Fidelidade ao cartão de crédito em troca de milhas aéreas: um estudo empírico desta relação no mercado brasileiro

No competitivo mercado brasileiro de cartão de crédito, a presença de um programa de fidelidade pode ser uma atividade de marketing relevante para os bancos reterem os seus clientes. No entanto, em um cenário com vários programas de fidelidade similares, é necessário que os bancos encontrem formas eficazes de estimular as intenções do cliente em direção ao uso continuado do seu cartão. Estes programas são comumente requisitados por clientes que procuram trocar pontos (milhas) por passagens aéreas. As milhas aéreas são recompensas ofertadas pelo banco, porém, envolvem elevados custos e são controladas por empresas intermediárias que também buscam a fidelidade deste cliente para si. Em um mercado ainda em desenvolvimento no tema, existe a barreira dos clientes não conhecerem as dinâmicas dos programas e não entenderem o resgate (troca) como um esforço do banco para premiá-lo. Neste contexto, torna-se importante que os bancos compreendam os fatores que mais influenciam a associação de marca do cliente e a fidelidade ao seu cartão. O presente trabalho propõe identificar estes fatores através da aplicação de uma survey com uma amostra de usuários de cartão de crédito participantes de programas de fidelidade. O estudo identificou que, na visão do portador do cartão, a atratividade do programa, o conhecimento sobre programa, os custos de troca percebidos e a preferência por milhas como recompensa são fatores que o banco deve considerar se quiser obter melhores associações à sua marca no âmbito do processo de resgate de milhas. Verificou-se que a associação de marca não é um elemento necessário para se atingir a fidelidade do cliente, contudo, sugere-se que a marca possa, além de ajudar no processo de fidelização, aproximar o cliente do banco e possivelmente apresentá-lo a outros produtos, alavancando assim os resultados do banco.

Formulação de massas cerâmicas para porcelanas elétricas utilizando resíduos oriundos de corpos de fusíveis

The power industry generates as waste ceramic bodies of electrical fuses that are discarded after use. The formulation of ceramic bodies for porcelain electrical insulators using waste from the bodies fuse allocation promotes environmentally appropriate, through the reuse of the material. This work evaluated the technical feasibility of using waste for use in electrical porcelains with formulations containing the residue, feldspar and kaolinite. The raw materials were processed through grinding and sieving to 200 mesh. The ceramic material obtained from the proposed formulations with 25%, 30%, 34% and 40% of the residue went through a vibratory mill for grinding and homogenization, and then were sieved at 325 mesh. The samples were shaped in a uniaxial press, with the application of 25 MPa and sintered at 1100° C, 1150°C, 1200°C, 1225°C and 1250°C, at levels of 20 and 45 minutes. Were also developed bodies of evidence with reference formulations obtained without residue, to establish a comparison on physical, mechanical and electrical. The tests were conducted and technology: linear shrinkage, porosity, water absorption, resistance to bending to three points, measuring insulation resistance electrical resistivity of the material, X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence Waste characterizations pointed to the existence of two phases: mullite and quartz phases are of great importance in the microstructure of the ceramic and this fact reveals a possibility for reuse in electrical porcelains. The mullite is an important constituent because it is a phase that makes it possible to increase the mechanical strength in addition to the body allows the use at high temperatures. The use of ceramic bodies residue fuses, proved feasible for application in electrical porcelain and the most significant results were obtained by the formulations with 25% waste and sintering at 1200°C

Planos de amostragem seqüenciais para Orthezia praelonga Douglas (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha, Ortheziidae) na cultura de citros

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Um estudo sobre a relação entre matemática e religião na obra de Blaise Pascal

The aim of the present study is to investigate the way through which the relations between Mathematics and Religion emerge in the work of Blaise Pascal. This research is justified by the need to deepen these relations, so far little explored if compared to intersection points between Mathematics and other fields of knowledge. The choice for Pascal is given by the fact that he was one of the mathematicians who elaborated best one reflection in the religious field thus provoking contradictory reactions. As a methodology, it is a bibliographical and documental research with analytical-comparative reading of referential texts, among them the Oeuvres complètes de Pascal (1954), Le fonds pascalien à Clermont-Ferrand (2001), Mathematics in a postmodern age: a cristian perspective by Howell & Bradley (2001), Mathematics and the divine: a historical study by Koetsier & Bergmans (2005), the Anais dos Seminários Nacionais de História da Matemática and the Revista Brasileira de História da Matemática. The research involving Pascal's life as a mathematician and his religious experience was made. A wider background in which the subject matter emerges was also researched. Seven categories connected to the relation between mathematics and religion were identified from the reading of texts written by mathematicians and historians of mathematics. As a conclusion, the presence of four of these seven categories was verified in Pascal's work

