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This research is a documentary, descriptive study looking for assessment the working time cut, of shift work, in paper mills of Venezuela. Ergonomic, legal and economic analysis of time work arrays and organization were used to evaluate the consequences of such changes. Organization of shift work was studied through a simulated case and documentary evidence, such as collective agreements and work schedules Search concludes that mostly of the impacts in human resources of cutting working time on Venezuelan paper mills is going to be positive for our country because employment expansion, low impact on cost and cut time`s work risk exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is part of a research project developed by the CINDE Foundation, the University of Manizales, the Center for Advanced Studies in Childhood and Youth of these entities and the Catholic University Luis Amigó with funding from the Historical Memory Center and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation - Minciencias; the project explored the representations that children have about recent violence in their contexts and the ways in which they have learned about it at home and at school. The research is called Peaceful Expedition: pedagogies of memory and reconciliation in schools, which began in December 2020 and ended in June 2022. The research was conducted by the CINDE Foundation, the University of Manizales, the Center for Advanced Studies in Childhood and Youth of the same entities and the Catholic University Luis Amigó, Manizales branch. It also received financial support from the Historical Memory Center and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and from the University of Manizales. In particular, the article focuses on the processes related to the pedagogies of memory and the teaching of the recent past in an educational institution in the city of Manizales, with the participation of 40 children. The project provided resources from creation-action research and performative hermeneutic research, paying special attention to the cartographies and narratives of the participants, based on the performative ontological hermeneutic research proposal. The research project was conducted from a qualitative perspective and took resources from performative ontological hermeneutic research, which is understood by Alvarado et al. (2014), as that which allows the emergence of the voices of actors that have been silenced by traditional research mechanisms that, also makes it possible that the same research questions and the ways in which the voices of the group of actors are summoned, allow them to position themselves as political subjects, based on the recognition of their potencies and their capacities for the transformation of reality. On the other hand, the research also took resources from action-creation research, applying design and audiovisual resources as creative resources that allow narratives to be accompanied by creations made by the research participants themselves and that also communicate knowledge, experiences and knowledge. The work consisted of the development of five cartographic expeditions, the first related to the knowledge of the project, the second to the pedagogies of memory and the teaching of the recent past, the third to the construction of peace, the fourth to reconciliation, and the last to political agency. This paper analyzes the expedition related to the pedagogies of memory and the teaching of the recent past. The analysis of the information was based on the categories related to the teaching of the recent past and the pedagogies of memory, allowing the emergence of three subcategories, the first emphasizes the relationship between memory and territory, the second focuses on children as readers of reality, and the third is based on the continuity of adult voices and traditional media as the main sources of information for children. It was found that children prefer some places or regions of the country due to the events they have learned about from adults or from the news, which makes them generalize their imaginary about certain regions based on what is communicated to them. It was also possible to recognize that children assume certain positions according to what they hear from their families and from television, for example, stories were evidenced in which they give their opinion about the political situation in Colombia or the socio-political situation in Venezuela. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The migration of Venezuelans nationals to other Latin-American countries has been defined as the most significant migratory phenomenon in the recent story of the region, with Colombia being the country that hosts the highest number of Venezuelan nationals. From a human rights perspective, this article critically analyzes the response of the Colombian State to address migration from Venezuela. The objective of this article is to show that Colombia has preferred to govern this migration through the creation of ad hoc permits, instead of recognizing the need for international protection of this population and their status as refugees. To this end, this paper analyzes the Colombian regulatory framework on migration and refuge and, in particular, the response of the Colombian State to the migration of people from Venezuela. Its central argument is that the Colombian authorities have opted for the design and implementation of alternative measures of migratory regularization, as it was at the time the Special Permit of Permanence and is today the Permit for Temporary Protection. This article concludes by stating that the approach to Venezuelan migration has led to a clear detriment to the refugee system, today collapsed and with no prospect of reform or strengthening. This is so because the institutional design of the Colombian refuge entails a host of obstacles that discourage applicants from following this path, even when they require international protection. The authors of this paper use legal dogmatic as the main research methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some Latin American countries have introduced presidential recall in the last three