13 research outputs found
Ciudad, Cuerpo y Arquitectura
No full textAquí se recoge la experiencia de un taller compartido por las unidades docentes Taller X, 09, 00 y acompañado por Elisa Silva y Cheo Carvajal que propuso diseñar a partir de cuatro recorridos a pie. La idea era pensar, oler, sentir, hablar con/desde Caracas, reivindicando la escala del barrio, de la vecindad, de la comunidad, de la gente que interactúa cotidianamente. Lo común.
Este taller se realizó entre marzo y julio del 2024, con los profesores Ricardo Sanz, Fabio Samson, Marcos Coronel y el apoyo del Decano Javier Caricatto. La publicación se hizo gracias al apoyo del Instituto Latinoameiciano de Investigaciones Sociales ILDIS-FES
Individual Payoffs and the Effect of Homeownership on Social Capital Investment
No full textAre all social capital investments equal in the eyes of homeowners and renters? Presumably, social capital investments that lead to increases in home values provide stronger incentives for homeowners than renters. In contrast, for so- cial capital investments that do not directly impact home values, one would not expect homeowners and renters to differ in their investment rates. In this paper, we test this hypothesis using confidential and detailed individual-level panel data from Los Angeles county. We estimate the effect of homeowner- ship on social capital investment, i.e., participation in social-capital creating activities, using a bivariate probit model and fixed effects models that con- trol for individual-specific, time-constant heterogeneity that would otherwise cause omitted variable bias. Each model addresses the endogeneity of home- ownership differently with identification arising from different sources. We find strong evidence that homeownership increases the rate of participation in block meetings, a social capital investment that should affect property val- ues, and find no homeownership effect on three other social capital creating activities that likely do not: volunteerism, participation in a local political organization, and participation in a civic group. The results suggest that the effect of homeownership on social capital investment depends on whether the returns to such investments accrue solely to homeowners
Household enterprises in Vietnam : survival, growth, and living standards
No full textIn Vietnam almost a quarter of adults worked in nonfarm household enterprises in 1998. Based on household panel data from the Vietnam Living Standards Surveys of 1993 and 1998, the authors find some evidence that operating an enterprise leads to greater affluence. The data show that nonfarm household enterprises are most likely to be operated by urban households, by those with moderately good education, and by the children of proprietors. The authors were able to construct a panel of nonfarm household enterprises; 39 percent of enterprises operating in 1993 were still in business in 1998. Those in the (more affluent) south of the country were less likely to survive, as were smaller and younger businesses. A pattern emerges from the data. In poor areas the lack of education, credit, and effective demand limits the development of nonfarm household enterprises. In rich areas there is the attraction of wage labor. Nonfarm household enterprises are thus most important in the period of transition, when agriculture is declining in importance but before the formal sector becomes established. The authors expect these enterprises to continue to play a modest supporting role in fostering economic growth in Vietnam.Public Health Promotion,Housing&Human Habitats,Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management,Microfinance,Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management,Small and Medium Size Enterprises,Private Participation in Infrastructure,Microfinance
Fit kids?
No full textTeam, co-led by UND kinesiologist Grant Tomkinson, gives American children low marks on global fitness-level report card
An international research team co-led from the University of North Dakota and the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) studied the aerobic fitness levels of children and youth across 50 countries. The results were just published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
“If all the kids in the world were to line up for a race, the average American child would finish at the foot of the field,” said Grant Tomkinson, associate professor of kinesiology in the UND College of Education & Human Development and senior author of the study. “Canada, on the other hand, fared moderately well placing just above middle of the pack. This study is the largest of its kind so it’s exciting to have this evidence at hand.”
“Kids who are aerobically fit tend to be healthy; and kids who are healthy are apt to be healthy adults. So studying aerobic fitness in the early years is very insightful to overall population health,” said Justin Lang, the report’s lead author. He’s at CHEO and a Ph.D. student at the University of Ottawa. “It’s important to know how kids in Canada or America fare on the world stage, for example, because we can always learn from other countries with fitter kids.”
The study involved analyzing 20-meter shuttle data, also called the beep test, from 1.1 million kids aged 9 to 17 years old from 50 countries. The beep test is the most popular field based test of aerobic fitness levels of children and youth. It is also standardized and commonly used around the world.
Another key finding of this study is that income inequality – the gap between rich and poor as measured by the Gini Index – is strongly correlated with aerobic fitness. Children and youth from countries with a small gap between rich and poor appear to have better fitness.
Study collaborators include co-authors from University of Montreal and University of South Australia.
Ranking highlights: Top 5 fittest countries: Tanzania, Iceland, Estonia, Norway, Japan Canada placed 19 out of 50 America placed 47 out of 5
Market development of Vietnam’s performing arts in Asean region from the perspective of regional integration
No full textWhen it comes to the performing arts of Vietnam, it is popular to think of types of arts which have become a part of the cultural and spiritual life of Vietnamese people such as Ca Tru (a complex form of sung poetry), Cheo (Vietnamese traditional opera), Boi singing (a Vietnamese operatic art form), Bai Choi singing (a folklore style of singing), Don ca tai tu music and song, Cai Luong (modern folk opera), Puppetry, Circus, etc. From the perspective of cultural economy, these types of arts are fully potential to become typical cultural products, with many competitive advantages in the overall national cultural industry. Therefore, developing the market for various types of performing arts in Vietnam is a story that needs to be discussed specifically and comprehensively. Within the scope of this paper, the author discusses the issue of market development of Vietnamese performing arts beyond the national territory, penetrating ASEAN market and the world market from considering the current ASEAN regional integration, which is a valuable opportunity that stakeholders need to exploit effectively
Ben-Cho-Shey inédito: Santiago de Compostela: Auga Editora-Deputación de Ourense, 2018. 230 pp. ISBN: 978-84- 948778-7-2
No full textThe review presents a detailed analysis and assessment of this very Galician book, which includes a collection of short prose texts together with personal facts and anecdotes about the author which add to the book’s enjoyment and offer readers a fuller picture of José Ramón Fernández-Oxea and his work.Recensión del libro de Paco López-Barxas que lleva por título Ben-Cho-Sey inédito realizada por el profesor Xosé Fernández Fernández. En ella analiza y comenta de manera precisa un libro con sabor eminentemente gallego, en el que el discurso narrativo, lleno de pequeñas obras, se acompaña de anécdotas y datos familiares que facilitan la lectura y al tiempo acercan una visión más completa de José Ramón Fernández-Oxea.Recensión do libro de Paco López-Barxas que leva por título Ben-Cho-Sey inédito realizada profesor Xosé Fernández Fernández. Nela analiza e comenta polo miudo un libro con sabor eminentemente galego, no que o discurso narrativo, cheo de pequenas obras, se acompaña de anécdotas e datos familiares que facilitan a lectura e ao tempo achegan unha visión máis completa de José Ramón Fernández-Oxea.Recensão do livro de Paco López-Barxas que leva por título Ben-Cho-Sey inédito realizada pelo professor Xosé Fernández Fernández. Nela analisa e comenta um livro com sabor eminentemente galego, no que o discurso narrativo, cheio de pequenas obras, se acompanha de anedotas e dados familiares que facilitam a leitura e ao tempo achegam uma visão mais completa de José Ramón Fernández-Oxea
TO UNDERSTAND THE OTHER: THE VIETNAMESE CULTURE CODE
No full textUnderstanding the other is a prerequisite for full-fledged communication and successful interaction with him, establishing trusting relationships in the process of negotiations or joint activities. Successful intercultural communication presupposes the willingness of participants to perceive, understand and accept stereotypes of behavior, customs, traditions, interests and cultural values of another ethno-cultural community. To achieve this, it is not enough to know the language of your dialogue partner; you need a deep understanding of the semantic content of various signs and symbols that arise in the process of knowing the other side, the cultural code as the key to understanding this culture. Vietnam is a country in Southeast Asia, on the one hand, historically related with the Soviet Union and therefore is known to us. On the other hand, in reality, the knowledge of the majority about this country is limited and superfcial. And despite the constant friendly relations between our countries, the practical content of our cooperation quite often does not meet expectations. The author of the article considers that in order to make the communication with Vietnamese partners more effective, it is necessary to pay more attention to such aspects that at a frst glance seem far from politics and economics – traditions, customs, that cultural basis of Vietnamese society, which largely determines the model of behavior and reactions of its representatives. The basis of the worldview of the Vietnamese is the cult of ancestors. Even nowadays, it largely determines people’s moral and cultural values; it is the main “cipher” of the Vietnamese nation. But the cultural code permeates almost all areas of society. One of the most striking examples is cinema as the most popular art, as a sociocultural phenomenon, consistently reflecting the state of society. Historical and cultural allusions are also often traced in theatrical art. And if we talk about the cultural code, then, of course, frst of all it is a traditional theater, in particular, the Vietnamese theater “cheo”
Assessment of shear zone-derived quartz from the Etam area, southwest Cameroon as potential high-purity quartz resource : petrography, geochemistry and technological studies
No full textThis study focuses on the evaluation of the high-purity quartz (HPQ) potential of a shear zone-hosted hydrothermal and metamorphic quartz deposit in Etam, southwest Cameroon. The shear zone quartz-rich rock is monomineralic and consists of both milky and translucent varieties. The combination of ICP-MS and LA-ICP-MS analytical techniques was used to assess the chemical purity of both quartz varieties. These compositional analyses show that all quartz samples have SiO2 content of 98.46–99.75 wt% with very low concentrations of all the other elements. Translucent quartz when compared to the milky quartz variety shows low concentration of most of the elements including the following principal impurities: Al (mean 107 µg g−1), Ca (mean 27.85 µg g−1) and Fe (mean 26.05 µg g−1). Bubble generation in the samples after flame fusion over a silica plate was assessed to test the suitability of the quartz in industrial uses. The results obtained from the chemical analyses and bubble formation tests indicate that all the samples investigated do not meet the HPQ requirement. However, the translucent quartz shows characteristics of medium-purity quartz and can produce silica glass for some industrial manufacturing even without further purification. In this study, the fluid inclusions in the samples were examined as this bears information on the economic viability of the deposit and provides clues on the genesis of the quartz vein. Also tiny mineral inclusions within individual quartz grains were identified by SEM–EDS. The results of these studies show that the deposit is probably of metamorphic origin marked by crystal-plastic deformation in quartz grains. The veins were later modified by hydrothermal fluid input. The results also indicate that the majority of impurities are likely hosted by fluid inclusions and thus the quartz can be upgraded to HPQ after purification by suitable methods24CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQNão temThis paper is part of ongoing Ph.D. thesis by the first author. This work has been financially supported by the Ministry of Higher Education, Cameroon, through the Special Allocation for the Modernization of Research (SAMR) granted to the first author. Authors thank the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq) for the financial support. We highly appreciate the support of Prof. Nzenti Jean Paul who suggested constructive revisions to the various versions of the manuscript. The incisive comments of two anonymous reviewers and the Editor are much appreciate
PASSIVE Q-SWITCHING MODEL FOR INFRARED LASERS
No full textO. R. Wood and S. E. Schwartz, Appl. Phys. Letters 11, 88 (1967). N. V. Karlov et al., JETP Letters 7, 134 (1968). P. L. Hanst, J. A. Morreal, and W. J. Henson, Appl. Phys. Letters 12, 58 (1968). J. T. Yardley, Appl. Phys. Letters 12, 120 (1968). T. Y. Chang, C. H. Wang, and P. K. Cheo, Appl. Phys. Letters 15, 157 (1969). I. Burak, J. I. Steinfeld, and D. G. Sutton, J. Quant. Spectroscopy and Rad. Transfer 9, 959 (1969). W. G. Wagner and B. A. Lengyel, J. Appl. Phys. 34, 2040 (1963). B. F. Gord'etz. N. N. Sobolev, U. V. Sokovikov, and L. A. Shelepin, I.E.E.E. J. Quantum Electronies QE 4, 796 (1968).""Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPassive Q-switching has resulted from the introduction of various saturable absorbers into the cavity of a carbon dioxide laser. The use of , , heated , vinyl , and other has been reported. We explain this behavior using the following models: (1) The role of the absorber is explained by a kinetic four-level used previously to explain saturation effects. (2) The differential equations presented by Wagner and have been expanded to include the effect of continued inversion pumping and are used to describe the processes in the laser. By coupling these two models, a system of differential equations is obtained whose solution gives the time dependent behavior of the laser. The equations are solved numerically using reasonable parameters and good agreement is found with experimental measurements. The two main conclusions drawn are: (1) A narrow hole at the laser frequency is burned into the spectrum of the absorber and corresponds to the depletion of those rotational levels capable of absorbing the laser radiation. (2) The relaxation of this hole and the properties of the passively Q-switched laser are best explained by rotational relaxation rates rather than vibrational ones
Links between soil composition and podoconiosis occurrence and prevalence in Cameroon
No full textIntroduction: Podoconiosis, a form of non-filarial elephantiasis, is a geochemical disease associated with individuals exposed to red clay soil from alkalic volcanic rock. It is estimated that globally 4 million people suffer from the disease, though the exact causal agent is unknown. This study is the first analysis in Cameroon to compare high resolution ground-sampled geochemical soil variables and remote sensing data in relation to podoconiosis prevalence and occurrence.Aim: To investigate the associations of soil mineralogical and element variables in relation to podoconiosis prevalence and occurrence in Cameroon.Methods: In this study, exploratory statistical and spatial data analysis were conducted on soil and spatial epidemiology data associated with podoconiosis. The studied soil data was comprised of 194 samples from an area of 65 by 45 km, containing 19 minerals and 55 elements. Initial proximal analysis included a spatial join between the prevalence data points and the closest ground-sampled soil variables. In addition, the soil variables were interpolated to create a continuous surface. At each prevalence data point, soil values from the interpolated surfaces were extracted. Correlation and logistic regression analysis were carried out on both the proximal analysis data set and the interpolated soil variables. The interpolated soil variables were also analysed using principal component analysis, to identify any patterns or clusters, regarding podoconiosis occurrence.Results: Bivariate analysis of the proximal and interpolated data set identified several statistically significant soil variables associated with podoconiosis. Correlation analysis identified several soil variables with a statistically significant positive Spearman rho value in relation to podoconiosis prevalence. Logistic regression analysis identified several statistically significant soil variables with odds ratio values greater than 1, with respect to the podoconiosis occurrence data. The significant variables included barium, beryllium, potassium, sodium, rubidium, strontium, thallium, potassium feldspar, mica and quartz. Barium, beryllium, potassium, sodium, quartz, mica and potassium feldspar have been previously identified in the literature in relation to podoconiosis occurrence. The PCA biplots showed no definite groupings of soil compositions with respect to podoconiosis occurrence. However, the envelope of the 95% confidence ellipse, representing prevalence data with at least one case of podoconiosis, does begin to separate as the soil variables suggested to be associated with podoconiosis occurrence increase and reach maximal values.Conclusion: The findings suggest that the key minerals and elements identified in this study may play a role in the pathogenesis of podoconiosis or could be disease covariates. These significant results have led to ongoing research within this project to examine the utilisation of medium and high-resolution hyperspectral methods to identify if podoconiosis-associated soil variables, such as quartz, are detectable remotely. Data can then be used to predict areas at risk using multivariate machine learning techniques theorising a link between prevalence, presence and combinations of multiple soil related variables.This study is supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Global Health Research Unit on NTDs at BSMS (16/136/29). The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care
