Search

This paper is the history of how the theory of inertial inflation was developed in Brazil in the early 1980s, when inflation was very high, much higher than the stagflation that happened in the United States in the previous decade. Perhaps this fact explains why the theory was formulated in Brazil and not in the United States. The main papers and the book that defined the new theory are duly referred. And the author, that in the 1980s and 1990s was a political actor, also tells the history of the application of the theory, the failures and successes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The objective of this research was to statistically compare employee's use of sources of guidance (SOGs) at work in the United States and Brazil and discuss results in the light of differences concerning national cultural characteristics. Method - 220 employees from a Brazilian university and 166 employees from an American university filled out a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. Pearson correlation tests (r) and Student t-tests were run to investigate statistically significant differences between the two samples, which were discussed in the light of national cultural characteristics. Main results - Americans presented significantly higher means than Brazilians on Informal Rules and People Outside Organization, and Brazilians presented significantly higher mean than Americans on Formal Rules and Procedures. The discussion showed that some of these differences are compatible with national cultural characteristics. Relevance/Originality - Recognizing the importance and the role of national cultures on individuals' attitudes and behavior within the organizational environment is fundamental in the search for effective and contextualized management practices. Theoretical/methodological contributions - Up until 2020, only 12 theoreticalempirical studies about SOGs were developed. Hence, the present study theoretically and empirically contributes to knowledge about this very important work-related construct. Social/management contributions - The results suggest to managers, human resource professionals, and psychologists important differences in the attitudes of American and Brazilian employees concerning the use of sources of guidance at work, contributing, for instance, to recruitment and selection processes in multinationals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversity is a very complex and controversial issue. It embraces the so-called "minorities", not in numerical terms but in terms of power. The groups that compose the minorities are the black, the disabled, women and the indigenous, among others. Although there are advances in this discussion, including in the legislation field, there are still gaps when it comes to employment for these minorities. For this paper, we chose, among the minorities, people with disabilities (PWDs), because according to the International Labor Organization (2010), they represent 10% of the world's population, among which approximately 72% are at the working age. The objective of this paper was to understand the identity dynamics of PWDs inserted in work organizations, located in Brazil and in the United States. To this end, we elaborated a theoretical framework mainly based on the identity from a sociological approach by Dubar (2005). We opted for an exploratory and qualitative research, based on an interpretive approach. The techniques of data collection used were semi-structured interviews and documentary research. Interviews were conducted with twelve PWDs in Brazil and eight in the United States, men and women. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed through content analysis. In both countries the jobs of the interviewed PWDs appeared as an important tool to give meaning to their lives. Moreover, one of the main obstacles faced by the interviewed PWD with regard to employment was the disability itself. Thus, it was possible to notice a conflict between who they are and whom they think they should be in order to work. It was observed that the individual's identity is a result of the movements of construction and reconstruction of his or her (many) identities and that one cannot identify oneself only with one's eyes; instead, they need to see through someone else's eyes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the results of a study that sought to reflect, based on two cases, upon opportunities and challenges, possibilities and limits, for the insertion of small business ventures -- new ventures and micro and small enterprises -- in the productive field that became known, especially after the Rio Conference 92, as green economy. The search for clean technologies has become a great challenge and at the same time, a great business opportunity. The possibilities were opened up for large companies, able to mobilize the necessary resources for this transition. The limits were evident for small businesses. Evidence has been pointing out the necessity of developing instruments, particularly on public policies, able to offer support to small businesses so that they can overcome their limits. The focus of the study was precisely on this point: the experience of two incubators, one American and another Brazilian, specialized in supporting small businesses oriented to the markets of clean technologies. Qualitative in the method and with exploratory purposes, the research was designed as a multiple case study (based on two cases), having the documentary research as strategy for data collection. Supported by the literature of environmental management (with emphasis on small businesses with clean technologies) and business incubators (with greater emphasis on the typology of incubators), the research revealed a large gap between the realities of the two countries, either in numbers of incubators within the field of clean technologies, or in the mobilization of institutional actors who act in support of these incubators. Based on the two case studies it was possible to identify a single strategic affinity between the two incubators and a set of dichotomous elements, both strategically and in terms of management. In