Corporate governance, market valuation and dividend policy in Brazil

This study investigates the effects of the corporate governance structure on market valuation and dividend payout of Brazilian companies. The empirical results indicate a high degree of ownership and control concentration. We can also note a significant difference between the voting and total capital owned by the largest shareholders, mainly through the existence of non-voting shares, pyramidal structures, and shareholding agreements. These mechanisms seem to be used by controlling shareholders to keep the firm’s control without having to own 50% of the total capital. The evidence also reveals that there is a relationship between governance structure, market valuation, and dividend policy in Brazil.Indisponível

Cost-effectiveness of community-based screening and treatment of moderate acute malnutrition in Mali.

IntroductionModerate acute malnutrition (MAM) causes substantial child morbidity and mortality, accounting for 4.4% of deaths and 6.0% of disability-adjusted life years (DALY) lost among children under 5 each year. There is growing consensus on the need to provide appropriate treatment of MAM, both to reduce associated morbidity and mortality and to halt its progression to severe acute malnutrition. We estimated health outcomes, costs and cost-effectiveness of four dietary supplements for MAM treatment in children 6-35 months of age in Mali.MethodsWe conducted a cluster-randomised MAM treatment trial to describe nutritional outcomes of four dietary supplements for the management of MAM: ready-to-use supplementary foods (RUSF; PlumpySup); a specially formulated corn-soy blend (CSB) containing dehulled soybean flour, maize flour, dried skimmed milk, soy oil and a micronutrient pre-mix (CSB++; Super Cereal Plus); Misola, a locally produced, micronutrient-fortified, cereal-legume blend (MI); and locally milled flour (LMF), a mixture of millet, beans, oil and sugar, with a separate micronutrient powder. We used a decision tree model to estimate long-term outcomes and calculated incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) comparing the health and economic outcomes of each strategy.ResultsCompared to no MAM treatment, MAM treatment with RUSF, CSB++, MI and LMF reduced the risk of death by 15.4%, 12.7%, 11.9% and 10.3%, respectively. The ICER was US$9821 per death averted (2015 USD) and US$347 per DALY averted for RUSF compared with no MAM treatment.ConclusionMAM treatment with RUSF is cost-effective across a wide range of willingness-to-pay thresholds.Trial registrationNCT01015950

Review of research on migration influences and implications for population dynamics in the wider South East

The Wider South East (WSE) is a large, diverse, dynamic, well networked and polycentric region – although with over a third of its population in one central conurbation. The effect of this combination of characteristics is to give it a highly integrated migration system, with sub-regions occupying different roles and to varying degrees of dynamism, but interacting with the other sub-regions and responding to some shared external factors - in ways that need to be better understood

Biomarkers of systemic inflammation and growth in early infancy are associated with stunting in young Tanzanian children

Stunting can afflict up to one-third of children in resource-constrained countries. We hypothesized that low-grade systemic inflammation (defined as elevations in serum C-reactive protein or alpha-1-acid glycoprotein) in infancy suppresses the growth hormone–insulin-like growth factor (IGF) axis and is associated with subsequent stunting. Blood samples of 590 children from periurban Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, were obtained at 6 weeks and 6 months of age as part of a randomized controlled trial. Primary outcomes were stunting, underweight, and wasting (defined as length-for-age, weight-for-age and weight-for-length z-scores < −2) between randomization and endline (18 months after randomization). Cox proportional hazards models were constructed to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of time to first stunting, underweight, and wasting as outcomes, with measures of systemic inflammation, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) as exposures, adjusting for numerous demographic and clinical variables. The incidences of subsequent stunting, underweight, and wasting were 26%, 20%, and 18%, respectively. In multivariate analyses, systemic inflammation at 6 weeks of age was significantly associated with stunting (HR: 2.14, 95% CI: 1.23, 3.72; p = 0.002). Children with higher levels of IGF-1 at 6 weeks were less likely to become stunted (HR: 0.58, 95% CI: 0.37, 0.93; p for trend = 0.019); a similar trend was noted in children with higher levels of IGF-1 at 6 months of age (HR: 0.50, 95% CI: 0.22, 1.12; p for trend = 0.07). Systemic inflammation occurs as early as 6 weeks of age and is associated with the risk of future stunting among Tanzanian children.This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health (R01 HD048969, 2P30 DK040561, K24 DK104676-Dr. Duggan) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1066203-Dr. Duggan). (R01 HD048969 - National Institutes of Health; 2P30 DK040561 - National Institutes of Health; K24 DK104676 - National Institutes of Health; OPP1066203 - Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation)Accepted manuscrip

Ten simple rules for learning the language of statistics

In this paper we propose ten simple ‘rules’ for guiding students’ learning of the language of statistics. Learning any new subject brings with it the requirement to learn the language associated with that subject. Students also bring with them varying understandings about the relationship between statistics and mathematics. Many students expect the formality and precision of mathematics to transfer to statistics, and are baffled to discover this is not the case. The first four rules will guide instructors and learners around the landscape of tricky terms, from general English to the English of mathematics, statistics and other disciplines. The remaining six rules will establish some signposts along the way to assisting students to overcome the challenges of the language of statistics. We acknowledge that there is no single route to enforce here, and that management of expectations, embracing ambiguity in terminology, and reinforcement of new language through writing and speaking all have a role to play in teaching and learning the language of statistics

