Nesting architecture and population structure of the fungus-growing ant Cyphomyrmex transversus (Formicidae: Myrmicinae: Attini) in the Brazilian coastal zone of Ilheus, Bahia

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Acordos internacionais sobre a produção compartilhada de recursos naturais: a unitização interestatal na área do petróleo e gás sob o enfoque constitucional brasileiro

The apportionment of natural resources between sovereign States is a subject that relates many aspects of International law, as long as Constitutional Law, at the execution and application phases of international treaties that regulates the exploration of common goods. In this sense, because of their natural characteristics that creates an environment of constant migration and fixation in transboundary regions, terrestrial or maritime, the petroleum and the natural gas bound a complex juridical apparatus that can control the sovereign rights involved. This research is aim at accomplishing a study concerning the international agreements that enable the non-unilateral action, specifically the unitization treaties between sovereign States, as a manner to resolve situations related to the individualization of oil and/or gas reservoirs that go across their national borders. These agreements will be analyzed considering the international public law sources theory, bearing in mind yet the already existed experiences in this sense, not disregarding the way that this fact could affect Brazil. It will begin with an historical incursion over the unitization institute, covering its main characteristics and its formation and execution procedures, and finally it will address the Brazilian legal system and the comparative law threats the institute. The clauses of these relevant agreements will be analyzed in details, concerning its particularities and its contents. Because these agreements are international obligatory rules of law, it is indispensable that they are considered under the auspices of the international law system, focusing their nature and the subjects of international law and establishing them as sources of the international law, analyzing them, then, as international rules and the applicable law to these juridical relations, the conventional established, the consolidated international custom and the applicable International Law principles, appearing the State s responsibility as an important subject for the verification of the acts lawful practiced by States. The analysis of the apportionment of these natural resources ends with the individualization of possible exploitable marine oil fields located between the exclusive economic zone and the continental platform ends and the region administrated by the International Seabed Authority. At last, the Brazilian constitutional system appears as the mechanism of integration, application and execution of the international unitization agreements in Brazil, detaching the format and the proceedings that the international treaties take to acquire validity at the national legal system, passing through the treaties interpretation and the applicable constitutional principles, coming to its application in Brazil, considering the existing constitutional peculiarities and the role played by the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and bio-fuel ANP

Zona adensável de Ponta Negra em Natal/ RN: as conseqüências decorrentes da lei complementar 27/2000 na visão dos moradores da área

The quarrel on the urban intensific use of determined areas of the city is carried through in some levels of the society, which had to the fact to bring direct influences the population that inhabits it. The question to become an area to intensific use, implies in determining that the local infrastructure has the capacity to take care of to a bigger amount of people, inhabitants or passers-by. In the quarter of Ponta Negra, in Natal city (state of RN), its condition of area to intensific use to the municipal Law 27/2000 happened due that it starts to allow a bigger level of occupation of part of the quarter. This law has a direct relation with the installation of a complementary infrastructure in the quarter, to put does not send to its complementation and maintenance, what it takes the consequences that are felt by the population. This work has as main objective the identification of the decurrent significant consequences of the creation of Ponta Negra s Intensific Use Zone, according to vision of the population of the quarter. The way followed for this involves the compatible bibliography research with the subject, analysis of documents that treat on the quarter, mappings of the area in search of a physical characterization and mainly, an application of questionnaire next to local population. In this questionnaire it is the main point of the necessary collection of data to the work, indicating the point of view of the population not only on the negative points, but also on the positive points that had happened since the creation of Intensific Use Zone. The answers indicate problems of natures social, infrastructure and enviromental, compatible with the problems of other areas that had passed the same for process, as point the studied bibliography, indicating imperfections in the planning process and maintenance of Ponta Negra s Intensific Use Zone

Identificação em tempo real de modelo dinâmico de robô móvel com acionamento diferencial e zona morta

Several mobile robots show non-linear behavior, mainly due friction phenomena between the mechanical parts of the robot or between the robot and the ground. Linear models are efficient in some cases, but it is necessary take the robot non-linearity in consideration when precise displacement and positioning are desired. In this work a parametric model identification procedure for a mobile robot with differential drive that considers the dead-zone in the robot actuators is proposed. The method consists in dividing the system into Hammerstein systems and then uses the key-term separation principle to present the input-output relations which shows the parameters from both linear and non-linear blocks. The parameters are then simultaneously estimated through a recursive least squares algorithm. The results shows that is possible to identify the dead-zone thresholds together with the linear parameters

Determination of fluoroacetate and fluoride in blood serum by capillary zone electrophoresis using capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection

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

Boundary identification criteria and geometry analysis of Al 7050 stretch zone from elevation profiles

This article describes the development of a method for analysis of the shape of the stretch zone surface based on parallax measurement theory and using digital image processing techniques. Accurate criteria for the definition of the boundaries of the stretch zone are established from profiles of fracture surfaces obtained from crack tip opening displacement tests on Al-7050 alloy samples. The elevation profiles behavior analysis is based on stretch zone width and height parameters. It is concluded that the geometry of the stretch zone profiles under plane strain conditions can be described by a semi-parabolic relationship. (C) Elsevier B.V., 1999. All rights reserved.

Fractal analysis along stretch zone for an aluminum alloy

The topography of fracture surface along stretch zone front for Al7050 is analyzed about its fractal behavior and compared against local distributions of microstructural parameters and stretch zone height, considered here as a toughness parameter. Major influence on microscale was presented by precipitation density. Larger grains should be significant on topographic behavior at macroscale, besides the local toughness measured along stretch zone. The large scattering of fractal measurements along specimen width should limit the validity of models relating fractal values and fracture toughness. It is proposed that models based on mixed fractals must also consider some dispersion parameter instead of mean fractal measurements due to the overall complexity of fracture relief formation. It is suggested that sampling for fractal measurement must be restricted to plane strain region along fracture surface, due to smaller scattering in this region. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fractal behavior throughout stretch zone of 15-5PH steel under elastic-plastic loading conditions

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

MRT letter: Extended depth from focus reconstruction method for stretch zone measurement in 15-5PH steel

The stretch zone width (SZW) data for 15-5PH steel CTOD specimens fractured at -150 degrees C to + 23 degrees C temperature were measured based on focused images and 3D maps obtained by extended depth-of-field reconstruction from light microscopy (LM) image stacks. This LM-based method, with a larger lateral resolution, seems to be as effective for quantitative analysis of SZW as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) or confocal scanning laser microscopy (CSLM), permitting to clearly identify stretch zone boundaries. Despite the worst sharpness of focused images, a robust linear correlation was established to fracture toughness (KC) and SZW data for the 15-5PH steel tested specimens, measured at their center region. The method is an alternative to evaluate the boundaries of stretched zones, at a lower cost of implementation and training, since topographic data from elevation maps can be associated with reconstructed image, which summarizes the original contrast and brightness information. Finally, the extended depth-of-field method is presented here as a valuable tool for failure analysis, as a cheaper alternative to investigate rough surfaces or fracture, compared to scanning electron or confocal light microscopes. Microsc. Res. Tech. 75:11551158, 2012. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Winner-take-all circuit using CMOS technology

In this paper is presented an implementation of winner-take-all circuit using CMOS technology. In the proposed configuration the inputs are current and the outputs voltage. The simulation results show that the circuit can be a winner if its input is larger than the other by 2 mu A. The simulation also shows that the response time is 100ns at a 0.2pF load capacitance. To demonstrate the functionality of the proposed circuit, a two-input winner take all circuit was built and tested by using discrete CMOS transistor array (CD40071).

