The Challenges of the State Identity for Peace: An Approach from Discourse Analysis

El Estado colombiano ha sido construido alrededor del conflicto armado y de la violencia política que ha marcado la historia del país. De hecho, más que un Estado a pesar de la guerra, podría decirse que el colombiano es un Estado de la guerra. Esto supone una paradoja y un desafío para la construcción de la paz, dado que implica desarraigar y poner en entredicho muchos de los conceptos y construcciones identitarias sobre las que se articulaba el discurso político y una buena parte de la estructura de la política en Colombia. Este artículo tiene como objetivo analizar la forma en la que en el discurso político se ha articulado la imagen del Estado de cara a los desafíos que supone la paz. Para ello se aplica una metodología basada en la identificación de los discursos básicos sobre los que se construye la “autorepresentación” del Estado y en estudiar sus características y paradojas frente al proceso de implementación del proceso de paz.The foundations of the Colombian State are linked to the development of internal conflict and political violence that have marked the history of the country. This situation creates a huge challenge for peace consolidation since it involves questioning and scrapping many of the concepts and identity frameworks over which political discourses and structures have been built in Colombia. The objective of this article is to analyze the way the image of the State has been articulated in the Colombian political discourses and how it has been affected by the recent Peace Process

Favoriser l’expression orale chez les apprenants universitaires grâce à des stratégies de communication

Speaking in a foreign language can be a vast challenge for most learners, and this is the case of a group of learners in a university setting located in Cartagena. Therefore, this article reports the findings of a pedagogical intervention, which implemented communication strategies to foster university learners’ speaking skills. The strategies aimed to reduce learners’ reliance on their L1, to strengthen their L2 oral fluency, and to lower their affective filter when performing oral tasks. Twentytwo learners participated in the intervention stage, which consisted of six workshop that were designed including several communication strategies and then implemented. Data collected, in the action stage, displayed that communication strategies had a positive effect on learners’ L2 oral proficiency, and suggested that the implementation of these strategies and meaningful oral tasks were beneficial to broaden and to refine their lexicon, to improve their fluency, and to lower their affective filter.Hablar en un idioma extranjero puede ser un gran desafío para la mayoría de los estudiantes, y este es el caso de un grupo de estudiantes en un entorno universitario ubicado en la ciudad de Cartagena. Por lo tanto, este artículo reporta los hallazgos de una intervención pedagógica, la cual implementó una serie de estrategias de comunicación para fomentar las habilidades orales de los estudiantes universitarios. Las estrategias tenían como objetivo reducir la dependencia de los alumnos en su primera lengua, fortalecer su fluidez oral en inglés y reducir su filtro afectivo al realizar actividades orales. Veintidós estudiantes participaron en la etapa de intervención, la cual consistió en la implementación de seis talleres que se diseñaron incluyendo varias estrategias de comunicación. Los datos recopilados, en la etapa de acción, mostraron que las estrategias de comunicación tuvieron un efecto positivo en la competencia oral de los estudiantes en el idioma extranjero y sugirieron que la implementación de estas estrategias en compañía de actividades orales significativas fue beneficiosa para ampliar y refinar el léxico de los estudiantes, mejorar su fluidez, y reducir su filtro afectivo

Determinantes de la Innovación en el Sector Productivo de Panamá

There is consensus on the positive relationship between research and development, innovation and productivity, however there are other variables related to the topic that are important to identify. At the national level, studies on innovation are scarce, so it is necessary to go deeper into it. This research focused on identifying the factors that determine innovation in the productive sectors of Panama. An extensive bibliography on innovation in the productive sectors was reviewed at global and national levels. The food industry database of the Agro-industrial Production and Research Center was analyzed and case studies were carried out in national companies. The study found that the main factors that drive innovation in companies are: workforce skills, investment in R & D, market orientation, use of ICTs, links between public and private players, company size, networking, university-government-business interaction, and innovation subsidies. In the case studies conducted in Panama, the key factors that explain innovation in agro-industries are the following: investment in machinery and equipment links with supplier companies, customers and competitors, and demand or market orientation.Keywords: Innovation, research and development, productive secto

