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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]

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]

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]

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]

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 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]

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]

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 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]

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 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]

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 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]

Small and shallow alluvial aquifers in arid and semi-arid regions compose an important water system that smallholder farmers rely on for irrigation and livestock feeding. Geological settings and the small scale of these aquifers suggest the need for governance at the local level, but research supporting its development is still scarce. Treating a case of alluvial aquifers exploited by smallholder farmers located in the Brazilian semi-arid region as a common pool resource (CPR), this paper analyses the governance of a social-ecological system (SES) for which an alluvial aquifer is an essential source of water. The paper applies the SES Framework to analyse the SES in light of Ostrom's principles for sustainable CPR management to answer the questions: (1) can the governance arrangements support sustainable common pool resource management of the alluvial aquifers? (2) what opportunities are there to make the management of the aquifer more sustainable through community-based governance? (3) can Ostrom's design principles lead the transition to more sustainable governance of alluvial aquifers? Despite a water policy aiming for decentralisation and participatory governance, gaps in the implementation of these policies are identified. Taking into account the challenges imposed by the aquifer characteristics to impact efficient groundwater exploitation, equity in water distribution and conservation of the CPR, the analysis reveals opportunities to improve CPR management by supporting the community to increase participation in the governance of the aquifer in coordination with existing policies. This work concludes with suggestions that could empower community progress towards more sustainable governance of the aquifer. [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]

The recent world-wide trend of female chief executives struggling to maintain public support while facing corruption allegations and scandals poses the question of whether female politicians face stronger backlash for corruption than their male counterparts. Even though corruption scandals and allegations are not exclusive to countries led by female incumbents, notable figures such as former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and former Chilean President Michele Bachelet seem to have experienced more dramatic drops in public support when targeted by corruption allegations in comparison to male incumbents from their region. This paper tests whether beliefs about women's higher honesty and purity can lead voters to punish perceived transgressions by female politicians more harshly than when those are performed by men. Using survey-experiments conducted in Brazil and Mexico, the analyses find support for the gender-related backlash in Mexico and no evidence for it in Brazil. However, the backlash observed in Mexico is not larger among subjects holding views about women as less corrupt than men. Overall, the results suggest that the differential gender-related backlash against incumbents depends on individual and contextual-level factors. [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]

The intermediate disturbance hypothesis (IDH) has been thoroughly investigated, but much controversy has been found for supporting its assumptions, which rely largely on the nature of the disturbance, spatial scale, and biological predictors tested. In this paper, richness of native and non-native species along a suite of Neotropical aquatic ecosystems across a broad latitudinal and geographical range was used to test the IDH predictions. An extensive literature survey was performed to compile native species richness and the occurrence of several taxonomic groups listed as non-native for twenty-four coastal rivers and bays evenly distributed into three climatic zones (tropical, transitional, and subtropical). The climatic gradient was confirmed by NMDS and PERMANOVA, but IDH predictions were only significantly supported for native and total species richness in the coastal bays. The distribution patterns of non-native marine species showed a linear instead unimodal pattern of increase with latitudinal climatic gradient, but the responses are complex and dependent of many non-exclusive factors, such as the sampling effort per ecosystem and the potential interference of other disturbance gradients that should be further addressed to unravel the role of IDH for non-native species distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argentina and Brazil report the highest incidence of the fear of crime across Latin America. Although the spread of crime and victimization may explain these trends initially, the focus in this paper is on the significance of non-criminal factors in explaining the fear of crime, such as socio-economic vulnerability, educational level and trust in people and institutions, as well as exposure to violence at one's place of residence. Using a subset of data from the 2017 edition of the Latinobarómetro survey (n = 2400), a regression analysis was conducted showing that the fear of crime is radically different between the two countries. In Argentina, as in certain European countries, people's fears of crime are positively associated with socio-economic vulnerability and in turn negatively