Essays in Environmental Economics and Policy

This dissertation is concerned with the impacts of environmental stressors on people’s health and welfare. In particular, it focuses on air pollution and temperatures anomalies. Air pollution is considered the fifth leading mortality risk factor worldwide (Cohen et al., 2017). Despite impressive improvements in air quality over the last half-century, air pollution remains a global challenge, especially in rapidly urbanizing countries. On an even larger scale, anthropocentric emissions of greenhouse gases have been pushing a shift in the world’s climate that is projected to widen in the coming decades. The ability of economies to cope with changing temperatures is paramount to limiting the damages from climate change. The three chapters of this thesis should be read in the framework set by these challenges. In each chapter, a specific question is brought to the surface, and the road to address it is outlined. Chapter 1 investigates the negative effect of air pollution on physical ability. A large share of the world’s population is employed in manual labor. Yet, our understanding of the productivity cots of air pollution for physically intense work remains limited. The chapter identifies in track and field competitions a natural experiment where cognition plays a minor role. Combining half a million competition results with weather and air quality data, it estimates the change in physical performance induced by variations in air pollution. Chapter 2 considers the methodological tools available to estimate the causal change in air pollution concentrations following a reduction in emissions. It recognizes the challenges to identification posed by fluctuations and trends in atmospheric conditions and proposes a machine learning approach to address them. The chapter then applies this strategy to quantify the reduction in pollution and related health benefits induced by the COVID-19 lockdown of Lombardy, Italy, in spring 2020. This work is a joint effort with Lara Aleluia Reis (RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment), Valentina Bosetti (Bocconi University), and Massimo Tavoni (Politecnico di Milano). Chapter 3 is concerned with the persistence of the effects of temperature anomalies on economic growth. If an adverse temperature shock damages the determinants of economic growth, we can expect losses from climate change - a permanent shift in the mean temperature - to be cumulative over time and, therefore, very costly. Despite the primary importance of this question for modeling the climate-economy interactions, data constraints and data-hungry approaches have led to inconclusive answers. This chapter presents a new and more efficient method to test for the persistence of effects; using three different GDP datasets, evidence emerges that temperature effects are indeed persistent. This chapter has been the output of joint work with Bernardo A. Bastien-Olvera and Frances C. Moore of the University of California at Davis

UM MUNDO DE POSSIBILIDADES: A PENÍNSULA IBÉRICA NO SÉCULO XI

O presente artigo tem por objetivo esclarecer os elementos contextuais formadores de uma nova realidade religiosa, cultural, política, social e econômica em Al-Andaluz no século XI – período subsequente ao desmantelamento de um núcleo de poder centrado em Córdoba. O foco da análise será o reino taifa de Sevilha e as trajetórias de al-Mu’tamid – terceiro governante da dinastia abbadita – e o poeta Ibn Ammâr, problematizando, dessa forma, seus contextos micro-histórico, internamente ao reino, e macro, na Península Ibérica e no mundo muçulmano

Butirilcolinesterase, outras variáveis bioquímico-hormonais e índice de massa corporal em mulheres climatéricas, antes e após terapia de reposiçao hormonal

Orientadora : Vânia Manfredini AlcântaraCo-orientadora : Mariléia ScarteziniDissertaçao (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciencias da Saúde. Programa de Pós-Graduaçao em Ciencias FarmaceuticasInclui bibliografia e anexosResumo: O presente trabalho investigou a relação entre as atividades totais (ABChE) e das diferentes formas moleculares da BChE (EC 3.1.1.8), obtidas após eletroforese em gel de ágar (ARC4/5, AAC4/5, AACOF, ARC5) e gel de poliacrilamida (AB1, AB1A, AB1B, AB2, AB3, AB4, AB5, AB6, AB7, AB8, AB9, AB10, AB11) com dados bioquímico-hormonais e IMC obtidos de 60 mulheres climatéricas, euro-brasileiras, com idade média de 52,4 anos. Os dados foram obtidos em duas etapas: a primeira, sem que as mulheres houvessem feito uso de HRT e a segunda, após o uso de HRT. Em mais de 85% delas foram evidenciadas duas bandas adicionais na eletroforese em gel de poliacrilamida, sugerindo um envolvimento dessas com o aumento da idade ou fatores a ele relacionados. Uma delas apresentou banda extra na eletroforese em gel de ágar-ácido e maiores valores de LDL-C e TG sugerindo associação dessa banda com dislipidemia. Foram determinados os fenótipos do loco CHE2 dessas mulheres, obtendo-se a freqüência de 10% ± 3,9% para o fenótipo CHE2 C5+. Nas análises realizadas antes da HRT, observaram-se aumentos de ABChE, ARC4/5, AAC4/5, AACOF, IMC, CT, TG, LDL-C e diminuição de HDL-C nas mulheres climatéricas quando comparadas com as não climatéricas. Nas mulheres de fenótipo CHE2 C5-, que utilizaram HRT sem Tibolona, verificou-se uma redução nos níveis de CT e aumentos de E2 de modo significativo. As que utilizaram Tibolona mostraram uma tendência para aumentos de CT, LDL-C e diminuições de HDL-C. Assim, a Tibolona não pareceu mostrar-se eficaz na melhora do perfil lipídico. Os níveis médios de GLC, T3, atividades total da BChE e complexos C4/5 e C0F diminuíram significativamente, independente do hormônio utilizado. As atividades das diferentes bandas eletroforéticas da BChE correlacionam-se de forma diversa com as variáveis analisadas (bioquímico-hormonais, idade, IMC), dependendo das alterações metabólicas que ocorrem no organismo antes e após HRT, sugerindo a importância de se analisar o comportamento das diferentes frações. Após HRT, houve reduções significativas das atividades de B1, B1A, B7, B8 e B10. A banda B9 apresentou aumento de sua atividade com o uso de Tibolona. Nas mulheres de fenótipo CHE2 C5+ só foram observadas correlações de ARC5 com IMC (-), CT (-), TG (-), evidenciando a associação da atividade relativa do compleco C5 com o metabolismo dos lípides.Abstract: The present study investigated the relationship between total activity (ABChE) and the activities of the different BChE (EC 3.1.1.8) molecular forms, obtained after electrophoresis in agar gel (ARC4/5, AAC4/5, AAC0F, ARC5) and polyacrilamyde gel (AB1, AB1A, AB1B, AB2, AB3, AB4, AB5, AB6, AB7, AB8, AB9, AB10, AB11), with biochemist-hormonal and BMI data obtained from 60 Euro-Brazilian climateric women, aged 52.4 years old. The data were obtained in two stages: firstly, without the use of HRT and secondly, after the use of HRT. In more than 85% of these women two additional bands appeared in the polyacrilamyde gel electrophoresis, suggesting a relation of them with increasing age or factors related to it. One of these women presented an extra band in agar acid gel electrophoresis. She showed increased values of LDL-C and TG as compared the other, suggesting association of this band with dislipidemic. The CHE2 locus phenotypes were determined and the frequency of the CHE2 C5+ phenotype was 10% ± 3,9%. Before HRT use, most CHE2 C5- climateric women showed increases in ABChE, ARC4/5, AAC4/5, AAC0F, IMC; CT, TG and LDL-C and decreases of HDL-C as compared with no climateric women. After the use of HRT without Tibolona, presented decrease in CT levels and increase in E2 levels were observed. The women who used HRT with Tibolona showed a tendency for CT and LDL-C increases and decreases of HDL-C. So, the use of Tibolona did not improv the lipidic profile. The mean levels of GLC and T3L decreased independently of the hormone used. The activities of the different electrophoretic bands of BChE are differently correlated with the analyzed variables (biochemist-hormonal, age, BMI), depending on metabolic alterations that occur in the organism before and after HRT, suggesting the importance of analyzing the behavior of the different fractions. Significant reductions of the activities of B1, B1A, B7, B8 and B10 were seen after the use of HRT. The B9 band presented increase of its activity with the use of Tibolona. In the CHE2 C5+ climateric women, correlations of ARC5 were only observed with IMC (-), CT (-) and TG (-), showing the association between C5 complex activity and the lipid metabolism

Copper deficiency-associated myelopathy in cryptogenic hyperzincemia: A case report

Copper deficiency syndrome is an underestimated cause of posterior myelitis. We describe the case of a 41-year-old woman, who developed a subacute ataxic paraparesis associated with low back pain. Her 3T spine MRI showed a thin hyperintense FS-Echo T2 longitudinally extensive lesion involving the posterior columns of the cervical cord (from C2 to C6). An extensive diagnostic work-up excluded other causes of myelopathy and blood tests pointed out hypocupremia and mild hyperzincemia. Patients affected by this rare form of oligoelement deficiency typically develop progressive posterior column dysfunction with sensory ataxia and spasticity, sometimes associated with sensori-motor polyneuropathy. Clinical and radiological characteristics of posterior myelopathy due to copper deficiency are briefly reviewed. Physicians should be aware of this condition since a prompt introduction of copper supplementation can avoid progression of the neurological damage. (www.actabiomedica.it)

The importance of communication in the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis

The recent improvements in multiple sclerosis therapy have lead to consequent improvements in its prognosis: however, it still remains a chronic and unpredictable disease. The moment of the diagnosis is the starting point of a durable relationship between the physician and the patient, but, most of all, it is often referred to as the most traumatic experience in patients’ life. Patients’ compliance to prescribed therapies, so important in the course of every chronic condition, particularly hangs on the psychological approach used by the doctor in communicating and explaining the diagnosis for the first time, in addition to the patient’s personality. A brief overview on the main types of physicians’ and patients’ behaviours and communications styles is provided in this article