Inovelab

Any country looking to bring in digital television can choose from the three standards which already exist, the Japanese, US and European. But rather than choose one standard over another, the Brazilian government has decided to take the best of them and include recent technological advances to create a completely new standard.

Ministry of Science & Technology is bringing together experts from 20 universities coordinated by CPqD (telco industry R&D centre in Campinas, SP) and major IT companies from Japan, US and Europe to work on the project. Brazil is the first country in Latin America to make the move to digital television. It is possible that other countries in the region may follow suit and adopt the new standard, making the potential market even greater.

The cultural and educational use of a television digital system as a form to increase the information access to build and transform the knowledge in the information era, approaches the potential forms of use of the resources of the digital television in the educative context, at a moment that it precedes to the choice of the technological model of reference for the country. It presents the existing standards and the governmental movement in the choice of the Brazilian system.

The Brazilian companies Teikon Tecnologia Industrial and Venko Telecomunicações signed, with the government of Brazil's southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul, a protocol of intentions for the implementation of a cellular phone factory in the state.

The project should get US$ 7 million. The production should reach one million phones in 2006 on the GSM standard for mobile telephony. Production starts in February. They will manufacture mobile phones of the "Talento" model, equipped with integrated loudspeaker, games, blue display, wap, 30 polyphonic rings, organiser, intelligent keyboard and 100 memory spaces.

With the new factory, the Rio Grande do Sul will become the third Brazilian state to manufacture cellular phones, which demands state of the art technology.

Embraer* (Bovespa: EMBR3 - Embraer ON, EMBR4 - Embraer PN) is already the fourth biggest civilian aircraft manufacturer in the World (behind american Boeing, EU Airbus and canadian Bombardier) and is preparing to compete in a segment that promises to be one of the most income-producing niches in the next years: the mini executive jets or "light jets".

A roadshow with a mock-up in natural size of the Phenom 100 is already in the United States, coast-to-coast, according to Beto Largman. Phenom 100 will enter in service in the middle of 2008 and will cost US$ 2,75 million. The light jet will carry up to eight occupants and, with four people on board, will have a maximum speed of 0,70 Mach and will reach 1.160 nautical miles.

The airplane is projected to take off in short distances and is capable to fly in an altitude of 41,000 feet (12,500 meters). The Phenom 300 will be equipped with an engine of 3.200 pounds of push and will accomodate up to nine occupants.

Phenom 300 will reach 1.800 nautical miles with six people on board, its maximum speed will be of Mach 0,78. The airplane is also projected to take off in short distances and is capable to fly in an altitude of 45,000 feet (13,700 meters). Phenom 300 will enter in service in the middle of 2009 and cost US$ 6,65 million.

* Embraer - Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica S.A. was Brazil’s largest exporter from 1999 to 2001 and the second largest in 2002, 2003 and 2004. It currently employs more than 16,500 people, 85.5% based in Brazil, and contributes to the creation of more than 3,000 indirect jobs. Based in São José dos Campos, Brazil, Embraer was founded in 1969 as a government initiative and then privatized on December 7, 1994.

The Department of Medical Biochemist and the Institute of Biophisics Carlos Chagas Filho, of Federal University of Rio De Janeiro (UFRJ), the National Agrobiology Center of Embrapa and the National Laboratory of Scientific Computation - LNCC, sponsored by Faperj, are in a research project on the genetic sequency of the Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus bacterium, that it is found in the sugarcane, potato-candy and coffee. It removes nitrogen from the air (NO2) and transfers it in assimilable form to the plants, acting as an important natural fertilizer. With the sequency, those plants will become it more efficient, spent less in nitrogen fertilizers and, thus, increase the national agricultural productivity.

Sugarcane is an economically very important culture in Latin America, including Brazil. This country is one of the largest sugar producers, and is responsible for 35% (5.8 millions hectares) of the sugarcane culture in the world. In addition, the Brazilian alcohol program (Proalcohol) is an important alternative to fossil fuels, which makes the country to save approximately 260,000 barrels of petrol per day. Brazilian sugarcane varieties can grow with low addition of nitrogen fertilizers; nevertheless, this culture still consumes 240,000 ton of nitrogen per year, which represents high cost and also contributes to ground water pollution and atmospheric problems through release of NH3 and NO2 (Döbereiner et al., 1995).

As early as 1975 - during the world oil crisis - Brazil developed and implemented what became the world's most extensive programme to date for replacing conventional fuels in its Proalcohol programme; for a time, up to 80% of the nation's cars were fuelled by ethanol from sugar cane. At an annual production of twelve to fourteen million cubic metres, Brazil is still the world's largest producer and consumer of ethanol. Although the number of alcohol-driven vehicles fell drastically during the nineties, there has been increasing interest for cars launched onto the Brazilian market a year ago that can run on ethanol, conventional octane-based fuel or both in any mixture.

In 2005, the national production of sugarcane had an increase of 4,85% in relation to the previous year, reaching 436 000 000 tons, what can be credited to the prices behavior of alcohol and sugar. In the state of São Paulo, main national producer, with about 57,69% of the country production, had a 5,1% growth, totalizing 251 528 400 tons. Seven of the 10 bigger producing cities of Brazil, belong to this Unit of the Federacy. The main Brazilian producing city is Morro Agudo, situated in the northeast region of the state.

The area planted with sugarcane in Brazil increased of 5,625 million hectares, in harvest 2004-2005, for 5,877 million hectares, in harvest 2005-2006, continuity to a trend that comes verifying in the last ten years. In this period, the planted area grew 28.9% and the production increased 43,8%.

The sugarcane is the second culture, in terms of production value, and comes gaining new investments in the last years. The recovery of the alcohol price was stimulated in reason of a better demand of the flexfuel (gas/alcohol) cars. Another important fact: the alcohol combustible exportations had been greater than industrial alcohol for the first time in history, corresponding about 60% of the total. In respect to the external sector, seeming favorable to the Brazilian product safeguard the World Trade Organization (WTO) acted against the subsidies granted in European Union (UE) for the sugar exportation, contributing for this positive picture.