Does migration reshape expenditures in rural households? Evidence from Mexico

Migration reshapes rural economies in ways that may go beyond the contribution of migrant remittances to household income. Consumption and investment expenditures by migrant-sending households may transmit some of the impacts of migration to others inside and outside the rural economy, and they also may shape the potential effects of migration within the source household. Numerous studies have attempted to quantify the impact of migrant remittances on expenditures in migrant-sending households following one of two approaches. The first asks how migrant remittances are spent. It has the advantage of being simple but the significant disadvantage of ignoring the fungibility of income from migrant and nonmigrant sources. Remittances almost certainly have indirect effects on expenditures by way of their contribution to households'total budgets. The second uses a regression approach that considers remittances as an explanatory variable, in addition to total income and other controls, in a household expenditure demand system. It has the advantage of enabling one to test whether remittances affect expenditures in ways that are independent of their contribution to total income. But it does not take into account other ways, besides remittances, in which migration may influence expenditure patterns in households with migrants. It also may suffer from econometric bias resulting from the endogeneity of migration and remittance receipts. The same variables may simultaneously affect both remittances and household expenditures, and unless one controls for this, biased estimates may result.Investment and Investment Climate,Economic Theory&Research,Housing&Human Habitats,Remittances,Consumption

Fortalezas y debilidades de una intervención en actividad física y salud en secundaria: el caso de Aina

Con el presente estudio se pretende indagar e interpretar cómo enfoca y desarrolla la profesora de Educación Física de un Instituto de Enseñanza Secundaria una propuesta de innovación educativa. Ésta consiste en el Diseño y puesta en práctica de un programa de Actividad Física basada en la innovación que proponen Peiró y Devís (1997), para el desarrollo de programas de ejercicio físico y salud elaborado por alumnos. Para este estudio se recopila, además de los datos procedentes de una programación didáctica de la Unidad, también las afirmaciones y comentarios de la profesora y los del investigador. Entre los motivos que me llevaron a platearme esta investigación destaca el propio origen, ya que la investigación nace de las dudas que me surgían a partir de la observación de las sesiones realizadas por Aina (pseudónimo), la tutora que tuve en el centro en el que realicé el periodo de prácticas de mis estudios en Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte. Estas dudas, en su día, se reflejaron en mi memoria de prácticas sin una intención definida más que ser una reflexión sobre aquello que observaba. No obstante, llegó un momento en que decidí orientar alguna de esas inquietudes hacia un diseño de investigación que pudiera aportar algún conocimiento relevante, y con ello, tras un espacio de reflexión, surgió la siguiente presunta de investigación: ¿Corresponde el enfoque que le da la profesora a la Unidad Didáctica de diseño y puesta en práctica de un programa de Actividad Física al de una propuesta innovadora que suponga un cambio real en la práctica? El contexto en el que se desarrolla la investigación se caracteriza por estar llevándose a cabo, desde hace varios años, una Unidad Didáctica en el Bloque de Condición Física y Salud de los grupos de 1º de Bachillerato, basada en una propuesta de innovación educativa publicada por Peiró y Devís en 1997 en el libro “Nuevas perspectivas Curriculares en Educación Física”. En ese sentido, se está cumpliendo con uno de los propósitos de dicha propuesta que era servir de idea que pudiera ser abordada por otros docentes, sin tener la intención a priori de ser un modelo prescriptivo. Esto nos lleva necesariamente a plantearnos un estudio en el que los conceptos de innovación y cambio resultan cruciales. Se utiliza una metodología cualitativa, concretamente un estudio de caso único. En la investigación cualitativa mediante el uso de técnicas como las entrevistas, historias de vida, el estudio de casos o el análisis documental, el investigador puede fundir sus observaciones aportadas por otros (Rodríguez, Gil Flores y García Jiménez, 1996). El valor de verdad se garantiza mediante el uso de la triangulación de fuentes provenientes de diferentes informantes en distintos momentos temporales. (programación de la Unidad Didáctica, criterios de evaluación, memoria de prácticas, los documentos escritos que se entregan a los estudiantes y entrevista a Aina. Los resultados del estudio reflejan que Aina desarrolla un enfoque innovador que supone un cambio importante en cuanto a las propuestas metodológicas que utiliza. No obstante, sus creencias sobre lo que supone facilitar la autonomía del alumnado y cómo debe evaluarse en EF suponen un obstáculo en la consecución de un cambio real de la innovación (Sparkes, 1997)

Chatham Fault Zone, Old Chatham-East Chatham, New York: mesostructures and microstructures: their spatial and age relationships

Detailed studies in rocks of Mettawee (Late Precambrian? to Early Cambrian) and Walloomsac (Middle Ordovician) slates between Old Chatham and East Chatham, New York, have shown that these rocks were intensely deformed during the Taconic orogeny and a later deformation event(?). Two generations of structures are clearly recognized in the area. The first generation (G1) includes tight west-verging folds whose axial plane foliation is the regional foliation slaty cleavage (S1). These structures are considered synchronous with the regional metamorphism of the Taconic orogeny and correlative with those structures belonging to the D2 deformation event proposed by Ratcliffe (1979) and Rowley (1983). The second generation of structures (G2) is represented by NE-trending kink bands, concentric folds and their associated crenulation cleavage (S2) which overprint the pre-existing regional foliation (S1). This kind of deformation seems to be localized in the metapelitic rocks and is, at least partially, synchronous with the development of the Chatham fault zone. These structures are considered here to be correlative with those belonging to the D3 deformation event of Rowley (1983) and the F5 generation of folds of Ratcliffe (1979). Their overprinting relationships relative to the faulting are consistent with the Rowley idea about the generation of the crenulation cleavage during thrusting (c.f. T3, Rowley 1983). Evidence of an earlier deformation event (e.g. dismembered intrafolial folds in the metapsammites) in rocks of Mettawee slate has been sporadically observed, and is correlated with the D1 deformation event of Rowley (1983). Other structure present in the Chatham area and not included in the above generations is a NW-trending macrofold in the regional foliation, which reflects the geometry of the Chatham fault zone. This fold has been correlated with the NW-trending folds belonging to the F4 generation of Ratcliffe (1979)

Humor may be very Chango. Ernesto García Cabral’s work in Tin Tan film posters

En el presente ensayo exploraré los diferentes sentidos e intencionalidades que ofrecen algunos carteles representativos de la época de oro del cine mexicano. Específicamente, ahondaré en los carteles fílmicos que el notable dibujante, Ernesto García Cabral, elaboró para algunas de las películas más exitosas de Germán Valdés Tin Tan. De esta manera, si bien los carteles modificaron el entorno urbano y las representaciones de la realidad, me interesa examinar cómo su universo representacional –basado en el sentido del humor y en el relajo influyó en la construcción de interesantes imaginarios.In this essay I will explore the different meanings and purposes that some representative posters show of the golden age of Mexican cinema. Specifically I delve into film posters that the remarkable artist, Ernesto García Cabral, El Chango, created for some of the most successful films of German Valdés, Tin Tan. Although the posters changed the urban environment and the representations of reality, I’m interested in examining how their representational universe – hilarious sense of humor– influenced the creation of collective imageries

Remittances, Inequality and Poverty: Evidence from Rural Mexico

Economic research has produced conflicting findings on the distributional impacts of migrant remittances, and there has been little research on the effects of changes in remittances on poverty. This paper utilizes new data from the Mexico National Rural Household Survey, together with inequality and poverty decomposition techniques, to explore the impacts of remittances on rural inequality and poverty. Our findings suggest that remittances from international migrants become more equalizing (or less unequalizing), as well as more effective at reducing poverty, as the prevalence of migration increases.Labor and Human Capital,

Territorial Rural Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: Discourses and Realities

The reorientation occurred in the socioeconomic, politic and institutional development of the Latin American and Caribbean countries, since 80's decade, provoke significant transformations in the regional rural spaces. The socioeconomic bipolarization is one of the most remarkable phenomena in the new conditions of the rural areas: by one side, was conformed a dynamic sector of companies, familiar's producers and external investors, dedicated to goods exportation or a different non agriculture rural activities (NARA). On the other side, numerous rural families, without the resources and the capabilities to compete with the imported goods, were gradually excluded. The NARA and the familiar pluriactivity are two ways used by the rural families to incomes generations in this new context. But the persistent poverty shows that many of them couldn't obtain the resources needed for their wealth. The Territorial Rural Development Strategies (TRDS) are one of the proposals to impulse the productive, social and institutional development in the rural areas. But these strategies confront serious obstacles to concrete their objectives and to promote the population participation and the rural wealth. In this paper were analyzed the main obstacles to encourage the TRDS in the region.Política Económica; Desarrollo Rural; Desarrollo Territorial Rural; Políticas Públicas; Actores Sociales; participación

Agrarian policies and rural development in Costa Rica: definitions elements in the new international context

In the last two decades, the Costa Rican rural areas have been under considerable transformations. The changes occurred in the international context and the reorientation of the economic policies executed in the country, provoked the loom up of a more diverse productive structure and the enhancement of inequalities between the different agricultural producers groups. The extraordinary scientific and technological developments current in the contemporary society, the big differences in the knowledge generation or in the access of it, the Southern nation’s economic aperture trends and the persistence of diverse producers´ protection mechanism in the Northern countries; as well as the stimulus to agricultural and agro-industrial production for the international market, and the efforts to attract external investment, are some of the conditional factors of large rural areas modifications. The difficulties of numerous families to survive is dedicated exclusively to agricultural activities; the increase of the rural non-agricultural productive activities (tourism, services, agribusiness); the growth of rural non-agricultural employment, and the expansion of the rural areas multifunctionality, reduce the effectiveness of the prevailing perspectives, exclusively centered in agriculture, and the definition of sectarian policies and institutional initiatives without an a articulator axis. A territorial perspective adoption and the agricultural and environmental policies´ redefinition, oriented to respond to the new conditions of rural areas, are necessary measures to stimulate the productive activities´ growth, to encourage the advance of different country regions and to promote rural wellbeing. The rural social actors´ participation in these processes is a crucial factor to respond to the needs and particular demands of the diverse territories, and to promote local development in the rural spaces.Agrarian policies; Rural Development; Costa Rica

Lung volume reduction surgery and lung transplantation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Medical treatment of emphysema does not alter the natural progression of the disease. Surgical techniques are an attractive conceptual approach to treat hyperinflation in these patients. Lung volume reduction surgery and lung transplantation are appropriate therapeutic options for a selected population with emphysema. We will review the available evidence to support these approaches

The training and retraining of personnel

The introduction of automated machinery in industry and the new technological advancements have caused the labor force to abandon their working areas due to the lack of skills. Although new equipment has created new jobs, the working force has not been prepared to undertake them