Service company's adaptation of supply chain to cope with volatile oil and gas market

The oil and gas market has great significance across the globe, but the unpredictability in this industry is a huge challenge that affects all the supply chains in this market. These conditions contribute to a competitive and diverse market where service firms struggle to keep productivity in order to lower costs and boost operating performance. This paper gathers data on the oilfield service industry and explore existing literature on service supply chain agility to discover empirically the application of strategies that can be implemented within the sector. The major difficulties and risks faced during an oil crisis were identified through analyses on the performance of the leading global service provider (Schlumberger). Global mobility and supplier related challenges were found to be the main factors that harm the company's capacity to deal with market fluctuations. And the constructive tactics developed to achieve a strategic edge over competition have been used as the foundation of this study. Through executives’ interview, internal documentation research and relevant literature review it was discovered that agility in Schlumberger was attained by establishing supply chain visibility and the development of flexible policies and processes. By leveraging internal capabilities and digital solutions to enhance the procurement activities and overcome the looming risks it´s possible to successfully operate in complex market. A recommendation framework was presented as supply chain managers’ benchmarking scheme. This framework highlighted approaches that can be taken in terms of suppliers, internal capabilities and customers as a way to contribute to greater supply chain agility

Sistema previsional chileno: Fortalezas y debilidades a sus 24 anos de entrada en vigencia.

67 p.En la presente investigación se analiza el Sistema de Pensiones instaurado por el DL. N° 3.500 de 1980, ya que en los últimos años ha sido unos de los temas que ha generado mayor controversia tanto a nivel político como social, debido a un descontento generalizado por parte de la población, pues se argumenta que no se estarían cumpliendo con los objetivos que se plantearon en un comienzo. La importancia de esta investigación radica en que tarde o temprano todos nos veremos envueltos en el Sistema de Pensiones, independientemente del nivel de ingresos, de cuando iniciemos nuestra etapa laboral o cuando pongamos fin a ella. Para desarrollar esta Memoria se recurrieron a distintas fuentes de información, de manera de considerar todos los puntos de vista, lo que permitió un estudio crítico, veraz y responsable

Erasmus students in Portugal: from students to tourists and advocates

Although there are several studies examining the benefits of the Erasmus student mobility programme on student’s professional career and academic development, there is scarce literature focusing on how they are similar to tourists and can promote tourism in the country where they did Erasmus. This study interviewed 16 students from 10 different nationalities that have done Erasmus in Portugal, in order to examine their travelling behaviours and how they may contribute in promoting Portugal. The findings reveal that Erasmus students are similar to tourists, contributing to Portugal’s Tourism not only by their travelling behaviour, but also by the visitors they receive and because of the posts of Portugal on social media. Furthermore, after their Erasmus experience, they become advocates, recommending Portugal to family and friends.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Characterisation of PAMP/PRR interactions in European eel (Anguilla anguilla) macrophage-like primary cell cultures

The eel (Anguilla anguilla) has been identified as a vulnerable species with stocks dramatically declining over the past decade. In an effort to support the species from overfishing of wild stocks increased interest in eel aquaculture has been notable. In order to expand the scarce knowledge concerning the biology of this species significant research efforts are required in several fields of biology. The development of cell culture systems to study the immune response is a key step towards an increased understanding of the immune response and to develop resources to support further study in this threatened species. Macrophages are one of the most important effector cells of the innate immune system. The capacity to engulf pathogens and orchestrate the immune response relies on the existence of different surface receptors, such as scavenger receptors and toll-like receptors. We have developed and described an eel macrophage-like in vitro model and studied its functional and transcriptomic responses. Macrophagelike cells from both head kidney and purified peripheral blood leukocytes were obtained and phagocytic activity measured for different whole bacteria and yeast. Moreover, based on PAMP-PRR association the innate immune response of both head kidney and PBL derived macrophage-like cells was evaluated against different pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). Results highlight that peptidoglycan stimulation strongly induces inflammatory mRNA expression reflected in the up-regulation of proinflammatory genes IL1b and IL18 in PBL derived cells whereas IL8 is upregulated in head kidney derived cells. Furthermore TLR2 mRNA abundance is regulated by all stimuli supporting a multifunctional role for this pathogen recognition receptor (PRR) in eel macrophage-like cells

Assessment of connectivity-based resilience to attacks against multiple nodes in SDNs

In Software Defined Networks (SDNs), the control plane of a network is decoupled from its data plane. For scalability and robustness, the logically centralized control plane is implemented by physically placing different controllers throughout the network. The determination of the number and placement of controllers is known as the Controller Placement Problem (CPP). In the regular (i.e., failure-free) state, the control plane must guarantee a given maximum delay between every switch and its primary controller and a given maximum delay between every pair of controllers. In general, these delay bounds allow multiple solutions and, so, other goals can be used to determine the best CPP solution. In this paper, we assess the connectivity-based resilience to malicious attacks against multiple network nodes of the CPP solutions obtained with three different aims: the regular state delay optimization without any concern about attacks, the regular state delay optimization taking into consideration the worst-case attacks and the resilience optimization to attacks against multiple nodes. We assess the CPP solutions considering attacks of targeted nature (when the attacker has complete knowledge of the data plane) and attacks of non-targeted nature (i.e., random and epidemic attacks). We present computational results providing an analysis of the CPP solutions to the different types of attacks. The main conclusion is that the connectivity-based resilience between the different CPP solutions strongly depends on the network topology, the regular state delay bounds and the type of attacks. Finally, we provide insights on how SDN operators can consider the conducted assessment when deciding the controller placements in their networks.publishe

Modelo de Incubadora para sector productivo en Tabasco

La presente investigación se realiza con la finalidad de contribuir con la institución por lo que se ha considerado analizar los diferentes modelos de Incubadora de empresas existentes para conocer su desempeño y funcionamiento y poder proponer el que por su naturaleza se amolde a las necesidades y demandas del Colegio de Postgraduados

Eel immune response to Vibrio vulnificus infection. Host-pathogen relationship

The European eel (Anguilla anguilla), has experienced a dangerous decline in recruitment, yield and stock over the last 30 years and this decline is likely to continue into the future. Several major threats are responsible for this situation, including overfishing of glass eels for consumption, new infections by introduced pathogens, dams and blocking of migration routes. The lack of knowledge concerning the biology of this species represents a handicap to the conservation and recovery of the population. Nevertheless,the eel farming industry is increasing, therefore it could be considered one of the major risks for wild eel stock perpetuation, which is threatened principally by the lack of knowledge of the complete reproductive cycle of the European eel and by emerging bacterial, viral and parasite diseases. Vibrio vulnificus is the aetiological agent of warm-water vibriosis, a disease that constitutes the main threat to eels under culture conditions, provoking important outbreaks and can be an opportunistic pathogen for humans. V. vulnificus uses a novel characterized virulence and survival system namedMARTX (multifunctional repeat in toxin) that it is supposed to trigger a cytokine storm when it is produced in blood during the infection. It is also involved in the colonization of the gills, to invade internal organs and causes death by septicemia. We sequenced an eel immune-enriched transcriptome with Roche 454, and the data has been used to create new molecular tools for further research. We have also designed a custom eel-specific microarray (4x44K, Agilent). Our research has been focused on eel-vibrio interaction, how the host responds to the challenge and the importance of MARTX system of the bacteria for the colonization. Different challenges were performed using wild type strain (CECT4999) and Rtx double mutant strain (CT285) to evaluate mucosal immunity in the gills, the principal portal of entry.We also studied the early immune response of circulating leukocytes and the role of the erythrocytes, as one of the target cells of the lytic activity of this bacterium. Results obtained by RT-qPCR and ISH on gills demonstrate the immunocompetent function of this tissue, based on the expression and localization of immune-relates genes such as, TLRs, cytokines, chemokines and signalling molecules. Microarray studies describe key genes expressed after vibrio infection analyzed across 12h post-challenge on gills and blood (leukocytes and erythrocytes separately), specific host response against vibrio Rtx toxin, as well as, a possible function of erythrocytes in the immune response

Ética social, profesional, profesoral y de la ciencia

El artículo trata el tema de la ética y la moral, las virtudes y los defectos de los seres humanos y de las propias sociedades que ellos construyen, en diferentes espacios y períodos históricos; la construcción de valores a partir de las propias necesidades materiales y espirituales y la interrelación dialéctica entre la base material y la conciencia social. Trata además los principales paradigmas éticos, las tradiciones, costumbres y hábitos como elementos importantes a tener en cuenta en el proceso de formación de valores; destaca la función del educador, de la familia, la escuela -desde el nivel primario hasta la universidad- y de la propia sociedad, haciendo énfasis en la ética de los profesionales de la salud y los científicos. Por último, llama a fortalecer lo positivo y combatir lo negativo, para ser mejores seres humanos, amantes y respetuosos de su Patria, constructores de una sociedad cada vez más digna, justa y solidaria, que cumpla el sueño martiano “el culto a la dignidad plena del hombre”