associated with state-driven violence. The latter has a protective effect on Argentinians' feelings of insecurity, while in Brazil the fear of crime is to a greater extent a consequence of previous victimization and a general distrust in other people. Despite this key difference, our results shed light on the problem of social cohesion in both countries, suggesting that the fear of crime is a social rather than criminal issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clayey veins may develop in areas of hydrothermal activity by seepage of hot water through the soil and rock. In a slope located in Southern Brazil, such veins occur along the slip surface of some landslides. This paper aims to characterize this kind of clay and investigate its influence over the stability of that slope. An electro resistivity survey had been conducted to characterize the soil profile, and SPT boreholes were used to confirm geophysical data. An experimental laboratory campaign included the investigation of chemical, mineralogical, and geotechnical properties of these clay veins and the embedding residual soil. Drained shear strength of residual soil was measured through triaxial tests, and residual strength was measured for both materials using a ring shear apparatus. A series of limit equilibrium analyses were conducted to assess the role of clay veins on the slope stability. The geometrical discretization of veins is a difficult task, and an approach based on the assumption of overall shear strength is required to establish the operational shear strength parameters for this slope. A series of back analyses showed that failure surfaces consistent with those observed in the field were only reproduced when the adopted shear strength parameters of the soil mass were c' = 5 kPa and φ' = 20°. Considering the measured shear strength parameters of the hydrothermal clay c' = (0 and φ' = 8.5°) and the pattern in which the clay veins occur, it seems that they do not fully control the slope stability, but they significantly reduce the global cohesion and the average mass friction angle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brazilian Movimento dos Trabalhadores sem Teto (MTST)—Homeless Workers' Movement—is a social movement that struggles for housing and for a radical transformation of capitalistic socio-economic relations. The present paper offers a problematization of the movement's plea to social rights. They are part of the movement's discourse and strategy. However, the activists' objective is more radical: they aim at a complete transformation of the Brazilian economy and society. By first discussing two sets of literatures—Critical Legal Theory and Governmentality Studies—this article illustrates the complexity and the ambivalences of a radical politics of rights. Then, by contrasting my ongoing ethnographic research with the work of James Holston and Lucy Earle, I discuss the relevance of a citizenship framework for the MTST's struggle. Finally, inspired by Foucault's concept of counter-conducts, the article argues that the movement's politics of rights represents an effective tactic to contrast neoliberal governmentality and to create radical democratic spaces of struggle and collective resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we forecast residential electricity consumption in Brazil considering the variability in consumption behavior in different regions. In order to do so, we use a bottom-up approach to estimate long-term electricity consumption that considers three technology-driven scenarios: one assuming reference efficiency development, another one based on the Brazilian government's predictions, and the third one assuming high efficiency. The results show an increase of residential electricity consumption due to the increasing appliance ownership rate, especially air conditioning, as well as the increasing number of households. In addition, it is shown that 96 TWh of electricity could be saved in the highest efficiency scenario due to significant efficiency gains between 2016 and 2050. Further, the results indicate the southeast of the country has the highest potential for consumption reduction: by 27% in the most efficient scenario. This work is the first to use a bottom-up approach to forecast the residential electricity consumption by region and by technology-driven scenarios in Brazil. With this methodology, it is possible to indicate which types of appliances should be targeted by policy makers when designing energy efficiency incentives. Hence, this model can be used as a roadmap to achieve the desired efficiency gains in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents and applies a methodology of socioeconomic classification that integrates asset- and social class approaches. We employ data from the 2013 Brazilian National Household Survey and use latent class analysis to identify clusters and classify the working population. With regard to social class the Brazilian occupations are classified based on the European Socioeconomic Classification (ESeC) schema and an indicator of employment status. As for household wealth, we use the items related to household condition, ownership of durable goods and access to public services with the highest discriminatory power. We also make use of variables that account for the Brazilian spatial and socio-demographic heterogeneity. We found four clusters which we term latent socioeconomic stratum (LSeS). When compared we found an ordered pattern from the best-off LSeS (1) to the worst-off (4) with respect to household wealth and ESeC classes. Nevertheless, although the class composition of each LSeS reveals a distinct concentration of specific ESeC classes, all classes are present in each LSeS. Controlling for social class, differences in household wealth are more marked between LSeS than between social classes within the same LSeS. Hence, the methodology unveils the latent socioeconomic strata, reveals a class schema for each stratum and points out potential stratum