Ensaio sobre as virtudes do capital de risco corporativo para projetos de alta tecnologia no setor agrícola: a trajetória inovadora da Alellyx Applied Genomics e da CanaVialis

O objetivo neste artigo é investigar a trajetória de duas empresas startups brasileiras dedicadas a pesquisa e desenvolvimento (P&D) no setor de biotecnologia: a Alellyx e a CanaVialis. São dois casos de spin-offs acadêmicos e de bioemprendimentos germinados na esfera do Projeto Genoma, da Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (Fapesp), maturadas na Votorantim Novos Negócios (VNN), área de novos negócios de um dos maiores grupos industriais brasileiros que atua no segmento de commodities, o Grupo Votorantim S/A, e depois vendidas para a Monsanto. Neste estudo, tentou-se compreender a racionalidade e as virtudes das ações de investimentos corporativos e das políticas públicas destinadas à biotecnologia focada em genômica aplicada para a agricultura no Brasil. A metodologia utilizada é a de estudo de caso, mais especificamente de análise dos dois casos de empresas comentados acima. Os resultados demonstraram que, apesar de o principal objetivo do grupo econômico ser a célere valorização do capital investido e seu retorno financeiro, a afiliação corporativa dessas empresas estimulou a aceleração de um conjunto de capacitações para a gestão empresarial da Alellyx e da CanaVialis, que foram críticas para o amadurecimento do negócio. Evidenciou-se, ainda, que foi fundamental o significativo aporte de recursos por meio dos mecanismos de apoio do sistema nacional à inovação.

Estudo dos fatores que determinam a formação do capital social familiar em empresas familiares na região sul de Minas Gerais

No estudo aqui relatado identificaram-se os fatores que levam à formação do capital social familiar em empresas familiares. Para atingir o objetivo proposto, utilizou-se, como aporte teórico, a teoria do capital social e do capital social familiar. Para tanto, foi realizada uma pesquisa exploratória, do tipo survey, em 120 empreendimentos familiares. Aplicou-se questionário, sob a forma de entrevista, a todos os empresários. Os dados foram analisados por meio de análise fatorial. Os resultados foram apresentados em dois blocos: primeiro, a caracterização da amostra em relação ao perfil do respondente e ao perfil do empreendimento, bem como a apresentação da frequência de cada uma das assertivas; na segunda parte, foi feita a análise fatorial, após a qual foram identificados sete fatores relacionados com a formação do capital social familiar. São eles: diálogo colaborativo, rede familiar, infraestrutura moral, confiança, normas éticas, ideias próprias e canais de informação externos. O capital social familiar é solidificado por meio do diálogo colaborativo, a partir do qual é possível enraizar, na família e na empresa, as normas éticas, originando o que se chama de infraestrutura moral, quando a família e a empresa estão em sintonia interna e externa. Em um sentido contraditório, a ausência do diálogo colaborativo gera autoritarismo por parte dos dirigentes e membros da família, prevalecendo ideias próprias, as quais foram identificadas como fator contraditório à formação do capital social familiar.

"Um arranjo produtivo em xeque": campo, habitus e capital simbólico em um Arranjo Produtivo Local moveleiro em Minas Gerais

O Arranjo Produtivo Local de Ubá e região (APL de Ubá) gera cerca de nove mil empregos e abriga a sede da maior empresa de móveis de aço da América Latina, além de três outras grandes empresas. Entretanto, é marcado por relações de disputa que preocupam os próprios empresários locais. O problema investigado é até que ponto essas disputas, especialmente entre fabricantes e fornecedores, colocam em risco esse APL moveleiro. O objetivo neste artigo é apresentar um entendimento de como se dão as relações de poder entre os empreendedores locais fabricantes de móveis e os fornecedores dessas empresas, discutindo suas implicações para o APL. Os resultados apontam para a existência de problemas nas relações entre fabricantes e fornecedores decorrentes, principalmente, da acumulação desigual de capital simbólico, do predomínio de interesses diferentes em jogo (illusio), bem como dos princípios diferentes e em oposição que orientam as práticas dos agentes (habitus). Os resultados apontam os riscos que essa natureza de relações acarreta para o APL de Ubá.

Anxiety and Psychological Stress Before Prenatal Screening in First-Time Mothers Who Conceived Through IVF/ICSI or Spontaneously.

Mothers' general anxiety, anxiety about the well-being of the child and psychological stress before prenatal testing was studied by comparing women who conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) with women who conceived naturally. Before the first trimester screening test for Down's syndrome, a group of 51 women who conceived through IVF/ICSI and a group of 54 women who conceived spontaneously completed the State Scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (S-Anxiety; Spielberger, 1983), the Fear of Bearing a Physically or Mentally Handicapped Child Subscale of the Pregnancy-related Anxiety Questionnaire (PRAQ-R; Huizink et al., 2004), the Psychological Stress Measure (PSM; Lemyre & Tessier, 1988), and the Prenatal Psychosocial Profile (PPP; Curry, Campbell, & Christian, 1994). Women who conceived through IVF/ICSI had more elevated levels of general anxiety and psychological stress than the women who conceived naturally; however, no difference was observed between the two groups for anxiety specifically related to the health of the child. These results underline the need to monitor women's emotional state after conception via IVF/ICSI-when counseling usually ends-and around the time of the first trimester screening. Counseling might thus be extended.

Social capital and the equilibrium number of entrepreneurs

Social capital is viewed either as a proprietary asset that serves private interests, including those of entrepreneurs, or as a collective asset that supports trust-based transactions saving on transaction costs both in markets and within the boundaries of firms, and benefiting society as a whole. This paper explains the relative specialization between entrepreneurs and market-governed exchanges as a result of the interaction between social capital that lowers transaction costs, and the scale economies of ability in managerial jobs (Lucas 1978). The main hypothesis formulated in the paper is that higher social capital will benefit the hierarchy relatively more than the market as a governance mechanism, and therefore in economies with higher social capital, the equilibrium number of entrepreneurs will be lower and their average span of control larger than in economies with lower social capital. The empirical evidence, with data from the Spanish Autonomous Communities, is consistent with this prediction.

"S'il vous plaît docteur, mettez-moi en arrêt"! Certificats médicaux pour raisons psychologiques ["Doctor please, give me a sick leave"!: medical certificates for psychological reasons].

General practitioners are regularly called to evaluate the psychological work capacity of patients. The implicit motivation behind the explicit reason for requesting a sick leave is linked to the subject's history and the way he transfers it in his professional life. An incapacity to work harbours a variety of challenges for the patient, the physician and their relationship. In order to get a better understanding of all the issues at stake, the doctor should understand the significances that represents the work to the patient and the consequences of a sick leave and its associated transference and countertransference issues.

Time of injection determines the effect of alpha-MSH antiserum on DA neurons in psychological stress

Male rats were subjected to "psychological stress" which consisted in 10 sec footshock on the first day followed 24 hr later by a 10 sec stay in the experimental chamber without shock. Intravenous antiserum against alpha-MSH markedly changed the functional state of mesencephalic and hypothalamic DA neurons (assessed by histochemical microfluorimetry) when administered before the second session but not when given before the first session. These observations reveal an interesting parallelism in the temporal characteristics of the effects of alpha-MSH on avoidance behavior and central DA systems.

Adverse life events among community-dwelling persons aged 65-70 years: gender differences in occurrence and perceived psychological consequences.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the occurrence of selected adverse life events in young-old men and women, as well as their perceived psychological consequences. METHODS: In 2005, 1,422 participants in the Lausanne Cohort 65+ study, born in 1934-1938, self-reported whether they experienced any of 26 life events during the preceding year. Most participants (N = 1,309, 92%) completed the geriatric adverse life events scale during a face-to-face interview, by rating the level of stress associated with each event, as well as its impact on their psychological well-being. RESULTS: Overall, 72% of the participants experienced at least one of the 26 events in the preceding year (range 1-9). Disease affecting the respondent (N = 525) or a close relative (N = 276) was most frequent, as well as the death of a friend or non-close relative (N = 274). Women indicated a higher frequency of events (mean 2.1 vs. 1.7 events, P < 0.001), as well as a higher level of stress and a stronger negative impact on well-being than men. In multivariate analyses adjusting for self-rated health, depressive symptoms and comorbidity, female gender remained significantly associated with the level of stress and negative impact on psychological well-being. CONCLUSION: This exploratory study shows that several types of adverse life events frequently occur at age 65-70, with gender differences both in the frequency of reporting and consequences of these events. However, information on this topic is limited and studies based on different populations and designs are needed to better understand the impact of such events.

Considering context in psychological leadership research

Despite Lewin's identification of the importance of context in behavioral research over 70 years ago, leadership psychology tended to ignore the context. Only in the past 10 years has the context been more routinely included in psychological leadership research. We provide examples of leadership research that has explored the context, introduce the special issue articles, and provide suggestions for future research on the context of leadership.

Girona, capital jurisdiccional de la Catalunya convulsa dels anys 1630

El treball té per marc precís els anys 1635-37. El seu objecteés la transferència de Barcelona a Girona de la plana major deles institucions virregnals de Catalunya (la Reial Audiència, laBatllia General, l’ofici del mestre racional...) i el seu personal.

Eager for fairness or revenge: psychological altruism in economics

To understand the human capacity for psychological altruism, one requires a proper understanding of how people actually think and feel. This paper addresses the possible relevance of recent findings in experimental economics and neuroeconomics to the philosophical controversy over altruism and egoism. After briefly sketching and contextualizing the controversy, we survey and discuss the results of various studies on behaviourally altruistic helping and punishing behaviour, which provide stimulating clues for the debate over psychological altruism. On closer analysis, these studies prove less relevant than originally expected because the data obtained admit competing interpretations such as people seeking fairness versus people seeking revenge. However, this mitigated conclusion does not preclude the possibility of more fruitful research in the area in the future. Throughout our analysis, we provide hints for the direction of future research on the question.

Social capital and cognitive attainment

We review the different meanings that researchers have given to theconcept of social capital, differentiate four types – bridging, bonding,linking, and overheads –, and discuss their different functions as public,club, and common goods.For each form of social capital we distinguish its productivity (acollective characteristic) from the factors that account for individual’sdifferential access to its returns, and propose alternative ways formeasuring each.We show the utility of our theoretical and measuring approach byanalyzing the impact of the each form of social capital on 15 year-oldstudents’ cognitive attainment across OECD countries, using 2006 PISAdata.The results show that students’ cognitive attainments are a direct functionof the richness or productivity of each form of social capital and ofstudents’ degree of access to each.