Entrepreneurial decision-making using the knightian uncertainty approach

The article discusses the behavioral aspects that affect the entrepreneurs' decision making under the Knightian uncertainty approach. Since the profit arising from entrepreneurial activity represents the reward of an immeasurable and subjective risk, it has been hypothesized that innovative entrepreneurs have excessive optimism and confidence, which leads them to invest in high-risk activities. A behavioral model of decision making under uncertainty is used to test the hypothesis of overconfidence. This model is based on Bayesian inference, which allows us to model the assumption that these entrepreneurs are overconfident. We conclude that, under the hypothesis of overconfidence, these entrepreneurs decide to invest, despite the fact that the expected utility model indicates the contrary. This theoretical finding could explain why there are a large number of business failures in the first years of activity.

Permanent demand excess as business strategy: an analysis of the Brazilian higher-education market

Many Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) establish tuition below the equilibrium price to generate permanent demand excess. This paper first adapts Becker’s (1991) theory to understand why the HEIs price in this way. The fact that students are both consumers and inputs on the education production process gives rise to a market equilibrium where some firms have excess demand and charge high prices, and others charge low prices and have empty seats.Second, the paper analyzes this equilibrium empirically. We estimated the demand for undergraduate courses in Business Administration in the State of São Paulo. The results show that tuition, quality of incoming students and percentage of lecturers holding doctorates degrees are the determining factors of students’ choice. Since the student quality determines the demand for a HEI, it is calculated what the value is for a HEI to get better students; that is the total revenue that each HEI gives up to guarantee excess demand. Regarding the “investment” in selectivity, 39 HEIs in São Paulo give up a combined R$ 5 million (or US$ 3.14 million) in revenue per year per freshman class, which means 7.6% of the revenue coming from a freshman class.

Portraying innovation in the public service of Brazil: Frameworks, systematization and characterization

ABSTRACT Innovation is essential for improving organizational performance in both the private and public sectors. This article describes and analyzes the 323 innovation experiences of the Brazilian federal public service that received prizes during the 16 annual competitions (from 1995 to 2012) of the Award for Innovation in Federal Public Management held by the Brazilian National School of Public Administration (ENAP). It is a qualitative and quantitative study in which were employed as categories for analysis the four types of innovation defined in the Copenhagen Manual: product, process, organizational and communication. The survey results allow us to affirm that there is innovation in the public sector, in spite of the skepticism of some researchers and the incipient state of theoretical research on the subject. It was possible to observe that organizational innovation was the one with the highest number of award- -winning experience, followed respectively by process, communication and product innovation, with citizen services and improvement of work processes being the main highlights. The results showed that, although the high incidence of innovation occurs at the national level, a significant number of innovations also occur at the local level, probably because many organizations of the federal government have their actions spread only at this level of government. Concerning the innovative area, health and education predominate, with almost 33% of initiatives, which can be explained by capillarity of these areas and the fact that both maintain a strong interaction with the user. The contributions of this work include the use of theoretical model of innovation analysis in the public sector in Brazil still upcoming, and the systematization of knowledge in empirical basis for this innovation. In this sense, it also contributes to the development of the theory with the presentation of evidence that the characteristics, determinants and consequences of innovation in the public sector differ not only from innovation in the industry, but also from innovation in services in the private sector.

Characteristic of Dystrustepts in the Venezuelan Andes

The majority (60 %) of the soils in the Venezuelan Andes are Inceptisols, a large percentage of which are classified as Dystrustepts by the US Soil Taxonomy, Second Edition of 1999. Some of these soils were classified as Humitropepts (high organic - C-OC-soils) and Dystropepts by the Soil Taxonomy prior to 1999, but no equivalent large group was created for high-OC soils in the new Ustepts suborder. Dystrusepts developed on different materials, relief and vegetation. Their properties are closely related with the parent material. Soils developed on transported deposits or sediments have darker and thicker A horizons, a slightly acid reaction, greater CEC and OC contents than upland slope soils. Based on the previous classification into large groups (Humitropepts and Dystropepts) we found that: Humitropepts have a slightly less acid and higher values of CEC than Dystropepts. These properties or characteristics seem to be related to the fact that Humitropepts have a higher clay and OC content than the Dystropepts. Canonical discrimination analysis showed that the variables that discriminate the two great soil groups from each other are OC and silt. Data for Humitropepts are grouped around the OC vector (defining axis 3, principal component analysis), while Dystropepts are associated with the clay and sand vectors, with significant correlation. Given the importance of OC for soil properties, we propose the creation of a new large group named Humustepts for the order Inceptisol, suborder Ustepts.

BUDDHISM AND MODERNITY: IN THE MARGIN OF DONALD S. LOPEZ JR.'S "BUDDHISM AND SCIENCE

ABSTRACT The present article aims at setting the issue of the relationship between Buddhism and science in a historical and philosophical frame wider than that one taken into account by the international scholarship so far. The historical point of view allows us to conclude that the narrative that connects Buddhism with science is not based on features intrinsic to Buddhist thought. In fact, such narrative prospered thanks to the development of a dialectic, typical of the 18th and 19th centuries, between science and religion. The philosophical point of view allows us to conclude that such narrative is backed by a metaphysical-like thought that denies the specificity of both science and Buddhism.

General terms and rigidity: another solution to the trivialization problem

In this paper I am concerned with the problem of applying the notion of rigidity to general terms. In Naming and Necessity, Kripke has clearly suggested that we should include some general terms among the rigid ones, namely, those common nouns semantically correlated with natural substances, species and phenomena, in general, natural kinds -'water', 'tiger', 'heat'- and some adjectives -'red', 'hot', 'loud'. However, the notion of rigidity has been defined for singular terms; after all, the notion that Kripke has provided us with is the notion of a rigid designator. But general terms do not designate single individuals: rather, they apply to many of them. In sum, the original concept of rigidity cannot be straightforwardly applied to general terms: it has to be somehow redefined in order to make it cover them. As is known, two main positions have been put forward to accomplish that task: the identity of designation conception, according to which a rigid general term is one that designates the same property or kind in all possible worlds, and the essentialist conception, which conceives of a rigid general term as an essentialist one, namely, a term that expresses an essential property of an object. My purpose in the present paper is to defend a particular version of the identity of designation conception: on the proposed approach, a rigid general term will be one that expresses the same property in all possible worlds and names the property it expresses. In my opinion, the position can be established on the basis of an inference to the best explanation of our intuitive interpretation and evaluation, relative to counterfactual circumstances, of statements containing different kinds of general terms, which is strictly analogous to our intuitive interpretation and evaluation, relative to such circumstances, of statements containing different kinds of singular ones. I will argue that it is possible to offer a new solution to the trivialization problem that is thought to threaten all versions of the identity of designation conception of rigidity. Finally, I will also sketch a solution to the so-called 'over-generalization and under-generalization problems', both closely related to the above-mentioned one.

The role of selection in functional explanations

In this essay I will argue that natural selection is more important to functional explanations than what has been thought in some of the literature in philosophy of biology. I start by giving a brief overview of the two paradigms cases of functional explanations: etiological functions and causal-role functions. i then consider one particular attempt to conciliate both perspectives given by David Buller (1998). Buller's trial to conciliate both etiological functions and causal-role functions results in what he calls a weak etiological theory. I argue that Buller has not succeeded in his construal of the weak etiological theory: he underestimates the role that selective processes have in functional explanations and so his theory may not be classified as an etiologial theory. As an alternative, I consider the account of etiological functions given by Ruth Millikan (1984) and I argue that Millikan's theory is more comprehensive to assess contentious case in biology like exaptations. Finally, I conclude by analyzing where the adoption of Millikan's theory leave us. I argue, contrary to Millikan and others, that once we assume the importance of natural selection in functional explanations, there is no strong reason to resist a linguistic reform of the word function and hence that the attempts to conciliate both etiological functions and causal-role functions are misplaced.

Using data mining to identify factors that influence the degree of leg injuries in broilers

Locomotor problems prevent the bird to move freely, jeopardizing the welfare and productivity, besides generating injuries on the legs of chickens. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of age, use of vitamin D, the asymmetry of limbs and gait score, the degree of leg injuries in broilers, using data mining. The analysis was performed on a data set obtained from a field experiment in which it was used two groups of birds with 30 birds each, a control group and one treated with vitamin D. It was evaluated the gait score, the asymmetry between the right and left toes, and the degree of leg injuries. The Weka ® software was used in data mining. In particular, C4.5 algorithm (also known as J48 in Weka environment) was used for the generation of a decision tree. The results showed that age is the factor that most influences the degree of leg injuries and that the data from assessments of gait score were not reliable to estimate leg weakness in broilers.

Internal quality control indicators of cervical cytopathology exams performed in laboratories monitored by the External Quality Control Laboratory

PURPOSE: To evaluate the impact of continued education provided by an external quality control laboratory on the indicators of internal quality control of cytopathology exams.METHODS: The internal quality assurance indicators for cytopathology exams from 12 laboratories monitored by the External Quality Control Laboratory were evaluated. Overall, 185,194 exams were included, 98,133 of which referred to the period preceding implementation of a continued education program, while 87,061 referred to the period following this intervention. Data were obtained from the Cervical Cancer Database of the Brazilian National Health Service.RESULTS: Following implementation of the continued education program, the positivity index (PI) remained within recommended limits in four laboratories. In another four laboratories, the PI progressed from below the limits to within the recommended standards. In one laboratory, the PI remained low, in two laboratories, it remained very low, and in one, it increased from very low to low. The percentage of exams compatible with a high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) remained within the recommended limits in five laboratories, while in three laboratories it progressed from below the recommended levels to >0.4% of the total number of satisfactory exams, and in four laboratories it remained below the standard limit. Both the percentage of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US) in relation to abnormal exams, and the ratio between ASC-US and intraepithelial lesions remained within recommended levels in all the laboratories investigated.CONCLUSION: An improvement was found in the indicators represented by the positivity index and the percentage of exams compatible with a high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion, showing that the role played by the external quality control laboratory in providing continued education contributed towards improving laboratory staff skills in detecting cervical cancer precursor lesions.

Is the Thoroughbred race-horse under chronic stress?

Thoroughbred fillies were divided into three groups according to age: group 1, 7 fillies aged 1 to 2 years (G1) starting the training program; group 2, 9 fillies aged 2 to 3 years (G2) in a full training program; group 3, 8 older fillies 3 to 4 years of age (G3) training and racing. Blood samples were collected weekly from July to December. Cortisol was quantified using a solid phase DPC kit. The intra- and interassay coefficients of variation were 12.5% and 15.65% and sensitivity was 1.9 ± 0.2 nmol/l. The semester average of cortisol levels varied between groups: G1 = 148.8 ± 6.7, G2 = 125.7 ± 5.8, G3 = 101.1 ± 5.4 nmol/l, with G3 differing statistically from the other groups. The lower cortisol levels observed in the older fillies lead us to propose that the stress stimulus, when maintained over a long period of time, may become chronic and result in a reduction of hypophyseal corticotropin-releasing hormone receptors. The secretion of endogenous opioids may also lead to low serum cortisol levels.

The Brazilian investment in science and technology

An analysis of Brazilian federal expenditures in science and technology is presented is this study. The 1990-1999 data were compiled from records provided by two federal agencies (MCT and CNPq) responsible for managing most of the national budget related to these activities. The results indicate that the federal investments in Brazilian science and technology stagnated during the last decade (US$ 2.32 billion in 1990, US$ 2.39 billion in 1996, and US$ 2.36 billion in 1999). In contrast, a great increase in private investments in research was acknowledged both by industry and by the government during the same period, from US$ 2.12 to US$ 4.64 billion. However, this investment did not result in an increase in invention patents granted to residents (492 in 1990 and only 232 in 1997) or in a reduction of patent costs. Despite this unfavorable scenario, the number of graduate programs in the country has increased two-fold in the last decade and the contribution of Brazilians to the database of the Institute for Scientific Information has increased 4.7-fold from 1990 (2,725 scientific publications) to 2000 (12,686 scientific publications). Unstable federal resources for science, together with the poor returns of private resources in terms of developing new technologies, may jeopardize the future of Brazilian technological development.

Developmental norms for the Gardner Steadiness Test and the Purdue Pegboard: a study with children of a metropolitan school in Brazil

Norms for the Gardner Steadiness Test and the Purdue Pegboard were developed for the neuropsychological assessment of children in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro. A computer-generated unbiased sample of 346 children with a mean age of 9.4 years (SD = 2.76), who were attending a large normal public school in this urban area, was the subject of this study. Two boys were removed from the study, one for refusing to participate and the other due to severe strabismus. Therefore, the final sample contained 344 children (173 boys and 171 girls). Sex and age of the child and hand preferred for writing, but not ethnic membership or social class, had significant effects on performance in the Gardner Steadiness Test and the Purdue Pegboard. Girls outperformed boys. Older children performed better than younger children. However, the predictive relationship between age of the child and neuropsychological performance included linear and curvilinear components. Comparison of the present results to data gathered in the United States revealed that the performance of this group of Brazilian children is equivalent to that of US children after Bonferroni's correction of the alpha level of significance. It is concluded that sex and age of the child and hand preferred for writing should be taken into account when using the normative data for the two instruments evaluated in the present study. Furthermore, the relevance of neurobehavioral antidotes for the obliteration of some of the probable neuropsychological effects of cultural deprivation in Brazilian public school children is hypothesized.

