Sustainable procurement practices in the Brazilian chemical industry context

Sustainable procurement requires an understanding of the full impact of purchase throughout the entire life cycle of the product or service, irrespective of location. The aim is to investigate the adoption of sustainable procurement in some Brazilian chemical companies. Questionnaires were sent to professionals from the Brazilian Chemical Industry Association (ABIQUIM) and from thirtyseven associated companies. The results were used to elaborate empirical illustrations about sustainable procurement practices in the Brazilian chemical industry context. Although the companies did not have a prescriptive supplier selection model that incorporates social-environmental criteria, most companies had more restrictive standards than the legislation and they supported suppliers to improve their social-environmental performance. In addition, that actions related to social and environmental issues occur in policies and documents and are reflected through middle and upper management commitments. It indicates that there are some organizational directions to incorporate social and environmental questions. However, no materialization in actions along the procurement process

Optical And Esr Study Of Er3+ In Linbo3

We report laser-excited optical transitions between the 4S3/2 and 4I15/2 multiplets of Er3+ as an impurity in the LiNbO3 host, together with the optical-absorption spectra at liquid-helium and liquid-nitrogen temperatures. The optical data allow us to determine the crystal-field splittings of those levels and the spin-Hamiltonian parameters for the 4I15/2 lower multiplet. The observed electron-spin resonance and the angular variation of this spectrum agree with the parameters obtained by optical techniques. Both techniques show that only one of the three possible trigonal sites in LiNbO3 is occupied by Er3+ within the experimental sensitivity, in agreement with recent x-ray standing-wave measurements. © 1995 The American Physical Society.5153206320

Quantitative image of fluorescence of ceramic and resin-cement veneers

The main of the study was quantify the effect of two ceramics with two underlying resin cements on apparent fluorescence levels. Buccal surfaces of two bovine incisors were ground flat producing one enamel and one dentin substrate. The veneers were fabricated (0.5 and 1.0 mm thickness) using two ceramics (IPSe. max Press and IPSe. max Zirpress, Ivoclar Vivadent). Veneers were cemented using either light-cured (Variolink II, Ivoclar Vivadent) or self-adhesive dual (Rely X U200, 3M ESPE) cement. The layered Control group materials had no cement application. Semi-quantitative fluorescence image analysis (Matlabs software, Matworks) involved processing the images as captured under each daylight (DL, Gretagmacbeth) and ultraviolet illuminants (UVA, Sylvania) within a neutral-gray lightbox (Macbeth Spectral Light). Statistical analysis of the quantitative fluorescence values was performed using two-way ANOVA and Tukey's test (p < 0.05). The e. max Zirpress on the dentin substrate produced greater fluorescence (p < 0.05) when subjected to UV illumination and more fluorescence (p < 0.05) than e. max Press in both cement groups. Light-cured cement produced higher (p < 0.05) fluorescence than the dual-cement with e. max Press on enamel under UV illumination. The fluorescence for e. max Press on the dentin substrate was greater (p < 0.05) than for e. max Zirpress using dual self-adhesive cement subjected to daylight illumination. Thus, it is possible to conclude that the combination of ceramic and cement produce definite, significant effects on the apparent fluorescence, vital quality for restorative dentistry3

Reduced cortical renal GLUT1 expression induced by angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition in diabetic spontaneously hypertensive rats

Diabetes in spontaneously hypertensive rats is associated with cortical renal GLUT1 and GLUT2 overexpression. Our objective was to evaluate the effect of the angiotensin-converting enzyme blockade on cortical renal GLUT1 and GLUT2 expression, urinary albumin and urinary TGF-&#946;1. Streptozotocin, 50 mg/kg, or citrate buffer (N = 16) was administered as a single injection into the tail vein in adult spontaneously hypertensive rats (~260 g). Thirty days later, these diabetic spontaneously hypertensive rats received ramipril by gavage: 0.01 mg·kg-1·day-1 (D0.01, N = 14), 1 mg·kg-1·day-1 (D1, N = 9) or water (D, N = 11) for 15 days. Albumin and TGF-&#946;1 (24-h urine), direct arterial pressure, renal tissue angiotensin-converting enzyme activity (fluorometric assay), and GLUT1 and GLUT2 protein levels (Western blot, renal cortex) were determined. Glycemia and glycosuria were higher (P < 0.05) in the diabetic rats compared with controls, but similar between the diabetic groups. Diabetes in spontaneously hypertensive rats lowered renal tissue angiotensin-converting enzyme activity (40%), which was reduced further when higher ramipril doses were used. Diabetes associated with hypertension raised GLUT1 by 28% (P < 0.0001) and GLUT2 by 76% (P = 0.01), and both doses of ramipril equally reduced cortical GLUT1 (D vs D1 and vs D0.01, P &#8804; 0.001). GLUT2 levels were reduced in D0.01 (P < 0.05 vs D). Diabetes increased urinary albumin and TGF-&#946;1 urinary excretion, but the 15-day ramipril treatment (with either dose) did not reduce them. In conclusion, ramipril is effective in lowering renal tissue angiotensin-converting enzyme activity, as well as blocking cortical GLUT1 overexpression, which may be beneficial in arresting the development of diabetic nephropathy

