Conceiving a Digital Twin for a Flexible Manufacturing System

Digitization and virtualization represent key factors in the era of Industry 4.0. Digital twins (DT) can certainly contribute to increasing the efficiency of various productive sectors as they can contribute to monitoring, managing, and improvement of a product or process throughout its life cycle. Although several works deal with DTs, there are gaps regarding the use of this technology when a Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) is used. Existing work, for the most part, is concerned with simulating the progress of manufacturing without providing key production data in real-time. Still, most of the solutions presented in the literature are relatively expensive and may be difficult to implement in most companies, due to their complexity. In this work, the digital twin of an FMS is conceived. The specific module of an ERP (Enterprise Resources Planning) system is used to digitize the physical entity. Production data is entered according to tryouts performed in the FMS. Sensors installed in the main components of the FMS, CNC (computer numerical control) lathe, robotic arm, and pallet conveyor send information in real-time to the digital entity. The results show that simulations using the digital twin present very satisfactory results compared to the physical entity. In time, information such as production rate, queue management, feedstock, equipment, and pallet status can be easily accessed by operators and managers at any time during the production process, confirming the MES (manufacture execution system) efficiency. The low-cost hardware and software used in this work showed its feasibility. The DT created represents the initial step towards designing a metaverse solution for the manufacturing unit in question, which should operate in the near future as a smart and autonomous factory model.Thanks are due to Elkartek 2022 project LANVERSO, and in some sections (simulations) to Basque government university group IT 1573-22

The Gaia mission

Gaia is a cornerstone mission in the science programme of the EuropeanSpace Agency (ESA). The spacecraft construction was approved in 2006, following a study in which the original interferometric concept was changed to a direct-imaging approach. Both the spacecraft and the payload were built by European industry. The involvement of the scientific community focusses on data processing for which the international Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) was selected in 2007. Gaia was launched on 19 December 2013 and arrived at its operating point, the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth-Moon system, a few weeks later. The commissioning of the spacecraft and payload was completed on 19 July 2014. The nominal five-year mission started with four weeks of special, ecliptic-pole scanning and subsequently transferred into full-sky scanning mode. We recall the scientific goals of Gaia and give a description of the as-built spacecraft that is currently (mid-2016) being operated to achieve these goals. We pay special attention to the payload module, the performance of which is closely related to the scientific performance of the mission. We provide a summary of the commissioning activities and findings, followed by a description of the routine operational mode. We summarise scientific performance estimates on the basis of in-orbit operations. Several intermediate Gaia data releases are planned and the data can be retrieved from the Gaia Archive, which is available through the Gaia home page. http://www.cosmos.esa.int/gai

A História da Alimentação: balizas historiográficas

Os M. pretenderam traçar um quadro da História da Alimentação, não como um novo ramo epistemológico da disciplina, mas como um campo em desenvolvimento de práticas e atividades especializadas, incluindo pesquisa, formação, publicações, associações, encontros acadêmicos, etc. Um breve relato das condições em que tal campo se assentou faz-se preceder de um panorama dos estudos de alimentação e temas correia tos, em geral, segundo cinco abardagens Ia biológica, a econômica, a social, a cultural e a filosófica!, assim como da identificação das contribuições mais relevantes da Antropologia, Arqueologia, Sociologia e Geografia. A fim de comentar a multiforme e volumosa bibliografia histórica, foi ela organizada segundo critérios morfológicos. A seguir, alguns tópicos importantes mereceram tratamento à parte: a fome, o alimento e o domínio religioso, as descobertas européias e a difusão mundial de alimentos, gosto e gastronomia. O artigo se encerra com um rápido balanço crítico da historiografia brasileira sobre o tema

New insights into experimental visceral leishmaniasis: Real-time in vivo imaging of Leishmania donovani virulence.

Visceral leishmaniasis is an insidious neglected disease with worldwide distribution. It is caused by parasites from the Leishmania donovani complex, which are able to be transmitted by different species of phlebotomine sand flies and to infect numerous mammal hosts. Despite the high number of people infected or at risk, and the remarkable quantity of studies focusing on this disease, a proper experimental model to efficiently decipher the infectious process of visceral leishmaniasis taking into account the nuances of parasite’s virulence and the duration of the infection is still lacking. Therefore, using golden Syrian hamsters and BALB/c mice, state-of-the-art genetic manipulation applied on a fully virulent L. donovani strain and in vivo imaging approaches, we describe herein three benefits for experimental visceral leishmaniasis: (i) the development of a double transfected bioluminescent (firefly luciferase) and fluorescent (E2-crimson) virulent strain of L. donovani (Ld1S_luci_E2-crimson), favoring a wide range of both in vivo and in vitro investigations, (ii) the establishment of a non-invasive mouse model to evaluate the infectious process during visceral leishmaniasis and the parasite’s virulence in real time, allowing longitudinal studies with the same animals, and (iii) the elaboration of a suitable method to reinstate (and verify anew) the virulence in a population of attenuated parasites, by recovering persistent parasites from chronic infected mice. Consequently, these results open up new perspectives on the study of visceral leishmaniasis, especially in the fields of therapeutics and vaccinology, since the model described herein renders now possible long-lasting follow up studies, with easy and accurate day-by-day verifications of the infection status along with a reduced number of laboratory animals.ClinicalTrials.gov 2013-0047

Repercussões do processo de ensinar-aprender em serviços de saúde na qualidade de vida dos usuários Repercussions of the teaching-learning process in health services in the quality of life of users

Estudo de abordagem qualitativa cujo objetivo foi o de conhecer percepções de usuários de serviços de saúde atendidos por docentes e alunos de cursos de graduação em saúde de uma universidade de Santa Catarina, Brasil, sobre a repercussão dessa participação na sua qualidade de vida e saúde. Os dados foram coletados pela técnica da entrevista em profundidade com vinte indivíduos que buscaram atendimento nos locais onde eram realizados os processos de ensino-aprendizagem. O processo de análise-reflexão-síntese dos dados, com base no referencial teórico adotado, evidenciou repercussões positivas na qualidade de vida e saúde dos usuários, particularmente em razão dos atributos identificados nas interações que mediaram o atendimento às necessidades específicas apresentadas por eles. O conjunto de categorias identificado nas interações professor-aluno-usuário pode ser caracterizado como um construto de atenção humanizada em processos de ensino-aprendizagem, o qual por si só, pelos seus atributos de cuidado, representa um espaço terapêutico e de realização para todos os participantes. Processos dessa natureza podem contribuir para a concretização das diretrizes curriculares, integradas às políticas públicas em saúde, as quais orientam para a assistência integral e humanizada, tendo em vista a atenção à saúde para promoção da qualidade de vida da população em diferentes contextos.<br>This study had a qualitative approach, with the purpose of understanding users' perceptions of health services provided by professors and students of undergraduate courses in health at a university in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, and on the repercussions of this participation on their own health and quality of life. The data was collected by the indepth interview technique from twenty individuals who sought treatment in locations where teaching-learning processes were carried out. The data analysis-reflection-synthesis process, based on the theoretical reference adopted, indicated positive repercussions on users' quality of life and health, particularly with regards to the attributes identified in interactions that permeated the treatment of the specific necessities presented by them. The set of categories identified in the professor-student-user interactions may be characterized as a construct of humanized attention in teaching-learning processes, which in and of themselves, represent a space for treatment and its execution for all the participants, because of their care-related attributes. Processes of this nature may contribute to the establishment of curricular directives, integrated with public health policies, which could be directed at full and humanized health care, considering the promotion of the quality of life of the population in different contexts