Consumo multiplataforma de conteúdo digital: o caso do mercado de e-books

O problema de pesquisa da presente dissertação reside no questionamento sobre quais são os fatores de adoção e resistência ao consumo de e-books em plataformas digitais. Para analisá-lo foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa e exploratória. Durante a coleta de dados, além da pesquisa bibliográfica realizou-se uma pesquisa de campo para obtenção de dados empíricos, com 12 entrevistas em profundidade, utilizando-se um roteiro semiestruturado. Os dados obtidos foram analisados por meio do método de análise de conteúdo. Ademais, este trabalho foi estruturado da seguinte forma: no capítulo 1 o problema de pesquisa é apresentando e contextualizado, bem como os objetivos e pressupostos desta dissertação; no capítulo 2 é abordado o referencial teórico pertinente, consistente no mercado de e-books, hábitos, atitudes e a relação entre hábitos e atitudes; no capítulo 3 é apresentada a metodologia de pesquisa utilizada; no capítulo 4 são apresentados e analisados os resultados da pesquisa de campo; no capítulo 5 apresentam-se as observações finais acerca deste trabalho. Assim, procurou-se por intermédio deste estudo articular a adoção do consumo de e-books com a teoria dos hábitos de consumo e das atitudes perante a tecnologia.

Some notes about the determination of current account equilibrium real exchange rate and the relation between real exchange rate and productive specialization

The objective of these notes is to present a simple mathematical model of the determination of current account real exchange rate as defined by Bresser-Pereira (2010); i.e. the real exchange rate that guarantees the inter temporal equilibrium of balance of payments and to show the relation between Real Exchange rate and Productive Specialization at theoretical and empirical level.

How the full opening of the capital account to highly liquid financial markets led Latin America to two and a half cycles of ‘mania, panic and crash’

Latin America has recently experienced three cycles of capital inflows, the first two ending in major financial crises. The first took place between 1973 and the 1982 ‘debt-crisis’. The second took place between the 1989 ‘Brady bonds’ agreement (and the beginning of the economic reforms and financial liberalisation that followed) and the Argentinian 2001/2002 crisis, and ended up with four major crises (as well as the 1997 one in East Asia) — Mexico (1994), Brazil (1999), and two in Argentina (1995 and 2001/2). Finally, the third inflow-cycle began in 2003 as soon as international financial markets felt reassured by the surprisingly neo-liberal orientation of President Lula’s government; this cycle intensified in 2004 with the beginning of a (purely speculative) commodity price-boom, and actually strengthened after a brief interlude following the 2008 global financial crash — and at the time of writing (mid-2011) this cycle is still unfolding, although already showing considerable signs of distress. The main aim of this paper is to analyse the financial crises resulting from this second cycle (both in LA and in East Asia) from the perspective of Keynesian/ Minskyian/ Kindlebergian financial economics. I will attempt to show that no matter how diversely these newly financially liberalised Developing Countries tried to deal with the absorption problem created by the subsequent surges of inflow (and they did follow different routes), they invariably ended up in a major crisis. As a result (and despite the insistence of mainstream analysis), these financial crises took place mostly due to factors that were intrinsic (or inherent) to the workings of over-liquid and under-regulated financial markets — and as such, they were both fully deserved and fairly predictable. Furthermore, these crises point not just to major market failures, but to a systemic market failure: evidence suggests that these crises were the spontaneous outcome of actions by utility-maximising agents, freely operating in friendly (‘light-touch’) regulated, over-liquid financial markets. That is, these crises are clear examples that financial markets can be driven by buyers who take little notice of underlying values — i.e., by investors who have incentives to interpret information in a biased fashion in a systematic way. Thus, ‘fat tails’ also occurred because under these circumstances there is a high likelihood of self-made disastrous events. In other words, markets are not always right — indeed, in the case of financial markets they can be seriously wrong as a whole. Also, as the recent collapse of ‘MF Global’ indicates, the capacity of ‘utility-maximising’ agents operating in (excessively) ‘friendly-regulated’ and over-liquid financial market to learn from previous mistakes seems rather limited.

How the full opening of the capital account to highly liquid financial markets led Latin America to two and a half cycles of ‘mania, panic and crash’

