Comunidade política, imigração e coesão social: o caso português

O presente trabalho é um contributo para entender em que medida a existência de múltiplas pertenças étnico-culturais na comunidade política é conciliável com a manutenção de uma comunidade socialmente coesa e politicamente unitária. Tendo em conta a realidade imigratória em Portugal, procurou-se saber quais os laços que ligam os imigrantes à comunidade política e em que medida eles podem ser mobilizados para a integração dos imigrantes num projecto comum de vivência em território nacional. Metodologicamente, este trabalho tem por base a análise qualitativa e quantitativa das políticas e medidas adoptados em Portugal em matéria de imigração, bem como, os resultados do trabalho empírico por nós realizado junto de dois grupos de imigrantes (brasileiros e cabo-verdianos) residentes na área metropolitana de Lisboa, assim como os resultados de um questionário enviado às associações de imigrantes. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam para a existência de uma certa ambivalência política no processo de integração dos imigrantes, a qual se reflecte de algum modo na forma como os nacionais e os imigrantes valorizam o contributo dos imigrantes para a sociedade portuguesa, sobressaindo uma ideia difusa generalizada de que os custos da imigração não compensam os seus benefícios, o que provavelmente afectará o relacionamento recíproco. Apesar de situações objectivas de desigualdade social e económica e da percepção de discriminação existente entre os imigrantes, é possível identificar uma progressiva universalização da cidadania e a aceitação formal das tradições religiosas e culturais dos imigrantes, mesmo não sendo o parlamento português representativo dessa diversidade. Deste modo, afigura-se ser possível assegurar direitos específicos de protecção das minorias étnicas e culturais sem que seja necessária a etnicização ou a culturalização da representação política e os princípios gerais que estruturam a comunidade política nacional poderão ser suficientes para assegurar essa protecção. No entanto, existem indícios que sugerem que o acesso dos imigrantes à esfera pública poderá não ser fácil, o que se poderá traduzir na visibilidade e na discussão pública das suas reivindicações, com consequências a nível do tipo de políticas de integração adoptadas em Portugal.

Socio-economic inequalities in health in Catalonia

In this paper we measure the degree of income related inequality in mental health as measured by the GHQ instrument and general health as measured by the EQOL-5D instrument for the Catalan population. We find that income is the main contributor to inequality, although the share of inequality in mental health that can be explained by income is much greater than the corresponding share of inequality in general health. We also find that the variation in demographic structure reduces income related inequality in mental health but increases income related inequality in general health. The regional variations in both instruments for health are striking, with the Barcelona districts faring relatively bad with respect to the rest of geographical areas and Lleida being the health region where, all else held equal, the population reports the greatest level of health. A big share of inequality in the two health measures, but specially mental health, is due to the favourable position in both health and income of those who enjoy an indefinite contract with respect to the rest of individuals. We also find that risky working conditions affect both health measures and are able to explain an important share of socio-economic inequality.

Genome-Wide Prediction Methods in Highly Diverse and Heterozygous Species: Proof-of-Concept through Simulation in Grapevine.

Nowadays, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and genomic selection (GS) methods which use genome-wide marker data for phenotype prediction are of much potential interest in plant breeding. However, to our knowledge, no studies have been performed yet on the predictive ability of these methods for structured traits when using training populations with high levels of genetic diversity. Such an example of a highly heterozygous, perennial species is grapevine. The present study compares the accuracy of models based on GWAS or GS alone, or in combination, for predicting simple or complex traits, linked or not with population structure. In order to explore the relevance of these methods in this context, we performed simulations using approx 90,000 SNPs on a population of 3,000 individuals structured into three groups and corresponding to published diversity grapevine data. To estimate the parameters of the prediction models, we defined four training populations of 1,000 individuals, corresponding to these three groups and a core collection. Finally, to estimate the accuracy of the models, we also simulated four breeding populations of 200 individuals. Although prediction accuracy was low when breeding populations were too distant from the training populations, high accuracy levels were obtained using the sole core-collection as training population. The highest prediction accuracy was obtained (up to 0.9) using the combined GWAS-GS model. We thus recommend using the combined prediction model and a core-collection as training population for grapevine breeding or for other important economic crops with the same characteristics.

Economic and Workforce Development Task Force Report, August 2008

The 2008 disasters devastated businesses, farms, homes, schools, non-profit institutions, entire communities, and people’s lives across the state of Iowa. The Rebuild Iowa Advisory Commission (RIAC) is charged by the Governor to guide the state’s recovery and reconstruction process. The Economic and Workforce Development Task Force is respectfully submitting this report to be included and considered in the deliberations of the RIAC. While economic and workforce development are two issues that are inextricably linked and critical to Iowa’s rebuilding strategies, each also requires extraordinary attention in determining what needs to be considered in the very immediate and longer-term recovery.

ViralZone: a knowledge resource to understand virus diversity.

The molecular diversity of viruses complicates the interpretation of viral genomic and proteomic data. To make sense of viral gene functions, investigators must be familiar with the virus host range, replication cycle and virion structure. Our aim is to provide a comprehensive resource bridging together textbook knowledge with genomic and proteomic sequences. ViralZone web resource (www.expasy.org/viralzone/) provides fact sheets on all known virus families/genera with easy access to sequence data. A selection of reference strains (RefStrain) provides annotated standards to circumvent the exponential increase of virus sequences. Moreover ViralZone offers a complete set of detailed and accurate virion pictures.

Iowa Department of Economic Development Performance Plan, FY 2009

Agency Performance Plan, Iowa Department of Economic Development

Will the Convention on Biological Diversity put an end to biological control?

Will the Convention on Biological Diversity put an end to biological control? Under the Convention on Biological Diversity countries have sovereign rights over their genetic resources. Agreements governing the access to these resources and the sharing of the benefits arising from their use need to be established between involved parties. This also applies to species collected for potential use in biological control. Recent applications of access and benefit sharing principles have already made it difficult or impossible to collect and export natural enemies for biological control research in several countries. If such an approach is widely applied it would impede this very successful and environmentally safe pest management method based on the use of biological diversity. The International Organization for Biological Control of Noxious Animals and Plants has, therefore, created the "Commission on Biological Control and Access and Benefit Sharing". This commission is carrying out national and international activities to make clear how a benefit sharing regime might seriously frustrate the future of biological control. In addition, the IOBC Commission members published information on current regulations and perceptions concerning exploration for natural enemies and drafted some 30 case studies selected to illustrate a variety of points relevant to access and benefit sharing. In this article, we summarize our concern about the effects of access and benefit sharing systems on the future of biological control.