Análise da problemática socioambiental de nascentes urbanas no município de Garanhuns-PE

Garanhuns City, in Pernambuco, undergoes a rapid, polluting and non-organized urban development affecting its freshwater springs around the urban environment. These sources are of great importance to the district as well as to the hydrographic basin of the Mundaú River. In this view, this paper aims at analyzing the socio-environmental problems resulting from the urban expansion surrounding the Garanhuns’ sources. The study considers the social and environmental dynamics and follows the theoretical contributions of socio-environmental geography proposed by Mendonça’s Urban Environmental System methodological and theoretical model (2004), as well as the conceptual values of Santos’ space theory (2002a). The data treatment included bibliographical and documental research, evaluation of environmental impact, and water analysis. It revealed that Garanhuns possesses many local environmental traits favoring the coming out of freshwater springs and that these sources have played an important role in the making and development of that village. The environmental impacts on freshwater springs, like Olho D’água, Bom Pastor, Vila Maria, Pau Amarelo and Pau Pombo have been evaluated through the environmental impact score IIAN. It put alight serious cases of socio-environmental impacts on the dynamics of the freshwater springs. In the period of April 2013 and April 2014, it monitored the superficial water quality expelled by the Pau Pombo, Pau Amarelo e Vila Maria water sources, and the analyses of the contents followed the determinations of the Environmental National Board, whose parameters are dissolved oxygen, biochemical demand of oxygen, nitrate, total coliforms, faecal coliforms, and electrical conductivity. The results recollected suggest the existence of organic pollution and deep alteration in the water coming out from the sources. In consequence, it seems important the putting out of measures destined to stop those impacts and guaranteeing protection and maintenance of the freshwater springs and their micro-basins.

O Programa Nacional Biblioteca da Escola - PNBE: da gestão ao leitor na educação infantil de Natal-RN

This study aims to investigate the process of implementation of Programa Nacional Biblioteca da Escola, PNBE, and the reader's training on Childhood Education level in Natal. The promotion of literary reading is the opportunity of inclusion in a world that is connected to citizenship, to human rights and social justice, because the reading is the way which gives meaning to the life and, therefore, it is a right for everybody. The study is characterized as a qualitative research with evaluative approach. The methodological procedure that constitutes this corpus took place in three stages: the first one was about the analysis of laws and documents of national public policies for the reading promotion; questionnaires were applied by Managing Committee - Natal/RN to CMEIs and the available websites from MEC that provide distribution of the acquis; in the second stage, we adopted the semi-structured interview as a methodological procedure elaborated with open questions that focus on the program management and to the acquis of PNBE; and in the third step we visited the 21 centers of childhood education in Natal for interviewing and to do the exploratory observation in places of reading. The Informant actors in this research are: the advisors of SME - Natal and FNDE, managers and teachers in Municipal Childhood Education Centers who totalize 30 informants. This theoretical and methodological framework follows the studies of Amarilha (1993; 1994; 2002; 2006; 2010; 2012), Bardin (2001), Bogdan; Biklen (1994), Castro (2007; 2008; 2012), Demo (2000; 2006; 2008), Fischer (2006), Moreira; Caleffe (2008), Paiva (2008; 2012), Secchi (2010; 2012), Soares (2003; 2008) and Zilberman (2001; 2003; 2008). The analysis indicates that decentralization strategy which is adopted in public management model will transfer responsibilities and assumption of the PNBE, exempting the actors to planning actions ensuring the efficiency and efficacy implementation on reading policy to national and municipal levels. The qualified acquis that is distributed by MEC reaches every Childhood Education center and does not depend on teacher's desire or it action, only a few of them know about it and they do not have information about the PNBE, neither receive specific training in order to articulate it to the practice of reading with children from Childhood Education. The reading project implemented by private education system in Natal overlaps the PNBE, making it invisible. The reading places that are available for that schooling stage are summarized to the reading corners. In some CMEI, books remain stored in boxes or they are locked in the closet, out of use to the teachers and students. Thus, care for the acquisition, selecting acquis, and a preoccupation to the supply of the reading and books for this education level are lost into volumes of closed boxes, teachers are jettisoned to this process and children do not have any enchantment to the reading or books. In this context, this paper draws attention to how much we should still investigate in order to understanding the perspectives, stresses and challenges from public policies for the reading promotion in our country. We hope that the research will help to improve the management model of the PNBE, ensuring the reading democratization and therefore the reader's training in early Childhood Education.

