Managing migration: the Brazilian case

The objective of this paper is to present the Brazilian migration experience and its relationship with migration management. The article is divided into three parts. First, it reviews some basic facts regarding Brazilian immigration and emigration processes. Second, it focuses on some policy and legal issues related to migration. Finally, it addresses five issues regarding migration management in Brazil.international migration, immigration, emigration, migration management, migration policies, migration laws, Brazil

A1A_1 theory of weights for rough homogeneous singular integrals and commutators

Quantitative $A_1-A_\infty$ estimates for rough homogeneous singular integrals $T_{\Omega}$ and commutators of $BMO$ symbols and $T_{\Omega}$ are obtained. In particular the following estimates are proved: % $$\|T_\Omega \|_{L^p(w)}\le c_{n,p}\|\Omega\|_{L^\infty} [w]_{A_1}^{\frac{1}{p}}\,[w]_{A_{\infty}}^{1+\frac{1}{p'}}\|f\|_{L^p(w)}$$ % and % $$\| [b,T_{\Omega}]f\|_{L^{p}(w)}\leq c_{n,p}\|b\|_{BMO}\|\Omega\|_{L^{\infty}} [w]_{A_1}^{\frac{1}{p}}[w]_{A_{\infty}}^{2+\frac{1}{p'}}\|f\|_{L^{p}\left(w\right)},$$ % for $1<p<\infty$ and $1/p+1/p'=1$.Comment: 19 page

Sequential sampling of junction trees for decomposable graphs

The junction-tree representation provides an attractive structural property for organizing a decomposable graph. In this study, we present a novel stochastic algorithm, which we call the junction-tree expander, for sequential sampling of junction trees for decomposable graphs. We show that recursive application of the junction-tree expander, expanding incrementally the underlying graph with one vertex at a time, has full support on the space of junction trees with any given number of underlying vertices. A direct application of our suggested algorithm is demonstrated in a sequential Monte Carlo setting designed for sampling from distributions on spaces of decomposable graphs, where the junction-tree expander can be effectively employed as proposal kernel; see the companion paper Olsson et al. 2019 [16]. A numerical study illustrates the utility of our approach by two examples: in the first one, how the junction-tree expander can be incorporated successfully into a particle Gibbs sampler for Bayesian structure learning in decomposable graphical models; in the second one, we provide an unbiased estimator of the number of decomposable graphs for a given number of vertices. All the methods proposed in the paper are implemented in the Python library trilearn.Comment: 31 pages, 7 figure

Functional Analysis of MicroRNA Pathway Genes in the Somatic Gonad and Germ Cells During Ovulation in \u3cem\u3eC. Elegans\u3c/em\u3e

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression that play critical roles in animal development and physiology, though functions for most miRNAs remain unknown. Worms with reduced miRNA biogenesis due to loss of Drosha or Pasha/DGCR8 activity are sterile and fail to ovulate, indicating that miRNAs are required for the process of oocyte maturation and ovulation. Starting with this penetrant sterile phenotype and using new strains created to perform tissue specific RNAi, we characterized the roles of the C. elegans Pasha, pash-1, and two miRNA-specific Argonautes, alg-1 and alg-2, in somatic gonad cells and in germ cells in the regulation of ovulation. Conditional loss of pash-1activity resulted in a reduced rate of ovulation and in basal and ovulatory sheath contractions. Similarly, knockdown of miRNA-specific Argonautes in the cells of the somatic gonad by tissue-specific RNAi results in a reduction of the ovulation rate and in basal and ovulatory sheath contractions. Reduced miRNA pathway gene activity resulted in a range of defects, including oocytes that were pinched upon entry of the oocyte into the distal end of the spermatheca in about 42% of the ovulation events observed following alg-1 RNAi. This phenotype was not observed on worms exposed to control RNAi. In contrast, knockdown of alg-1 and alg-2 in germ cells results in few defects in oocyte maturation and ovulation. These data identify specific steps in the process of ovulation that require miRNA pathway gene activity in the somatic gonad cells

Addressing Problems in Evaluating Health-Relevant Programs through Systematic Planning and Evaluation

The authors argue that inconsistent terminology is often a hindrance in assessing health program implementation, effectiveness and efficiency. Attending closely to this, they propose a model scheme for conducting such evaluations