Plan estratégico administrativo para la sostenibilidad de proyectos implementados por cooperación española en el municipio de Chirilagua, año 2003.

La Tormenta Tropical MITHC ocurrida en el año de 1,998 causó grandes estragos en pequeñas poblaciones de la zona oriental, una de estas poblaciones fue el Municipio de Chirilagua del departamento de San Miguel. A raíz de esta tragedia, muchos países se solidarizaron; España enfoco su ayuda por medio de la Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional, implementando proyectos de carácter social a fin de beneficiar a los afectados y crear una economía sostenible en la zona. A nivel nacional los proyectos de beneficio social, en muchos de los casos, al ser implementados funcionan solamente si son administrados por el organismo que los gestiona y/o ejecuta, tendiendo a desaparecer luego que dichos organismos dejan los proyectos en manos de los beneficiarios. Es por eso que el trabajo de investigación tiene como objetivo principal proponer un plan estratégico administrativo, que permita darle seguimiento a los proyectos y hacerlos sostenibles en sus cuatro áreas, social, institucional, ambiental y financiera. Para realizar el estudio de campo, la información se recopiló por medio de encuestas dirigidas al personal administrativo de Cooperación Española en el Municipio de Chirilagua y a los beneficiarios de los proyectos de Mini Empresas del Complejo España y al proyecto de Apoyo a la Pesca Artesanal de la Playa El Cuco. Mediante la investigación, se pudo identificar que los beneficiarios del proyecto de Mini Empresas no se involucran en las actividades administrativas y operativas que se realizan en el proyecto. Mientras que el proyecto de Apoyo a la Pesca Artesanal, se encuentra sub-utilizado, ya que éste está diseñado para 200 pescadores y actualmente sólo son 28 los asociados. A partir de esta información se hace la propuesta, para mejorar la situación actual de los proyectos y así garantizar la sostenibilidad de los mismos de manera permanente. Proponiendo para cada proyecto las herramientas estratégicas administrativas diseñadas a partir de sus necesidades, y los montos según acciones a tomar durante la implantación del plan, así mismo la evaluación que será necesario realizar periódicamente.

Diseño de un sistema de control interno administrativo para el cumplimiento de planes de la Alcaldía municipal de Pasaquina, departamento de La Unión período 2003-2005.

Actualmente la Unidad Ejecutora de Proyectos de la Alcaldía Municipal de Pasaquina no cuenta con un Sistema de Control Interno Administrativo que permitan detectar y corregir oportunamente las desviaciones de las actividades que se ejecutan en los proyectos de pavimentación, lo que afecta de manera significativa la eficiencia esperada en el logro de los objetivos planteados; es por ello que es necesario implementar un Sistema de Control Interno Administrativo para evaluar y verificar las actividades que se ejecutan en cada etapa de los proyectos. En la investigación de campo se detectó que existen problemas y deficiencias en el área administrativa en la Unidad Ejecutora de Proyectos tales como: Se carece de un manual de organización por lo que se le propone uno que refleje la estructura organizativa, su dependencia jerárquica, los objetivos, las políticas y la descripción general de las funciones de cada puesto de trabajo que conforman la Unidad. Además se carece de un manual de procedimientos que detalle los pasos a seguir en las diferentes actividades que corresponden a cada uno de los puestos de trabajo de la Unidad Ejecutora de los Proyectos por lo que la propuesta recoge esas necesidades y se exponen en detalle. Como no se realiza una supervisión eficiente en cada una de las etapas de los proyectos de pavimentación, se recomienda una metodología que permita efectuar evaluaciones y formular las correcciones necesarias. Así mismo no se cuenta con un Control Interno Administrativo que permita evaluar y verificar el desarrollo de cada una de las actividades de cada etapa de los proyectos de pavimentación, por lo que se presenta un sistema que se adapte a las necesidades existentes y permita lograr un nivel de eficiencia y efectividad en las operaciones. Los costos para implementar dicho sistema son $16,528.03. Para la eficaz aplicación de esta propuesta se utilizaron fieles lineamientos exigidos por las instituciones que le dan seguimiento a los proyectos de pavimentación como son: FODES (Fondo para el Desarrollo Económico y Social) FISDL (Fondo de Inversión Social del Desarrollo Local), BID (Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo) y BCIE (Banco Interamericano de Integración Económico).

Bulletin number 2003-11

The South Carolina Department of Insurance issues periodic bulletins explaining different aspects and rule interpretations of state insurance.

Raman spectroscopy of some complex arsenate minerals—implications for soil remediation

The application of spectroscopy to the study of contaminants in soils is important. Among the many contaminants is arsenic, which is highly labile and may leach to non-contaminated areas. Minerals of arsenate may form depending upon the availability of specific cations for example calcium and iron. Such minerals include carminite, pharmacosiderite and talmessite. Each of these arsenate minerals can be identified by its characteristic Raman spectrum enabling identification.

Public internet access revisited

In recent years the Australian government has dedicated considerable project funds to establish public Internet access points in rural and regional communities. Drawing on data from a major Australian study of the social and economic impact of new technologies on rural areas, this paper explores some of the difficulties rural communities have faced in setting up public access points and sustaining them beyond their project funding. Of particular concern is the way that economic sustainability has been positioned as a measure of the success of such ventures. Government funding has been allocated on the basis of these rural public access points becoming economically self-sustaining. This is problematic on a number of counts. It is therefore argued that these public access points should be reconceptualised as essential community infrastructure like schools and libraries, rather than potential economic enterprises. Author Keywords: Author Keywords: Internet; Public access; Sustainability; Digital divide; Rural Australia

Raman spectroscopy of the copper chloride minerals nantokite, eriochalcite and claringbullite - implications for copper corrosion

The application of Raman spectroscopy to the study of the copper chloride minerals nantokite, eriochalcite and claringbullite has enabled the vibrational modes for the CuCl, CuOH and CuOH2 to be determined. Nantokite is characterised by bands at 205 and 155 cm-1 attributed to the transverse and longitudinal optic vibrations. Nantokite also has an intense band at 463 cm-1, eriochalcite at 405 and 390 cm-1 and claringbullite at 511 cm-1. These bands are attributed to CuO stretching modes. Water librational bands at around 672 cm-1 for eriochalcite have been identified and hydroxyl deformation modes of claringbullite at 970, 906 and 815 cm-1 are observed. Spectra of the three minerals are so characteristically different that the minerals are readily identified by Raman spectroscopy. The minerals are often determined in copper corrosion products by X-ray diffraction. Raman spectroscopy offers a rapid, in-situ technique for the identification of these corrosion products.

Bridging the gap between citizens and local authorities via e-government

Among the many promises of the digital revolution is its potential to strengthen social equality and make governments more responsive to the needs of their citizens. E-government is the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to transform governments by making them more accessible, effective, accountable, and making the most of the new technologies to deliver better quality and more accessible public services. This paper provides an overview of recent literature addressing e-government issues, and includes a discussion of its implications at the municipal level. It also covers Australian experiences in establishing and managing e-government services.

Literature review

There are many studies that reveal the nature of design thinking and the nature of conceptual design as distinct from detailed or embodiment design. The results can assist in our understanding of how the process of design can be supported and how new technologies can be introduced into the workplace. Existing studies provide limited information about the nature of collaborative design as it takes place on the ground and in the actual working context. How to provide appropriate and effective of support for collaborative design information sharing across companies, countries and heterogeneous computer systems is a key issue. As data are passed between designers and the computer systems they employ, many exchanges are made. These exchanges may be used to establish measures of the benefits that new support systems can bring. Collaboration support tools represent a fast growing section of the commercial software market place and a reasonable range of products are available. Many of them offer significant application to design for the support of distributed meetings by the provision of video and audio communications and the sharing of information, including collaborative sketching. The tools that specifically support 3D models and other very design specific features are less common and many of those are in prototype stages of development. A key question is to find viable ways of combining design information visualisation support with the collaboration support technologies that can be seen today. When collaborating, different views will need to be accessible at different times to all the collaborators. The architects may want to explain some ideas on their model, the structural engineers on their model and so on. However, there are issues of ownership when the structural engineer wants to manipulate the architect’s model and vice versa. The modes of working, synchronous or asynchronous may have a bearing as in a synchronous session there is control of what is happening.

Leveraging managed frameworks from modular languages

Managed execution frameworks, such as the.NET Common Language Runtime or the Java Virtual Machine, provide a rich environment for the creation of application programs. These execution environments are ideally suited for languages that depend on type-safety and the declarative control of feature access. Furthermore, such frameworks typically provide a rich collection of library primitives specialized for almost every domain of application programming. Thus, when a new language is implemented on one of these frameworks it becomes necessary to provide some kind of mapping from the new language to the libraries of the framework. The design of such mappings is challenging since the type-system of the new language may not span the domain exposed in the library application programming interfaces (APIs). The nature of these design considerations was clarified in the implementation of the Gardens Point Component Pascal (gpcp) compiler. In this paper we describe the issues, and the solutions that we settled on in this case. The problems that were solved have a wider applicability than just our example, since they arise whenever any similar language is hosted in such an environment.

Making literacy policy and practice with a difference : generational change, professionalisation and literate futures

This article has been edited from a transcript of the keynote address to the combined ALEA/MTE National Conference, Hobart, Tasmania, August 2001. In this talk Allan reflects on some of the difficulties facing makers of literacy policy in 'New Times'. His reflections are informed by some important research that is having an impact· on literacy teaching in Australia and he raises various issues, ranging from what he sees as a 'dumbing down' of curriculum, to addressing the needs of'at risk' students, to issues of lifelong education in a rapidly changing world.

Performance tests for visual servo control systems, with application to partitioned approaches to visual servo control

Visual servoing has been a viable method of robot manipulator control for more than a decade. Initial developments involved positionbased visual servoing (PBVS), in which the control signal exists in Cartesian space. The younger method, image-based visual servoing (IBVS), has seen considerable development in recent years. PBVS and IBVS offer tradeoffs in performance, and neither can solve all tasks that may confront a robot. In response to these issues, several methods have been devised that partition the control scheme, allowing some motions to be performed in the manner of a PBVS system, while the remaining motions are performed using an IBVS approach. To date, there has been little research that explores the relative strengths and weaknesses of these methods. In this paper we present such an evaluation. We have chosen three recent visual servo approaches for evaluation in addition to the traditional PBVS and IBVS approaches. We posit a set of performance metrics that measure quantitatively the performance of a visual servo controller for a specific task. We then evaluate each of the candidate visual servo methods for four canonical tasks with simulations and with experiments in a robotic work cell.