1,721 research outputs found
A critical analysis of Peru's HIV grant proposals to the Global Fund.
Peru has applied to six of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) rounds for funding, achieving success on four occasions. The process of proposal development has, however, been criticised, especially concerning the use of evidence, relevance/consistency and performance indicators. We aimed to analyse the Peruvian Global Fund proposals according to those dimensions, providing feedback to improve future local efforts and inform global discussions around Global Fund procedures. We analysed the content of four HIV-focused proposals (rounds 2, 5, 6 and 8) regarding epidemic context, needs identification and prioritisation and monitoring and evaluation systems. Peruvian proposals submitted after round 1 were described as resulting from collaborative inputs involving formerly unrepresented sectors, principally 'vulnerable populations'. However, difficulties arose regarding the amount and quality of evidence about the epidemiological context; limited consideration of social determinants of the epidemic; lack of theory-driven interventions, and little synergy across projects and the inclusion of weak monitoring and evaluation systems, with poor indicators and measurement procedures. Prioritising the development of analytical and technical skills to generate Global Fund proposals would enhance the country's capacity to produce and utilise evidence, improve the technical-political interface, strengthen information systems and lead to more informed decision making and accountability
Aplicabilidad de las TIG en la generación de escenarios de futuro para una gestión integrada de las zonas costeras
Para una planificación y gestión coherente de las zonas costeras es fundamental que exista una profunda
comprensión de las interacciones entre el hombre y el medio físico, siendo preciso integrar la información sobre el
conocimiento del medio natural aportada por las diferentes disciplinas científicas, junto con la información del
contexto socio-económico, normativo y cultural. Por tanto, la toma de decisiones en los espacios litorales debe
apoyarse en instrumentos interdisciplinares, capaces de operar con distintos tipos de datos y abordar situaciones
complejas e impredecibles.
La simulación de escenarios es una importante herramienta para evaluar desarrollos futuros en sistemas
complejos y dinámicos que poseen un número alto de incertidumbres, y por ello es una técnica muy adecuada para
la gestión de las zonas costeras. Los escenarios permiten integrar modelos socioeconómicos con modelos físicos,
químicos o biológicos, reflejar una amplia gama de tendencias y dinámicas, y trabajar con distintas escalas
temporales y espaciales.
En el presente artículo se examina el uso actual y el potencial de las TIG en la generación de escenarios de futuro
para la gestión integrada de las zonas costeras. Para ello se ha realizado un análisis de su aplicabilidad de las TIG,
identificando en qué fases de la elaboración de escenarios se pueden utilizar. Los resultados indican que estas
tecnologías tienen un alto potencial y son aplicables en todas las fases de la generación de los escenarios. Una de
las fortalezas identificadas es que las TIG incrementan la transparencia y fiabilidad de la generación de escenarios
de futuro facilitando los procesos equitativos y participativos de negociación, toma de decisiones y planificación en
las zonas costeras.To achieve a coherent planning and management of coastal areas it is necessary having a deep understanding of
the interactions existing between human-being and the physical environment, integrating information from different
scientific disciplines (hydrology, morphodynamics, soil science, ecology, etc.) and socio-economic, normative and
cultural context information. Therefore decision-making in coastal areas must be based on interdisciplinaryinstruments capable of working with different type of data and dealing with complex and unpredictable situations.
Scenario-making is one of the most important tools for assessing future developments in complex and dynamic
systems which have a high number of uncertainties; thus it is a very suitable approach for coastal zone
management. Scenarios can integrate socio-economic models with physical, chemical or biological models, reflect a
broad range of trends and dynamics, and work with different temporal and spatial scales.
In this paper the current and potential use of Geographical Information Technologies (GIT) is examined in the
generation of future scenarios for an integrated management of coastal areas. An analysis of the applicability of the
GIT has been done, identifying at which stage of scenario development GIT can be used. The results indicate that GIT
have great potential and are applicable at all stages of the scenarios generation. One of the strengths identified is
that GIT increase the transparency and reliability of the generation of future scenarios and facilitate equitable and
participatory processes of negotiation, decision making and planning in coastal areas
Resolving sets for Johnson and Kneser graphs
A set of vertices in a graph is a {\em resolving set} for if, for
any two vertices , there exists such that the distances . In this paper, we consider the Johnson graphs and Kneser
graphs , and obtain various constructions of resolving sets for these
graphs. As well as general constructions, we show that various interesting
combinatorial objects can be used to obtain resolving sets in these graphs,
including (for Johnson graphs) projective planes and symmetric designs, as well
as (for Kneser graphs) partial geometries, Hadamard matrices, Steiner systems
and toroidal grids.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl
Observing the evaporation transition in vibro-fluidized granular matter
By shaking a sand box the grains on the top start to jump giving the picture
of evaporating a sand bulk, and a gaseous transition starts at the surface
granular matter (GM) bed. Moreover the mixture of the grains in the whole bed
starts to move in a cooperative way which is far away from a Brownian
description. In a previous work we have shown that the key element to describe
the statistics of this behavior is the exclusion of volume principle, whereby
the system obeys a Fermi configurational approach. Even though the experiment
involves an archetypal non-equilibrium system, we succeeded in defining a
global temperature, as the quantity associated to the Lagrange parameter in a
maximum entropic statistical description. In fact in order to close our
approach we had to generalize the equipartition theorem for dissipative
systems. Therefore we postulated, found and measured a fundamental dissipative
parameter, written in terms of pumping and gravitational energies, linking the
configurational entropy to the collective response for the expansion of the
centre of mass (c.m.) of the granular bed. Here we present a kinetic approach
to describe the experimental velocity distribution function (VDF) of this
non-Maxwellian gas of macroscopic Fermi-like particles (mFp). The evaporation
transition occurs mainly by jumping balls governed by the excluded volume
principle. Surprisingly in the whole range of low temperatures that we measured
this description reveals a lattice-gas, leading to a packing factor, which is
independent of the external parameters. In addition we measure the mean free
path, as a function of the driving frequency, and corroborate our prediction
from the present kinetic theory.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted for publication September 1st, 200
Non-equilibrium transition from dissipative quantum walk to classical random walk
We have investigated the time-evolution of a free particle in interaction
with a phonon thermal bath, using the tight-binding approach. A dissipative
quantum walk can be defined and many important non-equilibrium decoherence
properties can be investigated analytically. The non-equilibrium statistics of
a pure initial state have been studied. Our theoretical results indicate that
the evolving wave-packet shows the suppression of Anderson's boundaries
(ballistic peaks) by the presence of dissipation. Many important relaxation
properties can be studied quantitatively, such as von Neumann's entropy and
quantum purity. In addition, we have studied Wigner's function. The
time-dependent behavior of the quantum entanglement between a free particle -in
the lattice- and the phonon bath has been characterized analytically. This
result strongly suggests the non-trivial time-dependence of the off-diagonal
elements of the reduced density matrix of the system. We have established a
connection between the quantum decoherence and the dissipative parameter
arising from interaction with the phonon bath. The time-dependent behavior of
quantum correlations has also been pointed out, showing continuous transition
from quantum random walk to classical random walk, when dissipation increases.Comment: Submitted for publication. 17 pages, 6 figure
Geodesic Deviation Equation in Bianchi Cosmologies
We present the Geodesic Deviation Equation (GDE) for the
Friedmann-Robertson-Walker(FRW) universe and we compare it with the equation
for Bianchi type I model. We justify consider this cosmological model due to
the recent importance the Bianchi Models have as alternative models in
cosmology. The main property of these models, solutions of Einstein Field
Equations (EFE) is that they are homogeneous as the FRW model but they are not
isotropic. We can see this because they have a non-null Weyl tensor in the GDE.Comment: Submitted to Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS), ERE200
The influence of ecosystems on the entrepreneurship process: a comparison across developed and developing economies
Over the past 30 years, the academic literature has legitimised the significant impact of environmental conditions on entrepreneurial activity. In the past 5 years, in particular, the academic debate has focused on the elements that configure entrepreneurship ecosystems and their influence on the creation of high-growth ventures. Previous studies have also recognised the heterogeneity of environmental conditions (including policies, support programs, funding, culture, professional infrastructure, university support, labour market, R&D, and market dynamics) across regions/countries. Yet, an in-depth discussion is required to address how environmental conditions vary per entrepreneurial stage of enterprises within certain regions/countries, as well as how these conditions determine the technological factor of the entrepreneurial process. By reviewing the literature from 2000 to 2017, this paper analyses the environmental conditions that have influenced the transitions towards becoming potential entrepreneurs, nascent/new entrepreneurs, and established/consolidated entrepreneurs in both developed and developing economies. Our findings show why diversity in entrepreneurship and context is significant. Favourable conditions include professional support, incubators/accelerators, networking with multiple agents, and R&D investments. Less favourable conditions include a lack of funding sources, labour market conditions, and social norms. Our paper contributes by proposing a research agenda and implications for stakeholders
Identification and characterization of novel factors that act in the nonsense-mediated mRNA decay pathway in nematodes, flies and mammals
Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) is a surveillance mechanism that degrades mRNAs harboring premature termination codons (PTCs). We have conducted a genome-wide RNAi screen in Caenorhabditis elegans that resulted in the identification of five novel NMD genes that are conserved throughout evolution. Two of their human homologs, GNL2 (ngp-1) and SEC13 (npp-20), are also required for NMD in human cells. We also show that the C. elegans gene noah-2, which is present in Drosophila melanogaster but absent in humans, is an NMD factor in fruit flies. Altogether, these data identify novel NMD factors that are conserved throughout evolution, highlighting the complexity of the NMD pathway and
suggesting that yet uncovered novel factors may act to regulate this process
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