Summary of the workshop on methodologies for environmental public health tracking of air pollution effects

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established the Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT) program to support state and local projects that characterize the impact of the environment on health. The projects involve compiling, linking, analyzing, and disseminating environmental and health surveillance information, thereby engaging stakeholders and guiding actions to improve public health. One of the EPHT objectives is to track the public health impact of ambient air pollution with analyses that are timely and relevant to state and local stakeholders. To address methodological issues relevant to this objective, in January 2008, government officials and researchers from the USA, Canada, and Europe gathered in Baltimore, Maryland for a 2-day workshop. Using commissioned papers and presentations on key methodological issues as well as examples of previous air pollution impact assessments, work group discussions produced a set of consensus recommendations for the EPHT program. These recommendations noted the need for data that will encourage local stakeholders to support continued progress in air pollution control. The limitations of using only local data for analyses were also noted. To improve local estimates of air pollution health impacts, methods were recommended that “borrow strength” from other evidence. An incremental approach to implementing such methods was recommended. The importance and difficulty of communicating uncertainties in local health impact assessments was emphasized, as was the need for coordination among different agencies conducting health impact assessments

Prevalence of molecular markers of antimalarial drug resistance across altitudinal transmission zones in Highland Western Uganda

We explored spatial variation in the prevalence of established molecular markers of antimalarial resistance across a geographically diverse, highland region of western Uganda.Weidentified Plasmodium falciparumCQresistance transporter 76T mutations in all pools, but there was no evidence of spatial differences across village-based strata defined by either altitude or river valley. In contrast, we identified a significant inverse association between altitude and the prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum multidrug resistance 1 mutations with the largest proportion of Y184F mutations observed in the low-elevation, high-transmission villages. These results demonstrate the substantial heterogeneity in resistance markers observed across geographic settings, even at relatively small scales, but highlight the complex nature of these ecological relationships

Historicizing Liberal American Transnormativities: Media, Medicine, Activism, 1960-1990

Historicizing Liberal American Transnormativities: Medicine, Media, Activism, 1960-1990Nicholas MatteDoctor of PhilosophyGraduate Department of HistoryUniversity of Toronto2014AbstractHow did trans people emerge as a minority group in the United States between 1960 and 1990? Trans people and advocates have been articulating ways to improve the social lives of trans people throughout the second half of the twentieth century by drawing on discourses of American liberalism. "Historicizing Liberal American Transnormativities" provides insight into the norms, definitions, expectations and tactics developed by trans advocates in social and cultural conditions not of their choosing. It draws on trans-centric primary sources including conference proceedings, newsletters and magazines produced by, for, or about trans people, as well as mainstream media coverage of trans people and issues. These sources enrich existing accounts of pathologization, gay liberation, employment discrimination, sex activism, and other topics of broad concern.The first two chapters show that the Erickson Educational Foundation (EEF) worked with trans advocates and "helping professionals" in fields such as medicine, law, religion, and social work to promote social acceptance on the basis of medicalized notions of transsexuality, gender dysphoria, and various diagnostic and treatment options. The third chapter looks at the worlds of female impersonators, transvestites, and the Queens Liberation Front to argue that trans people like Lee Brewster and Sandy Mesics developed their politics in the contexts of commercial and entertainment cultures, gay liberation, feminism, and pornography. The final chapter looks at a series of cases in which a number of white transsexuals, including Paula Grossman, Steve Dain, Joanna Clark, Karen Ulane, and Bobbie Lea Bennett, each fought against the discrimination they faced in employment and health care. They asked the courts to apply the Civil Rights Act and the Rehabilitation Act to their situations and they became galvanizing public figures in social debates about the nature of gendered participation in American economy and society. Overall, "Historicizing Liberal American Transnormativities" shows that American liberalism has been central to trans advocacy and the formation of trans people as a minority group in the United States between 1960 and 1990.Ph.D

Instrumentos de investimento no mercado brasileiro de private equity e venture capital

O objetivo deste trabalho é entender como os gestores brasileiros de fundos de Private Equity e Venture Capital utilizam os instrumentos de investimento, buscando alinhar os seus objetivos de investimento junto aos empreendedores. A pesquisa foi realizada através de um questionário aplicado às gestoras de recursos, das quais, vinte e uma responderam o instrumento. A amostra obtida é composta por 94 operações, sendo que as ações ordinárias foram utilizadas em 76% dos casos, ações preferenciais e debêntures em 11%. Nessa amostra apenas 16% desses instrumentos eram conversíveis em ações ordinárias, em sua maioria debêntures. Esse resultado é bastante diferente do encontrado em pesquisas semelhantes no mercado dos Estados Unidos, o que sugere que o mercado brasileiro não se encontra no mesmo patamar de maturidade do norte-americano. Portanto, é possível sugerir que existe a possibilidade de uma utilização mais eficiente dos instrumentos, visto que a teoria financeira existente aponta que instrumentos conversíveis apresentam vantagens em relação à simples utilização de ações ordinárias, sendo estes instrumentos, os mais utilizados nos Estados Unidos

