Methane combustion kinetic rate constants determination: an ill-posed inverse problem analysis

Methane combustion was studied by the Westbrook and Dryer model. This well-established simplified mechanism is very useful in combustion science, for computational effort can be notably reduced. In the inversion procedure to be studied, rate constants are obtained from [CO] concentration data. However, when inherent experimental errors in chemical concentrations are considered, an ill-conditioned inverse problem must be solved for which appropriate mathematical algorithms are needed. A recurrent neural network was chosen due to its numerical stability and robustness. The proposed methodology was compared against Simplex and Levenberg-Marquardt, the most used methods for optimization problems.

A quasi-materialist, quasi-dualist solution to the mind-body problem

If the mental can affect, or be affected by, the physical, then the mental must itself be physical. Otherwise the physical world would not be explanatorily closed. But it is closed. There are reasons to hold that materialism (in both its reductive and non-reductive varieties) is false. So how are we to explain the apparent responsiveness of the physical to the mental and vice versa? The only possible solution seems to be this: physical objects are really projections or isomorphs of objects whose essential properties are mental. (A slightly less accurate way of putting this would be to say: the constitutive - i.e. the non-structural and non-phenomenal - properties of physical objects are mental, i.e. are such as we are used to encountering only in "introspection".) The chair, qua thing that I can know through sense perception, and through hypotheses based strictly thereupon, is a kind of shadow of an object that is exactly like it, except that this other objects essential properties are mental. This line of thought, though radically counterintuitive, explains the apparent responsiveness of the mental to the physical, and vice versa, without being open to any of the criticisms to which materialism, dualistic interaction ism, and epiphenomenalism are open.

Training system for conceptual design and evaluation for wastewater treatment

Rising population, rapid urbanisation and growing industrialisation have severely stressed water quality and its availability in Malawi. In addition, financial and institutional problems and the expanding agro industry have aggravated this problem. The situation is worsened by depleting water resources and pollution from untreated sewage and industrial effluent. The increasing scarcity of clean water calls for the need for appropriate management of available water resources. There is also demand for a training system for conceptual design and evaluation for wastewater treatment in order to build the capacity for technical service providers and environmental practitioners in the country. It is predicted that Malawi will face a water stress situation by 2025. In the city of Blantyre, this situation is aggravated by the serious pollution threat from the grossly inadequate sewage treatment capacity. This capacity is only 23.5% of the wastewater being generated presently. In addition, limited or non-existent industrial effluent treatment has contributed to the severe water quality degradation. This situation poses a threat to the ecologically fragile and sensitive receiving water courses within the city. This water is used for domestic purposes further downstream. This manuscript outlines the legal and policy framework for wastewater treatment in Malawi. The manuscript also evaluates the existing wastewater treatment systems in Blantyre. This evaluation aims at determining if the effluent levels at the municipal plants conform to existing standards and guidelines and other associated policy and regulatory frameworks. The raw material at all the three municipal plants is sewage. The typical wastewater parameters are Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), and Total Suspended Solids (TSS). The treatment target is BOD5, COD, and TSS reduction. Typical wastewater parameters at the wastewater treatment plant at MDW&S textile and garments factory are BOD5 and COD. The treatment target is to reduce BOD5 and COD. The manuscript further evaluates a design approach of the three municipal wastewater treatment plants in the city and the wastewater treatment plant at Mapeto David Whitehead & Sons (MDW&S) textile and garments factory. This evaluation utilises case-based design and case-based reasoning principles in the ED-WAVE tool to determine if there is potential for the tool in Blantyre. The manuscript finally evaluates the technology selection process for appropriate wastewater treatment systems for the city of Blantyre. The criteria for selection of appropriate wastewater treatment systems are discussed. Decision support tools and the decision tree making process for technology selection are also discussed. Based on the treatment targets and design criteria at the eight cases evaluated in this manuscript in reference to similar cases in the ED-WAVE tool, this work confirms the practical use of case-based design and case-based reasoning principles in the ED-WAVE tool in the design and evaluation of wastewater treatment 6 systems in sub-Sahara Africa, using Blantyre, Malawi, as the case study area. After encountering a new situation, already collected decision scenarios (cases) are invoked and modified in order to arrive at a particular design alternative. What is necessary, however, is to appropriately modify the case arrived at through the Case Study Manager in order to come up with a design appropriate to the local situation taking into account technical, socio-economic and environmental aspects. This work provides a training system for conceptual design and evaluation for wastewater treatment.

Våld i parrelationer : en begreppslig undersökning av ett moraliskt och samhälleligt problem

Mäns våld mot kvinnor i parrelationer är ett förekommande problem i det finländska samhället. Som en moralisk fråga råder det ingen tvekan om att våld i parrelationer är orätt. Den moraliska diskussionen kan ändå inte stanna där. När våldsproblematiken studeras närmare träder flera aspekter av moralfilosofiskt intresse fram. Detta är dock sammanlänkat med hela avhandlingens utgångspunkt: att moralfrågor i första hand är frågor i första person. Det handlar om hur var och en av oss som de personer vi är förhåller oss till andra människor i olika situationer. Det handlar om hur varje enskild person berörs av, möter eller står tyst inför t.ex. en problematik som våld i parrelationer. Genom den här utgångspunkten problematiserar avhandlingen en vanlig syn på etik och moral som en uppsättning yttre regler eller som något vi helt objektivt kan resonera kring utan att själva egentligen beröras och bli indragna i det vi diskuterar, eller utan hänsyn till dem som faktiskt berörs. Tyngdpunkten i avhandlingen läggs på en moralisk begreppslig undersökning kring ett antal begrepp som stiger fram som relevanta i mötet med våld i parrelationer. De för avhandlingen centrala begreppen är offentligt-privat, rättvisa, rättigheter, makt, skam, skuld, förlåtelse, omsorg, tillit och ansvar. I avhandlingen har jag beskrivit, kritiskt analyserat samt fördjupat en förståelse av dessa begrepp och uttryck som både rör ett individ- och ett samhällsplan. Hur dessa begrepp och uttryck används och fungerar i olika sammanhang uttrycker moraliska förhållningssätt gentemot våld, offer och förövare. I avhandlingen synliggörs detta och en konkret förankring sker med hjälp av följande material: finländskt lagstiftningsmaterial (förarbeten till lagar som berör våld i parrelationer under perioden 1991-2006) och berättelser av kvinnor som upplevt våld. Den begreppsliga analysen, där bl.a. olika feministiska teoretiker används, visar att språket inte är neutralt. Språket kan vara färgat av flera självklara förutsättningar och distanserande begrepp kan användas på ett sådant sätt att det moraliskt mest centrala och brännande döljs.

Rädsla inför förlossningen - ett uppenbart kliniskt problem? : konstruktionen av förlossningsrädsla som medicinsk kategori

Kvinnors känsla av oro och rädsla inför förlossningen har under de senaste årtiondena intresserat forskare inom en medicinsk kontext, framför allt i Sverige och Finland. Den obstetriska och psykologiska forskningen har strävat efter att definiera, finna metoder för att mäta samt klassificera dessa känslor. Begreppet förlossningsrädsla används i dag ofta såväl inom den medicinska diskursen som bland allmänheten som ett samlande begrepp för att beskriva föderskors rädsla både inför, under och efter förlossningen. Trots detta finns det ändå ingen allmänt vedertagen definition av eller enhetliga kriterier för vad som skall inkluderas i begreppet. Förlossningsrädsla har konstruerats och etablerats som ett till synes objektivt medicinskt definierat fenomen och vården av förlossningsrädsla har institutionaliserats inom specialsjukvården. Däremot har de praktiker och institutioner som bidragit till att skapa förlossningsrädsla som ett vetenskapligt faktum, en svart låda, blivit osynliga. I "Rädsla inför förlossningen – ett uppenbart kliniskt problem? Konstruktionen av förlossningsrädsla som en medicinsk kategori" granskas uppkomsten, etableringen och institutionaliseringen av förlossningsrädsla som en medicinsk kategori inom vetenskaplig forskningslitteratur i Sverige och Finland. I fokus för analysen står processer av kunskapsproduktion genom vilka förlossningsrädsla formuleras som en specifik medicinsk kategori. Förlossningsrädsla som begrepp och kategori kan beskrivas som ett gränsöverskridande objekt som ständigt reproduceras och konsolideras genom den pågående forskningen.

Active teaching-learning methodologies: medical students' views of problem-based learning

The prevailing undergraduate medical training process still favors disconnection and professional distancing from social needs. The Brazilian Ministries of Education and Health, through the National Curriculum Guidelines, the Incentives Program for Changes in the Medical Curriculum (PROMED), and the National Program for Reorientation of Professional Training in Health (PRO-SAÚDE), promoted the stimulus for an effective connection between medical institutions and the Unified National Health System (SUS). In accordance to the new paradigm for medical training, the Centro Universitário Serra dos Órgãos (UNIFESO) established a teaching plan in 2005 using active methodologies, specifically problem-based learning (PBL). Research was conducted through semi-structured interviews with third-year undergraduate students at the UNIFESO Medical School. The results were categorized as proposed by Bardin's thematic analysis, with the purpose of verifying the students' impressions of the new curriculum. Active methodologies proved to be well-accepted by students, who defined them as exciting and inclusive of theory and practice in medical education.

Jämställdhet som politiskt problem i Finland och Frankrike

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

General terms and rigidity: another solution to the trivialization problem

In this paper I am concerned with the problem of applying the notion of rigidity to general terms. In Naming and Necessity, Kripke has clearly suggested that we should include some general terms among the rigid ones, namely, those common nouns semantically correlated with natural substances, species and phenomena, in general, natural kinds -'water', 'tiger', 'heat'- and some adjectives -'red', 'hot', 'loud'. However, the notion of rigidity has been defined for singular terms; after all, the notion that Kripke has provided us with is the notion of a rigid designator. But general terms do not designate single individuals: rather, they apply to many of them. In sum, the original concept of rigidity cannot be straightforwardly applied to general terms: it has to be somehow redefined in order to make it cover them. As is known, two main positions have been put forward to accomplish that task: the identity of designation conception, according to which a rigid general term is one that designates the same property or kind in all possible worlds, and the essentialist conception, which conceives of a rigid general term as an essentialist one, namely, a term that expresses an essential property of an object. My purpose in the present paper is to defend a particular version of the identity of designation conception: on the proposed approach, a rigid general term will be one that expresses the same property in all possible worlds and names the property it expresses. In my opinion, the position can be established on the basis of an inference to the best explanation of our intuitive interpretation and evaluation, relative to counterfactual circumstances, of statements containing different kinds of general terms, which is strictly analogous to our intuitive interpretation and evaluation, relative to such circumstances, of statements containing different kinds of singular ones. I will argue that it is possible to offer a new solution to the trivialization problem that is thought to threaten all versions of the identity of designation conception of rigidity. Finally, I will also sketch a solution to the so-called 'over-generalization and under-generalization problems', both closely related to the above-mentioned one.

Regeneration of five commercially-valuable tree species after experimental logging in an Amazonian forest

This study investigated the regeneration variation of five commercially valuable tree species in relation to different intensities of felling in fourteen 4-ha plots in an area under experimental forest management. This experiment was carried out in a typical Amazonian tropical forest sample on "terra-firme," in Manaus (AM). Plots were logged 7 and 8 years (1987 and 1988), or 3 years (1993) before the study. All trees with height greater than 2 m, and diameter at breast height (DBH) smaller than 10 cm were measured. Only Aniba hostmanniana, Ocotea aciphylla, Licaria pachycarpa, Eschweilera coriacea and Goupia glabra were sufficiently common for individual analyses. These species have high timber values in the local market. Eight years after logging, the species responded differently to logging intensities. The numbers of individuals of Goupia glabra and Aniba hostmanniana were positively related to the intensity of logging, while Ocotea aciphylla, Licaria pachycarpa, and Eschweilera coriacea showed no statistically significant response. In the most recently (1993) logged areas, Goupia glabra and Aniba hostmanniana had higher numbers of individuals than the control plots.

Chlorophyll fluorescence of tropical tree species in a semi-deciduous forest gap

The characterization of different ecological groups in a forest formation/succession is unclear. To better define the different successional classes, we have to consider ecophysiological aspects, such as the capacity to use or dissipate the light energy available. The main objective of this work was to assess the chlorophyll fluorescence emission of tropical tree species growing in a gap of a semi-deciduous forest. Three species of different ecological groups were selected: Croton floribundus Spreng. (pioneer, P), Astronium graveolens Jacq. (early secondary, Si), and Esenbeckia febrifuga A. Juss. (late secondary, St). The potential (Fv/Fm) and effective (deltaF/Fm') quantum efficiency of photosystem II, apparent electron transport rate (ETR), non-photochemical (qN) and photochemical (qP) quenching of fluorescence were evaluated, using a modulated fluorometer, between 7:30 and 11:00 h. Values of Fv/Fm remained constant in St, decreasing in P and Si after 9:30 h, indicating the occurrence of photoinhibition. Concerning the measurements taken under light conditions (deltaF/Fm', ETR, qP and qN), P and Si showed better photochemical performance, i.e., values of deltaF/Fm', ETR and qP were higher than St when light intensity was increased. Values of qN indicated that P and Si had an increasing tendency of dissipating the excess of energy absorbed by the leaf, whereas the opposite was found for St. The principal component analysis (PCA), considering all evaluated parameters, showed a clear distinction between St, P and Si, with P and Si being closer. The PCA results suggest that chlorophyll fluorescence may be a potential tool to differentiate tree species from distinct successional groups.

Optimization of invertase assay conditions in rubber tree plants (Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg.)

The objective of this work was to define the optimal conditions for invertase assay, seeking to determine the ideal parameters for the different isoenzymes of leaf and bark tissues in adult rubber trees. Assays of varying pH, sucrose concentration and temperature of the reaction medium were conducted for the two investigated isoenzymes. The results pointed out the existence of two different pH related isoforms for the two analyzed tissues, with an isoenzyme being more active at pH 5,5 and the other at neutral/alkaline pH. Leaf blade isoenzymes presented similar values for substrate concentration, whereas the bark isoenzyme presented maximum values below those previously reported. The assays at different temperatures presented similar values for leaf isoenzymes, though they have differed significantly among the obtained values.