Transformación productiva con equidad: la tarea prioritaria del desarrollo de América Latina y el Caribe en los años noventa = Changing production patterns with social equity: the prime task of Latin American and Caribbean development in the 1990s

Incluye Bibliografía

Transformación y desarrollo: la gran tarea: informe presentado al Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo = Change and development: Latin America's great task: report submitted to the Inter-American Development Bank

Incluye Bibliografía

The right to education: An unfinished task for Latin America and the Caribbean

The right to education.Our newsletter once again takes on the challenges set forth by the Millennium Declaration and the human rights approach embedded in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In this issue, we will examine the right of children and adolescents to education.

Regional report on measuring disability: Overview of the disability measurement procedures in Latin America and the Caribbean. Task Force on Disability Measurement Statistical Conference of the Americas (SCA)

Introduction .-- I. Inclusion of international guidelines in disability measurement processes in Latin American and Caribbean countries .-- II. State of the art in disability measurement in the region’s countries .-- III. Main difficulties facing countries in terms of collecting information .-- Conclusions.

Agricultural transformation and Gender considerations in Caribbean Economics

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the gender and social disparities existing in the agricultural and rural sector in Caribbean economies. In this context, agricultural transformation as occasioned by the dismantling of preferential trading arrangements is analysed to identify the most relevant gender discriminatory measures in the current agricultural development policy and programmes. The analysis seeks to provide the basis for enhancing understanding among policy makers, planners and rural development practitioners of the gender and social dimension involved in the formulation of agricultural policy and more specifically in relation to the new policy and institutional arrangements for agriculture in the region. The paper also provides insights regarding what changes should take place to create an enabling environment for more gender-based approaches to policy-making and strategic planning in agricultural development and trade in the Caribbean. The methodology centred on the review of secondary sources that provide references on the new challenges, opportunities and constraints faced by the agricultural sector, in particular small farmers, in the context of globalization and agriculture transformation. Much of the literature for this assignment was obtained from FAO Headquarters in Rome and the FAO Subregional Office in Barbados, as well as the OECS Secretariat in St. Lucia. In the process of the review exercise, due consideration was given to changes in agricultural production patterns, resources allocation and rural livelihoods. Efforts to examine the most relevant policy measures and mechanisms in-place in support to agricultural development in the region were constrained, in the main, by the absence of gender disaggregated data. Documentation as regards the situation of women and men in relation to agricultural labour, rural income and food security situation in regions were limited. The use of the internet served to bridge the communication gap between countries and institutions. The preliminary draft of the paper was presented and discussed at the FAO/ECLAC/UNIFEM regional workshop on mainstreaming gender analysis in agriculture and trade policies, for Caribbean countries, in November 2003. The second draft of the paper was informed by comments from the workshop and additional information acquired through field visits to Barbados, St. Kitts and St. Vincent in March 2004. The three day visits to each of these three countries entailed a review/appreciation of the resource, constraints and institutional capacities for gender mainstreaming within the agricultural sector at the national level. This included visits to some of the major agricultural projects and interviews with farmers (where feasible) in respect of their perspective of the current situation of the agricultural sector and the viability of their farm enterprises. As well, meetings were held with relevant/available officials within the respective ministries of agriculture to discern the gender consideration as regards agricultural policy and planning at the country level. The internet was invaluable to the task of sourcing supplementary information to satisfy the aim of the paper; in respect of the identification of concrete policy measures and actions to formulate and develop more gender/social-responsive agricultural development policies. The final revision, though thwart with resource and communication constraints, was ultimately completed in compliance with the structure and approach proposed in the terms of references for this FAO/ECLAC assignment.

Green-Markov models - new optimization strategies: a case study for user allocation in co-channel macro/femto networks

ABSTRACT: The femtocell concept aims to combine fixed-line broadband access with mobile telephony using the deployment of low-cost, low-power third and fourth generation base stations in the subscribers' homes. While the self-configuration of femtocells is a plus, it can limit the quality of service (QoS) for the users and reduce the efficiency of the network, based on outdated allocation parameters such as signal power level. To this end, this paper presents a proposal for optimized allocation of users on a co-channel macro-femto network, that enable self-configuration and public access, aiming to maximize the quality of service of applications and using more efficiently the available energy, seeking the concept of Green networking. Thus, when the user needs to connect to make a voice or a data call, the mobile phone has to decide which network to connect, using the information of number of connections, the QoS parameters (packet loss and throughput) and the signal power level of each network. For this purpose, the system is modeled as a Markov Decision Process, which is formulated to obtain an optimal policy that can be applied on the mobile phone. The policy created is flexible, allowing different analyzes, and adaptive to the specific characteristics defined by the telephone company. The results show that compared to traditional QoS approaches, the policy proposed here can improve energy efficiency by up to 10%.

Separation of Scaptotrigona postica Workers into Defined Task Groups by the Chemical Profile on Their Epicuticle Wax Layer

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Lower limb muscle coactivation levels in healthy younger and older adults during functional dual-task gait

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of daily cognitive task on stiffness of old and young female adults during the gait. The study included 17 physically active younger and 18 older women, with low risk of falls. The volunteers were asked to walk on the treadmill at two different gait conditions: normal gait and functional dual-task gait. The electromyographic signals were collected of the lower limb muscles. The percentage of coactivation for the tibialis anterior/gastrocnemius lateralis and tibialis anterior/soleus were significantly higher in elderly than in younger in the normal gait and dual-task gait. Our results suggest that the elderly have a greater stiffness in the ankle joint during gait normal and daily dual task gait. Thus, we conclude that challenging cognitively situations during the gait may increase the risk of falls in this population.

Multistage Transmission Expansion Planning Considering Fixed Series Compensation Allocation

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Visuomotor processing and hand force coordination in dyslexic children during a visually guided manipulation task

Developmental Dyslexia negatively affects children's reading and writing ability and, in most cases, performance in sensorimotor tasks. These deficits have been associated with structural and functional alterations in the cerebellum and the posterior parietal cortex (PPC). Both neural structures are active during visually guided force control and in the coordination of load force (LF) and grip force (GF) during manipulation tasks. Surprisingly, both phenomena have not been investigated in dyslexic children. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare dyslexic and non-dyslexic children regarding their visuomotor processing ability and GF-LF coordination during a static manipulation task. Thirteen dyslexic (8-14YO) and 13 age- and sex-matched non-dyslexic (control) children participated in the study. They were asked to grasp a fixed instrumented handle using the tip of all digits and pull the handle upward exerting isometric force to match a ramp-and-hold force profile displayed in a computer monitor. Task performance (i.e., visuomotor coordination) was assessed by RMSE calculated in both ramp and hold phases. GF-LF coordination was assessed by the ratio between GF and LF (GF/LF) calculated at both phases and the maximum value of a cross-correlation function (r(max)) and its respective time lag calculated at ramp phase. The results revealed that the RMSE at both phases was larger in dyslexic than in control children. However, we found that GF/LF, rmax, and time lags were similar between groups. Those findings indicate that dyslexic children have a mild deficit in visuomotor processing but preserved GF-LF coordination. Altogether, these findings suggested that dyslexic children could present mild structural and functional alterations in specific PPC or cerebellum areas that are directly related to visuomotor processing. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Heurística especializada aplicada na alocação ótima de bancos de capacitores em sistemas de distribuição radial

Pós-graduação em Engenharia Elétrica - FEIS