Investment policy statement for institutional investors : Lusitania, Companhia de Seguros, S.A. : portfolio of pensions with compensations

Mestrado Bolonha em FinançasThis Investment Policy Statement (IPS) has been designed to fit the liabilities profile of a portfolio of pensions with compensations at Lusitania Companhia de Seguros, S.A. The client wants to ensure security, quality, returns, and liquidity, incorporating environmental, social and governance principles in the investment portfolio. To compute the optimisation portfolio's expected returns and volatility, we use three main strategies, the Mean-Variance Theory to optimise our investment and Duration Matching for immunisation. The Cash-Flow Matching should also be applied to construct the immunisation portfolio reinforcing the immunisation of the portfolio. The optimisation portfolio has an expected return of 4 percent and an expected volatility of 3,32 percent. The expected return and volatility were based on JP Morgan’s long term capital market assumption for the different asset classes to which the portfolio is exposed. The major constraints include a minimum return of 2,5 percent, a maximum of 7,5 percent volatility, as well as a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 14 for Duration. Short sell is not allowed. Other constraints include minimum and maximum weights for different asset classes, countries, or credit quality exposures. We have also performed a robustness analysis to better understand our exposures to the different credit qualities, geographies, and asset classes as well as deepest analysis of our returns, volatilities, and Return-at-Risk and Conditional Expected Shortfall at a certain confidence interval.Esta Política de Investimentos (IPS) foi desenhado para alinhar o perfil das responsabilidades de uma carteira de pensões com compensações associadas à Lusitania Companhia de Seguros, S.A. O cliente deseja garantir segurança, qualidade e retornos assim como liquidez, incorporando neste portfólio preocupações em matérias ambientais, sociais e de governação Para calcular a expetativa de retorno e volatilidade do portfólio de otimização, vamos utilizar três estratégias fundamentais, a MVT para otimizar o investimento e o ajuste de Duration para imunizar o portfólio. Após esta avaliação deve ser aplicado um ajustamento dos Fluxos de Caixa para reforçar a imunização do portfólio de imunização. O portfólio otimizado proposto tem uma expetativa de retorno de 4 porcento e uma expetativa de volatilidade de 3,32 porcento. A expetativa de retorno e volatilidade foram baseados nos pressupostos de mercado de capitais de longo prazo da JP Morgan para as diferentes classes de ativos a que o portfólio está exposto. As maiores restrições incluem o retorno mínimo de 2,5 porcento, um máximo de volatilidade de 7,5 porcento, um mínimo de 10 e um máximo de 14 para Duration. A venda a descoberto não é permitida. Outras restrições incluem um máximo e mínimo de pesos para as diferentes exposições a classes de ativos, países ou qualidade de crédito. Foi também executada análises de robustez, para um maior entendimento das nossas exposições às diferentes qualidades de crédito, geografias e classes de ativos, mas também uma análise mais profunda aos retornos, volatilidades, assim como o Returnat- Risk e o Conditional Expected Shortfall a um determinado intervalo de confiança.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Processo orçamentário e revolta parlamentar na terra do hockey : á procura do equilíbrio entre a eficiência e controle no Canadá

Orientador : Prof. Dr. Fabricio Ricardo de Limas TomioOrientador : Prof. Dr. Rodrigo Luís KanayamaDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Jurídicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Direito. Defesa: Curitiba, 08/04/2015Inclui referências : f. 179-188Resumo: O objetivo principal deste trabalho é investigar o grau de sucesso do "Parliamentary Budget Officer" - PBO, um cargo burocrático autônomo criado em 2006, no Canadá, com o escopo de redimensionar o balanço entre o forte Governo e o frágil Parlamento no campo orçamentário. A partir de metodologia inspirada pelo novo institucionalismo, que enfatiza o papel das estruturas institucionais nos resultados políticos, esta dissertação pretende compreender as causas do surgimento do PBO, as possibilidades e limites de seu mandato, assim como sua real contribuição para o fortalecimento do controle parlamentar direto sobre a atividade financeira levada a efeito pelo primeiro ministro e seu gabinete. Ao final, conclui-se que a reforma do PBO, nos moldes propostos, atendia aos anseios do próprio Governo Conservador, carente de legitimidade eleitoral e de controle profissional. Além disso, constata-se que a nova agência não gerou os resultados esperados em relação ao Parlamento, embora tenha angariado certa legitimidade para si ao longo dos governos minoritários de Stephen Harper. Nesse contexto, propõe-se que futuras reformas voltadas ao fortalecimento do controle parlamentar financeiro busquem ampliar a participação direta do Parlamento no processo decisório, seja por meio da ampliação de seu acesso ao gabinete, seja pela via do fortalecimento dos procedimentos parlamentares, a fim de que a carreira na Legislatura seja atraente por si só. Palavras-chave: Canadá; Relações Executivo-Legislativo; Processo orçamentário canadense; Parliamentary Budget Officer - PBO.Abstract: The primary objective of this work is to investigate the degree of success of the Parliamentary Budget Officer - PBO, an autonomous bureaucratic post created in Canada in 2006 in order to restore the balance between the strong government and the weak Parliament in the budgetary realm. Based on the methodology suggested by the new institutionalism, which emphasizes the role of institutional structures in determining political results, this dissertation seeks to understand the causes underlying the emergence of the PBO, the possibilities and limits of its mandate, and its real contribution to strengthening direct parliamentary oversight of financial activities carried out by the prime minister and his cabinet. It was concluded in the end that, in the form proposed, the reform of the PBO was a response to the wishes of the Conservative Government itself, which lacked electoral legitimacy and professional oversight. In addition, it is noted that the new agency did not generate the results expected with respect to the Parliament, although it did create a certain legitimacy for itself during Stephen Harper's minority governments. In this context, we propose that future reforms geared towards strengthening parliamentary financial oversight seek to expand Parliament's direct participation in the decision-making process, whether by means of expanding its access to the cabinet or by strengthening parliamentary procedures so that a career in the Legislature will be attractive in and of itself. Keywords: Canada; Executive-Legislative relations; Canadian budgetary process; Parliamentary Budget Officer - PBO

Local diagnostic reference levels in fluoroscopy guided procedures in urology, orthopedy and neurosurgery

The use of imaging in the operating room, namely through fluoroscopy guided procedures, it's commonly used in several surgical practices. Is known that fluoroscopy is a source of ionizing radiation and therefore there's a need to keep the exposure levels on recommended values, as this type of radiation induces biological damages to cell atoms and therefore, it can cause deterministic and/or stochastic effects.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A INSTITUIÇÃO FISCAL INDEPENDENTE DO BRASIL EM PERSPECTIVA COMPARADA: EM BUSCA DE VIRTUDES E FRAGILIDADES

O presente artigo tem por objetivo investigar as virtudes e as fragilidades da Instituição Fiscal Independente (IFI) do Brasil, tendo por base a literatura internacional, as boas práticas recomendadas por organizações internacionais, a exemplo da Organização para a Cooperação e Desenvolvimento Econômico (OCDE), bem como a experiência do Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a exitosa IFI dos Estados Unidos da América. Ao final, conclui-se que a IFI brasileira possui virtudes evidentes, a exemplo da excelência técnica e da destreza gerencial. Nota-se, contudo, que a instituição pode vir a enfrentar dificuldades em razão da fragilidade jurídica de seu estatuto à luz da Constituição e da Lei de Responsabilidade Fiscal

Guidelines’ recommendations for the treatment-resistant depression: A systematic review of their quality

Copyright: © 2023 Gabriel et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Introduction: Depression is a serious and widespread mental health disorder. A significant proportion of patients with depression fail to remit after two antidepressant treatment trials, a condition named treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are instruments aimed to improve diagnosis and treatment. This study objective is to systematically appraise the quality and elaborate a comparison of high-quality CPGs with high-quality recommendations aimed at TRD. Methods and analysis: We searched several specialized databases and organizations that develop CPGs. Independent researchers assessed the quality of the CPGs and their recommendations using AGREE II and AGREE-REX instruments, respectively. We selected only high-quality CPGs that included definition and recommendations for TRD. We investigated their divergencies and convergencies as well as weak and strong points. Results: Among seven high-quality CPGs with high-quality recommendations only two (Germany's Nationale Versorgungs Leitlinie-NVL and US Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense-VA/DoD) included specific TRD definition and were selected. We found no convergent therapeutic strategy among these two CPGs. Electroconvulsive therapy is recommended by the NVL but not by the VA/DoD, while repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation is recommended by the VA/DoD but not by the NVL. While the NVL recommends the use of lithium, and a non-routine use of thyroid or other hormones, psychostimulants, and dopaminergic agents the VA/DoD does not even include these drugs among augmentation strategies. Instead, the VA/DoD recommends ketamine or esketamine as augmentation strategies, while the NVL does not mention these drugs. Other differences between these CPGs include antidepressant combination, psychotherapy as a therapeutic augmentation, and evaluation of the need for hospitalization all of which are only recommended by the NVL. Conclusions: High-quality CPGs for the treatment of depression diverge regarding the definition and use of the term TRD. There is also no convergent approach to TRD from currently high-quality CPGs.F.C.G. is a fellow of the Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Tecnologia (CNPq, grant number 141811/2020-0).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Hexapoda Yearbook (Arthropoda: Mandibulata: Pancrustacea) Brazil 2020: the first annual production survey of new Brazilian species

This paper provided a list of all new Brazilian Hexapoda species described in 2020. Furthermore, based on the information extracted by this list, we tackled additional questions regarding the taxa, the specialists involved in the species descriptions as well as the journals in which those papers have been published. We recorded a total of 680 new Brazilian species of Hexapoda described in 2020, classified in 245 genera, 112 families and 18 orders. These 680 species were published in a total of 219 articles comprising 423 different authors residing in 27 countries. Only 30% of these authors are women, which demonstrates an inequality regarding sexes. In relation to the number of authors by species, the majority of the new species had two authors and the maximum of authors by species was five. We also found inequalities in the production of described species regarding the regions of Brazil, with Southeast and South leading. The top 10 institutions regarding productions of new species have four in the Southeast, two at South and with one ate North Region being the outlier of this pattern. Out of the total 219 published articles, Zootaxa dominated with 322 described species in 95 articles. The average impact factor was of 1.4 with only seven articles being published in Impact Factors above 3, indicating a hardship on publishing taxonomic articles in high-impact journals.The highlight of this paper is that it is unprecedent, as no annual record of Hexapoda species described was ever made in previous years to Brazil.Fil: Silva Neto, Alberto Moreira. Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia; BrasilFil: Lopes Falaschi, Rafaela. Universidade Estadual do Ponta Grossa; BrasilFil: Zacca, Thamara. Universidade Federal Do Rio de Janeiro. Museu Nacional; BrasilFil: Hipólito, Juliana. Universidade Federal da Bahia; BrasilFil: Costa Lima Pequeno, Pedro Aurélio. Universidade Federal de Roraima; BrasilFil: Alves Oliveira, João Rafael. Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia; BrasilFil: Oliveira Dos Santos, Roberto. Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia; BrasilFil: Heleodoro, Raphael Aquino. Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia; BrasilFil: Jacobina, Adaiane Catarina Marcondes. Universidade Federal do Paraná; BrasilFil: Somavilla, Alexandre. Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia; BrasilFil: Camargo, Alexssandro. Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia; BrasilFil: de Oliveira Lira, Aline. Universidad Federal Rural Pernambuco; BrasilFil: Sampaio, Aline Amanda. Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia; BrasilFil: da Silva Ferreira, André. Universidad Federal Rural Pernambuco; BrasilFil: Martins, André Luis. Universidade Federal do Paraná; BrasilFil: Figueiredo de Oliveira, Andressa. Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul; BrasilFil: Gonçalves da Silva Wengrat , Ana Paula. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz; BrasilFil: Batista Rosa, Augusto Henrique. Universidade Estadual de Campinas; BrasilFil: Dias Corrêa, Caio Cezar. Universidade Federal Do Rio de Janeiro. Museu Nacional; BrasilFil: Costa De-Souza, Caroline. Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi; BrasilFil: Anjos Dos Santos, Danielle. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Centro de Investigación Esquel de Montaña y Estepa Patagónica. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia "San Juan Bosco". Centro de Investigación Esquel de Montaña y Estepa Patagónica; ArgentinaFil: Pacheco Cordeiro, Danilo. Instituto Nacional Da Mata Atlantica; BrasilFil: Silva Nogueira, David. Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia; BrasilFil: Almeida Marques, Dayse Willkenia. Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia; BrasilFil: Nunes Barbosa, Diego. Universidade Federal do Paraná; BrasilFil: Mello Mendes, Diego Matheus. Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá; BrasilFil: Galvão de Pádua, Diego. Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia; BrasilFil: Silva Vilela, Diogo. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Gomes Viegas, Eduarda Fernanda. Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia; BrasilFil: Carneiro dos Santos, Eduardo. Universidade Federal do Paraná; BrasilFil: Rodrigues Fernandes, Daniell Rodrigo. Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia; Brasi

Viral genetic clustering and transmission dynamics of the 2022 mpox outbreak in Portugal

Pathogen genome sequencing during epidemics enhances our ability to identify and understand suspected clusters and investigate their relationships. Here, we combine genomic and epidemiological data of the 2022 mpox outbreak to better understand early viral spread, diversification and transmission dynamics. By sequencing 52% of the confirmed cases in Portugal, we identified the mpox virus sublineages with the highest impact on case numbers and fitted them into a global context, finding evidence that several international sublineages probably emerged or spread early in Portugal. We estimated a 62% infection reporting rate and that 1.3% of the population of men who have sex with men in Portugal were infected. We infer the critical role played by sexual networks and superspreader gatherings, such as sauna attendance, in the dissemination of mpox virus. Overall, our findings highlight genomic epidemiology as a tool for the real-time monitoring and control of mpox epidemics, and can guide future vaccine policy in a highly susceptible population.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Rationale, study design, and analysis plan of the Alveolar Recruitment for ARDS Trial (ART): Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is associated with high in-hospital mortality. Alveolar recruitment followed by ventilation at optimal titrated PEEP may reduce ventilator-induced lung injury and improve oxygenation in patients with ARDS, but the effects on mortality and other clinical outcomes remain unknown. This article reports the rationale, study design, and analysis plan of the Alveolar Recruitment for ARDS Trial (ART). Methods/Design: ART is a pragmatic, multicenter, randomized (concealed), controlled trial, which aims to determine if maximum stepwise alveolar recruitment associated with PEEP titration is able to increase 28-day survival in patients with ARDS compared to conventional treatment (ARDSNet strategy). We will enroll adult patients with ARDS of less than 72 h duration. The intervention group will receive an alveolar recruitment maneuver, with stepwise increases of PEEP achieving 45 cmH(2)O and peak pressure of 60 cmH2O, followed by ventilation with optimal PEEP titrated according to the static compliance of the respiratory system. In the control group, mechanical ventilation will follow a conventional protocol (ARDSNet). In both groups, we will use controlled volume mode with low tidal volumes (4 to 6 mL/kg of predicted body weight) and targeting plateau pressure <= 30 cmH2O. The primary outcome is 28-day survival, and the secondary outcomes are: length of ICU stay; length of hospital stay; pneumothorax requiring chest tube during first 7 days; barotrauma during first 7 days; mechanical ventilation-free days from days 1 to 28; ICU, in-hospital, and 6-month survival. ART is an event-guided trial planned to last until 520 events (deaths within 28 days) are observed. These events allow detection of a hazard ratio of 0.75, with 90% power and two-tailed type I error of 5%. All analysis will follow the intention-to-treat principle. Discussion: If the ART strategy with maximum recruitment and PEEP titration improves 28-day survival, this will represent a notable advance to the care of ARDS patients. Conversely, if the ART strategy is similar or inferior to the current evidence-based strategy (ARDSNet), this should also change current practice as many institutions routinely employ recruitment maneuvers and set PEEP levels according to some titration method.Hospital do Coracao (HCor) as part of the Program 'Hospitais de Excelencia a Servico do SUS (PROADI-SUS)'Brazilian Ministry of Healt