Pecuária de corte frente à emissão de gases de efeito estufa e estratégias diretas e indiretas para mitigar a emissão de metano.

Editado por: Mário De Beni Arrigoni, Cyntia Ludovico Martins, Danilo Domingues Millen, Marco Aurélio Factori, André Luis Coneglian Brichi, Alexandre Perdigão

CFD simulation of the dispersion of exhaust gases in a traffic-loaded street of Astana, Kazakhstan

The aim of this paper is to consider one of the most traffic-loaded regions of Astana city (Kazakhstan) and to determine the concentration of carbon-monoxide (CO) in the air during the peak hours. CFD analysis based on the SolidWorks-EFD platform was used to simulate the dispersion of contaminants given the estimated emission rates and weather conditions at the crossroad of Bogenbay Batyr and Zhenis Avenues in Astana. Turbulence prediction was based on k-ε model with wall functions. The governing equations were discretized using the finite volume method and a 2nd order spatial scheme. The mesh verification was based on 1% convergence criterion for a 50% of mesh density increment; air pressure near the wall of a selected building was chosen as the parameter to control the convergence. Numerical results are presented for prevailing conditions during all 4 seasons of the year, demonstrating that the highest levels of CO are recorded in summer and reach the values up to 11.2 ppm which are still lower than the maximum level admitted for humans. Nevertheless, obtained results show that Astana is gradually becoming a city that is likely to reach the critical levels of pollutants in the nearest future if control measures are not taken with enough anticipation. As for a future work, it is proposed to perform in-situ validation of specific scenarios to check and support the results obtained with CFD and to develop then specific policies for tackling the problem before it becomes evident

Geometric predictors of abdominal aortic aneurysm maximum wall stress

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a dilation of the abdominal aorta (above 50 % of its original diameter), which can cause death upon rupturing. It usually grows asymptomatically leading to late clinical intervention. The medical criteria to indicate surgery are based on measuring the diameter and growth rate, but in many cases aneurysms fail at uncharacterized critical values. In search of a more efficient technique in predicting AAA failure, there is consensus on the importance of studying its geometric characteristics and estimation of the wall stress, but no fully successful correlation has been found between the two yet. This work examines the relationship between a parameterized geometry (18 input variables and 10 dependent indices) and 1 output variable: the maximum wall stress

Light yield determination in large sodium iodide detectors applied in the search for dark matter

Application of NaI(Tl) detectors in the search for galactic dark matter particles through their elastic scattering off the target nuclei is well motivated because of the long standing DAMA/LIBRA highly significant positive result on annual modulation, still requiring confirmation. For such a goal, it is mandatory to reach very low threshold in energy (at or below the keV level), very low radioactive background (at a few counts/keV/kg/day), and high detection mass (at or above the 100 kg scale). One of the most relevant technical issues is the optimization of the crystal intrinsic scintillation light yield and the efficiency of the light collecting system for large mass crystals. In the frame of the ANAIS (Annual modulation with NaI Scintillators) dark matter search project large NaI(Tl) crystals from different providers coupled to two photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) have been tested at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory. In this paper we present the estimates of the NaI(Tl) scintillation light collected using full-absorption peaks at very low energy from external and internal sources emitting gammas/electrons, and single-photoelectron events populations selected by using very low energy pulses tails. Outstanding scintillation light collection at the level of 15~photoelectrons/keV can be reported for the final design and provider chosen for ANAIS detectors. Taking into account the Quantum Efficiency of the PMT units used, the intrinsic scintillation light yield in these NaI(Tl) crystals is above 40~photoelectrons/keV for energy depositions in the range from 3 up to 25~keV. This very high light output of ANAIS crystals allows triggering below 1~keV, which is very important in order to increase the sensitivity in the direct detection of dark matter

Sensitivity plots for WIMP modulation searches

Prospects of WIMP searches using the annual modulation signature are discussed on statistical grounds, introducing sensitivity plots for the WIMP-nucleon scalar cross section.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, talk given at TAUP'99, september 199

Background analysis and status of the ANAIS dark matter project

ANAIS (Annual modulation with NaI Scintillators) is a project aiming to set up at the new facilities of the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC), a large scale NaI(Tl) experiment in order to explore the DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation positive result using the same target and technique. Two 12.5 kg each NaI(Tl) crystals provided by Alpha Spectra took data at the LSC in the ANAIS-25 set-up. The comparison of the background model for the ANAIS-25 prototypes with the experimental results is presented. ANAIS crystal radiopurity goals have been achieved for Th-232 and U-238 chains, but a Pb-210 contamination out-of-equilibrium was identified, whose origin has been studied. The high light collection efficiency obtained with these prototypes allows to anticipate an energy threshold of the order of 1 keVee. A new detector, with improved performances, was received in March 2015 and very preliminary results are shown.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure