Simulação de desempenho luminoso para salas de aula em Natal-RN

The city of Natal has a significant daylight availability, although it use isn’t systematically explored in schools architecture. In this context, this research aims to determine procedures for the analysis of the daylight performance in school design in Natal-RN. The method of analysis is divided in Visible Sky Factor (VSF), simulating and analyzing the results. The annual variation of the daylight behavior requires the adoption of dynamic simulation as data procedure. The classrooms were modelled in SketchUp, simulated in Daysim program and the results were assessed by means of spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel. The classrooms dimensions are 7.20mx 7.20m, with windows-to-wall-ratio (WWR) of 20%, 40% and 50%, and with different shading devices, such as standard horizontal overhang, sloped overhang, standard horizontal overhang with side view protection, standard horizontal overhang with a dropped edge, standard horizontal overhang with three horizontal louvers, double standard horizontal overhang, double standard horizontal overhang with three horizontal louvers, plus the use of shelf light in half the models with WWR of 40% and 50%. The data was organized in spreadsheets, with two intervals of UDI: between 300lux and 2000 lux and between 300lux and 3000lux. The simulation was performed with the weather file of 2009 to the city of NatalRN. The graphical outputs are illuminance curves, isolines of UDI among 300lux and 2000 lux and tables with index of occurrences of glare and to an UDI among 300lux 3000lux. The best UDI300-2000lux performance was evidenced to: Phase 1 (models with WWR of 20%), Phase 2 (models with WWR of 40% and 50% with light shelf). The best UDI300-3000lux performance was evidenced to: Phase 1 (models with WWR of 20% and 40% with light shelf) and Phase 2 (models with WWR of 40% and 50% with light shelf). The outputs prove that the daylight quality mainly depends on the shading system efficacy to avoid the glare occurrence, which determines the daylight discomfort. The bioclimatic recommendations of big openings with partial shading (with an opening with direct sunlight) resulted in illuminances level higher than the acceptable upper threshold. The improvement of the shading system percentage (from 73% to 91%) in medium-size of openings (WWR 40% and 50%) reduced or eliminate the glare occurrence without compromising the daylight zone depth (7.20m). The passive zone was determined for classrooms with satisfactory daylight performance, it was calculated the daylight zone depth rule-of-thumb with the ratio between daylight zone depth and the height of the window for different size of openings. The ratio ranged from 1.54 to 2.57 for WWR of 20%, 40% and 50% respectively. There was a reduction or elimination of glare in the passive area with light shelf, or with awning window shading.

Tomada de decisão individual e aprendizado em Dinoponera quadríceps (Ponerinae, Hymenoptera) forrageando em ambientes dinâmicos

When searching for food, animals often make decisions of where to go, how long to stay in a foraging area and whether or not to return to the last visited spot. These decisions can be enhanced by cognitive traits and adjusted based on previous experience. In social insects such as ants, foraging efficiency have an impact on both individual and colony level. The present study investigated, in the laboratory, the effect of distance from food, capture success and food size, and reward rate on decisions of where to forage in Dinoponera quadriceps, a ponerine ant that forage solitarily and individually make their foraging decisions. We also investigated the influence of learning on the performance of workers over successive trips searching for food by measuring the patch residence time in each foraging trip. Four scenarios were created differing in food reward rates, food size offered and distances colony-food site. Our work has shown that as a rule-of-thumb, workers of D. quadriceps return to the place where a prey item was found on the previous trip, regardless of distance, food size and reward rate. When ants did not capture preys, they were more likely to change path to search for food. However, in one of the scenarios, this decision to switch paths when unsuccessful was less evident, possibly due to the greater variation of possible outcomes ants could experience in this scenario and cognitive constraints of D. quadriceps to predict variations of food distribution. Our results also indicated a learning process of routes of exploration as well as the food site conditions for exploration. After repeated trips, foragers reduced the patch residence time in areas that they did not capture food and quickly changed of foraging area, increasing their foraging efficiency.

Circadian variation with a diurnal bimodal profile on scent-marking behavior in captive common marmosets (callitrhix jacchus)

Scent-marking behavior is associated with different behavioral contexts in callitrichids, including signalizing a territory, location of feeding resources, and social rank. In marmosets and tamarins it is also associated with intersexual communication. Though it appears very important for the daily routine of the individuals, very few researchers have investigated distribution through the 24-h cycle. In a preliminary report, we described a preferential incidence of this behavior 2 h before nocturnal rest in families of common marmosets. We expand the data using 8 family groups (28 subjects), 8 fathers, 6 mothers, 8 nonreproductive adults (4 sons and 4 daughters), and 6 juvenile (3 sons and 3 daughters) offspring that we kept in outdoor cages under natural environmental conditions. We recorded the frequency of anogenital scent marking for each group during the light phase, twice a wk, for 4 consecutive wks, from March 1998 to September 1999. Cosinor test detected 24- and 8-h variations in 89.3% and 85.7% of the subjects, respectively, regardless of sex or reproductive status. The 8-h component is a consequence of the 2 peaks for the behavior, at the beginning and end of the light phase. Daily distribution of scent marking is similar to that others described previously for motor activity in marmosets. The coincident rhythmical patterns for both behaviors seem to be associated with feeding behavior, as described for callitrichids in free-ranging conditions, involving an increase in foraging activities early in the morning and shortly before nocturnal rest

The Pair-Bond Formation and Its Role in the Stimulation of Reproductive Function in Female Common Marmosets (Callithrix jacchus)

SILVA, H.P.A.; SOUSA, M.B.C. The pair-bond formation and its role in the stimulation of reproductive function in female common marmosets (collithrix Jacchus). International Journal of Primatology, v, 18, n.3, p.387-400, 1997.

Efeito Peltier em estruturas semicondutoras quasiperiódicas

There is nowadays a growing demand for located cooling and stabilization in optical and electronic devices, haul of portable systems of cooling that they allow a larger independence in several activities. The modules of thermoelectrical cooling are bombs of heat that use efect Peltier, that consists of the production of a temperature gradient when an electric current is applied to a thermoelectrical pair formed by two diferent drivers. That efect is part of a class of thermoelectrical efcts that it is typical of junctions among electric drivers. The modules are manufactured with semiconductors. The used is the bismuth telluride Bi2Te3, arranged in a periodic sequence. In this sense the idea appeared of doing an analysis of a system that obeys the sequence of Fibonacci. The sequence of Fibonacci has connections with the golden proportion, could be found in the reproductive study of the bees, in the behavior of the light and of the atoms, as well as in the growth of plants and in the study of galaxies, among many other applications. An apparatus unidimensional was set up with the objective of investigating the thermal behavior of a module that obeys it a rule of growth of the type Fibonacci. The results demonstrate that the modules that possess periodic arrangement are more eficient