Bound Variable, Split Antecedent and Ellipsis Interpretations in L2 Portuguese: Implications for L2 Acquisition Theories.

Recently, in light of minimalist assumptions, some partial UG accessibility accounts to adult second language acquisition have made a distinction between the post-critical period ability to acquire new features based on their LF-interpretability (i.e. interpretable vs. uninterpretable features) (HAWKINS, 2005; HAWKINS; HATTORI, 2006; TSIMPLI; MASTROPAVLOU, 2007; TSIMPLI; DIMITRAKOPOULOU, 2007). The Interpretability Hypothesis (TSIMPLI; MASTROPAVLOU, 2007; TSIMPLI; DIMITRAKOPOULOU, 2007) claims that only uninterpretable features suffer a post-critical period failure and, therefore, cannot be acquired. Conversely, Full Access approaches claim that L2 learners have full access to UG’s entire inventory of features, and that L1/L2 differences obtain outside the narrow syntax. The phenomenon studied herein, adult acquisition of the Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC) (MONTALBETTI, 1984) and inflected infinitives in nonnative Portuguese, challenges the Interpretability hypothesis insofar as it makes the wrong predictions for what is observed. The present data demonstrate that advanced learners of L2 Portuguese acquire the OPC and the syntax and semantics of inflected infinitives with native-like accuracy. Since inflected infinitives require the acquisition of new uninterpretable φ-features, the present data provide evidence in contra Tsimpli and colleagues’ Interpretability Hypothesis.

Mjukvaruverktyg för loggning och analys avindustriella processer

This report discusses developing a software log tool for analysis of industrial processes. The target was to develop software that can help electro Engineers for monitor and fault finding in industrial processes. The tool is called PLS (Process log server), and is developed in Visual Studio.NET Framework 2005. PLS works as a client with Beijer Electronics OPC Server. The program is able to read data from PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), trough the OPC Server. PLS connects to all kind of controllers that is supported by the Beijer Electronics OPC Server. Signal data is stored in a database for later analysis. Chosen signals data can easily be exported into a text file. The text file is adopted for import to MS Office Excel. User manual [UM-07] is written as a separate document. The software acted stable through the function test. The final product becomes a first-rate tool that is simple to use. As an advantage, the software can be developed with more functions in the future.

Enabling industrial scale simulation / emulation models

OLE Process Control (OPC) is an industry standard that facilitates the communication between PCs and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC). This communication allows for the testing of control systems with an emulation model. When models require faster and higher volume communications, limitations within OPC prevent this. In this paper an interface is developed to allow high speed and high volume communications between a PC and PLC enabling the emulation of larger and more complex control systems and their models. By switching control of elements within the model between the model engine and the control system it is possible to use the model to validate the system design, test the real world control systems and visualise real world operation.

Ecologically sustainable noise barrier – further developments

This paper reports on the second phase of a research project aimed at the development of an environmentally friendly noise barrier for urban freeways, also known as KMAK (Krezel and McManus, 2007). The concrete barrier, which has some unique capabilities to mitigate transportation noise, is made from recycled concrete (RC) aggregate and industrial by-products such as fly ash and reclaimed water. The current developmental work expands on a research project that resulted in a two-layer (2L) concrete barrier. Two prototypes of the 2L barrier were produced, followed by extensive acoustic testing and a number of simulations where standard timber and/or concrete barriers were substituted with KMAK barrier (Krezel et al, 2004). Current research investigates a variety of architectural finishes applied to the original KMAK barrier with the aim of improving its visual appearance and also fine-tuning its acoustic performance. The new three-layer (3L) barrier optimises sound absorption in a frequency range characteristic to that of transportation noise, especially road traffic noise. Three major aspects related to the development of architectural finishes were considered; environmentally responsible materials, surface features and production methods. The light-weight material used in the architectural finish is based on ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and uses very fine fraction of RC aggregate. The manufacturing process of the 3L barrier was tested in a commercial setting and two sets of prototype barrier were cast. An innovative, cost effective method of applying pattern and perforation to the surface of architectural finish was also developed and tested. The findings of the current investigation demonstrate that there is a positive correlation between surface features, percentage of perforation as well as depth of the architectural layer and increased potential of the 3L barrier to mitigate transportation noise. On average, the addition of perforated architectural finish contributes to 20% increase in sound absorption. The preliminary results also show that the sound absorbency of the 3L barrier can be better controlled and tuned to specific noise frequency. The visual appearance has been significantly improved with the addition of the architectural finish, which makes the barrier an attractive, feasible and viable alternative to road barriers made from standard concrete or timber.

Is point of care testing for anaemia (HB) and microalbumin feasible in people with type 2 diabetes attending diabetes outpatient clinics?

Introduction: Diabetes is the major cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Australia. Anaemia of CKD occurs earlier than in non-diabetics and is often insidious and undetected.

Aim: A large, prospective, single-centre study was undertaken to determine the feasibility of point of care testing (POCT) haemoglobin (Hb) and microalbumin in people with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) attending routine outpatient clinic appointments (OPC).

Method: Clinic nurses measured Hb and microalbumin using the HemoCue Haemoglobin Capillary Analyser and the HemoCue Urine Albumin Analyser (Medipac Scientific), respectively when they tested blood glucose, weight and blood pressure. The nurses were trained to use the analysers before the study commenced. Standard demographic data, duration of diabetes, treatment mode, and presence of complications, comorbidities, and HbA1c were ascertained from patients’ medical records.

Results: Five hundred and fifty-four (80%) patients were screened. The nurses were able to perform the tests competently but testing, especially microalbumin, was time-consuming. Patients’ mean age was 62 years (11 SD): 230 females, mean blood glucose (BG) 10 (3.9 SD) mmol/L, mean haemoglobin 127.2 (16.3 SD) g/L; mean microalbumin 47.8 (58.7 SD) mg/L: 324 were males, mean BG 10.2 (3.9 SD) mmol/L, mean Hb 138.6 (18.8 SD) gm/L, and mean microalbumin 67.9 (73.9 SD) mg/L. 27% of males and 22% of females were anaemic. Of those with anaemia, 27% of females and 29% of males had microalbuminuria.

Conclusions: POCT is feasible in routine outpatient clinics but is time-consuming. One in four T2DM attending OPC were anaemic. POCT Hb testing in OPC is feasible and could identify T2DM who need full haematological assessment.

Real and substantial connections : Enforcing Canadian privacy laws against American social networking companies

Any organisation that captures personal data in Canada for processing is deemed tohave a ‘real and substantial connection’ to Canada and thus fall within thejurisdiction of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act(PIPEDA) and of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC). Whathas been the experience of enforcing Canadian privacy protection law on US-basedsocial networking services? We analyse some of the high-profile enforcement actionsby the Privacy Commissioner. We also test compliance through an analysis of theprivacy policies of the top 23 SNSs operating in Canada and through the use of accessto personal information requests. Our analysis suggests that non-compliance iswidespread, and is explained by the countervailing conceptions of jurisdictioninherent in corporate policy and technical system design.

2nd generation concrete construction: carbon footprint accounting

Purpose – Construction contractors and facility managers are being challenged to minimize the carbon footprint. Life cycle carbon‐equivalent (CO2‐e) accounting, whereby the potential emissions of greenhouse gases due to energy expenditure during construction and subsequent occupation of built infrastructure, generally ceases at the end of the service life. However, following demolition, recycling of demolition waste that becomes incorporated into 2nd generation construction is seldom considered within the management of the carbon footprint. This paper aims to focus on built concrete infrastructure, particularly the ability of recycled concrete to chemically react with airborne CO2, thereby significantly influencing CO2‐e estimates.

Design/methodology/approach – CO2‐e estimates were made in accordance with the methodology outlined in the Australian National Greenhouse Accounts (NGA) Factors and were based on the energy expended for each life cycle activity from audited records. Offsets to the CO2‐e estimates were based on the documented ability of concrete to chemically react with airborne carbon dioxide (“carbonation”) and predictions of CO2 uptake by concrete and recycled concrete was made using existing predictive diffusion models. The author's study focused on a built concrete bridge which was demolished and recycled at the end of the service life, and the recycled concrete was utilized towards 2nd generation construction. The sensitivity of CO2‐e and carbonation estimates were tested on several different types of source demolition waste as well as subsequent construction applications using recycled concrete (RCA). Whole‐of‐life CO2‐e estimates, including carbonation of RCA over the 1st and 2nd generations, were estimated and contrasted with conventional carbon footprints that end at the conclusion of the 1st generation.

Findings – Following demolition, CO2 capture by RCA is significant due to the more permeable nature of the crushed RCA compared with the original built infrastructure. RCA also has considerably greater exposed surface area, relative to volume, than a built concrete structure, and therefore more highly exposed surface to react with CO2: it therefore carbonates more comprehensively. CO2‐e estimates can be offset by as much as 55‐65 per cent when including the contribution of carbonation of RCA built within 2nd generation infrastructure. Further offsets are achievable using blended fly ash or slag cement binders; however, this study has focused on concrete composed of 100 per cent OPC binders and the effects of RCA.

Originality/value – Construction project estimates of life cycle CO2‐e emissions should include 2nd generation applications that follow the demolition of the 1st generation infrastructure. Life cycle estimates generally end at the time of demolition. However, by incorporating the recycled concrete demolition waste into the construction of 2nd generation infrastructure, the estimated CO2‐e is significantly offset during the 2nd generation life cycle by chemical uptake of CO2 (carbonation). This paper provides an approach towards inclusion of 2nd generation construction applications into whole‐of‐life estimates of CO2‐e.

Capitalismo de estado e inovação: facetas da relação entre estado e iniciativa privada no desenvolvimento nacional

While countries managed to rapidly rise and recover economically, Brazilian social indicators have advanced at short pace in the last decades. Although millions of Brazilians have recently left poverty, Brazil still has a long way to go regarding its socioeconomic development. Circa one fifth of the population is still considered functionally illiterate, basic education has one of the poorest performances in the world, the country has no top-level universities nor produces technology or patents at relevant levels. This paper, at first, analyses how the interaction between government and private agents influenced Brazil’s industrial and economic development, identifying the existence of bonds based on the exchange of private interests that at great extension kept public policies from reaching goals of national interest – the so called crony capitalism. Secondly, the paper verifies how development policies based on the promotion of innovative companies and segments of the industry may positively impact broad socioeconomic development. The paper delves specifically into the cooperation between universities and industry as a development tool. Enterprises and universities, guided by their endogenous interests, may be combined for the structuring of a national innovation system. While universities are fundamentally interested in promoting knowledge accumulation, enterprises are willing to invest financial capital in universities in exchange for the economic exploitation of products developed within the academic environment and direct access to its human capital. Lastly, the paper identifies the legal and cultural barriers and advances of this mechanism in Brazil. It verifies that, notwithstanding the institutional advance promoted by the Law of Innovation to the university-enterprise cooperation in Brazil, the law wasn’t entirely capable of eliminating the legal uncertainty of this relationship and capturing in an efficient way the interests of the agents involved. Recently, federal law n. 12.863/2013 officially offered universities the option of bypassing problems related to public law by regulating support foundations, which conceives greater certainty and simplicity to the cooperation. There are, however, remaining uncertainties regarding the norms to be edited by the executive power, as well as conflicts of interest linked to the property rights over patents resulting from this kind of cooperation. The paper verifies, moreover, the existence of ideological resistance to this tool within universities, in such a way that it is unlikely that those relationships develop in a systematic way throughout the country without further engagement from the government and its executive and legislative bodies.

Desenvolvimento de um sistema misto de pasta à base de geopolímero e cimento portland para correção de perda de circulação

The materials engineering includes processes and products involving several areas of engineering, allowing them to prepare materials that fulfill the needs of various new products. In this case, this work aims to study a system composed of cement paste and geopolymers, which can contribute to solving an engineering problem that directly involves the exploitation of oil wells subject to loss of circulation. To correct it, has been already proposed the use of granular materials, fibers, reducing the drilling fluid or cement paste density and even surface and downhole mixed systems. In this work, we proposed the development of a slurry mixed system, the first was a cement-based slurry and the second a geopolymer-based slurry. The cement-based slurry was formulated with low density and extenders, 12.0 ppg (1.438 g/cm ³), showing great thixotropic characteristics. It was added nano silica at concentrations of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 gps (66.88, 133.76 and 200.64 L/m3) and CaCl2 at concentrations of 0.5, 1, 0 and 1.5%. The second system is a geopolymer-based paste formulated from molar ratios of 3.5 (nSiO2/nAl2O3), 0.27 (nK2O/nSiO2), 1.07 (nK2O/nAl2O3) and 13.99 (nH2O/nK2O). Finally, we performed a mixture of these two systems, for their application for correction of circulation lost. To characterize the raw materials, XRD, XRF, FTIR analysis and titration were performed. The both systems were characterized in tests based on API RP10B. Compressive strength tests were conducted after curing for 24 hours, 7 and 28 days at 58 °C on the cement-based system and the geopolymer-based system. From the mixtures have been performed mixability tests and micro structural characterizations (XRD, SEM and TG). The results showed that the nano silica, when combined with CaCl2 modified the rheological properties of the cement slurry and from the concentration of 1.5 gpc (200.64 L / m³) it was possible to obtain stable systems. The system mixture caused a change in the microstructure of the material by favoring the rate of geopolymer formation to hinder the C3S phase hydration, thus, the production of CSH phases and Portlandite were harmed. Through the mixability tests it can be concluded that the system, due to reduced setting time of the mixture, can be applied to plug lost circulation zones when mixed downhole

RAPD marker use for improving resistance to Helicoverpa zea in corn

Helicoverpa zea is responsible for great losses to the corn, Zen mays L., crops final productivity, and the best way to control it is by improving genetic resistance. In collaboration with corn improvement and increasing resistance to insects through molecular marker assisted selection, this work had as an objective the selection of resistant (RP) and susceptible progenies (SP) to H. zea based on the RAPD technique. Molecular markers were Found, among the resistant progenies and it is suggested that linkage of these within the Zapalote Chico corn race, be used to extract resistance genes from this race as a donor. The progenies were selected from a population of half-sibs exhibiting a broader genetic base (FCAVJ-VF14). After DNA extraction, two sample bulks were formed; one made up of the six most resistant plants, the other of the six least resistant plants. Eighty-six primers were tested for PCR reactions with the resistant and susceptible bulks and analyzed on agarose electrophoresis for the detection of RAPD band polymorphism. The results of the banding patterns and similarity values indicated a nucleotide sequence amplified by the primer OPC-2 as a possible molecular marker for the identification of resistant progenies and a homology region between them and the Zapalote Chico corn race.

Ambiente para desenvolvimento de aplicações fuzzy industriais

This paper describes the design, implementation and enforcement of a system for industrial process control based on fuzzy logic and developed using Java, with support for industrial communication protocol through the OPC (Ole for Process Control). Besides the java framework, the software is completely independent from other platforms. It provides friendly and functional tools for modeling, construction and editing of complex fuzzy inference systems, and uses these logical systems in control of a wide variety of industrial processes. The main requirements of the developed system should be flexibility, robustness, reliability and ease of expansion

Controle preditivo robusto baseado em desigualdades matriciais lineares aplicado a um sistema de tanques acoplados

This work deals with an on-line control strategy based on Robust Model Predictive Control (RMPC) technique applied in a real coupled tanks system. This process consists of two coupled tanks and a pump to feed the liquid to the system. The control objective (regulator problem) is to keep the tanks levels in the considered operation point even in the presence of disturbance. The RMPC is a technique that allows explicit incorporation of the plant uncertainty in the problem formulation. The goal is to design, at each time step, a state-feedback control law that minimizes a 'worst-case' infinite horizon objective function, subject to constraint in the control. The existence of a feedback control law satisfying the input constraints is reduced to a convex optimization over linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) problem. It is shown in this work that for the plant uncertainty described by the polytope, the feasible receding horizon state feedback control design is robustly stabilizing. The software implementation of the RMPC is made using Scilab, and its communication with Coupled Tanks Systems is done through the OLE for Process Control (OPC) industrial protocol

Desenvolvimento de um middleware para comunicação via web services e sua aplicação em sistemas de aquisição de dados industriais

The control of industrial processes has become increasingly complex due to variety of factory devices, quality requirement and market competition. Such complexity requires a large amount of data to be treated by the three levels of process control: field devices, control systems and management softwares. To use data effectively in each one of these levels is extremely important to industry. Many of today s industrial computer systems consist of distributed software systems written in a wide variety of programming languages and developed for specific platforms, so, even more companies apply a significant investment to maintain or even re-write their systems for different platforms. Furthermore, it is rare that a software system works in complete isolation. In industrial automation is common that, software had to interact with other systems on different machines and even written in different languages. Thus, interoperability is not just a long-term challenge, but also a current context requirement of industrial software production. This work aims to propose a middleware solution for communication over web service and presents an user case applying the solution developed to an integrated system for industrial data capture , allowing such data to be available simplified and platformindependent across the network

Projeto e Implementação em Ambiente Foundation Fieldbus de Filtragem Estocástica Baseada em Análise de Componentes Independentes (M175)

This work considers the development of a filtering system composed of an intelligent algorithm, that separates information and noise coming from sensors interconnected by Foundation Fieldbus (FF) network. The algorithm implementation will be made through FF standard function blocks, with on-line training through OPC (OLE for Process Control), and embedded technology in a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) that interacts with the fieldbus devices. The technique ICA (Independent Component Analysis), that explores the possibility of separating mixed signals based on the fact that they are statistically independent, was chosen to this Blind Source Separation (BSS) process. The algorithm and its implementations will be Presented, as well as the results

Fraturas e caminhos ótimos na rede de Barabasi-Albert

Following the study of Andrade et al. (2009) on regular square lattices, here we investigate the problem of optimal path cracks (OPC) in Complex Networks. In this problem we associate to each site a determined energy. The optimum path is defined as the one among all possible paths that crosses the system which has the minimum cost, namely the sum of the energies along the path. Once the optimum path is determined, at each step, one blocks its site with highest energy, and then a new optimal path is calculated. This procedure is repeated until there is a set of blocked sites forming a macroscopic fracture which connects the opposite sides of the system. The method is applied to a lattice of size L and the density of removed sites is computed. As observed in the work by Andrade et al. (2009), the fractured system studied here also presents different behaviors depending on the level of disorder, namely weak, moderated and strong disorder intensities. In the regime of weak and moderated disorder, while the density of removed sites in the system does not depend of the size L in the case of regular lattices, in the regime of high disorder the density becomes substantially dependent on L. We did the same type of study for Complex Networks. In this case, each new site is connected with m previous ones. As in the previous work, we observe that the density of removed sites presents a similar behavior. Moreover, a new result is obtained, i.e., we analyze the dependency of the disorder with the attachment parameter m