Coping with globalization: Asian versus Latin American strategies of development, 1980-2010

When compared to Latin America, Asian economies since 1980 have grown faster and have done so with relatively modest inequalities. Why? A comparison of Asia and Latin America underlines the superiority of the nationalist capitalist model of development, which has often been pursued more explicitly in Asia, over that of a dependent capitalist model, which has often been pursued in Latin America. In comparison to Latin America, the Asian model has facilitated higher and less volatile rates of economic growth and a greater political room to pursue social democratic policies. The "tap root" of these alternate pathways is relative autonomy from global constraints: states and economies in Asia have been more nationalist and autonomous than in Latin America.

Demographic determinants of survival of people living with HIV attending an outpatient reference unit in the city of Três Lagoas, state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, in the period 1984-2009

INTRODUCTION: While the incidence of HIV infection and AIDS is increasing in small Brazilian cities, epidemiological studies are often conducted in large urban centers. METHODS: Our group conducted a retrospective analysis of survival determinants among 358 patients who attended a reference unit in a small city. RESULTS: Death risk was lower among men that had sex with men, patients with an HIV-seropositive partner, and those admitted after highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) was available. CONCLUSIONS: The study documents the striking beneficial effect of HAART. The finding of other groups with improved survival may aid in the development of programmatic strategies.

Cloning and characterization of a V-ATPase subunit C from the American visceral leishmaniasis vector Lutzomyia longipalpis modulated during development and blood ingestion

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a serious tropical disease that affects approximately 500 thousand people worldwide every year. In the Americas, VL is caused by the parasite Leishmania (Leishmania) infantum chagasi mainly transmitted by the bite of the sand fly vector Lutzomyia longipalpis. Despite recent advances in the study of interaction between Leishmania and sand flies, very little is known about sand fly protein expression profiles. Understanding how the expression of proteins may be affected by blood feeding and/or presence of parasite in the vector's midgut might allow us to devise new strategies for controlling the spread of leishmaniasis. In this work, we report the characterization of a vacuolar ATPase subunit C from L. longipalpis by screening of a midgut cDNA library with a 220 bp fragment identified by means of differential display reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction analysis. The expression of the gene varies along insect development and is upregulated in males and bloodfed L. longipalpis, compared to unfed flies.

"I came from there (but no one warned me!)": reflections on people management policies that target intranational interculturality

The purpose of this article is to analyze how professionals who decided to risk intramobility in their careers and who were hired by organizations from the industrial complex of Camaçari (Bahia) perceive the development of people management strategies that target intranational interculturality within these organizations. To achieve this, besides a review and theoretical analysis of the concepts of mobility, intercultural management and people management in organizations, 13 professionals were interviewed who had moved from different Brazilian states to work in companies in this particular complex. The results indicate that generally organizations ignore intercultural aspects, which is reflected in a gap in people management strategies. One indication of this refers to the lack of initial support, which generates problems for the individuals who arrive with great expectations in their new workplace. Furthermore, there is evidence that the financial help provided is insufficient and it becomes necessary to pay attention also to subjective aspects that involve relocation and the consequent international interculturality. Finally, it is believed that expansion of the focus of studies on intercultural management, with a look at intranational aspects, makes it possible to learn theoretical and practical lessons because of the experiences of the players who underwent the process, since intercultural management and people management can generate comparative advantages for organizations.

Access, equity and social cohesion: evaluation of intersectoral strategies for people experiencing homelessness

Objective To understand and evaluate the work of intersectoral assistance on the insertion and the flow of people in situation of street with severe mental illness in public services of Mental Health. Method A case study developed from ten visits to a night shelter between March and April 2012. For data collection, the participant observation and semi-structured interviews were carried out with four sheltered individuals, as well as non-directive group interviews with five technicians of the social-assistance services. Results Were analyzed using Content Analysis and developing a Logic Model validated with the professionals involved. Conclusion The social assistance services are the main entry of this clientele in the public network of assistance services, and the Mental Health services have difficulty in responding to the specificities of the same clientele and in establishing intersectoral work.


Coping with genetic diversity: the contribution of pathogen and human genomics to modern vaccinology

Vaccine development faces major difficulties partly because of genetic variation in both infectious organisms and humans. This causes antigenic variation in infectious agents and a high interindividual variability in the human response to the vaccine. The exponential growth of genome sequence information has induced a shift from conventional culture-based to genome-based vaccinology, and allows the tackling of challenges in vaccine development due to pathogen genetic variability. Additionally, recent advances in immunogenetics and genomics should help in the understanding of the influence of genetic factors on the interindividual and interpopulation variations in immune responses to vaccines, and could be useful for developing new vaccine strategies. Accumulating results provide evidence for the existence of a number of genes involved in protective immune responses that are induced either by natural infections or vaccines. Variation in immune responses could be viewed as the result of a perturbation of gene networks; this should help in understanding how a particular polymorphism or a combination thereof could affect protective immune responses. Here we will present: i) the first genome-based vaccines that served as proof of concept, and that provided new critical insights into vaccine development strategies; ii) an overview of genetic predisposition in infectious diseases and genetic control in responses to vaccines; iii) population genetic differences that are a rationale behind group-targeted vaccines; iv) an outlook for genetic control in infectious diseases, with special emphasis on the concept of molecular networks that will provide a structure to the huge amount of genomic data.

Recombinant vaccines and the development of new vaccine strategies

Vaccines were initially developed on an empirical basis, relying mostly on attenuation or inactivation of pathogens. Advances in immunology, molecular biology, biochemistry, genomics, and proteomics have added new perspectives to the vaccinology field. The use of recombinant proteins allows the targeting of immune responses focused against few protective antigens. There are a variety of expression systems with different advantages, allowing the production of large quantities of proteins depending on the required characteristics. Live recombinant bacteria or viral vectors effectively stimulate the immune system as in natural infections and have intrinsic adjuvant properties. DNA vaccines, which consist of non-replicating plasmids, can induce strong long-term cellular immune responses. Prime-boost strategies combine different antigen delivery systems to broaden the immune response. In general, all of these strategies have shown advantages and disadvantages, and their use will depend on the knowledge of the mechanisms of infection of the target pathogen and of the immune response required for protection. In this review, we discuss some of the major breakthroughs that have been achieved using recombinant vaccine technologies, as well as new approaches and strategies for vaccine development, including potential shortcomings and risks.

Development of the endocrine pancreas and novel strategies for β-cell mass restoration and diabetes therapy

Diabetes mellitus represents a serious public health problem owing to its global prevalence in the last decade. The causes of this metabolic disease include dysfunction and/or insufficient number of β cells. Existing diabetes mellitus treatments do not reverse or control the disease. Therefore, β-cell mass restoration might be a promising treatment. Several restoration approaches have been developed: inducing the proliferation of remaining insulin-producing cells, de novo islet formation from pancreatic progenitor cells (neogenesis), and converting non-β cells within the pancreas to β cells (transdifferentiation) are the most direct, simple, and least invasive ways to increase β-cell mass. However, their clinical significance is yet to be determined. Hypothetically, β cells or islet transplantation methods might be curative strategies for diabetes mellitus; however, the scarcity of donors limits the clinical application of these approaches. Thus, alternative cell sources for β-cell replacement could include embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, and mesenchymal stem cells. However, most differentiated cells obtained using these techniques are functionally immature and show poor glucose-stimulated insulin secretion compared with native β cells. Currently, their clinical use is still hampered by ethical issues and the risk of tumor development post transplantation. In this review, we briefly summarize the current knowledge of mouse pancreas organogenesis, morphogenesis, and maturation, including the molecular mechanisms involved. We then discuss two possible approaches of β-cell mass restoration for diabetes mellitus therapy: β-cell regeneration and β-cell replacement. We critically analyze each strategy with respect to the accessibility of the cells, potential risk to patients, and possible clinical outcomes.