Local richness and distribution of the lizard fauna in natural habitat mosaics of the Brazilian Cerrado

We investigate local lizard richness and distribution in central Brazilian Cerrado, harbouring one of the least studied herpetofaunas in the Neotropical region. Our results are based on standardized samplings at 10 localities, involving 2917 captures of 57 lizard species in 10 families. Local richness values exceeded most presented in earlier studies and varied from 13 to 28 species, with modal values between 19 and 28 species. Most of the Cerrado lizard fauna is composed of habitat-specialists with patchy distributions in the mosaic of grasslands, savannas and forests, resulting in habitat-structured lizard assemblages. Faunal overlap between open and forested habitats is limited, and forested and open areas may act as mutual barriers to lizard distribution. Habitat use is influenced by niche conservatism in deep lineages, with iguanians and gekkotans showing higher use of forested habitats, whereas autarchoglossans are richer and more abundant in open habitats. Contrary to trends observed in Cerrado birds and large mammals, lizard richness is significantly higher in open, interfluvial habitats that dominate the Cerrado landscape. Between-localities variation in lizard richness seems tied to geographical distance, landscape history and phylogenetic constraints, factors operating in other well-studied lizard faunas in open environments. Higher richness in dominant, open interfluvial habitats may be recurrent in Squamata and other small-bodied vertebrates, posing a threat to conservation as these habitats are most vulnerable to the fast, widespread and ongoing process of habitat destruction in central Brazil.

Gene Expression Profile of Mesenchymal Stem Cells from Paired Umbilical Cord Units: Cord is Different from Blood

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are multipotent cells which can be obtained from several adult and fetal tissues including human umbilical cord units. We have recently shown that umbilical cord tissue (UC) is richer in MSC than umbilical cord blood (UCB) but their origin and characteristics in blood as compared to the cord remains unknown. Here we compared, for the first time, the exonic protein-coding and intronic noncoding RNA (ncRNA) expression profiles of MSC from match-paired UC and UCB samples, harvested from the same donors, processed simultaneously and under the same culture conditions. The patterns of intronic ncRNA expression in MSC from UC and UCB paired units were highly similar, indicative of their common donor origin. The respective exonic protein-coding transcript expression profiles, however, were significantly different. Hierarchical clustering based on protein-coding expression similarities grouped MSC according to their tissue location rather than original donor. Genes related to systems development, osteogenesis and immune system were expressed at higher levels in UCB, whereas genes related to cell adhesion, morphogenesis, secretion, angiogenesis and neurogenesis were more expressed in UC cells. These molecular differences verified in tissue-specific MSC gene expression may reflect functional activities influenced by distinct niches and should be considered when developing clinical protocols involving MSC from different sources. In addition, these findings reinforce our previous suggestion on the importance of banking the whole umbilical cord unit for research or future therapeutic use.

Lead and aluminum bonding in Pb-Al metaphosphate glasses

The bonding properties of cations in phosphate glasses determine many short- and medium-range structural features in the glass network, hence influencing bulk properties. In this work, Pb-Al-metaphosphate glasses (1 - x)Pb-(PO(3))(2)center dot xAI(PO(3))(3) with 0 <= - x <= 1 were analyzed to determine the effect of the substitution of Pb by Al on the glass structure in the metaphosphate composition. The glass transition temperature and density were measured as a function of the Al concentration. The vibrational and structural properties were probed by Raman spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance of (31)P, (27)Al, and (207)Pb. Aluminum incorporates homogeneously in the glass creating a stiffer and less packed network. The average coordination number for Al decreases from 5.9 to 5.0 as x increases from 0.1 to 1, indicating more covalent Al-O bonds. The coordination number of Pb in these glasses is greater than 8, showing an increasing ionic behavior for compositions richer in Al. A quantitative analysis of the phosphate speciation shows definite trends in the bonding of AlO(n) groups and phosphate tetrahedra. In glasses with x < 0.48, phosphate groups share preferentially only one nonbridging O corner with an AlO(n) coordination polyhedron. For x > 0.48 more than one nonbridging O can be linked to AlO(n) polyhedra. There is no corner sharing of O between AlO(n) and PbO(n) polyhedra nor between AlO(n) themselves throughout the compositional range. The PbO(n) coordination polyhedra show considerable nonbridging O sharing, with each O participating in the coordination sphere of at least two Pb. The bonding preferences determined for Al are consistent with the behavior observed in Na-Al and Ca-Al metaphosphates, indicating this may be a general behavior for ternary phosphate glasses.

