Reproductive dynamics of Sterna hirundinacea Lesson, 1831 in Ilha dos Cardos, Santa Catarina, Brazil

In this work, we intend to describe the reproductive dynamics of Sterna hirundinacea in an island fromSouth Brazil.We studied the reproductive biology of this species in its natural environment and provide data on their growth, survival, and reproductive success in Ilha dosCardos, SantaCatarina, South Brazil. Samplingswere carried out daily on the island throughout the reproductive seasons of 2003, 2005, and 2006 and the different stages of development of the chicks were characterized according to age, length of the beak, and plumage characteristics.We provide a basic equation Lm = 167.91 (1 – e −0.062t−(−0.23)) to determine the approximate age of individuals using their body mass. The main cause of chick mortality on the island was natural (63.17% in 2003, 81.41% in 2005, and 79.96% in 2006), whereas predation contributed to mortality in a proportion of 38.83% in 2003, 18.59% in 2005, and 20.04% in 2006.The absence in the area of the chicks’ main predator, Kelp gull (Larus dominicanus), the large number of chicks that reached the final stages of development, and their reproductive success demonstrate that Ilha dos Cardos is an important breeding site for the species in southern Brazil.

Pittosporum Undulatum and Hedychium Gardnerianum: nutritive value and secondary metabolites on cattle reproductive performances

Hedychium gardnerianum (HG) and Pittospporum undulatum (PU) are invasive plants all over the world, being in the Azores supplied to cattle on periods of shortage food. As these plants produce secondary metabolites, including a diverse range of phytochemicals compounds, the aim of the presente study is to identify how these metabolites can be related to animal’s reproductive performances. For such purpose, plants were harvested on winter, compounds extracted by method of decoction and analysed by combination of liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry as well as highperformance liquid chromatography. For nutritive evaluations, Van Soest and Weende methodologies were used. In HG quercetin-3, 4'-di-O-betaglucopyranoside, myricetin rhamnoside, quercetin rhamnoside, and gibberellin A1 and A8 were identified, while for PU were found cafeic acid derivatives, including dicaffeoylquinic acid and caffeoylquinic acid. In nutritional terms, these plants can be considered as poor, presenting percentages of dry matter (DM%) of 16.34% and 40.39%, respectively for HG and PU. Values for ash 10.4%, crude protein (CP) 7.75%, neutral detergent fiber (NDF) 64.5, acid detergent fiber (ADF) 34.69%, acid detergent lignin (ADL) 3.47% and ether extract (EE) 2.03% were found for HG. For PU values were ash 6.64%, CP 6.11%, NDF 43.84%, acid ADF 35.57%, ADL 3.56% and EE 2.71%. This study clearly indicated that, besides their low nutritive values, these plants can be used to feed ruminants, especially when pasture lacks. Nevertheless, as some compounds, namely the caffeoylquinic and dicaffeoylquinic acids, are known to be associated to physiological reproductive mechanisms, one could speculate that these compounds can be directly or indirectly associated to reproductive performances in bovine fed with these plants.

Comparison of allocation approaches in soybean biodiesel life cycle assessment

This work shows the influence of using different allocation approaches when modelling the inventory analysis in a soybean biodiesel life cycle assessment (LCA). Results obtained using mass, energy and economic based allocations are compared, focusing on the following aspects: normalised potential environmental impact (PEI) categories, total PEI and relative contributions to the total PEI from each life cycle stage and environmental impact category. Similar results are obtained either using economic and energy based allocations. However, different results are obtained when mass based allocation is used when compared with the other two. This study also illustrates that using different allocation approaches in biodiesel LCA may influence the final conclusions, especially in comparative assertions, emphasising the need to perform a sensitivity analysis in the LCA interpretation step.

