The influence of regionalization and psychic distance on the direction of Australian exports

International business research has identified separately two distinct influences on the direction of firm internationalisation. One of those influences is psychic distance, the other is regionalisation. This paper sets out to test the influences of regionalisation and psychic distance on the direction of Australian merchandise exports. The paper applies a quantitative methodology using a multiple regression model on a large, purposively compiled data set. Unlike most previous outward internationalisation studies, which use the firm as the unit of analysis, this paper uses aggregated Australian export values by country destination and export category over an extended time period, 1990 to 2004. The findings show that regionalisation is the dominant influence on the direction of Australian merchandise exports. This has important trade policy implications for Australian state and federal governments, related export promotion agencies and for managers of Australian firms, as well as for international business researchers generally.

Trinidad multinationals and their effect on caribbean regionalization

The purpose of the thesis was to first, document the expansion of Trinidad's business sector and then to probe the implications of this expansion on Caribbean regionalization. The variables analyzed were physical expansion, technology and development and community involvement. The methodological approach used first, a theoretical approach based on the New Regionalism Approach (NRA) which best accounts for non-state actors (multinationals) and their role in the scheme of regionalization. Second, interviews were conducted with leaders of the major multinationals in Trinidad to ascertain their opinion on the role of multinationals in the regionalization process. Based on the case studies analyzed, namely Royal Bank Group of Companies and Trinidad Cement Holdings Limited, the findings of the thesis indicate that Trinidad multinationals are helping the process of Caribbean regionalization and consider themselves regional rather than national entities. It can be concluded that the growth of Trinidad multinationals will continue to be integral to the economic integration of the region.

Sea surface and the sea floor regionalization of the Southern Ocean by multivariate cluster analysis, links to ArcGIS project files

This study subdivides the Weddell Sea, Antarctica, into seafloor regions using multivariate statistical methods. These regions are categories used for comparing, contrasting and quantifying biogeochemical processes and biodiversity between ocean regions geographically but also regions under development within the scope of global change. The division obtained is characterized by the dominating components and interpreted in terms of ruling environmental conditions. The analysis uses 28 environmental variables for the sea surface, 25 variables for the seabed and 9 variables for the analysis between surface and bottom variables. The data were taken during the years 1983-2013. Some data were interpolated. The statistical errors of several interpolation methods (e.g. IDW, Indicator, Ordinary and Co-Kriging) with changing settings have been compared for the identification of the most reasonable method. The multivariate mathematical procedures used are regionalized classification via k means cluster analysis, canonical-correlation analysis and multidimensional scaling. Canonical-correlation analysis identifies the influencing factors in the different parts of the cove. Several methods for the identification of the optimum number of clusters have been tested. For the seabed 8 and 12 clusters were identified as reasonable numbers for clustering the Weddell Sea. For the sea surface the numbers 8 and 13 and for the top/bottom analysis 8 and 3 were identified, respectively. Additionally, the results of 20 clusters are presented for the three alternatives offering the first small scale environmental regionalization of the Weddell Sea. Especially the results of 12 clusters identify marine-influenced regions which can be clearly separated from those determined by the geological catchment area and the ones dominated by river discharge.

A longitudinal study of employee adaptation to organizational change: The role of change-related information and change-related self-efficacy

This study examined the role of information, efficacy, and 3 stressors in predicting adjustment to organizational change. Participants were 589 government employees undergoing an 18-month process of regionalization. To examine if the predictor variables had long-term effects on adjustment, the authors assessed psychological well-being, client engagement, and job satisfaction again at a 2-year follow-up. At Time 1, there was evidence to suggest that information was indirectly related to psychological well-being, client engagement, and job satisfaction, via its positive relationship to efficacy. There also was evidence to suggest that efficacy was related to reduced stress appraisals, thereby heightening client engagement. Last, there was consistent support for the stress-buffering role of Time 1 self-efficacy in the prediction of Time 2 job satisfaction.

