Chronic infection with the hepatitis C virus infection (HCV) affects over 170 million individuals worldwide. In this thesis the natural history and management of hepatitis C in North- East London was investigated. The prevalence of cirrhosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C rises with increasing duration of infection. In Asian patients infected at birth, infection over 60 years causes cirrhosis in 71 % of infected individuals. Since the rate of fibrosis progression in Asian patients is the same as that seen in Caucasian patients, it is likely that similar rates of cirrhosis will be seen in all patients who are infected with HCV for over 60 years. Factors found to be associated with fibrosis progression were:- age and alcohol excess. Insulin resistance was associated with fibrosis progression. However, elevated serum ferritin or hepatiC iron were not. Knowledge of hepatitis C in the East of London was examined and found to be poor despite the Department of Health information campaign. Educational meetings and postal surveys improved the level of knowledge of HCV. However as our group only assessed knowledge immediately after completion of the sessions, such a testing regime does not address long-term knowledge retention. We examined current and novel management strategies for patients with chronic HCV. Current therapy involves pegylated interferon and ribavirin. We found that insulin resistance was a poor predictor of sustained virological response. Chinese herbal treatments for hepatitis C are widely used but poorly studied. Our group designed a randomised controlled double blind study to assess whether Chinese herbal treatment is effective and results from this study show that recruitment and retention in trials of alternative therapies are problematic and that the herbal remedy had little effect on viraemia and quality of life, although liver function tests did improve a little.

The Caledonian pinewoods are a habitat of crucial environmental and cultural importance, and the sole home of many rare species. However, they have seen steady decline in recent centuries, through the establishment of hunting estates and forestry plantations. A recent trend in management is the attempted transformation of existing plantations (dense communities with a regular spatial structure and low variance in size and age) towards a state mimicking the perceived natural condition, which has a lower density, irregular spatial pattern, high variance in size and age. This presents a problem for traditional forestry practices, which were conceived primarily with “even-aged” plantation populations in mind. The shift towards management of an uneven-aged structure requires a more in-depth consideration of individual trees’ lifecycles and their effect upon long-term population dynamics. In recent years, great advances in computational and mathematical models for spatially interacting populations have been made. However, certain complications have prevented them from being utilised to their full potential for the purposes of forest management. Forest communities are not only spatially structured; the size of each tree plays a role in its ability to acquire resources for growth and survival. Existing models of population dynamics are discussed, and their extension to incorporate both size- and spatially- structured interactions is presented. The key aspects of populations’ structural development are studied. Data from both plantation and semi-natural Scots Pine stands in Scotland allow parameterisation of a stochastic individual-based model, which in turn provides insights into the behaviour of real populations, and the importance of spatial effects and heterogeneity in individuals. A partial differential equation (moment) approximation to the stochastic model is presented. While this is analytically intractable, numerical integration and heuristic analysis of the equations enable clearer identification of the drivers of population structure. Many results are concordant with existing models of both qualitative forest stand development and theoretical dynamics of spatially-structured populations, while others are specific to joint size-space structure. This deeper understanding of the population dynamics allows robust recommendations for diverse uneven-aged stand management objectives to be made. Approaches to accelerating the transformation of plantation stands towards a “natural” state (using two key operations: thinning – removal of trees, and planting) are investigated. Finally, approaches to so-called “continuous cover forestry” – the practice of maintaining a quasi-natural state while also obtaining economic value from a forest – are also considered. In both cases, the model’s simplicity enables clearer conclusions than would be possible using other approaches.

Esta tese trata da relação que as dinâmicas sociais e espaciais que historicamente produziram o Jardim Ibirapuera, um loteamento periférico da metrópole da Zona Sul da metrópole de São Paulo aberto em 1964 como uma totalidade particular, estabelecem contemporaneamente com a forma da acumulação de capital à escala mundial. Para esquadrinharmos tal relação tomamos o tempo histórico no Jardim Ibirapuera como uma dialética entre o processo de autonomização das categorias de terra, trabalho e capital e sua manifestação concreta nos agenciamentos contraditórios de nossos interlocutores, tendo como ponto de partida um adensamento inédito e extraordinário da circulação de dinheiro entre os últimos. Observando as trajetórias de mobilidade do trabalho da primeira e segunda geração de moradores, assim como de migrantes chegados mais recentemente, o que aparece como uma expansão de capitais comerciais que, de um lado, reposicionaram o Jardim Ibirapuera como aquilo que atualmente é chamado como uma nova centralidade no tecido urbano da metrópole de São Paulo, de outro, expressa a forma de ser da crise do trabalho e da concorrência cruenta que veio se constituindo no mercado de trabalho. A relação que este processo estabelece atualmente com a forma da acumulação capitalista à escala mundial foi lida a partir da autonomização entre população e trabalho, trabalho e valor e, por fim, entre valor e dinheiro, como pistas para entender o aparente paradoxo de uma totalidade concreta prenhe de relações sociais tanto mais submetidas a expedientes de violência extra econômica quanto mais monetarizadas e contratuais. / This doctorate dissertation deals with the relation between the social and spatial dinamics which historicaly have been producing Jardim Ibirapuera neighborhood, a peripherical settlement in the south side of the metropolis of São Paulo created in 1964 as a particular totality, and the contemporary form of accumulation in a worldwide scale. To adress such a relation we take the historical time within the Jardim Ibirapuera as a dialectical one between the process of autonomization of land, labor and capital and its concrete manifestation through the contradictory agency of our interlocutors, having as a point of departure an extraordinary and unprecedented capilarization of money among the latter. Analysing the first and second generation of dwellers as well as of newcomers migrants which have achieved the neighborhood over the last twenty years, through their mobility of labor experience, what appears as an increase and spread of small enterprises which, on the one hand, changed Jardim Ibirapuera as the so-called new centrality within the urban fabric of the metropolis of São Paulo, on the other express the crisis of labor and the ruthless competition in the labor market. The relation this process currently has been established with the contemporary form of capitalist accumulation in a worldwide scale is read in this dissertation having as point of departure the autonomization between labor and population, labor and value and, at last, value and money, as a clue to grasp the appearent paradox of a concrete totality filled with social relations subdue to extra economical violence as part of its monetarization and contractualisation.

