Intellectuals in a Network A New Generation Faces the Challenges of Development

Brazilian social thought draws on the inspiration of past masters the common denominator of whose work is probably a deep humanism. Confronting the challenges of a fluid, ever-changing reality is now a matter of survival. The idea of climate change has made the environment, long relegated to second place, a matter of much wider interest and concern. The other great problem is poverty, and here, while there have been undeniable advances, much remains to be done. The main challenge is producing forms of social organization that will allow ordinary citizens to have an impact on what really matters. Developing policy in these areas has engaged the efforts of a wide range of experts from a variety of fields. Whereas university-educated intellectuals once formed an intelligentsia, today they are engaged in practical politics and much more often function as agents who link social actors together than as mere elaborators of theories.

Development Resource Planning: Complexity of Product Development and the Capacity to Launch New Products

Overcommitment of development capacity or development resource deficiencies are important problems in new product development (NPD). Existing approaches to development resource planning have largely neglected the issue of resource magnitude required for NPD. This research aims to fill the void by developing a simple higher-level aggregate model based on an intuitive idea: The number of new product families that a firm can effectively undertake is bound by the complexity of its products or systems and the total amount of resources allocated to NPD. This study examines three manufacturing companies to verify the proposed model. The empirical results confirm the study`s initial hypothesis: The more complex the product family, the smaller the number of product families that are launched per unit of revenue. Several suggestions and implications for managing NPD resources are discussed, such as how this study`s model can establish an upper limit for the capacity to develop and launch new product families.

Opportunistic and partisan election cycles in Brazil: new evidence at the municipal level

This article tests the hypothesis of opportunistic and partisan cycle models using a new large data set of Brazilian municipalities over the 1989-2005 period. The results show an increase in total and current expenditures and a decrease in municipal investments, local tax revenues, and budget surplus in election years. They also show that partisan ideology exerts a relative influence on the performance of the local public accounts. These results confirm that both opportunistic and partisan cycles have occurred in the management of the budgets of Brazilian municipalities after the end of the military government.

A new graphic format to facilitate the understanding of technological innovation models: the seesaw of competitiveness

Many models exist in the literature to explain the success of technological innovation. However, no studies have been made regarding graphic formats representing the technological innovation models and their impact, or on the understanding of these models by non-specialists in technology management. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to propose a new graphic configuration to represent the technological innovation management. Based on the literature, the innovation model is presented in the traditional format. Next, the same model is designed in the graphic format - named `the see-saw of competitiveness` - showing the interfaces among the identified factors. The two graphic formats were compared by a group of graduate students in terms of the ease in understanding the conceptual model of innovation. The statistical analysis shows that the seesaw of competitiveness is preferred.

ICT AND PRODUCTIVITY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: NEW FIRM-LEVEL EVIDENCE FROM BRAZIL AND INDIA

This paper uses a unique new data set on manufacturing firms in Brazil and India to estimate production functions, augmented by information and communications technology (ICT). We find a strong positive association between ICT capital and productivity in both countries that is robust to several different specification tests. The paper also breaks new ground when using the Indian data to investigate the effect of the institutional and policy environment on ICT capital investment and productivity. We find that poorer infrastructure quality and labor market policy are associated with lower levels of ICT adoption, while poorer infrastructure is also associated with lower returns to investment.

Associated skeletons of a new middle Triassic ""Rauisuchia"" from Brazil

For more than 30 million years, in early Mesozoic Pangea, ""rauisuchian"" archosaurs were the apex predators in most terrestrial ecosystems, but their biology and evolutionary history remain poorly understood. We describe a new ""rauisuchian"" based on ten individuals found in a single locality from the Middle Triassic (Ladinian) Santa Maria Formation of southern Brazil. Nine articulated and associated skeletons were discovered, three of which have nearly complete skulls. Along with sedimentological and taphonomic data, this suggests that those highly successful predators exhibited some kind of intraspecific interaction. Other monotaxic assemblages of Triassic archosaurs are Late Triassic (Norian-Rhaetian) in age, approximately 10 million years younger than the material described here. Indeed, the studied assemblage may represent the earliest evidence of gregariousness among archosaurs, adding to our knowledge on the origin of a behavior pattern typical of extant taxa.

Anatomy and phylogenetic relationships of a new catfish species from northeastern Argentina with comments on the phylogenetic relationships of the genus Rhamdella Eigenmann and Eigenmann 1888 (Siluriformes, Heptapteridae)

Rhamdella cainguae, a new species of the family Heptapteridae is described from the Arroyo Cuna-Piru, a tributary of the Rio Parana, in the subtropical forest of Misiones, northeastern Argentina. The presence of a large differentiated ovoid area on the supraorbital laterosensory canal along the frontal-sphenotic boundary, delimited by the slender dorsal walls of the bones, and with no foramen for a laterosensory branch, is an autapomorphy for R. cainguae. A detailed description of the skeleton and laterosensory system of R. cainguae is provided. The genus Rhamdella is rediagnosed on the basis of three autapomorphies: a very large opening in the frontal for the exit of the s6 ( epiphyseal) branch of the supraorbital laterosensory canal ( reversed in R. rusbyi), a large optic foramen, and a dark stripe along the lateral surface of the body ( reversed in R. rusbyi). Rhamdella is considered to be the sister group of a large heptapterid clade composed of the Nemuroglanis sub-clade plus the genera Brachyglanis, Gladioglanis, Leptorhamdia, and Myoglanis. Rhamdella is herein restricted to five valid species: R. aymarae, R. cainguae, R. eriarcha, R. longiuscula, and R. rusbyi. A sister group relationship between R. aymarae and R. rusbyi is supported by three synapomorphies. Rhamdella cainguae shares 12 apomorphic features with R. eriarcha and R. longiuscula.

KuhlmanniodendronFiaschi & Groppo, a new eastern Brazilian genus of Achariaceae sensu lato segregated from Carpotroche Endl. (formerly included in Flacourtiaceae)

Kuhlmanniodendron Fiaschi & Groppo, a new genus of the tribe Lindackerieae (Achariaceae sensu lato) is created to accommodate Carpotroche apterocarpa Kuhlm, a species previously described based on incomplete floriferous and fruiting material from the rainforests of Espirito Santo state, eastern Brazil. The genus is defined by a unique set of character states, including leaves with Clusia-like venation and scaly trichomes, flowers with glabrous stamen filaments and three free styles, and indehiscent fruits with a smooth surface (sometimes with vertical ribs when dried). A description and illustration are provided, with comments on geographical distribution, phenology and generic relationships, and an emended key to neotropical genera of Lindackerieae. (c) 2008 The Linnean Society of London.

Sequence analysis, chromosomal distribution and long-range organization show that rapid turnover of new and old pBuM satellite DNA repeats leads to different patterns of variation in seven species of the Drosophila buzzatii cluster

We aimed to study patterns of variation and factors influencing the evolutionary dynamics of a satellite DNA, pBuM, in all seven Drosophila species from the buzzatii cluster (repleta group). We analyzed 117 alpha pBuM-1 (monomer length 190 bp) and 119 composite alpha/beta (370 bp) pBuM-2 repeats and determined the chromosome location and long-range organization on DNA fibers of major sequence variants. Such combined methodologies in the study of satDNAs have been used in very few organisms. In most species, concerted evolution is linked to high copy number of pBuM repeats. Species presenting low-abundance and scattered distributed pBuM repeats did not undergo concerted evolution and maintained part of the ancestral inter-repeat variability. The alpha and alpha/beta repeats colocalized in heterochromatic regions and were distributed on multiple chromosomes, with notable differences between species. High-resolution FISH revealed array sizes of a few kilobases to over 0.7 Mb and mutual arrangements of alpha and alpha/beta repeats along the same DNA fibers, but with considerable changes in the amount of each variant across species. From sequence, chromosomal and phylogenetic data, we could infer that homogenization and amplification events involved both new and ancestral pBuM variants. Altogether, the data on the structure and organization of the pBuM satDNA give insights into genome evolution including mechanisms that contribute to concerted evolution and diversification.

Chetoneura shennonggongensis, a new species of cave-dwelling Keroplatini from China (Diptera : Keroplatidae), with a discussion of the position of Chetoneura

Chetoneura shennonggongensis Amorim & Niu, sp. n., inhabiting caves in East China, is described based on the adult male and female, plus larva. Chetoneura Colless, previously associated with Orfelia and known from a single species from caves in Malaysia, is formally transferred to the Keroplatini. This is the first description of the larva and of the general biology of the genus. The larva of this new species is suspended in a roughly horizontal hammock of silken threads amidst mucous coated snare threads from the roof of caves, but is not bioluminescent as some species of other genera in Keroplatidae ( e. g., Arachnocampa, Keroplatus, and Orfelia). A key to separate both species of the genus is provided. The position of the genus within the Keroplatini is considered. Chetoneura is considered to be closely related to a clade containing Heteropterna and Ctenoceridion.

Four new species of Paratrizygia Tonnoir from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest (Diptera, Mycetophilidae, Sciophilinae)

Paratrizygia Tonnoir was originally described for P. conformis, from Australia, and since then only four species have been added to the genus, from Chile and Southern Argentina. We add four new species to the genus Paratrizygia-P. balbii sp. nov., P. alvesi sp. nov., P. camargoi sp. nov., and P. albidens sp.nov.-from the southern part of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Comments are made about the possible relationships of the Brazilian and other Neotropical species of the genus. An identification key to the Neotropical species of the genus is provided.

Re-description and new combination of five New World species of Chrysotus Meigen, with comments on the Neotropical genus Lyroneurus Loew (Diptera: Dolichopodidae)

Five New World species of Chrysotus Meigen are redescribed, four of them herein transferred from Diaphorus Meigen: C. angustifrons (Robinson), comb.nov., C. maculatus (Parent), comb.nov. (= D. maculipennis Robinson), C. robustus(Robinson), comb. nov., C. spectabilis (Loew) and C. wirthi (Robinson), comb. nov. The female of C. maculatus is described for the first time. Terminalia of both males and females are illustrated. The previous suggestion that C. angustifrons, C. robustus, C. wirthi, and C. spectabilis and the Neotropical genus Lyroneurus Loew are closely related based on wing venation similarities is analyzed and rejected.

Five new species of Coniceromyia Borgmeier (Diptera: Phoridae) from the Atlantic Forest, Brazil

Five new species of Coniceromyia from the Atlantic Forest in Brazil are herein described-Coniceromyia apechoneura, sp. nov., C. brandaoi, sp. nov., C. diaphaniptera, sp. nov., C. franciscana, sp. nov., and C. sanctaetheresae, sp. nov. Both C. diaphaniptera and C. franciscana have patterned wings. The male foretibia provides important diagnostic features for the species, as well as additional characters to propose clades within the genus. The male hypopygial morphology is described.

Triphora uniflora AC Ferreira, Baptista & Pansarin (Orchidaceae: Triphorcae): a new species and the first record of the genus Triphora Nutt. for Sao Paulo state, Brazil

(Triphora uniflora A.C. Ferreira, Baptista & Pansarin (Orchidaccae: Triphorcae): a new species and the first record of the genus Triphora Nutt. for Sao Paulo state, Brazil). Triphora uniflora A. C. Ferreira, Baptista & Pansarin, a new species of Orchidaceae, is described and illustrated. Furthermore, this is the first report of the genus Triphora for Sao Paulo state, Brazil. The relationship of this new species to other taxa of the genus and the need to preserve the natural habitat of this Triphora species are discussed.