EQUITY SCHEMES IN SOUTH AFRICA: BENEFITS DELIVERED TO FARM WORKERS AS FUNCTION OF COMMERCIAL FARMERS' STRATEGY

With the end of Apartheid, the South African Government created and corrected agricultural factor and product market failures in its attempt to improve the distribution of wealth and incorporate previously disadvantaged farmers into the mainstream of agricultural activities. Some commercial farmers responded strategically to the new equity-based policies on factor and product markets by initiating equity-schemes with farm workers in order to maintain/increase their profits given the new local economic and political environment and global competition. Hence, most equity-schemes are organized according to the commercial farmers' capacities. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the organizational structure of the equity-schemes as a function of the commercial farmers strategy (production vs. marketing). This study is based on interviews of emerging farmers, former and present farm workers, commercial farmers, non-Governmental Organizations and Governmental agencies. The results show that equity-schemes tend to benefit commercial farmers but the degree to which farm workers' gain access to factor and product markets depends on commercial farmers' strategy. Then, the paper assesses alternative organizational structures of equity-schemes to maximize the benefits delivered to farm workers. Finally, utilizing the Peterson-Wysocki-Harsh Model, the issues of why the Government policies have not accomplished its objectives are discussed and recommendations to broaden the implementation of equity-schemes are suggested.Farm Management, Labor and Human Capital,

La invención del mito de Diego Portales: La muerte y el rito fúnebre en la tradición republicana chilena

Diego Portales has become a true legend of Chilean political history, a controversial figure who has prompted very differentki nds of interpretation. The aim of this article is to analyze the origin of his political myth. We will study the final phase of the minister's political activities in 1837 from the perspective of Machiavelli's The Prince. By means of the Florentine philosopher's modern political theory, we may explain the circumstances which surrounded the death of Portales. A look at Portales's funeral reveals that it responded to a need to create a republican tradition at the time of the birth of the Hispano-American nations

Las Medicationis Parabolae del Maestro Arnau de Vilanova : consideraciones en torno a la elaboración de su texto crítico

De entre la abundante producción médica del catalán del Medioevo Arnau de Vilanova, ninguna obra original lograría una difusión tan amplia y sostenida como aquella colección de aforismos que suele conocerse por el título de Medicationis parabolae (1). Verdad es que -a juzgar por el número y la antigüedad de los manuscritos que se conservan- más profusa fue aún la difusión inmediata del Regimen sanitatis ad regem Aragonum; obra que se vio, además, prontamente acogida por la imprenta, a través de varias ediciones incunables, cosa que no ocurre con las «Parábolas». Pero -fuera de las colecciones de Opera Arnaldi- el «Régimen» mencionado pronto dejó de editarse, oscurecido por el «salernitano» (2). En cambio, el texto de Medicationis parabolae, que también había gozado de una considerable -aunque no tan alta- difusión manuscrita, ya que no fuera impreso antes del comienzo del siglo XVI, sí que conocería numerosas ediciones a lo largo de esta centuria: entre los años 1502 y 1586 (3). Será también el único libro genuino de Arnau de Vilanova que haya merecido los honores de comentarios renacentistas -el de las ediciones generales (1 504 y sucesivas), el de Chanca (1 514) y el de Pictorius (1565)- y de traducciones hechas en nuestros días (4), lo que denota el mantenido interés por este texto

«Must be Chilote»: transnational migrant life in the Patagonian territories of Chile and Argentina

Este artículo presenta avances de investigación etnográfica considerando hitos históricos en la migración transnacional de chilotes desde los años cincuenta hasta los ensamblajes actuales en lugares de la Patagonia chilena y argentina. En particular, se analizan etapas de movilidad vinculadas al auge económico en territorios australes, destacando sectores de inserción laboral en ambos lados de la frontera. Los resultados preliminares muestran las conexiones culturales reservadas a lugares de origen y residencia a través de la formación de comunidades, circulación de mercancías, extensión de significados y nuevas trayectorias migratorias interregionales. La plataforma metodológica corresponde a etnografías en movimiento derivadas de acercamientos circunstanciales en diferentes localidades de Chiloé y la Patagonia, entre diciembre de 2015 y mayo de 2017. Las reflexiones en este trabajo hacen un aporte a los estudios sobre movilidades humanas en el sur de Chile analizadas desde perspectivas multilocales, que permiten localizar continuidades culturales en la migración vividaThis article presents new ethnographical information on milestones in the history of the transnational migration of Chilotes (inhabitants of Chiloe Island, southern Chile), from the 1950s up to the assemblages existing today in different parts of Chilean and Argentinean Patagonia. In particular, we analyse stages in the development of mobility linked to the economic boom in these southern territories, highlighting sectors in which jobs were created on both sides of the border. The preliminary results show how cultural connections are retained with places of origin and residence through the formation of communities, the circulation of goods, the extension of symbolic meanings and new inter-regional migratory trajectories. The methodology used was that of ethnographies in movement derived from circumstantial approaches in different locations in Chiloe and Patagonia between December 2015 and May 2017. The reflections in this work are a contribution to studies on human mobility in southern Chile from multi-local perspectives that allow cultural continuities to be identified in the experience of migratio

Adaptive Function Segmentation Methodology for Resources Optimization of Hardware-Based Function Evaluators

This thesis presents a new adaptive function segmentation methodology (AFSM), for the evaluation of mathematical functions through piecewise polynomial approximation (PPA) methods. This methodology is planned to be employed for the development of an efficient hardware-based channel emulator in future development steps of the current project. In contrast to state-of-art segmentation methodologies, which applicability is limited because these are highly dependent on the function shape and require significant intervention from the user to setup appropriately the algorithm, the proposed segmentation methodology is flexible and applicable to any continuous function within an evaluation interval. Through the analysis of the first and second order derivatives, the methodology becomes aware of the function shape and adapts the algorithm behavior accordingly. The proposed segmentation methodology aims towards hardware architectures of limited resources that resort to fixed-point numeric representation where hardware designer should make a compromise between resources consumption and output accuracy. An optimization algorithm is implemented to assist the user in searching the best segmentation parameters that maximize the outcome of the design trade-offs for a given signal-to-quantization-noise ratio requirement. When compared to state-of-the-art segmentation methodologies, the proposed AFSM delivers better performance of approximation for the hardware-based evaluation of transcendental functions given that fewer segments and consequently fewer hardware resources are required.Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologí

Endogenous Singlet Oxygen Photosensitizers in Plants.

Singlet oxygen, a highly reactive oxygen species, is inherently produced in chloroplasts of plants. Chlorophylls are used by plants to harvest light and to transport the singlet electronic excitation from the antenna complexes to the reaction centre (RC) of photosystem I (PSI) and PSII. However, chlorophylls are also efficient photosensitizers of singlet oxygen when they are isolated, when the excitation energy flow is impaired in the antenna complexes, or when the electron transport in PSII is inhibited. In the last case, chlorophyll triplets are formed, and transfer their electronic excitation to molecular oxygen. That chlorophylls act as donors of singlet excitation to other chlorophylls or as donors of triplet excitation to carotenoids as well as molecular oxygen makes singlet oxygen a constant threat for plants. However, plants have developed protection mechanisms for dealing with the danger. Several molecular processes work together in chloroplasts to cope with photosensitization of singlet oxygen and to minimize the resulting damage. Protection utilizes two strategies: to forestall the formation of singlet oxygen (either by preventing the formation of the would-be sensitizer or through deactivating it by a quencher other than molecular oxygen), and to quench, by physical or chemical means, any singlet oxygen that does get formed. Among the photosynthetic complexes, PSII is unique in that its primary electron donor is unprotected by carotenoids and singlet oxygen oxidizes the pigments of PSII RC; intriguingly the carotenoid oxidation products are signalling molecules that can reprogram gene expression. Finally, the distance over which singlet oxygen can diffuse in a viscous cellular medium, as found inside chloroplasts, is analysed.K.R.N and J.B.A are very grateful to the Research Council of Norway (Project 191102) and Junta de Castilla y León (Project CSI002A10-2).Peer reviewe