Clusters como modelo para alcanzar la productividad y competitividad industrial en el Ecuador

El desarrollo de una industria no puede ser impulsado desde un sentido únicamente económico, debe contemplar el desarrollo social como un factor fundamental. Un clúster es una opción para involucrar a diferentes sectores de la población en procesos de crecimiento social y económico. El nivel de la calidad de vida de una nación está determinado por la productividad con la cual utiliza su talento humano, recursos naturales y capital, y esto implica planificar procesos institucionales, educacionales y tecnológicos de una manera seria y responsable, considerando el largo plazo y el bienestar de la población. La productividad depende del valor de los productos y servicios en términos de diferenciación, calidad, y de la eficiencia con la que se producen. Si es que todos estos elementos se manejan estratégicamente, lo más lógico es alcanzar la competitividad industrial. Un análisis previo a la propuesta de clusters en el Ecuador es necesario, para definir las mejores condiciones que permitan tener éxito el momento de implementar un proceso productivo como el que se pretende definir con el estudio de los clusters competitivos. Raúl Prebisch precisó tres conceptos para definir el subdesarrollo: la heterogeneidad estructural, la especialización productiva, y, el desarrollo desigual. Desde este punto de vista, la generación de clusters es una alternativa que debe buscar fortalecer un desarrollo más equitativo, involucrando a todos los actores económicos. Esta visión integral del desarrollo va más allá de la complementariedad de las políticas sociales, económicas y ambientales y el ordenamiento democrático, entre capital humano, bienestar social, desarrollo sostenible y ciudadanía: debe interpretarse como el sentido mismo del desarrollo (CEPAL, 2000).

Enfoque diferencial de edad en la política de reparación individual dirigida a niños, niñas y adolescentes víctimas del conflicto armado en Colombia

Teniendo en cuenta que la reparación es un derecho con características particulares, especialmente para la infancia y la adolescencia, la presente investigación revisa los alcances del enfoque diferencial de edad en esta política en Colombia. Para cumplir este objetivo se realizó un análisis de la legislación internacional, legislación nacional actual y como un caso tipo, el Decreto de Reparación Individual Administrativa (Decreto 1290 de 2008). De esta forma, se ubica respecto a la reparación desde una visión subjetivista de los derechos humanos, entendiéndola no solo como una obligación del Estado sino como un derecho en sí mismo, y por lo tanto en este marco, revalora el enfoque diferencial de edad como un reto de la política concibiéndolo como la intencionalidad de la sociedad y el Estado de consolidar legislaciones y prácticas sociales sensibles a las subjetividades, necesidades y demandas de los niños, las niñas y los adolescentes como respuesta al principio de igualdad para incluirles como ciudadanos y superar la hegemonía del discurso adultocéntrico. De este modo, se constituye como aporte para las instituciones que tienen el deber de incluir el derecho a la reparación integral de la infancia y la adolescencia en la formulación y ejecución de la política pública y contribuye para que los niños, niñas y adolescentes sean visibilizados de manera efectiva en los mecanismos y procedimientos diseñados para tal fin en Colombia.

Relationships between lightning and properties of convective cloud clusters

Satellite observations of convective system properties and lightning flash rate are used to investigate the ability of potential lightning parameterizations to capture both the dominant land-ocean contrast in lightning occurrence and regional differences between Africa, the Amazon and the islands of the maritime continent. As found in previous studies, the radar storm height is tightly correlated with the lightning flash rate. A roughly second order power-law fit to the mean radar echo top height above the 0C isotherm is shown to capture both regional and land-ocean contrasts in lightning occurrence and flash rate using a single set of parameters. Recent developments should soon make it possible to implement a parameterization of this kind in global models. Parameterizations based on cloud top height, convective rain rate and convective rain fraction all require the use of separate fits over land and ocean and fail to capture observed differences between continental regions.

New insights on growth mechanisms of protein clusters at surfaces: an AFM and simulation study

Despite its relevance to a wide range of technological and fundamental areas, a quantitative understanding of protein surface clustering dynamics is often lacking. In inorganic crystal growth, surface clustering of adatoms is well described by diffusion-aggregation models. In such models, the statistical properties of the aggregate arrays often reveal the molecular scale aggregation processes. We investigate the potential of these theories to reveal hitherto hidden facets of protein clustering by carrying out concomitant observations of lysozyme adsorption onto mica surfaces, using atomic force microscopy. and Monte Carlo simulations of cluster nucleation and growth. We find that lysozyme clusters diffuse across the substrate at a rate that varies inversely with size. This result suggests which molecular scale mechanisms are responsible for the mobility of the proteins on the substrate. In addition the surface diffusion coefficient of the monomer can also be extracted from the comparison between experiments and simulations. While concentrating on a model system of lysozyme-on-mica, this 'proof of concept' study successfully demonstrates the potential of our approach to understand and influence more biomedically applicable protein-substrate couples.

Individual Differences in Amygdala and Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Activity are Associated with Evaluation Speed and Psychological Well-being

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined whether individual differences in amygdala activation in response to negative relative to neutral information are related to differences in the speed with which such information is evaluated, the extent to which such differences are associated with medial prefrontal cortex function, and their relationship with measures of trait anxiety and psychological well-being (PWB). Results indicated that faster judgments of negative relative to neutral information were associated with increased left and right amygdala activation. In the prefrontal cortex, faster judgment time was associated with relative decreased activation in a cluster in the ventral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC, BA 24). Furthermore, people who were slower to evaluate negative versus neutral information reported higher PWB. Importantly, higher PWB was strongly associated with increased activation in the ventral ACC for negative relative to neutral information. Individual differences in trait anxiety did not predict variation in judgment time or in amygdala or ventral ACC activity. These findings suggest that people high in PWB effectively recruit the ventral ACC when confronted with potentially aversive stimuli, manifest reduced activity in subcortical regions such as the amygdala, and appraise such information as less salient as reflected in slower evaluative speed.

Strategy clusters and sources of knowledge in French L2 listening comprehension

This article reports on an exploratory investigation into the listening strategies of lower-intermediate learners of French as an L2, including the sources of knowledge they employed in order to comprehend spoken French. Data from 14 learners were analysed to investigate whether employment of strategies in general and sources of knowledge in particular varied according to the underlying linguistic knowledge of the student. While low linguistic knowledge learners were less likely to deploy effectively certain strategies or strategy clusters, high linguistic knowledge levels were not always associated with effective strategy use. Similarly, while there was an association between linguistic knowledge and learners’ ability to draw on more than one source of knowledge in a facilitative manner, there was also evidence that learners tended to over-rely on linguistic knowledge where other sources, such as world knowledge, would have proved facilitative. We conclude by arguing for a fresh approach to listening pedagogy and research, including strategy instruction, bottom-up skill development and a consideration of the role of linguistic knowledge in strategy use.

Individual differences in some (but not all) medial prefrontal regions reflect cognitive demand while regulating unpleasant emotion.

The present study investigated the premise that individual differences in autonomic physiology could be used to specify the nature and consequences of information processing taking place in medial prefrontal regions during cognitive reappraisal of unpleasant pictures. Neural (blood oxygenation level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging) and autonomic (electrodermal [EDA], pupil diameter, cardiac acceleration) signals were recorded simultaneously as twenty-six older people (ages 64–66 years) used reappraisal to increase, maintain, or decrease their responses to unpleasant pictures. EDA was higher when increasing and lower when decreasing compared to maintaining. This suggested modulation of emotional arousal by reappraisal. By contrast, pupil diameter and cardiac acceleration were higher when increasing and decreasing compared to maintaining. This suggested modulation of cognitive demand. Importantly, reappraisal-related activation (increase, decrease > maintain) in two medial prefrontal regions (dorsal medial frontal gyrus and dorsal cingulate gyrus) was correlated with greater cardiac acceleration (increase, decrease > maintain) and monotonic changes in EDA (increase > maintain > decrease). These data indicate that these two medial prefrontal regions are involved in the allocation of cognitive resources to regulate unpleasant emotion, and that they modulate emotional arousal in accordance with the regulatory goal. The emotional arousal effects were mediated by the right amygdala. Reappraisal-related activation in a third medial prefrontal region (subgenual anterior cingulate cortex) was not associated with similar patterns of change in any of the autonomic measures, thus highlighting regional specificity in the degree to which cognitive demand is reflected in medial prefrontal activation during reappraisal.