Evidence for the Gompertz Curve in the Income Distribution of Brazil 1978-2005

This work presents an empirical study of the evolution of the personal income distribution in Brazil. Yearly samples available from 1978 to 2005 were studied and evidence was found that the complementary cumulative distribution of personal income for 99% of the economically less favorable population is well represented by a Gompertz curve of the form $G(x)=\exp [\exp (A-Bx)]$, where $x$ is the normalized individual income. The complementary cumulative distribution of the remaining 1% richest part of the population is well represented by a Pareto power law distribution $P(x)= \beta x^{-\alpha}$. This result means that similarly to other countries, Brazil's income distribution is characterized by a well defined two class system. The parameters $A$, $B$, $\alpha$, $\beta$ were determined by a mixture of boundary conditions, normalization and fitting methods for every year in the time span of this study. Since the Gompertz curve is characteristic of growth models, its presence here suggests that these patterns in income distribution could be a consequence of the growth dynamics of the underlying economic system. In addition, we found out that the percentage share of both the Gompertzian and Paretian components relative to the total income shows an approximate cycling pattern with periods of about 4 years and whose maximum and minimum peaks in each component alternate at about every 2 years. This finding suggests that the growth dynamics of Brazil's economic system might possibly follow a Goodwin-type class model dynamics based on the application of the Lotka-Volterra equation to economic growth and cycle.Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures, 4 tables. LaTeX. Accepted for publication in "The European Physical Journal B

Controlo químico de bebidas adulteradas em crimes facilitados com drogas

Although drugs are developed with therapeutics intentions, sometimes some substances are used for purposes other than those the pharmacologist had in mind. The word “drug” also involves psychoactive substances that can be used for medicinal or non-medicinal purposes in which it is included substances that are legal or illegal. The use of drugs for intentions other than their therapeutic purposes has become a growing public concern making their study very important from the toxicological standpoint. When alleged victims report that they were robbed or assaulted while incapacitated by a drug, toxicological chemical analysis is imperative to help substantiate the victim’s claim. These criminal offenses are known as drug facilitated crimes.The branch of science dedicated to toxicology studies has two application fields, forensic and analytical toxicology, that are interdisciplinary and that comprise all the scientific facts related with crimes committed through the use of drugs. Most often, the cases of crimes facilitated by drugs involve substances that have strong central nervous system depressant effects that are availed to easily render victims to robberies or sexual assaults. As new drugs are continuously being synthetized and new methods are used for drugging victims without their knowledge or consent it is important to develop new analytical methods that can assist in the investigation for figuring out all the details about this sort of crimes or enable ways of their prevention. For example, one way of drugging victims without being aware of is through drink spiking in social entertainment places, during parties, raves, etc. In these cases, the spiked beverages are the “crime weapons”. In this paper, it will be presented the relation of drug facilitated crimes and the toxicology science and also a review focused on the available analytical methods for the detection of adulterated beverages with drugs. Embora os fármacos sejam desenvolvidos com fins terapêuticos, às vezes algumas substâncias são uti- lizadas com objetivos diferentes daqueles que o farmacologista teve em mente. A palavra fármaco também contempla substâncias psicoativas que podem usar-se com objetivos medicinais ou não-medicinais nos quais são incluídas substâncias legais e ilegais (comummente designadas por “drogas”). O uso de algumas substâncias com intenções não terapêuticas tornou-se um problema de saúde pública crescente, muito importante do ponto de vista de estudos toxicológicos. Quando supostas vítimas informam que foram roubadas ou assaltadas enquanto incapacitadas por uma droga, a análise química toxicológica é imperativa para ajudar a fundamentar a denúncia da vítima. Este tipo de ofensas criminais denomina-se por crimes facilitados por drogas. O ramo da ciência dedicado a estudos de toxicologia envolve a toxicologia forense e analítica, que são interdisciplinares e que compreendem todos os factos científicos relacionados com crimes facilitados por drogas. Normalmente, os casos de crimes facilitados por drogas implicam substâncias com fortes efeitos depressores do sistema nervoso central, e que são usadas para transformar as pessoas em vítimas fáceis de roubos ou assaltos sexuais. Dado que novas drogas são continuamente sintetizadas e, também surgem novos métodos para drogar vítimas sem o seu consentimento ou conhecimento, é imperativo desenvolver novas metodologias de análise química e toxicológica, para auxiliar na investigação científica de todos os factos dos crimes cometidos com drogas, ou ainda possibilitar a implementação de medidas de prevenção. Por exem- plo, um modo de drogar vítimas sem o seu conhecimento é através da colocação disfarçada de drogas em bebidas, nos locais de diversão social, em festas, em “raves”, etc.. Nestes casos, as bebidas adulteradas são as “armas do crime”. Neste artigo, será abordado o enquadramento de crimes facilitados por drogas nas ciências de análise química toxicológica e também, será realizada uma revisão bibliográfica das metodologias analíticas disponíveis para o controlo químico toxicológico de bebidas adulteradas com drogas de abuso.

É a Murciano-Granadina raça única? Um enfoque genético-molecular

The population structure of the Murciano-Granadina breed was determined using 25 microsatellites from 266 goats of seven populations. The results of the genetic differentiation analysis showed that it is possible to differentiate the Murciana and Granadina populations even though a low FST value (0.0432) had been obtained. Individuals could be assigned to their populations with a success rate of more than 80%. Bayesian-based clustering analysis of allele frequencies and multivariate analysis revealed that Murciana and Granadina populations were grouped in different clusters since K=3. The results demonstrate that Murciana and Granadina are still two different genetic groups included into Murciano-Granadina denomination. There is the opportunity to the genetically manage these populations, under a single herd-book but adding the necessary modifications to respect the conservation of the genetic diversity based on the use of multibreed models of genetic evaluationDeterminou-se a estrutura da raça Murciano-Granadina, usando-se 25 microssatélites e 266 animais de sete populações. Os resultados da diferenciação genética mostram que é possível diferenciar populações de Murciana e Granadina, apesar dos baixos valores de FST obtidos – 0.0432. Os indivíduos foram designados às suas populações com taxa de sucesso superior a 80%. A análise bayesiana de agrupamento das frequências alélicas e a análise multivariada revelaram que as populações Murciana e Granadina foram agrupadas em diferentes clusters, uma vez que o melhor K obtido foi três. Os resultados demonstraram que Murciana e Granadina ainda são dois grupos genéticos distintos incluídos na denominação Murciano-Granadina. É possível manejar geneticamente essas populações dentro de um único livro de registro, porém adotando-se as modificações necessárias em relação à conservação e à diversidade genética, com base no uso de modelos de avaliação multirracia

Orange emission in Pr3+-doped fluoroindate glasses

We synthesize and study the properties of praseodymium doped fluoroindate glasses. Glass compositions with praseodymium molar concentrations up to 5% were obtained with good optical quality. Thermal, optical, and luminescence properties are investigated. Judd–Ofelt analysis is used to determine radiative lifetime and emission cross-section of the orange transition originating from the 3P0 level. We find that these glasses are good candidates for the realization of blue diode laser pumped orange lasers for quantum information processing applications

Simple multiplexing scheme for fibre optic grating sensor network

A new approach for the interrogation of a large number of fiber-optic grating sensors is proposed and demonstrated for a small number of sensors in which signal recovery is achieved by matching a receiving grating to its corresponding sensor. This technique is demonstrated for both quasi-static and periodic measurands, and the resolution achieved for a single sensor-receiving grating pair for quasi-static strain of 4.12µε

Research of the optical communications groups at University of Aveiro and Institute of Telecommunications - Aveiro Pole

