Intervención del estado colombiano en el sector solidario

Esta investigación describe la manera cómo interviene el Estado Colombiano en la promoción, protección y fortalecimiento de las formas solidarias, partiendo del respeto a los principios de autonomía, autodeterminación y autogobierno en que éstas se fundan.

Los compromisos adquiridos en acuerdos de libre comercio bilaterales y multilaterales y los espacios para una política industrial en México y Centroamérica

Incluye Bibliografía

Soft balancing in the Americas: Latin American opposition to U.S. intervention, 1898–1936

In the aftermath of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, scholars of international relations debated how to best characterize the rising tide of global opposition. The concept of “soft balancing” emerged as an influential, though contested, explanation of a new phenomenon in a unipolar world: states seeking to constrain the ability of the United States to deploy military force by using multinational organizations, international law, and coalition building. Soft balancing can also be observed in regional unipolar systems. Multinational archival research reveals how Argentina, Mexico, and other Latin American countries responded to expanding U.S. power and military assertiveness in the early twentieth century through coordinated diplomatic maneuvering that provides a strong example of soft balancing. Examination of this earlier case makes an empirical contribution to the emerging soft-balancing literature and suggests that soft balancing need not lead to hard balancing or open conflict.

Ergonomic intervention for the soft drink beverage delivery industry.

"July 1996."

Feasibility and acceptability of an exergame intervention for schizophrenia

Objectives To evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of an exergame intervention as a tool to promote physical activity in outpatients with schizophrenia. Design Feasibility/Acceptability Study and Quasi-Experimental Trial. Method Sixteen outpatients with schizophrenia received treatment as usual and they all completed an 8-week exergame intervention using Microsoft Kinect® (20 min sessions, biweekly). Participants completed pre and post treatment assessments regarding functional mobility (Timed Up and Go Test), functional fitness performance (Senior Fitness Test), motor neurological soft signs (Brief Motor Scale), hand grip strength (digital dynamometer), static balance (force plate), speed of processing (Trail Making Test), schizophrenia-related symptoms (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale) and functioning (Personal and Social Performance Scale). The EG group completed an acceptability questionnaire after the intervention. Results Attrition rate was 18.75% and 69.23% of the participants completed the intervention within the proposed schedule. Baseline clinical traits were not related to game performance indicators. Over 90% of the participants rated the intervention as satisfactory and interactive. Most participants (76.9%) agreed that this intervention promotes healthier lifestyles and is an acceptable alternative to perform physical activity. Repeated-measures MANOVA analyses found no significant multivariate effects for combined outcomes. Conclusion This study established the feasibility and acceptability of an exergame intervention for outpatients with schizophrenia. The intervention proved to be an appealing alternative to physical activity. Future trials should include larger sample sizes, explore patients' adherence to home-based exergames and consider greater intervention dosage (length, session duration, and/or frequency) in order to achieve potential effects.

A soft computing approach to kidney diseases evaluation

Kidney renal failure means that one’s kidney have unexpectedly stopped functioning, i.e., once chronic disease is exposed, the presence or degree of kidney dysfunction and its progression must be assessed, and the underlying syndrome has to be diagnosed. Although the patient’s history and physical examination may denote good practice, some key information has to be obtained from valuation of the glomerular filtration rate, and the analysis of serum biomarkers. Indeed, chronic kidney sickness depicts anomalous kidney function and/or its makeup, i.e., there is evidence that treatment may avoid or delay its progression, either by reducing and prevent the development of some associated complications, namely hypertension, obesity, diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular complications. Acute kidney injury appears abruptly, with a rapid deterioration of the renal function, but is often reversible if it is recognized early and treated promptly. In both situations, i.e., acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease, an early intervention can significantly improve the prognosis.The assessment of these pathologies is therefore mandatory, although it is hard to do it with traditional methodologies and existing tools for problem solving. Hence, in this work, we will focus on the development of a hybrid decision support system, in terms of its knowledge representation and reasoning procedures based on Logic Programming, that will allow one to consider incomplete, unknown, and even contradictory information, complemented with an approach to computing centered on Artificial Neural Networks, in order to weigh the Degree-of-Confidence that one has on such a happening. The present study involved 558 patients with an age average of 51.7 years and the chronic kidney disease was observed in 175 cases. The dataset comprise twenty four variables, grouped into five main categories. The proposed model showed a good performance in the diagnosis of chronic kidney disease, since the sensitivity and the specificity exhibited values range between 93.1 and 94.9 and 91.9–94.2 %, respectively.

Assessment of vascular invasion by bone and soft tissue tumours of the limbs: usefulness of MDCT angiography.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the accuracy of computed tomography angiography (CTA) in predicting arterial encasement by limb tumours, by comparing CTA with surgical findings (gold standard). METHODS: Preoperative CTA images of 55 arteries in 48 patients were assessed for arterial status: cross-sectional CTA images were scored as showing a fat plane between artery and tumour (score 0), slight contact between artery and tumour (score 1), partial arterial encasement (score 2) or total arterial encasement (score 3). Reformatted CTA images were assessed for arterial displacement, rigid wall, stenosis or occlusion. At surgery, arteries were classified as free or surgically encased; 45 arteries were free and 10 were surgically encased. RESULTS: Multivariate logistic regression identified the axial CTA score as a relevant predictor for arterial encasement and subsequent vascular intervention during surgery. All sites where CTA showed a fat plane between the tumour and the artery were classified as free at surgery (n = 28/28). The sensitivity of total arterial encasement on CTA (score 3) was 90%, specificity 93%, accuracy 93% and positive likelihood ratio 13.5. CONCLUSION: CTA evidence of total arterial encasement is a highly specific indication of arterial encasement. The presence of fat between the tumour and the artery on CTA rules out arterial involvement at surgery.

Political intervention in economic activity

This paper proposes a political economy explanation of bailouts to declining industries. A model of probabilistic voting is developed, in which two candidates compete for the vote of two groups of the society through tactical redistribution. We allow politicians to have core support groups they understand better, this implies politicians are more or less effective to deliver favors to some groups. This setting is suited to reproduce pork barrels or machine politics and patronage. We use this model to illustrate the case of an economy with both an efficient industry and a declining one, in which workers elect their government. We present the conditions under which the political process ends up with the lagged-behind industry being allowed to survive.

Estudo das competências pessoais e interpessoais de acordo com as soft skills e hard skills nos empresários das PMEs

Neste percurso sinuoso de longas privações e acontecimentos, esta investigação só foi possível graças à colaboração franca e estreita de várias pessoas, algumas delas ausentes, mas que em muito contribuíram para o sucesso deste estudo, o nosso profundo reconhecimento e sincero agradecimento. Ao Professor Doutor Manuel Jacinto de Ascensão Jardim, que foi uma pessoa sempre disponível e cuja orientação suprema de conhecimento neste estudo, que por vezes se tornou penoso, mas que através da sua sabedoria e experiência, levou-nos a bom porto, por mares claros, lúcidos e objectivos, o nosso muito obrigado. Aos empresários, gestores e aos docentes convidados, que contribuíram decisivamente para a investigação, colaborando na entrevista do estudo, que foram pessoas que pelas suas vivências deram o carácter construtivo e enriquecedor, sem eles, isto não seria o mesmo, a todos eles, o nosso agradecimento muito profundo. Ao ISLA.GAIA e a todos os Docentes que de uma forma directa ou indirecta foram incansáveis na procura de opiniões, sugestões e soluções, que pudessem de alguma forma contribuir para o bom encaminhamento do nosso propósito de estudo, não esquecendo os colaboradores não docentes desta instituição que sempre tiveram uma palavra de encorajamento, o nosso muito obrigado a todos. A Todos os colegas e aos colegas que se tornaram amigos, pela empatia, comunhão, temperança se tornaram pessoas importantes, não só este ano, neste caminho solitário, mas incluindo todos aqueles que pela perseverança e sem dúvida, muita partilha, fazem parte desta meta alcançada, o nosso sincero e sentido obrigado. Aos nossos amigos que nos deram o alento e a força para que nunca perdêssemos o norte, estando sempre atentos aos nossos passos, o nosso muito obrigado a todos. Aos nossos familiares um agradecimento muito especial pelo incansável apoio, disponibilidade e compreensão quando privados da nossa presença, muito particularmente à nossa família nuclear, que sempre nos incentivou e viveu mais de perto todas as nossas dúvidas e angustias estando sempre do nosso lado, o nosso muito particular obrigado.

The greater whole: towards a synthesis of system dynamics and soft systems methodology

This paper makes a theoretical case for using these two systems approaches together. The theoretical and methodological assumptions of system dynamics (SD) and soft system methodology (SSM) are briefly described and a partial critique is presented. SSM generates and represents diverse perspectives on a problem situation and addresses the socio-political elements of an intervention. However, it is weak in ensuring `dynamic coherence'. consistency between the intuitive behaviour resulting from proposed changes and behaviour deduced from ideas on causal structure. Conversely, SD examines causal structures and dynamic behaviours. However, whilst emphasising the need for a clear issue focus, it has little theory for generating and representing diverse issues. Also, there is no theory for facilitating sensitivity to socio-political elements. A synthesis of the two called ‘Holon Dynamics' is proposed. After an SSM intervention, a second stage continues the socio-political analysis and also operates within a new perspective which values dynamic coherence of the mental construct - the holon - which is capable of expressing the proposed changes. A model of this holon is constructed using SD and the changes are thus rendered `systemically desirable' in the additional sense that dynamic consistency has been confirmed. The paper closes with reflections on the proposal and the need for theoretical consistency when mixing tools is emphasised.

Anatomically-Driven Soft-Tissue Simulation Strategy for Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery Using Facial Muscle Template Model

We propose a computationally efficient and biomechanically relevant soft-tissue simulation method for cranio-maxillofacial (CMF) surgery. A template-based facial muscle reconstruction was introduced to minimize the efforts on preparing a patient-specific model. A transversely isotropic mass-tensor model (MTM) was adopted to realize the effect of directional property of facial muscles in reasonable computation time. Additionally, sliding contact around teeth and mucosa was considered for more realistic simulation. Retrospective validation study with postoperative scan of a real patient showed that there were considerable improvements in simulation accuracy by incorporating template-based facial muscle anatomy and sliding contact.

A navigation system for percutaneous needle interventions based on PET/CT images: design, workflow and error analysis of soft tissue and bone punctures

Percutaneous needle intervention based on PET/CT images is effective, but exposes the patient to unnecessary radiation due to the increased number of CT scans required. Computer assisted intervention can reduce the number of scans, but requires handling, matching and visualization of two different datasets. While one dataset is used for target definition according to metabolism, the other is used for instrument guidance according to anatomical structures. No navigation systems capable of handling such data and performing PET/CT image-based procedures while following clinically approved protocols for oncologic percutaneous interventions are available. The need for such systems is emphasized in scenarios where the target can be located in different types of tissue such as bone and soft tissue. These two tissues require different clinical protocols for puncturing and may therefore give rise to different problems during the navigated intervention. Studies comparing the performance of navigated needle interventions targeting lesions located in these two types of tissue are not often found in the literature. Hence, this paper presents an optical navigation system for percutaneous needle interventions based on PET/CT images. The system provides viewers for guiding the physician to the target with real-time visualization of PET/CT datasets, and is able to handle targets located in both bone and soft tissue. The navigation system and the required clinical workflow were designed taking into consideration clinical protocols and requirements, and the system is thus operable by a single person, even during transition to the sterile phase. Both the system and the workflow were evaluated in an initial set of experiments simulating 41 lesions (23 located in bone tissue and 18 in soft tissue) in swine cadavers. We also measured and decomposed the overall system error into distinct error sources, which allowed for the identification of particularities involved in the process as well as highlighting the differences between bone and soft tissue punctures. An overall average error of 4.23 mm and 3.07 mm for bone and soft tissue punctures, respectively, demonstrated the feasibility of using this system for such interventions. The proposed system workflow was shown to be effective in separating the preparation from the sterile phase, as well as in keeping the system manageable by a single operator. Among the distinct sources of error, the user error based on the system accuracy (defined as the distance from the planned target to the actual needle tip) appeared to be the most significant. Bone punctures showed higher user error, whereas soft tissue punctures showed higher tissue deformation error.

Prediction of Cranio-Maxilofacial Surgical Planning using an Inverse Soft Tissue Modelling Approach

In cranio-maxillofacial surgery, the determination of a proper surgical plan is an important step to attain a desired aesthetic facial profile and a complete denture closure. In the present paper, we propose an efficient modeling approach to predict the surgical planning on the basis of the desired facial appearance and optimal occlusion. To evaluate the proposed planning approach, the predicted osteotomy plan of six clinical cases that underwent CMF surgery were compared to the real clinical plan. Thereafter, simulated soft-tissue outcomes were compared using the predicted and real clinical plan. This preliminary retrospective comparison of both osteotomy planning and facial outlook shows a good agreement and thereby demonstrates the potential application of the proposed approach in cranio-maxillofacial surgical planning prediction.

Indication and timing of soft tissue augmentation at maxillary and mandibular incisors in orthodontic patients. A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE To assess the indication and timing of soft tissue augmentation for prevention or treatment of gingival recession when a change in the inclination of the incisors is planned during orthodontic treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS Electronic database searches of literature were performed. The following electronic databases with no restrictions were searched: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane, and CENTRAL. Two authors performed data extraction independently using data collection forms. RESULTS No randomized controlled trial was identified. Two studies of low-to-moderate level of evidence were included: one of prospective and retrospective data collection and one retrospective study. Both implemented a periodontal intervention before orthodontics. Thus, best timing of soft tissue augmentation could not be assessed. The limited available data from these studies appear to suggest that soft tissue augmentation of bucco-lingual gingival dimensions before orthodontics may yield satisfactory results with respect to the development or progression of gingival recessions. However, the strength of the available evidence is not adequate in order to change or suggest a possible treatment approach in the daily practice based on solid scientific evidence. CONCLUSIONS Despite the clinical experience that soft tissue augmentation of bucco-lingual gingival dimensions before orthodontic treatment may be a clinically viable treatment option in patients considered at risk, this treatment approach is not based on solid scientific evidence. Moreover, the present data do not allow to draw conclusions on the best timing of soft tissue augmentation when a change in the inclination of the incisors is planned during orthodontic treatment and thus, there is a stringent need for randomized controlled trials to clarify these open issues.

Temporal sequence of hard and soft tissue healing around titanium dental implants.

The objective of the present review was to summarize the evidence available on the temporal sequence of hard and soft tissue healing around titanium dental implants in animal models and in humans. A search was undertaken to find animal and human studies reporting on the temporal dynamics of hard and soft tissue integration of titanium dental implants. Moreover, the influence of implant surface roughness and chemistry on the molecular mechanisms associated with osseointegration was also investigated. The findings indicated that the integration of titanium dental implants into hard and soft tissue represents the result of a complex cascade of biological events initiated by the surgical intervention. Implant placement into alveolar bone induces a cascade of healing events starting with clot formation and continuing with the maturation of bone in contact with the implant surface. From a genetic point of view, osseointegration is associated with a decrease in inflammation and an increase in osteogenesis-, angiogenesis- and neurogenesis-associated gene expression during the early stages of wound healing. The attachment and maturation of the soft tissue complex (i.e. epithelium and connective tissue) to implants becomes established 6-8 weeks following surgery. Based on the findings of the present review it can be concluded that improved understanding of the mechanisms associated with osseointegration will provide leads and targets for strategies aimed at enhancing the clinical performance of titanium dental implants.