A comparative study of the low energy HD plus o-/p-H-2 rotational excitation/de-excitation collisions and elastic scattering

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Modelo de referência para estruturar o Seis Sigma nas organizações

Este artigo apresenta o modelo de referência para estruturar o Seis Sigma, o qual é resultante da incorporação de teorias que contribuem para aumentar o potencial estratégico do Seis Sigma no sentido de incrementar o desempenho organizacional. em sua proposta, o modelo de referência engloba um direcionamento sobre certos requisitos primordiais para o sucesso do programa Seis Sigma. A base teórica de sustentação do modelo de referência foi construída a partir de estudos sobre a influência dos seguintes fatores: orientação estratégica e alinhamento estratégico; medição e gerenciamento do desempenho organizacional; uso de estatística (pensamento estatístico); capacitação/especialização de pessoas; implementação e gerenciamento de projetos; e uso de tecnologia de informação. Complementando a proposição do modelo, o artigo traz evidências empíricas acerca da contribuição dos fatores identificados na formulação do modelo de referência, expondo resultados decorrentes de estudos de caso realizados em quatro subsidiárias brasileiras de multinacionais de grande porte. A análise dos dados forneceu evidências positivas de que os fatores mencionados influenciam de forma efetiva o sucesso e a consolidação do Seis Sigma nas empresas estudadas.

Desempenho ortográfico de escolares do 2º ao 5º ano do ensino particular

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

Effects of direction and curvature on variable error pattern of reaching movements

A number of studies have analyzed various indices of the final position variability in order to provide insight into different levels of neuromotor processing during reaching movements. Yet the possible effects of movement kinematics on variability have often been neglected. The present study was designed to test the effects of movement direction and curvature on the pattern of movement variable errors. Subjects performed series of reaching movements over the same distance and into the same target. However, due either to changes in starting position or to applied obstacles, the movements were performed in different directions or along the trajectories of different curvatures. The pattern of movement variable errors was assessed by means of the principal component analysis applied on the 2-D scatter of movement final positions. The orientation of these ellipses demonstrated changes associated with changes in both movement direction and curvature. However, neither movement direction nor movement curvature affected movement variable errors assessed by area of the ellipses. Therefore it was concluded that the end-point variability depends partly, but not exclusively, on movement kinematics.

THE ALGEBRA OF NONLOCAL CHARGES IN NONLINEAR SIGMA-MODELS

We obtain the exact classical algebra obeyed by the conserved non-local charges in bosonic non-linear sigma models. Part of the computation is specialized for a symmetry group O(N). As it turns out the algebra corresponds to a cubic deformation of the Kac-Moody algebra. We generalize the results for the presence of a Wess-Zumino term. The algebra is very similar to the previous one, now containing a calculable correction of order one unit lower. The relation with Yangians and the role of the results in the context of Lie-Poisson algebras are also discussed.

Quenching of para-H-2 with an ultracold antihydrogen atom (H)over-bar(1s)

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Measurement of the differential cross section d sigma/dt in elastic p(p)over-bar scattering at root s=1.96 TeV

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Use of the Normalized Absorbance Ratio as an Internal Standardization Approach To Minimize Measurement Error in Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays for Diagnosis of Human Papillomavirus Infection

The serological detection of antibodies against human papillomavirus (HPV) antigens is a useful tool to determine exposure to genital HPV infection and in predicting the risk of infection persistence and associated lesions. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) are commonly used for seroepidemiological studies of HPV infection but are not standardized. Intra-and interassay performance variation is difficult to control, especially in cohort studies that require the testing of specimens over extended periods. We propose the use of normalized absorbance ratios (NARs) as a standardization procedure to control for such variations and minimize measurement error. We compared NAR and ELISA optical density (OD) values for the strength of the correlation between serological results for paired visits 4 months apart and HPV-16 DNA positivity in cervical specimens from a cohort investigation of 2,048 women tested with an ELISA using HPV-16 virus-like particles. NARs were calculated by dividing the mean blank-subtracted (net) ODs by the equivalent values of a control serum pool included in the same plate in triplicate, using different dilutions. Stronger correlations were observed with NAR values than with net ODs at every dilution, with an overall reduction in nonexplained regression variability of 39%. Using logistic regression, the ranges of odds ratios of HPV-16 DNA positivity contrasting upper and lower quintiles at different dilutions and their averages were 4.73 to 5.47 for NARs and 2.78 to 3.28 for net ODs, with corresponding significant improvements in seroreactivity-risk trends across quintiles when NARs were used. The NAR standardization is a simple procedure to reduce measurement error in seroepidemiological studies of HPV infection.

Bound state solution of the grassmannian nonlinear sigma model with fermions

We construct the S-matrix for bound state (gauge-invariant) scattering for nonlinear sigma models defined on the manifold SU(n) S(U(p)⊗U(n-p)) with fermions. It is not possible to compute gauge non-singlet matrix elements. In the present language, constraints from higher conservation laws determine the bound state solution. An alternative derivation is also presented. © 1988.

