Gestão ambiental e competitividade: um estudo sobre os fatores que afetam a decisão de compra de produtos orgânicos na cidade de Teresina-PI

The organic products represent one of the main trends of alimentary consumption in the new century. In Brazil, the answer is already well representative which it becomes the country, as a great consuming and exporting market of products of LVF type. The objective of this research was to investigate the factors capable to influence the food consumer in its purchase decision of organic products in the supermarkets of Teresina, capital of Piauí State. The methodology was exploratory and descriptive, using survey, with closed and opened questions in 542 interviewed. The questionnaire was based on projected scales to evaluate the factors that can influence the purchase decision of organic products, whose variable had been grouped in the following groups: behavior, knowledge, interest, competitiveness, importance, barrier and profile. The used statistical techniques were descriptive analysis and multiple regression analysis. The results demonstrate interest of the population in paying more for the organic product, due to better quality of life, however it lacks to one better spreading and greater sensitization to attract these consumers. Some recommendations and proposals are presented after the results, as suggestions for future research

Gestão de satisfação e fidelidade do cliente: um estudo dos fatores que afetam a satisfação e fidelidade dos compradores de automóveis

This Master s thesis presents a discussion on customer satisfaction models investigating the relations of antecedent variables service quality, price index, complaint handling, image, affective and calculative commitment, with satisfaction and loyalty. The scope of the research is the influence of service dimensions in the car buyer s satisfaction and loyalty. A sample of 91 customers was surveyed among new cars buyers of one brand in Natal city, Brazil, and the data was analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The literature review covers subjects such as customer satisfaction, management system, customer satisfaction measurement index models. The main findings suggest that satisfaction with the car brand is mainly influenced by customization of the service, time for accomplishing servicing, and the way the dealer handle complains. Regarding the dealer itself the main variable related to satisfaction is also time for accomplishing servicing. Considering customer loyalty, the customer satisfaction with the dealer explain strongly the loyalty with the brand/manufacturer. Also, the satisfaction, affective commitment and complains handling were found related to loyalty, as the stronger variables explaining the loyalty variance. One main conclusion is that service provided by dealers is one key factor influencing the customer satisfaction and loyalty in auto industry

Metais pesados do solo após aplicação de biossólido: I - Fracionamento

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Avaliação da produção de sedimento na bacia hidrográfica do rio Potengi através do modelo SWAT

Anthropic disturbances in watersheds, such as inappropriate building development, disorderly land occupation and unplanned land use, may strengthen the sediment yield and the inflow into the estuary, leading to siltation, changes in the reach channel conformation, and ecosystem/water quality problems. Faced with such context, this study aims to assess the applicability of SWAT model to estimate, even in a preliminary way, the sediment yield distribution along the Potengi River watershed, as well as its contribution to the estuary. Furthermore, an assessment of its erosion susceptibility was used for comparison. The susceptibility map was developed by overlaying rainfall erosivity, soil erodibility, the slope of the terrain and land cover. In order to overlap these maps, a multi-criteria analysis through AHP method was applied. The SWAT was run using a five year period (1997-2001), considering three different scenarios based on different sorts of human interference: a) agriculture; b) pasture; and c) no interference (background). Results were analyzed in terms of surface runoff, sediment yield and their propagation along each river section, so that it was possible to find that the regions in the extreme west of the watershed and in the downstream portions returned higher values of sediment yield, reaching respectively 2.8 e 5.1 ton/ha.year, whereas central areas, which were less susceptible, returned the lowest values, never more than 0.7 ton/ha.ano. It was also noticed that in the west sub-watersheds, where one can observe the headwaters, sediment yield was naturally forced by high declivity and weak soils. In another hand, results suggest that the eastern part would not contribute to the sediment inflow into the estuary in a significant way, and the larger part of the sediment yield in that place is due to anthropic activities. For the central region, the analysis of sediment propagation indicates deposition predominance in opposition to transport. Thus, it s not expected that isolated rain storms occurring in the upstream river portions would significantly provide the estuary with sediment. Because the model calibration process hasn t been done yet, it becomes essential to emphasize that values presented here as results should not be applied for pratical aims. Even so, this work warns about the risks of a growth in the alteration of natural land cover, mainly in areas closer to the headwaters and in the downstream Potengi River

