Les Sentències catòliques del diví poeta Dant (1545) d’en Jaume Ferrer de Blanes: edició crítica del text

Procurador reial i nobiliari, cosmògraf, joier, lapidari, mercader i escriptor, i al capdavall, un ciutadà català honrat, en Ferrer (Vidreres, ~1445 – Blanes, 1529) va marxar de ben jove, primer, a la cort de Nàpols, al servei del rei en Ferran I, i després a la cort de Sicília, al servei de la reina na Joana de Sicília. Acabada aquesta peripècia italiana va tornar a Blanes al servei del vescomte de Cabrera i de Bas fins que va morir a la mateixa vila al 1529. Un seu criat, disset anys més tard, va editar uns papers esparsos que havia trobat a can Ferrer, les (sic) Sentèncias cathòlicas del diví poeta Dant florentí, compilades per lo prudentíssim mossèn Jaume Ferrer de Blanes, incloent-hi tres parts. La primera, Conclusions, és un sumari destinat a mostrar (sic) «Entre totas las cosas necessàries a l’home per aconseguir lo seu fi y beatitut eterna principalment són tres»; la segona, Meditació, és una reflexió a fi d’il•luminar els misteris sobre la passió i mort de Jesucrist a (sic) «lo santíssim loch de Calvari»; la tercera, Letras, és un conjunt de dotze documents, entre cartes i d’altres textos, «fetas a mossèn Jaume Ferrer, respostes e regles per ell ordenades en cosmographia y en art de navegar». En Ferrer, home de grans recursos, fa un recorregut per tots els coneixements que havia acumulat al llarg de la seva vida, de Dant Alighieri a Ptolemeu i del marquès de Santillana a Albert Gran o a Aristòtil, fent servir fragments de la Commedia, dels Proverbios, de la Bíblia i de moltes altres autoritats científiques i filosòfiques, en català, italià, espanyol, llatí i, també, set mots en arameu

Estratégias para a síntese de desoxinucluosídeos

The number of agents available for the treatment of viral infections has increased dramatically during the past decade most of them belonging to the nucleoside class. The accomplishment of many syntheses for these nucleosides in recent years offers evidence that the field is very important for the organic synthesis. The discussion of several approaches for preparing deoxy and dehydronucleosides is reviewed in a simplified way.

Propulsor pneumático versátil e isento de pulsação para sistemas de análise em fluxo

Aquarium air pumps are proposed and evaluated as pneumatic liquid propulsion devices for flow injection and continuos flow analysis (FIA and CFA) systems. This kind of pump is widely available at a very low cost and it can sustain a pressure around of 4 psi (0.28 bar) indefinitely. By applying this air pressure onto a solution contained in a reservoir flask, it is possible to reach flow rates of up to 12.5 mL min-1 for circuits comprising reactors, made from 0.8 i.d. tubing with a length of 100 cm. The precise adjustment of flow rate below the maximum one can be made with a simplified needle valve or inserting in series a short length of capillary tube. The absence of flow pulsation is a definite advantage in comparison with peristaltic pumps, especially when amperometric detection is elected, as confirmed experimentally in FIA and CF applications.

Estudo comparativo sobre filtragem de sinais instrumentais usando transformadas de Fourier e Wavelet

A comparative study of the Fourier (FT) and the wavelet transforms (WT) for instrumental signal denoising is presented. The basic principles of wavelet theory are described in a succinct and simplified manner. For illustration, FT and WT are used to filter UV-VIS and plasma emission spectra using MATLAB software for computation. Results show that FT and WT filters are comparable when the signal does not display sharp peaks (UV-VIS spectra), but the WT yields a better filtering when the filling factor of the signal is small (plasma spectra), since it causes low peak distortion.

Aspectos práticos relacionados ao uso do Rincoforol, o feromônio de agregação da Broca-do-olho-do-coqueiro Rhynchophorus palmarum L. (Coleopterate: Curculionidae) no controle de pragas do coqueiro: análise de sua eficiência em campo

Rhynchophorol (6-Methyl-2-hepten-4-ol) is the major constituent of the aggregation pheromone of Rhynchophorus palmarum L. (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), which is released by males of this species. The racemic mixture has been produced in one step-simplified preparation. The pheromone is placed into ampoules and furnished to coconut farmers. In the field, traps baited with Rhynchophorol and pieces of sugarcane attract both males and females, reducing the population of R. palmarum. The best conditions for field application are showed.

