Mozambique's Future: Modeling Population and Sustainable Development Challenges

What are the prospects for sustainable development over the next 20 years in Mozambique? Although it looks as if much of the development prospects are determined by such inherently unpredictable events as war, peace, and weather calamities, there are also many changes and patterns which have a long-term stability and which change only slowly over time. For example, socio-demographic changes, such as labor force skills, and population health have a long momentum. These are very important indicators for the economic development potential of a country. Also, although it is impossible to predict a particular year of heavy rains or droughts, there are long time series of weather from which we can calculate the country's vulnerability to single- or multiple-year weather disasters. To focus our efforts in answering this bold question, we concentrate on four issues: (1) Can poverty be erased in the next 20 years? (2) How will school enrollment lead to higher skills in the labor force by 2020? (3) What role will water play in development, in particular, water provision by rain to rural areas, and infrastructure to cities? (4) And, most importantly, what will be the impacts of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the next decades

The Fractionary Schr\"{o}dinger Equation, Green Functions and Ultradistributions

In this work, we generalize previous results about the Fractionary Schr\"{o}dinger Equation within the formalism of the theory of Tempered Ultradistributions. Several examples of the use of this theory are given. In particular we evaluate the Green's function for a free particle in the general case, for an arbitrary order of the derivative index.Comment: 32 pages. No figure

Bosonic String and String Field Theory: a solution using Ultradistributions of Exponential Type

In this paper we show that Ultradistributions of Exponential Type (UET) are appropriate for the description in a consistent way string and string field theories. A new Lagrangian for the closed string is obtained and shown to be equivalent to Nambu-Goto's Lagrangian. We also show that the string field is a linear superposition of UET of compact support CUET). We evaluate the propagator for the string field, and calculate the convolution of two of them.Comment: 30 page

Caracterização agronômica de mutantes de\ud bananeira obtidos por meio da radiação gama

Banana is one of the most economically important fruit, explored almost exclusively by small producers as a continuous source of food and income. Although Brazil is one of the main banana producers, the national banana production is undergoing serious problems especially in the phases of production and post-harvest limiting its participation in the international market. One of the main factors leading to great production losses is the toppling over due to the tall height of plants of main commercial cultivars. A strategy to solve this problem is reducing height by inducing mutation. The objective of the present work was to characterize irradiated Prata type banana mutants (cvs. Pacovan and Preciosa) during two production cycles in order to select short plants in height with good agronomic characteristics. In vitro plants of both cultivars were irradiated with gamma rays in the doses of 20 Gy ('Pacovan', 200 plants) and 30 Gy ( 'Preciosa', 200 plants) subcultivated four times and afterwards evaluated in the field during two production cycles. Four possible mutants were selected from each cultivar with height smaller than the average height of the controls after two evaluation cycles. It was observed that some of these mutants presented greater precocity and bunch weight compared to the controls. From the results obtained it is possible to select mutant plants with superior agronomic characteristics for 'Pacovan' as well as 'Preciosa' submitted to gamma radiation.A bananeira é uma das fruteiras de maior importância econômica, explorada quase exclusivamente por pequenos produtores.\ud Constitui-se em fonte contínua de alimento e renda. Embora o Brasil figure como um dos maiores produtores de banana, a\ud bananicultura nacional enfrenta sérios problemas nas fases de produção e pós-colheita, que limitam sua inserção no mercado\ud internacional. Um dos fatores que levam a grandes perdas na produção é o tombamento resultante da altura elevada da\ud planta das principais cultivares comerciais. Uma estratégia para a solução deste problema é a redução do porte por indução\ud de mutação. O objetivo deste trabalho foi caracterizar mutantes de banana tipo Prata (cv´s Pacovan e Preciosa) irradiadas,\ud durante dois ciclos de produção, visando à seleção de plantas com porte baixo e boas características agronômicas. Plantas\ud in vitro das duas cultivares foram irradiadas com raios gamas nas doses de 20 Gy (‘Pacovan’ – 200 mudas) e 30 Gy (‘Preciosa’\ud – 200 mudas), subcultivadas por quatro vezes e posteriormente avaliadas em campo durante dois ciclos de produção.\ud Foram selecionados quatro mutantes de cada cultivar com altura inferior à média de altura das testemunhas, após dois\ud ciclos de avaliação. Observou-se que em alguns desses mutantes houve maior precocidade e maior massa do cacho quando\ud comparados com as testemunhas. Pelos resultados, é possível selecionar plantas mutantes com características agronômicas\ud superiores, tanto para a ‘Pacovan’ quanto para a ‘Preciosa’, submetidas à radiação gama

A direct proof of Jauregui-Tsallis' conjecture

We give here direct proof of a recent conjecture of Jauregui and Tsallis about a new representation of Dirac's delta distribution by means of q-exponentials. The proof is based in the use of tempered ultradistributions' theory.Comment: 19 pages, no figure

Increasing the chances of natural conception: opinion statement from the the brazilian federation of gynecology and obstetrics associations - FEBRASGO - committee of gynecological endocrinology

Considering that myths and misconceptions regarding natural procreation spread rapidly in the era of easy access to information and to social networks, adequate counseling about natural fertility and spontaneous conception should be encouraged in any kind of health assistance. Despite the fact that there is no strong-powered evidence about any of the aspects related to natural fertility, literature on how to increase the chances of a spontaneous pregnancy is available. In the present article, the Brazilian Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics Associations (FEBRASGO, in the Portuguese acronym) Committee on Endocrine Gynecology provides suggestions to optimize counseling for non-infertile people attempting spontaneous conception41318319

Intercomparison Study of Six HTDMAs: Results and Recommendations

We report on an intercomparison of six different hygroscopicity tandem differential mobility analysers (HTDMAs). These HTDMAs are used worldwide in laboratory experiments and field campaigns to measure the water uptake of aerosol particles and have never been intercompared. After an investigation of the different design of the instruments with their advantages and inconveniencies, the methods for calibration, validation and data analysis are presented. Measurements of nebulised ammonium sulphate as well as of secondary organic aerosol generated from a smog chamber were performed. Agreement and discrepancies between the instruments and to the theory are discussed, and final recommendations for a standard instrument are given, as a benchmark for laboratory or field experiments to ensure a high quality of HTDMA data.JRC.H.2-Climate chang

Inversion of Tsallis' q-Fourier Transform and the complex-plane generalization

We introduce a complex q-Fourier transform as a generalization of the (real) one analyzed in [Milan J. Math. {\bf 76} (2008) 307]. By recourse to tempered ultradistributions we show that this complex plane-generalization overcomes all troubles that afflict its real counterpart.Comment: 23 pages, no figure

JRC-Ispra Atmosphere-Biosphere-Climate Integrated monitoring Station 2012 report

The Institute for Environment and Sustainability provide long-term observations of the atmosphere within international programs and research projects. These observations are performed from the research infrastructure named ABC-IS: Atmosphere – Biosphere – Climate Integrated monitoring station. Most measurements are performed at the JRC-Ispra site. Observations are also carried out from two other platforms: the forest station in San Rossore, and a ship cruising in the Western Mediterranean sea. This document reports about measurement programs, the equipment which is deployed, the data quality assessment, and the results obtained for each site. Our observations are presented, compared to each other, as well as to historical data obtained over more than 25 years at the Ispra siteJRC.H.2-Air and Climat