Extension And Testing Of A 2D Hydrodynamic Model For Direct Rainfall Runoff Simulation

While the simulation of flood risks originating from the overtopping of river banks is well covered within continuously evaluated programs to improve flood protection measures, flash flooding is not. Flash floods are triggered by short, local thunderstorm cells with high precipitation intensities. Small catchments have short response times and flow paths and convective thunder cells may result in potential flooding of endangered settlements. Assessing local flooding and pathways of flood requires a detailed hydraulic simulation of the surface runoff. Hydrological models usually do not incorporate surface runoff at this detailedness but rather empirical equations are applied for runoff detention. In return 2D hydrodynamic models usually do not allow distributed rainfall as input nor are any types of soil/surface interaction implemented as in hydrological models. Considering several cases of local flash flooding during the last years the issue emerged for practical reasons but as well as research topics to closing the model gap between distributed rainfall and distributed runoff formation. Therefore, a 2D hydrodynamic model, depth-averaged flow equations using the finite volume discretization, was extended to accept direct rainfall enabling to simulate the associated runoff formation. The model itself is used as numerical engine, rainfall is introduced via the modification of waterlevels at fixed time intervals. The paper not only deals with the general application of the software, but intends to test the numerical stability and reliability of simulation results. The performed tests are made using different artificial as well as measured rainfall series as input. Key parameters of the simulation such as losses, roughness or time intervals for water level manipulations are tested regarding their impact on the stability.

Reading Is, Like, You Know, Sooooo Gross!

“Huge Decline in Book Reading” ran one headline. “Cultural Atrophy!” read another. “Study Links Drop in Test Scores to a Decline Spent in Reading” ran one for the “Duh!” award. “Americans are Closing the Book on Reading” said one, vying for the pun-acious trophy.

Affine processes, arbitrage-Free Term structures of legendre polynomials,and option pricing

Multivariate Affine term structure models have been increasingly used for pricing derivatives in fixed income markets. In these models, uncertainty of the term structure is driven by a state vector, while the short rate is an affine function of this vector. The model is characterized by a specific form for the stochastic differential equation (SDE) for the evolution of the state vector. This SDE presents restrictions on its drift term which rule out arbitrages in the market. In this paper we solve the following inverse problem: Suppose the term structure of interest rates is modeled by a linear combination of Legendre polynomials with random coefficients. Is there any SDE for these coefficients which rules out arbitrages? This problem is of particular empirical interest because the Legendre model is an example of factor model with clear interpretation for each factor, in which regards movements of the term structure. Moreover, the Affine structure of the Legendre model implies knowledge of its conditional characteristic function. From the econometric perspective, we propose arbitrage-free Legendre models to describe the evolution of the term structure. From the pricing perspective, we follow Duffie et al. (2000) in exploring Legendre conditional characteristic functions to obtain a computational tractable method to price fixed income derivatives. Closing the article, the empirical section presents precise evidence on the reward of implementing arbitrage-free parametric term structure models: The ability of obtaining a good approximation for the state vector by simply using cross sectional data.

Promoção da saúde e trabalho: um ensaio analítico

CAVALCANTE,Cleonice Andréa Alves, NÓBREGA, Jussara Azevedo Bezerra da, ENDERS,Bertha Cruz, MEDERIROS, Soraya Maria de. Promoção da saúde e trabalho: um ensaio analítico. Revista Eletrônica de Enfermagem. v.10,n.1 p.241-248.2008. Disponível em :.

On lag controllers: Design and implementation

Sometimes it is inconvenient or expensive to open the loop of a system to insert lag controllers-for instance, when this system is an open-loop system. A new controller structure where the loop is not opened, and that allows the design of lag controllers as in the case where one can open the loop, is presented. This result can be used by educators in undergraduate courses that deal with classic control system theory, because it allows a better comprehension of the concept of lag compensation and provides a new method for its design and implementation. An example illustrates the application of the proposed method.

