Fiscal Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean 2016: Public finances and the challenge of reconciling austerity with growth and equality

Latin America’s fiscal accounts deteriorated slightly during 2015, registering an average deficit of 3.0% of GDP and average gross public debt of 34.7% of GDP. Of the 19 countries considered, the fiscal deficit and public debt as a share of GDP both increased in 11. The region started to build up public debt, most of it domestic, after the 2008 international financial crisis to meet the growing financing needs resulting from the worsening growth situation.

A organização do conhecimento e a representação do conhecimento no domínio da arquivística

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Digit Ratio (2D:4D), Aggression, and Testosterone in Men Exposed to an Aggressive Video Stimulus

The relative lengths of the 2nd and 4th digits (2D:4D) is a negative biomarker for prenatal testosterone, and low 2D:4D may be associated with aggression. However, the evidence for a 2D:4D-aggression association is mixed. Here we test the hypothesis that 2D:4D is robustly linked to aggression in challenge situations in which testosterone is increased. Participants were exposed to an aggressive video and a control video. Aggression was measured after each video and salivary free testosterone levels before and after each video. Compared to the control video, the aggressive video was associated with raised aggression responses and a marginally significant increase in testosterone. Left 2D:4D was negatively correlated with aggression after the aggressive video and the strength of the correlation was higher in those participants who showed the greatest increases in testosterone. Left 2D:4D was also negatively correlated to the difference between aggression scores in the aggressive and control conditions. The control video did not influence testosterone concentrations and there were no associations between 2D:4D and aggression. We conclude that 2D:4D moderates the impact of an aggressive stimulus on aggression, such that an increase in testosterone resulting from a challenge is associated with a negative correlation between 2D:4D and aggression.

Court cleaning behavior of the white-bearded manakin (manacus manacus) and a test of the anti-predation hypothesis

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A Comissão Nacional da Verdade e os Militares Perseguidos: desafios de um passado no tempo presente e futuro

This essay aims to grasp the historical and contemporary issues related to the military personnel who were persecuted, their struggles and motivations over the period 1946-1988. Advocates as hypothesis that its political intervention is a legitimate expression of a presence in the defense of democracy in Brazil. But not only: the militant intervention of this group for national causes also refers to a diagnosis, which represents a challenge to many working groups of the Comissão Nacional da Verdade, especially when taking into account the number of military personnel persecuted or the selective specifi city of the repression that fell on them.

Glycolipid Sensing and Innate Immunity in Paracoccidioidomycosis

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

A structure-based proposal for a comprehensive myotoxic mechanism of phospholipase A(2)-like proteins from viperid snake venoms

Envenomation via snakebites is an important public health problem in many tropical and subtropical countries that, in addition to mortality, can result in permanent sequelae as a consequence of local tissue damage, which represents a major challenge to antivenom therapy. Venom phospholipases A(2) (PLA(2)s) and PLA(2)-like proteins play a leading role in the complex pathogenesis of skeletal muscle necrosis, nevertheless their precise mechanism of action is only partially understood. Recently, detailed structural information has been obtained for more than twenty different members of the PLA(2)-like myotoxin subfamily. In this review, we integrate the available structural, biochemical and functional data on these toxins and present a comprehensive hypothesis for their myotoxic mechanism. This process involves an allosteric transition and the participation of two independent interaction sites for docking and disruption of the target membrane, respectively, leading to a five-step mechanism of action. Furthermore, recent functional and structural studies of these toxins complexed with ligands reveal diverse neutralization mechanisms that can be classified into at least three different groups. Therefore, the data summarized here for the PLA(2)-like myotoxins could provide a useful molecular basis for the search for novel neutralizing strategies to improve the treatment of envenomation by viperid snakes. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Non-specific immune parameters and physiological response of Nile tilapia fed beta-glucan and vitamin C for different periods and submitted to stress and bacterial challenge

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

Vaccination of grazing calves with antigens from the intestinal membranes of Haemonchus contortus: effects against natural challenge with Haemonchus placei and Haemonchus similis

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

Influence of fluoride-releasing restorative material on root dentine secondary caries in situ

The usefulness of fluoride-releasing restorations in secondary caries prevention may be questioned because of the presence of other common sources of fluoride and because of ageing of the restorations. This study tested the hypothesis that glass-ionomer cement restorations, either aged or unaged, do not prevent secondary root caries, when fluoride dentifrice is frequently used. Sixteen volunteers wore palatal appliances in two phases of 14 days, according to a 2 x 2 crossover design. In each phase the appliance was loaded with bovine root dentine slabs restored with either glass-ionomer or resin composite, either aged or unaged. Specimens were exposed to cariogenic challenge 4 times/day and to fluoridated dentifrice 3 times/day. The fluoride content in the biofilm (FB) formed on slabs and the mineral loss (Delta Z) around the restorations were analysed. No differences were found between restorative materials regarding the FB and the Delta Z, for either aged (p = 0.792 and p = 0.645, respectively) or unaged (p = 1.00 and p = 0.278, respectively) groups. Under the cariogenic and fluoride dentifrice exposure conditions of this study, the glass-ionomer restoration, either aged or unaged, did not provide additional protection against secondary root caries. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Identificação de alunos com altas habilidades ou superdotação a partir de uma avaliação multimodal

Pós-graduação em Psicologia do Desenvolvimento e Aprendizagem - FC

Cultura empresarial e reestruturação produtiva na indústria brasileira: o caso da Lupo S/A

Founded in 1921, the company currently known as Lupo S/A is one of the most ancient textile and clothing industries in Brazil. In this article we aim to describe the general lines of the trajectory of this family company, currently producing socks, nightwear and sports articles. The focus of this paper is on the analysis of some strategies used by the company along its formation and development process, and, particularly, the way these strategies made possible the productive restructuring associated to the overcoming of the strong crisis which began in the end of the 80's and early 90's, contributing to its recent consolidation in the clothing industry. The leading hypothesis of the study is that pioneering connected to a strong organizational culture that has been formed and constructed since its foundation and that was reestablished in a more recent management were the factors which were responsible for the advances able to generate an innovation environment in products as well as in processes and management. The theoretical reflection selected to subsidize the cognitive construction of the study of the company is based on the historical approach of the development of the textile industry in Brazil and in studies about the importance of the action of the entrepreneur, in the role of the organizational culture and of innovation to choose strategies in companies. The research involved the analysis of documents and data of the company, as well as interviews with directors and employees. The results show a traditional company model, but also show the presence of a very advanced entrepreneurial dynamic. Modern world – known as a fordist industrial model – could already be noticed in the company when this production pattern was not clearly defined yet in the Brazilian industry. Nowadays, the company faces the challenge of globalization and the open competition in the international market which brings the rivalry of the greatest and best globalized companies.