Suchergebnisse

Este artículo esboza la nueva visión de la ciencia y tecnología en Venezuela, en la cual se está construyendo el nuevo modelo económico, político, social y cultural que implica la apropiación social del conocimiento científico y técnico para facilitar la potenciación de las capacidades regionales, se presenta la concepción teórica relacionada con el tema, y finalmente se hacen unas reflexiones sobre el nuevo modelo en construcción. ; This article outlines the new vision of science and technology in Venezuela, which is building the new economic, political, social and cultural means the social appropriation of scientific and technical knowledge to facilitate the strengthening of regional capacities, presents the theoretical concept related to the topic, and finally make some remarks on the new model under construction. ; Ceci souligne la nouvelle vision de la science et de la technologie au Venezuela, qui est la construction de la nouvelle donne économique, l'appropriation politique, sociale et culturelle, sociale impliquant des connaissances scientifiques et techniques pour faciliter le renforcement des capacités régionales est présenté conception théorique lié au sujet, et enfin faire quelques remarques sur le nouveau modèle en cours de construction. ; 27-42 ; Coro38@hotmail.com ; semestral

Despite the efforts made towards the Millennium Development Goals targets during the last decade, improved access to water supply or basic sanitation still remains unavailable for millions of people across the world. This paper proposes a set of models that use 25 key variables and country profiles from the WatSan4Dev data set involving water supply and sanitation (Dondeynaz et al., 2012). This paper suggests the use of Bayesian network modelling methods because they are more easily adapted to deal with non-normal distributions, and integrate a qualitative approach for data analysis. They also offer the advantage of integrating preliminary knowledge into the probabilistic models. The statistical performance of the proposed models ranges between 20 and 5% error rates, which are very satisfactory taking into account the strong heterogeneity of variables. Probabilistic scenarios run from the models allow an assessment of the relationships between human development, external support, governance aspects, economic activities and water supply and sanitation (WSS) access. According to models proposed in this paper, gaining a strong poverty reduction will require the WSS access to reach 75–76% through: (1) the management of ongoing urbanisation processes to avoid slums development; and (2) the improvement of health care, for instance for children. Improving governance, such as institutional efficiency, capacities to make and apply rules, or control of corruption is positively associated with WSS sustainable development. The first condition for an increment of the HDP (human development and poverty) remains of course an improvement of the economic conditions with higher household incomes. Moreover, a significant country commitment to the environment, associated with civil society freedom of expression constitutes a favourable setting for sustainable WSS services delivery. Intensive agriculture using irrigation practises also appears as a mean for sustainable WSS thanks to multi-uses and complementarities. With a WSS sector organised at national level, irrigation practices can support the structuring and efficiency of the agriculture sector. It may then induce rural development in areas where WSS access often is set back compared to urban areas 1 . External financial support, called Official Development Assistance (ODA CI), plays a role in WSS improvement but comes last in the sensitivity analyses of models. An overall 47% of the Official Development Assistance goes first to poor countries, and is associated to governance aspects: (1) political stability and (2) country commitment to the environment and civil society degree of freedom. These governance aspects constitute a good framework for aid implementation in recipient countries. Modelling is run with the five groups of countries as defined in Dondeynaz et al. (2012). Models for profile 4 (essential external support) and profile 5 (primary material consumption) are specifically detailed and analysed in this paper. For countries in profile 4, fighting against water scarcity and progressing desertification should be the priority. However, for countries in profile 5, efforts should first concentrate on consolidation of political stability while supporting diversification of the economic activities. Nevertheless, for both profiles, reduction of poverty should remain the first priority as previously indicated. 1 JMP statistics, 2004 http://www.wssinfo.org/data-estimates/table/ , last access: 22 July 2013.

Despite the efforts made towards the Millennium Development Goals targets during the last decade, improved access to water supply or basic sanitation still remains unavailable for millions of people across the world. This paper proposes a set of models that use 25 key variables and country profiles from the WatSan4Dev data set involving water supply and sanitation (Dondeynaz et al., 2012). This paper suggests the use of Bayesian network modelling methods because they are more easily adapted to deal with non-normal distributions, and integrate a qualitative approach for data analysis. They also offer the advantage of integrating preliminary knowledge into the probabilistic models. The statistical performance of the proposed models ranges between 20 and 5% error rates, which are very satisfactory taking into account the strong heterogeneity of variables. Probabilistic scenarios run from the models allow an assessment of the relationships between human development, external support, governance aspects, economic activities and water supply and sanitation (WSS) access. According to models proposed in this paper, gaining a strong poverty reduction will require the WSS access to reach 75–76% through: (1) the management of ongoing urbanisation processes to avoid slums development; and (2) the improvement of health care, for instance for children. Improving governance, such as institutional efficiency, capacities to make and apply rules, or control of corruption is positively associated with WSS sustainable development. The first condition for an increment of the HDP (human development and poverty) remains of course an improvement of the economic conditions with higher household incomes. Moreover, a significant country commitment to the environment, associated with civil society freedom of expression constitutes a favourable setting for sustainable WSS services delivery. Intensive agriculture using irrigation practises also appears as a mean for sustainable WSS thanks to multi-uses and complementarities. With a WSS sector organised at national level, irrigation practices can support the structuring and efficiency of the agriculture sector. It may then induce rural development in areas where WSS access often is set back compared to urban areas1. External financial support, called Official Development Assistance (ODA CI), plays a role in WSS improvement but comes last in the sensitivity analyses of models. An overall 47% of the Official Development Assistance goes first to poor countries, and is associated to governance aspects: (1) political stability and (2) country commitment to the environment and civil society degree of freedom. These governance aspects constitute a good framework for aid implementation in recipient countries. Modelling is run with the five groups of countries as defined in Dondeynaz et al. (2012). Models for profile 4 (essential external support) and profile 5 (primary material consumption) are specifically detailed and analysed in this paper. For countries in profile 4, fighting against water scarcity and progressing desertification should be the priority. However, for countries in profile 5, efforts should first concentrate on consolidation of political stability while supporting diversification of the economic activities. Nevertheless, for both profiles, reduction of poverty should remain the first priority as previously indicated. 1 JMP statistics, 2004 http://www.wssinfo.org/data-estimates/table/, last access: 22 July 2013.

This is a conference paper. ; This paper deals with the development of an innovative webbased communication and information system tool for water practitioners in Developing Countries. We introduce briefly the functionalities implemented in the webbased Communication and Information System which allows the specialised users in the Water field to improve the network communication through a virtual webbased system. Two implementations have been developed for two communities: 1) the AQUAkNOW Information system (http://www.wkmp.net/new) for practitioners in the field; 2) the EUWI Communication and Information System (http://www.euwi.net/new) for policy makers in charge of the implementation of the European Union Water Initiative.

The hydrogenation of CO to methane was studied on Ni-sepiolite and Ni-todorokite catalysts. Catalytic testing and operando DRIFTS studies revealed the excellent performance of in particular todorokite-based catalysts. The catalytic activity is related to specific reaction pathways depending on the support material. Based on operando DRIFTS studies, different mechanisms are proposed for the methanation reaction. Over Ni-sepiolite catalysts, a dissociative adsorption of CO is observed. Linearly and bridged bonded CO on Ni was identified as intermediate. On Ni-todorokite this dissociative mechanism is accompanied by an associative one. Here, carbonate species were identified as additional intermediates, the formation of which is facilitated by the MnO support. The ability of Ni-todorokite catalysts to activate CO via a dissociative as well as an associative mechanism explains their excellent catalytic performance. The influence of the applied preparation method on the catalytic performance was demonstrated for the Ni-sepiolite catalysts. ; Financial support by the Spanish Government-MINECO (Project ENE2014-57651-R) is gratefully acknowledged. C. Cerdá-Moreno thanks the Spanish Government-MINECO for the predoctoral fellowship from "Severo Ochoa Program" (SVP-2014-068713). The authors thank H. Lund (LIKAT) for performing the XRD measurements and J. Rabeah (LIKAT) for the EPR measurement of sepiolite. The Electron Microscopy Service of the Universitat Politècnica de València is acknowledged for their help in sample characterization.