Influência da temperatura de armazenamento na qualidade das inflorescências de estrelítzia (strelitzia reginae banks ex aiton)

This work was based to study the influence of the storage temperature (cold and room temperature) in the quality of inflorescences strelitzia. The scapes were selected, labeled and there were zero problems concerning mechanical damage, disease and/or plagues. Subsequently this period, the scapes were moved randomly to recipients with water, in which two postharvest trials were conducted. In experiment 1, the flower scapes were placed in buckets with water from public supply and sanitation department and taken to a cold room at temperature of 7.5 degrees C and RH of 90%, for a twelve day period. For the experiment 2, were kept under the same conditions but at room temperature for a period of six days. In both experiments, the visual analysis: color, gloss, stains (by assigning notes), opening and drop florets (count) were evaluated at intervals of four days in cold and every 48 hours at ambient temperature conditions. In both experiments, the visual analysis: color, gloss, stains (by assigning notes), opening and drop florets (count) were evaluated at intervals of four days in cold and every 48 hours at ambient temperature conditions. The sepal is the organ that showed greater loss in coloration. The variable gloss showed the same pattern for the two experiments. Incidences of stains on the inflorescences occurred in patches at room temperature. The scapes increased number of florets open in cold. This tendency did not occur at room temperature. No were observed differences in the fall of florets. Conclude that the storage temperature does not contribute to postharvest quality of strelitzia.

Balanço econômico da operação de semeadura da cultura da soja em diferentes arranjos espaciais

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Deposição e danos mecânicos em sementes de sorgo utilizando um mecanismo dosador de fluxo contínuo em ensaio de bancada

This study aimed to evaluate the behavior of the deposition and mechanical damage in seeds using a continuous flow metering system under different slope and speed. Part of the study was conducted at Agricultural Research Foundation Agricultural - (FAPA), where seeds that are deposited by a metering system were collected, and the quality analysis verifying the percentage of mechanical damage were conducted at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, UNESP, city of Botucatu– SP. The mechanism deposition was subjected to three different speed conditions (4,7, and 10 km.h-1) and three differents working slopes, ( 3%, 8%, and 16%). The results were submitted to Tukey test (p ≤ 0.05), and an analysis of variance with F test at 5% significance level was performed. The results showed an interaction between the factor slope and speed of work, increasing the metering mechanism speed, results in a reduction of the seed deposition at a 3% slope but a working speed of 10 km h-1did not reduce the rate of seed deposition until the slope reaches 16%. Both the slope factor and the working speed caused at least 3.9 and 4.2% more damage to the seeds, respectively.

Efeito da modificação atmosférica em goiabas var. Paluma na redução de danos mecânicos em pós-colheita

In the postharvest management, the fruits can be exposed to injuries that depreciated the quality and the shelf life. Thus, it was evaluated the modified atmosphere effects on guavas var. Paluma subjected to different mechanical damages. Once harvested, the fruits were selected, sanitized and submitted to the treatments T1 (control) - without injuries or packaging in bags of low density polyethylene (LDPE); T2 - without injuries + LDPE bags; T3 - damage by fall of 1 m + LDPE bags; T4 - damage by compression of 9 N + LDPE bags; T5 - damage by fall of 1 m + damage by compression of 9 N + LDPE bags and T6 - damage by fall of 1 m + damage by compression of 9 N without LDPE bags. The treatments were kept in cold storage at 10 ± 1 o C and 94 ± 2% de R.H. The analysis of CO2/ethylene production, enzymatic activity, total and soluble pectins, pulp firmness, titratable acidity (TA), soluble solids (SS), reducing sugars and ascorbic acid were performed every 10 days of refrigeration, and an additional day outside cold storage (22 ± 1o C and 75 ± 3% R.H.) for 30 days. Guavas packed in LDPE bags, not subject to mechanical damage, presented the best quality standards. The fruits suffered only one kind of damage, when packaged, presented satisfactory pattern compared to the fruits without package and not exposed to any mechanical damages. Applying the two kinds of damages, the LDPE packaging was not adequate to decrease the metabolic rate of these fruits, making them unfit for marketing.

Non-destructive evaluation tool for monitoring and detection of structural damage by using neural network.

This work studies the capability of generalization of Neural Network using vibration based measurement data aiming at operating condition and health monitoring of mechanical systems. The procedure uses the backpropagation algorithm to classify the input patters of a system with different stiffness ratios. It has been investigated a large set of input data, containing various stiffness ratios as well as a reduced set containing only the extreme ones in order to study generalizing capability of the network. This allows to definition of Neural Networks capable to use a reduced set of data during the training phase. Once it is successfully trained, it could identify intermediate failure condition. Several conditions and intensities of damages have been studied by using numerical data. The Neural Network demonstrated a good capacity of generalization for all case. Finally, the proposal was tested with experimental data.

Structural damage detection by fuzzy clustering

The development of strategies for structural health monitoring (SHM) has become increasingly important because of the necessity of preventing undesirable damage. This paper describes an approach to this problem using vibration data. It involves a three-stage process: reduction of the time-series data using principle component analysis (PCA), the development of a data-based model using an auto-regressive moving average (ARMA) model using data from an undamaged structure, and the classification of whether or not the structure is damaged using a fuzzy clustering approach. The approach is applied to data from a benchmark structure from Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA. Two fuzzy clustering algorithms are compared: fuzzy c-means (FCM) and Gustafson-Kessel (GK) algorithms. It is shown that while both fuzzy clustering algorithms are effective, the GK algorithm marginally outperforms the FCM algorithm. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Biomarkers for oxidative stress in acute lung injury induced in rabbits submitted to different strategies of mechanical ventilation

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

Effects of mechanical cycling on the bonding of zirconia and fiber posts to human root dentin

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of cyclical mechanical loading on the bond strength of a fiber and a zirconia post bonded to root dentin.Materials and Methods: Forty single-rooted human teeth (maxillary incisors and canines) were sectioned, and the root canals were prepared at 12 mm. Twenty randomly seleced specimens received a quartz fiber post (FRC) (D.T. Light-Post) and 20 others received a zirconia post (ZR) (Cosmopost). The posts were resin luted (All Bond 2 + resin cement Duo-link) and each specimen was embedded in epoxy resin inside a PVC cylinder. Ten specimens with FRC post and 10 specimens with ZR post were submitted to fatigue testing (2,000,000 cycles; load: 50 N; angle of 45 degrees; frequency: 8 Hz), while the other 20 specimens were not fatigued. Thus, 4 groups were formed: G1: FRC+O cycles; G2: FRC+2,000,000 cycles; G3: ZR+O cycles; G4: ZR+2,000,000 cycles. Later, the specimens were cut perpendicular to their long axis to form 2-mm-thick disk-shaped samples (4 sections/specimen), which were submitted to the push-out test (1 mm/min). The mean bond strength values (MPa) were calculated for each tooth (n = 10) and data were submitted to statistical analysis (alpha = 0.05).Results: Two-way ANOVA revealed that the bond strength was significantly affected by mechanical cycling (p = 0.0014) and root post (p = 0.0325). The interaction was also statistically significant (p = 0.0010). Tukey's test showed that the mechanical cycling did not affect the bonding of FRC to root dentin, while fatigue impaired the bonding of zirconium to root dentin.Conclusion: (1) the bond strength of the FRC post to root dentin was not reduced after fatigue testing, whereas the bonding of the zirconia post was significantly affected by the fatigue. (2) Cyclical mechanical loading appears to damage the bond strength of the rigid post only.

Effect of Acid Neutralization and Mechanical Cycling on the Microtensile Bond Strength of Glass-ceramic Inlays

Objectives: To evaluate the hypothesis that a process of hydrofluoric acid precipitate neutralization and fatigue load cycling performed on human premolars restored with ceramic inlays had an influence on microtensile bond strength results (MTBS). Methods: MOD inlay preparations were performed in 40 premolars (with their roots embedded in acrylic resin). Forty ceramic restorations were prepared using glass-ceramic (IPS Empress). The inner surfaces of all the restorations were etched with 10% hydrofluoric acid for 60 seconds, rinsed with water and dried. The specimens were divided into two groups (N=20): 1-without neutralization; 2-with neutralization. All the restorations were silanized and adhesively cemented (self-curing and self-etching luting composite system, Multilink). Ten premolars from each group were submitted to mechanical cycling (1,400,000 cycles, 50N, 37 degrees C). After cycling, the samples were sectioned to produce non-trimmed beam specimens (vestibular dentin-restoration-lingual dentin set), which were submitted to microtensile testing. Results: Bond strength was significantly affected by the surface treatment (p<0.0001) (no neutralization > neutralization) and mechanical cycling (p<0.0001) (control > cycling) (2-way ANOVA and Tukey test, alpha=.05). Conclusion: Hydrofluoric acid precipitate neutralization appears to significantly damage the resin bond to glass-ceramic and should not be recommended. The clinical simulation of the specimens, by using mechanical cycling, is important when evaluating the ceramic-dentin bond.

The effect of the ocean water immersion and UV ageing on the dynamic mechanical properties of the PPS/glass fiber composites

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

Application of a model updating technique for health condition monitoring and damage detection of flexible structures

This paper discusses the application of a damage detection methodology to monitor the location and extent of partial structural damage. The methodology combines, in an iterative way, the model updating technique based on frequency response functions (FRF) with monitoring data aiming at identifying the damage area of the structure. After the updating procedure reaches a good correlation between the models, it compares the parameters of the damage structure with those of the undamaged one to find the deteriorated area. The influence of the FEM mesh size on the evaluation of the extent of the damage has also been discussed. The methodology is applied using real experimental data from a spatial frame structure.

Automatic system for thermal damage detection in manufacturing process with Internet monitoring

This work involved the development of a smart system dedicated to surface burning detection in the grinding process through constant monitoring of the process by acoustic emission and electrical power signals. A program in Visual Basic® for Windows® was developed, which collects the signals through an analog-digital converter and further processes them using burning detection algorithms already known. Three other parameters are proposed here and a comparative study carried out. When burning occurs, the newly developed software program sends a control signal warning the operator or interrupting the process, and delivers process information via the Internet. Parallel to this, the user can also interfere in the process via Internet, changing parameters and/or monitoring the grinding process. The findings of a comparative study of the various parameters are also discussed here. Copyright © 2006 by ABCM.

Damage detection in a benchmark structure using AR-ARX models and statistical pattern recognition

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is related to the ability of monitoring the state and deciding the level of damage or deterioration within aerospace, civil and mechanical systems. In this sense, this paper deals with the application of a two-step auto-regressive and auto-regressive with exogenous inputs (AR-ARX) model for linear prediction of damage diagnosis in structural systems. This damage detection algorithm is based on the. monitoring of residual error as damage-sensitive indexes, obtained through vibration response measurements. In complex structures there are. many positions under observation and a large amount of data to be handed, making difficult the visualization of the signals. This paper also investigates data compression by using principal component analysis. In order to establish a threshold value, a fuzzy c-means clustering is taken to quantify the damage-sensitive index in an unsupervised learning mode. Tests are made in a benchmark problem, as proposed by IASC-ASCE with different damage patterns. The diagnosis that was obtained showed high correlation with the actual integrity state of the structure. Copyright © 2007 by ABCM.

Interactive effects of mechanical ventilation, inhaled nitric oxide and oxidative stress in acute lung injury

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