Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing: designing a model in a Portuguese production environment

Purpose: By designing a pilot Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TDABC) model, this study seeks to examine in depth the suitability and the complexity of TDABC in a manufacturing company. Design/Methodology/Approach: To obtain a deeper understanding on the matters to analyse, this research adopts an interventionist approach. The host organisation is GP, a Portuguese company in the frozen food sector. Findings: Our experience allows us to assert that TDABC is suitable for a manufacturing company and it is able to deal with the variability of the industrial processes. Nonetheless, through a comparison with the models presented in the literature, TDABC appears to be more complex for manufacturing. We argue that this happens for two reasons: First, the two types of resources (human labour and machinery) used in production areas create a need to split tasks and to create two equations for each process, something that does not happen in service companies. Second, times are difficult to individualise for certain highly automated procedures, which could also give rise to some errors. Research limitations/implications: The designed model is compared to other models presented in the literature. Practical implications: This study shows a real example of TDABC in manufacturing and the procedural innovation of the time equations. Originality/Value: Since the TDABC literature has been mostly focused on examples of service companies, we examine the technical suitability and the complexity of TDABC in manufacturing companies.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Mutucas (Diptera: Tabanidae) do Pantanal: abundância relativa e sazonalidade na sub-região da Nhecolândia.

De junho/92 a maio/94, capturas de mutucas foram realizadas mensalmente em eqüino e utilizando armadilhas do tipo ?canopy?, na fazenda Nhumirim, subregião da Nhecolândia, Pantanal sul-mato-grossense. Capturas no eqüino foram realizadas do crepúsculo matutino ao vespertino, com o auxílio de redes entomológicas, em ambientes de campo e cerradão (1 dia/ambiente/mês), durante o primeiro ano do estudo. Capturas com armadilhas foram realizadas nos mesmos ambientes (10 dias/ambiente/mês), por dois anos. Foram capturadas 6.274 mutucas ao longo do estudo, pertencentes a 25 espécies, 13 gêneros e 3 subfamílias. A espécies mais abundantes foram Tabanus importunus (44,04%), Tabanus occidentalis (15,95%), Tabanus claripennis (9,98%) e Lepiselaga crassipes (7,60%). Apesar do menor esforço de captura, as coletas no eqüino foram mais eficientes que as realizadas com armadilhas, totalizando 3.442 (54,9%) e 2.832 (45,1%) mutucas, respectivamente. Picos populacionais foram observados próximos ao início do período chuvoso, geralmente entre setembro e novembro (primavera). Entretanto, as mutucas foram relativamente abundantes também durante parte do verão. Os resultados obtidos nestes estudos indicam que mutucas são mais abundantes durante a época chuvosa, particularmente na primavera, considerada a época de maior risco de transmissão mecânica de patógenos por estes vetores.bitstream/item/37402/1/BP48.pd

Avaliação de regimes de temperatura no desenvolvimento da ferrugem-asiática da soja.

Com o objetivo de avaliar o impacto de cinco regimes de temperatura (28oC/ 20oC, 30oC/ 22oC, 32oC/ 24oC, 34oC/ 26oC e 36oC/ 28oC) no desenvolvimento da ferrugem-asiática da soja foram realizados ensaios em condições controladas. Plantas da cultivar CD 219 RR com a quarta folha expandida foram inoculadas com esporos do fungo Phakopsora pachyrhizi e mantidas nos diferentes regimes de temperatura. A severidade da ferrugem foi avaliada aos 16 dias após a inoculação. O regime de temperatura mais favorável para o desenvolvimento da ferrugem foi 28oC/ 20oC (média 24oC). A doença não se desenvolveu nos regimes de temperatura de 34oC/ 26oC e 36oC/ 28oC, com médias 30oC e 32oC, respectivamente

Efeito das temperaturas e substratos sobre a germinação de Parkia gigantocarpa Ducke (Leguminosae-Mimosoideae).

