RCAAP Repository

The bi-objective Pollution-Routing Problem (b-PRP) is a PRP (Pollution-Routing Problem Bekta¸s e Laporte (2011)) extension that considers separately two conflicting objectives: minimization of carbon emission costs and minimization of operational costs. To the best of our knowledge, only few papers in the literature present multi-objective analysis concerning transportation environmental issues. Due to the lack of specific methods that are capable of finding good results for this kind of problem, this dissertation aims to propose a new heuristic method for solving the b-PRP. In this method, solution sets are generated so as to represent possible scenarios for the problem. The proposed method is based on the Two-Phase Pareto Local Search (2PPLS) proposed by Lust e Teghem (2009). During the first phase of the method, efficient solutions are generated solving parametrized problems. In the second phase, each solution is explored by means of a Pareto Local Search procedure. In other to speed up the method, an efficient scheme is employed for assessing the news solutions. Despite of its simplicity, the proposed method was capable of finding a large number of efficient solutions in a reasonable time. Computational results show that the proposed approach leads to better results than those obtained by multiobjective techniques available in the literature. The quality indicators Hypervolume (H) and R Measure (R) have been used for assessing the efficient solutions sets. Because of the random behavior presented in the sequential method used to solve the parametrized problems, Mann-Whitney Nonparametric Test has been used for comparing the results. Outperformance Relations have also been used on the results analysis. We concluded that the majority of solutions generated by 2PPLS dominates those generated by others multi-objective methods found in the literature.

This paper proposes an analysis of the relations between the Security metrics and Labour Health and organizational performance dimensions. This research considered the premise that the Safety and Occupational Health directly influences the overall performance of the company, since as an integrated subsystem to the global system, this may or may not promote improvements in performance, according to the strategies defined by the organization. Based on the literature, we have identified limitations in regard to searches related to this context, as well as the need to evaluate and measure the performance of the company using SST relationship between size and performance. Subsequently, we analyzed different existing performance measurement models and it was observed that most used as performance criteria Productivity, Quality, Flexibility and Cost, as important elements for the competitiveness of the market. Then we conducted a case study on a manufacturing industry in order to check which had relations between security metrics and dimensions of organizational performance proposed by the company. In the case study they were conducted structured interviews with employees of the company directly linked to the Occupational Safety area. From the case study, it was concluded that there is an increasing need, to integrate the area of SST to other sectors of the company, so that it can measure its real influence on organizational performance. We found that not all SST metrics are directly related to organizational performance dimensions. Productivity and Flexibility are those with the highest degree of relationship between the metrics, the company said.

This work proposes a uni ed heuristic algorithm for a large class of earlinesstardiness (E-T) scheduling problems. We consider single/parallel machine E-T problems that may or may not consider some additional features such as idle time, setup times and release dates. In addition, we also consider those problems whose objective is to minimize either the total (average) weighted completion time or the total (average) weighted ow time, which arise as particular cases when the due dates of all jobs are either set to zero or to their associated release dates, respectively. The developed local search based metaheuristic framework is quite simple, but at the same time relies on sophisticated procedures for e ciently performing local search according to the characteristics of the problem. The algorithm was tested in hundreds of instances of several E-T problems and particular cases. The results obtained show that our general heuristic is capable of producing high quality solutions when compared to the best ones available in the literature that were obtained by speci c methods. Moreover, the algorithm was tested on a new set of instances proposed for the most general case (Rjrj ; sk ij jPw0j Ej + wjTj) of the class of problems considered, in order to validate the method.

There is strong evidence that a relationship exists between human factors and human performance in production systems where the workforce is predominant. On the other hand, researches regarding this relationship are scarce in the recent literature. Moreover, these researches conducted only consider the performance from the perspective of quality and / or human error, that are just two of its many facets in the literature. However, this study considered the performance under a different perspective, to the investigate it as the number of pieces produced. Treat performance from the perspective of production quantity is important because this is a measure widely used to measure performance in assembly lines. In consequence of the established context, the objective of this research was to identify the cognitive, physiological and psychological characteristics that influence the performance of workers in terms of quantity of pieces produced in activity collage tennis on an assembly line. In this sense, was selected a set of cognitive, physiological and psychological characteristics a taxonomy called PIF's (Performance Influencing Factors), in which these three characteristics are used together to measure the performance of workers. Subsequently, was verified the interrelationship between the selected set and performance. The experiment was conducted in a shoes company in the State of Paraíba that has several assembly lines of shoes and evaluates the performance of its employees by the number of pieces per hour. As a result, was generated generalized linear models (GLM). Among the models that best explained this relationship was a MLG (the response variable) has an inverse normal distribution. This model has a pseudo-R2 equal to 0.81. Moreover, the human characteristics were considered significant: experience, age, gender, training, skill and pain.

