Antiglobalismo e Colonialidade: Uma Abordagem Decolonial Sobre a Política Externa Brasileira no Governo Bolsonaro l Antiglobalism and Coloniality: A Decolonial Approach on Brazilian Foreign Policy Under Bolsonaro Government

Embora o Brasil tenha participado da chamada onda rosa na América Latina na primeira e em parte da segunda década dos anos 2000, o país passou a experimentar nos últimos anos um movimento crescente de agentes políticos ligados à Direita, que culminou na eleição de Jair Bolsonaro em 2018. A Política Externa do Governo Jair Bolsonaro apresenta algumas rupturas em relação à Política Externa Brasileira das últimas décadas, dentre elas um alinhamento automático aos Estados Unidos da América. Neste estudo, analisamos a forma como conceitos da teoria decolonial introduzidos por Aníbal Quijano e Walter Mignolo, como eurocentrismo e colonialidade do poder, podem auxiliar na compreensão do alinhamento automático com os Estados Unidos observado no Governo Bolsonaro.Palavras-Chave: Política Externa Brasileira; Governo Bolsonaro; Teoria Decolonial.ABSTRACTAlthough Brazil participated in the so-called pink wave, in Latin America, during the first and part of the second decade of the 2000s, the country has experienced, in the last years, a growing movement of political agents linked to the Right-Wing, which culminated in the Jair Bolsonaro´s election in 2018. The Foreign Policy of Jair Bolsonaro Government presents some ruptures in relation to the Brazilian Foreign Policy of the last decades, among them an automatic alignment to United States of America. In this study, we analyze how concepts of decolonial theory introduced by Aníbal Quijano and Walter Mignolo, such as Eurocentrism and coloniality of power, can help to understanding the automatic alignment to United States observed in Bolsonaro Government.Keywords: Foreign Policy; Bolsonaro Government; Decolonial Theory. Recebido em: 03/04/2021 | Aceito em: 05/07/2021.

A functional ultrasound brain GPS for automatic vascular-based neuronavigation

Recent advances in ultrasound imaging triggered by transmission of ultrafast plane waves have rendered functional ultrasound (fUS) imaging a valuable neuroimaging modality capable of mapping cerebral vascular networks, but also for the indirect capture of neuronal activity with high sensitivity thanks to the neurovascular coupling. However, the expansion of fUS imaging is still limited by the difficulty to identify cerebral structures during experiments based solely on the Doppler images and the shape of the vessels. In order to tackle this challenge, this study introduces the vascular brain positioning system (BPS), a GPS of the brain. The BPS is a whole-brain neuronavigation system based on the on-the-fly automatic alignment of ultrafast ultrasensitive transcranial Power Doppler volumic images to common templates such as the Allen Mouse Brain Common Coordinates Framework. This method relies on the online registration of the complex cerebral vascular fingerprint of the studied animal to a pre-aligned reference vascular atlas, thus allowing rapid matching and identification of brain structures. We quantified the accuracy of the automatic registration using super-resolution vascular images obtained at the microscopic scale using Ultrasound Localization Microscopy and found a positioning error of 44 µm and 96 µm for intra-animal and inter-animal vascular registration, respectively. The proposed BPS approach outperforms the manual vascular landmark recognition performed by expert neuroscientists (inter-annotator errors of 215 µm and 259 µm). Using the online BPS approach coupled with the Allen Atlas, we demonstrated the capability of the system to position itself automatically over chosen anatomical structures and to obtain corresponding functional activation maps even in complex oblique planes. Finally, we show that the system can be used to acquire and estimate functional connectivity matrices automatically. The proposed functional ultrasound on-the-fly neuronavigation approach allows automatic brain navigation and could become a key asset to ensure standardized experiments and protocols for non-expert and expert researchers.

Experimental Research on Automatic Alignment and Control Algorithm of Spatial Light-Fiber Coupling

This study aims to solve the difficulties in the coupling between space light and single-mode fiber (SMF) in free-space optical communication. A fiber coupler based on two-dimensional (2D) piezoelectric ceramics was developed, which uses the stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) algorithm to realize the automatic coupling of space light-SMF. In addition, a spatial light-SMF alignment experimentation platform was built indoors to verify the effectiveness and practicality of the 2D piezoelectric ceramic fiber coupler. The results show that the use of the SPGD algorithm can realize the automatic alignment of fiber position coupling, and the SMF coupling efficiency reaches 52.58% when the system is closed loop. 2D piezoelectric ceramic fiber couplers have unique advantages of low cost, simplified structure, and easy array expansion and can effectively solve the difficulty in the alignment of spatial light-SMF coupling. This study will serve as a significant reference for the research on spatial fiber-coupled array technology.

Fully-automatic ultrasound-based neuro-navigation : The functional ultrasound brain GPS

Recent advances in ultrasound imaging triggered by ultrafast plane waves transmission have rendered functional ultrasound (fUS) imaging a valuable neuroimaging modality capable of mapping cerebral vascular networks, but also to indirectly capture neuronal activity with high sensitivity thanks to the neurovascular coupling. However, the expansion of fUS imaging is still limited by the difficulty to identify cerebral structures during experiments based solely on the Doppler images and the shape of the vessels. In order to tackle this challenge, this study introduces the vascular brain positioning system (BPS), a GPS of the brain. The BPS is a whole-brain neuro-navigation system based on the on-the-fly automatic alignment of ultrafast ultrasensitive transcranial Power Doppler volumic images to common templates such as the Allen mouse brain Common Coordinates Framework. This method relies on the online registration of the complex cerebral vascular fingerprint of the studied animal to a pre-aligned reference vascular atlas, thus allowing rapid matching and identification of brain structures. We quantified the accuracy of the automatic registration using super-resolution vascular images obtained at the microscopic scale using Ultrasound Localization Microscopy and found a positioning error of 44 µm and 96 µm for intra-animal and inter-animals vascular registration, respectively. The proposed BPS approach outperforms the manual vascular landmarks recognition performed by expert neuroscientists (inter-annotator errors of 215 µm and 259 µm). Using the online BPS approach coupled with the Allen Atlas, we demonstrated the capability of the system to position itself automatically over chosen anatomical structures and to obtain corresponding functional activation maps even in complex oblique planes. Finally, we show that the system can be used to acquire and estimate functional connectivity matrices automatically. The proposed functional ultrasound on the fly neuro-navigation approach allows automatic brain navigation and could become a key asset to ensure standardized experiments and protocols for non-expert and expert researchers.

Мethod for orientation angles forecasting of optical instruments from the international space station with orientation platform

Onboard the International Space Station (ISS), as a part of the “Uragan” Earth exploration experiment, various observation devices are used, including photo and video spectral equipment, the orientation of which is carried out manually by the crew through the portholes. However, severe limitations are imposed on the planning of such experiments, primary related to the necessity taking into account the crew’s daily routine and the availability of time allocated for scientific experiments. The solution for expanding the ability to conduct experiments is the employing of automated orientation platforms (OP). One of these OPs is the video spectral equipment orientation system SOVA-1-426. A method for orientation angles forecasting of optical instruments for pointing at predefined objects on the Earth’s surface with SOVA-1-426 is presented. Moreover, in the described method, in addition to the coordinates of the center of mass, the current orientation of the ISS is taken into account, which makes it possible to perform the forecast with better precision. Taking into account the ISS orientation is carried out through the use of the ISS rotation quaternion to control the platform in automatic mode. The presented method for the orientation angles forecasting of high-resolution photo-camera aboard the ISS by employing SOVA-1-426 allows its automatic alignment on the Earth’s surface objects with accuracy up to seven kilometers. The described method is implemented in software and is currently used in the SOVA-1-426 OP aboard the ISS for the remote sensing of the Earth’s surface.