Auxiliary Companies of the Horticultural Sector as a Competitiveness Element: The Case of Almeria (Spain)

The horticultural model of Almeria (Spain) based on the operation of greenhouses is an international reference and has been considered as an economic miracle. Alongside this agricultural development has been the deployment of the diverse productive activity of auxiliary companies. The objective of this article is to understand how these companies operate and analyze their factors of competitiveness, competing needs, and future competitive improvements, taking as reference four of the most important subsectors (machinery, greenhouse infrastructure, plastics, and seeds). The Delphi method was used and through a panel of experts the conditioning factors of each of the variables to be analyzed (factors, needs, and competitiveness improvements) was chosen. Of the 120 companies that were sent questionnaires, 72 participated. The sectors that make up the auxiliary companies are heterogeneous and therefore the results obtained have differed among them. The synergies between the greenhouse crops and the auxiliary companies are an example of diversification of productive activity that can be extrapolated to other production areas worldwide. The future of the auxiliary companies is linked to that of the intensive agriculture and the key variables must be underscored by competitiveness and sustainability

Layer Selection in Progressive Transmission of Motion-Compensated JPEG2000 Video

MCJ2K (Motion-Compensated JPEG2000) is a video codec based on MCTF (Motion- Compensated Temporal Filtering) and J2K (JPEG2000). MCTF analyzes a sequence of images, generating a collection of temporal sub-bands, which are compressed with J2K. The R/D (Rate-Distortion) performance in MCJ2K is better than the MJ2K (Motion JPEG2000) extension, especially if there is a high level of temporal redundancy. MCJ2K codestreams can be served by standard JPIP (J2K Interactive Protocol) servers, thanks to the use of only J2K standard file formats. In bandwidth-constrained scenarios, an important issue in MCJ2K is determining the amount of data of each temporal sub-band that must be transmitted to maximize the quality of the reconstructions at the client side. To solve this problem, we have proposed two rate-allocation algorithms which provide reconstructions that are progressive in quality. The first, OSLA (Optimized Sub-band Layers Allocation), determines the best progression of quality layers, but is computationally expensive. The second, ESLA (Estimated-Slope sub-band Layers Allocation), is sub-optimal in most cases, but much faster and more convenient for real-time streaming scenarios. An experimental comparison shows that even when a straightforward motion compensation scheme is used, the R/D performance of MCJ2K competitive is compared not only to MJ2K, but also with respect to other standard scalable video codecs

Comunidad de Madrid sumando contra el maltrato a las mujeres con discapacidad : TOLERANCIA CERO

págs.: 249-256Capítulo incluido en el libro: 1ª Jornada sobre Maltrato a las Personas con Discapacidad: Sevilla, 16-17 de Octubre 2014 Sevilla: Universidad Internacional de Andalucía, 2014. ISBN: 978-84-7993-256-5. Enlace: http://hdl.handle.net/10334/337

La técnica pictórica en la obra de Juan Miguel Sánchez Fernández

Por segunda vez, es para mí un honor poder dirigir unas palabras sobre la persona de Juan Miguel Sánchez, ilustre artista andaluz antecesor mío en sillón de la Real Academia, como así mismo en la cátedra de Procedimientos Pictóricos de la Facultad de Bellas Artes

Modelo integral de motores alternativos con aplicaciones docentes: motores diesel de inyección directa

Con fines docentes se ha desarrollado un programa en MATLAB que simula el comportamiento de un MDID utilizando un modelo de combustión de una zona incluyendo renovación de la carga, de fugas y perdidas mecánicas. Para la validación del modelo se han comparado los resultados con los reales de varios motores a pesar de la falta de información detallada del motor. Las mayores diferencias aparecen para régimen de giro alto donde los efectos dinámicos, que este modelo no considera, son importantesWith educational aims a program in MATLAB has been developed that simulates a zone combustion model of compression ignition engine and submodels for the inlet and exhaust processes, for the blow by, the exhaust emissions and the mechanical losses. For the validation of the model the results with the real ones of several engines have been observed. The greater differences appear for high rpm where the dynamics effects, not considered by this model, are more importan

