BRAZIL - In Brazil’s semiarid region, agrivoltaics show promise for food, energy security [Mongabay, 2022]

Title:

In Brazil’s semiarid region, agrivoltaics show promise for food, energy security

 

Author:

Marina Martinez

[Translated by Maya Johnson]

 

Published:

Mongabay, 5 July 2022 

https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/in-brazils-semiarid-region-agrivoltaics-show-promise-for-food-energy-security/

From the article:

High levels of food, water and energy insecurity brought on by socioeconomic issues and exacerbated by climate change have been driving research groups to find new solutions. A 2020 study from Brazil shows that agrivoltaic solar systems can be a solution with great potential. These systems combine food production and solar power generation in the same physical space to maximize results and reduce the use of natural resources.

 

The intersection of family income, race, and academic performance in access to higher education in Brazil [Scholarly Article - Higher Education, 2022]

Title:

The intersection of family income, race, and academic performance in access to higher education in Brazil

Authors:

Flavio Carvalhaes, Department of Sociology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Adriano S. Senkevics, National Institute for Educational Studies and Research, Brasília, Brazil

&

Carlos A. Costa Ribeiro, Institute of Social and Political Studies, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Published:

Higher Education, 26 August 2022

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-022-00916-7

Abstract:

This paper investigates the intersection of income and race in structuring access to higher education among students that participate in a national high-stakes exam in Brazil. Our objectives are (i) to estimate the probability of students coming from different income strata, racial groups, and performance levels to access higher education and (ii) to decompose income and racial effects into direct (net of educational performance) and indirect effects (through educational performance). Our data comes from a panel of high school graduates tracked between 2012 and 2017 and allow us to describe the following findings. Firstly, the probability of entering higher education is always higher among candidates from higher income strata. Second, there is a convergence in admission probabilities across the performance scale. Third, the admission curve across a performance scale is much steeper among applicants from low-income strata compared to richer students. In all of these results, students self-identified as black, brown, or indigenous (BBI) are less likely to transition to higher education than whites, even though they are in the same income and performance strata. We suggest that students from privileged socioeconomic backgrounds benefit from alternative entry strategies, such as paying tuition at less competitive private colleges. For students from low-income strata, the main alternative for entering higher education is through high academic performance. By decomposing racial effects, we show the cumulative effect of racial stratification; the gap between white and BBI students is both related to higher propensity of transitioning to higher education and higher educational performance.

 

BRAZIL - Covid-19: Brazil sees omicron cases soar but data blackout obscures true impact [BMJ, January 2022]

Title:

Covid-19: Brazil sees omicron cases soar but data blackout obscures true impact

 

Author:

Luke Taylor

 

Published:

BMJ, 18 January 2022

https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o133

 

From the article:

The omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has led to a spike in infections in Brazil with a rolling average of 69 010 new daily cases reported on 14 January, up from 22 626 a week earlier. But the true increase is likely to be significantly higher because of insufficient testing and failing public health databases, said public health experts.

Imperial College London, United Kingdom - Imperial and Brazilian universities launch project to inspire women scientists

Title: 

Imperial and Brazilian universities launch project to inspire women scientists  

 

Author: 

Stephen Johns  

 

Published: 

Imperial College London, 11 February 2022 

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/233674/imperial-brazilian-universities-launch-project-inspire/   

 

From the article: 

Imperial is working with universities in Brazil to inspire the next generation of women scientists.

 

BRAZIL - Almost 3.5 million students left private universities in Brazil in 2021 [Newsbreezer, 2022]

Title:

Almost 3.5 million students left private universities in Brazil in 2021

 

Published:

Newsbreezer, 3 January 2022

https://newsbeezer.com/brazileng/almost-3-5-million-students-left-private-universities-in-brazil-in-2021-education/

 

From the article:

 2020 and 2021 saw the highest dropout rates from private college students in Brazil in any historical series. This year alone, around 3.42 million students dropped out of private universities – a dropout rate of 36.6%.

 

BRAZIL - Archaeologists Find 2,000-Year-Old Lesson on Sea Level Changes Destroying Societies [ScienceAlert, December 2021]

Title:

Archaeologists Find 2,000-Year-Old Lesson on Sea Level Changes Destroying Societies 

 

Author:

Carly Cassella

 

Published:

ScienceAlert, 17 December 2021

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-2-000-year-old-lesson-on-how-sea-level-changes-can-destroy-societies

 

From the article:

Archaeologists have linked rising and lowering sea levels in the Atlantic Ocean to the ebbs and flows of ancient civilizations in southern Brazil.  

 

The findings, which incorporate several lines of past archaeological evidence, suggest even large, resilient, and cooperative coastal communities can easily go out with the tide.

BRAZIL - Ministry of Education Prepares Project to Create Five Universities in Strongholds of Centrist Parties [Folha de S.Paulo, October 2021]

Title:

Ministry of Education Prepares Project to Create Five Universities in Strongholds of Centrist Parties

 

Translated by:

Kiratiana Freelon

 

Published:

Folha de S.Paulo, 25 October 2021

https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/business/2021/10/ministry-of-education-prepares-project-to-create-five-universities-in-strongholds-of-centrist-parties.shtml

 

[Article in the original language by Julio Wiziack & Paulo Saldaña]

 

From the article:

The Minister of Education, Milton Ribeiro, wants to divide existing federal higher education institutions to create five new universities and five technical institutes. The initiative does not foresee the expansion of student vacancies or the physical network, but it serves the interests of allied politicians linked to the center. The idea will mean the creation of 2,912 positions to command the new institutions that, in practice, are already functioning. According to estimates by the Ministry of Economic, the swelling of the public machine will come with an increase in spending that could reach R$ 500 million per year.

Effects of Holocene climate changes and anthropogenic river regulation in the development of a wave-dominated delta: The São Francisco River (eastern Brazil) [Scholarly Article - Marine Geology, 2021]

Title:

Effects of Holocene climate changes and anthropogenic river regulation in the development of a wave-dominated delta: The São Francisco River (eastern Brazil) 

 

Authors:

José Maria Landim Dominguez & Júnia Kacenelenbogen Guimarães

Institute of Geosciences, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Rua Barão de Jeremoabo, s/n. Campus Universitário de Ondina, 40170-115 Salvador-BA, Brazil

 

Published:

Marine Geology, 2021

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025322721000384

 

Abstract:

The São Francisco River is the fourth longest river in South America and one of the most regulated. Severe coastal erosion has affected the delta shoreline since 1985, leading to the complete destruction of Cabeço village between 1997 and 1999. In this study, we mapped and radiocarbon dated the beach ridge sets occurring on the delta plain and performed a detailed analysis of the delta shoreline changes since 1960. During the Holocene, the delta plain construction was punctuated and took place during episodes of higher river discharges coincident with Bond events 4, 2 and 1 and periods of higher precipitation in the river basin, as reconstructed by δ18O measurements in cave speleothems. The last major episode of delta construction apparently ended at approximately 1.0 ka cal. BP. Since that time, riverine sediment input has been just sufficient to maintain the shoreline. A comparison of historical maps and aerial photographs showed that from 1853 to 1960, the shoreline at the river mouth remained in approximately the same position. A decrease in rainfall in combination with river regulation, particularly after 1985, triggered extensive erosion at the delta shoreline. This erosion was not caused by sediment retention behind the major dams but instead resulted from changes in the backwater/drawdown effects deriving from river regulation. Shoreline erosion mostly affected the river mouth. The mobilized sediments caused progradation of the downdrift shoreline. Updrift of the river mouth, the shoreline remained stable, as it had already reached an equilibrium orientation in which the net longshore transport was zero.

