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For five hundred eighty days, between 2018 and 2019, former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva remained imprisoned in the city of Curitiba, about two hundred miles South of São Paulo. During that period, more than twenty thousand letters were sent to him from all regions of the country—the result of a campaign initiated by the Workers' Party and rapidly disseminated through social media—correspondence now archived at the Lula Institute, in the city of São Paulo, as part of the Lula Presidential Archives. This article surveys the status of private presidential archives in Brazil, probing the nature of "prison letters" and their uses in campaign actions for Lula's release, with special attention to the circulation of documents in digital format on websites and social media. The authors had access to the documentation cited in this piece during the mobilization for the Lula Livre movements. Finally, the article contributes to the study of political correspondence and analyzes the challenges posed to historical research by the digital circulation of documents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1730, the Inquisition of Lisbon arrested José Francisco Pereira, a man raised in West Africa and enslaved in Brazil then Portugal, who had learned along his transatlantic journeys the art of making amulets known in the eighteenth century Portuguese-speaking world as bolsas de mandinga. Mixing European esoteric material into objects of Afro-Atlantic agency, bolsa- makers such as José Francisco created objects of trustworthy might that brought empowerment and security of body and mind to a diverse clientele. The bolsas , as well as similar empowered objects created in Atlantic Africa reveal the deep and mutually transformative spiritual and material connections that the slave trade engendered between Europeans and Africans in the early modern period. Common concerns produced similar answers, not least newly defined or redefined notions of witchcraft and fetish and, more broadly, conceptions about the nature of power and its multivalent entanglements with the material world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescence is an essential stage of life for developing actions related to health promotion, especially in health education (HE). Public policies advocate for the expansion of participative technologies in this field, as well as different theoretical and methodological perspectives subsidize these. Among these, Paulo Freire's reference guide is practiced in Brazil and around the world. From the Freirean perspective, Thematic Investigation (TI) defines the content of the educational practice. This paper describes a methodological proposal of the Freirean Thematic Investigation for developing health educational practices and promoting health among adolescents. Initially, we describe the conception of the Freirean rationale that sets the grounds for the proposed method: human being, dialogical education and reality and their connections with HE with adolescents in a critical perspective. The methodological proposal is systematized into five stages: (i) Approaching adolescents and the field of educational practices; (ii) Reading reality; (iii) Seminars for analyzing reality reading and preparing the codifications; (iv) Critical analysis of reality; and (v) Planning educational practices. The TI confronts the adult-centric perspectives that characterize adolescent health care. Moreover, as a praxis, TI is a process of reflection and action with adolescents, allowing for not only the discovery of the themes that build educational practices but also for solutions (untested feasibility) for the individual and collective problems experienced by adolescents concerning their health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Brazil, many D/deaf persons use the country's official sign language, Libras, to communicate and develop a sociocultural identity. For most Libras users, learning how to read and write in Portuguese, the country's official written language, is a challenge. To address the problem, we present a framework for codesigning accessible technologies for and with D/deaf persons. In this paper, we describe and analyze the case study of an environment to support the teaching–learning process of written Portuguese as a second language. Our main contribution is the documented experiences of codesigning with D/deaf and hearing participants, through individual and collaborative work, which increased confidence and creativity and enhanced empathy through sharing own experiences. Various types of participants were included through the entire framework process, and important values were reinforced, such as ownership and self-determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) are biopharmaceuticals prescribed in oncology, rheumatology, and for other chronic and autoimmune diseases. Over the last decade, the demand for MAbs grew significantly in developing countries like Brazil, concomitant to the restructuring of the global biopharmaceutical industry, opening windows of opportunities for catching-up economies. This paper aims to analyze the capacity of a public policy, the so-called Production Development Partnership Program (PDPP), to encourage the generation of national capabilities to the local biopharmaceutical industry and technological upgrading in the biopharmaceutical sector in Brazil. It is a case study supported by qualitative data from twenty-three interviews. By focusing on technology transfer processes rather than on more complex strategies of technological learning and upgrading in domestic agents, the impact of PDPP has been marginal. We draw insights from this empirical appraisal to outline some lessons and challenges involved in the implementation of technology-upgrading policies in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moving from contemporary ethnography to Brazilian poetry from the turn of the twentieth century, this paper extends recent calls to attend more to relationships in religious studies. Scholars have argued that focusing on intimate relations allows us to stay critical while overcoming the impasses produced by opposed approaches, especially those that either privilege materiality or interiority. This paper explores how a focus on relations inspired by the work of Marilyn Strathern, which acknowledges the broad reach of relations—from the interpersonal to the conceptual, nonhuman, and evil—offers more than just a way to unite approaches. I read relations through cordel poetry from northeast Brazil, including verses found in the rubble of Brazil's most notorious war, Canudos (1897). Engaging critically with studies of popular media that naturalize mediation, materiality, and politics as analytical starting points, I show how focusing on relations can help transform both the terms of our analyses and the politics of our descriptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research on foods advertised in supermarket circulars revealed that advertisement for foods at promotional prices influence food choices and shopping behaviour, but no paper reporting the Latin American context was identified. Furthermore, most studies only assessed the products advertised on the front pages and not in the entire circulars. This paper quantifies and categorizes, according to level of processing, the foods advertised in circulars from four Brazilian supermarket chains in order to assess their compatibility with the national dietary guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health. Printed and online circulars were collected between June and July 2016. Foods items advertised were identified and classified into one of four categories using the NOVA classification as unprocessed or minimally processed, processed culinary ingredient, processed or ultra-processed. Sixteen documents were analysed, and 1786 food items identified, where 23% were categorized as unprocessed or minimally processed, and 63% as ultra-processed foods. While the mean proportion of ultra-processed and unprocessed or minimally processed foods advertised on circular covers was similar (p  =   0.49), the mean proportion of ultra-processed foods advertised in the entire circular was significantly higher than unprocessed or minimally processed foods (p  <   0.001). Brazilian supermarket circulars are stimulating the acquisition of ultra-processed foods, which does not encourage food choices to be in line with what is recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for the Brazilian Population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how criminalized teenage girls who have committed homicide reconcile violent practices with self-conceptions of femininity in their personal narratives. Data come from 13 biographical interviews with adolescent girls incarcerated in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Drawing from Bourdieusian theory and narrative criminology, I examine how gendered social structures shape how girls produce intelligible and morally coherent accounts of their crimes. I found that girls share a narrative habitus that allows for three different frames to make sense of violence: violence as a gendered resource, as a gendered failure and as a gendered dilemma. This paper contributes to a growing feminist narrative criminology that investigates how personal narratives of violence are embedded in gendered social structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Sexual dysfunctions remain inadequately addressed in medical education, despite their prevalence and adverse impact on quality of life. In Brazil, there are scarce university-affiliated healthcare centers that focus on sexual health. These services play a critical role in diagnosing and managing sexual disorders and can be pivotal in the training of healthcare professionals, as well as in the advancement of research and outreach in sexual medicine. Objective: To describe the experience of establishing two sexual health centers in university-affiliated hospitals in Northeastern Brazil. Method: This is an experiential report detailing the establishment of two distinct sexual health services. Results: Both sexual health services started in different general hospitals in 2021, founded by a male and a female psychiatrists, authors of this paper. The initiative was prompted by the lack of dedicated sexual health services and the awareness of substantial patient distress stemming from sexual issues. Activities include patient consultations, case discussions, sexology seminars, and research project development, involving medical students and resident physicians, integrated into the psychiatry residency curriculum Referrals come mainly from other hospital specialties, but external referrals are also accepted. Collaboration with other healthcare professionals occurs through the analysis of clinical cases. Conclusion: The establishment of sexual health services within university-affiliated hospitals has a positive impact on patient care and contributes to the study of sexual medicine, an area often overlooked in medical education. Improvements are needed in patient recruitment, counter-referral procedures, and the systematic incorporation of medical student rotations. While these services hold promise, they require greater integration with other healthcare services and a closer collaboration with undergraduate medical education. Financing: No conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) is a crucial behavior to reduce the global burden of disease. The objective of this study was to understand the relationship between LTPA, employment status, and physical workload (PWL). This study analyzed data from 38 449 individuals interviewed in the National Health Survey (NHS), representative of the Brazilian population. This paper examines LTPA in the last 30 days and whether participants achieved the recommended physical activity (≥150 min week−1) according to employment status and PWL utilizing Poisson regression models. One third and ¼ of the participants reported LTPA in the last 30 days and achieved the recommended LTPA, respectively. Intense PWL was reported by 28.7% [95% confidence interval (CI): 27.8–29.6%] of participants; 32.2% among men (95% CI: 31.0–33.5%); 24.3% among women (95% CI: 23.1–25.5%). Precarious employment was associated with a lower prevalence of physical activity among men [adjusted prevalence ratio (PRa) = 0.92; P = 0.016], but not among women (PRa = 1.11; P = 0.039). Employment policies and protection of the work environment are relevant aspects to stimulate physical activity, and may vary by gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ocean grabbing occurs when traditional users, such as small-scale fishers, are pushed aside by new development activities. This grabbing must be prevented to avoid sea uses that maintain or increase social inequity. In this paper, we show that in tropical Atlantic countries, such as Brazil and Senegal, examples of ocean grabbing already occur. In this context, we analyse if Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) may be an opportunity to limit ocean grabbing or, to the contrary, poses a risk to increase it. MSP calls for an ecosystem approach that requires integrated coastal and marine management and involves stakeholders in developing a shared vision of the future, where society and environment are preserved. However, recent studies have shown that MSP is a process to be used cautiously to ensure equitable decisions. Meanwhile, the concept is spreading worldwide including in tropical Atlantic countries. We highlight that context matters and the specificities of the tropical Atlantic must be taken into account when deploying MSP processes. In the tropical Atlantic context, there is increased imbalances of stakeholder power, traps from decision support tools, and a need for adaptive management. These specific features must be addressed when deploying MSP in a way to avoid ocean grabbing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to present considerations about the use of music as a critical and radical pedagogy in an International Relations class in the Global South. How can music help students understand the processes of marginalization, resistance, and struggle? Can it be understood as a tool to be used in the classroom to transcend traditional and marginalizing pedagogies? The contribution of our proposal derives from the possibility of a symbiosis between the teaching of critical, decolonial, and postcolonial perspectives and the language used to communicate these concepts and ideas to a young audience with different backgrounds. In this sense, we bring perceptions of the engagement with music as a pedagogical tool in an undergraduate course entitled " Decolonizing International Relations: epistemic violence and emancipation in Global South." By playing songs, not only the learning process became deeper and more meaningful to students, but it also opened margins to a dialogical interaction. We share our experience hoping to contribute to a meaningful debate among scholars, inspiring teachers to engage with decolonial/critical pedagogies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As international relations has started to grapple with its geo-cultural parochialism, the focus has been on its "Western-centrism" and on how "non-Western" international relations might be different. This article argues that attempts to deprovincialize "Western" (i.e. Euro-American) international thought do not always revolve around "non-Westernness," a negation with often cultural-civilizational connotations, but also deploy a North/South worlding that is more bound up with imperial-colonial experience and a "peripheral" concern with economic insertion into the core. Based on interviews with scholars, diplomats, and foreign policy intellectuals in Brazil, the paper explores the different ways "the South" is deployed—as (post)colonial subjectivity, as problematique, as relation, as outside, and as political move—to provide an alternative intervention into the debate on "Global IR." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1807 onwards, bilateral slave-trade treaties stipulated how naval squadrons would rescue slaves from slave ships, and how states should arrange the settlement and apprenticeship of these slaves, to transform them into 'liberated Africans'. Comparing interactions between the state and liberated Africans at sea along the South African and Brazilian coasts, and in the port towns of Cape Town and Salvador, reveals how the legal status of liberated Africans changed over time. Current scholarship has framed liberated Africans in terms of whether they were attributed rights or suffered re-enslavement, and thus focused on their solidarity through claiming rights, 'ethnic survivals' or creolization. Instead, this paper argues anti-slave-trade legislation ascribed to liberated Africans a set of unguaranteed entitlements – promises regarding status and treatment without obligating states to uphold that status or treatment. By focusing on the precise aspects of legislation that operated at each point in the process of anti-slave-trade activity – rescuing slaves from slave ships, transportation to a port, processing through a court, and apprenticeship – this paper unearths how the law came into force in the encounter between state officials and liberated Africans, as part of the complex transition from slavery to free labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are only a small number of reported intervention studies to improve health literacy among older populations. This paper reports on a study designed to investigate the feasibility and potential impact on health literacy and health practices of embedding an intervention programme to improve health literacy with older people through established primary health care units (PHCUs) in a disadvantaged urban community in Brazil. This investigation utilized a quasi-experimental design, with 42 participants recruited for the intervention group and comparison group. The Alfa-Health Program was offered by a nurse in a PHCU as part of the public universal health system over a period of 5 months, and was compared for its impact on a range of health literacy and self-reported health outcomes with routine health care available for older people. The intervention achieved relatively high levels of participation, and positive feedback from participants. Some improvements in vaccination rates, health literacy and reported health behaviours related to food choices and physical activity were observed. The intervention made good use of existing facilities; the content and methods were well received by the participants. However, there were some difficulties in recruitment and in retention of participants. The study has demonstrated the practical feasibility of delivering a comprehensive health education programme designed to improve health literacy in a PHCU in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface wave analysis provides important information on crustal structure, but it is challenging to obtain accurate/robust models in aseismic regions because of the lack of local earthquake records. In this paper, interstation empirical Green's functions retrieved by ambient seismic noise in 75 broad-band stations from 2016 January to 2018 September were used to study crustal structure in west-central Brazil. Fast marching method was applied to calculate the 2-D surface wave tomographic maps, and local dispersion curves were estimated in the period range of 4–80 s for each geographic cell. 1-D damped least squares inversion method was then conducted to obtained shear wave velocity model. Finally, the average (⁠|$\tilde{\rm V}$| S) of the calculated VSV and VSH quasi 3-D models were used to characterize the crustal structure. Besides the checkerboard test resolution, a stochastic test with the effect of errors in the dispersion curves and choice of inversion parameters were carried out to better evaluate model uncertainties. Our results show a clear relation between the sedimentary thickness and geological units with the shorter period tomographic maps. Agreement has also been observed in longer periods such as the clear N–S anomaly along the Asuncion and Rio Grande Arches representing the boundary between the Chaco-Paraná and the Paraná basins. A 3-D composite velocity model shows a crustal structure consisting of three main layers. Some differences in lower crustal properties were found between the Paraná and Chaco-Paraná basins, consistent with a recently postulated, gravity-derived Western Paraná suture zone. However, no high velocities along the SW–NE axis of the Paraná basin were found to confirm proposed underplating. At the eastern edge of the Pantanal basin, the thin crust seems to be associated with a very thin (or lack of) lower crustal layer, consistent with a recently proposed crustal delamination hypothesis for the formation of the Pantanal basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze citizens' attitudes toward regional leadership, employing two sets of survey experiments. Using Brazil as a case study, we analyze the first set of experiments with two types of regional leadership—structural and institutional—across three different regional issues—economic integration, regime change, and regional conflict. We found that Brazilians do not support either type of leadership, whether in regional conflict or in regime change issues, but support institutional leadership in economic integration scenarios. In the second set, we included specific South American countries both in regional conflict and in regime change scenarios. We found that Brazilians prefer Brazil to stay away from acting as a leader once neighboring countries are named in the experiment. Our findings indicate that the literature on regional leadership should incorporate the level of domestic support to understand its implications to the exercise of regional leadership. We embedded our experiments within the project "The Americas and the World: Public Opinion and International Politics, 2014–2015." We used a nationally representative sample of eighteen hundred respondents undertaken in 2014. Video Abstract Video Abstract Close [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Coffee is an important agricultural commodity with technical barriers for exportation because of possible contamination with ochratoxin A (OTA), a mycotoxin nephrotoxic and carcinogenic. The maximum limit for OTA in roasted coffee is 5.0 μg/kg in the European Union and 10 μg/kg in Brazil, and the use of certified reference materials (CRM) is required for reliable measurements. Objective: This paper describes the development of a candidate CRM of OTA in roasted coffee following the requirements of ISO 17034 and ISO Guide 35. Methods: A primary method of isotope dilution MS was developed and validated using (13C20)-OTA as internal standard. The sample preparation was based on AOAC Official Methods of AnalysisSM using immunoaffinity column. Results: The linear working range is 2.0-15.0 μg/kg, with recoveries of 92.2-110.8% and relative SDs lower than 12.4%. The method was successfully applied to the feasibility study, which defined the procedure for preparation of a large batch around 5 μg/kg. It was produced by spiking blank roasted coffee with OTA standard, mixing and filling in amber flasks with 50 g of coffee, and storing at -80°C. The homogeneity study showed an acceptable degree of heterogeneity of 1.44%, and the short-term-stability study defined the conditions for transportation as maximum temperature of 50°C up to 28 days. Conclusions: These results show that certification is possible. Highlights: The longterm stability study at -20°C is in progress, and the characterization will be conduzed by a interlaboratory comparison. This material will be an important tool for QC in laboratories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To systematically review the literature on the psychometric properties of the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scale among Hispanic-Latinx communities. Data Selection: We searched multiple cross-disciplinary databases from January 1970 until April 2023 for relevant papers written in English and Spanish. We used the following terms: (1) Clinical Dementia Rating, (2) validity, (3) reliability, (4) psychometric, (5) Hispanic, (6) Latinos or Latinx, (7) outcome measures, (8) Spanish language, and (9) Alzheimer's disease. Data Synthesis: We found 609 studies with 56 eligible studies. Only 5 studies examined psychometric properties of the CDR in Hispanic-Latinx communities. Each study implemented divergent study designs. Of the 5 selected studies, one study evaluated the validity of the CDR Sum of Boxes among 1073 Mexican Americans. A second study evaluated the CDR's test–retest reliability and internal consistency among 94 Spanish speaking participants from the United States. The third study examined the validity of the CDR Sum of Boxes among 343 Brazilians living in Brazil. A fourth study assessed the CDR Sum of Boxes sensitivity and specificity among 407 Brazilians living in Brazil, whereas a fifth study evaluated the validity of a Portuguese CDR version on 424 Brazilians living in Brazil. Conclusions: Our systematic review revealed limited studies examining the validation of the CDR in the Hispanic-Latinx communities. The limited number of studies raises concerns about versions of the CDR scale implemented in ad clinical trials, and its implications to study results, interpretation, and generalizability of findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global health faces a broad spectrum of old and new challenges. Besides epidemiological problems, political conflicts, economic crisis and austerity policies are jeopardizing progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC), affecting the most vulnerable populations. During the 22nd International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) World Conference on Health Promotion held in Curitiba, Brazil, in 2016, challenges and threats for global health, in addition to a wide range of innovative experiences in health promotion, were discussed with participants from 65 countries. At the end of the conference, a public statement was approved claiming for Democracy and Human Rights in all countries around the world as essential conditions for the promotion of health and equity. In this paper, we explore challenges, threats and innovations in global health promotion. We use scientific literature, analysis of the current situation of the Brazilian health system, and material presented during the 22nd IUHPE World Conference. Also, we discuss strategies to strengthen health systems, policies and practices through the approach of STI and illustrative local experiences presented at the congress mentioned above, including examples developed in the city of Curitiba. We conclude that STI is crucial to support strengthening local health systems, design effective intersectoral public policies, scaling up innovative initiates, and skilling staff in addressing the contemporary challenges. Finally, the Declaration of the 22nd World Conference on Health Promotion of the IUHPE is a fundamental policy statement based on the prioritization of democracy and human rights as essential conditions for the promotion of health and equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it has been show that early detection through mammograms is the most effective way to reduce breast cancer mortality, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among women worldwide with survival rates being even lower in low- and middle-income countries as compared to high-income countries. Despite the availability of breast cancer screening programs in Brazil through the public health system, some women do not participate in these programs due to structural and/or inter/intrapersonal barriers. The Community Health Worker (CHW) model is a promising approach to reach these women who have not been reached through other efforts. This paper describes a participatory approach for capacity building of CHWs to promote breast cancer screening among low-income women 50 years of age and older in a southern city in Brazil as a combined effort between two academic institutions, the municipal health care system, and a local non-profit organization. The capacity building program consisted of an 8-hour training focusing on knowledge (e.g. breast cancer and screening) and skills (e.g. communication skills, basic principles of behavior change) to promote breast cancer screening among community members. Pre- and post-test questionnaires assessed changes in breast cancer knowledge and self-perceived knowledge and confidence (N =44). There was a significant increase in objective knowledge regarding breast cancer overall, risk factors, and behavior change strategies between pre- and post-test. There was also a significant increase in self-perceived knowledge and confidence, items related to knowledge about breast cancer, breast cancer early detection methods, and the ability to solve problems between pre- and post-test as well as a significant increase in their confidence to motivate women to get a mammogram. Overall, this study demonstrates the importance of welldeveloped capacity building programs to promote breast cancer screening among health care professionals, especially those with limited educational attainment, such as CHWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present the first speckle interferometric measurements of binary stars performed at the Observatório do Pico dos Dias of the Laboratório Nacional de Astrofísica in Brazil, using the 1.60 m Perkin-Elmer telescope. In order to carry out these observations, we had to perform an opto-mechanical modification to Camera 1 of the 1.60 m to meet the specifications of the observational programme. We focused our efforts on objects from the Washington Double Star Catalogue that were obtained during four observing runs allocated in 2017 and 2018. Among these objects, we have been interested in performing a follow-up observation of double stars discovered by the Hipparcos mission. We report here 464 astrometric measurements of 139 pairs, with angular separations ranging from 0.09 to 6.36 arcsec, including 361 systems with separations smaller than 1 arcsec. We estimated a mean error in separation of 15 mas and 1 |${^{\circ}_{.