Coordinación anticorrupción en Argentina

En Argentina, las políticas anticorrupción nacen como disciplina especializada entre fines del siglo XX y principios del siglo XXI. La lucha contra las prácticas corruptas se constituyó en una de las principales preocupaciones ciudadanas luego de quince años de consolidación democrática y al calor de crecientes escándalos que involucraron a renombrados funcionarios de gobierno durante los años noventa -período en el cual se llevó adelante una reforma del estado que incluyó una política de privatizaciones realizada a través de procesos sospechados de corrupción, y sin estructuras de control adecuadas

A eficácia do Sistema Interamericano de Proteção de Direitos Humanos : uma abordagem quantitativa sobre seu funcionamento e sobre o cumprimento de suas decisões

Publicado em português, espanhol e inglês.Título em espanhol: La efectividad del sistema interamericano de protección de derechos humanos: un enfoque cuantitativo sobre su funcionamento y sobre el cumplimento de sus decisiones. -- Título em inglês: The effectiveness of the inter-american system of human rights protection: a quantitative approach to its functioning and compliance with its decisions.Apresenta discussões sobre o funcionamento do Sistema Interamericano de Proteção dos Direitos Humanos (SIDH), assim como analisa as petições apresentadas ao SIDH em relação às violações de direitos humanos da Convenção Americana de Direitos Humanos (CADH)

New Emigration and Portuguese Society: Transnationalism and Return

This chapter addresses the theme of transnationalism and return in recent Portuguese emigration, namely the flows that occurred after the turn of the century. It starts with a brief theoretical overview on those topics, which constitute two relatively neglected characteristics of Portuguese emigration. Next, based on a survey carried out in 2014–2015 to more than 6000 recent emigrants, it reveals some of the links that they maintain with their home country, as well as their plans for the future, which include settlement in the destination country, return and re-emigration. Lastly, it examines data on returning emigrants – especially those that returned between 2001 and 2011 – extracted from the 2011 Census. The evidence reveals a significant number of returns, including individuals at both working and retirement ages and at all skill levels, thus exposing the unexpected complexity of movements. The results are based on the research project “Back to the future: new emigration and links with Portuguese society” (REMIGR), which aimed to ascertain the extent and characteristics of the new emigration wave. The project included an overview of emigration and return to and from all regions of the world, as well as case studies in UK, France, Luxembourg, Angola, Mozambique and Brazil.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Manuring effects on visual soil quality indicators and soil organic matter content in different pedoclimatic zones in Europe and China

A study was carried out to assess if the visual soil assessment method (VSA) would allow recognizing differences between soils receiving organic matter (OM) amendments and similar control soils, by the observation of visual soil quality indicators’ score. 36 practices were identified across 8 pedoclimatic zones. These fields/plots were paired with nearby control fields/plots, without OM amendments, sharing similar farming features. A survey, comprising a VSA of the soil structure status, surface ponding, signs of erosion, earthworm counts and soil stability (slake test), complemented by measurements of soil organic matter (SOM) and permanganate oxidizable organic carbon (LOC) content, soil pH, penetration resistance and texture, on soils of both management system groups (OM addition and Control), was performed in 2016. Correlations of the visual soil quality indicators’ score with SOM, LOC, other soil properties and climate variables and indices were calculated within each group; the correlations between soil properties, and between soil properties (SOM and LOC) and climate variables were also calculated. A statistically significantly higher proportion of soils of the OM group had a good score for “soil structure and consistency” and “soil porosity”. These differences are not directly explained by non-inherent soil properties. No statistically significant Spearman’s correlation coefficients were observed between “soil structure and consistency” and either soil properties or climate variables; concerning “soil porosity”, distinct statistically significant correlations were observed between the two groups with different climate variables and indices. Correlations between the scores of the visual soil quality indicators and climate variables were found to follow the same directions of correlations of LOC content with the same climate variables, although the latter correlations were weak. Mean SOM and LOC content, were slightly higher in the OM group, although differences were not statistically significant. A high linear correlation between LOC (mg/g) and SOM (%) (r=0.65, n= 26) exists within the Control group, but not within the OM group (r=0.20 and n=26). When the relationship of SOM and LOC content with visual soil quality indicators’ score was studied, statistically significant correlations were only observed between SOM and “earthworm count” within the Control group (rs=0.44), and between LOC and “soil colour” within the OM group (rs=-0.52). Both LOC content and LOC status (scored as a function of LOC content and soil texture), had only negative statistically significant correlations with visual soil quality indicators’ score, questioning their worth as stand-alone soil quality indicator

