How do inequality affect tax morale in Latin America and Caribbean?

Latin America is well known as an inequitable region. As it is recognized, inequality and corruption perception weaken the way that political institutions works and the democratic system. Focusing on Latin American and Caribbean countries, this paper analyzes what are the elements shaping tax morale. In particular, how the context influences ethical grounds decisions such as the predisposition to pay taxes is analyzed, using the survey carried out in 2005 by Latinobarometro. The objective is to analyze how country performance determines tax morale. To do so, four probitmodels are estimated using Gini index, Transparency International Corruption Perception Index and Gross Domestic Product per capita (GDPpc) as explanatory variables. As expected we found that some socio-demographic variables play a relevant role. Interestingly, we also found that, in this attitude, LAC countries do not register a gender bias. However, those are not our main contributions to the literature on the field. The most important results are linked to: 1) the levelmatters, GDPpc increases the probability of people having tax morale, 2) moreover, income distributionalso influence on tax morale but in opposite direction and 3) corruption perception also reduces tax morale. Those results show that the quality of institutions matters and therefore, the way that democracy works play a relevant role.

La deficiencia auditiva.

Acompaña un caso práctico y anexos. Este trabajo no ha sido publicado

La formación docente como factor de mejora escolar.

Esta investigación analiza cómo la diversidad de acciones por los profesores y las organizaciones educativas, permiten acceder a programas de formación docente que mejoran los resultados académicos, y sobre todo mejoran los procesos educativos de enseñanza aprendizaje, a través de estrategias de metodología. Para esta investigación se ha analizado la población joven, entre 15 y 29 años, que residen en Méjico. Se han analizado los niveles de educación de esta población de entre 15 y 29 años. Entre los jóvenes de 15 a 19 años, el 2,2 % no tienen instrucción alguna. Casi dos terceras partes apenas alcanza escolaridad básica y solo la cuarta parte estudia o terminó la educación media. De este último grupo el 14% es alumno de nivel técnico profesional y el resto cursa bachillerato. Solo 2,5% de este grupo de edad está incorporado a la educación superior. Para analizar adecuadamente los resultados, en primer término se procedió a determinar la prueba estadística que se debía aplicar, para detectar diferencias o similitudes entre los grupos experimentales según los tipos de variables que se manejaron en el experimento. El análisis estadístico fue realizado mediante cálculo por separado las varianzas de los grupos muestras experimental y testigo, con la finalidad de determinar si resultaban evidentemente diferentes, o existía una similitud entre ellos. Esta investigación se ha llevado a cabo bajo un diseño experimental con un arreglo de comparación estática de un tratamiento contra un grupo de control. Se caracteriza por no alcanzar un control tan exhaustivo y algunas de las variables extrañas no son suficientemente controladas en la investigación, se busca establecer relaciones de causalidad entre la variable independiente y la dependiente, si bien las condiciones son menos rigurosas. Al término de la investigación se determina si existe una relación entre la Formación Docente y el rendimiento escolar, a través de un seguimiento en los índices de aprobación y calificación de alumnos.

Los paisajes del sureste de Madrid : páramos y vegas.

Resumen tomado parcialmente de la publicación

Walking through the jungle.

Un niño pequeño realiza una gira por una selva imaginaria, camina, luego rastrea, corre, salta, se balancea y, por último, vadea. A medida que avanza, escucha diferentes ruidos: ssssss, grrrrrrr, , roarrrrr, despué de cada uno la página revela el animal responsable de él. El texto, repetitivo, y las ilustraciones se combinan para animar la participación de la clase sobre los niveles de sonido y movimiento, y para crear un juego de adivinanzas. Recurso para la enseñanza de la lectura. Es el inicio de una reflexión sobre los textos y sus significados. Los niños pueden aprender a dividir una palabra en sus partes principales y crear nuevas palabras por analogía con las palabras que conocen, o para sugerir otras palabras. Para la lectura en grupos, individual o en parejas.

Los videojuegos : aprender en mundos reales y virtuales.

Índice analítico. Resumen basado en el de la publicación

El suroeste de Madrid : desde las campiñas de Brunete hasta los castañares de Rozas de Puerto Real.

Este documento realiza un recorrido geográfico por la zona suroeste de Madrid y analiza tres de las cinco unidades de paisaje de la Comunidad de Madrid, la campiña, la rampa y la sierra. Se trata de una excursión o trabajo de campo que tiene como objetivo la observación y análisis de los elementos, naturales o introducidos por el hombre, que dan lugar a los paisajes de la zona; el análisis del significado de los espacios rurales en relación con el crecimiento del medio urbano; la pérdida de su valor económico y el incremento de su valor paisajístico; y las relaciones e influencias entre la gran ciudad y sus alrededores. Dedica también especial atención a la preparación, metodología y desarrollo de la excursión, y a la forma de transmitir los contenidos. Contiene una introducción sobre los elementos de los paisajes de la Comunidad de Madrid, el itinerario dividido por unidades de paisaje, propuestas didácticas, cartografía, y un glosario de términos específicos..

Dise??o de un cuestionario para la aplicaci??n de los est??ndares de calidad educativa a la educaci??n no formal

Resumen basado en el de la publicaci??n

La asociación estratégica Unión Europea-América Latina: ¿unas relaciones birregionales con geometría variable? (Tema Central)

Tras quince años de la “asociación estratégica UE-ALC”, los múltiples y profundos cambios en el sistema internacional han tenido gran impacto sobre estas relaciones birregionales. Por ello hay que replantear cuáles son los cambios en la percepciones mutuas de las dos regiones, y observar el nuevo contexto geopolítico, tomando nota de la pérdida de influencia de los EEUU en la región y el auge de Asia, especialmente China. La “asociación estratégica” no ha conducido ni a una convergencia de intereses ni a una reconocible compatibilidad normativa. Además, la UE ha perdido su papel de “modelo” para los procesos de integración, en una región que tiene aún más heterogeneidad por sus diferentes modelos de desarrollo. Por ello se hace necesario asumir una geometría variable para la adaptación de las relaciones birregionales a la realidad del siglo XXI.

A hierarchical Bayesian model for predicting the functional consequences of amino-acid polymorphisms

Genetic polymorphisms in deoxyribonucleic acid coding regions may have a phenotypic effect on the carrier, e.g. by influencing susceptibility to disease. Detection of deleterious mutations via association studies is hampered by the large number of candidate sites; therefore methods are needed to narrow down the search to the most promising sites. For this, a possible approach is to use structural and sequence-based information of the encoded protein to predict whether a mutation at a particular site is likely to disrupt the functionality of the protein itself. We propose a hierarchical Bayesian multivariate adaptive regression spline (BMARS) model for supervised learning in this context and assess its predictive performance by using data from mutagenesis experiments on lac repressor and lysozyme proteins. In these experiments, about 12 amino-acid substitutions were performed at each native amino-acid position and the effect on protein functionality was assessed. The training data thus consist of repeated observations at each position, which the hierarchical framework is needed to account for. The model is trained on the lac repressor data and tested on the lysozyme mutations and vice versa. In particular, we show that the hierarchical BMARS model, by allowing for the clustered nature of the data, yields lower out-of-sample misclassification rates compared with both a BMARS and a frequen-tist MARS model, a support vector machine classifier and an optimally pruned classification tree.

In vitro fermentation of carbohydrates by porcine faecal inocula and their influence on Salmonella Typhimurium growth in batch culture systems

The aim of this study was to evaluate in vitro the influence of fermentable carbohydrates on the activity of porcine microbiota and survival of Salmonella Typhimurium in a batch culture system simulating the porcine hindgut. The carbohydrates tested were xylooligosaccharides, a mixture of fructooligosaccharides/inulin (FIN), fructooligosaccharides (FOS), gentiooligosaccharides (GEO) and lactulose (LAC). These ingredients stimulated the growth of selected Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus species in pure cultures. In batch cultures, the carbohydrates influenced some fermentation parameters. For example, GEO and FIN significantly increased lactic acids compared with the control (no added carbohydrate). With the exception of LAC, the test carbohydrates increased the production of short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) and modified SCFA profiles. Quantitative analysis of bacterial populations by FISH revealed increased counts of the Bifidobacterium group compared with control and, with exception of FOS, increased Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc and Weissella spp. counts. Salmonella numbers were the lowest during the fermentation of LAC. This work has looked at carbohydrate metabolism by porcine microbiota in a pH-controlled batch fermentation system. It provides an initial model to analyse interactions with pathogens.

Effects of bovine alpha-lactalbumin and casein glycomacropeptide-enriched infant formulae on faecal microbiota in healthy term infants

Objective: Certain milk factors may promote the growth of a host-friendly gastrointestinal microbiota, for example, one that is predominated by bifidobacteria, a perceived healthpromoting genus. This may explain why breast-fed infants experience fewer intestinal infections than their formula-fed counterparts who are believed to have a more diverse microbiota, which is similar to that of adults. The effects of formulas supplemented with 2 such ingredients from bovine milk, a-lactalbumin (alpha-lac) and casein glycomacropeptide (GMP), on gut flora were investigated in this study. Patients and Methods: Six-week-old (4-8 wk), healthy term infants were randomised to a standard infant formula or 1 of 2 test formulae enriched in alpha-Jac with higher or lower GMP until 6 months. Faecal bacteriology was determined by the culture-independent procedure fluorescence in situ hybridisation. Results: There was a large fluctuation of bacterial counts within groups with no statistically significant differences between groups. Although all groups showed a. predominance of bifidobacteria, breast-fed infants had a small temporary increase in counts. Other bacterial levels varied in formula-fed groups, which overall showed an adult-like faecal microflora. Conclusions: It can be speculated that a prebiotic effect for alpha-lac and GMP is achieved only with low starting populations of beneficial microbiota (eg, infants not initially breast-fed.

Manipulations of germ-cell populations in the gonad of the fowl

1. Embryos of the domestic fowl have been partially sterilised by injecting the drug busulphan into 24-h incubated eggs. 2. Some of these embryos were injected with primordial germ cells (PGCs) after 55 h of incubation to attempt to repopulate the gonads. 3. Primordial germ cells transfected with a defective retrovirus containing the reporter gene lac Z were shown to settle in these sterilised gonads. 4. Quantitative histology of 6-d embryos showed that busulphan produced 75% sterilisation but that PGCs could repopulate these gonads. 5. The technique of producing such germ line chimaeras is of value in studying cell kinetics, gonad differentiation and the production of transgenics.

Effect of inclusion of lactulose and Lactobacillus plantarum on the intestinal environment and performance of piglets at weaning

The prebiotic lactulose, a probiotic strain of Lactobacillus plantarum (L. plantarum) and a synbiotic combination of these two agents were evaluated as growth promoters in 25–39-day old commercial weaning pigs. Ninety-six weaning pigs were allocated into 32 pens, taking initial weight into account, and distributed into four groups as follows: a control diet (CTR), the same diet supplemented daily with L. plantarum (109 CFU/mL sprayed on top; 20 mL/pig) (LPN); 10 g/kg lactulose (LAC) or a combination of both treatments (SYN). At day 14, eight piglets from each group were euthanized and proximal colon digesta was sampled for luminal pH, short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) and lactic acid concentrations. Deoxyribonucleic acid was extracted from colonic digesta and the microbial community was profiled by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis (T-RFLP) and qPCR. Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and acute-phase proteins (Pig-MAP) were measured. Lactulose treatment (LAC) improved feed intake (P<0.05), average daily gain (P<0.01), feed:gain ratio (P<0.05) and reduced BUN (P<0.01). Both, LAC and LPN treatment, decreased the Enterobacteriaceae:Lactobacillus spp. ratio in the colonic luminal contents (P<0.05). Moreover LPN treatment promoted a decrease in the percentage of branched fatty acids (P<0.01) suggesting a reduction in proteolytic microbial activity. Microbial profiling of colonic luminal contents by T-RFLP revealed changes in some microbial species. Terminal restriction fragments (TRFs) compatible with Bifidobacterium thermoacidophilum were more frequently detected in experimental diets compared to CTR (P<0.05). Pigs receiving SYN diet demonstrated the combined positive effects of individual LAC and LPN treatment although we were not able to show a specific increase in the probiotic strain with the inclusion of lactulose. Collectively, these data suggest the combination of lactulose and L. plantarum acts as a complementary synbiotic, but not as a synergistic combination.

Lactulose and Lactobacillus plantarum, a potential complementary synbiotic to control postweaning colibacillosis in piglets

The potential of a prebiotic oligosaccharide lactulose, a probiotic strain of Lactobacillus plantarum, or their synbiotic combination to control postweaning colibacillosis in pigs was evaluated using an enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) K88 oral challenge. Seventy-two weanlings were fed four diets: a control diet (CTR), that diet supplemented with L. plantarum (2 × 10(10) CFU · day(-1)) (LPN), that diet supplemented with 10 g · kg(-1) lactulose (LAC), or a combination of the two treatments (SYN). After 7 days, the pigs were orally challenged. Six pigs per treatment were euthanized on days 6 and 10 postchallenge (PC). Inclusion of lactulose improved the average daily gain (ADG) (P < 0.05) and increased lactobacilli (P < 0.05) and the percentage of butyric acid (P < 0.02) in the colon. An increase in the ileum villous height (P < 0.05) and a reduction of the pig major acute-phase protein (Pig-MAP) in serum (P < 0.01) were observed also. The inclusion of the probiotic increased numbers of L. plantarum bacteria in the ileum and colon (P < 0.05) and in the total lactobacilli in the colon and showed a trend to reduce diarrhea (P = 0.09). The concentrations of ammonia in ileal and colonic digesta were decreased (P < 0.05), and the villous height (P < 0.01) and number of ileal goblet cells (P < 0.05) increased, at day 10 PC. A decrease in plasmatic tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) (P < 0.01) was also seen. The positive effects of the two additives were combined in the SYN treatment, resulting in a complementary synbiotic with potential to be used to control postweaning colibacillosis.