Newsletter #248

AGENDA

Researcher analyzes knowledge production with computational resources

Artificial intelligence, machine learning and cognitive computing have consistently been appearing in the media, in films and in series, but little is known about their viability. At the seminar 'New Ways to Produce Knowledge: Are They Really There?', IBM Brazil chief scientist Fábio Gandour will answer the title question of the meeting through a careful analysis of the already available computational resources for the generation of knowledge, evaluating their possible impacts. The activity will take place on May 19, at 10 am, in the IEA Events Room, and will be broadcast live over the internet.

Full story available in Portuguese only. For further information, please send us an e-mail.

Seminar evaluates the adoption of a Program of Targets by the São Paulo City Hall

The results of the adoption of a Program of Targets by the São Paulo City Hall, mandated in 2008 by an amendment to the Organic Law of the Municipality, will be analyzed at the seminar 'Program of Targets: Balance and Prospects', which will be held on May 22, from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm, in the IEA Events Room, with live webcast. The meeting will also discuss the prospects for this type of initiative in the current Brazilian political context, taking into account that the National Congress is in the process of amending the constitutional amendment to make it compulsory to adopt a program of targets for all municipalities, states and the country.

Full story available in Portuguese only. For further information, please send us an e-mail.

Group remembers the origins of the Experimental Course of Medicine and the University Hospital of USP

A seminar organized by the Khronos Research Group: History of Science, Epistemology and Medicine will give a retrospective of the socio-historical elements involved in the conception of the Experimental Course of Medicine (CEM), created in 1968 at USP's School of Medicine, and its relation with the origin of the University Hospital of USP (HU). With a proposal for the training focused on community medicine and primary care, the CEM lacked a specific hospital infrastructure, which would come to be at the HU years after the closing of the CEM. The activity will take place on May 23, from 11.30 am to 1.00 pm, in the auditorium of the HU. There will be live broadcast on IEA's website.

Full story available in Portuguese only. For further information, please send us an e-mail.

Meeting discusses approach to the concept of press by journalism courses

The speeches surrounding the definitions and the concept of press, and the way this is approached in the teaching of journalism will be addressed at the seminar 'A Press Concept for Journalism Courses', organized by IEA's Research Group Journalism, Law and Freedom on May 24, at 2.00 pm, in the IEA Events Room, with live webcast. The debate will be based on the texts 'A profession, a concept', by journalist and professor of USP's School of Communications and Arts (ECA) Eugênio Bucci, and 'Medios, mercados y consumidores: la prensa seria como espina dorsal de la esfera publica política', by Jürgen Habermas. Bucci will be one of the exhibitors, alon gside Dennis de Oliveira, also a professor at ECA.

Full story available in Portuguese only. For further information, please send us an e-mail.

Jurimetrics, a modern tool for legal institutions

Courts are increasingly using a technique that merges law and statistics: jurimetrics. It represents a possibility of measuring legal facts besides pointing out probabilities for the planning and the elaboration of laws. Mathematician Flávio Ulhoa Coelho and lawyer Marcelo Guedes Nunes will address the topic at the seminar 'Jurimetrics' on May 25, at 10 am, in the IEA Events Room. Nunes understands that the tool can help society since it assists the elaboration of more adherent laws to social reality by developing more just policies directed to the political aspirations of society. The meeting will be broadcast live on the Institute's website.

Full story available in Portuguese only. For further information, please send us an e-mail.

JOURNAL

'Estudos Avançados' presents proposals for the country to emerge from the economic crisis

Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira, professor emeritus from FGV-SP and former Brazilian finance minister, is the organizer of the dossier 'Exits to the Economic Crisis', highlight of issue 89 of the Institute's journal 'Estudos Avançados'. There are 12 articles written by 13 economists. Alfredo Bosi, editor of the publication, said that the proposal was to put together a set of texts in which "proficiently competent economists set out their views and formulate viable short- or long-term proposals." The issue also brings a second set of texts which complements the dossier 'Environmental Dilemmas and Frontiers of Knowledge', two articles commemorating the 30th anniversary of the IEA, essays on aesthetics, cinema and literature, and reviews of four books.

RESEARCH

How becoming sick became a forbidden expression in the modern world

'Modern Man: An Animal Socially Deprived of the Right to Become Sick' is the project that experimental pathologist Frederico Azevedo da Costa Pinto is developing during the IEA Sabbatical Year in 2017. According to him, discouragement, prostration and lack of appetite are clear signs that animals emit when they are sick. "It is a way to give the body time to recover and to preserve the social group from getting sick. But this behavior is being increasingly repressed in modern societies for the way productivity of workers is viewed," he says. Costa Pinto will compare the situation in several countries, go through the historical evolution, and evaluate the investments in research and dissemination of drugs aimed at the temporary relief of the malaise of certain diseases.

INSTITUTO DE ESTUDOS AVANÇADOS DA USP / INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES OF USP

Diretor / Director: Paulo Saldiva — Vice-Diretor / Deputy Director: Guilherme Ary Plonski — Conselho Deliberativo / Board: Paulo Saldiva, Guilherme Ary Plonski, Eugênio Bucci, Regina Pekelmann Markus, Beatriz Barbuy, Ricardo Ohtake, Sérgio Adorno, Renato Luiz Sobral Anelli, and Fernando de Queiroz Cunha.
www.iea.usp.br — iea@usp.br — (+ 55 11) 3091-3922

BOLETIM IEA / IEA NEWSLETTER — Divisão de Comunicação / Communication Division — Chefe / Chief: Fernanda Cunha Rezende — Redatores / Editors: Mauro Bellesa and Sylvia Miguel — Versão em inglês / English version: Richard Meckien — ieacomunica@usp.br — (+ 55 11) 3091-3922 — Para receber, envie mensagem para / To subscribe send a message to boletim-iea@usp.br — Para cancelar o envio, escreva "Retirar" no "Assunto" da resposta / To unsubscribe write "Remove" in the "Subject" of your answer.