Analysis and improvement of the packaging sector of an industrial company

Manual operations in manufacturing companies are still a common practice. This often results in high costs, high cycle times and therefore in lower productivity, particularly for companies operating in western countries. This is why many manufacturing companies relocated their production facilities in low age countries. This study was developed at a leading Portuguese material construction manufacturing company. The objective was to improve the packaging and labeling processes, that were identified as main bottlenecks in the factory. Lean was used to streamline these processes before being automated. This allowed for annual savings of 12432 €, with human operators being reallocated to other departments where they are more useful. Furthermore, cycle times were reduced by 42,9%, non-value-added activities were minimized, and operations with potentially high ergonomic risks were eliminated. In addition, a reduction of 84,3% in lithographed packaging was achieved, with a cost reduction of around 36 000 €/year, which is expected to continue in the forthcoming years.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

NG-meta-profiler: fast processing of metagenomes using NGLess, a domain-specific language

Background: Shotgun metagenomes contain a sample of all the genomic material in an environment, allowing for the characterization of a microbial community. In order to understand these communities, bioinformatics methods are crucial. A common first step in processing metagenomes is to compute abundance estimates of different taxonomic or functional groups from the raw sequencing data. Given the breadth of the field, computational solutions need to be flexible and extensible, enabling the combination of different tools into a larger pipeline. Results: We present NGLess and NG-meta-profiler. NGLess is a domain specific language for describing next-generation sequence processing pipelines. It was developed with the goal of enabling user-friendly computational reproducibility. It provides built-in support for many common operations on sequencing data and is extensible with external tools with configuration files. Using this framework, we developed NG-meta-profiler, a fast profiler for metagenomes which performs sequence preprocessing, mapping to bundled databases, filtering of the mapping results, and profiling (taxonomic and functional). It is significantly faster than either MOCAT2 or htseq-count and (as it builds on NGLess) its results are perfectly reproducible. Conclusions: NG-meta-profiler is a high-performance solution for metagenomics processing built on NGLess. It can be used as-is to execute standard analyses or serve as the starting point for customization in a perfectly reproducible fashion. NGLess and NG-meta-profiler are open source software (under the liberal MIT license) and can be downloaded from https://ngless.embl.de or installed through bioconda

RECORRÊNCIA DE ALAGAMENTOS NA CIDADE DE TEÓFILO OTONI, MINAS GERAIS: UM ESTUDO INICIAL NO BAIRRO NOVO HORIZONTE

A desarmonia entre ocupação, uso do solo e planejamentos estrutural e ambiental geralmente levam a ocorrência de sérios problemas à população. Nesse sentido, este estudo busca relatar o histórico do local, pesquisar motivos dos casos ocorridos e apresentar providências iniciais. Os alagamentos decorrem da habitação descontrolada, falta de fiscalização por parte das autoridades e inexistência de ações para diminuir os riscos e prevenir desastres futuros

Head And Heck Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma: Clinicopathologic Study Of 173 Cases

Introduction: Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) is the most common malignant salivary gland tumor, however few studies have been reported in Brazilian populations. Aim: To report clinical and pathologic data from 173 head and neck MEC treated in the Treatment and Research Center at Hospital do Câncer A. C. Camargo in São Paulo. Study design: Clinical randomized. Material and Method: From 1953 to 1997, 173 cases of MEC were found in the medical files of the center. Data were obtained from the patients' records and histological review of all cases. Results: The mean age of the patients was 44 years and 93 (53.8%) were men; parotid glands were affected in 61 cases (35.2%) and intraoral minor salivary glands in 75 (43.4%). TNM revealed 50.3% of the cases in stages I and II, and histological grading revealed 45.2%, 18.5% and 36.3% low-grade, intermediate-grade and high-grade tumors, respectively. Surgical treatment was employed in 80.3% of the cases, with neck dissection in 52 cases (30.1%), and radiotherapy in 73 (42.2%). Local recurrence, regional and distant metastases were found in 12.7%, 9.8% and 9.2% of the patients, respectively; 5-year and 10-year overall survival rates were 70% and 60%, respectively. Conclusions: MEC affected mainly the parotid gland and the palate of adults, without gender preference. Half of the cases were diagnosed at initial clinical stages and 64% of the tumors were low or intermediate-grade lesions. Surgery was the treatment of choice and prognosis was good.685679684Ellis, G.L., Auclair, P.L., Gnepp, D.R., Surgical Pathology of the salivary glands (1991) Major Problems in Pathology Series, 25. , Philadelphia: WB Saunders CompanyEllis, G.L., Auclair, P.L., Tumors of the Salivary Glands (1996) Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Atlas of Tumor Pathology. 3 rd Series, , Fascicle 17. WashingtonAuclair, P.L., Goode, R.K., Ellis, G.L., Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of intraoral salivary glands (1992) Cancer, 69, pp. 2021-2030Cardoso, W.P., Denardin, O.V., Rapoport, A., Araujo, V.C., Carvalho, M.B., Proliferating cell nuclear antigen expression in mucoepidermoid carcinoma of salivary glands (2000) São Paulo Med J, 118, pp. 69-74Goode, R.K., Auclair, P.L., Ellis, G.L., Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the major salivary glands: Clinical and histopathologic analysis of 234 cases with evaluation of grading criteria (1998) Cancer, 82, pp. 1217-1224Brandwein, M.S., Ivanov, K., Wallace, D.I., Hille, J.J., Wang, B., Fahmy, A., Bodian, C., Mills, S.E., Mucoepidermoid carcinoma: A clinicopathologic study of 80 patients with special reference to histological grading (2001) Am J Surg Pathol, 25, pp. 835-845Evans, H.L., Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of salivary glands: A study of 69 cases with special attention to histologic grading (1984) Am J Clin Pathol, 81, pp. 696-701Nascimento, A.G., Amaral, A.L.P., Prado, L.A.F., Kligerman, J., Silveira, T.R.P., Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of salivary glands: A clinicopathologic study of 46 cases (1986) Head Neck Surg, 8, pp. 409-417Plambeck, K., Friedrich, R.E., Bahlo, M., Bartel-Friedrich, S., Klapdor, R., TNM staging, histopathological grading, and tumor-associated antigens in patients with a history of mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the salivary glands (1999) Anticancer Res, 19, pp. 2397-2404Spiro, R.H., Huvos, A.G., Berk, R., Strong, E.W., Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of salivary gland origin: A clinicopathologic study of 367 cases (1978) Am J Surg, 136, pp. 461-468Chinellato, L.E.M., Marquez, I.M., Fleury, R.N., Quevedo, F.C., Estudos da prevalência dos tumores de origem epitelial de glândulas salivares em Serviços de Anatomia Patológica das cidades de Bauru e Jaú (Estado de São Paulo, Brasil) (1994) Rev Fac Odontol Bauru, 2, pp. 45-51Franzi, A.S., Carvalho, M.B., Carcinoma mucoepidermóide avançado das glândulas salivares (1997) Rev Bras Cancerol, 43, pp. 273-280Kusama, K., Iwanari, S., Aisaki, K., Wada, M., Ohtani, J., Itoi, K., Hanai, K., Moro, I., Intraoral minor salivary gland tumors: A retrospective study of 129 cases (1997) J Nihon Univ Sch Dent, 39, pp. 128-132Lopes, M.A., Kowalski, L.P., Santos, G.C., Almeida, O.P., A clinicopathologic study of 196 intraoral minor salivary gland tumors (1999) J Oral Pathol Med, 28, pp. 264-267Loyola, A.M., De Araujo, V.C., De Sousa, S.O.M., De Araujo, N.S., Minor salivary gland tumours: A retrospective study of 164 cases in a Brazilian population (1995) Oral Oncol Eur J Cancer, 31 B, pp. 197-201Rapoport, A., De Andrade Sobrinho, J., Brasilino De Carvalho, M., Magrin, J., Fava, A.S., Cancer of the parotid gland (1981) Int Surg, 66, pp. 243-246Rapoport, A., Carvalho, M.B., Fava, A.S., Góis Filho, J.F., Chagas, J.F.S., Kowalski, L.P., Kanda, J.L., Cheuhen, J.A., Diagnóstico e tratamento das neoplasias das glândulas salivares menores: Estudo de 55 casos (1988) Rev Col Bras Cirur, 15, pp. 289-293Regis De Brito Santos, I., Kowalski, L.P., Cavalcante De Araujo, V., Flavia Logullo, A., Magrin, J., Multivariate analysis of risk factors for neck metastasis in surgically treated parotid carcinomas (2001) Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg, 127, pp. 56-60Spiro, R.H., Thaler, H.T., Hicks, W.F., Kher, U.A., Huvos, A.H., Strong, E.W., The importance of clinical staging of minor salivary gland carcinoma (1991) Am J Surg, 162, pp. 330-336Hicks, M.J., El-Naggar, A.K., Flaitz, C.M., Luna, M.A., Batsakis, J.G., Histocytologic grading of mucoepidermoid carcinoma of major salivary glands in prognosis and survival: A clinicopathologic and flow cytometric investigation (1995) Head Neck, 17, pp. 89-95Hicks, J., Flaitz, C., Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of salivary glands in children and adolescents: Assessment of proliferation markers (2000) Oral Oncol, 36, pp. 454-460Ma'aita, J.K., Al-Kalsi, N., Al-Tamimi, S., Wraikat, A., Salivary gland tumors in Jordan: A retrospective study of 221 patients (1999) Croat Med J, 40, pp. 539-54

Análise dinâmica de colisão de comboios para projeto de segurança passiva

Trabalho final de mestrado para obtenção do grau Mestre em Engenharia MecânicaEste trabalho visa a modelação multicorpo da colisão de comboios com o objetivo de permitir efetuar simulações da colisão, de modo a observar os fenómenos de absorção de energia, de modo a permitir uma redução dos custos computacionais, mas também dos custos com testes reais. O modelo desenvolvido replica de forma bastante correta uma colisão, podendo servir para análise da colisão. O modelo desenvolvido tem por base um modelo real, sendo este modelo constituído por carruagens, onde uma das carruagens apresenta uma dada velocidade inicial enquanto as outras se encontram em repouso, e buffers, sendo estes últimos estruturas de absorção de energia, estas estruturas encontram-se acopladas às carruagens por molas não lineares. Uma vez que os resultados dependem da curva de rigidez das molas é relativamente simples alterar as características do modelo de modo a simular diferentes tipo de colisão a diferentes velocidades e com diferentes massas. Uma vez que se verifica que quando existe o impacto entre carruagens, não existe recuo do corpo que se encontra inicialmente em movimento, é necessário garantir que o mesmo se verifica nas simulações, esta situação apresentou um grande desafio de simulação, sendo que foram necessárias várias tentativas e modelos, de modo a conseguir replicar o melhor possível este fenómeno. Este projeto oferece uma ferramenta de análise da colisão de carruagens, sendo que a utilização do modelo desenvolvido pode ser útil no projeto e fabrico de carruagens, bem como em projetos de segurança passiva de passageiros.This paper aims the multibody modeling of railway collisions, with the purpose of allow collision simulations, in order to observe the energy absorption phenomena, in order to allow reducing the computing cost, and real test cost as well. The model was developed to replicate quite accurately a collision and can be used for collision analysis. The developed model was based on a real model, being this model was made by carriages, where one of them has an initial velocity while the others are at rest, the model also have buffers, wich are structures for energy absorption, these structures are coupled to the carriages by nonlinear springs. Since the results depend on the springs stiffness curve it is relatively simple to change the characteristics of the model in order to simulate different types of collision, at different velocities with different masses. Since it is found that when there is an impact between carriages there is no recoil of the body that was initially moving, it is necessary to ensure this is what happens in the simulations, this situation presented a big challenge, and several models and trials was made in order to replicate this phenomenon as best as possible. This project offers a different railway crash analysis tool, and the use of the developed model can be useful in the project and manufacture of rail carriages, as well as passive passenger safety projects.N/

Transboundary Impact Assessment in the north-western Iberian Peninsula

En el marco del proyecto SIMAtlantic, se ha llevado a cabo un caso de estudio entre España y Portugal. Este documento describe una metodología propuesta para la Evaluación de Efectos Acumulativos con el fin de evaluar los impactos/efectos acumulativos a escala transfronteriza. El trabajo se llevó a cabo en un caso de estudio específico en la región noroeste de la Península Ibérica, en una zona transfronteriza entre Portugal y España

LÍQUIDO FOLICULAR FRESCO OU CONGELADO NA PRODUÇÃO IN VITRO DE EMBRIÕES BOVINOS

A manutenção dos complexos cumulus-oócitos (CCO) em líquido folicular (LF) antes da sua maturação, além de visar a capacitação, viabiliza o transporte até o laboratório por ser de baixo custo, de fácil aquisição e o congelamento do LF permite seu armazenamento para futura utilização. Neste experimento avaliou-se o efeito do congelamento do LF obtido de folículos de 2-8mm e de folículos >8mm, sobre a taxa de produção embrionária. Oócitos foram aspirados de folículos de 2 a 8mm de ovários provenientes de abatedouro. No grupo controle (n=295) os CCO foram maturados por 24h. Nos tratamentos GF (n=297) e GC (n=282), os CCO foram mantidos por 6h a 30ºC em LF fresco ou congelado, respectivamente, de folículos >8mm. Já no tratamento PF(n=278) e PC (n=281), os CCO foram mantidos em LF fresco ou congelado, respectivamente, de folículos de 2-8mm. Posteriormente, os CCO dos tratamentos GF, GC, PF e PC foram maturados por 18h. Não houve efeito negativo do congelamento do líquido folicular e nem do tamanho dos folículos sobre as taxas de clivagem e produção embrionária em D7 e D9 (P>0,05). No entanto, o congelamento do LF de folículos de 2 a 8mm resultou em redução da taxa de eclosão e do número de células dos blastocistos. A manutenção de oócitos bovinos por 6h a 30ºC, antes da maturação, pode ser efetuada em líquido folicular de folículos >8mm, fresco ou congelado. Fresh or frozen follicular fluid in vitro bovine embryo production Abstract In addition to the capacitation, the maintenance of cumulus-oocyte complex (COC) in follicular fluid (FF) before maturation, allows the transport to the laboratory, being a practical and less expensive media. The FF can be stored after freezing to future use. Oocytes aspirated from bovine slaughterhouse ovaries, were used to evaluate the effect of maintaining the oocytes in fresh or frozen bovine FF (from 2-8mm and >8mm follicles) on the blastocyst rate. In the control group (n=259) the COC were matured for 24h. On treatments GF (n=297) and GC (n=282) the COC were held for 6h at 30°C in fresh or frozen FF from >8mm follicles, respectively. In treatments PF (n=278) and PC (n=281) the COC were held in fresh or frozen FF from 2-8mm follicles, respectively. Later, the COC from GF, GC, PF and PC were matured for 18h. The freezing process as well as the follicle size had no effect on the cleavage, D7 or D9 blastocyst rates (P>0,05). Nevertheless, the frozen FF from 2-8mm follicles resulted in a reduced hatching rate and lower ICM cells. Fresh or frozen follicular fluid of >8mm follicles could be used for a 6h transport of bovine oocytes before maturation for 18h

LÍQUIDO FOLICULAR FRESCO OU CONGELADO NA PRODUÇÃO IN VITRO DE EMBRIÕES BOVINOS

A manutenção dos complexos cumulus-oócitos (CCO) em líquido folicular (LF) antes da sua maturação, além de visar a capacitação, viabiliza o transporte até o laboratório por ser de baixo custo, de fácil aquisição e o congelamento do LF permite seu armazenamento para futura utilização. Neste experimento avaliou-se o efeito do congelamento do LF obtido de folículos de 2-8mm e de folículos >8mm, sobre a taxa de produção embrionária. Oócitos foram aspirados de folículos de 2 a 8mm de ovários provenientes de abatedouro. No grupo controle (n=295) os CCO foram maturados por 24h. Nos tratamentos GF (n=297) e GC (n=282), os CCO foram mantidos por 6h a 30ºC em LF fresco ou congelado, respectivamente, de folículos >8mm. Já no tratamento PF(n=278) e PC (n=281), os CCO foram mantidos em LF fresco ou congelado, respectivamente, de folículos de 2-8mm. Posteriormente, os CCO dos tratamentos GF, GC, PF e PC foram maturados por 18h. Não houve efeito negativo do congelamento do líquido folicular e nem do tamanho dos folículos sobre as taxas de clivagem e produção embrionária em D7 e D9 (P>0,05). No entanto, o congelamento do LF de folículos de 2 a 8mm resultou em redução da taxa de eclosão e do número de células dos blastocistos. A manutenção de oócitos bovinos por 6h a 30ºC, antes da maturação, pode ser efetuada em líquido folicular de folículos >8mm, fresco ou congelado. Fresh or frozen follicular fluid in vitro bovine embryo production Abstract In addition to the capacitation, the maintenance of cumulus-oocyte complex (COC) in follicular fluid (FF) before maturation, allows the transport to the laboratory, being a practical and less expensive media. The FF can be stored after freezing to future use. Oocytes aspirated from bovine slaughterhouse ovaries, were used to evaluate the effect of maintaining the oocytes in fresh or frozen bovine FF (from 2-8mm and >8mm follicles) on the blastocyst rate. In the control group (n=259) the COC were matured for 24h. On treatments GF (n=297) and GC (n=282) the COC were held for 6h at 30°C in fresh or frozen FF from >8mm follicles, respectively. In treatments PF (n=278) and PC (n=281) the COC were held in fresh or frozen FF from 2-8mm follicles, respectively. Later, the COC from GF, GC, PF and PC were matured for 18h. The freezing process as well as the follicle size had no effect on the cleavage, D7 or D9 blastocyst rates (P>0,05). Nevertheless, the frozen FF from 2-8mm follicles resulted in a reduced hatching rate and lower ICM cells. Fresh or frozen follicular fluid of >8mm follicles could be used for a 6h transport of bovine oocytes before maturation for 18h

Asymmetries between the production of D+ and D- mesons from 500 GeV/c pi- nucleon interactions as a function of xF and pt**2

We present asymmetries between the production of D+ and D- mesons in Fermilab experiment E791 as a function of xF and pt**2. The data used here consist of 74,000 fully-reconstructed charmed mesons produced by a 500 GeV/c pi- beam on C and Pt foils. The measurements are compared to results of models which predict differences between the production of heavy-quark mesons that have a light quark in common with the beam (leading particles) and those that do not (non-leading particles). While the default models do not agree with our data, we can reach agreement with one of them, PYTHIA, by making a limited number of changes to parameters used

Differential cross sections, charge production asymmetry, and spin-density matrix elements for D*(2010) produced in 500 GeV/c pi^- nucleon interactions

We report differential cross sections for the production of D*(2010) produced in 500 GeV/c pi^- nucleon interactions from experiment E791 at Fermilab, as functions of Feynman-x (x_F) and transverse momentum squared (p_T^2). We also report the D* +/- charge asymmetry and spin-density matrix elements as functions of these variables. Investigation of the spin-density matrix elements shows no evidence of polarization. The average values of the spin alignment are \eta= 0.01 +- 0.02 and -0.01 +- 0.02 for leading and non-leading particles, respectively.Comment: LaTeX2e (elsart.cls). 13 pages, 6 figures (eps files). Submitted to Physics Letters