“Es mejor ser pobre aquí”: procesos de toma de decisiones sobre migración y consideraciones políticas y de estilo de vida entre brasileños calificados en Portugal

This article looks at the migration of qualified Brazilians to Portugal, with reference to the impact of political developments in Brazil on migration decision-making processes and their lifestyle aspirations in the host society. Original fieldwork consists of twenty in-depth interviews conducted with qualified Brazilians in the Lisbon area during 2019. These interviews illustrate how political and economic instability in Brazil contributed to establishing a strong migration imperative. In this scenario, Portugal is chosen as a destination due to its perceived social stability and emergence as a fashionable destination for skilled workers, with the promise of a “cosmopolitan” life. In conclusion, we emphasise the need to consider how political conditions in a sending society and lifestyle considerations interact in the migration decision-making of skilled migrants. This approach confronts assumptions that serve to disguise the precariousness of many Brazilian migrants in Portugal due to their relatively high skill levels and raising long-term concerns regarding the sustainability of lifestyle-oriented migration.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

South-South education relations

While scholarly interest in South–South cooperation (SSC) has substantially grown over the past decade, South–South education relations have received only scant attention in the Anglophone academic literatures on SSC, international development and international and comparative education. This chapter adopts an historical and global approach to this topic in an effort to contribute to closing this research gap. The chapter unfolds as follows: the first section introduces the concepts of ‘the South’ and ‘South–South cooperation’, counter-posed with practices of ‘triangular collaboration’ and ‘best practice transfer’. On this basis, the second section conducts a critical review of existing South–South education cooperation literatures. Framed by these discussions, two case studies of contemporary South–South education relations are presented: the ¡Yo, Sí Puedo! (Sure, I Can!) global literacy campaign promoted by the governments of the Republic of Cuba and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; and the education cooperation agenda of the so-called BRICS. The conclusion resumes the question of whether South–South education cooperation simply represents ‘best practice transfer’ or Third World solidarity for global transformation, while proposals for a future research agenda are developed.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

A sunny future: expert elicitation of China's solar photovoltaic technologies

China has emerged as the global manufacturing center for solar photovoltaic (PV) products. Chinese firms have entered all stages of the supply chain, producing most of the installed solar modules around the world. Meanwhile, production costs are at record lows. The decisions that Chinese solar producers make today will influence the path for the solar industry and its role towards de-carbonization of global energy systems in the years to come. However, to date, there have been no assessments of the future costs and efficiency of solar PV systems produced by the Chinese PV industry. We perform an expert elicitation to assess the technological and non-technological factors that led to the success of China's silicon PV industry as well as likely future costs and performance. Experts evaluated key metrics such as efficiency, costs, and commercial viability of 17 silicon and non-silicon solar PV technologies by 2030. Silicon-based technologies will continue to be the mainstream product for large-scale electricity generation application in the near future, with module efficiency reaching as high as 23% and production cost as low as $0.24/W. The levelized cost of electricity for solar will be around$34/MWh, allowing solar PV to be competitive with traditional energy resources like coal. The industry's future developments may be affected by overinvestment, overcapacity, and singular short-term focus.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Machine Learning Tool for Interpreting Differences in Cognition Using Brain Features

Predicting variability in cognition traits is an attractive and challenging area of research, where different approaches and datasets have been implemented with mixed results. Some powerful Machine Learning algorithms employed before are difficult to interpret, while other algorithms are easy to interpret but might not be as powerful. To improve understanding of individual cognitive differences in humans, we make use of the most recent developments in Machine Learning in which powerful prediction models can be interpreted with confidence. We used neuroimaging data and a variety of behavioural, cognitive, affective and health measures from 905 people obtained from the Human Connectome Project (HCP). As a main contribution of this paper, we show how one could interpret the neuroanatomical basis of cognition, with recent methods which we believe are not yet fully explored in the field. By reducing neuroimages to a well characterised set of features generated from surface-based morphometry and cortical myelin estimates, we make the interpretation of such models easier as each feature is self-explanatory. The code used in this tool is available in a public repository: https://github.com/tjiagoM/interpreting-cognition-paper-2019

Lisbon, the Portuguese Erasmus city? Mis-match between representation in urban policies and international student experiences

This article looks at the mis-match between official discursive representations aimed at promoting Lisbon, the Portuguese capital city, as an international student hub and international students’ experiences. At a theoretical level, our work builds on the idea that re-branding a city’s image in terms of creativity, innovation and new technologies with a view to attract international students can foster less positive urban changes linked to gentrification, pushing overseas students away rather than attracting greater numbers. Discussion includes consideration of the success of policies at the municipal level that have aimed to use international students as a means to re-brand the city as a center for creativity and innovation, a part of the wider strategy of putting Lisbon on the map as a global learning destination. Analysis includes assessment of publicity materials advertising the city’s appeal to international students, juxtaposed with findings from interviews conducted with incoming students at the city’s universities during 2020. This material illustrates some of the most prominent contradictions, and arguably, a number of shortcomings, in the city’s imagological strategy, particularly in regard to concerns with Lisbon’s housing market.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

China's wind industry: leading in deployment, lagging in innovation

China's massive carbon emissions and air pollution concerns have led its government to embrace clean energy innovation as a means of transitioning to a more sustainable energy system. We address the question of whether China's wind industry has become an important source of clean energy technology innovation. We find that in terms of wind capacity expansion, China has delivered enormous progress, increasing its wind capacity from virtually no wind capacity in the early 2000s to 140 GW by 2015. However, in terms of innovation and cost competitiveness, the outcomes were more limited: Chinese wind turbine manufacturers have secured few international patents and achieved moderate learning rates compared to the global industry's historical learning rate. Leading China-based indigenous producers are likely to remain important global players for the foreseeable future, but further progress in reducing the cost of capital equipment may slow relative to the recent past. However, opportunities in lowering curtailment rates and improving turbine quality can reduce China's overall levelized cost of electricity for wind.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio