Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T16:32:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo6402_1.pdf: 802492 bytes, checksum: ffc711f188b81705c762ff2c5a55ec96 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / O Sanativo® (SAN) é um produto fitoterápico composto de uso tradicional na região Nordeste do Brasil. Este medicamento sob a forma de extrato fluido é indicado no tratamento de feridas, queimaduras, inflamações de garganta e de tecidos epiteliais lesionados. Sua fórmula é constituída por 20% de angico (Piptadenia colubrina, Benth), que possui ação hemostática e cicatrizante; 20% de aroeira (Schinus terebinthifolius, Raddi), usada em processos inflamatórios e infecções bacterianas; 1,7% de camapu (Physalis angulata, Linné), empregada por sua atividade balsâmica e analgésica e 1,7% de mandacaru (Cereus peruvianus, Miller), com o qual procura-se a assepsia das regiões afetadas. Tendo em vista a inexistência de trabalhos científicos que descrevam a eficácia e segurança de uso da utilização da associação destas espécies vegetais, o presente estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a atividade cicatrizante, bem como os possíveis efeitos tóxicos da administração oral aguda e sub-crônica do Sanativo® em ratos Wistar. Para isso, foram realizados testes de atividade cicatrizante, no modelo de ferida aberta em dorso de rato, utilizando o SAN a 4% sob a forma de spray. Avaliação da toxicidade aguda por via oral. Efeito da administração sub-crônica do SAN por via oral sobre os parâmetros hematológicos, bioquímicos e morfológicos nas doses de 0,067; 0,335 e 1,675g/kg por dia. Os resultados mostraram que o SAN produziu uma diminuição significativa no tempo requerido para a completa reepitelialização da área lesionada. Na administração oral de até 5,0g/kg o SAN não produziu morte nos animais. O tratamento por 30 dias consecutivos com SAN produziu uma redução no ganho de massa corporal dos animais, particularmente na dose de 1,675g/kg e sendo mais acentuada nos machos. Os perfis hematológico e bioquímico sofreram pequenas variações pontuais estatisticamente significativas, porém todas permanecendo dentro da faixa de referência para a espécie. Não foram verificadas alterações nas massas relativas e morfologia macroscópica externa dos órgãos analisados, com exceção de um aumento nas massas do estômago e ovário nas fêmeas tratadas com SAN 1,675g/kg. A análise histológica dos diferentes órgãos não revelou alterações. O conjunto dos resultados permitiu concluir que o Sanativo® possui significativa propriedade cicatrizante no modelo de ferida aberta e que o tratamento oral com o SAN produz baixa toxicidade em ratos Wistar

Submitted by JÚLIO HEBER SILVA (julioheber@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-03-17T17:48:27Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Mariana Nascimento Siqueira - 2016.pdf: 4136078 bytes, checksum: 45863950dcc863dc639c8228c08c9584 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2017-03-20T13:42:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Mariana Nascimento Siqueira - 2016.pdf: 4136078 bytes, checksum: 45863950dcc863dc639c8228c08c9584 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-20T13:42:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Mariana Nascimento Siqueira - 2016.pdf: 4136078 bytes, checksum: 45863950dcc863dc639c8228c08c9584 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-08 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / Anthropogenic changes have changed land cover patterns and caused fragmentation of ecosystems. These changes have several consequences for biodiversity, such as habitat loss and isolation, creation of anthropic matrix, and edge effect. Few studies have evaluated the effects of fragmentation in the Cerrado, especially the effects on vegetation structure and abiotic attributes of savanna formations. Here, we sampled 17 fragments of Dense Cerrado in the Upper Rio Araguaia basin, which is a highly fragmented area. Specifically, we compared the more altered Sub-basin of the Rio Claro with the more conserved Sub-basin Rio Garças. Fragments had the fragile Quartzipsamment soils. All fragments were larger than 50 ha and had pasture matrix. Specifically, we asked the following questions: 1) What is the percentage of area lost by fragments in the last 30 years? 2) How area loss influence the woody plant community structure? 3) The species composition similarity decreases with geographical distance between fragments? 4) The edge-interior gradient affects the woody plant community structure? 5) How microclimate and physico-chemical variables vary along an edgeinterior gradient? 6) The community structure of woody plants is influenced by microclimate and physico-chemical characteristics of the soil? We sampled all woody plants with diameter ground higher than 30 cm or equal to 5 cm, in three 20 x 50 m plots along a edge-interior gradient in each fragment. We collected soils between 0 to 20 cm deep in all plots and the matrix. The air and soil temperatures, air humidity, altitude, geographical position, and light intensity were collected along with soil samples. We recorded 8,749 woody plants, belonging to 131 species. Fragment area was significantly reduced between 1985 and 2013, but the historical and current area were not associated with community structure and species diversity. We also did not find a correlation between compositional similarity and geographic distance between fragments. Additionally, 2,877 individuals of 116 species occurred at the edge, 3,038 individuals of 110 species occurred at intermediate environments, and 2,995 individuals of 107 species occurred in the center of fragments. However, species composition and community structure did not differ along the edge-interior gradient. Also, abiotic variables did not differ along the matrix-edge-interior gradient. However, these variables differed between the two sub-basins. The Rio Claro Sub-basin had higher values of Ca/CTC and xiii Ca/K, which are related to nutrient availability in the soil. The spatial distribution of plant species was influenced by altitude, humidity, silt, organic matter, pH, and calcium. / As mudanças antrópicas na cobertura do solo têm ocasionado um processo denominado fragmentação de ecossistemas, que geram consequências diversas para a biodiversidade como perda, isolamento e forma do habitat, matriz antrópica, efeito de borda e outras interferências antrópicas. Poucos estudos avaliando efeitos da fragmentação ocorreram em áreas de Cerrado, especialmente avaliando consequências na estrutura da vegetação de formações savânicas e os atributos abióticos. Com o objetivo de preencher essas lacunas, a presente pesquisa selecionou 17 fragmentos de Cerrado Denso na Alta Bacia do Rio Araguaia, que representa bem os processos de fragmentação antrópica no Cerrado. Optou-se pela Sub-bacia mais degradada e pela mais conservada, a Sub-bacia do Rio Claro e Sub-bacia do Rio Garças, respectivamente. Os fragmentos foram selecionados sobre Neossolos Quartzarênicos, solos considerados frágeis do ponto de vista ambiental. A matriz de todos os fragmentos foi a pastagem e todos eles apresentavam área superior à 50 ha. Para a área de estudo, buscou-se responder as seguintes questões: 1) Qual a porcentagem de área perdida pelos fragmentos de Cerrado Denso ao longo dos últimos 30 anos? 2) Como a perda de área pode influenciar a estrutura da comunidade de planta lenhosa em fragmentos de Cerrado Denso? 3) A similaridade de espécies diminui com o aumento da distância geográfica entre os fragmentos amostrados? 4) O gradiente borda-interior afeta a estrutura da comunidade de plantas lenhosas? 5) Como se comportam as variáveis microclimáticas e físicoquímicas do solo ao longo de um gradiente borda-interior? 6) A estrutura da comunidade de plantas lenhosa é influenciada pelas características microclimáticas e físico-químicas do solo? Diante dessas questões, foram coletadas amostras da vegetação lenhosa através do método de parcelas de 20 x 50 m, em três ambientes distintos de cada fragmento (ambiente de borda, intermediário e central), incluindo todos os indivíduos lenhosos com diâmetro a 30 cm do solo maior ou igual a 5 cm. Os solos foram coletados em todas as parcelas e na pastagem para análise físico-química. A temperatura do ar, do solo, umidade relativa do ar, altitude, posição geográfica e intensidade luminosa foram coletadas no ponto de coleta de solos. Como resultados, registrou-se 8.749 indivíduos lenhosos, distribuídos em 131 espécies nos 17 fragmentos. Observou-se que a área dos fragmentos estudados reduziu significativamente entre os anos de 1985 e 2013, mas a perda histórica de área dos fragmentos e a área atual não apresentaram relação com a estrutura da comunidade lenhosa e a diversidade de xi espécies. Também não foi observada uma correlação entre a similaridade de espécies e a distância entre os fragmentos amostrados. Adicionalmente, constatou-se que dos espécimes amostrados, 2877 indivíduos em 116 espécies eram de ambiente de borda, 3038 indivíduos em 110 espécies de ambiente intermediário e 2995 indivíduos em 107 espécies do centro dos fragmentos. No entanto, não foram encontradas alterações na composição e estrutura da comunidade lenhosa ao longo do gradiente borda-interior. As variáveis abióticas não diferiram ao longo do gradiente pasto-borda-interior nos fragmentos analisados. Entretanto, estas variáveis diferiram entre as duas Sub-bacias amostradas, em que a Sub-bacia do rio Claro apresentou os maiores valores de Ca/CTC e Ca/K, relacionadas com a disponibilidade de nutrientes no solo. Também registrou-se que a distribuição espacial de espécies vegetais foi influenciada por variáveis abióticas, como altitude, umidade, silte, matéria orgânica, pH e cálcio.

<p> Small business enterprises are important to the economic growth of Nigeria because they make up 97% of the economy and contribute 70% of the country&rsquo;s job opportunity. Notwithstanding the importance of small businesses in the Nigerian economy, 80% fail within the first five years. Based on system theory developed by Ludwig von Bertalanffy, the purpose of this multi-unit qualitative case study was to investigate the strategies owners and managers used to sustain operations longer than first five years. Twelve senior managers of small businesses in Dutse Nigeria participated in an interview. Methodological triangulation of interview questions was used to collect the data. Review of transcribed data and member checking were used to affirm the validity, credibility, and reliability of the study. Ten dominant themes emerged as findings: managers with educational and professional qualifications, skills, and experience; written business and strategic planning; additional financing; commitment of owners; and improved working conditions and good employees manager rapport. Other findings include the use of word of mouth and maintaining a close relationship with top 20% and high spending customers; use of local FM radio stations, social media, and face-to-face contacts marketing; and the use of e-commerce and e-payment platforms. The findings also include the use of support services; and knowledge of seasonality, cutting cost, and financial discipline. Findings might be utilized by small business owners and managers to develop success strategies to sustain operations longer than first five years which might mitigate small business failure. Mitigating small business failure might contribute to the growth of Nigerian economy.</p><p>

<p> Although the association between poor sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and sociodemographic indicators has been explored in many resource-poor settings, limited information exists specific to Liberia. The two studies in this document seek to describe unmet need for SRH services using three critical indicators of SRH services: knowledge of HIV status (sexual health); use of skilled provider for antenatal care and delivery (reproductive health); and use of modern contraception when there is a desire to limit or space reproduction (family planning). Data from Liberia&rsquo;s 2013 Demographic and Health Survey (LDHS) was used to summarize individual-level profiles according to key sociodemographic and sexual health characteristics for sexually active women and men aged 15-49 (N_women=7,787; N_men=3,426). Frequency distributions from log-binomial regressions show the prevalence of unmet need for sexual health services for women is 51.9% and 72.8% for men; 39.7% for reproductive services (women only); and prevalence of unmet need for family planning is 70.7% for women and 76.1% for men. Results show wide disparities in unmet need for sexual health services by wealth and educational attainment for both men and women. Differences in unmet need for reproductive services were disparate based on educational attainment, wealth, and urban/rural residence. Although the unmet need for family planning is high, the disparities among subgroups is not as dramatic as other unmet needs. Results indicate the need to evaluate the gaps between national policy and service utilization with special attention to subgroups with a high-burden of unmet need.</p><p>

Preferred especially for a Last Level Cache (LLC) due to its high retention and tolerance capabilities, Spin-Transfer Torque Random Access Memory (STTRAM) is an emerging and a promising Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) technology. To switch the magnetization of a Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ), the amount of current needed is very high (~100μA per bit). For a full cache line (512-bit) write, this extremely high current results in a voltage droop in the conventional cache architecture. Due to this droop, the write operation fails especially when the farthest bank of the cache is accessed. In this thesis, we perform an analysis of the voltage droop across the STTRAM Last Level cache and then propose a new cache micro-architecture to mitigate the droop problem and make the write operations successful. Instead of continuously writing the entire cache line (512-bit) in a single bank, the proposed architecture writes 64-bits in multiple physically separated locations across the cache. The voltage droop issue for crossbar memories such as Resistive RAM (ReRAM) has been pointed out but however, similar issue for STTRAM has never been investigated. In this study, we perform voltage droop analysis on the conventional STTRAM LLC while performing write/read operation with a simulation circuit model. Our investigation reveals that this problem exists for the write operation in a STTRAM LLC when we try to access the farthest bank in the cache. We propose a droop-mitigation Architecture which reduces the droop significantly. The effectiveness of this proposed architecture on the cache parameters such as latency and energy are compared with the conventional architecture for against various benchmarks. From the simulation results obtained (both circuit and micro-architectural), compared to the conventional architecture, the proposed architecture incurs 1.95% IPC and 5.21% energy for a 8MB last level cache.

