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Regulatory Governance of Higher Education quality in Paraguay: Exploring ANEAES and its Instruments for enhancing higher education quality in Paraguay
No full textThis thesis analyses the regulatory governance of higher education in the field of external quality assessment and accreditation. To do this, I developed a case study focussing on Paraguay and studying the National Agency for the Evaluation and Accreditation of Higher Education (ANEAES). Through the three articles, it was possible to understand how the local institutional context adopted the agency’s creation, although with resistance to implementing regulatory mechanisms. In the first article, a key institutional characteristic of regulatory agencies, the autonomy of the political sector, was studied. The results showed that home networks are key to resisting pressures. In the second and third articles, the impact perceived by the main actors in the higher education sector on the work of the ANEAES and the implementation of evaluation and accreditation mechanisms in the country was studied. The results of the other articles reveal the lack of inter-institutional coordination for better effectiveness of the regulations related to evaluating the quality of higher education institutions. In general, this work contributes to understanding how an external mechanism for assessing and accrediting the quality of higher education developed through a regional process was adopted in Paraguayan domestic policy.Esta tesis analiza la gobernanza regulatoria de la educación superior en el ámbito específico de la evaluación y acreditación externa de la calidad. Para ello desarrolla un estudio de caso enfocado en Paraguay y estudiando la Agencia Nacional para la Evaluación y Acreditación de la educación superior (ANEAES). A través de tres artículos se pudo comprender cómo el contexto institucional local adoptó la creación de la agencia, aunque con resistencia a la implementación de estos nuevos mecanismos regulatorios. En el primer artículo se estudió una característica institucional clave de las agencias reguladoras, la autonomía del sector político. Los resultados evidenciaron que las redes domésticas fueron claves para poder resistir presiones. En el segundo y tercer artículos, se estudió el impacto percibido por los principales actores del sector de educación superior sobre el trabajo de la ANEAES y la implementación de mecanismos de evaluación y acreditación en el país. Los resultados de los demás artículos revelan la falta de coordinación interinstitucional para una mejor efectividad de las regulaciones relativas a la evaluación de la calidad de las Instituciones de Educación Superior. En general, este trabajo contribuye a comprender cómo se adoptó en la política doméstica paraguaya un mecanismo externo de evaluación y acreditación de la calidad de la educación superior formulado a través de un proceso regional.Programa de Doctorat en Ciències Polítiques i Social
Evil twins are not that evil: qualitative insights into machine-generated prompts
No full textIt has been widely observed that language models (LMs) respond in predictable ways to algorithmically generated prompts that are seemingly unintelligible. This is both a sign that we lack a full understanding of how LMs work, and a practical challenge, because opaqueness can be exploited for harmful uses of LMs, such as jailbreaking. We present the first thorough analysis of opaque machine-generated prompts, or autoprompts, pertaining to 6 LMs of different sizes and families. We find that machinegenerated prompts are characterized by a last token that is often intelligible and strongly affects the generation. A small but consistent proportion of the previous tokens are prunable, probably appearing in the prompt as a by-product of the fact that the optimization process fixes the number of tokens. The remaining tokens fall into two categories: filler tokens, which can be replaced with semantically unrelated substitutes, and keywords, that tend to have at least a loose semantic relation with the generation, although they do not engage in wellformed syntactic relations with it. Additionally, human experts can reliably identify the most influential tokens in an autoprompt a posteriori, suggesting these prompts are not entirely opaque. Finally, some of the ablations we applied to autoprompts yield similar effects in natural language inputs, suggesting that autoprompts emerge naturally from the way LMs process linguistic inputs in general.We thank Emmanuel Chemla, Mor Geva and audiences at SISA, CIMeC and at the online HiTZ seminar series for feedback. Our work was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 101019291). We also received funding from the Catalan government (AGAUR grant SGR 2021 00470). This paper reflects the authors’ view only, and the funding agencies are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains
Jóvenes, género y audiovisual: voces de profesorado y alumnado de educación secundaria
No full textLa defensa y lucha por la igualdad de las mujeres ha provocado diversas respuestas a lo largo del tiempo en la sociedad en su conjunto y en especial de los grupos más conservadores que cuestionan las demandas del feminismo. Después del movimiento #MeToo en 2017, varios estudios (Pettyjohn et al., 2019; Flood, 2019) han observado cómo muchos hombres se han sentido intimidados. En este sentido, Rosa Cobo (2011) afirma que la respuesta de los hombres ante los avances de las mujeres puede ser vista como una forma de violencia; como ejemplo de ello tenemos la proliferación de discursos misóginos extendidos sobre todo en el entorno mediático digital
Thorough assessment of the effectiveness of belimumab in a large Spanish multicenter cohort of systemic lupus erythematosus patients
No full textObjectives: To provide an overview on the current use of belimumab (BLM) in SLE patients in clinical practice and to examine its efficacy in terms of standardized outcomes, drug survival, as well as patient and safety profiles. Methods: A longitudinal retrospective multicenter cohort including SLE patients treated with BLM at 18 Spanish centers. Data was collected upon initiation of BLM, at 6 and 12 months after initiation, and at the last recorded visit. Changes in SLEDAI-2K, the proportion of patients who achieved LLDAS and DORIS 2021, and number of flares were compared between visits. Changes in damage, glucocorticoids use and employment status pre-BLM and post-BLM were also assessed. Results: A total of 324 patients were included with a mean follow-up of 3.8 (±2.7) years. LLDAS was attained by 45.8%, 62% and 71% of patients, and DORIS by 24%, 36.2% and 52.5% on successive visits, respectively. A total of 27.2% of patients were in DORIS ≥50% of the visits and 46% in LLDAS-50. Flares and number of flares were significantly lower one year after treatment with BLM and no changes in damage accrual were observed. Mean (±SD) prednisone dose was significantly reduced over time, with 70 (24%) patients discontinuing GC. Conclusion: Our study not only demonstrates belimumab's efficacy in attaining treat-to-target goals in SLE patients, but also confirms its GC-sparing effect, and its prevention of flares and organ damage accrual
The cost-effectiveness of beta-lactam desensitization in the management of penicillin-allergic patients
No full textBackground/Objectives: Antibiotic management of hospitalized penicillin-allergic patients (PAPs) is associated with prolonged hospital stays, adverse reactions and treatment failure, resulting in increased healthcare costs. This study aimed to estimate the cost-effectiveness of beta-lactam desensitization (DES) in the management of PAPs. Methods: A cost-effectiveness analysis was performed using a probabilistic model with 1000 s-order Monte Carlo simulations. Hospital costs (in 2025 Euros) and effectiveness outcomes (cure and survival rates) were derived from a Spanish retrospective case–control study conducted between 2015 and 2022, which included 56 PAPs (14 in the desensitization group [DES] and 42 in the control group without DES [NDES]; ratio 1:3), and collected healthcare costs per patient. Results: The incremental cost of the DES group was EUR 37,805 (95% CI: EUR 2023–EUR 126,785), with a 100% probability of incurring additional costs compared to the NDES group. The cure rate was 16.5% higher in the DES group (95% CI: 13.3–20.0%), and the estimated gain in life-years per patient (LYG) was 1.42 (95% CI: 1.15–1.73) versus NDES. The cost per life-year gained (LYG) with DES versus NDES was EUR 24,618 ± EUR 19,535 (95% CI: EUR 1755–EUR 73,488). The probability that DES would be cost-effective (cost per LYG < EUR 25,000 and <EUR 30,000) was 61.1% and 100%, respectively. Conclusions: According to this analysis, DES appears to be a cost-effective option for managing PAPs. These findings should be confirmed in clinical studies with larger sample sizes
Too crooked to be good? Trade-offs in the electoral punishment of malfeasance and corruption
No full textWhile elections are an instrument to hold politicians accountable, corrupt politicians are often re-elected. A potential explanation for this paradox is that citizens trade-off integrity for competence. Voters may forgive corruption if corrupt politicians manage to deliver desirable outcomes. While previous studies have examined whether politicians’ competence moderates the negative effect of corruption, this paper focuses on voters’ priorities and directly assesses what citizens value more: integrity or favourable outcomes. Using a survey experiment, we assess citizens’ support for politicians who violate the law in order to improve the welfare of their community and, in some cases, benefit personally from these violations. The results indicate that citizens prefer a politician who follows the law, even if this leads to a suboptimal outcome. However, voters are more likely to overlook violations of the law that benefit the community if these do not result in a personal gain for politicians (i.e., in the absence of corruption). These findings suggest that the mild electoral punishment of corruption may be due to the public’s unawareness of private gains from malfeasance, or to the delay in these private benefits becoming apparent by election day.The data of this study were collected within the project “LIMCOR: Limits to political corruption” (Fundació La Caixa 2016 ACUPO177) and “Political Change in Spain: Populism, Feminism and new dimensions of conflict” (CSO2017-83086-R). Breitenstein acknowledges the financial support of the FPI grant (BES-2015-072756) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity and the European Social Fund. Hernández acknowledges funding from the ERC-2021-STG DEMOTRADEOFF, grant number 101042292
SMARCAD1 and TOPBP1 contribute to heterochromatin maintenance at the transition from the 2C-like to the pluripotent state
No full textChromocenters are established after the 2-cell (2C) stage during mouse embryonic development, but the factors that mediate chromocenter formation remain largely unknown. To identify regulators of 2C heterochromatin establishment, we generated an inducible system to convert embryonic stem cells (ESCs) to 2C-like cells. This conversion is marked by a global reorganization and dispersion of H3K9me3-heterochromatin foci, which are then reversibly formed upon re-entry into pluripotency. Profiling the chromatin-bound proteome (chromatome) by genome capture of ESCs transitioning to 2C-like cells, we uncover chromatin regulators involved in de novo heterochromatin formation. We identified TOPBP1 and investigated its binding partner SMARCAD1. SMARCAD1 and TOPBP1 associate with H3K9me3-heterochromatin in ESCs. Interestingly, the nuclear localization of SMARCAD1 is lost in 2C-like cells. SMARCAD1 or TOPBP1 depletion in mouse embryos lead to developmental arrest, reduction of H3K9me3 and remodeling of heterochromatin foci. Collectively, our findings contribute to comprehending the maintenance of chromocenters during early development.This work was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (No 686637 and No 964342 to MPC), Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (grant no. PID2020-114080GB I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and grant no. BFU2017-86760-P/AEI/FEDER, UE to MPC), an AGAUR grant from the Departament de Recerca i Universitats de la Generalitat de Catalunya (2021-SGR2021-01300 to MPC), Fundació La Marató de TV3 (202027-10 to MPC), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No 31971177 to MPC); Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MEIC) (PID2019-108322GB-100 to LDC), and from AGAUR (LDC). We acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation to the EMBL partnership, the Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa and the CERCA Programme. The CRG/UPF Proteomics Unit is part of the Spanish Infrastructure for Omics Technologies (ICTS OmicsTech) and it is a member of the ProteoRed PRB3 consortium which is supported by grant PT17/0019 of the PE I+D+i 2013–2016 from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and ERDF. RS-P was supported by a FI-AGAUR PhD fellowship from the Secretaria d'Universitats i Recerca del Departament d'Empresa i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya and the co-finance of Fondo Social Europeo (2018FI_B_00637 and FSE). XT is supported by an FPI PhD fellowship from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (PRE2018-085107). SA is funded by the Ramon y Cajal program of the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, and the European Social Fund under the reference number RYC-2018-025002-I, and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III-FEDER (PI19/01814). LM is supported by a grant for the recruitment of early-stage research staff FI-2020 (Operational Program of Catalonia 2014–2020 CCI grant no. 2014ES05SFOP007 of the European Social Fund) and La Caixa Foundation fellowship (LCF/BQ/DR20/11790016). MP was supported by a Severo Ochoa PhD fellowship from the Subprograma Estatal de Formación del Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (BES-2015-072802). MVN is funded by FP7/2007–2013 under an REA grant (608959) and Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación 2017
Fragmented monetary unions
No full textWe provide a theory of financial fragmentation in monetary unions. Our key insight is that currency unions may experience endogenous breakings of symmetry: that is episodes in which identical countries react differently when exposed to the same shock. During these events part of the union suffers a capital flight, while the rest acts as a safe haven and receives capital inflows. The central bank then faces a difficult trade-off between containing unemployment in capital-flight countries, and inflationary pressures in safe-haven ones. By counteracting private capital flows with public ones, anti-fragmentation monetary programs mitigate the impact of financial fragmentation on employment and inflation, thus helping the central bank to fulfill its price stability mandate
Connectomics to semantomics: addressing the brain's big data challenge
No full textCan semantic corpora be coupled to dynamical simulations in such a way so as to extract new associations from the data that were hitherto unapparent? We attempt to do this within neuroscience as an application domain, by introducing the notion of the semantome and coupling it to the connectome of the human brain network. This is implemented using BrainX3, a virtual reality simulation cum data mining platform that can be used for visualization, analysis and feature extraction of neuroscience data. We use this system to explore anatomical, functional and symptomatic semantics associated to simulated neuronal activity of a healthy brain, one with stroke and one perturbed by transcranial magnetic stimulation. In particular, we find that parietal and occipital lesions in stroke affect the visual processing pathway leading to symptoms such as visual neglect, depression and photo-sensitivity seizures. Integrating semantomics with connectomics thus generates hypotheses about symptoms, functions and brain activity that supplement existing tools for diagnosis of mental illness. Our results suggest a new approach to big data with potential applications to other domains.We thank Olaf Sporns and Chris Honey for sharing the DSI data. Research supported by CEEDS (FP7-ICT-2009-5) & CDAC (ERC-2013-ADG 341196) projects