Administration Model 4.0 and its Impact on the Improvement of Public Services

The present investigation analyzed the relationship between the satisfaction of the users of a public company in charge of the vehicle registration process in the city of Babahoyo, province of Los Ríos, Ecuador, and the implementation of an administration model 4.0 carried out through a system of management information in the area of license plate issuance, given the increase in users of this service and the need to guarantee and improve their satisfaction. For this purpose, some models related to management information systems and the public administration model 4.0 were analyzed. Later, analyzing the results of a survey applied to a sample of service users and officials of the public company, it was possible to diagnose the situation of the company’s registration area. The investigation evidenced the existence of unfriendly systems with the information needs of the institution, in addition to a low level of commitment on the part of the staff, which is demonstrated in the reduced or non-existent post-service follow-up, all of which causes user dissatisfaction. It is concluded that it is advisable to design and apply customer relationship management under the 4.0 public administration model that allows an increase in the level of user satisfaction. Keywords: CRM, quality management, users’ service, public management, transportation. Resumen La presente investigación analizó la relación entre la satisfacción de los usuarios de una Empresa pública encargada del proceso de matriculación vehicular en la ciudad de Babahoyo, provincia de Los Ríos, Ecuador y la implementación de un modelo de administración 4.0 realizada a través de un sistema de información gerencial en el área de emisión de matrículas, ante el incremento de usuarios de este servicio y la necesidad de garantizar y mejorar su satisfacción. Para el efecto se analizaron algunos modelos relacionados con los sistemas de información gerencial y el modelo de administración pública 4.0, y posteriormente, analizando los resultados de una encuesta aplicada a una muestra de usuarios del servicio y a funcionarios de la Empresa pública, se pudo diagnosticar la situación del área de matriculación de la empresa. La investigación evidenció la existencia de sistemas poco amigables con las necesidades de información de la institución, además de un bajo nivel de compromiso por parte del personal, que se demuestra en el reducido o inexistente seguimiento post servicio, todo lo cual provoca insatisfacción de los usuarios. Se concluye que es recomendable diseñar y aplicar un sistema de gestión de relaciones con el cliente bajo el modelo de administración pública 4.0 que permita el incremento del nivel de satisfacción de los usuarios. Palabras Clave: CRM, gestión de calidad, atención al usuario, administración pública, transportación. How t

The catalytic cycle of the antioxidant and cancer-associated human NQO1 enzyme: Hydride transfer, conformational dynamics and functional cooperativity

Human NQO1 [NAD(H):quinone oxidoreductase 1] is a multi-functional and stress-inducible dimeric protein involved in the antioxidant defense, the activation of cancer prodrugs and the stabilization of oncosuppressors. Despite its roles in human diseases, such as cancer and neurological disorders, a detailed characterization of its enzymatic cycle is still lacking. In this work, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the NQO1 catalytic cycle using rapid mixing techniques, including multiwavelength and spectral deconvolution studies, kinetic modeling and temperature-dependent kinetic isotope effects (KIEs). Our results systematically support the existence of two pathways for hydride transfer throughout the NQO1 catalytic cycle, likely reflecting that the two active sites in the dimer catalyze two-electron reduction with different rates, consistent with the cooperative binding of inhibitors such as dicoumarol. This negative cooperativity in NQO1 redox activity represents a sort of half-of-sites activity. Analysis of KIEs and their temperature dependence also show significantly different contributions from quantum tunneling, structural dynamics and reorganizations to catalysis at the two active sites. Our work will improve our understanding of the effects of cancer-associated single amino acid variants and post-translational modifications in this protein of high relevance in cancer progression and treatment

Numerical predictions of a swirl combustor using complex chemistry fueled with ammonia/hydrogen blends

Ammonia, a chemical that contains high hydrogen quantities, has been presented as a candidate for the production of clean power generation and aerospace propulsion. Although ammonia can deliver more hydrogen per unit volume than liquid hydrogen itself, the use of ammonia in combustion systems comes with the detrimental production of nitrogen oxides, which are emissions that have up to 300 times the greenhouse potential of carbon dioxide. This factor, combined with the lower energy density of ammonia, makes new studies crucial to enable the use of the molecule through methods that reduce emissions whilst ensuring that enough power is produced to support high-energy intensive applications. Thus, this paper presents a numerical study based on the use of novel reaction models employed to characterize ammonia combustion systems. The models are used to obtain Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations via Star-CCM+ with complex chemistry of a 70%–30% (mol) ammonia–hydrogen blend that is currently under investigations elsewhere. A fixed equivalence ratio (1.2), medium swirl (0.8), and confined conditions are employed to determine the flame and species propagation at various operating atmospheres and temperature inlet values. The study is then expanded to high inlet temperatures, high pressures, and high flowrates at different confinement boundary conditions. The results denote how the production of NOx emissions remains stable and under 400 ppm, whilst higher concentrations of both hydrogen and unreacted ammonia are found in the flue gases under high power conditions. The reduction of heat losses (thus higher temperature boundary conditions) has a crucial impact on further destruction of ammonia post-flame, with a raise in hydrogen, water, and nitrogen through the system, thus presenting an opportunity of combustion efficiency improvement of this blend by reducing heat losses. Final discussions are presented as a method to raise power whilst employing ammonia for gas turbine systems

