Search

Introduction: The National Scientific Congress (NSC) is an annual event held in Peru in which medical students from all over the country present their research work. Objectives: To determine the publication rate in indexed scientific journals of research papers submitted to the NSCs held between 2010 and 2014, as well as the factors associated with their publication, and to describe the characteristics of the published papers. Materials and methods: Retrospective study in which 407 abstracts of research papers were reviewed. A publication time window of 6 years (from submission) was considered. A bivariate analysis was performed to assess differences between categorical and numerical variables using the chi-square and Mann-Whitney U tests, respectively. In addition, a multivariate analysis was performed using Poisson regression models (a crude and an adjusted model), calculating relative risk (RR) values with their respective 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) to determine the factors associated with the publication of papers. A significance level of p

This paper investigates factors that motivate entrepreneurs to completely operate within informality and the drivers of formal companies to underreport revenues. In particular, this work identifies and organizes the determinants of firm informality through a systematic literature review in Scopus and Web of Science databases. The article presents several contributions. First, it examines the two main frameworks of informality (structuralist/exclusion and legalistic/exit dimensions) and links this with the different roles of unregistered firms in economic development (survival, De Soto, and parasite views). It also studies the theoretical basis of informality, including economic, institutional, psychological, and sociological aspects. Second, the paper summarizes business informality determinants based on studies with different methodological approaches (macro, microeconomic), contexts (developed, emerging, transition economies), and periods (1983-2018). Our results show that firm informality is mostly addressed in the examined literature as a decision or voluntary choice by companies and entrepreneurs (legalistic vision). Third, the article proposes an integral theoretical model, according to which the firm informality level is determined by structural elements (company and entrepreneur’s characteristics) and environmental factors (corruption, bureaucracy, taxes, etc.). The analysis is relevant for researchers studying this subject and for policymakers as well.

This paper presents the phonological vowel systems of 16 Chibchan languages, according to existing descriptions. Its purpose is to provide a basic and systematic overview of the vowel systems found in this family. For each language, the distinctive features needed to distinguish the vowel phonemes are discussed, as well as their phonetic realizations when this is relevant. Whereas the phoneme classification is uncontroversial for many of the languages, there are also some Chibchan languages that have been subject to very different analyses over the years; in these cases, a more thorough discussion is provided. At the end of the paper, the Chibchan vowel systems are compared from a quantitative perspective.

Kamsá is a language isolate spoken in the Sibundoy Valley in the Putumayo department of southern Colombia. Its speech community lives on the eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains, between the linguistic areas of the Andes and the Amazon. This paper presents various grammatical features of Kamsá, including its phonology, nominal morphology (especially noun class and case marking), verbal morphology (especially person/number marking for core arguments and evidentiality), morphosyntactic alignment, and syntax (including discussion of causatives, comparatives, and subordinate clauses). In doing so, the paper places Kamsá within its typological and geographical context, between the Amazon and the Andes.

Workforce agility has been described as a management strategy that allows companies to respond quickly and effectively to threats and opportunities arising from a competitive and unstable business environment. In the current literature, there is still a lack of efforts to systematically review the state of the art on this subject. The aim of this paper is to address this gap by studying the academic progress on workforce agility. A systematic literature review was carried out to analyze the academic articles within the workforce agility topic that were published online until the end of June 2020 in three electronic databases: Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, and Science Direct. The bibliometric indicators present how the field has developed and which actors (authors, institutions, countries, journals) are the most relevant. Regarding the conceptual aspects, the findings allowed us to identify that an agile workforce consists of four interrelated and interdependent dimensions: proactivity, flexibility and adaptability, resilience, and competence. These attributes can be promoted through strategies related to i) learning and training, ii) forms of work organization, iii) human resource management; and iv) culture and organizational structure. Our findings also allowed us to propose an agenda for future studies on workforce agility and other related topics. This paper contributes by promoting a debate on a subject still incipient in the literature, especially in Latin America, and by highlighting the potential competitive advantage associated with workforce agility for companies.

This paper evaluates the real capacity of the customer service system in a Health Care Service Provider (HCSP) in which users request a service using a multi-channel M/M/n queueing system with Poisson arrivals and exponential times. The assistance process shows that an individual who wants to request a diagnostic test must wait his/her turn in several cubicles. The aim of this paper is to develop a methodology that generates two-way results in improving not only HCSP performance, but also in implementing strategies that lead to better service perception. A discrete-event simulation model is presented to determine the times for processes and forecast the demand. The entire process in HCSP takes up to four hours, although, based on our results, waiting times could be 50% shorter by decreasing the number of operative tasks that physicians and nurses should perform and implementing an electronic ticket dispenser. Improving customer service is relevant for a HCSP organization. Therefore, our simulation process could be implemented in different scenarios in order to integrate results in planning and decision-making processes.

The loosely coupled systems (LCS) perspective emerged as a new way to understand the organizational structure from the field of Organization Studies. The purpose of this article is to pres­ent the main features of previous research studies that have addressed the perspective of loosely coupled systems. This article is based on a systematic literature review of 76 papers published dur­ing a 36-year period (1983-2019). The findings indicate that the main concepts studied around this perspective have been loose coupling, tight coupling, decoupling, degree of coupling, and coupling mechanisms, which are analyzed considering the dialectical relationship between distinctiveness and responsiveness. Likewise, the study of organizational couplings has been extensively devel­oped through qualitative methodology with case studies, interviews and documentary reviews. In particular, there are two theoretical frameworks broadly used along with this perspective, the sociological new institutionalism and the theory of normal accidents, which give rise to future research on topics such as decoupling and the normality of accidents, among others. This article contributes to the discussion of organizational ties by highlighting the contemporary relevance of the LCS perspective, its usefulness for understanding current and future organizational issues in the field of Organization Studies, and encouraging greater adoption of LCS analysis in Latin America. Additionally, this paper provides conceptual clarity on the main categories of organizational cou­plings and its operationalization.

