Aplicação de técnicas de aprendizado de máquina no reconhecimento de classes estruturais de proteínas

Nowadays, classifying proteins in structural classes, which concerns the inference of patterns in their 3D conformation, is one of the most important open problems in Molecular Biology. The main reason for this is that the function of a protein is intrinsically related to its spatial conformation. However, such conformations are very difficult to be obtained experimentally in laboratory. Thus, this problem has drawn the attention of many researchers in Bioinformatics. Considering the great difference between the number of protein sequences already known and the number of three-dimensional structures determined experimentally, the demand of automated techniques for structural classification of proteins is very high. In this context, computational tools, especially Machine Learning (ML) techniques, have become essential to deal with this problem. In this work, ML techniques are used in the recognition of protein structural classes: Decision Trees, k-Nearest Neighbor, Naive Bayes, Support Vector Machine and Neural Networks. These methods have been chosen because they represent different paradigms of learning and have been widely used in the Bioinfornmatics literature. Aiming to obtain an improvment in the performance of these techniques (individual classifiers), homogeneous (Bagging and Boosting) and heterogeneous (Voting, Stacking and StackingC) multiclassification systems are used. Moreover, since the protein database used in this work presents the problem of imbalanced classes, artificial techniques for class balance (Undersampling Random, Tomek Links, CNN, NCL and OSS) are used to minimize such a problem. In order to evaluate the ML methods, a cross-validation procedure is applied, where the accuracy of the classifiers is measured using the mean of classification error rate, on independent test sets. These means are compared, two by two, by the hypothesis test aiming to evaluate if there is, statistically, a significant difference between them. With respect to the results obtained with the individual classifiers, Support Vector Machine presented the best accuracy. In terms of the multi-classification systems (homogeneous and heterogeneous), they showed, in general, a superior or similar performance when compared to the one achieved by the individual classifiers used - especially Boosting with Decision Tree and the StackingC with Linear Regression as meta classifier. The Voting method, despite of its simplicity, has shown to be adequate for solving the problem presented in this work. The techniques for class balance, on the other hand, have not produced a significant improvement in the global classification error. Nevertheless, the use of such techniques did improve the classification error for the minority class. In this context, the NCL technique has shown to be more appropriated

Viabilidade da Utilização de Máquinas de Indução Convencionais como Motores sem Mancais Mecânicos

Electrical Motors transform electrical energy into mechanic energy in a relatively easy way. In some specific applications, there is a need for electrical motors to function with noncontaminated fluids, in high speed systems, under inhospitable conditions, or yet, in local of difficult access and considerable depth. In these cases, the motors with mechanical bearings are not adequate as their wear give rise to maintenance. A possible solution for these problems stems from two different alternatives: motors with magnetic bearings, that increase the length of the machine (not convenient), and the bearingless motors that aggregate compactness. Induction motors have been used more and more in research, as they confer more robustness to bearingless motors compared to other types of machines building with others motors. The research that has already been carried out with bearingless induction motors utilized prototypes that had their structures of stator/rotor modified, that differ most of the times from the conventional induction motors. The goal of this work is to study the viability of the use of conventional induction Motors for the beringless motors applications, pointing out the types of Motors of this category that can be more useful. The study uses the Finite Elements Method (FEM). As a means of validation, a conventional induction motor with squirrel-cage rotor was successfully used for the beringless motor application of the divided winding type, confirming the proposed thesis. The controlling system was implemented in a Digital Signal Processor (DSP)

Uma arquitetura baseada em SCTP e SIP para suporte a aplicações VoIP móveis e a especificação formal do seu módulo de controle

New versions of SCTP protocol allow the implementation of handover procedures in the transport layer, as well as the supply of a partially reliable communication service. A communication architecture is proposed herein, integrating SCTP with the session initiation protocol, SIP, besides additional protocols. This architecture is intended to handle voice applications over IP networks with mobility requirements. User localization procedures are specified in the application layer as well, using SIP, as an alternative mean to the mechanisms used by traditional protocols, that support mobility in the network layer. The SDL formal specification language is used to specify the operation of a control module, which coordinates the operation of the system component protocols. This formal specification is intended to prevent ambiguities and inconsistencies in the definition of this module, assisting in the correct implementation of the elements of this architecture

Avaliação de desempenho da codificação wavelet em canais seletivos em frequência

Wavelet coding has emerged as an alternative coding technique to minimize the fading effects of wireless channels. This work evaluates the performance of wavelet coding, in terms of bit error probability, over time-varying, frequency-selective multipath Rayleigh fading channels. The adopted propagation model follows the COST207 norm, main international standards reference for GSM, UMTS, and EDGE applications. The results show the wavelet coding s efficiency against the inter symbolic interference which characterizes these communication scenarios. This robustness of the presented technique enables its usage in different environments, bringing it one step closer to be applied in practical wireless communication systems

Percolação convencional, percolação correlacionada e percolação por invasão num suporte multifractal

In this work we have studied the problem of percolation in a multifractal geometric support, in its different versions, and we have analysed the conection between this problem and the standard percolation and also the connection with the critical phenomena formalism. The projection of the multifractal structure into the subjacent regular lattice allows to map the problem of random percolation in the multifractal lattice into the problem of correlated percolation in the regular lattice. Also we have investigated the critical behavior of the invasion percolation model in this type of environment. We have discussed get the finite size effects

Representações espectrais de sistemas complexos: aplicações à síntese de superfícies brownianas fracionárias anisotrópicas, filtragem de sinais e identificação de correlações

In this thesis, we study the application of spectral representations to the solution of problems in seismic exploration, the synthesis of fractal surfaces and the identification of correlations between one-dimensional signals. We apply a new approach, called Wavelet Coherency, to the study of stratigraphic correlation in well log signals, as an attempt to identify layers from the same geological formation, showing that the representation in wavelet space, with introduction of scale domain, can facilitate the process of comparing patterns in geophysical signals. We have introduced a new model for the generation of anisotropic fractional brownian surfaces based on curvelet transform, a new multiscale tool which can be seen as a generalization of the wavelet transform to include the direction component in multidimensional spaces. We have tested our model with a modified version of the Directional Average Method (DAM) to evaluate the anisotropy of fractional brownian surfaces. We also used the directional behavior of the curvelets to attack an important problem in seismic exploration: the atenuation of the ground roll, present in seismograms as a result of surface Rayleigh waves. The techniques employed are effective, leading to sparse representation of the signals, and, consequently, to good resolutions

Efeitos do treino em esteira com suporte parcial de peso e do método de facilitação neuromuscular proprioceptiva na marcha hemiparética: estudo comparativo

Objective: To compare the effects of the treadmill training with partial body-weight support (TPBWS) and Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) method on gait of subjects with chronic stroke. Design: Quasi-experimental study. Setting: Laboratorial research. Participants: Twenty-three subjects (13 men and 10 women), with a mean age of 56,7 ± 8,0 years and a mean time since the onset of the stroke of 27,7 ± 20,3 months, and able to walk with personal assistance or assistive devices. Interventions: Two experimental groups underwent gait training based on PNF method (PNF group, n=11) or using the TPBWS - Gait Trainer System 2, Biodex, USA (TPBWS group, n=12), for three weekly sessions, during four weeks. Measures: Evaluation of motor function - using the Stroke Rehabilitation Assessment of Movement (STREAM) and the motor subscale of the Functional Independence Measure (motor FIM) -, and kinematic gait analyze with the Qualisys System (Qualisys Medical AB, Gothenburg, Sweden) were carried out before and after the interventions. Results: Increases in the STREAM scores (F=49.189, P<0.001) and in motor FIM scores (F=7.093, P=0.016), as well as improvement in symmetry ratio (F=7.729, P=0.012) were observed for both groups. Speed, stride length and double-support time showed no change after training. Differences between groups were observed only for the maximum ankle dorsiflexion over the swing phase (F=6.046, P=0.024), which showed an increase for the PNF group. Other angular parameters remain unchanged. Conclusion: Improvement in motor function and in gait symmetry was observed for both groups, suggesting similarity of interventions. The cost-effectiveness of each treatment should be considered for your choice

Os Centros de Especialidades Odontológicas como suporte da atenção básica: uma avaliação na perspectiva da integralidade

The public dental services in Brazil were limited, practically, to the basic care, so that the specialized services acted, up to 2002, no more than 3,5% of the total of clinical procedures. That lower offer reveals the difficulty of continuity of the attention, that is, the comprehensiveness in the assistance, particulary, the reference and counter-reference system. Brasil Sorridente search to supply those needs when proposing Speciality Dental's Centers(CEOs Centros de Especialidades Odontológicas, Brazil) to compose the services of average complexity. In 2005, Ministry of Health enabled the three CEOs of Natal, located in the North II, East and West Sanitary Districts. This investigation evaluated the implantation of these CEOs, as support of the family health care teams, in the perspective of organization of the services in assistencial nets in Natal/RN. It was a study of evaluation, with qualitative approach and some quantitative data as contribution. Dentists, users and managers were interviewed to identify and to understand their perceptions, relationships and experiences in the daily of the services. The conceptual base that orientated the investigation was the principle of comprehensiveness, in its operational sense of the hierarchization in health attention levels. The collection of data was done with documental research, direct observation and semi-structured interview. The analysis was accomplished by triangulation of the extracted content from the used techniques and sources of interviewed groups depositions, looking for theoretical-conceptual support in specific bibliography. The results pointed aspects that go away from the comprehensiveness like: low resolution of problems in the basic net; little valorization of the space in the health units; traditional models of access to health services, insufficient offer for some specialties, compromising the reference and counter-reference system; practices centered in procedures in the CEO; bureaucratic directions from basic care to the specialized service; disintegrated and disjointed system among levels of attention; disrespect to the municipal protocol. On the other hand, there is an approach of compreensiveness in situations like: increase of the access and covering in the Family Health Strategy (ESF Estratégia Saúde da Família, Brazil); larger approach between professional and user; tendency to the quantitative and qualitative growth of specialized actions; punctual initiatives of relationships among levels; existence of protocol to guide professionals

Adolescentes e jovens e suas bases de apoio :relações de amizade como suporte social no enfrentamento à violência

The purpose of this work is to map the family and community social supports for adolescents and young students from Bom Pastor Distric, West Zone of Natal/RN, as well as to describe how such resources are used by these individuaIs in that community. Social support refers not only to formal activities or organizations, but also to spontaneous or informal forms of support - friendship and solidarity nets available in the community, affective relations that are meaningful in the lives of children and young people. Our discussion is based on a research performed with 382 adolescents and young students from Jean Mermoz Public School (students from 5th to 11th grades, aged 13 to 14). We emphasized the situations of violence derived from family or community spheres faced by these students. In relation to this specific aspect, we observed the participants more frequently look for help from the informal social supports, mostly from their friends, which indicates that the formal ones are not considered to be effective instruments for social assistance. The search for informal social supports shows the relations informally established in the streets (for instance when they look for help from friends, rei atives or neighbors) have more effect and play an important role in which there are values and affections exchange. Thinking the strengthening of these social links is of extreme importance and leads to the weakening of the hegemonic logics focused on the production of subjects as private identities, and to the amplification of an ethics committed to the disassembly of a sociability anchored to fear, impotence, intolerance, discrimination, and reduction of spaces for circulating and confronting mechanisms of social exclusion. It is crucial that we concentrate our attention to building friendship as a system of reciprocity and affective exchanges, as a space for political actions and production of forms of lives that are potent against social anesthesia

Suporte ao uso de álcool e drogas na atenção primária: um estudo com equipes de Natal/RN

