Estudo de um programa de atividades fisicas adaptadas ao portador de asma bronquica : efeitos com relação a manifestação de crises de broncoespasmo

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física

Benign focal seizures of adolescence and neuropsychological findings in patients from community

RATIONALE: Benign focal seizures of adolescence (BFSA) described by Loiseau et al in 1972, is considered a rare entity, but maybe underdiagnosed. Although mild neuropsychological deficits have been reported in patients with benign epilepsies of childhood, these evaluations have not so far been described in BFSA. The aim of this study is to evaluate neuropsychological functions in BFSA with new onset seizures (<12 months). METHODS: Eight patients with BFSA (according to Loiseau et al, 1972, focal or secondarily tonic clonic generalized seizures between the ages of 10-18 yrs., normal neurologic examination, normal EEG or with mild focal abnormalities) initiated in the last 12 months were studied between July 2008 to May 2009. They were referred from the Pediatric Emergency Section of the Hospital Universitário of the University of Sao Paulo, a secondary care regionalized facility located in a district of middle-low income in Sao Paulo city, Brazil. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Institution. All patients performed neurological, EEG, brain CT and neuropsychological evaluation which consisted of Raven's Special Progressive Matrices - General and Special Scale (according to different ages), Wechsler Children Intelligence Scale-WISC III with ACID Profile, Trail Making Test A/B, Stroop Test, Bender Visuo-Motor Test, Rey Complex Figure, Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test-RAVLT, Boston Naming Test, Fluency Verbal for phonological and also conceptual patterns - FAS/Animals and Hooper Visual Organization Test. For academic achievement, we used a Brazilian test for named "Teste do Desempenho Escolar", which evaluates abilities to read, write and calculate according to school grade. RESULTS: There were 2 boys and 6 girls, with ages ranging from 10 yrs. 9 m to 14 yrs. 3 m. Most (7/8) of the patients presented one to two seizures and only three of them received antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). Six had mild EEG focal abnormalities and all had normal brain CT. All were literate, attended regular public schools and scored in a median range for IQ, and seven showed discrete higher scores for the verbal subtests. There were low scores for attention in different modalities in six patients, mainly in alternated attention as well as inhibitory subtests (Stroop test and Trail Making Test part B). Four of the latter cases who showed impairment both in alternated and inhibitory attention were not taking AEDs. Visual memory was impaired in five patients (Rey Complex Figure). Executive functions analysis showed deficits in working memory in five, mostly observed in Digits Indirect Order and Arithmetic tests (WISC III). Reading and writing skills were below the expected average for school grade in six patients according to the achievement scholar performance test utilized. One patient of this series who had the best scores in all tests was taking phenobarbital. CONCLUSIONS: Neuropsychological imbalance between normal IQ and mild dysfunctions such as in attention domain and in some executive abilities like working memory and planning, as well as difficulties in visual memory and in reading and writing, were described in this group of patients with BFSA from community. This may reflect mild higher level neurological dysfunctions in adolescence idiopathic focal seizures probably caused by an underlying dysmaturative epileptogenic process. Although academic problems often have multiple causes, a specific educational approach may be necessary in these adolescents, in order to improve their scholastic achievements, helping in this way, to decrease the stigma associated to epileptic seizures in the community.

Performance of european socially responsible funds during market crises: evidence from France

This paper investigates the performance, investment styles andmanagerial abilities of French socially responsible investment (SRI) funds investing in Europe during crisis and non-crisis periods. Our results show that SRI funds significantly underperformcharacteristics-matched conventional funds during non-crisis periods, but match the performance of their peers duringmarket downturns. The underperformance of SRI funds during good economic states is driven by funds that use negative screens, since funds that use only positive screens performsimilarly to conventional funds across differentmarket conditions. SRI and conventional funds showsignificant differences in risk exposures during non-crisis periods but exhibit much more similar investment styles during crises. Furthermore,we find little evidence of significant differences inmanagerial abilities during bad economic states. Yet, during non-crisis periods, SRI and conventional fund managers exhibit significantly different style-timing abilities and these differences are also related to screening strategies.

Earnings management and economic crises in the brazilian capital market

The 2008 economic crisis challenged accounting, either demanding recognition and measurement criteria well adjusted to this scenario or even questioning its ability to inform appropriately entities' financial situation before the crisis occurred. So, our purpose was to verify if during economic crises listed companies in the Brazilian capital market tended to adopt earnings management (EM) practices. Our sample consisted in 3,772 firm-years observations, in 13 years - 1997 to 2009. We developed regression models considering discretionary accruals as EM proxy (dependent variable), crisis as a macroeconomic factor (dummy variable of interest), ROA, market-to-book, size, leverage, foreign direct investment (FDI) and sector as control variables. Different for previous EM studies two approaches were used in data panel regression models and multiple crises were observed simultaneously. Statistics tests revealed a significant relation between economic crisis and EM practices concerning listed companies in Brazil in both approaches used.

Chaos and crises in a model for cooperative hunting: A symbolic dynamics approach

In this work we investigate the population dynamics of cooperative hunting extending the McCann and Yodzis model for a three-species food chain system with a predator, a prey, and a resource species. The new model considers that a given fraction sigma of predators cooperates in prey's hunting, while the rest of the population 1-sigma hunts without cooperation. We use the theory of symbolic dynamics to study the topological entropy and the parameter space ordering of the kneading sequences associated with one-dimensional maps that reproduce significant aspects of the dynamics of the species under several degrees of cooperative hunting. Our model also allows us to investigate the so-called deterministic extinction via chaotic crisis and transient chaos in the framework of cooperative hunting. The symbolic sequences allow us to identify a critical boundary in the parameter spaces (K, C-0) and (K, sigma) which separates two scenarios: (i) all-species coexistence and (ii) predator's extinction via chaotic crisis. We show that the crisis value of the carrying capacity K-c decreases at increasing sigma, indicating that predator's populations with high degree of cooperative hunting are more sensitive to the chaotic crises. We also show that the control method of Dhamala and Lai [Phys. Rev. E 59, 1646 (1999)] can sustain the chaotic behavior after the crisis for systems with cooperative hunting. We finally analyze and quantify the inner structure of the target regions obtained with this control method for wider parameter values beyond the crisis, showing a power law dependence of the extinction transients on such critical parameters.

Reputação: um elemento diferenciador e protector face a crises organizacionais

Propõe-se, neste trabalho de investigação, explorar as disciplinas de Gestão de Reputação e de Gestão de Comunicação de Crise, de modo a enquadrar a reputação como um activo de valor, que protege uma organização quando esta enfrenta uma crise. O projecto de dissertação é dividido em duas partes. Uma revisão bibliográfica que constitui um campo teórico de base e um estudo de caso, sobre a crise financeira de 2008, que procura explorar o efeito da reputação num contexto real de crise. Este trabalho sugere, ao nível teórico, que a reputação pode funcionar como um escudo protector de uma organização, quando esta enfrenta uma crise, e suporta esta mesma ideia empiricamente, através da investigação realizada.

Potenciais evocados auditivos de média latência em adultos com epilepsia

Introdução Os potenciais evocados auditivos de média latência (PEAML) reflectem actividade neuronal mesencefáfica, mais precisamente da região tálamo-cortical, dos colículos inferiores e da formação reticular. A epilepsia é caracterizada por variadas manifestações anormais do comportamento cerebral, sendo descrita como uma perturbação da função cerebral, tendo origem numa descarga anómala de um conjunto ou da totalidade dos neurónios do córtice cerebral. Está documentado, que as descargas eléctricas provocadas pelas crises de epilepsia podem levar a perdas neuronais, pelo que poderão existir alterações nos PEAML. Objectivos A escassa existência de literatura sobre o tema e a não investigação na população portuguesa, originou a execução deste estudo, que teve como objectivo investigar e documentar a existência de alterações ou achados nos componentes neuronais de média latência (PEAML), numa amostra de portugueses com epilepsia. Metodologia Foram realizados PEAML a um grupo de controlo (GC) composto por 16 participantes e a um grupo clínico (GCL) de 8 participantes com epilepsia, sendo analisados os componentes Na, Pa e Na-Pa quanto à sua morfologia, latência e amplitude. Resultados A morfologia das ondas e a presença de epilepsia não estão associados, no entanto, contrariamente ao GC que evidenciou latências e amplitudes de Na, Pa e Na-Pa dentro dos padrões de normalidade, a alteração ou ausência de respostas por parte do GCL é significativa na totalidade das medidas investigadas. Conclusão Em epilepsias generalizadas e focais do lobo temporal os PEAML evidenciam alterações, tal achado poderá ser eventualmente justificado pela propagação ascendente e descendente da informação auditiva se encontrar comprometida, devido a sequelas deixadas pelas crises epilépticas nas vias auditivas mesencefálicas. As alterações verificadas foram uma morfologia anómala das ondas ou ausência das mesmas.

Correlação da tractografia por DTI com imagem funcional em epilepsia

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Biomédica

The impact of the 2008 and 2010 financial crises on international stock markets : contagion and long memory

Nesta tese estudamos os efeitos de contágio financeiro e de memória longa causados pelas crises financeiras de 2008 e 2010 em alguns mercados acionistas internacionais. A tese é composta por três ensaios interligados. No Ensaio 1, recorremos à teoria das cópulas para testar a existência de contágio e revelar os canais “investor induced” de transmissão da crise de 2008 aos mercados da Bélgica, França, Holanda e Portugal (grupo NYSE Euronext). Concluímos que existe contágio nestes mercados, que o canal “portfolio rebalancing” é o mecanismo mais importante de transmissão da crise, e que o fenómeno “flight to quality” está presente nos mercados. No Ensaio 2, usando novamente modelos de cópulas, avaliamos os efeitos de contágio provocados pelo mercado acionista grego nos mercados do grupo NYSE Euronext, no contexto da crise de 2010. Os resultados obtidos sugerem que durante a crise de 2010 apenas o mercado português foi objeto de contágio; além disso, conclui-se que os efeitos de contágio provocados pela crise de 2008 são claramente superiores aos efeitos provocados pela crise de 2010. No Ensaio 3, abordamos o tema da memória longa através do estudo do expoente de Hurst dos mercados acionistas da Bélgica, E.U.A., França, Grécia, Holanda, Japão, Reino Unido e Portugal. Verificamos que as propriedades de memória longa dos mercados foram afetadas pelas crises, especialmente a de 2008 – que aumentou a memória longa dos mercados e tornou-os mais persistentes. Finalmente, usando cópulas mais uma vez, verificamos que as crises provocaram, em geral, um aumento na correlação entre os expoentes de Hurst locais dos mercados foco das crises (E.U.A. e Grécia) e os expoentes de Hurst locais dos outros mercados da amostra, sugerindo que o expoente de Hurst pode ser utilizado para detetar efeitos de contágio financeiro. Em síntese, os resultados desta tese sugerem que comparativamente com períodos de acalmia, os períodos de crises financeiras tendem a provocar ineficiência nos mercados acionistas e a conduzi-los na direção da persistência e do contágio financeiro.

Work and citizenship: crises and alternatives

Enterprise and Work Innovation Studies, 5