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This article critically examines the formation of the BRICS alliance, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, with a specific focus on the pivotal role played by the United States in shaping this strategic partnership. It explores the extent of US influence and the accompanying responsibilities it assumes within the alliance. The article highlights the proactive efforts of Brazil, Russia, and China to expand their global influence while concurrently aiming to reduce US interference. Brazil, in particular, seeks partnerships with Russia and China as a means to attain autonomy and foster development. Simultaneously, Russia and China strive to challenge US global dominance and solidify their own spheres of influence. The article concludes by emphasising the importance of critically evaluating Europe's military support to Ukraine, suggesting that such support may primarily serve US interests. Additionally, it underscores Europe's potential to promote peace and stability by pursuing independent and principled foreign policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Brazil, as the world's fourth-largest democracy, witnessed the dominance of polarized and symbolically charged electoral campaigns on social media, culminating in the election of a populist political figure in 2018 and his subsequent defeat in 2022. Extensive research has indicated that political campaigns often sidelined substantive policy proposals in favor of negative and divisive issues. However, a critical gap remains in the absence of temporal investigations contrasting the prevalence of negativity and acclaim campaigns on social media platforms during elections. This study addresses this gap by examining associations between political issues and negative and acclaim campaigns across two Brazilian electoral campaigns. Drawing upon a sample of messages posted on Twitter (n = 1, 191) during the presidential elections of 2018 and 2022, our study reveals associations between substantive political issues, such as education and health, and acclaim campaign strategies, while the divisive issues of Covid-19 and corruption are associated with negative campaign strategies. Moreover, the results suggest that gender policy is related to both acclaim and negative messages since it is a polarizing issue in Brazilian politics. Our study also shows an increased negativity trend, with the 2022 presidential election campaign more likely to be negative than in 2018. By conducting a temporal analysis of Brazil's political context, our study sheds light on the evolving dynamics of political communication in the age of social media, contributing substantially to the literature on negativity in political campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Psocial is the property of Revista de Investigacion en Psicologia Social 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.)

Preliminary studies indicate that ideologies and worldviews are key in understanding the motivation behind corruption. Yet, there is no model seeking to explain corrupt intention that incorporates ideology and worldviews as predictors. Our objective was to propose a model integrating ideological factors (social dominance orientation [SDO] and right-wing authoritarianism [RWA]) and their underlying worldviews (competitive worldview beliefs [CWB] and dangerous worldview beliefs [DWB]) as predictors of corrupt intention and attitudes toward corrupt people and examine the model in the high corruption context of Brazil. For that purpose, preregistered hypotheses were tested across six studies. Results confirmed that corrupt intention is predicted by SDO but not RWA, while attitudes toward corrupt people are predicted by RWA but not SDO (Studies 1, 2, and 4). Replicating these findings cross-culturally, World Values Survey data (Study 3) indicated that corrupt intention is predicted by a proxy SDO index but not by a proxy RWA index. Experimentally increasing DWB amplified corrupt intention, but attitudes toward corrupt people remained unaffected (Study 5). Study 6 further confirmed the independence of corrupt intention and attitudes toward corrupt people, with corrupt intention primarily predicted by CWB and attitudes toward corrupt people primarily predicted by RWA. Hence, the first social psychological model that seeks to explain corruption integrating ideologies and worldviews was successfully proposed with implications for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The election of the far‐right populist Jair Bolsonaro in the 2018 Brazilian Presidential election was a major turning point in the history of the country and arguably part of a worldwide trend toward a form of 'authoritarian populism'. The present study was conducted to explore psychological factors that may contribute to the appeal of a polarizing figure such as Bolsonaro, in particular, to determine whether measures of various 'Moral Foundations' or 'Social Dominance Orientation' (SDO) could best predict voting behaviour in the 2018 election. Given the cultural and economic context in Brazil, measures of religiosity and personal relative deprivation were included as additional potential explanatory variables. An online survey of 325 people from Brazil found that Bolsonaro voters scored higher on the 'binding' (Loyalty, Authority, Purity/Sanctity) and lower on the 'individualizing' (Care, Fairness) Moral Foundations than voters for the candidate of the left, Fernando Haddad. Moreover, Bolsonaro voters scored higher than Haddad voters on SDO and religiosity. When the various social, moral and religious measures were considered simultaneously in a binary logistic regression, it was endorsement of right‐wing authoritarian ideologies (SDO and the Authority Moral Foundation), rather than lack of endorsement of individualizing Moral Foundations that best distinguished Bolsonaro voters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prato cheese is one of the most consumed dairy products around the word, mainly in Brazil, being the second most produced cheese in the country. However, a great variation in the cheeses sensory profiles is observed. Therefore, knowledge about the attributes that drives the product acceptance is important for Prato cheese standardization, targeting the best production conditions for obtaining cheese quality improvement. Moreover, this study also contributes with information about the TDS and CATA methodologies for the sensory field. TDS and CATA were useful tools determining liking directors of Brazilian Prato cheese. Creamy, Salt and soft attributes were indicated as drivers of liking of Prato cheese, while hard, rubbery and bitter taste contributed negatively to the acceptance of the product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dominance hierarchies are typically stable, with dominants occupying central positions in social interaction networks. However, system perturbations, such as the removal of individuals, may cause instability, which varies according to the group's resilience. If the hierarchy undergoes a restructuring, this can occur through a dynamic process of self-organization (Social Dynamics hypothesis) or through the influence of individuals' attributes (Previous Attributes hypothesis). We analyzed the resilience of the white-lipped peccary hierarchy after the alpha's death and observed how the rise of a new dominant occurred. Additionally, we evaluated the validity of these two hypotheses in the restructuring of the system. We observed the group of white-lipped peccary males of the Municipal Zoo of Curitiba, PR, Brazil, from May to October 2018. We recorded and analyzed the agonistic and affiliative interactions, and we collected data from the attributes: weight, testicle size, testosterone serum and age, before and after the dominant's death (August). Due to this perturbation, the hierarchy started to show instability, but proved to be resilient. There was an increase in agonism and more than one individual pleading for the new dominant position, which was occupied by a subordinate male. Affiliative interactions were also important in the rise of the new alpha. The hierarchy was well ordered by the social dynamics among individuals, but weight and testicular volume were also correlated with the status of the individuals before, and with the serum testosterone after the alpha's death. Thus, both hypotheses affected the restructuring of this system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Invasive species can reach high abundances and dominate native environments. One of the most impressive examples of ecological invasions is the spread of the African subspecies of the honey bee throughout the Americas, starting from its introduction in a single locality in Brazil. The invasive honey bee is expected to more negatively impact bee