The Chemical Percolation Devolatilization Model Applied to the Devolatilization of Coal in High Intensity Acoustic Fields

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Surdez ocupacional em professores: um diagnóstico provável

Sintomas auditivos e ruído ambiental são freqüentemente referidos por professores, porém as aferições destes não são rotina. Forma de Estudo: Clínico prospectivo. OBJETIVOS: Estudar, em professores: os sintomas auditivos, os resultados das audiometrias e a aferição do ruído nas classes. CASUÍSTICA E MÉTODO: em dois grupos de estudo compostos por GI (40 professores) e GII (40 voluntários), estudou-se: idade, sexo, condições de trabalho, audiometrias e níveis de ruído nas classes. RESULTADOS: em GI predominaram as mulheres (86%), que atuavam em ensino fundamental (75%), em classes com 21 - 40 alunos (70%), com jornadas de trabalho de 26 a 40 horas semanais (47%), e tempo variável na profissão. 93,7% dos professores de GI referiam ruído excessivo nas classes, 65% apresentavam sintomas auditivos e 25% deles possuíam audiometrias alteradas (contra 10% de GII), predominando a gota acústica (11,25%; p<0,05). Valores de ruído de 87dBA foram aferidos em todos os níveis de ensino. CONCLUSÕES: A surdez ocupacional pode estar ocorrendo em professores, porém são necessárias pesquisas adicionais para comprovação de tal suposição.

Electrochemical noise analysis of chalcopyrite carbon paste electrodes by Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans

The electrochemical response of chalcopyrite was studied using electrochemical noise analysis (ENA). The assay was carried out under constant aeration using 30 mL in two electrochemical cells containing iron-free mineral salts solution. These cells were initially monitored for 56 hours, After 72 hours, 7.25x 10(10) cells mL(-1) of A, ferrooxidans strain LR were added in both cells and monitored until 128 h. Subsequent to this period, 0.927 mmol L-1 of silver ions and 400 mmol L-1 of chloride ions were added each one separately. Both conditions were monitored until 168 hours. According to results obtained, it was observed that Cl- ions addition induced an accelerated corrosion process. However, there is a tendency of the system to reach the stationary state due to repassivation of the electrodic surface. In the other side, the Ag+ addition contributed for the maintenance of the oxidant atmosphere, in spite of controversial effect caused by considerable variations in the R-n values, resulting in a instability in the chalcopyrite reactivity.

Detection of cracks in scratching tests in ceramic materials through acoustic emission

The mechanisms of material removal and the interactions among scratches performed in ceramic materials were investigated using acoustic emission signals, and scanning electron microscopy, in scratching experiments. Several testing conditions were used to produce different types of removing mechanism on a glass as well as on a polycrystalline alumina sample composed by heterogeneous grain size. It is known that the material removing process on a polycrystalline ceramic involves intergranular microfracture and grain dislodgement, unlike the chipping produced by the extension of lateral cracks in non-granular materials, such as glass. Distinct settings for velocities, loads, and two types of diamond indenter were tested. The material removal was carried out by three different methods of scratching: single passes, repeated overlapping passes, and parallel scratches. As a general result, there was a clear relationship between the acoustic emission signals and the damage intensity occurred in the material removal. More specifically, there were differences in the acoustic emission signal levels in the scratches made on the alumina and on the glass owing to the material removal mechanisms associated with the structure of these materials. A gradual increase in the acoustic emission levels was observed when the number of repeated passes was increased as a result of the damage accumulation process followed by severe material removal. It was also noticed that the acoustic emission signals were capable of reflecting the interactions between two parallel scratches.

Acoustic measurement of the low-energy excitations in Nd2-xCexCuO4+delta

The complex dynamic Young's modulus of ceramic Nd2-xCexCuO4 with x = 0, 0.05 and 0.20 has been measured from 1.5 to 100 K at frequencies of 1 - 10 kHz. In the undoped sample the modulus starts decreasing below similar to 20 K, instead of approaching a constant value as in a normal solid. The modulus minimum has been interpreted in terms of paraelastic contribution from the relaxation of the Nd3+ 4f electrons between the levels of the ground state doublet, which is split by the interaction with the antiferromagnetically ordered Cu sublattice. The value of the splitting is found to be 0.34 meV, in excellent agreement with inelastic neutron scattering, infrared and specific heat experiments. With doping, the anomaly shifts to lower temperature and decreases in amplitude, consistently with a reduction of the local field from the Cu sublattice. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Electrochemical noise analysis of bioleaching of bornite (Cu5FeS4) by Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans

Electrochemical noise (EN) is a generic term describing the phenomenon of spontaneous fluctuations of potential or current noise of electrochemical systems. Since this technique provides a non-destructive condition for investigating corrosion processes, it can be useful to study the electrochemical oxidation of mineral sulfides by microorganisms, a process known as bacterial leaching of metals. This technique was utilized to investigate the dissolution of a bornite electrode in the absence (first 79 h) and after the addition of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans (next 113 h) in salts mineral medium at pH 1.8, without addition of the energy source (Fe2+ ions) for this chemolithotrophic bacterium. Potential and current noise data have been determined simultaneously with two identical working bornite electrodes which were linked by a zero resistance ammeter (ZRA). The mean potential, E-coup, coupling current, I-coup, standard deviations of potential and current noise fluctuations and noise resistance, R-n, have been obtained for coupled bornite electrodes. Noise measurements were recorded twice a day in an unstirred solution at 30 degrees C. Significant changes in these parameters were observed when the A. ferrooxidans suspension was added, related with bacterial activity on reduced species present in the sulfide moisture (Fe2+, S2-). ENA was a suitable tool for monitoring the changes of the corrosion behavior of bornite due to the presence of bacterium. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A well-balanced flow equation for noise removal and edge detection

In this paper, an anisotropic nonlinear diffusion equation for image restoration is presented. The model has two terms: the diffusion and the forcing term. The balance between these terms is made in a selective way, in which boundary points and interior points of the objects that make up the image are treated differently. The optimal smoothing time concept, which allows for finding the ideal stop time for the evolution of the partial differential equation is also proposed. Numerical results show the proposed model's high performance.

The newborn pain cry: Descriptive acoustic spectrographic analysis

Introduction: Study the characteristics of pain vocal emission of newborns during venepuncture through acoustic analysis and relate it to NIPS pain scale and some variables of the newborns.Methods: Emissions of 111 healthy term newborns were recorded, whose lifetime varied from 24 to 72 h. The acoustic analysis was realized with GRAM 5.7 software verifying the occurrence of tense strangled voice quality, sounds, concentration of acoustic energy, breaks, double harmonic breaks and frequency instability, type of phonation, vocal attack and cough. The NIPS scale was realized during venepuncture and descriptive statistical analysis and correlation through Spearman test.Results: Hundred percent of the emissions had guttural sounds, vowels, hard vocal attack, frequency, breaks, double harmonic breaks and tense strangled voice quality; 34.2% higher fundamental frequency; 62.2% periods of emission absence and 100% occurrence of tracing instability, concentration of acoustic energy, inspiratory and expiratory phonation. The cough occurred in 14.4%. The signs of vocal tract constriction associated with all. The parameters. There was a negative correlation between the higher fundamental frequencies and the weight of newborns and positive correlation between cough and NIPS score.Conclusions: the newborn pain emission is tense and strident, the modifications of frequency and spectrographic tracing and the presence of sounds show laryngeal and vocal tract participation. The smaller the newborn weight, the bigger the presence of higher fundamental frequency with tense strangled voice quality and the bigger the NIPS score, the more frequent the cough. Such characteristics make pain crying peculiar, helping in the evaluation of pain during a procedure. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V.. All rights reserved.

Enzymatic Logic Gates with Noise-Reducing Sigmoid Response

Biochemical computing is an emerging field of unconventional computing that attempts to process information with biomolecules and biological objects using digital logic. In this work we survey filtering in general, in biochemical computing, and summarize the experimental realization of an and logic gate with sigmoid response in one of the inputs. The logic gate is realized with electrode-immobilized glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase enzyme that catalyzes a reaction corresponding to the Boolean and functions. A kinetic model is also developed and used to evaluate the extent to which the performance of the experimentally realized logic gate is close to optimal.

Acoustic repertory of Hypsiboas exastis (Caramaschi and Rodgrigues, 2003) (Amphibia, Hylidae).

Advertisement, territorial, and distress calls of Hypsiboas exastis, a species of the Hypsiboas faker group, are described for the first time. Acoustic records were obtained of one specimen found at the Municipality of Urucuca, state of Bahia, Brazilian eastern cost. We compared the advertisement calls of H. exastis with those of H. lundii and H. pardalis (the closest related species) and suggested a closer similarity with H. lundii.

Habitat heterogeneity and use of physical acoustic space in anuran communities in southeastern Brazil.

We intended to verify if structural and physiognomical characteristics of water bodies influence on the degree of overlap among calling sites of 23 anurans species, if anuran species use different calling sites in different water bodies, and if there is some relationship between the degree of advertisement call (based on seven call features) and calling site differentiation. Then, we determined calling sites (based in four variables) and recorded the advertisement call for anuran species that occurred in 10 water bodies of northwestern São Paulo State. We also determined the environmental heterogeneity (based in four environmental descriptors) for each water body. Males of most species used similar calling sites in each water body, probably because of the high uniformity of the environment, as a consequence of agricultural impacts on edge vegetation of the studied ponds. Most species (18 out of 19 species) called from different sites in the ponds where they occurred, which can be associated with differences in horizontal and vertical distribution of vegetation in the studied ponds. From the 19 species analyzed, only males of Pseudopaludicola aff. saltica called in sites with the same characteristics in different ponds. Advertisement call of Hylidae species was more similar to each other than were Leiuperidae and Leptodactylidae among themselves. The aquatic/terrestrial anurans (Bufonidae, Leiuperidae, Leptodactylidae and Microhylidae) occupied similar calling sites but presented quite distinct advertisement calls, while Hylidae species presented an inverse pattern: a high similarity on advertisement call features but used different calling sites, which indicates a niche complementarity between physical (calling site use) and acoustic (advertisement call) space use.

Production grinding burn detection using acoustic emission and electric power signals

This work uses a monitoring system based on a PC platform, where the acoustic emission and electric power signals generated during the grinding process are used to investigate superficial burning occurrence in a surface grinding operation using two types of steel, three grinding conditions and an Al203 vitrified grinding wheel. Acoustic emission signals on the workpiece and grinding power were measured during a surface plunge operation until the grinding burn happened. From the results the standard deviation of the acoustic emission signal and the maximum electric power were calculated for each grinding pass. The proposed DPO parameter is the product between the power level and acoustic emission standard deviation. The results show that both signals can be used for burning detection, and the parameter DPO is the best indicator for the burning studied in this work. This can be explained by the high dispersion of the acoustic emission RMS level associated to the high power consumption when the grinding wheel lose its sharpness.

Noise reduction in speech signals using a TMS320C31 digital signal processor

This paper describes a speech enhancement system (SES) based on a TMS320C31 digital signal processor (DSP) for real-time application. The SES algorithm is based on a modified spectral subtraction method and a new speech activity detector (SAD) is used. The system presents a medium computational load and a sampling rate up to 18 kHz can be used. The goal is load and a sampling rate up to 18 kHz can be used. The goal is to use it to reduce noise in an analog telephone line.