Transparency & Privacy

The Transparency Agenda of the 2010/1 UK Coalition government promises to revolutionise government, public services and public engagement, by ‘holding politicians and public bodies to account, reducing the deficit and delivering better value for money in public spending, and realising significant economic benefits by enabling businesses and non-profit organisations to build innovative applications and websites using public data’, to quote the then Prime Minister. This is an ambitious programme with laudable aims, yet it naturally has limits.

Estudio de viabilidad para la ejecución directa en procesos de importación de lentejas, arvejas y aceites para la Agencia Logística de las Fuerzas Militares (ALFM)

Verificar la viabilidad de que algunas actividades eje de la Agencia Logística de las Fuerzas Militares se involucraran en el comercio exterior, teniendo en cuenta que esta es la entidad encargada de proveer alimentos y suministros a los diferentes centros de abastecimiento y distribución a lo largo del territorio nacional. Para esto, se tuvieron en cuenta tres productos para hacer el análisis: lenteja, arveja verde seca y aceite de soya. Para estos casos en específico, se realiza un análisis de la situación actual, verificando como se lleva a cabo los procesos de compra y de aprovisionamiento y se hace una descripción detallada dependiendo de la zona de distribución en que se demanden. Por otro lado, se adelanto un proceso de análisis de los diferentes términos de negociación por medio de los cuales se podría llegar a beneficiar la agencia; y para cada Incoterm, se hizo el respectivo desglose de costes para luego compararlos con el método de compra realizado actualmente, evidenciando así, a través de cuáles mecanismos se obtienen ahorros y beneficios económicos en general. De igual manera se tuvo en cuenta la posición de oferta de los principales proveedores a nivel mundial de los productos mencionados anteriormente, por medio de una investigación a través de bases de datos del Ministerio de Comercio Exterior Colombiano. Finalmente se hacen las respectivas conclusiones y recomendaciones, lo anterior con el fin de que la Agencia tenga la oportunidad de aprovechar las ventajas de ingresar directamente al mercado internacional sin necesidad de intermediarios.

Matriz de marco lógico Municipio Mesitas de El Colegio para el diseño de Centro de Acopio para la Concentración y Procesamiento del Mango Hilacha y sus derivados “Municipio Saludable y Polo de Desarrollo Local Centro de Estudios Empresariales para la Perdurabilidad – CEEP”

La elaboración de este trabajo de grado es la continuación del Proyecto de MUNICIPIO SALUDABLE Y POLO DE DESARROLLO LOCAL CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS EMPRESARIALES PARA LA PERDURABILIDAD – CEEP”, El fin de este documento es dar solución a los inconvenientes presentados a lo largo de la cadena, a través de un análisis y posterior diagnostico en el mercado del mango en el Municipio de Mesitas del Colegio, enfocándose principalmente en el planteamiento del diseño de un centro de acopio para la c (Sanchez, 2007)Concentración, procesamiento y conservación del mango hilacha y sus derivados. Es indispensable mantener una buena infraestructura para optimizar los procesos y de esta forma conservar durante todo el año inventario para abastecer el mercado e igualmente eliminar los intermediarios quienes realizaban labores a partir del momento en el que proveedor entregaba la fruta disminuyendo los beneficios económicos que la actividad genera para los productores. Para este trabajo es necesaria la recopilación de la información a través de diferentes fuentes pero siempre de la mano de la asociación de productores de mango de mesitas de colegio quienes son los principales actores del mercado y de los investigadores de la Universidad Del rosario quienes dirigen el proyecto.

Alcances y desafíos del proceso de hermanamiento “Sister Cities" desarrollado por la ciudad de Santa Marta en el marco de su proceso de internacionalización: 1978- 2013.

