Meanings of the empowerment process: a study with a self-helping organization for minorities with discapacities

Empowerment is a complex construc with various meanings, steps and actions. Duns, Trivette and LaPointe (1992) propose a theoretical framework integrating three empowerment components: ideology, process and results. They also propose that each one has at least two meanings: As an ideology the empowerment includes philosophy and paradigm whose process involves faciliting activities and alliances. As a process it includeschanges in power perception and in performance. The article examines the conceptual model usefulness for development, implementation and assessing of empowerment interventions. For this, a case study is presented describing a empowerment intervention with a service organization for ethnic minorities with discapacities. The information was obtained through activities and semi-strucutred interview scoring. Results indicate that the empowerment concept including multiple meanings is useful for analyzing empowerment interventions. Discussion explores the theoretical implications for developing alliances among universities and communities to promote empowerment.El incremento de poder (empowerment en ingles) es un constructo complejo asociado con varios significados, pasos y acciones. Dunst, Trivette, y LaPointe (1992) proponen un marco teórico que integra tres componentes del incremento de poder: ideología, proceso y resultados. Ellos proponen que cada uno de estos componentes tiene por lo menos dos significados: incremento de poder como ideología incluye filosofía y paradigma, como proceso incluye actividades facilitadoras y alianzas; y como proceso incluye: cambios en la percepción de poder y cambios en desempeño. Este artículo busca mostrar la utilidad de este modelo conceptual para el desarrollo, la implementación y la evaluación de intervenciones de incremento de poder. Para esto se presenta un estudio de caso que describe una intervención de incremento de poder con una organización de servicios para minorías étnicas con discapacidades. La información se obtuvo a través de registros de actividades y entrevistas semi estructuradas. Los resultados indican que el concepto de incremento de poder incluyendo múltiples significados es útil para analizar intervenciones de incremento de poder y sugiere su utilidad en el desarrollo y la implementación de las mismas. La discusión explora las implicaciones para la teoría de incremento de poder y para el desarrollo de alianzas entre universidades y comunidades para promover el incremento de poder

Varying discrete Laguerre-Sobolev orthogonal polynomials: Asymptotic behavior and zeros

We consider a varying discrete Sobolev inner product involving the Laguerre weight. Our aim is to study the asymptotic properties of the corresponding orthogonal polynomials and of their zeros. We are interested in Mehler-Heine type formulas because they describe the asymptotic differences between these Sobolev orthogonal polynomials and the classical Laguerre polynomials. Moreover, they give us an approximation of the zeros of the Sobolev polynomials in terms of the zeros of other special functions. We generalize some results appeared very recently in the literature for both the varying and non-varying cases.The author FM is partially supported by Dirección General de Investigación, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad Innovación of Spain, Grant MTM2012 36732 C03 01. The author JJMB is partially supported by Dirección General de Inves tigación, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación of Spain and European Regional Development Found, Grant MTM2011 28952 C02 01, and Junta de Andalucía, Research Group FQM 0229 (belonging to Campus of International Excellence CEI MAR), and projects P09 FQM 4643 and P11 FQM 7276

Seasonal occurrence of fin whale song off Juan Fernandez, Chile

© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Buchan, S. J., Gutierrez, L., Balcazar-Cabrera, N., & Stafford, K. M. Seasonal occurrence of fin whale song off Juan Fernandez, Chile. Endangered Species Research, 39, (2019): 135-145, doi:10.3354/esr00956.Fin whales Balaenoptera physalus were the species of baleen whale most widely caught by commercial whaling fleets off the Chilean coast and are globally classified as Endangered. However, very little is known about the present distribution and seasonal movements of fin whales off the coast of Chile. Passive acoustic data collected at the HA03 station of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization off the Juan Fernandez Archipelago (JFA) between 2007 and 2016 were analyzed. The temporal occurrence of fin whale song was examined using automatic detection via spectrogram cross-correlation of song notes and by calculating the average acoustic power in the frequency bands of fin whale song. Fin whale song off JFA was composed of regular 17 Hz notes associated with high-frequency components at 85 Hz, with singlet phrasing at a dominant primary inter-note interval of 14.4 s and a secondary interval of 30.8 s. There was a clear seasonal pattern in acoustic presence that was consistent across all years: low or no song during the austral summer and a peak in song occurrence in austral winter. A propagation loss model estimated the detection range at this site to be 186 km. Where the fin whales that are heard off JFA spend the summer months remains an open question. Possible locations include the Western Antarctic Peninsula and/or off northern-central mainland Chile. Further studies should be pursued to better understand the distribution and seasonal movements and to support the conservation of this Endangered species.We thank the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization and the Chilean Commission of Nuclear Energy for proving the data used in this study. S.J.B. and N.B.C. were supported by the Center for Oceanographic Research COPAS Sur-Austral, CONICYT PIA PFB31. S.J.B. was also supported during analysis and writing by the Office of Naval Research Global (awards N62909-16-2214 and N00014-17-2606), and a grant to the Centro de Estudios Avanzados enZonas Áridas (CEAZA) ‘Proyecto CEAZA, 3er Fortalec-imiento de Centros Regionales, Programa Regional CONI-CYT R16A10003’. Our greatest thanks to John Hodgson MSc, Technical Director at Ocean Acoustic Developments and Adrian Brown of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (UK) for carrying out the propagation modelling free of charge. Many thanks to Rex Andrew for his help with PSD figure preparation in R. Thanks also go to Nathan Merchant for his kind help with PAMGuide. Many thanks to Michael Pitzrick for his guidance with XBAT. Many thanks to the members of the Southern Ocean Research Partnership Blue and Fin Whale Acoustic Trends Working group for useful discussions that improved the quality of this study

