Power in Transition: Empowering Discourses on Sustainability Transitions

This is a book about power and transformative change. It explores how groups of people who are trying to transform the mobility system are affected by notions of change and power, and how they deal with the dilemmas of power. Academic literature on power and transitions offers concepts to grasp phenomena in practice. And visa versa, observing these practices allows us to gain new understanding of power in relation to transformative change. More specifically, this book is about power in relation to transition studies, a new research field which has the ambition to both understand and foster societal transformation. It is also about the role of power in transition management, a new prescriptive governance model for sustainable development

Pooled Time Series Modeling Reveals Smoking Habit Memory Pattern

Smoking is a habit that is hard to break because nicotine is highly addictive and smoking behavior is strongly linked to multiple daily activities and routines. Here, we explored the effect of gender, age, day of the week, and previous smoking on the number of cigarettes smoked on any given day. Data consisted of daily records of the number of cigarettes participants smoked over an average period of 84 days. The sample included smokers (36 men and 26 women), aged between 18 and 26 years, who smoked at least five cigarettes a day and had smoked for at least 2 years. A panel data analysis was performed by way of multilevel pooled time series modeling. Smoking on any given day was a function of the number of cigarettes smoked on the previous day, and 2, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, and 56 days previously, and the day of the week. Neither gender nor age influenced this pattern, with no multilevel effects being detected, thus the behavior of all participants fitted the same smoking model. These novel findings show empirically that smoking behavior is governed by firmly established temporal dependence patterns and inform temporal parameters for the rational design of smoking cessation programs

PLASMA AND ERYTHROCYTE CHOLINESTERASE ACTIVITIES IN CHILDREN FROM YUCATAN, MEXICO: RELATIONSHIP WITH ANTHROPOMETRY AND OBESITY

Objective: To examine cholinesterase activities in children from three towns in Yucatan, Mexico and their relationship with anthropometry.Methods: Plasma and erythrocyte cholinesterase a ctivities were measured in 104 children from Ticul, Merida and Progreso. Differences between gender, sampling sites and body mass index (BMI ) group  were evaluated. Weight, height, BMI, hip and waist circumferences were correlated with cholinesterase activities.Results: Significant differences in the waist circumference and BChE activity were found among sites. Children from Ticul presented higher BChE activity compared to children from the other towns. Children from Progreso had a smaller hip circumference compared to children from the other two locations. There was a high prevalence of overweight and obese children (40.3%). The results indicated that obese children had higher BChE activity respect to healthy weight children. As expected, there were also significant waist and hip circumference differences for BMI groups. The results demonstrated a positive significant correlation between BChE activity and weight, waist and hip circumference.Conclusions: These results support the hypothesized role of BChE in lipid metabolism. Because of the high prevalence of obese children in Mexico, BChE activity may be used as a biomarker in combination with anthropometry to monitor obesity.Keywords: Cholinesterase, Children, Anthropometry, Obesity

A guide to the establishment and maintenance of milkfish broodstock

The manual describes methods used at the SEAFDEC Aquaculture Department in order to establish milkfish broodstock. It is presented under the following major section headings: Establishing broodstock farms; Farms for rearing bangus juveniles; Maturation cages for rearing broodstock to maturity; Gathering data; Spawning and egg collection; and Larval rearing.This study as well as the publication of this guide was partly supported by the International Development Research Centre of Canada under Project No. 3-P78-0033 (Phase II) and No. 3-P81-0171 (Phase III)

Using Natural Raw Materials and CEM Approach for the Design of Andean Volcanic Self-Compacting Concretes

La actividad volcánica es característica de las zonas sísmicas. En consecuencia, el material volcánico forma parte del paisaje en lugares donde los terremotos son fenómenos naturales comunes. Dado que los residuos volcánicos (VW) muestran actividad puzolánica, la sustitución del cemento Portland (PC) manufacturado por VW es claramente una opción deseable no solo desde el punto de vista económico sino también para reducir las emisiones de CO 2huella dactilar. Por lo tanto, diseñar hormigones con cementos Portland volcánicos (VPC) contribuye claramente a una producción de cemento más limpia. Las actividades de construcción y edificación en zonas sísmicas necesitan utilizar un tipo específico de hormigón: hormigón autocompactante (SCC). El desafío en el que nos enfocamos fue el diseño de SCC usando VPC. El comportamiento de flujo de SCC se caracteriza por un límite elástico bajo, una viscosidad plástica alta y un comportamiento de espesamiento por cizallamiento a cizallamiento alto. Sin embargo, obtener estas sorprendentes propiedades del hormigón no es fácil con los ensayos de flujo de hormigón tradicionales (cono de Abrams, etc.). Además, estos métodos son muy costosos en términos de tiempo y material. Una alternativa que nos permite utilizar la reometría absoluta y que ha sido poco explorada consiste en la sustitución del hormigón por un mortero equivalente. En este estudio se utilizó el denominado mortero equivalente de hormigón (CEM) para obtener formulaciones de HAC con VPC. Las pruebas de minicono confirmaron la ausencia de mezcla en algunas formulaciones de CEM seleccionadas según el cumplimiento de los criterios para SCC. De las respectivas formulaciones del CEM se infirieron tres propuestas concretas. Se adaptaron al estándar europeo SCC según el ensayo de apertura de conos de Abrams.Partial funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málag

Administración de los recursos humanos y la calidad de servicios de la Municipalidad Distrital de Amarilis

In the present research work, the general objective was to determine the relationship between the Human Resources Administration and the Quality of service to propose a plan with the purpose to improve the quality of services of the Municipality of Amarilis, Period 2015. The investigation was descriptive and correlational, because it measured the degree of relationship between the variables: administration of human resources and quality of service. The sample was 90, administrative workers of the municipality of Amarilis, between the months of October and November in 2015. Related to the instrument of data collection; A questionnaire was applied for each variable. The human resources administration questionnaire was composed of 12 items, with a Likert scale amplitude and quality of service. The validity and reliability of the instrument were determined according to the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient and the results obtained were 0.894, for the questionnaire, therefore, it was reliable and consistent. The results, when applying the Spearman coefficient of relation, show a value of 0.819 which means that there is a high positive correlation, and with respect to the value of "sig." A result of 0.000 was obtained, which is less than 0.05 (level of significance), therefore it is concluded that there is a significant relationship between the Human Resources Administration and the quality of services of the Municipality of Amarilis during the period 2015.El presente trabajo de investigación tuvo como objetivo general determinar la relación entre la Administración de Recursos Humanos y la Calidad de servicio para proponer un plan con la finalidad de mejorar la calidad de servicios de la Municipalidad Distrital de Amarilis, Periodo 2015. La investigación fue de tipo descriptivo y correlacional, porque midió el grado de relación entre las variables: administración de los recursos humanos y la calidad de servicio. La muestra estuvo constituida por 90, trabajadores administrativos de la municipalidad distrital de Amarilis, entre los meses de octubre y noviembre del año 2015. En relación al instrumento de recolección de datos; se aplicó un cuestionario para cada variable. El cuestionario de administración de recursos humanos estuvo compuesto por 12 ítems, con una amplitud de escala de Likert y la calidad de servicio. La validez y la confiabilidad del instrumento se determinaron según el coeficiente de Alfa de Cronbach y los resultados obtenidos fueron de 0,894, para el cuestionario, por tanto, fue fiable y consistente. Los resultados, al aplicar el coeficiente de relación de Spearman, muestran un valor de 0,819 lo que significa que existe una correlación positiva alta, y con respecto al valor de “sig.” se obtuvo un resultado de 0.000, que es menor a 0.05 (nivel de significancia), por ende, se concluye que existe relación significativa entre la Administración de los Recursos Humanos con la calidad de servicios de la Municipalidad Distrital de Amarilis durante el periodo 2015

Calibration Methodology for CFD Models of Rooms and Buildings with Mechanical Ventilation from Experimental Results

