Caribbean synthesis review and appraisal report in the context of the 15th anniversay of the adoptaton of the Beijing declaration and platform for action

The report is a summary based on information received by ECLAC from the eight English-speaking Caribbean countries of Barbados, Belize, the Cayman Islands, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Jamaica, Suriname, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago in response to the questionnaire to governments on the Implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995) and the Outcome of the Twenty-Third Special Session of the General Assembly (2000). The report is therefore set in the context of the regional review and appraisals of the fifteenth anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 2010. This Executive Summary highlights the achievements and the challenges for the Caribbean subregion in the progress towards implementation of the Beijing Platform of Action.

Causes and consequences of low rates of specialisation in science and technology in CDCC member countries

The importance of science and technology (S&T) in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) is clearly articulated in Chapter XI, paragraphs 57, 58, 61 and 62 of the Mauritius Strategy for the Further Implementation of the Programme of Action for Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (MSI). At the regional level, the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) noted the challenge that CARICOM member States face in competing in this new international economic environment in which the impact of scientific and technological change has created a knowledge-based global economy. Given the importance of S&T to development of Caribbean SIDS, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean embarked on a study to determine the causes and consequences of low rates of specialisation in S&T with a view to making recommendations for development of strategies for addressing these challenges. Data on postgraduate (Master of Science, Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy) enrolment and graduation in agriculture, engineering and the sciences from the three campuses of the University of the West Indies (UWI) as well as from the University of Technology in Jamaica and the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) were examined and analysed. Face-to-face interviews were also held with key personnel from these institutions and a questionnaire was also served to individuals in key institutions. Results of the study revealed that although the number of students enrolled in higher degree programmes has increased in absolute terms, they are decreasing in relative terms. However, enrolment in agriculture has indeed declined while enrolment rates in engineering, although increasing, were not significantly high. Market forces have proved to be a main reason for this trend while facilities for the conduct and supervision of cutting-edge research, the disconnect between science and industry and societal labelling of scientists as “misfits” are also contributing to the situation. This has resulted in a reduced desire by students at all levels of the school system and faculty to be involved in S&T; lack of innovation; a better staffed private, as compared with public, sector; and poor remuneration in science-based employment. There also appears to be a gender bias in enrolment with more males than females being enrolled in engineering while the opposite is apparent in agriculture and the sciences. Recommendations for remedying this situation range from increasing investment in S&T, creating linkages between science and industry as well as with the international community, raising awareness of the value of S&T at all levels of the education system to informing policy to stimulate the science – innovation interface so as to promote intellectual property rights.

Ageing in the Caribbean and the human rights of older persons: Twin imperatives for action

This study addresses the ageing of the Caribbean population and the situation with respect to the human rights of older persons. It considers the implications for public policy of these ‘twin imperatives for action’. The first chapter describes and explains the changing age structure of the Caribbean population. Important features of the ageing dynamic, such as differential regional and national trends and the growing number of ‘older old’ persons, are also analysed. The study then describes the progress that has been made in advancing and clarifying the human rights of older persons in international law. The core of the study then consists of an assessment of the current situation of older persons in the Caribbean and the extent to which their human rights are realised in practice. The thematic areas of economic security, health, and enabling environments – which roughly correspond to the three priority areas of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing – are each addressed in individual chapters. These chapters evaluate national policies and programmes for older persons and make public policy recommendations intended to protect and fulfil the human rights of older persons. The report concludes by summarising the priorities for future action both through the establishment of new international human rights instruments as well as national policies and programmes.

Proposed action lines of the Committee on South-South Cooperation for the period 2016-2018. Note by the Secretariat

The secretariat is hereby circulating the present document, prepared by the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID), to members of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), as input to the meeting of the Committee on South-South Cooperation to be held in the framework of the thirty-sixth session of the Commission.

Ethical Care of the Self and the Teacher in the Pedagogical Relationship: Reflections Based on the Latest Foucault

Our conception of education is that it is the responsible action whereby man becomes human, trains and faces the challenges that life and the world present, as man enters a larger, shared cultural tradition and thus joins the world. However such sharing implies that we must not just rely on tradition, but remain open to new ideas. It is essential for schooling to preserve a field where the art of living intersects with the world for which future generations are being prepared. It is in this field of intersection that this essay seeks to discuss Michel Foucault's thought, care of the self and the role played by others in the acquisition of ethical attitudes pertaining to one's conduct in life. Through reconstructing Foucault's ideas, we elaborate on the hypothesis that, before morally shaping students, teaching them values, or aiding in their skill acquisition in the sense prevailing in schooling today, it is important to understand the notion of care of the self (and how the notion implies interaction with others for effective care of the self). Care of the self is vital for thoroughly understanding the relationships between ethics and education in school. We particularly examine how Foucault's ideas and his analysis of the teacher's role in shaping the student's life conduct can help educators rethink pedagogical action in an ethical sense and find within it a certain openness to the formation of attitudes in educators and students

Endocrine disrupter action in ruminants: A study of the effects of Ipomoea carnea in adult male goats

Ipomoea carnea is a toxic plant in Brazil and other tropical countries that often poisons livestock; its primary toxin is swainsonine. Some substances that interact with the endocrine system have been called endocrine disruptors (EDs). Considering swainsonine's mode of action, it is feasible to hypothesize that this compound could act as an ED. Bisphenol A (BPA), an estrogen-mimic, is considered a classical ED in rodents. This study aimed to evaluate the possible ED actions of I. cameo and BPA in male goats. Seventeen adult male goats were divided into three homogeneous groups: control (C, n = 5); IC (n = 6, received 5.0 g/kg body weight of freshly harvested I. cornea per day), and BPA (n = 6, received 25.0 mg/kg body weight of BPA per day). The experimental period was 120 days. During the experiment, blood samples were collected at 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 days for biochemical and hormonal evaluations. On the same days, semen samples were collected for andrological evaluation, and scrotal circumference and testicular consistency were determined. The males were castrated on day 121, and fragments of testicle and epididymis were collected for histopathological evaluation. A decrease in serum T3 and T4 was observed in the IC group as well as an increase in the number of sperm with morphological alterations. In the BPA group, reduced serum 14 and a decreased percentage of sperm with plasma membrane integrates were observed. A histopathological examination revealed the vacuolar degeneration of Sertoli cells and areas of laminar patterns of calcium deposits in the IC group and vacuolar degeneration in the rete testis in the BPA group. These results indicate that both I. cameo and BPA are potential EDs in goats. This study emphasized the susceptibility of livestock to ED actions. We also demonstrated the action of I. cameo acting as EDs in the endocrine and reproductive systems. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The modulatory effects of caffeic acid on human monocytes and its involvement in propolis action

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Semiotics of Communication: From Semiosis of Nature to Culture

Communication Studies currently undergoes a crisis of paradigms that requires an ontological review that must begin with a debate about the conditions of possibility of every communicational phenomena. In this article we argue that semiosis offers a conceptual framework that allows for the study of communication as qualitative action. Semiosis, or the action of the sign, is here defined as a fundamental process based on perception that models the world of species, creating cognition and culture. At the core of semiosis are dynamic structures that the authors have defined as 'ontological diagrams'. The first purpose of Semiotics of Communication is to understand how these modeling systems evolve ontologically and phylogenically, producing, in the case of human culture, means of communication ever more varied and technologically advanced.

