Microeconomic Effects of Capital Controls: The Chilean Experience During the 1990s.

This paper studies the experience with the use of capital controls in Chile during the 1990s. Rather than revisiting previous studies, it complements previous research by providing, for the first time, empirical evidence on some of the microeconomic effects of capital controls, in particular, the unremunerated reserve requirement (URR). By looking at financial statements for a group of 73 Chilean firms during 1986-2001, the paper attempts to identify the effects of the URR on the firms’ costs and ways of financing. Chilean firms are grouped by economic sector, size and access to international capital markets. Results show that the effects of the URR are firm specific; forinstance, there are striking differences in the response to the URR among firms of different size and those with or without access to international capital markets.

Heroes, machomen or, just men: A look at the audiovisual representation of the (new) masculinities

El presente texto indaga en la evolución de la representación de los hombres en el audiovisual (cine y televisión) y cómo dicha representación ha evolucionado desde las representaciones del macho patriarcal a representaciones de nuevas masculinidades, fuera de la influencia de la ideología patriarcal, plurales, no universalistas y con nuevos modelos de hombresThis text analyzes the representation of men in the cinema and television, paying special attention to the ways in which it has evolved since the `patriarchal macho´ to the new types of masculinity; the latest, a new concept far from the influence of the patriarchal ideology, being plural, concrete and proposing new models of menLa investigación subyacente a este artículo se ha beneficiado en parte de fondos del proyecto I+D+i FEM2009-07194 del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación del Gobierno de Españ

Fresh-Cut Fruit and Vegetables: Emerging Eco-friendly Techniques for Sanitation and Preserving Safety

The current high demand of minimally processed or fresh-cut fruit and vegetables results from the consumer’s desire for healthy, convenient, fresh, and ready-to-eat plant food-derived commodities. Fresh-cut fruits and vegetables are usually packaged under active- or passive-modified atmosphere packaging, while its shelf life must be under refrigerated conditions. The most important goal to preserve quality and safety focuses on releasing the microbial spoilage flora, since every unit operation involved will influence the final load. Sanitation in the washing step is the only unit operation able to reduce microbial load throughout the production chain. Chlorine is widely used as an efficient sanitation agent, but some disadvantages force to find eco-friendly emerging alternatives. It is necessary to deal with aspects related to sustainability because it could positively contribute to the net carbon balance besides reducing its use. Several innovative techniques seem to reach that target. However, industrial changes for replacing conventional techniques request a fine knowledge of the benefits and restrictions as well as a practical outlook. This chapter reviews the principles of emerging eco-friendly techniques for preserving quality and safety of fresh-cut products in order to meet the expected market’s demand

Gender studies and feminist film theory as a theoretical and methodological framework for research in Audiovisual Culture

El artículo presenta como objetivo fundamental la reivindicación de la teoría fílmica feminista y de los Estudios de Género como un marco teórico competente y unas metodologías adecuadas para la investigación en Comunicación Audiovisual. Para ello desarrolla un análisis de las fuentes así como un discernimiento sobre el valor de las metodologías y una puesta en diálogo de las diferentes líneas de investigación que confluyen en los estudios audiovisuales (como, por ejemplo, el estructuralismo, la semiótica, el psicoanálisis, la hermenéutica, la fenomenología, estética y el análisis textual) posicionando, en dicho contexto, la aportación de los Estudios de Género y de la Teoría Fílmica Feminista y mostrando como resultado, de este modo, su validez metodológica más allá de ciertos posicionamientos positivistas, en lo que Casetti ha venido en denominar “teorías de campo”. Dicho de otra manera, se muestra la posibilidad de una vuelta a posiciones metodológicas de corte teórico y que profundizan en un sentido crítico desde una investigación posicionada que pretende dar con las preguntas adecuadas para su objeto de estudio que tiene que ver con la visión, la representación, la construcción de la subjetividad y de la identidad, el placer y la cultura contemporánea así como la lógica interna, los procesos de significación y el análisis de contenido de los textos audiovisuales, afirmando tanto su interdisciplinariedad como su apertura comprehensiva propiciando ver la práctica del audiovisual como una práctica de producción de significado que envuelve tanto al director como al espectador en una relación dialéctica como una práctica social (Johnston).The fundamental objective that this paper presents is the vindication of the feminist film theory and gender etudies as a competent theoretical framework with adequate research methodologies in audiovisual communication. It develops an analysis of the sources as well as an insight into the value of the methodologies and a commissioning in dialogue of the different lines of research that converge in media studies (for example, Structuralism, Semiotics, Psychoanalysis, Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, Aesthetics and Textual Analysis) positioning, in this context, the contribution of gender studies and the feminist film theory and showing as a result, thereby, their methodological validity beyond certain positivist positions, in what Casetti has come to call “field theories”. In other words, it shows the possibility of a return to theoretical methodological positions and a deepening into a critical sense from a positioned research that aims to find the right questions to its subject matter which is related to the vision, representation, the construction of subjectivity and identity, pleasure and contemporary culture as well as the internal logic, the processes of meaning and content analysis of audiovisual texts, claiming both its interdisciplinarity and its comprehensive opening in favour of seeing the audiovisual practice as a ‘meaning production’ practice that surrounds both the director and the audience in a dialectical relationship as a social practice (Johnston) audiovisual production “as a practice of meaning-production involving both filmmaker and filmviewer in a dialectical relationship — as a social practice” (Johnston)