Economic feasibility of distributed generation for Brazilian households: influence of the new legal framework

O número de sistemas de Geração Distribuída cresce de forma exponencial no Brasil desde a sua primeira regulamentação. Entretanto, com a aprovação do seu novo marco legal, os consumidores passaram a pagar pelo uso do sistema de distribuição de energia elétrica, impactando o mercado. Assim, é objetivo deste artigo avaliar a influência desta nova regulamentação na viabilidade econômica dos sistemas para consumidores residenciais, tipos de sistemas de maior representatividade no setor. Para tanto, analisaram-se as tarifas de energia homologadas para as concessionárias, bem como o impacto no fluxo de caixa de sistemas instalados no período de vacância da lei, caso eles fossem instalados sob a vigência da nova regulamentação em cinco cenários de análise, por meio de parâmetros econométricos e da comparação com investimentos de renda fixa tradicionais no Brasil. Pôde-se constatar que não existe um padrão para as tarifas de energia elétrica e que o impacto da nova regulamentação varia em função da componente tarifária da remuneração do uso do sistema de distribuição, identificando-se as regiões do país mais impactadas. Constatou-se que, mesmo com a diminuição da atratividade, em todos os cenários analisados os sistemas são viáveis, mesmo não havendo uma transição suave para as novas regras. Por fim, recomendou-se fortemente a instalação dos novos sistemas com a maior brevidade possível, além da gestão energética nas unidades consumidoras, com a priorização da utilização de energia nos horários de maior geração.The number of distributed generation systems has grown exponentially in Brazil since its first regulation. However, with the approval of a new legal framework, consumers began to pay for using the electricity distribution system, resulting in a direct impact on the electricity market. Thus, the objective of this work is to evaluate the influence of such a new regulation on the economic feasibility of distributed generation systems for residential facilities, which are the most representative consumers. For this purpose, the approved energy tariffs for the utilities are analyzed in detail, as well as the impact on the cash flow of systems installed in the vacancy period of the law. Five distinct scenarios are assessed, considering econometric parameters and a thorough comparison with traditional fixed-income investments available in Brazil. The study shows that there is no common pattern for the adoption of electricity tariffs, while the new regulation varies according to the tariff type in the regions most impacted in the country. Even with the decrease in attractiveness, one can state that the systems are still viable in all the analyzed scenarios, even without a smooth transition between the regulations. Finally, it is strongly recommended that new systems are installed as soon as possible associated with proper energy management in consumer units, while prioritizing energy consumption during peak generation periods

Abstracts

Tradução, para a língua inglesa, dos resumos dos artigos publicados nesta edição

Brazilian Research Consortium on Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders guidelines for the treatment of adult obsessive-compulsive disorder. Part II: cognitive-behavioral therapy

Objectives: To summarize evidence-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) treatment and propose clinical interventions for adult patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Methods: The literature on CBT interventions for adult OCD, including BT and exposure and response prevention, was systematically reviewed to develop updated clinical guidelines for clinicians, providing comprehensive details about the necessary procedures for the CBT protocol. We searched the literature from 2013-2020 in five databases (PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, PsycINFO, and Lilacs) regarding study design, primary outcome measures, publication type, and language. Selected articles were assessed for quality with validated tools. Treatment recommendations were classified according to levels of evidence developed by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. Results: We examined 44 new studies used to update the 2013 American Psychiatric Association guidelines. High-quality evidence supports CBT with exposure and response prevention techniques as a first-line treatment for OCD. Protocols for Internet-delivered CBT have also proven efficacious for adults with OCD. Conclusion: High-quality scientific evidence supports the use of CBT with exposure and response prevention to treat adults with OCD

Nursing Professionals And Occupational Accidents

The current study has the objective to identify main work accidents that occurs with nursing workers. This is an integrative literature review that enabled to include scientific articles indexed in the databases of Virtual Library in Health (BVS). Searches were made from october to november 2016, using the descriptors: “work accidents”, “nursing professionals”, separated between themselves by the boolean operator AND. The following criteria were adopted: fully available articles, in portuguese language, published in the last five years. Articles that presented some duplicity and didn’t meet the proposed study objectives were excluded. After searches, ten scientific productions about the subject were selected. Results indicate the occurrence of accidents between nursing professionals and the main factors were related with sharp object handling, non-utilization of IPEs, excessive workload and needle resurfacing. It is concluded that strategies are required to minimize these occurrences, as the adoption of standard precautionary measures, the adequacy of staff numbers and better work conditions to this professional category. Besides that, the need of new researches about this subject are emphasized

Evaluation Of Pain In Newborn In Intensive Therapy In The Vision Of Health Professionals

Objective: Evaluate how health professionals perceive the pain in the NBs hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Method: This is a descriptive, exploratory research with a qualitative approach, developed in the maternity hospital Instituto de Saúde Elpídio de Almeida (ISEA), in the period from February to March 2016, after approval by the Research Ethics Committee (CESED), where the technique of data collection was through an interview with a prior script divided into two parts: the first part deals with socio-demographic issues, while the second part deals with issues related to pain in the NB, where they were recorded and transcribed in their entirety, using the content treatment through content analysis of the thematic type proposed by Laurence Bardin. Results: The results show that all health professionals perceive the pain in the neonate, where three categories emerged: "relates the evaluation of pain with physiological and behavioral measurements"; "know, but do not evaluate with pain score", "do not evaluate with pain score". Regarding the use of some method for pain relief, two categories emerged: "use of non-pharmacological methods for pain relief"; "Use of simultaneous pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods". Conclusion: All the professionals contributed to the growth of this research, being necessary more studies about the pain, mainly with regard to the use of multidimensional scales, since there is a lack of knowledge on the part of the professionals and teams that work in the NICU

A list of land plants of Parque Nacional do Caparaó, Brazil, highlights the presence of sampling gaps within this protected area

Brazilian protected areas are essential for plant conservation in the Atlantic Forest domain, one of the 36 global biodiversity hotspots. A major challenge for improving conservation actions is to know the plant richness, protected by these areas. Online databases offer an accessible way to build plant species lists and to provide relevant information about biodiversity. A list of land plants of “Parque Nacional do Caparaó” (PNC) was previously built using online databases and published on the website "Catálogo de Plantas das Unidades de Conservação do Brasil." Here, we provide and discuss additional information about plant species richness, endemism and conservation in the PNC that could not be included in the List. We documented 1,791 species of land plants as occurring in PNC, of which 63 are cited as threatened (CR, EN or VU) by the Brazilian National Red List, seven as data deficient (DD) and five as priorities for conservation. Fifity-one species were possible new ocurrences for ES and MG states

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Diretriz da Sociedade Brasileira de Cardiologia sobre Diagnóstico e Tratamento de Pacientes com Cardiomiopatia da Doença de Chagas

This guideline aimed to update the concepts and formulate the standards of conduct and scientific evidence that support them, regarding the diagnosis and treatment of the Cardiomyopathy of Chagas disease, with special emphasis on the rationality base that supported it.  Chagas disease in the 21st century maintains an epidemiological pattern of endemicity in 21 Latin American countries. Researchers and managers from endemic and non-endemic countries point to the need to adopt comprehensive public health policies to effectively control the interhuman transmission of T. cruzi infection, and to obtain an optimized level of care for already infected individuals, focusing on diagnostic and therapeutic opportunistic opportunities.   Pathogenic and pathophysiological mechanisms of the Cardiomyopathy of Chagas disease were revisited after in-depth updating and the notion that necrosis and fibrosis are stimulated by tissue parasitic persistence and adverse immune reaction, as fundamental mechanisms, assisted by autonomic and microvascular disorders, was well established. Some of them have recently formed potential targets of therapies.  The natural history of the acute and chronic phases was reviewed, with enhancement for oral transmission, indeterminate form and chronic syndromes. Recent meta-analyses of observational studies have estimated the risk of evolution from acute and indeterminate forms and mortality after chronic cardiomyopathy. Therapeutic approaches applicable to individuals with Indeterminate form of Chagas disease were specifically addressed. All methods to detect structural and/or functional alterations with various cardiac imaging techniques were also reviewed, with recommendations for use in various clinical scenarios. Mortality risk stratification based on the Rassi score, with recent studies of its application, was complemented by methods that detect myocardial fibrosis.  The current methodology for etiological diagnosis and the consequent implications of trypanonomic treatment deserved a comprehensive and in-depth approach. Also the treatment of patients at risk or with heart failure, arrhythmias and thromboembolic events, based on pharmacological and complementary resources, received special attention. Additional chapters supported the conducts applicable to several special contexts, including t. cruzi/HIV co-infection, risk during surgeries, in pregnant women, in the reactivation of infection after heart transplantation, and others.     Finally, two chapters of great social significance, addressing the structuring of specialized services to care for individuals with the Cardiomyopathy of Chagas disease, and reviewing the concepts of severe heart disease and its medical-labor implications completed this guideline.Esta diretriz teve como objetivo principal atualizar os conceitos e formular as normas de conduta e evidências científicas que as suportam, quanto ao diagnóstico e tratamento da CDC, com especial ênfase na base de racionalidade que a embasou. A DC no século XXI mantém padrão epidemiológico de endemicidade em 21 países da América Latina. Investigadores e gestores de países endêmicos e não endêmicos indigitam a necessidade de se adotarem políticas abrangentes, de saúde pública, para controle eficaz da transmissão inter-humanos da infecção pelo T. cruzi, e obter-se nível otimizado de atendimento aos indivíduos já infectados, com foco em oportunização diagnóstica e terapêutica. Mecanismos patogênicos e fisiopatológicos da CDC foram revisitados após atualização aprofundada e ficou bem consolidada a noção de que necrose e fibrose sejam estimuladas pela persistência parasitária tissular e reação imune adversa, como mecanismos fundamentais, coadjuvados por distúrbios autonômicos e microvasculares. Alguns deles recentemente constituíram alvos potenciais de terapêuticas. A história natural das fases aguda e crônica foi revista, com realce para a transmissão oral, a forma indeterminada e as síndromes crônicas. Metanálises recentes de estudos observacionais estimaram o risco de evolução a partir das formas aguda e indeterminada e de mortalidade após instalação da cardiomiopatia crônica. Condutas terapêuticas aplicáveis aos indivíduos com a FIDC foram abordadas especificamente. Todos os métodos para detectar alterações estruturais e/ou funcionais com variadas técnicas de imageamento cardíaco também foram revisados, com recomendações de uso nos vários cenários clínicos. Estratificação de risco de mortalidade fundamentada no escore de Rassi, com estudos recentes de sua aplicação, foi complementada por métodos que detectam fibrose miocárdica. A metodologia atual para diagnóstico etiológico e as consequentes implicações do tratamento tripanossomicida mereceram enfoque abrangente e aprofundado. Também o tratamento de pacientes em risco ou com insuficiência cardíaca, arritmias e eventos tromboembólicos, baseado em recursos farmacológicos e complementares, recebeu especial atenção. Capítulos suplementares subsidiaram as condutas aplicáveis a diversos contextos especiais, entre eles o da co-infecção por T. cruzi/HIV, risco durante cirurgias, em grávidas, na reativação da infecção após transplante cardíacos, e outros.    Por fim, dois capítulos de grande significado social, abordando a estruturação de serviços especializados para atendimento aos indivíduos com a CDC, e revisando os conceitos de cardiopatia grave e suas implicações médico-trabalhistas completaram esta diretriz.&nbsp

Lidar Observations in South America. Part I - Mesosphere and Stratosphere

South America covers a large area of the globe and plays a fundamental function in its climate change, geographical features, and natural resources. However, it still is a developing area, and natural resource management and energy production are far from a sustainable framework, impacting the air quality of the area and needs much improvement in monitoring. There are significant activities regarding laser remote sensing of the atmosphere at different levels for different purposes. Among these activities, we can mention the mesospheric probing of sodium measurements and stratospheric monitoring of ozone, and the study of wind and gravity waves. Some of these activities are long-lasting and count on the support from the Latin American Lidar Network (LALINET). We intend to pinpoint the most significant scientific achievements and show the potential of carrying out remote sensing activities in the continent and show its correlations with other earth science connections and synergies. In Part I of this chapter, we will present an overview and significant results of lidar observations in the mesosphere and stratosphere. Part II will be dedicated to tropospheric observations