A Car Wash: Post-truth Politics, Petrobras and Ethics of the Real

Purpose: We draw upon three accounts to examine post-truth politics and its link to accounting. In studying Petrobras, a Brazilian petrochemical company embroiled in a corruption scandal, we employ a politics of falsity to understand how different depictions of similar events can emerge. We depict Petrobras’ CSR disclosures during the period of corruption juxtaposed against the Brazilian Federal Police investigation (the Lava Jato/Car Wash Operation) and Petrobras’ response to the allegations of institutional corruption Design/Methodology/Approach: Our data set consisted of 56 Petrobras reports including Annual Reports, Financial Statements, Sustainability Reports and Form 20-Fs from 2004-2017, information disclosed by the Brazilian Federal Police concerning the Lava Jato Operation and media reports concerning Petrobras and the corruption scandal. The paper employs a discourse analysis approach to depict and interpret the accounts. Findings: Through the connection between ontic accounts and ontological presuppositions, we illustrate a post-truth logic underpinning accounting, due to the interpretive, contestable and contingent nature of accounting information. Consequently, we turn to the ‘ethics of the real’ as a response, as citizen subjects must be cautious in how they approach accounting and CSR disclosures. Originality/value: Rather than rely on simplistic true/false dualities, we argue that the ‘ethics of the real’ provides a courageous position for citizen subjects to interrogate the organisation by recognising the role of discourse and disclosure expectations on organisations in a post-truth environment. We also illustrate how competing, contingent accounts of the same timeframe can emerge

A New Spontaneously Transformed Syngeneic Model of High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer with a Tumor-Initiating Cell Population

Improving screening and treatment options for patients with epithelial ovarian cancer has been a major challenge in cancer research. Development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, particularly for the most common subtype, high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC), has been hampered by controversies over the origin of the disease and a lack of spontaneous HGSC models to resolve this controversy. Over long-term culture in our laboratory, an ovarian surface epithelial (OSE) cell line spontaneously transformed OSE (STOSE). The objective of this study was to determine if the STOSE cell line is a good model of HGSC. STOSE cells grow faster than early passage parental M0505 cells with a doubling time of 13 and 48 h, respectively. STOSE cells form colonies in soft agar, an activity for which M0505 cells have negligible capacity. Microarray analysis identified 1755 down-regulated genes and 1203 up-regulated genes in STOSE compared to M0505 cells, many associated with aberrant Wnt/β-catenin and Nf-κB signaling. Upregulation of Ccnd1 and loss of Cdkn2a in STOSE tumors is consistent with changes identified in human ovarian cancers by The Cancer Genome Atlas. Intraperitoneal injection of STOSE cells into severe combined immunodeficient and syngeneic FVB/N mice produced cytokeratin+, WT1+, inhibin−, and PAX8+ tumors, a histotype resembling human HGSC. Based on evidence that a SCA1+ stem cell-like population exists in M0505 cells, we examined a subpopulation of SCA1+ cells that is present in STOSE cells. Compared to SCA1− cells, SCA1+ STOSE cells have increased colony-forming capacity and form palpable tumors 8 days faster after intrabursal injection into FVB/N mice. This study has identified the STOSE cells as the first spontaneous murine model of HGSC and provides evidence for the OSE as a possible origin of HGSC. Furthermore, this model provides a novel opportunity to study how normal stem-like OSE cells may transform into tumor-initiating cells

Livestock trade networks for guiding animal health surveillance

BACKGROUND: Trade in live animals can contribute to the introduction of exotic diseases, the maintenance and spread endemic diseases. Annually millions of animals are moved across Europe for the purposes of breeding, fattening and slaughter. Data on the number of animals moved were obtained from the Directorate General Sanco (DG Sanco) for 2011. These were converted to livestock units to enable direct comparison across species and their movements were mapped, used to calculate the indegrees and outdegrees of 27 European countries and the density and transitivity of movements within Europe. This provided the opportunity to discuss surveillance of European livestock movement taking into account stopping points en-route. RESULTS: High density and transitivity of movement for registered equines, breeding and fattening cattle, breeding poultry and pigs for breeding, fattening and slaughter indicates that hazards have the potential to spread quickly within these populations. This is of concern to highly connected countries particularly those where imported animals constitute a large proportion of their national livestock populations, and have a high indegree. The transport of poultry (older than 72 hours) and unweaned animals would require more rest breaks than the movement of weaned animals, which may provide more opportunities for disease transmission. Transitivity is greatest for animals transported for breeding purposes with cattle, pigs and poultry having values of over 50%. CONCLUSIONS: This paper demonstrated that some species (pigs and poultry) are traded much more frequently and at a larger scale than species such as goats. Some countries are more vulnerable than others due to importing animals from many countries, having imported animals requiring rest-breaks and importing large proportions of their national herd or flock. Such knowledge about the vulnerability of different livestock systems related to trade movements can be used to inform the design of animal health surveillance systems to facilitate the trade in animals between European member states. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12917-015-0354-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Risk Factors for Postpartum Depressive Symptoms in Low-Income Women With Very Low-Birth-Weight Infants

PURPOSE: This study examined factors associated with postpartum depressive symptoms in mothers with premature infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). SUBJECTS: A total of 113 new mothers with very low-birth-weight infants in their initial NICU admission were recruited from 2 urban hospitals servicing low-income minority communities. DESIGN: This study employed a cross-sectional design. METHODS: Data were collected during the infants' postpartum NICU admission and included maternal demographic information (eg, age, education, race, living with the baby's father), infant illness severity (Neurobiologic Risk Score from infant's medical record), and maternal psychological measures (the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, the Perinatal Posttraumatic Stress Questionnaire, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory). RESULTS: The findings indicated that 47 (42%) women had elevated postpartum depressive symptoms and 33 (30%) women had elevated postpartum posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSs). Factors associated with postpartum depressive symptoms included PTS, anxiety, maternal age, and whether the mother lived with the baby's father (F₄, ₁₀₄ = 52.27, P < .001). The severity of the infants' illness, parental stress, and maternal education were not associated with depressive symptoms among low-income mothers of NICU infants. CONCLUSIONS: On the basis of our findings, we recommend that low-income women should be screened for symptoms of anxiety, posttraumatic stress, and postpartum depression on their infants' admission to the NICU. When this is not feasible, we advise NICU healthcare providers to assess women for familial support, maternal age, posttraumatic stress related to their infants birth, and anxiety to determine which mothers are at the greatest risk for postpartum depressive symptoms. Screening for postpartum depression in the NICU can aid in early identification and treatment, thereby decreasing negative consequences for mothers and their infants

Development of the Advancing the Patient Experience (APEX) in COPD Registry : A Modified Delphi Study

Funding statement: APEX COPD is conducted by Optimum Patient Care (OPC) Global Limited, and co-funded by OPC Global and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (BIPI). The author(s) meet criteria for authorship as recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). The authors received no direct compensation related to the development of the manuscript. Writing, editorial support, and/or formatting assistance was provided by Ms. Audrey Ang of the Observational and Pragmatic Research Institute, Singapore, and Dr. Lisa Buttle of Medscript Ltd, Ireland, which was funded by BIPI. BIPI was given the opportunity to review the manuscript for medical and scientific accuracy as well as intellectual property considerations. Acknowledgments The author(s) meet criteria for authorship as recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). We thank Dr. Alvaro Aranda (Hospital Auxilio Mutuo, San Juan, Puerto Rico) for his scientific and clinical contributions during the drafting of this manuscript. We also thank Ms. Audrey Ang for editorial assistance, Ms. Bronte Sawyer for project coordination, and Dr. Lisa Buttle for assistance with drafting the article. Dr. Ruth B. Murray is acknowledged for her substantial contribution to the interpretation, summarization and presentation of data in this article and significant intellectual input to the manuscript. She has provided her final approval of the version to be published and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Dr. Ruth B. Murray is the founder and director of Medscript Ltd., a company that provided writing and editorial support for APEX COPD publications.Peer reviewedPostprin

Variation in Demographic and Clinical Characteristics of COPD Patients Managed in U.S. Primary Care : Data from a Real-Life COPD Registry

Peer reviewedPostprin

UBVRI Light Curves of 44 Type Ia Supernovae

We present UBVRI photometry of 44 type-Ia supernovae (SN Ia) observed from 1997 to 2001 as part of a continuing monitoring campaign at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The data set comprises 2190 observations and is the largest homogeneously observed and reduced sample of SN Ia to date, nearly doubling the number of well-observed, nearby SN Ia with published multicolor CCD light curves. The large sample of U-band photometry is a unique addition, with important connections to SN Ia observed at high redshift. The decline rate of SN Ia U-band light curves correlates well with the decline rate in other bands, as does the U-B color at maximum light. However, the U-band peak magnitudes show an increased dispersion relative to other bands even after accounting for extinction and decline rate, amounting to an additional ~40% intrinsic scatter compared to B-band.Comment: 84 authors, 71 pages, 51 tables, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal. Version with high-res figures and electronic data at http://astron.berkeley.edu/~saurabh/cfa2snIa

Characterization of COPD in U.S. Primary Care : Data from a Real-Life COPD Registry

Peer reviewedPostprin