A ANEEL, o TCU e a fiscalização dos processos de revisão tarifária dos contratos de concessão de distribuição de energia elétrica

- Disponível também no Boletim de Licitações e Contratos, Curitiba, v. 3, n. 25, p.430-436, maio 2007 sob o título "O Tribunal de Contas da União e a fiscalização dos processos de revisão tarifária dos contratos de concessão de distribuição de energia elétrica

Bistability, softening, and quenching of magnetic moments in Ni-filled carbon nanotubes

The authors apply first-principles calculations to investigate the interplay between structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of nanostructures composed of narrow nanotubes filled with metallic nanowires. The focus is on the structural and magnetic responses of Ni-filled nanotubes upon radial compression. Interestingly, metastable flattened structures are identified, in which radially deformed nanotubes are stabilized by the interactions with the encapsulated wire. Moreover, our results indicate a quenching of the magnetic moment of the wire upon compression, as a result of the transfer of charge from the $s$ to the $d$ orbitals of the atoms in the wire.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Dynamic - Constant proportion portfolio insurance: aplicação ao índice FTSE 100

Given the risk aversion usually associated with financial markets investors’, it is common, in literature, to present and study strategies to be used in order to limit risk. In this work, a traditional risk management strategy Constant Proportion Portfolio Insurance Strategy (CPPI) is modified in order to use a dynamic multiplier that varies based on the fluctuations of the risky asset prices. This strategy is called Dynamic - Constant Proportion Portfolio Insurance (D-CPPI). The multiplier is adjusted according to the price fluctuations, which means that it will increase when the quote goes up and decrease when the quote goes down. The work is based on the model presented by Yao & Li (2016) and is applied to the British stock market (FTSE 100) in the 2008-2018 period. The performance of D-CPPI is analysed and compared with the performance of the traditional CPPI strategy and with the Buy and Hold (BH) strategy. It also sought to analyse the impact of Brexit on the British market and whether the use of D-CPPI effectively reduces the risk faced by investors in this troubled period. The results show that the D-CPPI has the best profitability rates in falling markets despite its performance is generally lower than CPPI and BH strategies. BH proves to be the strategy that achieves better performance, despite being the one with the highest levels of risk. Brexit had a great impact in the market, however, the use of D-CPPI allowed to guarantee the expected results

Treating speaking in its own right: an exploratory study

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/Inglês e Literatura Correspondente.The present study investigates the implications of the treatment of speaking in its own right (mainly based on McCarthy, 1998) to the speaking performance of Brazilian learners of English as a foreign language. This was done through the comparison of the speaking performance of two groups of students (one that received the treatment of speaking in its own right for forty-five hours, and another one that did not receive the treatment) on a pre-test/post-test basis. The group that received treatment consisted of fourteen participants, whilst the control group had ten participants. Speaking performance was operationalized in terms of fluency, accuracy, complexity and weighed lexical density. Results were analyzed statistically with paired-sample and independent-sample t-tests. Findings suggest that the effectiveness of the treatment of speaking in its own right in the EFL classroom is not as linear as it might be expected, as none of the groups analyzed showed an overall consistently significant increase or decrease from the pre-test to the post-test, and the groups did not present significantly different gains after the period of treatment. These results are important in the sense that they imply the need for implementations to the treatment of speaking in its own right, such as more time for treatment, specific material that addresses such treatment, and more empirical research to have a better understanding of the results that the treatment may bring to the speaking performance of L2 learners. O presente estudo investiga as implicações do tratamento da fala como habilidade específica (baseado principalmente em McCarthy, 1998) para a performance da fala de aprendizes brasileiros de inglês como língua estrangeira. A pesquisa foi conduzida atraves da comparação entre a performance de fala de dois grupos (um que recebeu o tratamento específico de fala, e outro que não recebeu o mesmo tratamento), usando a abordagem de pré- e pós-teste. O grupo que recebeu o tratamento tinha quatorze participantes, enquanto que o grupo controle tinha dez. A performance de fala foi operacionalizada em termos de fluência, acurácia, complexidade e densidade lexical. Os resultados foram analizados estatisticamente através de t-testes. As descobertas sugerem que a eficácia do tratamento da fala como habilidade específica não é tao linear como pode parecer a princípio, pois nenhum dos grupos apresentou ganho ou perda significante na performance da fala depois do período de tratamento, além de que os grupos nao apresentaram ganhos significamente diferentes entre si. Esses resultados são importantes devido ao fato de que eles indicam a necessidade de implementações para o tratamento da fala como habilidade específica, tais quais mais tempo, e um material didático específico para o tratamento, além da necessidade de mais estudos empíricos que permitam um melhor entendimento dos resultados que o tratamnto pode trazer para aprendizes de língua estrangeira

Sistema local de pesquisa e desenvolvimento de empresas de base tecnológica em Juiz de Fora [Local research system and the devepolment of high technology firms in Juiz de Fora]

Brazil; Juiz de Fora; regional economic development; science parks; high technology firms

Periódicos brasileiros da área de Administração no contexto de internacionalização da produção científica

Este ensaio é fruto da experiência do autor como editor-chefe da RAE-Revista de Administração de Empresas entre 2009 e 2015, e reflete a sua visão sobre a gestão do processo editorial científico, sobre mecanismos de disseminação da produção científica, sobre estratégias de internacionalização dos periódicos brasileiros e sobre a necessidade de uma política de internacionalização para os periódicos brasileiros da área de administração

Banking Technology to Scale Microfinance: The Case of Correspondent Banking in Brazil

Significant population segments in developing countries have very limited access to basic financial services, such as bank accounts, savings or insurance. Meanwhile, the use of ICT is increasingly becoming an intrinsic part of banking business, rendering financial services easier and cheaper to develop and deliver. This paper focuses on ICT-based correspondent banking outlets, a technology that appeared in Brazil in recent years, which is considered a feasible alternative for delivering financial services to the poor. The aim of this paper is to investigate how the use of this particular technology was structured and how it has evolved over time to deliver an increasingly complex range of services. A conceptual model, combining three theoretical approaches, is proposed to make possible an original reading of the use of correspondent banking technology in Brazil and its implications for microfinance

Designing Solidarity Cryptocurrencies: Dialogic Tension Between Community-Centered and Techno-Centered Design Frames

While cryptocurrencies are related to profit-driven actors, communitarian movements have decades of experience with social-driven currencies, such as community currencies. This research investigates the meshing of these two disparate worlds that results in the design of a solidarity cryptocurrency, a phenomenon that connects the blockchain infrastructure of cryptocurrency to scaling the social perspective of community currencies. However, making the connection between these two technologies brings a new question to IS design: how can different frames from multiple social actors be integrated into designing a solidarity cryptocurrency infrastructure? We drew upon the design ethnography methodology and actively participated in designing a solidarity cryptocurrency to answer that question. Based on concepts from infrastructuring, a multi-relational and socio-technical approach to infrastructure designing, we propose that designing a solidarity cryptocurrency lies on a dialogic tension between techno-centered and community-centered frames, representing the relational process that emerges when connecting two disparate technologie

Understanding the use of digital payments in Brazil: An analysis from the perspective of digital divide measures

This paper analyzes the factors that influence the use of digital payments in Brazil from the perspective of digital divide studies. For this purpose, the research uses the microdata of the 2019 edition of a Brazilian nationwide survey named ICT Households Survey. The main findings demonstrate that women, as well as users of low-income social class, were less likely to use digital payments. The results also indicate that although different studies highlight the relevance of mobile phones as a means to promote digital financial inclusion to low-income groups, this paper\u27s findings show that the exclusive use of mobile phones to access the Internet had a negative impact on the use of digital payments. These results demonstrate the need to better understand the implications of the exclusive use of this type of device in harnessing digital financial services in the context of developing countries of the global South