A new oxovanadium(IV)-cucurbit[6]uril complex: Properties and potential for confined heterogeneous catalytic oxidation reactions

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Beam Search Algorithms for Minimizing Tool Switches on a Flexible Manufacturing System

In the minimization of tool switches problem we seek a sequence to process a set of jobs so that the number of tool switches required is minimized. In this work different variations of a heuristic based on partial ordered job sequences are implemented and evaluated. All variations adopt a depth first strategy of the enumeration tree. The computational test results indicate that good results can be obtained by a variation which keeps the best three branches at each node of the enumeration tree, and randomly choose, among all active nodes, the next node to branch when backtracking.

Degradation of [D-Leu]-Microcystin-LR by solar heterogeneous photocatalysis (TiO2)

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Allocation of protective devices in distribution circuits using nonlinear programming models and genetic algorithms

The optimized allocation of protective devices in strategic points of the circuit improves the quality of the energy supply and the system reliability index. This paper presents a nonlinear integer programming (NLIP) model with binary variables, to deal with the problem of protective device allocation in the main feeder and all branches of an overhead distribution circuit, to improve the reliability index and to provide customers with service of high quality and reliability. The constraints considered in the problem take into account technical and economical limitations, such as coordination problems of serial protective devices, available equipment, the importance of the feeder and the circuit topology. The use of genetic algorithms (GAs) is proposed to solve this problem, using a binary representation that does (1) or does not (0) show allocation of protective devices (reclosers, sectionalizers and fuses) in predefined points of the circuit. Results are presented for a real circuit (134 busses), with the possibility of protective device allocation in 29 points. Also the ability of the algorithm in finding good solutions while improving significantly the indicators of reliability is shown. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dilema da diversidade-acurácia: um estudo empírico no contexto de multiclassificadores

Multi-classifier systems, also known as ensembles, have been widely used to solve several problems, because they, often, present better performance than the individual classifiers that form these systems. But, in order to do so, it s necessary that the base classifiers to be as accurate as diverse among themselves this is also known as diversity/accuracy dilemma. Given its importance, some works have investigate the ensembles behavior in context of this dilemma. However, the majority of them address homogenous ensemble, i.e., ensembles composed only of the same type of classifiers. Thus, motivated by this limitation, this thesis, using genetic algorithms, performs a detailed study on the dilemma diversity/accuracy for heterogeneous ensembles

Uma Análise de métodos de distriubuição de atributos em comitês de classificadores

The objective of the researches in artificial intelligence is to qualify the computer to execute functions that are performed by humans using knowledge and reasoning. This work was developed in the area of machine learning, that it s the study branch of artificial intelligence, being related to the project and development of algorithms and techniques capable to allow the computational learning. The objective of this work is analyzing a feature selection method for ensemble systems. The proposed method is inserted into the filter approach of feature selection method, it s using the variance and Spearman correlation to rank the feature and using the reward and punishment strategies to measure the feature importance for the identification of the classes. For each ensemble, several different configuration were used, which varied from hybrid (homogeneous) to non-hybrid (heterogeneous) structures of ensemble. They were submitted to five combining methods (voting, sum, sum weight, multiLayer Perceptron and naïve Bayes) which were applied in six distinct database (real and artificial). The classifiers applied during the experiments were k- nearest neighbor, multiLayer Perceptron, naïve Bayes and decision tree. Finally, the performance of ensemble was analyzed comparatively, using none feature selection method, using a filter approach (original) feature selection method and the proposed method. To do this comparison, a statistical test was applied, which demonstrate that there was a significant improvement in the precision of the ensembles

Seleção de atributos em comitês de classificadores utilizando algoritmos genéticos

Classifier ensembles are systems composed of a set of individual classifiers and a combination module, which is responsible for providing the final output of the system. In the design of these systems, diversity is considered as one of the main aspects to be taken into account since there is no gain in combining identical classification methods. The ideal situation is a set of individual classifiers with uncorrelated errors. In other words, the individual classifiers should be diverse among themselves. One way of increasing diversity is to provide different datasets (patterns and/or attributes) for the individual classifiers. The diversity is increased because the individual classifiers will perform the same task (classification of the same input patterns) but they will be built using different subsets of patterns and/or attributes. The majority of the papers using feature selection for ensembles address the homogenous structures of ensemble, i.e., ensembles composed only of the same type of classifiers. In this investigation, two approaches of genetic algorithms (single and multi-objective) will be used to guide the distribution of the features among the classifiers in the context of homogenous and heterogeneous ensembles. The experiments will be divided into two phases that use a filter approach of feature selection guided by genetic algorithm

Comitês de grupamento aplicados a dados de expressão gênica

The main goal of this work is to investigate the suitability of applying cluster ensemble techniques (ensembles or committees) to gene expression data. More specifically, we will develop experiments with three diferent cluster ensembles methods, which have been used in many works in literature: coassociation matrix, relabeling and voting, and ensembles based on graph partitioning. The inputs for these methods will be the partitions generated by three clustering algorithms, representing diferent paradigms: kmeans, ExpectationMaximization (EM), and hierarchical method with average linkage. These algorithms have been widely applied to gene expression data. In general, the results obtained with our experiments indicate that the cluster ensemble methods present a better performance when compared to the individual techniques. This happens mainly for the heterogeneous ensembles, that is, ensembles built with base partitions generated with diferent clustering algorithms

Frontal sinus obliteration with heterogeneous corticocancellous bone versus spontaneous osteoneogenesis in monkeys (Cebus apella): Histologic analysis

Purpose: In this study, we evaluated the results of spontaneous osteoneogenesis of the frontal sinus with autogenous bone plug versus obliteration with heterogeneous (human) bone in monkeys (Cebus apella).Materials and Methods: Eight young adult male C apella monkeys underwent an ostectomy of the anterior wall of the frontal sinus, removal of the sinus mucosa, and inner decortication of the bony walls and then were divided into 2 groups of 4 each, as follows. Group I monkeys underwent obliteration of the nasofrontal ducts with a free segment of frontallis muscle and corticocancellous heterogeneous bone, followed by full obliteration of the sinus with corticocancellous heterogeneous bone (Dayton Regional Tissue Bank, Dayton, OH). Group II monkeys underwent obliteration of the nasofrontal ducts with a frontal muscle segment and tibial autogenous bone plug, without full obliteration of the frontal sinus. In all animals, the sinus anterior wall was repositioned and fixed with 1.0 plate and screws. The monkeys were killed after 180 days, and routine laboratory procedures were followed for hematoxylin-eosin staining and histologic evaluation of the specimens.Results: the 2 studied techniques were both effective in obliterating the frontal sinus with newly formed bone. The nasofrontal ducts were obliterated by new bone formation or fibrous tissue (1 animal only).Conclusions: Both methods used for frontal sinus obliteration were effective; the heterogeneous bone (human bone) was well tolerated and presented low antigenicity. The nasofrontal duct obliteration with autogenous muscle associated with autogenous tibial bone (group II) or with heterogeneous bone (group I) was effective, isolating the frontal sinus from the nasal cavity. The spontaneous obliteration resulted, in the period analyzed, in earlier bone maturation compared with the obliteration by heterogeneous bone. (C) 2003 American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.

THE EXTENT of SEED PREDATION BY BRUCHINE BEETLES (COLEOPTERA: CHRYSOMELIDAE: BRUCHINAE) IN A HETEROGENEOUS LANDSCAPE IN SOUTHEASTERN BRAZIL

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

Using Amino Acid Correlation and Community Detection Algorithms to Identify Functional Determinants in Protein Families

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

Studies on the adsorption and kinetics of photodegradation of a model compound for heterogeneous photocatalysis onto TiO2

An investigation was made on the adsorption and kinetics of photodegradation of potassium hydrogenphthalate in an aqueous suspension of TiO2. Two models, Langmuir and Freundlich, were used to describe the adsorption process and the model proposed by Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) was employed to describe the kinetics of the photodecomposition reactions of hydrogenphthalate. The results of the adsorptions were fitted to the models proposed by Langmuir and Freundlich. Adsorption was found to be a function of the temperature, with adsorption capacity increasing from 2.4 to 4.5 mg/g when the temperature rose from 20 to 30 degrees C. The kinetic model indicates that the rate constant, k, of the first order reaction, is high in the 10.0 to 100 mg/l interval, which is coherent with the low value of the adsorption constant, K. The results fitted to the L-H model led to an equation that, within the range of concentrations studied here, theoretically allows one to evaluate the photodegradation rate. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Tunnelling behaviour of the Asian subterranean termite in heterogeneous soils: presence of cues in the foraging area

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

Use of genetic algorithms and solvation potential to study peptides structure

In this work, genetic algorithms concepts along with a rotamer library for proteins side chains and implicit solvation potential are used to optimize the tertiary structure of peptides. We starting from the known PDB structure of its backbone which is kept fixed while the side chains allowed adopting the conformations present in the rotamer library. It was used rotamer library independent of backbone and a implicit solvation potential. The structure of Mastoporan-X was predicted using several force fields with a growing complexity; we started it with a field where the only present interaction was Lennard-Jones. We added the Coulombian term and we considered the solvation effects through a term proportional to the solvent accessible area. This paper present good and interesting results obtained using the potential with solvation term and rotamer library. Hence, the algorithm (called YODA) presented here can be a good tool to the prediction problem. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Strontium zirconate heterogeneous catalyst for biodiesel production: Synthesis, characterization and catalytic activity evaluation

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)