Agricultural Credit Interest Rate Equalization Policy: A Growth Subsidy?

The Brazilian Interest Rate Equalization System (IRES) subsidizes farmers by providing them with credit at lower than market interest rates. The objective of this research is to evaluate the IRES by comparing its monetary cost with its benefits as measured by Brazilian GDP growth. Estimates are carried out using input-output matrix. The results suggest that each Brazilian real spent by IRES to assist Brazilian family farms increases Brazilian GDP by R$1.75 and that each real spent to assist commercial farms increases GDP by R$ 3.57. The IRES is a subsidy that generates economic growth greater than its cost to society.IRES subsidy, growth, input-output matrix, Agricultural Finance, Q18, C67, O40, H81,

Digital Spectacles of Violence: Film, TV and Social Media Entanglements in 2010’s Brazil

The study of cultural industries, in particular the complex manifestations of spectacle, has produced valuable contributions that articulate capitalism, globalization and culture. The revisitation of this legacy, especially in dealing with Latin American phenomena, is this paper’s effort. Two case studies that took place in the 2010’s, in Brazil, underpin a reflection on mediated crimes in a digitalized, but still inequal society. The first tells of a prisoner’s self-recorded video, made in response to TV Globo’s news piece about a 2017 massacre; the second examines a reenactment of a 2000 crime that happened on the bridge Rio-Niterói in 2019, and referenced not only a real hijacking, but its film representations (Bus 174 and Last Stop 174). Invoking examples of exceptionality, the article aims at delineating how certain digital spectacles of violence can be understood as direct responses to cultural texts: even though practices of socialization via the internet pose questions of accelerated efficiency (in reaching wider audiences, and updating the meaning of live events), the social and aesthetic performances involving violence retrieve long-standing traditions created by modern institutions

Oblivious to the story: the case of the shooter game RIO

The article proposes a reading of the modes in which a Brazilian videogame pre-released in 2020, titled RIO — Raised in Oblivion, portrays the favelas as spaces of violence and appropriation of older —yet present— imaginaries about those environments. Retrieving Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite, directed by José Padilha in 2007) as a turning point in how shooting in Rio de Janeiro’s slums got fictionalized in the big screen — for its use of characters, documental narrative and transmedia techniques, the paper emphasizes postmodern qualities about RIO’s playability and storytelling, drawing from Lipovetsky (1989) and Lyotard (1989). New media theorists such as Bolter and Grusin (2000) and Turkle (1997) help us to recognize the singularities of the gaming experiences when it comes to comparing it to other media, and Soraya Murray (2018) bases our overall approach into the cultural fabric of a shooter game, inasmuch as we bring to the forefront the manner in which RIO borrows imaginations and dream-like scenarios of violence to serve a very impactful proposal of the favelas: they are spectacularized environs where otherness finds little to no human story substrate. In doing so, the present text intends to observe videogames produced in countries as inequal as Brazil as highly relevant artefacts to understanding how a certain perpetuation of violence representations of the favelas takes shape in society with new technology.O artigo propõe uma leitura sobre os modos em que o videojogo brasileiro RIO — Raised in Oblivion (cujo pré-lançamento se deu em 2020) retrata as favelas como espaços de violência e apropriação de imaginários anteriores —mas ainda presentes— sobre esses ambientes. Ao recuperar Tropa de Elite (realizado por José Padilha, em 2007) como criador de outros vocabulários ficcionais no cinema, a envolver o “subir o morro atirando” (pelo seu uso particular de personagens, narrativas documentais e técnicas transmedia), o artigo enfatiza qualidades pós-modernas na jogabilidade e storytelling de RIO, através de conceitos de Lipovetsky (1989) e Lyotard (1989). Teóricos dos novos media como Bolter e Grusin (2000) e Turkle (1997) auxiliam-nos no reconhecimento de singularidades do videojogo no que tange à comparação a outros media, e Soraya Murray (2018) serve-nos de base à nossa aproximação teórica aos videojogos de tiro, uma vez que detectamos nos imaginários e fantasias de violência construídos em RIO e emprestados de outros discursos, um potencial impacto sobre como as favelas são percebidas: quer seja, sítios espetacularizados onde a alteridade encontra pouco ou nenhum refúgio narrativo. Ao tomar tal curso, esta comunicação procura interpretar os videojogos produzidos em localidades tão desiguais quanto o Brasil como artefatos altamente relevantes para se entender as bases em que as representações de violência nas favelas tomam forma através de novas tecnologias.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Trauma, catastrophe, and contemporary conflicts: documentary strategies for the narration of violence