This chapter describes a methodology for the development and calibration of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models of three-dimensional enclosures for buildings with combined forced and natural convection from experimental result. The models were validated with physical test measurements of room air temperature. The developed CFD models included a model of an internal wall-mounted air conditioning (HVAC) split unit. The methodology proposed here aims at selecting the correct grid size and the appropriate boundary conditions from experimental data. The experimental campaign took place in an empty office room within an educational building. A set of experiments was performed with varying boundary conditions of two main variables, the fan speed of the HVAC unit and the surface wall temperature of the opposite wall to the HVAC unit. The developed CFD models used the standard k-ε turbulence model and the SIMPLE algorithm. The variable of interest was the room air temperature and its distribution within the internal environment. The application of the methodology has shown satisfactory results, finding a maximum error of 9% between the CFD model and the experimental result. This methodology can be used by other researchers to calibrate CFD models in existing rooms and then carry out detailed studies of temperature distribution, comfort and energy demand analysis

Impact of changes in perinatal care on bronchopulmonary dysplasia: an overview of the last two decades

Objective: To compare the clinical approach and outcomes of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) patients in the last two decades (1996-2005 vs 2006-2015) in a neonatal intensive care unit. Methods: Out of 1,196 admissions of very low birth weight and/or less than 32 weeks of gestational age infants, 96 had BPD and were dichotomized into two groups according to the year of birth (1996-2005 and 2006-2015). Their clinical data were studied and conclusions were drawn about their morbidity and mortality. Results: There was a decrease in mortality (23.3% vs. 14.4%, p < 0.001) and in BPD prevalence (9.7% vs 6.1%, p = 0.023); in the delivery room, early nasal continuous positive airways pressure (nCPAP) was used in 41.2% vs 1.6%, p < 0.001 and tracheal intubation in 70.6% vs 96.8%, p < 0.001. We observed an increase on the duration of non-invasive ventilation (nCPAP, 22.5 vs 45.5 days, p < 0.001) and a decrease of invasive ventilation (39.5 vs 20 days, p = 0.013) from the first to the second period. Conclusions: Improvement in perinatal and neonatal intensive care practices, namely the use of non-invasive methods of mechanical ventilation implemented in the last years, probably contributed to the better evolution of preterm infants with BPD.This study was funded by: FEDER through the Operational Programme “Competitiveness and Internationalization” and national funding from the Foundation for Science and Technology – FCT (Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education), under the Unidade de Investigação em Epidemiologia – Instituto de Saúde Públicada Universidade do Porto (EPIUnit) (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006862; Ref. UID/DTP/04750/2013); the PhD Grant SFRH/BD/111794/2015 (Carina Rodrigues), co-funded by the FCT and the POPH/FSE Program

Longitudinal Effects of Distress and Its Management During COVID-19 Lockdown in Spain

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic that hit Spain during March 2020 forced the strict confinement of the population for 2 months. The objectives of this study were (a) to assess the magnitude and duration of the influence of confinement on people’s Distress, (b) to study the temporal sequence of stress, and (c) to show how different day-to-day activities and personal variables influence perceived Distress levels. Method: A daily registration was completed by 123 people, with ages ranging from 21 to 75 years old (X = 43, SD = 10 years), of which there were 40 men (32%) and 83 females (68%). During 45 days of lockdown, from March 19th to May 3rd, participants were asked to respond to a socio-demographic survey and make daily records comprising the MASQ-D30 and some day-to-day behaviors. Pooled time series was applied to establish what effect time had on the dependent variable. Results: Distress has a 14-day autoregressive function and gender, physical activity, sexual activity, listening to music, and teleworking also influence Distress. It has been hypothesized that the intercept presents variability at level 2 (individual), but it has not been significant. Interactions between Gender—Telecommuting, and Gender—Physical Activity were observed. Approximately 66% of the variance of Distress was explained (R 2 = 0.663). Discussion: At the beginning of the lockdown, the average levels of Distress were well above the levels of the end (z = 3.301). The individuals in the sample have followed a very similar process in the development of Distress. During the lockdown, the “memory” of Distress was 2 weeks. Our results indicate that levels of Distress depend on activities during lockdown. Interactions exist between gender and some behavioral variables that barely influence Distress in men but decrease Distress in women. The importance of routine maintenance and gender differences must be considered to propose future interventions during confinement