Elaboração de uma ferramenta para operação de reservatórios hidrelétricos com usos múltiplos considerando efeitos de mudanças climáticas: Estudo de caso da UHE de Furnas

The possible impact of climate change on the multiple uses that involve the hydro power plant of Furnas was one of the objectives of this study by proposing a methodological approach to mitigate these conflicts. The first stage of the study was to perform a time trend analysis oh hydrologic variables being identified significant increasing trends in some rain gauges not reflected in streamflow data in the study basin. For representation of the future climate the hydrological model (MGB-IPH) was used inputted by the global model HadCM3 and regional Eta model through the A1B scenario of the IPCC. If the climate changes scenarios are verified, the reservoir can be quickly dumped, however the improvement of a methodology that considers the determination of the length and transgression frequency of levels, conflicts over water use can be minimized without damage to power generation212300313O possível impacto das mudanças climáticas sobre os usos múltiplos que envolvem a UHE de Furnas foi um dos objetivos deste trabalho, sendo apresentado uma abordagem metodológica para mitigação destes conflitos. A primeira etapa foi realizar análise de tendência temporal das variáveis hidrológicas, sendo identificadas tendências de aumento significativas em alguns postos pluviométricos, não refletidas nos dados fluviométricos na bacia de estudo. Para representação do clima futuro, foi utilizado o modelo hidrológico (MGB-IPH), alimentado pelo modelo global HadCM3 e regional Eta por meio do cenário A1B do IPCC. Caso os cenários de mudanças do climas se verifiquem, o reservatório pode esvaziar-se intensamente; contudo pelo aprimoramento de uma metodologia que considera a fixação da duração e frequência de transgressão de níveis, os conflitos pelo uso da água podem ser minimizados, sem prejuízos a geração de energi

Utility of the trabecular bone score (TBS) in secondary osteoporosis.

Altered bone micro-architecture is an important factor in accounting for fragility fractures. Until recently, it has not been possible to gain information about skeletal microstructure in a way that is clinically feasible. Bone biopsy is essentially a research tool. High-resolution peripheral Quantitative Computed Tomography, while non-invasive, is available only sparsely throughout the world. The trabecular bone score (TBS) is an imaging technology adapted directly from the Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DXA) image of the lumbar spine. Thus, it is potentially readily and widely available. In recent years, a large number of studies have demonstrated that TBS is significantly associated with direct measurements of bone micro-architecture, predicts current and future fragility fractures in primary osteoporosis, and may be a useful adjunct to BMD for fracture detection and prediction. In this review, we summarize its potential utility in secondary causes of osteoporosis. In some situations, like glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis and in diabetes mellitus, the TBS appears to out-perform DXA. It also has apparent value in numerous other disorders associated with diminished bone health, including primary hyperparathyroidism, androgen-deficiency, hormone-receptor positive breast cancer treatment, chronic kidney disease, hemochromatosis, and autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis. Further research is both needed and warranted to more clearly establish the role of TBS in these and other disorders that adversely affect bone

Kinetic resolution of (R,S)-1,2-isopropylidene glycerol (solketal) ester derivatives by lipases

AbstractA study on the enantioselective hydrolysis of (R,S)-1,2-isopropylidene glycerol (4-hydroxymethyl-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxolane, solketal) octanoate catalyzed by different lipases was carried out. Among them, Pseudomonas sp. lipase proved to be the most effective. It was shown that the ester bearing the longer octanoyl acyl chain is a more suitable substrate for this lipase compared to the acetate counterpart. By properly combining enzyme load, temperature and reaction time, either the (S)-alcohol or the remaining ester could be obtained in moderate to high selectivities. Ethyl acetate was found to be the best solvent for the kinetic resolutions effected by such lipase but our results show that toluene may prove useful

Thermal performance of a solar hybrid dryer for Conilon coffee (Coffea canephora)

The study was aimed at design and development of an energy efficient hybrid solar dryer suitable for drying of organic Conilon coffee placed in the town of Seropédica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The energy efficiency and the drying efficiency were the evaluation criteria for thermal performance of the hybrid solar dryer during the coffee drying. Temperature and relative humidity (RH) of the drying and ambient air, solar radiation intensity and coffee weight loss were monitored during the drying process. The process occurred over six consecutive days; the drying time was from 07:00 to 17:00 h, totalling 120 h of operation with an intermittent period (at night) of 14 h. During intermittence, the exhaust system kept off and solar collector and drying chamber sealed. The effective drying period took 60 h, with temperature and RH, respectively, of 38.3 °C and 60.6% outlet of the solar collector, 32.7 °C and 72.2% outlet drying chamber and 27.8 °C and 74.5% ambient air. The maximum temperature in the solar collector and drying chamber reached 54 and 47.7 °C, respectively, with an ambient air temperature of 32 °C at 12:00 h. These values showing temperature increase 22.2 °C in solar collector and 10 ºC drying chamber. The mean variation for the reduction in RH between the drying air inside the solar collector and the ambient air was 28%, while in the chamber obtained in a range of 10.5% at 13:00 h. The solar collector and dryer chamber efficiency were 29.1 and 40.8%, respectively, while the overall dryer efficiency 39.7%

Reduced order models for control of fluids using the Eigensystem Realization Algorithm

