Orientación al mercado, resultados e indicadores básicos de competitividad, interrelación en las agencias de viajes

El presente trabajo analiza los efectos de la orientación al mercado en una doble vertiente: de un lado, estudia los efectos de la orientación al mercado sobre los resultados y, de otro, mide los efectos de la misma sobre los indicadores básicos de la competitividad. A su vez, se han considerado los efectos de las diferentes dimensiones de la orientación al mercado sobre diversas medidas de resultados empresariales. Los hallazgos obtenidos en el sector de las agencias de viaje permiten confirmar la existencia de una relación indirecta entre orientación al mercado y resultados, a través de su contribución a los indicadores básicos de competitividad. Asimismo se ha comprobado que las dimensiones de la orientación al mercado ejercen diferentes influencias sobre los resultados, de tal forma que no todas ellas poseen un efecto positivo.The present study analyses the consequences of market orientation from two perspectives: firstly, it studies the market orientation effects on results, and secondly, it measures those effects on competitiveness indicators. Additionally, the effects of market orientation on different dimensions of business performance have been considered. The results on travel agency sector support the relationship between market orientation and performance, through the contribution of competitiveness indicators. Furthermore, market orientation dimensions have diverse influences on performances; same of them have not showed a positive effect

Glial activation precedes alpha-synuclein pathology in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease

Neuroinflammation is increasingly recognized as an important feature in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD). However, it remains unclear whether neuroinflammation contributes to nigral degeneration in PD or is merely a secondary marker of neurodegeneration. We aimed to investigate the temporal relationship between synucleopathy, neuroinflammation and nigrostriatal degeneration in a mouse model of PD. Mice received unilateral intrastriatal injection of alpha-synuclein pre-formed fibrils, alpha-synuclein monomer or vehicle and were sacrificed at 15, 30 and 90 days post-injection. Intrastriatal inoculation of alpha-synuclein fibrils led to significant alpha-synuclein aggregation in the substantia nigra peaking at 30 days after injection while the significant increase in Iba-1 cells, GFAP cells and IL-1β expression peaked earlier at 15 days. At 90 days, the striatal dopaminergic denervation was associated with astroglial activation. Alpha-synuclein monomer did not result in long-term glia activation or increase in inflammatory markers. The spread of alpha-synuclein aggregates into the cortex was not associated with any changes to neuroinflammatory markers. Our results demonstrate that in the substantia nigra glial activation is an early event that precedes alpha-synuclein inclusion formation, suggesting neuroinflammation could play an important early role in the pathogenesis of PD

Soberanía contemporánea y principio de subsidiariedad: el desempeño internacional de funciones soberanas en estados fallidos

Este artículo pretende ofrecer una reflexión panorámica sobre la naturaleza y el alcance de las competencias y funciones jurídicas de las modernas misiones internacionales de paz en territorios en conflicto y post-conflicto. El análisis de su relación con los principios jurídicos estructurales de soberanía estatal, libre determinación de los pueblos y la protección internacional de los derechos humanos parece útil para perfilar su papel teórico dentro del sistema jurídico internacional contemporáneo y establecer algunas hipótesis sobre su presente y su futura evolución jurídica y los desafíos a que se enfrentan. Palabras clave: Soberanía. Estados fallidos. Libre determinación. Derechos humanos.    Abstract This article aims to offer some thoughts on the nature and scope of the legal competences and functions of the modern international peace operations in conflict and post-conflict territories. The analysis of their relationship with the structural legal principles of State sovereignty, self-determination of peoples and the international protection of human rights can be helpful in order to specify their theoretical role within the contemporary international legal system and to advance some working hypotheses about their present and future development and challenges. Keywords: Sovereignty. Failed States. Self-determination. Human rights

A theoretical reflection on smart shape modeling

This paper presents, as far as the authors are aware, a complete and extended new taxonomy of shape specification modeling techniques and a characterization of shape design systems, all based on the relationship of users’ knowledge to the modeling system they use to generate shapes. In-depth knowledge of this relationship is not usually revealed in the regular university training courses such as bachelor’s, master’s and continuing education. For this reason, we believe that it is necessary to modify the learning process, offering a more global vision of all the currently existing techniques and extending training in those related to algorithmic modeling techniques. We consider the latter to be the most powerful current techniques for modeling complex shapes that cannot be modeled with the usual techniques known to date. Therefore, the most complete training should include everything from the usual geometry to textual programming. This would take us a step further along the way to more powerful design environments. The proposed taxonomy could serve as a guideline to help improve the learning process of students and designers in a complex environment with increasingly powerful requirements and tools. The term “smart” is widely used nowadays, e.g. smart phones, smart cars, smart homes, smart cities... and similar terms such as “smart shape modeling”. Nowadays, the term smart is applied from a marketing point of view, whenever an innovation is used to solve a complex problem. This is the case for what is currently called smart shape modeling. However, in the future; this concept should mean a much better design environment than today. The smart future requires better trained and skilled engineers, architects, designers or technical students. This means that they must be prepared to be able to contribute to the creation of new knowledge, to the use of innovations to solve complex problems of form, and to the extraction of the relevant pieces of intelligence from the growing volume of knowledge and technologies accessible today. Our taxonomy is presented from the point of view of methods that are possibly furthest away from what is considered today as “intelligent shape modeling” to the limit of what is achievable today and which the authors call “Generic Shape Algorithm”. Finally, we discuss the characteristics that a shape modeling system must have to be truly “intelligent”: it must be “proactive” in applying innovative ideas to achieve a solution to a complex problem

Electrokinetic Behaviour and Interaction with Oxalic Acid of Different Hydrous Chromium(III) Oxides

Three samples of hydrous chromium(III) oxide have been prepared by different procedures, and their electrokinetic mobilities have been measured. In mineral media, isoelectric points were found to be 8.45 ±0.15. This value is shifted from the solution isoelectric point by –0.35 ±0.15, due to the contribution of solvation energy to the energy of ionic adsorption. On the basis of a simple model, it is suggested that the two successive surface acidity constants of hydrous chromium(III) oxide are pKS a1 = 7.17 and pKS a2 = 9.72. The influence of oxalic acidity on mobility may be described in terms of two successive adsorption equilibria, the first one conducive to the neutralization of positive protonic charge, and the second one originating a charge reversal. It is shown that the apparent affinity for this latter mode is lower in one of the samples, suggesting that surface complexation constants may in fact be sensitive to the history of hydrous chromium(III) oxide particles. The three samples show similar dissolution behaviour but the specific rates differ, in one case by two orders of magnitude. This difference is explained in terms of the influence of crosslinking on the reactivity

Electrokinetic Behaviour and Interaction with Oxalic Acid of Different Hydrous Chromium(III) Oxides

Three samples of hydrous chromium(III) oxide have been prepared by different procedures, and their electrokinetic mobilities have been measured. In mineral media, isoelectric points were found to be 8.45 ±0.15. This value is shifted from the solution isoelectric point by –0.35 ±0.15, due to the contribution of solvation energy to the energy of ionic adsorption. On the basis of a simple model, it is suggested that the two successive surface acidity constants of hydrous chromium(III) oxide are pKS a1 = 7.17 and pKS a2 = 9.72. The influence of oxalic acidity on mobility may be described in terms of two successive adsorption equilibria, the first one conducive to the neutralization of positive protonic charge, and the second one originating a charge reversal. It is shown that the apparent affinity for this latter mode is lower in one of the samples, suggesting that surface complexation constants may in fact be sensitive to the history of hydrous chromium(III) oxide particles. The three samples show similar dissolution behaviour but the specific rates differ, in one case by two orders of magnitude. This difference is explained in terms of the influence of crosslinking on the reactivity

Polarografía oscilográfica del ditiocarbamato sódico derivado de N,N-dibencilamina

Se ha aislado y caracterizado el ditiocarbamato sódico obtenido a partir de N,N-dibencilamina, S2C y NaOH, con expresión de los espectros IR, electrónico y RMN. Se ha estudiado la oxidación electroquímica sobre electrodo de gota de mercurio. Los datos oscilopolarográficos ponen de manifiesto que el producto de la reacción anódica se adsorbe intensamente sobre la superficie del electrodo indicador.The sodium dithiocarbamate produced by interaction of N,N-dibenzylarnine, S2C and NaOH is isolated and characterized on the basis of elemental analysis, IR, RMN and electronic spectra. The electrochemical oxidation of dithiocarbamate in the dropping Hg electrode is studied. Oscillopolarographic data reveal that the products of the anodic reaction is strongly adsorbed at the mercury drop

Exome sequencing in a consanguineous family clinically diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease identifies a homozygous CTSF mutation

We have previously reported the whole genome genotyping analysis of 2 consanguineous siblings clinically diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this analysis, we identified several large regions of homozygosity shared between both affected siblings, which we suggested could be candidate loci for a recessive genetic lesion underlying the early onset AD in these cases. We have now performed exome sequencing in one of these siblings and identified the potential cause of disease: the CTSF c.1243G>A:p.Gly415Arg mutation in homozygosity. Biallelic mutations in this gene have been shown to cause Type B Kufs disease, an adult-onset neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis with some cases resembling the impairment seen in AD

An ArsR/SmtB family member regulates arsenic resistance genes unusually arranged in Thermus thermophilus HB27.

Arsenic resistance is commonly clustered in ars operons in bacteria; main ars operon components encode an arsenate reductase, a membrane extrusion protein, and an As-sensitive transcription factor. In the As-resistant thermophile Thermus thermophilus HB27, genes encoding homologues of these proteins are interspersed in the chromosome. In this article, we show that two adjacent genes, TtsmtB, encoding an ArsR/SmtB transcriptional repressor and, TTC0354, encoding a Zn2+/Cd2+-dependent membrane ATPase are involved in As resistance; differently from characterized ars operons, the two genes are transcribed from dedicated promoters upstream of their respective genes, whose expression is differentially regulated at transcriptional level. Mutants defective in TtsmtB or TTC0354 are more sensitive to As than the wild type, proving their role in arsenic resistance. Recombinant dimeric TtSmtB binds in vitro to both promoters, but its binding capability decreases upon interaction with arsenate and, less efficiently, with arsenite. In vivo and in vitro experiments also demonstrate that the arsenate reductase (TtArsC) is subjected to regulation by TtSmtB. We propose a model for the regulation of As resistance in T. thermophilus in which TtSmtB is the arsenate sensor responsible for the induction of TtArsC which generates arsenite exported by TTC0354 efflux protein to detoxify cells