New quality index based on dry matter and acidity proposed for Hayward kiwifruit

Researchers from various countries have proposed using dry matter at harvest as a worldwide quality index for Hay-ward kiwifruit, because it includes both soluble (sugars and acids) and insoluble (structural carbohydrates and starch) solids and doesn't change during post-harvest handling. Our consumer tests in 1999 and 2008 indicated that dry matter and ripe titratable acidity are related to in-store consumer acceptance of kiwifruit. In most California seasons, when ripe titratable acidity was less than 1.2%, only a dry matter greater than or equal to 15.1% was required for consumer acceptability. Our 6-year quality attribute survey of California kiwifruit at harvest and from cold storage demonstrated that dry matter and ripe soluble solids concentration were highly variable among vineyards and seasons, but ripe titratable acidity values varied more among seasons than between vineyards. Our results provide strong evidence that dry matter would be a reliable quality index candidate for California kiwifruit, especially if ripe titratable acidity were factored in

Smartphone e mobilitazioni sociali: i counterpublics nella sfera pubblica

Tramite lo sviluppo di questa tesi si è cercato di approfondire diverse teorie che possono fornire una spiegazione dell’importanza dei dispositivi mobile nelle società civili, come questi dispositivi incidano nelle mobilitazioni sociali e quali siano le caratteristiche principali di questi strumenti che ampliano la gamma di azioni a disposizione dei manifestanti. L’inizio dell’analisi non sarebbe possibile senza richiamare concetti e approcci specifici in grado di costituire un contesto analitico utile a comprendere le caratteristiche delle società democratiche moderne. L’approccio della post democrazia di Crouch (2004) permette di analizzare il declino dei sistemi democratici, l’apatia e la passività dei cittadini nei confronti della politica. Gli approcci di Rosanvallon (2012) e Keane (2009), che contestano la teoria della post democrazia, evidenziano la nascita di nuove forme di partecipazione politica. Questa contestualizzazione consente di introdurre uno dei concetti più innovativi di questa tesi, fortemente critico nei confronti del discorso egemone dell’opinione pubblica: i contropubblici (Negt and Kluge 1979; Fraser 1990). Grazie alla trasformazione democratica e alle nuove tecnologie dell’informazione e della comunicazione, i contropubblici possono mobilitarsi, esprimere le loro opinioni e partecipare alla vita politica (Calhoun 1992; Fraser 1990; Negt and Kluge 1979). Il ruolo emergente dei telefoni cellulari e l’Internet mobile nelle diverse mobilitazioni sociali in tutto il mondo, consente di qualificarli come i principali mezzi di comunicazione alternativi utilizzati dai contropubblici, malgrado i divari digitali ancora presenti nelle società contemporanee (Pearce and Rice 2013; van Dijk 2005; Selwyn 2004)

Propuesta teórica de planificación terapéutica en el área de voz: aplicación del modelo de la CIF

La presente propuesta tiene como objetivo unificar ciertos criterios utilizados en el proceso de planificación terapéutica fonoaudiológica en el área de voz considerando el modelo del CIF promovido por la Organización Mundial de la Salud. Se ofrece un marco que considera la organización de los contenidos terapéuticos bajo un adecuado criterio de jerarquización en concordancia con las orientaciones terapéuticas que el/la fonoaudiólogo/a determine, así como lineamientos en torno a la formulación de objetivos y características que éstos deben poseer de manera que respeten el formato SMART sugerido por la literatura. Además, se indica la importancia de los factores contextuales del/la usuario/a en el establecimiento de actividades de generalización/transferencia de los logros clínicos como etapa vinculante entre los niveles de “Función / Estructura” y “Participación / Actividad”. Se espera que esta propuesta logre generar una discusión profesional que propenda a establecer parámetros adecuados de organización terapéutica tanto para efectos académicos como para el ejercicio clínico.The present proposal aims to unify certain criteria used in the speech therapy planning process in the voice area, considering the CIF model promoted by the World Health Organization. A framework is offered that considers the organization of therapeutic contents under an adequate hierarchical criterion in accordance with the therapeutic orientations that the speech therapist determines, as well as guidelines around the formulation of objectives and characteristics that they must have of respect the SMART format suggested by the literature. In addition, the importance of the contextual factors of the user is indicated in the establishment of activities of generalization / transfer of clinical achievements as a binding stage between the levels of "Function / Structure" and "Participation / Activity". It is expected that this proposal will generate a professional discussion that tends to establish adequate parameters of therapeutic organization both for academic purposes and for clinical practice

Discovery of non-climacteric and suppressed climacteric bud sport mutations originating from a climacteric Japanese plum cultivar (Prunus salicina Lindl.).

