When Politicians Talk About Politics: Identifying Political Tweets of Brazilian Congressmen

Since June 2013, when Brazil faced the largest and most significant mass protests in a generation, a political crisis is in course. In midst of this crisis, Brazilian politicians use social media to communicate with the electorate in order to retain or to grow their political capital. The problem is that many controversial topics are in course and deputies may prefer to avoid such themes in their messages. To characterize this behavior, we propose a method to accurately identify political and non-political tweets independently of the deputy who posted it and of the time it was posted. Moreover, we collected tweets of all congressmen who were active on Twitter and worked in the Brazilian parliament from October 2013 to October 2017. To evaluate our method, we used word clouds and a topic model to identify the main political and non-political latent topics in parliamentarian tweets. Both results indicate that our proposal is able to accurately distinguish political from non-political tweets. Moreover, our analyses revealed a striking fact: more than half of the messages posted by Brazilian deputies are non-political.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures, 2 table

Clonagem in vitro via cultivo de meristema de pimenteira-do-reino: assepsia e estabelecimento de cultura.

A cultura da pimenteira-do-reino tem grande importância econômica no Brasil, mas há restrição de cultivo devido a vulnerabilidade genética da mesma à doença fusariose causada pelo fungo Fusarium solani f. sp.piperis. A forma de propagação vegetativa é disseminadora da doença e métodos de controle da doença são pouco exitosos. Programas de melhoramento em execução visam gerar híbridos resistentes à doença em questão, além de agregar características agronômicas competitivas. Doenças viróticas ocorrem em todas as cultivares e há necessidades de limpeza clonal dessas cultivares via cultura de tecidos. Há dificuldades de obtenção de explantes assépticos devido a problemas de bactérias e fungos endógenos. Este trabalho teve por objetivo o estabelecimento de meristema (<1,0 mm) in vitro para a limpeza clonal via micropropagação. A partir de plantas originadas de estacas, meristemas (apicais e laterais) foram excisados a partir segmentos nodais e apicais, previamente submetidos a diferentes tratamentos de assepsia. Os meristemas foram inoculados em meio básico de cultura MS suplementado com BAP 0,5 mg.L-1 e AIA 0,2 mg.L-1. As respostas dos meristemas das diferentes cultivares foram avaliadas quanto a oxidação e contaminação, e os explantes verdes foram transferidos para meios frescos visando a diferenciação de brotos. Dos meristemas de nove cultivares utilizadas, apenas alguns das cultivares IAÇARÁ e genótipo 239 apresentaram desenvolvimento satisfatório. As demais não desenvolveram, oxidaram e/ ou sofreram contaminação por fungos e/ ou bactérias

Assessment of different coastal defence structures to promote wave energy dissipation and sediments retention

Coastal areas are an apprized environment by society that will continue to expand rapidly. Traditional coastal protection structures are commonly deployed to protect coastal areas endangered by natural extreme weather events. However, due to their limited efficiency and very high costs, more efficient and sustainable strategies to deal with coastal erosion are imperative. This research work focuses on the assessment of engineering solutions to mitigate and delay coastal erosion. Three different structure geometries (triangular prism shape, single detached breakwater and group of two detached breakwaters) are analysed on a realistic bathymetry, using a combination of numerical models (SWAN and XBeach) to study the influence of those structures on the coastal hydro- and morphodynamics. SWAN was used for hydrodynamics and XBeach for hydrodynamics and morphodynamics assessments. In addition, a comparison between SWAN and XBeach hydrodynamics results was also performed. Structures considered in this study have regular shaped geometries, and are characterized in terms of their efficiency regarding wave height and wave energy dissipation considering different wave regimes and performance in terms of longterm beach morphodynamic impact (sediments accumulation and erosion). The analysis is concentrated in two scenarios, one for low and the other for highly energetic hydrodynamics (the most challenging to coastal zones defence). The obtained results allowed classifying their performance in terms of the impact on wave energy and wave height dissipation, and sediment erosion/deposition patterns.This work is supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) [PhD grant number SFRH/BD/141381/2018]. The authors also acknowledge the support provided by the project EcOffShorBe – Eco Offshore Built Environment, n. 37417, R&D cores in Copromoção, 14/SI/2017, NORTE-01-0247-FEDER-037417, supported by ANI (FEDER)

Extreme wave value analysis under uncertainty of climate change scenarios off Iberian Peninsula coast

Extreme wave value analysis under uncertainty scenarios was developed to estimate wave climate characteristics at 17 stations in southwestern European coast off the Iberian Peninsula. A comprehensive wave dataset downscaled with the Wave Watch III (WWIII) model by Meteogalicia under MarRisk Project was used considering results of models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 (CMIP5). Descriptive statistics for significant wave height (Hs), peak wave period (Tp), and mean and peak wave direction were performed for historical data (1960−2005), and for projected data in two twenty-year time periods under two Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios (2026−2045 and 2081−2100). Hs and Tp extreme values for the study area were obtained using the Gumbel, Fréchet and Weibull probability distributions for the 10-, 50-, and 100-year return period. Obtained results showed that: historical Hs values decrease from North to South and are higher than those calculated in any of the RCPs future scenarios; mean Tp values appear to be constant in all stations; and means for peak and mean direction have higher frequency of occurrence in Q4 (270°−360°). This study also allowed the computation of Hs and Tp values for 100-year return period, which can be used as design criteria for structural analyses in maritime worksThe authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), PhD grant number SFRH/BD/141381/2018. This research was also partially supported by the 0262_MarRISK_1_E project funded by Interreg V-A SpainPortugal Program (POCTEP)

On the effect of the wall slip boundary conditon

This work describes the implementation and assessment of the wall slip boundary condition in a 3D numerical modelling code, based on the finite volume method, that is being developed by the research team. Several phenomenological models relating the velocity and the shear stress at the wall were implemented. The capabilities of the new numerical code are illustrated with three case studies where the wall slip boundary conditions play an important role, namely the flow in a smooth contraction, the stick-slip phenomenon an the flow in a profile extrusion die. The results obtained are qualitatively in accordance with the theoretical expectations and evidence the importance of wall slip

Knowledge and behaviors regarding salt intake according to urinary Na excretion and blood pressure

Abstract Background Understanding salt-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviors can help the design of effective health interventions. Therefore, our objective was to describe knowledge and behaviors related to salt intake according to urinary sodium excretion and blood pressure in University workers. Methods We performed our study in a subsample of the participants of the iMC Salt project (n=60 subjects, 60.5% women, mean age 48±9.5 years). Sodium excretion were measured by one 24-h urinary collection, validated by creatinine excretion and participants were grouped according to the WHO sodium recommendations (&lt;2.0g/day; high, 2.0g/day). Subjects were classified as hypertensive if the systolic blood pressure was 130mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure was 80mmHg. Knowledge and behaviors regarding salt intake were assessed by the WHO Stepwise Approach to Chronic Disease Risk Factor Surveillance. Results About 74.6% of the participants reported that reducing salt in their diet was very important and 93.2% think that salt is harmful to health. However, 76.3% always add salt during cooking, 42.4% said that they always or often consume processed foods high in salt, 79.7% reported that they don't look at the salt on food labels, 50.8% don't buy low salt alternatives and 30.5% don't use spices as one substitute for salt when cooking. Hypertensive subjects had a higher mean sodium excretion (3710±1508mg/day vs 2478±871mg/day, p=0.002) and reported a significant higher frequency of consumption of processed foods high in salt (53.1% vs 29.6%, p=0.024). No significant differences were found with the other variables. Conclusions Most university workers were aware that high salt intake can cause health problems, but they reported low adherence to behaviors to control their salt intake. Hypertensive subjects recognized that frequently consume processed foods high in salt, so reduce salt content on those products could have important impact on their daily salt consumption. Key messages This study provides evidence on knowledge and behaviors regarding salt intake to guide salt reduction policies. Hypertensive participants reported a higher frequency of eating processed foods rich in salt. </jats:sec

Effect of polymer melt wall slip on the flow balance of profile extrusion dies

This work describes the implementation of the wall slip boundary condition in an in-house developed 3D numerical code based on the Finite Volume Method. For this purpose, several phenomenological models relating the velocity and the shear stress at the wall were implemented. This new feature is verified using a simple case study, by comparing the numerical results with those obtained through the corresponding analytical solution. Then, the potentialities of the new code are illustrated performing flow simulations of a polymer melt in a complex flow channel. The results obtained show that the slip at the wall influences the flow distribution at the die flow channel outlet. Therefore, and to assess the relevance of slippage in the optimal die geometry, the automatic optimization of a die flow channel, required for the production of a specific thermoplastic profile, is performed using both the no-slip and slip boundary conditions, together with two alternative optimization strategies. It is shown that slip favors the flow balance of the dies and also other issues of its performance.The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, FCT (COMPETE Program) under the projects FCOMP-01-0124 - FEDER-010190 (Ref. PTDC / EME - MFE/102729/2008) and FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-015126 (Refª. FCT PTDC/EME-MFE/113988/2009), and FEDER, via FCT, under the PEst-C/CTM/LA0025/2011 (Strategic Project - LA 25 - 2011-2012)

Design of calibrators for extruded profiles. Part I: modelling the thermal interchanges

The parameters influencing the calibration/cooling stage of profile extrusion are discussed, and a numerical finite-volume method code to model the heat transfer is described and validated. For this purpose, the numerical predictions are compared with the analytical solution of a simple problem, with results available in the literature and with those produced by a commercial software. The routines developed are then used to identify the main process parameters and boundary conditions and to estimate their relative importance. The investigation clearly shows the advantages of using several calibrators separated by annealing zones, relative to a single calibrator of the same total length, and the large impact of the contact resistance between extrudate and cooling unit while showing negligible impact of other boundary conditions. A decrease of the extrudate velocity is seen to be also an effective control parameter, but it decreases the production rates

An analysis of symmetric words in human DNA: adjacent vs non-adjacent word distances

It is important to develop methods for nding DNA sites with high potencial for the formation of hairpin/cruciform structures. In a previous work, we studied the distances between adjacent reversed complement words (symmetric words), and we observed that for some words some distances were favored. In the work presented here, we extended the study to the distance between non-adjacent reversed complement words and we observed strong periodicity in the distance distribution of some words. This may be an indication of potential for the formation of hairpin/cruciform structures.publishe