Medida Provisória 881: The Empowerment Of Brazilian Entrepreneurship and The Hope For Less Bureaucracy In Business

With the assumption of Jair Bolsonaro to the Presidency of Brazil the new president is looking to overhaul key com-ponents of the economy. Influenced by conservative thinker Olavo de Carvalho and supported by a team of like-minded free-market aficionados such as Paulo Guedes and Paulo Uebel, President Bolsonaro has issued an executive medida provisória to stimulate business development in Brazil by eliminating costs and bureaucracy for Brazilian businesses. The Medida Provisória 881 is already being considered a hallmark of legislation that is quintessential for the economy and the nation. This historic bill is often referred to as an “economic bill of rights”

As Long As It Can: Uruguayan Resilience in times of COVID-19

Uruguay has a developed public health infrastructure which has given them a distinct advantage in pandemic re-sponse effectiveness. Uruguay is experiencing a COVID mortality rate that is significantly lower than the Latin Ameri-can average; businesses reopened in June, 2020. This is a result of a long time commitment to mutual trust between the populace and the government. Even though through the beginning of 2021, there has been an uptick in COVID cases Uruguay has managed to curtail the pandemic once more at the time of this publication in September, 2021. This paper focuses on the historical context that has enabled this collective national trust, which has become paramount to combat-ing the COVID pandemic, along with the success of the domestic market, and the opportunity the nation has to diversify exports. Finally, we emphasize the ability of President LaCalle's Administration to strike international agreements in accordance with Mercosur procedures to accommodate foreign investors seeking to invest in Uruguay

The Suspension of Venezuela from Mercosur: Economic and Political Impacts for Brazil

Venezuela's entry into Mercosur (the Common Market of the South) in 2012 represented an opportunity for a nexusbetween the Amazon Basin, the River Plate Basin and between the different cooperation projects that exist among them.This movement could, therefore, serve as an impetus for regional development through economic, political, energy andsecurity integration. However, in 2017 the Andean country was suspended from the bloc. This paper aims to identify themain economic and political impacts of this suspension for Brazil. A causal hypothesis testing methodology is used throughprimary data collection and a specialized literature review is also done to answer: what are the economic and politicalimpacts, for Brazil, of Venezuela's suspension from Mercosur? The hypothesis is that Venezuela's suspension from Mercosurhas deteriorated bilateral trade with Brazil; the possibility of economic integration between the northern and southernregions of the continent and consequently, stability and regional development. The hypothesis has only been partiallyproven. The negative effects mentioned were detected during the period under review. However, the Andean country hadnot carried out its economic and political integration when it was suspended from the bloc. Thus, its suspension was notthe cause of these problems, but only an aggravating element of these economic and political impacts that mostly arisefrom its internal political and economic crisis and the posture of Brazilian alignment with other countries, to the detrimentof autonomous regional development. In other words, Venezuela's suspension of Mercosur was configured as an interveningvariable in the impacts analyzed

Persones grans institucionalitzades a Catalunya : quantes són i com són?

La població més gran de seixanta-cinc anys institucionalitzada a Catalunya és un col·lectiu en augment constant, tant per les millores en termes de supervivència com per l'expansió de la institucionalització en les darreres dècades. Tot i que en termes relatius el 2011 només comprèn el 4 % de la població de seixanta-cinc anys o més, la seva prevalença augmenta de manera molt important a partir de l'edat de vuitanta anys. Cal conèixer la composició d'aquesta població per a corregir els biaixos que representa el fet que quedi sistemàticament fora d'observació en les enquestes adreçades a llars privades que s'utilitzen en les anàlisis sociològiques. Utilitzem dades per a Catalunya de les quatre darreres edicions censals (1981, 1991,2001 i 2011) amb el doble objectiu de quantificar la població de seixanta-cinc anys o més que no viu a llars privades i d'estudiar-ne l'evolució en les tres darreres dècades. L'estudi es complementa amb l'anàlisi de l'Enquesta de salut a la població institucionalitzada de Catalunya (ESPI, 2006) amb la finalitat de caracteritzar el perfil de la població que viu a centres assistencials. Es tracta d'una població molt femenina i envellida però que no és homogènia. El perfil majoritari respon al de dona vídua més gran de vuitanta anys, de baix nivell educatiu i d'ingressos, que prèviament vivia sola, que té problemes de dependència funcional o de salut mental i que declara haver-hi ingressat per problemes de salut o autonomia. No obstant això, l'article identifica altres grups força diferenciats. Els resultats revelen la importància no només del deteriorament de la salut en el procés d'institucionalització, sinó també de la presència o absència d'una xarxa familiar que esdevé un recurs important a l'hora d'afrontar el procés d'envelliment al domicili, sigui per necessitat d'assistència o cura, o per la companyia i el benestar personal que pot proporcionar

Books that are noteworthy

Garvey, John H., "The Virtues" 2022. ISBN 9780813236223. Catholic University Press Faculty Books. 143p. Andreas Widmer,“The Art of Principled Entrepreneurship”2022, Matt Holt, 248p. Arnaldo Madureira , Salazar E A II Guerra Mundial: O difícil equilíbrio do Estado Novo entre os Aliados e os nazis

Executive Decrees: The American Executive Order and the Brazilian Medida Provisória (Provisional Measure), A Comparative Analysis

The evolution of how the Executive branch of both Brazil and the United States issue Executive decrees has changed over time.  American Presidents have consistently increased the number of executive orders issued over the course of the last 50 years. The Brazilian Executive has also seen a resurgence in the government's power to conduct Legislative deliberation. This paper aims to compare and contrast both the medida provisória issued by Brazilian Presidents and the executive order issued by U.S. Presidents through a historic and analytical lens. 

Institutionalised elderly people in Catalonia: How many are they and how are they?

The institutionalised population aged 65 and over in Catalonia has been on the constant upswing in recent decades because of both improved survival and the expansion of institutionalisation. Although in relative terms it only comprised 4% of population aged 65 and over in 2011, its prevalence increases dramatically beyond age 80. Because this population is systematically not taken into account in surveys addressed to the population living in households, nor is it used in sociological analyses, it is essential to ascertain its composition in order to correct biases. We use data for Catalonia from the last four editions of the census (1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011) with a twofold objective: to quantify the population aged 65 or older not living in private households in Catalonia and to study its evolution during the last three decades. To complement this data, we analyse the Health Survey of the Institutionalized Population in Catalonia (ESPI, 2006) with the aim of developing a profile of the population living in residential care facilities. People living in institutions cannot be considered homogeneous, although there is a high presence of very old women. A large share of them fits the profile of widows over the age of 80, with low education and income levels, who previously lived alone and are dependent for functional activity or have deteriorated mental health, and who state that they entered the institution because of issues related to health or autonomy. However, a cluster analysis has identified other groups that show quite different situations. These results reveal the importance not only of deteriorating health in the process of institutionalisation but also the presence or absence of a family network, which is an important resource in dealing with the ageing process at home, because of either the need for assistance or the company and wellbeing it can provide

Insulin receptor-mediated nutritional signalling regulates juvenile hormone biosynthesis and vitellogenin production in the German cockroach

Female reproductive processes, which comprise, amongst others, the synthesis of yolk proteins and the endocrine mechanisms which regulate this synthesis, need a considerable amount of energy and resources. The role of communicating that the required nutritional status has been attained is carried out by nutritional signalling pathways and, in particular, by the insulin receptor (InR) pathway. In the present study, using the German cockroach, Blattella germanica, as a model, we analysed the role of InR in different processes, but mainly those related to juvenile hormone (JH) synthesis and vitellogenin production. We first cloned the InR cDNA from B.germanica (BgInR) and then determined that its expression levels were constant in corpora allata and fat body during the first female gonadotrophic cycle. Results showed that the observed increase in BgInR mRNA in fat body from starved compared to fed females was abolished in those females treated with systemic RNAi invivo against the transcription factor BgFoxO. RNAi-mediated BgInR knockdown during the final two nymphal stages produced significant delays in the moults, together with smaller adult females which could not spread the fore- and hindwings properly. In addition, BgInR knockdown led to a severe inhibition of juvenile hormone synthesis in adult female corpora allata, with a concomitant reduction of mRNA levels corresponding to 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) synthase-1, HMG-CoA synthase-2, HMG-CoA reductase and methyl farnesoate epoxidase. BgInR RNAi treatment also reduced fat body vitellogenin mRNA and oocyte growth. Our results show that BgInR knockdown produces similar phenotypes to those obtained in starved females in terms of corpora allata activity and vitellogenin synthesis, and indicate that the InR pathway mediates the activation of JH biosynthesis and vitellogenin production elicited by nutrition signalling. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.This work was supported by grants BFU2006-01090/BFI (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) and FEDER) and BFU2010-15906/BFI (MICINN) to J.L.M. M.A. and S. S.-C. are recipients of a pre-doctoral fellowship (MICINN) and a post-doctoral contract (CSIC, JAE program co-funded by the European Social Fund), respectively.Peer Reviewe

Core cracking and hydrothermal circulation can profoundly affect Ceres' geophysical evolution

Observations and models of Ceres suggest that its evolution was shaped by interactions between liquid water and silicate rock. Hydrothermal processes in a heated core require both fractured rock and liquid. Using a new core cracking model coupled to a thermal evolution code, we find volumes of fractured rock always large enough for significant interaction to occur. Therefore, liquid persistence is key. It is favored by antifreezes such as ammonia, by silicate dehydration which releases liquid, and by hydrothermal circulation itself, which enhances heat transport into the hydrosphere. The effect of heating from silicate hydration seems minor. Hydrothermal circulation can profoundly affect Ceres' evolution: it prevents core dehydration via “temperature resets,” core cooling events lasting ∼50 Myr during which Ceres' interior temperature profile becomes very shallow and its hydrosphere is largely liquid. Whether Ceres has experienced such extensive hydrothermalism may be determined through examination of its present-day structure. A large, fully hydrated core (radius 420 km) would suggest that extensive hydrothermal circulation prevented core dehydration. A small, dry core (radius 350 km) suggests early dehydration from short-lived radionuclides, with shallow hydrothermalism at best. Intermediate structures with a partially dehydrated core seem ambiguous, compatible both with late partial dehydration without hydrothermal circulation, and with early dehydration with extensive hydrothermal circulation. Thus, gravity measurements by the Dawn orbiter, whose arrival at Ceres is imminent, could help discriminate between scenarios for Ceres' evolution