Suchergebnisse

Discusses the spectacular rise of social science teaching in Brazil which started in the 1960s, all the more remarkable in view of the very limited place that it had occupied previously. Links the new interest in social sciences with politics. Social scientists need to take a critical look at democracy. Argues that if they are not capable of expanding the concept to include a Utopia of change, democracy will be no more than a disguised form of domination. (AM)

The increasing integration of renewable energy resources connected to the distribution networks has led to an increased installed capacity of distributed generation. In this context, new technical and operational challenges have arisen concerning data exchanges between transmission system operators (TSOs) and distribution system operators (DSOs), requiring scalable, secure and standardised data exchange between them at different timeframes. The aim of this study is to investigate prospects for wider usage of the transparency platform developed by the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity and critically evaluate them with its information and data requirements. The evaluated prospects are based on the designed use cases of Work Package 2 in the TDX-ASSIST project. The proposed approach in this study has the potential to provide a wider range of stakeholders and participants as data providers to energy market-related information and data. ; European Union's Horizon 2020 program (grant agreement no. 774500 - Coordination of Transmission and Distribution data eXchanges for renewables integration in the European marketplace through Advanced Scalable and Secure ICT Systems and Tools_TDX-ASSIST).

Andrade-Oliveira, F., et al. (DES Collaboration) ; We perform an analysis in harmonic space of the Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Data (DES-Y1) galaxy clustering photometric data using products obtained for the real-space analysis. We test our pipeline with a suite of lognormal simulations, which are used to validate scale cuts in harmonic space as well as to provide a covariance matrix that takes into account the DES-Y1 mask. We then apply this pipeline to DES-Y1 data taking into account survey property maps derived for the real-space analysis. We compare with real-space DES-Y1 results obtained from a similar pipeline. We show that the harmonic space analysis we develop yields results that are compatible with the real-space analysis for the bias parameters. This verification paves the way to performing a harmonic space analysis for the upcoming DES-Y3 data. ; The DES data management system is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant numbers AST-1138766 and AST-1536171. The DES participants from Spanish institutions are partially supported by MINECO under grants AYA2015-71825, ESP2015-66861, FPA2015-68048, SEV-2016-0588, SEV-2016-0597, and MDM-2015-0509, some of which include ERDF funds from the European Union. IFAE is partially funded by the CERCA program of the Generalitat de Catalunya. Research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) including ERC grant agreements 240672, 291329, and 306478. This manuscript has been authored by Fermi Research Alliance, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC02-07CH11359 with the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics.

Microcystis blooms and the subsequent release of hepatotoxic microcystins (MCs) pose a serious threat to the safety of water for human and livestock consumption, agriculture irrigation, and aquaculture worldwide. Microcystin-LR (MC-LR), the most toxic variant of MCs, has been widely detected in a variety of environments such as water, sediments, plants, and many aquatic organisms. Conventional solutions of water treatment are costly, requiring specific infrastructure, as well as specialized personnel and equipment. Therefore, these solutions are not feasible in many rural areas or in the treatment of large reservoirs. In this regard, low-cost and low-technology solutions, such as constructed wetlands (CWs), are attractive solutions to treat surface waters contaminated with toxic cyanobacteria blooms from lakes, ponds, reservoirs, and irrigation systems. In line with this, the main aim of this work was to evaluate the potential of CWs for the treatment of water contaminated with MC-LR produced by Microcystis aeruginosa-LEGE 91094. For that, microcosms (0.4 x 0.3 x 0.3 m) simulating CWs were assembled with Phragmites australis to treat lake water contaminated with Microcystis aeruginosa cells and MCs. Results showed removal percentages of M. aeruginosa cells above 94% and about 99% removal of MC-LR during 1 week treatment cycles. CWs maintained their functions, regardless the presence of MC-LR in the system, and also showed significant removal of nutrients (ammonium ion removal up to 86%) and organic matter (removal reaching 98%). The present work indicates that CWs have the potential for removal of cyanobacterial cells and cyanotoxins, which can be useful for the treatment of eutrophic waters and provide water of sufficient quality to be used, for instance, in agriculture. © 2019 by the authors. ; This research was partially supported by the Strategic Funding UID/Multi/04423/2019 through national funds provided by FCT-Foundation for Science and Technology and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), in the framework of the programme PT2020. This project also received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 823860.

<i>Objective:</i> Gaucher disease (GD) is a genetic disease caused by glucocerebrosidase deficiency. GD is treated by enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) with imiglucerase, a high-cost drug provided by the Brazilian Ministry of Health (BMH). This study reports the implementation of the BMH guidelines for GD in the southernmost state of the country. <i>Methods:</i> We review the clinical and laboratorial data for patients seen at the reference center for GD from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (July 2003 to June 2006). <i>Results:</i> Twenty-five patients were included in this study. At baseline, 19/20 were on ERT (mean dosage of imiglucerase = 51.8 U/kg/infusion), 3/17 presented anemia, and 5/16 thrombocytopenia. The amount of imiglucerase prescribed to these patients was adjusted according to the guidelines in July 2003; out of them, 18 were receiving ERT in the reference center at month 36 (mean dosage of imiglucerase = 27.5 U/kg/infusion), 2/18 presented anemia, and 4/18 presented thrombocytopenia. The analysis of the liver, spleen, and bone data presented some limitations, but the available information suggests that patients did not deteriorate. GD patients who initiated ERT after July 2003 (n = 5) received lower dosage of imiglucerase since the beginning of the treatment; most of them demonstrated clinical and laboratorial response. From baseline to month 36, the consumption of imiglucerase by the reference center showed a significant reduction, which represented savings of USD 3 million to the public health system. <i>Conclusions:</i> The model of care of GD patients suggested by the BMH guidelines appears to be cost-effective and could be an example for management of rare diseases in underdeveloped countries.