Comparação entre coronariografia efectuada via artéria radial e via artéria femoral

Mestrado em Tecnologia de Diagnóstico e Intervenção Cardiovascular. Área de especialização: Intervenção Cardiovascular.

Capillary bridging and long-range attractive forces in a mean-field approach

When a mixture is confined, one of the phases can condense out. This condensate, which is otherwise metastable in the bulk, is stabilized by the presence of surfaces. In a sphere-plane geometry, routinely used in atomic force microscope and surface force apparatus, it, can form a bridge connecting the surfaces. The pressure drop in the bridge gives rise to additional long-range attractive forces between them. By minimizing the free energy of a binary mixture we obtain the force-distance curves as well as the structural phase diagram of the configuration with the bridge. Numerical results predict a discontinuous transition between the states with and without the bridge and linear force-distance curves with hysteresis. We also show that similar phenomenon can be observed in a number of different systems, e.g., liquid crystals and polymer mixtures. (C). 2004 American Institute of Physics.

Node adaptation for global collocation with radial basis functions using direct multisearch for multiobjective optimization

Meshless methods are used for their capability of producing excellent solutions without requiring a mesh, avoiding mesh related problems encountered in other numerical methods, such as finite elements. However, node placement is still an open question, specially in strong form collocation meshless methods. The number of used nodes can have a big influence on matrix size and therefore produce ill-conditioned matrices. In order to optimize node position and number, a direct multisearch technique for multiobjective optimization is used to optimize node distribution in the global collocation method using radial basis functions. The optimization method is applied to the bending of isotropic simply supported plates. Using as a starting condition a uniformly distributed grid, results show that the method is capable of reducing the number of nodes in the grid without compromising the accuracy of the solution. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Positive radial solutions of the Dirichlet problem for the Minkowski-Curvature equation in a ball

We study the existence and multiplicity of positive radial solutions of the Dirichlet problem for the Minkowski-curvature equation { -div(del upsilon/root 1-vertical bar del upsilon vertical bar(2)) in B-R, upsilon=0 on partial derivative B-R,B- where B-R is a ball in R-N (N >= 2). According to the behaviour off = f (r, s) near s = 0, we prove the existence of either one, two or three positive solutions. All results are obtained by reduction to an equivalent non-singular one-dimensional problem, to which variational methods can be applied in a standard way.

Implementação e validação do método de determinação de metais e fósforo por ICP-OES (inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectometry) em biodiesel

O objectivo do presente trabalho foi desenvolver, implementar e validar métodos de determinação de teor de cálcio (Ca), magnésio (Mg), sódio (Na), potássio (K) e fósforo (P) em biodiesel, por ICP-OES. Este método permitiu efectuar o controlo de qualidade do biodiesel, com a vantagem de proporcionar uma análise multi-elementar, reflectindo-se numa diminuição do tempo de análise. Uma vez que o biodiesel é uma das principais fontes de energia renovável e alternativa ao diesel convencional, este tipo de análises revela-se extremamente útil para a sua caracterização. De acordo com a análise quantitativa e qualitativa e após a validação dos respectivos ensaios, apresentam-se, na Tabela 1 as condições optimizadas para cada elemento em estudo. As condições de trabalho do ICP-OES foram escolhidas tendo em conta as características do elemento em estudo, o tipo de equipamento utilizado para a sua análise, e de modo a obter a melhor razão sinal/intensidade de fundo. Para a validação dos ensaios foram efectuados ensaios de recuperação, determinados limites de detecção e quantificação, ensaios de repetibilidade e reprodutibilidade, e verificação das curvas de calibração. Na tabela 2 apresentam-se os comprimentos de onda escolhidos (livres de interferências) e respectivos limites de detecção e quantificação dos elementos analisados por ICP-OES, na posição radial e radial atenuado.

Impacto da infecção do Vírus da Imunodeficiência Humana na deformação miocárdica: projecto de investigação

Mestrado em Tecnologia de Diagnóstico e Intervenção Cardiovascular. Área de especialização: Ultrassonografia Cardiovascular.

Effective isotropic potential for dipolar hard spheres

A new effective isotropic potential is proposed for the dipolar hard-sphere fluid, on the basis of recent results by others for its angle-averaged radial distribution function. The new effective potential is shown to exhibit oscillations even for moderately high densities and moderately strong dipole moments, which are absent from earlier effective isotropic potentials. The validity and significance of this result are briefly discussed.

Chronic liver disease staging classification based on ultrasound, clinical and laboratorial data

In this work the identification and diagnosis of various stages of chronic liver disease is addressed. The classification results of a support vector machine, a decision tree and a k-nearest neighbor classifier are compared. Ultrasound image intensity and textural features are jointly used with clinical and laboratorial data in the staging process. The classifiers training is performed by using a population of 97 patients at six different stages of chronic liver disease and a leave-one-out cross-validation strategy. The best results are obtained using the support vector machine with a radial-basis kernel, with 73.20% of overall accuracy. The good performance of the method is a promising indicator that it can be used, in a non invasive way, to provide reliable information about the chronic liver disease staging.

Modelo de data mining para deteção de embolias pulmonares

Trabalho de Projeto para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática e de Computadores

Optimization of structures modeled with a Meshfree approach

Radial basis functions are being used in different scientific areas in order to reproduce the geometrical modeling of an object/structure, as well as to predict its behavior. Due to its characteristics, these functions are well suited for meshfree modeling of physical quantities, which for instances can be associated to the data sets of 3D laser scanning point clouds. In the present work the geometry of a structure is modeled by using multiquadric radial basis functions, and its configuration is further optimized in order to obtain better performances concerning to its static and dynamic behavior. For this purpose the authors consider the particle swarm optimization technique. A set of case studies is presented to illustrate the adequacy of the meshfree model used, as well as its link to particle swarm optimization technique. © 2014 IEEE.

Tris(2-Ethylhexyl) trimellitate (TOTM) a potential reference fluid for high viscosity. Part I: viscosity measurements at temperatures from (303 to 373)K and pressures up to 65MPa, using a novel vibrating-wire instrument

No literature data above atmospheric pressure could be found for the viscosity of TOTIVI. As a consequence, the present viscosity results could only be compared upon extrapolation of the vibrating wire data to 0.1 MPa. Independent viscosity measurements were performed, at atmospheric pressure, using an Ubbelohde capillary in order to compare with the vibrating wire results, extrapolated by means of the above mentioned correlation. The two data sets agree within +/- 1%, which is commensurate with the mutual uncertainty of the experimental methods. Comparisons of the literature data obtained at atmospheric pressure with the present extrapolated vibrating-wire viscosity measurements have shown an agreement within +/- 2% for temperatures up to 339 K and within +/- 3.3% for temperatures up to 368 K. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Otimização de placas compósitas laminadas utilizando redes neuronais e enxames de partículas

Trabalho Final de mestrado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em engenharia Mecância

Multiobjective optimization for node adaptation in the analysis of composite plates using a meshless collocation method

The bending of simply supported composite plates is analyzed using a direct collocation meshless numerical method. In order to optimize node distribution the Direct MultiSearch (DMS) for multi-objective optimization method is applied. In addition, the method optimizes the shape parameter in radial basis functions. The optimization algorithm was able to find good solutions for a large variety of nodes distribution.

Viscosity measurements of compressed liquid dipropyl and dibutyl adipates

The paper reports viscosity measurements of compressed liquid dipropyl (DPA) and dibutyl (DBA) adipates obtained with two vibrating wire sensors developed in our group. The vibrating wire instruments were operated in the forced oscillation, or steady-state mode. The viscosity measurements of DPA were carried out in a range of pressures up to 18. MPa and temperatures from (303 to 333). K, and DBA up to 65. MPa and temperature from (303 to 373). K, covering a total range of viscosities from (1.3 to 8.3). mPa. s. The required density data of the liquid samples were obtained in our laboratory using an Anton Paar vibrating tube densimeter and were reported in a previous paper. The viscosity results were correlated with density, using a modified hard-spheres scheme. The root mean square deviation of the data from the correlation is less than (0.21 and 0.32)% and the maximum absolute relative deviations are within (0.43 and 0.81)%, for DPA and DBA respectively. No data for the viscosity of both adipates could be found in the literature. Independent viscosity measurements were also performed, at atmospheric pressure, using an Ubbelohde capillary in order to compare with the vibrating wire results. The expanded uncertainty of these results is estimated as ±1.5% at a 95% confidence level. The two data sets agree within the uncertainty of both methods. © 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Influence of the crushing process of recycled aggregates on concrete properties

This work intends to evaluate the (mechanical and durability) performance of concrete made with coarse recycled concrete aggregates (CRCA) obtained using two crushing processes: primary crushing (PC) and primary plus secondary crushing (PSC). This analysis intends to select the most efficient production process of recycled aggregates (RA). The RA used here resulted from precast products (P), with strength classes of 20 MPa, 45 MPa and 65 MPa, and from laboratory-made concrete (L) with the same compressive strengths. The evaluation of concrete was made with the following tests: compressive strength; splitting tensile strength; modulus of elasticity; carbona-tion resistance; chloride penetration resistance; capillary water absorption; and water absorption by immersion. These findings contribute to a solid and innovative basis that allows the precasting industry to use without restrictions the waste it generates. © (2015) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.