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.

The Bologna Stone: history's first persistent luminescent material

In 1603, the Italian shoemaker Vincenzo Cascariolo found that a stone (baryte) from the outskirts of Bologna emitted light in the dark without any external excitation source. However, the calcination of the baryte was needed prior to this observation. The stone later named as the Bologna Stone was among the first luminescent materials and the first documented material to show persistent luminescence. The mechanism behind the persistent emission in this material has remained a mystery ever since. In this work, the Bologna Stone (BaS) was prepared from the natural baryte (Bologna, Italy) used by Cascariolo. Its properties, e. g. impurities (dopants) and their valences, luminescence, persistent luminescence and trap structure, were compared to those of the pure BaS materials doped with different (transition) metals (Cu, Ag, Pb) known to yield strong luminescence. The work was carried out by using different methods (XANES, TL, VUV-UV-vis luminescence, TGA-DTA, XPD). A plausible mechanism for the persistent luminescence from the Bologna Stone with Cu+ as the emitting species was constructed based on the results obtained. The puzzle of the Bologna Stone can thus be considered as resolved after some 400 years of studies.

Rapid morphological changes in populations of hybrids between Africanized and European honey bees

African honey bees, introduced to Brazil in 1956, rapidly dominated the previously introduced European subspecies. To better understand how hybridization between these different types of bees proceeded, we made geometric morphometric analyses of the wing venation patterns of specimens resulting from crosses made between Africanized honey bees (predominantly Apis mellifera scutellata) and Italian honey bees (A. mellifera ligustica) from 1965 to 1967, at the beginning of the Africanization process, in an apiary about 150 km from the original introduction site. Two virgin queens reared from an Italian parental were instrumentally inseminated with semen from drones from an Africanized parental. Six F-1 queens from one of these colonies were open mated with Africanized drones. Resultant F-1 drones were backcrossed to 50 Italian and 50 Africanized parental queens. Five backcross workers were collected from each of eight randomly selected colonies of each type of backcross (N = 5 bees x 8 colonies x 2 types of backcrosses). The F-1 progeny (40 workers and 30 drones) was found to be morphologically closer to the Africanized than to the European parental (N = 20 drones and 40 workers, each); Mahalanobis square distances = 21.6 versus 25.8, respectively, for the workers, and 39.9 versus 46.4, respectively, for the drones. The worker progenies of the backcrosses (N = 40, each) were placed between the respective parental and the F-1 progeny, although closer to the Africanized than to the Italian parentals (Mahalanobis square distance = 6.2 versus 12.1, respectively). Consequently, the most common crosses at the beginning of the Africanization process would have generated individuals more similar to Africanized than to Italian bees. This adds a genetic explanation for the rapid changes in the populational morphometric profile in recently colonized areas. Africanized alleles of wing venation pattern genes are apparently dominant and epistatic.