Avaliação da função pulmonar em obesos mórbidos com sonolência diurna excessiva

Background: Obesity impairment to the pulmonary function related to the magnitude of adiposity and is associated with excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) and snoring, among others symptoms of respiratory disorders related to sleep. It is possible that obese individuals with excessive daytime sleepiness may make changes in lung function on spirometry monitored during the day as a consequence of fragmented sleep or episodes of nocturnal hypoventilation that cause respiratory and changes that can persist throughout the day. The combination of these findings alone sleepiness observed by subjective scales with pulmonary function in obese patients is unknown. Objective: To assess the influence of EDS and snoring on pulmonary function in morbidly obese and distinguish between different anthropometric markers, the snoring and sleepiness which the best predictors of spirometric function and respiratory muscle strength and endurance of these patients. Methods: We evaluated 40 morbidly obese markers on the anthropometric, spirometric respiratory variables, maximal inspiratory and expiratory pressures (MIP and MEP) and maximal voluntary ventilation (MVV) and the measured excessive daytime sleepiness (the Epworth sleepiness scale) and snoring (snoring scale of Stanford). The data were treated when the differences between the groups of obese patients with and without sleepiness, whereas the anthropometric variables, respiratory and snoring. Pearson's correlation was performed, and multiple regression analysis assessed the predictors of pulmonary function. For this we used the software SPSS 15.0 for windows and p <0.05. Results: 39 obese patients were included (28 women), age 36.92+11.97y, body mass index (BMI) 49.3+5.1kg/m², waist-hip ratio (WHR) 0.96+0.07 and neck circumference (NC) 44.1+4.2 cm. Spirometric values and respiratory pressures were up 80% of predicted values, except for endurance (MVV <80%). Obese with EDS have lower tidal volume. Positive correlation was observed between BMI and EDS, EDS and NC and between snoring and BMI, and negative correlation between EDS and tidal volume (TV), and between snoring and snoring FVC and FEV1. In linear regression the best predictor of pulmonary function was snoring, followed by NC. NC has more obese with higher strength (MEP, p = 0.031) and endurance (MVV p = 0.018) respiratory muscle. Conclusion: Obese with EDS tend to have lower TV. In addition, snoring and NC can better predict pulmonary function in obese when compared with other anthropometric markers or EDS. Obese patients with higher NC tend to have greater capacity for overall strength of respiratory muscles, but may have low muscle endurance

Avaliação de lesões brancas de cáries: um estudo de prognóstico

Objective: The aim of the present study is to assess the current situation of white enamel lesions on vestibular surfaces of permanent upper incisors, diagnosed 6 years ago, without clinical intervention. Methods: A prospective study reassessed 53 students of both sexes, aged between 13 and 18 years old, all attending the public school system in Natal, Brazil. Data collection was performed by duly calibrated examiners, and a clinical chart consisting of demographic data on dental caries, oral hygiene, and gingival condition was prepared. A tactile-visual examination was conducted using a clinical mirror and periodontal probe. Data compilation and analysis were carried out using a SPSS software. In this analysis the chi-squared test was used for qualitative independent variables. To identify the net effect of treatment, multiple logistic analysis with forward stepwise model selection was performed. Results: The final sample was composed of 106 lesions in the 53 individuals, with mean age of 15.02 years, visible plaque index (VPI) of 23.34%, and gingival blood indices (GBI) of 25.92%. A statistically significant relationship (p = 0.003) was found between initial DMFS and prognosis of white enamel lesion. Conclusions: We observed that past caries experience and dental plaque were the main predictive factors for negative lesion outcomes, demonstrating the need for oral hygiene control through continuing preventive measures

Variação temporal e descrição de novas espécies de collembola (arthropoda, hexapoda) em uma área de caatinga do nordeste do Brasil

