Local production and innovation systems in the state of São Paulo, Brazil

This paper applies a specific methodology to geographically locate and delimit local production and innovation systems in the state of São Paulo. A first task, and a bulk part of the paper, is the elaboration of a number of quantitative indicators for the geographic concentration of manufacturing industries and for the location of industries at regional and local levels in that state. The elaboration of indices and other indicators for measuring regional location and specialization of economic activities is an old practice and has been an important object of study in regional economics since the seminal contributions by the pioneers of Regional Science. However, the statistical work developed in this paper is based on two most important recent contributions by P. Krugman (in Geography and Trade, 1991) and D. B. Audretsch & M. Feldman (in R&D spillovers and the geography of innovation and production, The American Economic Review, 86 (3), 1996). These authors calculated locational Gini coefficients for branches of U. S. manufacturing industry (Krugman) and for the geographic concentration of innovative activities and the location of U. S. manufacturing industries (Audretsch & Feldman). This paper applies the same methodology to calculate locational Gini coefficients for manufacturing industries in the state of São Paulo, the most advanced state in Brazilian industrialization. The Gini coefficients were calculated from data in RAIS - Relação Anual de Informações Sociais, elaborated by the Brazilian Ministry of Labor. This database provides detailed information on employment and number of plants by branches of manufacturing industries at micro-region and municipality levels. On the basis of the locational Gini coefficients the paper assesses which manufacturing industries are mostly spatially concentrated. Once these industries are identified, the paper proceeds by adding other indicators such as locational quotients, share of the local industry in the total manufacturing employment in the state, number of jobs and number of plants in the local industry. Combined, the Gini coefficients and the other indicators allow to identify, locate, and geographically delimit local production and innovation systems. Additionally, they make it possible to assess to what extent the local system is integrated. These findings are essential for guiding field research and, afterwards, for designing policies oriented to local production and innovation systems.

Knowledge, Innovation and Agglomeration - regionalized multiple indicators and evidence from Brazil

This paper develops multiple indicators to map the geographical distribution of knowledge and scientific and technological capabilities as proxies of the geographical distribution of Science, Technology & Innovation activities, and applies such indicators to data and information from the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The overall view of the geographical distribution of S,T&I activities in the state is complemented by the analysis of the same activities in the perspective of a local production and innovation system: the case of information and communication technologies in the micro-region of Campinas. The results show a pattern for the regional distributions of S,T&I activities along the main highways of the state, around metropolitan areas such as São Paulo and Campinas, and in regions where educational, science and technology, and R&D institutions are strongly concentrated. Firms tend to agglomerate in these areas and regions, forming local production and innovation systems. The paper produces evidence on the adherence of the geographical distribution of those systems to the geographical distribution of S,T&I activities as shown by the indicators. This confirms the empirical findings of the literature about the relationship between geography and innovation.

Local production and innovation systems in the state of São Paulo, Brazil

This paper applies a specific methodology to geographically locate and delimit local production and innovation systems in the state of São Paulo. A first task, and a bulk part of the paper, is the elaboration of a number of quantitative indicators for the geographic concentration of manufacturing industries and for the location of industries at regional and local levels in that state. The elaboration of indices and other indicators for measuring regional location and specialization of economic activities is an old practice and has been an important object of study in regional economics since the seminal contributions by the pioneers of Regional Science. However, the statistical work developed in this paper is based on two most important recent contributions by P. Krugman (in Geography and Trade, 1991) and D. B. Audretsch & M. Feldman (in R&D spillovers and the geography of innovation and production, The American Economic Review, 86 (3), 1996). These authors calculated locational Gini coefficients for branches of U. S. manufacturing industry (Krugman) and for the geographic concentration of innovative activities and the location of U. S. manufacturing industries (Audretsch & Feldman). This paper applies the same methodology to calculate locational Gini coefficients for manufacturing industries in the state of São Paulo, the most advanced state in Brazilian industrialization. The Gini coefficients were calculated from data in RAIS - Relação Anual de Informações Sociais, elaborated by the Brazilian Ministry of Labor. This database provides detailed information on employment and number of plants by branches of manufacturing industries at micro-region and municipality levels. On the basis of the locational Gini coefficients the paper assesses which manufacturing industries are mostly spatially concentrated. Once these industries are identified, the paper proceeds by adding other indicators such as locational quotients, share of the local industry in the total manufacturing employment in the state, number of jobs and number of plants in the local industry. Combined, the Gini coefficients and the other indicators allow to identify, locate, and geographically delimit local production and innovation systems. Additionally, they make it possible to assess to what extent the local system is integrated. These findings are essential for guiding field research and, afterwards, for designing policies oriented to local production and innovation systems

Knowledge, Innovation and Agglomeration - regionalized multiple indicators and evidence from Brazil

This paper develops multiple indicators to map the geographical distribution of knowledge and scientific and technological capabilities as proxies of the geographical distribution of Science, Technology & Innovation activities, and applies such indicators to data and information from the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The overall view of the geographical distribution of S,T&I activities in the state is complemented by the analysis of the same activities in the perspective of a local production and innovation system: the case of information and communication technologies in the micro-region of Campinas. The results show a pattern for the regional distributions of S,T&I activities along the main highways of the state, around metropolitan areas such as São Paulo and Campinas, and in regions where educational, science and technology, and R&D institutions are strongly concentrated. Firms tend to agglomerate in these areas and regions, forming local production and innovation systems. The paper produces evidence on the adherence of the geographical distribution of those systems to the geographical distribution of S,T&I activities as shown by the indicators. This confirms the empirical findings of the literature about the relationship between geography and innovation

Cephalometric evaluation of children with allergic rhinitis and mouth breathing

Introduction: Orthodontists frequently treat children with mouth breathing. The purpose of the present study was to examine dental positions, skeletal effects and the pharyngeal airway space of children with chronic allergic rhinitis, when compared with a control group exhibiting a normal breathing pattern. Material and Methods: Seventy Caucasian children from Santa Maria University Hospital - North Lisbon Hospital Center were evaluated, between September 2009 and February 2013. The study group comprised of 35 children with chronic allergic rhinitis, both genders, aged 5 - 14, with positive reaction to allergens, mouth breathing and malocclusion. The control group was composed of 35 children, both genders, displaying normal nasal breathing and malocclusion, who resorted to the orthodontic department. Measures of Ricketts, Steiner and McNamara's analysis were used and the t- Student test was applied to the data obtained. Results: Statistically significant differences were observed between the oral and nasal breathers, respectively: lower facial height (49.1/45.9 mm), Frankfurt - mandibular plane angle (30.1/26.9º) and Sela-Nasion - oclusal plane angle (17.3/15º), maxillary length (78.4/82.4 mm), mandibular length (102.4/107 mm), overbite (0.8/3.1mm) and overjet (4/4.7 mm). Discussion: Comparison between the allergic rhinitis and control group showed that there is an increased lower facial height, larger Frankfurt - mandibular plane angle and Sela-Nasion oclusal plane angle in children with chronic allergic rhinitis. This group also had a shorter maxillary and mandibular length, less overbite and decreased upper airway space. Conclusions: Children with allergic rhinitis and mouth breathing have longer faces, shorter maxillas and mandibles and a narrowed pharyngeal airway space. No statistical differences between the groups in sagital relationships or in dental inclinations were found

Learning Organization through the Integrated Use of Information Systems and Knowledge Engineering

This paper describes a software which is inspired by notions originating from the management context on learning organization and knowledge management and which is characterized for making integrated use of the information systems and knowledge engineering to support these notions. This software considers the individual as the source of the whole organization’s wealth. The basic premise is to set up conditions that favor the full development of all people directed to the full development of the organization. The software has a participative arena where people in the organization can express their abilities, intentions and opinions. It uses Artificial Intelligence techniques of knowledge acquisition and representation to allow efficient manipulation of the organizational memory created by people when they interact in the participative arena

Saraivada de Sambas: Segunda Guerra e Música Popular

No Brasil, várias canções foram compostas durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial (1939-1945), tendo o conflito como tema. Seus versos estão repletos de elogios às tropas aliadas bem como de críticas e deboches às lideranças inimigas. Este artigo, entretanto, enfoca certo tipo de ironia. No Brasil, à época, bem no início da década de 1940, o regime político era uma ditadura. Governos autoritários muito frequentemente tentam valer-se da dupla via da propaganda e da censura. Persuasão e repressão. Isso envolve os circuitos de produção musical, meios de comunicação de massa e radiodifusão. Em algumas canções sobre a Segunda Guerra Mundial, é possível ouvir contradições e confrontos de nossa própria sociedade, principalmente os relativos às pessoas pobres e negras. As principais fontes aqui foram gravações originais em 78 rpm. A transcrição das letras dos discos de cera é cheia de desafios (homofonias, termos que caíram em desuso, gírias). Na metodologia, os discursos das canções são lidos tentando-se estar atento aos seus sinais qualitativos, seus pontos de relevo.In Brazil, several songs were composed during the Second World War (1939–1945) having the conflict as subject. Their lyrics were full of praise to the allied troops as well as criticism and mockery of the enemies’ leaders. This paper, however, focuses on sambas with some kind of irony. In Brazil, at the beginning of the 1940’s, the political regime was a dictatorship. Authoritarian governments very often try to use the joint path of propaganda and censorship, namely persuasion and repression. This involves musical circuits of production, mass media and broadcasting. Some songs about the World War II show contradictions and confrontations of our own society, especially about the poor and black people. Original recordings at 78 rpm were used as main sources. The transcription of the lyrics at 78 rpm recording is full of challenges (homophones, terms that fell in disuse, slangs). As for methodology, the discourses of the songs are read trying to be attentive to its qualitative signals and points of relevance

CONSTRUCTION OF FRAME HIERARCHIES USING MACHINE LEARNING

In this paper, we describe an architecture for helping frame hierarchy conception. This architecture is based on machine learning and cognitive psychological studies on categorizotion. Our basic assumption is that categorization should be considered as a goal-driven, context--dependent process and therefore the hierarchical organization of categories should be represented in different perspectives. The core of our architecture is a learning system of categorization that generates multi.perspective hierarchies. Concept hierarchies are, at first, generated in a probabilistic representation and after translated into a frame one

Magnitude, temporal trends, and projections of the global prevalence of blindness and distance and near vision impairment: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Global and regional prevalence estimates for blindness and vision impairment are important for the development of public health policies. We aimed to provide global estimates, trends, and projections of global blindness and vision impairment. Methods: We did a systematic review and meta-analysis of population-based datasets relevant to global vision impairment and blindness that were published between 1980 and 2015. We fitted hierarchical models to estimate the prevalence (by age, country, and sex), in 2015, of mild visual impairment (presenting visual acuity worse than 6/12 to 6/18 inclusive), moderate to severe visual impairment (presenting visual acuity worse than 6/18 to 3/60 inclusive), blindness (presenting visual acuity worse than 3/60), and functional presbyopia (defined as presenting near vision worse than N6 or N8 at 40 cm when best-corrected distance visual acuity was better than 6/12). Findings: Globally, of the 7·33 billion people alive in 2015, an estimated 36·0 million (80% uncertainty interval [UI] 12·9–65·4) were blind (crude prevalence 0·48%; 80% UI 0·17–0·87; 56% female), 216·6 million (80% UI 98·5–359·1) people had moderate to severe visual impairment (2·95%, 80% UI 1·34–4·89; 55% female), and 188·5 million (80% UI 64·5–350·2) had mild visual impairment (2·57%, 80% UI 0·88–4·77; 54% female). Functional presbyopia affected an estimated 1094·7 million (80% UI 581·1–1686·5) people aged 35 years and older, with 666·7 million (80% UI 364·9–997·6) being aged 50 years or older. The estimated number of blind people increased by 17·6%, from 30·6 million (80% UI 9·9–57·3) in 1990 to 36·0 million (80% UI 12·9–65·4) in 2015. This change was attributable to three factors, namely an increase because of population growth (38·4%), population ageing after accounting for population growth (34·6%), and reduction in age-specific prevalence (–36·7%). The number of people with moderate and severe visual impairment also increased, from 159·9 million (80% UI 68·3–270·0) in 1990 to 216·6 million (80% UI 98·5–359·1) in 2015. Interpretation: There is an ongoing reduction in the age-standardised prevalence of blindness and visual impairment, yet the growth and ageing of the world’s population is causing a substantial increase in number of people affected. These observations, plus a very large contribution from uncorrected presbyopia, highlight the need to scale up vision impairment alleviation efforts at all levels