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This article explores how the Mexican state gathered, archived and destroyed information. It focuses on the US–Mexico campaign against foot-and-mouth disease between 1947 and 1952, whose paper archive Mexican officials burned near the successful conclusion of the campaign. This article argues that several factors shaped the context for this documentary bonfire and made the 1940s a key point of inflection in Mexico's history of official information-gathering: the dominant party's system of elite power-sharing, the growth of a reading public and the regime's drift rightward. At the same time, the nature of the foot-and-mouth disease campaign itself ensured that, despite its possible uses, the archive was particularly sensitive, providing evidence of the embarrassing gaps that began to yawn between the state's language of revolutionary nationalism and its political practise. Indeed, the bonfire represented the culmination of practises Mexican officials had already developed throughout the campaign to reconcile the demands of legibility and deniability, hemispheric integration and nationalism, political stability and state capacity. More broadly, the case illustrates the uneven effects of US assistance on the development of state capacity, the authoritarian but institutionally weak character of the early PRIísta state, and the role of archives in maintaining a coherent image of state sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes a series of extralegal procedures implemented by Guatemalans to acquire Mexican personal identification documents. The research focuses on the experiences of descendants of families who took refuge in Mexico during the 1980s and 1990s and returned to Guatemala between 1994 and 1996. These young people, born in Guatemala after their parents returned to their country of origin, employed the practice of buying Mexican birth certificates which were later used to enter Mexico legally. The fieldwork was carried out in two Guatemalan villages, as well as two Mexican ones, located in Cancun and Playa del Carmen. The main argument is that for them Mexican identification documents become a singular force that confers recognition and offers them the possibility to be incorporated into governmental logic which grants material benefits. Such forms of political imagination are related to the experiences of multiple documentation accumulated by older generations during their refuge period and are now encouraged by the Mexican State's new border security strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revises the paradigm shift in the educational policy of the New Mexican School (in Spanish, Nueva Escuela Mexicana or NEM ), whose intention is to reverse the neoliberal orientation that prevailed since the end of the last century until the previous federal government. For this purpose, the paper explores the elements of the pedagogies from the Southern part of the continent as a theoretical and ideological referent of the new approach to education in Mexico. Subsequently, it addresses three substantial lines of the NEM : the revalorization of teachers through the Unit of the System for the Career of Teachers, the National Commission for the Continuous Improvement of Education, and the implementation of the 2022 Study plans and programs for basic education. It can be concluded that there have been many challenges for the outgoing government that must be addressed by the new one, but it is complicated to modify in a short period a change of such dimension, in addition to the fact that we don't have until now a comprehensive evaluation system to measure its achievements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractIn this paper, I analyse the intersection of settler colonialism, racial capitalism and border violence by examining Cabecitas Blancas a project run by the Yucatecan government to reunite families divided by the US-Mexican border. A unique program in Mexico, Cabecitas Blancas helps elders who have not seen their children living in the United States for at least 10 years, due to their children’s precarious immigration status, reunite for a short period of time. I have developed the term tramitología to show the way the settler colonial state monitors and restrict Indigenous mobility by designating who is “worthy” of government support. I demonstrate how the flow of mostly Maya elders via Cabecitas Blancas between borders is facilitated only because they become state commodities that sustain racial capitalism via tourism and multicultural policies. Ultimately, I argue that reform programs such as Cabecitas Blancas enable and (re)produce exploitation, settler colonialism and border violence. This paper draws on semi-structured interviews with government officials as well as YouTube videos and online news articles depicting different stages of the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Societal Impact Statement: Political interests and power structures shape state‐led crop conservation and food policy. As a crop that relates to culture and belonging, the chile crop is ideal for exploring how food security policy and crop conservation schemes integrate aspects beyond staple crops, calories and/or electoral incentives. What do these schemes mean for the food and ingredients we love? Reflecting from this perspective can be useful to grasp, re‐frame and create more effective and inclusive food policies—ones that embody and valorise flavour, identities and territories beyond statements on paper. Summary: In line with the Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) international action plan for crop genetic resources, the Mexican state inaugurated the National System of Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (SINAREFI) in 2002. In this paper, I explore SINAREFI's interest in landraces and in situ conservation through the case of chile pepper, set under the Ministry of Agriculture's interests of promoting industrial agriculture and paternalistic food security welfare programmes.Through the analyses of existing literature on food security in Mexico state programmes, archival work and interviews, this article analyses how discourses on food security shape research trajectories, some of which are inevitably constrained by current market‐based agricultural systems.By exploring the state's chile research and conservation programme, this work demonstrates the complexity of international food security discourse and its application domestically. Particularly, this analysis highlights the limitations of state crop research and conservation efforts imposed by contradictory agricultural policies. In the case of chile, its link to Mexican culture and diet uncovers an important, but often overlooked, aspect of food security: flavour.In the case of chile, a non‐staple but culturally symbolic crop, welfare programmes remained paternalistic and focused on caloric intake despite the transformation of national discourse on food security towards the integration of landraces and local cultures through the inauguration of SINAREFI. This case study reflects on the limits of current framings and strategies regarding food security and the need to direct policies towards local food sovereignty to achieve the necessary stability for food security to endure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Global polio eradication efforts rely in part on molecular methods of detecting polioviruses, both wild and vaccine strains, from human and environmental samples. Previous assays used for detection of Sabin oral polio vaccine (OPV) in fecal samples have been labor and time intensive and vary in their sensitivity and specificity. Methods We developed a high-throughput, multiplex reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay able to detect all 3 OPV strains in fecal samples. The assay used a KingFisher Duo Prime system for viral RNA isolation and extraction. Positive samples were retested and Sanger sequenced for verification of Sabin serotype identity. Results The 95% lower limit of detection was determined to be 3 copies per reaction for Sabin 1 and 3 and 4 copies per reaction for Sabin 2, with no cross-reactivity between the 3 serotypes and their primers. A total of 554 samples (3.6%) were positive, with 304 positive samples (54.9%) containing >1 serotype. Of the positive samples, 476 (85.9%) contained enough RNA to be sequenced, and of these all sequences were Sabin serotypes. The previous assay we used could process 48 samples in a 10-hour period, whereas the new assay processed >100 samples in 6 hours. Conclusions The new high-throughput, multiplex reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay allowed for sensitive and specific detection of OPV serotypes while greatly decreasing sample handling and processing time. We were able to sequence 72.4% of the 210 positive samples in the cycle threshold range of 35–37. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background We aimed to elucidate household and community-level shedding and transmission of trivalent oral polio vaccine (tOPV) in communities with inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) routine immunization after tOPV is administered during a national health week (NHW). Methods We conducted a 3-arm, randomized trial with data collected at baseline through 10 weeks post-NHW in households with at least 1 child <5 years old in 3 semi-rural communities in Orizaba, Mexico. Selected communities were geographically isolated but socio-demographically similar. Each community was assigned an oral polio vaccine (OPV) immunization rate: 10, 30, or 70% of participating households. From 2653 households in the 3 communities, ~150 households per community were selected, for 466 in total. Households were randomized as vaccinated or unvaccinated, with only 1 child under 5 in the vaccinated household receiving OPV during the February 2015 NHW. No other community members received OPV during this NHW. Stool samples were collected up to 10 weeks post-vaccination for all members of the 466 study households and were analyzed for the presence of OPV serotypes using a multiplex polymerase chain reaction assay. Results We will report on the factors associated with, and incidence and duration of, household and community shedding and transmission of OPV. The secondary outcomes will characterize temporal and geospatial OPV serotype shedding patterns. Conclusions The current global polio eradication plan relies on transitioning away from OPV to IPV. This study contributes to understanding patterns of OPV shedding and transmission dynamics in communities with primary IPV immunity, in order to optimize the reduction of OPV transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a critical reflection on the ways extractive industries manifest within and across place. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Mexico over 8 months in 2019–2020, this paper focuses on the experiences of residents living in a town adjacent to an underground silver mine in Valles Centrales, Oaxaca, Mexico. I argue that a focus on lived, sensory and long-term engagement between people and mining opens new avenues for geographers to consider 'what mining does'. Looking beyond the language of 'impacts', I build upon work on cultural geographies of presence and absence to put forward the notion of 'mining presence': mining's present and absent affects and materialities that interweave with residents' everyday lives, homes, bodies, and landscapes. In other words, I explore the qualities of mining that bring the San José mine into a neighbouring town and mediate spaces of daily life. In doing so, this paper contributes to the geographies of the extractive industries by showing that attention to life with mining requires a re-thinking of the spatiotemporal relations of extraction itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the social production of space in Atenquique, an industrial town in the southern region of Jalisco in western Mexico. The theoretical framework draws on insights from critical geography. Through the case of Atenquique we reflect on the transformation of the area from the beginning of the neoliberal period in Mexico. Neoliberalism ushered in the growth of precarious and insecure working conditions, something which has deepened over the past several decades. The methodology employed is based on ethnographic research undertaken over a period of four months in Atenquique. During this time period we used three different audiovisual methods to collect information: photography, oral history and the production of an ethnographic documentary film. The results of the study show how the ex-inhabitants of Atenquique have knit together complex constructions -both material and symbolic- that provide insight on how the changes of the past several decades have affected the area. In the conclusions, we return to the broader debates on the local and territorial consequences of the implementation of the neoliberal policies in Mexico [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the social production of space in Atenquique, an industrial town in the southern region of Jalisco in western Mexico. The theoretical framework draws on insights from critical geography. Through the case of Atenquique we reflect on the transformation of the area from the beginning of the neoliberal period in Mexico. Neoliberalism ushered in the growth of precarious and insecure working conditions, something which has deepened over the past several decades. The methodology employed is based on ethnographic research undertaken over a period of four months in Atenquique. During this time period we used three different audiovisual methods to collect information: photography, oral history and the production of an ethnographic documentary film. The results of the study show how the ex-inhabitants of Atenquique have knit together complex constructions -both material and symbolic-that provide insight on how the changes of the past several decades have affected the area. In the conclusions, we return to the broader debates on the local and territorial consequences of the implementation of the neoliberal policies in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an analysis of the policies on higher education in the six-year term 2018-2024, self-denominated as the Fourth Transformation, and outlines an agenda of possible reforms to be developed in the 2024-2030 government of Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum. During the period, the approval of the General Law of Higher Education stands out, but non-compliance with the goals and objectives defined therein is observed; the lack of public policies in a formal sense and the dismantling of the policy instruments developed during 30 years are also highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a review of the most outstanding policies for the upper secondary level of the 2018-2024 six-year term, as well as a glimpse of some of the priority challenges, not only for the governmental period that begins at the end of 2024 but especially with a medium and even long-term vision. The challenge of assessing the situation is an attempt to contribute to the forthcoming discussions and, in doing so, to answer the questions of which policies were most relevant for the upper secondary level during the six-year term, what were the results, and which are the challenges for the future. The analysis we developed is in terms of social justice, which is significant to underpin a vision that we believe is necessary for the times we live in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the role of families facing the disruption caused by the shutdown of school facilities due to the health crisis caused by the SARS - C o V -2 virus, based on the premise that the reflection of conflicts and the debate about how to deal with them allows us to attain and build institutional learning. It shares the findings of the research “Reception, experiences and practice of the 'Learn at Home strategy' during the emergency of COVID -19. A study from heterogeneity”, whose purpose was to describe the actions carried out in adapting schools to teaching in an emergency, from the point of view of the actors and intended to build knowledge from the analysis of this crisis, thinking about its implications and acknowledging potential learnings for the daily life of the schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early childhood education is a field of educational policy that has been little ad- dressed despite the scientific evidence about the importance of child development in the early years for achieving academic excellence in later stages of life; the issue of improving the quality of the services and interactions provided by caregivers of infants, toddlers, and young children has also been overlooked. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the policies for professionalizing early childhood education teachers. The review of the regulatory framework and the strategic programs of the 2018-2024 six-year term is taken as the axis to analyze the main challenges for the professionalization of teachers at this educational level for the 2024-2030 term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on ethnographical and collaborative research conducted in the South Mexican region of The Lacandon Jungle, my paper explores how Indigenous peasant communities deal with the effects that various forms of mobility have on their social worlds. Combining decolonial work on Indigenous communality and transnational perspectives with a situational analysis approach, my research specifically focuses on collective processes of meaning-making in light of the increasing mobility among these communities' members. By analyzing how the people who stay collectively organize the community's social world, I position myself against approaches that reduce Indigenous movements to cultural policies, since such approaches overlook the relevance of anti-colonial resistance. My research shows that within the 'Indigenous communal governance systems', the departure of individual members plays a formative role for the entire community, shaping the resulting social relations and political practices. To ensure collective access to territory as a means of communal self-determination, a 'transnational continuum of communality' emerges between the communities of origin and their absent members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers the first approach to the evolution of the structure and the participants in the remittances market of the United States-Mexico corridor. We identify three different layers in the structure and specify the agents that involve clients, remittance providers, and correspondent banks from 1980 to 2020. We show the structural limitations of the market and suggest how the digital economy and financial technology (fintech) could help to reduce the average cost of cross-border payments. The potential benefits from fintech to the remittances market are espe cially relevant for Mexico since it has a high proportion of unbanked population. Furthermore, the reduction to 3% of the remittance fees has been defined as one of the United Nations' 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. A better and deeper understanding of the characteristics of this market could help to achieve this goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taxes play an essential role in financing development policies and correcting income inequalities. In this paper, we study the reasons behind the support among the Mexican population for increasing or introducing new taxes, under two different progressivity schemes. Through a face-to-face survey representative of Mexican metropolitan areas, we find that there is substantial support for increasing taxes for high-income groups and corporations. The introduction of new taxes for these groups has a mean support of 47.6% (in comparison with 19.5% for those without a threshold). Increasing taxes for these groups, on the other hand, has a mean support of 31.9% (in comparison with 7% for the taxes paid by the general population). This desire is mediated by the perception that high-income groups do not fulfill their tax obligations. We also find that factors traditionally related to equity and equality of opportunities are less relevant, which suggests that this support could be driven by the desire to equalize outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to identify the main challenges and opportunities for the training of public health professionals to strengthen the public health system and implement a new health care model in Mexico. This article describes how the reform of the public health system in Mexico poses challenges and opportunities for the training of health professionals. The use of new approaches in public health education is discussed, using as an example the implementation of a competencybased constructivist approach at the School of Public Health of Mexico/National Institute of Public Health (ESPM/INSP, in Spanish). The implementation of a new public health system in Mexico requires essential and specific competencies among the health professionals. The development of innovative models in education will allow progress in the training of public health professionals. To obtain the necessary skills for the implementation of this new model, it will be necessary to increase the relationship between research and teaching, use trans and multidisciplinary approaches, seeking a greater emphasis on practice and a reduction in schooling in educational programs. It will also be important to consider the development of cross-sectional competencies, ethical and gender aspects and an evaluation of these new educational models to strengthen future activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medicines are an essential element for all health systems. This makes them an indispensable social good of quality and effectiveness for health problems. From a public health perspective, it is important to have health regulations as a fundamental instrument of health protection. This paper aims to characterize the role of health regulation of medicines from four historical, political and socioeconomic determinants of Mexico, and present the strategies implemented by Comisión Federal para la Protección contra Riesgos Sanitarios (Cofepris, in Spanish) to close gaps in universal access to medicines. Discussion. In the 21st century, the constant increase of population without access to health care entails a great challenge for the State to reduce gaps between supply and demand and to focus such policies on the functions of regulating, providing and reporting. For Mexico, the last two centuries have reflected a national drug policy model that permeated a health regulation that prioritizes efficiency, quality, and