Esta tese trata da relação que as dinâmicas sociais e espaciais que historicamente produziram o Jardim Ibirapuera, um loteamento periférico da metrópole da Zona Sul da metrópole de São Paulo aberto em 1964 como uma totalidade particular, estabelecem contemporaneamente com a forma da acumulação de capital à escala mundial. Para esquadrinharmos tal relação tomamos o tempo histórico no Jardim Ibirapuera como uma dialética entre o processo de autonomização das categorias de terra, trabalho e capital e sua manifestação concreta nos agenciamentos contraditórios de nossos interlocutores, tendo como ponto de partida um adensamento inédito e extraordinário da circulação de dinheiro entre os últimos. Observando as trajetórias de mobilidade do trabalho da primeira e segunda geração de moradores, assim como de migrantes chegados mais recentemente, o que aparece como uma expansão de capitais comerciais que, de um lado, reposicionaram o Jardim Ibirapuera como aquilo que atualmente é chamado como uma nova centralidade no tecido urbano da metrópole de São Paulo, de outro, expressa a forma de ser da crise do trabalho e da concorrência cruenta que veio se constituindo no mercado de trabalho. A relação que este processo estabelece atualmente com a forma da acumulação capitalista à escala mundial foi lida a partir da autonomização entre população e trabalho, trabalho e valor e, por fim, entre valor e dinheiro, como pistas para entender o aparente paradoxo de uma totalidade concreta prenhe de relações sociais tanto mais submetidas a expedientes de violência extra econômica quanto mais monetarizadas e contratuais. / This doctorate dissertation deals with the relation between the social and spatial dinamics which historicaly have been producing Jardim Ibirapuera neighborhood, a peripherical settlement in the south side of the metropolis of São Paulo created in 1964 as a particular totality, and the contemporary form of accumulation in a worldwide scale. To adress such a relation we take the historical time within the Jardim Ibirapuera as a dialectical one between the process of autonomization of land, labor and capital and its concrete manifestation through the contradictory agency of our interlocutors, having as a point of departure an extraordinary and unprecedented capilarization of money among the latter. Analysing the first and second generation of dwellers as well as of newcomers migrants which have achieved the neighborhood over the last twenty years, through their mobility of labor experience, what appears as an increase and spread of small enterprises which, on the one hand, changed Jardim Ibirapuera as the so-called new centrality within the urban fabric of the metropolis of São Paulo, on the other express the crisis of labor and the ruthless competition in the labor market. The relation this process currently has been established with the contemporary form of capitalist accumulation in a worldwide scale is read in this dissertation having as point of departure the autonomization between labor and population, labor and value and, at last, value and money, as a clue to grasp the appearent paradox of a concrete totality filled with social relations subdue to extra economical violence as part of its monetarization and contractualisation.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, 2006. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

This diploma thesis summarises current approaches to age management, or human resources management taking in account the age and skills of employees in the Czech Republic. The theoretical part of this paper deals with the background of this concept, describes the present demographical development, its consequences in the labour field, and the problem of aging population which is visible in the need to adapt applied management strategies in organisations to this trend. There are mentioned several programmes, thoughts, and legislative measures on which the newest concepts and strategic plans in Europe and the Czech Republic are based. The empirical part of the thesis focuses on a specific level of organisations, and consists of two surveys. The first one is a comparative case study for which data were collected in two organisations which have recently implemented measures stemming from age management strategies. These measures are then specified and confronted with the statements of the employees who, in semi-structured interviews with the author, talked about the changes that were put into practice under the concept of age management, and about the discrimination of persons over 50 years of age on the labour market. The second survey was carried out by a questionnaire distributed online to...