Una experiencia transdisciplinaria de conservación en el Sitio Ramsar Jaaukanigás (Santa Fe, Argentina)

Debido a la estrecha relación que existe entre la naturaleza y las sociedades, la denominada “crisis de la biodiversidad” constituye en realidad “crisis socioambientales”. Una de las principales acciones para abordar dichas crisis socioambientales tanto a nivel gubernamental, como no gubernamental (ONG), lo constituyen la creación de áreas protegidas. En este artículo, abordamos el desarrollo de un modelo de área protegida que promueve el uso sostenible de los recursos y la participación comunitaria. Se trata del Sitio Ramsar Jaaukanigás en el río Paraná (Provincia de Santa Fe, Argentina), humedal que es poseedor de una diversidad biológica y cultural extraordinaria. En este aporte analizamos y discutimos 13 años de gestión en el Sitio Ramsar Jaaukanigás, como una forma de analizar aciertos, desaciertos, y de transferir una experiencia transdisciplinaria y participativa, que con poca frecuencia se ha desarrollado como modelo de conservación en la Argentina

Reactive evolutionary path planning for autonomous surface vehicles in lake environments.

Autonomous Surface Vehicles (ASVs) have found a lot of promising applications in aquatic environments, i.e., sea, lakes, rivers, etc. They can be used for applications of paramount importance, such as environmental monitoring of water resources, and for bathymetry to study the characteristics of the basing of a lake/sea or for surveillance in patrol missions, among others. These vehicles can be built with smaller dimensions when compared to regular ships since they do not need an on-board crew for operation. However, they do require at least a telemetry control as well as certain intelligence for making decisions and responding to changing scenarios. Water resources are very important in Paraguay since they provide fresh water for its inhabitants and they are crucial for the main economic activities such as agriculture and cattle raising. Furthermore, they are natural borders with the surrounding countries, and consequently the main transportation route for importing/exporting products. In fact, Paraguay is the third country in the world with the largest fleet of barges after USA and China. Thus, maintaining and monitoring the environmental conditions of these resources is key in the development of the country. This work is focused on the maintenance and monitoring of the greatest lake of the country called Ypacarai Lake. In recent years, the quality of its water has been seriously degraded due to the pollution caused by the low control of the dumping of waste thrown into the Lake. Since it is also a national icon, the government of Paraguay has put a lot of effort in recovering water quality of the Lake. As a result, it is monitored periodically but using manual procedures. Therefore, the primary objective of this work is to develop these monitoring tasks autonomously by means of an ASV with a suitable path planning strategy. Path planning is an active research area in robotics. A particular case is the Coverage Path Planning (CPP) problem, where an algorithm should find a path that achieves the best coverage of the target region to be monitored. This work mainly studies the global CPP, which returns a suitable path considering the initial conditions of the environment where the vehicle moves. The first contribution of this thesis is the modeling of the CPP using Hamiltonian Circuits (HCs) and Eulerian Circuits (ECs). Therefore, a graph adapted to the Ypacarai Lake is created by using a network of wireless beacons located at the shore of the lake, so that they can be used as data exchange points between a control center and the ASV, and also as waypoints. Regarding the proposed modeling, HCs and ECs are paths that begin and end at the same point. Therefore, the ASV travels across a given graph that is defined by a set of wireless beacons. The main difference between HC and EC is that a HC is a tour that visits each vertex only once while EC visits each edge only once. Finding optimal HCs or ECs that minimize the total distance traveled by the ASV are very complex problems known as NP-complete. To solve such problems, a meta-heuristic algorithm can be a suitable approach since they provide quasi-optimal solutions in a reasonable time. In this work, a GA (Genetic Algorithm) approach is proposed and tested. First, an evaluation of the performance of the algorithm with different values of its hyper-parameters has been carried out. Second, the proposed approach has been compared to other approaches such as randomized and greedy algorithms. Third, a thorough comparison between the performance of HC and EC based approaches is presented. The simulation results show that EC-based approach outperforms the HC-based approach almost 2% which in terms of the Lake size is about 1.4 km2 or 140 ha (hectares). Therefore, it has been demonstrated that the modeling of the problem as an Eulerian graph provides better results. Furthermore, it has been investigated the relationship between the number of beacons to be visited and the distance traveled by the ASV in the EC-based approach. Findings indicate that there is a quasi-lineal relationship between the number of beacons and the distance traveled. The second contribution of this work is the development of an on-line learning strategy using the same model but considering dynamic contamination events in the Lake. Dynamic events mean the appearance and evolution of an algae bloom, which is a strong indicator of the degradation of the lake. The strategy is divided into two-phases, the initial exploration phase to discover the presence of the algae bloom and next the intensification phase to focus on the region where the contamination event is detected. This intensification effect is achieved by modifying the beacon-based graph, reducing the number of vertices and selecting those that are closer to the region of interest. The simulation results reveal that the proposed strategy detects two events and monitors them, keeping a high level of coverage while minimizing the distance traveled by the ASV. The proposed scheme is a reactive path planning that adapts to the environmental conditions. This scheme makes decisions in an autonomous way and it switches from the exploratory phase to the intensification phase depending on the external conditions, leading to a variable granularity in the monitoring task. Therefore, there is a balance between coverage and the energy consumed by the ASV. The main benefits obtained from the second contribution includes a better monitoring in the quality of water and control of waste dumping, and the possibility to predict the appearance of algae-bloom from the collected environmental data

Effects of capture, shearing, and release on the ecology and behavior of wild vicuñas

The goals of sustainable use of wildlife include minimizing long term deleterious impacts of management. We evaluated the ethoecological and demographic responses of wild vicuñas (Vicugna vicugna) to capture, shearing, and release in northern Argentina, as well as effects on behavior, by comparing captured and shorn versus non-captured animals for 2 yr after capture events. We observed subtle and short-term changes in the movement behavior of individuals, likely due to thermal and behavioral stress following capture. We did not observe changes in survival and birth rates, social organization, or distribution of animals following capture. Therefore, we concluded that the capture techniques used resulted in low impacts on the wild vicuña population.Fil: Arzamendia, Yanina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Jujuy. Facultad de Cs.agrarias. Cátedra de Vertebrados; ArgentinaFil: Vila, Bibiana Leonor. Universidad Nacional de Luján. Departamento de Ciencias Sociales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Environmental Education as a Means for Valuing and Conserving Camelids and Pastoralism in the Argentinean Altiplano of Jujuy

Andean pastoralism, like other pastoral systems around the world, is under stress due to climate change, land tenure regimes, pressures to become sedentary, difficulties in interacting with market-based economies, isolation, and youth emigration. Over the years, we have proposed different environmental education (EE) strategies targeting local Andean stakeholders and university students, including interventions in primary schools. This paper presents the results of 4 EE interventions focusing on mountain environments, their biodiversity, environmental calendars, and llama caravans. School children participated creatively in this process by writing poems, drawing, and playing. The resulting work showed sensitivity, experiential knowledge, and a comprehensive vision of the environment. Most of the artworks were printed and disseminated in the children's local communities, where they are highly appreciated. We recognize that the usefulness of EE is constrained by social and economic pressures, including extractive activities. However, we also underscore its huge potential to guarantee sustainability during the inevitable process of change in traditional Andean pastoralism.Fil: Vila, Bibiana Leonor. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Luján. Departamento de Ciencias Sociales; Argentina. Vicuñas, Camélidos y Ambiente; ArgentinaFil: Arzamendia, Yanina. Universidad Nacional de Jujuy. Instituto de Ecorregiones Andinas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta. Instituto de Ecorregiones Andinas; Argentina. Vicuñas, Camélidos y Ambiente; ArgentinaFil: Rojo, Veronica. Universidad Nacional de Luján. Departamento de Ciencias Básicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Luján. Departamento de Tecnología; Argentina. Vicuñas, Camélidos y Ambiente; Argentin

Estimación de la producción de sedimentos en la cuenca Capiibary en base a la ecuación universal de pérdida de suelo

En el presente trabajo se evaluó la producción de sedimentos producto de la erosión hídrica de los suelos en la Cuenca Hidrográfica del Arroyo Capiibary-Itapúa, con la aplicación de la Ecuación Universal de Pérdida de suelo (USLE), la cual permite calcular los niveles de pérdidas en Ton.Ha-1.año. Se definieron tres escenarios edafológicos teniendo en cuenta el tipo de suelo de las sub-cuencas objeto de estudio. Los factores considerados fueron la erosividad de la lluvia (factor R), la erodabilidad del suelo (factor K), la longitud y grado de la pendiente (factor LS), la cobertura de suelo (factor C) y una estimativa de las prácticas de conservación de suelo. Se utilizó el programa gvSIG 1.10 como herramienta para el análisis biofísico. Se evidenciaron perdidas promedio de suelo igual a 18.5 ton.km-2año-1 en las zonas seleccionadas. Este resultado refleja que el grado de erosión hídrica de la cuenca se encuentra en un rango de pérdida moderada esto según la clasificación propuesta por la FAO (1989)Fil: Arzamendia, Adriano. Universidad Nacional de Itapúa (Paraguay

Local governments and their strategic role in regional integration: a commitment to subnational integration in the MERCOSUR

El presente trabajo expone el incipiente proceso de internacionalización de los gobiernos locales y su influencia en la construcción de los procesos de integración regional. La integración a nivel subnacional puede consolidar y complementar un proceso mayor como es la integración regional del MERCOSUR. Se analizan los factores más relevantes que han posibilitado la acción internacional y paradiplomática de los gobiernos no centrales y, particularmente, de los gobiernos locales como son las redes de ciudades, la cooperación transfronteriza y otras plataformas de interacción horizontal. El papel protagónico que hoy asumen los gobiernos locales en la profundización de los procesos de integración regional permitiría avanzar hacia una más inclusiva, en consonancia a la integración supranacional de los Estados, y asimismo ampliar la agenda y la toma de decisiones desde la perspectiva local, muchas veces postergada en el bloque sudamericano.The present work exposes the incipient process of internationalization of local governments and its influence in the construction of regional integration processes. Integration at the sub-national level can consolidate and complement a larger process such as MERCOSUR's regional integration. The most relevant factors that have made possible the international and paradiplomatic action of the non-central governments and, particularly, of the local governments, such as the networks of cities, the cross-border cooperation and other platforms of horizontal interaction, are analyzed. The leading role assumed today by local governments in the deepening of regional integration processes would make it possible to advance towards a more inclusive integration, in line with the supranational integration of States, and also to expand the agenda and decision-making from the local perspective, often neglected in the South American bloc.Instituto de Integración Latinoamerican

Snakes of the fluvial littoral of Argentina (Reptilia: Serpentes): Biodiversity and synthesis on the actual state of knowledge

We analyzed the state of knowledge of the snakes biodiversity in the fluvial littoral of Argentina including aspect of species richness, sistematic, biogeography, biology, ecology and conservation. The fluvial littoral is the richest region of Argentina with 102 species and subspecies of snakes, 78 % of the Argentinean ophidiofauna represented in approximately a 7% of the continental surface of this country. Several new species and new records were described and published for this region in the last years. Misiones province showed the highest species richness (78 taxa) with a similar richness to some amazonian megadiverse regions with equivalent surfaces. The fluvial littoral contains 86% of the Argentinean threatened snakes (30 of 36 species), with some very restricted range species in Argentina. Although, the actual protected areas sistem is insuficient to conserve all snakes species, and regions with high diversity or endemic species present few or any protected area.Fil: Giraudo, Alejandro Raul. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto Nacional de Limnología. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto Nacional de Limnología; ArgentinaFil: Arzamendia, Vanesa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto Nacional de Limnología. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto Nacional de Limnología; ArgentinaFil: Lopez, Maria Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto Nacional de Limnología. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto Nacional de Limnología; Argentina. Provincia de Entre Ríos. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción. Universidad Autónoma de Entre Ríos. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción; Argentin

Normalización del proceso de elaboración de queso semiduro en el tambo 6 de Agosto perteneciente a la Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias

La tesis consiste en una intervención profesional en el Tambo “6 de agosto”, perteneciente a la Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina. El tambo se encuentra emplazado en un predio destinado originalmente a la producción láctea con fines educativos, donde actualmente se articulan actividades con diferentes actores sociales y grupos de trabajo, uno de ellos centrado en la producción de leche y elaboración de queso semiduro, tema de interés del presente trabajo. Centraremos el análisis en el proceso de transformación de la materia prima en quesos semiduros, con el objetivo de contribuir a la mejora de sus prácticas de elaboración, cuidando la inocuidad y homogeneidad del producto, adaptado a una baja escala de producción. A partir de la supuesta existencia de prácticas inconvenientes o insuficientes que pudieran afectar la calidad y homogeneidad del producto obtenido, se realizaron distintas actividades como forma de intervención en busca de la mejora del proceso de elaboración del queso del tambo. Estas actividades consistieron en: a) observaciones, de la infraestructura y equipamiento de la sala de elaboración en dos momentos: antes y después de la realización de mejoras; b) recuperación de la información del proceso de elaboración llevado a cabo previamente en el predio a través de entrevistas a las personas elaboradoras. c) realización de talleres participativos para la construcción de protocolos de elaboración de queso y limpieza y desinfección de la sala. d) elaboración guiada de queso en el establecimiento, según protocolo. e) toma de muestras de materia prima y producto elaborado y análisis en el laboratorio de la cátedra de Agroindustrias de la FCAyF. Al realizar los cambios consensuados tanto en la infraestructura y equipamiento como en el proceso de elaboración se pudieron obtener resultados aptos y dentro de lo establecido por el CAA para el producto final y encaminar la iniciación de un proceso de habilitación de la sala de elaboraciónTutor: Ing. Agr. Luis Alejandro Di Piero.Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestale

Proposta de viabilidade para implantação da 2º Vara da Fazenda Pública na Comarca de Paranaguá

Orientador : José Wladimir Freitas da Fonseca.Projeto Técnico (especialização) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas. Curso de Especialização em Gestão PúblicaInclui referênciasResumo: A presente proposta de projeto técnico trata-se de um estudo de viabilidade para implantação da 2º Vara da Fazenda Pública da Comarca de Paranaguá. O cartório atual encontra-se sobrecarregado com mais de 100 mil processos em trâmite e conta com apenas 7 servidores efetivos, uma vez que herdou processos que tramitavam nos cartórios cíveis da comarca. A criação de um novo cartório trará mais agilidade na tramitação dos processos, desafoga o atual cartório da Fazenda Pública e melhora a qualidade na prestação do atendimento ao publico