More letters of Charles Darwin. A record of his work in a series of hitherto unpublished letters, ed. by Francis Darwin ... and A.C. Seward ...

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More letters of Charles Darwin. A record of his work in a series of hitherto unpublished letters, ed. by Francis Darwin ... and A.C. Seward ...

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Relacionamento entre anfíbios anuros e bromélias da restinga de Regência, Linhares, Espírito Santo, Brasil

Some anuran amphibians use the bromeliads during the entire life cycle and others only as diurnal shelter. At the sandy coastal plain of Linhares, State of Espírito Santo, Southeastern Brazil, 676 bromeliads were examined, of which 303 of Aechmea blanchetiana (Baker) L. B. Smith., 1955, 287 of Aechmea nudicaulis (L.) Griseb., 1864, and 86 of Vrisea procera (Mart. Ex Schult. f.) Wittm, 1891. The morphometric and physical-chemical analysis of different bromeliads evidenced variations among plants. During the period sampled, six anuran species were found inside the plant axils. The hylid frog Phyllodytes luteolus (Wied, 1824) was the most abundant species (260 specimens). Its abundance was higher in the epiphyte bromeliad Vrisea procera. Phyllodytes luteolus had higher occurrences in bromeliads located at a transitional area between open and under the shrub vegetation. Specimens of Scinax alterus (Lutz, B., 1973) and Aparasphenodon brunoi Miranda-Ribeiro, 1920, were more frequent mainly in transitional areas; Bufo granulosus Spix, 1824 occurred in open and transitional areas, whereas Gastrotheca fissipis (Boulenger, 1888) and Leptodactylus fuscus (Schneider, 1799) were found only in bromeliads located in open areas.

Padrões distributivos e zoogeografia dos moluscos da plataforma continental brasileira: Parte III. Comissão Oceanográfica Espiríto Santo I

One hundred senventy-five species of marine mollusks have been identified in the Expedition Espírito Santo I. Standing out the species Margarites olivaceus (Brown, 1827); Cyclostremiscus caraboboensis Weishord, 1962; Balcis gibba Folin, 1867; Triphora compsa (Dall, 1927); Henrya af. goldmani Bartsh, 1947 and Limaea subovata Jeffreys, 1876 as they have not been previously assigned to Brazil. The analysis of the geographical distribution patterns points out the dominance of the species with thermophiles affinities. This situation evidences the importance of the Brazilian Current in the maintanance of the biogeographical structure of the studied region. However, it is the analysis of the cryophiles species that shows the Cabo Frio region as an ecological filter quite more permeable to the species with thermophile affinities than to the cryophiles ones. The existence of this barrier and the endemism rate (4.27%) characterize the region that extends from the south of Cabo Frio as a transition between the two patterns cited above. Therefore they do not corroborate in malacological parameters the proposition made by Palacio (1982) for the individualization of the Paulista Province.

A importância do sector microcrédito e o perfil do microempresário: Ilha de Santo Antão Cabo Verde

