The aim of this paper is to address the sources of technical and allocative inefficiency from a cross section sample of 308 beneficiaries of a market assisted land reform program, called "Cédula da Terra"; from five states in Northeastern region of Brazil. In spite of some differences on governance of the "Cédula da Terra"; in comparison with traditional expropriation land reform program, studies carried by Buainain et al. (2002) have shown small differences between then, regarding their social and economic characteristics. We believe that our results could be useful to identify the main problems of Brazilian land reform settlements. We estimated a potential production frontier following the methodology of Battese and Coelli (1995), Coelli et al. (1998) and applied econometric techniques to explain inefficiency. The results indicate the existence of technical and allocative inefficiency, which is identified mostly in situations where the presence of production for consumption is high. This is a result that shows how immature the agriculture activity is in most of Cédula da Terra Program settlements and the difficulty to overcome the limitations imposed by the initial condition of formation of agrarian reform, primarily in Northeastern region of Brazil.
O objetivo desse artigo é caracterizar as fontes da ineficiência técnica e alocativa em um conjunto de 308 beneficiários de um programa de reforma agrária de mercado, chamado "Cédula da Terra";, distribuídos em cinco estados do Nordeste brasileiro. Estudos conduzidos por Buainain et al. (2002) mostraram existem poucas diferenças entre as características de beneficiários deste programa e dos programas tradicionais de reforma agrária por expropriação e que portanto, os resultados obtidos por este trabalho permitem visualizar as dificuldades enfrentadas pelos assentamentos no Brasil. Para medir eficiência, estimou-se uma função de produção potencial segundo a metodologia de Battese e Coelli (1995) e a partir disto, procurou-se explicar as razões da ineficiência (relativa) encontrada. Os resultados apontam para a existência de ineficiência técnica e alocativa que é identificada principalmente nas situações em que a presença de produção para consumo é elevada. Tratase de um resultado que revela a pouca maturidade da maioria dos lotes dos assentados do PCT e a dificuldade de superar as limitações impostas pela condição inicial de formação dos assentamentos de reforma agrária, principalmente na região nordeste do Brasil

Buildings play an active role in the global energy consumption and are required to not only minimize their energy use, but also generate energy in a sustainable manner. The integration of renewable energies in building elements can improve their overall performance, as they are able to replace common construction materials, while offering both electrical and thermal energy. The scope of this paper is to present the first results of an experimental study of a Building-Integrated Photovoltaic system combined with a water storage tank (BIPV-WS), a combined integration not extensively studied yet. Both layers are separated by a ventilated air cavity, and the thermal behavior of the system was analyzed experimentally in real functioning conditions. The water tank performs as a thermal storage, maintaining a regular temperature of about 20–30 °C during a typical winter day of Lisbon for a period of 11 h. Moreover, through the ventilation of the air cavity, the heat provided by the solar panel was naturally recovered to the indoors of the building, while keeping the temperature high enough to heat up the water. During summer, the ventilated BIPV-WS enabled beneficial nocturnal heat loss while delaying diurnal space heating.

The impact of nanotechnology on the exponential growth of several research areas, particularly nanomedicine, is undeniable. The ability to deliver active molecules to the desired site could significantly improve the efficiency of medical treatments. One of the nanocarriers developed which has drawn researchers’ attention are cubosomes, which are nanosized dispersions of lipid bicontinuous cubic phases in water, consisting of a lipidic interior and aqueous domains folded in a cubic lattice. They stand out due to their ability to incorporate hydrophobic, hydrophilic, and amphiphilic compounds, their tortuous internal configuration that provides a sustained release, and the capacity to protect and safely deliver molecules. Several approaches can be taken to prepare this structure, as well as different lipids like monoolein or phytantriol. This review paper describes the different methods to prepare nanocarriers. As it is known, the physicochemical properties of nanocarriers are very important, as they influence their pharmacokinetics and their ability to incorporate and deliver active molecules. Therefore, an extensive characterization is essential to obtain the desired effect. As a result, we have extensively described the most common techniques to characterize cubosomes, particularly nanocarriers. The exceptional properties of the cubosomes make them suitable to be used in several applications in the biomedical field, from cancer therapeutics to imaging, which will be described. Taking in consideration the outstanding properties of cubosomes, their application in several research fields is envisaged.

The increasing concern with climate change is one of the main issues of our time, and thus we aim to theoretically and mathematically analyse its causes. However our approach follows a different stream of thought, presenting the reasoning and decision-making processes between technical and moral solutions. We have resorted to game theory models in order to demonstrate cooperative and non-cooperative scenarios, ranging from the traditional to the evolutionary within game theory. In doing so we are able to glimpse the development of modern society and a paradigm shift regarding human control over nature and to what extent it is harmful to the sustainability of our environment and the survival of future generations. Merging different fields of knowledge, we present a theoretical-philosophical approach, combined with empirical-mathematical solutions taking into account the agent-based behaviour guided blindly by instrumental rationality. Keywords Evolutionary game theory Global development Game theory Moral and technical solutions International relations and politics Economics Sustainable development The chapter is inspired by a previous paper by Ingo Andrade de Oliveira and Stephánie Rycken. We would also like to thank the extremely constructive comments and suggestions from an anonymous reviewer. JEL Codes Global Development and Climate Change: A Game Theory Approach ...

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Depreciation rate Econo-physics pure barter model (EPB) Edgeworth box Pure barter Theory of value a b s t r a c tThis article aims at a new approach for a known fundamental result: barter or trade increases economic value. It successfully bridges the gap between the theory of value and the exchange process attached to the transition from endowments to the equilibrium in the core and contract curve. First, we summarise the theory of value; in Section 2, we present the Edgeworth (1881) box and an axiomatic approach and in Section 3, we apply our pure exchange model. Finally (in Section 4), using our open econo-physics pure barter (EPB) model, we derive an improvement in value, which means that pure barter leads to a decline in depreciation rate.

This article presents an economic growth model with human capital, based upon Arrow (1962), which evaluates the impact of political leadership change either in governments or political parties. The change of leadership might be seen as a change in embedded human capital, and thus we might evaluate the loss or gain for society due to these political activities. The approach is theoretical using Arrowian economic setting and formulates the conditions in which it is worth it, or how long does it take to recover from a political leadership change. The embedded process is an economic one, known as "learning by doing", but this time applied to political processes.

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