Choros N. 10 by Heitor Villa-Lobos: Analyzing the Themes and Compositional Techniques of Brazilian Modernism

Heitor Villa-Lobos (b. March 5, 1887 - d. November 17, 1959) can be considered the most important composer in Brazilian music history. Although the composer is listed as one of the most influential composers in the history of the guitar, he reached his peak in his works for piano and symphonic groups. Works such as A Prole do Bebê (1 and 2), and the series of Chôros, came out during an extremely convoluted time, where Brazilian artists engaged in seeking an artistic representation of a unique Brazilian identity. Those works not only satisfied the hunger, but pushed the movement to a new level, which, some would argue, has never been surpassed by any other composer. Unlike his work for the guitar, on which hundreds of analyses and articles can easily be found, Chôros No 10 has had little to no attention from a theoretical viewpoint. Being considered perhaps Villa-Lobos’ masterpiece, this piece brought what is most Brazilian into classical music, with a calculated European influence among genuine Brazilian characteristics made into music. To date, there have been many writings about Chôros No 10 from a historical perspective. The theoretical writings about this piece are few, and in my research I was not able to find any such writings that were exhaustive or very in depth. This thesis analyzes the elements in Chôros No 10, such as themes and harmonic implications, linked to the historical background of the Brazilian Modernism in music

Reconhecimento de forma tridimensional para um sistema de varrimento de um vibrómetro laser

Laser vibrometry is a technique that, among several possibilities, allows modal analysis of light and thin structures. To make this analysis possible, the capture of a set of points is initially necessary. The devices present in the market, besides being expensive, present a rudimentary obtaining of points, usually done manually by the user. Not presenting the flexibility required for research, it is planned in this project to develop a system of automatic acquisition of these points for a laser vibrometer scanner. Given this need, a system was created to capture points through the information acquired by a Microsoft Kinect camera. In a Matlab environment, these points were converted into point clouds and processed through an application, in which the user can define their final configuration. This work presents the results obtained during the analysis of two different types of geometries through the application developed.A vibrometria laser é uma técnica que, entre várias possibilidades, permite a realização de análises modais de estruturas leves e finas. Para tornar esta análise possível, a captura de um conjunto de pontos é inicialmente necessária. Os dispositivos presentes no mercado, para além de dispendiosos, apresentam uma obtenção de pontos rudimentar, normalmente feita de forma manual pelo utilizador. Não apresentando a flexibilidade exigida para investigação, está previsto neste projeto desenvolver um sistema de aquisição automático destes pontos para um scanner de um vibrometro laser. Dada esta necessidade, foi criado um sistema de captura de pontos através da informação adquirida por uma câmara da Microsoft Kinect. Num ambiente Matlab, estes pontos foram convertidos em nuvens de pontos e processados através de uma aplicação, na qual o utilizador pode definir a sua configuração final. Este trabalho apresenta os resultados obtidos durante a análise de dois tipos diferentes de geometrias através da aplicação desenvolvida.Mestrado em Engenharia Mecânic

FIFA World Cup 2014 on Twitter and Facebook: more from less or less from more?

The last FIFA World Cup in Brazil presented the ambition of a global event, referring both to the number of audiences and the number of platforms involved in its coverage. Taking the advantages promoted by social media platforms and mobile technologies, media companies had the opportunity to try new strategies in a truly ambient information reality. Taking into account the development of Twitter, assuming itself as an informative and mobile platform, it becomes necessary to promote a further reflection about the impact of social media in the field of journalism. Applying this research to sport we follow other analyses made about political issues. In this study, we have analyzed 3195 post on Twitter and 665 on Facebook, made by media outlets from seven different countries, during the coverage of 32 matches of the World Cup in Brazil, in June and July 2014.O último campeonato do Mundo FIFA, que se realizou no Brasil, apresentou a ambição de um evento global, tanto ao nível das audiências como nas plataformas utilizadas na sua cobertura. Aproveitando as vantagens promovidas pelas plataformas de media social e os periféricos móveis, as empresas mediáticas tiveram a oportunidade de experimentar novas estratégias, numa realidade marcada pela ambient information. Tendo em conta o desenvolvimento do Twitter, que se assume cada vez mais como uma plataforma informativa móvel, é necessário refletir sobre o impato das media sociais no campo do jornalismo. Aplicando esta pesquisa ao desporto, seguimos outras análises feitas em questões relacionadas com a política. Neste estudo, analisámos 3195 posts no Twitter e 665 no Facebook feitos por meios de sete países diferentes, durante a cobertura de 32 partidas do Campeonato do Mundo do Brasil, em junho e julho de 2014

Provenance does matter: links between winter trophic segregation and the migratory origins of European robins

Amongst migratory species, it is common to find individuals from different populations or geographical origins sharing staging or wintering areas. Given their differing life histories, ecological theory would predict that the different groups of individuals should exhibit some level of niche segregation. This has rarely been investigated because of the difficulty in assigning migrating individuals to breeding areas. Here, we start by documenting a broad geographical gradient of hydrogen isotopes (δ2H) in robin Erithacus rubecula feathers across Europe. We then use δ2H, as well as wing-tip shape, as surrogates for broad migratory origin of birds wintering in Iberia, to investigate the ecological segregation of populations. Wintering robins of different sexes, ages and body sizes are known to segregate between habitats in Iberia. This has been attributed to the despotic exclusion of inferior competitors from the best patches by dominant individuals. We find no segregation between habitats in relation to δ2H in feathers, or to wing-tip shape, which suggests that no major asymmetries in competitive ability exist between migrant robins of different origins. Trophic level (inferred from nitrogen isotopes in blood) correlated both with δ2H in feathers and with wing-tip shape, showing that individuals from different geographic origins display a degree of ecological segregation in shared winter quarters. Isotopic mixing models indicate that wintering birds originating from more northerly populations consume more invertebrates. Our multi-scale study suggests that trophic-niche segregation may result from specializations (arising in the population-specific breeding areas) that are transported by the migrants into the shared wintering grounds

