Development of Ontology Aware of Information Quality for the Improvement of Situational Awareness in the Field of Emergency Management

Artigo apresentado no I Workshop de Informação, Dados e Tecnologia, realizado entre nos dias 04 e 06 de setembro de 2017, na cidade de Florianópolis (SC), no Auditório do Espaço Físico Integrado (EFI) da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC).Uma questão desafiadora na comunidade da Avaliação da Situação é determinar como o processo de avaliação pode ser redesenhado para o aprimoramento da Consciência da Situação (SAW), que pode ser severamente degradada se dados de baixa qualidade propagarem pelo processo comprometendo assim a tomada de decisões. Em sistemas de gerenciamento de emergências o grande desafio de adquirir e manter a SAW em operadores humano, é o consumo em excesso de dados em um ambiente dinâmico. O presente trabalho tem por objetivo o desenvolvimento de uma ontologia de domínio para o gerenciamento de emergências mais especificamente sobre incêndios florestais visando contribuir para a representação de informações, contribuindo assim com processos de avaliação de situações de fogo. Para tal, foram desenvolvidas entrevistas com especialistas, modelagem conceitual das tarefas e objetivos e o emprego de ferramentas e metodologias para a construção da ontologia que ao final será incorporada ao sistema “Distrito Federal Sem Fogo” (DF100Fogo).A challenging issue in the Situation Assessment community is to determine how the assessment process can be redesigned to improve Situation Awareness (SAW), which can be severely degraded if poor quality data propagate through the process, thereby compromising decision-making. In emergency management systems, the great challenge of acquiring and maintaining SAW in human operators is consuming too much data in a dynamic environment. The present work has the objective of developing a domain ontology for the emergencies management, more specifically about forest fires, aiming to contribute to the representation of information in this domain, thus contributing to fire assessment processes. To this end, interviews with specialists, conceptual modeling of tasks and objectives and the use of tools and methodologies for the construction of the ontology were developed, which in the end will be incorporated into the Distrito Federal Sem Fogo (DF100Fogo) system

Biosorbents in the Metallic Ions Determination

This chapter provides an overview and discusses analytical strategies for metallic ions determination using solid phase extraction. Solid phase extraction (SPE) is a much-used technique for extraction and/or concentration of complex samples, so that the analytes present in low concentration were detected mainly using chromatographic methods. However, in recent years, this technique has been widely used in the development of methodologies for metallic ions determination in the deferential samples. This technique shows simplicity and rapidity comparing with other conventional techniques, liquid–liquid extraction, cloud point extraction and others. Solid phase extraction procedures become even more interesting when commercial adsorbents are exchanged for others with higher adsorptive capacity, selectivity, flexibility, economy and low environmental impacts. For this purpose, some inorganic, organic and several natural adsorbents are used. New approaches to obtain adsorbent materials from natural sources such as fungi, bacteria, industrial residues and composting materials have received attention. These materials have been used in the development of analytical methods with varied proposals, such as preconcentration or speciation of metal ions

Effects of High-Intensity Interval Training vs. Sprint Interval Training on Anthropometric Measures and Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Healthy Young Women

Purpose: To compare the effects of 8 weeks of two types of interval training, Sprint Interval Training (SIT) and High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), on anthropometric measures and cardiorespiratory fitness in healthy young women.Methods: A randomized clinical trial in which 49 young active women [age, 30.4 ± 6.1 years; body mass index, 24.8 ± 3.1 kg.m−2; peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak), 34.9±7.5 mL.kg−1.min−1] were randomly allocated into a SIT or HIIT group. The SIT group performed four bouts of 30 s all-out cycling efforts interspersed with 4 min of recovery (passive or light cycling with no load). The HIIT group performed four bouts of 4-min efforts at 90–95% of peak heart rate (HRpeak) interspersed with 3 min of active recovery at 50–60% of HRpeak. At baseline and after 8 weeks of intervention, waist circumference, skinfolds (triceps, subscapular, suprailiac, abdominal, and thigh), body mass and BMI were measured by standard procedures and cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed by cardiorespiratory graded exertion test on an electromagnetically braked cycle ergometer.Results: The HIIT and SIT groups improved, respectively, 14.5 ± 22.9% (P < 0.001) and 16.9 ± 23.4% (P < 0.001) in VO2peak after intervention, with no significant difference between groups. Sum of skinfolds reduced 15.8 ± 7.9 and 22.2 ± 6.4 from baseline (P < 0.001) for HIIT and SIT groups, respectively, with greater reduction for SIT compared to HIIT (P < 0.05). There were statistically significant decreases in waist circumference (P < 0.001) for the HIIT (−3.1 ± 1.1%) and SIT (−3.3 ± 1.8%) groups, with no significant difference between groups. Only SIT showed significant reductions in body weight and BMI (p < 0.05).Conclusions: Eight weeks of HIIT and SIT resulted in improvements in anthropometric measures and cardiorespiratory fitness, even in the absence of changes in dietary intake. In addition, the SIT protocol induced greater reductions than the HIIT protocol in the sum of skinfolds. Both protocols appear to be time-efficient interventions, since the HIIT and SIT protocols took 33 and 23 min (16 and 2 min of effective training) per session, respectively

β-Cyclodextrins alter the energy metabolism-related enzyme activities in rats

Abstract Although widely used in medicine, separation technology, and other fields, the effects of cyclodextrins on the activities of phosphoryl transfer enzymes have not been previously evaluated. In vivo studies evaluated the function of cyclodextrins as active compounds. Despite the use of cyclodextrins as active compounds, the effects of cyclodextrins on hepatic and renal tissues remain to be fully elucidated. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of β- cyclodextrins, methyl-β-cyclodextrin (M-β- cyclodextrins), and (2-hydroxypropyl)-β-cyclodextrin (HP-β-cyclodextrins) on enzyme activities regulating the maintenance of energy homeostasis in the kidney and liver tissues in relation to toxicity. Serum levels of liver and kidney markers were measured, and oxidative stress parameters were assessed. After 60-day treatments, we observed that the administration of β-cyclodextrins and M-β-cyclodextrins inhibited the hepatic activity of pyruvate kinase, an irreversible enzyme within the glycolytic pathway. Additionally, administration of HP-β-cyclodextrins inhibited creatine kinase activity and increased the total sulfhydryl content in kidneys. Here, we demonstrated for the first time that β-cyclodextrins, M-β-cyclodextrins, and HP-β-cyclodextrins cause bioenergetic dysfunction in renal and hepatic tissues. These findings suggest that understanding the balance between cyclodextrins’ efficacy and adverse effects is essential for better accepting their use in medicine

Beyond faith: Biomolecular evidence for changing urban economies in multi‐faith medieval Portugal

During the Middle Ages, Portugal witnessed unprecedented socioeconomic and religious changes under transitioning religious political rule. The implications of changing ruling powers for urban food systems and individual diets in medieval Portugal is poorly understood. This study aimed to elucidate the dietary impact of the Islamic and Christian conquests.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

MAGIC detection of GRB 201216C at z = 1.1

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are explosive transient events occurring at cosmological distances, releasing a large amount of energy as electromagnetic radiation over several energy bands. We report the detection of the long GRB 201216C by the MAGIC telescopes. The source is located at z = 1.1 and thus it is the farthest one detected at very high energies. The emission above 70 GeV of GRB 201216C is modelled together with multiwavelength data within a synchrotron and synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) scenario. We find that SSC can explain the broad-band data well from the optical to the very-high-energy band. For the late-time radio data, a different component is needed to account for the observed emission. Differently from previous GRBs detected in the very-high-energy range, the model for GRB 201216C strongly favours a wind-like medium. The model parameters have values similar to those found in past studies of the afterglows of GRBs detected up to GeV energies

Southern African Large Telescope Spectroscopy of BL Lacs for the CTA project

In the last two decades, very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy has reached maturity: over 200 sources have been detected, both Galactic and extragalactic, by ground-based experiments. At present, Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) make up about 40% of the more than 200 sources detected at very high energies with ground-based telescopes, the majority of which are blazars, i.e. their jets are closely aligned with the line of sight to Earth and three quarters of which are classified as high-frequency peaked BL Lac objects. One challenge to studies of the cosmological evolution of BL Lacs is the difficulty of obtaining redshifts from their nearly featureless, continuum-dominated spectra. It is expected that a significant fraction of the AGN to be detected with the future Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) observatory will have no spectroscopic redshifts, compromising the reliability of BL Lac population studies, particularly of their cosmic evolution. We started an effort in 2019 to measure the redshifts of a large fraction of the AGN that are likely to be detected with CTA, using the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT). In this contribution, we present two results from an on-going SALT program focused on the determination of BL Lac object redshifts that will be relevant for the CTA observatory

Spatial and seasonal variation of microphytoplankton community and the correlation with environmental parameters in a hypereutrophic tropical estuary - Maranhão - Brazil

O estuário do rio Bacanga apresenta um comportamento hidrodinâmico com fluxo de marés limitado por uma barragem. Ele é considerado como um ambiente hipereutrófico que recebe diariamente altas cargas de esgoto doméstico sem tratamento. Este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar a variação espaço-sazonal da comunidade fitoplanctônica e suas relações com parâmetros ambientais. Amostragens bimestrais foram realizadas em seis pontos fixos entre 2012 e 2013, obtendo valores dos parâmetros físico-químicos e biológicos (clorofila a, composição e abundância do fitoplâncton) para realização das análises estatísticas. Os resultados indicam que a comunidade fitoplanctônica é representada por diatomáceas, sendo Skeletonema costatum a espécie dominante responsável por pulsos de florações em abril e junho de 2012. O predomínio dessa espécie está relacionado aos elevados teores de silicato, pH e turbidez da água. Outros eventos de florações como da Euglena gracilis e Chlamydomonas sp. foram registrados em fevereiro de 2013, quando os teores de fósforo total estiveram elevados e as taxas de oxigênio dissolvido foram superiores. Os dinoflagelados, cianobactérias e a diatomácea Thallassiosira sp. apresentaram ampla distribuição no período de estiagem e estão altamente correlacionados com a salinidade, transparência da água e nutrientes. Desta forma, a distribuição da comunidade fitoplanctônica é mais definida sazonalmente que espacialmenteThe Bacanga River Estuary has a hydrodynamic behavior and its tidal flow is limited by a dam. It is considered as a hypertrophic environment that receives daily high loads of domestic sewage without treatment. This study aimed to evaluate the spatial and temporal variation of phytoplankton community and its relationship with environmental parameters. Bi-monthly sampling campaigns were carried out at six fixed sites between 2012 and 2013. Physical-chemical and biological parameters were collected (chlorophyll a, phytoplankton composition and abundance) to perform the statistical correlations. The results indicate that phytoplankton community is mostly represented by diatoms, with Skeletonema costatum being the dominant species responsible for bloom in April and June of 2012. The dominance of this species is related to the high silicate concentrations, pH and turbidity. Other blooms events as well as the Euglena gracilis and Chlamydomonas sp. were recorded in February 2013, when the total phosphorus concentrations were high and the dissolved oxygen concentrations were higher. Dinoflagellates, cyanobacteria and diatom Thallassiosira sp. were widely distributed in the dry period and highly correlated with salinity, water transparency and nutrients. Hence, the distribution of phytoplankton community is more defined seasonally, rather than spatially