This essay is a direct result coming after an immersive and collaborative experience at the Documentary Summer School that took place in 2022 in Switzerland, a joint effort between the Università della Svizzera italiana and the 75th edition of the Locarno Film Festival. As such, it aims at collecting a few impressions about the state of the art of documentary production, particularly when concerned with modes of narrating violence. Besides the thematic sections that may group the films together, a few general points regarding different documental procedures will be teased out, to engage with scholarly research on themes such as trauma and catastrophe and thus give room to further academic exploration. The films analyzed are: The Hamlet Syndrome, The River is not a Border, It Is Night in America and Matter Out of Place.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Discrete volume method : a variational approach for brittle fracture

Cotutela Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya i CIMAT, Centro de Investigación en Matemáticas A.C.This thesis presents a proposal to simulate mechanics and dynamics of brittle fracture. A variational formulation is used to describe Lagrangian mechanics, by minimizing the difference between potential and kinetic energy of the system, obtaining a pair of partial differential equations; the solution of these equations corresponds to the displacement field and damage phase-field respectively. Such an equations are coupled in the sense that the damage field is used in the first equation and the displacement field is used in the second one. In this work we propose a numerical method based on control volumes to solve the differential equations, extending the formulation to support the separation of control volumes, processing these volumes as discrete entities. This treatment results in accurate calculations of stress field and the nucleation of new internal fractures that can be propagated through domain creating multiple bifurcations. To integrate equations inside control volumes we introduce a family of polynomial splines that we refer as homeostatic splines, since its derivatives are null at vertices with a smooth function variation between adjacent volumes. Furthermore, we propose a shape function with trigonometric components for dynamic analysis, allowing bigger time steps that with traditional approaches. Finally, we perform ten numerical experiments to show the effectiveness of the method and to compare our results with those published by other authors.La tesis presenta una propuesta para simular la mecánica y dinámica del fenómeno de fractura frágil. Se plantea una formulación variacional que consiste en minimizar la diferencia entre la energía potencial y la energía cinética del sistema, obteniendo así un par de ecuaciones diferenciales parciales, cuya solución corresponden al campo de desplazamientos y al campo de daño respectivamente. Estas ecuaciones están acopladas en el sentido de que el campo de daño se usa en la primera ecuación y el de desplazamientos en la segunda. En este trabajo se propone un método numérico basado en volúmenes de control para resolver las ecuaciones diferenciales, además el modelo se extiende para soportar la separación de los volúmenes de control, tratándolos posteriormente como entidades discretas, esto permite calcular con precisión el campo de esfuerzos y la aparición de fracturas internas que pueden propagarse a través del dominio y crear múltiples bifurcaciones. Para integrar las ecuaciones dentro de los volúmenes de control se introducen una familia de splines polinomiales, que se les refiere como splines homeostáticos, ya que sus derivadas son nulas en los vértices y el cambio de la función entre dos volúmenes contiguos es suave. Además, se propone una función de forma con componentes trigonométricas para el análisis dinámico, permitiendo pasos de tiempo más grandes que con enfoques tradicionales. Finalmente se realizan diez experimentos numéricos para mostrar la eficacia del método y contrastar los resultados con aquéllos publicados por otros autores.Postprint (published version

Discrete volume method : a variational approach for brittle fracture

Cotutela Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya i CIMAT, Centro de Investigación en Matemáticas A.C.This thesis presents a proposal to simulate mechanics and dynamics of brittle fracture. A variational formulation is used to describe Lagrangian mechanics, by minimizing the difference between potential and kinetic energy of the system, obtaining a pair of partial differential equations; the solution of these equations corresponds to the displacement field and damage phase-field respectively. Such an equations are coupled in the sense that the damage field is used in the first equation and the displacement field is used in the second one. In this work we propose a numerical method based on control volumes to solve the differential equations, extending the formulation to support the separation of control volumes, processing these volumes as discrete entities. This treatment results in accurate calculations of stress field and the nucleation of new internal fractures that can be propagated through domain creating multiple bifurcations. To integrate equations inside control volumes we introduce a family of polynomial splines that we refer as homeostatic splines, since its derivatives are null at vertices with a smooth function variation between adjacent volumes. Furthermore, we propose a shape function with trigonometric components for dynamic analysis, allowing bigger time steps that with traditional approaches. Finally, we perform ten numerical experiments to show the effectiveness of the method and to compare our results with those published by other authors.La tesis presenta una propuesta para simular la mecánica y dinámica del fenómeno de fractura frágil. Se plantea una formulación variacional que consiste en minimizar la diferencia entre la energía potencial y la energía cinética del sistema, obteniendo así un par de ecuaciones diferenciales parciales, cuya solución corresponden al campo de desplazamientos y al campo de daño respectivamente. Estas ecuaciones están acopladas en el sentido de que el campo de daño se usa en la primera ecuación y el de desplazamientos en la segunda. En este trabajo se propone un método numérico basado en volúmenes de control para resolver las ecuaciones diferenciales, además el modelo se extiende para soportar la separación de los volúmenes de control, tratándolos posteriormente como entidades discretas, esto permite calcular con precisión el campo de esfuerzos y la aparición de fracturas internas que pueden propagarse a través del dominio y crear múltiples bifurcaciones. Para integrar las ecuaciones dentro de los volúmenes de control se introducen una familia de splines polinomiales, que se les refiere como splines homeostáticos, ya que sus derivadas son nulas en los vértices y el cambio de la función entre dos volúmenes contiguos es suave. Además, se propone una función de forma con componentes trigonométricas para el análisis dinámico, permitiendo pasos de tiempo más grandes que con enfoques tradicionales. Finalmente se realizan diez experimentos numéricos para mostrar la eficacia del método y contrastar los resultados con aquéllos publicados por otros autores.Postprint (published version

Recuperação de terras raras de águas naturais usando nanomateriais à base de carbono

The society has never been so much dependent on electronic and electric devices as it is today. As a result, e-waste has become a worldwide problem not only due to environmental changes that have emerge from the incorrect treatment and storage of e-waste but also because the amount of e-waste is increasing each year. Another problem inherent to electrical and electronic devices is their dependence on rare earth elements. Currently, they are considered as the “vitamins” of modern industry due to their vital role on the development of new cutting-edge technologies due to their distinctive chemical and physical properties. However, the high demand and the limited resources of rare earth elements, combined with the environmental problems associated with their exploration by mining activities, enforce the development of new ways to recover these elements from e-waste and wastewaters. Therefore, the development of low cost techniques and materials for recovery these valuable elements from e-waste is important to face and resolve both issues. In this way, the main objective of this work was to develop an efficient carbonbased composite towards the recovery of rare earths. Most of the sorption studies reported in the literature were performed with ultrapure waters spiked with tens to hundreds mg/L of single rare earth elements; so the objective is to study the recovery from waters of different matrices and using lower element concentrations. The materials synthesized in this work were magnetic exfoliated graphite functionalized with humic acids (MEG-HA), graphene oxide functionalized with ca. 25% of polyethylenimine (GO-PEI) and graphene oxide functionalized with chitosan (GO-CH), and they were evaluated for the REEs recovery capacity, using different amount of sorbent and in the presence of different type of waters. In ultrapure water, average recovery percentages of 47%, 97% and 71% were obtained using 100 mg/L of MEG-HA, GO-PEI and GO-CH, respectively. The sorption behaviour of the composites showed that the recovery is more efficient in mineral water, either using MEG-HA or GO-PEI, achieving recovery percentages around 100%. However, in saline water, the recovery percentages decrease to ca. 60 and 50% using 100 mg/L of GO-PEI and MEG-HA, respectively. The results were adjusts using kinetic models of pseudo first order, pseudo second order and Elovich and the sorption mechanism that better described the interaction between the nanocomposites and REEs was chemisorption. The application of the nanocomposites tested for the recovery of rare earth elements from aqueous solutions confirms that the carbon-based composites have a great potential to be used in the recovery of REEsA sociedade nunca foi tão dependente de dispositivos eletrónicos e elétricos como é hoje. Como resultado desta crescente utilização, o lixo eletrónico tornouse um problema mundial, não apenas devido às alterações ambientais que surgiram com o seu tratamento e armazenamento incorreto, mas também porque a quantidade de lixo eletrónico aumenta a cada ano. Outro problema inerente aos dispositivos elétricos e eletrónicos é o facto de dependerem de elementos de terras-raras para serem produzidos. Atualmente, eles são considerados as “vitaminas” da indústria moderna, devido ao seu papel crucial no desenvolvimento de novas tecnologias e às suas propriedades químicas e físicas distintas. No entanto, a elevada procura e os recursos limitados de elementos de terras-raras (REEs), combinados com os problemas ambientais associados à sua exploração pelas atividades de mineração, reforçam a necessidade de desenvolver novas formas de recuperar estes elementos a partir de lixo eletrónico e de águas residuais que os contenham. Portanto, o desenvolvimento de técnicas e materiais de baixo custo para a recuperação destes elementos é extremamente importante. Desta forma, o principal objetivo deste trabalho foi desenvolver materiais compósitos à base de carbono que fossem eficientes para a recuperação de terras-raras. A maioria dos estudos de sorção reportados na literatura foram realizados em água ultrapura e com soluções monoelementares de concentrações elevadas de terras-raras; assim, o objetivo é estudar a recuperação destes elementos em matrizes mais complexas, tais como na presença de outros iões, e usando concentrações mais realistas de terras-raras. Os materiais sintetizados e usados neste trabalho foram a grafite esfoliada magnética funcionalizada com ácidos húmicos (MEG-HÁ), óxido de grafeno funcionalizado com 25% de polietilenimina (GO-PEI) e óxido de grafeno funcionalizado com quitosana (GO-CH) e estes foram avaliados quanto à sua capacidade de recuperação de REEs, utilizando diferentes quantidades de material/sorvente e na presença de diferentes tipos de águas. Em água ultrapura, foram obtidas percentagens médias de recuperação de 47%, 97% e 71%, utilizando 100 mg/L de MEG-HÁ, GO-PEI e GO-CH. O comportamento de sorção dos compósitos permitiu verificar que a recuperação é mais eficiente em água mineral, quer usando MEG-HÁ ou GO-PEI, atingindo percentagens de recuperação de cerca 100%. No entanto, em água do mar, as percentagens de recuperação diminuem para cerca 60 e 50% usando 100 mg/L de GO-PEI e MEG-HÁ, respetivamente. Os resultados foram ajustados utilizando modelos cinéticos de pseudo primeira ordem, pseudo segunda ordem e Elovich e o mecanismo de sorção que melhor descreveu a interação entre os nanocompósitos e as REEs foi a quimiossorção. A aplicação dos nanocompósitos testados para a recuperação de REEs a partir de soluções aquosas confirma que os compósitos MEG-HÁ e GO-PEI têm um elevado potencial para serem utilizados na recuperação de REEs de águasMestrado em Químic

Promoting entrepreneurship through University-Industry cooperation

Entrepreneurship has been considered, by different academics and policy makers, as a mean to foster economic development and job creation, but also as an ability to promote a more dynamic, creative, innovative, competitive and sustainable society. Overcoming difficulties in the development of academic entrepreneurship are included in the required objectives of bridging the gap between research and innovation in Europe and, thus, is a challenge for universities. The prevailing forces have led these institutions to develop a “third mission”, the facilitation of technology transfer and activity in an entrepreneurial paradigm. In food science and technology, this issue could be argued to be more relevant as most businesses are small and medium companies, and there is evidence that effective university-industry collaboration needs “well-equipped” firms. Entrepreneurship can be considered as the process of creating new companies but also as the process of new business development in an existing organizational context. It has also been considered by academia as a useful technology transfer tool. A case study was designed to describe and develop the relation and practices between a learning approach in a food science and technology educational program and a related business incubator. The learning process benefited from the adoption of a structured framework methodology that led ideas and teams to business model generation and client development, in parallel, when possible, with an agile product/service development. Although academic entrepreneurship engagement could be improved, this case study demonstrated that stronger skills development was needed to enable students and young researchers to be more aware of business development fundamentals and also of softskills, like wikiskills, and therefore contribute to the valorisation of individual knowledge assets. It was noted that the timing and format for involvement of companies in new business projects varied with their nature and maturity. The kind of exposure should as adequate to each contextual condition but it would be expected to promote not only a better incorporation of business needs but also a better awareness from the industry side, including the identification of the first potential clients for the knowledge produced by students and young researchers, time reduction to market, and to create much better conditions to support decisions about IP protection. This kind of formal approach could build the basis for a closer and earlier articulation between university and industry in educational and training programs

Ecotrophelia Portugal (2017-2020): análise de conteúdo de um concurso para promoção do empreendedorismo académico e da inovação alimentar

Introduction: The food sector is considered worldwide as one of the main business sectors, being constantly changing and facing multiple challenges. Objectives: This paper aims to describe the finalist teams and products in the competition for the Ecotrophelia Portugal (2017-2020) as sources of innovation for the food sector. Methodology: A content analysis approach was adopted. The analyzed contents were collected through the official website of Ecotrophelia Portugal. Information from the 41 finalist teams in the competition between 2017 and 2020 was analyzed. Results: In general, most of the finalists were female (2017 edition), belonging to the North region (57.4%), followed by the Centro region (27.9%) and Lisbon (13.1%), with the Universidade do Porto (26.2%), Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Porto: 16.4%) and the Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra (13.1%) being the main institutions from which the finalists came. The main categories to which the finalist products belonged were: snacks (34.1%), desserts (17.1%), ready-to-eat meals (12.2%), drinks (9.8%). The characteristics most mentioned in the description of these products were that they are: rich in bioactive compounds (34.2%), gluten / lactose free or low in sugar / fat (19.0%), healthy (11.4%) and vegetarian / vegan (11.4%). Conclusions: This study provides useful information for future competitors to new editions of this competition, as well as a source of inspiration for the development of new food products by entrepreneurs.Introdução: O setor alimentar é considerado a nível mundial como um dos principais setores de negócios, estando em constante mudança e enfrentando múltiplos desafios. Objetivos: Este artigo tem como objetivo descrever as equipas e produtos finalistas da competição Ecotrophelia Portugal (2017- 2020) como fontes de inovação para o setor alimentar. Metodologia: Foi adotada uma metodologia de análise de conteúdo. Os conteúdos analisados foram recolhidos através do site oficial da Ecotrophelia Portugal. Foram analisadas informações sobre as 41 equipas finalistas da competição entre 2017 e 2020. Resultados: De um modo geral, os finalistas foram maioritariamente mulheres (edição 2017), pertencentes à região Norte (57,4%), seguida da região Centro (27,9%) e Lisboa (13,1%), com a Universidade do Porto (26,2%), a Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Porto: 16,4%) e o Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra (13,1%) a serem as principais instituições de proveniência dos finalistas. As principais categorias dos produtos finalistas foram: snacks (34,1%), sobremesas (17,1%), refeições prontas a consumir (12,2%), bebidas (9,8%). As características mais mencionadas na descrição desses produtos foram: rico em compostos bioativos (34,2%), sem glúten / sem lactose ou com baixo teor de açúcar / gordura (19,0%), saudável (11,4%) e vegetariano / vegano (11,4 %). Conclusões: Este estudo proporciona informação útil para os participantes nas futuras edições desta competição, assim como uma fonte de inspiração para empreendedores desenvolvam novos produtos alimentares.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio