The Guatemala Community Day Care Program: an example of effective urban programming

Urban programming, Child care, Community Daycare Centers Program, Childcare and work, Gender,

Does subsidized childcare help poor working women in urban areas?

High urbanization rates in Latin America are accompanied by an increase in women's participation in the labor force and the number of households headed by single mothers. Reliable and affordable childcare alternatives are thus becoming increasingly important in urban areas. The Hogares Comunitarios Program (HCP), established in Guatemala City in 1991, was a direct response to the increasing need of poor urban dwellers for substitute childcare. This government-sponsored pilot program was designed as a strategy to alleviate poverty by providing working parents with low-cost, quality childcare within their community. This paper presents preliminary findings from an evaluation of the HCP carried out in 1998 in urban slums of Guatemala City. The evaluation included both an operations (or process) evaluation and an impact evaluation. Key findings of the operations evaluation are summarized, and preliminary findings of the impact evaluation on children's dietary intakes are presented. Aspects related to the targeting, coverage, and cost of the program are also discussed, and the patterns of childcare use by nonbeneficiary households and their costs are described.Urbanization Latin America. ,Women Employment Guatemala. ,Child care Developing countries Evaluation. ,Urban poor Services for. ,Evaluation. ,Children Nutrition. ,Poverty alleviation. ,

Does subsidized childcare help poor working women in urban areas?

High urbanization rates in Latin America are accompanied by an increase in women's participation in the labor force and the number of households headed by single mothers. Reliable and affordable childcare alternatives are thus becoming increasingly important in urban areas. The Hogares Comunitarios Program (HCP), established in Guatemala City in 1991, was a direct response to the increasing need of poor urban dwellers for substitute childcare. This government-sponsored pilot program was designed as a strategy to alleviate poverty by providing working parents with low-cost, quality childcare within their community. This paper presents preliminary findings from an evaluation of the HCP carried out in 1998 in urban slums of Guatemala City. The evaluation included both an operations (or process) evaluation and an impact evaluation. Key findings of the operations evaluation are summarized, and preliminary findings of the impact evaluation on children's dietary intakes are presented. Aspects related to the targeting, coverage, and cost of the program are also discussed, and the patterns of childcare use by nonbeneficiary households and their costs are described.Urbanization Latin America. ,Women Employment Guatemala. ,Child care Developing countries Evaluation. ,Urban poor Services for. ,Evaluation. ,Children Nutrition. ,Poverty alleviation. ,

Variaciones estacionales en ovario de Inambú Chico Común (<i>Nothura maculosa</i>)

Seasonal variations of the structure of the Spotted Tinamous ( <i>Nothura maculosa</i> ). Morphological data obtained by means of observation under optic microscope in ovaries of the Spotted Tinamous.(<i>Nothura maculosa</i> ), are presented. The characteristics of the ovaries in winter recess and in time of breeding activity are compared. In the first period it is noticed the very redueed size of the organ; small follieles; numerous masses of folicle atresia and groups of vacuolated cells (full of lipids). In the second period the ovaries are well developed, the rate of follicle growth has increased, and active vitellogenesis takes place a minor number of atresic follicles and of masses of cells full of lipids are observed. These characteristics and some less relevant ones are described and its significance is briefiy discussed

Preferential sites for intramolecular glucosepane cross-link formation in type I collagen: A thermodynamic study

The extracellular matrix (ECM) undergoes progressive age-related stiffening and loss of proteolytic digestibility due to an increase in concentration of advanced glycation end products (AGEs). The most abundant AGE, glucosepane, accumulates in collagen with concentrations over 100 times greater than all other AGEs. Detrimental collagen stiffening properties are believed to play a significant role in several age-related diseases such as osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease. Currently little is known of the potential location of covalently cross-linked glucosepane formation within collagen molecules; neither are there reports on how the respective cross-link sites affect the physical and biochemical properties of collagen. Using fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations (MD) we have identified six sites where the formation of a covalent intra-molecular glucosepane cross-link within a single collagen molecule in a fibrillar environment is energetically favourable. Identification of these favourable sites enables us to align collagen cross-linking with experimentally observed changes to the ECM. For example, formation of glucosepane was found to be energetically favourable within close proximity of the Matrix Metalloproteinase-1 (MMP1) binding site, which could potentially disrupt collagen degradation.fals

