Health status impacts on individual earnings in Brazil

The aim of this paper is to estimate the impact of health conditions on the earnings of Brazilians. We have identified three ways through which health conditions affect workers’ earnings: labor force participation, hourly wages and weekly hours worked. A measure of the welfare reduction due to poor health conditions was created by aggregating individual losses. Individuals are classified as sick or healthy according to two criteria. Firstly, the clinical criterion which is based on the presence of chronic diseases or problems with physical mobility. Secondly, the subjective criterion which is based on the health self-assessment. Each Brazilian individual loses from R$6.30 to R$16.89 per week depending on individual characteristics. In relative terms these aggregated losses represent from 1.5% to 4.7% of the Brazilian GDP. The data base used in this work were PNAD/1998 (the Brazilian national household survey). In 1998, PNAD had an additional survey about health.

Research method for locative games

This paper presents a methodology approach for locative games studies using as reference the actor-network theory. The hypothesis supports that actor-network theory could be useful because it focuses on agencies between humans and non-humans; by the same way, it provides useful categories to support the researcher in the description of an emerging phenomenon. Locative gaming is a fruitful experience to use concepts from actor-network theory because it is connected to many humans and non-humans actants. In the attempt to achieve a research method for locative games using actor-network theory, this study provides a description of some game sessions of Pokémon GO played in Copenhagen during the summer of 2017.This paper presents a methodology approach for locative games studies using as reference the actor-network theory. The hypothesis supports that actor-network theory could be useful because it focuses on agencies between humans and non-humans; by the same way, it provides useful categories to support the researcher in the description of an emerging phenomenon. Locative gaming is a fruitful experience to use concepts from actor-network theory because it is connected to many humans and non-humans actants. In the attempt to achieve a research method for locative games using actor-network theory, this study provides a description of some game sessions of Pokémon GO played in Copenhagen during the summer of 2017

Future perspective for diagnosis in autoimmune diseases

Human beings have taken successive approaches for the understanding and management of diseases. Initially brewed in supernatural concepts and mystical procedures, a vigorous scientific approach has emerged on the grounds of fundamental disciplines such as anatomy, microbiology, biochemistry, physiology, immunology, pathology, and pharmacology. The resulting integrated knowledge contributed to the current classification of diseases and the way Medicine is carried out today. Despite considerable progress, this approach is rather insufficient when it comes to systemic inflammatory conditions, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, that covers clinical conditions ranging from mild pauci-symptomatic diseases to rapidly fatal conditions. The treatment for such conditions is often insufficient and novel approaches are needed for further progress in these areas of Medicine. A recent breakthrough has been achieved with respect to chronic auto-inflammatory syndromes, in which molecular dissection of underlying gene defects has provided directions for target-oriented therapy. Such approach may be amenable to application in systemic auto-immune diseases with the comprehension that such conditions may be the consequence of interaction of specific environmental stimuli and an array of several and interconnected gene polymorphisms. On the bulk of this transformation, the application of principles of pharmacogenetics may lead the way towards a progressively stronger personalized Medicine.O homem tem buscado sucessivas abordagens para o entendimento e manejo das doenças. Partindo de conceitos sobrenaturais e procedimentos místicos, uma abordagem científica vigorosa vicejou com base em disciplinas fundamentais como a anatomia, microbiologia, bioquímica, fisiologia, imunologia, patologia e farmacologia. O conhecimento integrado resultante contribuiu para a atual classificação das doenças e a formacom que a Medicina atual é praticada. Apesar deste considerável progresso, esta abordagem é insuficiente quando se trata de condições inflamatórias sistêmicas, como o lúpus eritematoso sistêmico, que abrange condições variando de formas brandas e pauci-sintomáticas até condições rapidamente fatais. O tratamento dessas condições é frequentemente insuficiente e novas abordagens são necessárias para progresso adicional nessas áreas da Medicina. Um avanço recente foi obtido no que tange às síndromes auto-inflamatórias hereditárias, nas quais a dissecção molecular dos defeitos gênicos subjacentes forneceu direcionamento para terapia orientada a alvos moleculares específicos. Esta abordagem é passível de aplicação às doenças auto-imunes sistêmicas com a compreensão de essas condições podem ser conseqüência da interação de estímulos ambientais específicos e uma gama de vários polimorfis mosgênicos interconectados. No escopo dessa transformação, a aplicação dos princípios de farmacogenéticas poderá contribuir para o progressivo desenvolvimento de uma Medicina personalizada vigorosa.Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Escola de Medicina Divisão de ReumatologiaUNIFESP, Escola de Medicina Divisão de ReumatologiaSciEL

Shedding fluorescent light into the antinuclear antibody world

Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Escola Paulista de Medicina Divisão de ReumatologiaInternational Union of Immunology SocietiesOrganização Mundial da SaúdeUNIFESP, EPM, Divisão de ReumatologiaSciEL

CO2 and economic growth: An analysis for emissions from burning fossil fuels in liquid form in Brazil.

The relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation has been widely studied in recent years. Defenders of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis argue that the environmental pressure coming from economic growth is growing at first and as the economy moves on its development stages, the relationship becomes decreasing. In this discussion, this paper aims to analyze the relationship between CO2 emissions, resulting from burning fossil fuels in liquid form, and the Brazilian economic growth, by means of per capita GDP, with a time series beginning at 1903. Additionally, it is discussed the avoided CO2 emissions arising from the Brazilian energy policy adopted from the 1970s to the transport sector. The evidence found indicates that the relationship between the two variables is linearly increasing, not allowing to conclude that there is an EKC for the case in study.Emissões de CO2, PIB per capita, Transportes, Curva de Kuznets Ambiental.

An analysis of the relationship between economy, energy and environment

This article aims to identify the debate on the triad economy, energy and environment, providing a greater focus to the issue of climate change. After historically contextualize the economic use of energy and expose the current global energy picture, describes the environmental issue in the light of economic science, stating the two main theoretical approaches of environmental economics. Finally, the article devoted to the important and urgent but controversial debate about the impact of energy model on climate change. Pointed out that, despite a current minority dissenting, the world has significant and reliable evidence that the economic system through several segments, especially the intensive use of energy, may be contributing to the changes in climatic conditions of planet. Energy use and the need to readjust it, both in terms of greater efficiency on the issue of replacing the current fossil energy sources to less carbon-intensive, was one of the main conclusions of the discussion about how to direct the economic system to a path of greater sustainability.energía; medio ambiente; economía; cambio climático.

Scaling laws in the dynamics of crime growth rate

The increasing number of crimes in areas with large concentrations of people have made cities one of the main sources of violence. Understanding characteristics of how crime rate expands and its relations with the cities size goes beyond an academic question, being a central issue for contemporary society. Here, we characterize and analyze quantitative aspects of murders in the period from 1980 to 2009 in Brazilian cities. We find that the distribution of the annual, biannual and triannual logarithmic homicide growth rates exhibit the same functional form for distinct scales, that is, a scale invariant behavior. We also identify asymptotic power-law decay relations between the standard deviations of these three growth rates and the initial size. Further, we discuss similarities with complex organizations.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physica