A cultura da produção de farinha: um estudo da matemática nos saberes dessa tradição

This research argues about the mathematical knowledge built in the tradition of the cassava flour production, seeking to analyse these mathematical knowledge in the perspective of the categories of time and measure, built and practiced in the flour production, located in Serra do Navio and Calçoene, in Amapá - Brazil. The following work discuss the identification and the description of the mathematics during the production activities of the flour, where is presented elements related to generation and transmission of the traditional knowledge, which is the basis for maintenance of the tradition of the flour, characterizing the research as an Ethnomathematic study. The methodological procedures highlight ethnographical techniques and elements that characterize the participating observation. The results obtained showed us that the flour workers articulate some length, area and volume measure due to own and traditionally acquired systems, which is apprehended and countersigned by other kind of culturally established system; thus they relativism the measures systems and the official calendars. And it lifts as one of the main proposal that the academic mathematics and the tradition establish knowledge make conjunction of the both knowledge, that is important for a possible reflection and application in the construction of a pedagogical practice in mathematical education, trying to establish points of socio-economic and cultural mark

Pastoril: uma educação celebrada no corpo e no riso

By means of the Pastoral one an Education celebrated in the body and the laugh, visible is unmasked by means of cançonetas and of the licentious gesticulations of the jokers of this idleness. For such, we support ourselves in the phenomenological of Merleau-Ponty, the tradition and transmission of the verbal as it is conceived by Paul Zumthor, as well as in the phenomenology of the memory of the jokers and in the studies of cultural history and the philosophy of the body. The objective research to argue the body and the laugh as learning of the culture, as well as carrying through the production of a cartography of the potiguar pastoral ones, in the direction to argue the elements of the licentious gesticulations for the look and of cançonetas for hearing. The research is of phenomenological nature and when appealing the Phenomenology as an attitude, recognizes our look on the phenomenon, what if we show for while searching citizens and we assume the reduction and the lived world as methodological boarding to think the searched phenomenon. As he was evidenced in this study, one searched to dimensional the reach of a reflection centered in the body and the laugh through the listening of cançonetas of the Pastoral one and the vision through the licentious gestures; a reflection centered in the body of the joker of Pastoral

Aquelas leituras formadoras de culturas (Caicó-RN, século XIX)

La lecture faite du livre Seridó − XIXème siècle (Fazendas & livros), des historiens Medeiros Filhos et Faria, a été ce qui a déclenché l écrit de cette thèse de doctorat. La lecture intensive de ce livre a conduit au corpus documentaire de la recherche (livres scolaires, religieux et laïques, chronique, discours, documents ecclésiastiques, inventaires, testaments, mémoires d'enfance, articles journalistiques, rapports), et aussi au corpus du référentiel théorico-méthodologique de l'histoire culturelle de la lecture, en correspondance avec Roger Chartier et Robert Darnton. Dans la rigueur de l'écriture de la thèse, la recherche relative à la thématique lecture et absorptions culturelles nous a menés à définir comme objet d'étude les pratiques culturelles appropriées pertinemment aux lectures faites, entendues, murmurées, de nombreuses fois répétées et mémorisées, de livres scolaires imprimés, religieux et laïques qui circulaient à Caicó, dans les années mille huit cents. En vue de la lecture intensive et de l'extensive, l'objectif est d analyser, d'une part, des indices d'absorptions ou appropriations culturelles des enseignements de ces pratiques de lecture et, d'autre part, les entrelacements des enseignements relatifs à l'oralité, à la lecture, à l'écrit et à la scolarisation. La thèse défendue est que l'histoire de la lecture à Caicó, au XIXème siècle, est l'histoire de la lecture faite, entendue, murmurée, répétée et, encore, mémorisée, qui, soutenue par des textes de livres scolaires, religieux et laïques, se convertissait dans la production de biens culturels spécifiques, comme des cartes, inventaires, remèdes homéopátiques et faits maison, testaments, prières fortes de cure, vers de cordel, parmi beaucoup d'autres. En commençant avec l'intention d écrire une histoire de la lecture à Caicó, au XIXème siècle, nous comprenons que les pratiques culturelles, spécialement les pratiques des coutumes seridoenses, sont, excessivement, le résultat des appropriations de lectures de textes scolaires, religieux et laïques, stimulatrices d'autres pratiques de lectures intensives et extensives. Si la lecture faite, entendue, répétée, mémorisée et reconnue est liée à des pratiques de coutumes universelles et locales, malgré cela la force de l'oralité aurait été l élément essentiel de la reproduction et de la longévité de cette lecture, ainsi que de son passage du XIXème siècle au XXème et, encore, des vestiges de certaines permanences de ce XXIème siècle. En partie, ce réseau de pratiques culturelles, reproduit par la force de la transmission orale, persiste depuis l époque de nos arrière-arrière-grand-parents

Como vão se formando os professores em física e química: embates entre o ser, o ter e o fazer na formação de licenciandos da UFRN sob a perspectiva da teoria das representações sociais

The purpose of this work is to approach and understand the Social Representations (SR) (MOSCOVICI, 2003) about Physics and Chemistry from people who are major in these courses, as well as their Social Representations about teaching . We took as principle that approaching these representations it would be possible to relate their symbolic contents, in order to show how people who are following the first segments of bachelor degree courses in Physics and Chemistry become teachers, taking into account a psychosocial view. Two source of data was used during this research: Free-association Technique FA (ABRIC, 1994); and Multiple Classification Procedure (MCP) (ROAZZI, 1995). The analytical treatment of the collected data from FA was done according to the proposition of Grize, Vergés and Silem (1987 apud ABRIC, 1994, p. 66). MCP data were analyzed through MSA (Multidimensional Scalogram Analysis) and SSA (Singular Spectrum Analysis) methods associated with the Facet Theory (BILSKY, 2003). The discourses of MCP discussing groups at the moment of explanations were studied by Content Analysis as it was proposed by Bardin (1977) and Franco (2005). Indicative of an approach to the relations with knowledge (CHARLOT, 2000), the connections which aroused from the analyses showed that the group of future majors in Physics thought that this scientific field was based on a rationalist conception, influencing the idealization sense of the phenomena to be explained by Physics. Thus, Physics as school content started to require the student of the fundamental and high school to think abstractly as a cognitive skill of learning. The identifying elements observed in the relations between SR about Physics and Teaching aroused from the antagonism between future majors and their teacher, as well as from the speculation between their fundamental and high school students and themselves, mainly when they had to face the act of teaching due to the obstacles imposed by the own educational system, and by the weakness of the initial preparation. The group of future majors in Chemistry, through its discourses, showed these relations when they conceived empiricist Chemistry and said that teaching was the way of transmission of this knowledge, and didactics of Chemistry teaching was the direction to learning through pedagogic methods in order to lead the students to discoveries. The psychosocial contents which were built and showed from the symbolic relations in the studied SR achieved the relation of identity. This relation revealed identifying elements for these people, resulting from the traffic between their condition as students of Chemistry, and as teachers regarding their work, what placed the current relational contents in the teaching space, named as Knowledge changing and Adaptability . In order to study emerging questions in the discussing environment about formation and teaching professionalization, we focused the psychosocial view on this traffic and managed to observe epistemological practical and pedagogic obstacles that limited a configuration of the teaching work as a professional activity, especially from the particular conditions which led the relations of senses to Physics , Chemistry and Teaching ; and Chemistry and Physics as it was seen in this research. Generally speaking, we noted that these obstacles can denounce such obstacles concerning to the pedagogic doings which mainly impair the learning process of fundamental and high school students

Educação do campo e alternância :reflexões sobre uma experiência na Transamazônica/Pará

The study theme is the Rural Familiar House Program (RFHP), through the Rural Familiar House of Uruará-PA city (URFH), from 2000 to 2005. It is considered as base the education offered to the field young people, in the modality of basic education by alternation methodology between the Familiar and School Times in the two first from 5th to 8th grade classrooms. From the argument about the understanding importance and need of knowledge transmission and construction to be established in the inter-section between general references of the social reality and the subjective ones. It constitutes an educative work that both values domain of knowing and the creative capacity of each pupil. Considering that the greatest aim of the education is the human being emancipation, this thematic for the development of the documentary and field research was defined with the delimitated thematic for the educative practice-proposal in alternation, choosing the Program of the RFHs as the reference to carry out an analysis which considered fruitful in the articulation between education and educative work. This study had the objective to contribute for the debate concerning the alternation and to understand presuposals and educative practice of the RFHs what its importance for the young people and its relation with the field educational policy. For this, it was used, mainly, from analytical references of authors, such as Williams, Gramsci, Adorno, Freire, Shiva, Soares, Molina, Tonet, et. all, all were also important for the construction of this work. The studied documentary sources, as well as the verbal ones the actors also interviewed had allowed, in irreplaceable way and significantly, a critical analysis on the pedagogical proposals and the articulation among school, familiar work and education, which was carried out in the formation of URFH, the sessions of alternation between Time School and Time Family. The results are scored with the chapter construction, as they had presented themselves in several sources and the reading which was made. A reading that signals for the affirmation which is possible to overtake the emphasis on technicality, mediated in the practice-theory-practice relation, still present in the alternation, and, thus, to be able to make an educative work that intends to contribute for the young people education with capacity of being, thinking and to act actually as subjects of their history

Educação em saúde em hanseníase: estratégia na educação básica, Parnamirim/RN

Leprosy is an ancient disease that still stands as a public health problem worldwide, especially in the considered developing countries. Of these, Brazil still has large areas of endemicity. The disease remains high among those younger than 15 years old. In this group, the national index achieves 0.6 every 10 000 inhabitants and reaches 2 in the North and Midwest of Brazil. Therefore, the plan of the Ministry of Health is to prioritize the fight against disease in critical areas, providing early diagnosis and timely treatment, especially for patients under 15 years old. This research aimed to: identify the knowledge of students from three schools of basic education in Parnamirim/RN about the risk of getting ill in leprosy; conduct them health education on this topic. An exploratory-descriptive study with quantitative and qualitative nature. Data collection consists of two steps: questionnaire and health education on leprosy. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee (REC) of UFRN through the opinion nº 204/2009. Quantitative data obtained were organized, categorized, typed and submitted to the Microsoft Office - Excel for quantitative analysis with simple percentage. Qualitative data were subjected to a content analysis according to Bardin. The sample consisted of 164 students of basic education, most of which is: 1st year of high school, from 11 to 15 years, in the afternoon shift, female gender, skin color white and residents in the municipality of Parnamirim/RN. Still, each student living with four people curiously did not respond in relation to occupation of the father. But the same answered their mother as a housewife and a family income of one to less than four minimum wages. There have been significant results compared the performance of health education in leprosy. Initially, students possessed little knowledge about leprosy. Subsequent to health education, most knew the answer about the disease, transmission, cause, where to get help in case of suspicion of leprosy and the need for the people who lives with leprosy patients to also seek for help, the understanding about if it is treatable or not. Content analysis has established the following themes: axis I, what I do not know about leprosy: cure, fear and prejudice. Axis II, what I know about leprosy, we identified: cure, effectiveness of health education and social exclusion in the past. It is considered the scope of the proposed objectives by matching the effectiveness of health education on leprosy in basic education in Parnamirim/RN; emphasizes, therefore, the importance of understanding the knowledge of public school students. It is expected of them to detect early cases of leprosy in their communities; encourage adherence to treatment as quickly as possible; prevent disability; reduce the stigma surrounding the disease.

O conhecimento e as atitudes das famílias de pacientes em tratamento em tuberculose na atenção primária à saúde

This study thus sought to examine knowledge about TB and attitudes of patients families in disease treatment in Primary Health Care in Natal- RN. To this end, a cross-sectional study was undertaken through a questionnaire with families of patients diagnosed with TB and follow up by APS from Natal. The study subjects were recruited from a non-probabilistic way, by convenience, contemplating a sample of 50 families. Among the criteria considered for inclusion of subjects, older than 18 years were considered, as well as residing with the TB patient and in Natal and availability to participate in the research. Data collection was performed by own researcher and an assistant, through a questionnaire with families of patients diagnosed with TB following the double independent digitalization of data. In the analytical phase, was initially conducted an exploratory phase and univariate data, with description of the position measurements (mean, median, mode) and dispersion (confidence interval and standard deviation). In bivariate analysis, it was conducted an intersection of dependent variables of knowledge e and changes of attitude dichotomous, with each of the independent variables, using contingency tables and calculating the chi-square test and, when appropriate, the Fisher exact test. In 2x2 tables, calculated the odds ratio (OR) with confidence intervals of 95% (95% CI). From the selected sample, 43 (86%) subjects were female, average age and median respectively of 46.64 and 46.50 years, 25 (50%) had elementary school. The knowledge expressed by family members about TB was considered satisfactory. However, the lack of interest of the family (54%) in seeking information about tuberculosis; the wrong way of reply in relation to the organism causing the disease (64%); the water content (62%) and contaminated food (54% ) as a means of spreading TB was a weakness identified in the investigation. Regarding the time of transmission, 90% of respondents indicated not know or answered wrong. From investigated independent variables, only two were associated with lack of knowledge of TB, and they did not have religion (OR: 0.146, 95% CI: 0.027 to 0.800) and income below 1, 7 minimum wages (OR: 0.155, 95% CI: 0.029 to 0.813). Thus they seem to exercise a protective effect on this outcome. As for the changes in attitude, most of the found variables had no association with statistical significance, except no internet access (OR: 0.212, 95% CI: 0,048-0, 935). Most attitudes were positive in relation to TB patient. Results have demonstrated weaknesses in TB care, which has taken on a more individual and welfare character. Data not only express health outcomes produced by health services, but also the political and social situation of the families that are affected by TB

Adoção de tecnologias móveis em empresas do Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco e Ceará

One of the best examples of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) evolutions is on the high capability of storing and processing data into smaller devices, creating a new business condition, the mobility . This mobility in a deeper analysis proposes a business remodeling in many different areas (business segmentations), through the Internet anywhere at any time, allowing managers and researchers to think again their actual models that work nowadays in companies and public institutions, modifying the way internal and external clients can be attended. This thesis analyzes issues on mobile business adoption, technological evolutions and the impacts caused by this new reality the access to information anywhere at any time . This research is exploratory and shows a compilation of similar papers and thesis describing how was conducted the survey within 50 companies in the states of Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco and Ceará. The statistics analysis showed the different level of mobile technology usage from simple voice communications to wide band data transmission. The analysis pointed that canonic correlation was the most effective type of analysis to describe the relations among all groups of variables showing which of them are relevant, or not, for mobile technology adoption

Protocolo multiciclos para automação hospitalar sobre Multicast com IEEE 802.3 utilizando

The concepts of the industrial automation are being incorporated in the medical area, in other words, they also pass to be applied in the hospital automation. In this sense, researches have been developed and have usually been approached several of the problems that are pertinent to the processes that can be automated in the hospital environment. Considering that in the automation processes, an imperative factor is the communication, because the systems are usually distributed, the network for data transference becomes itself an important point in these processes. Because this network should be capable to provide the exchange of data and to guarantee the demands that are imposed by the automation process. In this context, this doctorate thesis proposed, specified, analyzed and validated the Multicycles Protocol for Hospital Automation (MP-HA), which is customized to assist the demands in these automation processes, seeking to guarantee the determinism in the communications and to optimize the factor of use of the mean of transmission

Uso de técnicas de otimização baseadas em derivadas como suporte do planejamento operacional de redes de distribuição de energia elétrica

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

Um protocolo de comunicação multicast na camada de aplicação com Consciência de Localização

Internet applications such as media streaming, collaborative computing and massive multiplayer are on the rise,. This leads to the need for multicast communication, but unfortunately group communications support based on IP multicast has not been widely adopted due to a combination of technical and non-technical problems. Therefore, a number of different application-layer multicast schemes have been proposed in recent literature to overcome the drawbacks. In addition, these applications often behave as both providers and clients of services, being called peer-topeer applications, and where participants come and go very dynamically. Thus, servercentric architectures for membership management have well-known problems related to scalability and fault-tolerance, and even peer-to-peer traditional solutions need to have some mechanism that takes into account member's volatility. The idea of location awareness distributes the participants in the overlay network according to their proximity in the underlying network allowing a better performance. Given this context, this thesis proposes an application layer multicast protocol, called LAALM, which takes into account the actual network topology in the assembly process of the overlay network. The membership algorithm uses a new metric, IPXY, to provide location awareness through the processing of local information, and it was implemented using a distributed shared and bi-directional tree. The algorithm also has a sub-optimal heuristic to minimize the cost of membership process. The protocol has been evaluated in two ways. First, through an own simulator developed in this work, where we evaluated the quality of distribution tree by metrics such as outdegree and path length. Second, reallife scenarios were built in the ns-3 network simulator where we evaluated the network protocol performance by metrics such as stress, stretch, time to first packet and reconfiguration group time

Dedução de Funções de Alívio para Priorização de Variantes de Chaveamento Adequadas à Eliminação de Sobrecargas

Eventually, violations of voltage limits at buses or admissible loadings of transmission lines and/or power transformers may occur by the power system operation. If violations are detected in the supervision process, corrective measures may be carried out in order to eliminate them or to reduce their intensity. Loading restriction is an extreme solution and should only be adopted as the last control action. Previous researches have shown that it is possible to control constraints in electrical systems by changing the network topology, using the technique named Corrective Switching, which requires no additional costs. In previous works, the proposed calculations for verifying the ability of a switching variant in eliminating an overload in a specific branch were based on network reduction or heuristic analysis. The purpose of this work is to develop analytical derivation of linear equations to estimate current changes in a specific branch (due to switching measures) by means of few calculations. For bus-bar coupling, derivations will be based on short-circuit theory and Relief Function methodology. For bus-bar splitting, a Relief Function will be derived based on a technique of equivalent circuit. Although systems of linear equations are used to substantiate deductions, its formal solution for each variant, in real time does not become necessary. A priority list of promising variants is then assigned for final check by an exact load flow calculation and a transient analysis using ATP Alternative Transient Program. At last, results obtained by simulation in networks with different features will be presented