 

A Fanonian theory of rupture: from Algerian decolonization to student movements in South Africa and Brazil / Une théorie fanonienne de rupture : de la décolonisation algérienne aux mouvements étudiants en Afrique du Sud et au Brésil

Title:

A Fanonian theory of rupture: from Algerian decolonization to student movements in South Africa and Brazil 

Une théorie fanonienne de rupture : de la décolonisation algérienne aux mouvements étudiants en Afrique du Sud et au Brésil 

 

Author:

Josh Platzky Miller

Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Published:

Critical African Studies, 15 February 2021

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21681392.2021.1884106?src=

Abstract 

This paper offers an approach to understanding dramatic social change, entwined with belief revision and shifting knowledge. It explores the interplay between rapidly changing material and ideological conditions through the concept of a rupture. Ruptures are breakdowns in existing social and epistemic practices and relations: periods which call into question what is normalized, such that something else can grow through the cracks. Ruptures do not guarantee any particular replacement, but rather facilitate the emergence of new practices and understandings of the world. Ruptures thus create conditions of possibility for people to explore new social relations and ideas. To develop this idea, this paper draws on Franz Fanon's writings on the Algerian anti-colonial revolution (1954–1962), as a paradigmatic rupture, as well as two smaller-scale ruptures: the student-worker movements over 2015–2016 in South Africa (#FeesMustFall) and Brazil (the primavera secundarista). In their respective contexts, each movement has substantively challenged prevailing practices and understandings that had been hegemonic.  

 

Cet article présente une approche pour comprendre le changement social dramatique, entremêlé avec une révision de la croyance et un glissement du savoir. Il explore l’interaction entre des conditions matérielles et idéologiques en rapide évolution à travers le concept de rupture. Les ruptures sont des ruptures dans les pratiques et relations sociales et épistémiques existantes: des périodes de remise en question de la norme, en sorte que quelque chose d’autre puisse croître à travers les failles. Les ruptures ne garantissent pas un remplacement particulier, mais facilitent plutôt l’émergence de nouvelles pratiques et compréhensions du monde. Les ruptures créent ainsi des conditions rendant possible pour les gens d’explorer de nouvelles idées et relations sociales. Cet article s’appuie, pour développer cette idée, sur les écrits de Franz Fanon sur la révolution anticoloniale algérienne (1954–1962), en tant que rupture pragmatique, ainsi que sur deux ruptures de plus petite échelle: les mouvements de travailleurs étudiants sur la période 2015–2016 en Afrique du Sud (#FeesMustFall) et le Brésil (le primavera secundarista). Dans ces contextes respectifs, chaque mouvement a notablement remis en question les pratiques et les compréhensions qui avaient été hégémoniques.

BRAZIL - Suicide halts Brazil trial of Chinese vaccine attacked by Bolsonaro

Title:

Suicide halts Brazil trial of Chinese vaccine attacked by Bolsonaro

 

Authors:

Eduardo Simões & Roxanne Liu

 

Published:

Reuters, 10 November 2020

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-brazil-sinovac/brazil-suspends-sinovac-covid-19-vaccine-trial-due-to-adverse-event-idUSKBN27Q04C

 

From the article:

Brazil’s health regulator suspended a clinical trial of China’s Sinovac coronavirus vaccine due to a severe adverse event, delighting President Jair Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly criticized the vaccine’s credibility and said it would not be purchased by his government.

medRxiv, 21 September 2020 (Preprint) - Comparative Analysis of Covid-19 Mortality in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Campos dos Goytacazes, Macae, Cabo Frio and Rio das Ostras

Title:

Comparative Analysis of Covid-19 Mortality in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Campos dos Goytacazes, Macae, Cabo Frio and Rio das Ostras

 

Authors:

Antonio C. C. Guimarães, Karla Santa Cruz Coelho, Kathleen Tereza da Cruz, Bárbara Soares de Oliveira Souza, Janimayri Forastieri de Almeida, Gustavo Fialho Coelho & Gabriella Ramos Lacerda Ferreira

 

Published:

medRxiv, 21 September 2020

[Keep in mind that this article is a prepring and not yet peer reviewed.]