In feedback flow control, one of the challenges is to develop mathematical models that describe the fluid physics relevant to the task at hand, while neglecting irrelevant details of the flow in order to remain computationally tractable. A number of techniques are presently used to develop such reduced-order models, such as proper orthogonal decomposition (POD), and approximate snapshot-based balanced truncation, also known as balanced POD. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses: for instance, POD models can behave unpredictably and perform poorly, but they can be computed directly from experimental data; approximate balanced truncation often produces vastly superior models to POD, but requires data from adjoint simulations, and thus cannot be applied to experimental data. In this paper, we show that using the Eigensystem Realization Algorithm (ERA) \citep{JuPa-85}, one can theoretically obtain exactly the same reduced order models as by balanced POD. Moreover, the models can be obtained directly from experimental data, without the use of adjoint information. The algorithm can also substantially improve computational efficiency when forming reduced-order models from simulation data. If adjoint information is available, then balanced POD has some advantages over ERA: for instance, it produces modes that are useful for multiple purposes, and the method has been generalized to unstable systems. We also present a modified ERA procedure that produces modes without adjoint information, but for this procedure, the resulting models are not balanced, and do not perform as well in examples. We present a detailed comparison of the methods, and illustrate them on an example of the flow past an inclined flat plate at a low Reynolds number.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure

Hypothalamic Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Of Overtrained Mice After Recovery

knowing the relationship between endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and inflammation and based on the fact that downhill running-based overtraining (OT) model increases hypothalamus levels of some pro-inflammatory cytokines, we verified the effects of three OT protocols on the levels of BiP, pIRE-1 (Ser734), pPERK (Thr981), pelF2alpha (Ser52), ATF-6 and GRP-94 proteins in the mouse hypothalamus after two weeks of recovery. Methods: the mice were randomized into control (CT), overtrained by downhill running (OTR/down), overtrained by uphill running (OTR/up) and overtrained by running without inclination (OTR) groups. After 2-week total recovery period (i.e., week 10), hypothalamus was removed and used for immunoblotting. Results: The OTR/down group exhibited high levels of BiP and ATF6. The other OT protocols showed higher levels of pPERK (Th981) and pelf-2alpha (Ser52) when compared with the CT group. Conclusion: The current results suggest that after a 2-week total recovery period, the overtrained groups increased partially their ER stress protein levels, but without hypothalamic inflammation, which characterizes a physiological condition related to an adaptation mechanism.2

Estimativa da área foliar do pepino em ambiente protegido por medidas lineares sob salinidade e enxertia

The measurement of leaf area by linear parameters is a useful tool when plants cannot be destroyed for direct measurement. The objectives of this study were to establish equations to estimate the leaf area of greenhouse-cucumber and to evaluate the effects of salinity and grafting on this estimative. Non-grafted cucumber seedlings, cv. 'Hokushin', were transplanted in a greenhouse and were irrigated with water of different salinities (1.0, 3.2 and 5.0 dS m-1). In the second growing period, the same cultivar was grafted on Cucurbita spp. and the plants were irrigated with water of 1.4, 3.0 and 5.3 dS m-1. Leaves of different sizes were collected from both experiments and leaf area was determined by an integrating area meter. Leaf length (L) and width (W) were also recorded. An equation for estimating the leaf area from L and W was developed for a given salinity level or grafting condition and estimated well the area of leaves collected in the other treatments. The leaf area (LA) of cucumber 'Hokushin' could be estimated using the equation LA = 0.88LW - 4.27, for any grafting and salinity conditions.A determinação da área foliar por medidas lineares é uma ferramenta útil quando as plantas não podem ser destruídas para que a medição direta seja realizada. Os objetivos desse trabalho foram definir equações para a estimativa da área foliar do pepino em ambiente protegido e avaliar os efeitos da salinidade e da a enxertia nessa estimativa. Mudas de pepino, cv. 'Hokushin', não enxertadas, foram transplantadas em um ambiente protegido e irrigadas com água de diferentes salinidades (1,0, 3,2 e 5,0 dS m-1). No segundo período de cultivo, a mesma cultivar foi enxertada sobre Cucurbita spp., sendo as plantas irrigadas com água de 1,4, 3,0 e 5,3 dS m-1. Foram coletadas folhas de diferentes tamanhos dos dois cultivos e dos três tratamentos e a área foliar foi determinada por um medidor de área foliar. O comprimento (C) e a largura (L) da folha também foram registrados. Desenvolveram-se equações pelas quais a área foliar pôde ser estimada a partir de medidas de C e L. A equação desenvolvida para um dado nível de salinidade ou condição de enxertia estimou bem a área das folhas coletadas nos demais tratamentos. A área foliar (AF) do pepino 'Hokushin' pode ser estimada pela função AF = 0,88CL - 4,27, para qualquer condição de enxertia e salinidade

1/16-BPS Black Holes and Giant Gravitons in the AdS_5 X S^5 Space

We explore 1/16-BPS objects of type IIB string theory in AdS_5 * S^5. First, we consider supersymmetric AdS_5 black holes, which should be 1/16-BPS and have a characteristic that not all physical charges are independent. We point out that the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of these black holes admits a remarkably simple expression in terms of (dependent) physical charges, which suggests its microscopic origin via certain Cardy or Hardy-Ramanujan formula. We also note that there is an upper bound for the angular momenta given by the electric charges. Second, we construct a class of 1/16-BPS giant graviton solutions in AdS_5 * S^5 and explore their properties. The solutions are given by the intersections of AdS_5 * S^5 and complex 3 dimensional holomorphic hyperspaces in C^{1+5}, the latter being the zero loci of three holomorphic functions which are homogeneous with suitable weights on coordinates. We investigate examples of giant gravitons, including their degenerations to tensionless strings.Comment: 25 pages, no figures, v2: references added, comments added in the conclusio