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Goiânia, the Goiás State capital, starred in 1987, where one of the largest radiological accidents in the world happened. A teletherapy machine was subtracted from a derelict radiotherapy clinic and disassembled by scavengers who distributed fragments of the 50 TBq 137CsCl source among relatives and acquaintances, enchanted by the blue shine of the substance. During the 15 days before the accident was acknowledged, contaminated recycling materials were delivered to recycling factories in four cities in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, in the form of recycling paper bales. The contaminated bales were spotted, collected, and stored in fifty 1.6 m3 steel boxes at the interim storage facility of the Nuclear and Energy Research Institute (IPEN). In 2017, a check of the content was performed in a few boxes and the presence of high moisture content was observed even though the bales were dry when conditioned and the packages were kept sealed since then. The main objective of this work was to report the fungi found in the radioactive waste after they evolved for 30 years in isolation inside the waste boxes and their role in the decay of the waste. Examination of the microbiome showed the presence of nematodes and fungal communities. The fungi species isolated were Aspergillus quadricinctus, Fusarium oxysporum, Lecanicillium coprophilumi, Scedosporium boydii, Scytalidium lignicola, Xenoacremonium recifei, and Pleurostoma richardsiae. These microorganisms showed a significant capacity to digest cellulose in our trials, which could be one of the ways they survive in such a harsh environment, reducing the volume of radioactive paper waste. These metabolic abilities give us a future perspective of using these fungi in biotechnology to remediate radioactively contaminated materials, particularly cellulose-based waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article synthesizes some results of the author's Ph.D. thesis, an ethnography about Brazilian adults who lived without papers until the moment they sought their birth certificates, which were being offered as a free public service in downtown Rio de Janeiro. In a dialogue with the concept of the 'margins of the state' (Das and Poole in Anthropology in the margins of the state, School of American Research, New Mexico, 2004), the article shows how undocumented people disregard themselves as subjects and analyzes the birth certificate as an institutional rite (Bourdieu in A economia das trocas linguísticas, Edusp, São Paulo, 1996), demonstrating that the search for papers is also for rights and citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of Health Services Waste (HSW) is similar to household waste. Therefore the proper waste segregation avoids the contamination of ordinary waste and that reduces the potential risk to public health, besides providing the recovery of recycling waste. Our main objective with this study was to promote the recovery of paper and to evaluate the disposal of recyclable waste or the reuse of the containers of infectious waste, in the maternity of a public hospital, located in São Paulo city. With this, a secondary objective was to promote the recovery of paper in such an environment. The initiative to recover recyclable paper took place in two stages: a period without orientation and a period with it. In the period without orientation we observed the loss of recyclable waste, due to the potential of contamination by the presence of infectious waste. On the other hand, during the period under orientation, the contamination of the wastes was avoided although inadequate segregation of other recyclable waste, such as plastic, occurred. In the containers of group A (infecting waste), we recorded 340 occurrences of waste that could be recycled or reused. Irregularities in the segregation stage demonstrate the need for continuing education programs on the importance of recycling and of proper segregation of HSW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the efforts of Salazar regime to "monopolize the legitimate means of people movement" (TORPEY, 2005) by showing that, during the Portuguese New State, the emigration control reached an apex on two circumstances in which the authorities had prohibited the boarding of some migrants who were ready to legally leave the country. The desperate letters written by some Portuguese families, who were forbidden to emigrate to São Paulo´s farms in 1938, and by those subjects prohibited to leave Portugal due to the 1947´s law demonstrate the materiality of boards made of decrees and ministerial dispatches signed by an authoritarian government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to art marketing and consumption literature by studying how art market participants from Brazil – a market considered "emergent" – position themselves in the global art market. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 60 art market participants and participant observation in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the paper shows how position and validation gains are understood as entailing practices of (ex)change (or troca in Portuguese) at the individual and field level. Beyond the extension of their social networks and circulation in art market circuits outside Brazil, art market participants understood their positioning gains as dependent on changes to (the perceptions of) art market practices and operating context, and the negotiation of alternative valuations of Brazilian contemporary art in the global art market, addressing power inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaria is the most important vector-borne disease in the world and a challenge for control programs. In Brazil, 99% of cases occur in the Amazon region. In the extra-Amazonian region, a non-endemic area, epidemiological surveillance focuses on imported malaria and on autochthonous outbreaks, including cases with mild symptoms and low