Brazilian Science Research Articles

Del Museo Real al Museo Nacional/UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil: fragmentos del pasado y del presente

From Museu Real to Museu Nacional/UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: past and present fragments. Created on June 6, 1818 by D. Joao VI, King of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves, the Museu Real/ Royal Museum (later renamed Museu Nacional/National Museum) designed as the centralizer of studies and research relating to natural sciences in Brazil. In this founding decree, the strategic relevance of the new institution was highlight. There was an underlying understanding that the produced knowledge and deposited collections will contribute to the economic and cultural development of the kingdom. Throughout its history, the institution expanded, established partnerships, international cooperation and undergone several transformations: from its name, its headquarters and its position in the government structure. Currently integrated to the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro/Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and with over 300 professionals in its permanent staff (plus contracted employees and students), the Museu Nacional, continues the tradition of cutting edge in research devoted to Natural History and Anthropology, and maintain an invaluable collection, ever expanding.

Some Determinants of the Existence of Government Websites in 853 Municipalities in Minas Gerais, Brazil

This study evaluates whether 853 municipalities of Minas Gerais have devel- oped one specifi c strategy of electronic government. We searched for municipalities that have websites for the executive branch, relating this information to a number of second- ary data. These data include variables on the Municipal Human Development Index (HDI-M), municipal budgetary revenues, year of founding of municipalities, the mayor's party affi liation, and a public policy initiative related to the creation of municipal execu- tive branch websites. This analysis was performed to develop descriptive statistics among the variables collected. In addition to exploring descriptive analysis, we attempted to de- This article was presented in an earlier version at the Brazilian Social Science Association Confer- ence (Associacao Nacional de Pos-Graduacao e Pesquisa em Ciencias Sociais), October 25-29, 2010, in Caxambu, Brazil, as well as at the International Political Science Association and the European Con- sortium of Political Research Conference, February 16-19, 2010, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We are grateful to Sergio Amadeu da Silveira and Sergio Soares Braga for their valuable suggestions and comments, as well as to Marcio Rezende Gusmao for cooperating in the preparation of the database analyzed in this study. We also thank Adriane Reams for editing this manuscript. Finally, we would like to thank the LARR reviewers for their fundamental suggestions and comments.

DEMOCRACIA E PLANEJAMENTO TERRITORIAL: Desenvolvimento urbano de Goiânia e Planos Diretores Participativos na RMG

The deterioration of the quality of life in the great Brazilian cities has taken to the reflection a reasonable number of researchers of social sciences in Brazil in this beginning of century. Although they already had been debated previously, it is in the period of the democratization of years 1980 that the urban problematic in Brazil acquires a content properly politician. Through the National Movement for Urban Reform (MNRU) (MNRU) the claims gain prominence relative to the levels of social injustice in the urban way, as well as the pressures for the democratization for planning and management. In this perspective, the processes of definition of the urban politics are, now, demarcated for a new relation between State and society. In the same time, the performance of the agents in the spaces of decision and control is guided by new forms and contents. This study aimed to identify the contents of popular participation and democratization in Participative Director Plans from four cities of Goiânia’s Metropolitan Region, elaborated between the years of 2004 and 2008.

Eight propositions towards new possibilities of studying organizing and organizations

The aim of this paper is to discuss the subordination of administrative theories based on market relations, which leads us to a single model of organization, namely the enterprise. This is a theoretical essay which presents eight proposals in order to contribute to management education and research that can promote knowledge building and encourage the acknowledgement of other ways of organizing, while also respecting the historical creation of different contexts. We seek to systematize the criticism from important authors of the social sciences in Brazil, to help create other options for theorizing in management studies.

