Energy Planning: Brazilian Potential of Generation of Electric Power from Urban Solid Wastes—Under “<i>Waste Production Liturgy</i>” Point of View

The use of Urban Solid Waste (USW) as sources of energy has acquired rising importance in current discussions of alternative energy supplies, in particular in Brazil. This paper brings to these discussions an examination of the concept of solid wastes, including their historic origins and formation, taking their social, economic and cultural characteristics into account, including point view of waste production liturgy. Consequently, a spendthrift society slanted towards the decreasing marginal utility of assets must make efficient use of its USW in order to reduce excessive output. Besides that, this document presents the Brazilian potential of urban solid waste to produce electric power.

Religion,Rationality,and Democracy:Is There Still a Place for Religion in the Public Sphere?

The article intends to point out affinities in the positions of Jürgen Habermas and Terry Eagleton on the relationship between religion and politics in contemporary world,demonstrating that the recognition of the limitations of human rationality leads both of them to criticize the Enlightenment pretension to suppress any religious viewpoints in the discussion of moral and political issues.It is argued that Habermas and Eagleton share the view that,outside the domain of private beliefs,there would be a horizon in which the aspirations towards the world could converge and a dialogue could be possible not only among religious cultures,but also between these and the secular thought.Such a dialogue could be a contribution to creating a democratic public space consisting of religious and non-religious individuals,since both sides are committed to having a self-critical attitude,an openness to learn with the other and an inclination towards reciprocal understanding.

Impact of Cascade Disconnection of Distributed Energy Resources on Bulk Power System Stability:Modeling and Mitigation Requirements

This work presents a new approach to establishing the minimum requirements for anti-islanding protection of distributed energy resources(DERs)with focus on bulk power system stability.The proposed approach aims to avoid cascade disconnection of DERs during major disturbances in the transmission network and to compromise as little as possible the detection of real islanding situations.The proposed approach concentrates on the rate-of-change of frequency(RoCoF)protection function and it is based on the assessment of dynamic security regions with the incorporation of a new and straightforward approach to represent the disconnection of DERs when analyzing the bulk power system stability.Initially,the impact of disconnection of DERs on the Brazilian Interconnected Power System(BIPS)stability is analyzed,highlighting the importance of modeling such disconnection in electromechanical stability studies,even considering low penetration levels of DERs.Then,the proposed approach is applied to the BIPS,evidencing its benefits when specifying the minimum requirements of anti-islanding protection,without overestimating them.

New approach for obtaining the C-factor of RUSLE considering the seasonal effect of rainfalls on vegetation cover

We present a new approach for calculating the C-factor of RUSLE considering the effect of low-reflectance vegetation cover areas on the reduction of the effects on erosion caused by rainfall seasonality.For this,we propose the coefficients Cr2(rescaled 2)and C-PC(Precipitation Correction),which represent the Cfactor,and an adaptation in NDVI calculation,according to the seasonality of precipitation(NDVI-PC).The Cr2 factor is used when there is no seasonal effect of rainfall on vegetation,while the C-PC factor is calculated for localities under the influence of seasonality,from NDVI-PC.The proposed approaches were tested using different satellites images in the Palmares-Ribeir~ao do Saco watershed,Rio de Janeiro,Brazil.The values of Cr2 and C-PC factors were compared to the Cr factor(rescaled)and to mean values from the literature for different land covers.Our results indicated that the Cr2 factor represents an improvement in accuracy in relation to Cr by considering specific values of the studied area to normalize the data without generalizations.Furthermore,the C-PC factor is able to simulate the effect of seasonality,providing more realistics values of soil loss by the RUSLE as a function of the proportion of area affected by the rainfall seasonality obtained from NDVI-PC.We conclude that both Cr2 and C-PC factors generate values similar of the C-factor observed in the literature,and therefore are able to provide better soil loss estimation than that using the Cr factor.

Phasor-domain Dynamic Model of Asymmetric Current Injection Controller for Converter-interfaced Generator

This paper presents a controller model of asymmetric current injection for converter-interfaced generators suitable for root-mean-square(RMS)phasor-domain,fundamentalfrequency,three-phase,and dynamic simulation tools.The effectiveness of the proposed controller is assessed with simulations in test systems with high percentage of converter-interfaced generation.The simulations focus on the operation of protection relays that use negative-sequence quantities in their directional elements.This paper also presents and compares two strategies to limit reactive negative-sequence currents,and active and reactive positive-sequence currents.A tutorial test system and a regional system part of the actual Brazilian Interconnected Power System are used to assess the correctness of the proposed controller in three-phase fundamental-frequency RMS dynamic simulations.

Max Weber on Religious Ethics and Life Conduct

The purpose of this paper is not to provide an overview of the contributions of Weber＇s sociology of religion, but to discuss an issue that guides his comparative studies of religions, which is to say the influence of religious beliefs on the life conduct. The principal aim is to highlight how the images of the world produced by world religions are responsible, in part, by the variability of economical conducts. In this sense, the paper discusses the explanation of Weber to the fact the capitalist system has been a singularity of the West, although in other civilizations, there has been some of the necessary conditions for its development. In the conclusion, it is said that the emphasis on the practical effects of religious beliefs, as well as the recognition of religion as a form of rationalization of the world, are the central dimensions of Weber＇s thought about religious phenomena.

Electrocortical Activity Differences Related to Saccadic Movements between Bipolar Patients and Healthy Subjects

Objective: The present study aimed to investigate and to compare the electrophysiological changes in bipolar patients and healthy subjects during the execution of a saccade task. Materials and Methods: The subjects had to respond to a fixed visual stimulus presented by a LEDs bar. We executed an ANOVA (one-way) and post hoc Scheffé test to examine the difference of absolute alpha power and reaction time among four groups: control, depression, manic and euthymic. We observed the frontal, parietal and occipital regions. The paired t test was realized on each electrode and group to compare the pre and post moment in the task. Results: We observed a statistical difference among the groups for the behavioral variable—saccade reaction time. For the electrophysiological variable—absolute alpha power, we did not find significant difference between the moments (pre and post stimulus presentation) for none of the electrodes of each bipolar group. However, the results pointed out to a difference between the moments for F3, P3, O1 and O2 electrodes for control group. Conclusion: We cannot affirm that the task influences the cortical activity of the patients. It is possible that the method used to analyze the data is not the adequate. The time-frequency analysis could be better to analyze the present data. We also observed that the absolute alpha power could be considered a marker of bipolar disorder, but not of the different states (i.e., mania, depression, euthymia).

Operation Strategies for Coordinating Battery Energy Storage with Wind Power Generation and Their Effects on System Reliability

The variability of wind power generation requires the allocation of a flexible energy reserve which is capable of compensating for possible imbalances between the load and generation. To reduce the variability of wind power generation and loss of load in generation deficit, we propose operation strategies for coordinating battery energy storage with wind power generation. The effects of the operation strategies on system reliability are evaluated by the developed computation model that represents the main aspects and operation limitations of the batteries. The performance evaluation of the power system is based on the composite reliability indices of loss of load probability(LOLP) and expected energy not supplied(EENS), which is calculated through sequential Monte Carlo simulation. Tests are performed by the developed model with a tutorial system consisting of five busbars and the IEEE RTS system. The results show that the use of large-scale batteries is an alternative to physically guarantee the wind power plants and to act as an operation reserve to reduce the risk of loss of load.