A soft computing approach to kidney diseases evaluation

Kidney renal failure means that one’s kidney have unexpectedly stopped functioning, i.e., once chronic disease is exposed, the presence or degree of kidney dysfunction and its progression must be assessed, and the underlying syndrome has to be diagnosed. Although the patient’s history and physical examination may denote good practice, some key information has to be obtained from valuation of the glomerular filtration rate, and the analysis of serum biomarkers. Indeed, chronic kidney sickness depicts anomalous kidney function and/or its makeup, i.e., there is evidence that treatment may avoid or delay its progression, either by reducing and prevent the development of some associated complications, namely hypertension, obesity, diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular complications. Acute kidney injury appears abruptly, with a rapid deterioration of the renal function, but is often reversible if it is recognized early and treated promptly. In both situations, i.e., acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease, an early intervention can significantly improve the prognosis.The assessment of these pathologies is therefore mandatory, although it is hard to do it with traditional methodologies and existing tools for problem solving. Hence, in this work, we will focus on the development of a hybrid decision support system, in terms of its knowledge representation and reasoning procedures based on Logic Programming, that will allow one to consider incomplete, unknown, and even contradictory information, complemented with an approach to computing centered on Artificial Neural Networks, in order to weigh the Degree-of-Confidence that one has on such a happening. The present study involved 558 patients with an age average of 51.7 years and the chronic kidney disease was observed in 175 cases. The dataset comprise twenty four variables, grouped into five main categories. The proposed model showed a good performance in the diagnosis of chronic kidney disease, since the sensitivity and the specificity exhibited values range between 93.1 and 94.9 and 91.9–94.2 %, respectively.

Adsorção de cromo (VI) por carvão ativado granular de soluções diluídas utilizando um sistema batelada sob pH controlado

Na Amazônia o cromo é empregado principalmente na indústria de couro e de madeira, sendo responsável por vários problemas de saúde porque é tóxico para os seres vivos. A remoção de cromo de efluentes industriais é feita por meio de diversos processos como a adsorção. Este trabalho mostra os resultados da adsorção de Cr(VI) por carvão ativado granular comercial (CAG) como adsorvente de soluções diluídas empregando um sistema de adsorção batelada com controle de pH. Os grupos funcionais da superfície do CAG foram determinados pelo método de Boehm. Além disso, o efeito do pH na adsorção de Cr(VI), o equilíbrio e a cinética de adsorção foram estudados nas condições experimentais (pH = 6, MA = 6g, tempo de adsorção 90min.). Na superfície do CAG, os grupos carboxílicos foram determinados em maior concentração (MAS=0,43 mmol/gCAG), estes, presentes em concentrações elevadas aumentam a adsorção do metal, principalmente em valores de pH ácidos. A capacidade de adsorção é dependente do pH da solução, devido a sua influência nas propriedades de superfície do CAG e nas diferentes formas iônicas das soluções de Cr(VI). Os dados de equilíbrio da adsorção foram ajustados satisfatoriamente pela isoterma de Langmuir (R²=0,988), tipo favorável. A partir da cinética de adsorção a 5mg/L e 20mg/L, os resultados obtidos foram compatíveis com o valor limite preconizado na legislação nacional (Res. nº 357/05). Portanto, para o sistema experimental utilizando CAG foi eficiente na remoção de Cr(VI) a partir de correntes líquidas contendo baixas concentrações do metal.

Immersiveness of ubiquitous computing environments prototypes: A case study

The development of ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) environments raises several challenges in terms of their evaluation. Ubicomp virtual reality prototyping tools enable users to experience the system to be developed and are of great help to face those challenges, as they support developers in assessing the consequences of a design decision in the early phases of development. Given the situated nature of ubicomp environments, a particular issue to consider is the level of realism provided by the prototypes. This work presents a case study where two ubicomp prototypes, featuring different levels of immersion (desktop-based versus CAVE-based), were developed and compared. The goal was to determine the cost/benefits relation of both solutions, which provided better user experience results, and whether or not simpler solutions provide the same user experience results as more elaborate one.

Filososofía y Ciencia Computacional: Aspectos epistemológicos, ontológicos y metodológicos. Philosophy and Computing Sciencs: Epistemological, Ontological and Methodological Aspects.

Uno de los temas centrales del proyecto concierne la naturaleza de la ciencia de la computación. La reciente aparición de esta disciplina sumada a su origen híbrido como ciencia formal y disciplina tecnológica hace que su caracterización aún no esté completa y menos aún acordada entre los científicos del área. En el trabajo Three paradigms of Computer Science de A. Eden, se presentan tres posiciones admitidamente exageradas acerca de como entender tanto el objeto de estudio (ontología) como los métodos de trabajo (metodología) y la estructura de la teoría y las justificaciones del conocimiento informático (epistemología): La llamada racionalista, la cual se basa en la idea de que los programas son fórmulas lógicas y que la forma de trabajo es deductiva, la tecnocrática que presenta a la ciencia computacional como una disciplina ingenieril y la ahi llamada científica, la cual asimilaría a la computación a las ciencias empíricas. Algunos de los problemas de ciencia de la computación están relacionados con cuestiones de filosofía de la matemática, en particular la relación entre las entidades abstractas y el mundo. Sin embargo, el carácter prescriptivo de los axiomas y teoremas de las teorías de la programación puede permitir interpretaciones alternativas y cuestionaría fuertemente la posibilidad de pensar a la ciencia de la computación como una ciencia empírica, al menos en el sentido tradicional. Por otro lado, es posible que el tipo de análisis aplicado a las ciencias de la computación propuesto en este proyecto aporte nuevas ideas para pensar problemas de filosofía de la matemática. Un ejemplo de estos posibles aportes puede verse en el trabajo de Arkoudas Computers, Justi?cation, and Mathematical Knowledge el cual echa nueva luz al problema del significado de las demostraciones matemáticas.Los objetivos del proyecto son: Caracterizar el campo de las ciencias de la computación.Evaluar los fundamentos ontológicos, epistemológicos y metodológicos de la ciencia de la computación actual.Analizar las relaciones entre las diferentes perspectivas heurísticas y epistémicas y las practicas de la programación.

monitoring-based approach to object-oriented real-time computing

Monitoring, object-orientation, real-time, execution-time, scheduling

Numerical investigation of micro and macro mechanical behaviour of granular media via a discrete element approach

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Mathematik, Diss., 2009

Granular flow and design studies in flighted rotating drums

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Verfahrens- und Systemtechnik, Diss., 2013

Effects of grain shape on packing and dilatancy of sheared granular materials

Aus: Soft matter, Vol. 10.2014, H. 28, S. 5157 - 5167

Contractions in the 2-wasserstein lenght space and thermalization of granular media

An algebraic decay rate is derived which bounds the time required for velocities to equilibrate in a spatially homogeneous flow-through model representing the continuum limit of a gas of particles interacting through slightly inelastic collisions. This rate is obtained by reformulating the dynamical problem as the gradient flow of a convex energy on an infinite-dimensional manifold. An abstract theory is developed for gradient flows in length spaces, which shows how degenerate convexity (or even non-convexity) | if uniformly controlled | will quantify contractivity (limit expansivity) of the flow.

Contractive metrics for a Boltzmann equation for granular gases: diffusive equilibriaThe Patterson-Sullivan embedding and minimal volume entropy for outer space

We quantify the long-time behavior of a system of (partially) inelastic particles in a stochastic thermostat by means of the contractivity of a suitable metric in the set of probability measures. Existence, uniqueness, boundedness of moments and regularity of a steady state are derived from this basic property. The solutions of the kinetic model are proved to converge exponentially as t→ ∞ to this diffusive equilibrium in this distance metrizing the weak convergence of measures. Then, we prove a uniform bound in time on Sobolev norms of the solution, provided the initial data has a finite norm in the corresponding Sobolev space. These results are then combined, using interpolation inequalities, to obtain exponential convergence to the diffusive equilibrium in the strong L¹-norm, as well as various Sobolev norms.

Estudi del procés d'adsorció en carbó actiu granular per eliminar colorants tèxtils

L’objectiu principal d’aquest projecte és estudiar la capacitat d’adsorció del colorant comercial Gris Lanaset G en carbó actiu granular (GAC); per assolir aquest objectiu es compara l’eficàcia d’adsorció d’aquest carbó respecte altres adsorbents i l’eficàcia d’eliminació d’un altre colorant més simple sobre aquest carbó.

Plataforma Computing@home

En este proyecto se han visto dos sistemas de computación distribuida diferentes entre ellos: Condor y BOINC. Se exploran las posibilidades para poder conseguir que ambos sistemas logren trabajar conjuntamente, escogiendo la parte más efectiva de cada uno de los sistemas con el fin de complementarse.