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The purpose of this paper is to study the corrosion of the coupling of two different types of stainless steel, austenitic and ferritic, used in the fabrication of water reservoirs in the solar energy industry.

Potentiodynamic polarization and gravimetric immersion tests were used to evaluate corrosion of the coupling of two different types of stainless steel, austenitic and ferritic.

The galvanic corrosion was not significant in the case of the coupling of AISI 304 and 444 steels. The difference of the open circuit potentials obtained for the AISI 304 and AISI 444 steels was 28 mV for the polished samples. The galvanic current density (i_g) was 55 nA/cm². The corrosion observed in the stainless steel couple was in the weld area.

The methodology used is adequate to evaluate generalized galvanic corrosion. The problem of the corrosion in the coupling of the stainless steels is a problem of localized corrosion and the observed 28 mV potential difference was lower than the dispersion of results usually obtained from readings of corrosion potentials in electrochemical cells.

The use of two different types of steel in contact with each other may lead to galvanic corrosion, and the welding of steel pieces may lead to several corrosion problems. Since the boiler may be used in different countries, subject to a great diversity of water quality, corrosion may be a significant problem.

Literature data of the AISI 444 steel corrosion behaviour are still scarce. The coupling of two different stainless steels (AISI 304 and 444) in the water reservoir manufacturing was a necessary requirement of the solar energy industry. The manufacturers of boilers must evaluate and quantify the corrosion processes, which occur in the equipment used in the solar energy industry. As the solar energy industry has matured in the last ten years, the corrosion of this equipment may be a significant problem in due course.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.

This chapter investigates the political and economic contexts of the controversy about the causes of the increase of income concentration in Brazil during the 1960s. That was the most important economic debate that took place under the military dictatorship that ran the country from 1964 to 1985. The perceived sharp increase in income inequality posed a challenge to the economic legitimation of the military regime, which had by the early 1970s achieved high rates of economic growth. This chapter discusses the apparent paradox of relatively open economic debate during a period of political repression, as well as its international dimension as reflected in the role played by institutions such as the World Bank.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse student performance and perceptions when a flipped classroom setting is used, in comparison with the traditional model.

The inverted learning model or “flipped classroom” is a pedagogical approach that attempts to reverse the traditional teaching and learning process, making the student the protagonist of their own learning, and is characterised by the theoretical contents being taught “outside the classroom”, allowing students to spend more class time carrying out other types of more practical activities that encourage much more active learning, such as enquiry exercises, problem solving, collaborative projects and so on. The study was conducted on a biology course of the Primary Education Bachelor’s Degree during the 2017/2018 academic year (n = 240).

The results revealed that better learning outcomes were achieved by students when the flipped classroom methodology was proposed. It has also been found that student perceptions of the teaching approach were more positive when the flipped model was followed. The flipped classroom methodology also seems to foster student participation and motivation more effectively than traditional teaching formats, mainly because the active learning activities that are carried out in this new educative approach manage to involve the students in their own learning processes.

Despite the enhanced popularity of flipped classroom research in multiple educational contexts and the growing number of studies published in recent years, there is little empirical evidence regarding the effect of the flipped classroom on learning outcomes and satisfaction in pre-service teachers.

This chapter focuses on the international development plans implemented in Colombia during the regime of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla (1953–1957). It argues that foreign economists and international agencies, such as the World Bank, played a significant role in supporting and strengthening local leaders opposing the regime. By analyzing the creation of the Cauca Valley Corporation in 1955, through the intervention of the former chair of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) David Lilienthal, this study provides two main contributions to the literature on economists and political economy under authoritarian rule. Firstly, it illuminates how local groups mobilized international economists to contrast Rojas. Secondly, it analyses the evolving relationship between World Bank advisors, David Lilienthal, and the regime. After describing the consolidation of political and economic interest groups and their global connections before Rojas coup d’état, it focuses on Rojas’ regime and on how it affected the implementation of the World Bank development started with the General Survey Mission in 1949. In the Cauca Department, local leaders invoked the World Bank and Lilienthal to implement a TVA model in opposition with the central government.

Construction industry (CI) has great prominence for the world economy, and it is expected that, with the use of the innovative technologies and approaches of Industry 4.0 (I4.0), the new industrial paradigm, construction can reach higher levels of productivity. This study aims to develop a model (readiness model) to assess the level of use of I4.0 technologies by the construction sector in Brazil and its most relevant applications.

The methodology used was bibliographic research, design-science research and a survey to validate the model, carried out with 162 companies, considered among the main ones in the sector in Brazil. The literature review revealed 13 technologies of I4.0 applied to construction; hence, the views of industry experts were based on these technologies.

The Digital Advancement Within CoNstruction (DAWN) readiness model was proposed, showing that among the 13 evaluated technologies of I4.0 and their applications, the Brazilian construction companies had a low level of utilization; both high and middle-income companies presented this low level of use; some technologies with a greater number of scientific publications were less used in practice in the Brazilian construction.

The originality and theoretical contribution are to present a readiness model to assess the level of use of I4.0 technologies and their most relevant applications in the CI in countries with an economy similar to Brazil’s, making it possible to measure the level of adoption of these technologies.

Smart campuses can be seen as the future of higher education efforts, especially for their contributions to sustainability and to encourage innovation. This paper aims to present the benefits of smart practices in a Higher Education Institutions and highlights its connections to the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The methodology is divided into three steps: first, an international search and assessment of smart practices at universities; second, the identification of smart practices in a university campus in southern Brazil; and third, the presentation of the benefits of smart practices and their relationship with the SDGs.

The results showed that globally, the area most covered by smart practices in universities is the environment and, specifically, focused on waste reduction. in the context of this case study, the benefits of implementing smart practices mainly reach SDGs 4 and SDG 9, especially due to aspects of teaching technologies for the new classroom models and the optimization of campus infrastructure management.

The study encourages other universities to implement smart practices in their campuses, to becoming smart campuses while they also collaborate in achieving the SDGs while raising the discussion on the importance of committed actions taken on a university campus with the UN SDGs, to leverage synergies on campus operations at universities.

This paper presents a set of smart practices that universities are applying both globally and locally (in southern Brazil). In addition, it contributes to sustainability research by showing how smart practices have the potential to promote SDGs in universities, especially through campus operations.