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Sargassum furcatum population dynamics was studied at Cabo Frio Island, where generally the effect of upwelling waters is sporadic and occurs mainly during the summer months at Farol Beach. Model sensitivity analyses were compared for Sargassum simulations at Cabo Frio Island and for Ulva dynamics simulated with data sets collected at two other upwelling sites, Sonar and Jaconé. Field data suggests that Sargassum growth shows a delay to nutrient enrichment events, whereas Ulva growth follows nutrient peaks more closely. Algal biomass was simulated with parameter values changed plus and minus 10%, one at a time, while holding all other parameters constant. Those parameters that cause, a plus or minus change of greater than 10% in the model output, were used in the next stage of the sensitivity analyses. In the second stage, a fractional factorial design was used to evaluate the main effect of a particular parameter. The parameter literature survey and sensitivity analyses, for both Sargassum and Ulva models, suggest that parameters related to environmental factors, such as minimal cellular nutrient quota for growth- and temperature-related growth functions, should be further investigated for algae at the Cabo Frio upwelling region, since they caused a change in the biomass output greater than 10%.

IATIA Launches Electron Microscope Enhancement.

Australian High Pressure Processors Company Launched.

Meditech Completes Phase 1 Trial of Anti-cancer Drug.

Medica Subsidiary Cytopia in Supercomputing Deal with IBM.

Double Dove Agrees with Retractable Technologies to Produce VanishPoint Safety Syringes.

CompuMed's Osteoporosis Diagnostics Technology Going for China Market.

Beijing Erdos Altachem Pharma Ltd. Approved in China.

Boehringer Ingelheim Opens New Manufacturing Facility in China.

Dr. Morepen Acquires Yash Pharma Brand Lemolate.

Orchid Healthcare to Launch Business Unit in Brazil.

Ranbaxy and CorePharma Get Approval for ADHD Medicines.

Fujitsu and Riken to Jointly Research Bioinformatics.

Kyowa Hakko's Anti-cancer Agent Enters Phase I/early Phase II Study.

Ono Launches World's First Drug for Acute Lung Injury.

Dreambiogen Co.

DMJ Biotech Corporation.

Comvita Receives Grant for Natural Health Solutions.

Siemens to Invest More in Hearing Aids Venture in Singapore.

AusBiotech 2003 Key Session: Genetic Selection and Improved Nutrition in Animal Production.

Japan Approves Transgenic Rice Commercial Planting.

Golden Rice Shows Promise in Philippines.

Brazil Reverses Ruling on GM Soybeans.

GM Cottonwood Offer Remediation for Mercury Contamination.

United Nations Highlights the Role of New Biotechnology.

Painting at the Molecular Level.

A Peek at Brazil and Chile's Healthcare Sectors - An Investor's Perspective.

An Industry Perspective NO PAIN, NO GAIN - Frost and Sullivan analyzes the underlying forces behind the pain management market potential in Asia.

XELJANZ™ (Tofacitinib Citrate), A new class of treatment for Rheumatoid Arthritis Approved in Singapore

A new statement from World-Class Position in Eye Care: Allergen Successfully completes Oculeve Acquisition

VIASPACE Giant King^® Grass Converted to Polymeric Carbon Solid Biofuel as Drop-In Replacement for Coal

ContourGlobal and the Republic of Armenia Announce Purchase of the Vorotan Hydroelectric Facility – IFC of the World Bank Group to Invest alongside CountourGlobal

Sigma-Aldrich and Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, Obtain Antitrust Approval in Brazil for Planned Acquisition

Omidria^® Approved for Commercialization throughout the European Union and Additional Countries

iBio to Receive US patent for Influenza Therapeutic

AstraZeneca broadens the Shoulders and to pay Inovio up to $700 Million for Cancer Drug

Genmab Enters Commercial License Agreement with Novo Nordisk for DuoBody Technology

The organisational structure of hybrid organisations is affected by multiple institutional influences, considering power flows and organisational processes from the public and private sectors. Given this dynamic, the process of knowledge creation presents some particularities. This article aims to understand the specificities of knowledge creation in large hybrid organisations characterized as large structures with multiple institutional influences, based on a case study of a Brazilian organisation — SESC. Data collection was based on four sources: (i) documental research; (ii) questionnaire with evocative phrases; (iii) structured interviews; and (iv) direct observation. The content analysis technique was used to codify and interpret information. The results offer significant contributions for these hybrid organisations, indicating that they need to access how the bureaucratic model inhibits their knowledge creation, while restricting tacit knowledge sharing, causing the lack of sense of urgency and reducing autonomy and creativity.

This paper adopts an exploratory analysis based on a multiple case study to investigate the interplay of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) business modeling strategies and Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policies in a mid-income country efforts to develop a national semiconductor industry. Specifically, we analyze how 22 Brazilian SMEs supported by two comprehensive federal programs designed and implemented business models and strategies in an attempt to, on the one hand, meet the scope and timing of public funding resources and, on the other hand, develop capabilities to enter the industry’s global value chain. Drawing on a wide body of literature and on the evidence collected, we identified and categorized the firms’ business models into five groups: Pure Play IP, Pure Play Design, Fabless, Fabless Plus and Captive. We then analysed the firms’ within the specificities of each group. The paper shows that, in addition to business models and strategies oriented to meet short-term survival needs, the financial benefits for firms were low and unstable, with recurrent and unresolved frictions between policy-makers, planners and firms.