Japanese plums are classified as climacteric; however, some economically important cultivars selected in California produce very little ethylene and require long ripening both "on" and "off" the tree to reach eating-ripe firmness. To unravel the ripening behavior of different Japanese plum cultivars, ripening was examined in the absence (air) or in the presence of ethylene or propylene (an ethylene analog) following a treatment or not with 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP, an ethylene action inhibitor). Detailed physiological studies revealed for the first time three distinct ripening types in plum fruit: climacteric, suppressed-climacteric, and non-climacteric. Responding to exogenous ethylene or propylene, the slow-softening supressed-climacteric cultivars produced detectable amounts of ethylene, in contrast to the novel non-climacteric cultivar that produced no ethylene and softened extremely slowly. Genetic analysis using microsatellite markers produced identical DNA profiles for the climacteric cultivars "Santa Rosa" and "July Santa Rosa," the suppressed-climacteric cultivars "Late Santa Rosa," "Casselman," and "Roysum" and the novel non-climacteric "Sweet Miriam," as expected since historic records present most of these cultivars as bud-sport mutations derived initially from "Santa Rosa." This present study provides a novel fruit system to address the molecular basis of ripening and to develop markers that assist breeders in providing high-quality stone fruit cultivars that can remain "on-tree," increasing fruit flavor, saving harvesting costs, and potentially reducing the need for low-temperature storage during postharvest handling

Solar irradiance forecast from all-sky images using machine learning

The novel method presented here comprises techniques for cloud coverage percentage forecasts, cloud movement forecast and the subsequently prediction of the global horizontal irradiance (GHI) using all-sky images and Machine Learning techniques. Such models are employed to forecast GHI, which is necessary to make more accurate time series forecasts for photovoltaic systems like “island solutions” for power production or for energy exchange like in virtual power plants. All images were recorded by a hemispheric sky imager (HSI) at the Institute of Meteo rology and Climatology (IMuK) of the Leibniz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany. This thesis is composed of three parts. First, a model to forecast the total cloud cover five-minutes ahead by training an autoregressive neural network with Backpropagation. The prediction results showed a reduction of both the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Error (MAE) by approximately 30% compared to the reference solar persistence solar model for various cloud conditions. Second, a model to predict the GHI up to one-hour ahead by training a Levenberg Marquardt Backpropagation neural network. This novel method reduced both the RMSE and the MAE of the one-hour prediction by approximately 40% under various weather conditions. Third, for the forecasting of the cloud movement up to two-minutes ahead, a high-resolution Deep Learning method using convolutional neural networks (CNN) was created. By taking real cloud shapes produced by the correction of the hazy areas considering the green signal counts pixels, predicted clouds shapes of the proposed algorithm was compared with the persistence solar model using the Sørensen-Dice similarity coefficient (SDC). The results of the proposed method have shown a mean SDC of 94 ± 2.6% (mean ± standard deviation) for the first minutes outperforming the persistence solar model with a SDC of 89 ± 3.8%. Thus, the proposed method may represent cloud shapes better than the persistence solar model. Finally, the Bonferroni's correction was performed so that the significance level of 0.05 was corrected to 0.05, and thus, the difference between the SDC of the proposed method and the persistence solar model was p = 0.001 being significantly high. The proposed methodologies may have broad application in the planning and management of PV power production allowing more accurate forecasts of the GHI minutes ahead by targeting primary and secondary energy control reserve

Las adivinanzas como estrategias para potenciar la comprensión lectora en estudiantes de primer año básico

Tesis (Profesor de Educación Física, Licenciado en Educación)En esta investigación se busca dilucidar los efectos que tienen las adivinanzas en la comprensión lectora de los alumnos, específicamente en la comprensión inferencial. Existen estrategias y habilidades para mejorar la comprensión lectora, abarcando distintos modelos, taxonomías y estrategias didácticas que giran en torno a formar hábiles lectores. Por esta razón, nos centraremos en el nivel de comprensión inferencial, usando las adivinanzas como impulsor de la comprensión lectora. Las adivinanzas, en este caso, serán estrategias didácticas para la mejora de la comprensión de un texto. Se pretendió verificar que el uso de adivinanzas es una estrategia efectiva para la comprensión lectora a nivel inferencial, ya que estas contienen significados ocultos y los alumnos pueden acceder a sus conocimientos previos y realizar así una comprensión profunda del texto. Para comprobar si el uso de las adivinanzas es efectivo se realizaron dos pruebas. La primera correspondió a una prueba diagnóstica que busca conocer el nivel de comprensión inferencial que poseen los estudiantes, para luego aplicar las adivinanzas como estrategias y luego aplicar una post prueba para comprobar si las adivinanzas tienen un efecto positivo en el entrenamiento de la comprensión inferencial

"Ready to eat": maduración controlada de fruta de hueso en cámara

El desarrollo de un protocolo para controlar la maduracion poscosecha de fruta de hueso, ha permitido a los productores californianos el envio de frutos a los puntos venta en condiciones optimas para el consumo ("lista para comer") mejorando el precio final y preci

Sistema Integrador de apoyo al Proceso de Acreditación de Titulaciones

La acreditación, definida por La Red Iberoamericana para la Acreditación de la Calidad de la Educación Superior, corresponde al “Proceso para garantizar la calidad de una institución o de un programa educativo”, el cual “es llevado a cabo por una agencia externa a las instituciones de educación superior”. La acreditación reconoce la calidad de los programas o de la institución acreditada. Este proceso en Chile estuvo a cargo, hasta julio del 2007, de la Comisión Nacional de Acreditación de Pregrado, continuando con esta labor la Comisión Nacional de Acreditación definida en la Ley de Aseguramiento de la Calidad de la Educación Superior en Chile, Ley número 20.129, promulgada el 23 de octubre de 2006. En España esta labor la realiza la Agencia Nacional de Evaluación de la Calidad y Acreditación, organismo definido por la Ley Orgánica de Universidades el año 2001. El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo, mediante una investigación de tipo cualitativo utilizando la Grounded Theory, revisar los resultados de la acreditación de Chile y España para determinar los factores que inciden en un buen resultado de acreditación. Detectados estos factores se planteará un Sistema Integrador, que de soporte a los principales factores, basado en la gestión del conocimient