Reciclagem de cobre proveniente de analisador automático de carbono e nitrogênio

Isotopic and elemental analysis of N, C and S in liquid and solid samples has been simplified with the advent of automated systems. The simplest method of automation for this kind of analysis involves an elemental analyzer interfaced directly to the ion source of an IRMS (Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry). In the analyzer reduction system, an expressive amount of oxidized copper is generated as solid residue. This material is normally imported and the price is very high. A methodology was proposed for the recovery of metallic copper in order to recycle this reagent in the reduction system of a GC-IRMS, using the hydrogen gas in the vacuum line. Results show that it is possible to obtain a recycle of about 95 % of the initial metallic copper used in the reduction system.

Conseqüências da análise incorreta de experimentos blocados

Errors are always present in experimental measurements so, it is important to identify them and understand how they affect the results of experiments. Statistics suggest that the execution of experiments should follow random order, but unfortunately the complete randomization of experiments is not always viable for practical reasons. One possible simplification is blocked experiments within which the levels of certain factors are maintained fixed while the levels of others are randomized. However this has a cost. Although the experimental part is simplified, the statistical analysis becomes more complex.

Proposta d’un text articulat sobre teoria general del contracte per al Llibre sisè del Codi Civil de Catalunya

El treball que es presenta conté un text articulat sobre la part de teoria general del contracte (arts. 612-1 i següents) del llibre sisè del Codi Civil de Catalunya. El procés de codificació civil que es viu a Catalunya justifica aquest treball, que podria ser útil per a elaboració del llibre sisè del CCCat dedicat a les obligacions i els contractes. El treball consta d’una proposta de text articulat, amb el seus respectius comentaris a cada article. Es tracta del capítol segon del títol primer del llibre sisè, i es divideix en les següents seccions: 1) El contracte, els seus elements essencials, i la seva eficàcia; 2) La formació del contracte; 3) La interpretació del contracte; i 4) La ineficàcia del contracte, que inclou l’anàlisi dels vicis del consentiment. El treball ha pres com a referència les principals propostes d’harmonització del dret contractual (Principis Unidroit [PICC], Principis de Dret Contractual Europeu [PECL], Marc Comú de Referència [DCFR], i l’Instrument Opcional sobre Compravenda Europea [CESL] i la regulació dels codis més moderns (entre ells, el del Quebec, l’Holandès, el Portuguès o l’Italià) i les seves propostes de reforma (el projecte Terrè a França, i la Propuesta de Modificación del Código Civil Español en materia de obligaciones y contratos). En la proposta presentada s’incorporen institucions no regulades en el Codi civil espanyol actualment vigent a Catalunya en la seva condició de dret supletori, i s’omplen algunes llacunes d’aquest cos legal. Es poden citar, entre elles, les clàusules abusives dels contractes, el canvi en les circumstàncies essencials del contracte, el contracte per a persona per designar, la responsabilitat per culpa in contrahendo, les cartes d’intencions, el règim de l’oferta i l’acceptació del contracte, els contractes preparatoris, els drets de preferència, la possibilitat d’anul·lació del contracte per concessió d’un avantatge injust a alguna de les parts, i el règim dels contractes en frau de creditors.

Machine Learning and Clinical Text. Supporting Health Information Flow

Fluent health information flow is critical for clinical decision-making. However, a considerable part of this information is free-form text and inabilities to utilize it create risks to patient safety and cost-­effective hospital administration. Methods for automated processing of clinical text are emerging. The aim in this doctoral dissertation is to study machine learning and clinical text in order to support health information flow.First, by analyzing the content of authentic patient records, the aim is to specify clinical needs in order to guide the development of machine learning applications.The contributions are a model of the ideal information flow,a model of the problems and challenges in reality, and a road map for the technology development. Second, by developing applications for practical cases,the aim is to concretize ways to support health information flow. Altogether five machine learning applications for three practical cases are described: The first two applications are binary classification and regression related to the practical case of topic labeling and relevance ranking.The third and fourth application are supervised and unsupervised multi-class classification for the practical case of topic segmentation and labeling.These four applications are tested with Finnish intensive care patient records.The fifth application is multi-label classification for the practical task of diagnosis coding. It is tested with English radiology reports.The performance of all these applications is promising. Third, the aim is to study how the quality of machine learning applications can be reliably evaluated.The associations between performance evaluation measures and methods are addressed,and a new hold-out method is introduced.This method contributes not only to processing time but also to the evaluation diversity and quality. The main conclusion is that developing machine learning applications for text requires interdisciplinary, international collaboration. Practical cases are very different, and hence the development must begin from genuine user needs and domain expertise. The technological expertise must cover linguistics,machine learning, and information systems. Finally, the methods must be evaluated both statistically and through authentic user-feedback.

Aplicação do modelo Tucker-3 para a análise da biodegradação de diesel

Tucker-3 model offers several advantages for analysis of environmental data but its interpretation is still challenging. A Tucker-3 model was applied to a biodegradation experiment involving a large number of overlapped chromatographic peaks and a temporal variation. The Tucker-3 model allowed the data to be decomposed in two processes: evaporation and biodegradation. The results suggest that linear hydrocarbons were those biodegraded first and demonstrate that the data analysis can be simplified by interpreting the elements of the core array. The approach discussed in this work can be applied in similar problems involving multi-way data in other areas of chemistry.

Homogeneous Assays for Simplified Screening of HLA-conferred Genetic Disease Risk

The increasing incidence of type 1 diabetes has led researchers on a quest to find the reason behind this phenomenon. The rate of increase is too great to be caused simply by changes in the genetic component, and many environmental factors are under investigation for their possible contribution. These studies require, however, the participation of those individuals most likely to develop the disease, and the approach chosen by many is to screen vast populations to find persons with increased genetic risk factors. The participating individuals are then followed for signs of disease development, and their exposure to suspected environmental factors is studied. The main purpose of this study was to find a suitable tool for easy and inexpensive screening of certain genetic risk markers for type 1 diabetes. The method should be applicable to using whole blood dried on sample collection cards as sample material, since the shipping and storage of samples in this format is preferred. However, the screening of vast sample libraries of extracted genomic DNA should also be possible, if such a need should arise, for example, when studying the effect of newly discovered genetic risk markers. The method developed in this study is based on homogeneous assay chemistry and an asymmetrical polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The generated singlestranded PCR product is probed by lanthanide-labelled, LNA (locked nucleic acid)-spiked, short oligonucleotides with exact complementary sequences. In the case of a perfect match, the probe is hybridised to the product. However, if even a single nucleotide difference occurs, the probe is bound instead of the PCR product to a complementary quencher-oligonucleotide labelled with a dabcyl-moiety, causing the signal of the lanthanide label to be quenched. The method was applied to the screening of the well-known type 1 diabetes risk alleles of the HLA-DQB1 gene. The method was shown to be suitable as an initial screening step including thousands of samples in the scheme used in the TEDDY (The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young) study to identify those individuals at increased genetic risk. The method was further developed into dry-reagent form to allow an even simpler approach to screening. The reagents needed in the assay were in dry format in the reaction vessel, and performing the assay required only the addition of the sample and, if necessary, water to rehydrate the reagents. This allows the assay to be successfully executed even by a person with minimal laboratory experience.

Methane combustion kinetic rate constants determination: an ill-posed inverse problem analysis

Methane combustion was studied by the Westbrook and Dryer model. This well-established simplified mechanism is very useful in combustion science, for computational effort can be notably reduced. In the inversion procedure to be studied, rate constants are obtained from [CO] concentration data. However, when inherent experimental errors in chemical concentrations are considered, an ill-conditioned inverse problem must be solved for which appropriate mathematical algorithms are needed. A recurrent neural network was chosen due to its numerical stability and robustness. The proposed methodology was compared against Simplex and Levenberg-Marquardt, the most used methods for optimization problems.

Biocatálise heterogênea em fase sólido/gás: princípios e aplicações

Enzymatic conversion of gaseous substrates into products in aquo-restricted media, using enzymes or whole cells (free and immobilized) as biocatalysts, constitutes a promising technology for the development of clearer processes. Solid-gas systems offer high production rates for minimal plant sizes, allow important reduction of treated volumes, and permit simplified downstream processes. In this review article, principles and applications of solid-gas biocatalysis are discussed. Comparisons of its advantages and disadvantages with those of the organic- and aqueous-phase reactions are also presented herein.

BUSCAS DE INFORMAÇÕES TECNOLÓGICAS COM BASE EM DADOS DE PATENTES: ESTUDO DE CASO DOS LÍQUIDOS IÔNICOS NO BRASIL

This study describes the application of the Art of Scientific and Technological Search to strategically analyze areas of technological and industrial development. Application of scientific search strategies such as the creation of Patent Landscape has been shown to be useful for writing research projects, earning grants, publishing papers, drafting patent applications, and analyzing the market and economic potentials of a previous determined subject. The Patent Landscape regards a simplified analysis of technologies concerning ionic liquids patents applied in Brazil and published by Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial(INPI). A total of 93 patent applications using the keywords "ionic liquids" were found in the INPI database. Among these, 75% were nonresident applications and 25% were Brazilian resident applications. Interestingly, BASF, Chevron Industries, and the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) were discovered as higher patent applicant assignees. Differences in the patent application areas were also observed between these applicants, with new solvents and petrochemical applications as the areas of focus for the industrial applications (BASF and Chevron Industries), and energy production, catalysis, and chemical reaction media as the focus for the university applications.