As microempresas desempenham um papel fundamental na promoção do emprego, na inovação, na criação de rendimentos e no desenvolvimento económico e social. Para os países em vias de desenvolvimento, crê-se que a dinamização das microempresas pode ser um instrumento privilegiado de promoção e combate à pobreza, na medida em que esta poderá ser a via para incentivar as camadas mais pobres das populações rurais e urbanas a criarem os seus próprios negócios e a providenciarem os seus próprios rendimentos. A criação e o crescimento das microempresas estão, todavia, condicionados por vários constrangimentos. A inexistência de capital inicial (Start-Up Capital) é apontada na literatura financeira como uma das mais relevantes. O recurso ao capital externo, como fonte de financiamento, dependerá, por sua vez, de vários factores. O presente estudo foi realizado em Santo Antão, a ilha mais a norte e a mais montanhosa do Arquipélago de Cabo Verde. O sector micro crédito chama atenção pelo facto de ser um instrumento de importância primordial para Cabo Verde e, particularmente, para a ilha de Santo Antão que possui uma estrutura económica e social muito vulnerável o que nos leva a compreender melhor, o funcionamento das microempresas, instaladas nos três municípios da Ilha (Paul, Ribeira Grande e Porto Novo). Ao longo do estudo definimos o perfil sócio económico do micro empresário Santantonense, com o objectivo de compreender e quantificar o contributo do sector para o desenvolvimento empresarial da ilha, sem esquecer os constrangimentos e dificuldades que se colocam aos micros empresários na procura de financiamento. O processo de recolha de informação foi efectuado com recurso a pesquisas de campo, a partir da elaboração e aplicação de entrevistas de uma forma semi-estruturada, no sentido de identificar as principais características/perfil do empresário. Os dados recolhidos pelas entrevistas têm por base uma apreciação crítica da gestão para melhor compreender e comparar as fragilidades existentes e analisar a capacidade de sucesso dos micros empresários. A configuração da actividade económica foi feita com base na análise quantitativa e qualitativa, dos dados obtidos na aplicação dos questionários. De igual modo, analisamos e comparamos os casos de sucesso e insucesso nas microempresas em estudo, casos de sucesso no que diz respeito aos benefícios de micro créditos para a redução da pobreza e do desemprego, de criação do auto-emprego, e da formação/informação aos micros empresários santantonenses. Nos casos de insucesso analisamos as causas que estiveram na sua origem assim como as consequências daí advenientes. Uma das constatações do estudo, como se verá pela análise dos dados, é que o micro empresário Santantonense, possui um baixo nível de escolaridade e que na sua maioria são mulheres. Um outro resultado evidenciado pelo estudo, é que há uma necessidade da política pública de desenvolvimento no sentido de definição de incentivos à criação e à promoção de micro negócios, atendendo às características demográficas e às necessidades específicas dos beneficiários. Micro enterprises perform a fundamental component in promoting employment, innovation, and earnings-generation and in socio-economic development. For countries en route to development, the belief is that the dynamic engine of the micro enterprises could be a privileged instrument to promote in the battle against poverty, in the hope that this could be the venue to incentivize the poorest of the rural and urban populations to create their own businesses and forecast their own earnings. The creation and the growth of micro enterprises is, however, conditional upon various constraints. The inexistence of initial capital is cited in financial literature as one of the more important. To resort to external capital as a financing source, is itself dependent on various factors. The current study was conducted in Santo Antão, the most northern and mountainous island in the Archipelago of Cape Verde. The micro credit´s sector calls attention to the fact that it is an essential instrument in Cape Verde, particularly in the island of Santo Antão which has an economic and social structure extremely vulnerable, leading us to a better understanding of how micro enterprises operate in the three municipalities of the Island (Paul, Ribeira Grande and Porto Novo). During the course of the study we defined the socio-economic character of the micro entrepreneur Santantonense, with the goal of understanding and quantifying the sector´s contribution to the Island´s entrepreneurial development, keeping in mind the contraints and difficulties that confront the entrepreneurs when seeking financing. The process for gathering the information was performed through field research, beginning with elaboration and application of interviews, designed to identify the entrepreneur´s major characteristics and the importance of micro credit for the island of Santo Antão. The data gathered through the interviews have un underlying basic and critic appreciation of management for a better understanding and comparing the existing fragilities and for analyzing the micro entrepreneurs´ capacity to succeed. The configuration of economic activities was designed based on quantitative and qualitative analysis from data obtained from the questionnaires. Likewise, we analyzed and compared the success and non-success cases of the micro enterprises in the study, success cases with respect to the benefits of micro credit in reducing poverty and unemployment, creation of self-employment, and the education/information for the micro entrepreneurs of Santo Antão. In the non-success cases we analyzed the original causes as well as the impending consequences. One of the study´s contentions, as the data analysis shows, is that micro entrepreneur of Santo Antão has a low level of education with the majority of them being women. In addition the study shows that there is a need for a public discourse in terms of defining and developing incentives for creating and promoting micro businesses given the demographic characteristics and the specific necessities of the beneficiaries.

