The Brazilian 1994 stabilization plan: an analytical view

The Real Plan has succeeded in stabilizing the Brazilian inflation. The consumer price inflation has been reduced from 11260 percent per year, in June 1994, to an estimate of 8 percent in 1997. The lower inflation resulted in a remarkable income distribution, and in an increased private consumption. The plan managed to control the inflationary effects of the increased demand with some traditional measures: A more liberalized economy, a moving (and overvalued) exchange rate band, high interest rate differentials, and a tight domestic credit policy. The government has, so far failed to accomplish the fiscal adjustment. The price stabilization has largely depended on the current account deficit. However, macroeconomic indicators do not present reasons for concern about the current account sustainability, in the medium-run. The economy may be trapped in a low-growth vicious cycle, represented by a stop-and-go trend, due to the two-way endogencity between domestic saving and growth. Economic growth depends on policies in increase the public sector saving, to secure the privatization of the State enterprises, and to promote investments. The major problem for the government action is, as always, in the political sphere. Approximately 80 percent of the Central Government net revenue are allocated to the social sectors. Consequently, the fiscal reform will hue to deal with the problem of re-designing the public sector’s intervention in the social area. Most probably, it will be inevitable to cut the social area budget. This is politically unpleasant.

Micro e pequenas empresas: a importância de aprender a empreender

As micro e pequenas empresas representam 99,2% das empresas no Brasil, empregam 57,2% da força de trabalho por isso são imprescindíveis para a economia e o desenvolvimento do país, apesar desses números representativos a grande preocupação é manter essas empresas ativas devido ao grande índice de mortalidade que representa em média 50%, tendo como um dos principais fatores condicionantes a falha gerencial na condução da empresa. Micro e pequenas empresas: A importância de apreender a empreender é o tema desta dissertação, que tem, por objetivo avaliar o conhecimento que os micro e pequenos empresários têm sobre a importância do desenvolvimento pessoal no gerenciamento de seus negócios. Por tratar-se de micro e pequenas empresas elegemos o Sebrae, instituição de apoio às micro e pequenas empresas de São Luís do Maranhão para investigar através de pesquisa de campo qual o conhecimento que os micro e pequenos empresários tem sobre está instituição seus produtos e serviços. O referencial teórico demonstrou que treinamento, capacitação, planejamento e aprendizado contínuo são ferramentas eficazes na administração organizacional de uma empresa. Na pesquisa de campo identificou-se que 76% dos empresários não buscaram nenhuma ajuda especializada antes de abrir seus negócios, apenas 45% dos empresários conhecem a marca do Sebrae e 54% não conhecem os produtos e serviços que o Sebrae São Luís oferece.

Brazil’s 35 years-old quasi-stagnation: facts and theory

Brazil is growing around 1% per capita a year from 1981; this means for a country that is supposed to catch up, quasi-stagnation. Four historical new facts explain why growth was so low after the Real Plan: the reduction of public savings, and three facts that reduce private investments: the end of the unlimited supply of labor, a very high interest rate, and the 1990 dismantling of the mechanism that neutralized the Dutch disease, which represented a major competitive disadvantage for the manufacturing industry. New-developmental theory offers an explanation and two solutions for the problem, but does not underestimate the political economy problems involved

Ecology and conservation of bottlenose dolphins in Madeira Archipelago, Portugal

This study aimed to provide an insight on the ecology of the bottlenose dolphin population in Madeira archipelago. To achieve this, population structure; group dynamics, site-fidelity, residency and movement patterns within and out of the study area; survival and abundance estimates and spatial and temporal distribution and habitat preferences related to physiographic parameters using data collected between 2001-2011, were investigated. Photo-identification data analysis revealed strong evidences that bottlenose dolphins seen in the archipelago of Madeira belong to an open population with regular recruitment of new animals to the area. This population exhibited a typical fission-fusion society, in which short-term acquaintances prevail, with only a few long-lasting associations. Photo-identification methods demonstrated that there is a large variability in residency pattern, with resident, transient and migrant individuals. Only a small number of dolphins were found to be resident (4.3%). Social network diagram as well as SLAR analysis supported the existence of a mixed population of residents, migrants and transients. Mark-recapture methods estimated a high survival rate, within the range of other long-lived cetacean species. The resident community is composed of app. 180 individuals. In addition, around 400 dolphins of different residency patterns were found to use the south area of Madeira Island. Spatial distribution indicated that bottlenose dolphins were regularly found in shallow and closer to shore areas, suggesting the existence of biological processes influenced by bathymetry. Moreover, temporal patterns revealed no strong seasonal fluctuation in the presence of bottlenose dolphins in Madeira archipelago waters. Bottlenose dolphins are listed under the Annex II of the EU habitats Directive that requires the designation of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) for this species; as such, the knowledge gained through this work can be used by governmental authorities to the establishment and management of areas for the conservation of bottlenose dolphin in Madeira archipelago.

Allergic asthma exhaled breath metabolome: a challenge for comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography

Allergic asthma represents an important public health issue, most common in the paediatric population, characterized by airway inflammation that may lead to changes in volatiles secreted via the lungs. Thus, exhaled breath has potential to be a matrix with relevant metabolomic information to characterize this disease. Progress in biochemistry, health sciences and related areas depends on instrumental advances, and a high throughput and sensitive equipment such as comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography–time of flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC–ToFMS) was considered. GC × GC–ToFMS application in the analysis of the exhaled breath of 32 children with allergic asthma, from which 10 had also allergic rhinitis, and 27 control children allowed the identification of several hundreds of compounds belonging to different chemical families. Multivariate analysis, using Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis in tandem with Monte Carlo Cross Validation was performed to assess the predictive power and to help the interpretation of recovered compounds possibly linked to oxidative stress, inflammation processes or other cellular processes that may characterize asthma. The results suggest that the model is robust, considering the high classification rate, sensitivity, and specificity. A pattern of six compounds belonging to the alkanes characterized the asthmatic population: nonane, 2,2,4,6,6-pentamethylheptane, decane, 3,6-dimethyldecane, dodecane, and tetradecane. To explore future clinical applications, and considering the future role of molecular-based methodologies, a compound set was established to rapid access of information from exhaled breath, reducing the time of data processing, and thus, becoming more expedite method for the clinical purposes.

Aplicação de sistemas microemulsionados ácidos em acidificação de poços

Stimulation operations have with main objective restore or improve the productivity or injectivity rate in wells. Acidizing is one of the most important operations of well stimulation, consist in inject acid solutions in the formation under fracture formation pressure. Acidizing have like main purpose remove near wellbore damage, caused by drilling or workover operations, can be use in sandstones and in carbonate formations. A critical step in acidizing operation is the control of acid-formation reaction. The high kinetic rate of this reaction, promotes the consumed of the acid in region near well, causing that the acid treatment not achive the desired distance. In this way, the damage zone can not be bypassed. The main objective of this work was obtain stable systems resistant to the different conditions found in field application, evaluate the kinetic of calcite dissolution in microemulsion systems and simulate the injection of this systems by performing experiments in plugs. The systems were obtained from two non ionic surfactants, Unitol L90 and Renex 110, with sec-butanol and n-butanol like cosurfactants. The oily component of the microemlsion was xilene and kerosene. The acqueous component was a solution of HCl 15-26,1%. The results shown that the microemulsion systems obtained were stable to temperature until 100ºC, high calcium concentrations, salinity until 35000 ppm and HCl concentrations until 25%. The time for calcite dissolution in microemulsion media was 14 times slower than in aqueous HCl 15%. The simulation in plugs showed that microemulsion systems promote a distributed flux and promoted longer channels. The permeability enhancement was between 177 - 890%. The results showed that the microemulsion systems obtained have potential to be applied in matrix acidizing

Perfil epidemiológico dos distúrbios hipertensivos na gravidez

The preeclampsia is a disease that evolves to high death rate for the mother and for the fetus. The incidence of this disease in the world is variable and there are no data of this disturb in the Brazilian population. This paper had the objective to determine the incidence and risk factors for development of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in a neighborhood in Natal, RN, Brazil, taking place a prospective study, cohort type, with the objective of evaluating the entire pregnancy of 242 women that got pregnant between 2004-2007. The incidence of hypertensive disorders was of 17%, while the incidence of preeclampsia was of 13.8%. The age average of women that developed the hypertensive disorders was of 27.4 years (SD±.9), whilst those that developed preeclampsia was of 26.6 (SD ±7.8) years and the normotensive was of 23.9 (SD±5.8) (p=0.002). It is noted a significant increase of the hypertensive disorder with age (p=0.0265). The gestational age for those who developed preeclampsia was lower than the women that developed normotensive pregnancy (p=0.0002). The body mass index (BMI) of the group of women that developed the hypertensive disorder was of 25.8 (SD±3.9), significantly higher than the group of normotensive women with 23.5 (SD±3.7) (p=0.02). The levels of triglycerides and cholesterol tended to be higher on women with preeclampsia than on normotensive, p=0.0502 and p=0.0566, respectively. Six (6) women presented with severe preeclampsia and one (1) developed HELLP Syndrome. The resolution of the pregnancy was performed by cesarean section in 70% of women that developed hypertensive disorders, whilst the normotensive was of 23.6% (p<0.0001). A subgroup of the studied subjects was reassessed one year after labor, revealing that 50% of the patients were still hypertensive. There were no larger complications nor mother death during labor. The incidence of hypertensive disorders are above the levels noted in other studies and 30% of the women were within the poles of greater risk for the hypertensive disorders; the elevated BMI in the beginning of the pregnancy is a risk factor for hypertensive disorder. The risk of severe complication in preeclampsia is high, with imminence of eclampsia occurring in 20.1% of women who developed hypertensive disorder of pregnancy. The adequate prenatal care and the opportune labor assistance may minimize the complications of the pregnancy hypertension and avoid mother death, although the risk of women remaining hypertensive is elevated

Respiratory metabolism of Camponotus rufipes ants: Brood and adults

The respiratory metabolism of immature forms (eggs, larvae, prepupae and pupae) of Camponotus rufipes (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) was studied at 25 degrees C, using a Warburg respirometer. Mean respiratory rates (mu l O gamma mg(-1) live weight.hr(-1)) for eggs, first instars, second instars, third instars, fourth instars, prepupae, and pupae were respectively: 2.53, 5.07, 1.23, 0.32, 0.22, 0.19 and 0.13. Adult workers with body mass between 20 and 30 mg had a mean respiratory rate of 0.43. The high respiratory rate in first instars probably reflects, besides the size influence, the metabolic costs of differentiation that occurs in this phase. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Ostecondrose em bovinos confinados

This paper reports the occurrence of osteochondrosis in feedlot cattle submitted to a high-caloric diet. About 11.6% of the animals showed symptoms that included lameness, tarsal hyperflexion, muscle fasciculations, reluctance to move and delayed recumbency. Necropsy and radiologic examination showed typical lesion of osteochondrosis, including cartilage discontinuity and osseous injury. The diet, age and high grow rate of the animals were considered to he factors in the development of osteochondrosis.

Observations on helminth infections of free-living and captive rheas (Rhea americana) in Brazil

The present work describes helminth infection of eight free-living and 12 captive rheas (Rhea americana) from, respectively, Pantanal of Mato Grosso do Sul State, and Jaboticabal, São Paulo State, Brazil. Captive birds were young and had a high mortality rate, while free-living birds were adult and apparently healthy. Infections were evaluated by post-mortem examination of internal organs and recovery of helminths using standard parasitological procedures. Seven species of nematodes (Sicarius uncinipenis, Torquatoides crotophaga, Deletrocephalus dimidiatus, D. cesarpintoi, Paradeletrocephalus minor, Capillaria venteli and Dicheilonema rheae) and two species of cestodes (Houttuynia struthionis and Chapmania tauricolis) were identified. P. minor, which inhabits the large intestine, was the most common helminth in free-living birds (63.9%). In captive rheas, a mean parasitic load of 173 helminths per host was found. The gizzard of these birds was the most parasitized organ and S. uncinipenis was most common (92.5%). Parasitism of free-living and captive birds and associated pathology are discussed. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier B. V.

Educação de jovens e adultos na cidade do Natal: uma reflexão sobre sucesso e insucesso

This essay proposes to research the success and failure in Education for Youth and Adults (known as EJA), based on the approval, failure and evasion rates in public schools belonging to the city of Natal, RN. Reflecting upon the reasons why some pupils from this program were dropping out of school while others kept on studying was a necessity. Therefore, we seek to know these subjects and their school environment. In the search this data, we set off by approaching the EJA politics, going through a historical path, highlighting significant facts to Brazilian and Natal history. While bringing together the pieces of information for this essay, we were lead to the State and City Education Department, in search of approval, failure and evasion rates from the year 2009. Based on these rates, two schools have been chosen: the first with a high failure rate and the second with a failure rate lower than the city average. The schools work was researched throughout the year 2010, through interviews with pupils, teachers, managers and employees; school files analysis; the analysis of files the establish the rules for EJA programs in the city of Natal. Nethertheless, this essay points to inner and outer factors which might come to contribute to the failure or success of pupils from the researched schools, emphasizing that the difference between those are in the team work present in the school with low failure rate

Hematological parameters in two neotropical freshwater teleost, Leporinus macrocephalus (Anostomidae) and Prochilodus lineatus (Prochilodontidae)

Leporinus macrocephalus is a non-migratory omnivore fish which occurs in waters with a relatively high oxygen rate. Prochilodus lineatus is a migratory fish that inhabits deoxygenated hypolimnion and feeds on detritus material. Red blood cell, thrombocytes and white blood cell counts, hematocrit and hemoglobin, serum electrolytes (sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and chloride), metabolic products (total serum protein and plasma glucose) and blood cells major axis length for L. macrocephalus and P. lineatus were compared. White blood cell counts for both species indicated a similar activity of the immune functions. The concentration of total protein, sodium, calcium, magnesium and chloride, MCV, as well as red blood cells, monocytes, and thrombocytes size in L. macrocephalus were higher than in P. lineatus. However, P. lineatus had higher red blood cell counts, hematocrit and hemoglobin, which reflects a considerable adaptation to survive in an environment with low levels of oxygen.

Influência de diferentes meios de cultura sobre o crescimento de Pfaffia glomerata (Spreng.) Pedersen (Amaranthaceae) para conservação in vitro

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

Integração dos processos de flotação e foto-fenton para redução de óleos e graxas de água produzida em campos de petróleo

During production of oil and gas, there is also the production of an aqueous effluent called produced water. This byproduct has in its composition salts, organic compounds, gases and heavy metals. This research aimed to evaluate the integration of processes Induced Air Flotation (IAF) and photo-Fenton for reducing the Total Oils and Greases (TOG) present in produced water. Experiments were performed with synthetic wastewater prepared from the dispersion of crude oil in saline solution. The system was stirred for 25 min at 33,000 rpm and then allowed to stand for 50 min to allow free oil separation. The initial oil concentration in synthetic wastewater was 300 ppm and 35 ppm for the flotation and the photo-Fenton steps, respectively. These values of initial oil concentration were established based on average values of primary processing units in Potiguar Basin. The processes were studied individually and then the integration was performed considering the best experimental conditions found in each individual step. The separation by flotation showed high removal rate of oil with first-order kinetic behavior. The flotation kinetics was dependent on both the concentration and the hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) of the surfactant. The best result was obtained for the concentration of 4.06.10-3 mM (k = 0.7719 min-1) of surfactant EO 2, which represents 86% of reduction in TOG after 4 min. For series of surfactants evaluated, the separation efficiency was found to be improved by the use of surfactants with low HLB. Regarding the TOG reduction step by photo-Fenton, the largest oil removal reached was 84% after 45 min of reaction, using 0.44 mM and 10 mM of ferrous ions and hydrogen peroxide, respectively. The best experimental conditions encountered in the integrated process was 10 min of flotation followed by 45 min of photo-Fenton with overall TOG reduction of 99%, which represents 5 ppm of TOG in the treated effluent. The integration of processes flotation and photo-Fenton proved to be highly effective in reducing TOG of produced water in oilfields

Concepção de um secador rotatório para secagem do cefalotórax do camarão

The present work has as objective the knowledge of the process of drying of the cephalothorax of shrimp to give support the industry to make possible the use of this byproduct. In this sense, the process conditions in this tray dryer and spouted bed were analyzed. With these results, it was projected and constructs a dryer with specific characteristics for the drying of the cephalothorax. The desorption isotherms were obtained by the dynamic method in the temperatures of 20, 35 and 50º C and in the interval of 10-90% of relative humidity. It was observed that the product in form of powder can be conserved with larger stability for lower relative humidity to 40%. The curves of drying of the dryer of fixed bed were adjusted for the models: single exponential, biparametric exponential and Page. The model biparametric exponential more adequately described all the drying conditions studied. The tests carry out in spouted bed showed high drying rate for the material in the paste form in beds active dynamicly-fluid, provely the necessity of a feeding in shorter intervals of time to increase the thermal efficiency of the process. The projected dryer, be considered the obtained results, it was a rotary dryer with inert bed, feed co-current, discharge in cyclone to take place the separation gas-solid, and feed carry out in intervals of 2 minutes. The optimization of the equipment projected it was accomplished used the complete factorial experimental design 24, this had as independent variables temperature velocity of the air, feed flow rate and encapsulated concentration (albumin), as variables answers the thermal efficiency, the moisture content of obtained powder, total time of test and the efficiency of production of powder in several points of processing. The results showed that the rotary dryer with inert bed can present, also, good results if applied industrially