Short term hydroelectric scheduling combining network flow and interior point approaches

In this paper, short term hydroelectric scheduling is formulated as a network flow optimization model and solved by interior point methods. The primal-dual and predictor-corrector versions of such interior point methods are developed and the resulting matrix structure is explored. This structure leads to very fast iterations since it avoids computation and factorization of impedance matrices. For each time interval, the linear algebra reduces to the solution of two linear systems, either to the number of buses or to the number of independent loops. Either matrix is invariant and can be factored off-line. As a consequence of such matrix manipulations, a linear system which changes at each iteration has to be solved, although its size is reduced to the number of generating units and is not a function of time intervals. These methods were applied to IEEE and Brazilian power systems, and numerical results were obtained using a MATLAB implementation. Both interior point methods proved to be robust and achieved fast convergence for all instances tested. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A phase-shifting control for variable frequency multi-cells interleaved boost pre-regulator based on FPGA device

In this paper were investigated phase-shift control strategies applied to a four cells interleaved high input-power-factor pre-regulator boost rectifier, operating in critical conduction mode, using a non-dissipative commutation cells and frequency modulation. The digital control has been developed using a hardware description language (VHDL) and implemented using the XC2S200E-SpartanII-E/Xilinx FPGA, performing a true critical conduction operation mode for a generic number of interleaved cells. Experimental results are presented, in order to verify the feasibility and performance of the proposed digital control, through the use of a Xilinx FPGA device.

Diets rich in saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids: Metabolic shifting and cardiac health

OBJECTIVE: the aim of this study was to determine the effects of diets rich in saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids on metabolic pathways and the relation of metabolic shifting to oxidative stress in cardiac tissue.METHODS: Male Wistar rats (age, 60 d; n = 10) were fed with a control low-fat diet, a diet rich in saturated fatty acids (SFAs), or a diet rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). After 5 wk of treatment, sera were used for protein and lipid determinations. Protein, glycogen, triacylglycerol, lactate dehydrogenase, citrate synthase, beta-hydroxyacyl coenzyme-A dehydrogenase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, lipoperoxide, and lipid hydroperoxide were measured in cardiac tissue.RESULTS: the SFA group had higher triacylglycerol, cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and atherogenic index (ratio of cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein) than did the PUFA and control groups. The PUFA group had low serum cholesterol, triacylglycerol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol as compared with the SFA group. SFA increased myocardial lipid hydroperoxide and diminished glutathione peroxidase. Despite the beneficial effects on serum lipids, the PUFA diet led to the highest levels of myocardial lipoperoxide and lipid hydroperoxide and diminished superoxide dismutase and catalase activities. The PUFA effects were related to increased feed efficiency, increased susceptibility to lipoperoxidation, and metabolic shifting in cardiac tissue. PUFA elevated triacylglycerol levels and decreased myocardial glycogen concentrations. The ratios of lactate dehydrogenase to citrate synthase and beta-hydroxyacyl coenzyme-A dehydrogenase to citrate synthase were increased, indicating myocardial reduction of tricarboxylic acid cycle.CONCLUSIONS: PUFAs have been recommended as a therapeutic measure in preventive medicine to lower serum cholesterol, but PUFAs increased oxidative stress in the heart by providing cardiac susceptibility to lipoperoxidation and shifting the metabolic pathway for energy production. The control diet, which was much lower in calories and fat, produced better overall clinical outcomes, better fat profiles, and less oxidative stress than did the diets rich in fatty acids.

Resonance and chaos .1. First-order interior resonances

Analytical models for studying the dynamical behaviour of objects near interior, mean motion resonances are reviewed in the context of the planar, circular, restricted three-body problem. The predicted widths of the resonances are compared with the results of numerical integrations using Poincare surfaces of section with a mass ratio of 10(-3) (similar to the Jupiter-Sun case). It is shown that for very low eccentricities the phase space between the 2:1 and 3:2 resonances is predominantly regular, contrary to simple theoretical predictions based on overlapping resonance. A numerical study of the 'evolution' of the stable equilibrium point of the 3:2 resonance as a function of the Jacobi constant shows how apocentric libration at the 2:1 resonance arises; there is evidence of a similar mechanism being responsible for the centre of the 4:3 resonance evolving towards 3:2 apocentric libration. This effect is due to perturbations from other resonances and demonstrates that resonances cannot be considered in isolation. on theoretical grounds the maximum libration width of first-order resonances should increase as the orbit of the perturbing secondary is approached. However, in reality the width decreases due to the chaotic effect of nearby resonances.

An adaptation of the dual-affine interior point method for the surface flatness problem

This paper presents an adaptation of the dual-affine interior point method for the surface flatness problem. In order to determine how flat a surface is, one should find two parallel planes so that the surface is between them and they are as close together as possible. This problem is equivalent to the problem of solving inconsistent linear systems in terms of Tchebyshev's norm. An algorithm is proposed and results are presented and compared with others published in the literature. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Prevalência de doenças sexualmente transmissíveis em mulheres profissionais do sexo, em um município do interior paulista, Brasil

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

Aircraft interior failure pattern recognition utilizing text mining and neural networks

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Light-induced lens analysis in photorefractive crystals employing phase-shifting real-time holographic interferometry

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Probability distribution models for daily rainfall data for an interior station of Brazil

Two stochastic models have been fitted to daily rainfall data for an interior station of Brazil. Of these two models, the results show a better fit to describe the data, by truncated negative probability model in comparison with Markov chain probability model. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is applied for significance for these models. © 1983 Springer-Verlag.

Resonance and chaos: I. First-order interior resonances

Analytical models for studying the dynamical behaviour of objects near interior, mean motion resonances are reviewed in the context of the planar, circular, restricted threebody problem. The predicted widths of the resonances are compared with the results of numerical integrations using Poincaré surfaces of section with a mass ratio of 10-3 (similar to the Jupiter-Sun case). It is shown that for very low eccentricities the phase space between the 2:1 and 3:2 resonances is predominantly regular, contrary to simple theoretical predictions based on overlapping resonance. A numerical study of the 'evolution' of the stable equilibrium point of the 3:2 resonance as a function of the Jacobi constant shows how apocentric libration at the 2:1 resonance arises; there is evidence of a similar mechanism being responsible for the centre of the 4:3 resonance evolving towards 3:2 apocentric libration. This effect is due to perturbations from other resonances and demonstrates that resonances cannot be considered in isolation. On theoretical grounds the maximum libration width of first-order resonances should increase as the orbit of the perturbing secondary is approached. However, in reality the width decreases due to the chaotic effect of nearby resonances.

Atendimento extra-hospitalar a alcoolistas em um municipio do interior Paulista

The purpose of this work is to know the forms of minding to the alcoholics in extra-hospitable services of mental health in Botucatu municipality. This places are: Mental Health Ambulatory and School Health Center both of the Medicine College of the Paulista State University and Mental Health Ambulatory of the NGA-11. For the development of this work was realized a bibliographic raising, presented in the introduction. Four professionals that work in this assistance were interviewed. The data that was collected in the interviews were reported with the literature of the area allowing the knowledge of the main characteristics of the minding to the alcoholist in the three services that were consulted. For example: groupal minding, minding to the family and the kind of therapeutic contract.

Analysis of rain quality data from the South African interior

Rain acidity may be ascribed to emissions from power station stacks, as well as emissions from other industry, biomass burning, maritime influences, agricultural influences, etc. Rain quality data are available for 30 sites in the South African interior, some from as early as 1985 for up to 14 rainfall seasons, while others only have relatively short records. The article examines trends over time in the raw and volume weighted concentrations of the parameters measured, separately for each of the sites for which sufficient data are available. The main thrust, however, is to examine the inter-relationship structure between the concentrations within each rain event (unweighted data), separately for each site, and to examine whether these inter-relationships have changed over time. The rain events at individual sites can be characterized by approximately eight combinations of rainfall parameters (or rain composition signatures), and these are common to all sites. Some sites will have more events from one signature than another, but there appear to be no signatures unique to a single site. Analysis via factor and cluster analysis, with a correspondence analysis of the results, also aid interpretation of the patterns. This spatio-temporal analysis, performed by pooling all rain event data, irrespective of site or time period, results in nine combinations of rainfall parameters being sufficient to characterize the rain events. The sites and rainfall seasons show patterns in these combinations of parameters, with some combinations appearing more frequently during certain rainfall seasons. In particular, the presence of the combination of low acetate and formate with high magnesium appears to be increasing in the later rainfall seasons, as does this combination together with calcium, sodium, chloride, potassium and fluoride. As expected, sites close together exhibit similar signatures. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Avaliação da prescrição médica em pediatria, baseada nos indicadores do uso de medicamentos selecionados pela oms em municipio do interior do estado de São Paulo

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that prescriptions of medicaments must be one parameter utilized to know how the medication is used by people. To do so, one specific methodology has been indicated, that is, the selected indicators of the use the medicaments. We applied this methodology with the aim of presenting a descriptive study of the physician prescription in Pediatric Clinic of the Health Basics Units. The results obtained are: the average number of medicaments prescribed with prescription was 2.6; the percentage of the medicaments prescribed with the generic name was 32%; the percentage of the prescriptions with antibiotics was 44.6%; the percentage of the prescriptions with injections was 10.4%; the percentage of the medicaments prescribed that are part of the municipal list was 22.8%, 27.5% for the program Dose Certs of the secretary of the State of São Paulo, and 50.4% by adding by adding the two lists. The essentiality of the medicaments prescribed may be considered very low, because only 32.6% appear in the RENAME. The percentage of the medicaments really dispensed was 39.9%. The medicaments more prescribed, according to the classification of the Anatomic-Therapeutic-Chemical (ATC), were the ones which acted in Respiratory System (26.8%), followed by anti-infectives for systemic use (16.4%) and by medicaments with acted in Alimentary tract and metabolism (15.8%). The conclusion is that the prescribers are moved by commercial influence of the drug makers, first because of the low prescription of medicaments by their generic name, second by the low number of medicaments effectively dispensed and then the low concordance between the ones prescribed and the ones included in the lists patterned by Tabatinga and by the State of São Paulo.

Birds of a eucalyptus woodlot in interior São Paulo.

Some 255 birds were recorded between 1982-2001 in and near a 2314-ha Horto of old eucalyptus plantations with native understory and a lake, near Rio Claro, in central São Paulo, Brazil. This is close to the 263 recorded in and around a ten-times smaller nearby 230-ha woodlot of semideciduous forest. Different species were 44, for a total of 307 in both areas. One hundred and fifty nonvagrant forest and border species were recorded in 1982-86, a number close to the 152 in the small native woodlot. With dry years and logging of plots in 1985-93, 21 of the 150 species were lost, 42 species decreased in numbers, 49 were stable, 19 increased (15 being border species), and 5 entered (one of dry forest and 4 of borders), so 129 species remained in 1996-2001 compared to 133 in the native woodlot. Open-area birds were 33, versus 50 in better-checked grassy swales in sugar cane near the natural woodlot, for a total of 53. Several species, like some border ones, did not enter the open but isolated and mowed interior lake area, or took years to do so. Water and marsh birds were 46 versus 40 in smaller creeks and ponds near the natural woodlot (total, 55) but many were migrants or infrequent visitors using distant areas, and perhaps should be counted as 0.1-0.9 local species rather than 1 species. Use of this more accurate method would reduce waterbird totals by 14 species in the Horto and by 11 around the native woodlot. I also recommend longer censusing at the edges in large woodlots or many edge species will be recorded only in small fragments of habitat. Several species increased and others decreased with occasional cat-tail and water-lily cleanups at the lake. A forested corridor between the Horto and natural woodlot is recommended, with old eucalyptus left to provide flowers for hummingbirds.