A gestão da informação em organizações não governamentais (ONG) : um estudo multi-casos em ONGs ambientais financiadas pela Agência dos Estados Unidos para Desenvolvimento Internacional

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Ciência da Informação, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Informação, 2013.O presente estudo foi direcionado a analisar o gerenciamento da informação em ONGs ambientais em conformidade com as normas da Agência dos Estados Unidos para Desenvolvimento Internacional – USAID. A metodologia embasou-se em um estudo multi-casos com variáveis de natureza qualitativa, a fim de levantar dados primários que pudessem identificar o fluxo informacional, as principais dificuldades na recuperação da informação, e as fontes de informações que atendem as demandas dos executores e financiadores de projetos ambientais. A revisão de dados secundários foi realizada a fim de contrastá-la com a realidade encontrada e os modelos teóricos de gestão da informação. ______________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTThe present study is aimed to analyze the information managment of environmental NGOs according the rules of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The methodology was based on a multi-case study with qualitative variables in order to collect data that can identify the information flow, the main difficulties in information retrieval, and information’s sources that meet the demands of funders and implementers of environmental projects. The review of secondary data was performed in order to contrast the reality and the theoretical models of information management

Assessing the reliability of ecotoxicological studies : an overview of current needs and approaches

In general, reliable studies are well designed and well performed, and enough details on study design and performance are reported to assess the study. For hazard and risk assessment in various legal frameworks, many different types of ecotoxicity studies need to be evaluated for reliability. These studies vary in study design, methodology, quality, and level of detail reported (e.g., reviews, peer-reviewed research papers, or industry-sponsored studies documented under Good Laboratory Practice [GLP] guidelines). Regulators have the responsibility to make sound and verifiable decisions and should evaluate each study for reliability in accordance with scientific principles regardless of whether they were conducted in accordance with GLP and/or standardized methods. Thus, a systematic and transparent approach is needed to evaluate studies for reliability. In this paper, 8 different methods for reliability assessment were compared using a number of attributes: categorical versus numerical scoring methods, use of exclusion and critical criteria, weighting of criteria, whether methods are tested with case studies, domain of applicability, bias toward GLP studies, incorporation of standard guidelines in the evaluation method, number of criteria used, type of criteria considered, and availability of guidance material. Finally, some considerations are given on how to choose a suitable method for assessing reliability of ecotoxicity studies. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2017;13:640-651. (c) 2016 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC

Interprofessional communication: There's no "I" in team!

Background: The Joint Commission reports communication errors as a leading cause of sentinel events in the U.S. Breakdown in communication across various health fields has been attributed to a lack of teamwork amongst healthcare professionals. Undergraduate health science students rarely have opportunities to work with other disciplines; this lack of opportunity is related to a lack of teamwork. To foster interprofessional teamwork, in 2017, an interprofessional case study event was conducted with undergraduate nursing, nutrition, childlife, social work, and OT/PT students at Tennessee Technological University.Purpose: The purpose of this quantitative, one group (n=130) pre/post test research study was to determine the effects of undergraduate interprofessional educational opportunities on students’ perceptions of interprofessional teamwork.Methods: The case study event consisted of nursing, nutrition, childlife, social work, and OT/PT students at Tennessee Technological University. We gathered data using the SPICE-R2 Instrument to gather quantitative data regarding students’ perceptions of interprofessional team-based practice. The self-report survey was administered before and after the interprofessional case study event to compare pre-event and post-event scores. Our results support statistically significant improvement in students’ perceptions of teamwork.Conclusion: These results indicate the interprofessional case study event helped students realize that interdisciplinary teamwork improved their collaboration and view of teamwork. This increase in communication may decrease the amount of future sentinel events, creating a safer healthcare environment for patients. Due to the statistically significant improvement in students’ perceptions of teamwork, we recommend these events be included in health science students’ educations semesterly

Comércio internacional de carne bovina: características institucionais que envolvem Brasil e Rússia

