Brazil's GPA accession will involve costs and benefits

Significance The agreement would open a market of USD1.7tn for Brazilian companies to compete for government procurement contracts internationally, but would also render them vulnerable to competition for Brazilian government contracts from foreign suppliers on equal terms. The process of negotiations is a lengthy one, as well as controversial. Impacts Accession to the GPA could facilitate Brazil’s ambition to join the OECD. Domestic companies’ lack of competitiveness within the GPA could aggravate existing problems with industrial performance. Political uncertainties surrounding the October elections could delay the pace of accession.

Ecogeography of group size suggests differences in drivers of sociality among cooperatively breeding fairywrens

Cooperatively breeding species exhibit a range of social behaviors associated with different costs and benefits to group-living, often in association with different environmental conditions. For example, species in which collective-care of offspring reduces the cost of reproduction are more common in harsh environments (true cooperative breeding), while species that collectively defend resources are present in benign environments (family-living). Here, we examine whether environment also shapes sociality within cooperatively-breeding species. We illustrate that Purple-backed Fairywrens, which primarily gain intrinsic, or collective-care benefits, have larger groups in hot, dry environments and smaller groups in cool, wet environments, whereas Superb Fairywrens which primarily gain extrinsic, or resource defense benefits, exhibit the opposite trend. We suggest differences in the costs and benefits of sociality contribute to these opposing ecogeographic patterns, demonstrating that comparisons of intraspecific patterns of social variation across species can provide insight into how ecology shapes transitions between social systems.

Brain Imaging Biomarkers for Chronic Pain

The prevalence of chronic pain has reached epidemic levels. In addition to personal suffering chronic pain is associated with psychiatric and medical co-morbidities, notably substance misuse, and a huge a societal cost amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars annually in medical cost, lost wages, and productivity. Chronic pain does not have a cure or quantitative diagnostic or prognostic tools. In this manuscript we provide evidence that this situation is about to change. We first start by summarizing our current understanding of the role of the brain in the pathogenesis of chronic pain. We particularly focus on the concept of learning in the emergence of chronic pain, and the implication of the limbic brain circuitry and dopaminergic signaling, which underly emotional learning and decision making, in this process. Next, we summarize data from our labs and from other groups on the latest brain imaging findings in different chronic pain conditions focusing on results with significant potential for translation into clinical applications. The gaps in the study of chronic pain and brain imaging are highlighted in throughout the overview. Finally, we conclude by discussing the costs and benefits of using brain biomarkers of chronic pain and compare to other potential markers.

The CEO’s foreign experience and the CEO’s share ownership: Does tax aggressiveness matter?

This study investigates the association between the CEO’s foreign experience and the CEO’s share ownership with tax aggressiveness. The research data is sourced from financial reports and annual reports of non-financial sector companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) from 2016 to 2019, obtained from www.idx.co.id. Based on purposive sampling, the total sample in this study amounted to 88 observations. Hypotheses testing in this study employed multiple regression analysis for cross-section data. This study concludes that the CEO’s foreign experience is negatively associated with tax aggressiveness, and CEO’s ownership is not associated with tax aggressiveness. Returnee CEO can adequately analyze the costs and benefits related to tax aggressiveness, and it is found that if they carry out tax aggressiveness in Indonesia, the costs incurred will be greater than the benefits received. Meanwhile, the CEO’s ownership in Indonesia is still low, so it cannot affect the tax aggressiveness level. This research indicates that the Indonesia Tax Authority need to pay attention to the CEO’s experience when conducting audits and need to cooperate with the Indonesia Financial Services Authority (OJK) to measure how the company behaves in running its business, whether the returnee CEO carry out all business ethics only or adequately those related to tax aggressiveness.