U.S. Unemployment Duration: Has Long Become Longer or Short Become Shorter?

The U.S. labor market has been experiencing unprecedented high average unemployment duration. The shift in the unemployment duration distribution can be traced back to the early nineties. In this study, censored quantile regression methods are employed to analyze the changes in the US unemployment duration distribution. We explore the decomposition method proposed by Machado and Mata (2005) to disentangle the contribution of the changes generated by the covariate distribution and by the conditional distribution. The data used in this inquiry are taken from the nationally representative Displaced Worker Surveys of 1988 and 1998. We provide evidence that the change in the unemployment duration distribution is mainly produced by the opposing effects of a sharp rise in job-to-job transition rates and an increased sensitivity of unemployment duration to unemployment rates. Compositional changes in the labor force played a limited role. We rationalize our findings by arguing that improved screening technology is likely to be the relevant underlying mechanism at work.

The poverty reduction strategy of the government of Brazil: a rapid appraisal

This paper provides an overview of both the current structure of poverty in Brazil through a detailed poverty profile and of the aggregate dynamics of poverty in the last two decades. We then assess a number of government policies and programs which are either specifically designed to reduce poverty or have a direct bearing on current or future social welfare. A brief discussion of the Comunidade Solidária Programme is followed by an analysis of the coverage and targeting performance of mainstream programs in the areas of education, health, social security and other transfers. Our main findings are that a fifth of the Brazilian population live in indigence, and that this does not represent a substantial improvement over the situation two decades ago. A share of the blame for this must be borne by the highly regressive pattern of incidence of ‘social expenditures’ which are, on the whole, disproportionately appropriated by the middle-classes and the rich.

O Benefício Social Único: uma proposta de reforma da política social no Brasil

Após rever brevemente algumas experiências inovadoras em política social na América Latina, o presente trabalho propõe uma reforma dos instrumentos de política social no Brasil. A reforma baseia-se na criação de um benefício social único, de natureza focalizada e condicional, ao qual todo e qualquer cidadão brasileiro vivendo em condições de pobreza teria direito, desde que ele ou outros membros de sua família cumpram com certas condições. Todas estas condições são investimentos na saúde ou educação da própria família, ou contribuições em trabalho comunitário. A estas transferências monetárias, a proposta agrega uma série de intervenções seletivas pelo lado da oferta de educação e saúde, com vistas a aumentar a qualidade destes serviços nas áreas de maior necessidade. Pretende-se assim criar uma política pública integrada para a erradicação da miséria, que combine investimentos de longo prazo em capital humano ao alívio imediato das necessidades mais prementes de qualquer brasileiro comprovadamente pobre, independente de onde viva ou do setor em que trabalhe.

Kimotopia: The use of a serious game for learning about cancer / Kimotopia: O uso de um jogo sério para aprender sobre o câncer

The present work is presents a serious game, called Kimotopia, developed with the intention of teaching about oncological medical treatments for children and adolescents with cancer. The methodology has been determined according to techniques and specifications that make a serious game effective for health. Based on this, the game is presented and contains features that help players in the knowledge about their condition and the necessary medical procedures. With the application of the game, satisfactory results were obtained regarding the immersion and interactivity of the game.

PRIMEIRO REGISTRO DE Platyrrhinus brachycephalus (ROUK & CARTER, 1972) (MAMMALIA : CHIROPTERA) NO ESTADO DO MATO GROSSO, CENTRO-OESTE, BRAZIL.

Platyrrhinus brachycephalus (Rouk and Carter, 1972) é uma espécie endêmica do norte da América do Sul e no Brasil foi catalogada apenas nos estados do Amapá, Acre, Amazonas, Pará e Distrito Federal. O presente estudo registra sua ocorrência no complexo do Pantanal, município de Poconé, estado de Mato Grosso, Centro-Oeste do Brasil. Duas exemplares fêmeas adultas foram coletadas em redes de espera armadas em capão de mata em dezembro de 2009 e suas medidas de massa corporal e morfométricas são aqui representadas

Antimicrobials from medicinal plants: an emergent strategy to control oral biofilms

Oral microbial biofilms, directly related to oral diseases, particularly caries and periodontitis, exhibit virulence factors that include acidification of the oral microenvironment and the formation of biofilm enriched with exopolysaccharides, characteristics and common mechanisms that, ultimately, justify the increase in antibiotics resistance. In this line, the search for natural products, mainly obtained through plants, and derived compounds with bioactive potential, endorse unique biological properties in the prevention of colonization, adhesion, and growth of oral bacteria. The present review aims to provide a critical and comprehensive view of the in vitro antibiofilm activity of various medicinal plants, revealing numerous species with antimicrobial properties, among which, twenty-four with biofilm inhibition/reduction percentages greater than 95%. In particular, the essential oils of Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf and Lippia alba (Mill.) seem to be the most promising in fighting microbial biofilm in Streptococcus mutans, given their high capacity to reduce biofilm at low concentrations.The authors wish to acknowledge financial support from the project “AquaValor—Centro de Valorização e Transferência de Tecnologia da Água” (NORTE-01-0246-FEDER-000053), supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF); to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020); and L. Barros thanks the national funding by FCT, P.I., through the institutional scientific employment program-contract for her contract.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Measuring valley polarization in two-dimensional materials with second-harmonic spectroscopy

A population imbalance at different valleys of an electronic system lowers its effective rotational symmetry. We introduce a technique to measure such imbalance - a valley polarization - that exploits the unique fingerprints of this symmetry reduction in the polarization-dependent second-harmonic generation (SHG). We present the principle and detection scheme in the context of hexagonal two-dimensional crystals, which include graphene-based systems and the family of transition metal dichalcogenides, and provide a direct experimental demonstration using a 2H-MoSe$_{2}$ monolayer at room temperature. We deliberately use the simplest possible setup, where a single pulsed laser beam simultaneously controls the valley imbalance and tracks the SHG process. We further developed a model of the transient population dynamics which analytically describes the valley-induced SHG rotation in very good agreement with the experiment. In addition to providing the first experimental demonstration of the effect, this work establishes a conceptually simple, com-pact and transferable way of measuring instantaneous valley polarization, with direct applicability in the nascent field of valleytronics

Variability of Root System Size and Distribution among Coffea canephora Genotypes

This work aimed to evaluate the variability in the distribution of the root system among genotypes of C. canephora cv. Conilon and indicate management strategies for a more efficient mineral fertilization. Root distribution was evaluated in six genotypes. The experimental design was in randomized blocks with three replications. Soil monoliths measuring about 27 cm3 were collected at six different soil depths, at three row distances and nine distances of inter-row planting. The collections were carried out in one plant of each repetition. In total, 1296 samples were evaluated. The roots were washed, digitized and processed to quantify length density, volume, surface area and diameter. The distribution of the root system was characterized using semivariograms. It was observed that the highest concentration of roots occurred in the distances close to the irrigation drippers. There was variation in the distribution of the root system among the genotypes. However, in general, the root system is concentrated at a depth of 0 to 20 cm in the soil, at distances up to 50 cm in the planting row and up to 60 cm in inter-rows. Therefore, the greatest efficiency in nutritional management can be achieved by applying fertilizers within a radius of 50 cm around the plantinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio