Three-dimensional, fully adaptive simulations of phase-field fluid models

We present an efficient numerical methodology for the 31) computation of incompressible multi-phase flows described by conservative phase-field models We focus here on the case of density matched fluids with different viscosity (Model H) The numerical method employs adaptive mesh refinements (AMR) in concert with an efficient semi-implicit time discretization strategy and a linear, multi-level multigrid to relax high order stability constraints and to capture the flow`s disparate scales at optimal cost. Only five linear solvers are needed per time-step. Moreover, all the adaptive methodology is constructed from scratch to allow a systematic investigation of the key aspects of AMR in a conservative, phase-field setting. We validate the method and demonstrate its capabilities and efficacy with important examples of drop deformation, Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, and flow-induced drop coalescence (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Energieffektiva bostäder - ett ouppnåeligt politiskt mål? : Kommunikation och styrmedel i Jakobsgårdarna

Energieffektiva flerfamiljshus, nationella mål i lokal kontext

Fitting spatial models in the R package: hglm

We present a new version of the hglm package for fittinghierarchical generalized linear models (HGLM) with spatially correlated random effects. A CAR family for conditional autoregressive random effects was implemented. Eigen decomposition of the matrix describing the spatial structure (e.g. the neighborhood matrix) was used to transform the CAR random effectsinto an independent, but heteroscedastic, gaussian random effect. A linear predictor is fitted for the random effect variance to estimate the parameters in the CAR model.This gives a computationally efficient algorithm for moderately sized problems (e.g. n<5000).

Governança e coordenação em arranjos multinível de políticas públicas transversais: assistência social, educação e saúde no Programa Bolsa Família

Este estudo apresenta o desenvolvimento teórico e a aplicação de um modelo voltado à análise de arranjos de governança de políticas públicas que ocorrem quando múltiplas organizações estão envolvidas em lidar com questões complexas. A seguinte pergunta de pesquisa foi proposta: Como opera o conjunto de instrumentos de coordenação empregados na governança de uma política pública transversal? Um estudo de caso exploratório sobre o Programa Bolsa Família foi realizado, especificamente na sua dimensão relacionada à coordenação entre os setores de assistência social, educação e saúde. Os métodos de pesquisa consistiram em análise de conteúdo de documentos e transcrições de entrevistas semiestruturadas com atores-chave do Programa nos três setores de políticas. Os resultados demonstram como diferentes modos de governança coexistem no arranjo multinível estudado, revelando diversos elementos de coordenação cuja operação concomitante resulta em um modo de governança misto. Contribui-se, assim, para o aperfeiçoamento do Programa e para o desenvolvimento teórico, metodológico e aplicado dos conceitos de governança e de coordenação, ficando demonstrado ser possível integrá-los na análise de políticas públicas transversais.

O fator comum associado à dinâmica de preços das commodities : a relação de cointegração e o fator dinâmico

Este trabalho analisa a importância dos fatores comuns na evolução recente dos preços dos metais no período entre 1995 e 2013. Para isso, estimam-se modelos cointegrados de VAR e também um modelo de fator dinâmico bayesiano. Dado o efeito da financeirização das commodities, DFM pode capturar efeitos dinâmicos comuns a todas as commodities. Além disso, os dados em painel são aplicados para usar toda a heterogeneidade entre as commodities durante o período de análise. Nossos resultados mostram que a taxa de juros, taxa efetiva do dólar americano e também os dados de consumo têm efeito permanente nos preços das commodities. Observa-se ainda a existência de um fator dinâmico comum significativo para a maioria dos preços das commodities metálicas, que tornou-se recentemente mais importante na evolução dos preços das commodities.

