The Rechtslehre doctrine and Kant's philosophy of history

The text is divided in two phases. In the first phase, consisting of three parts, the main concepts of Kant's Doctrine of Right are considered in a comprehensive approach related to: the issue of the relations between natural right and positive right, problem closely connected to that of the relations between natural state and civil state, private right and public right; to the doctrine of property and its connection with political right. on treating the right in its several types, we intend to appoint the practical reasoning as a background of the Doctrine. In the second phase, concerning its last section, the consideration on the presence of the practical reasoning into the right is placed before some specificities of Kant's phylosophy of history, with the intent of establishing the possible relation between Rechtslehre and that philosophy.

Spermatogenesis and nucleolar activity in Triatoma klugi (Triatomine, Heteroptera)

Triatoma klugi is a Chagas disease vector in the Rio Grande do Sul State. Triatominae chromosomes are holocentric and sex chromosomes segregation is post-reductional. In this paper we describe the karyotype of male T. klugi and a meiotic analysis including the nucleolar behavior during spermatogenesis. Testis cells were analyzed after lacto-acetic orcein and silver nitrate staining. Two autosomes and the heterochromosomes presented nucleolar activity (Ag-NORs) during diplotene-diakinesis. The analysis of metaphase I and II revealed a karyotype with 2n = 20+XY. In metaphase I a prominent nucleolar mass was observed in the cell periphery and small silver grains were detected in metaphase II. During anaphase, the chromosomes segregated in parallel and a typical holocentric late migration behavior was observed. The restoration of the nucleolus was an important feature in this phase. During telophase nucleolar masses persisted and in early spermiogenesis the spermatids presented a small peripheral mass until elongation. The present study is a contribution to the study of chromatin behavior and nucleolar persistence in meiosis.

On Clifford subalgebras, spacetime splittings and applications

Z(2)-gradings of Clifford algebras are reviewed and we shall be concerned with an alpha-grading based on the structure of inner automorphisms, which is closely related to the spacetime splitting, if we consider the standard conjugation map automorphism by an arbitrary, but fixed, splitting vector. After briefly sketching the orthogonal and parallel components of products of differential forms, where we introduce the parallel [orthogonal] part as the space [time] component, we provide a detailed exposition of the Dirac operator splitting and we show how the differential operator parallel and orthogonal components are related to the Lie derivative along the splitting vector and the angular momentum splitting bivector. We also introduce multivectorial-induced alpha-gradings and present the Dirac equation in terms of the spacetime splitting, where the Dirac spinor field is shown to be a direct sum of two quaternions. We point out some possible physical applications of the formalism developed.

Anisotropic sound and shock waves in dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate

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

Purification, sequencing and structural characterization of the phospholipase A(1) from the venom of the social wasp Polybia paulista (Hymenoptera, Vespidae)

The biochemical and functional characterization of wasp venom toxins is an important prerequisite for the development of new tools both for the therapy of the toxic reactions due to envenomation caused by multiple stinging accidents and also for the diagnosis and therapy of allergic reactions caused by this type of venom. PLA(1) was purified from the venom of the neotropical social wasp Polybia paulista by using molecular exclusion and cation exchange chromatographies; its amino acid sequence was determined by using automated Edman degradation and compared to the sequences of other vespid venom PLA(1)'s. The enzyme exists as a 33,961.40 da protein, which was identified as a lipase of the GX class, liprotein lipase superfamily, pancreatic lipases (ab20.3) homologous family and RP2 sub-group of phospholipase. P. paulista PLA(1) is 53-82% identical to the phospholipases from wasp species from Northern Hemisphere. The use restrained-based modeling permitted to describe the 3-D structure of the enzyme, revealing that its molecule presents 23% alpha-helix, 28% beta-sheet and 49% coil. The protein structure has the alpha/beta fold common to many lipases; the core consists of a tightly packed beta-sheet constituted of six-stranded parallel and one anti-parallel beta-strand, surrounded by four alpha-helices. P. paulista PLA(1) exhibits direct hemolytic action against washed red blood cells with activity similar to the Cobra cardiotoxin from Naja naja atra. In addition to this, PLA(1) was immunoreactive to specific IgE from the sera of P. paulista-sensitive patients. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Speedup and scalability analysis of Master-Slave applications on large heterogeneous clusters

