Financing constraints and the firm size distribution : are young firms constrained?

This work evaluates the existence of financial constraints over young firms for the period 2002-2007. Starting by evaluating the shape and evolution of the FSD across this period, the expected impact over the distribution is observed. To confirm if the observed patterns are effectively financing constraints over young firms, the approach conducted by Cabral & Mata (2003) is replicated for the same period of data. This procedure delivers successful results: financing constraints limit the size of the firm at an initial stage of firms’ life. Furthermore, this conclusion is weighted over the possibility of different kind of factors driving financial constraints: a simple exercise comparing the hypothetical access to financial markets by young firms is conducted, leading to the conclusion that the financing constraints acting over firms for the period 2002-2007 are due to idiosyncratic characteristics of the firms

Fission fragment angular distribution measurements of U-235 and U-238 at CERN n_TOF facility

Neutron-induced fission cross sections of U-238 and U-235 are used as standards in the fast neutron region up to 200 MeV. A high accuracy of the standards is relevant to experimentally determine other neutron reaction cross sections. Therefore, the detection efficiency should be corrected by using the angular distribution of the fission fragments (FFAD), which are barely known above 20 MeV. In addition, the angular distribution of the fragments produced in the fission of highly excited and deformed nuclei is an important observable to investigate the nuclear fission process. In order to measure the FFAD of neutron-induced reactions, a fission detection setup based on parallel-plate avalanche counters (PPACs) has been developed and successfully used at the CERN-n_TOF facility. In this work, we present the preliminary results on the analysis of new U-235(n,f) and U-238(n,f) data in the extended energy range up to 200 MeV compared to the existing experimental data.Postprint (published version

The Dionysean-apollonian composition of Goethe’s promethean idea, in the form of feeling and thought

Utilizando el pensamiento expuesto la obra El Origen de la Tragedia, de Friedrich Nietzsche, en particular lo relacionado con los dioses Apolo y Dionisios, se analizan los componentes dionisíacos y apolíneos en la evolución de lo prometeico en la obras poéticas Prometeo, Límites de lo humano, Lo divino y Uno y todo, de Johann Wolfgang von GoetheUsing the ideas articulated in Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy, especially those related to the gods Apollo and Dionysus, the present essay analyzes the Dionysian and Apollonian elements of the evolution of the Promethean idea in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's poetic works Prometheus, The Boundaries of Humanity, The Godlike, and One and Al

E-mail as a source of stress and burnout symptoms: the mediating role of work-family conflict

Despite being one of the most used communication tools for work purposes, e-mail use may lead its users to experience unwanted symptoms for their mental health. This crosssectional study (N = 389) aims to shed light on how e-mail as a source of stress will impact both work-family conflict and burnout symptoms. We hypothesized that e-mail as a source of stress would be positively associated with both work-family conflict and burnout symptoms. Plus, we predicted work-family conflict to mediate the relationship between email as a source of stress and burnout symptoms. Our results pointed out to the existence of a partial mediation, in which work-family conflict explains the relationship between e-mail as a source of stress and burnout symptoms, thus supporting those three hypotheses. We have also hypothesized that segmentation preference would moderate the relationship between email as a source of stress and work-family conflict. However, the results we obtained do not support this hypothesis, after accounting for seniority. Our findings provide evidence to consider that e-mail as a source of stress is likely to cause a conflict between work and family lives among its users, which by its turn will lead to the experience of burnout symptoms. Further, we discuss the practical implications of these findings and suggest directions for future research.Apesar de ser uma das ferramentas de comunicação mais utilizadas para fins de trabalho, o e-mail pode levar os seus utilizadores a experienciarem sintomas indesejados para a sua saúde mental. Este estudo transversal (N = 389) pretende clarear a forma como o e-mail como fonte de stress irá impactar o conflito trabalho-família e sintomas de burnout. Formularam-se as hipóteses de que o e-mail como fonte de stress estaria positivamente associado a conflito trabalho-família e a sintomas de burnout. Mais, prevemos que o conflito trabalho-família iria mediar a relação entre o e-mail como fonte de stress e sintomas de burnout. Os nossos resultados apontam para a existência de uma mediação parcial, em que o conflito trabalho-família explica a relação entre o e-mail como fonte de stress e sintomas de burnout, suportando assim as três hipóteses formuladas. Também formulámos a hipótese de que a preferência por segmentação iria moderar a relação entre o e-mail como fonte de stress e o conflito trabalho-família. No entanto, os resultados obtidos não suportam a hipótese formulada, após controlar a antiguidade. As nossas descobertas fornecem evidência para considerar que o e-mail como fonte de stress pode causar um conflito entre a vida profissional e familiar dos seus utilizadores, o que, por sua vez, pode conduzir ao aparecimento de sintomas de burnout. Para além disso, discutimos as implicações práticas relativas às nossas descobertas e sugerimos direções para pesquisas futuras