This paper summarizes the research activities of the optical communications group at University of Aveiro and Institute of Telecommunications – Aveiro pole. Several activities like clock recovery systems, both electrical and all optical, electrical equalizers for very high bit rate DST systems, post-detection filters for multigigabit optical receivers, soliton systems, simulation work on WDM, DST, EDFA and short pulse generation for high bit rate systems are presented

Identifying and explaining the farming system composition of agricultural landscapes: The role of socioeconomic drivers under strong biophysical gradients

In mountain landscapes, agricultural abandonment is taking place in the most vulnerable areas, while intensification increases in the most productive lands. These contrasting processes, which have different impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES), are related to changes in the farming system component of these landscapes. Farming systems are identified based on farmer’s decisions on, for example, type of crop and level of fertilizers, which represent the descriptors of farming systems and can be grouped into several dimensions (e.g. land use and intensity). Since obtaining this data at farm-level is often difficult, an alternative is to study the spatial combinations of farming systems at parish-level, i.e., Farming System Mixes (FSM), relying on agricultural census data. Other biophysical (e.g. climate, soil) and socioeconomic (e.g. labour, farmer’s age) variables, independent of farmers' decisions, represent the exogenous drivers of these decisions. The separation between descriptors and drivers is important to improve knowledge about what drives farmers' decisions regarding farming system choice, as these choices are often the focus of policies aiming the support of BES. In this study, we explored the underlying drivers of FSM and assessed the role of socioeconomic drivers, main target for policy makers, in a context of strong biophysical gradients. Biophysical drivers emerge as those that primarily discriminate between the FSM located in different topographic positions (valleys, mountains and plateau). In the situations where there is a greater range of productive choices available for farmers, such as in valleys, socioeconomic drivers assume a preponderant role on farming system choiceinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Inflationary perturbation theory is geometrical optics in phase space

A pressing problem in comparing inflationary models with observation is the accurate calculation of correlation functions. One approach is to evolve them using ordinary differential equations ("transport equations"), analogous to the Schwinger-Dyson hierarchy of in-out quantum field theory. We extend this approach to the complete set of momentum space correlation functions. A formal solution can be obtained using raytracing techniques adapted from geometrical optics. We reformulate inflationary perturbation theory in this language, and show that raytracing reproduces the familiar "delta N" Taylor expansion. Our method produces ordinary differential equations which allow the Taylor coefficients to be computed efficiently. We use raytracing methods to express the gauge transformation between field fluctuations and the curvature perturbation, zeta, in geometrical terms. Using these results we give a compact expression for the nonlinear gauge-transform part of fNL in terms of the principal curvatures of uniform energy-density hypersurfaces in field space.Comment: 22 pages, plus bibliography and appendix. v2: minor changes, matches version published in JCA

Efeito da densidade de plantação e da cultivar no crescimento da cerejeira sobre o porta-enxerto edabriz em quatro locais do norte e centro de Portugal

Foi avaliado o crescimento das cultivares de cerejeira Regina, Skeena e Sweetheart até ao final da 2ª folha, sob o efeito do portaenxerto Edabriz e quatro densidades de plantação. O ensaio foi implantado em Março de 2003, em quatro locais do Norte e Centro de Portugal, e compreende duas repetições em Caria, Vila Real e Alcongosta, e três em Carrazedo de Montenegro. A largura de entrelinhas é cerca de 5,0 metros, e as distâncias entre plantas na linha são 70, 140, 210 e 280 cm, a que correspondem densidades de 2600, 1300, 860 e 650 plantas/ha, respectivamente. Anualmente, foi registado o diâmetro do tronco de cada planta e calculada a sua área da secção do tronco (AST). No final da 2ª folha foram já significativas as diferenças de crescimento observadas, tanto ao nível do local como da densidade de plantação. As cerejeiras do ensaio de C. Montenegro cresceram mais 76, 36 e 9% do que as dos ensaios de Alcongosta, Vila Real e Caria, respectivamente, sendo o local responsável por 25% da variância total esperada. A densidade de plantação reteve já 3% da variância total, tendo as árvores deixadas a 70 cm na linha crescido menos 22% do que as mais afastadas. Por conseguinte, em Alcongosta e Vila Real as cultivares cresceram muito pouco neste porta-enxerto, pelo que em condições análogas é importante ajustar as dotações hídricas e nutricionais às necessidades específicas do porta-enxerto, de forma a melhor gerir o crescimento vegetativo e preparar as árvores para a sua função primordial: a produção

X-ray Diffraction Mapping Of Strain Fields And Chemical Composition Of Sige:si(001) Quantum Dot Molecules

A variety of surface morphologies can be formed by controlling kinetic parameters during heteroepitaxial film growth. The system reported is a Si0.7 Ge0.3 film grown by molecular beam epitaxy at 550°C and a 1 s deposition rate, producing quantum dot molecule (QDM) structures. These nanostructures are very uniform in size and shape, allowing strain mapping and chemical composition evaluation by means of anomalous x-ray diffraction in a grazing incidence geometry. Tensile and compressed regions coexist inside QDMs, in accordance with the finite-element calculations of lattice relaxation. The Ge content was found to vary significantly within the structures, and to be quite different from the nominal composition. © 2006 The American Physical Society.7312Chen, K.M., (1995) Appl. Phys. Lett., 66, p. 34. , APPLAB 0003-6951 10.1063/1.114172Goldfarb, I., (1997) Phys. Rev. Lett., 78, p. 3959. , PRLTAO 0031-9007 10.1103/PhysRevLett.78.3959Mo, Y.-W., (1990) Phys. Rev. Lett., 65, p. 1020. , PRLTAO 0031-9007 10.1103/PhysRevLett.65.1020Tomitori, M., (1994) Appl. Surf. Sci., 76-77, p. 322. , ASUSEE 0169-4332Floro, J.A., (1998) Phys. Rev. Lett., 80, p. 4717. , PRLTAO 0031-9007 10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.4717Ross, F.M., (1998) Phys. Rev. Lett., 80, p. 984. , PRLTAO 0031-9007 10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.984Medeiros-Ribeiro, G., (1998) Science, 279, p. 353. , SCIEAS 0036-8075 10.1126/science.279.5349.353Chaparro, S.A., (1999) Phys. Rev. Lett., 83, p. 1199. , PRLTAO 0031-9007 10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.1199Denker, U., (2005) Appl. Phys. Lett., 772, p. 599. , APPLAB 0003-6951Gray, J.L., (2002) Appl. Phys. Lett., 81, p. 2445. , APPLAB 0003-6951 10.1063/1.1509094Vandervelde, J.T.E., (2003) Appl. Phys. Lett., 83, p. 2505. , APPLAB 0003-6951Jesson, D.E., (1996) Phys. Rev. Lett., 77, p. 1330. , PRLTAO 0031-9007 10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.1330Gray, J.L., (2004) Phys. Rev. Lett., 92, p. 135504. , PRLTAO 0031-9007 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.135504Schülli, T.U., (2003) Phys. Rev. Lett., 90, p. 066105. , PRLTAO. 0031-9007. 10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.066105Malachias, A., (2003) Phys. Rev. Lett., 91, p. 176101. , PRLTAO 0031-9007 10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.176101Magalhães-Paniago, R., (2002) Phys. Rev. B, 66, p. 245312. , PRBMDO. 0163-1829. 10.1103/PhysRevB.66.245312Krause, B., (2005) Phys. Rev. B, 72, p. 085339. , PRBMDO 0163-1829 10.1103/PhysRevB.72.085339Zhang, Y., (2001) J. Appl. Phys., 90, p. 4748. , JAPIAU 0021-8979 10.1063/1.1407311Gray, J.L., (2005) Phys. Rev. B, 72, p. 155323. , PRBMDO 0163-1829 10.1103/PhysRevB.72.155323Tersoff, J., (1998) Phys. Rev. Lett., 81, p. 3183. , PRLTAO 0031-9007 10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.318