Venezuela in Focus: Economic, Political and Social Issues

Excessive consumption of calories, too much fat, and too little fibre in western regions such as Latin America have caused a range of twentieth-century diseases like modern malnutrition and metabolic syndrome. The study of these diseases has found relationships between the lipid fractions found in blood plasma and the individual’s food consumption. As such, this book relates some biochemical markers and some lipid fractions with the frequency of nutritional consumption in subjects belonging to the F.A.C.Y.T. community. Next, a study is presented with the aim of exploring A-I and B100, as well as their relationship with some lipidic fractions and biochemical markers in adults with and without metabolic syndrome belonging to a community in a Venezuelan university. The authors discuss how Venezuelan authorities, after examining the possibilities offered by cryptocurrencies, developed their own project, the Petro, while facing increasing economic and financial pressure at the start of 2018 compounded by sanctions from Western states and internal instability. The Petro was devised as a new lifeline to reengage Venezuela with the global financial system despite significant pressures from Washington. The purpose of the closing study is to explore, from 1960 up to 2018, the dynamics of talent loss in the Venezuelan academic community of researchers. During this 58-year period, 2,235 members of that community left the country, and in the last 20 years, 84% of them went overseas.