Brazilian Initiative Research Articles

Brazilian Transnational Normative Entrepreneurship on RWP and welcoming of Venezuelan Refugees

The present study aims to analyze the gap between the position of the International Relations of the Federative Republic of Brazil towards the conceptual enlargement of the institute of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to Responsibility while Protecting (RwP), practiced while addressing the case of Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya, towards the current situation of Venezuelan refugees on Brazilian borders and the judicial decision on closing borders, appreciated at appeal level by the regional section of Federal Justice in Brazil. Brazilian Foreign Relations, in an exercise of normative entrepreneurship, presented Responsibility while Protecting as an alternative to R2P, in the sense that, as humanitarian intervention shall be taken as ultima ratio, measures to reestablish peace and development in affected States must be a priority of action on an international level, deviating from the use of force. However, in a moment when a neighboring country goes through a political crisis that attracts the attention of great powers to the possibility of intervening, Brazil fluctuates between positioning itself favorably to the welcoming of refugees and, at the same time, judicially closing borders. Thus, it might be that RwP can be considered as a mere exercise of political theory an international level. The position the Brazilian State adopts when the responsibility while protecting – an institute of Brazilian initiative – crosses our borders is somewhat different from its discourse towards it.

Implementing the Concept of the Responsibility to Protect in Libya

After the protests that broke out in Libya in February 2011, the Security Council and other UN bodies relied on the concept of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to address the humanitarian situation resulting from those protests. The Council issued Resolution 1970, which imposed a package of sanctions on Libya, and then issued Resolution 1973, which allowed military intervention there. Shortly after starting to implement the military campaign, it became clear that NATO exploited these decisions to implement its own agenda and worked to overthrow the Libyan regime. Further, its military operations caused the killing and wounding of many civilians, as well as the destruction of civilian and other objects. This experience distorted the concept of the responsibility to protect, deepened discussions about it and produced what is known as the Brazilian initiative “Responsibility to Protect” (RWP) and the Chinese version “Responsible Protection” (RP) as an attempt to overcome the negatives resulting from the implementation of (R2P) in Libya.

Who is who in fact-checked conspiracy theories? Disseminators, sources, and the struggle for authority in polarized environments

Despite the growing scholarship concerning mis- and disinformation, research has yet to assess how journalism tackles conspiracy theories in settings where news organizations and media professionals have their authority questioned. Against this background, our article poses two research questions: RQ1) Who are the actors mainstream fact-checkers cover when addressing conspiracy theories? RQ2) To what extent does the focus on such actors delegitimize those who challenge news organizations or compete with them for the audience? Using content analysis as our key methodological strategy, we consider 197 fact-checks published between 2018 and 2021 by the Projeto Comprova, a Brazilian initiative currently comprising professionals from 41 media organizations. We found that the most discussed topics were those mobilizing polarized groups, namely, the Covid-19 pandemic and election fraud allegations. The then-President Bolsonaro and his supporters were often cited as disseminators of such plots. In turn, Facebook is pointed out as a thriving environment for the circulation of conspiratorial narratives. The results also reveal the prominence of mainstream news outlets as sources to ground the “factual” information sustained in the fact-checks. More interestingly, our data suggest that fact-checkers have favored specific news values when addressing conspiracy theories. To strengthen our investigation, we use interviews with four professionals contributing to the Comprova to illustrate how the project has brought together rival companies interested in delegitimizing “alternative” sources of information.

ReNPAD: a brazilian network for researchers in High Dilution

Some pertinent questions in the practice of science is to know what one is researching, with whom and where. These questions are even more crucial for those involved in High Dilution studies, an emergent and multidisciplinary scientific field, where concepts, methods and models are still to be validated. In this research field, such questions can be addressed through networks because communication between peers accelerates the process of conceiving and refining the concepts, methodologies and standards that give consistency to emergent knowledge. A thematic network can be effective in building an identity for the science of HDs and related community. This article introduces the project ReNPAD (National Network of Researchers in High Dilutions), a Brazilian initiative aiming to put together researchers involved in studies in HDs in order to stimulate interaction and give visibility to the theirs efforts.

ReNPAD: a brazilian network for researchers in High Dilution

Some pertinent questions in the practice of science is to know what one is researching, with whom and where. These questions are even more crucial for those involved in High Dilution studies, an emergent and multidisciplinary scientific field, where concepts, methods and models are still to be validated. In this research field, such questions can be addressed through networks because communication between peers accelerates the process of conceiving and refining the concepts, methodologies and standards that give consistency to emergent knowledge. A thematic network can be effective in building an identity for the science of HDs and related community. This article introduces the project ReNPAD (National Network of Researchers in High Dilutions), a Brazilian initiative aiming to put together researchers involved in studies in HDs in order to stimulate interaction and give visibility to the theirs efforts

School-based HPV Vaccination: The Challenges in a Brazilian Initiative.

The present study assesses the implementation and the impact after 2 years of a school-based human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program in a Brazilian city. A prospective study assessing the implementation of the program, offering quadrivalent HPV vaccine in two annual doses to girls and boys aged from 9 to 10 years old. The program was started in the city of Indaiatuba, state of São Paulo, Brazil, in 2018, and had authorization from the National Immunization Program. The number of HPV vaccine first doses applied and the coverage in 2018 was calculated and compared to the year 2017. There were described events that have influenced the results. The program invited 4,878 children through schools (87.1% of the target population), and 7.5% refused vaccination. Several concurrent events required or competed for health professionals of the vaccination teams. The coverage of the first dose (between 9 and 10 years old) was 16.1% in 2017 and increased to 50.5% in 2018 (p < 0.0001). The first dose in all ages increased 78% in 2018 compared with 2017 (6,636/3,733). Competing demands over the program continued in 2019, and the first dose coverage dropped (26.9%). For 2020, a municipal law instituted school-based vaccination and the creation of dedicated teams for vaccination, and these strategies are waiting to be tested. School-based annual HPV vaccination in children between 9 and 10 years old was feasible and increased vaccination coverage, regardless of gender, although the program was vulnerable to competing events.

The Brazilian Initiative on Precision Medicine (BIPMed): fostering genomic data-sharing of underrepresented populations

The development of precision medicine strategies requires prior knowledge of the genetic background of the target population. However, despite the availability of data from admixed Americans within large reference population databases, we cannot use these data as a surrogate for that of the Brazilian population. This lack of transferability is mainly due to differences between ancestry proportions of Brazilian and other admixed American populations. To address the issue, a coalition of research centres created the Brazilian Initiative on Precision Medicine (BIPMed). In this study, we aim to characterise two datasets obtained from 358 individuals from the BIPMed using two different platforms: whole-exome sequencing (WES) and a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. We estimated allele frequencies and variant pathogenicity values from the two datasets and compared our results using the BIPMed dataset with other public databases. Here, we show that the BIPMed WES dataset contains variants not included in dbSNP, including 6480 variants that have alternative allele frequencies (AAFs) >1%. Furthermore, after merging BIPMed WES and SNP array data, we identified 809,589 variants (47.5%) not present within the 1000 Genomes dataset. Our results demonstrate that, through the incorporation of Brazilian individuals into public genomic databases, BIPMed not only was able to provide valuable knowledge needed for the implementation of precision medicine but may also enhance our understanding of human genome variability and the relationship between genetic variation and disease predisposition.

Socioeconomic, Energetic and Carbon Impacts of a Large-Scale Model of Municipal Solid Waste Treatment in the Largest Brazilian Metropolitan Region

The National Solid Waste Policy (PNRS) by the Law 12,305 of Aug. 2nd in 2010, is the Brazilian initiative to manage the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) generated in the national territory. The Metropolitan Region of São Paulo (MRSP) is the largest Brazilian economic macro-region which generates 10% of all MSW in the country which is practically 100% treated in landfills, as suggested by the PNRS. However, its landfills are close to the exhaustion and build new ones collide with the lack of land availability in the region surrounded by water reservoirs. Areas far from the waste generation do not seem to be an economical alternative, due to high freight fee and requirements for environmental licensing.

Distribution of local ancestry and evidence of adaptation in admixed populations

Admixed American populations have different global proportions of European, Sub-Saharan African, and Native-American ancestry. However, individuals who display the same global ancestry could exhibit remarkable differences in the distribution of local ancestry blocks. We studied for the first time the distribution of local ancestry across the genome of 264 Brazilian admixed individuals, ascertained within the scope of the Brazilian Initiative on Precision Medicine. We found a decreased proportion of European ancestry together with an excess of Native-American ancestry on chromosome 8p23.1 and showed that this is due to haplotypes created by chromosomal inversion events. Furthermore, Brazilian non-inverted haplotypes were more similar to Native-American haplotypes than to European haplotypes, in contrast to what was found in other American admixed populations. We also identified signals of recent positive selection on chromosome 8p23.1, and one gene within this locus, PPP1R3B, is related to glycogenesis and has been associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and obesity. These findings point to a selection event after admixture, which is still not entirely understood in recent admixture events.

Daisies March: a Brazilian initiative in planetary health and gender equity

Daisies March: a Brazilian initiative in planetary health and gender equity

Science Stand

This article presents the theoretical and methodological aspects of the activist science and technology education practices of a Brazilian outreach initiative known as Science Stand. This learn-by-doing program is designed to connect science and technology to current global socio-ecological issues – such as animal rights, gender (in)equality, and climate change – through interactive activities created and performed by university students in public spaces located in marginalized communities in the Greater São Paulo Area (Brazil). In addition, we introduce several testimonies from project volunteers that support our argument concerning the role of science activism in advocating gender equity in science, fostering hope in the possibility of socio-ecological change, and promoting the democratization of science through widespread knowledge dissemination.

Effort begins to replicate experiments in Brazil

A project aiming to reproduce dozens of biochemistry experiments originally conducted in Brazil is set to commence this month. The project, called the Brazilian Reproducibility Initiative, plans to replicate 60 to 100 experiments. The initiative already has more than 60 Brazilian labs on board, with each lab slated to reproduce three to six experiments each. The effort will initially focus on three laboratory methods: reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction, which is used to amplify messenger RNA; the MTT assay, a colorimetric assay used to assess cell viability; and the “elevated plus” maze, a behavioral assay used to measure anxiety in rodents. The initiative is funded by the Serrapilheira Institute, a private nonprofit foundation established in 2016. Unlike previousreproducibilityefforts elsewhere, the researchers carrying out the replication experiments in Brazil won’t be told which studies the protocols originate from until the end of the process, says Olavo Amaral, a medical biochemist at the

A Diamond of Intense Brilliance in the Diadem of Brazilian Diplomacy: The 1953 Plan for Peace in Jerusalem

ABSTRACTIn 1953, the Brazilian government decided to advance a plan for the demilitarisation and internationalisation of Jerusalem within a 50-kilometre radius. After consultations, the Holy See initially perceived the Brazilian initiative as agreeable. Also approached, the United States and Britain distrusted the plan, thinking they were dealing with a Papal overture. Israel suspected the Holy See to be behind the initiative and distrusted its intentions. For a few months, rumours stirred concern in the interested parties. After confusing mutual consultations, the Holy See did not really support the initiative and finally rejected and abandoned it. The fate of Brazil’s plan is relevant to understand the stalemate about the fate of Jerusalem, divided by Israel and Jordan, in the early years of the Cold War. Washington and London had already abandoned efforts to solve the issue through the United Nations but were unable to produce an alternative. Although attached to the prospect of internationalisation, the Holy See did not entertain the possibility of negotiating the city’s future. Brazil was making its initial foray into a more universalistic foreign policy and experimenting with different possible identities—Catholic, Western, peaceful—to substantiate its interest in making a broader contribution to international politics.

DivulgaMicro : A Brazilian Initiative To Empower Early-Career Scientists with Science Communication Skills.

Communication is fundamental in science. Among scientists, communication skills are required to write a comprehensible scientific manuscript or to prepare an attractive oral presentation. In addition, the ability to communicate successfully with the nonscientific community has been increasingly appreciated, as it represents the most effective way to promote popular scientific literacy. Nevertheless, students majoring in sciencerelated courses are not trained specifically for these purposes, and improving communication skills usually depends on tips and advice given by peers. To this end, we have launched DivulgaMicro, an initiative that aims to enhance science communication among early-career scientists in Brazil. DivulgaMicro relies on two major cornerstones: providing online resources via a dedicated website (www.divulgamicro.com.br/index.html) and promoting onsite workshops in universities located in different macro regions of the country. On the website, people can access a collection of fun activities designed to teach scientific concepts to a general audience, along with tips and news regarding public outreach events in Brazil. In the month following its launch, our website had 1,026 visitors from 10 different countries besides Brazil. Regarding the workshops, six were offered during 2018, with nearly 600 attendees. In the course, scientists are presented best practices for scientific writing and oral presentations, as well as techniques to improve communication with lay audiences, such as the use of storytelling structure and analogies. There is a high demand for science communication resources in Brazil, attesting to the importance of initiatives such as DivulgaMicro in our country.

The Multiple Bases of Social Return Platforms: Evidence of a Brazilian Initiative

ABSTRACTThe literature on platforms emphasizes the balance between supply and demand as precursors to network expansion, strategy development and strategy sustainability. This study questions this logic through the exploratory approach of a public platform based on social returns. Results demonstrate that when an institutional force supports a platform concerned with diffuse and collective interests, it is possible that the strategy could sustain and develop without the balance of its forces. The study contributes to the strategic platform literature by pointing out the distinct aspects of social platforms and underlining the support generated by institutions.

Estariam satisfeitos os beneficiários do programa minha casa, minha vida? Evidências empíricas em municípios do Estado de Minas Gerais

The “Minha Casa, Minha Vida” Program (PMCMV) is the main Brazilian government initiative to remedy the country's housing deficit, which, due to its reality, requires adequate management, avoiding detours that could make it unfeasible. In this sense, the objective was to evaluate the PMCMV results based on the perception of the beneficiary families. The theoretical framework was based on the concepts of evaluation of social programs and their application to the housing context. The investigation occurred in Minas Gerais, considering a sample of 110 families distributed in eight municipalities. We adopted three categories: housing unit, housing complex and environment. In relation to the housing unit, beneficiaries of horizontal housing were more satisfied; large families showed lower satisfaction and the second phase of the Program was better evaluated. On the housing set, beneficiaries of the vertical groups, with less members and of enterprises of the second phase were more satisfied. As for the environment, there was a decrease in satisfaction with infrastructure and access to the city as family size increased. From the contact with the beneficiaries was clear the social importance of the PMCMV and the modification promoted in their lives. It is considered necessary, based on the critical points raised, to continue making corrections in the Program so that the promoted improvements can solve the social inequalities.

Design and evaluation of probabilistic record linkage methods supporting the Brazilian 100-million cohort initiative.

ABSTRACTBackground and aimsA cooperation Brazil-UK was set in mid-2013 aiming at to build a huge cohort comprised by individuals registered in CadastroÚnico (CADU), a socioeconomic database used in social programmes of the Brazilian government. Epidemiologists and statisticians wish to assess the impact of Bolsa Família (PBF), a conditional cash transfer programme, on the incidence of several diseases (tuberculosis, leprosy, HIV etc). The cohort must contain all individuals who received at least one payment from PBF between 2007 and 2012, which results in a 100-million records according to our preliminary analysis. These individuals must be probabilistically linked with databases from the Unified Health System (SUS), such as hospitalization (SIH), notifiable diseases (SINAN), mortality (SIM), live births (SINASC), to produce data marts (domain-specific data) to the proposed studies. Within this cooperation, our first goal was to design and evaluate probabilistic methods to routine link the cohort, PBF, and SUS outcomes.&#x0D; ApproachWe implemented two probabilistic linkage methods: a full probabilistic, based on the Dice similarity (Sorensen index) of Bloom filters; and an hybrid approach, based on rules to deterministic and probabilistic matching. We performed linkages involving CADU (2011 extraction) and SUS outcomes (SIH, SINAN, and SIM) with samples from 3 states (Sergipe, Santa Catarina and Bahia) with an increasing size (from 1,447,512 to 12,036,010).&#x0D; ResultsUsing a Dice between 0.90 and 0.92, our methods retrieved more than 95% of true positive pairs amongst the linked pairs. For Sergipe, we obtained as &lt;linked pairs,true positives&gt;: &lt;23,22&gt;, &lt;315,300&gt;, &lt;32,32&gt;, respectively for SIH, SINAN, and SIM. For Bahia: &lt;771,593&gt;, &lt;2677,2626&gt;, &lt;208,207&gt;. Another linkage between CADU (1,447,512 records) and SINAN (624 records), for tuberculosis in Sergipe, returned 397 (full probabilistic) and 311 (hybrid) linked pairs, being 306 and 300 true positives. Another execution considering CADU (1,988,599 records) and SINAN (2,094 records), for tuberculosis in Santa Catarina, returned 791 (full probabilistic) and 500 (hybrid) linked pairs, with 667 and 472 true positives. Linking CADU (1.685,697 records) and SIM, for mortality of children under-4, returned 18 linked pairs, all of them true positives, for a Dice between 0.90 and 0.92 and with 100% of sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value.&#x0D; ConclusionDue to the absence of gold standards, we use samples with increasing sizes and manual review when adequate. Our results are quite accurate, although obtained with an unique extraction of CADU. We are starting to run linkages with the entire cohort.

Collaborative Quality Improvement in the Congenital Heart Defects: Development of the ASSIST Consortium and a Preliminary Surgical Outcomes Report.

ObjectiveASSIST is the first Brazilian initiative in building a collaborative quality improvement program in pediatric cardiology and congenital heart disease. The purposes of this manuscript are:(a) to describe the development of the ASSIST project, including the historical, philosophical, organizational, and infrastructural components that will facilitate collaborative quality improvement in congenital heart disease care;(b) to report past and ongoing challenges faced; and(c) to report the first preliminary data analysis.MethodsA total of 614 operations were prospectively included in a comprehensive online database between September 2014 and December 2015 in two participating centers. Risk Adjustment for Congenital Heart Surgery (RACHS) 1 and Aristotle Basic Complexity (ABC) scores were obtained. Descriptive statistics were provided, and the predictive values of the two scores for mortality were calculated by multivariate logistic regression models.ResultsMany barriers and challenges were faced and overcome. Overall mortality was 13.4%. Independent predictors of in-hospital death were: RACHS-1 categories (3, 4, and 5/6), ABC level 4, and age group (≤ 30 days, and 30 days - 1 year).ConclusionThe ASSIST project was successfully created over a solid base of collaborative work. The main challenges faced, and overcome, were lack of institutional support, funding, computational infrastructure, dedicated staff, and trust. RACHS-1 and ABC scores performed well in our case mix. Our preliminary outcome analysis shows opportunities for improvement.

Brazil and the Responsibility While Protecting Initiative: Norms and the Timing of Diplomatic Support

This article examines Brazil's responsibility while protecting (RwP) initiative as an example of norm sponsorship available to nonpermanent members of the Security Council. After setting the stage with Brazil's historical engagement with intervention issues, it discusses the reasons behind the Brazilian initiative. It examines RwP's key proposals and the reactions they generated. RwP's normative implications are discussed, together with an examination of the main reasons why Brazil's sponsorship of the initiative waned following its exit from the Council. Brazil's withdrawal from sponsoring RwP highlights the need for ongoing support for initiatives that seek to revive the international community's intervention practices by tackling the basic tenets of discord over R2P's implementation.

Diversity in School: A Brazilian educational policy against homophobia

ABSTRACTDiversity in School is a Brazilian initiative that seeks to increase understanding, recognition, respect, and value social and cultural differences through offering an e-learning course on gender, sexuality, and ethnic relations for teachers and school administrators in the public school system. The course and its objectives aim to enable staff and students in schools to realize their full potential through the promotion of a culture of inclusion. The course is the result of a partnership between the Brazilian government (Secretariat for Policies on Women's Affairs, Secretariat for the Promotion of Policies on Racial Equality, and the Ministry of Education), the British Council and the Latin American Center on Sexuality and Human Rights (CLAM) from the State University of Rio de Janeiro. CLAM has developed the content and the methodology. Since 2008, 40,000 teachers have been trained all over the country. This article highlights the importance of improving understanding of gender, sexual, ethnic and racial diversity in order to create a positive learning environment inside of schools.