Estrategias para el Desarrollo del Mercado de Valores del Ecuador: Una Revisión Sistemática

Objetivo: El objetivo de este estudio es brindar diferentes estrategias económicas y financieras para que más empresas puedan ampliar sus horizontes de financiamiento y participar en el mercado de valores.   Marco teórica: La generación de emprendimientos comerciales ha adquirido una importancia creciente en el mercado empresarial ecuatoriano a través de las Pequeñas y Medianas Empresas (PyMes), es por ello que, el objetivo de esta investigación es realizar un recorrido de la teoria del financiamiento.   Diseño/Metodología/Enfoque Este paper realiza un estudio cuantitativo a través de una revisión sistemática durante el período período 2013-1016. La información sobre los mercados de capitales en los que se negocian valores (renta fija y fondos variables) ha sido tomada de la Bolsa de Valores de Quito y Guayaquil, Superintendencia de Compañías, así como revistas indexadas, en la base de datos Scopus y Scielo.   Hallazgos: a) Se resalta el papel de las pequeñas y medianas empresas en el sector económico del país, b) Su participación en el mercado de valores, c) Las estrategias empresariales aplicadas por el segmento que cotiza en el mercado de valores tales como: emisión y oferta pública de acciones, emisión y oferta pública de bonos y títulos de crédito, d) Se plantean estrategias en el segmento de mercado aún subdesarrollado.   Implicaciones practices y Sociales: El esudio propone estrategias de financiamiento poco exploradas por parte de las PyMes como emisión y oferta pública de acciones, emisión y oferta pública de obligaciones y titularización.   Originalidad/Valor: Los autores proponen implicaciones políticas como: a) que las instituciones educativas de nivel superior, como universidades y escuelas politécnicas del país, implementen en su programación académica, cursos sobre la administración y el financiamiento de las pymes a través de los mercados bursátiles, b) impulsar un cambio en la gestión de los observatorios de pymes en las diferentes universidades, ser gestores de un proceso de cambio cultural en el financiamiento de las Pymes

Hybrid Hydrogels with Stimuli-Responsive Properties to Electric and Magnetic Fields

Hydrogels are a promising type of soft material featuring great similarity to biological tissues due to their inherent characteristics, such as high-water content, flexibility, softness, or low elastic modulus. Imparting multifunctionality to hydrogels to be triggered by external stimuli is considered to have a high potential for innovative application in the biomedical field by regulatory agencies, such as FDA and EMA. Thus, functional hybrid systems based on the combination of nanomaterials and hydrogels are a new class of materials offering new opportunities for living organisms-machine interfacing for application in a wide variety of fields ranging from biomedical engineering to soft robotics, soft electronics, environmental or energy science. The objective of this chapter is to review the latest advances in multifunctional hybrid hydrogels with responsiveness to electric and magnetic fields and with applications in the biomedical field

Growing Aesthetics Into the Biowall

Aesthetic Considerations for Biowall Design & Operation A Biowall is a plant-based filter used to improve Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in a residence. This area of research leverages NASA’s 30 years of experience on plant filtration capabilities. A result of that research is NASA’s Top 10 Air Filtering Plant list. These plants are identified for their ability to remove carbon based and Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) contaminants from the air; non-toxicity to human plant owners; ease of growth; and expected lifespan. In addition to improving IAQ, a Biowall has a unique and important role in the aesthetics of the space where it is located. A Biowall is a technology that brings nature indoors and enhances overall sustainability. If the Biowall does not have a pleasant appearance, nobody is going to want one. This research targeted both aesthetics and functionality in a conditional plant growth study within a fully operational Biowall in a home. The goal was to identify which plants grow well within the 0artificial, low nutrient environment and document how to care for these plants. The result was a toolbox of known air filtering plants that can thrive in the Biowall environment, while also making eye-pleasing arrangements with the plant filtration trays. This knowledge will aid in the commercialization of the concept

A simplified computer vision system for road surface inspection and maintenance

This paper presents a computer vision system whose aim is to detect and classify cracks on road surfaces. Most of the previous works consisted of complex and expensive acquisition systems, whereas we have developed a simpler one composed by a single camera mounted on a light truck and no additional illumination. The system also includes tracking devices in order to geolocalize the captured images. The computer vision algorithm has three steps: hard shoulder detection, cell candidate proposal, and crack classification. First the region of interest (ROI) is delimited using the Hough transform (HT) to detect the hard shoulders. The cell candidate step is divided into two substeps: Hough transform features (HTF) and local binary pattern (LBP). Both of them split up the image into nonoverlapping small grid cells and also extract edge orientation and texture features, respectively. At the fusion stage, the detection is completed by mixing those techniques and obtaining the crack seeds. Afterward, their shape is improved using a new developed morphology operator. Finally, one classification based on the orientation of the detected lines has been applied following the Chain code. Massive experiments were performed on several stretches on a Spanish road showing very good performance

Eficiencia técnica de bienes y servicios culturales: un análisis del caso mexicano

The study of Cultural Economics is increasingly more important in the world, and it has a number of different aspects to be analyzed. However, in Mexico, it is an emerging activity despite the fact that, nowadays, the information about cultural economic indicators is available since 2008. The lack of research on this topic in Mexico, from the perspective of Economic Sciences, begs the question of how the usage of factors is taking place, and if they are being used in an optimal way or, in other words, with efficiency. As a result, the objective of this research is to obtain an indicator of technical efficiency for the components of cultural goods and services in Mexico that allows us to contribute to the understanding of these activities from an economic perspective. In order to achieve the objective mentioned earlier, this study uses the methodology of Stochastic Frontier Analysis through an econometric application of panel data. Among the main findings, it was noticed that the cultural goods and services are highly efficient in an aggregated manner, as it was obtained an indicator close to 100 percent. In a disaggregated manner, the components of cultural services are more efficient compared to the cultural goods. Additionally, in a disaggregated manner, the efficiency average is 67%. Therefore, it is still possible to improve the usage of productive factors in a 33%

Linear color correction for multiple illumination changes and non-overlapping cameras

Many image processing methods, such as techniques for people re-identification, assume photometric constancy between different images. This study addresses the correction of photometric variations based upon changes in background areas to correct foreground areas. The authors assume a multiple light source model where all light sources can have different colours and will change over time. In training mode, the authors learn per-location relations between foreground and background colour intensities. In correction mode, the authors apply a double linear correction model based on learned relations. This double linear correction includes a dynamic local illumination correction mapping as well as an inter-camera mapping. The authors evaluate their illumination correction by computing the similarity between two images based on the earth mover's distance. The authors compare the results to a representative auto-exposure algorithm found in the recent literature plus a colour correction one based on the inverse-intensity chromaticity. Especially in complex scenarios the authors’ method outperforms these state-of-the-art algorithms

Real-time incidents detection in the highways of the future

Due to ever increasing transportation of people and goods, automatic traffic surveillance is becoming a key issue for both providing safety to road users and improving traffic control in an efficient way. In this paper, we propose a new system that, exploiting the capabilities that both computer vision and machine learning offer, is able to detect and track different types of real incidents on a highway. Specifically, it is able to accurately detect not only stopped vehicles, but also drivers and passengers leaving the stopped vehicle, and other pedestrians present in the roadway. Additionally, a theoretical approach for detecting vehicles which may leave the road in an unexpected way is also presented. The system works in real-time and it has been optimized for working outdoor, being thus appropriate for its deployment in a real-world environment like a highway. First experimental results on a dataset created with videos provided by two Spanish highway operators demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system and its robustness against noise and low-quality videos

Influence of pork liver drying on ferrochelatase activity for zinc protoporphyrin formation

Pork liver contains an endogenous enzyme, ferrochelatase (FeCH), which catalyses the formation of zinc protoporphyrin (ZnPP), a natural pigment of great interest for the meat industry. The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of pork liver drying (from −10 to 70 °C), as a stabilisation method, on the FeCH activity (EA) and the apparent concentration (ECapp). Drying temperatures close to room conditions (from 10 to 20 °C) allowed to preserve well the ECapp, while the EA was slightly lower (−15.2%) than in raw liver. However, when drying was conducted at extreme conditions (−10 and 70 °C), the lowest values of ECapp and EA were manifested. Therefore, the drying process at moderate temperatures close to room conditions (10 - 20 °C) was considered to be an effective method for FeCH preservation since it was possible to stabilise the liver and the loss of FeCH activity was minimised.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Preparation of nanofluids based on solar salt and boehmite nanoparticles: Characterization of starting materials

A nanofluid composed of Solar Salt (SS) and boehmite nanoparticles (A) in a concentration of 1% by weight, is proposed as thermal storage medium for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants. A wide characterization of the raw materials has been done, focused on their thermal stability and the nanoparticle primary size and shape among other properties such as its specific heat and crystalline structure. Some features of the final nanofluids have been also investigated: thermal stability, nanoparticle sizes and their distribution and specific heat. The showed results confirm that these materials are thermally stable in the working temperature range both individually and combined. In addition, the synthesis procedure implemented is effective to keep the nanoparticle sizes in the nanometric range (<100 nm). These findings mean the first step to carry on research and characterization of this nanofluid.Basque Government's ETORTEK 201

The influence of mixing water on the thermophysical properties of nanofluids based on solar salt and silica nanoparticles

The use of nanofluids (NFs) based on Solar Salt (SS) and nanoparticles (NPs), either as Thermal Energy Storage (TES) material or as Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF), is attracting great interest in recent years. Many authors [1,3] have reported important improvements on the thermophysical properties (specific heat capacity cp,thermal conductivity k) of NFs based on SS and ceramic NPs. These improvements would lead to important savings and better performance of TES facilities on new Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants due to lower quantities of material required and smaller storage tanks. To achieve these advantageous features in the final NFs, it is essential to avoid NP agglomeration during their preparation. Different synthesis procedures have been reported: mixing of solid NPs within a SS solution by means of ultrasounds [1-3], direct mixing of solid NPs and molten salt [4]. In this work, NFs based on SS and 1% by wt. of silica NPs were synthetized from a SS-water solution and a commercial water-silica NF called Ludox HS 30% (Sigma-Aldrich). The influence of the mixing water volume (MW) on the cp of NFs was evaluated. With this aim, the cp of these samples was measured by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) both in the solid and the liquid state. In addition, the distribution of sizes was measured during the whole preparation process by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS). Further information about sizes and uniformity of the final NFs was obtained from Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) patterns of the SS and final NF were performed.Basque Government's ETORTEK 201