Arkkitehti Aarne Ervin kaupunkisuunnittelu pääkaupunkiseudulla : Suomalaisen suurkaupungin kaavoitusta toisen maailmansodan jälkeen

The Modern City Planning of Architect Aarne Ervi in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area: The Planning of the Finnish Capital after the Second World War This study focuses on the city planning of architect Aarne Ervi (1910-1977) in the Helsinki metropolitan area, which includes the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa, from the 1940s to the end of the 1960s. Ervi succeeded in several major architectural competitions in Finland, acted as the main designer of the "New Town" of Tapiola and of the suburb of Vantaanpuisto in the metropolitan area, and worked as the first director of the city planning department of Helsinki from 1965-1969. This study belongs to the field of planning history in which the art historical study of architecture blends with the history of Finnish society. I examine architect Aarne Ervi and his city planning architecture through the concept of "modern". I link the theoretical literature of modernism in architecture and the modernization of society with historical documents and empirical archival research. I examine Ervi's professional career, the teamwork characteristic of his office, and the collegial community in which Ervi serves different vocational roles as an architect. The postwar development of planning legislation and of municipal and state planning organisations provides the necessary context for urban planning. I also discuss the municipal development of Espoo and Vantaa and the regionalization process that occured in Helsinki during the decades in question. The main results of this study relate to the collective and cooperative group nature of work in architectural design, to the introduction of an alternative approach to the question of modernism in Finnish architectural discourse, and to the post-war planning history of legislative and institutional organisations in Finland. Furthermore, the study includes new historical research about the city planning department of the city of Helsinki, the planning of Tapiola and Vantaanpuisto, and the operations of the main developers of these two suburban areas: the Asuntosäästäjät Society and the Asuntosäätiö Foundation.

Combination antiretroviral therapy -associated lipodystrophy : insights into pathogenesis and treatment

Introduction: Combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) has decreased morbidity and mortality of individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). Its use, however, is associated with adverse effects which increase the patients risk of conditions such as diabetes and coronary heart disease. Perhaps the most stigmatizing side effect is lipodystrophy, i.e., the loss of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) in the face, limbs and trunk while fat accumulates intra-abdominally and dorsocervically. The pathogenesis of cART-associated lipodystrophy is obscure. Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI) have been implicated to cause lipoatrophy via mitochondrial toxicity. There is no known effective treatment for cART-associated lipodystrophy during unchanged antiretroviral regimen in humans, but in vitro data have shown uridine to abrogate NRTI-induced toxicity in adipocytes. Aims: To investigate whether i) cART or lipodystrophy associated with its use affect arterial stiffness; ii) lipoatrophic SAT is inflamed compared to non-lipoatrophic SAT; iii) abdominal SAT from patients with compared to those without cART-associated lipoatrophy differs with respect to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) content, adipose tissue inflammation and gene expression, and if NRTIs stavudine and zidovudine are associated with different degree of changes; iv) lipoatrophic abdominal SAT differs from preserved dorsocervical SAT with respect to mtDNA content, adipose tissue inflammation and gene expression in patients with cART-associated lipodystrophy and v) whether uridine can revert lipoatrophy and the associated metabolic disturbances in patients on stavudine or zidovudine based cART. Subjects and methods: 64 cART-treated patients with (n=45) and without lipodystrophy/-atrophy (n=19) were compared cross-sectionally. A marker of arterial stiffness, heart rate corrected augmentation index (AgIHR), was measured by pulse wave analysis. Body composition was measured by magnetic resonance imaging and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, and liver fat content by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Gene expression and mtDNA content in SAT were assessed by real-time polymerase chain reaction and microarray. Adipose tissue composition and inflammation were assessed by histology and immunohistochemistry. Dorsocervical and abdominal SAT were studied. The efficacy and safety of uridine for the treatment of cART-associated lipoatrophy were evaluated in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled 3-month trial in 20 lipoatrophic cART-treated patients. Results: Duration of antiretroviral treatment and cumulative exposure to NRTIs and protease inhibitors, but not the presence of cART-associated lipodystrophy, predicted AgIHR independent of age and blood pressure. Gene expression of inflammatory markers was increased in SAT of lipodystrophic as compared to non-lipodystrophic patients. Expression of genes involved in adipogenesis, triglyceride synthesis and glucose disposal was lower and of those involved in mitochondrial biogenesis, apoptosis and oxidative stress higher in SAT of patients with than without cART-associated lipoatrophy. Most changes were more pronounced in stavudine-treated than in zidovudine-treated individuals. Lipoatrophic SAT had lower mtDNA than SAT of non-lipoatrophic patients. Expression of inflammatory genes was lower in dorsocervical than in abdominal SAT. Neither depot had characteristics of brown adipose tissue. Despite being spared from lipoatrophy, dorsocervical SAT of lipodystrophic patients had lower mtDNA than the phenotypically similar corresponding depot of non-lipodystrophic patients. The greatest difference in gene expression between dorsocervical and abdominal SAT, irrespective of lipodystrophy status, was in expression of homeobox genes that regulate transcription and regionalization of organs during embryonal development. Uridine increased limb fat and its proportion of total fat, but had no effect on liver fat content and markers of insulin resistance. Conclusions: Long-term cART is associated with increased arterial stiffness and, thus, with higher cardiovascular risk. Lipoatrophic abdominal SAT is characterized by inflammation, apoptosis and mtDNA depletion. As mtDNA is depleted even in non-lipoatrophic dorsocervical SAT, lipoatrophy is unlikely to be caused directly by mtDNA depletion. Preserved dorsocervical SAT of patients with cART-associated lipodystrophy is less inflamed than their lipoatrophic abdominal SAT, and does not resemble brown adipose tissue. The greatest difference in gene expression between dorsocervical and abdominal SAT is in expression of transcriptional regulators, homeobox genes, which might explain the differential susceptibility of these adipose tissue depots to cART-induced toxicity. Uridine is able to increase peripheral SAT in lipoatrophic patients during unchanged cART.

