Political Regimes, Bureaucracy, and Scientific Productivity

Can a scientist trust that the government is going to pay him or her fairly? In the science–government relationship, an incumbent may be better off if he or she does not provide—or does not provide a fair pay to public scientists. We propose a simple game-theoretic model for understanding the trust problem in the relationship between governments and scientists. The model shows how with reliable governments (democracies), bureaucratic contracts (e.g., secure tenure) are not optimal since they have low-powered incentives (in contrast to the highpowered private-sector type of contracts) and run against scientists’ responsiveness to government demands. However, with nonreliable governments (dictatorships), bureaucratic contracts are second-best solutions because they protect scientists against the possibility of governments’ misbehavior (i.e., ex post opportunistic defections, such as canceling research programs overnight). An empirical analysis confirms the predictions: bureaucratic contracts enhance scientific productivity with nonreliable governments (dictatorships) but hamper scientific productivity with reliable governments (democracies).Publicad

Patterns of Diversity and Distribution of Arboreal Social Bees’ Beehives within Chimpanzees’ Home Range in a Forest-Savanna Mosaic (Comoé National Park, Côte d’Ivoire)

The goal of this study was to explain the patterns of diversity and distribution of arboreal social bees nesting in forest habitats of the Comoé National park, within the home-ranges of wild chimpanzees that consume their honey. Investigations were done using a total sixteen plots, one hectare each, established in three habitat types (mature forest island, secondary forest island and gallery forest). The diversity and distribution of arboreal social bees was estimated with visuals searches. The exploitation of the beehives of these bee by the chimpanzees was also evaluated using chimpanzees’ honey dipping tools as indicators. Results revealed five bees’ species belonging to two tribes; Meliponini (Meliponula ferruginea, Meliponula togoensis, Meliponula bocandei, Hypotrigona gribodoi) and Apini (Apis mellifera). Frequent exploitation of the honey of stingless bees by the chimpanzees was observed, except for H. gribodoi. Meliponula ferruginea was the most exploited species by chimpanzees. A total of 114 beehives were found in the overall established plots leading to an estimated density of 2.4 beehives/ha in the study area. Among the surveyed habitats, mature forest island was found to harbor the highest beehive density (4.2 beehives/ha), followed respectively by secondary-forest island (1.9 beehives/ha) and gallery forest (1.1 beehives/ha). Finally, all bee species were found nesting in cavities of trees with a DBH ranging from 15 to 87.3 cm, with a special preference for Dialium guinneense. However, the DBH of nesting trees and beehives’ height, measured from the ground level, did not significantly influence the honey exploitation by chimpanzees. In sum bee species diversity and distribution might be important in the survival of chimpanzees of a forest savanna landscape

Importaciones de cerámica de cocina itálica en la tarraconense. Estudio de caracterización composicional y de procedencia

Entre las producciones de cerámica de cocina llegadas a la Península Ibérica desde Italia, destacan las conocidas como cerámicas de engobe interno rojo-pompcyano. De entre este tipo de piezas se seleccionaron un grupo de muestras con el objetivo de caracterizar las producciones menos conocidas y más antiguas que se importaron a la provincia Tiuraconense. Se eligió para ello una caracteriza ción petrográfica, mediante microscopía óptica, y química, con el análisis por es pectrometría de emisión atómica con plasma-lCP. Las características de las pas tas, por su mineralogía y composición química, demostraron una procedencia granítica, que permitió suponer, por criterios geológicos y arqueológicos, que es tas producciones procedían de la Etruria. Estas pastas se compararon también con otras que presentaban gran parecido visual (clibanus) y con objetos procedentes de diferentes excavaciones

Proyecto de piscifactoria de trucha arcoíris con depuración de aguas por filtro verde, en Biescas (Huesca)

El presente trabajo plantea la ejecución de una explotación de truchas arcoíris (Oncorhynchus mykiss) con sistema de depuración de aguas mediante filtro verde, en una zona con unas condiciones climáticas y del agua óptimas para la crianza de este pez. Pretendemos establecer un cultivo de ciclo completo del animal, tratando los desechos biológicos derivados de esta producción, mediante un sistema de filtración y decantación, aplicando un sistema FMF de filtración sobre la superficie de las balsas de decantación. De tal manera, las partículas sólidas grandes sedimentarán en el fondo de dichas balsas, mientras que las partículas más pequeñas, los coloides e iones serán fijados en el microbioma creado por las raíces de las plantas del filtro verde. El proyecto pretende crear un sistema de producción de trucha de consumo en una zona como Biescas, en riesgo de despoblación. Esta instalación puede generar puestos de trabajo además de crear la sensación de producto de la zona, en carne de truchas, producto muy bien visto en general por sus cualidades organolépticas y nutritivas. Como punto esencial del proyecto, el habilitar un sistema de filtro verde de depuración de aguas permite devolver el agua al río en sus condiciones originales, haciendo de esta una explotación “verde”, que puede ser un reclamo a la hora de vender el producto., Estableceríamos un punto de inicio sólido para en un futuro convertir la explotación en totalmente ecológica, lo cual crearía un auténtico nicho de mercado nuevo, ya que apenas existe pescado ecológico en España

Following in situ photoinitiated polymerization of multifunctional acrylic monomers by fluorescence and photocalorimetry simultaneously

The photoinitiated polymerization of multifunctional (meth)acrylic monomers was simultaneously monitored in real time by fluorescence and differential scanning calorimetry. As the curing proceeds, the fluorescence emission changes due to an increase in the viscosity of the microenvironment. A good correlation between fluorescence intensity and degree of conversion was established by using two different fluorescent probes, each having the same fluorophore, dialkylamino derivatives of 7-nitro-2-oxa-1,3-diazol. One of the probes contains an acrylic moiety which can react with the monomers labelling the formed network. The use of the first moment of fluorescence is presented as a suitable methodology to avoid experimental fluctuations. Furthermore, the influence of the length of the spacer between the acrylic groups in the polymerization reaction kinetics and fluorescence changes has been also discussed in terms of reaction diffusion controlled termination kinetics and free volume fraction. It was concluded that the fluorescence method is a powerful tool to study the kinetics of photopolymerization of multifunctional monomers.The authors would like to thank the Union European Commission for funding through the BRITE-Euram Project (BE97-4472). Gratitude is also extended to Plan Nacional I+D+I (Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologı́a) for financial support (MAT1998-0518-CE and MAT2000-1671). We thank to Dr K. Dietliker, from Ciba Speciality Chemicals, for providing the photoinitiators. The authors are grateful to Valentı́n Guadaño from Lasing for helpful discussions regarding to the optical coupling between the calorimeter and spectrofluorimeter. J. Baselga wishes to thank CAM (PRICIT Programme)

Are physical therapy interventions effective in improving sleep in people with chronic pain? A systematic review and multivariate meta-analysis

Chronic pain exerts an enormous personal and economic burden, with sleep disturbances being one of the most reported problems by adults with chronic pain. The aim of this study was to analyse whether different physical therapy interventions could lead to improvements in sleep quality and pain intensity in individuals with chronic pain, as well as if there is any association. A systematic review and a univariate and multivariate meta-analysis were carried out according to the PRISMA guidelines. A search in PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases was performed. Six randomised controlled trials were included in the review and four of them were included in the meta-analysis; all of them with a moderate to high methodological quality. Data from adult participants with chronic pain after different physical therapy interventions was extracted. For the meta-analysis, the Insomnia Severity Index and the Numerical Rating Scale were considered. Results from the qualitative and quantitative analysis showed that most of the physical therapy interventions included had higher improvements in the intervention group than in the control group, although the effect size was not statistically significant (univariate for sleep quality: −0.08 [−0.34, 0.18], p = 0.46; univariate for pain intensity: −0.47 [−1.24, 0.30], p = 0.18; multivariate for both outcomes: −0.27). More studies are still needed to determine which physical therapy interventions are effective to improve sleep in people with chronic pain and if there are patients with specific characteristics who may benefit more than others

Valoración financiera de la Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogotá ETB hasta el año 2026

Trabajo de investigaciónCon la investigación y sin interés político, se pretende realizar una evaluación económica y financiera de la empresa ETB, basándonos en datos contables de mas de diez (10) años y proyectándolos al año 2026, mediante la metodología de flujo de caja descontado, con el fin de determinar el valor de la compañía y el precio de venta de la acción.Trabajo de Investigación1. INTRODUCCIÓN 2. OBJETIVOS 3. CONTEXTO HISTÓRICO Y ANALISIS DEL SECTOR 4. ACTUALIDAD Y METODOLOGIA DE INVESTIGACIÓN 5. EVALUACIÓN FINANCIERA CONCLUSIONES RECOMENDACIONES REFERENCIASEspecializaciónEspecialista en Análisis y Administración Financier

