Evaluation of a TiO2 photocatalysis treatment on nitrophenols and nitramines contaminated plant wastewaters by solid-phase extraction coupled with ESI HPLC–MS

Nitration reactions of aromatic compounds are commonly involved in different industrial processes for pharmaceutical, pesticide or military uses. For many years, most of the manufacturing sites used lagooning systems to treat their process effluents. In view of a photocatalytic degradation assay, the wastewater of a lagoon was investigated by using HPLC coupled with mass spectrometry. The wastewater was highly concentrated in RDX (hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine), HMX (octahydro- 1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine) and two herbicides Dinoterb (2-tert-butyl-4,6-dinitrophenol) and Dinoseb (2-sec-butyl-4,6-dinitrophenol). First of all, an analytical method using solid-phase extraction (SPE) combined with HPLC ESI MS/MS was put in work for identification and titration of RDX, HMX and the two dinitrophenols in a complex natural matrix. Then, the UV/TiO2 treatment was investigated for pollutants removal. Dinitrophenolic compoundswere significantly degraded after a 8-h-exposition of the wastewater/TiO2 suspension, whereas RDX and HMX were poorly affected

Development of Osteoinductive Tissue Engineering Scaffolds with a Bioreactor

The conventional treatments for craniofacial bone defects currently are unsatisfactory due to several drawbacks. Replacement of lost bone by autografts typically causes donor site morbidity while allografts, xenografts, and demineralized bone matrix all have a chance of disease transmission. Current synthetic implants placed within the defect site generally lack osseointegration and biodegradability. There are several methods of generating a hybrid extracellular matrix (ECM) and synthetic material construct. These include coating the synthetic material scaffold with collagen and calcium phosphate, incorporating acellular biological tissue within the scaffold material, and using cells to generate an ECM coating on the synthetic material scaffold. The research performed for this thesis developed and characterized mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-generated extracellular matrix poly(ε-caprolactone) constructs (PCL/ECM) for the replacement of bone tissue. The osteogenic potential of the PCL/ECM constructs was explored by culturing i) MSCs and ii) whole marrow cells combined with MSCs onto the construct with or without the osteogenic differentiation supplement, dexamethasone. It was established that the osteogenic differentiation of MSCs seeded onto ECM-containing constructs was maintained even in the absence of dexamethasone and that the co-culture of MSCs and whole bone marrow cells without dexamethasone and ECM enhances the proliferation of a cell population (or populations) present in the whole bone marrow. The osteogenicity of the constructs encouraged the characterization of the protein and mineral composition of the ECM coating on the PCL/ECM constructs. Characterization revealed that at short culture durations the MSCs used to generate the ECM deposited cellular adhesion proteins that are a prerequisite protein network for further bone formation. At the later culture durations, it was determined that the ECM was composed of collagen 1, hydroxyapatite, matrix remodeling proteins, and regulatory proteins. The prior studies on the PCL/ECM constructs persuaded exploration of the effect of various devitalization and demineralization processes on the retention of the ECM components within and the osteogenicity of the PCL/ECM constructs. Analysis demonstrated that the freeze-thaw technique is a milder method of devitalization of cell-generated ECM constructs as compared to other methods, but it reduced the osteogenicity of the constructs. In addition, it was elucidated that void spaces in the surface of the constructs are important for allowing access of MSCs into the interior of the constructs

Comparaison de critères de branchement pour le problème de recouvrement

Description et applications -- Problème de recouvrement -- Applications -- Revue de la littérature -- Relaxation linéaire -- Énumération implicite -- Saut de dualité -- Bornes inférieures -- Bornes supérieures -- Critères de branchement -- Méthode de résolution -- Organigramme -- Description des composantes -- Le branchement -- Matrices cycliques -- Matrice balancée -- Matrice gloutonne -- Sous-matrice interdite -- Le branchement -- Analyse des résultats -- Nature des problèmes -- Présentation des résultats -- Résultats généraux -- Comparaison des critères -- Branchement sur une variable -- Problèmes de hautes densités -- Amélioration du critère de branchement -- Comparaison avec le branchement sur une contrainte

Blaeu: Mapping and navigating large tables with cluster analysis

Blaeu is an interactive database exploration tool. Its aim is to guide casual users through large data tables, ultimately triggering insights and serendipity. To do so, it relies on a double cluster analysis mechanism. It clusters the data vertically: it detects themes, groups of mutually dependent columns that highlight one aspect of the data. Then it clusters the data horizontally. For each theme, it produces a data map, an interactive visualization of the clusters in the table. The data maps summarize the data. They provide a visual synopsis of the clusters, as well as facilities to inspect their content and annotate them. But they also let the users navigate further. Our explorers can change the active set of columns or drill down into the clusters to refine their selection. Our prototype is fully operational, ready to deliver insights from complex databases

Reward Gaming in Conditional Text Generation

To align conditional text generation model outputs with desired behaviors, there has been an increasing focus on training the model using reinforcement learning (RL) with reward functions learned from human annotations. Under this framework, we identify three common cases where high rewards are incorrectly assigned to undesirable patterns: noise-induced spurious correlation, naturally occurring spurious correlation, and covariate shift. We show that even though learned metrics achieve high performance on the distribution of the data used to train the reward function, the undesirable patterns may be amplified during RL training of the text generation model. While there has been discussion about reward gaming in the RL or safety community, in this discussion piece, we would like to highlight reward gaming in the natural language generation (NLG) community using concrete conditional text generation examples and discuss potential fixes and areas for future work

Analysis by x-ray microtomography of a granular packing undergoing compaction

Several acquisitions of X-ray microtomography have been performed on a beads packing while it compacts under vertical vibrations. An image analysis allows to study the evolution of the packing structure during its progressive densification. In particular, the volume distribution of the pores reveals a large tail, compatible to an exponential law, which slowly reduces as the system gets more compact. This is quite consistent, for large pores, with the free volume theory. These results are also in very good agreement with those obtained by a previous numerical model of granular compaction.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Latex (revtex4). to be published in Phys. Rev.

A Review of Pneumatic Actuators Used for the Design of Medical Simulators and Medical Tools

International audienc

Democracia participativa e novas tecnologias : uma análise da consulta pública que deu origem à regulamentação do Marco Civil da Internet

Trabalho de conclusão de curso (graduação)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Direito, Graduação em Direito, 2017.O presente trabalho trata da análise da consulta pública que deu origem ao Decreto nº 8.771, de 11 de maio de 2016, que regulamenta a Lei nº 12.965, de 23 de abril de 2014 (Marco Civil da Internet). A pesquisa se restringe às contribuições recebidas pelo Ministério da Justiça na plataforma do Projeto “Pensando o Direito” durante a segunda fase de debates sobre a minuta de Decreto apresentada pelo Poder Executivo. O objetivo é analisar como essas contribuições alteraram o texto proposto. Nesse sentido, é importante mapear quem foram os participantes do debate e classificar esses participantes por setor de atuação. Assim, é possível compreender quais interesses foram atendidos pelo Decreto promulgado. Essa análise permite verificar a efetividade da consulta pública promovida pelo Governo Federal no sentido de garantir a participação popular no processo de elaboração normativa. Dessa forma, é possível compreender se a sociedade civil efetivamente participa e se suas demandas são atendidas, de maneira a analisar as teorias que defendem a internet como forma de ampliar a participação popular nas decisões governamentais. A pesquisa começa por apresentar o caso concreto em análise. Em seguida, discute-se a questão da democracia digital como forma de aproximar representantes e representados à luz de teorias otimistas e céticas em relação ao papel da internet na construção de uma democracia participativa. Posteriormente, são apresentados os resultados da pesquisa sobre a consulta pública, com o mapeamento das contribuições. Por fim, se dá a análise sobre os valores obtidos na pesquisa, com conclusões a respeito do sucesso da consulta pública.The present study deals with the public consultation that originated the Decree No. 8,771, from May 11th, 2016, which regulates Law No. 12,965, from April 23rd, 2014 (Civil Rights Framework for the Internet). The research is restricted to the contributions received by the Ministry of Justice on the platform of the Project “Pensando o Direito” during the second phase of debates about the draft Decree presented by the Federal Government. The objective of this study is to analyze how these contributions have altered the proposal. In this sense, it is important to map who were the participants of the debate and to classify these participants by sector of activity. Thus, it is possible to understand which interests were served by the decree promulgated. This analysis allows to verify the effectiveness of the public consultation promoted by the Federal Government in order to guarantee the popular participation in the process of normative elaboration. It is therefore possible to understand if civil society effectively participates and if its demands are met, in order to analyze theories that defend the internet as a way to broaden popular participation in governmental decisions. The research begins by presenting the concrete case under analysis. It then discusses the issue of digital democracy as a way of bringing together representatives and represented people, in light of the optimistic and skeptical theories regarding the role of the internet in building a participatory democracy. Then, the results of the research on the public consultation, with the mapping of contributions, are presented. Finally, there is an analysis about the findings of the research, discussing the success of the public consultation