Influências, prerrogativas e limites das redes de cooperação na produção de inovações

No contexto empresarial, devido à noção de rede ser bastante abstrata, são várias as formas e os objetivos pelos quais empresas se reúnem em rede, sendo sua intenção fundamental o somatório de esforços em circunstâncias em que se necessita uma escala maior e maior capacidade inovativa para sua viabilidade competitiva. Nesse sentindo, este estudo propõe-se a analisar a influência das redes de cooperação nos processos de inovação. Para tanto, foram utilizados dados de 2005 da Pesquisa de Inovação Tecnológica (PINTEC) do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). Utilizando-se de ferramentas de estatística descritiva, em especial, medidas de associação e mediação de intervalos e razões, foi possível identificar a direção e a magnitude de tais relações entre as principais variáveis do processo inovador em um campo empírico de 9.098 empresas da Região Nordeste do Brasil. Os resultados encontrados mostraram a pouca presença das redes de cooperação no desenvolvimento de inovações no campo empírico estudado. No entanto, a sua utilização destaca-se como possível incentivador para o desenvolvimento de produtos com um grau maior de inovação, mesmo que este não seja revertido diretamente em resultados financeiros, mas em incrementos no potencial inovador das empresas em questão

Clinical and laboratory features of Adult T-cell Leukemia/lymphoma (ATL): a study of 37 cases

Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) related to the human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is a malignant lymphoproliferative disease. ATL is classified in four subtypes: lymphoma, acute, smoldering and chronic. We analyzed, retrospectively, 46 consecutive patients with T-cell disease with ATL diagnosed from 1995 to 2007. ATL diagnose was confirmed in 37 of these patients. There were 26 females and 11 males (70% vs 30%, respectively, p=0.014). The median age was 42 years old. Twenty-five were nonwhite and twelve were white (67.6% vs 32.4%, respectively, p=0.033).Twenty two patients had the acute form, eight had chronic form and seven had lymphomatous form. Two of them had osteolytic lesions. There were two cases with pulmonary infiltrates; one patient had ATL associated to Hansen’s disease. All cases had antibodies to HTLV-I confirmed by Western Blot, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed in 22 cases. Flow cytometry revealed positivity for CD4 and CD25 in most cases. The mean and median overall survival time was 11.3 months and 2 months, respectively. The family´s study showed that 60% of the mothers were HTLV-I seropositive. These data emphasize the importance of a serologic screening for HTLV and immunophenotyping to differentiate ATL from others T-lymphoproliferative disorders

Os princípios e dilemas bioéticos no contexto biotecnológico e organizacional

Nas últimas quatro décadas, o crescente progresso tecnológico foi acompanhado do nascimento e evolução de teorias que têm como objetivo preservar a humanidade e o ambiente natural de interferências prejudiciais à sua qualidade de vida. Nomeada de bioética, este conjunto de reflexões tem se feito presente em um número cada vez maior de áreas de conhecimento, tecnológicas ou não. Dessa forma, considerando que grande parte de tais reflexões ocorrem dentro do contexto das organizações, responsáveis pela produção e pesquisa de tais inovações no campo biotecnológico, este trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar, através de um estudo observacional, uma análise dos aspectos fundamentais da reflexão e prática da bioética em um contexto organizacional. Concluiu-se que a reflexão bioética pede presença também nas relações organizacionais, sobretudo, naqueles ambientes caracterizados pela geração de inovações biotecnológicas

Abdominal obesity and association with sociodemographic, behavioral and clinical data in climacteric women assisted in primary care.

This study aims to investigate the prevalence and factors associated with abdominal obesity in climacteric women assisted at Family Health Strategy units of the city of Montes Claros, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It is a cross-sectional analytical study. The women were selected by probabilistic sampling from August 2014 to August 2015. A questionnaire containing information referring to sociodemographic and economic characteristics, behavioral characteristics and clinical data was used. To estimate abdominal obesity, the measure of circumference ≥ 88 cm was considered. To analyze the association between abdominal obesity and the independent variables, a bivariate analysis was performed by means of Pearson's chi-square test (p≤0.25). Subsequently, a multiple Poisson regression analysis with robust variance was performed, through which prevalence ratios with level of significance of 5% (p<0.05) were obtained. A total of 805 women were evaluated, aged 40 to 65 years, and the prevalence of women with abdominal obesity was 62.4%. The mean and median of abdominal circumference were 93.0 cm. The associated variables were being sedentary (PR = 1.44) or irregularly active (PR = 1.39), presenting altered total cholesterol (PR = 1.21), and being hypertensive (PR = 1.31). The abdominal obesity in climacteric women was associated with physical inactivity, total cholesterol and arterial hypertension. The measurement of abdominal circumference must be valued and adopted in the routine of professionals who work in Primary Care

Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone

As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved