3,024 research outputs found
Market Solutions in Poverty: The Role of Microcredit in Development Countries with Financial Restrictions
The creation of credit markets in poor countries is a crucial factor for their development. If well put into practice, people would be able to improve their quality of life. With the suitable support they will become educated and that will allow them to enlarge their business, to think by themselves and to appreciate that they have rights. Microfinance has seen great changes in the last 50 years and has become visibly known due to the success of some occurrence in developing countries and more recently in Europe through a number of schemes that have been implemented solving this key issue. In this article we discuss this experience, we evaluate the economic theory of microfinance and propose a alternative model. We conclude that microcredit can be see as a new approach in developing policies or as a scheme against unemployment.microfinance, microcredit, rate of interest, development, poverty, money.
Probing the primordial Universe with MeerKAT and DES
It is usually assumed that we will need to wait until next-generation surveys
like Euclid, LSST and SKA, in order to improve on the current best constraints
on primordial non-Gaussianity from the Planck experiment. We show that two
contemporary surveys, with the SKA precursor MeerKAT and the Dark Energy Survey
(DES), can be combined using the multi-tracer technique to deliver an accuracy
on measurement of that is up to three times better than Planck.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. We now marginalise over the bias, and
ensure that we exclude nonlinear scales, leading to small quantitative
corrections. Version accepted by MNRA
Bridging Science to Economy: The Role of Science and Technologic Parks in Innovation Strategies in “Follower” Regions
The concept of Regional Innovation System (RIS) builds upon an integrated perspective of innovation, acknowledging the contribution of knowledge production subsystem, regulatory context and enterprises to a region’s innovative performance. Science and Technology parks can act as a platform to the production of knowledge and its transfer to the economy in the form of spin-offs or simple knowledge spillovers, enhanced by the co-location of R&D university centers and high technology enterprises on site. Although reflecting mainly a science push perspective, they may constitute central nodes in an infrastructural system of competitiveness that articulates other entrepreneurial location sites and bridges Universities to the economy in a more efficient and effective way, being crucial to increasing technology transfer and interchange speed, promoting the technological upgrading of the regional economy. In this paper we discuss the importance of Science and Technology Parks in the building up of a Regional Innovation System, promoting the technological intensification of the economy, a more effective knowledge transfer and sharing and the construction of competitive advantages, with particular importance in follower regions facing structural deficiencies. We oppose to the predominant closed paradigm, which understands science parks’ role in a narrow and “enclavist”, arguing in favor of an open and “integrative” paradigm where the interconnection to other infrastructures and agents boosts the park’s performance and upgrades the regional economies competitiveness infra-structures and innovation capability. We further stress the importance of science parks in signaling capabilities and hence attracting R&D external initiatives, namely, R&D FDI.Science Parks, New technology-based firms, Innovation, Regional Policy
Patient satisfaction in relation to nursing care at home
With regards to home care, primary care nurses should carry out their activities and performance with an emphasis on health education. Considering patient satisfaction in the relationship aspect of helping and communication can contribute to improving nursing care. This cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study, whose aim is to assess the degree of patient satisfaction in relation to nursing care provided at home, particularly in the dimensions of relationships, communication and health education.
To conduct this research an intentional non-probabilistic sample, consisting of 44 dependent patients, belonging to the area of a health centre in the central region of Portugal, who receive nursing care at home was selected. The data collection instrument used was a form, consisting of two parts: the first part to characterise the sample with 10 questions, one of which is subdivided and the second part consisting of 16 Likert type scale questions to obtain the patients’ opinions. From our results we stress that our sample had a very aged population, mostly residing in urban areas. Satisfaction was evaluated in three dimensions:
relationships, communication and health education. With regard to relationships, older males (age range 88-98 years), who are more highly dependent, married, uneducated and living in rural districts are more satisfied. Regarding communication, older males (88-98 years), with a greater degree of dependency, bachelors, educated and living in urban parishes are most satisfied. As for the health education dimension, younger men (68-78 years), who are less dependent, married, educated and living in urban environments are more satisfied. The main conclusions inferred are that, in the overall assessment of all of the dimensions, the classification is very good, and it is suggested that organizational investments are made and to equip health centres with human and material resources
Efeito do treino combinado na citocina IL-17 em idosos institucionalizados
Dissertação de mestrado em BiocinĂ©tica (BiocinĂ©tica em CiĂŞncias do Desporto) apresentada Ă Faculdade de CiĂŞncias do Desporto e Educação FĂsica da Universidade de CoimbraIntrodução: O envelhecimento está diretamente associado ao aumento da inflamação
sistémica, um processo denominado como "inflammaging". Uma das citocinas inflamatórias
que tem merecido especial atenção é a IL-17, a qual possui concentração aumentada em
diversos processos de doenças crĂ´nicas. O exercĂcio fĂsico já Ă© considerado como um potente
agente anti-inflamatĂłrio e, mesmo em idosos, parecem existir inĂşmeros benefĂcios fĂsicos,
imunitários e psicolĂłgicos oriundos da prática de exercĂcio. Todavia, os efeitos de um
programa de treino combinado sobre os parâmetros da citocina IL-17 ainda não foram
investigados na população idosa. O objetivo deste trabalho é verificar os efeitos do treino
combinado sobre os nĂveis de IL-17 em mulheres idosas institucionalizadas.
MĂ©todo: Um total de 25 idosas foram selecionadas e alocadas em dois grupos: treino
combinado (n=13) e grupo controlo (n=12). Todas as participantes foram avaliadas antes e
após 14 semanas de treino combinado. O treinamento consistia em 2 sessões semanais, e cada
sessĂŁo foi composta por exercĂcios aerĂłbios, de treino de força e flexibilidade. Amostras de
sangue foram recolhidas antes e apĂłs o perĂodo de intervenção para análise de hemograma
e das concentrações plasmáticas de IL-17, bem como foram recolhidos dados referentes Ă
teste de aptidĂŁo fĂsica funcional.
Resultados: nĂŁo existiram alterações significativas nos nĂveis de IL-17 em ambos grupos, e as
variáveis do hemograma tambĂ©m foram inalteradas apĂłs o perĂodo de intervenção (p>0.05).
Apesar de nĂŁo significativas, o treino combinado promoveu um leve efeito sobre a
melhoria dos nĂveis de aptidĂŁo fĂsica nas idosas submetidas ao exercĂcio, o que nĂŁo ocorreu no
grupo controlo.
ConclusĂŁo: apesar do treino combinado nĂŁo promover alterações significativas nos nĂveis de
IL-17 de idosas institucionalizadas, este tipo de exercĂcio parece promover benefĂcios na
capacidade fĂsica dessa população.
Introduction: Aging is directly associated with the increase of systemic inflammation, a
process known as “Inflammaging”.One of the pro inflammatory cytokines who has been
broadly studied is the IL-17, which is widely present in several chronic diseases.
Physical exercise is recognized as one powerful anti-inflammatory agent, and even in the
elderly population it looks like there are many immune and psychologic benefits form the
practice of regular physical activity. However, the effects of a multi-modal training program
in the IL-17 parameters of an elderly population are still to be studied. The goal of this thesis
is to examine the effects of multi-modal training in the levels of IL-17 of institutionalized
elderly women.
Methods: A total of 25 old women were selected and divided in two groups: multi modal
training (n=13) and control group (n=12). All the participants were evaluated before and after
14 weeks of multi modal training. The training consisted in 2 weekly sessions, each one had
aerobic, strength and flexibility exercises. Blood samples were collected before and after the
intervention phase in order to perform hemogram and IL-17 plasmatic concentration analysis.
It was also assessed the data of functional fitness.
Results: there weren’t significant changes in IL-17 levels in both groups and the hemogram
components were also inalterable after the intervention period (p>0.05). Although changes
weren’t significant, multi modal training promoted a small effect in the improvement of
functional fitness levels in the elderly women who participated in exercise sessions,
something that didn’t happen in the control group.
Conclusion: Despite the unchangeable levels of IL-17 in institutionalized elderly women
submitted to multi modal training, this kind of exercise seems to promote benefits in the
physical capacity of that population
A inclusão do aprendente com distúrbio de hiperactividade e défice de atenção: um estudo de caso
Projeto apresentado na Escola Superior de Educação do Instituto PolitĂ©cnico do Porto para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários Ă obtenção da especialização em Educação EspecialOs alunos com DistĂşrbio Hiperactivo e DĂ©fice de Atenção (DHDA) revelam um comportamento imprevisĂvel e inconstante, resultante da inibição de impulsos. A par deste tipo de comportamento, demonstram uma enorme imaturidade para a idade, no que se refere a relações sociais na escola, em casa e em diferentes contextos da comunidade de que fazem parte (Garcia, 2001).
Esta investigação tem como objectivo principal analisar quais as representações que professores do 3o Ciclo do Ensino Básico duma turma com um aluno diagnosticado com DHDA têm relativamente: a) ao perfil comportamental do mesmo; b) às estratégias que usam no processo de ensino- aprendizagem.
Utilizando questionários como instrumentos de recolha de dados, procurámos realizar uma análise estatĂstica descritiva de forma a inventariar quais das estratĂ©gias assinaladas pelos docentes sĂŁo promotoras inclusĂŁo escolar do aluno com DHDA
Cosmology with intensity mapping techniques using atomic and molecular lines
We present a systematic study of the intensity mapping technique using
updated models for the different emission lines from galaxies and identify
which ones are more promising for cosmological studies of the post reionization
epoch. We consider the emission of , , H,
optical and infrared oxygen lines, nitrogen lines, CII and the CO rotational
lines. We then identify that , , OII, CII and
the lowest rotational CO lines are the best candidates to be used as IM probes.
These lines form a complementary set of probes of the galaxies emission
spectra. We then use reasonable experimental setups from current, planned or
proposed experiments to access the detectability of the power spectrum of each
emission line. Intensity mapping of emission from to 3
will be possible in the near future with HETDEX, while far-infrared lines
require new dedicated experiments. We also show that the proposed SPHEREx
satellite can use OII and IM to study the large-scale
distribution of matter in intermediate redshifts of 1 to 4. We found that
submilimeter experiments with bolometers can have similar performances at
intermediate redshifts using CII and CO(3-2).Comment: 18 pages, 21 figures, 5 tables, published in MNRAS, typos correcte
- …