Instrumental and ethical aspects of experimental research with animal models

Experimental animal models offer possibilities of physiology knowledge, pathogenesis of disease and action of drugs that are directly related to quality nursing care. This integrative review describes the current state of the instrumental and ethical aspects of experimental research with animal models, including the main recommendations of ethics committees that focus on animal welfare and raises questions about the impact of their findings in nursing care. Data show that, in Brazil, the progress in ethics for the use of animals for scientific purposes was consolidated with Law No. 11.794/2008 establishing ethical procedures, attending health, genetic and experimental parameters. The application of ethics in handling of animals for scientific and educational purposes and obtaining consistent and quality data brings unquestionable contributions to the nurse, as they offer subsidies to relate pathophysiological mechanisms and the clinical aspect on the patient.

Fluoxetine addition to methadone in addicts: pharmacokinetic aspects.

We report nine cases where fluoxetine (FX) (20 mg/day) was added to maintenance treatment with methadone (MTD) (dose range: 30-100 mg) in addicts with affective disorders. MTD plasma levels were measured before and after treatment with FX under steady-state conditions. Among the nine patients, two also received fluvoxamine (FLVX) at different times. Although it is possible that in some patients a moderate FX-MTD interaction occurs, resulting in increased plasma levels of MTD, this interaction is certainly less marked than that between FLVX and MTD and unlikely to have clinical consequences.

Analysis of the physical aspects of quality of life of kidney recipients

OBJECTIVE To identify the main factors of the physical domain modified after kidney transplantation and analyze the influence of those aspects in the perception of Overall quality of life (QOL). METHOD Longitudinal study, conducted with 63 chronic kidney patients, evaluated before and after kidney transplant, using the quality of life scale proposed by the World Health Organization. RESULTS We observed significant improvement in the physical aspects of QOL after kidney transplantation. Significant correlations were observed between physical aspects and the Overall QOL. CONCLUSION The kidney transplant generated improvement in all physical aspects of QOL. The factors that showed stronger correlation with the Overall QOL before the transplant were the capacity to work and pain. After the transplant, the perception of need for treatment was the factor that showed stronger correlation with the Overall QOL.

Economic Aspects of Agricultural and Food Biosecurity in the United States, March 2007

Concerns about biosecurity in the food system raise a variety of issues about how the system is presently organized, why it might be vulnerable, what one could reasonably do to better secure it, and the costs of doing so. After presenting some facts about US agriculture and food, this paper considers three economic aspects of the general problem. One is the global problem, or the way biosecurity measures can affect how countries relate to each other and the global consequences that result. Another is how to best manage the immediate aftermath of a realized threat in order to minimize damage. The third is how to seek to prevent realization of the threat. Some policy alternatives are also presented.

Analyse systémique et prospective des usages de l'eau dans la région de Crans-Montana-Sierre (Suisse)

Crans-Montana-Sierre is a tourist area locateci in Rhone valley in central Valais, cha-racterized by dry climate and scarce summer precipitations. More than other regions in Switzerland, this area has suffered the effects of the drought (heat wave) that affec¬ted all Western Europe during summer 2003. In the future, climate change together with societal and economic development will signicantly modify the water need of the region and, consequently, may increase the potential conflicts of interest. Within a long term planning strategy, decision-makers require precise information about the current amount of water needed in the region, with particular attention to temporal and spatial concentration, and the forecasted amount for 2050. This work therefore aims at estimating the variation of the water demand by taking into account the influence of climate change (CH2011) and socio-economic scenarios, developed in cooperation with the competent authorities. This thesis, whose aim is to study the water management and water uses is a core part of the MontanAqua project "Water management in times of scarcity and global change" mainly because of its interdisciplinary topic at the interface between water resources, land development and the socio-political structure. Results show that socio-economic development by 2050 could have a greater impact than expected climate changes (CH2011, A1B scenarios) for the same time horizon for water demand. Demography, spatial planning, tourism and economic development are just some of the factors that could significantly affect the water consumption of the Crans-Montana-Sierre region. Compared with the future water resources available, the maximal water demand forecasted by the socio-economic scenarios developed within the project MontanAqua, could not always be satisfied. This issue, like extreme climate phenomena (as it was the summer drought occurred in 2003 or in April / May 2011), could be mitigated adopting regional management policies relating to a more rational water use and preventive storage of water resource. - Crans-Montana-Sierre est une région touristique située dans la vallée du Rhône; dans le Valais central, qui se caractérise par un climat relativement pauvre en précipitations et qui plus que d'autres a subi les effets de la sécheresse qui a touché l'Europe occidentale durant l'été 2003. À l'avenir, les changements climatiques ainsi que le développement socio-économique modifieront de manière significative les besoins en eau de la région, ce qui risque de faire augmenter les rivalités d'usage concernant cette ressource. Afin de jouer à l'avance, les décideurs ont besoin d'informations précises sur la quantité d'eau nécessaire à la région, avec une attention particulière à sa concentration temporelle et spatiale, à l'heure actuelle et à l'horizon 2050. Ce travail vise donc à estimer la variation de la demande en eau en tenant compte de l'influence des changements climatiques (CH2011) et des scénarios socio-économiques, élaborés en collaboration avec les autorités compétentes. Cette thèse, qui met l'accent sur les usages de l'eau fait partie du projet Montan Aqua « Gestion de l'eau en temps de pénurie et de changement global », est à l'intersection entre les ressources hydriques, l'aménagement du territoire et son organisation socio-politique, fait qui la met, non pas par son importance, mais par son emplacement et ses interconnexions, au coeur de cette recherche. Les résultats obtenus montrent comment les développements socio-économiques d'ici à 2050 ont un impact potentiellement plus important que les changements climatiques prévus par les scénarios AlB de CH2011 pour le même horizon temporel sur la demande en eau. Démographie, aménagement du territoire et contexte économico-touristique, ne sont que quelques-uns des facteurs qui ont la capacité d'agir significativement sur les usages de l'eau en ce qui concerne les aspects qualitatif et quantitatif de la région de Crans-Montana-Sierre. Par rapport aux ressources en eau disponibles à l'avenir, la demande maximale d'eau prévue par les scénarios socio-économiques développés au sein du projet MontanAqua risque de ne pas être toujours satisfaite. Ce danger et la manifestation de phénomènes climatiques extrêmes, comme la sécheresse estivale survenue en 2003 ou celle d'avril/mai 2011, ne pourront être atténués que par l'adoption de politiques de gestion à l'échelle régionale favorisant une utilisation plus rationnelle et un stockage préventif de la ressource en eau.

Oviposition behavior and performance aspects of Ascia monuste (Godart, 1919) (Lepidoptera, Pieridae) on kale (Brassica oleracea var. acephala)

Host part selection by ovipositing females of Ascia monuste (Godart, 1919) (Lepidoptera, Pieridae) on kale (Brassica oleracea var. acephala) was determined in greenhouse and field. Performance of offspring (larval period, efficiency of food utilization, number of eggs/female and others) was investigated under laboratory conditions. In the field, the number of A. monuste egg clutches on the apical and medium parts of kale leaves was greater than on the basal part. In greenhouse, A. monuste exhibited a strong preference for the apical part of kale leaves for ovipositing. The best results on food utilization indices, pupal mass and female wing size were obtained with the leaf apical part. This part of kale leaves exhibited the highest nitrogen and protein concentration and the smallest water content, when compared to the other leaf parts. However, the apical part of the leaves seems not to provide ovipositing females with enough protection against birds, making them easy preys in the field. We suggest that good relationship between oviposition preference and performance of offspring was hindered by predation in field conditions.

Civil conflict and human capital accumulation: The long-term effects of political violence in Perú

This paper provides empirical evidence of the persistent effect of exposure to political violence on humancapital accumulation. I exploit the variation in conflict location and birth cohorts to identify the longandshort-term effects of the civil war on educational attainment. Conditional on being exposed toviolence, the average person accumulates 0.31 less years of education as an adult. In the short-term,the effects are stronger than in the long-run; these results hold when comparing children within thesame household. Further, exposure to violence during early childhood leads to permanent losses. I alsoexplore the potential causal mechanisms.

The political cost of reforms

This paper formalizes in a fully-rational model the popular idea that politiciansperceive an electoral cost in adopting costly reforms with future benefits and reconciles it with the evidence that reformist governments are not punished by voters.To do so, it proposes a model of elections where political ability is ex-ante unknownand investment in reforms is unobservable. On the one hand, elections improve accountability and allow to keep well-performing incumbents. On the other, politiciansmake too little reforms in an attempt to signal high ability and increase their reappointment probability. Although in a rational expectation equilibrium voters cannotbe fooled and hence reelection does not depend on reforms, the strategy of underinvesting in reforms is nonetheless sustained by out-of-equilibrium beliefs. Contrary tothe conventional wisdom, uncertainty makes reforms more politically viable and may,under some conditions, increase social welfare. The model is then used to study howpolitical rewards can be set so as to maximize social welfare and the desirability of imposing a one-term limit to governments. The predictions of this theory are consistentwith a number of empirical regularities on the determinants of reforms and reelection.They are also consistent with a new stylized fact documented in this paper: economicuncertainty is associated to more reforms in a panel of 20 OECD countries.

Turnout, political preferences and information: Experimental evidence from Perú

Electoral institutions that encourage citizens to vote are widely used around the world. Yet littleis known about the effects of such institutions on voter participation and the composition of the electorate.In this paper, I combine a field experiment with a change in Peruvian voting laws to identify theeffect of monetary (dis-)incentives on voting. Using the random variation in the fine for abstention andan objective measure of turnout at the individual level, I estimate the elasticity of voting with respectto cost to be -0.21. Consistent with the theoretical model presented, the reduction in turnout inducedby the reduction in the fine is driven by voters who (i) are in the center of the political spectrum, (ii)are less interested in politics, and (iii) hold less political information. However, voters who respondto changes in the cost of abstention do not have different preferences for policies than those who voteregardless of the cost. Further, involvement in politics, as measured by the decision to acquire politicalinformation, seems to be independent of the level of the fine. Additional results indicate that thereduction in the fine does not affect the incidence of vote buying, but increases the price paid for avote.

Value and prices in Russian economic thought (1890-1920)

The subject "Value and prices in Russian economic thought (1890--1920)" should evoke several names and debates in the reader's mind. For a long time, Western scholars have been aware that the Russian economists Tugan-Baranovsky and Bortkiewicz were active participants to the Marxian transformation problem, that the mathematical models of Dmitriev prefigured forthcoming neoricardian based models, and that many Russian economists were either supporting the Marxian labour theory of value or being revisionists. Moreover, these ideas were preparing the ground for Soviet planning. Russian scholars additionally knew that this period was the time of introduction of marginalism in Russia, and that, during this period, economists were active in thinking the relation of ethics with economic theory. All these issues are well covered in the existing literature. But there is a big gap that this dissertation intends to fill. The existing literature handles these pieces separately, although they are part of a single, more general, history. All these issues (the labour theory of value, marginalism, the Marxian transformation problem, planning, ethics, mathematical economics) were part of what this dissertation calls here "The Russian synthesis". The Russian synthesis (in the singular) designates here all the attempts at synthesis between classical political economy and marginalism, between labour theory of value and marginal utility, and between value and prices that occurred in Russian economic thought between 1890 and 1920, and that embraces the whole set of issues evoked above. This dissertation has the ambition of being the first comprehensive history of that Russian synthesis. In this, this contribution is unique. It has always surprised the author of the present dissertation that such a book has not yet been written. Several good reasons, both in terms of scarce availability of sources and of ideological restrictions, may accounted for a reasonable delay of several decades. But it is now urgent to remedy the situation before the protagonists of the Russian synthesis are definitely classified under the wrong labels in the pantheon of economic thought. To accomplish this task, it has seldom be sufficient to gather together the various existing studies on aspects of this story. It as been necessary to return to the primary sources in the Russian language. The most important part of the primary literature has never been translated, and in the last years only some of them have been republished in Russian. Therefore, most translations from the Russian have been made by the author of the present dissertation. The secondary literature has been surveyed in the languages that are familiar (Russian, English and French) or almost familiar (German) to the present author, and which are hopefully the most pertinent to the present investigation. Besides, and in order to increase the acquaintance with the text, which was the objective of all this, some archival sources were used. The analysis consists of careful chronological studies of the authors' writings and their evolution in their historical and intellectual context. As a consequence, the dissertation brings new authors to the foreground - Shaposhnikov and Yurovsky - who were traditionally confined to the substitutes' bench, because they only superficially touched the domains quoted above. In the Russian synthesis however, they played an important part of the story. As a side effect, some authors that used to play in the foreground - Dmitriev and Bortkiewicz - are relegated to the background, but are not forgotten. Besides, the dissertation refreshes the views on authors already known, such as Ziber and, especially, Tugan-Baranovsky. The ultimate objective of this dissertation is to change the opinion that one could have on "value and prices in Russian economic thought", by setting the Russian synthesis at the centre of the debates.

Geometric and long run aspects of Granger causality

This paper extends multivariate Granger causality to take into account the subspacesalong which Granger causality occurs as well as long run Granger causality. The propertiesof these new notions of Granger causality, along with the requisite restrictions, are derivedand extensively studied for a wide variety of time series processes including linear invertibleprocess and VARMA. Using the proposed extensions, the paper demonstrates that: (i) meanreversion in L2 is an instance of long run Granger non-causality, (ii) cointegration is a specialcase of long run Granger non-causality along a subspace, (iii) controllability is a special caseof Granger causality, and finally (iv) linear rational expectations entail (possibly testable)Granger causality restriction along subspaces.