Caracterização de estruturas planares com substratos Iso/Anisotrópicos truncados através da técnica da ressonância transversa modificada

This work presents a theoretical and numerical analysis using the transverse resonance technique (TRT) and a proposed MTRT applied in the analysis of the dispersive characteristics of microstrip lines built on truncated isotropic and anisotropic dielectric substrates. The TRT uses the transmission lines model in the transversal section of the structure, allowing to analyze its dispersive behavior. The difference between TRT and MTRT consists basically of the resonance direction. While in the TRT the resonance is calculated in the same direction of the metallic strip normal axis, the MTRT considers the resonance in the metallic strip parallel plane. Although the application of the MTRT results in a more complex equivalent circuit, its use allows some added characterization, like longitudinal section electric mode (LSE) and longitudinal section magnetic mode (LSM), microstrips with truncated substrate, or structures with different dielectric regions. A computer program using TRT and MTRT proposed in this work is implemented for the characterization of microstrips on truncated isotropic and anisotropic substrates. In this analysis, propagating and evanescent modes are considered. Thus, it is possible to characterize both the dominant and higher order modes of the structure. Numerical results are presented for the effective permittivity, characteristic impedance and relative phase velocity for microstrip lines with different parameters and dimensions of the dielectric substrate. Agreement with the results obtained in the literature are shown, as well as experimental results. In some cases, the convergence analysis is also performed by considering the limiting conditions, like particular cases of isotropic materials or structures with dielectric of infinite size found in the literature. The numerical convergence of the formulation is also analyzed. Finally, conclusions and suggestions for the continuity of this work are presented

Um algoritmo para estimação de estado em alimentadores de distribuição de energia elétrica com base no método da soma de potências

Most algorithms for state estimation based on the classical model are just adequate for use in transmission networks. Few algorithms were developed specifically for distribution systems, probably because of the little amount of data available in real time. Most overhead feeders possess just current and voltage measurements at the middle voltage bus-bar at the substation. In this way, classical algorithms are of difficult implementation, even considering off-line acquired data as pseudo-measurements. However, the necessity of automating the operation of distribution networks, mainly in regard to the selectivity of protection systems, as well to implement possibilities of load transfer maneuvers, is changing the network planning policy. In this way, some equipments incorporating telemetry and command modules have been installed in order to improve operational features, and so increasing the amount of measurement data available in real-time in the System Operation Center (SOC). This encourages the development of a state estimator model, involving real-time information and pseudo-measurements of loads, that are built from typical power factors and utilization factors (demand factors) of distribution transformers. This work reports about the development of a new state estimation method, specific for radial distribution systems. The main algorithm of the method is based on the power summation load flow. The estimation is carried out piecewise, section by section of the feeder, going from the substation to the terminal nodes. For each section, a measurement model is built, resulting in a nonlinear overdetermined equations set, whose solution is achieved by the Gaussian normal equation. The estimated variables of a section are used as pseudo-measurements for the next section. In general, a measurement set for a generic section consists of pseudo-measurements of power flows and nodal voltages obtained from the previous section or measurements in real-time, if they exist -, besides pseudomeasurements of injected powers for the power summations, whose functions are the load flow equations, assuming that the network can be represented by its single-phase equivalent. The great advantage of the algorithm is its simplicity and low computational effort. Moreover, the algorithm is very efficient, in regard to the accuracy of the estimated values. Besides the power summation state estimator, this work shows how other algorithms could be adapted to provide state estimation of middle voltage substations and networks, namely Schweppes method and an algorithm based on current proportionality, that is usually adopted for network planning tasks. Both estimators were implemented not only as alternatives for the proposed method, but also looking for getting results that give support for its validation. Once in most cases no power measurement is performed at beginning of the feeder and this is required for implementing the power summation estimations method, a new algorithm for estimating the network variables at the middle voltage bus-bar was also developed

Uso de técnicas de otimização baseadas em derivadas como suporte do planejamento operacional de redes de distribuição de energia elétrica

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 developping 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. Its important to point out that, in spite of the loads being normally connected to the transformers 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