O circuito espacial da produção petrolífera no rio Grande do Norte

Our study refers to the state of Rio Grande do Norte against the deployment of oil activity in their territory. In this sense the aim of this work was to analyze the presence of the loop space of the oil production system linked to objects and actions on the Rio Grande do Norte territory. From the so-called "oil shock", an event that caused global developments in several countries, Petróleo Brasileiro S/A (PETROBRAS) increased investments in drilling geological basins in Brazil. In the year 1973 was drilled in the sea area well which led to commercial production of oil and gas in Rio Grande do Norte. From that point on were added in some parts of the Potiguar territory, large systems of coupled objects to actions caused by several agents. In this context, geographic situations have been reorganized due to an unprecedented space circuit production accompanied by a new circle of cooperation. In the state happen all instances of the circuit: the production, distribution and consumption. In light of the theory of the geographical area seek to direct our thoughts to the operation of these bodies, and they are linked to material and immaterial flows multiscales. This perspective allows us to think the territory of Rio Grande do Norte entered into a new territorial division of labor characterized by specialization regional production. Oil activity was implemented in the territory of Rio Grande do Norte at a time marked by productive restructuring of various economic sectors. The oil sector has been acting increasingly linked the scientific and informational, with a view to increasing productivity. The presence of this circuit demanded the territory, specifically the Mossoró, an organizational structure that is different from the vast system nationally integrated private commercial corporations to small corporations, all of them relating directly or indirectly to PETROBRAS. The flows between companies whose headquarters are located in distant states and even countries have generated a continuous movement of goods, people, information and ideas, which is also causing new materialities in the territory

Amino acid sequence and crystal structure of BaP1, a metalloproteinase from Bothrops asper snake venom that exerts multiple tissue-damaging activities

BaP1 is a 22.7-kD P-I-type zinc-dependent metalloproteinase isolated from the venom of the snake Bothrops asper, a medically relevant species in Central America. This enzyme exerts multiple tissue-damaging activities, including hemorrhage, myonecrosis, dermonecrosis, blistering, and edema. BaP1 is a single chain of 202 amino acids that shows highest sequence identity with metalloproteinases isolated front the venoms of snakes of the subfamily Crotalinae. It has six Cys residues involved in three disulfide bridges (Cys 117-Cys 197, Cys 159-Cys 181, Cys 157-Cys 164). It has the consensus sequence H(142)E(143)XXH(146)XXGXXH(152), as well as the sequence C164I165M166, which characterize the metzincin superfamily of metalloproteinases. The active-site cleft separates a major subdomain (residues 1-152), comprising four a-helices and a five-stranded beta-sheet, from the minor subdomain, which is formed by a single a-helix and several loops. The catalytic zinc ion is coordinated by the N-epsilon2 nitrogen atoms of His 142, His 146, and His 152, in addition to a solvent water molecule, which in turn is bound to Glu 143. Several conserved residues contribute to the formation of the hydrophobic pocket, and Met 166 serves as a hydrophobic base for the active-site groups. Sequence and structural comparisons of hemorrhagic and nonhemorrhagic P-I metalloproteinases from snake venoms revealed differences in several regions. In particular, the loop comprising residues 153 to 176 has marked structural differences between metalloproteinases with very different hemorrhagic activities. Because this region lies in close proximity to the active-site microenvironment, it may influence the interaction of these enzymes with physiologically relevant substrates in the extracellular matrix.

QCD tests with an infrared finite gluon propagator and coupling constant

Recent progress in the solution of Schwinger-Dyson equations, as well as lattice simulation of pure glue QCD, indicate that the gluon propagator and coupling constant are infrared finite. Such non-perturbative information can be introduced in the QCD perturbative expansion in the scheme named Dynamical Perturbation Theory. We exemplify this procedure with the calculation of some two-body non-leptonic annihilation B meson decays, which show agreement with the experimental data in the case of a gluon propagator characterized by a dynamical gluon mass of 500MeV, compatible with the value found in several processes computed with this method. We give a. preliminary account of the application of this procedure at the loop level in the case of the Bjorken sum rule.

J/Psi mass shift in nuclear matter

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Decomposição de resíduos sólidos domiciliares e variações na resistividade e cargabilidade

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Theory with a unique thermal effective potential

We show that for the pion-nucleon theory the thermal bubble graph is analytic at the origin of the momentum-frequency space, although the internal propagators in the loop have the same mass. This means that, for this theory, the thermal effective potential is uniquely defined. We then examine how a slight modification of the interaction term results in a theory for which the thermal bubble graph displays the usual nonanalyticity at the origin and the thermal effective potential is not uniquely defined.

Anisotropic Lifshitz point at O(epsilon(2)(L))

We present the critical exponents nu (L2), eta (L2) and gamma (L) for an m-axial Lifshitz point at second order in an epsilon (L) expansion. We introduce a constraint involving the loop momenta along the m-dimensional subspace in order to perform two- and three-loop integrals. The results are valid in the range 0 less than or equal to m less than or equal to d. The case m = 0 corresponds to the usual Ising-like critical behaviour.

Conformal supergravity in twistor-string theory

Conformal supergravity arises in presently known formulations of twistor-string theory either via closed strings or via gauge-singlet open strings. We explore this sector of twistor-string theory, relating the relevant string modes to the particles and fields of conformal supergravity. We use the twistor-string theory to compute some tree level scattering amplitudes with supergravitons. Since the supergravitons interact with the same coupling constant as the Yang-Mills fields, conformal supergravity states will contribute to loop amplitudes of Yang-Mills gluons in these theories. Those loop amplitudes will therefore not coincide with the loop amplitudes of pure super Yang-Mills theory. © SISSA/ISAS 2004.

Orphan nuclear receptor NGFI-B forms dimers with nonclassical interface

The orphan receptor nerve growth factor-induced B (NGFI-B) is a member of the nuclear receptor's subfamily 4A (Nr4a). NGFI-B was shown to be capable of binding both as a monomer to an extended half-site containing a single AAAGGTCA motif and also as a homodimer to a widely separated everted repeat, as opposed to a large number of nuclear receptors that recognize and bind specific DNA sequences predominantly as homo- and/or heterodimers. To unveil the structural organization of NGFI-B in solution, we determined the quaternary structure of the NGFI-B LBD by a combination of ab initio procedures from small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) data and hydrogen-deuterium exchange followed by mass spectrometry. Here we report that the protein forms dimers in solution with a radius of gyration of 2.9 nm and maximum dimension of 9.0 nm. We also show that the NGFI-B LBD dimer is V-shaped, with the opening angle significantly larger than that of classical dimer's exemplified by estrogen receptor (ER) or retinoid X receptor (RXR). Surprisingly, NGFI-B dimers formation does not occur via the classical nuclear receptor dimerization interface exemplified by ER and RXR, but instead, involves an extended surface area composed of the loop between helices 3 and 4 and C-terminal fraction of the helix 3. Remarkably, the NGFI-B dimer interface is similar to the dimerization interface earlier revealed for glucocorticoid nuclear receptor (GR), which might be relevant to the recognition of cognate DNA response elements by NGFI-B and to antagonism of NGFI-B-dependent transcription exercised by GR in cells. Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Copyright © 2007 The Protein Society.

Effect of occlusion on joint sounds in asymptomatic individuals.

Occlusion is a predisposing factor for Temporomandibular Dysfunctions (TMD) of the joint, whose first sign and/or symptom is usually joint sound. To verify the effect of occlusion on joint sounds, temporomandibular joints (TMJ) were analyzed in 78 asymptomatic individuals with various dental conditions. Electrosonography was used to determine the intensity of the vibration in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) on opening and closing the mouth. Transducers (piezoelectric accelerometer) were placed on the right and left joints. Results were tabled and analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test (a=0.05). It was concluded that TMJ vibration in partly edentulous individuals from Kennedy classes I, II and III is statistically higher than in dentate and fully edentulous subjects.