Collembola is one of the most abundant and diverse group of terrestrial arthropods, being at the base of the food chain operating in the decomposition process. They have a wide distribution in the world and can be found in practically all habitats. The knowledge of this distinctive fauna is still deficient in brazilian territory, especially in semi-arid region. The aim of this study was to investigate which climatic variables may act as predictors of species richness, abundance of individuals and compositional structure of the taxocenose of Collembola over 12 months in an area dominated by semi-arid Caatinga vegetation, northeastern Brazil and describe new species of the genus Seira found, more diverse taxon of Collembola in Brazil. Samples were collected in João Câmara, Rio Grande do Norte. Ten plots of 20 x 20 meters were established and the specimens were collected with collection effort of one hour/people using entomological aspirator. The identification and description of the species was carried out by studying the morphology and chaetotaxy. Was performed a multiple regression analysis between species richness and abundance of individuals with climatic variables. A total of 1231 individuals belonging to 15 species, 12 genera and nine families. The greatest richness and abundance of Collembola were found during the rainy season. The genus Seira was the most abundant. Rainfall explained the temporal variation in species richness and abundance of Collembola in the semi-arid region, which is consistent with the biology of these animals. The populations of Collembola showed grouped distribution. Three new species of Seira were described and illustrated and all show similarities with species already registered in the national territory

MoSAC: um módulo para seleção de configurações arquiteturais baseado em critérios de QoS no contexto de sistema distribuídos autoadaptativos

The process for choosing the best components to build systems has become increasingly complex. It becomes more critical if it was need to consider many combinations of components in the context of an architectural configuration. These circumstances occur, mainly, when we have to deal with systems involving critical requirements, such as the timing constraints in distributed multimedia systems, the network bandwidth in mobile applications or even the reliability in real-time systems. This work proposes a process of dynamic selection of architectural configurations based on non-functional requirements criteria of the system, which can be used during a dynamic adaptation. This proposal uses the MAUT theory (Multi-Attribute Utility Theory) for decision making from a finite set of possibilities, which involve multiple criteria to be analyzed. Additionally, it was proposed a metamodel which can be used to describe the application s requirements in terms of the non-functional requirements criteria and their expected values, to express them in order to make the selection of the desired configuration. As a proof of concept, it was implemented a module that performs the dynamic choice of configurations, the MoSAC. This module was implemented using a component-based development approach (CBD), performing a selection of architectural configurations based on the proposed selection process involving multiple criteria. This work also presents a case study where an application was developed in the context of Digital TV to evaluate the time spent on the module to return a valid configuration to be used in a middleware with autoadaptative features, the middleware AdaptTV

Variação temporal e descrição de novas espécies de collembola (arthropoda, hexapoda) em uma área de caatinga do nordeste do Brasil

Collembola is one of the most abundant and diverse group of terrestrial arthropods, being at the base of the food chain operating in the decomposition process. They have a wide distribution in the world and can be found in practically all habitats. The knowledge of this distinctive fauna is still deficient in brazilian territory, especially in semi-arid region. The aim of this study was to investigate which climatic variables may act as predictors of species richness, abundance of individuals and compositional structure of the taxocenose of Collembola over 12 months in an area dominated by semi-arid Caatinga vegetation, northeastern Brazil and describe new species of the genus Seira found, more diverse taxon of Collembola in Brazil. Samples were collected in João Câmara, Rio Grande do Norte. Ten plots of 20 x 20 meters were established and the specimens were collected with collection effort of one hour/people using entomological aspirator. The identification and description of the species was carried out by studying the morphology and chaetotaxy. Was performed a multiple regression analysis between species richness and abundance of individuals with climatic variables. A total of 1231 individuals belonging to 15 species, 12 genera and nine families. The greatest richness and abundance of Collembola were found during the rainy season. The genus Seira was the most abundant. Rainfall explained the temporal variation in species richness and abundance of Collembola in the semi-arid region, which is consistent with the biology of these animals. The populations of Collembola showed grouped distribution. Three new species of Seira were described and illustrated and all show similarities with species already registered in the national territory

Relationship of upper-limb and thoracic muscle strength to 6-min walk distance in COPD patients

Study objectives: This study was developed to investigate the influence of thoracic and upperlimb muscle function on 6-min walk distance (6MWD) in patients with COPD.Design: A prospective, cross-sectional study.Setting: the pulmonary rehabilitation center of a university hospital.Patients: Thirty-eight patients with mild to very severe COPD were evaluated.Measurements and results: Pulmonary function and baseline dyspnea index (BDI) were assessed, handgrip strength, maximal inspiratory pressure (Pimax), and 6MWD were measured, and the one-repetition maximum (1RM) was determined for each of four exercises (bench press, lat pull down, leg extension, and leg press) performed on gymnasium equipment. Quality of life was assessed using the St. George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ). We found statistically significant positive correlations between 6MWD and body weight (r = 0.32; p < 0.05), BDI (r = 0.50; p < 0.01), FEV, (r = 0.33; p < 0.05), PImax (r = 0.53; p < 0.01), and all values of 1RM. A statistically significant negative correlation was observed between 6MWD and dyspnea at the end of the 6-min walk test (r = -0.29; p < 0.05), as well as between 6MWD and the SGRQ activity domain (r = -0.45; p < 0.01) and impact domain (r = -0.34; p < 0.05) and total score (r = -0.40; p < 0.01). Multiple regression analysis selected body weight, BDI, Pimax, and lat pull down IRM as predictive factors for 6MWD (R-2 = 0.589).Conclusions: the results of this study showed the importance of the skeletal musculature of the thorax and upper limbs in submaximal exercise tolerance and could open new perspectives for training programs designed to improve functional activity in COPD patients.

Padrão de remodelação e função ventricular em ratos expostos à fumaça do cigarro

FUNDAMENTO: A relevância do padrão de remodelação no modelo de ratos expostos à fumaça do cigarro não é conhecida. OBJETIVO: Analisar a presença de diferentes padrões de remodelação nesse modelo e sua relação com a função ventricular. MÉTODOS: Ratos fumantes (n=47) foram divididos de acordo com o padrão de geometria, analisado pelo ecocardiograma: normal (índice de massa normal e espessura relativa normal), remodelação concêntrica (índice de massa normal e espessura relativa aumentada), hipertrofia concêntrica (índice de massa aumentado e espessura relativa aumentada) e hipertrofia excêntrica (índice de massa aumentado e espessura relativa normal). RESULTADOS: Os ratos fumantes apresentaram um dos quatro padrões de geometria: padrão normal, 51%; hipertrofia excêntrica:,32%; hipertrofia concêntrica, 13% e remodelação concêntrica, 4%. Os grupos normal e hipertrofia excêntrica apresentaram menores valores de fração de ejeção e porcentagem de encurtamento que o grupo hipertrofia concêntrica. Treze animais (28%) apresentaram disfunção sistólica, detectada pela fração de ejeção e pela porcentagem de encurtamento. Na análise de regressão univariada, os padrões de geometria e o índice de massa não foram fator de predição de disfunção ventricular (p>0,05). Por outro lado, o aumento da espessura relativa da parede foi fator de predição de disfunção ventricular na análise univariada (p<0,001) e na análise multivariada, após ajuste para o índice de massa (p=0,003). CONCLUSÃO: Ratos expostos à fumaça do cigarro apresentam um dos quatro diferentes padrões de remodelação. Entre as variáveis geométricas analisadas, somente o aumento da espessura relativa da parede do ventrículo esquerdo foi fator de predição de disfunção ventricular nesse modelo.