The dominant trend in variationist studies of Spanish subject expression is to focus on pronominal subjects, excluding lexical subjects (LSs). Due to such lack of attention to LSs in previous research, the current paper aims to fill this gap and to gain a better understanding of variation between LSs and subject pronouns (SPs). While previous research that analyzes LSs makes a significant contribution to the scholarship on subjects and enriches our understanding of the functions of LSs, a variable context for LSs in the variationist tradition has not heretofore been established. The current paper proposes a variable context methodology for LSs by investigating cases where LSs are produced (e.g. mi mamá trabaja ‘my mom works’), particularly in contexts in which SPs (overt or null) could have alternatively been produced (e.g. ella/∅ trabaja ‘she works’). Overall frequencies, constraints, and pragmatic functions of LSs are discussed.

The purpose of this reflection paper is to provide a Foucauldian view of the influence of the neoliberal ethos on the rational choices of agents in organizations and how this impacts the tendency to make decisions about deviant behavior. We propose that practices of codes of ethics have less substantive effects and more symbolic effects. The control of corruption occurs in three dimensions: egoism, utilitarianism and opportunism. Codes of ethics and compliance systems, in this sense, possess only the capacity to partially meet each of these requirements, not being enough measure for business integrity assurance. We believe it is essential to distinguish the arguments presented in this paper from the dominant thinking on theories about ethics in organizations. Our interest is to give a politicized response to the discussions raised in the field. The originality of the article resides in the transposition of Foucauldian concepts for practices of control of conducts in the contemporary management. The inadequacy of the normative measures is worked out. Besides, alternative perspectives are proposed to the practices of management for ethical behavior in or­ganizations.

This paper aims to present a literature review that serves as a guide for the analysis of the relationship between socioeconomic conditions and food consumption. First, it shows different interpretations of this relationship from three categories: a) the position that a person occupies in the economic and social system; b) rational and functional aspects of food consumption; c) changes in food consumption and socioeconomic conditions. Then, based on the conclusions drawn from these sections, the analytical balance proposed in this article will be exposed. The paper concludes that there are different micro and macro; material and non-material elements; dynamic; in time and space; that restricts food consumption; thus, it is suggested to the beginner reader of this topic not to lose sight of the vast complexity of the problem.

Introduction: Physicians’ main responsibility is to practice medicine for the benefit of patients. However, there are situations where secondary interests affect this commitment and give rise to conflicts of interest. Objective: To analyze currently available systematic reviews and meta-analyses on conflicts of interest in medicine to summarize relevant evidence in this regard. Material and methods: A literature search was performed in the MEDLINE and LILACS databases using the following search strategy: systematic reviews and meta-analysis on conflicts of interests in medicine published in serialized scientific journals; no publication time or language limits were applied. Studies that met the inclusion criteria were grouped according to the medical activity they assessed, and information on the type and number of studies and conclusions of all publications included in the review was collected. Results: 29 publications were included, and they were classified as follows: studies based on research articles, on clinical practice guidelines, on clinical practice, and on patient-oriented papers. Conclusions: It was found that the authors of the original research papers included in the meta-analyses and systematic reviews analyzed here do not always state if they have conflicts of interest or not. Nevertheless, when said conflicts are reported, they tend to present results favoring the drugs or medical technologies of their sponsor.

Offshore outsourcing by organizations has been gaining momentum, powered by advances in information technology and costs differentials. A review of the literature on the subject, though, shows that those scholars who have focused on offshore outsourcing have centered their attention on the activities of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the manufacturing and services sectors, leaving behind small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Through a number of propositions, this paper suggests that SMEs could also benefit from offshore outsourcing given their particular characteristics and needs. The paper also discusses the similarities and differences in the motivations that SMEs might have in subcontracting their activities outside their boundaries in comparison to MNEs. Knowing this information is important for foreign suppliers in order to adapt and expand their offerings to the needs of these particular firms.

This paper presents a review on hydrogels applied to agriculture emphasizing on the use of natural fibers. The objectives were to examine, trends in research addressed to identify natural fibers used in hydrogels development and methods for modifying natural fibers, understand factors which determine the water retention capacity of a hydrogel. Consequently, this paper shows some methodologies used to evaluate the hydrogels efficiency and to collect in tables, relevant information in relation to methods of natural fibers modification and hydrogel synthesis. It was found that previous research focused on hydrogels development processed with biodegradable polymers such as starch, chitosan and modified natural fibers, cross-linked with potassium acrylate and acrylamide, respectively. In addition, current researches aimed to obtaining hydrogels with improved properties, which have allowed a resistance to climatic variations and soil physicochemical changes, such as pH, presence of salts, temperature and composition. In fact, natural fibers such as sugarcane, agave fiber and kapok fiber, modified with maleic anhydride, are an alternative to obtain hydrogels due to an increasing of mechanical properties and chemically active sites. However, the use of natural nanofibers in hydrogels, has been a successful proposal to improve hydrogels mechanical and swelling properties, since they give to material an elasticity and rigidity properties. A hydrogel efficiency applied to soil, is measured throughout properties as swellability, mechanical strength, and soil water retention. It was concluded that hydrogels, are an alternative to the current needs for the agricultural sector.

This paper focuses upon a place called the Vertical Village, a building in the center of Rio de Janeiro inhabited exclusively by indigenous peoples from different ethnic groups belonging to different parts of the country. In this paper, we discuss questions related to the experience of being indigenous in a city, the construction of a residential space as a village, and the constitution of indigenous identity in the urban context. Following the paths of three inhabitants of the building, the questions considered emerge from their transiting between cities and villages, frontiers either real or imaginary, prejudices and expectations of indigenous identity.

This paper focuses upon a place called the Vertical Village, a building in the center of Rio de Janeiro inhabited exclusively by indigenous peoples from different ethnic groups belonging to different parts of the country. In this paper, we discuss questions related to the experience of being indigenous in a city, the construction of a residential space as a village, and the constitution of indigenous identity in the urban context. Following the paths of three inhabitants of the building, the questions considered emerge from their transiting between cities and villages, frontiers either real or imaginary, prejudices and expectations of indigenous identity.

Introduction: A literature review in databases was carried out on suicidal behavior in indigenous peoples to identify its characterization as a public health problem. Objective: To systematize the knowledge on suicide in indigenous peoples based on papers and research reports published until 2014. Materials and Methods: Literature review of 149 papers published regarding suicide in indigenous communities, which were analyzed according to topographic, chronological, approach and content aspects. Results: Scientific research on suicide in indigenous peoples is limited. However, the literature reviewed indicates that suicide rates are higher in indigenous peoples than in the general population, especially among young people, worldwide. Research on suicide in indigenous communities is predominantly based on risk factors, and should be understood more as a social rather than an individual event resulting from an imbalance between destructive processes and health and quality of life programs. Conclusions: Suicide in indigenous peoples is a public health problem whose comprehensive study should be encouraged from an intercultural approach, thus facilitating the implementation of culturally appropriate interventions.

The flows through tubular forms in the body, material culture and the natural environment play a key role in the thought of the indigenous peoples of Northwest Amazonia. Using examples from daily life, mythology and ritual, this paper examines the tube as an abstract concept that unites physiology, psychology, and productive processes with wider sociological and cosmological issues. The material, visual, and acoustic manifestations of tubular flow (hair) also raise the issues of synaesthesia and fractal notions of totalization / detotalization. With tubes as tantamount to life itself, ritual attention is focused on regulating bodily and other apertures to ensure balanced, tempered flow. The paper concludes by suggesting that the cultural elaboration of tubes and synaesthesia in Northwest Amazonia may relate to the lineal, exogamic features of social structure characteristic of the region.

In the majority of developing countries the research on the cellulolytic microorganisms has been scarcely oriented to the transformation of organic solid waste into compost, ignoring their enormous industrial potential. The main objective of the present investigation was to generate information on the capacity and diversity of the cellulolytic bacteria isolated from three different habitats. The study included soil samples from native forests and cereal producing farms as well as from compost piles. From each sample, a serial dilution until 10-4 was prepared and from each dilution test tubes containing liquid mineral medium and a strip of filter paper as a source of cellulose were inoculated. After three weeks of incubation, the population density of the cellulolytic microorganisms was estimated and from the filter paper strips streaks were made on nutrient agar medium and then on solid mineral medium, supplemented with cellulose. The bacterial growths were submitted to the Congo Red test and the ones with the greater potential were identified. In comparison to the soils the compost piles harbor a higher population density of cellulolytic microorganisms. In respect to the cellulolytic bacteria, in total were obtained 20 isolates, 19 from the native forests and 1 from a compost pile. Isolates 1, 2, 6, 7 and 14 showed a higher cellulolytic capacity with halos of hydrolysis between 0.65 and 0.30 cm. Isolate 1 was identified as Bacillus sp, isolate 7 as Pseudomonas sp, and isolate 6 as Erwinia sp. This information is useful to explore with confidence the potential of the cellulolytic bacteria in the industry.

This paper enquires into how bodies are done in an anatomy lesson. I am interested in the body as materiality and experience, as product of a specific kind of practice, which has the ability to enact the body as a natural and transcendent entity. In order to describe empirically the practice of doing the body through anatomy, I appeal to an ethnographic analysis of hands, students, forceps, cadavers, professors and books, all in a productive relationship. My ethnography is the outcome of my participation for more than a year in anatomical classes and laboratories in two medical schools in Bogotá, Colombia. I produce ethnographic descriptions of specific bodily movements that allow students to learn and practice human anatomy with a range of materialities such as cadavers, books, virtual devices and three-dimensional models. The field notes that I transcribed and analyzed allow me to show the specific events in which an anatomical structure emerges in and through the practice. In this paper, I will explore the way in which students do arteries in the anatomical amphitheatre. I want to understand, not simply how the student names something as an artery, but how this emerges with all its properties and particularities, including a name. Therefore, my question is not epistemological but ontological. In this way, I show how arteries emerge as sensations and material paths in the laboratory. For that to happen, an oriented space and the involvement of multiple, heterogeneous and partially connected entities are required. Thus, the artery is composed of multiple materialities and multiple experiences in this site. The body is both materiality and sociality, always dependent on the relationships between a large number of entities in the class and the laboratory.

This paper presents a case report of a perimenopausal woman who repeatedly attended health care institutions due to chronic insomnia, and underwent pharmacological treatments and psychiatric hospitalizations without achieving any positive result for nearly three years. After compiling all the information of the case, as well as analyzing previous and recent paraclinical studies, the patient was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. The purpose of this paper is to draw attention on the adequate use of clinical diagnostic tools and processes to optimize the medical practice and to offer a better service to patients.

The paper presents an integrating approach of conceptual issues to evaluate the wellbeing in indigenous communities. The approach recognizes the consensual absence of a “wellbeing” definition. Therefore, understanding the local concepts of wellbeing could help develop planning tools for decision-makers in indigenous societies contexts. The approach is based on the concept of capacities developed by A. Sen in which a group of human wellbeing indicators are constructed and where cultural issues might be included without affecting the power of the indicator. A study with Uitoto (múrui-muina-mɨnɨka) and the called People of the Center indigenous groups of the Northern Amazonia has been done to discuss their particular idea of what wellbeing is. It is a concept the People of the Center summarizes in the word monifue (abundance). This concept is the result of the analysis of their symbolic and ritual contexts. The concept has been actualized through the time and today integrate issues of their contemporary life style. The paper describes some elements derived of this concept, and contributes to the conceptualization of issues that might be used in a valid model to describe the life style of these indigenous societies. The discussion of the paper is not based on technical issues of the model yet. The discussion define some limits where the variables to measure and relate should be placed. This is an important result about the understanding of the concept wellbeing of these indigenous societies and the elements that require to be transformed in concrete indicators.

The paper aims to design and apply a Knowledge Management (KM) model within the context of a Higher Education (HE) institution in Mexico. The model is composed of six enablers: leadership, culture, structure, human resources, information technologies and measurement, which facilitate the processes of knowledge creation, storage, transfer and application. A 53-question survey applied to thirty-six (36) people allowed to evaluate the degree of development and implementation of knowledge enablers and processes. Objectivity, reliability and overall model fit were assessed. The application of the Model serves to highlight the core role that cultural, human and structural aspects play in Knowledge Management processes. Whereas Information Technologies are the least influential to Knowledge Management processes. This paper was limited to examine the perceptions of the Board of Directors of a single university. It is yet to be tested in other institutions. Moreover, the resulting model can be used as an assessment tool in Higher Education Institutions to identify the key elements during a KM initiative as well as to define actions to obtain the greatest benefits from these initiatives.

In this paper we conduct a systematic literature review with the aim of understanding the effectiveness of environmental policy instruments, in particular, command and control, marketbased instruments and voluntary schemes, in promoting eco-innovation. This study analyzes the information presented in selected papers, mainly from peer-reviewed journals, covering the period 2005-2012. The sample is based on 40 papers traced through a keyword search in Scopus database, representing the main academic journals related to the subject. A few more sources were added after reviewing the list of references from the main papers. The literature reviewed adopts different approaches and pursues several objectives to understand the relationship between policy instruments and eco-innovation. We find overall evidence that stringency is a key feature of policies for determining the effects of environmental technological change. It is argued that command and control instrument boosts eco-innovation, but continuity in investments depends more on the expected severity of future regulation. Empirical studies confirm that market-based instruments promote more incremental innovation and diffusion of existing technologies than radical innovation. In general, instruments based on economic incentives need to be complemented with stringent controls to be more effective. We conclude that complementarities between measures focused on developers and demanders are necessary in order to foster eco-innovation

Resumen La discapacidad, como una construcción social, implica las representaciones sociales y las prácticas que, en consecuencia, se derivan y tienen implicaciones sobre la vida de individuos, grupos o poblaciones. Algunas de las respuestas a las necesidades de las personas con discapacidad se han gestado en instituciones que nacieron con fines filantrópicos y se han ido transformado. Este escrito forma parte de una investigación sobre las construcciones sociales de discapacidad en Colombia en las últimas cuatro décadas, la cual fue desarrollada a través de una etnografía multisituada con perspectiva crítica, cuyas fuentes de indagación fueron experiencias institucionales, grupales, personales y documentos; aquí, se ilustran las transformaciones de instituciones dedicadas a la atención de esta población en lo relacionado con su inserción en la lógica del mercado de la salud a partir de la Ley 100 de 1993. Igualmente, este estudio muestra cómo las instituciones han instaurado una carrera desmedida para poder entrar y mantenerse en los juegos del mercado de la venta de servicios, situación que confirma el posicionamiento de la salud como un negocio, y en este campo, a la rehabilitación funcional como el estandarte a seguir. Artificios como la acreditación de servicios, el mercadeo social, la oferta de las últimas tecnologías y las diversas especialidades y subespecialidades, además de los eufemismos de cambios de nombre, se esgrimen a manera de capitales simbólicos, culturales y económicos que mantienen estos actores en el campo de la discapacidad como un asunto de prestación de servicios que aleja la relación entre la salud pública y la discapacidad. Palabras clave: Antropología médica; Salud pública; Servicios de Salud (DeCS). Summary Disability as a social construct involves social representations and practices that are a consequence of it, and which have implications on the lives of individuals, groups or populations. Some of the answers to the needs of people with disabilities had their birth in institutions that were create with philanthropic purposes and have been experiencing a transformation processs. This paper is part of an investigation about social constructions of disability in Colombia over the past four decades, developed through a critical perspective multipurpose ethnography whose sources of inquiry were expediencies from institutions, groups, and people, as well as documentation related to this topic. In this paper the transformation of institutions devoted to the care of this population with regard to their entry into the health market, since the enactment of Law 100 of 1993, is illustrated. Furthermore, this study shows how the institutions take part in an inordinate career to enter and stay in services provision market , a scenario that confirms the positioning of Health as a business, and in this field, functional rehabilitation as the standard to follow. Artifices like service accreditation, social marketing, modern technologies offer and the different specialties and subspecialties, in addition to the euphemisms related to name changes, are put forward as symbolic, cultural and economic capitals that keep the players on the field disability as a matter of service delivery, which takes away the relationship between public health and disability. Keywords: Medical anthropology; Public health; Health services (MeSH).

This paper aims at exploring how social and environmental (SE) labels influence purchasing. By drawing on the information processing and the systematic-heuristic models, this study tests the process followed by consumers when purchasing SE labeled-products. Information was gathered through a structured questionnaire in personal interviews with 400 consumers responsible for household shopping of Fast-moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), who were randomly approached at shopping malls in four areas of Madrid, Spain. They were asked about recognition, knowledge, credibility, perceived utility and purchases on 12 different labels; the influence of these variables on purchase is modeled and tested by path analysis. This study suggests that a systematic-heuristic information processing occurs when consumers buy SE-labeled FMCG products, as the purchase of this type of goods depends on the recognition of a label, knowledge of the issue/issuer, as well as the credibility and the perceived utility of SE labels. Motivation for being informed influences the process, being an antecedent of awareness, comprehension and perceived utility. This model shows a dual processing mode: systematic and heuristic, where the lack of cognitive capacity could explain why these two processing modes co-occur. This paper adds value to existing literature on SE labels and consumption by applying the information processing model, which has not been used before in the field of responsible consumption, in addition to open a promising avenue for research, by offering complementary theories to the existing ones, based on attitudes.

The paper elaborates the theory of imagination in Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason and Critique of Judgment. From the first Critique to the third Critique, the imagination emerges under different titles such as reproductive, productive or transcendental imagination. The paper shall try to decide whether its functions suggested in the first Critique and its performance in the third Critique are contradictory or developmental with respect to Kant’s critical philosophy. Thus, it will examine of the power and the scope of the imagination in the first Critique and of its status and performance in the third Critique.

This article analyzes the adoption of project management practices in development cooperation NGOs and their influence on project performance. This paper illustrates the impact in the implementation of methodologies, techniques and tools on outcomes, measured by success criteria of several projects recently implemented. Information from the project managers of the organizations was collected, and complemented by a literature review. We analyzed the correlation among the variables that determine the adoption of a project, and the criteria that determine its success. The positive effect of project management adoption in the performance of cooperation projects is demonstrated, in spite of the low use of methodologies, techniques and tools within the sector. The article shows the importance of project management in cooperation and aid projects, with the purpose of increasing researchers’ awareness about the field as applicable knowledge and about the benefits of its use in the sector. The paper shows that project management can improve project efficiency and accountability in other sectors.

This paper uses an institutional approach to examine the effect of regulations on entrepreneurial activity, comparing developed and developing countries. Through an unbalanced panel data set of 49 countries over the period 2001-2010 and using a combination of international databases we find a positive influence of government spending and entrepreneurship legislation on entrepreneurial activity. It was also found that regulations may have different impacts on entrepreneurship according to the country’s economic development. Thus, in developed economies unemployment legislation is positively related to entrepreneurship, while this relationship is negative in other cases. This paper offers new insights both from a conceptual perspective (advancing theory concerning the factors that influence entrepreneurial activity) and a practical viewpoint (for the design of government policies to foster entrepreneurship).

The principal purpose of this paper is to analyze different methods for decision making, with a focus on entrepreneurship in Latin America. Decision-making methods may be informed by aggregation operators that are based on the use of probabilities, weighted averages (WAs) and generalized aggregation operators. The paper presents a new generalized probabilistic weighted averaging (GPWA) operator that unifies WAs and probability in the same formulation, considering the degree of importance of each concept used in the analysis. The fundamental advantage of this approach is that it includes a wide range of particular cases including the probabilistic weighted averaging (PWA) operator, the probabilistic weighted geometric averaging (PWGA) operator and the probabilistic weighted quadratic averaging (PWQA) operator. Quasi-arithmetic means are used to obtain the Quasi-PWA operator and to generalize the approach, which is then applied to a set of hypothetical entrepreneurial investment decisions in a politically unified Latin American region.

Dengue is an infection caused by dengue virus and is the most important arthropod transmitted viral disease in the world, causing near 100 million cases and 50 000 fatalities each year. Health authorities believe that these numbers will grow in coming years. In Colombia, almost 600 municipalities are in regions with Aedes aegypti circulation, and the presence of four dengue serotypes has been demonstrated. Despite the increasing knowledge about disease pathogenesis and the dengue virus, some technical or scientific difficulties with diagnosing dengue remain, negatively affecting both public health surveillance and the appropriate attention to patients in health settings and hospitals. This paper reviews the principles and developments of the current diagnostic techniques for dengue, pointing out the difficulties with making accurate dengue diagnoses and case confirmations in public health and specialized laboratories. The principles and limitations of MAC-ELISA, IgG serology, viral NS1 detection and viral isolation by cell culture are presented. In addition, the review of immunochromatography techniques (rapid diagnostic tests) that have been put forward to help the point-of-care diagnosis is proposed. This paper is intended to bring forward some points of view about the issues related to dengue diagnosis and contribute to improve the discussion surrounding the strategies and techniques needed for reducing the impact of the disease and favoring its control.

The aim of this paper is to contribute to an increased knowledge of the cultural values and the entrepreneurial activity that are present in countries with different levels of development. Within the group of developing countries, we focus our analysis on the case of Latin America. The study uses data from the Schwartz Value Survey (SVS) to measure cultural values, and Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) for information regarding entrepreneurship. The results show that cultural variables, together with the rate of entrepreneurial activity, clearly distinguish developing countries from developed ones. Higher entrepreneurial activity is found in countries with lower levels of development; however, the cultural value dimensions of Autonomy and Egalitarianism are associated with higher development levels. In the specific case of Latin America, the results reveal the existence of two groups of countries. Firstly, Bolivia, Peru and Venezuela have higher rates of entrepreneurship and, at the same time, a greater prevalence of some cultural values (notably Embeddedness, but also Hierarchy). In contrast, another group of countries in the region—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica and Mexico—is characterized by the presence of opposing cultural values (Autonomy and Egalitarianism), more in line with those corresponding to developed countries. The paper concludes with a discussion of the results, including some interesting implications, from both academic and policy perspectives. In the case of Latin America, a certain combination of cultural values (Embeddedness and Egalitarianism) may be leading to higher start-up rates. Thus, promoting these values could contribute to entrepreneurship and economic development.

This paper contributes to the important body of research on entrepreneurship and social capital. Most previous work on social capital and business incubators has analyzed how the structure of personal networks (measured by network size or density) and their quality (measured by tie strength) influence venture performance. However, few studies have focused on the mobilization of partners’ resources. This paper analyses how these three dimensions of social capital —defined in this article as the structural dimension, the relational dimension and the resource dimension— are closely linked to the three types of interactions in a business incubator: networking, counseling and resourcing. An Ordinary Least Squares regression was applied to a sample made up of incubating firms in Colombia. Results from the data analysis show that resourcing interactions constitute the most significant aspect of business incubators for entrepreneurs.

This paper aims to investigate the link between business regulations, pillars of competitiveness, and new firms at country level using a structural equation model. The research developed to support this paper is based on the idea that entrepreneurship, measured as the process of new firm formation, is a vital link to the economic growth of countries. The data used belongs to a sample of 41 countries with emerging and advanced economies that appear simultaneously in three databases: The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR), and the Doing Business Report (DBR). At country level, the process is hindered by the competitiveness conditions of the country’s phase of economic development, and by the regulation and institutional arrangements that shape economic activity.

This paper presents the case of an 11 year-old male who attended the Internal Medicine Service at a high complexity pediatric hospital. Initially, the patient attended due to a clinical profile consisting of autoimmune hemolytic anemia that was partially responsive to steroid treatment and, after exhaustive complimentary analysis, was associated to a Hodgkin lymphoma. Similar cases found in the scientific literature were reviewed in order to analyze this case. Through this paper, the authors intend to remind the medical community about the importance of a prompt and deep study of all autoimmune hemolytic anemia cases found in pediatric patients, without overlooking possible malignant causes related to this condition such as a lymphoproliferative disorder. Thus, before diagnosing a hemolytic anemia as idiopathic, the practitioner must be certain that the condition is not a clinical manifestation of an underlying disease.

The Journal of the Faculty of Medicine (Revista de la Facultad de Medicina) started its operation back in 1932, and has undergone interesting changes in the last decade, achieving greater visibility and impact on the national and international sphere. Similarly, it has managed to maintain the periodicity of its publication and to be included in important bibliographic indexes. Currently, biomedical journals published in English often make a greater impact and rank better in scientific databases in Spanish, thus giving prestige to the institutions that support them (1). Given this scenario, the medium-term objective of this journal is to publish papers in English only, which leads to a series of structural changes in editorial management and administrative academic support in order to maintain the current number of published scientific articles with excellent quality and a greater international visibility and, therefore, with a higher citation possibility. Publishing the results from the scientific activity of authors through papers in scientific journals is very important, since this has been the traditional way of doing so. Thus, a Latin American journal published in English is the perfect medium to present patents and other research products of the authors from this region and the best way to make visible the results of their work in the world.

Objective: To underline that beyond the territories under Portuguese rule, evidence of the use of protective amulets can also be found in places under Hispanic control and the Caribbean. This study aims to enrich historiography on the subject and dialogue with it regarding source analysis and a rereading based on the descriptions of central-western Africa from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Methodology: It interrogates sources widely used for the study of African matrix cultures in America from a different perspective and reviews non-written sources that allow visualizing written ones in their context. Originality: This paper contributes to the understanding of how sources can be reread to research African Diaspora cultures in the light of their connected history, tracing the use of these amulets in specific socio-cultural contexts. Conclusions: By considering and interrogating diverse sources on the conversion of Africans and the African diaspora in the Americas, these stories transcend the immutable benevolence of Catholicism and Eurocentrism and question the myopia of the Jesuits and inquisitors in New Spain and New Granada when observing African customs.

Objective: To underline that beyond the territories under Portuguese rule, evidence of the use of protective amulets can also be found in places under Hispanic control and the Caribbean. This study aims to enrich historiography on the subject and dialogue with it regarding source analysis and a rereading based on the descriptions of central-western Africa from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Methodology: It interrogates sources widely used for the study of African matrix cultures in America from a different perspective and reviews non-written sources that allow visualizing written ones in their context. Originality: This paper contributes to the understanding of how sources can be reread to research African Diaspora cultures in the light of their connected history, tracing the use of these amulets in specific socio-cultural contexts. Conclusions: By considering and interrogating diverse sources on the conversion of Africans and the African diaspora in the Americas, these stories transcend the immutable benevolence of Catholicism and Eurocentrism and question the myopia of the Jesuits and inquisitors in New Spain and New Granada when observing African customs.

