A technical-economic analysis of integrating vine prunings energy conversion systems for CHP production in local wineries

This study proposes the energy conversion of vine prunings to supply energy to local wineries, with a focus on the Riunite & CIV branch winery located in Carpi (Modena, Italy), exploring the possibility of generating both electricity and heat through biomass gasification. A Matlab-Simulink model is used to evaluate the energy savings that can be achieved when an energy storage system is coupled with the combined heat and power generation system. Within this context, the results showed that it is possible to save approximate to 60% of the thermal energy demanded by the winery. However, the economic viability of the project is hindered by high investment and operation costs. DPB is strongly affected by the cost of biomass and the energy prices, resulting in a profitable investment for electricity prices higher than 0.30(sic)> 0.57 euro/kWh according to the different scenarios investigated

A construção de colegiados de gestão: a experiência de gestão da Secretaria Municipal de Saúde analisada por um ator político implicado

Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar as potencialidades da gestão participativa da Saúde nos municípios, considerando as tensões próprias do campo, e a necessidade de articular os interesses de usuários e funcionários no cotidiano dos serviços. O trabalho aponta dificuldades de construir o SUS constitucional numa conjuntura adversa, atravessa pelo Brasil na década de 90. O campo empírico foi a gestão do sistema municipal de saúde de Amparo, de 2001 a 2006, priorizando na análise o processo de construção de espaços coletivos de gestão, a partir de documentos institucionais, e das falas de gestores e trabalhadores em grupos focais. Partindo da situação de gestora e utilizando material empírico, foram relatados e analisados os principais desafios enfrentados para construir um modelo de atenção tendo como eixos estruturantes a atenção básica e o modelo de gestão baseado em espaços coletivos de gestão. A análise aponta a capacidade de produzir mudanças nos sistemas municipais de saúde a partir da aposta na construção de espaços compartilhados de gestão, em particular pelo deslocamento de poder dos atores envolvidos. Entre os desafios está a capacidade de lidar com o conflito nos espaços coletivos de gestão, reconhecendo que faltam ferramentas de gestão nas equipes e nos colegiados. Outro desafio é a complexidade do cenário da saúde, pois no cotidiano dos serviços, o projeto de saúde está sempre em construção. O trabalho conclui da necessidade de investir na construção de novos modos de produção da vida no plano coletivo, com projetos baseados na igualdade e na convivência democrática.This paper aims to analyze the potential of participatory management in the municipalities of Health, considering the tensions own health and the need to articulate the interests of users and staff in the daily services. The work also highlights the difficulties of building a constitutional SUS so adverse situation, like that faced by the country since the early 90s. The empirical field was the management of the municipal health system of Amparo, 2001 to 2006, emphasizing the analysis of the construction of collective spaces, from the documentary analysis, and the statements of managers and employees are made in focus groups . Starting from the position of managing and using empirical data were reported and analyzed the main challenges to build a model of attention with its central structuring primary care and a management model based on collective spaces. The analysis indicates the ability to produce changes in local health systems from the commitment to building management, shared spaces, particularly the shift of power by actors who have more prominent in the biomedical model still hegemonic. Among the challenges for these changes is the ability to deal with the conflict present in the collective spaces, recognizing that lack of management tools to deal with them, either in teams, whether in the teams. Another challenge is the sheer complexity of the health scene, which creates uncertainty regarding the outcome of this work, because in the daily services, the healthcare bill is always under construction. The study concludes that managers need the ability to invest in tension towards the construction of new modes of production of life at the collective level, investing in projects built on equality and democratic coexistence

O ambiente educacional do curso de Graduação em Enfermagem na perspectiva dos estudantes

RESUMO Objetivo Avaliar o ambiente educacional da Escola de Enfermagem da Universidade de São Paulo, na perspectiva do estudante. Método Abordagem quantitativa com desenho exploratório. Participaram do estudo, 176 estudantes que responderam a uma escala Likert, com graduação de 1 a 5 para avaliação do ambiente educacional. Os dados foram submetidos à análise fatorial exploratóriae testes estatísticos inferenciais; a confiabilidade do instrumento foi constatada pelo Alpha de Cronbach. Resultados A análise de dimensionalidade estabeleceu quatro fatores: Suporte à aprendizagem prática, com média de escore 3,64; Atitudes durante a aprendizagem, escore médio 2,92; Clima de aprendizagem, média 3,58 e Fragilidades da aprendizagem com 3,04. Conclusão O fator mais favorável do ambiente foi o Suporte à aprendizagem. As competências atitudinais atingiram escores mais baixos, sugerindo a necessidade de fortalecer esses aspectos durante a graduação

Synthesis of beta-hydroxymalonates: the direct aldol addition of malonates to aldehydes in the presence of SiCl4 and i-Pr2EtN

The direct aldol addition of malonates to aromatic, hetero-aromatic and unsaturated aldehydes leading to beta-hydroxymalonates is described. The stability of these products, the trimethyl silyl protection of the hydroxyl group as well as the role of both SiCl4 and i-Pr2EtN in attaining the final products are also discusse

Recurrence rate of endometrioma after laparoscopic cystectomy: a comparative randomized trial between post-operative hormonal suppression treatment or dietary therapy vs. placebo

To assess the recurrence rate of endometrioma after laparoscopic cystectomy plus hormonal suppression treatment or plus dietary therapy compared to post-operative placebo

Dietary therapy: a new strategy for management of chronic pelvic pain

Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) can be identified as a chronic nociceptive, inflammatory and neuropathic pain characterised by spontaneous pain and an exaggerated response to painful and/or innocuous stimuli. This pain condition is extremely debilitating and usually difficult to treat. Currently, the main approaches to treatment include counselling supported by reassuring ultrasound scanning or psychotherapy, attempting to provide reassurance using laparoscopy to exclude serious pelvic pathology, hormonal therapy and neuroablative treatment to interrupt nerve pathways. Dietary supplementation has been suggested as a means to treat chronic medical illnesses that are poorly responsive to prescription drugs or in which therapeutic options are limited, costly or carry a high side-effect profile. A comprehensive search of the PubMed database was performed using the search terms 'chronic pelvic pain', 'oxidative stress', 'antioxidants' and 'dietary therapy'. The systematic review focuses on both randomised and non-randomised controlled trials from 2005 onwards, in which CPP was the end point. Given the complexity and not well-understood aetiology of CPP, its treatment is often unsatisfactory and limited to partial symptom relief. Dietary therapy with antioxidants improves function of the immune system and in fighting free radical damage. Agents with antioxidant activity are able to improve CPP without undesired effects and any important metabolic changes associated with hormonal suppression therapy. In conclusion, dietary therapy with antioxidants could be considered as a new effective strategy in the long term for CPP, and may be better accepted by patients. Further randomised trials with larger series and long-term follow-up to confirm these observations are needed

Isobaric gasless laparoscopy versus minilaparotomy in uterine myomectomy: a randomized trial

Background Isobaric gasless laparoscopy and minilaparotomy have been used as more recent minimally invasive approaches to myomectomy. This randomized trial aimed to compare the surgical and immediate postoperative outcomes for myomectomy performed by isobaric gasless laparoscopy with those for minilaparotomy. Methods A total of 100 patients with symptomatic uterine myomas requiring myomectomy were randomly allocated to the gasless laparoscopy group or the minilaparotomy group. The randomization procedure was based on a computer-generated list. The primary outcome was a comparison of the discharge times between the two procedures. A power calculation verified that more than 26 patients for each group was necessary to detect a difference of more than 24 h in discharge time with an alpha error level of 5% and a beta error of 80%. Continuous outcome variables were analyzed using the Student's t-test. Discrete variables were analyzed with the chi-square test or Fisher's exact test. A p value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results The mean discharge time was longer for minilaparotomy than for gasless laparoscopy (98.4 +/- 1.4 vs 52.8 +/- 1.6 h; p < 0.001). Gasless laparoscopy resulted in shorter times for canalization (21.6 +/- 1.1 vs 32 +/- 1.3 h; p < 0.05) and surgery (79.5 +/- 25.1 vs 103.5 +/- 24.9 min; p < 0.001). The intraoperative blood loss was less with gasless laparoscopy (154.2 +/- 1.2 vs 188.6 +/- 1.3 ml; p < 0.001). No intraoperative complications occurred, and no case was returned to the theater in either group. No conversion to standard laparotomy was necessary. Conclusions Isobaric gasless laparoscopy and minilaparotomy can be suitable options for uterine myomectomy. Several surgical and immediate postoperative outcomes were significantly better in the gasless laparoscopy group than in the minilaparotomy group. However, further controlled prospective studies are required to confirm the results

Hormonal suppression treatment or dietary therapy versus placebo in the control of painful symptoms after conservative surgery for endometriosis stage III-IV. A randomized comparative trial

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness for the outcomes of endometriosis-related pain and quality of life of conservative surgery plus placebo compared with conservative surgery plus hormonal suppression treatment or dietary therapy. Design: Randomized comparative trial. Setting: University hospital. Patient(s): Two hundred twenty-two consecutive women who underwent conservative pelvic surgery for symptomatic endometriosis stage III-IV (r-AFS). Intervention(s): Six months of placebo (n = 110) versus GnRH-a (tryptorelin or leuprorelin, 3.75 mg every 28 days) (n = 39) or continuous estroprogestin (ethynilestradiol, 0.03 mg plus gestoden, 0.75 mg) (n = 38) versus dietary therapy (vitamins, minerals salts, lactic ferments, fish oil) (n = 35). Main Outcome Measure(s): Painful symptoms (visual analogue scale score) and quality-of-life endometriosis-related symptoms (SF-36 score) at 12 months' follow-up. Result(s): Patients treated with postoperative hormonal suppression therapy showed less visual analogue scale scores for dysmenorrhoea than patients of the other groups. Hormonal suppression therapy and dietary supplementation were equally effective in reducing nonmenstrual pelvic pain. Surgery plus placebo showed significative decrease in dyspareunia scores. Postoperative medical and dietary therapy allowed a better quality of life than placebo. Conclusion(s): Postoperative hormonal suppression treatment or dietary therapy are more effective than surgery plus placebo to obtain relief of pain associated with endometriosis stage III-IV and improvement of quality of life. (Fertil Steril((R)) 2007;88:1541-7. (c) 2007 by American Society for Reproductive Medicine.