Analysis of strawberry ripening by dynamic speckle measurements

This work seeks to determine the age of a fruit from observation of its dynamic speckle pattern. A mobile speckle pattern originates on the fruit's surface due to the interference of the wavefronts reflected from moving scatterers. For this work we analyzed two series of photographs of a strawberry speckle pattern, at different stages of ripening, acquired with a CMOS camera. The first day, we took ten photographs at an interval of one second. The same procedure was repeated the next day. From each series of images we extracted several statistical descriptors of pixel-to-pixel gray level variation during the observation time. By comparing these values from the first to the second day we noticed a diminution of the speckle activity. This decay demonstrated that after only one day the ripening process of the strawberry can be detected by dynamic speckle pattern analysis. For this study we employed a simple new algorithm to process the data obtained from the photographs. This algorithm allows defining a global mobility index that indicates the evolution of the fruit's ripening.Fil: Mulone, C.. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Paraná; ArgentinaFil: Budini, Nicolas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - CONICET- Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química (i); Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Paraná; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - CONICET - Santa Fe. Instituto de Física del Litoral; ArgentinaFil: Vincitorio, F. M.. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Paraná; ArgentinaFil: Freyre, C.. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Paraná; ArgentinaFil: López Díaz, A. J.. Universidad da Coruña; España;Fil: Ramil Rego, A.. Universidad da Coruña; España

Sistema informático para planifi cación óptima de la explotación de la maquinaria agrícola en empresas azucareras

Se ofrece un nuevo método para planifi car óptimamente el uso de la maquinariaagrícola en empresas azucareras, utilizando la modelación económico-matemáticamulticriterio y técnicas computacionales. El estudio contempla las siguientesetapas: 1) defi nición de las metas; se buscaron valores óptimos del tiempo detrabajo, del consumo de combustible y del costo operacional; 2) confección demodelos de programación meta para la planifi cación; y 3) elaboración de unsistema informático para aplicar modelos de optimización. La investigación fueaplicada en dos empresas azucareras de la provincia Santiago de Cuba, dondese ahorró 16 % de combustibles, en tanto las disminuciones de los costos y deltiempo fueron de 12 y 4 % respectivamente

Modelling ground rupture due to groundwater withdrawal: applications to test cases in China and Mexico

Abstract. The stress variation induced by aquifer overdraft in sedimentary basins with shallow bedrock may cause rupture in the form of pre-existing fault activation or earth fissure generation. The process is causing major detrimental effects on a many areas in China and Mexico. Ruptures yield discontinuity in both displacement and stress field that classic continuous finite element (FE) models cannot address. Interface finite elements (IE), typically used in contact mechanics, may be of great help and are implemented herein to simulate the fault geomechanical behaviour. Two main approaches, i.e. Penalty and Lagrangian, are developed to enforce the contact condition on the element interface. The incorporation of IE incorporation into a three-dimensional (3-D) FE geomechanical simulator shows that the Lagrangian approach is numerically more robust and stable than the Penalty, thus providing more reliable solutions. Furthermore, the use of a Newton-Raphson scheme to deal with the non-linear elasto-plastic fault behaviour allows for quadratic convergence. The FE – IE model is applied to investigate the likely ground rupture in realistic 3-D geologic settings. The case studies are representative of the City of Wuxi in the Jiangsu Province (China), and of the City of Queretaro, Mexico, where significant land subsidence has been accompanied by the generation of several earth fissures jeopardizing the stability and integrity of the overland structures and infrastructure.</p

Interwoven migration narratives: identity and social representations in the Lusophone world

First published online: 17 Oct 2016This article provides an exploratory analysis of the life narratives of migrants in the Portuguese-speaking world. By interweaving the life experiences of eight participants in three thematic clusters – ‘shared past’, language and sense of community – we propose a critique of the deep-seated idea of the Lusophone space as a community constructed by the harmonious conviviality of different countries and people. Drawing on contributions from cultural studies, social psychology, anthropology and sociology, we first aim to give voice to the human subjects who embark on migrations and then to understand how the engendered process of identity construction is framed by their social world, simultaneously reframing it. Thus, we aim at shedding light on the ways in which aspects of the political discourses on Lusophony are used (and are instrumental) to the migrants’ identity narrative (re)construction.This work was supported by Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia: [Grant Number PTDC/CCI-COM/105100/2008]

Optimización de la distribución de las tierras para la producción de café en una empresa serrana

La investigación que aquí se describe se llevó a cabo en la Empresa Agropecuaria y Forestal “Sierra Cristal”, ubicada en el municipio Segundo Frente y perteneciente al Ministerio de la Agricultura (MINAG). Tiene como objetivo fundamental perfeccionar el proceso de planificación de la entidad, mediante el empleo de la modelación económico-matemática. Puntualmente se utilizó un modelo de Programación Lineal, resuelto a partir del uso del Sistema Informático Profesional “LINDOW”. La aplicación realizada permite, desde el punto de vista de la planificación,aumentar los niveles de producción en la entidad estudiada a través de una mejor distribución de las tierras disponibles, lo cual representa un aporte significativo al programa de recuperación cafetalera que se desarrolla en el territorio. El empleo de la modelación económicomatemática mediante el referido sistema permite obtener soluciones avanzadas a los problemas, a través de los medios de procesamiento de datos e introducción de los parámetros fundamentales. En comparación con los planes de la empresa, se aprecian niveles de producción superiores en los modelos planteados. La distribución que se propone permite una producción de 508,91 toneladas (t), lo cual indica un aumento con respecto al plan de la entidad de un 17,8 %

Capacitação dos profissionais de informação visando a gestão no Arca – Repositório Institucional da Fundação Oswaldo Cruz

O texto aborda a importância da realização dos trabalhos de sensibilização e capacitação em palestras e cursos ministrados para os profissionais de informação/Bibliotecários que trabalham na gestão do Arca - Repositório Institucional da Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Brasil), visando assim aprimorar as competências internas para a melhoria da eficiência, eficácia e qualidade dos documentos inseridos no RI como também disponibilizar o conteúdo em saúde pública para toda a Sociedade.Ibero-American Science and Technology Education Consortiu