Analyzing Trails in Complex Networks

Even more interesting than the intricate organization of complex networks are the dynamical behavior of systems which such structures underly. Among the many types of dynamics, one particularly interesting category involves the evolution of trails left by moving agents progressing through random walks and dilating processes in a complex network. The emergence of trails is present in many dynamical process, such as pedestrian traffic, information flow and metabolic pathways. Important problems related with trails include the reconstruction of the trail and the identification of its source, when complete knowledge of the trail is missing. In addition, the following of trails in multi-agent systems represent a particularly interesting situation related to pedestrian dynamics and swarming intelligence. The present work addresses these three issues while taking into account permanent and transient marks left in the visited nodes. Different topologies are considered for trail reconstruction and trail source identification, including four complex networks models and four real networks, namely the Internet, the US airlines network, an email network and the scientific collaboration network of complex network researchers. Our results show that the topology of the network influence in trail reconstruction, source identification and agent dynamics.Comment: 10 pages, 16 figures. A working manuscript, comments and criticisms welcome

Use of Waste Foundry Sand (WFS) as Filler in Hot-Mixed Asphalt Concrete

The environmental issue has become a topic of relevant discussion in modern society, given the current awareness that construction inputs are finite, and a large amount of waste can be reused as a building material in engineering works. The products used in foundry industry can be non ferrous and ferrous and the residue produced by this last one is not potentially hazardous to human health. The waste foundry sand (WFS) fits this reuse and can be employed in asphalt mixtures, in partial or complete replacement of the conventional filler, i.e. Portland cement (PC). In this sense, this work analyses five asphalt mixtures, one using 100% CP (reference mixture) as filler, and the other four using WFS in proportions of 25-100%, every 25% of the total amount, in 5% (in mass) of the maximum replacement. The mixtures were physically and mechanically characterised according to the Marshall methodology and subsequently submitted to the tests of static indirect tensile strength (static ITS), resilient modulus (RM), repeated-load indirect fatigue (fatigue life) and unconfined static creep. The results of the tests showed that all mixtures with WFS residue presented physical and mechanical parameters within Brazilian standards following the Marshall methodology

Flota??o de metafosforito silicatado de Lagamar/MG.

