Caminhos para a universalização dos serviços de água e esgotos no Brasil: a atuação das entidades reguladoras para indução da eficiência dos prestadores de serviços

The deficit of water and sewerage services is a historic problem in Brazil. The introduction of a new regulatory framework, in 2007, presented ways intending to overcome these deficits, among them, the providers efficiency improvement. This thesis aims to analyze the regulators performance regarding its ability to induce the efficiency of the Brazilian water and sewerage services providers. To this end, an analytical approach based on a sequential explanatory strategy was used, and it consists of three steps. In the first step, the Data Envelopment Analysis ( DEA ) was used to measure the providers efficiency in 2006 and 2011. The results show that the average efficiency may be considered high; however significant inefficiencies among the 29 analyzed providers were detected. The ones in the Southeast region showed better performance level and Northeast had the lowest. The local and the private providers were more efficient on average. In 2006 and 2011 the average performance was higher among non-regulated providers. In 2006 the group regulated by local agencies had the best average performance, in 2011, the best performance was the group regulated by the consortium agencies. To analyse the second step was used the Malmquist Index, it pointed that the productivity between 2006 and 2011 dropped. The analysis through decomposing Malmquist Index showed a shift of technical efficiency frontier to a lower level, however was detected a small provider s advance towards the frontier. Only the Midwest region recorded progress in overall productivity. The deterioration in the total factor productivity was higher among regional providers but the local ones and the private agencies moved quickly to the frontier level. The providers regulated from 2007 showed less decrease on the total productivity and the results of the catch up effect were more meaningful. In the last step, the regulators standardization activity analyses noted that there are agencies that had not issued rules until 2011. The most standards topics discussed in the issued rules were the tariff adjustments and the setting of general conditions for the provision and use of services; in another hand, the least covered topics were new technologies incentive and the introduction of efficiency-inducing regulatory mechanisms and productivity gains for price reviews. Regulators created from 2007 were more active proportionately. Even with the advent of the regulatory framework and the creation of new regulatory bodies, the evidence points to a reality in which the actions of these agencies have not been ensuring that providers of water and sewage, regulated by them, has achieved better performance. The non- achievement of regulatory goals can be explained by the incipient level of performance of the Brazilian regulatory authorities, which should be strengthened because of its potential contribution to the Brazilian basic sanitation department

Revisitando o eletrocorticograma intra-operatório na epilepsia mesial do lobo temporal: relevância das oscilações de alta frequência

Epilepsies are neurological disorders characterized by recurrent and spontaneous seizures due to an abnormal electric activity in a brain network. The mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) is the most prevalent type of epilepsy in adulthood, and it occurs frequently in association with hippocampal sclerosis. Unfortunately, not all patients benefit from pharmacological treatment (drug-resistant patients), and therefore become candidates for surgery, a procedure of high complexity and cost. Nowadays, the most common surgery is the anterior temporal lobectomy with selective amygdalohippocampectomy, a procedure standardized by anatomical markers. However, part of patients still present seizure after the procedure. Then, to increase the efficiency of this kind of procedure, it is fundamental to know the epileptic human brain in order to create new tools for auxiliary an individualized surgery procedure. The aim of this work was to identify and quantify the occurrence of epilepticform activity -such as interictal spikes (IS) and high frequency oscillations (HFO) - in electrocorticographic (ECoG) signals acutely recorded during the surgery procedure in drug-resistant patients with MTLE. The ECoG recording (32 channels at sample rate of 1 kHz) was performed in the surface of temporal lobe in three moments: without any cortical resection, after anterior temporal lobectomy and after amygdalohippocampectomy (mean duration of each record: 10 min; N = 17 patients; ethic approval #1038/03 in Research Ethic Committee of Federal University of São Paulo). The occurrence of IS and HFO was quantified automatically by MATLAB routines and validated manually. The events rate (number of events/channels) in each recording time was correlated with seizure control outcome. In 8 hours and 40 minutes of record, we identified 36,858 IS and 1.756 HFO. We observed that seizure-free outcome patients had more HFO rate before the resection than non-seizure free, however do not differentiate in relation of frequency, morphology and distribution of IS. The HFO rate in the first record was better than IS rate on prediction of seizure-free patients (IS: AUC = 57%, Sens = 70%, Spec = 71% vs HFO: AUC = 77%, Sens = 100%, Spec = 70%). We observed the same for the difference of the rate of pre and post-resection (IS: AUC = 54%, Sens = 60%, Spec = 71%; vs HFO: AUC = 84%, Sens = 100%, Spec = 80%). In this case, the algorithm identifies all seizure-free patients (N = 7) with two false positives. To conclude, we observed that the IS and HFO can be found in intra-operative ECoG record, despite the anesthesia and the short time of record. The possibility to classify the patients before any cortical resection suggest that ECoG can be important to decide the use of adjuvant pharmacological treatment or to change for tailored resection procedure. The mechanism responsible for this effect is still unknown, thus more studies are necessary to clarify the processes related to it

