Análise da descarga sólida em suspensão na Bacia do Riacho Fundo, Brasília - DF

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Geociências, 2015.

Entre habitação e cidade

Tese de Doutoramento em Urbanismo, apresentada na Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade de Lisboa, para obtenção do grau de Doutor.

A Qualitative Study of the Status of Children’s Play From the Viewpoints of Experts and Suggestions for Promotion Interventions

Background: The latest national census reports the population of Iranian children (1 - 8 years old) about 11 millions. On the other hand, the latest population policies approved by supreme cultural revolution council (SCRC) will make this population increase faster. Childhood development is one of the social determinants of health, of which “child’s play” is a part. Objectives: This study is an effort to identify difficulties and challenges of the plays influential on Iranian children’s health nationwide, in order to present enhancive strategies by utilizing the views of stakeholders and national studies. Patients and Methods: Analyzing children’s play stakeholders, main organizations were identified and views of 13 informed people involved in the field were investigated through deep semi-structured interview. A denaturalized approach was employed in analyzing the data. In addition to descriptions of the state, interventions development, and designing the conceptual model, national reports and studies, and other countries’ experiences were also reviewed. Results: Society’s little knowledge of “children’s plays”, absence of administrators for children’s play, shortage of public facilities for children’s play and improper geographical and demographic availability, absence of policies for Iranian “toy”, and little attention of media to the issue are the five major problems as stated by interviewees. Conclusions: The proposed interventions are presented as “promoting the educational levels of parents and selected administrators for children’s play”, “approving the play and toy policy for Iran 2025”, and “increasing public facilities for children’s play with defined distribution and availability”.

Calidad del sueño y rendimiento académico en estudiantes de medicina de la Universidad de Cuenca marzo- agosto 2015

Antecedentes: La mala calidad del sueño en los estudiantes de medicina debido a sus horarios de estudio, turnos, carga académica, estrés emocional y académico, repercute en su salud física y mental. Estudios previos han demostrado la existencia de una relación entre la mala calidad del sueño y un menor rendimiento académico. Objetivo General: Caracterizar la calidad del sueño y su relación con el rendimiento académico en los estudiantes de medicina de la Universidad de Cuenca durante el periodo lectivo Marzo- Agosto 2015. Metodología: Se realizó un estudio transversal a partir de una muestra de 246 estudiantes de medicina seleccionada mediante conglomerados al azar simple. Participaron 244 estudiantes, tras aplicar criterios de exclusión Se utilizó el ICSP para valorar la calidad del sueño y se obtuvo el promedio global de notas del último bimensual. Se buscó relación entre calidad de sueño y rendimiento escolar a través del cálculo de p, OR e IC. Conclusiones: La prevalencia de mala calidad del sueño fue de 66,2%; siendo más frecuente en el sexo femenino (71%). De los estudiantes con un rendimiento académico “Bueno”, el 67% tienen una mala calidad del sueño. Por lo tanto no se encontró una asociación estadísticamente significativa entre la calidad del sueño y el rendimiento académico. Resultados: Se logró obtener una visión general de la prevalencia de la calidad del sueño de los estudiantes de nuestra universidad, y su relación con el rendimiento académico de los mismos. La importancia de este estudio radica en que existen pocos estudios y datos del tema en nuestro país

Análise do provimento de médicos em municípios participantes do programa mais médicos entre 2013 e 2014

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Saúde Coletiva, 2016.

