Schwarzschild generalized black hole horizon and the embedding space

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Exotic dark spinor fields

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Black string corrections in variable tension braneworld scenarios

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Structural Health Monitoring in Smart Structures Through Time Series Analysis

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Adaptation of the reservoir fish assemblage index (RFAI) for assessing the Barra Bonita Reservoir (São Paulo, Brazil)

In order to evaluate the environmental condition of the Barra Bonita Reservoir, we adapted the Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI). We chose 24 sampling sites in which three types of habitats were sampled: the mouths of tributaries, the central reservoir and the lateral reservoir. Fish were caught in two seasons (dry and rainy) using 10 gillnet gangs, with meshes ranging from 3 to 12 cm between opposite knots, and funnel traps. Abiotic and biotic variables were measured. Due to the artificial nature of the reservoir, the term biotic integrity was considered inappropriate and the term RFAI (Reservoir Fish Assemblage Index) was adopted. Twelve metrics from sixteen possibles were selected using the Pearson correlation coefficient. The reference conditions were set up based on the criteria of the best condition observed. For each metric, a score of 1, 3 or 5 was assigned as it strongly departs (1), slightly departs (3) or approaches (5) the reference condition. The index value is the sum of the metrics partial scores and ranges from 12 to 60. To evaluate the importance of the unit of measurement of the metric, the index was calculated in fish number (RFAI(N)) and in weight (RFAI(w)). The correlation between RFAIN and RFAIw was very high (r = 0.90, n = 46) indicating that the unit of measurement does not influence the final result of the index. Most of the sampling sites were classified in the 'reasonable' RFAI category. Only the central sites were classified as 'poor'. To validate the RFAI, another index, the Habitat Quality Index (HQI), was built starting from the physiochemical and habitat variables collected. The correlation of the RFAI with the HQI was highly significant (RFAIN, r = 0.37; RFAI(w), r = 0.47; n = 46), indicating that they respond in the same way to environmental degradation. The HQI metrics which most affect RFAI were depth, surrounding landscape and macrophyte presence/absence. Copyright C) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The fish zonation of the Itanha,m river basin in the Atlantic Forest of southeast Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

On turbulent, erratic and other dynamical properties of Zadeh's extensions

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Relationship between global structural parameters and Enzyme Commission hierarchy: Implications for function prediction

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Alternant and BCH codes over certain rings

Alternant codes over arbitrary finite commutative local rings with identity are constructed in terms of parity-check matrices. The derivation is based on the factorization of x s - 1 over the unit group of an appropriate extension of the finite ring. An efficient decoding procedure which makes use of the modified Berlekamp-Massey algorithm to correct errors and erasures is presented. Furthermore, we address the construction of BCH codes over Zm under Lee metric.

Fish as Indicators of Disturbance in Streams Used for Snorkeling Activities in a Tourist Region

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

N=2 sigma models for Ramond-Ramond backgrounds

Using the U(4) hybrid formalism, manifestly N = (2,2) worldsheet supersymmetric sigma models are constructed for the type-IIB superstring in Ramond-Ramond backgrounds. The Kahler potential in these N = 2 sigma models depends on four chiral and antichiral bosonic superfields and two chiral and antichiral fermionic superfields. When the Kahler potential is quadratic, the model is a free conformal field theory which describes a flat ten-dimensional target space with Ramond-Ramond flux and non-constant dilaton. For more general Kahler potentials, the model describes curved target spaces with Ramond-Ramond flux that are not plane-wave backgrounds. Ricci-flatness of the Kahler metric implies the on-shell conditions for the background up to the usual four-loop conformal anomaly.

Non-relativistic spacetimes with cosmological constant

Recent data on supernovae favour high values of the cosmological constant. Spacetimes with a cosmological constant have non-relativistic kinematics quite different from Galilean kinematics. de Sitter spacetimes, vacuum solutions of Einstein's equations with a cosmological constant, reduce in the non-relativistic limit to Newton-Hooke spacetimes, which are non-metric homogeneous spacetimes with non-vanishing curvature. The whole non-relativistic kinematics would then be modified, with possible consequences to cosmology, and in particular to the missing-mass problem.

Kerr-Newman solution as a Dirac particle

For m(2) < a(2) + q(2), with m, a, and q respectively the source mass, angular momentum per unit mass, and electric charge, the Kerr-Newman (KN) solution of Einstein's equation reduces to a naked singularity of circular shape, enclosing a disk across which the metric components fail to be smooth. By considering the Hawking and Ellis extended interpretation of the KN spacetime, it is shown that, similarly to the electron-positron system, this solution presents four inequivalent classical states. Making use of Wheeler's idea of charge without charge, the topological structure of the extended KN spatial section is found to be highly non-trivial, leading thus to the existence of gravitational states with half-integral angular momentum. This property is corroborated by the fact that, under a rotation of the space coordinates, those inequivalent states transform into themselves only after a 4π rotation. As a consequence, it becomes possible to naturally represent them in a Lorentz spinor basis. The state vector representing the whole KN solution is then constructed, and its evolution is shown to be governed by the Dirac equation. The KN solution can thus be consistently interpreted as a model for the electron-positron system, in which the concepts of mass, charge and spin become connected with the spacetime geometry. Some phenomenological consequences of the model are explored.

Gravity and duality between coordinates and matter fields

We use the duality between the local Cartezian coordinates and the solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation to parametrize locally the spacetime in terms of wave functions and prepotentials. The components of metric, metric connection, curvature as well as the Einstein equation are given in this parametrization. We also discuss the local duality between coordinates and quantum fields and the metric in this later reparametrization. (C) 2000 Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.

Darboux-Egoroff metrics, rational Landau-Ginzburg potentials and the Painleve VI equation

We present a class of three-dimensional integrable structures associated with the Darboux-Egoroff metric and classical Euler equations of free rotations of a rigid body. They are obtained as canonical structures of rational Landau-Ginzburg potentials and provide solutions to the Painleve VI equation.