Maritime temporalities and capitalist development

This intervention develops arguments in our book Capitalism and the Sea on the complex temporalities attached to capitalism's intense and peculiar relationship to the global ocean. Technological innovations like the steamship or containerisation plainly transformed the pace and intensity of maritime commerce, and aspects of the global economy. We take this further to argue that the very origins and periodisation of capitalism are connected to the global ocean; as will be our futures, given the unpredictable implications of the oceans acting as the biosphere's ‘heat sink’. We consider several stylised expressions of time at sea: deep-time, logistical-time, life-time, and revolutionary time suggesting that the ocean world as a geographical space articulates these in distinctive and contradictory ways

EMISSION AND ATMOSPHERIC IMPACT OF A CUBAN REFINERY

In the processes of an oil refinery, considerable emissions of atmospheric pollutants are generated that produces hazard to mans health and the environment. In this study, the obtained results of the characterization of the gaseous emissions by chimneys of the furnaces and boilers of the refinery are presented. The sampling and analysis of SO2, NOX, CO, total suspended particles, and flow measurements were carried out. The aromatic hydrocarbons were determined by UV Spectroscopy. The model of dispersion of pollutants emitted by chimneys was executed using the software for the calculation of the gas concentration from continuous industrial sources following the methodology approved in the Cuban standards, according to the Berliand Model. We conclude that the combustion processes of the Refinery reflect a fault, given the particles emissions. The emissions of the furnaces and boilers exert negative impact or pressure on the atmospheric environment in the area

Viver em casa dos pais é uma decisão habitacional? Os jovens adultos trabalhadores da Europa do Sul a partir de uma perspetiva comparativa

In Southern Europe, the exceptionally high rates of young adults living with their parents might indicate that co-residence is more frequent even among those more likely to live independently. In this study we analyse living in the parental home as a decision of young working adults in four southern European countries in comparison with France, Germany and the United Kingdom. We use the 2012 European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions microdata to estimate the probability of living in the parental home for young working adults aged 18-34. Our core finding is that living with parents is a common decision in southern European countries, whereas in France, Germany and the United Kingdom young working adults opt essentially between ownership and tenancy. The results challenge us to rethink young adults’ paths to independent living and the role of public policies in their endeavours.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Clinical and anatomopathological features of eosinophilic oesophagitis in children and adults

Introduction: Eosinophilic oesophagitis (EoE) is a chronic clinical-pathological disorder with an immunological basis characterised by symptoms of oesophageal dysfunction and, histologically, eosinophilic inflammation. Objective: To evaluate the clinical characteristics and differences in children and adults diagnosed with EoE in a tertiary level hospital. Method: Descriptive, retrospective and cross-sectional study. We randomly selected 40 children and 40 adults diagnosed with EoE between 2009 and 2016. The patient characteristics were analysed by means of epidemiological, clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic variables. Results: The average age at diagnosis was 10 years (children) and 34 years (adults), with a higher frequency in males. The majority were sensitised to aeroallergens (77.5% children vs. 82.5% adults) and foods (75% children vs. 82.5% adults). Statistically significant differences were detected in sensitisation to fruits (p = 0.007) and grains (p < 0.001). Differences were observed in impaction (22.5% children vs. 82.5% adults), dysphagia (42.5% children vs. 77.5% adults) and abdominal pain (25% children vs. 7.5% adults). Endoscopy showed that children had a higher frequency of exudates (92.5%) and adults, trachealisation (50% vs. 5%) and stenosis (17.5% vs. 2.5%). Statistically significant differences were found in treatment with topical corticosteroids (30% children vs. 77.5% adults), with a variable positive response. 77.5% of the patients received elimination diets. Conclusions: Statistically significant differences were observed between the paediatric and adult populations in the food sensitisation profiles, clinical manifestations, endoscopic findings and treatments received. This is a complex pathology that calls for a multidisciplinary team and would require new non-invasive techniques to facilitate its management

Drift compensation of gas sensor array data by Orthogonal Signal Correction

Drift is an important issue that impairs the reliability of gas sensing systems. Sensor aging, memory effects and environmental disturbances produce shifts in sensor responses that make initial statistical models for gas or odor recognition useless after a relatively short period (typically few weeks). Frequent recalibrations are needed to preserve system accuracy. However, when recalibrations involve numerous samples they become expensive and laborious. An interesting and lower cost alternative is drift counteraction by signal processing techniques. Orthogonal Signal Correction (OSC) is proposed for drift compensation in chemical sensor arrays. The performance of OSC is also compared with Component Correction (CC). A simple classification algorithm has been employed for assessing the performance of the algorithms on a dataset composed by measurements of three analytes using an array of seventeen conductive polymer gas sensors over a ten month period

A software tool for large-scale synthetic experiments based on polymeric sensor arrays

This manuscript introduces a software tool that allows for the design of synthetic experiments in machine olfaction. The proposed software package includes both, a virtual sensor array that reproduces the diversity and response of a polymer array and tools for data generation. The synthetic array of sensors allows for the generation of chemosensor data with a variety of characteristics: unlimited number of sensors, support of multicomponent gas mixtures and full parametric control of the noise in the system. The artificial sensor array is inspired from a reference database of seventeen polymeric sensors with concentration profiles for three analytes. The main features in the sensor data, like sensitivity, diversity, drift and sensor noise, are captured by a set of models under simplified assumptions. The generator of sensor signals can be used in applications related to test and benchmarking of signal processing methods, neuromorphic simulations in machine olfaction and educational tools. The software is implemented in R language and can be freely accessed at: http://chemosensors.r-forge.r-project.org/