Use of uniform designs in combination with neural networks for viral infection process development

This work aimed to compare the predictive capacity of empirical models, based on the uniform design utilization combined to artificial neural networks with respect to classical factorial designs in bioprocess, using as example the rabies virus replication in BHK-21 cells. The viral infection process parameters under study were temperature (34°C, 37°C), multiplicity of infection (0.04, 0.07, 0.1), times of infection, and harvest (24, 48, 72 hours) and the monitored output parameter was viral production. A multilevel factorial experimental design was performed for the study of this system. Fractions of this experimental approach (18, 24, 30, 36 and 42 runs), defined according uniform designs, were used as alternative for modelling through artificial neural network and thereafter an output variable optimization was carried out by means of genetic algorithm methodology. Model prediction capacities for all uniform design approaches under study were better than that found for classical factorial design approach. It was demonstrated that uniform design in combination with artificial neural network could be an efficient experimental approach for modelling complex bioprocess like viral production. For the present study case, 67% of experimental resources were saved when compared to a classical factorial design approach. In the near future, this strategy could replace the established factorial designs used in the bioprocess development activities performed within biopharmaceutical organizations because of the improvements gained in the economics of experimentation that do not sacrifice the quality of decisions.

Presença de fatores de risco dependentes ou não de esforço físico em praticantes de corrida de rua

In order to reduce the sedentarism and to improve population's health condition, many physical activity incentive programs have been stimulated. As a result, many people have adhered to street racing, but their health condition is almost always ignored. The aim of this study was to evaluate street racers' health condition, identifying the presence of cardiovascular risk factors as well as problems associated to street racing. The study case was composed by 111 racers from the town of Bauru (94 men and 17 women) aged in average 39±13 years old, who were evaluated in 4 street race competitions. The subjects answered to an anamnesis with questions about their socioeconomic status, medicine use, cardiovascular risk, physical exercise practices, and issues related to racing and injury. Weight (kg) and height (m) were measured to calculate the body mass index (BMI, kg/m²) as well as systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), abdominal circumference (AC), and flexibility. It could be observed that the majority of racers were Caucasian, married and belonged to social classes over C. The prevalent age was between 18 and 35 years old (42%). Among the participants, 38.7% have already undergone some kind of surgery and 13% declared having some health problem. The questionnaire pointed out that 36% had low and moderate cardiovascular risk. It could be noticed from the AC that 10% of men and 18% of women had high cardiac risk. Among the tested, 43.2% (24.3% altered and 18.9% borderline) showed high BP on the day of the test, but only 2.7% had self-declared hypertensive. In relation to injury, 36% had already had lesions of some kind, 27.5% of which had occurred in the last 8 months. 66.6% had derived from training or racing competitions and the knee was the mostly affected body part. Only 43% had professional orientation by a physical education teacher during their training and the main reasons for them to begin racing practice were...

Relações públicas e web 2.0: a manutenção do relacionamento entre artista e público pela internet

The objective of this study is a explanation about the action possibilities of the Public Relations professional as a manager of communication between the musical celebrity and his publics. For this purpose, a bibliographical research was made about Internet question like his history, the evolution of Web 2.0 and even about different kinds of virtualization, introducing with interactivity. Other researches was been made like social culture topics and even the studies of Public Relations actions in the artistic scene, acting like a manager of different publics relationships in the virtual contacts. A study case with the virtual communication tools employed in the career of Hugo e Tiago, one of the country artists in Brazil, is also in this studies. Otherwise, the study explains about the different ways of Public Relations actions, his upgrades along with the new communication tools and his new types of making relations with more and more different publics. Working with new strategies and keeping his objectives in the organization and public relationship, Public Relations brands a new vision to this type of communication professional, who becomes even more important in the actual organizations scenario

Recuperação de papel e papelão na usina de triagem de lixo de Lençóis Paulista - SP

Pós-graduação em Ciência Florestal - FCA

A organização dos espaços na educação infantil: possibilidades educativas na proposta Fazer em Cantos

Pós-graduação em Educação - FCT

Conflito de interesses ambientais: o passado, o presente e o futuro da gestão sustentávelno município de Botucatu (SP)

Entrepreneurs responsible for the housing project “Vale do Sol III”, (claim of deployment), proposed a technique, in order to resolve conflicts of interest arising in respect Vale do Sol I residents (already implemented). Conflicts taken place in accordance with environmental problems that originated (past) in poor drainage of rainwater from Água Fria stream. This work, based on study case method with deductive approach, analyzed the environmental aspects of the area in order to contribute to the process of sustainable management of medium-sized cities (present), as well as analyzing the prospects for adequate outcome environmental demand (future) . In terms of technical and methodological procedures, was used geoprocessing softwares for the purpose of supporting analysis. It was concluded that, technique proposed at Vale do Sol III enterprise, don’t have necessary, sufficient and satisfactory solution in order to, at least, mitigate the problems of area sustainability. In terms of future prospects, it was concluded that, good sustainable environmental management, with preventive measures, from the point of view of mitigating the environmental and urban conflicts, and corrective measures.

Conflito de interesses ambientais e urbanísticos dentro do contexto da gestão sustentável de cidades de médio porte no Estado de São Paulo

Responsible entrepreneurs responsible for housing project "Vale do Sol III" (claim of deployment) had proposed technique in order to solve conflicts of interest, arising with respect to residents of Vale do Sol I (already implemented). Conflicts gave up due to environmental and urban problems, originated in a notification of responsible concessionaire for the administration of Marechal Rondon highway (entry and exit of people on the road, in the city of Botucatu, Sao Paulo state). This work, based on study case method, within a deductive approach, analyzed urban and environmental aspects of the area in order to contribute to sustainable management of medium-sized cities. There was, moreover, use of GIS software for purpose of supporting this technical analysis. Investigations were carried out within environmental and urban viewpoints about Água Fria watershed, as well as technical and legal basis arising devices both municipal and federal regulations. It was concluded that proposed project of Vale do Sol III, about containment of stormwater and alternative technical and locational traffic, not presented as necessary solution, sufficient and satisfactory in the sense of, at least, mitigate sustainability problems of surrounding area (Água Fria watershed, into which could insert even Vale do Sol I condominium, subject to notification).

Semiótica e publicidade de alimentos: uma revisão teórica e aplicada

Este texto é parte das reflexões teóricas do nosso Pós-doutorado realizado junto ao Laboratório de Antropologia Visual da Universidade Aberta de Portugal que abordou aspectos interculturais do estudo fotoetnográfico da publicidade e do consumo alimentar no Brasil e em Portugal. Aqui serão ressaltados os aspectos referentes às contribuições da semiótica para o estudo das comunicações publicitárias de alimentos. A proposta é entender os modelos de análise semiótica da publicidade como um meio de operacionalização da descrição densa, na perspectiva etnográfica, a partir da interface interdisciplinar com a produção de sentido das imagens publicitárias, no campo da alimentação, apresentado a análise de um anúncio do azeite Gallo como exemplo.

Modeling of continuous thermal processing of a non-Newtonian liquid food under diffusive laminar flow in a tubular system

The classic conservative approach for thermal process design can lead to over-processing, especially for laminar flow, when a significant distribution of temperature and of residence time occurs. In order to optimize quality retention, a more comprehensive model is required. A model comprising differential equations for mass and heat transfer is proposed for the simulation of the continuous thermal processing of a non-Newtonian food in a tubular system. The model takes into account the contribution from heating and cooling sections, the heat exchange with the ambient air and effective diffusion associated with non-ideal laminar flow. The study case of soursop juice processing was used to test the model. Various simulations were performed to evaluate the effect of the model assumptions. An expressive difference in the predicted lethality was observed between the classic approach and the proposed model. The main advantage of the model is its flexibility to represent different aspects with a small computational time, making it suitable for process evaluation and design. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ontology for Data Representation in the Production of Cotton Fiber in Brazil

An important feature in computer systems developed for the agricultural sector is to satisfy the heterogeneity of data generated in different processes. Most problems related with this heterogeneity arise from the lack of standard for different computing solutions proposed. An efficient solution for that is to create a single standard for data exchange. The study on the actual process involved in cotton production was based on a research developed by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) that reports all phases as a result of the compilation of several theoretical and practical researches related to cotton crop. The proposition of a standard starts with the identification of the most important classes of data involved in the process, and includes an ontology that is the systematization of concepts related to the production of cotton fiber and results in a set of classes, relations, functions and instances. The results are used as a reference for the development of computational tools, transforming implicit knowledge into applications that support the knowledge described. This research is based on data from the Midwest of Brazil. The choice of the cotton process as a study case comes from the fact that Brazil is one of the major players and there are several improvements required for system integration in this segment.

El Niño southern oscillation and its effect on fog oases along the Peruvian and Chilean coastal deserts

Fog oases, locally named Lomas, are distributed in a fragmented way along the western coast of Chile and Peru (South America) between ~6°S and 30°S following an altitudinal gradient determined by a fog layer. This fragmentation has been attributed to the hyper aridity of the desert. However, periodically climatic events influence the ‘normal seasonality’ of this ecosystem through a higher than average water input that triggers plant responses (e.g. primary productivity and phenology). The impact of the climatic oscillation may vary according to the season (wet/dry). This thesis evaluates the potential effect of climate oscillations, such as El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), through the analysis of vegetation of this ecosystem following different approaches: Chapters two and three show the analysis of fog oasis along the Peruvian and Chilean deserts. The objectives are: 1) to explain the floristic connection of fog oases analysing their taxa composition differences and the phylogenetic affinities among them, 2) to explore the climate variables related to ENSO which likely affect fog production, and the responses of Lomas vegetation (composition, productivity, distribution) to climate patterns during ENSO events. Chapters four and five describe a fog-oasis in southern Peru during the 2008-2010 period. The objectives are: 3) to describe and create a new vegetation map of the Lomas vegetation using remote sensing analysis supported by field survey data, and 4) to identify the vegetation change during the dry season. The first part of our results show that: 1) there are three significantly different groups of Lomas (Northern Peru, Southern Peru, and Chile) with a significant phylogenetic divergence among them. The species composition reveals a latitudinal gradient of plant assemblages. The species origin, growth-forms typologies, and geographic position also reinforce the differences among groups. 2) Contradictory results have emerged from studies of low-cloud anomalies and the fog-collection during El Niño (EN). EN increases water availability in fog oases when fog should be less frequent due to the reduction of low-clouds amount and stratocumulus. Because a minor role of fog during EN is expected, it is likely that measurements of fog-water collection during EN are considering drizzle and fog at the same time. Although recent studies on fog oases have shown some relationship with the ENSO, responses of vegetation have been largely based on descriptive data, the absence of large temporal records limit the establishment of a direct relationship with climatic oscillations. The second part of the results show that: 3) five different classes of different spectral values correspond to the main land cover of Lomas using a Vegetation Index (VI). The study case is characterised by shrubs and trees with variable cover (dense, semi-dense and open). A secondary area is covered by small shrubs where the dominant tree species is not present. The cacti area and the old terraces with open vegetation were not identified with the VI. Agriculture is present in the area. Finally, 4) contrary to the dry season of 2008 and 2009 years, a higher VI was obtained during the dry season of 2010. The VI increased up to three times their average value, showing a clear spectral signal change, which coincided with the ENSO event of that period.

Climate impact studies of sediment transport on the Adriatic coastal zone

The study of the impact of climate change on the environment has been based, until very recently, on an global approach, whose interest from a local point of view is very limited. This thesis, on the contrary, has treated the study of the impact of climate change in the Adriatic Sea basin following a twofold strategy of regionalization and integration of numerical models in order to reproduce the present and future scenarios of the system through a more and more realistic and solid approach. In particular the focus of the study was on the impact on the physical environment and on the sediment transport in the basin. This latter is a very new and original issue, to our knowledge still uninvestigated. The study case of the coastal area of Montenegro was particularly studied, since it is characterized by an important supply of sediment through the Buna/Bojana river, second most important in the Adriatic basin in terms of flow. To do this, a methodology to introduce the tidal processes in a baroclinic primitive equations Ocean General Circulation Model was applied and tidal processes were successfully reproduced in the Adriatic Sea, analyzing also the impacts they have on the mean general circulation, on salt and heat transport and on mixing and stratification of the water column in the different seasons of the year. The new hydrodynamical model has been further coupled with a wave model and with a river and sea sediment transport model, showing good results in the reproduction of sediment transport processes. Finally this complex coupled platform was integrated in the period 2001-2030 under the A1B scenario of IPCC, and the impact of climate change on the physical system and on sediment transport was preliminarily evaluated.

Sistemi innovativi per il miglioramento della qualità e della sicurezza degli alimenti

