Sustainability Assessment of indicators for integrated water resources management

The scientific community strongly recommends the adoption of indicators for the evaluation and monitoring of progress towards sustainable development. Furthermore, international organizations consider that indicators are powerful decision-making tools. Nevertheless, the quality and reliability of the indicators depends on the application of adequate and appropriate criteria to assess them. The general objective of this study was to evaluate how indicators related to water use and management perform against a set of sustainability criteria. Our research identified 170 indicators related to water use and management. These indicators were assessed by an international panel of experts that evaluated whether they fulfil the four sustainability criteria: social, economic, environmental, and institutional. We employed an evaluation matrix that classified all indicators according to the DPSIR (Driving Forces, Pressures, States, Impacts and Responses) framework. A pilot study served to test and approve the research methodology before carrying out the full implementation. The findings of the study show that 24 indicators comply with the majority of the sustainability criteria; 59 indicators are bi-dimensional (meaning that they comply with two sustainability criteria); 86 are one-dimensional indicators (fulfilling just one of the four sustainability criteria) and one indicator do not fulfil any of the sustainability criteria.Postprint (author's final draft

O Brasil no cenário mundial de lácteos.

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Spontaneous emergence of spatial patterns ina a predator-prey model

We present studies for an individual based model of three interacting populations whose individuals are mobile in a 2D-lattice. We focus on the pattern formation in the spatial distributions of the populations. Also relevant is the relationship between pattern formation and features of the populations' time series. Our model displays travelling waves solutions, clustering and uniform distributions, all related to the parameters values. We also observed that the regeneration rate, the parameter associated to the primary level of trophic chain, the plants, regulated the presence of predators, as well as the type of spatial configuration.Comment: 17 pages and 15 figure

Segmentação de sistemas de produção de leite como instrumento de apoio a decisão e gestão da atividade leiteira.

Qualquer sistema de produção pode ser considerado como um caixa preta, em que os insumos e produtos são conhecidos e mensuráveis, embora o processo de transformação dos insumos em produtos seja desconhecidos. Neles, a correta colocação de recursos, muitas vezes, fica prejudicada pela impossibilidade de se conhecer a exata dimensão ou quantidade de recursos utilizados em cada uma das fases do processo produtivo. Uma das formas de melhorar o entendimento de processos produtivos complexos é segmentar o sistema em partes menores, ou seja em abrir alguns dos compartimentos ue compõem a caixa preta, em que cada um representa uma parte do processo de transformacao. O que se propoe neste estudo e segmentar o sistema global de producao de leite em quatro setores quais sejam: a) producao de leite; b) producao de novilhas para reposição do plantel de vacas; c)producao de alimentos volumosos; e d)maquinas e implementos. Acredita-se que a analise segmentada da atividade leiteira traga grandes vantagens em vista da organização e administracao da producao

Processo de produção de minipipoca de sorgo com utilização de tratamento hidrotérmico dos grãos.

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Symmetries and Ambiguities in the linear sigma model with light quarks

We investigate the role of undetermined finite contributions generated by radiative corrections in a $SU(2)\times SU(2)$ linear sigma model with quarks. Although some of such terms can be absorbed in the renormalization procedure, one such contribution is left in the expression for the pion decay constant. This arbitrariness is eliminated by chiral symmetry.Comment: 9 pages. Added references through the text; an author was added due to an important contribution; corrected typos; the title also was changed. Submitted to Modern Physics Letter