Brazil’s presidential system is characterized by the existence of many political parties that are elected for the Chamber of Deputies and unite in legislative coalitions to form a majority. Since the re-democratization in 1985, Brazil has had 8 direct presidential elections, among which there were two impeachments of the elected presidents. In this work we identify clear differences between stable presidential periods and Legislative terms with an impeachment by analyzing the votes that took place in the Chamber of Deputies from 1991 to 2019. Our statistical analysis are blind to the content of the bills. We start by measuring the cohesion of the parties and the congress for each bill. We then quantify the agreement between the votes of congressmen and observe that there is a stronger polarization among congressmen during legislative periods where there was no impeachment, referred here as stable legislative periods. Using clustering algorithms, we are able to associate these polarized groups observed during the stable periods with the opposition to the government and government base. For periods with an impeachment, the data shows that the congress split up in more than two groups. To characterize the impeachment of Collor and Dilma Rousseff (in 1992 and 2016, respectively) we analyze how the agreement between congressmen and the government evolved over time and we also propose a division of the congressmen in three groups. We identified that, in periods with an impeachment, the third group aligns itself against the president.

Enativismo é a família de teorias que interpretam a ação como constitutiva da cognição e que rejeitam a necessidade de postular representações para explicar todas as atividades cognitivas. O reconhecimento de um modo biologicamente básico e não representacional de cognição, no entanto, levanta a questão sobre como explicar atos cognitivos superiores ou complexos, o que chamamos de desafio de integração explanatória. Neste artigo, examinamos criticamente algumas tentativas de atender a esse desafio através do escalonamento ascendente (scale up) da cognição básica e do escalonamento descendente (scale down) da cognição complexa dentro do programa de pesquisa enativista.

The aim of this study was to determine the occurrence of gingivitis and calculus and their predictors in a population of adults in Brazil. A representative sample of 758 adults from 35 to 59 years of age from Porto Alegre city was examined. A structured questionnaire was applied. The Gingival Bleeding Index and the presence of calculus were measured at 4 sites/tooth. Multivariable logistic models were fitted to determine the predictors for gingival bleeding at >20% of sites. Overall, 96.5% (95% confidence interval [CI]=95.1-98.0) of individuals had >/= 1 bleeding site. The mean percentages of sites with gingivitis and calculus were 26.1% and 44.6%, respectively. The odds of gingivitis decreased by approximately 45% for individuals >/=40 years old compared to younger adults. Individuals that never performed interproximal cleaning and non-whites had an approximately two times higher chance of gingivitis. Smokers had lower chances of gingivitis than never-smokers (odds ratio=0.40; 95% CI=0.24-0.68). Higher numbers of missing teeth were associated with higher chances of gingivitis. The percentage of calculus was significantly associated with skin color, education, proximal cleaning, smoking exposure, dental visits, and tooth loss. It can be concluded that the occurrence of gingivitis and calculus was high in this Brazilian population, and it was associated with age, skin color, education, self-reported proximal cleaning, smoking, dental care, and tooth loss.

This is a critical commentary on Pritchard's book Epistemic Angst. In Section 2, I present the closure-based radical skeptical paradox. Then in Section 3, I sketch Pritchard’s undercutting response to this paradox. Finally, in Section 4, I put forward two concerns about Pritchard’s response and I also propose a reading of hinge commitments, the ability reading, that might put some pressure on Pritchard’s own reading of these commitments.

BACKGROUND: High prevalence rates of peri-implant diseases have been reported; however, the lack of standardization of definition criteria has lead to variations in the observed estimates. In addition, scarce data are available concerning patient and implant related factors associated to peri-implantitis. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of peri-implant diseases and their risk indicators at the patient and implant levels. METHODS: One hundred forty-seven patients with 490 dental implants were included. Dental implants were clinically and radiographically evaluated to determine their peri-implant conditions. Patient-related conditions and implant and prosthetic-related factors were recorded. Multivariable Poisson regression was fitted and prevalence ratios (PR) were reported. RESULTS: 85.3% of implants (95%CI 80.2 to 90.4) had mucositis and 9.2% (95%CI 4.7 to 13.7) had peri-implantitis. 80.9% (95%CI 73.8 to 86.8), and 19.1% (95%CI 12.6 to 25.5) of patients had mucositis and peri-implantitis. At the patient level, it was observed an increased probability of peri-implantitis in individuals with pocket depths >/=6 mm (PR = 2.47) and with >/=4 implants (PR = 1.96). Smoking increased the probability of peri-implantitis by three times (PR = 3.49). The final multilevel Poisson regression model at the implant level indicated that platform switching reduced the probability of peri-implantitis (PR = 0.18) and implants in function for >/=5 years increased this probability (PR = 2.11). The final model including patient and implant level indicators demonstrated that higher time of function (PR = 2.76) and smoking (PR = 6.59) were associated with peri-implantitis. CONCLUSION: Peri-implant diseases are highly prevalent in the studied sample, and factors associated with the occurrence of peri-implantitis were presence of pockets >/=6 mm, smoking, time of function, and type of platform.