Conservation of mayflies (Insecta, Ephemeroptera) in Espírito Santo, southeastern Brazil

Conservation of mayflies (Insecta, Ephemeroptera) in Espírito Santo, southeastern Brazil. Ephemeroptera exhibits great diversity among bodies of freshwater in the Atlantic Forest, a biome that is suffering from massive human impact. Within this context, the creation of conservation units using biological information is more recommended than economic, cultural, or political criteria. The distribution pattern of 76 Ephemeroptera species was analyzed using the biogeographical methods Parsimony Analysis of Endemicity and Network Analysis Method in order to infer relevant areas for conservation of the mayfly community in Espírito Santo. The results obtained from both analyses were largely congruent, and pointed out four relevant areas for conservation: two in the south of the state, where conservation units or priority areas for conservation are well established; and two in the north, a region in the state where little conservation efforts have been historically done. Therefore, based on our analyses on mayflies, we recommend the expansion of the existing APCs or the creation of new APCs on the north of Espírito Santo.

Checklist of Ephemeroptera (Insecta) from São Mateus River Basin, Espírito Santo, Brazil

ABSTRACTIn order to expand the knowledge on the composition of Ephemeroptera from large rivers, we present, herein, the first survey of mayflies from the São Mateus River Basin, Espírito Santo State. Adults were collected biannually in 2012 and 2013 with the aid of Pennsylvania light trap in eleven points distributed in the main river of the river basin, São Mateus River and its two main tributaries, Cotaxé River (Braço Norte) and Cricaré River (Braço Sul). Thirty-three species were identified (22 nominal and 11 morphospecies) in 24 genera and five families. One genus and one species are reported for the first time from Brazil, three species from Southeastern Region of Brazil, and two species from the state. Five species and one genus not previously described were also found. Moreover, around 20% of the known species of mayfly registered from the state were found. This work reinforces the need to give more attention to research on large rivers due to the high potential for diversity, not only for Ephemeroptera, but also for other aquatic insects.

Understanding informal payments in health care: motivation of health workers in Tanzania

BACKGROUND: There is growing evidence that informal payments for health care are fairly common in many low- and middle-income countries. Informal payments are reported to have a negative consequence on equity and quality of care; it has been suggested, however, that they may contribute to health worker motivation and retention. Given the significance of motivation and retention issues in human resources for health, a better understanding of the relationships between the two phenomena is needed. This study attempts to assess whether and in what ways informal payments occur in Kibaha, Tanzania. Moreover, it aims to assess how informal earnings might help boost health worker motivation and retention. METHODS: Nine focus groups were conducted in three health facilities of different levels in the health system. In total, 64 health workers participated in the focus group discussions (81% female, 19% male) and where possible, focus groups were divided by cadre. All data were processed and analysed by means of the NVivo software package. RESULTS: The use of informal payments in the study area was confirmed by this study. Furthermore, a negative relationship between informal payments and job satisfaction and better motivation is suggested. Participants mentioned that they felt enslaved by patients as a result of being bribed and this resulted in loss of self-esteem. Furthermore, fear of detection was a main demotivating factor. These factors seem to counterbalance the positive effect of financial incentives. Moreover, informal payments were not found to be related to retention of health workers in the public health system. Other factors such as job security seemed to be more relevant for retention. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the practice of informal payments contributes to the general demotivation of health workers and negatively affects access to health care services and quality of the health system. Policy action is needed that not only provides better financial incentives for individuals but also tackles an environment in which corruption is endemic.