Afecções oculares em crianças de 2 a 8 anos da rede pública municipal de Piracicaba - SP

Study model: observacional, retrospective. Objective: to determine the frequence of the ametropic errors and other ocular problems in children with 2 to 8 year-old at Piracicaba - SP. Patients and Method: During the school year of 2000, 1001 children enrolled at the public schools of Piracicaba - SP, age ranged from 2 to 8 years old, were referred to complete ophthalmological exam. Visual acuity was previously determined using Snellen chart, applied by school teachers. Those children presenting visual acuity equal or less than 0.8, visual complaints or visual disorders were selected to appointment. Results: 51 children (5.09%) did not attended to examination. 950 children were submitted to complete ophthalmological exam. Ametropic errors were found 70.84% of the children. The most prevalent refractive errors were Hypermetropic Astigmatism (49.62%) and Hypermetropia (32,98%). Anisometropia was found in 1.78% children. Other ocular disabilities accounted for 10.21% of the examined children, such as strabismus (3.36%), eyelid changes, allergic conjunctivitis, congenital dacryostenosis, optic atrophy, corioretinitis and congenital glaucoma. Conclusion: The frequence of ocular problems observed let us to conclude the screening programs are valid surveys on decreasing rates of preventable blindness in our country.

Bifundamental fuzzy 2-Sphere and fuzzy killing spinors

We review our construction of a bifundamental version of the fuzzy 2-sphere and its relation to fuzzy Killing spinors, first obtained in the context of the ABJM membrane model. This is shown to be completely equivalent to the usual (adjoint) fuzzy sphere. We discuss the mathematical details of the bifundamental fuzzy sphere and its field theory expansion in a model-independent way. We also examine how this new formulation affects the twisting of the fields, when comparing the field theory on the fuzzy sphere background with the compactification of the 'deconstructed' (higher dimensional) field theory.

A study on human error in the interaction with the computer systems

The term human factor is used by professionals of various fields meant for understanding the behavior of human beings at work. The human being, while developing a cooperative activity with a computer system, is subject to cause an undesirable situation in his/her task. This paper starts from the principle that human errors may be considered as a cause or factor contributing to a series of accidents and incidents in many diversified fields in which human beings interact with automated systems. We propose a simulator of performance in error with potentiality to assist the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) project manager in the construction of the critical systems. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.

Particle competition and cooperation to prevent error propagation from mislabeled data in semi-supervised learning

Semi-supervised learning is applied to classification problems where only a small portion of the data items is labeled. In these cases, the reliability of the labels is a crucial factor, because mislabeled items may propagate wrong labels to a large portion or even the entire data set. This paper aims to address this problem by presenting a graph-based (network-based) semi-supervised learning method, specifically designed to handle data sets with mislabeled samples. The method uses teams of walking particles, with competitive and cooperative behavior, for label propagation in the network constructed from the input data set. The proposed model is nature-inspired and it incorporates some features to make it robust to a considerable amount of mislabeled data items. Computer simulations show the performance of the method in the presence of different percentage of mislabeled data, in networks of different sizes and average node degree. Importantly, these simulations reveals the existence of the critical points of the mislabeled subset size, below which the network is free of wrong label contamination, but above which the mislabeled samples start to propagate their labels to the rest of the network. Moreover, numerical comparisons have been made among the proposed method and other representative graph-based semi-supervised learning methods using both artificial and real-world data sets. Interestingly, the proposed method has increasing better performance than the others as the percentage of mislabeled samples is getting larger. © 2012 IEEE.

Error estimates for a neumann problem in highly oscillating thin domains

In this work we analyze the convergence of solutions of the Poisson equation with Neumann boundary conditions in a two-dimensional thin domain with highly oscillatory behavior. We consider the case where the height of the domain, amplitude and period of the oscillations are all of the same order, and given by a small parameter e > 0. Using an appropriate corrector approach, we show strong convergence and give error estimates when we replace the original solutions by the first-order expansion through the Multiple-Scale Method.

A method for improving the code rate and error correction capability of a cyclic code

Currently, there has been an increasing demand for operational and trustworthy digital data transmission and storage systems. This demand has been augmented by the appearance of large-scale, high-speed data networks for the exchange, processing and storage of digital information in the different spheres. In this paper, we explore a way to achieve this goal. For given positive integers n,r, we establish that corresponding to a binary cyclic code C0[n,n-r], there is a binary cyclic code C[(n+1)3k-1,(n+1)3k-1-3kr], where k is a nonnegative integer, which plays a role in enhancing code rate and error correction capability. In the given scheme, the new code C is in fact responsible to carry data transmitted by C0. Consequently, a codeword of the code C0 can be encoded by the generator matrix of C and therefore this arrangement for transferring data offers a safe and swift mode. © 2013 SBMAC - Sociedade Brasileira de Matemática Aplicada e Computacional.