46 resultados para Uso problemático de álcool e outras drogas


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This study aims to understand the effects of the mobile marketing use as a relationships tool for companies that operate locally, because of the lack of information about this new marketing tool, as well as the scarcity of studies in this area. This is an exploratory and qualitatively study, based on primary sources, raised through books, articles in the marketing area and the telecommunications industry organs as well as secondary sources. With the purpose to look into the issue, a semi-structured interview is made with the companies managers of the sectors of trade and services in Natal-RN. The advances in technology allow an important discussion focused on the marketing in the new communication technologies scenario. It appears that the mobile marketing adoption and use by local companies is already a reality and companies are awake to changes and technological innovations accessible, especially the mobile telephony as well as convergence with other media. There is, however, that the use of technologies offered by mobile marketing is still limited to the sending of text messages (SMS), despite the numerous possibilities of it use. Moreover, the results obtained with mobile marketing use show that companies can identify them, but there is no effective monitoring in quantity and financial terms. Only affect sales growth and support for progress in loyalty with customers. It shows up that the mentality of not measuring the results still in the plan of changes and technological innovations. The data allow saying that the mobile marketing is a reality, however has not yet signed as a tool for carrying out campaigns and marketing tool for loyalty of customers, despite presenting a wide range of possibilities to streamline and make more effective the marketing businesses process

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With the advances in medicine, life expectancy of the world population has grown considerably in recent decades. Studies have been performed in order to maintain the quality of life through the development of new drugs and new surgical procedures. Biomaterials is an example of the researches to improve quality of life, and its use goes from the reconstruction of tissues and organs affected by diseases or other types of failure, to use in drug delivery system able to prolong the drug in the body and increase its bioavailability. Biopolymers are a class of biomaterials widely targeted by researchers since they have ideal properties for biomedical applications, such as high biocompatibility and biodegradability. Poly (lactic acid) (PLA) is a biopolymer used as a biomaterial and its monomer, lactic acid, is eliminated by the Krebs Cycle (citric acid cycle). It is possible to synthesize PLA through various synthesis routes, however, the direct polycondensation is cheaper due the use of few steps of polymerization. In this work we used experimental design (DOE) to produce PLAs with different molecular weight from the direct polycondensation of lactic acid, with characteristics suitable for use in drug delivery system (DDS). Through the experimental design it was noted that the time of esterification, in the direct polycondensation, is the most important stage to obtain a higher molecular weight. The Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrograms obtained were equivalent to the PLAs available in the literature. Results of Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) showed that all PLAs produced are semicrystalline with glass transition temperatures (Tgs) ranging between 36 - 48 °C, and melting temperatures (Tm) ranging from 117 to 130 °C. The PLAs molecular weight characterized from Size Exclusion Chromatography (SEC), varied from 1000 to 11,000 g/mol. PLAs obtained showed a fibrous morphology characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)

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In this work, biodiesel was produced from castor oil that was a byproduct glycerin. The molar ratio between oil and alcohol, as well as the use of (KOH) catalyst to provide the chemical reaction is based on literature. The best results were obtained using 1 mol of castor oil (260g) to 3 moles of methyl alcohol (138g), using 1.0% KOH as catalyst at a temperature of 260 ° C and shaken at 120 rpm. The oil used was commercially available, the process involves the reaction of transesterification of a vegetable oil with methyl alcohol. The product of this reaction is an ester, biodiesel being the main product and the glycerin by-product which has undergone treatment for use as raw material for the production of allyl alcohol. The great advantage of the use of glycerin to obtain allyl alcohol is that its use eliminates the large amount of waste of the biodiesel and various forms of insult to the environment. The reactions for the formation of allyl alcohol was conducted from formic acid and glycerin in a ratio 1/1, at a temperature of 260oC in a heater blanket, being sprayed by a spiral condenser for a period of 2 hours and the product obtained contains mostly the allylic alcohol .. The monitoring of reactions was performed by UV-Visible Spectrophotometer: FTIR Fourier transform, the analysis showed that these changes occur spectrometer indicating the formation of the product allylic alcohol (prop-2-en-1-ol) in the presence of water, This alcohol was appointed Alcohol GL. The absorption bands confirms that the reaction was observed in (υ C = C) 1470 -1600 cm -1 and (υ CO), 3610-3670 attributed to C = C groups and OH respectively. The thermal analysis was carried out in a thermogravimetric analyzer SDT Q600, where the mass and temperature are displayed against time, that allows checking the approximate rate of heating. The innovative methodology developed in the laboratory (LABTAM, UFRN), was able to treat the glycerine produced by transesterification of castor oil and used as raw material for production of allyl alcohol, with a yield of 80%, of alcohol, the same is of great importance in the manufacture of polymers, pharmaceuticals, organic compounds, herbicides, pesticides and other chemicals

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Alterations in the neuropsychomotor development of children are not rare and can manifest themselves with varying intensity at different stages of their development. In this context, maternal risk factors may contribute to the appearance of these alterations. A number of studies have reported that neuropsychomotor development diagnosis is not an easy task, especially in the basic public health network. Diagnosis requires effective, low-cost, and easy - to-apply procedures. The Denver Developmental Screening Test, first published in 1967, is currently used in several countries. It has been revised and renamed as the Denver II Test and meets the aforementioned criteria. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to apply the Denver II Test in order to verify the prevalence of suspected neuropsychomotor development delay in children between the ages of 0 and 12 months and correlate it with the following maternal risk factors: family income, schooling, age at pregnancy, drug use during pregnancy, gestational age, gestational problems, type of delivery and the desire to have children. For data collection, performed during the first 6 months of 2004, a clinical assessment was made of 398 children selected by pediatricians and the nursing team of each public health unit. Later, the parents or guardians were asked to complete a structured questionnaire to determine possible risk indicators of neuropsychomotor development delay. Finally the Denver II Developmental Screening Test (DDST) was applied. The data were analyzed together, using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software, version 6.1. The confidence interval was set at 95%. The Denver II Test yielded normal and questionable results. This suggests compromised neuropsychomotor development in the children examined and deserves further investigation. The correlation of the results with preestablished maternal risk variables (family income, mother s schooling, age at pregnancy, drug use during the pregnancy and gestational age) was strongly significant. The other maternal risk variables (gestational problems, type of delivery and desire to have children) were not significant. Using an adjusted logistic regression model, we obtained the estimate of the greater likelihood of a child having suspected neuropsychomotor development delay: a mother with _75 4 years of schooling, chronological age less than 20 years and a drug user during pregnancy. This study produced two manuscripts, one published in Acta Cirúrgica Brasileira , in which an analysis was performed of children with suspected neuropsychomotor development delay in the city of Natal, Brazil. The other paper (to be published) analyzed the magnitude of the independent variable maternal schooling associated to neuropsychomotor development delay, every 3 months during the first twelve months of life of the children selected.. The results of the present study reinforce the multifactorial characteristic of development and the cumulative effect of maternal risk factors, and show the need for a regional policy that promotes low-cost programs for the community, involving children at risk of neuropsychomotor development delay. Moreover, they suggest the need for better qualified health professionals in terms of monitoring child development. This was an inter- and multidisciplinary study with the integrated participation of doctors, nurses, nursing assistants and professionals from other areas, such as statisticians and information technology professionals, who met all the requirements of the Postgraduate Program in Health Sciences of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte

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This is a study descriptive cross-sectional and quantitative approaches, which aimed to analyze the association between hospital infection rate for insertion, maintenance of central venous catheter and the breakdown of protocols (rules and routines) by health professionals assisting patients in the ICU of a university hospital in Natal / RN. The process of data collection was through observation with structured form, refers to medical records and structured questionnaires with health professionals. The results were organized, tabulated, categorized and analyzed using SPSS 14.0. The characterization of the subjects was performed using descriptive and inferential statistics, taking into account the nature of the variables, with analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Spearman correlation test, it was a discussion of the information obtained, considering the mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variance and standard error. The variables that showed a higher level of correlation were treated with the application of significance tests. As the results, 71% of participants were female and 29% male, age ranged from 18 to 85 years (52.6 ± 22.5). The insertion, there was a variation from 0 to 5 errors (1.2 ± 1.4), during maintenance, the average was 2.3 ± 0.9 errors, ranging from 0 to 4. During the insertion and maintenance of CVC, patients who had been an infection ranging from 2 to 9 mistakes (4.2 ± 1.7), since those who did not show the variation goes from 0 to 5 errors (2, 8 ± 1.5). The correlation coefficient between the risk of infection throughout the process and the risk of infection at the insertion showed strong and significant (r = 0.845 p = 0.000) and in relation to risk of infection in maintenance was moderate and significant (r = 0.551 p = 0.001). The mistakes made by professionals in the procedures for insertion and maintenance of the catheter, associated with other conditions, shown as a risk factor for the of IH

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Em 1996 com a introdução no Brasil da Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) melhorando a sobrevida e diminuindo o número de óbitos entre os portadores do HIV/Aids, surgem relatos de alterações metabólicas e morfológicas - Síndrome Lipodistrófica (SLD). Portanto, este estudo busca avaliar a partir da autopercepção estética de pessoas que vivem com HIV/AIDS (PVHA) em uso de terapia antirretroviral (TARV) o impacto da SLD na qualidade de vida. Pesquisa exploratória observacional com dados quantitativos e qualitativos, que contou com a multidisciplinaridade, a partir dos critérios de inclusão os voluntários eram captados pelo médico infectologista assistente. Foi realizada com base nos princípios da Resolução 196/96-CNP. A amostra foi composta por 48 PVHA, com idade entre 32 a 66 anos. 89,6% demonstraram interesse em mudar partes do corpo que perceberam enquanto alteradas ou comprometidas pela SLD, dado reforçado quando estes afirmam que se percebem (35,4%) e sentem (35,4%) que as outras pessoas os vêem de forma diferente. Quanto a qualidade de vida o domínio da espiritualidade, religião e crenças pessoais alcançou maior média (14,7) com DP 4,0 neste estudo. A pesquisa permitiu uma publicação internacional (Journal of Public Health and Epidemiology-JPHE) e várias participações com publicação em eventos (nacionais e internacionais). O estudo sugere que a infecção por HIV e a presença da SLD a partir da autopercepção dos sujeitos entrevistados pode afetar a qualidade de vida. E destaca a importância de ações que ressaltem o suporte social como motivador para o autocuidado

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Alcohol is one of the few psychotropic drugs that their consumption has admitted legally and sometimes encouraged by the society. Studies show alcohol as the highest consumption of drugs among young people and society in general, probably because of its availability and easy access. The abuse causes public health problems, which was closely related to the violence, socioeconomic problems and the high number of automobile accidents. Transit is one of the main sectors affected by the effects of alcohol, observing a high incidence in the studies. About half of automobile accidents occurs after the consumption of alcoholic beverage, and the vast majority of cases related to high concentrations of alcohol in the bloodstream. The relationship of drunk with traffic accidents is in fact evident everywhere in the world, including Brazil, where studies have shown a high relationship between alcohol consumption and traffic accidents. This study determined the alcohol in fatal victims of traffic accidents in the state of Rio Grande do Norte and established the profile of this population compared with those found in Brazil and other countries. Samples of blood of ethanol added to fulfillment of the standardization of chromatographic conditions and procedures for the analysis, being employed in the determination of alcohol in blood samples of 277 victims of traffic accidents, collected at the Institute of Scientific Technical Police of Rio Grande do North (ITEP) in the year 2007. The blood alcohol level was determined in these samples correlated with the sex, age and marital status of the victim and the location, day of week and month when the accident occurred, is doing a statistical analysis and outlining a profile of the victims of an accident at transit in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. The parameters of standardization studied ensured the quality of the analytical method and, consequently, to obtain reliable laboratory results. Being given the best temperature for injector (150 ºC), detector (250 ºC) and column (50 ºC) with a flow of gas in the column of 2mL/minutos and analysis of time of 12 minutes. The method was linear in the range of 0.01 to 3.2 g / L (r2 = 0.9989) with average recovery of 100.2% and precision with coefficient of variation less than 15%. The analysis carried out on victims of fatal road traffic accidents, ethanol detected in the blood in 66.43% of the victims and these, 96% showed concentration ≥ 0.2 g / L, 87.73% of victims were male, while 12.27% female. The younger age group (1535 years) was the most involved (52,35%) and most single (55.60%). The accidents occurred with greater prevalence in the day on Monday (27%) followed by Sunday (24,19%) and Saturday (15,52%) and it was found that the prevalence of injuries varied between the different months of the year, and in February (14.4%) and April (10.47%) the months that had a higher number of accidents, however this oscillation showed no statistically significant difference. Also no significant difference was observed between the tracks of concentration found in men and women. The standardized method showed to be efficient, given satisfactorily to the goals of this work, and the high levels of alcohol found in victims of fatal road traffic accidents are consistent with several studies of literature, and the profile of the victim also supported by presenting in its most young adults, male and single

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This work considers the comprehension of the intrafamiliar violence emphasizing violent mothers relationships with their children. The purpose is to understand the development of these relationships which turn into aggressive behavior of the mothers regarding family education. The research was carried out focusing on two aspects: analysis of the theoretical references and empirical research. The theoretical research was done through a bibliographic survey of subjects related to this study such as: the history of the family, motherhood and children, the intrafamiliar violence practiced by mothers against their children; as well as how those violent relationships emerge from family environment. We point out the Foucault s concept of discipline (FOUCAULT, 1975) and Caldeira s concept of circumscribed body (CALDEIRA, 2000). It was selected a sample of ten women to investigate the relationship between mother and son through a detailed interviews. Five mothers from this sample were denounced to the Tutelary Council and they were set in a so called Denounced Group. Similarly, the other five mothers, who live in the same social and cultural context of the selected families assisted by the Tutelary Council, were set in the Non-Denounced Group. Therefore, we work with representations of the own interviewers about the meaning of the pedagogic socializing discipline in their lives. Our priority was the study of case carried out with the denounced families for physical violence and with the other group in order to develop a comparative analysis of both groups. Such methodological choice is explained by the interest for understanding the violence between mothers and children. It is common to all mothers not to consider aggressive their behavior against their children. We observe that physical punishment is considered a way to discipline children and teenagers, hence that is perceived as necessary to repress, to control, and to adapt them. Thus, it is considered a necessary practice for education. However, the reason that made the community denounced against the mothers of the Denounced Group was due to those did not correspond to an ideal example of what was expected to be a mother (they took drugs, alcohol, and had several sexual partners), that is denounces were not for the physical violence itself. Therefore, those mothers were not denounced because they were not morally able to manage their children s education. The community tolerates the punishment against children, but not the amorality of the women, and they were denounced for disregarding their role as mothers

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This masters dissertation constitutes in a mapping with base in a field research carried in the streets of commercial center and adjacencies of the Aracaju city, capital of Sergipe state, located in Brazilian‟s Northeast. This is a study about the jingle and others social practices found in the day-by-day of streets by the streets sellers. There is a clear intention of consider the pregão singed by sellers of the street how a jingle that is produced, transmitted and accepted in a means social, characterized how cultural manifestation study. Thus, this ethnography aims to observe the use of the jingle and other cultural practices carried out by street vendors, showing how they are produced, disseminated and consumed in everyday life, as a way to do it. These practices that occur in cities since ancient times continue to occur in all Brazilian cities, including the capital cities, although in some cases, some of them such as the jingle, they get more scarce. Specifically aimed at rescuing the memory of these cultural practices, considering them as "tactics" of practitioners, a resistance of street vendors, individuals, "ordinary" real "anonymous wanderers" in the face of pressure from a dominant force and uneven. In this perspective, the present study is based on the theories of Certeau (1990, 1996) and Coradini (1995) on daily life in the cities, seeking to demonstrate how street vendors engage in a "diverted", subversive, selling its products, creating and using the jingle and other similar relationships that are part of common culture, introducing itself as "ways of doing" that are appropriate or re-appropriated, consumed or accepted in joints over time and within the "anthropological urban spatiality

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In the past twenty years, there has been a significant increase of researches about teacher s professionalization. In that context, the investigations concerning teacher s knowledge represent an important contribution, as they aim to identify and to rescue the base of knowledge that sustains the teacher s profession. In particular, the reflections and propositions of Lee Shulman have been constitute a fundamental subsidy to the teacher s professionalization in the sense of harnessing the pedagogic knowledge to the content s knowledge, establishing the pedagogic knowledge of the content that characterizes and differentiates the teacher and the bachelor in a certain field of knowledge. Among the indispensable knowledge for the Chemistry teacher's professional practice, in this research we have pointed out the pertinence of the knowledge on the use of models in Chemistry classes in the middle and high school. Those knowledges regard the comprehension of students concerning the understanding and models elaborated in science and the models implemented in the Chemistry teaching, as well as the abilities to plan didactic situations that use models. In this research, we aimed to identify the contributions and barriers during the Chemistry teacher education, in UFRN, in relation to the construction of knowledge that subsidize training teachers in the elaboration of teaching activities that involve the use of models. The investigation was accomplished in UFRN, in the Course of Degree in Chemistry, along with 13 student teachers that studied the subject Practice of Chemistry Teaching. For this research, the following instruments were used: questionnaires with open and closed questions, elaboration of a plan of activities for the Chemistry teaching and an interview to answer the established study s questions. The data was analyzed in an established criteria, classified and tabled. The results showed that the student teachers representations regarding scientific knowledge contemplated, among other topics, the idea of a method for his/her construction. In some cases, the models role was emphasized in that construction, as well as the social dimension in the validation of that knowledge. The scientific models were highlighted by most of the student teachers, as a representation method to explain, understand and interpret the chemical phenomena. On the other hand, the didactic models stood out, in most of cases, as a method of aiding the Chemistry students of the Basic Education to understand the scientific models. The representations regarding those categories contemplated important aspects, although in a superficial way, reflecting the limitations of reflections during the formative process. In the elaboration of teaching activities that use models, difficulties were evidenced, in the process of plan construction, relative to the didactic structure and to the proposition of activities that contemplated models, although the student teachers have mobilized different elements regarding the pedagogic knowledge of the content. Such verifications evidence the urge for the teacher development programs to promote changes in the teacher education in order to propitiate, during this process, reflections, discussions and propositions of activities regarding categories highlighted in this research, contributing to the construction of initial elements regarding the pedagogic knowledge of the content that will be developed throughout teaching, therefore corroborating to the teacher s professionalization

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Descriptive exploratory study, prospective, with quantitative approach, performed on the Monsenhor Walfredo Gurgel Hospital Complex (MWGHC), in Natal/RN, aiming to identify injuries by body area and wound severity on drivers who suffered motorcycle accidents, evaluate the severity of injuries and trauma on these drivers and identify the existence of association between wound and trauma severity and some of the accident s characteristics. The population comprised 371 motorcycle drivers, with data collected between October and December 2007. We used as instruments the Abberviated Injury Scale (AIS), Injury Severity Score (ISS) and the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCE1). The results show that, concerning characterization, there was a predominance of the male gender (88.4%), aged between 18 and 24 years (39.90%), originating from the Natal metropolitan region (55.79%), with fundamental-level instruction (51.48%), catholic (75.78%), married (47.98%). 23.18% work on commerce-related activities and 75.20% have income of up to 2 minimum wages. As for the accident s characteristics, the predominant shift was the afternoon (46.36%), received up to one hour after the event (50.67%), transported by countryside ambulances colleagues and relatives (51.21%), 25.34% had the accident on Sunday; 53.91% suffered falls and vehicle rolls; among the collisions there was a predominance of the motorcycle-automoblie type (28.03%); 52,6% were licensed and among these 50.76% had up to one year of license; 65.50% declared not having suffered previous accidents; 65.77% declared waring helmets in the time of the accident; 57.41% said not to have used drugs, and among those who used, alcohol was the most consumed (98.10%). The lowest score evaluated by GCS1 (3 to 8) was linked to drivers who suffered accidents on Saturday (10.3%), those who were not wearing helmets (14.29%) and the victims of motorcycle-pedestrian/animal crashes (13.33%). The body areas most affected had AIS between 1 and 3 (95.76%) and were: external surface (39.90%) and head/neck (33.20%). As for trauma severity, the highest scores (ISS>25) belonged to those who consumed alcohol (30.73%), suffered falls or vehicle rolls (48.9%) and those attended to 3 hours or longer after the accident (50%). We conclude that for motorcycle drivers who suffered accidents, age, gender, weekday, type of accident, use of drugs and the absence of helmet use signal both to the risk of occurrence of these events, as well as for the greater severity of injuries and trauma.

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This work presents results of field and laboratory tests using a Dynamic Cone Penetrometer, DCP. The tests were performed in order to evaluate the use of the equipment in sand for the control of bearing capacity of shallow foundations and fill compaction. For shallow foundations, the laboratory tests were conducted on sand placed in a metallic mould by the method of sand pluviation. Although the results show the inability to reproduce field conditions in the laboratory it was possible to verify the ability of the DCP to identify less resistant soil layers. The DCP tests for the analysis of compaction control were performed in a strong box with inside dimensions of 1,40 m x 1,40 m and 0,70 m in height. The soil layers were compacted with different densities though the use of a vibrating plate in order to obtain correlations between penetration index, DPI, and soil relative density. Other tests were also conducted to assess the influence of soil moisture on tests results. Among other findings, the results showed the great potential for the use of DCP to control the compaction of sand fills