Latin America has recently experienced three cycles of capital inflows, the first two ending in major financial crises. The first took place between 1973 and the 1982 ‘debt-crisis’. The second took place between the 1989 ‘Brady bonds’ agreement (and the beginning of the economic reforms and financial liberalisation that followed) and the Argentinian 2001/2002 crisis, and ended up with four major crises (as well as the 1997 one in East Asia) — Mexico (1994), Brazil (1999), and two in Argentina (1995 and 2001/2). Finally, the third inflow-cycle began in 2003 as soon as international financial markets felt reassured by the surprisingly neo-liberal orientation of President Lula’s government; this cycle intensified in 2004 with the beginning of a (purely speculative) commodity price-boom, and actually strengthened after a brief interlude following the 2008 global financial crash — and at the time of writing (mid-2011) this cycle is still unfolding, although already showing considerable signs of distress. The main aim of this paper is to analyse the financial crises resulting from this second cycle (both in LA and in East Asia) from the perspective of Keynesian/ Minskyian/ Kindlebergian financial economics. I will attempt to show that no matter how diversely these newly financially liberalised Developing Countries tried to deal with the absorption problem created by the subsequent surges of inflow (and they did follow different routes), they invariably ended up in a major crisis. As a result (and despite the insistence of mainstream analysis), these financial crises took place mostly due to factors that were intrinsic (or inherent) to the workings of over-liquid and under-regulated financial markets — and as such, they were both fully deserved and fairly predictable. Furthermore, these crises point not just to major market failures, but to a systemic market failure: evidence suggests that these crises were the spontaneous outcome of actions by utility-maximising agents, freely operating in friendly (light-touched) regulated, over-liquid financial markets. That is, these crises are clear examples that financial markets can be driven by buyers who take little notice of underlying values — investors have incentives to interpret information in a biased fashion in a systematic way. ‘Fat tails’ also occurred because under these circumstances there is a high likelihood of self-made disastrous events. In other words, markets are not always right — indeed, in the case of financial markets they can be seriously wrong as a whole. Also, as the recent collapse of ‘MF Global’ indicates, the capacity of ‘utility-maximising’ agents operating in unregulated and over-liquid financial market to learn from previous mistakes seems rather limited.

Fatores de sucesso no desenvolvimento de novos produtos em pequenas empresas: um estudo de caso em um fabricante de equipamentos para gás natural veicular

This study presents itself as a contribution to the solidification of the Natural Gas industry, within the scope of the development of new products. The goal of this paper is to analyze the factors that lead to the success of new products through the evaluation of the activities done during the process of development of these products in the Natural Gas sector. To achieve this goal a case study was done in a small company of this segment. At first, as a basis for the study, a bibliographical research was done with books, theses, dissertations, monographies, publications in national and international periodicals, congress annals and publications in the internet related to the subject. Afterwards, a case study was done, aiming at the acquisition of further knowledge about the real process of development of products in a small company of the Natural Gas sector, allowing for the performance of the evaluation. The case study was done at Gas Project and Systems do Brasil, a company that works with the development of electronic equipment to the conversion of car engines to natural gas, through direct observations and interviews with the person responsible for the development and management of products. Through the evaluation of the process it was observed that the activities related to it are done in an informal way and some activities are considered unnecessary for their success. The results also suggest an emphasis in the technological activities, something that was not observed in the activities related to the market. The instruments used in this evaluation prove to be efficient to evaluate the process of development of new products in other companies, including those of different areas. Taking into account the relevance of the studied theme to the strengthening of the Natural Gas industry, it is necessary to do further complementary studies

Um olho torto na literatura de Graciliano Ramos

This dissertation analyses, within a psychoanalytical e literary perspective, the enigma of blindness in Graciliano Ramos s work. The approach takes into account, mainly, the narratives of Histórias de Alexandre (Alexandre s tales) and Infância (Childhood memories) as both books speak of the same theme: the injured eye. The writer s work is scourged so that a broaden symbolism regarding the hurt eye can be found. The subject is discussed from three significant elements: fragmentation, helplessness and melancholy; all these form the creative aesthetic of Graciliano, merging into a single object. Fragmentation representing the internal shattered world of his characters, which is reflected in the environment; helplessness, directly related to feelings of rejection; and melancholy, characterized by a strong feeling of emptiness. The theme of isolation and loss is discussed based on Mourning and melancholy, by Freud, and other theorizers. There is also a brief dialogue with the Romantic and philosophical theories, which tries to explain the melancholic condition in the individual before moments of distress. Such theories are the support for the understanding of the helplessness of the hero in Graciliano Ramos´s literature and for the assumption that the blindness in the mistreated boy of the book Infância could be the language of the traumatic aspect that colors the entire text of the writer. As matter of fact, it constitutes in the lost object represented in the anguish of the author s characters

Primary power distribution systems planning taking into account reliability, operation and expansion costs

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A presença da produção científica em psicologia na formação de psicólogos do Rio Grande do Norte

The present research aimed to analyze the presence of national scientific production in undergraduate studies in Psychology of Rio Grande do Norte. Therefore, the bibliographical references contained in education plan of subjects linked to the common center of the courses, which were taught in 2011 in three Psychology courses of the state, were focused. The analysis of the material was based on bibliographical and contextual aspects of the production, such as year, nationality, type of material, authorship (including the link of authors to PPGs), structuring axis of the subject in which it was mentioned, among others. The results showed that the national production is predominant in all courses, and they are, mostly, originated from PPGs of Psychology. Among these, the publications resulted from programs in Southwest, with emphasis to PUC-SP, are recent (mostly from 2000s) and they are predominantly composed by books (organizations and full texts). Regarding the distribution of Psychology PPGs production by the structuring axes, it is observed that it surpasses the foreign production only in axis C (procedures of scientific investigation and professional practice) and axis F (professional practices). Accordingly, it is concluded that Psychology production is found in graduation, sharing space with foreign publications and from other areas of knowledge. On the one hand, this is positive, by taking into account the importance of several foreign works and from other fields to build the knowledge in Psychology; on the other hand, it shows that the production from this area is inserted in graduation in a less significant way than its growth, which points out the existence of gaps in the development of some investigative domains from national Psychology

Análise sobre diferentes abordagens de configuração eletrônica de elementos apresentados em livros de química

This study aimed to identify and review of the conceptual differences presented by authors of books, focusing on the theme of electronic configuration. It shows the changing concepts of electronic configuration, its implications for the cognitive development of students and their relations with the contemporary world. We identified possible obstacles in books generated in the search for simplifications, situations of different concepts of energy in the electron configuration for sublevels. For this analysis was carried out in several books, and some other general chemistry and inorganic chemistry without distinguishing between level of education, whether secondary or higher. It was found that some books for school books corroborated with higher education, others do not. To check the consistency of what was discussed, it was a survey of 30 teachers, it was found divergent points of responses, particularly with respect to the energy sublevels and authorship of the diagram which facilitated the electron configuration. It was found that the total 22professores, ie, 73,33% answered correctly on the energy sublevel more calcium (Ca) and 80%, ie, 24 teachers responded incorrectly on the iron. As for the authorship of the diagram used to facilitate the electronic configuration, we obtained 93, 33% of teachers indicated that they followed a diagram, and this was called "Diagram of Linus Pauling," teacher 01, 3,33%, indicated that the diagram was authored by Madelung and 01, 3,33%, did not respond to question. Was observed that it is necessary a more detailed assessment of ancient writings, as the search for simplifications and generalizations, not so plausible, lead to errors and consequences negative for understanding the properties of many substances. It was found that quantum mechanics combined with spectroscopic data should be part of a more thorough analysis, especially when it extends situations atoms monoelectronicpolieletrônicos to describe atoms, because factors such as effective nuclear charge and shielding factor must be taken into consideration, because interactions there is inside an atom, described by a set ofquantum numbers, sometimes not taken into account

Cryptic sexual populations account for genetic diversity and ecological success in a widely distributed, asexual fungus-growing ant

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

On an Active Control for a Structurally Nonlinear Mechanical System, Taking Into Account an Energy Pumping

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

A note on the attenuation of the sommerfeld effect of a non-ideal system taking into account a MR damper and the complete model of a DC motor

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Bats from Fazenda Intervales, Southeastern Brazil: species account and comparison between different sampling methods

Assessing the composition of an area's bat fauna is typically accomplished by using captures or by monitoring echolocation calls with bat detectors. The two methods may not provide the same data regarding species composition. Mist nets and harp traps may be biased towards sampling low flying species, and bat detectors biased towards detecting high intensity echolocators. A comparison of the bat fauna of Fazenda Intervales, southeastern Brazil, as revealed by mist nets and harp trap captures, checking roosts and by monitoring echolocation calls of flying bats illustrates this point. A total of 17 species of bats was sampled. Fourteen bat species were captured and the echolocation calls of 12 species were recorded, three of them not revealed by mist nets or harp traps. The different sampling methods provided different pictures of the bat fauna. Phyllostomid bats dominated the catches in mist nets, but in the field their echolocation calls were never detected. No single sampling approach provided a complete assessment of the bat fauna in the study area. In general, bats producing low intensity echolocation calls, such as phyllostomids, are more easily assessed by netting, and bats producing high intensity echolocation calls are better surveyed by bat detectors. The results demonstrate that a combined and varied approach to sampling is required for a complete assessment of the bat fauna of an area.

Para que serve uma subjetividade? Foucault, tempo e corpo

O presente artigo procura retomar a mudança de rumo da obra de Foucault que determinou o enfoque sobre a subjetividade, sobretudo nos dois últimos volumes de História da Sexualidade. Com isso, nossa atenção volta-se para os marcos da definição de subjetividade como processo ou prática, que são a relação com o tempo e a dimensão transformacional ou criativa do corpo. Tal investigação conceitual sobre a subjetividade em Foucault procura indicar, outrossim, de que maneira a criação filosófica está relacionada ao modo de vida ou estilo de um filósofo. O pensamento derradeiro de Foucault é consistente com o estilo que ele vinha construindo no decorrer de sua obra, de modo que se discute a invectiva de que esta última fase, por razões várias, seria o lugar de um retorno do sujeito ou do homem que Foucault havia negado anteriormente.