Continuous-variable phase estimation with unitary and random linear disturbance

We address the problem of continuous-variable quantum phase estimation in the presence of linear disturbance at the Hamiltonian level by means of Gaussian probe states. In particular we discuss both unitary and random disturbance by considering the parameter which characterizes the unwanted linear term present in the Hamiltonian as fixed (unitary disturbance) or random with a given probability distribution (random disturbance). We derive the optimal input Gaussian states at fixed energy, maximizing the quantum Fisher information over the squeezing angle and the squeezing energy fraction, and we discuss the scaling of the quantum Fisher information in terms of the output number of photons, nout. We observe that, in the case of unitary disturbance, the optimal state is a squeezed vacuum state and the quadratic scaling is conserved. As regards the random disturbance, we observe that the optimal squeezing fraction may not be equal to one and, for any nonzero value of the noise parameter, the quantum Fisher information scales linearly with the average number of photons. Finally, we discuss the performance of homodyne measurement by comparing the achievable precision with the ultimate limit imposed by the quantum Cram\ue9r-Rao bound

CONCEITO DA PROFUNDIDADE DE MISTURA GERADA PELA AÇÃO DE ONDAS APLICADO À LAGOA DA MANGUEIRA

O termo profundidade de mistura é definido como a profundidade máxima afetada pela onda ao se propagar. Esse conceito é aplicado à lagoa Mangueira, uma lagoa costeira rasa, fechada e sem efeito de maré. Como a profundidade máxima é de 6m e que vento de intensidade superior a 5m/s atingem profundidades superiores a 4,7m na direção mais desfavorável, conclui-se tratar-se de local que dificilmente atinge uma condição de estratificação térmica, devendo ser comum a ressuspensão de sedimentos do fundo

How does the substrate affect the Raman and excited state spectra of a carbon nanotube?

We study the optical properties of a single, semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube (CNT) that is partially suspended across a trench and partially supported by a SiO2-substrate. By tuning the laser excitation energy across the E33 excitonic resonance of the suspended CNT segment, the scattering intensities of the principal Raman transitions, the radial breathing mode (RBM), the G-mode and the D-mode show strong resonance enhancement of up to three orders of magnitude. In the supported part of the CNT, despite a loss of Raman scattering intensity of up to two orders of magnitude, we recover the E33 excitonic resonance suffering a substrate-induced red shift of 50 meV. The peak intensity ratio between G-band and D-band is highly sensitive to the presence of the substrate and varies by one order of magnitude, demonstrating the much higher defect density in the supported CNT segments. By comparing the E33 resonance spectra measured by Raman excitation spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL) excitation spectroscopy in the suspended CNT segment, we observe that the peak energy in the PL excitation spectrum is red-shifted by 40 meV. This shift is associated with the energy difference between the localized exciton dominating the PL excitation spectrum and the free exciton giving rise to the Raman excitation spectrum. High-resolution Raman spectra reveal substrate-induced symmetry breaking, as evidenced by the appearance of additional peaks in the strongly broadened Raman G band. Laser-induced line shifts of RBM and G band measured on the suspended CNT segment are both linear as a function of the laser excitation power. Stokes/anti-Stokes measurements, however, reveal an increase of the G phonon population while the RBM phonon population is rather independent of the laser excitation power.Comment: Revised manuscript, 20 pages, 8 figure

Maximally-localized Wannier functions for entangled energy bands

We present a method for obtaining well-localized Wannier-like functions (WFs) for energy bands that are attached to or mixed with other bands. The present scheme removes the limitation of the usual maximally-localized WFs method (N. Marzari and D. Vanderbilt, Phys. Rev. B 56, 12847 (1997)) that the bands of interest should form an isolated group, separated by gaps from higher and lower bands everywhere in the Brillouin zone. An energy window encompassing N bands of interest is specified by the user, and the algorithm then proceeds to disentangle these from the remaining bands inside the window by filtering out an optimally connected N-dimensional subspace. This is achieved by minimizing a functional that measures the subspace dispersion across the Brillouin zone. The maximally-localized WFs for the optimal subspace are then obtained via the algorithm of Marzari and Vanderbilt. The method, which functions as a postprocessing step using the output of conventional electronic-structure codes, is applied to the s and d bands of copper, and to the valence and low-lying conduction bands of silicon. For the low-lying nearly-free-electron bands of copper we find WFs which are centered at the tetrahedral interstitial sites, suggesting an alternative tight-binding parametrization.Comment: 13 pages, with 9 postscript figures embedded. Uses REVTEX and epsf macro