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This paper tests the predictions of various conflicting theories on international trade and development by examining the impact of exporting and importing on economic level and basic needs in two developing countries of two different developing regions of the world; one in Latin America & Caribbean, and one in Sub-Saharan Africa. The two countries are Brazil and South Africa, respectively. Using fifteen-year lagged data that spanned 1984-2019, the paper finds that exporting tends to have negative and significant impact on both economic level and social basic needs in these two countries. Importing, on the other hand, was found to have positive and significant impact on economic level, and social basic needs in both countries. Implications of these findings for public policy and international trade theory development are discussed, and directions for future research are given. [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.)

In order to discern the causes of the health and developmental problems of children, and thence develop preventative strategies, longitudinal cohort studies offer major advantages. They can monitor the consequences of exposure to physical and psychological events and thence identify antecedents of various disorders. We describe the historical background to the development in the UK of this study design, and the uptake of longitudinal birth cohorts in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), using the cohorts in Jamaica, South Africa and Brazil as exemplars. We describe the benefits of such studies and show how undertaking longitudinal cohort studies can have major health and financial benefits to the populations concerned. Additionally, the paper outlines the advantages of collaboration between studies and the pooling of data.

Due to climate change conditions, natural ventilation potential may reduce over the years and increase dependence on HVAC systems. Moreover, occupants' behaviour regarding natural ventilation is a significant parameter affecting the thermal-energy performance of residential buildings as people tend to occupy their homes differently depending on their life, work and cultural routines. Therefore, in this study, the thermal-energy performance of a Global South (GS) housing case study located in Brazil was assessed in a future weather context. This paper included two major steps: (1) Optimization procedure to create optimized models based on different occupancy patterns; and (2) Parametric analysis to explore the building's thermal-energy performance for a given constructive design option, occupant behaviour and weather data. The optimization procedure included a multi-objective optimization based on the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) to minimize discomfort hours and cooling energy demand, while parametric analysis explored the occupants' behaviour varieties derived from alternative occupancy patterns, ventilation availabilities and HVAC operation modes. The obtained future context simulation results indicated an increase in discomfort hours and cooling energy demand, while the most appropriate architecture design might vary depending on the occupancy behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most governments around the world are fostering innovation and entrepreneurial systems with a prominent role for venture capital (VC) support policies. However, the debate about the role and impact of VC support policies is still focused on the countries of the Global North. In this context, this paper seeks to describe and analyse the role that the state has played in the emergence and development of the VC industry in India and Brazil, two of the biggest economies of the Global South. We adopt a systemic and evolutionary perspective under the general context of a renewed role for the state in financing innovation. We offer interesting questions and implications to discuss the challenges, scale and impact that could be expected from VC industry support policies in the Global South countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International broadcasting services are typically designed to serve public diplomacy and soft power objectives. Traditionally, Western powers have explored and benefited from this state-sponsored media category. However, countries in the Global South, like Brazil, have endeavoured to establish cross-border television services to bolster their international presence. This paper scrutinizes TV Brasil Internacional as a case study, examining its designated functions, management, and funding models. The research illuminates through document surveys and semi-structured interviews that while the channel initially reflected Brazil's external policies and public service ideals, structural alterations enabling increased governmental intervention alongside budget cuts rendered the international service dormant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze the main challenges and critical success factors (CSFs) in managing multi-sided platforms (MSP) in Brazil, as well as to understand the differences between this management model and traditional companies. Design/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with experienced professionals in the field, focusing on challenges, CSFs and difficulties in managing MSP businesses. The data were analyzed using a mixed-method approach, involving content analysis for qualitative data and grey relational analysis and sensitivity analysis for quantitative data. Findings: The experts identified eight CSFs, seven key differences between traditional businesses and MSPs, and five technology-related challenges in managing MSPs. They assessed the main difficulties reported in the literature and ranked them, with the most critical challenges being competition with companies adopting MSP models in the same sector (product/service niche) and the necessity for ongoing process adjustments to accommodate scalability. Originality/value: This study enhances understanding of CSF, disparities between traditional and MSPs and technology-related challenges in this management model. The results can assist managers in emerging nations in enhancing the performance of MSP operations and can be a resource for researchers studying various contexts and creating company guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: nearly 50% of people in developing countries suffer from extreme poverty. Consequently, a debate has emerged about the potential of ICT to improve socio-economic conditions prevailing in impoverished nations. This discussion has given rise to a burgeoning field of research known as ICT for development (ICT4D). However, most academics in the ICT4D arena do not come from developing countries, nor do they reside in these regions -- the main beneficiaries of ICT4D initiatives. This is the case of Brazil, a country characterized by significant socioeconomic disparities, where this field of study has aroused little interest among the scientific community and thus continues to be largely under-researched. Thus, the objective of this paper is to make sense of that phenomenon. Provocations: as most of the ICT4D knowledge base has been generated either by academics who are not originally from developing countries or by academics native to developing countries who currently reside in developed countries, a provocation can be made, namely, considering that ICT4D initiatives can improve the quality of life of people, why haven't Brazilian scholars prioritized research in this area? Conclusion: as a provocative paper, our main objective is to debate on the aforementioned issue. For this, we should listen to the Brazilian Academy of Management -- mainly the academics of the ANPAD's Information Management division -- to address and solve this puzzle, so that ICT4D research in Brazil can be encouraged with a view to causing a real impact on our society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When will stringent sustainability commitments (not) be a stumbling block in the negotiation of trade agreements? Although the existing literature has explored the determinants of the design of sustainability provisions in trade agreements, few works have explored when countries will accept/reject those provisions once their content cannot be changed. Based on insights from game theory, we flesh out the conditions under which there will be an equilibrium in favor of hard sustainability provisions in trade deals. We then present empirical illustrations related to Mexico's participation in the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) and Brazil's participation in the EU‐Mercosur trade negotiations. Our model shows that (1) fears of partner opportunism, (2) the costs of nonparticipation in trade deals, and (3) costs of adjustments to hard trade‐sustainability commitments are key to understanding whether a compromise can arise on trade and strong sustainability commitments. The model highlights what sorts of concessions ought to be made for negotiations to prosper. The findings point to how the changing structure of trade governance may affect the decision‐making process of Global South countries. The paper concludes with recommendations and avenues for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anecdotal evidence for several developing countries suggests that foreign direct investment and multinational enterprises (MNEs) may be an important conduit of cultural exchange. Recent work in economics has explored the role that MNEs play in transferring gender equality around the globe, but with mixed results. In this paper, we consider the implications of increased foreign direct investment in Brazil on the transmission of high‐quality gender policy and practice. In particular, we investigate whether workers with experience at multinational firms, now employed in domestic firms with no foreign influence, help to change gender‐specific outcomes at their Brazilian companies. We next ask whether it matters from where the foreign direct investment originates—that is, do workers with experience in MNEs with headquarters in relatively gender‐equal countries transfer best practices toward women better than do workers with experience in MNEs from relatively more gender‐unequal countries? Increasing the share of workers with MNE experience modestly improves the gender earnings gap in some specifications. Additionally, workers in management positions offer the strongest positive contributions to closing gender gaps. However, despite the many theoretical reasons and suggestive empirical evidence from previous literature to expect differential implications across FDI‐source countries, our data fail to support this notion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over recent years, and as a result of the recent global health pandemic, resilience has become increasingly central to contemporary policy discourses in urban planning and development in both the Global North and Global South. Drawing from ongoing empirical studies of community resilience and everyday practices that have been co-designed and co-produced alongside Brazilian marginalised communities which are highly vulnerable to a range of natural hazards, this paper highlights the growing importance of dialogical stakeholder engagement methodologies in designing alternative urban visions – so-called resilience imaginaries or counter-cities - across the Global South based on social diversity, equity and spatial justice. More specifically, the dialogical participatory mapping approach outlined in this paper utilises citizen science approaches to develop local resilience imaginaries, building on the pedagogical work of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire and the conceptualisation of dialogue as a comprehensive and progressively unfolding methodological approach. Practically, we adopted a range of community engagement approaches that allowed local citizens to become more aware of their own risk context and embed this tacit knowledge into the operation of civil protection programmes. Our empirical results highlight the potential of such dialogical participatory approaches to capture lay knowledge from local citizens and contribute to the development of enhanced resilience approaches. The paper concludes by reflecting on the role of formerly marginalised voices in the advancement of local urban policy and on the novelty and promise of critical pedagogical approaches to co-production within existing regimes of urban governance and the imagining of radically independent counter-cities. • Novel community engagement approaches based on dialogue allow local citizens to become more aware of their own risk context. • The process of geospatial data production can be a transformative moment capable of nurturing enhanced community resilience. • Dialogical participatory mapping is a method for re-imagining future city-visions. • Western resilience scholarship needs learn from emerging resilience building grounded practices in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many nations have pledged to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. Embarking on the decarbonization journey, they posited geological carbon storage (GCS) as a pivotal technology within the carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) framework. The CCUS chain operates to reduce "hard-to-abate" emissions at key sectors by capturing carbon dioxide (CO 2), reusing it, transporting it, or disposing of it via injection into underground geological formations for permanent storage. Despite the global success of GCS ventures, mainly driven by the oil and gas industry, GCS initiatives are still in their early stages in several developing countries. In Brazil, for instance, a full setup covering precise storage capacity databases, potential CCUS clusters, national regulatory structure, and auxiliary computer-aided engineering is underway. Intended to push the frontier in the latter subject, this paper introduces mathematical models for qualifying underground CO 2 storage sites. Our research explores a family of multivariate functionals endowed with underlying reservoir features and distinct weighting functions, thus envisioning two primary objectives. Firstly, it clarifies non-linear interactions between rock and fluid properties using quality indicators. Secondly, it evaluates geographical regions considering structural traps/caprocks settings. Backed