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This study used sequential exploratory, mixed-method research that explored the influence of authentic tasks on adult language learners' interactions in e-forums. The participants belonged to a blended-flipped program of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). E-Forum posting in the course aimed at encouraging beginner learners to exchange experiences; however, participation in the e-forums did not evolve into spontaneous interactions. Therefore, authentic tasks were designed and implemented in the e-forum. Data were gathered from learners' participation registers, surveys, and interviews and by executing a content-analysis procedure. After analyzing the data, one main category and three subcategories emerged. The main category showed that implementing authentic tasks on students' e-forums interactions led to the collaborative construction of a cognitive-social e-learning environment. The main category comprised three subcategories: (a) building a learning community by interweaving affective-communicative actions, (b) promoting an online learning environment through authenticity, and (c) moving from individual to collective knowledge construction. Findings suggest that the implementation of authentic tasks on e-forums: (a) increased learners' meaningful interactions mediated by social, cognitive, and teaching presences; (b) helped to construct significant and lifelong knowledge collectively; and (c) fostered a stronger learning community through participants' affective-communicative actions.

Environmental education has an important role in higher education institutions as it leads to understanding the importance of sustainability, thus creating a positive impact on students. This impact extends beyond the classroom, inspiring them to actively engage in environmentally responsible behaviors and become conscientious stewards of our planet. The aim of the research was to analyze the environmental perception and ecological attitude of university students at the University of Medellín, that is, this study consisted of examining whether environmental education programs positively influenced the perception of the green campus and the ecological attitude. A structural model was proposed to empirically contrast this phenomenon at a university accredited as a green campus. The results explored that the universities that carry out environmental programs and that offer educational activities on this topic generate a responsible attitude towards sustainability and ecology in their students. This has short, medium and long-term impacts for the university.

Flipped Learning is a pedagogical approach that provides students with more time in class to practice or to engage in dynamic tasks to promote active learning. Although the Flipped Learning research has become increasingly popular, limited research has been conducted in Colombia exploring students' perceptions of this approach. This action research was carried out to explore students' perceptions of "activeness" during the implementation of the Flipped Learning approach. The participants were 84 students from a state university in Colombia who were taking English as a complementary subject as part of their undergraduate degree programs. Students were exposed to this approach during a 16-week period in which they completed different pre-class, during-class, and post-class activities. Data collection instruments were designed based on the first three pillars of the approach: "Flexible Environment, Learning Culture, and Intentional Content." Data were collected through immediate feedback, an online questionnaire, and a focus group interview, and were then analyzed in the light of these three pillars. The data indicated that students felt they were more engaged, their voices were heard, they felt increased ownership of their learning, and demonstrated a positive opinion towards collaborative work.

This article reports a qualitative case study about the implementation of a translanguaging strategy with EFL learners belonging to the Language Learning Support programs at a private university, who struggled when speaking in English. In order to address this problem, this strategy aim to help participants to reflect and self-direct their oral performance development. Multimodal tools were used for learners to undertake a specific course of action to cope with their speaking difficulties. Data gathered from tutor's journals, student's e-portfolio and interviews, showed how confidence and self-regulation were fostered after including student's mother tongue and ICT tools. These findings suggest a need to expand this implementation with learners of different proficiency levels who also find it difficult to verbally express their ideas. Moreover, it takes a look at the use of the mother tongue as an advantage rather than as an obstacle to learning a foreign language.

In Colombia, plantings with the oil palm hybrid between Elaeis oleifera × Elaeis guineensis, known as O × G hybrid, have increased due to its tolerance to bud rot. Despite this, different degrees of foliar necrosis, chlorosis, and leaf blight have been reported in some cultivars; therefore, this work aimed to diagnose this problem. We visited plantation plots with palms exhibiting the mentioned symptoms and collected 21 samples of affected tissues in different disease states. The affected tissues were examined and seeded in a culture medium. Pathogenicity tests were performed and the isolates were characterized by culture and morphological and molecular features. Curvularia, Colletotrichum, Phoma, and 25 Pestalotiopsis-like fungi were isolated from the foliar lesions. In the pathogenicity tests, the symptoms observed in the field were reproduced with MFTU01-1, MFTU12, and MFTU21 isolates, which were identified at the species level through a sequence analysis of three genes (ITS, TUB2, and TEF1-α) as Pestalotiopsis arengae with an identical level of 99% based on the results of BLAST and phylogenetic tree analyses. The remaining 22 Pestalotiopsis-like non-pathogenic isolates were identified as species of Neopestalotiopsis and Pseudopestalotiopsis. The direct association of P. arengae with the disease was confirmed via molecular detection in affected tissues in 15 of 21 samples collected for this evaluation. This is the first report of P. arengae as the causal agent of foliar lesions in O × G hybrid oil palm in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wandering spider, Phoneutria depilata, is one of Colombia's most active nocturnal arthropod predators of vertebrates and invertebrates. Its venom has been a relevant subject of study in the last two decades. However, the scarcity of transcriptomic data for the species limits our knowledge of the distinct components present in its venom for linking the mainly neurotoxic effects of the spider venom to a particular molecular target. The transcriptome of the P. depilata venom gland was analyzed to understand the effect of different diets or sex and the impact of these variables on the composition of the venom. We sequenced venom glands obtained from ten males and ten females from three diet treatments: (i) invertebrate: Tenebrio molitor, (ii) vertebrate: Hemidactylus frenatus, and (iii) mixed (T. molitor + H. frenatus). Of 17,354 assembled transcripts from all samples, 65 transcripts relating to venom production differed between males and females. Among them, 36 were classified as neurotoxins, 14 as serine endopeptidases, 11 as other proteins related to venom production, three as metalloprotease toxins, and one as a venom potentiator. There were no differences in transcripts across the analyzed diets, but when considering the effect of diets on differences between the sexes, 59 transcripts were differentially expressed. Our findings provide essential information on toxins differentially expressed that can be related to sex and the plasticity of the diet of P. depilata and thus can be used as a reference for venomics of other wandering spider species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Complutense de Educación is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Biomédica: Revista del Instituto Nacional de Salud is the property of Instituto Nacional de Salud of Colombia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Basal stem rot (BSR), caused by Ganoderma spp., is one of the most important emerging oil palm diseases in Colombia, and is restricted to two oil palm production areas in the country. To identify the causal agent of the disease, basidiocarp of oil palms affected by BSR were used to prepare isolates, and their pathogenicity was then assessed in pre-nursery plants. Four-month-old oil palm seedlings were inoculated with rubber wood (Hevea brasiliensis) blocks colonized with dikaryotic mycelia of Ganoderma. The incidence, severity, and symptoms of the pathogen were assessed. A multiregional analysis (ITS, rpb2, and tef1-α) was carried out to identify the isolates; all isolates were determined to be Ganoderma zonatum. Phylogenetic analyses with the three regions yielded concordant phylogenetic information and supported the distinction of the isolates with high bootstrap support. Seven isolates (CPBsZN-01-29, CPBsZN-02-30, CPBsZN-03-31, CPBsZN-04-34, CPBsZN-05-35, CPBsZN-06-36, and CPBsZN-07-38) were pathogenic in oil palm, with incidences greater than 90% and a maximum severity of 34%, and the highest severity index was found in isolates CPBsZN-03-31, CPBsZN-04-34, and CPBsZN-06-36. The pathogen was recovered from inoculated oil palms in all cases. This study reveals the pathogenic association of Ganoderma zonatum with BSR in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the study was to assess the presence of trachoma in high priority districts in the Amazon state of Venezuela (the Bolivarian Republic of), and use trachoma data gathering platform to offer integrated primary health care services to underserved hard-to-reach populations living in the border with Colombia. Trachoma Rapid Assessments (TRA) were conducted in indigenous communities of three municipalities of the Amazonas State of Venezuela from June 2018 to April 2019 using the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Integrated health services were delivered based on the identified needs of the population of the assessed communities. 1,185 children aged 1–9 years were examined for trachoma in the three municipalities, of which 6.92% had active trachoma; 994 people 15 years and above were examined for trachomatous trichiasis (TT) finding two cases (0.2%). 1,635 people were examined for other health-related problems and the most common diagnoses were intestinal parasites (54.74%), eye diseases (16.81%), cavities (7.34%), scabies (5.56%), headache (4.40%), and malaria (2.81%); additionally, 2,233 vaccine doses were provided to children and adults to complete vaccination series. The results of the TRA in the Amazon state of Venezuela suggest that trachoma could be a public health problem and standardized population-based surveys to establish the prevalence and determine the interventions to implement are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ideas y Valores is the property of Universidad Nacional de Colombia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This work carried out a multi-criteria analysis of the medicinal plants grown in the village "Altos de Ceylan," municipality of Viotá (Cundinamarca, Colombia), as a step towards the ecological certification and sustainable use of the existing plant biodiversity in Colombia, combined with the dialogue of knowledge, which is aimed at rescuing traditional knowledge by local communities and building new insights. The multi-criteria analysis allowed us to define the environmental and economic criteria weighted for the selection of the medicinal plants to be certified as ecological products. "The dialogue of knowledge" is a methodology that establishes an exchange of knowledge between the academy --in this case, Universidad Colegio Mayor de Cundinamarca and the National University of Colombia--, researchers and local communities, represented in this study by women belonging to "Seeds of Hope and Peace, Association of Women Victims of Armed Conflict" [Asociación Semillas de Esperanza y Paz de Mujeres Víctimas del Conflicto Armado] (Asepamuvic). The insights built encompassed traditional knowledge regarding the cultivation, management and use of locally-grown medicinal and aromatic plants, making it possible to identify promising species such as sábila (Aloe vera Linnaeus), lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus), prontoalivio (Lippia alba-Verbena), chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla Linneo), mint (Mentha piperita Linneo), thyme (Pectis graveolens Klatt), parsley (Petroselinum crispum (Mill.)), and rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis Linneo), based on the analysis of environmental and economic criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many Latin American countries face the challenge of caring for a growing number of people with severe mental illnesses while promoting deinstitutionalization and community-based care. This article presents an overview of current policies that aim to reform the mental health care system and advance the employment of people with disabilities in Colombia, Costa Rica, and Peru. The authors conducted a thematic analysis by using public records and semistructured interviews with stakeholders. The authors found evidence of supported employment programs for vulnerable populations, including people with disabilities, but found that the programs did not include people with severe mental illnesses. Five relevant themes were found to hamper progress in psychiatric vocational rehabilitation services: rigid labor markets, insufficient advocacy, public subsidies that create conflicting incentives, lack of deinstitutionalized models, and lack of reimbursement for evidence-based psychiatric rehabilitation interventions. Policy reforms in these countries have promoted the use of medical interventions to treat people with severe mental illnesses but not the use of evidence-based rehabilitation programs to facilitate community integration and functional recovery. Because these countries have other supported employment programs for people with nonpsychiatric disabilities, they are well positioned to pilot individual placement and support to accelerate full community integration among individuals with severe mental illnesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Estudios Gerenciales is the property of Universidad ICESI and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Parkinson's disease (PD) has the second highest prevalence among neurodege - nerative diseases. In Colombia, PD population dynamics are currently unknown. Health records offer a unique resource to study frequency and multi-morbidity of chronic diseases. The aim of this research is to estimate prevalence and staging using administrative data (AD) provided by Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs). A cross-sectional study was conducted using 2015 AD from two Colombian HMOs (4.312.928 beneficiaries, 9.01% of the affiliated Colombian population). PD prevalence and severity was estimated by age and sex. Prevalence was adjusted to WHO demographics. Age-adjusted PD prevalence was 205.89 per 100.000 inhabitants. Prevalence increment of 62.13% was found between those aged ≥40 years and those aged ≥50 years. Similarly, each extra decade (50-80+) represented an increment of 83.65%, 80.95%, and 35.10%. Between 40 and 89 years, males exhibited a significantly higher PD prevalence compared to females. Advanced PD was more frequent as age increased from 3.77% in the group between 40 to 49 years to 25.86% in those older than 89 years. More common related comorbidities were arterial hypertension, diabetes, and psychiatric disorders; the first two increased their frequency with age, and the last one maintained its prevalence across all age groups. AD sets are useful to estimate the prevalence and staging of PD. Prevalence of PD in Colombia is higher in men and increases with age, as well as disease severity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decisions made by deans and university managers greatly impact the entire academic community as well as society as a whole. In this paper, we present survey results on which academic decisions they concern and the variables involved in them. Using machine learning algorithms, we predicted graduation rates in a real case study to support decision making. Real data from five undergraduate engineering programs at District University Francisco Jose de Caldas in Colombia illustrate our results. The comparison between support vector machine and artificial neural network is held using the confusion matrix and the receiver operating characteristic curve. The algorithm methods and architecture are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During last decades, there has been a growing interest of decreasing the environmental impact generated by humans. This situation has been approached from different perspectives being the integral use of raw materials as one of the best alternatives. It was estimated that 3.7 × 109 tonnes of agricultural residues are produced annually worldwide. Then, the integral use of feedstocks has been studied through the biorefinery concept. A biorefinery can be a promissory option for processing feedstocks in rural zones aiming to boost the techno-economic and social growth. However, many plants produced at small scale in rural zones without high industrial use contribute with residues usually not studied as raw materials for other processes. Cocoyam (Xanthosoma sagittifolium) is a plant grown extensively in tropical regions. Nigeria, China, and Ghana are the main producers with 1.3, 1.18, and 0.9 million tonnes/year, respectively. In Colombia, there are no technified crops, but it is used where it is grown mainly as animal feed. This plant consists of leaves, stem, and a tuber but the use is generally limited to the leaves, discarding the other parts. These discarded parts have great potential (lignocellulose and starch). This work proposes different processing schemes using the parts of the plant to obtain value-added products, and their techno-economic and environmental assessment. The simulation was performed with Aspen Plus and the economic package was used for the economic assessment. For the environmental assessment, Waste Algorithm Reduction of the U.S. EPA was implemented. The obtained results showed that the integral use of plants under a biorefinery scheme allows obtaining better techno-economic and environmental performance and that small-scale biorefineries can be a promissory option for boosting rural zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Ciencias de la Salud is the property of Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Senora del Rosario and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales is the property of Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicas y Naturales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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Copyright of Gerencia Tecnologica Informatica is the property of Universidad Industrial de Santander and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We explore the traits that characterize the codes of conduct with the aim to understand the parameters of responsibility and ethical performance that Colombian oil companies define for themselves and for their stakeholders. The paper is exploratory and descriptive and uses the method of multiple case study. The codes are grouped in three blocks according to their structure. We show the philosophical roots of codes. codes of global companies are extensive and legal. Local companies with international ambition have less extensive codes, but maintain their legal nature. Codes of small local enterprises are short and mission-focused by this tone. Virtually all codes have their roots in utilitarian ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: We explore the codes of conduct in order to characterize the responsibility and ethical performance parameters that Colombian oil companies define for themselves. Method: The paper is exploratory and descriptive. We use the method of multiple case study and a model of Gaumnitz and Lere (2004) in order to classify the codes. Results: The codes are grouped into three blocks according to their structure: codes of conduct of multinational companies; codes of conduct of local companies with international ambitions; codes of conduct of small local companies. Conclusions: Codes of global companies are extensive and legalistic. Codes of local companies with international ambitions are short and legalistic. Codes of small local companies are short and missionary. Virtually all codes have their roots in the utilitarian ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the results of a bibliometric study of internal and external consumption and co-authorship of articles written by Colombians between 1969 and 2008, in order to provide empirical evidence of the role played by the Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología in the development of the psychological science community in Colombia. Results suggest that despite the publication's scientific and editorial excellence, it had little involvement in the development of local psychological science communities. The article expresses some concerns regarding the agenda for the internationalization of science promoted by the Colombian National System of Science and Technology, in which publications such as the Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología are taken as models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Los autores ofrecen comentarios sobre la Ley 1474 de 2011 sobre el sistema de salud en Colombia. Los autores opinan que el Sistema General de Seguridad Social en Salud (SGSSS) de Colombia es inestable debido a factores incluyendo los intereses y recursos públicos y privados. Se considera la corrupción que existe en el sistema, especialmente por el empleado público corrupto. Los autores analizan el Estatuto Anticorrupción de 2011.

Copyright of Avances en PsicologÍa Latinoamericana is the property of Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Senora del Rosario and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: The detailed palynofacies analysis of the late Holocene laminated succession of the San Nicolás terrace in the middle Cauca Valley, northern Colombia, is interpreted as the product of sedimentation in a lacustrine to fluvial dominated setting. Radiocarbon analyses reveal that the succession was deposited between ~3500 and a few hundreds of years with sedimentary rates in excess of ~600cm/ka. The milimetric laminae and the high frequency fluctuations in the content of the palynodebris of terrestrial origin, i.e., the high altered ligno-cellulosic debris/amorphous organic matter ratio, together with diatoms typical of fluvial conditions, such as Aulacoseira granulata do suggest an intermittent and continuous hydrological and biological connectivity with the Cauca River, akin to a varzea lacustrine environment. Drier to wetter conditions appear to occur, moving upward in the succession. This might reflect regional precipitation conditions all along the Cauca Valley and the southern migration of the intertropical convergence zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El artículo enfoca en el rol de la interventoría en contratos de obras públicas en Colombia. El autor analiza el papel de los interventores en la contratación pública en Colombia cuestionando la relevancia de los mismos para la construcción de buenas obras públicas. En su análisis el autor considera elementos como los costos de transacción, la existencia de contratos incompletos y el control administrativo.

Colombia is a country with great geographic heterogeneity and marked regional differences in pre-Columbian native population density and in the extent of past African and European immigration. As a result, Colombia has one of the most diverse populations in Latin America. Here we evaluated ancestry in over 1,700 individuals from 24 Colombian populations using biparental (autosomal and X-Chromosome), maternal (mtDNA), and varies markedly both within and between regions, confirming the great genetic diversity of the Colombian population. The X-chromosome, mtDNA, and Y-chromosome data indicate that there is a pattern across regions indicative of admixture involving predominantly Native American women and European and African men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ingenium is the property of Facultad de Ciencias Basicas e Ingenieria de Universidad de San Buenaventura, Revista Ingenium and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Investigación, Biodiversidad y Desarrollo is the property of Universidad Tecnologica del Choco and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Investigación, Biodiversidad y Desarrollo is the property of Universidad Tecnologica del Choco and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Ciencia en su PC is the property of Instituto de Informacion Cientifica y Tecnologica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The public contracting in Colombia is conflicting and inefficient. It frequently leads to the patrimonial damage to the State. Colombian legal system can not assure the efficient and transparent public contracting. The cause is the institutional environment characterized by high transaction costs. The Colombian law makes things worse by recognizing the principle of economic equilibrium of the public contracts. This principle augments the contract incompleteness and makes impossible the use of the economic incentives to control the opportunism of the economic agents. The authors present the hypothesis that the economic equilibrium principle increases the conflictive nature of the public contracting. They make the empirical test of the hypothesis. The first section of the paper presents the summary of the literature on the transaction costs economics, as well as the legal literature on the historical origin and the content of the economic equilibrium principle. The second section describes the methodology of the empirical study. The third section shows the empirical evidence of the effects that the economic equilibrium principle exerts over the public contracting. The last section presents the conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Estudios Socio-Jurídicos is the property of Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Senora del Rosario and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Estudios Gerenciales is the property of Universidad ICESI and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article presents a case study of the system of vertical alliances in the health care sector in Bogota. The article aims at contributing the understanding of hybrid organizational forms, by assessing the degree of integration in vertical alliances. Such alliances are studied in the light of the theoretical model for selecting optimal integration in vertical alliances proposed in the literature on the topic. The article finds that a higher degree of integration between the health insurance company and the companies that provide ambulatory health care may be useful to better control that first glance at the health care system. Likewise, it finds that the degree of integration between the health insurance company and the hospital service providers seems adequate because it shows that a higher degree of said integration may create unnecessary rigidity in an uncertain environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Colombian health system illustrates evidence of the market power of health insurance entities (EPS) with respect to hospital institutions (IPS). The study illustrates this hypothesis with empiric evidence and shows that the concentration of EPS entities is higher than that of IPS entities. Hospitals try to defend themselves, building concentration "islands" in select specialties. However, this concentration of specialties does not reach the level of concentration of the insurance entities. This lack of balance in the degree of concentration explains the market power executed by EPS entities in respect with IPS entities. The market power functions as one of the causes that explain the difficult financial situation