Narratives and Sensemaking of an Organizationally-Based Environmental Disaster

This work investigates the narratives of corporations, public agencies, politicians, unions, lawyers, public attorneys and community in different public inquiries undertaken as a response to an organizationally-based environmental disaster in Brazil. In order to understand the phenomenon, this paper creates a framework that integrates sensemaking, narrative analysis and theater metaphor. Then we use the conceptual framework to analyze five public inquiries of an ongoing pollution caused by Shell’s actions of producing, storing and dumping toxic chemical products in Vila Carioca, São Paulo, Brazil since the early 1940s. The analysis uncovers relationships between public management, corporations and society through their narratives, which are imbued with contradictions, revealing how meanings were selected, legitimized, codified and institutionalized

Simultaneous Determination Of Hydrocarbon Renewable Diesel, Biodiesel And Petroleum Diesel Contents In Diesel Fuel Blends Using Near Infrared (nir) Spectroscopy And Chemometrics.

Highly polluting fuels based on non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels need to be replaced with potentially less polluting renewable fuels derived from vegetable or animal biomass, these so-called biofuels, are a reality nowadays and many countries have started the challenge of increasing the use of different types of biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel (fatty acid alkyl esters), often mixed with petroleum derivatives, such as gasoline and diesel, respectively. The quantitative determination of these fuel blends using simple, fast and low cost methods based on near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy combined with chemometric methods has been reported. However, advanced biofuels based on a mixture of hydrocarbons or a single hydrocarbon molecule, such as farnesane (2,6,10-trimethyldodecane), a hydrocarbon renewable diesel, can also be used in mixtures with biodiesel and petroleum diesel fuel and the use of NIR spectroscopy for the quantitative determination of a ternary fuel blend of these two hydrocarbon-based fuels and biodiesel can be a useful tool for quality control. This work presents a development of an analytical method for the quantitative determination of hydrocarbon renewable diesel (farnesane), biodiesel and petroleum diesel fuel blends using NIR spectroscopy combined with chemometric methods, such as partial least squares (PLS) and support vector machines (SVM). This development leads to a more accurate, simpler, faster and cheaper method when compared to the standard reference method ASTM D6866 and with the main advantage of providing the individual quantification of two different biofuels in a mixture with petroleum diesel fuel. Using the developed PLS model the three fuel blend components were determined simultaneously with values of root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 0.25%, 0.19% and 0.38% for hydrocarbon renewable diesel, biodiesel and petroleum diesel, respectively, the values obtained were in agreement with those suggested by reference methods for the determination of renewable fuels.1386477-8

Restlessness of a traveler in the pinnacle of stalinism

Este artigo pretende analisar o relato da viagem que Graciliano Ramos fez à União Soviética e democracias populares no início da década de 1950. Para isso, leva em  conta tanto os traços da realidade observada quanto as reações do próprio diarista, de modo a entender como o escritor militante foi capaz de criar uma forma literária  que põe em discussão, indiretamente, aspectos cruciais da autocracia stalinista, à época impulsionada pela vitória na Segunda Guerra Mundial e pelo IV Plano Quinquenal. O ensaio  recupera também parte da recepção crítica imediata da obra publicada em 1954 a fim de embasar as análises apresentadas.This article intends to analyze the accounting of the trip Graciliano Ramos took to the Soviet Union and popular democracies in the beginning of the 1950s. In order to do  so, it takes into account both the traces of reality observed and the reactions of the writer himself in order to understand how the militant author was able to create a  form which places under discussion, indirectly, key aspects of the stalinist autocracry, which, at the time, boosted by the victory in the postwar, saw its pinnacle. The essay  also recovers part of the critical reception immediately after the work was published in 1954, in the interest of laying the foundation for the analysis presented

Graciliano Ramos da escravidão à sedição

O artigo pretende examinar, por meio de um excerto da obra Memórias do cárcere (1953), de Graciliano Ramos, o movimento composicional do livro, tendo como ponto de partida a reconstrução da experiência de cadeia por parte do narrador situado nos anos 1940 e 1950. Tal reconstrução lhe permite desnudar aspectos regressivos tanto da modernização brasileira quanto da política do Partido no qual o escritor militou.The article intends to examine, trough an excerpt of the work Memórias do cárcere (1953), by Graciliano Ramos, the compositional movement of the book, having as a starting point the reconstruction of the narrator’s experience in jail, during the 40’s and 50’s. Such reconstruction enables him to uncover regressive aspects of both the Brazilian modernization process and the politics of the Party in which the author advocated.

Padronização de um modelo de estresse subcrônico imprevisivel, para indução da depressão

Depressive disorder will become the most debilitating cause in the world by the year 2020, studies with the probable biochemical mechanisms involved in this disorder are vital, mainly to understand how the various factors that cause the depressive disorder are related to develop the pathology. In this, research with drug prototypes that seek to alleviate these symptoms or aid existing treatments becomes essential. To do so, it is necessary to use animal models that mimic the human depressive state in animals, in an efficient, reproducible, reversible and low cost manner. Based on this, the present work aimed to standardize a non-clinical model of induction of the depressive behavior, to be used in the test of prototypes to possible drugs, in order to be performed in less time and using stressors of easy access. Female Swiss mice (Mus musculus) were used with a group of 9-10 animals, all protocols were approved by the Ethics Committee on the Use of Animals of the Federal University of Paraíba, under certificate number 046/16. The basic experimental model was the unpredictable chronic stress, the animals were acclimatized to the laboratory for five days before the beginning of the application of the stressors. After, the animals were separated into 03 groups: control (did not undergo stressors), stress and stress treated with imipramine. The animals received between 2-4 stressors per day for fourteen days, with feed and water ad libitum. On the fifteenth day the animals passed behavioral tests of tail suspension, sucrose spraying and open field. The animals submitted to the stressors presented in the tests of the suspension of the tail and sucrose spraying the presence of a behavior of the depressive type, and in the open field most of the analyzed parameters indicated the anxious type behavior, a symptom that is associated with depression. Imipramine reversed these depressive symptoms, indicating that the protocol in addition to inducing depressive behavior in a shorter time can be reversed by a standard drug and thus be used for the investigation of new drugsO transtorno depressivo se tornará até o ano de 2020 a maior causa debilitante no mundo, estudos com os prováveis mecanismos bioquímicos envolvidos neste transtorno são vitais, principalmente para compreender como os diversos fatores que provocam o transtorno depressivo se relacionam para desenvolver a patologia. Nisto, a pesquisa com protótipos de fármacos que busquem aliviar estes sintomas ou auxiliar os tratamentos existentes se torna essencial. Para tanto é necessário a utilização de modelos animais que mimetizem o estado depressivo humano em animais, de forma eficiente, reprodutível, reversível e de baixo custo. Com base nisso, o presente trabalho objetivou padronizar um modelo não-clínico de indução do comportamento depressivo, para ser utilizado no teste de protótipos a possíveis fármacos, de forma a ser realizado em menos tempo e utilizando estressores de fácil acesso. Foram utilizados Camundongos Swiss (Mus musculus) fêmeas com grupo de 9-10 animais, todos os protocolos foram aprovados pela Comissão de Ética no Uso de Animais da Universidade Federal da Paraíba, sob número de certidão 046/16. O modelo experimental de base foi o estresse crônico imprevisível, os animais foram aclimatados ao laboratório por cinco dias antes do inicio da aplicação dos estressores. Após, os animais foram separados em 03 grupos: controle (não passou pelos estressores), estresse e estresse tratado com imipramina. Os animais recebiam entre 2-4 estressores por dia, por quatorze dias, com ração e água ad libitum. No décimo quinto dia os animais passaram por testes comportamentais de suspensão da cauda, borrifagem de sacarose e campo aberto. Os animais submetidos aos estressores, apresentaram nos testes da suspensão da cauda e borrifagem de sacarose a presença de um comportamento do tipo depressivo, e no campo aberto a maioria dos parâmetros analisados indicavam o comportamento tipo ansioso, sintoma que é associado a depressão. A imipramina reverteu estes sintomas depressivos, indicando que o protocolo além de induzir o comportamento depressivo em um menor tempo pode ser revertido por uma droga padrão e, assim, ser utilizado para a investigação de novos fármacos