On Metania spinata (CARTER, 1881) and Metania kiliani n. sp.: Porifera, Metaniidae VOLKMER-RIBEIRO, 1986

Recent surveys on freshwater sponges at the very north and south of Brazil yielded specimens of the genus Melania which possessed the peculiar second kind of spiny megascleres described for M. spinata (CARTER, 1881) but did not show the anisochela series of microscleres described by VOLKMER-RIBEIRO (1984) for that species. A renewed comparative study with the syntypic series of M. spinata took to the selection of lectotype and paralectotypes, the redescription of the species and the description of a new species M. kiliani. Only M. kiliani n. sp. has a second class of microcleres made up of anisochelas. A new key is also proposed to sort out the five species of Metania now ascribed to the Neotropical Region

Mapping Wide Row Crops with Video Sequences Acquired from a Tractor Moving at Treatment Speed

This paper presents a mapping method for wide row crop fields. The resulting map shows the crop rows and weeds present in the inter-row spacing. Because field videos are acquired with a camera mounted on top of an agricultural vehicle, a method for image sequence stabilization was needed and consequently designed and developed. The proposed stabilization method uses the centers of some crop rows in the image sequence as features to be tracked, which compensates for the lateral movement (sway) of the camera and leaves the pitch unchanged. A region of interest is selected using the tracked features, and an inverse perspective technique transforms the selected region into a bird’s-eye view that is centered on the image and that enables map generation. The algorithm developed has been tested on several video sequences of different fields recorded at different times and under different lighting conditions, with good initial results. Indeed, lateral displacements of up to 66% of the inter-row spacing were suppressed through the stabilization process, and crop rows in the resulting maps appear straight

Magnetic memory of oil paintings

Journal ArticleThe color in oil paints is obtained sometimes from magnetic minerals. This fact implies that oil paintings could present an intrinsic magnetization. Magnetic imaging of an oil painting consists in the measurement of magnetic flux related to the magnetization of the painting. In this report results of magnetic measurements show that oil paints from different manufacturers (Maimeri, Pebeo, and Grumbacher) are magnetic. The magnetic imagings of four similar oil paintings done with the same visual color, obtained using different mixtures of oil paints for each painting, were different. This shows that the magnetic imaging can be used as a fingerprint for the oil paintings. Magnetic imaging was obtained for oil paintings done by Oswald, Bianco, and Timoteo, all of them are Brazilian painters. The imaging obtained in measurements at different times was always the same, showing that the magnetic images are stable. This leads to the conclusion that magnetic imaging would be a common authentication technique of paintings

Spatial Fourier transform method for evaluating SQUID gradiometers

Journal ArticleA simple method of measuring the spatial transfer function of a gradiometer, consisting of a flux transformer coupled to a SQUID, is presented and it is compared with theoretical predictions. Based, on this approach, a new method of reporting a gradiometer's performance is proposed; the rejection factor is expressed in decibels obtained directly from the transfer function plot

Superconducting microphone for photoacoustic spectroscopy

Journal ArticleA superconducting microphone has been developed for photoacoustic spectroscopy at low temperatures. The microphone consists of a thin mylar membrane coated with a film of lead whose motion is detected by SQUID magnetometer. For the simple set-up presented here, the limiting pressure sensitivity is 7.5 X 10 " atmospheres/Hz "2

Thrombus aspiration in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction: results of a national registry of interventional cardiology.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to evaluate the impact of thrombus aspiration (TA) during primary percutaneous coronary intervention (P-PCI) in 'real-world' settings. METHODS: We performed a retrospective study, using data from the National Registry of Interventional Cardiology (RNCI 2006-2012, Portugal) with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients treated with P-PCI. The primary outcome, in-hospital mortality, was analysed through adjusted odds ratio (aOR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). RESULTS: We assessed data for 9458 STEMI patients that undergone P-PCI (35% treated with TA). The risk of in-hospital mortality with TA (aOR 0.93, 95%CI:0.54-1.60) was not significantly decreased. After matching patients through the propensity score, TA reduced significantly the risk of in-hospital mortality (OR 0.58, 95%CI:0.35-0.98; 3500 patients). CONCLUSIONS: The whole cohort data does not support the routine use of TA in P-PCI, but the results of the propensity-score matched cohort suggests that the use of selective TA may improve the short-term risks of STEMI.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Effect of fire on ant assemblages in brazilian cerrado in areas containing vereda wetlands

Cerrado is a biome whose evolution is intimately influenced by constant fire events. Although many species are capable of dealing with this predictable impact, many others may be negatively affected, resulting in community changes after fire. Using ants as bioindicators of changes in biodiversity and environmental conditions, this study evaluated the effects of fire in two Cerrado vegetation types: "cerrado" sensu stricto, a xeric savanna, and wetland "veredas", a mesic vegetation on floodable soils, where water concentrates and ultimately flows towards rivers. We examined the effects of fire on both habitats in two independent sites, but with special consideration to the wetlands, which are not fully adapted to fire. Ant sampling was conducted twice before and twice after a fire event, using 288 baits and 416 pitfall traps (soil and arboreal), and 16 hand collections along three random replicate transects per area. Ant species richness and abundance were resilient to fire, and exhibited a remarkably consistent seasonal variation at unburned and burned sites. On the other hand, the fire markedly changed the ant species composition. In the wetlands, the fire spread underground due to the high concentration of peat. The impact on ant assemblages was substantial and visually perceptible for some species like Camponotus rufipes, which suffered a considerable reduction in the number of individuals after fire in this habitat. In the cerrado, a similar result was observed for Crematogaster nr. obscurata, which disappeared after fire. The wetland vegetation having little adaptation to fire, plus low resilience in the ant community resulted in a severely changed fauna, both in guild predominance and species composition, and return to an original state is uncertain

Generalized fractional maxwell model : parameter estimation of a viscoelastic material

In this paper, we show how fractional viscoelastic models can be efficient in the modeling of linear viscoelastic behavior, increasing the fitting accuracy of classic generalized viscoelastic models, such as the Generalized Maxwell model. Experimental data (Loss and Storage modulus in the frequency domain) were retrieved from a Dynamic Mechanical Analysis test considering Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer samples. The estimated parameters, for the derived fractional viscoelastic models, were obtained through numerical optimization techniques that minimize the difference between model-predicted values and experimental data. An excellent correlation between analytical and experimental results was observed, minimizing numerical instabilities found on a previous work, for the same experimental setup.This work was financed by FEDER funds through COMPETE-Programa Operacional Fatores de Competitividade and by portuguese funds through FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia within projects PEst-C/MAT/UI0013/ 2011

Parameter estimation of viscoelastic materials : a test case with different optimization strategies

In this work, and based on numerical optimization techniques, constitutive parameters for viscoelastic materials are determined using a inverse problem formulation. The optimization methodology is based on experimental results obtained in the frequency domain, for a CFRP-Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer, through DMA-Dynamic Mechanical Analysis. The relaxation modulus of viscoelastic materials is given by a summation of decaying exponentiating functions, known as Prony series. Prony series, in time domain, are normally used to determine constitutive parameters for viscoelastic materials. In this paper, using the Fourier transform of the time domain Prony series, a nonlinear constrained least square problem based on Prony series representations of storage and loss modulus, for the considered material, is analyzed. A case study considering the estimation of 2N viscoelastic parameters, N = 1,2, ···11, is taken as a benchmark. The nonlinear constrained least square problems are solved using global and local optimization solvers. The computational results as well as the main conclusion are shown