Modelo conceptual de negocios para el centro de biotecnología en zonas áridas biotecza

93 p.En Chile, la relación existente entre Investigación - Empresa es bastante reducida. Salvo algunas excepciones, la falta de interacción entre estos agentes ha limitado el potencial competitivo de la producción agrícola, acuícola y minera de nuestro país. Este factor negativo, en regiones se acentúa debido a la falta de capacidades tanto humanas como en equipamiento, siendo esta interacción casi nula o definitivamente inexistente. Bajo estas dimensiones, se hace fundamental la implementación de Centros Regionales de Investigación que descentralicen la I+D+i en el país, y focalicen su trabajo en problemáticas y necesidades de un determinado territorio. Esto, además de potenciar las capacidades locales y aumentar la oferta de valor en CyT de las regiones, fortalecerá la competitividad de los sectores productivos y con ello las dinámicas económicas locales. Con el presente trabajo de título, se pretende establecer el mecanismo óptimo de gestión de negocios para fortalecer, sustentar y consolidar un Centro de Biotecnología que focalizará el desarrollo de sus investigaciones, en problemáticas características de las Zonas Áridas del Centro Norte de Chile, incentivando por una parte, la generación de una alta productividad científica, y por otra, intencionando la transferencia y comercialización de productos y servicios biotecnológicos./ ABSTRACT: In Chile, the relationship between Research and Companies is quite reduced. With some exceptions, the lack of interaction between these agents has limited the competitive potential of the agricultural, aquaculture and mining production of our country. This negative factor is emphasized due to both lack of human and equipment capabilities in regional contexts, being this interaction almost null or definitely nonexistent. Under this scope, the implementation of Regional Research Centers that stimulate the decentralization of the R&D becomes essential, and focus their work in challenges and demands of specific territories. This fact, in addition to harness the local capabilities and to increase the supply of value in R&D to the regions, will strengthen the competitiveness of the productive sectors and the local economy dynamics. The present work attempts to establish an optimal method of Business Management to build up and to consolidate a Biotechnology Center, which will focus its research in problematic of the Arid Zones of the Centre-North of Chile, encouraging first-generation of high scientific productivity by one hand, and fostering technology transfer and commercialization of biotechnology products and services as well

Combination of DROOL rules and Protégé knowledge bases in the ONTO-H annotation tool

ONTO-H is a semi-automatic collaborative tool for the semantic annotation of documents, built as a Protégé 3.0 tab plug-in. Among its multiple functionalities aimed at easing the document annotation process, ONTO-H uses a rule-based system to create cascading annotations out from a single drag and drop operation from a part of a document into an already existing concept or instance of the domain ontology being used for annotation. It also gives support to the detection of name conflicts and instance duplications in the creation of the annotations. The rule system runs on top of the open source rule engine DROOLS and is connected to the domain ontology used for annotation by means of an ad-hoc programmed Java proxy

Effects of saline reclaimed waters and deficit irrigation on Citrus physiology assessed by UAV remote sensing

The aim of our research was to discover the effects of the long-term irrigation with saline reclaimed (RW) and transfer (TW) water and different irrigation strategies: control (C) and regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) on yield and fruit quality of grapefruit at harvest and during cold storage. TW-RDI treatment decreased tree canopy (TC) and crop load, resulting in a 21% reduction of fruit yield. Regarding fruit quality, RW notably decreased peel thickness at harvest (about 8%); however, this difference was not remained during cold storage. Sugar/acid ratio was mainly increased by RDI, but also by RW, due to an important increase in soluble solid content (11% of average value for TW-RDI, RW-C and RW-RDI). In addition, RDI combined with RW, significantly increased the number of fruits in small category 5 at the end of cold storage. Finally, neither ratio yield/TC nor irrigation water productivity were affected by any irrigation treatments.This study was supported by two CICYT (AGL2010-17553 and AGL2013-49047-C2-482 515 2-R) projects and SIRRIMED (KBBE-2009-1- 2-03, PROPOSAL N◦245159) 483 project. We are also grateful to SENECA–Excelencia Científica (19903/GERM/15) for 484 providing funds for this research

Genetic incorporation of the protein transduction domain of Tat into Ad5 fiber enhances gene transfer efficacy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Human adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) has been widely explored as a gene delivery vector for a variety of diseases. Many target cells, however, express low levels of Ad5 native receptor, the Coxsackie-Adenovirus Receptor (CAR), and thus are resistant to Ad5 infection. The Protein Transduction Domain of the HIV Tat protein, namely PTD_tat, has been shown to mediate protein transduction in a wide range of cells. We hypothesize that re-targeting Ad5 vector via the PTD_tatmotif would improve the efficacy of Ad5-mediated gene delivery.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, we genetically incorporated the PTD_tatmotif into the knob domain of Ad5 fiber, and rescued the resultant viral vector, Ad5.PTD_tat. Our data showed the modification did not interfere with Ad5 binding to its native receptor CAR, suggesting Ad5 infection via the CAR pathway is retained. In addition, we found that Ad5.PTD_tatexhibited enhanced gene transfer efficacy in all of the cell lines that we have tested, which included both low-CAR and high-CAR decorated cells. Competitive inhibition assays suggested the enhanced infectivity of Ad5.PTD_tatwas mediated by binding of the positively charged PTD_tatpeptide to the negatively charged epitopes on the cells' surface. Furthermore, we investigated <it>in vivo </it>gene delivery efficacy of Ad5.PTD_tatusing subcutaneous tumor models established with U118MG glioma cells, and found that Ad5.PTD_tatexhibited enhanced gene transfer efficacy compared to unmodified Ad5 vector as analyzed by a non-invasive fluorescence imaging technique.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Genetic incorporation of the PTD_tatmotif into Ad5 fiber allowed Ad5 vectors to infect cells via an alternative PTD_tattargeting motif while retaining the native CAR-mediated infection pathway. The enhanced infectivity was demonstrated in both cultured cells and in <it>in vivo </it>tumor models. Taken together, our study identifies a novel tropism expanded Ad5 vector that may be useful for clinical gene therapy applications.</p

The Role of Surface Recombination on the Performance of Perovskite Solar Cells:Effect of Morphology and Crystalline Phase of TiO₂ Contact

Herein, the preparation of 1D TiO2 nanocolumnar films grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition is reported as the electron selective layer (ESL) for perovskite solar devices. The impact of the ESL architecture (1D and 3D morphologies) and the nanocrystalline phase (anatase and amorphous) is analyzed. For anatase structures, similar power conversion efficiencies are achieved using an ESL either the 1D nanocolumns or the classical 3D nanoparticle film. However, lower power conversion efficiencies and different optoelectronic properties are found for perovskite devices based on amorphous 1D films. The use of amorphous TiO2 as electron selective contact produces a bump in the reverse scan of the current–voltage curve as well as an additional electronic signal, detected by impedance spectroscopy measurements. The dependence of this additional signal on the optical excitation wavelength used in the IS experiments suggests that it stems from an interfacial process. Calculations using a drift-diffusion model which explicitly considers the selective contacts reproduces qualitatively the main features observed experimentally. These results demonstrate that for a solar cell in which the contact is working properly the open-circuit photovoltage is mainly determined by bulk recombination, whereas the introduction of a “bad contact” shifts the balance to surface recombination.</p