Perspectives of digestive pest control with proteinase inhibitors that mainly affect the trypsin-like activity of Anticarsia gemmatalis Hübner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

The present study describes the main characteristics of the proteolytic activities of the velvetbean caterpillar, Anticarsia gemmatalis Hübner, and their sensitivity to proteinase inhibitors and activators. Midguts of last instar larvae reared on an artificial diet were homogenized in 0.15 M NaCl and centrifuged at 14,000 g for 10 min at 4ºC and the supernatants were used in enzymatic assays at 30ºC, pH 10.0. Basal total proteolytic activity (azocasein hydrolysis) was 1.14 ± 0.15 absorbance variation min-1 mg protein-1, at 420 nm; basal trypsin-like activity (N-benzoyl-L-arginine-p-nitroanilide, BApNA, hydrolysis) was 0.217 ± 0.02 mmol p-nitroaniline min-1 mg protein-1. The maximum proteolytic activities were observed at pH 10.5 using azocasein and at pH 10.0 using BApNA, this pH being identical to the midgut pH of 10.0. The maximum trypsin-like activity occurred at 50ºC, a temperature that reduces enzyme stability to 80 and 60% of the original, when pre-incubated for 5 and 30 min, respectively. Phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride inhibited the proteolytic activities with an IC50 of 0.39 mM for azocasein hydrolysis and of 1.35 mM for BApNA hydrolysis. Benzamidine inhibited the hydrolysis with an IC50 of 0.69 and 0.076 mM for azocasein and BApNA, respectively. The absence of cysteine-proteinases is indicated by the fact that 2-mercaptoethanol and L-cysteine did not increase the rate of azocasein hydrolysis. These results demonstrate the presence of serine-proteinases and the predominance of trypsin-like activity in the midgut of Lepidoptera insects, now also detected in A. gemmatalis, and suggest this enzyme as a major target for pest control based on disruption of protein metabolism using proteinase inhibitors.

The P48T germline mutation and polymorphism in the CDKN2A gene of patients with melanoma

CDKN2A has been implicated as a melanoma susceptibility gene in some kindreds with a family history of this disease. Mutations in CDKN2A may produce an imbalance between functional p16ink4a and cyclin D causing abnormal cell growth. We searched for germline mutations in this gene in 22 patients with clinical criteria of hereditary cancer (early onset, presence of multiple primary melanoma or 1 or more first- or second-degree relatives affected) by secondary structural content prediction, a mutation scanning method that relies on the propensity for single-strand DNA to take on a three-dimensional structure that is highly sequence dependent, and sequencing the samples with alterations in the electrophoretic mobility. The prevalence of CDKN2A mutation in our study was 4.5% (1/22) and there was a correlation between family history and probability of mutation detection. We found the P48T mutation in 1 patient with 2 melanoma-affected relatives. The patient descends from Italian families and this mutation has been reported previously only in Italian families in two independent studies. This leads us to suggest the presence of a mutational "hotspot" within this gene or a founder mutation. We also detected a high prevalence (59.1%) of polymorphisms, mainly alleles 500 C/G (7/31.8%) or 540 C/T (6/27.3%), in the 3' untranslated region of exon 3. This result reinforces the idea that these rare polymorphic alleles have been significantly associated with the risk of developing melanoma.

Oxidation of the albumin thiol to sulfenic acid and its implications in the intravascular compartment

Human serum albumin (HSA) is the most abundant protein in the intravascular compartment. It possesses a single thiol, Cys34, which constitutes ~80% of the total thiols in plasma. This thiol is able to scavenge plasma oxidants. A central intermediate in this potential antioxidant activity of human serum albumin is sulfenic acid (HSA-SOH). Work from our laboratories has demonstrated the formation of a relatively stable sulfenic acid in albumin through complementary spectrophotometric and mass spectrometric approaches. Recently, we have been able to obtain quantitative data that allowed us to measure the rate constants of sulfenic acid reactions with molecules of analytical and biological interest. Kinetic considerations led us to conclude that the most likely fate for sulfenic acid formed in the plasma environment is the reaction with low molecular weight thiols to form mixed disulfides, a reversible modification that is actually observed in ~25% of circulating albumin. Another possible fate for sulfenic acid is further oxidation to sulfinic and sulfonic acids. These irreversible modifications are also detected in the circulation. Oxidized forms of albumin are increased in different pathophysiological conditions and sulfenic acid lies in a mechanistic junction, relating oxidizing species to final thiol oxidation products.