Growth, structural change and technological capabilities Latin America in a comparative perspective

Countries differ in terms of technological capabilities and complexity of production structures. According to that, countries may follow different development strategies: one based on extracting rents from abundant endowments, such as labor or natural resources, and the other focused on creating rents through intangibles, basically innovation and knowledge accumulation. The present article studies international convergence and divergence, linking structural change with trade and growth through a North South Ricardian model. The analysis focuses on the asymmetries between Latin America and mature and catching up economies. Empirical evidence supports that a shift in the composition of the production structure in favor of R&D intensive sectors allows achieving higher rates of growth in the long term and increases the capacity to respond to demand changes. A virtuous export-led growth requires laggard countries to reduce the technological gap with respect to more advanced ones. Hence, abundance of factor endowments requires to be matched with technological capabilities development for countries to converge in the long term.

As operações mentais e a aprendizagem da física teórica

O ensino dos Princípios de Física nas escolas de Ensino de Primeiro Grau oficial tem se mostrado ineficaz no que diz respeito ao preparo do aluno para compreender a Física do 2º grau, dificultando a integração do indivíduo na sociedade tecnológica contemporânea, quer no acesso a um mercado de trabalho de mão-de-obra especializada, como técnico, quer como candidato ao ensino de 3º grau. Os princípios da Ciência Contemporânea podem e devem ser mobilizados para a solução de problemas. A compreensão da Física contemporânea no nível de abstração em que se encontra, requer do indivíduo um pensamento favorito por estruturas que possibilitem operações abstratas. A Epistemologia Genética de Jean Piaget mostra que a explicação do mundo físico pelo indivíduo data dos primeiros contatos com a realidade. A estratutação dessa realidade vai-se tornando cada vez mais complexa de acordo com as possibilidades de raciocínio que o indivíduo possua para interpretá-la. O raciocínio é o resultado das operações realizadas pelo indivíduo, possibilitadas por estraturas mentais subjacentes. Essas estruturas se desenvolvem à medida que o indivíduo interage com o meio, permitindo de início uma interação sensório-motora, que, aos poucos, vai se operacionalizando até dominar o pensamento concreto, podendo então passar a realizar operações sobre operações que são chamadas de operações formais ou abstratas. Estas acontecem a partir da adolescência. Os princípios da Física lecionados nas escolas de Ensino de Primeiro Grau requerem para a sua compreensão, além do domínio do pensamento concreto, o pensamento formal. Realizou-se uma pesquisa com alunos de 7ª e 8ª séries do Ensino de Primeiro Grau e alunos da 2ª série do curso de formação de professores; verificou-se que esses sujeitos não haviam dominado as operações concretas nem tinham ainda atingido o início do pensamento formal. Consequentemente, a aprendizagem dos principios de Física que lhes são ministrados acha-se seriamente comprometido, fazendo-se necessária uma mudança de atitude do professor frente aos alunos, a fim de desenvolver o seu raciocfnio propiciando uma aprendizagem efetiva.

Implications of ernbodied technological change for development economics

Employing a embodied technologic change model in which the time decision of scrapping old vintages of capital and adopt newer one is endogenous we show that the elasticity of substitutions among capital and labor plays a key role in determining the optimum life span of capital. In particular, for the CD case the life span of capital does not depend on the relative price of it. The estimation of the model's long-run investment function shows, for a Panel data set consisting of 125 economies for 25 years, that the price elasticity of investment is lower than one; we rejected the CD specification. Our calibration for the US suggests 0.4 for the technical elasticity of substitution. In order to get a theoretical consistent concept of aggregate capital we derive the relative price profile for a shadow second-hand market for capital. The shape of the model's theoretical price curve reproduces the empírical estimation of it. \lVe plug the calibrate version of the long-run solution of the model to a cross-section of economies data set to get the implied TFP, that is, the part of the productivity which is not explained by the model. We show that the mo dei represent a good improvement, comparing to the standard neoc!assical growth model with CD production function and disembodied technical change, in accounting the world diversity in productivity. In addition the model describes the fact that a very poor economy can experience fast growth based on capital accumulation until the point of becoming a middle income economy; from this point on it has to rely on TFP increase in order to keep growing.

Investment-specific technological change and the Brazilian macroeconomy

We studied the effects of changes in banking spreads on distributions of income, wealth and consumption as well as the welfare of the economy. This analysis was based on a model of heterogeneous agents with incomplete markets and occupational choice, in which the informality of firms and workers is a relevant transmission channel. The main finding is that reductions in spreads for firms increase the proportion of entrepreneurs and formal workers in the economy, thereby decreasing the size of the informal sector. The effects on inequality, however, are ambiguous and depend on wage dynamics and government transfers. Reductions in spreads for individuals lead to a reduction in inequality indicators at the expense of consumption and aggregate welfare. By calibrating the model to Brazil for the 2003-2012 period, it is possible to find results in line with the recent drop in informality and the wage gap between formal and informal workers.