decades. This exceptional and spontaneous mechanism by which somebody can remove a servant elected through a popular vote from office before the end of his term aims to broaden participation, empower citizens, and improve the responsibility and accountability of servants. However, the recall faces the challenge of being an instrument serving interests outside of its normative ideal. What are the consequences of holding a recall referendum? Under what conditions can the recall yield better results and be more effective? This paper answers these questions by comparing the presidential recall held in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Mexico. The evidence suggests that the mechanism can have substantial advantages and fulfill its objective when its holding is justified, there is no intervention from relevant political actors, and the institutional design does not hinder or discourage participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an exploratory study on the design and control of patriotic images in Venezuela during the government of presidents Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (1999-2013) and Nicolás Maduro Moros (2013 to the present). The aim is to recognize, identify and classify the visual objects that make up Venezuela's scopic regime, unravelling the iconographic plan the state developed for its implementation. Having searched for and retrieved 240 photographs from the virtual domain, the paper shows that Chavist governments have gained ground for their ideology by way of a renewed patriotic iconography within the urban visual space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a decolonial feminist geopolitics of Venezuelan migration to Colombia, with Venezuelans fleeing the socialist Bolivarian Revolution and then facing discrimination and violence upon settling in capitalist Colombia amid its failing peace process context. Conflicts over migration and nationality permeate our global order of sovereign nation-states, both in north-south migrations and across the global south, while the feminisation and racialisation of migrants divides the subaltern class and facilitates capitalist exploitation. However, this paper elucidates migrants’ inter-national solidarities and grassroots peace struggles. Community organisers along the Colombia-Venezuela border – the women’s empowerment organisation Tejedores de Paz and youth leadership foundation Horizonte de Juventud – unite impoverished internally-displaced Colombians and Venezuelan immigrants to create resistance territories against xenophobia, patriarchy, and poverty. Illustrating the utility of the methodology of decolonial feminist geopolitics, I trace the reconfiguration of the spirit of sociopolitical revolution in South America through migrants’ emergent form of feminist non-state socialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to describe 23 years of chavismo in Venezuela, placing this period in continuity with 500 years of history spanning the injustices and inequality of Spanish colonialism all the way to the depravities of modern day capitalism. The regime led by Chávez, with his great promises and ambitious plans both on the national and international fields, the political and economic strategies of said regime, the ideological pillars of his political discourse which centered around the proposal of a "Socialism of the 21st century", its achievements, paradoxes and deficiencies, the deplorable control exerted over information through the media, the arbitrary assistencialist and clientelist decisions of the regime; each of these is brought to the table by this article in order to weave a complex overview of the time period. There was a turning point with the death of Chávez when Maduro ascended to the Venezuelan presidency, in which the deterioration that was already in motion extended and grew until it resulted in complete and utter disaster, a period of upheaval marked by corruption and unchecked currency inflation. Spoliation and negligence, improvisation and ineptitude have affected the daily life in the country, and the staggering currency devaluation, lack of resources, hunger and repression have resulted in what is considered the greatest exodus in Western history in the last 50 years by UNHCR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over 5.4 million people have fled Venezuela in the last decade, with 4.6 million arriving in Latin American and Caribbean countries. Most are refugees seeking to settle in another of the region's countries, including Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. This paper focuses on the Venezuelan diaspora towards these countries and analyses whether these borders should be defined as open or closed, along with the forms of institutional incorporation or exclusion these people have experienced. To do this, it takes a case-by-case approach, reviewing legislation and analysing policy for each country. While Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay are all Mercosur members and signed the common residence agreement, which facilitated the movement of people, Paraguay has not created a special migration category for Venezuelan citizens, and has taken a more restrictive approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following article explores the 20st and 21st century Venezuelan crime novel. Its main objective is to analyze the particular characteristics of the noir genre in this Latin American country through its four essential pillars: crime, the detective, the victim and the victimizer. The paper shows the evolution of crime novel in Venezuela, with special attention to the relevant writers during 20th century. In this way, the paper thinks about the unity and diversity of Venezuelan crime novel and his value as instrument of cultural identity. Many of the contemporaries writers have been recognized the power of this narrative and the usefulness of its resources. Within this panorama, the contribution that women writers have given has been very important for the Venezuelan crime novel. An wide part these narratives, rather than felling about the pursuit of the criminal or the discovering of the truth, narrate the deciphering of way of being and living in the midst of violence of the great Venezuelan cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work is framed within the general objective of understand how Hugo Chávez and the MBR200 achieved to dispute the hegemony in crisis in Venezuela during the 90'. Within a gramscian approach to the theories of Hegemony, we published a series of papers that address this dispute thematically and chronologically. In this article we focus on the final period, 1996-1998, with two specific studies: the conformation of the Patriotic Pole in the framework of the political-organizational articulations, and the analysis of the campaign discourse in the framework of the ideological-discursive articulations. In order to complement these analysis of previous periods and topics, we understand that Chávez's triumph in the 1998 elections was due to a strategy of impugnation-polarization, and the organizational as well as ideological-discursive articulation which managed to conform an identity around his figure and the Constituent Assembly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper aims at describing the oligarchical State in both Venezuela and Bolivia based on their main characteristics and provides an explanation of the structural causes of its transformation. All of this based on analysis of the landowning class as the means of preserving the dominant coalition between both countries from the perspective of historical sociology. To this end, 1953s Agrarian Reform in Bolivia is analyzed due to its effect in the disappearance of land ownership in the west side of the country while for Venezuela the impact of petroleum in its socioeconomic structure is examined which in turn led to a growing irrelevance of landowners. The comparative analysis that was carried out shows the similarities but also the particularities of each one of these trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers some evidences about the circulation of capital between Venezuela and Spain at the end of the eighteenth century through the case study of the Spanish merchant Esteban González de Linares (1751-1802). Our sources are private nature: an accounting book and 335 letters. These documents show a wide variety of channels to the transfer of capitals from Venezuela to Spain, both at large operations and small deliveries. González de Linares became, during his stay in Caracas (1785-1791), an important agent in the transfer of savings from the colony. The scarcity of silver and gold in Venezuela during this period justifies that the transfer of capital did promote the export of groceries (cocoa, indigo) and the development of financial markets (orders and bills of exchange). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the emblematic case of the use of the discourse of democracy as a key component of identity formation strategies on the Venezuelan right. The Venezuelan opposition's identity narrative is analysed as part of its competition for hegemony following the emergence of the Chavist political project, based on interviews conducted in 2016 with Venezuelans from this part of the political spectrum. The Venezuelan case reveals that the discourse of democracy not only facilitates the coalition and mobilisation of individuals without necessarily articulating ideological references of left or right, it also helps prevent changes to the existing social order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of energy is directly related to the growing demand and excessive dependence on the production of fossil resources, that is, coal, oil and natural gas, which must be planned in a safe, clean, efficient and sustainable scenario. The objective of this paper is to analyze oil production in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, during the period between 2002 and 2015. An econometric model was developed using the Cobb-Douglas production function and the results obtained allowed observing the existing gap between real production and the goals proposed by the Venezuelan State. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chlamydia psittaci (Cp) is an obligate intracellular bacterium that causes avian chlamydiosis, capable of infecting more than 460 bird species. However, since 2008, other chlamydial species have been identified in free-living and captive birds. This study aimed to identify a segment of the 16s rDNA gene of Cp using nested polymerase chain reaction in two Psittacidae birds of the genus Ara ararauna and Ara chloropterus from a zoo in Venezuela. The results revealed that these birds did not have DNA compatible with Cp, but they did have for the Chlamydiaceae family. Thus, the paper evidences the presence of another possible chlamydial species in the sampled Ara in an asymptomatic carrier state. These birds were confiscated and their origin was unknown. These factors favor infection by another species of Chlamydia. Although the resulting polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products were not sequenced, there is a high probability of being a non-psittaci Chlamydia, because a large number of reports on a global scale affirm the transmission capacity of the rest of the species in birds. In this sense, it is necessary to report chlamydial findings in order to study their pathogenic capacity in new reservoirs, zoonotic risk, and the protection of wildlife and animals in captivity, mainly those at risk of extinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the development of the graduate to reveal their contradictions and determine their social impact, with a view to the future development of the process. This research is developed in UNEFA, core Sucre. The population is made up of students of Postgraduate Programs (Logistics Management, Human Resource Management and Environmental Management). It aims to reveal aspects of encounters between academic and social development impact of research, academic requirement for the formation of 4th and 5th level. Technical document review, analysis of databases University and polls of opinion among aspiring Magister were used. It hopes this research; upgrade the relationship that should exist between graduate studies and social demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the effectiveness of mano dura (heavy-handed) policies in reducing homicides by studying the case of Venezuela in the period 2012-2015 and gives particular attention to policies involving police violence. Although firm hand policies involve a set of strategies and discourses that revolve around the crime and the institutional response to it, this paper exclusively addresses police interventions that involve increased coercion and violence as a formula for tackling criminality. Over these years, policies have been tested out in Venezuela that involve greater police violence on the pretext of defeating the high levels of criminal violence. But rather than the expected effects of reducing violence and homicides, both have grown significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behaviour of wave, current and sediment transport in coastal sector of "La Guardia -- La Restinga" was analysed in former papers. In this coastal sector an accelerated erosion of the beach is being produced. In order to mitigate it, a group of coastal actions have been indicated taking into account the requirements of Ministerio del Ambiente for this land. Modifications in coastal dynamics as a consequence of these works are described in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses 68 digital media in Venezuela, based on the results obtained in 2010 and framed on the project "Cyber media in Colombia and Latin America", which is supported by the Universidad del Norte and Universidad de los Andes (Venezuela). The goal of the research is to determine the adoption of cyber journalism features and web 2.0 in media of this region. 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, the general data analyzed allow us to remark the low development of the digital media of Venezuela and the need of a deep debate and actions oriented to the advantage of the potentialities of the ICT from digital media in this country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the different genres produced by some researchers from the University of Los Andes, Venezuela, in relation to academic writing. The corpus consists of an intended sample of 21 papers published in electronic scientific journals. The questions posed in this analysis were: what kind of genres is produced by researchers, and what is their structure? And, what are the theoretical and methodological approaches that support such studies? The most significant results showed that (a) most of the publications produced are related to didactics and research papers; (b) most quotations belong to foreign authors; and (c) research on gender approach is limited, particularly by academicians linked to the disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional residential architecture of Maracaibo has been known in the collective memory of Venezuelans as a symbol of identity and as a kind of enduring cultural image. It is an archetype considered by locals to be a model of their colonial architecture; while in academia, it is understood as an example of nineteenth-century modernism. This paper aims to argue that it was in the context of the twentieth-century oil exploitation and during the government of Vicencio Pérez Soto, President of Zulia State (1926-1936), when economic and politic conditions were generated that made viable, through ordinances, the image that is now recognized as its traditional architecture. In this study, the historical-urban method was applied, which in its interdisciplinary approach achieves the procedural rigor of using written sources together with the operations typical of urban analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year 2006 marked a milestone in the history of the regional integration of Venezuela. After 33 years as a member of CAN, the country withdrew from the integration agreement and joined Mercosur, marking a significant change in regional integration strategy. In this paper, the causes of this change, as well as its economic and political effects, have been analyzed through desk research. One of the main conclusions is that Chavez decided to use regional integration as a tool to address the liberal policies of the United States, regardless of the economic consequences. Another is that, due to the economic and institutional deterioration of Venezuela, the non-oil productive sector is not ready to compete with other members of Mercosur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to empirically test the deleveraging of the Venezuelan financial system at the event of two contractive shocks, a monetary and an oil shock, and to characterize the types of risks that arise in each case. Although these shocks have similar effects on interest rates and deposits, the adverse consequences and implicit risks for the oil shock are greater, due to its shrivelling effect on real activity and public finances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a sociocognitive orientation towards reading of English writings in basic training courses in Universidad de Oriente. The important theoretical components for the development of this research were psychological constructivism and social constructivism. Those came from two main categories: reading as a cognitive activity and reading as a social activity, which supply analysis of professors' speech. The used methodology was interpretative. Those interpretations from professors' speech go through reflecting that reading should not be exclusively seen from a cognitive aspect, but it should be related a social view in order to have integrated point of view of what reading written texts means. Inside these reflections, some sociocognitive strategies are suggested to be developed during reading comprehension process of written texts in English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the system of comprehensive protection of human rights of children and adolescents, with the purpose of reviewing the legal order Venezuelan constitutional and legal recognition of the universality, progressiveness and preeminence of human rights, especially the respect for the rights and guarantees that assist as subjects of rights, progressive legal capacity, to the extent of their development as citizens. It uses the method of document analysis. We conclude that Venezuela faithful to the commitments made through treaties, covenants and conventions on Human Rights has been incorporated on children and adolescents the principles governing the doctrine of integral protection as legal rules through Law for the Protection of Children and Adolescents (LOPNA, 2007), with the feature of creating a national system for the Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents, with the challenge of ensuring adequate fully effective protection of their rights human. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of seismic intensity attenuation plays an important role in the analysis of menace that includes historical events. Mapping the intensity attenuation is usually done by regressing the intensity versus distance. Nowadays there are different ways to examine the characteristics of a seismic event using instrumental means, however, the experts face the problem of qualitative nature of the sources of information and the mapping of the relationship between intensity, magnitude and distance for the generation of risk scenarios based on historical information. This paper presents an alternative to map this relationship through artificial neural networks (ANN). As a result, we propose a procedure that was validated through the mapping of the intensities of 68 earthquakes that occurred northern South America, between 1766 and 2004. We found that ANNs present advantages with respect to the conventional models of regression: a. they preserve in a better way the first statistical moment, b. they reflect a minor approximation error and c. the variance explained by the ANN is better than the one from the models of statistical regression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poisonous plants are considered those with substances with physical or chemical properties producing more or less serious alterations of the anatomic structure or the functional activity of an organism by ingestion and/or penetration or any other way of contact with the organism. Many of the poisonous plants are usually used as ornamentals or medicinal plants. For the present paper the plants were collected, pressed and processed according to the botanical standards. All the field information was recorded and later transferred to a data base. The families were alphabetically ordered. The species were arranged by family and for each family were alphabetically ordered. Each species has its scientific name, common name, origin, use, and altitude above sea level where it is found, in some cases the general environment where it can be found, description of the plant, poisonous parts, toxic compounds, toxic effects, treatment. Photos are given to facilitate their identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the (3DP gap in Venezuela by means of the structural VAR methodology and the Blanchard and Ouah decomposition for the period 1999:1-2010:4. We use quarterly data for the inflation rate, real GDP, unemployment rate, and oil prices. We identify fiscal and monetary innovations on the demand side and technological and labor market disturbances on the supply side. Empirical results reveal that even though there is a wide gap between real and potential (3DP at the beginning of the period, it tends to narrow towards the end of the period as a result of the rise in oil prices. The GDP sample forecast shows that this gap, eventually, could fall as a result of the contraction in economic activity during 2009 and 2010. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Venezuelan political system was transiting its first two decades in a democratic system of government. However, since the seventies of the twentieth century began to experience a series of challenges that would create tension among major stakeholders. The government of Dr. Luis Herrera Campins (hereafter LHC) was to be the witness past and the mistakes of this administration weakened the political system ostensibly designed in the Pact of Puntofijo. The purpose of this paper is to provide a range of evidence on how the Social Christian government headed by LHC, from 1979 to 1983 was characterized by difficulty in giving continuity to the compromise and consensus developed during the first governments in the democratic era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between macroeconomic uncertainty, fiscal governance and economic growth in Venezuela from 1968 to 2010. There is feedback between fiscal volatility and uncertainty, but the latter may be the result of weak governance, particularly volatile fiscal policy. Fiscal volatility affects fiscal outcomes, especially when fiscal policy is discretionary. A VAR model is used to examine these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper seeks general objective is to determine the national legal reserve in Venezuela's Bolivariana Republic Constitution of 1999. Is used the documentary research strategy and the analytical method. Sources for data collection include five different areas: constitutional, legal, sublegal, doctrinal and jurisprudential. The concept of the national legal reserve includes specific national maters which based on constitutional provisions or on immobilization of the legal rank need to be exclusively regulated by legal normative juridical acts: the formal law and the decree with force of law as such, by excluding the executive regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an overview on the situation of centralized political power in Venezuela and on the necessary political action from civil society in order to recover an ideologically defined democratic society. A documentary research method was used in this study. Because of limitations of space and time, the analysis is based on a review of the relevant literature, including those considered appropriate to base the analysis. The findings are related with permanent efforts of civil society addressed to maintain the democracy, the elaboration and permanent change in the exercise of sovereignty, the existence of a marked tendency to centralize and the need for critical loyalty with the democratic system. Finally, it was specified the use of an antagonistic and exclusionary discourse from the current regime, a fact which is characteristic of their behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a Computable General Equilibrium model simulation built to Venezuela. The model is exemplified by the calibration and simulation of an open economy with three institutional actors (households, firms and government) and three productive sectors (oil, manufacturing, and others), for an open economy. Different policy rules are considered. In each case it is shown the calibration process and the results of some simulations using data from a Social Accounting Matrix for Venezuela between 1997 and 2005. It is presented the estimation of relevant until 2009 in the parameters and some sensitivity analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Records from the literature supplemented by reviewing reference collection specimens of fish in the Humboldt Institute - IAvH-P, Rancho Grande Biological Station - EBRG and Museum of Natural Sciences Guanare - MCNG, show 109 freshwater native species and 14 of marine estuarine origin living in the Catatumbo river basin, making it the system with the highest diversity of fish species on Maracaibo Lake. These species belong to 10 orders, 39 families and 91 genera. The taxonomic orders with the highest number of families, genera and species were Siluriformes with 12 families, 42 genera and 61 species and Characiformes with 11 families, 24 genera and 32 species. The richest families were Loricariidae (16 genera and 25 species), Characidae (13 genera and 18 species) and Pimelodidae (6 genera and 8 species), there were between one and five species recorded in each of the remaining 37 families. Of the 123 species registered, 69 were collected and cataloged as sampling results of this study and 11 are new registers for Colombia. As for the Catatumbo 61 of the 68 species are considered endemic to the Maracaibo Lake basin and 40 were established themselves as commonly fished species for commercial purposes, six marine - estuarine and 34 freshwater. This paper discusses changes in the number of species registered in the different lists and their implications for species richness Catatumbo basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the Venezuelan health system, including its structure and coverage, financial sources, human and material resources and its stewardship functions. This system comprises a public and a private sector . The public sector includes the Ministry of Popular Power for Health (MS) and several social security institutions, salient among them the Venezuelan Institute for Social Security (IVSS). The MH is financed with federal, state and county contributions. The IVSS is financed with employer , employee and government contributions. These two agencies provide services in their own facilities. The private sector includes providers offering services on an out-of-pocket basis and private insurance companies. The Venezuelan health system is undergoing a process of reform since the adoption of the 1999 Constitution which calls for the establishment of a national public health system. The reform process is now headed by the Barrio Adentro program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrologic studies in Coro river's basin haven't taken into account spillway's overflow neither reservoir dam "El Isiro" collapse. This reservoir, located at Coro river's basin, serves as a source for supplying drinking water to Coro city in Venezuela. Downstream of this dam is the river's floodplain, which has been under an urbanization process. Also currently, there is a developing agricultural project to exploit plain's advantages in that sense. Therefore, this work is held to incorporate the sub-basin that drains into the reservoir "El Isiro" and to take into account the possibility of dam breaking by using software HEC-HMS and HEC-GEOHMS, which allow the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to optimize the formulation of the basin's conceptual model. According to the results, a high impact in residential and agricultural areas (in terms of peak flows and runoff volumes) by considering reservoir dam "El Isiro" breaking can be appreciated. This paper represents a valuable contribution to flood risk management in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Social Corporate Responsibility (SCR) is a concept which has emerged in recent years, in the context of several changes produced not just in the fields of economic, financial and productive activity, but also in the relationships among the private corporative organization with external actors related with its functions. In the Venezuelan case, the government and official administration defends a political vision of the social dimension, which means public policies to promote some models of productive organization, to accomplish social goals as part of its mission and philosophy. This paper intends to describe, from a theoretical perspective, how the social dimension, despite the political and ideological polarization and differences existing between Hugo Chavez's government and the private sector, is an important element to consider as part of the strategic objectives and purposes of both the private corporate enterprises, and the entrepreneurial forms promoted and created by the Venezuelan government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cuban concept of the responsibility of the State in the performing of tasks related to the agricultural mechanization, on the basis of a structure of support for this activity as a part of a social service, did not exist in Venezuela. This paper presents the results of the active participation of Cuban specialists in the introduction of their experience in the creation and set in function of Territorial Stations for Services of Mechanization, being inaugurated in only two years 16 Stations located in 13 states, with definitively or provisional installations. Having Venezuela different modes of property over the land in regard to Cuba, it is necessary that the Stations were organized not as in our country with machinery of the existing Productive Entities, but with the creation of an independent national enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Coro river's floodplain, state of Falcón, Venezuela, has been under an urbanization process during the last 30 years. In addition, in a part of this zone an agricultural project is been developed at the moment. In this period, material damages have been generated by flooding, impacting negatively over the life quality of the communities living in these urbanisms. The urbanization process has increased the vulnerability and consequently the flood risk has also been increased, which is defined as the probability that damages can happen because of this phenomenon. Similarly, the agricultural project must take into account the problem, since it evolves with a high level of vulnerability. This situation forces to take necessary measures to reduce the flood risk. In order to take these measures it is necessary to know the risk from a qualitative and quantitative point of view. In this paper, the probability of damages occurrence in monetary terms was estimated, in the residential infrastructure located on the right border of Coro river's and in the area of the agricultural project, due to flooding. This estimation represents a contribution to risk managers in this zone, because it also contributes to optimize the process of decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the strategic process of a group of companies in the food and beverage sector of Carabobo State, Venezuela. To achieve it a non-experimental study was conducted with special emphasis on transectional descriptive design and an instrument was applied to a non probabilistic sample taken from eleven organizations of the food and beverage manufacturing industry in the Carabobo State, Venezuela. We concluded that in the group there is no clear trend or identification with respect to some of the schools of strategic thought, in particular, as regards to the strategic process; that is to say, there is not enough uniformity in the responses to identify which school of strategic thought (from the application of its premises) has a greater presence in some of the companies. Considering the prismatic nature of the strategic process, it can be said that the schools with more influence at the time of making the strategic formulation are Planning, Positioning, Cultural, Environmental and Configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to explore the main results of the project "Participation and social relationships in Twitter's online opinion leaders in Colombia, Venezuela and Iran, linked to the authors' research field. Our initial hypothesis said that new social networks in online media are strengthening the application of the flow communication model proposed by Klaus Jensen (Three-Step Flow), as well as they are contributing to the emergency of new opinion leaders. The findings confirm the relevance of Jensen's model and show how, the formation of new leaders of opinion online depend of factors out the ICT's effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrologic studies in Coro river basin have neither considered wasted water by spillway overflow nor the "El Isiro" dam break which supplies Coro city. An accelerated urbanization existing downstream of the reservoir in the river floodplain considerably increases posible damages. This paper updated the hydrologic study where "El Isiro" subbasin was included as well as the posibility of the dam break. The impact on the basin response was evaluated allowing the quantification of the flood threat and consequences. The study was supported on HEC-HMS v.3.3 software. Results show that maximum discharges at the end of the basin increase by some 20-35% including spillway discharges. When the dam break is included they are magnified 5-17 times. On the other hand, under the break event peak times are considerably reduced. This work represents a valuable contribution to the flood risk management in the zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the results obtained in a comparative study conducted in Venezuela in fast food chains in order to determine the influence of perception as an incidental element in the evaluation of speed of service. For it, the investigation is based theoretically in the topic of the perception including the main components as the integrated and interrelated process to provide explanations of the role and responses generated by the consumers. Methodologically, the case study was used in eleven business units belonging to four fast food chains located in five shopping centers which allows to connect "quickness" to "evaluation of the service" and establishing relationships in the matter. The most relevant results determined that the characteristics and expectations of the perceiver, some present stimuli and the nature of the environment in the "fastfood fairs", have a major impact to model the perceived situation, appreciating more the assessment when the customer is actually attended and gets the product, than what is shown in the average wait in lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the development of information technologies in Venezuela and how the discursive element legitimizes its own use; to do so, three types of discourse are identified (technological determinism, technological democracy, and technological nationalism.) Based on the fundamental assumption that hegemony is an ideological process in a permanent quest for power, it uses discourse to legitimize itself. We examine how, in Venezuela, concurrently with other state policies that attempt the construction of a communication model based on information technologies, the technical discourse "pervades" environments where the ict's can legitimize their existence in order to establish an ideological hegemony in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to determine the degree of implementation of the knowledge management process in two selected groups of companies of the states of Carabobo (Venezuela) and Tamaulipas (Mexico). A non-experimental research was developed, with a transactional - correlational design, in which a questionnaire was used as instrument for recollection of information and it was applied to executives of the area of human resources or administration of 20 companies of the great industry which formed part of a nonprobabilistic sample. From the