Business competition dynamics: agent-based modeling simulations of firms in search of economic performance

A intenção deste trabalho é explorar dinâmicas de competição por meio de “simulação baseada em agentes”. Apoiando-se em um crescente número de estudos no campo da estratégia e teoria das organizações que utilizam métodos de simulação, desenvolveu-se um modelo computacional para simular situações de competição entre empresas e observar a eficiência relativa dos métodos de busca de melhoria de desempenho teorizados. O estudo também explora possíveis explicações para a persistência de desempenho superior ou inferior das empresas, associados às condições de vantagem ou desvantagem competitiva

JML- Based formal development of a Java card application for managing medical appointments

Although formal methods can dramatically increase the quality of software systems, they have not widely been adopted in software industry. Many software companies have the perception that formal methods are not cost-effective cause they are plenty of mathematical symbols that are difficult for non-experts to assimilate. The Java Modelling Language (short for JML) Section 3.3 is an academic initiative towards the development of a common formal specification language for Java programs, and the implementation of tools to check program correctness. This master thesis work shows how JML based formal methods can be used to formally develop a privacy sensitive Java application. This is a smart card application for managing medical appointments. The application is named HealthCard. We follow the software development strategy introduced by João Pestana, presented in Section 3.4. Our work influenced the development of this strategy by providing hands-on insight on challenges related to development of a privacy sensitive application in Java. Pestana’s strategy is based on a three-step evolution strategy of software specifications, from informal ones, through semiformal ones, to JML formal specifications. We further prove that this strategy can be automated by implementing a tool that generates JML formal specifications from a welldefined subset of informal software specifications. Hence, our work proves that JML-based formal methods techniques are cost-effective, and that they can be made popular in software industry. Although formal methods are not popular in many software development companies, we endeavour to integrate formal methods to general software practices. We hope our work can contribute to a better acceptance of mathematical based formalisms and tools used by software engineers. The structure of this document is as follows. In Section 2, we describe the preliminaries of this thesis work. We make an introduction to the application for managing medical applications we have implemented. We also describe the technologies used in the development of the application. This section further illustrates the Java Card Remote Method Invocation communication model used in the medical application for the client and server applications. Section 3 introduces software correctness, including the design by contract and the concept of contract in JML. Section 4 presents the design structure of the application. Section 5 shows the implementation of the HealthCard. Section 6 describes how the HealthCard is verified and validated using JML formal methods tools. Section 7 includes some metrics of the HealthCard implementation and specification. Section 8 presents a short example of how a client-side of a smart card application can be implemented while respecting formal specifications. Section 9 describes a prototype tools to generate JML formal specifications from informal specifications automatically. Section 10 describes some challenges and main ideas came acrorss during the development of the HealthCard. The full formal specification and implementation of the HealthCard smart card application presented in this document can be reached at https://sourceforge.net/projects/healthcard/.

Draft Genome Sequence of the Nitrogen-Fixing Symbiotic Bacterium Bradyrhizobium elkanii 587

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

The Genome Sequence of Taurine Cattle: A Window to Ruminant Biology and Evolution

To understand the biology and evolution of ruminants, the cattle genome was sequenced to about sevenfold coverage. The cattle genome contains a minimum of 22,000 genes, with a core set of 14,345 orthologs shared among seven mammalian species of which 1217 are absent or undetected in noneutherian (marsupial or monotreme) genomes. Cattle-specific evolutionary breakpoint regions in chromosomes have a higher density of segmental duplications, enrichment of repetitive elements, and species-specific variations in genes associated with lactation and immune responsiveness. Genes involved in metabolism are generally highly conserved, although five metabolic genes are deleted or extensively diverged from their human orthologs. The cattle genome sequence thus provides a resource for understanding mammalian evolution and accelerating livestock genetic improvement for milk and meat production.

Realidade virtual na atividade cerebral: um estudo comparativo entre estados emocionais de adultos jovens e idosos

The association of Virtual Reality (VR) to clinical practice has become common in the recent years, showing to be an additional tool on health care, especially for elderly. Its use has been related to higher therapeutic adhesion levels and well being sensation. Such emotional based aspects are often observed by subjective tools of relative validity. This study analyzed the immediate effects of varied VR contexts balance training over emotional behavior, which was observed under peaks of maximum expression of EEG waves. Methodology: 40 individuals, divided in two groups, both gender, 20 young and 20 elderly, were submitted to a 60 minutes intervention, including balance training under VR. The first 25 minutes referred to initial evaluation, general orientation and cognitive assessment by the use of Mini Mental. The next ten minutes were designated to the avatar creation and tutorial video presentation. Through the following 20 minutes, the individuals from both groups were exposed to the exact same sequence of games under virtual contexts, while submitted to electroencephalography by Emotiv EPOC® focusing Adhesion, Frustration and Meditation states. The virtual interface was provided by the Nintendo® game, Wii Fit Plus, with the scenarios Balance Bubble (1), Penguin (2), Soccer (3), Tight Rope (4) and Table Tilt (5). Finally, a questionnaire of personal impressions was applied on the 5 minutes left. Results: data collected showed 64,7% of individuals from both groups presented higher concentration of adhesion peaks on Balance Bubble game. Both groups also presented similar behavior regarding meditation state, with marks close to 40%, each, on the same game, Table Tilt. There was divergence related to the frustration state, being the maximum concentration for the young group on the Soccer game (29,3%), whilst the elderly group referred highest marks to Tight Rope game (35,2%). Conclusion: Findings suggest virtual contexts can be favorable to adhesion and meditation emotional patterns induction, regardless age and for both sexes, whilst frustration seems to be more related to cognitive motor affordance, likely to be influenced by age. This information is relevant and contributes to the orientation for the best choice of games applied in clinical practice, as for other studies regarding this topic

A tandemly repetitive centromeric DNA sequence of the fish Hoplias malabaricus (Characiformes : Erythrinidae) is derived from 5S rDNA

A substantial fraction of the eukaryotic genome consists of repetitive DNA sequences that include satellites, minisatellites, microsatellites, and transposable elements. Although extensively studied for the past three decades, the molecular forces that generate, propagate and maintain repetitive DNAs in the genomes are still discussed. To further understand the dynamics and the mechanisms of evolution of repetitive DNAs in vertebrate genome, we searched for repetitive sequences in the genome of the fish species Hoplias malabaricus. A satellite sequence, named 5SHindIII-DNA, which has a conspicuous similarity with 5S rRNA genes and spacers was identified. FISH experiments showed that the 5S rRNA bona fide gene repeats were clustered in the interstitial position of two chromosome pairs of H. malabaricus, while the satellite 5SHindIII-DNA sequences were clustered in the centromeric position in nine chromosome pairs of the species. The presence of the 5SHindIII-DNA sequences in the centromeres of several chromosomes indicates that this satellite family probably escaped from the selective pressure that maintains the structure and organization of the 5S rDNA repeats and become disperse into the genome. Although it is not feasible to explain how this sequence has been maintained in the centromeric regions, it is possible to hypothesize that it may be involved in some structural or functional role of the centromere organization.

Phylogenetic analysis of the order Pleuronectiformes (Teleostei) based on sequences of 12S and 16S mitochondrial genes

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

Amino acid sequence of a myotoxic Lys49-phospholipase A(2) homologue from the venom of Cerrophidion (Bothrops) godmani

The complete amino acid sequence of myotoxin II (godMT-II), a myotoxic phospholipase A( 2 )(PLA(2)) homologue from the venom of the Central American crotaline snake Cerrophidion (Bothrops) godmani, was determined by direct protein sequencing methods. GodMT-II is a class II PLA, showing a Lys instead of Asp at position 49. An additional substitution in the calcium binding loop region (Asn instead of Tyr at position 28) suggests the lack of enzymatic activity observed in this toxin is due to loss of its ability to bind the co-factor Ca2+, since the residues involved in forming the catalytic network of PLA(2)s (His-48, Tyr-52 and Asp-99) an conserved in godMT-II. This myotoxin shows highest sequence homology with other Lys-49 PLA(2)s from Bothrops, Agkistrodon and Trimeresurus species, suggesting that they constitute a conserved family of proteins, yet in contrast presents lower homology with Bothrops asper myotoxin III, a catalytically-active PLA(2). The C-terminal region of godMT-II, which is rich in cationic and hydrophobic residues, shares high sequence homology to the corresponding region in the myotoxin II from B. asper, which has been proposed to play an important role in the Ca2+-independent membrane damaging activity. (C) 1998 Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.

Preliminary functional characterization, cloning and primary sequence of Fastuosain, a cysteine peptidase isolated from fruits of Bromelia fastuosa

The present work reports the characterization of Fastuosain, a novel cysteine protease of 25kDa, purified from the unripe fruits of Bromelia fastuosa, a wild South American Bromeliaceae. Proteolytic activity, measured using casein and synthetic substrates, was dependent on the presence of thiol reagents, having maximum activity at pH 7.0. The present work reports cDNA cloning of Fastuosain; cDNA was amplified by PCR using specific primers. The product was 1096pb long. Mature fastuosain has 217 residues, and with the proregion has a total length of 324 residues. Its primary sequence showed high homology with ananain(74%), stem bromelain (66%) and papain (44%).

Completion of the Nucleotide Sequence of a Brazilian Isolate of Southern bean mosaic virus

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

Podzolization as a deferralitization process: dynamics and chemistry of ground and surface waters in an Acrisol-Podzol sequence of the upper Amazon Basin

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

Pd-based catalysts: Influence of the second metal on their stability and oxygen reduction activity

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

Enthalpy-entropy compensation based on isotherms of mango

Dados de equilíbrio da umidade da polpa de manga foram determinados utilizando-se o método estático gravimétrico. As isotermas de adsorção e dessorção foram obtidas na faixa de 30-70 ºC e as atividades de água (a w) de 0,02 a 0,97. A utilização do modelo de GAB nos resultados experimentais, através da análise de regressão não linear, proporcionou um bom ajuste entre os dados experimentais e os valores calculados. O calor isostérico de sorção foi estimado a partir dos dados de equilíbrio de sorção, utilizando-se a equação de Clausius-Clayperon. Notou-se que os calores isostéricos de sorção crescem com o aumento da temperatura e pode ser bem ajustado através de uma relação exponencial. A teoria da compensação entalpia-entropia foi aplicada às isotermas de sorção e gráficos deltaH versus deltaS forneceram as temperaturas isocinéticas, indicando um processo de sorção entalpicamente controlado.

New proposal of classification of seeds based on forms of phytochrome instead of photoblastism

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

Prevalence of Sarcocystis neurona and Neospora spp. infection in horses from Brazil based on presence of serum antibodies to parasite surface antigen

Sera from 961 horses from Brazil were tested for antibodies against the major surface antigens SnSAG4 and NhSAG1 to determine the seroprevalence of Sarcocystis neurona and Neospora hughesi, respectively. Antibodies against SnSAG4 were detected in 669 (69.6%) of the horses, while antibodies against NhSAG1 were detected in only 24 (2.5%) of the horses. These serologic results suggest that there is a high concentration of S. neurona in the environment of Brazil, which results in marked exposure of horses to this parasite. Additionally, the data further confirm that infection with Neospora spp. is relatively uncommon in horses. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All tights reserved.