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This study seeks to explain macrolevel drivers of adolescent fertility rate using a panel data set derived from 17 Latin American countries over a period of 16 years (1997-2012). While many studies of adolescent fertility have focused on individual-level explanations, this study explores whether adolescent fertility rate is correlated to country-level determinants, specifically legislation adoption that guarantees access to school-based sexuality education, emergency contraception, and abortion. After controlling for other country-level factors, we find that countries that have adopted legislation on school-based sexuality education and those with legal access to abortion (under one or more restrictions) have lower adolescent fertility rates.

Copyright of Sustainability in Debate / Sustentabilidade em Debate is the property of University of Brasilia, Center for Sustainable Development and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sustainability in Debate / Sustentabilidade em Debate is the property of University of Brasilia, Center for Sustainable Development and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Humanitarian Logistics (HL) is comprised of processes and involved systems in the mobilization of people, resources, and knowledge to help affected communities when they are faced with natural disasters. In this study, the Reference Task Model (RTM) provides an overview of these processes and supports Business Process Management (BPM). This article aims to evaluate from a proposed framework the selection of suppliers to guarantee indispensable material resources in the fastest way. We apply a BPM procedure to support the supplier selection process following a flood disaster. We describe each of the stages that make up the proposal of the BPM life cycle applied to the HL. We employ some tools as Balanced Scorecard (BSC) to achieve consensus on objectives, indicators, targets, and actions to be defined for a disaster situation. For balancing the allocation of supplies, the network flow problem is adapted for the quantitative model. That model contains the variables of time, demand, and capacity, and includes the set of adequate suppliers. For the application, we describe a flood disaster case study from a state located in southern Brazil. The main results of the application of the proposed framework are obtained from an optimized holistic view; they represent the selection of suppliers of humanitarian items and consider delivery times, resources, and deprivation costs. One contribution of the proposed framework is the ease of its implementation from process-based technologies and its emphasis on being strategy focused. Further, it concentrates experiences and good practices from humanitarian organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sustainability in Debate / Sustentabilidade em Debate is the property of University of Brasilia, Center for Sustainable Development and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The distribution of professional observatories around the world is quite biased toward the Northern Hemisphere, and this tendency is even more pronounced when considering those dedicated only to the study of small solar system bodies. In the Southern Hemisphere, the IMPACTON project deployed the Observatório Astronômico do Sertăo de Itaparica (OASI), dedicated to the observation of minor bodies of the solar system with emphasis on Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). The observatory is located at the county of Itacuruba, in the Pernambuco State of Brazil, and operate a 1 m Cassegrain telescope. Here, we present a complete characterization of the OASI instruments and the sky conditions during the first eight years of operations. The limiting magnitudes are determined in the different available filters. The median seeing results to be 1.″22, with a higher number of photometric nights from April to October. We also give an overview of the results obtained from the OASI observations and discuss them in the light of similar data from the literature. In particular, the rotational periods of 23 NEOs, and the spin directions and shapes of 9 NEOs, have been determined for the very first time using our observations. Analyzing rotational periods, sizes and taxonomic classification from the literature and OASI, we conclude that the fast rotating NEOs are predominantly S-type objects. However, rotational periods obtained at the OASI and with similar value from LCDB database allowed to identify the first fast rotator C-type NEO: asteroid 436724. With an estimated tensile strength as low as 0.5 KPa, this asteroid allows us to suggest that it defines the border between the C- and S-type fast rotators in the size versus period diagram. Although this hypothesis is based on a very small sample it is compatible with all presently available data. Only new observations, however, can prove if this hypothesis is correct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which investigated novel bat coronaviruses in Brazil and Mexico. Samples from 97 bats from Brazil and 75 bats from Mexico were analyzed by the researchers. Also included in the study were bats from a variety of species, including insectivorous, nectarivorous, frugivorous and hematophagous bats.

Confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic can influence dietary profiles, especially those of adolescents, who are highly susceptible to acquiring bad eating habits. Adolescents' poor dietary habits increase their subsequent risk of degenerative diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular pathologies, etc. Our aim was to study nutritional modifications during COVID-19 confinement in adolescents aged 10 to 19 years, compare them with their usual diet and dietary guidelines, and identify variables that may have influenced changes. Data were collected by an anonymous online questionnaire on food intake among 820 adolescents from Spain, Italy, Brazil, Colombia, and Chile. The results show that COVID-19 confinement did influence their dietary habits. In particular, we recorded modified consumption of fried food, sweet food, legumes, vegetables, and fruits. Moreover, gender, family members at home, watching TV during mealtime, country of residence, and maternal education were diversely correlated with adequate nutrition during COVID-19 confinement. Understanding the adolescents' nutrition behavior during COVID-19 lockdown will help public health authorities reshape future policies on their nutritional recommendations, in preparation for future pandemics.