Promoting corporate social responsibility in small and medium enterprises in the Caribbean: methodology report

Incluye Bibliografía

Promoting corporate social responsibility in small and medium enterprises in the Caribbean: survey results

Includes bibliography

Evaluation of metals in water and sediments of micro-basins in the city of Americana, São Paulo state, Brazil

Water pollution found in major rivers in Brazil has its origin from urban sewage discharges and industrial effluent, carried out by small streams and rivers crossing cities. Therefore, studies related to hydrographic micro-basins offer the opportunity to establish environmental management strategies for restoring water resources, based on diagnosis of the water quality. Despite this understanding, few studies in urban and rural areas have been performed in a systematic manner in Brazilian micro-basins. The main goal of this research was to diagnose the water resources in micro-basins in the region of the district of Americana, São Paulo state, Brazil, through the quantification of metals in water and sediment. The methodology was based on the investigation of metals (Ba, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn), in four micro-basins, determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The most significant result showed high concentration levels of chromium (969 μg L-1), downstream of the discharge of sewage from the city of Nova Odessa. This concentration in the river was above the allowed limit of Brazilian regulation agency (50 μg L-1 for Cr). Also high levels of Cr were found in the sediment (98.9 μg g-1) collected at the same monitored site. These results are important indicators of environmental performance and anthropogenic activities to help the government establish environmental management strategies aimed at the reduction of water pollution. © 2013 WIT Press.

Fact Findings and Lessons Learned from the Comparative Study on Information Techonology (IT) Usage by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Latin America and Asia

ECLACs International Trade and Integration Division (DCII) will launch the book titled Information Technology for Development of Small and Medium-sized Exporters in Latin America and East Asia in the end of September 2005. The report provides an overview of the present condition of Information Technology (IT) and its use to promote international trade. It focuses on the experiences of IT usage by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Latin American and Asian-Pacific regions, with a special focus on SME exporters in the 13 researched countries, that were selected from the Forum for East Asia - Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC) member countries. This issue of the FAL bulletin is produced based on the executive summary of the book.

New product development in brazilian technology-based small and medium enterprises

This article examines new product development (NPD) in small and medium-sized Brazilian enterprises (SMEs) in two technology-based industries: medical devices and process control automation devices. A conceptual model that categorizes factors that contribute to the success of a new product was established. The data were collected from a sample of 62 Brazilian SMEs. The conceptual model was tested to examine the relationships between NPD practices and new product success. Data analysis reveals that new product success in medical device companies is related to organizational characteristics such as NPD proficiency and marketing skills; while in process control automation device companies, they deal in a large degree with product differentiation, innovation and capability to analyze the targeted market. Due to the relatively small sample size, caution should be exercised when interpreting the results.

Micro and Macro Causes of Violence

The dominant emotion in violence-threatening situations is confrontational tension/fear (ct/f), which causes most violence to abort, or to be carried out inaccurately and incompetently. For violence to be successful, there must be a pathway around the barrier of ct/f. These pathways include: attacking the weak; audience-oriented staged and controlled fair fights; confrontation-avoiding remote violence; confrontation-avoiding by deception; confrontation-avoiding by absorption in technique. Successfully violent persons, on both sides of the law, are those who have developed these skilled interactional techniques. Since successful violence involves dominating the emotional attention space, only a small proportion of persons can belong to the elite which does most of each type of violence. Macro-violence, including victory and defeat in war, and in struggles of paramilitaries and social movements, is shaped by both material resources and social/emotional resources for maintaining violent organizations and forcing their opponents into organizational breakdown. Social and emotional destruction generally precedes physical destruction.

Development of micro-electrospray mass spectrometry for ultra high sensitivity and application in the study of drugs of abuse on endogenous \lbrack Met\rbrack $\sp5$-enkephalin release

A micro-electrospray interface was developed specifically for the neurobiological applications described in this dissertation. Incorporation of a unique nano-flow liquid chromatography micro-electrospray "needle" into the micro-electrospray interface (micro-ES/MS) increased the sensitivity of the mass spectrometric assay by $\sim$1000 fold and thus permitted the first analysis of specific neuroactive compounds in brain extracellular fluid collected by in vivo microdialysis (Md).^ Initial in vivo data presented deals with the pharmacodynamics of a novel GABA$\sb{\rm B}$ antagonist and the availability of the compound in its parent (unmetabolized) form to the brain of the anesthetized rat. Next, the first structurally specific endogenous release of (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin was demonstrated in unanesthetized freely-moving animals (release of $\sim$6.5 fmole of (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin into the dialysate by direct neuronal depolarization). The Md/micro-ES/MS system was used to test the acute effects of drugs of abuse on the endogenous release of (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin from the globus pallidus/ventral pallidum brain region in rats. Four drugs known to be abused by man (morphine, cocaine, methamphetamine and diazepam) were tested. Morphine and cocaine both elicited a two-fold or more increase in the release of (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin over vehicle controls. Diazepam elicited a small decrease in (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin levels and methamphetamine showed no significant effect on (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin. These results imply that (Met) $\sp5$-enkephalin may be involved in the reward pathway of certain drugs of abuse. ^

Prophylactic antibiotics or G(M)-CSF for the prevention of infections and improvement of survival in cancer patients receiving myelotoxic chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND Febrile neutropenia (FN) and other infectious complications are some of the most serious treatment-related toxicities of chemotherapy for cancer, with a mortality rate of 2% to 21%. The two main types of prophylactic regimens are granulocyte (macrophage) colony-stimulating factors (G(M)-CSF) and antibiotics, frequently quinolones or cotrimoxazole. Current guidelines recommend the use of colony-stimulating factors when the risk of febrile neutropenia is above 20%, but they do not mention the use of antibiotics. However, both regimens have been shown to reduce the incidence of infections. Since no systematic review has compared the two regimens, a systematic review was undertaken. OBJECTIVES To compare the efficacy and safety of G(M)-CSF compared to antibiotics in cancer patients receiving myelotoxic chemotherapy. SEARCH METHODS We searched The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, databases of ongoing trials, and conference proceedings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Society of Hematology (1980 to December 2015). We planned to include both full-text and abstract publications. Two review authors independently screened search results. SELECTION CRITERIA We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing prophylaxis with G(M)-CSF versus antibiotics for the prevention of infection in cancer patients of all ages receiving chemotherapy. All study arms had to receive identical chemotherapy regimes and other supportive care. We included full-text, abstracts, and unpublished data if sufficient information on study design, participant characteristics, interventions and outcomes was available. We excluded cross-over trials, quasi-randomised trials and post-hoc retrospective trials. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Two review authors independently screened the results of the search strategies, extracted data, assessed risk of bias, and analysed data according to standard Cochrane methods. We did final interpretation together with an experienced clinician. MAIN RESULTS In this updated review, we included no new randomised controlled trials. We included two trials in the review, one with 40 breast cancer patients receiving high-dose chemotherapy and G-CSF compared to antibiotics, a second one evaluating 155 patients with small-cell lung cancer receiving GM-CSF or antibiotics.We judge the overall risk of bias as high in the G-CSF trial, as neither patients nor physicians were blinded and not all included patients were analysed as randomised (7 out of 40 patients). We considered the overall risk of bias in the GM-CSF to be moderate, because of the risk of performance bias (neither patients nor personnel were blinded), but low risk of selection and attrition bias.For the trial comparing G-CSF to antibiotics, all cause mortality was not reported. There was no evidence of a difference for infection-related mortality, with zero events in each arm. Microbiologically or clinically documented infections, severe infections, quality of life, and adverse events were not reported. There was no evidence of a difference in frequency of febrile neutropenia (risk ratio (RR) 1.22; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.53 to 2.84). The quality of the evidence for the two reported outcomes, infection-related mortality and frequency of febrile neutropenia, was very low, due to the low number of patients evaluated (high imprecision) and the high risk of bias.There was no evidence of a difference in terms of median survival time in the trial comparing GM-CSF and antibiotics. Two-year survival times were 6% (0 to 12%) in both arms (high imprecision, low quality of evidence). There were four toxic deaths in the GM-CSF arm and three in the antibiotics arm (3.8%), without evidence of a difference (RR 1.32; 95% CI 0.30 to 5.69; P = 0.71; low quality of evidence). There were 28% grade III or IV infections in the GM-CSF arm and 18% in the antibiotics arm, without any evidence of a difference (RR 1.55; 95% CI 0.86 to 2.80; P = 0.15, low quality of evidence). There were 5 episodes out of 360 cycles of grade IV infections in the GM-CSF arm and 3 episodes out of 334 cycles in the cotrimoxazole arm (0.8%), with no evidence of a difference (RR 1.55; 95% CI 0.37 to 6.42; P = 0.55; low quality of evidence). There was no significant difference between the two arms for non-haematological toxicities like diarrhoea, stomatitis, infections, neurologic, respiratory, or cardiac adverse events. Grade III and IV thrombopenia occurred significantly more frequently in the GM-CSF arm (60.8%) compared to the antibiotics arm (28.9%); (RR 2.10; 95% CI 1.41 to 3.12; P = 0.0002; low quality of evidence). Neither infection-related mortality, incidence of febrile neutropenia, nor quality of life were reported in this trial. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS As we only found two small trials with 195 patients altogether, no conclusion for clinical practice is possible. More trials are necessary to assess the benefits and harms of G(M)-CSF compared to antibiotics for infection prevention in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.

Surgery for Stage IIIA Non-Small-cell Lung Cancer: Lack of Predictive and Prognostic Factors Identifying Any Subgroup of Patients Benefiting From It.

Although a trimodality regimen for patients with stage IIIA/pN2 non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has been variably used owing to limited evidence for its benefits, it remains unknown whether any patient subgroup actually receives benefit from such an approach. To explore this question, the published data were reviewed from 1990 to 2015 to identify the possible predictors and prognosticators in this setting. Overall survival was the endpoint of our study. Of 27 identified studies, none had studied the predictors of improved outcomes with trimodality treatment. Of the potential patient- and tumor-related prognosticators, age, gender, and histologic type were the most frequently formally explored. However, none of the 3 was found to influence overall survival. The most prominent finding of the present review was the substantial lack of data supporting a trimodality treatment approach in any patient subgroup. As demonstrated in completed prospective randomized studies, the use of surgery for stage IIIA NSCLC should be limited to well-defined clinical trials.

Genetic composition, genetic diversity, and small-scale environmental variation matter for the experimental reintroduction of a rare plant

Aims Reintroduction has become an important tool for the management of endangered plant species. We tested the little-explored effects of small-scale environmental variation, genotypic composition (i.e. identity of genotypes), and genotypic diversity on the population survival of the regionally rare clonal plant Ranunculus reptans. For this species of periodically inundated lakeshores genetic differentiation had been reported between populations and between short-flooded and long-flooded microsites within populations.Methods We established 306 experimental test populations at a previously unoccupied lake shore, comprising either monocultures of 32 genotypes, mixtures of genotypes within populations or mixtures of genotypes between populations. In 2000, three years after planting out at the experimental site, a long-lasting flood caused the death of half of the experimental populations. In 2003, an extreme drought resulted in the lowest summer water levels ever measured.Important findings Despite these climatic extremes, 27 of the established populations survived until the end of the experiment in December 2003. The success of experimental populations largely differed between microsites. Moreover, the success of genotype monocultures depended on genotype and source population. Genetic differentiation between microsites played a minor role for the success of reintroduction. After the flood, populations planted with genotypes from different source populations increased in abundance, whereas populations with genotypes from single source populations and genotype monocultures decreased. We conclude that sources for reintroductions need to be selected carefully. Moreover, mixtures of plants from different populations appear to be the best choice for successful reintroduction, at least in unpredictably varying environments.

Neighbourhood abundance and small-tree survival in a lowland Bornean rainforest

Conspecific effects of neighbours on small-tree survival may have a role in tree population dynamics and community composition of tropical forests. This notion was tested with data from two 4-ha plots in lowland forest at Danum, Sabah (Borneo), for a 21-year interval (censuses at 1986, 1996, 2001, 2007). Species with ≥45 focal trees 10 to <100 cm stem girth per plot in 1986 were selected. Logistic regressions fitted mean focal tree size and mean inverse-distance-weighted basal area abundance of neighbours (within 20 m), for the periods over which each focus tree was alive. Coefficients of variation of neighbourhood basal area abundance, both spatially and temporally, quantified the changing environment of each focus tree. Fits were critically and individually evaluated, with corrections for spatial autocorrelation. Conspecific effects at Danum was generally very weak or non-existent: species’ mortality rates varied also across plots. The main reasons appear to be that (1) species were not dense enough to interact despite frequent although weak spatial aggregation, and their neighbourhoods were highly differing in species composition; and (2) these neighbourhoods were highly variable temporally, meaning that focus trees experienced stochastically fluctuating neighbourhood environments. Only one species, Dimorphocalyx muricatus, showed strong conspecific effects (varying between plots) which can be explained by its distinct ecology. This understorey species is highly aggregated on ridges and is drought-tolerant. That this functionally and habitat-specialized species, has implied intraspecific density-dependent feedback in its dynamics is a remarkable indication of the overall processes maintaining stability of the Danum forest.

Seawater carbonate chemistry, length and survival of Inland silverside, Menidia beryllina, during experiments, 2012

Absorption of anthropogenic carbon dioxide by the world's oceans is causing mankind's 'other CO2 problem', ocean acidification. Although this process will challenge marine organisms that synthesize calcareous exoskeletons or shells, it is unclear how it will affect internally calcifying organisms, such as marine fish. Adult fish tolerate short-term exposures to CO2 levels that exceed those predicted for the next 300 years (~2,000 ppm), but potential effects of increased CO2 on growth and survival during the early life stages of fish remain poorly understood. Here we show that the exposure of early life stages of a common estuarine fish (Menidia beryllina) to CO2 concentrations expected in the world's oceans later this century caused severely reduced survival and growth rates. When compared with present-day CO2 levels (~400 ppm), exposure of M. beryllina embryos to ~1,000 ppm until one week post-hatch reduced average survival and length by 74% and 18%, respectively. The egg stage was significantly more vulnerable to high CO2-induced mortality than the post-hatch larval stage. These findings challenge the belief that ocean acidification will not affect fish populations, because even small changes in early life survival can generate large fluctuations in adult-fish abundance.

Financing Small and Medium Enterprises in Myanmar

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) share the biggest part in Myanmar economy in terms of number, contribution to employment, output, and investment. Myanmar economic growth is thus totally dependent on the development of SMEs in the private sector. Today, the role of SMEs has become more vital in strengthening national competitive advantage and the speedy economic integration into the ASEAN region. However, studies show that SMEs have to deal with a number of constraints that hinder their development potential, such as the shortage in power supply, unavailability of long-term credit from external sources and many others. Among them, the financing problem of SMEs is one of the biggest constraints. Such is deeply rooted in demand and supply issues, macroeconomic fundamentals, and lending infrastructure of the country. The government’s policy towards SMEs could also lead to insufficient support for the SMEs. Thus, focusing on SMEs and private sector development as a viable strategy for industrialization and economic development of the country is a fundamental requirement for SME development. This paper recommends policies for stabilizing macro economic fundamentals, improving lending infrastructures of the country and improving demand- and supply-side conditions from the SMEs financing perspective in order to provide a more accessible financing for SMEs and to contribute in the overall development of SMEs in Myanmar thereby to sharpen national competitive advantage in the age of speedy economic integration.

Survival probability of round and tape tethers against debris impact

The current space environment, consisting of manmade debris and micrometeoroids, poses a risk to safe operations in space, and the situation is continuously deteriorating due to in-orbit debris collisions and to new satellite launches. Bare electrodynamic tethers can provide an efficient mechanism for rapid deorbiting of satellites from low Earth orbit at end of life. Because of its particular geometry (length very much larger than cross-sectional dimensions), a tether may have a relatively high risk of being severed by the single impact of small debris. The rates of fatal impact of orbital debris on round and tape tethers of equal length and mass, evaluated with an analytical approximation to debris flux modeled by NASA’s ORDEM2000, shows much higher survival probability for tapes. A comparative numerical analysis using debris flux model ORDEM2000 and ESA’s MASTER2005 validates the analytical result and shows that, for a given time in orbit, a tape has a probability of survival of about one and a half orders of magnitude higher than a round tether of equal mass and length. Because deorbiting from a given altitude is much faster for the tape due to its larger perimeter, its probability of survival in a practical sense is quite high.

The Big BIM battle: BIM adoption in the UK for large and small companies

As BIM adoption continues, the goal of a totally collaborative model with multiple contributors is attainable. Many initiatives such as the 2016 UK government level 2 BIM deadline are putting pressure on the construction industry to speed up the changeover. Clients and collaborators have higher expectations of using digital 3D models to communicate design ideas and solve practical problems. Contractors and clients are benefitting from cost saving scheduling and clash detection offered by BIM. Effective collaboration on the project will also give speed and efficiency gains. Despite this, many businesses of varying sizes are still having problems. The cost of the software and the training provides an obvious barrier for micro-enterprises and could explain a delay in adoption. Many studies have looked at these problems faced by SME and micro-enterprises. Larger companies have different problems. The efforts made by government to encourage them are quite comprehensive, but is anything being done to help smaller sectors and keep the industry cohesive? This limited study examines several companies of varying size and varying project type: architectural design businesses, main contractor, structural engineer and building consultancy. The study examines the barriers to a truly collaborative BIM workflow facing different specialities on a larger project and a contrasting small/medium project. The findings will establish that different barriers for each sector are actually pushing further apart, thus potentially creating a BIM-only construction elite, leaving the small companies remaining on 2D based drawing.