by the Matlab Reservoir Simulation Toolbox (MRST) capabilities, the methodology is a subsidiary resource for identifying suitable injection and storage sites. A case study using the UNISIM-I-D model generated dozens of volumetric quality maps that point to unique potential storage sites. Numerical simulation experiments of injection comparing legacy and novel wells reveal storage surpluses improved by up to 50%. The paper seeks to establish foundational knowledge in GCS efficiency for general underground settings. One expects that these outcomes leverage well-repurposing perspectives and stimulate field appraisal actions to scale up GCS projects both in Brazil and worldwide. • Introduction of a family of mathematical functionals for site qualification. • Trap analysis and supercritical gas injection over a Brazilian offshore reservoir model. • Comparison of storage surplus in theoretically-proposed and legacy well locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flood mapping is a crucial tool for assisting urban planning and emergency response plans and, consequently, preventing or reducing the risks associated with flood disasters. However, in developing countries that often lack or have limited data, to produce such maps is a challenging task. When topographic data are lacking, digital elevation models (DEMs) derived from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) are frequently used as a freely available surrogate, albeit with additional uncertainty. This work presents an integrated framework to investigate flood inundation areas using a Bayesian approach, while including steps for calibrating SRTM data and determining the river bathymetry below the WSE. A flood event in the Itaqui municipality, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil is used to demonstrate the proposed framework. Findings suggest benefits in using calibrated SRTM DEMs for flood mapping regardless of whether flood inundation areas were derived directly from projections of WSEs on the terrain or based on hydraulic simulations. Results further highlight the potential of using a Bayesian approach to improve quality and reliability of flood hazards maps, especially in regions that lack topographic data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from nation-branding as a recent development in contemporary globalization, and new middle power theory that examines hierarchies of nations, we used thematic textual analysis to examine business press coverage of the IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) consortium for business news representations and the positioning of IBSA nations in the global arena. Analysis of coverage in India's The Financial Express, Brazil's Valor Econômico and South Africa's Business Day revealed that regional economic leadership, strengths in trade and technology, development aid and the consortium's collective engagement in global activism inform the business press' positioning of the IBSA countries as new middle powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This debate was part of the conference "Internationalizing German Communication Studies: Learning from the World" in Erfurt, Germany, in March 2024. It featured an in-depth dialogue with scholars from South Africa, Brazil and Qatar about approaches to internationalization in their respective academic communities. The aim was to learn about the current state of internationalization in communication studies around the world, particularly in places often termed the "Global South", and to understand their discourses, respective challenges, and opportunities for internationalization. The comparative perspective applied here allows for a deeper understanding of power asymmetries, language and translation issues, and the pros and cons of intellectual autonomy. It also addresses how to overcome "islandization" on the path to a true and just, or a "deep" internationalization in communication studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Area Development & Policy is the property of Taylor & Francis 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.)

Many factors drive land desertification, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. However, the sheer number of these driving factors of desertification makes analyses computer-intensive. Cloud computing offers a solution to address this problem, especially in developing countries. The objective of this work was to assess the sensitivity of the East Atlantic Basin, Brazil, to desertification using the Mediterranean Desertification and Land Use (MEDALUS) model and Google Earth Engine (GEE). The model is composed of four environmental Quality Indices (QIs) associated with soil (SQI), vegetation (VQI), climate (CQI), and management (MQI), each encompassing factors that influence the desertification process. Digital databases corresponding to these factors were pre-processed and uploaded to GEE for analysis. We report Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) and Environmentally Critical Factors (ECF) maps of the East Atlantic Basin, which show that most of the basin is in either a critical (49.4%) or fragile (35.7%) state of sensitivity. In contrast, only a smaller portion of the area is unaffected (5%) or potentially affected (10.1%). The analysis also revealed an inverse correlation between desertification sensitivity and the presence of vigorous vegetation. A joint evaluation of ESAs and ECF shed light on the importance of each factor in the sensitivity to desertification. The East Atlantic Basin shows a high degree of sensitivity to desertification, thereby demanding more attention and the establishment of measures to mitigate the negative impacts of the desertification process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, which seeks to check the supposed potential of public social services to promote sustainable and equitable well-being, we assess, on the one hand, the magnitude of unmet social needs in Brazil in terms of additional public spending on education and health, and, on the other hand, the economic, social, and environmental benefits that might accrue from meeting these needs. Estimating the size of unmet social needs reveals abysmal distances between current service provision and a set of benchmarks. The huge size of these gaps reflects the lack of priority given to these services in the various national development projects of the past. In turn, the measurement of benefits, carried out with the help of the 2019 Brazilian Input Output Tables (IOTs), and the generation of an environmental matrix based on the IOTs, reveals that investments in these areas are key opportunities for promoting sustainable development. The greater capacity for galvanizing the economy and generating formal employment, and the smaller carbon footprint of public education and health services when compared to the average for the economy, stand out. Additionally, in comparison with the private social services provision network, public services stand out in terms of average wages, collection of taxes and contributions, formal employment, income multipliers and formal employment, and greenhouse gas emissions per unit of wage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]