Acercamiento a la situacion socioeconomica de las comunidades campesinas del Departamento de Sucre desde la perspectiva del Programa Yuquero

An overview is given of the situation of farm communities in the dept. of Sucre, Colombia, where a cassava drying program operates. The lack of integration of the developmental activities carried out by different institutions is evident, indicating the need for greater participation in district planning. Since a trend to monocrop cassava was observed, more attention should be paid to agricultural diversification. An animal feed industry using dried cassava should be installed. Several technical aspects of agricultural production are also discussed such as mechanization, intercropping, plant density, improved technology, and income. Recommendations are also given regarding the current underutilization of the machinery of the existing agroindustries, the improvement of sanitary conditions in the plants, and the enforcement of basic industrial security measures. Product quality control should be conducted, especially regarding MC. Conditions favoring a greater participation of members in farmer organizations should be sought, in addition to enhanced institutional support in the search for a more integrated approach to regional development. (CIAT)Se presenta una percepcion global de la situacion de las comunidades campesinas del Depto. de Sucre, Colombia, donde se desarrolla un programa de secado de la yuca. Se destaca la falta de integracion de las actividades de desarrollo realizadas por diversas instituciones, lo cual indica la necesidad de una mayor participacion en la planificacion distrital. Puesto que se observo una tendencia al monocultivo de la yuca, se debe prestar mas atencion a la diversificacion agricola. Se sugiere instalar una planta para producir alimentos para animales que aproveche la yuca seca. Se discuten, ademas, varios aspectos tecnicos de la produccion agricola como mecanizacion, cultivos asociados, densidad de siembra, tecnologia mejorada e ingresos. Tambien se presentan recomendaciones sobre la actual subutilizacion de la maquinaria en las agroindustrias existentes, el mejoramiento de los servicios higienicos en las plantas y la implementacion de medidas basicas de seguridad industrial. Se debe efectuar un control de calidad del producto, especialmente en cuanto a CH. Se deben buscar las condiciones para fomentar mayor participacion de los socios en las organizaciones, ademas de incrementar el apoyo institucional en busca de un enfoque mas integrado de desarrollo a nivel regional. (CIAT

Chicamocha Canyon Geopark project: A novel strategy for the socio-economic development of Santander (Colombia) through geoeducation, geotourism and geoconservation

The proposed Chicamocha Canyon Geopark project is starting its way for nomination as a UNESCO Global Geopark under the recognition of the Global Geoparks Network. This paper aims to present the justifications of establishing this geopark. It also assesses the potential role of a geopark figure in Santander as an urgent measure to promote the geoconservation of the Chicamocha Canyon territory. The success of this project will not only improve the living conditions of local communities, but also will be a reference model in terms of geological conservation at national and international level. The Chicamocha Canyon, where is proposed to develop this project, has a great potential for the development of the tourism industry due to climatic conditions of the region, besides possessing a rich cultural and natural heritage that needs to be enhanced and protected. Undoubtedly, this initiative should satisfy all the requirements to be a UNESCO Global Geopark, which include a delimited area that defines a territory, the occurrence of geological features of international importance with scientific, educational and aesthetic value, the presence of other types of heritage such as archaeological sites, as well as a proper access infrastructure that favors the socio-economic development of the region. In order to guarantee the successful consolidation of the proposed geopark within the defined territory, this initiative must count the strong support of the local communities and must involve stakeholders such as government authorities, academic and research institutions, and local businesses

Metabolic adaptation of two in silico mutants of Mycobacterium tuberculosis during infection

ABSTRACT: Background: Up to date, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) remains as the worst intracellular killer pathogen. To establish infection, inside the granuloma, Mtb reprograms its metabolism to support both growth and survival, keeping a balance between catabolism, anabolism and energy supply. Mtb knockouts with the faculty of being essential on a wide range of nutritional conditions are deemed as target candidates for tuberculosis (TB) treatment. Constraint-based genome-scale modeling is considered as a promising tool for evaluating genetic and nutritional perturbations on Mtb metabolic reprogramming. Nonetheless, few in silico assessments of the effect of nutritional conditions on Mtb’s vulnerability and metabolic adaptation have been carried out. Results: A genome-scale model (GEM) of Mtb, modified from the H37Rv iOSDD890, was used to explore the metabolic reprogramming of two Mtb knockout mutants (pfkA- and icl-mutants), lacking key enzymes of central carbon metabolism, while exposed to changing nutritional conditions (oxygen, and carbon and nitrogen sources). A combination of shadow pricing, sensitivity analysis, and flux distributions patterns allowed us to identify metabolic behaviors that are in agreement with phenotypes reported in the literature. During hypoxia, at high glucose consumption, the Mtb pfkA-mutant showed a detrimental growth effect derived from the accumulation of toxic sugar phosphate intermediates (glucose-6-phosphate and fructose-6-phosphate) along with an increment of carbon fluxes towards the reductive direction of the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA). Furthermore, metabolic reprogramming of the icl-mutant (icl1&icl2) showed the importance of the methylmalonyl pathway for the detoxification of propionyl-CoA, during growth at high fatty acid consumption rates and aerobic conditions. At elevated levels of fatty acid uptake and hypoxia, we found a drop in TCA cycle intermediate accumulation that might create redox imbalance. Finally, findings regarding Mtb-mutant metabolic adaptation associated with asparagine consumption and acetate, succinate and alanine production, were in agreement with literature reports. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the potential application of genome-scale modeling, flux balance analysis (FBA), phenotypic phase plane (PhPP) analysis and shadow pricing to generate valuable insights about Mtb metabolic reprogramming in the context of human granulomas

Neutrino Target-of-Opportunity Observations with Space-based and Suborbital Optical Cherenkov Detectors

Cosmic-ray accelerators capable of reaching ultra-high energies are expected to also produce very-high energy neutrinos via hadronic interactions within the source or its surrounding environment. Many of the candidate astrophysical source classes are either transient in nature or exhibit flaring activity. Using the Earth as a neutrino converter, suborbital and space-based optical Cherenkov detectors, such as EUSO-SPB2 and POEMMA, will be able to detect upward-moving extensive air showers induced by decay tau-leptons generated from cosmic tau neutrinos with energies ∼10 PeV and above. Both EUSO-SPB2 and POEMMA will be able to quickly repoint, enabling rapid response to astrophysical transient events. we calculate the transient sensitivity and sky coverage for both EUSO-SPB2 and POEMMA, accounting for constraints imposed by the Sun and the Moon on the observation time. We also calculate both detectors\u27 neutrino horizons for a variety of modeled astrophysical neutrino fluences. We find that both EUSO-SPB2 and POEMMA will achieve transient sensitivities at the level of modeled neutrino fluences for nearby sources. We conclude with a discussion of the prospects of each mission detecting at least one transient event for various modeled astrophysical neutrino sources

Neutrino Target-of-Opportunity Observations with Space-based and Suborbital Optical Cherenkov Detectors

Cosmic-ray accelerators capable of reaching ultra-high energies are expected to also produce very-high energy neutrinos via hadronic interactions within the source or its surrounding environment. Many of the candidate astrophysical source classes are either transient in nature or exhibit flaring activity. Using the Earth as a neutrino converter, suborbital and space-based optical Cherenkov detectors, such as POEMMA and EUSO-SPB2, will be able to detect upward-moving extensive air showers induced by decaying tau-leptons generated from cosmic tau neutrinos with energies ∼10 PeV and above. Both EUSO-SPB2 and POEMMA will be able to quickly repoint, enabling rapid response to astrophysical transient events. We calculate the transient sensitivity and sky coverage for both EUSO-SPB2 and POEMMA, accounting for constraints imposed by the Sun and the Moon on the observation time. We also calculate both detectors\u27 neutrino horizons for a variety of modeled astrophysical neutrino fluences. We find that both EUSO-SPB2 and POEMMA will achieve transient sensitivities at the level of modeled neutrino fluences for nearby sources. We conclude with a discussion of the prospects of each mission detecting at least one transient event for various modeled astrophysical neutrino sources

Observation of ELVES with Mini-EUSO telescope on board the International Space Station

Mini-EUSO is a detector observing the Earth in the ultraviolet band from the International Space Station through a nadir-facing window, transparent to the UV radiation, in the Russian Zvezda module. Mini-EUSO main detector consists in an optical system with two Fresnel lenses and a focal surface composed of an array of 36 Hamamatsu Multi-Anode Photo-Multiplier tubes, for a total of 2304 pixels, with single photon counting sensitivity. The telescope also contains two ancillary cameras, in the near infrared and visible ranges, to complement measurements in these bandwidths. The instrument has a field of view of 44 degrees, a spatial resolution of about 6.3 km on the Earth surface and of about 4.7 km on the ionosphere. The telescope detects UV emissions of cosmic, atmospheric and terrestrial origin on different time scales, from a few s upwards. On the fastest timescale of 2.5 s, Mini EUSO is able to observe atmospheric phenomena as Transient Luminous Events and in particular the ELVES, which take place when an electromagnetic wave generated by intra-cloud lightning interacts with the ionosphere, ionizing it and producing apparently superluminal expanding rings of several 100 km and lasting about 100 s. These highly energetic fast events have been observed to be produced in conjunction also with Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes and therefore a detailed study of their characteristics (speed, radius, energy ...) is of crucial importance for the understanding of these phenomena. In this paper we present the observational capabilities of ELVE detection by Mini-EUSO and specifically the reconstruction and study of ELVE characteristics

Measurement of UV light emission of the nighttime Earth by Mini-EUSO for space-based UHECR observations

