People across the world are protesting their lack of real democracy

In recent years the world has been shaken by protests, from the Arab Spring to the “Indignados” (outraged), from Occupy to food riots. Hernán Cortés Saenz looks at a recent study of more than 800 protests across the world since 2006, and finds that protests are increasing, especially in developing regions such as Latin America. He writes that these protests are often driven not only by a desire for economic justice, but also by what the protestors perceive as a lack of ‘real democracy’ that prevents economic issues from being addressed

A lack of ‘real democracy’ is the key reason driving the spread of protests across the world

The world has seen a number of high profile protests in recent years, from the Arab Spring to the “Indignados”, or the Euromaidan in Kyiv. Hernán Cortés Saenz looks at data from more than 800 protests across the world since 2006, finding that protests are increasing, especially in developing regions such as Latin America. He writes that these protests are often driven not only by a desire for economic justice, but also by what the protesters perceive as a lack of ‘real democracy’ that prevents economic issues from being addressed

Adaptación psicosocial del paciente oncológico ingresado y del familiar cuidador principal

The present study looks for the relation between the psychosocial distress experienced by the patient and his family caregiver during the period he is hospitalised. The sample is composed by 94 persons (oncology patients and family caregivers). We have used a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the “Quality of life Questionnaire” for general satisfaction and social support and the family APGAR for family functioning. The results indicate that the anxiety of the caregiver is significantly higher than the one of the patient. The family functioning perceived by the patient correlates negatively with the depression and positively with the general satisfaction of the family caregiver. We found a correlation between the age and the depression subscale. In the family caregivers group we confirm that the higher scores in depression appear in ages between 35 and 55. Married patients and caregivers obtain higher punctuation in depression compared to unmarried ones. We conclude that the patients psychosocial distress differs from the caregivers distress. The psychological intervention should focus on the individual needs of the patient and the caregiver by promoting the social net of the relatives, supplying a better communication with the patient, reducing the caregivers anxiety and attending the demands derived from physical condition, marital status and age

Introducción: El Futuro de las Monedas Nacionales

Sistemas monetarios, regímenes cambiarios

A machine learning model to identify corruption in M\'exico's public procurement contracts

The costs and impacts of government corruption range from impairing a country's economic growth to affecting its citizens' well-being and safety. Public contracting between government dependencies and private sector instances, referred to as public procurement, is a fertile land of opportunity for corrupt practices, generating substantial monetary losses worldwide. Thus, identifying and deterring corrupt activities between the government and the private sector is paramount. However, due to several factors, corruption in public procurement is challenging to identify and track, leading to corrupt practices going unnoticed. This paper proposes a machine learning model based on an ensemble of random forest classifiers, which we call hyper-forest, to identify and predict corrupt contracts in M\'exico's public procurement data. This method's results correctly detect most of the corrupt and non-corrupt contracts evaluated in the dataset. Furthermore, we found that the most critical predictors considered in the model are those related to the relationship between buyers and suppliers rather than those related to features of individual contracts. Also, the method proposed here is general enough to be trained with data from other countries. Overall, our work presents a tool that can help in the decision-making process to identify, predict and analyze corruption in public procurement contracts.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures. On revision in Journal of Quantitative Criminolog

Determinación de causas de disminución del interés por el desarrollo de software por parte de los estudiantes de ingeniería de sistemas: caso Universidad Católica de Colombia

Trabajo de InvestigaciónEn la Universidad Católica de Colombia la mayoría de estudiantes no prefieren el Desarrollo de Software. Esto se evidencia en aspectos como la asignatura trabajo de grado, en el cual se encuentra que solo un 11% de estudiantes eligen realizar proyectos enfocados en esta área. Dado que el programa de Ingeniería de Sistemas de la Universidad Católica de Colombia tiene como enfoque el Desarrollo de Software y que el estado colombiano junto con el Ministerio de las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (MinTIC) están promoviendo esta área para que se especialicen en programación de computadores y terminen sus programas académicos satisfactoriamente, es importante determinar las causas de disminución por el gusto del Desarrollo de Software. Este artículo describe como se han venido desempeñando los estudiantes en las asignaturas relacionadas con la programación de computadores desde el año 2011, se estudia, analiza e identifica a través de una encuesta la percepción que tienen los estudiantes sobre los diferentes factores que inciden en el desempeño de los estudiantes e interés por las asignaturas de programación. Esto con el fin de determinar las causas por las cuales se presenta una disminución del interés por el área de Desarrollo de Software.PregradoIngeniero de Sistema

Uterine artery Doppler ultrasound screening during the first trimester of pregnancy for preeclampsia: A cohort study. Bogotá, Colombia 2007 - 2008

Objetivos: determinar la utilidad diagnóstica y el poder de detección del índice de pulsatilidad anormal de las arterias uterinas durante el primer trimestre del embarazo en relación con la aparición de preeclampsia en una población de bajo riesgo. Metodología: estudio de cohorte prospectivo, en el cual se midió el índice de pulsatilidad de las arterias uterinas en 444 pacientes que asistieron a control prenatal normal entre las semanas 11 y 14 de gestación. Se evaluó de manera prospectiva la aparición de preeclampsia o hipertensión gestacional y preeclampsia severa y se determinaron las características operativas de esta prueba a diferentes puntos de corte. Resultados: en total, 30 pacientes presentaron preeclampsia o hipertensión gestacional (7,8%) y 6 desarrollaron preeclampsia severa (1,5%). El índice de pulsatilidad de las arterias uterinas durante el primer trimestre fue significativamente más alto en las mujeres que luego desarrollaron preeclampsia que en aquellas que no la presentaron (1,9 - 1,45, p=0,0001). Asimismo, este índice mostró un mejor desempeño para la detección de preeclampsia severa. Conclusión: el presente estudio demuestra que un Doppler anormal durante el primer trimestre se asocia de manera significativa con el desarrollo de preeclampsia. De este modo, esta prueba puede ser una herramienta útil para seleccionar a las mujeres que se beneficiarían de una vigilancia más estrecha durante el control prenatal.Objectives: this prospective study was aimed at determining the diagnostic usefulness and detection power of the abnormal pulsatility index in the uterine arteries during the first trimester of pregnancy related to the appearance of preeclampsia in a low-risk population. Methodology: this was a prospective cohort study of the uterine artery pulsatility rate in 444 patients who attended normal prenatal checkups between 11 to 14 weeks of pregnancy. It prospectively assessed the onset of preeclampsia or gestational hypertension and severe preeclampsia. This test's operative characteristics were determined at different cut-off points. Results: thirty patients suffered from gestational preeclampsia or gestational hypertension (7.8%) and six patients developed severe preeclampsia (1.5%). Uterine artery pulsatility rate during the first trimester was significantly higher in women who later developed preeclampsia than those who did not suffer (1.9 - 1.45, p=0.0001). Uterine artery pulsatility rate presented a better function for determining severe preeclampsia. Conclusions: the present study demonstrated that an abnormal Doppler result during the first trimester of pregnancy was significantly associated with developing preeclampsia. This test may be a useful tool for selecting women who could benefit from closer attention during prenatal checkups

Comunicación preliminar sobre el uso de la penicilina nebulizada en algunas afecciones del aparato respiratorio

El objeto principal de esta comunicación preliminar sobre la terapéutica por las nebulizaciones de penicilina, es el de presentar al honorable cuerpo Médico de Colombia, un procedimiento nuevo en la aplicación de la penicilina, procedimiento que ya se ha generalizado y divulgado bastante en el estranjero y que entre nosotros se ha enmpleado muy poco