community abundance and diversity than native dominant species, but this has not been tested previously. We developed a comprehensive and systematic bee sampling scheme, using a protocol deploying 11,520 pan traps across regions and crops for three years in Brazil. We found that invasive honey bees are now the single most dominant bee species. Such dominance has not only negative consequences for abundance and species richness of native bees but also for overall bee abundance (i.e., strong "numerical" effects of honey bees). Contrary to expectations, honey bees did not have stronger negative impacts than other native bees achieving similar levels of dominance (i.e., lack of negative "identity" effects of honey bees). These effects were markedly consistent across crop species, seasons and years, and were independent from land‐use effects. Dominance could be a proxy of bee community degradation and more generally of the severity of ecological invasions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses how the political circumstances of the extermination of transgender people in Brazil aggravates the vulnerable conditions of performing-arts production. Cisgender dominance in theatre is presented as a neoliberal and colonial factor that maintains trans people in structural danger within artistic processes. While whiteness produces an ethnocentrism in Brazilian arts, cisgenderness causes an 'ethno-cis-centrism'. For trans people, 'gender bioterrorism' represents an alternative strategy for navigating performing arts and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differences resulting from the passage of migrating dunes in coastal restinga vegetation in Ilha Grande, Piauí, Brazil were quantified, especially differential survival of tree species (wild Anacardium occidentale, cajuí; Byrsonima crassifolia, muricí) and successional floristic reestablishment. A phytosociological study totalling 108 quadrats (1.08 ha) and satellite images of the area from the past 16 years were used to examine the vegetation of the upwind tracks of two mobile dunes. Quadrats were arranged in four transects along the central and marginal residual ridges of each dune. Most species recorded were herbaceous. Satellite images suggest that plants along the central dune track are buried for approximately 14 years. Some evidence for progressive re‐establishment of woody species was found in the central dune track areas, but not in the marginal areas. No successional patterns were observed in the herbs and subshrubs. Most trees occur along the marginal (longitudinal) residual ridges. Anacardium occidentale and Byrsonima crassifolia predominated among tree species. Anacardium occidentale predominated in abundance, cover, frequency and basal area and survives partial burial when located at the dune track margins. The passage of migratory dunes is important for long term maintenance of the economically important cajuí and muricí populations of Ilha Grande. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When do presidents delegate policy-making authority to their foreign ministries? And is foreign policy unique in this respect? We posit that six international, national, and personal factors determine the opportunity and motivation of presidents to delegate, and then analyse the cases of Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico in 1946–2015. By applying fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, we find that four combinations of factors are sufficient paths to delegation: (1) international stability and elite consensus on foreign policy; (2) international stability, right-wing president, and low diplomatic professionalisation; (3) international stability, right-wing president, and low presidential expertise on foreign policy; or (4) absence of authoritarianism combined with elite consensus on foreign policy and right-wing president. Our study of foreign ministries reinforces some of the main findings of the scholarly literature on other ministries, thus challenging the view of foreign policy-making as different from domestic policy areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some decapod species have intraspecific morphological variations that result in distinct adult morphotypes that influence the population structure, social dominance, and reproduction of the population. Here we investigated whether this differentiation into morphotypes occurs in adult males of Macrobrachium brasiliense, through the analysis of relative growth and morphology. Specimens were collected in the region of Uberlândia, Minas Gerais state, southeastern Brazil. Seven dimensions of each male were measured: carapace length (CL), ischium length, merus length, carpus length, propodus length, dactylus length, and major cheliped length. Principal component analysis, clustering, and discriminant analyses were used to identify possible morphotypes. The analysis of relative growth was employed to estimate the growth patterns of body structures (dependent variables) in relation to the CL (independent variable). Two morphotypes were identified: Mirim, which has less developed chelipeds (23.31 ± 3.08 mm) with fewer spines, and Açu, which has larger chelipeds (41.39 ± 8.14 mm) with many well‐developed spines, especially in the merus. Most morphometric relationships differed significantly (p <.01) between the two morphotypes. The chelipeds were useful characters for the identification of the morphotypes of M. brasiliense, corroborating previous descriptions of the genus. We provide a detailed description of the main macroscopic characteristics that differed between morphotypes, which will enable their identification in future studies. Our results contribute to the knowledge of the population biology of M. brasiliense and should be considered in future investigations, since the presence of these male morphotypes probably influences the reproductive biology and population ecology of