A cultura da produção de farinha: um estudo da matemática nos saberes dessa tradição

This research argues about the mathematical knowledge built in the tradition of the cassava flour production, seeking to analyse these mathematical knowledge in the perspective of the categories of time and measure, built and practiced in the flour production, located in Serra do Navio and Calçoene, in Amapá - Brazil. The following work discuss the identification and the description of the mathematics during the production activities of the flour, where is presented elements related to generation and transmission of the traditional knowledge, which is the basis for maintenance of the tradition of the flour, characterizing the research as an Ethnomathematic study. The methodological procedures highlight ethnographical techniques and elements that characterize the participating observation. The results obtained showed us that the flour workers articulate some length, area and volume measure due to own and traditionally acquired systems, which is apprehended and countersigned by other kind of culturally established system; thus they relativism the measures systems and the official calendars. And it lifts as one of the main proposal that the academic mathematics and the tradition establish knowledge make conjunction of the both knowledge, that is important for a possible reflection and application in the construction of a pedagogical practice in mathematical education, trying to establish points of socio-economic and cultural mark

Tendências de sucesso no percurso acadêmico do alunado na UFRN

Enter the University and remain in it is a challenge for all students who leave high school and enter this level. The aspiration for a graduation occur by several factors, which have decisive impact on the personal lives of individuals who acquire training in higher education, both as regards the professional capacities as economic opportunity. There are several possible trajectories to get into a college. Students can be classified by their success or failure in performance due to multiple intervening factors that interact among themselves. The purpose of this work is to identify and characterize the factors that reveal trends of success and failure in academic performance of UFRN students. From this general goal, broke out the following specific objectives: to analyze the problems of expanding access to and restructuring of higher education in Brazil and UFRN; explicit definitions of success and failure in higher education; identify national trends and international help to determine the success and failure of students in UFRN. Therefore, we conducted an extensive literature review on the subject and analyzed secondary data from official national, regional and local statistical sources on the subject. In the delimitation of the data, the research population refers to students who entered the UFRN through the vestibular, in the years 2000 to 2010, and who attended at least one (1) semester. In the light of the analysis, the theoretical framework interpretation and the investigative data, it was possible to identify the major factors that affect the categories of success and failure in this university, which highlight the following: the policies adopted by UFRN have provided access mechanisms and student assistance policies, trying to supply the needs of students for them to have a good academic performance, or success in their courses; in addition, the chosen focus of analysis showed that, within the same area, there is not significant difference in the performance of students coming from less favored social and educational contexts, which does not occur when analyzing the success rates between students from different areas of knowledge. The trajectory of interpretative analysis of the results presented in this paper enables to raise points of discussion in various forums and higher councils in order to increase the academic indices of its students. It also enables to promote strategies of guidance and student support for that he persists in his choice

e-Pontos: Uma solução embarcada de automação comercial aplicada a clubes de fidelidade baseado em tecnologia RFID e esmart card

In practically all vertical markets and in every region of the planet, loyalty marketers have adopted the tactic of recognition and reward to identify, maintain and increase the yield of their customers. Several strategies have been adopted by companies, and the most popular among them is the loyalty program, which displays a loyalty club to manage these rewards. But the problem with loyalty programs is that customer identification and transfer of loyalty points are made in a semiautomatic. Aiming at this, this paper presents a master's embedded business automation solution called e-Points. The goal of e-Points is munir clubs allegiances with fully automated tooling technology to identify customers directly at the point of sales, ensuring greater control over the loyalty of associate members. For this, we developed a hardware platform with embedded system and RFID technology to be used in PCs tenant, a smart card to accumulate points with every purchase and a web server, which will provide services of interest to retailers and customers membership to the club

Otimização de forma aplicando B-splines sob critério integral de tensões

This work proposes a computational methodology to solve problems of optimization in structural design. The application develops, implements and integrates methods for structural analysis, geometric modeling, design sensitivity analysis and optimization. So, the optimum design problem is particularized for plane stress case, with the objective to minimize the structural mass subject to a stress criterion. Notice that, these constraints must be evaluated at a series of discrete points, whose distribution should be dense enough in order to minimize the chance of any significant constraint violation between specified points. Therefore, the local stress constraints are transformed into a global stress measure reducing the computational cost in deriving the optimal shape design. The problem is approximated by Finite Element Method using Lagrangian triangular elements with six nodes, and use a automatic mesh generation with a mesh quality criterion of geometric element. The geometric modeling, i.e., the contour is defined by parametric curves of type B-splines, these curves hold suitable characteristics to implement the Shape Optimization Method, that uses the key points like design variables to determine the solution of minimum problem. A reliable tool for design sensitivity analysis is a prerequisite for performing interactive structural design, synthesis and optimization. General expressions for design sensitivity analysis are derived with respect to key points of B-splines. The method of design sensitivity analysis used is the adjoin approach and the analytical method. The formulation of the optimization problem applies the Augmented Lagrangian Method, which convert an optimization problem constrained problem in an unconstrained. The solution of the Augmented Lagrangian function is achieved by determining the analysis of sensitivity. Therefore, the optimization problem reduces to the solution of a sequence of problems with lateral limits constraints, which is solved by the Memoryless Quasi-Newton Method It is demonstrated by several examples that this new approach of analytical design sensitivity analysis of integrated shape design optimization with a global stress criterion purpose is computationally efficient

