Results of the Basin and Range Geoscientific Experiment (BARGE): A marine-style seismic reflection survey across the eastern boundary of the central Basin and Range Province

Approximately 120 km of marine-style deep seismic reflection data were shot during a survey on the waters of Lake Mead in southeastern Nevada. The survey extends from near the abrupt eastern edge of the Basin and Range Province (BRP) to a point ~80 km into the extended domain. Data quality throughout the survey ranged from fair to poor; the recorded data include significant towing noise and occasionally problematic diffractions and sideswipe from canyon walls. The upper 2–4 s of the data shows well-defined reflections from sedimentary fill, but below that point, reflectivity is weak. Lower crustal reflectivity is generally absent under the eastern part of the survey, with a slight increase in reflectivity to the west. The reflection Moho appears as a series of weakly defined, discontinuous reflections, most of which occur at 10–11 s. A particularly interesting feature of the data set is the relative lack of reflectivity from the lower crust, which is a region of strong reflectivity on other seismic reflection data sets from the BRP

STRATEGIC NUTRITIONAL INTERVENTIONS WITH PROBIOTICS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO PERFORMANCE, FEEDING BEHAVIOR, AND RETICULORUMEN ENVIRONMENT IN COWS AND CALVES UNDER SUBACUTE RUMINAL ACIDOSIS RISK

Subacute ruminal acidosis (SARA) is a digestive disorder in ruminants characterized by extended periods of low reticulorumen pH. This digestive disorder is commonly observed in ruminants fed diets with elevated proportions of non-fibrous carbohydrates. This disorder has been vastly studied in adult dairy cattle and has been associated with losses in milk production, changes in feeding behavior, damage to the gastrointestinal tract, and premature culling. Although vastly studied in adult cattle, there is limited research on the effects of SARA in calves. SARA might be prevented by modifying the reticulorumen environment with probiotic supplements containing lactateutilizing bacteria such as Megasphaera elsdenii. Megasphaera elsdenii is a naturally occurring rumen microorganism known for stabilizing ruminal pH. Thus, the objectives of this dissertation were to investigate the effects of Megasphaera elsdenii supplementation strategies to prevent SARA in cows and calves in commercial situations, therefore improving animal welfare and performance. The first objective of this dissertation was to investigate the effects of Megasphaera elsdenii supplementation via oral drench on reticulorumen pH, milk production, and feed intake and behavior of lactating cows undergoing a ruminal acidosis challenge. The second objective of this dissertation was to evaluate the effects of early-life Megasphaera elsdenii supplementation on feed intake, performance, and feeding behavior patterns of dairy-beef crossbred calves. Lastly, the third objective of this dissertation was to evaluate how early-life Megasphaera elsdenii supplementation with an oral probiotic capsule affects the reticulorumen fermentation and development in dairy-beef crossbred calves. Overall strategic nutritional interventions with Megasphaera elsdenii supplementation were beneficial for cows and calves under SARA risk. As cows receiving the probiotic experienced shorter and less intense SARA when compared to control cows during a SARA challenge. Furthermore, calves supplemented with Megasphaera elsdenii at early production stages displayed greater feed intake, weight gain, and superior reticulorumen development when compared to control calves. Future research should investigate the effects of Megasphaera elsdenii supplementation on the reticulorumen microbiome of cows and calves under SARA risk

A cloud, microservice-based digital twin for the Oil industry a flow assurance case study

Digital Twins are one of the top recent technology trends, considered a front-runner in enabling the next generation of intelligent, digitalized industries. A Digital Twin is basi cally a real enterprise asset mirrored into the virtual world, created entirely in software, and utilized to innovate business, generate new revenue, and create value-producing op portunities. Naturally, building such demanding systems is not an easy task. Many organi zational and technological concerns should be addressed, like real-time processing, data management, cybersecurity, and low latency communication. Moreover, Digital Twins should be extensible and support data integration with its physical counterpart, allowing enterprises to streamline their operations more safely. Considering there are no standard methodologies or technologies to design a Digital Twin, software developers struggle to develop a robust, reliable Digital Twin architecture that meets customers’ needs. Therefore, in consideration of these technical challenges, we decided to explore solutions in the oil and gas industry. Oil plants are known for having notoriously complex pro cesses and an oppressive ecosystem when it comes to the adoption of new technologies, especially due to its intricate and ever-changing landscape. Despite these difficulties, this industry would certainly benefit from a well-designed Digital Twin. Hence, this work proposes a solution for an Oil Well Digital Twin architecture. We decided to use the flow assurance process of an Oil Well as a base to build a Digital Twin, aiming to study and fulfill those requirements and technical limitations. We implemented and tested several APIs, each one representing the virtual version of a real Oil Well component, enforcing the importance of microservices and cloud-native patterns in its design. When function ing together, these microservices comprise an entire Oil Well Digital twin solution, cov ering basic storage, communication, and monitoring fundamentals. This proof of concept demonstrates how a complex asset — like an Oil Well — can be built and organized in a completely digital manner. Lastly, this design is extensible and opens up further develop ment opportunities.Gêmeos Digitais são uma das principais tendências tecnológicas recentes, considerados pioneiros na habilitação da próxima geração de indústrias inteligentes e digitalizadas. Um Gêmeo Digital é basicamente um ativo corporativo espelhado no mundo virtual, criado inteiramente em software e destinado a inovar os modelos operacionais e de negócios, ao mesmo tempo em que fornece novas oportunidades de geração de receita e valor. Naturalmente, construir sistemas tão exigentes não é uma tarefa fácil. Muitas preocupações organizacionais e tecnológicas devem ser abordadas, como processamento em tempo real, gerenciamento de dados, segurança cibernética e comunicação de baixa latência. Além disso, os Gêmeos Digitais também devem ser extensíveis e oferecer suporte à integração de dados com sua contraparte física, permitindo que as empresas agilizem suas opera ções com mais segurança. Considerando que não existem metodologias ou tecnologias padrão para projetar um Gêmeo Digital, os desenvolvedores de software tem dificuldade em desenvolver uma arquitetura de Gêmeo Digital robusta e confiável que atenda às ne cessidades dos clientes. Além desses desafios técnicos, a indústria de óleo e gás é conhecida por ter processos notoriamente complexos e um ecossistema opressor na adoção de novas tecnologias, prin cipalmente devido ao seu cenário intrincado e em constante mudança. Apesar dessas dificuldades, essa indústria certamente se beneficiaria de um Gêmeo Digital bem proje tado. Assim, este trabalho propõe uma solução de uma arquitetura para um Gêmeo Digital de um Poço de Petróleo. Decidimos usar o processo de garantia de vazão de um poço de petróleo como base para construir um Gêmeo Digital, visando estudar e atender a esses requisitos e limitações técnicas. Implementamos e testamos várias APIs, cada uma repre sentando a versão virtual de um componente real de um poço de petróleo, reforçando a importância de microsserviços e padrões nativos de nuvem em seu design. Ao funciona rem juntos, esses microsserviços compreendem uma solução completa de gêmeos digitais de poços de petróleo, abrangendo os fundamentos básicos de armazenamento, comunica ção e monitoramento. Esta prova de conceito demonstra como um ativo complexo – como um poço de petróleo – pode ser construído e organizado de forma totalmente digital. Por fim, esse design é extensível e abre mais oportunidades de desenvolvimento

EFFECTS OF YEAST-DERIVED MICROBIAL PROTEIN ON TRANSITION DAIRY COW HEALTH AND PERFORMANCE

The transition period for dairy cows is defined as the three weeks pre and postpartum. During the transition period, dairy cows experience a myriad of metabolic, managerial, and nutritional requirement changes. These changes lead to stress and increased susceptibility to diseases which can negatively affect lactational performance in the short and long term. However, dietary amino acid availability can have a dramatic impact on the health and performance of dairy cows around parturition. Thus, the objective of the thesis was to evaluate the effects of supplementing yeast-derived microbial protein, as an alternative protein source for dairy cows during the transition period. This was accomplished by using visual observations and precision dairy monitoring technologies to record disease, feeding behavior, and performance of dairy cows from 21 days prepartum to 150 days postpartum. Yeast-derived microbial protein was found to decrease dry matter intake but not negatively affect milk production or health of the animals. Yeast-derived microbial protein may be used as an alternative protein source for transition dairy cows as it did not negatively affect milk production or health of the animals

An analysis of a regular black hole interior model

We analyze the thermodynamical properties of the regular static and spherically symmetric black hole interior model presented by Mboyne and Kazanas. Equations for the thermodynamical quantities valid for an arbitrary density profile are deduced, and from them we show that the model is thermodynamically unstable. Evidence is also presented pointing to its dynamical instability. The gravitational entropy of this solution based on the Weyl curvature conjecture is calculated, following the recipe given by Rudjord, Gr$\varnothing$n and Sigbj$\varnothing$rn, and it is shown to have the expected behavior.Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in International Journal of Theoretical Physic

Vacuum solutions with nontrivial boundaries for the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory

The classification of certain class of static solutions for the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory in vacuum is presented. The spacelike section of the class of metrics under consideration is a warped product of the real line with a nontrivial base manifold. For arbitrary values of the Gauss-Bonnet coupling, the base manifold must be Einstein with an additional scalar restriction. The geometry of the boundary can be relaxed only when the Gauss-Bonnet coupling is related with the cosmological and Newton constants, so that the theory admits a unique maximally symmetric solution. This additional freedom in the boundary metric allows the existence of three main branches of geometries in the bulk, containing new black holes and wormholes in vacuum.Comment: Prepared for the proceedings of the 7th Alexander Friedmann International Seminar on Gravitation and Cosmology, July 2008, Joao Pessoa, Brasil. 4 pages, References adde

Elaboração de jogo pedagógico aplicado a população com baixa escolaridade – o jogo DECOT

Trabalho apresentado no 31º SEURS - Seminário de Extensão Universitária da Região Sul, realizado em Florianópolis, SC, no período de 04 a 07 de agosto de 2013 - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar a lógica incorporada no Jogo Decot o qual objetiva resolver problemas de otimização de processos e redução de desperdício oriundos do processo de fabricação de produtos artesanais desenvolvidos pelos agentes de produção da FAS (Fundação de Ação Social de Curitiba). O Decot é um jogo de tabuleiro que simula os produtos - em sua maioria têxteis- confeccionados pelos grupos de produção da FAS e apresenta pontuações compostas por penalidades e benefícios, conforme a qualidade da disposição das peças no tabuleiro. A pontuaçãobusca, de forma lúdica, apresentar aos participantes noções de otimização e custos. O objetivo maior do jogo é o incremento da capacidade empreendedora e de produção das pessoas atendidas, refletindo na redução dos custos de produção. Esta redução (tanto com material quanto monetária) acaba sendo um fator determinante no incremento produtivo. A metodologia de pesquisa utilizada foi a da pesquisa-ação, aplicada diretamente nos grupos já estruturados pela FAS. Os resultados obtidos até o momento são: a produção física do jogo e sua aplicação aos facilitadores da FAS (coordenadores da ação nos grupos). As próximas etapas são a interpretação dos questionários de avaliação da aplicação para poder prosseguir com a aplicação nos grupos, efetivamente. Com isso, espera-se uma maior autonomia econômica dos cidadãos atendidos, bem como uma melhora na auto-estima do grupo, tornando-o mais unido e motivado no seu processo de emancipação ante a FAS

The Value of Observing the Buyer Arrival Time in Dynamic Pricing

We consider a dynamic pricing problem where a firm sells one item to a single buyer in order to maximize expected revenues. The firm commits to a price function over an infinite horizon. The buyer arrives at some random time with a private value for the item. He is more impatient than the seller and strategizes the time of his purchase in order to maximize his expected utility, which implies either buying immediately or waiting to benefit from a lower price. We study how important is to observe the buyer arrival time in terms of the seller's expected revenue. When the seller can observe the arrival of the buyer, she can make the price function contingent on his arrival time. On the contrary, when the seller cannot observe the arrival, her price function is fixed at time zero for the whole horizon. The value of observability (VO) is defined as the worst case ratio between the expected revenue of the seller when she observes the buyer's arrival and that when she does not. First, we show that for the particular case where the buyer's valuation follows a monotone hazard rate distribution, the upper bound is e, and it is tight. Next, we show our main result: In a very general setting about valuation and arrival time distributions, the value of observability is at most 4.911. To obtain this bound we fully characterize the observable arrival setting and use this solution to construct a random and periodic price function for the unobservable case. Finally, we show by solving a particular example to optimality that VO has a lower bound of 1.017.Este documento es una versión del artículo publicado en Management Science (ahead of print

The on-going case: getting around amnesty laws by seeking justice for the disappeared. O contorno da lei da anistia na busca de justiça: uma comparação das abordagens no Brasil e no Chile sobre os desaparecidos.

ABSTRACTInternationally the amnesty laws of Chile and Brazil have been deemed invalid, but they they have been upheld locally. This paper seeks to compare the approaches in each country to use the disappeared to challenge the amnesty legislation and also sketch out the potential international consequences for Brazil, if it remains steadfast in its refusal to address the justice issues of the past.Key-words: Chile; Brazil; Amnesty Laws.RESUMOInternacionalmente as leis de anistia do Chile e do Brasil foram considerados inválidas, mas localmente elas foram mantidas. Este trabalho visa comparar as abordagens em cada país ao utilizar os desaparecidos para desafiar a anistia e também esboçar as potenciais consequências para o Brasil, se caso ele continue firme em sua recusa em abordar as questões de justiça do passado.Palavras-Chave: Chile; Brasil; Anistia