El control interno para la prevención de fraudes en PyMES.

El presente trabajo se realizó con el objetivo de crear una investigación de carácter monográfico sobre la implementación de controles internos para prevenir fraudes en las empresas. Los principales aspectos que se investigaron fueron el ambiente de control, la evaluación de riesgos, los procedimientos de control, y la vigilancia. Por lo tanto, se planteó la pregunta de investigación de, ¿Cómo el control interno puede prevenir un fraude en PYMES? Para ello, este trabajo buscó explicar cómo el control interno se ha implementado de acuerdo a las necesidades de cada entidad para prevenir fraudes en PYMES

Health Accountability for Indigenous Populations: Confronting Power through Adaptive Action Cycles

Health-care providers are powerful figures in society. An informed service user may be able to identify regulatory non-compliance and abuses by these actors, but reporting them is not a mere administrative procedure. It is an act that stirs existing power relations and social hierarchies. This article argues that the essence of an accountability intervention is the process through which service users collect and analyse evidence that is then used to confront power at different governance levels. The response from authorities is assessed and strategies adjusted accordingly in adaptive cycles of accountability action. Based on ten years’ experience supporting indigenous citizen-led accountability action in Guatemala, the authors describe how their approach evolved from an emphasis on technical components to a politically informed approach with interdisciplinary collaboration and explicit engagement with power. This article summarises lessons learned and their relevance for organisations working in health accountability in highly unequal settings.Open Society Foundations, Vozes Desiguais/Unequal Voices, Future Health Systems consortium, the Impact Initiative and Health Systems Globa

Engaging with complexity to improve the health of indigenous people: a call for the use of systems thinking to tackle health inequity

The 400 million indigenous people worldwide represent a wealth of linguistic and cultural diversity, as well as traditional knowledge and sustainable practices that are invaluable resources for human development. However, indigenous people remain on the margins of society in high, middle and low-income countries, and they bear a disproportionate burden of poverty, disease, and mortality compared to the general population. These inequalities have persisted, and in some countries have even worsened, despite the overall improvements in health indicators in relation to the 15-year push to meet the Millennium Development Goals. As we enter the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) era, there is growing consensus that efforts to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and promote sustainable development should be guided by the moral imperative to improve equity. To achieve this, we need to move beyond the reductionist tendency to frame indigenous health as a problem of poor health indicators to be solved through targeted service delivery tactics and move towards holistic, integrated approaches that address the causes of inequalities both inside and outside the health sector. To meet the challenge of engaging with the conditions underlying inequalities and promoting transformational change, equity-oriented research and practice in the field of indigenous health requires: engaging power, context-adapted strategies to improve service delivery, and mobilizing networks of collective action. The application of systems thinking approaches offers a pathway for the evolution of equity-oriented research and practice in collaborative, politically informed and mutually enhancing efforts to understand and transform the systems that generate and reproduce inequities in indigenous health. These approaches hold the potential to strengthen practice through the development of more nuanced, context-sensitive strategies for redressing power imbalances, reshaping the service delivery environment and fostering the dynamics of collective action for political reform.publishedVersio

The Direct and Ecological Costs of an Ant-Plant Symbiosis

How strong is selection for cheating in mutualisms? The answer depends on the type and magnitude of the costs of the mutualism. Here we investigated the direct and ecological costs of plant defense by ants in the association between Cordia nodosa, a myrmecophytic plant, and Allomerus octoarticulatus, a phytoecious ant. Cordia nodosa trees produce food and housing to reward ants that protect them against herbivores. For nearly 1 year, we manipulated the presence of A. octoarticulatus ants and most insect herbivores on C. nodosa in a full-factorial experiment. Ants increased plant growth when herbivores were present but decreased plant growth when herbivores were absent, indicating that hosting ants can be costly to plants. However, we did not detect a cost to ant colonies of defending host plants against herbivores. Although this asymmetry in costs suggests that the plants may be under stronger selection than the ants to cheat by withholding investment in their partner, the costs to C. nodosa are probably at least partly ecological, arising because ants tend scale insects on their host plants. We argue that ecological costs should favor resistance or traits other than cheating and thus that neither partner may face much temptation to cheat.Organismic and Evolutionary Biolog

