Financial Literacy of Workers in the Tourism Industry in Mexico in 2023: a Structural Equations Approach

This paper attempts to examine the level of financial knowledge of workers in the tourism industry in Mexico through the Structural Equations Methodology (SEM). The type of sampling is non-probabilistic by self-determination. A questionnaire is applied to 500 workers, in 2023, from Mexican companies in the tourism sector considering the following 7 issues: investment, savings, credit, insurance, pensions, expenses and budgets. The SEM allows bring to light the financial knowledge that the surveyed workers have about these issues. Based on a factor structure obtained from the confirmatory analysis, which presents good goodness of fit, structural adjustment, and parsimony, the main findings are: 1) in terms of credit, workers give importance to the requirements requested by financial institutions and consider that they are easy to interpret and comply with, 2) in terms of retirement fund accounts, workers feel confident in institutions that manage their retirement savings and are clear about commissions, 3) in terms of savings, workers perceive that bank accounts have been adapted to their needs since banks have become very flexible in terms of requirements for opening and initial amounts with clear and complete account information, 4) in terms of investment, workers hardly acquire bank promissory notes, and 5) regarding life insurance, workers express the ease that exists to contract insurance, although the cost is limited. The results obtained have practical implications for the tourism sector to continue promoting the habit of saving and the use of financial services and products to which the worker can have access, since this financial knowledge translates into more organized employees in their financial affairs.Educación financiera de los trabajadores de la industria turística en México 2023: un enfoque de ecuaciones estructuralesEste trabajo intenta examinar el nivel de conocimiento financiero de los trabajadores de la industria turística en México a través de la Metodología de Ecuaciones Estructurales (SEM). El tipo de muestreo no es probabilístico por autodeterminación. Se aplica un cuestionario a 500 trabajadores, en 2023, de empresas mexicanas del sector turístico considerando los siguientes 7 temas: Inversión, ahorro, crédito, seguros, pensiones, etc. gastos y presupuestos. El SEM permite sacar a la luz el conocimiento financiero que los trabajadores encuestados tienen sobre estos temas. A partir de una estructura factorial obtenida del análisis confirmatorio, que presenta buena bondad de ajuste, ajuste estructural y parsimonía, los principales hallazgos son: 1) en términos de crédito, los trabajadores dan importancia a los requisitos solicitados por las instituciones financieras y consideran que son fáciles de interpretar y cumplir, 2) en términos de cuentas de fondos de jubilación, los trabajadores se sienten confiados en las instituciones que administran sus ahorros de jubilación y tienen claras las comisiones, 3) en términos de ahorro, los trabajadores perciben que las cuentas bancarias se han adaptado a sus necesidades, ya que los bancos se han vuelto muy flexibles en términos de requisitos de apertura y montos iniciales con información clara y completa de la cuenta, 4) en términos de inversión, los trabajadores apenas adquieren pagarés bancarios, y 5) en cuanto al seguro de vida, los trabajadores expresan la facilidad que existe para contratar un seguro, aunque el costo es limitado. Los resultados obtenidos tienen implicaciones prácticas para que el sector turístico continúe promoviendo el hábito de ahorro y el uso de servicios y productos financieros a los que el trabajador pueda tener acceso, ya que este conocimiento financiero se traduce en empleados más organizados en sus asuntos financieros

Antigenotoxic Studies of Different Substances to Reduce the DNA Damage Induced by Aflatoxin B1 and Ochratoxin A

Mycotoxins are produced mainly by the mycelial structure of filamentous fungi, or more specifically, molds. These secondary metabolites are synthesized during the end of the exponential growth phase and appear to have no biochemical significance in fungal growth and development. The contamination of foods and feeds with mycotoxins is a significant problem for the adverse effects on humans, animals, and crops that result in illnesses and economic losses. The toxic effect of the ingestion of mycotoxins in humans and animals depends on a number of factors including intake levels, duration of exposure, toxin species, mechanisms of action, metabolism, and defense mechanisms. In general, the consumption of contaminated food and feed with mycotoxin induces to neurotoxic, immunosuppressive, teratogenic, mutagenic, and carcinogenic effect in humans and/or animals. The most significant mycotoxins in terms of public health and agronomic perspective include the aflatoxins, ochratoxin A (OTA), trichothecenes, fumonisins, patulin, and the ergot alkaloids. Due to the detrimental effects of these mycotoxins, several strategies have been developed in order to reduce the risk of exposure. These include the degradation, destruction, inactivation or removal of mycotoxins through chemical, physical and biological methods. However, the results obtained with these methods have not been optimal, because they may change the organoleptic characteristics and nutritional values of food. Another alternative strategy to prevent or reduce the toxic effects of mycotoxins is by applying antimutagenic agents. These substances act according to several extra- or intracellular mechanisms, their main goal being to avoid the interaction of mycotoxins with DNA; as a consequence of their action, these agents would inhibit mutagenesis and carcinogenesis. This article reviews the main strategies used to control AFB1 and ochratoxin A and contains an analysis of some antigenotoxic substances that reduce the DNA damage caused by these mycotoxins