This paper aims to describe the characteristics of the institutional environment that surrounds the meat trade with Brazilian main importer, Russia. The research uses in reference the New Institutional Economics and the Theory of Industrial Organization to discuss the data collected through literature review and semi-structured interviews conducted in three stages in October 2009 and answered by agents of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply of Brazil, characterizing a descriptive qualitative study. The results show that changes in the institutional environment of Russian market has enabled an increase in Brazilian exports. This fact is related with the difficulty of the Russian importers in obtain products with the quality requested for their rules to their traditional European providers that had problems of food safety and offer decrease. The Russian market has enormous volume force as well as instability traces in the institutional environment, primarily related to quotas and their taxes, it creates the need of public authorities and associations of private interest of both countries develop the bases for a more stable environment business.O presente trabalho tem por objetivo descrever as características do ambiente institucional que envolve o comércio de carne bovina brasileira com o seu principal importador, a Rússia. A pesquisa usa com referencia a Nova Economia Institucional e a Teoria da Organização Industrial para discutir os dados levantados por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica e entrevistas semi-estruturadas realizadas em três etapas no mês de outubro de 2009 e respondida por agentes do Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento – MAPA, caracterizando assim um estudo qualitativo-descritivo. Os resultados mostram que mudanças no ambiente institucional no mercado russo possibilitaram um grande incremento das exportações brasileiras. Este fato está relacionado à dificuldade dos importadores russos em conseguir produto com qualidade exigida pelas suas normas junto aos seus tradicionais fornecedores europeus que tiveram problemas de segurança alimentar e queda na oferta. O mercado russo apresenta enorme vigor, e traços de instabilidade no ambiente institucional pelo ponto de vista do fornecimento brasileiro, sobretudo relacionado às cotas e suas taxações, isto gera a necessidade das autoridades públicas e associações de interesse privado dos dois países desenvolvam bases para um ambiente de negócios mais estável

Aberrant miR-29 is a predictive feature of severe phenotypes in pediatric Crohn’s disease

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Aberrant miR-29 is a predictive feature of severe phenotypes in pediatric Crohn’s disease

Funding Information: This work was supported by 5P01DK094779 (NIH/NIDDK) awarded to SZS, TSF, and PS; the NIDDK R01 DK136262 awarded to SZS; and 5R21HD104922-02 (NIH/NICHD) awarded to PS. We would also like to thank BioRender for its help in creating our graphical abstract.Peer reviewe

Linking gene expression to clinical outcomes in pediatric Crohn's disease using machine learning

Pediatric Crohn's disease (CD) is characterized by a severe disease course with frequent complications. We sought to apply machine learning-based models to predict risk of developing future complications in pediatric CD using ileal and colonic gene expression. Gene expression data was generated from 101 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) ileal and colonic biopsies obtained from treatment-nai¯ve CD patients and controls. Clinical outcomes including development of strictures or fistulas and progression to surgery were analyzed using differential expression and modeled using machine learning. Differential expression analysis revealed downregulation of pathways related to inflammation and extra-cellular matrix production in patients with strictures. Machine learning-based models were able to incorporate colonic gene expression and clinical characteristics to predict outcomes with high accuracy. Models showed an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.84 for strictures, 0.83 for remission, and 0.75 for surgery. Genes with potential prognostic importance for strictures (REG1A, MMP3, and DUOX2) were not identified in single gene differential analysis but were found to have strong contributions to predictive models. Our findings in FFPE tissue support the importance of colonic gene expression and the potential for machine learning-based models in predicting outcomes for pediatric CD

