Análise do desenvolvimento da extensão universitária no Instituto de Nutrição da UERJ no período 1990-2014

A extensão universitária vem se institucionalizando nas universidades públicas brasileiras. Porém pouco se conhece sobre seu desenvolvimento nas unidades acadêmicas. Este trabalho teve como objeto analisar o desenvolvimento da extensão universitária no Instituto de Nutrição da UERJ (NUT) no período de 1990-2014. Trata-se de estudo historiográfico, baseado em pesquisa bibliográfica e na análise dos documentos coletados em arquivos e registros institucionais da UERJ, complementadas com entrevistas com informantes chave. A análise do material levantado abarcou: sistematização do histórico de institucionalização da extensão na UERJ, caracterização dos projetos desenvolvidos no NUT até 2014 e análise dos projetos ativos no período de 2005 a 2014 com pelo menos cinco anos de atividade. A caracterização dos projetos considerou, entre outros, as categorias: área temática, palavras-chave, abrangência geográfica, parcerias, situação curricular e equipe do projeto. A análise dos projetos se deu por meio da sistematização de seus relatórios e pelo seu cotejamento com as linhas de extensão propostas pelo FORPROEX e com as diretrizes da Política Nacional de Alimentação e Nutrição (PNAN) e da Política Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional (PNSAN). Nas últimas décadas, houve grandes avanços na institucionalização da extensão na UERJ. De 1990 a 2014, foram identificados 73 projetos de extensão desenvolvidos no NUT. Foi observada ampliação do corpo docente envolvido e da carga horária alocada em atividades extensionistas. Foi notório o crescimento do número de projetos de extensão vigentes a cada ano e do público por eles atingido. O perfil dos projetos de extensão do NUT tem sido voltado, prioritariamente, para as áreas temáticas de saúde e de educação de forma articulada, convergindo com os campos clássicos de atuação da Nutrição e com as vertentes tradicionais da extensão universitária. É amplo o leque de temas abordados nos projetos, destacando-se aqueles ligados ao cuidado em saúde, com ênfase em agravos e grupos populacionais específicos, à promoção da saúde e à educação/ formação. A abrangência geográfica dos projetos se ampliou com o passar dos anos. A maioria deles estabeleceu parcerias, prioritariamente com unidades da área da saúde e com instituições públicas. Somente em uma minoria deles observamos articulação com o currículo de graduação e, em parte deles, relação com pesquisa. A análise dos projetos ativos no período de 2005-2014 indicou que a maioria deles está concentrada nas linhas Saúde Humana, Educação Profissional e Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional e que, no tocante à interface com a PNAN e a PNSAN, os enfoques predominantes se concentram no cuidado nutricional na rede de atenção à saúde, na educação alimentar e nutricional e a na formação continuada. A trajetória da extensão no NUT permite identificar os seguintes desafios para o seu desenvolvimento: avançar na inserção da extensão nos projetos pedagógicos do curso de graduação; traduzir, na prática, o princípio da indissociabilidade ensino-pesquisa-extensão; aprofundar a interface entre a extensão e as políticas públicas; ampliar o escopo de parcerias. Janelas de oportunidade devem ser buscadas e caminhos devem ser percorridos coletivamente no sentido da superação desses desafios na perspectiva de uma prática extensionista que transforme universidade e sociedade.

Climatic factors associated with phytoplankton community succession during and after the 1977 drought for the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary [abstract]

Principal coordinates analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to determine the environmental factors associated with the decline in phytoplankton production during and after the 1977 drought for the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary. Physical, chemical and biological data were collected semimonthly or monthly during the spring-summer between 1973 and 1982 from 15 sampling sites located throughout the Bay-Delta. A decline in phytoplankton community diversity and density during the 1977 drought and subsequent years (1978 through 1981) was described using principal coordinates analysis. The best multiple regression which described the changes in phytoplankton community succession contained the variables water temperature, wind velocity and ortho-phosphate concentration. Together these variables accounted for 61 percent of the variation in the phytoplankton community among years described by principal coordinates analysis. An increase in water temperature, wind velocity and ortho-phosphate concentration within the Bay-Delta, beginning in June 1976 and continuing through 1981, was demonstrated using weighted moving averages. From the strong association between phytoplankton community succession and climatic variables it was hypothesized that the decline in phytoplankton production during and after the 1977 drought was associated with climatic changes within the northeast Pacific.

