Diagnóstico e ensaio de carga de asnas tradicionais de madeira

Dissertação de mestrado Integrado em Engenharia Civil

Doença aterosclerótica difusa desmascarada pela avaliação fisiológica invasiva da circulação coronária

Sabe-se que a aterosclerose coronária é um processo difuso, pouco visível à angiografia. Este artigo descreve um paciente com angina estável, três meses após infarto agudo do miocárdio (IAM), e uma lesão severa na artéria descendente anterior (ADA), evidenciada pela cinecoronariografia. A reserva de fluxo fracionada do miocárdio (FFR), obtida através de medidas pressóricas intracoronárias, foi 0,37 durante a hiperemia máxima, demonstrando claramente a existência de isquemia. Um stent foi implantado na ADA e, a despeito do excelente resultado angiográfico, a FFR pós-stent foi apenas 0,75, o limite mínimo abaixo do qual existe isquemia. Quando a corda guia pressórica (pressure wire - PW) foi lentamente recuada da porção distal da ADA para sua porção proximal, notou-se um aumento contínuo e gradativo na pressão intracoronária, o que indica claramente aterosclerose difusa e não estenose focal. Não se notava gradiente no local do stent. O paciente foi mantido em tratamento médico e permanece assintomático até o momento.

Evaluation of fish pots as a feasible fishing method in Irish waters, with specific reference to the physiological effects of common and alternate pots on the lesser spotted dogfish (Scyliorhinus canicula).

Finfish pots have emerged as a “responsible” gear, when used in combination with conservational and technical measures to sustain fisheries. Previous trials in Irish waters have offered no published reported data and so three designs tested in the current study provide new information on this gear. The most successful traps in terms of fish catch were rigid steel framed rectangular pots used to target Conger eel. Although commercial yield was low (0.2 per trap haul), potential existed for a viable pot fishery. Deployment and storage of Norwegian floating pots was conducted with relative ease but performance in the water was poor resulting in loss of gear. Catch returns were notable even though effort was restricted as mega-faunal by-catch was a problem, which lead to ending this trial. From these initial trials it was evident that catch rates were low compared to established Norwegian fisheries (3.6 cod per pot), which resulted in the utilisation of pots, already established in the crustacean fishery, to find species readily accessible to pot capture. Although fished and designed differently, these gears provided an opportunity to establish the benefits of pot fishing to fish quality and to determine the effects on by-catch. The fishing effects of three catching methods (pots, angling and trawl) and the effects of air exposure on the physiological status of a common by-catch, the lesser spotted dogfish Scyliorhinus canícula (L.) were examined using a range of physiological biomarkers (plasma catecholamine, glucose, lactate, muscle pH and muscle lactate). Physiological responses of fish to an emersion stress regime resulted in a significant metabolic disturbance in groups, but may not have weakened the overall health of these fish, as signified in the revival of some metabolites. Plasma glucose and lactate concentrations did not however recovery to baseline levels indicating that to achieve an accurate profile, responses should be determined by a suite of biomarkers. Responses did not demonstrate that samples from the pots were significantly less stressed than for the other two methods; angling and trawling, which are in contrast to many other studies. Employment of finfish potting therefore in Irish waters needs further consideration before further promotion as a more responsible method to supplement or replace established techniques.

Design of a bifurcated stent graft, with its accompanying delivery system.

Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms (AAA) haemorhaging is a life-threatening disease. An aneurysm is a permanent swelling of an artery due to a weakness in its wall. Current surgical repair involves opening the chest or abdomen, gaining temporary vascular control of the aorta and suturing a prosthetic graft to the healthy aorta within the aneurysm itself The outcome of this surgical approach is not perfect, and the quality of life after this repair is impaired by postoperative pain, sexual dysfunction, and a lengthy hospital stay resulting in high health costs. All these negative effects are related to the large incision and extensive tissue dissection. Endovascular grafting is an alternative to the standard surgical method. This treatment is a less invasive method of treating aortic aneurysms. It involves a surgical exposure of the common femoral arteries where the stent graft can be inserted through by an over-the-wire technique. All manipulations are controlled from a remote place by the use of a catheter and this technique avoids the need to directly expose the diseased artery through a large incision or an extensive dissection. The proposed design method outlined in this project is to develop the endovascular approach. The main aim is to design an unitary bifurcated stent graft (1 e- bifurcated graft as a single component) to treat these Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms. This includes the delivery system and deployment mechanism necessary to first accurately position the stent graft across the aneurysm sac and also across the iliac bifurcation, and secondly fix the stent graft in position by using expandable metal stents. Thus, excluding the aneurysm from the circulation and therefore preventing rupture. Miniaturisation is a critical aspect of this design, as the smaller the crimped stent graft the easier to guide through the vascular system to the desired location. Biocompatibility is an important aspect. The preferred materials for this prosthesis are to use Shape Memory Alloys for the stent and a multifilament fabric for the graft. A taper design is applied for the geometry as this gives a favourable flow characteristic and reduced wave reflections. Adequate testing of the stent graft to prove its durability and the ease of the method of deployment is a prerequisite. A bench test facility has being designed and build to replicate the cardiovascular system and the disease in question aortic aneurysms at the iliac bifurcation. The testing here shows the feasibility of the proposed delivery system and the durability of the stent graft across the aneurysm sac. Finally, these endovascular treatments offer the economic advantage of short hospital stays or even treatment as an outpatient, as well as elimination of the need for postoperative intensive care The risk of developing an aneurysm increases with age, that is one of the mam reasons to look for less invasive ways of treating aneurysms. Consequently, there is enormous pressure to develop and use these devices rapidly.

Contribuição a história natural do «Pararu» Scardafella squammata squammata(Lesson) (1)

The main wild doves of the region of Piracicaba (State of S. Paulo, Brazil) are Columba cayennensis sylvestris Vieillot, Oreopeleia montana montana (L.), Leptotila verreauxi decipiens Salvadori, Columbigallina talpacoti talpacoti. (Temminck) and Scardafella squammata squammata (Lesson). The last one is well known for the beauty of the coloration of its feathers and for the characteristic sounds produced when flying up. Of common occurrence around the local farms, that species can easily be recognized not only for the mentioned peculiarities as for the voice of the adults, which was translated into the Brazilian onomatopoeia by the expression "fogo-apagou". S. squammata's biology being not well known, the Author presents some notes on its nidification, behaviour of both sexes and of the young birds. The data were gotten in nature and with specimens kept in captivity, where the reproduction took place. In such a situation, the male dove used thin and small wooden shavings to build the nest, an artificial material unknown by him when in nature. This fact may be considered as another proof of the plasticity of the instinctive conduct of birds, not so marked as the one given by SCHIRCH (1931) concerning Synallaxis sp. (Furnariidae), which made use of wire pieces and also barbed wires in confectioning the nest. The copulation was sometimes verified, being preceded by the phenomena well known in other Columbidae species. The nest had its building ready just on the day in which the first egg was laid. As it generally happens amongst doves, the nest was not carefully made - a simple and shallow bowl (diameter = 10 cm), where two entirely white eggs were put.. .. ..(22,5-24,5 x 18,0-19,0 mm). The eclosion took place 14 days after the laying of the last egg. As soon as the young doves (at least the male one) can feed by themselves, they try to produce the characteristic species sounds. "Pararu", a common name oly applied to another species - Claravis godefrida (Temminck) - is reported, which is preferably used by people in this region to call the studied dove. No differences between the coloration of the fathers of the two sexes were observed. The female dove seemed to be a little thinner than the male. In addition, the slight differences between the sounds produced by the male and female are pointed out.

Ecology and natural history of Akodon lindberghi (Rodentia, Sigmodontinae) in southeastern Brazil

We studied the ecology and natural history of the globally threatened and poorly known Akodon lindberghi Hershkovitz, 1990 in Parque Nacional da Serra da Canastra (PNSC) and Juiz de Fora (JF), southeastern Brazil. From November 1998 to September 2001 a total of 131 individuals were captured in wire-cage live-traps and 52 by pitfalls traps. They were all marked and released at the site. The largest abundances were registered during the dry season, and most of the captures occurred in open habitats. The mean body mass of the two populations was significantly different (18.1 g at PNSC versus 13.1 g at JF; H = 46.2678, g.l.=2, p<0.001). In PNSC, individuals were reproductively active from August to February, and juveniles were present from May to August. The results suggest that the changes in vegetation structure caused by deforestation and intensive agricultural activities could increase the predation rate, affecting the mean body mass of the population.

Um chronographo de construção simples, permittindo registrar intervallos de tempo de 1 a 60 segundos

Descriptive memorial of a chronograph made from a common chronoscop (Eastman Timer). The chronoscop has been modified in order to permit to adjust distinct cog-wheels, everyone in its turn, to the axis of the seconds hand. Each of these cog-wheels holds a definite number of teeth accordingly with the time interval ones desire to record. A wheel with 20 teeth, for instance, is available for recording time in periods of each three seconds, another wheel with 6 teeth, will reckon time in intervals of 10 seconds and so on. These wheels may be interchanged most easily, which enables, with the same apparatus, to have at hand a time recorder for any time interval between one and sixty seconds. To register the time the apparatus is connected with a dry cell. A wire is attached to a binding post on the metal case of the apparatus, another wire being connected with an isolated binding post placed in front of the cog-wheel and fastened to a platinum point allowing open or shut the circuit, every time one of the cogs of the wheel comes into contact with this platinum point. A signal magnet is placed also in the circuit for writing the time intervals on the revolving drum.

A Grid Supercomputing Enviroment for High Demand Computational Applications

Despite the huge increase in processor and interprocessor network performace, many computational problems remain unsolved due to lack of some critical resources such as floating point sustained performance, memory bandwidth, etc... Examples of these problems are found in areas of climate research, biology, astrophysics, high energy physics (montecarlo simulations) and artificial intelligence, among others. For some of these problems, computing resources of a single supercomputing facility can be 1 or 2 orders of magnitude apart from the resources needed to solve some them. Supercomputer centers have to face an increasing demand on processing performance, with the direct consequence of an increasing number of processors and systems, resulting in a more difficult administration of HPC resources and the need for more physical space, higher electrical power consumption and improved air conditioning, among other problems. Some of the previous problems can´t be easily solved, so grid computing, intended as a technology enabling the addition and consolidation of computing power, can help in solving large scale supercomputing problems. In this document, we describe how 2 supercomputing facilities in Spain joined their resources to solve a problem of this kind. The objectives of this experience were, among others, to demonstrate that such a cooperation can enable the solution of bigger dimension problems and to measure the efficiency that could be achieved. In this document we show some preliminary results of this experience and to what extend these objectives were achieved.