Relações quantitativas entre orientação para o mercado, desempenho organizacional e a percepção externa de sucesso em instituições de pesquisas tecnológicas afiliadas à ABIPTI

O tema orientação para o mercado vem ocupando posição central na teoria do marketing nas últimas décadas. A maioria dos estudos empíricos nessa área baseia-se na realidade de países industrializados e no setor empresarial. A pesquisa empírica sobre o tema voltada para as organizações que não visam necessariamente ao lucro continua limitada. Este estudo investigou a relação da orientação para o mercado com o desempenho organizacional e com a percepção externa de sucesso ou insucesso nas atividades-fim em instituições de pesquisas tecnológicas no Brasil, afiliadas à Associação Brasileira das Instituições de Pesquisas Tecnológicas (ABIPTI). Usando técnicas estatísticas uni e multivariadas, validaram-se os construtos em relação às formas de aferição utilizadas, a saber: indicadores de desempenho organizacional do prêmio de gestão ABIPTI; Escala MARKOR adaptada e validada para os propósitos do estudo e Painel de Especialistas, enquete aplicada em um conjunto de conhecedores do setor de ciência e tecnologia brasileiro. Como resultado, obtiveram-se bons índices de ajustamento para a estrutura teórica proposta e confirmaram-se todas as quatro hipóteses e três hipóteses derivadas de pesquisa testadas. Os resultados da pesquisa demonstraram que a orientação para o mercado das instituições de pesquisas tecnológicas estudadas mantém uma relação positiva e significativa com o desempenho organizacional das mesmas instituições; tal associação é nitidamente perceptível por um conjunto de especialistas no setor de Ciência & Tecnologia brasileiro e externo àquelas instituições, ao avaliarem quão bem-sucedidas, ou não tão bem-sucedidas, são as mesmas instituições no desempenho de suas atividades-fim.

In memoriam: Prof. Dr. Clovis Teixeira

Professor Dr. Clovis Teixeira 1932-2010 Professor Dr. Clovis Teixeira died peacefully at his home in Sao Paulo on December, 2010. With his death, Brazil lost' a scientist of high calibre who contributed to Brazilian science for more than 40 years. Clovis Teixeira graduated in Natural History at the University of Sao Paulo in 1958. He started to work at the Oceanographic Institute of USP in 1959. He was interested in phytoplankton ecology and to develop studies on primary production of phytoplankton. He was, during one year, 1961-1962 at the Freshwater Laboratory of Professor E. Steeman-Nielsen in Copenhagen Denrnark where he learned the techniques of determining phytoplanktonic primary production using

Science and Territory in Brazil: The Brazilian army and the case of the Strategic Telegraph Commission of Mato Grosso to Amazonas (1907-1915)

Durante sus años de actividades, la Strategic Telegraph Commission ganó un lugar en la historia de Brasil por la construcción de su infraestructura de comunicaciones. Compuesta esencialmente por miembros de las fuerzas armadas, la Comisión prestó servicios relacionados con la instalación de líneas telegráficas y la demarcación de las fronteras de Brasil. Sin embargo, se ha prestado poca atención a la investigación científica llevada a cabo durante los viajes entre 1907 y 1915, cuando los participantes en la Comisión adelantaron la exploración científica del territorio brasileño, especialmente su geografía. En este trabajo se muestra cómo estos viajes de exploración hicieron una valiosa contribución a la ciencia brasileña y a las políticas dirigidas a la incorporación política y económica de las zonas del interior de Brasil.

