Socioeconomic implications of biofuels deployment through an Input-Output approach. A case study in Uruguay

Some countries in the world aim to increase biofuel production and consumption as a way to decarbonize the transport sector and transit to a low carbon economy. Besides their potential environmental advantages compared to conventional fuels, biofuels may also bring other socioeconomic benefits. Using the Input-Output Analysis, this study has looked at the socio-economic impacts associated to the biofuels targets established in Uruguay by estimating the associated gross and net effects on production of goods and services; value added and job creation categorized into rural and non-rural. Next, the impacts on the Uruguay's balance of payments, energy security and tax revenues have been estimated and added to the previous effects. When it comes to value added, bioethanol from sugarcane ranks first among the considered biofuels with 431 million US$2018, followed by bioethanol from sorghum and biodiesel. As to job creation, around 34,000 full time new jobs are created as a result of sugarcane bioethanol, twice as much as from biodiesel. Of these figures, rural employment share represents a 13% and 6% in the case of sugarcane bioethanol and biodiesel respectively. On concluding result from this study is that while biofuel production costs in Uruguay are higher than fossil fuel, when the economic effects on tax revenues and balance of payments are added to the previous socio-economic impacts, the total benefits from biofuels compensate the extra costs. However, this situation may be altered in the future as a result of changes in biofuel production costs, fiscal policies as well as import and export prices variations

Racial Disparities in Medication Use During Pregnancy: Results from the NISAMI Cohort

Caroline Tianeze de Castro,1 Lisiane Freitas Leal,2 Dandara de Oliveira Ramos,1 Jerusa da Mota Santana,3 Rosa Cândida Cordeiro,3,4 Maria da Conceição Costa Rivemales,3,4 Edna Maria de Araújo,5 Carlos Alberto Lima da Silva,5 Marcos Pereira,1 Djanilson Barbosa dos Santos3– 5 1Institute of Collective Health, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; 2Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine Centre de Recherche, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; 3Center for Health Sciences, Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia, Santo Antônio de Jesus, Bahia, Brazil; 4Postgraduation Program in Health for the Black and Indigenous Population, Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia, Santo Antônio de Jesus, Bahia, Brazil; 5State University of Feira de Santana, Feira de Santana, Bahia, BrazilCorrespondence: Caroline Tianeze de Castro, Institute of Collective Health, Federal University of Bahia, Basílio da Gama Street, no number, Canela Campus, Salvador, Bahia, 40.110-040, Brazil, Email [email protected]: This study aimed to evaluate racial disparities in medication use and associated factors among pregnant women receiving prenatal care at Brazilian Unified Health System primary care health units in the northeast region.Patients and Methods: A total of 1058 pregnant women in the NISAMI Cohort were interviewed between June 2012 and February 2014. Medicines used during pregnancy were classified according to the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification system and ANVISA pregnancy risk categories. Prevalence ratios (crude and adjusted) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using Poisson regression with robust error variance. All analyses were stratified by race (Asian, black, brown/mixed, Brazilian indigenous, and white).Results: Approximately 84% of the pregnant women used at least one medication, with a lower proportion among white women. The most reported medications were antianemic preparations (71.08%; 95% CI 68.27– 73.72%), analgesics (21.74%; 95% CI 19.36– 24.32%), and drugs for functional gastrointestinal disorders (18.81%; 95% CI 16.57– 21.28%). Approximately 29% of women took potentially risky medications during pregnancy, with a higher prevalence among Asian and white women. Factors associated with medication use during pregnancy include a greater number of prenatal consultations, higher education levels, health problems, and smoking. In addition, maternal age above 25 years, smoking status, and two or more previous pregnancies were associated with potentially risky medication use during pregnancy.Conclusion: A high prevalence of medication use during pregnancy was found; however, this prevalence was lower among white women. Nonetheless, black and brown women used antianemic preparations less frequently. This finding suggests that race is a factor of inequity in prenatal care, demanding public policies to mitigate it.Keywords: drug utilization, racial groups, pregnancy, pharmacoepidemiology, cohort studie

The Impact of Cash Transfers on School Enrollment: Evidence from Ecuador

This paper presents evidence about the impact on school enrollment of a program in Ecuador that gives cash transfers to the 40 percent poorest families. The evaluation design consists of a randomized experiment for families around the first quintile of the poverty index and of a regression discontinuity design for families around the second quintile of this index, which is the program's eligibility threshold. This allows us to compare results from two different credible identification methods, and to investigate whether the impact varies with families' poverty level. Around the first quintile of the poverty index the impact is positive while it is equal to zero around the second quintile. This suggests that for the poorest families the program lifts a credit constraint while this is not the case for families close to the eligibility threshold

The FANCM:p.Arg658* truncating variant is associated with risk of triple-negative breast cancer

Breast cancer is a common disease partially caused by genetic risk factors. Germline pathogenic variants in DNA repair genes BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2, ATM, and CHEK2 are associated with breast cancer risk. FANCM, which encodes for a DNA translocase, has been proposed as a breast cancer predisposition gene, with greater effects for the ER-negative and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) subtypes. We tested the three recurrent protein-truncating variants FANCM:p.Arg658*, p.Gln1701*, and p.Arg1931* for association with breast cancer risk in 67,112 cases, 53,766 controls, and 26,662 carriers of pathogenic variants of BRCA1 or BRCA2. These three variants were also studied functionally by measuring survival and chromosome fragility in FANCM (-/-) patient-derived immortalized fibroblasts treated with diepoxybutane or olaparib. We observed that FANCM:p.Arg658* was associated with increased risk of ER-negative disease and TNBC (OR = 2.44, P = 0.034 and OR = 3.79; P = 0.009, respectively). In a country-restricted analysis, we confirmed the associations detected for FANCM:p.Arg658* and found that also FANCM:p.Arg1931* was associated with ER-negative breast cancer risk (OR = 1.96; P = 0.006). The functional results indicated that all three variants were deleterious affecting cell survival and chromosome stability with FANCM:p.Arg658* causing more severe phenotypes. In conclusion, we confirmed that the two rare FANCM deleterious variants p.Arg658* and p.Arg1931* are risk factors for ER-negative and TNBC subtypes. Overall our data suggest that the effect of truncating variants on breast cancer risk may depend on their position in the gene. Cell sensitivity to olaparib exposure, identifies a possible therapeutic option to treat FANCM-associated tumors