Contribuição para a solução de tratamento de águas residuais domésticas da Vila de São Sebastião

Dissertação de Mestrado, Engenharia e Gestão de Sistemas de Água, 26 de Maio de 2015, Universidade dos Açores.

Hakevirrasta otettavan näytteen luotettavuus ja näytteenottimen kehittäminen

Työn tavoitteena oli saada tietoa yleisesti partikkelivirtauksessa tapahtuvasta näytteenotosta ja näytteenottomenetelmistä. Työssä tutkittiin UPM-Kymmenen Kaukaan tehtaan nykyisen ostohakkeen automaattisen näytteenottimen toimintaa sekä sen ottamien näytteiden luotettavuutta kokeellisesti ja tilastollisesti. Lopuksi tutkimuksessa ideoitiin uusi näytteenottimen konstruktio. Uuden konstruktion suunnittelun lähtökohtana oli, että näytteenottimen konstruktiolla tulisi voida ottaa toistuvasti ja turvallisesti luotettavia hakenäytteitä aiheuttamatta muulle vastaanottoaseman toiminnalle häiriöitä Tutkimusta varten tehtiin eri haketoimittajien kanssa koenäytteenottoja. Hakenäytteet otettiin kolmessa eri haketoimituksen vaiheessa niiden keskinäistä vertailua varten. Hakenäytteistä määritettiin kuiva-ainepitoisuus ja laatuanalyysin tekoa varten palakokojakauma koeseulonnoilla. Palakokojakauma-analyysistä saatuja jakaumapainoprosenttiosuuksien ja niistä laskettujen laatuarvojen pohjalta tutkittiin automaattisen näytteenottimen ottaman näytteen luotettavuutta ja näytteenottimen toimintaa. Konstruointityössä noudatettiin pääpiirteittäin ohjeistoa VDI 2221. Uuden näytteenottimen suunnittelutyön tavoitteet määriteltiin tutkimuksessa tehtyjen päätelmien ja kokeiden pohjalta. Uudelle näytteenottimen konstruktiolle etsittiin toteutuskelpoisia ratkaisuja jo olemassa olevista laitteistoista ja uusista ideoista. Uudet konstruktiovaihtoehdot suunniteltiin noudattamaan näytteenottoteoriaa ja sijoituspaikan asettamia vaatimuksia.

Desenvolvimento de protótipo de coletor automático destinado à coleta de amostras de água em corpos aquáticos para análise em laboratório

The aim of this approach is to describe the design and construction of a low-cost automated water sampler prototype. In recent years, there is an increasing need on the use of automated equipments for hydro climatic variables to be use in urban and rural environments. Such devices are always used to provide measured information which is of crucial importance on the development of water resources strategies at watershed scale. Actually, many research and water public institutions have been using these kinds of equipments. In most of the cases, automated equipments are expensive and need to be imported, generating a situation of technologic dependency. The prototype is based on an electronic system which controls a peristaltic pump functioning, five solenoid valves and an ultrasonic sensor connected to a datalloger. An interface with the user allows communication with a PC, when the equipment functioning parameters can be provided. The equipment has a hydraulic module composed by a 12V peristaltic pump connected to a distribution circuit composed by five solenoid valves, one of them being used to clean the circuit before each sampling procedure. Samples are collected by four 1.95 polyethylene bottles. The sampler body was made of acrylic material, with a cylindrical shape, and dimensions 0.72 m and 0.38 m height and diameter, respectively. The weight of the equipment without samples is approximately 15 kg, which infers to its portability. The prototype development total cost budget was approximately US$ 1,560.00. Laboratory tests aimed to evaluate the equipment performance and functioning demonstrated satisfactory results

Análise da descarga sólida em suspensão na Bacia do Riacho Fundo, Brasília - DF

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Geociências, 2015.

Year-round chemical aerosol records at Kohnen, Antarctica obtained by automatic samplings

Aimed at year-round recording of the chemical aerosol composition in central Antarctica, an unattended operating aerosol sampler was successfully deployed at the EPICA deep drilling site in Dronning Maud Land (Kohnen Station). Analyses of teflon/nylon filter packs consecutively collected over bi-weekly intervals during the February 2003 to December 2005 period allowed to evaluate seasonal concentration variations of methane sulphonate (MS), Cl-, NO3-, non-sea salt (nss-)SO4**2- and Na+, while NH4+ and mineral dust related ion results remained below detection limits. For MS and nss-SO4**2 distinct late summer maxima around 44 and 200 ng/m**3, respectively, were found, while (total) NO3- showed a broad November maximum of about 52 ng m**-3. In contrast, the highest concentrations of Na+ with peak values of up to 160 ng/m**3 were observed during the winter half year. The seasonality of these species broadly coincided with long-term observations at the coastal Neumayer Station, including surprisingly comparable NO3- levels. However, the biogenic sulphur and sea salt concentrations were lower at Kohnen by typically a factor of 2-3 and 10, respectively. The arrival of sea ice derived sea salt particles at Kohnen could not clearly detected, since even during mid-winter the nss-SO4**2- to Na+ ratio was generally too high to unambiguously identify a sulphur depleted sea salt SO4**2- fraction.

