Uma implementação da análise de componentes independentes em plataforma de hardware reconfigurável

Blind Source Separation (BSS) refers to the problem of estimate original signals from observed linear mixtures with no knowledge about the sources or the mixing process. Independent Component Analysis (ICA) is a technique mainly applied to BSS problem and from the algorithms that implement this technique, FastICA is a high performance iterative algorithm of low computacional cost that uses nongaussianity measures based on high order statistics to estimate the original sources. The great number of applications where ICA has been found useful reects the need of the implementation of this technique in hardware and the natural paralelism of FastICA favors the implementation of this algorithm on digital hardware. This work proposes the implementation of FastICA on a reconfigurable hardware platform for the viability of it's use in blind source separation problems, more specifically in a hardware prototype embedded in a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) board for the monitoring of beds in hospital environments. The implementations will be carried out by Simulink models and it's synthesizing will be done through the DSP Builder software from Altera Corporation.

Planejamento dos recursos hídricos da bacia hidrográfica do rio Seridó, no Rio Grande do Norte

The present research has the purpose of planning the management of the water resources of the Seridó River watershed, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. It has an emphasis on the amount of surface water available in this region, to provide a sustainable water supply. Based on data and information collected from public departments responsible for the management of the water resources of the Rio Grande do Norte state, well as on researches related to water resources , a watershed balance was done, and the results suggested the transposition of the waters from the Piranhas-Açu river watershed taken from the Oiticica and Armando Ribeiro Gonçalves reservoirs, integrated with the construction of 2 hidroelectrical plants and 2 elevation stations, to pump the amount of water needed to the expected demand in some public dams of the region until 2020. So, with the use of the surface water potential that exists in the region, it was demonstrated that, on the contrary of the public policies implemented in the past and in the current by the federal and state realm, it is possible to supply the currently water demands and also the future ones, in a sustainable way, without the need of importing outter water to the respective watershed. Finally, it was proposed the implementation of the Water Resources Plan in the Seridó region WRPS, aiming at providing an auto-sustainable development by significantly diminishing the effects of the dry seasons in that region, by considering the economic, social and environmental sustainability

Influência do método pilates na força e atividade elétrica dos músculos respiratórios de idosas - ensaio clínico controlado randomizado

The reduction of physiological capacity present in the process of aging causes a marked decline in lung function. The exercise does promote several positive changes in the physical health of people and protect the cardiorespiratory function. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a program of Pilates exercices on the strengh and electrical activity of respiratory muscles of elderly. This is a randomized, controlled clinical trial, evaluating 33 elderly aged 65 and 80 (70.88 ± 4.32), healthy, sedentary, without cognitive impairment and able the practice physical activity. The sample was divided into two groups, one experimental group with 16 elderly women who did Pilates exercises and a control group (17) that was not submitted to the exercises, but received educational booklets on aging and health care. The elderly were evaluated initially and after a period of three months, taking into account the Maximal Inspiratory Pressure (MIP) and Maximal Expiratory Pressure (MEP), obtained by Manovacuometry and intensity of EMG activity was measured using the values of Root Mean Square (RMS) for the diaphragm and rectus abdominis muscles, during the course of diaphragmatic breathing and MIP maneuver. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 17.0. For all tests, we used a significance level or p value < 0.05 and confidence interval 95%. RMS in diaphragm and rectus abdominis muscles in both tests increased, but the data were significant for the rectus abdominis during diaphragmatic breathing (p = 0.03) and the diaphragm during the MIP maneuver (p = 0.01). There was no significant variation of the MIP and MEP. Pilates exercises were responsible for increasing the electrical activation of the diaphragm and rectus abdominis muscles in a group of healthy elderly, but had no influence on changes in strength of respiratory muscles

Comércio internacional e meio ambiente: estímulo à produção sustentável ou mero protecionismo comercial a posição do Brasil em dois casos de litígio

The World Trade Organization (WTO) was established in 1994 as a result of the Uruguay Round, and has as its principal aim advocate for the maintenance of free trade between nations. The preamble of its Constitutive Agreement specifically cites as an institution the goal of achieving sustainable development and the pursuit of protecting and preserving the environment, bringing into the sphere of world trade the idea that concern for the environmental cause is not restricted only the group of environmentalists, but rather has entered the economic landscape in a way not only ideological, but also pragmatic. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1947, part of the GATT 1994, contains a device that allows the adoption of trade restrictive measures, provided that such measures aimed at protecting the environment - Article XX. The Settlement Body (DSB) is part of the WTO and acts in dissolving disputes between the countries motivated by trade. It examines two cases where countries have imposed restrictive trade measures with environmental justification. The first case was closed in 1996, with award of damages given to Brazil, on the breakdown of U.S. environmental legislation imposed on imported gasoline from Brazil - and the second, begun in 2005 and closed in 2007, coming out victorious again Brazil is on the import ban on retreaded tires to Brazil. The objective is to answer the question: how the environment is treated in the midst of trade discussions - which is aimed at its protection or its use with economic objectives in disguise? For the preparation of this work, extensive documentary research was undertaken with the virtual site of the WTO to review the entire production of legal cases and subsequent analysis of the key issue for the work, and literature of authors who have studied the tense relationship between trade international environment. The first case, it could be seen that the political movement performed by the U.S. with the aim of achieving acceptable standards of air quality was an institutional effort to ensure the quality of air, and thus would be inappropriate to say that the regulation of gasoline was merely a disguised trade barrier.However, a careful analysis of the implementation and operation of gasoline regulation may reveal intentions disguised trade and U.S. environmental argument did not hold. The weight of this environment was relegated, since there were clearly outside interests to the environmental cause. The second case, it was realized that, despite clear attempts by the EC to promote ecological dumping, send when brought to Brazil, supposedly a country with weaker environmental structure on surveillance, a residue that, pursuant to internal policies, as could not be sent to their own landfills, the Brazilian discourse remained focused on the environmental cause, and this sort there was the existence of disguised trade barriers, but of importance, at least a priori, the discussion of foreign forces on the environment environment because there is no way to legally justify the reversal of the total understanding of the first judging body, the sight of all the arguments presented by Brazil and the nonsubmission of new facts upon appeal. Still, quite heartening to reflect on the role of trade liberalization on the environment in general, because, while they do not reach a definitive conclusion will reveal positions in both directions, both for and against, the that only adds to the discussions and makes this a very fertile topic for future research

Os condomínios horizontais fechados e as transformações socioespaciais na cidade de Natal/RN/

The process of urbanization of Natal city has been going in the last years by importants changes, mainly, because we can observe the development of a new kind of housing: the horizontal closed condominiums, from 1995 began to expand quickly on the city. In this way, the present study has as objective analyse the expansion of the horizontal closed condominiums on the urban area of Natal. Emphasizing the sociogeographic changes that these ventures engender. For this, we have done a research that was based on quantitative procedures, however, preferring a qualitative approach. So, data were gathered from sources and procedures: the first, we performed a literature search and document on issues related to the relevant issues in libraries, public and privates institutions; The second, in accordance with the procedures, or the production of informations, performed enterview and implemetation of questionnaires with key stakeholders involved with the expansion of horizontal condominiums in Natal. Within this perspective, our research showed that the expansion of demand in the city, the existence of volume of land in areas suitable for the production building, the formation of capital property, the appearance of new points of modern consumption, the actions of the state and the low cost of production of these enterprises, are factors that have been decisive in the expansion of the horizontal condominiums in Natal. Also, we can observe that the process of production of the urban space from the horizontal condominiums comes in providing the redefinition of land use in areas that appear, because they expand into outlying areas of Natal, changes in its structure and its pattern of socio segregation, observing that the condominiums put the diferents social groups living side by side, but not mantaining relationships among them, the emergence of spaces to homogenization, the fragmentation of the urbanization, the privatization of the city and several environmental problems. In short, we believe that the horizontal expansion of condominiums is enabling a number of social changes to Natal city

Sustentabilidade do cultivo de melão no assentamento São Romão em Mossoró/RN

Agriculture is one of the most discussed topics currently in the conceptual field of sustainability. The debates are increasingly recurrent and put in question the model adopted from post-war, so-called green revolution, for its potential of degradation of natural resources. This type of Agriculture put Brazil at the top of the global agribusiness, where stands out in various sectors such as grain, meat, sugar and horticulture. Discussions are focused on aspects related to the use of agrochemicals, monoculture, conversion of native forest in extensive agricultural areas, among other points taken as deleterious to environmental balance. On the other hand, there is a model, called by family farming, which for many researchers, has attributes closer to the understanding of sustainable agriculture. In the state of Rio Grande do Norte, the agricultural potential lies mainly on horticulture, where stands the agropolo AcuMossoró, as one of the greatest tropical fruit producing regions of Brazil, being melon, the major fruit produced. The cultivation of this vegetable was developed in the region in the late 1980s, from the investment of large agricultural enterprises, whose cultivation techniques were grounded by the green revolution. Currently, the melon cultivation is also developed in agroecosystems whose management is characterized by family participation, including small farmers of rural settlements created by Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária (INCRA). In view of the inclusion of family farming in a field that recently was dominated by large agribusiness companies, some questions arise about the maintenance of attributes that characterise this type of family agriculture management. This research aimed to assess the sustainability of family agroecosystems in São Romão settlement in Mossoró-RN, cultivated with melon. The study was conducted by the Framework for Evaluation of Natural Resources Management Systems Incorporating Sustainability Indicators (MESMIS), in ten agroecosystems of the mentioned settlement. The data were obtained from semi-structured interviews and field observations, so that the answers, considerations and comments made by settlers, were widely used to cycle through the six steps of the MESMIS evaluation. As a result of the work, were determined seven critical points affecting sustainability, being: water resources, soils, reliance on external inputs, biodiversity, quality of life, family income and community organizing, from which was derived twenty-three indicators that sought to reflect the actual state of sustainability of the agroecosystems

