576 research outputs found
Los instrumentos de planificacion urbana al servicio del desarrollo comunal
61 p.El objetivo principal de esta monografÃa es presentar al lector los elementos principales que forman parte de los instrumentos de Planificación Urbana. Al mismo tiempo el efecto que tiene para la vida de la comunidad su real conocimiento. Para cumplir con el objetivo propuesto, se analizara la Ley general de Urbanismo y Construcciones y su respectiva ordenanza, para luego inferir desde su análisis los efectos y consecuencia para el desarrollo socio-económico de sus destinatarios
College Sport Ethics: Moral versus Consequentialist Drivers of Student Ethics in Sport Activities EXTENDED ABSTRACT
This study aims at explaining why college students cheat in sport activities. Knowing what induces students to cheat from their own rationale for cheating is the first objective and uncovers the first gap. Understanding how students solve ethical dilemmas in general and how such routine is applied to sport activities is the second objective and leads to visualize the second gap. Based on empirical research, this study evaluates the competing roles of morality or deontological norms and the consequences or teleological norms in the formation of ethical judgment and ethical intentions (Hunt and Vitell, 1986). Previous research shows that the deontological norms prevail over the teleological norms; notwithstanding their debatable effects in situations involving ethical dilemmas versus those that do not (Hunt and Vasquez-Parraga, 1993). This ethics theory and methodology were applied to a 2 x 2 randomized experimental design and a scenario reflecting a student conduct in a sport routine that included a moral or immoral act with positive or negative consequences to the actor
Fragmentation Increases Impact of Wind Disturbance on Forest Structure and Carbon Stocks in a Western Amazonian Landscape
Tropical second-growth forests could help mitigate climate change, but the degree to which their carbon potential is achieved will depend on exposure to disturbance. Wind disturbance is common in tropical forests, shaping structure, composition, and function, and influencing successional trajectories. However, little is known about the impacts of extreme winds in fragmented landscapes, though second-growth forests are often located in mosaics of forest, pasture, cropland, and other land cover types. Though indirect evidence suggests that fragmentation increases risk of wind damage, few studies have found such impacts following severe storms. In this study, we ask whether fragmentation and forest type (old vs. second growth) were associated with variation in wind damage after a severe convective storm in a fragmented production landscape in western Amazonia. We applied linear spectral unmixing to Landsat 8 imagery from before and after the storm, and combined it with field observations of damage to map wind effects on forest structure and biomass (Figure 4, 5). We also used Landsat 8 imagery to map land cover with the goals of identifying old- and second-growth forest and characterizing fragmentation. We used these data to assess variation in wind disturbance across 95,596 hectares of forest, distributed over 6,110 patches. We find that fragmentation is significantly associated with wind damage, with damage severity higher at forest edges and in edgier, more isolated patches (Figure 7). Damage was more severe in old-growth than in second-growth forests, but this effect was weaker than that of fragmentation (Figure 8). These results illustrate the importance of considering spatial configuration and landscape context in planning tropical forest restoration and predicting carbon sequestration in second-growth forests. Future research should address the mechanisms behind these results, to minimize wind damage risk in second-growth forests so their carbon potential can be maximally achieved
Genome-Wide Association Study for Maize Leaf Cuticular Conductance Identifies Candidate Genes Involved in the Regulation of Cuticle Development.
