A theoretical approach for green supply chain

This paper aims to discuss theoretically the Green Supply Chain (GSC) concept, its implementation and prospective benefits by reviewing the current and past literature on the subject. The main issues found in this research are about: basic steps to create the GSC, methods to manage it and the result of its implementation. GSC is usually started by an end producer, which has an environmental management system, and desires to pass good environmental practices to its suppliers. The implementation of GSC can be also done by market requirements. The results include cost reduction, resource conservation, public image improvement, and market competitiveness among others benefits that are describe in this work. Problems for greening the supply chain are the reduction of flexibility of suppliers and the culture of organizations. This paper can help companies meet global market requirements and public administrators to understand the environmental performance through industrial cluster

A universal approach for drainage basins

Drainage basins are essential to Geohydrology and Biodiversity. Defining those regions in a simple, robust and efficient way is a constant challenge in Earth Science. Here, we introduce a model to delineate multiple drainage basins through an extension of the Invasion Percolation-Based Algorithm (IPBA). In order to prove the potential of our approach, we apply it to real and artificial datasets. We observe that the perimeter and area distributions of basins and anti-basins display long tails extending over several orders of magnitude and following approximately power-law behaviors. Moreover, the exponents of these power laws depend on spatial correlations and are invariant under the landscape orientation, not only for terrestrial, but lunar and martian landscapes. The terrestrial and martian results are statistically identical, which suggests that a hypothetical martian river would present similarity to the terrestrial rivers. Finally, we propose a theoretical value for the Hack's exponent based on the fractal dimension of watersheds, $\gamma=D/2$. We measure $\gamma=0.54 \pm 0.01$ for Earth, which is close to our estimation of $\gamma \approx 0.55$. Our study suggests that Hack's law can have its origin purely in the maximum and minimum lines of the landscapes.Comment: 20 pages, 6 Figures, and 1 Tabl

Epilens membrane simulating cataract in children with uveitis: a report of three cases

ABSTRACTHere we present the cases of three female children, of whom two were aged 6 years and one was aged 11 years. Two of the three children had bilateral uveitis and suspected cataract and Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease. The third one had uveitis and suspected cataract in one eye and sympathetic ophthalmia (SO), and had undergone penetrating keratoplasty in the fellow eye following a trauma. After controlling the inflammation, we planned to perform phacoemulsification without intraocular lens implantation. However, intraoperatively, after removing the epilens membranes, the lenses appeared clear, and therefore phacoemulsification was not performed. During follow-up, the patients did not develop cataract, and visual acuity levels ranged from 20/30 to 20/100. Fundoscopy revealed VKH disease and SO. Ophthalmologists should not always assume that patients with uveitis have cataract; a transparent lens may exist behind the epilens membrane, allowing a less aggressive therapeutic approach

DA SAUDADE DA TERRA NATAL ÀS CIDADES INVISÍVEIS: ENTRE RESTAURAÇÃO E PRODUÇÃO DE CIDADES SUBJETIVAS

Analisamos, em pesquisa de mestrado, nossa experiência na coordenação do Orçamento Participativo na cidade de Suzano/SP no período entre 2005 e 2008. Optamos pela cartografia como metodologia adequada para captar movimentos e paisagens durante esse trânsito no território da cidade onde sujeito e cidade se produziam em mútua implicação. Neste artigo, nosso foco está na temática da cidade presente no capítulo teórico de nossa dissertação, seguindo no seguinte percurso: aceitando uma provocação de Michel Foucault, iniciamos com uma rápida introdução, trazemos a saudade da terra natal presente na música popular brasileira, na literatura de Ítalo Calvino e a leitura artística nas cores de Lutero Pröschold, para dialogar com a teoria de Félix Guattari, Yi-fu Tuan, David Harvey, Luc Boltanski e Eve Chiapello. Apresentamos uma cidade mulher e seguimos para as considerações finais

Observations on Haemagogus janthinomys Dyar (Diptera: Culicidae) and other mosquito populations within tree holes in a gallery forest in the northwestern region of Sao Paulo state, Brazil

In 2000, an outbreak of sylvatic yellow fever possibly occurred in gallery forests of the Grande river in the Paraná basin in the northwestern region of São Paulo state. The aim of this study was to obtain information on the bionomics of Haemagogus and other mosquitoes inside tree holes in that area. Eighteen open tree holes were sampled for immature specimens. Adults were collected twice a month in the forest in Santa Albertina county from July 2000 to June 2001. The seasonal frequency of fourth instars was obtained by the Williams geometric mean (Mw), while the adult frequency was estimated either by hourly arithmetic or the Williams' means. Cole's index was applied to evaluate larval inter-specific associations. Among the ten mosquito species identified, the most abundant was Aedes terrens Walker followed by Sabethes tridentatus Cerqueira and Haemagogus janthinomys Dyar. Larval and adult abundance of these species was higher in summer than in winter. Although larval abundance of Hg. janthinomys peaked in the rainy season, correlation with rainfall was not significant. Six groups of larval associations were distinguished, one of which the most positively stable. The Hg. janthinomys and Ae. terrens association was significant, and Limatus durhamii Theobald was the species with most negative associations