Assorted topics in monetary economics

Esta tese é uma coleção de quatro artigos em economia monetária escritos sob a supervisão do Professor Rubens Penha Cysne. O primeiro desses artigos calcula o viés presente em medidas do custo de bem-estar da inflação devido a não se levar em conta o potencial substitutivo de moedas que rendem juros, como depósitos bancários.[1] O segundo se concentra na questão teórica de se comparar os escopos dos tradicionais modelos money-in-the-utility-function e shopping-time através do estudo das propriedades das curvas de demanda que eles geram.[2] O terceiro desses trabalhos revisita um artigo clássico de Stanley Fischer sobre a correlação entre a taxa de crescimento da oferta monetária e a taxa de acumulação de capital no caminho de transição.[3] Finalmente, o quarto diz respeito à posição relativa de cada uma de seis medidas do custo de bem-estar da inflação (uma das quais é nova) em relação às outras cinco, e uma estimativa do erro relativo máximo em que o pesquisador pode incorrer devido a sua escolha de empregar uma dessas medidas qualquer vis-à-vis as outras.[4] This thesis collects four papers on monetary economics written under the supervision of Professor Rubens Penha Cysne. The first of these papers assesses the bias occuring in welfare-cost-of-inflation measures due to failing to take into consideration the substitution potential of interest-bearing monies such as bank deposits.[1] The second one tackles the theoretical issue of comparing the generality of the money-in-the-utility-function- and the shopping-time models by studying the properties of the demand curves they generate.[2] The third of these works revisits a classic paper by Stanley Fischer on the correlation between the growth rate of money supply and the rate of capital accumulation on the transition path.[3] Finally, the fourth one concerns the relative standing of each one of six measures of the welfare cost of inflation (one of which is new) with respect to the other five, and an estimate of the maximum relative error one can incur by choosing to employ a particular welfare measure in place of the others.[4] [1] Cysne, R.P., Turchick, D., 2010. Welfare costs of inflation when interest-bearing deposits are disregarded: A calculation of the bias. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 34, 1015-1030. [2] Cysne, R.P., Turchick, D., 2009. On the integrability of money-demand functions by the Sidrauski and the shopping-time models. Journal of Banking & Finance 33, 1555-1562. [3] Cysne, R.P., Turchick, D., 2010. Money supply and capital accumulation on the transition path revisited. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 42, 1173-1184. [4] Cysne, R.P., Turchick, D., 2011. An ordering of measures of the welfare cost of inflation in economies with interest-bearing deposits. Macroeconomic Dynamics, forthcoming.

A questão do poder: a visão de Michel Foucault e uma análise aplicada a escola

A proposta deste trabalho consiste, primeiramente, em apresentar o pensamento de Michel Foucault quanto à instauração e existência da sociedade disciplinar. Apresenta ainda, inspirado na visão foucaultiana, uma análise do funcionamento de duas escolas públicas do 1o grau, a partir de alguns documentos. Tal análise pretende tornar explícitos os mecanismos e instrumentos da disciplina nas relações entre os elementos da escola, enfocando especialmente o papel do professor. Procuramos descrever a visão foucaultiana sobre a sociedade disciplinar, tomando seus estudos sobre as formas anteriores à disciplina, para melhor compreendêla. Tais objetivos foram determinados, portanto, pela necessidade de verificar a viabilidade de uma análise da complexa rede de produção de relações de poder na escola. Foi possível verificar a existência de um comprometimento dos atores da escola, na produção dos conhecimentos e das verdades que se fazem necessários à manutenção da ordem instaurada. Comprometimento este que se percebe na prática escolar, pelo uso de procedimentos que visam o alcance e continuidade dos efeitos de poder que essas relações trazem. O atendimento a mecanismos de controle que asseguram a função normalizadora da disciplina escolar, pode ser verificado na atribuição de papéis funcionais a cada profissional e, dentre estes, o professor. Ressalta-se, no entanto, os estreitos limites do campo de análise aqui utilizado, o que deixa antever as vantagens de utilização deste estudo a um universo de pesquisa mais abrangente, a fim de verificar o grau de generalidade das afirmações aqui contidas, a partir deste estudo particular.

A questão do poder: a visão de Michel Foucault e uma análise aplicada a escola

A proposta deste trabalho consiste, primeiramente, em apresentar o pensamento de Michel Foucault quanto à instauração e existência da sociedade disciplinar. Apresenta ainda, inspirado na visão foucaultiana, uma análise do funcionamento de duas escolas públicas do lo grau, a partir de alguns documentos. Tal análise pretende tornar explícitos os mecanismos e instrumentos da disciplina nas relações entre os elementos da escola, enfocando especialmente o papel do professor. Procuramos descrever a visão foucaultiana sobre a sociedade disciplinar, tomando seus estudos sobre as formas anteriores à disciplina, para melhor compreendê-la. Tais objetivos foram determinados, portanto, pela necessidade de verificar a viabilidade de uma análise da complexa rede de produção de relações de poder na escola. Foi possível verificar a existência de um comprometimento dos atores da escola, na produção dos co nhecimentos e das verdades que se fazem necessários à manutenção da ordem instaurada. Comprometimento este que se percebe na prática escolar, pelo uso de procedimentos que visam o alcance e continuidade dos efeitos de poder que essas relações trazem. O atendimento a mecanismos de controle que asseguram a função normalizadora da disciplina escolar, pode ser verificado na atribuição de papéis funcionais a cada profissional e, dentre estes, o professor. Ressalta-se, no entanto, os estreitos limites do campo de análise aqui utilizado, o que deixa antever as vantagens de utilização deste estudo a um universo de pesquisa mais abrangente, a fim de verificar o grau de generalidade das afirmações aqui contidas, a partir deste estudo particular.

Os mecanismos de transmissão cultural na escola primária: um estudo de caso

O presente trabalho teve por objetivos: i) examinar por meio de que mecanismos se dá a inculcação da cultura secundária na escola primária; ii) verificar os efeitos desta inculcação nas representações da clientela que frequenta a escola; iii) verificar até que ponto a escola está cumprindo sua função de reprodução das classes culturais dominates da sociedade. Neste estudo, consideramos o processo educacional como a inculcação, nos alunos, dos valores da classe dominante da sociedade por meio do exercício da Violência Simbólica, que caracteriza a ação pedagógica, e a escola como o ambiente formal e institucional onde se processam, de modo legítimo, as relações de dominação e de inculcação dos padrões culturais desses grupos ou classes, por intemédio das professoras, agentes também legítimos desse processo de inculcação do arbitrário cultural. Todo o estudo foi caracterizado por um enfoque antropológico, guiado pela observação participativa junto ao grupo e área selecionados para estudo. Verificou-se que a escola, através de suas práticas, inculca nos alunos aspirações que são típicas da classe dominante da sociedade. Estas aspirações foram manifestadas em suas representações. Observou-se, ainda, que a escola, por intermédio de seus agentes, atribui o fracasso escolar dos alunos unicamente a seu ambiente cultural (primeira socialização), que não reforça os conteúdos que a escola ensina. Além disso, observou-se que, após muitos anos de magistério, a tendência das professoras é também se aculturarem ao meio onde trabalham, gerando no processo de ensino a possibilidade da ocorrência daquilo que chamamos de transgressão do código de violência simbólica. Como este trabalho trata-se de um estudo de caso, seria conveniente que o mesmo tema fosse pesquisado em outras configurações, principalmente se se tiver como objetivo testar o grau de generalidade das características constatadas a partir deste estudo particular.

Convexity in multidimensional mechanism design

The present article initiates a systematic study of the behavior of a strictly increasing, C2 , utility function u(a), seen as a function of agents' types, a, when the set of types, A, is a compact, convex subset of iRm . When A is a m-dimensional rectangle it shows that there is a diffeomorphism of A such that the function U = u o H is strictly increasing, C2 , and strictly convexo Moreover, when A is a strictly convex leveI set of a nowhere singular function, there exists a change of coordinates H such that B = H-1(A) is a strictly convex set and U = u o H : B ~ iR is a strictly convex function, as long as a characteristic number of u is smaller than a characteristic number of A. Therefore, a utility function can be assumed convex in agents' types without loss of generality in a wide variety of economic environments.

