Performance analysis of atmospheric instability indices in forecasting severe mesoscale convective systems in the metropolitan area of São Paulo between january 28 and february 04, 2004

Discute-se o potencial prognóstico de índices de instabilidade para eventos convectivos de verão na Região Metropolitana de São Paulo. Cinco dos oito dias do período analisado foram considerados chuvosos, com observação de tempestades a partir do meio da tarde. O Índice K (IK) obteve valores abaixo de 31 nos 5 eventos, afetado pela presença de uma camada fria e seca em níveis médios da atmosfera em relação aos baixos níveis. O Índice Total Totals (ITT) falhou na detecção de severidade em 3 dos 5 eventos, apresentando valores inferiores ao mínimo limiar tabelado para fenômenos convectivos (ITT < 44) nesses dias. O Índice Levantado (IL) variou entre -4.9 e -4.3 em todos os 5 casos, valores associados a instabilidade moderada. O Índice de Showalter (IS) indicou possibilidade de tempestades severas em 4 dos 5 casos. Tanto o IS como o CAPE Tv tiveram seus valores fortemente reduzidos em uma sondagem com camada isotérmica entre 910 e 840 hPa. As séries temporais de CAPE Tv e IL mostraram significativa concordância de fase, com alta correlação linear entre ambas. CINE Tv &#8776; 0 J kg-1 em associação com baixo cisalhamento vertical e com IS, IL e CAPE Tv, pelo menos moderados, parecem ser fatores comuns em dias de verão com chuvas abundantes e pequena influência da dinâmica de grande escala na área de estudo

Sugar Cane, Software and Fashion: Public-Private Collaboration in Argentina

The design and implementation of productive development policies (PDPs) pose challenges for policymakers, especially in emerging economies. Although the existence of pervasive market and coordination failures pave the way for policy intervention, adopted instruments have often been less successful than expected, since policymakers usually lack important pieces of information, they generally do not have access to rigorous evaluations of current and former programs and State capabilities are frequently weak. Moreover, coordination problems between different agencies and/or levels of government often exist. The emergence of rent seeking and free riding behaviours, agency captures and corruption episodes are other factors that explain the abovementioned outcome. The lack of resilience of public policies in the light of frequent staff changes in the State bureaucracy also hinders PDPs effectiveness.Public-Private Collaboration Schemes (PPCs) may help to alleviate some of the factors that lead to problems in the design, implementation and monitoring of PDPs, insofar they may facilitate information exchange and coordination among the different agents involved, address some government failures, generate more transparency and contribute to the resilience of those policies. PPC may range from informal consultations with the private sector to the full involvement of the latter in the policy design, execution and monitoring stages, including schemes such as the participation of the private sector in advisory and supervisory bodies, technological and productive alliances, deliberation councils, etc.The evidence gathered from the case studies will allow us to highlight common factors that may lead to the success (or failure) of PPCS, as well as idiosyncratic features related to the objectives, actors and/or specific arrangements adopted in each case. The result of this analysis is presented in the final section, where we distil lessons that may be applied to other sectors/regions in order to a better diffusion and effectiveness of PPC schemes.Fil: Bisang, Roberto Oscar. No especifíca;Fil: Gonzalez, Andrea. No especifíca;Fil: Hallak, Juan Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Lopez, Andres Flavio. Centro de Investigaciones para la Transformación; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Ramos, Daniela. No especifíca;Fil: Rozemberg, Ricardo Daniel. No especifíca

Potential health impact of ultrafine particles under clean and polluted urban atmospheric conditions: a model-based study

The main goal of this study was to improve the knowledge of ultrafine particle number distributions in large urban areas and also to call the attention to the importance of these particles on assessing health risks. Measurements of aerosol size distributions were performed during 2 weeks, with distinct pollutant concentrations (polluted and clean periods), on the rooftop of a building located in downtown of the megacity of São Paulo, Brazil. CO, NO2, PM10, SO2, and O3 concentrations and meteorological variables were also used. Aerosol size distribution measurements showed that geometric mean diameters of the size spectra in the polluted period are on average considerably larger than those in the clean one. Besides the fact that total number of ultrafine particles did not show significant differences, during the polluted period, geometric mean diameter was larger than during the clean one. The results of a mathematical model of particle deposition on human respiratory tract indicated a more significant effect of smaller particles fraction of the spectra, which predominate under clean atmospheric conditions. The results also indicated that urban environmental conditions usually considered good for air quality, under the criteria of low mass concentration, do not properly serve as air quality standard to very small particles. In the size range of ultrafine particles, this traditional clean atmospheric condition can offer a strong risk to pulmonary hazards, since the cleansing of the atmosphere creates good conditions to increase the concentration of nucleation mode particles

Antiapoptotic effects of cannabidiol in an experimental model of cognitive decline induced by brain iron overload

Iron accumulation in the brain has been recognized as a common feature of both normal aging and neurodegenerative diseases. Cognitive dysfunction has been associated to iron excess in brain regions in humans. We have previously described that iron overload leads to severe memory deficits, including spatial, recognition, and emotional memory impairments in adult rats. In the present study we investigated the effects of neonatal iron overload on proteins involved in apoptotic pathways, such as Caspase 8, Caspase 9, Caspase 3, Cytochrome c, APAF1, and PARP in the hippocampus of adult rats, in an attempt to establish a causative role of iron excess on cell death in the nervous system, leading to memory dysfunction. Cannabidiol (CBD), the main non-psychotropic component of Cannabis sativa, was examined as a potential drug to reverse iron-induced effects on the parameters analyzed. Male rats received vehicle or iron carbonyl (30 mg/kg) from the 12th to the 14th postnatal days and were treated with vehicle or CBD (10 mg/kg) for 14 days in adulthood. Iron increased Caspase 9, Cytochrome c, APAF1, Caspase 3 and cleaved PARP, without affecting cleaved Caspase 8 levels. CBD reversed iron-induced effects, recovering apoptotic proteins Caspase 9, APAF1, Caspase 3 and cleaved PARP to the levels found in controls. These results suggest that iron can trigger cell death pathways by inducing intrinsic apoptotic proteins. The reversal of iron-induced effects by CBD indicates that it has neuroprotective potential through its anti-apoptotic action

Effects of Size Distributions From Two Distinct Polluted Environments On Dry Deposition of Atmospheric Aerosols

Um modelo matemático simples foi utilizado para estudar oefeito da distribuição de tamanho das partículas sobre a eficiência deremoção por deposição seca. Para esta finalidade foram utilizadas duasdistribuições de tamanho de aerossóis, típicas de ambientes poluídos:uma distribuição de ambiente de queimada (Amazônia) e outra de ambienteurbano (São Paulo). Os resultados mostraram que partículas origináriasde ambiente urbano são mais eficientemente removidas por deposiçãoseca do que partículas de queimada. Este comportamento está associadoao fato de que a natureza de remoção das partículas por deposiçãoseca é pouco eficiente para diâmetros entre 0,1 e 1,0 mm, domínioem que se concentra a maior parte das partículas de queimada. Esse mecanismodiferencial de deposição é o que explica o maior efeito deletériodas partículas ultra-finas no sistema respiratório humano

Variabilidade das Concentrações do o3 Troposférico: Dados de Superfície e Sondagens Medidos durante a Campanha Primavera de o3. Em 2006

Variabilidade das concentrações do O3 troposférico: dadosde superfície e sondagens medidos durante a campanha“Primavera de O3” em 200

Particulate Matter Concentration Forecast Over the Metropolitan Area of São Paulo

Em virtude dos grandes males causados à saúde pela poluição nosgrandes centros urbanos, a utilização de modelos meteorológicos acopladosaos modelos químicos, resultando em modelos de previsão da qualidade doar, tem aumentado significativamente nos últimos anos. Exemplos dessetipo de utilização são os modelos WRF-CHEM, utilizado em vários paísesdo mundo, e SPM-BRAMS, recentemente desenvolvido por pesquisadoresda Universidade de São Paulo e do INPE e utilizado operacionalmente nolaboratório MASTER do IAG-USP. Embora o modelo seja utilizado para aprevisão das concentrações dos principais poluentes monitorados na região, neste trabalho são apresentadas comparações entre as concentraçõesde material particulado fino (PM2.5) previstas e aquelas derivadas das observações na rede da CETESB. O PM2.5 está relacionado aos efeitos deletériosà saúde e está sendo estudado o estabelecimento de um padrão de qualidadedo ar para esse poluente. Além da questão da relação com impactosnegativos à saúde, há também os impactos ao clima, já que as partículasfinas estão relacionadas com a formação de precipitação e extinção da radiação

Validation of the Subjective Handicap of Epilepsy (SHE) in Brazilian patients with epilepsy

The objectives of the study were to translate and adapt the Subjective Handicap of Epilepsy (SHE) instrument to Brazilian Portuguese and to determine its psychometric properties for the evaluation of quality of life in patients with epilepsy. A sample of 448 adult patients with epilepsy with different clinical profiles (investigation, preoperative period, postoperative period, and drug treatment follow-up) was evaluated with the SHE and the Epilepsy Surgery Inventory (ESI-55). Exploratory factorial analysis demonstrated that four factors explained 60.47% of the variance and were sensitive to discriminate the different clinical groups, with the preoperative group having the poorest quality of life. Internal consistency ranged from 0.92 to 0.96, and concurrent validity with the ESI-55 was moderate/strong (0.32-0.70). Test-retest reliability was confirmed, with an ICC value of 0.54 (2 days), 0.91 (7 days), and 0.97 (30 days). The SHE had satisfactory psychometric qualities for use in the Brazilian population, similar to those of the original version. The instrument seems to be more adequate in psychometric terms for the postoperative and drug treatment follow-up groups, and its use should be encouraged. (c) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved