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This paper focuses on the debate about the utilization of new reproductive technologies in Brazil, and the paths taken in the Brazilian National Congress in an attempt to draw up legislation to regulate the clinical practice of human assisted reproduction. British documents, such as the Warnock Report and Human Fertilization and Embriology Authority (HFEA) are used for thorough reference. The analysis of the Law Projects in the National Congress, the Resolution by the Federal Medicine Council, Resolution 196/96 and documents by the Ministério Público (Public Prosecution Office), suppled the bases for the discussion. The principal question involved is the observation of different technical and moral prientations that influence the conduct of the issue in the legislative process. It is possible to observe that the main focus of the projects relates to the rights and interests of the children, to those possibly benefited by the technique and to embryo reduction. Very little attention has been directed to the issues of sexual and reproductive rights and to the health of the women submitted to the new reproductive techologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A basin evolution synthesis and an integration of geological and geophysical data, relevant as guides to the exploration of gold and lead–zinc deposits in the Itajaí Basin, are presented in this paper. The Itajaí Basin is interpreted as a collision-related foreland basin consisting of weakly metamorphosed sediments deposited between the structural front of the Dom Feliciano fold and thrust belt and the proximal flank of the cratonic forebulge. Its sediments represent a second-order depositional sequence deposited during a foreland transgression–regression cycle related to flexural subsidence. After deposition, the basin underwent a main late-collisional compressional deformation phase followed by an extensional post-orogenic relaxation. Known gold and lead–zinc deposits are associated with late-orogenic faulting of the Itajaí Basin sediments. The gold-bearing quartz veins are of filonean hydrothermal affiliation, while the lead–zinc deposits were formed by solution-remobilization in a meteoric–connate–magmatic mineralizing fluid. Major trends of favourability for such deposits are recognized. The most favourable sites for lead–zinc deposits are near known mineralized areas and also along a NE-orientated fault at the margin adjacent to the Dom Feliciano metamorphic belt. The higher favourability for gold deposits is assigned to an area along the same NE trend, and also around a small known deposit near the cratonic margin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a teaching experience which took place in a course for the qualification of primary school lay teachers in the mid-Araguaia region in mid-western Brazil. The greatest challenge was to work with the heterogeneity of the group of adult teacher/students from varied ethnic, social and cultural backgrounds (homesteaders, immigrants from other areas of the country, and Indians of the Tapirapé and Carajá tribes), taking into account their multiple understandings and experiences in an attempt to maintain their individual identities while constructing new knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Austropuccinia psidii Winter, causal agent of myrtle rust, is one of the main pathogens in Eucalyptus plantations in Brazil. We investigated the effects of the pathogen on wood yield and light use efficiency (LUE) in a Eucalyptus grandis x Eucalyptus urophylla clone in a field trial at the end of a five‐year rotation. The study comprised two treatments that are commonly adopted by managers. One treatment with curative fungicide spray (Triadimenol 250 g l−1) seven months after planting and another with five preventive sprays of the same fungicide, from the 1st to 7th month age of saplings. At 5 years old, the control plots attained a mean annual increment of 35 m³ ha−1 yr−1, the curative and preventive treatments were 39 and 47 m³ ha−1 yr−1 (11% and 34% higher, respectively). LUE was also higher when fungicides were applied, 8% and 26% higher in curative and preventive treatments (1.06 and 1.24 g MJ−1) compared with the control plots (0.98 g MJ−1). To confirm the negative effect of rust at a larger scale, we tracked 102 inventory plots (from 1,234 ha) from 2 to 6 years old with the same clone, half infected and half with rust corrective control. Growth difference decreased with time, from an average of 41% at age 2%–5% at age 6. These results highlight the importance of managing myrtle rust in Eucalyptus plantations by selecting a disease‐tolerant genotype or adopting other strategies for disease control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key question for food, biofuels, and bioproducts production is how agriculture affects the environment, and social and economic development. In Brazil, a large agricultural producer and among the biologically wealthiest of nations, this question is challenging and opinions often clash. The Brazilian parliament and several stakeholders have recently debated the revision of the Forest Act, the most important legal framework for conservation of natural vegetation on Brazilian private agricultural lands. Past decades have shown improvements in the agricultural sector with respect to productivity and efficiency, along with great reductions in deforestation and growth of environmentally certified production. However, the opposing sides in the debate have ignored this progress and instead continue to entrench their respective combative positions. A structured exchange involving nine experts associated with major producer interests (livestock, crops, planted forest, and charcoal) and environmental NGOs was moderated based on a framework that sorted viewpoints into four categories: (i) common ground - compatible interests considered to be high priority for Brazilian sustainable agricultural development; (ii) serving exclusive nature conservation interest; (iii) serving exclusive agricultural production interest; and (iv) mainly serving the purpose of sustaining dispute. We conclude that the majority of actions and expected future trends reflect achievements and ambitions to balance production and conservation, but much public opinion - and in turn decisions in the parliament and government for agriculture and conservation - is shaped by a perceived conflict between these objectives and a debate that has become, at least to some extent, an end in itself. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]