parasitemia acquired in the Atlantic Forest biome. In this scenario, cases are likely to be underreported, since submicroscopic parasitemias are not detected by thick blood smear, considered the reference test. Molecular tests are more sensitive, detecting asymptomatic individuals and mixed infections. The aim of this study was to propose a more efficient alternative to detect asymptomatic individuals living in areas of low malaria endemicity, as they are reservoirs of Plasmodium that maintain transmission locally. In total, 955 blood samples from residents of 16 municipalities with autochthonous malaria outbreaks in the Sao Paulo State were analyzed; 371 samples were collected in EDTA tubes and 584 in filter paper. All samples were initially screened by a genus-specific qPCR targeting ssrRNA genes (limit of detection of 1 parasite/µL). Then, positive samples were subjected to a nested PCR targeting ssrRNA and dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase genes (limit of detection of 10 parasites/µL) to determine Plasmodium species. The results showed a statistically significant difference (K = 0.049; p < 0.0001) between microscopy positivity (6.9%) and qPCR (22.9%) for EDTA-blood samples. Conversely, for samples collected in filter paper, no statistical difference was observed, with 2.6% positivity by thick blood smear and 3.1% for qPCR (K = 0.036; p = 0.7). Samples positive by qPCR were assayed by a species-specific nested PCR that was in turn positive in 26% of samples (16 P. vivax and 4 P. malariae). The results showed that molecular protocols applied to blood samples from residents in areas with autochthonous transmission of malaria were useful to detect asymptomatic patients who act as a source of transmission. The results showed that the genus-specific qPCR was useful for screening positives, with the subsequent identification of species by nested PCR. Additional improvements, such as standardization of blood plotting on filter paper and a more sensitive protocol for species determination, are essential. The qPCR-based algorithm for screening positives followed by nested PCR will contribute to more efficient control of malaria transmission, offering faster and more sensitive tools to detect asymptomatic Plasmodium reservoirs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alexandre de Gusmão (1695-1753): O Estadista que desenhou o mapa do Brasil: By Synesio Sampaio Goes Filho. The second myth suggested that the territories that today make up Brazil formerly belonged to an immense indigenous Tupi-Guarani group and that the whole area from the confluence of the Paraguay River and the Guaporé River to the Amazon was their ancestral territory: I Pindorama i . The new Treaty of Madrid (1750) was instrumental for the legitimization of territories that had up until then been part of the Spanish Empire in South America. [Extracted from the article]

The number of papers focusing on ecological interactions in urban environments has increased in recent years. This review aimed to address the panorama of urban ecology and biological surveys in Brazil. A systematic search was carried out using the Web of Science and Scopus platforms for papers on urban ecology to understand which institutions, authors, themes, cities, biomes, states, and regions have addressed the theme in Brazil to date. A total of 932 articles were found, in 196 scientific journals. Most papers were published between 2010 and 2019. This involved 350 municipalities in the five Brazilian regions, with Curitiba, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro being the municipalities with the most papers. São Paulo was the state that presented the most papers, with 23.7% of the total, and the Southeast region was the most representative with 36.6%. The biome with the highest concentration of papers (61.2%) was the Atlantic Forest. A total of 2537 authors were registered, affiliated with a total of 413 institutions from 19 countries. The institutions with the most papers were the Federal University of Paraná and University of São Paulo. The most discussed topic was related to botany (69%), and the most used keyword was "urban afforestation". The number of papers published was greater in municipalities with higher human development index, number of inhabitants and relative urbanized area. This review revealed the scarcity of studies in low-income areas, and the need for greater incorporation of the social aspect, landscape ecology and ecological interactions in urban ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Arcos: Design, Cultura e Visualidade is the property of Editora da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (EdUERJ) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Despite the growing body of feminist research investigating the relationship between sports initiatives and gender development goals, the literature to date has almost exclusively focused on female participation within sport for development programs. The purpose of this paper is to examine men's behavior and provide novel insights into the perspectives and roles of men in sport for development work. This paper draws upon 11 months of ethnographic research undertaken between 2017 and 2018 in two organizations in São Paulo, Brazil, which use football as a tool to empower women. The findings reveal the diversity of roles men play in gender equality efforts and indicate issues men face, specifically the impact of ideas of manhood that hinder their ability to support broader social justice. The author ends the paper by outlining the necessity to explore masculinity and manhood in more depth to broaden the current understandings of the limitations and potential of sport for development initiatives to change the traditional model of male dominance and, consequently, have a more profound effect on gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Material characterization is essential to the provenance of graphic arts. Non‐destructive analytical techniques are increasingly required in the authentication process of cultural heritage. This work presents a suite of portable, non‐destructive, and complementary analytical techniques, energy dispersive x‐ray fluorescence (EDXRF), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopies, and brightfield microscopy, applied to the analysis of historical photographs depicting São Paulo city architecture, whose registration date and process of fabrication are unknown. The EDXRF analysis emphasizes the use of typical POP (printing‐out paper) photograph with baryta (BaSO4) coated paper substrate while the FTIR and microscopy analyses confirm the presence of collodion and a gelatin‐based baryta layer. This photographic process was widely employed by professional photographers from 1889 to 1930, when it was gradually abandoned in commercial use. This time interval (1889–1930) is consistent with the information surveyed on the photographic collection. In conclusion, employing complementary techniques (elemental and molecular spectroscopies and image magnification) is essential in identifying the manufacturing materials of cultural heritage material, which is the basis of contemporary authentication procedures. These data provide to curators and historians fundamental information for cataloging, adding subsidies for the correct storage and preservation ("heritage appreciation"). Still, for professional photographers, they present information on the manufacturing processes of historical photographs. The data from the present study also emphasize its perspective of use in graphic arts to aid connoisseurship in identifying forgeries during provenance and authentication studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the history of government-sponsored rural settlements in the province/state of São Paulo, Brazil, as a pendular movement, whose points of reversion depended on the interests of a landowning elite to obtain labour for newly expanding plantations from the 1820s to the 1920s. Faltering infrastructure and ill-defined property rights over public lands were persistent constraints to the development of such rural settlements. Part of this failure can be attributed to a lack of State capacity and part to the opposition of plantation owners to the settling of independent smallholdings. The paper complements this historical-institutional analysis with a quantitative description of such settlements in 1898–1920. These late government-sponsored rural settlements showed the potential to grow in demographic and economic terms and had an overall demographic and occupational composition well aligned with the goal of creating a family-based peasantry. However, there were enormous heterogeneities in ethno-linguistic composition, educational attainment, and economic prosperity between and within such rural settlements, which point to idiosyncratic features that should be taken into account in future research assessing the short- and long-run effects of immigration and settlement policies in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically revisits traditional perspectives on technology within academic and scientific writing studies. It aims to comprehend the intricate, emerging, and dynamic sociotechnical configurations that underlie contemporary scientific practices. These practices increasingly involve language, text, and literacy practices, seen as products of the collaboration between humans and machines. The paper draws on empirical research on influential institutional metadiscourses in high-impact scientific writing produced and/or disseminated by public universities and a research institute in the State of São Paulo (Brazil), whose local policies of globalization are driven by international university rankings. I use a qualitative content analysis approach grounded in socio-anthropological, socio-semiotic, and pragmatic studies of linguistic ideologies to shed light on how ideological and socio-semiotic processes support the metapragmatics of scientific writing in university policy documents. This metapragmatics is utterly alien to the role of performative sociotechnical infrastructures in the production, distribution, and hierarchization of scientific texts. Additionally, these documents do not account for the diverse conditions and restrictions that shape the production and circulation of academic knowledge in geopolitically marginal and equally diverse regions within the country, including those within São Paulo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an interactive episode analysis which was resulted from a music lesson for children. The idea was to point out the attentional process, in a perspective of Vygotsky and Luria. The study involved a group of three children who weekly had participated in Group Piano lessons at a social project developed in São Paulo State, Brazil. The data were documented by means of a field diary and the transcription of a video recording, and the analyzes were based on studies of historical-cultural approach. It is emphasized that the attention process happens depending on the apparently individual volitional acts but notoriously established during social relationship. Social genesis and perceptions which are expressed in gestures, looks, and speeches point to a complex construction perception of oneself, of the other and of the music in teaching relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy transition towards a low-emission matrix has motivated efforts to reduce the use of fossil fuels in the transportation sector. The growth of the electric mobility market has been consistent in recent years. In Brazil, there has been an accelerated growth in the sales rate of new electric (and hybrid) vehicles (EVs). Fiscal incentives provided by governments, along with the reduction in vehicle costs, are factors contributing to the exponential growth of the EV fleet—creating a favorable environment for the dissemination of new technologies and enabling the participation of