A new suspected paedomorphic genus of net-winged beetles from the Atlantic Rainforest (Coleoptera, Elateroidea, Lycidae)

Lycidae are among the better studied groups in the superfamily Elateroidea, however despite the progress in the taxonomic understanding of the Neotropical fauna, much still remains unknown and undescribed in the region. The description of the new genus Xenolycus gen. nov., from Serra dos Órgãos, a subrange of the Serra do Mar mountain range, in the Atlantic Rainforest in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, contributes to the knowledge of the Neotropical Lycidae fauna. The new genus can be distinguished from all other known Calopterini and Neotropical Lycidae by the combination of a pronotum with a wide, deep and strongly visible longitudinal cell in the disc area, the filiform antennae, the dehiscent elytra with reticulation strongly reduced and bearing only two weakly developed elytral costae and the mouthparts partially reduced, with rudimentary, barely visible mandibles. The type species, Xenolycus costae sp. nov., is illustrated and diagnostic characters and a discussion on the tribal placement of the new genus are provided

USINAS DE BIODIESEL E FALHAS NO MERCADO DE LEILÕES

O trabalho tem por objetivo descrever e analisar as falhas de mercado no sistema de produção agroindustrial do biodiesel constituído por todos os participantes envolvidos na produção da matéria-prima agrícola, no processamento e na distribuição do produto. Incluem o suprimento dos produtores de matéria-prima, os produtores de matérias-primas, operações de estocagens, processamento, atacado e varejo. Incluem as instituições que afetam e coordenam os estágios sucessivos do fluxo do produto, tais como governo, associações e mercado de leilões. As relações contratuais são apontadas como importantes mecanismos de coordenação nos sistemas de mercadorias. No caso do sistema de produção do biodiesel brasileiro, o mecanismo de coordenação observado é o mercado de leilões, que estabelece a quase-integração mediante contratos entre as usinas e os distribuidores. O mercado de leilões de biodiesel é o mercado em que os produtos das usinas são vendidos e comprados por meio de processos formais de licitação. Esse mecanismo de coordenação tem apresentado as mesmas características dos mercados com problemas de informações assimétricas. Nessa situação, o comprador e o vendedor possuem informações diferentes sobre uma transação. Tendo como conseqüência a ineficiência de mercado. Uma forma de falha de mercado decorrente de informações assimétricas observado no mercado de leilões de biodiesel tem sido a seleção adversa e o risco moral. Isto significa que contratos que foram firmados com usinas de biodiesel que participaram de processos de licitações não estão sendo honrados de forma generalizada.--------------------------------------------------The present study aims at describing and analyzing the biodiesel agroindustrial productive chain built up with all components involved in the production, processing and the good marketing. It includes the supplying of the raw-material producers, stocking operations, processing system, the whole and retail market of the product. Institutions that affect and coordinate the successive stages of the product flow such as government, associations and the auctions market are also included. Contractual relations are referred to important coordination structures in the commodity system. In the particular case of the Brazilian biodiesel, the structure of coordination that is observed is the auctions market. Auctions are that marketplace in which the products are bought and sold through formal processes of licitation. Such mechanism presents the same characteristics of the markets with unequal information. In such situation, the buyer and the seller have different information about a transaction; as a result, there is a deviation in the market efficiency level. A kind of a market failure which results from unequal information seen in the auctions market has been the adverse selection. It means that contracts had been signed with biodiesel plants which took part in the licitation processes are not being fulfilled.Biodiesel, cadeia produtiva, mecanismo de coordenação e falhas de mercado, Biodiesel, productive chain, coordination structure and market failures, Agribusiness, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Ecological fiscal transfers for biodiversity conservation policy: a transaction costs analysis of Minas Gerais, Brazil

This paper addresses the influence of ecological fiscal transfers (EFT) on the policy-making process of adopting local protected areas (PA) by municipal governments. Framed on the transaction-cost politics (TCP), it argues that an EFT schema designed at the state level may affect the expected payoff/costs of local level decisions and the time length to create PA. The mixed research design is composed of two parts: first, a descriptive analysis detailing the evolution of EFT in the state of Minas Gerais since the beginning until its current version; second, an event history analysis of municipal PA adoption from 1966 to 2013. The conclusion suggests that, while there is an overall increase in municipal PA after the introduction of EFT, some design aspects of the instrument such as uncertainty and monitoring costs slowed and flattened that increase.This work was conducted during a scholarship financed by CAPES (Brazilian Federal Agency). Process number: 000954/2015-02. Also, this study was conducted at Research Center in Political Science (UID/ CPO/0758/2019), University of Minho, and was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds

The adoption of ecological fiscal transfers: an empirical analysis

The ecological fiscal transfers (EFT) from states to municipalities were adopted by 16 of the 26 Brazilian states since 1990s to stimulate and compensate districts for achieving some environmental goals. This study aims to understand the adoption of this economic-policy instrument by Brazilian states and argues that the vertical relations between the federal and state governments increase the EFT adoption. The hypotheses are derived from the transaction-costs politics and the institutional collective action frameworks, namely built in legislative decision-making costs and commitment costs, and are empirically tested using event history analysis for the period of 1990–2015. The conclusions point to the idea that the adoption rate increases in non-electoral years, suggesting that politicians tend to avoid conflicts during electoral years. They tend to minimize the costs related to the legislative decision-making process. Also, the coordination of the central government has the potential for facilitating the adoption of EFT. More broadly, the transaction cost-politics framework and the institutional collective action framework can explain EFT adoption partially.This work was conducted during a scholarship financed by CAPES (Brazilian Federal Agency). Process number: 000954/2015-02. Research Center in Political Science of the University of Minho and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds (UID/CPO/00758/2013). Special acknowledgment is due to Dr. Irene Ring, received Felipe Paulo in her research group in July 2017. She introduced him to the literature of policy mix and ecological fiscal transfers (EFT). Many thanks also to Nils Droste for providing part of his database. Naturally, all possible shortcomings in this paper are the responsibility of the authors

An analysis of delay in implementing ecological fiscal transfers in Brazil

This paper sheds light on the cases of delay, in some cases interruptions and cancellations of criteria, that followed the adoption of ecological fiscal transfers (EFT) by Brazilian states. Using the transaction costs-politics framework to analyze the policy-making process, the central argument is that state legislatives are likely to weight benefits and costs at the formulation stage. At the implementation stage, legislatives delegate the role of refining EFT procedures to state agencies and, as such, increase the costs they incur. The empirical design is based on a set of case-studies, collecting data using questionnaires devised to describe the time-lags and the interruptions and cancellations of environmental criteria. The findings provide evidence of the presence of gridlocks in the formulation stage and delegation problems in the political-bureaucratic relationship at the implementation stage. Also, the absence of a gradual increase to implement the percentage dedicated to ecological criteria in each state is likely to explain the delays in the implementation of EFT schemes. In the end, we recommend flexibility in the design of scheme and the involvement of political actors in the policy process of adopting EFT.This work was conducted during a scholarship financed by CAPES (Brazilian Federal Agency). Process number: 000954/2015–02. Also, this study was conducted at Research Center in Political Science (UID/CPO/0758/2019), University of Minho, and was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds

Dataset on ecological fiscal transfers and municipal protected areas in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil

This dataset was collected in the state government of Minas Gerais, Brazil (Instituto Estadual de Florestas), regulatory deliberation 86/2005 of the state of Minas Gerais, law 12040/1995 of the state of Minas Gerais, law 18030/2009 of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazilian law 9985/2000, and some laws/decrees that created municipal protected areas. The data was used to analyze the influence of the ecological fiscal transfers (EFT) in the policy-making process of adopting protected areas by municipal governments in the state of Minas Gerais. It has the potential to be reused in other studies to analyze the EFT at the local level. The related research article that uses this database was published under the title “Ecological Fiscal Transfers for Biodiversity Conservation Policy: A Transaction Costs Analysis of Minas Gerais, Brazil”.This work was conducted during a scholarship financed by CAPES (Brazilian Federal Agency). Process number: 000954/2015-02. Also, this study was conducted at Research Center in Political Sci ence (UID/CPO/0758/2019), University of Minho, and was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds

Sistema Integrado de Controle do Câncer: Perspectiva de Organização da Assistência Hospitalar em Câncer

Trabalho apresentado no Simpósio III: “Apoio Diagnóstico e Terapêutico às Atividades de Detecção Precoce na Rede Básica" e publicado nos anais do Seminário Nacional sobre Controle do Câncer Cérvico-Uterino e de Mama", realizado entre 29 e 31 de janeiro de 1985, no Instituto Nacional de Câncer, promovido pela CNCC/INCA, PAISM e Organização Panamericana da Saúde (OPAS)

Evaluation of the primary care attributes in Rio de Janeiro

Telemedicin