Confluence of singularities of differential equation: a Lie algebra contraction approach

We investigate here the confluence of singularities of Mathieu differential equation by means of the Lie algebra contraction of the Lie algebra of the motion group M(2) on the Heisenberg Lie algebra H(3). A similar approach for the Lam\'e equation in terms of the Lie algebra contraction of $SO_0(2,1)$ on the Lie algebra of the motion group M(2) is outlined

La enseñanza del español en el contexto educativo argelino

Nuestra intervención comunicativa se titula: Estudio comparativo (análisis y critica) de la enseñanza del español en la sociedad argelina (E/LE). Se basa principalmente en un estudio comparativo desde dos principales perspectivas: 1. Perspectiva educativa social: basándose sobre el análisis de los problemas educativos del aprendizaje del E/LE en el contexto social argelino. 2. Perspectiva cognitiva: se trata de un análisis de aprendizaje teórico-sistemático del desarrollo psicológico de los aprendices argelinos. En torno de estas perspectivas de investigación se platean las siguientes preguntas problematizadoras: ¿Dónde reside la cierta interacción cultural entre el educador español y el educando argelino? ¿Qué tipo de problemas de aprendizaje encontrados en estos contextos educativos? ¿En qué perspectiva debemos focalizarnos nosotros los educadores para mejorar nuestro sagrado quehacer? ¿Qué formación de profesorado proponemos para aprender a convivir? ¿Qué aportaciones cognitivas e intervenciones psicopedagógicas para entender la estructura mental del individuo (el aprendiz)? Finalmente, ¿qué soluciones propuestas para enfrentar a los problemas del aprendizaje E/LE en la sociedad argelina

Alternative Foods — Marketing Perspectives on the Production and Distribution Systems

Most societal and environmental challenges that humanity is currently facing relate to unsustainable consumption patterns and lifestyles. This unsustainability is supported by consumerism and producerism that have high interests for fierce productivity. This study presents a supply-demand marketing perspective based on the current literature and current market realities. Local food production and consumption are topics gaining much attention in academic marketing research and marketing practice. Local food systems regenerate the relationships between producers and consumers. A mixed design is used to assess the added values of the production and distribution systems in Canada. On one hand the supply side situation was assessed by conducting personal in-depth interviews with alternative food producers and market intermediaries. On the other hand, a survey was administered to local food consumers to assess their consumption patterns. Findings show that producers/farmers have a number of positive outcomes. Intrinsic values such as taste, quality and freshness, nutrition and health, are very important to the consumer both for local food products in general and local organic foods products in particular. Further, it is determined that price is important but not determinant of local foods purchase. Further, consumers’ issues and concerns over conventional food products are determinant factors when purchasing local food products. It is also important to realize that consumers may not fully understand the meaning of locally produced food

¡Descubre cómo piensas, te digo cómo aprendes!

Nuestra investigación se focaliza en el aspecto metodológico de la enseñanza de idiomas, se trata de un estudio analítico en el contexto educativo donde no se enseña a alumnos sin tener en cuenta a las nuevas aportaciones de ciencias de educación o la psicología cognitiva en cualquier contexto educativo. Nuestro objetivo consiste en concienciar al profesorado para mejorar la metodología de enseñanza de idiomas y aplicar las técnicas del descubrimiento de la manera de pensar de los alumnos, es decir, sus estrategias y sus capacidades de aprendizaje

Alternative Foods — New Consumer Trends

Increased globalization of food systems, large-scale production and distribution, and retail sales have changed the way food is produced and consumed. The dis-embedded globalized system is characterized by “industrial food” and not well-informed food choices. This has also created many concerns with respect to food safety, food security, health, and sustainability. Food alternatives are developing leading to embedded localized systems. These “alternative food” options include labels such as local, natural, pesticide-free, ecologically friendly, slow food movement, and localvores. The traditional marketing approach and specifically consumer marketing theory are not sufficiently prepared to handle the advent of new types of consumers. These consumers are looking for more than a product, i.e., value products. The objective of the current study is to understand the motives and concerns, product preferences, and consumption patterns of alternative food consumers in both developed and developing countries. To this end, a survey was administered in two countries. The population targeted for this study is alternative food shoppers. Results show mitigated differences between developed country consumers and developing country consumers in terms of food culture and food importance, perception of organic versus local foods, and foods channels of distribution

A C-DAG task model for scheduling complex real-time tasks on heterogeneous platforms: preemption matters

Recent commercial hardware platforms for embedded real-time systems feature heterogeneous processing units and computing accelerators on the same System-on-Chip. When designing complex real-time application for such architectures, the designer needs to make a number of difficult choices: on which processor should a certain task be implemented? Should a component be implemented in parallel or sequentially? These choices may have a great impact on feasibility, as the difference in the processor internal architectures impact on the tasks' execution time and preemption cost. To help the designer explore the wide space of design choices and tune the scheduling parameters, in this paper we propose a novel real-time application model, called C-DAG, specifically conceived for heterogeneous platforms. A C-DAG allows to specify alternative implementations of the same component of an application for different processing engines to be selected off-line, as well as conditional branches to model if-then-else statements to be selected at run-time. We also propose a schedulability analysis for the C-DAG model and a heuristic allocation algorithm so that all deadlines are respected. Our analysis takes into account the cost of preempting a task, which can be non-negligible on certain processors. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on a large set of synthetic experiments by comparing with state of the art algorithms in the literature

The effect of GABAmimetics on the duration of immobility in the forced swim test in albino mice

Objectives: Studies regarding the role of gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) in depression are conflicting. Therefore, it was decided to examine the effect of different drugs that enhance the GABA system on the time of immobility induced by the forced swim test (FST).Materials and methods: Adult albino mice were divided into several groups of six animals. Each group received an intraperitoneal injection of either imipramine (10, 20, or 30 mg/kg), diazepam (0.5, 1, or 2 mg/kg), vigabatrin (100, 200, or 300 mg/kg), zolpidem (2.5, 5, or 10 mg/kg), or alprazolam (1, 2.5, or 5 mg/kg). Control groups received the appropriate vehicle. One hour after injection, the duration of immobility was measured for 5 min in the FST. The percentage change in the duration of immobility from the control was calculated for each group. The statistical test of the difference between the treated and the control groups was calculated using unpaired Student’s t-test.Results: Imipramine produced a significant dose-dependent decrease in the duration of immobility (78, 74, and 56%, respectively). Different doses of diazepam, vigabatrin, and zolpidem produced a significant increase in the duration of immobility (119, 126, and 128%), (116, 124, and 128%), and (108, 109, and 119%), respectively. The two low doses of alprazolam produced a significant increase (115 and 120%), while the high dose produced a significant decrease in the duration of immobility (74%).Conclusion: Increasing central GABAergic activity by different mechanisms has resulted in a depressant-like activity measured as an increase in the duration of immobility in the FST model of depression.Keywords: GABAmimetics; forced swim test; diazepam; vigabatrin; zolpidem; alprazola