Effects of tillage systems on physical properties of a cohesive yellow argisol in the northern state of Espírito Santo, Brazil

Tillage systems are a key element of the technology of crop production, both with a view to crop yield and from the perspective of soil conservation and sustainability of the production system. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the effects of five tillage systems on the physical properties of a cohesive Yellow Argisol. The experiment was installed in the field on January 21, 2011 and lasted 260 days, in an area previously used as pasture with Brachiaria grass without liming or fertilization, but irrigated by a low pressure spray system. The treatments, in five replications and in a randomized block design, consisted of: 1) disk plow (twice) + disk harrow + ridge-furrow tillage (raising a ridge along the planting row), 135 days after transplanting (DP + RID); 2) disk plow (twice) + disk harrow (DP no RID); 3) subsoiler (SB); 4) disk plow (twice) + disk harrow + scarification with three shanks along the plant row (DP + SPR); and 5) disk plow (twice) + disk harrow + scarification with three shanks in the total area (DP + STA). In all tillage systems, furrows were mechanically opened for the papaya plants. After the treatments, the mechanical resistance to penetration was determined, followed by soil moisture, mean weight diameter (MWD), geometric mean diameter (GMD), bulk density (BD), macroporosity (Ma), microporosity (Mi), and number of fruits per plant. There were differences in penetration resistance (PR) between treatments. The subsoiler was more effective to decrease RP to a distance of 0.35 m from the plants, perpendicular to the plant row. The scarifier resulted in a lower PR than DP or SB, even at the depth of 0.40 m, and it was more effective at greater distances perpendicular to the plant. All tillage systems induced a PR between 2.0 and 3.0 MPa at the depth with the highest concentration of papaya tree roots (0-0.25 m), improving the physical conditions to this depth. There was no statistical difference among the treatments for BD, Ma, Mi, MWD, and GMD at a depth of 0.20 m. The disk plow changed the physical properties of the soil most intensely to a depth of 0.20 m. The use of scarification, reduced tillage with a forest subsoiler, or ridge-furrow tillage did not improve the physical properties in the rhizosphere. Reduced tillage with a forest subsoiler resulted in a lower number of fruits per plant than all other treatments, which did not differ from each other.

Thomas-Fermi theory for atomic nuclei revisited

The recently developed semiclassical variational Wigner-Kirkwood (VWK) approach is applied to finite nuclei using external potentials and self-consistent mean fields derived from Skyrme inter-actions and from relativistic mean field theory. VWK consist s of the Thomas-Fermi part plus a pure, perturbative h 2 correction. In external potentials, VWK passes through the average of the quantal values of the accumulated level density and total en energy as a function of the Fermi energy. However, there is a problem of overbinding when the energy per particle is displayed as a function of the particle number. The situation is analyzed comparing spherical and deformed harmonic oscillator potentials. In the self-consistent case, we show for Skyrme forces that VWK binding energies are very close to those obtained from extended Thomas-Fermi functionals of h 4 order, pointing to the rapid convergence of the VWK theory. This satisfying result, however, does not cure the overbinding problem, i.e., the semiclassical energies show more binding than they should. This feature is more pronounced in the case of Skyrme forces than with the relativistic mean field approach. However, even in the latter case the shell correction energy for e.g.208 Pb turns out to be only ∼ −6 MeV what is about a factor two or three off the generally accepted value. As an adhoc remedy, increasing the kinetic energy by 2.5%, leads to shell correction energies well acceptable throughout the periodic table. The general importance of the present studies for other finite Fermi systems, self-bound or in external potentials, is pointed out.

Predação e remoção de sementes de cinco espécies de palmeiras por Guerlinguetus ingrami (Thomas, 1901) em um fragmento urbano de Floresta Atlântica Montana

Em um fragmento urbano de Floresta Ombrófila Densa Montana no Estado do Espírito Santo (Sudeste do Brasil), foram avaliados o padrão de frugivoria e as proporções de remoção, predação e armazenamento de frutos por Guerlinguetus ingrami, em relação a cinco espécies de palmeira (Syagrus pseudococos, S. ruschiana, Bactris setosa, Polyandrococos caudescens e Euterpe edulis). As espécies de Arecaceae enquadram-se na síndrome associada à dispersão por G. ingrami, na qual as espécies de plantas apresentam alta produção, grandes frutos com poucas sementes envolvidas por endocarpos resistentes e que não são usadas por outros predadores de sementes arborícolas. Os resultados apontaram que existem diferenças no padrão de frugivoria da espécie G. ingrami quando comparadas com as de espécies com a mesma síndrome; aquelas que possuem frutos maiores apresentaram maior taxa de remoção e de armazenamento de seus diásporos. E, devido à especificidade exibida por G. ingrami na atividade de dispersão de sementes, este roedor deverá atuar apenas em trocas compensatórias específicas em pequenos fragmentos defaunados. Portanto, a seletividade de G. ingrami poderia indicar que o seu papel como dispersor em pequenos fragmentos estaria restrito em função da maior probabilidade de mortalidade associada às plantas preferencialmente dispersas por essa espécie, e sua atuação como predador de sementes deve ser quantificada para que os seus efeitos, em pequenos fragmentos, sejam mais bem compreendidos.

Energetic sustainability of three arabica coffee growing systems used by family farming units in Espírito Santo state

Three growing systems of Arabica coffee were evaluated under the energy perspective, in the state of Espírito Santo in Brazil. The systems are conventional cultivation (CC), cultivation with good agricultural practices (CGP) and organic farming (OF). It was made a comparison of the energy flows within these three systems to show sustainable levels of each one based on production average data of several family-farming units. Therefore, we analyzed crop yield, total energy efficiency reverse (TEER), energy efficiency of ripe coffee (EERC) and non-renewable energy efficiency (NREE). OF system had values for TEER, EERC and NREE of 3.3 4.7 and 7.9 respectively. Yet CC showed values of 1.8, 1.9 and 1.6 for TEER, EERC and NREE respectively. Furthermore, CGP presented values for TEER, EERC and NREE of 0.7, 1.3 and 1.4 respectively. The highest yield was observed in CGP, reaching an amount of 1794 kg ha-1(17,455 MJ); however, this system expends more energy than it converts. Thus, over those points, OF is the most sustainable system.

Nåden och gåvan i Philipp Melanchthons rättfärdiggörelselära 1521-1535

In this thesis Philip Melanchthon’s doctrine of justification is analyzed, especially the aspects of favor and donum in his writings until 1535. The research task is defined in the introduction of the thesis. Researchers agree, that Melanchthon emphasized the forensic aspect of the doctrine of justification, but this is not the case with the effective aspect of his doctrine of justification. Therefore, I have chosen to focus on the concepts of favor (grace) and donum (gift). The thesis begins with an analysis of the first edition of the Loci communes of 1521 in chapter two, and it ends with the second edition from 1535 in chapter seven. Melanchthon’s most important writings from the intervening period are analyzed in chapters three to six. In chapter eight, I describe my final results from the analysis. Although I have focused on how Melanchthon perceived the relationship between favor and donum, I have also taken note of such loci that are associated with his view of justification. I have done this in order to get a clearer picture of Melanchthon’s doctrine of justification, and of the issues which change in his theological thinking over time. In the research overview in chapter one, I divided the researchers in four different groups depending on how they perceive Melanchthon’s doctrine of justification. This classification is of course not comprehensive, since the reality is much more complicated. The main interpretations present in Melanchthon research are: 1. Christ as favor in justification, but donum is excluded from justification. 2. Christ as favor in justification, but the Spirit is donum in justification. 3. Christ as both favor and donum in justification until the early 1530s. 4. Christ as both favor and donum in justification throughout his life. The fourth option is in my opinion the most preferable. The analysis of Melanchthon’s writings shows that he expects both a forensic, and an effective aspect in the doctrine of justification throughout the examined period. Melanchthon strongly emphasizes that justification is by grace alone through faith for Christ’s sake, but also that the Holy Spirit works the justifying faith, and is the gift bestowed on believers in connection with this. Where the opponents according to Melanchthon see deeds, virtues, or a quality in the believer as the cause of the justification, there Melanchthon sees only Christ.