Corporacion Universitaria Minuto de Dios

Interactions between plants and herbivores are central in most ecosystems, but their strength is highly variable. The amount of variability within a system is thought to influence most aspects of plant-herbivore biology, from ecological stability to plant defense evolution. Our understanding of what influences variability, however, is limited by sparse data. We collected standardized surveys of herbivory for 503 plant species at 790 sites across 116° of latitude. With these data, we show that within-population variability in herbivory increases with latitude, decreases with plant size, and is phylogenetically structured. Differences in the magnitude of variability are thus central to how plant-herbivore biology varies across macroscale gradients. We argue that increased focus on interaction variability will advance understanding of patterns of life on Earth.

Solubility is one of the most important physicochemical properties due to its involvement in physiological (bioavailability), industrial (design) and environmental (biotoxicity) processes, and in this regard, cosolvency is one of the best strategies to increase the solubility of poorly soluble drugs in aqueous systems. Thus, the aim of this research is to thermodynamically evaluate the dissolution process of triclocarban (TCC) in cosolvent mixtures of {N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) + water (W)} at seven temperatures (288.15, 293.15, 298.15, 303.15, 308.15, 313.15 and 318.15 K). Solubility is determined by UV/vis spectrophotometry using the flask-shaking method. The dissolution process of the TCC is endothermic and strongly dependent on the cosolvent composition, achieving the minimum solubility in pure water and the maximum solubility in NMP. The activity coefficient decreases from pure water to NMP, reaching values less than one, demonstrating the excellent positive cosolvent effect of NMP, which is corroborated by the negative values of the Gibbs energy of transfer. In general terms, the dissolution process is endothermic, and the increase in TCC solubility may be due to the affinity of TCC with NMP, in addition to the water de-structuring capacity of NMP generating a higher number of free water molecules.

Background The prevalence of professional burnout increased among healthcare workers during the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, with negative effects on their mental health. Consequently, research interest in methods to decrease the prevalence of burnout and reduce the effects of burnout on healthcare workers has increased. Objective: This study was designed to evaluate the effects of Internet-based, psychosocial, and early medical interventions on professional burnout among healthcare workers. Methodology This systematic review and meta-analysis involved 8004 articles identified from four databases: Cochrane, Web of Science, PubMed/Medline, and clinical trials. Results Four articles were included in the systematic review, of which two could be meta-analyzed. The pooled effect of the group of interventions compared to control conditions was not statistically significant. Discussion Evaluating therapeutic effectiveness requires more clinical trials that allow its evaluation. Although we did not find improvements in the three intervention categories, the methodological heterogeneity in each intervention and the need for a standardized intervention guide for managing and decreasing professional burnout, subject to the evaluation of its impact, are highlighted.

The importance of strategies that facilitate the teaching-learning process is discussed, particularly in the context of digital technologies and the COVID-19 pandemic. Gamification, a popular methodology that incorporates game elements into the classroom to motivate students and improve learning, is the focus of this research. The paper describes the development of a web application based on gamification to assist in teaching Software Engineering. It follows an agile software development methodology and uses UML diagrams to describe the operation and user interaction. A prototype of the SE-Coins App was developed to support the gamification strategy, allowing the teacher to keep track of student progress and reward them accordingly. The functional and quality requirements of the software were implemented with a focus on user requirements to facilitate the implementation of gamification in the classroom. The software is intended for use by both teachers and students, supporting a gamification strategy based on roles, points, recognition, and prizes. The prototype complements the requirements and serves as a starting point for this strategy.

Objective: Spinocerebellar ataxia type 2, an orphan disease also known as spinocerebellar degeneration, is characterized by a degenerative process of the cerebellum and spinal cord. Method Biographical review of a Japanese woman known as Aya Kitou, using a qualitative approach of discourse analysis to identify resilience capacity, based on Boris Cyrulnik’s Biopsychosocial model. Results Description based on the detailed experience reported in Aya´s diary; the areas to achieve resilience are identified (internal resources, sociocultural significance and social support system) Conclusion Although the progression of the clinical condition compromised Aya”s functional capacity, limiting her autonomy and quality of life, it was evidenced that thanks to strong social networks individuals are more likely to achieve resilience, although the prevalence of social values and meanings upon the patient creates greater social anxiety and a greater feeling of inferiority and incapacity.

There is growing interested in the analysis of academic training in the sustainable field of tourism. However, no explicit body of knowledge has focused on evaluating the performance of a scientific activity in this field. Accordingly, this study systematically reviews academic research on the sustainability of the educational background in tourism universities through a biblio-metric analysis. For this purpose, bibliometric tools related to research activity impact indicators and analysis of co-authorship networks and keywords have been used. The results show that the topic analysed is recent and that the number of publications continues to grow. They also show that only some academics have addressed this topic, which implies that more research is needed. Therefore, in this framework, thematic specialization could be a strategic option. Researchers can use these results to approach future studies about suggested research avenues better.

