Logic Programming and Artificial Neural Networks in Pharmacological Screening of Schinus Essential Oils

Some plants of genus Schinus have been used in the folk medicine as topical antiseptic, digestive, purgative, diuretic, analgesic or antidepressant, and also for respiratory and urinary infections. Chemical composition of essential oils of S. molle and S. terebinthifolius had been evaluated and presented high variability according with the part of the plant studied and with the geographic and climatic regions. The pharmacological properties, namely antimicrobial, anti-tumoural and anti-inflammatory activities are conditioned by chemical composition of essential oils. Taking into account the difficulty to infer the pharmacological properties of Schinus essential oils without hard experimental approach, this work will focus on the development of a decision support system, in terms of its knowledge representation and reasoning procedures, under a formal framework based on Logic Programming, complemented with an approach to computing centered on Artificial Neural Networks and the respective Degree-of-Confidence that one has on such an occurrence.

A controversial debate between financial speculation and changes in agricultural commodity spot prices

Some research works state that speculation with agricultural commodities on the futures market has risen agricultural commodity spot prices. This research work analyzes the causal relationships between spot prices of corn, wheat, and soybean and agricultural commodity futures trading activities. These causal relationships between agricultural commodity spot prices and financial variables are tested for Granger-causality. Model results show that causal relationships have been found among changes in “volume traded” and “open positions” of futures contracts and changes in spot prices for corn. These results do not show that financial speculation might be a major driver of rising agricultural commodity prices.

Design and Technology: A Historical Perspective on the Mediating Role of Technology Between Industrial Design and Engineering

The interdisciplinary relationship between industrial design and mechanical engineering is sensitive. This research focuses on understanding how one can positively mediate this relation, in order to foster innovation. In this paper, technology is considered for this role since it has, in some historical moments, served as an integrator of these two disciplines, in processes that led to innovation. By means of an extensive literature review, covering three different periods of technological development, both disciplines’ positioning in society and their link with technology are analyzed and compared. The three case studies selected help to illustrate, precisely, the technology positioning between both disciplines and society. Literature assumes that industrial design is rooted in the rise of criticism against both the machine and the mechanized production. This is an opposing approach to the current paradigm, in which design plays a fundamental role in adapting technology to society. Also, the social problems caused by the mechanized and massive production triggered the mechanical engineering emergence, as a professionalized discipline. Technology was intrinsically connected with both industrial design and mechanical engineering emergence and subsequent evolution. In the technology conflict with society lays the reform and regulation for design practice, in its broadest sense.