Como o turismo associado à conservação ambiental contribuiu com o desenvolvimento do município de Brotas - SP

Orientador : Patricia Aparecida BasniakMonografia (especialização) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Agrárias, Curso de Especialização em Agronegócio.Inclui referência

Towards the Automated Coverlay Assembly in FPCB Manufacturing: Concept and Preliminary Tests

AbstractIn modern electronics, flexible and rigid-flex PCBs are largely used due to their intrinsic versatility and performance, allowing to increase the available volume, or enabling connection between unconstrained components. Rigid-flex PCBs consists of rigid board portions with flexible interconnections and are commonly used in a wide variety of industrial applications. However, the assembly process of these devices still has some bottlenecks. Specifically, they require the application of cover layers (namely, coverlays), to provide insulation and protection of the flexible circuits. Due to the variability in planar shape and dimensions, the coverlay application is still performed manually, requiring troublesome manipulation steps and resulting in undetermined time-cycle and precision.This paper aims at the improvement of the industrial process currently performed, by proposing an approach for the automation of Kapton coverlay manipulation and application. Since these products are commercially provided as a film with a protective layer to be removed, the peeling issue is addressed, representing a challenging step of the automated process; the results of a systematic series of tests, performed in order to validate the peeling strategy, are reported in the paper. The overall assembly strategy relies on the development of a customized multi-hole vacuum gripper, whose concept is presented and contextualized in the proposed assembly process by outlining a suitable workcell architecture

Automatic selection of linked open data features in graph-based recommender systems

In this paper we compare several techniques to automatically feed a graph-based recommender system with features extracted from the Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud. Specifically, we investigated whether the integration of LOD-based features can improve the effectiveness of a graph-based recommender system and to what extent the choice of the features selection technique can influence the behavior of the algorithm by endogenously inducing a higher accuracy or a higher diversity. The experimental evaluation showed a clear correlation between the choice of the feature selection technique and the ability of the algorithm to maximize a specific evaluation metric. Moreover, our algorithm fed with LODbased features was able to overcome several state-of-the-art baselines: this confirmed the effectiveness of our approach and suggested to further investigate this research line

A Stochastic Texture-based Approach for Evaluating Solute Travel Times to Groundwater at Regional Scale by Coupling GIS and Transfer Function

AbstractInterpreting and predicting the evolution of non-point source (NPS) pollution of soil and surface and subsurface water from agricultural chemicals and pathogens, as well as overexploitation of groundwater resources at regional scale are continuing challenges for natural scientists. The presence and build up of NPS pollutants may be harmful for both soil and groundwater resources. Accordingly, this study mainly aims to developing a regional-scale simulation methodology for groundwater vulnerability that use real soil profiles data. A stochastic approach will be applied to account for the effect of vertical heterogeneity on variability of solute transport in the vadose zone. The approach relies on available datasets and offers quantitative answers to soil and groundwater vulnerability to non-point source of chemicals at regional scale within a defined confidence interval. The study area is located in the Metaponto agricultural site, Basilicata Region-South Italy, covering approximately 12000 hectares. Chloride will be considered as a generic pollutant for simulation purposes. The methodology is based on three sequential steps: 1) designing and building of a spatial database containing environmental and physical information regarding the study area, 2) developing travel time distributions for specific textural sequences in the soil profile, coming from texture-based transfer functions, 3) final representation of results through digital mapping. Distributed output of soil pollutant leaching behavior, with corresponding statistical uncertainties, will be visualized in GIS maps. Of course, this regional-scale methodology may be extended to any specific pollutants for any soil, climatic and land use conditions

Pathogenetic mechanisms of sepsis and their therapeutics implications

Este artigo apresenta uma revisão recente e objetiva dos principais mecanismos fisiopatológicos envolvidos na sepse, destacando o papel do endotélio vascular e a produção das diversas citocinas. Define a síndrome da resposta inflamatória sistêmica (SIRS) e a sepse, nos seus diversos graus de acometimento sistêmico. Mostra as disfunções produzidas pela sepse, nos diversos sistemas orgânicos, correlacionando-as com sua manifestação clínica, laboratorial e aos dados de monitorização hemodinâmica invasiva. Ao mesmo tempo, fornece as linhas gerais para o diagnóstico, avaliação da gravidade, monitorização e implicações terapêuticas, bem como as tendências terapêuticas atuais.This article presents a recent and objetive review of the pathogenetic mechanisms involved in sepsis, particularly the endothelial and mediators (citokines) role. It presents definitions for systemic inflammatory response syndrome and sepsis with its continuum of clinical and pathophysiologic severity. The organics dysfunctions were showed with its clinical, laboratorial and hemodynamics manifestations. The basic principles of management were discussed as well as new therapeutic approaches

Protocolo de avaliação e intervenção precoces de sinais de risco de autismo: comparando grupos de alto e baixo risco

Early diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the population allows interventions with better prognosis and lower cost of treatment. Studies indicate that there is a higher prevalence of ASD in siblings of diagnosed individuals, considered as risk groups. Gioia and Guilhardi (2018) developed as assessment protocol for the early signs in children with easy application by parents and/or caregivers. This study aimed to evaluate whether the tasks of this protocol applied in the period from 2013 to 2019 in children aged 13 to 22 months produced differentiating results between the high (HR) and low autistic risk (LR) groups and also verify the correspondence between the assessment obtained in the protocol by the HR participants with the results obtained in the Childhood Autism Rating Scale – CARS. The results showed that six of the thirteen tasks of the Protocol allowed the differentiation between the HR and LR groups, demonstrating that the instrument can be effective in the early identification of children who may later be diagnosed with ASD.O diagnóstico precoce do Transtorno do Espectro Autista (TEA) na população permite intervenções com melhor prognóstico e menor custo de tratamento. Estudos indicam que há uma maior prevalência de TEA em irmãos de indivíduos diagnosticados, considerados assim como grupo de risco. Gioia e Guilhardi (2018) desenvolveram um protocolo para avaliação de sinais precoces em crianças de risco com fácil aplicação por pais e/ou cuidadores. O presente trabalho teve como objetivos, avaliar se as tarefas deste protocolo aplicadas no período de 2013 a 2019 em crianças de 13 a 22 meses produziram resultados diferenciadores entre o grupo de alto (AR) e baixo risco autístico (BR) e verificar a correspondência entre a avaliação obtida no protocolo pelos participantes AR com a avaliação obtida na escala Childhood Autism Rating Scale – CARS. Como resultado, foi constatado que seis das treze tarefas do protocolo permitiram diferenciar entre os grupos AR e BR, demonstrando que o instrumento pode ser efetivo na identificação precoce de crianças que posteriormente poderão vir a receber diagnóstico de TEA

Stroke management during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: experience from three regions of the north east of Italy (Veneto, Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, Trentino-Alto-Adige)

Background: Efficiency of care chain response and hospital reactivity were and are challenged for stroke acute care management during the pandemic period of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in North-Eastern Italy (Veneto, Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, Trentino-Alto-Adige), counting 7,193,880 inhabitants (ISTAT), with consequences in acute treatment for patients with ischemic stroke. Methods: We conducted a retrospective data collection of patients admitted to stroke units eventually treated with thrombolysis and thrombectomy, ranging from January to May 2020 from the beginning to the end of the main first pandemic period of COVID-19 in Italy. The primary endpoint was the number of patients arriving to these stroke units, and secondary endpoints were the number of thrombolysis and/or thrombectomy. Chi-square analysis was used on all patients; furthermore, patients were divided into two cohorts (pre-lockdown and lockdown periods) and the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to test differences on admission and reperfusive therapies. Results: In total, 2536 patients were included in 22 centers. There was a significant decrease of admissions in April compared to January. Furthermore, we observed a significant decrease of thrombectomy during the lockdown period, while thrombolysis rate was unaffected in the same interval across all centers. Conclusions: Our study confirmed a decrease in admission rate of stroke patients in a large area of northern Italy during the lockdown period, especially during the first dramatic phase. Overall, there was no decrease in thrombolysis rate, confirming an effect of emergency care system for stroke patients. Instead, the significant decrease in thrombectomy rate during lockdown addresses some considerations of local and regional stroke networks during COVID-19 pandemic evolution

The care of older cancer patients in the United Kingdom

The ageing population poses new challenges globally. Cancer care for older patients is one of these challenges, and it has a significant impact on societies. In the United Kingdom (UK), as the number of older cancer patients increases, the management of this group has become part of daily practice for most oncology teams in every geographical area. Older cancer patients are at a higher risk of both under- and over-treatment. Therefore, the assessment of a patient’s biological age and effective organ functional reserve becomes paramount. This may then guide treatment decisions by better estimating a prognosis and the risk-to-benefit ratio of a given therapy to anticipate and mitigate against potential toxicities/difficulties. Moreover, older cancer patients are often affected by geriatric syndromes and other issues that impact their overall health, function and quality of life. Comprehensive geriatric assessments offer an opportunity to identify and address health problems which may then optimise one’s fitness and well-being. Whilst it is widely accepted that older cancer patients may benefit from such an approach, resources are often scarce, and access to dedicated services and research remains limited to specific centres across the UK. The aim of this project is to map the current services and projects in the UK to learn from each other and shape the future direction of care of older patients with cancer