The Mexico-Guatemala border is the site of significant movement of people whose principal destination is the USA. The first step, to cross Mexico, is considered as one of the most dangerous routes in the world for undocumented migrants. For some male migrants and displaced persons from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, initiating sex work in the Mexican border city of Tapachula has become a way to earn money to survive during the trip northward -providing funds to keep traveling and decrease the danger of being killed or kidnaped by organized crime groups. Non-injected drug use during sex work with men and/or women is a common praxis for this purpose, and is linked to HIV risk activities such as unprotected sex. Our study is based on ethnographic fieldwork with observation and interviews and within a relational approach understanding the processes subject/structure, sociopolitical/cultural and global/local, not as oppositions, rather as linkages visible through actors' points of view and praxis. The productions of politics and cultures related to structural vulnerability to HIV infection are embedded in local and global borderization processes where legal and illegal transnational forces, states' frameworks and social groups play a linked role. The economies of structural, symbolic and direct violence affect migratory patterns, institutional interactions and social and cultural relations with the local population. In this context, social representations and praxis about unprotected sex and drug use are the locus of struggling bodies at the border.

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International audienceMisunderstandings derived from cultural differences represent a main barrier for effective communication and collaboration. As part of a platform aimed at supporting intercultural interactions, the authors present a synthetic model for quantifying culture. Their approach is based on theories which abstract culture as a set of quantifiable aspects called cultural dimensions. Given that in general, the values of cultural dimensions are subjective and highly dependent on the observer judgment, they are modeled as linguistic variables. Linguistic variables allow profiling users using pseudo natural language which is appropriate for an abstract concept like culture. Regarding computations, fuzzy logic and approximate reasoning can be used for comparing culture of individuals, making inferences from their values, and modeling stereotypical cultural profiles

Se evaluó el efecto de las prácticas de extracción de arena sílice en la estructura y composición de especies en dos sitios (San Ubaldo y Sabanalamar) de bosques de pinares de la región occidental de Pinar del Río. Se realizó un inventario florístico a partir de 24 parcelas cuadradas de 20 x 20 m (400 m2) mediante muestreo aleatorio simple en áreas con y sin extracción de arena sílice. Se determinaron los parámetros estructurales, índice de valor de importancia ecológica, diversidad alfa y beta. Se comprobó que el estado actual de los pinares naturales es desfavorable con un efecto más marcado en San Ubaldo determinado por las prácticas de extracción de arena sílice. El área resultó pobre florísticamente y con diferenciación entre los sitios de estudio, según el conglomerado jerárquico, donde Sabanalamar presentó mayor riqueza florística predominando las familias Asteraceae, Euphorbiaceae, Eriocaulaceae y Xyridaceae. El bosque de pinares se caracterizó por una estructura heterogénea con alteraciones en las clases diamétricas. Las especies de mayor importancia ecológica resultaron ser: Acoelorraphe wrightii, Pinus caribaea var. caribaea, Chrysobalanus icaco, Colpothrinax wrightii y Anacardium occidentale. El análisis de correspondencia entre los sitios y el grado de perturbación indicó un fuerte gradiente con una alta relación entre las prácticas de extracción de arena sílice y la distribución de las especies, comprobándose que la intensidad de las prácticas de extracción de arena influyó directamente en la composición florística de los pinares del occidente de Pinar del Río.

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