Rare and low-frequency coding variants alter human adult height

Height is a highly heritable, classic polygenic trait with ~700 common associated variants identified so far through genome - wide association studies . Here , we report 83 height - associated coding variants with lower minor allele frequenc ies ( range of 0.1 - 4.8% ) and effects of up to 2 16 cm /allele ( e.g. in IHH , STC2 , AR and CRISPLD2 ) , >10 times the average effect of common variants . In functional follow - up studies, rare height - increasing alleles of STC2 (+1 - 2 cm/allele) compromise d proteolytic inhibition of PAPP - A and increased cleavage of IGFBP - 4 in vitro , resulting in higher bioavailability of insulin - like growth factors . The se 83 height - associated variants overlap genes mutated in monogenic growth disorders and highlight new biological candidates ( e.g. ADAMTS3, IL11RA, NOX4 ) and pathways ( e.g . proteoglycan/ glycosaminoglycan synthesis ) involved in growth . Our results demonstrate that sufficiently large sample sizes can uncover rare and low - frequency variants of moderate to large effect associated with polygenic human phenotypes , and that these variants implicate relevant genes and pathways

Discutindo a educação ambiental no cotidiano escolar: desenvolvimento de projetos na escola formação inicial e continuada de professores

A presente pesquisa buscou discutir como a Educação Ambiental (EA) vem sendo trabalhada, no Ensino Fundamental e como os docentes desta escola compreendem e vem inserindo a EA no cotidiano escolar., em uma escola estadual do município de Tangará da Serra/MT, Brasil. Para tanto, realizou-se entrevistas com os professores que fazem parte de um projeto interdisciplinar de EA na escola pesquisada. Verificou-se que o projeto da escola não vem conseguindo alcançar os objetivos propostos por: desconhecimento do mesmo, pelos professores; formação deficiente dos professores, não entendimento da EA como processo de ensino-aprendizagem, falta de recursos didáticos, planejamento inadequado das atividades. A partir dessa constatação, procurou-se debater a impossibilidade de tratar do tema fora do trabalho interdisciplinar, bem como, e principalmente, a importância de um estudo mais aprofundado de EA, vinculando teoria e prática, tanto na formação docente, como em projetos escolares, a fim de fugir do tradicional vínculo “EA e ecologia, lixo e horta”.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Financial reporting quality in corrupt firms : evidence from the Foreign corrupt practices act.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Simon School of Business, 2016.I study the relation between corporate corruption and financial reporting using a handcollected sample of U.S. public firms prosecuted for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. I document that internal control deficiency is a key determinant of corruption because weak accounting information systems create opportunities for committing bribery. I argue that corrupt firms exhibit lower financial reporting quality during corrupt years for two reasons. First, corrupt firms increase opacity to reduce the likelihood of bribery detection, and manipulate accounting numbers to cover up bribe payments and benefits obtained. Second, ethics and integrity in conducting business transactions are associated with financial reporting integrity. In addition, I find that investor perception of financial reporting credibility is lower for corrupt firms. Taken together, my results provide new evidence on the interactions between accounting information and real decisions. My study also provides insights on the role of business ethics in the production of financial information

Global Expertise of Financial Analysts

We describe the challenges of forecasting earnings in a globally interconnected marketplace, and we document inefficient use of information regarding foreign country exposures and expected country GDP growth at the consensus and individual forecast levels. A country’s proximity to the US, importance to the firm, and visibility, as well as availability of more precise information about foreign country exposures, contribute to consensus forecast efficiency. We identify a dimension of individual analyst global expertise — similarity in exposure between the firm and the rest of the firms in the analyst portfolio — and show that it contributes to forecast efficiency, accuracy, and informativeness and that it helps the analyst achieve the coveted all-star rank, suggesting that globalization not only poses a challenge but also creates an opportunity for research providers and analysts to distinguish themselves

What determine financial analysts' career outcomes during mergers?

We investigate the effects of mergers on the career outcomes of financial analysts. We hypothesize and find that analysts with good earnings forecast performance experience higher turnover during mergers, target analysts are more likely to turnover and the existence of a competing analyst in a merger counter party also increases analyst turnover. We analyze the promotion of analysts to research executive positions and find that analysts with greater experience and especially experienced stars are more likely to be promoted. Finally, we document that analyst turnover is associated with decreases in research quality at the merged firms post-merger.Analyst quality Earnings forecast accuracy Turnover Merger I/B/E/S