Coordinating poverty alleviation programs with regional and local governments : the experience of the Chilean Social Fund - FOSIS

This paper reviews the Chilean experience in dealing with the issue of integration of local, and regional governments into the poverty alleviation programs carried out through the Chilean Social Fund (FOSIS). FOSIS was created in 1990 by the first democratically elected government that took office after seventeen years of military rule. However, it was only in 1992, that local governments were elected after a long period of appointed officials, and neglect of investments in economic, and social infrastructure. Since its inception, FOSIS gave high priority to participatory approaches, and capacity building of community organizations, as the key mechanisms to enable the poor to improve their living conditions on a sustainable basis. This paper traces the evolution of FOSIS, and analyzes its new strategy for allocating resources at the regional, and local levels. The Chilean case presents a successful example of increasing integration of local governments, with poverty programs designed, and implemented by intermediaries (mostly non-governmental organizations), and/or directly by beneficiaries.Poverty Monitoring&Analysis,Poverty Assessment,National Governance,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Banks&Banking Reform

Management of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia in the Elderly

BACKGROUND: Because chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) typically follows an indolent course, many patients do not need to initiate therapy until they reach a relatively advanced age, when frailty and reduced organ function can make some of the standard treatments difficult to tolerate and less effective. However, recent advances in the understanding of CLL biology and the approval of agents in novel treatment classes have offered significant advances in the management of the disease. METHODS: The author reviewed current treatment goals in CLL management, including issues surrounding complete remission (CR) and minimal residual disease (MRD); the findings of trials of treatments from novel drug classes, primarily kinase inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies; and current strategies for use of standard and novel therapies for treatment of individuals diagnosed with CLL, particularly elderly patients. RESULTS: Several agents and regimens featuring improved clinical outcomes and tolerability are now available or in advanced development for the management of CLL patients, including the elderly and those with high-risk disease. These include ibrutinib, idelalisib plus rituximab, and obinutuzumab plus chlorambucil. CONCLUSION: The availability of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitors and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitors and other novel therapies will allow elderly CLL patients to receive more efficacious treatment with greater tolerability than available with traditional approaches for management of the disease

Iron and Copper in Mitochondrial Diseases

Transition metals are frequently used as cofactors for enzymes and oxygen-carrying proteins that take advantage of their propensity to gain and lose single electrons. Metals are particularly important in mitochondria, where they play essential roles in the production of ATP and detoxification of reactive oxygen species. At the same time, transition metals (particularly Fe and Cu) can promote the formation of harmful radicals, necessitating meticulous control of metal concentration and subcellular compartmentalization. We summarize our current understanding of Fe and Cu in mammalian mitochondrial biology and discuss human diseases associated with aberrations in mitochondrial metal homeostasis

Risk-Seeking versus Risk-Avoiding Investments in Noisy Periodic Environments

We study the performance of various agent strategies in an artificial investment scenario. Agents are equipped with a budget, $x(t)$, and at each time step invest a particular fraction, $q(t)$, of their budget. The return on investment (RoI), $r(t)$, is characterized by a periodic function with different types and levels of noise. Risk-avoiding agents choose their fraction $q(t)$ proportional to the expected positive RoI, while risk-seeking agents always choose a maximum value $q_{max}$ if they predict the RoI to be positive ("everything on red"). In addition to these different strategies, agents have different capabilities to predict the future $r(t)$, dependent on their internal complexity. Here, we compare 'zero-intelligent' agents using technical analysis (such as moving least squares) with agents using reinforcement learning or genetic algorithms to predict $r(t)$. The performance of agents is measured by their average budget growth after a certain number of time steps. We present results of extensive computer simulations, which show that, for our given artificial environment, (i) the risk-seeking strategy outperforms the risk-avoiding one, and (ii) the genetic algorithm was able to find this optimal strategy itself, and thus outperforms other prediction approaches considered.Comment: 27 pp. v2 with minor corrections. See http://www.sg.ethz.ch for more inf

RCS043938-2904.9: A New Rich Cluster of Galaxies at z=0.951

We present deep I, J_s, K_s imaging and optical spectroscopy of the newly discovered Red-Sequence Cluster Survey cluster RCS043938-2904.9. This cluster, drawn from an extensive preliminary list, was selected for detailed study on the basis of its apparent optical richness. Spectroscopy of 11 members places the cluster at z=0.951 +- 0.006, and confirms the photometric redshift estimate from the (R-z) color-magnitude diagram. Analysis of the infrared imaging data demonstrates that the cluster is extremely rich, with excess counts in the Ks-band exceeding the expected background counts by 9 sigma. The properties of the galaxies in RCS043938-2904.9 are consistent with those seen in other clusters at similar redshifts. Specifically, the red-sequence color, slope and scatter, and the size-magnitude relation of these galaxies are all consistent with that seen in the few other high redshift clusters known, and indeed are consistent with appropriately evolved properties of local cluster galaxies. The apparent consistency of these systems implies that the rich, high-redshift RCS clusters are directly comparable to the few other systems known at z ~ 1, most of which have been selected on the basis of X-ray emission.Comment: 12 pages, 1 color figure. Accepted for publication on The ApJ Letter

Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient in a Bubbling Fluidized Bed with PCM

Proceedings of: 14th International Conference on Fluidization: From Fundamentals to Products. Noordwijkerhout, Netherlands, 26-31 may 2013.This work presents an experimental study to determine the capacity of a Phase Change Material (PCM) in granular form to be used in a bubbling fluidized bed for thermal energy storage. The experimental measurements are focused on the determination of the heat transfer coefficient between a heated surface and the granular PCM in fluidized state. The results obtained indicates that the heat transfer coefficient notably increases (up to values three times higher) when the granular PCM is in solid form because it changes its phase when touches the heated surfaceThis work was partially founded by the Spanish Government (Project ENE2010-15403), the regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha (Project PPIC10-0055-4054) and Castilla-La Mancha University (Project GE20101662).publicad

Spectroscopy of moderately high-redshift RCS-1 clusters

We present spectroscopic observations of 11 moderately high-redshift (z~0.7- 1.0) clusters from the first Red-Sequence Cluster Survey (RCS-1). We find excellent agreement between the red-sequence estimated redshift and the spectroscopic redshift, with a scatter of 10% at z>0.7. At the high-redshift end (z>~0.9) of the sample, we find two of the systems selected are projections of pairs of comparably rich systems, with red-sequences too close to discriminate in (R-z') colour. In one of these systems, the two components are close enough to be physically associated. For a subsample of clusters with sufficient spectroscopic members, we examine the correlation between B_gcR (optical richness) and the dynamical mass inferred from the velocity dispersion. We find these measurements to be compatible, within the relatively large uncertainties, with the correlation established at lower redshift for the X-ray selected CNOC1 clusters and also for a lower redshift sample of RCS-1 clusters. Confirmation of this and calibration of the scatter in the relation will require larger samples of clusters at these and higher redshifts. [abridged]Comment: AJ accepted. 30 pages, 7 figures (figure 5 reduced quality

Determining the Chirality of Yukawa Couplings via Single Charged Higgs Boson Production in Polarized Photon Collision

When the charged Higgs boson is too heavy to be produced in pairs, the predominant production mechanism at Linear Colliders is via the single charged Higgs boson production processes, such as $e^-e^+ \to b \bar c H^+, \tau \bar \nu H^+$ and $\gamma\gamma \to b \bar c H^+, \tau \bar \nu H^+$. We show that the yield of a heavy charged Higgs boson at a $\gamma\gamma$ collider is typically one or two orders of magnitude larger than that at an $e^-e^+$ collider. Furthermore, a polarized $\gamma\gamma$ collider can determine the chirality of the Yukawa couplings of fermions with charged Higgs boson via single charged Higgs boson production, and thus discriminate models of new physics.Comment: Version accepted by Physical Review Letters (references added, minor rewording, RevTex4