of IPSs. It is recommended to find measures to correct this situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains how forms of governance are selected for the Colombian fuel distribution chain and it formulates some proposals aimed at improving efficiency. The conceptual context is based on contract and transaction cost theory. The hypotheses made are demonstrated in two manners: empirically and using a formal model. The empirical work is based on the study of contracts signed between wholesalers and retailers, as well as on a survey given to wholesale company managers. The information obtained was processed using econometric models. The authors found that the more wholesalers design more complete contracts, the less they are interested in vertical integration. That strategy has limitations because more complete contracts increase tracking costs. Vertical integration once again becomes interesting when the wholesaler seeks to differentiate its products. The authors' proposal is for retailers to encourage reliability strengthening measures and more complete contract designing, to limit such opportunism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the author analyze the definition reconstruction of the social tissue in relation with the themes right to city, urban marginality and forced migrations in Colombia. The author considers the reconstruction of the social tissue as the set of acts to reconstruct the significant relations that determine particular forms of being, producing, interacting and projecting in the family, community, labour and citizen contexts. Also as a pedagogic and vital process where they are important the nets of social support, the integral attention to the human being, the invigora- tion of the collective action and the support to the self-management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to study the limits and the relations between insurers and providers of health services in the contribution-based health care system in Bogotá, as well as to link the ways in which the exchange of health services is set up with the results perceived by providers. The research is rooted theoretically in transaction cost economics. Seventeen (17) health service providers were included in the empirical component of the study. We have found three basic forms of economic exchange: Market cooperation, hierarchical market, and potential cooperation. The hierarchical market shows inferior results compared to potential cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is grounded on an ethnographic investigation on the "Diana Turbay" neighborhood in Bogota. Its objective is to analyze certain aspects that favored the formation of this neighborhood of illegal origin, the organization of its inhabitants in their daily struggle to get better life conditions and the dynamics of change in their social relationships as part of the process of incorporation of the neighborhood to the city. This paper is inscribed on the debates about right to city and urban marginality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The LRRK2 p.G2019S Parkinson's disease (PD) variant is associated with elevated glucocerebrosidase (GCase) activity in peripheral blood. We aimed to evaluate the association of other LRRK2 variants with PD and its association with GCase activity. LRRK2 and GBA were fully sequenced in 1123 PD patients and 576 controls from the Columbia and PPMI cohorts, in which GCase activity was measured in dried blood spots by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. LRRK2 p.M1646T was associated with increased GCase activity in the Columbia University cohort (β = 1.58, p = 0.0003), and increased but not significantly in the PPMI cohort (β = 0.29, p = 0.58). p.M1646T was associated with PD (odds ratio = 1.18, 95% confidence interval = 1.09–1.28, p = 7.33E-05) in 56,306 PD patients and proxy-cases, and 1.4 million controls. Our results suggest that the p.M1646T variant is associated with risk of PD with a small effect and with increased GCase activity in peripheral blood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New generations require a more dynamic learning process, that's why high education institutions have begun to articulate new pedagogical tools in the different areas of knowledge. The objective of this article is to design and educational game to support the learning process of the areas related to marketing inside the micro-curriculum of a Colombian University. To accomplish this aim, a literature review was carried out and a pilot test was applied to pre-grade students. The results show that this type of games require of a mode interactive design in terms of complexity and competitiveness. Finally shows that this type of games improved knowledge in the simple tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the traits that characterize the codes of conduct with the aim to understand the parameters of responsibility and ethical performance that Colombian oil companies define for themselves and for their stakeholders. The paper is exploratory and descriptive and uses the method of multiple case study. The codes are grouped in three blocks according to their structure. We show the philosophical roots of codes. Codes of global companies are extensive and legal. Local companies with international ambitios have less extensive codes, but maintain their legal nature. Codes of small local enterprises are short and mission-focused by this tone. Virtually all codes have their roots in utilitarian ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To contribute to the Nariño Biodiversity Action Plan and following guidelines for investigation of the GAICA group of the University of Nariño, we reviewed ans summarized existing information about bird records of the department of Nariño. We found a total of 1048 species of birds that includes 155 migratory species and 242 species classified as endangered, threatened or requiring protection according to AICA/IBA criteria). The Department of Nariño stands out as an important center for the bird conservation in Colombia since it shelters a high number of endemic species, with restricted ranges and is considered by some authors as center of speciation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]