VARIAÇÕES MICROCLIMÁTICAS NO ENTORNO DE DUAS ESCOLAS PÚBLICAS NA CIDADE DE CUIABÁ/MT

The city of Cuiabá, located in the tropical and central South America, stands out on the national stage by high temperatures throughout the year and by the accelerated growth in recent decades, causing the expansion of its perimeter and development of urban activities that caused climate evidenced by several studies. This study aimed to compare the microclimatic variables with land use in the vicinity of two public schools in Cuiabá / MT. The methodology was based on data collected daily and hourly temperature and relative humidity for one year (February 2011 to January 2012), obtained with the aid of automatic weather stations fixed, installed in the state school Padre Ernesto Camilo Barreto municipal and school Our Lady of Aparecida. The results showed microclimatic differences between the two areas, and the values recorded in the most built, the school environs Padre Ernesto, presented in most times at higher temperatures compared with observed data in the area farthest from the central portion, and the surroundings school Our Lady of Aparecida. It was found that the use of soil in different urban areas causes different microclimates.A cidade de Cuiabá, localizada na região tropical e centro da América do Sul, destaca-se no cenário nacional pelas altas temperaturas ao longo do ano e pelo acelerado crescimento nas últimas décadas, ocasionando a expansão de seu perímetro e o desenvolvimento das atividades urbanas que provocaram alterações climáticas evidenciadas por vários estudos. Este trabalho teve como objetivo comparar as variáveis climatológicas com uso do solo no entorno de duas escolas públicas em Cuiabá/MT. A metodologia utilizada baseou-se em coletas de dados diários e horários de temperatura e umidade relativa do ar durante um ano (fevereiro de 2011 a janeiro de 2012), obtidas com auxílio de estações meteorológicas automáticas fixas, instaladas na escola estadual Padre Ernesto Camilo Barreto e na escola municipal Nossa Senhora Aparecida. Os resultados obtidos evidenciaram diferenças microclimáticas entre as duas áreas, sendo que os valores registrados na área mais edificada, o entorno da escola Padre Ernesto, apresentou na maioria vezes temperaturas mais elevadas quando comparadas com dados observados na área mais afastada da porção central, o entorno da escola Nossa Senhora Aparecida. Constatou-se que o uso do solo em diferentes áreas urbanas ocasiona microclimas diferenciados

Adolescentes, jóvenes y violencia policial en Montevideo : una aproximación descriptiva

Este trabajo es el producto de una articulación entre organizaciones de derechos humanos y la academia. A partir de interrogantes compartidas, desde distintos lugares de enunciación, estos actores –como en otras ocasiones– nos propusimos producir información calificada sobre temas de relevancia que hacen al desarrollo de una sociedad respetuosa de los derechos humanos. En esta trayectoria, encontramos durante el 2014 el decidido apoyo del Ministerio de Desarrollo Social que permitió viabilizar toda la iniciativa. Asimismo este proyecto formó parte del Espacio de Formación Integral (EFI) denominado “Adolescencia y seguridad pública” (Comisión Central de Extensión) que contó durante 2014 y 2015 con la participación de varios servicios de la Universidad de la República. El estudio tiene como objetivo medir las formas, las frecuencias y las intensidades de la violencia policial sobre adolescentes y jóvenes (de 13 a 29 años) en el departamento de Montevide

Unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer: could durvalumab be safe and effective in real-life clinical scenarios? Results of a single-center experience

IntroductionThe standard of care for patients with unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is chemoradiotherapy (CRT) followed by consolidation durvalumab as shown in the PACIFIC trial. The purpose of this study is to evaluate clinical outcomes and toxicities regarding the use of durvalumab in a real clinical scenario. MethodsA single-center retrospective study was conducted on patients with a diagnosis of unresectable stage III NSCLC who underwent radical CRT followed or not by durvalumab. Tumor response after CRT, pattern of relapse, overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), and toxicity profile were investigated. ResultsEighty-five patients met the inclusion criteria. The median age was 67 years (range 45-82 years). Fifty-two patients (61.2%) started sequential therapy with durvalumab. The main reason for excluding patients from the durvalumab treatment was the expression of PD-L1 < 1%. Only two patients presented a grade 4 or 5 pneumonitis. A median follow-up (FU) of 20 months has been reached. Forty-five patients (52.9%) had disease progression, and 21 (24.7%) had a distant progression. The addition of maintenance immunotherapy confirmed a clinical benefit in terms of OS and PFS. Two-year OS and PFS were respectively 69.4% and 54.4% in the durvalumab group and 47.9% and 24.2% in the no-durvalumab group (p = 0.015, p = 0.007). ConclusionIn this real-world study, patients treated with CRT plus durvalumab showed clinical outcomes and toxicities similar to the PACIFIC results. Maintenance immunotherapy after CRT has been shown to be safe and has increased the survival of patients in clinical practice

Personalizing Cancer Pain Therapy: Insights from the Rational Use of Analgesics (RUA) Group

Introduction: A previous Delphi survey from the Rational Use of Analgesics (RUA) project involving Italian palliative care specialists revealed some discrepancies between current guidelines and clinical practice with a lack of consensus on items regarding the use of strong opioids in treating cancer pain. Those results represented the basis for a new Delphi study addressing a better approach to pain treatment in patients with cancer. Methods: The study consisted of a two-round multidisciplinary Delphi study. Specialists rated their agreement with a set of 17 statements using a 5-point Likert scale (0 = totally disagree and 4 = totally agree). Consensus on a statement was achieved if the median consensus score (MCS) (expressed as value at which at least 50% of participants agreed) was at least 4 and the interquartile range (IQR) was 3–4. Results: This survey included input from 186 palliative care specialists representing all Italian territory. Consensus was reached on seven statements. More than 70% of participants agreed with the use of low dose of strong opioids in moderate pain treatment and valued transdermal route as an effective option when the oral route is not available. There was strong consensus on the importance of knowing opioid pharmacokinetics for therapy personalization and on identifying immediate-release opioids as key for tailoring therapy to patients’ needs. Limited agreement was reached on items regarding breakthrough pain and the management of opioid-induced bowel dysfunction. Conclusion: These findings may assist clinicians in applying clinical evidence to routine care settings and call for a reappraisal of current pain treatment recommendations with the final aim of optimizing the clinical use of strong opioids in patients with cancer

Development of steer-by-wire system with direct drive torque feedback

This paper describes the design of a Steer-by-Wire system with direct drive torque feedback on the steering wheel. The control scheme does not use any torque sensor: torque information is derived from two observers. Steering feel is greatly improved since the reaction torque sensed by the driver is an image of tire contact patch reaction only. The paper also gives information about the choice of both steer and feedback motors, considering design hints like type, fault-tolerance, redundancy, torque ripple, efficiency, size, weight and cost

Start-up Strategy for a Sensorless Direct Drive PM Generator for Wind Turbines

Direct drives for wind turbines are a relevant and challenging issue, since they carry all of the advantages of gearless motion transmission. Nevertheless, the rotor and shaft diameters are sensibly greater, and they need customisation for the housing of the position sensor. This sensor is often forced to work in hard, even extreme, environmental conditions, and it actually represents the most critical item for the drive reliability. Statistics elaborated in collaboration with a manufacturer, on a plant with thirty wind turbines, have highlighted an MTBF, due to position encoders, of only one month. In this case, the cost of maintenance far exceeded the cost of the sensor itself, endorsing the choice of a sensorless solution. On the other hand, for the sake of efficiency, the front-end inverter, connected to the motor, is disabled until the rotor speed is greater than a threshold speed. Therefore, operations at low speed and standstill, which are the pitfall of most of sensorless techniques, are not requested at all. The working conditions of a wind synchronous generator perfectly match the intrinsic requirements of the Kalman algorithm, which is used in this work to get an accurate estimation of speed and position. The paper proposes a novel strategy to manage the delicate transition from the disabled to the enabled states of the inverter, with smooth mechanical and electrical transients

Design and Implementation of a Minimum-Time Torque Control for IPM Motor Drives

Emerging applications, like electrical test benches for automotive, require extremely fast large-signal torque responses. Conventional, low-complexity PID-like controllers are inadequate for the task, especially when associated to internal permanent magnet (IPM) synchronous motor drives. Conversely, as shown in this paper, time optimal control (TOC) assures the fastest torque response after any large demanded variation of the torque reference. The innovative technique self-recognises the best final state, for given starting point and desired torque level. The paper reports the mathematical and algorithm details, as well as a complete batch of comparative measurements, carried out on a working prototype

Virtual mechanical load setup for steer-by-wire: a case study

In the electric drives scenario, the automotive is one of the most active and promising application fields. So far, electric steer eliminated many elements of a hydraulic system, with fair fuel economy in the process. The next step, the electronic steering, is in progress. It will definitively substitute any mechanical connection with the steering wheel by wire-transmitted digital signals to one or more remote electric motors. Obviously, the design of any control strategy has to pass through hardware verification. At the early stages, or when a real car prototype is not easily available, the design could greatly benefit of a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) emulator, to enable the fast control prototyping. In the paper, a reduced-order model, implemented with a high-dynamic electric drive, substitutes the real mechanical load. The model details, the system architecture and the experimental results are presented in the paper

DSP-based Time Optimal Current Control for High Performance IPM Motor Drives

The paper describes a high dynamic current control for Internal Permanent Magnet (IPM) synchronous motor drives. The strategy is based on the Time Optimal Control (TOC) approach and it assures the fastest current response after any large demanded variation of the current reference. The potentiality of the TOC for high performance electric drives is investigated and evaluated. Current prediction is accomplished as well, to minimise the effects of the delay introduced by the digital implementation. Nonetheless, the proposed strategy can also be easily arranged to be merged with different control techniques. The implementation details and experimental results are included in the paper