The development of the private equity industry since the 2008 financial crisis

The private equity industry was experiencing a phenomenal boom at the turn of the century but collapsed abruptly in 2008 with the onset of the financial crisis. Considered one of the worst crises since the Great Depression of the 1930s, it had sent ripples around the world threatening the collapse of financial institutions and provoking a liquidity crunch followed by a huge downturn in economic activity and recession. Furthermore, the physiognomy of the financial landscape had considerably altered with banks retracting from the lending space, accompanied by a hardening of financial regulation that sought to better contain systemic risk. Given the new set of changes and challenges that had arisen from this period of financial turmoil, private equity found itself having to question current practices and methods of operation in order to adjust to the harsh realities of a new post-apocalyptic world. Consequently, this paper goes on to explore how the private equity business, management and operation model has evolved since the credit crunch with a specific focus on mature markets such as the United States and Europe. More specifically, this paper will aim to gather insights on the development of the industry since the crisis in Western Europe through a case study approach using as a base interviews with professionals working in the industry and those external to the sector but who have/have had considerable interaction with PE players from 2007 to the present.

A influência do estilo de liderança na construção de relações de confiança em uma instituição financeira

A turbulência dos mercados globais, o acirramento da concorrência, a velocidade das mudanças, a complexidade e a incerteza do cenário político, econômico e social trazem incessantes desafios para as organizações, que buscam responder a esses movimentos dinâmicos com a celeridade necessária, a fim de obter vantagem competitiva e assegurar a sustentabilidade dos negócios. Nessa perspectiva, a liderança tem um papel fundamental por ser capaz de mobilizar e orientar a força de trabalho para o cumprimento das metas organizacionais, uma vez que o líder pode influenciar positivamente e inspirar pessoas a dar o melhor de si em benefício da organização. O engajamento, a motivação e a cooperação que propiciam essa entrega pessoal ocorrem a partir da percepção dos liderados a respeito do comportamento do líder exemplar, o que remete à construção de vínculos de confiança. Em função disso, este trabalho teve como objetivo identificar o estilo de liderança prevalecente em uma unidade de uma instituição financeira, bem como avaliar se este estilo propicia a construção de relações de confiança entre líder e liderados. Para tanto, inicialmente foi realizado um levantamento bibliográfico sobre os temas liderança e confiança. Na sequência, foram aplicados os questionários Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) e Behavioral Trust Inventory (BTI) e realizadas entrevistas, a fim de obter os dados para análise. Como resultado da pesquisa concluiu-se que prevalece na unidade estudada um estilo com traços da liderança transformacional e da liderança transacional recompensa contingente. Ficou evidenciado que esse estilo de liderança constrói vínculos de confiança mútua, demonstrando que as ações do líder fomentam o reconhecimento de sua credibilidade e auxiliam na solução de dilemas de gestão, possibilitando a cooperação espontânea para o alcance dos objetivos estratégicos da instituição.

Uma abordagem de óptica física e física moderna para Engenharia Ambiental

O item não apresenta o texto completo, pois está passando por revisão editorial

Implementação de sistemas eólicos para redes de sensores sem fios

O trabalho tem por objetivo principal estudar a utilização de aerogeradores para microprodução de energia (menor que 1 W) de forma a poderem alimentar os nós das redes de sensores sem fios. Para tal, analisaram-se dois tipos de aerogeradores, os de eixo vertical e os de eixo horizontal, tendo-se efetuado simulações de CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) para verificar o desempenho das turbinas, de forma a determinar qual é o mais adequado. Foi realizado o projeto dos dois sistemas e analisou-se em particular as turbinas, os geradores e os conversores de potência de forma a avaliar o desempenho. Efetuaram-se simulações para determinar o comportamento esperado e posteriormente realizaram-se as medições experimentais num túnel de vento, tendo-se concluído que, para a dimensão dos aerogeradores desenvolvidos, o sistema vertical produz mais potência que o de eixo horizontal para velocidades de vento inferiores a 4,5 m/s e tem a grande vantagem de não ser significativamente afetado pela turbulência do vento. No entanto, o sistema de eixo horizontal é sempre mais eficiente para qualquer velocidade de vento, devido ao seu coeficiente de potência ser sempre superior ao do sistema vertical. Também se comparou o desempenho do conversor DC-DC redutor-elevador inversor com o elevador tendo-se determinado que o segundo apresenta melhor desempenho, na gama de valores de tensão utilizados no trabalho. Por fim implementaram-se os sistemas em ambiente real de forma a verificar como se comportam quando estão expostos aos elementos com a velocidade e a direção do vento a variar. Concluiu-se que mesmo com ventos fracos a potência produzida é suficiente para carregar uma bateria de 3,6 V (tensão nominal) e alimentar a carga, pelo que o uso de energia eólica é uma boa alternativa à energia fotovoltaica.

Volatilidade dos retornos e governança: um estudo de eventos da crise do subprime

The financial crisis that occurred between the years 2007 and 2008, known as the subprime crisis, has highlighted the governance of companies in Brazil and worldwide. To monitor the financial risk, quantitative tools of risk management were created in the 1990s, after several financial disasters. The market turmoil has also led companies to invest in the development and use of information, which are applied as tools to support process control and decision making. Numerous empirical studies on informational efficiency of the market have been made inside and outside Brazil, revealing whether the prices reflect the information available instantly. The creation of different levels of corporate governance on BOVESPA, in 2000, made the firms had greater impairment in relation to its shareholders with greater transparency in their information. The purpose of this study is to analyze how the subprime financial crisis has affected, between January 2007 and December 2009, the volatility of stock returns in the BM&BOVESPA of companies with greater liquidity at different levels of corporate governance. From studies of time series and through the studies of events, econometric tests were performed by the EVIEWS, and through the results obtained it became evident that the adoption of good practices of corporate governance affect the volatility of returns of companies

Ecologia do fitoplâncton impactado por cultivo de tilápia do Nilo, oreochromis niloticus, em tanques-rede no açude Ministro João Alves, Parelhas, Rio Grande do Norte

The dams are limnic ecosystems of great importance for its multiple uses, among them, water supply for the public and to culture of artisanal fish are most relevant. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the physical-chemical characteristics and the phytoplankton community in two chosen sites (Point 1 littoral zone of point source; Point 2 pelagic zone of non-point source) of the Minister João Alves dam, which is also known as Boqueirão de Parelhas/RN. This represents the spatial distribution of the phytoplankton species in order to understand any possible alterations of the water quality and the phytoplankton composition in relation to the water quality originating from the impact of the tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, culture. The study period also encompasses temporal variations exhibited in two seasons of an annual cycle, one during the dry season (Oct, Nov and Dec of 2008 and Jan of 2009), and the other rainy season (Mar, Apr, May and June of 2008) to extend the observation. The physicalchemical parameters, such as pH, temperature, electrical conductivity, concentration of dissolved oxygen were measured in situ and the values of the inorganic nutrients (nitrate, ammonium and orto-phosfato) and chlorophyll in the laboratory. The quali-quantitative analyses of the phytoplankton had been carried through sedimentation technique and the enumeration of the random of 400 cells, colonies and filaments counted using Sedgwick-Rafter counting chamber. The results of pH varied widely from the acidic to alkaline range with the minimum of 5.8 (± 0.8) and the maximum of 9.2 (± 0.7-0.8), at point 1 and 2. The dissolved oxygen content was higher in the rainy period than that in the dry period. The maximum electrical conductivity was of 1409 μScm-1 in point 1 and 431 minim of μScm-1, in point 2. There was a considerable alteration in the levels of inorganic nutrients such as nitrate-nitrogen, ammoniacal nitrogen and orthophosphate during the two cycles of study period. Phytoplankton assemblages presented a picture of alternate dominance among species Cyanobacteria, Bacillariophyceae and Chlorophyceae. The trophic state index diagnosed to the category of mesotrophic, which is based on the values of chlorophyll, total phosphorus and Secchi-disc measurements. The wind driven turbulence of the water column and the fresh inflow of water (flushing and dilution) during rainy season acted as constraint and did-not allow an exaggerated growth of the species of cyanobacteria. On the basis of the present we conclude that the culture of tilapias in cage-culture fails to produce pollution load that could compromise the quality of the water of the dam, probably be due to small dimension of the culture in relation to the size, volume of the water and the reservoir capacity support its own environment

Estudo in silico da interação da albumina de soro humano com o ibuprofeno

Currently, computational methods have been increasingly used to aid in the characterization of molecular biological systems, especially when they relevant to human health. Ibuprofen is a nonsteroidal antiinflammatory or broadband use in the clinic. Once in the bloodstream, most of ibuprofen is linked to human serum albumin, the major protein of blood plasma, decreasing its bioavailability and requiring larger doses to produce its antiinflamatory action. This study aimes to characterize, through the interaction energy, how is the binding of ibuprofen to albumin and to establish what are the main amino acids and molecular interactions involved in the process. For this purpouse, it was conducted an in silico study, by using quantum mechanical calculations based on Density Functional Theory (DFT), with Generalized Gradient approximation (GGA) to describe the effects of exchange and correlation. The interaction energy of each amino acid belonging to the binding site to the ligand was calculated the using the method of molecular fragmentation with conjugated caps (MFCC). Besides energy, we calculated the distances, types of molecular interactions and atomic groups involved. The theoretical models used were satisfactory and show a more accurate description when the dielectric constant ε = 40 was used. The findings corroborate the literature in which the Sudlow site I (I-FA3) is the primary binding site and the site I-FA6 as secondary site. However, it differs in identifying the most important amino acids, which by interaction energy, in order of decreasing energy, are: Arg410, Lys414, Ser 489, Leu453 and Tyr411 to the I-Site FA3 and Leu481, Ser480, Lys351, Val482 and Arg209 to the site I-FA6. The quantification of interaction energy and description of the most important amino acids opens new avenues for studies aiming at manipulating the structure of ibuprofen, in order to decrease its interaction with albumin, and consequently increase its distribution

Fragmentos do pensamento dialético na história da construção das ciências da natureza

Este trabalho tem por objetivo identificar uma possível inclinação das ciências naturais em direção ao materialismo dialético. Para tanto, procura-se apresentar a história da dialética a partir da discussão racionalismo/empirismo moderno e seus desdobramentos até as tendências dialéticos contemporâneas. Os autores discutidos são Kant, Hegel, Marx, Engels, Lenin, Horkheimer, Marcuse, Habermas, Bachelard e suas escolas epistemológicas, completadas por Althusser, Lefebvre e Kedrov. Ao lado desses autores discutem-se outros, das duas últimas décadas, procurando extrair-lhes o olhar dialético, oculto em seus discursos acerca da ciência do fim do século. Também se procura encontrar na mecânica quântica, nos fractais, na lógica para-consistente, nos modelos matemáticos e na biologia antideterminista, argumentos para existência de uma forma de abordagem dialética da natureza. Por último, procura-se refletir acerca dos motivos da resistência ao método dialético apresentado pela maioria dos cientistas ocidentais e, sua possível superação.

Estimação de parâmetros genéticos para produção de leite de cabras da raça Alpina

Foram utilizados 9.374 registros semanais de produção de leite de 302 primeiras lactações de cabras da raça Alpina. A produção de leite no dia do controle foi analisada por meio de um modelo animal, unicarater, de regressão aleatória, em que as funções de covariâncias para os componentes genéticos aditivos e de ambiente permanente foram modeladas por meio das funções de Wilmink, Ali e Schaeffer e por polinômios ortogonais, em uma escala de Legendre de ordens cúbica e quíntica. Assumiu-se, ainda, variância residual homogênea durante toda a lactação e heterogênea com três e quatro classes de variância residual. Os modelos foram comparados pelo critério de informação de Akaike (AIC), pelo critério de informação Bayesiano de Schwar (BIC), pela função de verossimilhança (Ln L), pela visualização das estimativas de variâncias genéticas, de ambiente permanente, fenotípicas e residuais e pelas herdabilidades. O polinômio de Legendre de ordem quíntica, com quatro e três classes de variâncias residuais, e a função de Ali e Schaeffer, com quatro classes de variâncias residuais, foram indicados como os mais adequados pelo AIC, BIC e Ln L. Estes modelos diferiram na partição da variância fenotípica para as variâncias de ambiente permanente, genética e residual apenas no início e no final da lactação. Contudo, a função de Ali e Schaeffer resultou em estimativas negativas de correlação genética entre os controles mais distantes. O polinômio de Legendre de ordem quíntica, assumindo variância residual heterogênea, mostrou-se mais adequado para ajustar a produção de leite no dia do controle de cabras da raça Alpina.

Estimação de componentes de co-variância para pesos corporais do nascimento aos 365 dias de idade de bovinos Guzerá empregando-se modelos de regressão aleatória

Um total de 19.770 pesos corporais de bovinos Guzerá, do nascimento aos 365 dias de idade, pertencentes ao banco de dados da Associação Brasileira dos Criadores de Zebu (ABCZ) foi analisado com os objetivos de comparar diferentes estruturas de variâncias residuais, considerando 1, 18, 28 e 53 classes residuais e funções de variância de ordens quadrática a quíntica; e estimar funções de co-variância de diferentes ordens para os efeitos genético aditivo direto, genético materno, de ambiente permanente de animal e de mãe e parâmetros genéticos para os pesos corporais usando modelos de regressão aleatória. Os efeitos aleatórios foram modelados por regressões polinomiais em escala de Legendre com ordens variando de linear a quártica. Os modelos foram comparados pelo teste de razão de verossimilhança e pelos critérios de Informação de Akaike e de Informação Bayesiano de Schwarz. O modelo com 18 classes heterogêneas foi o que melhor se ajustou às variâncias residuais, de acordo com os testes estatísticos, porém, o modelo com função de variância de quinta ordem também mostrou-se apropriado. Os valores de herdabilidade direta estimados foram maiores que os encontrados na literatura, variando de 0,04 a 0,53, mas seguiram a mesma tendência dos estimados pelas análises unicaracterísticas. A seleção para peso em qualquer idade melhoraria o peso em todas as idades no intervalo estudado.

Simulação computacional do escoamento em bombas de cavidades progressivas

The use of Progressing Cavity Pumps (PCPs) in artificial lift applications in low deep wells is becoming more common in the oil industry, mainly, due to its ability to pump heavy oils, produce oil with large concentrations of sand, besides present high efficiency when compared to other artificial lift methods. Although this system has been widely used as an oil lift method, few investigations about its hydrodynamic behavior are presented, either experimental or numeric. Therefore, in order to increase the knowledge about the BCP operational behavior, this work presents a novel computational model for the 3-D transient flow in progressing cavity pumps, which includes the relative motion between rotor and stator, using an element based finite volume method. The model developed is able to accurately predict the volumetric efficiency and viscous looses as well as to provide detailed information of pressure and velocity fields inside the pump. In order to predict PCP performance for low viscosity fluids, advanced turbulence models were used to treat, accurately, the turbulent effects on the flow, which allowed for obtaining results consistent with experimental values encountered in literature. In addition to the 3D computational model, a simplified model was developed, based on mass balance within cavities and on simplification on the momentum equations for fully developed flow along the seal region between cavities. This simplified model, based on previous approaches encountered in literature, has the ability to predict flow rate for a given differential pressure, presenting exactness and low CPU requirements, becoming an engineering tool for quick calculations and providing adequate results, almost real-time time. The results presented in this work consider a rigid stator PCP and the models developed were validated against experimental results from open literature. The results for the 3-D model showed to be sensitive to the mesh size, such that a numerical mesh refinement study is also presented. Regarding to the simplified model, some improvements were introduced in the calculation of the friction factor, allowing the application fo the model for low viscosity fluids, which was unsuccessful in models using similar approaches, presented in previous works

Estudo numérico de escoamento turbulento em padrão anular gás-líquido em dutos verticais

Multiphase flows in ducts can adopt several morphologies depending on the mass fluxes and the fluids properties. Annular flow is one of the most frequently encountered flow patterns in industrial applications. For gas liquid systems, it consists of a liquid film flowing adjacent to the wall and a gas core flowing in the center of the duct. This work presents a numerical study of this flow pattern in gas liquid systems in vertical ducts. For this, a solution algorithm was developed and implemented in FORTRAN 90 to numerically solve the governing transport equations. The mass and momentum conservation equations are solved simultaneously from the wall to the center of the duct, using the Finite Volumes Technique. Momentum conservation in the gas liquid interface is enforced using an equivalent effective viscosity, which also allows for the solution of both velocity fields in a single system of equations. In this way, the velocity distributions across the gas core and the liquid film are obtained iteratively, together with the global pressure gradient and the liquid film thickness. Convergence criteria are based upon satisfaction of mass balance within the liquid film and the gas core. For system closure, two different approaches are presented for the calculation of the radial turbulent viscosity distribution within the liquid film and the gas core. The first one combines a k- Ɛ one-equation model and a low Reynolds k-Ɛ model. The second one uses a low Reynolds k- Ɛ model to compute the eddy viscosity profile from the center of the duct right to the wall. Appropriate interfacial values for k e Ɛ are proposed, based on concepts and ideas previously used, with success, in stratified gas liquid flow. The proposed approaches are compared with an algebraic model found in the literature, specifically devised for annular gas liquid flow, using available experimental results. This also serves as a validation of the solution algorithm

Modelagem numérica de escoamento em padrão anular com transferência de calor e massa

Annular flow is the prevailing pattern in transport and energy conversion systems and therefore, one of the most important patterns in multiphase flow in ducts. The correct prediction of the pressure gradient and heat transfer coefficient is essential for optimizing the system s capacity. The objective of this work is to develop and implement a numerical algorithm capable of predicting hydrodynamic and thermal characteristics for upflow, vertical, annular flow. The numerical algorithm is then complemented with the physical modeling of phenomena that occurs in this flow pattern. These are, turbulence, entrainment and deposition and phase change. For the development of the numerical model, axial diffusion of heat and momentum is neglected. In this way the time-averaged equations are solved in their parabolic form obtaining the velocity and temperature profiles for each axial step at a time, together with the global parameters, namely, pressure gradient, mean film thickness and heat transfer coefficient, as well as their variation in the axial direction. The model is validated for the following conditions: fully-developed laminar flow with no entrainment; fully developed laminar flow with heat transfer, fully-developed turbulent flow with entrained drops, developing turbulent annular flow with entrained drops, and turbulent flow with heat transfer and phase change

Desenvolvimento de uma desfribadeira para obtenção da fibra da folha do abacaxi

In 1998 the first decorticator was developed in the Textile Engineering Laboratory and patented for the purpose of extracting fibres from pineapple leaves, with the financial help from CNPq and BNB. The objective of the present work was to develop an automatic decorticator different from the first one with a semiautomatic system of decortication with automatic feeding of the leaves and collection of the extracted fibres. The system is started through a command system that passes information to two engines, one for starting the beater cylinder and the other for the feeding of the leaves as well as the extraction of the decorticated fibres automatically. This in turn introduces the leaves between a knife and a beater cylinder with twenty blades (the previous one had only 8 blades). These blades are supported by equidistant flanges with a central transmission axis that would help in increasing the number of beatings of the leaves. In the present system the operator has to place the leaves on the rotating endless feeding belt and collect the extracted leaves that are being carried out through another endless belt. The pulp resulted form the extraction is collected in a tray through a collector. The feeding of the leaves as well as the extraction of the fibres is controlled automatically by varying the velocity of the cylinders. The semi-automatic decorticator basically composed of a chassis made out of iron bars (profile L) with 200cm length, 91 cm of height 68 cm of width. The decorticator weighs around 300Kg. It was observed that the increase in the number of blades from 8 to twenty in the beater cylinder reduced the turbulence inside the decorticator, which helped to improve the removal of the fibres without any problems as well as the quality of the fibres. From the studies carried out, from each leaf 2,8 to 4,5% of fibres can be extracted. This gives around 4 to 5 tons of fibres per hectare, which is more than that of cotton production per hectare. This quantity with no doubt could generate jobs to the people not only on the production of the fibres but also on their application in different areas

Paul Ricouer: entre hermenêutica e crítica das ideologias

This work exposes the Paul Ric ur s thought in relation to the contemporary complaint between the hermeneutics and the ideologies criticism. It shows, in this direction, the unity between text and action according to Ric ur s perspective. The philosophical view of Ric ur, It affirms, is far from any eclecticism, but if it characterizes for a dynamic style, explained here from the analogies with the movement of the particles, of the quantum physics, which help to excuse to the make a mistake idea of compilation and eclecticism, resultant of superficial readings of its texts. In deep, this work nothing more it is that a contribution to the construction of a theory of the reading of the text of this notable philosopher