Comportamiento de las mujeres empresarias: una visión global

En los últimos decenios el número de empresas creadas o impulsadas por mujeres en todo el mundo ha experimentado un crecimiento importante. Ello ha favorecido la realización de diversos estudios sobre las diferencias existentes en las características y resultados de las empresas, así como en las actitudes y las estrategias empresariales adoptadas por los empresarios según su género. Desde esta perspectiva, en este trabajo se analizan las diferencias de géneros existentes en los comportamientos adoptados por los empresarios durante el desarrollo de las funciones empresariales, observándose que las diferencias encontradas en las características y cualidades de las mujeres empresarias en comparación con los varones van a afectar a los comportamientos empresariales adoptados por las mismas. Ello se ha relacionado con la diferente percepción por parte de las mujeres de los obstáculos y oportunidades existentes durante el desarrollo de la actividad empresarial, así como con sus motivaciones empresariales. ____________________________________________In recent decades the number of companies created or driven by women throughout the world has experienced significant growth. This has facilitated the implementation of various studies on the differences in the characteristics and performance of enterprises, as well as in attitude and business strategies adopted by entrepreneurs depending on their gender. This paper discusses gender differences in the behavior adopted by entrepreneurs for the development of enterprise functions. We have observed that the differences in the characteristics and qualities of women entrepreneurs compared with men affect the behaviour adopted by the former. This has been related to the different perception of every gender on the obstacles and opportunities for the development of business activity, as well as their business motivations

A viability study of social economy companies in the market economic system. A case study of southern Spain

In recent years Social Economy has become more accepted in the current Economic System because capitalist economic system has been shown to be imperfect. In fact, in Spain a Social Economy Law was passed last March, and Andalusia is expected to sign up to the III Pact for Social Economy. Thus, this sector is seen as a possible alternative to the current economic system. This research has attempted to quantify the qualitative components of entrepreneurial ability (innovation, cooperation, functional and productive dependence) in the companies belonging to the Social Economy sector in the territory of Seville and compare them to the traditional entrepreneurial structure from Andalusia through descriptive analysis, to confirm whether this business model based on Social Economy is a viable and a sustainable alternative over time. The results have shown that Social Economic businesses could be a better alternative to the predominant entrepreneurial model

Efficacy of Nutritional Strategies on the Improvement of the Performance and Health of the Athlete: A Systematic Review

Evidence shows that the use of food strategies can impact health, but a clear consensus about how the effects of different food strategies impact improvement in the athlete’s performance and health remain unclear. This study evaluated how food strategies, specifically intermittent fasting and a ketogenic diet affect health and performance in healthy athletes. Study selection for this review was based on clinical trial studies analyzing changes in performance and health in athletes. The Pubmed, Web of Science, PEDro, Dialnet, Scopus, CINAHL, ProQuest, Medline and Cochrane databases were searched. The Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) scale, PEDro Internal Validity Scale (IVS) and Standard Quality Assessment Criteria for Evaluating Primary Research Papers from a variety of fields (QUALSYT) checklists were used to evaluate the risk of bias of the included studies. Articles were selected based on criteria concerning the effectiveness of nutritional strategies on athletes’ performance; articles should be randomized clinical trials (RCTs) or uncontrolled clinical trials; they should be human studies and they should have been published less than 7 years ago. A total of 15 articles were evaluated, 8 randomised clinical trials and 7 non-randomized clinical studies, with 411 participants who satisfied our inclusion criteria and were included in this review. The results of the study showed intermittent fasting and time-restricted feeding as strategies that produce health benefits. On the other hand, the ketogenic diet did not reach an appropriate consensus. The articles presented a medium level of methodological quality in the PEDro scale, low quality in IVS scale and high quality in QUALSYT scale. Despite the lack of studies analyzing changes in the performance and health of athletes after the use of different nutritional strategies, intermittent fasting and time-restricted feeding should be considered since they seem to be effective, and further studies are necessary

Impairment of PGC-1 alpha up-regulation enhances nitrosative stress in the liver during acute pancreatitis in obese mice

Acute pancreatitis is an inflammatory process of the pancreatic tissue that often leads to distant organ dysfunction. Although liver injury is uncommon in acute pancreatitis, obesity is a risk factor for the development of hepatic complications. The aim of this work was to evaluate the role of PGC-1α in inflammatory response regulation in the liver and its contribution to the detrimental effect of obesity on the liver during acute pancreatitis. For this purpose, we induced acute pancreatitis by cerulein in not only wild-type (WT) and PGC-1α knockout (KO) mice, but also in lean and obese mice. PGC-1α levels were up-regulated in the mice livers with pancreatitis. The increased PGC-1α levels were bound to p65 to restrain its transcriptional activity toward Nos2. Lack of PGC-1α favored the assembly of the p65/phospho-STAT3 complex, which promoted Nos2 expression during acute pancreatitis. The increased transcript Nos2 levels and the pro-oxidant liver status caused by the down-regulated expression of the PGC-1α-dependent antioxidant genes enhanced nitrosative stress and decreased energy charge in the livers of the PGC-1α KO mice with pancreatitis. It is noteworthy that the PGC-1α levels lowered in the obese mice livers, which increased the Nos2 mRNA expression and protein nitration levels and decreased energy charge during pancreatitis. In conclusion, obesity impairs PGC-1α up-regulation in the liver to cause nitrosative stress during acute pancreatitis.This work was supported by Grant GV/2019/153 from the Generalitat Valenciana, Conselleria d’Educació, Investigació, Cultura I Esport

Justification of interpersonal aggression in Hong Kong and Spain

This study reports the degrees of approval for different aggressive acts in a number of instrumental and emotional situations. A nationally-adapted version of the Lagerspetz and Westman questionnaire [1] was administered to 332 university students of both sexes in Spain and Hong Kong. Respondents had to indicate levels of justification of several aggressive acts of different quality and intensity in the context of different social justifications. Our results replicated the general findings of previous research in other cultures: in both samples, more drastic forms of aggression (e.g., killing, torture) were less accepted than non-dangerous forms of such behavior (e.g., hindering, being ironic); aggressive acts more socially justified (in terms of protection of self or other) were clearly more accepted than others with no such justification (problems of communication); and instrumental-motivated aggression was higher justified than emotional-motivated aggression. Some differences in the level of acceptance according to the sex of the participants were found: women were more prone to a higher acceptance of acts and situations more related to emotion. Although both sexes justified aggression in a higher degree for instrumentally motivated situations than for emotional ones, males showed a higher acceptance than females for instrumental situations and a lower one than females for emotional ones. There were also some minor culturally bound differences in these attitudes: Spaniards accepted less than HK students aggression in emotional situations, specially for the cases of punishment and lack of communication, but more emotional acts, such as rage and shouting. Thus, patterns of moral approval of various kinds of aggressive acts are in a large part common to both cultures. Findings also confirmed a two-factor solution and the respective predictive power of justifications for aggression in instrumental vs. emotional motivated situations. The reliability and validity of this brief self-report have been further established by the present study, paving the way for future studies to measure instrumental and emotional aggression

Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG administration partially prevents diet-induced insulin resistance in rats: a comparison with its heat-inactivated parabiotic

Insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes are obesity-related health alterations, featuring an ever-increasing prevalence. Besides inadequate feeding patterns, gut microbiota alterations stand out as potential contributors to these metabolic disturbances. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the administration of a probiotic (Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG) effectively prevents diet-induced insulin resistance in rats and to compare these potential effects with those exerted by its heat-inactivated parabiotic. For this purpose, 34 male Wistar rats were fed a standard or a high-fat high-fructose diet, alone or supplemented with viable or heat-inactivated Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG. The body and white adipose tissue weight increases, induced by the obesogenic diet, were prevented by probiotic and parabiotic administration. The trend towards higher basal glucose levels and significantly higher serum insulin concentration observed in the non-treated animals fed with the obesogenic diet were effectively reverted by both treatments. Similar results were also found for serum adiponectin and leptin, whose levels were brought back by the probiotic and parabiotic administration to values similar to those of the control animals. Noteworthily, parabiotic administration significantly reduced skeletal muscle triglyceride content and activated CPT-1b compared to the non-treated animals. Finally, both treatments enhanced Akt and AS160 phosphorylation in the skeletal muscle compared to the non-treated animals; however, only parabiotic administration increased GLUT-4 protein expression in this tissue. These results suggest that heat-inactivated Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG seem to be more effective than its probiotic of origin in preventing high-fat high-fructose diet-induced insulin resistance in rats.This study was supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CIBERobn) under grant CB12/03/30007 and The Basque Government under grant IT1482-22. Laura Isabel Arellano-García is a recipient of a doctoral fellowship from the Gobierno Vasco

The Natural Price Theory: Empirical Evidences of the Purchasing Power Parity and the Long Term Stock Market Function

Natural price theory suggests that the prices of all markets of the nations are interconnected. If this is correct, then the world exchange rate market and the world stock market should reflect the fact that they constitutes an organised system of rational markets with a precise and demonstrable relationship between each other

Coupled THCM model of a heating and hydration concrete-bentonite column test

Versión aceptada de https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2018.05.007[Abstract:] Radioactive waste disposal in deep geological repositories in clay formations envisage a compacted bentonite engineered barrier and a concrete liner. The alkaline conditions caused by the degradation of concrete could affect the performance of the engineered barrier. The geochemical interactions occurring at the concrete-bentonite interface (B-CI) for the non-isothermal unsaturated conditions prevailing at repository post-closure have been studied by CIEMAT with a heating and hydration concrete-bentonite column test. The column consists of a 3 cm thick concrete sample emplaced on top of a 7.15 cm block of compacted bentonite. The column was hydrated through the concrete at a constant pressure with a synthetic clay porewater while the bottom of the column was heated at 100 °C. Here we report a coupled thermo-hydro-chemical-mechanical (THCM) model of the column test, which lasted 1610 days. The model was solved with a THCM code, INVERSE-FADES-CORE. Experimental observations show calcite and brucite precipitation in the concrete near the hydration boundary, portlandite dissolution and calcite and ettringite precipitation in the concrete, calcite and sepiolite precipitation in the bentonite near the B-CI, calcite dissolution in the bentonite far from the B-CI and gypsum precipitation in the bentonite near the heater. Model results attest that advection is relevant during the first months of the test. Later, solute diffusion becomes the dominant transport mechanism. Calcite and brucite precipitate in the concrete near the hydration boundary because the concentrations of dissolved bicarbonate and magnesium in the hydration water are larger than the initial concentrations in the concrete porewater. Calcite and brucite precipitate in both sides of the B-CI. Sepiolite precipitates in the bentonite near the B-CI. The model predicts portlandite and C1.8SH dissolution in the concrete. Ettringite and C0.8SH precipitate near the hydration boundary while ettringite dissolves in the rest of the concrete at very small rates. The porosity changes occur at the hydration boundary and at both sides of the B-CI due to mineral dissolution/precipitation. The porosity reduces to zero in a 0.03 cm thick zone in the concrete near the B-CI due to brucite and calcite precipitation. The high pH front (pH > 8.5) diffuses from the concrete into the bentonite and penetrates 1 cm at the end of the test after 1610 days. Model results are sensitive to grid size. Mineral precipitation and the thickness of the zone affected by mineral precipitation in the bentonite near the B-CI increase when the grid size increases while pore clogging in the concrete near the B-CI is computed only for grid sizes smaller than 0.018 cm. The non-isothermal conditions play an important role in mineral precipitation. The reduction in porosity in the B-CI for constant temperature is smaller than that of the non-isothermal run. The model reproduces the on-line measured temperature and relative humidity data as well as the water content and porosity data collected at the end of the test. Model results capture the main trends of the mineralogical observations, except for ettringite and CSH phases for which the predicted precipitation is smaller than the observed values. Model results improve when the specific surface of ettringite is increased by a factor of 10.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's European Atomic Energy Community's (Euratom) Horizon 2020 Programme (NFRP-2014/2015) under grant agreement, 662147 – CEBAMA. This work was partly funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Grant number CGL2016-78281) with support from the FEDER funds and the Galician Regional Government (Grant number ED431C 2017/67 from “Consolidación e estruturación de unidades de investigación competitivas”, Grupos de referencia competitiva). The second author enjoyed a research contract from University of A Coruña. We thank the comments, corrections and suggestions of the Guest Editor and the two anonymous reviewers who contributed to the improvement of the paper.Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2017/6

New international financial architecture – vectors & constraints

This paper refers to organisms and international financial relationships, and deals with some recent contribution to the economic literature concerned to the financial crises. It identifies, in the conventional proposals of reordering the international financial architecture, the search for the same principles based on self-regulation, in contrast with the proposals that are based on the recognition of the intrinsic instability of the de-ruled economy. As a conclusion, the text points out some new vectors of a “new international financial architecture”, not before detaching the main constraints imposed by a reality marked by the supremacy of the liberalized and de-regulated finances