The social construction of PETE in higher education: Toward a research agenda

The focus of this paper is the social construction of physical education teacher education (PETE) and its fate within the broader process of curriculum change in the physical activity field. Our task is to map the dimensions of a research program centered on the social construction of the physical activity field and PETE in higher education. Debates in the pages of Quest and elsewhere over the past two decades have highlighted not only the contentious nature of PETE practices and structures but also that PETE is changing. This paper offers one way of making sense of the ongoing process of contestation and struggle through the presentation of a theoretical framework. This framework, primarily drawing upon the work of Lave and Wenger (1991) and Bernstein (1990, 1996), is described before it is used to study the social construction of PETE in Australia. We assess the progress that has been made in developing this research program, and the questions already evident for further developments of a program of study of the physical activity field in higher education.

Telemedicine and developing countries - successful implementation will require a shared approach

Telemedicine is often proposed as a solution to certain health-care problems in the developing world. There seems to be little published experience on which to make judgements. A literature search revealed 39 articles, of which only two related to any kind of direct clinical work; most of them were review articles or editorials. The majority of the work reported was educational in nature, and there has been little clinical experience. It seems probable that telemedicine can help with the education of health-care workers and patients; it seems likely that it could bring major benefits to the organization of health-care. Without proper trials, it will be impossible to determine the place of health-care in the developing world. Trials are the only way in which rational decisions can ultimately be reached regarding whether scarce resources should be devoted to telemedicine in developing countries, or whether they should be employed in more conventional health-care measures whose outcomes are known to be cost-effective.

Biostatistics in Australia: Directions in the new millennium

The Biostatistics Collaboration of Australia (BCA) was formed in response to a shortage of statisticians seeking careers in the medical and health professions. The Collaboration has been successful in developing postgraduate courses (Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma and Masters) offered by a consortium of seven Australian Universities. These courses are available through a distance learning medium. The BCA was successful in securing funding from the Federal government to launch these courses, which commenced in March 2001. Two traineeships by the NSW Department of Health have also been awarded and a third is currently advertised. There has been close collaboration with governments, the pharmaceutical industry and research organisations to ensure that course content reflects practical problems and addresses industry needs. A second objective of the BCA is to provide ongoing workshops for practising biostatisticians to enhance professional development. These workshops serve to ring together biostatisticians from both within Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, providing a forum for discussion of current statistical thinking. (author abstract)

SOX18 directly interacts with MEF2C in endothelial cells

Recently, we demonstrated that mutations in the Sry-related HMG box gene Sox18 underlie vascular and hair follicle defects in the mouse allelic mutants ragged (Ra) and RaJ. Ra mice display numerous anomalies in the homozygote including, oedema, peritoneal secretions, and are almost completely naked. Sox18 and the MADS box transcription factor, Mef2C, are expressed in developing endothelial cells. Null mutants in Sox18 and Mef2c display overlapping phenotypic abnormalities, hence, we investigated the relationship between these two DNA binding proteins. We report here the direct interaction between MEF2C and SOX18 proteins, and establish that these proteins are coexpressed in vivo in endothelial cell nuclei. MEF2C expression potentiates SOX18-mediated transcription in vivo and regulates the function of the SOX18 activation domain. Interestingly, MEF2C fails to interact or co-activate transcription with the Ra or RaJ mutant SOX18 proteins. These results suggest that MEF2C and SOX18 may be important partners directing the transcriptional regulation of vascular development. (C) 2001 Academic Press.

Economic and environmental impacts of pollution control in a system of environment and economic interdependence

The importance of the rate of change of the pollution stock in determining the damage to the environment has been an issue of increasing concern in the literature. This paper uses a three-sector (economy, population and environment), non-linear, discrete time, calibrated model to examine pollution control. The model explicitly links economic growth to the health of the environment. The stock of natural resources is affected by the rate of pollution flows, through their impact on the regenerative capacity of the natural resource stock. This can shed useful insights into pollution control strategies, particularly in developing countries where environmental resources are crucial for production in many sectors of the economy. Simulation exercises suggested that, under plausible assumptions, it is possible to reverse undesirable transient dynamics through pollution control expenditure, but this is dependent upon the strategies used for control. The best strategy is to spend money fostering the development of production technologies that reduce pollution rather than spending money dealing with the effects of the pollution flow into the environment. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Extensive vascularization of developing mouse ovaries revealed by caveolin-1 expression

Expression screening for genes preferentially expressed in mouse fetal ovaries relative to testes identified Cav-1 as a candidate female-specific gene. Cav-1 encodes caveolin-1, a component of the cell membrane invaginations known as caveolae, which are involved in lipid regulation and signal transduction. In situ hybridization revealed high levels of Cav-1 mRNA in developing ovaries, compared with moderate or low levels in testes. Analysis of caveolin-1 protein distribution by immunofluorescence showed this difference to be due to the development of a dense and complex vascular network in the developing ovary. These observations point to a higher degree of differentiation and organization of the early stage mammalian ovary than previously suspected. (C) 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Role of China in the quest to define and control severe acute respiratory syndrome

China holds the key to solving many questions crucial to global control of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The disease appears to have originated in Guangdong Province, and the causative agent, SARS coronavirus, is likely to have originated from an animal host, perhaps sold in public markets. Epidemiologic findings, integral to defining an animal-human linkage, may be confirmed by laboratory studies; once animal host(s) are confirmed, interventions may be needed to prevent further animal-to-human transmission. Community seroprevalence studies may help determine the basis for the decline in disease incidence in Guangdong Province after February 2002. China will also be able to contribute key data about how the causative agent is transmitted and how it is evolving, as well as identifying pivotal factors influencing disease outcome.

A reduced load approximation accounting for link interactions in a loss network

This paper is concerned with evaluating the performance of loss networks. Accurate determination of loss network performance can assist in the design and dimen- sioning of telecommunications networks. However, exact determination can be difficult and generally cannot be done in reasonable time. For these reasons there is much interest in developing fast and accurate approximations. We develop a reduced load approximation that improves on the famous Erlang fixed point approximation (EFPA) in a variety of circumstances. We illustrate our results with reference to a range of networks for which the EFPA may be expected to perform badly.

Estimates of global mortality attributable to smoking in 2000

Background Smoking is a risk factor for several diseases and has been increasing in many developing countries. Our aim was to estimate global and regional mortality in 2000 caused by smoking, including an analysis of uncertainty. Methods Following the methods of Peto and colleagues, we used lung-cancer mortality as an indirect marker for accumulated smoking risk. Never-smoker lung-cancer mortality was estimated based on the household use of coal with poor ventilation. Relative risks were taken from the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study, phase II, and the retrospective proportional mortality analysis of Liu and colleagues in China. Relative risks were corrected for confounding and extrapolation to other regions. Results We estimated that in 2000, 4.83 (uncertainty range 3.94-5.93) million premature deaths in the world were attributable to smoking; 2.41 (1.80-3.15) million in developing countries and 2.43 (2.13-2.78) million in industrialised countries. 3.84 million of these deaths were in men. The leading causes of death from smoking were cardiovascular diseases (1.69 million deaths), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (0.97 million deaths), and lung cancer (0.85 million deaths). Interpretation Smoking was an important cause of global mortality in 2000. In view of the expected demographic and epidemiological transitions and current smoking patterns in the developing world, the health loss due to smoking will grow even larger unless effective interventions and policies that reduce smoking among men and prevent increases among women in developing countries are implemented.

Profiling consumer behaviour in cross-border tourism destinations

Tourism is a phenomenon that moves millions of people around the world, taking as a major driver of the global economy. Such relevance is reflected in the proliferation of studies in the overall area known as tourism, under various perspectives and backgrounds. In the light of such multitude of insights our study aims at gaining a deeper understanding of customer profiling and behavior in cross-border tourism destinations. Previous studies conducted in such contexts suggest that cross-border regions (CBRs) are an attractive and desirable idea, yet requiring further theoretical and empirical research. The new configuration of many CBRs calls for a debate on issues concerning its development, raising up important dimensions, such as, organization and planning of common tourism destinations. There is still a gap in the understanding of destination management in CBRs and the customer profile and motivations. Overall this research aims at attaining a deeper understanding of the profile and behavior of consumers in tourism settings, addressing the predisposition for the destination. The study addresses the following research question: “What factors influence customer behavior and attitudes in a CBRs tourism destination?” To address our question we will take an interdisciplinary perspective bringing together inputs from marketing, tourism and local economics. When addressing consumer behavior in tourism previous studies considered the following constructs: involvement, place attachment, satisfaction and destination loyalty. In order to establish the causal relationships in our theoretical model, we intend to develop a predominant quantitative design, yet we plan to conduct exploratory interviews. In the analysis and discussion of results, we intend to use Structural Equation Modeling. It will further allow understanding how the constructs in the research model relate to each other in the specified context. Results are also expected to have managerial implications. Consequently our results may assist decision makers in developing their local policies.

Consumer behavior and profile in cross border tourism destinations

Tourism is a phenomenon that moves millions of people around the world, taking as a major driver of the global economy. Such relevance is reflected in the proliferation of studies in the overall area known as tourism, under various perspectives and backgrounds. In the light of such multitude of insights our study aims at gaining a deeper understanding of customer profiling and behavior in cross-border tourism destinations. Previous studies conducted in such contexts suggest that cross-border regions (CBRs) are an attractive and desirable idea, yet requiring further theoretical and empirical research. The new configuration of many CBRs calls for a debate on issues concerning its development, raising up important dimensions, such as, organization and planning of common tourism destinations. There is still a gap in the understanding of destination management in CBRs and the customer profile and motivations. Overall this research aims at attaining a deeper understanding of the profile and behavior of consumers in tourism settings, addressing the predisposition for the destination. The study addresses the following research question: “What factors influence customer behavior and attitudes in a CBRs tourism destination?” To address our question we will take an interdisciplinary perspective bringing together inputs from marketing, tourism and local economics. When addressing consumer behavior in tourism previous studies considered the following constructs: involvement, place attachment, satisfaction and destination loyalty. In order to establish the causal relationships in our theoretical model, we intend to develop a predominant quantitative design, yet we plan to conduct exploratory interviews. In the analysis and discussion of results, we intend to use Structural Equation Modeling. It will further allow understanding how the constructs in the research model relate to each other in the specified context. Results are also expected to have managerial implications. Consequently our results may assist decision makers in developing their local policies.

Developing management systems for emerging countries

Application of Western management theories in different contexts has been questioned for several decades. However, there is still no well-defined theoretical framework for understanding management systems in non-industrialized countries. This article provides some guidelines to develop these frameworks by elaborating some of the major characteristics of strategies, structures, decision-makings and management systems in Developing Countries (DC). The analysis showed evidence that the complexity of national environmental forces of DCs has made the application of Western management theories more problematic in these countries. The article concludes that global business firms should realize that it is time to stop transferring these management systems to DCs and trying to adapt their organizations to these systems and that a clinical type of approach may be more effective.

Ambivalent implications of health care information systems: a study in the Brazilian public health care system

This article evaluates social implications of the "SIGA" Health Care Information System (HIS) in a public health care organization in the city of São Paulo. The evaluation was performed by means of an in-depth case study with patients and staff of a public health care organization, using qualitative and quantitative data. On the one hand, the system had consequences perceived as positive such as improved convenience and democratization of specialized treatment for patients and improvements in work organization. On the other hand, negative outcomes were reported, like difficulties faced by employees due to little familiarity with IT and an increase in the time needed to schedule appointments. Results show the ambiguity of the implications of HIS in developing countries, emphasizing the need for a more nuanced view of the evaluation of failures and successes and the importance of social contextual factors.

Is category management in small supermarkets worth the effort?

Category management (CM) is an important tool to strengthen the relationship between manufacturers and retailers. This process has been associated with large corporate retailers; however, some recent researches show that CM is open to companies of any type or size. This possibility is important in emerging markets, where neighborhood supermarkets are still representative and are often considered an alternative for manufacturers to achieve higher margins compared to big chains. In this context, the aim of this research was to analyze the results of a CM initiative in small neighborhood supermarkets from a manufacturer perspective. Data for the study comes from a food manufacturer in Brazil that implemented a CM process with 180 small retailers. A quantitative analysis was conducted in order to analyze the effect of the program on the food manufacturer' s sales and market share. Our analysis suggests an overall positive effect of the program on both, sales and market share.

Network dynamics in scientific knowledge acquisition: an analysis in three public universities in the state of Bahia

This paper aims to cast some light on the dynamics of knowledge networks in developing countries by analyzing the scientific production of the largest university in the Northeast of Brazil and its influence on some of the remaining regional research institutions in the state of Bahia. Using a methodology test to be employed in a larger project, the Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA) (Federal University of Bahia), the Universidade do Estado da Bahia (Uneb) (State of Bahia University) and the Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (Uesc)'s (Santa Cruz State University) scientific productions are discussed in one of their most traditionally expressive sectors in academic production - namely, the field of chemistry, using social network analysis of co-authorship networks to investigate the existence of small world phenomena and the importance of these phenomena in research performance in these three universities. The results already obtained through this research bring to light data of considerable interest concerning the scientific production in unconsolidated research universities. It shows the important participation of the UFBA network in the composition of the other two public universities research networks, indicating a possible occurrence of small world phenomena in the UFBA and Uesc networks, as well as the importance of individual researchers in consolidating research networks in peripheral universities. The article also hints that the methodology employed appears to be adequate insofar as scientific production may be used as a proxy for scientific knowledge.