fractions within them. The results were validated using variables external to the model, namely household food security status and years of schooling. The external validation revealed the same ordered pattern and the presence of stratum fractions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the association between religion and health often neglects to provide an explicit theoretical mechanism of influence between faith and well-being. This research posits that dissociative behaviors, such as glossolalia, may provide a biological pathway that influences both physiological and psychological health. This paper argues that religious dissociation acts as a moderator between economic stressors and psychobiological appraisal. Brazil, with its economic inequality and preponderance of religious dissociative rituals, provides an ideal context to examine religious dissociation as a moderator of stress. Utilizing data from a cross section of Brazilian faiths, this paper examines: (1) Whether individuals with low socioeconomic status preferentially participate and experience religious dissociative states and (2) whether dissociative states are correlated with greater psychological appraisal of status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the main arguments used to justify and legitimize contract archaeology worldwide. By seeing them contextually, however, those arguments are stripped bare, unveiling their articulation with the logic of modernity and capitalism. The paper examines them in the specific case of Brazil, only to draw general conclusions thereafter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview from the perspective of an invited international guest to the 15th Symposium of ANPEPP, held in Bento Gonçalves, Brazil, in May, 2014. ANPEPP, the acronym for "Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação em Psicologia," or the "Brazilian National Association for Research and Postgraduate Studies in Psychology" in English, is comprised of psychology faculty at postgraduate programs throughout Brazil. The theme of internationalization is especially relevant for Brazil, where there has been rapid development in science and technology output, affording it a new, emerging international role. The paper discusses the multiple connotations of internationalization, the goals for internationalization from different perspectives, and the impact of internationalization on psychological research and publishing in Brazil. It also addresses the opportunities and challenges of internationalization in Brazil and elsewhere. In addition, the author shares her experiences in the ANPEPP forum-plenary sessions and business meetings. Of particular note as a first-time attendee is the evaluation process for postgraduate education, conducted by CAPES, the Brazilian Federal Agency for Improvement of Higher Education. In closing, the author asks what psychology, as a discipline, can learn from ANPEPP's and Brazil's approach to developing and evaluating academic disciplines, and expresses appreciation for the opportunity to participate in what she characterizes as a unique convocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This systematic review (1) identifies the current generic and cancer-related patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) that have been cross-culturally adapted to Brazilian Portuguese and applied to cancer patients and (2) critically evaluates their cross-cultural adaptation (CCA) and measurement properties.Methods: Seven databases were searched for articles regarding the translation and evaluation of measurement properties of generic and cancer-related PROMs cross-culturally adapted to Brazilian Portuguese that are applied in adult (≥18 years old) cancer patients. The methodological quality of included studies was assessed using the COSMIN checklist.Results: The bibliographic search retrieved 1674 hits, of which seven studies analysing eight instruments were included in this review. Data on the interpretability of scores were poorly reported. Overall, the quality of the CCA process was inconsistent throughout the studies. None of the included studies performed a cross-cultural validation. The evidence concerning the quality of measurement properties is limited by poor or fair methodological quality. Moreover, limited information regarding measurement properties was provided within the included papers.Conclusions: This review aids the selection process of Brazilian Portuguese PROMs for use in cancer patients. After acknowledging the methodological caveats and strengths of each tool, our opinion is that for quality of life and symptoms assessment the adapted FACT-G version and the ESAS could be recommended, respectively. Future research should rely on the already accepted standards of CCA and validation studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the determinants of the self-reported income and food sufficiency in Brazil, highlighting how these subjective measures of wellbeing are affected by relative conditions. Analyses are based on pooled data from the 2002/2003 and 2008/2009 Brazilian Family Budget Survey and on estimates of the multinomial relation between income and food sufficiency with absolute and relative indicators. The paper highlights that living in a more affluent neighborhood does matter in self-reported perceptions of wellbeing. Stated income sufficiency depends positively on absolute family income and negatively on relative neighbor income. Moreover, neighborhood education and regional inequality affect both stated perceptions of income and food sufficiency. The paper concludes that improving personal income and education, as well as reducing inequality, is one of the most effective ways to improve both the quality of life and the general perceptions of wellbeing in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main land reform movements in the world are taking place in Brazil, where various social groups have coordinated their efforts to acquire legal possession of unproductive estates. Although the results achieved over time regarding this dispute are viewed as progress in terms of social inequality, there is no knowledge about the performance of these various movements to date. Based on this context, the main objective of this paper is to evaluate the performance of the Brazilian states and the last four presidential terms in Brazil in minimising social conflicts over land and efficiently converting occupations into settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the fall of the Brazilian military dictatorship in 1984, a number of structural and ideological changes associated with demilitarization and democracy have changed the face of psychiatric theory and practice. Around the country, pockets of innovative, politically sensitive and Marxist-inspired community-based forms of “psi” practice are developing. This emergent psi movement is making a range of positive contributions to the lives of average citizens, including those of poor disenfranchized youth. This paper, however, explores one particular dimension of the work of psi practitioners that has proven antithetical to the psi community’s current politicized community-based aims. Based on qualitative and quantitative longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork with therapists and young men in Pelotas, this paper analyzes how certain kinds of psi interventions being carried out in schools for a subset of lower-class young men during their early teen years are encouraging some youth to seek military training as a life option. Although these young men initially had quite captivating, engaged and politicized—if also conflicting—interactions with therapists, their eventual disillusionment with their therapeutic and scholastic experiences resulted in high levels of social alienation and de-politicization. In these young men’s search for what can best be described as formulaic solutions to troubling psychological experiences associated with a tumultuous institutionalized transition to adulthood, military training came to represent a form of self-cultivation and self-therapy. Several youth also hoped military training would enable them to actively disengage with local political processes and find shelter from troubling social inequities and injustice. The paper ends by reviewing the implications of these results for the future of psi knowledge and practice in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the size of a farmer’s property as a key variable influencing land cover and land cover change in rural areas of developing countries. Data from 126 rural familial properties in the region around the city of Santarém, Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon, indicate that property size is important for understanding the trajectories of land cover change. Past research has focused on the distinction between small family farms and large capitalized farms, arguing that family farmers have a higher deforestation intensity, or on estimating the strength of the effect of property size relative to economic or demographic factors. This paper shows that larger familial properties are able both to retain a larger area in forest and to have long enough cycles of use and fallow to allow previously used land to become forested again. Based on these analyses and discussion, we argue that land use and land cover research must consider property size as an organizing principle in order to better comprehend the reciprocal relationship between population and environment in frontier areas of the Brazilian Amazon and other rural landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous peoples have been using fire in the cerrado (savannas) of Brazil as a form of management for thousands of years, yet we have little information on why, when and how these fire practices take place. The aim of this paper was to explore the traditional use of fire as a management tool by the Krahô indigenous group living in the north-eastern region of Tocantíns state, Brazil. The results indicate that the Krahô burn for a variety of reasons throughout the dry season, thereby producing a mosaic of burned and unburned patches in the landscape. The paper discusses this burning regime in the context of contemporary issues regarding fire management, and in the face of changing perceptions to fire by the Krahô themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Breastfeeding is an important determinant of child survival and normal growth and development, but breastfeeding prevalence is generally low in Brazil. Factors associated with infant feeding practices there are not well understood. This paper examines factors associated with breastfeeding cessation in a township in the western Brazilian Amazon. Methods A cross-sectional, population-based study was conducted among children younger than 25 months and collected information on maternal and child characteristics. Survival analysis based on a proximal-distal framework examined the association between breastfeeding duration and socioeconomic and maternal/child biological factors. Results The median breastfeeding duration among 101 children who were no longer breastfeeding was 120 days. Almost two-thirds (63 %) of these children stopped breastfeeding before 6 months of age. In the larger sample of 209 children, 74.6 % had previously been bottle-fed. Considering the full proximal-distal model, a child who had ever been bottle-fed was expected to cease breastfeeding about 88 % sooner than one who was never bottle-fed ( p < 0.001). Children in the second-poorest wealth quartile stopped breastfeeding sooner than children in the poorest quartile ( p < 0.05). Discussion Breastfeeding cessation in the study area occurred much earlier than the recommended 2 years of age. Factors associated with ending breastfeeding early included ever-use of a bottle, having a single mother, and belonging to the second-poorest wealth quartile. Further research is needed to better understand these factors and other barriers women face to continuing breastfeeding. [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]

In the last 40 years archaeology in Brazil has grown in the wake of development projects, covered by the objectivity of techniques and neutrality, and isolated from conflicts and environmental injustices associated with such projects. The arguments on this paper revolve around narratives of rock art from a Brazilian region where people were relocated after their displacement by a large scale development project in the 1970s; they seek to discuss the environmental management model adopted in Brazil and how professional archaeologists act within it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a brief overview of the history of psychology in Brazil. It highlights how the Brazilian Association of Research and Postgraduate Studies in Psychology (ANPEPP - Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-graduação em Psicologia) has fulfilled its mission of fostering discussion on scientific policy and stimulating interchange among researchers. First, it provides a retrospect of ANPEPP meetings, considering both: 1) the thematic working groups, which have served to bring together researchers, and to inspire the emergence of thematic associations and journals; 2) the discussion forums, which have contributed in the critical review of scientific policy, and the mission of postgraduate studies. Second, it focuses on the history of psychology in Brazil, from colonial times to the recent national commitment to postgraduate studies. The paper argues that the plans and strategies led by national funding agencies have been successful and that their results are evidenced by the role played by Brazil in the international arena, both in scientific production and the training of its researchers. By sustaining current policies, it seems certain that, even with the oscillations in the national economy, postgraduate education will grow steadily in its advance of the psychological sciences; and will be working towards a better quality of life, social justice and ecological sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper calculates the cost-effectiveness of CO emissions reduction in Brazilian buildings sector. The evaluation takes into account the implementation of three public policy mechanisms which the focus is the promotion of energy efficiency (EE). The mechanisms evaluated are minimum energy performance standards (MEPS), EE requirements in public procurement regulation, and building codes. The evaluation performed through marginal abatement cost curves (MACC) shows a wide range of cost-effective EE measures, i.e., EE technologies that represent negative abatement costs once the additional investments in EE are paid back through energy savings. The main specific findings are that (1) MEPS could be broader and reach the use of energy in standby mode and tubular fluorescent lamps and should be more stringent, mainly in the case of large air conditioning devices, and (2) there is a significant cost-effective potential of emissions reduction that could be captured through mechanisms not implemented yet in the country, as public procurement regulation and building codes. In general, the total impacts are very significant and could represent an energy saving potential of 795 TWh and emissions reduction of 74 million tons of CO over the period from the year 2014 to the year 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An established body of literature documents current changes in rural livelihoods, agricultural practices, and agrobiodiversity patterns in smallholder communities across the globe. Contributing to this literature, this paper documents change in agricultural practices and agrobiodiversity patterns in a tidal floodplain settlement in Amapá, Brazil, where in recent years farmers increasingly devote their attention to the production of açaí fruits, an important regional crop with strong local, national and international markets. Research results indicate that farmers are abandoning subsistence production in annual fields to make room for açaí-dominated agroforests. At the same time, farmers are diversifying home gardens, and as a result conserve a portion of the crop diversity once maintained in annual fields in these areas. Agrobiodiversity documented in home gardens is much higher than previously recorded in the study area, and is equal or higher than previously reported in home gardens in other less-market integrated Amazonian communities. Research points to the need for innovative methods to document agrobiodiversity patterns in today’s modifying landscapes and for the historical analysis of such patterns to avoid presumptions that observed changes are unilateral and unidirectional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides descriptions and illustrations of two new species of Sapotaceae ( Pradosia longipedicellata and Chromolucuma apiculata) from Bahia, Brazil, a new combination ( Chromolucuma congestifolia), and a new identification key for Chromolucuma. Pradosia longipedicellata is distinguished from other congeners by its clustered fascicles of flowers on pedicels 2-3 cm long at the apices of the shoots, and a corolla that is 7-8 mm long. Chromolucuma apiculata is distinguished by glabrous shoots and leaves, short petioles (10-15 mm long), and stipules 5-8 mm long with apiculate apices, while its close relative C. congestifolia has a lower leaf surface with trichomes usually restricted to the midrib and stipules 3-6 mm long with acute apices. Due to intense deforestation in the Amazonian and the Atlantic forests, preliminary IUCN Red List assessments are provided. Pradosia longipedicellata and Chromolucuma congestifolia are proposed the IUCN status Vulnerable, while the data for C. apiculata are still insufficient (Data Deficient). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of developing and emerging economies have adopted an inflation targeting framework for monetary policy during the last two decades. This article investigates the politics of inflation targeting by focusing on the case of Brazil. I argue that the decision to implement an inflation targeting system in 1999 did not only reflect the concerns of political leaders with maintaining electoral support and external credibility. In addition, the choice of this new policy approach was informed by a shift in the technical consensus among Brazilian economists about the most effective way to tame inflationary pressures in a context of high capital mobility. The shift to inflation targeting thus reflected a process of social learning among technical elites, facilitated not only by the failure of the previous policy but also by the successful experience of other inflation targeting countries. Moreover, the evidence presented here suggests that, as the first country to adopt inflation targets in the context of an IMF-supported program, Brazil became a test case and a natural experiment for the redefinition of IMF conditionality and surveillance mechanisms. The paper thus sheds light on a process of reciprocal learning, whereby the IMF not only contributed to collective learning but also learned from the Brazilian case, subsequently becoming an active promoter of inflation targeting among developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the historical process of urban-legal reform in Brazil since the late 1970s, especially since the promulgation of the 1988 Federal Constitution and the enactment of the 2001 City Statute. It discusses how the new legal order has consolidated the notion of the "right to the city" in the country, meaning the inseparable combination of the principle of the social functions of property and the city, and the principle of democratic management of cities. Special emphasis is given to the actions of the main sociopolitical stakeholders in this process, as well as to the possibilities and constraints of the new legal order. It argues that the promotion of urban reform and inclusive land, housing and urban policies requires an elusive combination of political, institutional and legal change, and that the effective utilisation of the new legal spaces created by the new legal order depends on the constant renewal of sociopolitical mobilisation in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brazilian biomes (Amazon, Atlantic Forest, Cerrado, Caatinga, Pantanal, and Pampa) comprise one of the highest levels of plant diversity in the world; however, non-sustainable practices, deforestation, and land use have resulted in significant losses and fragmentation of the native forests. These ecosystems are now threatened and protection of their native plants through ex situ conservation is an urgent necessity. Cryopreservation and in vitro conservation are complementary options for securing and protecting Brazil's native plant species because their potential economic value is critically important to develop strategies that will (1) support their sustainable utilization, (2) protect against the over-exploitation of species growing in natural habitats, and (3) conserve the genetic diversity of germplasm from species of different provenances. Biotechnological approaches will help to address future economic and environmental demands placed upon already at-risk species. Conserving seed germplasm ex situ provides an additional safeguard against the risks ( e.g., loss due to disease, climate change) of field conservation. Moreover, seed banks and cryobanks permit the long-term conservation of a wider genetic base; this offsets the labor and space intensive costs of conserving in the active growing state. This paper is a compilation of the current status of strategies applied for conserving Brazilian native plant species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the development of a decision support system for the management of geotechnical and environmental risks in oil pipelines using a geographical information system. The system covers a 48.5 km long section of the São Paulo to Brasília (OSBRA) oil pipeline, which crosses three municipalities in the northeast region of the São Paulo state (Brazil) and represents an area of 205.8 km. The spatial database was created using geo-processing procedures, surface and intrusive investigations and geotechnical reports. The risk assessment was based mainly on qualitative models (relative numeric weights and multicriteria decision analysis) and considered pluvial erosion, slope movements, soil corrosion and third party activities. The maps were produced at a scale of 1:10,000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how politics is experienced by actors who mediate neighborhood organizations and formal political institutions in the Northeastern city of Salvador da Bahia, in Brazil. It is based on a series of ethnographic interviews in 2004 among identified community leaders in the city’s poorer neighborhoods, with attention to their politics of habitus—their socially-situated modes of expression of political proclivities. While all of our informants identified themselves as Black and identified racial structures as shaping their lives, their understandings and evaluations of formal politics were divided. Those who only mediated between the neighborhood and formal institutions were critical of the world of politics and its polluting influence. Those who were also involved in mediating publics tended to experience formal politics as unjust but ultimately accessible through legitimate Black political action. This distinction helps account for the difficulty in mobilizing around a reformist political project and adds a local and political dimension to the understanding of race relations in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper was to validate the Brazilian-Portuguese version of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), presenting evidence of its reliability and construct and criterion-related validity. A large Brazilian sample (2,180 participants), from five different populations (undergraduate and high school students, general population, elementary school teachers, and physicians), was considered. The results confirmed the single factorial structure and reliability (0.77 < Cronbach’s α < 0.88, mean α = 0.81) of the SWLS. Supporting its criterion-related validity, the SWLS correlated positively with positive affect and negatively with both negative affect and psychological distress across all five samples. The findings indicate that the Brazilian-Portuguese version of the SWLS is a valid instrument to use with diverse Brazilian samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a quantitative survey designed to characterize the public who attended Parada Livre 2002, a festival in Porto Alegre, Brazil organized around free sexual expression. Of particular interest was attendance at the event by heterosexual-identified individuals, a sub-population generally ignored in research to date on large-scale events of this sort. Questionnaires were completed by 176 Parada attendees. The questionnaires covered demographics, social movement participation, attitudes about HIV/AIDS and homosexuality, and motivations for attending the festival. Analysis gauged significant differences by gender and sexual orientation. Slightly more than half (52.1%) of the sample self-identified as heterosexual. Compared to attendees with non-normative sexual identities, heterosexuals were more likely to be women and less likely to be politically engaged in terms of social movement participation. Heterosexual attendees were slightly less gay-positive, but no less likely to know a lesbian, gay or travesti, or person with HIV/AIDS. Implications of study findings for scholarly understandings of cultural and political organization around sexual diversity in Brazil are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes factors influencing artisanal fisheries at the São Francisco River in Brazil as an example of the challenges of managing socially and economically valued common-pool resource systems. A rapid assessment of problems affecting São Francisco River fisheries in 10 communities was carried out in 2003, representing the upper, middle, and lower river portions. Field visits, interviews, focus group discussions and a literature survey allowed us to map socioeconomic and environmental factors important to the fisheries, including conflicts and tensions between stakeholders. Federal, state, and municipal governments, industries, farmers, hydroelectric companies, and urban and rural populations all have a stake in river use. Traditional fishers are the most disadvantaged of these stakeholders. With declining fish populations, most of the fishing communities surveyed are now poor, socially excluded, and with few alternative livelihood options. The stakeholders involved in access and use conflicts are artisanal fishers, professional fishers, sport fishers, farmers, enforcement and regulatory agencies, and hydroelectric companies. Traditional fishers have close ties to the river and its environment and they are usually not invited to contribute to resource management decisions. We recommend changes to management structures involving the fishing communities that are essential to resolve the major conflicts and to improve equity and sustainability of artisanal fisheries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural consonance is the degree to which individuals, in their own beliefs and behaviors, approximate widely shared cultural models. In previous research in Brazil and the United States we found that higher cultural consonance in the cultural domains of lifestyle and social support was associated with lower psychological distress. The aim of this paper is to expand on these results in two ways. First, the measurement of cultural consonance has been improved through a closer link of cultural domain analyses and survey research. Second, the number of domains in which cultural consonance has been examined has been expanded to include-along with lifestyle and social support-family life, national identity, and food. We found that cultural consonance in these five domains can be conceptualized as two latent variables of generalized cultural consonance, and that this generalized cultural consonance is associated with lower psychological distress. These results continue to support the usefulness of cultural consonance as a theoretical construct in the explanation of human social suffering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to higher education in Brazil is to a large extent restricted to the higher socio-economic groups. Public universities have limited places and entry is determined by highly competitive exams, thereby excluding those who have not had a high quality secondary education or attended an expensive preparatory course. There has been considerable growth in the private sector to absorb the excess demand, but the majority of Brazilians cannot afford the fees. This paper develops a concept of equity in higher education in which, firstly, there should be sufficient places in the system as a whole and, secondly, all people should have a fair opportunity of attending the university of their choice regardless of socio-economic background. Recent efforts to expand access are analysed, including incentives for the growth of private universities, student loans and the new Prouni initiative, in which private institutions provide free places to low-income students in return for tax exemptions. While these initiatives have the potential to increase the total number of places, they will not lead to an equitable expansion, as disadvantaged students will still be confined to courses of lower quality or with lower subsequent value on the employment market. Initiatives aimed at the public sector such as the introduction of quotas and changes to entry examinations are also discussed. Finally, some implications for future policy development are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]