Chronic hepatitis C virus infections in Brazilian patients: association with genotypes, clinical parameters and response to long term alpha interferon therapy

The present study assessed the clinical significance of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes and their influence on response to long term recombinant-interferon-alpha (r-IFN-a) therapy in Brazilian patients. One hundred and thirty samples from patients previously genotyped for the HCV and with histologically confirmed chronic hepatitis C (CH-C) were evaluated for clinical and epidemiological parameters (sex, age, time of HCV infection and transmission routes). No difference in disease activity, sex, age or mode and time of transmission were seen among patients infected with HCV types 1, 2 or 3. One hundred and thirteen of them were treated with 3 million units of r-IFN-a, 3 times a week for 12 months. Initial response (IR) was significantly better in patients with genotype 2 (100%) and 3 (46%) infections than in patients with genotype 1 (29%) (p < 0.005). Among subtypes, difference in IR was observed between 1b and 2 (p < 0.005), and between 1b and 3a (p < 0.05). Sustained response (SR) was observed in 12% for (sub)type 1a, 13% for 1b, 19% for 3a, and 40% for type 2; significant differences were found between 1b and 2 (p < 0.001), and between 1b and 3a (p < 0.05). Moreover, presence of cirrhosis was significantly associated with non response and response with relapse (p < 0.05). In conclusion, non-1 HCV genotype and lack of histological diagnosis of cirrhosis were the only baseline features associated with sustained response to treatment. These data indicate that HCV genotyping may have prognostic relevance in the responsiveness to r-IFN-a therapy in Brazilian patients with chronic HCV infection, as seen in other reports worldwide.

Positive solutions to find a job: Cultural mismatches between companies and employees

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Estudo da influência cultural no Design de Calçado

Dissertação de mestrado em Design e Marketing

Novos poderes: Cidadania / ativismo digitais e tactical media

Cidadania digital. Ativismo na net. Redes de cidadãos: Projeto 1: Interesses dos cidadãos e redes sociais. Movimentos sociais: Projeto 2: Movimentos sociais na rede; Mobilizaçao online: Manuel Castells. Ação política online. Media táticos (tactical media); Reflexão sobre os media táticos: Geert Lovink. Táticas dos media táticos. Ação direta virtual de massa (Mass Virtual Direct Action – MVDA). Desobediência civil eletrónica (Electronic Civil Desobedience - ECD). Guerras da (des)informação (Infowar).

L'autonomie fait-elle l'agence ?

Le modèle de l'agence et le phénomène d'agentification du service public correspondant au cours de ces deux dernières décennies s'inscrit à l'origine dans les réformes associées à la Nouvelle Gestion Publique, dans une visée d'amélioration de la performance du secteur public, par une plus grande efficacité managériale (eg Pollitt et al., 2001). Le modèle est basé sur une logique contractuelle: l'autorité politique attribue un mandat à l'agence, l'agence délivre les prestations attendues ; celle-ci est ensuite contrôlée sur ses résultats. Afin de délivrer les prestations de manière efficiente et efficace, l'agence doit bénéficier d'une latitude et flexibilité substantielle dans l'utilisation de ces ressources, c'est-à-dire d'un affranchissement (partiel) des règles et procédures bureaucratiques (eg Bouckaert, 2003).

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D'une manière très synthétique, une agence est une entité publique qui bénéficie d'une certaine autonomie dans l'exécution des tâches qui lui sont assignées. La création d'agences ne constitue pas un phénomène nouveau au niveau de l'administration car de telles entités existent depuis très longtemps en Suisse comme dans d'autres pays. En revanche, leur nombre a augmenté très sensiblement dans les pays membres de l'Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques (OCDE) depuis les années 1980, consécutivement à une forte tendance à l'externalisation de l'exécution de tâches publiques (Pollitt et al. 2001; OCDE 2002; Pollitt et Bouckaert 2004; Verhoest et al. 2011).

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Vereinfach dargestellet, ist eine Agency eine öffentliche Einheit, die bei der Ausübung der ihr zugewiesenen Aufgaben über eine gewisse Autonomie verfügt. Die Bildung von Agencies ist bei den Verwaltungen kein neues Phänomen. Solche Einheiten existieren in der Schweiz und in anderen Ländern seit langer Zeit. Deren Anzahl ist in den Ländern der Organisation für Wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (OECD) seit den 1980-er Jahren jedoch stark angewachsen, als Folge eines ausgeprägten Trends hin zu einer Auslagerung von öffentlichen Aufgaben ( Pollitt et al. 2011; OCDE 2002; Pollitt und Bouckaert 2004; Verhoest et al. 2011). Die mit dem Begriff Agency bezeichneten öffentlichen Aufgabenträger unterscheiden sich zum Teil jedoch stark - sowohl in Bezug auf ihre Autonomie wie auch in Bezug auf ihre Rechtsform und ihre Aufgaben, was Schwierigkeiten bei der Erfassung und der Analyse dieser Organisationen der Ausführung von öffentlichen Aufgaben mit sich bringt

A century of global equity market correlations

In this paper, we use a unique long-run dataset of regulatory constraints on capital account openness to explain stock market correlations. Since stock returns themselves are highly volatile, any examination of what drives correlations needs to focus on long runs of data. This is particularly true since some of the short-term changes in co-movements appear to reverse themselves (Delroy Hunter 2005). We argue that changes in the co-movement of indices have not been random. Rather, they are mainly driven by greater freedom to move funds from one country to another. In related work, Geert Bekaert and Campbell Harvey (2000) show that equity correlations increase after liberalization of capital markets, using a number of case studies from emerging countries. We examine this pattern systematically for the last century, and find it to be most pronounced in the recent past. We compare the importance of capital account openness with one main alternative explanation, the growing synchronization of economic fundamentals. We conclude that greater openness has been the single most important cause of growing correlations during the last quarter of a century, though increasingly correlated economic fundamentals also matter. In the conclusion, we offer some thoughts on why the effects of greater openness appear to be so much stronger today than they were during the last era of globalization before 1914.

The summer North Atlantic Oscillation in CMIP3 models and related uncertainties in projected summer drying in Europe

This paper discusses uncertainties in model projections of summer drying in the Euro-Mediterranean region related to errors and uncertainties in the simulation of the summer NAO (SNAO). The SNAO is the leading mode of summer SLP variability in the North Atlantic/European sector and modulates precipitation not only in the vicinity of the SLP dipole (northwest Europe) but also in the Mediterranean region. An analysis of CMIP3 models is conducted to determine the extent to which models reproduce the signature of the SNAO and its impact on precipitation and to assess the role of the SNAO in the projected precipitation reductions. Most models correctly simulate the spatial pattern of the SNAO and the dry anomalies in northwest Europe that accompany the positive phase. The models also capture the concurrent wet conditions in the Mediterranean, but the amplitude of this signal is too weak, especially in the east. This error is related to the poor simulation of the upper-level circulation response to a positive SNAO, namely the observed trough over the Balkans that creates potential instability and favors precipitation. The SNAO is generally projected to trend upwards in CMIP3 models, leading to a consistent signal of precipitation reduction in NW Europe, but the intensity of the trend varies greatly across models, resulting in large uncertainties in the magnitude of the projected drying. In the Mediterranean, because the simulated influence of the SNAO is too weak, no precipitation increase occurs even in the presence of a strong SNAO trend, reducing confidence in these projections.

Perusyksikön päällikön mahdollisuudet luoda organisaatiokulttuuria

Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan perusyksikön päällikön mahdollisuuksia luoda organisaatiokulttuuria palveluksensa aloittaville alokkaille. Tutkimus on aiempiin tutkimuksiin ja kirjallisuuteen perustuva systemaattinen kirjallisuuskatsaus. Tutkimuksen teoreettisen viitekehyksen muodostavat Geert Hofsteden ja Edgar Scheinin teoriat kulttuurista ja organisaatiokulttuurista. Hofsteden teoria ei kuvaa erityisesti organisaatiokulttuuria, vaan se kuvaa kulttuuria yleisesti. Tutkimuksessa vertaillaan Hofsteden ja Scheinin teorioita ja todennetaan täten Hofsteden teorian käyttökelpoisuus organisaatiokulttuurin tutkimisessa. Perusyksikön organisaatiokulttuuria eritellään tutkimuksessa Hofsteden teorian näkökulmasta. Organisaatiokulttuurin erittelyllä pyritään selvittämään kulttuurin rakentumista perusyksikössä ja tätä kautta löytämään vaikuttamiskeinoja alokkaiden organisaatiokulttuurin muodostumiseen. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan myös perusyksikön organisaatiota ja sen henkilöstöä, sekä perusyksikön päällikön johtamiskeinoja organisaatiokulttuurin luomisessa. Organisaatiokulttuurin luominen voidaan aloittaa määrittämällä arvo, joka kulttuuriin halutaan istuttaa. Kulttuuripiirteen juurruttaminen alokkaille aloitetaan puhumalla asiasta ja perustelemalla sen merkitys. Koulutustilanteet muotoillaan tukemaan haluttua arvoa. Perusyksikön johtajat sitoutetaan päämääriin ja heidän on toimittava esimerkillisesti toteutettavan arvon suhteen. Arvon mukaisesti toimineita henkilöitä palkitaan ja nostetaan esille. Kokonaisuutena tämä kaikki vaatii perusyksikön päälliköltä huolellista suunnittelua, ohjaamista ja käskemistä. Geert Hofsteden teorian avulla tuotettu näkökulma on käyttökelpoinen perusyksikön organisaatiokulttuurin tutkimisessa. Tutkimuksessa onnistuttiin tuottamaan yleinen katsaus perusyksikön päällikön mahdollisuuksista luoda organisaatiokulttuuria alokkaille.

Vegetational history and geochronology of several sites in South Southwestern Ontario with discussion on mastodon extinction in Southern Ontario /

This study has three purposes: to establish a chronologically controlled vegetational history for a number of sites in south Southwestern Ontario; to utilize the resulting data to support and/or add to the current understanding of Quaternary geology and stratigraphy, and the glacial and postglacial history of the Great Lakes in south Southwestern Ontario; and to attempt to propose a possible explanation for the extinction of the mastodon in Southern Ontario. Palynological and geochronological analyses were conducted on material collected from eleven sites (east to west): Verbeke Mastodon Site, Woloshko Mastodon Site, Walker Pond II, Pond Mills I, Lake Hunger Bog, Bouckaert Site. Mabee Site, Cornell Bog. Colles Lake I, Folden Mastodon Site and Forest Pond. Individual geochronologically controlled (where possible) vegetational histories were reconstructed for each of the sites investigated. The results of the individual studies, when considered in overview. indicated the existance of an established closed boreal forest throughout south Southwestern Ontario by 10,000 years B.P. This evidence for a significant climatic change coincident throughout south Southwestern Ontario supports the proposed age of 10,000 years B.P. for the Pleistocene/Holocene Boundary (Terasmae, 1972). Remnant patches of 'open spruce parkland' persisted in small local 'wet' areas. It was in these areas that the mastodon was restricted during early Holocene time. With continued encroachment by the surrounding boreal forest, possibly speeded up by this browser's destructive feeding habits, the spruce enclaves shrank and the mastodon became extinct in south Southwestern Ontario. The results of this thesis basically support Dreimanis' (1967, 1968) proposed 'Environmental-Climatic' theory for mastodon extinction. It is suggested that increased dryness during the present interglacial compared to the climate of earlier interglacials may be the key to unravelling the problem of mastodon extinction in eastern North America.

Ethnic minority parents' and teachers' orientation on collaboration between home and school : strategies and contexts

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n. Resumen tambi??n en ingl??s