Hierarchical Virtual Screening and Binding Free Energy Prediction of Potential Modulators of Aedes Aegypti Odorant-Binding Protein 1

The Aedes aegypti mosquito is the main hematophagous vector responsible for arbovirus transmission in Brazil. The disruption of A. aegypti hematophagy remains one of the most efficient and least toxic methods against these diseases and, therefore, efforts in the research of new chemical entities with repellent activity have advanced due to the elucidation of the functionality of the olfactory receptors and the behavior of mosquitoes. With the growing interest of the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries in the development of chemical entities with repellent activity, computational studies (e.g., virtual screening and molecular modeling) are a way to prioritize potential modulators with stereoelectronic characteristics (e.g., pharmacophore models) and binding affinity to the AaegOBP1 binding site (e.g., molecular docking) at a lower computational cost. Thus, pharmacophore- and docking-based virtual screening was employed to prioritize compounds from Sigma-Aldrich (R) (n = 126,851) and biogenic databases (n = 8766). In addition, molecular dynamics (MD) was performed to prioritize the most potential potent compounds compared to DEET according to free binding energy calculations. Two compounds showed adequate stereoelectronic requirements (QFIT > 81.53), AaegOBP1 binding site score (Score > 42.0), volatility and non-toxic properties and better binding free energy value (Delta G < -24.13 kcal/mol) compared to DEET ((N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide)) (Delta G = -24.13 kcal/mol)

Design of a Multiband Full-Rate Ultra-Wideband Receiver in FPGA

MultiBand OFDM (MB-OFDM) UWB [1] is a short-range promising wireless technology for high data rate communications up to 480 Mbps. In this paper, we have designed and implemented in an Virtex-6 FPGA an MB-OFDM UWB receiver for the highest data rate of 480 Mbps. To test the system, we have also implemented an MB-OFDM transmitter and an AWGN generator in VHDL and determined the bit error rates at the receiver running in an FPGA

Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells Provide an Antibiotic-Protective Niche for Persistent Viable Mycobacterium tuberculosis that Survive Antibiotic Treatment

During tuberculosis (TB), some Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli persist in the presence of an active immunity and antibiotics that are used to treat the disease. Herein, by using the Cornell model of TB persistence, we further explored our recent finding that suggested that M. tuberculosis can escape therapy by residing in the bone marrow (BM) mesenchymal stem cells. We initially showed that M. tuberculosis rapidly disseminates to the mouse BM after aerosol exposure and maintained a stable burden for at least 220 days. In contrast, in the lungs, the M. tuberculosis burden peaked at 28 days and subsequently declined approximately 10-fold. More important, treatment of the mice with the antibiotics rifampicin and isoniazid, as expected, resulted in effective clearance of M. tuberculosis from the lungs and spleen. In contrast, M. tuberculosis persisted, albeit at low numbers, in the BM of antibiotic-treated mice. Moreover, most viable M. tuberculosis was recovered from the bone marrow CD271+CD45−-enriched cell fraction, and only few viable bacteria could be isolated from the CD271−CD45+ cell fraction. These results clearly show that BM mesenchymal stem cells provide an antibiotic-protective niche for M. tuberculosis and suggest that unraveling the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon will enhance our understanding of M. tuberculosis persistence in treated TB patients

¿El enfriamiento de los frutos y el recubrimiento de película de las semillas afecta al potencial de germinación de la uchuva?

Physalis (Physalis peruviana L.) is a native fruit of the Andes widely accepted in the national and international market. The berries have high commercial value, being very nutritious and tasty. Physalis cultivation in Brazil is currently expanding mainly southwards. Seeds carry out propagation. However, information concerning factors that could affect germination viability are scarce. Thus, the goal of this study was to assess the effects of storage and of film coating on the germination potential of physalis seeds. The experimental design was completely randomized in a 2x3 factorial, considering two fruit storage conditions (environment and cooling) x and three coating polymers to film-coat the seeds (Blue AG L-204® DISCO, Red AG L-203®DISCO, water), with five replications and one hundred seeds per plot. Germination was evaluated seven, 14 and 21 days after sowing to calculate the germination rate index. The physalis fruit cold storage for seven days does not affect the germination viability of the seeds. Seed coating increases the germination percentage and speed.La uchuva (Physalis peruviana L.) es una fruta nativa de los Andes con gran aceptación en el mercado nacional e internacional. Las bayas tienen un alto valor comercial, siendo muy nutritivo y sabroso. El cultivo de la uchuva en Brasil se está expandiendo principalmente en el Sur. La propagación se realiza a través de semillas, sin embargo, en relación con la información sobre los factores que pueden afectar a la viabilidad de la germinación son escasos. El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar los efectos de almacenamiento y recubrimiento de película sobre el potencial de germinación de semillas de uchuva. Se utilizó un diseño completamente aleatorizado, en el diseño factorial 2x3, con dos condiciones de almacenamiento de frutas (ambientales y refrigeración) x tres polímeros para recubrimiento de película de semillas (Disco Azul AG L-204®, Disco Rojo AG L-203®, agua), con cinco repeticiones y cien semillas por parcela. Se evaluó la germinación a 7, 14 y 21 días después de la siembra para el cálculo de la velocidad del índice de germinación. El almacenamiento en frío de las frutas en siete días no afecta a la viabilidad de la germinación de las semillas. El recubrimiento de semillas aumenta el porcentaje y la velocidad de la germinación