A influência da complexidade na eficiência operacional do consórcio modular

Pós-graduação em Engenharia de Produção - FEG

Da coordenação modular à construção modular: estudos de caso

The presented work aimed to present the Modular Construction scenario, relating it to the fundamentals assumptions on the Modular Coordination Theory. The presentation of this theory, its historical development, its scope and tools, were conceived to further, show how the applicability on the conceptual and design phases is done. Also, studies cases are shown, in order to illustrate didactically how this process occurs. Basing on these studies, considerations are made about the use of modulation in projects in Brazil, at the expense of what happens on the international scenario, to highlight the importance of Modular Coordination for raising the standards of construction quality and rationality in the country

Influência da via mTOR no processo de remodelação cardíaca induzida pelo ácido retinóico

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

On Modular Design of Field Robotic Systems

Robots are needed to perform important field tasks such as hazardous material clean-up, nuclear site inspection, and space exploration. Unfortunately their use is not widespread due to their long development times and high costs. To make them practical, a modular design approach is proposed. Prefabricated modules are rapidly assembled to give a low-cost system for a specific task. This paper described the modular design problem for field robots and the application of a hierarchical selection process to solve this problem. Theoretical analysis and an example case study are presented. The theoretical analysis of the modular design problem revealed the large size of the search space. It showed the advantages of approaching the design on various levels. The hierarchical selection process applies physical rules to reduce the search space to a computationally feasible size and a genetic algorithm performs the final search in a greatly reduced space. This process is based on the observation that simple physically based rules can eliminate large sections of the design space to greatly simplify the search. The design process is applied to a duct inspection task. Five candidate robots were developed. Two of these robots are evaluated using detailed physical simulation. It is shown that the more obvious solution is not able to complete the task, while the non-obvious asymmetric design develop by the process is successful.

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF FOLDED PLATE GIRDERS AND SLAB JOINTS USED IN MODULAR CONSTRUCTION

The folded plate girder, a newly proposed bridge girder, is investigated through this thesis. The folded plate girder is cold bent out of a single sheet of steel. The cold bending eliminates the costly and inconsistent shop welds found in traditional girders. The folded plate girder is meant for application in short span bridges. The girder was subjected to an equivalent 75 year lifetime loading to investigate the fatigue performance. The rebar detail used in the closure region between adjacent slabs has been investigated in the past by the NCHRP 12-68 project. This thesis will proposes a hooked rebar detail as a cost effective alternative to the previously recommended headed rebar detail. The proposed hooked rebar detail looks to improve upon the headed bar detail by increasing the clear cover, and reducing the cost of fabrication and shipment of the rebar. Six specimens containing closure regions are subjected to both positive and negative moment loading in order to investigate their behavior and failure modes under ultimate load.

Da coordenação modular à construção modular: estudos de caso

The presented work aimed to present the Modular Construction scenario, relating it to the fundamentals assumptions on the Modular Coordination Theory. The presentation of this theory, its historical development, its scope and tools, were conceived to further, show how the applicability on the conceptual and design phases is done. Also, studies cases are shown, in order to illustrate didactically how this process occurs. Basing on these studies, considerations are made about the use of modulation in projects in Brazil, at the expense of what happens on the international scenario, to highlight the importance of Modular Coordination for raising the standards of construction quality and rationality in the country

Influência da via mTOR no processo de remodelação cardíaca induzida pelo ácido retinóico

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

Feature-oriented regional modeling and simulations (FORMS) for the western South Atlantic: Southeastern Brazil region

The multi-scale synoptic circulation system in the southeastern Brazil (SEBRA) region is presented using a feature-oriented approach. Prevalent synoptic circulation structures, or ""features,"" are identified from previous observational studies. These features include the southward-flowing Brazil Current (BC), the eddies off Cabo Sao Tome (CST - 22 degrees S) and off Cabo Frio (CF - 23 degrees S), and the upwelling region off CF and CST. Their synoptic water-mass (T-S) structures are characterized and parameterized to develop temperature-salinity (T-S) feature models. Following [Gangopadhyay, A., Robinson, A.R., Haley, PJ., Leslie, W.J., Lozano, C.j., Bisagni, J., Yu, Z., 2003. Feature-oriented regional modeling and simulation (forms) in the gulf of maine and georges bank. Cont. Shelf Res. 23 (3-4), 317-353] methodology, a synoptic initialization scheme for feature-oriented regional modeling and simulation (FORMS) of the circulation in this region is then developed. First, the temperature and salinity feature-model profiles are placed on a regional circulation template and objectively analyzed with available background climatology in the deep region. These initialization fields are then used for dynamical simulations via the Princeton Ocean Model (POM). A few first applications of this methodology are presented in this paper. These include the BC meandering, the BC-eddy interaction and the meander-eddy-upwelling system (MEUS) simulations. Preliminary validation results include realistic wave-growth and eddy formation and sustained upwelling. Our future plan includes the application of these feature models with satellite, in-situ data and advanced data-assimilation schemes for nowcasting and forecasting the SEBRA region. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Metallic chalcogenolates mediated modular Michael-aldol cascade reaction: an easy route to multi-functionalized chalcogenides and Morita-Baylis-Hillman adducts

Chalcogenolate mediated Michael-aldol cascade reactions consists of a very efficient route to multi-functionalized gamma-hydroxichalcogenides. Although, when selenolates are employed, these gamma-hydroxichalcogenides can be readily converted into the corresponding Morita-Baylis-Hillman adducts by oxidative elimination of the selenium moiety. In this context, herein we present a complete study on the scope and limitations of this reaction. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Vascular dementia: Different forms of vessel disorders contribute to the development of dementia in the elderly brain

The diagnosis of vascular dementia (VaD) describes a group of various vessel disorders with different types of vascular lesions that finally contribute to the development of dementia. Most common forms of VaD in the elderly brain are subcortical vascular encephalopathy, strategic infarct dementia, and the multi infarct encephalopathy. Hereditary forms of VaD are rare. Most common is the cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL). Sporadic forms of VaD are caused by degenerative vessel disorders such as atherosclerosis, small vessel disease (SVD) including small vessel arteriosclerosis, arteriolosclerosis, and lipohyalinosis, and cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). Less frequently inflammatory vessel disorders and tumor-associated vessel lesions (e. g. angiocentric T-cell or angiotropic large cell lymphoma) can cause symptoms of dementia. Here, we review and discuss the impact of vessel disorders to distinct vascular brain tissue lesions and to the development of dementia in elderly individuals. The impact of coexisting neurodegenerative pathology in the elderly brain to VaD as well as the correlation between SVD and CAA expansion in the brain parenchyma with that of Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related pathology is highlighted. We conclude that "pure" VaD is rare and most frequently caused by infarctions. However, there is a significant contribution of vascular lesions and vessel pathology to the development of dementia that may go beyond tissue damage due to vascular lesions. Insufficient blood blow and alterations of the perivascular drainage mechanisms of the brain may also lead to a reduced protein clearance from extracellular space and subsequent increase of proteins in the brain parenchyma, such as the amyloid beta-protein, and foster, thereby, the development of AD-related neurodegeneration. As such, it seems to be important for clinical practice to consider treatment of potentially coexisting AD pathology in cognitively impaired patients with vascular lesions. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Mistletoes Play Different Roles in a Modular Host-Parasite Network

Antagonistic interactions between host plants and mistletoes often form complex networks of interacting species. Adequate characterization of network organization requires a combination of qualitative and quantitative data. Therefore, we assessed the distribution of interactions between mistletoes and hosts in the Brazilian Pantanal and characterized the network structure in relation to nestedness and modularity. Interactions were highly asymmetric, with mistletoes presenting low host specificity (i.e., weak dependence) and with hosts being highly susceptible to mistletoe-specific infections. We found a non-nested and modular pattern of interactions, wherein each mistletoe species interacted with a particular set of host species. Psittacanthus spp. infected more species and individuals and also caused a high number of infections per individual, whereas the other mistletoes showed a more specialized pattern of infection. For this reason, Psittacanthus spp. were regarded as module hubs while the other mistletoe species showed a peripheral role. We hypothesize that this pattern is primarily the result of different seed dispersal systems. Although all mistletoe species in our study are bird dispersed, the frugivorous assemblage of Psittacanthus spp. is composed of a larger suite of birds, whereas Phoradendron are mainly dispersed by Euphonia species. The larger assemblage of bird species dispersing Psittacanthus seeds may also increase the number of hosts colonized and, consequently, its dominance in the study area. Nevertheless, other restrictions on the interactions among species, such as the differential capacity of mistletoe infections, defense strategies of hosts and habitat types, can also generate or enhance the observed pattern.

Miniversal deformations of matrices of bilinear forms

Arnold [V.I. Arnold, On matrices depending on parameters, Russian Math. Surveys 26 (2) (1971) 29-43] constructed miniversal deformations of square complex matrices under similarity; that is, a simple normal form to which not only a given square matrix A but all matrices B close to it can be reduced by similarity transformations that smoothly depend on the entries of B. We construct miniversal deformations of matrices under congruence. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Treatment of severe forms of paracoccidioidomycosis: is there a role for corticosteroids?

Despite their immunosuppressive effects, corticosteroids have long been used as adjunct therapy (aCST) in the treatment of infectious diseases. The rationale is that in certain infections it is necessary to decrease the exacerbated host's inflammatory response, which can otherwise result in tissue damage and organ dysfunction. In fact, a major concern in treating paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) is the host's intense inflammatory response to Paracoccidioides brasiliensis, which can be further intensified by antifungal therapy. Depending on its localization, this immunological phenomenon may be life threatening or result in permanent sequels, as is the case for some patients with cerebral or laryngeal involvement. However, the literature on aCST in paracoccidioidomycosis treatment is scarce and as a result we present our recent experience in the management of four patients with severe PCM manifestations, i.e., cerebral paracoccidioidal granuloma, laryngeal stenosis, compressive abdominal mass, and exacerbated inflammatory response with tissue destruction. In addition to the antifungal therapy, these patients required aCST, which probably promoted their clinical improvement and/or prevented serious complications. We suggest that aCST: (a) can potentially help in the management of selected cases of severe forms of PCM, particularly when there is a risk of acute complications, and (b) that it can be used safely provided that the risk-benefit ratio is carefully weighed. Well-controlled, prospective studies of aCST in the treatment of severe cases of paracoccidioidomycosis are needed to better define its role in the management of PCM.

Clinical, epidemiological and molecular features of the HIV-1 subtype C and recombinant forms that are circulating in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil

Background: The city of Sao Paulo has the highest AIDS case rate, with nearly 60% in Brazil. Despite, several studies involving molecular epidemiology, lack of data regarding a large cohort study has not been published from this city. Objectives: This study aimed to describe the HIV-1 subtypes, recombinant forms and drug resistance mutations, according to subtype, with emphasis on subtype C and BC recombinants in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Study design: RNA was extracted from the plasma samples of 302 HIV-1-seropositive subjects, of which 211 were drug-naive and 82 were exposed to ART. HIV-1 partial pol region sequences were used in phylogenetic analyses for subtyping and identification of drug resistance mutations. The envelope gene of subtype C and BC samples was also sequenced. Results: From partial pol gene analyses, 239 samples (79.1%) were assigned as subtype B, 23 (7.6%) were F1, 16 (5.3%) were subtype C and 24 (8%) were mosaics (3 CRF28/CRF29-like). The subtype C and BC recombinants were mainly identified in drug-naive patients (72.7%) and the heterosexual risk exposure category (86.3%), whereas for subtype B, these values were 69.9% and 57.3%, respectively (p = 0.97 and p = 0.015, respectively). An increasing trend of subtype C and BC recombinants was observed (p < 0.01). Conclusion: The HIV-1 subtype C and CRFs seem to have emerged over the last few years in the city of Sao Paulo, principally among the heterosexual population. These findings may have an impact on preventive measures and vaccine development in Brazil.

Biowaiver monographs for immediate-release solid oral dosage forms: Stavudine

Literature data relevant to the decision to allow a waiver of in vivo bioequivalence (BE) testing for the approval of immediate-release (IR) solid oral dosage forms containing stavudine (d4T) are reviewed. According to Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS), d4T can be assigned to BCS class I. No problems with BE of IR d4T formulations containing different excipients and produced by different manufacturing methods have been reported and, hence, the risk of bioinequivalence caused by these factors appears to be low. Furthermore, d4T has a wide therapeutic index. It is concluded that a biowaiver is appropriate for IR solid oral dosage forms containing d4T as the single active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) provided that (a) the test product contains only excipients present in the IR d4T drug products that have been approved in a number of countries for the same dosage form, and (b) both test product and its comparator are either very rapidly dissolving or rapidly dissolving with similarity of dissolution profiles demonstrated at pH 1.2, 4.5, and 6.8. (c) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association J Pharm Sci 101:1016, 2012