Beyond the mincer equation: the internal rate of return to higher education in Colombia

In order to present an estimation of the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) to higher education in Colombia we take advantage of the methodological approach provided by Heckman, Lochner and Todd (2005). Trying to overcome the criticism that surrounds interpretations of the education coefficient of Mincer equations as being the rate of return to investments in education we develop a more structured approach of estimation, which controls for selection bias, includes more accurate measures of labor income and the role of education costs and income taxes. Our results implied a lower rate of return than the ones found in the Colombian literature and show that the Internal Rate of Return for higher education in Colombia lies somewhere between 0.074 and 0.128. The results vary according to the year analyzed and individual’s gender. This last result reinforces considerations regarding gender discrimination in the Colombian labor market.

Characterization of resistance in vitro to different antimicrobial in strains of Staphylococcus spp. in a hospital of the city of Valledupar between January and July 2009

The Staphylococcus spp. they can cause a wide range of infections systemic and located in community and hospital patients. Its high pathogenicity and growing resistance to multiple antimicrobials including methicillin, causes high morbiditymortality rates, causing a high epidemiological impact. Objective: to determine the phenotypic profile of resistance to different antimicrobials in strains of the genus Staphylococcus spp. Materials and methods: collected 75 strains and determined them susceptibility to different antibiotics by the Kirby-Bauer method. The production of betalactamasecheck using the nitrocefin test. (Resistance to Methicillin in S. aureus was conductedusing Mueller Hinton with 4% NaCl and oxacillin 6 μg/mL). Inducible clindamycin resistance tamizo by D-Test test. Results: they were isolated by 38% of staphylococcus coagulase negative (SNA) and 62% of S. aureus. 53% were penicillin resistant staphylococci: S. aureus with 58% and 42% SNA. 47% of the strains showed resistance to methicillin: S. aureus with 61% and SNA with 39%. A strain of S. aureus showed inducible resistance to clindamycin (1.33%). Coagulase negative staphylococci were isolated mostly from blood samples (31%), blood (29%), tip of catheter (5%) and came mostly from neonatal ICU (25%), medical (21%) and surgery (16%).Conclusions: S. aureus and SNA were isolated with greater frequency in blood and wounds from surgery and neonatal ICU. The predominant resistance phenotypes were penicillin and oxacillin.