Although cluster environments have an enormous potential processing power, real applications that take advantage of this power remain an elusive goal. This is due, in part, to the lack of understanding about the characteristics of the applications best suited for these environments. This paper focuses on Master/Slave applications for large heterogeneous clusters. It defines application, cluster and execution models to derive an analytic expression for the execution time. It defines speedup and derives speedup bounds based on the inherent parallelism of the application and the aggregated computing power of the cluster. The paper derives an analytical expression for efficiency and uses it to define scalability of the algorithm-cluster combination based on the isoefficiency metric. Furthermore, the paper establishes necessary and sufficient conditions for an algorithm-cluster combination to be scalable which are easy to verify and use in practice. Finally, it covers the impact of network contention as the number of processors grow. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mechanical and electrical driving field induced high-frequency dielectric anomalies in ferroelectric systems

Polycrystalline or single-crystal ferroelectric materials present dielectric dispersion in the frequency range 100 MHz-1 GHz that has been attributed to a dispersive ( relaxation-like) mechanism as well as a resonant mechanism. Particularly in 'normal' ferroelectric materials, a dielectric response that is indistinguishable from dispersion or a resonance has been reported. Nevertheless, the reported results are not conclusive enough to distinguish each mechanism clearly. A detailed study of the dielectric dispersion phenomenon has been carried out in PbTiO3-based ferroelectric ceramics, with the composition Pb1-xLaxTiO3 (x = 0.15), over a wide range of temperatures and frequencies, including microwave frequencies. The dielectric response of La-modified lead titanate ferroelectric ceramics, in 'virgin' and poled states, has been investigated in the temperature and frequency ranges 300-450 K and 1 kHz-2 GHz, respectively. The results revealed that the frequency dependence of the dielectric anomalies, depending on the measuring direction with respect to the orientation of the macroscopic polarization, may be described as a general mechanism related to an 'over-damped' resonant process. Applying either a uniaxial stress along the measurement field direction or a poling electric field parallel and/or perpendicular to the measuring direction, a resonant response of the real and imaginary components of the dielectric constant is observed, in contrast to the dispersion behavior obtained in the absence of the stress, for the 'virgin' samples. Both results, resonance and/or dispersion, can be explained by considering a common mechanism involving a resonant response (damped and/or over-damped) which is strongly affected by a ferroelastic-ferroelectric coupling, contributing to the low-field dielectric constant.

Indoor radon measurements and methodologies in Latin American countries

According to the current international guidelines concerning environmental problems, it is necessary to evaluate and to know the indoor radon levels, specially since most of the natural radiation dose to man comes from radon gas and its progeny. Several countries have established National Institutions and National Programs for the study of radon and its connection with lung cancer risk and public health. The aim of this work is to present the indoor radon measurements and the detection methods used for different regions of Latin America (LA) in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. This study shows that the passive radon devices based on alpha particle nuclear track methodology (NTM) is one of the more generalized methods in LA for long term indoor radon measurements, CR-39, LR-115 and Makrofol being the more commonly used detector materials. The participating institutions and the radon level measurements in the different countries are presented in this contribution. (C) 2001 Elsevier B.V. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Drying kinetics of tomato by using electric resistance and heat pump dryers

Drying kinetics of tomato was studied by using heat pump dryer (HPD) and electric resistance dryers with parallel and crossed airflow. The performance of both systems was evaluated and compared and the influence of temperature, air velocity, and tomato type on the drying kinetics was analyzed. The use of HPD showed to be adequate in the drying process of tomatoes, mainly in relation to the conversion rate of electric energy into thermal energy. The heat pump effective coefficient of performance (COPHT,EF) was between 2.56 and 2.68, with an energy economy of about 40% when compared to the drying system with electric resistance. The Page model could be used to predict drying time of tomato and statistical analysis showed that the model parameters were mainly affected by drying temperature.

Partial external mitral annuloplasty in dogs with myxomatous mitral valve degeneration and congestive heart failure: Outcome in 9 cases

Objective: To report the outcome of partial external mitral annuloplasty in dogs with congestive heart failure (CHF) due to mitral regurgitation caused by myxomatous mitral valve degeneration (MMVD). Animals, materials and methods: Nine client-owned dogs with CHF due to mitral regurgitation caused by MMVD. Surgery consisted of a double row of pledget-butressed continuous suture lines placed into the left ventricle parallel and just ventral to the atrioventricular groove between the subsinuosal branch of the left circumflex coronary artery and the paraconal branch of the left coronary artery. Results: Two dogs died during surgery because of severe hemorrhage. Two dogs died 12 and 36 h after surgery because of acute myocardial infarction. Three dogs were euthanized 2 and 4 weeks after surgery because of progression of CHF, 1 was euthanized 30 days after surgery for non-cardiac disease, and 1 survived for 48 months. In the 5 dogs that survived to discharge there was no significant change in the left atrium to aortic ratio with surgery (3.6 ± 0.56 before surgery; 3.1 ± 0.4 after surgery; p = 0.182), and no significant change in mitral regurgitant fraction in 4 dogs in which this measurement was made (78.7 ± 2.0% before surgery; 68.7 ± 7.5% after surgery; p = 0.09). Conclusions: Partial external mitral annuloplasty in dogs with CHF due to MMVD was associated with high perioperative mortality and most dogs that survived to discharge failed to show clinically relevant palliation from this procedure. Consequently, partial external mitral annuloplasty is not a viable option for dogs with mitral regurgitation due to MMVD that has progressed to the stage of CHF. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Architecture for peer-to-peer databases with routing queries using ant colony algorithm and semantic support

In a peer-to-peer network, the nodes interact with each other by sharing resources, services and information. Many applications have been developed using such networks, being a class of such applications are peer-to-peer databases. The peer-to-peer databases systems allow the sharing of unstructured data, being able to integrate data from several sources, without the need of large investments, because they are used existing repositories. However, the high flexibility and dynamicity of networks the network, as well as the absence of a centralized management of information, becomes complex the process of locating information among various participants in the network. In this context, this paper presents original contributions by a proposed architecture for a routing system that uses the Ant Colony algorithm to optimize the search for desired information supported by ontologies to add semantics to shared data, enabling integration among heterogeneous databases and the while seeking to reduce the message traffic on the network without causing losses in the amount of responses, confirmed by the improve of 22.5% in this amount. © 2011 IEEE.

iSPD: An iconic-based modeling simulator for distributed grids

Simulation of large and complex systems, such as computing grids, is a difficult task. Current simulators, despite providing accurate results, are significantly hard to use. They usually demand a strong knowledge of programming, what is not a standard pattern in today's users of grids and high performance computing. The need for computer expertise prevents these users from simulating how the environment will respond to their applications, what may imply in large loss of efficiency, wasting precious computational resources. In this paper we introduce iSPD, iconic Simulator of Parallel and Distributed Systems, which is a simulator where grid models are produced through an iconic interface. We describe the simulator and its intermediate model languages. Results presented here provide an insight in its easy-of-use and accuracy.

Critical currents and melting temperature of a two-dimensional vortex lattice with periodic pinning

The critical current and melting temperature of a vortex system are analyzed. Calculations are made for a two-dimensional film at finite temperature with two kinds of periodic pinning: hexagonal and Kagomé. A transport current parallel and perpendicular to the main axis of the pinning arrays is applied and molecular dynamics simulations are used to calculate the vortex velocities to obtain the critical currents. The structure factor and displacements of vortices at zero transport current are used to obtain the melting temperature for both pinning arrays. The critical currents are higher for the hexagonal pinning lattice and anisotropic for both pinning arrays. This anisotropy is stronger with temperature for the hexagonal array. For the Kagomé pinning lattice, our analysis shows a multi stage phase melting; that is, as we increase the temperature, each different dynamic phase melts before reaching the melting temperature. Both the melting temperature and critical currents are larger for the hexagonal lattice, indicating the role for the interstitial vortices in decreasing the pinning strength. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Manipulação remota de um braço mecânico (Scorbot ER - III) utilizando a rede mundial de computadores

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Medidas de ressonância de spin eletrônico (RSE) em polianilina dopada com plastificante e de condutividade a.c. e RSE em óxidos

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