Patterns of competition and strategic groups in the special cheese industry in Brazil

The aim of this study is to identify the competition pattern in the Brazilian special cheese industry, and the strategic groups of this market. Based mainly on the Industrial Organization Theory, a qualitative study was conducted, supported by primary and secondary data. The primary data were obtained through interviews with six managers of Brazilian special cheese companies, and the secondary data were obtained from websites, company documents and specialized publications. The results point to the increasing importance of the price variable, related to market growth in recent years, which attracted companies with more effective production and logistics structures. Based on the characteristics and strategies of companies, four strategic groups were identified: a) medium sized companies with large market penetration; b) small companies focused on the special cheese market and located in traditional production regions of Minas Gerais State; c) single-product companies, with high levels of vertical integration; and d) transnational companies that produce special cheese in several countries.Fine cheese, industrial organization, strategic groups, Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance, Industrial Organization,

Alterações hemodinâmicas e eletrocardiográficas após o uso de neostigmina

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Curso de Medicina. Departamento de Clínica Cirúrgica

Simulation of intelligent active distributed networks implementation of storage voltage control

Tese de mestrado. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores (área de especialização de Energias Renováveis). Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto, OFPZ Arsenal Ges.m.b.H. 200

Interação entre o poder local e o setor privado em Portugal

Mestrado em Governação, Competitividade e Políticas PúblicasOs municípios estão a braços com novos desafios motivados pela falta de recursos e pela necessidade de continuar a prestar uma série de serviços públicos com qualidade. A interação com o setor privado reveste-se, pois, de particular importância. Este trabalho analisa duas dinâmicas essenciais: os motivos que levam à interação entre os municípios e o setor privado ou o setor não lucrativo; e as formas sob as quais esta interação se materializa. Desenhou-se um quadro teórico de síntese que serve para facilitar o estu-do de caso particular e analisou-se, à luz desse quadro, o projeto de con-cessão do sistema de iluminação pública do concelho de Coimbra. A interação do setor público com entidades extragovernamentais, apesar de ser uma ferramenta importante, não resolve todos os problemas. Ser o município a prestar o serviço com os seus próprios meios continua, em muitos casos, a ser a melhor escolha.City councils are dealing with new challenges motivated by the scarcity of resources and the necessity to keep providing public services with quality. Thus, the possibility of an interaction with the private setor be-comes a matter worth of discussion. This work analyses two essential dynamics: the reasons that leads to the interaction between the city councils and the non-governmental/ /private setor; and the ways how this interaction materializes. Based on the subject, a theoretical framework was developed for the analysis of case studies. For this work in particular, it was used to ana-lyse the concession of the public lighting system of Coimbra city, Portu-gal. The interaction between public and extra governmental entities reveals to be an important tool to consider in what concerns providing public services. However, it is not applicable to every situation. For several cases, the in-house delivery continues to be the better choice

BILINGUALISM AND SIGNWRITING

Current methods for educating deaf children through English as a second language need to be examined in order to provide assistance in obtaining English literacy. Although special education settings and the development of language theories and development of bilingual education for the deaf still present an unsatisfactory picture, many adolescents and deaf adults have their reading comprehension skills at the 4th or 5th grade level. It is important that educators understand how the learning process of deaf children occurs to improve their strategies within classrooms. As a result, educators will be able to use appropriate teaching and encourage deaf students to be whole people, who know how to express themselves in sign language and SignWriting. This article provides a new perspective on the approach of bilingualism for the deaf in the insertion of SignWriting in the education of the deaf. This article addresses the collaboration of SignWriting theories and understanding the effectiveness of Sign Writing (SignWriting), providing the scientific findings that will justify the teaching of SignWriting for deaf children. This study examined literature reviews and theories on bilingualism: SignWriting. Our studies are based on Andrews (2012); Holt (1994); Musselman (2000); Hoffmeister, Philip, Costello, & Grass (1997); Prinz & Strong (1998); Singleton, Supalla, Litchfield, & Schley (1998)

The effects of fiscal shocks on the exchange rate in the EMU and differences with the US

We analyse the impact of government spending shocks on the real effective exchange rate and net exports in the Euro Area within a standard structural VAR framework. We employ a new database that contains quarterly fiscal variables for the Euro Area as a whole. We show that higher government spending leads to real exchange rate appreciation and to a fall in net exports, jointly with lower primary budgetary surpluses, which turns out to be fully consistent with the “twin deficits” hypothesis. The different components of public spending, namely wage and non-wage consumption expenditure, overall public consumption expenditure and public investment, bring about real appreciations. Our results are therefore also consistent both with the home-bias hypothesis of public expenditure and with public investment contributing to generating relative productivity gains in the traded goods sector. Contrary to what is observed in the Euro Area, the real effective exchange rate depreciates in the US in response to higher government spending. This discrepancy can ultimately be explained by the reaction of nominal interest rate spreads and the uncovered interest parity condition. The dissimilar reaction of short-term nominal interest rate spreads is attributed to two factors, namely the role of the US dollar as a "safe haven" currency and the countercyclical behaviour of discretionary government spending in the USEn este trabajo se analiza el efecto de las variaciones de gasto público sobre el tipo de cambio efectivo real y sobre las exportaciones netas en el conjunto del área del euro con un VAR estructural estándar. Con este fin se utiliza una nueva base de datos fiscal trimestral para el área del euro. Nuestros resultados muestran que los aumentos de gasto público directo provocan una apreciación del tipo de cambio efectivo real y un deterioro del saldo por cuenta corriente, así como un empeoramiento del saldo primario de las Administraciones Públicas, resultado que está en consonancia con la hipótesis de «déficits gemelos». Los principales componentes del gasto público directo, (a saber, gastos de personal y consumo público en compras de bienes y servicios, el consumo público total y la inversión pública) generan apreciaciones reales. Así pues, nuestros resultados están también en consonancia con la hipótesis de existencia de un sesgo nacional en el gasto público y con la hipótesis de que la inversión pública da lugar a ganancias de productividad relativa en el sector de bienes comerciables. Contrariamente a lo que se observa en el área del euro, el tipo de cambio efectivo real en Estados Unidos se deprecia como respuesta a incrementos del gasto público. Tal discrepancia puede explicarse por la reacción del diferencial del tipo de interés con respecto al resto del mundo y la condición de la paridad no cubierta del tipo de interés. La diferente respuesta del diferencial de tipos de interés a corto plazo entre ambas áreas geográficas puede atribuirse a la conjunción de dos elementos de distinta naturaleza: el papel de moneda refugio del dólar y el comportamiento contracíclico del gasto público discrecional en Estados Unido

MCW: taking the future into one’s hands

This case presents a decision set regarding the future of a real family business, whose CEO is getting closer to retirement and desires to establish a logical and effective succession plan. Written from Eduardo Pinheiro’s perspective, a consultant hired by the company CEO, the case depicts Carlos Vieira’s need to think about the future of the company, considering nonconsensual alternatives, which can become a great success or an unexpected loss. The case intends to illustrate succession planning, the complexity of decision-making processes in family firms and the role of emotions. A teaching note is included to guide the use of the case in a classroom environment. It includes complementing readings and discussion questions with possible answers intended to improve the learning process