THE POLITICAL ONTOLOGY OF SEEDS: SEED SOVEREIGNTY STRUGGLES IN AN INDIGENOUS RESGUARDO IN COLOMBIA

This dissertation examines seed conflicts in Colombia due to the expansion of the Corporate Seed Regime, or the corporate-led governance and political economy of seeds premised upon the commodification of seeds via genetic engineering and intellectual property rights on plant material, in the context of the Free Trade Agreement with the US. To analyze seed conflicts in Colombia, I propose a multi-pronged approach that weaves together the political economy, the political ecology, and the political ontology of seed-human relationships. As other communities and social movements in Colombia –and across Latin America–, seed savers from the Network of Free Seeds are increasingly associating neo-extractivist projects, particularly the expansion of GM corporate agriculture, to death and destruction, while defining their movement as the defense of life. Drawing from this conceptualization of ‘life’ vs ‘dead seed systems,’ I argue that seed conflicts are ontological conflicts, or conflicts over what seeds are, and, by extent, over the defense of the diversity of seed-human worlds enacted through agriculture and food practices. To investigate the ontological dimension of seed conflicts, I analyze conceptualizations of seeds as a commons and sentient, related beings among Emberá-Chamí indigenous communities in the District of Riosucio, in the Colombian coffee-growing zone. I examine why and how the conservation of ‘traditional’ seeds and anti-GM activism in Riosucio’s indigenous communities underpin their struggles for territory, identity, food sovereignty, and self-governance. Specifically, I look at three seed sovereignty initiatives in Riosucio: seed saving networks, the Community Seed House, and Transgenic-Free Territories. I contend that these initiatives evidence relational seed ontologies based on 1) multispecies figured worlds where identity-making processes become embodied in –and through– non-human beings, such as seeds, who shape indigeneity in Riosucio; and 2) place-based ways of inhabiting the territory, or modelos propios, particularly a Community Seed Economy that fosters multispecies practices of care, commons, and alternative markets for seeds.Doctor of Philosoph

Identificación de variables principales en el planeamiento de redes de transmisión usando técnicas heurísticas basadas en PLE y PNLE

En este artículo se presenta una propuesta de reducción del espacio de solución en el problema de planeamiento de redes de transmisión que consiste en utilizar técnicas heurísticas basadas en métodos de programación lineal entera (PLE) y programación no lineal entera (PNLE) para la identificación de variables principales. El desempeño de estas técnicas se compara con el de técnicas convencionales basadas en modelos relajados que eliminan la condición de entero de las variables de decisión. Los resultados muestran un desempeño superior a las técnicas heurísticas convencionales bajo un ligero aumento del tiempo computacional en sistemas de prueba de tamaño y dificultad baja y media

Planeamiento de sistemas de transmisión de energía eléctrica usando AMPL

Se analizan los resultados obtenidos al resolver distintos modelos matemáticos que representan el problema de planeamiento de sistemas de transmisión de energía eléctrica, a través del programa de modelamiento matemático AMPL y los solvers de optimización CPLEX y KNITRO. Los resultados obtenidos son comparados con soluciones óptimas conocidas de la literatura especializada para los sistemas de prueba utilizados. Se presenta una alternativa de prueba de modelos de planeamiento de la transmisión utilizando programas de modelamiento y solvers existentes como un paso previo a la implementación de dichos modelos usando solvers propios, basados en técnicas metaheurísticas y exactas, que resuelvan problemas de la vida real de gran tamaño y complejidad, que los solvers comerciales no logran resolver

Perfil de sensibilidad antimicrobiana de microorganismos causantes de infecciones urinarias adquiridas en la comunidad en pacientes con diabetes mellitus en Colombia

Introducción. La infección de las vías urinarias es la más frecuente en pacientes diabéticos, y es un factor determinante de la morbilidad y la mortalidad en este grupo de pacientes. El aumento de la resistencia de los microorganismos adquiridos en la comunidad a los antibióticos comúnmente utilizados para combatirla es alarmante. Objetivo. Determinar el perfil de sensibilidad a los antibióticos de los microorganismos responsables de infecciones urinarias adquiridas en la comunidad en pacientes diabéticos atendidos en algunos hospitales de Colombia. Materiales y métodos. Se hizo un estudio descriptivo de un subgrupo de pacientes diabéticos en el marco de una investigación en adultos con infección de origen comunitario de las vías urinarias. Durante un año, se recolectaron aislamientos de Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp. y Proteus mirabilis en nueve hospitales de Colombia y se determinó su perfil de sensibilidad mediante métodos microbiológicos y moleculares, para establecer la presencia de betalactamasas de espectro extendido del tipo AmpC y de carbapenemasas del tipo KPC. Resultados. Se recolectaron 68 aislamientos (58 de E. coli, nueve de Klebsiella spp. y uno de P. mirabilis). Cuatro (6,9 %) de los aislamientos de E. coli expresaron dichas betalactamasas, en dos (3,4 %) de ellos, pertenecientes al grupo filogenético B2 y al clon ST131, se detectaron las betalactamasas TEM-1 y CTM-X-15. En otros cuatro (6,9 %) aislamientos de E. coli se encontró el fenotipo AmpC, y en tres de ellos se produjeron las betalactamasas TEM-1 y CMY-2. Un aislamiento de K. pneumoniae expresó la carbapenemasa KPC-3. Conclusión. Se confirmó la presencia de cepas productoras de betalactamasas de espectro extendido y carbapenemasas en microorganismos responsables de infección urinaria adquirida en la comunidad en pacientes diabéticos.Q4Q3Artículo original353-36

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7\TeV

A measurement of the production cross-section for top quark pairs(\ttbar) in $pp$ collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 \TeV is presented using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in two different topologies: single lepton (electron $e$ or muon $\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least four jets, and dilepton ($ee$, $\mu\mu$ or $e\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. In a data sample of 2.9 pb-1, 37 candidate events are observed in the single-lepton topology and 9 events in the dilepton topology. The corresponding expected backgrounds from non-\ttbar Standard Model processes are estimated using data-driven methods and determined to be $12.2 \pm 3.9$ events and $2.5 \pm 0.6$ events, respectively. The kinematic properties of the selected events are consistent with SM \ttbar production. The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section is measured to be \sigmattbar=145 \pm 31 ^{+42}_{-27} pb where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measurement agrees with perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 30 pages plus author list (50 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, CERN-PH number and final journal adde

Measurement of the top quark pair cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV using final states with an electron or a muon and a hadronically decaying τ lepton

A measurement of the cross section of top quark pair production in proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is reported. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.05 fb -1. Events with an isolated electron or muon and a τ lepton decaying hadronically are used. In addition, a large missing transverse momentum and two or more energetic jets are required. At least one of the jets must be identified as originating from a b quark. The measured cross section, σtt-=186±13(stat.)±20(syst.)±7(lumi.) pb, is in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction