Questões de Concurso Para economista júnior

Model copes with chaos to deliver relief Computer program helps responders transport supplies in tough conditions
By Rachel Ehrenberg Science News, Web edition: Monday, February 21st, 2011
WASHINGTON — Getting blood or other perishable supplies to an area that’s been struck by an earthquake or hurricane isn’t as simple as asking what brown can do for you. But a new model quickly determines the best routes and means for delivering humanitarian aid, even in situations where bridges are out or airport tarmacs are clogged with planes.
The research, presented February 18 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, could help get supplies to areas which have experienced natural disasters or help prepare for efficient distribution of vaccines when the flu hits.
Efficient supply chains have long been a goal of manufacturers, but transport in fragile networks — where supply, demand and delivery routes may be in extremely rapid flux — requires a different approach, said Anna Nagurney of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who presented the new work. Rather than considering the shortest path from one place to another to maximize profit, her system aims for the cleanest path at minimum cost, while capturing factors such as the perishability of the product and the uncertainty of supply routes. ‘You don’t know where demand is, so it’s tricky,’ said Nagurney. ‘It’s a multicriteria decision-making problem.’
By calculating the total cost associated with each link in a network, accounting for congestion and incorporating penalties for time and products that are lost, the computer model calculates the best supply chain in situations where standard routes may be disrupted.
‘Mathematical tools are essential to develop formal means to predict, and to respond to, such critical perturbations,’ said Iain Couzin of Princeton University, who uses similar computational tools to study collective animal behavior. ‘This is particularly important where response must be rapid and effective, such as during disaster scenarios … or during epidemics or breaches of national security.
’ The work can be applied to immediate, pressing situations, such as getting blood, food or medication to a disaster site, or to longer-term problems such as determining the best locations for manufacturing flu vaccines. . Retrieved April 7th, 2011.

                                                       Um pouco de silêncio
Nesta trepidante cultura nossa, da agitação e do barulho, gostar de sossego é uma excentricidade.
Sob a pressão do ter de parecer, ter de participar, ter de adquirir, ter de qualquer coisa, assumimos uma infinidade de obrigações. Muitas desnecessárias, outras impossíveis, algumas que não combinam conosco nem nos interessam.
Não há perdão nem anistia para os que ficam de fora da ciranda: os que não se submetem mas questionam, os que pagam o preço de sua relativa autonomia, os que não se deixam escravizar, pelo menos sem alguma resistência.
O normal é ser atualizado, produtivo e bem-informado. É indispensável circular, estar enturmado. Quem não corre com a manada praticamente nem existe, se não se cuidar botam numa jaula: um animal estranho.
Acuados pelo relógio, pelos compromissos, pela opinião alheia, disparamos sem rumo – ou em trilhas determinadas – feito hamsters que se alimentam de sua própria agitação.
Ficar sossegado é perigoso: pode parecer doença. Recolher-se em casa, ou dentro de si mesmo, ameaça quem leva um susto cada vez que examina sua alma.
Estar sozinho é considerado humilhante, sinal de que não se arrumou ninguém – como se amizade ou amor se “arrumasse" em loja. [...]
Além do desgosto pela solidão, temos horror à quietude. Logo pensamos em depressão: quem sabe terapia e antidepressivo? Criança que não brinca ou salta nem participa de atividades frenéticas está com algum problema.
O silêncio nos assusta por retumbar no vazio dentro de nós. Quando nada se move nem faz barulho, notamos as frestas pelas quais nos espiam coisas incômodas e mal resolvidas, ou se enxerga outro ângulo de nós mesmos. Nos damos conta de que não somos apenas figurinhas atarantadas correndo entre casa, trabalho e bar, praia ou campo.
Existe em nós, geralmente nem percebido e nada valorizado, algo além desse que paga contas, transa, ganha dinheiro, e come, envelhece, e um dia (mas isso é só para os outros!) vai morrer. Quem é esse que afinal sou eu? Quais seus desejos e medos, seus projetos e sonhos?
No susto que essa ideia provoca, queremos ruí- do, ruídos. Chegamos em casa e ligamos a televisão antes de largar a bolsa ou pasta. Não é para assistir a um programa: é pela distração.
Silêncio faz pensar, remexe águas paradas, trazendo à tona sabe Deus que desconcerto nosso. Com medo de ver quem – ou o que – somos, adia-se o defrontamento com nossa alma sem máscaras.
Mas, se a gente aprende a gostar um pouco de sossego, descobre – em si e no outro – regiões nem imaginadas, questões fascinantes e não necessariamente ruins.
Nunca esqueci a experiência de quando alguém botou a mão no meu ombro de criança e disse: — Fica quietinha, um momento só, escuta a chuva chegando.
E ela chegou: intensa e lenta, tornando tudo singularmente novo. A quietude pode ser como essa chuva: nela a gente se refaz para voltar mais inteiro ao convívio, às tantas fases, às tarefas, aos amores.
Então, por favor, me deem isso: um pouco de silêncio bom para que eu escute o vento nas folhas, a chuva nas lajes, e tudo o que fala muito além das palavras de todos os textos e da música de todos os sentimentos. LUFT, Lya. Pensar é transgredir. Rio de Janeiro: Record, 2004. p. 41. Adaptado.

The oil and natural gas industry has developed and
applied an impressive array of innovative technologies to
improve productivity and efficiency, while yielding
environmental benefits. According to the U.S. Department
of Energy, "the petroleum business has transformed itself
into a high-technology industry."
State-of-the-art technology allows the industry to
produce more oil and natural gas from more remote
places - some previously unreachable - with significantly
less adverse effect on the environment. Among the
benefits: increased supply to meet the world's growing
energy demand, reduced energy consumption at oil and
natural gas facilities and refineries, reduced noise from
operations, decreased size of facilities, reduced
emissions of pollutants, better protection of water
resources, and preservation of habitats and wildlife.
With advanced exploration and production
technologies, the oil and gas industry can pinpoint
resources more accurately, extract them more efficiently
and with less surface disturbance, minimize associated
wastes, and, ultimately, restore sites to original or better
condition.
Exploration and production advances include
advanced directional drilling, slimhole drilling, and 3-D
seismic technology. Other segments of the industry have
benefited from technological advances as well. Refineries
are becoming highly automated with integrated process
and energy system controls; this results in improved
operational and environmental performance and enables
refineries to run harder and produce more products safer
than ever before. Also, new process equipment and
catalyst technology advances have been made very
recently to meet new fuel regulations requiring very low
levels of sulfur in gasoline and diesel.
Technology advances such as these are making it
possible for the oil and natural gas industry to grow in
tandem with the nation's energy needs while maintaining
a cleaner environment. The industry is committed to
investing in advanced technologies that will continue to
provide affordable and reliable energy to support our
current quality of life, and expand our economic horizons.
For example, we are researching fuel cells that may
power the vehicles of tomorrow with greater efficiency
and less environmental impact. We are investigating ways
to tap the huge natural gas resources locked in gas
hydrates. Gas hydrates are common in sediments in
the ocean's deep waters where cold temperatures and
high pressures cause natural gas and water to freeze
together, forming solid gas hydrates. Gas hydrates could
be an important future source of natural gas for our nation.
Some of our companies are also investigating
renewable energy resources such as solar, wind,
biomass and geothermal energy. By conducting research
into overcoming the many technological hurdles that limit
these energy resources, they hope to make them more
reliable, affordable and convenient for future use. Although
the potential for these energy resources is great,
scientists do not expect them to be a significant part of
the nation's energy mix for many decades. For this
reason, the industry must continue to invest in
conventional resources such as oil and natural gas. We
will need to rely on these important energy resources for
many decades to come.