La evolución de los enfoques de la cooperación internacional y de los procesos de internacionalización de las ciudades han contribuido activamente al desarrollo territorial. Los hermanamientos como una herramienta clave para el intercambio social, político, económico, técnico y académico entre ciudades, se han convertido en uno de los métodos más utilizados para el accionar internacional. Bajo ese contexto, se analizará la influencia del proceso de internacionalización de Santa Marta en la implementación del hermanamiento “Sister Cities” con Miami Beach. Lo anterior, pretende demostrar que el proceso de internacionalización de la ciudad de Santa Marta, desde 1989 hasta la actualidad, ha influido directamente en el hermanamiento entre las dos ciudades, obviando oportunidades y beneficios. Finalmente, a partir del resultado de la investigación se sugerirá una alternativa de solución para la optimización del acuerdo entre las dos ciudades.

La concesión minera en Colombia: un análisis desde el marco normativo y regulatorio frente a los principios de seguridad y estabilidad jurídica

Para el desarrollo de las actividades mineras en nuestro país, es imprescindible que los concesionarios cuenten con condiciones que permitan la continuidad de las actividades de exploración y explotación mineras, y con ello que las condiciones jurídicas, a partir del inicio del trámite precontractual y el contrato de concesión sean claras, y se encuentren inmersas en reglas para las partes de la relación contractual, fundamentadas en los principios de seguridad y estabilidad jurídica, como garantía para efectuar la actividad minera proyectada. Dentro del trabajo de investigación se aborda un análisis del sector minero, la problemática para el desarrollo de las actividades mineras, desde la perspectiva de los principios objeto de investigación, para determinar, si el contrato de concesión minero colombiano, como instrumento generador de derechos y obligaciones, brinda condiciones que permitan adelantar el proyecto minero y se alcancen los objetivos señalados por el Estado para el beneficio de la colectividad, y del contratista minero alcanzando los beneficios económicos proyectados.

Análisis de la política exterior japonesa en materia económica frente a las dinámicas comerciales de Corea del Sur y Japón. Periodo 2001 – 2011

Este estudio de caso busca analizar la Política Exterior Japonesa en materia económica frente a las dinámicas comerciales tanto de Corea del Sur como del mismo Japón en el Periodo 2001 – 2011, teniendo como objetivo concreto la identificación de la incidencia que tienen dichas dinámicas comerciales, en términos de competitividad por precio y calidad, sobre la Política Exterior Comercial Japonesa (PECJ).

Cobertura y acceso de la población trabajadora, a los programas de promoción y prevención del sistema general de riesgos laborales en Colombia, a través de las administradoras de riesgos laborales (ARL)

El Ministerio de Trabajo mediante un estudio de Promoción y prevención en riesgos profesionales, realizado en el año 2002, en 120 empresas de Bogotá y Valle del Cauca a través de la Primera Encuesta Nacional de Condiciones de Salud y Trabajo en el Sistema General de Riesgos Profesionales, realizada en el año 2007 y la Segunda Encuesta Nacional de Condiciones de Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo en el Sistema General de Riesgos Laborales, llevada a cabo en el año 2013; ha querido dar a conocer el desarrollo de este tema, con el objeto de verificar la ejecución en las prestaciones asistenciales y económicas procuradas al trabajador, la viabilidad financiera del Sistema General de Riesgos laborales, las investigaciones realizadas y los programas que han sido implementados frente a los factores de riesgo a los que se encuentra expuesta esta población. Estas encuestas se han realizado con el fin, de favorecer al Sistema General de Riesgos Laborales en su desarrollo y crecimiento, a la par de servir como una herramienta en la que se establezcan los lineamientos para analizar la información recolectada, que permita diseñar planes de restructuración y mejoramiento, entre los que se encuentran los programas de promoción y prevención de salud y seguridad en el trabajo. Este documento propone realizar un análisis sistemático basado en la evidencia, que permita definir la información existente respecto a los programas de promoción y prevención implementados por el sistema, para disminuir los riesgos en los que se encuentra la población trabajadora en Colombia.

Análisis del manejo de residuos sólidos y su mejor aprovechamiento en la sección fruver de un hipermercado

Existen diversas problemáticas que conciernen al mundo en la actualidad, una de estas es el deterioro del medio ambiente. Por lo anterior, las empresas han tenido que realizar acciones para darle un mejor manejo a sus residuos a fin de mitigar el impacto ambiental y a su vez, obtener beneficios económicos. Esta investigación analiza la sección fruver de un hipermercado para determinar las principales causas de generación de merma y a su vez, proponer alternativas de manejo de dichos residuos para disminuir su volumen y darle una mejor disposición. Esto se realizó por medio del uso de diferentes herramientas como: encuestas, datos históricos y diagrama causa-efecto, entre otros. Los resultados obtenidos demostraron que es inevitable la generación de residuos en el área de fruver por políticas empresariales y características del producto. Sin embargo, se puede reducir la cantidad de residuos mejorando la gestión y logrando la sinergia entre los diferentes agentes involucrados en el proceso de generación y manejo de mercancía. Además, es importante realizar una gestión adecuada con los residuos producidos en el área de fruver con el fin de reducir sus impactos ambientales .

Impact of Bt cotton on farmer livelihoods in South Africa

The economic benefits of Genetically Modified (GM) crops in developing countries have been well documented, but little research has been undertaken to date on the impacts of GM adoption on household livelihoods. The research reported here aimed to assess the livelihood impacts of the adoption of Bt cotton in South Africa., and involved 100 interviews of resource-poor farmers growing Bt cotton in Makhathini Flats, South Africa. Some 88% of respondents reported a higher income from Bt compared to non-Bt varieties previously grown by them, and this higher income was used primarily for greater education of their children (76%), more investment in growing cotton (46%), repaying debt (28%), investment in other crops (20%) and spending money on themselves. Some 89% had increased their asset base due to Bt cotton, primarily by increasing their cultivable land. These benefits of Bt adoption appeared widespread regardless of gender or farm size.

Measuring and comparing constraints to improved biosecurity amongst GB farmers, veterinarians and the auxiliary industries

Constraints to the introduction of enhanced biosecurity systems are rarely considered in sufficient detail when population medicine specialists initiate new control schemes. The main objective of our research was to investigate and compare the different attitudes constraining improvement in biosecurity for cattle and sheep farmers, practising veterinary surgeons and the auxiliary industries in Great Britain (GB). This study was carried out utilizing farmer focus groups, a questionnaire survey of veterinary practitioners and a telephone survey of auxiliary industry representatives. It appears that farmers and veterinarians have their own relatively clear definitions for biosecurity in relation to some major diseases threatening GB agriculture. Overall, farmers believe that other stakeholders, such as the government, should make a greater contribution towards biosecurity within GB. Conversely, veterinary practitioners saw their clients' ability or willingness to invest in biosecurity measures as a major constraint. Veterinary practitioners also felt that there was need for additional proof of efficacy and/or the potential economic benefits of proposed farm biosecurity practices better demonstrated. Auxiliary industries, in general, were not certain of their role in biosecurity although study participants highlighted zoonoses as part of the issue and offered that most of the constraints operated at farm level. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Measuring and comparing constraints to improved biosecurity amongst GB farmers, veterinarians and the auxiliary industries

Constraints to the introduction of enhanced biosecurity systems are rarely considered in sufficient detail when population medicine specialists initiate new control schemes. The main objective of our research was to investigate and compare the different attitudes constraining improvement in biosecurity for cattle and sheep farmers, practising veterinary surgeons and the auxiliary industries in Great Britain (GB). This study was carried out utilizing farmer focus groups, a questionnaire survey of veterinary practitioners and a telephone survey of auxiliary industry representatives. It appears that farmers and veterinarians have their own relatively clear definitions for biosecurity in relation to some major diseases threatening GB agriculture. Overall, farmers believe that other stakeholders, such as the government, should make a greater contribution towards biosecurity within GB. Conversely, veterinary practitioners saw their clients' ability or willingness to invest in biosecurity measures as a major constraint. Veterinary practitioners also felt that there was need for additional proof of efficacy and/or the potential economic benefits of proposed farm biosecurity practices better demonstrated. Auxiliary industries, in general, were not certain of their role in biosecurity although study participants highlighted zoonoses as part of the issue and offered that most of the constraints operated at farm level. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Impact of Bt cotton on farmer livelihoods in South Africa

The economic benefits of Genetically Modified (GM) crops in developing countries have been well documented, but little research has been undertaken to date on the impacts of GM adoption on household livelihoods. The research reported here aimed to assess the livelihood impacts of the adoption of Bt cotton in South Africa., and involved 100 interviews of resource-poor farmers growing Bt cotton in Makhathini Flats, South Africa. Some 88% of respondents reported a higher income from Bt compared to non-Bt varieties previously grown by them, and this higher income was used primarily for greater education of their children (76%), more investment in growing cotton (46%), repaying debt (28%), investment in other crops (20%) and spending money on themselves. Some 89% had increased their asset base due to Bt cotton, primarily by increasing their cultivable land. These benefits of Bt adoption appeared widespread regardless of gender or farm size.

A cost-benefit analysis of culling badgers to control bovine tuberculosis

Bovine tuberculosis (TB) is an important economic problem. The incidence of TB in cattle herds has steadily risen in the UK, and badgers are strongly implicated in spreading disease. Since the mid-1970s the UK government has adopted a number of badger culling strategies to attempt to reduce infection in cattle. In this report, an established model has been used to simulate TB in badgers, transmission to cattle, and control by badger culling. Costs were supplied by the UK Government's Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for badger trapping and gassing. Regardless of culling intensity or area simulated, an overall reduction in the herd breakdown rate was seen. With a high culling efficacy and no social perturbation, the mean Net Present Value of a few simulated culling strategies in an "ideal world" was positive, meaning the economic benefits outweighed the costs. Further work is required before these results could be considered definitive, as it is necessary to evaluate uncertainties and simulate less than perfect conditions. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cost-benefit analysis model of badger (Meles meles) culling to reduce cattle herd tuberculosis breakdowns in Britain, with particular reference to badger perturbation

Bovine tuberculosis (TB)is an important economic disease. Badgers (Meles meles) are the wildlife source implicated in many cattle outbreaks of TB in Britain, and extensive badger control is a controversial option to reduce the disease. A badger and cattle population model was developed, simulating TB epidemiology; badger ecology, including postcull social perturbation; and TB-related farm management. An economic cost-benefit module was integrated into the model to assess whether badger control offers economic benefits. Model results strongly indicate that although, if perturbation were restricted, extensive badger culling could reduce rates in cattle, overall an economic loss would be more likely than a benefit. Perturbation of the badger population was a key factor determining success or failure of control. The model highlighted some important knowledge gaps regarding both the spatial and temporal characteristics of perturbation that warrant further research.

Final report on research project PS2010, proof of concept of automated mapping of weeds in arable fields

Many weeds occur in patches but farmers frequently spray whole fields to control the weeds in these patches. Given a geo-referenced weed map, technology exists to confine spraying to these patches. Adoption of patch spraying by arable farmers has, however, been negligible partly due to the difficulty of constructing weed maps. Building on previous DEFRA and HGCA projects, this proposal aims to develop and evaluate a machine vision system to automate the weed mapping process. The project thereby addresses the principal technical stumbling block to widespread adoption of site specific weed management (SSWM). The accuracy of weed identification by machine vision based on a single field survey may be inadequate to create herbicide application maps. We therefore propose to test the hypothesis that sufficiently accurate weed maps can be constructed by integrating information from geo-referenced images captured automatically at different times of the year during normal field activities. Accuracy of identification will also be increased by utilising a priori knowledge of weeds present in fields. To prove this concept, images will be captured from arable fields on two farms and processed offline to identify and map the weeds, focussing especially on black-grass, wild oats, barren brome, couch grass and cleavers. As advocated by Lutman et al. (2002), the approach uncouples the weed mapping and treatment processes and builds on the observation that patches of these weeds are quite stable in arable fields. There are three main aspects to the project. 1) Machine vision hardware. Hardware component parts of the system are one or more cameras connected to a single board computer (Concurrent Solutions LLC) and interfaced with an accurate Global Positioning System (GPS) supplied by Patchwork Technology. The camera(s) will take separate measurements for each of the three primary colours of visible light (red, green and blue) in each pixel. The basic proof of concept can be achieved in principle using a single camera system, but in practice systems with more than one camera may need to be installed so that larger fractions of each field can be photographed. Hardware will be reviewed regularly during the project in response to feedback from other work packages and updated as required. 2) Image capture and weed identification software. The machine vision system will be attached to toolbars of farm machinery so that images can be collected during different field operations. Images will be captured at different ground speeds, in different directions and at different crop growth stages as well as in different crop backgrounds. Having captured geo-referenced images in the field, image analysis software will be developed to identify weed species by Murray State and Reading Universities with advice from The Arable Group. A wide range of pattern recognition and in particular Bayesian Networks will be used to advance the state of the art in machine vision-based weed identification and mapping. Weed identification algorithms used by others are inadequate for this project as we intend to collect and correlate images collected at different growth stages. Plants grown for this purpose by Herbiseed will be used in the first instance. In addition, our image capture and analysis system will include plant characteristics such as leaf shape, size, vein structure, colour and textural pattern, some of which are not detectable by other machine vision systems or are omitted by their algorithms. Using such a list of features observable using our machine vision system, we will determine those that can be used to distinguish weed species of interest. 3) Weed mapping. Geo-referenced maps of weeds in arable fields (Reading University and Syngenta) will be produced with advice from The Arable Group and Patchwork Technology. Natural infestations will be mapped in the fields but we will also introduce specimen plants in pots to facilitate more rigorous system evaluation and testing. Manual weed maps of the same fields will be generated by Reading University, Syngenta and Peter Lutman so that the accuracy of automated mapping can be assessed. The principal hypothesis and concept to be tested is that by combining maps from several surveys, a weed map with acceptable accuracy for endusers can be produced. If the concept is proved and can be commercialised, systems could be retrofitted at low cost onto existing farm machinery. The outputs of the weed mapping software would then link with the precision farming options already built into many commercial sprayers, allowing their use for targeted, site-specific herbicide applications. Immediate economic benefits would, therefore, arise directly from reducing herbicide costs. SSWM will also reduce the overall pesticide load on the crop and so may reduce pesticide residues in food and drinking water, and reduce adverse impacts of pesticides on non-target species and beneficials. Farmers may even choose to leave unsprayed some non-injurious, environmentally-beneficial, low density weed infestations. These benefits fit very well with the anticipated legislation emerging in the new EU Thematic Strategy for Pesticides which will encourage more targeted use of pesticides and greater uptake of Integrated Crop (Pest) Management approaches, and also with the requirements of the Water Framework Directive to reduce levels of pesticides in water bodies. The greater precision of weed management offered by SSWM is therefore a key element in preparing arable farming systems for the future, where policy makers and consumers want to minimise pesticide use and the carbon footprint of farming while maintaining food production and security. The mapping technology could also be used on organic farms to identify areas of fields needing mechanical weed control thereby reducing both carbon footprints and also damage to crops by, for example, spring tines. Objective i. To develop a prototype machine vision system for automated image capture during agricultural field operations; ii. To prove the concept that images captured by the machine vision system over a series of field operations can be processed to identify and geo-reference specific weeds in the field; iii. To generate weed maps from the geo-referenced, weed plants/patches identified in objective (ii).