Autonomous RPCs for a Cosmic Ray ground array

We report on the behaviour of Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) developed for muon detection in ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) experiments. The RPCs were developed for the MARTA project and were tested on field conditions. These RPCs cover an area of $1.5 \times 1.2\,{m^2}$ and are instrumented with 64 pickup electrodes providing a segmentation better than $20\,$cm. By shielding the detector units with enough slant mass to absorb the electromagnetic component in the air showers, a clean measurement of the muon content is allowed, a concept to be implemented in a next generation of UHECR experiments. The operation of a ground array detector poses challenging demands, as the RPC must operate remotely under extreme environmental conditions, with limited budgets for power and minimal maintenance. The RPC, DAQ, High Voltage and monitoring systems are enclosed in an aluminium-sealed case, providing a compact and robust unit suited for outdoor environments, which can be easily deployed and connected. The RPCs developed at LIP-Coimbra are able to operate using a very low gas flux, which allows running them for few years with a small gas reservoir. Several prototypes have already been built and tested both in the laboratory and outdoors. We report on the most recent tests done in the field that show that the developed RPCs have operated in a stable way for more than 2 years in field conditions.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2017), Busan, South Korea. Presented by R. Concei\c{c}\~{a}o. 8 page

John Rose, um ingl?s em Diamantina: do Biribiri aos casar?es

Capa: Pedro Arthur Duarte Tib?es (Foto do Passadi?o da Casa da Gl?ria: acervo da Fam?lia Duarte Tib?es).Revisor desta 2? edi??o: Advaldo da Assun??o Cardoso Filho.Apoio editorial e impress?o: Prof. Dr. Joerley Moreira - Pr?-reitor de Extens?o da UFVJM.Conforme ela mesma conta, ao reunir um dia na entrada da Bas?lica, os jovens Concei??o e Geraldo, a provid?ncia divina unia dois lados de uma mesma moeda! Herdeiros por raz?o e sangue, respectivamente, da hist?ria de uma vida por Diamantina, que por motivos de preconceito e tradicionalismo olig?rquico foi aos poucos sendo apagada da hist?ria da cidade. O amor desse casal, desde o primeiro encontro, esteve em torno desse antepassado em comum por sangue, pelo Sr. Geraldo (bisneto) e por oficio e arte, pela Dona Concei??o, herdeira da F?brica do Biribiri, projetada por John Rose! Concei??o ? filha de Pedro Duarte, diamantinense, que depois da morte do pai, Algemiro Pompuloni Duarte conhecido como ?Melo Duarte?, em 1933, tornou-se junto com os irm?os Ant?nio Ed?lio Duarte e Hip?lito Duarte, diretores e depois propriet?rios da F?brica, constituindo a firma ?Irm?os Duarte T?xtil e Comercial S.A?. Em 1947 com o falecimento do pai, Concei??o herda a F?brica com a m?e e os irm?os. A busca por reviver John Rose uniu o olhar da foto acima e manteve John Rose presente, no cotidiano, hist?rias, estilo e postura da fam?lia. Este livro foi idealizado e embasado na reflex?o conjunta deste casal e depois, de seus filhos e netos h? 65 anos (1953 a 2018)! Eu conheci Dona Concei??o no Conselho Municipal de Sa?de e no Comit? de ?tica da Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri. Ela sempre com seu estilo doce e conciliador, contudo, sem deixar-se prender por postura social que a colocasse em confronto com seus ideais! Mulher, guerreira, exemplo na forma e conte?do de assumir o papel feminino e, sobretudo humano de expor ideias pensadas, doa a quem doer, desde que a Verdade prevale?a! Foi esse esp?rito livre que se revelou na inf?ncia, segundo suas pr?prias hist?rias, que a levou a sair aos 17 anos do Biribiri para Europa em uma viagem de peregrina??o e cultura! Professora durante mais de 60 anos de Educa??o B?sica, Moral e C?vica e Cultura religiosa na rede Estadual de Ensino de Minas Gerais, renomada na utiliza??o de m?todos ativos de aprendizagem, colocando os alunos para refletirem em a??es diretas nas ruas! Hoje usa as redes sociais para divulgar seus pensamentos e reflex?es sobre o tema Vida... Reeditar o livro sobre John Rose me possibilitou tardes e manh?s de caf? mineiros, ado?ados com muita rapadura e a do?ura da voz de Dona Concei??o buscando e achando (!) fotos e documentos do Livro pelos arm?rios e pastas. Conhe?o hoje, gra?as a ela, o jovem, o homem e o velho John Rose. Reconhe?o-o em meus sonhos, penso na aventura que deve ter sido sua vida. Sua coragem de sair da Inglaterra, naquela ?poca para vir, ? essa terra distante, desbravar e criar, exercitar seu potencial de engenhar, desenhar, ensinar, aprender, abolir, enfrentar, empreender, compor, seduzir, convencer, perder, esquecer e ser esquecido. Ele ? citado em v?rios livros de naturalistas hist?ricos por bem receb?-los nas Terras Diamantinas! Esse John Rose, a meu ver, sonhou alto e enxergou longe... Acendeu uma das primeiras l?mpadas da Am?rica Latina num lugar que se chama ?Acabamundo?! Mas, infelizmente, foi deixado de lado pela oligarquia tijucana: S? mais um gringo que casou com uma negra! Sabemos que o destino espera sem pressa e hoje, estamos com o passado nas m?os! Vindo das letras e reflex?es, dos estudos, conversas e entrevistas de Dona Concei??o, Seu Geraldo, Filhos e Ant?nio Carlos Fernandes (Toninho do INSS) pela vida, na busca de uma resposta para a pergunta: - Quem foi o Art?fice ingl?s ?Jo?o Rosa? das hist?rias de minha inf?ncia? O esp?rito de John Rose est? solto pelas ruas do Tijuco! Voc? est? prestes a descobrir..

Acute toxicity of Gammalin 20 to Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus (Lacepede)

The impact of acute exposure of Gammalin 20 (an organochlorine pesticide) was investigated in a static bioassay test over a 96-(4-day) period on the fingerlings of Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus (lacepede). The 96-hLC sub(50) of Gammalin 20 was determined as 2.31 Ug/l with lower and upper limits of toxicities as 2.10 and 4.44 Ug/l respectively. At higher concentrations, the colour of the exposed fish became darker, opercular movement slowed down while pigmentation pattern increased and respiratory distress was observed, erratic swimming, tonic convulsion and no response to gentle prodding, and finally death. The implications of these results were discussed with a suggestion of the total ban on the use of Gammalin 20 in capture fisheries due to its harmful and persistence nature in the aquatic environmen

Geographical distribution of Culicinae in Brazil. III. State of Para (Diptera: Culicidae).

Volume:

O retrato de uma infância torpe: algumas normas de educação impostas às meninas Cora, Geni e Ponciá na escola e na ambiência familiar

O objetivo deste trabalho é mostrar como as escritoras Cora Coralina, Geni Guimarães e Conceição Evaristo retratam a educação familiar e escolar de suas protagonistas na fase infantil e na pré-adolescência. Os espaços e tempos são diferentes em cada obra, mas as ações perpassadas pelas meninas Cora, Geni e Ponciá são similares quanto ao sofrimento a que são submetidas. O corpus privilegia as seguintes obras: Poemas dos becos de Goiás e estórias mais e Vintém de cobre: meias confissões de Aninha, de Cora Coralina; Leite do peito, de Geni Guimarães e Ponciá Vicêncio, de Conceição Evaristo. O tempo retratado pelas autoras nessas obras abarca, no caso de Cora Coralina, o final do século XIX enquanto as outras, a segunda metade do século XX. As análises transcendem o espaço da escola e adentram pela ambiência familiar, onde o reflexo da educação escolar recebida se faz presente e, muitas vezes, tem efeito catastrófico na infância das meninas e em seus comportamentos em relação aos outros em sua volta

Cross Ranking of Cities and Regions: Population vs. Income

This paper explores the relationship between the inner economical structure of communities and their population distribution through a rank-rank analysis of official data, along statistical physics ideas within two techniques. The data is taken on Italian cities. The analysis is performed both at a global (national) and at a more local (regional) level in order to distinguish "macro" and "micro" aspects. First, the rank-size rule is found not to be a standard power law, as in many other studies, but a doubly decreasing power law. Next, the Kendall and the Spearman rank correlation coefficients which measure pair concordance and the correlation between fluctuations in two rankings, respectively, - as a correlation function does in thermodynamics, are calculated for finding rank correlation (if any) between demography and wealth. Results show non only global disparities for the whole (country) set, but also (regional) disparities, when comparing the number of cities in regions, the number of inhabitants in cities and that in regions, as well as when comparing the aggregated tax income of the cities and that of regions. Different outliers are pointed out and justified. Interestingly, two classes of cities in the country and two classes of regions in the country are found. "Common sense" social, political, and economic considerations sustain the findings. More importantly, the methods show that they allow to distinguish communities, very clearly, when specific criteria are numerically sound. A specific modeling for the findings is presented, i.e. for the doubly decreasing power law and the two phase system, based on statistics theory, e.g., urn filling. The model ideas can be expected to hold when similar rank relationship features are observed in fields. It is emphasized that the analysis makes more sense than one through a Pearson value-value correlation analysis.Comment: 34 pages, 13 figures, 6 tables, 81 references; prepared for Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment (JSTAT

Description of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius from canine pyoderma in Minas Gerais state, Brazil

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (MRSP) is of worldwide concern in veterinary medicine. The identification of resistant strains is necessary for proper treatment and the prevention of its propagation among animals. This study aimed to identify S. pseudintermedius isolated from canine pyoderma and evaluate their resistance profiles. Lesions from 25 dogs with pyoderma were sampled. Bacterial isolates were subjected to phenotypic and genotypic analysis for identification of the causative agent. S. pseudintermedius isolates were subjected to SmaI macrorestriction analysis and PFGE for genetic grouping, and PCR to identify the presence of the mecA gene. Their resistance profiles against 12 antimicrobials were also assessed. According to the microbiological analysis, 70 of the 75 isolates obtained were S. pseudintermedius. The isolates presented PFGE patterns, with similarity varying between 84.6 and 100%, and were grouped into 19 clusters. Despite a high frequency of mecA-positive isolates (66 out 70), only 12 presented resistances to oxacillin. Multi-resistance was identified in 29 isolates. The high frequency of MRSP isolated in this study highlights the relevance of identifying resistant strains to lead proper clinical treatment

The Tastes from Portugal: Food as Remembrance in Portuguese American Literature

Contemporary Portuguese American literature written by Thomas Braga (1943-), Frank Gaspar (1946-), and Katherine Vaz (1955-) share a profusion of topics - with ethnic food being, perhaps, the most representative one. What these writers have in common is that their roots can be traced to Portugal\u27s Atlantic islands - the Azores - and not to continental Portugal. They are native Americans and write in English, though their characters and themes are Portuguese American. Some of them lived close to the former New England whaling and fishing centers of New Bedford and Nantucket, which Herman Melville has immortalized in Moby-Dick and in his short story, The \u27Gees, in The Piazza Tales. These seaports were renowned worldwide and eventually attracted Azorean harpooners. The Azorean background of Thomas Braga and Frank Gaspar helps us to understand why fish and seafood feature so extensively in their writings instead of dishes containing meat as is the case in the fiction of Katherine Vaz