Navigating Diversity: Citizen Engagement in and across the EU

This technical report presents and discusses a navigable inventory of citizen engagement (CE) activities across the European Union (EU). As a first of its kind, this inventory was developed over a five-year period, 2016-2020, and allows its prospective users to navigate CE activities across the EU. For this purpose, the inventory makes available three datasets gathering CE Organizations, CE Projects by the European Commission, and EU-based Makerspaces. In so doing, the inventory extends the existing Community of Practice on CE beyond the Commission. The inventory allows its users not only to find relevant CE activities, but also to contribute to its further extension by adding their organization, project, and/or (maker-)space. This report outlines the policy context in which the navigable inventory was finalized, before presenting and discussing its design rationale and search modes, as well as two lines of exploratory inquiry and first empirical results. The report concludes by drawing together the principal outcomes and main recommendations from designing and testing the presented “CE Navigator.”JRC.H.1-Knowledge for Policy: Concepts and Method

Análise de desempenho de organizações hospitalares por meio de indicadores financeiros do ano de 2017

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso (graduação)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Economia, Administração, Contabilidade e Gestão de Políticas Públicas, Departamento de Ciências Contábeis e Atuariais, 2020.A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo analisar a eficiência de organizações hospitalares que prestam serviços ao Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) por meio da Análise Envoltória de Dados (DEA). Para isso, foram selecionados 27 hospitais, sendo públicos e privados de 8 estados brasileiros, com informações coletadas de suas demonstrações contábeis referentes ao ano de 2017. Foram utilizados os seguintes indicadores financeiros: Liquidez Corrente, Participação de Capital de Terceiros, Dias de Dinheiro em Caixa, Composição do Endividamento, Prazo Médio de Pagamento e Prazo Médio de Recebimento como inputs e Giro do Ativo, Margem Operacional e Retorno dos Ativos como outputs para aplicação dos modelos do DEA BCC e CCR orientados a inputs e outputs. Concluiu-se, com base nos resultados apresentados, que os hospitais públicos foram os que obtiveram melhores desempenhos, sendo referenciados como benchmarks para os demais. Além disso, os hospitais eficientes na fronteira padrão são, na maioria, caracterizados como gerais (isto é, não especializados).This research aimed to analyze the efficiency of hospital organizations that provide services to the Unified Health System (SUS) through the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). To this end, 27 hospitals were selected, being public and private from 8 Brazilian states, with information collected from their financial statements for the year 2017. The following financial indicators were used: Current Liquidity, Third Party Capital Participation, Cash Days in Cash, Debt Composition, Average Payment Term and Average Receipt Term as inputs and Asset Turnover, Operating Margin and Asset Return as outputs for application of DEA BCC and CCR models oriented to inputs and outputs. It was concluded, based on the results presented, that public hospitals were the ones that obtained the best performances, being referred to as benchmarks for the others. In addition, efficient hospitals on the standard border are mostly characterized as general (ie, non-specialized)

Hybrid nanoreceptors for high sensitivity detection of small molecules by NMR chemosensing

Self-assembled gold nanoparticles onto colloidal silica nanoparticles exhibited higher magnetization transfer efficiencies in NMR chemosensing experiments, allowing the detection of analytes as low as 10 μM

PASS: Picture Augmentative Synsemic System : A new system for AAC habilitative practices, theoretical background

In this paper we discuss the theoretical linguistic and graphic preconditions of the design of PASS, a glyph system which we designed for use in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) habilitative practices that has been released under open source licence. We highlight the relevance of graphic design supporting sustainable practices for people with Autism Spectrum Di- sorders (ASD), in a context in which the o er of public healthcare services for rehabilitation is insufficient. We present the context in which the AAC is adopted and how a glyph system can be used by people with ASD to learn a language. is particular group of users can access a language by using the glyph system as an interlanguage or as an alternative language. We analyse the most common glyph systems (ARASAAC, PCS, WLS, Blissymbolics), highlighting their strengths and weaknesses from a graphic and linguistic point of view. We present the theoretical background of the design process for the PASS glyph system

A new generation photodetector for astroparticle physics: the VSiPMT

The VSiPMT (Vacuum Silicon PhotoMultiplier Tube) is an innovative design we proposed for a revolutionary photon detector. The main idea is to replace the classical dynode chain of a PMT with a SiPM (G-APD), the latter acting as an electron detector and amplifier. The aim is to match the large sensitive area of a photocathode with the performance of the SiPM technology. The VSiPMT has many attractive features. In particular, a low power consumption and an excellent photon counting capability. To prove the feasibility of the idea we first tested the performance of a special non-windowed SiPM by Hamamatsu (MPPC) as electron detector and current amplifier. Thanks to this result Hamamatsu realized two VSiPMT industrial prototypes. In this work, we present the results of a full characterization of the VSiPMT prototype

Economic assessment of flexibility offered by an optimally controlled hybrid heat pump generator: a case study for residential building

Abstract The ongoing decarbonisation process of the current energy system, driven by the EU directives, requires that more renewable energy sources are integrated in the global energy mix, as well as policies promoting investments in new low-carbon technologies, energy efficiency and grid infrastructure. The technical integration of renewable energy sources into the existing power system is not straightforward, due to the intrinsic aleatory characteristics of renewable production, which make the power grid balance harder. To handle this issue, beside the traditional supply-side management, grid flexibility can also be provided by enabling the active participation of the demand-side in power system operational procedures, by means of the so-called demand-side management (DSM). The present paper is aimed at assessing the ability of a cost-optimal control strategy, based on model predictive control, to activate demand-response (DR) actions in a residential building equipped with a hybrid heat pump generator coupled with a water thermal storage. Hourly electricity prices are considered as external signals from the grid driving the demand response actions. It is shown that the thermal energy storage turns out to be an effective way to improve the controller performances and make the system more flexible and able to provide services to the power grid. A daily cost-saving up to 35% and 15% have been highlighted with a 1 m3 0.5.m3 tanks, respectively. Finally, the achievable flexibility is shown to be strictly dependent on the storage capacity and operations, which in turn are affected by the generators sizing

Superdense galaxies and the mass-size relation at low redshift

We search for massive and compact galaxies (superdense galaxies, hereafter SDGs) at z=0.03-0.11 in the Padova-Millennium Galaxy and Group Catalogue, a spectroscopically complete sample representative of the local Universe general field population. We find that compact galaxies with radii and mass densities comparable to high-z massive and passive galaxies represent 4.4% of all galaxies with stellar masses above 3 X 10^10 M_sun, yielding a number density of 4.3 X 10^-4 h^3 Mpc^-3. Most of them are S0s (70%) or ellipticals (23%), are red and have intermediate-to-old stellar populations, with a median luminosity-weighted age of 5.4 Gyr and a median mass-weighted age of 9.2 Gyr. Their velocity dispersions and dynamical masses are consistent with the small radii and high stellar mass estimates. Comparing with the WINGS sample of cluster galaxies at similar redshifts, the fraction of superdense galaxies is three times smaller in the field than in clusters, and cluster SDGs are on average 4 Gyr older than field SDGs. We confirm the existence of a universal trend of smaller radii for older luminosity-weighted ages at fixed galaxy mass. On top of the well known dependence of stellar age on galaxy mass, the luminosity-weighted age of galaxies depends on galaxy compactness at fixed mass, and, for a fixed mass and radius, on environment. This effect needs to be taken into account in order not to overestimate the evolution of galaxy sizes from high- to low-z. Our results and hierarchical simulations suggest that a significant fraction of the massive compact galaxies at high-z have evolved into compact galaxies in galaxy clusters today. When stellar age and environmental effects are taken into account, the average amount of size evolution of individual galaxies between high- and low-z is mild, a factor ~1.6. (abridged)Comment: ApJ, in pres

Pericardial rather than epicardial fat is a cardiometabolic risk marker: an MRI vs echo study

Several studies using echocardiography identified epicardial adipose tissue (EPI) as an important cardiometabolic risk marker. However, validation compared with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography has not been performed. Moreover, pericardial adipose tissue (PERI) has recently been shown to have some correlation with cardiovascular disease risk factors. The aims of this study were to validate echocardiographic analyses compared with MRI and to evaluate which cardiac fat depot (EPI or PERI) is the most appropriate cardiovascular risk marker. METHODS: Forty-nine healthy subjects were studied (age range, 25-68 years; body mass index, 21-40 kg/m(2)), and PERI and EPI fat depots were measured using echocardiography and MRI. Findings were correlated with MRI visceral fat and subcutaneous fat, blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, triglycerides, cholesterol, insulin, glucose, and 10-year coronary heart disease risk. RESULTS: Most cardiac fat was constituted by PERI (about 77%). PERI thickness by echocardiography was well correlated with MRI area (r = 0.36, P = .009), and independently of the technique used for quantification, PERI was correlated with body mass index, waist circumference, visceral fat, subcutaneous fat, blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, triglycerides, cholesterol, glucose, and coronary heart disease risk. On the contrary, EPI thicknesses correlated only with age did not correlate significantly with MRI EPI areas, which were found to correlate with age, body mass index, subcutaneous fat, and hip and waist circumferences. CONCLUSIONS: Increased cardiac fat in the pericardial area is strongly associated with features of the metabolic syndrome, whereas no correlation was found with EPI, indicating that in clinical practice, PERI is a better cardiometabolic risk marker than EPI