Differences in the perception of interest representation: a comparision of Brasília and Brussels lobbying activity

The research topic of this paper is focused on the analysis of how trade associations perceive lobbying in Brussels and in Brasília. The analysis will be centered on business associations located in Brasília and Brussels as the two core centers of decision-making and as an attraction for the lobbying practice. The underlying principles behind the comparison between Brussels and Brasilia are two. Firstof all because the European Union and Brazil have maintained diplomatic relations since 1960. Through these relations they have built up close historical, cultural, economic and political ties. Their bilateral political relations culminated in 2007 with the establishment of a Strategic Partnership (EEAS website,n.d.). Over the years, Brazil has become a key interlocutor for the EU and it is the most important market for the EU in Latin America (European Commission, 2007). Taking into account the relations between EU and Brazil, this research could contribute to the reciprocal knowledge about the perception of lobby in the respective systems and the importance of the non-market strategy when conducting business. Second both EU and Brazilian systems have a multi-level governance structure: 28 Member States in the EU and 26 Member States in Brazil; in both systems there are three main institutions targeted by lobbying practice. The objective is to compare how differences in the institutional environments affect the perception and practice of lobbying, where institutions are defined as ‘‘regulative, normative, and cognitive structures and activities that provide stability and meaning to social behavior’’ (Peng et al., 2009). Brussels, the self-proclaimed "Capital of Europe”, is the headquarters of the European Union and has one of the highest concentrations of political power in the world. Four of the seven Institutions of the European Union are based in Brussels: the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council and the European Commission (EU website, n.d.). As the power of the EU institutions has grown, Brussels has become a magnet for lobbyists, with the latest estimates ranging from between 15,000 and 30,000 professionals representing companies, industry sectors, farmers, civil society groups, unions etc. (Burson Marsteller, 2013). Brasília is the capital of Brazil and the seat of government of the Federal District and the three branches of the federal government of Brazilian legislative, executive and judiciary. The 4 city also hosts 124 foreign embassies. The presence of the formal representations of companies and trade associations in Brasília is very limited, but the governmental interests remain there and the professionals dealing with government affairs commute there. In the European Union, Brussels has established a Transparency Register that allows the interactions between the European institutions and citizen’s associations, NGOs, businesses, trade and professional organizations, trade unions and think tanks. The register provides citizens with a direct and single access to information about who is engaged in This process is important for the quality of democracy, and for its capacity to deliver adequate policies, matching activities aimed at influencing the EU decision-making process, which interests are being pursued and what level of resources are invested in these activities (Celgene, n.d). It offers a single code of conduct, binding all organizations and self-employed individuals who accept to “play by the rules” in full respect of ethical principles (EC website, n.d). A complaints and sanctions mechanism ensures the enforcement of the rules and addresses suspected breaches of the code. In Brazil, there is no specific legislation regulating lobbying. The National Congress is currently discussing dozens of bills that address regulation of lobbying and the action of interest groups (De Aragão, 2012), but none of them has been enacted for the moment. This work will focus on class lobbying (Oliveira, 2004), which refers to the performance of the federation of national labour or industrial unions, like CNI (National Industry Confederation) in Brazil and the European Banking Federation (EBF) in Brussels. Their performance aims to influence the Executive and Legislative branches in order to defend the interests of their affiliates. When representing unions and federations, class entities cover a wide range of different and, more often than not, conflicting interests. That is why they are limited to defending the consensual and majority interest of their affiliates (Oliveira, 2004). The basic assumption of this work is that institutions matter (Peng et al, 2009) and that the trade associations and their affiliates, when doing business, have to take into account the institutional and regulatory framework where they do business.

A relação entre aglomeração produtiva e crescimento: a aplicação de um modelo multinível ao setor industrial paulista

Este estudo identificou a relação da aglomeração de firmas de uma mesma atividade econômica na taxa de crescimento do emprego local. Dados das firmas industriais do Estado de São Paulo constantes da Relação Anual de Informações Sociais [RAIS] nos anos de 1996 a 2005 foram coletados. Foram analisadas 263.020 observações de nível de emprego de 26.231 combinações de município-CNAE e 296 diferentes atividades. Os critérios de Puga (2003) e Suzigan, Furtado, Garcia, Sampaio (2003) foram usados para identificar as aglomerações. Uma análise de curva de crescimento, usando-se um modelo multinível, foi desenvolvida no software Hierarchical Linear Models [HLM]. Os resultados evidenciam que existe uma relação positiva entre aglomeração de firmas de uma mesma atividade econômica e o crescimento de emprego. Considerando as externalidades previstas pelo fato de as empresas estarem localizadas em uma mesma região, pode-se sugerir que, em termos comparativos, firmas de uma mesma atividade econômica, localizadas em aglomeração, podem, perceber crescimento maior que suas concorrentes localizadas fora de um aglomerado. Este resultado é relevante, tanto para a empresa individual, como para o estabelecimento de políticas públicas que apóiam o desenvolvimento regional, no nível do município. As evidências confirmam estudos anteriores de caso, permitindo dar mais robustez à teoria

Relações de cooperação em consórcios públicos de regiões metropolitanas: análises do CONDIAM/PB e consórcio grande Recife

With the disorganized decentralization occurred in Brazil after the 1988 Constitution, municipalities have risen to the level of federal entities. This phenomenon became known as "municipalism" also brought some negative effects such as low capacity financial, economic and political of these entities. In the face of this reality , the municipalities sought in models of collaborative features to address public policy issues ultrarregionais, one of these models are the Public Consortia. Characterized as the organization of all federal entities that aim to solve public policy implementation alone that they could not, or spend great resources for such. This reality of the municipalities have an aggravating factor when looking at the situation in Metropolitan Regions (MRs). This is because the RMs has a historical process of formation that does not encourage cooperation, since that were created top-down during the military regime. Furthermore, the metropolitan municipalities have significant power asymmetries, localist vision, rigidity earmarked revenues, different scenarios conurbation, difficulty standardization of concepts and others that contribute to the vision of low cooperation of these metropolitan areas. Thus, the problem of this work is in the presence of collaborative arrangements, such as the Public Consortia in metropolitan areas, which are seen as areas of low cooperation. To elucidate this research was used for analysis the cases of CONDIAM/PB and Consórcio Grande Recife/PE, because they are apparently antagonistic, but with some points of similarity. The cases has as foundation the Theory of Common Resources, which provides the possibility of collective action through the initiative of individuals. This theory has as its methodology for analyzing the picture IAD Framework, which proposes its analysis based on three axes: external variables, the arena of action and results. The nature of the method of this research was classified as exploratory and descriptive. For the stage of date analysis, was used the method of document analysis and content, Further than of separation of the cases according to theur especificities. At the end of the study, noted that the CONDIAM/PB was a strategy of municipal government of Joao Pessoa to attract funds from the Federal Government for the purpose of to build a landfill, and over the years the ideology of cooperation was left aside, the prevailing view localist municipalities. In the case of Consórcio Grande Recife/PE, members act with some degree of cooperation, especially the collaborative aspect of the region, however, still prevails with greater strength the power of the state of Pernambuco in the decisions and paths of the consortium. Thus, was conclude that the Public Consortia analyzed are an experience of collaborative arrangement, from the initiative of members, as the theory of common resources says, but has not actually signed as a practice of collective action to overcome the dilemmas faced by metropolitan areas

Síntese citrato-hidrotermal e caracterização eletroquímica de LSCF para aplicação como catodo em célula a combustível de temperatura intermediária

The lanthanum strontium cobalt iron oxide (La1-xSrxCo1-yFeyO3 LSCF) is the most commonly used material for application as cathode in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs), mainly due to their high mixed ionic electronic conductivity between 600 and 800ºC. In this study, LSCF powders with different compositions were synthesized via a combination between citrate and hydrothermal methods. As-prepared powders were calcined from 700 to 900°C and then characterized by X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, thermal analyses, particle size analyses, nitrogen adsorption (BET) and scanning electronic microscopy. Films of composition La0,6Sr0,4Co0,2Fe0,8O3 (LSCF6428), powders calcined at 900°C, were screen-printed on gadolinium doped ceria (CGO) substrates and sintered between 1150 and 1200°C. The effects of level of sintering on the microstructure and electrochemical performance of electrodes were evaluated by scanning electronic microscopy and impedance spectroscopy. Area specific resistance (ASR) exhibited strong relation with the microstructure of the electrodes. The best electrochemical performance (0.18 ohm.cm2 at 800°C) was obtained for the cathode sintered at 1200°C for 2 h. The electrochemical activity can be further improved through surface activation by impregnation with PrOx, in this case the electrode area specific resistance decreases to values as low as 0.12 ohm.cm2 (800°C), 0.17 ohm.cm2 (750°C) and 0.31 ohm.cm2 (700°C). The results indicate that the citrate-hydrothermal method is suitable for the attainment of LSCF particulates with potential application as cathode component in intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFCs)

High expectations, varying outcomes: Decentralization and participation in Brazil, Japan, Russia and Sweden

In the past 20 years, decentralization has been proposed as a strategy for enhancing public participation. Aid-providing organizations, such as the World Bank, stimulated decentralization processes in several countries in the hope that this would promote civic empowerment, diminish corruption, enhance efficiency, and improve public service delivery. This assumption forms the basis for a comparative analysis into the relation between decentralization and participation at the local level in Brazil, Japan, Russia and Sweden. A multi-level regression analysis using the data of the Democracy and Local Governance Project was undertaken in order to test the 'one size fits all' and the 'diversity in development' hypotheses. The results show that the second hypothesis was corroborated. Perceived autonomy had a different impact on openness to participation depending on the country considered; in one country (Japan), perceived autonomy diminished public officials' willingness to be open to public participation.

Estimativas de (Co)Variâncias e Tendências Genéticas para Pesos em um Rebanho Canchim

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Vertical and in-plane electrical transport in InAs/InP semiconductor nanostructures

Vertical and in-plane electrical transport in InAs/InP semiconductors wires and dots have been investigated by conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) and electrical measurements in processed devices. Localized I-V spectroscopy and spatially resolved current images (at constant bias), carried out using C-AFM in a controlled atmosphere at room temperature, show different conductances and threshold voltages for current onset on the two types of nanostructures. The processed devices were used in order to access the in-plane conductance of an assembly with a reduced number of nanostructures. On these devices, signature of two-level random telegraph noise (RTN) in the current behavior with time at constant bias is observed. These levels for electrical current can be associated to electrons removed from the wetting layer and trapped in dots and/or wires. A crossover from conduction through the continuum, associated to the wetting layer, to hopping within the nanostructures is observed with increasing temperature. This transport regime transition is confirmed by a temperature-voltage phase diagram. © 2005 Materials Research Society.

Power losses analysis and cooling system design of three topologies of multilevel inverters

This paper presents the comparison of three topologies of multilevel inverters applied to drive an induction motor of 500 kVA/4.16 kV. The multilevel inverters analyzed are: a neutral point clamped inverter, a symmetrical cascaded multilevel inverter and a hybrid asymmetrical cascaded multilevel inverter. The performance indexes used in the comparison are total harmonic distortion, first order distortion factor, semiconductors power losses distribution and heat-sink volume. The comparison is developed with the purpose of finding the efficiency and the heat-sink volume where the three systems present the same output filter. ©2008 IEEE.

Generating inclusive and sustainable growth: the role of policy and multilevel fiscal institutions

Incluye bibliografía

Genetic algorithm, MIP and improvement heuristic applied to the MLCLP with backlogging

The present paper solves the multi-level capacitated lot sizing problem with backlogging (MLCLSPB) combining a genetic algorithm with the solution of mixed-integer programming models and the improvement heuristic fix and optimize. This approach is evaluated over sets of benchmark instances and compared to methods from literature. Computational results indicate competitive results applying the proposed method when compared with other literature approaches. © 2013 IEEE.