Geração distribuída : discussão conceitual e nova definição

Os sistemas elétricos convencionais não conseguem garantir o suprimento sustentável de energia elétrica com a abrangência e a qualidade exigidas pela sociedade do século XXI. Esse fato, associado ao enorme avanço tecnológico dos últimos anos, abriu razoável espaço para a expansão da geração distribuída (GD), que tem como seus principais focos o fornecimento de Energia elétrica a quem ainda não tem acesso a ela e a redução dos impactos ambientais da geração centralizada convencional. No Brasil, por motivos sociais, ambientais, econômicos, legais e estratégicos, a discussão acerca desse tema é imprescindível. Então, considerando-se que o tema GD é bastante importante, especialmente para o Brasil, controverso e não-consolidado, faz-se necessária uma ampla discussão acerca dele, a começar pelos aspectos conceituais. Este trabalho, reconhecendo essa necessidade, discute, de forma inédita, o conceito de GD e conceitos e aspectos relacionados a ela; propõe novas classificações de aspectos relativos à GD; propõe uma nova definição de GD, mais completa e com mais aplicabilidade que as existentes; e sugere aplicações inovadoras para os resultados apresentados

Alimentação alternativa da iluminação pública para nivelamento de demanda

A Companhia Energética de Brasília (CEB) enfrenta, atualmente, dificuldades para atender os picos de demanda verificados durante o horário de ponta. O presente trabalho se propõe a estudar, sob o ponto de vista técnico e econômico, uma solução baseada no fornecimento de energia a uma parcela da iluminação pública por meio de um conjunto de baterias. Estas baterias, por sua vez seriam recarregadas diariamente pela própria rede da concessionária, fora do horário de ponta. Tanto os estudos técnicos quanto econômicos atestaram a viabilidade da solução proposta

Sub-Gigahertz Path Loss Measurement Campaign in Marine Environment: A Case Study

: This paper focuses on the characterization of radio propagation, and data communication in a marine environment. More specifically, we consider signal propagation when three different sub-gigahertz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands, i.e., 169 MHz, 434 MHz, and 868 MHz, are used. The main focus of the paper is to evaluate the path loss (PL), i.e., the power loss that a propagation radio wave would experience when communication occurs between a sail boat and a buoy. We describe the measurement results obtained performing three different radio power measurement campaigns, at the three different aforementioned ISM sub-gigahertz bands. We also want to correlate the radio propagation quality with the weather conditions present in the measurement areas. The obtained results show that higher distances are achieved by transmitting at lower frequencies, i.e., 169 MHz, and, on average, the propagation is directly dependent from the dew point index

Balancing people, planet, and profit in urban food waste management

Food waste is a complex problem and critical challenge for the sustainable development of circular economies, with interconnected social, environmental, and economic impacts. Supporting the identification of strategies that best minimise these impacts on people, planet and profit, this paper explores the dynamic impacts of food waste management options on the triple bottom lines of sustainable development in urban circular economies. We present a system dynamics model of the urban agri-food supply chain. This model simulates the fluxes of food and food waste throughout the supply chain, as well as their impacts on economy (i.e., costs and benefits for each sector and the broader economy), society (i.e., food insecurity) and environment (i.e., water, energy, and carbon footprints). Using Bristol city in the United Kingdom as a case-study, we evaluate the impacts of seven food waste management options (i.e., reduction, redistribution, animal feed, anaerobic digestion, composting, incineration, and landfilling). The results show that food waste reduction in consumer sectors (i.e., households and hospitality and food services) and redistribution in supply sectors (i.e., primary production and manufacture) offer the greatest benefits for the environment, society, and economy. For the retail sector, both reduction and redistribution options are highly favourable. Although these options can potentially have some adverse economic effects on the supply side due to a reduction in demand, their considerably high benefits make them high-reward, low-risk options. We thus conclude that food waste reduction and redistribution are the only options with a clear triple-win for people, planet and profit. This paper makes a significant contribution by introducing a robust quantitative model and a novel triple bottom line framework for sustainable food waste management in urban circular economies

Bowel obstruction from benign adnexal mass i an elderly patient

Bowel obstruction resulting from ovarian masses is a serious complication of these diseases. This may be caused by bulky masses filling the pelvis and the abdomen, and should be carefully worked out by pre-operative imaging because of their non-specific clinical signs that may be confused with those due to other conditions such as: volvulus, cancer or adhesions. We report the case of a 70 years old woman with a bulky pelvic-abdominal mass of 27 × 20 cm that was found to be an “ovarian serous cystadenoma” and clinical signs of intestinal obstruction, which was treated by uterus sparing surgery

Preoperative weight loss in super-obese patients: study of the rate of weight loss and its effects on surgical morbidity

OBJECTIVES: The incidence of obesity and particularly super obesity, has increased tremendously. At our institution, super obesity represents 30.1% of all severely obese individuals in the bariatric surgery program. In super obesity, surgical morbidity is higher and the results are worse compared with morbid obesity, independent of the surgical technique. The primary strategy for minimizing complications in these patients is to decrease the body mass index before surgery. Preoperative weight reduction can be achieved by a hypocaloric diet, drug therapy, an intragastric balloon, or hospitalization. The objective of this study was to analyze the results of a period of hospitalization for preoperative weight loss in a group of super-obese patients. METHODS: Twenty super-obese patients were submitted to a weight loss program between 2006 and 2010. The mean patient age was 46 years (range 21-59). The mean BMI was 66 kg/m2 (range 51-98) and 12 were women. The average hospital stay was 19.9 weeks and the average weight loss was 19% of the initial weight (7-37%). The average caloric intake was 5 kcal/kg/day. After the weight loss program, the patients underwent gastric bypass surgery. RESULTS: The statistical analysis revealed that after 14 weeks of treatment (15% loss of initial weight), the weight loss was not significant. All patients had satisfactory surgical recovery and were discharged after an average of 4.6 days. CONCLUSION: In super obesity, preoperative weight loss is an important method for reducing surgical risks. Hospitalization and a hypocaloric diet are safe and effective. After 14 weeks, the weight loss rate stabilized, signaling the time of surgical intervention in our study

Solving rehabilitation scheduling problems via a two-phase ASP approach

A core part of the rehabilitation scheduling process consists of planning rehabilitation physiotherapy sessions for patients, by assigning proper operators to them in a certain time slot of a given day, taking into account several legal, medical and ethical requirements and optimizations, e.g., patient’s preferences and operator’s work balancing. Being able to efficiently solve such problem is of upmost importance, in particular after the COVID-19 pandemic that significantly increased rehabilitation’s needs. In this paper, we present a two-phase solution to rehabilitation scheduling based on Answer Set Programming, which proved to be an effective tool for solving practical scheduling problems. We first present a general encoding, and then add domain specific optimizations. Results of experiments performed on both synthetic and real benchmarks, the latter provided by ICS Maugeri, show the effectiveness of our solution as well as the impact of our domain specific optimization