Effect of zinc intake on growth in infants: A meta-analysis

A systematic review and meta-analysis of available randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was conducted to evaluate the effect of zinc (Zn) intake on growth in infants. Out of 5500 studies identified through electronic searches and reference lists, 19 RCTs were selected after applying the exclusion/inclusion criteria. The influence of Zn intake on growth was considered in the overall meta-analysis. Other variables were also taken into account as possible effect modifiers: doses of Zn intake, intervention duration, nutritional status, and risk of bias. From each select growth study, final measures of weight, length, mid upper arm circumference (MUAC), head circumference, weight for age z-score (WAZ), length for age z-score (LAZ), and weight for length z-score (WLZ) were assessed. Pooled β and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. Additionally, we carried out a sensitivity analysis. Zn intake was not associated with weight, length, MUAC, head circumference, and LAZ in the pooled analyses. However, Zn intake had a positive and statistically effect on WAZ (β = 0.06; 95%CI 0.02 to 0.10) and WLZ (β = 0.05; 95%CI 0.01 to 0.08). The dose–response relationship between Zn intake and these parameters indicated that a doubling of Zn intake increased WAZ and WLZ by approximately 4%. Substantial heterogeneity was present only in length analyses (I2 = 45%; p = 0.03). Zn intake was positively associated with length values at short time (four to 20 weeks) (β = 0.01; CI 95% 0 to 0.02) and at medium doses of Zn (4.1 to 8 mg/day) (β = 0.003; CI 95% 0 to 0.01). Nevertheless, the effect magnitude was small. Our results indicate that Zn intake increases growth parameters of infants. Nonetheless, interpretation of these results should be carefully considered

Magnetic field effect on the dielectric constant of glasses: Evidence of disorder within tunneling barriers

The magnetic field dependence of the low frequency dielectric constant $e_r$(H) of a structural glass a - SiO2 + xCyHz was studied from 400 mK to 50 mK and for H up to 3T. Measurement of both the real and the imaginary parts of $e_r$ is used to eliminate the difficult question of keeping constant the temperature of the sample while increasing H: a non-zero $e_r$(H) dependence is reported in the same range as that one very recently reported on multicomponent glasses. In addition to the recently proposed explanation based on interactions, the reported $e_r$(H) is interpreted quantitatively as a consequence of the disorder lying within the nanometric barriers of the elementary tunneling systems of the glass.Comment: latex Bcorrige1.tex, 5 files, 4 figures, 7 pages [SPEC-S02/009

Structural basis of the pleiotropic and specific phenotypic consequences of missense mutations in the multifunctional NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 and their pharmacological rescue

The multifunctional nature of human flavoproteins is critically linked to their ability to populate multiple conformational states. Ligand binding, post-translational modifications and disease-associated mutations can reshape this functional landscape, although the structure-function relationships of these effects are not well understood. Herein, we characterized the structural and functional consequences of two mutations (the cancer-associated P187S and the phosphomimetic S82D) on different ligation states which are relevant to flavin binding, intracellular stability and catalysis of the disease-associated NQO1 flavoprotein. We found that these mutations affected the stability locally and their effects propagated differently through the protein structure depending both on the nature of the mutation and the ligand bound, showing directional preference from the mutated site and leading to specific phenotypic manifestations in different functional traits (FAD binding, catalysis and inhibition, intracellular stability and pharmacological response to ligands). Our study thus supports that pleitropic effects of disease-causing mutations and phosphorylation events on human flavoproteins may be caused by long-range structural propagation of stability effects to different functional sites that depend on the ligation-state and site-specific perturbations. Our approach can be of general application to investigate these pleiotropic effects at the flavoproteome scale in the absence of high-resolution structural models. © 202

Renormalization group study of one-dimensional systems with roughening transitions

A recently introduced real space renormalization group technique, developed for the analysis of processes in the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class, is generalized and tested by applying it to a different family of surface growth processes. In particular, we consider a growth model exhibiting a rich phenomenology even in one dimension. It has four different phases and a directed percolation related roughening transition. The renormalization method reproduces extremely well all the phase diagram, the roughness exponents in all the phases and the separatrix among them. This proves the versatility of the method and elucidates interesting physical mechanisms.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev.

ZODIACAL EXOPLANETS in TIME (ZEIT). IV. SEVEN TRANSITING PLANETS in the PRAESEPE CLUSTER

Open clusters and young stellar associations are attractive sites to search for planets and to test theories of planet formation, migration, and evolution. We present our search for, and characterization of, transiting planets in the 800 Myr old Praesepe (Beehive, M44) Cluster from K2 light curves. We identify seven planet candidates, six of which we statistically validate to be real planets, the last of which requires more data. For each host star, we obtain high-resolution NIR spectra to measure its projected rotational broadening and radial velocity, the latter of which we use to confirm cluster membership. We combine low-resolution spectra with the known cluster distance and metallicity to provide precise temperatures, masses, radii, and luminosities for the host stars. Combining our measurements of rotational broadening, rotation periods, and our derived stellar radii, we show that all planetary orbits are consistent with alignment to their host star's rotation. We fit the K2 light curves, including priors on stellar density to put constraints on the planetary eccentricities, all of which are consistent with zero. The difference between the number of planets found in Praesepe and Hyades (8 planets, Myr) and a similar data set for Pleiades (0 planets, ≃125 Myr) suggests a trend with age, but may be due to incompleteness of current search pipelines for younger, faster-rotating stars. We see increasing evidence that some planets continue to lose atmosphere past 800 Myr, as now two planets at this age have radii significantly larger than their older counterparts from Kepler

Consenso colombiano de atención, diagnóstico y manejo de la infección por SARS-COV-2/COVID-19 en establecimientos de atención de la salud Recomendaciones basadas en consenso de expertos e informadas en la evidencia

The “Asociación Colombiana de Infectología” (ACIN) and the “Instituto de Evaluación de Nuevas Tecnologías de la Salud” (IETS) created a task force to develop recommendations for Covid 19 health care diagnosis, management and treatment informed, and based, on evidence. Theses reccomendations are addressed to the health personnel on the Colombian context of health services. © 2020 Asociacion Colombiana de Infectologia. All rights reserved