El desafío del desarrollo de habilidades en América Latina : un diagnóstico de los problemas y soluciones de política pública

Una región grande y diversa de más de 600 millones de habitantes, América Latina se ha caracterizado por sus fluctuantes tasas de crecimiento económico, el desarrollo insuficiente del capital humano y altos niveles de desigualdad de ingresos a lo largo de su historia. El final del ciclo de una década de crecimiento impulsado por los altos precios de materias primas señala que los países de América Latina deben enfrentar ahora el desafío de mejorar la productividad como fuente de crecimiento sostenible a largo plazo. Por lo tanto, no es sorprendente que los gobiernos, las empresas y los medios de comunicación se centren cada vez más en el desafío del desarrollo de habilidades en América Latina. En este informe, nos sumergimos de manera profunda en este problema. En base a la literatura existente (ensayos, libros, informes, artículos periodísticos y otras publicaciones), el análisis de los datos existentes (cuando es necesario), y benchmarking siempre que sea posible con otros países y regiones del mundo (sobre todo la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económicos (OCDE)), se proporciona un breve informe sobre el estado actual del desarrollo de habilidades en América Latina, discutimos las políticas de educación secundaria superior y terciaria que influyen en el desarrollo de habilidades y ofrece recomendaciones de política con el fin de mejorar el desarrollo de habilidades en América Latina. En el capítulo II, se diagnostica el problema. Demostramos que, a pesar del notable aumento en los años de escolaridad alcanzado por los adultos en los países latinoamericanos, hay pruebas consistentes del desarrollo inadecuado de competencias académicas, técnicas y socio-emocionales en América Latina. Estas brechas representan un cuello de botella para el crecimiento de la productividad y la capacidad de los trabajadores de América Latina para obtener un empleo remunerado. Habiendo identificado las brechas críticas en habilidades, en los capítulos III y IV se busca explicaciones a una pregunta compleja: ¿por qué, a pesar de su rápida expansión, los sistemas educativos en América Latina no están generando el capital humano necesario para el crecimiento económico sostenido? Se trata de responder a esta compleja pregunta centrándose en dos espacios claves en los que ocurre el desarrollo de habilidades: las escuelas secundarias superiores y las instituciones de educación superior. En ambos niveles, se encuentra fuertes aumentos en participación, así como graves problemas de calidad, relevancia y eficiencia, y analizamos la medida en que los factores contextuales - tales como los arreglos financieros y normativos bajo los cuales operan los proveedores de educación - crean los incentivos adecuados para el desarrollo de habilidades del siglo XXI. En el capítulo V, se concluye el informe poniendo de relieve los retos claves para la reforma de los servicios de educación secundaria y superior para adecuarlos mejor al desarrollo de habilidades en América Latina. Del mismo modo, identifica la importancia relativa de diferentes desafíos en diferentes subgrupos de la población y ofrece cuatro recomendaciones que buscan aprovechar los instrumentos de políticas (regulaciones, incentivos, información y asociaciones públicas/privadas) para abordar los problemas interrelacionados de calidad, pertinencia y eficiencia generalizada en los sistemas educativos de América Latina

The impact of cash transfers to poor women in Colombia on BMI and obesity: Prospective cohort study

INTRODUCTION: Prevalence of obesity is rising in Latin America, is increasingly affecting socially disadvantaged groups, particularly women. Conditional cash transfers are recently established welfare interventions in the region. One, Familias en Accion, transfers ~20% of average monthly income to women in Colombia’s poorest families. Previous work has found that families buy more food as a result. We tested the hypothesis that participation in Familias would be associated with increasing body mass index (BMI) in participating women METHODS: Women from participating areas and control areas (matched on environmental and socioeconomic criteria) were surveyed in 2002 and 2006. Pregnant, breast-feeding or women aged<18 or with BMI<18.5kg/m(2) were excluded. The sample comprises 835 women from control and 1238 from treatment areas. Because some treatment areas started Familias shortly before baseline data collection, a dummy variable was created that identified exposure independent of time-point or area. Follow-up was 61.5%. BMI was measured by trained personnel using standardized techniques. Overweight was defined as BMI>25kg/m(2) and obesity as >30kg/m(2). The effect of Familias was estimated using linear regression (or logistic regression for dichotomous outcomes) in a double-difference technique, controlling for several individual, household and area characteristics, including parity and baseline BMI, using robust standard-errors clustered at area-level in an intention-to-treat analysis. RESULTS: At baseline, women’s mean age was 33.3 years and mean BMI 25.3kg/m(2); 12.3% women were obese. After adjustment, exposure to Familias was significantly associated with increased BMI (β=0.25, 95% CI 0.03, 0.47; p=0.03). Age (β=0.09; 95%CI 0.06, 0.13; p<0.001) and household wealth (β=0.78; 95%CI 0.41, 1.15; p<0.001) were also positively associated with BMI. Familias was also associated with increased odds of obesity (O.R.=1.27 95%CI 1.03, 1.57; p=0.03), as was age (O.R.=1.04; 95%CI 1.02, 1.06; p=0.001). CONCLUSION: Conditional cash transfers to poor women in Colombia are independently associated with increasing BMI and obesity risk. Although conditional cash transfers are generally regarded as popular and successful schemes, parallel interventions at individual, household and community level are needed to avoid unanticipated adverse outcomes

Widespread occurrence of hybrid internal-terminal exons in human transcriptomes

Now published in Science Advances doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abk1752.Alternative RNA processing is a major mechanism for diversifying the human transcriptome. Messenger RNA isoform differences are predominantly driven by alternative first exons, cassette internal exons and alternative last exons. Despite the importance of classifying exons to understand isoform structure, there is a lack of tools to look at isoform-specific exon usage using RNA-sequencing data. We recently observed that alternative transcription start sites often arise near annotated internal exons, creating “hybrid” exons that can be used as both first or internal exons. To investigate the creation of hybrid exons, we built the HIT (Hybrid-Internal-Terminal) exon pipeline that systematically classifies exons depending on their isoform-specific usage. Using a combination of junction reads coverage and probabilistic modeling, the HIT index identified thousands of hybrid first-internal and internal-last exons that were previously misclassified. Hybrid exons are enriched in long genes with at least ten internal exons, have longer flanking introns and strong splice sites. The usage of hybrid exons varies considerably across human tissues, but they are predominantly used in brain, testis and colon cells. Notably, genes involved in RNA splicing have the highest fraction of intra-tissue hybrid exons. Further, we found more than 100,000 inter-tissue hybrid exons that changed from internal to terminal exons across tissues. By developing the first method that can classify exons according to their isoform contexts, our findings demonstrate the existence of hybrid exons, expand the repertoire of tissue-specific terminal exons and uncover unexpected complexities of the human transcriptome.Accepted manuscrip

Performance-based financing as a health system reform : mapping the key dimensions for monitoring and evaluation

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Improving Ethical Review of Research Involving Incentives for Health Promotion

Alex London and colleagues propose new ethical frameworks for evaluating the risks associated with research in which financial or other incentives are used to promote healthy behavior

DDX5 plays essential transcriptional and post-transcriptional roles in the maintenance and function of spermatogonia

Mammalian spermatogenesis is sustained by mitotic germ cells with self-renewal potential known as undifferentiated spermatogonia. Maintenance of undifferentiated spermatogonia and spermatogenesis is dependent on tightly co-ordinated transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms. The RNA helicase DDX5 is expressed by spermatogonia but roles in spermatogenesis are unexplored. Using an inducible knockout mouse model, we characterise an essential role for DDX5 in spermatogonial maintenance and show that Ddx5 is indispensable for male fertility. We demonstrate that DDX5 regulates appropriate splicing of key genes necessary for spermatogenesis. Moreover, DDX5 regulates expression of cell cycle genes in undifferentiated spermatogonia post-transcriptionally and is required for cell proliferation and survival. DDX5 can also act as a transcriptional co-activator and we demonstrate that DDX5 interacts with PLZF, a transcription factor required for germline maintenance, to co-regulate select target genes. Combined, our data reveal a critical multifunctional role for DDX5 in regulating gene expression programmes and activity of undifferentiated spermatogonia

Parenting the Parents: The Ethics of Parent-Targeted Paternalism in the Context of Anti-poverty Policies

Governments often aim to improve children’s wellbeing by targeting the decision-making of their parents. In this paper, I explore this phenomenon, providing an ethical evaluation of the ways in which governments target parental decision-making in the context of anti-poverty policies. I first introduce and motivate the concept of parent-targeted paternalism to categorize such policies. I then investigate whether parent-targeted paternalism is ever pro tanto wrong, arguing that it is when directed at parents who meet a threshold of parental competency. I next explore the factors that affect the degree of pro tanto wrongness of paternalistic anti-poverty policies targeting parents, and provide an account of the conditions under which such policies are on balance permissible, and when they are not. Finally, I illustrate the plausibility and usefulness of my framework by considering a case