O Programa Nacional Biblioteca da Escola - PNBE: da gestão ao leitor na educação infantil de Natal-RN

This study aims to investigate the process of implementation of Programa Nacional Biblioteca da Escola, PNBE, and the reader's training on Childhood Education level in Natal. The promotion of literary reading is the opportunity of inclusion in a world that is connected to citizenship, to human rights and social justice, because the reading is the way which gives meaning to the life and, therefore, it is a right for everybody. The study is characterized as a qualitative research with evaluative approach. The methodological procedure that constitutes this corpus took place in three stages: the first one was about the analysis of laws and documents of national public policies for the reading promotion; questionnaires were applied by Managing Committee - Natal/RN to CMEIs and the available websites from MEC that provide distribution of the acquis; in the second stage, we adopted the semi-structured interview as a methodological procedure elaborated with open questions that focus on the program management and to the acquis of PNBE; and in the third step we visited the 21 centers of childhood education in Natal for interviewing and to do the exploratory observation in places of reading. The Informant actors in this research are: the advisors of SME - Natal and FNDE, managers and teachers in Municipal Childhood Education Centers who totalize 30 informants. This theoretical and methodological framework follows the studies of Amarilha (1993; 1994; 2002; 2006; 2010; 2012), Bardin (2001), Bogdan; Biklen (1994), Castro (2007; 2008; 2012), Demo (2000; 2006; 2008), Fischer (2006), Moreira; Caleffe (2008), Paiva (2008; 2012), Secchi (2010; 2012), Soares (2003; 2008) and Zilberman (2001; 2003; 2008). The analysis indicates that decentralization strategy which is adopted in public management model will transfer responsibilities and assumption of the PNBE, exempting the actors to planning actions ensuring the efficiency and efficacy implementation on reading policy to national and municipal levels. The qualified acquis that is distributed by MEC reaches every Childhood Education center and does not depend on teacher's desire or it action, only a few of them know about it and they do not have information about the PNBE, neither receive specific training in order to articulate it to the practice of reading with children from Childhood Education. The reading project implemented by private education system in Natal overlaps the PNBE, making it invisible. The reading places that are available for that schooling stage are summarized to the reading corners. In some CMEI, books remain stored in boxes or they are locked in the closet, out of use to the teachers and students. Thus, care for the acquisition, selecting acquis, and a preoccupation to the supply of the reading and books for this education level are lost into volumes of closed boxes, teachers are jettisoned to this process and children do not have any enchantment to the reading or books. In this context, this paper draws attention to how much we should still investigate in order to understanding the perspectives, stresses and challenges from public policies for the reading promotion in our country. We hope that the research will help to improve the management model of the PNBE, ensuring the reading democratization and therefore the reader's training in early Childhood Education.

Leitura do mundo no rap: uma análise bakhtiniana de práticas leitoras no ensino fundamental

This study aims to propose two didactic sequences on the rap songs to the process of formation of critical reflective reader, in the elementary school – in 6th and 9th grade classes. The theoretical foundations that have supported the work are related to the Bakhtin Circle propositions, especially the notions of language as a social ideological discourse; responsive reading; discursive genre and social voices. As for the methodological guidance, it is characterized by adopting the interpretativist paradigm of socio-historical base, in addition to positioning in the large field of Applied Linguistics, whose primary focus is specifically located language. In the selected enunciations to corpus – some Rap songs of protesting – it was analyzed the students’ reflective critical reading in the workshops of Rap-song reading, applied in modules of our teaching sequences. Through the carried out analysis, it was noted that the subjects surveyed have come from an educational culture towards the fulfillment of a conteudista proposed curriculum, so that in this scenario we do not see, through reading, training of the individual citizen, able to through his readings, understanding the socio-ideological structure that surrounds them; and so, escaping of understandings the world, based only on common sense. We conclude also that our teaching proposal represented a novelty for students. Initially, some of them did not see this work as reading, however, the majority was heavily involved in the process; so that, in their comments, we realize voices of a critical and reflective look of which comprise environments, and social situation to which they belong.

Leitura do mundo no rap: uma análise bakhtiniana de práticas leitoras no ensino fundamental

This study aims to propose two didactic sequences on the rap songs to the process of formation of critical reflective reader, in the elementary school – in 6th and 9th grade classes. The theoretical foundations that have supported the work are related to the Bakhtin Circle propositions, especially the notions of language as a social ideological discourse; responsive reading; discursive genre and social voices. As for the methodological guidance, it is characterized by adopting the interpretativist paradigm of socio-historical base, in addition to positioning in the large field of Applied Linguistics, whose primary focus is specifically located language. In the selected enunciations to corpus – some Rap songs of protesting – it was analyzed the students’ reflective critical reading in the workshops of Rap-song reading, applied in modules of our teaching sequences. Through the carried out analysis, it was noted that the subjects surveyed have come from an educational culture towards the fulfillment of a conteudista proposed curriculum, so that in this scenario we do not see, through reading, training of the individual citizen, able to through his readings, understanding the socio-ideological structure that surrounds them; and so, escaping of understandings the world, based only on common sense. We conclude also that our teaching proposal represented a novelty for students. Initially, some of them did not see this work as reading, however, the majority was heavily involved in the process; so that, in their comments, we realize voices of a critical and reflective look of which comprise environments, and social situation to which they belong.

Síntese, caracterização e estudo da associação em meio aquoso de copolímeros responsivos de carboximetilcelulose-g-Jeffamine®

This thesis presents the synthesis, characterization and study of the associative behaviour in aqueous media of new responsive graft copolymers, based on carboxymethylcellulose as the water-soluble backbone and Jeffamine® M-2070 e Jeffamine® M-600 (commercial polyetheramines) as the thermoresponsive grafts with high cloud point temperatures in water. The synthesis was performed on aqueous medium, by using 1-ethyl-3- (3-(dimethylamino)-propyl)carbodiimide hydrochloride and N-hydroxysuccinimide as activators of the reaction between carboxylategroupsfrom carboxymethylcellulose and amino groups from polyetheramines. The grafting reaction was confirmed by infrared spectroscopy and the grafting percentage by 1H NMR. The molar mass of the polyetheramines was determined by 1H NMR, whereas the molar mass of CMC and graft copolymers was determined by static light scattering. The salt effect on the association behaviour of the copolymers was evaluated in different aqueous media (Milli-Q water, 0.5M NaCl, 0.5M K2CO3 and synthetic sea water), at different temperatures, through UV-vis, rheology and dynamic light scattering. None of the copolymers solutions, at 5 g/L, turned turbid in Milli-Q water when heated from 25 to 95 °C, probably because of the increase in hydrophibicity promoted by CMC backbone. However, they became turbid in the presence of salts, due to the salting out effect, where the lowest cloud point was observed in 0.5M K2CO3, which was attributed to the highest ionic strength in water, combined to the ability of CO3 2- to decrease polymer-solvents interactions. The hydrodynamic radius and apparent viscosity of the copolymers in aqueous medium changed as a function of salts dissolved in the medium, temperature and copolymer composition. Thermothickening behaviour was observed in 0.5M K2CO3 when the temperature was raised from 25 to 60°C. This performance can be attributed to intermolecular associations as a physical network, since the temperature is above the cloud point of the copolymers in this solvent.

Design, Fabrication, and Characterization of Carbon Nanotube Field Emission Devices for Advanced Applications

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have recently emerged as promising candidates for electron field emission (FE) cathodes in integrated FE devices. These nanostructured carbon materials possess exceptional properties and their synthesis can be thoroughly controlled. Their integration into advanced electronic devices, including not only FE cathodes, but sensors, energy storage devices, and circuit components, has seen rapid growth in recent years. The results of the studies presented here demonstrate that the CNT field emitter is an excellent candidate for next generation vacuum microelectronics and related electron emission devices in several advanced applications.

The work presented in this study addresses determining factors that currently confine the performance and application of CNT-FE devices. Characterization studies and improvements to the FE properties of CNTs, along with Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) design and fabrication, were utilized in achieving these goals. Important performance limiting parameters, including emitter lifetime and failure from poor substrate adhesion, are examined. The compatibility and integration of CNT emitters with the governing MEMS substrate (i.e., polycrystalline silicon), and its impact on these performance limiting parameters, are reported. CNT growth mechanisms and kinetics were investigated and compared to silicon (100) to improve the design of CNT emitter integrated MEMS based electronic devices, specifically in vacuum microelectronic device (VMD) applications.

Improved growth allowed for design and development of novel cold-cathode FE devices utilizing CNT field emitters. A chemical ionization (CI) source based on a CNT-FE electron source was developed and evaluated in a commercial desktop mass spectrometer for explosives trace detection. This work demonstrated the first reported use of a CNT-based ion source capable of collecting CI mass spectra. The CNT-FE source demonstrated low power requirements, pulsing capabilities, and average lifetimes of over 320 hours when operated in constant emission mode under elevated pressures, without sacrificing performance. Additionally, a novel packaged ion source for miniature mass spectrometer applications using CNT emitters, a MEMS based Nier-type geometry, and a Low Temperature Cofired Ceramic (LTCC) 3D scaffold with integrated ion optics were developed and characterized. While previous research has shown other devices capable of collecting ion currents on chip, this LTCC packaged MEMS micro-ion source demonstrated improvements in energy and angular dispersion as well as the ability to direct the ions out of the packaged source and towards a mass analyzer. Simulations and experimental design, fabrication, and characterization were used to make these improvements.

Finally, novel CNT-FE devices were developed to investigate their potential to perform as active circuit elements in VMD circuits. Difficulty integrating devices at micron-scales has hindered the use of vacuum electronic devices in integrated circuits, despite the unique advantages they offer in select applications. Using a combination of particle trajectory simulation and experimental characterization, device performance in an integrated platform was investigated. Solutions to the difficulties in operating multiple devices in close proximity and enhancing electron transmission (i.e., reducing grid loss) are explored in detail. A systematic and iterative process was used to develop isolation structures that reduced crosstalk between neighboring devices from 15% on average, to nearly zero. Innovative geometries and a new operational mode reduced grid loss by nearly threefold, thereby improving transmission of the emitted cathode current to the anode from 25% in initial designs to 70% on average. These performance enhancements are important enablers for larger scale integration and for the realization of complex vacuum microelectronic circuits.

Antarctic ice sheet topography, cavity geometry, and global bathymetry (RTopo 1.0.5-beta)

Sub-ice shelf circulation and freezing/melting rates in ocean general circulation models depend critically on an accurate and consistent representation of cavity geometry. Existing global or pan-Antarctic data sets have turned out to contain various inconsistencies and inaccuracies. The goal of this work is to compile independent regional fields into a global data set. We use the S-2004 global 1-minute bathymetry as the backbone and add an improved version of the BEDMAP topography for an area that roughly coincides with the Antarctic continental shelf. Locations of the merging line have been carefully adjusted in order to get the best out of each data set. High-resolution gridded data for upper and lower ice surface topography and cavity geometry of the Amery, Fimbul, Filchner-Ronne, Larsen C and George VI Ice Shelves, and for Pine Island Glacier have been carefully merged into the ambient ice and ocean topographies. Multibeam survey data for bathymetry in the former Larsen B cavity and the southeastern Bellingshausen Sea have been obtained from the data centers of Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), gridded, and again carefully merged into the existing bathymetry map. The global 1-minute dataset (RTopo-1 Version 1.0.5) has been split into two netCDF files. The first contains digital maps for global bedrock topography, ice bottom topography, and surface elevation. The second contains the auxiliary maps for data sources and the surface type mask. A regional subset that covers all variables for the region south of 50 deg S is also available in netCDF format. Datasets for the locations of grounding and coast lines are provided in ASCII format.

La exploración del litoral atlántico norteafricano según el periplo de Hannón de Cartago

El periplo de Hannón, frente a las propuestas que lo interpretan como una obra literaria, creemos que recoge un periplo auténtico, que sólo alcanzó cabo Juby y algunas de las Islas Canarias. Las refundaciones cartaginesas fueron todas en la Mauretania fértil, en los 7 primeros días de la expedición. Desde el islote de Kérne, en la expedición primó una primera exploración de evaluación, indicativo de que se trataba de apenas 2 o 3 barcos, con una tripulación limitada, que evitaban enfrentamientos con la población local. Los intérpretes Lixítai parecen conocer todos los puntos explorados, el río Chrétes, los etíopes del Alto Atlas costero, el gran golfo caluroso que finalizaba en el Hespérou Kéras, el volcán Theôn Óchema, o las gentes salvajes que denominaban Goríllai. Probablemente la mayor sorpresa fuese encontrar un volcán activo, emitiendo lava, que pudo ser la razón última para redactar este periplo. La falta de agua, alimentos y caza como razón para finalizar la expedición exploratoria sólo es comprensible en un trayecto corto que alcanzó hasta el inicio del desierto del Sahara. Otro tanto sucede con la ausencia de ríos importantes al Sur del río Chrétes, una clara prueba de que no se alcanzaron latitudes ecuatoriales y que los barcos se fueron alejando de la costa norteafricana.

Gold nanoparticle induced vasculature damage in radiotherapy: Comparing protons, megavoltage photons, and kilovoltage photons

Purpose: The purpose of this work is to investigate the radiosensitizing effect of gold nanoparticle (GNP) induced vasculature damage for proton, megavoltage (MV) photon, and kilovoltage (kV) photon irradiation. Methods: Monte Carlo simulations were carried out using tool for particle simulation (TOPAS) to obtain the spatial dose distribution in close proximity up to 20 µm from the GNPs. The spatial dose distribution from GNPs was used as an input to calculate the dose deposited to the blood vessels. GNP induced vasculature damage was evaluated for three particle sources (a clinical spread out Bragg peak proton beam, a 6 MV photon beam, and two kV photon beams). For each particle source, various depths in tissue, GNP sizes (2, 10, and 20 nm diameter), and vessel diameters (8, 14, and 20 µm) were investigated. Two GNP distributions in lumen were considered, either homogeneously distributed in the vessel or attached to the inner wall of the vessel. Doses of 30 Gy and 2 Gy were considered, representing typical in vivo enhancement studies and conventional clinical fractionation, respectively. Results: These simulations showed that for 20 Au-mg/g GNP blood concentration homogeneously distributed in the vessel, the additional dose at the inner vascular wall encircling the lumen was 43% of the prescribed dose at the depth of treatment for the 250 kVp photon source, 1% for the 6 MV photon source, and 0.1% for the proton beam. For kV photons, GNPs caused 15% more dose in the vascular wall for 150 kVp source than for 250 kVp. For 6 MV photons, GNPs caused 0.2% more dose in the vascular wall at 20 cm depth in water as compared to at depth of maximum dose (Dmax). For proton therapy, GNPs caused the same dose in the vascular wall for all depths across the spread out Bragg peak with 12.7 cm range and 7 cm modulation. For the same weight of GNPs in the vessel, 2 nm diameter GNPs caused three times more damage to the vessel than 20 nm diameter GNPs. When the GNPs were attached to the inner vascular wall, the damage to the inner vascular wall can be up to 207% of the prescribed dose for the 250 kVp photon source, 4% for the 6 MV photon source, and 2% for the proton beam. Even though the average dose increase from the proton beam and MV photon beam was not large, there were high dose spikes that elevate the local dose of the parts of the blood vessel to be higher than 15 Gy even for 2 Gy prescribed dose, especially when the GNPs can be actively targeted to the endothelial cells. Conclusions: GNPs can potentially be used to enhance radiation therapy by causing vasculature damage through high dose spikes caused by the addition of GNPs especially for hypofractionated treatment. If GNPs are designed to actively accumulate at the tumor vasculature walls, vasculature damage can be increased significantly. The largest enhancement is seen using kilovoltage photons due to the photoelectric effect. Although no significant average dose enhancement was observed for the whole vasculature structure for both MV photons and protons, they can cause high local dose escalation (>15 Gy) to areas of the blood vessel that can potentially contribute to the disruption of the functionality of the blood vessels in the tumor.

Secure Multiple Amplify-and-Forward Relaying with Co-Channel Interference

We investigate the impact of co-channel interference on the security performance of multiple amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying networks, where N intermediate AF relays assist the data transmission from the source to the destination. The relays are corrupted by multiple co-channel interferers, and the information transmitted from the relays to destination can be overheard by the eavesdropper. In order to deal with the interference and wiretap, the best out of N relays is selected for security enhancement. To this end, we derive a novel lower bound on the secrecy outage probability (SOP), which is then utilized to present two best relay selection criteria, based on the instantaneous and statistical channel information of the interfering links. For these criteria and the conventional maxmin criterion, we quantify the impact of co-channel interference and relay selection by deriving the lower bound on the SOP. Furthermore, we derive the asymptotic SOP for each criterion, to explicitly reveal the impact of transmit power allocation among interferers on the secrecy performance, which offers valuable insights into practical design. We demonstrate that all selection criteria achieve full secrecy diversity order N, while the proposed in this paper two criteria outperform the conventional max-min scheme. 

Improving Readability of Swedish Electronic Health Records through Lexical Simplification : First Results

This paper describes part of an ongoing effort to improve the readability of Swedish electronic health records (EHRs). An EHR contains systematic documentation of a single patient’s medical history across time, entered by healthcare professionals with the purpose of enabling safe and informed care. Linguistically, medical records exemplify a highly specialised domain, which can be superficially characterised as having telegraphic sentences involving displaced or missing words, abundant abbreviations, spelling variations including misspellings, and terminology. We report results on lexical simplification of Swedish EHRs, by which we mean detecting the unknown, out-ofdictionary words and trying to resolve them either as compounded known words, abbreviations or misspellings.

Förändringar i informationshanteringen med användandet av molntjänster : Förändringsanalys hos ett företag inom retailbranschen

Den här studien, som har bedrivits i samarbete med konsultföretaget Pipe, har studerat informationshanteringsprocessen hos småföretag inom retailbranschen. Företaget som ägnar sig åt butiksplanering med hjälp av CAD-program har idag ingen koppling mellan CAD-programmet och den molndatabas som lagrar information. Syftet med arbetet är att beskriva hur ett åtgärdsförslag skulle kunna se ut för att företaget ska kunna förbättra sin informationshantering genom användandet utav en molndatabas. Vi har även beskrivit problemområdet kring kopplingar mellanmolndatabaser och designprogram. För att besvara studiens syfte har vi genomfört en fallstudie, och svaret på forskningsfrågorna, 1. Hur ser informationshanteringsprocessen ut idag? 2. Hur kan informationshanteringsprocessen förbättras? 2. Vilka arbetssteg skulle kunna tas bort om företaget inför en koppling mellanmolndatabasen och designprogrammet? 3. Är en molnbaserad lösning ett möjligt alternativ för att använda för småföretag i retailbranschen? 4. Hur ser det ut i andra branscher som använder sig av CAD-program? Har vi hittat genom att genomföra intervjuer. Intervjuerna har hjälpt oss att genomföra en förändringsanalys där vi genom handlingsgrafer och mål- och problemlistor har kommit fram till ett antal åtgärdsförslag som företaget bör genomföra för att förbättra sin informationshanteringsprocess. Utifrån förändringsanalysen har vi kunnat dra slutsatsen att informationshanteringsprocessen skulle kunna förbättras och snabbas upp genom att införa en koppling mellan designprogrammet och en molndatabas. Detta skulle innebära att material automatiskt laddas upp från designprogrammet tillmolndatabasen, som även kunden har tillgång till. På så sätt samlas all information på ett och samma ställe. Genom litteraturstudier har vi också kommit fram till att en molnbaserad lösning vore möjligt för företaget, då det är en billig och smidig lösning för företag som inte har så stora resurser.

Evaluating statistical and machine learning methods to predict risk of in-hospital child mortality in Uganda

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-08