"Evaluating the model of classification and valuation of disabilities used in Brazil and defining the elaboration and adoption of a unique model for all the country": Brazilian Interministerial Workgroup Task

The President of Brazil established an Interministerial Work Group in order to “evaluate the model of classification and valuation of disabilities used in Brazil and to define the elaboration and adoption of a unique model for all the country”. Eight Ministries and/or Secretaries participated in the discussion over a period of 10 months, concluding that a proposed model should be based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities, the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, and the ‘support theory’, and organizing a list of recommendations and necessary actions for a Classification, Evaluation and Certification Network with national coverage.

Synchronised firing patterns in a random network of adaptive exponential integrate-and-fire

Acknowledgements This study was possible by partial financial support from the following Brazilian government agencies: CNPq, CAPES, and FAPESP (2011/19296-1 and 2015/07311-7). We also wish thank Newton Fund and COFAP.

Suppression of phase synchronisation in network based on cat’s brain

We wish to acknowledge the support of the Brazilian agencies: CNPq, CAPES, and FAPESP (2015/07311-7 and 2011/19296-1).

The impact of climate change on the brazilian agriculture: a ricardian study at microregion level.

We use at microregion level from the Brazilian Census years 1975, 1985, 1995 and 2006 to assess the impact of climate change on Brazilian agriculture using a Ricardian model. We estimate the Ricardian model using repeated cross sections for each Census Year, a pooled model and a twostage model based on Hsiao 2003. Results show that a marginal increase of temperature is harmful for agriculture in all regions of Brazil, with the exception of the South. The most negative impacts are felt in the North and in the North-East. There is mixed evidence on the effect of a marginal impact of precipitation. Additional rainfall is beneficial in South, South-East and in the Center-West. It is harmful in other regions. Impact estimates with three GCM scenarios generated using the A2 SRES emission scenario show that climate change is expected to be generally harmful in 2060. In 2100 only the climate change scenario generated by the Hadley HADCM3 model predicts negative impacts; the MIMR model predicts that climate change will not significantly affect land values while the NCPCM model predicts significant beneficial effects using the Hsiao model and nonsignificant beneficial effects using the pooled model. Among Brazilian regions, only the South and some cases the South-East are expected to benefit from climate change.

Genomic structure and marker-derived gene networks for growth and meat quality traits of brazilian nelore beef cattle.

Nelore is the major beef cattle breed in Brazil with more than 130 million heads. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are often used to associate markers and genomic regions to growth and meat quality traits that can be used to assist selection programs. An alternative methodology to traditional GWAS that involves the construction of gene network interactions, derived from results of several GWAS is the AWM (Association Weight Matrices)/PCIT (Partial Correlation and Information Theory). With the aim of evaluating the genetic architecture of Brazilian Nelore cattle, we used high-density SNP genotyping data (~770,000 SNP) from 780 Nelore animals comprising 34 half-sibling families derived from highly disseminated and unrelated sires from across Brazil. The AWM/PCIT methodology was employed to evaluate the genes that participate in a series of eight phenotypes related to growth and meat quality obtained from this Nelore sample.