Influence of Lorentz-violating terms on a two-level system

The influence of Lorentz- and CPT-violating terms of the extended Standard Model on a semi-classical two-level system is analyzed. It is shown that the Lorentz-violating background (when coupled with the fermion sector in a vector way) is able to induce modifications on the Rabi oscillation pattern, promoting sensitive modulations on the usual oscillations. As for the term involving the coefficient coupled in an axial vector way, it brings about oscillations both on energy states and on the spin states (implied by the background). It is also seen that such backgrounds are able to yield state oscillations even in the absence of the electromagnetic field. The foreseen effects are used to establish upper bounds on the Lorentz-violating coefficients.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, revtex style

Petrified auricular cartilages pointing the diagnosis of post-partum hypopituitarism in an encephalopathic patient

True ossification of ear auricles is exceptional. We present the first case linking this finding to post-partum hypopituitarism. A 57-year-old female presented with a 2-day history of fever, headache and behavioural disturbances. Brain magnetic resonance imaging was normal. Since cerebral spinal fluid could not be obtained, she was treated empirically for a meningitis. A urinary tract infection was subsequently identified as the cause of fever but when she improved she remained apathetic. At this time petrified auricles were noticed; histological examination revealed true ossification. Endocrinological screening showed partial hypopituitarism and thyroid autoimmune disorder. Initial symptoms could be dated to the birth of her last child 15 years before, with breast feeding difficulties, loss of body hair, and transient amenorrhoea. The absence of overt peripartum bleeding, resumption of menses 1 year later, preservation or recovery of some hypophyseal function, and presence of an associated autoimmune thyroid disorder and of hypophyseal tissue in a normal sella turca, all suggest lymphocytic hypophysitis rather than Sheehan syndrome as the primary disorder. Of the 15 patients reported to date with auricular ossification, two had Addison disease. The present case suggests that low cortisol is the key factor in this clinical finding

Insomnia: prevalence and associated factors

Nowadays sleep disorders are very common and affect most of the population, the most common may be insomnia. Insomnia is defined as the difficulty of initiating or maintaining sleep it, may also be reflected in an early wake up and by the presence of a non-restful sleep and it is associated with impairment in social and occupational functioning of the individual. Knowing the prevalence and the associated factors of insomnia. This is a cross-sectional epidemiological study. The population is constituted by 205 individuals of both sexes, aged over 18, who were in public places of a city in the north of the country. We applied a questionnaire to all the people who went through these places between 9 am to 7 pm. Insomnia was evaluated using the DSM-IV (Diagnosis and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). We use the Chi-square to study the relation between the independent variables with variable insomnia, adopting a confidence interval of 95%. The prevalence of insomnia was 46.8%. Who suffers more from insomnia are: women in menopause (64.1%), elder people (66.7%) and those with four or fewer years of education (73.9%). There was no significant statistical relationship between the prevalence of insomnia and sex or residence. The causes of insomnia are: concern (48.6%), noise (31.8%) and disease (8.4%). The drugs most consumed by insomniacs are benzodiazepines (79.2%). In this study insomnia affects about half of participants. The presence of insomnia seems to be related with the age increasing, low education and menopausal status in female

Intangibles as innovative drivers for competitive businesses

This paper aims to identify the impact of intangible resources as drivers of firms’ performance and profitability, in the major technological firms in the world. Using information from the major technological firms for a four years economic period, a set of intellectual capital proxies were identified and regressed against the major performance and profitability indicators. The regression model embodies a set of knowledge-based resources intangible (e.g. goodwill, licenses and patents, software and R&D, and advertising expenses) and human capital proxies, aiming to identify potential disaggregated effects of intangibles those key performance indicators. Broadly, results suggest the existence of effective isolated effect for some variables, in particular for intangibles recognized in the financial reporting. Furthermore, this research also suggests that the capitalization of intangible resources can be associated with region and corresponding accounting standards used in the preparation of the financial reporting.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

I love you… but not unconditionally: Perceptions about luxury fashion brands

The Generation Y (1978-2000) live in a constant change and are always interacting among them and the brands that they love. The current study aims to contribute to better understand the perceptions that Y's have about Corporate Social Responsibility in fashion luxury brands. Therefore, 31 in-depth interviews were conducted with a group of people belonging to Generation Y. The findings reveal that Y's are concerned about transparent procedures and helping business and society to improve as a consequence of their sustainable and responsible attitudes. The environmental issues and labour practices are the most cited, commented and recommended factors of corporate social responsibility (CSR) proposed by participants. The article provides a framework presenting the seven core factors to incorporate CSR.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Context-aware information in mobile devices

This paper describes a novel approach for indoor location and integration of other services in a university campus using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices. These BLE devices broadcast a Bluetooth signal in a limited and configured range/area, thus functioning as beacons that provide useful context-aware information to nearby devices operating with custom applications. Such applications can interpret the received signals as location and provide a range of useful services to the end user (students, events attendees), namely, indoor location and navigation or personalized complex workflows that require the interaction of the end user with multiple services within the university campus.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Facing the complexity of grape quality management and delivering an highthroughput device: VinePAT

The physiological response of plants to external perturbation is complex and occurs at different levels of their metabolism. This is a multivariate and multi-scale phenomena, therefore high-throughput methodologies are required to extract relevant information. The nonexistence of a device with such characteristics constitutes a barrier to the interpretation of the consequences of external inputs. Spectroscopy is a multivariate methodology with greatest interest for metabolic studies in biological systems. In fact, this technique provides detailed information on the molecular structure and reaction mechanisms. Moreover due to its non-destructive character, this methodology is currently used to characterize proteins, peptides, lipids, membranes, carbohydrates in pharmaceuticals and food products as well as plants and animal tissues. VinePAT is a vineyard management system based in the Process Analytical Technologies (PAT) methodologies to provide winemakers with state-of-the-art metabolic images of vineyards for precision winemaking by using UV-VIS-SWNIR spectroscopy techniques. The system hardware is based on miniaturized fiber-optics spectrometer adapted for grape and leaves measurements and suited for outdoor data acquisition. Combining these georeferenced outdoor measurements collected at the vineyard with state-of-the-art spectroscopy signal processing, the winemaker will be able to observe vine metabolism by using a non-destructive 'in-vivo' methodology, as well as, the global-picture of the vineyard for implementing precision winemaking technologies based on process analytical technology. Here we demonstrate the potential of the VinePAT technology for grape-growers by presenting: i) spectroscopy equipment in action; ii) the variance imaging and zone diagnostics; iii) metabolic imaging with especial incidence in key metabolites for grape maturation; iv) how to use multivariate control charts; and v) the full potential of the technology deployed by process analytical technology.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The WFCAM Multi-wavelength Variable Star Catalog

Stellar variability in the near-infrared (NIR) remains largely unexplored. The exploitation of public science archives with data-mining methods offers a perspective for the time-domain exploration of the NIR sky. We perform a comprehensive search for stellar variability using the optical-NIR multi-band photometric data in the public Calibration Database of the WFCAM Science Archive (WSA), with the aim of contributing to the general census of variable stars, and to extend the current scarce inventory of accurate NIR light curves for a number of variable star classes. We introduce new variability indices designed for multi-band data with correlated sampling, and apply them for pre-selecting variable star candidates, i.e., light curves that are dominated by correlated variations, from noise-dominated ones. Pre-selection criteria are established by robust numerical tests for evaluating the response of variability indices to colored noise characteristic to the data. We find 275 periodic variable stars and an additional 44 objects with suspected variability with uncertain periods or apparently aperiodic variation. Only 44 of these objects had been previously known, including 11 RR~Lyrae stars in the outskirts of the globular cluster M3 (NGC~5272). We provide a preliminary classification of the new variable stars that have well-measured light curves, but the variability types of a large number of objects remain ambiguous. We classify most of the new variables as contact binary stars, but we also find several pulsating stars, among which 34 are probably new field RR~Lyrae and 3 are likely Cepheids. We also identify 32 highly reddened variable objects close to previously known dark nebulae, suggesting that these are embedded young stellar objects. We publish our results and all light-curve data as the WFCAM Variable Star Catalog.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figure

Estratégias de minimização de efluentes na síntese e integração de processos

No presente estudo avaliou-se a possibilidade de métodos de optimização na resolução de problemas de minimização de águas potáveis e efluentes. Utilizaram-se para o efeito diferentes ferramentas de optimização (EXCEL, LINGO 7.0, funções de optimização do MATLAB 7.0), na avaliação de dois casos de estudo: i) Remoção de fenol em efluentes aquosos de uma instalação de reciclagem de óleo, como exemplo de um problema de linearidade da função objectivo e suas restrições; ii) Minimização de água e efluentes aquosos numa refinaria de petróleo, como exemplo de um problema de não linearidade da função objectivo e suas restrições. Mostra-se que problemas de prevenção e controlo da poluição podem ser, de um modo eficaz, avaliados por optimização matemática