Processing of hierarchical syntactic strusture in music

Hierarchical structure with nested nonlocal dependencies is a key feature of human language and can be identified theoretically in most pieces of tonal music. However, previous studies have argued against the perception of such structures in music. Here, we show processing of nonlocal dependencies in music. We presented chorales by J. S. Bach and modified versions inwhich the hierarchical structure was rendered irregular whereas the local structure was kept intact. Brain electric responses differed between regular and irregular hierarchical structures, in both musicians and nonmusicians. This finding indicates that, when listening to music, humans apply cognitive processes that are capable of dealing with longdistance dependencies resulting from hierarchically organized syntactic structures. Our results reveal that a brain mechanism fundamental for syntactic processing is engaged during the perception of music, indicating that processing of hierarchical structure with nested nonlocal dependencies is not just a key component of human language, but a multidomain capacity of human cognition.

Sintomatologia depressiva e avaliação de níveis de TNFα IL-2 em indivíduos idosos e com doença pulmonar obstrutiva crônica

The aim of the present study was to assess the presence of depressive symptomatology among elderly residents in long-stay institutions (LSI) and in the community of Recife, Brazil. In total, 81 long-stay elderly patients (mean age of 75.55 ± 9.18 years) and 132 elderly (mean age of 73.14 ± 8.27 years) individuals from the community were evaluated. Depressive symptomatology was assessed by the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15), cognitive status by the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and capacity to perform the activities of daily living (ADL) by the Katz Index. Comorbities and the use of medication were recorded. The LSI elderly exhibited more depressive symptoms (p < 0.001) and more dependency (p< 0.001). We observed no differences in MMSE (p = 0.058). The elderly in the community displayed more comorbidities and the LSI elderly consumed more medication (p < 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively). According to multivariate analysis (logistic regression), being male, having no spouse and having a low schooling level are risk factors for depressive symptoms. In conclusion, most elderly with depressive symptoms received no medication fordepression.

Diferenças de gênero na produção de associações livres de palavras através do ciclo sono-vigília

Although several studies, have shown differences in cognitive performance between men and women, it not yet known whether these differences occur in tasks involving free association of words (WA). Studies across the sleep-wake cycle (SWC) suggest that rapid eye movement sleep (REM) favors semantic flexibility, in comparison with pre-sleep waking (Pre-WK), slow-wave sleep (SWS) and post-sleep waking (Post-WK). The present work has two aims: (1) to evaluate the semantic distances of word pairs produced by AP, comparing men and women, (2) to evaluate semantic distance in word pairs produced by free association across the SWC in young adults of both sexes. To achieve aim (1), we applied a task of WA in 68 adult volunteers during waking (52 women and 16 men). The WA task consisted of writing the first word that came to mind after viewing another word offered as a stimulus (root Word). To achieve aim (2), we performed polysomnography to identify specific stages of the SWC. The experimental subjects were then awakened (if they were asleep) and were immediately given a WA task. The task was administered to 2 groups of 10 subjects each (G1 and G2). G1 subjects were stimulated with the same set of root words after waking from various states of SWC, while G2 subjects received sets of different root words at each state of the SWC. In the absence of a Portuguese corpus suitable for the measurement of semantic distances, the words collected in our experiments were translated to English, and semantically quantified within a systematic and representative corpus of that language (Wordnet). This procedure removed the polysemies typical of Portuguese, but preserved the semantic macrostructure common to both languages. During waking, we found that semantic distances are significantly lower in WA produced by women, in comparison with the distances observed in men. Through the SWC, there were no statistically significant differences in G1. In G2 women, we detected a significant increase of semantic distances upon being awakened from SWS. In contrast, G2 men showed a significant increase in semantic distances upon being awakened from REM. The results of the first experiment are consistent with the notion that women have a more concrete reasoning than men. The results of the second experiment indicate that men awakened from REM present more flexibility in word association than when being awakened from other states. In contrast, women showed more flexible word association after being awakened from SWS, in compared with other states. The results indicate that the cognitive flexibility attributed to different states of the SWC shows gender dependency

Desenvolvimento de protótipo de coletor automático destinado à coleta de amostras de água em corpos aquáticos para análise em laboratório

The aim of this approach is to describe the design and construction of a low-cost automated water sampler prototype. In recent years, there is an increasing need on the use of automated equipments for hydro climatic variables to be use in urban and rural environments. Such devices are always used to provide measured information which is of crucial importance on the development of water resources strategies at watershed scale. Actually, many research and water public institutions have been using these kinds of equipments. In most of the cases, automated equipments are expensive and need to be imported, generating a situation of technologic dependency. The prototype is based on an electronic system which controls a peristaltic pump functioning, five solenoid valves and an ultrasonic sensor connected to a datalloger. An interface with the user allows communication with a PC, when the equipment functioning parameters can be provided. The equipment has a hydraulic module composed by a 12V peristaltic pump connected to a distribution circuit composed by five solenoid valves, one of them being used to clean the circuit before each sampling procedure. Samples are collected by four 1.95 polyethylene bottles. The sampler body was made of acrylic material, with a cylindrical shape, and dimensions 0.72 m and 0.38 m height and diameter, respectively. The weight of the equipment without samples is approximately 15 kg, which infers to its portability. The prototype development total cost budget was approximately US$ 1,560.00. Laboratory tests aimed to evaluate the equipment performance and functioning demonstrated satisfactory results

Mariana , Pai contra mãe e O caso da vara : escravidão e chão histórico em Machado de Assis

Machado de Assis understood his time and brought his perception of Brazilian society in the 19th century, with its multiple aspects economy, politics, culture, amongst others - to the texts he wrote. Through the tensions lived in his novels and short stories, Machado displays Brazilian social reality and the changes it had been undergoing. Mariana and Pai contra mãe show the crisis of the slavery system, the relation of dependency, the treatment given to the captives and the lack of coherence of a country that intended to adopt Liberalism as an ideology, but which kept on living under the shadow of slavery and its consequences. A country where the priorities were given to the landlords, owners of slaves, in protection of their interests. O caso da vara tells about how the crias da casa little black girls who lived in the household and learned how to make spool embroidery were treated. What were the punishments for desobedience and how they were levelled out, how should be the behaviour of a child who lived as a social outcast. Thus, this paper aims at playing a game of mirrors between History and fiction. Not only to play it, but to analyze how Machado deals with the reflections of 19th century Brazil on his short stories

Fraturas e caminhos ótimos na rede de Barabasi-Albert

Following the study of Andrade et al. (2009) on regular square lattices, here we investigate the problem of optimal path cracks (OPC) in Complex Networks. In this problem we associate to each site a determined energy. The optimum path is defined as the one among all possible paths that crosses the system which has the minimum cost, namely the sum of the energies along the path. Once the optimum path is determined, at each step, one blocks its site with highest energy, and then a new optimal path is calculated. This procedure is repeated until there is a set of blocked sites forming a macroscopic fracture which connects the opposite sides of the system. The method is applied to a lattice of size L and the density of removed sites is computed. As observed in the work by Andrade et al. (2009), the fractured system studied here also presents different behaviors depending on the level of disorder, namely weak, moderated and strong disorder intensities. In the regime of weak and moderated disorder, while the density of removed sites in the system does not depend of the size L in the case of regular lattices, in the regime of high disorder the density becomes substantially dependent on L. We did the same type of study for Complex Networks. In this case, each new site is connected with m previous ones. As in the previous work, we observe that the density of removed sites presents a similar behavior. Moreover, a new result is obtained, i.e., we analyze the dependency of the disorder with the attachment parameter m

Squid impact analyser: uma ferramenta para análise de impacto de mudança em linhas de produto de software

Software Products Lines (SPL) is a software engineering approach to developing software system families that share common features and differ in other features according to the requested software systems. The adoption of the SPL approach can promote several benefits such as cost reduction, product quality, productivity, and time to market. On the other hand, the SPL approach brings new challenges to the software evolution that must be considered. Recent research work has explored and proposed automated approaches based on code analysis and traceability techniques for change impact analysis in the context of SPL development. There are existing limitations concerning these approaches such as the customization of the analysis functionalities to address different strategies for change impact analysis, and the change impact analysis of fine-grained variability. This dissertation proposes a change impact analysis tool for SPL development, called Squid Impact Analyzer. The tool allows the implementation of change impact analysis based on information from variability modeling, mapping of variability to code assets, and existing dependency relationships between code assets. An assessment of the tool is conducted through an experiment that compare the change impact analysis results provided by the tool with real changes applied to several evolution releases from a SPL for media management in mobile devices

O efeito da autocorrelação no desempenho do gráfico T2 de hotelling: caso bivariado

The chart of control of Hotelling T2 has been the main statistical device used in monitoring multivariate processes. Currently the technological development of control systems and automation enabled a high rate of collection of information of the production systems in very short time intervals, causing a dependency between the results of observations. This phenomenon known as auto correlation causes in the statistical control of the multivariate processes a high rate of false alarms, prejudicing in the chart performance. This entails the violation of the assumption of independence and normality of the distribution. In this thesis we considered not only the correlation between two variables, but also the dependence between observations of the same variable, that is, auto correlation. It was studied by simulation, the bi variate case and the effect of auto correlation on the performance of the T2 chart of Hotelling.