pre-market with little attention to universal access to medicines and other health supplies. Faced with this, the current administration of the Cofepris promotes a paradigm shift, orienting its action strategies to regulatory optimization and reduction of asymmetry of direct information to the population which also takes into account access to health supplies. Conclusions. In the Region of the Americas, the actions of National Regulatory Agencies such as Cofepris are crucial for the solidification of a public policy model focused not only on the efficacy and quality of medicines, but also regulatory optimization that supports the objectives and goals of universal access to essential medicines and other health supplies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past century, Mexico has tightly managed its heritage resources to emphasise the achievements of Prehispanic civilisations which contribute to national patrimony. Public interest in these great civilisations has fuelled an impressive national archaeological programme that has resulted in cutting-edge research and sometimes helped elevate the status and visibility of living indigenous communities. However, nationalist narratives of the past tend to be somewhat monolithic, and in the case of Mexico, they have emphasised hierarchical, exploitative states with powerful, urban capitals. The social value of Aztec identity and icons has become so potent that even in places with unique archaeological signatures and their own exceptional histories, local heritages are often intertwined with the Aztec narratives. This paper analyses two modern monuments in the small central Mexican town of Xaltocan, reflecting on long-term and recent developments in the region that have influenced the perceived social and political values of narratives of the past and the identities connected to them. Based on these analyses and drawing on interview responses from current residents, I argue that the monuments are important testaments to the complex ways that locals conceptualise and strategically articulate their heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dido is a common feature of early modern imitations of the Aeneid , but there is no Dido figure in extant Latin epics from the Americas. This paper argues that this lacuna is a form of colonial loss and traces her absence from these Latin texts to her elimination from Jesuit curriculum and Jesuit textbooks in the Americas. These pedagogical texts shaped the composition of Latin epic by Jesuit students. Through this case study, I suggest that Latin from the Americas provides an opportunity for classicists to contribute to the interdisciplinary study of colonial loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to analyze the scope and importance of the cooperation dynamics of Latin America's two largest economies, it is essential to observe their respective roles in the global scenario. To this end, it will be shown that under specific contexts there are nations that, despite their similarities, achieve a limited scope of cooperation. This paper will address the possible theoretical bases under the paradigms of realism, idealism and constructivism in order to understand the dynamics of the relationship between Mexico and Brazil, from its beginnings and consolidation as nations, analyze their convergences and contemporary challenges of trade balance and investments to end with the most relevant pending issues for both nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Top-down approaches often fail to involve, collaborate with, and consider social actors in the process of planning, design, and maintenance of public spaces (PDMPS). This research addresses how social participation is included in PDMPS in the Mexican case, by identifying the actors, the level of communication achieved, and their authority and power in the PDMPS process. The paper employs a case study approach, informed by semi-structured interviews. We use a democracy diagram to uncover the diversity of involved actors and how they are involved in the process. We show how government could provide support for social participation to implement participatory processes in PDMPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What does it mean to come together as a group of migrant women, to paint the face of a murdered woman, on the wall of a building in a town that was only temporarily her home? And, who does it have meaning for? In this paper, I interrogate this act as a participant in Las RestaurAmoras, the feminist collective responsible for painting murals of victims of feminicide in Quintana Roo, Mexico, in 2021. I argue that the physical and emotional conditions involved in painting the murals caused members of Las RestaurAmoras to forge a deeper connection with each other and the deceased women they painted. This emphasised sameness and belonging between migrant women, both living and deceased. As finished artefacts, I suggest that, as memorialisation, the murals challenge harmful discourse and practice that invisibilises migrant women's lives and the violence they experience. The murals are a reminder and a demand that femicidal violence must be dealt with urgently. I argue that connection among (migrant) women and emphasising the importance of the lives of (migrant) victims of feminicide are key elements in protection for women in places with high rates of gender-based violence and impunity, in this case, Quintana Roo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women in Mexico are subject to unusually high and traumatic levels of violence. This paper reviews a workshop process done in Mexico City that addressed the problem of violence against women using the Anticipatory Experimentation methodology. Based on a workshop at Centro University in Mexico City on the eve of historic protests against violence against women, the paper provides an overview of contemporary challenges, historical changes, as well as deep mythological images and assumptions within Mexican society that are pathways to reconceptualization. Leveraging emerging issues and recovered narratives to address and reframe the problem, the paper concludes with the metaphor of the Chamana as the narrative seed from which new ideas and experiments might be developed to address violence against women in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on Critical Political Economy (CPE) to explore energy transitions in Mexico. It analyzes struggles over competing energy visions from a decolonial, spatial and post-development perspective. The article frames energy transformations as more than a move away from fossil fuels: They encompass a radical overhaul of universalized Eurocentric capitalist modernity that call the state's role as both facilitator and driver of the energy transition into question. I examine two low-carbon infrastructure projects in the state of Yucatan, Mexico to build on Bridge and Gailing's notion of new energy spaces as the sites, scales and spatialities through which broader questions of political economy and contemporary struggles are being worked out. CPE of the energy transition must ensure that low-carbon infrastructures are not deployed as new forms of extraction, but rather as the material basis of pluriversal transitions informed by affected communities and their territorial struggles. Both studies on the political economy of energy transitions and territorial struggles can benefit from an open dialogue about how socioecological transformations are imagined, designed and implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human oral cavity is normally colonized by microorganisms including bacteria, fungi, archaea, viruses and protozoa. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of Candida spp., in de oral cavity in a group of medical students from the north of Mexico. Oral sample were obtained from 240 healthy students. The specimens were analyzed by traditional microbiology cultures and DNA sequencing. Candida spp., grew in Sabouraud dextrose agar from 57 samples and subsequently were isolated and phenotyped. The definitive identification to the species level was done by sequence analysis. The yeasts were identified as follow: 28 Clavispora lusitaniae, 20 Candida albicans, 5 Pichia kudriavzevii and 4 Candida parapsilosis. Our findings revealed that 23.75% of the healthy population has a potential pathogen in their mouth. Surprisingly, C. albicans is not the predominant yeast; instead other non-Candida species are the colonizers of the oral cavity as normal microbiota. C. lusitaniae is considered an emerging opportunistic pathogen in immunosuppressive patients. This paper pretends to highlight the presence of this yeast in the oral cavity in immunocompetent young adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Market-oriented urban development has reconfigured social life in Mexican metropolises in recent decades. The Atlixcáyotl-Lomas de Angelópolis corridor in Puebla illustrates how neoliberal policies stimulate the commodification of urban space, as the current physical, economic, and social arrangements in this corridor result from a state-led planning strategy that has mainly benefited private actors. The extended urban corridor—approximately eight miles long—in the southwest area of the metropolis was enabled by an ambitious regional plan in the 1990s that created a new crucial centrality known as Angelópolis developed over a land reserve of approximately 1,000 ha of expropriated agrarian social land (ejidos). The paper explores the role and impact of urban policies supposedly created for “public interest” to encourage the provision of affordable housing, green areas, public infrastructure, and social facilities, which, in contrast, have fostered elite residential horizontal and private developments, financial capital investments, and private facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demand for different energy goods and services is a fundamental component in a country's economic structure for development. Understanding it is vital in designing economic policies, such as taxes, that can improve the welfare of the population. A comprehension of the distributional effects of elasticities and the application of them to simulate household responses to price changes, as well as a calculation of the welfare impacts on poor and rich households in Mexico, should inform policy design. This paper uses the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (ENIGH) from 1996 to 2018 to estimate the demand of Mexican households for fuels, specifically electricity, liquefied petroleum gas, and gasoline. A Quasi Ideal Quadratic Demand System (QUAIDS) is employed to analyse the effects of removing energy subsidies and introducing a carbon tax. The results indicate that welfare losses would be regressive concerning electricity price increases, while changes in gasoline prices would be progressive. Redistributing the tax revenues accrued by removing energy subsidies and imposing the carbon tax would have more progressive effects on the economy of Mexican households, with welfare gains of up to 350% for the poorest households in the case of electricity consumption taxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging from in-depth research on mobility and displacement in relation to gender and sexual diversity on the Mexico-Guatemala border, this paper reflects on the complexities of lived, queer mobility over space and time as told by Andrea, a 27-year-old Salvadoran trans woman. Her narrative – told to the reader through video – provides a rich account of her affective journeys and the forces behind them, which go beyond movement as migration. The work is part of an improvised mobile, longitudinal ethnography which evolved as a way of exploring the small and large-scale realities of mobility as lived over time. The discussion engages with Andrea’s mobility as non-linear, multi-scalar, spatially and sensorially significant, and emotionally ambiguous. It invites reflection about the powerfully productive and damaging edges of precarious queer mobility, and points to the radical potential of an affective engagement with queer narratives. The queerness of mobility and survival exists not only as an abstract or symbolic edginess, but rather in, and as, constant frictions produced by the struggle for a life worth living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to simulate total factor productivity, following the original proposal made by Cobb and Douglas (1928). Estimates with annual frequency are computed for the United States during two periods, i.e. 1899-1992 and 1933-2019. In the case of Mexico, estimates are computed for the 1993-2015 period. An income distribution in favor of capital in recent decades is found both for the United States and México. Capital share has grown in the United States from 25% in 1899-1922 to 89% in 1993-2019, while for Mexico it has been 82% for 1993-2015. Functional income distribution requires close monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes how the working conditions for Mexican anthropologists have deteriorated throughout the last few decades. Until half a century ago, only a few dozen professional anthropologists practiced in Mexico, and most of them had access to stable, well-paid jobs in academia or government agencies. Today there are over 7000 of them working in a wide range of fields, mostly in temporary jobs with low salaries. Drawing from the data gathered in the Historical Catalogue of Theses on Social Anthropology in Mexico (RedMIFA 2018) and the Survey on Professional Practice and Working Conditions of Anthropologists in Mexico (CIEPA-CEAS 2016), this paper begins by outlining the decline of working conditions for Mexican anthropologists, focusing primarily on the younger generations. An analysis follows of the main factors that have contributed to the current situation, and the article closes with a brief commentary on the effects of precarious working conditions for the production of anthropological knowledge. The implications here are paradoxical: on the one hand, most professionals currently work in fields other than academia, thereby diversifying anthropological practice, and on the other there is a marked tendency towards the academization of professional anthropological education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of the scientific production and research in Viticulture and Enology on papers referring to Mexico was performed, published between 2000 and 2022, and indexed in Scopus, Google Scholar, and CONRICyT databases. The following indicators were considered: quartile, H-index, productivity by year, journal, author, and the number of citations. Seventy-nine articles were identified that include many subtopics in the area, such as phytopathology, plant nutrition, climate, quality, and physicochemical and sensory properties of grapes and wine. This analysis demonstrates the necessity of promoting scientific research on priority topics in the different wine regions to take advantage of the diversity of opportunities and challenges in Mexican viticulture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article has the objective to compare poverty rates of elderly people between 2018 and 2020, after the universalization of the non-contributory pension during the 2018-2024 presidential period in Mexico, in order to know if there is a change on elderly people's poverty rates. Also, the article aims to know if this policy change has a regressive impact in the whole pension system distribution. The paper uses as a reference for the analysis the International Labour Organization (ILO) guidelines. It compares poverty of different social groups of elderly people in 2018 and 2020 using the National Survey of Households Income and Expenditure. The paper concludes that elderly people's poverty situation is better in 2020. However, there is an increase on inequality in pensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Perinatal depression (PND) is a clinical disease developed in any stage during the pregnancy and postpartum period with serious health and economic implications. Objective. The aim of this work was to analyze via bibliometrics indicators Mexico's production on PND to provide a view of the academic landscape and a comprehensive reference for subsequent research in the country. Method. The Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases were used to perform a search for peer reviewed papers related to PND in México. The search was made following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). The extracted data were processed with VOS Viewer to examine link strength and clusters associations of diverse bibliometrics variables. Results. A total of 132 records were retrieved and we included 70 studies in the bibliometric analysis after application of the exclusion criteria. The authors with more papers were Navarrete L., and Asunción Lara M. The institutions with more papers were the National Institute of Perinatology, Ramón de la Fuente National Institute of Psychiatry, and National Institute of Public Health of Mexico. A diminution of the research considered in PND is observed in the last two years. Four keyword clusters were identified related to PND: symptoms, prevalence, pregnancy. Discussion and conclusion. The scarce literature concerning PND in Mexico compared with other countries could be due the limited collaboration between the health institutes. An urgent need to increase research on PND in Mexico is evident to be applicable in the management of resources in the healthcare system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought monitoring and early detection have improved greatly in recent decades through the development and refinement of numerous indices and indicators. However, a lack of guidance, based on user experience, exists as to which drought-monitoring tools are most appropriate in a given location. This review paper summarizes the results of targeted user engagement and the published literature to improve the understanding of drought across North America and to enhance the utility of drought-monitoring tools. Workshops and surveys were used to assess and make general conclusions about the perceived performance of drought indicators, indices and impact information used for monitoring drought in the five main Köppen climate types (Tropical, Temperate, Continental, Polar Tundra, Dry) found across Canada, Mexico, and the United States. In Tropical, humid Temperate, and southerly Continental climates, droughts are perceived to be more short-term (less than 6 months) in duration rather than long-term (more than 6 months). In Polar Tundra climates, Dry climates, Temperate climates with dry warm seasons, and northerly Continental climates, droughts are perceived to be more long-term than short-term. In general, agricultural and hydrological droughts were considered to be the most important drought types. Drought impacts related to agriculture, water supply, ecosystem, and human health were rated to be of greatest importance. Users identified the most effective indices and indicators for monitoring drought across North America to be the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) (or another measure of precipitation anomaly), followed by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) (or another satellite-observed vegetation index), temperature anomalies, crop status, soil moisture, streamflow, reservoir storage, water use (demand), and reported drought impacts. Users also noted the importance of indices that measure evapotranspiration, evaporative demand, and snow water content. Drought indices and indicators were generally thought to perform equally well across seasons in Tropical and colder Continental climates, but their performance was perceived to vary seasonally in Dry, Temperate, Polar Tundra, and warmer Continental climates, with improved performance during warm and wet times of the year. The drought indices and indicators, in general, were not perceived to perform equally well across geographies. This review paper provides guidance on when (time of year) and where (climate zone) the more popular drought indices and indicators should be used. The paper concludes by noting the importance of understanding how drought, its impacts, and its indicators are changing over time as the climate warms and by recommending ways to strengthen the use of indices and indicators in drought decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive state-of-the-art analysis and mathematical modeling of the National Program for Smart Cities (PRONACES) initiatives in Mexico's journey towards smart city development. The focus is on examining how PRONACES integrates technological innovation with urban planning and sustainability, leveraging mathematical models to optimize and predict the outcomes of various smart city initiatives. The methodology includes a review of current literature to establish the state of the art, followed by the development and application of mathematical models to assess and forecast the effectiveness of PRONACES strategies. These models are based on a variety of parameters including urban growth, technology adoption, resource allocation, and environmental impact. Key findings demonstrate the significant role of PRONACES in transforming urban landscapes in Mexico. The mathematical models provide valuable predictions and insights into the potential outcomes of various smart city strategies, indicating pathways for efficient resource management, infrastructure development, and sustainable urban growth. The paper concludes with an emphasis on the importance of mathematical modeling in planning and implementing smart city initiatives. The challenges and opportunities presented by Mexico’s unique urban landscape are discussed, along with recommendations for future research and policy-making in the field of smart urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most research on equestrian sports, including horseracing, has been developed in contexts in the Global North. This has led to a narrow perspective of what horseracing is and means in different historical and sociocultural contexts. This paper extends this reach through considering informal horseracing events in Mexico. Based on understanding gender as a 'doing' rather than a 'being', and as an integral part of all social practices and identities, the races are examined as leisure events that function as sites through which masculinities are performed and (re)produced. Drawing on an ethnographic study, the horseracing events are identified as spaces in which male-male interactions provide opportunity for men to perform culturally hegemonic norms of masculinity, against a backdrop of shifting economic and social practices that are affecting wider gender relations in Mexico. Although women also have a presence in horseracing, they play a marginal role within the events which celebrate and foreground male homosociality. Masculinities are performed and validated predominantly through male-male interactions and expressions of male dominance over the horses. This paper thus illustrates the importance of gender to understanding different leisure practices and the significance of social and cultural context to examining leisure generally and equestrian sports specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had social and clinical effects over the healthcare system. Globally, over 314.019.135 confirmed cases and 5.507.370 deaths have been recorded at 12 January 2022, based on the Dashboard updated by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. The continuous rise in the number of asymptomatic, pre-symptomatic, and symptomatic patients has developed efficient and accessible models for prediction using Open Source Libraries and Cloud Services. This paper proposes different machine-learning algorithms to analyse the COVID-19 OpenData Resources from Mexico and Brazil, which represent the two major populations, economics and affected by disease countries in Latin America. This model uses only the COVID-19 patient's geographical, social conditions, economics conditions, clinical risk factors, symptom reports, and demographic data to predict recovery and death. The model of Mexico has an accuracy of 93% and the perceived mean of recall and the precision (F1 Score) of 0.79 on the dataset used. On the other hand, the model of Brazil has an accuracy of 69% and F1 score of 0.75 on the dataset studied. The result considers data from patients under the age of 0 and 120 years. The contribution of the work is the application of Big Data technologies and Machine Learning algorithms using Open Resource Libraries and Amazon Web Services (AWS) with the vision to improve the clinical diagnosis, even infectious disease with mathematical approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assisted self-help housing is a process whereby people are actively involved in the decision-making of their homes' consolidation, receiving tools to better manage resources in building them. While such support is embedded within urban and regional systems, evolving forms of state intervention have received little attention in the literature. In this article, we focus on federal assisted self-help housing programmes in Mexico, where this approach became formalised by the early 2000s. Recent governments positioned assisted self-help housing – at least on paper – as key for Mexico's housing agenda. What we term Mexico's housing governability system has continuously evolved, yet its capacity to address housing needs is challenged. We show that policy and institutional change in Mexico reflect a continuing pathway over several decades to include assisted self-help policies in the housing governability system. We highlight the nonlinear nature of policy development and the paradoxes of formalising flexible selfhelp approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of the conservatives in Mexico, and their main characters, is long-standing. In Mexican history, some of the conservative movements have been present in religious thinking, especially in Catholicism, e.g., the quick departure from socio-cultural and political Mexican spaces as a consequence of the evangelical Spanish process, whose roots come from the XVI century Of the population in contemporary Mexico (7.7% belong to Catholicism, 2.5% to Evangelical Christians and Protestants, and 2.5% to non-Christian groups, while 8.1% do not follow a religion. Catholicism has a significant presence and influence on different forms of belief and practice in daily life in Mexico. This paper aims to highlight the role of the conservative movement called Frente Nacional por la Familia. It presents its history as the heritage of other conservative movements in Mexico, the stages of its formation, and the agenda and intervention in public life. The methodological approach is qualitative, using multi-situated ethnography. The results allow us to visualize the construction of the public agenda with legislative strategies that have operated with relative success and national presence, obstructing the progress of the proposals of feminist groups and sexual diversity and the defense of a national and cultural project that has as one of the symbols the traditional family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of empirical research in Latin America reveals a correlation between skin colour and disadvantages in income, health, education, and employment. The impact of skin colour in the political sphere, however, remains severely understudied. Is there any evidence to suggest racialised political underrepresentation in Latin America? To analyse the status of ethno-racial representation in Mexico, this paper uses the Classification Algorithm for Skin Colour (CASCo) to collect skin colour data of the (3,000) members of the last six legislatures of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies. The findings suggest that, while legislatures tend to be relatively diverse, positions of legislative leadership are unproportionally restricted to legislators with light skin colour. This article not only provides much-needed empirical data on the political impact of skin colour in Latin America, but it reveals the sociocultural complexities of the political underrepresentation of racialised groups in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although literature on energy cooperation highlights that cooperation is more successful at the regional level, it largely fails to understand and conceptualize energy cooperation as part of the wider phenomenon of regionalism. Energy cooperation tends to be analyzed through prisms of security and geopolitics, thus, downplaying other important regional integration processes. The present paper addresses this lacuna, defining energy regionalism and conceptualizing its various dimensions, logics, motivations, and interests. We apply a comparative perspective, examining two regions which exhibit extensive energy cooperation yet differ in several ways: North America and the European Energy Community. Our findings suggest various trajectories and models, and indicate that formal institutionalization is neither a necessary condition for nor a guarantee of strong energy regionalism. We discern that regional anchor is key in North American and European energy regionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate whether fertility and newborn health changed during the Covid-19 pandemic in Mexico. We use national administrative data and an event-study design to examine the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on fertility and newborn health characteristics. Our findings suggest that Mexico's fertility declined temporarily as measured by conceptions that likely occurred during the stay-at-home order. Initially, the general fertility rate fell by 11–12 per cent but quickly rebounded and returned close to its original levels by the end of 2021. Newborn health also deteriorated during the pandemic. Instances of low birthweight and prematurity substantially increased, with both remaining elevated over the entire pandemic period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In February 2021, one year after the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic to Mexico, the vaccination so eagerly awaited began. As in many other countries, the first summoned to receive the vaccine were the elderly, because their increased risk of death when contracting this new disease. A group of advanced Medicine students from a public university in Mexico City were involved in the first stage of the vaccination process in an area of southern Mexico City inhabited by low-income population Objective: The purpose of this study was to collect and analyze the experiences lived by four of these students who participated in it. Method: The research was oriented by the theoretical methodological tradition known as Narrative Inquiry, which focuses on the story of lived experiences as a way of representing the human experience deployed in time and space. This strategy delve into the comprehension of the meaning of the events reported for those who experience them in that socio-historical context. The stories analyzed here come from the final social service reports prepared throughout 2021 by the participants, two men and two women. The analysis and interpretation were carried out directly by the author of this paper within the guidelines of the Narrative Inquiry tradition. Results: The stories about the vicissitudes lived by these young future doctors with the older adults they cared for made it possible to highlight some of the anxieties, fears and reactions they faced and some of their effects on the incipient constitution of their professional identity. Final considerations: The stories analyzed nourish the reflection on the personal and professional conflicts experienced on the path that leads to becoming a doctor in a particularly demanding situation and reveal the power of Narrative Inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the conceptions of specialized physicians regarding intersex child surgery, and contrasts them with the experiences of intersex adults. The gap between the views of health personnel—who affirm that they are "doing their best"—and those of intersex persons—who report the adverse consequences of surgery—highlights the need to stop unnecessary normalization surgeries in children. The findings of this study suggest that bridging the gap between the medical perspective and the experience of intersex people requires opening direct channels of communication among all those involved in the clinical process, incorporating intersex individuals into bioethics committees, encouraging contact with the parents of intersex children, implementing regulations that unambiguously delay or prohibit unnecessary interventions, promoting a debate on relevant ethical principles and human rights to protect the interests of all intersex people, and disseminating the contents of such a debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is one of the main threats to biodiversity in the 21st century. However, the effects that it may have on different mammal species are unknown, making it difficult to implement conservation strategies. In this paper, we used species distribution models (SDM) to assess the effect of global climate change on the potential distribution of the 8 of the 9 marsupial species in Mexico, and analyzed their distribution in the current system of natural protected areas (NPAs). We used presence records for each species and bioclimatic variables from the present and the future (2050 and 2080) with 2 contrasting possible scenarios (representative concentration pathways RCP 4.5 and 8.5). We found that Tlacuatzin canescens would have the most stable potential range under any climate change scenario, while the remaining species (Caluromys derbianus, Chironectes minimus, Didelphis marsupialis, D. virginiana, Philander opossum, Marmosa mexicana , and Metachirus nudicaudatus) would undergo notable range losses in the future, though there would not only be losses—according to our SDMs, for all species there would be some range gain under the different climate scenarios, assuming the vegetation cover remained. The current system of NPAs in Mexico currently protects and under the 2 future scenarios would protect less than 20% of the potential range of marsupials, so a reevaluation of their areas beyond the NPAs is highly recommended for the long-term conservation of this group. Our results provide relevant information on the estimated effects of global climate change on marsupials, allowing us to design more effective methodologies for the protection of this portion of the mammalian fauna in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most important centre of diversity and endemism of columnar cacti in Mexico is the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley (Puebla-Oaxaca states). The aims of this paper are (1) to provide a detailed description of the recent pollen morphology of 19 registered species that are found in this valley and (2) to develop a synoptic table to differentiate groups of species. This synoptic table is based on morphological features of pollen grains and the density of structural and sculptural elements observed using light and scanning electron microscopy. All analysed pollen grains were stenopalynous: isopolar monads, large, tricolpate with perforate tectate exine (sexine-nexine ratio 1:1), columellate structure with pattern of columellae distribution and spinulose sculpture. The spinules were always wider than they were tall. Although the 19 species of columnar cacti analysed in this study show highly similar types of pollen grains, we were able to characterise each of them with combined microscopy techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humanitarian and development agencies intervening in Latin American cities increasingly face the challenge posed by criminal armed groups (CAGs). Yet, there is a need for evidence‐based comparative studies on how international agencies deal with them. Drawing on data collected in Colombia, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, and Mexico, this paper presents a novel typology of humanitarian organisations' access strategies that distinguishes between different levels of interaction with CAGs. The paper shows how humanitarian agencies assess a variety of risks and balance the potential consequences of their engagement with CAGs with the need to maintain constructive and trustful relationships with the state and the community with which they work. It finds that indirect dialogue or negotiation with CAGs via community leaders who act as intermediaries might provide a low‐risk alternative to direct negotiation with CAG leaders, provided that 'do no harm' and humanitarian protection considerations vis‐à‐vis communities and intermediaries play a central role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 2010-20, specialty cafés emerged in Mexico that led to a significant change to café work culture. Using protagonists' oral accounts, this article examines the rise of specialty café culture in two Mexican cities (Puebla City and Oaxaca City) and how and why specialty coffeeshop owners and baristas participated in this rise. The article argues that specialty café owners and baristas were crucial actors in the emergence of a specialty café culture in Mexico. Subsequently, specialty cafés offered new working conditions for baristas as well as owners. These conditions created jobs of passion, led to job-satisfaction for these urban workers, and facilitated positive service-work experiences. Overall, this paper exposes how specialty cafés grew, why people decided to participate in this growth and how they interpreted their participation in this experience. Moreover, this paper adds to the history and study of coffee by approaching café culture in a coffee-producing country and by prioritising the focus on café workers instead of agricultural labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]