Desafios da integração nos novos arranjos institucionais de políticas públicas no Brasil

Resumo O Governo Federal brasileiro tem experimentado arranjos institucionais que tem como objetivo construir políticas públicas efetivas em um contexto territorial complexo. Neles há dois eixos centrais: (i) a tentativa de articular temáticas intersetoriais e (ii) a construção de modelos de gestão de políticas públicas com coordenação entre os entes federativos e a sociedade civil. Este artigo analisa como novos arranjos institucionais consideram o papel dos territórios. A análise está estruturada em duas questões centrais: (a) qual a centralidade dada à concepção de território e em que medida ele desempenha papel ativo ou passivo no desenho do arranjo; (b) que fatores poderiam explicar contornos do arranjo institucional e como a dimensão territorial se materializa neles. O artigo analisa três arranjos: Plano Brasil Sem Miséria; Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento; Programa Territórios da Cidadania. As análises baseadas em documentos oficiais dos programas visam compreender, a partir de sua estrutura de funcionamento, como se dão questões como intersetorialidade, relações federativas e concepção de território. Analisando os programas, percebe-se que, ainda que em graus variados, há mais justaposição do que integração de políticas públicas, e que neles os territórios – entendido como os lócus de implementação das políticas e as forças sociais nele presentes – não ocupam uma posição ativa, revelando-se meros repositórios de investimentos. Como consequência, essa fragilidade, observada tanto na dupla integração desejada como na articulação territorial, é algo que resulta em perda de eficiência dos investimentos e em comprometimento dos resultados. Esses limites se devem, em grande medida, ao peso da cultura setorial que permeia os gestores e o comportamento das forças sociais, associado a uma cultura institucional de privilégio dos resultados alcançáveis em curto prazo. Esses aspectos, por sua vez, concretizam-se tanto nas normas que regulamentam os arranjos como no leque de agentes envolvidos. Em termos teóricos essa hipótese se afasta das análises que tomam os arranjos meramente sob o ângulo administrativo ou de gestão e se aproxima das abordagens institucionalistas, para as quais não se pode analisar os arranjos institucionais isolados do ambiente institucional do qual são, a um só tempo, parte e expressão

Infection-interactions in Ethiopian village chickens

Chickens raised under village production systems are exposed to a wide variety of pathogens, and current or previous infections may affect their susceptibility to further infections with another parasite, and/or can alter the manifestation of each infection. It is possible that co-infections may be as important as environmental risk factors. However, in cross-sectional studies, where the timing of infection is unknown, apparent associations between infections may be observed due to parasites sharing common risk factors. This study measured antibody titres to 3 viral (Newcastle disease, Marek's disease and infectious bursal disease) and 2 bacterial (Pasteurella multocida and Salmonella) diseases, and the infection prevalence of 3 families of endo- and ecto-parasites (Ascaridida, Eimeria and lice) in 1056 village chickens from two geographically distinct populations in Ethiopia. Samples were collected during 4 cross-sectional surveys, each approximately 6 months apart. Constrained ordination, a technique for analysis of ecological community data, was used to explore this complex dataset and enabled potential relationships to be uncovered and tested despite the different measurements used for the different parasites. It was found that only a small proportion of variation in the data could be explained by the risk factors measured. Very few birds (9/1280) were found to be seropositive to Newcastle disease. Positive relationships were identified between Pasteurella and Salmonella titres; and between Marek's disease and parasitic infections, and these two groups of diseases were correlated with females and males, respectively. This may suggest differences in the way that the immune systems of male and female chickens interact with these parasites. In conclusion, we find that a number of infectious pathogens and their interactions are likely to impact village chicken health and production. Control of these infections is likely to be of importance in future development planning

Integrating sequence and array data to create an improved 1000 Genomes Project haplotype reference panel

A major use of the 1000 Genomes Project (1000GP) data is genotype imputation in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Here we develop a method to estimate haplotypes from low-coverage sequencing data that can take advantage of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) microarray genotypes on the same samples. First the SNP array data are phased to build a backbone (or 'scaffold') of haplotypes across each chromosome. We then phase the sequence data 'onto' this haplotype scaffold. This approach can take advantage of relatedness between sequenced and non-sequenced samples to improve accuracy. We use this method to create a new 1000GP haplotype reference set for use by the human genetic community. Using a set of validation genotypes at SNP and bi-allelic indels we show that these haplotypes have lower genotype discordance and improved imputation performance into downstream GWAS samples, especially at low-frequency variants. © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved

Application of the Multistate Tuberculosis Pharmacometric Model in Patients With Rifampicin-Treated Pulmonary Tuberculosis

This is the first clinical implementation of the Multistate Tuberculosis Pharmacometric (MTP) model describing fast-, slow-, and nonmultiplying bacterial states of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Colony forming unit data from 19 patients treated with rifampicin were analyzed. A previously developed rifampicin population pharmacokinetic (PK) model was linked to the MTP model previously developed using in vitro data. Drug effect was implemented as exposure-response relationships tested at several effect sites, both alone and in combination. All MTP model parameters were fixed to in vitro estimates except B-max. Drug effect was described by an on/off effect inhibiting growth of fast-multiplying bacteria in addition to linear increase of the stimulation of the death rate of slow-and nonmultiplying bacteria with increasing drug exposure. Clinical trial simulations predicted well three retrospective clinical trials using the final model that confirmed the potential utility of the MTP model in antitubercular drug development