<p> This case study explores wellbeing and sustainable development in rural sub-Saharan Africa &ndash; a culturally and ecologically diverse and vibrant region devastated by colonial and postcolonial injustices that have created persistent and pervasive social, economic, and ecological crises. The growth-oriented capitalist economic model that has shaped the operative understanding of wellbeing and perpetuated the invented reality of underdevelopment also guides large-scale sustainable development efforts that persistently fail to significantly improve wellbeing among rural communities. Ecological economics may provide a paradigm for sustainable development that is culturally, ecologically, and economically more appropriate &ndash; and more effective &ndash; for both assessing and improving wellbeing. Twenty-seven participants from two rural, forest-dependent communities in Cameroon&rsquo;s Southwest Province were surveyed to assess perceptions of wellbeing and social-ecological resilience. These communities are heavily invested in a sustainable agriculture initiative that reflects an ecological economics worldview and key dimensions of community resilience. Results indicate that perceptions of wellbeing are influenced by both gender and occupation, and that the sustainable agriculture initiative positively impacts perceptions of wellbeing for farmers more than non-farmers, and female farmers more than male farmers. This suggests that participation in the program may positively influence perceptions of subjective and community wellbeing. Further study in these communities, and across similar communities may shed light on how ecological economics might provide a practical basis for broadening an understanding of wellbeing and for informing the approach, design, and implementation of sustainable development initiatives.</p>

Magister Legum - LLM / Sub-Saharan Africa is a region where extreme poverty is prevalent in spite of the regions apparent commitment to the philosophy of human rights, in that all fifty-three countries in the region ratified the African Charter in addition to several international human rights instruments ratified by countries in the region. This state of affairs is traceable to the lack of or ineffective enforcement mechanism of the human rights obligations of countries in the region. Too much attention had been given to post facto intervention of human rights in form of judicial enforcement of these rights to the neglect of other effective methods of enforcement which can be employed in addition to curial enforcement of the rights for a more effective result. This neglect and the ensuing increase in poverty level prompted this research which was aimed at identifying additional methods of pro-active rights enforcement mechanism and the roles of human rights lawyers in their utilisation to reduce poverty in the region. / South Africa

Magister Legum - LLM

Marion Island is a sub-Antarctic volcanic island with a cold, wet climate. Much of the interior of the island is bare, with vegetation only found at lower altitudes. No soil classification has yet been undertaken for the Island, and literature on its soils and pedogenesis is sparse. As part of a broader research project on Geomorphology and Climate Change the morphological, physical, chemical, mineralogical and biological properties of soils from seven terrestrial habitats on Marion Island were analysed. It was determined that pedogenesis has taken place on Marion Island. A relationship was observed between soils and terrestrial habitats. Soils were classified according to the World Reference Base (WRB) soil classification system as Histosols, Histic Andosols, Andosols and Regosols. Generalised soil profiles were constructed for each of the seven terrestrial habitats. The spatial distributions of soil types for the Island were predicted with the use of a GIS model and are presented, together with the implications of climate change for pedogenesis and soil distribution on Marion Island. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology / MSc / Unrestricted

M.Comm. / The subject of the growth effects of remittances is characterised by different and conflicting perspectives. While migration optimists believe in positive growth effects of remittances, migration pessimists, on the other hand, challenge this position and claim that remittances have either a negative or statistically insignificant effect on economic growth. Those for remittances argue that remittances have a positive effect on economic growth mainly through subsequent increases in investment capital and human capital. Migration pessimists, however, stress that remittances negatively impact economic growth, mainly, because of inflationary pressures and moral hazards that result in reduced labour supply. Given such contrasting literature, this study makes an attempt to contribute to the existing literature by assessing the growth-effects of remittances in twenty-nine Sub-Saharan Africa countries over the period 1980-2008. The Arellano-Bover/Blundell-Bond GMM one-step estimator is used in the assessment. Empirical results from the study reveal evidence supporting for statistically significant positive growth effects of remittances in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study further reveals that these positive growth effects of remittances in Sub-Saharan Africa happen through the human capital channel. Even when heterogeneity of sub-regions is taken into account, there is still evidence showing positive growth effects of remittances in Sub-Saharan Africa. Results, however, reveal that in West Africa, remittances have a low positive effect on economic growth.