Crystal vs glass formation in lattice models with many coexisting ordered phases

We present here new evidence that after a quench the planar Potts model on the square lattice relaxes towards a glassy state if the number of states q is larger than four. By extrapolating the finite size data we compute the average energy of these states for the infinite system with periodic boundary conditions, and find that it is comparable with that previously found using fixed boundary conditions. We also report preliminary results on the behaviour of these states in the presence of thermal fluctuationsComment: 7 pages with 5 figure

An Empirical Analysis of the External Finance Premium of Public Non-Financial Corporations in Brazil

Our objective in this paper is to analyze empirically the relationship between the external finance premium of non-financial corporations in Brazil with their default probability and with their demand for inventories. As for the former relation, we find that corporations that have greater external finance premium have greater probability of default. As for the latter, we find that the external finance premium is positive and statistically significantly correlated. The results confirm previous results of the literature that indicate that the balance sheet channel of monetary policy is relevant in Brazil.

A Model-Predictive Motion Planner for the IARA Autonomous Car

We present the Model-Predictive Motion Planner (MPMP) of the Intelligent Autonomous Robotic Automobile (IARA). IARA is a fully autonomous car that uses a path planner to compute a path from its current position to the desired destination. Using this path, the current position, a goal in the path and a map, IARA's MPMP is able to compute smooth trajectories from its current position to the goal in less than 50 ms. MPMP computes the poses of these trajectories so that they follow the path closely and, at the same time, are at a safe distance of eventual obstacles. Our experiments have shown that MPMP is able to compute trajectories that precisely follow a path produced by a Human driver (distance of 0.15 m in average) while smoothly driving IARA at speeds of up to 32.4 km/h (9 m/s).Comment: This is a preprint. Accepted by 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA

Industrialização na periferia da região metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro: novos paradigmas para velhos problemas

A proposta deste artigo é estudar a evolução histórica da Baixada Fluminense, especialmente as cidades de Nova Iguaçu e Duque de Caxias, para mostrar as funções exercidas por esta área no desenvolvimento social e econômico da Região Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro. Em outras palavras, o objetivo é entender o papel da periferia na evolução econômica da metrópole em diferentes contextos históricos. Para lograr este propósito se faz uma revisão dos impactos gerados pela crise dos anos oitenta e as estratégias adotadas na década dos noventa e as condições que contribuem a gerar os processos vividos neste período para o Rio de Janeiro em especial para suas duas cidades principais