Successful organizational learning in the management of agricultural research and innovation: The Mexican produce foundations

"Since the 1980s, developing countries' agriculture has become more complex and diversified. In general, the public research and extension institutions in these countries were criticized for not participating in the emergence of the most dynamic agricultural markets. In recent years, many of these institutions have struggled to adapt to the new environment but they could not overcome the hurdles posed by organizational rigidities, strict public regulations, deteriorating human capital, shrinking budgets and a model of science that hampered their integration into dynamic innovation processes. In general, developing countries applied similar agricultural research policies: separation of financing and implementation of research, reductions in direct budgetary allocations to research and extension institutions, elimination or major reduction of public extension, and introduction of competitive grants programs to induce a transformation of research organizations. Strong anecdotal information suggests that these policies had limited impact on the quality and pertinence of research, and on the performance of the public research institutions. Using a different set of instruments, the Mexican Produce Foundations (PF) had major and diverse impacts on the agricultural innovation and research systems. These impacts resulted mostly from activities the PF introduced as they learned to manage funds for research and extension, and to a lesser extent from the activities they were created for, i.e., manage a competitive fund for agricultural research and extension. The PF were able to introduce these activities because they developed strong abilities to learn, including identifying knowledge gaps and defining strategies to fill them. The questions this report seeks to answer are how an organization that manages public funds for research and extension could sustain organizational innovations over extended periods, and how it could learn and adapt to maximize its impact on the agricultural innovation system. Previous studies found that human resources, organizational cultures and governance structures are three of the most important factors influencing institutional change and innovative capabilities. Despite their importance, these factors have been largely neglected in the literature on agricultural research and extension policies. This document analyzes what role these factors played in the Mexican experience." from textAgricultural research, Agricultural innovation, Developing countries,

The interactions that arise in the work for corners in Infantile Education

Este artículo forma parte de una investigación más amplia que aborda el conocimiento y la utilización de los rincones como recurso metodológico y didáctico en las aulas de Educación Infantil. Nos centraremos concretamente, en las interacciones que se producen entre el alumnado en dichos rincones a partir de la interpretación que hace el docente. La muestra considerada la ha formado 15 profesores de centros educativos (11 colegios públicos y 4 colegios concertados) de un ámbito urbano (ciudad mediana) y de un ámbito rural. La muestra participante ha sido de 74 docentes de dichos centros. La metodología que hemos utilizado ha sido cuantitativa, tomando como fuente de recogida de datos un cuestionario. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que el trabajo por rincones en las aulas de Educación Infantil tiene importantes beneficios para los niños de estas edades tanto para las interacciones sociales como las afectivasThis article is part of an investigation wider that tackles the knowledge and the use of the corners as methodological and didactic resource in the classroom of Infantile Education. We will center specifically, in the interactions that take place between the pupils in the above mentioned corners from the interpretation that the teacher does. The considered sample there have been teachers of 15 educational school (11 public schools and 4 compound schools) of an urban ambience(medium-sized city) and of a rural ambience,74 teachers of the above mentioned schools have been the taking part sample. The methodology that we have been quantitative using like data source a questionnaire. The obtained results show that the work of corners in the classrooms of Infantile Education has important benefits for the children of this age so much for the social interactions like the affective ones

EL OBSERVATORIO TURÍSTICO UNIDAD ARTÍFICE PARA EL ANÁLISIS E INTERPRETACIÓN DE LOS MERCADOS: PERSPECTIVAS PARA LA PLANIFICACIÓN Y LA TOMA DE DECISIONES EN LA ACTIVIDAD TURÍSTICA PANAMEÑA

