Ecological risk assessment of pesticides in maize and tomato crops

Mestrado em Engenharia Agronómica - Proteção das plantas - Instituto Superior de AgronomiaFoi realizado um estudo das comunidades de zooplâncton presentes na água de irrigação das culturas de milho e tomate em condições mediterrâneas portuguesas, a fim de vincular possíveis relações entre a exposição a pesticidas e as respostas biológicas. Este trabalho é uma contribuição para melhorar a relevância ecológica da Avaliação do Risco Ambiental de Pesticidas. Um total de 37 espécies de rotiferos e 2 famílias de cladóceros foram identificadas. Os principais componentes do zooplâncton em todos os locais de amostragem foram nauplios e rotíferos que parecem ser menos afetados pelos pesticidas. A concentração de 12 ug / l de clorpirifos reduz o número de macrozooplâncton, permitindo o aumento das densidades de rotiferos. Valores de 3,5-4,7 ug / l de clorantrinaprole e 0,96 ug / l de metribuzina parecem afetar negativamente o tamanho da comunidade de copépodos. As comunidades de Cladóceros e Ostracodes parecem diminuir quando os valores do glifosato estão na faixa de 2,3-3,9 ug / l. Os valores de glifosato (0,66 ug / l), Ampa (0,88 ug / l) e Fosfato (2,38 mg / l) parecem estar ligados a valores mais baixos de índice de riqueza de espéciesN/

The effects of product placement, in films, on the consumer's purchase intentions

Traditional forms of communication have been losing their once golden effectiveness due to, mainly, consumer saturation. Since the modern world is characterized by an advertising clutter, in wich each citizen living in urban areas is exposed daily to an average of 3,500 stimuli, companies are now looking for ways to differentiate themselves from competitors, and are now immersing their ways onto product placement. As investment in product placements increases over the years, making it now a billion dollar industry, there is a necessity to deeply explore this theme to better understand what its main effects on consumers are. Purchase intention is a step that mediates consumer attitude and effective behavior. The link between this stage of consumer behavior and product placement represents an area in which previous scholars’ results have not been overly consistent, making it not as crystal clear as desired. The present research conveys an experimental design resorting to eye tracking tools and softwares, providing data concerning the viewers’ levels of attention. As this experiment also aims to denote differences between reactions to product placements in different contexts (comedy vs. drama), two experimental and two control groups were defined, totaling a sample of 85 subjects. This paper covers the effects that the variables identified on the literature review have on brand attitudes, and subsequentely, on purchase intentions. The formulated hypotheses provide an in-depth look to how product placement affects consumers.As formas de comunicação tradicionais têm vindo a perder a sua eficácia devido à, essencialmente, saturação do consumidor. Dado que o mundo moderno é caracterizado por um ambiente com excesso de publicidade, em que um cidadão residente em áreas urbanas é exposto, em média, a 3.500 estímulos diários, as empresas estão à procura de novas formas de se diferenciarem da concorrência apostando cada vez mais em product placement. À medida que o investimento em product placement aumenta, tornando-o numa indústria que movimenta milhares de milhões de dólares, surge a necessidade de explorar profundamente este tema almejando uma melhor compreensão dos efeitos que tem no consumidor. A intenção de compra representa o primeiro passo no processo de decisão de compra do consumidor, e a ligação entre este patamar e o product placement representa uma área que não tem suscitado coerência em estudos passados, tornando-a pouco clara. O presente estudo experimental recorre a ferramentas e software de eye tracking, proporcionando informação acerca dos níveis de atenção dos espectadores em relação aos estímulos definidos. Dado que esta experiência também pretende identificar diferenças nas reacções ao product placement em contextos distintos (comédia vs. drama), dois grupos experimentais e dois grupos de controlo foram definidos, totalizando uma amostra de 85 elementos. Esta dissertação cobre os efeitos que diferentes variáveis identificadas na revisão de literatura têm nas atitudes do consumidor perante a marca, e consequentemente, nas suas intenções de compra. As hipóteses formuladas oferecem um olhar aprofundado sobre a forma de como é que o product placement afecta os consumidores

