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Objective: The present study explored how a customized leadership development program (LDP) with coursework taught in English to non-native English speakers could optimize English language fluency in Brazil airline leaders. Background: Currently, problems exist with a myriad of native language accents and phraseology interfering with cognitive reflexes especially for aircrews and air traffic controllers to safely do their work. Executives from four Brazilian airlines proactively implemented a 14-month LDP focused on English language fluency and leadership enhancements collectively for leaders within their firms. Method: Blended learning as proposed by the International Civil Aviation Organization provided the experiential and heuristic framework of the LDP suitable for an empirical analysis of participants' language and leadership improvements. Results: Research outcomes indicated Interaction Ritual Theory and Social Contagion Theory moderating entrained behaviors, emotions, and modes of LDP participants, upskilling their English language fluency and leadership competencies. LDP participants with no prior relationships progressed through the LDP wholly as a collective group prioritizing their language and leadership proficiencies. Conclusion: Optimization of English language fluency for aviation leaders can be accomplished in a lengthy customized leadership development program. Upskilling language proficiency for leaders assists them with transferring and motivating English language knowledge and fluency to their teams and organizationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of the effects of landscape configuration on nutrient concentrations in aquatic systems, apart from land cover percentages, remain limited. Understanding these influences is important to guide land use planning and avoid the undesirable consequences of artificial eutrophication. We investigated how land use and natural landscape attributes such as edge density, mean shape index, cohesion, and contagion were related to nitrate (N-NO3) and phosphate (P-PO4) concentrations in Brazilian streams and Mexican lakes. Data on nutrient concentrations were collected by citizen science volunteers from 2013 to 2016, and we calculated land use classes and landscape metrics for each watershed. We developed models to predict nutrient concentrations based on landscape metrics, watershed slope, and season after excluding autocorrelated predictors. We used the Generalized Additive Model for Location, Shape and Scale framework and found the distribution (gamma or lognormal) that provided the best fit to the data based on the Akaike Information Criterion. The best predictors were selected following a stepwise strategy. We found relatively high N-NO3 (5–10 mg/L) and P-PO4 (0.5–1.0 mg/L) concentrations in the watersheds in both countries. Landscape composition (percentages of urban and agricultural areas) and configuration (mean shape indexes for urban and agricultural land use) metrics were the key predictors in the model for P-PO4 in Brazilian streams. In Mexican lakes, the predictors of nutrient concentrations were configuration metrics such as contagion and edge density of natural areas for P-PO4, and cohesion of urban areas for N-NO3. Our findings can be used as a starting point for land use planning, as well as for helping managers predict nutrient enrichment in watersheds within existing urban and agricultural areas. Our study highlights the importance of community-based monitoring that supplements regular monitoring initiatives because we were able to use data collected by citizen scientists to assess potential drivers of nutrient pollution and differences between countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new way to model and analyze contagion in interbank networks. We use a unique dataset from the Brazilian financial system and include all active financial intermediaries. We show that the contagion chain has a short propagation path. We find that first-round contagion is generated only by banks and that medium-sized banks can generate contagion, which implies that size is not the sole determinant of importance within networks. Most vulnerable financial institutions are not banks. Finally, we compute a lower bound for the financial system expected losses in a 1-year horizon. The results contribute to the development of a financial stability-monitoring toolkit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]