MODEL-BASED COMPENSATION FOR BURST MESSAGE LOSS IN WIRELESS NETWORKED CONTROL SYSTEMS: EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

A recent trend in networked control systems (NCSs) is the use of wireless networks enabling interoperability between existing wired and wireless systems. One of the major challenges in these wireless NCSs (WNCSs) is to overcome the impact of the message loss that degrades the performance and stability of these systems. Moreover, this impact is greater when dealing with burst or successive message losses. This paper discusses and presents the experimental results of a compensation strategy to deal with this burst message loss problem in which a NCS mathematical model runs in parallel with the physical process, providing sensor virtual data in case of packet losses. Running in real-time inside the controller, the mathematical model is updated online with real control signals sent to the actuator, which provides better reliability for the estimated sensor feedback (virtual data) transmitted to the controller each time a message loss occurs. In order to verify the advantages of applying this model-based compensation strategy for burst message losses in WNCSs, the control performance of a motor control system using CAN and ZigBee networks is analyzed. Experimental results led to the conclusion that the developed compensation strategy provided robustness and could maintain the control performance of the WNCS against different message loss scenarios.

Neurotoxicity of neem commercial formulation (Azadirachta indica A. Juss) in adult zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Internal Combustion Engine's Throttle Control as a Motivational Theme for Teaching Microprocessors Systems Lab Classes

The increased fuel economy and driveability of modern internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) are the result of the application of advanced digital electronics to control the operation of the internal combustion engine (ICE). Microprocessors (and micro controllers) play a key role in the engine control, by precisely controlling the amount of both air and fuel admitted into the cylinders. Air intake is controlled by utilizing a throttle valve equipped with a motor and gear mechanism as actuator, and a sensor enabling the measurement of the angular position of the blades. This paperwork presents a lab setup that allows students to control the throttle position using a microcontroller that runs a program developed by them. A commercial throttle body has been employed, whereas a power amplifier and a microcontroller board have been hand assembled to complete the experimental setup. This setup, while based in a high-tech, microprocessor-based solution for a real-world, engine operation optimization problem, has the potential to engage students around a hands-on multidisciplinary lab activity and ignite their interest in learning fundamental and advanced topics of microprocessors systems.

Experience with the sandwich technique in endovascular thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair

Background: The sandwich technique is an endovascular off-the-shelf solution for patients with thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms (TAAAs). In a sandwich configuration, the chimney stent runs in the middle of a space created by two or three aortic endografts.Methods: All patients with TAAAs who were treated with the sandwich technique were included in the study. Self-expanding Viabahn grafts (W. L. Gore and Associates Inc, Flagstaff, Ariz) were used as parallel grafts in the renal arteries and visceral vessels. Caudad-facing chimney grafts were used for the visceral arteries and cephalad-facing periscope grafts for the renal arteries.Results: During the study period, 32 patients with TAAAs were treated with sandwich grafts. Indication for the procedure in 43% was an acute onset of symptoms, including two patients with a rupture and a retroperitoneal hematoma. Three patients required an additional debranching procedure. A total of 104 chimney grafts were implanted. Two patients died postoperatively because of the operation. Major adverse events were recorded in five patients, including one patient with persistent paraplegia and two with permanent renal failure requiring dialysis. The incidence of chimney graft occlusion was higher in patients with three or four parallel grafts than in those with two chimney grafts only. Patients with chronic dissections had a 12-times higher incidence of chimney graft occlusion than aneurysm patients. The number of patients with type I or III endoleaks was higher in the group with three or four parallel grafts.Conclusions: The sandwich technique is an off-the-shelf endovascular alternative to treat patients with TAAAs in an emergent setting. The combination of chimney grafts with a periscope configuration enables a rapid endovascular aneurysm exclusion with acceptable midterm results.

Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with gamma-ray Bursts Detected by the Interplanetary Network

We present the results of a search for gravitational waves associated with 223 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the InterPlanetary Network (IPN) in 2005-2010 during LIGO's fifth and sixth science runs and Virgo's first, second, and third science runs. The IPN satellites provide accurate times of the bursts and sky localizations that vary significantly from degree scale to hundreds of square degrees. We search for both a well-modeled binary coalescence signal, the favored progenitor model for short GRBs, and for generic, unmodeled gravitational wave bursts. Both searches use the event time and sky localization to improve the gravitational wave search sensitivity as compared to corresponding all-time, all-sky searches. We find no evidence of a gravitational wave signal associated with any of the IPN GRBs in the sample, nor do we find evidence for a population of weak gravitational wave signals associated with the GRBs. For all IPN-detected GRBs, for which a sufficient duration of quality gravitational wave data are available, we place lower bounds on the distance to the source in accordance with an optimistic assumption of gravitational wave emission energy of 10(-2)M(circle dot)c(2) at 150 Hz, and find a median of 13 Mpc. For the 27 short-hard GRBs we place 90% confidence exclusion distances to two source models: a binary neutron star coalescence, with a median distance of 12 Mpc, or the coalescence of a neutron star and black hole, with a median distance of 22 Mpc. Finally, we combine this search with previously published results to provide a population statement for GRB searches in first-generation LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors and a resulting examination of prospects for the advanced gravitational wave detectors.

The NINJA-2 project: detecting and characterizing gravitational waveforms modelled using numerical binary black hole simulations

The Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project is a collaborative effort between members of the numerical relativity and gravitational-wave (GW) astrophysics communities. The purpose of NINJA is to study the ability to detect GWs emitted from merging binary black holes (BBH) and recover their parameters with next-generation GW observatories. We report here on the results of the second NINJA project, NINJA-2, which employs 60 complete BBH hybrid waveforms consisting of a numerical portion modelling the late inspiral, merger, and ringdown stitched to a post-Newtonian portion modelling the early inspiral. In a 'blind injection challenge' similar to that conducted in recent Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo science runs, we added seven hybrid waveforms to two months of data recoloured to predictions of Advanced LIGO (aLIGO) and Advanced Virgo (AdV) sensitivity curves during their first observing runs. The resulting data was analysed by GW detection algorithms and 6 of the waveforms were recovered with false alarm rates smaller than 1 in a thousand years. Parameter-estimation algorithms were run on each of these waveforms to explore the ability to constrain the masses, component angular momenta and sky position of these waveforms. We find that the strong degeneracy between the mass ratio and the BHs' angular momenta will make it difficult to precisely estimate these parameters with aLIGO and AdV. We also perform a large-scale Monte Carlo study to assess the ability to recover each of the 60 hybrid waveforms with early aLIGO and AdV sensitivity curves. Our results predict that early aLIGO and AdV will have a volume-weighted average sensitive distance of 300 Mpc (1 Gpc) for 10M circle dot + 10M circle dot (50M circle dot + 50M circle dot) BBH coalescences. We demonstrate that neglecting the component angular momenta in the waveform models used in matched-filtering will result in a reduction in sensitivity for systems with large component angular momenta. This reduction is estimated to be up to similar to 15% for 50M circle dot + 50M circle dot BBH coalescences with almost maximal angular momenta aligned with the orbit when using early aLIGO and AdV sensitivity curves.

Contribuições de Michel Foucault para analisar documentos e arquivos na judicialização/jurisdicionalização

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

A análise de assunto no processo de indexação: um percurso entre teoria e norma

Considered the step that constitutes the intellectual work of the indexer, the approach runs the focus of the initial phase of the indexing process - the subject analysis. Among the various denominations that can be achieved, the subject analysis reaches its dimension applied when observed the rules that underlie the indexing process. The release of the documentary information requires the development of contributions to aid in the procedures of analysis, synthesis and representation of the contents documentary, seeking contributions to both the theoretical sedimentation, and for fostering the professional practice of the librarian. Through bibliographic exploratory research, this article aims to contribute to the relevance of subject analysis, concluding that there is a gap in the use of NBR 12676/1992, as well as the need for its updating.

First all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves from unknown sources in binary systems

We present the first results of an all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves from unknown spinning neutron stars in binary systems using LIGO and Virgo data. Using a specially developed analysis program, the TwoSpect algorithm, the search was carried out on data from the sixth LIGO science run and the second and third Virgo science runs. The search covers a range of frequencies from 20 Hz to 520 Hz, a range of orbital periods from 2 to similar to 2,254 h and a frequency-and period-dependent range of frequency modulation depths from 0.277 to 100 mHz. This corresponds to a range of projected semimajor axes of the orbit from similar to 0.6 x 10(-3) ls to similar to 6,500 ls assuming the orbit of the binary is circular. While no plausible candidate gravitational wave events survive the pipeline, upper limits are set on the analyzed data. The most sensitive 95% confidence upper limit obtained on gravitational wave strain is 2.3 x 10(-24) at 217 Hz, assuming the source waves are circularly polarized. Although this search has been optimized for circular binary orbits, the upper limits obtained remain valid for orbital eccentricities as large as 0.9. In addition, upper limits are placed on continuous gravitational wave emission from the low-mass x-ray binary Scorpius X-1 between 20 Hz and 57.25 Hz.

Monitoramento da condição da ferramenta de dressagem usando sinais de vibração e modelos neurais

Pós-graduação em Engenharia Elétrica - FEB

Estudo de variações bioquímicas e genotoxicidade induzidas por mistura de contaminantes em tilápia (Oreochromis niloticus), como biomarcadores de contaminação ambiental

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

Avaliação da autozigosidade em vacas Nelore (Bos indicus) através de genótipos SNP de alta densidade

Pós-graduação em Medicina Veterinária - FCAV

Transient expression of rabies virus G-glycoprotein using BHK-21 cells cultured in suspension

Objective To assess the expression of rabies virus G-glycoprotein (RVGP) expression using Semliki Forest virus as a vector in combination with BHK-21 cells cultured in suspension. Results A multilevel factorial design was used to quantify effects of temperature (33–37 C), fresh medium addition after the viral adsorption step (100–200 % with respect to the initial cell suspension volume before infection) and harvest time (8–40 h) on RVGP production. Experimental runs were performed in 24-well cell culture plates at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 16. An additional experiment in spinner-flask was performed at MOI of 9, using the optimal conditions determined in cell culture plates. Values for temperature, fresh medium addition and harvest time of 33 C, 100 % and 16 h, respectively, ensured the optimal RVGP production in culture plates. The volumetric yield (239 ng ml-1 ) in these conditions was higher than that reported previously for adherent cell culture. In spinner-flasks, the volumetric yield was improved (559 ng ml-1 ). Conclusion These results establish the basis for designing bioprocess to produce RVGP.

Espaços de exclusão e subjetividades do exílio: sobre Angu, de sangue, de Marcelino Freire

The paper aims to examine the work of Marcelino Freire, Angu de sangue (2000), from a poetic of identity with the black narratives and experiences of characters who participate in a space of exclusion, violence and social exile. Overall, the book deals with death and violence so raw and without idealizations. The characters struggle to survive in a cruel formo f life and denote the suffering and despair of those marked by peripheral situation. By proposing an analysis of tales of Angu de sangue, the work presented here reflects on a poetics of exclusion that runs the seventeen tales that make up the work in dialogue with images and internal references (through the images that illustrate the stories), and on the other hand, with pictures and references to the urban context of the excluded, represented on the pages of newspapers, magazines and television news.

Use of uniform designs in combination with neural networks for viral infection process development

This work aimed to compare the predictive capacity of empirical models, based on the uniform design utilization combined to artificial neural networks with respect to classical factorial designs in bioprocess, using as example the rabies virus replication in BHK-21 cells. The viral infection process parameters under study were temperature (34°C, 37°C), multiplicity of infection (0.04, 0.07, 0.1), times of infection, and harvest (24, 48, 72 hours) and the monitored output parameter was viral production. A multilevel factorial experimental design was performed for the study of this system. Fractions of this experimental approach (18, 24, 30, 36 and 42 runs), defined according uniform designs, were used as alternative for modelling through artificial neural network and thereafter an output variable optimization was carried out by means of genetic algorithm methodology. Model prediction capacities for all uniform design approaches under study were better than that found for classical factorial design approach. It was demonstrated that uniform design in combination with artificial neural network could be an efficient experimental approach for modelling complex bioprocess like viral production. For the present study case, 67% of experimental resources were saved when compared to a classical factorial design approach. In the near future, this strategy could replace the established factorial designs used in the bioprocess development activities performed within biopharmaceutical organizations because of the improvements gained in the economics of experimentation that do not sacrifice the quality of decisions.