INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE AND ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION IN BRAZIL, 1945-2004 - FROM INDUSTRIAL CATCHING-UP TO FINANCIAL FRAGILITY

This paper tries to explain the dynamics of Brazilian industrial catch-up in the last 60 years by discussing its background institutional conditions as well as its main macroeconomic features. After a brief introduction, the second section describes how after the institutional innovations introduced during the Vargas's and Kubitschek's administrations, a Brazilian version of the Developmental State was created, releasing the growth potential of the economy during the 1950s. The third section analyses the inflationary crisis and institutional inertia of the mid-1960s, and its solution through the introduction of a new of wave of institutional innovations and conflict management devices, which lead to the Brazilian growth miracle, until the debt crisis of early 1980s signaled its end. The fourth section analyses why the financial crisis, coupled with ineffective institutional changes and unsuccessful macroeconomic stabilization plans lead growth to a halt. It also includes an analysis of the pro-market reforms from the early 1990s onwards. The fifth section concludes the paper offering a brief sketch on how the analytical narrative fits the conceptual framework within which it was carried.

Deficits in emotion recognition as markers of frontal behavioral dysfunction in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Objective: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease with prominent motor symptoms. Patients with ALS may also manifest frontal behavior symptoms and cognitive decline, including impairment in facial emotion recognition. The authors aimed to investigate whether deficits in emotion recognition were associated with frontal behavior symptoms in ALS. Methods: Participants were patients with probable or definite sporadic ALS (N521; male:female ratio, 11:10; median age, 62 years; median disease duration, 3 years) and agematched and education-matched healthy control subjects (N525; male:female ratio, 14:11; median age, 61 years). The Facial Emotion Recognition Test (FERT) was administered to all participants. Patients with ALS were assessed using the Cambridge Behavior Inventory-Revised and were classified into two groups according to the presence of frontal behavioral symptoms: ALS with no behavioral symptom (ALSns; N59) and ALS with at least one behavioral symptom (ALSbs; N512). Results: Apathy and mood symptoms were the most frequent neuropsychiatric symptoms in the patient group. Patients with ALS performed worse than control subjects in the recognition of sadness (p,0.004). There were no differences between control subjects and patients in the ALSns group in all FERT scores, but the ALSbs group had lower performance than control subjects in sadness (p,0.003). Conclusions: Emotion recognition deficit may be a marker of frontal behavior in ALS

Síntese e Caracterização de Biodiesel de Sebo Bovino e de sua Mistura B10

Biodiesel has become an alternative to mineral diesel; it already has been in 7% biodiesel to diesel. The intention of the Brazilian government to increase the biodiesel content in the mixture to 10% which will promote an increase in demand for raw materials for the production of biodiesel. Among them is the beef tallow which is presented as one of the cheapest raw materials among the available ones. Associated with this increase in production has been the need to improve the processes of synthesis and analyze their properties as oxidative stability (OS) in mixtures with mineral diesel. Based on this, this study aimed to analyze the physicochemical properties and oxidative stability tallow biodiesel B10 and its beef mixture. In the present work, beef tallow biodiesel was synthesized through methylic rout and was mixture to mineral diesel type B (10 wt %) without anything additives. Physic-chemical properties of biodiesel samples and that mixture were determinate, indicating that both samples are agreement with Brazilian Specifications, and the mixture has showed around 10% less sulfur than diesel. Furthermore, oxidative stability of beef tallow biodiesel is higher than at stipulated in norm. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17807/orbital.v7i1.68

Molecular Electrostatic Potential and Chemometric Techniques as Tools to Design Bioactive Compounds

In this chapter, firstly, we briefly review aspects of the approximation of quantum chemistry, molecular electrostatic potential (MEP), and chemometrics techniques, which are accredited as important tools in the development of chemical science and are frequently used in the study and design of bioactive compounds. Ultimately, we use MEP and pattern recognition (PR) techniques as tools to design nitrofuran compounds with biological activity against Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi). PR models (PCA, HCA, KNN, SDA, and SIMCA) were constructed and demonstrated that 23 nitrofurans can be classified into two classes or groups: more active and less active according to their degrees of activity against T. cruzi. Properties such as charge on the N atom of the nitro group (QN1); the difference between the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy (GAP energy); molecular representation of structure based on electron diffraction code of signal 5, unweighted (Mor05u); and Moriguchi water–octanol partition coefficient (MlogP) are responsible for the classification into more active and less active studied nitrofurans. It is interesting to notice that these properties represent three distinct classes of interactions between the nitrofurans and the biological receptor: electronic (QN1 and GAP energy), steric (Mor05u), and hydrophobic (MlogP). The results of the application of PR models on the validation set evidenced two nitrofuran compounds (compounds 25 and 30) as more promising for synthesis and biological assays, which in the future can be used to validate our PR models

Isolamento de Candida parapsilosis em paciente com diagnóstico clínico de candidíase atrófica crônica.

Species of the genus Candida are constituent parts of the buccal indigenous microbiota. They are often the cause of different types of candidosis when local or systemic factors interrupt the ecological balance, turning the fungus into an opportunist pathogen. The chronic atrophic candidiasis or stomatitis caused by artificial teeth is frequent among us. Its main etiological agent is the Candida albicans. Other species such as the Candida parapsilosis, C. tropicalis and C. stellatoidea may be also isolated from the infection. This paper describes the isolation and identification of Candida parapsilosis in female patients with clinic diagnosis of chronic atrophic candidiasis. The microorganism was isolated in Sabouraud agar and identified by means of the microscopic examination and automatized technique. (System Vitec-Biomerrieux).Espécies do gênero Candida fazem parte da microbiota indígena bucal. Podem causar diferentes tipos de candidoses, quando fatores locais ou sistêmicos interrompem o equilíbrio ecológico, tornando o fungo um patógeno oportunista. A candidíase atrófica crônica ou estomatite por dentadura é freqüente em nosso meio, sendo o principal agente etiológico a Candida albicans. Outras espécies como a Candida parapsilosis, C. tropicalis e C. stellatoidea também podem ser isoladas da infecção. Este trabalho descreve o isolamento e a identificação de Candida parapsilosis em paciente do sexo feminino com diagnóstico clínico de candidíase atrófica crônica. O isolamento do microrganismo foi feito em Ágar Sabouraud e foi identificado através do exame microscópico e de técnica automatizada (Sistema Vitec-Biomerrieux)

Método de quantificação do residual de ácido naftênico em água produzida sintética após adsorção com fibra têxtil / Method for quantification of naphthenic acid residual in synthetic produced water after adsorption with textile fiber

A água produzida (AP) na extração de petróleo representa um potencial impacto ambiental devido ao seu descarte, muitas vezes sem tratamentos adequados para a remoção de contaminantes. O objetivo deste trabalho é propor um método de quantificação de ácido naftênico (AN) em AP sintética. O método desenvolvido baseou-se na extração do AN em meio orgânico seguido de leituras em FTIR. O método proposto demonstrou reprodutibilidade com curva de calibração com coeficiente de correlação acima de 0,99

Lixiviação de glyphosate e imazapyr em solos com diferentes texturas e composição química. I - método do bioensaio

A mobilidade dos herbicidas no perfil do solo é influenciada por vários processos, tais como, retenção, transformação e transporte. O conhecimento destes fenômenos é fundamental para a perfeita compreensão do destino de tais produtos no ambiente. Dentre as várias técnicas utilizadas nesses estudos, o método do bioensaio apresenta-se como de ótima representatividade e reprodutibilidade. Em razão dessas características, associadas a poucas informações sobre a mobilidade de herbicidas nos solos sob condições tropicais, foi conduzido um bioensaio objetivando verificar o movimento vertical do glyphosate e do imazapyr, em colunas de solos de diferentes texturas e composição química, utilizando-se o tomateiro (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill var. Santa Clara) como planta-teste. Os resultados desse estudo permitiram concluir que: a) o limite de detecção do bioensaio para o glyphosate e para o imazapyr corresponde ao menor valor de I50, obtido na curva padrão, 331,52 e 5,4 µg L-1, respectivamente; b) as concentrações do glyphosate biologicamente ativo nos lixiviados dos solos de Viçosa e de Sabará encontram-se abaixo do limite de detecção do bioensaio; c) o glyphosate apresentou, na coluna de 1 cm, mobilidade muito baixa nos solos estudados; d) a mobilidade do imazapyr, na coluna de 30 cm, é maior no solo de textura francoarenosa de Viçosa; e) o alto teor de argila e de matéria orgânica do solo de Sabará apresentam-se como os principais fatores de retenção do imazapyr nesse solo.The herbicide mobility in the soil profile is influenced by several processes: retention, transformation and transport. This phenomenon knowledge is essential to the perfect comprehension of these product destines in the environment. Among the several techniques used in such studies, the bioassay method presents optimum representativeness. Because these characteristics and the scarce information about the herbicide mobility in soils under tropical conditions, a bioassay was carried out aiming to verify the vertical movement of glyphosate and imazapyr in soil columns with different textures and chemical composition using the tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill var. Santa Clara) as test-plant. According to the results it may be concluded that: a) the bioassay detection boundary for both the glyphosate and imazapyr corresponds to the lowest I50 value obtained in the pattern curve that is 331.52 and 5.4 µg L-1 respectively; b) the concentrations of the biologically active glyphosate in the leaching products of Viçosa and Sabará soils are bellow the bioassay detection boundary; c) in the 1 cm column, the glyphosate presented a very low mobility in the studied soils; d) in the 30 cm column, the imazapyr mobility is greater in the sandy loam texture soil of Viçosa; e) the high clay and organic matter contents in Sabará soil present as the main retention factors of imazapyr in this soil