NRS State Data Quality Standards Checklist, 2002

The NRS state data quality standards identify the policies, processes and materials that states and local programs should have in place to collect valid and reliable data for the National Reporting System (NRS). The Division of Adult Education (DAEL) within the Office of Vocational and Adult Education developed the standards to define the characteristics of high quality state and local data collection systems for the NRS. The standards provide an organized way for DAEL to understand the quality of NRS data collection within the states and also provide guidance to states on how to improve their systems. States are to complete this checklist, which incorporates the standards, with their annual NRS data submission to rate their level of implementation of the standards. The accompanying policy document describes DAEL’s requirements for state conformance to the standards and explains the use of the information from this checklist.

The Recent International and Regulatory Decisions about Geographical Indications, 2007

As worldwide consumer demand for high-quality products and for information about these products increases, labels and geographical indications (GIs) can serve to signal quality traits to consumers. However, GI systems among countries are not homogeneous and can be used as trade barriers against competition. Philosophical differences between the European Union and the United States about how GIs should be registered and protected led to the formation of a WTO dispute settlement panel. In this paper we discuss the issues behind the dispute, the World Trade Organization (WTO) panel decision, and the EU response to the panel decision leading to the new Regulation 510/2006. Given the potential for GI labels to supply consumer information, context is provided for the discussion using recent literature on product labeling. Implications are drawn regarding the importance of the panel decision and the EU response relative to GI issues yet to be negotiated under the Doha Round.

Standards Culturais: Brasil X Portugal

A Cultura pode ser definida de várias maneiras e cada autor tem uma visão própria do termo mas, genericamente, cultura pode ser entendida como o conjunto de características humanas que não são inatas e que se criam, preservam ou aprimoram com o convívio na sociedade, com a comunicação e cooperação entre indivíduos. Os membros de uma sociedade não estão conscientes dos seus valores culturais e somente percebem estes valores quando entram em “choque” com uma cultura diferente. Estas diferenças culturais podem criar confusões e mal-entendidos. As culturas Portuguesa e a Brasileira parecem ser bastante semelhantes: a mesma língua, as mesmas crenças, religião predominantemente católica e alimentos similares. Porém, apesar das semelhanças, e após entrevistas de carácter narrativo, observou-se nestas duas culturas características próprias e que muitas vezes foram necessárias adaptações para uma melhor integração na sociedade. Esta tese de mestrado é uma análise das diferenças culturais entre Portugal e Brasil e tem por objectivo encontrar standards culturais de ambos os países podendo ser um instrumento de ajuda para aqueles que vêm do Brasil para Portugal, e vice-versa, para trabalharem ou abrirem uma empresa. Os standards culturais encontrados, após análise comparativa, estão relacionados com a maneira de ver a vida, de ultrapassar os problemas e pressões do dia a dia, com colectivismo, hierarquia, simpatia, preocupação com o cliente, ansiedade face à incerteza e profissionalismo. Este trabalho termina com a identificação dos standards culturais e com dicas para aqueles que saem do seu país e recomeçam a sua vida noutro com cultura diferente

RsmY, a small regulatory RNA, is required in concert with RsmZ for GacA-dependent expression of biocontrol traits in Pseudomonas fluorescens CHA0.

In the plant-beneficial soil bacterium and biocontrol model organism Pseudomonas fluorescens CHA0, the GacS/GacA two-component system upregulates the production of biocontrol factors, i.e. antifungal secondary metabolites and extracellular enzymes, under conditions of slow, non-exponential growth. When activated, the GacS/GacA system promotes the transcription of a small regulatory RNA (RsmZ), which sequesters the small RNA-binding protein RsmA, a translational regulator of genes involved in biocontrol. The gene for a second GacA-regulated small RNA (RsmY) was detected in silico in various pseudomonads, and was cloned from strain CHA0. RsmY, like RsmZ, contains several characteristic GGA motifs. The rsmY gene was expressed in strain CHA0 as a 118 nt transcript which was most abundant in stationary phase, as revealed by Northern blot and transcriptional fusion analysis. Transcription of rsmY was enhanced by the addition of the strain's own supernatant extract containing a quorum-sensing signal and was abolished in gacS or gacA mutants. An rsmA mutation led to reduced rsmY expression, via a gacA-independent mechanism. Overexpression of rsmY restored the expression of target genes (hcnA, aprA) to gacS or gacA mutants. Whereas mutants deleted for either the rsmY or the rsmZ structural gene were not significantly altered in the synthesis of extracellular products (hydrogen cyanide, 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol, exoprotease), an rsmY rsmZ double mutant was strongly impaired in this production and in its biocontrol properties in a cucumber-Pythium ultimum microcosm. Mobility shift assays demonstrated that multiple molecules of RsmA bound specifically to RsmY and RsmZ RNAs. In conclusion, two small, untranslated RNAs, RsmY and RsmZ, are key factors that relieve RsmA-mediated regulation of secondary metabolism and biocontrol traits in the GacS/GacA cascade of strain CHA0.

Oxidized LDL modulates apoptosis of regulatory T cells in patients with ESRD.

Increased levels of oxidized low-density lipoproteins (oxLDL) contribute to the increased risk for atherosclerosis, which persists even after adjusting for traditional risk factors, among patients with ESRD. Regulatory T cells (CD4+/CD25+ Tregs), which down-regulate T cell responses to foreign and self-antigens, are protective in murine atherogenesis, but whether similar immunoregulation occurs in humans with ESRD is unknown. Because cellular defense systems against oxLDL involve proteolytic degradation, the authors investigated the role of oxLDL on proteasome activity of CD4+/CD25+ Tregs in patients with ESRD. CD4+/CD25+ Tregs isolated from uremic patients' peripheral blood, especially that of chronically hemodialyzed patients, failed to suppress cell proliferation, exhibited cell-cycle arrest, and entered apoptosis by altering proteasome activity. Treating CD4+/CD25+ Tregs with oxLDL or uremic serum ex vivo decreased the number and suppressive capacity of CD4+/CD25+ Tregs. In vitro, oxLDL promoted the accumulation of p27Kip1, the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor responsible for G1 cell cycle arrest, and increased apoptosis in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. In summary, proteasome inhibition by oxLDL leads to cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, dramatically affecting the number and suppressive capacity of CD4+/CD25+ Tregs in chronically hemodialyzed patients. This response may contribute to the immune dysfunction, microinflammation, and atherogenesis observed in patients with ESRD.

Time standards of nursing in Primary Health Care: an observational study

Abstract OBJECTIVE To determine time standards for interventions and activities conducted by nursing professionals in Family Health Units (FHU) in Brazil to substantiate the calculation of work force. METHOD This was an observational study carried out in 27 FHU, in 12 municipalities in 10 states, in 2013. In each unit, nursing professionals were observed every 10 minutes, for eight work hours, on five consecutive days via the work sampling technique. RESULTS A total of 32,613 observations were made, involving 47 nurses and 93 nursing technicians/assistants. Appointments were the main intervention carried out by nurses, with a mean time of 25.3 minutes, followed by record-keeping, which corresponded to 9.7%. On average, nursing technicians/assistants spent 6.3% of their time keeping records and 30.6 intervention minutes on immunization/vaccination control. CONCLUSION The study resulted in standard times of interventions carried out by the FHU nursing team, which can underpin the determination of nursing staff size and human resource policies. Furthermore, the study showed the panorama of interventions currently employed, allowing for the work process to be reviewed and optimized.

Iowa Utilities Board Fiscal Year 2006 Regulatory Plan Pursuant to Executive Order Nine

Regulatory Plan for Fiscal Year 2005

Iowa Utilities Board Fiscal Year 2007 Regulatory Plan Pursuant to Executive Order Nine

Regulatory Plan for Fiscal Year 2007

Iowa Utilities Board Fiscal Year 2008 Regulatory Plan Pursuant to Executive Order Nine

Regulatory Plan for Fiscal Year 2008

Are Standards Always Protectionist?

We analyze the effects of a domestic standard that reduces an externality associated with the consumption of the good targeted by the standard, using a model in which foreign and domestic producers compete in the domestic good market. Producers can reduce expected damage associated with the externality by incurring a cost that varies by source of origin. Despite potential protectionism, the standard is useful in correcting the consumption externality in the domestic country. Protectionism occurs when the welfare-maximizing domestic standard is higher than the international standard maximizing welfare inclusive of foreign profits. The standard is actually anti-protectionist when foreign producers are much more efficient at addressing the externality than are domestic producers. Possible exclusion of domestic or foreign producers arises with large standards, which may alter the classification of a standard as protectionist or non-protectionist. The paper provides important implications for the estimation and use of tariff equivalents of nontariff barriers.

Regulatory ambivalence and the limitations of pharmaceutical policy in Spain

Broadly speaking, pharmaceutical policy in Spain has been unable to control either the price or thevolume of drugs prescribed. Limited attempts have been made to bring together the regulation of thepharmaceutical market and policies, in pursuit of the desired goals of efficiency and quality. Thispaper assesses the regulation of the Spanish pharmaceutical market over the last two decades byexamining regulation and policy and the available empirical evidence on their appreciable effects,and presents recommendations for policy design. Our findings suggest that policies aiming to improveefficiency and quality have not managed to contain costs, while cost-effectiveness is still overlooked.We argue that future policies should encourage broader participation in the decision-making processesand promote a higher degree of competition, especially from generic drugs.

OS CONTRACTOS DE CONCESSÃO NO CONTEXTO DO SISTEMA DE NORMALIZAÇÃO CONTABILÍSTICA E DE RELATO FINANCEIRO

A mudança do normativo contabilístico ocorrido em 2009, alterou o paradigma de reconhecimento e mensuração de activos. Embora a natureza das operações contínua presente no processo contabilístico, muitas coisas foram alteradas tendo em conta a substância da informação e a sua realidade económica. O caso dos contratos de concessão é disto um bom exemplo. Há casos em que no normativo anterior eram reconhecidos como activos fixos tangíveis e actualmente são reconhecidos como intangíveis. O estudo em causa tem como objetivo principal analisar o conceito dos contratos de concessão, bem como os procedimentos para o reconhecimento, mensuração e divulgação nas demonstrações financeiras. Considerados activos intangíveis (de facto a entidade acaba por ter um “Direito” de explorar um determinado activo), o processo contabilístico é feito a luz do disposto na Norma de Relato Financeiro nº6 – Activos Intangíveis. Os contractos de concessão apresentam especificidades próprias e por esta razão o IASB emitiu uma IFRIC (nº 12) com o objectivo de clarificar o tratamento contabilístico desta problemática. Não existindo no normativo nacional tal norma interpretativa as empresas nacionais que convivem com esta realidade vêem-se na contingência de, supletivamente, recorrer às normas internacionais de contabilidade para resolver o assunto. É o caso da ELECTRA para os activos afectos a distribuição. Neste sentido, o estudo debruça sobre esta problemática, apresenta um enquadramento teórico, analisar os principais aspectos de reconhecimento a luz dos dois normativos contabilísticos nacionais (o antigo Plano Nacional de Contabilidade e o actual Sistema de Normalização Contabilística e de Relato Financeiro) e termina utilizando as informações da ELECTRA, SARL para ilustrar este processo de reconhecimento contabilístico. The change of a the accounting regulatory occurred in 2009, changed the paradigm for recognizing and measuring assets. Although the continuous nature of the operations in this accounting process, many things have changed in view of the substance of information and its economic reality. The case of concession contracts, it is a good example. There are cases where the former were recognized as legal and tangible fixed assets are currently recognized as intangible assets. The study is aimed to analyzing the concept of concession contracts, as well as procedures for the recognition, measurement and disclosure in the financial statements. Considered intangible assets (in fact the entity turns out to have a “right” to exploit a particular asset) the accounting process is done in light of the provisions of Financial Reporting Standard No. 6 – Intangible Assets. The concession contracts have specific characteristics and for this reason the IASB issued IFRIC one (Ner. 12 ) in order to clarify the accounting treatment of this problem. In the absence of such a standard national regulatory interpretative national companies that live with this reality find themselves in contingency, additionally, make use of international accounting standards to resolve the matter. ELECTRA is the case of the assets connected to the distribution. In this sense, the study focuses on this issue, presents a theoretical framework to analyze the main aspects of recognition light of both national accounting standards (formerly the National Accounting Standards and the current system of accounting and financial reporting) and ends up using the information the Electra SARL to illustrate this process of accounting recognition.