A Decision Support Tool for the Selection of Promoting Actions to Encourage Collaboration in Projects for the Agriculture Sector

[EN] Development and innovation agencies promote consortiums of agricultural stakeholders to collaborate in the proposal of projects for public calls. To achieve this partnerships, these agencies should select between different promoting actions to be performed with two objectives: maximize the number of project proposals presented and minimize the resources invested. To support agencies with these decisions, a computer tool based on a multi-objective integer linear programming model is proposed. To deal with the two objectives the weighting sum method is implemented. The model is validated in different scenarios by means a realistic case of an agency in Brittany (France). The results show the conflict between the two objectives considered and the dependency of the solutions on the scenarios defined. As a conclusion it can be stated that: 1) decision-makers should be careful in defining the weights of each objective and 2) the impact of the different promoting actions on the level of stakeholders¿ participation should be precisely estimated.The authors acknowledge the support of the project 691249, RUCAPS: "Enhancing and implementing knowledge based ICT solutions within high risk and uncertain conditions for agriculture production systems", funded by the European Union¿s research and innovation programme under the H2020 Marie Sk¿odowska-Curie Actions.Alemany Díaz, MDM.; Alarcón Valero, F.; Pérez Perales, D.; Guyon, C. (2020). A Decision Support Tool for the Selection of Promoting Actions to Encourage Collaboration in Projects for the Agriculture Sector. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology. 598:534-545. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62412-5_44S534545598European Comission Funded Programs. https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020Zoie, C., Radulescu, M.: Decision analysis for the project selection problem under risk. IFAC Proc. 34(8), 445–450 (2001)Sadi-Nezhad, S.: A state-of-art survey on project selection using MCDM techniques. J. Project Manage. 2, 1–10 (2017)Caballero, H.C., Chopra, S., Schmidt, E.K.: Project portfolio selection using mathematical programming and optimization methods. In: Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2012–North America, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Newtown Square, PA, Project Management Institute (2012)Ahmad, B., Haq, I.: Project selection techniques, relevance and applications in Pakistan. Int. J. Technol. Res. 4, 52–60 (2016)Inuiguchi, M., Ramı́k, J.: Possibilistic linear programming: a brief review of fuzzy mathematical programming and a comparison with stochastic programming in portfolio selection problem. Fuzzy Sets Syst. 111(1), 3–28 (2000)Stewart, R., Mohamed, S.: IT/IS projects selection using multi-criteria utility theory. Log. Inf. Manage. 15(4), 254–270 (2002)Alzober, W., Yaakub, A.R.: Integrated model for MCDM: selection contractor in Malaysian construction industry. In: Applied Mechanics and Materials 548, pp. 1587–1595. Trans Tech Publications (2014)Adhikary, P., Roy, P.K., Mazumdar, A.: Optimal renewable energy project selection: a multi-criteria optimization technique approach. Global J. Pure Appl. Math. 11(5), 3319–3329 (2015)Strang, K.D.: Portfolio selection methodology for a nuclear project. Project Manage. J. 42(2), 81–93 (2011)Benjamin, C.O.: A linear goal-programming model for public-sector project selection. J. Oper. Res. Soc. 36(1), 13–23 (1985)Coronado, J.R., Pardo-Mora, E.M., Valero, M.: A multi-objective model for selection of projects to finance new enterprise SMEs in Colombia. J. Ind. Eng. Manage. 4(3), 407–417 (2011)Mat, N.A.C., Cheung, Y.: Partner selection: criteria for successful collaborative network. In: 20th Australian Conference on Information Systems, pp. 631–641 (2009)Camarinha-Matos, L.M., Afsarmanesh, H.: Collaborative Networks. In: Wang, K., Kovacs, G.L., Wozny, M., Fang, M. (eds.) PROLAMAT 2006. IIFIP, vol. 207, pp. 26–40. Springer, Boston, MA (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-34403-9_4Paixão, M., Sbragia, R., Kruglianskas, I.: Factors for selecting partners in innovation projects–evidences from alliances in the Brazilian petrochemical leader. Rev. Admin. Innov. São Paulo 11(2), 241–272 (2014)Duisters, D., Duysters, G., de Man, A.P.: The partner selection process: steps, effectiveness, governance. Ann. Hematol. 2, 7–25 (2011)Zhang, X.: Criteria for selecting the private-sector partner in public-private partnerships. J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 131(6), 631–644 (2005

Genomic Epidemiology of Complex, Multispecies, Plasmid-Borne bla KPC Carbapenemase in Enterobacterales in the United Kingdom from 2009 to 2014.

Carbapenem resistance in Enterobacterales is a public health threat. Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (encoded by alleles of the bla KPC family) is one of the most common transmissible carbapenem resistance mechanisms worldwide. The dissemination of bla KPC historically has been associated with distinct K. pneumoniae lineages (clonal group 258 [CG258]), a particular plasmid family (pKpQIL), and a composite transposon (Tn4401). In the United Kingdom, bla KPC has represented a large-scale, persistent management challenge for some hospitals, particularly in North West England. The dissemination of bla KPC has evolved to be polyclonal and polyspecies, but the genetic mechanisms underpinning this evolution have not been elucidated in detail; this study used short-read whole-genome sequencing of 604 bla KPC-positive isolates (Illumina) and long-read assembly (PacBio)/polishing (Illumina) of 21 isolates for characterization. We observed the dissemination of bla KPC (predominantly bla KPC-2; 573/604 [95%] isolates) across eight species and more than 100 known sequence types. Although there was some variation at the transposon level (mostly Tn4401a, 584/604 [97%] isolates; predominantly with ATTGA-ATTGA target site duplications, 465/604 [77%] isolates), bla KPC spread appears to have been supported by highly fluid, modular exchange of larger genetic segments among plasmid populations dominated by IncFIB (580/604 isolates), IncFII (545/604 isolates), and IncR (252/604 isolates) replicons. The subset of reconstructed plasmid sequences (21 isolates, 77 plasmids) also highlighted modular exchange among non-bla KPC and bla KPC plasmids and the common presence of multiple replicons within bla KPC plasmid structures (>60%). The substantial genomic plasticity observed has important implications for our understanding of the epidemiology of transmissible carbapenem resistance in Enterobacterales for the implementation of adequate surveillance approaches and for control