This work aims to develop a model for assessing the implementation of lean production in supply chains. In order to reach this aim, an analysis of the relevant literature on lean production and lean supply chains was carried out and, based on this literature review, it was possible to identify attributes of lean supply chains that were used to build the conceptual framework and were classified as factors and sub-factors for the assessment model. The Graph Theoretic Approach (GTA) was used as a tool to model the evaluation elements of lean production supply chains, thus the evaluation considers the interrelations between the assessment factors and analyzes the interrelationships between companies that are part of the supply chain. Thus, it brings the required weights for the assessed system, considering that the companies of a supply chain and the assessment factors have mutual relations of influence. Initially, the model evaluates the implementation of the factors individually for each company, and then compose the overall assessment of the supply chain. The model was applied through four case studies from an automotive supply chain, conducted with structured and semi-structured interviews with managers from the logistics department of each company. As a result of the evaluation, it can be concluded that the studied supply chain has an moderate level of implementation of lean production. From the case studies, it was concluded that the proposed model is suitable for their intended purposes, establishing an overall assessment of the implementation of lean production in supply chains.

To reduce waste and increase the generation of value for customers, more and more construction companies have sought to apply the Lean Construction. However, there is no unanimous formalization of the implementation process and companies lack information about their real capacity to go through a lean transition. As stressed by the literature, one of the key factors for the success of any lean implementation is to assess the readiness of the organization. This paper assumes that this assessment should consider the technical, human and cultural dimensions and their interrelationships. Seeking ways to evaluate, an important tool based on graph theory and matrix algebra, identified in the literature as Graph Theoretic Approach (GTA), has been applied in different contexts, with desirable properties such as the ability to model interactions between criteria and generating hierarchical models for solving complex decision-making problems. Thus, this study aims to develop a readiness assessment method for implementation of Lean Construction using the GTA as a tool for its operationalization. As steps involved in building the method, it was carried out a literature review, in which it was possible to identify the readiness factors and sub-factors considered in the evaluation, and the parameterization of the model, through the establishment of inter-relations between the selected factors and sub-factors. The developed method was tested through the application in construction companies. As a result from the application, it was obtained the classification of two companies which showed insufficient and partial readiness levels. From the case studies, it was concluded that the proposed method is suitable for its purpose, meeting the criteria of feasibility, usability and utility. The method results allow to provide a diagnostic of the current situation of construction companies, which serves as a driver for change initiatives towards the Lean Construction.

Several researches highlight the importance of risk management in project management. Many authors propose traditional models with statistical and deterministic methods, though some risk project management issues are based on conceptual frameworks, expert opinion and human experience. This kind of problem makes difficult the use of classical models, but can be mathematically treated using fuzzy logic. In addition, historical data of projects can provide information about the organization's risk analysis experience and be modelled by a learning mechanism. The method used in this work is the Adaptive Neuro-fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), which is capable of aggregating the mathematical treatment capacity of conceptual models with a hybrid learning algorithm. Thus, the aim of this study is to model an ANFIS that is able to analyze the risks of projects. A set of projects was analyzed by means of a risk management checklist with factors arranged in a risk breakdown structure (RBS). Estimates were made using probability and impact matrix, and expert opinion. The risk of each project was defined as an integer between 1 and 10. To select the best model among 32 different ANFIS settings, 84% of the data were used in 10-fold cross-validation. The model with the best results in validation process was selected and tested with the remaining data. The results attained in the evaluation were: mean squared error (MSE) of 0.2207, mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.3084, coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.9733 and 80% of accuracy. These results indicate that the project risk management can be successfully performed by ANFIS. This enables the modeling of knowledge and human experience and can reduce costs of skilled labor and improve the speed of analysis.

The Hanbury Brown-Twiss experiment is very well established in quantum optics literature, so we devoted this dissertation in order to embed the parity and temporal reversal symmetry in the former experiment. Therefore, we developed the scattering matrix formalism which allow us use some techniques such as the scattering matrices' concatenation of di erent sections in terms of one matrix and the scattering problem of a parity and temporal reverse symmetric system. In this manner, we could derive the scattering matrix of a parity and temporal reverse symmetric Hanbury Brown- Twiss experiment(HBT-PT). With the possession of this matrix, we proposed a theoretical model which provides how to measure the symmetry of this system, which we called correlation functions formalism. In order to stablish the former formalism, we studied B uttiker formalism, which we veri ed how the correlation between 2 incident particles in a system relates to the noise due transport of this particles and what kind of noise we are treating in a given regime which the system is operating. Then, we found the input states in terms of the output states of two particles inciding in a multiterminal system, which we used it's scattering matrix to stablish the relation between the states. Thereat, we derived all the possibles correlations(therefore, the noise) of two incident particles in the former system. Thereby, we analysed the extreme cases of a barrier coupled to the HBT-PT experiment for the purpose of stablish which regime the experiment is symmetric adjusted, so, demonstrating the Hanbury Brown-Twiss E ect with parity and temporal reverse symmetries.

Introduction: Population aging brings with it the active presence of the elderly in the labor market, making it a challenge to provide a better quality of life (QOL) for this group. Thus, the present study aims to evaluate the QOL of working and not working elderly people; and to know their social representations on QOL. Method: An exploratory and descriptive study with 113 elderly of a social group in the city of Cajazeiras - PB. Data collection was carried out through interviews, using a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Free Association Test (FAT) and WHOQOL-BREF and WHOQOL-OLD. Sociodemographic data and the quality of life verification tests were processed using the SPSS version 2.0 and FAT by Iramuteq software version 0.6. Results: 44.2% of the 113 elderly work and 55.8% do not. In both groups the majority were women and 87.3% of those women do not work. In the group of older people working, 32% of seniors belong to the age group of 60-64 years old and 28.6% of the group that does not work are between 65-69 years old. The civil status married predominates in the working group (56%) and incomplete primary school education in both groups, with 48.0% of those who work and 61.8% of those not working. Regarding family income, 48.0% of seniors who work and 65.1% of those who do not work earn between one and three times the minimum wage. Among retirees, 72.0% remain working while 90.5% do not. Regarding the family arrangement, it was identified that 23.8% of the elderly who do not work live only with their spouse, and 30% of those working live with spouse and child. As for religion, 80.0% of those who work and 92.1% of those who do not work are Catholics. On the assessment of QoL, the elderly working had higher average scores in most areas of the WHOQOL-BREF and facets of WHOQOL-OLD, demonstrating the psychological domain (70.08) and Sensory Skills facet (72.50). Among the elderly who do not work the scores for QoL were detected in psychological domain (66.79) and facet Death and Dying (72.2). Considering the social representations about QoL built by the elderly, four classes emerged from textual analysis: Social Aspects, Economic Conditions, Positive Feelings and Participation in the group. About the relationship between work and QOL, it was detected significant differences among the representations of QOL in both groups: older people working, associate QOL to material goods, while those who do not work, see the quality of life associated with emotional issues, positive feelings and social interactions developed from living in groups. Conclusion: It was observed among older people working, higher scores in the fields and facets of instruments that analyze QOL, demonstrating that the work allows the elderly to maintain their physical, mental and sensory skills and social relationships. It was also felt that the social representations attributed to quality of life demonstrated its relationship to the variable job.

Commercial flame photometers require a dedicated gas system and have considerable mass and volume, i. e., they are not portable. This work, as such, proposes the development of a portable flame photometer (prototype) using a torch lighter as the atomizer and controller, with an internal gas supply system, and managed by an Android mobile device. The internal control of prototype and the signal processing were performed by an Arduino Uno single-board microcontroller. The Android application was developed in App Inventor, an open source integrated development environment created and maintained by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The nebulization was accomplished by ultrasonic cavitation in an adapted low power humidifier, which produces an aerosol sample which consists of very small radii droplets. The initiallyturbulent aerosol flow, needed to be damped before it reached the flame. Initial testswith calibration solutions of K+ resulted in a calibration curve validated using analysis of variance, the limits of detection and quantification were estimated. Optimizations still need to be made in the nebulization and aerosol transport system to improve theefficiency and to minimize inter-contamination of samples during the measurements.

In Brazil, ethanol fuel is marketed in the hydrated form (HEAF– Hydrated Ethyl Alcohol Fuel). The adulterations found in HEAF can generate fines, and possible risks to society. With this perspective, this work proposes developing new analytical methods based on the use of infrared spectroscopy (NIR and MIR), and Cyclic Voltammetry (copper electrode), and chemometric pattern recognition techniques, to identify HEAF adulterations (with water or methanol). A total of 184 HEAF samples collected from different gasoline stations were analyzed. These samples were divided in three classes: (1) unadulterated, (2) adulterated with water (0.5% to 10%mm-1), and (3) adulterated with methanol (2% to 13% mm-1). Principal Components Analysis (PCA) was applied, permitting verification of a tendency to form clusters for unadulterated and adulterated samples. Classification models based on Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), with variable selection algorithms: SPA (Successive Projections Algorithm), GA (Genetic Algorithm), and SW (Stepwise) were employed. PLS-DA (Discriminant Analysis by Partial Least Squares) was applied to the data. Assessing the MIR spectra, 100% correct classification was achieved for all models. For NIR data, SPA-LDA and LDA-SW achieved a correct classification rate (RCC) of 84.4%, and 97.8%, respectively, while PLS-DA and GALDA correctly classified all test samples. In the evaluation of voltammetric data, as SPA-LDA as PLS-DA achieved a 93% RCC, but the GA-LDA and SW-LDA models showed better results, correctly classifying all test samples. The results suggest that the proposed methods are promising alternatives for identifying HEAF samples adulterated with water or methanol both quickly and securely.

Passenger transport by bus has a public and notorious importance. A complex logistics chain that by integrating the urban fabric, affects the productivity of production systems due to their own productivity. In this segment, business and government are challenged to fund transport systems that can meet their needs and those of the society. Increased competitiveness, combined with political and social challenges strategically focuses the measures on maintenance costs, still few explored. Traditional ways of funding do not consider all the complexity around its accuracy. In the era of knowledge, the activities managed by projects are the most whose added value. The Activity Based Costs, as most accurate method, details the complexity of these costs. As management support maintenance costs, the exploratory research applies a model, specifically developed, integrating the GP and the ABC. In this sense it has been developed a chain of Generic Value in Public Transport, and a chain of Specific Maintenance value. Maintenance operations and support activities were mapped and grouped into macro activities (set of services / maintenance tasks). The search database, contained in materials services and requisition orders was collected via SQL (Structured Query Language) and documentary research, and validated by interviews. Evidence from a case study in two companies of João Pessoa / Brazil validate the model, presenting management indicators and details the actual maintenance costs throughout its value chain in three stages: cost of services, cost of vehicles and cost of operating lines. Thus, from the case study it can be said that the model, not being single, not definitive, It is effective in maintenance of public transport processes, the accuracy of the results. Even not allowing full generalizations, it is adhering to processes of transport maintenance to keep similar aspects. The application of modern costing methods such as ABC associated with the Project Management (GP), in fact it resulted in a management support maintenance costs in public passenger transport.

This paper describes the development of a method for quantification Cd2+, Pb2+ and Cu2+ cations, in teas, performed simultaneously, using Square Wave Anodic Stripping Voltammetry carbon nanotube paste electrode modified with bismuth film. Tea is one of the most beneficial and consumed beverage through the world, being prepared from the infusion parts of the plant Camellia sinensis. Most commonly this kind of tea presents metal ions, such as Cd 2+, Pb 2+ and Cu 2+, which offers health risk, in case of being ingested above the limit. To detect these metals, it is necessary to make use of techniques with high sensitivity. The spectrometric methods are the most widely used, but they have a high cost, are laborious and expensive. The voltammetric techniques are characterized by being inexpensive and having equal sensitivity, and even greater than some spectrometric methods. The parameters of the technique used were obtained after optimization with fractional factorial design. The tea samples were prepared through digestion with heating by microwave radiation in a closed system using diluted nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide. The method was validated based on the sample certified plant tissue (forage Marandu) and applied in green and black tea samples. Recoveries of cations Cd 2+, Pb 2+ and Cu 2+ ranged from 79.3 to 107.6%, the certified sample, and 73.3 to 122.1% in the evaluated samples of teas. The detection limits obtained in the simultaneous analysis of Cd 2+, Pb 2+ and Cu 2+ were 0.16; 0.20; 0.39 ug L-1, respectively. Cu2 + was detected only in samples of tea, but the method was efficient for the simultaneous quantification of all metals in the matrix assessed after the addition and recovery.

Recently there have arisen new compounds of Schiff base type synthesized from the condensation of Meldrum's acid (or its derivatives) with a diamine (ethylenediamine or o-phenylenediamine) providing compounds classified as melens or melophens, which are structural analogues to the classical salens and salophens. The melophens have been used as ligands to form metal complexes analogous to salophens aiming its application in biomimetic catalysis. Herein, we describe the voltammetric electrochemical characterization to four ligands (H2melen, H2Cy2melen, H2melophen and H2Cy2melophen) and two complexes (MnII(Cy2melofen) and NiII(melophen)) on aprotic medium (DMF) using glassy carbon electrode work, and Ag|Ag+ (0,1 mol·L-1 TBAP, 10 mmol AgNO3) as reference electrode. The H2melen and H2Cy2melen behaved similarly showing an irreversible one electron reduction process (1e-). The proposed mechanism for those compounds involves a step dimerization. The H2melophen and H2Cy2melophen demonstrated similar behavior showing two reductions and two irreversible oxidations, where one of the processes is adsorption of reactant and product. The MnII(Cy2melophen) complex showed a single quasi-reversible redox process centered on the metal MnIII/MnII, which involves the transfer of one electron. The NiII(melophen) presented four cases, being a quasi-reversible (1e-) and the others irreversible processes involving a total of 5 electrons. All potentials were corrected across the redox couple of ferrocene (Fc/Fc+), and the effect of addition of acids and bases in the medium is discussed.

The life course is marked by different events and social changes, such as retirement, marriage, birth of children, among others. As the aging period of life marked by many of them. The choice of social representations as a theoretical basis for this study due to the fact that this, enable the seizure of everyday knowledge emphasizing social cognitive dimensions on events and changes throughout life are important for health, socially contextualized in the eyes of employees from different groups age and, in the apprehension of meanings associated with «old» and «aged». Research has the objective of analyzing the changes and employees of health events in different age groups of seniors and identify the social representations of the «old» and «aged» in the various age groups. It is exploratory and cross-sectional surveys of repetition in a mixed approach, based on the theoretical framework of social representations. The data collection was carried out from two studies, using a semi-structured questionnaire consists of three parts: the first with issues and words of Free Association Test, with the inductors terms: «old» and «aged», considering social demographic variables. In the first study they were interviewed 632 employees and in the second study 200 participants. The collected data were processed with the help of Iramuteq software and interpreted subsidized in the theory of social representations and complemented by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0, quantitative, generating three items: 1) changes and events Lifelong : a comparative study among older age groups; 2) Health Events and Their Characteristics in Senior Life Route and 3) Social Representations of Aging and Old in different age groups. The events and changes throughout life in different age groups pointed out the family as the primary concern. For terms inductors: old and older were associated with negative images in different age groups, thus revealing, dimensions: social, biological, cultural and psychological negative front of the aging, responsible for different positions with unfavorable elderly. These results may help in policy making and natural health practices in the field of aging.

Introduction: Nurses from Primary Health Care (PHC) have faced difficulties to provide people with venous ulcer (VU) with care, due to poor knowledge on the theme. This research has emerged as an educational proposal for these professionals, based on the Theory of Meaningful Learning. Objective: Evaluate the effects of an educational intervention guided by the Theory of Meaningful Learning, as a strategy to change the theoretical and practical knowledge of nurses from PHC on care for a person with venous ulcer. Method: Quasi-experimental research, with a before-after design and a quanti-qualitative approach, carried out with 78 nurses who work in the Family Health centers (FHCs) in João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil. The inclusion criteria were: having within the area covered by the FHC a user with VU; having schedule availability to attend the course. The exclusion criteria were: missing the first or last day and having more than one absence during the educational intervention. The operational steps of the research were: (1) Preparation of the data collection instruments; (2) Validity and reliability of data collection instruments; (3) Diagnostic assessment; (4) Educational intervention; (5) Quantitative assessment; (6) Qualitative assessment. The educational intervention took place between April and June 2014, with a workload of 35 hours. Participants answered a self-assessment instrument and a questionnaire with items related to a person with VU, before and after the intervention. After six months, ten nurses were interviewed to constitute the qualitative analysis. In the analysis of quantitative data, we used the version 21.0 of the statistical package SPSS, with descriptive and inferential analyses and structural equations in the software AMOS Grafics, version 21.0. In the qualitative analysis, we used Bardin’s content analysis technique. The research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee, of the Health Sciences Center, under the Protocol 0708/13. Results: Most of the participants are women (95%), aged between 26 and 69 years, having an average education length of 18.6 years and an average of 12.7 years working with PHC. The self-assessment instrument proved to be reliable and it identified that the two-factor model is what best explains nursing care for a person with VU, understood through theory and practice. In self-assessment, there was an advance in scores between before and after that, on the assessment scale, came from average values close to no knowledge to mean scores closer to excellent, in almost all items. Besides, more than half of the participants hit the questions on VU assessment, prevention, and treatment, after the intervention, and there was a significant increase in the number of correct answers in relation to those stating “I do not know.” In qualitative analysis, the following categories emerged: Category I - Evaluating the training course; Category II - Barriers for applying the knowledge acquired; and Category III - Easy ways for applying content in daily work. Conclusion: The educational intervention for nurses from PHC, in the light of the Theory of Meaningful Learning, generated knowledge change regarding care for a person with VU. However, there is a need to keep the opportunity of Continued Health Education open for these professionals.

The aim of this study has been to explore Social Representations about care built by elderly women towards human aging. it is an exploring, descriptive, and transversal study with qualitative approach, guided through the Social Representation Theory, remarking the dimensions (information or knowledge, placing or attitude, and image or field of representation). the empirical material was originated from semi-structured interviews applied to 40 elderly women who participated in social groups, divided equitably into elderly graduated in the course of Education for Healthy Aging at the University Open to Maturity, linked to the Sate University of Paraiba - UEPB (Group 1), and elderly women taking part in the Elderly Familiarity Center, in the county of Campina Grande/PB (Group 2). the collect of data was made in the months from October to December, 2014, and strictly followed the assumptions of Resolution 466/2012 of the National Health Council, about researches involving human beings, having been approved by the Ethic Committee on Institutional Research, through note nº 612/10. The data were collected from semi-structured interviews turned to Social Representation about the study object, and were processed by the software of textual analysis IRAMUTEQ. the Descendant Hierarchical Classification (DHC) kept 84.45% from the extracts, meaning that the utilization was of 603 from the 714 present in the corpus, organized in five response classes of the elderly associated to care towards human aging, which were promptly nominated by the researcher and analyzed afterwards: Class 1: the care while aging; Class 2: Possibilities to learn along the aging; Class 3: affective relations of the care along the aging; Class 4: freedom to locomotion in aging, discovery of autonomy; Class 5: care as general attitude, set of practice along aging. The Social Representations of care highlighted in the five classes meant singularities in old age which led to a self care, thus taking a behavior to "take care of the care". In the classes 1 and 5 the care was worked from more factual aspects, folowing prevention actions and attitudes, noting physiological, preventive, and curative content, relating to the aging process itself, helping in the conservation of autonomy of the elderly and physical, psychological, and social welfare, featuring the dimension placing or attitude of social representations, whereas the other classes pointed to representations turned to more subjective aspects of the care, as observed in class 2, featuring dimension knowledge or information about the studied phenomenon, showing that the contribution of the social environment around the elderly person is essential for the practice of the care itself during this time of the life, in class 3 which brought affective relations surrounding social relations of the elderly, and class 4 which mentioned the freedom for locomotion as possibility of socialization, these classes featuring image dimension or representation fields. The groups shared Social Representations about the care leading to the same reality, the one which says that the care itself is essential for keeping welfare and satisfaction to enter and live the so called third age fully, that this care must be the way for life changing as well as adopting healthy practice, while there are important approaches between the two groups studied here, not having divergence about behaviors or practices set. The analysis allowed us to know the subjective dimensions about the care towards human aging, a behavior which is socially typical and shows meaningful changes in the lives of elderly women, mainly about new experiences and opportunities highlighted in the Social Representations learned.

The main objective of this study is to elucidate the cooperative effect caused by the formation of dimers of carboxylic acids, R-COOH, with R= -H, -CH3 e –OH, by the formation of two intermolecular hydrogen bonds. In order to complement the study of cooperative effect, changes in structural, electronic, vibrational and topological of the species involved due to the intermolecular interaction were analyzed. The quantum-computational methods employed were MP2 and DFT/B3LYP, both together with the base 6-311++G(d,p). The QTAIM and NBO methods were used to assess the topology of the electron density and the greatest contribution to the orbital intermolecular interaction, respectively. The results showed no significant differences between the two methods correlated, leading us to suggest the use of DFT / B3LYP method to study similar systems to the investigated here due to their lower computational requirements. The increment values in bond length of the proton donor group are enhanced in dimers R = -CH3 in both calculating levels. The values of intermolecular bond length in dimers R = -OH were the smallest observed in both MP2 and DFT / B3LYP methods. The carboxylic acids dimers with R = -CH3 were the most stabilized by the formation of hydrogen bonds. Regarded to the harmonic effect redshift stretching mode of proton donating groups to carboxylic acids, they were well pronounced and could be observed in all dimers. The new vibrational modes were also pronounced, emphasizing the stretch of the intermolecular bond method. From the studies employing QTAIM was possible to obtain the values of the electron density and the Laplacian of the electron density and evaluate these parameters at critical points in OH bond and intermolecular hydrogen bond, demonstrating the formation of hydrogen dimers. With studies employing the NBO method were evaluated pair of orbital occupancy variations not shared electrons of oxygen (proton donor) and the interaction energy of the orbital involved in intermolecular hydrogen bond.

In this work were developed and validated two analytical methodologies using solid phase extraction and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), for identification and quantification of endocrine disruptors in surface water. A methodology was used to analyze four estrogens: 17 β-estradiol, ethinyl estradiol, estrone and estriol, and the other methodology was used to analyze six phytoestrogens: biochanin A, genistin, genistein, daidzin, daidzein and formononetin. In the sample preparation step we developed an extraction method using solid phase extraction (SPE).The used cartridges were effective in the extraction for both estrogens and phytoestrogens using 1000 ml of river sample, and reached a pre-concentration factor of 2,857 times and recoveries above 90%. The proposed method uses fluorescence detector for estrogens, while the one for the phytoestrogens uses diode array detector. On methods validation were evaluated analytical performances for both methods. The selectivity shows that there was no presence of interfering peaks in both evaluated methods. The generated calibration curves presented good linearity and good correlation coefficients (above 0.99) for all studied analytes. The curves linearity was evaluated by an ANOVA and analysis of graphical residue which showed that the model shows no lack of fit. The limit of detection (LOD) and of quantification (LOQ) for estrogens and phytoestrogens determined in this study were similar to the observed values in other studies and therefore were considered appropriate for the evaluated matrix type. The accuracy of the methods was assessed by the repeatability and intermediate precision, which presented CV <13%. The accuracy was assessed using the recovery test, which was in the range of 72.9 -113%). In the evaluated stability, standard solutions of both methods were stable for a period of 30 days under refrigeration. The results showed that the proposed methods are reliable and have been validated successfully. After validated the methods were applied in the analysis of water samples from the Cuiá River, located in João Pessoa, Paraíba (Brazil), on different collection points, and three sampling campaigns. In all campaigns it was observed the presence of the four estrogens and phytoestrogens six in concentrations ranging from 1.40 to 4754 ng L-1 for estrogens and 3.58 to 2210 μg. L-1 to phytoestrogens in the aquatic studied system.

The presence of drug residues has been found in aquatic environments, such as; lakes and rivers and in most cases this type contaminant is found in sewers. This type of pharmaceutical waste may contain an antihypertensive drug class, and one of its main representatives is propranolol (PRO). As a result, this study aimed to apply the advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) as an alternative to removal of this drug in synthetic effluent (SE) and real (RE). This study employed in a photochemical reactor, homogeneous systems of type photolysis, UV/H2O2, Fenton, photo-Fenton, like that TiO2 and ZnO as methods based on heterogeneous catalysis. The parameters for optimization of these methods were evaluated with the assistance of full factorial design. The evaluation of the optimal methods was performed based on the values of the rate of degradation, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and the germination index (GI). The results of better rate degradation (98,3 and 88.6%), reduction of COD (47 and 29.4%) and germination rate (62,2 and 47.2%), were achieved employing a UVC lamp 60W in the method photo-Fenton with a H2O2 concentration of 6 mmol L-1 and a Fe2+ concentration of 0.2 mmol L-1 for the synthetic and real effluent.