An Analysis of Potential Tax Incentives to Increase Charitable Giving in Puerto Rico

Compares options for improving tax incentives for charitable giving, including lifting the ceiling on deductions as a percentage of adjusted gross income, and estimated effects on nonprofits in Puerto Rico, where average giving is high relative to AGI

Vinculación y retención de los nuevos trabajadores del siglo XXI

La generación que está egresando de las universidades actualmente es una generación que difiere radicalmente de las generaciones anteriores, las cuales venían trabajando en las empresas del medio. Esta generación para efectos del trabajo de grado son los nacidos entre 1980 y el año 2000. Es una generación que en el entorno laboral exige flexibilidad en horario y lugar de trabajo, que le permitan innovar, crear, desarrollar nuevas ideas y conocimientos, posibilidad de aprendizaje continuo, herramientas tecnológicas disponibles para llevar a cabo su trabajo. Las personas que pertenecen a esta generación, son personas que crecieron e inclusive algunas nacieron en medio del desarrollo tecnológico más importante de los últimos tiempos, que incluyen el computador y el internet, entre otros. Por medio de este trabajo de grado se quiere explorar qué tan preparadas están las empresas de Medellín, para vincular y retener laboralmente a esta nueva generación de empleados, llamados generación Millenium o generación Y; y a entender los factores comportamentales de estos, lo cual ayudara a la compañía a tener una continuidad del negocio. En las empresas de la actualidad se produce una alta rotación de personal, un knowhow que está rodando por todo el mundo de empresa en empresa pero que no se queda en ninguna de ellas. Es difícil manejar este fenómeno, porque inclusive muchas empresas apenas están empezando a identificar que tienen una situación nueva a la que deben enfrentarse y crear nuevas estrategias para la retención del personal. En este sentido, surge el interrogante respecto a ¿Qué deben hacer las empresas para manejar asertivamente a sus nuevos colaboradores? La respuesta es simple: las empresas no deben intentar cambiar las acciones conductivas de la “Generación Y”, sino que comprenderlas y acoplarlas a las dinámica propias de la organización.The generation that is graduating from universities is a generation that is radically different from previous generations, which actually are working in firms. For the purpose of this thesis this generation was born between 1980 and 2000. This is a generation that requires flexible schedule and comfortable workplace in his job, to have options to innovate, to create, to develop new ideas and knowledge, to have the possibility of learn continually, to have availableall technological tools to do his work. People that belong to this generation are people who grew up and even some born in the middle of the most important technological development in recent times, including the computer and the internet, among others. Through this thesis we want to explore how are prepared the companies in Medellin city to hire and holdto this new generation of employees, who are called Millenium generation or Generation Y; we want to understand the factor that affect their behaviors, which will help to the company to have a business continuity. In fact, today's businesses are not prepared to hold this generation. This situation is generating a high turnover of staff and like consequence there isa know-how that is rolling around the world from company to company but this doesn´t stay at any of them. It is difficult to handle this phenomenon, because even many companies are just beginning to identify this new situation where they must act and create new strategies for retention. In this context, the question is ¿What should companies do to assertively manage their new partners? The answer is simple: companies should not try to change the conductive actions of "Generation Y", but it should understand them and connecting new partners to their own organizational dynamics

Status epilepticus in the elderly: differential diagnosis and treatment

Seizures are not an uncommon occurrence in older adults, and the incidence of status epilepticus is much greater in the elderly than in younger populations. Status epilepticus is a neurologic emergency and requires prompt intervention to minimize morbidity and mortality. Treatment involves both supportive care as well as initiation of medications to stop all clinical and electrographic seizure activity. Benzodiazepines are used as first-line agents, followed by antiepileptic drugs when seizures persist. In refractory status epilepticus, urgent neurologic consultation is indicated for the titration of anesthetic agents to a level of appropriate background suppression on EEG. In light of our aging population, physician awareness and competence in the management of status epilepticus is imperative and should be recognized as a growing public health concern

Applications of Infrared and Raman Spectroscopies to Probiotic Investigation

In this review, we overview the most important contributions of vibrational spectroscopy based techniques in the study of probiotics and lactic acid bacteria. First, we briefly introduce the fundamentals of these techniques, together with the main multivariate analytical tools used for spectral interpretation. Then, four main groups of applications are reported: (a) bacterial taxonomy (Subsection 4.1); (b) bacterial preservation (Subsection 4.2); (c) monitoring processes involving lactic acid bacteria and probiotics (Subsection 4.3); (d) imaging-based applications (Subsection 4.4). A final conclusion, underlying the potentialities of these techniques, is presented

Food Waste to Bio-Products

The goal of this project was to design and evaluate a project for the collection and processing of food waste and spent oil in Philadelphia. The project was designed to handle 5% of the total commercial waste generated in Philadelphia. This amounted to approximately 9,700 tons/year of food waste and 73,000 gallons/year of spent oil. The process was designed to utilize a BIOFerm™ Dry Fermentation Digestion System. Following the digestion, the biogas produced is passed through a Caterpillar CG132-12 Generator Set, producing electricity to be sold back to the local grid. The digestate from the anaerobic digestion is used to produce compost, providing an additional revenue stream. In addition to handling the solid food waste, the project is designed to convert the collected spent oil into biodiesel using prepackaged processing units by Springboard Biodiesel. The facility is anticipated to annually produce 2,541 tons of biogas, 5,184,000 kWh of electricity, 14,756 tons of compost, and 59,616 gallons of biodiesel. A rigorous profitability analysis was conducted in order to project cash flows for fifteen years. The total capital investment of the plant is $5.6MM and the expected NPV of the project is -($682,000). The estimated IRR of the project is 12% and the 3-year ROI is 7%. Given the project’s negative NPV, our recommendation is to adopt such a process solely for environmentally beneficial waste management purposes. A key takeway is that in order for such a project to be profitable it would need to target more than just 5% of the total commercial food waste produced

