Selected Papers from SDEWES 2017: The 12th Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems

EU energy policy is more and more promoting a resilient, efficient and sustainable energy system. Several agreements have been signed in the last few months that set ambitious goals in terms of energy efficiency and emission reductions and to reduce the energy consumption in buildings. These actions are expected to fulfill the goals negotiated at the Paris Agreement in 2015. The successful development of this ambitious energy policy needs to be supported by scientific knowledge: a huge effort must be made in order to develop more efficient energy conversion technologies based both on renewables and fossil fuels. Similarly, researchers are also expected to work on the integration of conventional and novel systems, also taking into account the needs for the management of the novel energy systems in terms of energy storage and devices management. Therefore, a multi-disciplinary approach is required in order to achieve these goals. To ensure that the scientists belonging to the different disciplines are aware of the scientific progress in the other research areas, specific Conferences are periodically organized. One of the most popular conferences in this area is the Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) Series Conference. The 12th Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems Conference was recently held in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The present Special Issue of Energies, specifically dedicated to the 12th SDEWES Conference, is focused on five main fields: energy policy and energy efficiency in smart energy systems, polygeneration and district heating, advanced combustion techniques and fuels, biomass and building efficiency

Thunderstorm occurrence at ten sites across Great Britain over 1884–1993

The UK Met Office's Daily Weather Reports (DWR) contain extensive logs of UK thunderstorm activity. To date, only a very small fraction of these data have been digitized as part of the MIDAS dataset, and exclusively after 1950. Using the recently‐scanned UK Met Office Monthly Weather Reports (MWR), which are based on a subset of the observations that form the DWR, we here provide digitized data and a summary of thunderdays from 10 long‐running British stations over the period 1884–1993. The data are presented ‘as is’, with no attempt to provide any corrections or calibration. For 4 of the 10 stations, thunderday observations were discontinued at various times between 1949 and 1964, and it is necessary to switch to a neighbouring station in order to continue the series. Approximately half the series exhibit sharp drops in thunderdays at various points between 1960 and 1990, although none are coincident with known station changes. Comparison with nearby MIDAS stations suggests the low thunderdays are the result of changes in observing practice, rather than genuine changes in thunderstorm occurrence. These potential data issues limit interpretation of the long‐term trends. However, it can nevertheless be concluded that none of the stations show the expected increase in thunderdays as a result of the rise in surface temperature over the 20th century. In order to provide more quantitative determination of the long‐term trends in thunderstorm occurrence, we advocate further digitization efforts to recover the data from the numerous stations in the MWRs, and subsequent analysis of the common signals across neighbouring stations

Impact of antenna correlation on the performance of partial relay selection

Antenna correlation is generally viewed as an obstacle to realize the desired performance of a wireless system. In this article, we investigate the performance of partial relay selection in the presence of antenna correlation. We consider both channel state information (csi)-assisted and fixed gain amplify-and-forward (AF) relay schemes. The source and the destination are equipped with multiple antennas communicating via the best first hop signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) relay. We derived the closed form expression for outage probability, average symbol error rate (SER) for both schemes. Further, an exact expression is derived for the ergodic capacity in the csi-assisted relay case and an approximated expression is considered for the fixed gain case. Moreover, we provide simple asymptotic results and show that the diversity order of the system remains unchanged with the effect of antenna correlation for both types of relay schemes

O processo de ocupação em ambiente de várzea urbana de uma pequena cidade do estuário amazônico: Ponta de Pedras-PA

In Amazonian cities it is observed that rural riberinhos move to urban centers looking for a better quality of life for their families. Part of this population chooses to live in the urban floodplains, which are the preferred areas of occupation of them. As a result, urban growth towards the floodplains has transformed the landscapes of this environment. Urban occupation is transforming the urban floodplain landscape in the neighborhood of Carnapijó, located in the small city of Ponta de Pedras, Pará. In this sense, the aim of this article is to explain why riberinhos choose to build their houses on the floodplain instead of choosing to live on upland. This research was based on fieldwork, carried out in 2014, with application of questionnaires to more than 10% of households located in floodplain areas of the studied area. It was observed that, for riberinhos, in certain places, the landscape is not pleasant to observe, due to the precarious infrastructure, lack of maintenance and public cleaning. In the residents' perception, the landscape is more related to the local vegetation, and these elements mischaracterize the local landscape.Nas cidades amazônicas observa-se que os moradores ribeirinhos rurais se mudam para os centros urbanos, buscando melhor qualidade de vida para a família. Parte dessa população opta por morar nas várzeas urbanas, que são áreas preferenciais de ocupação dessa população. Como resultado, o crescimento urbano, em direção às várzeas, tem transformado as paisagens desse ambiente. No Bairro Carnapijó, localizado na pequena cidade de Ponta de Pedras, Pará, a ocupação urbana está transformando a paisagem da várzea urbana. Nesse sentido, o objetivo desse artigo é trazer uma explicação sobre o porquê de os moradores ribeirinhos optarem por construir suas casas sobre as águas ao invés de escolherem morar em terra firme. Esta pesquisa fundamentou-se em trabalhos de campo, desenvolvidos no ano de 2014, com aplicação de formulários a mais de 10% dos domicílios localizados em áreas de várzea do bairro estudado. Observou-se que, para os moradores ribeirinhos, em determinados locais, a paisagem não é agradável de se observar, em função da infraestrutura precária, ausência de manutenção e limpeza pública. Na percepção dos moradores, a paisagem está mais relacionada com a vegetação local, e esses elementos descaracterizam a paisagem local

MALACOPLAQUIA VESICAL, UM RELATO DE CASO

Introdução: A Malacoplaquia é uma doença rara de característica inflamatória crônica, de diagnóstico histológico por achado de corpos de Michaelis-Gutmann. A apresentação macroscópica é de placas de consistência amolecida, coloração amarelada, com importante hiperemia na base da lesão. Relato de caso:  Paciente portadora de doença renal crônica, com enxerto renal recebido de doador falecido, realizando terapia imunossupressora. Durante consulta no terceiro ano após o transplante realizou ultrassonografia de vias urinárias com achado de bexiga de moderada repleção, com formações nodulares sólidas lobuladas de aspecto vegetante em assoalho e parede lateral direita, medindo 2,1 x 0,6 e 1,3 x 0,4 cm, respectivamente, acompanhado de debris na cavidade vesical. A paciente foi submetida a cistoscopia transuretral com biópsia das lesões que tiveram diagnóstico histopatológico de Malacoplaquia. Foi realizada nova cistoscopia transuretral para remoção das lesões após tratamento de cistite bacteriana com Meropenem. A paciente encontra-se atualmente sem queixas e aguarda nova cistoscopia para avaliar se houve retorno das lesões. Conclusão: Existem poucos casos relatados de Malacoplaquia em pacientes que realizaram transplante renal. Com este relato, os autores pretendem descrever um caso em que foi adotada a conduta cirúrgica como abordagem terapêutica e delinear algumas considerações urológicas sobre esta patologia. Palavras-Chave: Malacoplaquia; transplante renal; imunossupressão; infecção urinári

Explore the concept of “light” and its interaction with matter: an inquiry-based science education project in primary school

The exploration process leading to the understanding of physical phenomena, such as light and its interaction with matter, raises great interest and curiosity in children. However, in most primary schools, children rarely have the opportunity to conduct science activities in which they can engage in an enquiry process even if by the action of the teacher. In this context, we have organised several in-service teacher training courses and carried out several pedagogic interventions in Portuguese primary schools, with the aim of promoting inquirybased science education. This article describes one of those projects, developed with a class of the third grade, which explored the curricular topic “Light Experiments”. Various activities were planned and implemented, during a total of ten hours spread over five lessons. The specific objectives of this paper are: to illustrate and analyse the teaching and learning process promoted in the classroom during the exploration of one of these lessons, and to assess children’s learning three weeks after the lessons. The results suggest that children made significant learning which persisted. We conclude discussing some processes that stimulated children’ learning, including the importance of teacher questioning in scaffolding children's learning and some didactic implications for teacher training.CIEC – Research Centre on Child Studies, IE, UMinho (FCT R&D unit 317), Portuga

Electron scattering from molecules and molecular aggregates of biological relevance

In this Topical Review we survey the current state of the art in the study of low energy electron collisions with biologically relevant molecules and molecular clusters. We briefly describe the methods and techniques used in the investigation of these processes and summarise the results obtained so far for DNA constituents and their model compounds, amino acids, peptides and other biomolecules. The applications of the data obtained is briefly described as well as future required developments

CRESCIMENTO URBANO E OCUPAÇÃO DE VÁRZEA EM PEQUENAS CIDADES DA AMAZÔNIA: UMA DISCUSSÃO PREMENTE

Muitas cidades da Amazônia se instalaram sobre áreas de várzea, ambiente esse acessível na navegabilidade da Região e que compõem o dia-a-dia da população ribeirinha. O processo de ocupação nessas cidades é também consequência do que foi apreendido por esses moradores ao longo de suas vidas. Considerando esses aspectos, esse artigo tem como objetivo caracterizar o processo de crescimento urbano de Ponta de Pedras, PA, e entender a ocupação da várzea urbana, identificar quem é esse morador e os problemas ambientais existentes na área. Para construir essa pesquisa, foram aplicados formulários à população urbana, em julho de 2009 e julho de 2013, para levantar informações sobre o morador (perfil socioeconômico), situação do local de residência e questões ambientais, considerando a relação do morador com o rio e a várzea. Mapeou-se o crescimento da cidade, entre 1980 e 2010, se utilizando fotografias aéreas e imagens de satélite, para verificar a dinâmica de ocupação nas áreas de várzea. Nesse aspecto, famílias residentes na área de várzea, na cidade de Ponta de Pedras, ali se localizam, pois viviam em áreas similares, sob o ponto de vista físico, ou seja, áreas ribeirinhas, de várzea, sujeitas à dinâmica das águas dos rios e essas áreas apresentaram uma dinâmica de ocupação superior a outras áreas da cidade. Palavras-chave: pequenas cidades, Amazônia, várzea, população ribeirinha, Ponta de Pedras. DOI: 10.5902/223649941909

Cultural differences in postnatal quality of life among German-speaking women - a prospective survey in two countries.

Assessment of quality of life after childbirth is an important health-outcome measurement for new mothers and is of special interest in midwifery. The Mother-Generated Index (MGI) is a validated instrument to assess postnatal quality of life. The tool has not been applied for making a cross-cultural comparison before. This study investigated (a) responses to the MGI in German-speaking women in Germany and Switzerland; and (b) associations between MGI scores on the one hand and maternity and midwifery care on the other