Catchment land use effects on fluxes and concentrations of organic and inorganic nitrogen in streams

We present annual downstream fluxes and spatial variation in concentrations of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (NH4+ and NO3−) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) in two adjacent Scottish catchments with contrasting land use (agricultural grassland vs. semi-natural moorland). Inter- and intra-catchment variation in N species and the relation to spatial differences in agricultural land use were studied by determining catchment N input through agricultural activities at the field scale and atmospheric inputs at a 25 m grid resolution. The average agricultural N input of 52 kg N ha−1 yr−1 to the grassland catchment was more than 4 times higher than the input of 12 kg N ha−1 yr−1 to the moorland catchment, supplemented by 12.3 and 8.2 kg N ha−1 yr−1 through atmospheric deposition, respectively. The grassland catchment was associated with an annual downstream total dissolved nitrogen (TDN) flux of 14.4 kg N ha−1 yr−1, which was 66% higher than the flux of 8.7 kg ha−1 yr−1 from the moorland catchment. This difference was largely due to the NO3− flux being one order of magnitude higher in the grassland catchment. Dissolved organic N fluxes were similar for the two catchments (7.0 kg ha−1 yr−1) with DON contributing 49% to the TDN flux in the grassland compared with 81% in the moorland catchment. The results highlight the importance of diffuse agricultural N inputs to stream NO3− concentrations and the importance of quantifying all the major aquatic N species for developing a better understanding of N transformations and transport in the atmosphere-soil-water system

Educating Dairy and Beef Producers on Environmental Issues and Regulatory Concerns for Smaller Farms

Livestock producers in Iowa have seen a progression of regulations and compliance enforcement throughout the past two decades. Awareness through Extension meetings and information put out by commodity groups has played a substantial role in bringing confinement feeding operations and large CAFO feedlots into compliance. For small to medium-sized feedlots and dairies that may or may not be classified as CAFOs, the education and outreach was not formalized prior to the EPA beginning their recent compliance reviews. This issue surfaced because of EPA interpretation of regulations and the subsequent impact on livestock producers. The message from EPA was not well defined and still remains a challenge for livestock producers, extension personnel, and agribusiness (advisers) and agency staff

Associations of Suboptimal Growth with All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality in Children under Five Years: A Pooled Analysis of Ten Prospective Studies

Background: Child undernutrition affects millions of children globally. We investigated associations between suboptimal growth and mortality by pooling large studies. Methods: Pooled analysis involving children 1 week to 59 months old in 10 prospective studies in Africa, Asia and South America. Utilizing most recent measurements, we calculated weight-for-age, height/length-for-age and weight-for-height/length Z scores, applying 2006 WHO Standards and the 1977 NCHS/WHO Reference. We estimated all-cause and cause-specific mortality hazard ratios (HR) using proportional hazards models comparing children with mild (−2≤Z<−1), moderate (−3≤Z<−2), or severe (Z<−3) anthropometric deficits with the reference category (Z≥−1). Results: 53 809 children were eligible for this re-analysis and contributed a total of 55 359 person-years, during which 1315 deaths were observed. All degrees of underweight, stunting and wasting were associated with significantly higher mortality. The strength of association increased monotonically as Z scores decreased. Pooled mortality HR was 1.52 (95% Confidence Interval 1.28, 1.81) for mild underweight; 2.63 (2.20, 3.14) for moderate underweight; and 9.40 (8.02, 11.03) for severe underweight. Wasting was a stronger determinant of mortality than stunting or underweight. Mortality HR for severe wasting was 11.63 (9.84, 13.76) compared with 5.48 (4.62, 6.50) for severe stunting. Using older NCHS standards resulted in larger HRs compared with WHO standards. In cause-specific analyses, all degrees of anthropometric deficits increased the hazards of dying from respiratory tract infections and diarrheal diseases. The study had insufficient power to precisely estimate effects of undernutrition on malaria mortality. Conclusions: All degrees of anthropometric deficits are associated with increased risk of under-five mortality using the 2006 WHO Standards. Even mild deficits substantially increase mortality, especially from infectious diseases

Heterogeneity of atmospheric ammonia at the landscape scale and consequences for environmental impact assessment

We examined the consequences of the spatial heterogeneity of atmospheric ammonia (NH3) by measuring and modelling NH3 concentrations and deposition at 25 m grid resolution for a rural landscape containing intensive poultry farming, agricultural grassland, woodland and moorland. The emission pattern gave rise to a high spatial variability of modelled mean annual NH3 concentrations and dry deposition. Largest impacts were predicted for woodland patches located within the agricultural area, while larger moorland areas were at low risk, due to atmospheric dispersion, prevailing wind direction and low NH3 background. These high resolution spatial details are lost in national scale estimates at 1 km resolution due to less detailed emission input maps. The results demonstrate how the spatial arrangement of sources and sinks is critical to defining the NH3 risk to semi-natural ecosystems. These spatial relationships provide the foundation for local spatial planning approaches to reduce environmental impacts of atmospheric NH3