Facultative autogamy in Cyrtopodium polyphyllum (Orchidaceae) through a rain-assisted pollination mechanism

Cyrtopodium includes similar to 42 species, among which is Cyrtopodium polyphyllum (Vell.) Pabst ex F. Barros that occurs in a rainforest in south-eastern Brazil. Its non-rewarding flowers, which attract Centridini bees by deceit, are rain-assisted self-pollinated, a phenomenon rarely found in orchids and other plant families. In addition, self-pollination has never been reported in Cyrtopodiinae and data on the pollination of South American orchids are scarce. Flowers were observed at different times of the day, on both sunny and rainy days, to record floral morphology, visitors and the effects of rainfall on flowers. On rainy days, water accumulates on the stigma and dissolves the adhesive substance of the stigmatic surface. A viscous drop thus forms, which contacts the pollinarium. When evaporation makes the viscous drop shrink, the drop moves the pollinarium with the anther onto the stigmatic surface and promotes self-pollination. Fruit set in natural habitat was low, with 2.4% at one study site, where a similar value (2.2%) was recorded in flowers self-pollinated by rain. In C. polyphyllum, facultative self-pollination assisted by rain is thus an important strategy that guarantees fruit set when pollinator`s visits are scarce, which is common in species pollinated by deceit.

Binary games with many players

We examine a problem with n players each facing the same binary choice. One choice is superior to the other. The simple assumption of competition - that an individual's payoff falls with a rise in the number of players making the same choice, guarantees the existence of a unique symmetric equilibrium (involving mixed strategies). As n increases, there are two opposing effects. First, events in the middle of the distribution - where a player finds itself having made the same choice as many others - become more likely, but the payoffs in these events fall. In opposition, events in the tails of the distribution - where a player finds itself having made the same choice as few others - become less likely, but the payoffs in these events remain high. We provide a sufficient condition (strong competition) under which an increase in the number of players leads to a reduction in the equilibrium probability that the superior choice is made.

Age-related deregulation of Aire and peripheral tissue antigen genes in the thymic stroma of non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice is associated with autoimmune type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM-1)

Gene expression of peripheral tissue antigens (PTAs) in stromal medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) is a key process to the negative selection of autoreactive thymocytes. This phenomenon was termed ""promiscuous gene expression"" (PGE), which is partially controlled by the Aire gene. Nevertheless, reasons for the correlation of Aire and PTAs with the emergence of autoimmune diseases are largely unknown, though it may be a result of a chronological effect. Although the effect of Aire mutations in pathogenic autoimmunity is well know, it could not be a unique cause for autoimmunity. Independently of mutations, temporal deregulation of Aire expression may imbalance Aire-dependent PTAs and/or wide PGE. This deregulation may be an early warning sign for autoimmune diseases as it guarantees autoantigen representation in the thymus. To assess this hypothesis, we studied the expression levels of Aire, Aire-dependent (Ins2) and Aire-independent (Gad67 and Col2a1) PTAs using real-time-PCR of the thymic stromal cells of NOD mice during the development of autoimmune type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM-1). Wide PGE was studied by microarrays in which the PTA genes were identified through parallel CD80(+) mTEC 3.10 cell line expression profiling. The results show that Aire gene was down-regulated in young pre-autoimmune (pre-diabetic) NOD mice. PGE and specific PTA genes were down-regulated in adult autoimmune diabetic animals. These findings represent evidence indicating that chronological deregulation of genes important to negative selection may be associated with the development of an autoimmune disease (DM-1) in mice.

Tendências contemporâneas da política de assistência social : uma análise das transformações ocorridas na concepção de assistência social no Brasil

O presente trabalho reúne os elementos que compõem a atual concepção de assistência social no Brasil, a partir da promulgação da constituição de 1988, quando a assistência social foi reconhecida pela primeira vez como direito de cidadania e dever legal do Estado, garantido pela Lei Suprema. Nesta lei, a assistência social pressupunha uma lógica de pleno emprego, destinada, portanto, prioritariamente aos incapazes para o trabalho. No entanto, em um contexto de desemprego estrutural esta passa a ser compreendida em termos de garantias de seguranças, buscando assumir a proteção social daqueles capazes para o trabalho, tendo em vista a deterioração do mercado de trabalho, restrição de oportunidades e de renda e o crescimento progressivo do desemprego e da informalidade. A ideia central é a de que se trata de uma descrição crítica da concepção de assistência social no Brasil, problematizando cada um de seus argumentos mais explícitos com o intuito de revelar uma intencionalidade vinculada à uma perspectiva de Estado. Utilizamos o termo concepção no sentido de conceber, pensar, sentir, entender ou interpretar algo. A assistência social, na atualidade, responde a um único processo que reúne aspectos históricos, econômicos, políticos, sociais e ideológicos e neste sentido, representa uma concepção de mundo e um projeto de sociedade, defendido pela classe dominante, pautado pela exploração do trabalho. A atual concepção de assistência social segue, portanto, uma nova forma de política social a partir da perspectiva de desenvolvimento humano e combate à pobreza em que a grande ênfase tem sido a de retirar as discussões e a intervenção na pobreza do âmbito da questão social, alocando-a nos indivíduos e em suas “incapacidades”. A assistência social ao assumir a responsabilidade ou coresponsabilidade no desenvolvimento de capacidades dos indivíduos sinaliza a tendência de uma nova concepção de bem-estar social.

Prefácio

A tese de Mestrado com o título “A Proibição da Reformatio in Pejus: os efeitos processuais no direito processual penal e no direito das contraordenações”, é uma delas. Trata-se de tese com especial qualidade e muito útil ao leitor profissional e especializado das Ciências Jurídico-Criminais e portanto Constitucionais. Ou não fossem as garantias criminais o núcleo fundamental dos espaços e tempos de Direito, da democracia social: art. 32º/10 da Constituição da República Portuguesa: “10. Nos processos de contra-ordenação, bem como em quaisquer processos sancionatórios, são assegurados ao arguido os direitos de audiência e defesa.”; Abstract: The Master's thesis entitled "Prohibition of Reformatio in pejus: the legal proceedings in the criminal procedural law and the law relating to offenses", is one of them. It thesis with special quality and very useful to the professional and skilled reader of Legal and Criminal Sciences and therefore constitutional. Or were not criminal guarantees the fundamental core of the spaces and times of law, social democracy: art. 32/10 of the Portuguese Constitution: "10. In misdemeanor cases, as well as any disciplinary procedures, is guaranteed to the defendant the hearing and right of defense. ".

Sigilo da Correspondência e Privatizações

Estamos desde logo a falar de Direitos Fundamentais. De direitos, liberdades e garantias, também, mas não apenas, nos termos do art. 18º da CRP. Numa altura em que o ex-agente da CIA-Central Intelligence Agency e da NSA-National Security Agency, Sr. Snowden, revelou que é possível existir, e que existiu em efectivo, acesso a toda a correspondência privada em vários países do mundo, senão mesmo em todos, nomeadamente aquela que é feita por via electrónica e informática, cumpre recordar algumas notas do ponto de vista dos Direitos Fundamentais e do Direito Constitucional. § We are immediately talking about fundamental rights. Rights, freedoms and guarantees, too, but not only, in accordance with art. 18 of CRP. At a time when former CIA agent-Central Intelligence Agency and the NSA-National Security Agency, Mr. Snowden has revealed that it is possible to exist, and has existed in effective, access to all private correspondence in countries around the world, if not in all, including one that is made by electronic and computerized means, it is recalled some notes from the point of view of fundamental rights and constitutional law.

Resistência: Direito Fundamental Constitucional

“Todos têm o direito de resistir a qualquer ordem que ofenda os seus direitos, liberdades e garantias e de repelir pela força qualquer agressão, quando não seja possível recorrer à autoridade pública”. É o que consagra o art. 21º da Constituição da República Portuguesa. Trata-se não apenas dum direito fundamental, mas também dum dever fundamental. § "Everyone has the right to resist any order that offends the rights, freedoms and guarantees and to resist by force any aggression when it is not possible recourse to a public authority." It is what establishes the art. 21 of the Portuguese Constitution. It is not just of a fundamental right, but also as a fundamental duty.

Resistência II: Direito Fundamental Constitucional

Invocava então o art. 21º da CRP. “Todos têm o direito de resistir a qualquer ordem que ofenda os seus direitos, liberdades e garantias e de repelir pela força qualquer agressão, quando não seja possível recorrer à autoridade pública”: art. 21º da Constituição. § Then invoked the art. 21 of the CRP. "Everyone has the right to resist any order that offends the rights, freedoms and guarantees and to resist by force any aggression when it is not possible to use public authority" means art. 21 of the Constitution.

Implementação do modelo de gestão estratégica baseado no "Balenced Scorecard" numa empresa interbancária de Serviços de Angola

RESUMO: Com a constante evolução das novas tecnologias de informação, as organizações têm necessidade de implementar novas ferramentas de gestão de forma a gerar vantagens competitivas, é neste sentido que esta dissertação visa propor a implementação do Modelo de Gestão estratégica baseado no Balanced Scorecard numa Empresa Interbancária de Serviços, com o objectivo de auxiliar na criação de capacidades competitivas, mediante uma avaliação de desempenho mais precisa e estruturada. Esta ferramenta surgiu como alternativa aos sistemas antigos e tradicionais cujo objectivo consistia no controlo das actividades realizadas pelos funcionários, sendo que esta metodologia veio colocar a estratégia no centro das atenções e não somente o controlo, mas só em 1992 é que ela foi reconhecida como um processo revolucionário que alterava todo o processo de gestão padrão nas empresas. Nesta dissertação ira se abordar alguns conceitos desta metodologia, enfatizando, o Mapa de Estratégia, vantagens pela obtenção desta metodologia; e um estudo prático da aplicação do Modelo de Gestão Estratégica na EMIS. Por fim, é de realçar que a grande importância que as empresas têm vindo a atribuir a esta metodologia e a investir nela, garante a sua relevância como tema de pesquisa num futuro próximo. ABSTRACT: With the constant development of new information technologies, organizations need to implement new management tools in order to generate competitive advantages, in this sense this thesis aims to propose the implementation of the Strategic Management Model based on Balanced Scorecard in a Company Interbank services with the aim of assisting in the creation of competitive capabilities through a performance assessment more precise and structured. This tool has emerged as an alternative to traditional legacy systems and was aimed at controlling the activities performed by employees, the methodology that has put the strategy in the spotlight instead of control, but not until 1992 was it recognized as a revolutionary process that changed the entire standard management process in companies. In this dissertation we discuss concepts of this methodology, emphasizing the strategic map for obtaining advantages from it, and a practical application of Strategic Management Model in EMIS. Finally, it is noteworthy that the great importance that companies have been giving to this methodology and the investment they have been doing on it, guarantees its relevance as a research subject in the near future.

Direct Power Control of Matrix Converter Based Unified Power Flow Controllers

This paper presents the Direct Power Control of Three-Phase Matrix Converters (DPC-MC) operating as Unified Power Flow Controllers (UPFC). Since matrix converters allow direct AC/AC power conversion without intermediate energy storage link, the resulting UPFC has reduced volume and cost, together with higher reliability. Theoretical principles of DPC-MC method are established based on an UPFC model, together with a new direct power control approach based on sliding mode control techniques. As a result, active and reactive power can be directly controlled by selection of an appropriate switching state of matrix converter. This new direct power control approach associated to matrix converters technology guarantees decoupled active and reactive power control, zero error tracking, fast response times and timely control actions. Simulation results show good performance of the proposed system.

Comparative evaluation of underlying causes of death processed by the Automated Classification of Medical Entities and the Underlying Cause of Death Selection Systems

INTRODUCTION: The correct identification of the underlying cause of death and its precise assignment to a code from the International Classification of Diseases are important issues to achieve accurate and universally comparable mortality statistics These factors, among other ones, led to the development of computer software programs in order to automatically identify the underlying cause of death. OBJECTIVE: This work was conceived to compare the underlying causes of death processed respectively by the Automated Classification of Medical Entities (ACME) and the "Sistema de Seleção de Causa Básica de Morte" (SCB) programs. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The comparative evaluation of the underlying causes of death processed respectively by ACME and SCB systems was performed using the input data file for the ACME system that included deaths which occurred in the State of S. Paulo from June to December 1993, totalling 129,104 records of the corresponding death certificates. The differences between underlying causes selected by ACME and SCB systems verified in the month of June, when considered as SCB errors, were used to correct and improve SCB processing logic and its decision tables. RESULTS: The processing of the underlying causes of death by the ACME and SCB systems resulted in 3,278 differences, that were analysed and ascribed to lack of answer to dialogue boxes during processing, to deaths due to human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] disease for which there was no specific provision in any of the systems, to coding and/or keying errors and to actual problems. The detailed analysis of these latter disclosed that the majority of the underlying causes of death processed by the SCB system were correct and that different interpretations were given to the mortality coding rules by each system, that some particular problems could not be explained with the available documentation and that a smaller proportion of problems were identified as SCB errors. CONCLUSION: These results, disclosing a very low and insignificant number of actual problems, guarantees the use of the version of the SCB system for the Ninth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases and assures the continuity of the work which is being undertaken for the Tenth Revision version.

A checkpointing-enabled and resource-aware Java Virtual Machine for efficient and robust e-Science applications in grid environments

Object-oriented programming languages presently are the dominant paradigm of application development (e. g., Java,. NET). Lately, increasingly more Java applications have long (or very long) execution times and manipulate large amounts of data/information, gaining relevance in fields related with e-Science (with Grid and Cloud computing). Significant examples include Chemistry, Computational Biology and Bio-informatics, with many available Java-based APIs (e. g., Neobio). Often, when the execution of such an application is terminated abruptly because of a failure (regardless of the cause being a hardware of software fault, lack of available resources, etc.), all of its work already performed is simply lost, and when the application is later re-initiated, it has to restart all its work from scratch, wasting resources and time, while also being prone to another failure and may delay its completion with no deadline guarantees. Our proposed solution to address these issues is through incorporating mechanisms for checkpointing and migration in a JVM. These make applications more robust and flexible by being able to move to other nodes, without any intervention from the programmer. This article provides a solution to Java applications with long execution times, by extending a JVM (Jikes research virtual machine) with such mechanisms. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Os Crimes fiscais: em especial, o crime de abuso de confiança (fiscal)

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Contabilidade e Finanças Orientador: Professor Dr. António da Costa Oliveira

NCRF 21 – provisões, passivos contingentes e activos contingentes: suas implicações fiscais e de auditoria

Dissertação apresentada ao Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto (ISCAP) para a obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Auditoria Docente orientador: Mestre Domingos da Silva Duarte

Fast optimum-predictive control and capacitor voltage balancing strategy for bipolar back-to-back NPC converters in high-voltage direct current transmission systems

Multilevel power converters have been introduced as the solution for high-power high-voltage switching applications where they have well-known advantages. Recently, full back-to-back connected multilevel neutral point diode clamped converters (NPC converter) have been used inhigh-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission systems. Bipolar-connected back-to-back NPC converters have advantages in long-distance HVDCtransmission systems over the full back-to-back connection, but greater difficulty to balance the dc capacitor voltage divider on both sending and receiving end NPC converters. This study shows that power flow control and dc capacitor voltage balancing are feasible using fast optimum-predictive-based controllers in HVDC systems using bipolar back-to-back-connected five-level NPC multilevel converters. For both converter sides, the control strategytakes in account active and reactive power, which establishes ac grid currents in both ends, and guarantees the balancing of dc bus capacitor voltages inboth NPC converters. Additionally, the semiconductor switching frequency is minimised to reduce switching losses. The performance and robustness of the new fast predictive control strategy, and its capability to solve the DC capacitor voltage balancing problem of bipolar-connected back-to-back NPCconverters are evaluated.