Programming of thermoelectric generation systems based on a heuristic composition of ant colonies

a b s t r a c t Studies related to biologically inspired optimization techniques, which are used for daily operational scheduling of thermoelectric generation systems, indicate that combinations of biologically inspired computation methods together with other optimization techniques have an important role to play in obtaining the best solutions in the shortest amount of processing time. Following this line of research, this article uses a methodology based on optimization by an ant colony to minimize the daily scheduling cost of thermoelectric units. The proposed model uses a Sensitivity Matrix (SM) based on the information provided by the Lagrange multipliers to improve the biologically inspired search process. Thus, a percentage of the individuals in the colony use this information in the evolutionary process of the colony. The results achieved through the simulations indicate that the use of the SM results in quality solutions with a reduced number of individuals

Candida Infections and Therapeutic Strategies: Mechanisms of Action for Traditional and Alternative Agents

The Candida genus comprises opportunistic fungi that can become pathogenic when the immune system of the host fails. Candida albicans is the most important and prevalent species. Polyenes, fluoropyrimidines, echinocandins, and azoles are used as commercial antifungal agents to treat candidiasis. However, the presence of intrinsic and developed resistance against azole antifungals has been extensively documented among several Candida species. The advent of original and re-emergence of classical fungal diseases have occurred as a consequence of the development of the antifungal resistance phenomenon. In this way, the development of new satisfactory therapy for fungal diseases persists as a major challenge of present-day medicine. The design of original drugs from traditional medicines provides new promises in the modern clinic. The urgent need includes the development of alternative drugs that are more efficient and tolerant than those traditional already in use. The identification of new substances with potential antifungal effect at low concentrations or in combination is also a possibility. The present review briefly examines the infections caused by Candida species and focuses on the mechanisms of action associated with the traditional agents used to treat those infections, as well as the current understanding of the molecular basis of resistance development in these fungal species. In addition, this review describes some of the promising alternative molecules and/or substances that could be used as anticandidal agents, their mechanisms of action, and their use in combination with traditional drugs

Rarity of monodominance in hyperdiverse Amazonian forests.

Tropical forests are known for their high diversity. Yet, forest patches do occur in the tropics where a single tree species is dominant. Such "monodominant" forests are known from all of the main tropical regions. For Amazonia, we sampled the occurrence of monodominance in a massive, basin-wide database of forest-inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network (ATDN). Utilizing a simple defining metric of at least half of the trees ≥ 10 cm diameter belonging to one species, we found only a few occurrences of monodominance in Amazonia, and the phenomenon was not significantly linked to previously hypothesized life history traits such wood density, seed mass, ectomycorrhizal associations, or Rhizobium nodulation. In our analysis, coppicing (the formation of sprouts at the base of the tree or on roots) was the only trait significantly linked to monodominance. While at specific locales coppicing or ectomycorrhizal associations may confer a considerable advantage to a tree species and lead to its monodominance, very few species have these traits. Mining of the ATDN dataset suggests that monodominance is quite rare in Amazonia, and may be linked primarily to edaphic factors

Geographic patterns of tree dispersal modes in Amazonia and their ecological correlates

Aim: To investigate the geographic patterns and ecological correlates in the geographic distribution of the most common tree dispersal modes in Amazonia (endozoochory, synzoochory, anemochory and hydrochory). We examined if the proportional abundance of these dispersal modes could be explained by the availability of dispersal agents (disperser-availability hypothesis) and/or the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits (resource-availability hypothesis). Time period: Tree-inventory plots established between 1934 and 2019. Major taxa studied: Trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 9.55 cm. Location: Amazonia, here defined as the lowland rain forests of the Amazon River basin and the Guiana Shield. Methods: We assigned dispersal modes to a total of 5433 species and morphospecies within 1877 tree-inventory plots across terra-firme, seasonally flooded, and permanently flooded forests. We investigated geographic patterns in the proportional abundance of dispersal modes. We performed an abundance-weighted mean pairwise distance (MPD) test and fit generalized linear models (GLMs) to explain the geographic distribution of dispersal modes. Results: Anemochory was significantly, positively associated with mean annual wind speed, and hydrochory was significantly higher in flooded forests. Dispersal modes did not consistently show significant associations with the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits. A lower dissimilarity in dispersal modes, resulting from a higher dominance of endozoochory, occurred in terra-firme forests (excluding podzols) compared to flooded forests. Main conclusions: The disperser-availability hypothesis was well supported for abiotic dispersal modes (anemochory and hydrochory). The availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits seems an unlikely explanation for the distribution of dispersal modes in Amazonia. The association between frugivores and the proportional abundance of zoochory requires further research, as tree recruitment not only depends on dispersal vectors but also on conditions that favour or limit seedling recruitment across forest types

Geography and ecology shape the phylogenetic composition of Amazonian tree communities

Aim: Amazonia hosts more tree species from numerous evolutionary lineages, both young and ancient, than any other biogeographic region. Previous studies have shown that tree lineages colonized multiple edaphic environments and dispersed widely across Amazonia, leading to a hypothesis, which we test, that lineages should not be strongly associated with either geographic regions or edaphic forest types. Location: Amazonia. Taxon: Angiosperms (Magnoliids; Monocots; Eudicots). Methods: Data for the abundance of 5082 tree species in 1989 plots were combined with a mega-phylogeny. We applied evolutionary ordination to assess how phylogenetic composition varies across Amazonia. We used variation partitioning and Moran\u27s eigenvector maps (MEM) to test and quantify the separate and joint contributions of spatial and environmental variables to explain the phylogenetic composition of plots. We tested the indicator value of lineages for geographic regions and edaphic forest types and mapped associations onto the phylogeny. Results: In the terra firme and várzea forest types, the phylogenetic composition varies by geographic region, but the igapó and white-sand forest types retain a unique evolutionary signature regardless of region. Overall, we find that soil chemistry, climate and topography explain 24% of the variation in phylogenetic composition, with 79% of that variation being spatially structured (R$^{2}$ = 19% overall for combined spatial/environmental effects). The phylogenetic composition also shows substantial spatial patterns not related to the environmental variables we quantified (R$^{2}$ = 28%). A greater number of lineages were significant indicators of geographic regions than forest types. Main Conclusion: Numerous tree lineages, including some ancient ones (>66 Ma), show strong associations with geographic regions and edaphic forest types of Amazonia. This shows that specialization in specific edaphic environments has played a long-standing role in the evolutionary assembly of Amazonian forests. Furthermore, many lineages, even those that have dispersed across Amazonia, dominate within a specific region, likely because of phylogenetically conserved niches for environmental conditions that are prevalent within regions

Paradoxos da “identidade nacional” nos discursos arquitetônicos de Lucio Costa e Sylvio de Vasconcellos

n the debate about the period and the architectural style that represented the national identity in the historiography of Brazilian architecture, in the first decades of the twentieth century, different agents took place in the consolidation of the architectural heritage idea. Important characters in cultural preservation policies, such as Rodrigo Melo Franco de Andrade and Mário de Andrade, integrated the public space emphasizing their positions of organic intellectuals in cultural policies. Given this fact, this article focuses on the consolidation in the social imaginary of eighteenth-century architecture as an effective representation of national architecture, consolidating itself as a style/period with the largest number of buildings listed until 1970. Understanding the different subjects involved in this process, this article focuses on the effective political action of Lucio Costa and Sylvio Vasconcellos on the defense of colonial heritage, based on texts and interventions in the overturned cities throughout Brazil, shaping and consolidating their strategies around an ideology of heritage and nation. In addition, we seek to understand the direct relationship established by both agents between the “elected” national heritage architecture and the precepts of the new architectural practice linked to the Modern Movement, to which they were adherents. Justifying the new from the primitive, in a perfect relationship where everything can be explained and fitted, the eclectic architecture was treated as a copy of styles, exacerbation of ornaments and link to foreignism, in opposition at the claimed nation project. We should always review concepts and guidelines, dealing more truthfully and fairly with our eclectic heritage, and consequently with our architectural historiography.No debate em torno do período e do estilo arquitetônico que representassem a identidade nacional na historiografia da arquitetura brasileira, nas primeiras décadas do século XX, diferentes agentes tomaram lugar na consolidação do ideário patrimonial arquitetônico. Figuras marcantes às políticas de preservação cultural, tais como Rodrigo Melo Franco de Andrade e Mário de Andrade, integraram o espaço público ressaltando suas posições de intelectuais inerentes às políticas culturais. Tendo em vista tal fato, este artigo se debruça sobre a consolidação no imaginário social da arquitetura setecentista enquanto efetiva representação da arquitetura nacional, concretizando-se enquanto estilo/período com o maior número de edificações tombadas até 1970. Compreendendo os diferentes sujeitos envolvidos nesse processo, centra-se, assim, na efetiva ação política de Lucio Costa e Sylvio Vasconcellos na defesa em torno do patrimônio colonial, a partir de textos e intervenções nas cidades tombadas Brasil afora, conformandoe consolidando suas estratégias em torno de um ideário de patrimônio e nação. Além disso, busca-se compreender a relação direta estabelecida por ambos os agentes entre a arquitetura “eleita” patrimônio nacional e os preceitos do novo fazer arquitetônico vinculado ao Movimento Moderno, ao qual eram adeptos. Justificando o novo a partir do primitivo, numa relação perfeita em que tudo se explica e se encaixa, a arquitetura eclética foi tratada como cópia de estilos, exacerbação de ornamentos e vinculação ao estrangeirismo, se opondo assim ao projeto de nação pleiteado. Devemos sempre rever conceitos e diretrizes, tratando de forma mais verdadeira e justa o nosso patrimônio eclético, e em consequência, nossa historiografia arquitetônica

Estimating the global conservation status of more than 15,000 Amazonian tree species

Estimates of extinction risk for Amazonian plant and animal species are rare and not often incorporated into land-use policy and conservation planning. We overlay spatial distribution models with historical and projected deforestation to show that at least 36% and up to 57% of all Amazonian tree species are likely to qualify as globally threatened under International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List criteria. If confirmed, these results would increase the number of threatened plant species on Earth by 22%. We show that the trends observed in Amazonia apply to trees throughout the tropics, and we predict thatmost of the world’s >40,000 tropical tree species now qualify as globally threatened. A gap analysis suggests that existing Amazonian protected areas and indigenous territories will protect viable populations of most threatened species if these areas suffer no further degradation, highlighting the key roles that protected areas, indigenous peoples, and improved governance can play in preventing large-scale extinctions in the tropics in this century

Mapping density, diversity and species-richness of the Amazon tree flora

Using 2.046 botanically-inventoried tree plots across the largest tropical forest on Earth, we mapped tree species-diversity and tree species-richness at 0.1-degree resolution, and investigated drivers for diversity and richness. Using only location, stratified by forest type, as predictor, our spatial model, to the best of our knowledge, provides the most accurate map of tree diversity in Amazonia to date, explaining approximately 70% of the tree diversity and species-richness. Large soil-forest combinations determine a significant percentage of the variation in tree species-richness and tree alpha-diversity in Amazonian forest-plots. We suggest that the size and fragmentation of these systems drive their large-scale diversity patterns and hence local diversity. A model not using location but cumulative water deficit, tree density, and temperature seasonality explains 47% of the tree species-richness in the terra-firme forest in Amazonia. Over large areas across Amazonia, residuals of this relationship are small and poorly spatially structured, suggesting that much of the residual variation may be local. The Guyana Shield area has consistently negative residuals, showing that this area has lower tree species-richness than expected by our models. We provide extensive plot meta-data, including tree density, tree alpha-diversity and tree species-richness results and gridded maps at 0.1-degree resolution