Evidence for divided automatic attention

A long-standing debate in the literature is whether attention can form two or more independent spatial foci in addition to the well-known unique spatial focus. There is evidence that voluntary visual attention divides in space. The possibility that this also occurs for automatic visual attention was investigated here. Thirty-six female volunteers were tested. In each trial, a prime stimulus was presented in the left or right visual hemifield. This stimulus was characterized by the blinking of a superior, middle or inferior ring, the blinking of all these rings, or the blinking of the superior and inferior rings. A target stimulus to which the volunteer should respond with the same side hand or a target stimulus to which she should not respond was presented 100 ms later in a primed location, a location between two primed locations or a location in the contralateral hemifield. Reaction time to the positive target stimulus in a primed location was consistently shorter than reaction time in the horizontally corresponding contralateral location. This attentional effect was significantly smaller or absent when the positive target stimulus appeared in the middle location after the double prime stimulus. These results suggest that automatic visual attention can focus on two separate locations simultaneously, to some extent sparing the region in between.

Characterizing chaotic melodies in automatic music composition

In this paper, we initially present an algorithm for automatic composition of melodies using chaotic dynamical systems. Afterward, we characterize chaotic music in a comprehensive way as comprising three perspectives: musical discrimination, dynamical influence on musical features, and musical perception. With respect to the first perspective, the coherence between generated chaotic melodies (continuous as well as discrete chaotic melodies) and a set of classical reference melodies is characterized by statistical descriptors and melodic measures. The significant differences among the three types of melodies are determined by discriminant analysis. Regarding the second perspective, the influence of dynamical features of chaotic attractors, e.g., Lyapunov exponent, Hurst coefficient, and correlation dimension, on melodic features is determined by canonical correlation analysis. The last perspective is related to perception of originality, complexity, and degree of melodiousness (Euler's gradus suavitatis) of chaotic and classical melodies by nonparametric statistical tests. (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3487516]

Automatic Network Fingerprinting through Single-Node Motifs

Complex networks have been characterised by their specific connectivity patterns (network motifs), but their building blocks can also be identified and described by node-motifs-a combination of local network features. One technique to identify single node-motifs has been presented by Costa et al. (L. D. F. Costa, F. A. Rodrigues, C. C. Hilgetag, and M. Kaiser, Europhys. Lett., 87, 1, 2009). Here, we first suggest improvements to the method including how its parameters can be determined automatically. Such automatic routines make high-throughput studies of many networks feasible. Second, the new routines are validated in different network-series. Third, we provide an example of how the method can be used to analyse network time-series. In conclusion, we provide a robust method for systematically discovering and classifying characteristic nodes of a network. In contrast to classical motif analysis, our approach can identify individual components (here: nodes) that are specific to a network. Such special nodes, as hubs before, might be found to play critical roles in real-world networks.

SAB(IO): A BIOLOGICALLY PLAUSIBLE CONNECTIONIST APPROACH TO AUTOMATIC TEXT SUMMARIZATION

An implementation of a computational tool to generate new summaries from new source texts is presented, by means of the connectionist approach (artificial neural networks). Among other contributions that this work intends to bring to natural language processing research, the use of a more biologically plausible connectionist architecture and training for automatic summarization is emphasized. The choice relies on the expectation that it may bring an increase in computational efficiency when compared to the sa-called biologically implausible algorithms.

An algorithm for computerized automatic tuning of power system stabilizers

The main objective of this paper is to relieve the power system engineers from the burden of the complex and time-consuming process of power system stabilizer (PSS) tuning. To achieve this goal, the paper proposes an automatic process for computerized tuning of PSSs, which is based on an iterative process that uses a linear matrix inequality (LMI) solver to find the PSS parameters. It is shown in the paper that PSS tuning can be written as a search problem over a non-convex feasible set. The proposed algorithm solves this feasibility problem using an iterative LMI approach and a suitable initial condition, corresponding to a PSS designed for nominal operating conditions only (which is a quite simple task, since the required phase compensation is uniquely defined). Some knowledge about the PSS tuning is also incorporated in the algorithm through the specification of bounds defining the allowable PSS parameters. The application of the proposed algorithm to a benchmark test system and the nonlinear simulation of the resulting closed-loop models demonstrate the efficiency of this algorithm. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automatic tuning method for the design of supplementary damping controllers for flexible alternating current transmission system devices

The design of supplementary damping controllers to mitigate the effects of electromechanical oscillations in power systems is a highly complex and time-consuming process, which requires a significant amount of knowledge from the part of the designer. In this study, the authors propose an automatic technique that takes the burden of tuning the controller parameters away from the power engineer and places it on the computer. Unlike other approaches that do the same based on robust control theories or evolutionary computing techniques, our proposed procedure uses an optimisation algorithm that works over a formulation of the classical tuning problem in terms of bilinear matrix inequalities. Using this formulation, it is possible to apply linear matrix inequality solvers to find a solution to the tuning problem via an iterative process, with the advantage that these solvers are widely available and have well-known convergence properties. The proposed algorithm is applied to tune the parameters of supplementary controllers for thyristor controlled series capacitors placed in the New England/New York benchmark test system, aiming at the improvement of the damping factor of inter-area modes, under several different operating conditions. The results of the linear analysis are validated by non-linear simulation and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed procedure.

An approach of optimal sensitivity applied in the tertiary loop of the automatic generation control

This paper proposes an approach of optimal sensitivity applied in the tertiary loop of the automatic generation control. The approach is based on the theorem of non-linear perturbation. From an optimal operation point obtained by an optimal power flow a new optimal operation point is directly determined after a perturbation, i.e., without the necessity of an iterative process. This new optimal operation point satisfies the constraints of the problem for small perturbation in the loads. The participation factors and the voltage set point of the automatic voltage regulators (AVR) of the generators are determined by the technique of optimal sensitivity, considering the effects of the active power losses minimization and the network constraints. The participation factors and voltage set point of the generators are supplied directly to a computational program of dynamic simulation of the automatic generation control, named by power sensitivity mode. Test results are presented to show the good performance of this approach. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

AUTOMATIC CORONARY WALL SEGMENTATION IN INTRAVASCULAR ULTRASOUND IMAGES USING BINARY MORPHOLOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) image segmentation can provide more detailed vessel and plaque information, resulting in better diagnostics, evaluation and therapy planning. A novel automatic segmentation proposal is described herein; the method relies on a binary morphological object reconstruction to segment the coronary wall in IVUS images. First, a preprocessing followed by a feature extraction block are performed, allowing for the desired information to be extracted. Afterward, binary versions of the desired objects are reconstructed, and their contours are extracted to segment the image. The effectiveness is demonstrated by segmenting 1300 images, in which the outcomes had a strong correlation to their corresponding gold standard. Moreover, the results were also corroborated statistically by having as high as 92.72% and 91.9% of true positive area fraction for the lumen and media adventitia border, respectively. In addition, this approach can be adapted easily and applied to other related modalities, such as intravascular optical coherence tomography and intravascular magnetic resonance imaging. (E-mail: matheuscardosomg@hotmail.com) (C) 2011 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology.

Listeria monocytogenes in two different poultry facilities: Manual and automatic evisceration

Listeriosis is a serious foodborne disease caused by Listeria monocytogenes, a pathogen often found in food processing plants. Poultry meat and its derivatives may harbor L. monocytogenes even if good manufacturing practices are implanted in abattoirs. Little information exists in Brazil on the frequency of L. monocytogenes contamination, even though the country is considered the top poultry meat exporter in the world. This study attempted to compare 2 exporters poultry facilities following same the standards but differing only in manual (plant M) or automatic (plant A) evisceration. Eight hundred fifty-one samples from food, food contact and non-food contact surfaces, water, and workers` hands were collected from cage to finished products over a 1-yr period. In plant A, 20.1% of the samples were positive for L. monocytogenes, whereas in plant M, 16.4% was found. The greatest incidence of contamination with the pathogen in plant A was found in non- food contact surfaces (27.3%), while in plant M, it was found in products (19.4%). The most prevalent serovars were 1/2a or 3a (plant M) and 4b, 4d, or 4e (plant A). Despite having proper hygiene and good manufacturing practices, controlling the entry and persistence of L. monocytogenes in processing facilities remains a formidable task.

Sampling phylogenetic tree space with the generalized Gibbs sampler

The generalized Gibbs sampler (GGS) is a recently developed Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique that enables Gibbs-like sampling of state spaces that lack a convenient representation in terms of a fixed coordinate system. This paper describes a new sampler, called the tree sampler, which uses the GGS to sample from a state space consisting of phylogenetic trees. The tree sampler is useful for a wide range of phylogenetic applications, including Bayesian, maximum likelihood, and maximum parsimony methods. A fast new algorithm to search for a maximum parsimony phylogeny is presented, using the tree sampler in the context of simulated annealing. The mathematics underlying the algorithm is explained and its time complexity is analyzed. The method is tested on two large data sets consisting of 123 sequences and 500 sequences, respectively. The new algorithm is shown to compare very favorably in terms of speed and accuracy to the program DNAPARS from the PHYLIP package.