A cross section study was carried out in a farming community from Nova Friburgo, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, to examine epidemiological, clinical and laboratory aspects of multiple exposure to pesticides in a representative sample of 102 small farmers. Both males and females were submitted to an extensive protocol which included an occupation questionnaire, biological sample collection for toxicology analysis and clinical - general and neurological - evaluation. The toxicology test results showed light to moderate episodes of acute intoxication by organophosphorates either described by the farmers or observed during clinical examination. Thirteen cases of delayed neuropathies (12,8%) as well as 29 cases of neural behavioral syndromes and psychiatric disorders associated to the continued use of pesticides were diagnosed. These results indicate recurrent multiple overexposures to high concentrations of different chemicals, with serious damage to vital functions, especially considering their young age (average 35 +/- 11 years old) and the productive period in their lifetime. These results show how important it is to monitor multiple exposure to pesticides - a chain of events that may have major impacts on public health and the environment.
O artigo discute a análise de projetos de investimento nos quais não se adequa a hipótese de risco crescente no tempo. Este é o caso de investimentos em pesquisa, onde a cada etapa vencida, diminuem-se os riscos de insucesso do projeto. Mostra-se que projetos deste tipo, se avaliados segundo o critério usual de método de fluxo de caixa descontado a uma taxa que incorpora um prêmio de risco, são sistematicamente rejeitados. Apresenta-se um estudo de caso, baseado numa experiência real conduzida no âmbito de uma empresa privada, onde foi aplicada a teoria de árvore de decisão.
This paper discusses the analysis of investment in projects where the hypothesis of increasing risk is not adequate. This is particularly the case of investment in research projects ivhere each completed stage decreases the risk of following stage failure. Projects of this kind are almost always rejected zuhere evaluated by the discount cash flow methods which use discount rates including risk premium. It is presented here a case study based on an actual experience conducted inside a private firm solved by the application of decision tree theory
This paper presents a location study for biodiesel industrial plants in Brazil, considering the existing infrastructure, oleaginous plantation potential and socio-economic data. The output was a hierarchical classification of suitable municipalities for industrial plants and production cycle placements. The methodology consisted of defining the location factors, territorial supply and industrial demand typology as input values. The location model collated the supply and demand variables using a fuzzy operator, normalised the outputs and produced hierarchic indicators. The input and output data were processed in a geographic information systems environment using digital maps. The results were analysed for six sites pre-indicated by the Brazilian state Oil and Gas Enterprise, which has confirmed and implemented at three of the proposed locations and has chosen two new placements based on the regions achieving good indicators in the study. Relevance and originality can be evaluated from the effective decision support provided for stakeholders and by association of industrial location, geoprocessing and fuzzy set knowledge.
Brazil IntroductionThis chapter presents a methodology for spatial location employing offer and demand comparison, appropriate for urban engineering research. The methods and techniques apply geoprocessing resources as structured data query and dynamic visualization. The theoretical concept is based on an industrial location model (Cosenza, 1981), which compares both offer and demand for a list of selected location factors. Offer is detected on location sites by intensity levels, and demand is defined from projects by requirement levels. The scale level of these factors is measured by linguistic variables, and operated as fuzzy sets, so that a hierarchical array of locations vs. projects can be obtained as result. The array is normalized at value = 1 to indicate when demand matches offer, which means the location is recommended. The case study is solved with geoprocessing tools (Harlow, 2005), used to generate data for a mathematical model. Spatial information are georeferenced from data feature classes of cartographic elements on city representation, as administration boundaries, transportation infrastructure, environmental constrains, etc. All data are organized on personal geodatabase, in order to generate digitalized maps associated to classified relational data, and organized by thematic layers. Fuzzy logic is applied to offer and demand levels, translating subjective observation into linguistic variables, aided by methods for classifying quantitative and qualitative data in operational graduations. Fuzzy sets make level measuring more productive and contributes for a new approach to city monitoring methods. Our proposition is to apply this model to urban engineering, analysing placement of projects that impact on urban growth and development. To operate the model, we propose to use as location factors the environmental characteristics of cities (generic infra-structure, social aspects, economical activities, land use, population, etc). A Location ModelLocation models have been used to study the feasibility of projects in a large range of possible sites, and can be applied in macro and micro scale. Macro scale location deals with general and specifics factors, in order to show hierarchical ranking of possibilities. Micro 6 www.intechopen.com Methods and Techniques in Urban Engineering 74scale location studies come in sequence to choose the most suitable place of a macro studied output, based on local characteristics of terrain, facilities, transportation, population, general services and environmental constrains. One approach for location problem solving is based on cross analysis (ex: offer vs. demand) of general and specific factors. General factors are important for most projects, and their lack is not imperative for excluding a location site. These factors are related to infrastructure or to some support element that is part of external economies. Specific factors are essential for some kind of projects, and their absence or deficiency on requested level invalidates the location site. These factors are ...
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