MyTukxi: low cost smart charging for small scale EVs

As the electrification of the transportation sector grows the electric grid must handle the new load resulting from electric vehicles (EV) charging. The integration of this new load in the grid has been subject to work in the smart-charging research field, however, while normal-sized EVs often offer chargers or other functions that support smart-charging, smaller EVs do not, which could be problem atic. Especially considering that the consumption of small EV when aggregated can be significant. This article presents the motivation and development behind the development of MyTukxi, a hardware and software system that aims at implementing smart-charging algorithms for low consuming electric vehicles (EV), interacting with drivers to compensate for the lack of charging control in such vehicles.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Energy monitoring in the wild: platform development and lessons learned from a real-world demonstrator

This paper presents the development and evaluation of EnnerSpectrum, a platform for electricity monitoring. The development was motivated by a gap between academic, fully custom made monitoring solutions and commercial proprietary monitoring approaches. EnnerSpectrum is composed of two main entities, the back end, and the Gateway. The back end is a server comprised of flexible entities that can be configured to different monitoring scenarios. The Gateway interacts with equipment at a site that cannot interact directly with the back end. The paper presents the architecture and configuration of EnnerSpectrum for a long-term case study with 13 prosumers of electricity for approximately 36 months. During this period, the proposed system was able to adapt to several building and monitoring conditions while acquiring 95% of all the available consumption data. To finalize, the paper presents a set of lessons learned from running such a long-term study in the real world.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

No-tillage in organic production system: production parameters and biomass decomposition

Soils of sandy texture in the first layers are of great occurrence throughout Brazil. Because of its fragility, it is essential to use crop practices, such as the adoption of a no-tillage system, to promote benefits to these soils. The objective of this study was to evaluate biomass production, nutrient accumulation, decomposition rates, half-life time and dynamics of the N, P and K release of cover crops residues in organic vegetables cropping on no-tillage system in Seropédica-RJ. The experiment was conducted using a randomized block design with multiple replicates and six fractions: crotalaria (Crotalaria juncea), forage peanuts (Arachis pintoi), brachiaria (Brachiaria brizantha), millet (Pennisetum americanum), a cocktail of seeds, and an area of spontaneous vegetation. Dry matter decomposition and nutrient release were evaluated at 15, 30, 60, 90 and 120 days by the litter-bags method. Crotalaria presented higher dry mass production (15.48 Mg ha-1). The legumes had the highest N contents, being the largest values in the crotalaria. For K, the crotalaria also presented the highest values. In relation to decomposition and nutrient release the millet presented the highest half-life time (98 days), while the peanut presented the lowest (23 days).Solos de textura superficial arenosa são de grande ocorrência em todo o Brasil. Em função dessa fragilidade, torna-se indispensável o emprego de práticas culturais, como a adoção do sistema de plantio direto a fim de promover uma série de benefícios a estes solos. Neste estudo objetivou-se avaliar a produção de fitomassa, o acúmulo de nutrientes, as taxas de decomposição, tempo de meia vida e dinâmica da liberação de N, P e K de resíduos de plantas de cobertura para cultivo de hortaliças orgânicas sobre plantio direto em Seropédica-RJ. O experimento foi conduzido utilizando o delineamento em blocos ao acaso com quatro repetições e seis tratamentos: crotalária (Crotalaria juncea), amendoim forrageiro (Arachis pintoi), braquiária (Brachiaria brizantha), milheto (Pennisetum americanum), um coquetel das sementes e uma área de vegetação espontânea. A decomposição de massa seca e a liberação de nutrientes foram avaliados aos 15, 30, 60, 90 e 120 dias através de sacolas de decomposição (litter bags). A crotalária apresentou maior produção de massa seca (15,48 Mg ha-1). As leguminosas apresentaram os maiores teores de N, sendo o maior acúmulo observado na crotalária. Já para K a crotalária também apresentou os maiores valores. Em relação à decomposição de massa seca e a liberação de nutrientes o milheto foi à planta de cobertura que apresentou o maior T1/2 vida (98 dias), enquanto o amendoim apresentou o menor (23 dias).   &nbsp

Scare Tactics

It is the purpose of this document to describe the design and development processes of Scare Tactics. The game will be discussed in further detail as it relates to several areas, such as market analysis, development process, game design, technical design, and each team members’ individual area of background research. The research areas include asymmetrical game design, level design, game engine architecture, real-time graphics, user interface design, networking and artificial intelligence. As part of the team’s market analysis, other games featuring asymmetric gameplay are discussed. The games described in this section serve as inspirations for asymmetric game design. Some of these games implement mechanics that the team seeks to emulate and expand upon in Scare Tactics. As part of the team’s development process, several concepts were prototyped over the course of two months. During that process the team adopted an Agile methodology in order to assist with scheduling, communication and resource management. Eventually, the team chose to expand upon the prototype that became the basis of Scare Tactics. Game design and technical design occur concurrently in the development of Scare Tactics. Designers conduct discussions where themes, settings, and mechanics are conceived and documented. Mechanics are prototyped in Unity and eventually ported to a proprietary engine developed by our team. Throughout the course of development, each team member has had to own an area of design or development. This has led to individual research performed in several areas, which will be discussed further in this document

Pilot project for peer tutoring: a case study in a Portuguese university

Purpose – Tutoring or mentoring is a form of mutual and informal learning which has distant origins. This is a way of sharing knowledge and experience which has been proved to be extremely useful in educational settings, particularly where there is a peer that plays the role of tutor. Despite its informal characteristic, tutoring should be a structured process, with defined goals and clear roles for both: tutors and tutees, those who benefit from tutoring. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – As this paper aims to explore a pilot project, it was used as a reflexive and practical methodology, in a case study, analyzing the number of participants attending the project as well as the contents of the training course. Findings – In this first project in a Portuguese university, 35 students attended as candidates to tutor, participating in the training course, showing interest in helping their colleagues. Originality/value – This proposal for a tutoring program in a public higher institution aims to train college students to help other colleagues, giving academic support, helping in the adaptation to academic context, promoting autonomy in learning, sharing effective strategies and helping in maintenance of positive interpersonal relationships. These aspects are very important to promote academic success in higher education.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Biocompatible Magic Sized Quantum Dots: Luminescent Markers and Probes

Nanoscience and nanobiotechnology have aroused great academic and technological interest. Works relating biomaterials at the nanoscale can reach new biotechnologies and help in the development and use of tools for bioimage and diagnosis applications. In this work we demonstrated the advantages of magic sized quantum dots as luminescent markers and probes to bioimage applications. The visualization of MSQDs bioconjugated with biological probes in cells were performed at periods greater than 2 h, and visualization with no commercial dye would not be possible. Therefore, we demonstrated that theses biocompatible nanocrystals are luminescent markers and probes to diagnosis

UTILIZAÇÃO DA FERRAMENTA SERVQUAL PARA MENSURAÇÃO DA QUALIDADE DOS SERVIÇOS DE UM SUPERMERCADO NA REGIÃO CENTRO-OESTE DO BRASIL

Oferecer serviços de qualidade é algo primordial para as empresas, pois os clientes estão cada vez mais exigentes e a concorrência, cada vez mais acirrada. O presente estudo apresenta a utilização da ferramenta SERVQUAL para mensurar a qualidade dos serviços prestados por um supermercado localizado na cidade de Catalão – GO. O trabalho parte da adaptação do questionário utilizado na ferramenta para atender às particularidades do supermercado e, assim, aplicar o questionário aos clientes visando avaliar suas expectativas e suas percepções quanto aos serviços prestados. A diferença entre a expectativa e a percepção é chamado de GAP e por meio dessas diferenças foi possível mensurar se os conceitos estão sendo bem avaliados pelos clientes. Após a análise dos dados, pode-se visualizar alguns pontos críticos que necessitam maior atenção por parte dos gerentes do supermercado e, também, foi possível visualizar pontos fortes que se destacam na qualidade dos serviços prestados

Protocolo para manejo clínico da pancreatite aguda em adultos / Protocol for the clinical management of acute pancreatitis in adults

A pancreatite aguda é uma condição inflamatória que afeta o pâncreas e pode causar comprometimento de outros órgãos, caracteriza-se por dor abdominal e aumento de enzimas no sangue e/ou urina. É uma emergência clínica e/ou cirúrgica comum muitas vezes mal compreendida, com uma condição desafiadora de tratamento e com morbidade e mortalidade significativas. Foi realizada uma revisão não sistemática nas bases de dados eletrônicas PubMed, google científico, literatura cinzenta e livros. Os descritores indexados foram “acute pancreatitis”, guidelines, “practice guideline” e management com diferentes combinações entre os termos associando aos buscadores booleanos. As diretrizes mais atualizadas sobre o tratamento clínico da PA são a da International Association of Pancreatology (IAP) / American Pancreas Association (APA) publicado em 2013, American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) de 2013 e a Diretrizes Japonesas para manejo de pancreatite (JPN) de 2015 (ISAJI et al., 2015). Todas embasadas na diretriz de Atlanta revisada de 2012. Com base na revisão feita e considerando os objetivos, foi proposto um algoritmo de abordagem da pancreatite aguda e um protocolo de manejo para pacientes adultos com pancreatite aguda

Proteção ineficaz em pacientes submetidos ao transplante de células-tronco hematopoiéticas: análise de conceito

Objetivou-se analisar o conceito de “Proteção” em pacientes submetidos ao transplante de células tronco hematopoiéticas e correlacionar com os elementos do diagnóstico de enfermagem “Proteção Ineficaz” proposto pela NANDA-I. Revisão integrativa da literatura, fundamentada no modelo de Análise de Conceito proposto por Walker e Avant. Realizada na Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde e as seguintes bases de dados: CINAHL, SCOPUS, PUBMED/MEDLINE, LILACS e Web of Science com recorte temporal de cinco anos. A amostra final foi composta por 16 artigos e pela identificação de três atributos definidores, 15 antecedentes e 11 consequentes. Conclusão: a análise de conceito pode contribuir para o refinamento e o aprimoramento do diagnóstico de enfermagem “Proteção Ineficaz”. Foi possível identificar uma outra definição, 10 antecedentes e 10 consequentes que não constam na NANDA-I, bem como a necessidade de revisar a definição e demais componentes do diagnóstico propostos pela taxonomia