Civil society leadership in the struggle for AIDS treatment in South Africa and Uganda

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.This thesis is an attempt to theorise and operationalise empirically the notion of ‘civil society leadership’ in Sub-Saharan Africa. ‘AIDS leadership,’ which is associated with the intergovernmental institutions charged with coordinating the global response to HIV/AIDS, is both under-theorised and highly context-specific. In this study I therefore opt for an inclusive framework that draws on a range of approaches, including the literature on ‘leadership’, institutions, social movements and the ‘network’ perspective on civil society mobilisation. This framework is employed in rich and detailed empirical descriptions (‘thick description’) of civil society mobilisation around AIDS, including contentious AIDS activism, in the key case studies of South Africa and Uganda. South Africa and Uganda are widely considered key examples of poor and good leadership (from national political leaders) respectively, while the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) are both seen as highly effective civil society movements. These descriptions emphasise ‘transnational networks of influence’ in which civil society leaders participated (and at times actively constructed) in order to mobilise both symbolic and material resources aimed at exerting influence at the transnational, national and local levels

Nota introductoria al cálculo del capital económico a riesgo en organizaciones con dos unidades de negocio

La nota introductoria consta de cinco secciones: en la primera, se presenta la metodología de valor a riesgo (VAR) bajo supuestos de normalidad, enfatizando su limitación para evaluar situaciones extremas de exposición para la empresa, y se presenta la teoría de valores extremos como una técnica que permite contemplar problemáticas de colas pesadas en las distribuciones. En la segunda sección, se inicia la aplicación de dichas metodologías al caso de una compañía que cuente con dos departamentos. En la siguiente sección, se analiza la determinación del umbral y la submuestra a utilizar. Luego se calcula la función general de Pareto que representa a a la cola de distribución en cuestión. En la sección cinco, se calcula el valor a riesgo bajo supuesto de normalidad y mediante riesgos extremos

Impacto de eventos extremos en la gestión de portafolios

Se aborda la herramienta Valor a Riesgo (VaR), se hace hincapié en el VaRbajo el supuesto de que los rendimientos de los activos se distribuyen normalmente. Se introduce el concepto de la Teoría de los Valores Extremos o EVT (por sus sigla en inglés) y se centra la atención en los modelos Peak over the threshold. Luego se muestra el cálculo del VaR cuando los activos presentan rendimientos con distribuciones de colas pesadas. Para ello se aplica la EVT al mismo. Se detallan los pasos a seguir por el cálculo. Por último se presenta un caso práctico en el que se aplican los conceptos descripto

Nota introductoria sobre una interpretación económica de la incertidumbre financiera

Se analizan las principales características de los proyectos de inversión, llegando a las limitaciones de los criterios tradicionales de valuación, dadas las características de ciertos proyectos que contemplan la innovación tecnológica. Se expone la interpretación económica de la innovación asociada a la sutentabilidad

Studio di una nuova entità genetica di vite a bacca bianca ottenuta per incrocio: Veronica (Vermentino x Ansonica)

Nella presente ricerca si descrive l’esperienza relativa all’ottenimento della cv Veronica, una nuova entità genetica a bacca bianca, tramite la tecnica dell’incrocio fra i parentali cv Vermentino ed cv Ansonica. Questa nuova linea genetica si presenta come una entità di media-bassa vigoria, bassa produzione a ceppo e grappoli di piccola dimensione. Le indagini sanitarie effettuate sul presunto clone RB 19 hanno confermato l’assenza delle principali virosi previste per l’omologazione dei cloni. Tenuto conto, dei risultati delle ricerche fin qui condotte, si ritiene opportuno avviare le procedure per la richiesta di inclusione di Veronica nel Registro Nazionale delle Varietà di Vite

Epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infecion in Pavia province, Lombarady, Northern Italy, 1998-2013

This study investigated the epidemiology of tuberculosis in the last 16 years in the province of Pavia, Lombardy, Northern Italy. The objective was to evaluate the clinical pattern of tuberculosis in immigrant groups compared with Italians in an observational retrospective study conducted from 1998 to 2013. In all, 615 tuberculosis cases were admitted, 354 males (57.3%), median age 47-years, 425 (69.1%) Italian-born patients, 190 (30.9%) immigrants. The ratio between the immigrant group and the Italian-born group of patients increased from 1.7% to 54.5% in the study period (p=0.001). HIV was the most common comorbidity, affecting 48 patients (7.8%), followed by diabetes in 35 (5.7%) and COPD in 30 (4.9%). The overall admission-associated mortality was 5.5%. Italian-born patients were older than non-Italian born subjects and had at least one comorbidity, 162 (38.1%) and 22 (11.6%), respectively (p<0,0001). Mortality was increased among Italian-born compared with non-Italian-born patients (7.3% versus 1.6%, p=0.004). No significant variation in extra-pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) prevalence occurred. Considering specific form of EPTB, HIV infection was associated with an increased risk of EPTB (RR 2.02, 95%CI 1.09-3.74, p=0.026). There was a high risk of tuberculosis among immigrants, whereas a decreasing trend was consistently observed among Italian-born patients. Italian-born patients show a higher tuberculosis-associated mortality risk due to older age and comorbidities