External polyacrylate-coating as alternative material for preparation of photopolymerized sol-gel monolithic column

Photopolymerized sol-gel monolithic columns for use in capillary electrochromatography were prepared in 125 mu m i.d. polyacrylate-coated fused-silica capillaries. The polyacrylate-coating, unlike the polyimide one, is transparent to the radiation used (approximate to 370 nm), and thus, no coating removal is necessary. This is a very important particularity since intrinsic capillary column characteristics, such as flexibility and mechanical resistance, are unchanged. A mixture containing metacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (MPTMS) as the polymeric precursor, hydrochloric acid as the catalyst, toluene as the porogen and bis(2,4,6-trimethylbenzoyl)-phenylphosphine oxide (Irgacure 819) as the photoinitiator was irradiated at 370 nm for 20 min inside the capillaries to prepare the columns through sol-gel approach. The versatility and viability of the use of polyacrilate as a new capillary external coating were shown through preparation of two columns under different conditions, which were tested in electrochromatography for separation of standard mixture containing thiourea (marker compound), propylbenzene, phenanthrene and pyrene. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Intellectual Property Protection : an External Factor that Influences a Foreign Company’s Market Entry Mode into a Prospective Market

Intellectual Property Protection is been understood in this paper as IP laws and enforcement of these laws in order to protect intellectual property rights. The goal of this research work is to understand how Swedish companies view issues regarding to Intellectual Property Protection (IPP) and how it influences a foreign company?s market entry mode. In order to achieve this objective, the Nigerian market situation and its? laws that govern IPP will be used to analyzed this issue. This paper argues that IPP is an important factor that influences a company?s entry mode and this argument finds IP laws and enforcement as two variables that influence the market while the market situation influences the foreign company. In carrying out this research literature was reviewed and interviews carried out. The research methodology section has presented a qualitative research and explains the nature of the interview stages that have been used to achieve the goals concerning the findings of the empirical data. A qualitative method was adopted by carrying out in-depth semi-structured interviews. The empirical data collected from the investigation were gathered and analyzed based on the research questions. The findings show that IPP of a host market influences a potential foreign company through the market situation that is also influenced by IP laws and enforcement. The outcome of these findings argues that the Swedish companies that were interviewed in this research will enter the Nigerian market through an intermediary mode. This has been based on the current IPP system of Nigerian.

The effects of Ikea and external shopping centers on regional trade and retail growth : A comparative analysis of Ikea’s establishment in Kalmar and Karlstad

This paper examines the effects of Ikea store establishment in Kalmar and Karlstad on the trade and retail inside the two cities, and as well on the trade and retail in the close neighboring municipalities and in further peripheral municipalities in both regions. After the establishment of Ikea store, Kalmar and Karlstad have experienced significant growth in trade and retail. The question, however, is how big this growth is in both cities? And how different locations on different distances from Ikea have been affected? What impact there was on different segments of the retail? How different business branches have been affected? How large the catchment area for the emerging new large-scale retail locations is? These questions, in addition to few others, are investigated in this paper. The thesis starts with an introduction chapter containing a background of the topic, problem description, the investigated questions, the purpose, and the outline of the paper. The next chapter includes the frame of reference which consists of literature review and theoretical framework about the external shopping centers and their impact on retail and regional trade development. It includes also information gathered from previous studies technical reports and other available sources about the subject. The third chapter includes description for the methods used to collect the primary and secondary data needed for the purpose of this study. Then the empirical framework which demonstrates the results of the conducted research followed by analysis and concluded in discussion and conclusion. Mixed methods are used as research strategy in this thesis, and the method to conduct the research is based on telephone interviews for the primary (qualitative) data, and documents and desk research for the secondary (quantitative) data. The gathered data is analyzed and designed in a way that allows the usage of comparative analysis technique to present the findings and draw conclusions. The results showed that new established Ikea retail store outside the city boundaries results with many effects on the city center and on the neighboring municipalities as well. The city center seems not to be affected negatively, but on the contrary positive effects were witnessed in both regions, these positive effects are linked to the increase inflow of customers from the external retail area which is known as spillover effect. III On the other hand, the neighboring towns and municipalities are more negatively affected especially with the trade of con-convenience goods as the consumers in these towns and municipalities start to go to the area of Ikea and the large external retail center to do their purchasing, the substitution effect is then said to be occurred. Moreover, the further far municipalities do not seem to be significantly affected by the establishment of Ikea. These effects whether positive or negative could be monitored by looking to few trade parameters such as the turnover, the sales index, and the consumers’ expenditure, these parameters can be very useful to measure the developments and changes in the trade and retail in a given place. 

The effects of external and internal strikes on total factor productivity

This paper examines structural changes that occur in the total factor productivity (TFP) within countries. It is possible that some episodes of high economic growth or economic decline are associated with permanent productivity shocks, therefore, this research has two objectives. The Örst one is to estimate the structural changes present in TFP for a sample of 81 countries between 1950(60) and 2000. The second one is to identify, whenever possible, episodes in the political and economic history of these countries that may account for the structural breaks in question. The results suggest that about 85% of the TFP time-series present at least one structural break, moreover, at least half the structural changes can be attributed to internal factors, such as independence or a newly adopted constitution, and about 30% to external shocks, such as oil shock or shocks in international interest rates. The majority of the estimated breaks are downwards, indicating that after a break the TFP tends to decrease, implying that institutional rearrangements, external shocks, or internal shocks may be costly and from which it is very di¢ cult to recover.

Dual resource transfers and interruption in external debt service

Externai debt service requires a dual resource transfer. Trade surpluses have to be generated in order to make foreign exchange revenues available for debt repayment. In addition, with developing countries' externai debt being largely a public liability, debt service requires that resources can be effectively transferred from the private to the public sector. This paper derives a statistical model for dealing with dual constraints in the presence of binary dependent variables and applies it to the dual resource transfer problem. The results from the estimation of the model for a sample of 31 middle-income developing countries in the period of 1980 to 1990, strongly support the hypothesis that both externai and fiscal constraints are important in explaining externai debt service disruptions.

The challenges faced by the external audit industry in Brazil: an exploratory study

The auditing role in the contemporaneous business environment, and increasing interest in and demand for governance and transparency, has become an element even more important to the society, as a whole, in order to build solid basis to the development of businesses and generation of wealth through technical knowledge, independence, transparency, credibility, and ethics. Nevertheless, the external financial audit industry in the world and also particularly in Brazil has faced several challenges which threaten its success and evolution. In this sense, since the external audit industry in Brazil has been immersed in a deep crisis with features that are explored through this study, allow me to create an analogy over this study saying that the external financial audit industry is like a sick person with a chronic disease, but the disease has not yet been diagnosed and the person has been dealing with the isolated symptoms. This person, the external audit industry, has struggled with this disease for many years and it is getting worse. It is fundamental to highlight that the challenges faced by the external audit industry in Brazil, ultimately, have not harmed the industry only, but they also materialize themselves as chronic issues for the corporate governance and the capital markets since they harm every interested party. In my point of view, the hardest affected are the investors or shareholders whose interest the independent auditor’s work seeks to preserve. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to have a picture of the challenges faced by the external audit industry in Brazil and understand those challenges as a requirement to analyze the potential alternatives to solve them or, analogically, to diagnose this disease. The research purpose is to map and identify the challenges faced by the external audit industry in Brazil based on the understanding of professionals seasoned in the area. Those challenges are mapped and understood through a methodological approach, a questionnaire answered by auditors with experience in the Brazilian auditing market. The challenges were preliminarily listed based on over 16 years of experience of the author in the area of auditing and financial and accounting services, discussions and interviews about the topic with seasoned professionals, and analyses of pieces of news, publications and academic studies. The questionnaire was used in order to validate the challenges, observations, perspectives, and perceptions gathered through those resources. Despite of the fact that the study is highly relevant, it was not found, through my research, other analyses on this topic with a similar approach which is intended by this study. It looks like the external audit industry in Brazil has walked through these new age dealing with problems on a daily basis and the real challenges of the industry may be concealed by the economic conditions in Brazil and other explanations. As in any problematic scenario, in which a critical analysis is needed, having an accurate picture and understanding of the challenges is a crucial step to start exploring alternatives to address them.

How to manage macroeconomic policies to foster growth and employment and prevent financial and external crises

My presentation focuses on the implementation of a macroeconomic policy regime which, I believe, is capable of simultaneously attaining several targets, including the promotion of growth and employment and the prevention of external and financial crises.

Pose estimation of a humanoid robot using images from a mobile external camera

NOGUEIRA, Marcelo B. ; MEDEIROS, Adelardo A. D. ; ALSINA, Pablo J. Pose Estimation of a Humanoid Robot Using Images from an Mobile Extern Camera. In: IFAC WORKSHOP ON MULTIVEHICLE SYSTEMS, 2006, Salvador, BA. Anais... Salvador: MVS 2006, 2006.

Estudo sobre o efeito dos parâmetros de processamento dos pós e sinterização do aço inox 316l reforçado com NbC

This masther dissertation presents a contribution to the study of 316L stainless steel sintering aiming to study their behavior in the milling process and the effect of isotherm temperature on the microstructure and mechanical properties. The 316L stainless steel is a widely used alloy for their high corrosion resistance property. However its application is limited by the low wear resistance consequence of its low hardness. In previous work we analyzed the effect of sintering additives as NbC and TaC. This study aims at deepening the understanding of sintering, analyzing the effect of grinding on particle size and microstructure and the effect of heating rate and soaking time on the sintered microstructure and on their microhardness. Were milled 316L powders with NbC at 1, 5 and 24 hours respectively. Particulates were characterized by SEM and . Cylindrical samples height and diameter of 5.0 mm were compacted at 700 MPa. The sintering conditions were: heating rate 5, 10 and 15◦C/min, temperature 1000, 1100, 1200, 1290 and 1300◦C, and soaking times of 30 and 60min. The cooling rate was maintained at 25◦C/min. All samples were sintered in a vacuum furnace. The sintered microstructure were characterized by optical and electron microscopy as well as density and microhardness. It was observed that the milling process has an influence on sintering, as well as temperature. The major effect was caused by firing temperature, followed by the grinding and heating rate. In this case, the highest rates correspond to higher sintering.

Desenvolvimento e caracterização de um compósito matriz metálica (CMM): aço EUROFER97 reforçado com Carbeto de Tântalo - TaC

Steel is an alloy EUROFER promising for use in nuclear reactors, or in applications where the material is subjected to temperatures up to 550 ° C due to their lower creep resistance under. One way to increase this property, so that the steel work at higher temperatures it is necessary to prevent sliding of its grain boundaries. Factors that influence this slip contours are the morphology of the grains, the angle and speed of the grain boundaries. This speed can be decreased in the presence of a dispersed phase in the material, provided it is fine and homogeneously distributed. In this context, this paper presents the development of a new material metal matrix composite (MMC) which has as starting materials as stainless steel EUROFER 97, and two different kinds of tantalum carbide - TaC, one with average crystallite sizes 13.78 nm synthesized in UFRN and another with 40.66 nm supplied by Aldrich. In order to improve the mechanical properties of metal matrix was added by powder metallurgy, nano-sized particles of the two types of TaC. This paper discusses the effect of dispersion of carbides in the microstructure of sintered parts. Pure steel powders with the addition of 3% TaC UFRN and 3% TaC commercial respectively, were ground in grinding times following: a) 5 hours in the planetary mill for all post b) 8 hours of grinding in the mill Planetary only for steel TaC powders of commercial and c) 24 hours in the conventional ball mill mixing the pure steel milled for 5 hours in the planetary mill with 3% TaC commercial. Each of the resulting particulate samples were cold compacted under a uniaxial pressure of 600MPa, on a cylindrical matrix of 5 mm diameter. Subsequently, the compressed were sintered in a vacuum furnace at temperatures of 1150 to 1250 ° C with an increment of 20 ° C and 10 ° C per minute and maintained at these isotherms for 30, 60 and 120 minutes and cooled to room temperature. The distribution, size and dispersion of steel and composite particles were determined by x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy followed by chemical analysis (EDS). The structures of the sintered bodies were observed by optical microscopy and scanning electron accompanied by EDS beyond the x-ray diffraction. Initial studies sintering the obtained steel EUROFER 97 a positive reply in relation to improvement of the mechanical properties independent of the processing, because it is obtained with sintered microhardness values close to and even greater than 100% of the value obtained for the HV 333.2 pure steel as received in the form of a bar

Influência da lubrirrefrigeração na qualidade superficial de metais retificados

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