Programa de P?s-Gradua??o em Engenharia Mineral. Departamento de Engenharia de Minas, Escola de Minas, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto.A concentra??o por flota??o do min?rio metafosforito, lavrado na cidade de Lagamar/MG, requer estudos criteriosos, por tratar-se de beneficiamento de material complexo de final de cava. Assim, este trabalho objetivou investigar, por flota??o em bancada, os efeitos de reagentes depressores/dispersantes, coletores e refor?ador, al?m do pH, que permitam adequar o teor e a recupera??o de P2O5 ? meta teor 26% e recupera??o 80%. Como etapas preliminares o min?rio foi caracterizado e foram realizados ensaios de dispers?o. O min?rio ? constitu?do pelo mineral-min?rio fluorapatita e por ganga principalmente silicatada, contendo quartzo, caulinita e mica. A lama natural, material passante em 0,038 mm, representa 49% em massa. A ganga silicatada apresenta-se finamente disseminada na apatita impactando a libera??o e consequentemente a concentra??o. O ponto isoel?trico da apatita foi encontrado em pH = 2,27. Metassilicato de s?dio e tripolifosfato de s?dio proporcionaram baixos graus de dispers?o para quartzo e para apatita. Em etapa explorat?ria realizaram-se ensaios de flota??o rougher em pH = 9 utilizando flota??o direta (coletor oleato de s?dio e depressor metassilicato de s?dio) e flota??o reversa (coletor cloreto de dodecilamina e depressores tripolifosfato de s?dio, dextrina e carbonato de s?dio). O coletor oleato de s?dio mostrou afinidade satisfat?ria pela apatita, enquanto o cloreto de dodecilamina mostrou seletividade para silicatos, mas exigiu elevado consumo. J? na flota??o reversa, o carbonato de s?dio, utilizado com cloreto de dodecilamina, levou a maiores valores de recupera??o da apatita, seguido por dextrina. O tripolifosfato de s?dio teve o pior desempenho na depress?o de apatita e, ao contr?rio da dextrina e do carbonato de s?dio, teve a??o depressora sobre os minerais de ganga, impactando o teor e a recupera??o. Em etapas posteriores, utilizando planejamento fatorial de experimentos, investigou-se: (1a) flota??o direta (coletor oleato de s?dio, depressor metassilicato de s?dio); (2a) flota??o direta usando os mesmos reagentes da (1a) e o refor?ador (emuls?o de ?leo diesel e nonilfenol etoxilado); (3a) flota??o reversa (coletor cloreto de dodecilamina, depressor tripolifosfato de s?dio); (4a) flota??o reversa com uso dos mesmos reagentes da (3a) e tamb?m de refor?ador (emuls?o). O coletor oleato de s?dio usado na flota??o rougher teve melhor desempenho do que a o cloreto de dodecilamina empregado na flota??o cleaner. Entre os depressores, o metassilicato de s?dio foi efetivo, sendo alcan?ada a meta, j? o tripolifosfato de s?dio n?o apresentou resultado satisfat?rio. A emuls?o foi efetiva apenas com o oleato de s?dio, levando a redu??o do consumo de coletor e propiciando o alcance a meta.The concentration via froth flotation of the metaphosphorite ore, mined at Lagamar/MG, requires careful studies considering that it consists of a complex material from the bottom of the pit. The present bench scale flotation study aimed at investigating the effects of reagents (depressant/dispersant, collector and booster) and pH capable to adequate the concentrate to the targets of P2O5 26% grade and 80% recovery. As preliminary steps, the ore was characterized and dispersion degree determinations were conducted. The P2O5 bearing mineral is fluorapatite and the silicatic gangue contains predominantly quartz, kaolinite, and mica. The natural slimes fraction, material passing 0,038 mm, represents 49% in weight. The silicates are finely disseminated in the apatite grains impairing the concentration due to the lack of liberation. The isoelectric point of the fluorapatite was determined at pH = 2.27. The dispersion degrees of quartz and apatite were low in the presence of sodium metasilicate and sodium tripolyphosphate. In the exploratory step, consisting of rougher flotation at pH = 9, reagents used in direct flotation were sodium oleate as collector and sodium metasilicate as depressant and those employed in reverse flotation were dodecyl amine chloride as collector and sodium tripolyphosphate as depressant, soluble starch and sodium carbonate as depressants. The affinity of the sodium oleate collector with apatite was satisfactory and dodecylamine chloride was selective regarding silicates but the required dosage was high. Concerning the reverse flotation, the decreasing sequence of apatite depression was achieved with sodium carbonate, starch, and sodium tripoliphosphate. Nevertheless, the last acted as gangue depressant, negatively affecting the concentrate grade and recovery. The next stages were planned according to the factorial design of experiments method: (1st) direct flotation (collector sodium oleate, depressant sodium metasilicate); (2nd) direct flotation (same reagents of 1st stage plus booster: emulsion of fuel oil and ethoxylated nonyilphenol); (3rd) reverse flotation (collector dodecylamine chloride, depressant sodium tripolyphosphate); (4th) reverse flotation same reagents of (3rd) stage plus booster: emulsion of fuel oil and ethoxylated nonyilphenol). The performance of the sodium oleate collector used in the rougher flotation was better than that of the dodecylamine chloride employed in the cleaner flotation. The target parameters for the concentrate were achieved with sodium metasilicate as depressant. On the other hand, results obtained with sodium tripolyphosphate were not satisfactory. The emulsion was effective only when added in conjunction with sodium oleate, condition under which the target parameters for the concentrate were achieved and leading to decrease in collector consumption

Towards an Achievable Performance for the Loop Nests

Numerous code optimization techniques, including loop nest optimizations, have been developed over the last four decades. Loop optimization techniques transform loop nests to improve the performance of the code on a target architecture, including exposing parallelism. Finding and evaluating an optimal, semantic-preserving sequence of transformations is a complex problem. The sequence is guided using heuristics and/or analytical models and there is no way of knowing how close it gets to optimal performance or if there is any headroom for improvement. This paper makes two contributions. First, it uses a comparative analysis of loop optimizations/transformations across multiple compilers to determine how much headroom may exist for each compiler. And second, it presents an approach to characterize the loop nests based on their hardware performance counter values and a Machine Learning approach that predicts which compiler will generate the fastest code for a loop nest. The prediction is made for both auto-vectorized, serial compilation and for auto-parallelization. The results show that the headroom for state-of-the-art compilers ranges from 1.10x to 1.42x for the serial code and from 1.30x to 1.71x for the auto-parallelized code. These results are based on the Machine Learning predictions.Comment: Accepted at the 31st International Workshop on Languages and Compilers for Parallel Computing (LCPC 2018

A Relação dos custos de produção e lucratividade da soja no município de Uberlândia entre os períodos de 2008 a 2017

Cost accounting is a great ally in the present day mainly in the management of agribusiness, it helps decision making in the search for new management methods, not to mention that it helps the discovery of new strategies be it management of planting or inputs, etc. In this way, this work has as a research the importance of cost determination in the soybean crop for the rural producers of the Uberlândia region and to try to exemplify the deterministic and quantitative method the cost determinants: variable, fixed and marginal cost of the planting for the culture of soybean in the traditional system method, focusing on increasing the profitability of the rural enterprise of the region through research shows that the region is profitable.UFU - Universidade Federal de UberlândiaTrabalho de Conclusão de Curso (Graduação)A contabilidade de custo é uma grande aliada nos dias atuais, principalmente na gestão dos agronegócios, pois auxilia na tomada de decisões e na busca de novos métodos de gestão, sem contar que ajuda na descoberta de novas estratégias, seja na gestão de melhoramento de plantio ou de insumos. Desta forma, esse trabalho tem como pesquisa a importância da relação dos custos na cultura de soja para os produtores rurais da região de Uberlândia e tentar exemplificar, utilizando método dissertativo e quantitativo, o de custo: variáveis, fixos e custo marginal do plantio para a cultura de soja no método de sistema tradicional, focando no aumento da lucratividade da empresa rurais da região. A pesquisa demonstra que a região é rentável

Genomic profiling of T-cell activation suggests increased sensitivity of memory T cells to CD28 costimulation

T-cell activation is a critical driver of immune responses. The CD28 costimulation is an essential regulator of CD4 T-cell responses, however, its relative importance in naive and memory T cells is not fully understood. Using different model systems, we observe that human memory T cells are more sensitive to CD28 costimulation than naive T cells. To deconvolute how the T-cell receptor (TCR) and CD28 orchestrate activation of human T cells, we stimulate cells using varying intensities of TCR and CD28 and profiled gene expression. We show that genes involved in cell cycle progression and division are CD28-driven in memory cells, but under TCR control in naive cells. We further demonstrate that T-helper differentiation and cytokine expression are controlled by CD28. Using chromatin accessibility profiling, we observe that AP1 transcriptional regulation is enriched when both TCR and CD28 are engaged, whereas open chromatin near CD28- sensitive genes is enriched for NF-kB motifs. Lastly, we show that CD28-sensitive genes are enriched in GWAS regions associated with immune diseases, implicating a role for CD28 in disease development. Our study provides important insights into the differential role of costimulation in naive and memory T-cell responses and disease susceptibility

Building the plane while it's flying: implementation lessons from integrating a co-located exercise clinic into oncology care.

BACKGROUND: Despite its therapeutic role during cancer treatment, exercise is not routinely integrated into care and implementation efforts are largely absent from the literature. The aim of this study was to evaluate a strategy to integrate the workflow of a co-located exercise clinic into routine care within a private oncology setting in two clinics in the metropolitan region of Western Australia. METHODS: This prospective evaluation utilised a mixed methods approach to summarise lessons learned during the implementation of an integrated exercise workflow and supporting implementation plan. Data collection was informed by the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) framework. Reports detailing utilisation of the exercise service and its referral pathways, as well as patient surveys and meeting minutes documenting the implementation process informed the evaluation. RESULTS: The co-located exercise service achieved integration into routine care within the clinical oncology setting. Patient utilisation was near capacity (reach) and 100% of clinicians referred to the service during the 13-month evaluation period (adoption). Moreover, ongoing adaptations were made to improve the program (implementation) and workflows were integrated into standard operating practices at the clinic (maintenance). The workflow performed as intended for ~70% of exercise participants (effectiveness); however, gaps were identified in utilisation of the workflow by both patients and clinicians. CONCLUSION: Integration of exercise into standard oncology care is possible, but it requires the ongoing commitment of multiple stakeholders across an organisation. The integrated workflow and supporting implementation plan greatly improved utilisation of the co-located exercise service, demonstrating the importance of targeted implementation planning. However, challenges regarding workflow fidelity within and across sites limited its success highlighting the complexities inherent in integrating exercise into clinical oncology care in a real-world setting

Resource use data by patient report or hospital records: Do they agree?

Background: Economic evaluations alongside clinical trials are becoming increasingly common. Cost data are often collected through the use of postal questionnaires; however, the accuracy of this method is uncertain. We compared postal questionnaires with hospital records for collecting data on physiotherapy service use. Methods: As part of a randomised trial of orthopaedic medicine compared with orthopaedic surgery we collected physiotherapy use data on a group of patients from retrospective postal questionnaires and from hospital records. Results: 315 patients were referred for physiotherapy. Hospital data on attendances was available for 30% (n = 96), compared with 48% (n = 150) of patients completing questionnaire data (95% Cl for difference = 10% to 24%); 19% (n = 59) had data available from both sources. The two methods produced an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.54 (95% Cl 0.31 to 0.70). However, the two methods produced significantly different estimates of resource use with patient self report recalling a mean of 1.3 extra visits (95% Cl 0.4 to 2.2) compared with hospital records. Conclusions: Using questionnaires in this study produced data on a greater number of patients compared with examination of hospital records. However, the two data sources did differ in the quantity of physiotherapy used and this should be taken into account in any analysi