the species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authoritarianism phenomenon is assessed in a psychosocial perspective as a cultural code on political social relationships. The paper reports two studies carried out in 2015 in a middle sized city from countryside Brazil, in which adolescents and adults completed questionnaires about the submission to authority, acceptance of leadership and obedience. Response frequency analyses and the identification of profiles allowed to conclude that there is a predominance of the acceptance of authoritarian ideas, even if the use of the term dictatorship is rejected. Adults contrast with adolescents by the higher support of religious leaders. The discussion deals with the rejection of dictatorship by its negative connotation, though authoritarian practices and ideals are supported, and also concerns the interpretation of an authoritarian social code in the time of the study which, if generalized, makes it possible to explain the compatibility of the later choice in the presidential election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The training of nurses in Brazil remain a challenge for the university, given the existing ethnic diversity and regional particularities. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify the challenges in the training process of indigenous nurses in Mato Grosso, Brazil. It is an exploratory and qualitative study, carried out with 11 indigenous nurses. Data analysis was based on Paulo Freire's interculturality. It was verified that both participants sought the integration of indigenous traditional knowledge with scientific technical knowledge during their practices, which facilitates a satisfactory interaction with the community. During nursing undergraduate school, they had little or no contact with contents related to indigenous health and at the end of the training they observed they were not prepared to meet the diverse health demands. Historically, they are subordinated in relation to non-indigenous people, which manifests as disadvantages in the teaching-learning process, related to technical / technological as well as social aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes and assesses the abuse of dominance investigations carried out by the Brazilian competition authorities in the digital sector. With nine cases already decided and six ongoing probes as of July 2019, there is a clear concern about false positives and avoidance of severe intervention, and no precise guidance on how companies should behave. The research also reveals interesting findings such as the importance of third parties, areas of concern and the in existence of convictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harmful cyanobacterial blooms in reservoirs have become a serious global issue for environmental health. However, dominance among different toxic cyanobacteria genera remains poorly understood, especially in tropical areas. We evaluated the influence of environmental factors, including total phosphorus, dissolved aluminum, water level, and precipitation on the change of the dominant genus from Microcystis to Aphanocapsa, in a hypereutrophic tropical reservoir, using 443 water samples over six years of field monitoring by applying generalized linear models (GLM). The results pointed out the prevalence of longer hydrologic retention time leading to enhanced water stability, and nutrients' accumulation into the hypolimnetic zones of the reservoir may have favored the ecophysiological advantages for the picocyanobacteria Aphanocapsa, which reached densities greater than 1 million/ml. In addition, this article also suggests that physical–chemical remediation methods applied for immobilizing phosphorus in the sediments of the reservoir may be low effective in limiting cyanobacterial growth. These findings are not only meaningful to the understanding of the dynamics of cyanobacterial genera but also to improve the management of eutrophic reservoirs in tropical regions. Practitioner points: We assessed cyanobacterial dominance changes based on 6‐year field monitoring.First article addressing the dominance of Aphanocapsa spp. in a tropical reservoir.Species of Aphanocapsa responded better to hydrological changes in the reservoir.The use of remediators was accompanied by an increase in cyanobacteria biomass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Culture-specific behaviour strategies provide an interesting window into individual differences research, producing a richer conceptualization of personality descriptions. Our aim is to describe the personality dimensions linked to a core socio-cultural behaviour pattern in Brazil: jeitinho. To reach this goal we conducted four studies. Our first set of studies (1a, 1b and 1c) examined the underlying structure of jeitinho as an individual difference variable and its nomological network with social values, the Big-Five, moral attitudes, and social dominance orientation. In Study 2, we confirm this structure and relate personal jeitinho to perceptions of jeitinho norms. Results demonstrated that personal jeitinho has two dimensions: Jeitinho Simpático is an individual’s tendency to seek positive social interactions, avoid conflict, and find creative solutions; and Jeitinho Malandro captures behaviours such as the use of deception and trickery. These two behaviours are rooted in the same dimensions of the integrated model of values and personality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the narrative of academic dominance as the common discourse that insists on seeing the relationship between the two groups of scholars through a lens of dominance. It examines the counterproductive performative elements of the dominance narrative by analyzing semi-directive interviews conducted with international relations scholars in Brazil and India. It also proposes an alternative narrative based on transversal identification.

