The impact of globalisation on the position of developing countries in the international tax system

The objective of this thesis is to analyse the relationship between international taxation and developing countries. The main idea is to examine this relationship through arguments that challenge the current legal debate that has described their interest as capital importers of foreign direct investment. Globalisation has changed the economic relations between developed and developing countries. The evolution of the economic aspects as well as tax policies implemented during the process of globalisation provides the background necessary to understand the increased importance of international taxation and the participation of developing countries in the global economy. The hypothesis tested here addresses the question whether the dichotomy between developing and developed countries and their characterisation as capital importers and capital exporters still provides an appropriate basis for the legal debate on international taxation in the context of globalisation. To approach this question, the behaviour of international flow of capital will be assessed in order to provide an overview of the economic relations among these countries. To perform this study, initially the meaning of globalisation and international taxation are explained in order to build up the framework of this thesis; secondly, the current debate on harmful tax competition is examined to put in evidence the problem addressed in this thesis; thirdly, an analysis of the international flow of capital is performed to identify new premises that could update the legal debate; fourthly, based on the profile of the international flow of capital, the phenomenon of capital flight is addressed. Fifthly, having in mind the difficulty in taxing capital flight, taxation of portfolio investment is examined. Based on the arguments raised, the legal debate is updated demonstrating the higher importance of double taxation over tax avoidance and evasion in the recent past. Finally, considering the increased relevance of international tax avoidance and evasion, instruments available for exchange of information are analysed, and their effectiveness to curb capital flight from developing countries

Pulmonary paracoccidioidomycosis in AhR deficient hosts is severe and associated with defective Treg and Th22 responses

© The Author(s) 2020. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.AhR is a ligand-activated transcription factor that plays an important role in the innate and adaptive immune responses. In infection models, it has been associated with host responses that promote or inhibit disease progression. In pulmonary paracoccidioidomycosis, a primary fungal infection endemic in Latin America, immune protection is mediated by Th1/Th17 cells and disease severity with predominant Th2/Th9/Treg responses. Because of its important role at epithelial barriers, we evaluate the role of AhR in the outcome of a pulmonary model of paracoccidioidomycosis. AhR-/- mice show increased fungal burdens, enhanced tissue pathology and mortality. During the infection, AhR-/- mice have more pulmonary myeloid cells with activated phenotype and reduced numbers expressing indoleamine 2,3 dioxygenase 1. AhR-deficient lungs have altered production of cytokines and reduced numbers of innate lymphoid cells (NK, ILC3 and NCR IL-22). The lungs of AhR-/- mice showed increased presence Th17 cells concomitant with reduced numbers of Th1, Th22 and Foxp3+ Treg cells. Furthermore, treatment of infected WT mice with an AhR-specific antagonist (CH223191) reproduced the main findings obtained in AhR-/- mice. Collectively our data demonstrate that in pulmonary paracoccidioidomycosis AhR controls fungal burden and excessive tissue inflammation and is a possible target for antifungal therapy.This work was supported by a grant from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP-grant to VLGC 2011/51258-2 and 2016/23189-0; fellowship to EFA 2014/18668-2; grant to FVL 2018/14762-3; fellowship to NWP 2019-09278-8), European Union H2020 ERA project (No 667824 – EXCELLtoINNOV) to MV and Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas (CNPq).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Cardiac autonomic impairment and chronotropic incompetence in fibromyalgia

Abstract\ud \ud \ud \ud Introduction\ud \ud We aimed to gather knowledge on the cardiac autonomic modulation in patients with fibromyalgia (FM) in response to exercise and to investigate whether this population suffers from chronotropic incompetence (CI).\ud \ud \ud \ud Methods\ud \ud Fourteen women with FM (age: 46 ± 3 years; body mass index (BMI): 26.6 ± 1.4 kg/m2) and 14 gender-, BMI- (25.4 ± 1.3 kg/m2), and age-matched (age: 41 ± 4 years) healthy individuals (CTRL) took part in this cross-sectional study. A treadmill cardiorespiratory test was performed and heart-rate (HR) response during exercise was evaluated by the chronotropic reserve. HR recovery (deltaHRR) was defined as the difference between HR at peak exercise and at both first (deltaHRR1) and second (deltaHRR2) minutes after the exercise test.\ud \ud \ud \ud Results\ud \ud FM patients presented lower maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max) when compared with healthy subjects (22 ± 1 versus CTRL: 32 ± 2 mL/kg/minute, respectively; P < 0.001). Additionally, FM patients presented lower chronotropic reserve (72.5 ± 5 versus CTRL: 106.1 ± 6, P < 0.001), deltaHRR1 (24.5 ± 3 versus CTRL: 32.6 ± 2, P = 0.059) and deltaHRR2 (34.3 ± 4 versus CTRL: 50.8 ± 3, P = 0.002) than their healthy peers. The prevalence of CI was 57.1% among patients with FM.\ud \ud \ud \ud Conclusions\ud \ud Patients with FM who undertook a graded exercise test may present CI and delayed HR recovery, both being indicative of cardiac autonomic impairment and higher risk of cardiovascular events and mortality.This work was supported by the Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (Grant 2009/51897-5)

O PAPEL DO BRASIL COMO INDUTOR DO PROCESSO DE INTEGRAÇÃO ENERGÉTICA REGIONAL NA AMÉRICA DO SUL

O presente artigo tem como objetivo analisar qual o papel do Brasil como indutor do processo de integração energética regional na América do Sul. Tem-se como hipótese que o Brasil exerce função de liderança na integração energética sul-americana. Destaca-se, para tal, o papel do Conselho Energético Sul-Americano (UNASUL), da Petrobrás e da integração via hidrelétricas no subcontinente sul-americano. Entretanto, ainda são identificadas diversas dificuldades e insuficiências, como a ausência de um marco regulatório, a falta de capacidade de financiamento e a falta de medidas tomadas no âmbito multilateral para a conquista de uma integração energética efetiva na América do Sul

Lack of Galectin-3 Drives Response to Paracoccidioides brasiliensis toward a Th2-Biased Immunity

There is recent evidence that galectin-3 participates in immunity to infections, mostly by tuning cytokine production. We studied the balance of Th1/Th2 responses to P. brasiliensis experimental infection in the absence of galectin-3. The intermediate resistance to the fungal infection presented by C57BL/6 mice, associated with the development of a mixed type of immunity, was replaced with susceptibility to infection and a Th2-polarized immune response, in galectin-3-deficient (gal3−/−) mice. Such a response was associated with defective inflammatory and delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) reactions, high IL-4 and GATA-3 expression and low nitric oxide production in the organs of infected animals. Gal3−/− macrophages exhibited higher TLR2 transcript levels and IL-10 production compared to wild-type macrophages after stimulation with P. brasiliensis antigens. We hypothesize that, during an in vivo P. brasiliensis infection, galectin-3 exerts its tuning role on immunity by interfering with the generation of regulatory macrophages, thus hindering the consequent Th2-polarized type of response

Valor preditivo da medida da cintura e da relação cintura-quadril no diagnóstico do diabetes melito e da dislipidemia

Purpose: Obesity rates are increasing in Brazil. Waist measurement (WM) is a good measure to evaluatelocalized obesity and it is easier to perform when compared to wait-hip-ratio (WHR). However the effects of regionalobesity were better described between WHR and cardiovascular risk factors. Aim: to test whether waist measurement alone is better than WHR to predict diabetes and high cholesterol. Methods: We analyzed positive and negative likelihood ratio (LR)of WM and WHR in a sample of 202 apparently healthy men and women aged 20-74 years as a predictive factor for diabetes and dislipidemia. Results: (1) For women, WHR was a better predictive factor for diabetes(LHR+ = 2,5 e LHR- = 0,2) and dislipidemia (LHR+ = 2,5, LHR- = 0,2) diagnosis than WM (diabetes, LHR+ = 1,9 eLHR- = 0,4; dislipidemia, LHR+ = 1,6 e LHR- = 0,6); (2) For men, WM was a better predictive factor for diabetes (LHR+ = 2,4e LHR- = 0,6) and dislipidemia (LHR+ = 5 e LHR- = 0,5) than for WHR (diabetes, LHR+ = 1,0 e LHR- = 0,9;dislipidemia, LHR+ = 2,1 e LHR- = 0,7 diagnosis. Conclusion: WM and WHR have different behaviors in men and women.Introdução: O índice de obesidade está aumentando no Brasil.A medida da cintura (MC) é uma boa medida para a avaliação da obesidade localizada e é mais fácil de ser adquirida do que a relação cintura quadril (RCQ). Entretanto, os efeitos da obesidade regional foram melhores descritos entre a RCQ e fatores de risco cardiovasculares. Objetivo: testar se a medida da cintura isolada é melhor do que a RCQ para predizer diabetes e dislipidemia. Métodos: analisamos a razão de verossimilhança positiva e negativa da MC e RCQ numa amostra de 202 homens e mulheres com idade variando de 20 a 74 anos e aparentemente saudáveis como fator preditivo para diabetes e dislipidemia. Resultados: (1) Para mulheres, a RCQ foi melhor fator preditivo para o diagnostico dediabetes (RV+ = 2,5 e RV- = 0,2) e dislipidemia (RV+2,5 e RV-=0,2) comparado a MC (diabetes, RV+ = 1,9 e RV- = 0,4; dislipidemia, RV+ = 1,6 e RV- = 0,6); (2) Para homens, a MC foi melhor fator preditivo para o diagnostico de diabetes (RV+ = 2,4 e RV- = 0,6) e dislipidemia (RV+ = 5 e RV- = 0,5) do que a RCQ (diabetes, RV+ = 1,0 e RV- = 0,9; dislipidemia, RV+ = 2,1 e RV- = 0,7). Conclusão: A MC e a RCQ se comportam diferentes entre homens e mulheres

Murine Dendritic Cells Transcriptional Modulation upon Paracoccidioides brasiliensis Infection

Limited information is available regarding the modulation of genes involved in the innate host response to Paracoccidioides brasiliensis, the etiologic agent of paracoccidioidomycosis. Therefore, we sought to characterize, for the first time, the transcriptional profile of murine bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (DCs) at an early stage following their initial interaction with P. brasiliensis. DCs connect innate and adaptive immunity by recognizing invading pathogens and determining the type of effector T-cell that mediates an immune response. Gene expression profiles were analyzed using microarray and validated using real-time RT-PCR and protein secretion studies. A total of 299 genes were differentially expressed, many of which are involved in immunity, signal transduction, transcription and apoptosis. Genes encoding the cytokines IL-12 and TNF-α, along with the chemokines CCL22, CCL27 and CXCL10, were up-regulated, suggesting that P. brasiliensis induces a potent proinflammatory response in DCs. In contrast, pattern recognition receptor (PRR)-encoding genes, particularly those related to Toll-like receptors, were down-regulated or unchanged. This result prompted us to evaluate the expression profiles of dectin-1 and mannose receptor, two other important fungal PRRs that were not included in the microarray target cDNA sequences. Unlike the mannose receptor, the dectin-1 receptor gene was significantly induced, suggesting that this β-glucan receptor participates in the recognition of P. brasiliensis. We also used a receptor inhibition assay to evaluate the roles of these receptors in coordinating the expression of several immune-related genes in DCs upon fungal exposure. Altogether, our results provide an initial characterization of early host responses to P. brasiliensis and a basis for better understanding the infectious process of this important neglected pathogen