COLLECTIVE AUTONOMY RESTRICTION: A THEORETICAL MODEL AND EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATIONS

Collective autonomy refers to a group’s freedom to define and practice their own cultural and social identity without interference from other groups. According to the “threat and defense” hypothesis of collective autonomy restriction, group members are motivated to defend their collective autonomy from outside restriction. However, the psychological processes that influence advantaged vs. disadvantaged group members perceptions of collective autonomy, as well as the specific strategies they use to protect collective autonomy, have yet to be articulated. This dissertation presents three manuscripts that examine the social conditions and psychological processes that shape advantaged and disadvantaged group members’ perceptions of collective autonomy. The first manuscript (Chapter 2) is a theoretical review that articulates hypotheses about the social conditions (i.e., stability vs. instability of a social hierarchy and its perceived legitimacy) and psychological process (i.e., social identity strength, system beliefs, social comparisons, and intergroup threat) that shape advantaged and disadvantaged group members’ perceptions of collective autonomy restriction and drive collective action. The second manuscript (Chapter 3) empirically tests whether social instability and hierarchy threat increases feelings of collective autonomy restriction among politically advantaged group members. Finally, the third manuscript (Chapter 4), empirically tests the external validity of the collective autonomy restriction literature by testing whether experiencing racial/ethnic collective autonomy shapes adolescents’ perceptions of their teachers as supportive of their intrinsic motivational needs within the classroom context. A summary of each manuscript, as well as their theoretical and practical implications for future research are discussed (Chapter 5)

Teacher\u27s Discipline Practices and Race: The Effect of Fair and Unfair Discipline on Black and White Student\u27s Perceptions and Behaviors

Negative stereotypes characterizing Black males as prone to causing trouble can lead teachers to punish misbehaving Black boys more harshly than their White peers. Awareness of unfair discipline practices has been linked to future disciplinary infractions among Black males, hinting that some Black males may engage in defiant behavior in response to unfair discipline. Despite the documented links between awareness of unfair discipline and future disciplinary infractions among Black males, questions remain as to (1) the types of disciplinary practices from teachers that students perceive as fair and unfair; (2) the psychological processes that motivate Black male behavior after experiencing unfair discipline; and (3) whether these psychological processes differ from those that motivate White male behavior. Across three studies, the present research explores these questions by asking Black and White men to recall the type of treatment from teachers that they perceived as fair and unfair (Study 2), as well as how they would have perceived and responded to different scenarios describing instances of either fair and unfair discipline from teachers in middle and high school (Studies 1 and 3). Qualitative results from Study 2 highlights negotiable (i.e., a collaborative effort between a teacher and their pupil to discuss and analyze how and why a particular situation arose from all perspectives) and non-negotiable (i.e., teacher ignores the pupil’s explanation for the infraction) discipline as two contrasting practices that men viewed as fair and unfair, respectively. Quantitative results from Study 3 indicated that unfair (non-negotiable), compared to fair (negotiable) discipline from teachers triggered negative emotions associated with reputation threat (i.e., embarrassment, shame, anger, and sadness), which in turn predicted future defiant behavior among both Black and White men. Furthermore, the extent to which unfair discipline from teachers was attributed to racial bias also predicted greater negative emotions and defiant behavior for Black, but not White, men. Together, these findings shed light on a process through which unfair disciplinary practices may motivate defiance from students via negative emotions among both Black and White students; as well as the unique role that race bias attributions have on Black students’ perceptions of unfair discipline

Estudio de impacto del tratado de libre comercio en la ciudad de Pereira en los sectores estratégicos fabricación de prendas de vestir y operadores turísticos

En la búsqueda de políticas que permitan incrementar los niveles de competitividad de Pereira, la Alcaldía de la ciudad, en alianza con el sector educativo, en particular con la Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira y la Universidad Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario, realiza el proyecto titulado “Estudio de impacto del tratado de libre comercio en la ciudad de Pereira en el sector estratégico fabricación de prendas de vestir”. El análisis sectorial presentado se desarrolló utilizando como base la propuesta metodológica de análisis sectorial desarrollada por el Grupo de Investigación en Perdurabilidad Empresarial de la Facultad de Administración de la Universidad del Rosario. Su estudio se fundamenta en el empleo de lo que se ha denominado “la nueva microeconomía de la firma”, en la que la comprensión de la estrategia de los sectores estratégicos se constituye en elemento de primer nivel para la toma de decisiones que afecten su comportamiento y les permitan lograr la perdurabilidad con crecimiento rentable. Por lo general, al hacer un análisis sectorial se recurre a cifras macroeconómicas con las cuales los diferentes actores, como el Gobierno, los gremios y los empresarios establecen directrices y se preparan para negociaciones comerciales con otros países y/o regiones. Sin embargo, surge una pregunta: ¿conocemos realmente los sectores económicos? Muchos no dudarían un segundo y dirían que sí, pero el conocimiento se hace insuficiente si se soporta únicamente en cifras económicas como el producto interno bruto (PIB), la inflación, el nivel de exportaciones, la tasa de desempleo, la devaluación, el índice de precios al productor, entre otras. Aun cuando la información económica es importante y necesaria para tomar decisiones, el análisis estructural es diferente por la construcción de pruebas a partir de la información estratégica. El modelo no descarta la información macroeconómica; es más, en su primera etapa se requiere contar con ella para contextualizar la industria, pero se enfoca en la estrategia como elemento que le permitirá a las empresas hacer frente a situaciones como los tratados de libre comercio con otros países. ¿Qué tan preparados se encuentran los sectores económicos de la ciudad de Pereira, en especial el de fabricación de prendas de vestir y el de operadores turísticos frente al TLC? ¿Cuál es el grado de hacinamiento que los sectores presentan? ¿Cuál es el crecimiento interno y externo presente en los sectores estratégicos en los últimos cuatro años? ¿Qué escenarios pueden esperar los sectores objeto de estudio frente al tratado de libre comercio con Estados Unidos de Norteamérica? Estos y otros interrogantes son abordados en el presente documento, resultado de la investigación realizada por la Universidad del Rosario. La estructura del documento es la siguiente: en primer lugar se hacen unas consideraciones generales sobre la metodología utilizada en el proyecto; a continuación se presenta el estudio para el sector fabricación de prendas de vestir, desarrollando cada una de las pruebas mencionadas en las consideraciones generales; por último, se incluyen algunas conclusiones del estudio, en las que se resalta que la integración entre el sector público y la academia permite avanzar en la consolidación de una ciudad más competitiva

Putting the pieces together : elucidation of podocyte biology in the homeostasis of the kidney filtration barrier

End-stage renal disease (ESRD) is a devastating condition that can only be treated with chronic dialysis or kidney transplantation. ESRD treatment costs account for up to 10% of healthcare budgets in the Western world. The 5-year survival for patients in dialysis is only about 40%. Glomerular disease processes are the main cause of ESRD. Despite this, our basic knowledge on the biology and disease processes of the glomerulus is poor. As a result, we still lack effective therapy options to stop the progression of glomerular diseases. In this thesis we have identified a number of candidate genes and proteins that could have an essential role in the glomerular homeostasis. In the first project, we identified a group of neural proteins, Hip1, Nfasc and Olfml2, which are enriched in podocytes. We used these markers to provide further evidence that podocytes are present in glomerular crescent lesions that occur in inflammatory diseases of the glomerulus. In project 2, we studied the functional role of another neural protein, dendrin, in the kidney by generating and characterizing a knockout (KO) mouse line. Previously, we and others have shown that dendrin is very specific to podocytes and interacts with cd2ap and nephrin, two podocyte proteins imperative for the maintenance of the kidney barrier. The KO mouse model showed that dendrin is not needed for the development or maintenance of the glomerulus filtration barrier. Furthermore, the outcome of glomerular disease in two injury models was unaffected by the absence of dendrin. This suggests that dendrin does not have a role in the development of glomerular damage in these two models. In project 3, we identified Tmem234, Slfn5, Lrrc49 and Znf185 as highly podocyte-enriched molecules. Morpholino knockdown experiments in zebrafish showed that the silencing of Tmem234 results in podocyte foot effacement and proteinuria in pronephros. Thus, Tmem234 seems to have an important role in the formation of functional filtration barrier in zebrafish pronephros, and therefore it is reasonable to speculate that it can have also an important role in the mammalian kidney. Lastly, in project 4 we identified a mediator protein subunit, Med22, to be essential for the kidney filtration barrier. In zebrafish pronephros, Med22 morphants exhibit defective capillary loop formation and leak large proteins to tubuli. In mice, full KO mice die during embryonic development. In podocyte-specific KO animals kidney development proceeds normally. However, these mice exhibit proteinuria starting from 8 weeks of age that progresses to ESRD by 16 weeks of age. Histological analysis shows the accumulation of caveolin-positive vesicles in the cytoplasm of podocytes. As these vesicles became larger, we detected the loss of podocytes that leads to glomerulosclerosis and ESRD. Thus, Med22 seems to regulate vesicular trafficking in podocytes and be essential for podocyte survival. This thesis provides novel insights into podocyte biology and obviously opens up new possibilities to study these candidate genes in glomerular function and pathology