La autoevaluación central:un estudio empírico en el contexto colombiano

core self-evaluation (CSE) refers to the essential judgments individuals make regarding their self-performance. This study aims to empi-rically examine the correlation between employee’s CSE and key organizational variables, encompassing happiness, motivation, job satisfaction,work commitment, and person-job fit. Through a cross-sectional self-administered instrument, the research delves into the perspectives of 241employees within four retail industry companies in northeastern Colombia. Employing a partial least squares-structural equation model, theanalysis explores the relationships among these variables. The results identify a lack of full reciprocity in the examined associations. When treating CSE as the dependent variable, the study validates only the hypotheses proposing job satisfaction and motivation as independent variables.Nevertheless, a significant association emerges between CSE, and all examined organizational variables when applying a supplemental analysiswith inverted hypotheses. These findings emphasize the importance of adopting a multifaceted approach to enhance organizational outcomes for employees in a business setting. Furthermore, they suggest that, beyond conventional knowledge, CSR could function as a significant catalyst for various organizational behaviors, thereby advocating for its exploration and application in similar studies.la autoevaluación central (AEC) se refiere a los juicios esenciales que los individuos hacen sobre su propio desempeño. Este estudiotiene como objetivo examinar empíricamente la correlación entre la AEC de los empleados y algunas variables organizacionales clave queincluyen felicidad, motivación, satisfacción laboral, compromiso, y ajuste persona-trabajo. A través de un instrumento autoadministrado decorte transversal, el estudio ahonda en las perspectivas de 241 empleados en cuatro empresas del sector minorista en el noreste de Colombia.Utilizando un modelamiento de ecuaciones estructurales mediante mínimos cuadrados parciales, el análisis explora las relaciones entre estasvariables. Los resultados apuntan a una reciprocidad parcial en las asociaciones evaluadas. Al considerar la AEC como variable dependiente,se validan solo las hipótesis que proponen la satisfacción laboral y la motivación como variables independientes. Sin embargo, surge unaasociación significativa entre la AEC y todas las variables organizacionales examinadas al aplicar un análisis complementario con hipótesisinvertidas. Estos hallazgos subrayan la importancia de adoptar un enfoque multifacético en aras de mejorar los resultados organizacionalesorientados a los empleados pertenecientes a un contexto empresarial. Además, proponen que, además del conocimiento convencional, la AECpodría funcionar como un catalizador importante para diversos comportamientos organizacionales relevantes, abogando así por su explora-ción y aplicación en estudios similares

New VVV Survey Globular Cluster Candidates in the Milky Way Bulge

© 2017 The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.It is likely that a number of Galactic globular clusters remain to be discovered, especially toward the Galactic bulge. High stellar density combined with high and differential interstellar reddening are the two major problems for finding globular clusters located toward the bulge. We use the deep near-IR photometry of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) Survey to search for globular clusters projected toward the Galactic bulge, and hereby report the discovery of 22 new candidate globular clusters. These objects, detected as high density regions in our maps of bulge red giants, are confirmed as globular cluster candidates by their color-magnitude diagrams. We provide their coordinates as well as their near-IR color-magnitude diagrams, from which some basic parameters are derived, such as reddenings and heliocentric distances. The color-magnitude diagrams reveal well defined red giant branches in all cases, often including a prominent red clump. The new globular cluster candidates exhibit a variety of extinctions (0.06 < A Ks < 2.77) and distances (5.3 < D < 9.5 kpc). We also classify the globular cluster candidates into 10 metal-poor and 12 metal-rich clusters, based on the comparison of their color-magnitude diagrams with those of known globular clusters also observed by the VVV Survey. Finally, we argue that the census for Galactic globular clusters still remains incomplete, and that many more candidate globular clusters (particularly the low luminosity ones) await to be found and studied in detail in the central regions of the Milky Way.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Sustainability-oriented innovations and value creation in SMEs: An illustration in the Colombian context

Unlocking the potential of small and medium-sized enterprises hinges on grasping the underlying principles driving the development of sustainability-oriented innovations. It empowers this community of firms to contribute to sustainability and, at the same time, generate value. In this sense, drawing on the sustainable value creation model, the purpose of this study is to propose a framework for sustainability-oriented innovations in small and medium-sized enterprises by analyzing various strategic approaches. The study employs a theoretical approach aligning conceptual foundations with sustainability-oriented innovations. The study utilizes the sustainable value creation model and identifies four strategies suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises: (i) pollution prevention, (ii) product stewardship, (iii) clean technology, and (iv) sustainable vision focused on the base-of-the-pyramid. Further, portfolios of sustainability-oriented innovations, framed in each of the four strategies and in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises found in the literature are discussed. To illustrate each strategy, the analysis of four small and medium-sized enterprises operating in Colombia is conducted. The findings demonstrate how these strategies, combined with the implementation of portfolios of sustainability-oriented innovations, generate value in small and medium-sized enterprises, while promoting sustainability in the case of the context of an emerging economy. Moreover, the study suggests that small and medium-sized enterprises can effectively adopt a strategic orientation toward designing and implementing portfolios of sustainability-oriented innovations. Ultimately, the study highlights the potential of small and medium-sized enterprises in developing economies to contribute strategically to sustainable development, given their unique characteristics