Guidelines for the Brazilian ceramic sector strategic development, based on a comparison with the Italian market

Based on a structured literature review, the ceramic tiles sector of Italy (benchmark) and Brazil (2nd world producer and consumer) are compared, under four strategic factors: normative, market, technology and strategic management, in order to identify critical risks for a national strategic sector. The document aims to propose guidelines for a strategic re-planning of the Brazilian ceramic tiles sector, making the Brazilian producers aware of the national market fragility (in spite of its recent remarkable evolution) and helping the policy makers to reflect on the need of reviewing the strategic planning methods and practice, of designing new targeted programs (based on coherence between operation and business strategies), of providing improved management to strengthen the sector against unfair competition by low-cost producers, enhancing the necessary infrastructure in technology, work, marketing and quality management. The analysis is limited to the single-firing production technology. The wide-coverage strategic analysis of the Brazilian ceramic tiles sector, very little studied until now in a scientific way, emphasizes the importance of applying research methodology and may be valuable to both scholars and practitioners. Additionally, it highlights the need of investments in innovation (product design and production technology) and the fundamental role of the sector organization, identifying different dimensions. It is possible to conclude that the recent Brazilian production growth is not due to a natural strengthening because of the hit of the sector and of correct enterprises strategy, but it seems the result of a temporary and favorable economic contingency.

Vascular dementia: Different forms of vessel disorders contribute to the development of dementia in the elderly brain

The diagnosis of vascular dementia (VaD) describes a group of various vessel disorders with different types of vascular lesions that finally contribute to the development of dementia. Most common forms of VaD in the elderly brain are subcortical vascular encephalopathy, strategic infarct dementia, and the multi infarct encephalopathy. Hereditary forms of VaD are rare. Most common is the cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL). Sporadic forms of VaD are caused by degenerative vessel disorders such as atherosclerosis, small vessel disease (SVD) including small vessel arteriosclerosis, arteriolosclerosis, and lipohyalinosis, and cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). Less frequently inflammatory vessel disorders and tumor-associated vessel lesions (e. g. angiocentric T-cell or angiotropic large cell lymphoma) can cause symptoms of dementia. Here, we review and discuss the impact of vessel disorders to distinct vascular brain tissue lesions and to the development of dementia in elderly individuals. The impact of coexisting neurodegenerative pathology in the elderly brain to VaD as well as the correlation between SVD and CAA expansion in the brain parenchyma with that of Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related pathology is highlighted. We conclude that "pure" VaD is rare and most frequently caused by infarctions. However, there is a significant contribution of vascular lesions and vessel pathology to the development of dementia that may go beyond tissue damage due to vascular lesions. Insufficient blood blow and alterations of the perivascular drainage mechanisms of the brain may also lead to a reduced protein clearance from extracellular space and subsequent increase of proteins in the brain parenchyma, such as the amyloid beta-protein, and foster, thereby, the development of AD-related neurodegeneration. As such, it seems to be important for clinical practice to consider treatment of potentially coexisting AD pathology in cognitively impaired patients with vascular lesions. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Introducing education for sustainable development in the undergraduate laboratory: quantitative analysis of bioethanol fuel and its blends with gasoline by using solvatochromic dyes

The concept of Education for Sustainable Development, ESD, has been introduced in a period where chemistry education is undergoing a major change, both in emphasis and methods of teaching. Studying an everyday problem, with an important socio-economic impact in the laboratory is a part of this approach. Presently, the students in many countries go to school in vehicles that run, at least partially, on biofuels; it is high time to let them test these fuels. The use of renewable fuels is not new: since 1931 the gasoline sold in Brazil contains 20 to 25 vol-% of bioethanol; this composition is being continually monitored. With ESD in mind, we have employed a constructivist approach in an undergraduate course, where UV-vis spectroscopy has been employed for the determination of the composition of two fuel blends, namely, bioethanol/water, and bioethanol/gasoline. The activities started by giving a three-part quiz. The first and second ones introduced the students to historical and practical aspects of the theme (biofuels). In the third part, we asked them to develop a UV-vis experiment for the determination of the composition of fuel blends. They have tested two approaches: (i) use of a solvatochromic dye, followed by determination of fuel composition from plots of the empirical fuel polarity versus its composition; (ii) use of an ethanol-soluble dye, followed by determination of the blend composition from a Beer's law plot; the former proved to be much more convenient. Their evaluation of the experiment was highly positive, because of the relevance of the problem; the (constructivist) approach employed, and the bright colors that the solvatochromic dye acquire in these fuel blends. Thus ESD can be fruitfully employed in order to motivate the students; make the laboratory "fun", and teach them theory (solvation). The experiments reported here can also be given to undergraduate students whose major is not chemistry (engineering, pharmacy, biology, etc.). They are low-cost and safe to be introduced at high-school level.

Differential effects of task-specific practice on performance in a simulated penalty kick under high-pressure

Objectives The current study investigated to what extent task-specific practice can help reduce the adverse effects of high-pressure on performance in a simulated penalty kick task. Based on the assumption that practice attenuates the required attentional resources, it was hypothesized that task-specific practice would enhance resilience against high-pressure. Method Participants practiced a simulated penalty kick in which they had to move a lever to the side opposite to the goalkeeper's dive. The goalkeeper moved at different times before ball-contact. Design Before and after task-specific practice, participants were tested on the same task both under low- and high-pressure conditions. Results Before practice, performance of all participants worsened under high-pressure; however, whereas one group of participants merely required more time to correctly respond to the goalkeeper movement and showed a typical logistic relation between the percentage of correct responses and the time available to respond, a second group of participants showed a linear relationship between the percentage of correct responses and the time available to respond. This implies that they tended to make systematic errors for the shortest times available. Practice eliminated the debilitating effects of high-pressure in the former group, whereas in the latter group high-pressure continued to negatively affect performance. Conclusions Task-specific practice increased resilience to high-pressure. However, the effect was a function of how participants responded initially to high-pressure, that is, prior to practice. The results are discussed within the framework of attentional control theory (ACT).