Abstract The scarce and scattered information available, whether obtained through qualitative and/or quantitative techniques in tourism in our country, is useful not only for timely public and private decision-making, but also for planning, making investments and executing various actions of public policy is one of the causes of the current investigation. It is considered that any tourism policy and decision-making to be implemented in a given territory or company must be based on information and statistical market studies that include most of the tourism actors according to their needs and based on the potentialities and realities produced in the market. Once these policies or decisions are implemented, the tourism actors associated with these policies will be able to verify and evaluate, after a certain period has elapsed, whether the expected results have been achieved. A Tourism Observatory must be established as an intelligent institution or a useful tool that may be suitable for the construction, explanation, or development of concepts, based on the information collected from the actions and movements themselves, whether quantitative or qualitative, -diagnoses or projections -, so that they can understand each of these actions or movements that affect the actors involved in the specific sector or subsectors of the tourism market in our country. Through the implementation of the Tourism Observatory, all tourist information could be channeled in a concise, precise, and reliable manner that contributes to the development and improvement of the market, its actors, and its international and regional competitiveness.La información escasa y dispersa disponible, ya sea obtenida a través de técnicas cualitativas y / o cuantitativas en el turismo en nuestro país, útil no sólo para la oportuna toma de decisiones en lo público y en el privado, sino también para la planificación, la realización de inversiones y ejecución de diversas acciones de la política pública es una de las causas de la actual investigación.   Se considera que cualquier política de turismo y la toma de decisiones a ser implementadas en un territorio o empresa determinada debe basarse en información y estudios de mercado estadísticos que incluyen la mayor parte de los actores del turismo de acuerdo con sus necesidades y en base a las potencialidades y realidades que se produce en el mercado. Una vez que se implementan esas políticas o decisiones, los actores turísticos asociados con estas políticas, serán capaces de verificar y evaluar una vez transcurrido un determinado período de tiempo, si se han conseguido o no los resultados esperados. Un Observatorio de Turismo debe establecerse como una institución inteligente o una herramienta útil que puede ser adecuada para la construcción, explicar o desarrollar conceptos, a partir de la información recabada de las propias acciones y movimientos, ya sean  cuantitativos o cualitativos, -diagnósticas o proyecciones-, de manera que ellos puedan entender cada una de estas acciones o movimientos que afectan a los actores involucrados en el sector o subsectores específicos del mercado turístico de nuestro país. A través de la implementación del Observatorio de Turismo, es que podría canalizarse toda la información turística de manera concisa, precisa y fiable que contribuya al desarrollo y la mejora del mercado, sus actores y su competitividad internacional, regional

Randomized phase II study of fulvestrant plus palbociclib or placebo in endocrine-sensitive, hormone receptor-positive/HER2–advanced breast cancer: GEICAM/2014–12 (FLIPPER)

Background The potential benefit of adding palbociclib to fulvestrant as first-line treatment in hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative endocrine-sensitive advanced breast cancer (ABC) patients remains uncharacterized. Patients and methods In this randomized (1:1), double-blind, phase II study, postmenopausal women with HR-positive, HER2-negative ABC with de novo metastatic disease or those who relapsed after >12 months of adjuvant endocrine therapy received palbociclib/fulvestrant or placebo/fulvestrant. Stratification was based on recurrent versus de novo metastatic disease and visceral involvement. The primary objective was one-year progression-free survival (PFS-1y) rate. The sample size was 190 patients. The two-sided alpha of 0.2, 80% of power to detect a difference between the arms, assuming PFS rates of 0.695 and 0.545 for palbociclib/fulvestrant and placebo/fulvestrant, respectively. Results In total, 189 patients were randomized to palbociclib/fulvestrant ([n = 94] or placebo/fulvestrant [n = 95]). 45.5% and 60.3% of patients had de novo metastatic disease and visceral involvement, respectively. PFS-1y rates were 83.5% and 71.9% in the palbociclib/fulvestrant and placebo/fulvestrant arms, (HR 0.55, 80% CI 0.36–0.83, P = 0.064). The median PFS were 31.8 and 22.0 months for the palbociclib/fulvestrant and placebo/fulvestrant arms (aHR 0.48, 80% CI 0.37–0.64, P = 0.001). The most frequent grade 3–4 adverse events were neutropenia (68.1% vs. 0%), leucopenia (26.6% vs. 0%), anemia (3.2% vs. 0%), and lymphopenia (14.9% vs. 2.1%) for the palbociclib/fulvestrant and placebo/fulvestrant, respectively. The most frequent non-hematologic grade 3–4 adverse event was fatigue (4.3% vs. 0%). Conclusions Palbociclib/fulvestrant demonstrated better PFS-1y rates and median PFS than placebo/fulvestrant in HR-positive/HER2-negative endocrine-sensitive ABC patients

Integrable models and degenerate horizons in two-dimensional gravity

We analyse an integrable model of two-dimensional gravity which can be reduced to a pair of Liouville fields in conformal gauge. Its general solution represents a pair of ``mirror'' black holes with the same temperature. The ground state is a degenerate constant dilaton configuration similar to the Nariai solution of the Schwarzschild-de Sitter case. The existence of $\phi=const.$ solutions and their relation with the solution given by the 2D Birkhoff's theorem is then investigated in a more general context. We also point out some interesting features of the semiclassical theory of our model and the similarity with the behaviour of AdS$_2$ black holes.Comment: Latex, 16 pages, 1 figur

Physico-Chemical and structural interpretation of discrete derivative indices on N-tuples atoms