On E-functions of semisimple Lie groups

We develop and describe continuous and discrete transforms of class functions on a compact semisimple, but not simple, Lie group G as their expansions into series of special functions that are invariant under the action of the even subgroup of the Weyl group of G. We distinguish two cases of even Weyl groups-one is the direct product of even Weyl groups of simple components of G and the second is the full even Weyl group of G. The problem is rather simple in two dimensions. It is much richer in dimensions greater than two-we describe in detail E-transforms of semisimple Lie groups of rank 3.

Ett rikare språk med bildmunta : Vad är ett rikt språk och kan bildskapande stimulera till ett rikare språk

A richer language when painting before speaking? – What is a rich language and can painting stimulate towards a richer language?In this work I seek to answer two questions. What may a “richer” language mean and does it become richer when the informants, as a preparation, paint what they are going to talk about in front of the class, than when they do not paint? This I try to do by studying earlyer research about how to measure the richness in languages and by analysing video recordings of speeches when the students in an sfi-class (Swedish for foreigners) painted or did not paint before the speech, and by analysing the richness in their language. The result is my own definition of what rich language is in this context, and a conclusion that painting stimulates the students to use more words and to use specific words that they need to bring the audience their message.

Growth, migration and unemployment across Swedish municipalities

Fundamental questions in economics are why some regions are richer than others, why their economic growth rates vary, whether their growth tends to converge and the key factors that contribute to the variations. These questions have not yet been fully addressed, but changes in the local tax base are clearly influenced by the average income growth rate, net migration rate, and changes in unemployment rates. Thus, the main aim of this paper is to explore in depth the interactive effects of these factors (and local policy variables) in Swedish municipalities, by estimating a proposed three-equation system. Our main finding is that increases in local public expenditures and income taxes have negative effects on subsequent local income growth. In addition, our results support the conditional convergence hypothesis, i.e. that average income tends to grow more rapidly in relatively poor local jurisdictions than in initially “richer” jurisdictions, conditional on the other explanatory variables.

Essays on growth and environment

This thesis consists of a summary and four self-contained papers. Paper [I] Following the 1987 report by The World Commission on Environment and Development, the genuine saving has come to play a key role in the context of sustainable development, and the World Bank regularly publishes numbers for genuine saving on a national basis. However, these numbers are typically calculated as if the tax system is non-distortionary. This paper presents an analogue to genuine saving in a second best economy, where the government raises revenue by means of distortionary taxation. We show how the social cost of public debt, which depends on the marginal excess burden, ought to be reflected in the genuine saving. We also illustrate by presenting calculations for Greece, Japan, Portugal, U.K., U.S. and OECD average, showing that the numbers published by the World Bank are likely to be biased and may even give incorrect information as to whether the economy is locally sustainable. Paper [II] This paper examines the relationships among per capita CO2 emissions, per capita GDP and international trade based on panel data spanning the period 1960-2008 for 150 countries. A distinction is also made between OECD and Non-OECD countries to capture the differences of this relationship between developed and developing economies. We apply panel unit root and cointegration tests, and estimate a panel error correction model. The results from the error correction model suggest that there are long-term relationships between the variables for the whole sample and for Non-OECD countries. Finally, Granger causality tests show that there is bi-directional short-term causality between per capita GDP and international trade for the whole sample and between per capita GDP and CO2 emissions for OECD countries. Paper [III] Fundamental questions in economics are why some regions are richer than others, why their growth rates differ, whether their growth rates tend to converge, and what key factors contribute to explain economic growth. This paper deals with the average income growth, net migration, and changes in unemployment rates at the municipal level in Sweden. The aim is to explore in depth the effects of possible underlying determinants with a particular focus on local policy variables. The analysis is based on a three-equation model. Our results show, among other things, that increases in the local public expenditure and income taxe rate have negative effects on subsequent income income growth. In addition, the results show conditional convergence, i.e. that the average income among the municipal residents tends to grow more rapidly in relatively poor local jurisdictions than in initially “richer” jurisdictions, conditional on the other explanatory variables. Paper [IV] This paper explores the relationship between income growth and income inequality using data at the municipal level in Sweden for the period 1992-2007. We estimate a fixed effects panel data growth model, where the within-municipality income inequality is one of the explanatory variables. Different inequality measures (Gini coefficient, top income shares, and measures of inequality in the lower and upper part of the income distribution) are examined. We find a positive and significant relationship between income growth and income inequality measured as the Gini coefficient and top income shares, respectively. In addition, while inequality in the upper part of the income distribution is positively associated with the income growth rate, inequality in the lower part of the income distribution seems to be negatively related to the income growth. Our findings also suggest that increased income inequality enhances growth more in municipalities with a high level of average income than in municipalities with a low level of average income.

