Medical futility, from theory to practice

O conceito de futilidade médica é tão antigo quanto a Medicina mas, a partir dos anos 50 do século passado, com o desenvolvimento tecnológico e a substituição do paternalismo médico pela autonomia do doente, surge como uma categoria que os profissionais de saúde usam para decidir quando não iniciar ou quando suspender o tratamento médico. A autora tem como objetivo fazer uma revisão e reflexão sobre a futilidade terapêutica, a partir de dois casos da sua prática clínica

Distribuição, coleta, uso e preservação das espécies silvestres de algodão no Brasil.

bitstream/CNPA/14839/1/DOC78.pd

Background field method in the Wilson formulation

A cutoff regularization for a pure Yang-Mills theory is implemented within the background field method keeping explicit the gauge invariance of the effective action. The method has been applied to compute the beta function at one loop order.Comment: LaTex 13 pages, 1 figure; to appear in Nucl.Phys.

Breakdown of the Fermi-liquid regime in the 2D Hubbard model from a two-loop field-theoretical renormalization group approach

We analyze the particle-hole symmetric two-dimensional Hubbard model on a square lattice starting from weak-to-moderate couplings by means of the field-theoretical renormalization group (RG) approach up to two-loop order. This method is essential in order to evaluate the effect of the momentum-resolved anomalous dimension $\eta(\textbf{p})$ which arises in the normal phase of this model on the corresponding low-energy single-particle excitations. As a result, we find important indications pointing to the existence of a non-Fermi liquid (NFL) regime at temperature $T\to 0$ displaying a truncated Fermi surface (FS) for a doping range exactly in between the well-known antiferromagnetic insulating and the $d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave singlet superconducting phases. This NFL evolves as a function of doping into a correlated metal with a large FS before the $d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave pairing susceptibility finally produces the dominant instability in the low-energy limit.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures; published in Phys. Rev.

Hopf-like bifurcations in planar piecewise linear systems

Continuous planar piecewise linear systems with two linear zones are considered. Due to their low differentiability specific techniques of analysis must be developed. Several bifurcations giving rise to limit cycles are pointed out

Alguns insetos úteis ao algodoeiro.

bitstream/item/126637/1/Alguns-Insetos-uteis-ao-algoodoeiro.pd

Optical Identification of He White Dwarfs Orbiting Four Millisecond Pulsars in the Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae

We used ultra-deep UV observations obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope to search for optical companions to binary millisecond pulsars (MSPs) in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. We identified four new counterparts (to MSPs 47TucQ, 47TucS, 47TucT and 47TucY) and confirmed those already known (to MSPs 47TucU and 47TucW). In the color magnitude diagram, the detected companions are located in a region between the main sequence and the CO white dwarf cooling sequences, consistent with the cooling tracks of He white dwarfs of mass between 0.15 Msun and 0.20 Msun. For each identified companion, mass, cooling age, temperature and pulsar mass (as a function of the inclination angle) have been derived and discussed. For 47TucU we also found that the past accretion history likely proceeded in a sub-Eddington rate. The companion to the redback 47TucW is confirmed to be a non degenerate star, with properties particularly similar to those observed for black widow systems. Two stars have been identified within the 2-sigma astrometric uncertainty from the radio positions of 47TucH and 47TucI, but the available data prevent us from firmly assessing whether they are the true companions of these two MSPs.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures, Accepted for publication by Ap

Deep XMM-Newton Spectroscopic and Timing Observations of the Isolated Radio Millisecond Pulsar PSR J0030+0451

We present deep XMM-Newton EPIC spectroscopic and timing X-ray observations of the nearby solitary radio millisecond pulsar, PSR J0030+0451. Its emission spectrum in the 0.1-10 keV range is found to be remarkably similar to that of the nearest and best studied millisecond pulsar, PSR J0437-4715, being well described by a predominantly thermal two-temperature model plus a faint hard tail evident above ~2 keV. The pulsed emission in the 0.3-2 keV band is characterized by two broad pulses with pulsed fraction ~60-70%, consistent with a mostly thermal origin of the X-rays only if the surface polar cap radiation is from a light-element atmosphere. Modeling of the thermal pulses permits us to place constraints on the neutron star radius of R>10.7 (95% confidence) and R>10.4 km (at 99.9% confidence) for M=1.4 M_sun.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures; accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa