Mine Detection Dogs in Central America: An Optimum Technology?

Using mine detection dogs offers many benefits as well as challenges. In the often rough terrain of Central America, dogs can detect mines where machinery is useless, yet climate and disease pose threats to the dogs’ effectiveness and sometimes even their survival

Social Mobility and Demand for Redistribution. A Comparative Analysis

The literature on preferences for redistribution has paid little attention to the effect of social mobility on the demand for redistribution, which is in contrast with the literature on class-voting, where studies on the effect of social mobility has been very common. Some works have addressed this issue but no systematic test of the hypotheses connecting social mobility and preferences has been done. In this paper we use the diagonal reference models to estimate the effect of origin and destination class on preferences for redistribution in a sample of European countries using data from the European Social Survey. Our findings indicate that social origin matters to a little extent to explain preferences, as newcomers tend to adopt the preferences of the destination class. Moreover, we have found only limited evidence supporting the acculturation hypothesis and not support for the status maximization hypothesis. Furthermore, the effect of social origin varies largely between countries. In a second step of the analysis we investigate what are the national factors explaining this variation. The empirical evidence we present leads to conclude that high rates of upward social mobility sharply reduce the effect of social origin on preferences for redistributionUniversidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The OAS and Landmine Victims in Nicaragua

The Organization of American States (OAS) Mine Action Program has established a priority in providing prostheses and medical attention to landmine victims, as well as work training. In 2002, the program started a pilot project that provided job training and jobs to mine victims

Organization of American States Mine Action Program

Countries worldwide are supporting OAS’ efforts to clear landmine-stricken areas in Central America by implementing a mine action program that will teach courses in demining techniques and supervise and monitor mine clearance operations

Costa Rica: The First Country in Latin America Free of Anti-Personnel Landmines

On December 10, 2002, Costa Rica declared itself the first country free from anti-personnel landmines in the Western Hemisphere. Placed in hills and brooks, bridges and roads, mines and UXO were buried for more than 15 years during the conflict in Central America

MAP Kinase Phosphatase-5 Regulates Cardiac Adapation to Endurance Exercise

Endurance exercise induces a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system and promotes cardio protection against heart disease. It has been established that the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) promote the improvement of cardiac function in response to endurance exercise. However, molecular mechanisms of how MAPK signaling pathways regulate cardiac adaptation to endurance exercise remain unclear. The MAPKs are inactivated by MAP kinase phosphatases (MKPs) through direct dephosphorylation. Recently, growing evidence suggests the importance of MKP-5 signaling mechanisms in physiological and pathological processes. Previously, we have demonstrated that MKP-5-deficient skeletal muscle exhibits improved regenerative myogenesis in response to injury and mice lacking the expression of MKP-5 ameliorate dystrophic muscle disease. However, the role of MKP-5 has not been explored in cardiac muscle. PURPOSE: This study aims to understand how MKP-5 regulates cardiac adaption to endurance exercise. METHODS: Wild type mice and MKP-5-deficient mice were subjected to endurance exercise at 70~75% VO2max: treadmill running at 15 m/min, 0% grade, 60 min/day, and 5 consecutive days. After 5 days of endurance exercise, we performed a progressive exercise stress test. Endurance exercise capacity was determined by a graded increase in treadmill speed (2~6 m/min every 5 min) to the point of exhaustion and then running distance was measured. RESULTS: Our findings revealed that MKP-5-deficient mice exhibit 3-fold increased endurance exercise capacity as compared with wild type mice (ppCONCLUSION: Our study demonstrates that MKP-5 plays a central role in cardiac adaptation to endurance exercise. It suggests that MKP-5 may serve as a pivotal regulator for MAPKs in cardiac adaptation to endurance exercise

Diseño de una bicicleta eléctrica urbana.

Los miles de cortos y medios desplazamientos que se realizan todos los días en las ciudades provocan un aumento del nivel de contaminación a causa de la combustión en los motores de los vehículos utilizados para el transporte. Una posible solución es el empleo de energías alternativas. En este Trabajo de Fin de Grado se pretende desarrollar un nuevo modelo de bicicleta eléctrica urbana apta para desplazarse con comodidad en el día a día, haciendo más cómodo el transporte, reduciendo el consumo de combustibles fósiles y el impacto ambiental. Dado el creciente interés de los vehículos eléctricos, por su compromiso medioambiental, en el presente escrito también se indican las ventajas de usar una e-bike y ofrecer un producto cómodo y seguro a la vez que divertido y saludable, buscando las mayores prestaciones funcionales para moverse por espacios urbanos.Departamento de Ciencias de los Materiales e Ingeniería Metalúrgica, Expresión Gráfica en la Ingeniería, Ingeniería Cartográfica, Geodesia y Fotogrametría, Ingeniería Mecánica e Ingeniería de los Procesos de FabricaciónGrado en Ingeniería en Diseño Industrial y Desarrollo de Product