Making Energy Interventions more Effective : Situation, Interaction, and Precondition

A main purpose of this paper is to propose to policy makers, building professionals, and other non-social scientists a way to make energy interventions more culturally informed and, thereby, more effective. The case study on house purchasers gives an ample illustration of the richer results that can be achieved by paying attention to three aspects of energy efficiency initiatives: the contexts and situations of choice in each particular case, the interaction among relevant social actors, and the culture-specific preconditions for choice. Research on how purchasers of new pre-fabricated houses in Sweden choose their heating system show how such decisions tend to fall between two stools. Furthermore, the organizational structure of housing companies frames house purchasers' decision making. An important result is that energy saving or conversion measures must be promoted at an early stage amongst those who plan and construct buildings (rather than later amongst dwellers and energy end users).

Foreign investiment and convergence

None

Os bancos brasileiros na internet: um estudo de caso sobre os motivadores para a sua forma de atuação neste ambiente

O objetivo deste estudo é propor um modelo de análise integrada para a forma de atuação dos bancos brasileiros no ambiente da Internet. Para tanto foi conduzido um estudo de caso único com o Banco do Brasil. A maioria das entrevistas foi realizada nas sedes administrativa e de tecnologia do banco na cidade de Brasília, DF. Foi proposto um Modelo de Análise Integrada baseado em várias teorias e estruturas da área de estudos organizacionais e sistemas de informação. Entre as descobertas da pesquisa está a constatação de que o fenômeno estudado pode ser satisfatoriamente compreendido com o emprego de todas as teorias selecionadas, comprovando a complexidade do objeto desta pesquisa. O estudo apresentou entre suas limitações o fato de ter sido um estudo de caso único, como também a impossibilidade de se realizar esta pesquisa em amplo espectro, com um número consideravelmente maior de organizações. O ineditismo e a contribuição deste estudo residem no fato de ter proposto um modelo integrado com teorias e estruturas de análise que facilitam a compreensão do fenômeno observado. Em estudos futuros o pesquisador poderia incluir a pesquisa em um número maior de instituições para enriquecer a análise.

Enriching information to prevent bank runs

Sequential service in the banking sector, as modeled by Diamond and Dybvig (1983), is a barrier to full insurance and potential source of financial fragility against which deposit insurance is infeasible (Wallace, 1988). In this paper, we pursue a different perspective, viewing the sequence of contacts as opportunities to extract information through a larger message space with commitment to richer promises. As we show, if preferences satisfy a separating property then the desired elimination of dominated strategies (Green and Lin, 2003) occurs even when shocks are correlated. In this manner the sequential service promotes stability.

Internet share of advertising expenditure : growth drivers and inhibitors in the brazilian market

