A Trotter-Kato product formula for a class of non-autonomous evolution equations

In this article dedicated to Professor V. Lakshmikantham on the occasion of the celebration of his 84th birthday, we announce new results concerning the existence and various properties of an evolution system UA+B(t, s)(0 <= s <= t <= T) generated by the sum -(A(t)+B(t)) of two linear, time-dependent and generally unbounded operators defined on time-dependent domains in a complex and separable Banach space B. In particular, writing G(B) for the algebra of all linear bounded operators on B, we can express UA+B(t, s)(0 <= s <= t <= T) as the strong limit in L(B) of a product of the holomorphic contraction semigroups generated by -A(t) and -B(t), thereby getting a product formula of the Trotter-Kato type under very general conditions which allow the domain D(A(t)+B(t)) to evolve with time provided there exists a fixed set D subset of boolean AND D-t epsilon[0,D-T](A(t)+B(t)) everywhere dense in B. We then mention several possible applications of our product formula to various classes of non-autonomous parabolic initial-boundary value problems, as well as to evolution problems of Schrodinger type related to the theory of time-dependent singular perturbations of self-adjoint operators in quantum mechanics. We defer all the proofs and all the details of the applications to a separate publication. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Skolutveckling som diskursiv praktik : Några ideologiska implikationer

This study aims at highlighting the ideological implications of school development as a discursive practice. More comprehensively the aim is also contributing to rearrangements and shifts in perspective when school development is the matter. One of today´s most widespread and dominant discourses are said to be the one which concerns development, and according to many interpreters, development is one of the most prominent commandments in the modern as well as the post-modern narratives. School development as a concept has for the last 15 years established itself firmly in both Swedish school policy and in Swedish school research. It may sound obvious and commendable but also such axioms may be questioned.The design of the study lies in the field of discourse research and more specifically within critical discursive psychology, which draws on both a post-structural and a postmodern conception of discourse. The study is based on the idea that the ideological potential of arguments occurs, develops and changes in discursive practices and not anywhere else or at any abstract level. The starting point is a perception that certain issues and topics within e.g. conversation, depending on time and context will be seen as controversial, while others will be taken for granted.One part of the basis of the study consists of texts with a direct bearing on a specific school research and development project which took place between 2003 and 2008. Participating partners in the collaboration were the Swedish National Agency for School Improvement, Karlstad University, Dalarna University and 13 municipalities in Sweden. Another part of the basis of the study consists of texts in which ‘school development’ is considered and negotiated in more general terms, usually without reference to the project. All texts derive from the period 2003 – 2006.The analysis shows that school development as discursive practice often rely on a set of stereotypical expressions and ways of arguing. Stereotypes, which among other things, tend to divide people into suitable and non-suitable, capable and non-capable, which may be regarded as a somewhat unexpected implication of school development. The material has been dramatized by an intrigue inspired by the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman´s texts. He has written extensively on the modern in relation to the postmodern and about the ambivalence which resides in between and school development as discursive practice can be understood in much the similar way.

The most severe parkinsonian patients are most improved with duodenal levodopa infusion

Objectives:To find variables correlated to improvement with intraduodenal levodopa/carbidopa infusion (Duodopa) in order to identify potential candidates for this treatment. Two clinical studies comparing Duodopa with oral treatments in patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease have shown significant improvement in percent on-time on a global treatment response scale (TRS) based on hourly and half-hourly clinical ratings and in median UPDRS scores.Methods:Data from study 1 comparing infusion with Sinemet CR (12 patients, Nyholm et al, Clin Neuropharmacol 2003; 26(3): 156-163) and study 2 comparing infusion with individually optimised conventional combination therapies (18 patients, Nyholm et al, Neurology, in press) were used. Measures of severity were defined as total UPDRS score and scores for sections II and III, percent functional on-time and mean squared error of ratings on the TRS and as mean of diary questions about mobility and satisfaction (only study 2). Absolute improvement was defined as difference in severity, and relative improvement was defined as percent absolute improvement/severity on oral treatment. Pearson correlation coefficients between measures of improvement and other variables were calculated.Results:Correlations (r2>0.28, p<0.05) between severity during oral treatment and absolute improvement on infusion were found for: Total UPDRS, UPDRS III and TRS ratings (studies 1 and 2) and for diary question 1 (mobility) and UPDRS II (study 2). Correlation to relative improvement was found for total UPDRS (study 2, r2=0.47). Figure 1 illustrates absolute improvement in total UPDRS vs. total UPDRS during oral treatment (study 2).Conclusion:Correlating different measures of severity and improvement revealed that patients with more severe symptoms were most improved and that the relation between severity and improvement was linear within the studied groups. The result, which was reproducible between two clinical studies, could be useful when deciding candidates for the treatment.

Automatic spiral analysis for objective assessment of motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease

Objective: To develop a method for objective quantification of PD motor symptoms related to Off episodes and peak dose dyskinesias, using spiral data gathered by using a touch screen telemetry device. The aim was to objectively characterize predominant motor phenotypes (bradykinesia and dyskinesia), to help in automating the process of visual interpretation of movement anomalies in spirals as rated by movement disorder specialists. Background: A retrospective analysis was conducted on recordings from 65 patients with advanced idiopathic PD from nine different clinics in Sweden, recruited from January 2006 until August 2010. In addition to the patient group, 10 healthy elderly subjects were recruited. Upper limb movement data were collected using a touch screen telemetry device from home environments of the subjects. Measurements with the device were performed four times per day during week-long test periods. On each test occasion, the subjects were asked to trace pre-drawn Archimedean spirals, using the dominant hand. The pre-drawn spiral was shown on the screen of the device. The spiral test was repeated three times per test occasion and they were instructed to complete it within 10 seconds. The device had a sampling rate of 10Hz and measured both position and time-stamps (in milliseconds) of the pen tip. Methods: Four independent raters (FB, DH, AJ and DN) used a web interface that animated the spiral drawings and allowed them to observe different kinematic features during the drawing process and to rate task performance. Initially, a number of kinematic features were assessed including ‘impairment’, ‘speed’, ‘irregularity’ and ‘hesitation’ followed by marking the predominant motor phenotype on a 3-category scale: tremor, bradykinesia and/or choreatic dyskinesia. There were only 2 test occasions for which all the four raters either classified them as tremor or could not identify the motor phenotype. Therefore, the two main motor phenotype categories were bradykinesia and dyskinesia. ‘Impairment’ was rated on a scale from 0 (no impairment) to 10 (extremely severe) whereas ‘speed’, ‘irregularity’ and ‘hesitation’ were rated on a scale from 0 (normal) to 4 (extremely severe). The proposed data-driven method consisted of the following steps. Initially, 28 spatiotemporal features were extracted from the time series signals before being presented to a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) classifier. The features were based on different kinematic quantities of spirals including radius, angle, speed and velocity with the aim of measuring the severity of involuntary symptoms and discriminate between PD-specific (bradykinesia) and/or treatment-induced symptoms (dyskinesia). A Principal Component Analysis was applied on the features to reduce their dimensions where 4 relevant principal components (PCs) were retained and used as inputs to the MLP classifier. Finally, the MLP classifier mapped these components to the corresponding visually assessed motor phenotype scores for automating the process of scoring the bradykinesia and dyskinesia in PD patients whilst they draw spirals using the touch screen device. For motor phenotype (bradykinesia vs. dyskinesia) classification, the stratified 10-fold cross validation technique was employed. Results: There were good agreements between the four raters when rating the individual kinematic features with intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.88 for ‘impairment’, 0.74 for ‘speed’, 0.70 for ‘irregularity’, and moderate agreements when rating ‘hesitation’ with an ICC of 0.49. When assessing the two main motor phenotype categories (bradykinesia or dyskinesia) in animated spirals the agreements between the four raters ranged from fair to moderate. There were good correlations between mean ratings of the four raters on individual kinematic features and computed scores. The MLP classifier classified the motor phenotype that is bradykinesia or dyskinesia with an accuracy of 85% in relation to visual classifications of the four movement disorder specialists. The test-retest reliability of the four PCs across the three spiral test trials was good with Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients of 0.80, 0.82, 0.54 and 0.49, respectively. These results indicate that the computed scores are stable and consistent over time. Significant differences were found between the two groups (patients and healthy elderly subjects) in all the PCs, except for the PC3. Conclusions: The proposed method automatically assessed the severity of unwanted symptoms and could reasonably well discriminate between PD-specific and/or treatment-induced motor symptoms, in relation to visual assessments of movement disorder specialists. The objective assessments could provide a time-effect summary score that could be useful for improving decision-making during symptom evaluation of individualized treatment when the goal is to maximize functional On time for patients while minimizing their Off episodes and troublesome dyskinesias.

A data driven approach for automating vehicle activated signs

Vehicle activated signs (VAS) display a warning message when drivers exceed a particular threshold. VAS are often installed on local roads to display a warning message depending on the speed of the approaching vehicles. VAS are usually powered by electricity; however, battery and solar powered VAS are also commonplace. This thesis investigated devel-opment of an automatic trigger speed of vehicle activated signs in order to influence driver behaviour, the effect of which has been measured in terms of reduced mean speed and low standard deviation. A comprehen-sive understanding of the effectiveness of the trigger speed of the VAS on driver behaviour was established by systematically collecting data. Specif-ically, data on time of day, speed, length and direction of the vehicle have been collected for the purpose, using Doppler radar installed at the road. A data driven calibration method for the radar used in the experiment has also been developed and evaluated. Results indicate that trigger speed of the VAS had variable effect on driv-ers’ speed at different sites and at different times of the day. It is evident that the optimal trigger speed should be set near the 85th percentile speed, to be able to lower the standard deviation. In the case of battery and solar powered VAS, trigger speeds between the 50th and 85th per-centile offered the best compromise between safety and power consump-tion. Results also indicate that different classes of vehicles report differ-ences in mean speed and standard deviation; on a highway, the mean speed of cars differs slightly from the mean speed of trucks, whereas a significant difference was observed between the classes of vehicles on lo-cal roads. A differential trigger speed was therefore investigated for the sake of completion. A data driven approach using Random forest was found to be appropriate in predicting trigger speeds respective to types of vehicles and traffic conditions. The fact that the predicted trigger speed was found to be consistently around the 85th percentile speed justifies the choice of the automatic model.

Diferenças básicas entre líderes e gerentes

Existem algumas diferenças vitais entre os líderes e os administradores. Torna-se crucial diferenciar esses dois tipos de comportamentos. De acordo com alguns autores como Bennis, Gardner, Hickman e Porter por exemplo, é importante ter em mente que: A palavra Administrador costuma indicar que o indivíduo assim rotulado, ocupa um posto de direção numa organização, decidindo sobre os processos através dos quais uma organização funciona, alocando recursos com prudência, utilizando seu pessoal da melhor maneira possível. Líder é usado para indicar alguém que usa o processo de persuasão porque preocupa-se com aquilo que as coisas significam para as pessoas. Os líderes se orientam na direção da inovação desafiando o status quo e inspirando confiança. É capaz de intensificar o comprometimento e o entusiasmo dos empregados. Esse processo significa pessoas rumo a novas direções e inspirá-las a fazerem com que as coisas aconteçam. A maior parte dos administradores exibe algumas habilidades de liderança, e a maior parte dos líderes ocasionalmente se vê administrando. O projeto de pesquisa deverá apontar essas diferenças, embora liderança e administração não sejam a mesma coisa, mas podem se sobrepor. Esta pesquisa tenta demonstrar que líderes e administradores podem harmonizar suas diferentes orientações comportamentais quando trabalham juntos. Isto habilita as organizações a tirar maior proveito dos pontos fortes que eles têm.

Avaliação do novo modelo de ação fiscal de Secretaria da Fazenda do Estado de Pernambuco

Não é tarefa fácil abordar um tema como o de tributos, principalmente em um país como o Brasil, com grandes e históricas dívidas sociais, que permanece com uma das cargas tributárias mais elevadas do Mundo e com uma qualidade na oferta de serviços públicos que, na maioria das vezes, deixa a desejar. Pior ainda é discutir a eficácia do papel do Auditor Fiscal, já que temos a missão de prover o Estado de recursos públicos para a implementação e manutenção de políticas necessárias para a sociedade. Nem sempre para cumprir esse papel conta-se com o apoio integral da classe política e da população. Para compensar tal desafio, a maior motivação e certeza é que há na Secretaria da Fazenda do Estado de Pernambuco verdadeiros empreendedores com capacidade técnica e vontade de mudar algumas realidades, já não tão sintonizadas com os desafios dos tempos modernos. Partindo da premissa que a introdução do Planejamento, por meio da criação da Diretoria de Planejamento e Controle da Ação Fiscal no início de 2002 na estrutura organizacional da Administração Tributária, resultou em um salto de qualidade no resultado da ação fiscal, esse estudo apresenta uma avaliação dos processos fiscais comparando-se a partir de 1998 até o início de 2002 e daí até o ano de 2006. Percebe-se que não houve incremento em relação à efetividade da ação fiscal, constatando-se correlação estatística entre os valores recuperados pelo Fisco quando comparados o período posterior à mudança organizacional com o anterior, verificado pelo Teste de Wilcoxon. Ao mesmo tempo, percebeu-se uma necessidade clara do Estado rever suas leis, prazos e condições de trabalho no que se refere à execução fiscal, sob pena de não conseguir reaver parcela de tributo sonegado em tempo hábil, já que 84,9% dos processos não tiveram suas defesas administrativas apresentadas ou saldos devedores regularizados. Na pesquisa dirigida aos gerentes da Diretoria de Planejamento, suas respostas indicam que o caminho precisa ser mantido, buscando contínua evolução e coerência do planejamento estratégico e permanente aperfeiçoamento do modelo de gestão adotado em busca de resultados, com sensibilidade social e respeito profissional a cada integrante do Órgão.

Influência de parâmetros moleculares em funções de correlação temporal na dinâmica de solvatação mecânica

No presente trabalho descrevemos nossos resultados relativos à investigação da dinâmica de solvatação mecânica por meio de simulações por dinâmica molecular, respeitando o regime da resposta linear, em sistemas-modelo de argônio líquido com um soluto monoatômico ou diatômico dissolvido. Estudamos sistematicamente a influência dos parâmetros moleculares dos solutos (tamanho, polarizabilidade) e da densidade frente a vários modelos de solvatação. Funções de Correlação Temporal da Energia de Solvatação foram calculadas com relação à correlações de n-corpos (n = 2; 3) distinguindo interações repulsivas e atrativas para ambos os sistemas líquidos. Também obtivemos segundas derivadas temporais dessas funções referindo-se à parcelas translacionais, rotacionais e roto-translacionais na solução do diatômico. Encontramos que funções de correlação temporal coletivas podem ser razoavelmente bem aproximadas por correlações binárias a densidades baixas e, a densidades altas, correlações ternárias tornam-se mais importantes produzindo um descorrelacionamento mais rápido das funções coletivas devido a efeitos de cancelamento parciais. As funções de correlação para interações repulsivas e atrativas exibem comportamentos dinâmicos independentes do modelo de solvatação devido a fatores de escalonamento linear que afetam apenas as amplitudes das dessas funções de correlação temporal. Em geral, os sistemas com grau de liberdade rotacional apresentam tempos de correlação mais curtos para a dinâmica coletiva e tempos de correlação mais longos para as funções binárias e ternárias. Finalmente, esse estudo mostra que os sistemas contendo o diatômico relaxam-se predominantemente por mecanismos translacionais binários em modelos de solvatação envolvendo alterações apenas na polarizabilidade do soluto, e por mecanismos rotacionais atrativos binários em modelos envolvendo alterações no comprimento de ligação.

Evidence of eligibility manipulation for conditional cash transfer programs

This paper assesses whether eligibility for conditional cash transfer programs have been manipulated, as well as the impact of this phenomenon on time allocation within households. To perform this analysis, we use data from the 2006 PNAD (Brazilian national household survey) and investigate the eligibility manipulation for the Bolsa Família (Family Stipend) program during this time period. The program assists families with a monthly per capita income of around R$120.00 (US$60.00). By applying the tests developed by McCrary (2008), we find suggestive evidence that individuals manipulate their income by voluntarily reducing their labor supply in order to become eligible to the program. Moreover, the reduction in labor supply is greater among women, especially single or divorced mothers. This evidence raises some concern about the unintended consequences related to the eligibility criteria utilized by Bolsa Família, as well as the program’s impact on individuals living in extreme poverty.