Distribuição geográfica da fauna e flora da Baía de Guanabara

The author studied, the horizontal and vertical distribution of most common part of the flora and fauna of the bay of Guanabara at Rio de Janeiro. In this paper the eulittoral, poly, meso and oligohaline regions were localised and studied; and the first chart of its distribution was presented (fig. 2). The salinity of superficial waters was established through determinations based on 30 trips inside the buy for collecting biological materials. Some often 409 determinations which were previous reported together with the present ones served for the eleboration of a salinity map of the bay of Guanabara (fig. 1). This map of fig. 2 shows the geographic locations of the water regions. EULITTORAL WATER REGIME — Fig. 3 shows the diagram scheme of fauna and flora of this regime. Sea water salinity 34/1.000, density mean 1.027, transparent greenish waters, sea coast with moderate bursting waves. Limpid sea shore with white sand, gneiss with the big barnacle Tetraclita squamosa var. stalactifera (Lam. Pilsbry. Vertical distributions: barna¬cles layers with a green region in which are present the oyster Ostrea pa-rasitica L., the barnacles Tetraclita, Chthamalus, Balanus tintinnabulum var. tintinnabulum (L.) e var. antillensis Pilsbry in connection with several mollusca and the sea beatle Isopoda Lygia sp. Covered by water and exposed to air by the tidal ritms, there is a stratum of brown animals that is the layer of mussels Mytilus perna L., with others brown and chestnut animals : the Crustacea Pachygrapsus, the little crab Porcellana sp., the stone crab Me-nippe nodifrons Stimpson, the sea stars Echinaster brasiliensis (Mull. & Tr.), Astropecten sp. and the sea anemones Actinia sp. Underneath and never visible there is a subtidal region with green tubular algae of genus Codium and amidst its bunches the sea urchin Lycthchinus variegatus (Agass.) walks and more deeply there are numerous sand-dollars Encope emarginata (Leske). The microplancton of this regime is Ceratiumplancton. POLYHALINE WATER REGIMB — Water almost sea water, but directly influenced by continental lands, with rock salts dissolved and in suspension. Salinity: 33 to 32/1.000. This waters endure the actions of the popular nicknamed «water of the hill» (as the waters of mesohaline and oligohaline regimes), becoming suddenly reddish during several hours. That pheno¬menon returns several times in the year and come with great mortality of fishes. In these waters, according to Dr. J. G. FARIA there are species of Protozoa : Peridinea, the Glenoidinium trochoideum St., followed by its satellites which he thinks that they are able to secret toxical substances which can slaughter some species of fishes. In these «waters of the hill» was found a species of Copepoda the Charlesia darwini. In August 1946 the west shore of the Guanabara was plenty of killed fishes occupying a area of 8 feet large by 3 nautical miles of lenght. The enclosure for catching fishes in the rivers mouthes presents in these periods mass dead fishes. The phenomenon of «waters of the hill» appears with the first rains after a period of long dryness. MESOHALINE WATER REGIME — Fig. 4 shows the the diagramm scheme. Salt or brackish water from 30 to 17/1.000 salinity, sometimes until 10/1.000. Turbid waters with mud in suspension, chestnut, claveyous waters; shore dirty black mud without waving bursting; the waters are warmer and shorner than those of the polihaline regime. Mangrove shore with the mangrove trees : Rhizophora mangle L., Avicennia sp., Laguncularia sp., and the »cotton tree of sea» Hibiscus sp. Fauna: the great land crab «guaimú» Cardisoma guanhumi Latr., ashore in dry firm land. There is the real land crab Ucides cordatus (L.) in wetting mud and in neigh¬ bourhood of the burrows of the fiddler-crabs of genus Uca. On stones and in the roots of the Rhizophora inhabits the brightly colored mangrove-tree-crab («aratu» Portuguese nickname) Goniopsis cruentata (Latreille) and the sparingly the big oyster Ostrea rhizophorae Guild. Lower is the region of barnacles Balanus amphitrite var. communis Darwin and var. niveus Darwin; Balanus tintinnabulum var. tintinnabulum (L.) doesn't grow in this brackish water; lower is the region of Pelecipoda with prepollency of Venus and Cytherea shell-fishes and the Panopeus mud crab; there are the sea lettuce Ulva and the Gastreropod Cerithium. The Paguridae Clibanarius which lives in the empty shells of Gasteropod molluscs, and the sessile ascidians Tethium plicatum (Lesuer) appears in some seasons. In the bottom there is a black argillous mud where the «one landed shrimps» Alpheus sp. is hidden. OLIGOHALINE WATER REGIME — The salinity is lower than 10/1.000. average 8/1.000. There are no barnacles and no sea-beetles Isopods of genus Lygia; on the hay of the shore there are several graminea. This brackish water pervades by mouthes of rivers and penetrates until about 3 kilometers river above. While there is some salt dissolved in water, there are some mud crabs of the genus Uca, Sesarma, Metasesarma and Chasmagnatus. The presence of floating green plants coming from the rivers in the waters of a region indicated the oligohaline waters, with low salt content because when the average of NaCl increases above 8/1.000 these plants die and become rusty colored.