Os investimentos com publicidade na Internet como uma percentagem das despesas totais de publicidade variam significativamente de um país para outro. O número é tão baixo quanto 4,7% no mercado brasileiro e tão alto como 28,5% no mercado britânico (ZenithOptimedia, 2011b). Algumas razões explicam tal disparidade. No nível macro, a participação dos gastos com publicidade na Internet está fortemente ligada a variáveis como o produto interno bruto per capita e à penetração da Internet na população. No nível micro, uma pesquisa qualitativa foi feita para identificar os fatores que contribuem e inibem o crescimento da participação da publicidade online no mercado brasileiro. A vasta lista de inibidores parece ter profundo impacto sobre como os profissionais de mercado tomar decisões de alocação de investimento em publicidade por tipo de mídia. Devido à legislação, à auto-regulamentação e às dinâmicas da indústria, grande parte da tomada de decisão é realizada por agências de publicidade. Estas parecem ter fortes incentivos econômicos para selecionar outros tipos de mídia e não a Internet ao definir planos de mídia. Ao mesmo tempo, a legislação e a auto-regulamentação fornecem desincentivos para corretores de mídia a operar no mercado local. A falta de profissionais qualificados e a padronização limitada também desempenham papéis importante para inibir uma maior participação da Internet nos gastos com publicidade no Brasil. A convergência dos resultados quantitativos com os qualitativos indica possíveis motivos pelos quais a participação da publicidade online no Brasil é tão baixa. Em primeiro lugar, a participação é explicada pelo estágio de desenvolvimento dos países. Quanto mais rico e mais desenvolvido um país, maior a proporção de gastos com publicidade online tende a ser. Em segundo lugar, o estágio econômico emergente do Brasil potencialmente dá espaço para o aumento do ineficiências do mercado, tais como programas de descontos oferecidos de forma desproporcional para os principais decisores de alocação de investimentos de mídia. Este fato aparentemente produz um feedback negativo, contribuindo para manter a baixa participação da publicidade online no total dos investimentos publicitários.

Targeting the poor: a macroeconomic analysis of cash transfer programs

This paper introduces cash transfers targeting the poor in an incomplete markets model with heterogeneous agents facing idiosyncratic risk. These transfers change the degree of insurance in the economy and affect precautionary motives asymmetrically, leading the poorest households to decrease savings proportionally more than their richer counterparts. In a model economy calibrated to Brazil, once the cash transfer program is adopted, wealth inequality and social welfare increase, poverty decreases, while employment and income inequality remain about the same. Imperfect access to financial markets is important for these results, whereas whether the program is funded with lump sum or distortive taxes is not.

A Framework supporting collaboration on the distributed design of integrated systems

