Exact controllability of a second order integro-differential equation with a pressure term

This paper is concerned with the boundary exact controllability of the equation $$u''-\Delta u-\int_0^t g(t-\sigma)\Delta u(\sigma) d\sigma=-\nabla p$$ where $Q$ is a finite cilinder $\Omega\times]0,T[$, $\Omega$ is a bounded domain of $R^n$, $u=(u_1(x,t),\ldots,u_n(x,t))$, $x=(x_1,\ldots,x_n)$ are $n$-dimensional vectors and $p$ denotes the pressure term. The result is obtained by applying HUM (Hilbert Uniqueness Method) due to J. L. Lions. The above equation is a simple model of dynamical elasticity equations for incompressible materials with memory

Some thoughts on neural network modelling of micro-abrasion-corrosion processes

There is increasing interest in the interactions of microabrasion, involving small particles of less than 10 μm in size, with corrosion. This is because such interactions occur in many environments ranging from the offshore to health care sectors. In particular, micro-abrasion-corrosion can occur in oral processing, where the abrasive components of food interacting with the acidic environment, can lead to degradation of the surface dentine of teeth. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are computing mechanisms based on the biological brain. They are very effective in various areas such as modelling, classification and pattern recognition. They have been successfully applied in almost all areas of engineering and many practical industrial applications. Hence, in this paper an attempt has been made to model the data obtained in microabrasion-corrosion experiments on polymer/steel couple and a ceramic/lasercarb coating couple using ANN. A multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network is applied and the results obtained from modelling the tribocorrosion processes will be compared with those obtained from a relatively new class of neural networks namely resource allocation network

Nutrição De Tithonia Diversifolia E Atributos Do Solo Adubado Com Biofertilizante Em Sistema Irrigado

The fertilization with biofertilizer associated with the use of irrigation favors nutrient uptake by plants and soil chemical properties; however, these effects are little studied in Tithonia diversifolia in semiarid regions. This study evaluated the effect of doses of bovine biofertilizer and irrigation on accumulation of nutrients in the leaves of Tithonia diversifolia plants and on soil chemical attributes. The study was carried out from December 3, 2014 to November 28, 2015, and arranged in a 2 x 5 factorial scheme, consisting of five doses of bovine biofertilizer (0, 40, 80, 120 and 160 m3 ha-1), combined with and without irrigation. The experiment was set in a randomized block design, using three replicates. Irrigation promoted increased accumulation of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Zn, Fe, Mn, Cu and B in leaves of Tithonia diversifolia in the first cutting. However, the high bicarbonate concentration in the irrigation water and the occurrence of rainfall during the second crop increased the accumulation of Cu in the leaves of Tithonia diversifolia under rainfed condition, compared with irrigated plants. The increase in biofertilizer doses contributed to the increment of base saturation and the contents of organic matter, P and K in soil. © 2016, Departamento de Engenharia Agricola - UFCG/Cnpq. All rights reserved.20111008101

Role of SOX family of transcription factors in central nervous system tumors

SOX genes are developmental regulators with functions in the instruction of cell fate and maintenance of progenitor’s identity during embryogenesis. They play additional roles during tissue homeostasis and regeneration in adults particularly in the Central Nervous System (CNS). In the last years a growing number of evidences has shown that mutations and dysfunction of SOX factors are implicated in several human diseases, including a variety of cancers. In this review, we will summarize the current knowledge about SOX family in CNS tumors and their role in the origin and maintenance of the subpopulation of cancer stem cells in these tumors

Experiments with firefly algorithm

Firefly Algorithm (FA) is one of the recent swarm intelligence methods developed by Xin-She Yang in 2008 [12]. FA is a stochastic, nature-inspired, meta- heuristic algorithm that can be applied for solving the hardest optimization problems. The main goal of this paper is to analyze the influence of changing some parameters of the FA when solving bound constrained optimization problems. One of the most important aspects of this algorithm is how far is the distance between the points and the way they are drawn to the optimal solution. In this work, we aim to analyze other ways of calculating the distance between the points and also other functions to com- pute the attractiveness of fireflies. To show the performance of the proposed modified FAs a set of 30 benchmark global optimization test problems are used. Preliminary experiments reveal that the obtained results are competitive when comparing with the original FA version.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Epidemiological And Molecular Mechanisms Aspects Linking Obesity And Cancer [mecanismos Epidemiológicos E Moleculares Que Associam Obesidade E Câncer]

About 25% of cancer cases globally are due to excess weight and a sedentary lifestyle. These results are alarming, as the world knows a pandemy of obesity and, in consequence, insulin resistance. Obesity may increase risk for various cancers by several mechanisms, including increasing sex and metabolic hormones, and inflammation. Here, we present a review of epidemiological and molecular evidences linking obesity and cancer - particularly colorectal, post-menopausal breast, endometrial, pancreatic, high grade prostate, hepatocellular, gallbladder, kidney and esophageal adenocarcinoma. 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Transport properties of copper phthalocyanine based organic electronic devices

Ambipolar charge carrier transport in Copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) is studied experimentally in field-effect transistors and metal-insulator-semiconductor diodes at various temperatures. The electronic structure and the transport properties of CuPc attached to leads are calculated using density functional theory and scattering theory at the non-equilibrium Green's function level. We discuss, in particular, the electronic structure of CuPc molecules attached to gold chains in different geometries to mimic the different experimental setups. The combined experimental and theoretical analysis explains the dependence of the mobilityand the transmission coefficient on the charge carrier type (electrons or holes) and on the contact geometry. We demonstrate the correspondence between our experimental results on thick films and our theoretical studies of single molecule contacts. Preliminary results for fluorinated CuPc are discussed.Comment: 18 pages, 16 figures; to be published in Eur. Phys. J. Special Topic

Epidemiologia molecular de um surto de bacteriemia por Enterobacter cloacae e Enterobacter agglomerans ocorrido na região de Campinas, São Paulo, Brasil

A total of 73 isolates (57 Enterobacter cloacae and 16 Enterobacter agglomerans), recovered during an outbreak of bacteremia in the Campinas area, São Paulo, Brazil, were studied. Of these isolates, 61 were from parenteral nutrition solutions, 9 from blood cultures, 2 from a sealed bottle of parenteral nutrition solution, and one was of unknown origin. Of the 57 E. cloacae isolates, 54 were biotype 26, two were biotype 66 and one was non-typable. Of 39 E. cloacae isolates submitted to ribotyping, 87.2% showed the same banding pattern after cleavage with EcoRI and BamHI. No important differences were observed in the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns among E. cloacae isolates exhibiting the same biotype, serotype and ribotype. All E. agglomerans isolates, irrespective of their origin, showed same patterns when cleaved with EcoRI and BamHI. The results of this investigation suggest an intrinsic contamination of parenteral nutrition solutions and incriminate these products as a vehicle of infection in this outbreak.Foram estudadas um total de 73 cepas (57 de E. cloacae e 16 E. agglomerans), isoladas durante um surto de bacteriemia ocorrido na região de Campinas, S. Paulo. Entre estas cepas, 61 foram isoladas de solução de nutrição parenteral, 9 de sangue, 2 de bolsa fechada de solução de nutrição parenteral e uma era de origem desconhecida. Entre as 57 cepas de E. cloacae, a maioria das cepas foram do biotipo 26/sorotipo O3 (39 cepas) e do biotipo 26/OR (13). Entre as 39 cepas de E. cloacae ribotipadas, 87,2% apresentaram o mesmo padrão de bandas com EcoRI e BamHI. Cepas de E. cloacae pertencentes ao mesmo biotipo, sorotipo e ribotipo não apresentaram diferenças significativas em relação ao padrão de sensibilidade aos agentes antimicrobianos. Todas as cepas de E. agglomerans, independente da origem, pertenciam ao mesmo ribotipo após a clivagem com EcoRI e BamHI. Os resultados obtidos sugerem uma contaminação intrínseca das soluções de nutrição parenteral, incriminando-as como o veículo de transmissão dos agentes etiológicos do surto

The Two-Nucleon Potential from Chiral Lagrangians

Chiral symmetry is consistently implemented in the two-nucleon problem at low-energy through the general effective chiral lagrangian. The potential is obtained up to a certain order in chiral perturbation theory both in momentum and coordinate space. Results of a fit to scattering phase shifts and bound state data are presented, where satisfactory agreement is found for laboratory energies up to about 100 Mev.Comment: Postscript file; figures available by reques

New syntheses of novel arylxanthones

Xanthones represent an outstanding class of oxyg~1_1ated heterocycles widespread in nature, commonly distributed in several higher plant families, such as Gentianaceae, Guttiferae and Polygalaceae and in a few families of fungi and lichens [1]. Both natural and synthetic derivatives often endowed with interesting pharmacological properties (e.g. anti-inflammatory, antitumour and antioxidant activities [1,2]. Naturally-occurring xanthones present different types .of substituents (e.g. hydroxyl, methoxyl and prenyl groups, among others) in different positions of their scaffold leading to a large variety of analogues [2]. The presence of an aryl ring attached to the xanthone core has only been reported in some synthetic derivatives [3 ,4]. We have dedicated our previous work to the development of novel methodologies for the synthesis of xanthones bearing a 2,3-diaryl substitution pattern [4]. Herein, we report the latest advances in the synthesis of novel 5-arylbenzo[ c ]xanthones 2 and 1- aryl-9H-xanthen-9-ones 4 [5]. 5-Arylbenzo[c]xanthones 2 are obtained by the Heck reaction of 3-bromoflavones 1 with styrene derivatives, leading to (E)-3-styrylflavones, followed by an one-pot photoinduced electrocyclisation and in situ oxidation of cycloadducts. The condensation of 2-methylchromone 3 with cinammaldehydes leaded to (E,E)-2-(4-arylbuta-1,3-dien-1-yl)-4H-chromen-4-ones, which after an one-pot electrocyclization and in situ oxidation of cycloadducts gave the desired 1-aryl-9Hxanthen- 9-ones 4