Local Currency Pricing, Foreign Monetary Shocks and Exchange Rate Policy

The implications of local currency pricing (LCP) for monetary regime choice are analysed for a country facing foreign monetary shocks. In this analysis expenditure switching is potentially welfare reducing. This contrasts with the existing LCP literature, which focuses on productivity shocks and thus analyses a world where expenditure switching is welfare enhancing. This paper shows that, when home and foreign producers follow LCP, expenditure switching is absent and a floating rate is preferred by the home country. But when only home producers follow LCP, expenditure switching is present and a fixed rate can be welfare enhancing for the home country.

Disseny, modelat i fabricació d'una antena "trap" per aplicacions WLAN

En aquest treball s’ha dissenyat i fabricat una antena monopol en estructura planar capaç de treballar correctament a les freqüències WLAN de 2,45-2,5 GHz (802.11b/g) i 4,9-5,875 GHz (802.11a/h/j). Per arribar a aquest objectiu primer s’ha presentat el model de línia de transmissió acabada en circuit obert per simular el comportament d’una antena. S’han comparat i verificat els resultats amb el model d’antena de fil. Seguidament, s’ha estudiat el comportament que introdueix el fet de carregar l’antena amb un ressonador LC. Finalment, s’ha passat del model d’antena de fil a una estructura planar. Aquesta geometria ha permès la realització del trap LC de forma distribuïda a través d’un ressonador CLL. El principi de disseny de l’antena està basat en la introducció d’aquest ressonador CLL amb freqüència de ressonància situada entre les dos bandes de treball i que junt amb l’ajust dels diversos paràmetres que defineixen l’antena han permès obtenir més 1 GHz d’ample de banda a la freqüència de 5 GHz.

Temporary caval stenting improves venous drainage during cardiopulmonary bypass

OBJECTIVES: Assess the benefit of temporary caval stenting for remote venous drainage during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). METHODS: Temporary caval stenting was realized in bovine experiments (65+/-6 kg) by the means of self-expanding (18F for insertion, 36F in situ) venous cannulas (Smartcanula LLC, Lausanne, Switzerland) with various lengths: 43 cm, 53 cm, 63 cm vs. a standard 28F wire armed cannula in trans-jugular fashion. Maximal blood flows were assessed for 20, 25 and 30 mmHg of driving pressure with a motorized table height adjustment system. In addition, the inferior caval diameters (just above its bifurcation) were measured in real time with intra-vascular ultrasound (IVUS). RESULTS: Venous drainage (flow in l/min) at 20 mmHg, 25 mmHg, and 30 mmHg drainage load was 3.5+/-0.5, 3.7+/-0.7 and 4.0+/-0.6 for the 28F standard vs. 4.1+/-0.7, 4.0+/-1.3 and 3.9+/-1.1 for the 36F smart 43 cm, vs. 5.0+/-0.7, 5.3+/-1.3 and 5.4+/-1.4 for the 36F smart 53 cm, vs. 5.2+/-0.5*, 5.6+/-1.1* and 5.8+/-1.0* for the 36F smart 63 cm. The inferior vena caval diameters at 30 mmHg were 13.5+/-4.8 mm for 28F standard, 11.1+/-3.6 for 36F smart 43 cm, 11.3+/-3.2 for 36F 53 cm, and 17.0+/-0.1* for 36F 63 cm (*P<0.05 for 28F standard vs. 36F smart 63 cm long) CONCLUSIONS: The 43 cm self-expanding 36F smartcanula outperforms the 28F standard wire armed cannula at low drainage pressures and without augmentation. Temporary caval stenting with long self-expanding venous cannulas provides even better drainage (+51%).

Ant brood function as life preservers during floods.

Social organisms can surmount many ecological challenges by working collectively. An impressive example of such collective behavior occurs when ants physically link together into floating 'rafts' to escape from flooded habitat. However, raft formation may represent a social dilemma, with some positions posing greater individual risks than others. Here, we investigate the position and function of different colony members, and the costs and benefits of this functional geometry in rafts of the floodplain-dwelling ant Formica selysi. By causing groups of ants to raft in the laboratory, we observe that workers are distributed throughout the raft, queens are always in the center, and 100% of brood items are placed on the base. Through a series of experiments, we show that workers and brood are extremely resistant to submersion. Both workers and brood exhibit high survival rates after they have rafted, suggesting that occupying the base of the raft is not as costly as expected. The placement of all brood on the base of one cohesive raft confers several benefits: it preserves colony integrity, takes advantage of brood buoyancy, and increases the proportion of workers that immediately recover after rafting.

Advantages of digital holographic microscopy for real-time full field absolute phase imaging

Different interferometric techniques were developed last decade to obtain full field, quantitative, and absolute phase imaging, such as phase-shifting, Fourier phase microscopy, Hilbert phase microscopy or digital holographic microscopy (DHM). Although, these techniques are very similar, DHM combines several advantages. In contrast, to phase shifting, DHM is indeed capable of single-shot hologram recording allowing a real-time absolute phase imaging. On the other hand, unlike to Fourier phase or Hilbert phase microscopy, DHM does not require to record in focus images of the specimen on the digital detector (CCD or CMOS camera), because a numerical focalization adjustment can be performed by a numerical wavefront propagation. Consequently, the depth of view of high NA microscope objectives is numerically extended. For example, two different biological cells, floating at different depths in a liquid, can be focalized numerically from the same digital hologram. Moreover, the numerical propagation associated to digital optics and automatic fitting procedures, permits vibrations insensitive full- field phase imaging and the complete compensation for a priori any image distortion or/and phase aberrations introduced for example by imperfections of holders or perfusion chamber. Examples of real-time full-field phase images of biological cells have been demonstrated. ©2008 COPYRIGHT SPIE

Persistence of retinal function after intravitreal melphalan injection for retinoblastoma.

BACKGROUND: The risk/benefit profile of intravitreal melphalan injection for treatment of active vitreous seeds in retinoblastoma remains uncertain. We report clinical and electroretinography results after 6 months of one patient who has shown a favorable initial clinical response to intravitreal melphalan injections for treatment of refractory vitreous seeds. METHODS: Clinical case report. PATIENT: The patient presented at age 17 months with bilateral retinoblastoma [OD: International Classification (ICRB) group E, Reese-Ellsworth (R-E) class Vb; OS: ICRB D, R-E Vb] with no known prior family history. The right eye was enucleated primarily. The patient received systemic chemotherapy and extensive local treatment to the left eye. Ten months later, she presented with recurrent disease, including fine, diffuse vitreous seeds. Tumor control was established with intra-arterial chemotherapy and local treatment. Subsequent recurrence was treated with further intra-arterial chemotherapy, local treatment, and plaque radiotherapy with iodine-125. Persistent free-floating spherical vitreous seeds were treated with 4 cycles of intravitreal melphalan injection via the pars plana, with doses of 30, 30, 30, and 20 μg. RESULTS: After 6 months of follow-up, the left eye remained free of active tumor. Visual acuity was 20/40. Photopic ERGs amplitudes were unchanged compared with those recorded prior to the intravitreal injection treatments. CONCLUSIONS: Intravitreal melphalan injection for refractory spherical vitreous seeds of retinoblastoma with favorable tumor response is compatible with good central visual acuity and preservation of retinal function as indicated by photopic ERG recordings.