National surveys indicate that 6.8 % of the brazilian population is dependent on alcohol and 1 % dependent on illicit drugs, representing a significant portion of the population affected by this issue . Primary Care becomes instrumental in expanding the coverage of this demand and in reducing unnecessary referrals for specialized care. This study aimed to investigate the responsiveness and institutional support of Primary Care Teams in relation to the demands of alcohol and drugs users. The research was conducted in a Family Health Unit in West Sanitary District of Natal City. With quantitative and qualitative nature, our study consisted of two stages. At first, we performed a mapping of alcohol and other drugs abusive use in a sample of the population assisted by Family Heath Teams, using sociodemographic questionnaire and ASSIST (Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test). 406 questionnaires were completed. Of these questionnaires, 27.8% are men and 72.2% women, of which 56% are between 20 and 39 years-old, they are housewives, have a stable relationship and are consumers of tobacco (37.6%), marijuana (13%) and especially alcohol (57%). In second stage, two Conversation Circles with Family Health Teams and the referential Family Health Support Center were formed to discuss the data of the mapping realized in the previous phase. The circles, which had participation of 20 of the 37 professional teams from Family Health and 2 from Family Health Support Center, showed a lack of professional training in the subject; inability of the healthcare network in the user embracement; belief of professionals that nothing can be done when matter is alcohol and drugs; and referencing as the only care action performed by teams. Thus we point out the need to support an approach on issues of alcohol and drugs which consider gender issues, investing in Harm Reduction Policy as a possibility of working in this context for recognizing each user in their uniqueness and strategizing with them to promote health in a broad and contextualized way

A percepção de suporte organizacional dos novos servidores da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

This work deals with organizational support perception-OSP. This is done considering staff global beliefs, value of their contributions, care and well being related of individuals in an organization. These issues has been have been present in many researches since the 80s. It is important to analyze this matter considering all the changes that occurred nationally and internationally in the academic environment, characterized as being diversified in academic and managerial level. This occurs especially in Brazil since Federal Universities and their agents have suffered impact and restructuring. The research has emphasized the technical-managerial as well as professor staff level at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte aiming to deal with their unsatisfaction upon social political support. Thus, there was participation of 259 staff that were admitted from 2003 to 2005 in many sectors and units of the university. These subjects were submitted to a social and demographical query through an application of a scale of organizational support perception-OSP. Descriptive and multivariate analysis was done considering factors (management style of higher command), material support, wages, work overload, social support at work and ascending levels). Results show that there a hierarchy of the analyzed factors, the factor social support at work as being the first one with 3,31%, the factor management style of the higher command in second with 3,30%, then followed by the factor social support at work with 2,92%, in a sequence the factor material support, factor overload with 2,49% in the fourth position, and in the fifth place, the factor ascending with an average of 2,33% and in last the factor wages with 2,20%. It is concluded that the factors related to the more positive attributions of the OSP (social support at work), in a sequence material support opposing from the most negative factors of the OSP (wages, overload, ascending) reveal a reality that points out that the OSP is very much related to the individualized actions of the members of the organization (leader-member-group) rather than on structure and institutionalized actions carried out at UFRN

Síntese e caracterização de membranas zeolíticas tipo mfi e aplicação em separação de aromáticos

The synthesis of MFI-type zeolite membranes was carried by the process in situ or hydrothermal crystallization. We studied the homogenization time of the room temperature and gel filtration just before the crystallization step performed out in an oven, thus obtaining a more uniform zeolite film. The powder synthesized zeolite (structure type MFI, Silicalite) was characterized by several complementary techniques such as Xray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermal analysis, temperature programmed desorption (TPD), Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and textural analysis by nitrogen adsorption (specific surface area). For the purpose of evaluating the quality of the layer supported on the ceramic support, N2 permeation tests were carried starting from room temperature to 600 °C, where values were observed values more appropriate permeation from 200 °C. With the data obtained, it was made into a graph of temperature versus permeation function, the curve of surface diffusion was found. For scanning electron microscopy, we observed the formation of homogeneous crystals and the zeolite film showed no fissures or cracks, indicating that the process of synthesis and subsequent treatments not damaged the zeolite layer on the support. Carried permeation studies were found values ranging from 3.64x10-6 to 3.78x10-6, 4.71x10-6 to 5.02x10-6, to pressures 20 and 25 psi, respectively. And the mixture xylenes/N2 values were between 5.39x10-6 to 5.67x10-6 and 8.13x10-6 to 8.36x10-6, also for pressures of 20 and 25 psi. The values found for the separation factor were 15.22 at 400 °C in the first experiment and 1.64 for the second experiment at a temperature of 150 °C. It is concluded that the Silicalite membrane was successfully synthesized and that it is effective in the separation of binary mixtures of xylenes

Reforma a vapor catalítica do metano: Otimização da produção e seletividade em hidrogênio por absorção in situ do CO2 produzido

Topics of research related to energy and environment have significantly grown in recent years, with the need of its own energy as hydrogen. More particularly, numerous researches have been focused on hydrogen as energy vector. The main portion of hydrogen is presently obtained by reforming of methane or light hydrocarbons (steam, oxy, dry or auto reforming). During the methane steam reforming process the formation of CO2 undesirable (the main contributor to the greenhouse effect) is observed. Thus, an oxide material (sorbent) can be used to capture the CO2 generated during the process and simultaneously shifting the equilibrium of water gas shift towards thermodynamically more favorable production of pure hydrogen. The aim of this study is to develop a material with dual function (catalyst/sorbent) in the reaction of steam reforming of methane. CaO is well known as CO2 sorbent due to its high efficiency in reactions of carbonation and easy regeneration through calcination. However the kinetic of carbonation decreases quickly with time and carbonation/calcination cycles. A calcium aluminate (Ca12Al14O33) should be used to avoid sintering and increase the stability of CaO sorbents for several cycles. Nickel, the industrial catalyst choice for steam reforming has been added to the support from different manners. These bi-functional materials (sorbent/catalyst) in different molar ratios CaO.Ca12Al14O33 (48:52, 65:35, 75:25, 90:10) were prepared by different synthesis methodologies, among them, especially the method of microwave assisted self-combustion. Synthesis, structure and catalytic performances of Ni- CaO.Ca12Al14O33 synthesized by the novel method (microwave assisted selfcombustion) proposed in this work has not being reported yet in literature. The results indicate that CO2 capture time depends both on the CaO excess and on operating conditions (eg., temperature and H2O/CH4 ratio). To be efficient for CO2 sorption, temperature of steam reforming needs to be lower than 700 °C. An optimized percentage corresponding to 75% of CaO and a ratio H2O/CH4 = 1 provides the most promising results since a smaller amount of water avoids competition between water and CO2 to form carbonate and hydroxide. If this competition is most effective (H2O/CH4 = 3) and would have a smaller amount of CaO available for absorption possibly due to the formation of Ca(OH)2. Therefore, the capture time was higher (16h) for the ratio H2O/CH4 = 1 than H2O/CH4 = 3 (7h) using as catalyst one prepared by impregnating the support obtained by microwave assisted self-combustion. Therefore, it was demonstrated that, with these catalysts, the CO2 sorption on CaO modifies the balance of the water gas-shift reaction. Consequently, steam reforming of CH4 is optimized, producing pure H2, complete conversion of methane and negligible concentration of CO2 and CO during the time of capture even at low temperature (650 °C). This validates the concept of the sorption of CO2 together with methane steam reforming

JFloat: uma biblioteca de ponto flutuante para a linguagem Java com suporte a arredondamento direcionado

This work presents JFLoat, a software implementation of IEEE-754 standard for binary floating point arithmetic. JFloat was built to provide some features not implemented in Java, specifically directed rounding support. That feature is important for Java-XSC, a project developed in this Department. Also, Java programs should have same portability when using floating point operations, mainly because IEEE-754 specifies that programs should have exactly same behavior on every configuration. However, it was noted that programs using Java native floating point types may be machine and operating system dependent. Also, JFloat is a possible solution to that problem

Simulação de reservatórios de petróleo em ambiente MPSoC

The constant increase of complexity in computer applications demands the development of more powerful hardware support for them. With processor's operational frequency reaching its limit, the most viable solution is the use of parallelism. Based on parallelism techniques and the progressive growth in the capacity of transistors integration in a single chip is the concept of MPSoCs (Multi-Processor System-on-Chip). MPSoCs will eventually become a cheaper and faster alternative to supercomputers and clusters, and applications developed for these high performance systems will migrate to computers equipped with MP-SoCs containing dozens to hundreds of computation cores. In particular, applications in the area of oil and natural gas exploration are also characterized by the high processing capacity required and would benefit greatly from these high performance systems. This work intends to evaluate a traditional and complex application of the oil and gas industry known as reservoir simulation, developing a solution with integrated computational systems in a single chip, with hundreds of functional unities. For this, as the STORM (MPSoC Directory-Based Platform) platform already has a shared memory model, a new distributed memory model were developed. Also a message passing library has been developed folowing MPI standard