Exploring the link between market orientation and innovation in the European and US insurance markets

Despite the increasing research importance of market orientation concept in the marketing literature, few comparative studies between Europe and U.S. have been conducted. Consequently, this void limits the understanding of marketing orientation strategy in global markets. The empirical study reported in this article investigates (a) the influence of competitive environments on the understanding and uses of market orientation in insurance flrms in Europe and U.S. and (b) the effects of market orientation on firms innovativeness. The results not only provide empirical support of the concept of market orientation as defmed in the literature, but also expands it

Market orientation and business economic performance : a mediated model.

Previous studies have found that market orientation significantly predicts economic performance. The present study attempts to provide a necessarily partial model for how this impact takes place using innovation degree, innovation performance and customer loyalty as intermediate variables. The study targets the insurance industry in the European Union. The sample accounted for 22 percent of the companies and 17 percent of the insurance premiums in this market. The results suggest that the addition of these variables improves predictions of objective economic performance 52 percent over what is explained by market orientation alone. Furthermore, the study found that the effects of market orientation on economic performance are completely channeled (mediated) through these variables, particularly through innovation degree and innovation performance. Based on the results the paper provide guidelines for improving the market share, premium growth and profitability of European Union insurance firms.Innovation; Market orientation; Marketing research;

Exploring the link between market orientation and innovation in the European and US insurance markets.

Despite the increasing research importance of market orientation in the marketing literature, few comparative studies between the European Union and the USA have been conducted. This limits the understanding of marketing orientation strategy in global markets. Investigates the influence of competitive environments on the uses of market orientation in insurance firms in the EU and the USA and the effects of market orientation on innovations. Using Lambin's conceptualization of market orientation, our results indicate that, although EU and US insurance firms analyze and react to their environment differently, which in turn is reflected in a differential impact on their degree of innovation, this, however, does not translate into overall market orientation differences across markets, differential relations across markets between overall market orientation and innovation degree and innovation performance. Furthermore, there is a positive impact of overall market orientation on insurance firms' innovation degree and innovation performance in both the US and EU markets. The managerial implications of these findings seem clear: the magnitude and the effectiveness of the innovation activities of a firm can be enhanced through the adoption of market orientation principlesMarket orientation; Innovation; Global marketing; Insurance companies;

Public Service and Electric Utilities Development in Europe Starting from the Spanish Experience

Se analiza la evolución que ha tenido la institución del servicio público, desde su nacimiento en el siglo XIX, hasta su estadio actual, en que la liberalización de los servicios económicos promovida por la Unión Europea ha alterado su naturaleza, en el sentido de integrar el paradigma del mercado como medio idóneo de asignación de recursos a la concepción de prestación pública de determinados servicios a la comunidad en condiciones de calidad, continuidad y a precios accesibles. El estudio se propone analizar la relación del servicio público con un sector económico concreto: el eléctrico, para la realidad europea, y desde una mirada de la realidad española.Analysis of the development of the public utilities board, from its origin in the 19th century, until its current status, when the liberalization of the economic services boosted by the European Union has altered its nature by incorporating the market paradigm as an ideal means to allocate resources to the idea of rendering certain state-owned services to the community with quality, continuity and at affordable prices. This study is aimed at analyzing the relationship of the public services with a specific economic area: electric utilities, for the European reality, from an insight into the Spanish experience

El nuevo marco institucional ambiental en Chile

En esta nota se realizan algunos apuntes sobre la Ley 20417, de 26 de enero de 2010, que introduce un nuevo marco institucional ambiental para Chile. En este sentido, se hace una revisión histórica de la protección al medio ambiente en Chile, y la influencia que ha tenido la comunidad internacional en la construcción institucional ambiental en el país, hasta llegar al modelo que propone esta Ley

On inferring intentions in shared tasks for industrial collaborative robots

Inferring human operators' actions in shared collaborative tasks, plays a crucial role in enhancing the cognitive capabilities of industrial robots. In all these incipient collaborative robotic applications, humans and robots not only should share space but also forces and the execution of a task. In this article, we present a robotic system which is able to identify different human's intentions and to adapt its behavior consequently, only by means of force data. In order to accomplish this aim, three major contributions are presented: (a) force-based operator's intent recognition, (b) force-based dataset of physical human-robot interaction and (c) validation of the whole system in a scenario inspired by a realistic industrial application. This work is an important step towards a more natural and user-friendly manner of physical human-robot interaction in scenarios where humans and robots collaborate in the accomplishment of a task.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

La seguridad energética en la Unión Europea: ¿un modelo a imitar?

This paper studies the strategy of the European Union in terms of energy security. The analysis is done from two dimensions: internal and external. The first one aims to remove the concerns about energy security from a purely national level, to file it as a regional phenomenon, which must be addressed by all the Member States, under the guidance of the EU institutions. The external dimension, however, calls for dialogue of Europe, with one voice, with third States holders of energy resources in order to develop common strategies about the energy security. All together, in order to see if is possible to get some lessons in the art for our country.Se estudia la estrategia de la Unión Europea en materia de seguridad energética. El análisis se hace desde una doble dimensión: interna y exterior. La primera de ellas pretende extraer la preocupación por la seguridad energética desde un ámbito exclusivamente nacional, para radicarlo como un fenómeno regional, que debe ser abordado por el conjunto de los Estados miembro bajo la directriz de las instituciones de la UE. La dimensión exterior, en cambio, propone el diálogo de Europa, con una sola voz, con terceros Estados poseedores de recursos energéticos, a fin de elaborar estrategias comunes y colaborativas de seguridad energética. Esto, con la finalidad de ver si es posible obtener algunas enseñanzas para Chile en la materia

Immunoprecipitation and High–Throughput Sequencing of ARGONAUTE–Bound Target RNAs from Plants

ARGONAUTE (AGO) proteins function in small RNA (sRNA)-based RNA silencing pathways to regulate gene expression and control invading nucleic acids. In posttranscriptional RNA silencing pathways, plant AGOs associate with sRNAs to interact with highly sequence-complementary target RNAs. Once the AGO–sRNA-target RNA ternary complex is formed, target RNA is typically repressed through AGO-mediated cleavage or through other cleavage-independent mechanisms. The universe of sRNAs associating with diverse plant AGOs has been determined though AGO immunoprecipitation (IP) and high-throughput sequencing of co-immunoprecipitated sRNAs. To better understand the biological functions of AGO–sRNA complexes, it is crucial to identify the repertoire of target RNAs they regulate. Here I present a detailed AGO–RNA IP followed by high-throughput sequencing (AGO RIP-Seq) methodology for the isolation of AGO ternary complexes from plant tissues and the high-throughput sequencing of AGO-bound target RNAs. In particular, the protocol describes the IP of slicer-deficient hemagglutinin (HA)-tagged AGO proteins expressed in plant tissues, the isolation of AGO-bound RNAs, and the generation of target RNA libraries for high-throughput sequencing.This work was supported by an Individual Fellowship from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 655841 to A.C.Carbonell Olivares, A. (2017). Immunoprecipitation and High–Throughput Sequencing of ARGONAUTE–Bound Target RNAs from Plants. En Plant Argonaute Proteins: Methods and Protocols. Springer Link. 93-112. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7165-7_693112Carbonell A, Carrington JC (2015) Antiviral roles of plant ARGONAUTES. Curr Opin Plant Biol 27:111–117. doi: 10.1016/j.pbi.2015.06.013Fang X, Qi Y (2016) RNAi in plants: an Argonaute-centered view. Plant Cell 28(2):272–285. doi: 10.1105/tpc.15.00920Vaucheret H (2008) Plant ARGONAUTES. Trends Plant Sci 13(7):350–358. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2008.04.007Mallory A, Vaucheret H (2010) Form, function, and regulation of ARGONAUTE proteins. Plant Cell 22(12):3879–3889. doi: 10.1105/tpc.110.080671Montgomery TA, Howell MD, Cuperus JT, Li D, Hansen JE, Alexander AL, Chapman EJ, Fahlgren N, Allen E, Carrington JC (2008) Specificity of ARGONAUTE7-miR390 interaction and dual functionality in TAS3 trans-acting siRNA formation. Cell 133(1):128–141. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2008.02.033Mi S, Cai T, Hu Y, Chen Y, Hodges E, Ni F, Wu L, Li S, Zhou H, Long C, Chen S, Hannon GJ, Qi Y (2008) Sorting of small RNAs into Arabidopsis argonaute complexes is directed by the 5′ terminal nucleotide. Cell 133(1):116–127. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2008.02.034Zhang X, Niu D, Carbonell A, Wang A, Lee A, Tun V, Wang Z, Carrington JC, Chang CE, Jin H (2014) ARGONAUTE PIWI domain and microRNA duplex structure regulate small RNA sorting in Arabidopsis. Nat Commun 5:5468. doi: 10.1038/ncomms6468Zhu H, Hu F, Wang R, Zhou X, Sze SH, Liou LW, Barefoot A, Dickman M, Zhang X (2011) Arabidopsis Argonaute10 specifically sequesters miR166/165 to regulate shoot apical meristem development. Cell 145(2):242–256. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2011.03.024Takeda A, Iwasaki S, Watanabe T, Utsumi M, Watanabe Y (2008) The mechanism selecting the guide strand from small RNA duplexes is different among argonaute proteins. Plant Cell Physiol 49(4):493–500. doi: 10.1093/pcp/pcn043Cuperus JT, Carbonell A, Fahlgren N, Garcia-Ruiz H, Burke RT, Takeda A, Sullivan CM, Gilbert SD, Montgomery TA, Carrington JC (2010) Unique functionality of 22-nt miRNAs in triggering RDR6-dependent siRNA biogenesis from target transcripts in Arabidopsis. Nat Struct Mol Biol 17(8):997–1003. doi: 10.1038/nsmb.1866Wu L, Zhang Q, Zhou H, Ni F, Wu X, Qi Y (2009) Rice MicroRNA effector complexes and targets. Plant Cell 21(11):3421–3435. doi: 10.1105/tpc.109.070938Carbonell A, Fahlgren N, Garcia-Ruiz H, Gilbert KB, Montgomery TA, Nguyen T, Cuperus JT, Carrington JC (2012) Functional analysis of three Arabidopsis ARGONAUTES using slicer-defective mutants. Plant Cell 24(9):3613–3629. doi: 10.1105/tpc.112.099945Gilbert KB, Fahlgren N, Kasschau KD, Chapman EJ, Carrington JC, Carbonell A (2014) Preparation of multiplexed small RNA libraries from plants. Bio Protoc 4(21):e1275Wang L, Si Y, Dedow LK, Shao Y, Liu P, Brutnell TP (2011) A low-cost library construction protocol and data analysis pipeline for Illumina-based strand-specific multiplex RNA-seq. PLoS One 6(10):e26426. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.002642

Participatory mapping in the design process of a spatial data infrastructure SDI: a case study in the Biosphere Reserve Rio Platano (Honduras)

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.In the recent years, the major production of cartographic information and the advancement of new Information Technologies (IT's) has brought with it the need to develop new storage and management tools, making access in a simpler way either alphanumeric or vector information. Since the 60s, the processing, analysis and visualization of cartographic data has been carried out using GIS as desktop software, installed on a single computer. The advantage of this system was the possibility of combining different cartographic information thereby facilitating decision-making. The need to share data, mainly cartographic information, between agents who are working in the same area has been the basis for the creation of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) at global, national, regional ,local, or corporative level. Several resources for managing, classifying, sharing, exchanging, combining and accessing geographic data through internet connection have been developed together with the implementation of all levels of SDI's. The resources can be classified as: software for publishing cartographic data (maps servers), publication standards, metadata, legal framework, agreements among organizations, and the possibility to create different user levels.Therefore, the aim will be to have cartographic information updated and available for all the involved agents who are working in the same territory, which will result in sharing efforts and costs. Nevertheless, the development of new technologies has had an effect where the cartographic data producers have less direct contact with the field, ignoring somehow the people living in it who are the ones with best knowledge of the territory. In remote areas, where it is difficult to access such as the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve Region (Honduras), it is indispensable to create an SDI for managing and sharing cartographic information by the involved agents in the territory. It is important that the information offered by the indigenous communities is not left aside because they have a direct relation with the field. In the case of Rio Platano, they are scattered along the territory. The basis of this thesis is to create the SDI for the Rio Platano region and the methodology to combine the different cartographic information published by different organisms. Also, it will be important to include in the SDI structure the information regarding the cadastral boundaries and socio environmental indicators obtained from the indigenous communities. It will require the design of participative pictograms using Participatory Mapping techniques