Measuring the Effects of Voter Confidence on Political Participation: An Application to the 2006 Mexican Election

In this paper we study the causal effect of voter confidence on participation decisions in the 2006 Mexican Election. Previous research has shown that voter confidence was a relevant factor in explaining participation during the years of the PRI hegemony. An open question is whether this relationship is still significant after the democratic transition taking place in the years 1997-2000. Moreover, in the previous literature, this problem was studied in a regression framework. In this article we argue that, since voter confidence and participation decisions are affected by similar covariates, a regression approach may lead to results which are too model dependent, and do not account for the heterogeneity of effects across voters. To solve this problem, we use matching methods, and find that voter confidence has considerable effects on participation decisions, but substantially different in magnitude from those found using the usual regression approach.Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project; John S. and James L. Knight Foundatio

Genomic organization of nucleolin gene in carp fish: Evidence for several genes

http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0716-97602006000200017&lng=es&nrm=isoThe protein nucleolin, functionally involved in the main steps of ribosome biogenesis, is codified by a single copy gene in mammals. Here we report that at least three different genes codify for this protein in carp fish (Cyprinus carpio). This is the first description of the genomic organization of nucleolin in a teleost. The carp nucleolin gene includes 8.8 kb and contains 16 exons. Promoter cis regulatory elements are similar to constitutive genes, i.e., a putative TATA box, three G/C boxes, and three pyrimidine-rich boxes. As in other species, carp nucleolin gene introns host three snoRNA codifying sequences: U23 from the H/ACA family and two C/D box snoRNAs, U20 and U82. Both U20 and U82 span a complementary sequence with carp 18S rRNA. Additionally, we identified two cDNAs coding for nucleolin, confirming the existence of several nucleolin genes in carp. Amino acidderived sequence from carp cDNAs differ from mammal protein because they span additional acidic domains at the amino end, whose functional significance remains unclear. We performed amino acid sequence comparison and phylogenetic analyses showing that the three isoforms of carp nucleolin, which we describe herein, cluster in two groups. cNUC1 probably diverges from cNUC2 and cNUC3 as result of ancestral fish-specific genome duplication, indeed C. carpio is a tetraploid fish

Del “otro” como sujeto de investigación al “otro” como productor de conocimiento: (re)pensando la práctica de investigación etnográfica con organizaciones sociales

Fil: Fernandez Alvarez, Maria Ines. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Instituto de Ciencias Antropológicas. Seccion de Antropología Social; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Carenzo, Sebastian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencias Sociales. Instituto de Estudios Sociales de la Ciencia y la Tecnología; Argentin

Election forensics: Using machine learning and synthetic data for possible election anomaly detection

Assuring election integrity is essential for the legitimacy of elected representative democratic government. Until recently, other than in-person election observation, there have been few quantitative methods for determining the integrity of a democratic election. Here we present a machine learning methodology for identifying polling places at risk of election fraud and estimating the extent of potential electoral manipulation, using synthetic training data. We apply this methodology to mesa-level data from Argentina’s 2015 national elections

The Four Faces of Political Participation in Argentina: Using Latent Class Analysis to Study Political Behavior

In this paper we use latent class analysis to identify the four faces of political participation. Previous research has generally focused on conventional forms of political participation (for example, voting), with some research looking as well at unconventional forms of political participation, like protesting. Moreover, most research studies these forms of participation separately. However, citizens actually engage in both conventional and unconventional participation simultaneously, and here we present a methodology that can identify citizens who engage in both, neither, or only one form of participation. Using our approach, we examine a series of hypotheses about how social, political, and economic grievances lead citizens to engage in each face of political participation. We apply this methodology to recent survey data from Argentina, which we argue is an excellent case for studying both forms of participation simultaneously. This application demonstrates the utility of the latent class approach for studying the four faces of political participation

Extractivismo y acumulación por desposesión: un análisis de las explicaciones sobre agronegocios, megaminería y territorio en la Argentina de la posconvertibilidad

El fin del llamado “Consenso de Washington” en América Latina, signado por una serie de crisis y resistencias, dio lugar a una serie de transformaciones en la región y en el escenario mundial. Un conjunto creciente de trabajos vienen señalando, desde perspectivas no siempre coincidentes, que un aspecto fundamental de la acumulación de capital y del modo de integración al mercado mundial de estos países pasa por la extracción y exportación de recursos naturales. Sin embargo, aún a pesar de la difusión y de la importancia que ha tenido el término, es difícil encontrar definiciones precisas del mismo. Como mostraremos en este artículo, las influencias teóricas y los significados que toma el término son más diversas de lo que un consenso en tanto uso generalizado como diagnóstico de la época pareciera indicar.Fil: Alvarez Huwiler, Laura Ines. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Grigera, Juan Francisco. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Precarity, Care, and Popular Economy in Latin America