Weed management practices and benefits in Conservation Agriculture systems

1 Introduction. When growing crops, the eradication of plants from a field has only a temporary effect and, soon after, it is readily recolonized from the soil seedbank, vegetative structures in the soil and by seeds transported to the field by wind, run-off water, animals, soil mass movement or even agricultural practices (irrigation, harvesting, manuring, tillage etc.). We must be grateful for the tenacity that plants show to occupy most terrestrial environments, as it allowed the evolution of terrestrial animals and ultimately us. But, in agricultural fields, most plants are out of place and will compete with crops for water, nutrients, light and space, may diminish the quality of pastures, may impair the harvest, may be a repository of diseases or pest insects and so on. From the moment humans moved from nomad gathering communities and began producing their own food through agriculture, they conceived a multitude of methods to manage weeds based on the technologies and knowledge of its time. In an everchanging world methods of weed control that seem very promising at a given moment sooner or later will be questioned by their impact on the environment or the development of new, more efficient alternatives.Conservation Agriculture (CA), as defined by FAO (FAO, 2017), means farming systems that aim at sustained crop production by the compliance with three principles: no or minimum mechanical soil disturbance, permanent organic soil cover (by both crop residues and cover crops) and species diversity (through rotations, sequences and associations). These farming systems were practised on circa 180 Mha worldwide in 2015/16 and the expansion rate since 2008/09 has been calculated at 10 Mha/year (Kassam et al., 2015, 2019). The growing adoption of CA systems worldwide shows that farmers experience benefits when converting to CA. However, lack of soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation/association under CA are likely to have an effect on weeds’ dynamics, both in terms of diversity/composition and size. In high input systems, heavy reliance on herbicides for weed control often means that integrated weed control strategies are disregarded by the farmer. Unfortunately, this is true in many no-till systems that purely focus on minimum soil disturbance but disregard the other two pillars of CA: diverse crop rotations and cover crops to revegetate the fields in fallow periods. Herbicide-resistant weeds, withdrawal of some herbicides from the market, more restrictive environmental and health regulations and policies that promote the reduction/ banning of pesticide input (e.g. organic farming promotion), all converge to question if alternative weed control methods and practices under CA are feasible and whether integrated weed control strategies tailored to reduce herbicide inputs provide the economical results farmers need to maintain their livelihood

Relationship between physician-adjudicated adverse events and patient-reported health-related quality of life in a phase II clinical trial (NCT01143402) of patients with metastatic uveal melanoma

PURPOSE: Clinical trials commonly use physician-adjudicated adverse event (AE) assessment via the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) for decision-making. Patient-reported health-related quality of life (HRQoL) data is becoming more frequent in oncology; however, the relationship between physician-adjudicated AE assessment and HRQoL is understudied. METHODS: Data from a phase II trial (clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT01143402) where patients with metastatic uveal melanoma were randomized to receive selumetinib, an oral MEK inhibitor, or chemotherapy were analyzed. Patients reported HRQoL at baseline, after 1 month, and end of treatment (n=118), whereas physicians adjudicated AEs via CTCAE. Mean HRQoL scores were compared between patient randomization arms, as well as between those patients who did/did not receive dose modifications. RESULTS: Ninety-four percent had a CTCAE grade ≥ 1 for at least one treatment-associated AE, with 18% undergoing dose modification due to toxicity. Mean HRQoL scores did not significantly differ at each of the three time points. Patient and physician-adjudicated reports of nausea were significantly correlated at the start (r=0.31, p<0.01) and end of treatment (r=0.42, p<0.05). There were no significant correlations between need for dose modification and HRQoL scores. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the high rate of physician-adjudicated AEs and need for dose modifications with selumetinib, patient-reported HRQoL was not impacted by treatment. Since HRQoL did not differ in the subgroup of patients who received dosage reductions due to AEs, patients may be willing to tolerate select AEs without dose modification (if medically appropriate). More research is needed to determine how to best integrate HRQoL data into clinical trial conduct