Desenvolvimento de um programa computacional destinado à unidade móvel de ensaio na barra de tração (umeb) para a avaliação do desempenho de tratores

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

HPLC determination of hemoglobins to establish reference values with the aid of statistics and informatics

The purpose of the present study was to establish reference values for hemoglobins (Hb) using HPLC, in samples containing normal Hb (AA), sickle cell trait without alpha-thalassemia (AS), sickle cell trait with alpha-thalassemia (ASH), sickle cell anemia (SS), and Hb SC disease (SC). The blood samples were analyzed by electrophoresis, HPLC and molecular procedures. The Hb A2 mean was 4.30 ± 0.44% in AS, 4.18 ± 0.42% in ASH, 3.90 ± 1.14% in SS, and 4.39 ± 0.35% in SC. They were similar, but above the normal range. Between the AS and ASH groups, only the amount of Hb S was higher in the AS group. The Hb S mean in the AS group was 38.54 ± 3.01% and in the ASH it was 36.54 ± 3.76%. In the qualitative analysis, using FastMap, distinct groups were seen: AA and SS located at opposite extremes, AS and ASH with overlapping values and intermediate distribution, SC between heterozygotes and the SS group. Hb S was confirmed by allele-specific polymerase chain reaction. The Hb values established will be available for use as a reference for the Brazilian population, drawing attention to the increased levels of Hb A2, which should be considered with caution to prevent incorrect diagnoses. ©FUNPEC-RP.

An Informatics Technical Note on Interaction of DNA - Graphene Chemical Sensor System as Reaction-Diffusion Wave-Based Computing System in Ionised Gaseous environments and their Applications Using Theoretical Studies and Scientific Computation Overview

The physics of plasmas encompasses basic problems from the universe and has assured us of promises in diverse applications to be implemented in a wider range of scientific and engineering domains, linked to most of the evolved and evolving fundamental problems. Substantial part of this domain could be described by R–D mechanisms involving two or more species (reaction–diffusion mechanisms). These could further account for the simultaneous non-linear effects of heating, diffusion and other related losses. We mention here that in laboratory scale experiments, a suitable combination of these processes is of vital importance and very much decisive to investigate and compute the net behaviour of plasmas under consideration. Plasmas are being used in the revolution of information processing, so we considered in this technical note a simple framework to discuss and pave the way for better formalisms and Informatics, dealing with diverse domains of science and technologies. The challenging and fascinating aspects of plasma physics is that it requires a great deal of insight in formulating the relevant design problems, which in turn require ingenuity and flexibility in choosing a particular set of mathematical (and/or experimental) tools to implement them.

Informatics competencies in nursing management

This study aimed to identify in scientific literature the informatics competencies required from the nurses to make decision in management process. Through a scoping review, literature databases were searched to find articles published in Portuguese, English, or Spanish, until July 2013. 188 articles were found, and seven were included in this study, published between 1994 and 2011. The studies were written in English (5; 71%), in USA (5; 71%), using experience reports or literature review designs (5; 71%). The informatics competences were categorized according the Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER). The findings highlight gaps in informatics competence to make decisions in the management process--essentially in information management competence.

An introductory informatics theoretical framework, based on an integrable lattice model using quantized function algebras, for studying DNA-ionized gas interaction system

Usually we observe that Bio-physical systems or Bio-chemical systems are many a time based on nanoscale phenomenon in different host environments, which involve many particles can often not be solved explicitly. Instead a physicist, biologist or a chemist has to rely either on approximate or numerical methods. For a certain type of systems, called integrable in nature, there exist particular mathematical structures and symmetries which facilitate the exact and explicit description. Most integrable systems, we come across are low-dimensional, for instance, a one-dimensional chain of coupled atoms in DNA molecular system with a particular direction or exist as a vector in the environment. This theoretical research paper aims at bringing one of the pioneering ‘Reaction-Diffusion’ aspects of the DNA-plasma material system based on an integrable lattice model approach utilizing quantized functional algebras, to disseminate the new developments, initiate novel computational and design paradigms.

Efeitos do herbicida lactofen sobre três cultivares de soja I. Alterações morfológicas externas e internas de folhas

O lactofen, herbicida do grupo dos difenil éteres, é indicado para uso na cultura da soja, em pós-emergência, devido sua eficácia no controle de plantas daninhas latifoliadas. No presente trabalho, conduzido em casa-de-vegetação, foram utilizadas as cultivares de soja Foscarin-31, IAC-8 e IAC-9, tratadas com lactofen nas doses 0,018 e 0,36 kg de lactofen i.a./ha, aplicadas quando as plantas apresentavam a Segunda folha composta totalmente expandida. Aos quatro e doze dias após as aplicações, foram analisadas e descritos os sinais macroscópicos e microscópicos de intoxicação nos folíolos das folhas. Os resultados indicaram que o lactofen ocasionou expressivas alterações morfológicas externas e internas das folhas, nos locais onde foi depositado, e que a dose maior acentua os efeitos do produto sobre as plantas, sendo que as cultivares de soja apresentaram diferentes graus de sensibilidade ao produto.

Efeito de herbicidas sobre plantas de Brachiaria plantaginea submetidas a estresse hídrico

Este trabalho objetivou avaliar a eficiência de controle de herbicidas inibidores da ACCase aplicados em pós-emergência em plantas de Brachiaria plantaginea submetidas a diferentes teores de água no solo. O estudo foi conduzido em casa de vegetação. O delineamento experimental foi o inteiramente casualizado, com quatro repetições, utilizando-se o esquema fatorial 9 x 4, sendo a combinação de três manejos hídricos (-0,03, -0,07 e -1,5 MPa) com três herbicidas (fluazifop-p-butil, haloxyfop-methyl e sethoxydim + óleo mineral Assist) e quatro doses destes (100, 50, 25 e 0% da dose recomendada). A aplicação dos herbicidas foi realizada em dois estádios vegetativos das plantas: 4-6 folhas e 2-3 perfilhos. As avaliações visuais de fitointoxicação das plantas de B. plantaginea foram realizadas aos 3, 7 e 14 dias após a aplicação, sendo determinada a massa seca das plantas no final do experimento. A eficiência de controle foi menor em plantas mantidas em potencial de água no solo de -1,5 MPa (manejo hídrico de 8%), independentemente do herbicida utilizado, nos dois estádios de aplicação, com exceção do herbicida haloxyfop-methyl aplicado no estádio de 2-3 perfilhos. Não houve diferenças de controle entre as aplicações com 100 e 50% da dose recomendada dos herbicidas nas plantas no estádio de 4-6 folhas, independentemente do manejo hídrico.

Controle químico de plantas daninhas aquáticas em condições controladas - caixa d'água

Durante o ano de 1998 foram conduzidos quatro experimentos em Botucatu, Estado de São Paulo, Brasil, em condições de caixas d'água, com o objetivo de estudar o efeito de alguns herbicidas sobre Eicchornia crassipes, Pistia stratiotes, Thypha subulata e Salvinia molesta. Os herbicidas e doses utilizadas foram: imazapyr a 125, 250, 500, 1.000, 1.500 e 2.000 g e.a./ha; 2,4 D a 1.200 g e.a./ha; glyphosate a 3.360 g e.a./ha. Houve, ainda, uma testemunha sem aplicação de herbicidas. Os experimentos foram instalados no delineamento experimental em blocos ao acaso, com quatro repetições. As parcelas experimentais foram constituídas pelas caixas d'água com dimensões de 60x60x60 cm e colocadas a pleno sol no campo. Utilizou-se 3, 12, 25 e 60 plantas/caixa de T. subulata, P. stratiotes, E. crassipes e S. molesta, respectivamente. Os herbicidas foram aplicados com pulverizador costal a pressão constante de CO2 de 1,75 Bar, munido de barra com bicos Teejet 110.02 VS e com um consumo de calda de 200 l/ha. Foram efetuadas avaliações visuais de controle de sete em sete dias por 35 a 49 dias, dependendo da espécie. Todos os herbicidas testados foram eficientes no controle de E. crassipes e o imazapyr foi o único herbicida a promover morte total das plantas, independente da dose utilizada. Os herbicidas 2,4 D e glyphosate não foram eficientes no controle de P. stratiotes. O herbicida imazapyr foi eficiente no controle de P. stratiotes, exceto na dose de 125 g e.a./ha. Todos os herbicidas foram eficientes no controle de T. subulata, exceção ao imazapyr na dose de125 g e.a./ha. Houve rebrota de T. subulata nas parcelas aplicadas com 2,4 D. Nenhum tratamento químico foi eficiente no controle de S. molesta.

Efeitos de surfatantes sobre a tensão superficial e a área de molhamento de soluções de glyphosate sobre folhas de tiririca

Com o objetivo de avaliar a eficiência da agregação de surfatantes ao herbicida glyphosate analisou-se a tensão superficial de diferentes soluções de pulverização contendo o hebicida e o surfatante, e a área de molhamento destas soluções nas folhas de Cyperus rotundus L.. Foram desenvolvidos métodos para avaliação da tensão superficial e da área de molhamento. Para analisar a tensão fez-se pesagens das gotas formadas na extremidade de uma bureta, com os seguintes tratamentos combinados de forma fatorial (3 x 5 x 11): 3 surfatantes (Extravon, Aterbane e Silwet L-77), 5 concentrações do herbicida, produto comercial Roundup (0; 1; 2; 3,5 e 5 %) e 11 concentrações de cada surfatantes (0; 0,005; 0,01; 0,02; 0,05; 0,1; 0,2; 0,5; 1; 2 e 3,5 %), num total de 165 tratamentos. Para avaliar a área de molhamento nas folhas de tiririca aplicou-se gotas de 0,48 .l. Os dados foram ajustados pelo modelo de Mitscherlich e, observou-se que para o surfatante Extravon que a eficiência decrescia gradativamente a medida em que aumentava a concentração do herbicida; para o Aterbane a eficiência foi reduzida apenas em baixas concentrações; já o surfatante Silwet L-77 apresentou eficiência bem superior aos demais e sua eficiência foi pouco alterada com a adição herbicida. Houve uma correlação positiva entre área de molhamento e tensão superficial. Concluiu-se, ainda, que não basta um surfatante reduzir a tensão superficial da água destilada, para que possa ser recomendado seu uso agrícola, assim, o surfatante deve ser submetido a testes preliminares com os defensivos em que serão conjugados para posterior recomendação.

Assessment of informatization for the dispensing of medications at a university hospital

INTRODUCTION: Informatics and automation are important tools for the reduction of work, errors and costs in a hospital pharmacy. OBJECTIVES: To describe the structuring and function of an informatized system for the dispensing of medications and to assess its effect on nursing and pharmacy services during the period from 1997 to 2003. MATERIALS and METHODS: In this descriptive and retrospective study, we performed an analysis of documents addressing the structuring and implementation of the informatized medication dispensing system. In addition, we analyzed the perceptions of nurses, pharmacists and pharmacy assistants who participated in the structuring phase of the system when interviewed about the effect of informatization on administrative aspects (e.g., requisition of medications, presentation of the dispensed medication and system operationalization). RESULTS: The major advantages provided by the new system were 1) the elimination of manual transcripts for prescribed medications, 2) increased speed, 3) better identification of the doses prescribed by physicians, 4) medication labels containing all necessary identification and 5) practicality and safety of optical bar code-based verification of the requested and dispensed medications. CONCLUSIONS: The great majority of the interviewees considered the informatized medication supply system to be of good quality. Analysis of the data provided information that could contribute to the expansion and refinement of the system, provide support for studies regarding the utilization of medications and offer new perspectives for work and productivity.

Human face verification based on multidimensional Polynomial Powers of Sigmoid (PPS)

In this paper, we described how a multidimensional wavelet neural networks based on Polynomial Powers of Sigmoid (PPS) can be constructed, trained and applied in image processing tasks. In this sense, a novel and uniform framework for face verification is presented. The framework is based on a family of PPS wavelets,generated from linear combination of the sigmoid functions, and can be considered appearance based in that features are extracted from the face image. The feature vectors are then subjected to subspace projection of PPS-wavelet. The design of PPS-wavelet neural networks is also discussed, which is seldom reported in the literature. The Stirling Universitys face database were used to generate the results. Our method has achieved 92 % of correct detection and 5 % of false detection rate on the database.

A novel neural model to electrical load forecasting in transformers

The paper describes a novel neural model to electrical load forecasting in transformers. The network acts as identifier of structural features to forecast process. So that output parameters can be estimated and generalized from an input parameter set. The model was trained and assessed through load data extracted from a Brazilian Electric Utility taking into account time, current, tension, active power in the three phases of the system. The results obtained in the simulations show that the developed technique can be used as an alternative tool to become more appropriate for planning of electric power systems.

A neural system to robust Nonlinear optimization subject to disjoint and constrained sets

The ability of neural networks to realize some complex nonlinear function makes them attractive for system identification. This paper describes a novel method using artificial neural networks to solve robust parameter estimation problems for nonlinear models with unknown-but-bounded errors and uncertainties. More specifically, a modified Hopfield network is developed and its internal parameters are computed using the valid-subspace technique. These parameters guarantee the network convergence to the equilibrium points. A solution for the robust estimation problem with unknown-but-bounded error corresponds to an equilibrium point of the network. Simulation results are presented as an illustration of the proposed approach.