Coherent rainfall zones of the Indian region

We have delineated rainfall zones for the Indian region that are coherent with respect to the variations of the summer monsoon rainfall. Within each zone, the time series of the summer monsoon rainfall at every pair of stations are significantly positively correlated, and the mean interseries correlation for each zone is high. The interseries correlation data set is analysed in order to delineate the rainfall zones, using an objective method specifically developed for the purpose. Each of the zonal averages are shown to be representative of the zone as a whole. We suggest that this regionalization is appropriate for study of the variation of the summer monsoon rainfall over the Indian region on interannual and larger scales.

On Selection of Features for Regional Hydrologic Studies

Feature selection is an important first step in regional hydrologic studies (RHYS). Over the past few decades, advances in data collection facilities have resulted in development of data archives on a variety of hydro-meteorological variables that may be used as features in RHYS. Currently there are no established procedures for selecting features from such archives. Therefore, hydrologists often use subjective methods to arrive at a set of features. This may lead to misleading results. To alleviate this problem, a probabilistic clustering method for regionalization is presented to determine appropriate features from the available dataset. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated by application to regionalization of watersheds in conterminous United States for low flow frequency analysis. Plausible homogeneous regions that are formed by using the proposed clustering method are compared with those from conventional methods of regionalization using L-moment based homogeneity tests. Results show that the proposed methodology is promising for RHYS.

Regional flood frequency analysis using kernel- based fuzzy clustering approach

Regionalization approaches are widely used in water resources engineering to identify hydrologically homogeneous groups of watersheds that are referred to as regions. Pooled information from sites (depicting watersheds) in a region forms the basis to estimate quantiles associated with hydrological extreme events at ungauged/sparsely gauged sites in the region. Conventional regionalization approaches can be effective when watersheds (data points) corresponding to different regions can be separated using straight lines or linear planes in the space of watershed related attributes. In this paper, a kernel-based Fuzzy c-means (KFCM) clustering approach is presented for use in situations where such linear separation of regions cannot be accomplished. The approach uses kernel-based functions to map the data points from the attribute space to a higher-dimensional space where they can be separated into regions by linear planes. A procedure to determine optimal number of regions with the KFCM approach is suggested. Further, formulations to estimate flood quantiles at ungauged sites with the approach are developed. Effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated through Monte-Carlo simulation experiments and a case study on watersheds in United States. Comparison of results with those based on conventional Fuzzy c-means clustering, Region-of-influence approach and a prior study indicate that KFCM approach outperforms the other approaches in forming regions that are closer to being statistically homogeneous and in estimating flood quantiles at ungauged sites. Key Points Kernel-based regionalization approach is presented for flood frequency analysis Kernel procedure to estimate flood quantiles at ungauged sites is developed A set of fuzzy regions is delineated in Ohio, USA

Evaluating Methods to Predict Streamflow at Ungauged Sites using Regional Flow Duration Curves: A Case Study

Precise information on streamflows is of major importance for planning and monitoring of water resources schemes related to hydro power, water supply, irrigation, flood control, and for maintaining ecosystem. Engineers encounter challenges when streamflow data are either unavailable or inadequate at target locations. To address these challenges, there have been efforts to develop methodologies that facilitate prediction of streamflow at ungauged sites. Conventionally, time intensive and data exhaustive rainfall-runoff models are used to arrive at streamflow at ungauged sites. Most recent studies show improved methods based on regionalization using Flow Duration Curves (FDCs). A FDC is a graphical representation of streamflow variability, which is a plot between streamflow values and their corresponding exceedance probabilities that are determined using a plotting position formula. It provides information on the percentage of time any specified magnitude of streamflow is equaled or exceeded. The present study assesses the effectiveness of two methods to predict streamflow at ungauged sites by application to catchments in Mahanadi river basin, India. The methods considered are (i) Regional flow duration curve method, and (ii) Area Ratio method. The first method involves (a) the development of regression relationships between percentile flows and attributes of catchments in the study area, (b) use of the relationships to construct regional FDC for the ungauged site, and (c) use of a spatial interpolation technique to decode information in FDC to construct streamflow time series for the ungauged site. Area ratio method is conventionally used to transfer streamflow related information from gauged sites to ungauged sites. Attributes that have been considered for the analysis include variables representing hydrology, climatology, topography, land-use/land- cover and soil properties corresponding to catchments in the study area. Effectiveness of the presented methods is assessed using jack knife cross-validation. Conclusions based on the study are presented and discussed. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Delineation of homogeneous hydrometeorological regions using wavelet-based global fuzzy cluster analysis

Identification of homogeneous hydrometeorological regions (HMRs) is necessary for various applications. Such regions are delineated by various approaches considering rainfall and temperature as two key variables. In conventional approaches, formation of regions is based on principal components (PCs)/statistics/indices determined from time series of the key variables at monthly and seasonal scales. An issue with use of PCs for regionalization is that they have to be extracted from contemporaneous records of hydrometeorological variables. Therefore, delineated regions may not be effective when the available records are limited over contemporaneous time period. A drawback associated with the use of statistics/indices is that they do not provide effective representation of the key variables when the records exhibit non-stationarity. Consequently, the resulting regions may not be effective for the desired purpose. To address these issues, a new approach is proposed in this article. The approach considers information extracted from wavelet transformations of the observed multivariate hydrometeorological time series as the basis for regionalization by global fuzzy c-means clustering procedure. The approach can account for dynamic variability in the time series and its non-stationarity (if any). Effectiveness of the proposed approach in forming HMRs is demonstrated by application to India, as there are no prior attempts to form such regions over the country. Drought severity-area-frequency (SAF) curves are constructed corresponding to each of the newly formed regions for the use in regional drought analysis, by considering standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) as the drought indicator.

A média complexidade no quadro da Política Nacional de Saúde Bucal: uma abordagem do seu processo de desenvolvimento em uma perspectiva regional

Esta tese tem por objeto o processo de regionalização das ações de média complexidade e da oferta de próteses dentárias no âmbito da Política Nacional de Saúde Bucal (PNSB). Foram realizadas duas pesquisas fundamentais para o entendimento desse processo: a primeira esteve voltada para o levantamento da descrição da oferta de ações especializadas e de próteses dentárias nos Planos Diretores de Regionalização (PDR) nas 27 unidades federadas do país. A segunda pesquisa verificou a cobertura por Equipes de Saúde Bucal (ESBs) na Estratégia de Saúde da Família (ESF) e a distribuição dos 844 Centros de Especialidades Odontológicas (CEOs) e dos 526 Laboratórios Regionais de Próteses Dentárias (LRPDs) implantados até setembro de 2010 nas regiões de saúde do Brasil dos 27 estados da federação. Essas pesquisas permitiram concluir que: os PDRs, na grande maioria dos estados brasileiros, não contribuíram para a organização regionalizada da distribuição de CEOs e LRPDs no Brasil. A cobertura por Equipes de Saúde Bucal é heterogênea, com predominância da Região Nordeste e dos municípios de pequeno porte, em detrimento das capitais e dos estados das regiões Sul e Sudeste. No tocante à distribuição das unidades CEO e LRPD pelas regiões de saúde, a pesquisa mostrou que os critérios normativos para a seleção dos municípios a sediarem essas unidades vêm sendo cumpridos de forma precária na maior parte do país. Além disso, a distribuição dessas unidades não apresenta coerência com os princípios da regionalização prevista pelo Pacto de Gestão do SUS.