Annotated list of vascular plants of a dry inter-Andean forest valley of the Patia River drainage in southwestern Colombia

Based on herbarium records, data bases and field studies in different localities of the Patia River valley in southwestern Colombia, a total of 297 vascular plants were previously known from this region. In this study the number was increased by 727 to a new total of 1024 species, which is a considerable increase in our knowledge of plant species richness in dry areas of southern Colombia. Those species are distributed among 556 genera in 130 families. Considering the number of species the following families stand out: Fabaceae (45 genera/119 species), Poaceae (52/101), Asteraceae (56/79), Malvaceae (23/44), Cyperaceae (7/41), Euphorbiaceae (10/39), Lamiaceae (13/31) and Solanaceae (9/31). The genera with the largest number of species are: Solanum (19 especies), Cyperus (16), Euphorbia (14), Hyptis (13), Senna (13), Sida (13), Piper (12), Peperomia (11) and Desmodium (10). Herbs are the predominant life-forms (53.77% of total species) followed by shrubs (24.58%). In the valley, pastures and crop fields are predominant; in some sectors, there are bushes and forest fragments in different successional stages; in the southern part, there are thorn bushes, with dominance of succulent plants belonging to the family Cactaceae.Como resultado de muestreos realizados en diferentes localidades del valle del Patía, suroccidente de Colombia y la consulta en algunos herbarios regionales y bases de datos, el anterior registro de 297 especies de plantas vasculares para el área se incrementó en 727, elevando su número a 1024 especies. Dichas especies pertenecen a 556 géneros y 130 familias. Considerando el número de especies por familia sobresalen Fabaceae (45 géneros/119 especies), Poaceae (52/101), Asteraceae (56/79), Malvaceae (23/44), Cyperaceae (7/41), Euphorbiaceae (10/39), Lamiaceae (13/31) y Solanaceae (9/31). Los géneros con mayor número de especies fueron: Solanum (19 sp.), Cyperus (16), Euphorbia (14), Hyptis (13), Senna (13), Sida (13), Piper (12), Peperomia (11) y Desmodium (10). Las formas de vida dominantes corresponden a las hierbas (53,77 % del total de especies) y los arbustos (24,58 %). En el valle predominan los pastizales y campos de cultivo, en algunos sectores se encuentran matorrales y remanentes boscosos en diferentes estados sucesionales y hacia el sur se hallan cardonales donde predominan arbustos espinosos y plantas suculentas pertenecientes a la familia Cactaceae

Towards Rocket Engine Components with Increased Strength and Robust Operating Characteristics

High-energy rotating machines, powering liquid propellant rocket engines, are subject to various sources of high and low cycle fatigue generated by unsteady flow phenomena. Given the tremendous need for reliability in a sustainable space exploration program, a fundamental change in the design methodology for engine components is required for both launch and space based systems. A design optimization system based on neural-networks has been applied and demonstrated in the redesign of the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) Low Pressure Oxidizer Turbo Pump (LPOTP) turbine nozzle. One objective of the redesign effort was to increase airfoil thickness and thus increase its strength while at the same time detuning the vane natural frequency modes from the vortex shedding frequency. The second objective was to reduce the vortex shedding amplitude. The third objective was to maintain this low shedding amplitude even in the presence of large manufacturing tolerances. All of these objectives were achieved without generating any detrimental effects on the downstream flow through the turbine, and without introducing any penalty in performance. The airfoil redesign and preliminary assessment was performed in the Exploration Technology Directorate at NASA ARC. Boeing/Rocketdyne and NASA MSFC independently performed final CFD assessments of the design. Four different CFD codes were used in this process. They include WIL DCA T/CORSAIR (NASA), FLUENT (commercial), TIDAL (Boeing Rocketdyne) and, a new family (AardvarWPhantom) of CFD analysis codes developed at NASA MSFC employing LOX fluid properties and a Generalized Equation Set formulation. Extensive aerodynamic performance analysis and stress analysis carried out at Boeing Rocketdyne and NASA MSFC indicate that the redesign objectives have been fully met. The paper presents the results of the assessment analysis and discusses the future potential of robust optimal design for rocket engine components

A First Look at Rotation in Inactive Late-Type M Dwarfs

We have examined the relationship between rotation and activity in 14 late-type (M6-M7) M dwarfs, using high resolution spectra taken at the W.M. Keck Observatory and flux-calibrated spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Most were selected to be inactive at a spectral type where strong H-alpha emission is quite common. We used the cross-correlation technique to quantify the rotational broadening; six of the stars in our sample have vsini > 3.5 km/s. Our most significant and perplexing result is that three of these stars do not exhibit H-alpha emission, despite rotating at velocities where previous work has observed strong levels of magnetic field and stellar activity. Our results suggest that rotation and activity in late-type M dwarfs may not always be linked, and open several additional possibilities including a rotationally-dependent activity threshold, or a possible dependence on stellar parameters of the Rossby number at which magnetic/activity "saturation" takes place in fully convective stars.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Ap