Fighting or supporting corruption? The role of public sector audit organizations in Brazil

Public sector audit organizations are usually expected to fight corruption. Yet they may also end up being involved in, and contributing to, sustaining corruption. Relying on multiple interviews, this paper sheds new light on the concrete mechanisms through which corruption is sustained by Brazilian regional Courts of Accounts and their members. Our findings show how politico-economic elites’ private interests infiltrate the Courts via the appointment of high-ranked officials and how those officials may resort to a variety of actions to perpetrate forms of selective justice and to weaken the audit findings of these organizations – which ends up strengthening and supporting corruption. Additionally, we provide evidence of collective action emerging to challenge the current situation and reinforce the role Courts could play as watchdogs of the public interest. We contribute to the literature by highlighting the deleterious role of the interface between political and economic interests and the functioning of audit organizations. Moreover, relying on the literature of first- and second-order corruption, we discuss the specific conditions and mechanisms which enable corruption in public audit organizations. Finally, we present practical implications providing alternative views to the status quo

Modelling of interactions of polar and nonpolar pollutants with soil minerals and soil organic matter

Environmental pollution of soils by organic contaminants such as pesticides is one of the serious problems of our civilization. Contaminants can undergo various physical, chemical and biological transformation processes in soils governing behaviour, distribution, and fate of organic species in environment and subsequent environmental risks. Mechanistic understanding of molecular interactions of organic pollutants with main soil components represents a key factor for estimating the behaviour of contaminants in soils. Molecular modelling offers an opportunity to investigate and characterize various details of these interactions at molecular level providing specifications, which are difficult to obtain at the experimental level. This work represents a comprehensive overview of our investigations of the molecular interactions of organic contaminants with selected soil components. Particularly, we focused on the characterization of the structure and the surface complexation of the phenoxyacetic acid derivatives (herbicides MCPA and 2,4-D) and typical soil minerals such as clay minerals (kaolinite and montmorillonite) and iron oxyhydroxides (goethite and lepidocrocite). Further, interactions of several representative nonpolar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (e.g. naphthalene, anthracene, pyrene, and phenanthrene) with iron oxyhydroxides were modelled, as well. It was found that in case of polar species, hydrogen bonds and electrostatic interactions play an important role in the formation of the surface complexes. In case of nonpolar PAHs, dispersion forces dominate in the planar stacking of the PAHs molecules on mineral surfaces. Another study focused at a complex 3D model representing humic substances firstly, featuring polar hydrophilic and nonpolar hydrophobic domains and also a nanopore SOM structure. This model was taken to simulate trapping and interactions of MCPA (polar) and naphthalene (nonpolar) species inside of the nanopore. It was found that MCPA is preferentially stabilized close to polar functional groups (carboxyl) whereas naphthalene interacts mostly with nonpolar aliphatic chains through dispersion interactions

Organic matter content and composition in a sandy loam Amazonian Acrisol as affected by soil management.

The agricultural production in the State of Acre (Brazilian Amazon Southwest) is still very incipient and, so far, none investigation about the effect of soil management systems on organic matter (OM) is reported. The main goal of this work was to investigate the impact of conservation soil management systems after 10 years on the C content and SOM composition in an Acrisol, Acre State

Teor de carbono orgânico e de nitrogênio em Argissolo Amarelo Distrófico sob sistema conservacionista no Juruá, estado do Acre.

Diferentes sistemas agrícolas afetam tanto a entrada como a exportação de carbono (C) em função da produção diferenciada de resíduos, a qual é dependente do número de cultivos anuais, das espécies vegetais, da adubação, do preparo e manejo do solo, entre outros. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito de sistemas de preparo conservacionistas em solo de textura média nos teores de C e nitrogênio (N) do solo. O experimento foi instalado em um Argissolo Amarelo distrófico, Mâncio Lima, Acre, em 2006. O delineamento experimental consistiu em parcelas subdivididas em blocos (40 m x 50 m) ao acaso, com três repetições, localizando-se o preparo convencional (PC) e o plantio direto (PD) nas parcelas principais (20 m x 50 m), e nas subparcelas (10 m x 20 m) foram estabelecidos os tratamentos T (testemunha), M (mucunapreta) e MPC (mucuna-preta+ fósforo+ calcário dolomítico). A cobertura utilizada desde o início do experimento é a mucuna-preta (Mucuna aterrima). Os teores de C e de N e a relação C/N não diferiram entre os tratamentos e entre os sistemas de manejo, em nível de 5%. Em oposição ao usualmente observado em solos subtropicais, o manejo conservacionista e a correção da acidez do solo não afetaram o teor de C após 10 anos

Renewal processes and fluctuation analysis of molecular motor stepping

We model the dynamics of a processive or rotary molecular motor using a renewal processes, in line with the work initiated by Svoboda, Mitra and Block. We apply a functional technique to compute different types of multiple-time correlation functions of the renewal process, which have applications to bead-assay experiments performed both with processive molecular motors, such as myosin V and kinesin, and rotary motors, such as F1-ATPase

Convergence calls: multimedia storytelling at British news websites

This article uses qualitative interviews with senior editors and managers from a selection of the UK's national online news providers to describe and analyse their current experimentation with multimedia and video storytelling. The results show that, in a period of declining newspaper readership and TV news viewing, editors are keen to embrace new technologies, which are seen as being part of the future of news. At the same time, text is still reported to be the cornerstone for news websites, leading to changes in the grammar and function of news video when used online. The economic rationale for convergence is examined and the article investigates the partnerships sites have entered into in order to be able to serve their audience with video content. In-house video is complementing syndicated content, and the authors examine the resulting developments in newsroom training and recruitment practices. The article provides journalism and interactive media scholars with case studies on the changes taking place in newsrooms as a result of the shift towards multimedia, multiplatform news consumption

Competency Requirements of Tourism Employees in Selected Establishments in Tourism Travel Distribution Sector, Airline Sector and Accommodation Sector

This study investigated the gap between the competency requirements that the Tourism industry imposes among its employees, and the actual training and instruction given by HEIs, in the face of job mismatch cases in the field. The research covered the profile variables of the respondents in terms of sex, age, highest educational attainment, position in the company, years in the service, and most importantly the respective skills required by each of the sectors involved. Among the things that generated curiosity of the researchers were: (a) whether or not the graduates are trained in line with the industry requirement, (b) whether there is a common set of competencies that would surface, (c) and the possibility of revealing sector specific competencies across the three select sectors. Questionnaires were distributed among 15 purposively chosen full scale establishments tourism with 5 participants for every sector. Results revealed that there is a significant difference in competency requirements when grouped according to sector. The research also identified sector-specific competencies and highlighted the employer‘s preference to communication skills. The outcome of this study may shed useful insights on HEI instruction in producing competitive graduates who may hopefully give significant contributions to the industry

Organic matter as affected by conservation agriculture of cassava and maize cultivation in an acrisol from Southwestern Brazilian Amazon.

In the Brazilian Southwestern Amazon, food security agriculture predominates in smallholder farms where cassava cultivation is conducted under conventional tillage (CT). We investigated the impact of conservation agriculture on soil C content and organic matter (SOM) composition in an Acrisol (Acre State) cropped with cassava and maize.Editores: Rafael Silvaro; Marie Luise Carolina Bartz

Seleção intra-populacional em bucha vegetal.

Suplemento. Edição dos Anais do 52 Congresso Brasileiro de Olericultura, Salvador, jul. 201

Levantamento e registro de variedades locais da Comunidade Vereda do Mari em Sento Sé - BA.

O objetivo desse trabalho foi realizar o registro da agrobiodiversidade na Comunidade Vereda do Mari (Sento Sé-BA), reconhecendo as espécies no manejo tradicional conservadas nesta comunidade. A metodologia consistiu na aplicação de um questionário com os agricultores familiares e de ferramentas participativas. Foi registrada a existência de 25 guardiões com 194 variedades locais conservadas pelo menos há 10 anos. Constatou-se que 76,8% das sementes tiveram como origem os parentes, amigos ou vizinhos e que as principais utilizações são para alimentação da família e de animais. Com essa troca é possível manter essas sementes por mais gerações sem comprometer a sua originalidade