New ASPN high efficiency treatment of ASTM M2 steel

Plasma nitriding treatments are applied to achieve excellent surface properties on steel parts and tools. Active screen plasma nitriding (ASPN) does not have the defects presents in direct nitriding plasma treatments (DCPN). However, ASPN require much longer processing times to develop surface layers as deep as those of DCPN. This work presents the development of a biased ASPN treatment system, to investigate the possibility of achieving greater efficiency. The treatments were performed on ASTM M2 steel samples using the same processing parameters in 4 different configurations: DCPN, ASPN and 2 active screen plasma nitriding with biased specimens voltage: one was called "bright bias", because biased voltage is high enough to develop a plasma glow on the samples, and the other "dark bias", where no plasma glow sheath is seen on the samples. The active screen dark biased treatment presented the best results. These results could be understood by the electromagnetic field generated by the bias source promoting the deposition of nitrogen ions on the surface of the part being treated. Therefore, it was demonstrated that the use of dark bias voltage in the active screen treatment in larger reactors is fundamental to achieve good nitriding results in smaller times

ACMMI - Sistema de Avaliação CMMI

Orientador : Jaime WojciechowskiMonografia (graduação) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor Escola Técnica, Curso de Graduação em Sistemas de InformaçãoInclui bibliografi

Externalidades intersetoriais: uma análise das interconexões entre a infraestrutura e a indústria de transformação no Brasil nos anos 2000

ABSTRACT The paper analyses the spillovers caused by the infrastructure on manufacturing industries in Brazil in 2000s. With a dynamic model and theoretical contributions from Rosenstein-Rodan and Hirschman, assess the state role in infrastructure increasing on the manufacturing production, as well as industrial goods supply to infrastructure in the country. Thus, the paper focuses on the interconnections overview between the two sectors. The paper structure is as follow. Section 1 presents theoretical notes on the infrastructure and manufacturing industries roles. Section 2 provides a briefing perspective of these two economic sectors in Brazil. Given that theoretical and historical points, section 3 presents and analyses empirical data on fixed and infrastructure investments and manufacturing industry’s production, emphasizing the 2000s. Finally, is presented the concluding remarks of the paper. Key words Infrastructure; manufacturing industry; Brazilian economy. Classificação JEL: H54; L16; O41. Artigo recebido em jul. 2012 e aceito para publicação emENDEREÇO PARA ENVIO DE PUBLICAÇÃO Rua Bela Nápoles, 25 – apto. 3 – Bairro: Bela Aliança São Paulo–SP Brasil CEP 05.085-080O objetivo do artigo é analisar as externalidades intersetoriais entre a infraestrutura e a indústria de transformação no Brasil, nos anos 2000. A partir das contribuições teóricas de Rosenstein-Rodan e Hirschman, avalia- -se o papel estatal na ampliação da infraestrutura e os desdobramentos sobre a produção da indústria de transformação, bem como a oferta de bens industriais para a infraestrutura no País. Isso posto, é realizado um panorama das interconexões entre os dois setores. Para isso, a estrutura do artigo é a seguinte: na seção 1, são apresentadas notas teóricas acerca da temática. Na seção 2, é realizada uma breve perspectiva histórico- -econômica dos dois setores no Brasil. Na seção 3, com os subsídios das seções anteriores, são apresentados e analisados os dados empíricos com ênfase nos anos 2000. Por fim, são apresentadas algumas conclusões do artigo. Palavras-chave: infraestrutura; indústria de transformação; economia brasileira. TÍTULO EM INGLÊS Intersectoral externalities: an analysis of the interconnections between the infrastructure and manufacturing industry in Brazil in 2000s. Abstract The paper analyses the spillovers between the infrastructure and the manufacturing industry in Brazil in the 2000s. From Rosenstein-Rodan and Hirschman´s theoretical contributions, we assess the role of the state in the expansion of infrastructure and the relevant consequences for the manufacturing industry, as well as industrial goods supply to the infrastructure in the country. Thus, the paper introduces an overview of the interconnections between the two sectors. The structure of the paper is the following: section 1 presents theoretical notes on the topic. Section 2 provides a brief historical and economic account on these two sectors in Brazil. Based on the considerations of previous sections, section 3 presents and analyzes empirical data emphasizing the 2000s. Finally, concluding remarks of the paper are presented. Key words: infrastructure; manufacturing industry; Brazilian economy. Classificação JEL: H54; L16; O41 Artigo recebido em jul. 2012 e aceito para publicação em jul. 2015