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The use of Natural Gas Vehicle has had a fast increase lately. However, in order to have a continuous success this Program needs to develop converting devices of Otto-cycle engines, gasoline or alcohol, to the use of NGV (Natural Gas Vehicle) that presents low cost, maintaining the same original development of the vehicle and low level of emissions, considering the PROCONVE rules. Due to the need to diversify the matrix in order to avoid energetic dependence and due to strict pollution control, it has increased in the Brazilian market the number of vehicles converted to the use of NGV. The recent regulation of the PROCONVE, determining that the converted engines with kits should be submitted to emission testing, comes to reinforce the necessity of the proposed development. Therefore, if we can obtain kits with the characteristics already described, we can reach a major trust in the market and obtain an increase acceptance of the vehicle conversion for NGV. The use of natural gas as vehicle fuel presents several advantages in relation to liquid fuels. It is a vehicle fuel with fewer indexes of emissions when compared to diesel; their combustion gases are less harmful, with a major level of safety than liquid fuels and the market price is quite competitive. The preoccupation that emerges, and the motivation of this project, is to know which are the main justifications for such technology, well accepted in other countries, with a low index or emission, with a high level of safety, where its maintenance becomes low, reminding that for this it is necessary that this technology has to be used properly, and once available in the market will not motivate interest in the urban transportation companies in Brazil, in research centers in general. Therefore this project exists to show the society in a general way the current vision of the main governmental factors, of the national research centers and of the private companies concerning the use of natural gas vehicles in urban transport vehicles, in order to give a major reliability to the population as well as to motivate national market competitiveness with a low cost and reliable product and to enrich the national technology

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The usual programs for load flow calculation were in general developped aiming the simulation of electric energy transmission, subtransmission and distribution systems. However, the mathematical methods and algorithms used by the formulations were based, in majority, just on the characteristics of the transmittion systems, which were the main concern focus of engineers and researchers. Though, the physical characteristics of these systems are quite different from the distribution ones. In the transmission systems, the voltage levels are high and the lines are generally very long. These aspects contribute the capacitive and inductive effects that appear in the system to have a considerable influence in the values of the interest quantities, reason why they should be taken into consideration. Still in the transmission systems, the loads have a macro nature, as for example, cities, neiborhoods, or big industries. These loads are, generally, practically balanced, what reduces the necessity of utilization of three-phase methodology for the load flow calculation. Distribution systems, on the other hand, present different characteristics: the voltage levels are small in comparison to the transmission ones. This almost annul the capacitive effects of the lines. The loads are, in this case, transformers, in whose secondaries are connected small consumers, in a sort of times, mono-phase ones, so that the probability of finding an unbalanced circuit is high. This way, the utilization of three-phase methodologies assumes an important dimension. Besides, equipments like voltage regulators, that use simultaneously the concepts of phase and line voltage in their functioning, need a three-phase methodology, in order to allow the simulation of their real behavior. For the exposed reasons, initially was developped, in the scope of this work, a method for three-phase load flow calculation in order to simulate the steady-state behaviour of distribution systems. Aiming to achieve this goal, the Power Summation Algorithm was used, as a base for developing the three phase method. This algorithm was already widely tested and approved by researchers and engineers in the simulation of radial electric energy distribution systems, mainly for single-phase representation. By our formulation, lines are modeled in three-phase circuits, considering the magnetic coupling between the phases; but the earth effect is considered through the Carson reduction. It s important to point out that, in spite of the loads being normally connected to the transformer s secondaries, was considered the hypothesis of existence of star or delta loads connected to the primary circuit. To perform the simulation of voltage regulators, a new model was utilized, allowing the simulation of various types of configurations, according to their real functioning. Finally, was considered the possibility of representation of switches with current measuring in various points of the feeder. The loads are adjusted during the iteractive process, in order to match the current in each switch, converging to the measured value specified by the input data. In a second stage of the work, sensibility parameters were derived taking as base the described load flow, with the objective of suporting further optimization processes. This parameters are found by calculating of the partial derivatives of a variable in respect to another, in general, voltages, losses and reactive powers. After describing the calculation of the sensibility parameters, the Gradient Method was presented, using these parameters to optimize an objective function, that will be defined for each type of study. The first one refers to the reduction of technical losses in a medium voltage feeder, through the installation of capacitor banks; the second one refers to the problem of correction of voltage profile, through the instalation of capacitor banks or voltage regulators. In case of the losses reduction will be considered, as objective function, the sum of the losses in all the parts of the system. To the correction of the voltage profile, the objective function will be the sum of the square voltage deviations in each node, in respect to the rated voltage. In the end of the work, results of application of the described methods in some feeders are presented, aiming to give insight about their performance and acuity