Stability and Security in Employment and Decent Work

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.FLA_2012_Rpt_Stability_Security_Decent_Work.pdf: 1885 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Fair Labor Association 2006 Annual Public Report

Introduction concerns effects of globalization. Examines changes from 2005-2006 as companies are encouraged to move towards self compliance, with a concentration on corporate responsibility. Data is broken down by company

Estimación de la conductividad eléctrica del tejido humano en la terapia de hipertermia por radiofrecuencia

The use of mathematical models to study complex systems such as physical and biological phenomena allows understanding their behavior, specifically regarding variables and parameters that are difficult to obtain. Additionally, studying optimization techniques has made it possible to approximate the characteristics of these systems by correlating numerical simulations and experimentation. Radiofrequency hyperthermia therapy for cancer treatment is currently under consideration for future medical applications. However, some of its properties are complex to measure, which could prevent their control. This is the case of electrical conductivity, which depends on the induction frequency and the tissue characteristics. In this paper, radiofrequency hyperthermia therapy was simulated via the finite element method. Then, an estimation of the electrical conductivity involved in the treatment was performed using the particle swarm optimization method. The execution time and the difference between the estimated parameter and the exact value were evaluated and compared with those obtained using the Levenberg-Marquardt method. The results indicate a significant agreement between the estimated and exact values in three different cases. The Levenberg-Marquardt method has a difference of 0,1942% and a performance time of 22 minutes, whereas the particle swarm optimization method has a difference of 0,0967% and a performance time of 327 minutes. The latter performs better in terms of parameter value estimation, whereas the former has better computational times. These techniques may help medical doctors to prescribe treatment protocols and may open the possibility of devising control strategies for hyperthermia therapy as a cancer treatment.El uso de modelos matemáticos para el estudio de sistemas complejos como los fenómenos físicos y biológicos permite comprender su comportamiento, específicamente con respecto a variables y parámetros difíciles de obtener. Adicionalmente, el estudio de técnicas de optimización ha permitido aproximar las características de estos sistemas por medio de la correlación de simulaciones numéricas y la experimentación. La terapia de hipertermia por radiofrecuencia para el tratamiento del cáncer está actualmente en consideración para su futura aplicación médica. Sin embargo, algunas de sus propiedades son difíciles de medir, lo cual impediría su control. Este es el caso de la conductividad eléctrica, que depende de la frecuencia de inducción y de las características del tejido. En este artículo se simuló la terapia de hipertermia por radiofrecuencia mediante el método de elementos finitos. Luego se realizó una estimación de la conductividad eléctrica en el tratamiento mediante el método de optimización por enjambres de partículas. Se evaluaron el tiempo de ejecución y la diferencia del valor estimado con respecto al valor exacto, y se compararon sus valores estimados con los obtenidos mediante el método de Levenberg-Marquardt. Los resultados indican una concordancia significativa entre los valores estimados y los exactos en tres casos diferentes. El método de Levenberg-Marquardt tiene una diferencia de 0,1942% y un tiempo de ejecución de 22 minutos, mientras que el método de optimización de enjambres de partículas tiene una diferencia de 0,0967% y un tiempo de ejecución de 327 minutos. Este último tiene un mejor rendimiento en términos de estimación del valor de los parámetros, mientras que el otro tiene un mejor tiempo de ejecución computacional. Estas técnicas podrían ayudar a los médicos a prescribir protocolos de tratamiento y abrir la posibilidad de diseñar estrategias de control para la terapia de hipertermia como tratamiento para el cáncer.Fil: Lopez Perez, Jorge Iván. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; Argentina. Universidad Santiago de Cali; ColombiaFil: Bermeo Varón, L. A.. Universidad Santiago de Cali; Colombi

Stress and strain analysis and induced seismicity in geological gas storage (Yela, Spain)

Geologic gas storage is a sustainable strategy to store energy in underground reservoirs in order to be used under demand. Injection and withdrawal gas operations could trigger induced seismicity according to the tectonic constrains of the reservoir. The study of the active stress/strain fields shows the properties of the fault patterns that can be involved in induced seismicity. In our work, we have determined the strain/stress field in the Yela underground gas storage, an Upper Cretaceous carbonate reservoir located in central Spain. Slickensides on fault planes were measured from Cretaceous, Miocene and Quaternary rocks. Results show a strain field with ey (maximum horizontal shortening) oriented NW-SE. This field was compressional during the early Miocene, switching off to extensional from late Miocene to present-day. Our results suggest that NNW-SSE and NW-SE oriented faults could act as an effective pathway for gas leakage and prone to trigger induced seismicity. Moreover, 141 small earthquakes (Mmax 2.3) were recorded during underground operations in Yela. Peaks of earthquakes appear seasonally from November to February, in coincidence with the injection operations prior to the winter withdrawal. Working at its maximum gas storage volume, earthquake peaks decreased in intensity and magnitude from 2017 to 2021, and show a time lag of 3 months from the month of maximum volume injection to the earthquake occurrenc

Estado nutricional y características de la dieta de un grupo de adolescentes de la localidad rural de Calama, Bolivia

In 2003 a pilot study was carried out in the rural area of the Bolivian Department of La Paz aiming at the identification of dietary patterns among a group of secondary school adolescents who have little or scarce contact with the urban centres. The study consisted of a food intake survey (24 h recall), the measurement of anthropometrics and sociodemographic information. Nine percent was the global prevalence of overweight, although it was more present in girls. No statistically significant differences were found between nutrients in the diets of boys and girls. The energy intake was distributed in the five usual eating times as follows: 22% breakfast, 20% break time at school, 24% lunch, 12% tea time and 22% dinner. Furthermore, the anthropometric measures of boys were compared with their urban counterparts, where the differences were only significant with students in private schools. The present study can be used for the formulation of nutritional policies in Bolivia

From voice to knowledge: A proposal for a voice annotation system to support collaborative engineering design processes

This paper describes a novel voice interaction mechanism for capturing and managing design knowledge within a collaborative Computer-Aided Design (CAD) environment. We present a software module for speech recognition that integrates with a CAD application to allow the automatic creation of textual annotations in a 3D model directly from voice data. Audio is transcribed automatically, resulting in a textual note that is searchable and available to other users via a Product Data Management (PDM) system, providing an intuitive mechanism to document modeling processes and design knowledge. The system consists of three functional blocks: (1) audio recording, (2) speech recognition, and (3) query management against a cloud-based service. In this paper, we justify the need for our system from a human-computer interaction standpoint and discuss the rationale of its design and implementation in the context of collaborative design communication. Finally, we discuss some application spaces that demonstrate the capability of voice annotations for capturing knowledge