The effects of anxiety on visual search, movement kinematics, and performance in table tennis: A test of Eysenck and Calvo's processing efficiency theory

Processing efficiency theory predicts that anxiety reduces the processing capacity of working memory and has detrimental effects on performance. When tasks place little demand on working memory, the negative effects of anxiety can be avoided by increasing effort. Although performance efficiency decreases, there is no change in performance effectiveness. When tasks impose a heavy demand on working memory, however, anxiety leads to decrements in efficiency and effectiveness. These presumptions were tested using a modified table tennis task that placed low (LWM) and high (HWM) demands on working memory. Cognitive anxiety was manipulated through a competitive ranking structure and prize money. Participants' accuracy in hitting concentric circle targets in predetermined sequences was taken as a measure of performance effectiveness, while probe reaction time (PRT), perceived mental effort (RSME), visual search data, and arm kinematics were recorded as measures of efficiency. Anxiety had a negative effect on performance effectiveness in both LWM and HWM tasks. There was an increase in frequency of gaze and in PRT and RSME values in both tasks under high vs. low anxiety conditions, implying decrements in performance efficiency. However, participants spent more time tracking the ball in the HWM task and employed a shorter tau margin when anxious. Although anxiety impaired performance effectiveness and efficiency, decrements in efficiency were more pronounced in the HWM task than in the LWM task, providing support for processing efficiency theory.

Sistemas distribuídos aplicados à compressão e recuperação de imagens

Digital image processing is a field that demands great processing capacity. As such it becomes relevant to implement software that is based on the distribution of the processing into several nodes divided by computers belonging to the same network. Specifically discussed in this work are distributed algorithms of compression and expansion of images using the discrete cosine transform. The results show that the savings in processing time obtained due to the parallel algorithms in comparison to its sequential equivalents is a function that depends on the resolution of the image and the complexity of the involved calculation; that is efficiency is greater the longer the processing period is in terms of the time involved for the communication between the network points.

Análise das perdas na produção contínua de extração de óleo de soja: estudo de caso no método de extração por solvente

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

PANORAMA TÉCNICO - ECONÔMICO DO SETOR DE ROCHAS ORNAMENTAIS NO BRASIL

O Brasil, destacado pela sua espetacular “geodiversidade”, já se coloca no grupo dos grandes produtores e exportadores mundiais do setor de rochas. Sua produção inclui granitos, ardósias, quartzitos, mármores, travertinos, pedra-sabão, serpentinitos, calcários, conglomerados, basaltos, gnaisses foliados e várias outras rochas, somando cerca de 6 milhões de t/ano e abrangendo 600 variedades comerciais, derivadas de 1.500 frentes de lavra. Os 18 arranjos produtivos locais (APL’s) do setor de rochas, identificados no Brasil, envolvem atividades mínero-industriais em 10 estados e 80 municípios, nas regiões Sudeste, Sul, Centro-Oeste, Norte e Nordeste. Mais amplamente, são registrados 370 municípios com recolhimento da CFEM (Compensação Financeira pela Exploração Mineral) para extração de rochas de revestimento. Estima-se a existência de 11.500 empresas do setor de rochas atuantes no Brasil, responsáveis pela geração de 120.000 empregos diretos e por um parque de beneficiamento com capacidade de serragem e polimento para 50 milhões m2/ano em granitos, mármores, travertinos, e de mais 40 milhões m2/ano para rochas de processamento simples, sobretudo ardósias, basaltos laminados, quartzitos e gnaisses foliados. As transações comerciais do setor nos mercados interno e externo, incluindo-se negócios com máquinas, equipamentos e insumos, movimentam cerca de US$ 2,5 bilhões/ano. As exportações do setor somaram US$ 429,4 milhões em 2003 e estão atendendo cerca de 90 países, destacando-se que o Brasil já é o principal fornecedor de granitos beneficiados para os EUA, além de ser o segundo maior exportador mundial de ardósias.

Estudo de controladores aplicados a inversores para UPS com operação ilhada

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Ubiquitous Computing: Any Ethical Implications?

In this article, the authors investigate, from an interdisciplinary perspective, possible ethical implications of the presence of ubiquitous computing systems in human perception/action. The term ubiquitous computing is used to characterize information-processing capacity from computers that are available everywhere and all the time, integrated into everyday objects and activities. The contrast in approach to aspects of ubiquitous computing between traditional considerations of ethical issues and the Ecological Philosophy view concerning its possible consequences in the context of perception/action are the underlying themes of this paper. The focus is on an analysis of how the generalized dissemination of microprocessors in embedded systems, commanded by a ubiquitous computing system, can affect the behaviour of people considered as embodied embedded agents.

A NEURAL NET FOR EXTRACTING KNOWLEDGE FROM NATURAL-LANGUAGE DATA-BASES

The present paper introduces a new model of fuzzy neuron, one which increases the computational power of the artificial neuron, turning it also into a symbolic processing device. This model proposes the synapsis to be symbolically and numerically defined, by means of the assignment of tokens to the presynaptic and postsynaptic neurons. The matching or concatenation compatibility between these tokens is used to decided about the possible connections among neurons of a given net. The strength of the compatible synapsis is made dependent on the amount of the available presynaptic and post synaptic tokens. The symbolic and numeric processing capacity of the new fuzzy neuron is used here to build a neural net (JARGON) to disclose the existing knowledge in natural language data bases such as medical files, set of interviews, and reports about engineering operations.

Web Services Aplicados à Visualização

With the rapid growth of the use of Web applications in various fields of knowledge, the term Web service enter into evidence in the current scenario, which refers to services from different origins and purpose, offered through local networks and also available in some cases, on the Internet. The architecture of this type of application offers data processing on server side thereby, running applications and complex and slow processes is very interesting, which is the case with most algorithms involving visualization. The VTK is a library intended for visualization, and features a large variety of methods and algorithms for this purpose, but with a graphics engine that requires processing capacity. The union of these two resources can bring interesting results and contribute for performance improvements in the VTK library. This study is discussed in this project, through testing and communication overhead analysis

Entropy effect in quantum computing and information: an open-source environment simulation

The technologies are rapidly developing, but some of them present in the computers, as for instance their processing capacity, are reaching their physical limits. It is up to quantum computation offer solutions to these limitations and issues that may arise. In the field of information security, encryption is of paramount importance, being then the development of quantum methods instead of the classics, given the computational power offered by quantum computing. In the quantum world, the physical states are interrelated, thus occurring phenomenon called entanglement. This study presents both a theoretical essay on the merits of quantum mechanics, computing, information, cryptography and quantum entropy, and some simulations, implementing in C language the effects of entropy of entanglement of photons in a data transmission, using Von Neumann entropy and Tsallis entropy.

Tuberculosis diagnosis after bleach processing for early stage tuberculosis laboratory capacity building

The diagnosis of tuberculosis is seriously hampered in the absence of standard biosafety laboratory facilities for specimen concentration and Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture. Within a laboratory twinning arrangement, heat-fixed direct smear and sediment from 74 bleach-processed and 20 non-processed specimens from Cumura Hospital, Guinea-Bissau, were sent to Lisbon for molecular evaluation of rifampicin resistance. Sequence analysis of a 369 base-pair ppoB locus detected 3.2% (3/94) resistant specimens. To our knowledge, this represents the first report on the molecular analysis of M. tuberculosis from bleach-processed sputum, an alternative to current diagnostic practice in low-resource settings.

Incidence and physical properties of PSE chicken meat in a commercial processing plant

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

The embodied embedded character of system 1 processing

In the last thirty years, a relatively large group of cognitive scientists have begun characterising the mind in terms of two distinct, relatively autonomous systems. To account for paradoxes in empirical results of studies mainly on reasoning, Dual Process Theories were developed. Such Dual Process Theories generally agree that System 1 is rapid, automatic, parallel, and heuristic-based and System 2 is slow, capacity-demanding, sequential, and related to consciousness. While System 2 can still be decently understood from a traditional cognitivist approach, I will argue that it is essential for System 1 processing to be comprehended in an Embodied Embedded approach to Cognition.© MSM 2013.

Bioactive substance contents and antioxidant capacity of the lipid fraction of Annona crassiflora Mart. seeds

Annona crassiflora Mart. is a typical fruit of the Brazilian cerrado, considered to be a species of economic interest, mainly for its use in cooking, which is widespread among the inhabitants of that region, and can be found in many typical local dishes, especially sweets, jellies, liqueurs, soft drinks, ice creams and juices. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine the bioactive substance contents and the antioxidant capacity of the lipid fraction of A. crassiflora Mart. seeds in the interest of better identifying the quality of this raw material from the Brazilian cerrado. After the receipt of the fruits, the seeds were removed manually and, then, the lipid fraction was obtained by cold extraction with chloroform:methanol:water (2:1:0.8, v/v/v) and analyzed for the composition of phytosterols, tocopherols, fatty acids, total carotenoids, antioxidant activity and oxidative stability index. The lipid fraction showed significant quantity of bioactive substances, especially phytosterols, tocopherols and unsaturated fatty acids, as well as significant antioxidant capacity and oxidative stability, influenced by the content of phytosterols and the composition of fatty acids present in the analyzed fraction. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

Cleaning capacity promoted by motor-driven or manual instrumentation using ProTaper Universal system: Histological analysis

The aim of this study was to assess the cleaning capacity of the Protaper system using motor-driven or manual instrumentation. Materials and Methods: Ten mandibular molars were randomly separated into 2 groups (n = 5) according to the type of instrumentation performed, as follows: Group 1 - instrumentation with rotary nickel-titanium (Ni-Ti) files using ProTaper Universal System (Dentsply/Maillefer); and, Group 2 - instrumentation with Ni-Ti hand files using ProTaper Universal (Dentsply-Maillefer). Afterwards, the teeth were sectioned transversely and submitted to histotechnical processing to obtain histological sections for microscopic evaluation. The images were analyzed by the Corel Photo-Paint X5 program (Corel Corporation) using an integration grid superimposed on the image. Results: Statistical analysis (U-Mann-Whitney - P < 0.05) demonstrated that G1 presented higher cleaning capacity when compared to G2. Conclusions: The rotary technique presented better cleaning results in the apical third of the root canal system when compared to the manual technique.