players from sectors such as battery manufacturing and charging stations. Considering the international context, the E-Lounge R&D joint initiative aims to evaluate different strategies to economically enable the electric mobility market, exploring EV charging service sales by energy distribution utility companies in Brazil. This work describes the step-by-step development of an ideal model of a charging hub and discusses its operation based on a real deployment, as well as its associated technical and economic feasibility. Using EV charging data based on the E-Lounge's operational behavior, an artificial neural network (ANN) is applied to forecast future energy consumption to each EV charging station. This paper also presents an economic analysis of the E-Lounge case study, which can contribute to proposals for electric vehicle charging ecosystems in the context of smart energy systems. Based on the operational results collected, as well as considering equipment usage projections, it is possible to make EV charging enterprises feasible, even when high investments in infrastructure and equipment (charging stations and battery storage systems) are necessary, since the net present value is positive and the payback period is 4 years. This work contributes by presenting real operational data from a charging hub, a projection model aimed at evaluating future operations, and a realistic economic evaluation model based on a case study implemented in São Paulo, Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the cinematic representation of São Paulo's Elevado João Goulart, a 3.5km elevated expressway close to the historic centre of the city, popularly known as the Minhocão. Built during the boom period of Brazil's dictatorship, the Minhocão opened to traffic in January 1971. Controversial at the beginning of its existence, it has been partially rehabilitated, a process in which film has been important. The paper describes three general modes of the Minhocão's depiction on film: in the first it represents a generalised fear of the modern city, in the second it is a normal part of the landscape, and in the third it is a form of aesthetic occupation. Key films discussed include Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), directed by Hector Babenco (1985) and the documentary Elevado 3.5 (Maíra Bühler, Paulo Pastorelo and João Sodré 2006). The paper responds to Sophia's Landscapes of Care theme by showing how over time film can, over time, help rehabilitate seemingly irredeemable infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Dengue, Zika, and chikungunya, whose viruses are transmitted mainly by Aedes aegypti, significantly impact human health worldwide. Despite the recent development of promising vaccines against the dengue virus, controlling these arbovirus diseases still depends on mosquito surveillance and control. Nonetheless, several studies have shown that these measures are not sufficiently effective or ineffective. Identifying higher-risk areas in a municipality and directing control efforts towards them could improve it. One tool for this is the premise condition index (PCI); however, its measure requires visiting all buildings. We propose a novel approach capable of predicting the PCI based on facade street-level images, which we call PCINet. Methodology: Our study was conducted in Campinas, a one million-inhabitant city in São Paulo, Brazil. We surveyed 200 blocks, visited their buildings, and measured the three traditional PCI components (building and backyard conditions and shading), the facade conditions (taking pictures of them), and other characteristics. We trained a deep neural network with the pictures taken, creating a computational model that can predict buildings' conditions based on the view of their facades. We evaluated PCINet in a scenario emulating a real large-scale situation, where the model could be deployed to automatically monitor four regions of Campinas to identify risk areas. Principal findings: PCINet produced reasonable results in differentiating the facade condition into three levels, and it is a scalable strategy to triage large areas. The entire process can be automated through data collection from facade data sources and inferences through PCINet. The facade conditions correlated highly with the building and backyard conditions and reasonably well with shading and backyard conditions. The use of street-level images and PCINet could help to optimize Ae. aegypti surveillance and control, reducing the number of in-person visits necessary to identify buildings, blocks, and neighborhoods at higher risk from mosquito and arbovirus diseases. Author summary: The strategies to control Ae. aegypti require intensive work and considerable financial resources, are time-consuming, and are commonly affected by operational problems requiring urgent improvement. The PCI is a good tool for identifying higher-risk areas; however, its measure requires a high amount of human and material resources, and the aforementioned issues remain. In this paper, we propose a novel approach capable of predicting the PCI of buildings based on street-level images. This first work combines deep learning-based methods with street-level data to predict facade conditions. Considering the good results obtained with PCINet and the good correlations of facade conditions with PCI components, we could use this methodology to classify building conditions without visiting them physically. With this, we intend to overcome the high cost of identifying high-risk areas. Although we have a long road ahead, our results show that PCINet could help to optimize Ae. aegypti and arbovirus surveillance and control, reducing the number of in-person visits necessary to identify buildings or areas at risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an approach to estimate mode-choice models from spatially anonymized revealed preference travel survey data. We propose an algorithm to find a feasible sequence of activity