Yes / Background Chronic infections with Pseudomonas aeruginosa are a leading cause of morbidity in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Tobramycin nebulizer solution (TNS) is indicated for maintenance therapy in CF patients. TOBI® is a tobramycin nebulizer solution (TNS) approved by FDA for maintenance therapy for patient with CF. Adherence to recommended therapy in CF has always been a challenge and new generation nebulizers are increasingly used “off label” to reduce the time required for inhalation, potentially improving patient compliance. Objectives To assess the performance of selected recent nebulizer delivery systems for determination the optimum combinations to deliver TOBI®. Using the relative lung bioavailability of TOBI® to the lungs in healthy volunteers, following inhalation from selected nebulizer delivery systems, using a urinary pharmacokinetics method. In vitro aerodynamic characteristics of the nebulized dose were also determined. Methods Serial urine samples were collected from 12 healthy volunteers up to 24 h post-inhalation of TOBI® inhaled solution following delivery by Pari LC Plus®, Sidestream®, NE-U22-E Omron® and Aeroneb® Go nebulizers. In vitro aerodynamic characteristics of the nebulized dose were also determined according to the CEN (Committee European de Normalization) method. Results The mean (SD) relative lung bioavailability from Pari LC Plus®, Sidestream®, Omron®, and Aeroneb® Go nebulizers was 4.9 (0.5), 3.9 (0.5), 7.1 (1.3), and 7.7 (0.7) %, respectively. The mean (SD) mass median aerodynamic diameter (MMAD) of the drug particles from the same systems was 2 (0.2), 2 (0.2), 1.2 (0.03) and 2.0 (0.1) μm, and the corresponding fine particle doses (FPD) were 2.2 (0.23), 1.5 (0.2), 3.44 (0.3) and 2.8 (0.3) mg. Conclusion The data obtained from in-vitro and in-vivo studies reflect poor relative lung bioavailability of tobramycin following jet nebulization.

This item contains the agenda, minutes, and attachments for the Faculty Senate meeting on this date. There may be additional materials from the meeting available at the Faculty Center.

行政部門委員會為政府內具有公共參與特質的合議制組織，來自社會層級的利害關係人被納入決策圈，並共同決定政策內容，作者稱之為委員會參與機制。此決策模式結合了社會與政府對公共參與的期待，並在世界各國廣泛使用。行政管理者宣稱可透過社會代表性的提升，提高政策的正當性與回應性；但實務上，委員會卻遭遇密室協商、激化對立、政治操弄等質疑。對此，本研究提出以下疑問：公共參與是否真能回應社會的政策需求？該如何具體評估參與績效？ 依據委員會的決策結構特質，作者由公共參與的理論視野探討代表性和回應性的因果機制，提供一套以委員會為主體的參與評估標準。代表性在理論上有形式與實質代表性兩個層次，共包含參與制度、議事行為與會議影響力三個面向；回應性則強調利害關係人對委員會回應需求的主觀評價，又分為民主程序與實質利益的需求回應能力兩類。參與概念落實在制度賦權和議事行為，應該會同時強化兩類回應性。在研究方法上，本文以全民健康保險委員會為分析案例：首先透過跨國比較，分析台灣、日本、韓國、加拿大以及德國在類似的審議機制中，如何建構委員會代表性的制度。依此基礎，再針對第一屆健保會的運作進行分析，透過利害關係人問卷、健保會會議記錄內容分析、深度訪談與焦點團體等方法，深入探討健保會之政策回應能力。 研究結果發現：一、委員會參與的制度賦權和正當性皆來自代議機關，尚無法取而代之。台灣健保會之形式代表性，在行政單位主導下仍偏好具有政治動員能力的團體，較忽略社會連帶或保障弱勢的價值。二、健保會在民主功能和實質結果兩個回應性面向的評價皆為正面，而民主程序的評價又優於後者。然而，相互理解的功能評價再高，卻未對實質回應性產生顯著影響。三、是否具有健保會席次並不影響回應性評估；但直接與會者以及實際參與愈積極者，卻反而對委員會回應利害關係人需求的能力抱持較悲觀的看法。最後，在程序面和實質面評價上最為顯著的因素為會議影響力，會議影響力愈大的團體，其回應性也就愈高。 總結上述來回答核心問題：參與是否會提高利害關係人的回應性？在極大化個體利益的動機下，參與制度和行為都只提供爭取權益的機會，不必然導致實質利益。再加上負擔參與成本以及競爭資源的政治現實，參與者進入體制後，反而對委員會的政策回應能力持質疑的態度。是故，會議影響力為關鍵因素，只有在參與過程中獲利愈多者，其回應性才有直接的正面作用；若忽略參與途徑和結果的連結以及權力互動，就過度簡化了參與的政治本質。基於此，行政管理者掌握了決策結構與行政資源，若想取得較佳的回應性評價，就必須在制度和過程面中平衡不同的社會力量，才能使委員會發揮多元參與的功能，而不只是優勢團體的工具。 / Governmental committees are a kind of public participatory mechanism, whereby policy stakeholders are incorporated in the decision making procedure and negotiate with each other to policy outcomes. This mechanism accords with the expectations of both society and government and is frequently used by executive branches all over the world. Ideally, social representativeness can strengthen legitimacy and thereby increase responsiveness. However, in practice, there have also been some criticisms of the committee mechanism, including black box decision making, conflict enlargement, and administrative manipulation. To response this debate, my study addresses whether this type of public participation is responsive to policy demands as well as how to substantially evaluate its effectiveness. Theoretically, participation has a positive impact on policy demands, I provide more precise analysis using the concepts of representativeness and responsiveness. The former refers to how interests are presented in the decision making process, including in both the formal and substantive dimension. The latter refers to the committee’s ability to respond to procedural and substantive demands from society. To illustrate the theoretical framework, the National Health Insurance Committee (NHIC) in Taiwan is taken as my case study. The empirical section is divided into two parts, Fist, I explore original guiding values and institutional design of five committees that emerged under different political-social contexts in Japan, South Korea, Canada, Germany and Taiwan. Based on the results of this comparison, the NHIC in Taiwan is my main topic in the second part. The participatory behavior of committee members and their evaluation of the NHIC system are discussed through the various research methods, such as interviews, focus groups, stakeholder surveys, and also context analysis of meeting minutes. Four results of the study are illustrated as follows: 1. Because the legitimacy of the committee mechanism is empowered by traditional representative authority (the elected legislative or executive branch), it serves a supplementary rather than substitutive function to the existing system. Especially in Taiwan, the administration prefers the advantaged groups more capable of mobilizing social supports over the vulnerable groups which may bring the values of social solidarity and justice into the decision-making of the committee. 2. Stakeholders positively appraised the NHIC’s responsive capacity, both in the procedural and substantive dimensions, with the former appraised more highly than the latter. However, a high level of communication functions had no impact on responsiveness. 3. The institutional variable has no impact on responsiveness. However, direct participation in meetings was associated with more pessimistic views of the NHIC when compared to the non-participators. In addition, the more actors were involved in the NHIC, the more negative their evaluations were. 4. The most significant variable for responsiveness is the decision influence of stakeholders. Does participation strengthen stakeholders’ responsiveness? Under the condition that individuals are motivated by interest maximization, while institutional design and participatory behavior seek to pursue individual interest, it may not always realize substantial benefits. Furthermore, after becoming institutional insiders, the costs of participation and the political reality of power competition will make stakeholders more skeptical about the responsiveness of committee mechanisms. In other words, whether participation can increase the stakeholders’ satisfaction mainly depends on the benefit they can obtain from it. Without taking into account the link between participatory approaches and results, as well as the interaction between various stakeholders, we cannot gain a full picture of the nature of policy participation. In terms of practical reforms, to increase performance responsiveness, administrators who control the structures and resources of the NHIC should incorporate different social forces and interests on the input and process dimensions. This will enable the committee mechanism to perform the function of pluralistic participation, rather than simply serving as a political tool for advantaged groups.

The Senate Munitions Committee of 1934-1936, chaired by Gerald Nye of North Dakota, provided the first critical examination of America's modern military establishment. The committee approached its task guided by the optimism of the progressive Social Gospel and the idealism of earlier times, but in the middle of the munitions inquiry the nation turned to new values represented in Reinhold Niebuhr's realism and Franklin D. Roosevelt's Second New Deal. By 1936, the committee found its views out of place in a nation pursuing a new course and in a world threatening to break out in war. Realist historians writing in the cold war period (1945-1990) closely linked the munitions inquiry to isolationism and created a one-dimensional history in which the committee chased evil "merchants of death." The only book-length study of the munitions investigation, John Wiltz's In Search of Peace, published in 1963, provided a realist interpretation. The munitions inquiry went beyond the merchants of death in its analysis of the post-World War I American military establishment. A better understanding emerges when the investigation is considered not only within an isolationist framework, but also as part of the intellectual, cultural, and political history of the interwar years. In particular, Franklin Roosevelt's political use of the investigation becomes apparent. Sources used include the committee's hearings, exhibits, and reports, the Gerald Nye Papers, the Franklin Roosevelt Papers, the Cordell Hull Papers, the R. Walton Moore Papers, the Henry Stimson Papers, the Homer Cummings Diaries, and the State Department's decimal files.

This study sets forth events surrounding a law suit filed by Red Lion Broadcasting Co. against the Federal Communications Commission and the Democratic National Committee in 1965. The study found these events were major factors in the decision by John M. Norris, president and owner of Red Lion, to pursue his objection to the FCC's Fairness Doctrine to the U.S. Supreme Court, resulting in the court's landmark decision in Red Lion vs. FCC (1969). Research methodology combined techniques of historical research and case study. On-site research of company records, personal letters and records are included as primary sources.

This thesis analyses the role of the Euromarket, an offshore market for Eurodollars or expatriate US dollars, in the re-emergence of global finance during the 1960s and 1970s. It charts not only its Cold War origins and the development of various markets for Eurodollars, but also institutions and policies that shaped them from the return to convertibility in 1958 to the ill-fated efforts to regulate the nascent market by international financial institutions. By examining the nature of Eurodollars as both a US and global currency, the thesis sheds light on the changing features of the governance of global finance and its relationship with the economic sovereignty of nation-states. It argues that the Euromarket underwent repeated contestations as politicians, bankers, and economists vested their political ambitions and cultural assumptions in it. The popular, academic, and policy debates challenged the speculative nature of Eurodollars which would destabilise the domestic as well as the international monetary system of the Bretton Woods system. Without a single monetary authority, the tendency of the Euromarket to transcend the order of capitalist nation-states constrained national governments’ capacity to control capital flows and the autonomy of domestic monetary policy. However, nation-states were not impotent but deliberately sought to exploit the liquid pool of capital in Eurodollars. It was not merely the US government that benefited from the seigniorage of Eurodollars and the City of London which was reborn as the international financial centre in the Euromarket. Continental European countries that were hesitant about European economic integration, the UK Labour government, developing countries in the Global South, and even the Communist bloc, resorted to the Euromarket for their national interests. The ambivalent attitudes of national governments and their conflict of interests resulted in the failure of coordinated efforts to introduce the rules of the game but facilitated the transnational network of finance in Eurodollars.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:48:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucas Vasconcelos Pinto.pdf: 1257292 bytes, checksum: 2f6cd0aef546c8363a31effa69ceec9c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-05-04 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This work has as its theme the influence of The American Israel Public Affairs Committee AIPAC in the foreign policy of the United States US. Firstly it was systematized a state of the art on the subject based on two main lines of thought: one of John Mearsheimer and Stephen walt and another of Noam Chomsky Gilbert Achcar and Norman Finkelstein. While those ones highlight the power of the so called Pro-Israel lobby - from which AIPAC is the most structured and renowned organization - in US politics those second ones point out that the helm of US foreign policy toward Israel is its own national interest not the Lobby. Secondly it was aimed a historical survey about AIPAC and an analysis of its structure and its procedures. It was founded then that AIPAC - as a lobbying organization an interest group - according to the law cannot make financial contributions directly to politicians. It was founded however that this practice may occur indirectly through at least two ways: through its own members contributing individually and/or by Political Action Committees PACs - institutions created specifically to this end of raising funds to political campaigns in order to elect and defeat candidates or even to influence those who are already in the Government. And thirdly it was sought to synthesize the state of the art to the historical and structural study on AIPAC. Based on the dialogue of the two main theoretical visions worked - under a optic of complementarity rather than of exclusion - alongside with an examination of AIPAC s action in history this study led us to infer that AIPAC which was founded in 1959 in the Cold War context remains being influential in US politics even with the change in the international system at the end of the Cold War. / O presente trabalho tem como tema a influencia do American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) na politica externa dos Estados Unidos da América (EUA). Primeiro, sistematizou- se um estado da arte sobre o tema a partir de duas linhas de pensamento principais: uma de John Mearsheimer e Stephen Walt; e outra, de Noam Chomsky, Gilbert Achcar e Norman Finkelstein. Enquanto aqueles primeiros ressaltam o poder do chamado lobby pró-Israel - do qual o AIPAC e a organização mais estruturada e renomada - na politica dos EUA, estes salientam que o leme da politica externa estadunidense para com Israel e seu próprio interesse nacional, e não o lobby. Segundo, visou-se a um levantamento histórico sobre o AIPAC e a uma analise de sua estrutura e de seu modo de atuação. Constatou-se, então, que o AIPAC - como uma organização de lobby, um grupo de interesse -, de acordo com a lei, não pode enviar contribuições financeiras diretamente aos políticos. Apurou-se, no entanto, que essa prática pode ocorrer de maneira indireta, por meio de, pelo menos, duas maneiras: através de seus próprios membros contribuindo individualmente; e/ou por via dos Political Action Committees (PACs) - instituições criadas especificamente para esse fim de levantar fundos para as campanhas politicas no intuito de eleger e derrotar candidatos, ou ate mesmo influenciar os que já estão no governo. E, terceiro, buscou-se sintetizar o estado da arte ao estudo histórico e estrutural sobre o AIPAC. Com base no diálogo entre as duas principais visões teóricas trabalhadas - sob uma ótica de complementaridade ao invés de exclusão -, ao lado do exame da ação do AIPAC na história, esse estudo nos levou a inferir que o AIPAC, fundado em 1959, no contexto da Guerra Fria, continua influente na politica dos EUA, mesmo com a mudança no sistema internacional ao final da Guerra Fria

Ist von der Arbeit der UNESCO die Rede, werden ihre Aktivitäten zum Schutz der Menschenrechte häufig vernachlässigt. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es deshalb, durch die Beschreibung und Bewertung der menschenrechtlichen Verpflichtungen und Aktivitäten der UNESCO, den Zusammenhang zwischen Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur und den Menschenrechten aufzuzeigen und damit die Bedeutung der menschenrechtlichen Arbeit der UNESCO zu verdeutlichen. Dabei wird zunächst auf die, von der UNESCO entwickelten, Strategie zum Schutz der Menschenrechte Bezug genommen und deren Inhalt und Umsetzung kritisch betrachtet. Zudem werden die beiden Monitoring-Verfahren der UNESCO (Staatenberichtsverfahren und Individualbeschwerdeverfahren) vorgestellt und analysiert. Dabei werden vor allem vorhandene Defizite und Probleme der menschenrechtlichen Arbeit der UNESCO hervorgehoben und gezeigt, dass insbesondere im Bereich der Monitoring-Verfahren Reformbedarf besteht.

在探討委員會制度的理論之中，「形式理論」（formal theory）、「新制度論」（new institutionalism）與「資訊理論」（information theory）等三個理論為學者所廣泛討論。有別於「新制度論」中多以「理性選擇制度主義」（rational choice institutionalism）為主的論述，本文以「歷史制度主義」（historical institutionalism）為導引、新制度應用架構為基礎，建立以「人員組成方式」、「選舉制度」與「輔助立法機構」做為全國人民代表大會專門委員會的三項制約因素。各專門委員會的職權主要可以分為「審議權」、「提案權」、「調查研究權」等三個部分，而研究發現，全國人民代表大會專門委員會確實受到「委員會組成」、「選舉制度」與「輔助立法機構」等三項因素所制約。就制度功能而言，全國人民代表大會專門委員會在發展上的確面臨到三大挑戰：「委員會組成層級偏低」、「間接選舉制度降低選舉效率，導致選區難以與委員會做連結」、「委員會與其他立法輔助機構功能重疊」。

The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the project management system in the organization and to suggest possible changes. In the first phase of work, the author studied the available literature on the basis of which is a review. The next section describes the project management system in the organization, namely Komerční Banka. Furthermore, comparison of results of research conducted by Ernst and Young with the state Komerční Banka. Further research is described Brandeis University internal research of the Bank. Based on this research are determined two critical reasons for project failure. The first is the lack of definition of essential information at the beginning of the project and other insufficiently competent project manager. Another section is devoted to the project manager. Furthermore SWOT analyses is created. There are described hard and soft skills. Suggestions for improvement were divided for existing project managers and for those newly admitted.