Outsourcing de mantenimiento, una alternativa de gestión de activos en el sector productivo de bienes y servicios.

Maintenance Outsourcing, an Alternative in Asset Management in the Goods and Services Production Sector.Resumen La gestión del mantenimiento cada día toma más importancia, siendo incluso una estrategia valiosa que hace más competitivas y rentables a las compañías. Es por esto que la figura de “outsourcing del mantenimiento” se encuentra dentro de las opciones que las empresas evalúan para mejorar la administración de sus activos, bien sea por la necesidad de reducir gastos fijos o por la falta de personal altamente capacitado o por cumplir con los requerimientos exigidos por por parte delos fabricantes de sus equipos para hacer efectivas las garantías, entre otros aspectos. En el presente artículo se expone un estudio de caso con una empresa colombiana del sector de recolección de basuras, la cual administra el mantenimiento de su parque automotor a través de 32 empresas contratistas externas, cubriendo así los requerimientos de mantenimiento para estos activos. La metodología utilizada aplica como modelo de diagnóstico de la gestión de mantenimiento un cuestionario de auditoría de la firma Santiago García Garrido, cuya aplicación dejó en evidencia que la falta de una adecuada administración de los contratos externos generaenormes deficiencias en la gestión del mantenimiento. Al final queda abierta la discusión sobre si realmente el outsourcing del mantenimiento mejora la competitividad y la rentabilidad en las empresas.Palabras clave: gestión de activos, outsourcing del mantenimiento, modelo de diagnóstico, auditorías.Abstract Asset management is becoming increasingly important to companies producing goods and products. It is already a valuable strategy that makes companies more competitive and profitable. This is why the concept “maintenance outsourcing” is among the options that companies assess to improve management and ensure the availability of their assets for carrying out their production plans. Aspects like the necessity of reducing fixed costs, the lack of highly qualified personnel, to complex equipment, warranty demands, etc. make companies outsource maintenance services. This work presents a case study of a solid waste collection company in the country. The company manages the maintenance of their fleet through 32 contractor companies, covering the maintenance requirements for these assets. The methodology employed to do the diagnosis of maintenance management is based on the audit procedures developed by Santiago Garcia Garrido. The main results reveal that mismanagement of the contractor company’s contract causes huge deficiencies in the company’s asset maintenance management. In the end, the discussion remains open about whether maintenance outsourcing is truly helpful to increase the competitiveness and profitability that any company expects.Keywords: Management of assets, maintenance outsourcing, audit procedures

Sustained proliferation in cancer: mechanisms and novel therapeutic targets

Proliferation is an important part of cancer development and progression. This is manifest by altered expression and/or activity of cell cycle related proteins. Constitutive activation of many signal transduction pathways also stimulates cell growth. Early steps in tumor development are associated with a fibrogenic response and the development of a hypoxic environment which favors the survival and proliferation of cancer stem cells. Part of the survival strategy of cancer stem cells may manifested by alterations in cell metabolism. Once tumors appear, growth and metastasis may be supported by overproduction of appropriate hormones (in hormonally dependent cancers), by promoting angiogenesis, by undergoing epithelial to mesenchymal transition, by triggering autophagy, and by taking cues from surrounding stromal cells. A number of natural compounds (e.g., curcumin, resveratrol, indole-3-carbinol, brassinin, sulforaphane, epigallocatechin-3-gallate, genistein, ellagitannins, lycopene and quercetin) have been found to inhibit one or more pathways that contribute to proliferation (e.g., hypoxia inducible factor 1, nuclear factor kappa B, phosphoinositide 3 kinase/Akt, insulin-like growth factor receptor 1, Wnt, cell cycle associated proteins, as well as androgen and estrogen receptor signaling). These data, in combination with bioinformatics analyses, will be very important for identifying signaling pathways and molecular targets that may provide early diagnostic markers and/or critical targets for the development of new drugs or drug combinations that block tumor formation and progression

The choroid plexus as a sex hormone target: Functional implications

The choroid plexuses (CPs) are highly vascularized branched structures that protrude into the ventricles of the brain, and form a unique interface between the blood and the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In recent years, novel functions have been attributed to this tissue such as in immune and chemical surveillance of the central nervous system, brain development, adult neurogenesis and circadian rhythm regulation. Sex hormones (SH) are widely recognized as modulators in several neurodegenerative diseases, and there is evidence that estrogens and androgens regulate several fundamental biological functions in the CPs. Therefore, SH are likely to affect the composition of the CSF impacting on brain homeostasis. This review will look at implications of the CPs' sex-related specificities.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal – http://www.fct.pt) project grants (PTDC/SAU-NEU/114800/2009); and by FEDER funds through the POCI – COMPETE 2020 – Operational Programme Competitiveness and Internationalisation in Axis I – Strengthening research, technological development and innovation (Project No. 007491) and National Funds by FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology (Project UID/Multi/00709). Joana Tomás was supported by a grant from CENTRO-07-ST24-FEDER-002015. Telma Quintela is a recipient of a FCT fellowship (SFRH/BPD/70781/2010). The work at ICVS/3B’s has the support of Portuguese North Regional Operational Program (ON.2 – O Novo Norte) under the National Strategic Reference Framework (QREN), through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). Fernanda Marques is a recipient of a FCT Investigator award (IF/00231/2013) of the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

5to. Congreso Internacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación para la Sociedad. Memoria académica

El V Congreso Internacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación para la Sociedad, CITIS 2019, realizado del 6 al 8 de febrero de 2019 y organizado por la Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, ofreció a la comunidad académica nacional e internacional una plataforma de comunicación unificada, dirigida a cubrir los problemas teóricos y prácticos de mayor impacto en la sociedad moderna desde la ingeniería. En esta edición, dedicada a los 25 años de vida de la UPS, los ejes temáticos estuvieron relacionados con la aplicación de la ciencia, el desarrollo tecnológico y la innovación en cinco pilares fundamentales de nuestra sociedad: la industria, la movilidad, la sostenibilidad ambiental, la información y las telecomunicaciones. El comité científico estuvo conformado formado por 48 investigadores procedentes de diez países: España, Reino Unido, Italia, Bélgica, México, Venezuela, Colombia, Brasil, Estados Unidos y Ecuador. Fueron recibidas un centenar de contribuciones, de las cuales 39 fueron aprobadas en forma de ponencias y 15 en formato poster. Estas contribuciones fueron presentadas de forma oral ante toda la comunidad académica que se dio cita en el Congreso, quienes desde el aula magna, el auditorio y la sala de usos múltiples de la Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, cumplieron respetuosamente la responsabilidad de representar a toda la sociedad en la revisión, aceptación y validación del conocimiento nuevo que fue presentado en cada exposición por los investigadores. Paralelo a las sesiones técnicas, el Congreso contó con espacios de presentación de posters científicos y cinco workshops en temáticas de vanguardia que cautivaron la atención de nuestros docentes y estudiantes. También en el marco del evento se impartieron un total de ocho conferencias magistrales en temas tan actuales como la gestión del conocimiento en la universidad-ecosistema, los retos y oportunidades de la industria 4.0, los avances de la investigación básica y aplicada en mecatrónica para el estudio de robots de nueva generación, la optimización en ingeniería con técnicas multi-objetivo, el desarrollo de las redes avanzadas en Latinoamérica y los mundos, la contaminación del aire debido al tránsito vehicular, el radón y los riesgos que representa este gas radiactivo para la salud humana, entre otros

A922 Sequential measurement of 1 hour creatinine clearance (1-CRCL) in critically ill patients at risk of acute kidney injury (AKI)

Meeting abstrac

The 2010 very high energy gamma-ray flare & 10 years of multi-wavelength observations of M 87

Abridged: The giant radio galaxy M 87 with its proximity, famous jet, and very massive black hole provides a unique opportunity to investigate the origin of very high energy (VHE; E>100 GeV) gamma-ray emission generated in relativistic outflows and the surroundings of super-massive black holes. M 87 has been established as a VHE gamma-ray emitter since 2006. The VHE gamma-ray emission displays strong variability on timescales as short as a day. In this paper, results from a joint VHE monitoring campaign on M 87 by the MAGIC and VERITAS instruments in 2010 are reported. During the campaign, a flare at VHE was detected triggering further observations at VHE (H.E.S.S.), X-rays (Chandra), and radio (43 GHz VLBA). The excellent sampling of the VHE gamma-ray light curve enables one to derive a precise temporal characterization of the flare: the single, isolated flare is well described by a two-sided exponential function with significantly different flux rise and decay times. While the overall variability pattern of the 2010 flare appears somewhat different from that of previous VHE flares in 2005 and 2008, they share very similar timescales (~day), peak fluxes (Phi(>0.35 TeV) ~= (1-3) x 10^-11 ph cm^-2 s^-1), and VHE spectra. 43 GHz VLBA radio observations of the inner jet regions indicate no enhanced flux in 2010 in contrast to observations in 2008, where an increase of the radio flux of the innermost core regions coincided with a VHE flare. On the other hand, Chandra X-ray observations taken ~3 days after the peak of the VHE gamma-ray emission reveal an enhanced flux from the core. The long-term (2001-2010) multi-wavelength light curve of M 87, spanning from radio to VHE and including data from HST, LT, VLA and EVN, is used to further investigate the origin of the VHE gamma-ray emission. No unique, common MWL signature of the three VHE flares has been identified.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures; Corresponding authors: M. Raue, L. Stawarz, D. Mazin, P. Colin, C. M. Hui, M. Beilicke; Fig. 1 lightcurve data available online: http://www.desy.de/~mraue/m87

Is diet partly responsible for differences in COVID-19 death rates between and within countries?

Correction: Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Article Number: 44 DOI: 10.1186/s13601-020-00351-w Published: OCT 26 2020Reported COVID-19 deaths in Germany are relatively low as compared to many European countries. Among the several explanations proposed, an early and large testing of the population was put forward. Most current debates on COVID-19 focus on the differences among countries, but little attention has been given to regional differences and diet. The low-death rate European countries (e.g. Austria, Baltic States, Czech Republic, Finland, Norway, Poland, Slovakia) have used different quarantine and/or confinement times and methods and none have performed as many early tests as Germany. Among other factors that may be significant are the dietary habits. It seems that some foods largely used in these countries may reduce angiotensin-converting enzyme activity or are anti-oxidants. Among the many possible areas of research, it might be important to understand diet and angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) levels in populations with different COVID-19 death rates since dietary interventions may be of great benefit.Peer reviewe