Helicopter emergency medical rescue for the traumatized: experience in the metropolitan region of Campinas, Brazil

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the profile of patients served by the air medical rescue system in the Metropolitan Region of Campinas, evaluating: triage and mobilization criteria; response time; on-site care and transport time; invasive procedures performed in the Pre-Hospital Care (PHC); severity of patients; morbidity and mortality.METHODS: We conducted a prospective, descriptive study in which we analyzed medical records of patients rescued between July 2010 and December 2012. During this period, 242 victims were taken to the HC-Unicamp. Of the 242 patients, 22 were excluded from the study.RESULTS: of the 220 cases evaluated, 173 (78.6%) were male, with a mean age of 32 years. Blunt trauma was the most prevalent (207 cases - 94.1%), motorcycle accidents being the most common mechanisms of injury (66 cases - 30%), followed by motor vehicle collisions (51 cases - 23.2%). The average response time was 10 ± 4 minutes and the averaged total pre-hospital time was 42 ± 11 minutes. The mean values of the trauma indices were: RTS = 6.2 ± 2.2; ISS = 19.2 ± 12.6; and TRISS = 0.78 ± 0.3. Tracheal intubation in the pre-hospital environment was performed in 77 cases (35%); 43 patients (19.5%) had RTS of 7.84 and ISSd"9, being classified as over-triaged. Of all patients admitted, the mortality was 15.9% (35 cases).CONCLUSION: studies of air medical rescue in Brazil are required due to the investments made in the pre-hospital care in a country without an organized trauma system. The high rate of over-triage found highlights the need to improve the triage and mobilization criteria.

Alcohol and brief intervention for trauma victims

Objective:to describe the causes and severities of trauma in patients who met the criteria for alcohol abuse or dependence according to Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, and to display the pattern of alcohol consumption and subsequent changes one year after trauma.Methods:a transversal and longitudinal quantitative study carried out between November 2012 and September 2013 in the ED. Medical and nursing students collected blood samples, applied the J section of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) and submitted alcohol abusers and dependents to BI. One year after admission, patients were contacted and asked about their patterns of alcohol use and their reasons for any changes.Results:from a sample of 507 patients admitted to the ED for trauma, 348 responded to MINI, 90 (25.9%) being abusers and 36 (10.3%) dependent on alcohol. Among the abusers, the most frequent cause of injury was motorcycle accident (35.6%) and among the dependents it was predominantly interpersonal violence (22.2%). Positive blood samples for alcohol were identified in 31.7% of the abusers and 53.1% of the dependents. One year after trauma, 66 abusers and 31 dependents were contacted, and it was ascertained that 36.4% of the abusers and 19.4% of the dependents had decreased alcohol consumption. The main reported reason for the reduction was the experienced trauma.Conclusion:the motorcycle accident was the most common cause of injury. The detection of problematic alcohol use and implementation of BI are important strategies in the ED, however for alcohol abusers and dependents, BI was not the most reported reason for any changes in patterns of alcohol use.

A temperature predicting model for manufacturing processes requiring coiling

A model for predicting temperature evolution for automatic controling systems in manufacturing processes requiring the coiling of bars in the transfer table is presented. Although the method is of a general nature, the presentation in this work refers to the manufacturing of steel plates in hot rolling mills. The predicting strategy is based on a mathematical model of the evolution of temperature in a coiling and uncoiling bar and is presented in the form of a parabolic partial differential equation for a shape changing domain. The mathematical model is solved numerically by a space discretization via geometrically adaptive finite elements which accomodate the change in shape of the domain, using a computationally novel treatment of the resulting thermal contact problem due to coiling. Time is discretized according to a Crank-Nicolson scheme. Since the actual physical process takes less time than the time required by the process controlling computer to solve the full mathematical model, a special predictive device was developed, in the form of a set of least squares polynomials, based on the off-line numerical solution of the mathematical model.

Efeitos de produtos químicos na transpiração e no potencial da água de seringueira (Hevea brasiliensis Muell . Arg. cv.RRIM 600)

Um experimento foi realizado em condições de campo, em Piracicaba (SP), visando avali ar a eficiência de diferentes produtos químicos, em aplicação foliar, na taxa transpiratória e no potencial da água de folhas das plantas de seringueira (He Yea brasiliens is cv. RRIM 600) com 1,5 ano de idade. Os tratamentos utilizados foram: polissulfetc, de polietileno (Good-rite peps) 0,04 %, oxietileno docosanol (Oed green) 2%, caulim (silicato de aluminio) 3%, e atrazine 50 ppm, alem do controle. Através do método da pesagem rápida de folhas desta cadas, com balança de torço tipo Jung, verificou-se a perda de água pelas plantas de seringueira foi restringida significativamente pelo anti-transpirante metabólico (atrazine) com relação ao controle, aos formadores de filme e ao refletor. Polissulfeto de polietileno apresentou as menores amplitudes de variações na taxa respiratória. Atrazine também promoveu a manutenção do potencial da água das folhas mais alto (-7,8 bars) com relação ao controle (-14,8 bars), de acordo com determinações efe tuadas através da Câmara de Scholander.