Nell’attuale contesto, caratterizzato da un’elevata attenzione alla qualità e alla sicurezza degli alimenti e alle soluzioni tese a garantirli, l’implementazione di sistemi microelettronici per il controllo del prodotto attraverso supporti miniaturizzati e a basso costo può risultare un’opportunità strategica. Oggetto della ricerca di dottorato sono stati lo studio dell’utilizzo di sensori e strumentazione innovativi per la misurazione ed il controllo di parametri ambientali di conservazione di prodotti alimentari e per la loro identificazione mediante la tecnologia della radiofrequenza. Allo scopo è stato studiato il contesto in cui operano gli attori principali della filiera agroalimentare ed è stata sviluppata un’idea di etichetta progettata per essere in grado di emettere attivamente segnale di allarme in caso di necessità (etichetta RFID intelligente semi-passiva). Il prototipo di chip, realizzato in via sperimentale, è stato validato positivamente, sia come strumento di misura, sia in termini di prestazione nel caso studio del monitoraggio della conservazione di un prodotto alimentare in condizioni controllate di temperatura e radiazione luminosa. Le significative evidenze analitiche di reazioni di degradazione dello stato qualitativo del prodotto, quali analisi di pH e colore, raccolte durante il periodo di osservazione di 64 giorni, hanno trovato riscontro con le misure rilevate dal chip prototipo. I risultati invitano ad individuare un partner industriale, con il quale sperimentare l’applicazione della tecnologia proposta.

Studio caso-controllo multicentrico su distacco di retina e movimentazione manuale di carichi

Obiettivo Valutare l’ipotesi secondo cui la movimentazione manuale di carichi possa essere un fattore di rischio per il di distacco di retina. Metodi Si è condotto uno studio caso-controllo ospedaliero multicentrico, a Bologna, (reparto di Oculistica del policlinico S. Orsola Malpighi, Prof. Campos), e a Brescia (reparto di oculistica “Spedali Civili” Prof. Semeraro). I casi sono 104 pazienti operati per distacco di retina. I controlli sono 173 pazienti reclutati tra l’utenza degli ambulatori del medesimo reparto di provenienza dei casi. Sia i casi che i controlli (all’oscuro dall’ipotesi in studio) sono stati sottoposti ad un’intervista, attraverso un questionario strutturato concernente caratteristiche individuali, patologie pregresse e fattori di rischio professionali (e non) relativi al distacco di retina. I dati relativi alla movimentazione manuale di carichi sono stati utilizzati per creare un “indice di sollevamento cumulativo―ICS” (peso del carico sollevato x numero di sollevamenti/ora x numero di anni di sollevamento). Sono stati calcolati mediante un modello di regressione logistica unconditional (aggiustato per età e sesso) gli Odds Ratio (OR) relativi all’associazione tra distacco di retina e vari fattori di rischio, tra cui la movimentazione manuale di carichi. Risultati Oltre alla chirurgia oculare e alla miopia (fattori di rischio noti), si evidenzia un trend positivo tra l’aumento dell’ICS e il rischio di distacco della retina. Il rischio maggiore si osserva per la categoria di sollevamento severo (OR 3.6, IC 95%, 1.5–9.0). Conclusione I risultati, mostrano un maggiore rischio di sviluppare distacco di retina per coloro che svolgono attività lavorative che comportino la movimentazione manuale di carichi e, a conferma di quanto riportato in letteratura, anche per i soggetti miopi e per coloro che sono stati sottoposti ad intervento di cataratta. Si rende quindi evidente l’importanza degli interventi di prevenzione in soggetti addetti alla movimentazione manuale di carichi, in particolare se miopi.

Edilizia sociale e prestazioni energetiche in un caso di studio a queimados all'interno del programa minha casa, minha vida: Analisi e proposte di miglioramento

Social Housing and energy performance in a study case in Queimados within the Programa Minha Casa Minha Vida: analysis and proposals for improvement. The thesis in based on a personal experience lived in Brazil, working with a firm that deals with the construction of housing, for the population with incomes between 1.600 R$ and 3.100 R$ per month, in the Programa Minha Casa Minha Vida. Thanks to the construction site and contact with the local people, it was possible to attend to the construction phases and to understand the pros and cons of this Program. Working with the company made also possible to know the costs of the construction and to see that they reached the limit budget imposed by the Program (160.000 R$). Between the critical aspects of the program there is the fact that it doesn’t deal with the energy consumptions of buildings. For that reason it was interesting to calculate the energy requirements for cooling- using the software EnergyPlus and Legacy Opens Studio plug-in for Google Sketchup- and, later, to try to propose ideas for improving performances and reduce energy consumption introducing: increase in the wall mass, frame windows and patio doors, exterior blinds, wall shading on the west side. From the analysis of these simulations, considering the decrease of energy requirements for cooling, the decrease of operative and mean radiant temperatures and costs, the most convenient proposal was the exterior curtain. As all these assumptions were too expensive for the program it was analyzed how the behavior of the inhabitants influence energy consumption. Thinking of an intelligent ventilation –opening windows while the outside temperature is lower than the inside one- the reduction of energy requirements is about 27%. These result is really important, if you consider that it is obtained without spending more money.