Strategic and operational risk in an international collaboration agency: a knowledge management solution

The International Cooperation Agency (identified in this article as IDEA) working in Colombia is one of the most important in Colombian society with programs that support gender rights, human rights, justice and peace, scholarships, aboriginal population, youth, afro descendants population, economic development in communities, and environmental development. The identified problem is based on the diversified offer of services, collaboration and social intervention which requires diverse groups of people with multiple agendas, ways to support their mandates, disciplines, and professional competences. Knowledge creation and the growth and sustainability of the organization can be in danger because of a silo culture and the resulting reduced leverage of the separate group capabilities. Organizational memory is generally formed by the tacit knowledge of the organization members, given the value of accumulated experience that this kind of social work implies. Its loss is therefore a strategic and operational risk when most problem interventions rely on direct work in the socio-economic field and living real experiences with communities. The knowledge management solution presented in this article starts first, with the identification of the people and groups concerned and the creation of a knowledge map as a means to strengthen the ties between organizational members; second, by introducing a content management system designed to support the documentation process and knowledge sharing process; and third, introducing a methodology for the adaptation of a Balanced Scorecard based on the knowledge management processes. These three main steps lead to a knowledge management “solution” that has been implemented in the organization, comprising three components: a knowledge management system, training support and promotion of cultural change

Seventy-five years of measuring income inequality in Latin America

Drawing on a comprehensive compilation of quantile shares and inequality measures for 34 countries, including over 5,600 estimated Gini coefficients, we review the measurement of income inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean over the last seven decades. Although the evidence from the first quarter century – roughly until the 1970s – is too fragmentary and difficult to compare, clearer patterns emerge for the last fifty years. The central feature of these patterns is a broad inverted U curve, with inequality rising in most countries prior to the 1990s, and falling during the early 21st Century, at least until the mid-2010s, when trends appear to diverge across countries. This broad pattern is modified by country specificities, with considerable variation in timing and magnitude. Whereas this broad picture emerges for income inequality dynamics, there is much more uncertainty about the exact levels of inequality in the region. The uncertainty arises from the disparity in estimates for the same country/year combinations, depending on whether they come from household surveys exclusively; from some combination of surveys and administrative tax data; and on whether they attempt to scale income aggregates to achieve consistency with National Accounts estimates. Since no single method is fully convincing at present, we are left with (often wide) ranges, or bands, of inequality as our best summaries of inequality levels. Reassuringly, however, the dynamic patterns are generally robust across the bands

Mudanças no perfil sensorial e de voláteis do suco de abacaxi concentrado durante o processamento.

O abacaxi é uma fruta tropical com uma excepcional suculência e um vibrante sabor tropical que equilibra os gostos doce e ácido. A qualidade sensorial dos sucos de frutas sofre alterações durante o processamento, especialmente quando envolve um tratamento térmico. Neste estudo, amostras de suco de abacaxi foram coletadas, em uma indústria de sucos tropicais, em diferentes etapas do processamento: extração, finisher, centrifugação e concentração. Os voláteis foram isolados pela técnica de headspace dinâmico, identificados por CG-EM e pela técnica Osme de GC-Olfatometria para determinar sua importância odorífera e escolher os compostos a serem monitorados durante o processamento. As amostras de cada etapa do processamento também foram submetidas à Análise Sensorial Descritiva por uma equipe formada por oito julgadores. No total, 54 compostos foram detectados pelo FID, dos quais 45 foram identificados por espectrometria de massas e Índices de Retenção. A maioria foram ésteres, seguidos de álcoois, aldeídos, cetonas, ácidos, hidrocarbonetos e terpeno. O aromagrama revelou 64 picos odoríferos, dos quais 46 foram considerados de grande importância para o aroma característico do abacaxi. A maioria dos voláteis diminuiu durante o processamento, sendo alguns deles compostos contribuintes para o odor descrito como abacaxi, como por exemplo, propanoato etila, 2-metil-l-butanol e 2-metil butanoato de metila. Por outro lado, alguns compostos aumentaram com o processamento, como o 3-metill- butanol, descrito como desagradável, plástico~ butanoato de etila, descrito como verde, abacaxi~ acetato de 2-metil-l-butanol, descrito como desagradável, plástico. A equipe sensorial desenvolveu uma ficha de avaliação com 15termos para descrever o aroma e sabor: aromas de abacaxi maduro, adocicado, sulfuroso, fennentado, ácido, abacaxi cozido, verde e artificial, sabores de abacaxi, fermentado, verde, fruta cozida e artificial, gostos doce e ácido. As amostras provenientes das etapas extração, finisher e centrifugação apresentaram perfis sensoriais semelhantes, indicando que não houve grandes mudanças na qualidade do suco durante essas etapas do processamento. O suco concentrado, no entanto, distinguiu das outras amostras, por apresentar perfil aromático muito pobre, com forte aroma e sabor de fruta cozida e um intenso aroma artificial.Dissertação (Mestrado em Tecnologia de alimentos) - Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, 2009. Orientador: Geraldo Arraes Maia, UFC; Co-orientadora: Deborah dos Santos Garruti, CNPAT

