822 research outputs found

    Foliations and Chern-Heinz inequalities

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    We extend the Chern-Heinz inequalities about mean curvature and scalar curvature of graphs of C2C^{2}-functions to leaves of transversally oriented codimension one C2C^{2}-foliations of Riemannian manifolds. That extends partially Salavessa's work on mean curvature of graphs and generalize results of Barbosa-Kenmotsu-Oshikiri \cite{barbosa-kenmotsu-Oshikiri} and Barbosa-Gomes-Silveira \cite{barbosa-gomes-silveira} about foliations of 3-dimensional Riemannian manifolds by constant mean curvature surfaces. These Chern-Heinz inequalities for foliations can be applied to prove Haymann-Makai-Osserman inequality (lower bounds of the fundamental tones of bounded open subsets ΩR2\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^{2} in terms of its inradius) for embedded tubular neighborhoods of simple curves of Rn\mathbb{R}^{n}.Comment: This paper is an improvment of an earlier paper titled On Chern-Heinz Inequalities. 8 Pages, Late

    Characterization of the bacterial communities of aerobic granules in a 2-fluorophenol degrading process

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    Aerobic granular sludge constitutes a novel technology for wastewater treatment. This study focused on the effect of 2-fluorophenol (2-FP) shock loadings on the microbial community diversity present in aerobic granules before and after inoculation with a bacterial strain able to degrade 2-FP, Rhodococcus sp. strain FP1. After bioaugmentation, apart from strain FP1, five culturable bacteria were isolated from the 2-FP degrading granules, belonging to the following genera: Serratia, Chryseobacterium, Xanthomonas, Pimelobacter and Rhodococcus. The latter two isolates are able to degrade 2-FP. Changes in the aerobic granules' bacterial communities related to 2-FP shock loadings were examined using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of 16S rRNA gene pool. Numerical analysis of the DGGE profiles showed high diversity with an even distribution of species. Based on cluster analysis of the DGGE profiles, the bacterial communities present in the aerobic granules changes were related to the sampling time and the 2-FP concentration fed.publishersversionpublishe

    Bacterial community dynamics in a rotating biological contactor treating 2‑fluorophenol‑containing wastewater

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    One of the main factors affecting the performance of rotating biological contactors (RBC) is the biofilm characteristics. Therefore, a deep understanding of the microbial population dynamics and structure of the biofilm is mandatory if optimization of organic matter and nutrients removal is targeted. This study focused on the effects of organic shock loads of 2-fluorophenol (2-FP) on the microbial diversity present in an RBC biofilm. The RBC was seeded with activated sludge from a conventional wastewater treatment plant and was operated during 496 days. During the first 126 days, the RBC was subjected to intermittent 2-FP shocks of 25 mg l(-1) and no degradation occurred. Therefore, the reactor was subsequently augmented with a 2-FP-degrading strain (FP1). Afterwards, the RBC had a stable performance when subjected to 2-FP shocks up to 50 mg l(-1) and to a starvation period, as indicated by removal of the compound. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) revealed large shifts in microbial communities present in the first and fifth stages, although no clear relation between the sample collection time and spatial factor was found. Phylogenetic affiliation of some predominant members was assessed by direct sequencing of correspondent DGGE bands. Affiliations to alpha-, beta- and delta-Proteobacteria were found. Several bacterial strains isolated from the reactor showed capacity for 2-FP degradation. Strain FP1 was successfully recovered from the biofilm by plating and by DGGE, reinforcing that bioaugmentation was successfully achieved.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Verification of Magnitude and Phase Responses in Fixed-Point Digital Filters

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    In the digital signal processing (DSP) area, one of the most important tasks is digital filter design. Currently, this procedure is performed with the aid of computational tools, which generally assume filter coefficients represented with floating-point arithmetic. Nonetheless, during the implementation phase, which is often done in digital signal processors or field programmable gate arrays, the representation of the obtained coefficients can be carried out through integer or fixed-point arithmetic, which often results in unexpected behavior or even unstable filters. The present work addresses this issue and proposes a verification methodology based on the digital-system verifier (DSVerifier), with the goal of checking fixed-point digital filters w.r.t. implementation aspects. In particular, DSVerifier checks whether the number of bits used in coefficient representation will result in a filter with the same features specified during the design phase. Experimental results show that errors regarding frequency response and overflow are likely to be identified with the proposed methodology, which thus improves overall system's reliability

    COMPARISON OF FLOW PATTERNS IN THE RADIOCEPHALIC ARTERIOVENOUS FISTULA THROUG IN VITRO AND IN SILICO STUDY

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    The vascular accesses to hemodialysis patients usually are through arteriovenous fistula (AVF) or synthetic grafts. The analyses of recirculation zones, stagnation points, secondary flow and low and high shear stress are very important points to study for understand the hemodynamic local in arteriovenous fistula. In this work, it was analyzed through computational fluid dynamics the streamlines in AVF and it was compared with the literature results. The flow patterns were visualized under steady and unsteady condition with Reynolds number ranging from 100 up 600. The results obtained from CFD were very similar with the literature results. The flow becomes more chaotic when the Reynolds number increases. Vortex can be seen in anastomosis region, occupying all transversal section of the artery. Thus, the results obtained using CFD look like the results obtained experimentally

    Growth assessment methods for Helicobacter pylori in liquid medium

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    Helicobacter pylori is known to be associated with chronic gastritis, peptic ulcers and gastric cancer. The lack of physiological data has hampered the uncover of mechanisms associated with H. pylori infection and consequently, many aspects related with the appearance of diseases remain unclear. It is well known that H. pylori can change cell morphology from spiral to coccoid form when exposed to adverse conditions. Some authors have reported the existence of a viable but nonculturable state of this bacterium. The development of robust methods to grow this bacterium and reliable methods for the assessment of growth are needed for a better characterization of its physiology. As such, the purpose of this work was to study H. pylori growth in a chemically defined medium, compare different methods to assess the growth and observe the changes of morphology. Cultures were grown at 37ºC under controlled conditions in Ham´s F-12 medium supplemented with fetal bovine serum. Samples were collected until 72 hours. For growth assessment, the following methods were used and compared: optical density, cultivable cell counts, total cell counts using DAPI staining, evaluation of viability with the Live/Dead viability kit and a PNA FISH probe which evaluates the content of stable rRNA. Cell counts and analysis of cell morphology were assessed using an epifluorescence microscope. Under the conditions of atmospheric oxygen 6.5%, pH 7, and shaking speed 110 rpm, H. pylori was in exponential growth from 0 to 4 hours. In comparison to total counts, PNA FISH displayed, in general, lower counts, particularly after cells have reached the stationary phase. Changes in morphology and viability were observed. After 60 hours of culture cells were mainly coccoid and nonviable
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