EFICÁCIA ADAPTATIVA E SITUAÇÕES DE CRISE EM PORTADORES DO VÍRUS HIV IMUNODEFICIÊNCIA HUMANA / AIDS.

O objetivo desta pesquisa foi investigar a eficácia adaptativa e situações de crise de indivíduos portadores do vírus HIV do Programa Municipal DST/AIDS de Aparecida SP. O instrumento utilizado foi a Entrevista Clínica Preventiva - EDAO (Escala Diagnóstica Adaptativa Operacionalizada). Participaram do estudo 5 homens e 5 mulheres que freqüentavam o serviço de saúde. Os resultados do trabalho revelaram que ser portador de uma doença crônica carregada de estigmas como a AIDS é um fator desestruturante para o diagnóstico. Foi percebida na população estudada o comprometimento dos setores afetivo-relacional e produtividade, seguido do sóciocultural. Foram observados alguns aspectos importantes como: a crise do impacto diagnóstico como sendo algo marcante em todos os participantes, bem como o uso de drogas, comportamentos vulneráveis que possivelmente levaram à infecção pelo vírus HIV, dificuldades de resolução de conflitos e nas relações interpessoais, perdas vivenciadas durante toda a vida e também no decorrer da infecção e o fenômeno da feminização do vírus HIV através das mulheres entrevistadas, que foram infectadas por seus parceiros sexuais estáveis. No setor orgânico de funcionamento, a população estudada mostrou adesão ao tratamento A maioria da população estudada foi diagnosticada com adaptação ineficaz severa. Este estudo trouxe questionamentos importantes sobre a maneira com a qual o indivíduo portador do vírus HIV mantém seu equilíbrio psíquico e suas relações com o trabalho que executa, chamando atenção para a necessidade de outros estudos que contemplem diferentes instrumentos para a compreensão do tema.

QUALIDADE DE VIDA E EFICÁCIA ADAPTATIVA DE PESSOAS COM OBESIDADE

A obesidade é uma doença crônica que vem acometendo, progressivamente, cada vez mais pessoas no mundo. Por ser uma patologia de difícil controle que favorece a eclosão de outros agravos à saúde, é premente a necessidade de realização de pesquisas que possam contribuir para o aperfeiçoamento dos tratamentos, bem como para a melhoria da qualidade de vida e eficácia adaptativa. Sendo assim, a presente pesquisa visou avaliar a percepção da qualidade de vida (QV), a eficácia adaptativa (EDAO) e o funcionamento global (AGF) de pessoas com obesidade, relacionando os resultados obtidos na avaliação da percepção da QV com os da eficácia adaptativa, bem como aos do funcionamento global (AGF). Para tanto, utilizou-se o questionário WHOQOL-100 versão em português para avaliação da percepção de qualidade de vida, a Entrevista Diagnóstica Preventiva Escala Diagnóstica Adaptativa Operacionalizada (EDAO) para a eficácia adaptativa e a Escala de Avaliação do Funcionamento Global (AGF) para o funcionamento global. Este estudo contou com a participação de trinta mulheres obesas (Índice de Massa Corporal IMC >=30 kg/m2), com idade média de 52,33 anos, que utilizavam os serviços de um ambulatório situado na região do Grande ABC, estado de SP. A maioria das participantes se encontrava no grau I de obesidade - 46,70%, situava-se no grau II 33,30% e 20,00% no grau III. O aumento de peso da maioria teve início nas gestações (43,30%), o segundo período onde ocorreu o início do descontrole do peso corporal foi entre os 40 aos 50 anos (20,00%). Na avaliação geral da QV, observou-se que no domínio VI Aspectos Espirituais/Religião/Crenças Pessoais foi encontrado o maior escore médio (16,17 - DP=2,95 [equivalente a 80,83% do escore máximo que poderia ser obtido]), comparando-o com os demais domínios avaliados. Em oposição, o domínio I Físico foi o que apresentou o menor escore médio (11,77 - DP=2,78 - 58,83%). Todas as participantes se encontravam em ineficácia adaptativa: Grupo 2 Ineficaz Leve (26,7%), no Grupo 3 Ineficaz Moderada (33,3%) e no Grupo 4 Ineficaz Severa (30,0%). Quanto à avaliação do funcionamento global (AGF), notou-se que 36,67% se situavam no intervalo entre 51-60 pontos. 23,33% das participantes no intervalo entre 31-50 pontos. Apenas 23,33% tiveram pontuação acima de 70 pontos. Relacionando os resultados das avaliações, foram encontradas correlações fortes, positivas e significativas entre a avaliação da percepção de qualidade de vida, da eficácia adaptativa e do funcionamento Global.

Business systems purpose, analysis

This thesis deals with the problematic of the business systems systemic purpose definition. The definition of the systemic purpose, which is regarded as the utmost expression of the system's purposefulness, is to be achieved by ensuring the participation of all the stakeholders, if possible, who affect or they are affected by the business system's operations. The nature of participation, defined as a process of the stakeholders' perceptual exchanges, is deemed to be problematic in itself due to the influence exerted upon it by organisational power, coercion and false consciousness. The main focus of the thesis then is to make aware and provide the stakeholders with an explicit philosophical pedestal and a set of principles upon which a meta- epistemological framework for the enquiry of the business system's purposeful behaviour is developed. In addition, the thesis focuses on the development of a methodology that can be used by the stakeholders to achieve self-knowledge through the critical and systemic examination of their normative presuppositions, about the business system, at both sociological as well as the psychological levels concurrently and the subsequent development of an organisational intrinsically motivated information system. According to the critical systems philosophy and principles, developed in this thesis, normative presuppositions define the stakeholders' perceptions about the purposeful behaviour of the business system they perceived as having a material, an informational and/or an emacipatory stake (human interest) in. The methodology will provide Information Systems that demonstrably improve coordination of organisational activities by enabling the development and maintenance of a single/multifaceted view of purpose throughout organisations.

What purpose does the MPharm research project serve?

In 2004, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) funded research on teaching, learning and assessment within the UK undergraduate pharmacy degree (MPharm), including the compulsory final year project. Documentary analysis showed that all schools met the project requirement, although there were wide variations in the relative contribution of the project to the final year mark and the degree classification. Interviews with staff revealed that organisation of research projects was complex and time consuming and exacerbated by increasing student numbers and the impact of research ethics. 61% of students, surveyed via a self-completion questionnaire (response rate 50.6%) perceived the research project to be very or fairly important. Whilst 47% considered that they had enough choice of topic and 37% said that their training in research methods provided a good foundation for their project, this suggests scope for improvement. In the UK, there are legislative changes impending which may provide an opportunity to review the future purpose and feasibility of a "significant" final year project within the MPharm.

General-purpose autonomic computing

The success of mainstream computing is largely due to the widespread availability of general-purpose architectures and of generic approaches that can be used to solve real-world problems cost-effectively and across a broad range of application domains. In this chapter, we propose that a similar generic framework is used to make the development of autonomic solutions cost effective, and to establish autonomic computing as a major approach to managing the complexity of today’s large-scale systems and systems of systems. To demonstrate the feasibility of general-purpose autonomic computing, we introduce a generic autonomic computing framework comprising a policy-based autonomic architecture and a novel four-step method for the effective development of self-managing systems. A prototype implementation of the reconfigurable policy engine at the core of our architecture is then used to develop autonomic solutions for case studies from several application domains. Looking into the future, we describe a methodology for the engineering of self-managing systems that extends and generalises our autonomic computing framework further.

Reacting and responding in TESOL Quarterly:a generic analysis of procedure and purpose in intertextual critical exchanges

A key feature of ‘TESOL Quarterly’, a leading journal in the world of TESOL/applied linguistics, is its ‘Forum’ section which invites ‘responses and rebuttals’ from readers to any of its articles. These ‘responses or rebuttals’ form the focus of this research. In the interchanges between readers reacting to earlier research articles in TESOL Quarterly and authors responding to the said reaction I – examine the texts for evidence of genre-driven structure, whether shared between both ‘reaction’ and ‘response’ sections, or peculiar to each section, and attempt to determine the precise nature of the intended communicative purpose in particular and the implications for academic debate in general. The intended contribution of this thesis is to provide an analysis of how authors of research articles and their critics pursue their efforts beyond the research article which precipitated these exchanges in order to be recognized by their discourse community as, in the terminology of Swales (1981:51), ‘Primary Knowers’. Awareness of any principled generic process identified in this thesis may be of significance to practitioners in the applied linguistics community in their quest to establish academic reputation and in their pursuit of professional development. These findings may also be of use in triggering productive community discussion as a result of the questions they raise concerning the present nature of academic debate. Looking beyond the construction and status of the texts themselves, I inquire into the kind of ideational and social organization such exchanges keep in place and examine an alternative view of interaction. This study breaks new ground in two major ways. To the best of my knowledge, it is the first exploration of a bipartite, intertextual structure laying claim to genre status. Secondly, in its recourse to the comments of the writers’ themselves rather than relying exclusively on the evidence of their texts, as is the case with most studies of genre, this thesis offers an expanded opportunity to discuss perhaps the most interesting aspects of genre analysis – the light it throws on social ends and the role of genre in determining the nature of current academic debate as it here emerges.

eHabitat, a multi-purpose Web Processing Service for ecological modeling

The number of interoperable research infrastructures has increased significantly with the growing awareness of the efforts made by the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). One of the Societal Benefit Areas (SBA) that is benefiting most from GEOSS is biodiversity, given the costs of monitoring the environment and managing complex information, from space observations to species records including their genetic characteristics. But GEOSS goes beyond simple data sharing to encourage the publishing and combination of models, an approach which can ease the handling of complex multi-disciplinary questions. It is the purpose of this paper to illustrate these concepts by presenting eHabitat, a basic Web Processing Service (WPS) for computing the likelihood of finding ecosystems with equal properties to those specified by a user. When chained with other services providing data on climate change, eHabitat can be used for ecological forecasting and becomes a useful tool for decision-makers assessing different strategies when selecting new areas to protect. eHabitat can use virtually any kind of thematic data that can be considered as useful when defining ecosystems and their future persistence under different climatic or development scenarios. The paper will present the architecture and illustrate the concepts through case studies which forecast the impact of climate change on protected areas or on the ecological niche of an African bird.

I am the very model of a special purpose vehicle

Purpose – This paper aims to provide a critical comment on complex funding systems. Design/methodology/approach – This is a critical comment written in the form of a poem. The poem is in the style of the English light opera composers Gilbert and Sullivan, and is a variation on their song “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General”, from The Pirates of Penzance. Findings - The poem spotlights financial failure. Originality/value - The poem spotlights the crazy names and poor transparency of special purpose vehicles.

Risk factors for childhood myopia:findings from the NICER study

PURPOSE. We explored risk factors for myopia in 12- to 13-year-old children in Northern Ireland (NI). METHODS. Stratified random sampling was performed to obtain representation of schools and children. Cycloplegia was achieved using cyclopentolate hydrochloride 1%. Distance autorefraction was measured using the Shin-Nippon SRW-5000 device. Height and weight were measured. Parents and children completed a questionnaire, including questions on parental history of myopia, sociodemographic factors, childhood levels of near vision, and physical activity to identify potential risk factors for myopia. Myopia was defined as spherical equivalent ≤0.50 diopters (D) in either eye. RESULTS. Data from 661 white children aged 12-to 13-years showed that regular physical activity was associated with a lower estimated prevalence of myopia compared to sedentary lifestyles (odds ratio [OR] = 0.46 adjusted for age, sex, deprivation score, family size, school type, urbanicity; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.23–0.90; P for trend = 0.027). The odds of myopia were more than 2.5 times higher among children attending academically-selective schools (adjusted OR = 2.66; 95% CI, 1.48–4.78) compared to nonacademically-selective schools. There was no evidence of an effect of urban versus nonurban environment on the odds of myopia. Compared to children with no myopic parents, children with one or both parents being myopic were 2.91 times (95% CI, 1.54–5.52) and 7.79 times (95% CI, 2.93– 20.67) more likely to have myopia, respectively. CONCLUSIONS. In NI children, parental history of myopia and type of schooling are important determinants of myopia. The association between myopia and an environmental factor, such as physical activity levels, may provide insight into preventive strategies.

Systems Analysis: the Structure-and-Purpose Approach Based on Logic-linguistic Formalisation

Systems analysis (SA) is widely used in complex and vague problem solving. Initial stages of SA are analysis of problems and purposes to obtain problems/purposes of smaller complexity and vagueness that are combined into hierarchical structures of problems(SP)/purposes(PS). Managers have to be sure the PS and the purpose realizing system (PRS) that can achieve the PS-purposes are adequate to the problem to be solved. However, usually SP/PS are not substantiated well enough, because their development is based on a collective expertise in which logic of natural language and expert estimation methods are used. That is why scientific foundations of SA are not supposed to have been completely formed. The structure-and-purpose approach to SA based on a logic-and-linguistic simulation of problems/purposes analysis is a step towards formalization of the initial stages of SA to improve adequacy of their results, and also towards increasing quality of SA as a whole. Managers of industrial organizing systems using the approach eliminate logical errors in SP/PS at early stages of planning and so they will be able to find better decisions of complex and vague problems.

CORE: A Multi-Purpose Programming Contest Repository System

Яни Чаушев, Милослав Средков, Красимир Манев - Всяко състезание по програмиране използва множество софтуерни инструменти за управление на процесите по време на състезанието. Въпреки че тези инструменти обикновено покриват спецификите на конкретния вид състезание задоволително, те рядко адресират трудностите на дългосрочното съхранение на данни и оперативната съвместимост. В тази статия е представен един софтуерен инструмент адресиращ тези проблеми. Вместо комплексна система, касаеща всички аспекти на състезанието, CORE е централизирано хранилище за съхраняване и поддържане на необходимите за различни състезания данни. Представени са основните му елементи, текущото състояние на реализацията и перспективите за развитие на системата.