Aspectos Morfo-Dinâmicos daComplexo Lagunar Nísia Floresta-Papeba-Guaraíras, Região Costeira Sul Oriental Do RN

This dissertation presents the results of research developed in the Nísia Floresta-Papeba-Guaraíras Lagoon Complex, located on the south coast of the Rio Grande do Norte State. The main objectives of this dissertation were the stratrigraphic characterization, in detail scale, of the and the coastal dynamics study of the lagoonal deposits sedimentation, as well as the morpho-dynamic analysis of the area. Therefore, an interdisciplinary methodology was adopted, in which all sedimentological, morpho-tectonic and geomorphological data were integrated. Vibracore up to 4m in length were carried out in the lagoons. The referred lagoon complex made of a system of three lagoons that interact through two artificial channels, named Boqueirão and Surubajá. The Guaraíras lagoon, the largest one in the system, corresponds to the estuary zone of the Trairi and Jacu rivers. The sedimentary load brought by these rivers is strongly reworked by tide currents, forming an important net-work of channels and sandy bars inside this lagoon and close to its channel connection with the sea. The stratigraphic units of the area are Cenozoic in age, and are represented by sedimentary rocks of the Barreiras Formation (sandstones, mudstones and conglomerates) and by rocks beach, as well as by siliciclastics sediments related with the fluvial dynamics of tide plain (clay and sandy bars), and coast (sand dunes and beaches). Among the recognized geomorphologic aspects, there are the elements associated with continental enviroments (drainage basins of the Trairi, Baldum and Jacu rivers, coastal tableland supported by the Barreiras Formation), and transitional environments (lagoon complex, dune fields, cliffs, tidal channels and beach rocks lines). The morphotectonic analysis indicates that fauts affect Barreiras Formation sedimentary rocks, with two sets of main lineaments: SW-NE and SE-NW. The anomalies in the drainage net are directly associated with these fault/fracture system, which control and subdivede the low courses of the Trairi and Jacu rivers, at least a tail of their flowing principal courses. The Nísia Floresta, Papeba and Guaraíras lagoons present strong morphological control according to the lineament directions. Taking into account the lagoonal deposits, the sedimentological analyses reflect a sediment distribution related to the interaction of the fluvial and sea processes that act in the study area. The correlated deposits show textural mainly microclastic characteristics of shallow waters, and of currents of low to moderate energy.In general, the Nísia Floresta-Papeba-Guaraíras lagoon Complex, constitutes a very intrinsec group, that undewent important changes in historical times that are reflected in the currents clays. Inaddition to the natural processes that act in this system, we should take into account the antrohopic intervention, which have increased in the past years

Changes in abiotic characteristics of water in the Paranapanema River and three lateral lagoons at mouth zone of the Jurumirim Reservoir during the flood period, São Paulo, Brazil

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

On the population biology of the mottled shore crab Pachygrapsus transversus (Gibbes, 1850) (Brachyura, Grapsidae) in a subtropical area

The mottled shore crab P. transversus is probably the most common brachyuran crab living in the marine rocky intertidal of southeastern Brazil. However, its biology is largely unknown. In this study, some aspects of the population biology of this species are investigated. Distribution of individuals in the intertidal range is heterogeneous. Sabellariid worm reefs and mytilid mussel beds can be considered as nursery grounds retaining most part of juveniles, while the rocky surface is mostly inhabited by adults, which find safety shelters in rock crevices. Annual size frequency distributions revealed clues of population stability and indicated that young individuals reach the adult habitat in a gradual process. Sex-ratio follows the 1:1 proportion in smaller size classes but is biased towards males in larger ones. Higher mortality in larger females is indicated as a possible cause of this pattern. Ovigerous ratio shows a remarkable seasonality in which highest percentages of ovigerous females occur during summer months, while recruitment of young is more intense from April to July, suggesting a very extensive larval development. Once established in the intertidal zone, young recruits will develop to mature individuals in late spring, when molting crabs become scarce and proportion of breeding females increases. Therefore, growth and reproduction are in a great part temporally separated, allowing an annual life cycle in which settlement, growth and breeding may take place within a I-yr period.