Um mecanismo para prover interoperalidade entre ORBs com suporte a transparencia de relocação

Orientador: Edmundo Roberto Mauro MadeiraDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: A capacidade de sistemas heterogêneos cooperarem é uma necessidade atual que vem se impondo cada vez mais, principalmente pelo rápido desenvolvimento da tecnologia de processamento distribuído, obrigando a busca de soluções mais apropriadas. Nesse contexto, a especificação CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) apresenta uma arquitetura que permite a interoperabilidade entre aplicações em ambientes distribuídos heterogêneos. Entretanto, pela sua grande flexibilidade nas decisões de implementação, surgem problemas para estender essa interoperabilidade entre dois ORBs desenvolvidos por diferentes tecnologias. Nesta dissertação são discutidos esses problemas e suas respectivas soluções, sendo apresentado um conjunto de operações para suportar o mecanismo de interceptação, estendendo as transparências de acesso e localização, consideradas fundamentais num ambiente distribuído, para além do escopo de um ORB. É proposta, também, uma forma para prover transparência de relocação, estendida para suportar interoperabilidade. Por fim, é descrita uma implementação desses mecanismos utilizando um protótipo aberto de ORB e uma implementação comercial, chamada ORBeline.Abstract: The ability of heterogeneous systems cooperate to problem's solutions is a real need that has been growing, due to the increasing development of the distributed processing technology. This need is driving the development of more suitable solutions. The CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) specification presents an architecture, which allows interoperability among heterogeneous distributed environment applications. However, because of the great flexibility offered in implementation decisions, many problems to extend interoperability between two ORBs developed by different technologies arise. This work discusses these problems and their solutions and presents a. set of operations to support an interception mechanism extending access and location transparencies, considered as fundamental for a distributed environment, to work beyond an ORB scope. A scheme to provide relocation transparency, extended to support interoperability is also proposed. Finally, an implementation of these mechanisms over an open ORB's prototype and ORBeline, a commercial product, is described.MestradoMestre em Ciência da Computaçã

Electron spin relaxation in organic semiconductors probed through muSR

Muon spin spectroscopy and in particular the avoided level crossing technique is introduced, with the aim of showing it as a very sensitive local probe for electron spin relaxation in organic semiconductors. Avoided level crossing data on TMS-pentacene at different temperatures are presented, and they are analysed to extract the electron spin relaxation rate, that is shown to increase on increasing the temperature from 0.02 MHz to 0.33 MHz at 3 K and 300 K respectively.Comment: International Conference TSN2010 "Trends in spintronics and nanomagnetism

Prevalence of molar incisor hypomineralization among school children in Rome, Italy

Molar incisor hypomineralization (MIH) is a highly prevalent condition associated with increased caries experience, dental pain and treatment need. Aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and severity of MIH in a group of 7–8 years old primary school children living in Rome, Italy; and to assess the association with caries experience and possible perinatal risk factors. A survey has been conducted in the city of Rome, between April 2019 and March 2020 with a total of 49 primary schools and 176 2nd grade primary school classes and a total of 3611 children being involved. Of these, a subset of 346 children of 21 primary schools was selected for the epidemiological investigation. The prevalence of MIH was of 18.2%, with girls showing twice the probability of being subject to a mild-severe condition. Molar location was present in 71.4%, while location on both molar plus incisor was present in 28.6% of cases. The mean DMFT was 0.44 ± 0.78, “D” was 0.17 ± 0.58; the mean dmft was 1.7 ± 2.56, “d” was 1.32 ± 2.21. Female gender, caries experience, insufficient oral hygiene were risk factors. The incidence of MIH is increasing in the pediatric population. Knowledge about diagnosis and treatment options should be disseminated among dental professionals.publishedVersio

Surface EMG crosstalk quantified at the motor unit population level for muscles of the hand, thigh, and calf

Crosstalk is an important source of error in interpreting surface electromyography (EMG) signals. Here, we aimed at characterizing crosstalk for three groups of synergistic muscles by the identification of individual motor unit action potentials. Moreover, we explored whether spatial filtering (single and double differential) of the EMG signals influences the level of crosstalk. Three experiments were conducted. Participants (total twenty-five) performed isometric contractions at 10% of the maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) with digit muscles and knee extensors, and at 30% MVC with plantar flexors. High-density surface EMG signals were recorded and decomposed into motor unit spike trains. For each muscle, we quantified the crosstalk induced to neighboring muscles and the level of contamination by the nearby muscle activity. We also estimated the influence of crosstalk on the EMG power spectrum and intermuscular correlation. Most motor units (80%) generated significant crosstalk signals to neighboring muscle EMG in monopolar recording mode, but this proportion decreased with spatial filtering (50% and 42% for single and double differential, respectively). Crosstalk induced overestimations of intermuscular correlation and has a small effect on the EMG power spectrum, which indicates that crosstalk is not reduced with high-pass temporal filtering. Conversely, spatial filtering diminished the crosstalk magnitude and the overestimations of intermuscular correlation, confirming to be an effective and simple technique to reduce crosstalk. This paper presents a new method for the identification and quantification of crosstalk at the motor unit level and clarifies the influence of crosstalk on EMG interpretation for muscles with different anatomy

Where are the drought tolerant crops? An assessment of more than two decades of plant biotechnology effort in crop improvement

Since the dawn of modern biotechnology public and private enterprise have pursued the development of a new breed of drought tolerant crop products. After more than 20 years of research and investment only a few such products have reached the market. This is due to several technical and market constraints. The technical challenges include the difficulty in defining tractable single-gene trait development strategies, the logistics of moving traits from initial to commercial genetic backgrounds, and the disconnect between conditions in farmer’s fields and controlled environments. Market constraints include the significant difficulty, and associated costs, in obtaining access to markets around the world. Advances in the biology of plant water management, including response to water deficit reveal new opportunities to improve crop response to water deficit and new genome-based tools promise to usher in the next era of crop improvement. As biotechnology looks to improve crop productivity under drought conditions, the environmental and food security advantages will influence public perception and shift the debate toward benefits rather than risks

Are GM Crops for Yield and Resilience Possible?

Crop yield improvements need to accelerate to avoid future food insecurity. Outside Europe, genetically modified (GM) crops for herbicide- and insect resistance have been transformative in agriculture; other traits have also come to market. However, GM of yield potential and stress resilience has yet to impact on food security. Genes have been identified for yield such as grain number, size, leaf growth, resource allocation, and signaling for drought tolerance, but there is only one commercialized drought-tolerant GM variety. For GM and genome editing to impact on yield and resilience there is a need to understand yield-determining processes in a cell and developmental context combined with evaluation in the grower environment. We highlight a sugar signaling mechanism as a paradigm for this approac

Light-noble-gas isotopic ratios in gases from Mt. Etna (Southern Italy): Implications for mantle contamination and volcanic activity

Helium isotopic ratios in gases from Mt. Etna are in the range of 6–7 Ra (Ra = atmospheric 3He /4He ratio 1.431026), below the MORB’s typical range, and fall in the same range of those measured in xenoliths from the Northern part of Europe, where a crustal contamination of the sub-continental mantle has been recognized. Taking into account the light-noble-gas isotopic signature of gas samples coming from the Etnean area, it seems that in this area the crustal contamination played a minor role. Instead, processes that enriched the original MORB-type mantle in incompatible elements, have to be considered. The 3He /4He ratios are, thus, lowered because of 4He produced by radioactive decay of U and Th. On the other hand, helium isotopic ratios have shown wide temporal variations sometimes reaching values as high as 7.6 Ra, out of the typical Etnean range. As these unusually high ratios have been measured during phases of unrest of the volcanic activity at Mt. Etna, this apparent discrepancy in the helium isotopic ratios is considered, as the effect of fractionation processes occurred during magma uprising

Importance of Spin-Orbit Interaction for the Electron Spin Relaxation in Organic Semiconductors

Despite the great interest organic spintronics has recently attracted, there is only a partial understanding of the fundamental physics behind electron spin relaxation in organic semiconductors. Mechanisms based on hyperfine interaction have been demonstrated, but the role of the spin-orbit interaction remains elusive. Here, we report muon spin spectroscopy and time-resolved photoluminescence measurements on two series of molecular semiconductors in which the strength of the spin-orbit interaction has been systematically modified with a targeted chemical substitution of different atoms at a particular molecular site. We find that the spin-orbit interaction is a significant source of electron spin relaxation in these materials

Muonium avoided level crossing measurement of electron spin relaxation rate in a series of substituted anthradithiophene based molecules

Muon spin spectroscopy and in particular the avoided level crossing technique is introduced, with the aim of showing it as a very sensitive local probe for electron spin relaxation in organic semiconductors. Avoided level crossing data on tert-butyl-ethynyl anthradithiophene, tri-methyl-silyl-ethynyl anthradithiophene and tri-ethygermyl-ethynyl anthradithiophene at different temperatures are presented. This series of molecules have an identical anthradithiophene backbone, but we have performed a targeted substitution on the central atom of the two side groups, of C, Si and Ge. We extracted the electron spin relaxation for the three molecules of this series and discuss them in the context of previously published results