The cuticle, a hydrophobic layer of cutin and waxes synthesized by plant epidermal cells, is the major barrier to water loss when stomata are closed at night and under water-limited conditions. Elucidating the genetic architecture of natural variation for leaf cuticular conductance (g c) is important for identifying genes relevant to improving crop productivity in drought-prone environments. To this end, we conducted a genome-wide association study of g c of adult leaves in a maize inbred association panel that was evaluated in four environments (Maricopa, AZ, and San Diego, CA, in 2016 and 2017). Five genomic regions significantly associated with g c were resolved to seven plausible candidate genes (ISTL1, two SEC14 homologs, cyclase-associated protein, a CER7 homolog, GDSL lipase, and β-D-XYLOSIDASE 4). These candidates are potentially involved in cuticle biosynthesis, trafficking and deposition of cuticle lipids, cutin polymerization, and cell wall modification. Laser microdissection RNA sequencing revealed that all these candidate genes, with the exception of the CER7 homolog, were expressed in the zone of the expanding adult maize leaf where cuticle maturation occurs. With direct application to genetic improvement, moderately high average predictive abilities were observed for whole-genome prediction of g c in locations (0.46 and 0.45) and across all environments (0.52). The findings of this study provide novel insights into the genetic control of g c and have the potential to help breeders more effectively develop drought-tolerant maize for target environments
Evaluation of α,β-unsaturated ketones as antileishmanial agents
In this study, we assessed the antileishmanial activity of 126 α,β-unsaturated ketones. The compounds NC901, NC884, and NC2459 showed high leishmanicidal activity for both the extracellular (50% effective concentration [EC(50)], 456 nM, 1,122 nM, and 20 nM, respectively) and intracellular (EC(50), 1,870 nM, 937 nM, and 625 nM, respectively) forms of Leishmania major propagated in macrophages, with little or no toxicity to mammalian cells. Bioluminescent imaging of parasite replication showed that all three compounds reduced the parasite burden in the murine model, with no apparent toxicity
To each his own: no evidence of gyrodactylid parasite host switches from invasive poeciliid fishes to Goodea atripinnis, the most dominant endemic freshwater goodeid fish in the Mexican Highlands
Background: Goodeid topminnows are live-bearing fishes endemic to the Mexican Highlands (Mesa Central, MC). Unfortunately, in the MC, environmental degradation and introduced species have pushed several goodeid species to the brink of extinction. Invasive fishes can introduce exotic parasites, and the most abundant goodeid, blackfin goodea Goodea atripinnis Jordan, is parasitised by six exotic helminths. Poeciliids are widely dispersed invasive fishes, which exert negative ecological effects on goodeids. Poeciliids host several species of the monogenean genus Gyrodactylus von Nordmann, 1832, including pathogenic, invasive parasites. Here, we looked for evidence of Gyrodactylus species switching hosts from poeciliids to goodeids. Methods: Fish were collected in rivers draining the MC into both sides of the continental divide. Hosts were screened for gyrodactylid parasites in localities where G. atripinnis and poeciliids occurred sympatrically. Gyrodactylus specimens were characterised morphologically (attachment apparatus) and molecularly (internal transcribed spacer region, ITS). A Bayesian phylogenetic tree using ITS sequences established relationships between gyrodactylids collected from goodeid fishes and those from parasites infecting poeciliids. Results: Gyrodactylids were collected from G. atripinnis in six localities on both sides of the watershed where exotic poeciliids occurred sympatrically. Morphological and molecular analyses indicated the presence of four undescribed species of Gyrodactylus infecting this goodeid host. Gyrodactylus tomahuac n. sp., the most abundant and geographically widespread species, is described here. The other three Gyrodactylus spp. are not described, but their ITS sequences are used as molecular data presented here, are the only available for gyrodactylids infecting goodeid fishes. Morphological and molecular data suggest that two distinct groups of gyrodactylids infect goodeids, one of which shares a common ancestor with gyrodactylids parasitizing poeciliids. Conclusions: No evidence was found of gyrodactylids switching hosts from invasive poeciliids to endemic goodeids, nor vice versa. Moreover, considering that G. atripinnis is known to host both Gyrodactylus lamothei Mendoza-Palmero, Sereno-Uribe & Salgado-Maldonado, 2009 and Gyrodactylus mexicanus Mendoza-Palmero, Sereno-Uribe & Salgado-Maldonado, 2009, with the addition of G. tomahuac n. sp. and the three undescribed Gyrodactylus spp. reported, at least six gyrodactylids may infect this host. This would make monogeneans the second most abundant parasite group infecting G. atripinnis, which to date is known to harbour 22 helminth species: nine digeneans, five nematodes, four cestodes, three monogeneans and one acanthocephalan
An Ensemble-based Machine Learning Model for Investigating Children Interaction with Robots in Childhood Education
"Investing in children's well-being and supporting high-quality pre-school education is a significant
component of its promotion (ECE). All children have the right to participate. ECE teachers' thoughts
about children's participation were examined to see if they were linked to children's perceptions of
their participation. On the other hand, current studies focus on a single categorization method with
lower overall accuracy. The findings of this study provided the basis for the development of an
ensemble machine learning (ML) approach for measuring the participation of children with learning
disabilities in educational situations that were specifically developed for them. Visual and auditory
data are collected and analyzed to determine whether or not the youngster is engaged during the
robot-child interaction in this manner. It is proposed that an ensemble ML technique (Enhanced
Deep Neural Network (EDNN), Modified Extreme Gradient Boost Classifier, and Logistic
Regression) be used to judge whether or not a youngster is actively engaged in the learning process.
Children's participation in ECE courses depends on both the quantitative and qualitative
characteristics of the classroom, according to this research.
Feature density as an uncertainty estimator method in the binary classification mammography images task for a supervised deep learning model
Labeled medical datasets may include a limited number of observations for each class, while unlabeled datasets may include observations from patients with pathologies other than those observed in the labeled dataset. This negatively influences the performance of the prediction algorithms. Including out-of-distribution data in the unlabeled dataset can lead to varying degrees of performance degradation, or even improvement, by using a distance to measure how out-of-distribution a piece of data is. This work aims to propose an approach that allows estimating the predictive uncertainty of supervised algorithms, improving the behaviour when atypical samples are presented to the distribution of the dataset. In particular, we have used this approach to mammograms X-ray images applied to binary classification tasks. The proposal makes use of Feature Density, which consists of estimating the density of features from the calculation of a histogram. The obtained results report slight differences when different neural network architectures and uncertainty estimators are usedUniversidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional AndalucÃa Tec
Prevention, control, and elimination of neglected diseases in the Americas: Pathways to integrated, inter-programmatic, inter-sectoral action for health and development
BACKGROUND: In the Latin America and Caribbean region over 210 million people live below the poverty line. These impoverished and marginalized populations are heavily burdened with neglected communicable diseases. These diseases continue to enact a toll, not only on families and communities, but on the economically constrained countries themselves. DISCUSSION: As national public health priorities, neglected communicable diseases typically maintain a low profile and are often left out when public health agendas are formulated. While many of the neglected diseases do not directly cause high rates of mortality, they contribute to an enormous rate of morbidity and a drastic reduction in income for the most poverty-stricken families and communities. The persistence of this "vicious cycle" between poverty and poor health demonstrates the importance of linking the activities of the health sector with those of other sectors such as education, housing, water and sanitation, labor, public works, transportation, agriculture, industry, and economic development. SUMMARY: The purpose of this paper is three fold. First, it focuses on a need for integrated "pro-poor" approaches and policies to be developed in order to more adequately address the multi-faceted nature of neglected diseases. This represents a move away from traditional disease-centered approaches to a holistic approach that looks at the overarching causes and mechanisms that influence the health and well being of communities. The second objective of the paper outlines the need for a specific strategy for addressing these diseases and offers several programmatic entry points in the context of broad public health measures involving multiple sectors. Finally, the paper presents several current Pan American Health Organization and other institutional initiatives that already document the importance of integrated, inter-programmatic, and inter-sectoral approaches. They provide the framework for a renewed effort toward the efficient use of resources and the development of a comprehensive integrated solution to neglected communicable diseases found in the context of poverty, and tailored to the needs of local communities
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