A miniaturized self-calibrated pyrometer microsystem

paper describes the design, modeling and optimization of a miniaturized self-calibrated pyrometer to detect infrared radiation (in 5-20 µm range of wavelengths) in order to measure the real temperature of objects without contact. The microsystem consists of a thermally insulated absorbing area and two thermopiles with the hot junctions in the absorbing area and the cold junctions on a heat sink (i.e. the silicon bulk). The complete microsystem is in silicon planar technology and each thermopile has a different reference temperature, biased by a Peltier microstructure near to the cold junction of the thermopile. A silicon die passivated with a silicon nitride membrane is the ground floor of all microsystem. The absorbing area, a black gold strip on the silicon nitride membrane is obtained by anisotropic etching of the bulk silicon from the back of the wafer. The pyrometer microsystem is composed by: the IR optical filter on the top, the electronic system built in CMOS technology added by Multi-Chip-Module (MCM) techniques and the pyrometer. Application of a network of pyrometers in textile industry is the final goal.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Combined impact of diurnal type and time of day on children’s results in a battery of measurements probing reading abilities: Preliminary Results

The present work is part of a larger ongoing research project and it specifically aims to scrutinize whether diurnal-type (morningness- eveningness) and time-of-day have an impact (synchrony effect) on the results obtained by primary school children in standardized measures assessing reading skills and difficulties. Morning- and evening-type children attending the 2nd, 3rd or 4th grades were selected in a Portuguese “School Cluster” Using the Portuguese version of the Werner et al. (2009) Children Chronotype Questionnaire. The selected participants were randomly assigned to assessment sessions in the morning (9:00-10:30) or in the afternoon (16:00-17:30). There were 78 children (40 boys, 38 girls), 39 (50.0%) morning-type and 38 (50.0%) evening-type, 40 assessed in morning sessions and 38 in afternoon sessions. Reading abilities/difficulties were assessed using the Sucena & Castro (2011) battery ALEPE ‐ Avaliação da Leitura em Português Europeu [European Portuguese Reading Assessment battery], by a single evaluator who was blind to each child diurnaltype. Comparing morning and afternoon sessions, morning-types mainly showed similar scores, both in terms of answer correctness and reaction times, excepting for significantly higher scores in three tests in the morning sessions. Evening-types showed similar scores in most tests for answer correctness, but in two tests they achieved significantly higher scores in the morning, and mean reaction times were consistently shorter in the morning in comparison to the afternoon sessions. In 5 out of the 7 ALEPE tests that yield reaction time scores, differences reached, or were close to, statistical significance (p < 0.05, or p < 0.15, respectively). In conclusion, in spite of evening types’ performance seeming in most cases to be unaffected by time-of-day in a standardized battery of tests assessing reading abilities and difficulties, their shorter reaction times when tested in their nonoptimal time-of-day (i.e., in the morning) indicates an asynchrony effect. Contrarily to our initial expectations, results obtained so far in evening-type children suggest that specific tasks may benefit from non-optimal moments, as indicated by recent evidence. Support: FCT/COMPETE/QREN – research project PTDC/PSIEDD/120003/2010

Promoção do consumo de frutas, legumes e verduras no ambiente de trabalho: diagnóstico inicial.

Diagnóstico da oferta de frutas, legumes e verduras na Unidade de Alimentação e Nutrição (UAN) da empresa; Diagnóstico do consumo de frutas, legumes e verduras dos funcionários; Identificando modos de aumentar o consumo de frutas, legumes e verduras.bitstream/item/84157/1/2008-DOC-0089.pd

Estimativa do Índice de Área Foliar (IAF) em diferentes variedades de mandioca a partir de modelos matemáticos, ceptômetro (ACU-PAR LP-80) e software de tratamento de imagens (Image J).

A área foliar se destaca como uma variável de extrema importância na estimativa de produtividade das culturas. Essa relação de extrema importância ocorre devido à íntima relação da quantidade foliar com a capacidade de interceptação da energia luminosa pelas folhas e consequentemente aumento na fotossíntese liquida que é sinônimo de produtividade das culturas. Objetivo ? Nesse contexto esse trabalho teve como objetivo estimar o índice de área foliar (IAF) de plantas de mandioca (Manihot esculenta Crantz) por métodos diretos e indiretos em nível de campo, nas condições do Recôncavo da Bahia