obtained results, it can be affirmed that the various activities of the KM process are present in the administrative practice of the selected companies, and with almost no difference it can be concluded that the Venezuelan companies have more homogenous answers and develop more activities of knowledge management than do the Mexican ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last 10 years, diplomatic relation between Colombia and Venezuela has been marked by a constant instability. Such a relation has had two hard moments: between December 2004 and February 2005 with Granda case, and in March 2008 with the death of Raul Reyes. This paper shows an alternative analysis of agreements between both nations, emphasizing particularly the Granda case. The analysis is based on a dynamic game, through which it will be very important the effect on the economy of each country has the freezing of trade relation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Journal Anales Venezolanos de Nutrición was analyzed through a set of bibliometric indicators. The sample included 271 originals from articles published between 1988 and December 2008. A descriptive-retrospective methodology was applied for this research, where quantitative and qualitative indicators (categories and statistical accessibility) of the years 1992-1993, 1998-1999, and 2004-2005 were simultaneously analyzed. This research showed that 99 researchers published only one research in the studied journal. The mean number of authors was 2.9±1.8, suggesting that the productivity of published articles must increase. The most productive authors, such as José María Bengoa and José Rafael Lovera, among others, reflect 9.6% of publications. The evolution of the productivity over time according to year and number of articles is on average 12.9±7.1. The prevailing language in the journal is Spanish. The Universidad Central de Venezuela and the Universidad Simón Bolívar were the most productive institutions with 31.4% and 15.0%, respectively by number of published articles. The most productive theme areas accumulated 69.7%. Venezuela contributed with 96.7% of published articles. Women showed a high level of productivity with 70.1% with respect to that of men with 29.9%. A high percentage of papers (63.4%) did not use complex statistical procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to propose conceptual elements for discussion about the implementation of social policies under the current administration of the President Hugo Chávez Frías in Venezuela. Through the use of concepts from political science and sociology of law, together with the definition of paradigms as an analytical category, it addresses the current social policies as the result of an institutional crisis, which necessarily requires the implementation of a new paradigm, with the consequences that this process entails for the country's institutions. Since the reform which social rights are conceived in the 1999 Constitution sets out some of the dilemmas that will be needed to meet the full establishment of an institutional social policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seagrass beds are considered important feeding places for a variety of fish species characterized with complex trophic interactions. In this paper we described the trophic network of a fish community inhabiting a seagrass bed in the Venezuelan Caribbean. In addition, a consumption index (CI) for each prey ingested is proposed using two variables: abundance and consumption frequency. Eight samplings (at four time intervals: 6:00, 12:00, 18:00 and 24:00 hours) were done in August 2005 and January 2006. Fifty one fish species in 29 families were captured; Haemulidae was the most abundant. Crustacea was the most important food resource of the 28 food items identified. The relative importance of trophic guilds, considering abundance and taxonomic species richness, was: benthophagous>herbivorous>piscivorous. The features of the trophic network were: 1) high proportion of short chains (two links), 2) high number of intermediate species, 3) high consumption of benthos, 4) low CI values and 5) few species with a high number of linkages. Temporal (hourly and monthly) differences were obtained in fish species number (total, intermediate and top), total linkages, connectivity and maximal chain lengths. The connectance did not show significant temporal variation and it was similar to other environments with different species richness. In contrast, the connectivity was lower than the one reported for environments with low species richness. As in other reports, the temporal variation of the trophic parameters and the community structure was different. The values of CI for the different preys were low except for harpacticoid copepods and crustacean larvaes. The cluster value of CI was high for benthos (>80 %) and, in general, low for plankton and nekton preys. The seagrass bed studied was an important feeding place where the configuration of trophic network changed in different temporal scales and reflected the dynamic of the feeding relationships this fish community. Rev. Biol. Trop. 57 (4): 963-975. Epub 2009 December 01. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Venezuelan social policy against poverty and social exclusion, whose core is the so-called "social missions", by exploring the case of the "Barrio Adentro" mission (the main one). The case study is carried out based on a qualitative methodology in communities of Zulia, an oil-producing state-region of vital strategic importance (economically and politically) for the country and whose capital is Maracaibo, the city with the second highest population density. While the findings are not extended to the rest of the nation, both because they do not include communities in other states and due to the nature of qualitative research (which explores social phenomena in depth, but is not generalizable), they are considered indicative of some important trends. This is significant given the lack of diagnoses and assessments regarding social missions and in particular of "Barrio Adentro" (a preventive health care program), especially on the specific topic studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]