A Proposta de uma Ciência Universal na Arte Breve (1308) de Ramon Llull

Como apaixonado seguidor de Ramon Llull, Nicolau de Cusa, tinha, em sua biblioteca particular, várias obras do filósofo catalão. Uma das versões da Arte de Llull que mais tiveram difusão nos séculos seguintes à sua morte foi a Arte Breve (1308) exatamente por se tratar de uma simplificação de sua proposta de criar uma ciência universal, ideia tão a gosto do pensamento moderno ainda em gestação. A proposta deste artigo é apresentar as linhas gerais da estrutura de sua Arte, já que o maiorquino passou à posteridade como um inovador original das propostas medievais de unificação de todas as Ciências.As a passionate follower of Ramon Llull, Nicolau de Cusa, had in his personal library, several works of Catalan philosopher. One version of Art Llull which had spread over the centuries following his death was the Art Brief (1308) precisely because it is a simplification of his proposals to create a universal science idea as to suit modern thought still in gestation. The purpose of this issue is to present the general structure of his art, as the Mallorcan went down to posterity as an original innovator of medieval proposals unification of all sciences

Economic Impacts of Pre-Salt on a Regional Economy: The Case of Espirito Santo, Brazil

Brazilian government has recently confirmed the discovery of a huge oil and natural gas field in the pre-salt layer off the country's southeastern coast. It has been said that the oil fields can boost Brazil's oil production, and turn the country into one of the largest oil producers in the world. The fields are spatially concentrated in the coast area of a few Brazilian states, that may be directly benefited by oil production. This paper uses an interregional CGE model to assess the impacts of pre-salt on the economy of the State of Espirito Santo, a region already characterized by an economic base heavily reliant on natural resources. We focus our analysis on the structural economic impacts, both in the short run, medium run and long run

La propuesta de uma Ciencia Universal en la Ars Brevis (1308) de Ramón Llull

As a passionate follower of Ramon Llull, Nicolau de Cusa, had in his personal library, several works of Catalan philosopher. One version of Art Llull which had spread over the centuries following his death was the Art Brief (1308) precisely because it is a simplification of his proposals to create a universal science idea as to suit modern thought still in gestation. The purpose of this issue is to present the general structure of his art, as the Mallorcan went down to posterity as an original innovator of medieval proposals unification of all sciences

A comparison of methods to quantify prolamin contents in cereals

Hydrophobic prolamins are endosperm storage proteins accounting for about 40% of the total protein in most cereals seeds. Despite the absence of a reference method, several procedures have been periodically published to quantify prolamins in cereals. The aim of this study was to compare a conventional fractionation assay (LND) vs three other methods: one based on sequential extractions (HAM) and two rapid turbidimetric procedures (L&H and DRO). Prolamins were extracted in duplicate on barley, corn and wheat samples. For the turbidimetric prolamin evaluation in barley and wheat, a universally available purified gliadin, as alternative to purified zein, was also tested as standard reference material (SRM). The extraction prolamin values were different among grain types (P0.05). LND agreed sufficiently well both with HAM and with L&H methods (R2=0.664 and R2=0.703, respectively, P0.05), whereas a higher prolamin quantification was obtained using HAM (P<0.05). Overall, DRO did not provide similar comparison and performance parameters with respect to other method comparisons. The effect of changing purified zein with purified gliadin was noteworthy only for L&H, both for wheat and barley samples (P<0.01). Considering the increasing attention of animal nutritionists on prolamins, our results could get useful information for routine laboratories analysis

Assigning UPDRS Scores in the Leg Agility Task of Parkinsonians: Can It Be Done through BSN-based Kinematic Variables?

In this paper, by characterizing the Leg Agility (LA) task, which contributes to the evaluation of the degree of severity of the Parkinson's Disease (PD), through kinematic variables (including the angular amplitude and speed of thighs' motion), we investigate the link between these variables and Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) scores. Our investigation relies on the use of a few body-worn wireless inertial nodes and represents a first step in the design of a portable system, amenable to be integrated in Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios, for automatic detection of the degree of severity (in terms of UPDRS score) of PD. The experimental investigation is carried out considering 24 PD patients.Comment: 10 page

COMPOSIÇÃO DO GASTO PÚBLICO E CRESCIMENTO ECONÔMICO: UM ESTUDO EM PAINEL PARA OS ESTADOS BRASILEIROS

The purpose of this paper is to determine which components of public spending have influence on economic growth. The sample is composed by the Brazilian states over the period 1986-2002. Initially the spending is classified according its economic characteristics: current or capital. Later it is classified according its funcional characteristics: defence, education, health, transport and communication. The empirical evidence points that current spending is improductive in the sense it does not enhance economic growth. Capital spending, defence, education, transport and communication, on the other hand, are productive.

Sensory characteristics and nutritional quality of food products made with a biofortified and lectin free common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris l.) flour

Common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) are an important source of nutrients with beneficial effects on human health. However, they contain lectins, that limit the direct use of flour in food preparations without thermal treatment, and phytic acid, that reduces mineral cation bioavailability. The objectives of this research were: to obtain biofortified snacks and a cream using an untreated common bean flour devoid of active lectins (lec− ) and with reduced content of phytic acid (lpa) and to evaluate the sensorial appreciation for these products. The main results of the present work were: the products with the lpa lec− flour did not retain residual hemagglutinating activity due to lectins; they showed higher residual α-amylase inhibitor activity (from 2.2 to 135 times), reduced in vitro predicted glycemic index (about 5 units reduction) and increased iron bioavailability compared to the products with wild type flour; products with common bean flour were less appreciated than the reference ones without this flour, but the presence of an intense umami taste can be a positive attribute. Results confirmed that the use of the lpa lec− flour has important advantages in the preparation of safe and nutritionally improved products, and provide useful information to identify target consumers, such as children and elderly people

Fortification of Durum Wheat Fresh Pasta with Maqui (Aristotelia chilensis) and Its Effects on Technological, Nutritional, Sensory Properties, and Predicted Glycemic Index

Pasta, a staple food worldwide consumed, was fortified with maqui (Aristotelia chilensis) berry powder (MBP) and the effect of MBP inclusion was evaluated concerning technological, nutritional, and sensory properties. Fresh pasta samples were formulated by replacing 0, 7.5, and 15 g 100 g− 1 of durum wheat semolina with MBP. The inclusion of MBP did not affect the moisture content, but the water activity decreased in the fortified samples, while pH values decreased with increasing MBP levels in the recipe. The pasta fully cooking time and the swelling index were reduced, while the cooking loss and the firmness increased with increasing MBP levels. In addition, MBP increased the total dietary fiber, ash, and phenol contents, along with the in vitro antioxidant activities. The starch hydrolysis index and the predicted glycemic index of cooked fresh pasta decreased along with the increase of MBP addition. The MPB addition to fresh pasta could represent a valuable strategy for increasing its nutritional value, maintaining pasta’s technological properties without affecting the sensory acceptability

Inertial Sensing for Human Motion Analysis: Processing, Technologies, and Applications

Human motion has always attracted significant interest and curiosity. In particular, the last two centuries have seen a fast and great development of innovative techniques and technologies for the scientific analysis of human motion. If initially this was mainly due to the large interest in biomedical fields, a growing number of other leading applications has kept this interest alive until today. These applications emerge, for instance, in sport, entertainment, and industrial contexts. The first motion capture systems, appeared along the nineteenth century, were typically based on optical technologies and their development was profoundly interlaced with the contemporary development of photography and cinematography. Since then, many other different technologies have been employed to develop new motion capture systems, such as (but not limited to) inertial, mechanical, magnetic, and acoustic. In particular, inertial motion capture systems, based on the use of inertial sensors (such as the accelerometer, which measures the acceleration, and the gyroscope, which measures angular velocity), are likely to replace the previous ones and become a standard technology. This is mainly favored by the recent great improvement in the large-scale development of accurate inertial sensors ever cheaper. When referring to inertial human motion analysis, several application areas are driving current research and development efforts. A tentative list may include, for instance, the following: clinical and home monitoring and/or rehabilitation; ambient assisted living; computer graphics and computer animation; gaming and virtual reality; sport training; pedestrian navigation; and robotics. Furthermore, human motion analysis often implies a transversal investigation of many aspects of human motion, at different levels of abstraction and at different detail depths. For instance, one may just be interested in recognizing and estimating the pose of a person as well as in identifying the activities and/or the gestures that he/she is performing. Furthermore, one may be just interested in analyzing a restricted part of the body rather than focusing on the full body. Due to this heterogeneity of topics and intents, this thesis does not focus on a specific application or method, but aims at investigating different aspects of inertial human motion analysis, by specifically discussing the corresponding data processing approaches and the involved technologies. Four research areas have been taken into account which correspond to four types of applications: arm posture recognition; activity classification; evaluation of functional motor tasks; and motion reconstruction. In particular, these applications have been chosen in order to cover topics with different levels of abstraction and different detail depths