Therapeutic Project at Extra-Hospital Mental Health Services: a critical reflection on the elaboration and management of services' therapeutic projects

Based on a study conducted in Ribeirao Preto, SP, Brazil in extra-hospital mental health services that addressed the organization of these services, therapeutic projects and the inclusion of psychosocial rehabilitation in health actions available, a theoretical-critical reflection concerning the development process of the therapeutic projects by the services' teams is presented. The qualitative study was conducted in an outpatient clinic and a Psychosocial Care Center. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and focal groups. Data analysis was based on the hermeneutic dialectic philosophy of Jurgen Habermas according to the techniques of reconstruction and interpretation. Data analysis revealed that professionals have difficulty developing and managing therapeutic projects. Health actions are made available without being concretely supported by a proposal guiding the service's practical activities. The therapeutic projects are referred by professionals as the result of guidelines provided by management levels or technical orientations inherent to each profession but not as an activity that represents a philosophy of work of the health team. When the therapeutic project is focused on as a type of consensus that results from a communicative action directed to a mutual and intersubjective understanding among the members of the mental health extra-hospital team, the difficulties of the services' team dialogically organizing themselves to collectively construct the therapeutic project is evidenced.

Social learning and action understanding in human observers: contributions of sensori-motor constraints and prior information

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the respective contribution of prior information and sensorimotor constraints to action understanding, and to estimate their consequences on the evolution of human social learning. Even though a huge amount of literature is dedicated to the study of action understanding and its role in social learning, these issues are still largely debated. Here, I critically describe two main perspectives. The first perspective interprets faithful social learning as an outcome of a fine-grained representation of others’ actions and intentions that requires sophisticated socio-cognitive skills. In contrast, the second perspective highlights the role of simpler decision heuristics, the recruitment of which is determined by individual and ecological constraints. The present thesis aims to show, through four experimental works, that these two contributions are not mutually exclusive. A first study investigates the role of the inferior frontal cortex (IFC), the anterior intraparietal area (AIP) and the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) in the recognition of other people’s actions, using a transcranial magnetic stimulation adaptation paradigm (TMSA). The second work studies whether, and how, higher-order and lower-order prior information (acquired from the probabilistic sampling of past events vs. derived from an estimation of biomechanical constraints of observed actions) interacts during the prediction of other people’s intentions. Using a single-pulse TMS procedure, the third study investigates whether the interaction between these two classes of priors modulates the motor system activity. The fourth study tests the extent to which behavioral and ecological constraints influence the emergence of faithful social learning strategies at a population level. The collected data contribute to elucidate how higher-order and lower-order prior expectations interact during action prediction, and clarify the neural mechanisms underlying such interaction. Finally, these works provide/open promising perspectives for a better understanding of social learning, with possible extensions to animal models.

The European External Action Service and the Implementation of the 'Union Method' in European Foreign Policy

The European External Action Service (EEAS or Service) is one of the most significant and most debated innovations introduced by the Lisbon Treaty. This analysis intends to explain the anomalous design of the EEAS in light of its function, which consists in the promotion of external action coherence. Coherence is a principle of the EU legal system, which requires synergy in the external actions of the Union and its Members. It can be enforced only through the coordination of European policy-makers' initiatives, by bridging the gap between the 'Communitarian' and intergovernmental approaches. This is the 'Union method' envisaged by A. Merkel: "coordinated action in a spirit of solidarity - each of us in the area for which we are responsible but all working towards the same goal". The EEAS embodies the 'Union method', since it is institutionally linked to both Union organs and Member States. It is also capable of enhancing synergy in policy management and promoting unity in international representation, since its field of action is delimited not by an abstract concern for institutional balance but by a pragmatic assessment of the need for coordination in each sector. The challenge is now to make sure that this pragmatic approach is applied with respect to all the activities of the Service, in order to reinforce its effectiveness. The coordination brought by the EEAS is in fact the only means through which a European foreign policy can come into being: the choice is not between the Community method and the intergovernmental method, but between a coordinated position and nothing at all.