Political conservatives and males are more likely to deny human influence on climate change. In this paper we examine the role of social dominance orientation (SDO) in explaining this “conservative male” effect by testing whether SDO mediates the influence of both political conservatism and gender on anthropogenic climate change denial. We use cross-sectional online-based data from Brazil ( N = 367) and Sweden ( N = 221) to test our mediation hypothesis. Results from path analysis showed that SDO partially or fully mediated the influence of political orientation and gender on anthropogenic climate change denial. The results provide insights about the role of SDO in the “conservative male” effect, and suggest that SDO could be considered more comprehensively in studies focusing on climate change denial and environmental attitudes/behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Ciência & Saúde Coletiva is the property of Associacao Brasileira de Pos-Graduacao em Saude Coletiva 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.)

Previous research within a dual-process cognitive-motivational theory of ideology and prejudice has indicated that dimensions of generalized prejudice are structured around attitudes towards dangerous, derogated and dissident groups, and that these prejudice dimensions are differentially predicted by the ideological attitudes of Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO). However, to date, these findings have been restricted to New Zealand samples. We describe two studies examining whether the structure of prejudiced attitudes and the differential prediction by RWA and SDO replicate in the Brazilian context, incorporating context-relevant examples of each group-politicians, those from the northeast region of Brazil, and environmentalists. Results broadly supported the three-factor structure of dangerous, derogated, and dissident groups. Consistent with previous research, regression and structural equation analyses showed that RWA explained prejudice against dangerous groups, SDO explained prejudice against derogated groups, and both RWA and SDO explained prejudice against dissident groups. This research provides some evidence for the generalizability of the three-dimensional structure of generalized prejudice and differential prediction by RWA and SDO. Copyright © 2014 European Association of Personality Psychology [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the margin is not generally given the chance to speak and since such important issues should be tackled with sensibility, the discarded discursive modulations will be discussed. Milton Hatoum's literary treatments of Western discourses of progress and development in The Brothers (2002), and its potentialization in John Gledson's translation of the novel will be mainly analyzed. The concepts of social hierarchy and degrees of social inferiority are a deeply rooted issue in Brazil's colonial heritage. Similarly, the future of Brazilians who have been deeply marginalized cannot avoid the scars of the past. They are doomed to have their freedom limited to dead words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We live in a time when the very meaning of democracy is being radically changed. Democracy is indeed a contested concept; it is at the center of struggles over what the goals of education should be, how it should be done and this is not only about schools. It is about what kind of society we want and what kinds of politics will help us get there. We wonder: Can education change society? analyzing the role of schools inside economy, the crucial site for creating activist identities among oppressed people; the large part of their lives students spend inside schools where they come to grips with authority relations, to be with others who are both the same and diff erent; what is socially valued as “legitimate knowledge" and what is seen as merely “popular"; recognition over race/ ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, ability, religion, and other important dynamics of power. An example to think about education policies and their role in social transformation can be found in the cityof Porto Alegre in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how young Brazilian men from poorer areas transcend socio-geographical boundaries by inhabiting the streets of an elite neighbourhood. Drawing on several periods of qualitative fieldwork, the article demonstrates the complex and dynamic character of the relationship between the young men and the formal residents and traders. It reveals temporal patterns of day and night, where the young men's social positions shift from subordinate diurnal (as serving workers) to dominant nocturnal positions (as potential attackers). Analysing the interactional patterns between the two groups regarding sentiments of trust and fear, the multifaceted and sometimes incoherent relations reveal social inclusion and exclusion as well as street protection and crime. The article also dismantles some common dichotomies within research on crime and fear of crime, emphasising that these young men are both victims and offenders, fearful and fearsome. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the last two decades, there has been a significant increase in archaeological information on the South American Lowlands. However, there are still gaps in our understanding of this area and many regions remain understudied. One of these regions is the Delta of the Parana River, which has been systematically investigated only very recently. In this article, we present a critical review of the existing archaeological evidence and the results obtained from our new investigations in the Upper Delta of the Parana River. We discuss patterns of use of space during the Late Holocene and the basic cultural patterns. In this context, we focus on the construction of human-made earthen mounds (locally called "cerritos") and we consider them in an extra-regional context that incorporates evidence from various cerrito sites in Southern Brazil and Uruguay. In both areas, the earthen mounds are abundant and are the subject of a current debate among archaeologists. As a corollary, we explore the archaeological and historical evidence that suggest the development of a certain degree of social hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the plight of Jewish immigrants in Brazil. Despite settling in Brazil from the first half of the 16th century, the Jews had to hide their Jewish identity. From the 18th century onwards, the Jews have overcome political-ideological persecutions and started fighting for their citizenship. The impact of these demands and struggles on the domestic relations among Jewish families is discussed. These demands and struggles are stated to have resulted in the social psychology of Jewish immigrants based on male dominance of women.

The aim of this work is to analyse the effects of values and social prejudice on political attitudes in a psicossociological perspective. The values are analysed in four levels: materialist values, post-materialist values religious values and hedonist values; the social prejudice are analysed through the social dominance orientation; the political attitudes are studied in two dimensions: trust in political institutions and support to politicians. The research has interviewed 205 undergraduate students in João Pessoa. The results show partial relationships among those variables and social equity, the value of religiosity and post materialist values in the prediction of political attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cadernos PAGU is the property of Universidade Estadual de Campinas - Portal de Periodicos Eletronicos Cientificos 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.)

The article discusses the notion of resisting the real as an ethical act in transgessing the legal norm. A radical form of resistance from the perspective of anthropological literature is the experience related to the body in such a way that pain and illness can be viewed as resistance to counter forces of domination. Also noted is resistance in different contexts including that of Brazil and folk illness, that of Iran in the resistance of a jurist and the Foucauldian and Lacanian theories of resistance.

Copyright of Sociologias is the property of Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul 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.)

The author studies the tendencies of the Brazilian electorate social behavior based on their positioning about homossexualism, abortion, feminism and social hierarchy aspects and she analyses their relationship with socioeconomic, demographic and political variables. The author finds conservative trends in the social behavior, that do not seem to influence their electoral choices. The data come from the 2002 Brazilian Electoral Study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern day social hierarchies in Jamaica, Brazil and, to a degree, Haiti find their roots in the colonial context, where planters stratified laborers in order to maximize control. During slavery planters found artificial ways of influencing African identity, dividing enslaved Africans by their occupations and by skin color. These distinctions created divisions among workers and color proved a singularly powerful and enduring symbol of social and economic mobility. The American propensity for creating racial classifications for Africans and further divisions for 'mixed-race' offspring traditionally served economic interests. Their perpetuation into the present may signal the continued utility of dividing Africans into subgroups as a means of maintaining control of racial politics in the Americas,. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Growth dominance was mostly negative up to 30 months, turning positive afterwards. • Stronger growth dominance was associated with decreasing stand growth. • Growth dominance and its negative impact on growth increased with age. • Smaller absolute and greater relative growth decrease with stronger soil water deficit. • Faster growth dominance development with milder soil water deficit. Stand structure can have a considerable influence on forest growth and productivity. A stand's response to factors like temperature, precipitation, vapor pressure deficit and different soil characteristics may result not only from the mean change in tree responses (e.g. growth decrease or increase), but may also depend on how individual tree responses vary in relation to their size and how they cope with competition. There may be a large growth imbalance among trees as a function of their size, which is referred to as growth dominance. That is, a change in a factor may have different impacts on stand growth depending on stand structure and how growth is distributed. Thus, using an experimental platform spanning tropical Brazil, we explored the relationship between growth dominance and stand growth, and whether this relationship changes across a wide climatic gradient, represented by soil water deficit. We found a predominance of negative growth dominance during the early phase of stand development which increased until dominance became positive, after about 30 months, and kept increasing afterwards. Increasing soil water deficit slowed the increase in growth dominance throughout time. The intensification of growth dominance (either positive or negative) was associated with decreasing stand growth. Increasing soil water deficit decreased the negative effect of growth dominance on increment in absolute terms, but we showed that, at the end of a 5-year rotation, increasing growth dominance at a site with more intense water deficit led to a greater growth loss in relative terms than at a site with milder water deficit. For example, the estimated difference in increment between a stand with a low growth dominance of 0.05 and a stand with a high growth dominance of 0.20 at the end of a 60–month rotation at a site with an accumulated water deficit of −200 mm was about 28 m3 ha−1 year−1, which is equivalent to a 39% decrease in relative terms. This same GDC difference under a water stress of −4000 mm resulted in a decrease in increment of approximately 18 m3 ha−1 year−1, or 48% in relative terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an analysis of the representations and experiences of male workers regarding self-care, and the ways in which configurations of health-disease-care processes and aging affect male sexuality. A qualitative study was conducted that included semi-structured interviews with fifteen men living with a chronic disease. Respondents had an average age of 56 years old, most had not completed elementary school, and they were residents of a low-income neighborhood in the city of Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. Two findings emerge from the analysis: on one hand, conceptions of health care, gender, and the reproductive process are socially mediated by gender-biased sexual prejudices or reproduce stereotypes such as those based on sexual medicine; on the other hand, the aging process has repercussions on the conception and practice of male sexuality, and disease opposes values socially attributed to traditional masculinity. However, the aging process has made it possible for some to reinterpret gender relations, as well as ideals of dominant masculinity.

This study aimed to understand the relationship between Nurse's production of subjectivity and the decision-making in the process of Nursing care. A qualitative design of research was conducted. The investigation was carried out with twelve nurses who work at the Associação de Caridade Santa Casa do Rio Grande, a hospital located in Rio Grande, RS, Brazil. For data collection, focus group technique was used three meetings were conducted in december 2011. The results were presented in semantic categories: Capitalist System: maintenance of employment bond; Submission System: institutionalized culture and vision of society; Nursing Hierarchical System; and Values System: feeling of guilt and lack of professional recognition. The capitalist system mediates, mainly, the behavior that prevails in the decision-making process in Nursing care.

We report on the first evidence of intra-community coalitionary lethal aggression in muriquis (Brachyteles). The event occurred in southern muriquis (Brachyteles arachnoides) during a long-term study (>15 years) of two social groups inhabiting mostly pristine Atlantic forest habitat in the Parque Estadual Carlos Botelho, southern São Paulo State, Brazil. The attack took place deep in the core area of the Group Caetê home range. Tense agonistic behaviors and vocalizations preceded the lethal coalitionary attack, and the tension increased over a 36-48 hr period. One adult female and two unidentified individuals also took part in a coalition led by six adult males. The members of the coalition collectively approached, embraced, immobilized and repeatedly bit the entire body of an adult male, resulting in severe bleeding injuries and the victim's death in less than 1 hr after the attack commenced. Combined ecological, behavioral and spatial data related to the event indicate that this was an intra-community attack and suggest social tensions related to mating competition as the proximate trigger of the coalitionary killing. The attack resembled those reported for chimpanzees, with clear numeric superiority and a low risk of injury to aggressors, resulting in the death of a lone conspecific victim. This observation (n=1) is suggestive of a capacity for escalated aggression in muriquis and reinforces arguments for the potential adaptive significance of intra-community aggression in male philopatric societies, as reported for spider monkeys and chimpanzees. These characteristics challenge the view of the muriquis as a peaceful primate and support the general hypothesis that imbalances of power contribute to intra-specific killing in primates, such as chimpanzees and humans.

A predictive framework for the ecology of species invasions requires that we learn what limits successful invaders in their native range. The red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) is invasive in the United States, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, and China. Solenopsis invicta appears to be a superior competitor in its introduced range, where it can cause the local extirpation of native species, but little is known about its competitive ability in its native range in South America. Here we examine the competitive ability of S. invicta for food resources in three widely separated Brazilian ant communities. Each of these communities contains 20-40 ant species, 8-10 of which were common and frequently interacted with S. invicta. S. invicta at all three sites was attacked by several species-specific phorid parasitoids, and at one site, two other species were attacked by their own specialized parasitoids. We examined interactions in these local communities for evidence that trade-offs among ant species between resource dominance and resource discovery, and between resource dominance and parasitoid vulnerability facilitate local coexistence. The trade-off between resource dominance and resource discovery was strong and significant only at Santa Genebra, where parasitoids had no effect on the outcome of confrontations at resources. At Bonito, parasitoids significantly reduced the ability of S. invicta, which was the top-ranked behavioral dominant, from defending and usurping food resources from subordinate species. In the Pantanal, S. invicta ranked behind three other ant species in a linear hierarchy of behavioral dominance, and lost the majority of its interactions with a fourth more subordinate species, Paratrechina fulva, another invasive species. Parasitoids of S. invicta were uncommon in the Pantanal, and did not affect its low position in the hierarchy relative to the other two sites. Parasitoids, however, did affect the ability of Linepithema angulatum, the top-ranked behavioral dominant in this community, from defending and usurping resources from behavioral subordinates. These results indicate that both interspecific competition and trait-mediated indirect effects of phorid parasitoids affect the ecological success of the red imported fire ant in its native range, but that the relative importance of these factors varies geographically.

Hydroelectric dams represent major investments and major sources of environmental and social impacts. Powerful forces surround the decision-making process on public investments in the various options for the generation and conservation of electricity. Brazil's proposed Belo Monte Dam (formerly Kararaô) and its upstream counterpart, the Altamira Dam (better known by its former name of Babaquara) are at the center of controversies on the decision-making process for major infrastructure projects in Amazonia. The Belo Monte Dam by itself would have a small reservoir area (440 km2) and large installed capacity (11, 181.3 MW), but the Altamira/Babaquara Dam that would regulate the flow of the Xingu River (thereby increasing power generation at Belo Monte) would flood a vast area (6140 km2). The great impact of dams provides a powerful reason for Brazil to reassess its current policies that allocate large amounts of energy in the country's national grid to subsidized aluminum smelting for export. The case of Belo Monte and the five additional dams planned upstream (including the Altamira/Babaquara Dam) indicate the need for Brazil to reform its environmental assessment and licensing system to include the impacts of multiple interdependent projects.

Personal relationships are the cornerstone of vertebrate societies, but insect societies are either too large for individual recognition, or their members were assumed to lack the necessary cognitive abilities . This paradigm has been challenged by the recent discovery that paper wasps recognize each other's unique facial color patterns . Individual recognition is advantageous when dominance hierarchies control the partitioning of work and reproduction . Here, we show that unrelated founding queens of the ant Pachycondyla villosa use chemical cues to recognize each other individually. Aggression was significantly lower in pairs of queens that had previously interacted than in pairs with similar social history but no experience with one another. Moreover, subordinates discriminated familiar and unfamiliar dominants in choice experiments in which physical contact, but not odor perception, was prevented and in tests with anaesthetized queens. The cuticular chemical profiles of queens were neither associated with dominance nor fertility and, therefore, do not represent status badges , and nestmate queens did not share a common odor. Personal recognition facilitates the maintenance of stable dominance hierarchies in these small societies. This suggests that the ability to discriminate between individual traits is selected for when it incurs net benefits for the resolution of conflict.

We investigated worker policing by egg eating in the ponerine ant Pachycondyla inversa, a species with morphologically distinct queens and workers. Colonies were split into one half with the queen and one half without. Workers in queenless colony fragments started laying unfertilized male eggs after three weeks. Worker-laid eggs and queen-laid eggs were introduced into five other queenright colonies with a single queen and three colonies with multiple queens, and their fate was observed for 30 min. Significantly more worker-laid eggs (range of 35-62%, mean of 46%) than queen-laid eggs (range of 5-31%, mean of 15%) were eaten by workers in single-queen colonies, and the same trend was seen in multiple-queen colonies. This seems to be the first well-documented study of ants with a distinct caste polymorphism to show that workers kill worker-laid eggs in preference to queen-laid eggs. Chemical analyses showed that the surfaces of queen-laid and worker-laid eggs have different chemical profiles as a result of different relative proportions of several hydrocarbons. Such differences might provide the information necessary for differential treatment of eggs. One particular alkane, 3,11-dimeC27, was significantly more abundant on the surfaces of queen-laid eggs. This substance is also the most abundant compound on the cuticles of egg layers.

Primitive ant societies, with their relatively simple social structure, provide an opportunity to explore the evolution of chemical communication, in particular of mechanisms underlying within-colony discrimination. In the same colony, slight differences in individual odours can be the basis for discrimination between different castes, classes of age and social status. There is some evidence from correlative studies that such inter-individual variation is associated with differences in reproductive status, but direct proof that certain chemical compounds are detected and recognized by ants is still lacking. In the ponerine ant Pachycondyla inversa, fertile queens and, in orphaned colonies, dominant egg-laying workers are characterized by the predominance of a branched hydrocarbon, 3,11-dimethylheptacosane (3,11-diMeC(27)) on the cuticle. Using electroanntennography and gas chromatography with electroantennographic detection, we show that the antennae of P. inversa workers react to this key compound. 3,11-diMeC(27) is correlated with ovarian activity and, because it is detected, is likely to assume the role of a fertility signal reflecting the quality of the sender.

Maria Lenk is widely recognized as an exceptional athlete who participated in women's sport from around 1930 until 1950. In 1932, at the age of seventeen, she was the first woman to be included in a Latin American delegation to the Olympic Games. As a swimmer, she still sets world records at the age of eighty-six. This super-champion's sporting achievements and her persistent dedication to the advancement of sport still impress and surprise todays professional swimmers and researchers. Contextualised in the male-dominated society of Brazil during the first half of the twentieth century, this chapter traces the achievement, and rise to international fame, of Maria Lenk. It examines the factors that enabled her to emerge not only as an important figure in sport but also as an icon of female emancipation in Brazilian and Latin American society. The focus is on Lenk's influence on the issues which affected the development of women's sport in Latin America. It also highlights the significance of Lenk's contribution to the changing place of women in Brazilian and South American society.