Can the maquiladora industry act as a catalyst for industrial development in Nicaragua? Some thoughts based on the study of Nien Hsing Textile Co.

Nicaragua, the poorest country of Central American, gives shelter to many foreign owned plants in its free trade zones (export processing zones). In December 2006, some 80.000 persons worked in these industrial zones. The great majority of these plants belong to the clothing industry and most of them are of Asian capital. But, does this maquiladora industry - an assembly industry of imported intermediate goods that benefits from a preferential tax and tariff treatment - contribute to a genuine industrial development of Nicaragua? This paper tries to give some elements of answer to this question by studying the evolution of a Taiwanese maquiladora enterprise assembling jeans and casual wear in Nicaragua: Nien Hsing Textile Co. Our study casts doubts on the contribution of such a foreign enterprise to the development of a perennial local industrial structure: there are no backward linkages, the Nicaraguan employees are not qualified and realise manual and routine tasks, and management is mostly composed of expatriates. Moreover, our comparison between the situation in 2007 and the one in 1998 shows us that there have no been significant changes: the enterprise remains an economic enclave manufacturing a basic or standardized garment whose permanence in the country still depends on specific trade policy advantages (with an expiry date) enjoyed by Nicaragua.Postprint (published version

Indicators on Researchers' Career and Mobility in Europe: a "Modelling" Approach

This paper presents the "modelling" approach followed by IPTS to construct new and original indicators on researchers' career and mobility. Indeed three main problems have been identified in the existing statistics on researchers: lack of data at the EU level on different issues, lack of comparable and harmonized data between EU countries and long delay in obtaining statistics when they exist. To deal with these problems, the strategy consists in filling the gaps in the EU and national data, building proxies when robust data are not available, carrying out new ad-hoc surveys and estimating and extrapolating the results at the EU level when necessary and feasible. The general methodology of this approach is first presented. Then, three examples are developed to illustrate the interests and benefits of this approach in terms of results, but also the difficulties and problems that may exist. The three examples are the following: i) Nocasting/forecasting the number of researchers. ii) The international mobility of researchers and engineers in the EU25; iii) The career and mobility of doctoral candidates and postdoctorates in life sciences in Europe (and a comparison with the US).JRC.J.3-Knowledge for Growt

Data capture by digital pen in clinical trials: A qualitative and quantitative study.

International audienceOBJECTIVES: To investigate the use of the digital pen (DP) system to collect data in a clinical trial. To assess the accuracy of the system in this setting. DESIGN: Qualitative study based on semistructured interviews and a focus group. Quantitative study comparing the DP system and a double manual data-entry system in accuracy of acquiring data by variable type (tick boxes, dates, numbers, letters). SETTING: An ongoing randomised multicentric clinical trial in tertiary care in France. PARTICIPANTS: 27 investigators involved in the trial (anaesthetists) who did or did not include patients, 4 study monitors and the study coordinator. RESULTS: Six key findings emerged: 1) the DP system was easy to use; its utilisation was intuitive, even for investigators inexperienced in informatics; 2) despite its portability, the DP was not always used in front of patients; 3) the DP system did not affect patient recruitment; 4) most of the technical problems of the system occurred during setup (compatibility, password access, antivirus software); 5) the main advantage was quickness of data availability for the study coordination staff and the main hindrance was the extra time required for online verification; and 6) all investigators were ready to use the system again. The investigators had to check 16% of data obtained by the DP system during the verification step. There is no relevant difference between the number of errors for the DP and the double manual data-entry systems: 8/5022 versus 6/5022 data entries. 5 out of 8 DP-system failures were due to the intelligent character recognition system. CONCLUSION: The DP system has a good acceptability among all investigators in a clinical setting, whether they are experienced with computers or not, and a good accuracy, as compared with double manual data entry

The no-defect conjecture in cosmic crystallography

The topology of space is usually assumed simply connected, but could be multi-connected. We review in the latter case the possibility that topological defects arising at high energy phase transitions might still be present and find that either they are very unlikely to form at all, or space is effectively simply connected on scales up to the horizon size.Comment: LaTeX-REVTeX, 5 pages and 2 figures uuencoded, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

An In-Situ EC-STM Study and DFT Modeling of the Adsorption of Glycerol on Cu(111) in NaOH Solution

International audienceOrganic coatings are often required for the protection of metals against environmental degradation. Despite their extensive use, only limited information is available on the initial stages of adsorption and formation of protective films, especially at the molecular and atomic level. As a model system for coating formation, this study investigates the adsorption of glycerol molecules on the single-crystalline Cu(111) surface. A combined electrochemical and scanning tunneling microscopy (EC-STM) study in NaOH aqueous solution enabled following the adsorption process in detail, providing molecular information on the glycerol film structure. A potential-driven adsorption of glycerol was observed, suppressing the adsorption of hydroxyl molecules and copper oxidation. The adsorbed species assembled in a nearest neighbor arrangement fitting a (√3 × √3) R30° hexagonal structure with respect to the Cu(111) lattice. This experimentally observed configuration was confirmed by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. DFT modeling indicates that a mixed adsorption mode involving the two primary alcohol groups adsorbed at different z-positions relative to the surface is the most favorable. This mixed configuration enabled the formation of an extended network of hydrogen bonds that aids to stabilize the glycerol film. This implies that interactions between glycerol molecules play a non-negligible effect in the growth process of such an organic film, allowing the formation of organic layers in the absence of strong interfacial interactions

A importância da visita de estudo no ensino e aprendizagem de História : um exemplo prático

Relatório da Prática de Ensino Supervisionada, Mestrado em Ensino de História no 3º Ciclo do Ensino Básico e no Ensino Secundário, Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto de Educação, 2020Este Relatório, de Prática de Ensino Supervisionada, apresenta um exemplo prático sobre a importância da visita de estudo no ensino e aprendizagem de História. Para isso procedemos a uma sumaria exposição sobre as potencialidades didáticas deste tipo de atividade, não esquecendo dois dos seus níveis fundamentais, o legal e o planeamento cuidado, nas suas diversas fases. Apesar disso o foco fundamental deste relatório, é a vertente prática, em que efetivamos a concretização do tema e tivemos oportunidade de recolher e analisar os resultados decorrentes do mesmo. O carácter excecional dos tempos que vivemos, forçou-nos a ter de reinventar os moldes de realização de uma VE, aspeto, que se à priori pode parecer fator de empobrecimento da atividade, se revelou um recurso muito desafiante e facilitador de muitos dos entraves que por vezes se colocam à sua concretização. A visita que seria presencial, com o tema “A Conquista de Lisboa”, acabou por se transformar numa, não menos interessante, visita virtual, para a qual foram produzidos uma série de instrumentos, que o leitor terá oportunidade de ler e analisar mais à frente. No que se refere à prática letiva no 10º ano de escolaridade, abordamos o módulo 2 do programa de História A: “O Modelo Romano”; módulos 2.1 “Roma a cidade ordenadora de um império urbano” e 2.2 “A afirmação imperial de uma cultura urbana pragmática”. Neste seguimento o relatório referirá, não só, a descrição das aulas lecionadas, mas também a didática e teorias pedagógicas que utilizamos. Regressando ao tema principal do nosso relatório, referir, que apesar de termos lecionado conteúdos programáticos completamente distintos dos que serviram como mote para a VE e a pesar de termos planeado e preparado uma VE que se enquadrava no lecionado, que não aconteceu e o leitor poderá ver, à frente, porquê, tivemos de readaptar os seus conteúdos e feitura ao momento em que a mesma decorreu. O mais importante, na nossa ótica, a ser retido são as potencialidades didáticas da sua realização e para isso, na medida do que o reduzido espaço nos permite, tentaremos deixar o nosso contributo.The current Report on Supervised Teaching Practice (Relatório de Prática Letiva Supervisionada) presents a practical example about the importance of field trips in History’s teaching and learning. For that we proceed to give a brief explanation on the didactic potentialities about this type of activity, though not forgetting two of its fundamental levels, the legal one and the careful planning, in its various phases. Despite that the focus of this report is the practical component, in which we effectively put the theme into practice and had the chance to collect and analyze the resulting data. These times of exception that we are living in right now forced us to have to reinvent how a field trip is organized, something that in a first glance might seem a factor of impoverishment of the activity, but in the end revealed itself as a challenging resource, yet allowing to overcome much of the typical obstacles that pose a barrier to its concretization. The field trip, that would be presential and focus on the “Conquest of Lisbon” (“A Conquista de Lisboa”), ended up becoming in a, but not less interesting, virtual field trip, for which a series of instruments were produced, that the reader will have the opportunity to read and analyze further ahead. Concerning the teaching practice in the 10th grade, we approached the Module 2 of the History’s (História A) subject program: “The Roman Model” (“O Modelo Romano”); modules 2.1 “Rome the organizer city of an urban empire” (“Roma a cidade ordenadora de um império urbano”) and 2.2 “The imperial affirmation of an urban pragmatical culture” (“A afirmação imperial de uma cultura urbana pragmática”). Following this, this report will account not only the description of the taught classes, but also the didactics and pedagogical theories used. Returning to the main topic of this report, it is important to state that, even though we taught programmatical contents completely distinct compared to the ones that would serve as the motto for the field trip, and having planned and prepared one that fitted those contents but that ended up not happening for reasons stated ahead in this report, we had to readapt its contents and structure in the moment that it took place. The most important thing, in our point of view, to be withheld, are the didactic potentialities of its execution, and for that, in the reduced space that we have available, try to leave our contribution

Dados nomeados em redes tolerantes a atrasos

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia de ComunicaçõesAs Redes Tolerantes a Atrasos são redes cujo objectivo é proporcionar conectividade onde antes seria impensável. Estas redes usam exclusivamente dispositivos móveis devidamente incorporados de tecnologias sem fios, sendo que as suas principais características são a de uma constante modificação de topologia e estarem sujeitos a grandes atrasos na comunicação. As Redes de Dados Nomeados são redes que vêem inovar o paradigma de difusão de mensagens na rede, pois atribuem nomes às mensagens fazendo com que a entrega passe a ser efectuada com base na informação que transportam, e não utilizando o paradigma normal de entrega entre uma origem e um destino. O ONE é um simulador que permite o desenvolvimento de protocolos de comunicação em Redes Tolerantes a Atrasos, dando ao utilizador um bom interface gráfico que possibilita a percepção dos acontecimentos. Este trabalho documenta a realização da framework ICONE, cujo propósito é proporcionar ao ONE um método de simular protocolos de Redes Tolerantes a Atrasos utilizando o paradigma dos Dados Nomeados. Também se encontra descrito o desenvolvimento do protocolo PeopleShare, um protocolo que utiliza a ICONE para simular um algoritmo de encaminhamento baseado na fusão das Redes Tolerantes a Atrasos com as Redes de Dados Nomeados. Neste documento são também apresentados todos os resultados obtidos nas simulações elaboradas com o protocolo PeopleShare.Delay Tolerant Networks are networks whose objective is to provide connectivity where previously was unthinkable. These networks use only mobile devices properly embedded with wireless technologies, and its main features are a constantly changing topology and that they are subject to long delays in communication. The Named Data Networks are networks that innovates the paradigm of broadcast messages in the network, because attribute names to the messages causing the delivery to be made based on the information they carry, and not using the normal source and a destination paradigm. The ONE is a simulator that allows the development of communication protocols in Delay Tolerant Networks, giving the user a good graphical interface that enables the perception of events. This paper documents the implementation of the framework ICONE, whose purpose is to provide a method of simulating in ONE protocols of Delay Tolerant Networks using the paradigm of data Nominees. Also described is the development of PeopleShare Protocol, a protocol that uses the ICONE to simulate a routing algorithm based on the fusion of Delay Tolerant Networks with Data Networks Named. This document also lists all simulation results prepared in accordance with the protocol PeopleShare

Enhancing Energy Production with Exascale HPC Methods

High Performance Computing (HPC) resources have become the key actor for achieving more ambitious challenges in many disciplines. In this step beyond, an explosion on the available parallelism and the use of special purpose processors are crucial. With such a goal, the HPC4E project applies new exascale HPC techniques to energy industry simulations, customizing them if necessary, and going beyond the state-of-the-art in the required HPC exascale simulations for different energy sources. In this paper, a general overview of these methods is presented as well as some specific preliminary results.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Programme (2014-2020) under the HPC4E Project (www.hpc4e.eu), grant agreement n° 689772, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the CODEC2 project (TIN2015-63562-R), and from the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation through Rede Nacional de Pesquisa (RNP). Computer time on Endeavour cluster is provided by the Intel Corporation, which enabled us to obtain the presented experimental results in uncertainty quantification in seismic imagingPostprint (author's final draft