Controle de Brachiaria subquadripara e Brachiaria mutica através de diferentes herbicidas aplicados em pós-emergência

Foram realizados dois experimentos, com objetivo de avaliar a suscetibilidade de Brachiaria subquadripara e Brachiaria mutica a diferentes herbicidas aplicados em pósemergência. Os herbicidas e doses testados foram: glyphosate (Rodeo) a 2.400, 3.360 e 4.320 g e.a. ha-1 com Aterbane a 0,5% v/v; glyphosate a 2.400, 3.360 e 4.320 g e.a. ha-1 com Silwet a 0,1% v/v; imazapyr (Arsenal) a 750 e 1.500 g e.a. ha-1; e diquat (Reward) a 400 e 800 g i.a. ha-1 com aplicação seqüencial. Manteve-se uma testemunha sem aplicação de herbicidas. As parcelas experimentais foram constituídas de caixas d'água de 60 x 60 x 45 cm, com 55 L de solo. A aplicação foi realizada quando as plantas se encontravam a 45 e 65 cm de altura para B. subquadripara e B. mutica, respectivamente. Foi utilizado um pulverizador costal, a pressão constante de CO2 (2 bars), pontas 110.02 XR, com um consumo de calda de 200 L ha-1. O controle foi avaliado visualmente, através de escala percentual de notas, além de se avaliar a massa seca das plantas. O herbicida glyphosate nas doses de 3.360 e 4.320 g e.a. ha-1, independentemente do adjuvante testado, proporcionou controle excelente para as duas espécies, porém as parcelas que receberam glyphosate a 2.400 g e.a. ha-1 apresentaram controle apenas satisfatório. O herbicida imazapyr nas doses de 750 e 1.500 g e.a. ha-1 proporcionou controle eficiente para B. subquadripara e excelente para B. mutica. Já o herbicida diquat, apesar de duas aplicações e independentemente da dose utilizada, mostrou-se ineficiente no controle das duas espécies.

Controle químico de plantas aquáticas: Polygonum lapathifolium

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a eficiência de alguns herbicidas no controle de Polygonum lapathifolium. O experimento foi instalado e conduzido no Núcleo de Pesquisas Avançadas em Matologia, pertencente à Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas da UNESP - Botucatu-SP. Plantas de P. lapathifolium foram coletadas no rio Tietê e cultivadas em caixas d'água de fibra de vidro de 0,6 x 0,6 x 0,45 m, contendo 15 cm de solo. Os tratamentos utilizados foram: 2,4-D amina a 720 a 1.440 g e.a. ha-1; diquat a 480 g i.a. ha-1; glyphosate a 2.400 e 3.360 g e.a. ha-1 + Aterbane 0,5% v/v; imazapyr a 250 e 500 g e.a. ha-1; e testemunha sem aplicação de herbicida. A aplicação foi realizada com um pulverizador costal pressurizado a CO2, a pressão constante de 2,0 bars, equipado com barra de pulverização munida de dois bicos de jato plano, tipo Teejet XR 110.02 VS. O consumo de calda foi de 200 L ha-1. O delineamento experimental utilizado foi o inteiramente casualizado, com três repetições. As avaliações foram visuais, atribuindo-se notas para os sintomas de injúrias de acordo com uma escala percentual. Apenas o herbicida glyphosate, independentemente da dose utilizada, controlou as plantas de Polygonum lapathifolium, atingindo 100% aos 46 dias após a aplicação. Inicialmente o herbicida diquat promoveu injúrias severas, entretanto, no decorrer do período de avaliações, elas se dissiparam e as plantas rebrotaram.

Efeito de diferentes concentrações de aterbane na deposição de calda em plantas de Pistia stratiotes

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito do adjuvante Aterbane na deposição de calda de pulverização, aplicada sobre plantas de Pistia stratiotes. Os tratamentos foram constituídos por três concentrações do adjuvante Aterbane (0, 0,25 e 0,5%), usado na elaboração da calda de pulverização. As caldas foram preparadas utilizando-se o corante FDC-1 a 1.500 ppm como traçante. O delineamento experimental adotado foi o inteiramente casualizado com 30 repetições, sendo cada repetição constituída por uma planta com seis folhas. A aplicação foi feita com um pulverizador estacionário, à pressão constante de 2 bars, com consumo de calda de 200 L ha-1. Foram utilizadas pontas de jato plano Teejet 11002vs. Os resultados demonstraram que, quantitativamente, o Aterbane não promoveu nenhum efeito na deposição da calda, entretanto, qualitativamente, quanto maior a concentração utilizada maior foi a uniformidade de deposição de calda.

The 2008 financial crisis and neoclassical economics

The 2008 global financial crisis was the consequence of the process of financialization, or the creation of massive fictitious financial wealth, that began in the 1980s, and of the hegemony of a reactionary ideology, namely, neoliberalism, based on self-regulated and efficient markets. Although capitalism is intrinsically unstable, the lessons from the stock-market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression of the 1930s were transformed into theories and institutions or regulations that led to the "30 glorious years of capitalism" (1948-1977) and that could have avoided a financial crisis as profound as the present one. It did not because a coalition of rentiers and "financists" achieved hegemony and, while deregulating the existing financial operations, refused to regulate the financial innovations that made these markets even more risky. Neoclassical economics played the role of a meta-ideology as it legitimized, mathematically and "scientifically", neoliberal ideology and deregulation. From this crisis a new capitalism will emerge, though its character is difficult to predict. It will not be financialized but the tendencies present in the 30 glorious years toward global and knowledge-based capitalism, where professionals will have more say than rentier capitalists, as well as the tendency to improve democracy by making it more social and participative, will b e resumed.

The boom and crisis of the Convertibility Plan in Argentina

This article analyses the relationship between state policies and economy in Argentina 1991-2001. In 1991 the currency board regime named 'convertibility' was implemented, within the framework of important neoliberal reforms introduced by the State. These neoliberal reforms facilitated capitalist restructuring, characterized by a leap in productivity, investment and profits. Likewise, these reforms generated imbalances which, along with the changes in the world market conditions from 1998, led to the deepest crisis in Argentina's history. The inefficiency of state neoliberal policies in managing the crisis, based on fiscal adjustment to guarantee the continuity of external financing, led to an economic depression and a financial crash, sparking a mass rebellion and the end of convertibility.