Understanding Development Bureaucracies: A Case Study of Mexico’s Rural Development Policy

This research is about how development practice is produced by development bureaucracies. In 2001, the Mexican Congress enacted a new national law called Ley de Desarrollo Rural Sustentable (Sustainable Rural Development Act) seeking to produce the radical change that the Mexican rural sector needed to improve the social and economic conditions of the rural population. Its policy design was based on the dominant paradigm of rural development, of which ideas such as sustainable livelihoods, decentralisation and community participation compose the core elements. Ten years since the launch of this policy it has not triggered the expected changes in social and economic conditions in rural Mexico. This work seeks to provide grounded explanations about why some ‘good’ development policies produce unexpected outcomes. The research focus is on understanding how development bureaucracies translate the directives of development programmes. It is possible to see their influence on policy outcomes and in the rationale behind the decisions made by bureaucratic actors in the implementation arena. Making use of actor-oriented approaches, this thesis develops a case study that describes how, responding to multiple realities, bureaucratic actors make their decisions in the implementation arena. It analyses the different rationales by which bureaucracies at different levels interpret and produce meaning from the notions of decentralisation and community participation in the process of the implementation of Mexico’s Ley de Desarrollo Rural Sustentable. The case study shows that development bureaucracies play a key role in the generation of policy outcomes. It shows that Mexican development bureaucracies have a particular rationale that is significantly different from the implicit assumptions made in the design of the planned intervention and in which informal institutions such as compadrazgo and clientelism are used strategically by bureaucratic actors to produce development practice. The main conclusion of the thesis is that understanding development bureaucracies’ rationales provides coherent explanations about the apparently contradictory outcomes produced by novel policy approaches in developing countries

Nivel de conocimiento sobre radiografías periapicales digitales en alumnos del VII y IX semestre de la Facultad de Odontología de la Universidad Católica de Santa María, Arequipa 2022

La presente investigación tiene por objetivo medir el nivel de conocimiento sobre las Radiografías Periapicales Digitales en los estudiantes del VII y IX Semestre de la Facultad de Odontología de la Universidad Católica de Santa María en el año 2022. Las unidades de estudio fueron agrupadas en dos grupos, siendo el primero conformado por los estudiantes del VII Semestre con un total de 99 personas, y el segundo conformado por los estudiantes del IX Semestre con un total de 84 personas, las cuales fueron sometidas a criterios de inclusión, para su posterior comparación. El abordaje de la investigación fue cuantitativo, siendo un estudio prospectivo, transversal y comparativo. Para la recolección de datos se utilizó la técnica de encuesta mediante un cuestionario virtual, con un instrumento denominado “formulario”, el cual fue elaborado de acuerdo con las variables, indicadores y subindicadores. Los resultados obtenidos fueron sistematizados en una matriz de datos, los cuales están representados en tablas y gráficos. Los hallazgos muestran que, en el primer grupo el nivel de conocimiento de Radiografías Periapicales Digitales fue de: “malo” en un 47,47%, “regular” en un 48,49% y “bueno” en un 4,04% del total de estudiantes; y que, en el segundo grupo los resultados fueron de: “malo” en un 40,48%, “regular” en un 47,62% y “bueno” en un 11,9%. Por lo cual, se concluye que, no hay una diferencia estadística significativa en el nivel de conocimiento sobre las Radiografías Periapicales Digitales entre los estudiantes del VII y IX Semestre de la Facultad de Odontología de la Universidad Católica de Santa María del año 2022

Calidad de suelos y eficiencia de uso de energía en rotaciones arroceras contrastantes