After the end of the Second World War, the second half of the twentieth century brought in, one the one hand, the establishment of GATT provisions in 1947 and the legal texts implemented during its negotiation rounds as a regulatory framework, and on the other hand, the creation in 1995 of the WTO as the central normative entity for international trade. In this way, the states' economic opening strategy focuses on reducing rampant protectionism, usually reflected in tariff barriers and non-tariff barriers as foreign trade policy. Therefore, the GATT-WTO paradigm enhances trade flows between countries as freely as possible, contributing to economic growth and world development. Likewise, the GATT provisions endorsed the creation of many different typologies of trade agreements legitimated by its article XXIV and the Enabling Clause of the Tokyo Round. In this sense, the international trade agreements had a notable growth since the WTO establishment until the Great Recession in 2008. However, it is paradoxical that this approval from the GATT-WTO paradigm regarding the signing of these international trade agreements strengthen regionalism as the easy path, leaving out the multilateralism philosophy of the WTO, where precisely member governments try to solve the trade disputes through its legal framework but not through specific law from trade agreements. In this manner, this research carries out a descriptive study where trade agreements are marked adopting the sociological research scientific approach where a factual question is proposed to analyze the phenomenon. Hence, this paper suggests that the current legal framework in the GATT-WTO paradigm is not dynamic nowadays, pushing countries to sign international trade agreements for promoting commercial exchange and create new rules that, at the multilateral level, the GATT-WTO do not develop for political will absence and particular interests of some full members. A scenario that merely seems to undermine the WTO pushing countries to make parallel rules apart from the traditional multilateralism model giving a more prominent role to regionalism.

This paper analyzes the lines of research derived from the implementation and development of the organizational culture of innovation in order to identify the trends followed within this field of study. In doing so, we identified potential and recent-interest trends that could contribute both to the development of this scientific field and to the search of companies for competitive advantages. The most productive authors, journals and countries were also identified, thus offering a solid basis for future research. The methodology consisted of the analysis of bibliometric indicators from scientific articles in Scopus database published between 1980 and 2000. The Web of Science was not considered since the results obtained in both databases were similar. Among the relevant findings related to administration, in publishing terms, the United States is the most productive country, followed by the United Kingdom and Australia. The analysis of topological data between keywords and science areas shows that the analyzed sample focuses on inter- and multidisciplinary studies, and that most theories and basic frameworks were created between 1980 and 2000. These findings provide a basic framework for qualitative and quantitative research that could be applied by experts in the field of management.

This paper analyzes the lines of research derived from the implementation and development of the organizational culture of innovation in order to identify the trends followed within this field of study. In doing so, we identified potential and recent-interest trends that could contribute both to the development of this scientific field and to the search of companies for competitive advantages. The most productive authors, journals and countries were also identified, thus offering a solid basis for future research. The methodology consisted of the analysis of bibliometric indicators from scientific articles in Scopus database published between 1980 and 2000. The Web of Science was not considered since the results obtained in both databases were similar. Among the relevant findings related to administration, in publishing terms, the United States is the most productive country, followed by the United Kingdom and Australia. The analysis of topological data between keywords and science areas shows that the analyzed sample focuses on inter- and multidisciplinary studies, and that most theories and basic frameworks were created between 1980 and 2000. These findings provide a basic framework for qualitative and quantitative research that could be applied by experts in the field of management.

This study sought to understand the factors behind the intention towards buying organic products mentioned in the existing literature and provide conceptual and theoretical guidelines for future research on the subject. A systematic revision of original research papers included in Scopus and Web of Science databases during the period 2011-2021 was conducted, resulting in a sample of 162 articles. The results show that the attitude, values, and confidence of the consumer were the main factors in the intention to buy organic foods. Moreover, it was found that the theory of planned behavior was the most used theoretical framework in the analysis of organic foods purchasing. The changes brought by the covid-19 pandemic are manifested in consumers’ values and their implications to the sale of this type of foods. We propose to consider consumers’ values as variables that intertwine the rational and motivational approaches to consumption analysis. It is also proposed to understand the purchase intention underlying the stimulation of attitudes and the confidence of consumers due to their values. Finally, it is suggested to consider the analysis of the mediating effect of attitudes and trust in the relationship between values and purchase intention.

Higher education institutions (heis), especially during the pandemic crisis, have faced the challenge of designing a sustainable competitive advantage strategy to attract and retain students. However, since constructing a sustainable brand requires successfully building its legitimacy, sustainability messages must be presented appropriately by using suitable communication channels, such as social networks, that attract younger generations of students and become the only form to communicate with them during the confinement. Hence, this paper investigates if Colombian heis effectively use marketing communication tools to inform their sustainability strategies. For this purpose, a literature review of the terms “university sustainability” and “marketing” was initially conducted, applying a mixed-methods approach. Then, an exploratory analysis with the web scraping technique that considered Facebook® messages posted by five private heis in Medellín city (Colombia) was developed during a ten-month period. Finally, an examination approach was applied to summarize data, find hidden relationships, and make predictions through Python programming language. Despite good intentions and reasonable efforts, results indicate that heis do not seem to have a systematic strategy for communicating sustainability issues. Instead, they give the impression of managing sustainability issues mainly from an economic point of view. As a result, universities’ communication of sustainable practices that enhance institutional reputation and increase student retention still appears to be sporadic and insufficient.

This paper studies the visibility, environmental sustainability practices, and public recognition of Costa Rican organizations participating in the Carbon Neutrality (cn) Program. Through a review of Costa Rican online newspapers, we conclude that the three main actions performed by cn firms are the offsetting of carbon emissions, the replacement of polluting inputs by cleaner substitutes, and employees’ training. The main benefits perceived by these firms include reducing production costs, improving the organizations’ image, and achieving market differentiation. In addition, by using non-parametric statistic procedures, we conclude that “highly cited organizations” tend to achieve the cn certification earlier and have a larger number of environmental certifications than “scarcely cited organizations.” By analyzing newspaper coverage data in conjunction with a consumer recognition survey, we determined that “recognized organizations” tend to be the oldest, the largest, and the most cited in the press. In addition, “recognized entities” also tend to obtain the cn certification sooner than unrecognized entities, which means that there is a reward in terms of public recognition for companies that took the risk of being innovative in reducing their carbon footprint.