Neural Systems Underlying Aversive Conditioning in Humans with Primary and Secondary Reinforcers

Money is a secondary reinforcer commonly used across a range of disciplines in experimental paradigms investigating reward learning and decision-making. The effectiveness of monetary reinforcers during aversive learning and associated neural basis, however, remains a topic of debate. Specifically, it is unclear if the initial acquisition of aversive representations of monetary losses depends on similar neural systems as more traditional aversive conditioning that involves primary reinforcers. This study contrasts the efficacy of a biologically defined primary reinforcer (shock) and a socially defined secondary reinforcer (money) during aversive learning and its associated neural circuitry. During a two-part experiment, participants first played a gambling game where wins and losses were based on performance to gain an experimental bank. Participants were then exposed to two separate aversive conditioning sessions. In one session, a primary reinforcer (mild shock) served as an unconditioned stimulus (US) and was paired with one of two colored squares, the conditioned stimuli (CS+ and CS−, respectively). In another session, a secondary reinforcer (loss of money) served as the US and was paired with one of two different CS. Skin conductance responses were greater for CS+ compared to CS− trials irrespective of type of reinforcer. Neuroimaging results revealed that the striatum, a region typically linked with reward-related processing, was found to be involved in the acquisition of aversive conditioned response irrespective of reinforcer type. In contrast, the amygdala was involved during aversive conditioning with primary reinforcers, as suggested by both an exploratory fMRI analysis and a follow-up case study with a patient with bilateral amygdala damage. Taken together, these results suggest that learning about potential monetary losses may depend on reinforcement learning related systems, rather than on typical structures involved in more biologically based fears

Ethanol-induced sensitization depends preferentially on D-1 rather than D-2 dopamine receptors

Behavioral sensitization, defined as a progressive increase in the locomotor stimulant effects elicited by repeated exposure to drugs of abuse, has been used as an animal model for drug craving in humans. the mesoaccumbens dopaminergic system has been proposed to be critically involved in this phenomenon; however, few studies have been designed to systematically investigate the effects of dopaminergic antagonists on development and expression of behavioral sensitization to ethanol in Swiss mice. We first tested the effects of D-1 antagonist SCH-23390 (0-0.03 mg/kg) or D-2 antagonist Sulpiride (0-30 mg/kg) on the locomotor responses to an acute injection of ethanol (2.0 g/kg). Results showed that all tested doses of the antagonists were effective in blocking ethanol's stimulant effects. in another set of experiments, mice were pretreated intraperitoneally with SCH-23390 (0.01 mg/kg) or Sulpiride (10 mg/kg) 30 min before saline or ethanol injection, for 21 days. Locomotor activity was measured weekly for 20 min. Four days following this pretreatment, all mice were challenged with ethanol. Both antagonists attenuated the development of ethanol sensitization, but only SCH-23390 blocked the expression of ethanol sensitization according to this protocol. When we tested a single dose (30 min before tests) of either antagonist in mice treated chronically with ethanol, both antagonists attenuated ethanol-induced effects. the present findings demonstrate that the concomitant administration of ethanol with D-1 but not D-2 antagonist prevented the expression of ethanol sensitization, suggesting that the neuroadaptations underlying ethanol behavioral sensitization depend preferentially on D-1 receptor actions. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Univ São Paulo, Inst Ciencias Biomed, Dept Farmacol, BR-05508900 São Paulo, BrazilUniv São Paulo, Fac Ciencias Farmaceut, BR-05508900 São Paulo, BrazilUniv Fed ABC, Ctr Matemat Comp & Cognicao, Santo Andre, SP, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Psicobiol, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Psicobiol, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Adaptable Emergency Braking Based on a Fuzzy Controller and a Predictive Model

This work presents the implementation of an adaptable emergency braking system for low speed collision avoidance, based on a frontal laser scanner for static obstacle detection, using a D-GPS system for positioning. A fuzzy logic decision process performs a criticality assessment that triggers the emergency braking system and modulates its behavior. This criticality is evaluated through the use of a predictive model based on a kinematic estimation, which modulates the decision to brake. Additionally a critical study is conducted in order to provide a benchmark for comparison, and evaluate the limits of the predictive model. The braking decision is based on a parameterizable braking model tuned for the target vehicle, that takes into account factors such as reaction time, distance to obstacles, vehicle velocity and maximum deceleration. Once activated, braking force is adapted to reduce vehicle occupants discomfort while ensuring safety throughout the process. The system was implemented on a real vehicle and proper operation is validated through extensive testing carried out at Tecnalia facilities.This project has received funding from the Electronic Component Systems for European Leadership Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 692480. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Slovakia