Cycle of Knowledge in the Management of the Supply Chain of Corn for Human Consumption

The objective of this study is to characterize the cycle of knowledge in the supply chain of the industry of corn for human consumption. White corn is cultivated almost exclusively for human consumption and it has a significant value in the food supply in countries whose diet has a high proportion of this variety of corn, such as: Venezuela, México and Colombia in America, and the Republic of South Africa and Sahel countries in Africa. Corn is produced in Venezuela, under rainfed conditions and in a highly mechanized production system. The cycle of knowledge is defined as a progressive spiral in which knowledge is created, stored, transferred, applied and preserved, in order to increase the competitiveness and  sustainability of organizations and companies in the food supply chain. This non experimental and crosssectional research is of a descriptive type. It was conducted in Venezuela during the second semester of 2009 in the supply chain of white corn, specifically, at the level of first tier producers (primary sector). The population is constituted by 1,754 producers of corn in the most important producing regions of the country. The representative sample was selected by the stratified sampling technique with proportional allocation: by association of corn producers and according to the grain yield. A questionnaire was designed and conducted according to the structured survey method. Its validity was verified by discriminant tests of items and its reliability through Bartlett's test, variance factorial analysis, Kaiser/Meyer/Olkin and Cronbach Alpha, achieving the last one a value of 0.9276.The production units have an average area of 67.17 ha, with 1.97 permanent workers and 4.06 temporary workers. They obtained a physical productivity of 4,210.45 kg/ha. The Knowledge Index (KI) achieved a value of 69.78% and the Perception Index of the results (PI) was 76.06%. The Pearson correlation among these indices was positive and significant with a value of 0.51. The factorial analysis for principal components with rotated factors allows obtaining four factors from the five dimensions originally considered. These factors are: (1) knowledge creation, (2) knowledge storage, (3) knowledge transfer and application, and (4) preservation of knowledge.The results allow us to conclude that the cycle of knowledge is managed in four stages in an intuitive and predominantly tacit manner which is the reason why those practices related to explicit knowledge become the agents of differentiation. Moreover, the existence of a positive correlation between the Knowledge Index and the Perception Index of the positive results by the producer was also proven

Estuario epistemológico

Based in Sydney since 2015, the architectural collective Grandeza/Bajeza operates at the confluence of teaching, academic research, and critical spatial practice, within and beyond the framework of the School of Architecture at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Their work studies late-capitalist spaces and narratives to identify – through critical analysis – and neutralize – through political imagination – the mechanisms that veil and normalize neoliberal violence. Their work interrogates the capacity of architecture and cognitive institutions to respond to contemporary environmental, social, and political challenges, beyond the reductive proclivities of “techno determinism”, “resilience” and depoliticised “ecologism”. This paper aims to dissect the work of Grandeza/Bajeza as an ‘epistemological estuary’ that feeds from (and struggles to survive within) the same institutional and cultural frameworks that their work aims to overturn

Quantification of inaccurate diagnosis of COPD in primary care medicine: An analysis of the COACH clinical audit

Background: Inaccurate diagnosis in COPD is a current problem with relevant consequences in terms of inefficient health care, which has not been thoroughly studied in primary care medicine. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the degree of inaccurate diagnosis in Primary Care in Spain and study the determinants associated with it. Methods: The Community Assessment of COPD Health Care (COACH) study is a national, observational, randomized, non-interventional, national clinical audit aimed at evaluating clinical practice for patients with COPD in primary care medicine in Spain. For the present analysis, a correct diagnosis was evaluated based on previous exposure and airway obstruction with and without the presence of symptoms. The association of patient-level and center-level variables with inaccurate diagnosis was studied using multivariate multilevel binomial logistic regression models. Results: During the study 4,307 cases from 63 centers were audited. The rate of inaccurate diagnosis was 82.4% (inter-regional range from 76.8% to 90.2%). Patient-related interventions associated with inaccurate diagnosis were related to active smoking, lung function evaluation, and specific therapeutic interventions. Center-level variables related to the availability of certain complementary tests and different aspects of the resources available were also associated with an inaccurate diagnosis. Conclusions: The prevalence data for the inaccurate diagnosis of COPD in primary care medicine in Spain establishes a point of reference in the clinical management of COPD. The descriptors of the variables associated with this inaccurate diagnosis can be used to identify cases and centers in which inaccurate diagnosis is occurring considerably, thus allowing for improvement

Evidence of paleoecological changes and Mousterian occupations at the Galeria de las Estatuas site, Sierra de Atapuerca, northern Iberian plateau, Spain

Here we present a new site in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain): Galeria de las Estatuas (GE), which provides new information about Mousterian occupations in the Iberian Plateau. The GE was an ancient entrance to the cave system, which is currently closed and sealed by a stalagmitic crust, below which a detritic sedimentary sequence of more than 2 m is found. This has been divided into five litostratigraphic units with a rich assemblage of faunal and lithic remains of clear Mousterian affinity. Radiocarbon dates provide minimum ages and suggest occupations older than 45 C-14 ka BP. The palynological analysis detected a landscape change to increased tree coverage, which suggests that the sequence recorded a warming episode. The macromammal assemblage is composed of both ungulates (mainly red deer and equids) and carnivores. Taphonomic analysis reveals both anthropic, and to a lesser extent, carnivore activities. The GE was occupied by Neanderthals and also sporadically by carnivores. This new site broadens the information available regarding different human occupations at the Sierra de Atapuerca, which emphasizes the importance of this site-complex for understanding human evolution in Western Europe

MicroRNA expression profiling in Imatinib-resistant Chronic Myeloid Leukemia patients without clinically significant ABL1-mutations

The development of Imatinib Mesylate (IM), the first specific inhibitor of BCR-ABL1, has had a major impact in patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML), establishing IM as the standard therapy for CML. Despite the clinical success obtained with the use of IM, primary resistance to IM and molecular evidence of persistent disease has been observed in 20-25% of IM treated patients. The existence of second generation TK inhibitors, which are effective in patients with IM resistance, makes identification of predictors of resistance to IM an important goal in CML. In this study, we have identified a group of 19 miRNAs that may predict clinical resistance to IM in patients with newly diagnosed CML

Magnetic ordering, spin waves, and Haldane gap excitations in (Nd_x Y_{1-x})_2 Ba Ni O_5 linear-chain mixed-spin antiferromagnets

Linear-chain nickelates with the composition (Nd_x Y_{1-x})_2 Ba Ni O_5 (x=1, x=0.75, x=0.5, and x=0.25) are studied in a series of neutron scattering experiments. Powder diffraction is used to determine the temperature dependence of the magnetic structure in all four systems. Single-crystal inelastic neutron scattering is employed to investigate the temperature dependence of the Haldane-gap excitations and low-energy spin waves in the x=1 compound Nd_2 Ba Ni O_5. The results of these experiments are discussed in the context of the ``Haldane chain in a staggered field'' model for R_2 Ba Ni O_5 systems, and quantitative agreement with theory is obtained.Comment: Major rewriting and inclusion of new experimental data 30 pages, 14 figure

Pilot Study to Assess the Effectiveness of the Sustainable Culturally adaptive Nutrition Program (Scan) to Improve adherence to the National Diabetes Prevention Program

PURPOSE: The Sustainable Culturally Adapted Nutrition Program (SCAN) is a novel adaptation to the National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP) that aims to improve attendance and effectiveness. This paper presents its feasibility and impact through the initial 6-month outcomes. DESIGN: A pragmatic quasi-experimental pilot study with intervention (DPP plus SCAN) and control (DPP only) groups. SAMPLES AND INCLUSION CRITERIA: Sustainable Culturally Adapted Nutrition Program participants were recruited from federally qualified health center (FQHC) clinic patients enrolled in a NDPP in Houston, Texas. Participants needed to be (1) ≥18 years old, (2) body mass index \u3e25, (3) no prior diagnosis of diabetes, and (4) not pregnant. INTERVENTION: Sustainable Culturally Adapted Nutrition Program cooking classes were designed to teach skills to prepare fresh produce, and utilized Motivational Interviewing (MI) techniques to encourage participants to adapt these skills for foods that were culturally important to them. OUTCOME MEASURES: (1) National Diabetes Prevention Program attendance, (2) BMI and (3) percent weight loss. ANALYSIS: We used linear mixed models to test the association between weights and NDPP attendance. RESULTS: 22 intervention and 15 control participants completed the program to the 6-month point. Intervention participants had increased DPP attendance over controls (7.14 vs 6.87 session). Intervention participants also demonstrated on average, 1.5% weight loss for each additional SCAN class attended ( CONCLUSIONS: The SCAN adaptation shows promising results for effectively increasing both NDPP attendance and weight loss