Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a clustering of traditional cardiovascular risk factors including central obesity, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, and hypertension. The prevalence of MetS increases risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes and increases with age. Purpose: To compare prevalence and correlates of MetS (and components) in Canadian and Korean older adults. Methods: This study consisted of secondary data analysis, using data from the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) (cycle 1) and the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (cycle 4). The study sample included adults aged 60 to 79 years and who provided fasting blood samples. To compare prevalence of MetS between countries, the same diagnostic criteria (Harmonizing definition) were used. Similar measures of potential explanatory variables for MetS, such as physical activity, dietary patterns, comorbidity, gender, household income adequacy, education, marital status, alcohol consumption, smoking, psychological distress, and duration of sleep were also used where possible. Univariate and multiple logistic regression models were used to examine the cross-sectional relationship between these study variables and MetS. Principal component and cluster analyses were conducted to derive dietary patterns. Results: Included were 550 (weighted N=4,886,039) and 3,040 (weighted N=4,267,182) Canadians and Koreans aged 60 to 79 years, respectively. The prevalence of MetS was 42.0% and 52.2% in the Canadian and Korean sample, respectively (p<.0001). The prevalence of MetS in Korean women was 60.5% and explained the overall increased prevalence in the Korean sample. Results of the descriptive analysis, as well as the univariate and multiple logistic regression analyses indicated that the prevalence and pattern or joint distribution of explanatory variables differed across the two populations. In the Canadian sample, the final multivariate model comprised household income, marital status, alcohol consumption and psychological distress, with evidence of an interaction between adequacy of household income and marital status. In the Korean sample, the final multivariate model comprised comorbidity, gender, education, marital status, physical activity, and dietary pattern, with evidence of an interaction between comorbidity and marital status and between gender and education. Conclusions: Findings of this study provided insight into possible underlying mechanisms that might lead to between-country differences in prevalence of MetS and to inconsistent measures of association between MetS and an individual factor like physical activity or dietary intake across studies.

The aim of the thesis is to examine contemporary constructions of mixed race in the United States and Britain through the examination of two types of racial projects: the national census and voluntary and community organisations focused on mixed race. Using a combination of critical discourse analysis and qualitative interviews, the research analyses the ways in which mixed race is being described, conceptualised, and constructed through macro- and meso-level racial projects in each nation, in order to compare the racial formation processes that are occurring in the early twenty-first century's "mixed race moment". The thesis builds upon racial formation theory, which argues that the concept of "race" is never fully fixed, but rather is made through socio-historical processes that create, inhabit, transform, and destroy racialised notions over time and context (Omi and Winant 1986, 1994, 2015). The theory examines the struggles over racialised meanings that occur between macro-level and micro-level racial projects. This thesis aims to fill the gap left by this focus through examining racial projects that occupy the socio-political "middle ground" between macro- and micro-level projects: the "meso-level."The research examines the ways in which the state constructs mixed race in the United States and Britain. Each nation's census allowed for mixed race self identification in 2000 and 2001, respectively. The thesis examines the social, historical, and political processes that led to mixed race options at that particular time. It argues that the ways in which the census organisations report upon mixed race functions as a discursive practice that provides an official construction of mixed race through simultaneously reflecting and shaping racialised descriptions and narratives within each nation. The thesis examines the usefulness of "meso-level" projects by exploring the role of mixed race organisations in racial formation processes through the examination of six meso-level mechanisms of racialisation: social identity, social capital, collective action, idioculture, extended networks, and civil society (Fine 2012). Incorporating Michel Foucault's notion of "governmentality" (Gordon 1991), the thesis highlights the ways that mixed race organisations have interacted directly and indirectly with macro-level bodies during and after the addition of the mixed race census options as well as other routes of interaction specific to each national context. The thesis argues that the racialisation that occurs at the macro-level holds a "default" role with which mixed race organisations then engage. This highlights the relative roles of power the institutions have in each national context and the ways they are managed through relations fostered through governmentality. The thesis also examines the discourses used by mixed race organisations in the US and Britain as meso-level racial projects and poses the argument that the varied usage of multiple racialised paradigms leads to an increased relative fluidity in the constructions of mixed race than their respective macro-level projects. The systematic cross-national comparison of the ways mixed race is constructed in the US and Britain highlights the ways in which both macro-level and meso-level organisations articulate and promote racialised ideology through their relative levels of power in society. By analysing and comparing these racial projects and their interactions, the paradigms and discourses used reveal the particularities and overlaps by these organisations as they contest, negotiate, and accept formations of mixed race.

Dissertation explores the structure and level of financial support addressed to families with children in the Czech Republic and 19 other European countries as of December 2008. Attention is paid primarily to the "new" European countries, i.e. the region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Through analysis of tax-benefit system this study examines where the Czech Republic stands in respect of family support within the European context and assesses which European policy is most similar to the Czech model of financial family support. There are two main parts. First one introduces the welfare state and family policy typologies and theories. Second one uses the model family method to answer the following questions: Which kind of family composition benefits most from the state support? Does the Czech tax- benefit system prioritize the traditional male-breadwinner family or does it encourage the dual-earner model? What is the position of Czech lone-parent families in comparison to other European countries? Is the Czech family policy aimed at the same types of family with children as is the Slovakian family policy or any other state policy in CEE? Are these two countries still following the same trend in respect to the financial family support? And where do the new European countries fit within the existing...

Submitted by Yen-Tsang Chen (yentsang.chen@gmail.com) on 2015-03-24T17:51:58Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Final - Chen - Biblioteca.pdf: 2943345 bytes, checksum: 4c170e7c8b4f9e096626e1777b3f690e (MD5) / Rejected by PAMELA BELTRAN TONSA (pamela.tonsa@fgv.br), reason: Boa tarde Chen, Conforme conversamos estou rejeitando seu trabalho. Favor submeter novamente, Qualquer duvida estamos a disposição. Att, Pâmela Tonsa 3799-7852 on 2015-03-25T20:18:42Z (GMT) / Submitted by Yen-Tsang Chen (yentsang.chen@gmail.com) on 2015-03-26T14:47:27Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Final - Chen - Biblioteca.pdf: 2851494 bytes, checksum: 333f7f24515b050792b3e4eff742b9a3 (MD5) / Rejected by PAMELA BELTRAN TONSA (pamela.tonsa@fgv.br), reason: Chen, Agradecimento só pode em Português. Fazer a alteração e submeter novamente, Att. Pâmela Tonsa on 2015-03-26T14:53:21Z (GMT) / Submitted by Yen-Tsang Chen (yentsang.chen@gmail.com) on 2015-03-26T17:53:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Final - Chen - Biblioteca.pdf: 2851494 bytes, checksum: 333f7f24515b050792b3e4eff742b9a3 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by PAMELA BELTRAN TONSA (pamela.tonsa@fgv.br) on 2015-03-30T12:15:34Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Final - Chen - Biblioteca.pdf: 2851494 bytes, checksum: 333f7f24515b050792b3e4eff742b9a3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-30T12:27:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Final - Chen - Biblioteca.pdf: 2851494 bytes, checksum: 333f7f24515b050792b3e4eff742b9a3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-25 / Choosing properly and efficiently a supplier has been challenging practitioners and academics since 1960’s. Since then, countless studies had been performed and relevant changes in the business scenario were considered such as global sourcing, quality-orientation, just-in-time practices. It is almost consensus that quality should be the selection driver, however, some polemical findings questioned this general agreement. Therefore, one of the objectives of the study was to identify the supplier selection criteria and bring this discussion back again. Moreover, Dickson (1966) suggested existing business relationship as selection criterion, then it was reviewed the importance of business relationship for the company and noted a set of potential negative effects that could rise from it. By considering these side effects of relationship, this research aimed to investigate how the relationship could influence the supplier selection and how its harmful effects could affect the selection process. The impact of this phenomenon was investigated cross-nationally. The research strategy adopted was a controlled experiment via vignette combined with discrete choice analysis. The data collections were performed in China and Brazil. By examining the results, it could be drawn five major findings. First, when purchasers were asked to declare their supplier selection priorities, quality was stated as the most important independently of country and relationship. This result was consistent with diverse studies since 60’s. However, when purchasers were exposed to a multi-criteria trade-off situation, their actual selection priorities deviate from what they had declared. In the actual decision-making without influence of buyer-supplier relationship, Brazilian purchasers focused on price and Chinese buyers prioritized delivery then price. This observation reinforced some controversial prior studies of Verma & Pullman (1998) and Hirakubo & Kublin (1998). Second, through the introduction of the buyer-supplier relationship (operationalized via relational capital) in the supplier selection process, this research extended the existing studies and found that Brazilian buyers still focused on price. The relationship became just another criterion for supplier selection such as quality and delivery. However, from the Chinese sample, the results suggested that quality was totally discarded and the decision was majorly made through price and relationship. The third finding suggested that relational capital could legitimate the quality and sustainability of the supplier and replaces these selection criteria and made the decisional task less complex. Additionally, with the relational capital, the decision-makings were associated to few biases such as availability cognition, commitment, confirmatory and perceived biases. By analyzing the purchasers’ behavior, relational capital inducted buyers of both countries to relax in their purchasing requirements (quality, delivery and sustainability) leading to potential negative effects. In the Brazilian sample, the phenomenon of willing to pay a higher price for a lower quality offer demonstrated to be a potential counterproductive and suboptimal decision. Finally, the last finding was associated to the cultural effect on the buyers’ decisions. From the outcome, it is possible to observe that if a purchaser’s cultural background is more relation-oriented, the more he will tend to use relational capital as a decision heuristic, thus, the purchaser will be more susceptible to the potential relationship’s side effects / Escolher adequadamente e eficientemente um fornecedor tem desafiado gestores e acadêmicos desde 1960. Desde então, inúmeros estudos tem sido realizados e mudanças relevantes do cenário econômico tem sido considerados tais como global sourcing, orientação à qualidade e práticas de just-in-time. É quase consenso que qualidade deveria ser o a diretriz para a seleção, no entanto, alguns resultados polêmicos questionaram esse consenso. Posto isto, um dos objetivos do presente trabalho é identificar os critérios de seleção de fornecedores e trazer de volta esta discussão. Além disso, o presente estudo observou que Dickson (1966) sugeriu a possibilidade de uso da relação comercial como critério de seleção, portanto, uma a importância da relação comercial foi revisada e potenciais efeitos negativos que podem originar da relação debatidos. Ao considerar os efeitos colaterais do relacionamento, este estudo visou investigar como o relacionamento pode influenciar o processo de seleção de fornecedores e como esses potenciais efeitos negativos podem manifestar neste processo. O impacto deste fenômeno foi investigado transnacionalmente. A estratégia de pesquisa adotada é baseada em experimento controlado com analise de escolha discreta. A coleta de dados foi conduzida na China e Brasil. Ao examinar os resultados, foi possível extrair cinco principais achados. Primeiro, quando um comprador é solicitado a declarar suas prioridades de seleção, independentemente do país, a qualidade é declarada como sendo a mais importante e o relacionamento o menos. Este resultado é consistente com diversos estudos desde a década de 60. Entretanto, quando o comprador é submetido a uma situação de multicritério e trade-off, as prioridades reais divergem das declaradas. Na seleção real sem a influência do relacionamento comprador-fornecedor, os compradores brasileiros focaram no preço e os chineses na entrega e preço. Esta observação reforça alguns achados controversos anteriores de Verma & Pullman (1998) e Hirakubo & Kublin (1998). Segundo, ao introduzir o relacionamento comprador-fornecedor no processo de seleção de fornecedores (operacionalizado via capital relacional), esta pesquisa estendeu os estudos anteriores. Os resultados apontaram que os compradores brasileiros ainda focam no preço e a relação é apenas mais um critério de seleção como qualidade e entrega. Entretanto, da amostra chinesa os resultados apontaram que a qualidade foi desconsiderada e a decisão era pautada em preço e relacionamento. O terceiro achado sugere que o capital relacional poderia legitimar a qualidade e práticas de sustentabilidade dos fornecedores e substitui esses critérios, fazendo a decisão menos complexa. Adicionalmente, com o capital relacional, os tomadores de decisão são associados a alguns vieses tais como de disponibilidade cognitiva, de compromisso, de confirmação e de percepção. Analisando o comportamento dos compradores, o capital relacional induziu aos compradores de ambos os países a relaxarem nos requisitos de qualidade, entrega e sustentabilidade, assim, conduzindo a um potencial efeito negativo. Na amostra brasileira foi possível observar também uma predisposição a pagar mais por uma oferta de menor qualidade, o qual demonstra ser contraditório e potencial decisão subotima. Por fim, o ultimo achado está associado ao efeito cultural nas decisões do comprador. Partindo do resultado, pode-se observar que quanto maior é a orientação ao relacionamento do comprador, mais ele tenderá a usar o capital relacional para a heurística de decisão, consequentemente, mais suscetíveis aos potenciais efeitos danosos da relação.

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