Practices of social and environmental responsibility adopted by financial institutions

Nowadays, there is a global pressure for agencies with responsibilities in public investment to evaluate their policies and impacts in terms of the economic, social and environmental dimensions, avoiding supporting projects that pose risks to these aspects, thereby making it possible to improve the quality of life of the populations and long-term economic stability. The objective of this study was to verify the guidelines that guide the socio-environmental responsibility policies (SERP) of Brazilian financial institutions. The research was based on the analysis of sustainability reports of development agencies and development banks. The socio-environmental policies of the institutions were also analyzed under the light of the resolution of the National Monetary Council that regulates these issues. It was possible to verify that most financial institutions have socio-environmental policies as a result of the regulation that determines the mandatory nature of such policies. Indeed, more than 3/4 of the studied institutions published their SERP after such regulation. Thus, the institutionalization of these practices might be understood from a process of normative isomorphism

Software para Utilização do Custeio Baseado em Atividades e Tempo (Tdabc) Em Cooperativa de Crédito

Reports a case study about the use of Activity-Based Costing and Time (TDABC) in a credit cooperative with the objective of developing software based on this costing methodology to determine the cost of activities performed in this type of financial institution. It was intended to answer a research question about the benefits of using software based on TDABC within a credit cooperative. For this purpose, a descriptive methodology was used, in the case study format, with a qualitative approach. After a brief review of the literature, the characteristics of the credit cooperative researched were described and the steps followed to apply TDABC through a computerized system specifically developed by the authors were evidenced. Regarding the results, a model was proposed that covers the steps to be taken to elaborate a software that realizes the costing of activities and financial products in credit cooperatives through TDABC. Also, it was found that the use of software with this configuration, in this context, brings greater clarity regarding the costs of the services provided by the cooperative, which gives managers a better vision to facilitate cost management and determination of profitability of the services provided.Relata estudo de caso acerca da elaboração de software para utilização do Custeio Baseado em Atividades e Tempo (TDABC) com objetivo de apurar os custos das atividades executadas em uma cooperativa de crédito. Nesse sentido, pretendeu-se responder à questão de pesquisa sobre quais os benefícios da utilização de um software fundamentado no TDABC no âmbito de cooperativa de crédito, empregando-se metodologia do tipo descritiva, no formato de estudo de caso, com abordagem qualitativa. Para tanto, foram apresentadas as principais características do estudo de caso realizado, com breve descrição do contexto da cooperativa de crédito e a evidenciação das etapas seguidas para aplicar o TDABC na entidade pesquisada por meio de um sistema informatizado especificamente elaborado pelos autores. Quanto aos resultados oriundos, foi apresentada uma metodologia para criação de software que realiza o custeio de serviços financeiros através do TDABC em cooperativas de crédito. Ainda, constatou-se que a utilização de software com essa configuração nesse contexto traz maior clareza a respeito dos custos dos serviços prestados pela cooperativa, o que proporciona aos gestores uma visão mais aprimorada para facilitar a gestão de custos e a determinação da rentabilidade dos serviços prestados

Estudo da degradação de compostos fenólicos presente em águas residuárias de postos de combustíveis utilizando fungos filamentosos (Aspergillus Flavus)

Several compounds are synthesized and industrially produced, where in most cases, are hardly degraded or recycled in the way they are. A large portion of contamination process can be attributed to phenolic compounds found with different concentrations in wastewater from gas stations. In this study, we attempted to isolate and identify filamentous fungi capable of phenolic compounds degradation and evaluate, using experimental design techniques, the effects of temperature and pH on degradation yield of phenolic compounds. Aspergillus flavus fungi lineage was isolated in this study. Results showed that the fungi lineage was little affected by changes in pH and showed better performance at 25°C and pH 8, when 6.7 ppm of phenol was degraded.Diversos compostos são sintetizados e produzidos industrialmente, onde, em sua maioria, são dificilmente degradados ou reciclados na forma em que se encontram. Grande parcela do processo de contaminação pode ser atribuída aos compostos fenólicos, encontrados nas mais diversas concentrações em águas residuárias de postos de combustíveis. Neste estudo, buscou-se isolar e identificar fungos filamentosos com capacidade de degradação de compostos fenólicos e avaliar, através da utilização de técnicas de planejamento experimental, os fatores: temperatura e pH no rendimento da degradação dos compostos fenólicos. A linhagem do fungo isolada foi a de Asperillus flavus. Através dos resultados obtidos verificou-se que a linhagem de fungos estudada é pouco afetada por variações no pH e apresentou melhor desempenho na temperatura de 25°C e pH 8, com degradação de 6,7 ppm de fenol.

