Influence of Excitation Signal on Impedance-based Structural Health Monitoring

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

O programa de saúde da família e os princípios básicos do Sistema Único de Saúde na realidade de Santana do Matos RN

This work shows the professional staff of the Family Health Program (PSF) in Santana do Matos City perceive the Unified Health System (SUS). Their discourse and recognition of the advances of SUS, as well as their participation on the implementation of the system, are analyzed. The Brazilian Ministry of Health instituted it in 1994 in order to rebuild the health politics on a new basis, substituting the traditional model. The city-centered implementation of SUS was instituted on May 27, 1992 by the act nº 631/92 and today it experiences a Full Management of Basic Attention. In July 2001 the PSF program was started in the city with 5 teams: 2 in the urban zone and 3 in the rural one. The methodology was developed with the combination of qualitative and quantitative research with the employment of a questionnaire with both open and closed inquiries to 31 members of the program. The study appointed that, no matter how positive and enlarged be the staff s concept of health and SUS, they dont s have on understanding of the total chain of the system on its integrality, hierarchy and regionality what hinders the system performance close to the users. The PSF incorporates and reaffirms the basic principles of the SUS; however, on its everyday employment it has not yet abandoned totally the curative model, which is reinforced by the hospital-centered and physiscian-centerend culture

Estudo da viabilidade do desenvolvimento de sistemas integrados baseados em redes em chip sem processadores: sistema IPNoSys

The increase of capacity to integrate transistors permitted to develop completed systems, with several components, in single chip, they are called SoC (System-on-Chip). However, the interconnection subsystem cans influence the scalability of SoCs, like buses, or can be an ad hoc solution, like bus hierarchy. Thus, the ideal interconnection subsystem to SoCs is the Network-on-Chip (NoC). The NoCs permit to use simultaneous point-to-point channels between components and they can be reused in other projects. However, the NoCs can raise the complexity of project, the area in chip and the dissipated power. Thus, it is necessary or to modify the way how to use them or to change the development paradigm. Thus, a system based on NoC is proposed, where the applications are described through packages and performed in each router between source and destination, without traditional processors. To perform applications, independent of number of instructions and of the NoC dimensions, it was developed the spiral complement algorithm, which finds other destination until all instructions has been performed. Therefore, the objective is to study the viability of development that system, denominated IPNoSys system. In this study, it was developed a tool in SystemC, using accurate cycle, to simulate the system that performs applications, which was implemented in a package description language, also developed to this study. Through the simulation tool, several result were obtained that could be used to evaluate the system performance. The methodology used to describe the application corresponds to transform the high level application in data-flow graph that become one or more packages. This methodology was used in three applications: a counter, DCT-2D and float add. The counter was used to evaluate a deadlock solution and to perform parallel application. The DCT was used to compare to STORM platform. Finally, the float add aimed to evaluate the efficiency of the software routine to perform a unimplemented hardware instruction. The results from simulation confirm the viability of development of IPNoSys system. They showed that is possible to perform application described in packages, sequentially or parallelly, without interruptions caused by deadlock, and also showed that the execution time of IPNoSys is more efficient than the STORM platform

Aplicação de ontologias para métodos de negociação de um sistema multiagente para o reconhecimento de padrões

The use of intelligent agents in multi-classifier systems appeared in order to making the centralized decision process of a multi-classifier system into a distributed, flexible and incremental one. Based on this, the NeurAge (Neural Agents) system (Abreu et al 2004) was proposed. This system has a superior performance to some combination-centered methods (Abreu, Canuto, and Santana 2005). The negotiation is important to the multiagent system performance, but most of negotiations are defined informaly. A way to formalize the negotiation process is using an ontology. In the context of classification tasks, the ontology provides an approach to formalize the concepts and rules that manage the relations between these concepts. This work aims at using ontologies to make a formal description of the negotiation methods of a multi-agent system for classification tasks, more specifically the NeurAge system. Through ontologies, we intend to make the NeurAge system more formal and open, allowing that new agents can be part of such system during the negotiation. In this sense, the NeurAge System will be studied on the basis of its functioning and reaching, mainly, the negotiation methods used by the same ones. After that, some negotiation ontologies found in literature will be studied, and then those that were chosen for this work will be adapted to the negotiation methods used in the NeurAge.

Análise da degradação ambiental das áreas de preservação permanente localizadas no estuário do rio Ceará-mirim/RN

The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the main environmental impacts taking place in the permanent preservation areas located in the Ceará-Mirim River estuary/RN and its surrounding areas. For that, the study was divided in two chapters, structured in the shape of a scientific paper. The first is a theoretical proposition on the occupation of the APPs in light of the discussion of the geographic space and the sustainability of the development, where a bibliographical review was made emphasizing the production of the geographic space, the sustainability of the development and the permanent preservation areas. In the second chapter, from a systemic approach, geoprocessing techniques and the adaptation of the Pressure-State- Response Indicators System were used, the latter being developed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD. Therefore, from the methodological approaches used, it's been observed that the use of permanent preservation areas for purposes other than those determined in the legislation and, mainly guided by capitalist interests, leads to the environmental degradation of these areas, fact which has been confirmed in the empiric study conducted in the second chapter, where it was possible to identify a series of environmental impacts such as: deforestation of mangrove and riparian vegetation for carciniculture implantation, the devastation of dune areas caused by the urban expansion in the coastal stretch and siltation of fluvial channel

Controle adaptativo por modelo de referencia e estrutura variável discreto no tempo

With the technology progess, embedded systems using adaptive techniques are being used frequently. One of these techniques is the Variable Structure Model- Reference Adaptive Control (VS-MRAC). The implementation of this technique in embedded systems, requires consideration of a sampling period which if not taken into consideration, can adversely affect system performance and even takes the system to instability. This work proposes a stability analysis of a discrete-time VS-MRAC accomplished for SISO linear time-invariant plants with relative degree one. The aim is to analyse the in uence of the sampling period in the system performance and the relation of this period with the chattering and system instability

Phase-Locked Loop design applied to frequency-modulated atomic force microscope

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

A case study of compact cogeneration using various fuels

A method for studying the technical and economic feasibility of absorption refrigeration systems in compact cogenerators is presented. The system studied consists of an internal combustion engine, an electric generator and a heat exchanger to recover residual heat from the refrigeration water and exhaust gases. As an application, a computer program simulates the cogeneration system in a building which already has 75 kW of installed electric power. The maximum electric and refrigeration demands are 45 kW and 76 kW respectively. This study simulates the system performance, utilizing diesel oil, sugar cane alcohol and natural gas as possible fuels. (C) 1997 Elsevier B.V. Ltd.

Fuzzy sets in distributed traffic control

The task of controlling urban traffic requires flexibility, adaptability and handling uncertain information spread through the intersection network. The use of fuzzy sets concepts convey these characteristics to improve system performance. This paper reviews a distributed traffic control system built upon a fuzzy distributed architecture previously developed by the authors. The emphasis of the paper is on the application of the system to control part of Campinas downtown area. Simulation experiments considering several traffic scenarios were performed to verify the capabilities of the system in controlling a set of coupled intersections. The performance of the proposed system is compared with conventional traffic control strategies under the same scenarios. The results obtained show that the distributed traffic control system outperforms conventional systems as far as average queues, average delay and maximum delay measures are concerned.

A multi-objective programming approach for the optimal operation of distributed generation considering uncertainty

Due to the renewed interest in distributed generation (DG), the number of DG units incorporated in distribution systems has been rapidly increasing in the past few years. This situation requires new analysis tools for understanding system performance, and taking advantage of the potential benefits of DG. This paper presents an evolutionary multi-objective programming approach to determine the optimal operation of DG in distribution systems. The objectives are the minimization of the system power losses and operation cost of the DG units. The proposed approach also considers the inherent stochasticity of DG technologies powered by renewable resources. Some tests were carried out on the IEEE 34 bus distribution test system showing the robustness and applicability of the proposed methodology. © 2011 IEEE.

Uso do AHP na avaliação do desempenho do sistema de gestão da qualidade, meio ambiente e segurança e saúde ocupacional integrados

The paper analyses the application of the AHP method together with the attach A of ISO 9004:2000 in order to evaluate the performance of two industrial organizations, both possessing quality management systems with ISO 9001:2000 certifications, based on the specific requirements of quality, environment, occupational health and management systems. The evaluated organizations were a government-owned company from the science and technology sector that works in the nuclear area, and a private company that works in the automotive and railroad area. The open software Web-Hipre version 1.22 from Helsinki University of Technology, Finland, was used. The results demonstrated that the AHP method together with the attach A of ISO 9004:2000 is adequate to evaluate organizational performances. Both organizations presented similar performance levels.

Sistema para realização de medidas de luminescência com excitação por raios X

In this work is presented a versatile system for X-ray excited optical luminescence (XEOL) measurements. The apparatus was assembled from a sample holder connected to an optical fiber responsibly for the acquisition of the scintillation signal. The spectrum is registered with a CCD coupled in a spectrograph provided with diffraction gratings. The system performance was analyzed by exciting GdAlO3:Eu3+ 3.0 at.% with X-rays from a diffractometer and measuring the emission spectra. The system can be used to obtain precise and reliable spectroscopic properties of samples with various conformations without the loss of the required safety when dealing with ionizing radiations.

Spin stabilized satellite's attitude analytical prediction

An analytical approach for spin stabilized attitude propagation is presented, considering the coupled effect of the aerodynamic torque and the gravity gradient torque. A spherical coordination system fixed in the satellite is used to locate the satellite spin axis in relation to the terrestrial equatorial system. The spin axis direction is specified by its right ascension and the declination angles and the equation of motion are described by these two angles and the magnitude of the spin velocity. An analytical averaging method is applied to obtain the mean torques over an orbital period. To compute the average components of both aerodynamic torque and the gravity gradient torque in the satellite body frame reference system, an average time in the fast varying orbit element, the mean anomaly, is utilized. Afterwards, the inclusion of such torques on the rotational motion differential equations of spin stabilized satellites yields conditions to derive an analytical solution. The pointing deviation evolution, that is, the deviation between the actual spin axis and the computed spin axis, is also availed. In order to validate the analytical approach, the theory developed has been applied for spin stabilized Brazilian satellite SCD1, which are quite appropriated for verification and comparison of the data generated and processed by the Satellite Control Center of the Brazil National Research Institute (INPE). Numerical simulations performed with data of Brazilian Satellite SCD1 show the period that the analytical solution can be used to the attitude propagation, within the dispersion range of the attitude determination system performance of Satellite Control Center of the Brazilian Research Institute.

Approximation of hyperbolic tangent activation function using hybrid methods

Artificial Neural Networks are widely used in various applications in engineering, as such solutions of nonlinear problems. The implementation of this technique in reconfigurable devices is a great challenge to researchers by several factors, such as floating point precision, nonlinear activation function, performance and area used in FPGA. The contribution of this work is the approximation of a nonlinear function used in ANN, the popular hyperbolic tangent activation function. The system architecture is composed of several scenarios that provide a tradeoff of performance, precision and area used in FPGA. The results are compared in different scenarios and with current literature on error analysis, area and system performance. © 2013 IEEE.

Projeto e simulação de um sistema de controle via LMIs da produção de vapor de uma caldeira aquatubular

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)