The BNDES countercyclical role in the international economic crisis

The article discusses the countercyclical role of the National Bank of Economic and Social Development (BNDES) in the economic crisis of 2008-2009. It discusses, from the Keynesian approach, the countercyclical role of the Bank, which expanded the resources to finance productive investments and their effects on the expansion of employment, income and tax revenues. In counterpoint to criticism, especially with regard to the alleged subsidies Treasury to BNDES, it was concluded that the pro-activity of this institution during the crisis of the late 2000s was crucial to mitigate the adverse effects on the economy. The cost of financing operations for the exchequer should be analyzed from the perspective of the benefits generated, considering the indirect impacts as the multiplier effect of the investments, as well as the increase in aggregate demand, employment, income and tax revenues

Using java language for control algorithms

constrained resources devices used often in embedded systems are normally programmed using languages considered of low level. This has important implications in program development and maintenance. In fact, the code becomes less legible and the memory management in not an easy task. This problem can be overcome if the use of a high level language with garbage collector mechanism is considered. However, it is often a belief that from these high level languages results slowly programs, and so, they are unsuitable for embedded applications. In this paper this problem is addressed to show the applicability of Java to develop programs for constrained resources devices. An example of a control system for temperature control is presented to illustrate the advantages of the approach

ModelMaker, a Multidisciplinary Web Application to Build Question Generator Models From Basic to Higher Education

PmatE (Mathematics and Education Project) is a Research and Development project started in 1989 at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. For 27 years, PmatE has maintained the mission of applying technologies and developing content and events to foster school success and scientific culture. PmatE provides a large repository of learning objects, with particular emphasis in Question Generator Models (QGM) or simply Models. A QGM is an object for generating questions targeting specific scientific and pedagogical-didactic objectives. Each QGM generates thousands of different questions, thus enabling the exposure of students to the same core problems, but with different instantiations, preventing cheating in exams. The QGM’s are the basis of Portugal National Science Competitions (NSC), a three-day yearly event with about ten thousand participants, and are widely used by schools nationwide, at various levels of education (from basic to higher education), for test and diagnostic exams in several areas (e.g., Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Portuguese, Financial Education, Geosciences and Chemistry). Until September 2015, each QGM created was written in a LaTeX template, as an intermediate specification of the Model, and later implemented by dedicated programmers from PmatE, thus making the Model development and later corrections a tedious, lengthy and time-consuming task. This work presents PmatE ModelMaker solution, which enables professors with neither a coding background nor latex knowledge, from basic school to higher education from all areas mentioned above, to create and share QGMs through a Web application. ModelMaker, keeps the core concepts of QGM such as “boxes” and “variables”, in order to guarantee the random screens concretization, and incorporates new functionalities and advantages (e.g., autonomy, model versioning, storage of instantiated models, and a management optimization of PmatE Subject Classification). Application ModelMaker, developed in ASP.NET, with SQL databases and Javascript frameworks, has proven to be a successful tool for saving time and giving total autonomy to QGM authors in the creation of the last 134 models in several areas of knowledge, as evidenced by the usage statistics extracted during the last eight months since the application has been available. This improvement in the QGMs development methodology is an important mark in the history of PmatE