Does participation in productive associations signal trust and creditworthiness ? evidence for Nicaragua

This article studies the extent to which participation in productive associations in Nicaragua contributes to increase individuals'access to social programs and credit services. By participating in productive associations, individuals give a good signal to firms and are rewarded with better transactions and more access to the services they provide, ceteris paribus. Estimates using 2005 data indicate that households that participate in productive associations display higher access to credit and to social programs that promote investment. Additionally, participation in productive associations is weakly associated to more favorable credit outcomes among those households that receive loans, such as lower interest rates and a lower probability of wanting more credit than what was accessible to them.Access to Finance,,Corporate Law,Labor Policies,Debt Markets

Hippocampal structural plasticity accompanies the resulting contextual fear memory following stress and fear conditioning

The present research investigated the resulting contextual fear memory and structural plasticity changes in the dorsal hippocampus (DH) following stress and fear conditioning. This combination enhanced fear retention and increased the number of total and mature dendritic spines in DH. Intra-basolateral amygdala (BLA) infusion of midazolam prior to stress prevented both the enhancement of fear retention and an increase in the density of total and mature dendritic spines in DH. These findings emphasize the role of the stress-induced attenuation of GABAergic neurotransmission in BLA in the promoting influence of stress on fear memory and on synaptic remodeling in DH. In conclusion, the structural remodeling in DH accompanied the facilitated fear memory following a combination of fear conditioning and stressful stimulation.Fil: Giachero, Marcelo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Farmacología Experimental de Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Instituto de Farmacología Experimental de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Calfa, Gaston Diego. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Farmacología Experimental de Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Instituto de Farmacología Experimental de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Molina, Víctor Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Farmacología Experimental de Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Instituto de Farmacología Experimental de Córdoba; Argentin

Realidad aumentada en dispositivos iOS como sistema de ayuda a los alumnos

Este Proyecto consiste en la realización de! una aplicación destinada a los alumnos de la Universidad para obtener ayuda e información del Campus Universitario. La aplicación se ejecuta en dispositivos móviles iOS: iPhone, iPad e iPod Touch y emplea tecnologías de Realidad Aumentada proporcionadas por el SDK Vuforia de Qualcomm. Esta aplicación servirá como nexo de unión entre soportes, a priori incompatibles, como una simple hoja de papel impresa y el propio dispositivo electrónico haciendo uso de Realidad Aumentada; que proporcionará al soporte impreso de contenidos multimedia e interacción a través de la pantalla del dispositivo móvil. Para llevar cabo este Proyecto se estudian las diferentes herramientas que se necesitan para poder desarrollar una aplicación para la plataforma de Apple, así como adquirir los conocimientos teóricos necesarios a tal efecto. Además se hace un estudio sobre cuál es el estado actual de la Realidad Aumentada y de las herramientas capaces de proporcionarla. Se utilizará una de estas tecnologías,Vuforia, para dotar a la aplicación a desarrollar de capacidades de Realidad Aumentada y se explica con detalle cómo es el funcionamiento y arquitectura de esta tecnología. Se estudiarán técnicas de modelado en tres dimensiones para incorporar Realidades Virtuales propias a la aplicación a desarrollar y se expone con detalle cómo ha sido el proceso de desarrollo de la aplicación, así como su funcionamiento. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________This Project consists in the realization of an application for students of the University to get help and information from the University Campus. The application runs on iOS mobile devices: iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and employs Augmented Reality technologies provided by Qualcomm Vuforia SDK. This application will serve as a link between supports, at first sight incompatible, as a single printed sheet of paper and the electronic device itself using Augmented Reality, which provide the printed support interaction and multimedia content through the mobile device screen. To carry out this Project different tools needed to develop an application for the Apple platform will be studied and the knowledge necessary for this purpose will be acquired. It also makes a study about the current state of Augmented Reality and tools capable of providing it. One of these technologies will be used, Vuforia, to provide Augmented Reality capabilities to the application and explains in detail how is the operation and architecture of this technology. Three dimensions modeling techniques will be studied to incorpórate specific virtual realities to the application to develop and set out in detail how was the process of the application development and operation.Ingeniería de Sistemas Audiovisuale

Realidad y Ser: una lectura comparada de Zubiri y Heidegger

Este Artículo Analiza Comparativamente Las Concepciones De Ser Y Realidad En Lasfilosofías De Xavier Zubiri Y Martin Heidegger, Centrándose Específicamente Enlas Obras "Sobre La Esencia E Inteligencia Y Realidad" De Zubiri Y "Ser Ytiempo" De Heidegger

Ranking efficient DMUs using cooperative game theory

The problem of ranking Decision Making Units (DMUs) in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) has been widely studied in the literature. Some of the proposed approaches use cooperative game theory as a tool to perform the ranking. In this paper, we use the Shapley value of two different cooperative games in which the players are the efficient DMUs and the characteristic function represents the increase in the discriminant power of DEA contributed by each efficient DMU. The idea is that if the efficient DMUs are not included in the modified reference sample then the efficiency score of some inefficient DMUs would be higher. The characteristic function represents, therefore, the change in the efficiency scores of the inefficient DMUs that occurs when a given coalition of efficient units is dropped from the sample. Alternatively, the characteristic function of the cooperative game can be defined as the change in the efficiency scores of the inefficient DMUs that occurs when a given coalition of efficient DMUs are the only efficient DMUs that are included in the sample. Since the two cooperative games proposed are dual games, their corresponding Shapley value coincide and thus lead to the same ranking. The more an ef- ficient DMU impacts the shape of the efficient frontier, the higher the increase in the efficiency scores of the inefficient DMUs its removal brings about and, hence, the higher its contribution to the overall discriminant power of the method. The proposed approach is illustrated on a number of datasets from the literature and compared with existing methods

Proyecto para la creación de una empresa para fabricación y comercialización de vodka a base de papa

Vodka is one of the most widely consumed spirit drinks in the world, traditionally made from potatoes and water, we have identified a great business opportunity based on the fact that this raw material is produced in large quantities in Ecuador, around 50 % of the provinces produce more than 500 varieties of potatoes and as a country we are ranked 27th in the countries with the largest water reserves in the world...El vodka es una de las bebidas espirituosas de mayor consumo a nivel mundial, hecha tradicionalmente a base de papa y agua, hemos identificado una gran oportunidad de negocio en base a que esta materia prima se produce en grandes cantidades en el Ecuador, alrededor del 50% de las provincias producen más de 500 variedades de papas y como país estamos ubicados en el puesto 27 de los países con mayores reservas de agua del mundo..

A BDNF sensitive mechanism is involved in the fear memory resulting from the interaction between stress and the retrieval of an established trace

The present study investigates the fear memory resulting from the interaction of a stressful experience and the retrieval of an established fear memory trace. Such a combination enhanced both fear expression and fear retention in adult Wistar rats. Likewise, midazolam intra-basolateral amygdala (BLA) infusion prior to stress attenuated the enhancement of fear memory thus suggesting the involvement of a stress-induced reduction of the GABAergic transmission in BLA in the stress-induced enhancing effect. It has been suggested that, unlike the immediate-early gene Zif268 which is related to the reconsolidation process, the expression of hippocampal brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is highly correlated with consolidation. We therefore evaluate the relative contribution of these two neurobiological processes to the fear memory resulting from the above-mentioned interaction. Intra-dorsal hippocampus (DH) infusions of either the antisense Zif268 or the inhibitor of the protein degradation (Clasto-Lactacystin β-Lactone), suggested to be involved in the retrieval-dependent destabilization process, did not affect the resulting contextual memory. In contrast, the knockdown of hippocampal BDNF mitigated the stress-induced facilitating influence on fear retention. In addition, the retrieval experience elevated BDNF level in DH at 60 min after recall exclusively in stressed animals. These findings suggest the involvement of a hippocampal BDNF sensitive mechanism in the stress-promoting influence on the fear memory following retrieval.Fil: Giachero, Marcelo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Farmacología Experimental de Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Instituto de Farmacología Experimental de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Bustos, Silvia Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Farmacología Experimental de Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Instituto de Farmacología Experimental de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Calfa, Gaston Diego. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Farmacología Experimental de Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Instituto de Farmacología Experimental de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Molina, Víctor Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Farmacología Experimental de Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Instituto de Farmacología Experimental de Córdoba; Argentin

Extracellular matrix components are required to protect bacillus subtilis from pseudomonas invasion and co-colonization of plants

Plants are colonized by a vast variety of microbes. Among them, bacteria are the most predominant and are able to adapt to environmental changes and interact with other microorganisms using a wide array of molecules, metabolic plasticity and secretion systems. One way bacteria have evolved to succeed in this competitive scenario is the formation of biofilms which provides protection to the cells, modulates the flux of signals and controls cellular differentiation. Thus, efforts are encouraged to really determine the functionality of the bacterial extracellular matrix. In this study, we have employed microbiological and microscopic techniques to study the interaction between Bacillus subtilis 3610 and Pseudomonas chlororaphis PCL1606. We demonstrate the important role of the extracellular matrix in protecting B. subtilis colonies from infiltration by Pseudomonas. Furthermore, time-lapse confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) analyses of the bacterial interactions have permitted to complete the study of the bacterial behaviors and to measure bacterial expansion rates. Surprising, we find that the Pseudomonas type VI secretion system (T6SS) is required in the cell-to-cell contact with matrix-impaired B. subtilis cells, revealing a novel role for T6SS against Gram-positive bacteria. In response to P. chlororaphis infiltration, we find that B. subtilis activates sporulation and expresses motility-related genes. Confocal microscopy of the bacterial interactions using plant organs highlights the functional importance of these different bacterial strategies in their coexistence as stable bacterial communities. The findings further our understanding of the functional role played by biofilms in mediating bacterial social interactions.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech