The physical connection between G337.2+0.1 and AX J1635.9-4719

We present evidence supporting a SNR origin for the radio source G337.2+0.1, which was discovered in the MOST 843-MHz radio survey. The radio source is spatially coincident with the unidentified ASCA source AX J1635.9-4719. A deep study of this latter source reveals that its X-ray spectrum, extended nature, and non-variable flux are consistent with what is expected for a SNR. In addition, we have used HI-line observations of the region to look for any effect of the presumed remnant in the ISM. We have found a welldefined minimum centered at the position of the radio source in the velocity range of −25 to −19 km/s. This feature appears as a sharp absorption dip in the spectrum that might be produced when the continuum emission from the SNR candidate is absorbed by foreground gas. Hence we have used it to constrain the distance to the source, which seems to be a young (age ∼ a few 103 yr) and distant (d ∼ 14 kpc) SNR. G337.2+0.1 and AX J1635.9- 4719 would be the radio/X-ray manifestations of this remnant.Fil: Combi, Jorge Ariel. Universidad de Jaén; España. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía; ArgentinaFil: Benaglia, Paula. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía; ArgentinaFil: Romero, Gustavo Esteban. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía; ArgentinaFil: Sugizaki, Mutsumi. Stanford Linear Accelerator Center; Estados Unido

SPP Toolbox : supporting sustainable public procurement in the context of socio-technical transitions

ABSTRACT: Public procurement can shape production and consumption trends and represents a stimulus for both innovation and diversification in products and services, through a direct increase in demand. In recent years, the interest in demand-side policies has grown and several approaches have emerged, such as Green Public Procurement (GPP), Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) and Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI), representing strategic goals to be achieved through public procurement. In this context, there is a need to guide and support public organizations in the uptake of GPP, SPP and PPI practices. To respond to the challenges raised by the operationalization of such strategies, this paper proposes a new tool—the SPP Toolbox—for guiding public organizations as they re-think the procurement process, raising their ambitions and broadening their vision, thus changing the organizational approach towards culture, strategies, structures and practices. This toolbox integrates insights from GPP, SPP and PPI objectives and practices, in the context of the emergence of socio-technical transitions. The toolbox coherently links GPP, SPP and PPI, allowing flexibility in terms of goals, yet promoting an increasing complexity of institutionalized practices and skills—from GPP to SPP and then from SPP to PPI, organized in a framework fully integrated into the organizational strategy.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

An econometric approach to macroeconomic risk. A cross country study

A contribution to the study of volatility and country risk is made in order to achieve a successful crosscountry comparison. We present a methodology for the evaluation of country risk that include endogenous detection of multiple structural breaks (also identifying its different kinds), determination of persistence of shocks through their structural-break free fractional integration order and determination of the adjusted volatility which best characterizes the economy. This methodology is applied to developed and emerging countries' GDPs (taking 9 countries from each group). Although the former have fewer structural breaks than the latter, these breaks are extremely relevant in 14 of the 18 countries. This affects the calculation of the series persistence and volatility. Comparing a traditional risk indicator to our suggested one we find that the cluster of reference of 60% of the countries changes. Most countries present fractional integration (long memory) being the distribution between both groups heterogeneous. Country volatility varies strongly if we isolate structural breaks that present a probabilistic distribution different from intrinsic GDP volatility. Clusters arrangement is different with some risk country evaluation methodologies.Risk, Volatility, Persistence, Structural breaks, Forescastability, Macroeconomic variables, Cross country analysis

Ceftiofur-loaded PHBV microparticles: A potential formulation for a long-acting antibiotic to treat animal infections

Indexación: Web of Science; ScieloBackground: The infectious diseases in the livestock breeding industry represent a significant drawback that generates substantial economic loss and have led to the indiscriminate use of antibiotics. The formulation of polymeric microparticles loaded with antibiotics for veterinary use can: reduce the number of required doses; protect the drug from inactivation; and maintain a sustained-release of the antibiotic drug at effective levels. Accomplishing all of these goals would have a significant economic and animal health impact on the livestock breeding industry. Results: In this work, we formulated ceftiofur-loaded PHBV microparticles (PHBV-CEF) with a spherical shape, a smooth surface and diameter sizes between 1.65 and 2.37 μm. The encapsulation efficiency was 39.5 ± 1.1% w/w, and we obtained a sustained release of ceftiofur in PBS-buffer (pH 7.4) over 7 days. The antibacterial activity of ceftiofur was preserved after the encapsulation procedure, and toxicity of PHBV-CEF microparticles evaluated by MTS was represented by an IC50 > 10 mg/mL. Conclusions: Our results suggest that PHBV-CEF particles have a potential application for improving the treatment of infectious diseases in the livestock breeding industry. Keywords: ceftiofur, drug delivery, livestock breeding industry, PHBV, polymeric microparticle

Developing Sous Vide/Freezing Systems for Ready-Meal omponents

End of project reportSous vide cooking involves sealing raw or par-cooked food in a vacuumised laminated plastic pouch or container, cooking by controlled heating, rapid chilling and then re-heating for consumption. The chilled storage period is up to 21 days at 0 to 3oC. The recommended thermal process for sous vide products is 90oC for 10min or its time-temperature equivalent. Concerns about the safety of sous vide products, mainly due to the potential for temperature abuse in the chill chain, has prevented the widespread use of this technology. The role of the current project, therefore, was to investigate sous vide cooking followed by freezing, as a safe alternative to sous vide/chilling for 10 ready-meal components i.e. carbohydrates (potatoes, pasta, rice), vegetables (carrots, broccoli) and muscle foods (salmon, cod, chicken, beef and lamb).National Development Plan (NDP

On the use of MPT to derive optimal RES electricity generation mixes

The use of modern portfolio theory (MPT) is a common practice to derive efficient frontiers and support portfolio decision making in financial markets. Although real projects present different characteristics and technical restrictions, the general objective of the decision maker is the same: to maximize the expected return minimizing the portfolio risk. Long term electricity generation decision making is characterized by high uncertainty, high impact on social welfare and a large set of diversified technologies that may be included in future scenarios. The possibility of applying MPT approach to define efficient electricity generation portfolios is explored in this paper focusing on particular in renewable energy sources (RES technologies). The use of MPT for building RES scenarios is demonstrated for the particular case of Portugal. One year hourly data concerning power output from wind, hydro and solar plants along with the power demand was collected and included in the analysis. Three different approaches were considered for designing the efficient frontiers aiming at maximizing the RES electricity generation, minimizing deviation between the demand and the RES production and minimizing the levelised cost of the RES system. The results demonstrate how this approach can be an effective tool to support decision making but put also in evidence the need to build modified MPT models in order to take into account the technical restrictions of the system.QREN, COMPETE, FCT, under Project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-01137

Marginal rural society : La Paz county (Mendoza, Argentina)

El trabajo aborda la socio-economía del departamento La Paz, ubicado a 140 km de la ciudad de Mendoza (Argentina), considerado representativo del retraso existente en algunas zonas rurales de la provincia en función de sus características semidesérticas y la amenaza de marginalidad en la evolución social. Los datos son primarios, referidos a la población rural en su conjunto. El muestreo es probabilístico y sistemático al azar. El relevamiento realizado demuestra una estructura ocupacional fundamentalmente basada en la explotación de la tierra, con un régimen de tenencia en el que sólo el 28 % de la población es propietaria. Sus índices de desempleo y subempleo son más elevados que los del promedio provincial con importantes fluctuaciones estacionales. El ingreso per cápita de la población rural es 6,5 veces inferior a la media mendocina. Estas características, sumadas a los altos índices de Necesidades Básicas Insatisfechas (NBI) demuestran que la población estudiada experimenta una realidad desfavorable con respecto al desarrollo social y económico. Este trabajo pretende realizar un diagnóstico de la situación reuniendo información útil para emprender un proceso de transformación en la zona.The work enters upon the socioeconomic characteristics of the county of La Paz, located 140 km from Mendoza, since it is considered to be representative of the backwardness situation suffered by some rural areas in the province, because of its semidesertic characteristics and the threat of marginality with respect to the social evolution. The data is primary and refered to the rural population. The sampling is probabilistic and systematic at random. The compilation done shows a work structure based mainly in the soil explotation, making evident a possession rule in wich only 28 % of thid population are land owners. High unemployement and subemployement rates are registered with repect to the average in the province, with important season fluctuations. The income per capita of the rural population is 6,5 times lower than the average in Mendoza. These characteristics, show that the analized population experiments an unfavorable reality with respect to the socioeconomic development. This work wish to do a diagnosis of the situation in order to obtain useful information to carry out a process of transformation in the area.Fil: Jorge, Tacchini. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Departamento de Ciencias Económico-Jurídico y SocialesFil: Eisenchlas, Paula S.. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Departamento de Ciencias Económico-Jurídico y Sociale

Project evaluation for small hydro power investments in Portugal

Due to the increasing concern with sustainable development, renewable energy sources (RES) emerge as an important alternative for electricity production. In this context, for countries like Portugal, hydropower plants assume an important role and several incentives have been granted by the government to promote hydroelectric production. However, due to the deep economic and financial crisis of the last years, a change in the energy paradigm is taking place increasing the perceived risk factors for RES electricity producers. Therefore, this paper focus on identifying and assessing the impact of those risks associated with an investment in a small hydropower (SHP). Although the independent analysis of each risk variable showed that the project is worthwhile, the possibility of having a negative outcome was evident for the investment costs, discount rate and feed-in-tariffs variables. On the other hand, the results of the combined analysis are much less optimistic demonstrating that even under regulated tariffs the probability of having a negative NPV largely surpasses the probability of obtaining a positive value

Designing electricity generation portfolios using the mean-variance approach

The mean-variance approach (MVA) is commonly used in the financial literature for the optimal design of financial asset portfolios. The electricity sector portfolios are also guided by similar objectives, namely maximising return and minimising risk. As such, this paper proposes two possible MVAs for the design of optimal renewable electricity production portfolios. The first approach is directed at portfolio output maximisation and the second one is directed at portfolio cost optimisation. The model was implemented on data compiled from the Portuguese electricity system collected for each quarter of an hour, for a period close to four years. Three renewable energy sources (RES) portfolios were used, namely hydropower, wind power and photovoltaic. This highlighted the resource seasonality demonstrating that hydropower output positively correlates with wind power and that photovoltaic correlates negatively with both hydro and wind power. The results show that for both models the least risky solutions are characterised by a mix of RES technologies, taking advantage of the diversification benefits. As for the highest return solutions, as expected, these are the ones associated with higher risk but the portfolio composition largely depends on the assumed costs of each technology.(undefined