An Overview of Urbanization in Ecuador under FUAs Definition [WP]

This paper analyzes the urbanization of Ecuador in the period 1950 – 2010 under the Functional Urban Areas (FUAs) definition. When Ecuadorian FUAs population evolution over time is explored, it is possible to observe that the urbanization of Ecuador had its peak between 1960 and 1980. Moreover, the highest increase of population in recent decades is mostly driven by the urban growth of small FUAs. In addition, the analysis suggests that the FUAs in Ecuador are in line with the size and structure of the FUAs of a similar developing country, Colombia, and the whole OECD sample of FUAs. Finally, it is pointed that the population of Ecuador is concentrated in the FUAs of metropolitan size (1.5 million of inhabitants or more), which are below the average of the metropolitan areas of the OEC

Proyecto de elaboración del plan de marketing institucional para la escuela superíor politecnica del litoral (ESPOL)

Como principal objetivo se encuentra el de posicionar en la mente del consumidor la marca ESPOL como universidad de excelentes profesionales altamente capacitados para solucionar problemas. Entre los principales objetivos que se esperan obtener dentro de la investigación se encuentran: Determinar alternativas de ingresos basados en proyectos de investigaciones y consultorías. Generar vínculos de fidelización entre ESPOL y empresarios. Identificar los nichos de mercados que aún no han sido identificados por las demás Universidades Satisfacer las necesidades potenciales de los clientes Potenciar imagen de la ESPOL frente a la comunidad ecuatoriana.

Measuring Overcrowding in Households with Children: Official vs. Actual Thresholds in the Ecuadorian Case

This paper reports research into the official (more than three people per bedroom, ppb) compared to the actual classification of household overcrowding using a developing country as a case of study. In this respect, the aim of this paper is two-fold. Firstly, using the official Ecuadorian household overcrowding threshold, we explore the association between household overcrowding and a well-being variable. Secondly, we identify and compare whether this official threshold corresponds to the actual level at which the well-being variable seems to be affected. To do so, we use a probit regression in which our well-being variable, young children's respiratory health, depends on household overcrowding. We find that overcrowding is positively associated with the incidence of respiratory diseases in children at a level of α=1%. Always using the official classification of overcrowding (3 ppb), marginal effect analysis indicates that, for two hypothetical households with at least one 0- to 5-year-old child with average values in terms of the other estimates, the predicted probability of having a child with a respiratory disease is 0.0022 greater for an overcrowded household than in one that is not. With respect to our second objective, we find that the threshold at which household density starts to affect the incidence of respiratory disease in children is 1.33 ppb, which is significantly lower than the official classification of over 3 ppb. In conclusion, the Ecuadorian government and other authorities that have established their household overcrowding classification arbitrarily should re-evaluate their official criteria, setting a threshold at which household density starts to deteriorate the health outputs of the household members. In fact, it may be useful to discuss and incorporate a refined definition of overcrowding, which could include other considerations than just density (e.g., an age limit for children for sharing a bedroom and gender separation), taking the restrictions of a developing country into account, in this case. Moreover, an official classification that reflects the social reality allows accurate policies, goals and strategies to be established to improve household overcrowding

Generation of BIM data based on the automatic detection, identification and localization of lamps in buildings

In this paper we introduce a method that supports the detection, identification and localization of lamps in a building, with the main goal of automatically feeding its energy model by means of Building Information Modeling (BIM) methods. The proposed method, thus, provides useful information to apply energy-saving strategies to reduce energy consumption in the building sector through the correct management of the lighting infrastructure. Based on the unique geometry and brightness of lamps and the use of only greyscale images, our methodology is able to obtain accurate results despite its low computational needs, resulting in near-real-time processing. The main novelty is that the focus of the candidate search is not over the entire image but instead only on a limited region that summarizes the specific characteristics of the lamp. The information obtained from our approach was used on the Green Building XML Schema to illustrate the automatic generation of BIM data from the results of the algorithm.Comment: 12 pages, 19 figures, journa

Solving permutations in frequencyy-domain for blind separation of an arbitrary number of speech sources

Blind separation of speech sources in reverberant environ ments is usually performed in the time-frequency domain, which gives rise to the permutation problem: the different ordering of estimated sources for different frequency components. A two-stage method to solve permutations with an arbitrary number of sources is proposed. The suggested procedure is based on the spectral consistency of the sources. At the first stage frequency bins are compared with each other, while at the second stage the neighboring frequencies are emphasized. Experiments for perfect separation situations and for live recordings show that the proposed method improves the results of existing approaches.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España) TEC2011-2355

Clinical utility of vitamin D in the treatment of idiopathic chronic lymphopenia: a possible intervention

