Solidarity finance through community development banks as a strategy for reshaping local economies: lessons from Banco Palmas

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the possibilities and challenges of Community Development Banks (CDBs) as an innovative method of socioeconomic management of microcredit for poor populations. To this end, we will discuss the case of Banco Palmas in Conjunto Palmeiras in the city of Fortaleza, in the northeastern state of Ceará, as an empirical case study. The analyses presented here are based on information obtained from Banco Palmas between late 2011 and early 2012. In addition, previous studies by other researchers on the bank and other studies on CDBs were important. The primary data collected at Banco Palmas came from documents made available by the bank, such as reports and mappings. The analyses describe some of the characteristics of the granting of microcredit and allow one to situate it in the universe of microfinance and solidarity finance. They also show the significant growth of local consumption, mostly through the use of the Palmas social currency. The Banco Palmas experience, aside from influencing national public policies of solidarity finance, initiated a CDBs network that encourages the replication of these experiences throughout the country.

"Um arranjo produtivo em xeque": campo, habitus e capital simbólico em um Arranjo Produtivo Local moveleiro em Minas Gerais

O Arranjo Produtivo Local de Ubá e região (APL de Ubá) gera cerca de nove mil empregos e abriga a sede da maior empresa de móveis de aço da América Latina, além de três outras grandes empresas. Entretanto, é marcado por relações de disputa que preocupam os próprios empresários locais. O problema investigado é até que ponto essas disputas, especialmente entre fabricantes e fornecedores, colocam em risco esse APL moveleiro. O objetivo neste artigo é apresentar um entendimento de como se dão as relações de poder entre os empreendedores locais fabricantes de móveis e os fornecedores dessas empresas, discutindo suas implicações para o APL. Os resultados apontam para a existência de problemas nas relações entre fabricantes e fornecedores decorrentes, principalmente, da acumulação desigual de capital simbólico, do predomínio de interesses diferentes em jogo (illusio), bem como dos princípios diferentes e em oposição que orientam as práticas dos agentes (habitus). Os resultados apontam os riscos que essa natureza de relações acarreta para o APL de Ubá.

Similar patterns of local barn owl adaptation in the Middle East and Europe with respect to melanic coloration

The maintenance of phenotypic variation is a central question in evolutionary biology. A commonly suggested mechanism is that of local adaptation, whereby different phenotypes are adapted to alternative environmental conditions. A recent study in the European barn owl (Tyto alba) has shown that natural selection maintains a strong clinal variation in reddish pheomelanin-based coloration. Studies in the region where phenotypic variation in this owl is the highest in Europe have further demonstrated that dark-reddish and pale-reddish owls exploit open and wooded habitats, predate voles and wood mice, and are long-tailed and short-tailed, respectively. However, it remains unclear as to whether these traits evolved as a consequence of allopatric evolution of dark colour in northern Europe and white colour in southern Europe, during which owls could have also evolved different morphologies and foraging behaviour. This scenario implies that covariation between coloration and foraging behaviour could be a specificity of the European continent, which is not found in other worldwide-distributed populations. To investigate this issue we studied a barn owl population in the Middle East. Our results show that, as in Central Europe, dark-reddish female owls breed more often in the open landscape than their pale-reddish female conspecifics, their offspring are fed with more voles than Muridae, and they are longer-winged and longer-tailed. These findings indicate that in the barn owl the association in females between pheomelanin-based coloration and foraging behaviour and morphology is not restricted to the European continent but may well evolve in sympatry in many barn owl populations worldwide.

Extracapsular tumor spread and the risk of local, axillary and supraclavicular recurrence in node-positive, premenopausal patients with breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: Extracapsular tumor spread (ECS) has been identified as a possible risk factor for breast cancer recurrence, but controversy exists regarding its role in decision making for regional radiotherapy. This study evaluates ECS as a predictor of local, axillary, and supraclavicular recurrence. PATIENTS AND METHODS: International Breast Cancer Study Group Trial VI accrued 1475 eligible pre- and perimenopausal women with node-positive breast cancer who were randomly assigned to receive three to nine courses of classical combination chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil. ECS status was determined retrospectively in 933 patients based on review of pathology reports. Cumulative incidence and hazard ratios (HRs) were estimated using methods for competing risks analysis. Adjustment factors included treatment group and baseline patient and tumor characteristics. The median follow-up was 14 years. RESULTS: In univariable analysis, ECS was significantly associated with supraclavicular recurrence (HR = 1.96; 95% confidence interval 1.23-3.13; P = 0.005). HRs for local and axillary recurrence were 1.38 (P = 0.06) and 1.81 (P = 0.11), respectively. Following adjustment for number of lymph node metastases and other baseline prognostic factors, ECS was not significantly associated with any of the three recurrence types studied. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that the decision for additional regional radiotherapy should not be based solely on the presence of ECS.

