Adherence to antiretroviral therapy and its determinants among persons living with HIV/AIDS in Bayelsa state, Nigeria

Background: A high level of adherence is required to achieve the desired outcomes of antiretroviral therapy. There is paucity of information about adherence to combined antiretroviral therapy in Bayelsa State of southern Nigeria. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to determine the level of adherence to combined antiretroviral therapy among the patients, evaluate the improvement in their immune status and identify reasons for sub-optimal adherence to therapy. Methods: The cross-sectional study involved administration of an adapted and pretested questionnaire to 601 consented patients attending the two tertiary health institutions in Bayesla State, Nigeria: The Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa and the Niger-Delta University Teaching Hospital Okolobiri. The tool was divided into various sections such as socio-demographic data, HIV knowledge and adherence to combined antiretroviral therapy. Information on the patient's CD4+ T cells count was retrieved from their medical records. Adherence was assessed by asking patients to recall their intake of prescribed doses in the last fourteen days and subjects who had 95-100% of the prescribed antiretroviral drugs were considered adherent. Results: Three hundred and forty eight (57.9%) of the subjects were females and 253 (42.1%) were males. The majority of them, 557 (92.7%) have good knowledge of HIV and combined anti-retroviral therapy with a score of 70.0% and above. A larger proportion of the respondents, 441 (73.4%), had &gt; 95% adherence. Some of the most important reasons giving for missing doses include, &#8220;simply forgot&#8221; 147 (24.5%), and &#8220;wanted to avoid the side-effects of drugs&#8221; 33(5.5%). There were remarkable improvements in the immune status of the subjects with an increment in the proportion of the subjects with CD4+ T cells count of greater than 350 cells/mm3 from 33 (5.5%) at therapy initiation to 338 (56.3%) at study period (p<0.0001). Conclusion: The adherence level of 73.4% was low which calls for intervention and improvement. The combined antiretroviral therapy has significantly improved the immune status of the majority of patients which must be sustained. &#8220;Simply forgot&#8221; was the most important reason for missing doses.

Gest��o do conhecimento e do capital intelectual - Estudo sobre a divulga����o do capital intelectual em empresas portuguesas

Mestrado em Gest��o e Empreendedorismo

Revitaliza����o dos saberes e pr��ticas Kaingang sobre as plantas tradicionais como proposta de educa����o ambiental na terra ind��gena Ligeiro

O presente trabalho objetiva investigar a Revitaliza����o dos Saberes e Pr��ticas Kaingang Sobre as Plantas Tradicionais como Proposta de Educa����o Ambiental na comunidade Terra Ind��gena de Ligeiro no munic��pio de Charrua - RS. Trata-se de uma pesquisa de campo que busca melhor compreender o que provocou o abandono e esquecimento desses saberes, bem como poss��veis alternativas te��ricas e pr��ticas para que a revitaliza����o dos saberes culturais ancestrais seja realizada. Justifica-se pelo fato da utiliza����o de plantas medicinais para o tratamento de enfermidades estar enraizada nas culturas ind��genas e poder assim suprir, em parte, a deficiente aten����o �� sa��de e as realidades da fome em muitas T.I. Foram realizadas visitas a campo para an��lise da situa����o atual e coleta de informa����es, com aplica����o de entrevistas com v��rios ind��genas, bem como com kuj�� e curandeiras; se implantou um horto medicinal com v��rias plantas, ervas e se distribu��ram mudas de plantas frut��feras nativas. Para este projeto, dois alunos ind��genas do IFRS - Campus Sert��o atuaram na implanta����o deste Horto, assim como outros alunos ind��genas da Escola Estadual Ind��gena de Ensino M��dio F��g M��g (Pinheiro Grande) trabalharam e apoiaram na execu����o dessa a����o. Atrav��s da realiza����o de fotos e v��deos, foram analisadas tamb��m as express��es atuais da cultura Kaingang na conjuntura, os elementos significativos que est��o guardados ao longo das gera����es e apontamos os desafios de permanecer na comunidade e revitalizar com sustentabilidade os saberes e pr��ticas Kaingang, sempre com um olhar incondicional pela natureza. Foram sistematizadas as denomina����es espec��ficas da cada planta, em correspond��ncia com seu nome cient��fico e com o seu nome tradicional da cosmologia dual Kaingang (kam e kanhru). Conclui-se a partir dessa investiga����o que houve efetivamente o abandono e a falta de valoriza����o de saberes e pr��ticas relacionadas com a educa����o ambiental, pelas press��es da sociedade branca, o desejo de alguns ind��genas de ser moderno e aceito na sociedade branca e pela aus��ncia de trabalho de um educador ambiental. As iniciativas de revitaliza����o s��o poss��veis; o uso de plantas e alimentos tradicionais est��o relacionadas com atividades que precisam ser vivenciadas primordialmente na escola, na rela����o com os kuj�� tradicionais e no desenvolvimento de projetos espec��ficos e na motiva����o permanente para a responsabilidade ambiental, preservando a cultura e os costumes Kaingang que ainda s��o preciosos, especialmente na promo����o da sa��de da comunidade

A confian��a interorganizacional nas compras

This research is part of the field of organizational studies, focusing on organizational purchase behavior and, specifically, trust interorganizational at the purchases. This topic is current and relevant by addressing the development of good relations between buyer-supplier that increases the exchange of information, increases the length of relationship, reduces the hierarchical controls and improves performance. Furthermore, although there is a vast literature on trust, the scientific work that deal specifically at the trust interorganizational still need further research to synthesize and validate the variables that generate this phenomenon. In this sense, this investigation is to explain the antecedents of trust interorganizational by the relationship between the variable operational performance, organizational characteristics, shared values and interpersonal relationships on purchases by manufacturing industries, in order to develop a robust literature, most consensual, that includes the current sociological and economic, considering the effect of interpersonal relationships in this phenomenon. This proposal is configured in a new vision of the antecedents of interorganizational trust, described as significant quantitative from models Morgan and Hunt (1994), Doney and Cannon (1997), Zhao and Cavusgil (2006) and Nyaga, Whipple, Lynch (2011), as well as qualitative analysis of Tacconi et al. (2011). With regard to methodological aspects, the study assumes the form of a descriptive, survey type, and causal trace theoretical and empirical. As for his nature, the investigation, explicative character, has developed a quantitative approach with the use of exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling SEM, with the use of IBM software SPSS Amos 18.0, using the method of maximum verisimilitude, and supported by technical bootstraping. The unit of analysis was the buyer-supplier relationship, in which the object under investigation was the supplier organization in view of the purchasing company. 237 valid questionnaires were collected among key informants, using a simple random sampling developed in manufacturing industries (SIC 10-33), located in the city of Natal and in the region of Natal. The first results of descriptive analysis demonstrate the phenomenon of interorganizational trust, in which purchasing firms believe, feel secure about the supplier. This demonstration showed high levels of intensity, predominantly among the vendors that supply the company with materials that are used directly in the production process. The exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, performed on each variable alone, generated a set of observable and unobservable variables more consistent, giving rise to a model, that needed to be further specified. This again specify model consists of trajectories was positive, with a good fit, with a composite reliability and variance extracted satisfactory, and demonstrates convergent and discriminant validity, in which the factor loadings are significant and strong explanatory power. Given the findings that reinforce the model again specify data, suggesting a high probability that this model may be more suited for the study population, the results support the explanation that interorganizational trust depends on purchases directly from interpersonal relationships, sharing value and operating performance and indirectly of personal relationships, social networks, organizational characteristics, physical and relational aspect of performance. It is concluded that this trust can be explained by a set of interactions between these three determinants, where the focus is on interpersonal relationships, with the largest path coefficient for the factor under study

Editorial

Los avances cient��ficos y tecnol��gicos y su aplicaci��n en las diferentes ��reas del conocimiento han generado un creciente aumento de informaci��n; las nuevas tecnolog��as en la transferencia de informaci��n han creado una nueva era electr��nica para accesarla de manera eficiente y r��pida.

IX Coloquio "La Oferta Acad��mica, Problema Esencial de la Universidad Nacional"

El saber signific�� siempre poder y el saber en esta ��poca, est�� representado por la informaci��n, que es materia prima y producto de consumo a su vez. Si somos capaces de tener la informaci��n seremos poderosos y si conseguimos crear las herramientas para el acceso a ella podremos asegurar el futuro de nuestras naciones en forma tal que podremos aceptarla como evoluci��n digna del hombre. Hubo una vez el sue��o de la posesi��n de la completa informaci��n, pero hace largo tiempo que se convirti�� en pesadilla porque nadie es capaz de conocer todo lo que se publica; el nuevo sue��o es el acceso a la informaci��n seleccionada con el mejor contenido y la mayor veracidad.