Aim: To open the possibility of using vitamin D in cases of idiopathic lymphopenia. Background: In addition to its participation in the homeostasis of calcium and phosphorus, vitamin D has immunomodulatory mechanisms, so, its deficiency, apart from being associated with bone abnormalities, accompanies the development of certain autoimmune diseases. Case Description: It is a case of leukopenia associated with idiopathic lymphopenia of four years of evolution, in a 51-year-old woman, with history of hemithyroidectomy and osteopenia in the lumbar spine. Management initially consisted in supplementation with calcium and ibandronic acid. However, in the presence of hypercalciuria, vitamin D deficiency was suspected, so its serum levels were quantified, confirming the deficiency, then calcitriol was added to the treatment. Five months after the first dose of calcitriol, the leukocytes and lymphocytes levels were within normal range. Conclusion: There are many therapeutic schemes to treat vitamin D deficiency, however, nowadays no cases have been reported confirming the positive effect on lymphocytes count after vitamin D supplementation. Clinical significance: Until now, cases of idiopathic lymphopenia have not been given any specific therapeutic alternative, and vitamin D could have a positive effect if there is an autoimmune component, and perhaps even offer a greater spectrum of benefits

Evolución del comportamiento estratégico de las cooperativas versus empresas capitalistas: una aproximación descriptiva al efecto crisis

Desde el año 2008 la situación económica en España ha sufrido un proceso de deterioro que no se había conocido en otros periodos. La situación es tan compleja que es necesario abordar el estudio de numerosas cuestiones a nivel macroeconómico, microeconómico, del sector financiero y de la economía real para comprender y, especialmente, para reconocer qué factores están permitiendo sobrevivir a los proyectos empresariales. En este sentido, dos factores fundamentales para la supervivencia de las organizaciones económicas en la crisis actual son la capacidad de exportación y de innovación. El objetivo de la investigación es ambos fenómenos de las sociedades cooperativas de trabajo y las sociedades laborales en España, comparando su situación con las empresas capitalistas, con el fin de obtener una imagen real del posicionamiento de las Empresas de Economía Social en estos ámbitos. Los datos utilizados para realizar el estudio proceden de la Encuesta sobre Estrategias Empresariales (ESEE) para el periodo 2005-2010, y se realiza atendiendo especialmente a los sectores

Evolución del comportamiento estratégico de las cooperativas versus empresas capitalistas: una aproximación descriptiva al efecto crisis

Since 2008 the economic situation in Spain has undergone a process of deterioration. The situation is so complex that it is necessary to study it of numerous perspectives because it is very important to know the factors that are enabling firms survive. In this regard, two key factors in this topic are the ability to export and innovation. The aim of the paper it is to analyse both phenomena in Social Firms Spain, comparing their situation with capitalist enterprises, in order to get a picture of the position of Social Economy Enterprises in these areas. The data used for the study come from the Survey on Business Strategies (ESEE) for the period 2005-2010.Desde el año 2008 la situación económica en España ha sufrido un proceso de deterioro que no se había conocido en otros periodos. La situación es tan compleja que es necesario abordar el estudio de numerosas cuestiones a nivel macroeconómico, microeconómico, del sector financiero y de la economía real para comprender y, especialmente, para reconocer qué factores están permitiendo sobrevivir a los proyectos empresariales. En este sentido, dos factores fundamentales para la supervivencia de las organizaciones económicas en la crisis actual son la capacidad de exportación y de innovación. El objetivo de la investigación es ambos fenómenos de las sociedades cooperativas de trabajo y las sociedades laborales en España, comparando su situación con las empresas capitalistas, con el fin de obtener una imagen real del posicionamiento de las Empresas de Economía Social en estos ámbitos. Los datos utilizados para realizar el estudio proceden de la Encuesta sobre Estrategias Empresariales (ESEE) para el periodo 2005-2010, y se realiza atendiendo especialmente a los sectores

Metal species involved in long distance metal transport in plants

20 Pags.- 2 Tabls.- 1 Fig. © 2014 Álvarez-Fernández, Díaz-Benito, Abadía, López-Millán and Abadía. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.The mechanisms plants use to transport metals from roots to shoots are not completely understood. It has long been proposed that organic molecules participate in metal translocation within the plant. However, until recently the identity of the complexes involved in the long-distance transport of metals could only be inferred by using indirect methods, such as analyzing separately the concentrations of metals and putative ligands and then using in silico chemical speciation software to predict metal species. Molecular biology approaches also have provided a breadth of information about putative metal ligands and metal complexes occurring in plant fluids. The new advances in analytical techniques based on mass spectrometry and the increased use of synchrotron X-ray spectroscopy have allowed for the identification of some metal-ligand species in plant fluids such as the xylem and phloem saps. Also, some proteins present in plant fluids can bind metals and a few studies have explored this possibility. This study reviews the analytical challenges researchers have to face to understand long-distance metal transport in plants as well as the recent advances in the identification of the ligand and metal-ligand complexes in plant fluids.This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (projects AGL2010-16515 and AGL2012-31988), and the Aragón Government (group A03). Pablo Díaz-Benito was supported by a MINECO-FPI grant.Peer reviewe