Guest Editorial: Electroanalysis and Electrochemical Biosensors in Brazil

During the last years, Brazil has experienced an impressive growth in many fields. The economy is currently the seventh in the world, with a gross domestic product surpassing US$ 2 trillions. The scientific progress achieved in this period is also noteworthy. At the end of the eighties, Brazilian researchers were authoring less than 0.7 % of the science published worldwide. Nowadays, this share has grown to 2.7 % and the country occupies the 13th position in the rank of the more productive nations in the world. To attain this remarkable growth, the funding from Federal Agencies (CNPq and CAPES) and State Foundations was essential. São Paulo State concentrates simultaneously the most productive group of universities and the strongest State Foundation. For example, in 2010 FAPESP – the São Paulo State Research Foundation – injected some US$ 500 millions in the research institutions of the State of São Paulo, that outputs half of the Brazilian science. The University of São Paulo (USP) alone generates about 25 % of all papers published in Brazil and is constituted by 11 campi – 4 in São Paulo City and 7 in other cities of São Paulo State – congregates almost 55 000 undergraduate students, 12 000 master students, 12 000 PhD and 1200 post-docs. Founded in 1934, USP is the largest university in Brazil and this year, it will reach the expressive number of 100 000 dissertations+theses. Chemistry is responsible for more than 3400 of this total but its contribution in the number of papers published is close to 10 %. Electroanalytical chemistry is a strong branch in chemistry and in less than 60 years experienced a marked growth. The first researcher to work with electroanalysis in the Chemistry Institute of the USP was P. Senise, after returning from a post-doc with P. W. West and P. Delahay (1950–52). The most prolific of his 10 followers, O. E. S. Godinho, J. Lichtig and E. F. A. Neves, supervised dozens of PhDs each, which are widespread around the country. Successive generations are amplifying this numbers and at least 400 scientists have their roots in this school. Many other researchers are active in electroanalysis and/or electrochemistry in Brazil, as reflected by the biannual symposium in this field, started in 1978 and with 540 communications in the 2011 edition. A search for the keyword “voltametr” in the scientific literature reveals that 3.5 % has Brazilian authors (9th position) with 1.3 % belonging to USP, that occupies the 3th position in the world rank of institutions. In the present topical cluster of articles the reader will find a representative sample of the research going on in Brazil. 1 Lúcio Angnes Guest Editor University of São Paulo São Paulo, Brazil

Ranking in collaboration networks using a group based metric

Abstract Collaboration networks are social networks in which relationships represent some kind of professional collaboration. The study of collaboration networks can help identify individuals or groups that are important or influential within a given community. We start this work by characterizing the structural properties of the scientific collaboration network in the area of Computer Science. In particular, we consider the global network (all individuals) and the Brazilian network (individuals affiliated with Brazilian institutions) and establish a direct comparison between them. Our empirical results indicate that despite exhibiting features found in most social networks, these two networks also have some interesting differences. We then present a novel approach to rank individuals within a group in the network (as opposed to ranking all individuals) using solely their relationships. Intuitively, the importance assigned to an individual by our metric is proportional to the intensity of its relationship to the outside of the group. We use the proposed approach and other classical metrics to rank individuals of the Brazilian network and compare the results with the ranking of the Research Fellowship Program of CNPq (an agency of the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology). The direct comparison indicates the effectiveness of the proposed approach in identifying influential researchers, in particular when considering top ranked individuals. We then extend the proposed approach to rank small groups of individuals (as opposed to single individuals). We apply this and other classical metrics to rank graduate programs in Computer Science in Brazil and compare the results with the ranking of graduate programs provided by CAPES (an agency of the Brazilian Ministry of Education). Our results indicate that the proposed method can effectively identify influential groups such as well-established graduate programs in Brazil.

Produção do Conhecimento sobre o Sistema Eletrônico de Editoração de Revistas – SEER no Brasil nos anos de 2003 a 2010

O processo de editoração das produções científicas beneficia-se na contemporaneidade com a editoração eletrônica. Agiliza o processo, reduz custos e divulga mundialmente as publicações científicas das instituições. No Brasil foi disponibilizado pelo Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciências e Tecnologia - IBICT, o Sistema Eletrônico de Editoração de Revistas – SEER cujo propósito é colaborar para a disseminação do conhecimento produzido. O objetivo principal deste estudo é avaliar a produção do conhecimento sobre o SEER no Brasil nos anos de 2003 a 2010, busca investigar, analisar, descrever e apresentar quantitativamente os resultados encontrados. A pesquisa foi realizada nas revistas eletrônicas de Biblioteconomia que utilizam o sistema para disponibilizar suas publicações. A referida plataforma é vista como um gerenciador de publicações científicas faz da tecnologia uma ferramenta para suas propostas, tornando-se valioso para visibilidade das publicações científicas no Brasil.

State of the art of Brazilian ecotoxicology

State of the art of Brazilian ecotoxicology

A teoria e a prática da interdisciplinaridade em Ciência da Informação

A produção do conhecimento científico tem sido realizada por meio de experiências que privilegiam a contribuição de saberes, provenientes de diferentes áreas. O presente artigo tem como finalidade apresentar as principais modalidades de interação que ocorrem na prática da pesquisa científica - multidisciplinaridade, interdisciplinaridade e transdisciplinaridade -, tendo, como referência, a literatura produzida no âmbito da ciência da informação. Pesquisadores contemporâneos de outras áreas contribuem para embasar essas teorias, cuja evolução provocou grandes mudanças nos significados desses termos. A pesquisa completa, da qual este artigo é parte, analisou a produção científica da ciência da informação no Brasil, traçando um perfil da pesquisa na área, relativamente à utilização dessas abordagens, concluindo-se que diferentes formas e níveis de interações são encontrados nas pesquisas desenvolvidas na Ciência da Informação, sendo a multidisciplinaridade a mais comum. Conclui-se, ainda, que a situação terminológica atual requer uma atualização desses conceitos, principalmente no âmbito da Ciência da Informação, para uma maior conscientização das implicações de ser uma ciência contemporânea, que se reconhece interdisciplinar.

Agriculture and biodiversity in the Brazilian social sciences: a possible state-of-the-art scenario

The present article intends to reflect upon what lies in the intersection between two premises: (1) that science, and in particular the social sciences, can contribute towards informing both decision-making and the formulation of public policies aimed at improving human welfare; and (2) that the role of agriculture in the conservation of biodiversity is an extremely relevant contemporary issue, hence the need to study it in greater depth. The relationship between agriculture and biodiversity has been subjected to recent questionings, both in society and in the realm of public policies, as a result of growing concerns about the environmental changes caused by anthropic action. However, despite the increase in the number of studies on family-based agriculture, and on biodiversity in Brazil, the research funding available for researching the relationship between those two broad themes is still incipient. Against this backdrop, we shall pursue two main objectives with this study: (1) to investigate how the role of family-based agriculture in the preservation of biodiversity has been approached by the social sciences in Brazil, with a focus on articles published in Brazilian scientific journals over the last 20 years that are available online; (2) to elaborate an inventory of the knowledge available on this issue in order to test a methodology for a comprehensive literature review to help decision-makers involved with public policies as it is suggested by the evidence-based policy approach.

Brazil aims for its science to have greater impact

After a period of expansion, Brazilian science is shifting emphasis from quantity to quality, with an eye toward reaping benefits for society.

Contributors

Contributors

From the Beginnings: Debates on the History of Science in Brazil

Abstract This article analyzes the ways in which the book Beginnings of Brazilian Science: Oswaldo Cruz, Medical Research and Policy, 1890 – 1920, published by Nancy Leys Stepan in 1976, has been received in the debates on science and the history of science in Brazil. Our purpose is to show how the discussions prompted by Stepan’s book have been directly linked to the emergence of a new historiography of science in that country since the early 1980s, as a professionalized and institutionalized scholarly field. This process has been associated, in turn, with a broader policy debate in Brazil and Spanish America on the particular features of science, and of the history of science, in the so-called developing countries. We also seek to show the extent to which some of the questions posed in The Beginnings of Brazilian Science are still richly relevant to academic and political consideration of the complexity and specificity of the historical and social process of institutionalization of science. Rather than attempt an exhaustive analysis of the readings of Stepan’s work, we will focus on the main areas of historiographic debate, based on the more representative works and authors, especially in the 1980s and 1990s.