Inteligencia de negocios aplicando la metodolog��a RFM a las cuentas de los Socios de la COAC Jard��n Azuayo

El presente proyecto:Inteligencia de negocios, aplicando la metodolog��a RFM a las cuentas de los socios de la COAC Jard��n Azuayo, se desarrolla sobre la necesidad de la instituci��n de contar con herramientas eficientes y eficaces para la toma de decisiones y conocimiento del socio. Primero, se determina la importancia de construir una herramienta de Inteligencia de Negocios dentro de Jard��n Azuayo que permita obtener informaci��n clara y concisa en tiempo real para la toma de decisiones. Segundo, se contin��a con el desarrollo de metodolog��as para la gesti��n del valor del socio a trav��s del conocimiento de sus necesidades analizando la informaci��n hist��rica de su ��ltima transacci��n realizada, la frecuencia con la que acude para acceder a los servicios que ofrece la Cooperativa y el monto promedio por transacci��n. Finalmente, al combinar la herramienta de Inteligencia de Negocios para la obtenci��n de informaci��n y la aplicaci��n de metodolog��as para el conocimiento del socio, se ha podido plantear dos estrategias b��sicas para la afianzar la fidelizaci��n del socio con la Cooperativa.

Comparative analysis of volatile and phenolic composition of alternative wood chips from cherry, acacia and oak for potential use in enology.

The aim of present work was to investigate the phenolic and volatile composition of cherry, acacia, and oak (from different species) wood chips. By the use of HPLC-DAD 18 different phenolic compounds were detected and quantified while for volatile composition, 33 different compounds were detected by GC-MS. In general, wood samples from oak species showed the higher number of phenolic compounds detected, while cherry wood samples showed the lowest levels. In addition, some individual phenolic compounds were detected, specifically in some wood samples, such as robinetin in acacia woods and naringenin in cherry wood. For volatile composition, cherry wood chips samples showed the lowest volatile composition followed by increasing order by acacia, French, Portuguese and American wood chip samples. Oak wood chip samples from American species showed the highest volatile content, as a result of high levels of several specific compounds (furfural, 5-methyfurfural, ��-methyl-��-octalactones, guaiacol, vanillin and siringaldehyde).

Perspectiva de la situaci��n de las Tecnolog��as de la Informaci��n en Colombia

Hoy en d��a, en el mundo se est��n presentando grandes avances tecnol��gicos, lo que ha producido cambios en las vidas de las personas, las organizaciones, gobiernos, los Estados y en general en la vida en la tierra. Gracias a estos avances tecnol��gicos se han creado las TICS o Tecnolog��as de la Informaci��n y Comunicaciones, las cuales han permitido la simplificaci��n de diferentes procesos, han cambiado la forma de interactuar de las personas y la manera de operar de las empresas. En pa��ses desarrollados las TICS han venido funcionando desde hace unas d��cadas pero en los pa��ses de Latinoam��rica en especial Colombia, un pa��s en v��a de desarrollo con un potencial de crecimiento y tendencia al desarrollo, empezaron a hacer uso de estas tecnolog��as a principio del siglo XXI, trayendo grandes avances y beneficios a los colombianos. Actualmente Colombia es un pa��s en el cual se desarrollan diferentes tipos de tecnolog��as como aplicaciones m��viles, soluciones inform��ticas, herramientas online, videojuegos, entre otras, lo que ha permitido consolidar al pa��s como un destino atractivo de inversi��n y proveedor de TICS a nivel mundial.

Personalization in tag ontology learning for recommendation making

Due to the explosive growth of the Web, the domain of Web personalization has gained great momentum both in the research and commercial areas. One of the most popular web personalization systems is recommender systems. In recommender systems choosing user information that can be used to profile users is very crucial for user profiling. In Web 2.0, one facility that can help users organize Web resources of their interest is user tagging systems. Exploring user tagging behavior provides a promising way for understanding users��� information needs since tags are given directly by users. However, free and relatively uncontrolled vocabulary makes the user self-defined tags lack of standardization and semantic ambiguity. Also, the relationships among tags need to be explored since there are rich relationships among tags which could provide valuable information for us to better understand users. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for learning tag ontology based on the widely used lexical database WordNet for capturing the semantics and the structural relationships of tags. We present personalization strategies to disambiguate the semantics of tags by combining the opinion of WordNet lexicographers and users��� tagging behavior together. To personalize further, clustering of users is performed to generate a more accurate ontology for a particular group of users. In order to evaluate the usefulness of the tag ontology, we use the tag ontology in a pilot tag recommendation experiment for improving the recommendation performance by exploiting the semantic information in the tag ontology. The initial result shows that the personalized information has improved the accuracy of the tag recommendation.

Transformation of local medicinal knowledge in the Andean Highlands: Case studies from Peru and Bolivia

In the Andean highlands, indigenous environmental knowledge is currently undergoing major changes as a result of various external and internal factors. As in other parts of the world, an overall process of erosion of local knowledge can be observed. In response to this trend, some initiatives that adopt a biocultural approach aim at actively strengthening local identities and revalorizing indigenous environmental knowledge and practices, assuming that such practices can contribute to more sustainable management of biodiversity. However, these initiatives usually lack a sound research basis, as few studies have focused on the dynamics of indigenous environmental knowledge in the Andes and on its links with biodiversity management. Against this background, the general objective of this research project was to contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of indigenous environmental knowledge in the Andean highlands of Peru and Bolivia by investigating how local medicinal knowledge is socially differentiated within rural communities, how it is transformed, and which external and internal factors influence these transformation processes. The project adopted an actor-oriented perspective and emphasized the concept of knowledge dialogue by analyzing the integration of traditional and formal medicinal systems within family therapeutic strategies. It also aimed at grasping some of the links between the dynamics of medicinal knowledge and the types of land use systems and biodiversity management. Research was conducted in two case study areas of the Andes, both Quechua-speaking and situated in comparable agro-ecological production belts - Pitumarca District, Department of Cusco (Southern Peruvian Highlands) and the Tunari National Park, Department of Cochabamba (Bolivian inner-Andean valleys). In each case study area, the land use systems and strategies of 18 families from two rural communities, their environmental knowledge related to medicine and to the local therapeutic flora, and an appreciation of the dynamics of this knowledge were assessed. Data were collected through a combination of disciplinary and participatory action-research methods. It was mostly analyzed using qualitative methods, though some quantitative ethnobotanical methods were also used. In both case studies, traditional medicine still constitutes the preferred option for the families interviewed, independently of their age, education level, economic status, religion, or migration status. Surprisingly and contrary to general assertions among local NGOs and researchers, results show that there is a revival of Andean medicine within the younger generation, who have greater knowledge of medicinal plants than the previous one, value this knowledge as an important element of their way of life and relationship with ���Mother Earth��� (Pachamama), and, at least in the Bolivian case, prefer to consult the traditional healer rather than go to the health post. Migration to the urban centres and the Amazon lowlands, commonly thought to be an important factor of local medicinal knowledge loss, only affects people���s knowledge in the case of families who migrate over half of the year or permanently. Migration does not influence the knowledge of medicinal plants or the therapeutic strategies of families who migrate temporarily for shorter periods of time. Finally, economic status influences neither the status of people���s medicinal knowledge, nor families��� therapeutic strategies, even though the financial factor is often mentioned by practitioners and local people as the main reason for not using the formal health system. The influence of the formal health system on traditional medicinal knowledge varies in each case study area. In the Bolivian case, where it was only introduced in the 1990s and access to it is still very limited, the main impact was to give local communities access to contraceptive methods and to vaccination. In the Peruvian case, the formal system had a much greater impact on families��� health practices, due to local and national policies that, for instance, practically prohibit some traditional practices such as home birth. But in both cases, biomedicine is not considered capable of responding to cultural illnesses such as ���fear��� (susto), ���bad air��� (malviento), or ���anger��� (colerina). As a consequence, Andean farmers integrate the traditional medicinal system and the formal one within their multiple therapeutic strategies, reflecting an inter-ontological dialogue between different conceptions of health and illness. These findings reflect a more general trend in the Andes, where indigenous communities are currently actively revalorizing their knowledge and taking up traditional practices, thus strengthening their indigenous collective identities in a process of cultural resistance.

The FORA Framework - A Fuzzy Grassroots Ontology for Online Reputation Management

Online reputation management deals with monitoring and influencing the online record of a person, an organization or a product. The Social Web offers increasingly simple ways to publish and disseminate personal or opinionated information, which can rapidly have a disastrous influence on the online reputation of some of the entities. The author focuses on the Social Web and possibilities of its integration with the Semantic Web as resource for a semi-automated tracking of online reputations using imprecise natural language terms. The inherent structure of natural language supports humans not only in communication but also in the perception of the world. Thereby fuzziness is a promising tool for transforming those human perceptions into computer artifacts. Through fuzzy grassroots ontologies, the Social Semantic Web becomes more naturally and thus can streamline online reputation management. For readers interested in the cross-over field of computer science, information systems, and social sciences, this book is an ideal source for becoming acquainted with the evolving field of fuzzy online reputation management in the Social Semantic Web area. ���