The Ontology of Kont: A New Epistemology of Temporal Aesthetics in Afro-Caribbean Speculative Fiction

In order to move away from discussing Caribbean texts in relation to European and American literary movements, this thesis seeks to name and define Afro-Caribbean ontology. I name this ontology kont and track the ways alternate relationships to reality, planes of existence, and the inability to rely on stable boundaries radically transform how Afro-Caribbean people understand the world. My definition of kont is built by synthesizing African theory, trauma theory, and applying an indigenous lens to Caribbean history and art forms. I investigate the impact the Middle Passage and hybridity have on the current Afro-Caribbean world view and create an epistemological framework for identifying how that worldview shapes works of Afro-Caribbean speculative fiction. This framework is grounded in my exploration of the relationship between the West African trickster as defined by Robert Pelton and kont. This exploration reveals the role of narrative structure in constructing a type of realism that I call kontist realism. As opposed to western realism, kontist realism relies on literalizing the internal experience of characters as they navigate rapid change and trauma. After defining kont and introducing the concept of kontist realism, I apply these ideas to Wilson Harris’ The Palace of The Peacock and Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber and track the threads of kont in these two works of Afro-Caribbean speculative fiction. This analysis explores the centrality of the trickster, spatial distortion, and temporal distortion in each author’s constructed reality, and argues for analyzing these texts through a Caribbean centered lens: kont

Burnout Among Physicians With Disabilities

No abstrac

Rapid establishment of a flowering cline in Medicago polymorpha after invasion of North America

To establish and spread in a new location, an invasive species must be able to carry out its life cycle in novel environmental conditions. A key trait underlying fitness is the shift from vegetative to reproductive growth through floral development. In this study, we used a common garden experiment and genotyping-by-sequencing to test whether the latitudinal flowering cline of the North American invasive plant Medicago polymorpha was translocated from its European native range through multiple introductions, or whether the cline rapidly established due to evolution following a genetic bottleneck. Analysis of flowering time in 736 common garden plants showed a latitudinal flowering time cline in both the native and invaded ranges where genotypes from lower latitudes flowered earlier. Genotyping-by-sequencing of 9,658 SNPs in 446 individuals revealed two major subpopulations of M. polymorpha in the native range, only one of which is present in the invaded range. Additionally, native range populations have higher genetic diversity than invaded range populations, suggesting that a genetic bottleneck occurred during invasion. All invaded range individuals are closely related to plants collected from native range populations in Portugal and southern Spain, and population assignment tests assigned invaded range individuals to this same narrow source region. Taken together, our results suggest that latitudinal clinal variation in flowering time has rapidly evolved across the invaded range despite a genetic bottleneck following introduction

The SOFIA Massive (SOMA) Star Formation Survey. IV. Isolated Protostars

We present ∼10–40 μ m SOFIA-FORCAST images of 11 isolated protostars as part of the SOFIA Massive (SOMA) Star Formation Survey, with this morphological classification based on 37 μ m imaging. We develop an automated method to define source aperture size using the gradient of its background-subtracted enclosed flux and apply this to build spectral energy distributions (SEDs). We fit the SEDs with radiative transfer models, developed within the framework of turbulent core accretion (TCA) theory, to estimate key protostellar properties. Here, we release the sedcreator python package that carries out these methods. The SEDs are generally well fitted by the TCA models, from which we infer initial core masses M _c ranging from 20–430 M _⊙ , clump mass surface densities Σ _cl ∼ 0.3–1.7 g cm ^−2 , and current protostellar masses m _* ∼ 3–50 M _⊙ . From a uniform analysis of the 40 sources in the full SOMA survey to date, we find that massive protostars form across a wide range of clump mass surface density environments, placing constraints on theories that predict a minimum threshold Σ _cl for massive star formation. However, the upper end of the m _* −Σ _cl distribution follows trends predicted by models of internal protostellar feedback that find greater star formation efficiency in higher Σ _cl conditions. We also investigate protostellar far-IR variability by comparison with IRAS data, finding no significant variation over an ∼40 yr baseline

Report of the Topical Group on Physics Beyond the Standard Model at Energy Frontier for Snowmass 2021

International audienceThis is the Snowmass2021 Energy Frontier (EF) Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) report. It combines the EF topical group reports of EF08 (Model-specific explorations), EF09 (More general explorations), and EF10 (Dark Matter at Colliders). The report includes a general introduction to BSM motivations and the comparative prospects for proposed future experiments for a broad range of potential BSM models and signatures, including compositeness, SUSY, leptoquarks, more general new bosons and fermions, long-lived particles, dark matter, charged-lepton flavor violation, and anomaly detection

Report of the Topical Group on Physics Beyond the Standard Model at Energy Frontier for Snowmass 2021

This is the Snowmass2021 Energy Frontier (EF) Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) report. It combines the EF topical group reports of EF08 (Model-specific explorations), EF09 (More general explorations), and EF10 (Dark Matter at Colliders). The report includes a general introduction to BSM motivations and the comparative prospects for proposed future experiments for a broad range of potential BSM models and signatures, including compositeness, SUSY, leptoquarks, more general new bosons and fermions, long-lived particles, dark matter, charged-lepton flavor violation, and anomaly detection