A Latina Leader’s Consejo: Get To Know Your People And Get Them On The Path Of Continuous Improvement

The author explains, in detail, strategies used in her experience to develop a shared vision, with every group she led, to serve as their guide for all improvement efforts. These are strategies that she used throughout her leadership experience. The first strategy helps the leader know the school and the community partners. The second strategy is designed to clearly define a compelling future of excellence for the organization. The Theory of Action is simple: Once every single member of the school community shares in this vision and sees themselves as a contributing member, they find purpose in the endeavor. This shared vision becomes a call to action and the commitments they bring to the school are materialized. The mandates become an opportunity for change and a shift from a "Compliance to a Commitment" mindset begins.  Through her Testimonio, the author will help readers understand the importance of developing a clear road map that can be revisited multiple times to keep the teams focused on top priorities for all students. The purpose of this article is to highlight the importance of using social capital and the will of the team members to activate a vision in any educational setting ensuring an equitable approach to begin the journey of continuous improvement (Bryk et al., 2017)

The benefits of rural roads: enhancing income opportunities for the rural poor

Most studies have measured the benefits of rehabilitated rural roads by focusing on reductions in monetary or time costs needed to access product and factor markets or key public social services. This paper complements these studies by evaluating their impact on key welfare indicators such as income or consumption. Looking at rural households living in some of the poorest districts of Peru, this study compares (using propensity score matching techniques) households located near rehabilitated roads to suitable controls. Results show that rehabilitated road accessibility can be related to changes in income sources, as the rehabilitated road enhances non-agricultural income opportunities, especially from wage-employment sources. The study also finds that income expansion is not been matched by an equivalent consumption increase; apparently because the additional income is allocated to savings, through increments in livestock, most likely because road quality improvement is being perceived as transitory

Improvement Of Reading Comprehension Skills Through the Exelearning.Net Interactive Model in Upper Basic Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the interactive model known as "Exelearning.net" on improving reading comprehension skills among students of Basic Superior in Santa Elena, Ecuador. An experimental study with a quantitative approach was conducted, involving a sample of 70 students divided into two groups of 35. Pre and post-tests were administered to assess reading comprehension. Statistical analyses revealed significant improvements in the dimensions of literal, inferential, and critical comprehension, with higher scores in the experimental group than in the control group. The results showed a significance level of < 0.001, indicating that the application of the interactive model ExeLearning.net had a positive impact on strengthening students' reading comprehension skills. These findings suggest that using interactive programs can facilitate the relationship between reading and text comprehension

El beneficio de los caminos rurales: ampliando oportunidades de ingreso para los pobres

Muchos estudios han evaluado los beneficios de los caminos rurales concentrándose en la reducción de costos monetarios y de tiempo en que los pobladores incurren para acceder a mercados de bienes e insumos o a servicios públicos clave. Esta investigación complementa dicho enfoque con una evaluación del impacto de este tipo de infraestructura sobre indicadores clave de bienestar como el ingreso y el gasto de los hogares atendidos. Con una muestra de hogares rurales de algunos de los distritos más pobres del Perú, este estudio compara hogares conectados a caminos rurales rehabilitados con hogares control cuidadosamente escogidos, mediante técnicas de propensity score matching. Los resultados muestran que las mejoras en la infraestructura rural de transporte pueden tener un impacto positivo sobre los ingresos rurales y su composición, ya que un camino en mejores condiciones amplía las oportunidades de generación de ingresos de los hogares, especialmente en actividades de empleo asalariado no agropecuario. El estudio identifica, sin embargo, que esta expansión de ingresos no viene aparejada con un incremento del gasto de consumo de los hogares; aparentemente, esto se debe a que el ingreso adicional se destina al ahorro y no al consumo, vía incrementos en el stock de ganado. Ello podría ocurrir porque la mayor accesibilidad a los mercados es percibida como transitoria por los hogares beneficiados por las mejoras en la infraestructura de caminos.Carreteras, Ingresos de hogares, Empleo, Zonas rurales, Roads, Household income, Employment Rural areas, Peru

Linearizations of rational matrices

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorThis PhD thesis belongs to the area of Numerical Linear Algebra. Specifically, to the numerical solution of the Rational Eigenvalue Problem (REP). This is a type of eigenvalue problem associated with rational matrices, which are matrices whose entries are rational functions. REPs appear directly from applications or as approx imations to arbitrary Nonlinear Eigenvalue Problems (NLEPs). Rational matrices also appear in linear systems and control theory, among other applications. Nowa days, a competitive method for solving REPs is via linearization. This is due to the fact that there exist backward stable and efficient algorithms to solve the linearized problem, which allows to recover the information of the original rational problem. In particular, linearizations transform the REP into a generalized eigenvalue pro blem in such a way that the pole and zero information of the corresponding rational matrix is preserved. To recover the pole and zero information of rational matrices, it is fundamental the notion of polynomial system matrix, introduced by Rosenbrock in 1970, and the fact that rational matrices can always be seen as transfer functions of polynomial system matrices. This thesis addresses different topics regarding the problem of linearizing REPs. On the one hand, one of the main objectives has been to develop a theory of li nearizations of rational matrices to study the properties of the linearizations that have appeared so far in the literature in a general framework. For this purpose, a definition of local linearization of rational matrix is introduced, by developing as starting point the extension of Rosenbrock’s minimal polynomial system matrices to a local scenario. This new theory of local linearizations captures and explains rigor ously the properties of all the different linearizations that have been used from the 1970’s for computing zeros, poles and eigenvalues of rational matrices. In particu lar, this theory has been applied to a number of pencils that have appeared in some influential papers on solving numerically NLEPs through rational approximation. On the other hand, the work has focused on the construction of linearizations of rational matrices taking into account different aspects. In some cases, we focus on preserving particular structures of the corresponding rational matrix in the li nearization. The structures considered are symmetric (Hermitian), skew-symmetric (skew-Hermitian), among others. In other cases, we focus on the direct construc tion of the linearizations from the original representation of the rational matrix. The representations considered are rational matrices expressed as the sum of their polynomial and strictly proper parts, rational matrices written as general trans fer function matrices, and rational matrices expressed by their Laurent expansion around the point at infinity. In addition, we describe the recovery rules of the information of the original rational matrix from the information of the new lineari zations, including in some cases not just the zero and pole information but also the information about the minimal indices. Finally, in this dissertation we tackle one of the most important open problems related to linearizations of rational matrices. That is the analysis of the backward stability for solving REPs by running a backward stable algorithm on a linearization. On this subject, a global backward error analysis has been developed by considering the linearizations in the family of “block Kronecker linearizations”. An analysis of this type had not been developed before in the literature.Este trabajo ha sido desarrollado en el Departamento de Matemáticas de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) bajo la dirección del profesor Froilán Martínez Dopico y codirección de la profesora Silvia Marcaida Bengoechea. Se contó durante cuatro años con un contrato predoctoral FPI, referencia BES-2016-076744, asociado al proyecto ALGEBRA LINEAL NUMERICA ESTRUCTURADA PARA MATRICES CONSTANTES, POLINOMIALES Y RACIONALES, referencia MTM2015-65798-P, del Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, y cuyo investigador principal fue Froilán Martínez Dopico. Asociado a este contrato, se contó con una ayuda para realizar parte de este trabajo durante dos es tancias internacionales de investigación. La primera estancia de investigación se realizó del 30 de enero de 2019 hasta el 1 de marzo de 2019 en el Department of Mathematical En gineering, Université catholique de Louvain (Bélgica), bajo la supervisión del profesor Paul Van Dooren. La segunda estancia de investigación se realizó del 15 de septiembre de 2019 hasta el 19 de noviembre de 2019 en el Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Montana (EEUU), bajo la supervisión del profesor Javier Pérez Alvaro. Dado que la entidad beneficiaria del contrato predoctoral es la UC3M mientras que el otro codirector de tesis, la profesora Silvia Marcaida Bengoechea, pertenece al Departamento de Matemáticas de la Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU), el trabajo con la profesora Silvia Marcaida se reforzó mediante visitas a la UPV/EHU, financiadas por ayudas de la RED temática de Excelencia ALAMA (Algebra Lineal, Análisis Matricial y Aplicaciones) asociadas al los proyectos MTM2015-68805-REDT y MTM2017-90682-REDT.Programa de Doctorado en Ingeniería Matemática por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: Ion Zaballa Tejada.- Secretario: Fernando de Terán Vergara.- Vocal: Vanni Noferin