Controlling the Lithium Intercalation Voltage in the Li(Mn1–xNix)2O4 Spinel via Tuning of the Ni Concentration: a Density Functional Theory Study

LiMn2O4 spinel is a promising cathode material for secondary lithium-ion batteries. Despite showing a high average voltage of lithium intercalation, the material is structurally unstable, undergoing lowering of the crystal symmetry due to Jahn-Teller distortion of the six-fold Mn3+ cations. Although Ni has been proposed as a suitable substitutional dopant to improve the structural stability of LiMn2O4, and enhance the average lithium intercalation voltage,&nbsp; the thermodynamics of the Ni incorporation and its effect on the electrochemical properties of this spinel material are not yet known. In this work, we&nbsp; have employed density functional theory calculations with a Hubbard Hamiltonian (DFT+U) to investigate the thermodynamics of cation mixing in the&nbsp; Li(Mn1–xNix)2O4 solid solution. Our results suggest LiMn1.5Ni0.5O4 is the most stable composition from room temperature up to at least 1000 K, in&nbsp; agreement with experiments. We also found that the configurational entropy is much lower than the maximum entropy at 1000 K, indicating that higher&nbsp; temperatures are required to reach a fully disordered solid solution. A maximum average lithium intercalation voltage of 4.8 eV was calculated for the&nbsp; LiMn1.5Ni0.5O4 composition, which is very close to the experimental value. The temperature was found to have a negligible effect on the Li intercalation&nbsp; voltage of the most stable composition. The findings reported here support the application of LiMn1.5Ni0.5O4 as a suitable cathode material for lithium-&nbsp; ion batteries, with a highly stable voltage of intercalation under a wide range of temperatures.&nbsp

Estudio bacteriológico, micológico y parasitológico de la momia incaica del Nevado de Chuscha

Fil: Arenas, Graciela Nora. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias MédicasFil: Degarbo, Stella Maris. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias MédicasFil: De Jong, Laura Irene T.. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias MédicasFil: Telechea, Adriana del Valle. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias MédicasFil: Ciccarelli, Alberto S.. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médica

Efetividade de genes de resistência de trigo a oídio, safra 2007.

bitstream/CNPT-2010/40711/1/p-do93.pd

Co2 capture and electrochemical conversion using superbasic [p-66614]-[124triz]

The ionic liquid trihexyltetradecylphosphonium 1,2,4- triazolide, [P66614][124Triz], has been shown to chemisorb CO2 through equimolar binding of the carbon dioxide with the 1,2,4-triazolide anion. This leads to a possible new, low energy pathway for the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to formate and syngas at low overpotentials, utilizing this reactive ionic liquid media. Herein, an electrochemical investigation of water and carbon dioxide addition to the [P66614][124Triz] on gold and platinum working electrodes is reported. Electrolysis measurements have been performed using CO2 saturated [P66614][124Triz] based solutions at -0.9 V and -1.9 V on gold and platinum electrodes. The effects of the electrode material on the formation of formate and syngas using these solutions are presented and discussed18338940

Biological and molecular characterization of an isolate of Tobacco streak virus obtained from soybeans in Brazil.

A virus was isolated from soybean (Glycine max) plants with symptoms of dwarfing and bud blight in Wenceslau Braz County, Paraná, Brazil. The host range and properties resembled those of Tobacco streak virus (TSV). The purified virus showed three peaks in a frozen sucrose gradient. Antiserum was produced and the virus was serologically related to TSV. Electron microscopy detected 28 nm spherical particles. Coat protein (CP) had a Mr of 29.880 Da. A fragment of 1028 nt was amplified, cloned and sequenced. One open reading frame with 717 nt was identified and associated to the CP. The CP gene shared 83% identity with the sequence of TSV CP from white clover (Trifolium repens) (GenBank CAA25133). This is the first report of the biological and molecular characterization of TSV isolated from soybeans. It is proposed that this isolate be considered a strain of TSV named TSV-BR