Control interno para evitar infracciones tributarias en la empresa MGA Ingenieros Asociados EIRL, Chiclayo- 2020

El presente trabajo de investigación denominado Control interno para evitar infracciones tributarias en la empresa MGA Ingenieros Asociados E.I.R.L, Chiclayo 2020, tuvo como objetivo general determinar y verificar si la aplicación de un sistema de control interno puede evitar infracciones tributarias en la empresa MGA Ingenieros Asociados EIRL, se empleó el tipo de investigación descriptivo – propositivo, con diseño no experimental.La población y muestra fue de 04 trabajadores de la empresa MGA Ingenieros Asociados siendo los mismos del Área de gerencia, contabilidad, y un tercero, las técnicas usadas fueron la entrevista y el análisis documental, como instrumento se empleó la guía de entrevista y la guía documental, los resultados muestran que la organización no aplica el control interno por lo que ha cometido infracciones tributarias. Se concluye que un modelo del control interno sí influye para evitar infracciones tributariasTesisGestión empresarial y emprendimient

Guide of 'best practices' for the collection, management and analysis of the road accident data in urban zones

The reduction of the number of road accident fatalities by 50 %, by the year 2010, suggested by the EU, involves the active contribution of all the agents in charge of the road safety in Europe. Even though the accidents that happened in urban areas have a relative smaller severity, it is the place where, for the moment, in absolute terms, the major number of accidents take place in the EU countries, as well as generating serious consequences on the more vulnerable users (pedestrians, cyclists, children, the elderly…). The current action has as main objective the creation, validation, discussion and spreading, at European level, of the ‘best practices’ for the collection, processing and analysis of traffic accident (TA) data in urban areas. The foreseen final result fundamentally consists in the disposal of a European guide of advices or of “best practices” in order to implement / improve the traffic accident collection, analysis and monitoring systems in urban areas. For that, a compilation of the current “best practices” and on the exchange of experiences between municipalities from several EU countries will be counted on, added to the practical pilot experience that will be carried out as part of this project in several Spanish cities. With the spreading of this guide, the purpose is to contribute to the development of local tools in order to help giving answers and solutions, with more reliable and accurate knowledge, to the problematic of the accident rate in each municipality. This guide tries to serve as a technical working document to set up measures directed to the improvement of the collection procedures, data quality, and achievement and dissemination of the statistical results. For that purpose, all the ideas and recommendations gathered in the SAU project framework, as well as the ones set in the European Statistics Code of D1.1 [7] Practice developed by the Commission of the European Communities (COM(2005) 217 final), have been compiled. The document is structured in two parts: - On the one hand, a summary of the different phases of the project and the results gathered in the Deliverables I, II and III is presented. - On the other hand, organized in several sections, there is a compilation of best practices and indicators to evaluate the procedures of the road accident data collection, storage, management and analysis. We only want to point out that many of the recommendations might affect several of the considered sections and that the differentiation obeys practical aims to consult and organize the information

Design and development of low cost smart turbidity sensor for water quality monitoring in fish farms

[EN] Turbidity monitoring is necessary in many cases and several sensors have been developed for this purpose. However, in some cases to quantify the turbidity it is not enough and its characterization is necessary. In fish farms, the increase of sedimentary or phytoplanktonic turbidity requires different actions to prevent further damages. For this reason, a sensor able to differentiate between turbidity sources is necessary. In this paper, a turbidity sensor able to distinguish different types of turbidity is designed, developed and calibrated. The sensor is based on the Beer-Lambert law and it uses four LEDs as light sources with different wavelengths. The sensing elements are located at 180° of the light sources and consist of a photodiode and a photoresistor, sensitive to infrared and visible wavelengths respectively. For the calibration process different turbidity sources were employed, Isochrysis galbana, Tetraselmis chuii and sediment. The results show that it is possible to determine the turbidity using the infrared light and to characterize the origin of that turbidity with the red light. An algorithm was created in order to create a method to process the data from each sample to obtain the turbidity, the origin of this turbidity and the concentration of the turbidity source. With this algorithm, we can create a smart turbidity sensor for water quality monitoring. Our main application is focused on monitoring the water input in fish farm facilities; however, this smart sensor will be useful in many other areas.This work has been partially supported by the "Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte", through the "Ayudas para contratos predoctorales de Formacion del Profesorado Universitario FPU (Convocatoria 2014)". Grant number FPU14/02953. This work has been partially supported by the "Conselleria de Educacion, Investigacion, Cultura y Deporte", through the "Subvenciones para la contratacion de personal investigador de caracter (Convocatoria 2017)".Grant number ACIF/2017/069.Parra-Boronat, L.; Rocher-Morant, J.; Escrivá-Perales, J.; Lloret, J. (2018). Design and development of low cost smart turbidity sensor for water quality monitoring in fish farms. Aquacultural Engineering. 81:10-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaeng.2018.01.004S10188