Regional economic specialization and population redistribution as mechanisms of African underdevelopment

Includes bibliography

Engaging environments: Tacit knowledge sharing on the shop floor

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify factors that facilitate tacit knowledge sharing in unstructured work environments, such as those found in automated production lines. Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on a qualitative approach, and it draws data from a four-month field study at a blown-molded glass factory. Data collection techniques included interviews, informal conversations and on-site observations, and data were interpreted using content analysis. Findings: The results indicated that sharing of tacit knowledge is facilitated by an engaging environment. An engaging environment is supported by shared language and knowledge, which are developed through intense communication and a strong sense of collegiality and a social climate that is dominated by openness and trust. Other factors that contribute to the creation of an engaging environment include managerial efforts to provide appropriate work conditions and to communicate company goals, and HRM practices such as the provision of formal training, on-the-job training and incentives. Practical implications: This paper clarifies the scope of managerial actions that impact knowledge creation and sharing among blue-collar workers. Originality/value: Despite the acknowledgement of the importance of blue-collar workers' knowledge, both the knowledge management and operations management literatures have devoted limited attention to it. Studies related to knowledge management in unstructured working environments are also not abundant. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

América Latina y la Estrategia Internacional del Desarrollo: primera evaluación regional = Latin America and the International Development Strategy: first regional appraisal

Incluye Bibliografía

Macroeconomics and regional integration: EMU and the stability programmes: some possible lessons for Latin America

Includes bibliography

Cooperación e integración regional en la reactivación y en el desarrollo: el papel de la planificación = Regional co-operation and integration in revival and development: the role of planning

Incluye Bibliografía

Anteproyecto de Plan de Acción Regional Latinoamericano y del Caribe sobre Población y Desarrollo = Preliminary draft of the Regional Latin American and Caribbean Plan of Action on Population and Development

Incluye Bibliografía

Preliminary draft of the Regional Latin American and Caribbean Plan of Action on Population and Development

Includes bibliography

An Intercomparison of Regional Atmospheric Circulation and the Melt Season Loss of Arctic Snow Cover and Sea Ice Extent Across the Land-Ocean Boundary

This study is designed to compare the monthly continental snow cover and sea ice extent loss in the Arctic with regional atmospheric conditions including: mean sea level pressure, 925 hPa air temperature, and mean wind direction among others during the melt season (March-August) over the 29-year study period 1979-2007. Little research has gone into studying the concurrent variations in the annual loss of continental snow cover and sea ice extent across the land-ocean boundary, since these data are largely stored in incompatible formats. However, the analysis of these data, averaged spatially over three autonomous study regions located in Siberia, North America, and Western Russia, reveals a distinct difference in the response of snow and sea ice to the atmospheric forcing. On average, sea ice extent is lost earlier in the year, in May, than snow cover, in June, although Arctic sea ice is located farther north than continental snow in all three study regions. Once the loss of snow and ice extent begins, snow cover is completely removed sooner than sea ice extent, even though ice loss begins earlier in the melt season. Further, the analysis of the atmospheric conditions surrounding loss of snow and ice cover over the independent study regions indicates that conditions of cool temperatures with strong northeasterly winds in the later melt season months are effective at removing sea ice cover, likely through ice divergence, as are warmer temperatures via southerly winds directly forcing melt. The results of this study set the framework for further analysis of the direct influence of snow cover loss on later melt season sea ice extents and the predictability of snow and sea ice extent responses to modeled future climate conditions

The workers role in knowledge management and sustainability policies

Based on the concepts of sustainability and knowledge management, this article seeks to identify points of contact between the two themes through an exploratory study of existing literature. The first objective is to find, in international literature, the largest number of papers jointly related to the theme of knowledge management and sustainability. In these documents, the authors looked at the kind of relationship existing between the two themes and what the benefits introduced in organizations are. Based on an ergonomic point of view, the second objective of this article is to analyze the role of the worker (whether at the strategic or operational level) and his importance in this context. The results demonstrate that there is very little literature that addresses the two themes together. The few papers found, however, can be said to show the many advantages of introducing sustainability policies supported by adequate knowledge management. Very little has been studied with regards to the role of workers, which could be interpreted as meaning that little importance is given to the proactive role they may play. On the other hand, there is a high potential for future research in these areas, based on the high level of consideration of workers in knowledge management and sustainability literature, as well as in literature in the areas of ergonomics and sociology.

SOCIAL POLICY AS REGIONAL POLICY: MARKET AND NONMARKET FACTORS DETERMINING REGIONAL INEQUALITY

We decompose the recent changes in regional inequality in Brazil into its components, highlighting the role of spatially blind social programs. We aggregate personal income micro data to the state level, differentiating nine income sources, and assess the role of these components in the observed changes in regional inequality indicators. The main results indicate that the largest part of the recent reduction in regional inequality is related to the dynamics of the market-related labor income, with manufacturing and services favoring deconcentration. Labor income in agriculture, retirement and pensions, and property rents and other sources favored concentration. The social programs Bolsa Familia and Beneficios de Prestacao Continuada are responsible for more than 24 percent of the reduction in inequality, although they account for less than 1.7 percent of the disposable household income. Such positive impact on regional concentration is impressive, since the goals of the programs are clearly nonspatial.

Relationship Between Regional Brain Volumes and Cognitive Performance in the Healthy Aging: An MRI Study Using Voxel-Based Morphometry

The presence of cognitive impairment is a frequent complaint among elderly individuals in the general population. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between aging-related regional gray matter (rGM) volume changes and cognitive performance in healthy elderly adults. Morphometric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures were acquired in a community-based sample of 170 cognitively-preserved subjects (66 to 75 years). This sample was drawn from the "Sao Paulo Ageing and Health" study, an epidemiological study aimed at investigating the prevalence and risk factors for Alzheimer's disease in a low income region of the city of Sao Paulo. All subjects underwent cognitive testing using a cross-culturally battery validated by the Research Group on Dementia 10/66 as well as the SKT (applied on the day of MRI scanning). Blood genotyping was performed to determine the frequency of the three apolipoprotein E allele variants (APOE epsilon 2/epsilon 3/epsilon 4) in the sample. Voxelwise linear correlation analyses between rGM volumes and cognitive test scores were performed using voxel-based morphometry, including chronological age as covariate. There were significant direct correlations between worse overall cognitive performance and rGM reductions in the right orbitofrontal cortex and parahippocampal gyrus, and also between verbal fluency scores and bilateral parahippocampal gyral volume (p < 0.05, familywise-error corrected for multiple comparisons using small volume correction). When analyses were repeated adding the presence of the APOE epsilon 4 allele as confounding covariate or excluding a minority of APOE epsilon 2 carriers, all findings retained significance. These results indicate that rGM volumes are relevant biomarkers of cognitive deficits in healthy aging individuals, most notably involving temporolimbic regions and the orbitofrontal cortex.