Introduction: Oil/gas communities across Northeastern British Columbia are experiencing rapid in-migration of young, primarily male workers in response to an economic ‘boom’ in the oil/gas sectors. Accompanying the ‘boom’ has been a rise in rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among young people, with Chlamydia rates among youth in the Northeast exceeding the provincial average by 22%. Previous research indicates that socio-cultural and structural determinants of youth sexual behaviour and access to STI testing are important for understanding youth sexual health disparities – and represent key targets for STI prevention efforts. No other research has explored STIs in this rapidly developing, under-resourced context. Therefore, objectives of this thesis were to: (1) Examine how socio-cultural and structural features related to the oil/gas ‘boom’ affect the sexual behaviour of young people in Fort St. John (FSJ), BC; (2) Gather the perspectives of youth and their service providers on the socio-cultural and structural barriers to STI testing in FSJ; (3) Develop recommendations to improve the accessibility of STI testing. Results: Participants identified 4 main ways in which the socio-cultural and structural conditions created by the ‘boom’ affect sexual behaviours, fuelling the spread of STIs in FSJ: mobility of oil/gas workers; binge partying; high levels of disposable income; and gendered power dynamics. As well, 5 key barriers to STI testing among youth were identified: limited opportunities for access; geographic inaccessibility; local social norms; limited information; and negative interactions with providers. Discussion: These data indicate that the conditions fostered by the ‘boom’ in FSJ exacerbate sexual health inequalities among young people. They can be more widely contextualized as an example of the unintended – but not unexpected – health and social implications of a resource-extraction ‘boom’, illustrating the fallacy of ‘development’ as representing uniformly positive ‘progress’. Recommended actions include STI prevention and testing service delivery models that incorporate a locally tailored public awareness campaign, outreach to oil/gas workers, condom distribution, expanded clinic hours and drop-in appointments, specialized training for health care providers, and intersectoral partnerships between public health, non-profit organizations, and industry. An ongoing knowledge translation internship has been undertaken to implement some of these recommendations.

Atliekant įmonių ar fizinių asmenų finansinius patikrinimus, Valstybinės mokesčių inspekcijos darbuotojai duomenis analizuoja, atlieka atranką ir po to suplanuoja atlikti auditinius patikrinimus. Tam tikslui sudaromi patikrinimų planai. Šiame magistro darbe analizuojamas Šiaulių apskrities valstybinė mokesčių inspekcijos atrankos auditui skyriaus darbo specifika, aptariami sunkumai ir problemos nekompiuterizuotame auditinių planu sudaryme. Atlikus rinkoje esamų produktų palyginamąją analizę, buvo nuspręsta kurti naują sistemą. Sistema suprojektuota, realizuota, atliktas realizuotos sistemos testavimas bei jos kokybės vertinimas. Informacinė sistema palengvina patikrinimo planavimo procesą: duomenų suvedimą, ataskaitų formavimą bei duomenų paiešką. / Performing business or personal financial auditing, the State Tax Inspectorate's staff analyzes data, performs screening and afterwords plans auditing. Therefore, inspection plans are being made up. This paper analyzes the work particularity of the Auditing Screening Division of the Šiauliai County State Tax Inspectorate including challengers of the non-computerized formation of the auditing plans. Having done the comparative analysis of products existing on the market, it was decided to develop a new system. The system is designed, implemented, tested and the quality evaluation has been carried out. The information system facilitates the verification planning process: clearance of data, reporting and data searches.

No description available.

Dans ces dernières années, les Systèmes de Transport Intelligents (STI) ont été considérés comme l'un des domaines de recherche les plus émergents en raison de leur rôle prometteur dans l'amélioration de la gestion du trafic et de la sécurité routière. Les applications coopératives de sécurité, étant les plus cruciales, ont gagné beaucoup d'intérêt. L'efficacité de ces applications dépend largement de l'échange efficace de deux principaux types d'informations. L'information de localisation périodique correspondant à l'information de localisation du voisinage et l'information événementielle qui est transmise en multi-sauts et générée lors de la détection d'une situation d'urgence. En raison de la caractéristique à grande échelle des STI, cette information fait l'objet du problème de congestion dans le réseau. L'objectif de cette thèse est d'assurer un contrôle fiable et robuste des informations de sécurité permettant de réduire la congestion du canal tout en tenant en compte des exigences des applications de sécurité. Nous examinons la diffusion de l'information événementielle en proposant une approche a multi-sauts qui a montré une amélioration de la réception de l'information. Cependant, cette approche reste très sensible à la charge de canal résultant de transmissions de l'information de localisation périodiques. D'autre part, la transmission efficace de l'information événementielle repose essentiellement sur la détection précise des événements de sécurité et en conséquence sur la précision de l'information de localisation. Ainsi, nous proposons un mécanisme de contrôle de l'information de localisation afin de fournir une meilleure précision et limiter la charge du canal. Les approches proposées dans cette thèse ont profondément étudié le compromis entre le respect des exigences des applications de sécurité et la gestion efficace de la congestion dans le réseau véhiculaire.

A pocket of HIV infection has grown to epidemic proportions in a mostly Aboriginal1 community in Northern Alberta. At the start of the research my assumptions were that Aboriginal2 sexuality is affected by political, historical, cultural, psychological, and social factors that underpin the social determinants of health. STI/HIV is a symptom of the marginalized status of Aboriginal peoples who experienced historical trauma due to colonization. As an insider researcher, using an exploratory design I addressed the following questions: 1) is popular theatre a culturally appropriate medium for introducing information to increase knowledge of STI/HIV in an Aboriginal audience? 2) Is popular theatre an effective way to encourage audience members to express their attitudes, knowledge, and behaviours related to sexual health? 3) How are popular theatre and action research methodologically and conceptually appropriate for preventing STI/HIV? 4) How do the influence of elders and a popular theatre practitioner affect the intervention? 5) Can the use of action research and popular theatre influence the attitudes, knowledge, and behaviours to promote healthy sexual choices? 6) Is narrative analysis a good way for Aboriginal people to tell their stories or have their stories told? Completing this exploratory research was financially possible through the Aboriginal Health Strategy. The funds enabled me to recruit a popular theatre practitioner, a group of young Indigenous community members and supportive elders to answer my research questions. The data was obtained through one-to-one interviews, journals, talking circles, and field notes of the community-based theatre and action research process. Due to a lack of time in the field, narrative analysis was not used. Instead I introduced Grandmother Spider and developed a dream catcher that I refer to as the Indigenous Iterative Webbed Circle to analyze the real and fictional stories that led to the community performance of My Peoples Blood. The methods are appropriate and effective if the principles of Community Based Participatory Research and action research are followed by all group members involved in this popular theatre project.

Introduction: Oil/gas communities across Northeastern British Columbia are experiencing rapid in-migration of young, primarily male workers in response to an economic ‘boom’ in the oil/gas sectors. Accompanying the ‘boom’ has been a rise in rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among young people, with Chlamydia rates among youth in the Northeast exceeding the provincial average by 22%. Previous research indicates that socio-cultural and structural determinants of youth sexual behaviour and access to STI testing are important for understanding youth sexual health disparities – and represent key targets for STI prevention efforts. No other research has explored STIs in this rapidly developing, under-resourced context. Therefore, objectives of this thesis were to: (1) Examine how socio-cultural and structural features related to the oil/gas ‘boom’ affect the sexual behaviour of young people in Fort St. John (FSJ), BC; (2) Gather the perspectives of youth and their service providers on the socio-cultural and structural barriers to STI testing in FSJ; (3) Develop recommendations to improve the accessibility of STI testing. Results: Participants identified 4 main ways in which the socio-cultural and structural conditions created by the ‘boom’ affect sexual behaviours, fuelling the spread of STIs in FSJ: mobility of oil/gas workers; binge partying; high levels of disposable income; and gendered power dynamics. As well, 5 key barriers to STI testing among youth were identified: limited opportunities for access; geographic inaccessibility; local social norms; limited information; and negative interactions with providers. Discussion: These data indicate that the conditions fostered by the ‘boom’ in FSJ exacerbate sexual health inequalities among young people. They can be more widely contextualized as an example of the unintended – but not unexpected – health and social implications of a resource-extraction ‘boom’, illustrating the fallacy of ‘development’ as representing uniformly positive ‘progress’. Recommended actions include STI prevention and testing service delivery models that incorporate a locally tailored public awareness campaign, outreach to oil/gas workers, condom distribution, expanded clinic hours and drop-in appointments, specialized training for health care providers, and intersectoral partnerships between public health, non-profit organizations, and industry. An ongoing knowledge translation internship has been undertaken to implement some of these recommendations.

Submitted by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2015-03-23T17:31:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Graviers, Ana Luci lima de Menezes des.pdf: 1847685 bytes, checksum: 25b1fcd31071218dd925be8d52696066 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2015-03-23T21:42:10Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Graviers, Ana Luci lima de Menezes des.pdf: 1847685 bytes, checksum: 25b1fcd31071218dd925be8d52696066 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-23T21:42:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Graviers, Ana Luci lima de Menezes des.pdf: 1847685 bytes, checksum: 25b1fcd31071218dd925be8d52696066 (MD5) / Cada vez mais, as micro e pequenas empresas necessitam de apoio para se moldar aos ambientes competitivos e dinâmicos da economia atual, por este motivo, as incubadoras de empresas surgiram como uma das alternativas para dar suporte aos empreendimentos nascentes, no que se refere aos seus desafios administrativos e ao desenvolvimento de produtos/serviços/processos que tenham cunho inovador ou tecnológico, as chamadas empresas de base tecnológica. No Estado da Bahia, o incentivo à competitividade das empresas nascentes por meio da implantação das incubadoras de empresas surgiu em 1993, mas, vinte e um anos depois, não existem indícios que demonstrem que este apoio foi continuado ou que consolidou tais organizações no âmbito do Sistema Local de Inovação baiano. Por este motivo, a pesquisa teve o propósito de investigar, sob a ótica dos objetivos previstos pelas Políticas de C, T & I Nacional e Estadual e aqueles delineados pelos editais da FAPESB, o desempenho das seis incubadoras de empresas selecionadas pelo Programa Empreende Bahia. Para tanto, no marco teórico da pesquisa são apresentados os conceitos - Inovação, Sistemas Locais de Inovação e Empreendedorismo - que embasaram a construção da “nova” Política Pública de C, T & I. A dissertação também descreve a origem da política de C, T & I no Brasil, apresentando a sua trajetória, principais motivações e o destaque para o debate sobre a tipologia da política que tem sido difundida como orientada pelo “modelo sistêmico”, mas que ainda persistem instrumentais do “modelo linear”. Esta discussão foi importante para apresentar, em sequência, a política de C, T & I do Estado da Bahia e, por conseguinte, discorrer sobre o Programa Empreende Bahia que nasceu no âmbito da FAPESB e resultou no apoio às seis incubadoras de empresas baianas selecionadas pelo estudo. O desempenho destas incubadoras de empresas é apresentado a partir da análise dos seus relatórios técnicos e os questionários submetidos aos gestores destas organizações. Dentre os resultados apresentados pelas incubadoras de empresas baianas, destaca-se que estes atores não têm empreendido de maneira relevante iniciativas interativas e/ou colaborativas com outros atores do sistema local de inovação da Bahia. More and more, micro and small businesses need support to shape the competitive and dynamic environments of the current economy. Thence, incubators have emerged as an alternative to support nascent ventures, with regard to their management and development of products / services / processes challenges that have innovative or technological nature, the so-called technology-based companies. In the State of Bahia, the incentive of the competitiveness of emerging companies through the implementation of incubators started in 1993, but twenty-one years later, there is no evidence showing that this support was continued or that consolidated such organizations under the Local Innovation System of Bahia. Thence, this research aimed to investigate, from the perspective of the objectives established by the National and State Policies of Science, Technology & Innovation (STI) and those outlined by the edicts of FAPESB, the performance of the six incubators selected by the program Empreende Bahia. For both, in the theoretical framework of the study are presented the concepts - Innovation, Local Innovation System and Entrepreneurship - that supported the construction of the "new" Public Policy of STI. The dissertation also describes the origin of the policy of STI in Brazil, with its trajectory, main motivations, and the highlight to the debate on the type of policy that is being propagated as guided by "systemic model", but that still persist instrumental of the "linear model". This discussion was important to present, in sequence, the policy of STI of the State of Bahia and, therefore, discuss the program Empreende Bahia that was born under FAPESB and resulted in supporting incubators at six companies from Bahia selected for the study. The performance of these incubators is presented based on an analysis of their technical reports and questionnaires submitted to the managers of these organizations. Among the results presented by incubator companies from Bahia, it is emphasized that these actors have not undertaken a relevant way interactive and/or collaborative with other actors of the local innovation system of Bahia initiatives.

