O Kwaryp de Kanutari : uma abordagem linguística e etnográfica

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Letras, Departamento de Linguística, Português e Línguas Clássicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Linguística, 2015.

Brúnkahk Tek: An Extinct Language

En Costa Rica hay seis lenguas indígenas reconocidas oficialmente. Cada una de ellas disfruta de una condición diferente en cuanto a sus tradiciones y números de hablantes, entre otras. A pesar de los esfuerzos del gobierno de Costa Rica y otros investigadores desde 1995, las lenguas han enfrentado dificultades a nivel interno y externo, las cuales han resultado en el debilitamiento o inclusive pérdida de las mismas. Esto nos lleva al caso de boruca, una de las lenguas de Costa Rica que puede ahora ser considerada una lengua extinta. Este artículo presenta una descripción general del pueblo boruca, sus tradiciones y sus principales características, y a la vez ofrece al lector una descripción tipológica general de la lengua en la cual se discuten brevemente los rasgos generales de su gramática.In Costa Rica there are six officially recognized indigenous languages. Each enjoys a different condition in terms of its traditions and number of speakers, among others. Despite efforts of the Costa Rican government and other researchers since 1995, the languages have met endogenous and exogenous difficulties that have resulted in the weakening and even loss of the languages. This leads us to what happened to Boruca, one of the indigenous languages of Costa Rica which can now be considered an extinct language. This article presents a general description of the Boruca people, their traditions and main characteristics, and it also introduces the reader to a general typological description of the language where the main features of its grammar are briefly discussed.

Cost-free feed-in tariffs for renewable energy deployment in Spain

Feed-in-tariff (FIT) schemes have been widely employed to promote renewable energy deployment. While FITs may be perceived by consumers as an extra cost, renewable energies cause a noticeable price reduction in wholesale electricity markets. We analyse both effects for the case of the Spanish electricity market during 2010. In particular, we examine the level of FITs that makes savings and extra costs to be similar on an hourly basis. Results are obtained for a wide range of renewable generation scenarios. It is found that FITs with null extra costs for consumers are in the range of 50–80 €/MWh. Some of the side-effects of a high penetration of renewable energy in the market are analysed in detail and discussed.

Percentiles de salto con contramovimiento en escolares de Bogotá, Colombia: Estudio FUPRECOL

Objetivo: Determinar la distribución por percentiles de salto con contramovimiento (CMJ) en una población escolar de Bogotá, Colombia, perteneciente al estudio Fuprecol. Métodos: Estudio transversal realizado entre 2846 niños y 2754 adolescentes, entre 9 a 17 años de edad, pertenecientes a 18 instituciones educativas oficiales de Bogotá, Colombia. Se evaluó el CMJ, de acuerdo, con lo establecido por la batería de condición física, Fuprecol. Se calcularon, los percentiles (P3, P10, P25, P50, P75, P90 y P97), y curvas centiles por el método LMS, según su sexo y edad. Se realizó una comparación entre los valores de la CMJ observados con estándares internacionales. Resultados: La muestra estuvo constituida por 5.600 niños y adolescentes entre 9 y 17 años; el promedio de edad fue 12,6 ± 2,4 años. En el CMJ, los valores altos, los obtuvieron los niños, franja en la que la media osciló entre 25,1 cm a los 9 años, y 38,6 cm a los 17; para las niñas, la media fluctuó entre 23,2 cm a los 9 años, y 28,6 a los 17; en ambos sexos esos valores aumentan proporcional a la edad. Conclusiones: Se registran percentiles del CMJ de acuerdo con la edad y el sexo, que podrán ser usados como referencia en la evaluación del salto vertical desde edades tempranas.

Toxicity of the herbicide clomazone on duckweed Lemna valdiviana.

The duckweed Lemna valdiviana is commonly founded colonizing small shallow waters (lakes on the lowland in south Brazil. This organism may have been affected by herbicide input into lakes from aerial application and/or drainage office paddy fields. Clomazone (2- (2-chlorophenyl) methyl-4.4-dimethyl-3-isoxazolidinone) is one of the herbicides more fiequentely used as post-emergence in rice paddies. For this work assays were carried as EC50(96h) semi-statics with aseptic culture. The sterile fronds were abtained from material harvest on the paddy fields, and the concentration of Clomazone ranged from 14.0 to 229.0 mg/l. two procedures were considered: diluted in water and sprayed applicated Clomazone. The observed phytotoxic effects were evaluated by growth rate (kt), duplication time (Td), frond yield, plant yield, mortality, chlorophyll a and b and protochlorophyll concentration. The EC50 values obtained to sprayed Clomazone (Kt=31.7; Td=31.9) were significantly small than to diluted Clomazone (Kt=46.4; td=47.3). These dadta suggest that aerial route is more hazardous than diluted procedure. Presence of chlorotic, necrotic, abnormal and died frond were common at the 114.0 and 229.0 mg/l treatment. Recuperation test corroborated the evidence that the sprayed procedure were more deleterious and L. valdiviana doesn't recovery his reproductive ability at the 114.0 and 229.0 mg/l treatment.

Risk assessment of the herbicide clomazone in the aquatic life.

Clomazone (2-(2-chlorophenyl)methyl-4.4-dimethyl-3-isoxazolidinone) is a post emergence herbicide widely used in rice fields in Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) with high activity against Gramineae at the recommended application rate(AR).of 700g/ha. The herbicide input into the aquatic ecosystem may occur by aerial application or water drainage. The presence of this chemical in the water may affect non-target organisms leading to impairments in the aquatic food chain. Studies were conducted in this work to evaluate the risk of Clomazone using the estimated mean affective concentration (EC50) for the microalgae Selenastrum capricornutum(96h), the duckweed Lemna valdiviana(96h) and the crustacean Daphnia similis(48h). The EC50 values were 11.2; 31.7 and 13.8 mg/l, respectively. According to the obtained data, and considering a direct input of the herbicide in a 10cm column water, the estimated maximum application rate that doesn't cause acute effects is 5.3 AR for S. capricornutum, 6.5 AR for D. similis and 15.0 AR for L. valdiviana. The estimated maximum application rate that doesn't cause chronic effects is 2.0 AR for D. similis, 1.6 AR for S. capricornutum and 4.5 AR for L. valviana.

Beyond conservation agriculture.

ABSTRACT: Global support for Conservation Agriculture (CA) as a pathway to Sustainable Intensification is strong. CA revolves around three principles: no-till (or minimal soil disturbance), soil cover, and crop rotation. The benefits arising from the ease of crop management, energy/cost/time savings, and soil and water conservation led to widespread adoption of CA, particularly on large farms in the Americas and Australia, where farmers harness the tools of modern science: highly-sophisticated machines, potent agrochemicals, and biotechnology. Over the past 10 years CA has been promoted among smallholder farmers in the (sub-) tropics, often with disappointing results. Growing evidence challenges the claims that CA increases crop yields and builds-up soil carbon although increased stability of crop yields in dry climates is evident. Our analyses suggest pragmatic adoption on larger mechanized farms, and limited uptake of CA by smallholder farmers in developing countries. We propose a rigorous, context-sensitive approach based on Systems Agronomy to analyze and explore sustainable intensification options, including the potential of CA. There is an urgent need to move beyond dogma and prescriptive approaches to provide soil and crop management options for farmers to enable the Sustainable Intensification of agriculture.

SISTEMA DE INFORMACIÓN GEOGRÁFICA PARA LA GESTIÓN DE RECURSOS HÍDRICOS

Este artículo describe la puesta en funcionamiento de una herramienta de información geográfica para la gestión y planificación de recursos hídricos de Cataluña desarrollada mediante plataformas OpenSource. Esta herramienta ha de permitir responder a sucesos extremos como la sequía, facilitando de manera intuitiva y rápida elementos de  evaluación y toma de decisiones. Este Sistema de Información Geográfica (SIG) de gestión de los recursos hídricos se ha  desarrollado para obtener resultados a medida del cliente. Su interfaz ágil y sencilla, su capacidad multiusuario, su alto  rendimiento y escalabilidad y la ausencia de costes de licencia hacen que, con una inversión limitada, se obtenga una amortización muy rápida. Cabe destacar la automatización de procesos sistemáticos, geoprocesos y análisis multicriterio definidos por el cliente, que le permiten ahorrar tiempo y recursos, así como aumentar la productividad.Palabras clave: Sistema de Información Geográfica (SIG), acceso abierto, gestión, agua, automatizaciónAbstractThis article describes the implementation of a geographical information tool developed on an OpenSource platform for the management and planning of water resources in Catalonia. This Geographic Information System (GIS) is designed to deliver fast and intuitive evaluation and decision making criteria in response to extreme events, such as drought. Its strong customization, user friendliness, multiuser capability, performance and scalability, together with its license-free condition, allow for an extremely fast return on investment. The embedded automation of user-defined systemic processes, geo-processes and multi-criteria analyses provide significant time and resource savings and productivity Key Words: Geographic Information System (GIS), Open Source, water supply management, automation

Investigating interpreter-mediated interaction in the Chinese bilingual courtroom: Analysis based on a multimodal corpus

This research project is based on the Multimodal Corpus of Chinese Court Interpreting (MUCCCI [mutʃɪ]), a small-scale multimodal corpus on the basis of eight authentic court hearings with Chinese-English interpreting in Mainland China. The corpus has approximately 92,500 word tokens in total. Besides the transcription of linguistic and para-linguistic features, utilizing the facial expression classification rules suggested by Black and Yacoob (1995), MUCCCI also includes approximately 1,200 annotations of facial expressions linked to the six basic types of human emotions, namely, anger, disgust, happiness, surprise, sadness, and fear (Black & Yacoob, 1995). This thesis is an example of conducting qualitative analysis on interpreter-mediated courtroom interactions through a multimodal corpus. In particular, miscommunication events (MEs) and the reasons behind them were investigated in detail. During the analysis, although queries were conducted based on non-verbal annotations when searching for MEs, both verbal and non-verbal features were considered indispensable parts contributing to the entire context. This thesis also includes a detailed description of the compilation process of MUCCCI utilizing ELAN, from data collection to transcription, POS tagging and non-verbal annotation. The research aims at assessing the possibility and feasibility of conducting qualitative analysis through a multimodal corpus of court interpreting. The concept of integrating both verbal and non-verbal features to contribute to the entire context is emphasized. The qualitative analysis focusing on MEs can provide an inspiration for improving court interpreters’ performances. All the constraints and difficulties presented can be regarded as a reference for similar research in the future.

Alle origini dello Zibaldone di pensieri. Studio critico e proposta di datazione delle prime cento pagine (1817-1820)

Questo lavoro, che si sviluppa in due tomi, si propone di stabilire nuove ipotesi di datazione per le prime cento pagine dello Zibaldone di pensieri, attraverso uno studio comparato dei temi trattati, incrociato con un’analisi paleografica, filologica e linguistica. Estremi cronologici dell’indagine sono l’estate del 1817, anno in cui Leopardi avvia il rapporto epistolare con Pietro Giordani, legge per la prima volta la Vita di Alfieri, primo momento di rivolgimento esistenziale e poetico, l’anno del “primo amore” e della “conversione letteraria”; e il gennaio del 1820, nella coda dei perturbamenti derivati dalla “mutazione totale”. Nella prima parte della tesi l’analisi è condotta attraverso uno studio preliminare delle vicende che hanno interessato l’autografo nei momenti di emersione dal privato della scrittura leopardiana e le successive vicende editoriali (cap. I.1); al centro della prima parte della tesi il lettore troverà una descrizione minuta del manoscritto (cap. I.2), e infine l’analisi del ruolo e della ‘funzione Zibaldone’ in rapporto alla formazione e alla produzione leopardiana (cap. I.3). La seconda parte prende in esame i “pensieri-guida” per la datazione, mettendo a sistema i diversi dati raccolti che diano riferimenti cronologici (cap. II.1), individua le diverse campagne di aggiunte successive (cap. II.2), infine le letture che trovano posto nelle cento pagine vengono analizzate anche in rapporto a una riflessione sui modi e i tempi di lettura leopardiani (cap. II.3). Il secondo tomo si apre con le edizioni delle prime cento pagine, la cartacea, provvista delle date che verranno stabilite nella seconda parte della tesi, e il prototipo di edizione digitale. In coda si troveranno “gli strumenti”, quei dati che si sono raccolti e che nella tesi vengono messi a sistema, consentendo di guardare allo Zibaldone e alla vita intellettuale di Leopardi negli anni che coinvolgono le prime cento pagine attraverso una luce nuova.

Real effects of the IFRS 9 adoption in banking

The recent adoption of IFRS 9 is a highly disruptive accounting reform, with significant impacts on how and when negative news (i.e., negative adjustments to reported earnings) are recognized on the financial statements. Using a unique dataset of two major banks operating in one European country we provide evidence of a tightening of the corporate loans pricing after the IFRS 9 adoption. Furthermore, by focusing on the post reform period, we show that the tightening is driven by the new staging classification. Higher risk premiums are associated to clients with previous underperforming exposures (stage 2) and higher probability of default. We also observe that the staging classification is not affecting climate risk premiums. Our results highlight that the lenders, as expected by the regulation, change their risk appetite by charging higher spreads to discourage loan origination for clients that became too risky and expensive under the new standard.

National housing act : hearings before the Committee on Banking and Currency, United States Senate, Seventy-third Congress, second session, on S. 3603, a bill to improve nation-wide housing standards, provide employment and stimulate industry ; to improve conditions with respect to home mortgage investment, and to eliminate the necessity for costly second-mortgage financing, by creating a system of mutual mortgage insurance and by making provision for the organization of additional institutions to handle home financing ; to promote thrift and protect savings ; to amend the Federal home loan bank act ; to amend the Federal reserve act ; and for other purposes. May 16-24, 1934.

Duncan U. Fletcher, chairman.

Financial Markets and Real Ecinomy: Four Essays in International Trade

Financial markets play an important role in an economy performing various functions like mobilizing and pooling savings, producing information about investment opportunities, screening and monitoring investments, implementation of corporate governance, diversification and management of risk. These functions influence saving rates, investment decisions, technological innovation and, therefore, have important implications for welfare. In my PhD dissertation I examine the interplay of financial and product markets by looking at different channels through which financial markets may influence an economy.My dissertation consists of four chapters. The first chapter is a co-authored work with Martin Strieborny, a PhD student from the University of Lausanne. The second chapter is a co-authored work with Melise Jaud, a PhD student from the Paris School of Economics. The third chapter is co-authored with both Melise Jaud and Martin Strieborny. The last chapter of my PhD dissertation is a single author paper.Chapter 1 of my PhD thesis analyzes the effect of financial development on growth of contract intensive industries. These industries intensively use intermediate inputs that neither can be sold on organized exchange, nor are reference-priced (Levchenko, 2007; Nunn, 2007). A typical example of a contract intensive industry would be an industry where an upstream supplier has to make investments in order to customize a product for needs of a downstream buyer. After the investment is made and the product is adjusted, the buyer may refuse to meet a commitment and trigger ex post renegotiation. Since the product is customized to the buyer's needs, the supplier cannot sell the product to a different buyer at the original price. This is referred in the literature as the holdup problem. As a consequence, the individually rational suppliers will underinvest into relationship-specific assets, hurting the downstream firms with negative consequences for aggregate growth. The standard way to mitigate the hold up problem is to write a binding contract and to rely on the legal enforcement by the state. However, even the most effective contract enforcement might fail to protect the supplier in tough times when the buyer lacks a reliable source of external financing. This suggests the potential role of financial intermediaries, banks in particular, in mitigating the incomplete contract problem. First, financial products like letters of credit and letters of guarantee can substantially decrease a risk and transaction costs of parties. Second, a bank loan can serve as a signal about a buyer's true financial situation, an upstream firm will be more willing undertake relationship-specific investment knowing that the business partner is creditworthy and will abstain from myopic behavior (Fama, 1985; von Thadden, 1995). Therefore, a well-developed financial (especially banking) system should disproportionately benefit contract intensive industries.The empirical test confirms this hypothesis. Indeed, contract intensive industries seem to grow faster in countries with a well developed financial system. Furthermore, this effect comes from a more developed banking sector rather than from a deeper stock market. These results are reaffirmed examining the effect of US bank deregulation on the growth of contract intensive industries in different states. Beyond an overall pro-growth effect, the bank deregulation seems to disproportionately benefit the industries requiring relationship-specific investments from their suppliers.Chapter 2 of my PhD focuses on the role of the financial sector in promoting exports of developing countries. In particular, it investigates how credit constraints affect the ability of firms operating in agri-food sectors of developing countries to keep exporting to foreign markets.Trade in high-value agri-food products from developing countries has expanded enormously over the last two decades offering opportunities for development. However, trade in agri-food is governed by a growing array of standards. Sanitary and Phytosanitary standards (SPS) and technical regulations impose additional sunk, fixed and operating costs along the firms' export life. Such costs may be detrimental to firms' survival, "pricing out" producers that cannot comply. The existence of these costs suggests a potential role of credit constraints in shaping the duration of trade relationships on foreign markets. A well-developed financial system provides the funds to exporters necessary to adjust production processes in order to meet quality and quantity requirements in foreign markets and to maintain long-standing trade relationships. The products with higher needs for financing should benefit the most from a well functioning financial system. This differential effect calls for a difference-in-difference approach initially proposed by Rajan and Zingales (1998). As a proxy for demand for financing of agri-food products, the sanitary risk index developed by Jaud et al. (2009) is used. The empirical literature on standards and norms show high costs of compliance, both variable and fixed, for high-value food products (Garcia-Martinez and Poole, 2004; Maskus et al., 2005). The sanitary risk index reflects the propensity of products to fail health and safety controls on the European Union (EU) market. Given the high costs of compliance, the sanitary risk index captures the demand for external financing to comply with such regulations.The prediction is empirically tested examining the export survival of different agri-food products from firms operating in Ghana, Mali, Malawi, Senegal and Tanzania. The results suggest that agri-food products that require more financing to keep up with food safety regulation of the destination market, indeed sustain longer in foreign market, when they are exported from countries with better developed financial markets.Chapter 3 analyzes the link between financial markets and efficiency of resource allocation in an economy. Producing and exporting products inconsistent with a country's factor endowments constitutes a serious misallocation of funds, which undermines competitiveness of the economy and inhibits its long term growth. In this chapter, inefficient exporting patterns are analyzed through the lens of the agency theories from the corporate finance literature. Managers may pursue projects with negative net present values because their perquisites or even their job might depend on them. Exporting activities are particularly prone to this problem. Business related to foreign markets involves both high levels of additional spending and strong incentives for managers to overinvest. Rational managers might have incentives to push for exports that use country's scarce factors which is suboptimal from a social point of view. Export subsidies might further skew the incentives towards inefficient exporting. Management can divert the export subsidies into investments promoting inefficient exporting.Corporate finance literature stresses the disciplining role of outside debt in counteracting the internal pressures to divert such "free cash flow" into unprofitable investments. Managers can lose both their reputation and the control of "their" firm if the unpaid external debt triggers a bankruptcy procedure. The threat of possible failure to satisfy debt service payments pushes the managers toward an efficient use of available resources (Jensen, 1986; Stulz, 1990; Hart and Moore, 1995). The main sources of debt financing in the most countries are banks. The disciplining role of banks might be especially important in the countries suffering from insufficient judicial quality. Banks, in pursuing their rights, rely on comparatively simple legal interventions that can be implemented even by mediocre courts. In addition to their disciplining role, banks can promote efficient exporting patterns in a more direct way by relaxing credit constraints of producers, through screening, identifying and investing in the most profitable investment projects. Therefore, a well-developed domestic financial system, and particular banking system, would help to push a country's exports towards products congruent with its comparative advantage.This prediction is tested looking at the survival of different product categories exported to US market. Products are identified according to the Euclidian distance between their revealed factor intensity and the country's factor endowments. The results suggest that products suffering from a comparative disadvantage (labour-intensive products from capital-abundant countries) survive less on the competitive US market. This pattern is stronger if the exporting country has a well-developed banking system. Thus, a strong banking sector promotes exports consistent with a country comparative advantage.Chapter 4 of my PhD thesis further examines the role of financial markets in fostering efficient resource allocation in an economy. In particular, the allocative efficiency hypothesis is investigated in the context of equity market liberalization.Many empirical studies document a positive and significant effect of financial liberalization on growth (Levchenko et al. 2009; Quinn and Toyoda 2009; Bekaert et al., 2005). However, the decrease in the cost of capital and the associated growth in investment appears rather modest in comparison to the large GDP growth effect (Bekaert and Harvey, 2005; Henry, 2000, 2003). Therefore, financial liberalization may have a positive impact on growth through its effect on the allocation of funds across firms and sectors.Free access to international capital markets allows the largest and most profitable domestic firms to borrow funds in foreign markets (Rajan and Zingales, 2003). As domestic banks loose some of their best clients, they reoptimize their lending practices seeking new clients among small and younger industrial firms. These firms are likely to be more risky than large and established companies. Screening of customers becomes prevalent as the return to screening rises. Banks, ceteris paribus, tend to focus on firms operating in comparative-advantage sectors because they are better risks. Firms in comparative-disadvantage sectors finding it harder to finance their entry into or survival in export markets either exit or refrain from entering export markets. On aggregate, one should therefore expect to see less entry, more exit, and shorter survival on export markets in those sectors after financial liberalization.The paper investigates the effect of financial liberalization on a country's export pattern by comparing the dynamics of entry and exit of different products in a country export portfolio before and after financial liberalization.The results suggest that products that lie far from the country's comparative advantage set tend to disappear relatively faster from the country's export portfolio following the liberalization of financial markets. In other words, financial liberalization tends to rebalance the composition of a country's export portfolio towards the products that intensively use the economy's abundant factors.