A Survey on Approximation Mechanism Design without Money for Facility Games

In a facility game one or more facilities are placed in a metric space to serve a set of selfish agents whose addresses are their private information. In a classical facility game, each agent wants to be as close to a facility as possible, and the cost of an agent can be defined as the distance between her location and the closest facility. In an obnoxious facility game, each agent wants to be far away from all facilities, and her utility is the distance from her location to the facility set. The objective of each agent is to minimize her cost or maximize her utility. An agent may lie if, by doing so, more benefit can be obtained. We are interested in social choice mechanisms that do not utilize payments. The game designer aims at a mechanism that is strategy-proof, in the sense that any agent cannot benefit by misreporting her address, or, even better, group strategy-proof, in the sense that any coalition of agents cannot all benefit by lying. Meanwhile, it is desirable to have the mechanism to be approximately optimal with respect to a chosen objective function. Several models for such approximation mechanism design without money for facility games have been proposed. In this paper we briefly review these models and related results for both deterministic and randomized mechanisms, and meanwhile we present a general framework for approximation mechanism design without money for facility games

Evaluacion de la viabilidad economica de implementar un muelle en la comuna de Pelluhue, VII region.

79 p.El presente Proyecto se desarrolló en el Departamento de Programas y Proyectos de la Gobernación Provincial de Cauquenes, Institución Pública, cuyo principal objetivo es representar al Gobierno de Chile en la Provincia de Cauquenes. Con este trabajo, se pudo resolver la conveniencia de seguir estudiando el Proyecto de Implementar un Muelle en la Comuna de Pelluhue, proyecto que consiste en dotar de una infraestructura moderna y segura que garantice un bienestar para la comunidad pesquera de la zona, del tipo artesanal. El objetivo General de este trabajo, consiste en determinar la viabilidad económica de este proyecto, debido a que con anterioridad se desarrolló el estudio de diseño del Muelle. Con la finalidad de configurar una alternativa – económicamente – atractiva para inversores privados, que pudiese motivar su participación en el proyecto, produciendo un ahorro de recursos para el Gobierno, se realizaron dos estudios: De Mercado, con el fin de determinar si el negocio de extracción de los recursos marinos resulta atractivo o no; y Técnico, tendiente a determinar los costos del negocio pesquero y apoyar la información obtenida en el Estudio de Mercado para configurar la alternativa privada que pudiese resultar atractiva para atraer capitales privados en este proyecto. A continuación, se realiza la Evaluación del Proyecto desde dos enfoques: Evaluación Privada de Proyectos, cuyo fin es mostrar si es rentable o no para inversionistas privados este proyecto; y Evaluación Social del Proyecto con el fin de analizar los efectos que traería este proyecto en la sociedad pesquera de Pelluhue, esto basado en la Metodología de Evaluación Social de Proyectos propuesta por Mideplan. Finalmente, se entrega una respuesta concreta al Gobierno de Chile, en donde se indica que no se debe continuar con este proyecto – pues no resulta ser económicamente viable

INTESTINAL AND PULMONARY INFECTION BY Cryptosporidium parvum IN TWO PATIENTS WITH HIV/AIDS

We describe two patients with HIV/AIDS who presented pulmonary and intestinal infection caused by Cryptosporidium parvum, with a fatal outcome. The lack of available description of changes in clinical signs and radiographic characteristics of this disease when it is located in the extra-intestinal region causes low prevalence of early diagnosis and a subsequent lack of treatment

Histomolecular profile of Helicobacter pylori strains circulating in Brazzaville (Congo)

Abstract Background and Aim Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection is a real public health problem in the Congo. We aimed study the histomolecular profile of Hp strains circulating in Brazzaville, Congo, in order to contribute to the improvement of Hp‐infected patients in the country. Methods This was an analytical‐transversal study carried out from January to November 2020 (i.e. a study period of 11 months) in the endoscopy centers of Brazzaville as well as the molecular biology and anatomopathology laboratories of Pointe‐Noire and Oyo. It involved 100 symptomatic patients over the age of 18 referred for upper GI endoscopy. These patients underwent gastric biopsies for histopathological analysis according to the Sydney classification and molecular analysis using the real‐time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. The frequency of Hp infection was determined using real‐time PCR. PCR was also used to identify the Hp strains and assess their tropism in the gastric mucosa. Digestive symptoms, endoscopic lesions, and histopathological lesions associated with HP infection were studied. Results The incidence of Hp infection was 91%, with a female predominance of 52.75% and an average age of 46.32 years. Endoscopy revealed normal mucosa (56.14%), ulcerated lesions (12.28%), and gastritis (22.81%) in infected patients. Histopathologically, the lesions were chronic atrophic gastritis (91%), with inflammatory activity (16.46%), intestinal metaplasia (16.46%), and adenocarcinoma (3.3%). Cag A strains were present in 85.71% of cases and had no preferential tropism in the gastric mucosa. Strains carrying the Cag A gene were present in severe and serious endoscopic and histopathological lesions. Conclusion The prevalence of Hp infection is 91% in the Brazzaville population. Cag A strains circulate in high proportions and are implicated in the occurrence of severe lesions of the gastric mucosa

Meat and carcass characteristics of free-living capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)

This study aimed to evaluate carcass and meat characteristics of free-living capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) from agricultural areas of Grande Dourados, MS, Brazil. Carcass weight, yield and measures, as well as of commercial cuts weight of five animals (2 males and 3 females, body weight between 63.4-100 kg) were determined. The following parameters: moisture, protein, fat, ash, Ca, P and Fe, water holding capacity, cooking losses, shear force and color Instrumental color in CIE-Lab coordinates were determined to meat cuts (Loin, ribs, L. dorsi, chuck/brisket, ham and bottom sirloin). The dressing percentage average value was 62.47% of body weight and cold carcass yield was 57.89% of body weight, with no difference between sexes. The mean percentage of cold loss was 4.10%. Cuts yielding (ribs 24.98% and ham 27.29%) were not statistically different (P>0.05). There was no significantly (P> 0.05) difference between the moisture, protein and minerals content between the different cuts, but lipids content was significantly (P< 0.05) lower in loin. The results shown that free-living capybara have characteristics appropriate for commercialization, thus it is possible to development projects for the sustainable management of rural populations