O artigo examina o estágio mais recente do padrão das campanhas políticas on-line em eleições presidenciais do ponto de vista dos recursos e instrumentos empregados como parte das operações de comunicação política em redes digitais. Como as eleições americanas de 2008, em geral, e a campanha on-line de Barack Obama, em particular, representam a face mais recente e, até o momento, mais exitosa desse tipo de operação política, os recursos e instrumentos empregados na campanha de Obama serão tomados como um estudo de caso. Trata-se, portanto, de uma prospecção sobre uma experiência de emprego de recursos digitais e on-line em campanhas políticas com o objetivo de reconhecer o patamar a que foram levadas as campanhas on-line e de estabelecer generalizações sobre tendências e possibilidades desse tipo de campanha política. Concluímos que, embora o uso dos recursos de comunicação digital não seja a causa do sucesso da campanha de Obama ou mesmo da mobilização gerada e da popularidade que teve entre o eleitorado jovem, eles certamente fazem parte do ambiente social e político que determinou esses fenômenos.

Purpose of review To address the important relationships between stroke and infection, focusing on the most frequent infections found in low-income and middle-income countries. Recent findings Stroke is one of the leading causes of mortality and disability worldwide, with a great proportion of the stroke burden occurring in low-income and middle-income countries. Infectious diseases are still a great health problem in developing countries and it is possible that the proportion of infection-related strokes is greater in these nations. Infectious diseases and stroke have a bidirectional relationship. Common infections may act as risk factors and can trigger stroke through different mechanisms in their acute phase. Several intracranial and systemic infections can cause stroke as a direct complication, such as Chagas disease, neurosyphilis, tuberculous meningitis, and neurocysticercosis. These conditions are of particular interest to low-income and middle-income countries, but also relevant to high-income nations because of increasing migration. Finally, infection is a frequent poststroke complication, with great impact in the patient outcome. Summary Infectious diseases and stroke are common problems in low-income and middle-income countries. More studies are necessary to fully elucidate the real impact of infectious diseases on stroke burden, especially in countries where epidemiological data are still scarce.

We report a case of a 51-year-old man with multiple myeloma who presented with lumbar pain and left limb paresis. Cerebrospinal fluid, brain and spinal cord resonance imaging revealed a diffuse infiltration of the cauda equina without any cranial leptomeningeal enhancement. An infiltration limited to the cauda equina is extremely rare.

This manuscript reports a case of intestinal toxemia botulism in an adult with recently diagnosed metastatic colon cancer in whom botulism symptoms began 23 days after hospital admission. Representing the rarest form of botulism presentation in clinical practice, this infectious disease may have developed due to a cluster of predisposing factors that favored Clostridium botulinum colonization and the endogenous production of neurotoxins, among which are previous use of broad-spectrum antibiotics and colon changes related to the development of the neoplasia. This case highlights the importance of considering intestinal toxemia botulism in the differential diagnosis of a patient presenting with symmetrical descending flaccid paralysis, since immediate treatment with botulinum antitoxin may improve clinical outcomes.

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia and is associated with cognitive impairment and dementia. Cognitive and functional impairments have been neglected in clinical trials with patients affected by AF. Dabigatran is a new drug, which can offer a more stable long-term anticoagulant therapy compared to warfarin. This advantage could be associated with a minor incidence of cognitive and functional decline. The objective of the study is to evaluate the effects of dabigatran compared with warfarin on cognitive and functional impairments, thrombin production, bleeding occurrence and cerebrovascular complications in elderly patients with AF.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> A randomized, prospective parallel, two-center, active-controlled trial will be performed in a sample of 200 patients with AF randomly designated to take dabigatran (150 mg twice daily) or warfarin (once daily, dose controlled by INR between 2 and 3). After one and two years, subjects will be assessed considering cognitive outcomes. Additionally, patients will be submitted to brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at the beginning and ending of study to identify possible cerebrovascular events, as well as carotid ultrasonography to search for atherosclerotic disease.</p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> The GIRAF study expects to provide data about prevention of cognitive and functional impairments among patients on anticoagulant therapy for AF, and to explore new concepts on potential prevention of cognitive decline and benefits for AF patients and their relatives.

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Nowadays, the way companies use their Information Technology (IT) resources defines their performance. The Business Intelligence (BI) is an IT tool which transforms data from Information Systems (IS) of the company into useful information to improve external and internal business management. Even though their advantages are well known in the scientific literature, many companies still fail on obtaining its benefits. The assessment of BI is important to provide understanding on why it is difficult to have benefits from the tool. Therefore, it is important to evaluate BI and understand the value and efficiency of management actions and IT investments in the Telecommunication sector. This essay objectives to evaluate BI in companies on the telecommunications sector through IT assessment attributes. For that, it was used the multiple study case method, a qualitative approach followed by questionnaire with both closed an opened questions and semi structured interviews with CIOs and the system's users. The IT evaluation was performed with these interviewed in order to obtain a triangulation of data between user and IT supplier in the three researched organizaions. This essay ends with the identification of the main BI advantages ground in the scientific literature that are in line with the founds on field research. The data integration from the organization's different ISs into a central system with updated data and available in real time ensures better understanding of the organization and provides more quality in the decision-making process. BI's main current problem is in the difficulty on selection useful reports among huge volume of information, also known as big data. The main motivations and pressures to implement BI are not only on its benefits but in aligning it with the organizaion's strategic plan. In order to be successful with BI, there are some crucial factors that must be satisfied; the prior existence of the analytical decision-making culture, the support of the executives and thus the organizaion's strategic alignment with BI; and the presence of a leader with great knowledge of both organization as a whole and technical knowledge about BI and its set of advantages and benefits.

Resumo Este artigo faz uma crítica do romance juvenil Oiobomé: a epopeia de uma nação, do escritor carioca Nei Lopes (1942-). Partindo do pressuposto de que a obra foi concebida como narrativa de utopia e, ao mesmo tempo, narrativa pedagógica, com vistas a combater o racismo, a crítica mostra que as limitações criadas pela lógica da nação dirimem o tom utópico do romance, possibilitando mesmo que seja lido como uma narrativa de distopia. Pari passu, com base em ideias de Paul Gilroy e, principalmente, de Édouard Glissant a respeito da maneira mais produtiva de, hoje em dia, serem concebidas narrativas utópicas que vislumbrem um mundo onde o racismo e outras desigualdades sociais estejam superadas, chega-se aos conceitos de novo épico e de lógica da relação. As ideias que tais expressões definem são ilustradas pelo confronto entre os universos ficcionais do romance Oiobomé e do filme Pantera Negra, ao final do qual se evidencia por que o primeiro, ao contrário do segundo, não se encaixa nesses conceitos.