Predominance of CTX-M-type extended-spectrum beta-lactamase genes among enterobacterial isolates from outpatients in Brazil

Two hundred fifty-seven nalidixic acid-resistant enterobacterial isolates were collected in a Brazilian community from January 2000 to May 2005 to determine the prevalence of plasmid-encoded extended-spectrum beta-lactamases. The bla(CTX-M) genetic environment was determined by polymerase chain reaction and sequencing. Eleven isolates (4.2%) harbored a bla(CTX-M-2) gene, 3 isolates bla(CTX-M-9), 2 isolates bla(CTX-M-8), and 6 isolates bla(SHV-5). Two novel bla(CTX-M-2) variants, namely, bla(CTX-M-74) and bla(CTX-M-75), were identified. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Information Society, Teaching, and Learning: Education Reforms in Brazil

This article examines the subject matter of learning within the context of information society, through an inquiry concerning both the reforms in education adopted in Brazil in the last thirty years and their results. It provides a revision on the explanations of school failure based on assumptions of learning problems due to cognitive and linguistic deficits. From the guidelines related with written school forms as well as the constant cultural oppression accomplished inside the school, the article claims the necessity of changing the psychological and pedagogic views that, under the label of democratic practices, determine school institutions and its daily life, by means of instrumental relations with knowledge that disregard the reading practices which are congenial to popular culture.

Petroleum royalties and regional development in Brazil: The economic growth of recipient towns

In 1997, Brazil approved law n(cr) 9478, establishing new rules for sharing petroleum royalties with Brazilian municipalities. The goal of this paper is to evaluate whether royalties distributed under the new law have contributed for the development of benefited municipalities. For that the difference-indifferences estimator (diff-in-diff) is used, which compares the evolution of the economic product into the municipality affected by the new law with the unaffected ones, by exploring the new legislation as an exogenous change. The data refer to the municipal gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate before and after the event. Results are surprising, showing that royalty receivers grew less than municipalities that did not receive such resources. The difference is small but statistically significant. In general, an increase of one real in royalties per capita reduces the growth rate of the municipal product in 0.002 percentile points. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Opportunistic and partisan election cycles in Brazil: new evidence at the municipal level

This article tests the hypothesis of opportunistic and partisan cycle models using a new large data set of Brazilian municipalities over the 1989-2005 period. The results show an increase in total and current expenditures and a decrease in municipal investments, local tax revenues, and budget surplus in election years. They also show that partisan ideology exerts a relative influence on the performance of the local public accounts. These results confirm that both opportunistic and partisan cycles have occurred in the management of the budgets of Brazilian municipalities after the end of the military government.

The structure of worker compensation in Brazil, with a comparison to France and the United States

We employ comprehensive linked employer-employee data for Brazil to analyze wage determinants and compare results to Abowd et al. (2001) for French and U.S. manufacturing. While returns to human capita in Brazilian manufacturing exceed those of the other countries, occupation and gender differentials are similar. The worker-characteristics component accounts for much of the greater wage inequality in Brazil, but the establishment-fixed component has scant explanatory power. Thus, firm-or industry-level factors offer little scope for explaining the differences in wage inequality. Brazil`s wage structure resembles that of France, a country with some similarity in labor market institutions.

Demand elasticities for food products in Brazil: a two-stage budgeting system

The object of this article is to estimate demand elasticities for a basket of staple food important for providing the caloric needs of Brazilian households. These elasticities are useful in the measurement of the impact of structural reforms on poverty. A two-stage demand system was constructed, based on data from Household Expenditure Surveys (POF) produced by IBGE (The Brazilian Bureau of Statistics) in 1987/88 and 1995/96. We have used panel data to estimate the model, and have calculated income, own-price, and cross-price elasticities for eight groups of goods and services and, in the second stage, for 11 sub groups of staple food products. We estimated those elasticities for the whole sample of consumers and for two income groups.

Assessing the ex ante economic impacts of transportation infrastructure policies in Brazil

This paper uses a fully operational inter-regional computable general equilibrium (CGE) model implemented for the Brazilian economy, based on previous work by Haddad and Hewings, in order to assess the likely economic effects of road transportation policy changes in Brazil. Among the features embedded in this framework, modelling of external scale economies and transportation costs provides an innovative way of dealing explicitly with theoretical issues related to integrated regional systems. The model is calibrated for 109 regions. The explicit modelling of transportation costs built into the inter-regional CGE model, based on origin-destination flows, which takes into account the spatial structure of the Brazilian economy, creates the capability of integrating the inter-regional CGE model with a geo-coded transportation network model enhancing the potential of the framework in understanding the role of infrastructure on regional development. The transportation model used is the so-called Highway Development and Management, developed by the World Bank, implemented using the software TransCAD. Further extensions of the current model specification for integrating other features of transport planning in a continental industrialising country like Brazil are discussed, with the goal of building a bridge between conventional transport planning practices and the innovative use of CGE models. In order to illustrate the analytical power of the integrated system, the authors present a set of simulations, which evaluate the ex ante economic impacts of physical/qualitative changes in the Brazilian road network (for example, a highway improvement), in accordance with recent policy developments in Brazil. Rather than providing a critical evaluation of this debate, they intend to emphasise the likely structural impacts of such policies. They expect that the results will reinforce the need to better specifying spatial interactions in inter-regional CGE models.

Non-Spatial Government Policies and Regional Income Inequality in Brazil

Silveira Neto R. Da M. and Azzoni C. R. Non-spatial government policies and regional income inequality in Brazil, Regional Studies. This paper uses both macro- and micro-data to analyse the role of social programmes in the recent reduction in Brazilian regional income inequality. Convergence indicators are presented for different sources of regional income in the period 1995-2006. A decomposition of the Gini indicator allows the identification of the role of each of these income sources with respect to the reduction of regional inequality during the period. The results point out that both labour productivity and government non-spatial policies - mainly minimum wage changes and income transference programmes - do have a role in explaining regional inequality reduction during the period. [image omitted] Silveira Neto R. Da M. et Azzoni C. R. Les politiques gouvernementales non-spatiales et l`ecart des revenus regionaux au Bresil, Regional Studies. Cet article emploie des donnees a la fois macroeconomiques et microeconomiques afin d`analyser le role des programmes d`actions sociales quant a la baisse recente de l`ecart des revenus regionaux au Bresil. On presente des indicateurs de convergence pour diverses sources des revenus regionaux pour la periode allant de 1995 a 2006. Une decomposition du coefficient de Gini permet d`identifier le role de chacune de ces sources des revenus par rapport a la baisse de l`ecart des revenus pendant cette periode. Les resultats indiquent que la productivite du travail et les politiques gouvernementales non-spatiales - notamment la modification du salaire minimum et les programmes visant le transfert des revenus - ont un role a jouer pour expliquer la baisse de l`ecart des revenus regionaux pendant la periode en question. Convergence Productivite du travail Transfert des revenus Salaire minimum Effets spatiaux des politiques non-spatiales Silveira Neto R. Da M. und Azzoni C. R. Nicht raumliche Regierungspolitiken und das regionale Einkommensungleichgewicht in Brasilien, Regional Studies. In diesem Beitrag analysieren wir mit Hilfe von Makro- und Mikrodaten die Rolle von sozialen Programmen bei der unlangst erzielten Verringerung des regionalen Einkommensungleichgewichts in Brasilien. Wir stellen Konvergenz-Indikatoren fur verschiedene regionale Einkommensquellen im Zeitraum von 1995 bis 2006 vor. Eine Dekomposition des Gini-Indikators ermoglicht die Identifizierung der jeweiligen Rolle dieser Einkommensquellen fur die Verringerung des regionalen Ungleichgewichts im betreffenden Zeitraum. Die Ergebnisse weisen darauf hin, dass sowohl die Produktivitat der Arbeitskrafte als auch die nicht raumlichen Regierungspolitiken - in erster Linie Veranderungen beim Mindestlohn und Programme fur Einkommenstransfers - als Grunde fur die Verringerung des regionalen Ungleichgewichts in dieser Periode durchaus eine Rolle spielen. Konvergenz Arbeitsproduktivitat Einkommenstransfer Mindestlohn Raumliche Auswirkungen nicht raumlicher Politiken Silveira Neto R. Da M. y Azzoni C. R. Politicas gubernamentales no espaciales y desigualdades de ingresos regionales en Brasil, Regional Studies. En este articulo utilizamos datos macro y micro para analizar el papel de los programas sociales en la reciente reduccion en las desigualdades de ingresos regionales de Brasil. Presentamos los indicadores de convergencia para diferentes fuentes de ingresos regionales en el periodo de 1995 a 2006. Una descomposicion del indice Gini permite identificar el papel de cada una de estas fuentes de ingresos con respecto a la reduccion de las desiguadades regionales durante este periodo. Los resultados destacan que tanto la productividad laboral como las politicas no espaciales del gobierno - principalmente los cambios de salario minimo y los programas de transferencias de ingresos - desempenan una funcion a la hora de explicar la reduccion de las desigualdades regionales durante este periodo. Convergencia Productividad laboral Transferencias de ingresos Salario minimo Efectos espaciales de politicas no espaciales.

Are supplier selection criteria going green? Case studies of companies in Brazil

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to verify if Brazilian companies are adopting environmental requirements in the supplier selection process. Further, this paper intends to analyze whether there is a relation between the level of environmental management maturity and the inclusion of environmental criteria in the companies` selection of suppliers. Design/methodology/approach - A review of mainstream literature on environmental management, traditional criteria in the supplier selection process and the incorporation of environmental requirements in this context. The empirical study`s strategy is based on five Brazilian case studies with industrial companies. Face-to-face interviews and informal conversations are to be held, explanations made by e-mail with representatives from the purchasing, environmental management, logistics and other areas, and observation and the collection of company documents are also employed. Findings - Based on the cases, it is concluded that companies still use traditional criteria to select suppliers, such as quality and cost, and do not adopt environmental requirements in the supplier selection process in a uniform manner. Evidence found shows that the level of environmental management maturity influences the depth with which companies adopt environmental criteria when selecting suppliers. Thus, a company with more advanced environmental management adopts more formal procedures for selecting environmentally appropriate suppliers than others. Originality/value - This is the first known study to verify if Brazilian companies are adopting environmental requirements in the supplier selection process.

Non-linear pathways of corporate environmental management: a survey of ISO 14001-certified companies in Brazil

A study was conducted to verify whether the theory on the evolution of corporate environmental management (CEM) is applicable to organizations located in Brazil. Some of the most important proposals pertaining to the evolution of CEM were evaluated in a systematic fashion and integrated into a typical theoretical framework containing three evolutionary stages: reactive, preventive and proactive. The validity of this framework was tested by surveying 94 companies located in Brazil with ISO 14001 certification. Results indicated that the evolution of CEM tends to occur in a manner that is counter to what has generally been described in the literature. Two evolutionary stages were identified: 1) synergy for eco-efficiency and 2) environmental legislation view, which combine variables that were initially categorized into different theoretical CEM stages. These data, obtained from a direct study of Brazilian companies, suggest that the evolution of environmental management in organizations tends to occur in a non-linear fashion, requiring a re-analysis of traditional perceptions of CEM development, as suggested by Kolk and Mauser (2002). (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The determinants of default risk in Brazil

We formulated a general unrestricted model of the Brazilian Emerging Markets Bond Index Plus (EMBI+) spreads, a proxy for the country`s default risk. Employing algorithms that perform automated model selection, we found that macroeconomic fundamentals, such as current account deficit ratio to gross domestic product, public deficit ratio to gross domestic product and imports over foreign exchange reserves, can explain a great part of the variation in EMBI+ spreads. There is also robust evidence of systematic contagion from Argentina and Mexico and that the variance of the spread also affects its mean.

Colonization sequence of non-pollinating fig wasps associated with Ficus citrifolia in Brazil

Mutualisms, such as the fig-agaonid wasp association, are susceptible to colonization by parasitic species, which exploit the resources involved therein. In most cases, they oviposit into the figs from outside without providing any pollination service. In this study, we used several different methods (adhesive traps and direct standardized field observations) to assess the colonization sequence of a diverse fig wasp fauna associated with Ficus citrifolia, section Americana, in Brazil. They consistently showed a temporal partitioning in colonization among non-pollinating fig wasp species. Idarnes species belonging to the flavicollis and incerta groups colonized figs just before or during the fig receptive phase. In contrast, Idarnes females belonging to the carme group oviposited one to three weeks later, mainly in the middle of the inter-floral phase. Eurytoma, Heterandrium, Physothorax and Torymus were later colonizers, and laid eggs either in the middle or during the late inter-floral phase. The results suggest that these Neotropical fig wasps have different strategies of resource exploitation, even among species belonging to the same genus.

Diario Trabalhista and black racial democracy in Brazil in the 1940s

In order to refute the interpretation that racial democracy in Brazil has simply been an illusion or ruse of white supremacy, the authors analyze the participation of Black leaders in the elaboration of the Brazilian national imaginary in the 1940s. They argue that during that period, racial democracy was a powerful instrument for mobilizing Blacks as well, whether as nationalists or anti-racists. The authors explore one of the most important sources through which this ideology was forged by a key figure of the Black intelligentsia, Abdias do Nascimento, with his column in the Diario Trabalhista [Laborite Daily] entitled ""Problems and Aspirations of Black Brazilians"". In this column, Nascimento published dozens of interviews with Black leaders and common people that demonstrate the foundations, principles, and interests involved in the construction of a racial democracy.

Political Parties and Governors as Determinants of Legislative Behavior in Brazil`s Chamber of Deputies, 1988-2006

This article examines the relative importance of regional and national forces in shaping the behavior of Brazilian legislators at the national level. A widely held view is that national legislators respond to state pressures in making decisions, rather than pressures from the national government. Governors not only can influence national debates but also can determine outcomes by exerting control over their states` legislative delegations. This article examines a dataset of all roll-call votes in the Chamber of Deputies between 1989 and 2006 to isolate and evaluate the impact of local pressures on legislative voting. Spanning the terms of five presidents and five different congresses, the data show that the local influence is weaker than the national on the voting decisions of individual legislators and the voting cohesion of state delegations. Alternative institutional resources allow the central government to counteract the centrifugal pressures of federalism and other institutional influences.