Affiliation, equilibrium existence and the revenue ranking of auctions

We consider private value auctions where bidders’ types are dependent, a case usually treated by assuming affiliation. We show that affiliation is a restrictive assumption in three senses: topological, measure-theoretic and statistical (affiliation is a very restrictive characterization of positive dependence). We also show that affiliation’s main implications do not generalize for alternative definitions of positive dependence. From this, we propose new approaches to the problems of pure strategy equilibrium existence in first-price auctions (PSEE) and the characterization of the revenue ranking of auctions. For equilibrium existence, we slightly restrict the set of distributions considered, without loss of economic generality, and offer a complete characterization of PSEE. For revenue ranking, we obtain a characterization of the expected revenue differences between second and first price auctions with general dependence of types.

New developmental stages for common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) using mass and age variables obtained by K-means algorithm and self-organizing maps (SOM)

LEÃO, Adriano de Castro; DÓRIA NETO, Adrião Duarte; SOUSA, Maria Bernardete Cordeiro de. New developmental stages for common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) using mass and age variables obtained by K-means algorithm and self-organizing maps (SOM). Computers in Biology and Medicine, v. 39, p. 853-859, 2009

Uma perspectiva de extensão do modelo de aceitação de tecnologia para explicar o uso de linguagens de desenvolvimento WEB: pesquisa com desenvolvedores Pyton e Java

The spread of the Web boosted the dissemination of Information Systems (IS) based on the Web. In order to support the implementation of these systems, several technologies came up or evolved with this purpose, namely the programming languages. The Technology Acceptance Model TAM (Davis, 1986) was conceived aiming to evaluate the acceptance/use of information technologies by their users. A lot of studies and many applications have used the TAM, however, in the literature it was not found a mention of the use of such model related to the use of programming languages. This study aims to investigate which factors influence the use of programming languages on the development of Web systems by their developers, applying an extension of the TAM, proposed in this work. To do so, a research was done with Web developers in two Yahoo groups: java-br and python-brasil, where 26 Java questionnaires and 39 Python questionnaires were fully answered. The questionnaire had general questions and questions which measured intrinsic and extrinsic factors of the programming languages, the perceived usefulness, the perceived ease of use, the attitude toward the using and the programming language use. Most of the respondents were men, graduate, between 20 and 30 years old, working in the southeast and south regions. The research was descriptive in the sense of its objectives. Statistical tools, descriptive statistics, main components and linear regression analysis were used for the data analysis. The foremost research results were: Java and Python have machine independence, extensibility, generality and reliability; Java and Python are more used by corporations and international organizations than supported by the government or educational institutions; there are more Java programmers than Python programmers; the perceived usefulness is influenced by the perceived ease of use; the generality and the extensibility are intrinsic factors of programming languages which influence the perceived ease of use; the perceived ease of use influences the attitude toward the using of the programming language

Qualidade do serviço de informação digital :um estudo exploratório em web sites de Programas de Pós-Graduação

This dissertation of Mestrado investigated the performance and quality of web sites. The target of the research is the proposal of an integrated model of evaluation of services of digital information in web educational sites. The universe of the research was constituted by eighteen Brazilian Universities that offer after-graduation courses, in the levels of mestrado and doutorado in the area of Engineering of Production. The adopted methodology was a descriptive and exploratory research, using the technique of systematic comment and focus group, for the collection of the data, using itself changeable independent dependents and, through the application of two instruments of research. The analysis protocol was the instrument adopted for evaluation and attainment of qualitative results. E the analysis grating was applied for evaluation and attainment of the quantitative results. The qualitative results had identified to the lack of standardization of web sites, under the attributes of content, hierarchy of information, design of the colors and letters. It of accessibility for carriers of auditory and visual special necessities was observed inexistence, as well as the lack of convergence of medias and assistivas technologies. The language of the sites also was evaluated and all present Portuguese only language. The general result demonstrated in grafico and tables with classification of the Universities, predominating the Good note As for the quantitative results, analysis method ed was estatistico, in order to get the descriptive and inferencial result between the dependent and independent variaveis. How much a category of analysis of the services of the evaluated sites, was found it props up and the index generality weighed. These results had served of base for ranking of existence or inexistence the Universities, how much of the information of services in its web sites. In analysis inferencial the result of the test of correlation or association of the independent variaveis (level, concept of the CAPES and period of existence of the program) with the caracteristicas, called was gotten categories of services. For this analysis the estatisticos methods had been used: coefficient of Spearman and the Test of Fisher. But the category you discipline of the Program of Mestrado presented significance with variavel independent and concept of the CAPES. Main conclusion of this study it was ausencia of satandardization o how much to the subjective aspects, design, hierarchy of information navigability and content precision and the accessibility inexistence and convergence. How much to the quantitative aspects, the information services offered by web sites of the evaluated Universities, still they do not present a satisfactory and including quality. Absence of strategies, adoption of tools web, techniques of institucional marketing and services that become them more interactive, navigable is perceived and with aggregate value

Mapeamento geoambiental do campo de dunas Pirangi-Potengi com ênfase a San Vale e Lagoinha Natal/RN: um instrumento de apoio ao planejamento ambiental

The city of Natal-RN is constructed on dune areas with wavy relives softly waved and green areas that help to keep a pleasant climate, amongst these is distinguished field Pirangi-Potengi the dune with the areas of San Vale and Lagoinha. These environments are being substituted gradual for property and other workmanships of engineering on behalf of the urban expansion. This study the elaboration of a geoambiental mapping of Field had as objective generality Pirangi-Potengi the Dune with emphasis the San Vale and Lagoinha in Natal-RN. The done mapping had as objective specific to elaborate a vegetation map, a map of registers in cadastre of ambient problems to dunes, a map of flooding susceptibility, a map of vulnerability to the underground water contamination and a map of use and occupation of the ground. Of the carried through analysis, the area in study reveals sufficiently degraded, remaining only few green areas and dunares, as well as, the vulnerable presence of areas of vulnerability in floods and areas the contamination of the water-bearing one. The gotten results allow to affirm that this type of mapping, is of great importance for analysis and evaluation of the environment of the city

O ensaio jornalístico na revista Veja: uma análise multidimensional

This work has as objective generality to make a multidimensional analysis in the genre journalistic assay, communicative genre that, beyond complex and multimodal, presents hybrid characteristics. Specifically, with the intention to propose defining criteria of the cited genre, this research looks for to establish differences and similarities between the assay and other genres of the same sphere, from the description and interpretation of used multimodal resources. The analysis of the formal, schematical and rhetorical resources identified in the formatting of the journalistic assay sample that the analyses are supported in the socio-semiotic and socio-rhetorical approaches. In the formal dimension, we contemplate elements that constitute design of the text, including the forms of representation from the typography, the colors, images, as well as the aspects communicative-linguistics: the modalization indices, the communicative operators and the category time; in the schematical dimension, we present the organizational structure, considering the rhetorical movements postulates for Swales (1990) and in the rhetorical dimension we observe the categories: who writes, for who it writes, on what it writes and where writes. The adopted methodologicals postulates are of qualitative nature and the procedure is documentary, data that in we are valid them written texts of this genre as analysis object. Corpus it is constituted by a composed sample for 14 extracted texts of a set of 173 propagated journalistic assays weekly for the magazine Veja, in the period between August of 2004 and January of 2008. The analysis of the data showed that the journalistic assay, object of this study, materializes through multiple symbolic representations and multiple subjects that turn since a small episode of the daily facts of great social relevance in the present time, of historical and cultural nature, nationwide or international. Used for the first time by Montaigne in 1580, to assign, in saying of the proper author, written fast on its life and historical events, which could nor be remembered later , the term `assay' was enriched with other specifications, of form to enclose the one that if they call scientific assay today, academic assay, journalistic assay and other types of specific assays. These denominations have to see with the enrollment of the members of diverse of practices communities, in virtue of the multiplicity of activities carried through in these spheres. The conclusions the one that we arrive had been the following ones: 1. the discursive genre is not a pure entity, in virtue of the multiplicity of situations where the sorts if insert in the social actions; 2. the institutions define the configuration of one definitive genre, also its proper assignment, since for backwards of all discursive genre a voice exists to discipline - institutional voice, and in the case of the assays for analyzed us, the institutional voice if it presents, really, as a defining trace; 3. the journalistic assay, for its multiple symbolic representations, multiple subjects and for passing explicit or implicit opinions of its author, resembles it other genres, being able, therefore, to be inserted in a colony of opinionatives genres

Wannier functions of isolated bands in one-dimensional crystals

We present a simple procedure to obtain the maximally localized Wannier function of isolated bands in one-dimensional crystals with or without inversion symmetry. First, we discuss the generality of dealing with real Wannier functions. Next, we use a transfer-matrix technique to obtain nonoptimal Bloch functions which are analytic in the wave number. This produces two classes of real Wannier functions. Then, the minimization of the variance of the Wannier functions is performed, by using the antiderivative of the Berry connection. In the case of centrosymmetric crystals, this procedure leads to the Wannier-Kohn functions. The asymptotic behavior of the Wannier functions is also analyzed. The maximally localized Wannier functions show the expected exponential and power-law decays. Instead, nonoptimal Wannier functions may show reduced exponential and anisotropic power-law decays. The theory is illustrated with numerical calculations of Wannier functions for conduction electrons in semiconductor superlattices.

O sensemaking e o Comitê Regional das Associações e Cooperativas do Artesanato Seridoense :buscando compreender um complexo de relações

The generation of direction, sensemaking, is the process where the actors start to perceive the events around them establishing and creating meanings in their actions that they play daily. At the moment where they happen the interactions in a net business-oriented between the actors are that sensemaking is generated. A business-oriented example of a relationship net is the work developed for the Committee of Associations and Regional Cooperatives of Handcraft of Seridó - CRACAS. This organization, with headquarters in the city of Caicó - Rio Grande of North exists with the objective to manage the net of craftsmen of the region of the norteriograndense Seridó. The present inquiry had as objective generality to understand the generation of sensible of the activities carried through for the organizational, inserted actors in the CRACAS in Caicó/RN, directed toward the use of the resources in its daily business-oriented. The specific objectives had been) To identify the resources used for the organizational actors of the CRACAS; b) To apprehend the way for which the craftsmen play activities directed toward the control and use of the available resources in its environment business-oriented; c) To identify the role played for the organizational actors (craftsmen) in its business-oriented daily activities; d) To understand as the organizational actors of the CRACAS they generate sensible of its business-oriented activities and finally e) To verify the principles that guide the interactions of the craftsmen. Of this process of empirical inquiry, the methodology used in the inquiry consisted of a Study of Case in the CRACAS and the seven Associations of the Embroidering it. It was concluded that sensemaking happens during the accomplishment of the activity as during the confection of the products. In accordance with craftsman the financial resources do not come from the CRACAS. One evidenced that the seven cities of the business-oriented embroidering interact as a net of the handcraft and that it exists a lack of resources and infrastructure in the associations

Evidence of pseudomonad pollen formation in Hypolytrum (Mapanioideae, Cyperaceae)

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Epiphyte plants use by birds in Brazil

This study firstly reviewed the interspecific interaction records between birds and epiphyte plants in Brazil. Forty two documents, including articles, scientific notes, books and thesis, and 35 personal records and from collaborators were argued, totaling 112 species of birds that interacted with 97 species of epiphyte plants. Two articles treated the theme specifically and another 40 treated related subjects, such as: pollination of epiphytes, ecology and feeding behavior of birds. Studies were concentrated mainly in Atlantic Forest, in the southeastern Brazilian region. The epiphyte species more visited by birds was Aechmea nudicaulis (Bromeliaceae). The main visitor of epiphytes was Ramphodon naevius (Trochilidae). According to the number of authors' citations an index of generality in bird-epiphyte interactions was created. As result the index inferred that the ovenbird Cichlocolaptes leucophrus and the bromeliad Nidularium procerum are less generalist and more specialist species in bird-epiphyte interactions. The totality of the papers showed a considerable number of bird species that use the epiphytes plants and its resources, including nectar, fruits, invertebrates, nest material, nesting place, water and bath. Considering the importance of epiphytes to supply a variety of resources for birds, these results highlighted the necessity of additional and specific studies about the theme in various Brazilian regions and biomes.