Práticas operacionais e objetivo de desempenho como influenciadores do comportamento da equipe de projetos

Práticas em gestão de projetos (GP), apesar de amplamente difundidas, utilizadas e pesquisadas, não garantem o desempenho (sucesso) do projeto em suas entregas em tempo e custos conforme planejamento. Observa-se que, apesar do uso extensivo de práticas de GP, falhas em relação ao atendimento do cronograma e orçamento são amplamente relatadas. Portanto, este trabalho tem como objetivo principal analisar a influência das práticas de gestão de projetos e do objetivo de desempenho no Comportamento de Cidadania Organizacional (OCB) da equipe de projetos. As dimensões que compuseram o OCB foram: Ajuda, Iniciativa e Compliance. Para testar a relação entre os fatores de práticas de GP (incipientes ou avançados) e objetivo de desempenho (normal ou desafiador) no comportamento da equipe foi utilizada a metodologia do experimento baseado em cenários (SBRP experiment). A amostra contou com 216 alunos de graduação e pós-graduação em administração. O estudo mostrou que a utilização de práticas em gestão de projetos não influenciou o Comportamento de Cidadania Organizacional da equipe de projetos. Entretanto, o objetivo de desempenho nas dimensões de tempo e custos influenciou o Comportamento Cidadão da equipe de projetos. Além desses resultados, a pesquisa mostrou que características pessoais, como experiência em liderar projetos, influenciou a propensão em aumento do comportamento cidadão mediante uma remuneração adicional. Como contribuição adicional este estudo mostra que existem diferenças de resultados nos diferentes grupos de respondentes (alunos de graduação e pós-graduação em administração), conforme encontrado em outros estudos. A utilização do experimento também foi um diferencial metodológico, em virtude de sua ainda baixa utilização em gestão de operações. Finalmente, este estudo também identificou as principais práticas utilizadas na gestão de projetos.

The combination of neural estimates in prediction and decision problems

In this dissertation, different ways of combining neural predictive models or neural-based forecasts are discussed. The proposed approaches consider mostly Gaussian radial basis function networks, which can be efficiently identified and estimated through recursive/adaptive methods. Two different ways of combining are explored to get a final estimate – model mixing and model synthesis –, with the aim of obtaining improvements both in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. In the context of model mixing, the usual framework for linearly combining estimates from different models is extended, to deal with the case where the forecast errors from those models are correlated. In the context of model synthesis, and to address the problems raised by heavily nonstationary time series, we propose hybrid dynamic models for more advanced time series forecasting, composed of a dynamic trend regressive model (or, even, a dynamic harmonic regressive model), and a Gaussian radial basis function network. Additionally, using the model mixing procedure, two approaches for decision-making from forecasting models are discussed and compared: either inferring decisions from combined predictive estimates, or combining prescriptive solutions derived from different forecasting models. Finally, the application of some of the models and methods proposed previously is illustrated with two case studies, based on time series from finance and from tourism.

Micro and nanosystems for delivering local anesthetics

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

Um ambiente de suporte ao trabalho cooperativo com aplicação à telemedicina

This dissertation presents a cooperative virtual multimedia enviroment for employing on time medical Field, using a TCP/IP computer network. The Virtual Diagnosis Room environment make it possible to perform cooperative tasks using classical image processing. Synchronous and assynchronous text conversation (chat) and content markup, in order to produce remote cooperative diagnosis. The dissertation also describes the tool in detail and its functions, that enables the interaction among users, along with implementation detals, contributions and weakness of this work

Trends in rheumatic fever: clinical aspects and perspectives in prophylactic treatments

Introduction: Rheumatic fever (RF), a systemic illness that may occur following Group A beta-hemolytic streptococcal (GABHS) pharyngitis in children, is a major problem in countries with limited resources. Because of its long track record and low cost, an injection of benzathine penicillin G (BPG) suspension every 3 or 4 weeks has been used as secondary prophylaxis. Despite its excellent in vitro efficacy, the inability of BPG to eradicate GABHS has been frequently reported.Areas covered: This work reviews the possible causes of failure, as well as the inconvenience of the current prophylactic treatment of acute RF and suggests a new pharmacotherapeutic system that could replace the current one.Expert opinion: RF is a major problem concerning only countries with limited resources and could be considered as a neglected disease. The dose regimen using BPG suspension results in failures, which could be avoided by the use of nanocarrier-based systems. To meet this ultimate goal, the research should be transposed from the laboratory scale to an industrial and clinical application level. This research should be conducted to produce a pharmaceutical dosage form that will be commercially available, consumed by and affordable for patients. However, health, environmental and socioeconomic hazards should be considered.

Optical Behavior of Conjugated Pt-Containing Polymetallaynes Exposed to Gamma-Ray Radiation Doses

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)