the conservation and restoration of lotic hydrosystems. The high-resolution analytical framework used in eco-hydraulics to describe the conditions of the fluvial microhabitat, and its complementarity with ecohydrological techniques, suggests the justifiable recommendations that will be more completely scrutinized in the river restoration projects. The paper summarizes the procedure for the eco-hydraulic evaluation of the fluvial microhabitat using temporal and spatial scales, whose results are interpreted in studies of instream flows, fluvial habitat enhancement, and river restoration. The described protocol for the multidimensional fluvial characterization permits the detailed modeling of the micro-hydraulic environment that is perceived by aquatic organisms and conditions heir behavior. This work summarizes the valuable potential of the scientific tools that ecohydraulics offers for the advanced analysis of the fluvial ecosystem and the design of measures for the conservation and rehabilitation of Colombian rivers. The ecohydraulic index that assesses the global quality of the aquatic microhabitat can efficiently incorporate the ecological considerations in water resource management and in the design of intervention in the rivers. The new interdisciplinary frontier of fluvial hydraulics that is constituted by ecohydraulics provides new challenges for hydro-scientific research, as the convenient incorporation of biological criteria and the resulting interpretation in streams with high biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering that soccer is a highly political sport and places itself in the crosshairs of capital questions such as membership and identity, the goal of the present article is to analyze how the discourse of Spanish identity is constructed in the sports press. To that purpose, the author conduct an exhaustive content analysis focused on the four main daily sports papers with the highest print run and circulation in Spain. Specifically, it studies the information published about the Spanish team during its participation in the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The article focuses on the role that the sports media currently plays as active agents of ideological transmission of a banal nationalism, and points out the differences that this media process of constructing a Spanish nationality shows compared to non-democratic periods. The article also highlights the existing discrepancies between the ways in which this identity is formed in the sports papers edited in Madrid (centralist) and the ones edited in Barcelona (autonomist). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the problem of vehicle location or positioning for material handling in automated manufacturing systems. The problem is inspired by a real-life application in semiconductor manufacturing. The main difference between this paper and previous works is the consideration of the unified nature of the transport system in which vehicles can travel from one machine to another without passing through intermediate storage. Since a vehicle fleet size is limited, it is necessary to implement intelligent strategies to satisfy transportation requests. Previous works have focused on hierarchical mathematical programming and simulation approaches. This paper studies the tactical decision level, in which, based on static demand estimates, the objective is to determine the best distribution of vehicles within the factory so as to minimize the time required to service a transport request. A greedy heuristic procedure is proposed. Experimental tests have been conducted using previous data from the literature based on a real-life automated factory. An improvement in both production metrics and computation time has been obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]