Variação da qualidade da água do escoamento superficial de duas bacias de drenagem de Natal/RN - Brasil

The urban drainage is one of the powers of environmental sanitation and its scope is the quantitative and qualitative aspects. In decision making of managers and the engineering aspects of design are almost always taken into account only the quantitative aspects. However, the waters of the runoff have the highest concentrations of pollutants at the beginning of precipitation. Thus, if the plot pollution removed, the remaining portion can be used for other purposes. This work has aimed to present the variation of water quality of two drainage basins in the city of Natal / RN-Brazil to support the implementation of drainage to consider the qualitative aspect, and identify potential for the use of water. The basins (M and C) are analyzed closed-type, are in the urban area, are predominantly residential occupation and its waters are used for detention ponds and infiltration. The samples were divided into three phases, the first two direct to final points in a basin and the third in traps distributed over the surface drainage. The parameters had been analyzed were pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, Color, Turbidity, COD, Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, total phosphorus, orthophosphate, Sediments solids, total solids, chloride, sulfate, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, Heavy Metals (Chromium, Cadmium, Lead, Zinc and Copper), Eschichia coli and total coliforms. The parameters studied showed high initial pollution load, events and located in different proportions, except nitrite, heavy metals and biological indicators. The size of the surface drainage and topographic its features influence the quality of water. However, the form of sampling is crucial in the qualitative study in the basin. The samplers developed at work, were generated economic and representative results. The urban rainwater presents organic faecal indicators. The runoff of water from both basins shows no risk of salinity and sodicity for use in irrigation, should be noted the content of chloride in the choice of method of irrigation

O índice BODE reflete o nível de atividade física na vida diária de pacientes com DPOC?

Objectives: To study the relationship between the level of physical activity in daily life and disease severity assessed by the BODE index in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: Sixty-seven patients with COPD (36 men) with forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV(1)) of 39 (27-47)% predicted and age of 66 (61-72) years old were evaluated by spirometry, dyspnea levels (measured by the Medical Research Council scale, MRC) and by the 6-minute walking test (6MWT). The BODE index was calculated based on the body mass index (weight/height(2)), FEV(1), MRC and 6MWT, and then the patients were divided in four quartiles according to their scores (Quartile I: 0 to 2 points, n=15; Quartile II: 3 to 4 points, n=20; Quartile III: 5 to 6 points, n=23; Quartile IV: 7 to 10 points, n=9). Two activity monitors (DynaPort (R) and SenseWear (R)) were used to evaluate the level of physical activity in daily life. The Kruskal-Wallis test (Dunns's post-hoc test), the Mann-Whitney test and the Spearman Correlation Coefficient were used for statistical analysis. Results: There were modest correlation between the BODE index and the time spent walking per day, the total daily energy expenditure and the time spent in moderate and vigorous activities per day (-0.32 <= r <=- 0.47; p <= 0.01 for all variables). When comparing the pooled quartiles I+II with III+IV, there were significant difference between the time spent walking per day, the total daily energy expenditure and the time spent in moderate activities per day (p <= 0.05). Conclusion: The level of physical activity in daily life has a modest correlation with the classification of COPD severity assessed by the BODE index, reflecting only differences between patients with classified as mild-moderate and severe-very severe COPD.

Protozoários de vida livre em dois trechos da bacia hidrográfica do rio pirangi (RN): relações com a educação em ciências e preservação

The vast hidric wealth of Brazil gets its watersheds more susceptible to impacts that compromise the water quality, affecting the ecosystem stability of aquatic environments. The decrease in the quality of water resources also results in a decrease of its multiple uses, especially in tourist areas of the coast, where the continuous flow of people to these sites increases even further the probability of inappropriate behavior of both tourists and local residents. Studies regarding the microbiological communities are still scarce, especially on the free-living protozoa that play unique roles in the food chain of aquatic ecosystems. Due to the large role played by this group of microorganisms in aquatic environments, the present study aimed at identifying the genus and species of free-living protozoa present in two sections of the Pium River, east coast of Rio Grande do Norte, making an association between the its occurrence and trophic conditions of the environment in which they are, also checking the bioindicator capacity of these organisms in water quality. It also aimed to conduct a survey with students to identify the main difficulties regarding the knowledge of free-living protozoa and hydric transmission diseases in two public schools near the river studied in the Pium district, county of Parnamirim. The survey was analyzed by means of questionnaires at both schools. Students identified several activities developed Pium river, highlighting its multifunctionality and importance to the region. A total of 76 taxa of free-living protozoa was recorded, of these, 33 were ciliates, 19 flagellates and 24 sarcodia. The spatial and temporal patterns of these organisms to both points studied revealed the bioindicator potentiality of some effective species identified. However, knowledge about the free-living protozoa proved quite lagged, presenting misconceptions that show them as pathogenic organisms exclusively, totally disregarding their ecological role. In order to remedy the flaws existing in students in relation to the functional role of protozoa, workshops were planned on these microorganisms while also addressing issues related to hydric transmission diseases through lectures, recreational activities and interactive presentations. These practical activities of Science Education had the goal of bringing students the context of local water resources, aiming to promote a greater clarification regarding of the functional role of free-living protozoa in aquatic environments

Comparison of the psychological evaluation test and classical psychoanalysis in infertile women

This study aims to compare a psychological evaluation test to classical psychoanalysis in infertile women. Two hundred women were submitted to the Psychological Evaluation Test (PET). The sum of the scores for the responses ranged from 15 to 60 points, with scores 30 points being defined as 'psycho-emotional maladjustment' (cut-off point: median + 25%). For comparison, the patients were simultaneously submitted to a psychological examination by a psychologist, who was unaware of the PET results. of the 200 patients, 66 (33%) presented a test with greater than or equal to30 points ('psycho-emotional maladjustment') and 134 (67%) a test with <30 points (normal). Upon psychological examination, 105 (52.5%) presented an abnormal evaluation and 95 (47.5%) a normal evaluation. For the PET, statistical analysis showed 82% efficiency, 62% sensitivity, 98% positive predictive value, 99% specificity, 70% negative predictive value, likelihood ratio for a positive test result 62, and likelihood ratio for negative test result 0.38. The PET proved to be a useful clinical instrument, being of help in the selection of patients with psychological needs induced by infertility.

Adaptação do índice de alimentação saudável ao guia alimentar da população brasileira

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Avaliação cefalométrica do tratamento da Classe II, divisão 1, de Angle com os aparelhos extrabucal de Kloehn e fixo edgewise: influência do padrão facial

O presente estudo foi realizado com o propósito de avaliar respostas cefalométricas ao tratamento com aparelho extrabucal de Kloehn associado ao aparelho fixo edgewise convencional. Telerradiografias iniciais (T1) e finais (T2) de dois grupos de 30 pacientes tratados com estes aparelhos foram selecionadas e definidas pelo índice cefalométrico de Jarabak para determinação do padrão esquelético craniofacial. Os grupos foram denominados favorável (hipodivergente) e desfavorável (hiperdivergente). A idade média, no início do tratamento, foi de 11,03 anos e final de 14,72 com o tempo médio de tratamento de 3,6 anos para o grupo favorável. No grupo desfavorável a idade inicial foi de 11,51 anos e final de 15,17 anos com tempo médio de tratamento de 3,4 anos. Foi utilizado um sistema de análise de resposta de tratamento em coordenadas X e Y representativos dos movimentos dentários e das bases ósseas decompondo-os em seus vetores horizontais e verticais. Os resultados e respostas do tratamento foram analisados e comparados entre os grupos favorável e desfavorável utilizando o teste t-Student. Os resultados mostraram não haver diferenças estatisticamente significantes na resposta cefalométrica no tratamento com o aparelho extrabucal de Kloehn associados ao aparelho fixo edgewise quanto aos padrões faciais favorável e desfavorável. O tratamento promoveu uma restrição do deslocamento anterior maxilar e um menor deslocamento anterior mandibular. Quanto à movimentação dentária maxilar, houve uma restrição do movimento mesial e extrusivo dos molares superiores no grupo favorável, enquanto que o movimento dos dentes inferiores foi mínimo no sentido anterior e vertical.

Population dynamics of Chrysomya megacephala (Diptera : Calliphoridae) at different temperatures

In this study we analysed the theoretical population dynamics of C. megacephala, an exotic blowfly, kept at 25 and 30degreesC, using a density-dependent mathematical model, with parametric estimates of survival and fecundity in the laboratory. No change in terms of oscillation patterns was found for the two temperatures. The populations exhibited a two-point limit cycle, i.e. oscillations between two fixed points, at 25 and 30degreesC. However a quantitative change was observed, indicating that at 25degreesC the number of immatures in equilibrium is 1176 and at 30degreesC, 1944. The implications of this difference in terms of equilibrium for population dynamics of C. megacephala are discussed.