Éxito, fracaso y entrepreneurship

¿Por qué razón unas empresas mueren mientras otras tienen éxito?, ¿qué debe hacerse para que las empresas que comienzan no desaparezcan tan rápidamente?, ¿cuáles son las condiciones que determinan el éxito empresarial? Estas son algunas de las preguntas que se hacen los académicos, gerentes y estudiantes de Administración de manera permanente. Para dar un aporte a la academia de la administración y poder construir respuestas coherentes, se elabora este documento, en el cual se hace una revisión de literatura del concepto de éxito y fracaso de las empresas, haciendo énfasis en el estudio de la responsabilidad del entrepreneur en el éxito o fracaso de las empresas. El texto se encuentra organizado de la siguiente manera: La primera sección contiene una descripción de la estrategia de búsqueda de la literatura utilizada; el lector podrá encontrar los pasos realizados para la elaboración del documento; la segunda sección muestra antecedentes sobre la manera como la literatura gerencial ha abordado el tema de éxito y fracaso empresarial; dividiendo en tres tipos de publicaciones, unas enfocadas sólo a mirar el éxito, son básicamente libros; una segunda categoría contiene artículos de journals y hace referencia a la muerte de las empresas; una tercera categoría incluye estudios comparativos entre empresas exitosas y empresas que han fracasado. Finaliza esta sección con la presentación de algunas defi niciones de éxito y fracaso ubicadas en la literatura. En la segunda sección, se identifi can los factores que inciden en que una empresa sea exitosa o fracase, entre ellos se encuentran la disciplina, el enfoque, la agilidad, la educación, la necesidad de logro. El texto cierra con las conclusiones, aquí se señalan los vacíos encontrados en la literatura que pueden ser tenidos en cuenta para futuras investigaciones sobre éxito, fracaso y entrepreneurship

A Generation of Isolation: Cuban Political Economic Policies

Cuba is not only the largest island in the Greater Antilles, but also the only communist island in the Caribbean. This country has been governed by the Marxist-Leninist ideology for more than fifty years. Although the Cuban economy has not shown significant development since January 1, 1959, i.e. when the Revolutionaries came to power, it is presenting a new economic capacity-the tourism industry, which could drive the nation to a modern economic growth. This article has been revised by the author. The revised version is available as a supplement at the link below

Removal of Carbamazepine from Drinking Water

Due to the increasing prevalence of prescription medication over the past few decades, pharmaceuticals have accumulated in various water sources. This has become a public health concern because many pharmaceuticals have limited research on the effects of chronic low-level exposure. According to the World’s Health Organization (WHO), traces of pharmaceuticals products have been reported in different water sources such as surface waters, wastewater, groundwater, and drinking water.[1] One pharmaceutical of interest that has been detected in water sources is carbamazepine. Carbamazepine (CBZ) is a common pharmaceutical prescribed for the treatment of seizure disorders, neuropathic pain, and various psychological disorders. It’s mechanism of action is “sodium channel blocking,” which is the impairment of conduction of sodium ions in sodium channels. This, in effect, reduces nervous-system conductivity in key areas related to the treated disorders mentioned above.[2] Carbamazepine is also not easily biodegradable and current conventional treatment methods in some drinking water and wastewater facilities do not adequately remove carbamazepine and other pharmaceuticals from treated water. While carbamazepine is not federally regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Safe Water Drinking Act (SWDA) at this time, it does have the potential for producing adverse health effects in humans. Therefore, being proactive in finding ways to remove carbamazepine and compounds like it should be encouraged. The Carbamaza-Clean team designed a bench scale unit as well as an in-home treatment system using granular activated carbon (GAC) to effectively remove carbamazepine from water. GAC was chosen for this design because it is inexpensive and does not create by-products that are harmful to human health. Several experiments were conducted to determine the efficiency of the removal of carbamazepine using two different GACs: coconut shell GAC (CSGAC) and bituminous coal GAC (BGAC). A packed bed column was constructed to determine if both carbons could reduce the concentration of carbamazepine from 1 ppm to 1 ppb or lower. The CSGAC packed bed was able to lower the concentration below 1 ppb at a packed bed length of 4.4 ft, while the BGAC only required half that (2.2 ft). Both carbons can remove carbamazepine to the desired concentration; however, the costs vary. An economic analysis was performed to determine the costs of the carbons. The CSGAC system would cost $990 for the first year and$589.68 for each following year. The BGAC system would cost $639 for the first two years, and then$200 every two years following the initial capital investment