WYPIWYG Hyperelasticity

In this paper we describe a new promising procedure to model hyperelastic materials from given stress-strain data. The main advantage of the proposed method is that the user does not need to have a relevant knowledge of hyperelasticity, large strains or hyperelastic constitutive modelling. The engineer simply has to prescribe some stress strain experimental data (whether isotropic or anisotropic) in also user prescribed stress and strain measures and the model almost exactly replicates the experimental data. The procedure is based on the piece-wise splines model by Sussman and Bathe and may be easily generalized to transversely isotropic and orthotropic materials. The model is also amenable of efficient finite element implementation. In this paper we briefly describe the general procedure, addressing the advantages and limitations. We give predictions for arbitrary ?experimental data? and also give predictions for actual experiments of the behaviour of living soft tissues. The model may be also implemented in a general purpose finite element program. Since the obtained strain energy functions are analytic piece-wise functions, the constitutive tangent may be readily derived in order to be used for implicit static problems, where the equilibrium iterations must be performed and the material tangent is needed in order to preserve the quadratic rate of convergence of Newton procedures

Simplified Procedure for the Nonlinear Seismic Analysis of Bridges

The severe accidents suffered by bridges during recent earthquake show that more careful analysis are needed to guarantee their behaviour. In particular simplified non-linear analysis could be useful to bridge the gap between theoretical research and practical applications. This paper presents one of those simplified methods that can be applied for first designs or to retrofitting of groups of bridges

Modelo de plasticidad multiaxial para arcillas sometidas a carga dinámica

En este artículo se desarrolla un modelo de plasticidad de superfície límite para suelos cohesivos sin drenaje dotado de un algoritmo capaz de manejar tanto carga dinámica multiaxial como la ausencia de rango elástico. Dicho algoritmo puede ser implementado en cualquier programa de elementos finitos. En el desarrollo de la formulación continua se siguen los mismos pasos que en la plasticidad clásica. Modelos monodimensionales tradicionales como el exponencial, hiperbólico, de Davidenkov o el de Ramberg-Osgood pueden ser poyectados en el dominio de tensiones desviadoras y extendidos sitemáticamente a las tres dimensiones espaciales. En particular, el modelo exponencial se ha relevado apropiado para suelos cohesivos y ha sido utilizado en este trabajo. Los parámetros internos del mismo se obtienen directamente de las curvas típicas de reducción del módulo a cortante, de perfiles de velocidades de ondas a cortante y/o de ensayos de penetración. Para analizar el comportamiento del modelo, se le expone tanto a cargas monoaxiales como a multiaxiales y tanto a cargas cuasiestáticas como a sísmicas. Además, el modelo desarrollado es especialmente útil en interacción suelo-estructura tridimensional e incluso requiere menos parámetros que modelos lineales monodimensionales equivalentes, usados habitualmente en ingeniería geotécnica.Peer Reviewe

From the production of rules to seed production: global intellectual property and local knowledge.

This paper analyzes the links and overlappings between traditional knowledge and biodiversity in the context of ecological family farming in southern Brazil. The data presented are part of an ethnographic study carried out among a network of ecological farmers, Ecovida, in the west of Santa Catarina state. The current global patent regime, most prominently the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), has had direct effects on seed production and agricultural food crops. In a scenario of increasing creation of patents, patent regulations, provisions on cultivars (plant varieties and seed breeding) and a number of other global trade control mechanisms, family farmers and other related social actors have rejected the multilateral development agencies' notion of life as "resource". This study has a two-fold aim: first, it approaches the international context of the intellectual property regime on biodiversity and knowledge production; second, it examines the actions taken by farmers participating in the Ecovida network toward creating alternative ways of managing knowledge to produce "free" seeds. As an outcome, there is a parallel political action of criticism and resistance to the current narrowing of agriculture's genetic base, and organized efforts to multiply seeds, know-how and knowledge through networks, banks and centers of agro-biodiversity. Our central argument is that all these social actors - who make up the so-called ecological network and who seek, in their activities, to carry on the multiplication and variability of seeds and promote the diversity of knowledge to produce diverse seeds - are also creating collective strategies of social resistance vis-à-vis the prevailing global modes of controlling knowledge, seeds and food production