}}$| 2 in position angle. We confirmed 15 double stars discovered by Hipparcos, as well as four new pairs observed in previously known binaries turning them into triple systems, three of which have separations smaller than 0.16 arcsec. With these observations we introduce a new instrument to the astronomical community available at the Observatório do Pico dos Dias, capable of identifying relatively bright binaries, with angular separation very close to the resolution power of the telescope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engaging in collaborative networks can be an important facilitator of innovation for public sector science and technology (S&T) organizations. It is also an important component of S&T policies that require indicators that can assess the networks through which these organizations innovate. In this study, we apply network indicators to two S&T organizations that are part of the Brazilian public health sector. The indicators cover two complementary perspectives: one that considers the organizations' scientific networks and the other that considers their technological networks. The indicators allowed the analysis of the networks in which the organizations were engaged and the understanding of important aspects of their collaboration patterns that can support strategic decisions. The method employed in this paper proved to be a valuable diagnostic tool and a useful mechanism for evaluating the performance and supporting the development of S&T institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business incubators (BIs) have become a common tool for promoting entrepreneurship and innovation in many parts of the world, Brazil being no exception. Several studies have been carried out to evaluate the performance and impact of BIs around the country, although the peripheral northeast region has been a less popular subject for critical analysis. This research surveyed 35 BIs (out of a total of 36) and 93 incubated firms (out of a total of 320). In addition, 14 interviews were carried out to assess the incubation process in the northeastern region. Our analysis points to a number of serious shortcomings in management, finance and mediation, which may cast doubt on the effectiveness of the BIs. This paper highlights a number of structural problems which may be common to other peripheral regions and suggests a series of measures that could be taken, in order to produce a better regional incubation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature analyzing the spatial distribution of scientific and technological production in Brazil identifies differences in the regional distribution of scientific and technological resources. In this paper, we contribute to this discussion, by analyzing the dynamics of the production of new scientific knowledge in the states that contributed the most to national scientific production in the period 2000–10: Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul, also known as the ‘scientific quartet’. Our hypothesis is that even with federal policies aimed at the expansion and decentralization of the production of new scientific knowledge, this production is still strongly anchored in the ‘scientific quartet’. We further identify a concentration of scientific production in three major areas of knowledge: agricultural, biological and health sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Protestantism has expanded rapidly in Brazil in recent decades. The question we tackle in this paper is whether Protestantism has had a positive influence on male earnings in this setting, either through its influence on health and productivity, by way of social networks or employer favor and reduced discrimination, or through other mechanisms. We tackle the problem of the selectivity of religious conversion and affiliation using microdata from the Brazilian censuses of 1970, 1980, 1991, and 2000, and analyzing the association between Protestantism and earnings at the group rather than the individual level. Our results show a strong association between the proportion of Protestants in a region, and the earnings of men in one educational group: those with less than five years of education. Upon introducing race into our models, we found that the association between religion and the earnings of less educated men is concentrated in regions in which there is a substantial non-white population. The relationships we have uncovered contribute to the literature on racial inequality and discrimination in Brazil, which to date has given little space to the role of religion in moderating the pernicious effect of race on economic outcomes in Brazil. The substantial association we found between religion and earnings contrasts with much of the research that has been carried out on the influence of religion on earnings in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyzes the development of cooperation between Argentina and Brazil from their initial rapprochement of 1979 to the construction of Mercosur in 1991. It presents an account of cooperation that emphasizes the power and organizational interests of the armed forces and that challenges the prevailing emphases on democratization and neoliberalism. In doing so, it addresses a methodological problem for qualitative research in international relations: What can be done if our theories of why cooperation occurs affect our perceptions of when it begins? Conventional explanations of Argentine-Brazilian cooperation may be biased toward what historian Herbert Butterfield called 'Whig history,' which sees in past events associations that exist only in the present. These tendencies can alter our periodization of cases, omit or falsely reject important causal variables, and too readily confirm our preferred hypotheses, but they can also be corrected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the preliminary results of tests carried out to calculate the emissions in the sector of railway freight transport in Brazil. The analysis is based on a proposition derived from a European model to determine the factors relevant to designing a model suitable for the characteristics of Brazilian cities. In this simulation the Artemis model is used with positive results for determination of the greenhouse gases in the route between the states of Mato Grosso and São Paulo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]