3,556 research outputs found
Auxiliary Companies of the Horticultural Sector as a Competitiveness Element: The Case of Almeria (Spain)
The horticultural model of Almeria (Spain) based on the operation of greenhouses is an international reference and has been considered as an economic miracle. Alongside this agricultural development has been the deployment of the diverse productive activity of auxiliary companies. The objective of this article is to understand how these companies operate and analyze their factors of competitiveness, competing needs, and future competitive improvements, taking as reference four of the most important subsectors (machinery, greenhouse infrastructure, plastics, and seeds). The Delphi method was used and through a panel of experts the conditioning factors of each of the variables to be analyzed (factors, needs, and competitiveness improvements) was chosen. Of the 120 companies that were sent questionnaires, 72 participated. The sectors that make up the auxiliary companies are heterogeneous and therefore the results obtained have differed among them. The synergies between the greenhouse crops and the auxiliary companies are an example of diversification of productive activity that can be extrapolated to other production areas worldwide. The future of the auxiliary companies is linked to that of the intensive agriculture and the key variables must be underscored by competitiveness and sustainability
Training on Emotional Intelligence for Caregivers of Patients with Acquired Brain Injury and Cognitive Impairment: A Quasi-Experimental Study
Background: Cognitive-behavioral alterations can occur after an acquired brain injury (ABI). Objectives: To develop and evaluate a synchronous online training program on emotional intelligence (EI) for the caregivers of adult patients with cognitive-behavioral impairment due to ABI. Methods: Quasi-experimental study. Ten caregivers attended a one-month virtual synchronous course about EI. The emotional status of the caregivers was registered one-month-previous and one-month-post program using comparative measures: The Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS-24), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Caregiver Burden Interview, the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the Emotional Health Survey. Results: After the training course, the favorable changes related to emotional affect measured with the PANAS questionnaire were found; both positive (increase; Mdn = 39.5; effect size â12.79; adjusted variance 95.75) and negative (decrease; Mdn = 14.5; effect size 0.73; adjusted variance 95.50) presented a statistical significance of p < 0.05. The TMMS-24 post-test showed that 90% of the caregivers reported an adequate or excellent emotional repair (p < 0.05; effect size â0.68; adjusted variance 94.75). No other significant differences were found. Conclusions: After this training in EI, the caregivers had a more positive mood and improved aspects of their emotional intelligence, such as emotional regulation. More studies need to be conducted.Partial funding for open access charge: Universidad de MĂĄlag
Grupo SMU: su compleja reestructuraciĂłn corporativa
This case examines the corporate restructuring process of SMU Group, a Chilean retail supermarket chain. The restructuring process was triggered by an internal situation involving operational inefficiencies between the years 2007 and 2012, following an aggressive acquisition process. These problems were the result of an aggressive âBuy-and-Buildâ strategy, thanks to which by the end of 2012 the Group had grown to become the third largest player in the supermarket industry in Chile. Although this strategy allowed the conglomerate to consolidate its competitive position, it was based on inorganic growth that hid the differences in the operational performance of the different chains and did not allow the Group to take advantage of its own synergies in the process of consolidating the holding company. Around mid-2013, this lack of definition in SMU's competitive strategy resulted in a serious deterioration of its financial position, due to the significant indebtedness taken on to finance acquisitions, as well as the insufficient generation of cash flow. Furthermore, when compared to the two main players in the industry, SMU showed lower levels of profitability and sales per square meter. To overcome this crisis, SMU implemented a three-year strategic plan (2014-2016), reinforcing three fundamental areas: finance, operations and commercial. The goal was to restore financial viability to the conglomerate by the end of 2016. After executing its plan, SMU achieved an improvement at the operational and commercial levels. However, in the first months of 2017, the risk rating agencies still had doubts about SMU's future performance and its crisis management capacity. For this reason, Ălvaro Saieh, who was serving at the time as Chairman of the Company's Board of Directors, had several questions: could SMU's 3-year operational and strategic restructuring plan be considered successful? what are the critical variables that will ensure the sustainability of the company and its growth in the coming years? will I be questioned again like I was in 2013? and finally, what possibilities do I have to create corporate value in the future?El presente caso relata el proceso de reestructuraciĂłn corporativa del Grupo SMU, ligado a la industria chilena de supermercados minoristas, detonado por una situaciĂłn interna provocada por ineficiencias operativas posteriores a un agresivo proceso de adquisiciones ocurrido entre los años 2007 y 2012. Esta problemĂĄtica la experimentĂł el Grupo SMU, quien a travĂ©s de una polĂtica de âBuy and Buildâ se convirtiĂł en el tercer actor de la industria de supermercados en Chile a finales del año 2012. Si bien esta estrategia le permitiĂł afianzar la posiciĂłn competitiva del conglomerado, causĂł un crecimiento inorgĂĄnico que ocultĂł las diferencias en el desempeño operacional de las diferentes cadenas y no permitiĂł el aprovechamiento de sinergias propias en el proceso de consolidaciĂłn de un holding. Por ello, a mediados del año 2013, la falta de definiciĂłn en la estrategia competitiva de SMU tuvo como consecuencia un fuerte debilitamiento en su posiciĂłn financiera debido al significativo endeudamiento que se utilizaba para financiar las adquisiciones, asĂ como por la insuficiente generaciĂłn de flujos de caja.
Por otro lado, comparado con los dos principales actores de la industria, SMU mostraba menores niveles de rentabilidad y de ventas por metro cuadrado. AsĂ, para hacer frente a la crisis, SMU implementĂł un plan estratĂ©gico trianual (2014-2016) sobre el fortalecimiento de tres pilares fundamentales: financiero, operacional y comercial, cuya meta era devolver la viabilidad financiera al conglomerado a finales del año 2016. Tras la implementaciĂłn de dicho plan, SMU logrĂł una mejora a nivel operacional y comercial. Sin embargo, en los primeros meses de 2017 las Clasificadoras de Riesgo aĂșn tenĂan dudas sobre el desempeño futuro de SMU y su capacidad de gestiĂłn de la crisis. Por ello, Ălvaro Saieh, quien se desempeñaba en ese momento como presidente del Directorio de la empresa, tenĂa diversas interrogantes relacionadas principalmente a si: ÂżFue exitoso el plan de reestructuraciĂłn operacional y estratĂ©gico que llevĂł a cabo SMU en los Ășltimos tres años? ÂżCuĂĄles serĂan las variables crĂticas para asegurar la sostenibilidad de la compañĂa y su crecimiento en los prĂłximos años? ÂżVolverĂ© a ser cuestionado como en 2013? Finalmente, ÂżquĂ© posibilidades tengo para crear valor corporativo en el futuro
Paving the way to collaborative context-aware mobile applications: a case study on preventing worsening of allergy symptoms
En los Ășltimos años, la evoluciĂłn de los telĂ©fonos inteligentes y sus aplicaciones de software ha crecido exponencialmente; junto con el avance del Internet de las Cosas y las ciudades inteligentes, ha generado una gran demanda de servicios y aplicaciones en estos dominios. Aunque la amplia gama de aplicaciones mĂłviles es incuestionable, los ciudadanos ya exigen que las aplicaciones se adapten a sus necesidades y situaciones especĂficas en tiempo real, es decir, que sean conscientes del contexto. Sin embargo, las aplicaciones mĂłviles conscientes del contexto a menudo son muy limitadas y pierden la oportunidad de beneficiarse de la retroalimentaciĂłn proporcionada por la colaboraciĂłn ciudadana. Para llenar este vacĂo, este documento propone una arquitectura de software y una aplicaciĂłn mĂłvil colaborativas y conscientes del contexto. En particular, los hemos implementado en el ĂĄmbito de la e-salud, mĂĄs especĂficamente en el ĂĄrea de las alergias estacionales, que causan que las personas alĂ©rgicas experimenten sĂntomas molestos que podrĂan evitarse si tuvieran acceso a informaciĂłn sobre el polen en tiempo real. AdemĂĄs, tambiĂ©n se beneficiarĂĄn de la colaboraciĂłn ciudadana a travĂ©s del conocimiento de los sĂntomas que otras personas alĂ©rgicas con la misma alergia y en la misma ubicaciĂłn estĂĄn experimentando. Para ello, los usuarios podrĂĄn proporcionar sus sĂntomas en cualquier momento a travĂ©s de su aplicaciĂłn mĂłvil y la arquitectura propuesta procesarĂĄ constantemente esa informaciĂłn en tiempo real, enviando notificaciones a los usuarios tan pronto como se vea que los sĂntomas reportados superan un cierto umbral. Se han probado el rendimiento de la arquitectura, el consumo de recursos de la aplicaciĂłn y una encuesta de satisfacciĂłn sobre la usabilidad y utilidad de la aplicaciĂłn; todos los resultados han sido completamente satisfactorios.In recent years, the evolution of smartphones and their software applications has grown exponentially; together with the advance of the Internet of Things and smart cities, it has raised huge demand for services and applications in these domains. Although the wide range of mobile applications is unquestionable, citizens already demand that applications adapt to their specific needs and situations in real time, that is, that they are context-aware. However, context-aware mobile applications are often very limited and miss out on the opportunity of benefiting from feedback provided by citizen collaboration. In order to fill this gap, this paper proposes a context-aware and collaborative software architecture and mobile application. In particular, we have implemented them in the scope of e-health, more specifically in the area of seasonal allergies, which cause allergic people to experience annoying symptoms that could be avoided by having access to pollen information in real time. Furthermore, they will also benefit from citizen collaboration through the knowledge of the symptoms other allergic people with the same allergy and in the same location are experiencing. To this end, users will be able to provide their symptoms at any time through their mobile application and the proposed architecture will constantly process that information in real time, sending notifications to users as soon as reported symptoms are seen to exceed a certain threshold. The architectureâs perfor mance, the applicationâs resource consumption and a satisfaction survey of the appâs usability and usefulness have been tested; all results have been fully satisfactoryThis work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Union FEDER Funds [grant numbers RTI2018-093608-B-C33, RED2018-102654-T
The causes, consequences, and treatment of left or right heart failure
Chronic heart failure (HF) is a cardiovascular disease of cardinal importance because of several factors: a) an increasing occurrence due to the aging of the population, primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular events, and modern advances in therapy, b) a bad prognosis: around 65% of patients are dead within 5 years of diagnosis, c) a high economic cost: HF accounts for 1% to 2% of total health care expenditure. This review focuses on the main causes, consequences in terms of morbidity, mortality and costs and treatment of HF
The ERα membrane pool modulates the proliferation of pituitary tumours
The molecular mechanisms underlying the ERα nuclear/cytoplasmic pool that modulates pituitary cell proliferation have been widely described, but it is still not clear how ERα is targeted to the plasma membrane. The aim of this study was to analyse ERα palmitoylation and the plasma membrane ERα (mERα) pool, and their participation in E2-triggered membrane-initiated signalling in normal and pituitary tumour cell growth. Cell cultures were prepared from anterior pituitaries of female Wistar rats and tumour GH3 cells, and treated with 10 nM of oestradiol (E2). The basal expression of ERα was higher in tumour GH3 than in normal pituitary cells. Full-length palmitoylated ERα was observed in normal and pituitary tumour cells, demonstrating that E2 stimulation increased both, ERα in plasma membrane and ERα and caveolin-1 interaction after short-term treatment. In addition, the Dhhc7 and Dhhc21 palmitoylases were negatively regulated after sustained stimulation of E2 for 3 h. Although the uptake of BrdU into the nucleus in normal pituitary cells was not modified by E2, a significant increase in the GH3 tumoural cell, as well as ERK1/2 activation, with this effect being mimicked by PPT, a selective antagonist of ERα. These proliferative effects were blocked by ICI 182780 and the global inhibitor of palmitoylation. These findings indicate that ERα palmitoylation modulated the mERα pool and consequently the ERK1/2 pathway, thereby contributing to pituitary tumour cell proliferation. These results suggest that the plasma membrane ERα pool might be related to the proliferative behaviour of prolactinoma and may be a marker of pituitary tumour growth.Fil: Sosa, Liliana del Valle. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - CĂłrdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Facultad de Medicina. Centro de MicroscopĂa ElectrĂłnica; ArgentinaFil: Petiti, Juan Pablo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - CĂłrdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Facultad de Medicina. Centro de MicroscopĂa ElectrĂłnica; ArgentinaFil: Picech, Florencia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - CĂłrdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Facultad de Medicina. Centro de MicroscopĂa ElectrĂłnica; ArgentinaFil: Chumpen Ramirez, Sabrina Vanesa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - CĂłrdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en QuĂmica BiolĂłgica de CĂłrdoba. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Facultad de Ciencias QuĂmicas. Centro de Investigaciones en QuĂmica BiolĂłgica de CĂłrdoba; ArgentinaFil: Nicola, Juan Pablo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico CĂłrdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en BioquĂmica ClĂnica e InmunologĂa; ArgentinaFil: PĂ©rez, Pablo AnĂbal. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - CĂłrdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Facultad de Medicina. Centro de MicroscopĂa ElectrĂłnica; ArgentinaFil: de Paul, Ana Lucia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - CĂłrdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Facultad de Medicina. Centro de MicroscopĂa ElectrĂłnica; ArgentinaFil: Valdez Taubas, Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - CĂłrdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en QuĂmica BiolĂłgica de CĂłrdoba. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Facultad de Ciencias QuĂmicas. Centro de Investigaciones en QuĂmica BiolĂłgica de CĂłrdoba; ArgentinaFil: Guitierrez, Silvina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - CĂłrdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Facultad de Medicina. Centro de MicroscopĂa ElectrĂłnica; ArgentinaFil: Torres, Alicia Ines. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - CĂłrdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de CĂłrdoba. Facultad de Medicina. Centro de MicroscopĂa ElectrĂłnica; Argentin
Semiautomatic method for the ultra-trace arsenic speciation in environmental and biological samples via magnetic solid phase extraction prior to HPLC-ICP-MS determination
A novel magnetic functionalized material based on graphene oxide and magnetic nanoparticles (MGO) was used to develop a magnetic solid phase extraction method (MSPE) to enrich both, inorganic and organic arsenic species in environmental waters and biological samples. An automatic flow injection (FI) system was used to preconcentrate the arsenic species simultaneously, while the ultra-trace separation and determination of arsenobetaine (AsBet), cacodylate, AsIII and AsV species were achieved by high performance liquid chromatog raphy combined with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS). The sample was introduced in the FI system where the MSPE was performed, then 1 mL of eluent was collected in a chromatographic vial, which was introduced in the autosampler of HPLC-ICP-MS. Therefore, preconcentration and separation/deter mination processes were automatic and conducted separately. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first method combining an automatic MSPE with HPLC-ICP-MS for arsenic speciation, using a magnetic nanomaterial based on MGO for automatic MSPE. Under the optimized conditions, the LODs for the arsenic species were 3.8 ng Lâ 1 AsBet, 0.5 ng Lâ 1 cacodylate, 1.1 ng Lâ 1 AsIII and 0.2 ng Lâ 1 AsV with RSDs <5%. The developed method was validated by analyzing Certified Reference Materials for total As concentration (fortified lake water TMDA 64.3 and seawater CASS-6 NRC) and also by recovery analysis of the arsenic species in urine, well-water and seawater samples collected in Malaga. ÂŽ The developed method has shown promise for routine monitoring of arsenic species in environmental waters and biological fluids.This work has been partially supported by the University of Malaga (Proyecto Puente UMA), FEDER funds, Junta de Andalucia, Project UMA18FEDERJA060 and the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia (fellowship FPU18/05371). Funding for open access charge: Universidad de MĂĄlaga / CBU
Evaluating H.265 real-time video flooding quality in highway V2V environments
© 2014 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works[EN] Video transmission over VANETs is an extremely difficult task not only due to the high bandwidth requirements, but also due to typical VANET characteristics such as signal attenuation, packet losses, high relative speeds and fast topology changes. In future scenarios, vehicles will provide other vehicles with information about accidents or congestion on the road, and in these cases offering visual information can be a really valuable resource for both drivers and traffic authorities. Hence, achieving an efficient transmission is critical to maximize the user-perceived quality. In this paper we evaluate solutions that combine different flooding techniques, and different video codecs to assess the effectiveness of long-distance real-time video streaming. In particular, we will compare the most effective video coding standard available (H.264) with the upcoming H.265 codec in terms of both frame loss and PSNR.This work was partially supported by the Ministerio de EconomĂa y Competitividad, Spain, under Grant TIN2011-
27543-C03-01, and by the Ministerio de EducaciĂłn, Spain, under the FPU program, AP2009-2415.Torres CortĂ©s, Ă.; Piñol, P.; Tavares De Araujo Cesariny Calafate, CM.; Cano EscribĂĄ, JC.; Manzoni, P. (2014). Evaluating H.265 real-time video flooding quality in highway V2V environments. En 2014 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC). IEEE. 2758-2763. https://doi.org/10.1109/WCNC.2014.6952858S2758276
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