Multikink solutions and deformed defects

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Nonlinear formulation based on FEM, Mazars damage criterion and Fick's law applied to failure assessment of reinforced concrete structures subjected to chloride ingress and reinforcements corrosion

Structural durability is an important design criterion, which must be assessed for every type of structure. In this regard, especial attention must be addressed to the durability of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. When RC structures are located in aggressive environments, its durability is strongly reduced by physical/chemical/mechanical processes that trigger the corrosion of reinforcements. Among these processes, the diffusion of chlorides is recognized as one of major responsible of corrosion phenomenon start. To accurate modelling the corrosion of reinforcements and to assess the durability of RC structures, a mechanical model that accounts realistically for both concrete and steel mechanical behaviour must be considered. In this context, this study presents a numerical nonlinear formulation based on the finite element method applied to structural analysis of RC structures subjected to chloride penetration and reinforcements corrosion. The physical nonlinearity of concrete is described by Mazars damage model whereas for reinforcements elastoplastic criteria are adopted. The steel loss along time due to corrosion is modelled using an empirical approach presented in literature and the chloride concentration growth along structural cover is represented by Fick's law. The proposed model is applied to analysis of bended structures. The results obtained by the proposed numerical approach are compared to responses available in literature in order to illustrate the evolution of structural resistant load after corrosion start. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Agricultural production and sustainable development in a Brazilian region (Southwest, Sao Paulo State): motivations and barriers to adopting sustainable and ecologically friendly practices

The objective of this study is to identify the adoption level of practices associated with more sustainable agriculture and environmentally friendly practices. Additionally, the motivations for and barriers to the adoption of these practices by farmers are investigated. Data were collected through closed questionnaires taken by a random sample of farmers in the Southwest, Sao Paulo, Brazil, during the second half of 2013. Overall, sustainable agricultural practices recommended in the literature and analysed in this study are being not fully adopted by farmers of the studied area. The results showed that financial motivation is associated with farmers adopting new, more sustainable technology, whereas the lack of information on and lack of technical support for these technologies are significant barriers. Other results, research implications, limitations and suggestions for future research are presented.

Sonhos e desvarios: o fantástico em Nodier e Gautier

The short stories of Charles Nodier and Théophile Gautier, respectively “Une Heure ou La Vision” (1806) and “La Morte amoureuse” (1836), while showing elements originating from the Gothic novel, are structured as fantastic narratives, rousing the ambiguity from the themes of dreams and madness. This article tries to highlight the resonances of Gothic literature in the selected short stories, as well as the characteristics which determine the fantastic and define it as a new subgenre in the European Romanticism.

Multivacuum states in a fermionic gap equation with massive gluons and confinement

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Cherubism: clinicoradiographic features and treatment

Cherubism is a congenital childhood disease of autosomal dominant inheritance. This disease is characterized by painless bilateral enlargement of the jaws, in which bone is replaced with fibrous tissue. The condition has sui generis clinical, radiographic and histological features, of which the clinician should be aware for a better differential diagnosis in the presence of a fibro-osseous lesion affecting the bones of the maxillomandibular complex. The purpose of present paper was to review the literature and to report the most important aspects of cherubism in order to facilitate the study of this disease. Literature was reviewed about cherubism, emphasizing the relevant clinicoradiographic features and treatment. Literature was selected through a search of PubMed and Scielo electronic databases. The keywords used for search were adolescent, cherubism, cherubism/physiopathology, cherubism/treatment, cherubism/radiography. A manual search of the reference lists of the identified articles and the authors' article files and recent reviews was conducted to identify additional publications. Those studies that described new features about cherubism were included in this review. In total 44 literature sources were obtained and reviewed. Studies that described new features about cherubism physiopathology, diagnostics and treatment were reviewed. Despite the exceptions, cherubism is a clinically well-characterized disease. In cases of a suspicion of cherubism, radiographic examination is essential since the clinical presentation, the location and distribution of the lesions may define the diagnosis. Histopathological examination is complementary. Nowadays, genetic tests should be used for final diagnosis of cherubism.

A review of pharmacokinetic parameters of metabolites and prodrugs

In drug discovery and development, the kinetic study of active metabolites plays an important role, helping to define the time course of the drug in the body and its activity or toxicity. After a pharmacokinetics assessment of a drug and its metabolite or a prodrug and its parent-drug, several parameters can be calculated. In some cases, achieving the objective of the study does not require all possible parameters to be calculated. When parameters are calculated, it is essential that their denotations are widely accepted and used. However, some parameters undergo a certain variability of denotation, which may confuse some readers. Thus, this review summarizes the current published data for experimental pharmacokinetic parameters of metabolites and the calculations involved in simple metabolite pharmacokinetic studies. It also evaluates the most common pharmacokinetic parameters in the literature and suggests metabolite parameters that could be determined to help advance metabolite kinetic models.

Relation between bruxism and dental implants

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to gather information and discuss the predictability of implant-supported prostheses in patients with bruxism by performing a literature review. METHODS: In order to select the studies included in this review, a detailed search was performed in PubMed and Medline databases, using the following key words: bruxism, dental implants, implant supported prosthesis, and dental restoration failure. Items that were included are: case reports, randomized controlled trials, in vitro studies, literature and systematic reviews, with or without meta-analysis, of the last 20 years that addressed the theme. Articles without abstracts, animal studies, articles in languages other than English and articles from journals unrelated to the dental field were excluded. RESULTS: after analysis according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, 28 articles were selected from a total of 54. It is known from the array of scientific articles which have assessed, either through retrospective, prospective or experimental studies, that the biomechanical and biological impact of bruxism on implant-supported prostheses is small, and that the literature has contributed little to exemplify the prosthetic limits of safety for the specialist from a clinical point of view. CONCLUSION: Although there is still no general consensus on this matter, most of the literature review articles do provide clinical guidelines that contribute to implant supported prostheses longevity and stability in patients with bruxism.

A novel and rapid microbiological assay for ciprofloxacin hydrochloride

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Green training supporting eco-innovation in three Brazilian companies: practices and levels of integration

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show results from the relationship between green/environmental training and the development of three projects of low-carbon eco-innovations in top Brazilian companies. Design/methodology/approach – This study includes three organizational projects for low-carbon eco-innovations in products (A, B and C) with the objective of reducing their impact on GHG emissions, the so-called low-carbon products. Data were collected from several sources of evidence, including in-depth interviews, document analyses and direct observations. Findings – The authors verified that the environmental training interface for mitigating climate change is relevant for the systematic development of low-carbon products in most of the cases studied. Originality/value – Low-carbon eco-innovations are a trend in the corporate world; however, there is not enough literature and practical evidence on this subject. Thus, this paper adds new evidence to the literature.

Review of Global Warming in the 21st Century. Volume 1: Our Evolving Climate Crisis; Volume 2: Melting Ice and Warming Seas; Volume 3: Plants and Animals in Peril by Bruce E. Johansen

There is compelling evidence that Planet Earth is on the path to an era of global warming that has serious implications for the well-being of both people and nature. This three-volume synthesis of literature will be a marvelous place for both the public and new scholars interested in global warming to begin their pursuit of the subject. The author captures the best of the scientific literature and press materials appearing in recent years. The utility of these volumes as a resource for gaining a broad background or pursuing a particular aspect of global warming is enhanced by Johansen's talent for explaining with clarity a vast and rapidly growing subject.

Women in Wisdom Tradition: Review of Carol Fontaine, Smooth Words: Women, Proverbs and Performance in Biblical Wisdom

Smooth Words is a well-researched and entertaining, if somewhat uneven, book on women in the Wisdom tradition in ancient Israel. Fontaine, a faculty member at a small Protestant seminary in Newton, MA, writes with her students constantly in mind, her interactions with them informing her scholarship throughout the book. She is also in dialogue with other scholars in the fields of Wisdom literature and feminist scholarship, a dialogue that gives the book academic rigor and depth.

Synaptolaemus latofasciatus, a new combination for Leporinus latofasciatus Steindachner, 1910 and its junior synonym Synaptolaemus cingulatus Myers and Fernandez-Yepez, 1950 (Characiformes: Anostomidae)

Leporinus latofasciatus was described by Steindachner (1910) on the basis of a single specimen collected in the rio Orinoco, Venezuela. Since then, no other specimen of the species was mentioned in the literature, and the species was only listed in catalogues, eventually mentioned and treated as a ""poorly known"" species, or even omitted in checklists of fishes from Venezuela. During a visit to the fish collection at the Naturhistorisches Museum at Vienna (NMW) to examine all the type specimens of Leporinus, we were able to study the holotype of Leporinus latofasciatus and recognize that the specimen corresponds to the species described by Myers and Fernandez-Yepez (in Myers, 1950) as Synaptolaemus cingulatus. Thus, the latter is a junior synonym of Leporinus latofasciatus and, based on that, Synaptolaemus latofasciatus (Steindachner, 1910) should be the name applied for this taxon, as a new combination. Herein new data on the holotype of Synaptolaemus latofasciatus are presented and compared with previously data from other authors. In addition, illustrations of live specimens are presented as well as new distribution records for the species.

Screening, immobilization and utilization of whole cell biocatalysts to mediate the ethanolysis of babassu oil

The screening. biomass growth of lipase-producing fungus isolated from different sources and available at URM (University Recife Mycologia). as well as, the immobilization and utilization of the whole cells for the transesterification of babassu oil were investigated. Rhizopus oryzae (URM 3231, 4692), Mucor circinelloides (URM 4140, 4182) and Penicillium citrinum URM 4216 were considered to be good intracellular lipase producers whereas those from Mucor hiemalis URM 4144 and Mucor piriformis URM 4145 were weaker. Fungi biomass containing high lipase activities was immobilized on different biomass support particles (BSPs) and with the exception of Penicillium citrinum URM 4216 all the other fungi strains exhibited high lipase activity (20-50 Ug(-1)) when immobilized in situ using polyurethane foam particles. Transesterification activities of the immobilized whole cells were evaluated in the ethanolysis reaction with babassu oil and the highest performance was attained by M. circinelloides URM 4182 giving 83.22 +/- 3.68% ester yield in less than 96 h reaction. The biocatalyst operational stability was also assessed and an inactivation profile was found to follow the Arrhenius model, revealing values of 26 days and 2.6 x 10(-2)day(-1), for half-life and a deactivation coefficient, respectively. The purified product (biodiesel) exhibited viscosity (6.63 cSt) close to the value to attend specifications by the ASTM 06751 to be used as biofuel. Results are favorable compared with data already reported in the literature and demonstrated that M. circinelloides URM 4182 whole cells is a cheaper biocatalyst that can be used in the biodiesel synthesis. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Positron scattering from the cyclic ethers oxirane, 1,4-dioxane, and tetrahydropyran

In this paper we report original measurements of total cross sections (TCSs) for positron scattering from the cyclic ethers oxirane (C2H4O), 1,4-dioxane (C4H8O2), and tetrahydropyran (C5H10O). The present experiments focus on the low energy range from similar to 0.2 to 50 eV, with an energy resolution smaller than 300 meV. This study concludes our systematic investigation into TCSs for a class of organic compounds that can be thought of as sub-units or moieties to the nucleotides in living matter, and which as a consequence have become topical for scientists seeking to simulate particle tracks in matter. Note that as TCSs specify the mean free path between collisions in such simulations, they have enjoyed something of a recent renaissance in interest because of that application. For oxirane, we also report original Schwinger multichannel elastic integral cross section (ICS) calculations at the static and static plus polarisation levels, and with and without Born-closure that attempts to account for the permanent dipole moment of C2H4O. Those elastic ICSs are computed for the energy range 0.5-10 eV. To the best of our knowledge, there are no other experimental results or theoretical calculations against which we can compare the present positron TCSs. However, electron TCSs for oxirane (also known as ethylene oxide) and tetrahydropyran do currently exist in the literature and a comparison to them for each species will be presented. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3696378]