The notions of precarity and care have become increasingly central in academic debate. Although both notions have a history dating back to the 1970s, the debates over them have undoubtedly been renewed since the world economic crisis that emerged in 2008. Both concepts have been subject to various reviews according to different disciplinary views and contexts of knowledge production. However, it is possible to identify some points in common across the different lines of analysis that come into play in both cases. From a social and historically situated perspective, the understanding of precarity as an experience that goes beyond what is strictly labor-related has made it possible to bring visibility to the living conditions of a large sector of the population worldwide. By putting on hold views of work based on a formal/informal dichotomy, attention to non-European realities has opened the way to questions and reflections that have led to a rethinking of the ways in which work and the economy are understood, and to consideration of the ways in which individual and collective strategies are generated for the reproduction of life under unwaged and even non-commodified forms of labor. The concept of care, particularly as developed by feminist economics, has also aimed to problematize economic systems which are centered on a self-sufficient ideal subject who meets their vital needs only through the market, and which evidence hierarchies of gender and class that come into play in the valorization and distribution of work.In Latin America, the recent development of a series of unionization and mobilization processes led by workers from the popular economy has meant a revisiting of the debates about the various forms of reproduction of life in populations structurally excluded from wage labor. In recent years, in Argentina in particular, a series of collective organization processes led by unwaged workers has taken place with the aim of claiming rights and improving living conditions for sectors of the population defined as part of the popular economy. The ethnographic analysis of these experiences sheds light on the intersection between precarity and care, contributing to broader questions about ways of making a living and producing well-being in contexts of structural inequality and exclusion from the formal labor market. The dynamics of organization produced by the popular economy entail the implementation of collective forms of care and reproduction of life that stretch the limits of the Fordist model of welfare provision anchored in the labor market and in the nuclear family, thus renewing debates around the ways in which processes of class struggle are configured.Fil: Fernandez Alvarez, Maria Ines. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Saavedra 15. Centro de Innovación de los Trabajadores. Universidad Metropolitana para la Educación y el Trabajo. Centro de Innovación de los Trabajadores; ArgentinaFil: Pacífico, Florencia Daniela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Saavedra 15. Centro de Innovación de los Trabajadores. Universidad Metropolitana para la Educación y el Trabajo. Centro de Innovación de los Trabajadores; Argentin

Election forensics: Using machine learning and synthetic data for possible election anomaly detection

Assuring election integrity is essential for the legitimacy of elected representative democratic government. Until recently, other than in-person election observation, there have been few quantitative methods for determining the integrity of a democratic election. Here we present a machine learning methodology for identifying polling places at risk of election fraud and estimating the extent of potential electoral manipulation, using synthetic training data. We apply this methodology to mesa-level data from Argentina’s 2015 national elections

Making Voting Easier: Convenience Voting in the 2008 Presidential Election

In this study we analyze the choice of voting mode in the 2008 presidential election. We use a large-sample survey with national coverage that allows us to overcome limitations of previous studies. Our analysis provides a number of insights into some of the important debates about convenience voting. Among other things, we find little support for the hypothesis that convenience voting methods have partisan implications; although we do find voter attributes that lead to the choice of some particular convenience voting mode. Results like these have important implications for future moves towards convenience voting and the design of new outreach campaigns.Pew Charitable Trust

Síntesis de hidrogeles de n-[3-(dimetilamino) propil] metacrilamida para retención de metales

Crosslinked polymer material containing functional groups (carboxylic acids, amines, hydroxyl and sulfonic acids) can be used as complexing agents for removing metal ions from aqueous solutions, sometimes selectively and with the possibility of their recovery, presenting advantages over other techniques for their removal. The removal of metals is a possible solution to the problem of pollution affecting water quality. Based on this important application, the preparation of new hydrogels of N-[3-(dimethylamine) propyl] methacrylamide with different concentrations of crosslinking agent to be used in the removal of Cu2+ and Pb2+ from aqueous solutions, is presented. The retention was effective and the values of retention, resulted high, especially when solutions of low initial concentrations were used. The results indicated also that the experimental data fit the Langmuir model, which postulates that the surface of the adsorbent has a fixed number of identical and defined active sites, the adsorption is of monolayer type, even on a homogeneous surface without lateral interaction between molecules of the adsorbent in which all active centers have the same enthalpy of adsorptionLos materiales poliméricos entrecruzados que contienen grupos funcionales (ácidos carboxílicos, aminas, hidroxilos y ácidos sulfónicos) pueden ser usados como agentes acomplejantes para eliminación de iones metálicos a partir de soluciones acuosas, a veces en forma selectiva y con la posibilidad de recuperación de los mismos, presentando ventajas frente a otras técnicas de eliminación de los mismos. La eliminación de metales constituye una posible solución al problema de polución que afecta la calidad del agua. En base a esta importante aplicación, en este trabajo se realizó la preparación de nuevos hidrogeles de N-[3-(dimetilamino) propil] metacrilamida con diferentes concentraciones de agente entrecruzante, para analizar el uso de los mismos en la eliminación de Cu2+ y Pb2+ a partir de soluciones acuosas. La retención resultó efectiva, habiéndose logrado valores de retención altos, especialmente cuando se usaron soluciones de concentraciones iníciales bajas. Los resultados indicaron además, que los datos experimentales ajustan al modelo de Langmuir, que postula que la superficie del adsorbente posee un número fijo de centros activos idénticos y definidos, que la adsorción es en monocapas, uniforme, sobre una superficie homogénea, sin interacción lateral entre las moléculas del adsorbente, en el que todos los centros activos tienen la misma entalpía de absorción.Fil: Garcia Manzano, Maria Florencia. Universidad Nacional de Cordoba. Facultad de Ciencias Quimicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (p); Argentina; ArgentinaFil: Alvarez Igarzabal, Cecilia Ines. Universidad Nacional de Cordoba. Facultad de Ciencias Quimicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (p); Argentina; Argentin