18,015 research outputs found

    Social ventures and social entrepreneurs: factors for success

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    This project aims to study the factors for the success or failure of social ventures. Factors that may affect social entrepreneurs who act on such organizations. Hence, and in a more practical way, it aims to reply to the challenge of Instituto de Empreendedorismo Social on identifying a set of some recommendations for social entrepreneurs starting a social venture. The main topics in literature, still divergent on the subject, are: context, network, innovation, metrics, leadership, ethics, funding and skills. In order to understand the role of these factors on the development of social entrepreneurship projects, four social projects and respective social entrepreneurs were selected, encompassing different realities and characteristics. The main conclusions are: Social entrepreneurs‟ characteristics vary much from case to case and are not limitative to one‟s actions. The course of a social project is highly shaped by their background and previous experiences. The more relevant factors contributing for the success are: project’s innovation, ethical behavior, relationship with society, network, leadership and local institutions were the most relevant ones. Some barriers to success were also detected, being the more impactful the lack of funding, perceived project’s image and lack of human resources. Metrics used to measure this success/failure are still in a baby stage and need to be developed further since are highly centered on project‟s activity, and not that much on its impact. Although findings point out the inexistence of a recipe on doing social entrepreneurship, common factors were identified in the studied cases, in spite of being very different situations. Then, although it is not possible to generalize the conclusions of four cases studies only, some recommendations for social entrepreneurs starting up a social venture may be formulated: a) Learn about social entrepreneurship concept; b) Value people; c) Manage volunteer hands wisely; d) Be ethical; e) Create commitment to the project; f) Give proper value to the network; g) Communicate effectively with society; h) Define well the sources of funding, and aim self-sustainability at least in the long-term; i) Define proper and useful metrics; j) Highlight complementarity; k) Be strong and resilient. Social ventures and social entrepreneurs: factors for success.Este projecto surge com o objectivo de estudar os factores que contribuem para o sucesso ou insucesso de organizações sociais. Pretende também dar resposta ao desafio colocado pelo Instituto de Empreendedorismo Social para a elaboração de um conjunto de recomendações para empreendedores sociais que queiram iniciar uma empresa social. Da literatura, ainda divergente no tema, decorrem alguns tópicos relevantes: o contexto, a rede de contactos, a inovação, as métricas utilizadas, a liderança, a ética, o financiamento e as competências das pessoas. Com vista a perceber o papel destes factores no desenvolvimento de projectos de empreendedorismo social foram escolhidos para estudo de casos quatro projectos e respectivos empreendedores sociais de distintas realidades e características. As conclusões a que se chegaram foram as seguintes: As características do empreendedor social variam de caso para caso e não limitam as suas acções. O percurso de um projecto social é fortemente influenciado pelas experiências anteriores destes. Os factores que contribuem mais para o sucesso são o comportamento ético, a inovação contida no projecto, as instituições locais, a rede de contactos, a liderança por trás do projecto e a relação com a sociedade destacam-se. Como barreiras ao sucesso surgem o financiamento, a imagem percebida do projecto e a falta de recursos humanos. As métricas utilizadas na medição deste sucesso/insucesso carecem ainda de desenvolvimento pois estão demasiado centradas na actividade do projecto e pouco no impacto que este tem. Embora não exista nenhuma receita no que toca a empreendedorismo social, foram identificados factores de sucesso e insucesso comuns aos quatro casos analisados. Assim, embora não seja possível generalizar as conclusões obtidas a partir destas experiencias é possível formular algumas recomendações para empreendedores sociais que queiram dar início ao seu projecto: a) Aprender sobre o conceito de empreendedorismo social; b) Valorizar as pessoas; c) Gerir inteligentemente o trabalho voluntário; d) Ser ético; e) Criar sentido de pertença para com o projecto; f) Dar o devido valor à rede de contactos; g) Comunicar de forma efectiva com a sociedade; h) Definir correctamente as fontes de financiamento e fazer um plano tendo em vista a sustentabilidade própria pelo menos a longo prazo; i) Definir métricas adequadas e úteis; j) Apostar na complementaridade; k) Ser forte e resiliente

    Neutral heavy lepton production at next high energy e+e−e^+e^- linear colliders

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    The discovery potential for detecting new heavy Majorana and Dirac neutrinos at some recently proposed high energy e+e−e^+e^- colliders is discussed. These new particles are suggested by grand unified theories and superstring-inspired models. For these models the production of a single heavy neutrino is shown to be more relevant than pair production when comparing cross sections and neutrino mass ranges. The process e+e−⟶νe±W∓ e^+e^- \longrightarrow {\nu} e^{\pm} W^{\mp} is calculated including on-shell and off-shell heavy neutrino effects. We present a detailed study of cross sections and distributions that shows a clear separation between the signal and standard model contributions, even after including hadronization effects.Comment: 4 pages including 15 figures, 1 table. RevTex. Accepted in Physical Review

    Gravity localization on hybrid branes

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    This work deals with gravity localization on codimension-1 brane worlds engendered by compacton-like kinks, the so-called hybrid branes. In such scenarios, the thin brane behaviour is manifested when the extra dimension is outside the compact domain, where the energy density is non-trivial, instead of asymptotically as in the usual thick brane models. The zero mode is trapped in the brane, as required. The massive modes, although are not localized in the brane, have important phenomenological implications such as corrections to the Newton's law. We study such corrections in the usual thick domain wall and in the hybrid brane scenarios. By means of suitable numerical methods, we attain the mass spectrum for the graviton and the corresponding wavefunctions. The spectra possess the usual linearly increasing behaviour from the Kaluza-Klein theories. Further, we show that the 4D gravitational force is slightly increased at short distances. The first eigenstate contributes highly for the correction to the Newton's law. The subsequent normalized solutions have diminishing contributions. Moreover, we find out that the phenomenology of the hybrid brane is not different from the usual thick domain wall. The use of numerical techniques for solving the equations of the massive modes is useful for matching possible phenomenological measurements in the gravitational law as a probe to warped extra dimensions.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figure

    Simulação de dados meteorológicos para avaliação de impactos de mudanças climáticas na agricultura.

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    Neste trabalho foi utilizado o simulador climático LARS-WG. Esse simulador é baseado em um modelo semiempírico, ou seja, para o processo há a utilização de parâmetros estatísticos em sua formulação e também a necessidade de calibrações para as devidas aplicações

    Chromosomal mapping of genes encoding subunits of complex I from Neurospora crassa

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    The genes encoding the 21 kDa protein and the 19.3 kDa, 21.3 kDa and 24 kDa iron-sulfur subunits of complex I were located, by RFLP analysis, in Linkage Groups IV, VI, VI and V, respectively, of the Neurospora crassa genom

    Colloidal CuFeS2 Nanocrystals: Intermediate Fe d-Band Leads to High Photothermal Conversion Efficiency

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    We describe the colloidal hot-injection synthesis of phase-pure nanocrystals (NCs) of a highly abundant mineral, chalcopyrite (CuFeS2). Absorption bands centered at around 480 and 950 nm, spanning almost the entire visible and near infrared regions, encompass their optical extinction characteristics. These peaks are ascribable to electronic transitions from the valence band (VB) to the empty intermediate band (IB), located in the fundamental gap and mainly composed of Fe 3d orbitals. Laser-irradiation (at 808 nm) of an aqueous suspension of CuFeS2 NCs exhibited significant heating, with a photothermal conversion efficiency of 49%. Such efficient heating is ascribable to the carrier relaxation within the broad IB band (owing to the indirect VB-IB gap), as corroborated by transient absorption measurements. The intense absorption and high photothermal transduction efficiency (PTE) of these NCs in the so-called biological window (650-900 nm) makes them suitable for photothermal therapy as demonstrated by tumor cell annihilation upon laser irradiation. The otherwise harmless nature of these NCs in dark conditions was confirmed by in vitro toxicity tests on two different cell lines. The presence of the deep Fe levels constituting the IB is the origin of such enhanced PTE, which can be used to design other high performing NC photothermal agents.Comment: 12 pages, Chemistry of Materials, 31-May-201
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