Emergency science: epistemological insights on the response to COVID-19 pandemics

The response to the current COVID-19 pandemics require reflections on the validity of scientific knowledge. While non-pharmacological measures for disease control are providing a worldwide natural experiment, it is highly advised to submit research findings to the scrutinity of renowed epistemologic theories. One should also consider the loosening of methodological criticism in time when diffusion of results is urgently required. Though criticism is perhaps most precious principle of scientific thinking and practice, scientists must find a way into relative consensus that can be translated into public health policies

O cinema construindo o imaginário dos deslocamenjtos sociais pelos territórios e fronteiras

Este texto es parte de um estudio que investiga cómo el cine brasileño contemporáneo representa sociedades y territorios construidos por los sentidos y los deseos de los personajes que viven el desplazamiento continuo y el nomadismo y son desafiados a crear comunidades mientras se mueve, sea em el interior y sus paisajes y escenarios que representan la vida de los migrantes hacia la ciudad, sea de personajes que se mueve por las calles en sus diferentes ambientes, sus diálogos fragmentados, sus recuerdos que non están relacionados con la ciudad física, pero con el tiempo cuyos espacios de memoria interfiere. Este estudio investiga la película Não por Acaso (No por casualidad) de Philippe Barcinski, que retrata la vida de Enio, ingeniero de tráfico que tiene el mando de los semáforos y se mueve a través de las calles y las imagenes de los lugares de memória.The main objective of this study is to investigate how cinema represents societies and territories that are constructed by the senses and desires of characters who experience continuous nomadism and are challenged to create new communities as they move. Regarding the outback and its panoramas as scenarios that reflect the migrants life toward the big cities, or regarding the characters moving throught the streets in different spaces, their fragmented dialogues, their memories that are not always related to the physical city but to the time and spce of the mind where the city interfers. This study investigates the film "Não por acaso" (Brazil, 2007, Philippe Barcinski) that portrays the life of Enio, a traffic engineer who is in charge of traffic lights. He travels throught the streets and throught images of places in his memory

Design of a Low Consumption Electric Car Prototype

Concerned with environment and sustainability, Shell has organized for the last 30 years a competition of energy efficient road vehicles called Shell Eco-Marathon (SEM). The vehicle is required to achieve a minimum mean cruise speed of 25km/h and a low drag value is an essential parameter to achieve a good result. Over the years SEM teams used a streamlined body similar to an airfoil with a minimized low frontal area, however AERO@UBI team decided to create a new concept vehicle body. This 3D body also derives from a 2D airfoil, but a geometric transformation introduced by Galvão in 1968 in "Nota técnica sobre corpos fuselados", São José dos Campos, for the creation of low drag fuselage is used. According to that author, it is possible to replicate the pressure coefficient distribution of the airfoil in the 3D body. Thus, maintaining the airfoil's low drag characteristics. Through the use of CFD software ANSYS Fluent it was possible to confirm the used concept and examine the vehicle aerodynamic. Although the final result was not optimal, it was possible to confirm the theory introduced by Galvão. [...]Preocupados com o ambiente e a sustentabilidade, a Shell organizou nos últimos 30 anos uma competição de veículos de baixo consumo designada por Shell Eco-Marathon (SEM). O objetivo do veículo é atingir a velocidade média mínima de 25km/h, sendo o valor reduzido de arrasto um parâmetro importante para atingir um bom resultado. Ao longo dos anos as equipas da SEM usaram corpos fuselados parecidos com perfis alares e com uma baixa área frontal, contudo a presente equipa AERO@UBI decidiu criar um novo conceito para o desenho da carroçaria do veículo. Este corpo 3D também deriva de um perfil alar, usando uma transformação geométrica proposta por Galvão em 1968 em "Nota técnica sobre corpos fuselados", São José dos Campos, para a criação de corpos fuselados. De acordo com esse autor, é possível replicar a distribuição do coeficiente de pressão do perfil alar para o corpo 3D. Deste modo, mantêm-se as características de baixo arrasto do perfil alar. Através do uso do software CFD ANSYS Fluent fomos capazes de confirmar o conceito usado e examinar a aerodinâmica do veículo. Apesar do resultado não ter sido o ótimo, foi possível confirmar a teoria introduzida por Galvão. [...

Valências na resposta emocional dos eleitores: design experimental com neurociência

This work aims to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate the valence of voters’ emotional response to changes in the scenarios in videos of political propaganda. The experiment was conducted in a laboratory with a fictitious candidate and content. We used four different scenarios: one with a completely white background, one simulating a library, one with a popular house, and one with luxury houses. We use the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) as an instrument to measure emotions. We found statistical differences between the intensity of the valences throughout the video (n=108). The work empirically demonstrated that the scenarios can enhance the emotional effects of this type of advertising.Este trabalho tem como objetivo avaliar quantitativa e qualitativamente a valência da resposta emocional dos eleitores às alterações dos cenários nos vídeos de propaganda política. O experimento foi conduzido em laboratório com um candidato e conteúdo fictícios. Utilizamos quatro cenários diferentes: um cenário com fundo completamente branco, um simulando uma biblioteca, um com casa popular e outro com casas de luxo. Utilizamos o Sistema de Codificação de Ação Facial (FACS) como um instrumento para medir emoções. Encontramos diferenças estatísticas entre a intensidade das valências ao longo do vídeo (n = 108). O trabalho permitiu a demonstração empírica de que os cenários podem potencializar os efeitos emocionais desse tipo de publicidade

AVALIAÇÃO DOS BENEFÍCIOS SOCIOECONÔMICOS DO SANEAMENTO AMBIENTAL NO MUNICÍPIO DE CUIABÁ NO PERÍODO DE 2000 A 2005

Fatores relacionados às condições de vida da população e às questões ambientais precárias são freqüentemente citados como os maiores responsáveis pela incidência de doenças e, às vezes, por traduzirem obstáculos ao controle de surtos de epidemias. O objetivo deste estudo é avaliar os benefícios diretos e indiretos decorrentes do impacto da falta de planejamento urbano e de sua conseqüente infra-estrutura sanitária e ambiental deficitária no município de Cuiabá, no período de 2000 a 2005. Diante do saneamento ambiental falho, prejudicial à saúde humana, a análise enfoca as doenças de maior notificação e incidência, tais como diarréia, dengue e hanseníase. O Método dos Custos Evitáveis (MCE), que relaciona a poluição ambiental e sua conseqüente afetação à saúde humana, é comumente aplicado na avaliação da mortalidade e morbidade humanas. Em 2000, constatou-se que se teria evitado um gasto de aproximadamente R$64 milhões; sendo que, desse valor, a diarréia responderia com 83,9$ 64 millions would have been avoided; diarrhea would correspond to 83, 9 %; “dengue” to 12, 49%; and leprosy to 3, 61%. It was registered that diarrhea represents much more than the other diseases because, during this six years, it demonstrated a crescent tendency, while the other ones kept steady, or decreased.Saneamento ambiental, saúde pública, morbidade e mortalidade, custos evitáveis, Environmental sanitation, public health, morbidity and mortality, avoidable costs, Community/Rural/Urban Development, I 11, I 18,

Game as text as game: the communicative experience of digital games

We propose to regard video game as text, but not by literally understanding it as a verbal expression, and instead recognizing that many assumptions of literary theory are relevant to its analysis. This option seems to put us in sync with the narratologists, who exalt games as new manifestations of narrative, but cling to a conception of text as world that values illusionist effects. Instead, we are interested in experiences that, against this perspective, recognize the possibility of regarding game as a text that is a game - an incomplete object that is to be updated by the reader in a self-reflective relationship with the signs that compose it, a central notion to theories such as Iser’s and Dewey’s. Then, instead of focusing on strategies of immersion on large virtual worlds, we favor small independent casual games (such as Small Worlds, Grey, The Beggar, and Dys4ia) analyzing how, in these, take place experiences that allow us to re-examine the aesthetic potential of the medium

Knowledge and attitudes of health care workers from intensive care units regarding nosocomial transmission of influenza: a study on the immediate pre-pandemic period

The transmission of influenza in health care settings is a major threat to patients, especially those with severe diseases. The attitude of health care workers (HCWs) may influence the transmission of countless infections. The current study aimed to quantify knowledge and identify attitudes of HCWs involved in intensive care units (ICUs) regarding the risk of nosocomial influenza transmission. A questionnaire was applied through interviews to HCWs who worked in one of the five ICUs from a teaching hospital. Questions about influenza were deliberately dispersed among others that assessed several infectious agents. Forty-two HCWs were interviewed: nine physicians, ten nurses and 23 nursing technicians or auxiliaries. Among the 42 HCWs, 98% were aware of the potential transmission of influenza virus in the ICUs, but only 31% would indicate droplet precautions for patients with suspected infection. Moreover, only 31% of them had been vaccinated against influenza in the last campaign (2008). Nursing technicians or auxiliaries were more likely to have been vaccinated, both by univariate and multivariable analysis. When asked about absenteeism, only 10% of the study subjects stated that they would not go to work if they had an influenza-like illness. Those findings suggest that, in non-pandemic periods, influenza control in hospitals requires strategies that combine continuous education with changes in organizational culture.Federal University of São Paulo Course of Health Care InfectionsSão Paulo State University Botucatu Medical School Department of Tropical DiseasesUNIFESP, Course of Health Care InfectionsSciEL