Rainfall, runoff and temperature fluctuations in the Amazon basin and oscillation of global climate over the last century

Over the past century, the world's climate has been changing. The rainfall over the continents, the global stream water discharge, the global air temperature and the CO2 content in the atmosphere have together been increasing. However, in the Amazon basin, examination of data existing and the estimation of missing data reveal that for about the past century, between 1910 and 1990, the air temperature has been decreasing, and the rainfall and the river discharge have been increasing but showing very large fluctuations. It is shown that the evolution of the global climate, over continents becoming warmer and wetter, should not mask the following realities: (1) amplitudes of fluctuations are large; (2) regional and global trends do not necessarily move in the same directions and (3) regional and global fluctuations, even if of similar amplitude and of equal periodicity, are not synchronous

Análise de estruturas coerentes em escoamentos turbulentos com presença de paredes através de decomposição ortogonal própria

Orientador: William Roberto WolfDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia MecânicaResumo: Decomposição Ortogonal Própria é aplicada para identificar estruturas coerentes em escoamentos turbulentos sobre um perfil NACA0012. A base de dados numérica é formada por um escoamento a M?= 0.115 e 5 graus de ângulo de ataque, um a M? = 0.4 e 5 graus de ângulo de ataque e um a M? = 0.115 e 0 graus de ângulo de ataque. São apresentadas análises de diferentes técnicas de POD usando o método de snapshots. O método espectral (SPOD) e a combinação Fourier-POD com SPOD também são apresentadas. Esta é possível devido à direção homogênea na envergadura. É realizada uma avaliação de diferentes normas vetoriais e funções filtro na matriz de correlação. SPOD é aplicado assumindo sinais temporais periódicos e não-periódicos. Resultados mostram que o SPOD melhora o acoplamento dos modos, redistribuindo a energia ao longo dos autovalores e levando à uma melhor identificação das estruturas coerentes. Aplicação dp filtro gaussiano permite melhor controle na resposta do SPOD comparado ao filtro quadrado. A hipótese de sinais temporais periódicos na matriz de correlação melhora o acoplamento dos modos e limpa seu conteúdo espectral. Normas de pressão e energia cinética são usadas. Para ambas, o primeiro par de modos é relacionado a estruturas coerentes responsáveis pela geração de ruído tonal. Entretanto, a norma de energia cinética tende a capturar estruturas de baixa frequência nos modos subsequentes, enquanto a norma de pressão captura estruturas de alta frequência. A combinação Fourier-POD permite uma melhor identificação das estruturas coerentes para cada modo de Fourier ao longo da envergadura. O conteúdo espectral dos modos de POD pode ser desacoplado para cada modo de Fourier. Foi possível identificar a interação entre modos em diferentes frequências nos dados numéricos. Vórtices alinhados com a envergadura são relacionados ao ruído tonal na análise acústica, identificando as fontes sonoras. Vórtices alinhados com o escoamento ou na diagonal são formados em todos os dados devido à curvatura do perfil e ao gradiente de pressão adverso após a transição turbulenta. Para os casos a 5 graus de ângulo de ataque, apenas vórtices diagonais de alta frequência estão presentes. Afetados pelo gradiente de pressão mais fraco, vórtices diagonais de baixa frequência estão presentes no perfil a 0 graus de ângulo de ataqueAbstract: he numerical database is formed by a flow at M? = 0.115 and 5 degs. angle of attack, one at M? = 0.4 and 5 degs. angle of attack and another at M? = 0.115 and 0 degs. angle of attack. Analysis of different POD techniques is presented using the snapshot method. Also, the spectral POD method (SPOD) and a Fourier-POD implementation combined with the SPOD. The latter technique is viable once the present turbulent flow has a homogeneous direction along the airfoil span. An assessment of different vector norms and filter functions employed in the correlation matrix is presented. The spectral POD technique is applied assuming periodic and non-periodic temporal signals. Results show that the SPOD method provides a better coupling of the modes, redistributing the energy among the POD eigenvalues and leading to an improved identification of coherent structures. The application of a Gaussian filter allows an enhanced control in the response of the SPOD when compared to a square-box filter. The assumption of periodic temporal signals in the construction of the correlation matrix provides further improvement in the coupling of POD modes and cleans their spectral content. Pressure based on kinetic energy norms are used. For both norms, the first pair of POD modes are related to coherent structures responsible for airfoil tonal noise generation. However, the kinetic energy norm tends to reconstruct low-frequency structures in the flow field for higher POD modes while the pressure norm reconstructs high-frequency structures. The combination of Fourier decomposition with the SPOD method allows a clear identification of coherent structures for the specific Fourier modes along the airfoil span. The spectral content of the POD modes can be decoupled to each spanwise Fourier mode. For the coherent structures identified in the numerical database, the interaction between modes at different ranges of frequencies were identified. Coherent structures aligned with the span are shown to be related to tonal peaks in the acoustic scattering analysis, making possible to identify the main aeroacoustic sources. Coherent structures aligned with the stream and diagonally aligned are formed for all flow configurations due to the curvature of the airfoil and the adverse pressure gradient after the forced turbulence transition. For flows at 5 degs. angle of attack, only diagonal structures at high frequencies are present. At 0 degs. angle of attack, diagonal coherent structures at low frequencies are present affected by the weaker adverse pressure gradientMestradoTermica e FluidosMestre em Engenharia Mecânica33003017CAPE

Corrida Geológica: uma proposta lúdica para o ensino de Geociências na educação básica

Anais do 3° Encontro Nacional de Jogos e Atividades Lúdicas no Ensino de Química, Física e Biologia (Jalequim - Level III) - Núcleo de Desenvolvimento de Pesquisas em Ensino de Química/Ciências da UNILA (NuDDEQ)O ensino de ciências é composto por diversas áreas do conhecimento, e essa diversidade de informações pode desentimular os alunos durante o processo de ensino. Devido a isso, é importante que o professor de ciências busque recursos que contribuam com a melhoria da dinâmica desse processo, aumentando assim o interesse dos alunos. Sendo assim, foi desenvolvido o jogo didático "Corrida Geológica", para constibuir com o processo de ensino de Geociências. Após a aplicação deste jogo a 46 alunos de duas escolas municipais do interior do noroeste fluminense, foi possível notar que o jogo desenvolvido foi considerado uma boa ferramenta didática para o ensino de Geociências, tendo grande aprovação em todos os parâmetros avaliados, e cativando todos os alunos participantes

Molecular Imaging of Microglial Activation in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

There is growing evidence of activated microglia and inflammatory processes in the cerebral cortex in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Activated microglia is characterized by increased expression of the 18 kDa translocator protein (TSPO) in the brain and may be a useful biomarker of inflammation. In this study, we evaluated neuroinflammation in ALS patients using a radioligand of TSPO, 18F-DPA-714. Ten patients with probable or definite ALS (all right-handed, without dementia, and untreated by riluzole or other medication that might bias the binding on the TSPO), were enrolled prospectively and eight healthy controls matched for age underwent a PET study. Comparison of the distribution volume ratios between both groups were performed using a Mann-Whitney’s test. Significant increase of distribution of volume ratios values corresponding to microglial activation was found in the ALS sample in primary motor, supplementary motor and temporal cortex (p = 0.009, p = 0.001 and p = 0.004, respectively). These results suggested that the cortical uptake of 18F-DPA-714 was increased in ALS patients during the ‘‘time of diagnosis’’ phase of the disease. This finding might improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of ALS and might be a surrogate marker of efficacy of treatment on microglial activation

IL-1β and IL-6 modulate apolipoprotein E gene expression in rat hepatocyte primary culture

Incubation of rat hepatocytes in primary culture with IL-1β at a concentration of 2.5 units/ml resulted in an increase (+80%) in the amount of apoE mRNA without any effect upon apoE synthesis. IL-6 at a low concentration (10 units/ml) induced a decrease (−35%) in the amount of apoE mRNA, but increased apoE synthesis (+28%). No effect was observed with higher concentrations of IL-1β (10 units/ml) or IL-6 (100 units/ml). These results suggest that inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and IL-6 modulate the expression of apoE gene in cultured rat hepatocytes, at a concentration that does not induce the acute phase response

An MLSA-based online scheme for the rapid identification of Stenotrophomonas isolates

An online scheme to assign Stenotrophomonas isolates to genomic groups was developed using the multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA), which is based on the DNA sequencing of selected fragments of the housekeeping genes ATP synthase alpha subunit (atpA), the recombination repair protein (recA), the RNA polymerase alpha subunit (rpoA) and the excision repair beta subunit (uvrB). This MLSA-based scheme was validated using eight of the 10 Stenotrophomonas species that have been previously described. The environmental and nosocomial Stenotrophomonas strains were characterised using MLSA, 16S rRNA sequencing and DNA-DNA hybridisation (DDH) analyses. Strains of the same species were found to have greater than 95% concatenated sequence similarity and specific strains formed cohesive readily recognisable phylogenetic groups. Therefore, MLSA appeared to be an effective alternative methodology to amplified fragment length polymorphism fingerprint and DDH techniques. Strains of Stenotrophomonas can be readily assigned through the open database resource that was developed in the current study (www.steno.lncc.br/)