A financial analysis of born-global firms: evidence from Spain

From the beginning of the 1970s to the present day, significant changes have taken place in the competitive and organizational behavior of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs). Recently, some of these factors have applied more intensively, and this has given rise to growth in the number of new companies that undertake overseas operations almost immediately (known as born globals). The phenomenon of early internationalization is relatively recent, so there are still many aspects that need to be studied. The objective of this study is to contribute to the scarce empirical literature existing in Spain on this topic, by providing evidence on the possible differences in character of the born-global firms compared with the rest of exporting companies. To this end, the focus of the study is on the analysis of variables such as the size and sector of activity of these companies, and their principal economic and financial magnitudes. A sample of 1,324 Spanish SMEs that were exporting in 2007 was surveyed; of this total approximately 12% identified themselves as having adopted early internationalization. The results obtained indicate that the born-global firms are, on average, smaller; they are classified mostly to the services sector; and they are much more leveraged than the rest of Spanish SMEs that export

Unitized regenerative polymeric fuel cell modeling

The research's objective is to have a single machine to function as fuel cell and electrolyser based and needs, that is to say, unitized regenerative fuel cell (when fed to the machine with electric power and water flows will be obtained and H2 and O2 and conversely when the machine is fuelled with H2 and O2 will get water, heat and electricity) The study focuses on polymeric fuel cells and polymeric electrolysers. The development of this machine will make a very significant cost reduction (currently to use hydrogen as an energy store needed the electrolyser and fuel cell) as a single machine may replace the fuel cell and electrolyser. The achievement of the objective mentioned above, have been going by completing a series of stages. The stages addressed in this work are: ¿ A first stage, which will be studied in detail the polymeric fuel cells and polymeric electrolysers, in order to see the similarities between the machines and to design the unitized regenerative fuel cell. ¿ A second stage of simulation, which will develop models to show the behaviour of the unitized regenerative fuel cell and compare results with those obtained from the theoretical. ¿ A third stage of model verification generated polymer fuel cells and electrolyzers polymer on the market

Fused Quinoidal Oligothiophenes Imides with High Electrical Conductivity

Organic diradicals are molecules containing two unpaired electrons, which are usually highly reactive.1-2 Although these organic diradicals present a wide range of potential applications, their air stability still remains as a major obstacle.3 In order to overcome this, new organic diradicals based on quinoidal oligothiophenes-derivatives (QOT) have been synthesized, i.e. BTICN, ISOCN and QTICN (see Figure 1). These new molecules present high stability and electrical conductivity, which have been achieved by employing imide-bridged fused molecular frameworks. The combination of strong electron-withdrawing imide with tetracyano groups in the conjugated skeletons also enabled extremely deeply aligned LUMO levels and large diradical character assisted by cross-conjugation.4 Here we use different experimental techniques and DFT calculations to provide new insights into the electron conduction mechanism of QOT diradicaloids, in order to demonstrate the great potential of fused quinoidal oligothiophene imides in developing stable organic diradicals and high-performance doping-free n-type conductive materials.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Investigación, políticas y desarrollo en el Perú

Este capitulo presenta un balance de las investigaciones nacionales e internacionales sobre los impactos que una apertura comercial tiene en el bienestar de la población rural. Asimismo, destaca los ejes estratégicos de una agenda complementaria, en términos de la inversión en infraestructura, y las políticas de innovación, de educación y capacitación, de regulación y de desarrollo institucional que serían necesarias para que el sector rural aprovechara las oportunidades de mercado que dichos acuerdos podrían generar.Trade, Rural poverty, Agriculture, Peru