A gestão estadual do SUS em Minas Gerais e seu efeito na regionalização e em alguns resultados de saúde da população

Este estudo aborda a atuação da gestão estadual do Serviço Único de Saúde (SUS) sobre o quadro de desigualdades em saúde, analisando o caso do estado de Minas Gerais. A descentralização dos serviços de saúde, no âmbito do federalismo brasileiro, promoveu o ingresso de recursos em todos os municípios, permitindo a incorporação de cidadãos de todas as regiões do país ao sistema. Ao mesmo tempo, a pulverização dos recursos perpetuou as históricas desigualdades ao acesso a serviços de mais complexidade. Esse quadro exige a intervenção do nível estadual para ser alterado. Este é o tema deste trabalho, que analisou o processo de regionalização da assistência à saúde, no período de 2002 a 2009, sob a coordenação da gestão estadual do SUS em Minas Gerais, considerando o cenário federativo brasileiro, em que os municípios são entes autônomos. Os objetivos específicos foram: descrever o processo de regionalização proposto pela gestão estadual para alcançar a melhoria dos serviços públicos e a redução de desigualdades regionais; verificar a extensão da implementação da regionalização nas microrregiões, tomando como referência o gasto de recursos estaduais dirigidos a municípios e a implantação das Comissões Intergestores Bipartites Microrregionais e Macrorregionais; avaliar o efeito da regionalização na rede de serviços e na redução das desigualdades regionais, relativas a recursos, acesso a serviços e em algumas condições de saúde da população, consideradas sensíveis à regionalização. Revisou-se a literatura sobre federalismo, descentralização e relações intergovernamentais e documentos oficiais; utilizaram-se dados secundários sobre recursos e indicadores de saúde e de desenvolvimento. Verificou-se que o processo foi viabilizado por intensa aproximação entre governo estadual e municípios; por uma proposta consistente e pelo aporte de recursos. Constatou-se, ainda, que, no período, ampliou-se o acesso a leitos de Unidade de Terapia Intensiva (UTI) e a mamografias; houve desconcentração de recursos e equipamentos na direção de macrorregiões e microrregiões mais desprovidas; os recursos estaduais disciplinaram o gasto federal; e reduziram-se as desigualdades entre as microrregiões em relação a: indicadores socioeconômicos, recursos federais e estaduais, acesso a mamografias e mortalidade por doenças cardiovasculares.

Estudo para a regionalização do gerenciamento de resíduos sólidos no Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Impulsionados pela Lei 12.305/2010, que instituiu a Política Nacional de Resíduos Sólidos (PNRS), os estados brasileiros estão tentando viabilizar, especialmente com foco na destinação dos Resíduos Sólidos Urbanos (RSU), soluções consorciadas, visto que os resultados ambientais em termos de gerenciamento de resíduos sólidos, alcançados nos esforços individuais dos municípios, estão muito longe dos patamares aceitáveis. Sendo assim, o Estado do Rio de Janeiro, assim como demais estados brasileiros, para atendimento a nova PNRS precisará erradicar os lixões até o ano de 2014. Este trabalho tem por objetivo principal avaliar e analisar a viabilidade da estratégia do Ministério do Meio Ambiente (MMA), contemplada na PNRS, que indica a formação de consórcios entre os municípios para um melhor gerenciamento dos RSU, especialmente no que tange à sua destinação final, visando a confirmar a pertinência da escolha ou visualizar outras alternativas, em termos conceituais. Os resultados obtidos nesta pesquisa mostram que é indiscutível a contribuição de uma gestão regionalizada do RSU, através da formação de soluções consorciadas, observados no estudo de caso do Consórcio Costa Verde. Um grande desafio encontrado é o equacionamento de conflitos de interesses, em prol de um melhor gerenciamento dos resíduos, atenuando as divergências político-partidárias para que as tomadas de decisões sejam baseadas, sobretudo nas questões técnicas e administrativas, estabelecendo a melhor forma de proteger o meio ambiente