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

The work is presented as an essential manual for learning the training processes of future Social Education professionals. It is a fresh and current text that places the importance of Social Education in the formal educational context and positions the perspective of the discipline and its discourse as a challenge for future educational proposals. It collects descriptive narratives and compilations from social education professionals who work in the formal educational field and who know first-hand what the existing proposals are, the delimitations in formal education and the needs that underlie it. The text has been coordinated by Ana María Martín-Cuadrado, academic and researcher, as well as by six authors from the academic and professional world of the discipline of social education who collaborate from their professional experiences in the eight chapters of the text, with a deductive and coherent in topics relevant to the readers.    

Practicum -understood as the career external internship- is conceived as one of the variables that builds the backbone of professional careers, by addressing the development of general and specific competences from theoretical-experiential perspectives, with an impact on the visibility and development of the profession as such. The following question arises: What type of research work has been published on Practicum and Social Education? In order to answer this question, the aim is to investigate the research published in the proceedings of the Symposiums held in Poio (Spain) (1987-2022) linking the Practicum, external internships and the degree. This review reveals interesting data: 151 analysed papers show a co-authorship rate of 74%, placing the participation of female authorship at 72%; public university has published a constant and high quantity of papers, contributing 89%. In conclusion, the importance of Practicum’s formative nature should be emphasised. 

The improvement of the Protection System for Children and Adolescents must seek to know the perception of those involved in it. For this purpose, this case study has been carried out, consisting of studying the evaluations that minors and social educators carry out in the centers for the protection of minors, in which they live and work. To achieve this purpose, interviews and discussion groups were carried out, which allowed obtaining information about the stay of the minors in the centers for the protection of minors, the characteristics and functions of the educational and managerial personnel, their participation in the life of the center and outside of it, of the promotion of the autonomy of minors and of the support that the Child Protection System itself must provide children and adolescents.

Practicum and external placements in the field of Physical Education and Sport aim to provide new graduates with professional experience that will enable them to better cope in the real context. The main objective of this literature review is to analyze the papers published in the sixteen proceedings of the International Symposiums on the Practicum and external placements between 1987 and 2022, with a special focus on Physical and Sports Education. This is a bibliometric study with a descriptive purpose and with an instrument adapted ad hoc, which analyses the results from the different editions. The results show a growing contribution of experiences and practical proposals in the field of Physical and Sports Education throughout the different editions of the Symposium.

In the following study, the residential architectural designs of the P.H. Solana and P.H. Mystic Valley, where the provisions of its windows, ventilation and natural lighting in an apartment of each of the towers were identified. The P.H. Solana is located in front of the main road of Santa María, Panama City, while the P.H Mystic Valley is located in the Crisol, in front of La Pulida street, San Miguelito, both in the province of Panama. Thanks to the acquisition of the plans, a 360-degree tour obtained thanks to their respective web pages, an elevation of the floors and an elevation of the georeferenced 3D modeling of the apartments, the solar incidence and ventilation on the 53rd floor of the P.H. Solana and on the 12th floor of the P.H Mystic Valley. The results indicated that natural ventilation and lighting was due to the orientation, location of eaves and balconies, which made up the set of apartments, the latter (the balconies), in both cases being placed in a large part of the main facades, It turned out to be a trigger for the lack of solar incidence in areas such as the living room and the main bedroom, however they managed to create shadows, acting as protectors, mainly from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. avoiding direct sunlight. , which helped to eliminate the hot spaces that could have been generated during these hours, therefore it was possible to improve the thermal comfort inside the apartments. 

Objectives: The purpose of this research was to explore the effects of experiencing street harassment (SH) in women between the ages of 20 and 30 in Panama. Method: To obtain results on the experience of SH, women between the ages of 20 and 30 (N=33) answered a sociodemographic questionnaire and the Hamilton Anxiety Scale. An in-depth interview was conducted with 5 of the participants to understand their experiences of SH and the effect these have had on them. Results: It was found that all the participants (100%) reported experiencing fear during the SH situation. Other emotions reported were helplessness, rage and anger. Significant associations (p = 0.01) were evidenced between the harassers’ mockery of the victims reactions and anxiety. It was found that when experiencing higher levels of anxiety, victims perceive body changes and tend to change their clothing and routes. Conclusion: The present study is one of the first to explore the experience of fear and anxiety as a direct effect of SH. This type of harassment affects victims at a physical, social and emotional level, therefore, it should begin to attract the attention of society as an alarming sign of the need to educate the population from an early age about the respect that women deserve in all their areas of development.

In response to the crisis caused by the current COVID-19 pandemic in Panama, the daily increase in the number of positive cases and the increase in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) occupancies which leads to a shortage of available mechanical ventilators, a low-cost, intermittent positive pressure mechanical ventilator prototype was developed, based on the use of commercial and affordable components, with specifications of high precision and speed in data processing. This prototype represents a functional optimization of the mechanical ventilator selected as a reference. For this optimization, components such as solenoid valves, display with human-machine interface (HMI), controllers, structure, among others, were considered. Subsequently, through laboratory tests, the stability, resolution, and speed of each of the possible components of the optimized prototype were compared with those installed in the base system. The experimental results show stable behaviour and a wider range of operation, due to not only the characteristics of the selected components, but also to the microcontroller implemented.

The high rate of plastic pollution today has led to the search for solutions that are friendly to the environment. A study of the manufacture of starch-based biodegradable polymer from selected Panamanian tubers (cassava, yam, otoe and ñampi) and its evaluation by stress and biodegradation analysis is presented. A procedure was generated for the extraction of starch from the tubers, as well as for the manufacture of biopolymer. The tensile test was carried out by hand with an ASTM D638-14 type IV test piece, progressively increasing the weight and photographically registering until its fracture. The biodegradation test monitored the presence of fungi, a test was made with a solution with digestive enzymes containing amylase, recording its disintegration in 24 hours and finally, the segments were planted directly in the soil and their decomposition was recorded after 7 and 15 days. Starch could be extracted, and biopolymers made from all the tubers using the presented methodology. The wateriness of the decanted starch varied according to the tuber. The biopolymer generated from cassava and otoe was very similar and two of the best for manufacturing and cutting. In the tensile tests, the otoe biopolymer showed greater resistance to stress and deformation prior to fracture compared to the other tubers and corn starch biopolymer using the same manufacturing methodology. All biopolymers showed advances in their biodegradation process.

Walking along the Juan D. Arosemena road in Penonomé has become a focus point of this study, with rooms in two points of the area that the crowded al point A and point B, comparing the pedestrian flow with respect to the morphology urban areas that this area presents, which may influence the use of this road in traffic patterns. The record of pedestrian use was used through the use of videos on a day from 3:30 pm to 4:00 pm, at a time when pedestrian movement varies according to the other hours of the day. The results show that the variation in time is influential in the use of this area due to external factors that intervene in the use of this road at those times of the day.

The analysis of piles subjected to lateral loads is a very important aspect in the design of both conventional structures and maritime infrastructure. This article presents results of an experimental investigation carried out under the hypothesis that it is possible to replicate the behavior of piles with scale tests so that these data can be useful in future investigations and designs. As part of the research, an apparatus was developed that allows the application of lateral loading on small-scale pile models. For the experiments presented here, sandy soil and wooden piles were used. The data were validated by using analytical methods that allow estimating the ultimate capacity of piles under lateral loads. The results show a good correlation between the experimental results and the analytical predictions.