CRS seismic data imaging system: a case study for basib reevaluation

Este trabalho apresenta resultados práticos de uma atenção sistemática dada ao processamento e à interpretação sísmica de algumas linhas terrestres do conjunto de dados do gráben do Tacutu (Brasil), sobre os quais foram aplicadas etapas fundamentais do sistema WIT de imageamento do empilhamento CRS (Superfície de Reflexão Comum) vinculado a dados. Como resultado, esperamos estabelecer um fluxograma para a reavaliação sísmica de bacias sedimentares. Fundamentado nos atributos de frente de onda resultantes do empilhamento CRS, um macro-modelo suave de velocidades foi obtido através de inversão tomográfica. Usando este macro-modelo, foi realizado uma migração à profundidade pré- e pós-empilhamento. Além disso, outras técnicas baseadas no empilhamento CRS foram realizadas em paralelo como correção estática residual e migração de abertura-limitada baseada na zona de Fresnel projetada. Uma interpretação geológica sobre as seções empilhadas e migradas foi esboçada. A partir dos detalhes visuais dos painéis é possível interpretar desconformidades, afinamentos, um anticlinal principal falhado com conjuntos de horstes e grábens. Também, uma parte da linha selecionada precisa de processamento mais detalhado para evidenciar melhor qualquer estrutura presente na subsuperfície.

Análise termoeconômica de uma mini-estação de tratamento de esgoto com auto-suficiência energética

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Partitioning the Choice Task Makes Starbucks Coffee Taste Better

Consumers are often less satisfied with a product chosen from a large assortment than a limited one. Experienced choice difficulty presumably causes this as consumers have to engage in a great number of individual comparisons. In two studies we tested whether partitioning the choice task so that consumers decided sequentially on each individual attribute may provide a solution. In a Starbucks coffee house, consumers who chose from the menu rated the coffee as less tasty when chosen from a large rather than a small assortment. However, when the consumers chose it by sequentially deciding about one attribute at a time, the effect reversed. In a tailored-suit customization, consumers who chose multiple attributes at a time were less satisfied with their suit, compared to those who chose one attribute at a time. Sequential attribute-based processing proves to be an effective strategy to reap the benefits of a large assortment.

Documentation of Graf-Wilczek-Knoll

During Leg ANT-XXIII/9 on the 31st March 2007 the German research vessel Polarstern mapped a significant bathymetric feature with its swath sonar system at the north-west margin of the Kerguelen Plateau. Due to the fact, that the feature was discovered just a month after the third IPY 2007/2008 has started, it was named after Graf Wilczek who, together with Carl Weyprecht, had promoted the first IPY. The undersea feature name proposal was officialy accepted by the GEBCO Sub-Committee on Undersea Feature Names (SCUFN) at its 20th meeting in late July and was added to the GEBCO Gazetteer of UFN (http://www.iho.shom.fr/COMMITTEES/GEBCO/SCUFN/scufn_intro.htm). ______________ Graf Hans Wilczek (Notation of the name from the book of Wilczek's daughter Elisabeth Kinsky- Wilczek). The Austrian naval hero Tegetthoff in 1871 planned an expedition to the southern hemisphere. The geophysicist G. Neumayer (1826-1909) already was selected as its chief scientist. Also the naval officer Carl Weyprecht (1838-1881) and the mountaineer Julius Payer (1841-1915) were to participate. Because of the sudden death of Tegettoff the project came to a halt and eventually was cancelled. By support of the well known geographer August Petermann (1822-1878) Weyprecht and Payer made a voyage into the Barents Sea which made them believe having seen the "open polar sea". An additional undertaking to confirm and to extend the find was obvious. At this stage of the affair count Hans Wilczek (1837-1922) got involved. He not only fostered a new expedition with a considerable sum of money, but he participated in commanding a support vessel to Novaya Zemlya. Wilczek managed to get home but the expedition vessel under Weyprecht's command became imprisoned in the pack for two years and at least had to be abandoned. After an adventurous trip back to civilisation Weyprecht changed his mind in what he considered the best way of polar research. Together with Wilczek in 1875 he started the promotion of international station-based polar exploration - the IPY was born. Wilczek guaranteed the constitution of an Austrian station on Novaya Zemlya and was ready to winter over there personally. Because of several political and other obstructions the beginning of the IPY was delayed till 1882. Wilczek's friend Weyprecht had passed away already. The command of the Austrian station, eventually erected on Jan Mayen, was given to Emil v. Wohlgemuth (1843-1896). Wilczek financed the main part of the Austrian IPY participation. Wilczek is described as honest and popular. On the one hand acquainted with the most prominent persons of his days, he respected everybody and had many relationships with scientists and artists. There is a kind of autobiography under the title: Hans Wilczek erzählt seinen Enkeln Erinnerungen aus seinem Leben (Hans Wilczek tells his grandchildren reminiscences from his life); edited by his daughter Elisabeth Kinsky-Wilczek, Graz 1933, 502 p. The book is available in an English version: Happy Retrospect - the Reminiscences of Count Wilczek 1837-1922, Bell and Sons, London 1934, 295 p.