Simulação de estratégia de investimentos baseada em anúncios de plano de recompra de ações

O objetivo deste trabalho é realizar um teste de eficiência de mercado comparando o retorno e o risco de uma carteira resultante de uma estratégia de investimento baseada em empresas que anunciam recompra de suas próprias ações com o IBOVESPA. A carteira foi montada a partir de 77 operações entre janeiro de 2007 e junho de 2012. O resultado encontrado é que a carteira da estratégia teve um retorno superior ao do IBOVESPA com um desvio-padrão inferior quando da análise dos dados de forma diária, semanal e mensal, apenas na dimensão anual é que o IBOVESPA apresentou desvio padrão inferior ao da carteira da estratégia. Portanto, o resultado não corrobora com a tese da eficiência de mercado.The purpose of this study is to provide a market efficiency test by comparing the return and the risk of a portfolio resulting from an investment strategy of companies that advertise the repurchased of its own shares with IBOVESPA. The portfolio was assembled from 77 transactions between January, 2007 and July, 2012. The finding is that the strategy portfolio had a superior return than IBOVESPA with a lower standard deviation when analyzing the data on a daily, weekly and monthly. Only on an annual analysis is that IBOVESPA presented a lower standard deviation than the strategy portfolio. Therefore, the result does not corroborate with the theory of market efficiency

Simulação de estratégia de investimentos baseada em anúncios de plano de recompra de ações

O objetivo deste trabalho é realizar um teste de eficiência de mercado comparando o retorno e o risco de uma carteira resultante de uma estratégia de investimento baseada em empresas que anunciam recompra de suas próprias ações com o IBOVESPA. A carteira foi montada a partir de 77 operações entre janeiro de 2007 e junho de 2012. O resultado encontrado é que a carteira da estratégia teve um retorno superior ao do IBOVESPA com um desvio-padrão inferior quando da análise dos dados de forma diária, semanal e mensal, apenas na dimensão anual é que o IBOVESPA apresentou desvio padrão inferior ao da carteira da estratégia. Portanto, o resultado não corrobora com a tese da eficiência de mercado.The purpose of this study is to provide a market efficiency test by comparing the return and the risk of a portfolio resulting from an investment strategy of companies that advertise the repurchased of its own shares with IBOVESPA. The portfolio was assembled from 77 transactions between January, 2007 and July, 2012. The finding is that the strategy portfolio had a superior return than IBOVESPA with a lower standard deviation when analyzing the data on a daily, weekly and monthly. Only on an annual analysis is that IBOVESPA presented a lower standard deviation than the strategy portfolio. Therefore, the result does not corroborate with the theory of market efficiency

Instrumentos de investimento no mercado brasileiro de private equity e venture capital

O objetivo deste trabalho é entender como os gestores brasileiros de fundos de Private Equity e Venture Capital utilizam os instrumentos de investimento, buscando alinhar os seus objetivos de investimento junto aos empreendedores. A pesquisa foi realizada através de um questionário aplicado às gestoras de recursos, das quais, vinte e uma responderam o instrumento. A amostra obtida é composta por 94 operações, sendo que as ações ordinárias foram utilizadas em 76% dos casos, ações preferenciais e debêntures em 11%. Nessa amostra apenas 16% desses instrumentos eram conversíveis em ações ordinárias, em sua maioria debêntures. Esse resultado é bastante diferente do encontrado em pesquisas semelhantes no mercado dos Estados Unidos, o que sugere que o mercado brasileiro não se encontra no mesmo patamar de maturidade do norte-americano. Portanto, é possível sugerir que existe a possibilidade de uma utilização mais eficiente dos instrumentos, visto que a teoria financeira existente aponta que instrumentos conversíveis apresentam vantagens em relação à simples utilização de ações ordinárias, sendo estes instrumentos, os mais utilizados nos Estados Unidos

Crystal structure of a trimeric form of dephosphocoenzyme A kinase from Escherichia coli

Coenzyme A (CoA) is an essential cofactor used in a wide variety of biochemical pathways. The final step in the biosynthesis of CoA is catalyzed by dephosphocoenzyme A kinase (DPCK, E.C. 2.7.1.24). Here we report the crystal structure of DPCK from Escherichia coli at 1.8 Å resolution. This enzyme forms a tightly packed trimer in its crystal state, in contrast to its observed monomeric structure in solution and to the monomeric, homologous DPCK structure from Haemophilus influenzae. We have confirmed the existence of the trimeric form of the enzyme in solution using gel filtration chromatography measurements. Dephospho-CoA kinase is structurally similar to many nucleoside kinases and other P-loop-containing nucleotide triphosphate hydrolases, despite having negligible sequence similarity to these enzymes. Each monomer consists of five parallel β-strands flanked by α-helices, with an ATP-binding site formed by a P-loop motif. Orthologs of the E. coli DPCK sequence exist in a wide range of organisms, including humans. Multiple alignment of orthologous DPCK sequences reveals a set of highly conserved residues in the vicinity of the nucleotide/CoA binding site