This article analyses burnout in governmental psychosocial and community programmes considering training/knowledge, the technical-professional field, the institutional framework, and networking, based on the experience of the intervention teams of three Chilean programmes. A qualitative methodology was used. Fifty people, most of them psychologists, participated in interviews and focus groups. The data were analysed according to Grounded Theory. Results indicate that burnout is a corrosive process in governmental psychosocial and community programmes. The causes of burnout are related to three gaps: between academic training and professional performance, between formulation and implementation, and between the obligation to work as part of a network and the limitations of this approach. Furthermore, we observed manifestations consequences and effects of burnout, and guidelines for improving the programmes. We discuss the institutional dimension of burnout in governmental psychosocial and community programmes and reflect on aspects that may improve team well-being and the quality of social policies.

This paper aims to characterize the main actors in the Brazilian pharmaceutical industry — national companies, foreign companies and public laboratories — and analyze how they were affected and how they reacted to changes over the last 30 years in the institutional framework. The results show that national companies have been gaining prominence in the Brazilian pharmaceutical market with their internationalization movement and their strengthening of innovation strategies.

Animal breeding for increased productivity over the past 50 to 60 years has been very successful in terms of increasing growth rate, milk yield and egg production in most livestock producing regions of the world (Rauw et al., 1998). However, this success has not registered that well in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Ironically, just like most developing regions, SSA is faced with the challenge to increase rapidly the agricultural productivity to help feed their growing human populations without depleting the natural resource base (Rege, 2005). Genetic improvement of livestock depends on access to genetic variation and effective methods for exploiting this variation (Rege, 2005). This is where human capacity and infrastructure for decision-support systems in animal breeding are required. This paper provides a synthesis of views from a cross-section of livestock production experts working in SSA. These views were collated through an e-conference which was held from 8th March to 20th April 2011. The e-conference discussed future research and development (R&D) needs for animal breeding and genetics in SSA and how they can be met. The e-conference attracted 43 participants from 17 countries. Results from the e-conference demonstrated that the R&D institutions and infrastructure in SSA vary widely in terms of both the physical and human capacity. Equally varied is the level of utilization of these institutions. In terms of training in Animal Breeding and Genetics, although most universities/colleges have programmes in Animal Science and teach animal breeding and genetics, there are very few practicing animal breeders. Lack of mentorship programmes and collaboration, and in some cases lack of appropriate jobs, continue to contribute to this ‘leaking pipeline’ phenomenon. The following is a summary of the consensus stemming from the conference on how the efficiency and effectiveness of livestock genetic improvement in SSA could be enhanced. First, the need to augment the approach that promotes animal breeding and genetics as part of a wider agriculture and rural development system, second, collaboration both within Africa and with those in the Diaspora should be further tapped into and utilized as a source of capacity for R&D and third, initiative of sharing resources and research platforms such as pooling data for genetic analysis from across institutions, and even across countries, should be encouraged in case where this is advantageous to do so.

This study identifies the societal institutional framework as the cause for the tie distribution issue — the sizes of ego-networks of social actors are unevenly distributed across social categories of these social actors. The analysis of 250 Chinese firms showed that managers employed by state-owned enterprises possess more governmental tie channels – conduits to get acquainted with government officials – than those employed by non-state-owned enterprises. Governmental tie channels completely mediated the relationship between ownership types and the number of government ties in the manager's social network.