El objetivo de este trabajo fue evaluar el impacto de alternativas de intensificación a la rotación arroz-pasturas sobre la calidad del suelo (CS) y la eficiencia en el uso de la energía (EUE). Sobre un experimento iniciado en 2012 en INIA Treinta y Tres, Uruguay (33° 16' 23'' S; 54° 10' 24'' O; 22 MSNM), se evaluaron seis rotaciones con todas sus fases presentes cada año y replicadas 3 veces. Los tratamientos evaluados fueron: Monocultivo de arroz (Az-Continuo, 1 año); arroz en rotación con soja (Az-Soja, 2 años) y con soja y sorgo (Az-Cultivos, 4 años); arroz en rotación con soja y pasturas de corta duración (Az-Soja-PPcorta, 6 años); arroz en rotación con pasturas corta duración (Az-PPcorta, 2 años) y de larga duración (Az-PPlarga, 5 años). Durante octubre de 2016 y abril de 2017 se determinó, el carbono orgánico total del suelo (TCOS), nitrógeno total (NT), así como sus fracciones, materia orgánica particulada (C-MOP y N-MOP) y asociada a la fracción mineral (C-MOAM y N-MOAM), respiración, biomasa microbiana y potencial de mineralización de nitrógeno (0-15 cm prof.). Se muestreó hasta los 60 cm para TCOS y NT solo el primer año. Para evaluar la EUE se analizó información de 2 zafras (2015-2016 y 2016-2017) mediante un enfoque sistémico. El inventario de ciclo de vida incluyó desde la cuna hasta la portera, usando como unidad funcional: MJ ha⁻¹ de biomasa cosechable. Se calculó la tasa de retorno de energía invertida (EROI), la energía producida y energía invertida. No hubo diferencias en TCOS y NT entre rotaciones a ninguna profundidad. Sin embargo, el sistema Az-PPlarga tuvo 17,6% más de C-MOP (0-15 cm) que el promedio Az-Soja y Az-Cultivos (6,05 Mg ha⁻¹). La rotación Az-PPcorta y Az-Continuo redujeron la EROI 8% y 6,5% comparado a Az-PPlarga (6,1 MJ MJ⁻¹) respectivamente; mientras que Az-Soja aumentó 18%. Concluimos que, para una rotación arroz-pasturas estabilizada, existen alternativas de intensificación del uso del suelo que, en el mediano plazo, no afectaron la calidad del suelo o mejoraron la EUE, aunque es necesario una evaluación conjunta de los indicadores para evaluar la sostenibilidad

Cover Crops Alternatives for Sustainable Agriculture Systems in Uruguay

In Uruguay, the increase of cropland area during the last decade was based on rotation systems intensification and soybean expansion, achieving 1.321.000 ha (Souto, 2014). Diaz (2007) demonstrated the value of the ley-farming systems where the integration of livestock and crop production achieved benefits on sustainability. Despite the advantages of crop-pasture rotation systems (García Prechac et al., 2004), grain market prices and food demand resulted in pasture phase losses in rotation with crops. Recently, Livestock Agriculture and Fisheries Ministry implemented a national soil conservation plan, that regulates cropping rotation systems based on soil erosion estimations and other key soil quality indicators. Although, no-till was full adopted, climatic and soil conditions determine that soil must be cover by residues or vegetation all year to reduce erosion and degradation (Thorup-Kristensen et al., 2003). Cover crops contribute to protect soils during fallow periods. The 17% of total soybean area cultivated is in Eastern Uruguay, being soils with erosion risk , fertility, structure and drainage limitations. This paper evaluates cover crops adaptation, subsequent effects on soybean productivity, and estimations of nitrogen supply and extraction from cover crops and soybean, respectively

Scouting Benefits and Developing Innovations in Temperate Grassland to Sustainable Agriculture Production

Agricultural intensification raises concern about land use and future effects to natural resources. The world demand for grain, meat and forest products is increasing constantly. Changes are occurring at large scale, being a compromise for policy makers to contribute to identify opportunities to readdress the productive scenario. There is available technology to reduce impacts, without restricting necessarily productivity. Grasslands provide a large series of economical and ecological benefits to the agricultural systems, being the literature exhaustive in examples. Ley-farming and cover crops technologies are good examples of environmentally sound soil management practices. The society is also worried about an improper use of the natural resources involved. The drastic increase in the grain crops area leaded by soybean in Uruguay, determined that the government implemented Sustainable Soil Use and Management Plans, based on erosion estimation using the USLE-RUSLE model adapted locally by research conducted over more than 50 years on a series of long term experimental platforms. There is an opportunity for this type of local innovative initiatives to be widely diffused, adopted or adapted. In essence, grasslands will continue playing a key role in maintaining a sustainable production

Electrically Self-Healing Thermoset MWCNTs Composites Based on Diels-Alder and Hydrogen Bonds

In this work, we prepared electrically conductive self-healing nanocomposites. The material consists of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) that are dispersed into thermally reversible crosslinked polyketones. The reversible nature is based on both covalent (Diels-Alder) and non-covalent (hydrogen bonding) interactions. The design allowed for us to tune the thermomechanical properties of the system by changing the fractions of filler, and diene-dienophile and hydroxyl groups. The nanocomposites show up to 1 x 10(4) S/m electrical conductivity, reaching temperatures between 120 and 150 degrees C under 20-50 V. The self-healing effect, induced by electricity was qualitatively demonstrated as microcracks were repaired. As pointed out by electron microscopy, samples that were already healed by electricity showed a better dispersion of MWCNT within the polymer. These features point toward prolonging the service life of polymer nanocomposites, improving the product performance, making it effectively stronger and more reliable

Electroactive Self-Healing Shape Memory Polymer Composites Based on Diels–Alder Chemistry

Both shape memory and self-healing polymers have received significant attention from the materials science community. The former, for their application as actuators, self-deployable structures, and medical devices; and the latter, for extending the lifetime of polymeric products. Both effects can be stimulated by heat, which makes resistive heating a practical approach to trigger these effects. Here we show a conductive polyketone polymer and carbon nanotube composite with cross-links based on the thermo-reversible furan/maleimide Diels–Alder chemistry. This approach resulted in products with efficient electroactive shape memory effect, shape reprogrammability, and self-healing. They exhibit electroactive shape memory behavior with recovery ratios of about 0.9; requiring less than a minute for shape recovery; electroactive self-healing behavior able to repair microcracks and almost fully recover their mechanical properties; requiring a voltage in the order of tens of volts for both shape memory and self-healing effects. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of electroactive self-healing shape memory polymer composites that use covalent reversible Diels–Alder linkages, which yield robust solvent-resistant polymer networks without jeopardizing their reprocessability. These responsive polymers may be ideal for soft robotics and actuators. They are also a step toward sustainable materials by allowing an increased lifetime of use and reprocessability

Socioenvironmental conditions and intestinal parasitic infections in Brazilian urban slums: a cross-sectional study

Intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) are neglected diseases with limited data regarding prevalence in Brazil and many other countries. In increasingly urban societies, investigating the profile and socioenvironmental determinants of IPIs in the general population of slum dwellers is necessary for establishing appropriate public policies catered to these environments. This study assessed the socioenvironmental conditions and prevalence of IPIs in slums of Rio de Janeiro, RJ State, Brazil. Methods A cross-sectional study covering an agglomeration of urban slums was conducted between 2015 and 2016 using participants observation, a socioeconomic survey, and the spontaneous sedimentation method with three slides per sample to analyze fresh stool specimens ( n =595) searching for intestinal parasites. Results Endolimax nana ( n =95, 16.0%) and Entamoeba coli ( n =65, 10.9%) were the most frequently identified agents, followed by Giardia intestinalis ( n =24, 4.0%) and Ascaris lumbricoides ( n =11, 1.8%). Coinfections caused by E. nana and E. histolytica/dispar and by Entamoeba coli/A. lumbricoides were significant. The use of piped water as drinking water, the presence of A. lumbricoides , and contamination with coliform bacteria and Escherichia coli were more common in major area (MA) 1. Children (0-19 years) had a greater chance of living in poverty (OR 3.36; 95% CI: 2.50- 4.52;

A Wireless Sensor Network for Vineyard Monitoring That Uses Image Processing

The first step to detect when a vineyard has any type of deficiency, pest or disease is to observe its stems, its grapes and/or its leaves. To place a sensor in each leaf of every vineyard is obviously not feasible in terms of cost and deployment. We should thus look for new methods to detect these symptoms precisely and economically. In this paper, we present a wireless sensor network where each sensor node takes images from the field and internally uses image processing techniques to detect any unusual status in the leaves. This symptom could be caused by a deficiency, pest, disease or other harmful agent. When it is detected, the sensor node sends a message to a sink node through the wireless sensor network in order to notify the problem to the farmer. The wireless sensor uses the IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n standard, which allows connections from large distances in open air. This paper describes the wireless sensor network design, the wireless sensor deployment, how the node processes the images in order to monitor the vineyard, and the sensor network traffic obtained from a test bed performed in a flat vineyard in Spain. Although the system is not able to distinguish between deficiency, pest, disease or other harmful agents, a symptoms image database and a neuronal network could be added in order learn from the experience and provide an accurate problem diagnosis