Country Risk: An Empirical Approach to Estimate the Probability of Default in Emergent Markets

In this paper we have suggested a new methodology to estimate the probability of default of a country as a function of other macroeconomics variables. Such methodology is based in the valuation of the prices in the secondary market of bonds issued by debtor countries. We have chosen the Brady bonds because their institutional characteristics do not depend on the issuer country which allows us to build a homogeneous panel. The methodology proposed takes elements of traditional models such as the functional structure of the probability and elements of term structure models. The paper demonstrates a new way to extract sovereign risk, implicit in trade bond prices.

The impact of climate change on electricity demand in the city of Huancayo

This paper analyses how climate change affects electricity demand in the city of Huancayo, Peru, in order to find the relationship between electricity demand and temperature in degree Celsius in the last 20 years, using Spearman correlation, based on heating degree days (HDD), cooling degree days (CDD) and electricity demand data in Mw, the conversion of average temperatures to degree days showed that only heating degree days (HDD) were found, our statistical results show that there is a moderate inverse relationship, which means that in the last 20 years the increase in electricity demand was partially due to lower temperatures, since these cause higher heating needs and thus increased electricity demand. It is suggested that the research can be carried out in different parts of Peru, since the results may vary due to the diversity of climates and it is also of utmost importance to work carefully with the temperature data, to have accurate results. This gives us a notion that energy reserves should be prepared, and the use of renewable energies must be implemented with greater emphasis

Antimalarials and the fight against malaria in Brazil

Malaria, known as the “fevers,” has been treated for over three thousand years in China with extracts of plants of the genus Artemisia (including Artemisia annua, A. opiacea, and A. lancea) from which the active compound is artemisin, a sesquiterpene that is highly effective in the treatment of the disease, especially against young forms of the parasite. South American Indians in the seventeenth century already used an extract of the bark of chinchona tree, commonly named “Jesuits’ powder.” Its active compound was isolated in 1820 and its use spread all over the world being used as a prophylactic drug during the construction of the Madeira–Mamoré railroad in the beginning of the twentieth century. During the 1920s to the 1940s, new antimalarial drugs were synthesized to increase the arsenal against this parasite. However, the parasite has presented systematic resistence to conventional antimalarial drugs, driving researchers to find new strategies to treat the disease. In the present review we discuss how Brazil treats Plasmodium-infected patients

An assessment of different integration strategies of hydrothermal carbonisation and anaerobic digestion of water hyacinth

Water hyacinth (WH) is an invasive aquatic macrophyte that dominates freshwater bodies across the world. However, due to its rapid growth rate and wide-spread global presence, WH could offer great potential as a biomass feedstock, including for bioenergy generation. This study compares different integration strategies of hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) and anaerobic digestion (AD) using WH, across a range of temperatures. These include (i) hydrochar combustion and process water digestion, (ii) hydrochar digestion, (iii) slurry digestion. HTC reactions were conducted at 150 °C, 200 °C, and 250 °C. Separation of hydrochars for combustion and process waters for digestion offers the most energetically-feasible valorisation route. However, hydrochars produced from WH display slagging and fouling tendencies; limiting their use in large-scale combustion. AD of WH slurry produced at 150 °C appears to be energetically-feasible and has the potential to also be a viable integration strategy between HTC and AD, using WH

A regulação político-jurídica do trabalho durante o regime militar brasileiro à luz da teoria da superexploração de Ruy Mauro Marini

Orientador: Fábio Campinho de AlmeidaMonografia (graduação) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Jurídicas, Curso de Graduação em DireitoA presente pesquisa acadêmica objetivou analisar a regulação político-jurídica do Estado militar dada ao trabalho. Partiu-se do enfoque da economia política, buscando traçar paralelos entre o desenvolvimento capitalista nacional e as instituições de proteção ao trabalho (legislação trabalhista e Justiça do Trabalho). Tendo como marco teórico Ruy Mauro Marini, delineou-se a estrutura na qual está imbricado o capitalismo dependente brasileiro, analisando seu desenvolvimento dialético durante a democracia populista anterior ao golpe, e logo depois, sob a faceta autoritária, sendo patente, em ambos os períodos, a hegemonia da ideologia desenvolvimentista no interior do Estado. Estudou-se também as medidas políticojurídicas que acarretaram na liberalização do mercado de trabalho, com especial ênfase ao papel do Fundo de Garantia por Tempo de Serviço (FGTS), bem como seus efeitos perniciosos sobre a classe trabalhadora. Por fim, analisou-se a atuação da Justiça do Trabalho, que, por força da ingerência do inflado Poder Executivo, teve seu poder normativo - instrumento conjunturalmente hábil de contornar minimamente a espoliação do trabalhador - limitado, sujeitando-se ao disciplinamento econômic

