Evaluation of alternative policies of water price for the agricultural use in Alentejo Region

Irrigation is economically important in many regions of Mediterranean Europe such as the Portuguese region of Alentejo. The new Water Law proposed by the European Commission, pointing out that water management might be based on the principle of payment by users. These issues have some effect on the cost pattern of the farmers, when considering the water cost. However, the implementation of water tariff policies can provide a very important policy instrument, in order to promote an efficient use of water in agricultural sector as well as to avoid, at least partially, the loss of farm incomes. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of alternative policies of water price for agriculture use in the farm income and the production pattern, having in account the recovery of the public investment and the operating costs with irrigation infrastructures. The methodology used is based, on the one hand, on the estimate of farm water demand and, on the other hand on the determination of the investment and on the current costs of the irrigation infrastructures. This study was applied to irrigated areas of Odivelas, in the South of Portuga

Eye-CU: Sleep Pose Classification for Healthcare using Multimodal Multiview Data

Manual analysis of body poses of bed-ridden patients requires staff to continuously track and record patient poses. Two limitations in the dissemination of pose-related therapies are scarce human resources and unreliable automated systems. This work addresses these issues by introducing a new method and a new system for robust automated classification of sleep poses in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) environment. The new method, coupled-constrained Least-Squares (cc-LS), uses multimodal and multiview (MM) data and finds the set of modality trust values that minimizes the difference between expected and estimated labels. The new system, Eye-CU, is an affordable multi-sensor modular system for unobtrusive data collection and analysis in healthcare. Experimental results indicate that the performance of cc-LS matches the performance of existing methods in ideal scenarios. This method outperforms the latest techniques in challenging scenarios by 13% for those with poor illumination and by 70% for those with both poor illumination and occlusions. Results also show that a reduced Eye-CU configuration can classify poses without pressure information with only a slight drop in its performance.Comment: Ten-page manuscript including references and ten figure

Apertura comercial y productividad en la industria manufacturera mexicana

In this paper I consider the effect of trade liberalization on total factor productivity (TFP) in the Mexican manufacturing industry, controlling for other determinants of TFP, such as foreign direct investment, workforce training and R&D expenditures. A panel regression is estimated with 9 cross sections corresponding to two-digit manufacturing classifications over 1980-1998. The estimation shows that an outwardoriented trade policy in the industry, has contributed to the expansion of total factor productivity. However, the TFP index suggests a moderation in manufacturing productivity growth in recent years.total factor productivity, trade liberalization

Earthworm management in tropical agroecosystems

A worldwide survey of earthworms in the humid tropics revealed that 51 exotics and 151 native species are commonly found in tropical agroecosystems. On the basis of frequency records and climatic and edaphic ranges, 21 exotics and 27 native species have been selected as possible candidates for manipulation. A multivariate analysis separated these species into four groups : (i) native species with wide edaphic and medium climatic tolerances ; (ii) exotic species with wide climatic and edaphic tolerances ; (iii) native and exotic species with narrow edaphic tolerances but more resistant to climatic variations ; and (iv) native species with limited tolerance for climatic and edaphic variations. Regarding management, species of group (ii) seem to be the most adaptable, both at regional and local levels (multipurpose species) ; group (i) can be managed for specific climatic conditions whereas group (iii) should be managed in specific soil environments. Species of group (iv) may only be managed at a very local scale. (Résumé d'auteur

Converting Treatment Plans From Helical Tomotherapy to L-Shape Linac: Clinical Workflow and Dosimetric Evaluation.

This work evaluated a commercial fallback planning workflow designed to provide cross-platform treatment planning and delivery. A total of 27 helical tomotherapy intensity-modulated radiotherapy plans covering 4 anatomical sites were selected, including 7 brain, 5 unilateral head and neck, 5 bilateral head and neck, 5 pelvis, and 5 prostate cases. All helical tomotherapy plans were converted to 7-field/9-field intensity-modulated radiotherapy and volumetric-modulated radiotherapy plans through fallback dose-mimicking algorithm using a 6-MV beam model. The planning target volume (PTV) coverage ( D1, D99, and homogeneity index) and organs at risk dose constraints were evaluated and compared. Overall, all 3 techniques resulted in relatively inferior target dose coverage compared to helical tomotherapy plans, with higher homogeneity index and maximum dose. The organs at risk dose ratio of fallback to helical tomotherapy plans covered a wide spectrum, from 0.87 to 1.11 on average for all sites, with fallback plans being superior for brain, pelvis, and prostate sites. The quality of fallback plans depends on the delivery technique, field numbers, and angles, as well as user selection of structures for organs at risk. In actual clinical scenario, fallback plans would typically be needed for 1 to 5 fractions of a treatment course in the event of machine breakdown. Our results suggested that <1% dose variance can be introduced in target coverage and/or organs at risk from fallback plans. The presented clinical workflow showed that the fallback plan generation typically takes 10 to 20 minutes per case. Fallback planning provides an expeditious and effective strategy for transferring patients cross platforms, and minimizing the untold risk of a patient missing treatment(s)