Social Capital and Entrepreneurship in Aspatial Indian Ethnic Communities

This research contributes to an understanding of how work is done in India through an exploration of the effects of religious philosophies, cultures and value systems on management practices. The overarching research question addressed is: How do unique philosophies and traditions influence management systems and practices in India? Central to this thesis are social networks. Embeddedness and interdependence are two important considerations, where dense interactions between economic and non-economic activities provide access to inimitable resources. Embeddedness in ethnic communities leads to the formation of strategic groups, linked by ethnicities, kinship and multiplex ties. Social capital becomes available, which refers to the ability of members to access resources by virtue of their memberships in these social structures. This study shows how a reliance on religious teachings and value systems can lead to the creation of inimitable and valuable resources. How traditions and ties influence collective and independent entrepreneurship is discussed. An important theoretical contribution is the identification and prioritising of orders of social capital, and effects at each level. Contributions to theory include demonstrating the importance of quality and balance in ties, as well as the significance of cognitive anchoring. In research contributions, an Indian management framework, or chakra, is developed to conceptually capture the parameters that are relevant in the Indian context. In practice terms, the importance of the joint family structure in the Indian framework is highlighted and policy recommendations are provided

Communications-Inspired Projection Design with Application to Compressive Sensing

We consider the recovery of an underlying signal x \in C^m based on projection measurements of the form y=Mx+w, where y \in C^l and w is measurement noise; we are interested in the case l < m. It is assumed that the signal model p(x) is known, and w CN(w;0,S_w), for known S_W. The objective is to design a projection matrix M \in C^(l x m) to maximize key information-theoretic quantities with operational significance, including the mutual information between the signal and the projections I(x;y) or the Renyi entropy of the projections h_a(y) (Shannon entropy is a special case). By capitalizing on explicit characterizations of the gradients of the information measures with respect to the projections matrix, where we also partially extend the well-known results of Palomar and Verdu from the mutual information to the Renyi entropy domain, we unveil the key operations carried out by the optimal projections designs: mode exposure and mode alignment. Experiments are considered for the case of compressive sensing (CS) applied to imagery. In this context, we provide a demonstration of the performance improvement possible through the application of the novel projection designs in relation to conventional ones, as well as justification for a fast online projections design method with which state-of-the-art adaptive CS signal recovery is achieved.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures, parts of material published in IEEE ICASSP 2012, submitted to SIIM

L'immixtion et la trop grande expertise du propriétaire, cause d'exonération de responsabilité des architectes et des entrepreneurs sous l'article 1688 C.C.

In May 1977, the Supreme Court of Canada gave an authoritative judgment on the interpretation of article 1688 of the Civil Code dealing with the liability of the builder and the architect. In Davie Shipbuilding Ltd v. Cargill Grain Company Ltd and The Foundation Company of Canada Ltd, the court established a new method of rebutting the presumption of liability resulting from the article. Indeed, the Supreme Court found that where the owner intervened during the construction and was more qualified than the contractors in charge of the work to judge its quality, he could not invoke the presumption resulting from article 1688 C.C. and was responsible for any loss. The case is not an easy one — questions of law and facts are not simple in this dispute involving more than eleven million dollars

NON-AUDIT SERVICES AND AUDITOR INDEPENDENCE IN AN ENVIRONMENT OF LOW INVESTOR PROTECTION

This paper aims to evaluate whether the provision of non-audit services (NASs) affects external auditor independence in an environment characterised by low legal protection of minority investors and a high concentration of ownership and control. Audit reports and costs of services are analysed over 3 years for 154 Brazilian companies. The binary variable proxy for independence indicates a qualified auditor's report and, as an alternative specification, the issuing of a going concern opinion. Logit models were employed with control variables to identify aspects related to other sources of threats to independence, management influence, and the effort and risk of auditing services.  The results indicate that the provision of NASs does not affect auditor independence. This evidence is robust in terms of the alternative specification of the independence proxy and the observation of a subset of companies considered qualifiable. Only when summed to audit fees is there evidence of a negative impact on independence, signalling that the client’s economic dependence might be more relevant than NAS with respect to auditor independence. This result is robust to both independence proxies and the subset of qualifiable companies. In general, other sources of threats do not seem related to independence. This study provides evidence of a market in which auditor independence is expected to be compromised, given controlling shareholders’ influence on company management.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: BETWEEN THE PROPOSED AND THE THINKABLE

ABSTRACT This article deserves to discuss in both the legal and the corporate world the practices adopted by Brazilian companies that seek to disseminate a more democratic working environment, especially respect for differences and prevention policies directed at HIV-positive workers, with a view to Independence of legal predictions consonant with the jurisprudential understandings materialized in the social dynamics. Methodologically, we sought to interpret extensively the constitutional principles, especially the neoconstitutional current and other devices inherent in the Federal Constitution. It was concluded that there are still shortcomings, mainly, regarding the supervision of work environments, demonstrating, therefore, that the constitutional text is emptied when it should be considered as an instrument of preservation and social construction KEYWORDS: Labor Law; Constitutional Guarantees; Neo-constitutionalism. RESUMO O presente artigo se digna a debater tanto no universo jurídico quanto empresarial, as práticas adotadas pelas empresas brasileiras que procuram disseminar um ambiente de trabalho mais democrático, em especial o respeito às diferenças e as políticas de prevenção direcionada aos trabalhadores portadores de HIV, objetivando a independência de previsões legais consonantes aos entendimentos jurisprudenciais materializados na dinâmica social. Metodologicamente, buscou-se interpretar de forma extensiva dos princípios constitucionais, em especial pela corrente neoconstitucional e dos demais dispositivos inerentes na Constituição Federal. Concluiu-se que ainda há insuficiências, principalmente, no tocante à fiscalização dos ambientes de trabalho, demonstrando, portanto, que o texto constitucional se vê esvaziado quando deveria ser tido como instrumento de preservação e construção social   PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Direito do Trabalho; Garantias Constitucionais; Neoconstitucionalismo.

Adherence and/or discontinuation of imatinib mesylate in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia

Adherence to imatinib mesylate improves clinical outcomes and promotes a reduction in health expenditure. However, treatment duration and lack of efficacy decrease adherence to pharmacotherapy, resulting in increased mortality associated with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. This study aimed to evaluate and compare adherence and/or discontinuation of imatinib mesylate in different studies from the literature. An integrative review of original articles published between the years of 2004 and 2014 was performed using the databases PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus and SciELO. The descriptor "imatinib" was used in two combinations employing the connector AND between terms: "medication adherence'' AND ''imatinib" AND "leukemia'' and ''patient compliance'' AND "imatinib" AND "leukemia". We identified 476 studies, being 14 included in the study. The rates of adherence and discontinuation were diverse, ranging from 19.0 to 97.0% and from 1.8 and 41.0%, respectively, and a high number of longitudinal studies was observed (71.4%). Most studies used questionnaires as an indirect method to assess adherence and factors related to poor adherence were adverse drug reactions, dose changes and unavailability of the medication. Patient education associated with follow up by pharmacists and other health professionals can improve patient adherence and minimize the pharmacotherapy discontinuation

4 - Rapports financiers périodiques

Seedling morphology was studied in Campa guianensisAubl. and Carapa proceraD. C. from germination to 90 days age. In both species germination is hypogeal and cryptocotylar. Both have rare albino seedlings. Though both species have compound leaves when adult, C, proceraputs out an average total of six simple leaves at germination, while leaves of C. guianensisare compound at all stages. This is the best diagnostic character for separation of the two species at the young seedling stage. Not diagnostic, but none the less useful, is the fact, that polyembryonic seeds are often found in C. procera,but not observed in C guianensis.Estudaram-se aspectos morfológicos de plântulas de Carapa guianensisAubl. e Carapa proceraD. C. desde a germinação até 90 dias de idade. Ambas espécies possuem germinação hipógea e criptocotilar, e, embora não muito frequente, apresentam plântulas albinas. Apesar de que na fase adulta as duas espécies apresentaram folhas compostas, a plântula de C. proceraprimeiramente lança em média seis folhas simples, enquanto a de C. guianenis, desde o início emite folhas compostas. C. procerapossui comumente semente poliembriônicas, não sendo observado este fenômeno em C. guianensis.Portanto, um dos principais descritores morfológicos, para a distinção das plântulas destas espécies, é tipo de folha emitida. A presença ou ausência de poliembrionia, também pode ser um caráter útil para a identificação