Eutrofização e capacidade de carga de fósforo de seis reservatórios a bacia do Rio Seridó, região semi-árida do Estado do RN

The eutrofization is a natural process of accumulation of nutrients in aquatic´s body that it has been accelerated for the human´s actives, mainly the related with the activities of camp, industrial and the inadequate disposition of the domestic sewage. The enrichment of the aquatic´s body with nutrients, mainly the nitrogen and the phosphorus, and the consequent proliferation of algae and Cyanobacteria can commit the quality of the water for the public provisioning, for the fish farming and for other ends. The problem becomes more critical when there is a shortage of water naturally as in the semi-arid area of the Brazilian northeast. Before that problem this work had as objective evaluates the trophic state of six reservoirs of the basin of River Seridó of Rio Grande of Norte and also estimate the capacity of load of match of the reservoir and risk probabilities based on the established limits by the resolution Conama 357/05. The results demonstrate that the six reservoirs are eutrofization, with concentration of total phosphorus and cloro a in the water upster to 50 e 12 μg l-1. The results show that space homogeneity exists in the state trophic of the reservoirs, but a significant variation interanual in function of the increase of the concentrations of nutrients and decrease of the transparency of the water with the reduction of the body of water accumulated in the reservoirs.The results of the simulation risk estocastic show that the reservoirs could receive annually from 72 to 216 Kg of P, assuming a risk of 10% of increasing in more than 30 μg l-1 the annual medium concentrations of total match in the water of these reservoirs. This load could be high in until 360 kg of P a year in case the managers assume a risk of 10% of increasing in more than 50 μg l-1 the annual medium concentrations of total phosphorus in the waters of these reservoirs

Agroindustria rural, acción colectiva y SIALES: ¿Desarrollo o lucha contra la pobreza?

El desarrollo y reforzamiento de los sistemas agroalimentarios localizados, conjuntos de pequeñas unidades de agroindustria rural, pueden considerarse como un medio importante de reducción de la pobreza en las regiones rurales de América Latina.   Sin embargo, la validez de tal propuesta tiene que ser valorada, teniendo en cuenta los siguientes elementos: La dinámica de los SIALES radica en procesos de activación de recursos específicos, que son productos de la acción colectiva. Forman parte de cadenas con una gobernabilidad caracterizada por el dominio de actores de debajo de la cadena, tal como las grandes distribuidoras. La pobreza no se define únicamente por la falta de recursos monetarios, sino también por la falta de capacidades.   La eficacia de la acción colectiva de activación de los recursos específicos yace en la capacidad de control de estos recursos por parte de los actores involucrados, hasta con el diseño de dispositivos de exclusión acerca de ellos, lo que puede con llevar la marginalización de otros actores. Es una necesidad tanto más apremiante cuanto más ubica el SIAL en un contexto de mercado globalizado. El caso de las señales de calidad basadas en el origen territorial de los productos lo ilustra. Por otra parte, la dinámica de los SIALES puede conllevar a profundizar las capacidades, especialmente a través de procesos de aprendizaje. Las políticas públicas pueden reforzar el proceso, proporcionando bienes públicos y fomentando procesos participativos a nivel local.   Al final el desarrollo de los SIALES no constituye de por sí una garantía de reducción de las desigualdades, pero refuerza las capacidades y además es un tipo de cambio estructural, de los que se suelen asociar con la noción de desarrollo.   ABSTRACT The development of Local agri-food systems (LAS), as clusters of small rural food-processing units, can be seen as a powerful means of poverty alleviation in rural areas of Latin America.   The relevance of such a statement must, nevertheless, be assessed in the light of the following elements: LAS dynamics rest on activation processes of specific resources, as a result of collective action. LAS are part of commodity chains whose governance is characterized by the domination of downstream actors such as large retailers. Poverty does not only refer to the shortage of monetary income, but also to the absence of capacities.   The efficiency of collective action involved in the activation process of specific resources depends on the capacity of relevant actors to control the access. As a result, other actors can be cast aside in the process. It is true that these resources must be valorized in a globalized market. The case of quality signals based on geographical origin can be an example of that. On the other side, LAS dynamics can boost the development of capacities, particularly by promoting learning by doing. Public policies can channel tis process by delivering public goods and promoting participation at a local level.   All in all, the development of LAS is not per se a guarantee against the deepening of inequality. But it is a capacity-building factor and entails structural changes which are yhe essence of development processes.

Use of indicators to assess the sustainability of housing developments in Australia

Most new housing in Australia is occurring on greenfield sites on the edges of the capital cities. These housing developments are often criticised for their social and environmental unsustainability. These unsustainable suburbs are a legacy for future generations. They will create dire social and environmental problems if a serious economic downturn was to occur or a resource shortage e.g. oil was to make accessibility impossible. Coupled to these threats is that of the social ‘undesirability’ of isolated suburbs where only those on low incomes made their home. Most of those on higher incomes seek established suburbs which have ‘character’, social amenities and ease of access. Typically, these are in older suburbs close to city centres. This paper describes a methodology that has been developed to analyse past and future housing developments. The results of the analysis can provide a guide to improving the sustainability of these suburbs. The methodology uses several criteria to reflect the fact that no single criterion is adequate to describe or analyse the sustainability of a housing development. Sustainability should embrace social and environmental perspectives, so a multi-criteria analysis is appropriate. The theoretical framework for this methodology has been described elsewhere. However, in this previous work only five criteria were considered: energy use, resource use, neighbourhood character, neighbourhood connectedness and social diversity. In each case, high and low sustainability practice has been identified so that ranking is possible. This paper initially summarizes the way in which these previous five criteria are assessed but then adds a sixth criterion (social connectedness) because of a perceived gap in the previous assessment. The results of an analysis of three suburbs reported in the previous work are updated. They score poorly in terms of social connectedness underlining the need to ‘repair’ these suburbs in order to improve their overall sustainability.

Role of energy storage in the power system network

Today’s power system network is more complex with enhanced responsibility to maintain reliable, stable and quality supply of power at transmission and distribution level. Maintaining grid balance is a bigger issue, in case of any unexpected generation shortage or grid disturbance or any participation of an intermittent nature of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power in the energy mix. In order to compensate such imbalance and improve reliability, and stability of power system, an energy storage system (ESS) can be considered as a vital solution. Also ESS can be used to mitigate associated issues of renewable energy sources while integration into the power system network. Thus ESS supports to get a reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by means of integrating more renewable energy sources to the grid effectively. There are various types of Energy Storage (ES) technologies which are being used in power systems network for large scale (MW) to small scale (KW) level. Based on the type and characteristics, each storage technology is suitable for a particular role of applications. This paper presents an extensive review study on various types of ES technologies in characteristics and applications point of view. It also demonstrates various applications of ESS in detail. Finally, with the aid of ES-selectTM tool software, a feasibility analysis has been carried out to identify a suitable ES technology for appropriate applications at different grid locations and also helps to develop a smart hybrid storage system for grid applications in future.

A hybrid localization approach in 3D wireless sensor network

Location information acquisition is crucial for many wireless sensor network (WSN) applications. While existing localization approaches mainly focus on 2D plane, the emerging 3D localization brings WSNs closer to reality with much enhanced accuracy. Two types of 3D localization algorithms are mainly used in localization application: the range-based localization and the range-free localization. The range-based localization algorithm has strict requirements on hardware and therefore is costly to implement in practice. The range-free localization algorithm reduces the hardware cost but at the expense of low localization accuracy. On addressing the shortage of both algorithms, in this paper, we develop a novel hybrid localization scheme, which utilizes the range-based attribute RSSI and the range-free attribute hopsize, to achieve accurate yet low-cost 3D localization. As anchor node deployment strategy plays an important role in improving the localization accuracy, an anchor node configuration scheme is also developed in this work by utilizing the MIS (maximal independent set) of a network. With proper anchor node configuration and propagation model selection, using simulations, we show that our proposed algorithm improves the localization accuracy by 38.9% compared with 3D DV-HOP and 52.7% compared with 3D centroid.

Living and deceased organ donation should be financially neutral acts

The supply of organs—particularly kidneys—donated by living and deceased donors falls short of the number of patients added annually to transplant waiting lists in the United States. To remedy this problem, a number of prominent physicians, ethicists, economists and others have mounted a campaign to suspend the prohibitions in the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 (NOTA) on the buying and selling of organs. The argument that providing financial benefits would incentivize enough people to part with a kidney (or a portion of a liver) to clear the waiting lists is flawed. This commentary marshals arguments against the claim that the shortage of donor organs would best be overcome by providing financial incentives for donation. We can increase the number of organs available for transplantation by removing all financial disincentives that deter unpaid living or deceased kidney donation. These disincentives include a range of burdens, such as the costs of travel and lodging for medical evaluation and surgery, lost wages, and the expense of dependent care during the period of organ removal and recuperation. Organ donation should remain an act that is financially neutral for donors, neither imposing financial burdens nor enriching them monetarily.

A rotational social work field placement model in regional health

Increases in student numbers and education providers have combined with pressures on the human services sector to create field-placement-shortage stress in many parts of Australia. In this climate some Australian social work programs have sought alternatives to the traditional, labour-intensive, one student/one field educator, single-site model of field placement. The rotation model, as an alternative, has a longer history in America, but is only recently being trialled and evaluated in Australia.

Sisyphus and self-management : the chronic condition self-management paradox

Chronic condition self-management is promoted internationally as not only a possible solution to the health problems of our increasingly chronically ill and ageing population, but as part of a new wave of consumer-led and volunteer-managed health care initiatives. Consumers are now indicating that they want to be more involved in the management of their lives and their health care options, while, especially in rural and smaller communities in Australia, a shortage of clinicians means that health care is rapidly changing. This emphasis on self-management raises crucial questions about where consumer action and control in health care should end and where clinical and medical intervention might begin. Hence, as in the case of Sisyphus and his rock, the self-management process is a difficult and demanding one that poses major challenges and loads for health system reformers and represents a struggle in which new difficulties are constantly emerging. This paper examines some implications of new self-management approaches to chronic illness from an ideological perspective and highlights key elements that underpin the effort to promote health-related lifestyle change. While peer-led self-management programs may assist certain individuals to live engaged and meaningful lives, the essential social and economic determinants of health and wellbeing mean that these programs are not the answer to our urgent need for major reform in the health care arena. Rather, self-management, from an ideological perspective, represents a minor adjustment to the fabric of our health system.

Analysis of different scenarios for residential energy management under existing retail market structure

This paper presents an analysis of a residential energy management scheme under existing retail market structure with the integration of solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery energy storage systems. In this paper, different scenarios are analyzed with an aim of achieving the most cost-effective solutions for the integration of solar PV and battery energy storage systems. The main idea behind these analyses is to obtain a grid independent residential energy management system through the reduction of purchasing energy from the existing power grid. The results from the analysis of different scenarios for a typical Australian house demonstrate that the shortage of energy during the high loads and excess of energy during the higher output of solar PV system can be reduced with the design of a proper energy management scheme employing a transactive energy management framework.

On the issuing policies for perishable items such as red blood cells and platelets in blood service

Red blood cells (RBCs) and platelets are examples of perishable items with a fixed shelf life. Recent studies show that transfusing fresh RBCs may lead to an improvement of patient outcomes. In addition, to better manage their inventory, hospitals prefer to receive fresh RBCs and platelets. Therefore, as well as minimizing outdates and shortages, reducing the average age of issue is a key performance criterion for blood banks. The issuing policy in a perishable inventory system has a substantial impact on the age of issue and outdate and shortage rates. Although several studies have compared the last in first out (LIFO) and the first in first out (FIFO) policies for perishable products, only a few studies have considered the situation of blood banks where replenishment is not controllable. In this study, we examine various issuing policies for a perishable inventory system with uncontrollable replenishment, and outline a modified FIFO policy. Our proposed modified FIFO policy partitions the inventory into two parts such that the first part holds the items with age less than a threshold. It then applies the FIFO policy in each part and the LIFO policy between the parts. We present two approximation techniques to estimate the average age of issue, the average time between successive outdates and the average time between successive shortages of the modified FIFO policy. Our analysis shows in several cases that where the objective function is a single economic function, or it is formulated as a multiobjective model, the modified FIFO policy outperforms the FIFO and LIFO policies.