view of these findings, as conclusions of the paper, some suggestions are pointed out for the Brazilian movement of incubators in the will to incorporate environmental elements into their strategies and their management systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper characterizes the scientific output of the state of Rio Grande do Sul in agricultural sciences as represented in the database Web of Science between 2000-2010. Based on the analysis of 6,617 indexed documents, using Bibexcel, we identified types of documents, languages and journals most frequently used by authors to disseminate their research. The annual production growth and a list of the most productive institutions are also presented. The results reveal that agricultural research in Rio Grande do Sul, indexed in the Web of Science, showed a strong growth, increasing from 179 articles in 2000 to 1,107 documents in 2010. Scientific papers accounted for 92% of the publications. English and Portuguese were the most used languages by the authors. As to the journals, 18 out of the 20 titles most used by researchers are published in Brazil. The journal Ciência Rural led the ranking of the most used journals, accounting 10% of total output during 2000-2010. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: An opinion currently shared by taxonomists and non taxonomists alike is that the work of inventorying biodiversity is unbalanced: firstly, in favour of countries in which taxonomy has been studied for a long time, and, secondly, in favour of vertebrates. In the current context of threats of species extinction, access for taxonomists to biological material and information becomes crucial if the scientific community really aims at a better knowledge of biological diversity before it is severely and irreversibly impoverished. We performed an analysis of 748 papers published in Zootaxa in 2006 and 2007, as well as 434 questionnaires sent to their authors to test these opinions. A generalization of these results to zoological taxonomy as a whole is discussed. Discussion: We found that the disequilibrium is not exactly what it usually considered to be. The USA, China and Brazil are currently the three leading countries in zoological taxonomy. Each of them presents, however, a different pattern. Taxonomists from Asia and South America are younger and mainly work in universities, not museums. A bias in favour of vertebrates still exists if we refer to the effort invested in each group to produce taxonomic data, but not to the number of papers. Finally, we insist on the idea that "describing a species" is very different from "knowing a species". Summary: The taxonomic involvement of a country, in terms of manpower and funding, appears to be a key factor in the development of fruitful taxonomic research. This message seems to have been understood by the countries that recently decided to increase considerably their taxonomic involvement. It still has to be received by those who did not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sedentary behaviour (SB) has emerged as a potential risk factor for metabolic health in youth. Knowledge on the determinants of SB in youth is necessary to inform future intervention development to reduce SB. A systematic review was conducted to identify predictors and determinants of SB in youth. Pubmed, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Web of Science were searched, limiting to articles in English, published between January 2000 and May 2014. The search strategy was based on four key elements and their synonyms: (a) sedentary behaviour, (b) determinants, (c) types of sedentary behaviours, (d) types of determinants. The full protocol is available from PROSPERO (PROSPERO 2014:CRD42014009823). Cross-sectional studies were excluded. The analysis was guided by the socio-ecological model. 37 studies were selected out of 2654 identified papers from the systematic literature search. Most studies were conducted in Europe (n = 13), USA (n = 11), and Australia (n = 10). The study quality, using the Qualsyst tool, was high with a median of 82 % (IQR: 74-91 %). Multiple potential determinants were studied in only one or two studies. Determinants were found at the individual, interpersonal, environmental and policy level but few studies examined a comprehensive set of factors at different levels of influences. Evidence was found for age being positively associated with total SB, and weight status and baseline assessment of screen time being positively associated with screen time (at follow-up). A higher playground density and a higher availability of play and sports equipment at school were consistently related to an increased total SB, although these consistent findings come from single studies. Evidence was also reported for the presence of safe places to cross roads and lengthening morning and lunch breaks being associated with less total SB. Future interventions to decrease SB levels should especially target children with overweight or obesity and should start at a young age. However, since the relationship of many determinants with SB remains inconsistent, there is still a need for more longitudinal research on determinants of SB in youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early 2000s high expectations existed regarding the potential contribution of biofuels to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and substitution of fossil fuels in transport. In recent years sobering judgments prevailed. The major barriers for a further expansion of biofuels are their high costs (compared to fossil fuels), moderate ecological performances, limited feedstocks for biofuel production and their competition with food production. The objective of this paper is to investigate the market prospects of biofuels up to the year 2030. It focuses on the three currently most important regions for biofuels production and use: the US, EU and Brazil which in 2010 accounted together for almost three-quarters of global biofuel supply. Our method of approach is based on a dynamic economic framework considering the major cost components of biofuels and corresponding technological learning with respect to capital costs. Moreover, for the analysis of the competitiveness of biofuels with fossil fuels also taxes are considered. The most important result is that under existing tax policies biofuels are cost-effective today and also for the next decades in the regions investigated. However, their potentials are restricted especially due to limited crops areas, and their environmental performance is currently rather modest. The major final conclusions are: (i) To reveal the real future market value of biofuels, a CO 2 based tax system should be implemented for all types of fuels providing a neutral environmental incentive for competition between all types of fossil and renewable fuels; (ii) Moreover, the research and development for all types of biofuels, but especially for second generation biofuels, has to be intensified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relation between economic growth and labor market dynamics in Brazil between 1981 and 2009, making a comparison with the United States. Among the findings, one can mention that economic growth in Brazil has been related to a massive incorporation of labor force in labor intensive activities, whereas, in the United States, to a substantial improvement of labor productivity in high-technology activities. Despite the favorable economic context in the 2000s, huge inequalities between these countries have widened since the structure of the Brazilian labor market remained with few or no changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper studies the effects of oil price shocks in the last 30years on the Brazilian and American inflation rate and rhythm of economic activity. The Brazilian and the United States economies are interesting polar cases, since they had a completely different path on the oil import dependence rate. While the oil import dependence rate has increase sharply in the United States (US), it has decreased substantially in Brazil. We found that output growth volatility in the United States has been decreasing over time as well as the contribution of oil price shocks to such volatility, despite the increase in oil import dependence. Inflation volatility has also been decreasing but oil price shocks are accounting for a larger fraction of this volatility in the US. In Brazil, such shocks do not seem to have a clear impact on output growth and they account for a very small fraction of the Brazilian inflation and output growth rate volatility. We finally run some counterfactual experiments to analyze how real output growth in the United States would had been if net oil import share in the United States behaved similarly to what was observed in Brazil. We conclude that output level would be roughly the same, however, it would be about 10% less volatile if the US had the actual Brazilian oil import share. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The paper presents a general analysis of the relations among United States and Latin America considering issues such as the questioning of the US centrality globally and in the hemisphere, Brazil's policies to the region and the impact of the growing relations with China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper submits to critique the Brazilian proposal to create a new paradigm for international cooperation from its role in MINUSTAH. We compare some aspects of Brazilian projects in Haiti with U.S. projects. We analyzed documents of the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public theology is being discussed in Brazil recently. Although it originated in the United States, as discourse and practice took place visibly in South Africa Public Theology in Brazil has some peculiarities and difficulties. Its peculiarity is due to liberation theology have the same proposals dialogic and social mediations, the difficulty to what is proposed Public theology is about the denominational and religious plurality which becomes a deterrent factor when it comes to speech homogeneous for the Brazilian society and Latin American in general. This paper comprises part of a debate that has as its background the Public Theology, but want to look for another perspective to dialogue with the culture and postmodernism. This bias would be the Pastoral in its public dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a long and intensive debate within the scientific community about the role of international trade in the development of countries. During the last decades, the focus of attention has moved from the pure economic level to the environmental aspects of international trade. Establishing a simplified system of North–South trade for one reference period (2003), this paper attempts to test empirically the extent of potential asymmetries with regard to extracted material flows, and contrasts the results with the economic benefits from trade (in terms of value-added). The South is thereby represented by a selection of Latin American countries (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico), the North comprises one of their main commercial partners, the United States. At the methodological level, a multi-regional input–output analysis is used as the tool of investigation. Results generally support the hypothesis that the South was feeding the North's societal metabolism. South–North material exports were 1.6 times larger than North–South material exports, resulting in a net deficit for the South of 324 million tons. Moreover, material intensity of exported commodities from the South was twice as high as that from the North. It is worth highlighting, however, that part of the North-South hypothesis fails for the sample of countries since the larger part of the economic surplus has remained in the South, contrarily to what would have been expected. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The interplay of factors that affect post-partum loss or retention of weight gained during pregnancy is not fully understood. The objective of this paper is to describe patterns of weight change in the six sites of the World Health Organization (WHO) Multicentre Growth Reference Study (MGRS) and explore variables that explain variation in weight change within and between sites. Mothers of 1743 breastfed children enrolled in the MGRS had weights measured at days 7, 14, 28 and 42 post-partum, monthly from 2 to 12 months and bimonthly thereafter until 24 months post-partum. Height, maternal age, parity and employment status were recorded and breastfeeding was monitored throughout the follow-up. Weight change patterns varied significantly among sites. Ghanaian and Omani mothers lost little or gained weight post-partum. In Brazil, India, Norway and USA, mothers on average lost weight during the first year followed by stabilization in the second year. Lactation intensity and duration explained little of the variation in weight change patterns. In most sites, obese mothers tended to lose less weight than normal-weight mothers. In Brazil and Oman, primiparous mothers lost about 1 kg more than multiparous mothers in the first 6 months. In India and Ghana, multiparous mothers lost about 0.6 kg more than primiparas in the second 6 months. Culturally defined mother-care practices probably play a role in weight change patterns among lactating women. This hypothesis should stimulate investigation into gestational weight gain and post-partum losses in different ethnocultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a 10 V Josephson Voltage Standard (JVS) direct comparison between the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Instituto Nacional de Metrologia, Normalização e Qualidade Industrial (INMETRO) using automatic data acquisition. The results were in agreement to within 1.1 nV and the mean difference between the two JVSs at 10 V is 0.54 nV with a pooled combined standard uncertainty of 1.48 nV. Considering a recent JVS comparison between NIST and the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), the difference between INMETRO and the BIPM thus was found to be -0.26 nV with a standard uncertainty of 1.76 nV. INMETRO JVS improvements since the 2006 INMETRO-BIPM comparison are also described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

regional and continental carbon balances of terrestrial ecosystems become available, it becomes clear that the soils are the largest source of uncertainty. Repeated inventories of soil organic carbon (SOC) organized in soil monitoring networks (SMN) are being implemented in a number of countries. This paper reviews the concepts and design of SMNs in ten countries, and discusses the contribution of such networks to reducing the uncertainty of soil carbon balances. Some SMNs are designed to estimate country-specific land use or management effects on SOC stocks, while others collect soil carbon and ancillary data to provide a nationally consistent assessment of soil carbon condition across the major land-use/soil type combinations. The former use a single sampling campaign of paired sites, while for the latter both systematic (usually grid based) and stratified repeated sampling campaigns (5-10 years interval) are used with densities of one site per 10-1,040 km². For paired sites, multiple samples at each site are taken in order to allow statistical analysis, while for the single sites, composite samples are taken. In both cases, fixed depth increments together with samples for bulk density and stone content are recommended. Samples should be archived to allow for re-measurement purposes using updated techniques. Information on land management, and where possible, land use history should be systematically recorded for each site. A case study of the agricultural frontier in Brazil is presented in which land use effect factors are calculated in order to quantify the CO fluxes from national land use/management conversion matrices. Process-based SOC models can be run for the individual points of the SMN, provided detailed land management records are available. These studies are still rare, as most SMNs have been implemented recently or are in progress. Examples from the USA and Belgium show that uncertainties in SOC change range from 1.6-6.5 Mg C ha for the prediction of SOC stock changes on individual sites to 11.72 Mg C ha or 34% of the median SOC change for soil/land use/climate units. For national SOC monitoring, stratified sampling sites appears to be the most straightforward attribution of SOC values to units with similar soil/land use/climate conditions (i.e. a spatially implicit upscaling approach). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The main objective of this paper is to show that a family arrangement in which the elderly co-reside with the young determines that the elderly support the public education expenditure. Considering that this type of family arrangement is more common in Latin American countries than in the United States, our study is concentrated in Brazil. This study is based on a panel of 2054 Brazilian municipalities using data from the 1991 and 2000 censuses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Using a comparative perspective, the present paper examines contemporary research on the determinants of the length of criminal justice in the United States of America and Brazil. In opposition of this field in United States of America, in Brazil research on the criminal justice system is not well performed. In this sense, comparing these two lines of research will allow to analyze the possibilities and limitations that have not yet been addressed by national analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug safety profile is an important theme throughout the world. Recently, it has gained importance in the field of veterinary medicines. In Brazil, Ministry of Agriculture Law SDA 152/2008 submitted to the public consultation the draft of a National Program of Veterinary Pharmacovigilance. Taking into consideration the health risk to exposed human beings, the objectives of this paper are: characterization of veterinary pharmacovigilance and its usefulness for the Public Health, the description of established veterinary pharmacovigilance programs from the United States of America, the European Union and the United Kingdom, and the analysis of the Brazilian Program of veterinary pharmacovigilance draft. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of public opinion polls in electoral democracy is undeniable because, for good or for bad, they affect, in part, the kinds of laws and policies elected officials enact. But the voices measured in polls are not perfectly representative of their populations of interest. More precisely, polls generally sing with a more “knowledgeable” accent than those they represent because of the greater tendency of the less knowledgeable to remain silent. This distortion, however, can be palliated by providing conditions more propitious to attitude development. By relying on survey-experiments conducted in Brazil and in the U.S., I present evidence that inducing people to think more carefully before answering attitude questions reduces substantially the likelihood of the less knowledgeable, which compose most of the Brazilian and American populations, to express a nonopinion response. Thus providing people with greater opportunity to think about politics—something most of them do not do very frequently—makes for more representative measures of public opinion. But the analyses also suggest that increased thought induces greater uncertainty or ambivalence among the most knowledgeable. As a whole, this paper improves our understanding on how people come to develop political attitudes and on the conditions that lead to greater attitude uncertainty or ambivalence. It also carries important lessons and implications for survey design more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the analysis of the Post Cold-War International Political System and the corresponding Inter-American System, as important frameworks to carry out the research of regional mediating powers, in general, and of two regional mediating powers in particular, cases in point: Brazil and Mexico. Consequently, two pictures of the states' structural positioning are constructed, a general one (in the International Political System) and an individual one (in the Inter-American System), which makes it possible for us to identify the regional mediating powers in the world and in America. This way, Brazil and Mexico are identified as States that exhibit important capabilities and play mediating roles among the world powers and the neighboring States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Race-based preferential policies have been employed in the United States and other countries such as Malaysia, South Africa, Brazil, and India to foster economic development among economically marginalized ethnic groups. This research applies a two-player signaling model to help understand labor-market effects of race-based preferential policies used in college admissions. The model shows that in the context of imperfect information in the labor market, purely race-based forms of preferential policies in college admissions are likely to lead to statistical discrimination by future employers, reducing the equilibrium wage of targeted minority groups for both college graduates and non-college graduates. In addition, average wages of the targeted group remain unchanged in the model, with the targeted group being worse off to the extent that educational signaling is costly. In conclusion, the paper argues that race-base preferences cannot substitute for policies and programs that genuinely address imbalances in college preparation between ethnic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Since the year 2000 or so there has been a rapid growth on fuel ethanol production and consumption, particularly in US and Brazil. Ethanol trade represented about 10% of world consumption in 2005, Brazil being the main exporter. The most important consumer markets—US and European Union (EU)—have trade regimes that constrained the comparative advantages of the most efficient producers, such as Brazil. This paper evaluates the fuel ethanol market up to 2030 together with the potential for international biotrade. Based on forecasts of gasoline consumption and on targets and mandates of fuel ethanol use, it is estimated that demand could reach 272Gl in 2030, displacing 10% of the estimated demand of gasoline (Scenario 1), or even 566Gl in the same year, displacing about 20% of the gasoline demand (Scenario 2). The analysis considers fuel ethanol consumption and production in US, EU-25, Japan, China, Brazil and the rest of the world (ROW-BR). Without significant production of ethanol from cellulosic materials in this period, displacing 10% of the gasoline demand in 2030, at reasonable cost, can only be accomplished by fostering fuel ethanol production in developing countries and enhancing ethanol trade. If the US and EU-25 reach their full production potential (based on conventional routes), the minimum amount that could be traded in 2030 would be about 34Gl. Displacing 20% of the gasoline demand by 2030 will require the combined development of second-generation technologies and large-scale international trade in ethanol fuel. Without second-generation technologies, Scenario 2 could become a reality only with large-scale production of ethanol from sugarcane in developing countries, e.g., Brazil and ROW-BR could be able to export at least 14.5Gl in 2010, 73.9Gl in 2020 and 71.8Gl in 2030. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper analyzed total and long term indebtedness of Brazilian and American companies pertaining to various sectors of economy, between 1999-2003. Besides the comparative study, some hypotheses about the determinants of corporate debt maturity structure, based on main authors' studies found in literature for companies from different countries, were tested using ordinary least squares (cross-sectional regressions). Also, a comparative analysis among the sectors was achieved using mean comparison tests. The results showed that Brazilian and American companies presented, respectively, a greater and increasing proportion of short and long term debts during the period. Relating to the long term debt, it was verified the superiority of American companies to the Brazilian ones. But, relating to the total debt, Brazilian companies showed they were higher indebted than the American ones. The regressions indicated that companies with a greater proportion of assets to be given as collateral, obtained greater levels of total and long term debts. There were also evidences that companies with higher profits and higher depreciation expenses tend to show both less long term and total indebtedness. Finally. it was verified that total debt is positively related to a company's size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper uses the 1998 reform in the funding of fundamental education in Brazil (FUNDEF) to identify the effect of teachers’ wages on the proficiency of public school pupils. Wages are set by legislation at the local level and this reform established a floor on the share of expenditures on teacher wages out of total revenues in each Brazilian State and Municipality. The evidence using micro-data suggests that increases in relative wages within the public system brought about by the reform had a positive impact on the students’ proficiency. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The state of Florida and its orange and sugarcane producers stand at the center-stage of United States - Brazil economic relations and the Free Trade in the Americas (FTAA) drama. Powerful and persistent, the political importance of these modest economic interests is amplified by Florida's pivotal role in United States' presidential elections of late. Magnified by the the state's pivotal role in the Electoral College, Florida orange and sugarcane interests have effectively restricted the autonomy of the U.S. Executive. This paper employs Putnam's(1988) international agreement ratification theory and examines these industries campaign contributions to explore the Level II ratification challenges associated with the political influence of Florida's primary protectionist forces. This examination demonstrates how factional interests and political institutions can intersect to amplify the political importance of narrow, territorially prescribed industries under conditions of high electoral uncertainty. Lastly, the article explores the implications of these intractable interests upon U.S.-Brazil relations and Brazilian trade policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early 1950s the American physicist David Bohm (1917-1992) produced a new interpretation of quantum mechanics and had to flee from McCarthyism. Rejected at Princeton, he moved to São Paulo. This article focuses on the reception of his early papers on the causal interpretation, his Brazilian exile, and the culture of physics surrounding the foundations of quantum mechanics. It weighs the strength of the Copenhagen interpretation. discusses the presentation of the foundations of quantum mechanics in the training of physicists, describes the results Bohm and his collaborators achieved. It also compares the reception of Bohm's ideas with that of Hugh Everett's interpretation. The cultural context of physics had a more significant influence on the reception of Bohm's ideas than the McCarthyist climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patient safety in primary care is an emerging field of research with a growing evidence base in western countries but little has been explored in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCC) including the Sultanate of Oman. This study aimed to review the literature on the safety culture and patient safety measures used globally to inform the development of safety culture among health care workers in primary care with a particular focus on the Middle East. Methods: A systematic review of the literature. Searches were undertaken using Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL and Scopus from the year 2000 to 2014. Terms defining safety culture were combined with terms identifying patient safety and primary care. Results: The database searches identified 3072 papers that were screened for inclusion in the review. After the screening and verification, data were extracted from 28 papers that described safety culture in primary care. The global distribution of the articles is as follows: the Netherlands (7), the United States (5), Germany (4), the United Kingdom (1), Australia, Canada and Brazil (two for each country), and with one each from Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The characteristics of the included studies were grouped under the following themes: safety culture in primary care, incident reporting, safety climate and adverse events. The most common theme from 2011 onwards was the assessment of safety culture in primary care (13 studies, 46%). The most commonly used safety culture assessment tool is the Hospital survey on patient safety culture (HSOPSC) which has been used in developing countries in the Middle East. Conclusions: This systematic review reveals that the most important first step is the assessment of safety culture in primary care which will provide a basic understanding to safety-related perceptions of health care providers. The HSOPSC has been commonly used in Kuwait, Turkey, and Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on LABEX-USA, a trust-fund cooperative agreement between Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA). The cooperative's accomplishments include 25 published papers on advances in nanotechnology and biomaterials science, and microfiber-spinning procedures for creating nonwoven polymer sheets. Other projects that could put ARS scientists on flights to Brazil are cited including citrus greening.

The article profiles Nelson Fonseca, candidate for member-at-large of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE) Communications Society. Fonseca received his doctorate degree in computer engineering from the University of Southern California in 1994. He is an associate professor at the State University of Campinas in Brazil and he has supervised almost 30 graduate students and has published almost 150 refereed papers. He used to be the director of the Online Services on the Board of Governors from 2002-2003 and is the chairman of the Multimedia Communications TC. Among his position statement notes that he will form channels to motivate members for the increase of their participation in the society.