Iterative Coupled Shell/Tube Simulation of Waste Heat Boilers using Computational Multiphysics

Removal of sulphur from fossil fuels is important in order to avoid the emission of sulphur oxides into the atmosphere, exposure to which has negative health and environ- mental effects. Sulphur is removed from refinery petrochemical products via the Claus process which contains a waste heat boiler (WHB). These WHBs are exposed to extreme temperatures and corrosive conditions, yet they are expected to operate continuously for years at a time. Typically WHBs have been designed using empirical correlations and heuristics, but more recently using process and multiphysics simulation. In this work a proof of concept for the numerical simulation of a WHB and its protective insulation is demonstrated. Continuum multiphysics models for both shell and tube side of a WHB are developed. An iterative coupling method for the determination of steady-state numerical solution of these models is then used to simulate a sub-region of a typical WHB. Simulation results for the tube-side of the WHB predict both the temperature profile and nature of the turbulent energy transport in the inlet region, highlighting complex flow profiles. Simulations of the shell-side of the WHB predict the multiphase convective boiling behaviour in the bulk (far from wall effects). Finally, preliminary results of the coupled shell/tube configurations are presented and compared to previous results

Alternative Therapeutic Approach for Cartilage Repair

The cartilage is a flexible tissue, which supports the adjacent soft tissues. The damages that cause degenerative articular diseases are marked by the increase of cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), IL-1β, IL-6, IL-18, and IL-17, which cause intense inflammatory process and release of metalloproteinases and disintegrin enzymes that lead to cartilage degradation. The Curcuma longa possesses bioactive compounds designated as curcuminoids that display therapeutic potential in several pathologies. Curcumin is one of these compounds that may exhibit anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiviral, antibacterial, and antitumor effects. It may promote decrease of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, COX-2, and reactive oxygen species. Furthermore, curcumin inhibits the activity of several kinases related to the degradation of the cartilage, including tyrosine kinase, p21-activated kinase, mitogen-activated protein kinase, protein kinase C, the activator protein 1 pathway, and NF-κB leading to the suppression of the production of metalloproteinases and inflammatory cytokines. Curcumin has also been related to the stimulation of the production of type II collagen and glycosaminoglycan by chondrocytes. Studies have shown that this compound may alleviate joint pain and crepitation, reduce the use of other drugs for pain relief, stimulate the production of type II collagen and glycosaminoglycan resulting in a protective and anti-inflammatory action of cartilage and bones, and improve the quality of life of the patients

Sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum L.) analysis through biospeckle and spectroscopy (NIR)

The objective of this paper was to evaluate the sugar and water content in sugar cane samples by means of two non-destructive techniques in comparison with conventional methods. One non-destructive technique is the Biospeckle, an interaction between the laser and the biological material which provides information about the material. The other technique is the near infrared spectroscopy (NIR). The Biospeckle technique has been constantly used in agricultural engineering. In this paper, the relation between the water and the sugar contents were obtained. The results for the Biospeckle were acquired through the moment of inertia (MI). The data acquired through already consolidated methodologies were used to quantify the samples’ water and sugar contents, correlating to the spectroscopy results and also to the Biospeckle. It was obtained a high determination coefficient (R2 = 0.9287) between the predicted Brix by the model generated by NIR spectroscopy and Brix measured by refractometer. It was also possible to differentiate the water contents of the sugar cane samples both externally lit (husk) and internally lit (cut) by Biospeckle analysis through the calculation of MI. It is possible to evaluate the water content and the sugar content in samples combining Biospeckle and NIR spectroscopy, which are non-invasive and non-destructive methods.7626

Portuguese translation and Brazilian cultural adaptation of the Assessment of Burden in Chronic Venous Disease questionnaire (ABC-V)

 Introduction: The Assessment of Burden in Chronic Venous Disease questionnaire (ABC-V) is a valuable tool for assessing the impact that chronic venous disease (CVD) has on patients’ quality of life (QL). There was a need for a translated and adapted version suitable for use in the Brazilian population. CVD is becoming a public health issue as the incidence and prevalence are high. The ABC-V can be used to collect information on patients’ QL and thus the development of a Brazilian version that facilitates research into the CVD population.  Objective: To provide translation and cultural validation of the Assessment of Burden in Chronic-Venous Disease (ABC-V) questionnaire for the Portuguese language.  Methods: The ABC-V was translated into Portuguese by two bilingual translators working independently. The translators then created a consensus version, which was translated back into English by two native English speakers. Finally all the versions were analysed by a committee of with expertise in translation and the two cultures involved. The committee produced a draft Portuguese-language version which was tested in a pilot sample of between 30 and 40 people. The committee evaluated feedback from the pilot sample on the clarity and comprehensibility of the draft version.  Results: The draft version was completed by 31 patients at the Chronic Venous Diseases Department of Padre Anchieta’s Teaching Hospital. With the analysis of the questionnaires used in the pre-test, it is possible to observe that in English, unlike Portuguese, verbs are often used in the passive tense. It also emerged that there was a need to use more colloquial terms and expressions so that the question would be easier to understand, whilst preserving the meaning of the original items. Changing the tone of the questionnaire in this way should make it more suitable for use with people from a wide range of socioeconomic levels, especially those with lower social status and less education. Because the questions are qualitative rather than quantitative they are more open to interpretation and elicit more subjective responses. This creates an additional difficulty in adapting the questionnaire for the Brazilian cultural context. The data from pilot-testing of the draft version was used to develop a translated and culturally adapted version of the ABC-V using the procedure described by Beaton et al.  Conclusion: A translated and culturally adapted version of the ABC-V suitable for use in Brazil has been developed and can be used to evaluate changes in the QL of Brazilian patients with CVD.  Introduction: The Assessment of Burden in Chronic Venous Disease questionnaire (ABC-V) is a valuable tool for assessing the impact that chronic venous disease (CVD) has on patients’ quality of life (QL). There was a need for a translated and adapted version suitable for use in the Brazilian population. CVD is becoming a public health issue as the incidence and prevalence are high. The ABC-V can be used to collect information on patients’ QL and thus the development of a Brazilian version that facilitates research into the CVD population. Objective: To provide translation and cultural validation of the Assessment of Burden in Chronic-Venous Disease (ABC-V) questionnaire for the Portuguese language. Methods: The ABC-V was translated into Portuguese by two bilingual translators working independently. The translators then created a consensus version, which was translated back into English by two native English speakers. Finally all the versions were analysed by a committee of with expertise in translation and the two cultures involved. The committee produced a draft Portuguese-language version which was tested in a pilot sample of between 30 and 40 people. The committee evaluated feedback from the pilot sample on the clarity and comprehensibility of the draft version.  Results: The draft version was completed by 31 patients at the Chronic Venous Diseases Department of Padre Anchieta’s Teaching Hospital. With the analysis of the questionnaires used in the pre-test, it is possible to observe that in English, unlike Portuguese, verbs are often used in the passive tense. It also emerged that there was a need to use more colloquial terms and expressions so that the question would be easier to understand, whilst preserving the meaning of the original items. Changing the tone of the questionnaire in this way should make it more suitable for use with people from a wide range of socioeconomic levels, especially those with lower social status and less education. Because the questions are qualitative rather than quantitative they are more open to interpretation and elicit more subjective responses. This creates an additional difficulty in adapting the questionnaire for the Brazilian cultural context. The data from pilot-testing of the draft version was used to develop a translated and culturally adapted version of the ABC-V using the procedure described by Beaton et al.  Conclusion: A translated and culturally adapted version of the ABC-V suitable for use in Brazil has been developed and can be used to evaluate changes in the QL of Brazilian patients with CVD

Monitoramento das águas subterráneas adjacentes ao aterro sanitário de Taubaté(SP): primeiros resultados

36 observation wells, varying from 2 to 5 meters in depth to water, were installed over a 20,000 m² area downgradient from the Taubate sanitary landílll as part of a project to monitor groundwater quality at the site. In 1984, the first year of the study, water leveis in the wells were measured monthly and water quality samples were collected and analyzed every 3 months. The chemical analyses results showed an increase in the overall mineralization of the groundwater in the vicinity of the landfill, particularly for chloride, soium bicarbonate, potassium, magnesium and ammonium ions. Good correlations were demonstrated between specific conductance and total dissolve d solids (TDS), which consiste d principally of chloride and sodium ions. For the geohydrologic environment studied, the best indicators of landfill pollution were: specific conductance, sodium, chloride and ammonium ionsForam instalados 36 poços de observação, de 2 a 5m de profundidade numa área de 20.000 m² a jusante do aterro sanitário de Taubaté a fim de se monitorar a qualidade das águas subterrâneas no local. Em 1984, primeiro ano do estudo, o nível de água nos poços foi medido mensalmente e foram coletadas e analisadas amostras de água de cada poço trimestralmente. Os resultados das análises químicas mostraram que a proximidade do depósito de lixo provoca o aumento da mineralização total da água subterrânea, e em particular das concentrações dos íons cloreto, sódio, bicarbonato, potássio, magnésio e amônio. Foram evidenciadas boas correlações lineares entre a condutividade e as concentrações de sólidos totais dissolvidos - de cloretos e de sódio. No ambiente hidrogeológico estudado, a condutividade, o sódio, o cloreto e o nitrogênio amordaçai constituem os indicadores da poluição pelo lix

Narrative semiotics and law: from the semionarrative model to the 2017 labor reform case study

Trata-se de pesquisa de aproximação da metodologia desenvolvida pela semiótica francesa de base greimasiana com os conceitos nucleares da prática social reconhecida como Direito. Pretende investigar as formas de produção de sentido da prática a partir de uma visão imanentista em que o jurídico se compreende e se destaca das demais formas discursivas pelos adensamentos semânticos e sintagmáticos criados pela reprodução social. Exploramos três conceitos-chave para o direito: juridicidade, nômos e Justiça, para estabelecermos suas articulações lógicas de produção de sentido através do ferramental da narratividade. A partir dessa estrutura básica avançamos nosso estudo para mecanismos mais complexos das interações sociais jurídicas e, para tanto, recorremos à sociossemiótica de Eric Landowski, que, ao desdobrar o modelo de base greimasiano em quatro outros regimes de interação, abrigou de forma mais detalhada diversos aspectos das relações jurídicas. O modelo de aproximação será utilizado na análise de um objeto discursivo da denominada Reforma Trabalhista produzido no curso das discussões que alteraram a legislação que regula as relações de trabalho no Brasil. A escolha se dá em razão da centralidade que o trabalho tem na vida moderna e suas implicações no modo de vida nas sociedades capitalistas. O rápido e pouco dialógico processo que deu origem ao atual regramento trabalhista requereu a produção de inúmeros objetos semióticos para promover efeito de normatividade em marcos de uma sociedade democrática. Escolhemos o Relatório Legislativo da Câmara de Deputados Federal como objeto síntese das discussões e ponto representativo da longa e complexa estrutura de interações sociais de produção do sistema de normas gerais impessoais. A análise, para além do modelo construído, oportuniza esclarecer formas discursivas da atualidade em que o valor liberdade é alçado à categoria de direito máximo e impulsiona reformas de desregulamentação social. Nos Estados Modernos, o direito estabelece a forma de controle social e os mecanismos de dominação social, mas é também o lugar em que o hipossuficiente inscreve o resultado dos embates sociais, e, nessa relação complexa, a desregulamentação unilateral pode acentuar as assimetrias sociais produzindo estados de anomia social.The research sets the methodology developed by Greimasian-based French semiotics alongside the core concepts of the social practice typically recognized as Law. It investigates the forms that sustain the production of meaning within this social practice. The investigation develops from an immanentist view, using the semantic and syntagmatic densification created by social reproduction as the means to comprehend and contrast juridicity from other forms of discourse. We explore three key concepts in law - juridicity, nômos, and justice - to establish their logical articulations in meaning production through the tools of the narrativity model. From this basic structure, we advance our study to include more complex mechanisms of social interactions in juridicity. To do so, we call upon the advances of Eric Landowski\'s sociosemiotics, which, by unfolding the Greimasian basic model into four other regimes of interaction, encompasses in a more detailed way several aspects of legal relations. The resulting model is used to analyze one discursive object that emerged from the discussions that altered the legislation of labor relations in Brazil (the so-called Labor Reform). This choice of subject is a result of the centrality that work has in modern life and its implications on the ways of life in capitalist societies, especially in shaping our subjectivity. The quick and insufficient dialogical process that gave rise to the current labor regulations required the production of countless semiotic objects to promote normative effects in the framework of a democratic society. We chose the Legislative Report of the Federal Chamber of Deputies as the synthesis object of the discussions and as a representative point of the long and complex structure of social interactions to produce the system of impersonal general norms. Beyond the constructed model, this analysis provides an opportunity to elucidate current discursive forms in which the value of freedom is elevated to the category of maximum right and pushes social deregulation reforms. In modern nation-states, the law both establishes the form of social control and the mechanisms of social domination, and also constitutes the place where the underprivileged inscribe the result of social fights; in this complex relationship, unilateral deregulation can accentuate social asymmetries, producing states of social anomie

Co-design - a study in the automotive industry.

A crescente tendência de participação dos fornecedores no processo de desenvolvimento de produto da indústria automotiva, faz com que o estudo desta parceria se torne importante, tanto para as montadoras quanto para os fornecedores. O principal objetivo desta parceria é a utilização da capacidade de engenharia dos fornecedores (know-how), permitindo assim, a incorporação de novas tecnologias ao veículo e a redução dos custos de desenvolvimento das montadoras. Observa-se cada vez mais dentro da montadora, discussões sobre o co-desenvolvimento (co-design) nos projetos automotivos, níveis de integração com o fornecedor, fase do projeto adequada para o envolvimento dos fornecedores, o nível adequado de detalhamento das especificações técnicas utilizadas como referência inicial pelos fornecedores, a definição das responsabilidades de cada parceiro e o próprio processo para realização do desenvolvimento em parceria. O presente trabalho explora de que forma tais questões são atualmente abordadas na subsidiária brasileira de uma montadora, através do estudo de seus processos e ferramentas e da comparação com as informações disponíveis na bibliografia e estudadas no meio acadêmico. Com este trabalho, pretende-se fornecer informações que possam auxiliar montadoras e fornecedores na melhoria de seus processos internos de desenvolvimento de produto, principalmente nas questões relativas ao co-desenvolvimento (co-design).The increasing trend of suppliers participation in the automotive industry product development process makes the study of this partnership important for automakers and suppliers. The main objective of this partnership is to take advantage of suppliers engineering capability (know-how) in order to bring new technologies to the vehicle and reduce automakers development costs. It is becoming more and more common inside automakers, discussions regarding co-design in automotive projects, supplier integration levels, suitable project phase to get suppliers involved, suitable level of details for automakers technical specifications used as initial reference by suppliers, the responsibilities definition of each partner and the process to perform development in a partnership relation. This work explores how these issues are currently addressed in a Brazilian automaker subsidiary, through the study of its processes and tools and the comparison with the information available in the bibliography and studied academically. Finally, this work intends to provide information that can assist automakers and suppliers to improve their internal product development processes, mainly regarding co-design

Co-design - a study in the automotive industry.

A crescente tendência de participação dos fornecedores no processo de desenvolvimento de produto da indústria automotiva, faz com que o estudo desta parceria se torne importante, tanto para as montadoras quanto para os fornecedores. O principal objetivo desta parceria é a utilização da capacidade de engenharia dos fornecedores (know-how), permitindo assim, a incorporação de novas tecnologias ao veículo e a redução dos custos de desenvolvimento das montadoras. Observa-se cada vez mais dentro da montadora, discussões sobre o co-desenvolvimento (co-design) nos projetos automotivos, níveis de integração com o fornecedor, fase do projeto adequada para o envolvimento dos fornecedores, o nível adequado de detalhamento das especificações técnicas utilizadas como referência inicial pelos fornecedores, a definição das responsabilidades de cada parceiro e o próprio processo para realização do desenvolvimento em parceria. O presente trabalho explora de que forma tais questões são atualmente abordadas na subsidiária brasileira de uma montadora, através do estudo de seus processos e ferramentas e da comparação com as informações disponíveis na bibliografia e estudadas no meio acadêmico. Com este trabalho, pretende-se fornecer informações que possam auxiliar montadoras e fornecedores na melhoria de seus processos internos de desenvolvimento de produto, principalmente nas questões relativas ao co-desenvolvimento (co-design).The increasing trend of suppliers participation in the automotive industry product development process makes the study of this partnership important for automakers and suppliers. The main objective of this partnership is to take advantage of suppliers engineering capability (know-how) in order to bring new technologies to the vehicle and reduce automakers development costs. It is becoming more and more common inside automakers, discussions regarding co-design in automotive projects, supplier integration levels, suitable project phase to get suppliers involved, suitable level of details for automakers technical specifications used as initial reference by suppliers, the responsibilities definition of each partner and the process to perform development in a partnership relation. This work explores how these issues are currently addressed in a Brazilian automaker subsidiary, through the study of its processes and tools and the comparison with the information available in the bibliography and studied academically. Finally, this work intends to provide information that can assist automakers and suppliers to improve their internal product development processes, mainly regarding co-design