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.17.20196444v1

 

Abstract:

Objective: To analyze quantitatively and comparatively the deaths by COVID-19 of the four largest municipalities in the North of Rio de Janeiro and Baixada Litorânea of Rio de Janeiro, within the national context. Methods: We used data from the Civil Registry and demographic information to elaborate a general picture of the pandemic up to the 31st epidemiological week in several aspects: evolution, scope, age, sex, race and impact on other causes of death. Results: We characterized the evolution of the pandemic. We found an exponential dependence on the mortality rate by age and a higher lethality in the male population. We determined that COVID-19 represents an important fraction of the causes of death in 2020, being associated with a significant excess of deaths in relation to 2019 and also with the change in mortality patterns due to other causes. Conclusion: Mortality is an effective and powerful indicator for understanding the infection and its pandemic, and it must be taken into account during the construction of public policies to deal with it.

 

COVID-19 is a wake-up call for Brazil’s universities

Title:
COVID-19 is a wake-up call for Brazil’s universities

Author:
Fernanda Leal

Published:
University World News, 25 July 2020
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200724100221821

From the article:
"In his book The Cruel Pedagogy of the Virus (A cruel pedagogia do virus in Portuguese), sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos reignites the debate on the circumstances that make it possible to know the truth about and the quality of institutions in any given society, whether at normal times or in times of crisis.

Specifically referring to the current coronavirus crisis, he asks: “What potential knowledge will emerge from the coronavirus pandemic?”

It is indeed important to ask what the current pandemic has to say about the Brazilian public university, in particular the university within a capitalist world system which devastates those in the ‘South’. Distanced from its autonomy and social function, including social outreach, the university and its capitalist productivist logic has little to contribute to the issues which are relevant to the society in which it is embedded."

Tracing the transmission rates and origins of SARS-CoV-2 strains circulating in Brazil

Title:
Tracing the transmission rates and origins of SARS-CoV-2 strains circulating in Brazil

Author:
Bob Yirka

Published:
Medical Xpress, 24 July 2020
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-transmission-sars-cov-strains-circulating-brazil.html

From the article:
A large international team of researchers has conducted a study aimed at tracing the transmission rates and the origin of major SARS-CoV-2 strains currently circulating in Brazil. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group outlines their strategy and what they learned about the progression of COVID-19 in Brazil.

Federal University of São Paulo: An intriguing - but far from proven - HIV cure in the 'São Paulo Patient'

Title:
An intriguing—but far from proven—HIV cure in the 'São Paulo Patient'

Author:
Jon Cohen

Published:
Science, 7 July 2020
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/intriguing-far-proven-hiv-cure-s-o-paulo-patient

From the article:
A 36-year-old man in Brazil has seemingly cleared an HIV infection—making him the proof of principle in humans of a novel drug strategy designed to flush the AIDS virus out of all of its reservoirs in the body. After receiving an especially aggressive combination of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs and nicotinamide (vitamin B3), the man, who asks to be referred to as the São Paulo Patient to protect his privacy, went off all HIV treatment in March 2019 and has not had the virus return to his blood.

Natural History Museum and Botanical Garden, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) - Second Brazilian museum fire in two years reignites calls for reform

Title:
Second Brazilian museum fire in two years reignites calls for reform

Author:
Emiliano Rodriguez Mega

Published:
Nature, 1 July 2020
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01990-6

From the article:
Researchers in Brazil are sifting through the ashes of a fire that destroyed part of a museum in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais on 15 June. The blaze follows repeated warnings about fire risks at museums, and comes less than two years after a massive inferno gutted the prized National Museum in Rio de Janeiro.

The Independent, 21 May 2020 - Brazil’s remote tribes in Amazon turn to tree bark and honey to treat coronavirus

Title:
Brazil’s remote tribes in Amazon turn to tree bark and honey to treat coronavirus

Author:
Peter Stubley

Published:
The Independent, 21 May 2020
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/brazil-coronavirus-amazon-tribe-tree-bark-plants-honey-cure-bolsonaro-a9524551.html

From the article:
"An Amazon tribe has turned to traditional remedies to tackle coronavirus amid rising concern over the Brazilian government’s failure to tackle the pandemic.  

The Satere-Mawe community told reporters they used their ancestral knowledge of preparations made from tree bark, honey and native plants to treat symptoms of Covid-19."