Repercuss��o da integração de conteúdos das disciplinas nos trabalhos finais de graduação de CAU-UFRN (2003 a 2010)

The changes in the teaching of Architecture in Brazilian Universities, from the 1990s onwards, with the upgrading of the Architecture project as an object of research and scientific knowledge and more specifically, the adoption by the Architecture and Urbanism Course (CAU) from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) of the principle of content integration of the disciplines, aroused the interest in research on issues related to the Design process and the teaching of design in this context. After 20 years of its implementation and recognized as being a major step forward in teaching the teaching/learning process, the integration is the central focus of this research, which will seek to identify changes in the teaching design and its refutation in projects developed by students at the end of their course. In general, it is understood that the need to integrate knowledge from diverse areas of Architect’s professional activity, who seeks through an exercise of summary, identify solutions to the issues involved in a project. On the assumption that the integration of content of disciplines fosters the teaching/learning of Architecture project, which can be evident in the Final Course Assignment (FCA), it becomes necessary to understand, in the light of theories of education, such as the principles of curriculum organization, such as interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and transversality are related to the term integration, is more understood and disseminated among the professors of the Architecture courses. The object of this study is consequently the relationship between the integration of subject content and Architecture projects developed by students from CAU-UFRN, in the context of Final Graduation projects (FCAs) completed in the period of duration of the Teaching Project A5-from 2003. The study has the main objective of investigating to what extent the integration of disciplinary content affects the development of the Final Assignment of UFRN, from the analysis of drawings and texts of the projects of the learners and the testimonies of teachers and undergraduate students. From a methodological point of view, the research “Architecture, Project and Knowledge Production: Academic Production – FCAs, Thesis and dissertations in PA/Brazil” carried out by the PROJETAR/UFRN team has been adopted as the basis for the construction of the analytical instruments. In order to identify aspects of their experience by various actors which were not recorded in FCA, electronic forms were applied between teachers and students, through the internet. The integration of subject content based Teaching Project of CAU-UFRN institutionalises the interdisciplinarity, organizing the curriculum by thematic semesters, in which the disciplines work the same focus and at the same site. The integrated work which derives from there tries to articulate the content of each discipline of the period and represents a general practice and has been evaluated by teachers and students, and considered as a facilitator of the teaching/learning process. The analysis of the data collected from the textual content and graphic of the sample of FCAs of CAU-UFRN suggests that the content of the various areas of knowledge are assimilated by the student and used as a resource for the design and development of Architecture projects. In other words, there is in the end product of the students record of the integration of content, whether in speech or in drawing, reaffirming the importance of the convergence of various knowledge in the Architectonic project. However, the integration of content from the point of view of their articulation and operationalization, which involves teachers and students in the same period, has as a condition sine qua non for the success of this educational principle, the provision of these to work as part of a team, for the dialogic practice, which creates areas of intersection not only between disciplines, but between the knowledge of each of the participants.

A forma no edifício residencial vertical em Natal : 1969 a 2000 :

This essay focuses on issues related to internal problems of the architecture discipline, specially those related to the aesthetics of the buildings. The universe analyzed in this research is constituted of some of the vertical housing built in Natal from the period of 1969 to 2000. As we could observe there are many different aspects in these apartment buildings external appearance, denoting increasing preoccupations in their formal elaboration in the battlefield for diversity against monotony of the simple prismatic volumetric forms.

Estudo da molhabilidade de tecidos 100% poliéster tratados em plasma N2/O2 em função do seu envelhecimento natural

This work reports the influence of the poly (ethylene terephthalate) textile surface modification by plasmas of O2 and mixtures (N2 + O2), on their physical and chemical properties. The treatment was carried out in a vacuum chamber. Some parameters remained constant during all treatment, such as: Voltage 470 V; Pressure 1,250 Mbar; Current: 0, 10 A and gas flow: 10 cm3/min. Other parameters, such as working gas composition and treatment time, were modified as the following: to the O2 plasma modified samples only the treatment time was changed (10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 minutes). To the plasma with O2 and N2 only the chemical concentrations were changed. Through Capillary tests (vertical) an increase in textile wettability was observed as well as its influence on aging time and its consequence on wettability. The surface functional groups created after plasma treatments were investigated using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The surface topography was examined by scanning electron microscope (SEM)