Activity monitoring in professional soccer goalkeepers during training and match play

The purpose of the present study was to quantify the external load of professional soccer goalkeepers. Twenty professional goalkeepers participated in the study. Data were classified according to the number of days before or after the match day (MD) as follows: MD-4, MD-3, MD-2, MD-1 for the sessions before the match, and MD+1 for the session after the match. The total running distance covered (TD), the high metabolic load (HMLD), the number of high metabolic load efforts (HMLE) were progressively reduced from MD-4 to MD-1 but the values of these variables were always inferior to MD (ES: -3.79 to −1.11). There was a tendency for a progressive reduction in the number of high-intensity accelerations (ACC) and decelerations (DEC) from MD-4 to MD-1 although the values of ACC/DEC were superior to MD (ES: 0.19 to 2.05). Overall, MD-2 was the day with the lowest external load. During training sessions, starter goalkeepers performed more TD (ES: 0.36) and more HMLE (ES: 0.29) than non-starters. External load was progressively decreased in the days before match play for goalkeepers which is reflective of appropriate recovery and preparation practices within the cohort analysed. However, habitual goalkeepers training has an excess of accelerations/decelerations and a lack of running actions performed at high metabolic loads

Presence and genetic diversity of enteric protists in captive and semi-captive non-human primates in côte d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, and Peru

Little information is currently available on the occurrence and genetic diversity of pathogenic and commensal protist species in captive and semi-captive non-human primates (NHP) resident in zoological gardens or sanctuaries in low- and medium-income countries. In this molecular-based study, we prospectively collected individual faecal samples from apparently healthy NHP at the Abidjan Zoological Garden (AZG) in Côte d'Ivoire, the Tacugama Sanctuary (TS) in Sierra Leone, and the Quistococha Zoological Garden (QZG) in Peru between November 2018 and February 2020. We evaluated for the presence of pathogenic (Cryptosporidium spp., Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia duodenalis, Blastocystis sp., Enterocytozoon bieneusi, Balantioides coli) and commensal (Entamoeba dispar, Troglodytella abrassarti) protist species using PCR methods and Sanger sequencing. Giardia duodenalis was the most prevalent species found (25.9%, 30/116), followed by Blastocystis sp. (22.4%, 26/116), and E. dispar (18.1%, 21/116). We detected E. bieneusi (4.2%, 1/24) and T. abrassarti (12.5%, 3/24) only on NHP from AZG. Cryptosporidium spp., E. histolytica, and B. coli were undetected at the three sampling sites investigated here. Sequence analyses revealed the presence of zoonotic sub-assemblages BIII (n = 1) in AZG and BIV (n = 1) in TS within G. duodenalis. We identified Blastocystis subtype ST3 (100%, 6/6) in AZG, ST1 (80.0%, 12/15), ST2 (6.7%, 1/15), and ST3 (13.3%, 2/15) in TS, and ST2 (80.0%, 4/5) and ST3 (20.0%, 1/5) in QZG. The only E. bieneusi isolate detected here was identified as zoonotic genotype CAF4. Our PCR-based data indicate that potentially pathogenic protist species including G. duodenalis, Blastocystis sp., E. bieneusi, and B. coli are present at variable rates in the three NHP populations investigated here. The identification of zoonotic genotypes within these species indicates that human-NHP transmission is possible, although the extent and directionality of these events need to be elucidated in future molecular surveys.This study was funded by the Health Institute Carlos III (ISCIII), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under project PI16CIII/00024. David González-Barrio is the recipient of a ‘Sara Borrell’ postdoctoral fellowship (CD19CIII/00011) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. Alejandro Dashti is the recipient of a PFIS contract (FI20CIII/00002) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and Universities.S

El Pla d'estavi energètic de la UPC (2011-2014)

Projecte presentat al 5è Premi a la Qualitat de la Gestió Universitària, convocat pel Consell Social de la UPCAward-winningPostprint (author's final draft