The Design of Coatings in Construction Companies

This work shows the importance of the designs of coatings of facades for businesses of construction of buildings, in particular focusing on companies in the sector of buildings devoted to the production of residential buildings, finishing medium / high in the city of Belo Horizonte, state of Minas Gerais -- Brazil. The text is divided into four main parts: context of the reality of design development; basic recommendations for the design development for the façade coatings; positive impacts of the design development for the construction and others involved, and finally, some conclusions about the theme

On the control of Markov jump linear systems with no mode observation: Application to a DC Motor device

This paper deals with the control problem of discrete-time Markov jump linear systems for the case in which the controller does not have access to the state of the Markov chain. A necessary optimal condition, which is nonlinear with respect to the optimizing variables, is introduced, and the corresponding solution is obtained through a variational convergent method. We illustrate the practical usefulness of the derived approach by applying it in the control speed of a real DC Motor device subject to abrupt power failures

Divieti e limiti, processuali e negoziali, applicati ai milites nel Tardo impero

[Prohibitions and procedural and negotiating limits applied to the milites in the late Empire] The members of the militiae of Rome were always, in various ways, the object of benefits and privileges, for the service provided, but also of prohibitions and limitations. In this essay we investigate, in particular, the prohibition for miles in service to be appointed cognitor or procurator, analyzing, in particular, the imperial legislation in the late Antiquity researching the possible reasons that were at the basis

Gradient-based optimization techniques for the design of static controllers for Markov jump linear systems with unobservable modes

The paper formulates the static control problem of Markov jump linear systems, assuming that the controller does not have access to the jump variable. We derive the expression of the gradient for the cost motivated by the evaluation of 10 gradient-based optimization techniques. The numerical efficiency of these techniques is verified by using the data obtained from practical experiments. The corresponding solution is used to design a scheme to control the velocity of a real-time DC motor device subject to abrupt power failures

Fish under pressure: examining behavioural responses of Iberian barbel under simulated hydropeaking with instream structures

Research ArticleHydropeaking is the rapid change in the water flow downstream of a hydropower plant, driven by changes in daily electricity demand. These fluctuations may produce negative effects in freshwater fish. To minimize these impacts, previous studies have proposed habitat enhancement structures as potential mitigation measures for salmonids. However, the recommendation of these mitigation measures for cyprinids remains scarce and their effects unknown. In this study, the effects of potential habitat mitigation structures under simulated hydropeaking and base-flow conditions are examined for Iberian barbel (Luciobarbus bocagei) in an indoor flume. Solid triangular pyramids and v-shaped structures were evaluated as potential flow-refuging areas and compared with a configuration without structures. A novel, interdisciplinary approach is applied to investigate individual and group responses to rapidly changing flows, by assessing physiological (glucose and lactate), movement behaviour (structure use, sprints and drifts) and the pressure distribution using a fish-inspired artificial lateral line flow sensor. The major findings of this study are four-fold: 1) Under hydropeaking conditions, the v-shaped structures triggered a lactate response and stimulated individual structure use, whereas solid structures did not elicit physiological adjustments and favoured individual and group structure use. Overall, both solid structures and their absence stimulated sprints and drifts. 2) The hydrodynamic conditions created in hydropeaking did not always reflect increased physiological responses or swimming activity. 3) Each event-structure combination resulted in unique hydrodynamic conditions which were reflected in the different fish responses. 4) The most relevant flow variable measured was the pressure asymmetry, which is caused by the vortex size and shedding frequency of the structures. Considering the non-uniform nature of hydropeaking events, and the observation that the fish responded differently to specific flow event-structure combinations, a diverse set of instream structures should be considered for habitat-based hydropeaking mitigation measures for Iberian barbelinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Water intake in sheeps fed different levles of prickly pear (Opuntia Ficus Indica) in Brazil

En 45 ovinos machos Santa Inés (peso vivo medio de 27,50 ± 0, 48 kg) se evaluó el consumo de agua, al consumir raciones con niveles crecientes (0, 25, 50, 75, 100%) de nopal (Opuntia fícus indica Mill) en sustitución al maíz molido. El diseño fue en bloques al azar con nueve repeticiones. El consumo de materia seca respondió de modo cuadrático, perjudicando el peso final, que disminuyó, con el aumento del nopal en la dieta. Aumentó el consumo de materia natural disminuyendo el de agua, el consumo total de agua aumentó en el tratamiento con mayor cantidad de nopal. La relación de consumos: agua voluntaria/ materia seca, disminuyó al aumentar el nopal. El nopal constituye una reserva de agua para ovinos Santa Inés en condiciones semiáridas de Brasil.The water intake in 45 male (27.50 ± 0.48 kg of mena body weight) Santa Ines sheep fed with increasing levels (0, 25, 50, 75, 100% DM basis) of prickly pear (Opuntia ficus indica Mill) to replace corn was studied. A completely randomized block design with nine replications per treatment was used. Quadratic behavior was observed for the intake of dry matter, hitting the final weight, which decreased with increasing the cactus in the diet. There was an increase in the intake of natural material and a decrease in voluntary water intake; total water intake increased, and the ratio of intakes: water/dry matter, decreased in the treatment with larger cactus proportion. The pryckly pear constitues a water reservoir for Santa Inês sheep in Brazilian semiarid conditions

The leaching of uranium from betafite

Betafite is a uranium–titanium–tantalum–niobium complex oxide mineral generally described as (Ca,U)2 (Ti,Nb,Ta)2 O6 (OH). Significantly lower uranium extractions have been observed when betafite containing ores has been treated via conventional process flow sheets. Therefore it is necessary to understand the leaching behaviour of this mineral in order to open the potential for it to become an economic source of uranium in the future. The leaching kinetics and reaction mechanism of uranium from a natural, metamict betafite sample have been investigated using varied temperature under oxidative acidic conditions. The practically complete extraction of uranium was observed by leaching the natural betafite in a solution containing 214.5 g/L H2SO4 and 2.0 g/L Fe3 + at 89 °C for a period of 48 h. Alternative leaching conditions using 57.1 g/L H2SO4 and 36.7 g/L Fe3 + at the same temperature also resulted in practically complete extraction of uranium but improved the selectivity for uranium over titanium, tantalum and niobium. Kinetic modelling has indicated that the rate of the leaching process is controlled by the rate of diffusion of products or reactants involved in the dissolution reaction to the reacting surface through a solid product layer containing niobium. A portion of the betafite mineral sample used in the leaching testwork was recrystallised by heating in air at 1100 °C. The crystalline form of betafite was then leached under conditions similar to those applied to the metamict mineral to determine how crystal structure may affect the extraction of uranium. Less than 12% uranium was extracted from the recrystallised betafite under the conditions that gave practically complete extraction of uranium from the natural betafite sample which gives strong evidence that heat treatment prior to leaching should be avoided. The thermal recrystallisation of betafite in the present study appears to have resulted in tantalum enrichment on the surface of the betafite particles, which may be related to the lower extraction of uranium observed

The Five Factor Model of personality and evaluation of drug consumption risk

The problem of evaluating an individual's risk of drug consumption and misuse is highly important. An online survey methodology was employed to collect data including Big Five personality traits (NEO-FFI-R), impulsivity (BIS-11), sensation seeking (ImpSS), and demographic information. The data set contained information on the consumption of 18 central nervous system psychoactive drugs. Correlation analysis demonstrated the existence of groups of drugs with strongly correlated consumption patterns. Three correlation pleiades were identified, named by the central drug in the pleiade: ecstasy, heroin, and benzodiazepines pleiades. An exhaustive search was performed to select the most effective subset of input features and data mining methods to classify users and non-users for each drug and pleiad. A number of classification methods were employed (decision tree, random forest, $k$-nearest neighbors, linear discriminant analysis, Gaussian mixture, probability density function estimation, logistic regression and na{\"i}ve Bayes) and the most effective classifier was selected for each drug. The quality of classification was surprisingly high with sensitivity and specificity (evaluated by leave-one-out cross-validation) being greater than 70\% for almost all classification tasks. The best results with sensitivity and specificity being greater than 75\% were achieved for cannabis, crack, ecstasy, legal highs, LSD, and volatile substance abuse (VSA).Comment: Significantly extended report with 67 pages, 27 tables, 21 figure

Effects of Enteral Fluid Therapy in Continuous Flow Administered by Nasogastric Tube in Buffalo Calves

To investigate the employment of enteral fluid therapy in continuous flow administered by a nasogastric tube in buffalo calves; toassesstheeffectsof a hypotonic and an isotonic electrolyte solutionon: vital functions, blood count and serum andurinary biochemistry profile of buffalo calves. Seven buffalo calves, clinically healthy, were submitted to two treatments. The solutions were administered in continuous flow through a nasogastric tube at a dose of 15 mL/kg/hr for 12 hours. The serum biochemistry profile showed an increase in chloride concentration, decrease in serumurea and osmolarity. In urine, anincrease in sodium and chloride concentrations and a decrease in calcium, creatinine and urea were observed. Enteral fluid therapy in continuous flow proved to beeasy to use and effective in maintaining volemia and concentration of electrolytes in buffalo calves

Convergence of the critical attractor of dissipative maps: Log-periodic oscillations, fractality and nonextensivity

For a family of logistic-like maps, we investigate the rate of convergence to the critical attractor when an ensemble of initial conditions is uniformly spread over the entire phase space. We found that the phase space volume occupied by the ensemble W(t) depicts a power-law decay with log-periodic oscillations reflecting the multifractal character of the critical attractor. We explore the parametric dependence of the power-law exponent and the amplitude of the log-periodic oscillations with the attractor's fractal dimension governed by the inflexion of the map near its extremal point. Further, we investigate the temporal evolution of W(t) for the circle map whose critical attractor is dense. In this case, we found W(t) to exhibit a rich pattern with a slow logarithmic decay of the lower bounds. These results are discussed in the context of nonextensive Tsallis entropies.Comment: 8 pages and 8 fig