Elemental abundance study of the CP star HD 206653

An analysis of the abundances of the Silicon star HD 206653 is presented using an ATLAS9 model atmosphere and observational material taken with a REOSC echelle spectrograph attached to the Jorge Sahade 2.15 m telescope at CASLEO. The light elements are solar or deficient except silicon which is overabundant by a factor of 5. The iron peak elements are all overabundant by factors between 10 and 50. Sr and Y are around 1000 times the solar values. Among the Rare Earths only Ce and Eu are identified; both are overabundant by large factors.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica

Elemental abundance study of the CP star HD 206653

An analysis of the abundances of the Silicon star HD 206653 is presented using an ATLAS9 model atmosphere and observational material taken with a REOSC echelle spectrograph attached to the Jorge Sahade 2.15 m telescope at CASLEO. The light elements are solar or deficient except silicon which is overabundant by a factor of 5. The iron peak elements are all overabundant by factors between 10 and 50. Sr and Y are around 1000 times the solar values. Among the Rare Earths only Ce and Eu are identified; both are overabundant by large factors.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica

Amino Acids Generated from Hydrated Titan Tholins: Comparison with Miller-Urey Electric Discharge Products

Various analogues of Titan haze particles (termed tholins) have been made in the laboratory. In certain geologic environments on Titan, these haze particles may come into contact with aqueous ammonia (NH3) solutions, hydrolyzing them into molecules of astrobiological interest. A Titan tholin analogue hydrolyzed in aqueous NH3 at room temperature for 2.5 years was analyzed for amino acids using highly sensitive ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with fluorescence detection and time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-FDToF-MS) analysis after derivatization with a fluorescent tag. We compare here the amino acids produced from this reaction sequence with those generated from room temperature Miller-Urey (MU) type electric discharge reactions. We find that most of the amino acids detected in low temperature MU CH4N2H2O electric discharge reactions are generated in Titan simulation reactions, as well as in previous simulations of Triton chemistry. This argues that many processes provide very similar mixtures of amino acids, and possibly other types of organic compounds, in disparate environments, regardless of the order of hydration. Although it is unknown how life began, it is likely that given reducing conditions, similar materials were available throughout the early Solar System and throughout the universe to facilitate chemical evolution

Inter-relationships between light and respiration in the control of ascorbic acid synthesis and accumulation in Arabidopsis thaliana leaves

The effects of growth irradiance and respiration on ascorbic acid (AA) synthesis and accumulation were studied in the leaves of wild-type and transformed Arabidopsis thaliana with modified amounts of the mitochondrial alternative oxidase (AOX) protein. Plants were grown under low (LL; 50 μmol photons m-2 s-1), intermediate (IL; 100 μmol photons m-2 s-1), or high (HL; 250 μmol photons m-2 s-1) light. Increasing growth irradiance progressively elevated leaf AA content and hence the values of dark-induced disappearance of leaf AA, which were 11, 55, and 89 nmol AA lost g-1 fresh weight h-1, from LL-, IL-, and HL-grown leaves, respectively. When HL leaves were supplied with L-galactone-1,4-lactone (L-GalL; the precursor of AA), they accumulated twice as much AA and had double the maximal L-galactone-1,4-lactone dehydrogenase (L-GalLDH) activities of LL leaves. Growth under HL enhanced dehydroascorbate reductase and monodehydroascorbate reductase activities. Leaf respiration rates were highest in the HL leaves, which also had higher amounts of cytochrome c and cytochrome c oxidase (CCO) activities, as well as enhanced capacity of the AOX and CCO electron transport pathways. Leaves of the AOX-overexpressing lines accumulated more AA than wild-type or antisense leaves, particularly at HL. Intact mitochondria from AOX-overexpressing lines had higher AA synthesis capacities than those from the wild-type or antisense lines even though they had similar L-GalLDH activities. AOX antisense lines had more cytochrome c protein than wild-type or AOX-overexpressing lines. It is concluded that regardless of limitations on L-GalL synthesis by regulation of early steps in the AA synthesis pathway, the regulation of L-GalLDH activity via the interaction of light and respiratory controls is a crucial determinant of the overall ability of leaves to produce and accumulate AA.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y MuseoInstituto de Fisiología VegetalFacultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestale

Optical spectroscopy of X-Mega targets : IV. CPD -59°2636: A new O-type multiple system in the Carina Nebula

High-resolution optical spectroscopy of CPD -59°2636, one of the O-type stars in the open cluster Trumpler 16 in the Carina Nebula, reveals this object to be a multiple system displaying triple lines which we label as components A, B and C of spectral types O7 V, O8 V and O9 V, respectively. From our radial velocity measurements we find that the components A and B form a close binary with a period of 3.6284 d, and we obtain the first circular radial velocity orbit for this system with semi-amplitudes of 184 and 192 km s-1, leading to minimum masses of 10.1 and 9.7 M⊙. We find that the component C is a single lined binary with a period of 5.034 d and semi-amplitude of 48 km s-1. We also analyse the X-ray radiation from CPD -59°2636, finding neither appreciable overluminosity nor phase-related X-ray flux variations.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica