Detection of Major River Bed Changes in the River Ebro (north-eastern Spain)

Detection of major river bed changes in River Ebro (northeastern Spain

A Method to Study the Organizational Dimension of Regional Programs

Our current research activities at IIASA provide the opportunity to study five cases on the organization of regional development. These cases are TVA, Bratsk-Ilimsk Territorial Production Complex, Scotland, Vistula-Lublin and Guayana in Venezuela. The aim of this paper is to present a research method for this purpose independent of the particular characteristics that each case might have. This method is supported by a model of the organizational structure of any viable system. In this case the "regional system" is postulated to be a viable system. If the program is going to be successful it should be viable. This suggests the need to define the "regional system" with precision. The elucidation of the components of this system is seen as a fundamental research step in this method. A second step focuses on the organizational functions that these parts fulfill, and on the linkages among them. A third step relates to the consistency of the regional organization and its effectiveness. The second step seeks to provide the basic structure to support the search for information. A set of questions, supported by this structure, will be presented for explanatory purposes. This "questionnaire" is by no means comprehensive and it is hoped that improvements will be made on it along this research process

A Cybernetic Paradigm for Organizational Assessment

The main purpose of this paper is to focus attention in organizations on a cybernetic viewpoint. From this point of view organization and planning are homologous. What a system does does not depend on what it would like to do. A system does what its organization allows it to do, no more, no less. The organization of a system in one way or another represents a measure of the level of environmental situations that it is capable of controlling. The criterion of effectiveness is viability in the long run. To make this criterion of assessment operational, I shall elucidate my concept of organization as opposed to an institution, and provide a cybernetic language to refer to complexity and control. The basic elements of the analysis are variety, or the number of possible states of a system, Ashby's law of requisite variety or the fact that variety can only be absorbed by variety and Beer's organizational model of any viable system. Under this conceptual framework three steps are developed to analyze organizational effectiveness, and they are presented in order of generality. The first is the organizational consistency. It is in general a metasystemic analysis of relevant institutions and their subsystems. Is it possible or not for them, considering their metasystemic relationships, to fulfill their "established purposes"? The second step after testing the consistency is the structural effectiveness. It is concerned with the distribution of variety along the organizational structure. Some structures are more effective than others in matching environmental variety. This step is concerned with the traditional dichotomy -- centralization versus decentralization. The third step is the organizational epistemology or the particular way in which systems acquire knowledge about their relevant environment. The necessary filtering of complexity suggests that systems select a set of variables or quantities which define the system-environment area of stability

Cybernetics of Value Co-creation

The paradigm shift from value creation to value "co-creation" calls for a deeper grasp of organizational learning in marketing theory. This paper adopts a cybernetic view of the process of value co-creation to shed light on its relevant aspects and to supply a framework to implement operations and strategies to foster this process. Can cybernetics help to better understand the process of value co-creation? Can the Viable System Model (Beer, 1979) be a sound approach to shape a more effective value co-creation process able to achieve higher satisfaction and value? In this theoretical paper we will show how cybernetic can be effectively used to give a positive answer to both questions abov

On a class of minimum contrast estimators for Gegenbauer random fields

The article introduces spatial long-range dependent models based on the fractional difference operators associated with the Gegenbauer polynomials. The results on consistency and asymptotic normality of a class of minimum contrast estimators of long-range dependence parameters of the models are obtained. A methodology to verify assumptions for consistency and asymptotic normality of minimum contrast estimators is developed. Numerical results are presented to confirm the theoretical findings.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure

An Overview of Organizational Research in Regional Development: Five Parallel Case Studies

In this paper we present proposals for a program of research into problems of complex organizations. The area of interest is organization for integrated regional development and our research will be based on five regional development cases undertaken in different circumstances in various parts of the world. Organization theory is not a unified field of research but includes many complementary approaches. The authors of this paper reflect this diversity. However, in designing these research proposals we find important points of commonality. The overall research conception based on a multiorganization approach is one such point. This is supported by a common definition of integrated regional development, which we pose for the purpose of organization study, and a common specification for the case descriptions, which form the first output stages of our program. However, in the analytic stages, which follow these descriptions, we see value in following somewhat different approaches. This diversity should strengthen the value of the final output. In this paper we cover generally the scope and purposes of the overall program. The scope of case descriptions is presented together with an outline of the questions which are addressed in the post-description analytic stages

Identification of Potential New Aedes aegypti Juvenile Hormone Inhibitors from N-Acyl Piperidine Derivatives: A Bioinformatics Approach

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes transmit several human pathogens that cause millions of deaths worldwide, mainly in Latin America. The indiscriminate use of insecticides has resulted in the development of species resistance to some such compounds. Piperidine, a natural alkaloid isolated from Piper nigrum, has been used as a hit compound due to its larvicidal activity against Aedes aegypti. In the present study, piperidine derivatives were studied through in silico methods: pharmacophoric evaluation (PharmaGist), pharmacophoric virtual screening (Pharmit), ADME/Tox prediction (Preadmet/Derek 10.0 (R)), docking calculations (AutoDock 4.2) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation on GROMACS-5.1.4. MP-416 and MP-073 molecules exhibiting Delta G binding (MMPBSA -265.95 +/- 1.32 kJ/mol and -124.412 +/- 1.08 kJ/mol, respectively) and comparable to holo (Delta G binding = -216.21 +/- 0.97) and pyriproxyfen (a well-known larvicidal, Delta G binding= -435.95 +/- 2.06 kJ/mol). Considering future in vivo assays, we elaborated the theoretical synthetic route and made predictions of the synthetic accessibility (SA) (SwissADME), lipophilicity and water solubility (SwissADME) of the promising compounds identified in the present study. Our in silico results show that MP-416 and MP-073 molecules could be potent insecticides against the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.Pro-Reitoria de Pesquisa e Pos-Graduacao (PROPESP) of Federal University of Para via the Graduate Program in Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Modeling, Health Science Institute, Federal University of Para PROPESP/UFPA-Edital 02/2022-PAPQ/PROPES

Arbres fontaines, eau du brouillard et forêts de nuages

A partir des arbres fontaines comme le Garoé (Hierro, Canaries), un reportage photographique commenté est présenté sur la captation des eaux de brouillard par la végétation. Le Garoé était un laurier dont l'eau était bue aussi bien par l'homme que par le bétail jusqu'en 1610, date à laquelle il fut déraciné par un ouragan. Actuellement, hommes et animaux puisent leurs ressources en eau dans des forêts de conifères à Hierro, où pins et genévriers sont plantés ou entretenus en mémoire du Garoé. Les progrès en matière de captation des eaux du brouillard et les recherches menées dans les forêts de nuages sont brièvement passés en revue. La captation de ces eaux se met en place au nord du Chili et au Pérou pour aider des communautés isolées. Les forêts de nuages, appartenant à la classification d'écosystème fragile de la FAO, sont en danger. Les programmes de recherche y sont généralement soutenus par l'UICN et la PHI de l'Unesco. (Résumé d'auteur