Academic stress in master’s students and its modulatory variables: a between-groups design

The present investigation tries to establish the descriptive profile of the academic stress of the students of the masters in education and to identify which sociodemographic and situational variables play a modulator role. This investigation is based on the Person-Surroundings Research Program and the systemical cognitive model of academic stress. The study can be characterized as transectional, correlational and non experimental. The collection of the information was made through the SISCO inventory of Academic Stress which was applied to 152 students. The main results suggest that 95% of the master students report having felt academic stress a few times but with medium-high intensity. Variables gender, civil state, attending masters and institutional support of the attending masters act as modulators in academic stress.

Diagnostic Related Groups (drgs): Resourceful tools for financial crisis times?

This document is intended to be read by the Colombian Ministry of Social Protection (former MoH) and includes some recommendations that could be implemented on the aim to increase allocative efficiency, thus improving macroeconomic performance of the Colombian Health System (CHS). It will be conducted as follows: first it will briefly review the background and actual context of the CHS, after this, will mention some related issues that justify a policy intervention on strategic purchasing to promote long run sustainability and hopefully the future attainment of major goals such as universal coverage and quality improvement. After prioritizing the main financial threats to the system, based on findings from literature review from countries that have successfully implemented similar policies, this paper will make some policy recommendations on regards especially to inpatient health care services in Colombia.

Armed conflict and paramilitary groups in Chiapas

The armed conflict in Chiapas began in 1994 after the armed uprising of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). Until now the Mexican government do not recognize the existence of an armed conflict there, for what they call inter-ethnic violence that happens in different municipalities in Chiapas. This study aims at demonstrating that, first, the Mexican state of Chiapas has an armed conflict since the mid-nineties, which has intensified and transformed over sixteen years. It is in this transformation that have emerged paramilitary groups seeking to destabilize the state, generating dynamics of appropriation and control of territory through different practices such as forced displacements, selective assassinations and terror spread within populations who are the targets of their attacks (mainly community support of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation). This work studied the "Peace and Justice" paramilitary group operating in different parts of the state of Chiapas, mainly in the Northern Zone. This case-study will look at the changes it has undergone Mexican democracy, which will be analyzed at two points: first, the failure of federal and Chiapas state to allow or endorse the creation of paramilitary groups and not to punish their actions; on the other, the consequences of the actions of such actors in democratic institutions, and democracy itself. Will seek to demonstrate that indeed both the permissiveness of the Mexican state and its complicity has weakened democracy in Mexico, since they are not able to manage conflict so that they do not degenerate into violence.

The Proliferation of Paramilitary Groups in Southern Mexico: State Strategy or Struggle between Local Political Elites?

This study traces the origins of Mexican paramilitary groups and argues that, contrary to what most of the literature on the subject implies, they do not represent a state strategy to thwart leftist groups seeking social change. Rather, they represent battles between groups of national and local-level elites with different visions of democracy and of what constitutes good governance. The polarization inherent in this type of conflict leads local actors to have to side with one faction of elites or the other. The presence of radical leftist groups in recently colonized indigenous areas with scant state presence gives rise to a process of radicalization among local elites. There are multiple factors that explain the emergence of paramilitary groups. Aside from the post Cold War international context, there were national factors like a shift in its focus away from security matters between 1989 and 1993, and presidential policies between 1968 and 1993, that planted the seeds of leftist radicalism in a context of id modernization