SPARE-ICE: synergistic Ice Water Path from passive operational sensors

This article presents SPARE-ICE, the Synergistic Passive Atmospheric Retrieval Experiment-ICE. SPARE-ICE is the first Ice Water Path (IWP) product combining infrared and microwave radiances. By using only passive operational sensors, the SPARE-ICE retrieval can be used to process data from at least the NOAA 15 to 19 and MetOp satellites, obtaining time series from 1998 onward. The retrieval is developed using collocations between passive operational sensors (solar, terrestrial infrared, microwave), the CloudSat radar, and the CALIPSO lidar. The collocations form a retrieval database matching measurements from passive sensors against the existing active combined radar-lidar product 2C-ICE. With this retrieval database, we train a pair of artificial neural networks to detect clouds and retrieve IWP. When considering solar, terrestrial infrared, and microwave-based measurements, we show that any combination of two techniques performs better than either single-technique retrieval. We choose not to include solar reflectances in SPARE-ICE, because the improvement is small, and so that SPARE-ICE can be retrieved both daytime and nighttime. The median fractional error between SPARE-ICE and 2C-ICE is around a factor 2, a figure similar to the random error between 2C-ICE ice water content (IWC) and in situ measurements. A comparison of SPARE-ICE with Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Pathfinder Atmospheric Extended (PATMOS-X), and Microwave Surface and Precipitation Products System (MSPPS) indicates that SPARE-ICE appears to perform well even in difficult conditions. SPARE-ICE is available for public use.

Do personality traits predict ‘complaining’ consumers?

Although the effects of personality traits on complaining behaviour emerged in the early 1980s, there is limited research in the service industry. The purpose of this study is to examine whether consumer personality traits influence intentions to complain and whether product price and product types moderate the relationship between personality traits and intentions to complain in the retail industry. The research model is tested by logistic regression analysis on two groups of consumers who report passive and active complaining intentions. The study reveals that conscientious consumers who are open to new experiences tend to have higher intentions to complain. Being extroverted does not have any influence on complaining behaviour. Whilst price levels (low/high) and product types (grocery, clothing and electronics) improve the predictive ability of the complaining behaviour, the interaction effects relating to the three personality traits are statistically insignificant. Theoretical and managerial implications of the study findings are discussed.

Aromatic nitro substitution reaction between 4-nitro-N-n-butyl-1,8-naphthalimide and n-heptanethiol in water-methanol binary mixtures

The second-order rate constants of thiolysis by n-heptanethiol on 4-nitro-N-n-butyl-1,8-naphthalimide (4NBN) are strongly affected by the water-methanol binary mixture composition reaching its maximum at around 50% mole fraction. In parallel solvent effects on 4NBN absorption molar extinction coefficient also shows a maximum at this composition region. From the spectroscopic study of reactant and product and the known H-bond capacity of the mixture a rationalization that involves specific solvent H-donor interaction with the nitro group is proposed to explain the kinetic data. Present findings also show a convenient methodology to obtain strongly fluorescent imides, valuable for peptide and analogs labeling as well as for thio-naphthalimide derivatives preparations. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Folkmusikundervisningen på fiol och gitarr och dess historiska rötter

How folk musicians of today learn to play their instruments is an over-all question in this article. One violin lesson and one guitar lesson have been observed at Framnäs folk high school. Three research questions were formulated. What do the two lessons have in common? What are the differences? How could the folk music education of today be related to the Swedish fiddler movement in the 1920s and other folk music traditions? Theoretically, the interpretation of the results was based on the mimesis theory of Ricoeur. Two teachers and three students participated in the study. The results showed that the lessons were structured in a similar way and dominated by master apprenticeship teaching. The violin teacher showed a more respectful attitude towards the tradition compared to the guitar teacher. Great parts of the manifest ideology of the fiddler movement seems to have become concealed into a latent or frozen ideology in the formal folk music education of today. There seems to be no big differences between learning the music by way of visiting an older fiddler hundred years ago compared to the study of music today at a formal institution.

Vad ska elever lära sig angående naturvetenskaplig verksamhet? : En analys av svenska läroplaner för grundskolan under 50 år

The purpose of this study is to contribute to an understanding of which changes related to scientific inquiry have been made historically in curriculum documents. A comparative analysis is made of five Swedish national curricula– Lgr 62, Lgr 69, Lgr 80, Lpo 94 and Lgr 11 – during the last 50 years regarding what compulsory school students (school years 1–9) should learn about scientific inquiry. It focuses 1) what students should learn about carrying out scientific inquiries, and 2) what students should learn about the nature of science. All of the curricula examined have aims concerning scientific inquiry. The results show that during the period there have been many shifts in emphasis and changes of aims, for example from learning an inductive method to a more deductive one, and from an emphasis on carrying out investigations to an emphasis on more conceptual understanding of scientific investigations. Because teaching traditions tend to conserve aspects of earlier curricula, it is discussed how the results can help teachers, teacher students and curriculum developers to better see the consequences of the changes for teaching and learning.

Selektiva traditioner i grundskolans tidigare år : Lärares olika betoningar av kvalitéer i NO-undervisningen

The aim of this study was to elucidate the selective traditions of Swedish primary school teachers in using inquiry-based learning.  Material from thirteen interviews where teachers described their own inquiry practice was used to study the selective traditions along with the qualities these traditions emphasized. Four different selective traditions were identified: the fact oriented, the activity oriented, the collaboration oriented and the community oriented traditions. Different qualities were emphasized in the different traditions, for instance regarding whether teaching and inquiry should be difficult, correct, free or fun.

Rawls and Health Care

John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice (1971), his first major work articulating his theory of justice as fairness, was immediately recognized as a fundamental contribution to political philosophy in the twentieth century. Working within the tradition established by previous philosophers such as Kant and Locke, Rawls employed the contract theory approach. Taking it to a higher order of abstraction, he sought to determine not what the structure of social organization would be, but what the principles which governed social institutions would be under a hypothetical contracting situation. Rawls uses this contract theory approach to construct a society in which the morally irrelevant contingencies of nature and social arrangements are mitigated by principles of justice which govern the basic institutions of society. A common observation has been that Rawls left out any discussion of health care and how it might fit into his conception of a just society. Several philosophers have articulated expansions of the theory to account for health care. In the chapters that follow I will continue this tradition and consider how justice as fairness might be expanded to account for just health care allocation. In doing so, I hope to answer a particularly strong critique of the theory brought up by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, and to argue for a broadened conception of health care which takes into account the complex causal relationship between society and human health.

Desdobramento da qualidade em serviços : o caso da biblioteca de engenharia da UFRGS

O presente trabalho introduz o estabelecimento de um modelo para garantia da qualidade, particularmente aplicado ao segmento de prestação de serviços por bibliotecas. O estudo a ser apresentado baseia-se na utilização de um método de planejamento em específico, o Desdobramento da Função Qualidade (QFD), selecionada para viabilizar a análise da qualidade demandada pelo cliente, das características de qualidade críticas, dos serviços críticos e dos recursos críticos. Este trabalho discute o sistema de garantia da qualidade, cuja implantação está em curso, e que é parte integrante do modelo de gestão a ser adotado pela Biblioteca da Escola de Engenharia da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. A análise a ser apresentada utiliza o QFD incorporando um conjunto de matrizes que facilita e garante o fluxo de informações através de todas as suas etapas de desenvolvimento.

Caracterização físico-química de frutos de maracujazeiro-amarelo submetidos à iluminação artificial, irrigação e sombreamento

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Th1 polarized response induced by intramuscular DNA-HSP65 immunization is preserved in experimental atherosclerosis

We previously reported that a DNA vaccine constructed with the heat shock protein (HSP65) gene from Mycobacterium leprae (DNA-HSP65) was protective and also therapeutic in experimental tuberculosis. By the intramuscular route, this vaccine elicited a predominant Th1 response that was consistent with its protective efficacy against tuberculosis. It has been suggested that the immune response to Hsp60/65 may be the link between exposure to microorganisms and increased cardiovascular risk. Additionally, the high cholesterol levels found in atherosclerosis could modulate host immunity. In this context, we evaluated if an atherogenic diet could modulate the immune response induced by the DNA-HSP65 vaccine. C57BL/6 mice (4-6 animals per group) were initially submitted to a protocol of atherosclerosis induction and then immunized by the intramuscular or intradermal route with 4 doses of 100 µg DNA-HSP65. on day 150 (15 days after the last immunization), the animals were sacrificed and antibodies and cytokines were determined. Vaccination by the intramuscular route induced high levels of anti-Hsp65 IgG2a antibodies, but not anti-Hsp65 IgG1 antibodies and a significant production of IL-6, IFN-g and IL-10, but not IL-5, indicating a Th1 profile. Immunization by the intradermal route triggered a mixed pattern (Th1/Th2) characterized by synthesis of anti-Hsp65 IgG2a and IgG1 antibodies and production of high levels of IL-5, IL-6, IL-10, and IFN-g. These results indicate that experimentally induced atherosclerosis did not affect the ability of DNA-HSP65 to induce a predominant Th1 response that is potentially protective against tuberculosis.

Poço quadrado quântico finito e método de fatorização

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

Numerical simulation of a radial diffuser turbulent airflow

In the present work are presented results from numerical simulations performed with the ANSYS-CFX (R) code. We have studied a radial diffuser flow case, which is the main academic problem used to study the flow behavior on flat plate valves. The radial flow inside the diffuser has important behavior such as the turbulence decay downstream and recirculation regions inside the valve flow channel due to boundary layer detachment. These flow structures are present in compressor reed valve configurations, influencing to a greater extent the compressor efficiency. The main target of the present paper was finding the simulation set-up (computational domain, boundary conditions and turbulence model) that better fits with experimental data published by Tabatabai and Pollard. The local flow turbulence and velocity profiles were investigated using four different turbulence models, two different boundary conditions set-up, two different computational domains and three different flow conditions (Re-in - Reynolds number at the diffuser inlet). We used the Reynolds stress (BSL); the k-epsilon; the RNG k-epsilon; and the shear stress transport (SST) k-omega turbulence models. The performed analysis and comparison of the computational results with experimental data show that the choice of the turbulence model, as well as the choice of the other computational conditions, plays an important role in the results physical quality and accuracy. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influences of the load centre of gravity on heavy vehicle acceleration

The aim of this paper is to analyse the influence of the load centre of gravity on heavy vehicle acceleration. This analysis is done through a method in which a vehicle centre of gravity map is used. A model for the driving force is presented for bus, truck and tractor-semi trailer combinations. The proposed model takes into consideration the resistance forces (drag, rolling resistance, translation and rotation acceleration, climbing resistance) and the 4 X 2 traction system. The positions of the vehicle centre of gravity as a function of the position of the load centre of gravity are determined. The vehicle acceleration is calculated based on the position of the load centre of gravity. This study analyses the acceleration of one of the Mercedes-Benz do Brasil tractor-semitrailer vehicle. A comparison of the acceleration for different maximum adhesion coefficients and ramps are presented, showing new results. An example showing the variations of the load centre of gravity position with the acceleration time and distance is provided. The load centre of gravity position is important for vehicle safety and the efficiency and economy in the transportation of the load.

Determinação de zinco da sola do casco de bovinos leiteiros com ou sem lesões podais, suplementados ou não com levedura seca de cana-de-açúcar

Com o objetivo de estudar as concentrações de zinco da sola do casco de bovinos com e sem lesões podais, suplementados ou não com levedura seca, foram selecionadas e examinadas 60 vacas, escolhidas aleatoriamente, de um rebanho de 150 animais. Formaram-se quatro grupos de 15 animais, sendo o primeiro com animais com lesões podais e suplementados com levedura, o segundo com animais com lesões podais e sem suplementação de levedura, o terceiro com animais sem lesões podais e suplementados com levedura e o quarto com animais sem lesões podais e sem a suplementação de levedura. As concentrações de zinco da sola do casco foram determinadas por espectrometria de absorção atômica com chama (AAS). A comparação estatística das concentrações de zinco nas amostras foram submetidos à análise de variância, seguida pelo teste de Tukey, para comparação de médias. As médias das concentrações de zinco da sola do casco dos animais dos quatro grupos, quando comparadas estatisticamente, apresentaram diferença estatística significativa, somente nos animais com lesões podais e suplementados com levedura.

Molecular structures and vibrational frequencies for cis-[PdCl2(tmen)] and cis-[Pd(N-3)(2)(tmen)]: A DFT study

Theoretical molecular structures of the complexes cis-[PdCl2(tmen)] and cis-[Pd(N-3)(2)(tmen)] (tmen = N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine) were investigated using B3LYP/DFT method. The calculated molecular parameters, bond distances and angles, revealed a square-planar geometry around the metallic center for both compounds with the azide being linear. The theoretical infrared spectra of C, symmetry (electronic state (1)A) of the compounds are in agreement with the experimental data. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.