Prospective analysis about the world wide strategy of commercial vehicles development

The main objective of this paper is to make a prospective analysis about the tendencies of the world wide strategies of commercial vehicles development, in relation of the current local and international scenery. It has been done a research by using the Delphi method, which consists into regulate, systematically, the presentation of questions about a specified problem to a group of specialists. In order to guarantee more representative data, it has been adopted three distinct groups: academics, OEMs managers and Tier 1 suppliers managers. The results showed that the three mentioned groups have similar opinion about the necessity of having a product development in the subsidiaries companies; also it has been pointed the necessity of having more taylor made vehicles, due to the intrinsic characteristics of this industry segment. Copyright © 2008 SAE International.

Environmental evaluation of cogeneration scenarios in sugar industry

The development of new techniques that allow the analysis and optimization of energy systems bearing in mind environmental issues is indispensable in a world with finite natural resources and growing demand of energy. Among the energy systems that deserve special attention, cogeneration in the sugar industry must be pointed out, because it uses efficiently a common fuel for generation of useful heat and power. Within this frame, thermoeconomical optimization - 2nd Law of Thermodynamics analysis by exergy function and economic evaluation of the thermal system - gradually is taking importance as a powerful tool to assist to the decision making process. Also, the explicit consideration of environmental issues offers a better way to explore trade-offs between different aspects to support the decisions that must be made. In this work it is used the technique of Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) which allows to consider environmental matters as an integral part of the problem, in opposite to most of the environmental approaches that only reduce residuals generation , without taking into account impacts associated to other related processes. On the other hand, the consideration of environmental issues in optimization of energy systems is a novel and promissory contribution in the state of the art of energy optimization and LCA. The system under study is a sugar plant of Tucumán (Argentina) given the particular importance that this industry had inside the regional economy of the Argentinean Northwest. Although cogeneration comes being used a while ago in sugar industry, being the main objective the generation of heat and as secondary objective the electric power generation and mechanic power to cover several needs of working machineries, to the date it is no available a versatile tool that allows to analyze economical feasible alternatives bearing in mind environmental issues. At sugar plants, steam is generated in boilers using as fuel bagasse - cellulosic fiber waste obtained crushing the sugar cane- and it is used to give useful heat and shaft work to the plant, but it can also be used to generate electricity with export opportunities to the electrical network. The great number of process alternatives outlines a serious decision making problem in order to take advantage of the resources. Although the problem turns out to be a mixed non-linear problem (MINLP), the main contribution of this work is the development of a hybrid strategy to evaluate cogeneration alternatives that combines optimization approaches with environmental indicators. This powerful tool for its versatility and robustness to analyze cogeneration systems, will be of great help in the decision making process, because of their easy implementation to analyze the kind of problems presented in the sugar industry.

Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC): new biregional trade and investment relations in a changing world economic environment$c

Includes bibliography

The international competitiveness of the Costa Rican clothing industry

Includes bibliography

The Mexican maquila industry and the environment: an overview of the issues

Includes bibliography

The Mexican film industry and its participation in the global value chain

Includes bibliography

Structural changes and productivity in Latin American industry, 1970-1996

Includes bibliography

Structural and Phylogenetic Studies with MjTX-I Reveal a Multi-Oligomeric Toxin - a Novel Feature in Lys49-PLA2s Protein Class

The mortality caused by snakebites is more damaging than many tropical diseases, such as dengue haemorrhagic fever, cholera, leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis and Chagas disease. For this reason, snakebite envenoming adversely affects health services of tropical and subtropical countries and is recognized as a neglected disease by the World Health Organization. One of the main components of snake venoms is the Lys49-phospholipases A2, which is catalytically inactive but possesses other toxic and pharmacological activities. Preliminary studies with MjTX-I from Bothrops moojeni snake venom revealed intriguing new structural and functional characteristics compared to other bothropic Lys49-PLA2s. We present in this article a comprehensive study with MjTX-I using several techniques, including crystallography, small angle X-ray scattering, analytical size-exclusion chromatography, dynamic light scattering, myographic studies, bioinformatics and molecular phylogenetic analyses.Based in all these experiments we demonstrated that MjTX-I is probably a unique Lys49-PLA2, which may adopt different oligomeric forms depending on the physical-chemical environment. Furthermore, we showed that its myotoxic activity is dramatically low compared to other Lys49-PLA2s, probably due to the novel oligomeric conformations and important mutations in the C-terminal region of the protein. The phylogenetic analysis also showed that this toxin is clearly distinct from other bothropic Lys49-PLA2s, in conformity with the peculiar oligomeric characteristics of MjTX-I and possible emergence of new functionalities inresponse to environmental changes and adaptation to new preys. © 2013 Salvador et al.

Os descaminhos da estrada: a organização do trabalho dos caminhoneiros no porto de Santos

Pós-graduação em Ciências Sociais - FFC

The impact of China’s incursion into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on intra-industry trade

China has become a major player in world trade. Although it has not signed any trade agreements with the countries of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), China has been gaining ground as a supplier of goods, making vigorous inroads into this area. One of the dominant trends in economic integration has been the development of intra-industry trade, which has flourished in the nafta signatory countries. This paper focuses on the analysis of intra-industry trade in the context of this free trade area, where the production structure of the countries involved has changed significantly since trade liberalization, revealing the internationalization of production chains. Lastly, changes in the trade structure induced by the growing presence of China in the nafta region are captured. Trade within this area works like a radiated wheel, with the United States acting as the axis, while China, Canada and Mexico operate as the spokes.

O capital ganha asas: reestruturação produtiva no setor aeroespacial brasileiro : o caso da EMBRAER

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Empresariado industrial e desenvolvimento socioeconômico: estudo do discurso do empresariado calçadista paulista frente ao mundo globalizado (1995-2010)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Integrated cutting machine programming and lot sizing in furniture industry

In this paper a mathematical model that combines lot-sizing and cutting-stock problems applied to the furniture industry is presented. The model considers the usual decisions of the lot sizing problems, as well as operational decisions related to the cutting machine programming. Two sets of a priori generated cutting patterns are used, industry cutting patterns and a class of n-group cutting patterns. A strategy to improve the utilization of the cutting machine is also tested. An optimization package was used to solve the model and the computational results, using real data from a furniture factory, show that a small subset of n-group cutting patterns provides good results and that the cutting machine utilization can be improved by the proposed strategy.

On the Limit Cycles for a Class of Continuous Piecewise Linear Differential Systems with Three Zones

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Desenvolvimento de um bioprocesso utilizando-se resíduos para produção de amilases por Rhizopus oligosporus e etanol por Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)