Data Recovery Investigations: Murvaul Creek Site (41PN175), Panola County, Texas

This report summarizes the archeological findings of the 2011 data recovery investigations at the Murvaul Creek site, 41PN175, in far northeastern Texas in Panola County. The site is located along Farm-to-Market Road (FM) 10 approximately 1 mile north of Gary, Texas (Figure 1). Geo-Marine, Inc. (GMI), performed this work under contract to the Texas Department of Transportation, Environmental Affairs Division (TxDOT ENV) under the Texas Antiquities Permit Number 5879 (Work Authorization [WA] 579 06 SA005; WA 590 08 SA005; CSJ:1222-01-014; Geo-Marine project numbers 22005.00.06 and 22005.00.09). The fieldwork for this project was conducted in advance of the planned widening of FM 10 that was to replace three bridges and a culvert over Murvaul Creek with a larger structure and shift the road approximately 26 meters (m; 85 feet [ft]) to the east. Since the planned improvements of FM 10 would result in the loss of information at the Murvaul Creek site—a site that was recommended eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and for designation as a State Antiquities Landmark (SAL; formerly State Archeological Landmark)—the current data recovery investigations were initiated. The data recovery investigations were conducted between February 7, 2011, and April 3, 2011. During this period, the fieldwork was conducted in several stages: site clearing, geophysical survey, 50-x-50-centimeter (cm) excavations, block excavations, and mechanical site scraping. With the exception of the site clearing stage, the results of each of the fieldwork stages are reviewed individually in this report. The investigations resulted in the documentation of numerous features that appeared to have been the remains of a small Middle-to-Late Caddo settlement or farmstead situated on the edge of an interfluve south of the Murvaul Creek floodplain. Additionally, materials pertaining to the Archaic period were documented across the site. Although the site has been intensively studied within the TxDOT right-of-way (ROW), both the current investigations and previous work were limited to the ROW (cf. Cliff and Perttula 2002). Hence, the site is very likely larger than has been adequately documented

The SLUGGS Survey: Calcium Triplet-based Spectroscopic Metallicities for Over 900 Globular Clusters

Although the colour distribution of globular clusters in massive galaxies is well known to be bimodal, the spectroscopic metallicity distribution has been measured in only a few galaxies. After redefining the calcium triplet index-metallicity relation, we use our relation to derive the metallicity of 903 globular clusters in 11 early-type galaxies. This is the largest sample of spectroscopic globular cluster metallicities yet assembled. We compare these metallicities with those derived from Lick indices finding good agreement. In 6 of the 8 galaxies with sufficient numbers of high quality spectra we find bimodality in the spectroscopic metallicity distribution. Our results imply that most massive early-type galaxies have bimodal metallicity, as well as colour, distributions. This bimodality suggests that most massive galaxies early-type galaxies experienced two periods of star formation.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. For more information about the SLUGGS Survey please see http://sluggs.swin.edu.a

Single-Cell Analysis Reveals Unexpected Cellular Changes and Transposon Expression Signatures in the Colonic Epithelium of Treatment-Naive Adult Crohn's Disease Patients

BACKGROUND & AIMS: The intestinal barrier comprises a monolayer of specialized intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) that are critical in maintaining mucosal homeostasis. Dysfunction within various IEC fractions can alter intestinal permeability in a genetically susceptible host, resulting in a chronic and debilitating condition known as Crohn's disease (CD). Defining the molecular changes in each IEC type in CD will contribute to an improved understanding of the pathogenic processes and the identification of cell type-specific therapeutic targets. We performed, at single-cell resolution, a direct comparison of the colonic epithelial cellular and molecular landscape between treatment-nai¯ve adult CD and non-inflammatory bowel disease control patients. METHODS: Colonic epithelial-enriched, single-cell sequencing from treatment-nai¯ve adult CD and non-inflammatory bowel disease patients was investigated to identify disease-induced differences in IEC types. RESULTS: Our analysis showed that in CD patients there is a significant skew in the colonic epithelial cellular distribution away from canonical LGR5+ stem cells, located at the crypt bottom, and toward one specific subtype of mature colonocytes, located at the crypt top. Further analysis showed unique changes to gene expression programs in every major cell type, including a previously undescribed suppression in CD of most enteroendocrine driver genes as well as L-cell markers including GCG. We also dissect an incompletely understood SPIB+ cell cluster, revealing at least 4 subclusters that likely represent different stages of a maturational trajectory. One of these SPIB+ subclusters expresses crypt-top colonocyte markers and is up-regulated significantly in CD, whereas another subcluster strongly expresses and stains positive for lysozyme (albeit no other canonical Paneth cell marker), which surprisingly is greatly reduced in expression in CD. In addition, we also discovered transposable element markers of colonic epithelial cell types as well as transposable element families that are altered significantly in CD in a cell type-specific manner. Finally, through integration with data from genome-wide association studies, we show that genes implicated in CD risk show heretofore unknown cell type-specific patterns of aberrant expression in CD, providing unprecedented insight into the potential biological functions of these genes. CONCLUSIONS: Single-cell analysis shows a number of unexpected cellular and molecular features, including transposable element expression signatures, in the colonic epithelium of treatment-nai¯ve adult CD