Distributed MPC for Thermal Comfort and Load Allocation with Energy Auction

This paper presents a distributed predictive control methodology for indoor thermal comfort that optimizes the consumption of a limited shared energy resource using an integrated demand-side management approach that involves a power price auction and an appliance loads allocation scheme. The control objective for each subsystem (house or building) aims to minimize the energy cost while maintaining the indoor temperature inside comfort limits. In a distributed coordinated multi-agent ecosystem, each house or building control agent achieves its objectives while sharing, among them, the available energy through the introduction of particular coupling constraints in their underlying optimization problem. Coordination is maintained by a daily green energy auction bring in a demand-side management approach. Also the implemented distributed MPC algorithm is described and validated with simulation studies.

An Explicit GTS allocation algorithm for IEEE 802.15.4

The IEEE 802.15.4 standard provides appealing features to simultaneously support real-time and non realtime traffic, but it is only capable of supporting real-time communications from at most seven devices. Additionally, it cannot guarantee delay bounds lower than the superframe duration. Motivated by this problem, in this paper we propose an Explicit Guaranteed time slot Sharing and Allocation scheme (EGSA) for beacon-enabled IEEE 802.15.4 networks. This scheme is capable of providing tighter delay bounds for real-time communications by splitting the Contention Free access Period (CFP) into smaller mini time slots and by means of a new guaranteed bandwidth allocation scheme for a set of devices with periodic messages. At the same the novel bandwidth allocation scheme can maximize the duration of the CFP for non real-time communications. Performance analysis results show that the EGSA scheme works efficiently and outperforms competitor schemes both in terms of guaranteed delay and bandwidth utilization.

Bandwidth allocation in hexagonal wireless sensor networks for real-time communications

We present an algorithm for bandwidth allocation for delay-sensitive traffic in multi-hop wireless sensor networks. Our solution considers both periodic as well as aperiodic real-time traffic in an unified manner. We also present a distributed MAC protocol that conforms to the bandwidth allocation and thus satisfies the latency requirements of realtime traffic. Additionally, the protocol provides best-effort service to non real-time traffic. We derive the utilization bounds of our MAC protocol.

An implicit GTS allocation mechanism in IEEE 802.15.4 for time-sensitive wireless sensor networks: theory and practice

Timeliness guarantee is an important feature of the recently standardized IEEE 802.15.4 protocol, turning it quite appealing for Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) applications under timing constraints. When operating in beacon-enabled mode, this protocol allows nodes with real-time requirements to allocate Guaranteed Time Slots (GTS) in the contention-free period. The protocol natively supports explicit GTS allocation, i.e. a node allocates a number of time slots in each superframe for exclusive use. The limitation of this explicit GTS allocation is that GTS resources may quickly disappear, since a maximum of seven GTSs can be allocated in each superframe, preventing other nodes to benefit from guaranteed service. Moreover, the GTS may be underutilized, resulting in wasted bandwidth. To overcome these limitations, this paper proposes i-GAME, an implicit GTS Allocation Mechanism in beacon-enabled IEEE 802.15.4 networks. The allocation is based on implicit GTS allocation requests, taking into account the traffic specifications and the delay requirements of the flows. The i-GAME approach enables the use of one GTS by multiple nodes, still guaranteeing that all their (delay, bandwidth) requirements are satisfied. For that purpose, we propose an admission control algorithm that enables to decide whether to accept a new GTS allocation request or not, based not only on the remaining time slots, but also on the traffic specifications of the flows, their delay requirements and the available bandwidth resources. We show that our approach improves the bandwidth utilization as compared to the native explicit allocation mechanism defined in the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. We also present some practical considerations for the implementation of i-GAME, ensuring backward compatibility with the IEEE 801.5.4 standard with only minor add-ons. Finally, an experimental evaluation on a real system that validates our theoretical analysis and demonstrates the implementation of i-GAME is also presented

i-GAME: an implicit GTS allocation mechanism in IEEE 802.15.4 for time-sensitive wireless sensor networks

The IEEE 802.15.4 Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol is an enabling technology for time sensitive wireless sensor networks thanks to its Guaranteed-Time Slot (GTS) mechanism in the beacon-enabled mode. However, the protocol only supports explicit GTS allocation, i.e. a node allocates a number of time slots in each superframe for exclusive use. The limitation of this explicit GTS allocation is that GTS resources may quickly disappear, since a maximum of seven GTSs can be allocated in each superframe, preventing other nodes to benefit from guaranteed service. Moreover, the GTSs may be only partially used, resulting in wasted bandwidth. To overcome these limitations, this paper proposes i-GAME, an implicit GTS Allocation Mechanism in beacon-enabled IEEE 802.15.4 networks. The allocation is based on implicit GTS allocation requests, taking into account the traffic specifications and the delay requirements of the flows. The i-GAME approach enables the use of a GTS by multiple nodes, while all their (delay, bandwidth) requirements are still satisfied. For that purpose, we propose an admission control algorithm that enables to decide whether to accept a new GTS allocation request or not, based not only on the remaining time slots, but also on the traffic specifications of the flows, their delay requirements and the available bandwidth resources. We show that our proposal improves the bandwidth utilization compared to the explicit allocation used in the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol standard. We also present some practical considerations for the implementation of i-GAME, ensuring backward compatibility with the IEEE 801.5.4 standard with only minor add-ons.

GTS allocation analysis in IEEE 802.15.4 for real-time wireless sensor networks

The IEEE 802.15.4 protocol proposes a flexible communication solution for Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks including sensor networks. It presents the advantage to fit different requirements of potential applications by adequately setting its parameters. When enabling its beacon mode, the protocol makes possible real-time guarantees by using its Guaranteed Time Slot (GTS) mechanism. This paper analyzes the performance of the GTS allocation mechanism in IEEE 802.15.4. The analysis gives a full understanding of the behavior of the GTS mechanism with regards to delay and throughput metrics. First, we propose two accurate models of service curves for a GTS allocation as a function of the IEEE 802.15.4 parameters. We then evaluate the delay bounds guaranteed by an allocation of a GTS using Network Calculus formalism. Finally, based on the analytic results, we analyze the impact of the IEEE 802.15.4 parameters on the throughput and delay bound guaranteed by a GTS allocation. The results of this work pave the way for an efficient dimensioning of an IEEE 802.15.4 cluster.

Energy and delay trade-off of the GTS allocation mechanism in IEEE 802.15.4 for wireless sensor networks

The IEEE 802.15.4 protocol proposes a flexible communication solution for Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPAN) including wireless sensor networks (WSNs). It presents the advantage to fit different requirements of potential applications by adequately setting its parameters. When in beaconenabled mode, the protocol can provide timeliness guarantees by using its Guaranteed Time Slot (GTS) mechanism. However, power-efficiency and timeliness guarantees are often two antagonistic requirements in wireless sensor networks. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and propose a methodology for setting the relevant parameters of IEEE 802.15.4-compliant WSNs that takes into account a proper trade-off between power-efficiency and delay bound guarantees. First, we propose two accurate models of service curves for a GTS allocation as a function of the IEEE 802.15.4 parameters, using Network Calculus formalism. We then evaluate the delay bound guaranteed by a GTS allocation and express it as a function of the duty cycle. Based on the relation between the delay requirement and the duty cycle, we propose a power-efficient superframe selection method that simultaneously reduces power consumption and enables meeting the delay requirements of real-time flows allocating GTSs. The results of this work may pave the way for a powerefficient management of the GTS mechanism in an IEEE 802.15.4 cluster.

Gender in the allocation of organs in kidney transplants: meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE To analyze whether gender influence survival results of kidney transplant grafts and patients.METHODS Systematic review with meta-analysis of cohort studies available on Medline (PubMed), LILACS, CENTRAL, and Embase databases, including manual searching and in the grey literature. The selection of studies and the collection of data were conducted twice by independent reviewers, and disagreements were settled by a third reviewer. Graft and patient survival rates were evaluated as effectiveness measurements. Meta-analysis was conducted with the Review Manager® 5.2 software, through the application of a random effects model. Recipient, donor, and donor-recipient gender comparisons were evaluated.RESULTS : Twenty-nine studies involving 765,753 patients were included. Regarding graft survival, those from male donors were observed to have longer survival rates as compared to the ones from female donors, only regarding a 10-year follow-up period. Comparison between recipient genders was not found to have significant differences on any evaluated follow-up periods. In the evaluation between donor-recipient genders, male donor-male recipient transplants were favored in a statistically significant way. No statistically significant differences were observed in regards to patient survival for gender comparisons in all follow-up periods evaluated.CONCLUSIONS The quantitative analysis of the studies suggests that donor or recipient genders, when evaluated isolatedly, do not influence patient or graft survival rates. However, the combination between donor-recipient genders may be a determining factor for graft survival.

Gender and reproductive autonomy : are there second-class citizens in Europe?

EUROPEAN MASTER’S DEGREE IN HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRATISATION Academic Year 2007/2008

Localização óptima do futuro Hospital de Sintra: aplicação de modelos de location-allocation no planeamento de cuidados de saúde.

Dissertação apresentada como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciência e Sistemas de Informação Geográfica

Cost Allocation Model for Distribution Networks Considering High Penetration of Distributed Energy Resources

The high penetration of distributed energy resources (DER) in distribution networks and the competitiveenvironment of electricity markets impose the use of new approaches in several domains. The networkcost allocation, traditionally used in transmission networks, should be adapted and used in the distribu-tion networks considering the specifications of the connected resources. The main goal is to develop afairer methodology trying to distribute the distribution network use costs to all players which are usingthe network in each period. In this paper, a model considering different type of costs (fixed, losses, andcongestion costs) is proposed comprising the use of a large set of DER, namely distributed generation(DG), demand response (DR) of direct load control type, energy storage systems (ESS), and electric vehi-cles with capability of discharging energy to the network, which is known as vehicle-to-grid (V2G). Theproposed model includes three distinct phases of operation. The first phase of the model consists in aneconomic dispatch based on an AC optimal power flow (AC-OPF); in the second phase Kirschen’s andBialek’s tracing algorithms are used and compared to evaluate the impact of each resource in the net-work. Finally, the MW-mile method is used in the third phase of the proposed model. A distributionnetwork of 33 buses with large penetration of DER is used to illustrate the application of the proposedmodel.

Sex Determination and Female Reproductive Development in the Genus Schistosoma: A Review

Parasites of the genus Schistosoma were among the first metazoans to develop separate sexes, which is chromosomally determined in the fertilized egg. Despite the occurrence of specific sex chromosomes, the females of most Schistosomatidae species do not complete their somatic development and reach no sexual maturity without the presence of males. Indeed, the most controversial and at the same time most fascinating aspect about the sexual development of Schistosoma females lies on discover the nature of the stimulus produced by males that triggers and controls this process. Although the nature of the stimulus (physical or chemical) is a source of controversy, there is agreement that mating is a necessary requirement for maturation to occur and for migration of the female to a definitive final site of residence in the vascular system of the vertebrate host. It has also been proposed that the stimulus is not species-specific and, in some cases, not even genus-specific. Despite a vast literature on the subject, the process or processes underlying the meeting of males and females in the circulatory system have not been determined and as yet no consensus exists about the nature of the stimulus that triggers and maintains female development. In the studies about their role, Schistosoma males have been considered, at times pejoratively, the brother, the muscles or even the liver of females. Indeed, it still remains to be determined whether the stimulus responsible for female maturation involves the transfer of hormones, nutrients, neuromediators, mere tactile stimulation or a combination of chemotactic and thigmotactic factors