The Housing Market in Colombia: Socioeconomic and Financial Determinants

This document provides an overview of the housing system in Colombia, exploring its socioeconomic and financial determinants and offering recommendations to improve the collection of basic data on the construction sector, household socioeconomic conditions, and mortgage markets. The paper also estimates a simultaneous econometric model for the country`s housing market using quarterly data over the period 1991-2004. On the demand side, we find that the area of approved licenses is highly elastic to households` disposable income, new housing prices and real interest rates on mortgage credit. On the supply side, we find high input-cost elasticity and a moderate response to wealth effects. These results prove to be robust to different proxies and diverse estimation procedures.

Talking To Your Teens About Pregnancy

Teen parents are at risk for a variety of adverse life outcomes. The rate of low birth weight and premature delivery is higher among teen mothers than the average population. Teen pregnancy and birth are major contributors to lower educational achievement and income as they are less likely to graduate High school and college, leading to increased rates of poverty among teen mothers. This project aims to educate parents of at risk teens on how to approach the topic with their kids and to provide them with a list of online sources to aid in the process.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1330/thumbnail.jp

Regulation of human lung fibroblast alpha 1(I) procollagen gene expression by tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin-1 beta, and prostaglandin E2.

We investigated the participation of prostaglandin (PG) E2 in the regulation of the alpha 1(I) procollagen gene expression by tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha), and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta) in normal adult human lung fibroblasts. TNF alpha (100 units/ml) and IL-1 beta (100 units/ml) stimulated the production of PGE2 and caused a dose-dependent inhibition of up to 54 and 66%, respectively, of the production of type I procollagen. Preincubation of cultures with indomethacin partially reversed the inhibition of procollagen production induced by the cytokines. Cytokine-stimulated endogenous fibroblast PG accounted for 35 and 68% of the inhibition induced by TNF alpha and IL-1 beta, respectively. Steady-state mRNA levels for alpha 1(I) procollagen paralleled the changes in collagen production. The transcription rate of the alpha 1(I) procollagen gene was reduced by 58% by TNF alpha and by 43% by IL-1 beta. Cytokine-stimulated endogenous PG production accounted for half of these effects. These results indicate that TNF alpha and IL-1 beta inhibit the expression of the alpha 1(I) procollagen gene in human lung fibroblasts at the transcriptional level by a PGE2-independent effect as well as through the effect of endogenous fibroblast PGE2 released under the stimulus of the cytokines

Multi-Armed Bandits for Spectrum Allocation in Multi-Agent Channel Bonding WLANs

While dynamic channel bonding (DCB) is proven to boost the capacity of wireless local area networks (WLANs) by adapting the bandwidth on a per-frame basis, its performance is tied to the primary and secondary channel selection. Unfortunately, in uncoordinated high-density deployments where multiple basic service sets (BSSs) may potentially overlap, hand-crafted spectrum management techniques perform poorly given the complex hidden/exposed nodes interactions. To cope with such challenging Wi-Fi environments, in this paper, we first identify machine learning (ML) approaches applicable to the problem at hand and justify why model-free RL suits it the most. We then design a complete RL framework and call into question whether the use of complex RL algorithms helps the quest for rapid learning in realistic scenarios. Through extensive simulations, we derive that stateless RL in the form of lightweight multi-armed-bandits (MABs) is an efficient solution for rapid adaptation avoiding the definition of broad and/or meaningless states. In contrast to most current trends, we envision lightweight MABs as an appropriate alternative to the cumbersome and slowly convergent methods such as Q-learning, and especially, deep reinforcement learning

Cariou v. Prince: Toward a Theory of Aesthetic-Judicial Judgments

In the winter of 2008, Richard Prince had a major exhibition of new and controversial paintings at Gagosian Gallery in New York titled Canal Zone. For the exhibition, Prince, an early member of the appropriationist art group known as The Pictures Generation, presented a body of artworks that incorporated reproductions of published photographs protected by the United States Copyright Act of 1976 The original published photographs were taken by the artist Patrick Cariou for his book, Yes Rasta, which consisted of a series of portraits of Rastafarians in Jamaica

Cariou v. Prince: Toward a Theory of Aesthetic-Judicial Judgments

In the winter of 2008, Richard Prince had a major exhibition of new and controversial paintings at Gagosian Gallery in New York titled Canal Zone. For the exhibition, Prince, an early member of the appropriationist art group known as The Pictures Generation, presented a body of artworks that incorporated reproductions of published photographs protected by the United States Copyright Act of 1976 The original published photographs were taken by the artist Patrick Cariou for his book, Yes Rasta, which consisted of a series of portraits of Rastafarians in Jamaica

Simulation of the hydraulic fracture process in two dimensions using a discrete element method

We introduce a discrete element simulation for the hydraulic fracture process in a petroleum well which takes into account the elastic behavior of the rock and the Mohr-Coulomb fracture criterium. The rock is modeled as an array of Voronoi polygons joined by elastic beams, which are submitted to tectonical stresses and the hydrostatic pressure of the fracturing fluid. The fluid pressure is treated like that of a hydraulic column. The simulation reproduces well the time and dimensions of real fracture processes. We also include an analysis of the fracturing fluid loss due to the permeability of the rock which is useful in an efficiency analysis of the treatment. The model is a first step for future applications in the petroleum industry

Short-time dynamics of finite-size mean-field systems

We study the short-time dynamics of a mean-field model with non-conserved order parameter (Curie-Weiss with Glauber dynamics) by solving the associated Fokker-Planck equation. We obtain closed-form expressions for the first moments of the order parameter, near to both the critical and spinodal points, starting from different initial conditions. This allows us to confirm the validity of the short-time dynamical scaling hypothesis in both cases. Although the procedure is illustrated for a particular mean-field model, our results can be straightforwardly extended to generic models with a single order parameter.Comment: accepted for publication in JSTA

Efectividad de la inyeccion en musculo masetero de betametasona sodio fosfato para el tratamiento del dolor y trismus postoperatorios de exodoncia de terceros molares. 2009

92 p.Se realizó un ensayo clínico de fase IV, aleatorizado, enmascarado y controlado, para determinar si existe diferencia -en términos de intensidad de dolor y trismus postoperatorio-, entre sujetos infiltrados y no infiltrados localmente con betametasona sodio fosfato, intervenidos para exodoncia de tercer molar inferior. Para ello se selecciono una muestra de 38 pacientes con indicación de exodoncia de terceros molares inferiores. Las extracciones se realizaron en el pabellón del Centro de Clínicas Odontológicas de la Universidad de Talca, y fueron realizadas por cirujanos maxilofaciales de dicho establecimiento. Los pacientes fueron distribuidos aleatoriamente en grupos iguales, para recibir 1 ml de Betametasona sodio fosfato (4 mg) o 1 ml de suero fisiológico (placebo) inyectados en el músculo masetero previa exodoncia de las piezas programadas. El dolor se registro mediante uso de una Escala Visual Análoga a las 6, 24, 48 y 168 horas postoperatorias; la apertura bucal fue medida previa cirugía, y luego a las 24 y 168 postoperatorias, utilizando la distancia interincisiva,. El análisis de datos se realizo mediante el software Stata/SE 9.0, utilizando t test, correlación de Spearman y Chi cuadrado. Al analizar los valores de EVA de acuerdo al tratamiento, los pacientes que recibieron betametasona mostraron valores menores de EVA a las 6 y 24 horas, siendo estadísticamente significativo solo a las 6 horas; con respecto a los valores de apertura bucal, si bien se obtuvieron mayores valores en el grupo que recibió el corticoide, no logra resultados estadísticamente significativos. Como conclusión, 4 mg de betametasona sodio fosfato inyectados en el músculo masetero preoperatoriamente, logra disminución en la intensidad del dolor, estadísticamente significativa, a las 6 horas del post-operatorio pero no tiene efecto significativo en el trismus. 1 12. BIBLIOGRAFÍA Alexander R.; Throndson R. 2000. A review of perioperative corticosteroid use in dentoalveolar surgery. Oral Surg, Oral Med, Oral Pathol, Oral Radiol Endod. 90: 406-15 Benediktsdóttir I. et al. 2004. Mandibular third molar removal: Risk indicators for extended operation time, postoperative pain, and complications. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod; 97:438-46 Breivik & Bjo¨rnsson. 1998. Variation in surgical trauma and baseline pain intensity: effects on assay sensitivity of an analgesic trial. Eur J Oral Sci; 106: 844–852 Berge T.; Bøe O. 1994. Predictor evaluation of postoperative morbidity after surgical removal of mandibular thir molars. Acta Odontologica Scandinavica. 52:3. 162 – 169 Caci F, Gluck GM. 1976. Double-blind study of prednisolone and papase as inhibitors of complications after oral surgery. J Am Dent Assoc 93:325 Clark, W. et al. 1993. Farmacología Médica. España: Mosby. Decimotercera edición. 527- 539 p Conrad S. et al. 1999. Patients’ Perception of Recovery After Third Molar Surgery. J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 57 : 1288-l 294