The formation of the archaeological site of Huelva. Natural processes and human activity

Como alternativa a las interpretaciones realizadas en décadas anteriores, se explica desde planteamientos geoarqueológicos la conformación del sitio arqueológico de Huelva, resaltando la interrelación de los procesos naturales y antrópicos a lo largo del tiempo. Como ejemplo se incide en la explicación del relleno de una de las vaguadas existentes entre los cabezos de San Pedro y del Cementerio Viejo, en la conformación de la estratigrafía posdeposicional del Área Tres del Cabezo de la Esperanza, y en la localización y conformación del reborde de la llanura mareal bajo la actual calle Méndez Núñez en una fase de la Protohistoria.As a geoarchaeological alternative to last decades explications of the archaeological excavations carried out in the site of Huelva, the interconnections of natural and antropogenic processes are used to explicate the archaeological data. As working examples, the infill of Cabezo de San Pedro and Cabezo del Cementerio Viejo small palaeovalley, a postdeposicional stratigrafy in Cabezo de la Esperanza Área Tres, and the protohistorical tidal flat archaeological data under Méndez Núñez street are hereby presented.España. Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología HUM 2004-0179

Well-defined regions of the Plasmodium falciparum reticulocyte binding protein homologue 4 mediate interaction with red blood cell membrane

Two widely studied parasite protein families are considered attractive targets for developing a fully effective antimalarial vaccine: the erythrocyte binding antigen (EBA) family defining a sialic acid-dependent invasion pathway, and reticulocyte-binding homologue (RH) proteins associated with sialic acid-independent red blood cell (RBC) invasion. In this study, the micronemal invasive PfRH4 protein was finely mapped using 20-mer-long synthetic peptides spanning the entire protein length to identify protein regions that establish high affinity interactions with human RBCs. Twenty conserved, mainly ?-helical high-activity binding peptides (HABPs) with nanomolar dissociation constants and recognizing 32, 25, 22, and 20 kDaRBCmembrane molecules in a chymotrypsin and/or trypsin-sensitive manner were identified in this protein. Anti-PfRH4 rabbit sera and PfRH4 HABPs inhibited merozoite invasion in vitro, therefore suggesting the implication of these HABPs in Plasmodium falciparum invasion and supporting their inclusion in further structural and immunological studies to design potential components of a minimal subunit-based, multiantigenic, chemically synthesized antimalarial vaccine. ©2009 American Chemical Society

Colombia: El desafío de implementar una paz imperfecta

En abril de 2019 habrán pasado casi tres años desde que el gobierno de Colombia firmase la paz con la guerrilla de las FARC, ahora convertida en movimiento político. La paz generó grandes expectativas; sin embargo, su consolidación requiere implementar los puntos que incluye el Acuerdo Final. El postconflicto se enfrenta a múltiples retos: algunos de ellos se refieren a las dificultades propias del escenario y a los déficits que busca resolver y otros, los mayores, son producto de la polarización política, del discurso político crítico con el Acuerdo y de la aceptación del concepto de la paz positiva. En su primera parte, el documento revisa el grado de implementación y los déficits de las principales dimensiones del Acuerdo Final. En la segunda, analiza tres de los mayores desafíos para el país: la persistencia y ascenso de otros grupos criminales, el asesinato sistemático y selectivo de líderes sociales que se ha cobrado más de 400 víctimas desde la firma del Acuerdo y la ruptura de los diálogos de paz con el Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN). En la tercera parte, se analiza el papel de Europa y de España en la gestión del Acuerdo y el postconflicto. Finalmente, en las conclusiones se plantea que, ante la posibilidad de un nuevo ciclo de violencia, el país necesita reconsiderar el concepto de paz, a partir de la idea de la paz imperfecta, como una necesidad de institucionalizar sistemas de gestión no violenta de los conflictos.In April 2019, it would be almost three years since the government of Colombia signed a peace agreement with the FARC guerrilla, now turned into a political movement. Peace generated great expectations; however, its consolidation requires the implementation of the points included in the Final Agreement. The post-conflict stage faces multiple challenges: some of them refer to the difficulties inherent to the scenario and the deficits it aims to resolve, and others, the greater ones, are the product of political polarization, a critical political discourse about the Agreement and the acceptance of the concept of positive peace. In its first section, the document goes over the degree of implementation and the deficits related to the main points of the Final Agreement. In the second one, it analyzes three of the greatest challenges for the country: the persistence and rise of other criminal groups, the systematic and selective assassination of social leaders which amounts to over 400 victims since the Agreement was signed and the rupture of the peace dialogues with the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional, ELN). In the third section, it analyzes the role that both Europe and Spain have played in the management of the Agreement and the post-conflict stage. Finally, in the conclusions it states that, given the possibility of a new cycle of violence, the country needs to reconsider the concept of peace, departing from the idea of an imperfect peace, as a need to institutionalize non-violent conflict management system

Chromosome 10 in the tomato plant carries clusters of genes responsible for field resistance/defence to Phytophthora infestans

AbstractThe main objective of the present study was to reanalyse tomato expression data that was previously submitted to the Tomato Expression Database to dissect the resistance/defence genomic and metabolic responses of tomato to Phytophthora infestans under field conditions. Overrepresented gene sets belonging to chromosome 10 were identified using the Gene Set Enrichment Analysis, and we found that these genes tend to be located towards the end of the chromosome 10. An analysis of syntenic regions between Arabidopsis thaliana chromosomes and the tomato chromosome 10 allowed us to identify conserved regions in the two genomes. In addition to allowing for the identification of tomato candidate genes participating in resistance/defence in the field, this approach allowed us to investigate the relationships of the candidate genes with chromosomal position and participation in metabolic functions, thus offering more insight into the phenomena occurring during the infection process

Wealth, Social Protection Programs, and Child Labor in Colombia: A Cross-sectional Study

This article has 3 main objectives: (1) to assess the prevalence of child labor in Colombia, (2) to identify factors associated with child labor, and (3) to determine whether social protection programs have an association with the prevalence of child labor in the country. Using a cross-sectional study with data from the Colombian Demographic and Health Survey 2010, a working child was defined as a child who worked during the week prior to the survey in an activity other than household chores. Through descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis, and multivariate regressions, it was found that child labor was associated with gender (boys were more likely to work), older age, ethnicity (children from indigenous communities were more likely to be workers), school dropout, disability (children with disabilities were less likely to be working), subsidized health social security system membership, and lower number of years of mother’s schooling. Furthermore, the results of this study suggest that children beneficiaries of the subsidy Familias en Acción were less likely to be working and that social protection programs were more effective to reduce child labor when targeting the lowest wealth quintiles of the Colombian population. © The Author(s) 2018

(M, N)-coherent pairs of order (m, k) and Sobolev orthogonal polynomials

A pair of regular linear functionals (U,V)(U,V) is said to be a (M,N)(M,N)-coherent pair of order (m,k)(m,k) if their corresponding sequences of monic orthogonal polynomials...We thank the referees for the careful revision of the manuscript. Their comments and suggestions have contributed to improve substantially the presentation. The work of F. Marcellán, J. Petronilho, and N.C. Pinzón-Cortés has been supported by Dirección General de Investigación Científica y Técnica, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain, under grants MTM2012-36732-C03-01 (FM and NCP-C) and MTM2012-36732-C03-02 (JP). The work of J. Petronilho was also supported by the Centro de Matemática da Universidade de Coimbra (CMUC), funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the program COMPETE and by the Portuguese Government through the FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia under the project PEst-C/MAT/UI0324/2011, and the research project PTDC/MAT/098060/2008 (FCT)