Industrial policy and promotion of competitiveness

Includes bibliography

Capital movements and external financing

Includes bibliography

Governance, competitiveness and social integration

Includes bibliography

Education in basic skills and training for productive work

Includes bibliography

Potential and limits of health management reform in Chile

Includes bibliography

Quality management promotion to improve competitiveness

Includes bibliography

The labour market and income distribution in Colombia in the 1990s

Includes bibliography

The small economies of Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Trade and infrastructure in the Andean Community

Includes bibliography

A competitiveness index for the regions of a country

Includes bibliography

Trait contributions to fish community assembly emerge from trophic interactions in an individual-based model

Community ecology seeks to understand and predict the characteristics of communities that can develop under different environmental conditions, but most theory has been built on analytical models that are limited in the diversity of species traits that can be considered simultaneously. We address that limitation with an individual-based model to simulate assembly of fish communities characterized by life history and trophic interactions with multiple physiological tradeoffs as constraints on species performance. Simulation experiments were carried out to evaluate the distribution of 6 life history and 4 feeding traits along gradients of resource productivity and prey accessibility. These experiments revealed that traits differ greatly in importance for species sorting along the gradients. Body growth rate emerged as a key factor distinguishing community types and defining patterns of community stability and coexistence, followed by egg size and maximum body size. Dominance by fast-growing, relatively large, and fecund species occurred more frequently in cases where functional responses were saturated (i.e. high productivity and/or prey accessibility). Such dominance was associated with large biomass fluctuations and priority effects, which prevented richness from increasing with productivity and may have limited selection on secondary traits, such as spawning strategies and relative size at maturation. Our results illustrate that the distribution of species traits and the consequences for community dynamics are intimately linked and strictly dependent on how the benefits and costs of these traits are balanced across different conditions. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

Influéncia da adubação nitrogenada sobre a interferéncia de plantas daninhas em feijoeiro1

The competition between weeds and bean plants, especially because of nutrients in the environment, is extremely important to minimize potential losses of crop productivity. Thus, the aim of this work was to evaluate the effects of using nitrogen fertilization on the timing and extent of the period before interference (PAI), total period of interference (PTPI) and the critical period of interference control (PCPI) in bean cultivar 'Ruby'. The seeds were sown in the conventional system and the trial was conducted in two areas at the same time, in which the nitrogen fertilization was performed only in one of them. Each area received 14 treatments consisting of two groups: first, the crop was free of interference of weeds from emergence to 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 days; and the second: the crop remained free of interference from sowing to the same periods described above. The experimental design was randomized blocks with four replications. Raphanus raphanistrum showed greater relative importance in the two areas, mainly due to the accumulation of dry mass, followed by Amaranthus deflexus. There was no difference in diversity and evenness of weed populations in response to the fertilization. In the area without N PAI occurred 18 days after emergence (DAE), and up to 24 DAE PTPI, resulting in PCPI 18 to 24 DAE, this area had 58% of reduction in crop yield. In the area where with nitrogen fertilization, PAI occurred at 38 DAE and PTPI occurred at 19 DAE. In this area there was 56% of reduction in crop yield. The nitrogen fertilization increased crop productivity and favored competitiveness in relation to weeds.

Glycerol: Production, consumption, prices, characterization and new trends in combustion

The demand for petroleum has been rising rapidly due to increasing industrialization and modernization. This economic development has led to a huge demand for energy, most of which is derived from fossil fuel. However, the limited reserve of fossil fuel has led many researchers to look for alternative fuels which can be produced from renewable feedstock. Increasing fossil fuel prices have prompted the global oil industry to look at biodiesel, which is from renewable energy sources. Biodiesel is produced from animal fats and vegetable oils and has become more attractive because it is more environmentally friendly and is obtained from renewable sources. Glycerol is the main by-product of biodiesel production; about 10% of the weight of biodiesel is generated in glycerol. The large amount of glycerol generated may become an environmental problem, since it cannot be disposed of in the environment. In this paper, an attempt has been made to review the different approaches and techniques used to produce glycerol (hydrolysis, transesterification, refining crude glycerol). The world biodiesel/glycerol production and consumption market, the current world glycerin and glycerol prices as well as the news trends for the use of glycerol mainly in Brazil market are analyzed. The technological production and physicochemical properties of glycerol are described, as is the characterization of crude glycerol obtained from different seed oil feedstock. Finally, a simple way to use glycerol in large amounts is combustion, which is an advantageous method as it does not require any purification. However, the combustion process of crude glycerol is not easy and there are technological difficulties. The news and mainly research about the combustion of glycerol was also addressed in this review. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Eficácia da mistura de glifosato a outros maturadores na cana-de-açúcar (Saccharum spp.)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

An analysis of maritime transport and its costs for the Caribbean

Includes bibliography