Increased production of hydrogen peroxide by peripheral blood monocytes associated with smoking exposure intensity in smokers

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

Fatores de risco para macrossomia fetal em gestações complicadas por diabete ou por hiperglicemia diária

OBJETIVO: identificar fatores de risco para a macrossomia fetal na população de gestantes portadoras de diabete ou hiperglicemia diária. MÉTODOS: estudo retrospectivo, tipo caso-controle, incluindo 803 pares de mães e recém-nascidos desta população específica, distribuídos em dois grupos: macrossômicos (casos, n=242) e não macrossômicos (controles, n=561). Foram comparadas variáveis relativas à idade, paridade, peso e índice de massa corporal (IMC), ganho de peso (GP), antecedentes de diabete, hipertensão arterial e tabagismo, tipo e classificação do diabete e indicadores do controle glicêmico no terceiro trimestre. As médias foram avaliadas pelo teste F e as variáveis categorizadas foram submetidas à análise univariada, utilizando-se o teste do chi². Os resultados significativos foram incluídos no modelo de regressão múltipla, para identificação do risco independente de macrossomia, considerando-se OR, IC 95% e valor de p. Para todas as análises foi estabelecido o limite de significância estatística de 5% (p<0,05). RESULTADOS: observou-se associação significativa entre macrossomia e GP maior que 16 kg, IMC >25 kg/m², antecedentes pessoais, obstétricos e, especificamente, o de macrossomia, classificação nos grupos de Rudge (IB e IIA + IIB), média glicêmica (MG) >120 mg/dL e média de glicemia pós-prandial >130 mg/dL no terceiro trimestre. Na análise de regressão múltipla, o GP >16 kg (OR=1,79; IC 95%: 1,23-1,60), o IMC >25 kg/m² (OR=1,83; IC 95%: 1,27-2,64), o antecedente pessoal de diabete (OR=1,56; IC 95%: 1,05-2,31) e de macrossomia (OR=2,37; IC 95%: 1,60-3,50) e a MG >120 mg/dL no terceiro trimestre (OR=1,78; IC 95%: 1,13-2,80) confirmaram risco independente para macrossomia nestas gestações de risco. CONCLUSÃO: o GP superior a 16 kg, o IMC maior ou igual a 25 kg/m², a MG superior a 120 mg/dL no terceiro trimestre e a presença de antecedentes pessoais de diabete ou de macrossomia foram identificados como fatores de risco para macrossomia fetal em gestantes portadoras de diabete ou de hiperglicemia diária.

Bone metabolism biomarkers, body weight, and bone age in healthy Brazilian male adolescents

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

Low Apgar scores at 5 minutes in a low risk population: maternal and obstetrical factors and postnatal outcome

OBJETIVO: Avaliar a associação entre índice de Apgar menor que sete no 5º minuto, os fatores pré-natais e resultados pós-natais. MÉTODOS: Trata-se de estudo retrospectivo com 27.252 recém-nascidos em maternidade escola com população de baixo risco obstétrico, de janeiro de 2003 a dezembro de 2010. Prontuários de todos os casos com índice de Apgar < 7 no 5º minuto (n = 121; - 0,4%) e de 363 casos com Apgar > 7 no 5º minuto, escolhidos ao acaso, foram revisados. Os principais desfechos estudados foram: óbito neonatal, insuficiência respiratória neonatal, necessidade de intubação orotraqueal e de unidade terapia intensiva (UTI) neonatal e encefalopatia hipóxico-isquêmica. RESULTADOS: Após análise de regressão múltipla, desacelerações tardias (DIP II) (OR: 2,4; IC95%: 1,4-4,1) e período expulsivo prolongado (OR: 3,3; IC 95%: 1,3-8,3) se associaram com Apgar < 7 no 5º minuto; assim como com insuficiência respiratória ao nascimento (OR: 3,0; IC 95%: 1,3-6,9), intubação traqueal (OR: 2,5; IC 95%: 1,2-4,8), necessidade de UTI neonatal (OR: 9,5; IC 95%: 6,7-16,8) e encefalopatia hipóxico-isquêmica (OR: 14,1; IC 95%: 3,6-54,7). Nenhuma outra variável prénatal se associou com Apgar < 7 no 5º minuto (p < 0,05). CONCLUSÃO: DIP II e período expulsivo prolongado estão associados com Apgar < 7 no 5º minuto em população obstétrica de baixo risco; situação essa relacionada com maior risco de insuficiência respiratória no parto, necessidade de suporte ventilatório e encefalopatia hipóxico-isquêmica.