A cybernetic methodology to study and design human activities

This thesis offers a methodology to study and design effective communication mechanisms in human activities. The methodology is focused in the management of complexity. It is argued that complexity is not something objective that can be worked out analytically, but something subjective that depends on the viewpoint. Also it is argued that while certain social contexts may inhibit, others may enhance the viewpoint's capabilities to deal with complexity. Certain organisation structures are more likely than others to allow individuals to release their potentials. Thus, the relevance of studying and designing effective organisations. The first part of the thesis offers a `cybernetic methodology' for problem solving in human activities, the second offers a `method' to study and design organisations. The cybernetics methodology discussed in this work is rooted in second order cybernetics, or the cybernetics of the observing systems (Von Foester 1979, Maturana and Varela 1980). Its main tenet is that the known properties of the real world reside in the individual and not in the world itself. This view, which puts emphasis in a, by nature, one sided and unilateral appreciation of reality, triggers the need for dialogue and conversations to construct it. The `method' to study and design organisations, it based on Beer's Viable System Model (Beer 1979, 1981, 1985). This model permits us to assess how successful is an organisation in coping with its environmental complexity, and, moreover, permits us to establish how to make more effective the responses to this complexity. These features of the model are of great significance in a world where complexity is perceived to be growing at an unthinkable pace. But, `seeing' these features of the model assumes an effective appreciation of organisational complexity; hence the need for the methodological discussions offered by the first part of the thesis

Requirements for effective participation in self-constructed organizations

This is an article about effective participation in organizations. It offers insights about the interplay between individual action and organization structure. It is argued that our actions produce these structures at the same time that these structures create the space for our actions in a never ending regression. Effective participation requires that all of us are involved in the invention and formation of self-constructed action spaces. This is in contrast to participation in organizations where a few create the context for the most, that is, where the organizational context of our actions is constructed (for us) rather than self-constructed. Organizations emerging from effective participation are called recursive organizations. The idea of recursive organizations is further developed using Beer's Viable System Model. This is a model of the communicational requirements to self-construct our action spaces and to align them with those of others. The argument is focused on our participation in team work and the requirements for us to develop organizational citizenship, cohesion and effective performance. These are all requirements to have an effective organization

Bullying y rendimiento académico en estudiantes de educación secundaria de la Institución Educativa Manuel Gonzales Prada del distrito de San Borja de la UGEL 07 – Lima, 2018

En el estudio se consideró como objetivo establecer la relación entre el Bullying y rendimiento académico en estudiantes de educación secundaria de una Institución Educativa Pública. Además, el problema se centró en la relación entre Bullying y rendimiento académico en estudiantes de educación secundaria de la Institución Educativa Pública. En cuanto a la metodología utilizada en la indagación es teórica, diseño no experimental y descriptivo correlacional, población es de 205 estudiantes y la muestra se conforma de 134 estudiantes, sea aplicó la encuesta, el instrumento es un cuestionario este alcanza el 0,923 de confiabilidad, así como la validez por V de Aiken alcanza el 0,99; el otro instrumento es el acta de notas. Para el análisis estadístico se utiliza el SPSS 25. Entre los resultados más importantes tenemos que el 70% de estudiantes se ubica con un rendimiento académico medio, el 23.10% bajo y el 8.20% alto; mientras el 82.80% sufre medianamente el bullying, el 7.50% bajo y el 9.70% alto. Se concluye que, existe relación inversa entre bullying y rendimiento académico en estudiantes de educación secundaria de la Institución Educativa Manuel Gonzales Prada.Tesi

Residencia universitaria basada en criterios arquitectónicos paisajistas para estudiantes de la UNASAM provenientes de zonas alejadas de Huaraz-Áncash

Hasta la época del sismo de 1970, Huaraz era una ciudad consolidada de adobe y calles estrechas, a causa de esto la ciudad quedó destruida casi totalmente, se podría decir que sólo quedó parte de las construcciones ubicadas al norte del río Quillcay. En cuanto a su diseño urbano la ciudad esta insertada dentro de un contexto natural rodeada de montañas con una planificación establecida, sin embargo, se ha generado un desorden al ubicar los usos de suelo como la educación y residencia. Al hablar de la educación superior, encontramos a la Universidad Nacional Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo (UNASAM), la cual tiene una alta demanda estudiantil que posee en todo el territorio, debido a que tiene un campus universitario de gran jerarquía, lo cual ha generado que los jóvenes abandonen sus lugares de origen y encuentren alojamientos cerca a esta universidad para residir por el tiempo que dure su carrera. El siguiente trabajo pretende resolver la problemática de la habitabilidad que existe en los estudiantes de la UNASAM, para así alcanzar los mejores factores de confort estudiantil e influir en la educación que se imparte. La motivación de este proyecto se centra en ofrecer a los estudiantes que provienen de zonas alejadas un alojamiento funcional, organizado, seguro, confortable y que se integre en el paisaje natural. El propósito de esta tesis es establecer un diseño arquitectónico basado en criterios paisajísticos logrando potenciar el valor natural propio de Huaraz teniendo como conceptualización el edificio insertado en el paisaje, con esto no solo implementar el uso de residencial, sino también actividades culturales, sociales, recreativas y académicas que un estudiante universitario necesita para forjar su futuro profesional.Until the time of the 1970 earthquake, Huaraz was a consolidated city of adobe and narrow streets, because of this the city was almost totally destroyed, it could be said that only part of the buildings located north of the Quillcay River remained. Regarding its urban design, the city is inserted within a natural context surrounded by mountains with an established planning, however, a disorder has been generated when locating land uses such as education and residence. When talking about higher education, we find the Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo National University (UNASAM), which has a high student demand throughout the territory, due to the fact that it has a university campus of great hierarchy, which has generated that young people leave their places of origin and find accommodation near this university to reside for the duration of their career. The following work aims to solve the habitability problem that exists in UNASAM students, in order to achieve the best student comfort factors and influence the education that is taught. The motivation for this project is centered on offering students who come from remote areas a functional, organized, safe, comfortable accommodation that is integrated into the natural landscape. The purpose of this thesis is to establish an architectural design based on landscape criteria, achieving to enhance the natural value of Huaraz, having as a conceptualization the building inserted in the landscape, with this not only implementing the use of residential, but also cultural, social, recreational activities. and academics that a university student needs to shape his professional future.Tesi

On the benefits of the tryptophan metabolite 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid in Caenorhabditis elegans and mouse aging.

Tryptophan metabolism through the kynurenine pathway influences molecular processes critical to healthy aging including immune signaling, redox homeostasis, and energy production. Aberrant kynurenine metabolism occurs during normal aging and is implicated in many age-associated pathologies including chronic inflammation, atherosclerosis, neurodegeneration, and cancer. We and others previously identified three kynurenine pathway genes-tdo-2, kynu-1, and acsd-1-for which decreasing expression extends lifespan in invertebrates. Here we report that knockdown of haao-1, a fourth gene encoding the enzyme 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid (3HAA) dioxygenase (HAAO), extends lifespan by ~30% and delays age-associated health decline in Caenorhabditis elegans. Lifespan extension is mediated by increased physiological levels of the HAAO substrate 3HAA. 3HAA increases oxidative stress resistance and activates the Nrf2/SKN-1 oxidative stress response. In pilot studies, female Haao knockout mice or aging wild type male mice fed 3HAA supplemented diet were also long-lived. HAAO and 3HAA represent potential therapeutic targets for aging and age-associated disease

Dynamic Line Rating Oncor Electric Delivery Smart Grid Program

Electric transmission lines are the lifeline of the electric utility industry, delivering its product from source to consumer. This critical infrastructure is often constrained such that there is inadequate capacity on existing transmission lines to efficiently deliver the power to meet demand in certain areas or to transport energy from high-generation areas to high-consumption regions. When this happens, the cost of the energy rises; more costly sources of power are used to meet the demand or the system operates less reliably. These economic impacts are known as congestion, and they can amount to substantial dollars for any time frame of reference: hour, day or year. There are several solutions to the transmission constraint problem, including: construction of new generation, construction of new transmission facilities, rebuilding and reconductoring of existing transmission assets, and Dynamic Line Rating (DLR). All of these options except DLR are capital intensive, have long lead times and often experience strong public and regulatory opposition. The Smart Grid Demonstration Program (SGDP) project co-funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) and Oncor Electric Delivery Company developed and deployed the most extensive and advanced DLR installation to demonstrate that DLR technology is capable of resolving many transmission capacity constraint problems with a system that is reliable, safe and very cost competitive. The SGDP DLR deployment is the first application of DLR technology to feed transmission line real-time dynamic ratings directly into the system operation’s State Estimator and load dispatch program, which optimizes the matching of generation with load demand on a security, reliability and economic basis. The integrated Dynamic Line Rating (iDLR)1 collects transmission line parameters at remote locations on the lines, calculates the real-time line rating based on the equivalent conductor temperature, ambient temperature and influence of wind and solar radiation on the stringing section, transmits the data to the Transmission Energy Management System, validates its integrity and passes it on to Oncor and ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) respective system operations. The iDLR system is automatic and transparent to ERCOT System Operations, i.e., it operates in parallel with all other system status telemetry collected through Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) employed across the company

Clinical and Histopathological Amelioration of Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis by AAV Vectors Expressing a Soluble Interleukin-23 Receptor

The role of the T helper (Th)17 pathway has been clearly demonstrated in the onset and progression of autoimmune diseases, where interleukin (IL)-23 is a key molecule in maintaining the response mediated by Th17 cells. As a consequence, recent strategies based on blocking the interaction between IL-23 and its receptor (IL-23R), for example the anti-p19 antibody tildrakizumab, have been developed to regulate the Th17 pathway from the initial stages of the disease. Here, a soluble (s)IL-23R cDNA was cloned in expression plasmids and viral vectors. The clinical efficacy of sIL-23R was evaluated in myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein-induced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis mice intravenously injected with a single dose of adeno-associated virus AAV8- sIL-23R vectors. Cytokine secretion was determined by multiplexassay, while histopathological analysis of the central nervous system was performed to study demyelination, inflammatory infiltration, and microglia and astroglia activation. We observed that administration of adeno-associated vector 8 encoding sIL-23R was associated with a significant disease improvement,including delay in the onset of the clinical signs; slower progress of the disease;interference with IL-23- mediated signal transducer and activator of transcription response by inhibiting of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 phosphorylation; reduced demyelination and infiltration in the central nervous system; and lower astrocyte and microglia activation. Our results suggest that the use of vectors carrying sIL-23R to block the IL-23/IL-23R interaction may be a new therapeutic strategy for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13311-017-0545-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users