Bioethanol As Basis for Regional Development in Brazil: An Input-Output Model With Mixed Technologies

Many issues of strategic importance that have emerged in recent years are contributing to the formulation of national policies for promoting biofuels worldwide. In the developed countries, such initiatives result mainly from concerns on energy security and greenhouse gases emissions. Developing countries envisage biofuels as a potential means to improve access to energy, increase income and employment, alleviate poverty, spur rural development, reduce oil imports and enhance exports of biomass products. These interests converge as to render bioethanol trade a unique opportunity for sustainable development. Despite its simplicity and ease of use, the basic input-output (i-o) model does not allow the representation of technology-differentiated sectors producing the same good or service. For instance, in Brazil, sugarcane can be collected manually or via harvesting machines and alcohol can be produced in plants appended to a sugar mill or in autonomous distilleries. An i-o model with mixed technologies was constructed for the purposes of the study. A linear technology is used to represent the sugarcane and ethanol sectors, whereas the remaining industries are characterized by the usual Leontief production function. Activity levels for the linear-technology sectors are set by a scenario analysis, avoiding the use of much more complicated mathematical tools, such as a computable general equilibrium (cge) model. The construction of the database was done in two stages. Firstly, an i-o table containing 42 sector and 80 commodities was estimated for the base year of 2002. Secondly, the sugarcane and ethanol industries were disaggregated from the sectors they appear in IBGE economic tables, based on detailed engineering information obtained from experts and specialized publications. The extended input-output model with mixed technologies was used to analyze the socioeconomic impacts of a large-scale expansion of bioethanol production in Brazil so as to replace 5% of the estimated global demand for gasoline in 2025. The resulting direct, indirect and induced effects indicate that if ethanol production is augmented in nearly 800%, GDP would increase by a factor of 11.4%, equivalent to approximately the entire economy in the Northeast region of Brazil, and more than 5 million of jobs would be created.

Solid immersion lens at the aplanatic condition for enhancing the spectral bandwidth of a waveguide grating coupler

We report a technique to substantially boost the spectral bandwidth of a conventional waveguide grating coupler by using a solid immersion cylindrical lens at the aplanatic condition to create a highly anamorphic beam and reach a much larger numerical aperture, thus enhancing the spectral bandwidth of a free-space propagating optical beam coupled into a single-mode planar integrated optical waveguide (IOW). Our experimental results show that the broadband IOW spectrometer thus created almost doubles (94% enhancement) the coupled spectral bandwidth of a conventional configuration. To exemplify the benefits made possible by the developed approach, we applied the technique to the broadband spectroscopic characterization of a protein submonolayer; our experimental data confirm the enhanced spectral bandwidth (around 380–nm) and illustrate the potentials of the developed technology. Besides the enhanced bandwidth, the broadband coupler of the single-mode IOW spectrometer described here is more robust and user-friendly than those previously reported in the literature and is expected to have an important impact on spectroscopic studies of surface-adsorbed molecular layers and surface phenomena

Relations of power and juridical norms : the council decrees of Calahorra e La Calzada diocese’s under the bishop of D. Almoravid (1287-1300)

This paper speaks about the juridical discourses present in the sinodal decrets of Calahorra and La Calzada in the end of XIII th century. The objective of our work is to stress the relations between the episcopal institutions and their legislative practices. In the historical and political perspective, we have chosen a specific group of tematics: the clerical reformation and the question of their ordination; the sacramental life; the norms about the Jewish Communities; and, finally, the determinations about beneficial matter of the clergy

Diálogo inter-religioso 'real ou aparente' durante a Idade Média hispânica : Ramon Llull (1232-1316)

Esse texto é a transcrição de uma palestra apresentada no Centro de cultura judaica no dia 29 de julho de 2004 (trad.: Profa. Danielle Werneck Nunes. Revisão: Prof. Dr. Ricardo da Costa - Ufes).El present treball tracta de l'existència del diàleg interreligiós durant l'Edat Mitjana. Per a presentar l'staust quaestionis es prenen elements històrics i, sobre tot, la figura de Ramon Llull i la seva obra Llibre del gentil e dels tres savis.This paper speaks about the dialogue between religions in the Middle Age. We're taking historical methods and The Book of the Pagan and the three Wises of Ramon Llull for introducing the status quaestionis

Dialogue inter-religious ‘real or apparent’ during the Hispanic Middle Ages : Ramon Llull (1232-1316)

El present treball tracta de l’existència del diàleg interreligiós durant l’Edat Mitjana. Per a presentar l’staust quaestionis es prenen elements històrics i, sobre tot, la figura de Ramon Llull i la seva obra Llibre del gentil e dels tres savis.This paper speaks about the dialogue between religions in the Middle Age. We’re taking historical methods and The Book of the Pagan and the three Wises of Ramon Llull for introducing the status quaestionis

Relações de poder e normas jurídicas : os decretos conciliares da diocese de Calahorra e La Calzada sob o bispado de D. Almoravid (1287-1300)

O presente trabalho visa discutir os discursos jurídicos presentes nos decretos do sínodo de Calahorra e La Calzada do final do século XIII. Nosso objetivo é destacar as relações entre instituições episcopais e suas práticas legislativas. Dentro de uma perspectiva histórica, e priorizando as relações de poder, trataremos de diversas temáticas: a reforma do clero e sua ordenação; a vida sacramental; as normas para as relações com os judeus; por fim, as determinações sobre a administração dos bens do clero.This paper speaks about the juridical discourses present in the sinodal decrets of Calahorra and La Calzada in the end of XIII th century. The objective of our work is to stress the relations between the episcopal institutions and their legislative practices. In the historical and political perspective, we have chosen a specific group of tematics: the clerical reformation and the question of their ordination; the sacramental life; the norms about the Jewish Communities; and, finally, the determinations about beneficial matter of the clergy

Exhaustive exploration of Prisoner's Dilemma Parameter space in one-dimensional cellular automata

The Prisoner's Dilemma (PD) is one of the most popular games of the Game Theory due to the emergence of cooperation among competitive rational players. In this paper, we present the PD played in cells of one-dimension cellular automata, where the number of possible neighbors that each cell interacts, z, can vary. This makes possible to retrieve results obtained previously in regular lattices. Exhaustive exploration of the parameters space is presented. We show that the final state of the system is governed mainly by the number of neighbors z and there is a drastic difference if it is even or odd.Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES)CNPqFAPESPCNPq - MC