Effect of Core Training on Male Handball Players’ Throwing Velocity

In handball, throwing velocity is considered to be one of the essential factors in achieving the ultimate aim of scoring a goal. The objective of the present study was to analyze the effect of a core training program on throwing velocity in 30 handball players (age 18.7 ± 3.4 years, body height 179.3 ± 7.0 cm, body mass 78.9 ± 7.7 kg), 16 of whom were in the junior category and 14 of whom were in the senior category. The 30 players were randomly divided into two groups, the control group (n = 15) and the experimental group (n = 15). For a period of ten weeks, both groups attended their regular handball training sessions (four per week), but in addition, the experimental group participated in a program specifically aimed at progressively strengthening the lumbo-pelvic region and consisting of seven exercises performed after the general warm-up in each regular session. Pre- and post-tests were carried out to analyze each player’s throwing velocity from different throwing positions and thus assess the effects of this specific training program. Statistically significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) in throwing velocity were observed between the experimental group, which presented a percentage improvement of 4.5%, and the control group, which did not show any improvement. The results seem to indicate that an increase in the strength and stability of the lumbo-pelvic region can contribute to an improvement in the kinetic chain of the specific movement of throwing in handball, thus, increasing throwing velocity

A Cholinergic Synaptically Triggered Event Participates in the Generation of Persistent Activity Necessary for Eye Fixation

An exciting topic regarding integrative properties of the nervous system is how transient motor commands or brief sensory stimuli are able to evoke persistent neuronal changes, mainly as a sustained, tonic action potential firing. A persisting firing seems to be necessary for postural maintenance after a previous movement. We have studied in vitro and in vivo the generation of the persistent neuronal activity responsible for eye fixation after spontaneous eye movements. Rat sagittal brainstem slices were used for the intracellular recording of prepositus hypoglossi (PH) neurons and their synaptic activation from nearby paramedian pontine reticular formation (PPRF) neurons. Single electrical pulses applied to the PPRF showed a monosynaptic glutamatergic projection on PH neurons, acting on AMPA-kainate receptors. Train stimulation of the PPRF area evoked a sustained depolarization of PH neurons exceeding (by hundreds of milliseconds) stimulus duration. Both duration and amplitude of this sustained depolarization were linearly related to train frequency. The train-evoked sustained depolarization was the result of interaction between glutamatergic excitatory burst neurons and cholinergic mesopontine reticular fibers projecting onto PH neurons, because it was prevented by slice superfusion with cholinergic antagonists and mimicked by cholinergic agonists. As expected, microinjections of cholinergic antagonists in the PH nucleus of alert behaving cats evoked a gaze-holding deficit consisting of a re-centering drift of the eye after each saccade. These findings suggest that a slow, cholinergic, synaptically triggered event participates in the generation of persistent activity characteristic of PH neurons carrying eye position signals.Unión Europea Grants BI04-CT98-0546España, Ministerio de Ciencia PB98-0011, BFI2000-00936, BFI2000-1190, y BFI2002-0137

A Framework for Capacity and Operations Planning in Services Organizations Employing Workers with Intellectual Disabilities

[EN] This paper presents an integrated framework for capacity and operations planning in Spanish sheltered employment centers (SECs). Employment provides socio-economic opportunities for people with disability. Well functioning SECs that provide opportunities for people with and without disability to work alongside each other are an important component of Spain's current labor market. To be economically sustainable, SECs need to satisfy their clients expectations in terms of price, flexibility and performance, whilst taking into account and strengthening the diverse skills and abilities of their workforce like specific learning and forgetting processes. The SEC studied herein, a non-for-profit organization whose mission is to create employment for people with disabilities its workforce is deployed directly on clients' premises. Efficient management across this multi-site environment, whilst supporting the diverse employment needs of its staff, is of paramount importance. This paper contributes an integrated framework to support SEC capacity and operations planning, which prioritizes the explicit training needs of workers with disability at all levels (strategic, tactical, and operational) as a lever for achieving the organization's goals.García Sabater, JP.; Maheut, J.; Ruiz, A.; García Sabater, JJ. (2020). A Framework for Capacity and Operations Planning in Services Organizations Employing Workers with Intellectual Disabilities. Sustainability. 12(22):1-17. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229713S1171222Fundación Espurnahttps://www.espurna.org/Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (A/RES/61/106)—Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 13 December 2006https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/generalassembly/docs/globalcompact/A_RES_61_106.pdfJarhag, S., Nilsson, G., & Werning, M. (2009). Disabled Persons and the Labor Market in Sweden. Social Work in Public Health, 24(3), 255-272. doi:10.1080/19371910802595315Mark, B. G., Hofmayer, S., Rauch, E., & Matt, D. T. (2019). Inclusion of Workers with Disabilities in Production 4.0: Legal Foundations in Europe and Potentials Through Worker Assistance Systems. Sustainability, 11(21), 5978. doi:10.3390/su11215978Santos, P. J. de los, & Costa, R. S. (2015). Workers with disabilities in sheltered employment centres: a training needs analysis. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 20(7), 756-769. doi:10.1080/13603116.2015.1111446Miralles, C., Marin-Garcia, J. A., Ferrus, G., & Costa, A. M. (2010). Operations research/management science tools for integrating people with disabilities into employment. A study on Valencia’s Sheltered Work Centres for Disabled. International Transactions in Operational Research, 17(4), 457-473. doi:10.1111/j.1475-3995.2009.00727.xChaves-Avila, R., & Savall-Morera, T. (2019). The Social Economy in a Context of Austerity Policies: The Tension Between Political Discourse and Implemented Policies in Spain. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 30(3), 487-498. doi:10.1007/s11266-018-00075-3López-Penabad, M.-C., Maside-Sanfiz, J. M., Torrelles Manent, J., & Iglesias-Casal, A. (2020). Application of the DEA Double Bootstrap to Analyze Efficiency in Galician Sheltered Workshops. Sustainability, 12(16), 6625. doi:10.3390/su12166625Galeano Revert, A., García-Sabater, J. P., & Miralles Insa, C. (2018). Triple Bottom-line Business Model. Case study on the organic food retailing. WPOM-Working Papers on Operations Management, 9(1), 30. doi:10.4995/wpom.v9i1.9131Chi, C.-F., Dewi, R. S., Jang, Y., & Liu, H.-L. (2018). Workplace accommodation for workers with intellectual or psychiatric disabilities. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 68, 1-7. doi:10.1016/j.ergon.2018.06.001Ellinger, A. E., Naidoo, J., Ellinger, A. D., Filips, K., & Herrin, G. D. (2020). Applying blue ocean strategy to hire and assimilate workers with disabilities into distribution centers. Business Horizons, 63(3), 339-350. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2020.01.009Lindsay, S., Cagliostro, E., Albarico, M., Mortaji, N., & Karon, L. (2018). A Systematic Review of the Benefits of Hiring People with Disabilities. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, 28(4), 634-655. doi:10.1007/s10926-018-9756-zBitencourt, R. S., & de M. Guimarães, L. B. (2012). Inclusion of people with disabilities in the production system of a footwear industry. Work, 41, 4767-4774. doi:10.3233/wor-2012-0027-4767Hübner, A. H., Kuhn, H., & Sternbeck, M. G. (2013). Demand and supply chain planning in grocery retail: an operations planning framework. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 41(7), 512-530. doi:10.1108/ijrdm-05-2013-0104Tuomikangas, N., & Kaipia, R. (2014). A coordination framework for sales and operations planning (S&OP): Synthesis from the literature. International Journal of Production Economics, 154, 243-262. doi:10.1016/j.ijpe.2014.04.026Li, Y., Chen, J., & Cai, X. (2007). An integrated staff-sizing approach considering feasibility of scheduling decision. Annals of Operations Research, 155(1), 361-390. doi:10.1007/s10479-007-0215-zZeng, L., Zhao, M., & Liu, Y. (2017). Airport ground workforce planning with hierarchical skills: a new formulation and branch-and-price approach. Annals of Operations Research, 275(1), 245-258. doi:10.1007/s10479-017-2624-yLlort, N., Lusa, A., Martínez-Costa, C., & Mateo, M. (2018). A decision support system and a mathematical model for strategic workforce planning in consultancies. Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, 31(2), 497-523. doi:10.1007/s10696-018-9321-2Van den Bergh, J., Beliën, J., De Bruecker, P., Demeulemeester, E., & De Boeck, L. (2013). Personnel scheduling: A literature review. European Journal of Operational Research, 226(3), 367-385. doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2012.11.029Henderson, J. C., Krajewski, L. J., & Showalter, M. J. (1982). An integrated approach for manpower planning in the service sector. Omega, 10(1), 61-73. doi:10.1016/0305-0483(82)90086-xKomarudin, De Feyter, T., Guerry, M.-A., & Vanden Berghe, G. (2020). The extended roster quality staffing problem: addressing roster quality variation within a staffing planning period. Journal of Scheduling, 23(2), 253-264. doi:10.1007/s10951-020-00654-7Das, D., & Yadav, C. (2020). A framework of hiring strategy for manpower hiring in a hyper-local food delivery organization. Journal of Advances in Management Research, 18(1), 113-135. doi:10.1108/jamr-06-2020-0104Maenhout, B., & Vanhoucke, M. (2013). An integrated nurse staffing and scheduling analysis for longer-term nursing staff allocation problems. Omega, 41(2), 485-499. doi:10.1016/j.omega.2012.01.002Benavides, A. J., Ritt, M., & Miralles, C. (2014). Flow shop scheduling with heterogeneous workers. European Journal of Operational Research, 237(2), 713-720. doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2014.02.012Miralles, C., García-Sabater, J. P., Andrés, C., & Cardós, M. (2008). Branch and bound procedures for solving the Assembly Line Worker Assignment and Balancing Problem: Application to Sheltered Work centres for Disabled. Discrete Applied Mathematics, 156(3), 352-367. doi:10.1016/j.dam.2005.12.012Moreira, M. C. O., Pastor, R., Costa, A. M., & Miralles, C. (2017). The multi-objective assembly line worker integration and balancing problem of type-2. Computers & Operations Research, 82, 114-125. doi:10.1016/j.cor.2017.01.003Bartlo, P., & Klein, P. J. (2011). Physical Activity Benefits and Needs in Adults With Intellectual Disabilities: Systematic Review of the Literature. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 116(3), 220-232. doi:10.1352/1944-7558-116.3.220Verdugo, M. A., Jordán de Urríes, F. B., Jenaro, C., Caballo, C., & Crespo, M. (2006). Quality of Life of Workers with an Intellectual Disability in Supported Employment. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 19(4), 309-316. doi:10.1111/j.1468-3148.2006.00277.xBossink, L. W. M., van der Putten, A. A., & Vlaskamp, C. (2017). Understanding low levels of physical activity in people with intellectual disabilities: A systematic review to identify barriers and facilitators. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 68, 95-110. doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2017.06.008Milner, A., LaMontagne, A. D., Aitken, Z., Bentley, R., & Kavanagh, A. M. (2014). Employment status and mental health among persons with and without a disability: evidence from an Australian cohort study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 68(11), 1064-1071. doi:10.1136/jech-2014-204147Nembhard, D. A., & Uzumeri, M. V. (2000). Experiential learning and forgetting for manual and cognitive tasks. 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Biodiversity and distribution of macroinfauna assemblages on sandy beaches along the Gulf of Cadiz (SW Spain)

In the current study, the macroinfauna communities inhabiting 12 sandy beaches along the Spanish coast of the Gulf of Cadiz were describe in order to characterize their unexplored biodiversity, their zonation patterns and their environmental features. A total of 66 macroinfauna taxa were recorded on 12 sandy beaches, ranging from 4 to 33 species. Density reached 848 individual per m2. The individual zonation pattern ranged from two to three zones, regardless of the morphodynamic state. A common zonation pattern of the whole set of beaches was established, comprising three across-shore biological zones. Generally, the supralittoral zone was typified by the air-breathing amphipod Talitrus saltator and coleopterans; the middle zone was dominated by true intertidal species, such as Haustoriidae amphipods (Haustorius arenarius), Cirolanidae isopods (Eurydice affinis), Spionidae polychaetes (Scolelepis spp.) and nemerteans; and the lower or sublittoral zone was typified by Pontoporeiidae amphipods, mysids and spionid polychaetes. Sediment moisture, average grain size, organic matter content and elevation were the main predictor variables of zonation patterns. We used the conservation and recreation potential indices to show how this information can be useful for coastal management. Most beaches studied show a score above 5 on the conservation index, so the beaches have a reasonable potential for conservation management.En el presente estudio, se describen las comunidades de macroinfauna de doce playas arenosas de la costa española del Golfo de Cádiz con el objetivo de caracterizar su biodiversidad, sus patrones de zonación, y sus características ambientales. Un total de 66 taxones de macroinfauna fueron registrados en las playas de estudio, oscilando entre 4 y 33 especies, mientras que la densidad total fue de 848 individuos por m2. El patrón de zonación individual varió de dos a tres zonas, independientemente del estado morfodinámico de la playa. Se estableció un patrón de zonación común de todo el conjunto de playas, formado por tres zonas biológicas. En general, la zona supralitoral fue tipificada por el anfípodo Talitrus saltator y diversas familias de coleópteros. La zona media fue dominada por verdaderas especies intermareales, como anfípodos de la famila Haustoriidae (Haustorius arenarius), isópodos cirolánidos (Eurydice affinis), poliquetos (Scolelepis spp.) y nemertinos. La zona sublitoral se caracterizó por anfípodos de la familia Pontoporeiidae, misidáceos y poliquetos espiónidos. La humedad del sedimento, el tamaño medio de grano, el contenido en materia orgánica y la elevación fueron las principales variables influyentes en los patrones de zonación. Por último, toda esta información fue integrada para la aplicación de los índices de Conservación y Recreación, para mostrar cómo esta información puede ser útil para la gestión costera. La mayoría de las playas mostraron una puntuación superior a 5 en el Índice de Conservación, indicando un razonable potencial para la conservación.Gobierno de Andalucía P09- HUM-4717Ministerio de Educación AP-2009-390