Abuse and discrimination towards indigenous people in public health care facilities: experiences from rural Guatemala

Background Health inequalities disproportionally affect indigenous people in Guatemala. Previous studies have noted that the disadvantageous situation of indigenous people is the result of complex and structural elements such as social exclusion, racism and discrimination. These elements need to be addressed in order to tackle the social determinants of health. This research was part of a larger participatory collaboration between Centro de Estudios para la Equidad y Gobernanza en los Servicios de Salud (CEGSS) and community based organizations aiming to implement social accountability in rural indigenous municipalities of Guatemala. Discrimination while seeking health care services in public facilities was ranked among the top three problems by communities and that should be addressed in the social accountability intervention. This study aimed to understand and categorize the episodes of discrimination as reported by indigenous communities. Methods A participatory approach was used, involving CEGSS’s researchers and field staff and community leaders. One focus group in one rural village of 13 different municipalities was implemented. Focus groups were aimed at identifying instances of mistreatment in health care services and documenting the account of those who were affected or who witnessed them. All of the 132 obtained episodes were transcribed and scrutinized using a thematic analysis. Results Episodes described by participants ranged from indifference to violence (psychological, symbolic, and physical), including coercion, mockery, deception and racism. Different expressions of discrimination and mistreatment associated to poverty, language barriers, gender, ethnicity and social class were narrated by participants. Conclusions Addressing mistreatment in public health settings will involve tackling the prevalent forms of discrimination, including racism. This will likely require profound, complex and sustained interventions at the programmatic and policy levels beyond the strict realm of public health services. Future studies should assess the magnitude of the occurrence of episodes of maltreatment and racism within indigenous areas and also explore the providers’ perceptions about the problem

Mapping Agronomic and Quality Traits in Elite Durum Wheat Lines under Differing Water Regimes

Final grain production and quality in durum wheat are affected by biotic and abiotic stresses. The association mapping (AM) approach is useful for dissecting the genetic control of quantitative traits, with the aim of increasing final wheat production under stress conditions. In this study, we used AM analyses to detect quantitative trait loci (QTL) underlying agronomic and quality traits in a collection of 294 elite durum wheat lines from CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center), grown under different water regimes over four growing seasons. Thirty-seven significant marker-trait associations (MTAs) were detected for sedimentation volume (SV) and thousand kernel weight (TKW), located on chromosomes 1B and 2A, respectively. The QTL loci found were then confirmed with several AM analyses, which revealed 12 sedimentation index (SDS) MTAs and two additional loci for SV (4A) and yellow rust (1B). A candidate gene analysis of the identified genomic regions detected a cluster of 25 genes encoding blue copper proteins in chromosome 1B, with homoeologs in the two durum wheat subgenomes, and an ubiquinone biosynthesis O-methyltransferase gene. On chromosome 2A, several genes related to photosynthetic processes and metabolic pathways were found in proximity to the markers associated with TKW. These results are of potential use for subsequent application in marker-assisted durum wheat-breeding programs

Priorities and strategies for improving Roma women’s access to primary health care services in cases on intimate partner violence: a concept mapping study

Background: With an explicit focus on Roma women in Spain (Kale/Spanish Gypsies), this study aims to integrate key informants’ opinions about the main actions needed to improve primary health care services’ and professionals’ responses to Roma women in an Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) situation. Methods: Concept mapping study. A total of 50 (brainstorming phase), 36 (sorting and rating phase) and 16 (interpretation phase) participants from Roma civil society groups, primary health care professionals and other related stakeholders (social services, academic experts and other IPV NGOs representatives) from different cities in Spain were involved in the different study phases. Results: Among the 55 action proposals generated, ten priority actions were identified through consensus as most important for improving primary health care’s response to Romani women in an IPV situation, and these included primary, secondary and tertiary prevention activities. Conclusion: Results indicated that efforts to address this challenge should take an integrated approach that reinforces the primary health care response to IPV in general, while also promoting more specific actions to address barriers to access that affect all Roma women and those who experience IPV in particular.The material and analysis of this study is part of the larger research project titled “Violence against women and the responses of primary health professionals in Spain”, financed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Government of Spain, Carlos III Institute and Fondos FEDER (Ref.PI13/00874), directed by the professor Carmen Vives-Cases

Correction: Expert Opinions on Improving Femicide Data Collection across Europe: A Concept Mapping Study

The eighth author’s name is spelled incorrectly. The correct name is Heidi Stöckl. There is an error in the fourth sentence of the penultimate paragraph in the Discussion section. The correct sentence is: Femicide was, for a long time, only addressed in Europe under the wider umbrella of violence against women. It gained greater research and public attention by European and global projects and institutions only in the last decade, under the COST Action IS1206 on Femicide, the EU Daphne Justice Programmes and addressed through ACUNS (Academic Council on the United Nations System) [44]. This updated sentence cites a new reference, which is: Weil, S. “Femicide in Europe”. In: Dimitrijevic, M., Filip, A and Platzer M (eds) Femicide: a Global Issue that Demands Action. Taking Action against Gender-Related Killing of Women and Girls, Vol. 4. Vienna: ACUNS; 2015. Pp.118-121

Protocol for a randomised controlled trial comparing laparoscopic cholecystectomy with observation/conservative management for preventing recurrent symptoms and complications in adults with uncomplicated symptomatic gallstones (C-Gall trial)

Acknowledgments Previous CHaRT director John Norrie for his work with the concept of this study. Funding The trial is funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme (funder number: 14/192/71).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Riesgo de violencia y dependencia emocional en adultos: un mapeo sistemático

The main objective of this systematic mapping research was to identify scientific publications on violence and emotional dependence in the last two years. The methodology used consisted of a search for documents in the following databases: Web of Science, Scopus through the search "risk* of violence* AND emotion* depend*", and for Scielo and The Reference "Violence Emotional dependence". Where 19 research studies were found, which comprise articles, master's theses and doctoral dissertations. It was found that most of the research has been conducted in Latin America, especially in Peru, where the Emotional Dependence Questionnaire (CDE) of Lemos and Londoño and the Emotional Dependence Inventory (IDE) have been used, with regard to the violence variable, different types of instruments are used. It could be detected that in a large part of the explorations there is a close connection between violence and emotional dependence, producing problems in the integral health of the person. It should be emphasized that none of the research belongs to quartile level one, which would lead to the conclusion that it would be beneficial to carry out innovative research on this topic in order to optimize future studies on couple relationships.La presente investigación de mapeo sistemático tuvo como objetivo principal identificar las publicaciones científicas que hay sobre violencia y dependencia emocional en los últimos dos años. La metodología utilizada consistió en una búsqueda de documentos en las siguientes bases de datos: Web of Science, Scopus a través de la búsqueda “risk* of violence* AND emotion* dependen*”, y para Scielo y La Referencia “Violencia Dependencia emocional”. Donde se encontraron 19 estudios de investigación, los cuales conforman artículos, tesis de maestría y doctorados. Se halló que la mayoría de investigaciones se han realizado en Latinoamérica, especialmente en Perú en los cuales se ha empleado mayormente el Cuestionario de Dependencia Emocional (CDE)de Lemos y Londoño, el Inventario de Dependencia Emocional (IDE), con relación a la variable de violencia se utilizan indistintos tipos de instrumentos. Se pudo detectar que en una gran parte de las exploraciones hay una conexión cercana entre violencia y dependencia emocional, produciendo problemas en la salud integral de la persona. Cabe recalcar que ninguna de las investigaciones pertenece al cuartil nivel uno, lo que llevaría a la conclusión que sería beneficioso llevar a cabo investigaciones innovadoras sobre esta temática a fin de optimizar futuros estudios en relaciones de pareja