The JEM-EUSO (Joint Experiment Missions for Extreme Universe Space Observatory) program aims at the realization of the ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) observation using wide field of view fluorescence detectors in orbit. Ultra-violet (UV) light emission from the atmosphere such as airglow and anthropogenic light on the Earth\u27s surface are the main background for the space-based UHECR observations. The Mini-EUSO mission has been operated on the International Space Station (ISS) since 2019 which is the first space-based experiment for the program. The Mini-EUSO instrument consists of a 25 cm refractive optics and the photo-detector module with the 2304-pixel array of the multi-anode photomultiplier tubes. On the nadir-looking window of the ISS, the instrument is capable of continuously monitoring a ~300 km x 300 km area. In the present work, we report the preliminary result of the measurement of the UV light in the nighttime Earth using the Mini-EUSO data downlinked to the ground. We mapped UV light distribution both locally and globally below the ISS obit. Simulations were also made to characterize the instrument response to diffuse background light. We discuss the impact of such light on space-based UHECR observations and the Mini-EUSO science objectives

EUSO-SPB2 Telescope Optics and Testing

The Extreme Universe Space Observatory - Super Pressure Balloon (EUSO-SPB2) mission will fly two custom telescopes that feature Schmidt optics to measure Cherenkov- and fluorescence emission of extensive air showers from cosmic rays at the PeV and EeV-scale, and search for τ-neutrinos. Both telescopes have 1-meter diameter apertures and UV/UV-visible sensitivity. The Cherenkov telescope uses a bifocal mirror segment alignment, to distinguish between a direct cosmic ray that hits the camera versus the Cherenkov light from outside the telescope. Telescope integration and laboratory calibration will be performed in Colorado. To estimate the point spread function and efficiency of the integrated telescopes, a test beam system that delivers a 1-meter diameter parallel beam of light is being fabricated. End-to-end tests of the fully integrated instruments will be carried out in a field campaign at dark sites in the Utah desert using cosmic rays, stars, and artificial light sources. Laser tracks have long been used to characterize the performance of fluorescence detectors in the field. For EUSO-SPB2 an improvement in the method that includes a correction for aerosol attenuation is anticipated by using a bi-dynamic Lidar configuration in which both the laser and the telescope are steerable. We plan to conduct these field tests in Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 to accommodate the scheduled launch of EUSO-SPB2 in 2023 from Wanaka, New Zealand

Simulation studies for the Mini-EUSO detector

Mini-EUSO is a mission of the JEM-EUSO program flying onboard the International Space Station since August 2019. Since the first data acquisition in October 2019, more than 35 sessions have been performed for a total of 52 hours of observations. The detector has been observing Earth at night-time in the UV range and detected a wide variety of transient sources all of which have been modeled through Monte Carlo simulations. Mini-EUSO is also capable of detecting meteors and potentially space debris and we performed simulations for such events to estimate their impact on future missions for cosmic ray science from space. We show here examples of the simulation work done in this framework to analyze the Mini-EUSO data. The expected response of Mini-EUSO with respect to ultra high energy cosmic ray showers has been studied. The efficiency curve of Mini-EUSO as a function of primary energy has been estimated and the energy threshold for Cosmic Rays has been placed to be above 10$^{21}$ eV. We compared the morphology of several transient events detected during the mission with cosmic ray simulations and excluded that they can be due to cosmic ray showers. To validate the energy threshold of the detector, a system of ground based flashers is being used for end-to-end calibration purposes. We therefore implemented a parameterization of such flashers into the JEM-EUSO simulation framework and studied the response of the detector with respect to such sources

EUSO@TurLab project in view of Mini-EUSO and EUSO-SPB2 missions

The TurLab facility is a laboratory, equipped with a 5 m diameter and 1 m depth rotating tank, located in the fourth basement level of the Physics Department of the University of Turin. In the past years, we have used the facility to perform experiments related to the observations of Extreme Energy Cosmic Rays (EECRs) from space using the fluorescence technique for JEM-EUSO missions with the main objective to test the response of the trigger logic. In the missions, the diffuse night brightness and artificial and natural light sources can vary significantly in time and space in the Field of View (FoV) of the telescope. Therefore, it is essential to verify the detector performance and test the trigger logic under such an environment. By means of the tank rotation, a various terrestrial surface with the different optical characteristics such as ocean, land, forest, desert and clouds, as well as artificial and natural light sources such as city lights, lightnings and meteors passing by the detector FoV one after the other is reproduced. The fact that the tank is located in a very dark place enables the tests under an optically controlled environment. Using the Mini-EUSO data taken since 2019 onboard the ISS, we will report on the comparison between TurLab and ISS measurements in view of future experiments at TurLab. Moreover, in the forthcoming months we will start testing the trigger logic of the EUSO-SPB2 mission. We report also on the plans and status for this purpose