What and Who Has Determined Adoption? A Study on Improved Forage Technologies in Colombia from an Agricultural Innovation System (AIS) Perspective

The complex process behind the adoption of improved forages in Colombia remains largely unexplored. Despite governmental and scientific efforts to promote and disseminate the implementation of improved forages for the sake of sustainable livestock production, local livestock producers continue to extensively use native species and adoption rates of more efficient forages remain low. This study explores the dynamics behind the development and diffusion of improved forage technologies in Colombia, from the 1960\u27s to the present through an Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS) perspective. Here we map the agents involved, classify the roles they exerted over time and reconstruct the historical context in which the creation and dissemination of forage technologies in the country took form. Through the use of qualitative research tools such as in-depth interviews, and extensive archival work, we were able to identify various factors determining the course of improved forage adoption processes. First, a gradual decline on public and private investment destined to agricultural research hindered national scientific agendas and affected the continuity of ongoing projects. Second, the primacy of interpersonal relationships further complicates this panorama as it can either interfere with or promote the use of improved forages, subjecting technology dissemination to a non-institutional realm. Thirdly, released technological packages remain incomplete and impede rising adoption rates, mainly due to both Colombia’s low-latitude (and its restrictions for national seed production) and ineffective processes of training and support aimed at local livestock producers. Aside from the identification of key actors and historical trends, the study concludes by suggesting the implementation of a systematic (AIS) approach that gives account of the complex and ever-changing process of forage adoption, its agents, roles, strengths and limitations so that a comprehensive diagnosis can serve as a guideline for future adoption policies in the subject

From Theory to Practice: What Should We Have in Mind When Building Effective and Sustainable Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) Schemes for Silvo-Pastoral Systems? Evidence from Colombia

In most Latin American countries, payment for ecosystem services (PES) can be a useful strategy for restoration and conservation of the environment, increasing productivity and promoting sustainable development in rural areas. Despite these plausible benefits, PES implementation can be challenging due to the contextual framework in which it takes place (e.g. institutional weakness in the implementation and monitoring stages, limited connectivity among stakeholders, low adoption levels of agricultural technology). This study aims at evaluating PES schemes for silvo-pastoral systems in Colombia by considering six dimensions based on an extensive literature review: policy and governance; social context; environmental context; risks and challenges; dynamics; and monitoring and evaluation approaches. A literature meta-analysis and semi-structured interviews with decision makers were carried out. The results suggest that: 1) It is necessary to restructure PES schemes given their limited scope in developing countries; 2) A new approach towards successful PES schemes should be adopted, transitioning from temporary conservation-oriented PES to schemes focused on the articulation of value chains and thus, transmitting costs to the final consumers; 3) Although policies regarding PES have been increasing, governance systems and responsibility assignments remain unclear; and 4) PES are more likely to be efficient when accompanied by complementary strategies (e.g. technical assistance, mechanisms for market inclusion) and conservation strategies that last in time. This study revealed the difficulties in monitoring territories as well as the underlying dynamics of implementing PES schemes in farms with nettle aptitude to receive them (despite the willingness of the producers). It also highlights the importance of analyzing the cultural and economic dimensions of the producers to assess the assigned importance of nature conservation. This work enriches the debate and informs the dialogue among PES experiences in order to guide public and private strategies in developing countries

Green's function for the Hodge Laplacian on some classes of Riemannian and Lorentzian symmetric spaces

We compute the Green's function for the Hodge Laplacian on the symmetric spaces M\times\Sigma, where M is a simply connected n-dimensional Riemannian or Lorentzian manifold of constant curvature and \Sigma is a simply connected Riemannian surface of constant curvature. Our approach is based on a generalization to the case of differential forms of the method of spherical means and on the use of Riesz distributions on manifolds. The radial part of the Green's function is governed by a fourth order analogue of the Heun equation.Comment: 18 page

A remark on an overdetermined problem in Riemannian Geometry

Let $(M,g)$ be a Riemannian manifold with a distinguished point $O$ and assume that the geodesic distance $d$ from $O$ is an isoparametric function. Let $\Omega\subset M$ be a bounded domain, with $O \in \Omega$, and consider the problem $\Delta_p u = -1$ in $\Omega$ with $u=0$ on $\partial \Omega$, where $\Delta_p$ is the $p$-Laplacian of $g$. We prove that if the normal derivative $\partial_{\nu}u$ of $u$ along the boundary of $\Omega$ is a function of $d$ satisfying suitable conditions, then $\Omega$ must be a geodesic ball. In particular, our result applies to open balls of $\mathbb{R}^n$ equipped with a rotationally symmetric metric of the form $g=dt^2+\rho^2(t)\,g_S$, where $g_S$ is the standard metric of the sphere.Comment: 8 pages. This paper has been written for possible publication in a special volume dedicated to the conference "Geometric Properties for Parabolic and Elliptic PDE's. 4th Italian-Japanese Workshop", organized in Palinuro in May 201

Plan de negocio para una empresa consultora en homologaci?n de proveedores

El servicio de consultor?a para el proceso de homologaci?n de proveedores tiene como finalidad principal, obtener el certificado de proveedor homologado de las principales empresas mineras. Este certificado permite garantizar la calidad del producto y/o servicio ofertado, disminuir el riesgo por incumplimiento y el fortalecimiento de alianzas estrat?gicas entre proveedor?cliente. Por ello, la empresa consultora en una etapa inicial busca el posicionamiento de marca en las micro, peque?as y medianas empresas (Mipymes) que operan en Lima Metropolitana y desarrollan actividades econ?micas como; el comercio, servicios y manufacturas. Adem?s, como objetivos secundarios se busca en la etapa de asesoramiento, la estandarizaci?n de los procesos y fomentar la cultura de prevenci?n entre los colaboradores de los clientes. Este servicio de consultor?a se caracteriza por contar con profesionales de amplia experiencia en la implementaci?n de sistemas integrados de gesti?n (seguridad y salud en el trabajo, medio ambiente y calidad). Adicionalmente a ello, el tiempo de asesoramiento es menor o igual a 3 meses, con modalidad semipresencial; precios y condiciones de pago competitivas. Posterior a ello, la estrategia se orienta a obtener mayor cobertura geogr?fica y a la b?squeda de clientes que oferten a otro tipo de industrias diferentes a las empresas mineras

The structure of fluid trifluoromethane and methylfluoride

We present hard X-ray and neutron diffraction measurements on the polar fluorocarbons HCF3 and H3CF under supercritical conditions and for a range of molecular densities spanning about a factor of ten. The Levesque-Weiss-Reatto inversion scheme has been used to deduce the site-site potentials underlying the measured partial pair distribution functions. The orientational correlations between adjacent fluorocarbon molecules -- which are characterized by quite large dipole moments but no tendency to form hydrogen bonds -- are small compared to a highly polar system like fluid hydrogen chloride. In fact, the orientational correlations in HCF3 and H3CF are found to be nearly as small as those of fluid CF4, a fluorocarbon with no dipole moment.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure

Identification of extracellular vesicles from their Raman spectra via self-supervised learning

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) released from cells attract interest for their possible role in health and diseases. The detection and characterization of EVs is challenging due to the lack of specialized methodologies. Raman spectroscopy, however, has been suggested as a novel approach for biochemical analysis of EVs. To extract information from the spectra, a novel deep learning architecture is explored as a versatile variant of autoencoders. The proposed architecture considers the frequency range separately from the intensity of the spectra. This enables the model to adapt to the frequency range, rather than requiring that all spectra be pre-processed to the same frequency range as it was trained on. It is demonstrated that the proposed architecture accepts Raman spectra of EVs and lipoproteins from 13 biological sources and from two laboratories. High reconstruction accuracy is maintained despite large variances in frequency range and noise level. It is also shown that the architecture is able to cluster the biological nanoparticles by their Raman spectra and differentiate them by their origin without pre-processing of the spectra or supervision during learning. The model performs label-free differentiation, including separating EVs from activated vs. non-activated blood platelets and EVs/lipoproteins from prostate cancer patients versus non-cancer controls. The differentiation is evaluated by creating a neural network classifier that observes the features extracted by the model to classify the spectra according to their sample origin. The classification reveals a test sensitivity of 92.2% and selectivity of 92.3% over 769 measurements from two labs that have different measurement configurations.</p