Footprints on the Future: Looking Forward to the History of Health and Medicine in Latin America in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract This essay analyzes the current state of the field of history of health and medicine in Latin America and proposes questions and areas for further investigation. Using a variety of databases to identify relevant historiographical sources from across the Americas, the authors focus on a range of subjects that have substantially engaged contemporary historians while opening up still more research avenues. These include the health of diverse populations; new perspectives on religion and on women’s health; the historicizing of health systems, health politics, and social medicine; and the local-global nexus in Latin American health and medicine. These themes both draw from and extend beyond those addressed in pathbreaking works such as Nancy Leys Stepan’s Beginnings of Brazilian Science. Among the most stimulating developments of recent years are the incorporation of interdisciplinary perspectives on historical analysis, and the elucidation of regional patterns of and preoccupations with the interrelations among state, society, and medicine. The proliferation of historical knowledge regarding the health and medical landscape of Latin America has made this one of the most dynamic fields in historical scholarship today. The authors conclude by discussing emerging methodological and theoretical challenges, including Cold War studies and postcolonialism, and by reflecting on the shared scholarly and political responsibilities of Latin Americanists.

Beginnings of Cuban Bacteriology: Juan Santos Fernández, Medical Research, and the Search for Scientific Sovereignty, 1880 – 1920

Abstract The paper reassesses the model of scientific success on the periphery advanced in Nancy Leys Stepan’s analysis of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Beginnings of Brazilian Science by looking at a comparable, though ultimately less successful, bacteriological research facility in Havana Cuba in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Instituto Histobacteriológico y de Vacunación Antirrábica de la Crónica Médico-Quirúrgica de la Habana was a private initiative sustained by wealthy Cuban ophthalmologist Juan Santos Fernández y Hernández. At the center of attempts to establish a creole scientific sovereignty during the late Spanish Empire, the institute brought together a dynamic research team and collaborated with leading international figures in microbiology. The second Cuban War of Independence interrupted the institute’s research momentum and the US occupation government created a new state laboratory facility, displacing the Instituto from its position at the apex of scientific life in the new republic and leading to its demise. No comparable facility capable of undertaking original medical research took its place. The roles of timing and political process are emphasized as key variables in achieving scientific success on the periphery.

Encruzilhadas da participação popular na modernização das políticas públicas: Uma análise do CONSEP em Brumadinho (MG)

This paper analyzes the as a sphere of dialogue between Police and community and, consequently, a new organization of traditionally hierarchical structures through the insertion of the citizen into the management of public policies. The matter of popular participation in public policies emerged as a focus of analysis in Brazilian social sciences, especially after the resignation of city councils, seeking to approximate public policy managers and citizens. In the specific case of public security, the motivation for the engagement of citizens in public policies acquires a more incisive connotation due to the growth of violent crime levels in the country. The present article offers a case study of the Council of Public Security in Brumadinho, a city in the Metropolitan Area of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. This case presents relevant elements for the understading of the complex interaction between social and public actors as well as their implications for the construction of public policies. In this way, it is possible to simultaneously discuss the challenges of popular participation and the new arrangement of the public structures, traditionally responsible for managing public security policies.

37 years of scientific activity in a Biochemistry Department in Brazil: patterns of growth and factors leading to increased productivity

Scientific activity in Brazil has experienced an accelerated growth in the past decades, with an increase in productivity that greatly surpasses the international average. This growth has occurred mostly at the expense of centers of excellence in public universities, which account for the vast majority of the country's scientific output. The aim of this study was to evaluate the production of the Department of Biochemistry of a large public university in southern Brazil (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul), as well as to identify internal and external policies that have influenced this growing production profile. We have performed a historical analysis of the scientific output of this Department of Biochemistry, which accounts for a considerable share of the indexed scientific production at this university. By focusing on the temporal course of its growth and drawing correlations between scientific output and important events in the history of the Department of Biochemistry and of the Brazilian science policies, we concluded that internal factors (as the creation of a postgraduation program, collaboration among researchers, experienced abroad researchers, qualification of faculty members) and external factors (as investments in the postgraduate education, the establishment of national scientific policies, such as financial stimuli for productive researchers and evaluation systems) influence scientific productivity in Brazil.