Plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 and plasminogen activator inhibitor 2 in various disease states.

The association of increased PA-inhibitor (PAI) activity and of PAI-1 and PAI-2 antigen levels with different pathological conditions was studied in a collective of over 300 patients. PAI-1 and PAI-2 levels were measured by specific radioimmunoassays. A good correlation was observed of PAI activity with PAI-1 antigen (r = 0.718; p less than 0.0001) but not with PAI-2 (r = 0.070; n.s.). Both in the controls and in the patients, PAI activity and PAI-1 antigen showed an extremely large range of values. PAI activity ranged from 0.5 to 68 U/ml and PAI-1 antigen from 6 to 600 ng/ml. Increased PAI activity and PAI-1 antigen was observed in patients with malignant tumors, cardiovascular or thromboembolic disease, in the postoperative phase, with hepatic insufficiency, after trauma and after extracorporeal circulation. The large spectrum of disease states with increased PAI activity and PAI-1 antigen reinforces previous suggestions that PAI-1 is an acute phase reactant. After extracorporeal circulation, PAI activity and PAI-1 concentrations strongly increased within one hour, remained elevated for at least one week and returned to preoperation values within 7 days. PAI-2 values ranged from below detection limit (15 ng/ml), observed in half of the plasmas, to 485 ng/ml in a pregnant woman. High values of PAI-2 were only observed in pregnancy.

SELEÇÃO E RECOMENDAÇÃO DE VARIEDADES DE MAMOEIRO: AVALIAÇÃO DE LINHAGENS E HÍBRIDOS

O centro de origem do mamoeiro é, muito provavelmente, o Noroeste da América do Sul - vertente oriental dos Andes, mais precisamente a Bacia Amazônica Superior - onde a diversidade genética é máxima, o que o caracteriza como uma planta tipicamente tropical. Embora o Brasil seja o maior produtor mundial, toda a área de produção comercial é implantada quase que exclusivamente com dois grupos de cultivares, Havaí e Formosa, evidenciando uma base genética muito estreita. Este trabalho teve por objetivo avaliar linhagens e híbridos adaptados às condições edafoclimáticas das principais regiões produtoras, com ênfase para resistência a doenças, procedendo avaliação agronômica dos principais genótipos promissores de mamão, a fim de identificar aqueles mais adaptados a diferentes agroecossistemas do País. Os acessos do Banco Ativo de Germoplasma de Mamão apresentaram grande variabilidade genética para os caracteres peso, comprimento e diâmetro de frutos, passível de ser explorada em programas de melhoramento genético. A análise de planta híbrida em relação aos parentais indica a possibilidade de modificações genéticas de caracteres comercialmente importantes, a exemplo de altura de inserção da primeira flor funcional, altura da planta, ocorrência de carpeloidia e peso de frutos. Em adição, a partir de avaliações compreendendo 125 acessos do Banco Ativo de Germoplasma de Mamão (BAG-Mamão) da Embrapa Mandioca e Fruticultura, observou-se que, em relação à Phytophthora spp. os acessos CMF 001, CMF 053, CMF 062, CMF 081, e CMF 089 são moderadamente tolerantes, e os acessos CMF 002, CMF 007, CMF 033, CMF 060, CMF 065, CMF 070, CMF 071, CMF 083 e CMF 101 apresentam nível maior de tolerância. Estes acessos estão sendo utilizados em trabalhos de melhoramento genético, visando à obtenção de linhagens resistentes e/ou tolerantes ao fungo.

MANAGING STRATEGIC CHANGE:New Business Models Applying Wireless Technology as a Source of Competitive Edge

The diffusion of mobile telephony began in 1971 in Finland, when the first car phones, called ARP1 were taken to use. Technologies changed from ARP to NMT and later to GSM. The main application of the technology, however, was voice transfer. The birth of the Internet created an open public data network and easy access to other types of computer-based services over networks. Telephones had been used as modems, but the development of the cellular technologies enabled automatic access from mobile phones to Internet. Also other wireless technologies, for instance Wireless LANs, were also introduced. Telephony had developed from analog to digital in fixed networks and allowed easy integration of fixed and mobile networks. This development opened a completely new functionality to computers and mobile phones. It also initiated the merger of the information technology (IT) and telecommunication (TC) industries. Despite the arising opportunity for firms' new competition the applications based on the new functionality were rare. Furthermore, technology development combined with innovation can be disruptive to industries. This research focuses on the new technology's impact on competition in the ICT industry through understanding the strategic needs and alternative futures of the industry's customers. The change speed inthe ICT industry is high and therefore it was valuable to integrate the DynamicCapability view of the firm in this research. Dynamic capabilities are an application of the Resource-Based View (RBV) of the firm. As is stated in the literature, strategic positioning complements RBV. This theoretical framework leads theresearch to focus on three areas: customer strategic innovation and business model development, external future analysis, and process development combining these two. The theoretical contribution of the research is in the development of methodology integrating theories of the RBV, dynamic capabilities and strategic positioning. The research approach has been constructive due to the actual managerial problems initiating the study. The requirement for iterative and innovative progress in the research supported the chosen research approach. The study applies known methods in product development, for instance, innovation process in theGroup Decision Support Systems (GDSS) laboratory and Quality Function Deployment (QFD), and combines them with known strategy analysis tools like industry analysis and scenario method. As the main result, the thesis presents the strategic innovation process, where new business concepts are used to describe the alternative resource configurations and scenarios as alternative competitive environments, which can be a new way for firms to achieve competitive advantage in high-velocity markets. In addition to the strategic innovation process as a result, thestudy has also resulted in approximately 250 new innovations for the participating firms, reduced technology uncertainty and helped strategic infrastructural decisions in the firms, and produced a knowledge-bank including data from 43 ICT and 19 paper industry firms between the years 1999 - 2004. The methods presentedin this research are also applicable to other industries.

Audiencia, publicidad y medios

La investigación de audiencias nació a principios del siglo pasado y comenzó con la radio, pionera como medio de comunicación de masas y precursora de la televisión, cuya aparición, al igual que ocurre hoy día con la televisión digital e Internet, revolucionó en gran medida las costumbres de la población. En este artículo se comenta cómo se mide el consumo televisio (audimetría) así como algunos datos estadísticos acerca de la inversión publicitaria en los distintos medios de comunicación.

La investigación de mercados, audiencias y estadística

La investigación de mercados es una herramienta cada vez más utilizada y necesaria en la gestión de todo tipo de empresas u organizaciones. Se basa en metodologías que utilizan técnicas estadísticas y sus resultados son de gran ayuda para la toma de decisiones empresariales. Desgraciadamente, en ocasiones no se tienen en cuenta determinados aspectos o detalles que pueden inducir a falsas conclusiones, en especial cuando se desconocen los fundamentos teóricos sobre las técnicas más frecuentemente utilizadas. En esta exposición, breve resumen de la ponencia impartida en las “III Jornadas de Comunicación”, se exponen las bases estadísticas de la investigación de mercados aplicada a la investigación de medios, y, en particular, a la investigación de las audiencias de televisión. Los puntos que se comentarán son los siguientes:  La investigación de mercados: su necesidad y utilidad  La investigación de medios aplicada a la televisión: la audimetría  La teoría de muestreo y las audiencias: conceptos básicos  Conclusiones

La mesura de l'ús dels mitjans catalans, una qüestió pendent

Encara que en els darrers anys el nombre de mitjans de comunicació en català ha augmentat, es desconeix exactament l'impacte que aquest creixement ha tingut en el consum. Es planteja la problemàtica de la manca d'eines per a mesurar el consum i/o audiència dels mitjans de comunicació locals i comarcals.

Chemotherapy and radiotherapy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma: an update of the MAC-NPC meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: A previous individual patient data meta-analysis by the Meta-Analysis of Chemotherapy in Nasopharynx Carcinoma (MAC-NPC) collaborative group to assess the addition of chemotherapy to radiotherapy showed that it improves overall survival in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. This benefit was restricted to patients receiving concomitant chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The aim of this study was to update the meta-analysis, include recent trials, and to analyse separately the benefit of concomitant plus adjuvant chemotherapy. METHODS: We searched PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Controlled Trials meta-register, ClinicalTrials.gov, and meeting proceedings to identify published or unpublished randomised trials assessing radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy in patients with non-metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma and obtained updated data for previously analysed studies. The primary endpoint of interest was overall survival. All trial results were combined and analysed using a fixed-effects model. The statistical analysis plan was pre-specified in a protocol. All data were analysed on an intention-to-treat basis. FINDINGS: We analysed data from 19 trials and 4806 patients. Median follow-up was 7·7 years (IQR 6·2-11·9). We found that the addition of chemotherapy to radiotherapy significantly improved overall survival (hazard ratio [HR] 0·79, 95% CI 0·73-0·86, p<0·0001; absolute benefit at 5 years 6·3%, 95% CI 3·5-9·1). The interaction between treatment effect (benefit of chemotherapy) on overall survival and the timing of chemotherapy was significant (p=0·01) in favour of concomitant plus adjuvant chemotherapy (HR 0·65, 0·56-0·76) and concomitant without adjuvant chemotherapy (0·80, 0·70-0·93) but not adjuvant chemotherapy alone (0·87, 0·68-1·12) or induction chemotherapy alone (0·96, 0·80-1·16). The benefit of the addition of chemotherapy was consistent for all endpoints analysed (all p<0·0001): progression-free survival (HR 0·75, 95% CI 0·69-0·81), locoregional control (0·73, 0·64-0·83), distant control (0·67, 0·59-0·75), and cancer mortality (0·76, 0·69-0·84). INTERPRETATION: Our results confirm that the addition of concomitant chemotherapy to radiotherapy significantly improves survival in patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma. To our knowledge, this is the first analysis that examines the effect of concomitant chemotherapy with and without adjuvant chemotherapy as distinct groups. Further studies on the specific benefits of adjuvant chemotherapy after concomitant chemoradiotherapy are needed. FUNDING: French Ministry of Health (Programme d'actions intégrées de recherche VADS), Ligue Nationale Contre le Cancer, and Sanofi-Aventis.

Five-year outcome of catheter ablation of persistent atrial fibrillation using termination of atrial fibrillation as a procedural endpoint.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to determine 5-year efficacy of catheter ablation for persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) using AF termination as a procedural end point. METHODS AND RESULTS: One hundred fifty patients (57±10 years) underwent persistent AF ablation using a stepwise ablation approach (pulmonary vein isolation, electrogram-guided, and linear ablation) with the desired procedural end point being AF termination. Repeat ablation was performed for recurrent AF or atrial tachycardia. AF was terminated by ablation in 120 patients (80%). Arrhythmia-free survival rates after a single procedure were 35.3%±3.9%, 28.0%±3.7%, and 16.8%±3.2% at 1, 2, and 5 years, respectively. Arrhythmia-free survival rates after the last procedure (mean 2.1±1.0 procedures) were 89.7%±2.5%, 79.8%±3.4%, and 62.9%±4.5%, at 1, 2, and 5 years, respectively. During a median follow-up of 58 (interquartile range, 43-73) months after the last ablation procedure, 97 of 150 (64.7%) patients remained in sinus rhythm without antiarrhythmic drugs. Another 14 (9.3%) patients maintained sinus rhythm after reinitiation of antiarrhythmic drugs, and an additional 15 (10.0%) patients regressed to paroxysmal recurrences only. Failure to terminate AF during the index procedure (hazard ratio 3.831; 95% confidence interval, 2.070-7.143; P<0.001), left atrial diameter ≥50 mm (hazard ratio 2.083; 95% confidence interval, 1.078-4.016; P=0.03), continuous AF duration ≥18 months (hazard ratio 1.984; 95% confidence interval, 1.024-3.846; P<0.04), and structural heart disease (hazard ratio 1.874; 95% confidence interval, 1.037-3.388; P=0.04) predicted arrhythmia recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with persistent AF, an ablation strategy aiming at AF termination is associated with freedom from arrhythmia recurrence in the majority of patients over a 5-year follow-up period. Procedural AF nontermination and specific baseline factors predict long-term outcome after ablation.

Avaliação dos padrões de dose em radiologia pediátrica

Neste trabalho avaliou-se o produto dose área e estimou-se a dose na entrada da pele em exames pediátricos, cujos resultados mostraram valores, em média, 100% acima do adotado como referência para a realização deste trabalho (0,070 mGy). Simultaneamente, fez-se a aferição dos parâmetros técnicos dos equipamentos usados para a obtenção das imagens radiográficas. Os resultados revelaram que o desempenho dos equipamentos está de acordo com a legislação sanitária vigente. Logo, as doses elevadas foram atribuídas ao emprego de técnicas de baixa tensão e à falta de especialização para a realização de exames pediátricos. Realizaram-se medidas das doses absorvidas na região gonadal durante as exposições radiográficas utilizando-se dosímetros termoluminescentes, que se mostraram inadequados para a obtenção destas medidas. Usou-se então uma câmara de ionização e os valores obtidos revelaram que as doses absorvidas sobre a região gonadal estão abaixo dos limites que poderiam causar esterilidade temporária ou permanente.

Microstructure of the superior longitudinal fasciculus predicts stimulation-induced interference with on-line motor control.

A cortical visuomotor network, comprising the medial intraparietal sulcus (mIPS) and the dorsal premotor area (PMd), encodes the sensorimotor transformations required for the on-line control of reaching movements. How information is transmitted between these two regions and which pathways are involved, are less clear. Here, we use a multimodal approach combining repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to investigate whether structural connectivity in the 'reaching' circuit is associated to variations in the ability to control and update a movement. We induced a transient disruption of the neural processes underlying on-line motor adjustments by applying 1Hz rTMS over the mIPS. After the stimulation protocol, participants globally showed a reduction of the number of corrective trajectories during a reaching task that included unexpected visual perturbations. A voxel-based analysis revealed that participants exhibiting higher fractional anisotropy (FA) in the second branch of the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF II) suffered less rTMS-induced behavioral impact. These results indicate that the microstructural features of the white matter bundles within the parieto-frontal 'reaching' circuit play a prominent role when action reprogramming is interfered. Moreover, our study suggests that the structural alignment and cohesion of the white matter tracts might be used as a predictor to characterize the extent of motor impairments.

La Representación de la mujer en la prensa internacional online durante la Primavera Árabe en Egipto

El presente trabajo de investigación tiene como objetivo principal analizar la representación del papel de la mujer egipcia en la organización y participación en la primavera árabe en Egipto. Por medio del análisis de contenido aplicado a los titulares e imágenes publicados durante un periodo deteminado de las revueltas sociales en los periódicos The New York Times, Le Monde y El Mundo en su versión on line. Concluyendo se puede indicar que la representación internacional de la mujer egipcia durante las revueltas desde el año 2011, ha sido insuficiente y además sirvió a los medios de comunicación hasta cierto punto como medida de estereotipar la situación social de la mujer.

Periodismo deportivo en España : estudio del tratamiento del concepto de imparcialidad en las noticias relacionadas con el fútbol en los diarios Marca, As, Mundo Deportivo y Sport

Este trabajo se trata sobre el tratamiento del concepto de imparcialidad en las noticias sobre el fútbol en los diarios deportivos españoles. El enfoque se pone en analizar una serie de noticias relacionadas con los partidos entre el R. Madrid y el Barça en los diarios deportivos Marca, As, Mundo Deportivo y Sport. El objetivo de esta investigación es presentar la situación actual de la prensa escrita española sobre el deporte desde la perspectiva de la objetividad periodística.

Estado de los diarios digitales en República Dominicana : enero-julio, 2014

La presente investigación analiza la situación de los medios digitales en la República Dominicana, con el objetivo de realizar una serie de recomendaciones para la mejora de estos medios online emergentes. Se persigue cambiar la percepción que los medios digitales tienen que estar escudados en grandes cabeceras, estos pueden ser autónomos y completamente digitales sin la necesidad de una versión impresa del mismo. También hay que considerar que el Ciberperiodista debe contar con ciertas destrezas y habilidades para la administración de estos diarios digitales.

Comunicación, identidad y fútbol: la relación entre el Barça y la sociedad barcelonesa

Análisis de la importancia del Barça como una institución nacionalista. Por su identidad especial que lo ha convertido en un símbolo importante dentro de Cataluña, como un puente entre deporte y sociedad, deporte y política.

La Transformación del periodismo tradicional en el nuevo entorno digital

Esta investigación se centra en comparar las diferencias existentes entre el periodismo tradicional y el periodismo ciudadano, tanto desde un punto de vista teórico como desde un punto de vista práctico, analizando la situación actual en la que el periodismo tradicional se está transformando a consecuencia del nuevo entorno digital. Proponemos descubrir el cambio provocado por Internet y las nuevas tecnologías en las formas y estructuras de la comunicación, reflexionar sobre la situación actual del periodismo tradicional y conocer las nueves posibilidades del periodismo ciudadano. La investigación consiste en un estudio de caso explorativo donde se hace una comparación entre The New York Times y The Huffington Post, que respectivamente representan las características del periodismo tradicional y ciudadano. Los resultados muestran que el periodismo tradicional se ha quedado atrás de sus rivales por sus ideas estereotipadas, falta de innovación e insuficiente oferta de interacción para sus lectores. De este modo, consideramos que el periodismo tradicional debe replantearse seriamente una transformación profunda para adaptarse a esta nueva situación.