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Nowadays, an extra consumption of electric energy in the Colombian houses is generated due to electric or electronic elements plugged into the electric network. This fact produces a cost overrun in the user’s electricity bills. To reduce this extra cost, and also with a plus of reducing greenhouse gas emission, a monitoring system for the consumption of electric energy in a household will be designed and implemented to make electricity users realize how much money and energy is being wasted due to the unnecessary electric elements plugged into the network. This paper aims to show a monitoring system that allows the client to supervise the consumption of some appliances inside his/her home, remotely. It is also considered the HMI to be able to log in, choose the intervals of data and generate reports and graphics. The monitoring system is based on the integration of several technologies that are already used and implemented in houses and buildings, such as: measuring and treatment of data electronically using microcontrollers, Wi-Fi technology and dynamic graphic interface (website).

The methodology consists of several tasks, starting from documentation of the variables, instrumentation and methods for getting to the solution; the first part of the methodology focuses on selecting the electric and/or electronic elements to be monitored, so the instrumentation is able to monitor. Then, the power stage was implemented in this stage to measure signals from the sensors while sensing the electric nodes are adjusted, so does the transmission and reception. In the third stage, the design information system was implemented; this is where the received data from the sensors are stored and managed for further organization and visualization. Activities included the following: Analysis of the model of use cases: Identification of actors and actions that are involved in the system. Server selection: Study of the different server to manage the database. Design of the database: The variables, tables, fields, profiles are determined for managing the information. Connection between sensors and database: Correct data transmission and managing to the database from the sensors. Finally, the system is validated in a rural house for a month.

The monitoring system satisfies the main objective of making a tracing of the behavior of some appliances inside a house, showing graphically the instant current generated while connected, the cumulated energy consumed and the cost in Colombian pesos of the energy consumed so far, in real time.

The monitoring system requires the correct functioning of the sensors connected to each household appliance in the home.

The main approach in the monitoring platform is the real-time measurement of energy consumption by nodes (in each appliance) that allows the user to control the money. The innovative impact of the project will be based on the use of hardware and information systems in the measurement of electrical consumption.

This research has a direct impact on the economic aspects of the low-income population by allowing them to manage their energy consumption through the proposed system.

The main approach in the monitoring platform is the real-time measurement of energy consumption by nodes (in each appliance) that allows the user to control the money.

To investigate ethnic group differences in the utilization of preventive medical care services among U.S. Asian and Latino immigrant adults.

Using data from the 2002–2003 National Latino and Asian American Study, we examined whether differences exist in the reporting of any preventive physical care or dental/optician visit during the last year across Asian and Latino immigrant groups. Following, we applied Andersen’s (1995) Behavioral Model of Health Services Use to assess how ethnic disparities in preventive care use are a function of predisposing, enabling/impeding, and need-based factors.

Descriptive results showed that among Latinos, a much lower proportion of Mexican immigrants reported a preventive medical care visit during the last year than either Cuban or Puerto Rican immigrants. Asian immigrants show less variation in use, but significant differences still exist with Filipino immigrants reporting the highest level of use, followed by Vietnamese and then Chinese immigrants. Logistic regression models also indicated that predisposing characteristics, especially aspects of acculturation status, contribute strongly to ethnic group differences in preventive care use, while enabling/disabling and need-based characteristics are less important.

While studies of medical care use often treat Asians and Latinos as homogeneous groups, our findings illustrate the need for a more detailed view of the foreign-born population. Findings also highlight the role of acculturation status in shaping group differences in preventive medical care use – and as such, the importance of considering these differences when promoting the use of timely preventive care services among immigrant populations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine literature relating to water management on the Mexico-US border. It suggests avenues that may be valuable in improving cooperation in policy-making between the USA and Mexico on water management issues.

A review of the literature associated with water management on the border of Mexico and the USA is conducted in this paper. The studies are chosen from scholarly databases (pre-eminently EBSCOHost and JSTOR), and are chosen for their depth, authoritativeness of the authors involved, and because of the empirical and quantifiable data they present. The studies selected ranged from the mid-1990s to 2017.

The literature selected for review in this paper demonstrates that shared water resources must be managed in a combination of national and binational ways to lead to sustainability. In the border region, recent initiatives to resolve inequalities have emerged, including steps taken by North American Development Bank to purchase bonds as loans.

Historical approaches to policy have been moderately successful, but policy needs to be updated in line with current circumstances and requirements. There appears to be a misunderstanding of what is currently needed from policy. This paper identifies areas that need updated policy and makes policy recommendations.

Social left-wing political contestation and activism in Spain have undergone great changes over the past four years. First, there has been a shift from the 15-M movement that took over public plazas with its ambiguous claims basically related to radical democracy and rejection of institutional politics, to a new focus on social problems generated by the crisis, highlighting issues such as housing and cutbacks in social rights. Second, there has been a shift towards institutional politics in 2014. How should this recent whirlwind evolution in political contestation to status quo be understood? What is the relation between the changing material conditions of the population and the extremely shifting shape of left-wing militancy in Spain? The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The arguments put forward here are based on the authors’ involvement in social movements in the city of Seville between 2011 and the current time. They have been complemented with in-depth interviews of social activists who have taken part in the movements: 15-M assemblies, the housing movement, general strikes and, in more recent times, electoral initiatives (Podemos and Ganemos). The interviews were done between 2012 and 2014. The fieldwork has been complemented with an exploration of documentary sources: the manifests and writings of the various organisations that are being addressed.

In the transition from 15-M assemblies to the recent shift in electoral initiatives, social protest have turned from direct democracy demands and the rejection of institutionalised politics to a progressively pragmatic and short-term position where institutions are targeted. This paper argues that the generalised impoverishment of the population, increased numbers of evictions and consistently high unemployment rates have broadened the social framework for the action of social movements. The political and ideological crisis, rooted in the majority of the population’s crumbling expectations of social progress has enabled the array of possibilities to be opened up to emancipatory politics.

It is argued that massive deprivation provoked by the economic crisis has been a fundamental factor in the movements’ new orientation, what as a consequence, and until certain extent, throws the New Social Movements discourses into crisis itself, at least with regard to its post-materialistic nature and its opposition to institutions of the State.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.

Set in a Mexican-American community of a US Gulf Coast state, the purpose of this paper was to describe how three young siblings and their family members constructed their spiritual, ethnic and communicative identities within the context of a virtual family literacy program during COVID-19.

This project was approached as an illustrative case study that focused on one family’s engagement with a children’s book in which the protagonists retell the legend of the Catholic patroness of the Americas, Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The case study illustrates how the children's spiritual/religious identities were inseparably intertwined with their home literacy practices and their identities as communicators with others. The children’s everyday spiritual/religious practices, routines and activities motivated familial conversations and dialogue that engage and support children’s literacy development.

Although there is a large corpus of scholarship about secular early literacy program for families with preschool children, there are few that describe the recognition and inclusion of families’ spiritual/religious identities.

To identify the Obama administration’s policy responsiveness to the (African) American LGBT communities.

Theory development and content analysis.

Civic universalism, as a theory, can explain President Obama’s evolution on his support for marriage rights for same-sex couples. Obama employed the concept of e pluribus unum in his many approaches to LGBT responsive politics.

To date, theoretical development within the social sciences of LGBT policy responsiveness is limited.

Very little is written on the subject of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered) politics in the 21st century. The study of the LGBT experience generally has been devoid of political variables because of a lack of attention toward LGBT issues, until recently, in national political party agendas. In this chapter, we review some of the contours of the LGBT community’s fight for political recognition in the United States as a precursor to the election and reelection of President Obama. Drawing parallels with presidential responsiveness toward Blacks in their quest for rights, we examine the Obama administration’s LGBT public policy initiatives as administrative policy and programs. We conclude by identifying new areas of research to explore on LGBT politics.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a cereal bar supplemented with coffee beverage that has health benefits.

Six types of cereal bars containing raisins or prunes with different concentrations of coffee were developed. Acceptability tests and physicochemical characterizations were performed by analysis of moisture, ash, protein, lipids, fibres and carbohydrates. Moreover, the levels of phenolic compounds, the fatty acid profile and the in vitro antioxidant activity were evaluated by the DPPH free radical scavenging and iron-chelating activity methods. The bars were assessed using the check-all-that-apply (CATA) methodology. The phenolic compound and antioxidant activity data were evaluated by analysis of variance. Averages were compared by the Scott–Knott test. To verify the characteristics of the food bar per the attributes cited in CATA, main component analysis was performed using the SensoMaker software.

The concentration of coffee did not affect the centesimal composition values. The highest percentage of scavenging activity of free radicals was observed in the food bar containing raisins, with a maximum concentration of coffee beverage equivalent to 10 mL. These values were higher in cereal bars containing raisins than in bars containing prunes with the same concentrations of coffee. The acceptance sensory test showed good acceptability ratios, ranging from 74.33 to 85.22 among different food bar formulations.

The bar consisting raisins and 100 per cent coffee presented high values of protection against oxidative stress, phenolic content and satisfying acceptability, thereby making it a novel possible alternative as a differentiated product with possible health-beneficial effects.

This paper provides a differentiated product, through healthy ingredients, with convenience of purchase, besides having added value and possible health beneficial effects.

The bar consisting of raisins and 100 per cent coffee presented high values of phenolic content and protection against oxidative stress, as well as satisfying acceptability, thereby making it a novel possible alternative as a differentiated product with possible health-beneficial effects.