Accessing and managing open medical resources in Africa over the Internet

Recent commentaries have proposed the advantages of using open exchange of data and informatics resources for improving health-related policies and patient care in Africa. Yet, in many African regions, both private medical and public health information systems are still unaffordable. Open exchange over the social Web 2.0 could encourage more altruistic support of medical initiatives. We have carried out some experiments to demonstrate the feasibility of using this approach to disseminate open data and informatics resources in Africa. After the experiments we developed the AFRICA BUILD Portal, the first Social Network for African biomedical researchers. Through the AFRICA BUILD Portal users can access in a transparent way to several resources. Currently, over 600 researchers are using distributed and open resources through this platform committed to low connections.

A multi-scale analysis of transforming agricultural markets in the context of globalization: implications for natural resources, food prices and rural poverty in Latin America

Vivimos una ��poca en la que el mundo se transforma aceleradamente. La globalizaci��n est�� siguiendo un curso imparable, la poblaci��n mundial as�� como la poblaci��n urbana siguen creciendo, y en los pa��ses emergentes los ingresos promedios aumentan, resultando en un cambio tambi��n acelerado de las dietas y h��bitos alimentarios. En conjunto esos factores est��n causando un aumento fundamental de la demanda de alimentos. Junto con la apertura de los mercados agr��colas, estos procesos han provocado un crecimiento del comercio internacional de alimentos durante la ��ltima d��cada. Dado que muchos pa��ses de Am��rica Latina est��n dotados de abundancia de recursos naturales, estas tendencias han producido un crecimiento r��pido de las exportaciones de bienes primarios desde Am��rica Latina al resto del mundo. En s��lo 30 a��os la participaci��n en el mercado agr��cola de Am��rica Latina casi se ha duplicado, desde 10% en 1980 a 18% en 2010. Este aumento del comercio agr��cola ha dado lugar a un debate sobre una serie de cuestiones cruciales relacionadas con los impactos del comercio en la seguridad alimentaria mundial, en el medio ambiente o en la reducci��n de la pobreza rural en pa��ses en desarrollo. Esta tesis aplica un marco integrado para analizar varios impactos relacionados con la transformaci��n de los mercados agr��colas y los mercados rurales debidos a la globalizaci��n y, en particular, al progresivo aumento del comercio internacional. En concreto, la tesis aborda los siguientes temas: En primer lugar, la producci��n mundial de alimentos tendr�� que aumentar considerablemente para poder satisfacer la demanda de una poblaci��n mundial de 9000 millones personas en 2050, lo cual plantea grandes desaf��os sobre los sistemas de la producci��n de alimentos. Alcanzar este logro, sin comprometer la integridad del medio ambiente en regiones exportadoras, es un reto a��n mayor. En este contexto, la tesis analiza los efectos de la liberalizaci��n del comercio mundial, considerando distintas tecnolog��as de producci��n agraria, sobre unos indicadores de seguridad alimentaria en diferentes regiones del mundo y sobre distintos indicadores ambientales, teniendo en cuenta escalas diferentes en Am��rica Latina y el Caribe. La tesis utiliza el modelo ���International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT)��� ��� un modelo din��mico de equilibrio parcial del sector agr��cola a escala global ��� para modelar la apertura de los mercados agr��colas as�� como diferentes escenarios de la producci��n hasta el a��o 2050. Los resultados del modelo est��n vinculados a modelos biof��sicos para poder evaluar los cambios en la huella h��drica y la calidad del agua, as�� como para cuantificar los impactos del cambio en el uso del suelo sobre la biodiversidad y los stocks de carbono en 2050. Los resultados indican que la apertura de los mercados agr��colas es muy importante para mejorar la seguridad alimentaria a nivel mundial, sin embargo, produce tambi��n presiones ambientales indeseables en algunas regiones de Am��rica Latina. Contrastando dos escenarios que consideran distintas modos de producci��n, la expansi��n de la tierra agr��cola frente a un escenario de la producci��n m��s intensiva, se demuestra que las mejoras de productividad son generalmente superiores a la expansi��n de las tierras agr��colas, desde un punto de vista econ��mico e ambiental. En cambio, los escenarios de intensificaci��n sostenible no s��lo hacen posible una mayor producci��n de alimentos, sino que tambi��n generan menos impactos medioambientales que los otros escenarios futuros en todas sus dimensiones: biodiversidad, carbono, emisiones de nitratos y uso del agua. El an��lisis muestra que hay un ���trade-off��� entre el objetivo de alcanzar la sostenibilidad ambiental y el objetivo de la seguridad alimentaria, independiente del manejo agr��cola en el futuro. En segundo lugar, a la luz de la reciente crisis de los precios de alimentos en los a��os 2007/08, la tesis analiza los impactos de la apertura de los mercados agr��colas en la transmisi��n de precios de los alimentos en seis pa��ses de Am��rica Latina: Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, M��xico y el Per��. Para identificar las posibles relaciones de cointegraci��n entre los ��ndices de precios al consumidor de alimentos y los ��ndices de precios de agrarios internacionales, sujetos a diferentes grados de apertura de mercados agr��colas en los seis pa��ses de Am��rica Latina, se utiliza un modelo simple de correcci��n de error (single equation error correction). Los resultados indican que la integraci��n global de los mercados agr��colas ha dado lugar a diferentes tasas de transmisi��n de precios en los pa��ses investigados. Sobre todo en el corto plazo, las tasas de transmisi��n dependen del grado de apertura comercial, mientras que en el largo plazo las tasas de transmisi��n son elevadas, pero en gran medida independientes del r��gimen de comercio. Por lo tanto, durante un per��odo de shocks de precios mundiales una mayor apertura del comercio trae consigo m��s inestabilidad de los precios dom��sticos a corto plazo y la resultante persistencia en el largo plazo. Sin embargo, estos resultados no verifican necesariamente la utilidad de las pol��ticas comerciales, aplicadas frecuentemente por los gobiernos para amortiguar los shocks de precios. Primero, porque existe un riesgo considerable de volatilidad de los precios debido a cambios bruscos de la oferta nacional si se promueve la autosuficiencia en el pa��s; y segundo, la pol��tica de proteccionismo asume el riesgo de excluir el pa��s de participar en las cadenas de suministro de alto valor del sector agr��cola, y por lo tanto esa pol��tica podr��a obstaculizar el desarrollo econ��mico. Sin embargo, es indispensable establecer pol��ticas efectivas para reducir la vulnerabilidad de los hogares a los aumentos repentinos de precios de alimentos, lo cual requiere una planificaci��n gubernamental precisa con el presupuesto requerido disponible. En tercer lugar, la globalizaci��n afecta a la estructura de una econom��a y, por medios distintos, la distribuci��n de los ingreso en un pa��s. Per�� sirve como ejemplo para investigar m��s profundamente las cuestiones relacionadas con los cambios en la distribuci��n de los ingresos en zonas rurales. Per��, que es un pa��s que est�� cada vez m��s integrado en los mercados mundiales, consigui�� importantes descensos en la pobreza extrema en sus zonas rurales, pero a la vez adolece de alta incidencia de pobreza moderada y de desigualdad de los ingresos en zonas rural al menos durante el periodo comprendido entre 2004 y 2012. Esta parte de la tesis tiene como objetivo identificar las fuerzas impulsoras detr��s de estas din��micas en el Per�� mediante el uso de un modelo de microsimulaci��n basado en modelos de generaci��n de ingresos aplicado a nivel los hogares rurales. Los resultados indican que la fuerza principal detr��s de la reducci��n de la pobreza ha sido el crecimiento econ��mico general de la econom��a, debido a las condiciones macroecon��micas favorables durante el periodo de estudio. Estos efectos de crecimiento beneficiaron a casi todos los sectores rurales, y dieron lugar a la disminuci��n de la pobreza rural extrema, especialmente entre los agricultores de papas y de ma��z. En parte, estos agricultores probablemente se beneficiaron de la apertura de los mercados agr��colas, que es lo que podr��a haber provocado un aumento de los precios al productor en tiempos de altos precios mundiales de los alimentos. Sin embargo, los resultados tambi��n sugieren que para una gran parte de la poblaci��n m��s pobre exist��an barreras de entrada a la hora de poder participar en el empleo asalariado fuera de la agricultura o en la producci��n de cultivos de alto valor. Esto podr��a explicarse por la falta de acceso a unos activos importantes: por ejemplo, el nivel de educaci��n de los pobres era apenas mejor en 2012 que en 2004; y tambi��n las dotaciones de tierra y de mano de obra, sobre todo de los productores pobres de ma��z y patata, disminuyeron entre 2004 y 2012. Esto lleva a la conclusi��n de que a��n hay margen para aplicar pol��ticas para facilitar el acceso a estos activos, que podr��a contribuir a la erradicaci��n de la pobreza rural. La tesis concluye que el comercio agr��cola puede ser un importante medio para abastecer una poblaci��n mundial creciente y m��s rica con una cantidad suficiente de calor��as. Para evitar adversos efectos ambientales e impactos negativos para los consumidores y de los productores pobres, el enfoque debe centrarse en las mejoras de la productividad agr��cola, teniendo en cuenta los l��mites ambientales y ser socialmente inclusivo. En este sentido, ser�� indispensable seguir desarrollando soluciones tecnol��gicas que garanticen pr��cticas de producci��n agr��cola minimizando el uso de recursos naturales. Adem��s, para los peque��os pobres agricultores ser�� fundamental eliminar las barreras de entrada a los mercados de exportaci��n que podr��a tener efectos indirectos favorables a trav��s de la adopci��n de nuevas tecnolog��as alcanzables a trav��s de mercados internacionales. ABSTRACT The world is in a state of rapid transition. Ongoing globalization, population growth, rising living standards and increasing urbanization, accompanied by changing dietary patterns throughout the world, are increasing the demand for food. Together with more open trade regimes, this has triggered growing international agricultural trade during the last decade. For many Latin American countries, which are gifted with relative natural resource abundance, these trends have fueled rapid export growth of primary goods. In just 30 years, the Latin American agricultural market share has almost doubled from 10% in 1980 to 18% in 2010. These market developments have given rise to a debate around a number of crucial issues related to the role of agricultural trade for global food security, for the environment or for poverty reduction in developing countries. This thesis uses an integrated framework to analyze a broad array of possible impacts related to transforming agricultural and rural markets in light of globalization, and in particular of increasing trade activity. Specifically, the following issues are approached: First, global food production will have to rise substantially by the year 2050 to meet effective demand of a nine billion people world population which poses major challenges to food production systems. Doing so without compromising environmental integrity in exporting regions is an even greater challenge. In this context, the thesis explores the effects of future global trade liberalization on food security indicators in different world regions and on a variety of environmental indicators at different scales in Latin America and the Caribbean, in due consideration of different future agricultural production practices. The International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT) ���a global dynamic partial equilibrium model of the agricultural sector developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)��� is applied to run different future production scenarios, and agricultural trade regimes out to 2050. Model results are linked to biophysical models, used to assess changes in water footprints and water quality, as well as impacts on biodiversity and carbon stocks from land use change by 2050. Results indicate that further trade liberalization is crucial for improving food security globally, but that it would also lead to more environmental pressures in some regions across Latin America. Contrasting land expansion versus more intensified agriculture shows that productivity improvements are generally superior to agricultural land expansion, from an economic and environmental point of view. Most promising for achieving food security and environmental goals, in equal measure, is the sustainable intensification scenario. However, the analysis shows that there are trade-offs between environmental and food security goals for all agricultural development paths. Second, in light of the recent food price crisis of 2007/08, the thesis looks at the impacts of increasing agricultural market integration on food price transmission from global to domestic markets in six Latin American countries, namely Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. To identify possible cointegrating relationships between the domestic food consumer price indices and world food price levels, subject to different degrees of agricultural market integration in the six Latin American countries, a single equation error correction model is used. Results suggest that global agricultural market integration has led to different levels of price path-through in the studied countries. Especially in the short-run, transmission rates depend on the degree of trade openness, while in the long-run transmission rates are high, but largely independent of the country-specific trade regime. Hence, under world price shocks more trade openness brings with it more price instability in the short-term and the resulting persistence in the long-term. However, these findings do not necessarily verify the usefulness of trade policies, often applied by governments to buffer such price shocks. First, because there is a considerable risk of price volatility due to domestic supply shocks if self-sufficiency is promoted. Second, protectionism bears the risk of excluding a country from participating in beneficial high-value agricultural supply chains, thereby hampering economic development. Nevertheless, to reduce households��� vulnerability to sudden and large increases of food prices, effective policies to buffer food price shocks should be put in place, but must be carefully planned with the required budget readily available. Third, globalization affects the structure of an economy and, by different means, the distribution of income in a country. Peru serves as an example to dive deeper into questions related to changes in the income distribution in rural areas. Peru, a country being increasingly integrated into global food markets, experienced large drops in extreme rural poverty, but persistently high rates of moderate rural poverty and rural income inequality between 2004 and 2012. The thesis aims at disentangling the driving forces behind these dynamics by using a microsimulation model based on rural household income generation models. Results provide evidence that the main force behind poverty reduction was overall economic growth of the economy due to generally favorable macroeconomic market conditions. These growth effects benefited almost all rural sectors, and led to declines in extreme rural poverty, especially among potato and maize farmers. In part, these farmers probably benefited from policy changes towards more open trade regimes and the resulting higher producer prices in times of elevated global food price levels. However, the results also suggest that entry barriers existed for the poorer part of the population to participate in well-paid wage-employment outside of agriculture or in high-value crop production. This could be explained by a lack of sufficient access to important rural assets. For example, poor people���s educational attainment was hardly better in 2012 than in 2004. Also land and labor endowments, especially of (poor) maize and potato growers, rather decreased than increased over time. This leads to the conclusion that there is still scope for policy action to facilitate access to these assets, which could contribute to the eradication of rural poverty. The thesis concludes that agricultural trade can be one important means to provide a growing and richer world population with sufficient amounts of calories. To avoid adverse environmental effects and negative impacts for poor food consumers and producers, the focus should lie on agricultural productivity improvements, considering environmental limits and be socially inclusive. In this sense, it will be crucial to further develop technological solutions that guarantee resource-sparing agricultural production practices, and to remove entry barriers for small poor farmers to export markets which might allow for technological spill-over effects from high-value global agricultural supply chains.

Development of a tool for designing tests based on statistics and metadata

Background: This project���s idea arose derived of the need of the professors of the department ���Computer Languages and Systems and Software Engineering (DLSIIS)��� to develop exams with multiple choice questions in a more productive and comfortable way than the one they are currently using. The goal of this project is to develop an application that can be easily used by the professors of the DLSIIS when they need to create a new exam. The main problems of the previous creation process were the difficulty in searching for a question that meets some specific conditions in the previous exam files; and the difficulty for editing exams because of the format of the employed text files. Result: The results shown in this document allow the reader to understand how the final application works and how it addresses successfully every customer need. The elements that will help the reader to understand the application are the structure of the application, the design of the different components, diagrams that show the workflow of the application and some selected fragments of code. Conclusions: The goals stated in the application requirements are finally met. In addition, there are some thoughts about the work performed during the development of the application and how it improved the author skills in web development.

Extraordinarily high spider densities on islands: flow of energy from the marine to terrestrial food webs and the absence of predation.

Some islands in the Gulf of California support very high densities of spiders. Spider density is negatively correlated with island size; many small islands support 50-200 spiders per m3 of cactus. Energy for these spiders comes primarily from the ocean and not from in situ productivity by land plants. We explicitly connect the marine and terrestrial systems to show that insular food webs represent one endpoint of the marine web. We describe two conduits for marine energy entering these islands: shore drift and seabird colonies. Both conduits are related to island area, having a much stronger effect on smaller islands. This asymmetric effect helps to explain the exceptionally high spider densities on small islands. Although productivity sets the maximal potential densities, predation (by scorpions) limits realized spider abundance. Thus, prey availability and predation act in concert to set insular spider abundance.

An approach to the application of shift-and-add algorithms on engineering and industrial processes

Different kinds of algorithms can be chosen so as to compute elementary functions. Among all of them, it is worthwhile mentioning the shift-and-add algorithms due to the fact that they have been specifically designed to be very simple and to save computer resources. In fact, almost the only operations usually involved with these methods are additions and shifts, which can be easily and efficiently performed by a digital processor. Shift-and-add algorithms allow fairly good precision with low cost iterations. The most famous algorithm belonging to this type is CORDIC. CORDIC has the capability of approximating a wide variety of functions with only the help of a slight change in their iterations. In this paper, we will analyze the requirements of some engineering and industrial problems in terms of type of operands and functions to approximate. Then, we will propose the application of shift-and-add algorithms based on CORDIC to these problems. We will make a comparison between the different methods applied in terms of the precision of the results and the number of iterations required.

The Tube on YouTube: TV Series, Media Strategies, and User Tactics in a Transmedia Environment

This study analyzes the traffic generated on YouTube around television series. We selected a sample of 314 short YouTube videos about 21 Spanish TV series that premiered in 2013 by Spain���s three most popular mainstream television networks (Telecinco, Antena 3, and La1). These videos, which together received more than 24 million views, were classified according to two key variables: the nature (official or nonofficial) of the YouTube channel on which they were located and the exclusivity of their content (already broadcast on TV or Web exclusive). The analysis allows us to characterize the strategies used by TV networks on YouTube and the activity of fans as well as their efforts in the construction of a transmedia narrative universe around TV series.

Restrictions on Aliens in the United Kingdom, 1914-1919 : a Study of the Origins and Political Background of the Aliens Restrictions Acts of 1914 and 1919.

At first glance the Aliens Restriction Act of 1914, which was introduced and passed on the first day of World War One, seems a hasty and ill-prepared piece of legislation. Actually, when examined in the light of Arthur Marwick's thesis that war is a forcing house for pre-existent social and governmental ideas, it becomes clear that the act was not after all the product of hastily formed notions. In point of fact it followed the precedent of detailed draft clauses produced in 1911 by a sub-committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence established to consider the treatment of aliens in the event of war. Indeed the draft clauses and the restrictions embodied in the 1914 act were strikingly similar to restrictions on aliens legislated in 1793. Hostility to aliens had been growing from 1905 to 1914 and this hostility blossomed into xeno-phobia on the outbreak of war, a crucial precondition for the specifically anti-enemy fears of the time. In 1919 the Aliens Restriction (Amendment) Bill was introduced into parliament to extend temporarily the provisions of the 1914 act thus permitting the Home Secretary to plan permanent, detailed legislation. Two minority groups of MPs with extreme views on the treatment of aliens were prominent in the debates on this bill. The extreme Liberal group which advocated leniency in the treatment of aliens had little effect on the final form of the bill, but the extreme Conservative group, which demanded severe restrictions on aliens, succeeded in persuading the government to include detailed restrictions. Despite its allegedly temporary nature, the Aliens Restriction (Amendment) Act of 1919 was renewed annually until 1971.

European Citizenship at the Crossroads: Enhancing European Cooperation on Acquisition and Loss of Nationality. CEPS Liberty and Security in Europe No. 73/December 2014

This paper was prepared as a Policy Brief for discussion at the final conference of the project on Involuntary Loss of European Citizenship: Exchanging Knowledge and Identifying Guidelines for Europe, 11-12 December 2014. Co-funded by the European Commission���s DG for Justice, Citizenship and Fundamental Rights, the ILEC project has aimed to establish a framework for debate on international norms on involuntary loss of nationality. For more information visit: www.ilecproject.eu.

Natural resources on the Russian continental shelf: Foreign investors sought... on Russian terms. OSW Commentary No. 76, 2012-05-09

In recent weeks, Rosneft, a Russian state-owned oil company, has signed co-operation agreements with three Western corporations: America���s ExxonMobil, Italy���s Eni, and Norway���s Statoil. In exchange for access to Russian oil fields on the continental shelf as minority shareholders, these Western investors will finance and carry out exploration there. They will also offer to Rosnieft technology transfer, staff exchange and the purchase of shares in their assets outside Russia (for example in the North Sea or in South America). Rosneft���s deals with Western energy companies prove that the Russian government is resuming the policy of a controlled opening-up of the Russian energy sectors to foreign investors which it initiated in 2006. So far, investors have been given access to the Russian electric energy sector and some onshore gas fields. The agreements which have been signed so far also allow them to work on the Russian continental shelf. This process is being closely supervised by the Russian government, which has enabled the Kremlin to maintain full control of this sector. The primary goal of this policy is to attract modern technologies and capital to Russia and to gain access to foreign assets since this will help Russian corporations to reinforce their positions in international markets. The signing of the above agreements does not guarantee that production will commence. These are a high-risk projects. It remains uncertain whether crude can be extracted from those fields and whether its development will be cost-effective. According to estimates, the Russian Arctic shelf holds approximately 113 billion tonnes of hydrocarbons. The development of these fields, including building any necessary infrastructure, may consume over US$500 billion within 30 years. Furthermore, the legal regulations currently in force in Russia do not guarantee that foreign investors will have a share in the output from these fields. Without foreign support, Russian companies are unlikely to cope with such technologically complicated and extremely expensive investments. In the most optimistic scenario, the oil production in the Russian Arctic may commence in fifteen to twenty years at the earliest.

Unistructed BIAT faking when ego depleted or in normal state: Differential effect on brain and behavior

Background: Deception can distort psychological tests on socially sensitive topics. Understanding the cerebral processes that are involved in such faking can be useful in detection and prevention of deception. Previous research shows that faking a brief implicit association test (BIAT) evokes a characteristic ERP response. It is not yet known whether temporarily available self-control resources moderate this response. We randomly assigned 22 participants (15 females, 24.23 �� 2.91 years old) to a counterbalanced repeated-measurements design. Participants first completed a Brief-IAT (BIAT) on doping attitudes as a baseline measure and were then instructed to fake a negative doping attitude both when self-control resources were depleted and non-depleted. Cerebral activity during BIAT performance was assessed using high-density EEG. Results: Compared to the baseline BIAT, event-related potentials showed a first interaction at the parietal P1, while significant post hoc differences were found only at the later occurring late positive potential. Here, significantly decreased amplitudes were recorded for ���normal��� faking, but not in the depletion condition. In source space, enhanced activity was found for ���normal��� faking in the bilateral temporoparietal junction. Behaviorally, participants were successful in faking the BIAT successfully in both conditions. Conclusions: Results indicate that temporarily available self-control resources do not affect overt faking success on a BIAT. However, differences were found on an electrophysiological level. This indicates that while on a phenotypical level self-control resources play a negligible role in deliberate test faking the underlying cerebral processes are markedly different. Electronic supplementary material: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12868-016-0249-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Report of the ESIL IEL IG G��ttingen Conference on PTAs and World Economic Order

Presentation of the main findings of the first ESIL IEL IG Conference in G��ttingen in March 2014. The conference provided a thorough overview over all of the current legal issues relating to preferentialism. Particularly the discussions on the role of academia in solving these new challenges in global trade regulation were perceived as fruitful and inspiring.

Sand resources on the Inner Continental Shelf of the Cape Fear region, North Carolina /

"November 1977."

Sand resources on the inner continental shelf off the central New Jersey coast /

"October 1982."

Energy resources on federally administered lands /

Glossary: p. 237-[241].

Sand resources on the inner continental shelf of the Cape May region, New Jersey /

"July 1980."