Cost effectiveness

A critical step in designing effective conservation landscapes is the identification of relatively intact natural habitats. Satellite remote sensing has been effectively used to distinguish relatively intact and degraded forests at a number of scales. However, the utility of remote sensing data for rapid and cost-effective assessments of habitat intactness across large arid regions has not been adequately tested. To this end, we tested the ability of TM imagery to rapidly discriminate different levels of habitat degradation across large regions of the Chihuahuan Desert. We were able to identify relatively intact habitat in many cases. However, degraded habitat was often misidentified as relatively intact. The use of both mid- and late-season imagery provides some improvement by highlighting phenological differences among the intactness classes. Overall, low vegetation cover and inter- and intra-seasonal variability diminish the utility of TM imagery for large-scale conservation planning in the Chihuahuan Desert.

Trata-se de um estudo de caso único com o objetivo de refletir sobre o trabalho multiprofissional com grupo de diabéticos na implementação do Serviço de Medicina Preventiva-SEMPRE. A coleta de dados foi realizada através de consulta a documentação interna e de observação direta e participante realizada pelo pesquisador durante as atividades realizadas com adultos e crianças diabéticas. A reflexão ocorreu de acordo com a formação inicial de um grupo: encaminhamento, seleção e grupamento. Esta forma de trabalho permitiu maior eficiência e menor custo-efetividade nos programas educativos, sendo necessário o investimento na educação continuada da equipe multiprofissional. Para tanto, é preciso desencadear o processo de cooperação interna e a disponibilização do saber de cada elemento da equipe de saúde.

A hybrid in situ bioremediation/pulsed pumping strategy has been developed to cost effectively remediate a carbon tetrachloride plume in Schoolcraft, Michigan. The pulsed pumping system uses a line of alternating injection and extraction wells perpendicular to the direction of natural groundwater flow. The wells pump periodically to clean the recirculation zone between adjacent wells. During the pump-off phase, natural groundwater flow brings new contaminant into the recirculation zone. The wells are pumped again prior to breakthrough of contaminant from the recirculation zone.A computationally efficient reactor model has been developed, which conceptually divides the aquifer into injection, extraction, and recirculation zones, which are represented by a network of chemical reactors. Solute concentration histories from three-dimensional finite difference simulations and from field data confirm the reactor model predictions. The reactor model is used to investigate the optimal well c...

This paper discusses the design and implementation of frequency offset estimation algorithms for DOCSIS upstream channels. A cost-effective estimator which approaches the Cramer-Rao bound for high SNRs is derived. The effect of ISI generated by upstream micro-reflections in typical cable networks is considered, and a condition upon the transmitted preamble sequence which guarantees unbiased estimation is presented. It is shown

From 1995 to 1999, four experiments were conducted on greenhouse roses to assess the effectiveness of the nC24 petroleum spray oil (PSO), D-C-Tron Plus, against two-spotted mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acarina: Tetranychidae), and to determine how the oil could be most efficiently and effectively used in combination with the predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot (Acarina: Phytoseiidae) in an integrated pest management program. The results showed that 0.5% PSO applied fortnightly to roses gave excellent protection from T urticae infestation when the mite population was not already established. However, PSO applied after roses were infested with T. urticae above the economic threshold only stabilised populations without reducing them below that threshold. Populations of P. persimilis in the upper and lower canopies were unchanged after two sprays of PSO at 7-day intervals, and application of PSO to the upper canopy was as effective in controlling T. urticae in the p...