Shape changes of longan fruits during growth in a tropical environment

In this work we propose a new indicator to classify the best period for longan fruit harvest, based on measurements of its longitudinal and transversal axis during growth. Shape analysis based on area per volume ratio (AN) and sphericity show that those indicators stabilize after during longan growth period, independently of variety, in a specific environment. As sphericity increases 6% during fruits growth, AN ratio decreases dramatically (75%) closing to maturity, at 120 days after anthesis. The first derivative of A/V ratio indicates three distinct phases that are related to the growth phases of fruits. We believe that those shape indicators could be used to probe the right point of longan fruits maturity in different environments in a quantitative way.

(-)-Hinokinin-loaded poly(d,l-lactide-co-glycolide) microparticles for Chagas disease

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Small relief shape variations influence spatial variability of soil chemical attributes

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

Effects of corn particle size and physical form of the diet on the gastrointestinal structures of broiler chickens

The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effects of different particle sizes, expressed as Geometric Mean Diameter (GMD) of corn (0.336mm, 0.585mm, 0.856mm and 1.12mm) of mash and pelleted broiler chicken diets on the weight of the gizzard, duodenum and jejunum+ileum; on the pH of the gizzard and small intestine and on the characteristics of the duodenal mucous layer (number and height of villi and crypt depth) in 42-day-old broilers. The physical form and the particle size of the diet had no significant effect on gizzard and intestine pH (p > 0.05). A greater gizzard weight was seen in the birds receiving pelleted diet and particle size of 0.336mm (p < 0.008). However, for the particle sizes of 0.856 and 1.12 mm, a greater weight was found in birds that received mash diet (p < 0.039 and p < 0.006, respectively). Also, gizzard weight was greater with increasing corn GMD independent of the physical form of the diet. In the mash diet, the increase in particle size promoted a quadratic response in the weight of duodenum and jejunum + ileum. The pelleted diet promoted a greater number of villi per transverse duodenum cut (p < 0.007) and greater crypt depth (p < 0.05). As the particle size increased, there was a linear increase of villus height and crypt depth in the duodenum, irrespective of the physical form of the diet.

Genetic parameters of total milk yield and factors describing the shape of lactation curve in dairy buffaloes

The objective of this study was to apply factor analysis to describe lactation curves in dairy buffaloes in order to estimate the phenotypic and genetic association between common latent factors and cumulative milk yield. A total of 31 257 monthly test-day milk yield records from buffaloes belonging to herds located in the state of São Paulo were used to estimate two common latent factors, which were then analysed in a multi-trait animal model for estimating genetic parameters. Estimates of (co)variance components for the two common latent factors and cumulated 270-d milk yield were obtained by Bayesian inference using a multiple trait animal model. Contemporary group, number of milkings per day (two levels) and age of buffalo cow at calving (linear and quadratic) as covariate were included in the model as fixed effects. The additive genetic, permanent environmental and residual effects were included as random effects. The first common latent factor (F1) was associated with persistency of lactation and the second common latent factor (F2) with the level of production in early lactation. Heritability estimates for Fl and F2 were 0.12 and 0.07, respectively. Genetic correlation estimates between El and F2 with cumulative milk yield were positive and moderate (0.63 and 0.52). Multivariate statistics employing factor analysis allowed the extraction of two variables (latent factors) that described the shape of the lactation curve. It is expected that the response to selection to increase lactation persistency is higher than the response obtained from selecting animals to increase lactation peak. Selection for higher total milk yield would result in a favourable correlated response to increase the level of production in early lactation and the lactation persistency.

Desenvolvimento de um secador spray para obtenção de pós finos de precursores de nióbio

This work presents a spray-dryer designed to oxalate-niobate precursors and suitable for the production of Niobium Carbide. The dryer was intended to produce powders of controlled particle size. First, the precursor is dissolved in water to produce a solution of known concentration and then it is atomized on the spray-dryer to produce the powder. This equipment consists of a 304 stainless steel chamber, 0.48 m x 1.9 m (diameter x length), with a conical shape at the lower portion, which is assembled on a vertical platform. The chamber is heated by three 4 kW electrical resistances. In this process, drying air is heated as it flows inside a serpentine surrounding the chamber, in contrary to more traditional processes in which the hot drying air is used to heat the component. The air enters the chamber at the same temperature of the chamber, thus avoiding adherence of particles on the internal surface. The low speed flow is concurrent, directed from the top to the bottom portion of the chamber. Powders are deposited on a 0.4 m diameter tray, which separates the cylindrical portion from the conical portion of the chamber. The humid air is discharged though a plug placed underneath the collecting tray. A factorial experimental planning was prepared to study the influence of five parameters (concentration, input flow, operation temperature, drying air flow and spray air flow) on the characteristics of the powders produced. Particle size distribution and shape were measured by laser granulometry and scanning electronic microscopy. Then, the powders are submitted to reaction in a CH4 / H2 atmosphere to compare the characteristics of spray-dried powders with powders synthetizided by conventional methods

A route to obtain Gd2O3:Nd3+ with different particle size

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

Photoluminescence of SrTiO3: Influence of Particle Size and Morphology

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

Self-assembling of phenothiazine compounds investigated by small-angle X-ray scattering and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy

Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) have been carried out to investigate the structure of the self-aggregates of two phenothiazine drugs, chlorpromazine (CPZ) and trifluoperazine (TFP), in aqueous solution. In the SAXS studies, drug solutions of 20 and 60 mM, at pH 4.0 and 7.0, were investigated and the best data fittings were achieved assuming several different particle form factors with a homogeneous electron density distribution in respect to the water environment. Because of the limitation of scattering intensity in the q range above 0.15 angstrom(-1), precise determination of the aggregate shape was not possible and all of the tested models for ellipsoids, cylinders, or parallelepipeds fitted the experimental data equally well. The SAXS data allows inferring, however, that CPZ molecules might self-assemble in a basis set of an orthorhombic cell, remaining as nanocrystallites in solution. Such nanocrystals are composed of a small number of unit cells (up to 10, in c-direction), with CPZ aggregation numbers of 60-80. EPR spectra of 5- and 16-doxyl stearic acids bound to the aggregates were analyzed through simulation, and the dynamic and magnetic parameters were obtained. The phenothiazine concentration in EPR experiments was in the range of 5-60 mM. Critical aggregation concentration of TFP is lower than that for CPZ, consistent with a higher hydrophobicity of TFP. At acidic pH 4.0 a significant residual motion of the nitroxide relative to the aggregate is observed, and the EPR spectra and corresponding parameters are similar to those reported for aqueous surfactant micelles. However, at pH 6.5 a significant motional restriction is observed, and the nitroxide rotational correlation times correlate very well with those estimated for the whole aggregated particle from SAXS data. This implies that the aggregate is densely packed at this pH and that the nitroxide is tightly bound to it producing a strongly immobilized EPR spectrum. Besides that, at pH 6.5 the differences in motional restriction observed between 5- and 16-DSA are small, which is different from that observed for aqueous surfactant micelles.

Projections Onto Convex Sets through Particle Swarm Optimization and its application for remote sensing image restoration

Image restoration attempts to enhance images corrupted by noise and blurring effects. Iterative approaches can better control the restoration algorithm in order to find a compromise of restoring high details in smoothed regions without increasing the noise. Techniques based on Projections Onto Convex Sets (POCS) have been extensively used in the context of image restoration by projecting the solution onto hyperspaces until some convergence criteria be reached. It is expected that an enhanced image can be obtained at the final of an unknown number of projections. The number of convex sets and its combinations allow designing several image restoration algorithms based on POCS. Here, we address two convex sets: Row-Action Projections (RAP) and Limited Amplitude (LA). Although RAP and LA have already been used in image restoration domain, the former has a relaxation parameter (A) that strongly depends on the characteristics of the image that will be restored, i.e., wrong values of A can lead to poorly restoration results. In this paper, we proposed a hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization (PS0)-POCS image restoration algorithm, in which the A value is obtained by PSO to be further used to restore images by POCS approach. Results showed that the proposed PSO-based restoration algorithm outperformed the widely used Wiener and Richardson-Lucy image restoration algorithms. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

g-acceleration of gravity: its measurement from the shape of water by using a computerized rotational system

This paper proposes a different experimental setup compared with the traditional ones, in order to determine the acceleration of gravity, which is carried out by using a fluid at a constant rotation. A computerized rotational system-by using a data acquisition system with specific software, a power amplifier and a rotary motion sensor-is employed in order to evaluate the angular velocity and g. An equation to determine g is inferred from fluid mechanics. For this purpose, the fluid's parabolic shape inside a cylindrical receptacle is considered using a rotational movement.

Effects Due to a Scalar Coupling on the Particle-Antiparticle Production in the Duffin-Kemmer-Petiau Theory

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Wear Particle Classifier System Based on an Artificial Neural Network

This paper describes a method of identifying morphological attributes that classify wear particles in relation to the wear process from which they originate and permit the automatic identification without human expertise. The method is based on the use of Multi Layer Perceptron (MLP) for analysis of specific types of microscopic wear particles. The classification of the wear particles was performed according to their morphological attributes of size and aspect ratio, among others. (C) 2010 Journal of Mechanical Engineering. All rights reserved.

Multi-objective evolutionary particle swarm optimization in the assessment of the impact of distributed generation

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