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Due to the increasing population worldwide, in recent years, an exponential increase in agricultural practices has occurred in order to attend to the growing demand for food. Unfortunately, this increase is not associated with the supply of foodstuffs free of environmental pollutants. In Brazil, agriculture is one of the most important economic pillars, making the country one of the largest consumers of pesticides around the world. The intense use of pesticides, mainly glyphosate, 2,4-D, and atrazine, constitutes an essential factor in the viability of this great agricultural productivity. Sugarcane, corn, soybean, and citrus crops consume around 66% of the total pesticides worldwide, representing 76% of the planted area. Pesticide residues have been frequently detected in food and the environment, becoming a significant concern for human health. Monitoring programs for pesticide use are essential to reduce the potential negative impacts on the environment and improve the overall efficiency and sustainability of their use. However, in Brazil, the approval status of pesticide-active ingredients is very discrepant compared to other agricultural countries. Moreover, the duality of benefits and risks of pesticide application creates an economic and toxicological conflict. In this paper, we have critically reviewed the duality of risks-benefits of the use of pesticides in agriculture and the current Brazilian legislation issues. We have also compared this flawed legislation with other countries with high economic potential. Due to the negative environmental impacts on soil and water by the high levels of pesticides, remediation techniques, sustainable agriculture, and the development of new technologies can be considered some viable alternatives to reduce the levels in these compartments. Besides, this paper includes some recommendations that can be included in the coming years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Commensality is a remarkable human act, and tends to be more present among families. Nevertheless, it is possible that eating at the table is being taking for granted when one refers to family meals. Thus, this paper aims to analyze working mothers' discourses about family meals eaten at the table, on the couch and in the bed/bedroom.Methods: The participants were thirty mothers working in public universities of the Brazilian region called Baixada Santista. A qualitative study was conducted, using semi-structured interviews. In the transcripts the words "table", "couch", "bed", "bedroom" were located and the excerpts containing them were extracted and analyzed according to a classical and exploratory content analysis.Results: The table is a significant component of meals that unite the family. While for some the meal at the table is an enjoyable moment, it is a stiff moment for others. Indeed, manners and the notion of hierarchy appeared only for the table. Regarding the couch, it seems that the family chose to eat there, because it is a more casual and relaxed setting. Eating in the bed was related to precarity, intimacy and casualness. In the three settings, watching television was a common practice, replacing or being added to talking.Conclusions: Commensality is such an important practice that appears in different settings and even in precarity contexts. The table emerged as the maximal cornerstone of commensality. However, when it was not present, new arrangements were made. Especially the couch seems to be a new commensal space, less formal and rigid, but able to allow some collective conviviality. Eating in the bed was a less common practice. Finally, the significant role that television assumed in meals is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon released approximately 5.7 billion tons of CO 2 to the atmosphere between 2000 and 2010, and 50–80% of this deforestation was for pasture. Most assume that increasing demand for cattle products produced in Brazil caused this deforestation, but the empirical work to-date on cattle documents only correlations between cattle herd size, pasture expansion, cattle prices, and deforestation. This paper uses panel data on deforestation and foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) status—an exogenous demand shifter—to estimate whether changes in FMD status caused new deforestation in municipalities in the Brazilian Amazon and cerrado biomes during the 2000–2010 period. Results suggest that, on average, becoming certified as FMD-free caused a temporary spike in deforestation in the 2 years after a municipality became FMD-free, but caused subsequent deforestation to decline relative to infected municipalities during the 2000–2010 period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perfect murder is a recurring theme in many works of art, high and popular. Scientific inquiry has generally overlooked the issue, though a considerable body of cross-disciplinary evidence documents wide variation in the handling of homicide in human societies. At one extreme lie those intentional homicides that result in no legal sanctions and popular praise for the killer, homicides that may be fairly termed perfect murders. But when will killers get away with murder? The present paper draws upon pure sociology to specify the conditions under which the combination of maximal legal and popular leniency for homicide occurs. Data on the killing of civilians by police in the United States and Brazil illustrates the continuum of murder perfection, with those in Brazil providing an especially close fit with the theoretical model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is focused on a variety of works, made by Jean-Baptiste Debret in Rio de Janeiro in the 1820s, which describe slave life. It is argued that Debret committed himself imaginatively to responding to Brazilian slavery with an honesty of vision and a precision of form that allowed him to produce an artistic commentary on slave trauma unique in its emotional depth and formal range. As the work focussed upon Brazilian slavery, and until recently was almost completely buried in inaccessible archives, it has not been given the attention within studies of slavery, diaspora and Romanticism which it demands and merits, [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conditional incentives are a promising complementary approach to conserve tropical forests, for example, in multiple-use protected areas. In this paper we analyze the environmental impacts of Bolsa Floresta , a forest conservation program that combines direct conditional payments with livelihood-focused investments in 15 multiple-use reserves in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. We use grid-based data, nearest-neighbor matching, and panel data econometrics to compare three forest-related program outcomes – deforestation, degradation, and fires – of participating and non-participating reserve areas. Forest threats were low before and after treatment, because the program prioritized low-pressure sites. Thus, we find significant but small additional conservation effects from the implementation of the program. Notwithstanding, treatment effects are relatively larger in areas with higher deforestation pressure and higher potential agricultural income. Our findings add to the growing body of evidence showing that adverse spatial targeting of conservation incentives, i.e. disproportionally enrolling low–pressure sites, is a prime cause for the low additionality found in rigorous impact evaluations of many existing initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the emergence of the epibiotic barnacle Xenobalanus globicipitis in Guiana dolphins (Sotalia guianensis) from Sepetiba Bay, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in September 2018, six months after a lethal morbillivirus epidemic. Small boat surveys were conducted at the entrance and in the interior of the bay from January 2018 to February 2021. Dolphins were photo-identified and classified according to overall spatial use of the Bay. We examined the potential influence of the period and habitat on the prevalence of X. globicipitis. The overall prevalence of the barnacle was 38.7% in 214 dolphins. X. globicipitis was not observed in 99 individually identified dolphins from January to August 2018 (first period) but was seen on 83 of the 194 (42.8%) dolphins photographed from September 2018 to February 2021 (second period). Moreover, in 22 individuals repeatedly photographed during both periods, prevalence was 0% and 91% during the first and second period, respectively. Prevalence was the highest in the dolphins using the entrance of the Bay (55.0%, N = 140), intermediate in animals using equally both the entrance and interior area (42.9%, N = 47), and the lowest (6.4%, N = 7) in those using the interior area only. The calves of five females infested with X. globicipitis were free of barnacles. Based on repeated photographs of barnacles at different growth stage on six dolphins, the periods between first and last sight with the epibiont were (in increasing order) 29, 32, 40, 51, 68 and 78 days. A conservative estimation from the initial settlement to sexual maturity was around 40–45 days. Three individuals of X. globicipitis collected on a stranded dolphin measured 65 mm, 61 mm and 35 mm, the largest recorded size to date. The two large individuals had incubated embryos while the smaller one presented developing gonads. Poor health and an impaired immune response in the dolphins that had survived the morbillivirus epidemic may have favored the introduction of the barnacle, but biotic and abiotic factors could also had played an important role. This paper documents the colonization of an estuarine area by X. globicipitis following ecological changes. • Xenobalanus globicipitis prevalence was the highest in dolphins using areas directly influenced by coastal waters. • None of the twelve calves were infested by X. globicipitis , though, in five cases, their mothers were. • The infestation period of X. globicipitis ranged from 29 to 78 days, and none of the infested dolphins had barnacles after c. 9.5 months. • The barnacle growth curve flattened at c. 30 days, with a conservative estimation, from the initial settlement to sexual maturity of 40–45 days. • Poor health, impaired immune response, biotic and abiotic factors might have favored the emergence of X. globicipitis at Sepetiba Bay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper provides a comparative perspective on the development of public primary education in four of the largest developing economies circa 1910: Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). These four countries encompassed more than 50% of the world's population in 1910, but remarkably few of their citizens attended any school by the early 20th century. We present new, comparable data on school inputs and outputs for BRIC drawn from contemporary surveys and government documents. Recent studies emphasize the importance of political decentralization, and relatively broad political voice for the early spread of public primary education in developed economies. We identify the former and the lack of the latter to be important in the context of BRIC, but we also outline how other factors such as factor endowments, colonialism, serfdom, and, especially, the characteristics of the political and economic elite help explain the low achievement levels of these four countries and the incredible amount of heterogeneity within each of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community forestry initiatives have been shown to reduce rural poverty while promoting the conservation and sustainable use of forests. However, a number of challenges face communities wanting to initiate or maintain formal, community-based forest management. Through a grounded theory approach, this paper uses three case studies of community forest management models in the eastern Amazon to create a framework showing challenges faced by communities at different phases of formal management. The framework shows that, in the development phase, four root problems (land ownership, knowledge acquisition, community organization, and adequate capital) need to be addressed to obtain legal management permission. With this permission in hand, further challenges to operationalization are presented (deterring illegal loggers, maintaining infrastructure, obtaining necessary managerial skills and accessing markets). The interrelatedness of these challenges emphasizes that all challenges need to be addressed in a holistic manner for communities to maintain a profitable and self-sufficient operation. This contradicts current development approaches that only address part of this framework. The framework proposed here can be used as a starting point for community forestry initiatives in other regions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The western region of São Paulo state, Brazil, became one of several sites of global cotton production during the first half of the twentieth century in response to increased global demand and fears of cotton shortages. The cotton boom tapped a ‘forest rent’ that helped Brazil rise to become the largest producer in Latin America, providing both export revenue and critical raw material to a growing industrial economy that would become the largest in South America. This paper uses an organizational and institutional perspective to analyze causes and effects of the mid-century cotton boom that centered on São Paulo state. Organizations and institutions relating to cotton production are considered using oral histories, judicial documents, agronomic texts, and the sediment record in small catchments as empirical evidence. The state dramatically reformed some organizations to provide the key inputs to cotton production, while most contemporary observers ignored institutions, such as sharecropping and tenant farming, that supported cotton. São Paulo's institutions and organizations were characterized by the borrowing and adaptation of existing labor institutions, the creation of new state organizations that subsidized elite producers, and the weak development of institutions or organizations in response to soil fertility issues and labor supply. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Lapa das Boleiras rockshelter, a Paleoamerican archaeological site in Central Brazil, was intensely occupied by humans from 10,000 14C BP (11.8calkyrBP), until approximately 7500 14C BP (8.4calkyrBP). In this paper we present some interpretations about the formation processes operating on the site. One of our main conclusions is that the bulk of accumulated sediments at the site is of anthropogenic origin: they are constituted by volumetrically significant quantities of plant ash remains, what is somewhat unexpectedly in view of prevailing models about the lifestyle of Paleoamerican hunter–gatherers in South America. The evidence we discuss below is also consistent with paleoenvironmental data that suggest a dry period during the mid-Holocene in the region, probably leading to a decrease in human occupation [Araujo, A.G.M., Neves, W., Piló, L.B., Atui, J.P., 2005. Holocene dryness and human occupation in Brazil during the ‘Archaic Gap’. Quaternary Research 64, 298–307]. We surmise that both factors underpin a surprising reduction in sediment accumulation at the site during the mid-Holocene. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is delivered into the oceans at various hydrogeological settings. Where coastal aquifers have spatial heterogeneous properties such as preferential flowpaths, SGD is also commonly heterogeneously distributed along the coast. SGD from a heterogeneous, fractured rock aquifer on the Ubatuba coast, Brazil has been investigated by depth profiling of ground conductivity. On spatial scales of <10m, a significant variation in sub-surface conductivity and associated discharge rate is documented. These geophysical observations were used to identify preferential flowpaths, and to explain significant differences in average discharge rates observed in seepage meter records placed only a few metres apart from each other. This paper illustrates the utility of sub-surface conductivity measurements for accurate investigations of SGD fluxes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The purpose of this paper is to present a review of data on assessment of exposure and adverse effects due to environmental and occupational lead exposure in Brazil. Epidemiological investigations on children lead exposure around industrial and mining areas have shown that lead contamination is an actual source of concern. Lead in gasoline has been phasing out since the 1980s, and it is now completely discontinued. The last lead mining and lead refining plant was closed in 1995, leaving residual environmental lead contamination which has recently been investigated using a multidisciplinary approach. Moreover, there are hundreds of small battery recycling plants and secondary smelting facilities all over the country, which produce focal urban areas of lead contamination. Current regulatory limits for workplace lead exposure have shown to be inadequate as safety limits according to a few studies carried out lately. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents models of secondary forests ("regrowth") in the Brazilian Amazon using social indicators as explanatory factors. We draw on a spatially explicit data set containing satellite-based estimates of secondary growth, matched to census-based social indicators for municipalities in the region. The models overcome several shortcomings in previous efforts: they use smaller units of analysis to capture local heterogeneity; they include a conceptually broad range of measures to reduce omitted variable bias; they allow for estimation of separate coefficients and error terms for three distinct subregions to observe variable effects across the region and manage heteroskedasticity; and they incorporate spatial information to account for spatial autocorrelation and obtain unbiased estimates of coefficients. The findings indicate that longstanding settlement and traditional activities have positive effects on the extent of secondary forests, but in-migration and non-traditional land use exert growing influences on forest regrowth as well, especially in frontier areas of the Amazon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to examine the informal mechanisms and factors of corporate crime in Brazil that contribute to the persistence of political corruption. For this analysis, official records, e.g. closed criminal trials produced by Operation Carwash, one of the biggest cases of white-collar crime and political corruption in Brazil's history, will be used. The focus of the analysis is on the criminal trials, generated in the early phases of the investigation, which revealed the illegal activities of large Brazilian construction companies as well as its cartel-building to defraud the Petrobras' contracts. The analysis on the modus operandi of this cartel served to reconstruct the unwritten rules inside organizations that are involved in the bribery-scheme. The analysis showed that Brazilian private enterprises, represented by its senior executives and top managers, used the lack of regulation and informal rules, rooted in the political system, to achieve illegal profits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]