The use of mechanisms and modes of toxic action in integrated testing strategies: the report and recommendations of a workshop held as part of the European Union OSIRIS Integrated Project

This report on The Potential of Mode of Action (MoA) Information Derived from Non-testing and Screening Methodologies to Support Informed Hazard Assessment, resulted from a workshop organised within OSIRIS (Optimised Strategies for Risk Assessment of Industrial Chemicals through Integration of Non-test and Test Information), a project partly funded by the EU Commission within the Sixth Framework Programme. The workshop was held in Liverpool, UK, on 30 October 2008, with 35 attendees. The goal of the OSIRIS project is to develop integrated testing strategies (ITS) fit for use in the REACH system, that would enable a significant increase in the use of non-testing information for regulatory decision making, and thus minimise the need for animal testing. One way to improve the evaluation of chemicals may be through categorisation by way of mechanisms or modes of toxic action. Defining such groups can enhance read-across possibilities and priority settings for certain toxic modes or chemical structures responsible for these toxic modes. Overall, this may result in a reduction of in vivo testing on organisms, through combining available data on mode of action and a focus on the potentially most-toxic groups. In this report, the possibilities of a mechanistic approach to assist in and guide ITS are explored, and the differences between human health and environmental areas are summarised.

Action crisis and cost–benefit thinking: A cognitive analysis of a goal-disengagement phase

The present research is based on the notion that disengagement from goals is not a discrete event but a process (Klinger, 1975). A critical phase in this process is when difficulties and setbacks in striving for a goal accumulate. This critical phase is termed here as an action crisis. Given the profound effects that people's thoughts have on their self-regulatory efficiency, it is essential to understand the cognitive correlates of an action crisis. In two experimental lab and two correlational field studies, the hypothesis that goal-related costs and benefits become cognitively highly accessible during an action crisis was tested and supported. Participants who were experiencing an action crisis in such diverse goal areas as intimate relationships, sports, and university studies, thought about goal-related costs and benefits more intensively and frequently in comparison to participants who were not in an action crisis. In an incidental learning task they recognized more of cost–benefit-items and less of implementation-items than the control group. Results are interpreted in terms of action phase specific mindsets (Gollwitzer, 1990, 2012).

The Struggle of Giving Up Personal Goals – Affective, Physiological, and Cognitive Consequences of an Action Crisis.

A critical phase in goal striving occurs when setbacks accumulate and goal disengagement becomes an issue. This critical phase is conceptualized as an action crisis and assumed to be characterized by an intrapsychic conflict in which the individual becomes torn between further goal pursuit and goal disengagement. Our theorizing converges with Klinger’s conceptualization of goal disengagement as a process, rather than a discrete event. Two longitudinal field studies tested and found support for the hypothesis that an action crisis not only compromises an individual’s psychological and physiological well-being, but also dampens the cognitive evaluation of the respective goal. In Study 3, marathon runners experiencing an action crisis in their goal of running marathons showed a stronger cortisol secretion and a lower performance in the race 2 weeks later. Results are interpreted in terms of action-phase–specific mindsets with a focus on self-regulatory processes in goal disengagement.

Code-specific learning rules improve action selection by populations of spiking neurons

Population coding is widely regarded as a key mechanism for achieving reliable behavioral decisions. We previously introduced reinforcement learning for population-based decision making by spiking neurons. Here we generalize population reinforcement learning to spike-based plasticity rules that take account of the postsynaptic neural code. We consider spike/no-spike, spike count and spike latency codes. The multi-valued and continuous-valued features in the postsynaptic code allow for a generalization of binary decision making to multi-valued decision making and continuous-valued action selection. We show that code-specific learning rules speed up learning both for the discrete classification and the continuous regression tasks. The suggested learning rules also speed up with increasing population size as opposed to standard reinforcement learning rules. Continuous action selection is further shown to explain realistic learning speeds in the Morris water maze. Finally, we introduce the concept of action perturbation as opposed to the classical weight- or node-perturbation as an exploration mechanism underlying reinforcement learning. Exploration in the action space greatly increases the speed of learning as compared to exploration in the neuron or weight space.