Este paper intenta dar cuenta del concepto de filosofía elaborado por Hegel, en los primeros años de Jena, como instancia más acabada de reconciliación de las escisiones propias de la cultura moderna. Se intenta mostrar que, a pesar de las diferencias existentes entre el Hegel jenense y el Hegel sucesivo a la Fenomenología del espíritu, la idea de la filosofía como lugar de conciliación se mantiene, lo que no implica, un pactar con la realidad ni un pensar la actividad intelectual como refugio incontaminado, sino como lugar de transfiguración unitaria del mundo efectivamente existente.

Personnel selection represents a valuable decision-making process that determines, in some way, the competitiveness and performance of an organization. The essential elements of the personnel selection task are the position requirements and the accessible information related to candidates. In this paper, the personnel selection task is modeled as a multicriteria decision-making problem, considering varied competencies and skills to assess the applicants for a specific position. We used this multicriteria model to solve personnel selection cases using sadgage, a decision support system that solves examples of the multicriteria ranking problem in decreasing order based on the preferences of the decision-maker. The electre-iii method is embedded in the software in order to construct a fuzzy outranking relation and a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm to exploit such relation and generate a ranking as a recommendation. This work presents a practical application to a personnel selection problem that evaluates a group of applicants to a software developer job in an enterprise based in northwestern Mexico. We show how the proposed multicriteria procedure offers a recommendation to the decision-maker about the applicants in decreasing order of preferences.

The electronics industry in Guadalajara, Mexico, experienced significant growth dur­ing the 1990s. However, the development of electronic design technological capabilities in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area (GMA) is reduced compared to the growth of the electronics sector. Furthermore, in local small and medium-sized businesses (SMBS) performing electronic design activi­ties the number of employees working in this type of work is low, compared to the size of the local electronics sector. This paper tries to understand how social capital and core competencies contrib­ute to developing electronic design capabilities in SMBS in this region. A multiple case study of seven local businesses that execute or provide electronic design services in the GMA was conducted. The findings include the role social capital plays in attracting talent, acquiring knowledge and creating a network of customers, along with its longevity; they also include the importance of identifying core capabilities that generate sustained technological advantage and the role played by Regional Innovation Systems (RIS).

This paper seeks to examine transformational and transactional leadership, employees’ organizational citizenship behavior, employees’ job satisfaction and perceived organizational sup­port; which are employees' organizational citizenship behavior associations. In addition, this study explores the mediating role of employees’ job satisfaction and perceived organizational support in the relationship between transformational and transactional leadership styles and employees’ organizational citizenship behavior. The study was conducted at the University of Birjand, Iran, on a sample of 250 employees. This research follows a descriptive and correlational approach. Our findings show that transformational leadership and employees’ job satisfaction and perceived organizational support positively and significantly influence employees’ organizational citizen-ship behavior. Additionally, results revealed that employees’ job satisfaction mediates the asso­ciation between transformational and transactional leadership and employees’ organizational citizenship behavior. Moreover, employees perceived organizational support mediates the asso­ciation between transformational and transactional leadership and employees’ organizational citi­zenship behavior. Iranian organizations, especially universities, should invest in transformational leadership and job satisfaction, as well as in the selection of managers with transformational lead­ership styles and employees who are eager to work at the university, in order to enrich the organi­zational citizenship behavior of employees.

The purpose of this paper is to consolidate the measurement of a lovemark and unify a set of elements that form a lovemark in university institutions by considering the differences between students and graduates. Based on a review of factors that build a lovemark, brand loyalty relationships were explored. In addition, an empirical study was carried out and applied to a sample of 257 participants at the National University of Colombia (UNAL), one of the most important uni­versities in this country. The results validated the positive effects of brand love, brand experience, and brand involvement on brand loyalty, the determining factor of a university lovemark. This article is one of the first works integrating all the constructs proposed by prior research studies, which, until now, have approached lovemark and brand loyalty separately.

The development of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in surgical patients is a serious public health problem since it increases morbidity and mortality rates, as well as the costs associated with in-hospital care for this population. Notwithstanding the above, and although their effectiveness has been demonstrated, prophylactic measures are not properly used in these patients in Colombia. A possible cause of this situation is the poor adherence of health professionals to clinical practice guidelines (CPG) addressing the prevention of VTE. In this regard, several methodological approaches to achieve an adequate implementation of thromboprophylaxis by transforming physicians' behaviors have been described. However, to accomplish this, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the multifactorial barriers and sociological conditions that underlie this problem. Better adherence to VTE prophylaxis CPGs is known to lead to better clinical practice. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to carry out a reflective analysis of the causes and possible solutions to the low adherence of Colombian health professionals to these guidelines.

The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant has become one of the greatest public health challenges worldwide since, after being first identified in India in December 2020, it has spread rapidly, affecting mainly countries with low vaccination rates and those that have relaxed the public health and social measures implemented to control the COVID-19 pandemic. The Delta variant has a higher replication capacity and is associated with viral loads up to 1 260 times higher than those of infections caused by the original strain, which may be associated with an increased likelihood of hospitalization, ICU admission, need for oxygen therapy, pneumonia, or even death. Fully vaccinated individuals have almost similar protection against both Delta and Alpha variants. Given the impact of Delta in countries where it is the dominant variant, it is necessary for all countries to develop systematic action plans focused on implementing strict public health and social measures in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and on increasing vaccination coverage. Bearing this in mind, the objective of this reflection paper is to describe the main characteristics of the Delta variant, its impact on the dynamics of the pandemic in some of the countries where it has been detected, the effectiveness of vaccines against this variant, and its implications for public health in Colombia.