The dichotomous structure of the warm conveyor belt

The warm conveyor belt (WCB) of an extratropical cyclone generally splits into two branches. One branch (WCB1) turns anticyclonically into the downstream upper-level tropospheric ridge, while the second branch (WCB2) wraps cyclonically around the cyclone centre. Here, the WCB split in a typical North Atlantic cold-season cyclone is analysed using two numerical models: the Met Office Unified Model and the COSMO model. The WCB flow is defined using off-line trajectory analysis. The two models represent the WCB split consistently. The split occurs early in the evolution of the WCB with WCB1 experiencing maximum ascent at lower latitudes and with higher moisture content than WCB2. WCB1 ascends abruptly along the cold front where the resolved ascent rates are greatest and there is also line convection. In contrast, WCB2 remains at lower levels for longer before undergoing saturated large-scale ascent over the system's warm front. The greater moisture in WCB1 inflow results in greater net potential temperature change from latent heat release, which determines the final isentropic level of each branch. WCB1 also exhibits lower outflow potential vorticity values than WCB2. Complementary diagnostics in the two models are utilised to study the influence of individual diabatic processes on the WCB. Total diabatic heating rates along the WCB branches are comparable in the two models with microphysical processes in the large-scale cloud schemes being the major contributor to this heating. However, the different convective parameterisation schemes used by the models cause significantly different contributions to the total heating. These results have implications for studies on the influence of the WCB outflow in Rossby wave evolution and breaking. Key aspects are the net potential temperature change and the isentropic level of the outflow which together will influence the relative mass going into each WCB branch and the associated negative PV anomalies at the tropopause-level flow.

Progress in observing and modelling the urban boundary layer

The urban boundary layer (UBL) is the part of the atmosphere in which most of the planet’s population now lives, and is one of the most complex and least understood microclimates. Given potential climate change impacts and the requirement to develop cities sustainably, the need for sound modelling and observational tools becomes pressing. This review paper considers progress made in studies of the UBL in terms of a conceptual framework spanning microscale to mesoscale determinants of UBL structure and evolution. Considerable progress in observing and modelling the urban surface energy balance has been made. The urban roughness sub-layer is an important region requiring attention as assumptions about atmospheric turbulence break down in this layer and it may dominate coupling of the surface to the UBL due to its considerable depth. The upper 90% of the UBL (mixed and residual layers) remains under-researched but new remote sensing methods and high resolution modelling tools now permit rapid progress. Surface heterogeneity dominates from neighbourhood to regional scales and should be more strongly considered in future studies. Specific research priorities include humidity within the UBL, high-rise urban canopies and the development of long-term, spatially extensive measurement networks coupled strongly to model development.

The risk of water stress

Water resources are under stress in many regions due to increasing demands and, in places, falling quality. Climate change has the potential to change the risks of water stress.1 The focus in this section is on strategic definitions of water stress, which are based on generalized indicators of the amount of water that is available and the demands on that resource. Operational definitions, on the other hand, are typically based on the reliability of the supply of appropriate quality water and are strongly determined by local conditions.

Mobilidade da força de trabalho: os impactos de intensos deslocamentos geográficos sob a ótica de trabalhadores docentes

O trabalho ocupa um inegável espaço na vida dos indivíduos, sendo este rico de sentido individual e social, é um meio de produção da vida de cada um ao prover subsistência, criar sentidos existenciais ou contribuir na estruturação da identidade e da subjetividade. O cenário atual de adoção e uso das Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação pelas organizações e pessoas, demonstra um crescimento da incorporação de dispositivos tecnológicos que têm o potencial de alterar as características espaciais e temporais do trabalho, aumentando a mobilidade do trabalhador. Considerando-se o fato de que o indivíduo ao deslocar-se, ao mover-se pelo espaço, anexa ou remodela sua identidade pessoal, profissional, cultural, social ou política a partir da mobilidade, o objetivo final desta pesquisa foi refletir sobre de que maneira os impactos positivos e negativos gerados pela intensa mobilidade geográfica demandados pelo exercício da profissão, são percebidos por trabalhadores docentes de curso de pós-graduação lato sensu em Administração que se deslocam de um território para outro(s), com a finalidade de exercerem suas atividades docentes. Realizou-se para tanto uma revisão bibliográfica acerca de sentido do trabalho, apresentando, a seguir, algumas reflexões sobre as alterações ocorridas nas relações de trabalho em decorrência de mutações no mundo do trabalho, abordando, por fim, o tema Mobilidade da força de trabalho. Após esta etapa, buscou-se compreender, na ótica desses trabalhadores docentes, por meio de entrevistas pessoais analisadas à luz do método de análise de conteúdo, os caminhos percorridos e significados atribuídos por eles a estas vivências, procurando perceber como os trabalhadores docentes em destaque representam o olhar sobre si e sobre os outros, visando demonstrar o significado (positivo e negativo) da mobilidade espacial, as práticas cotidianas e estratégias de sociabilidade e interação com e no local de destino. Pode-se concluir que, apesar de haver alguns fatores que podem tornar os constantes deslocamentos geográficos destes trabalhadores um elemento negativo para eles, uma vez que são fontes de alta demanda física e mental, geradoras de estresse, sobrecarga, tensão emocional, cansaço, ansiedade, desânimo, frustração e descontentamento em relação ao trabalho, levando-os ao afastamento constante do contexto social, podendo resultar em consequências graves para a saúde deste trabalhador. Estes constantes deslocamentos geográficos tornam-se, contudo, um elemento positivo, uma vez que possibilitam o incremento às suas práticas docentes, por meio das vivências enriquecidas pelos contactos estabelecidos, pelas aprendizagens realizadas e pelas capacidades de relacionamento em meios multiculturais adquiridas, tornando-se espaço de autorrealização, inserção e reconhecimento social, prestígio, status e de senso de utilidade.