Background: College settings are likely environments for Black women to contract STIs (including HIV) or experience unintentional/unwanted pregnancies. Effective prevention strategies for this population include dialogue and activities that focus on gender, maturity, cultural barriers, personal strength, and information needs. However, technological advancements (including virtual reality) and innovation are limited in prevention efforts. Methods: Four 90-minute focus group sessions were conducted in a convenience sample of Black college females (ages 18 years or older) and a research-intensive public institution in the southeast. A series of surveys were distributed during each audio-recorded focus group session. A mixed-method approach to data analysis was based on applications of the Health Belief Model constructs to three principal research questions: (1) Q1: How do Black college females perceive the importance of sexual risk topics? (2) What are the experiences and attitudes of Black college females regarding the use of VR for education and training versus video game entertainment (i.e. “gaming)? and (3) Among Black college females, what sexual risk topics are considered most relevant to a VR education and training platform? Results: Each of four study cohorts enrolled between 2-6 participants each (n=15). Participant ages ranged from 18-48 (x̅=28.6, σ=9.2) years within age groups of 18-24 years (60%, n=9), 25-34 years (26.7%, n=4), and 35 years or above (13.3%, n=2). The majority of participants (86.7%, n=13) were enrolled as full-time students, and resided in various off-campus locations (73.3%; n=11). Assessments of sexual risk topic importance were reported based on aggregated Survey 1 Lickert scale values. The majority of participants equally viewed the topics of HIV and STI status as important, mostly important, or very important. Other notable concerns include sex with drug/alcohol use, risk of intimate partner violence, and sexual communication (e.g. partners and peers. Despite the lack of formal virtual reality knowledge, the majority of participants reported experience with VF technology via “gaming” (e.g. SIMS). They also concluded that a virtual reality platform for sexual health education and training should involve comprehensive approaches to HIV/STI and unintentional pregnancy via use of barrier methods, including birth control, as well as facilitation of sexual communication. Discussion: This research represents a unique approach to the identification of sexual health risk importance for HIV/STI transmission, as well as unintentional pregnancy, in Black college females. Although a successful demonstration of feasibility, this research is formative in nature – results should be interpreted as preliminary. However, methods and concepts presented in this thesis hold the potential for scientific contribution in prevention research, clinical practice, and other fields of study.

Procuramos nesta pesquisa, trabalhar a questão da violência voltada à mulher, em especial à mulher detenta. Para tanto, sentimos necessidade de buscar referenciais teóricos que nos desse subsídios para compreensão do significado da violência generalizada, a doméstica e a sexual e a vulnerabilidade às IST- aids e sua articulação com as relações de gênero. Isto nos levou a traçar os seguintes objetivos: fazer uma revisão da literatura sobre as questões mais amplas que envolvem a violência generalizada, e particularmente a sexual; investigar qual a percepção que as mulheres detentas têm sobre a violência, detectando suas possíveis experiências nesse sentido e conseqüentes riscos de infecção pelo IST/HIV-aids; trabalhar, conjuntamente com elas, um programa educativo, desenvolvendo ações e intervenções, visando ao atendimento das questões em apreço, incluindo a elaboração de cartilha sobre violência, IST, aids e drogas, destinada a este público alvo. Para tanto, desenvolvemos um estudo exploratório-descritivo através da pesquisa-ação, fundamentada numa visão humanitária. Priorizamos a abordagem qualitativa cuja análise se deu por categorização – valorizando a subjetividade, ao favorecer a compreensão e a interpretação da fala dos sujeitos pesquisados. Trabalhamos com 15 mulheres detentas, de uma Cadeia Pública Feminina do interior paulista. As técnicas utilizadas foram: a entrevista individual, semi-estruturada, tendo como instrumento, questionário com questões norteadoras; e a observação participante. Os resultados evidenciaram que a violência sexual é repudiada e tida como geradora de marcas psíquicas e emocionais à mulher. Sete (7) do total de pesquisadas, sofreram algum tipo de violência sexual; em cinco (5) casos, os ofensores eram conhecidos. Duas (2) engravidaram de seus ofensores sendo que uma delas ainda se infectou pelo HIV. Sentimentos de rejeição, humilhação, revolta, baixa auto-estima e medo, foram descritos pela maioria delas. Muitas mulheres na delinqüência são agredidas sexualmente, por parceiros, tornando-se mais vulneráveis aos riscos de contágio às IST-aids e a gravidez. Fazem-se necessárias, ações educativas preventivas à violência de gênero e as temáticas interligadas a essa questão, merecendo sejam implantados programas especiais educativos, exames e controle da saúde sexual e reprodutiva da mulher detenta, sob a supervisão de profissionais de saúde gabaritados. / The purpose of this study was to understand the violence against women that are prisoners. Therefore, the author searched for theoretical references that helped her to understand generalized, domestic and sexual violence as well as the vulnerability regarding STD – AIDS and the relationship of violence and gender. As immediate goals, the author aimed at reviewing the literature on questions involving generalized violence and particularly sexual violence and investigating the perception of women prisoners about violence in order to find out possible risks to STD and AIDS infection. The author also had the goal to work with these women through an educative program, developing actions and interventions, including the elaboration of a folder about violence, STD, AIDS and drugs. Thus, this was an exploratory and descriptive study, through action research based on an humane view. The author prioritized a qualitative approach that occurred through a categorization – valuing the subjectivity and favoring the understanding and interpretation of the subjects’ speech. The author worked with 15 women prisoners of a Public Prison located at the interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The techniques used were: individual semi-structured interviews, with a questionnaire composed by guiding questions; and participant observation. Results showed that sexual violence results in psychical and emotional consequences for women. Seven women were victims of some type of violence; in five cases, the aggressors were known. Two women got pregnant and one of them was infected by HIV. Feelings of rejection, humiliation and low self-esteem were described by the majority of the subjects. These women were sexually harassed by their partners and are vulnerable to the risks of being infected by HIV and getting pregnant. As a result, the author recommends educative actions that will prevent violence and the themes related to this problem, through the implementation of special programs, examinations regarding their sexual and reproductive health of the women prisoners, under de supervision of qualified health professionals.

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium genome encodes 13 fimbrial operons. Most of the fimbriae encoded by these operons are not produced under laboratory conditions but are likely to be synthesized in vivo. We used an in vivo expression technology (IVET) strategy to identify four fimbrial operons, agf, saf, sti, and stc that are expressed in the spleen. When any three of these operons were deleted, the strain retained wild-type virulence. However, when all four operons were deleted, the resulting strain was completely attenuated, indicating that these four fimbriae play functionally redundant roles critical for virulence. In mice, oral doses of as low as 1 x 10(5) CFU of the strain with four fimbrial operons deleted provided 100% protection against challenge with 1 x 10(9) CFU of wild-type S. Typhimurium. We also examined the possible effect of these fimbriae on the ability of a Salmonella vaccine strain to deliver a guest antigen. We modified one of our established attenuated vaccine strains, chi 9088, to delete three fimbrial operons while the fourth operon was constitutively expressed. Each derivative was modified to express the Streptococcus pneumoniae antigen PspA. Strains that constitutively expressed saf or stc elicited a strong Th1 response with significantly greater levels of anti-PspA serum IgG and greater protective efficacy than strains carrying saf or stc deletions. The isogenic strain in which all four operons were deleted generated the lowest anti-PspA levels and did not protect against challenge with virulent S. pneumoniae. Our results indicate that these fimbriae play important roles, as yet not understood, in Salmonella virulence and immunogenicity. IMPORTANCE Salmonella enterica is the leading cause of bacterial food-borne infection in the United States. S. Typhimurium is capable of producing up to 13 distinct surface structures called fimbriae that presumably mediate its adherence to surfaces. The roles of most of these fimbriae in disease are unknown. Identifying fimbriae produced during infection will provide important insights into how these bacterial structures contribute to disease and potentially induce protective immunity to Salmonella infection. We identified four fimbriae that are produced during infection. Deletion of all four of these fimbriae results in a significant reduction in virulence. We explored ways in which the expression of these fimbriae may be exploited for use in recombinant Salmonella vaccine strains and found that production of Saf and Stc fimbriae are important for generating a strong immune response against a vectored antigen. This work provides new insight into the role of fimbriae in disease and their potential for improving the efficacy of Salmonella-based vaccines.