Modern Judicial Reform in El Salvador and Brazil

A comparative assessment of the successes and failures of the judicial reform efforts of El Salvador and Brazil in the 1980’s produces striking results. The reforms varied greatly in scope and were conducted in very different socio-political and economic backgrounds. While El Salvador’s reforms seemed narrow and ill-planned, on paper it appeared that Brazil’s broad reforms would be a successful model for any country with a fledgling democracy. Brazil’s reforms were an exercise in constitutionalism, implementing genuine separation of powers and receiving legislative and executive support. I was very surprised that these different approaches produced strikingly similar negative effects on the people’s assessment of the judiciary. From this outcome I concluded that while judicial reform of a corrupt or inefficient judiciary is an important step in ensuring the rule of law in society, it can not be the vehicle through which democratic reform is implemented. Quite to the contrary, for successful judicial reform to take place there must be considerable penetration of the law in society through enforcement of unbiased legislation, consistency in the laws and their enforcement, and sufficient time for the reform to have an effect on society

ANALYSIS OF THE BUSINESS CYCLE – THE MARKOV-SWITCHING APPROACH

One of the most effective methods of modeling the current and prediction of the future economic situation is the analysis of the business cycles. Some of the analysis are based on the business tendency surveys. Respondents’ answers to the questions from the surveys are found to be correlated with the official assessment of the economic situation and some of them seem to be completely inaccurate. Nonetheless the gathered data could be used to identify turning points of the business cycle in Poland. In the article Markov-switching models and their usefulness to the analysis of the macroeconomic time series are explored. Turning points from the presented algorithm were compared with the dating given by the OECD. Time delay between the reference and the calculated time series varied depending on the considered historical time interval. It is however sometimes possible to determine the parameters that allow getting the leading indicator. This knowledge could be used by policy-makers to react upon the upcoming crisis on time

Russian Rule-Ette: Using Khodorkovsky’s Criminal Trial to Asses the State of Russia’s Judiciary

The criminal trial of Russian oligarch and oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky in connection with Yukos Oil has been one of the most publicized and controversial trials in the history of the Russian Federation. Khodorkovsky’s conviction in the Russian courts has raised grounds for appeal to the European Court of Human Rights on both procedural and substantive grounds. This Note discusses the failures of judicial reform in Russia since the founding of the Russian Federation that have been brought to light by Khodorkovsky’s trial, and assesses the causes of these failures and the prospects for judicial reform

Applying event analysis to selected markets’ reaction to the Russian invasion on Ukraine

The aim of the study was to analyse the rate of return of selected stock exchange indices, currency pairs, raw materials and food in the event window determined by the start date of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2022. The analysis used an approach based on the observation of the development of rates of return and their changes over time caused by Russia’s invasion on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, applying the commonly used Average of Cumulative Abnormal Returns (ACAR) measure. The research showed many similarities as well as some differences in terms of the strength of the impact and the direction of changes in the prices of instruments on individual markets as a result of the outbreak of an armed conflict. The analysis comprehensively takes into account the impact of armed conflict on the development of short- and medium-term rates of return on various markets, the global scope of which has a significant influence on the economic development of individual countries. Not being limited to one market makes it possible to identify universal patterns of stock market behaviour in response to unforeseen events with a global impact on the world economy

The Application of Hidden Markov Models to the Analysis of Real Convergence

This paper employs hidden Markov models and the Viterbi path to analyze the process of real convergence. Such an approach combines the analysis of cyclical and income-level convergence. Twelve macroeconomic variables in the sample of 28 EU countries observed in the 1995-2016 period are within the scope of the study. The results indicate, among others, the existence of real convergence of Poland toward the remaining EU countries in terms of the levels of GDP per capita at PPP and GDP growth rates, with a short-run period of divergence during the global crisis

Un curso de ingreso constructivista para favorecer la inserción a una facultad de ciencias exactas

Hace algunos años, se proponía para el ingreso a una facultad en la UNLP cursos de nivelación de conocimientos como alternativa a los cursos de ingreso eliminatorios. A pesar de que hace más de 6 años que en la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas (UNLP) no se aplica ese objetivo, incluso docentes del propio curso lo llaman “Curso de nivelación”. Pero desde el Espacio Pedagógico (FCE, UNLP) no estamos de acuerdo en nivelar. En este trabajo se presentan los argumentos que tiene por detrás el Curso de ingreso que –con ajustesse viene desarrollando desde 2011. La propuesta está elaborada a partir de un diagnóstico sobre el sistema educativo en el contexto social actual, descripción general de las características de los ingresantes a nuestra Facultad y el proceso que atraviesan los ingresantes en su tránsito desde la Escuela Media a la Universidad. Posteriormente se presentan las características del curso, los fundamentos de las decisiones tomadas y las limitaciones que el mismo posee.A few years ago, for admission to the University of La Plata it was proposed type leveling courses as an alternative to income qualifying courses. Although more than 6 years in the Faculty of Sciences (UNLP) that goal does not apply, even own course teachers call it "leveling course". But from the “Espacio Pedagógico” (FS, UNLP) we do not even agree. The arguments that support the income-course has been developing since 2011 are presented in this work. Proposal is developed from an analysis of the education system in the current social context, overview of the characteristics of entrants to our faculty and process spanning entrants in transit from the Middle School to the University. Subsequently the characteristics of the course, the basics of the decisions taken and the limitations that it has presented.Fil: Bernardelli, Cecilia Elena. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Lynn, Soledad. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas; ArgentinaFil: Petrucci, Diego. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

DIFFERENT EXTRACELLULAR VESICLES SUBPOPULATIONS CHARACTERIZE METASTATIC PROGRESSION: QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF ISOGENIC MELANOMA CELL LINES AND THEIR SECRETED FACTORS

The survival and proliferation of metastases is a consequence of the pre-metastatic niche (PMN) evolution, an abnormal, tumor growth-favoring microenvironment devoid of cancer cells. Among tumor derived secreted factors, extracellular vesicles (EVs) are key players in PMN establishment and facilitate organotropic metastasis. Compared to normal melanocytes, melanoma cells produce a large quantity of EVs, that can be detected in the plasma of melanoma patients. For this reason, a full characterization of secreted vesicles subpopulations and of their cargo is necessary to understand how EVs affect PMN formation. In this study, we demonstrated for the first time that EVs secreted by isogenic primary tumor and metastatic melanoma cell lines are quantitatively and qualitatively different, suggesting that diverse EVs subpopulations characterize metastatic progression. We also set a deep quantitative proteomics protocol to analyze the proteome of these cells and of their EVs and soluble secreted factors. WNT5A was found as an important component of primary tumor secreted EVs; on the contrary, we observed a specific APOE and Fibronectin sorting to EVs in in metastasis versus primary tumor cell. Finally, we observed that increased levels of RAB27A protein in metastatic cells do not correlate with an increased EVs secretion. Our preliminary results demonstrate that EVs secreted by RAB27A-KD cells maintain cancer cells clonogenic ability and that low levels of RAB27A expression correlate with higher cells motility. These findings suggest a paracrine activity of a RAB27A -independent EVs subpopulation in tumor-PMN communication to promote cancer progression