No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Extreme poverty is a reality facing over a billion people, and a striking contradiction is that huge disparities coexist with a relatively rapid economic growth. This thesis investigates whether economic growth reduces poverty. Through an empirical cross-sectional regression, it analyses what impact economic growth has on poverty, and what structures that possibly preserve these phenomena. The theories of Dual Economy and Human Capital are used to explain such structures that cause poverty to coexist with growth. Brazil is an example of a dual economy whose recent history is characterised by successful economic and public policies that have managed to reduce the level of extreme poverty. Structures of dualistic labour markets contribute to the preservation of the extreme poverty, thus they do have some explanatory power of the coexistence of poverty and growth. The main conclusion from the empirical results is that economic growth does indeed reduce poverty. Also the level of poverty is strongly related to decrease of poverty, in such a way that a high level of poverty is associated to a slow decrease of poverty. However, economic growth does not appear to be sufficient a tool when the level of extreme poverty is high, suggesting that well-designed policies and investments in education are needed to obtain an inclusive, pro-poor growth and thus reduce the level of extreme poverty.

No description available.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1993 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / A practical description is presented of the methods used to reduce spacecraft telemetry data using a hierarchial toolkit of software programs developed for a UNIX environment.

Dans le courant des alternatives thérapeutiques et de l'approche corps/esprit, la méditation comme objet de recherche dans le champ des prises en charge thérapeutique et de la psychologie de la santé fait état d'un grand nombre de recherches aux États-Unis depuis les vingts dernières années, Un développement embryonnaire voit le jour dans les pays francophone. S'inscrivant dans cette optique, l'objectif de cette thèse est dans un premier temps de montrer l'intérêt de ce concept en psychothérapie en le clarifiant dans ces trois approches principales (concentration, pleine conscience, méditation en mouvement), de focaliser sur la méditation de pleine conscience en l'articulant au sein de la troisième vague des TTC et de l'éclairer sous l'angle neurologique et physiologique. Dans un second temps, nous développerons de façon pratique l'approche MBSR issue des travaux de J Kabat Zinn (1990) et de ses successeurs en la testant sur la gestion du stress, de l'anxiété, de la qualité de vie, du coping et de la dépression sur une population d'étudiant et de diabétique de type 1. A cela s'ajoutera des études de cas. Enfin, nous amènerons la discussion sur l'efficacité de la pratique MBSR au regard des recherches neurologiques dans un souci futures dans l'intégration en psychothérapie / AIn the feld of the alternative therapy and of the mind body approche, meditation as a new object of research in this aera show a lot of improvment in the last twenty years, with a new development in Europe. The objective of this thesis is to show the great interest of this concept inpsychotherapy with a clarification in its three main areas (concentration, mindfulness, and movement meditation), with a focus on mindfulness meditation linked to the behavioural and cognitive therapies, and with an neurological and physiological highlights. Additionnaly to that, we will develop on a pratical way, the MBSR (Mindfulness based stress reduction) approach linked to the work of J Kabat Zinn (1990) with experimental assessment on stress, anxiety, quality of life, coping and depression on two populations (student and diabetic type 1), and case studies. At the end, we will focus the discussion ont the effectiveness of MBSR linked to neurological researches and integration with psuchotherpies

This investigation is based on the topotactic reduction reactions of 3 sets of phases: La₁_-ₓSrₓMnO₃ (0.6 ≤ x ≤ 1), La₁_-ₓCaₓMnO₃ (0.6 ≤ x ≤ 1) and Sr₃Fe₂_-ₓCoₓO₅Cl₂ (0 ≤ x ≤ 1). The topotactic reduction reactions of La₁_-ₓSrₓMnO₃ (0.6 ≤ x ≤ 1) perovskite phases using NaH as a solid state reducing agent result in the formation of reduced phases which contain manganese centres with a constant average oxidation state of +2.5, thus leading to an empirical composition of La₁_-ₓSrₓMnO₃_-(0.5+x)/2. The structures of the reduced phases contain a 6-layer OOTOOT’ stacking sequence of the octahedral (O) and tetrahedral (T) sheets and so are closely related to the 4-layer OTOT’-stacked brownmillerite structure. Close inspection reveals that the structures of the La₁_-ₓSrₓMnO₃_-y (x = 0.67, 0.7 and 0.75) reduced phases contain an intralayer ordered arrangement of twisted tetrahedral chains, and are the first instances of refined 6-layer structures containing such an arrangement. The driving force dictating the arrangement of the twisted tetrahedral chains in these 6-layer structures are shown to be the size of the tetrahedral chain dipole moment and the coupling between neighbouring tetrahedral layers in a similar manner to the brownmillerite structure. This logic has been applied to rationalise the ordering arrangement of the twisted tetrahedral chains in other structures containing tetrahedral layers. Variable temperature neutron diffraction data reveal that the La₁_-ₓSrₓMnO₃_-y (0.67 ≤ x ≤ 0.83) reduced phases adopt magnetically ordered structures incommensurate with the nuclear structures below T_N. In contrast, the structures adopted by reduced phases formed by topotactic reduction reactions of La₁_-ₓCaₓMnO₃ (0.6 ≤ x ≤ 1) perovskite phases using NaH are split into 2 groups as a function of the La:Ca ratio: The reduction of perovskite phases in the range (0.6 ≤ x ≤ 0.8) result in the formation of reduced phases with an empirical composition of La₁_-ₓCaₓMnO₂ which adopt structures containing a disordered arrangement of layers of edge-sharing MnO₆ octahedra and layers of vertex-sharing MnO₄ tetrahedra. In contrast, reduction of the perovskite phases in the range (0.9 ≤ x ≤ 1) result in the formation of reduced phases with an empirical composition of (La₁_-ₓCₓx)_0.5Mn<sub<0.5</sub>O which adopt the rock salt structure with a disordered arrangement of the cations. The (x < 1) reduced phases are the first reported examples of extended oxides which contain manganese centres with an average oxidation state of below 2. Variable temperature neutron diffraction data reveal that the La₁_-ₓCaₓMnO₃_-y (x= 0.6, 0.67 and 0.7) reduced phases adopt G-type antiferromagnetically ordered magnetic structures below approximately T_N ~ 220 K. The structure of Sr₃Fe₂O₅Cl₂ is closely related to that of the A₃B₂O₇ n = 2 Ruddlesden-Popper structure. The topotactic reduction reaction of Sr₃Fe₂O₅Cl₂ with LiH results in the formation of the Fe(II) phase Sr₃Fe₂O₄Cl₂. Neutron powder diffraction data show that Sr₃Fe₂O₄Cl₂ adopts a body-centred tetragonal crystal structure with anion vacancies located within the central SrO layer of the phase. The structure of Sr₃Fe₂O₄Cl₂ is therefore a rare example of a structure consisting of infinite sheets of corner-sharing Fe(II)O₄ square planes. In addition, the effect of cobalt-doping on the magnetic properties of the isostructural Sr₃Fe₂_-ₓCoₓO₄Cl₂ (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) series of reduced phases was investigated. Cobalt-doping was found to frustrate the antiferromagnetic order initially leading to a decrease in the magnetic ordering temperature but ultimately leading to spin glass behaviour.

Objectives: To explore salt content in bread and to evaluate the feasibility of reducing salt contained in ‘pan francés’ bread. Design: The study had two phases. Phase 1, an exploratory phase, involved the estimation of salt contained in bread as well as a triangle taste test to establish the amount of salt to be reduced in ‘pan francés’ bread without detection by consumers. In Phase 2, a quasi-experimental, pre–post intervention study assessed the effects of the introduction of low-salt bread on bakery sales. Setting: A municipal bakery in Miraflores, Lima, Peru. Subjects: Sixty-five clients of the bakery in Phase 1 of the study; sales to usual costumers in Phase 2. Results: On average, there was 1·25 g of salt per 100 g of bread. Sixty-five consumers were enrolled in the triangle taste test: fifty-four (83·1 %) females, mean age 58·9 (SD 13·7) years. Based on taste, bread samples prepared with salt reductions of 10 % (P = 0·82) and 20 % (P =0·37) were not discernible from regular bread. The introduction of bread with 20 % of salt reduction, which contained 1 g of salt per 100 g of bread, did not change sales of ‘pan francés’ (P=0·70) or other types of bread (P =0·36). Results were consistent when using different statistical techniques. Conclusions: The introduction of bread with a 20 % reduction in salt is feasible without affecting taste or bakery sales. Results suggest that these interventions are easily implementable, with the potential to contribute to larger sodium reduction strategies impacting the population’s cardiovascular health.

Mindfulness-based interventions have been shown to effectively alleviate psychological suffering. The current study compares the effectiveness of a mindfulness-based intervention with an interpersonal support group and a notreatment condition in relieving psychological distress. Participants in this study comprised 112 college students from two universities who contacted the University Counseling Center on their respective college campus to access mental health services. Clients completed written measures at 3 time points; pre- intervention, postintervention, and at 6 months. The overall findings of this study indicate greater reductions over time in the mindfulness-based intervention on measures of anxiety, depression, academic problems, and increase in mindfulness skills compared to the interpersonal support group and no-treatment condition. Conversely, among participants in the interpersonal support group, findings reveal greater reductions in interpersonal problems. Further, results document a positive association between time spent in home mindfulness practice and change in mindfulness skills, and reductions in psychological distress. Mindfulness-based programs may prove to be a time and cost-effective intervention for addressing the needs of University Counseling Centers at a time when there is a shortage of mental health services.