Structural change and productivity growth, 20 years later: old problems, new opportunities

Includes bibliography

Alternative measures of potential economic growth in Latin America

Includes bibliography

A novel device with 36 channels for imaging and signal acquisition of the gastrointestinal tract based on AC biosusceptometry

The alternate current biosusceptometry (ACB) is a biomagnetic technique used to study some physiological parameters associated with gastrointestinal (GI) tract. For this purpose it applies an AC magnetic field and measures the response originating from magnetic marks or tracers. This paper presents an equipment based on the ACB which uses anisotropic magnetoresistive (AMR) sensors and an inexpensive electronic support. The ACB-AMR developed consists of a square array of 6x6 sensors arranged in a firstorder gradiometer configuration with one reference sensor. The equipment was applied to capture magnetic images of different phantoms and to acquire gastric contraction activity of healthy rats. The results show a reasonable sensitivity and spatial-temporal resolution, so that it may be applied for imaging of phantoms and signal acquisition of the GI tract of small animals. © 2010 IEEE.

Sensory profile and preference mapping of orange cakes with addition of prebiotics inulin and oligofructose

Orange cakes with addition of inulin and oligofructose to justify a prebiotic claim (minimum of 3 g of fructans in a 60 g serving of cake) were investigated regarding sensory aspects. The sensory profile of cakes with inulin, with inulin/oligofructose and without prebiotics (standard cake) was evaluated using descriptive quantitative analysis. Preference mapping was assessed using multidimensional scaling on data obtained through an acceptability test with a nine-point hedonic scale. The cakes with prebiotics presented greater crust brownness, dough beigeness, hardness and stickiness than the standard cake and lower crumbliness. Principal Component Analysis (69.5 and 10.7% of explanation to the first and second principal components, respectively) showed that crust brownness, dough beigeness, hardness and stickiness contributed to distinguish the cakes with prebiotics from standard cakes. The sensory acceptability was similar for the three cakes and higher when compared to three commercial cakes, but the preference mapping showed that cakes with prebiotics were preferred to commercial cakes. Addition of prebiotics in orange cakes is feasible, based on the sensory results, which may facilitate marketing of this functional food with sensorial qualities equivalent to conventional products. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

Unsupervised segmentation method for cuboidal cell nuclei in histological prostate images based on minimum cross entropy

This paper presents a novel segmentation method for cuboidal cell nuclei in images of prostate tissue stained with hematoxylin and eosin. The proposed method allows segmenting normal, hyperplastic and cancerous prostate images in three steps: pre-processing, segmentation of cuboidal cell nuclei and post-processing. The pre-processing step consists of applying contrast stretching to the red (R) channel to highlight the contrast of cuboidal cell nuclei. The aim of the second step is to apply global thresholding based on minimum cross entropy to generate a binary image with candidate regions for cuboidal cell nuclei. In the post-processing step, false positives are removed using the connected component method. The proposed segmentation method was applied to an image bank with 105 samples and measures of sensitivity, specificity and accuracy were compared with those provided by other segmentation approaches available in the specialized literature. The results are promising and demonstrate that the proposed method allows the segmentation of cuboidal cell nuclei with a mean accuracy of 97%. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Wavelets based Algorithm for the Evaluation of Enhanced Liver Areas

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a primary tumor of the liver. After local therapies, the tumor evaluation is based on the mRECIST criteria, which involves the measurement of the maximum diameter of the viable lesion. This paper describes a computed methodology to measure through the contrasted area of the lesions the maximum diameter of the tumor by a computational algorithm 63 computed tomography (CT) slices from 23 patients were assessed. Non-contrasted liver and HCC typical nodules were evaluated, and a virtual phantom was developed for this purpose. Optimization of the algorithm detection and quantification was made using the virtual phantom. After that, we compared the algorithm findings of maximum diameter of the target lesions against radiologist measures. Computed results of the maximum diameter are in good agreement with the results obtained by radiologist evaluation, indicating that the algorithm was able to detect properly the tumor limits A comparison of the estimated maximum diameter by radiologist versus the algorithm revealed differences on the order of 0.25 cm for large-sized tumors (diameter > 5 cm), whereas agreement lesser than 1.0cm was found for small-sized tumors. Differences between algorithm and radiologist measures were accurate for small-sized tumors with a trend to a small increase for tumors greater than 5 cm. Therefore, traditional methods for measuring lesion diameter should be complemented with non-subjective measurement methods, which would allow a more correct evaluation of the contrast-enhanced areas of HCC according to the mRECIST criteria.

The Effect of a Community-Based, Primary Health Care Exercise Program on Inflammatory Biomarkers and Hormone Levels

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

The effects of elastic tubing-based resistance training compared with conventional resistance training in patients with moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a randomized clinical trial

Objective: To investigate the effects of elastic tubing training compared with conventional resistance training on the improvement of functional exercise capacity, muscle strength, fat-free mass, and systemic inflammation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.Design: A prospective, randomized, eight-week clinical trial.Setting: The study was conducted in a university-based, outpatient, physical therapy clinic.Subjects: A total of 49 patients with moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.Interventions: Participants were randomly assigned to perform elastic tubing training or conventional resistance training three times per week for eight weeks.Main measures: The primary outcome measure was functional exercise capacity. The secondary outcome measures were peripheral muscle strength, health-related quality of life assessed by the Chronic Respiratory Disease Questionnaire (CRDQ), fat-free mass, and cytokine profile.Results: After eight weeks, the mean distance covered during six minutes increased by 73 meters (69) in the elastic tubing group and by 42 meters (+/- 59) in the conventional group (p < 0.05). The muscle strength and quality of life improved in both groups (P < 0.05), with no significant differences between the groups. There was a trend toward an improved fat-free mass in both groups (P = 0.05). After the first and last sessions, there was an increase in interleukin 1 (IL-1) and interleukin 10 (IL-10) in both groups, while tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-) was stimulated only in the conventional training group.Conclusion: Elastic tubing training had a greater effect on functional exercise capacity than conventional resistance training. Both interventions were equally effective in improving muscle strength and quality of life.

Wavelet-based algorithm to the evaluation of contrasted hepatocellular carcinoma in CT-images after transarterial chemoembolization

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Foraging Activity and Seasonal Food Preference of Linepithema micans (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), a Species Associated With the Spread of Eurhizococcus brasiliensis (Hemiptera: Margarodidae)

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Effect of adding a gonadotropin-releasing-hormone treatment at the beginning and a second prostaglandin F-2 alpha treatment at the end of an estradiol-based protocol for timed artificial insemination in lactating dairy cows during cool or hot seasons of the year

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

Surface coverage in wireless sensor networks based on delaunay tetrahedralization

In this work is presented a new method for sensor deployment on 3D surfaces. The method was structured on different steps. The first one aimed discretizes the relief of interest with Delaunay algorithm. The tetrahedra and relative values (spatial coordinates of each vertex and faces) were input to construction of 3D Voronoi diagram. Each circumcenter was calculated as a candidate position for a sensor node: the corresponding circular coverage area was calculated based on a radius r. The r value can be adjusted to simulate different kinds of sensors. The Dijkstra algorithm and a selection method were applied to eliminate candidate positions with overlapped coverage areas or beyond of surface of interest. Performance evaluations measures were defined using coverage area and communication as criteria. The results were relevant, once the mean coverage rate achieved on three different surfaces were among 91% and 100%.

Effect of different solutions on color stability of acrylic resin-based dentures

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

Protein Hydrolysates Are Avoided by Herbivores but Not by Omnivores in Two-Choice Preference Tests

Background: The negative sensory properties of casein hydrolysates (HC) often limit their usage in products intended for human consumption, despite HC being nutritious and having many functional benefits. Recent, but taxonomically limited, evidence suggests that other animals also avoid consuming HC when alternatives exist. Methodology/Principal Findings: We evaluated ingestive responses of five herbivorous species (guinea pig, mountain beaver, gopher, vole, and rabbit) and five omnivorous species (rat, coyote, house mouse, white-footed mouse, and deer mouse; N = 16–18/species) using solid foods containing 20% HC in a series of two-choice preference tests that used a nonprotein, cellulose-based alternative. Individuals were also tested with collagen hydrolysate (gelatin; GE) to determine whether it would induce similar ingestive responses to those induced by HC. Despite HC and GE having very different nutritional and sensory qualities, both hydrolysates produced similar preference score patterns. We found that the herbivores generally avoided the hydrolysates while the omnivores consumed them at similar levels to the cellulose diet or, more rarely, preferred them (HC by the white-footed mouse; GE by the rat). Follow-up preference tests pairing HC and the nutritionally equivalent intact casein (C) were performed on the three mouse species and the guinea pigs. For the mice, mean HC preference scores were lower in the HC v C compared to the HC v Cel tests, indicating that HC’s sensory qualities negatively affected its consumption. However, responses were species-specific. For the guinea pigs, repeated exposure to HC or C (4.7-h sessions; N = 10) were found to increase subsequent HC preference scores in an HC v C preference test, which was interpreted in the light of conservative foraging strategies thought to typify herbivores. Conclusions/Significance: This is the first empirical study of dietary niche-related taxonomic differences in ingestive responses to protein hydrolysates using multiple species under comparable conditions. Our results provide a basis for future work in sensory, physiological, and behavioral mechanisms of hydrolysate avoidance and on the potential use of hydrolysates for pest management.

JVM-based Techniques for Improving Java Observability

Observability measures the support of computer systems to accurately capture, analyze, and present (collectively observe) the internal information about the systems. Observability frameworks play important roles for program understanding, troubleshooting, performance diagnosis, and optimizations. However, traditional solutions are either expensive or coarse-grained, consequently compromising their utility in accommodating today’s increasingly complex software systems. New solutions are emerging for VM-based languages due to the full control language VMs have over program executions. Existing such solutions, nonetheless, still lack flexibility, have high overhead, or provide limited context information for developing powerful dynamic analyses. In this thesis, we present a VM-based infrastructure, called marker tracing framework (MTF), to address the deficiencies in the existing solutions for providing better observability for VM-based languages. MTF serves as a solid foundation for implementing fine-grained low-overhead program instrumentation. Specifically, MTF allows analysis clients to: 1) define custom events with rich semantics ; 2) specify precisely the program locations where the events should trigger; and 3) adaptively enable/disable the instrumentation at runtime. In addition, MTF-based analysis clients are more powerful by having access to all information available to the VM. To demonstrate the utility and effectiveness of MTF, we present two analysis clients: 1) dynamic typestate analysis with adaptive online program analysis (AOPA); and 2) selective probabilistic calling context analysis (SPCC). In addition, we evaluate the runtime performance of MTF and the typestate client with the DaCapo benchmarks. The results show that: 1) MTF has acceptable runtime overhead when tracing moderate numbers of marker events; and 2) AOPA is highly effective in reducing the event frequency for the dynamic typestate analysis; and 3) language VMs can be exploited to offer greater observability.