Influence of the Substitutional Solute on the Mechanical Properties of Ti-Nb Binary Alloys for Biomedical Use

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Encoding mechanisms based on fast oscillations in the retina of the cat and their dependencies on anesthesia

Processing in the visual system starts in the retina. Its complex network of cells with different properties enables for parallel encoding and transmission of visual information to the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) and to the cortex. In the retina, it has been shown that responses are often accompanied by fast synchronous oscillations (30 - 90 Hz) in a stimulus-dependent manner. Studies in the frog, rabbit, cat and monkey, have shown strong oscillatory responses to large stimuli which probably encode global stimulus properties, such as size and continuity (Neuenschwander and Singer, 1996; Ishikane et al., 2005). Moreover, simultaneous recordings from different levels in the visual system have demonstrated that the oscillatory patterning of retinal ganglion cell responses are transmitted to the cortex via the LGN (Castelo-Branco et al., 1998). Overall these results suggest that feedforward synchronous oscillations contribute to visual encoding. In the present study on the LGN of the anesthetized cat, we further investigate the role of retinal oscillations in visual processing by applying complex stimuli, such as natural visual scenes, light spots of varying size and contrast, and flickering checkerboards. This is a necessary step for understanding encoding mechanisms in more naturalistic conditions, as currently most data on retinal oscillations have been limited to simple, flashed and stationary stimuli. Correlation analysis of spiking responses confirmed previous results showing that oscillatory responses in the retina (observed here from the LGN responses) largely depend on the size and stationarity of the stimulus. For natural scenes (gray-level and binary movies) oscillations appeared only for brief moments probably when receptive fields were dominated by large continuous, flat-contrast surfaces. Moreover, oscillatory responses to a circle stimulus could be broken with an annular mask indicating that synchronization arises from relatively local interactions among populations of activated cells in the retina. A surprising finding in this study was that retinal oscillations are highly dependent on halothane anesthesia levels. In the absence of halothane, oscillatory activity vanished independent of the characteristics of the stimuli. The same results were obtained for isoflurane, which has similar pharmacological properties. These new and unexpected findings question whether feedfoward oscillations in the early visual system are simply due to an imbalance between excitation and inhibition in the retinal networks generated by the halogenated anesthetics. Further studies in awake behaving animals are necessary to extend these conclusions

The Synthetic Control Chart Based on Two Sample Variances for Monitoring the Covariance Matrix

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

The double sampling and the EWMA charts based on the sample variances

We propose a new statistic to control the covariance matrix of bivariate processes. This new statistic is based on the sample variances of the two quality characteristics, in short VMAX statistic. The points plotted on the chart correspond to the maximum of the values of these two variances. The reasons to consider the VMAX statistic instead of the generalized variance vertical bar S vertical bar is its faster detection of process changes and its better diagnostic feature; that is, with the VMAX statistic it is easier to identify the out-of-control variable. We study the double sampling (DS) and the exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) charts based on the VMAX statistic. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Adaptive filter feature identification for structural health monitoring in an aeronautical panel

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Um método semi-automatizado para elicitação de requisitos de acessibilidade Web

In the context of Software Engineering, web accessibility is gaining more room, establishing itself as an important quality attribute. This fact is due to initiatives of institutions such as the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) and the introduction of norms and laws such as Section 508 that underlie the importance of developing accessible Web sites and applications. Despite these improvements, the lack of web accessibility is still a persistent problem, and could be related to the moment or phase in which this requirement is solved within the development process. From the moment when Web accessibility is generally regarded as a programming problem or treated when the application is already developed entirely. Thus, consider accessibility already during activities of analysis and requirements specification shows itself a strategy to facilitate project progress, avoiding rework in advanced phases of software development because of possible errors, or omissions in the elicitation. The objective of this research is to develop a method and a tool to support requirements elicitation of web accessibility. The strategy for the requirements elicitation of this method is grounded by the Goal-Oriented approach NFR Framework and the use of catalogs NFRs, created based on the guidelines contained in WCAG 2.0 (Web Content Accessibility Guideline) proposed by W3C

Democratização do acesso a água no semi-árido: o caso da comunidade rural de Pendências dos Emídios no município de Serrinha/RN

Brazil lives a time of experimentation and maturity as it pertains to managing the use of water, which comes institutionalising increasingly social participation. In Rio Grande do Norte, since 1997, the government has been developing actions accordingly, through the State Department of Water Resources, which has implemented a programme of adutoras within the State and created Water Users Associations, in the installation of dessalinizadores for places where the Adutora was not necessary or not yet arrived, so that should be managed by communities through associations of users. Since 2003, Civil Society Organisations - CSOs come through ASA - Articulation in the Semi-arid Brazilian, implementing the P1MC - Program of Training and Mobilization for Social Living with the Semi-Arid (One Million Rural Cisternas), in its third year of implementation in Rio Grande do Norte, in the spirit of working together with the semi arid. In the municipality of Serrinha / RN which incorporates the Semi-arid region, we find in the rural community of Pendêcias dos Emídios the experience of the State and Civil Society, which referred to a discussion about the environmental sustainability of these initiatives. The general objective of this work is to examine the strategies for participatory management in the use and access to water in the community of Pendêcias dos Emídios of the municipality of Serrinha / RN, to understand how those experiences can contribute to environmental sustainability. The methodology used envolvel bibliographic research in categories involving each article, the analysis of the terms of reference of each strategy as part of the documentary research, the application forms covering 40 families benefited, and interviews based on comprehensive analysis of the speech. This study is divided into 02 articles, where the first is a discussion held on collective action and environmental sustainability, and the second is held a discussion about the sustainability of the initiatives underway to access water. The results of the discussion held on 02 articles that had their empirical built from the experience of the Commonwealth of Pendências dos Emídios revealed how far will the ability of the State to promote collective action and the limitations of the perception of sustainability that permeates these initiatives in the search for democratic access to water in semi-arid

Feature selection through gravitational search algorithm

In this paper we deal with the problem of feature selection by introducing a new approach based on Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA). The proposed algorithm combines the optimization behavior of GSA together with the speed of Optimum-Path Forest (OPF) classifier in order to provide a fast and accurate framework for feature selection. Experiments on datasets obtained from a wide range of applications, such as vowel recognition, image classification and fraud detection in power distribution systems are conducted in order to asses the robustness of the proposed technique against Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) and a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)-based algorithm for feature selection.

Schistosoma mansoni: Evaluation of an RNAi-based treatment targeting HGPRTase gene

Hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRTase) is an essential gene of the parasite Schistosoma mansoni and it is well conserved in its hosts (mouse and human) at the protein but not at the RNA level. This feature prompted us to assess RNA interference (RNAi) to combat schistosomiasis. Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) were Produced against HGPRTase, injected in infected mice and the number of worms was counted six days after injection. The total number of parasites was reduced by approximately 27% after treatment. RT-PCR analyzes showed a significant reduction in parasite target mRNA but not in host's homologue. The use of low doses of molecules did not oversaturate si- or miRNA pathways as mice survival rates were not affected by siRNAs. This is the first successful in vivo demonstration of a RNAi-based treatment against schistosomiasis. We believe that improvements in molecule delivery and an increase on siRNA dose could rapidly eliminate parasite. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

New morphological data on fat bodies of semi-engorged females of Amblyomma cajennense (Acari : Ixodidae)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Cytotoxic effects of andiroba oil (Carapa guianensis) in reproductive system of Rhipicephalus sanguineus (Latreille, 1806) (Acari: Ixodidae) semi-engorged females

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

Determination of LC50 of permethrin acaricide in semi-engorged females of the tick Rhipicephalus sanguineus (Latreille, 1806) (Acari: Ixodidae)

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

Particle Competition and Cooperation in Networks for Semi-Supervised Learning

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

An Intelligent Controller Design for Magnetorheological Damper Based on a Quarter-car Model

This paper presents the control strategies of nonlinear vehicle suspension using a magnetorheological (MR) damper. We used two different approaches for modeling and control of the mechanical and electrical parts of the suspension systems with the MR damper. First, we have formulated and resolved the control problem in order to design the linear feedback dumping force controller for a nonlinear suspension system. Then the values of the control dumping force functions were transformed into electrical control signals by the application of a fuzzy logic control method. The numerical simulations were provided in order to show the effectiveness of this method for the semi-active control of the quarter-car suspension.

Suppression of TNF- induced NFB activity by gallic acid and its semi-synthetic esters: possible role in cancer chemoprevention

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