Project development for older adults : Orientation's contribution

This paper systematizes the work developed during the first year of the initiation scholarship for the research project entitled 'Orientation within the new Active Aging Model: educational, work-related, personal and social choices (1)'. This project articulates the Active Aging Model and the Theoretical Operative Model in Orientation, in order to learn how new projects are developed by older adults who used to be part of the formal system of labor and by those who were out of it, and to design programmatic proposals for educational, work-related, personal and social Orientation choices for such population. The sample is made up by seventy people between 64 and 74 years of age, residing in La Plata. The first conclusions evidence the importance that older adults place on project development at this stage of their life cycle, giving special importance to educational, personal and social projects; as well as on the identification of economic factors, health state, family needs for care and social support, among other things, as conditioning the fulfillment of such projects. The differences found in terms of the labor system they used to belong to can be especially observed in the type of project developed.

Desafíos actuales del envejecer

Presentamos hallazgos sobre el envejecer en la actualidad y su entrecruzamiento con la participación en grupos. Señalamos la importancia de la educación permanente en la producción de subjetividad. Se destaca la contribución de las investigaciones referidas a la: docencia, extensión universitaria y formación de investigadores. Partimos del marco teórico de la psicología, se revisan los aportes interdisciplinarios que enriquecen el campo gerontológico. A partir de la longevidad se busca identificar las transformaciones del envejecer, el proceso de revisión identificatoria y el trabajo psíquico de revisar, cuestionar y transformar las significaciones simbólicas, a la par que hacer lugar a lo nuevo en relación con sus funciones: hombre/mujer; esposo/esposa; abuelo/abuela. Se emplea metodología cualitativa: entrevistas en profundidad, historias de vida, crónicas del funcionamiento grupal. Surge la preocupación constante y conciente de los mayores, por preservar su capacidad de desear, crear, producir y gozar, la búsqueda de realización personal y la interrelación con el medio, con los otros y con sus pares. Se observan lógicas propias que promueven la horizontalidad de los vínculos y presentan representaciones, sentidos y conductas que modifican el concepto tradicional del viejo. Se destaca la riqueza del encuentro intersubjetivo entre investigadores y entrevistados, en la elaboración de los cambios.

Educational orientation regarding vocabulary and literacy access : Evaluating the impact of an intervention program designed to promote early learning at home

El estudio evalúa el impacto de un programa de promoción del desarrollo lingüístico y cognitivo para niños de 5 años implementado según dos modalidades: una que implicó acciones de alfabetización familiar en los hogares de los niños (modalidad intensiva) y otra que incluyó la participación de los niños en las salas de jardín de infantes (modalidad extensiva). La evaluación del impacto se realizó por medio de un diseño pre-test ? post-test. Se tomaron pruebas de vocabulario receptivo (VR), producción de categorías (PC) y escritura a una muestra de 214 niños participantes de la modalidad intensiva, 69 participantes de la modalidad extensiva y un grupo control de no participó del programa (49 niños). Los resultados mostraron que la participación en la modalidad intensiva implicó un mayor incremento en las habilidades infantiles de VR, PC que en la modalidad extensiva. A su vez ambas modalidades experimentales mostraron un mayor incremento en las variables examinadas respecto de las observadas en el grupo control. No se detectaron efectos de la escolaridad de la madre y la asistencia previa al jardín. Los resultados mostraron correlaciones significativas entre todas las variables analizadas y el valor predictivo de los puntajes en VR a principio de año respecto de los puntajes en VR y escritura a fin de año.

Transformaciones en el empleo y el territorio : El caso San Luis

Los procesos económicos y sociales producen efectos territoriales. Cada territorio expresa dichos procesos de manera específica y distintiva de acuerdo con su historia productiva y con las prácticas y estrategias de los diferentes agentes sociales involucrados en la gestión de los cambios. Si bien estos procesos se enmarcan en un conjunto de tendencias globales que sirven de contexto a las diversas respuestas, en algunos casos estas sólo pueden comprenderse adecuadamente teniendo en cuenta las características distintivas del territorio particular. En la Provincia de San Luis, a lo largo de las últimas dos décadas, la producción del territorio estuvo signada por las transformaciones ocurridas a partir de la puesta en marcha de los planes nacionales de promoción industrial, que afectaron a todas las dimensiones de la vida social. En efecto, esta nueva situación no sólo cambió la orientación productiva de la provincia, sino que impactó también sobre los comportamientos individuales y familiares que, a nivel agregado, determinan el nivel y las fluctuaciones de la dinámica demográfica. Particularmente, se verificó un desplazamiento poblacional hacia los parques industriales de los principales centros urbanos de la provincia y, consecuentemente, un despoblamiento de las áreas rurales. De esta manera, la industrialización tuvo una nueva expresión territorial, que conformó nuevos paisajes de segregación y nuevas formas de exclusión. A mediados de la década de 1990, frente a la finalización de los beneficios promocionales, se implementó una serie de políticas públicas, encaminadas a la búsqueda de nuevos perfiles productivos, que generaron nuevos impactos sobre la organización territorial. Este trabajo propone un análisis de esos procesos, tomando especialmente en cuenta que las transformaciones en el empleo y el territorio se impactan mutuamente. Vale decir: las transformaciones en la competitividad territorial se expresan en problemas de empleo y de mercado de trabajo y, a su vez, los cambios en el empleo generan fuertes cambios en la perspectiva de un área territorial

Late Oligocene rapid transformations in the South China Sea

Lithobiostratigraphic data indicate that the double reflectors on the seismic profile through Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1148 represent two unconformities that coincide, respectively, with the lower/upper Oligocene boundary at ~488 mcd, and Oligocene-Miocene boundary at 460 mcd. Two other unconformities, at ~478 and 472 mcd, respectively, were also identified within the upper Oligocene section. Together they erased a sediment record of about 3 Ma from this locality in a period of very active seafloor spreading. The existence of 32.8 Ma marine sediment at the terminated depth (850 mcd) indicates that the initial breakup of the South China Sea (SCS) was probably during 34-33 Ma, close to the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. High sedimentation rates of 60-115 m/my from the much expanded, N350 m lower Oligocene section resulted from rifting and rapid subsidence between 33 and 29 Ma. The mid-Oligocene unconformity at ~28.5 Ma, which also occurred in many parts of the Indo-West Pacific region, was probably related to a significant uplift of the Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau to the west and the initial collision between Indonesia and Australia in the south. A narrowed Indonesian seaway may have accounted for the late Oligocene warming and chalk deposition in the northern South China Sea including the Site 1148 locality. The unconformities and slumps near the Oligocene-Miocene boundary indicate a very unstable tectonic regime, probably corresponding to changes in the rotation of different land blocks and the seafloor spreading ridge from nearly E-W to NE-SW, as recognized earlier at magnetic Anomaly 7. This 25 Ma event also saw the first New Guinea terrane docking at the northern Australian craton. The low sedimentation rate of ~15 m/my in the early to middle Miocene may correspond to another period of rapid seafloor spreading and rapid widespread subsidence that effectively caused sediment source areas to retreat with a rapidly rising sea level. The isostatic nature of these late Oligocene unconformities and slumps with several major collision-uplift events indicate that the rapid changes in the early evolutionary history of the South China Sea were mainly responding to regional tectonic reconfiguration including the uplift-driven southeast extrusion of the Indochina subcontinent.

Mobilities, Entanglements, Transformations. Outline of a Research Project on Pottery Practices in Neolithic Wetland Sites of the Swiss Plateau

A large number of later Neolithic sites (3900–3500BC) in Switzerland, Southern Germany and Eastern France offer outstandingly well preserved archaeological materials from cultural layers. Due to the wide use of dendrochronology, settlement remains and artefact assemblages can now be placed into a precise and fixed chronological framework, thus presenting a unique case within prehistoric archaeology. In earlier research, chronological and regional units were constructed on the basis of pottery. These spacial and temporal units of typical pottery sets were understood as Neolithic cultures, as culturally more or less homogenous entities connected with (ethnic) identities. Today, with a larger data corpus of excavated settlements at hand, we can begin to understand that this period of the past was in fact characterised by a multitude of cultural entanglements and transformations. This is indicated by the occurrence of local and non-local pottery styles in one and the same settlement: for example typically local Cortaillod pottery is found together with NMB-styled pottery in settlements at Lake Neuchâtel or Michelsberg pottery is regularly occurring in settlements at Lake Constance where Pfyn pottery style is the typical local one. These and many more examples show that there must have been complex entanglements of social ties expanding between Eastern France, Southern Germany and the Swiss Plateau. Given these circumstances the former notions of Neolithic culture should be critically revised. Therefore, in late 2014, the Prehistoric Archaeology Department at the Archaeological Institute of University of Berne started a four-year research project funded by Swiss National Science Foundation in late 2014: ‘Mobilities, Entanglements and Transformations in Neolithic Societies of the Swiss Plateau (3900-3500 BC)’. It’s objective is to address the topic sketched above by adopting a mixed methods research (MMR)-design combining qualitative and quantitative approaches from archaeology and archaeometry. The approach is theoretically based on Pierre Bourdieu’s reflexive sociology and his concept of habitus but includes further concepts of practice theories. By shifting the focus to the movement of people, ideas and things – to pottery production practices in contexts of mobility – a deeper understanding of the transformative capacities of encounters can be achieved. This opens the path for new insights of Neolithic societies including social, cultural and economic dynamics that were underestimated in former research.

Effect of row orientation on soil water content and vine water status on a Cabernet franc vineyard in Madrid, spain

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of row orien¬tation on vine and soil water status in an irrigated vineyard. The trial was developed during 2006, 2007 and 2008, in the South East region of Madrid (Spain) on 5-year old Cabernet franc grapevines (Vitis vinifera L.) grafted onto 140Ru. Plant spacing was 2.5 m x 1.5 m and vines were trained to a VSP. Four orientations were stu¬died: North-South (N-S), East-West (E-W), Northeast-Southwest (N+45) and North-South +20o (N+20). Irrigation (0.4•ET0) started when shoot growth stopped. Soil water availability was measured using a TDR technique with forty buried probes. Row orientation did not have any effect on water consumption in the vineyard. At maturity, leaf water potential was measured at predawn, early mor¬ning, midday and 14:00 solar time, on both canopy sides - sun and shade – ; the early morning measurement was the one that better differentiated treatments. Leaf water potential was a good indica¬tor of plant water status. Differences between (N-S and E-W) and (N+20 and N+45) treatments were obtained both on sun and shade canopy sides, N+20 and N+45 having lower leaf water potentials then drier leaves. The water stress integral shows that N-S and E-W reach the end of maturation with a greater level of hydration than N+45 and N+20. As a whole, N+45 and N+20 orientations, without affecting too much the soil available water content, induce regularly more water stress to the vine at some periods, probably due to an higher sunlight interception in early morning which makes water limitation for the vine more early and thus more severe during the day.

Relationship between fibre orientation and tensile strength of natural collagen membranes for heart valve leaflets

Heart valve prostheses are used to replace native heart valves which that are damaged because of congenital diseases or due to ageing. Biological prostheses made of bovine pericardium are similar to native valves and do not require any anticoagulation treatment, but are less durable than mechanical prostheses and usually fail by tearing. Researches are oriented in improving the resistance and durability of biological heart valve prostheses in order to increase their life expectancy. To understand the mechanical behaviour of bovine pericardium and relate it to its microstructure (mainly collagen fibres concentration and orientation) uniaxial tensile tests have been performed on a model material made of collagen fibres. Small Angle Light Scattering (SALS) has been also used to characterize the microstructure without damaging the material. Results with the model material allowed us to obtain the orientation of the fibres, relating the microstructure to mechanical performance

Optimization of logic programs with dynamic scheduling

Dynamic scheduling increases the expressive power of logic programming languages, but also introduces some overhead. In this paper we present two classes of program transformations designed to reduce this additional overhead, while preserving the operational semantics of the original programs, modulo ordering of literals woken at the same time. The first class of transformations simplifies the delay conditions while the second class moves delayed literals later in the rule body. Application of the program transformations can be automated using information provided by compile-time analysis. We provide experimental results obtained from an implementation of the proposed techniques using the CIAO prototype compiler. Our results show that the techniques can lead to substantial performance improvement.

Distributed orientation agreement in a group of robots

In this article, a method for the agreement of a set of robots on a common reference orientation based on a distributed consensus algorithm is described. It only needs that robots detect the relative positions of their neighbors and communicate with them. Two different consensus algorithms based on the exchange of information are proposed, tested and analyzed. Systematic experiments were carried out in simulation and with real robots in order to test the method. Experimental results show that the robots are able to agree on the reference orientation under certain conditions. Scalability with an increasing number of robots was tested successfully in simulation with up to 49 robots. Experiments with real robots succeeded proving that the proposed method works in reality.

In situ control of As dimer orientation on Ge(100) surfaces

We investigated the preparation of single domain Ge(100):As surfaces in a metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy reactor. In situ reflection anisotropy spectra (RAS) of vicinal substrates change when arsenic is supplied either by tertiarybutylarsine or by background As4 during annealing. Low energy electron diffraction shows mutually perpendicular orientations of dimers, scanning tunneling microscopy reveals distinct differences in the step structure, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirms differences in the As coverage of the Ge(100): As samples. Their RAS signals consist of contributions related to As dimer orientation and to step structure, enabling precise in situ control over preparation of single domain Ge(100): As surfaces.