BRAZILIAN OIL PIONEERS

In the Brazilian popular imagination, the discovery of oil was announced on August 9, 1938, by the Viscount of Corncob. The Donabentense Oil Company drilled Caraminguá’s first well, near the creek that passed through the Yellow Woodpecker Ranch (“Sítio do Picapau Amarelo,” in colloquial Portuguese). The latter was the name of a famous Brazilian children’s book. In fact, the first oil well flowed in Salvador, Bahia, on January 21, 1939, discovered by Manoel Ignácio Bastos (1891 - 1940), a Brazilian geographer engineer, whose business partner, Oscar Salvador Cordeiro (1890 - 1970), was the president of the Bahia Commodities Exchange. A brief analysis of documents, such as reports, Brazilian decrees and executive orders, as well as newspapers, detail the actions of these Brazilian oil pioneers. Statistical data analysis was also performed about onshore and offshore oil production between 1941 and 2019, as a part of Bastos and Cordeiros’ heritage.

Decreased Incidence of Michigan Emergency Department Visits for Febrile Neutropenia Observed After Public Health Measures for the COVID-19 Pandemic

Importance: Masking and social distancing appear to decrease the of febrile neutropenia in susceptible populations, especially among patients with hematologic malignancies.Objective: To determine whether COVID-19 infection mitigation efforts, namely masking and social distancing, results in a reduction in the incidence of febrile neutropenia.Design: This was a retrospective cohort study comparing the incidence of FN in the 13 months prior to (Year 0) and 13 months following (Year 1) the public health executive orders (PHEO) in Michigan. Data voluntarily submitted by Michigan emergency departments to the National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) was queried for all ED visits from April 1st, 2019 to March 31st, 2021.Setting: Population based study.Participants: A population-based sample of patients who reported to a Michigan emergency department and on whom data was captured.Intervention(s): Population based masking and social distancing.Main Outcome(s) and Measure(s): The primary study outcome was the incidence of FN as a proportion of emergency visits in the 13-months before and after COVID-19 mitigations efforts, namely masking and social distancing. We hypothesized that there would be a significant decrease in the incidence of FN in the period following the public health executive orders aimed at reducing the spread of the COVID-19 virus.Results: There was a total of 8,979,221 total ED visits captured during the study period. In Year 0 there were 5,073,081 recorded ED visits and 3,906,140 in Year 1, a decrease of 23%. There was a significant reduction in the proportion of total ED visits with a diagnosis of FN, decreasing 13.3% across periods (0.15% vs. 0.13%, p=0.036). In patients with a hematologic malignancy the incidence of FN was significantly lower in the period following PHEO (22% vs 17%, p=0.02, Table 2).Conclusions and Relevance: Our study found a significant association between social distancing and mask guidelines implemented on a large public scale with decreased rates of FN, particularly in those with a hematologic malignancy. These findings may be useful in the design of clinical trials as well as informing future recommendations for the prevention of FN.

The COVID States Project #73: American Attitudes Toward Critical Race Theory

In a few short years, the scholarly approach known as Critical Race Theory (CRT) went from a relatively obscure academic framework to the new front in the American culture wars. CRT has made its way to the front pages of newspapers, cable news show’s primetime specials, Presidential executive orders, and a slate of laws and regulations dictating how history can be taught in public schools. Critical Race Theory1 is an academic movement of scholars who investigate and seek to change the existing power dynamic between race and racism in society.CRT began in the 1970s among legal scholars and has since influenced other fields such as sociology, education, and ethnic studies. CRT consists of several basic tenants or themes, although substantial individual variation exists across scholars. Among these is the notion that race is socially constructed (there is no biological basis for what we think of as race), the idea that racism is normalized as part of everyday society (it is entrenched in modern institutions and policies and can be difficult to combat), and the idea that the dominant group have little incentive to eliminate racism because the current racial hierarchy serves important material and psychological needs. Other themes in CRT include the idea of intersectionality which argues that belonging to multiple oppressed groups is a distinctive experience that is more than just the sum of its parts.

Garnisaires in France during the Napoleonic Wars: regulation of repressive measures for maintaining conscription

The Institution of garnisaires was intended for providing lodging to bystanders in the homes of residents in order to comply with the requirements of the government. In France of the early XIX century, it was implemented as a repressive measure to ensure conscription of the recalcitrant. The article describes the legal regulation of the institution of garnisaires in conducting conscription in France of the period of the Consulship and the First Empire. The object of this research is the Institution of garnisaires in the early XIX century; while the changes in legal regulation of this institution throughout the ruling of the First Consul and Emperor Napoleon I. The article employs the normative legal acts of the early XIX century: imperial decrees, governmental acts, executive orders and instructions of the officials of the central and local administration; as well as contextual analysis of legal acts, comparative-historical, and chronological methods. Taking into account that the topic of legal regulation of the institution of garnisaires is poorly covered, the article comprehensively analyzes the content of the fundamental legal acts, determines the peculiarities of stern measures applied for maintaining conscription at different stages of the reign of Napoleon I. The conclusion is made that the legal regulation of the institution of garnisaires during the indicated period has evolved from the first attempts to establish the practice of lodgment as repression, initially not implying specific restrictions, to introduction of more balanced and detailed regulation of the institution with a range of restrictive measures. The formation of legal framework of the institution was completed by 1807–1808 with issuing of the decrees of the Emperor and instructions of the Director General of Military Conscription Jean-Girard Lacuée.

State Regulatory Response to COVID-19 Limited Assisted Living Resident Caregiver Networks

This paper describes a qualitative content analysis of assisted living emergency rules, revised regulations, and executive orders responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using key search terms, we identified 36 states that enacted policies between February and October 2020. The following themes occurred most frequently: testing, infection control, access restrictions, suspension of requirements, and reporting. The convoys of care model recognizes internal, external, formal, and informal caregivers as essential members of an AL resident’s care network. We found that non-staff care providers, including external formal caregivers (e.g. home health and hospice) and informal caregivers (e.g. family), were most often addressed in policies limiting access. Informal caregivers were the least often specifically addressed in these policies. Given the importance of these network members in the AL context, these policies have implications for the wellbeing of the resident and care network.

Central and Local Administration in Wartime: The Participation of the Great Perm in the Formation of the People’s Army Against the Tushins in Late 1608 – Early 1609

Introduction. The process of forming zemstvo militias in defense of Tsar V.I. Shuisky and the whole country in the Moscow state began in late 1608 – early 1609 at the height of the confrontation between the Moscow and Tushino political regimes. The article examines the role of the government of V.I. Shuisky in governing the state, in particular, Perm the Great, and the participation of this remote region in military affairs. Researchers have merely addressed this aspect and come to opposite judgments. Methods and materials. We have a large complex of zemstvo correspondence at our disposal, preserved in the archives of the Solikamsk district court. Many documents were published as early as the 19th century but their detailed analysis was not carried out. Clarification of the dating and reconstruction of information both about the documents that have come down to us and the documents only mentioned, the introduction of unpublished acts into circulation allows us to restore the true picture of events. A fund-by-fund study was carried out by the method of mutual correspondence of documents. Analysis. In the course of the research, it was revealed that the first of the initiative documents that reached the Great Perm about the support of Tsar V.I. Shuisky in military affairs were formal replies from Galich and Vologda. Perm clerks F.P. Akinfov and N. Romanov received them on December 15, 1608, and they were read by the whole world. Active gatherings of military men in Perm the Great began only after January 1, 1609, when a list with a sovereign letter was brought to the Galicians. At that time the territory of Perm the Great consisted of 3 counties: Cherdyn, Solikamsk, Kaigorod. By January 10, 1609, the first gathering ended and 20 military men of Soli Kamskaya left on the way to Moscow. In Kaigorodok they were robbed, carts and weapons were taken away, the headman and worldly people did not give new carts in the ship’s hut, as a result they could not continue their journey, and there was a delay. In February, together with 20 Kaigorod military men, they moved on. On March 1, 1609, 50 Cherdynians left Perm the Great. The war men of Perm the Great came to Vologda at the end of March 1609 and were assigned to further service in the militia. Results. The article shows that the complete blockade of Moscow in the fall of 1608 did not materialize. However, regular communication between Moscow and the cities of Pomorie was disrupted. For the period from January 1 to mid-April 1609 in Perm the Great on behalf of Tsar V.I. Shuisky received 5 decree letters from the Novgorod discharge order on the issue of collecting military men and sending them to Moscow to fight the Tushin people, and 3 executive orders from the Novgorod quarter order on the sovereign’s treasury and sending bread to Siberian cities for salaries to service people. These documents were direct orders of the supreme power and were perceived by the order people in Perm the Great as a guide to action. In addition to them, the zemstvo correspondence with the nearest cities made it possible to find out news about the military events taking place in the country. The clerk Fedor Petrovich Akinfov and the clerk Naum Romanov tried to carry out the orders of the tsar, but they did not always manage to do this as quickly as was expected of them. There is no reason to consider the resulting delay in the dispatch of the Perm military men as unwillingness of the orderly people appointed from Moscow for 2–3 years to participate in the support of Tsar V. Shuisky and the Zemstvo movement. The delay is more likely due to the lack of clear administrative management at the local level: if in Soli Kamskoy they quickly responded to the request and sent 20 military men, then in Kaigorodok they began to put up obstacles not only in the form of robbery, but also at the level of mundane self-government, not obeying the regional leadership.