This report examines the interpretation of the Graph Derivative Indices (GDIs) from three different perspectives (i.e., in structural, steric and electronic terms). It is found that the individual vertex frequencies may be expressed in terms of the geometrical and electronic reactivity of the atoms and bonds, respectively. On the other hand, it is demonstrated that the GDIs are sensitive to progressive structural modifications in terms of: size, ramifications, electronic richness, conjugation effects and molecular symmetry. Moreover, it is observed that the GDIs quantify the interaction capacity among molecules and codify information on the activation entropy. A structure property relationship study reveals that there exists a direct correspondence between the individual frequencies of atoms and Hückel’s Free Valence, as well as between the atomic GDIs and the chemical shift in NMR, which collectively validates the theory that these indices codify steric and electronic information of the atoms in a molecule. Taking in consideration the regularity and coherence found in experiments performed with the GDIs, it is possible to say that GDIs possess plausible interpretation in structural and physicochemical terms. © 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Pharmaceutical Preparation

Las interacciones que surgen en el trabajo por rincones en Educación Infantil.

Este artículo forma parte de una investigación más amplia que aborda el conocimiento y la utilización de los rincones como recurso metodológico y didáctico en las aulas de Educación Infantil. Nos centraremos concretamente, en las interacciones que se producen entre el alumnado en dichos rincones a partir de la interpretación que hace el docente. La muestra considerada la ha formado 15 profesores de centros educativos (11 colegios públicos y 4 colegios concertados) de un ámbito urbano (ciudad mediana)  y de un ámbito rural. La muestra participante ha sido de 74 docentes de dichos centros. La metodología que hemos utilizado ha sido cuantitativa, tomando como fuente de recogida de datos un cuestionario. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que el trabajo por rincones en las aulas de Educación Infantil tiene importantes beneficios para los niños de estas edades tanto para las interacciones sociales como las afectivas. ------------------------------------------------------------------------This article is part of an investigation wider that tackles the knowledge and the use of the corners as methodological and didactic resource in the classroom of Infantile Education. We will center specifically, in the interactions that take place between the pupils in the above mentioned corners from the interpretation that the teacher does. The considered sample there have been teachers of 15 educational school (11 public schools and 4 compound schools) of an urban ambience(medium-sized city) and of a rural ambience,74 teachers of the above mentioned schools have been the taking part sample. The methodology that we have been quantitative using like data source a questionnaire. The obtained results show that the work of corners in the classrooms of Infantile Education has important benefits for the children of this age so much for the social interactions like the affective ones. Artículo revisado por pare

Spondylothoracic dysostosis, Jarcho Levin syndrome: case report

Dysostosis spondylothoracic, or Jarcho Levin syndrome, is characterized by a short neck and thorax, a protruding abdomen, abnormal vertebral segmentation and fusion posterior costal resulting in thoracic restriction or respiratory failure and scoliosis. The prevalence is estimated at 1 in 12,000 live births for the people of Puerto Rico and 1 per 200,000 for the rest of the world. It is inherited in an autosomal recessive manner and the only related gene is MESP2. Clinical case: Newborn male, who during the first hour of life develops perioral cyanosis, thoracoabdominal dissociation and polipnea, requiring endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation for respiratory impairment, finding thoracoabdominal costovertebral abnormalities with an x-ray, and a conditioning restrictive pattern like a crab. During the physical examination, we found horizontal eyelid openings, right atrial appendage, straight nasal bridge, short thorax and asymmetry and hypertrichosis, predominantly in the back. A diagnosis of dysostosis spondylothoracic is confirmed, and the patient was discharged at 7 days of age, with follow up neonatal consultation at high risk

El índice Ka: un nuevo algoritmo para analizar los componentes de la superficie terrestre en imágenes de satélite

El cambio del paisaje de la superficie terrestre, su composición y estructura, ocurrido por causas di- versas, ha estado en la mira de toda la humanidad. Se han desarrollado diversas formas para entender- los y la sensoría remota es lo más reciente y nove- doso para tener un conocimiento rápido de gran- des extensiones. En este estudio se ha desarrollado un nuevo algoritmo para medir estos cambios, así como para identificar valores espectrales de espe- cies de coníferas, utilizando imágenes del satélite Landsat7 ETM+. Los resultados muestran un gran potencial del índice Ka para detectar los diferentes componentes superficiales y su variabilidad debi- do a efectos naturales o antropológicos, etc. The change in the landscape of the terrestrial surface, its composition, and its structure, caused by many factors, has been in the aim of all humanity. Diverse forms have been developed in order to understand them, the sensory remote being the most recent and novel thing in acquiring fast knowledge of large extensions. In this study a new algorithm has been developed to measure these changes, as well as to identify ghastly values of coniferous species using images of the satellite Landsat7 ETM+. The results show a great potential of the Ka index in detecting the different superfi- cial components and its variability due to natural effects or due to man