Analytical validation of an ultraviolet–visible procedure for determining vitamin D3 in vitamin D3-loaded microparticles and toxigenetic studies for incorporation into food

Vitamin D is a water-insoluble compound presented in two main forms (D2 and D3), susceptible to environmental conditions. Microencapsulation is an alternative to supplements and preserve vitamin D properties in foods. Entrapment efficiency (EE) is the main property to evaluate the encapsulation effectiveness and therefore it is of interest the study of analytical methods for the identification and quantification of this compound within the particle. This paper describes a low cost UV–Vis methodology validation to the identification and quantification of vitamin D3 in microparticles produced by hot homogenization. The method was validated following the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines. To guarantee safe application in foodstuff, microparticles toxigenicity was evaluated with Allium cepa L. in vivo model, showing no cytotoxic nor genotoxic potential. High entrapment efficiency was obtained, the results also demonstrated that the concentration of vitamin D3 in microparticles can be safely accessed by the validated method.This study was financed in part by the Coordenaç˜ao de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001. The authors thank the Multiuser Laboratory of Federal University of Technology – Paraná – Campus Londrina, and the “Central Analítica Multiusuário da UTFPR Campo Mourão” (CAMulti-CM) for the analyses. Also, to CNPq for the financial support (Project n◦ 420055/2018-5) and scholarship.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

O diagnóstico de problemas psicológicos mediante a aplicação do raciocínio baseado em casos

O diagnóstico de problemas psicológicos, em alguns casos, pode requerer do psicólogo uma consulta à literatura relevante para identificar, por meio dos sintomas apresentados por seus pacientes, um tratamento específico. Essa consulta pode demandar em um tempo considerável, uma vez que a bibliografia na área é muito vasta. Considerando esse quadro, este artigo apresenta uma aplicação de Raciocínio Baseado em Casos (RBC) na área de Psicologia. O estudo aborda a utilização de uma ferramenta de RBC para facilitar aos psicólogos a criação de uma base de dados. A referida base tende a auxiliá-los a encontrar casos similares aos problemas específicos apresentados por um paciente e adaptá- los, pelo sistema, para um tratamento específico a um outro paciente. Os resultados do estudo demonstram que a ferramenta de RBC proposta é bastante útil para identificar casos mais similares, oferecendo aos psicólogos uma ajuda relevante no diagnóstico e tratamento de seus pacientes.

Applying Case-Based Reasoning for Helping Psychological Patients

The diagnosis of psychological problems often requires psychologists to consult the relevant literature to identify through the symptoms presented by their patients a specific treatment. This paper presents a study of an application of Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) to the Psychology field. It aims to apply a CBR tool in order to help psychologists to create a case database that can help them to find some cases related to a specific patient problem and adapt the similar cases retrieved by the system to a particular treatment for a given patient. The results show that the CBR tool proposed here is very useful for searching the most similar cases, offering psychologists a good support to find a similar treatment for a specific case.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

The effect of mixing organic biological waste materials and high-N crop residues on the short-time N2O emission from horticultural soil in model experiments

The present study aimed to investigate the presence of compounds with antitumor activity in the plant Caesalpinia pluviosa var. peltophoroides. From bioactivity guided studies it was possible to isolate a new biflavonoid, named caesalpinioflavone, whose chemical structure was determined by spectroscopic (H-1 and C-13 nucler magnetic ressonace, homonuclear correlation spectroscopy and heteronuclear multiple-bond correlation spectroscopy) and spectrometric (high resolution electrospray ionization mass) methods. According to in vitro assays, caesalpinioflavone was effective in reducing the cell viability of tumor cell lines A549, MCF7, Hst578T and HTC. This effect was consequent of cell cycle arrest in G1/S transition (A549 and MCF7) and cytotoxic activity (Hs578T and HTC). Taken together, these data indicate that caesalpinioflavone has a promising antitumor activity