Local Competition, Inbreeding, and the Evolution of Sex-Biased Dispersal.

Using game theory, we developed a kin-selection model to investigate the consequences of local competition and inbreeding depression on the evolution of natal dispersal. Mating systems have the potential to favor strong sex biases in dispersal because sex differences in potential reproductive success affect the balance between local resource competition and local mate competition. No bias is expected when local competition equally affects males and females, as happens in monogamous systems and also in polygynous or promiscuous ones as long as female fitness is limited by extrinsic factors (breeding resources). In contrast, a male-biased dispersal is predicted when local mate competition exceeds local resource competition, as happens under polygyny/promiscuity when female fitness is limited by intrinsic factors (maximal rate of processing resources rather than resources themselves). This bias is reinforced by among-sex interactions: female philopatry enhances breeding opportunities for related males, while male dispersal decreases the chances that related females will inbreed. These results meet empirical patterns in mammals: polygynous/promiscuous species usually display a male-biased dispersal, while both sexes disperse in monogamous species. A parallel is drawn with sex-ratio theory, which also predicts biases toward the sex that suffers less from local competition. Optimal sex ratios and optimal sex-specific dispersal show mutual dependence, which argues for the development of coevolution models.

Local Jurisdictions Information, 2003

Directory of county officials and employees

Global and local connectivity changes in schizophrenia investigated by diffusion connectome

Background: New ways of representing diffusion data emerged recently and achieved to create structural connectivitymaps in healthy brains (Hagmann P et al. (2008)). These maps have the capacity to study alterations over the entire brain at the connection and network level. This is of high interest in complex disconnection diseases like schizophrenia. In this Pathology where multiple lines of evidence suggest the association of the pathology with abnormalities in neural circuitry and impaired structural connectivity, the diffusion imaging has been widely applied. Despite the large findings, most of the research using the diffusion just uses some scalar map derived from diffusion to show that some markers of white matter integrity are diminished in several areas of the brain (Kyriakopoulos M et al (2008)). Thanks to the structural connectionmatrix constructed by the whole brain tractography, we report in this work the network connectivity alterations in the schizophrenic patients. Methods: We investigated 13 schizophrenic patients as assessed by the DIGS (Diagnostic Interview for genetic studies, DSM IV criteria) and 13 healthy controls. We have got from each volunteer a DT-MRI as well as Qball imaging dataset and a high resolution anatomic T1 performed during the same session; with a 3 T clinical MRI scanner. The controls were matched on age, gender, handedness, and parental social economic-status. For all the subjects, a low resolution connection matrix is obtained by dividing the cortex into 66 gyral based ROIs. A higher resolution matrix is constructed using 250 ROIs as described in Hagmann P et al. (2008). These ROIs are respectively used jointly with the diffusion tractography to construct the high and low resolution densities connection matrices for each subject. In a first step the matrices of the groups are compared in term of connectivity, and not in term of density to check if the pathological group shows a loss of global connectivity. In this context the density connection matrices were binarized. As some local connectivity changes were also suspected, especially in frontal and temporal areas, we have also looked for the areas where the connectivity showed significant changes. Results: The statistical analysis revealed a significant loss of global connectivity in the schizophrenic's brains at level 5%. Furthermore, by constructing specific statistics which represent local connectivity within the anatomical regions (66 ROIs) using the data obtained by the finest resolution (250 ROIs) to improve the robustness, we found the regions that cause this significant loss of connectivity. The significance is observed after multiple testing corrections by the False Discovery Rate. Discussion: The detected regions are almost the same as those reported in the literature as the involved regions in schizophrenia. Most of the connectivity decreases are noted in both hemispheres in the fronto-frontal and temporo-temporal regions as well as some temporal ROIs with their adjacent ROIs in parietal and occipital lobes.

L'Administració electrònica dins l'administració local. Necessitat d'interrelació i d'integració d'un conjunt d'eines. Casos pràctics

L'administració electrònica és la base d'aquest treball de final de carrera, però alhora s'emmarca en un mateix àmbit, en l'administració local. L'objectiu global que es pretén assolir és donar servei a tots els Ens locals de la província de Lleida amb la gestió dels expedients administratius amb els que treballa. Aquest gestor d'expedients facilitarà la tramitació dels procediments administratius gestionats per cada una de les entitats locals, permenten la informatització i la gestió de tots els assumptes plantejats pels ciutadans, així com la localització, consulta, gestió i edició de qualsevol dels expedients de forma àgil, senzilla i flexible.El Gestor d'expedients ha de revolucionar l'Ens local, per entrar dins de l'administració electrònica ocasionant un impuls important en la digitalització dels serveis i processos dintre de les administracions locals.

Possibilidades e limites do trabalho de vigilância epidemiológica no nível local em direção à vigilância à saúde

O estudo tem como marco referencial o processo de trabalho em saúde e em enfermagem, e como objetivos descrever e analisar as ações de Vigilância Epidemiológica (VE) desenvolvidas em uma unidade de saúde, buscando identificar o quanto se aproximam da estratégia de Vigilância à Saúde (VS). Utilizou-secomo referência um check-list elaborado com base nas ações de VE preconizadas pelo Ministério da Saúde. Os dados obtidos demonstraram que na unidade de saúde estudada, as ações de VE restringiam-se à notificação e ao controle das doenças transmissíveis e que o trabalho da enfermeira na VE caracteriza-sepor atividades burocráticas. Conclui-sepela necessidade de se ampliarem as discussões sobre as formas de operacionalização da VS nos serviços de saúde.

Telecommunications Competition Survey for Retail Local Voice Services in Iowa, January 26, 2004

Survey of retail local voice services for Iowa Utilities Board

Altered Local Beta and Gamma Synchronization in Prefrontal Cortex of Mice with Redox Dysregulation or Maternal Immune Activation

Background: A developmental dysregulation of glutathione (GSH) synthesis leading to oxidative stress, when combined with environmental risk factors (viral infections) generating reactive oxygen species, can play a critical role in inducing schizophrenia phenotypes. GSH deficit induces morphological, physiological and behavioral anomalies analogous to those reported in schizophrenic patients, including disrupted parvalbumine (PV) inhibitory interneuron's integrity and neuronal synchrony (β/γ-oscillations). Methods: We assessed PV immunoreactivity (PV-IR) and local synchronization in prefrontal cortex of two mouse models: (1) mice with a genetic deficit in GSH (GCLM-/-) and (2) mice with prenatal immune activation at embryonic day17 (PolyI:C). Results: Adults from both mice models display reduced PV-IR in prefrontal cortex. In anterior cingulate (ACC) of GCLM-/-, appearance and maturation of PVI are delayed and worsened with peribubertal stress but not in adult one. This effect is reversed by treatment with the GSH precursor N-acetyl-cysteine. The power of beta and gamma oscillations are decreased in ACC of GCLM-/- while they increased in prelimbic cortex of PolyI:C mice. Conclusions: Despite reduced PV-IR in both models, alteration of the synchronization was different, indicating that the structural/functional disruption of the cortical circuitry was partly different in both models. Novel therapeutic strategies are proposed, based on interference with oxidative stress and inflammatory processes.

Magnetic and in vitro heating properties of implants formed in situ from injectable formulations and containing superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) embedded in silica microparticles for magnetically induced local hyperthermia

The biological and therapeutic responses to hyperthermia, when it is envisaged as an anti-tumor treatment modality, are complex and variable. Heat delivery plays a critical role and is counteracted by more or less efficient body cooling, which is largely mediated by blood flow. In the case of magnetically mediated modality, the delivery of the magnetic particles, most often superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs), is also critically involved. We focus here on the magnetic characterization of two injectable formulations able to gel in situ and entrap silica microparticles embedding SPIONs. These formulations have previously shown suitable syringeability and intratumoral distribution in vivo. The first formulation is based on alginate, and the second on a poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol) (EVAL). Here we investigated the magnetic properties and heating capacities in an alternating magnetic field (141 kHz, 12 mT) for implants with increasing concentrations of magnetic microparticles. We found that the magnetic properties of the magnetic microparticles were preserved using the formulation and in the wet implant at 37 degrees C, as in vivo. Using two orthogonal methods, a common SLP (20 Wg(-1)) was found after weighting by magnetic microparticle fraction, suggesting that both formulations are able to properly carry the magnetic microparticles in situ while preserving their magnetic properties and heating capacities. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Intravaginal live attenuated Salmonella increase local antitumor vaccine-specific CD8(+) T cells.

We have recently reported that the intravaginal instillation of synthetic Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) or TLR9 agonists after a subcutaneous vaccination against human papillomavirus E7 highly increases (~5-fold) the number of vaccine-specific CD8(+) T cells in the genital mucosa of mice, without affecting E7-specific systemic responses. Here, we show that the instillation of live attenuated Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium similarly, though more efficiently (~15- fold), increases both E7-specific and total CD8(+) T cells in the genital mucosa. Cancer immunotherapeutic strategies combining vaccination with local immunostimulation with live bacteria deserve further investigations.

Una red local y una aplicación para formulación magistral en una oficina de farmacia

Este TFC es un humilde intento de encajar el software libre en el ambiente de una oficina de farmacia, configurando un entorno de intranet y desarrollando una aplicación para la actividad de formulación magistral.