locations for each individual that minimizes the maximum error of each trip's Euclidean distance within the activity chain. The synthetic activity locations are then used to create unchosen alternatives within the choice set for each individual. This is followed by the mode-choice model estimation. We test our approach on three large-scale travel surveys conducted in Switzerland, Île-de-France, and São Paulo. We find that our methodological approach can reconstruct activity locations that accurately match trip Euclidean distances but with location errors that still provide location protection. The discrete mode-choice models estimated on the synthetic locations perform similarly, in terms of goodness of fit and prediction, to the ones obtained from the observed activity locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People's organized struggles for housing challenge Brazil's exclusionary urbanization. Occupations of vacant buildings by social movements have been pressing municipalities to guarantee the right to the city. Climate change accentuates the risks associated with exclusionary urbanization, and responses to its impacts demand mitigation and adaptation measures that support transformations tackling inequalities and vulnerabilities. This paper highlights the dimensions of inequality, as well as the role of social movements in setting an agenda on climate justice while reducing vulnerability and creating housing alternatives in vacant central buildings of São Paulo and Natal. To this end, we conducted a review of relevant literature along with participatory action-research on insurgent practices of housing social movements in both cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper, we present our study into how teaching practices in chemistry are socially stratified under the center–suburban divide in a medium-sized city, located in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. The paper mainly draws upon the Bourdieusian-inspired concepts of institutional habitus and symbolic capital to examine how institutional discourses and norms are embodied and implemented by chemistry teachers in their pedagogical practices, and the way in which this affects the distribution of chemistry knowledge in the classroom. This study is a comparative ethnographic-based investigation which employs multiple qualitative methods to investigate chemistry classes in two public schools in Brazil. The schools were selected based on their achievements in large-scale assessment tests and socioeconomic composition. Based on the results obtained from the analysis of four months of observational data of chemistry classes, school routines, 12 focus groups composed of high school students, and four semi-structured interviews conducted with teachers and staff, we argue that chemistry teaching is partially influenced by two interrelated dimensions of the school's institutional habitus—the schools' reputation and their students' social profile. Students in different schools tend to have unequal opportunities for learning and identification with chemistry. For instance, in the suburban school, students are seen as having learning deficiencies and are given deficit explanations on scientific concepts during classes, while the students from the school in the city center are taught under a pervasive culture centered around academic achievements, intense competition and individuality. The aforementioned factors largely shape chemistry teaching in the two public schools investigated. We conclude by presenting our final considerations on how educational institutions play an influential role in shaping chemistry teaching practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses qualitative data conducted in São Paulo, Brazil with those who possessed the capability to emigrate yet had chosen to remain in place. It explores the strategies these 'stayers' employed to create and reproduce a sense of belonging to place in the midst of political disruption and alienation. This is in the context of Brazil's lava jato (car wash) political corruption scandal which culminated in the election of President Bolsonaro and affected many Brazilian citizens' sense of belonging. Particular attention is paid to the way articulations of subnational and supranational scales of belonging relate to the national. Belonging at the national scale remains salient but through a process of interpolation with affective, local, urban and cosmopolitan forms of belonging. Immobility thus becomes an active practice through the (re)imagining and re‐scaling of a sense of belonging. Developing this concept of 'active' immobility recognises immobility as a phenomenon that is driven by individual and structural elements that are as diverse and dynamic as those that affect mobility. The paper contributes to debates about the relationship between forms of local national and cosmopolitan belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the increasing use and inadequate disposal of plastic by humans, aquatic environments have become receptacles for pollutants such as plastic. This study aimed to perform an analysis of plastic particles pollution in Brazilian aquatic ecosystems with special attention to inland aquatic environments and fish in order to identify information gaps in this field. Manuscripts published in the last 21 years and indexed in the Web of Science database were consulted. A total of 185 met the proposed inclusion criteria, such as having empirical data, being conducted in Brazil, and dealing with plastic pollution. In general, the number of studies increases over the years, and this increasing number of publications is accompanied by declared financial support; the Southeast and Northeast regions are the regions that publish the most on the topic, with São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Pernambuco being the main states; the main focus of the studies is the detection of plastic particles mainly in biota (51%) and sediment (34%), and the most frequent ecosystem is the marine (89%); regarding the taxa, the majority is about plastic detection in fish (75%). Only 18% of the papers studying fishes consider their bio-ecological data, and only 17% of the manuscripts carried out the chemical characterization of the particles. However, 99% of the papers considered the shape of the plastic particle. We emphasize the need for more research and grants for studies with Brazilian inland aquatic ecosystems on the effects of plastic particle pollution on freshwater fish. Regional and national research funding agencies are very important to encourage an increase in the number of grants and specific calls for studies on plastic pollution and its impact on freshwater biota, considering the different macro-regions in Brazil, especially in the northern region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Brazilian state of São Paulo, contaminated sites (CSs) constitute threats to health, environment and socioeconomic situation of populations. Over the past two decades, the Environmental Agency of São Paulo (CETESB) has monitored these known CSs. This paper discusses the produced dataset through digitising the CETESB reports and making them accessible to the public in English. The dataset reports on qualitative aspects of contamination within the registered sites (e.g., contamination type and spread) and their management status. The data was extracted from CETESB reports using a machine-learning computer vision algorithm. It comprises two components: an optical character recognition (OCR) engine for text extraction and a convolutional neural network (CNN) image classifier to identify checked boxes. The digitisation was followed by harmonisation and quality assurance processes to ensure the consistency and validity of the data. Making this dataset accessible will allow future work on predictive analysis and decision-making and will inform the required policy-making to improve the management of the CSs in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the general situation of urban rail transit in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and describes the signal system and system composition of Sao Paulo Metro Line 13. The on-board signal system of this line is analyzed in detail, and the system composition, driving modes and main system functions of on-board ATC are analyzed and discussed. The receiving and processing function of track circuits, the speed monitoring function of release speed and the monitoring function of train braking force are analyzed in detail, and a design scheme is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an overview for the Special Issue of Clean Technology and Environmental Policy journal (CTEP), and it includes accepted papers from: 5th South East European Conferences on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) held from May 22–26, 2022, in Vlore, Albania. 3rd Latin American Conferences on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) held from July 24–28, 2022, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. 17th Conferences on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) held from November 6–10, 2022, in Paphos, Cyprus. Considering CTEP's policy of high-quality research papers, guest editors have invited 35 research articles, presented at the SDEWES 2022 conference. After a vigorous review process, 13 papers have been accepted for publication in this special issue. All 13 accepted papers are briefly presented in this overview together with a wider view that presents research efforts within the SDEWES community published through previous SDEWES special issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper investigates associations between migration and inter‐municipal commuting to work in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo with two main objectives: to determine whether a connection exists between long‐term relocation and daily travel and to determine whether this relationship is dependent on the distance of the migratory process. The empirical strategy is based on the estimation of univariate and bivariate probit models applied to microdata of the Brazilian Demographic Census of 2010. Different socio‐economic and demographic characteristics, such as sex, age, civil status, household arrangements and labour market features, were associated with both inter‐municipal commuting and migration. Moreover, associations between inter‐municipal commuting and migration depended on the distance of migration. It was observed that inter‐municipal commuting and intrametropolitan migration are complementary, whereas commuting and longer distance migration are substitutes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, five commonly used software tools to estimate solar radiation in the urban context (GRASS GIS, ArcGIS, SimStadt, CitySim and Ladybug) are run on the same test site and are compared in terms of input data requirements, usability, and accuracy of the results. Spatial and weather data have been collected for an area located in the Brazilian city of São Paulo, in the district of Santana. The test area surrounds a weather station, for which meteorological data of the last 15 years have been collected and used as ground truth when analysing and comparing the simulation results. In terms of spatial data, raster- and vector-based models of the study area have been generated in order to comply with the different input requirements. More specifically, in the case of the vector-based tools (SimStadt, CitySim and Ladybug), a common 3D model based on CityGML and containing buildings, vegetation (trees) and terrain has been generated and used as a common urban model. The paper presents the findings and discusses the results not only from a numerical point of view, but also from the perspective of the overall usability of the software in terms of data requirements, simulation time and task automatisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Football is an integral part of Brazil's historical-cultural process, and tourism represents one of the segments deeply impacted by the occurrence of sporting mega-events. The present study aims to present and critically reflect on the main legacies and impacts that these events brought to the Brazilian population. This paper is based on notes surrounding the legacies put forward for the city of São Paulo. To do this, information gathering lends to suggestions that help situate future planning and organization. The purpose of this paper concerns sociocultural and economic futures and the role of tourism and events for local communities based on the current realities and challenges in Brazil. The article is based on a qualitative approach, where descriptive and explanatory information is triangulated. This study utilizes a range of methods, employing a combination of bibliographic research, documentary analysis, and content analysis to frame the base of the research. Moreover, we use field research techniques such as semi-structured interviews with managers, questionnaires administered to residents, interviews with local representatives, direct observation, and active participation in events held at the main stadium associated with sport mega-events in São Paulo, namely, the Neo Química Arena. Noteworthy findings demonstrate a discrepancy between the objectives pursued by host city planners, who strive to maximize the positive legacies encompassing local infrastructure, stadiums, and the city's image, and the experiences reported by local residents, who have encountered negative impacts and legacies resulting from the same sport mega-event. These adverse effects include issues such as flooding, gentrification, exclusion from decision-making processes, and real estate speculation. Stadiums are considered the greatest tangible legacies of sport mega-events, although their construction and maintenance costs are questionable. The participation of local residents seems to be essential in the promotion, knowledge, appropriation, belonging, support, and transparency in all phases of the mega-event planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The archaeology of colonialism is a relatively recent discipline. It decolonises practices with dialogues between different epistemologies. As we argue in this paper, decolonisation must begin from a position where the producers of knowledge and their counterparts can converse on an equal footing from different philosophies. Brazil carries the burden of its Indigenous peoples' extinguished narratives, shaped by a colonial-influenced historiography and archaeology. This paper presents the case of the Tupiniquim, an Indigenous group from São Paulo, commonly referred to as Tupí or Ancient Tupí, who were mistakenly believed to be extinct. The dialogue between epistemes led to decolonisation of the Tupí Guaraní community recognising their persistence, mixed identity, and interest in recovering traditional language and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study conducted in São Paulo, Brazil, where the planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) was determined using ceilometer data and the wavelet covariance transform method. The retrieved PBLH values were subsequently compared with the concentrations of CO2 and CH4 measured at three distinct experimental sites in the city. The period of study was July 2021. This study also included a comparison between ceilometer data and lidar data, which demonstrated the favorable applicability of the ceilometer data for PBLH estimation. An examination of the correlation between changes in average CO2 concentrations and PBLH values revealed stronger correlations for the IAG and UNICID stations, with correlation coefficients (ρ) of approximately −0.86 and −0.85, respectively, in contrast to the Pico do Jaraguá station, which exhibited a lower correlation coefficient of −0.42. When assessing changes in CH4 concentrations against variations in PBL height, the retrieved correlation coefficients were approximately −0.78 for IAG, −0.66 for UNICID, and −0.38 for Pico do Jaraguá. The results indicated that CO2/CH4 concentrations are negatively correlated with PBL heights, with CO2 concentrations showing more significant correlation than CH4. Additionally, among the three measurement stations, IAG measurements displayed the most substantial correlation. The results from this study contribute to the understanding of the relationship between PBLH and greenhouse gas concentrations, emphasizing the potential of remote sensing systems like ceilometers in monitoring and studying atmospheric processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an evaluation of the information literacies used by community representatives when engaging with participatory budgeting in São Paulo City, Brazil. Using questions established from context-setting interviews with stakeholders, a focus group was held in 2019 with eight participative councillors, with in situ interpretation, resulting in a translated transcript of the discussion. Thematic analysis was used to understand information issues faced by community representatives in relation to past research. It was found that the community representatives face informational barriers to their engagement with participatory budgeting, in (a) learning about their role (b) understanding the information needs of the communities served and (c) gathering and sharing information about local issues with stakeholders. These findings allow the refining of CILIP's definition of information literacy (IL) for citizenship and provide the basis for proposing a model for the IL of community representatives. It is also proposed that future IL research could further develop the role of digitally-enabled place and community in shaping the landscape of literacy and the role of hyperlocal representation. Additionally, the role of translation in cross-lingual IL research is considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]