5to. Congreso Internacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación para la Sociedad. Memoria académica

El V Congreso Internacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación para la Sociedad, CITIS 2019, realizado del 6 al 8 de febrero de 2019 y organizado por la Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, ofreció a la comunidad académica nacional e internacional una plataforma de comunicación unificada, dirigida a cubrir los problemas teóricos y prácticos de mayor impacto en la sociedad moderna desde la ingeniería. En esta edición, dedicada a los 25 años de vida de la UPS, los ejes temáticos estuvieron relacionados con la aplicación de la ciencia, el desarrollo tecnológico y la innovación en cinco pilares fundamentales de nuestra sociedad: la industria, la movilidad, la sostenibilidad ambiental, la información y las telecomunicaciones. El comité científico estuvo conformado formado por 48 investigadores procedentes de diez países: España, Reino Unido, Italia, Bélgica, México, Venezuela, Colombia, Brasil, Estados Unidos y Ecuador. Fueron recibidas un centenar de contribuciones, de las cuales 39 fueron aprobadas en forma de ponencias y 15 en formato poster. Estas contribuciones fueron presentadas de forma oral ante toda la comunidad académica que se dio cita en el Congreso, quienes desde el aula magna, el auditorio y la sala de usos múltiples de la Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, cumplieron respetuosamente la responsabilidad de representar a toda la sociedad en la revisión, aceptación y validación del conocimiento nuevo que fue presentado en cada exposición por los investigadores. Paralelo a las sesiones técnicas, el Congreso contó con espacios de presentación de posters científicos y cinco workshops en temáticas de vanguardia que cautivaron la atención de nuestros docentes y estudiantes. También en el marco del evento se impartieron un total de ocho conferencias magistrales en temas tan actuales como la gestión del conocimiento en la universidad-ecosistema, los retos y oportunidades de la industria 4.0, los avances de la investigación básica y aplicada en mecatrónica para el estudio de robots de nueva generación, la optimización en ingeniería con técnicas multi-objetivo, el desarrollo de las redes avanzadas en Latinoamérica y los mundos, la contaminación del aire debido al tránsito vehicular, el radón y los riesgos que representa este gas radiactivo para la salud humana, entre otros

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Insights into the Molecular Basis of Huanglongbing Tolerance in Persian Lime (<i>Citrus latifolia</i> Tan.) through a Transcriptomic Approach

Huanglongbing (HLB) is a vascular disease of Citrus caused by three species of the α-proteobacteria “Candidatus Liberibacter”, with “Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus” (CLas) being the most widespread and the one causing significant economic losses in citrus-producing regions worldwide. However, Persian lime (Citrus latifolia Tanaka) has shown tolerance to the disease. To understand the molecular mechanisms of this tolerance, transcriptomic analysis of HLB was performed using asymptomatic and symptomatic leaves. RNA-Seq analysis revealed 652 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in response to CLas infection, of which 457 were upregulated and 195 were downregulated. KEGG analysis revealed that after CLas infection, some DEGs were present in the plant–pathogen interaction and in the starch and sucrose metabolism pathways. DEGs present in the plant–pathogen interaction pathway suggests that tolerance against HLB in Persian lime could be mediated, at least partly, by the ClRSP2 and ClHSP90 genes. Previous reports documented that RSP2 and HSP90 showed low expression in susceptible citrus genotypes. Regarding the starch and sucrose metabolism pathways, some genes were identified as being related to the imbalance of starch accumulation. On the other hand, eight biotic stress-related genes were selected for further RT-qPCR analysis to validate our results. RT-qPCR results confirmed that symptomatic HLB leaves had high relative expression levels of the ClPR1, ClNFP, ClDR27, and ClSRK genes, whereas the ClHSL1, ClRPP13, ClPDR1, and ClNAC genes were expressed at lower levels than those from HLB asymptomatic leaves. Taken together, the present transcriptomic analysis contributes to the understanding of the CLas-Persian lime interaction in its natural environment and may set the basis for developing strategies for the integrated management of this important Citrus disease through the identification of blanks for genetic improvement