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The evidence for climate change and its associated consequences, such as severe droughts, floods, and storms, exposed the need to investigate the ways that countries can cope with them, especially Brazil, which is a continental nation. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the urgency to consider global uncertainties. To audit it, the Pondělíček method, an indicator of the general quality of urban greenery (IOKZM), was employed. This approach considers four factors to indicate if one city is sustainable: city altitude [m], average annual temperature [°C], average annual precipitation [mm], and the total greenery area [km²] per inhabitant per year. The outcomes demonstrate that, regardless independently of the Brazilian region, geographic localization, estimated altitude range, or precipitation range may not strongly influence the BIOKZM. The impact measured in the indicator is significantly influenced by the greenery areas in Brazil. Those estimated areas are much smaller than European Union ones. Teresina's Fkes demonstrates that if the greenery area is more than 5 (i.e., more than 50 percent), the IOKZM will be a positive outcome. The IOKZM calculated for Brazilian cities is interesting precisely because of their location in the southern hemisphere, as all the evidence of climate change subtly suggests that the climate in the southern hemisphere changes in a different way. Hence, this article can be used as an initial tool to assess whether the chosen Brazilian cities (Belém, São Luís, Guarulhos, Campinas, Porto Alegre, Teresina, and João Pessoa) can be considered "smart cities". It is a step towards guiding mayors and other public figures in charge to create and maintain smart cities in Brazil. In addition, further studies should be conducted to contribute to this collaborative effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of institutional change have focused on several themes. Yet, examinations of small innovations still require attention. This question is important because a new logic is usually only recognized after several modifications have taken place; thus, noticing it early becomes relevant. The emergence of a new logic presupposes new prescriptions about what is appropriate for both businesses and society. This article examines Brazilian health regulations that have undergone several alterations and suggests that this occurrence can be identified only when actors begin to react to the impact of such an event by changing their daily practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new species of the curimatid genus Cyphocharax is described from the Rio Xingu, Amazon basin. This species is readily distinguished from congeners by the presence of a dark, round blotch on the caudal peduncle and by the high density of iridophores on the ventrolateral portion of the body, resulting in a strongly countershaded pattern. Molecular phylogenetic analyses support the recognition of the new species and suggest that it is nested within the Curimatella alburna clade. Ancestral state reconstruction suggests independent evolutionary origins of the blotched caudal peduncle and the countershaded ventrolateral flanks among curimatid fishes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the argument that, under Annex C of the Treaty of Itaipă, the consequence of the unresolved boundary dispute between Paraguay and Brazil, both parties have an independent obligation to negotiate in good faith without the requirement of further consent. Topics discussed include historical background on the Treaty of Itaipú, structure of the Treaty of Itaipú, and obligation to negotiate in Annex C of the Treaty of Itaipú.

Copyright of Aquichan is the property of Universidad de la Sabana 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.)

Copyright of Aquichan is the property of Universidad de la Sabana 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.)

Long COVID is a multisystem condition that has multiple consequences for the physical, mental, and social health of COVID-19 survivors. The impact of the long COVID condition remains unclear, particularly among middle-aged and older adults, who are at greater risk than younger people of persisting symptoms associated with COVID-19. Therefore, we aimed to understand the experiences of middle-aged and older people who had been hospitalized for COVID-19 and the repercussions of long-term COVID symptoms in their daily lives. A qualitative study was carried out, adopting the framework of the constructivist grounded theory (CGT) proposed by Kathy Charmaz. Fifty-six middle-aged and older adult participants from the southern region of Brazil were recruited. Data were gathered from semi-structured telephone interviews. Concomitantly a comparative analysis was performed to identify categories and codes using the MaxQDA® software (version 2022). Three subcategories were identified: (1) experiencing COVID-19 in the acute phase; (2) oscillating between 'good days' and 'bad days' in long COVID; and (3) (re)constructing identity. These concepts interact with each other and converge upon the central category of this study: recasting oneself to the uniqueness of the illness experience of long COVID. Our findings provided insights related to the disruption in the lives of long COVID-19 sufferers who still live with persistent symptoms of the disease, including physical, social, family, emotional and spiritual repercussions. Likewise, this study may aid in developing friendly and welcoming social environments, lowering stigma and prejudice towards patients with long COVID, and fostering prompt and suitable policy support and mental health care for these individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Inselbergs are granitic and/or gneissic rocky outcrops and, in Brazil, the dome-shaped ones in the Atlantic Forest Domain are called sugarloaves (pães de açúcar). They have an extremely specialised vegetation with high levels of endemism. Even though, they are poorly studied and highly degraded. In north-eastern Espírito Santo State, south-eastern Brazil, the Monumento Natural dos Pontões Capixabas (MONAPC) is a federal protected area created to guard some inselbergs mainly threatened by mining, which is one of the main economic activities in the State. In this work, we provide the first checklist of the vascular plant species in this protected area. New information We recorded 108 species in 36 families and 75 genera that inhabit the vegetation islands on the inselbergs within the official limits of MONAPC. A new species of Pleroma (Melastomataceae) and a new species of Cololobus (Asteraceae) were discovered as new to science and they are being described in other articles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is dedicated analyzing the interdependence of oil prices and exchange rate movements of oil exporting countries (the Russian ruble, Euro, Canadian dollar, Chinese yuan, Brazil real, Nigerian naira, Algerian dinar). The study also considers risk-based oil market spillovers in global crisis periods with integrated decision recommendation systems. For this purpose, a fuzzy decision-making model is created by considering the bipolar model and imputation of expert evaluations with collaborative filtering. The main contribution of this study is both its econometric analysis and evaluations based on expert opinions. This helps reach more crucial results. All three of the recent shocks (2008, 2012, 2020) in the oil market are transmitted to foreign exchange markets of oil-producing countries. At the same time, the last shock of 2020 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has not yet been fully reflected on the Russian ruble exchange rate. Correlation parameters became weaker in the last year, as the Russian ruble correlation coefficient fluctuates between − 0.5 and 0.5. However, before 2020 the spillover effect had a higher significance (in the range from − 0.8 to − 0.1). Nigerian naira and Algerian dinar were showing almost the same movements, while the Russian Ruble was in a different trading range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper augments the sparse literature on the inflationary impact of foreign debt in Brazil while addressing methodological caveats in previous studies. We depart from the linearity assumption and employ two nonlinear techniques: the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model and a Markov Switching Regression (MSR) to investigate the connection between foreign debt and inflation within a multivariate framework. The analyses consider the presence of structural breaks via assessing variable stationarity using the Zivot and Andrew unit root test and incorporating a residual-based cointegration test proposed by Gregory and Hansen. Additionally, we apply a multiple structural breakpoints test by Bai and Perron to determine the presence of structural breaks in the impact of foreign debt on inflation. Our findings robustly indicate that the domestic money supply has a statistically significant positive effect, while the nominal effective exchange rate has a negative effect on inflation in both the short and long run. The NARDL model reveals that only positive changes in foreign debt have a statistically significant negative effect on inflation in the short run, whereas both positive and negative foreign debt changes significantly affect inflation in the long run. The results from the MSR model are generally consistent with those of the NARDL model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]