Parkia gigantocarpa Ducke, conhecida popularmente como Fava- Atanã é uma espécie de grande porte, que pode ser utilizada para produção de celulose, recomposição de áreas degradadas e construção em geral. O objetivo desse estudo foi verificar a influência de diferentes substratos e temperaturas sobre a germinação de sementes de P. gigantocarpa. Realizou-se um experimento inteiramente casualizado em esquema fatorial 5 x 5, com 4 repetições de 25 sementes, por um período de 12 dias. Foram utilizados diferentes substratos (rolo de papel, areia, areia + serragem (1:1), vermiculita e fibra de coco triturada) em função de diferentes temperaturas constantes (15, 20, 25, 30 e 35ºC). Nas temperaturas de 15 e 20ºC houve inibição no desenvolvimento normal das plântulas, ocorrendo germinação de plântulas normais somente nas temperaturas de 25, 30 e 35°C. No geral, a temperatura de 30°C foi a mais favorável para a germinação das sementes de P. gigantocarpa, tendo como melhores substratos a areia, areia + serragem (1:1) e fibra de coco

WASP-30b: a 61 Mjup brown dwarf transiting a V=12, F8 star

We report the discovery of a 61-Jupiter-mass brown dwarf, which transits its F8V host star, WASP-30, every 4.16 days. From a range of age indicators we estimate the system age to be 1-2 Gyr. We derive a radius (0.89 +/- 0.02 RJup) for the companion that is consistent with that predicted (0.914 RJup) by a model of a 1-Gyr-old, non-irradiated brown dwarf with a dusty atmosphere. The location of WASP-30b in the minimum of the mass-radius relation is consistent with the quantitative prediction of Chabrier & Baraffe (2000), thus confirming the theory.Comment: As accepted for publication in ApJL (6 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables

The GREATS Hβ\beta+[OIII] Luminosity Function and Galaxy Properties at z∼8\mathbf{z\sim8}: Walking the Way of JWST

The James Webb Space Telescope will allow to spectroscopically study an unprecedented number of galaxies deep into the reionization era, notably by detecting [OIII] and H$\beta$ nebular emission lines. To efficiently prepare such observations, we photometrically select a large sample of galaxies at $z\sim8$ and study their rest-frame optical emission lines. Combining data from the GOODS Re-ionization Era wide-Area Treasury from Spitzer (GREATS) survey and from HST, we perform spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting, using synthetic SEDs from a large grid of photoionization models. The deep Spitzer/IRAC data combined with our models exploring a large parameter space enables to constrain the [OIII]+H$\beta$ fluxes and equivalent widths for our sample, as well as the average physical properties of $z\sim8$ galaxies, such as the ionizing photon production efficiency with $\log(\xi_\mathrm{ion}/\mathrm{erg}^{-1}\hspace{1mm}\mathrm{Hz})\geq25.77$. We find a relatively tight correlation between the [OIII]+H$\beta$ and UV luminosity, which we use to derive for the first time the [OIII]+H$\beta$ luminosity function (LF) at $z\sim8$. The $z\sim8$ [OIII]+H$\beta$ LF is higher at all luminosities compared to lower redshift, as opposed to the UV LF, due to an increase of the [OIII]+H$\beta$ luminosity at a given UV luminosity from $z\sim3$ to $z\sim8$. Finally, using the [OIII]+H$\beta$ LF, we make predictions for JWST/NIRSpec number counts of $z\sim8$ galaxies. We find that the current wide-area extragalactic legacy fields are too shallow to use JWST at maximal efficiency for $z\sim8$ spectroscopy even at 1hr depth and JWST pre-imaging to $\gtrsim30$ mag will be required.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Sensitivity of Corynespora cassiicola from soybean to carbendazim and prothioconazole.

The incidence of target spot disease on soybean has increased in recent years in Brazil even with intensive use of fungicides, and fungal resistance has been reported in recent studies. The objective of this study was to determine the fungicide sensitivity to carbendazim and prothioconazole in a sample of 24 isolates of Corynespora cassiicola from soybean collected from 1996 to 2011 in the states of Paraná, Mato Grosso and São Paulo (Brazil) and Corpus Christi (Paraguay). The 50% effective concentration (EC50) values were estimated by the relative mycelium growth reduction on fungicide-amended medium with the doses of 0, 0.5, 1, 10, 100 and 1000 µg of active ingredient/ mL. For carbendazim, four highly resistant isolates (EC50 > ou = 50 µg/mL) were observed from samples collected from Mato Grosso in 2008 and from Paraná and Mato Grosso in 2011. The EC50 values for prothioconazole ranged from 0.47 µg/mL to 26.44 µg/mL (mean: 5.02 µg/mL). The results reinforce the occurrence of C. cassiicola resistance to benzimidazole in Paraná and Mato Grosso states

Planets and Stellar Activity: Hide and Seek in the CoRoT-7 system

Since the discovery of the transiting super-Earth CoRoT-7b, several investigations have yielded different results for the number and masses of planets present in the system, mainly owing to the star's high level of activity. We re-observed CoRoT-7 in January 2012 with both HARPS and CoRoT, so that we now have the benefit of simultaneous radial-velocity and photometric data. This allows us to use the off-transit variations in the star's light curve to estimate the radial-velocity variations induced by the suppression of convective blueshift and the flux blocked by starspots. To account for activity-related effects in the radial-velocities which do not have a photometric signature, we also include an additional activity term in the radial-velocity model, which we treat as a Gaussian process with the same covariance properties (and hence the same frequency structure) as the light curve. Our model was incorporated into a Monte Carlo Markov Chain in order to make a precise determination of the orbits of CoRoT-7b and CoRoT-7c. We measure the masses of planets b and c to be 4.73 +/- 0.95 Mearth and 13.56 +/- 1.08 Mearth, respectively. The density of CoRoT-7b is (6.61 +/- 1.72)(Rp/1.58 Rearth)^(-3) g.cm^(-3), which is compatible with a rocky composition. We search for evidence of an additional planet d, identified by previous authors with a period close to 9 days. We are not able to confirm the existence of a planet with this orbital period, which is close to the second harmonic of the stellar rotation at around 7.9 days. Using Bayesian model selection we find that a model with two planets plus activity-induced variations is most favoured.Comment: Accepted 2014 July 2. Received 2014 June 30; in original form 2013 May 30 (17 pages, 9 figures

Peering through the holes: the far UV color of star-forming galaxies at z~3-4 and the escaping fraction of ionizing radiation

We aim to investigate the effect of the escaping ionizing radiation on the color selection of high redshift galaxies and identify candidate Lyman continuum (LyC) emitters. The intergalactic medium prescription of Inoue et al.(2014) and galaxy synthesis models of Bruzual&Charlot (2003) have been used to properly treat the ultraviolet stellar emission, the stochasticity of the intergalactic transmission and mean free path in the ionizing regime. Color tracks are computed by turning on/off the escape fraction of ionizing radiation. At variance with recent studies, a careful treatment of IGM transmission leads to no significant effects on the high-redshift broad-band color selection. The decreasing mean free path of ionizing photons with increasing redshift further diminishes the contribution of the LyC to broad-band colors. We also demonstrate that prominent LyC sources can be selected under suitable conditions by calculating the probability of a null escaping ionizing radiation. The method is applied to a sample of galaxies extracted from the GOODS-S field. A known LyC source at z=3.795 is successfully recovered as a LyC emitter candidate and another convincing candidate at z=3.212 is reported. A detailed analysis of the two sources (including their variability and morphology) suggests a possible mixture of stellar and non-stellar (AGN) contribution in the ultraviolet. Conclusions: Classical broad-band color selection of 2.5<z<4.5 galaxies does not prevent the inclusion of LyC emitters in the selected samples. Large fesc in relatively bright galaxies (L>0.1L*) could be favored by the presence of a faint AGN not easily detected at any wavelength. A hybrid stellar and non-stellar (AGN) ionizing emission could coexist in these systems and explain the tensions found among the UV excess and the stellar population synthesis models reported in literature.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. 13 pages, 7 figure