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This systematic review aims to give an overview of the diversity of research areas related to human biometeorology in Brazil. The main focus of this paper addresses research trends, represented by published papers with national and international authorship, main contributions and shortcomings, as well as challenges and prospects of research in this area of study. An extensive literature search was conducted in the Scopus, Web of Science, and Science Direct databases so as to identify relevant publication output up to July 2021 related to the research area. The screening resulted in 96 studies chosen for full-text reading. Overall, results indicated a reduced amount of articles on the subject matter published internationally, with noticeable gaps in research in some regions of the country, such as the Amazon region and in the Brazilian Midwest region. Research gaps in relevant areas have been identified with limited output in the climate dimensions of tourism, vector-borne diseases, mortality and morbidity in urban centers. Such gaps should further encourage researchers to engage in research focused on those areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the macroeconomic effects of oil demand and supply shocks on an emerging market economy using a Bayesian vector autoregressive model combining zero and sign restrictions. The empirical analysis relies on a rich set of macroeconomic indicators mirroring the economic performance in Brazil. The effects on the Brazilian output of oil price changes driven by global demand shocks are much larger and more persistent than those driven by oil production. Oil price changes that are not related to changes in oil supply or global economic activity have a small impact on the Brazilian variables. The main policy implication of this study is that emerging market economies should identify correctly the source of oil price fluctuation for implementing the best economic policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ioannidis et al. (2020) reported a standardized estimate of scientific productivity obtained from a worldwide database of 6,880,389 scientists who published at least 5 papers picked up by the Scopus database, and elaborated a ranking of ca. 120,000 scientists by both whole trajectory (career-long) impact and their current impact at year 2019. The goal of our paper is to contextualize Latin American ecologists' contribution at the world level based on the four most scientifically productive countries in the region. Methods and findings: Ioannidis et al. (2020) proposed a composite index that is the sum of six scientometric indicators: (1) The number of allocites, (2) the h index, (3) a per capita corrected version of h, (4) the allocites received as single author, (5) those received as single + first author, and (6) those as single + first + last author. We selected data for ecologists from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico and comparatively analyzed their productivity according to the proposed index. We also compared these data with those obtained from a global sample of the top ecologists worldwide. Conclusions: Based on Ioannidis et al.'s proposition to evaluate scientific productivity we extract three lessons: (1) It does not pay to publish many papers; what counts is the number of allocites (i.e., self-citations do not add up). (2) Either be single, first, or last author; it does not pay to be in the middle of an authorship line. (3) Even worse it is to be among many co-authors because the proposed index allocates credits on a per capita basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought is one of the most critical meteorological hazards that has a devastating effect on natural habitats, ecosystems, and many economic and social sectors. Due to these severe impacts of drought events, many studies have focused on drought monitoring, prediction, and risk analysis to aid drought preparedness plans and mitigation measures. This paper presents a new drought composite index (DCI) to measure the intensity and frequency of the hazard component of meteorological drought. The DCI considers multiple indicators, such as precipitation, temperature, evapotranspiration, wind speed, relative humidity, and sunshine duration. The DCI is validated through an application to the Brazilian semiarid context. Based on the expert's opinion, we define the weight of each indicator using the analytical hierarchy process. The results were compared with two other drought indices to provide an initial validation because the other indices are not exclusively meteorological indices. The DCI estimates for January 2019 show that the semiarid central region is the most critical. The findings also indicate that the drought intensity is growing in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: We bibliometrically evaluated the scientific literature outlined around Brazilian life cycle assessment (LCA). Our aim is twofold: (1) Analyze the Brazilian scientific literature on LCA, forming a current view of how the LCA methodology is applied in the country; (2) within this view, trace the evolution of themes, characterize institution collaboration, and indicate major influences in Brazilian LCA community. Methods: Data were outlined around academic production and publications, from 1993 to 2015, indexed by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI- SCIE and SSCI) through a specific group of keywords. Initially, a temporal evolution and projection of papers, PhD and Master Theses, were performed. In sequence, indexed papers were analyzed through performance indicators (i.e., number of authors, impact factor, among others) and content evaluation (for instance, major addressed themes). Finally, a mapping of science was performed, with the aid of Cite Space software application, where coword (and evolution), cocollaboration (and evolution), and cocitation maps were created. Results and discussion: The survey identified 429 documents divided among international and national papers, PhD and Master Theses. From those documents, 165 were indexed. In terms of production and performance, the results indicate an undeniable evolution of the Brazilian LCA research, as affirmed by relations solidified through time. The main research field is 'LCA application' with 84 % of papers, whereas 'LCA methodology' completes the framework. In LCA applications, 25 % of publications are related to Biofuels-divided into bioethanol and biodiesel-which makes it the current dominant LCA research area in Brazil. The collaboration network demonstrates three main institution groups, whereas evolution through the years indicates that this situation may further improve. Influential authors are linked to LCA of biofuels, general LCA guidelines, and methodological LCA developments. Conclusions: Brazilian LCA research has been growing and more complex relations between themes and institutions denote that further developments can be expected. Cocollaboration indicates three main clusters, led by USP, Unicamp, and UFRJ. 'Biofuels' is the main research area where sugarcane ethanol and biodiesel from different sources are the domain product systems. Cocitation analysis solidifies this statement, pointing to Isaias Macedo (and other biofuel researchers) as the main author in Brazilian LCA after ISO and Mark Goedkoop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the first record of the bristlemouth Margrethia valentinae Parin, 1982 (Stomiiformes: Gonostomatidae) in the western South Atlantic, based on a single specimen (NPM 6856, standard length 52 mm) bottom trawled off Santa Catarina, Brazil, at 26°23′25′′ S, 46°01′50′′ W, 400 m depth, on December 13, 2000. Morphometric and meristic data for M. valentinae and its congener, M. obtusirostra, are given and compared to those reported in the literature. Remarks on the taxonomy of the genus Margrethia and an overview on its distribution are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper finds qualified support for the use of Skarbek's (2011, 2014) governance theory to understand the emergence of prison gang-like groups in Kyrgyzstan, Northern Ireland and Brazil. However, Skarbek's (2011, 2014) governance theory has little to say about how many prison gangs emerge and how they organise comparatively outside the US context. This paper argues that variation in the number of gangs and their monopolization of informal governance can only be explained by considering importation and deprivation theories alongside governance theories. These theories factor in variation in prison environments and pre-existing societal divisions imported into prison, which affect the costs on information transmission and incentives for gang expansion. In particular, the paper pays attention to the wider role social and political processes play in influencing whether monopoly power by prison gangs is supported and legitimized or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an impact evaluation of scholarships, within the Brazilian context, on the scientific performance of Ph.D. holders. The objective is to measure the scholarly production of beneficiaries from FAPESP's (São Paulo Research Foundation) Ph.D. Scholarship Program against unsuccessful applicants. The studied population includes all the individuals who applied for Ph.D. scholarships between 2003 and 2017 and were either granted or rejected by FAPESP. Our evaluation employed a quasi-experimental with ex post facto design. The treatment group comprehends awarded individuals that have completed their Ph.D. degree. The control groups comprehend individuals who: (a) had their application rejected but completed their Ph.D. with scholarships from other funding agencies; and (b) who were rejected but completed their Ph.D. without any scholarship. Additionally, we also conducted an analysis comparing FAPESP awardees with best-rejected individuals. Data collection was carried out for all knowledge fields on large secondary databases (including Scopus and Google Scholar for citations and H-index, Lattes Curriculum Vitae, FAPESP, and CAPES—Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel). We used exact matching for the analysis. We find that the number of publications, citations, and H-index is higher for FAPESP scholarship holders than for those rejected. The "FAPESP scholarship effect" is much higher when compared to those who did not have support from funding agencies to complete their Ph.D. studies. Therefore, our results vindicate the importance of scholarships for doctoral students to produce qualified scientific knowledge in an emerging economy like Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a blockchain solution for some activities currently performed by notary offices under the Civil Law judiciary that is technically viable. The architecture is also planned to accommodate Brazil's legal, political, and economic requirements. Notaries are responsible for providing various intermediation services for civil transactions, where their primary role is to be the trusted party capable of guaranteeing the authenticity of these transactions. This type of intermediation is common and demanded in Latin American countries, such as Brazil, which is regulated by a Civil Law judiciary. The lack of adequate technology to meet such legal demands leads to an excess of bureaucracy, dependence on manual document and signature checks, and centralized and face-to-face actions in the physical dependence of the notary. To deal with this scenario, this work presents a blockchain-based solution to make some of the activities performed by notaries automatic, guaranteeing non-modification and adherence to civil laws. Thus, the suggested framework was evaluated in accordance with Brazilian legislation and provides an economic evaluation of the proposed solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the near future, Brazil is expected to face a number of challenges with regards to economic and social development, and scientific production is a critical aspect of this development process. Over the past 30 years, there has been an almost 18-fold increase in the number of brazilian papers published, up from about 2,000 in 1980 to more than 35,000 in 2009. In this study we analyze the evolution of scientific production in terms of input (resources and permanent investigators) and output (scientific papers and doctorate graduates). We evaluate whether structural investments and the number of investigators at universities are both able to explain the increase in the number of papers, by investigating the relationships among growth rates in investments and the quantity of the papers published, as well as the number of doctorate graduates and active permanent investigators. As an indication of the fluctuations in investments pertaining to academic research, we consider the budget history of the largest Brazilian federal agencies charged with providing academic grants. We observe that the burgeoning number of papers has occurred independently of investments and the number of established investigators, thus suggesting an increase in the efficiency of Brazilian scientific output. Moreover, this increase in efficiency has occurred in conjunction with an increased number of Doctoral graduates per year. In this context, we propose that an evaluation of the academic structure is necessary in order to ascertain the risks of this increased 'efficiency'. Moreover, the recent cut of over US$ 1 billion announced by the Brazilian government may jeopardize the quality of scientific output in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mercosur and EU countries have a trade affinity due to similarities in consumer preferences (cultural and religious values and common consumption habits) and the existing complementarity in production (distinct climate, North–South hemisphere, and different degrees of added value goods). In this context, this paper evaluates the impact of the EU-Mercosur agreement on the Brazilian economy in terms of gross domestic output, trade, and welfare based on a computable general equilibrium model. To achieve this objective, the method includes two agreement scenario simulations: the first scenario considers the Mercosur-EU agreement including the UK as part of the bloc; in the second scenario, it considers the Mercosur-EU agreement with Brexit. In this way, the scenarios make it possible to analyze not only the gains in trade creation with the formation of the Mercosur-EU agreement but also to identify the effects of trade diversion due to the exit of the UK (BREXIT). For both scenarios, the results point out evidence of the positive effects on trade and the welfare level in Brazil, mainly on manufactured goods and agriculture—grains and crops. The main findings suggest that Mercosur benefits Brazilian trade, making it a strategic partner. Conversely, the paper concludes that Brexit could reduce the Brazilian trade gains from the EU-Mercosur agreement. Comparing the two scenarios, it is possible to observe that the Mercosur-EU gains in the Brexit scenario are smaller than in the alternative scenario. This aspect confirms the hypothesis that there is a negative effect on the Mercosur-EU agreement when Brexit is simulated (scenario 2). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working conditions of musicians are marked by several specific characteristics that differ the occupation from most others in the labor market. For instance, non-pecuniary aspects of the profession may have a greater influence on the individuals who pursue musical activities than in most other occupations. Moreover, musicians are more susceptible to uncertainties in the short run and regarding the duration of their careers. Besides, informality and underemployment rates tend to be higher in the music industry when compared to the rest of the labor market. This paper aims to better understand musician's labor market participation using primary data. We conducted an online survey between February and December 2020, gathering data about working conditions, in particular job satisfaction and turnover, with all the musicians from Belo Horizonte who were registered and not were registered in musician's association. Belo Horizonte is known as a unique city and a highly heterogeneous environment for the development of the music industry. Thus, using work satisfaction indicators and Kaplan–Meier survival model, controlled by personal and work-position variables, this study highlights that most musicians were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with their work. However, satisfaction was positively correlated with the following characteristics: being protected by social security, having a music career as main occupation, and holding a degree in music. These traits were also important for musicians to remain in the occupation throughout 2020, an atypical period due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological development is key for national strategies to cope with the Paris Agreement’s goals. Technology Needs Assessments (TNAs) aim to identify, prioritize, and diffuse climate change mitigation and/or adaptation technologies in developing countries. Their methodology includes a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) framework but, although many countries already conducted a TNA, literature lacks discussions on country-specific processes for a TNA, as it usually follows a one-size-fits-all approach. This paper provides empirical evidence on the importance of country-driven processes that help shaping international programmes into country-specific needs and capabilities. It presents lessons learned from a tailored process for identification, prioritization, and selection of mitigation technologies in the scope of a TNA project for Brazil, an exceptional case of a developing country with strong capacity in integrated assessment modelling (IAM) scenarios for guiding its climate strategies. A previous IAM scenario result allowed pre-selecting technologies in six key economic sectors, while other TNAs prioritized no more than three. This allowed the elaboration of an overall ranking from the MCDA, in contrast to sectoral rankings that are mostly employed in other countries’ TNAs. The overall ranking serves not only as a basis for the selection of priority technologies but also provides information on the integrated innovations framework for climate technologies in the country. Further specific findings of the tailored Brazilian TNA approach are discussed in the paper in order to call for the importance that a technology transfer project should not only be country-driven but also conducted through a country-specific process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inventory of the geological heritage, along with the quantification of its value, is an essential task for the implementation of geoconservation strategies. Despite the Brazilian’s rich geological heritage, only the state of São Paulo has concluded its systematic inventory. This paper presents the geological heritage inventory of Paraná State and a quantitative assessment of the scientific value of geosites and their vulnerability. The method applied for the geosites evaluation was adjusted after analyzing the most deemed protocols in international literature, taking into account the Brazilian socioeconomic and cultural conditions. The selection of geosites made by experts was based on the following criteria: representativeness, rarity, integrity, and degree of scientific knowledge. The inventory consists of 76 geosites, distributed in nine geological frameworks, which represent the geological evolution of Paraná. It is expected that this work may support future planning and management actions, which can safeguard the state’s geological heritage, with efficient strategies, especially for those places with high risk of degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on extant literature on call centers and my own research in digitization in Mexico and Brazil, in this paper I address the relations between culture, labor, and digital technology in informational capitalism. Drawing on media theory and the anthropological work of Ana Tsing and Sidney Mintz, among others, I propose a conceptual framework on labor's digital dialectics, within which the contradictions between algorithmic logic and the cultural layer occur. I argue that current technological subordination is based on a set of frictions and tensions that intensificate the contradiction between technology and culture as subordinated digitization while at the same time extensificate capitalistic informatization as digital subordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differential access to life-saving COVID-19 vaccines reveals the inequitable distribution of wealth and power in the global system. While several countries have developed homegrown vaccines to avoid being priced out of markets dominated by transnational drug companies, Brazil—a country with a significant research and pharmaceutical base—lagged behind those of other middle-income countries. Why? This paper blends insights from dependency theory and the theory of global capitalism to demonstrate how political coalitions, leadership, and normative frameworks negatively affect state capacity and technological development. First, austerity in public investment in research, development, and innovation prior to and during the pandemic limited the amount of resources necessary to create homegrown vaccine candidates. Second, political leadership informed by science denialism did not prioritize the development of vaccines and even discouraged their use. The analysis of vaccine development in Brazil reveals that having a pharmaceutical base and strong leadership committed to scientific principles and backed by a political coalition seeking to expand social democratic rights play a vital role in developing treatments and responding to health crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research on formaldehyde is of great significance to preventing ozone pollution under high temperatures in the future and protecting people's health. Brazil is the largest economy and trading power in South America, in recent years, air pollution, especially the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), has increased. This paper takes formaldehyde (HCHO) as an example to monitor its pollution distribution and provide a basis for its treatment. Based on this, the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics and influencing factors of formaldehyde in Brazil from 2012 to 2021 were analyzed, and the future trend of formaldehyde was discussed. The results showed that the formaldehyde column concentration (31.1 × 1015 molec/cm2) was the highest in August and the lowest in December was 6.8 × 1015 molec/cm2. The formaldehyde column concentration in dry season was higher than that in rainy season. Formaldehyde showed a decreasing trend from southwest to northeast. The correlation coefficients between HCHO and the normalized vegetation index (NDVI) and leaf area index (LAI) were − 0.84 ~ 0.84 and − 0.86 ~ 0.82, respectively. In addition, the mean annual water content (MAWC) and mean annual temperature (MAT) also had some effects. The path coefficient was used to analyze the influence of human activities on HCHO, and it was found that the contribution rates of total energy consumption (1.3592), GDP (1.1499), and electricity consumption (− 1.1113) were high, while the impact of coal consumption was relatively small (0.6425). It is expected that formaldehyde in Brazil may continue to show a weak persistence reduction trend in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the dynamic evolution profiles of science and technology knowledge production in Brazil and the Republic of Korea from 2000 to 2009. The two countries have followed different models of publication profiles, bioenvironmental model and Japanese model, and they currently belong to periphery countries in terms of the center-periphery framework. Brazil and the Republic of Korea have established a few core disciplines successfully and increased their share in the world publication of scientific papers over the last decade. Notwithstanding the fact that the two countries have recorded sustained growth in the percentage of published scientific papers, South Korea has evolved into a more balanced science and technology knowledge production system, whereas Brazil into the more unbalanced knowledge production system. Core-lagging or periphery-lagging patterns of science production have been revealed in Brazil and indirectly imply that the existing science base has not been fully stimulated or utilized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last ten years have seen with intense price volatility in the commodities markets, especially within the energy sector. This fluctuation has had serious implications on markets all over the world. From an increased dependence on renewable energy sources, to potential climate change impacts on global markets, commodities markets continue to face unpredictable and explosive price instabilities. In 2015, Brazil experienced an unprecedented increase in the price of ethanol. It is believed that due to that increase, Brazil consequently witnessed a surge in food prices. The primary objective of this paper is to quantitatively analyze the relationship between ethanol production and agricultural commodity prices. Our analysis confirmed that the increase in ethanol production had an impact on the price of sugar, wheat, corn and barley. This conclusion was drawn after conducting a series of statistical tests, unit roots and price pairing cointegration estimates. The multitude of tests that were conducted demonstrates a clear link between food price fluctuations in Brazil and ethanol price spikes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new aggregation method to calculate the WQI-CCME, named stepwise aggregation method, to communicate the water quality of the São Francisco River, Brazil, a river of national expression, with more than 2700 km long. Differently from the original proposal for the WQI-CCME, the new aggregation method uses data from a single monitoring campaign, to avoid the loss of data, as many variables are not systematically measured in all monitoring campaigns. The stepwise aggregation method also requires to combine data from a minimum of four monitoring locations per section of the river, to attend the statistical requirement, a proposal already presented in the literature. After using the first four points, the next calculation requires to abandon the first point (upstream) and to include the next point (downstream), and the sequential calculation will generate the results to build the river water quality profile. In the present work, with 31 monitoring points, the stepwise aggregation method allowed to calculate the WQI-CCME for 25 sections. The stepwise method has the advantage of multiplying the number of index calculations, allowing to construct a more uniform water quality profile for a long river. The choice of using the WQI-CCME in this work, is because this index has many successful applications all over the world, favored by its flexibility of parameter selection, ease of calculation, adaptability to legal requirements of different locations and different water uses. The WQI-CCME profiles were compared with those for the WQI-CETESB, an index derived from the WQI-NSF and extensively used by the Brazilian Monitoring Programs. The comparison demonstrated similarity, only if the same number of parameters were used, but WQI-CETESB gives better water quality, similarly reported for the WQI-NSF, which systematically classify the water quality in the superior range. In this paper, the calculation of the WQI-CCME, with 38 and 20 parameters, confirmed the dependence of the WQI-CCME factors (F1, F2) on the number of variables considered. The calculation with more variables (38) gave better results for the water quality than the calculation with less variable (20). Thus, while the application of the WQI-CCME has a variety of advantages, it requires careful evaluation about the variables to use, and the objectives for the index calculation, as considered by many authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perspectives on the Environmental Implications of Sustainable Hydropower gathers scientific papers from three of the worlds most important hydropower producers to discuss aspects of sustainable hydropower and the means by which it can be studied and achieved. The papers examine the application and use of new technologies and protocols for studying hydropower, adaptive management and the implications and use of long-term data sets for minimizing hydropower impacts on fish populations. The papers include a cross section of biological and hydrological experts. The implicit among country comparisons highlight a number of common hydropower themes, particularly the need to expand from single species studies to include broader consideration of the ecosystem, the importance of maintaining habitat, trait and species diversity and the need for consistently collected long-term data sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for urgent, structural transformations to dominant food systems is increasingly recognized in research and policy. The direction these transformations take is in great part influenced by how the problem is framed and what future pathways become seen as plausible and desirable. Scientific knowledge and the organizations producing it hold considerable authority in suggesting what alternatives are or are not worth pursuing, ultimately shaping frames and in turn being shaped by them. This paper examines Brazil's federal Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), a major contributor to technological advances that made Brazil into an agricultural powerhouse. We examine the ways in which Embrapa's leadership has framed sustainable agriculture in its public communication and the wider implications for food systems transformation. Drawing from Embrapa news articles in the period 2015–2020, we identify four interrelated frames forming Embrapa's prevalent position on sustainability. Our results show that while Embrapa promotes practices based on alternative approaches such as agroecology, its deeper framing often reflects the core assumptions driving dominant industrial food systems. This framing reinforces underlying logics of control, efficiency, and competition aligned with the productivist paradigm and excludes divergent perspectives that exist within the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high groundwater salinity of crystalline aquifers in semiarid areas is generally attributed to the dissolution and leaching of meteoric salts that have been progressively evapoconcentrated in the different hydrological compartments under dry climate conditions. A numerical model, simulating water and salt balances, was developed from a case study in Northeast Brazil to: (1) test the validity of this hypothesis, through the quantification of all relevant water cycle processes in the studied watershed, and (2) demonstrate how changes in land cover can impact groundwater salinity. Computations showed that the aridity and the high evapo(transpi)ration rates from the unsaturated zone and/or surface water (ponds, reservoirs) cannot lead to the observed aquifer salinization levels, but only to concentrations of a few tens or hundreds of mg L–1 (Cl–). The only process that can induce a high groundwater salinity, with chloride concentrations up to several g L–1, is the transpiration of groundwater by the deep roots of the vegetation, with a rate reaching 100% of the annual recharge. In this case study, the vegetation involved is the native Caatinga forest. Simulations of the long-term dynamics of groundwater salinity indicate that aquifer areas with high salinity are relicts of the Caatinga pre-colonization period during which subterranean endorheic conditions were prevailing. Following the Caatinga deforestation linked to colonial agricultural development, aquifer recharge increased and endorheism ceased. Consequently, these aquifers may have now been experiencing a desalination process for about three centuries. The desalination spatial variability drivers are explained in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a thorough analysis of the scientific production in climate change and adaptation in Brazil. We conducted a bibliometric and bibliographic review to reveal and discuss how climate change research has been carried out. We compared a broader climate change research dataset with a more specific climate adaptation research dataset, to understand the main differences and convergence points, and how science conducted from a mitigation and adaptation perspective demonstrates potential to confront the climate change challenges and drivers in Brazil. Four main clusters of investigation within climate change were detected: (1) impacts on forest and plant development, (2) land use and ecology, (3) adaptation/governance, and (4) climate/atmospheric studies. Only about 5% of the total studies on climate change address adaptation, for which three main clusters of research were identified: (1) adaptation actions and policies; (2) urban environment, vulnerability, and health and (3) food and coastal impacts. Although there are strong research trends in climate change for the Amazon Forest, there was less evidence of studies concerning climate adaptation for this and other Brazilian biomes, smaller cities, rural and traditional communities, and poorer regions. Our results shed a light on the more commonly chosen research topics, their strongest points and potential gaps and trends. This can contribute to the scientific communication and implementation of climate actions in Brazil, and a better understanding of the climate science knowledge from the perspective of a middle-income country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper analyzes the convergence in economic and social terms across Brazilian states from 1990 to 2010. We argue that a more ample perspective is enlightening because income convergence does not necessarily go hand in hand with social convergence and income is not the only relevant aspect of well-being. Social convergence is captured by selected indicators, such as years of study, life expectancy at birth and the absence of crime. Using OLS, fixed effects and spatial dependence models, we find that GDP per capita has the highest dispersion across states and its absolute convergence is relatively slow. Social conditions, in contrast, have become considerably more equal and seem to converge towards a unique steady state at half-lives between 8 and 12 years. Absence of crime shows a peculiar behavior and a non-linear inconclusive convergence path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Juçara (Euterpe edulis Martius) is a palm widely distributed in the Atlantic Forest. It produces a non-climacteric, black-violet small fruit similar to the Amazonian açaí (Euterpe precatoria). The fruit is known as superfruit because it presents chemical characteristics of great importance, such as anthocyanins content. Regarding bioactive compounds and antioxidant scavenging capacity, it presents high anthocyanin (634.26 to 2,929 mg of cyanidin-3-glucoside 100 g−1) and total phenolic compounds (415.1 to 9,778.20 mg equivalents of gallic acid 100 g−1) contents. The soluble solid content ranges from 3.0 to 4.9% and its pH is higher than other tropical fruits (4.8 to 5.6). Despite the rich bioactive compound content of juçara fruits, this plant has been traditionally used for palm heart production. The accelerated and illegal palm heart exploitation, without the use of an adequate management has led to the risk of extinction of this species. In order to prevent this species from vanishing, several studies have valued the health characteristics of juçara fruit chemical composition. An economical approach has been the production of juçara pulp described as a source of bioactive compounds, which has attracted the attention of industrial field aiming the production of functional foods, foodstuff, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products. A full botanical and chemical characterization of juçara tree and fruit is presented in this paper, as well as suggestions to increase the use of this tropical fruit and derivatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the effect of British slave emancipation on the sugar industry in the north-east of Brazil. Combining pre-existing annual data on Brazilian exports and British, French, American and Hanseatic imports with a new monthly series of imports to Liverpool and New York, I argue that the British policies following emancipation were related to a rapid increase in the demand for Brazilian sugar in the British market towards the end of mid-century. The results of an interrupted time series analysis show that the effect was particularly large following the end of apprenticeship in 1838 and the passage of the Sugar Act in 1846. I estimate that over the period 1827–1853, slave emancipation increased Brazil's market share by around five per cent, which corresponded to between 15 and 28 per cent of the volume of Brazilian exports. A comparison with markets unaffected by such policy treatments demonstrates that these trends were confined to the British market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to evaluate the relationship between the Brazilian regional development funds and GDP per capita growth on two spatial scales (municipalities and micro-regions) between 1999 and 2011. In addition to the multi-scalar approach, this work brings to the available literature three contributions: (i) the study of a longer period (1999-2011), compared to the previous literature; (ii) the possibility of spatial interaction between the geographical units, which has the advantage of allowing an analysis of the direct and indirect effects (spillover effects); and (iii) the consideration of heterogeneity institutionalized by the National Policy for Regional Development (PNDR) through the typology defined by this policy. The results from the non-spatial panel fixed effects models show that resources allocated to the Dynamic and Low-Income typologies have positive impact on the GDP per capita growth for both spatial scales (municipal and micro-regional levels). Moreover, when spatial dependence is allowed, the results indicate that municipalities and micro-regions in the Dynamic and Low-Income typologies show positive direct and indirect marginal effects for the regional development fund variable on the GDP per capita growth. Furthermore, this paper shows that the regional fund indirect effects (spatial spillovers) are higher than the direct effects. In this sense, the results discussed in this paper raise some policy issues. For instance, regional fund investments should at least consider that some of the effects might spill over into the neighboring municipalities. For this reason, coordinated allocation of these regional development funds could be more successful than isolated actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unpacking the 'crisis of democracy' and what is means and does to policy processes is a new and ever-growing agenda. This paper uses the case of Brazil to examine bureaucratic responses, and attempted resistance, to democratic backsliding and policy dismantling in times of autocratisation, notably under Jair Bolsonaro (2019–2022). It does so by focusing on a less explored transnational lenses. It argues that the growing international embeddedness of Brazilian policies, including through policy transfer and technical cooperation initiatives mostly with other developing countries, has provided domestic sectoral bureaucracies and policy communities with additional strategic discursive and argumentative resources to mobilise, respond and try to resist policy dismantling at home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazilian income distribution is one of the most unequal in the world, yet the first 15 years of the twenty-first century showed some improvement in reducing inequality. However, data from Brazilian censuses show that the income distribution of the Jewish population in Brazil worsened from 2000 to 2010. The goal of this paper is to investigate whether this observed phenomenon should be attributed to the emergence of new Jewish identities among poorer segments of Brazilian society or a structural change in the more traditional Jewish community. We calculated Gini coefficients, Lorenz curves, and Kuznets ratios of the Jewish population (i) in Brazil, (ii) in the capital cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, considered as a unit, and (iii) among the general Brazilian population from microdata in the 1980 and 2010 censuses. The results show that the worsening of income distribution among the Jewish population in Brazil is more intense in areas outside of urban centers in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. This finding suggests that the observed phenomenon should be attributed to emerging new identities rather than structural change in the more traditional community. A conclusion section addresses issues for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of the interaction between the oil market and measures of global liquidity on the Brazilian real against the US dollar, using an SVAR framework. The results show that approximately 15% of the variance of the real exchange rate is associated with oil-specific demand shocks in the long run. Supply and aggregate demand shocks are less important. The recovery of the Brazilian currency in the aftermath of the global financial crisis is more related to global liquidity than oil prices. Oil price changes affect the interest rate spread, which puts further pressure on the real exchange rate. Our results shed light on the impact of oil price shocks on the Brazilian economy by providing important insights into the foreign exchange policy in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to find probabilities of extreme values of the air temperature for the Cerrado, Pantanal and Atlantic Forest biomes in Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil. In this case a maximum likelihood estimation was employed for the probability distributions fitting the extreme monthly air temperatures for 2007–2018. Using the Extreme Value Theory approach this work estimates three probability distributions: the Generalized Distribution of Extreme Values (GEV), the Gumbel (GUM) and the Log-Normal (LN). The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, the corrected Akaike criterion AICc, the Bayesian information criterion BIC, the root of the mean square error RMSE and the determination coefficient R2 were applied to measure the goodness-of-fit. The estimated distributions were used to calculate the probabilities of occurrence of maximum monthly air temperatures over 28–32 °C. Temperature predictions were done for the 2-, 5-, 10-, 30-, 50- and 100-year return periods. The GEV and GUM distributions are recommended to be used in the warmer months. In the coldest months, the LN distribution gave a better fit to a series of extreme air temperatures. Deforestation, combustion and extensive fires, and the related aerosol emissions contribute, alongside climate change, to the generation of extreme air temperatures in the studied biomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how structure and agency interact to shape forced migration outcomes. Specifically, I ask how structural factors such as compensation policies as well as social, financial, and human capital may either foster or constrain migration aspirations and capabilities. I use longitudinal, semi-structured interview data to study forced migration among farmers displaced by the Belo Monte Dam in the Brazilian Amazon. Results from baseline interviews indicate that nearly all community members aspired to purchase rural land in the region and maintain livelihoods as cacao farmers or cattle ranchers. Constraints limiting the ability to attain aspirations included strict requirements on land titles for properties, delays in receiving compensation, rising land prices, and the lack of power to negotiate for better compensation. Despite these constraints, most migrants succeeded in attaining aspirations, as they were able to mobilize resources such as social networks, financial capital, skills, and knowledge. These findings highlight the importance of considering the relationship between structure and agency within forced migration research. I conclude by discussing how the findings may inform resettlement policies for future cases of development- or environment-induced forced migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising temperatures and sea levels, as well as the depletion of natural resource stocks, places green growth more than ever at the center of our political and economic agendas. But how can a country or region exactly "go green"? Transforming current economic structures into a green economy is a complex process. The structure of an economy is determined by the type of jobs that are present in an economy. Therefore, the creation of green jobs is one of the components of the "going green" process. Using occupational data for 27 Brazilian states between 2003 and 2013, this paper examines whether the level of economic complexity of a state explains why one state has a greener occupation space than another. First, we construct a "green jobs index" which quantitatively measures the greenness of the occupation space of a state. We then empirically show that economic complexity has a positive explanatory power when it comes to differences in this green jobs index. We also show that transitioning through this occupational space is a slow and difficult process. Nonetheless, we find evidence of declining regional differences in greenness. Initially, states which had a low green jobs index became relatively greener than states that had initially a high green jobs index. This indicates convergence across states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of institutional interplay (i.e., the interaction between institutions) is critical if the challenges to multilevel governance are to be better understood and addressed. Drawing on the literature on institutional interplay, this paper develops an analytical approach to examine challenges to multilevel coastal governance. São Paulo Macrometropolitan region (MMP, in Portuguese) is used to ground the empirical analysis. The macrometropolitan is one of the largest urban areas in the Southern Hemisphere; it houses the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo—one of the six most significant in the world. The MMP concentrates critical infrastructure, such as ports, airports, and roads, and considerable knowledge, technology, and innovation hubs. The coastal governance in the MMP area characterizes a highly connected multilevel system formed by 60 organizations (7 international, 29 national, 11 state, and 13 local). These comprised a complex environment featuring a great deal of fragmentation, and, consequently, jurisdictional and functional gaps and overlaps. This case was best described in terms of normative, functional, and political interplay. Interplay management has the potential to improve governance on the cross-level interactions among scale-dependent institutions of the MMP, enhancing synergies, and minimizing tensions among the institutions analyzed. This includes fostering cognitive interaction (i.e., promoting interinstitutional learning and assistance, and enhancing synergy) between institutions with complementary and/or similar objectives. Ultimately, interplay management may reduce fragmentation, improve compliance and monitoring, and increase cost-effectiveness. The findings from this paper may prove useful to other jurisdictions where pressing environmental issues involve multiple governance levels and interacting institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to understand the effect of international mobility in higher education on Brazilian education inequality by examining the Science Without Borders programme for undergraduate students. The SWB aimed to award 101,000 scholarships for Brazilian undergraduate students to conduct part of their studies in a foreign university between 2011 and 2015. This paper draws on research on education inequalities and international mobility to investigate the patterns of inequality among undergraduate students participating in the SWB, considering the period of higher education expansion in Brazil. Using the ENEM datasets, inequality of access and inequality within the programme were analysed. The results show that students with parents with higher levels of education and higher income were more likely to participate in the SWB programme. Moreover, students with higher parental education and family income tended to study at a prestigious university during the programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to evaluate the main intersectoral R&D flows in the Brazilian economy, determining their direction and magnitude. Unlike other studies that focus exclusively on rent spillovers flows of R&D, this paper also calculates spillovers with total spending on innovation in addition to R&D expenditure. In the case of developing countries, where R&D is of lower relative importance, we assume that technological effort is measured more accurately if it is considered as different types of innovative expenditure. We used data from the Technological Innovation Survey, conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics with the support of Ministry of Science and Technology and data from an input-output matrix for the Brazilian economy, calibrated by Laboratório de Analises Territoriais e Setoriais-LATES of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora. The analysis is from the year 2011 and covers 32 sectors of economic activity resulting from the compatibility of the two databases. The main results show a mapping of the intersectoral flow of knowledge embodied both by the total expenditure on innovation and by in-house R&D to Brazil for the year 2011. It is important to highlight the wealth of detail of such a mapping, as it characterizes not only by sectoral interdependence of these aspects, but it also shows the direction of flows, the sectoral hierarchy in terms of 'donation' of technical knowledge and the intersectoral flows in terms of technological intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of the elderly population and changes in household composition raise important questions regarding the level of well-being of the elderly in developing countries. Traditional analyses of poverty often ignore the question of intra-household distribution of resources. This paper is the first to apply a collective consumption model to analyze the level of well-being of the elderly in Brazil. Our results indicate that living in a couple is associated with considerable economies of scale and that wive's shares are increasing as total expenditures increase. We find that, in Brazil, elderly women experience a considerable decrease in material well-being when living alone, compared to elderly men. Finally, we conclude that disregarding the intra-household distribution of resources results in both underestimates and overestimates poverty among the elderly in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2016 Brazil's Senate ousted the popularly re-elected President Dilma Rousseff, who had been accused of budget mismanagement under the pretense that she committed an impeachable crime that justified the parliamentary coup. This paper investigates the hypothesis that her government was removed once it could no longer sustain a neoliberal pro-finance agenda, which depends on the state, and that the forces that seized power promised to restore and strengthen. Pro-finance policies had been established in the 1990s by the Cardoso government and were maintained by the Lula da Silva government. The latter, nevertheless, was able to raise wages, as did Rousseff, but more slowly. Her government also loosened some neoliberal policies, such as the so-called fiscal austerity. Rousseff's non-elected successor, Michel Temer, tried to limit budget spending by implementing a 20-year ceiling on the real growth of virtually all expenditures except public debt interest. He also began aggressive privatizations and, after curtailing labor protections, proposed a regressive social security reform to further cut state expenditures. Thus, the Temer government promoted dispossessing policies to redistribute economic surpluses—e.g., through future primary fiscal surpluses—and allow the expansion of capital accumulation. The latter is driven by the proletarianization that follows welfare cuts—i.e., cuts in the social wage—due to the budget cap and regressive social security and labor reforms that sought to increase the supply of cheaper labor-power. Capital could also expand because budgets can increase the commodification by private companies of hitherto state-provided pensions and healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The power system long-term expansion planning is a computer-intensive problem as demands a varied set of studies especially considering the increasing deployment of intermittent renewables. In the case of the Brazilian power sector planning, the responsible institutions mostly use proprietary software. This paper presents the multiyear two-stage academic generation and transmission expansion planning software, called CARTHER, developed by the authors in order to provide the academy an open-source and non-commercial software, with a friendly interface and with several applications for expansion planning of hydrothermal systems with high intermittent renewables penetration. CARTHER is then calibrated for a case study in the Brazilian power sector, considering the most recent governmental goals for renewable energies for the horizons of 2030, 2040, 2050 and 2060. The results demonstrate the functionality and the qualitative capacity of CARTHER optimization under the expansion's criteria of flexibility and reliability in the face of the intermittent renewables penetration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influence of the 2015 economic crisis on subjective well-being (SWB) and the withdrawal of support for the incumbent party during the 2018 presidential election in Brazil. Using Gallup World Poll data and a post-election national survey conducted by the Center for Studies on Public Opinion, we find that the economic crisis influenced through different channels both SWB and vote switching. Worsening personal economic circumstances explain the decline in SWB in the aftermath of the crisis, while deteriorating perceptions about the economy explain the vote switching during the presidential election in 2018. Leadership disapproval played a role in both, but to different degrees. One possible explanation for the limited effect of personal economic circumstances on voting behavior in Brazil is that those who were most severely affected by the economic downturn, specifically the poorest individuals in the country, did not see voting for Bolsonaro as a feasible or desirable choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies Hayek's arguments in "The Road to Serfdom" to the case of Brazil in the first three decades of the twentieth century. We describe the Brazilian experiment under a liberal regime from 1892 and 1930 and the causes of its demise. We identify these causes as stemming from a shift in the political ideology following World War I and the breakdown of the constitutional rule of limited government. We argue that the Hayekian analysis of "The Road to Serfdom" correctly identifies these causes as stemming from an ideological and practical overreliance on government's capacity to direct the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we used pooled regression within the ARDL approach and augmented Solow framework to explore the emerging uniformity and polarization in the two clusters led by Brazil and Mexico in Latin America and the Caribbean, adopted from Izquierdo and Talvi , . The results show that effects of capital productivity and official development assistance are predominantly led by Brazil cluster while remittances, foreign direct investment and domestic credit are led Mexico cluster. While ODA is has a negative effect on the region's growth, capital productivity, remittances, domestic credit and foreign direct investment are promising indicators for short-run and long-run growth in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses possible reasons for the gap between teachers' actions and intentions, reported by research on practices with the use of ICT. The theoretical approach is informed by teachers' beliefs, which are discriminated in two categories: pedagogical and epistemic. A qualitative fieldwork research undertaken in eight public primary schools in Rio de Janeiro between 2014 and 2019 presents empirical evidence of the relationship between ICT use in the classroom and teachers' beliefs. Data collection took place in two phases, and the data set consists of: (1) sixty four semi-structured interviews with teachers of the eight schools; (2) two focus groups with teachers in two schools, selected among the eight initial schools. Main findings show the importance of ICT self-efficacy at the core of teacher's pedagogical beliefs, as skills and knowledge are built upon direct experience and observation of others. Furthermore, epistemic beliefs are strongly related to pedagogical beliefs and teachers' attitudes. Findings show that the most innovative teachers are those who conceive ICT as a cultural artefact, have an ecological view of the classroom, and translate their intentions into actions, facing uncertainty and possible failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers the first cladistic analysis of the poorly known millipede genus Poecilocricus Schubart, 1962, from Brazil. The data set was composed of 18 taxa and 40 morphological characters. We performed a parsimony analysis by exhaustive search (ie; implicit enumeration) under equal weights (EW) in TNT 1.5. One most parsimonious tree with 78 steps (CI = 0.57; RI = 0.79) recovered the monophyly of the genus. Poecilocricus was supported by the following synapomorphies: median portion of mentum of the gnathochilarium with a large and rounded protuberance; second body ring excavated in ventral view; seventh body ring with internal extension on sternite; coxae of leg pairs 5, 6, and 7 expanded into a long process; apex of coxae of leg pair 3 with short thin setae on apex; medial portion of coxite of anterior gonopod with similar round bulge at both sides in anterior view; telopodite of posterior gonopod with external branch bifurcated in two short branches; and solenomere short and lanceolated. In addition, we conducted a taxonomic revision of the genus providing redescription of the type species Poecilocricus singularis Schubart, 1962, and the description of the four new species: P. mataracasp. nov., P. vazantesp. nov., P. itacarambiensissp. nov. and P. linasp. nov. Furthermore, we include an identification key to the males and a distribution map for all species of the genus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the end of 2019, two new Brazilian areas are candidates to join UGG/GGN; one of them is Seridó Aspiring UNESCO Geopark, located in the country’s Northeast, state of Rio Grande do Norte. It is named after a native Brazilian word, of tapuia tradition — ceri-toh — which means “little or no foliage; little shade,” something that well defines its landscape, typical of the Caatinga Biome, which is only found in Brazil, and semiarid climate. The local geology comprises eight lithological clusters dating from the Paleoproterozoic to recent. It is a highly diverse territory, whose inventory of geological heritage comprises 21 geosites, with different types of interests, such as mineralogical, petrological (plutonic and volcanic), hydrological, geomorphological, and paleontological, among others, of regional to international relevance. They are integrated with the communities of the region through culture, economy, tourism, and science. Many are recognized by population as a heritage of Seridó. This paper describes all the geosites of the proposed geopark, also analyzing socio-cultural and environmental factors, and hazards related to geological heritage and its surroundings, such as cavities and archeological sites, Caatinga biome conservation, water use, Quilombola and settlement communities, urban proximity, risks in slopes, and especially with regard to the relationship of mining activities in the region, which since the 1940s has boosted the local and regional economy, with the exploitation of scheelite in the Brejuí Mine, the largest mine of its kind in South America, currently one of the geopark’s geosites that has a high scientific value, notably of international relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil stands out at the global level for having implemented several policies intending to promote agroecology as a productive paradigm for small-holder farmers. However, the impacts of this process of institutionalization of agroecology still lack research and debates that evaluate the effectiveness of these policies. In this paper, we assess and discuss the impacts of a policy specifically focused on education in agroecology, the support to the establishment of Centers for the Study of Agroecology and Organic Production (NEAs) in more than 150 higher education institutions throughout Brazil. NEAs bring together teachers, researchers, and students who engage in teaching, research, and extension activities in partnerships with peasant farmers, their organizations, and rural extension workers. The hypothesis that guides our analysis is that this support to establish NEAs allowed redistribution of symbolic power in the universities where they were established, supporting agroecology to gain greater legitimacy inside and outside the university field. Based on an in-depth study of four NEAs, performed through participant observation and documentary analysis, the NEAs are evaluated from the perspective of social fields in dispute, first in a university sphere, but also from the perspective of training people in integrative and transdisciplinary thinking that will contest the industrial-corporate food regime. Our findings suggest that the State support to university groups dedicated to the promotion of agroecology has allowed the construction of what we have named agroecological spaces, which symbolically dispute the dominant paradigms in educational institutions, supporting the constitution of material and immaterial agroecological territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the scientific contribution of Brazilian Spine Surgeons not only in number of publications but also in their quality between January 2000 to December 2011. Methods: A literature search of publications by Brazilian spinal surgeons on topics concerning the spine or spinal cord was performed using an online database; Pubmed.gov. The results were limited to articles published from January 2000 to December 2011. A total of 1,778 articles were identified after a Medline search. After exclusion criteria, the study comprised 206 articles. The quality of the Journals was assessed with IF and the article quality using the Oxford classification. Results: An increasing number of publications by Brazilian spine surgeons was observed in recent years: 45.1 % of those papers were published during the last 4 years (2008-2011). Clinical studies and case reports were the most frequent types of article published (37.5 vs 31.1 %). An increasing number of Brazilian publications in non-Brazilian journals has been observed in recent years (linear-by-linear association: 5.449, P = 0.020). The Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria was the most frequent journal in which the papers were published ( N = 67, 32 %). The IF of the publications varied from 0.021 to 8.017. The analysis of quality of the articles using the Oxford classification demonstrated that most of them provided LOE 4 ( N = 113, 54.9 %) or 5 ( N = 45, 21.8 %). Conclusions: There have been an increasing number of publications by Brazilian spine surgeons in recent years and the quality of the articles published has improved. Also the number of publications by Brazilians in non-Brazilian journals has increased in recent years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study we analyzed the Brazilian scientific production in the area of science education. The study was structured on: data by research groups registered in Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico; analysis of the post-graduate strictu sensu programs; analysis of theses and dissertations linked to post-graduate programs; and papers in international databases. Our research was conducted strictly via world wide web, from December 2009 to September 2010. It was found that both number of research groups, researchers, post-graduate programs, thesis, dissertations and papers presented a marked increase, especially in the last decade (from 2000 onwards). The major research centers were found to be located in public universities from Brazilian southeast and south regions. However, it was observed a tendency of decentralization, due to a recent investment in new public universities in the other Brazilian regions. So, this study sought to present an overview of the scientific production about science education and we expect that this information can help to expand the vision about the development of this research area in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]