Propuesta metodol?gica para la gerencia exitosa del proyecto ?alianza productiva para el sostenimiento, producci?n y comercializaci?n de 127,5 hect?reas de cacao en el municipio de Ataco, departamento del Tolima?

186 p. Recurso Electr?nicoEl presente trabajo desarrolla una propuesta metodol?gica para la gerencia exitosa de la ejecuci?n del proyecto ?Alianza productiva para el sostenimiento, producci?n y comercializaci?n de 127,5 hect?reas de cacao en el municipio de Ataco, departamento del Tolima?; con un plazo de 225 d?as y un presupuesto aprobado de $503.226.445. En relaci?n al proyecto a ejecutar, este plantea comercializar cacao en grano con previo proceso de fermentaci?n y secado, resaltando caracter?sticas organol?pticas de textura, aroma, sabor y color propios del chocolate, adem?s de caracter?sticas fisicoqu?micas de acidez, pH, grasa y humedad de acuerdo a los par?metros establecidos por la norma NTC 1252. La presentaci?n del producto ser? en sacos de fique de 60 Kg con el logo representativo de la asociaci?n. Respecto a esto, es importante mencionar que el cultivo de cacao se encuentra previamente establecido, por ello solo se contempla el sostenimiento del mismo. Son 127,5 Hect?reas de Cacao para realizar el sostenimiento y seg?n proyecciones, se espera una producci?n de 63,75 toneladas para el a?o 1 siguiendo una tendencia creciente hasta alcanzar el tope m?ximo de rendimiento por hect?rea en el a?o 4 para un total de 191,25 toneladas. La ubicaci?n de los cultivos de Cacao est? relacionada con los productores que har?n parte de la Alianza quienes poseen unidades productivas en: Betania, Buenos Aires, Casa de Zinc, Cascarillo, la Dorada, el Aceituno, el Brillante, la Soledad, Versalles, la Ensilada, el ?guila, el C?ndor, el Salado, Agua Dulce, el Progreso, Mesa de Pole, los Mangos, el Dari?n, para un total de 18 veredas del municipio de Ataco. Es un proyecto con amplio mercado, pues seg?n estimaciones existe una brecha de mercado creciente en toneladas de cacao que para el a?o 2022 asciende a 13,452 toneladas, cuantificadas en 87,428 millones de pesos. Frente a las inversiones requeridas: La inversi?n en activos fijos representa el 34.7$127.840.000 (Principalmente maquinaria y equipo). La inversi?n en intangibles es de $375.386.445 donde actividades propias del sostenimiento del cultivo de cacao representan el 70.5Adicionalmente, es un proyecto con unos indicadores financieros atractivos: ofrece una Tasa Interna de Retorno (TIR) del 41$1.344.756.264,17 y una Relaci?n Beneficio ? Costo de $1.79. Los principales patrocinadores son: la Asociaci?n de Agricultores de Ataco ? Tolima (ASOCAT), la Gobernaci?n del Tolima y el Ministerio de Agricultura. Finalmente, como el presente trabajo se basa en la gerencia de la ejecuci?n del proyecto descrito anteriormente, se dise?aron una serie de herramientas para asegurar el ?xito en cada una de las etapas de la gerencia de proyectos: inicio, planeaci?n, ejecuci?n, control y cierre. Entre las principales actividades a gerenciar se destacan: ? Articulaci?n de los actores de la alianza ? Contrataci?n del Gerente y Equipo Nuclear ? Legalizaci?n fiducia para ejecuci?n de desembolso ? Instalaci?n oficina para gerenciar el proyecto ? Elaboraci?n y aprobaci?n plan de manejo ambiental ? Capacitaci?n buenas pr?cticas agr?colas y de pos cosecha ? Sostenimiento del cultivo de cacao ? Comercializaci?n de cacao en grano seco ? Cierre del proyecto Palabras claves: Cultivo de cacao, alianza productiva, gerencia de proyectos.The project hereby develops a methodological proposal for the successful management of the project ?Alianza Productiva para el Sostenimiento, Producci?n y Comercializaci?n de 12.5 Hect?reas de Cacao en el Municipio de Ataco, Departamento del Tolima?, with a term of 225 days and an approved budget of$503,226,445. In regards to the project, it is proposed to commercialize previously fermented and dried cocoa beans, highlighting is chocolate organoleptic characteristics of texture, smell, taste and color, as well as the physiochemical characteristics of acidity, PH, fat and humidity according to the established parameters by the NTC 1252 policy. The product will be launched in 60 kg fique bags with the logo of the association. It is important to mention that the cultivation of cocoa has been previously established, therefore only the sustenance is intended. These are 127.5 cocoa hectares to be sustained and, according to projections, a production of 63.75 tons for year 1 is expected, with a growing trend that will reach a maximum peak of 191.25 tons in year 4. The location of these crops is related to the farmers that will be part of this alliance, who have plantations in Betania, Buenos Aires, Casa de Zinc, Cascarillo, La Dorada, El Aceituno, El Brillante, La Soledad, Versalles, La Ensilada, El ?guila, El C?ndor, El Salado, Agua Dulce, El Progreso, Mesa de Pole, Los Mangos, El Dari?n, for a total of 18 regions of the municipality of Ataco. This project has a wide market. According to the estimates, there is a growing market gap in cocoa tons that will reach 13,452 by 2022, appraised in $87,428 million. The investment in fixed assets represents 34.7$127,840,000 (machinery and equipment mainly). The investment in intangible assets is of $375,386,445, in which cocoa sustenance activities represent 70.5$1,344,756,264 and a cost-benefit relation of $1.79. The main sponsors are Asociaci?n de Agricultores de Ataco ? Tolima (ASOCAT), the Government of Tolima and the Ministry of Agriculture. As the project hereby is based in its above described management and execution, there are tools designed to ensure the success of each one of the project management stages: initiation, planning, execution, control and closing. Among the main activities to manage are: - Articulation of the members of the alliance. - Recruitment of the manager and the main team. - Legalization of the trust fund for the disbursement execution. - Setting up the office for managing the project. - Development and approval of the environmental plan. - Training in good cultivation and post harvesting practices. - Sustenance of the cocoa crops. - Commercialization of dry cocoa beans. - Project closure. Keywords: Cultivation of cocoa, productive alliance, project management

Impact of Bordetella pertussis exposures on a Massachusetts tertiary care medical system

OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of outbreaks of Bordetella pertussis infection on a tertiary care medical system. DESIGN: Retrospective study. SETTING: Academic tertiary care medical center and affiliated ambulatory care settings. SUBJECTS: All patients and healthcare workers (HCWs) who were in close contact with patients with laboratory-confirmed cases of B. pertussis infection from October 1, 2003, through September 30, 2004. INTERVENTION: Direct and indirect medical center costs were determined, including low and high estimates of time expended in the evaluation and management of exposed patients and HCWs during outbreak investigations of laboratory-confirmed cases of B. pertussis infection. RESULTS: During this period, 20 primary and 3 secondary laboratory-confirmed cases of B. pertussis infection occurred, with 2 primary pertussis cases and 1 secondary case occurring in HCWs. Outbreak investigations prompted screening of 353 medical center employees. Probable or definitive exposure was identified for 296 HCWs, and 287 subsequently received treatment or prophylaxis for B. pertussis infection. Direct medical center costs for treatment and prophylaxis were $13,416 and costs for personnel time were$19,500-$31,190. Indirect medical center costs for time lost from work were$51,300-$52,300. The total cost of these investigations was estimated to be$85,066-$98,456. CONCLUSIONS: Frequent B. pertussis exposures had a major impact on our facility. Given the impact of exposures on healthcare institutions, routine vaccination for HCWs may be beneficial

Mapping the spatiotemporal dynamics of calcium signaling in cellular neural networks using optical flow

An optical flow gradient algorithm was applied to spontaneously forming net- works of neurons and glia in culture imaged by fluorescence optical microscopy in order to map functional calcium signaling with single pixel resolution. Optical flow estimates the direction and speed of motion of objects in an image between subsequent frames in a recorded digital sequence of images (i.e. a movie). Computed vector field outputs by the algorithm were able to track the spatiotemporal dynamics of calcium signaling pat- terns. We begin by briefly reviewing the mathematics of the optical flow algorithm, and then describe how to solve for the displacement vectors and how to measure their reliability. We then compare computed flow vectors with manually estimated vectors for the progression of a calcium signal recorded from representative astrocyte cultures. Finally, we applied the algorithm to preparations of primary astrocytes and hippocampal neurons and to the rMC-1 Muller glial cell line in order to illustrate the capability of the algorithm for capturing different types of spatiotemporal calcium activity. We discuss the imaging requirements, parameter selection and threshold selection for reliable measurements, and offer perspectives on uses of the vector data.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures. Peer reviewed accepted version in press in Annals of Biomedical Engineerin

Boosting Long-term Memory via Wakeful Rest: Intentional Rehearsal is not Necessary, Automatic Consolidation is Sufficient.

<div><p>People perform better on tests of delayed free recall if learning is followed immediately by a short wakeful rest than by a short period of sensory stimulation. Animal and human work suggests that wakeful resting provides optimal conditions for the consolidation of recently acquired memories. However, an alternative account cannot be ruled out, namely that wakeful resting provides optimal conditions for intentional rehearsal of recently acquired memories, thus driving superior memory. Here we utilised non-recallable words to examine whether wakeful rest boosts long-term memory, even when new memories could not be rehearsed intentionally during the wakeful rest delay. The probing of non-recallable words requires a recognition paradigm. Therefore, we first established, via Experiment 1, that the rest-induced boost in memory observed via free recall can be replicated in a recognition paradigm, using concrete nouns. In Experiment 2, participants heard 30 non-recallable non-words, presented as ‘foreign names in a bridge club abroad’ and then either rested wakefully or played a visual spot-the-difference game for 10 minutes. Retention was probed via recognition at two time points, 15 minutes and 7 days after presentation. As in Experiment 1, wakeful rest boosted recognition significantly, and this boost was maintained for at least 7 days. Our results indicate that the enhancement of memory via wakeful rest is <i>not</i> dependent upon intentional rehearsal of learned material during the rest period. We thus conclude that consolidation is <i>sufficient</i> for this rest-induced memory boost to emerge. We propose that wakeful resting allows for superior memory consolidation, resulting in stronger and/or more veridical representations of experienced events which can be detected via tests of free recall and recognition.</p></div

Ketogenic diet as a glycine lowering therapy in nonketotic hyperglycinemia and impact on brain glycine levels

BACKGROUND: Nonketotic hyperglycinemia (NKH) is a severe neurometabolic disorder characterized by increased glycine levels. Current glycine reduction therapy uses high doses of sodium benzoate. The ketogenic diet (KD) may represent an alternative method of glycine reduction. AIM: We aimed to assess clinical and biochemical effects of two glycine reduction strategies: high dose benzoate versus KD with low dose benzoate. METHODS: Six infants with NKH were first treated with high dose benzoate therapy to achieve target plasma glycine levels, and then switched to KD with low dose benzoate. They were evaluated as clinically indicated by physical examination, electroencephalogram, plasma and cerebral spinal fluid amino acid levels. Brain glycine levels were monitored by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). RESULTS: Average plasma glycine levels were significantly lower with KD compared to benzoate monotherapy by on average 28%. Two infants underwent comparative assessments of brain glycine levels via serial MRS. A 30% reduction of brain glycine levels was observed in the basal ganglia and a 50% reduction in the white matter, which remained elevated above normal, and was equivalent between the KD and high dose benzoate therapies. CSF analysis obtained while participants remained on the KD showed a decrease in glycine, serine and threonine levels, reflecting their gluconeogenetic usage. Clinically, half the patients had seizure reduction on KD, otherwise the clinical impact was variable. CONCLUSION: KD is an effective glycine reduction method in NKH, and may provide a more consistent reduction in plasma glycine levels than high-dose benzoate therapy. Both high-dose benzoate therapy and KD equally reduced but did not normalize brain glycine levels even in the setting of low-normal plasma glycine

GaSb solar cells grown on GaAs via interfacial misfit arrays for use in the III-Sb multi-junction cell

Growth of GaSb with low threading dislocation density directly on GaAs may be possible with the strategic strain relaxation of interfacial misfit arrays. This creates an opportunity for a multi-junction solar cell with access to a wide range of well-developed direct bandgap materials. Multi-junction cells with a single layer of GaSb/GaAs interfacial misfit arrays could achieve higher efficiency than state-of-the-art inverted metamorphic multi-junction cells while forgoing the need for costly compositionally graded buffer layers. To develop this technology, GaSb single junction cells were grown via molecular beam epitaxy on both GaSb and GaAs substrates to compare homoepitaxial and heteroepitaxial GaSb device results. The GaSb-on-GaSb cell had an AM1.5g efficiency of 5.5% and a 44-sun AM1.5d efficiency of 8.9%. The GaSb-on-GaAs cell was 1.0% efficient under AM1.5g and 4.5% at 44 suns. The lower performance of the heteroepitaxial cell was due to low minority carrier Shockley-Read-Hall lifetimes and bulk shunting caused by defects related to the mismatched growth. A physics-based device simulator was used to create an inverted triple-junction GaInP/GaAs/GaSb model. The model predicted that, with current GaSb-on-GaAs material quality, the not-current-matched, proof-of-concept cell would provide 0.5% absolute efficiency gain over a tandem GaInP/GaAs cell at 1 sun and 2.5% gain at 44 suns, indicating that the effectiveness of the GaSb junction was a function of concentration

Average Household Exposure to Newspaper Coverage about the Harmful Effects of Hormone Therapy and Population-Based Declines in Hormone Therapy Use

BACKGROUND: The news media facilitated the rapid dissemination of the findings from the estrogen plus progestin therapy arm of the Women’s Health Initiative (EPT-WHI). OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between the potential exposure to newspaper coverage and subsequent hormone therapy (HT) use. DESIGN/POPULATION: Population-based cohort of women receiving mammography at 7 sites (327,144 postmenopausal women). MEASUREMENTS: The outcome was the monthly prevalence of self-reported HT use. Circulation data for local, regional, and national newspapers was used to create zip-code level measures of the estimated average household exposure to newspaper coverage that reported the harmful effects of HT in July 2002. RESULTS: Women had an average potential household exposure of 1.4 articles. There was substantial variation in the level of average household exposure to newspaper coverage; women from rural sites received less than women from urban sites. Use of HT declined for all average potential exposure groups after the publication of the EPT-WHI. HT prevalence among women who lived in areas where there was an average household exposure of at least 3 articles declined significantly more (45 to 27%) compared to women who lived in areas with <1 article (43 to 31%) during each of the subsequent 5 months (relative risks 0.86–0.92; p < .006 for all). CONCLUSIONS: Greater average household exposure to newspaper coverage about the harms associated with HT was associated with a large population-based decline in HT use. Further studies should examine whether media coverage directly influences the health behavior of individual women

A living biobank of ovarian cancer ex vivo models reveals profound mitotic heterogeneity

High-grade serous ovarian carcinoma is characterised by TP53 mutation and extensive chromosome instability (CIN). Because our understanding of CIN mechanisms is based largely on analysing established cell lines, we developed a workflow for generating ex vivo cultures from patient biopsies to provide models that support interrogation of CIN mechanisms in cells not extensively cultured in vitro. Here, we describe a “living biobank” of ovarian cancer models with extensive replicative capacity, derived from both ascites and solid biopsies. Fifteen models are characterised by p53 profiling, exome sequencing and transcriptomics, and karyotyped using single-cell whole-genome sequencing. Time-lapse microscopy reveals catastrophic and highly heterogeneous mitoses, suggesting that analysis of established cell lines probably underestimates mitotic dysfunction in advanced human cancers. Drug profiling reveals cisplatin sensitivities consistent with patient responses, demonstrating that this workflow has potential to generate personalized avatars with advantages over current pre-clinical models and the potential to guide clinical decision making

Associations between body mass index across adult life and hip shapes at age 60 to 64:Evidence from the 1946 British birth cohort

Funding: The NSHD is funded by the UK Medical Research Council. SGM, RC, RJH and DK are supported by the UK Medical Research Council (Programme codes: MC_UU_12019/1, MC_UU_12019/2 and MC_UU_12019/4). This project was funded by the UK Medical Research Council (Grant MR/L010399/1) which supported SGM, AVP and FRS. The funders of the study had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation or writing of this manuscript. Acknowledgements: We thank Dr. Michael Machin for his valuable assistance obtaining the images and the University of Aberdeen Data Management Team for programming support for ‘Shape’. The authors are grateful to NSHD study members who took part in the clinic data collection for their continuing support. We thank members of the NSHD scientific and data collection teams at the following centres: MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing; Wellcome Trust (WT) Clinical Research Facility (CRF) Manchester; WTCRF and Medical Physics at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh; WTCRF and Department of Nuclear Medicine at University Hospital Birmingham; WTCRF and the Department of Nuclear Medicine at University College London Hospital; CRF and the Department of Medical Physics at the University Hospital of Wales; CRF and Twin Research Unit at St Thomas' Hospital London. Data used in this publication are available to bona fide researchers upon request to the NSHD Data Sharing Committee via a standard application procedure. Further details can be found at: http://www.nshd.mrc.ac.uk/data; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5522/NSHD/Q102; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5522/NSHD/Q102A.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Support for UNRWA's survival

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) provides life-saving humanitarian aid for 5·4 million Palestine refugees now entering their eighth decade of statelessness and conflict. About a third of Palestine refugees still live in 58 recognised camps. UNRWA operates 702 schools and 144 health centres, some of which are affected by the ongoing humanitarian disasters in Syria and the Gaza Strip. It has dramatically reduced the prevalence of infectious diseases, mortality, and illiteracy. Its social services include rebuilding infrastructure and homes that have been destroyed by conflict and providing cash assistance and micro-finance loans for Palestinians whose rights are curtailed and who are denied the right of return to their homeland