Hidróxido de níquel suportado em carbono: um catalisador de baixo custo para a eletro-oxidação de alcoóis em meio alcalino

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A incorporação da saúde bucal no programa saúde da família do Rio Grande do Norte: investigando a possibilidade de conversão do modelo assistencial

The Health Family Program (HFP) was founded in the 1990s with the objective of changing the health care model through a restructuring of primary care. Oral health was officially incorporated into HFP mainly through the efforts of dental professionals, and was seen as a way to break from oral health care models based on curative, technical biological and inequity methods. Despite the fast expansion of HFP oral health teams, it is essential to ask if changes are really occurring in the oral health model of municipalities. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the incorporation of oral health teams into the Health Family Program by analyzing the factors that may interfere positively or negatively in the implementation of this strategy and consequently in the process of changing oral health care models in the National Health System in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. This evaluation involves three dimensions: access, work organization and strategies of planning. For this purpose,19 municipalities, geographically distributed according to Regional Public Health Units (RPHU), were randomly selected. The data collection instruments used were: structured interview of supervisors and dentists, structured observation, documental research and data from national health data banks. It was possible to identify critical points that may be impeding the implementation of oral health into HFP, such as, low incomes, no legal employment contract, difficulty in referring patients for high-complexity procedures, in developing intersectoral actions and program strategies such as epidemiologic diagnosis and evaluation of the new actions. The majority of municipalities showed little or no improvement in oral health care after incorporating the new model into HFP. All of them had failures in most of the aspects mentioned above. Furthermore, these municipalities are similar in other areas, such as low educational levels in children from 7 to 14 years of age, high child mortality rates and wide social inequalities. On the other hand, the five municipalities that had improved oral health, according to the categories analyzed, offered better living conditions to the population, with higher life expectancy, low infant mortality rates, per capita income among the highest in the state as well as high Human Development Index (HDI) means. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that public policies that include aspects beyond the health sector are decisive for a real change in health care models

Qualidade de vida, eficiência mastigatória e presença de disfunção temporomandibular em usuários de prótese parcial removível com arco dental curto inferior

Even nowadays there is in Brasil a large number of edentulous and a precarious financial condition of most of the population. In addition, World Health Organization aims for oral health, which consists on the maintenance of a natural dentition, functional and aesthetic composed of at least 20 teeth, without need of prosthetic intervention throughout life. From this and considering the lack of researches about the permanence of edentulous spaces in the oral cavity, and also avoiding overtreatment, this research has been proposed. Thus, the aim was to evaluate the effect of different lengths of the shortened lower dental arch in the presence or absence of a removable partial denture (RPD) on masticatory function, quality of life and occurrence of temporomandibular dysfunction. To achieve this goal, we compared the masticatory efficiency (colorimetric test), the oral comfort through the analysis of the impact of oral health in quality of life (OHIP-14), the presence of temporomandibular dysfunction (RDC/TMD) and the general quality of life (WHOQOL) of patients with shortened dental arches (SDA) (n=60), which is an arch with a reduction of teeth starting posteriorly, and patients with complete dental arch (Complete DA) (n = 34). The group of patients whit SDA was divided among PPR wears (PPD + SDA) (n = 17) and non-wears (n = 43). The population of this study consisted on patients who received or looked for treatment at the clinics of the Department of Dentistry of UFRN, from clinical analysis and records. The sample was chosen by convenience. For statistical analysis, it was a database in SPSS 17.0, followed by descriptive analysis with frequencies, absolute values, tests of central tendency and variability. The statistical tests used were chi-squared and analysis of variance as well as Tukey s post test, when applicable, all with a 95% confidence level. The results shown a prevalence of TMD of 47,1% among patients using PRP and 69,8% among those who didn t, but this result wasn t statistically significant. The mean of the results of masticatory efficiency, WHOQOL and OHIP didn t show association to the presence or absence of PPR and to the lower number of occlusal units of the patients (0, 1, 2 or more occlusal). The association only occurred among the different groups of SDA and the patients with complete dental arch. Taking into account the results, it could be observed that studied patients with low posterior support using lower PRP didn t have better masticatory efficiency, general quality of life, less impacts of their oral conditions in quality of life or not even less temporomandibular dysfunction or better masticatory efficiency when compared to those who didn t use the prosthesis

Avaliação genética da eficiência reprodutiva em vacas pardo-suíças por meio da análise de sobrevivência

Among the traits of economic importance to dairy cattle livestock those related to sexual precocity and longevity of the herd are essential to the success of the activity, because the stayability time of a cow in a herd is determined by their productive and reproductive lives. In Brazil, there are few studies about the reproductive efficiency of Swiss-Brown cows and no study was found using the methodology of survival analysis applied to this breed. Thus, in the first chapter of this study, the age at first calving from Swiss-Brown heifers was analyzed as the time until the event by the nonparametric method of Kaplan-Meier and the gamma shared frailty model, under the survival analysis methodology. Survival and hazard rate curves associated with this event were estimated and identified the influence of covariates on such time. The mean and median times at the first calving were 987.77 and 1,003 days, respectively, and significant covariates by the Log-Rank test, through Kaplan-Meier analysis, were birth season, calving year, sire (cow s father) and calving season. In the analysis by frailty model, the breeding values and the frailties of the sires (fathers) for the calving were predicted modeling the risk function of each cow as a function of the birth season as fixed covariate and sire as random covariate. The frailty followed the gamma distribution. Sires with high and positive breeding values possess high frailties, what means shorter survival time of their daughters to the event, i.e., reduction in the age at first calving of them. The second chapter aimed to evaluate the longevity of dairy cows using the nonparametric Kaplan-Meier and the Cox and Weibull proportional hazards models. It were simulated 10,000 records of the longevity trait from Brown-Swiss cows involving their respective times until the occurrence of five consecutive calvings (event), considered here as typical of a long-lived cow. The covariates considered in the database were age at first calving, herd and sire (cow s father). All covariates had influence on the longevity of cows by Log-Rank and Wilcoxon tests. The mean and median times to the occurrence of the event were 2,436.285 and 2,437 days, respectively. Sires that have higher breeding values also have a greater risk of that their daughters reach the five consecutive calvings until 84 months

O papel das rotas e da obtenção de informações sobre a eficiência no forrageio de dinoponera quadriceps em ambiente natural

In this study, we investigated the role of routes and information attainment for the queenless ant species Dinoponera quadriceps foraging efficiency. Two queenless ant colonies were observed in an area of Atlantic secondary Forest at the FLONA-ICMBio of Nisia Floresta, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, northeastern Brazil, at least once a week. In the first stage of the study, we observed the workers, from leaving until returning to the colony. In the second stage, we introduced a acrylic plate (100 x 30 x 0,8 cm) on a selected entrance of the nest early in the morning before the ants left the nest. All behavioral recordings were done through focal time and all occurence samplings. The recording windows were of 15 minutes with 1 minute interval, and 5 minute intervals between each observation window. Foraging was the main activity when the workers were outside the nest. There was a positive correlation between time outside the nest and distance travelled by the ants. These variables influenced the proportion of resource that was taken to the nest, that is, the bigger its proportion, the longer the time outside and distance travelled during the search. That proportion also influenced the time the worker remained in the nest before a new trip, the bigger the proportion of the item, the shorter was the time in the nest. During all the study, workers showed fidelity to the route and to the sectors in the home range, even when the screen was in the ant´s way, once they deviated and kept the route. The features of foraging concerning time, distance, route and flexibility to go astray by the workers indicate that decisions are made by each individual and are optimal in terms of a cost-benefit relation. The strategy chosen by queenless ants fits the central place foraging and marginal value theorem theories and demonstrate its flexibility to new informations. This indicates that the workers can learn new environmental landmarks to guide their routes

Efeito da degradação ambiental nas propriedades de cisalhamento de compósitos PPS/fibra de carbono

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Avaliação do ciclo térmico de conformação por compressão de peças em poli(sulfeto de fenileno) reforçado com fibras contínuas de carbono

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Análise do efeito higrotérmico no comportamento em fadiga de compósitos de PPS/fibras de carbono

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Análise fractográfica do modo de falha de compósitos carbono/epóxi

A utilização de compósitos poliméricos na fabricação de aeronaves vem sendo cada vez mais intensa. em função disso, a possibilidade de ocorrer falhas em serviço de um componente fabricado em compósito polimérico torna-se cada vez maior. A análise de falhas de materiais compósitos ainda é um tema pouco explorado, principalmente no Brasil, porém vem tornando-se cada vez mais importante em apoio à área de prevenção e investigação de acidentes aeronáuticos. Este trabalho teve como objetivo a caracterização de fraturas em laminados unidirecionais de fibra de carbono de módulo intermediário com sistema de resina epóxi modificada, tipo 8552, em resistência ao cisalhamento interlaminar nas condições ambiente e saturado de umidade em câmara higrotérmica. A análise fractográfica no plano de falha dos laminados foi realizada por microscopias óptica e eletrônica de varredura. A comparação dos resultados mostrou que o condicionamento higrotérmico afetou significativamente a região de interface da resina sem alterar a adesão interfacial fibra/resina. Os aspectos de fratura presentes na região de resina, como cristas de galo e escarpas, e do reforço foram detalhados, podendo-se assim estabelecer a direção de propagação da trinca e caracterizar o modo de falha, por ser do tipo misto (arrancamento e cisalhamento simultaneamente).

Caracterização mecânica e microestrutural de um aço baixo carbono microligado com estrutura multifásica

Neste trabalho foi realizada a caracterização mecânica e microestrutural de um aço microligado com estrutura multifásica. Foi aplicado tratamento térmico pré-determinado, objetivando a formação de uma microestrutura multifásica no material. Na caracterização microestrutural foram utilizados ataques químicos à base de metabissulfito de sódio e ácido pícrico, enquanto a caracterização mecânica foi realizada através de ensaios de tração. Os resultados demonstram o elevado potencial dos aços multifásicos em aplicações que necessitem de valores superiores de resistência e ductilidade, pois tanto para temperatura isotérmica de 400ºC quanto para 350ºC houve um ganho no limite de resistência à tração ficando em torno de 786MPa e 773MPa respectivamente, representando um aumento de 15,5% e 13,6% com relação ao material fornecido.

Avaliação termoanalítica da eficiência de antioxidantes na estabilidade oxidativa do biodiesel de mamona

The biodiesel is defined as the mono-alkyl ester derived from long-chain fatty acids, from renewable sources such as vegetable oils or animal fat, whose use is associated with the replacement of fossil fuels in diesel engine cycle. The biodiesel is susceptible to oxidation when exposed to air and this process of oxidation affects the quality of fuel, mainly due to long periods of storage. Because of this, the oxidation stability has been the focus of numerous researches since it directly affects the producers, distributors and users of fuel. One of the possibilities to increase the resistance of biodiesel is the autoxidation treatment with inhibitors of oxidation. The antioxidants can be used as potential inhibitors of the effects of oxidation on the kinematic viscosity and the index of acidity of biodiesel, thereby increasing oxidative stability. This work aims to examine the efficiency of antioxidants, α-tocopherol and butylated hydroxy-toluene (BHT), added the biodiesel content of remembrance through Pressurized-Differential Scanning Calorimetry (P-DSC), Thermogravimetry (TG) and Petrology. The results showed that the use of antioxidant BHT, at the concentration of 2000ppm, increased resistance to oxidation of the biodiesel and oxidative induction time (OIT), which is a better result as antioxidant than the α-tocopherol. With the thermogravimetric analysis, it was observed that the biodiesel presented an initial decomposition temperature of lower tendency than that of oil, demonstrating to be more volatile, bearing great similarity to the diesel and being characterized as an alternative fuel. The rheological analysis indicated that each sample of biodiesel behaved as a Newtonian fluid

Síntese, caracterização e aplicação de MCM-41 funcionalizado com diisopropilamina no processo de adsorção do dióxido de carbono

Emissions of CO2 in the atmosphere have increased successively by various mechanisms caused by human action, especially as fossil fuel combustion and industrial chemical processes. This leads to the increase in average temperature in the atmosphere, which we call global warming. The search for new technologies to minimize environmental impacts arising from this phenomenon has been investigated. The capture of CO2 is one of the alternatives that can help reduce emis ions of greenhouse gases. The CO2 can be captured through the process of selective adsorption using adsorbents for this purpose. Were synthesized by hydrothermal method, materials of the type MCM-41 and Al-MCM-41 in the molar ratio Si / Al equal to 50. The synthesis of gels were prepared from a source of silicon, sodium, water and aluminum in the case of Al-MCM-41. The period of synthesis of the materials was 5 days in autoclave at 100°C. After that time materials were filtered, washed and dried in greenhouse at 100 º C for 4 hours and then calcined at 450 º C. Then the calcined material was functionalized with the Di-isopropylamine (DIPA) by the method of wet impregnation. We used 0.5 g of material mesopores to 3.5 mL of DIPA. The materials were functionalized in a closed container for 24 hours, and after this period were dried at brackground temperature for 2 hours. Were subsequently subjected to heat treatment at 250°C for 1 hour. These materials were used for the adsorption of CO2 and were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, BET / BJH, SEM, EDX and TG / DTG. Tests of adsorption of CO2 was carried out under the following conditions: 100 mg of adsorbent, temperature of 75°C under flow of 100 mL/min of CO2 for 2 hours. The desorption of CO2 was carried out by thermogravimetry from ambient temperature to 900ºC under flow of 25 mL min of He and a ratio of 10ºC/min. The difratogramas X-ray for the synthesized samples showed the characteristic peaks of MCM-41, showing that the structure of it was obtained. For samples functionalized there was a decrease of the intensities of these peaks, with a consequent reduction in the structural ordering of the material. However, the structure was preserved mesopores. The adsorption tests showed that the functionalized MCM-41 is presented as a material promising adsorbent, for CO2 capture, with a loss of mass on the desorption CO2 of 7,52%, while that in Al-MCM- 41 functionalized showed no such loss

Inibição à corrosão do aço AISI 1020, em meios ácido e salino, por tensoativos e substâncias nitrogenadas microemulsionados

Corrosion inhibition efficiency of saponified coconut oil (SCO) and sodium dodecilbenzene sulfonate (DBS) surfactants in AISI 1020 carbon steel was evaluated by electrochemical methods. These surfactants were also evaluated as microemulsion systems (SCO-ME and DBS-ME), of O/W type (water-rich microemulsion), in a Winsor IV region. They were obtained according to the following composition: 15% SCO, 15% butanol (30% Co-surfactant/Surfactant C/T), 10% organic phase (FO, kerosene) and 60% aqueous phase (FA). These systems were also used to solubilize the following nitrogenated substances: Diphenylcarbazide (DC), 2,4-dinitro-phenyl-thiosemicarbazide (TSC) and the mesoionic type compound 1,3,4-triazolium-2-thiolate (MI), that were investigated with the purpose of evaluating their anticorrosive effects. Comparative studies of carbon steel corrosion inhibition efficiencies of free DBS and DBS-ME, in brine and acidic media (0.5%), showed that DBS presents better inhibition results in acidic media (free DBS, 89% and DBS-ME, 93%). However, the values obtained for DBS in salted solution (72% free DBS and 77% DBS-ME) were similar to the ones observed for the SCO surfactant in brine (63% free SCO and 74% SCO-ME). Analysis of corrosion inhibition of the nitrogenated substances that were solubilized in the SCO-ME microemulsion system by the linear polarization method in brine (0.5% NaCl) showed that such compounds are very efficient an corrosion inhibitors [DC-ME-SCO (92%), TSC-ME-SCO (93%) and MI-ME-SCO (94%)]