Precambrian history of the Zona Transversal of the Borborema Province, NE Brazil: Insights from Sm-Nd and U-Pb geochronology

The Borborema Province has three major subprovinces. The northern subprovince lies north of the Patos shear zone and is comprised of Paleoproterozoic cratonic basement with Archean nuclei, plus overlying Neoproterozoic supracrustal rocks and Brasiliano plutonic rocks. The central subprovince occurs between the Patos and Pernambuco shear zones and is mainly comprised of the Zona Transversal. The southern subprovince occurs between the Pernamabuco shear zone and the Sao Francisco craton and is comprised of a tectonic collage of various blocks, terranes, or domains ranging in age from Archean to Neoproterozoic. This report focuses on the Zona Transversal, especially on Brasiliano rocks for which we have the most new information. Paleoproterozoic gneisses with ages of 2.0-2.2 Ga occur discontinuously throughout the Zona Transversal. The Cariris Velhos suite consists of metavolcanic, metasedimentary, and metaplutonic rocks yielding U-Pb zircon ages of 995-960 Ma. This suite is mainly confined to a 100 km wide belt that extends for more than 700 km within the Alto Pajeu terrane. Sm-Nd model ages in metaigneous rocks cluster about 1.3-1.6 Ga, indicating that older crust was involved in genesis of their magmas. Brasiliano supracrustal rocks dominate the Pianco-Alto Brigida terrane, and they probably also constitute significant parts of the Alto Pajeu and Rio Capibaribe terranes. They are only slightly older than early stages of Brasiliano plutonism, with detrital zircon ages at least as young as 620 Ma; most T(DM) ages range from 1.2 to 1.6 Ga. Brasiliano plutons range from ca. 640 to 540 Ma, and their T(DM) ages range from 1.2 to 2.5 Ga. Previous workers have shown significant correlations among U-Pb ages, Sm-Nd model ages, petrology, and geochemistry, and we are able to reinforce and extend these correlations. Stage I plutons formed 640 -610 Ma and have T(DM) ages less than 1.5 Ga. Stage 11 (610-590 Ma) contains few plutons, but coincides with the peak of compressional deformation, metamorphism, and formation of migmatites. Stage III plutons (590 to ca. 575 Ma) have older T(DM) ages (ca. 1.8-2.0 Ga), as do Stage IV plutons (575 to ca. 550 Ma; T(DM) from 1.9 to 2.4 Ga). Stage III plutons formed during the transition from compressional to transcurrent deformation, while Stage IV plutons are mainly post-tectonic. Stage V plutons (550-530 Ma) are commonly undeformed (except along younger shear zones) and have A-type geochemistry. The five stages have distinct geochemical properties, which suggest that the tectonic settings evolved from early, arc-related magma-genesis (Stage I) to within-plate magma-genesis (Stage V), with perhaps some intermediate phases of extensional environments. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Denudation history of the Bocaina Plateau, Serra do Mar, southeastern Brazil: Relationships to Gondwana breakup and passive margin development

The Bocaina Plateau, which is situated on the eastern flank of the continental rift of southeastern Brazil, is the highest part of the Serra do Mar. Topographic relief in this area is suggested to be closely related to its complex tectono-magmatic evolution since the breakup of Western Gondwana and opening of the South Atlantic Ocean. Apatite fission track ages and track length distributions from 27 basement outcrops were determined to assess these hypotheses and reconstruct the denudation history of the Bocaina Plateau. The ages range between 303 +/- 32 and 46 +/- 5 Ma, and are significantly younger than the stratigraphic ages. Mean track lengths vary from 13.44 +/- 1.51 to 11.1 +/- 1.48 mu m, with standard deviations between 1.16 and 1.83 mu m. Contrasting ages within a single plateau and similar ages at different altitudes indicate a complex regional tectonothermal evolution. The thermal histories inferred from these data imply three periods of accelerated cooling related to the Early Cretaceous continental breakup, Early Cretaceous alkaline magmatism, and the Paleogene evolution of the continental rift of southeastern Brazil. The oldest fission track ages (>200 Ma) were obtained in the Serra do Mar region, suggesting that these areas were a long-lived source of sediments for the Parana, Bauru, and Santos basins. (C) 2010 International Association for Gondwana Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A brief history of Brazil's growth

The paper studies Brazil’s economic growth and begins with a brief overview of events that marked the country’s development from her discovery to the 19th century. It then divides the years between 1900 and 2008 into four periods. The breaks in regime occur in 1918, 1967 and 1980, according to the methodology created by Bai and Perron (1998, 2003). The use of the accounting methodology serves the analysis of the behavior of productivity in the previously identified different phases of the post-World War II period. High inflation might have been a reason for the decline in productivity observed between 1980 and mid-1990s. The paper shows that terms of trade have a significant effect on economic growth and output fluctuations. Other factors (such as fiscal stimulus or easy access to foreign finance) also matter for output accelerations in the short run. From 2004 to 2008, terms of trade improvement and debt reduction brought economic progress. The emergence of a new era in this millennium will depend on wiser fiscal policies than those of the past.

Racial discrimination in Brazil: interviews with leaders of the black movement

Racism in Brazil has some specificities when compared to other countries, for, differently from, for instance, South Africa and the United States, Brazilian Constitutions, ever since the Independence (1822), have never distinguished the citizens according to race or color. Furthermore, since the mid-1900s, Afro-Brazilian cultural manifestations, such as, for example, samba and capoeira, started to be valued as a part of our “national identity”. These specificities make race relations in Brazilian society a much more complex issue. This paper is focused on selected parts of interviews that deal with the nature of racial discrimination in Brazil, extracted from interviews with leaders of the black movement produced within the scope of the project “The History of Black Movement in Brazil: organization of a collection of Oral History Interviews”, developed by CPDOC, Getulio Vargas Foundation (Rio de Janeiro). These “histories within history”, as told by our interviewees, may be transformed into images that will be able to condense a given reality, thus allowing us to evaluate the gains obtained by oral history methodology.

Oral history in Brazil: an assessment

This overview of the development of the oral history field in Brasil analyzes the different approaches used in the area, discusses its major topics of interest, and traces the organizational and historical paths of the country's most important oral history programs.

Debt management in Brazil: evaluation of the Real Plan and challenges ahead

The Brazilian domestic debt has posed two challenges to policy-makers: it has grown very fast and its maturity is extremely short. This has prompted fears that a default or a compulsory lengthening scheme would be imposed. Here, we analyse the domestic public debt management experience in Brazil, searching for policy prescriptions for the next few years. After briefiy reviewing the recent domestic public debt history, we decompose the large rise in federal bonded debt during 1995-2000, searching for its macroeconomic causes. The main culprits are the extremely high interest payments-which, unti11998, were caused by the weak fiscal stance and the quasi-fixed exchange-rate regime; and since 1999, by the impact ofthe currency depreciation On the dollar-indexed and the externai debt-, and the accumulation of assets of doubtful value, much of which may have to be written off in the future. Simulation exercises of the net debt path for the near future underscore the importance of a tighter fiscal stance to prevent the debt-GDP ratio from growing further. Given the need to quickly lengthen the debt maturity, our main policy advice is to foster, and rely more on, infiation-linked bonds.

Identification and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of Pasteurella multocida isolated from chickens and japanese quails in Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Thermochronology of the South American platform in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, through apatite fission tracks

The fission-track method (FTM) in apatite was applied to 45 samples collected in the Serra da Mantiqueira (Mantiqueira mountain range), the Serra do Mar (Mar mountain range), regions next to these mountain ranges and the coastal region between Ubatuba and Santos in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, to study the thermochronology of the South American Platform in southeast Brazil and its influence on Santos and Campos basins. The data presented in this work complement the previously presented data on the same region (Tello Saenz et al., 2003. J. S. Am. Earth Sci. 15, 765-774) with 31 new samples analyzed. The weighted mean of the corrected ages from high Mantiqueira (around 1000 m), (121 +/- 6) Ma, coincides with the South Atlantic opening. The fact that its thermal history starts at a relatively low temperature (similar to 80 degrees C) suggests that the age of similar to 120 Ma would be the formation age of Serra da Mantiqueira due to a rapid pulse, in which tracks had no time to be retained at the closure temperature, that is similar to 120 degrees C. The Serra do Mar presents a more complicated thermal history, with several reactivations indicated by the changes in the slope of its cooling curve. The thermal histories obtained in the regions next to these mountain ranges are compatible with the results mentioned above. The Santos Basin has unconformities that agree with changes in the slope thermal histories of the studied region. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Vibrational spectroscopy applied to the study of archeological ceramic artifacts from Guarani culture in Brazil

An archeological artifact can be seen as a chronological element, which helps to determine the age of certain society and to understand the thinking, values and the way of life of this society. Thus, the classification of archeological artifacts is one of the approaches used to study the cultural system of antique societies trying to reconstruct their history. The "Centro de Museologia, Antropologia e Argueologia (CEMAARQ)" of the "Unesp Univ Estadual Paulista" in Presidente Prudente, São Paulo state, Brazil, develops projects within this context (identification and preservation). This is the case of the archeological site named "Lagoa São Paulo-02" discovered in 1993 at the margins of the Parana river in the region of Presidente Epitacio city, São Paulo state, Brazil. This site has ceramic fragments of different shapes and sizes that have a strong influence of traces of the Guarani culture, which is one of the Brazilian native populations. These samples were basically characterized via micro-Raman scattering and Fourier transform infrared absorption (FTIR) spectroscopies. The main objective was to identify the pigments used in the manufacture of the ceramic artifacts and to analyze the composition of the ceramic body to understand how the artifacts were made. Three pigments were found: red, black and white. For the red pigment were identified characteristic bands of hematite, an iron oxide found in the red rocks of the river banks that were eroded by water. The black pigment, probably, is due to the use of vegetal charcoal, which is found in nature as the product of burning organic material such as wood. For the white pigment, the FTIR spectra suggested the use of kaolin, either in the ceramic body or in the proper white pigment, due to the presence of the characteristic bands of the kaolinite. Complementary, the additives applied as anti-plastics were identified as charcoal and quartz, being the latter found in the rocks present in the archeological site. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Short Report: Identification of Virulence-Associated Plasmids in Rhodococcus equi in Humans with and without Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome in Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Natural history of the coral snake Micrurus Pyrrhocryptus Cope 1862 (Elapidae) from semideciduous forests of western Brazil.

Coral snakes in the genus Micrurus are widely distributed in the Neotropics, with more than 50 species already described in this region. They are primarily ground or leaf litter dwellers, feed on snakes or other elongate vertebrates, and tend to reproduce during the rainy season. We present data on the biology of Micrurus pyrrhocryptus from two semideciduous forests of Mato Grosso do Sul state, western Brazil. Two snake species were consumed: the dipsadid Sibynomorphus lavillai and the typhlopid Typhlops brongersmianus. Sexual dimorphism is marked in M. pyrrhocryptus. with males attaining larger sizes and having longer tails. Activity was concentrated in the wet season, when reproduction occurs. The defensive behavior in this species is similar to that displayed by other Micron's, although less pronounced.

Historical aspects of Belly Dance and its practice in Brazil

Dance is regarded as one of the oldest art forms, which is based on evidence from prehistoric paintings found in caves; man expressed himself through body language prior to the development of spoken and written forms of communication. Dance was then used during important events, common to their era and culture, and often in religious rituals, to ensure good harvests - their economic activity. Belly-dance appeared approximately eight thousand years B. C. E. as a sacred dance firstly practiced by priestesses, and after that, it was popularized amongst women from Mesopotamia. Virtually considered an ancient form of physical exercise, it is still practiced by Bedouin women as a preparation for spontaneous delivery. In Brazil, belly-dance is widely practiced and our corporal culture enables its learning and improvement, resulting in professional dancers.

Integrating species life-history traits and patterns of deforestation in amphibian conservation planning

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Snout mites from caves in Brazil, with description of a new species (Acari: Trombidiformes: Bdellidae)

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)