Genetic influences on cognitive processes associated with distraction: An event-related potential study of the slow wave

The efficiency of inhibitory control processes has been proposed as a mechanism constraining working-memory capacity. In order to investigate genetic influences on processes that may reflect interference control, event-related potential (ER-P) activity recorded at frontal sites, during distracting and nondistracting conditions of a working-memory task, in a sample of 509 twin pairs was examined. The ERP component of interest was the slow wave (SW). Considerable overlap in source of genetic influence was found, with a common genetic factor accounting for 37 - 45% of SW variance irrespective of condition. However, 3 - 8 % of SW variance in the distracting condition was influenced by an independent genetic source. These results suggest that neural responses to irrelevant and distracting information, that may disrupt working-memory performance, differ in a fundamental way from perceptual and memory-based processing in a working-memory task. Furthermore, the results are consistent with the view that cognition is a complex genetic trait influenced by numerous genes of small influence.

New fuel cells system for portable application with low temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) technology

Miniature direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) are promising micro power sources for portable appliction. Low temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC), a competitive technology for current MEMS based fabrication, provides cost-effective mass manufacturing route for miniature DMFCs. Porous silver tape is adapted as electrodes to replace the traditional porous carbon electrodes due to its compatibility to LTCC processing and other electrochemical advantages. Electrochemical evaluation of silver under DMFCs operating conditions demonstrated that silver is a good electrode for DMFCs because of its reasonable corrosion resistance, low passivating current, and enhanced catalytic effect. Two catalyst loading methods (cofiring and postfiring) of the platinum and ruthenium catalysts are evaluated for LTCC based processing. The electrochemical analysis exhibits that the cofired path out-performs the postfiring path both at the anode and cathode. The reason is the formation of high surface area precipitated whiskers. Self-constraint sintering is utilized to overcome the difficulties of the large difference of coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) between silver and LTCC (Dupont 951) tape during cofiring. The graphite sheet employed as a cavity fugitive insert guarantees cavity dimension conservation. Finally, performance of the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) with the porous silver electrode in the regular graphite electrode based cell and the integrated cofired cell is measured under passive fuel feeding condition. The MEA of the regular cell performs better as the electrode porosity and temperature increased. The power density of 10 mWcm-2 was obtained at ambient conditions with 1M methanol and it increased to 16 mWcm -2 at 50°C from an open circuit voltage of 0.58V. For the integrated prototype cell, the best performance, which depends on the balance methanol crossover and mass transfer at different temperatures and methanol concentrations, reaches 1.13 mWcm-2 at 2M methanol solution at ambient pressure. The porous media pore structure increases the methanol crossover resistance. As temperature increased to 60°C, the device increases to 2.14 mWcm-2.

Twelve certain men: The impact of emotional appraisals on juror decision-making

Our jury system is predicated upon the expectation that jurors engage in systematic processing when considering evidence and making decisions. They are instructed to interpret facts and apply the appropriate law in a fair, dispassionate manner, free of all bias, including that of emotion. However, emotions containing an element of certainty (e.g., anger and happiness, which require little cognitive effort in determining their source) can often lead people to engage in superficial, heuristic-based processing. Compare this to uncertain emotions (e.g., hope and fear, which require people to seek out explanations for their emotional arousal), which instead has the potential to lead them to engage in deeper, more systematic processing. The purpose of the current research is in part to confirm past research (Tiedens & Linton, 2001; Semmler & Brewer, 2002) that uncertain emotions (like fear) can influence decision-making towards a more systematic style of processing, whereas more certain emotional states (like anger) will lead to a more heuristic style of processing. Studies One, Two, and Three build upon this prior research with the goal of improving methodological rigor through the use of film clips to reliably induce emotions, with awareness of testimonial details serving as measures of processing style. The ultimate objective of the current research was to explore this effect in Study Four by inducing either fear, anger, or neutral emotion in mock jurors, half of whom then followed along with a trial transcript featuring eight testimonial inconsistencies, while the other participants followed along with an error-free version of the same transcript. Overall rates of detection for these inconsistencies was expected to be higher for the uncertain/fearful participants due to their more effortful processing compared to certain/angry participants. These expectations were not fulfilled, with significant main effects only for the transcript version (with or without inconsistencies) on overall inconsistency detection rates. There are a number of plausible explanations for these results, so further investigation is needed.

(Table 1) Physical oceanography during Lance cruise LA99/2 in the marginal ice zone of the Barents Sea

Zooplankton was studied on eight stations in the marginal ice zone (MIZ) of the Barents Sea, in May 1999, along two transects across the ice edge. On each station, physical background measurements and zooplankton samples were taken every 6 h over a 24 h period at five discrete depth intervals. Cluster analysis revealed separation of open water stations from all ice stations as well as high similarity level among replicates belonging to particular station. Based on five replicates per station, analysis of variance (ANOVA) confirmed significant differences (P < 0.05) in abundances of the main mesozooplankton taxa among stations. Relations between the zooplankton community and environmental parameters were established using redundancy analysis (CANOCO). In total, 55% of mesozooplankton variability within studied area was explained by eight variables with significant conditional effects: depth stratum, fluorescence, temperature, salinity, bottom depth, latitude, bloom situation, and ice concentration. GLM models supported supposition about clear and negative relationship between concentration of Oithona similis, and overall mesozooplankton diversity The analyses showed a dynamic relationship between mesozooplankton distribution and hydrological conditions on short-term scale. Furthermore, our study demonstrated that variability in the physical environment of dynamic MIZ of the Barents Sea has measurable effect on the Arctic pelagic ecosystem.

Periodic nonlinear Fourier transform for fiber-optic communications, Part I:theory and numerical methods

In this work, we introduce the periodic nonlinear Fourier transform (PNFT) method as an alternative and efficacious tool for compensation of the nonlinear transmission effects in optical fiber links. In the Part I, we introduce the algorithmic platform of the technique, describing in details the direct and inverse PNFT operations, also known as the inverse scattering transform for periodic (in time variable) nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE). We pay a special attention to explaining the potential advantages of the PNFT-based processing over the previously studied nonlinear Fourier transform (NFT) based methods. Further, we elucidate the issue of the numerical PNFT computation: we compare the performance of four known numerical methods applicable for the calculation of nonlinear spectral data (the direct PNFT), in particular, taking the main spectrum (utilized further in Part II for the modulation and transmission) associated with some simple example waveforms as the quality indicator for each method. We show that the Ablowitz-Ladik discretization approach for the direct PNFT provides the best performance in terms of the accuracy and computational time consumption.

A green perspective on Structured parallel programming

Structured parallel programming, and in particular programming models using the algorithmic skeleton or parallel design pattern concepts, are increasingly considered to be the only viable means of supporting effective development of scalable and efficient parallel programs. Structured parallel programming models have been assessed in a number of works in the context of performance. In this paper we consider how the use of structured parallel programming models allows knowledge of the parallel patterns present to be harnessed to address both performance and energy consumption. We consider different features of structured parallel programming that may be leveraged to impact the performance/energy trade-off and we discuss a preliminary set of experiments validating our claims.

The Westerly Index as complementary indicator of the North Atlantic oscillation in explaining drought variability across Europe

This paper analyses the influence of different atmospheric circulation indices on the multi-scalar drought variability across Europe by using the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). The monthly circulation indices used in this study include the North Atlantic oscillation (NAO), the East Atlantic (EA), the Scandinavian (SCAN) and the East Atlantic-Western Russia (EA-WR) patterns, as well as the recently published Westerly Index (WI), defined as the persistence of westerly winds over the eastern north Atlantic region. The results indicate that European drought variability is better explained by the station-based NAO index and the WI than by any other combination of circulation indices. In northern and central Europe the variability of drought severity for different seasons and time-scales is strongly associated with the WI. On the contrary, the influence of the NAO on southern Europe droughts is stronger than that exerted by the WI. The correlation patterns of the NAO and WI with the SPEI show a spatial complementarity in shaping drought variability across Europe. Lagged correlations of the NAO and WI with the SPEI also indicate enough skill of both indices to anticipate drought severity several months in advance. As long as instrumental series of the NAO and WI are available, their combined use would allow inferring European drought variability for the last two centuries and improve the calibration and interpretation of paleoclimatic proxies associated with drought.

Twelve Certain Men: The Impact of Emotional Appraisals on Juror Decision-Making

Our jury system is predicated upon the expectation that jurors engage in systematic processing when considering evidence and making decisions. They are instructed to interpret facts and apply the appropriate law in a fair, dispassionate manner, free of all bias, including that of emotion. However, emotions containing an element of certainty (e.g., anger and happiness, which require little cognitive effort in determining their source) can often lead people to engage in superficial, heuristic-based processing. Compare this to uncertain emotions (e.g., hope and fear, which require people to seek out explanations for their emotional arousal), which instead has the potential to lead them to engage in deeper, more systematic processing. The purpose of the current research is in part to confirm past research (Tiedens & Linton, 2001; Semmler & Brewer, 2002) that uncertain emotions (like fear) can influence decision-making towards a more systematic style of processing, whereas more certain emotional states (like anger) will lead to a more heuristic style of processing. Studies One, Two, and Three build upon this prior research with the goal of improving methodological rigor through the use of film clips to reliably induce emotions, with awareness of testimonial details serving as measures of processing style. The ultimate objective of the current research was to explore this effect in Study Four by inducing either fear, anger, or neutral emotion in mock jurors, half of whom then followed along with a trial transcript featuring eight testimonial inconsistencies, while the other participants followed along with an error-free version of the same transcript. Overall rates of detection for these inconsistencies was expected to be higher for the uncertain/fearful participants due to their more effortful processing compared to certain/angry participants. These expectations were not fulfilled, with significant main effects only for the transcript version (with or without inconsistencies) on overall inconsistency detection rates. There are a number of plausible explanations for these results, so further investigation is needed.