The work described in this thesis aims to support the distributed design of integrated systems and considers specifically the need for collaborative interaction among designers. Particular emphasis was given to issues which were only marginally considered in previous approaches, such as the abstraction of the distribution of design automation resources over the network, the possibility of both synchronous and asynchronous interaction among designers and the support for extensible design data models. Such issues demand a rather complex software infrastructure, as possible solutions must encompass a wide range of software modules: from user interfaces to middleware to databases. To build such structure, several engineering techniques were employed and some original solutions were devised. The core of the proposed solution is based in the joint application of two homonymic technologies: CAD Frameworks and object-oriented frameworks. The former concept was coined in the late 80's within the electronic design automation community and comprehends a layered software environment which aims to support CAD tool developers, CAD administrators/integrators and designers. The latter, developed during the last decade by the software engineering community, is a software architecture model to build extensible and reusable object-oriented software subsystems. In this work, we proposed to create an object-oriented framework which includes extensible sets of design data primitives and design tool building blocks. Such object-oriented framework is included within a CAD Framework, where it plays important roles on typical CAD Framework services such as design data representation and management, versioning, user interfaces, design management and tool integration. The implemented CAD Framework - named Cave2 - followed the classical layered architecture presented by Barnes, Harrison, Newton and Spickelmier, but the possibilities granted by the use of the object-oriented framework foundations allowed a series of improvements which were not available in previous approaches: - object-oriented frameworks are extensible by design, thus this should be also true regarding the implemented sets of design data primitives and design tool building blocks. This means that both the design representation model and the software modules dealing with it can be upgraded or adapted to a particular design methodology, and that such extensions and adaptations will still inherit the architectural and functional aspects implemented in the object-oriented framework foundation; - the design semantics and the design visualization are both part of the object-oriented framework, but in clearly separated models. This allows for different visualization strategies for a given design data set, which gives collaborating parties the flexibility to choose individual visualization settings; - the control of the consistency between semantics and visualization - a particularly important issue in a design environment with multiple views of a single design - is also included in the foundations of the object-oriented framework. Such mechanism is generic enough to be also used by further extensions of the design data model, as it is based on the inversion of control between view and semantics. The view receives the user input and propagates such event to the semantic model, which evaluates if a state change is possible. If positive, it triggers the change of state of both semantics and view. Our approach took advantage of such inversion of control and included an layer between semantics and view to take into account the possibility of multi-view consistency; - to optimize the consistency control mechanism between views and semantics, we propose an event-based approach that captures each discrete interaction of a designer with his/her respective design views. The information about each interaction is encapsulated inside an event object, which may be propagated to the design semantics - and thus to other possible views - according to the consistency policy which is being used. Furthermore, the use of event pools allows for a late synchronization between view and semantics in case of unavailability of a network connection between them; - the use of proxy objects raised significantly the abstraction of the integration of design automation resources, as either remote or local tools and services are accessed through method calls in a local object. The connection to remote tools and services using a look-up protocol also abstracted completely the network location of such resources, allowing for resource addition and removal during runtime; - the implemented CAD Framework is completely based on Java technology, so it relies on the Java Virtual Machine as the layer which grants the independence between the CAD Framework and the operating system. All such improvements contributed to a higher abstraction on the distribution of design automation resources and also introduced a new paradigm for the remote interaction between designers. The resulting CAD Framework is able to support fine-grained collaboration based on events, so every single design update performed by a designer can be propagated to the rest of the design team regardless of their location in the distributed environment. This can increase the group awareness and allow a richer transfer of experiences among them, improving significantly the collaboration potential when compared to previously proposed file-based or record-based approaches. Three different case studies were conducted to validate the proposed approach, each one focusing one a subset of the contributions of this thesis. The first one uses the proxy-based resource distribution architecture to implement a prototyping platform using reconfigurable hardware modules. The second one extends the foundations of the implemented object-oriented framework to support interface-based design. Such extensions - design representation primitives and tool blocks - are used to implement a design entry tool named IBlaDe, which allows the collaborative creation of functional and structural models of integrated systems. The third case study regards the possibility of integration of multimedia metadata to the design data model. Such possibility is explored in the frame of an online educational and training platform.

Introdução à redução psicológica

Procurou-se no presente trabalho examinar o significado exato do conceito de redução, enquanto aplicável às ciências, particularmente à Psicologia. O reducionismo, conforme foi destacado, terá de ser verificado, inicialmente sob os aspectos legais, metodológicos e linguísticos, isto é, segundo as formas de natureza mais geral. No âmbito da Psicologia, foram consideradas mais detalhadas as contribuições de R. Carnap e C.C. Pratt propondo, respectivamente, uma redução de linguagem e à Fisiologia. A análise crítica destas contribuições ressaltou suas deficiências principalmente sob dois aspectos: a rejeição da concepção de que os objetos apresentam diversos ângulos válidos de investigação científica, e a ausência de rigorosa comprovação empírica dos argumentos reducionistas enquanto passam do plano lógico para o concreto, ou ultrapassam diversos níveis ontologicamente definidos da realidade. O estudo também mostra a articulação do reducionismo com o problems corpo-mente, procedendo-se a um exame das principais soluções, monistas e dualistas, oferecidas para solucinar a questão. A alternativa mais adequada para o exame das manisfestações psicológicas deverá sera adoção de diversos planos de investigação ao invés de uma orientação que se caracterize pela unilateralidade. O caráter complementar do resultado das diversas contribuições científicas poderá ser explorado em benefício de uma concepção antropológica mais rica. O desenvolvimento e a aceitação de esquemas reducionistas, longe de se apresentar como um fenômino estranho no quadro cultural contemporâneo, corresponde a perspectivas filosóficas que se definem em termos de um mecanismo e determinismo. Em qualquer situação, na medida em que não se pretenda contribuir para a descaracterização da ciência, devem ser salvaguardados os critérios sintáticos e semânticos como recursos para o julgamento das contribuições que se pretende científicas. Este procedimento contudo não deve se oferecer como um obstáculo a outras iniciativas, como as de ordem filosófica, que seguem o curso definido por sua própria metodologia. Abre-se, portanto, neste nível, a oportunidade para um trabalho de integração mais elevado.