A technological innovation for capsicums production in Peru: the mechatronics arms

Peru agricultural exports have increased in recent years due to (i) free trade agreements with many countries (United States, Canada, European Union, China, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Chile, among others), (ii) an increasing international demand for healthy products, (iii) country´s economic development and (iv) more private investments in this sector (Velazco 2012). Also, if we can compare among Peru three main regions (Coast, Andean highlands and the Jungle), It is the Coast (western region) that has a developed agricultural production due to unique weather conditions, private investments, public infrastructure, transport costs and quality of land (Gomez, 2008). This country development is also related to the production of non-traditional products for export like asparagus, artichokes, capsicums, bananas, grapes, among others; produced by agro industrial companies and small farmers and that are mainly labor intensive (Gomez, 2008 and Velazco, 2012). This very successful export diversification and self-discovery process was the result of a combination of strong natural comparative advantages (mainly excellent agro climatic conditions) and a significant innovation effort. It meant the introduction and expansion of new products and markets, the entry of new firms, and experimental research and the adoption of new techniques and process technologies developed abroad (in irrigation, crop management, post-harvesting, sanitary control, storage and packing) to produce high-quality, niche (gourmet) and higher value-added products, in line with consumer trends in sophisticated food markets. In products such as asparagus, mango, organic coffee and capsicums, Peru has become a leading world exporter (OECD). For this reason one of the government main tasks for the next years is to meet urgent agriculture producer’s needs in the areas of technological Innovation and business management (MINAG). In this context, this thesis analyzes the applicability of a new technology – the mechatronic arms – specifically to capsicums production sector in Peru. We chose Capsicums production sector (paprika, chilli pepper) because is mainly labor intensive and is the sector where my family company (DIROSE SAC) operates. This innovation consists in a 40 arms mechatronic combine, and it was first created in order to improve the efficiency on the labor intensive phase of harvest for this kind of agriculture products. It is estimated that a laborer with brief training operating the machine would be equivalent to 40 people that not only would work during daytime, but also on the night shift as well. Also, using this new technology can allow a company to make additional crops that would increase their yields and annual revenues. This thesis was developed as a business plan to make this new product available for other agriculture companies that operates in the capsicums production sector in Peru; however, this new technology has the potential to be modified in order to be available to other kind of agriculture products, in Peru and other countries.

Knowledge disclosure as a weapon in technological change battles: straight shot or backfire?

This work aims at evaluating how effective is knowledge disclosure in attenuating institutional negative reactions caused by uncertainties brought by firms’ new strategies that respond to novel technologies. The empirical setting is from an era of technological ferment, the period of the introduction of the voice over internet protocol (VoIP) in the USA in the early 2000’s. This technology led to the convergence of the wireline telecommu- nications and cable television industries. The Institutional Brokers’ Estimate System (also known as the I/B/E/S system) was used to capture reactions of securities analysts, a revealed important source of institutional pressure on firms’ strategies. For assessing knowledge disclosure, a coding technique and a established content analysis framework were used to quantitatively measure the non-numerical and unstructured data of transcripts of business events occurred at that time. Eventually, several binary response models were tested in order to assess the effect of knowledge disclosure on the probability of institutional positive reactions. The findings are that the odds of favorable institutional reactions increase when a specific kind of knowledge is disclosed. It can be concluded that knowledge disclosure can be considered as a weapon in technological changes situations, attenuating adverse institutional reactions to the companies’ strategies in environments of technological changes.

A Informática como recurso didático para a aprendizagem de Física no ensino médio

The accomplishment of this work was motivated by our concerns, while teacher of Physics discipline, in the medium teaching and in the higher education, where we have been observing a lot of difficulties in the students' acting, to the they try to give pursuit out to their studies of the classroom, because of the lack of appropriate equipments, or even, of a laboratory where they can put in practice the studied contents. The work aims at to build and to test an educational software that it serves as tool auxiliadora in Physics learning in the Medium Teaching, in the area of electricity, with emphasis in the study of the electrodynamic in resistors. The developed software comes as an alternative to the learning problems, putting the computer science as auxiliary tool, because, besides being an alternative in the middle of the technological expansion, endowed with several resources, it stimulates the significant learning, according to David Ausubel's perspective. A software containing a program destined to the applicability of physics contents in the branch of the electricity is presented as an auxiliary tool, where the student can, not just, to review the contents presented at room, as well as for in practice, through a virtual laboratory, some of these contents, besides testing their knowledge through a bank of discursive subjects. The evaluation of the developed software was made submitting him/it to the professionals' of physics area appreciation. Equally, through continuous evaluations, they were made comparisons among the students' of five different groups acting, in the same school, that you/they were used of the program as tool of his auxiliary learning, and the acting of those that didn't use it

Despertando responsabilidade social no ensino médio por meio de temáticas associadas à física nuclear

Many discussions about the role of the school are on the agenda, in an increasingly complex society. Sociologists, educators, anthropologists, researchers of different areas seek that role. The objective of this dissertation is to contribute what we can consider the central role for the physics teaching, citizenship training. We have elaborated a didactic proposal to increase the interest of high school students on issues of social relevance and, throughout it, to promote the formation of attitudes of social responsibility, enhancing the formation of a more politically and socially active citizen. For the preparation of the proposal, studies were made on education for citizenship and on attitudes change, using as its main theoretical foundation the researches on the Science, Technology and Society curricular emphasis. The teaching of Nuclear Physics was integrated to our proposal, due to its pedagogical potential for the discussion of social, political and economic subjects related to scientific concepts and associated technologies. The educational proposal we have produced was applied on a high school class of a private school at Natal-RN. It was composed from the controversial issue involving the installation of nuclear power plants in Brazilian northeast. The methodology of role playing, in which students assumed social roles and produced specific subsidies for a public hearing and a later referendum, both simulated. In the analysis of the implementation of the proposal, we highlighted the difficulties but also the possibilities and the relevance of exercising skills such as reasoning, finding information, and arguing about of social problems. The results of the research showed the possibility of meaningful learning on Nuclear Physics contents, through this social, political, economic, scientific and technological contextualization using a controversial and real issue together with mechanisms that trigger for greater popular participation, as public hearing. It has also been identified changes in attitude by some students about issues related to Nuclear Physics. We hope, through this dissertation, to contribute to the formation of future citizens as well as to the initiative of teachers-researchers with pedagogical aims similar to those in the present work

The Hunt for New Physics at the Large Hadron Collider

The Large Hadron Collider presents an unprecedented opportunity to probe the realm of new physics in the TeV region and shed light on some of the core unresolved issues of particle physics. These include the nature of electroweak symmetry breaking, the origin of mass, the possible constituent of cold dark matter, new sources of CP violation needed to explain the baryon excess in the universe, the possible existence of extra gauge groups and extra matter, and importantly the path Nature chooses to resolve the hierarchy problem - is it supersymmetry or extra dimensions. Many models of new physics beyond the standard model contain a hidden sector which can be probed at the LHC. Additionally, the LHC will be a. top factory and accurate measurements of the properties of the top and its rare decays will provide a window to new physics. Further, the LHC could shed light on the origin of neutralino masses if the new physics associated with their generation lies in the TeV region. Finally, the LHC is also a laboratory to test the hypothesis of TeV scale strings and D brane models. An overview of these possibilities is presented in the spirit that it will serve as a companion to the Technical Design Reports (TDRs) by the particle detector groups ATLAS and CMS to facilitate the test of the new theoretical ideas at the LHC. Which of these ideas stands the test of the LHC data will govern the course of particle physics in the subsequent decades.

Collider aspects of flavor physics at high Q

This chapter of the "Flavor in the era of LHC" workshop report discusses flavor-related issues in the production and decays of heavy states at the LHC at high momentum transfer Q, both from the experimental and the theoretical perspective. We review top quark physics, and discuss the flavor aspects of several extensions of the standard model, such as supersymmetry, little Higgs models or models with extra dimensions. This includes discovery aspects, as well as the measurement of several properties of these heavy states. We also present publicly available computational tools related to this topic.

Evasive Maneuvers in Space Debris Environment and Technological Parameters

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Comparative Study on the Technological Properties of Latex and Natural Rubber from Hancornia speciosa Gomes and Hevea brasiliensis

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

Comparing the Teaching-Learning Process With and Without the Use of Computerized Technological Resources

Computerized technological resources have become essential in education, particularly for teaching topics that require the performance of specific tasks. These resources can effectively help the execution of such tasks and the teaching-learning process itself. After the development of a Web site on the topic of nursing staff scheduling, this study aimed at comparing the development of students involved in the teaching-learning process of the previously mentioned topic, with and without the use of computer technology. Two random groups of undergraduate nursing students from a public university in São Paulo state, Brazil, were organized: a case group (used the Web site) and a control group (did not use the Web site). Data were collected from 2003 to 2005 after approval by the Research Ethics Committee. Results showed no significant difference in motivation or knowledge acquisition. A similar performance for the two groups was also verified. Other aspects observed were difficulty in doing the nursing staff scheduling exercise and the students' acknowledgment of the topic's importance for their training and professional lives; easy access was considered to be a positive aspect for maintaining the Web site.

Application of abrupt cut-off models in the analysis of the capacitance spectra of conjugated polymer devices

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