The Brazilian textile industry plays an important role in the country’s economy, and international technology transfer (TT) investments are of great importance for becoming more competitive, especially in textile machinery. This work aimed to propose a model that could be used by the textile industry for its international TT processes. To achieve this goal, this research used a quantitative approach to understand how TT procedures occur in the global textile industry as a way to support the proposal of a TT model comprising the best practices that are recommended by the literature and confirmed in the field. This was done through a survey that considered 41 Brazilian textile companies. The results identified a set of 12 steps as a guideline for the international TT processes that are used in the acquisition of new equipment. It was also noted that different company sizes did not influence the way TT is deployed. These findings contribute to the theory, as they add additional knowledge to the textile industry TT area that was previously non-existent. Furthermore, they can be used by companies and their management as a guideline for the future modernization of their industrial base.

This paper sets out to understand the use of public procurement as a policy instrument for catching up. Brazil and China, who have explicitly linked procurement to innovation, are used as empirical cases. We review their respective institutional settings, policy approaches, and micro-level processes related to the public procurement of innovation (PPI). We have discovered that they share similarities concerning issues encountered during PPI implementation. Although both countries have made some achievements in promoting innovation through procurement, this paper highlights some of the obstacles they have experienced when implementing this policy, such as institutional problems, changes in the political landscape, and macroeconomic constraints. Such obstacles, more prominent in the case of Brazil, may have acted as an obstruction to achieving the pursued objectives, thereby restricting the full potential of PPI in driving technological catching up. The article then offers managerial and policy implications for the implementation of PPI, such as the importance of choosing relevant procurement procedures, critical roles played by policy champions, and demonstrating effects of leading firms and regions. While in China PPI was once an instrumental part of its technology development agenda, in Brazil it has been sporadic and unconnected to a given national strategy.

Considering the relevance of different market partners and research partners with which companies can cooperate for innovation, we wonder whether cooperation with such partners is essential for the technological upgrade of products and processes. Therefore, as our main aim, we propose to analyze the importance of cooperating with market and research partners to technologically upgrade products and processes in an emerging market. To do this, we used data from the Brazilian national innovation survey stratified by sectors of the economy. The data analysis technique adopted for this study was panel data. Our results add to the existing studies on the importance of considering the effects of different partners on types of upgrades (product and process) that are relevant to a technological upgrade in emerging countries. Furthermore, this research demonstrated which kind of partnership is the most suitable for each type of upgrade.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate critically the gender variations in informal sector entrepreneurship. Until now, a widely-held belief has been that entrepreneurs operating in the informal sector in developing nations are lowly paid, poorly educated, marginalized populations doing so out of necessity as a survival strategy in the absence of alternatives. Reporting an extensive 2003 survey conducted in urban Brazil of informal sector entrepreneurs operating micro-enterprises with five or less employees, the finding is that although less than half of these entrepreneurs are driven out of necessity into entrepreneurial endeavor in the informal economy, women are more commonly necessity-driven entrepreneurs and receive lower incomes from their entrepreneurial endeavor than men despite being better educated. The outcome is a call to recognize how the gender disparities in the wider labor market are mirrored and reinforced by the participation of men and women in the realm of informal sector entrepreneurship.

Research has shown that credit discouragement is one of the most significant barriers deterring small businesses from accessing credit. Although credit discouragement is often associated with diminished expectations for successfully obtaining credit, the underlying causes of this phenomenon have not been explored fully. Adapting Loury’s (2021) feedback effect theory to the credit market, this study provides insights into the effect of race and emotional distress on credit discouragement among individual microentrepreneurs (IMEs) in Brazil. Using survey data collected in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, the study confirms that Black and Brown IMEs who reported emotional distress in bank branches had a greater credit discouragement rate than those who did not. We also confirmed Brazil’s pigmentocratic pattern of inequality, with higher discouragement among Black IMEs compared to Brown and White IMEs.

This paper identifies the profiles of Brazilian firms according to their use of knowledge management (KM) practices, and then compares both innovative performance and organisational performance among these profiles. It contributes to the knowledge-based view literature by extending our knowledge about the most efficient configurations of KM practices in emerging countries. A sample of 206 Brazilian firms was surveyed, and cluster analysis was used for identifying the firm profiles. We found that in emerging countries like Brazil, there are different firm profiles regarding the KM practices they use, and these configurations may lead the firm to different levels of performance. Specifically, we found that firms that achieve superior innovation performance have configurations of KM practices that include a high use of strategic management of knowledge, Information and communication technologies (ICT) that supports KM, and three knowledge-based human resource management practices: recruitment, training and development, and appraisal.

Sustainability indicators (SIs) are important elements in Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) processes. By means of Content Analysis, the documentary study underlying this paper aimed to characterise and analyse the use of SIs in the final reports of 32 SEAs conducted in Brazil. The results are that 30 SEAs utilise SIs, aiming to make the baseline of the study (all of them), anticipate and monitor the effects of the plan or program (73.3%), compare scenarios (46.7%) and/or alternatives (26.7%). Reports have shortcomings in addressing the SIs, such as insufficient description of the selection process, no reference to the selection criteria adopted, and the use of vague and poorly formulated SIs, that are often expressed in the form of impact or objective. Other aspects related to SIs are analysed, with the quantification of their occurrence. The study also highlighted good practices identified in SEAs, which may improve the management of SIs in future processes.

Historical records of socio-environmental impacts related to large-scale iron ore development in Brazil are driving different planning approaches in the burgeoning iron mining and smelting complex of Corumbá, located at the border of the Pantanal ecosystem in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Among the most relevant efforts are two strategic environmental assessments (SEA): one was led by a mining company and the other by a civil society committee. This paper assesses to what extent these SEAs can contribute to the mitigation of negative socio-environmental impacts of the Corumbá Complex. It also evaluates if the SEA methodologies meet a number of SEA Performance Criteria. The analyses, which were based on literature reviews and content analysis of the SEA documents, reveal that the two SEAs represent an important effort to incorporate environmental variables into more strategic levels of the Pantanal region's planning. Nonetheless, both SEAs have serious limitations, given that they are not formally nested in governmental policies, plans and programmes.

After the first applications in the early 1990's, the practice of SEA in Brazil has been going through a slow, but important evolution. In this paper we elaborate on the main aspects of this evolution, based on the findings of a comparative study that put the practice of SEA in different contexts into perspective. SEA systems considered included consolidated (UK, Spain and Portugal) and unconsolidated (South Africa, Mexico, Angola and Mozambique) systems. The Brazilian system is characterised by a disperse structure and a low level of self-organisation, which makes integration with plan making difficult while, at the same time, stimulating "flexible" and "adaptive" SEA processes. We suggest that the lack of both, institutional drivers and a clear procedural framework are hindering further development of the Brazilian system.

This paper provides an overview of current IA research in Brazil, considering its extension, lessons learned and the quality of its practice, as well as barriers to research, current gaps and future research endeavours. Despite the big effort devoted to IA research in the country, there is a small number of groups dedicated to the systematic research of IA instruments, its procedures and methods, the assessment of its effectiveness and the evidence to support good practice, the study of the organization of IA systems and their influence on decision-making. In our opinion, the lack of a well structured and distinct field of training and research is one of the major barriers to IA research. Similar to other countries, IA research is not recognised by scientific agencies/committees as a proper field of research, which means the majority of IA research grants is being evaluated/approved by committees with a small or no background in IA. There is, however, a significant contribution to be offered by research to foster IA development in Brazil. Besides the systematic assessment of IA effectiveness and the definition of procedures, methods and approaches to fill the currently well-described gaps, future research efforts should include the study of learning processes through IA practice and their influence in decision-making, the connections between IA and planning, and the benchmarks to environmental governance coming from IA practice.

The subset selection problem of linear algebra is applied to identify independent patterns of COVID-19 evolution within Brazil. The data consist of a set of mortality curves in states of Brazil. A subset of the most independent curves is selected by using a functional version of the QR matrix decomposition technique with column pivoting. The selected subset is used next as a basis to represent the remaining curves filtering out any data redundancy. For each independent curve, an associated epidemiological region of influence is defined. The results show two main independent curves with a similar two-peak pattern and a 50-day shift between the patterns. Two main epidemiological regions are next identified: one encompassing most of the country from the center and northeast states to the south, an another one containing the Amazonian region at the northwest.

This paper investigates the effects of climate on residential electricity use for households from different income classes in Brazil. Using cross-sectional data, the study finds that the temperature elasticity of electricity consumption varies significantly across income classes. The temperature elasticity of low income households is not significantly different from zero but middle and high income families have a long run temperature elasticity of 0.8 and 1.6 respectively. As emerging low latitude countries develop and incomes rise, the welfare damages of warming in the energy sector will become substantial.

A significant phenomenon of the international system over the past decade is the empowerment of emerging economies, particularly the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), in diplomatic and trade relations. Thus, alliances between China, the world’s largest developing country, and newly efficacious powers in the global South have become salient topics in foreign policy research. This article focuses on the relations China maintains with Portuguese-speaking countries, or Lusophonia, which are notable for their geographic and cultural heft in the global South. As a nation removed from foreign imperial influence only a few decades ago, China shares a series of cultural commonalities with a Brazil-dominated Lusophonia that represents key political influences in middle-income countries. As a result, Lusophone countries are core targets in an overall international policy strategy that serves to benefit China for continued trade and economic growth, an orientation well aligned to enhance Sino-Lusophone cooperation in the short to medium term.