Application of Neutron Scattering in Amino Acid Crystals – Structural and Dynamical Information

In this work results of neutron powder diffraction and inelastic neutron scattering on aliphatic amino acid (L-alanine, L-valine and L-leucine) crystals are presented. The study allows inferring important informations about both the stability of the structures and the dynamics of phase transitions. In particular, it was possible to compare the behavior of different amino acids and to infer that changes in the mean-square displacements observed for two deuterated forms of L-alanine ND3+ – C2H4 – CO2- and NH3+ – C2D4 – CO2- are due to a structural rearrangement related to thermally activated amplitude reorientation of NH3+ and CO2-. Conformation changes in L-valine and L-leucine related to the phase transition are also discussed

Cognitive and behavioral heterogeneity in genetic syndromes

AbstractObjectivethis study aimed to investigate the cognitive and behavioral profiles, as well as the psychiatric symptoms and disorders in children with three different genetic syndromes with similar sociocultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.Methodsthirty-four children aged 6 to 16 years, with Williams-Beuren syndrome (n=10), Prader-Willi syndrome (n=11), and Fragile X syndrome (n=13) from the outpatient clinics of Child Psychiatry and Medical Genetics Department were cognitively assessed through the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III). Afterwards, a full-scale intelligence quotient (IQ), verbal IQ, performance IQ, standard subtest scores, as well as frequency of psychiatric symptoms and disorders were compared among the three syndromes.Resultssignificant differences were found among the syndromes concerning verbal IQ and verbal and performance subtests. Post-hoc analysis demonstrated that vocabulary and comprehension subtest scores were significantly higher in Williams-Beuren syndrome in comparison with Prader-Willi and Fragile X syndromes, and block design and object assembly scores were significantly higher in Prader-Willi syndrome compared with Williams-Beuren and Fragile X syndromes. Additionally, there were significant differences between the syndromes concerning behavioral features and psychiatric symptoms. The Prader-Willi syndrome group presented a higher frequency of hyperphagia and self-injurious behaviors. The Fragile X syndrome group showed a higher frequency of social interaction deficits; such difference nearly reached statistical significance.Conclusionthe three genetic syndromes exhibited distinctive cognitive, behavioral, and psychiatric patterns

Sistemas de patentes e princípio da suficiência descritiva: uma abordagem a partir do Direito Brasileiro e do Direito Internacional

Os sistemas de patentes pretendem incentivar o desenvolvimento tecnológico de duas maneiras: em primeiro lugar, criando um monopólio temporário a favor do inventor, permitindo-lhe colher os benefícios patrimoniais da sua criatividade e, se for o caso, recuperar os custos do investimento que por ele ou por outros investidores haja sido realizado na atividade de pesquisa e desenvolvimento que possibilitou a invenção. Em segundo lugar, promovendo a divulgação e partilha do conhecimento inovador e inventivo, possibilitando a comercialização dos inventos e o progresso científico. Estas são as principais virtualidades do sistema de patentes

Enzymatic removal of cellulose from cotton/polyester fabric blends

The production of light-weight polyester fabrics from a polyester/cotton blended fabric, by means of the enzymatic removal of the cellulosic part of the material, was investigated. The removal of cotton from the blended fabric yielded more than 80% of insoluble microfibrillar material by the combined action of high beating effects and cellulase hydrolysis.Other major features of this enzymatic process for converting cotton fibers into microfibrillar material are bath ratio, enzyme dosage and treatment time

Sequential design of computer experiments for the estimation of a probability of failure

This paper deals with the problem of estimating the volume of the excursion set of a function $f:\mathbb{R}^d \to \mathbb{R}$ above a given threshold, under a probability measure on $\mathbb{R}^d$ that is assumed to be known. In the industrial world, this corresponds to the problem of estimating a probability of failure of a system. When only an expensive-to-simulate model of the system is available, the budget for simulations is usually severely limited and therefore classical Monte Carlo methods ought to be avoided. One of the main contributions of this article is to derive SUR (stepwise uncertainty reduction) strategies from a Bayesian-theoretic formulation of the problem of estimating a probability of failure. These sequential strategies use a Gaussian process model of $f$ and aim at performing evaluations of $f$ as efficiently as possible to infer the value of the probability of failure. We compare these strategies to other strategies also based on a Gaussian process model for estimating a probability of failure.Comment: This is an author-generated postprint version. The published version is available at http://www.springerlink.co

Modeling of the condyle elements within a biomechanical knee model

The development of a computational multibody knee model able to capture some of the fundamental properties of the human knee articulation is presented. This desideratum is reached by including the kinetics of the real knee articulation. The research question is whether an accurate modeling of the condyle contact in the knee will lead to reproduction of the complex combination of flexion/extension, abduction/adduction and tibial rotation ob-served in the real knee? The model is composed by two anatomic segments, the tibia and the femur, whose characteristics are functions of the geometric and anatomic properties of the real bones. The biomechanical model characterization is developed under the framework of multibody systems methodologies using Cartesian coordinates. The type of approach used in the proposed knee model is the joint surface contact conditions between ellipsoids, represent-ing the two femoral condyles, and points, representing the tibial plateau and the menisci. These elements are closely fitted to the actual knee geometry. This task is undertaken by con-sidering a parameter optimization process to replicate experimental data published in the lit-erature, namely that by Lafortune and his co-workers in 1992. Then, kinematic data in the form of flexion/extension patterns are imposed on the model corresponding to the stance phase of the human gait. From the results obtained, by performing several computational simulations, it can be observed that the knee model approximates the average secondary mo-tion patterns observed in the literature. Because the literature reports considerable inter-individual differences in the secondary motion patterns, the knee model presented here is also used to check whether it is possible to reproduce the observed differences with reasonable variations of bone shape parameters. This task is accomplished by a parameter study, in which the main variables that define the geometry of condyles are taken into account. It was observed that the data reveal a difference in secondary kinematics of the knee in flexion ver-sus extension. The likely explanation for this fact is the elastic component of the secondary motions created by the combination of joint forces and soft tissue deformations. The proposed knee model is, therefore, used to investigate whether this observed behavior can be explained by reasonable elastic deformations of the points representing the menisci in the model.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - PROPAFE – Design and Development of a Patello-Femoral Prosthesis (PTDC/EME-PME/67687/2006), DACHOR - Multibody Dynamics and Control of Hybrid Active Orthoses MIT-Pt/BSHHMS/0042/2008, BIOJOINTS - Development of advanced biological joint models for human locomotion biomechanics (PTDC/EME-PME/099764/2008)