Integração do Google Drive e WhatsApp como ambiente de aprendizagem em uma disciplina no ensino superior

  Este artigo apresenta uma pesquisa realizada com estudantes matriculados no quarto semestre do curso de Licenciatura em Matemática da Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia (UESB). Trata-se de uma abordagem qualitativa, que tem como objetivo analisar as potencialidades do Google Drive e o WhatsApp como ambiente virtual de aprendizagem. Para isso, utiliza o processo de interação síncrona e assíncrona dos estudantes levando em consideração as discussões e comentários dos textos no grupo do WhatsApp e das atividades postadas no Google Drive. Utiliza-se da Análise de Conteúdo para tratar os dados levantados. Os resultados apontam que tanto o uso do WhatsApp quanto o Google Drive favoreceram a interação, cooperação e colaboração dos discentes no processo de ensino-aprendizagem para além dos limites físicos da sala de aula

Neutron Transfer reactions induced by 8Li on 9Be

Angular distributions for the elastic scattering of 8Li on 9Be and the neutron transfer reactions 9Be(8Li,7Li)10Be and 9Be(8Li,9Li)8Be have been measured with a 27 MeV 8Li radioactive nuclear beam. Spectroscopic factors for 8Li|n=9Li and 7Li|n=8Li bound systems were obtained from the comparison between the experimental differential cross section and finite-range DWBA calculations with the code FRESCO. The spectroscopic factors obtained are compared to shell model calculations and to other experimental values from (d,p) reactions. Using the present values for the spectroscopic factor, cross sections for the direct neutron-capture reactions 7Li(n,g)8Li and 8Li(n,g)9Li were calculated in the framework of a potential model.Comment: 24 pages, 8 Figures, submitted as regular article to PR

Estilos de gestão de educação municipal: implicações para a gestão democrática e o controle social

O artigo examina repercussões de estilos de gestão pública sobre práticas do Conselho de acompanhamento e controle social do Fundef  em nível municipal. A análise de documentos da Secretaria de Educação e pareceres do Conselho abre as prestações de contas do Fundef emitidos entre 1998 e 2006 revela correspondência entre o estilo de gestão governamental e a conduta do Conselho.  O estudo mostra ainda que um estilo de gestão democrática da educação leva a uma atitude mais autônoma e crítica do Conselho do Fundef, bem como dos conselhos institucionais no controle social da administração pública

Pollen Content in Honey of Apis mellifera Linnaeus (Hymenoptera, Apidae) in an Atlântica Forest Fragment in the Municipality of Piracicaba, São Paulo State, Brazil.

The productive and reproductive characteristics of Apis mellifera L. bees are directly affected by climatic conditions and food availability in the region where the bees are reared or kept; therefore, food storage (honey and pollen), oviposition and population growth of these bees are subject to seasonal variations. These variations lead the bees to constantly search for food, taking exploratory trips, called “foraging”. This study investigated the botanical origin of nectar sources collected by A. mellifera bees for six consecutive months, from October/2011 to March/2012 in six bee colonies. The study was carried out in the experimental apiary of the Entomology and Acarology Department of the College of Agriculture “Luiz de Queiroz”, from the University of São Paulo, in the municipality of Piracicaba, São Paulo State. The study site has a predominance vegetation of Semideciduous Forest (Atlântica Forest). In each sampling month, we analyzed the pollen types in the honey samples. We used the acetolysis method to prepare the samples for melissopalynology. We carried out the quantitative analysis by successive count of 900 sample grains. The samples were grouped in terms of botanical species, families and/or pollen types. The results show that bees used several plants from the region as a nectar source. However, Arecaceae, Fabaceae/Mimosoideae and Myrtaceae families were predominant throughout the sampling period. The occurrence of these plant species was significant and essential for the maintenance of the bee colonies