Untied to economic fluctuations, insurers are less likely to generate systemic risks

But it's important not to overlook nuances in their macroprudential regulation, writes Marcelo Ramell

Taking part: a study of adolescent sexual health promotion in Peru

This study introduces a theoretical and empirical exploration of the issue of participation within the field of adolescent sexual health promotion. It contributes to, and engages in, two kinds of debates: policy and practice discussions on how to involve adolescents in promoting their sexual health, and academic debates on the relevant theory that informs policy and practice. The thesis critically reviews literature on participatory adolescent sexual health promotion arguing that the field is located at the intersection of three central conceptual vectors: adolescence, which is constructed as inevitably transiting towards adulthood from the moment childhood ends; adolescent sexual health, which is primarily dictated by the languages of biomedicine and psychology; and adolescent participation, which appears understood as a process of adult transmission of knowledge onto the participating adolescent. Challenging these coordinates, and by drawing on the works of Jürgen Habermas and Paulo Freire, a framework for understanding participatory processes is elaborated. Participation here is conceptualised as a social process of creation via which those taking part in it concurrently shape and maintain knowledge, mould and stabilise social relations, and care for themselves. A participatory adolescent sexual health promotion initiative implemented in rural and urban-marginal communities of the Andean, Coastal and Jungle regions of Peru, acts as the observational field for the empirical investigation of the conceptualisation of participation advanced in the thesis. Documentaries and dramas produced in video format by the adolescents taking part in the initiative, together with audio-visual recordings of group discussions in which the adolescents presented and problematised these videos constitute the qualitative data gathered in this study. The data was analysed to explore adolescents’ collective elaborations of sexuality in general and of sexual health in particular, and to reconstruct, from these instances of collective creation, the workings of the participation processes that underpin them

Extending discursive space: toward the development of an online information system for organizational consulting and management

Modern business in Russia, being a new phenomenon in cultural traditions, is characterized by a lot of special features due to the recency of its ascendance within the new economic, social and political conditions. Many of these features seriously prevent the further development of organizations and are anyhow realized by agents of business activity. In this context, Tepfer (2000) identifies characteristic features like placing collective values above personal values, concentration of authority onto the chief executive, insufficient delegation of authority, and an inefficiency of discussions between people at different hierarchical levels in the organization (See also Humphreys and Nappelbaum, 1997). Forms of inter-organizational communications, such as business clubs, are not developed in a proper way. Within Russian organizations, problem handling is more likely to search for "the guilty ones" rather than to conduct a scrupulous analysis of allowed mistakes: representations of problems and the phenomena involved have a primarily emotional character. Direct communication, both inside an organization and in relations between different organizations, is complicated by virtue of the dominance of competitive relations, the cultural norms prevalent in Russian business, and absence of a supportive environment in which such communications might be realized

Bermuda Sidecars: Supervising Reinsurance Companies in Innovative Global Markets*

The paper looks at the phenomenon of reinsurance sidecars, as an example of innovation in cross-sectoral risk transfer between the insurance and the capital markets. It explores the emergence, unfolding and retreat of sidecars in Bermuda with the goal of identifying and establishing key issues shaping how supervisors make sense and act upon innovative industry practices. The paper describes key market and industry features setting the scene for the emergence of sidecars, reviews the literature on sidecars, discusses supervisory challenges sidecars present and explores avenues for addressing these challenges. The paper argues that sidecars offer a fertile ground for better understanding the relationship between industry and supervisors in a context of innovation taking place in a rapidly changing landscape, populated by global players. The Geneva Papers (2007) 32, 345–363. doi:10.1057/palgrave.gpp.2510130

Combination of irinotecan and a platinum agent for poorly differentiated neuroendocrine carcinomas

Extrapulmonary poorly differentiated neuroendocrine carcinoma (PDNEC) is a rare and highly aggressive neoplasm for which the optimal chemotherapy remains unclear. The objective of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of patients with PDNEC treated with cisplatin and irinotecan (IP) and perform a review of the literature. From 2008 to 2012, patients with advanced PDNEC (Ki67≥20%) who received the IP combination were selected for analysis. Radiologic responses were determined through Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors criteria. Twenty-eight patients were included. The median age at diagnosis was 57 years and the most common presentation was pancreatic PDNEC. Twenty-five patients (89%) received chemotherapy with cisplatin and irinotecan and three received carboplatin and irinotecan. Forty-six percent of the patients achieved objective response and the median time to tumor progression was 3.7 months. The median overall survival was 11.7 months. Thirteen patients (46%) had treatment interruptions or dose reductions due to grade 3/4 toxicity. This retrospective cohort of advanced extrapulmonary PDNEC patients suggests that the IP combination is feasible and resulted in similar response rate and median survival to other treatments previously reported