EFFICIENT VERSUS NON-EFFICIENT STATED CHOICE DESIGNS. A COMPARISON IN A MODE CHOICE CONTEXT

This paper evaluates gains in efficiency produced by the use of efficient designs to analyze stated choice (SC) data. Based on a standard experiment used in a previous research, we compare the efficiency of this design with that of the efficient design obtained according to the minimization of the D-error, considering different modelling strategies. The experiment was conducted in the context of the choice between the plane and the new high speed train in the route Madrid-Barcelona. As the levels assigned to some attributes in the stated choice exercise were customized to each respondent experience, pivoting the information provided by preliminary revealed preference questions around the reference alternative (the plane, in this case), a different efficient design was created for every respondent in the sample. Results of the analysis demonstrate that substantial gains in the significance level of the parameter estimates could have been attained if the efficient design had been used to analyze SC data.Stated Choice Data, Efficient Designs, Discrete Choice Models

Las iniciativas para el acceso abierto a la información científica en el contexto de la Web Semántica

Access to information sources on Science and Technology is the corner stone in the generation processes of new scientific knowledge, and key factor in the development of the society of the 21st century. The elimination of economic and copyright barriers that supposes the restriction of the access to information by the main editorial groups of scientific diffusion, constitutes a challenge for the scientific international community. The present work gathers the importance of the open Access initiatives to the scientific and academic information as change agent. It is analyzed the structure and functioning of the information repositories, as well as the creation of the OAI-PMH protocol as provider of the interoperability between the different repositories, in the context of the Semantic Web

Acimed en el Web Citation Index: de la Biblioteca Virtual de Salud al ISI Web of Knowledge, 15 años después

Editor´s page on the Acimed journal and it´s inclusion in the Web Citation Index, a new service of Thomson Scientific

Os retos da xestión do coñecemento en enerxía para os municipios de Cuba

[Resumo] Co fin de abordar a problemática enerxética no ámbito do desenvolvemento dos municipios cubanos, a Redenerg (Rede Nacional de Xestión do Coñecemento en Enerxía) desenvolveu unha ferramenta de xestión do coñecemento denominada NOME (nodos municipais de enerxía) que permite organizar o capital intelectual do municipio na temática enerxética, co obxectivo de apoiar os gobernos municipais na xestión dos problemas enerxéticos vinculados ao desenvolvemento local municipal. A experiencia da creación de NOME en catro municipios da rexión central do país (Jatibonico, Placetas, Fomento e Aguada de Pasajeros) permitiu identificar os problemas que dificultan a xestión enerxética local desde a perspectiva da xestión do coñecemento. O traballo expón a árbore dos problemas identificados nos municipios, a estratexia de traballo para abordar esta problemática, os resultados alcanzados e as súas perspectivas no ámbito da xeneralización.[Abstract] In order to tackle the energy problem in the development of the Cuban municipalities, Redenerg (National Network for Energy Knowledge Management) developed a knowledge management tool known as NOME (municipal energy nodes) that allows the intellectual capital in energy matters within the municipality to be organized, in order to support municipal governments in the management of energy problems linked to local municipal development. The experience of setting up NOME in four municipalities in the country’s central region (Jatibonico, Placetas, Fomento and Aguada de Pasajeros) led to the identification of the problems that hinder local energy management from the point of view of knowledge management. The paper presents the problems identified in the municipalities, the work strategy designed to tackle those problems, the results achieved and the prospects in the area of generalization

El Índice Wally: una propuesta altmétrica para las editoriales cubanas indexadas en la plataforma e-Libro.com

Objective.It was proposed an altmetric index to identify the most consulted titles of Cuban publishers that distribute their contents on the e-Libro. comacademic platform. Design/Methodology/Approach.The Wally Index is defined as the quotient of the Ln (# queries) of a title between the maximum Ln (# queries) of the set of titles evaluated in a defined period of time. The usefulness of this Index was validated from the study of the distribution of titles of six Cuban publishers that include their titles in the academic platform e-Libro.com,during the period September 2016 - August 2017. Results/Discussion.The Wally Index vs.# Titles of Cuban publishers available on e-libro.comwere adjusted to the power model, with a Pearson correlation coefficient of R 2 = 0.7299, although titles with smaller numbers of queries showed greater dispersion, so that evaluated this index with the collection of the 226 most consulted titles. With this sample, the Wally Index normalized vs.ranking of the titles reached the value of the Pearson correlation coefficients R 2 = 0.8992 with a logarithmic adjustment. Conclusions.The use of the Wally Index is proposed for the evaluation of the queries of a set of titles, selected under specific criteria, available on Web platforms that provide data on the queries. The index is relative to the collection of titles and is independent of the number of queries. Originality/Value.The Wally Index can be used by any publisher who wants to examine the queries that receive their titles in the web environment

Direct manipulation of T lymphocytes by proteins of gastrointestinal bacterial pathogens

Gastrointestinal bacterial infection represents a significant threat to human health, as well as a burden on food animal production and welfare. Although there is advanced knowledge about the molecular mechanisms underlying pathogenesis, including the development of immune responses to these pathogens, gaps in knowledge persist. It is well established that gastrointestinal bacterial pathogens produce a myriad of proteins that affect the development and effectiveness of innate immune responses. However, relatively few proteins that directly affect lymphocytes responsible for humoral or cell-mediated immunity and memory have been identified. Here, we review factors produced by gastrointestinal bacterial pathogens that have direct T cell interactions and what is known about their functions and mechanisms of action. T cell interacting bacterial proteins that have been identified to date mainly target three major T cell responses: activation and expansion, chemotaxis or apoptosis. Further, the requirement for more focused studies to identify and understand additional mechanisms used by bacteria to directly affect the T cell immune response and how these may contribute to pathogenesis is highlighted. Increased knowledge in this area will help to drive development of better interventions in prevention and treatment of gastrointestinal bacterial infection.</p

Diagnostic of Banana streak viruses (BSV) and study of their levels of prevalence and molecular diversity in Cuba

Banana and plantain play a significant role in food security in Cuba, as reflected by the important surfaces (ca 101 000 ha) devoted to their culture. Interspecific triploid (AAB) and tetraploid (AAAB) plantain hybrids harbouring both the Musa acuminata (A) and M. balbisnana (B) genomes are the most cultivated varieties, however triploid AAA dessert banana types such as Dwarf Cavendish and Yangambi Km 5 are also widely cultivated. All types are currently affected by Banana streak disease caused by several species of Banana streak virus [1]. This prompted a nationwide research effort focused on the occurrence, prevalence and diversity of BSV species in dessert and cooking banana. To this aim, leaf samples from symptomatic and asymptomatic plants of various genotypes (AAA, AAB, AAAB, AABB and ABB) were collected throughout Cuba and indexed for BSV species Goldfinger (BSGFV), Imové (BsImV), Mysore (BSMysV) and Obino l'Ewaï (BSOLV) by multiplex immunocapture PCR [2]. 33% of the 521 samples collected from plants harbouring only the A genome (AAA, AAAA) were found to be infected by one or several BSV species, with BSMysV the most prevalent species present in 45.3 % of the 172 infected samples. On the other hand, 39,4 % of the 1638 samples collected from interspecific hybrids (AAB, AAAB, ABB, AABB) were also found to be infected by one or several BSV species. However the presence of residual M. balbisiana genomic DNA in leaf extracts proved to interfere with multiplex immunocapture PCR and to lead to many false positives. This was confirmed by Southern blot analyses. Attempts to decrease contaminations by plant genomic DNA in PCR reactions were made by modulating the duration of immunocapture or by preventing the binding of plant genomic DNA to PCR tubes or plates. Using degenerate primers, viral sequences that appeared to belong to new BSV species were amplified from a limited number of plant samples. One of these sequences amplified from Dwarf Cavendish displayed 96 % identity with BSAcYunV. Southern blots performed using this amplified sequence as a probe confirmed the presence of this species in AAA dessert banana types. (Texte intégral