Biscayne Bay commercial pink shrimp, Farfantepenaeus duorarum, fisheries, 1986-2005

The Biscayne Bay bait (1986–2005) and food (1989–2005) fisheries for pink shrimp were examined using dealer-reported individual vessel-trip landings data, separated by waterbody code to represent only catches from Biscayne Bay. Annual landings varied little during the 1980’s and early 1990’s, and landings of the bait shrimp fishery exceeded those of the food shrimp fishery. The number of trips and landings in both fisheries increased from the late 1990’s through 2002 and food shrimp landings exceeded landings of bait shrimp; landings in both fisheries decreased sharply in 2003. Landings in both fisheries increased in 2004 and 2005, but the increase in food shrimp landings was stronger. Annual catch per trip was much lower in the bait fishery than the food fishery. Each fishery exploited shrimp of a different size. The bait fishery targeted shrimp less than 19 mm carapace length (CL), whereas the food fishery caught shrimp greater than 19 mm CL. We compared monthly bait shrimp catch per unit of effort (CPUE) from the fishery to an estimate of shrimp density from a fishery-independent sampling effort over a 3-yr period and found a strong statistical relationship with the density estimate lagged by 3 mo. The relationship supported the use of bait shrimp fishery CPUE as an index of abundance in upcoming assessments of the effect of a massive water-management-based ecosystem restoration project on pink shrimp in Biscayne Bay. Project implementation will affect freshwater inflows to the bay and salinity patterns. An abundance index with a lengthy pre-implementation history that can be carried into the operational phase of the restoration project will be invaluable in assessing project effects and protecting an important fishery resource of Biscayne Bay. The bait shrimp fishery can provide a continuing index of shrimp abundance from late 1986 forward.

Balanced parametrizations and canonical forms for system identification

This paper contains a review of recent results concerning the parametrization of asymptotically stable linear systems using balanced realizations. Particular emphasis is given on the application of these results to system identification. This work is part of a continuing programme aimed at elucidating the role of balanced realization in system identification.

Sri Lanka: is it a mid-plate platelet?

Two observations suggest the possibility that Sri Lanka is acting as a small-mid-plate platelet moving very slowly within and relative to the larger Indian plate. First, sediments of the Bengal Deep-Sea Fan off the SSE continental margin are folded and uplifted in a manner similar to the deformation from front of accretionary prisms where thick sediment columns are passing into subduction zones. And second, subsidence rates in the area of presumed spreading or continuing stretching of continental crust, the Cauvery-Palk Strait-Gulf of Mannar Basin, have not decreased during the Cenozoic as would be predicted by an aborted rift or aulacogen model, but instead appear to have accelerated during the Neogene. Information available on other phenomena which re predicted by the model is at the present time inadequate for evaluation.

Modelling of waterfront cantilever sheet pile walls subjected to earthquake loading

The seismic performance of waterfront cantilever sheet pile retaining walls is of continuing interest to geotechnical engineers as these structures suffer severe damage and even complete failure during earthquakes. This is often precipitated by liquefaction of the surrounding soil, either in the backfill or in front of the wall. This paper presents results from a series of small-scale plane strain models that were tested on a 1-g shaking table and recorded using a high-speed, high-resolution digital camera. The technique of Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was applied in order to allow the failure mechanisms to be visualised. It is shown that using PIV analyses it is possible to obtain failure mechanisms for a cantilever wall in liquefiable soil. These failure mechanisms are compared with those obtained for a cantilever wall in dry soil, previously carried out at a similar scale. It was observed that seismic liquefaction causes significant displacement in much larger zones of soil near the retaining wall compared to an equivalent dry case. The failure mechanism for a cantilever wall with liquefiable backfill, but with a remediated zone designed not to liquefy, is also presented and compared to the unremediated case.

Quality control in the Indian fish processing industry

Quality control is defined as the continuing assessment of a current operation. It is usually the responsibility of an individual or a department directly responsible to the management. In the case of fish and fishery products, quality control includes all the steps taken to protect the quality of the material since catch until it reaches the consumer.

Past trends and recent research on the fisheries of Lake Victoria in relation to possible future developments

EAFFRO and UNPP/LVFRP bottom trawl exploratory data have been used to describe the depth distributional pattern. relative abundance and magnitude of the demersai fishes in Lake Victoria. The results have been compared with the commercial catch estimates, and various interpretations of the trends in the annual catches and experimental biomass estimates in relation to possible future developments of the fishery have been suggested. Though it is highly desirable to develop the fishery such as by supplementary trawling, certain social and biological consequences and considerations needs to proceed in graded steps guided by several research disciplines. The past trends of the fisheries of Lake Victoria are briefly considered. Recent exploratory bottom trawl data, by EAFFRO and UNDP/LVFRP, have been used to define demersal fish stocks of Lake Victoria in terms of their magnitude, relative abundance and distribution pattern by depth. Enstence of disparity between the relative abundance of the various species in their commercial catches and in their present biomass estimates is pointed out and the various aspects associated with the necessary modification of the fishing practices are discussed. Further and continuing research of the bio-socio-economic vectors of the fishery will be necessary in order to generate the rationale of an efficient fishing regime for a rational management strategy and realistic utilization of the fishery resource.

Embedded Model Predictive Control (MPC) using a FPGA

Model Predictive Control (MPC) is increasingly being proposed for application to miniaturized devices, fast and/or embedded systems. A major obstacle to this is its computation time requirement. Continuing our previous studies of implementing constrained MPC on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), this paper begins to exploit the possibilities of parallel computation, with the aim of speeding up the MPC implementation. Simulation studies on a realistic example show that it is possible to implement constrained MPC on an FPGA chip with a 25MHz clock and achieve MPC implementation rates comparable to those achievable on a Pentium 3.0 GHz PC. Copyright © 2007 International Federation of Automatic Control All Rights Reserved.

UK-NEES - Distributed hybrid testing between Bristol, Cambridge and Oxford Universities: Connecting structural dynamics labs to a geotechnical centrifuge

Distributed hybrid testing is a natural extension to and builds upon the local hybrid testing technique. Taking advantage of the hybrid nature of the test, it allows a sharing of resources and expertise between researchers from different disciplines by connecting multiple geographically distributed sites for joint testing. As part of the UK-NEES project, a successful series of three-site distributed hybrid tests have been carried out between Bristol, Cambridge and Oxford Universities. The first known multi-site distributed hybrid tests in the UK, they connected via a dedicated fibre network, using custom software, the geotechnical centrifuge at Cambridge to structural components at Bristol and Oxford. These experiments were to prove the connection and useful insights were gained into the issues involved with this distributed environment. A wider aim is towards providing a flexible testing framework to facilitate multi-disciplinary experiments such as the accurate investigation of the influence of foundations on structural systems under seismic and other loading. Time scaling incompatibilities mean true seismic soil structure interaction using a centrifuge at g is not possible, though it is clear that distributed centrifuge testing can be valuable in other problems. Development is continuing to overcome the issues encountered, in order to improve future distributed tests in the UK and beyond.

Climate resilience of schools: a case study

Social and political concerns are frequently reflected in the design of school buildings, often in turn leading to the development of technical innovations. One example is a recurrent concern about the physical health of the nation, which has at several points over the last century prompted new design approaches to natural light and ventilation. The most critical concern of the current era is the global, rather than the indoor, environment. The resultant political focus on mitigating climate change has resulted in new regulations, and in turn considerable technical changes in building design and construction. The vanguard of this movement has again been in school buildings, set the highest targets for reducing operational carbon by the previous Government. The current austerity measures have moved the focus to the refurbishment and retrofit of existing buildings, in order to bring them up to the exacting new standards. Meanwhile there is little doubt that climate change is happening already, and that the impacts will be considerable. Climate scientists have increasing confidence in their predictions for the future; if today’s buildings are to be resilient to these changes, building designers will need to understand and design for the predicted climates in order to continue to provide comfortable and healthy spaces through the lifetimes of the buildings. This paper describes the decision processes, and the planned design measures, for adapting an existing school for future climates. The project is at St Faith’s School in Cambridge, and focuses on three separate buildings: a large Victorian block built as a substantial domestic dwelling in 1885, a smaller single storey 1970s block with a new extension, and an as-yet unbuilt single storey block designed to passivhaus principles and using environmentally friendly materials. The implications of climate change have been considered for the three particular issues of comfort, construction, and water, as set out in the report on Design for Future Climate: opportunities for adaptation in the built environment (Gething, 2010). The adaptation designs aim to ensure each of the three very different buildings remains fit for purpose throughout the 21st century, continuing to provide a healthy environment for the children. A forth issue, the reduction of carbon and the mitigation of other negative environmental impacts of the construction work, is also a fundamental aim for the school and the project team. Detailed modelling of both the operational and embodied energy and carbon of the design options is therefore being carried out, in order that the whole life carbon costs of the adaptation design options may be minimised. The project has been funded by the Technology Strategy Board as part of the Design for Future Climates programme; the interdisciplinary team includes the designers working on the current school building projects and the school bursar, supported by researchers from the University of Cambridge Centre for Sustainable Development. It is hoped that lessons from the design process, as well as the solutions themselves, will be transferable to other buildings in similar climatic regions.

Experimental investigation of dynamic response of acoustically forced turbulent premixed CH4/CO2/air flames

Increasing demand for energy and continuing increase in environmental as well as financial cost of use of fossil fuels drive the need for utilization of fuels from sustainable sources for power generation. Development of fuel-flexible combustion systems is vital in enabling the use of sustainable fuels. It is also important that these sustainable combustion systems meet the strict governmental emission legislations. Biogas is considered as one of the viable sustainable fuels that can be used to power modern gas turbines: However, the change in chemical, thermal and transport properties as well as change in Wobbe index due to the variation of the fuel constituents can have a significant effect on the performance of the combustor. It is known that the fuel properties have strong influence on the dynamic flame response; however there is a lack of detailed information regarding the effect of fuel compositions on the sensitivity of the flames subjected to flow perturbations. In this study, we describe an experimental effort investigating the response of premixed biogas-air turbulent flames with varying proportions of CH4 and CO2 to velocity perturbations. The flame was stabilized using a centrally placed conical bluff body. Acoustic perturbations were imposed to the flow using loud speakers. The flame dynamics and the local heat release rate of these acoustically excited biogas flames were studied using simultaneous measurements of OH and H2CO planar laser induced fluorescence. OH* chemiluminescence along with acoustic pressure measurements were also recorded to estimate the total flame heat release modulation and the velocity fluctuations. The measurements were carried out by keeping the theoretical laminar flame speed constant while varying the bulk velocity and the fuel composition. The results indicate that the flame sensitivity to perturbations increased with increased dilution of CH4 by CO2 at low amplitude forcing, while at high amplitude forcing conditions the magnitude of the flame response was independent of dilution.

Novel nanostructured carbon nanotube electron sources

In this chapter, we present a review of our continuing efforts toward the development of discrete, low-dimensional nanostructured carbon-based electron emitters. Carbon nanotubes and nanofibers, herein referred to simply as CNTs, are one-dimensional carbon allotropes formed from cylindrically rolled and nested graphene sheets, have diameters between 1 and 500 nm and lengths of up to several millimeters, and are perfect candidates for field emission (FE) applications. By virtue of their extremely strong sp2 C-C bonding, intrinsic to the graphene hexagonal lattice, CNTs have demonstrated impressive chemical inertness, unprecedented thermal stabilities, significant resistance to electromigration, and exceptionally high axial current carrying capacities, even at elevated temperatures. These near ideal cold cathode electron emitters have incredibly high electric field enhancing aspect ratios combined with virtual point sources of the order of a few nanometers in size. The correct integration and judicious development of suitable FE platforms based on these extraordinary molecules is critical and will ultimately enable enhanced technologies. This chapter will review some of the more recent platforms, devices and structures developed by our group, as well as our contributions towards the development of industry-scalable technologies for ultra-high-resolution electron microscopy, portable x-ray sources, and flexible environmental lighting technologies. © 2012 by Pan Stanford Publishing Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Extraordinarily thick-boned fish linked to the aridification of the Qaidam Basin (northern Tibetan Plateau)

Scattered with numerous salt lakes and approximate to 2,700-3,200 m above sea level, the giant Qaidam inland basin on the northern Tibetan Plateau has experienced continuing aridification since the beginning of the Late Cenozoic as a result of the India-Asia plate collision and associated uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. Previous evidence of aridification comes mainly from evaporite deposits and salinity-tolerant invertebrate fossils. Vertebrate fossils were rare until recent discoveries of abundant fish. Here, we report an unusual cyprinid fish, Hsianwenia wui, gen. et sp. nov., from Pliocene lake deposits of the Qaidam Basin, characterized by an extraordinarily thick skeleton that occupied almost the entire body. Such enormous skeletal thickening, apparently leaving little room for muscles, is unknown among extant fish. However, an almost identical condition occurs in the much smaller cyprinodontid Aphanius crassicaudus (Cyprinodonyiformes), collected from evaporites exposed along the northern margins of the Mediterranean Sea during the Messinian desiccation period. H. wui and A. crassicaudus both occur in similar deposits rich in carbonates (CaCO3) and sulfates (CaSO4), indicating that both were adapted to the extreme conditions resulting from the ariclification in the two areas. The overall skeletal thickening was most likely formed through deposition of the oversaturated calcium and was apparently a normal feature of the biology and growth of these fish.

Evolution of Localized Damage Zone in Heterogeneous Media

Evolution of localized damage zone is a key to catastrophic rupture in heterogeneous materials. In the present article, the evolutions of strain fields of rock specimens are investigated experimentally. The observed evolution of fluctuations and autocorrelations of strain fields under uniaxial compression demonstrates that the localization of deformation always appears ahead of catastrophic rupture. In particular, the localization evolves pronouncedly with increasing deformation in the rock experiments. By means of the definition of the zone with high strain rate and likely damage localization, it is found that the size of the localized zone decreases from the sample size at peak load to an eventual value. Actually, the deformation field beyond peak load is bound to suffer bifurcation, namely an elastic unloading part and a continuing but localized damage part will co-exist in series in a specimen. To describe this continuous bifurcation and localization process observed in experiments, a model on continuum mechanics is developed. The model can explain why the decreasing width of localized zone can lead stable deformation to unstable, but it still has not provided the complete equations governing the evolution of the localized zone.