Traincar Sentimentalists

A young man and a young woman, an architect and an actress respectively, meet on a train and discover that they are what each has been looking for. A lighthearted love scene, set in the 1950s

Do Stock Returns Hedge against High and Low Inflation? Evidence from Brazilian Companies

This paper investigates the relationship between stock returns and inflation using monthly data from ten Brazilian firms and the general Brazilian stock market. The period under investigation, 1986-2008, includes periods of unstable high inflation (1986-1994) and stable low inflation (1994-2008). Standard linear regressions are applied to estimate the relationship after testing first for the stochastic structure of the variables. Results indicate that stock returns do act as a hedge against high inflation but fail to act against low inflation. Variance decomposition tests indicate innovations to the inflation rate affect the movement of the stock returns during the total period and the high inflation period.

University & community: an ethnic-racial theme from the perspective of the ethnomathematics program

In this text, we create a dialogue in relation to ethnic and racial education. The work represented here originates from experiences during a postdoctoral research project (2014-2015) conducted at the Faculdade de Educação (College of Education), at the Universidade de São Paulo (University of São Paulo) and the Instituto de Educação (Institute of Education) at the Universidade de Lisboa (University of Lisbon). From the perspective of an ethnomathematics program, which primary goal is to unleash transdisciplinary aspects, the dialogue presented here focuses on the movement of coming and going between the University and the Community. We also present here facts and data from five Centers for African-Brazilian Studies and the African Center Studies of the Universidade do Porto (University of Porto), seeking to highlight the political, pedagogical, and cultural interfaces of their constitution in Brazil and Portugal and their actions for teacher education with African-racial themes. The school community is evidenced by elements gathered from the activities developed in the project Fronteiras Urbanas (Urban Boundaries) in Portugal. We found that the centers in the school community we investigated have thought about education and teaching that can be re-signified in terms of an ethnomathematics program. This can be done best by proposing an exchange of experiences and the opening of knowledge and to the decolonized curriculum, strengthening the teaching of the individual by providing a new look to the world and its diversity

Correlates of screening mammography for Italian and Anglo-Australian women

The first aim of the research was to determine the applicability of certain variables from the Health Belief Model (HBM), the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), the risk dimensions from the Psychometric Paradigm, the Common-Sense Model of Illness Representations and the Locus of Control to Italian women’s beliefs and behaviours in relation to screening mammography. These models have predominantly been derived and evaluated with English-speaking persons. The study used quantitative and qualitative methods to enable explanation of research-driven and participant-driven issues. The second aim was to include Italian women in health behaviour research and to contrast the Italian sample with the Anglo-Australian sample to determine if differences exist in relation to their beliefs. In Australia many studies in health behaviour research do not include women whose first language is not English. The third aim was to evaluate the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria’s (ACCV) Community Language Program (CLP) by: (a) identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the program as seen by the participants; and (b) assessing the impact of the program on women’s knowledge and beliefs about breast cancer, early detection of breast cancer, self-reported and intended breast screening behaviours. The CLP is an information service that uses women’s first language to convey information to women whose first language is not English. The CLP was designed to increase knowledge about breast and cervical cancer. The research used a pre-test-intervention-post-test design with 174 Italian-born and 138 Anglo-Australian women aged 40 years and over. Interviews for the Italian sample were conducted in Italian. The intervention was an information session that related to breast health and screening mammography. Demographic variables were collected in the Pre-Test only. Qualitative open-ended questions that related specifically to the information session were collected in the Post-Test phase of the study. Direct logistic regression was used with the participants’ beliefs and behaviours to identify the relevant variables for language (Italian speaking and English-speaking), attendance to an information session, mammography screening and breast self-examination (BSE) behaviour. Pre- and Post-Test comparisons were conducted using chi-square tests for the non-parametric data and paired sample t-tests for the parametric data. Differences were found between the Italian and Anglo-Australian women in relation to their beliefs about breast cancer screening. The Italian women were: (1) more likely to state that medical experts understood the causes of breast cancer; (2) more likely to feel that they had less control over their personal risk of getting breast cancer; (3) more likely to be upset and frightened by thinking about breast cancer; (4) less likely to perceive breast cancer as serious; (4) more likely to only do what their doctor told them to do; and (5) less likely to agree that there were times when a person has cancer and they don’t know it. A pattern emerged for the Italian and Anglo-Australian women from the logistic regression analyses. The Italian women were much more likely to comply with medical authority and advice. The Anglo-Australian women were more likely to feel that they had some control over their health. Specifically, the risk variable ‘dread’ was more applicable to the Italian women’s behaviour and internal locus of control variable was more relevant to the Anglo-Australian women. The qualitative responses also differed for the two samples. The Italian women’s comments were more general, less specific, and more limited than that of the Anglo-Australian women. The Italian women talked about learning how to do BSE whereas the Anglo-Australian women said that attending the session had reminded them to do BSE more regularly. The key findings and contributions of the present research were numerous. The focus on one cultural group ensured comprehensive analyses, as did the inclusion of an adequate sample size to enable the use of multivariate statistics. Separating the Italian and Anglo-Australian samples in the analyses provided theoretical implications that would have been overlooked if the two groups were combined. The use of both qualitative and quantitative data capitalised on the strengths of both techniques. The inclusion of an Anglo-Australian group highlighted key theoretical findings, differences between the two groups and unique contributions made by both samples during the collection of the qualitative data. The use of a pre-test-intervention-post-test design emphasised the reticence of the Italian sample to participate and talk about breast cancer and confirmed and validated the consistency of the responses across the two interviews for both samples. The inclusion of non-cued responses allowed the researcher to identify the key salient issues relevant to the two groups. The limitations of the present research were the lack of many women who were not screening and reliance on self-report responses, although few differences were observed between the Pre- and Post-Test comparisons. The theoretical contribution of the HBM and the TRA variables was minimal in relation to screening mammography or attendance at the CLP. The applicability of these health behaviour theories may be less relevant for women today as they clearly knew the benefits of and the seriousness of breast cancer screening. The present research identified the applicability of the risk variables to the Italian women and the relevance of the locus of control variables to the Anglo-Australian women. Thus, clear cultural differences occurred between the two groups. The inclusion of the illness representations was advantageous as the responses highlighted ideas and personal theories salient to the women not identified by the HBM. The use of the illness representations and the qualitative responses further confirmed the relevance of the risk variables to the Italian women and the locus of control variables to the Anglo-Australian women. Attendance at the CLP did not influence the women to attend for mammography screening. Behavioural changes did not occur between the Pre- and Post-Test interviews. Small incremental changes as defined by the TTM and the stages of change may have occurred. Key practical implications for the CLP were identified. Improving the recruitment methods to gain a higher proportion of women who do not screen is imperative for the CLP promoters. The majority of the Italian and Anglo-Australian women who attended the information sessions were women who screen. The fact that Italian women do not like talking or thinking about cancer presents a challenge to promoters of the CLP. The key theoretical finding that Italian women dread breast cancer but comply with their doctor provides clear strategies to improve attendance at mammography screening. In addition, the inclusion of lay health advisors may be one way of increasing attendance to the CLP by including Italian women already attending screening and likely to have attended a CLP session. The present research identified the key finding that improving Anglo-Australian attendance at an information session is related to debunking the myth surrounding familial risk of breast cancer and encouraging the Anglo-Australian women to take more control of their health. Improving attendance for Italian women is related to reducing the fear and dread of breast cancer and building on the compliance pattern with medical authority. Therefore, providing an information session in the target language is insufficient to attract non-screeners to the session and then to screen for breast cancer. Suggestions for future research in relation to screening mammography were to include variables from more than one theory or model, namely the risk, locus of control and illness representations. The inclusion of non-cued responses to identify salient beliefs is advantageous. In addition, it is imperative to describe the profile of the cultural sample in detail, include detailed descriptions of the translation process and be aware of the tendency of Italian women to acquiesce with medical authority

Estimação do coeficiente de resposta aos lucros: uma análise exploratória e comparativa nos BRICS

This paper estimates and compares the long-term market reaction to earnings innovation (ERC) in the five main emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) – and analyzes the effects of nonlinearity of unexpected earnings, negative earnings and firm size on ERC. The tests are based on 31,159 firm-year observations from 1995 to 2013 from a total sample of 2,290 listed firms and the econometric estimation process is based on countryspecific longitudinal ordinary least squares regressions. The results showed that accounting information has marginal implications for stock prices in all countries; however, the determinants of ERC vary along time and across countries as context-specific components. The results also show that (i) the nonlinear effects of unexpected earnings in ERC are a common trend in all evaluated countries but Russia; (ii) the negative earnings effects on ERC are documented in Brazil, India and Russia, whereas they do not hold true for China and South Africa; and (iii) only in China a significant effect of firm size is observed in the way market agents incorporate earnings information in the long run.Keywords: accounting earnings, earnings response coefficient, emerging markets, BRICS.Este artigo estima e compara a resposta de longo prazo do mercado de capitais às inovações nos lucros contábeis (ERC) das cinco principais economias emergentes, Brasil, Rússia, Índia, China e África do Sul (BRICS) e analisa os efeitos da não linearidade dos lucros anormais, dos resultados negativos e do tamanho das empresas no ERC. Os testes estão baseados em 331.159 observações de uma amostra total de 2.290 empresas listadas entre 1995 e 2013 e o processo de estimação econométrica está baseado em regressões longitudinais específicas para cada país por meio de mínimos quadrados ordinários. Os resultados mostram que a informação contábil possui implicações marginais relevantes no preço das ações de todos os países analisados; no entanto, os determinantes do ERC variam ao longo do tempo e entre as empresas como componentes específicos a cada contexto. Os resultados também mostram que (i) os efeitos não lineares dos lucros anormais no ERC são comuns a todos os países, exceto Rússia; (ii) os efeitos de resultados negativos nos ERC são documentados no Brasil, Índia e Rússia, enquanto que não se aplicam à China e à África do Sul; e (iii) a presença de efeitos significativos do tamanho das empresas na forma em que os agentes incorporam as informações de lucro no longo prazo é observada apenas na China.Palavras-chave: lucros contábeis, coeficiente de resposta aos lucros, mercados emergentes, BRICS

REEF: searching REgionally Enriched Features in genomes

BACKGROUND: In Eukaryotic genomes, different features including genes are not uniformly distributed. The integration of annotation information and genomic position of functional DNA elements in the Eukaryotic genomes opened the way to test novel hypotheses of higher order genome organization and regulation of expression. RESULTS: REEF is a new tool, aimed at identifying genomic regions enriched in specific features, such as a class or group of genes homogeneous for expression and/or functional characteristics. The method for the calculation of local feature enrichment uses test statistic based on the Hypergeometric Distribution applied genome-wide by using a sliding window approach and adopting the False Discovery Rate for controlling multiplicity. REEF software, source code and documentation are freely available at . CONCLUSION: REEF can aid to shed light on the role of organization of specific genomic regions in the determination of their functional role