Este estudio examina los patrones de selección de noticias en función de las actitudes implícitas y explícitas hacia las marcas de medios informativos, así como la manera en que la orientación política de las personas modula estas actitudes. En un experimento con 126 estudiantes universitarios (56 mujeres) de edades comprendidas entre 17 y 41 años, examinamos la elección de titulares atribuidos a los diarios colombianos El Tiempo y El Espectador mediante una tarea de selección forzada. Se midieron las actitudes implícitas y explícitas hacia las marcas, la frecuencia de consulta, la orientación política y el cambio en las actitudes tras presentar un artículo de intervención que explicaba el fenómeno del sesgo de confirmación. Los hallazgos indican que las actitudes explícitas, pero no las implícitas, predijeron la elección de los titulares de prensa. La frecuencia de consulta predijo la orientación política de las personas, aunque este efecto funcionó a través de las actitudes explícitas. El artículo de intervención modificó las actitudes explícitas, pero no las implícitas. Los participantes mostraron una leve tendencia política de izquierda y prefirieron contenidos del diario El Espectador, probablemente debido al sesgo de confirmación. En conclusión, las actitudes explícitas influyeron en la elección de titulares, la frecuencia de consumo y la orientación política de la muestra.

Este artículo da cuenta de una investigación tendiente a comprender los significados construidos por estudiantes de Psicología de la experiencia de teatro aplicado a la educación en el curso de Teorías de la Personalidad de la Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, en Medellín, Colombia. Como base teórica se tomó la psicología posracionalista y se empleó un enfoque cualitativo con una metodología narrativa. Se diseñó una técnica mixta que incluye la narración libre y el autoanálisis a partitr de elementos dramatúrgico-narrativos para reconocer la experiencia de teatro aplicado e identificar los elementos dramáticos de la experiencia de los estudiantes. La información fue sintetizada en matrices de análisis cualitativa, lo que permitió identificar tres categorías emergentes que dan cuenta de los hallazgos: el aprendizaje, la identidad y el convivio. Se halló que los significados se relacionan con la experiencia de aprendizaje, con los cuestionamientos y configuraciones sobre la propia identidad y con el encuentro que supone un ejercicio de creación teatral y su puesta en escena ante un público. Se concluye que la piscología postracionalista permite reflexionar sobre la experiencia humana y que el teatro aplicado se constituye como un lugar para la autoconstrucción del sujeto.

Active Learning (AL) is a well-known teaching method in engineering because it allows to foster learning and critical thinking of the students by employing debate, hands-on activities, and experimentation. However, most educational results of this instructional method have been achieved in face-to-face educational settings and less has been said about how to promote AL and experimentation for online engineering education. Then, the main aim of this study was to create an AL methodology to learn electronics, physical computing (PhyC), programming, and basic robotics in engineering through hands-on activities and active experimentation in online environments. N=56 students of two engineering programs (Technology in Electronics and Industrial Engineering) participated in the methodology that was conceived using the guidelines of the Integrated Course Design Model (ICDM) and in some courses combining mobile and online learning with an Android app. The methodology gathered three main components: (1) In-home laboratories performed through low-cost hardware devices, (2) Student-created videos and blogs to evidence the development of skills, and (3) Teacher support and feedback. Data in the courses were collected through surveys, evaluation rubrics, semi-structured interviews, and students' grades and were analyzed through a mixed approach. The outcomes indicate a good perception of the PhyC and programming activities by the students and suggest that these influence motivation, self-efficacy, reduction of anxiety, and improvement of academic performance in the courses. Even, the PhyC activities can reduce the differences in academic performance between women and men students and promote their improvement towards excellence with better results for courses combining online and mobile learning. Similarly, women students prefer to use more often tutoring services and had a better perception of the teacher's feedback than their male pairs. The methodology and previous results can be useful for researchers and practitioners interested in developing AL methodologies or strategies in engineering with online, mobile, or blended learning modalities.

El anarquismo advirtió con muchos años de anticipación a la crisis del socialismo real en 1989 sobre los equívocos del marxismo, de modo que vale preguntarse ¿Cuál es la razón para que Dussel soslaye una evidencia histórica tan descomunal? a propósito, no sólo marxistas perspicaces como Gramsci, Rosa Luxemburgo o el posmoderno Laclau señalaron las inconsistencias del marxismo estándar y del socialismo real, otros, como Malatesta y Kropotkin, también propusieron categorías para construir un nuevo orden, este último, deja entrever algunas consideraciones teóricas que parecen haber inspirado a Dussel en las críticas que plantea a la política como ejercicio de dominación, al economicismo metafísico y al individualismo de la misma estirpe, y frente a la defensa que establece de una pretensión política de justicia con arreglo a principios fundamentales, de la co-determinación de las esferas material (lo económico) y formal (lo político) para superar el economicismo y el politicismo y, sobre todo, de un nuevo orden ontológico-político cuya instancia fundamental ha de ser la Vida. Realidad: Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades No. 162, 2023: 51-62.

Copper-based hydrogen evolution electrocatalysts are promising materials to scale-up hydrogen production due to their reported high current densities; however, electrode durability remains a challenge. Here, we report a facile, cost-effective, and scalable synthetic route to produce Cu2-xS electrocatalysts, exhibiting hydrogen evolution rates that increase for ∼1 month of operation. Our Cu2-xS electrodes reach a state-of-the-art performance of ∼400 mA cm-2 at -1 V vs RHE under mild conditions (pH 8.6), with almost 100% Faradaic efficiency for hydrogen evolution. The rise in current density was found to scale with the electrode electrochemically active surface area. The increased performance of our Cu2-xS electrodes correlates with a decrease in the Tafel slope, while analyses by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, operando X-ray diffraction, and in situ spectroelectrochemistry cooperatively revealed the Cu-centered nature of the catalytically active species. These results allowed us to increase fundamental understanding of heterogeneous electrocatalyst transformation and consequent structure-activity relationship. This facile synthesis of highly durable and efficient Cu2-xS electrocatalysts enables the development of competitive electrodes for hydrogen evolution under mild pH conditions.

The study of molecular nanoelectronic devices has recently gained significant interest, especially their potential use as functional junctions of molecular wires. Aromatic systems with π-conjugated bonds within their chemical backbones, such as catechol, have attracted particular attention in this area. In this work, we focused on calculating and determining catechol’s electrical and thermal transport properties using the theoretical method of Green’s functions renormalized in a real space domain within a framework of tight-binding approximation to the first neighbors. Thus, we studied two theoretical models of catechol as a function of its geometry, obtaining striking variations in the profiles of electrical and thermal conductance, the Seebeck coefficient, and the figure of merit. The analyses of the results suggest the potential application of catechol as a likely conductive and thermoelectric molecule serving as a novel material to use in molecular electronic devices.

Entrepreneurship openness in a community implies its involvement and granting it equity in decision-making, incorporating it into the social productive sector in a strategic vision of empowerment. This premise leads to a sustained interest in the implementation and development of university social entrepreneurship as a vital strategy for the growth of individuals, communities, and territories. For this purpose, a mixed research approach and a sequential, staged model were used to build the relationship between local community development processes, using interviews and axioms. The results highlight that educating, promoting, and fostering a community and university entrepreneurial culture are actions related to business opportunities, creativity, innovation, and knowledge management in a given locality. Likewise, the conclusions and reflections obtained underscore the pressing need to establish coherent budgets that serve as a development path, for the execution of actions and projects that strengthen educational scenarios and, in turn, promote an entrepreneurial culture, because it is the empowerment processes that lead to university social entrepreneurship, which still have ample room for improvement.

El siglo XX dio paso a los postulados del marketing verde que a la fecha se han fortalecido logrando un mayor posicionamiento en una sociedad más sensible asumiendo un consumo responsable y con una actitud solidaria y de cuidado del medio ambiente. Es por esto que las empresas se ven forzadas a implementar estrategias de responsabilidad y de marketing verde para obtener el reconocimiento y el prestigio ante sus consumidores, por sus buenas prácticas, para de este modo acercarse a los compromisos ambientales y sociales. Las exigencias del mercado reclaman que la empresa y sus directivos adopten una conciencia ambiental acorde a sus actuaciones. Las nuevas generaciones, siendo sensibles a la sostenibilidad y al cuidado de los recursos naturales, exigen que productores y comercializadores ejerzan mayor transparencia en sus acciones, y que las empresas faciliten una información amplia y exhaustiva del origen de sus productos, de los procesos de transformación y de los insumos utilizados. Asimismo, el comunicar la mano de obra empleada, contar con una política de precios justos e informar del retorno esperado sobre los beneficios a los productores, a los agricultores y a todos aquellos que participan directamente en la cadena de producción, hacen parte de una gestión empresarial que actúa con responsabilidad. Este documento de tipo cualitativo, documental, reflexiona sobre los conceptos del marketing verde, su surgimiento, estrategias y la responsabilidad que adquieren las empresas con los consumidores. El marketing se ha convertido en una necesidad para que las empresas sean viables y logren objetivos y reconocimiento, pero las nuevas tendencias requieren de más responsabilidad, de un equilibrio en sus prácticas que garanticen su sostenibilidad.

El análisis de políticas públicas nacionales no solo requiere reconocer la influencia de los discursos con los que se argumentan y justifican las decisiones, también se debe analizar las perspectivas locales de los actores involucrados; por tanto, el objetivo de este artículo es conocer las opiniones de los implementadores y los beneficiarios de tres diferentes regiones del país: Caribe, Santander y Amazonía, sobre la política de negocios verdes. Para tal efecto, se seleccionó, mediante la técnica de muestreo por conveniencia, a profesionales de las Autoridades Ambientales de las regiones mencionadas y empresarios de negocios verdes verificados, ubicados en sus jurisdicciones. En consecuencia, utilizando un enfoque constructivista, se asistió a talleres presenciales (observación empírica), se desarrollaron entrevistas semiestructuradas y se aplicaron encuestas descriptivas; logrando identificar construcciones disruptivas del discurso de negocios verdes en los territorios. Finalmente, se destacan como resultados principales que, existe un desgaste entre los actores que participan en la gestión pública local de la política, el ejercicio de verificar los negocios verdes y ejecutar las respectivas estrategias y actividades de seguimiento son costosas e inoficiosas y aún se presentan retos para considerar los negocios verdes como el nuevo motor de las economías municipales y departamentales en Colombia.

Most contributions in the academic literature identify a positive effect of transport infrastructure on land prices. However, their short-run dynamics has not been routinely analyzed. One of the reasons for this lack of research is because neoclassical urban land economics models underlie, in some cases implicitly, most of the available literature on the topic. In this theory, land values converge to their long-term trends regardless of short-term shocks. We build upon post-Keynesian monetary circuit theory to design a spatial urban economics testing framework, building upon the contributions of Abramo (2011Abramo, P. (2011). La Ciudad Caleidoscópica, Coordinación Espacial y Convención Urbana: una Perspectiva Heterodoxa para la Economía Urbana. Colección Economía Institucional Urbana 4 - Universidad Externado de Colombia, Bogota.) and Alfonso (2007Alfonso, O. (2007), Aportes a una teoría de la estructuración residencial urbana. Revista de Economía Institucional 9(17), 241-277, ²⁰¹⁷Alfonso, O. (2017), Bogotá en la Encrucijada del Desorden: Estructuras Socioespaciales y Gobernabilidad Metropolitana. Colección Economía Institucional Urbana 13 - Universidad Externado de Colombia, Bogota .). In this tradition, short-term shocks have long-term effects on the spatial distribution of land values due to radical uncertainty. Our case study is Transmetro, a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project in Barranquilla (Colombia). We use static and dynamic panel-estimation to test the short-run dynamics of spatial land price adjustments during 2000-2010, including the construction and delivery years 2006-2010. This case study offers a good assessment opportunity because of featuring prominent problems and delays. We find volatile short-run adjustments that run counter to neoclassical predictions, while resembling spatial land price adjustments exposed to radical uncertainty. KEYWORDS: Monetary circuit; post-Keynesian economics; urban economics; bus rapid transport; urban land market; metropolization

The new demands for sustainable operation in the chemical industry due to increasing environmental regulations and agreements have generated the need to adapt existing processes to more intelligent production. The plastics sector is in a complex position due to its contribution to economic development and the climate crisis. Therefore, environmental assessment has become an important tool due to the benefits it provides by quantifying the environmental performance of processes, allowing it to balance operational and environmental needs. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is one of the most globally used polymers thanks to its resistance, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. The polymer is synthetized by suspension polymerization, which is characterized by high productivity and controllability. However, it presents problems associated with intensive energy consumption and the emission of toxic substances and greenhouse gases. Therefore, an environmental assessment of the suspension PVC production process was performed using the waste reduction algorithm (WAR). The potential environmental impact (PEI) was quantified using the generation rate and the output velocity for four cases and three different fuels. It was found that the process transforms raw materials with high impacts, such as VCM, into substances with lower PEI, such as PVC. However, the process has a high generation of PEI due to the effects of energy consumption (-2860, -2410, 3020, and 3410 for cases 1-4, respectively). The evaluation of the toxicological impacts shows that the ATP category is the only one that presents a positive generation value (75 PEI/day); the product contributes to the formation and emission of impacts. The atmospheric categories showed that the energy consumption of the process is the most critical aspect with a contribution of 91% of the total impacts emitted. The AP and GWP categories presented the highest values. It was determined that the most suitable fuel is natural gas; it has lower impacts than liquid and solid fuels (coal). Additionally, it can be concluded that the PVC production process by suspension is environmentally acceptable compared to the polyethylene or polypropylene processes, with output impacts 228 and 2561 times lower, respectively.