Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The relationship between economic growth and the structure of the economy is a relevant aspect when analyzing the factors that promote or limit development. The sectors that characterize an economy and its internal and external productive network explain the trajectory and possibilities of economic development. This paper examines the economic structures of El Salvador and Mexico. The traditional analysis of key sectors is complemented with the estimation of the pure linkages to consider the size of the sectors. The results show that in El Salvador most of the key sectors are not the largest in the economy; while in contrast, in Mexico some key sectors are also important due to their size. The foregoing, together with the analysis of the indicators of the imported content of exports and the participation of the sectors in value added and employment, provides a more complete picture of the productive structure and its recent implications for economic growth and response to shocks such as the Covid 19 pandemic.

This paper presents a first labor demand index for Costa Rica, calculated from the National Employment Agency (NEA) website. The index shows procyclical behavior. Furthermore, the vacancy creation index showed a trend consistent with the heterogeneity in the economic activity across sectors, regions, and occupations during 2010-2021. Particularly, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the activities most affected by the mobility restrictions during the first half of 2020 also reported the deepest contractions in their labor demand. Between the second half of 2020 through the last months of 2021, industries such as manufacturing, administrative and support service activities, information, and communication stood out for their more pronounced increase in their labor demand. Firms located in Heredia, Cartago, and Guanacaste, and occupations related to operators and assemblers of manufactures, professionals and scientists, and workers for support services and administrative services also reported higher vacancy creation.

The status of women in academia is analyzed through a literature review. The literature shows that important gender gaps persist limiting the promotion and performance of women in academia. In particular, women publish less, are assigned less resources for their research, face higher publishing costs, have less access to networks and their work is less valued, resulting in less citations. Women also tend to receive lower grades in their teaching evaluations compared to their male peers. All of these variables impact their possibilities for promotion and their wages, making it more difficult for them to ascend the academic ladder.

Existen hemoparásitos (protozoarios y bacterianos) intracelulares que parasitan diversas células sanguíneas. También, en forma extracelular, como el protozoario Trypanosoma evansi, el cual ocasiona enfermedades en animales y humanos. En zonas tropicales, como Costa Rica, la transmisión de hemoparásitos se favorece por la abundancia de artrópodos hematófagos que actúan como vectores biológicos (por ejemplo, las garrapatas son vectores biológicos de los protozoarios Babesia sp. y Theileria sp. y bacterias como Ehrlichia sp. y Anaplasma sp.) y vectores mecánicos (moscas y tábanos son vectores mecánicos de Anaplasma marginale y Trypanosoma evansi). El objetivo de esta investigación es determinar la presencia de parásitos sanguíneos (Anaplasma spp., Ehrlichia spp., Babesia caballi, Theileria equi y Trypanosoma evansi) en los equinos de la Unidad de la Policía Montada de Costa Rica y su relación con el estado general de salud. En total, 41 equinos se sometieron a un examen clínico. Seguidamente, se tomaron muestras sanguíneas y de ectoparásitos en los equinos como en el ambiente cercano a estos. Se revisó, además, el historial clínico (padecimientos previos y resultados de hemogramas recientes). El ADN de las muestras (sangre y artrópodos) fue extraído y analizado mediante diferentes protocolos de la técnica de reacción en cadena de la polimerasa (PCR) convencional o en tiempo real. Ocho (19.5%) equinos resultaron positivos a hemoparásitos, una nueva especie de Anaplasma (n=2), coinfección de esta nueva especie de Anaplasma con B. caballi (n=2), B. caballi (n=1), T. equi (n=1), especie nueva de Ehrlichia (n=1). En un equino solamente se pudo detectar la presencia de Anaplasmataceae. Stomoxys calcitrans, recolectadas cerca de los caballos, resultaron positivas a B. caballi. Tanto el grupo de equinos PCR positivos, como PCR negativos presentaron anemia, en ausencia de signos clínicos. Se recomienda secuenciar el genoma completo de los dos patógenos nuevos detectados en los caballos (Anaplasma sp. y Ehrlichia sp.) como investigar la competencia vectorial de las moscas Stomoxys calcitrans para hemoparásitos en equinos.

Costa Rica gained its Newcastle Disease Virus NDV-free status with vaccination according to OIE proceedings in 1996, and its declaration as a country free of the velogenic, viscerotropic form of this disease (G/SPS/GEN/119) presented to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1999. On April 24th, 2015, SENASA (National Animal Health Service) attended a velogenic Newcastle disease outbreak that affected backyard chickens in a small town (Bellavista, Guanacaste) in the northern part of the country, near the Nicaraguan border. Sixty-five backyard birds died from a total of 84 exposed animals. Blood samples, cloacal swabs, tracheal swabs, cecal tonsils, lung and trachea tissues were collected for diagnosis at the National Veterinary Services Laboratory (LANASEVE). These samples were screened for Avian Influenza (AIV) and NDV. All samples were negative for Avian Influenza in ELISA test and RT-PCR. Serum samples were positive for NDV antibody by hemagglutination inhibition test, and tissue and swab samples were positive for NDV by conventional RT-qPCR targeting a 310 bp fragment of the virus fusion protein gene. The amino acid sequence of the protease cleavage site within the amplicon matched the sequence of a virulent strain (112RRQKRF117). The nucleotide sequence had a 98.7% identity and an e value of 4e-153 with a genotype V velogenic sequence from Belize (KF767467) and Honduras (JN872194) collected in 2008 and 2007, respectively, according to BLASTN. A total of 3604 backyard birds were euthanized in town and its surroundings (1 km), including 3495 chickens, 66 turkeys, 6 geese, and 37 ducks. The case was considered resolved, and OIE was notified in November 2015 following OIE guidelines. In April 2017, Costa Rica recovered its disease-free status through executive decree No. 40301-MAG.

From a gender approach, the article analyses the expectations built around teleworking based on the experience lived during lockdown. The context of COVID-19 increases the modality of telework among a part of the employed population. To what extent the pandemic context reinforces the idea of ​​teleworking as a solution for demands of a social nature and not as a flexible modality of work organization? To answer this question, a qualitative approach is presented based on in-depth interviews to the workforce of a public administration that has teleworked since the start of the pandemic. The results show telework as a female domestic conflict and a male productive time. In conclusion, it is pointed out that the experience of teleworking during lockdown entails different types of conflict defined according to gender, life cycle and professional category. This heterogeneity of conflicts determines the expectations about a future regulation of this modality built on the same base: teleworking perceived as a right.

In this article we discuss some of the main biases surrounding academic studies on sexual harassment in the workplace. To do so, we resort to Political Economy, a discipline that allows us to reposition aspects such as the organizational climate or the effects of harassment on the profitability of organizations. In this sense, we offer a systematic perspective based on a qualitative study carried out in Ecuador with sixteen discussion groups formed by men and women of different professional profiles. Through the analysis of their experiences, we highlight that the reification of the workforce is decisive to turn the sexuality of workers a productive resource in the hands of organizations. Analyzing this process, we end by pointing to the necessity of solutions not based solely on individual responsibility or depending on profitability, but rather on the de-commodification of the workforce by social action.