E-business innovation and customs renovation for secure supply chain management

Includes bibliography

Coeffcients of herdability and relatedness in a forest fragment of Araucaria angustifolia (Bertol.) Kuntze using genetic markers

Methods based on genetic markers to estimate the coefficient of heritability in natural populations are important to understand the effects of natural selection on inheritance of quantitative traits. The objective of this study was to investigate the genetic control of the trait plant height in a fragmented population of Araucaria angustifolia. This study was conducted in a forest fragment of 5.4 ha of area, located in the State of Parana, Brazil. Estimates of heritability were performed using data from genotypes and height of regenerating individuals of the population. Four methods to estimate the relatedness between pairs of individuals (RITLAND, 1996; LYNCH; RITLAND, 1999; QUELLER; GOODNIGHT, 1989; WANG, 2002) for three distances (without criteria, 25 and 50 m) were used. The coefficient of heritability estimated using the estimator of relatedness of Ritland (1996), suggest that the genetic control of the trait height is low in the regeneration, thus the natural selection as well as the artificial selection have a low potential to change the mean of the population. The estimates based on the other methods to calculate the relatedness presented low precision, indication that these methods are not adequate for the data used.

Redes de atenção à saúde para gestantes usuárias de álcool e/ou outras drogas

Pós-graduação em Saúde Coletiva - FMB

Precautionary principle, economic and energy systems and social equity

In this paper the precautionary principle is reviewed alongside the process of international implementation. Adoption of the precautionary principle is advocated to deal with energy choices as a mechanism to account for potential climate change impacts, notwithstanding the debate on scientific uncertainty on the links between solar activity, greenhouse gas concentration and climate. However, it is also recognized that the widespread application of the precautionary principle to energy choices does not seem to be taking place in the real world. Relevant concrete barriers are identified stemming from the intrinsic logic governing the hegemonic economic system, driving the energy choices by economic surplus and rent generation potential, the existence of social asymmetries inside and among societies as well as by the absence of democratic global governance mechanisms, capable of dealing with climate change issues. Such perception seems to have been reinforced by the outcome of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, held in Copenhagen in December 2009. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

NURSES AND THE ASSESSMENT IN HEALTH SYSTEM MANAGEMENT

The objective of this study was to undertake a critical reflection regarding assessment as a managerial tool that promotes the inclusion of nurses in the health system management process. Nurses, because of their education and training, which encompasses knowledge in both the clinical and managerial fields and is centered on care, have the potential to assume a differentiated attitude in management, making decisions and proposing health policies. Nevertheless, it is necessary to first create and consolidate an expressive inclusion in decisive levels of management. Assessment is a component of management, the results of which may contribute to making decisions that are more objective and allow for improving healthcare interventions and reorganizing health practice within a political, economic, social and professional context; it is also an area for the application of knowledge that has the potential to change the current panorama of including nurses in management.

Tecnologie ad agenti e sistemi embedded

Information technology (IT) is on the verge of another revolution. Driven by the increasing capabilities and ever declining costs of computing and communications devices, IT is being embedded into a growing range of physical devices linked together through networks and will become ever more pervasive as the component technologies become smaller, faster, and cheaper. [..] These networked systems of embedded computers, referred to as EmNets throughout this report, have the potential to change radically the way people interact with their environment by linking together a range of devices and sensors that will allow information to be collected, shared, and processed in unprecedented ways.[..] The use of EmNets throughout society could well dwarf previous milestones in the information revolution.[..] IT will eventually become \textbf{an invisible component of almost everything} in everyone`s surroundings. Con il ridursi dei costi e l'aumentare della capacità di computazione dei componenti elettronici sono proliferate piattaforme che permettono al bambino come all'ingegnere di sviluppare un'idea che trasversalmente taglia il mondo reale e quello virtuale. Una collisione tra due mondi che fino a poco tempo fa era consentita esclusivamente a professionisti. Oggetti che possono acquisire o estendere funzionalità, che ci permettono di estendere la nostra percezione del mondo e di rivalutarne i suoi limiti. Oggetti connessi alla 'rete delle reti' che condividono ed elaborano dati per un nuovo utilizzo delle informazioni. Con questa tesi si vuole andare ad esplorare l'applicazione degli agenti software alle nuove piattaforme dei sistemi embedded e dell'Internet of Things, tecnologie abbastanza mature eppure non ancora esplorate a fondo. Ha senso modellare un sistema embedded con gli agenti?

Modification of Actin Fibers Changes the Electrical Phenotype of Cardiac Myofibroblasts

Background: Slow conduction and ectopic activity are major determinants of cardiac arrhythmogenesis. Both of these conditions can be elicited by myofibroblasts (MFBs) following establishment of heterocellular gap junctional coupling with cardiomyocytes. MFBs appear during structural remodeling of the heart and are characterized by the expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) containing stress fibers. In this study, we investigated whether pharmacological interference with the actin cytoskeleton affects myofibroblast arrhythmogeneicity. Methods: Experiments were performed with patterned growth strands of neonatal rat ventricular cardiomyocytes coated with cardiac MFBs. Impulse conduction velocity (θ) and maximal upstroke velocities of propagated action potentials (dV/dtmax), expressed as % action potential amplitude change (%APA) per ms, were measured optically using voltage sensitive dyes. Actin was destabilized by latrunculin B (LtB) and cytochalasin D and stabilized with jasplakinolide. Data are given as mean ± S.D. (n = 5-22). Single cell electrophysiology was assessed using standard patch-clamp techniques. Results: As revealed by immunocytochemistry, exposure of MFBs to LtB (0.01-10 μmol/L) profoundly disrupted stress fibers which led to drastic changes in cell morphology with MFBs assuming an astrocyte-like shape. In control cardiomyocyte strands (no MFB coat), LtB had negligible effects on θ and dV/dtmax. In contrast, LtB applied to MFB-coated strands increased θ dose-dependently from 197 ± 35 mm/s to 344 ± 26 mm/s and dV/dtmax from 38 ± 5 to 78 ± 3% APA/ms, i.e., to values virtually identical to those of cardiomyocyte control strands (339 ± 24 mm/s; 77 ± 3% APA/ms). Highly similar results were obtained when exposing the preparations to cytochalasin D. In contrast, stabilization of actin with increasing concentrations of jasplakinolide exerted no significant effects on impulse conduction characteristics in MFB-coated strands. Whole-cell patch-clamp experiments showed that LtB hyperpolarized MFBs from -25 mV to -50 mV, thus limiting their depolarizing effect on cardiomyocytes which was shown before to cause arrhythmogenic slow conduction and ectopic activity. Conclusion: Pharmacological interference with the actin cytoskeleton of cardiac MFBs affects their electrophysiological phenotype to such an extent that they loose their detrimental effects on cardiomyocyte electrophysiology. This result might form a basis for the development of therapeutic strategies aimed at limiting the arrhythmogenic potential of MFBs.

Ecosystem functions are resistant to extreme changes to rainfall regimes in a mesotrophic grassland

Major changes to rainfall regimes are predicted for the future but the effect of such changes on terrestrial ecosystem function is largely unknown. We created a rainfall manipulation experiment to investigate the effects of extreme changes in rainfall regimes on ecosystem functioning in a grassland system. We applied two rainfall regimes; a prolonged drought treatment (30 % reduction over spring and summer) and drought/downpour treatment (long periods of no rainfall interspersed with downpours), with an ambient control. Both rainfall manipulations included increased winter rainfall. We measured plant community composition, CO2 fluxes and soil nutrient availability. Plant species richness and cover were lower in the drought/downpour treatment, and showed little recovery after the treatment ceased. Ecosystem processes were less affected, possibly due to winter rainfall additions buffering reduced summer rainfall, which saw relatively small soil moisture changes. However, soil extractable P and ecosystem respiration were significantly higher in rainfall change treatments than in the control. This grassland appears fairly resistant, in the short term, to even the more extreme rainfall changes that are predicted for the region, although prolonged study is needed to measure longer-term impacts. Differences in ecosystem responses between the two treatments emphasise the variety of ecosystem responses to changes in both the size and frequency of rainfall events. Given that model predictions are inconsistent there is therefore a need to assess ecosystem function under a range of potential climate change scenarios.

Differential effectiveness of integrated cognitive remediation therapy for schizophrenbia outpatients: The impact oft he duration of illness

Background Nowadays there is extensive evidence available showing the efficacy of cognitive remediation (CR). To date, only limited evidence is available about the impact of the duration of illness on CR effects. The Integrated Neurocognitive Therapy (INT) represents a new developed CR approach. It is a manualized group therapy targeting all 11 NIMH-MATRICS domains. Methods In an international multicenter study, 166 schizophrenia outpatients (DSM-IV-TR) were randomly assigned either to INT or to Treatment-As-Usual (TAU). 60 patients were defined as Early Course group (EC) characterized by less than 5 years of illness, 40 patients were in the Long-Term group (LT) characterized by more than 15 years of illness, and 76 patients were in the Medium-Long-Term group (MLT) characterized by an illness of 5-15 years. Treatment comprised of 15 biweekly sessions. Assessments were conducted before and after treatment and at follow up (1 year). Multivariate General Linear Models (GLM) examined our hypothesis, whether EC, LT, and MLT groups differ under INT and TAU from each other in outcome. Results First of all, the attendance rate of 65% was significantly lower and the drop out rate of 18.5% during therapy was higher in the EC group compared to the other groups. Interaction effects regarding proximal outcome showed that the duration of illness has a strong impact on neurocognitive functioning in speed of processing (F>2.4) and attention (F>2.8). But INT intervention compared to TAU only had a significant effect in more chronically ill patients of MLT and LT, but not in younger patients in EC. In social cognitive domains, only the EC group showed a significant change in attribution (hostility; F>2.5), LT and MLT groups did not. However, no differences between the 3 groups were evident in memory, problem solving, and emotion perception. Regarding more distal outcome, LT patients had more symptoms compared to EC (F>4.4). Finally, EC patients showed higher improvements in psychosocial functioning compared to LT and MLT (F=1.8). Conclusions Against common expectations, long-term, more chronically ill patients showed higher effects in basal cognitive functions compared to younger patients and patients without any active therapy (TAU). On the other hand, early-course patients had a greater potential to change in attribution, symptoms and psychosocial functioning. Consequently, more integrated therapy offers are also recommended for long-term course schizophrenia patients.

A Specific Mapping Study Using Fluorescence Sentinel Lymph Node Detection in Patients with Intermediate- and High-risk Prostate Cancer Undergoing Extended Pelvic Lymph Node Dissection.

Sentinel lymph node (SLN) detection techniques have the potential to change the standard of surgical care for patients with prostate cancer. We performed a lymphatic mapping study and determined the value of fluorescence SLN detection with indocyanine green (ICG) for the detection of lymph node metastases in intermediate- and high-risk patients undergoing radical prostatectomy and extended pelvic lymph node dissection. A total of 42 patients received systematic or specific ICG injections into the prostate base, the midportion, the apex, the left lobe, or the right lobe. We found (1) that external and internal iliac regions encompass the majority of SLNs, (2) that common iliac regions contain up to 22% of all SLNs, (3) that a prostatic lobe can drain into the contralateral group of pelvic lymph nodes, and (4) that the fossa of Marcille also receives significant drainage. Among the 12 patients who received systematic ICG injections, 5 (42%) had a total of 29 lymph node metastases. Of these, 16 nodes were ICG positive, yielding 55% sensitivity. The complex drainage pattern of the prostate and the low sensitivity of ICG for the detection of lymph node metastases reported in our study highlight the difficulties related to the implementation of SNL techniques in prostate cancer. PATIENT SUMMARY There is controversy about how extensive lymph node dissection (LND) should be during prostatectomy. We investigated the lymphatic drainage of the prostate and whether sentinel node fluorescence techniques would be useful to detect node metastases. We found that the drainage pattern is complex and that the sentinel node technique is not able to replace extended pelvic LND.

Freshwater runoff for Taylor Slough to Florida Bay for 1965 to 2000 for the FATHOM model

The Florida Bay ecosystem supports a number of economically important ecosystem services, including several recreational fisheries, which may be affected by changing salinity and temperature due to climate change. In this paper, we use a combination of physical models and habitat suitability index models to quantify the effects of potential climate change scenarios on a variety of juvenile fish and lobster species in Florida Bay. The climate scenarios include alterations in sea level, evaporation and precipitation rates, coastal runoff, and water temperature. We find that the changes in habitat suitability vary in both magnitude and direction across the scenarios and species, but are on average small. Only one of the seven species we investigate (Lagodon rhomboides, i.e., pinfish) sees a sizable decrease in optimal habitat under any of the scenarios. This suggests that the estuarine fauna of Florida Bay may not be as vulnerable to climate change as other components of the ecosystem, such as those in the marine/terrestrial ecotone. However, these models are relatively simplistic, looking only at single species effects of physical drivers without considering the many interspecific interactions that may play a key role in the adjustment of the ecosystem as a whole. More complex models that capture the mechanistic links between physics and biology, as well as the complex dynamics of the estuarine food web, may be necessary to further understand the potential effects of climate change on the Florida Bay ecosystem.