Venn Diagram of the Borromean Knot: The Route of Planning in Latin America

Objectives: To outline a critique of the development of planning through the Venn diagram and the Borromean knot as examples of complexity

Health Information Systems: Systems Closed to Social Citizens. One Challenge in Reducing Inequalities in Local Management.

Objective: To reflect on the use of health information systems (SIS in Spanish and Portuguese) and their impact on reducing inequalities in health care from the local administration

Assessing the Harvest Maturity of Brazilian Mangoes

No clear criterion exists to determine the optimum time to harvest mango. Some empirical relations are used to assess maturity, such as shoulder development. Moreover, as a result of the typical growing conditions in tropical climates, a huge variation in maturity and ripeness exists, seriously hampering the export of fruit in the global chain. The consequence for consumers in western countries is that sometimes mangoes are overripe at the retailer, or have to be kept for several days, even weeks, to reach the edible state, provided they do not rot in the meantime. To ensure an edible quality, the chlorophyll content in the fruit flesh, measured at harvest by Time-resolved Reflectance Spectroscopy (TRS), could be used as a maturity criterion for mango fruit. Commercially grown fruit were harvested in Brazil and transported to Italy by plane. Fruits were measured using TRS at 630 nm for absorption coefficient (µa) and skin colour. The development of µa was followed on 60 fruits during 15 days of storage at 20°C. The remainders of fruit were used to measure firmness destructively. Absorption coefficient decreased during shelf life according to a logistic pattern, as expected for colour development. Taking the variation between the individual fruit into account, 72% of the variation was accounted for. Nevertheless, µa assessed at harvest could be converted into a biological shift factor (BSF), as an expression of the maturity at harvest of each individual fruit. This biological shift factor explained about 70% of the variation in firmness development in individual fruit. These preliminary results indicate that TRS methodology coupled with BSF theory could be useful in assessing maturity at harvest and assuring acceptable eating quality of mango

Microphotonic parabolic light directors fabricated by two-photon lithography

We have fabricated microphotonic parabolic light directors using two-photon lithography, thin-film processing, and aperture formation by focused ion beam lithography. Optical transmission measurements through upright parabolic directors 22 μm high and 10 μm in diameter exhibit strong beam directivity with a beam divergence of 5.6°, in reasonable agreement with ray-tracing and full-field electromagnetic simulations. The results indicate the suitability of microphotonic parabolic light directors for producing collimated beams for applications in advanced solar cell and light-emitting diode designs

On the nature of the near-UV extended light in Seyfert galaxies

We study the nature of the extended near-UV emission in the inner kiloparsec of a sample of 15 Seyfert galaxies which have both near-UV (F330W) and narrow band [OIII] high resolution Hubble images. For the majority of the objects we find a very similar morphology in both bands. From the [OIII] images we construct synthetic images of the nebular continuum plus the emission line contribution expected through the F330W filter, which can be subtracted from the F330W images. We find that the emission of the ionised gas dominates the near-UV extended emission in half of the objects. A further broad band photometric study, in the bands F330W (U), F547M (V) and F160W (H), shows that the remaining emission is dominated by the underlying galactic bulge contribution. We also find a blue component whose nature is not clear in 4 out of 15 objects. This component may be attributed to scattered light from the AGN, to a young stellar population in unresolved star clusters, or to early-disrupted clusters. Star forming regions and/or bright off-nuclear star clusters are observed in 4/15 galaxies of the sample.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables; accepted for publication in MNRA

Avaliação das condições de temperatura e escarificação para a superação de diásporos de teca (Tectona grandis Linn. F.) provenientes do Estado de Rondônia.

A germinação lenta e irregular diásporos de teca (Tectona grandis Linn. F.) é uma limitação para a produção de mudas. Embora métodos práticos estejam disponíveis poucos estudos quantificaram sistematicamente o efeito do aquecimento e da escarificação na quebra da dormência. O emprego de altas temperaturas na quebra de dormência pode ser realizado utilizando um coletor solar, aparelho de montagem simples que permite a captação da energia solar e transformação em energia calorífera. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a interação dos fatores aquecimento e escarificação para a superação da dormência de diásporos de teca. Foi avaliado experimento em delineamento de fatorial completo com quatro níveis do fator aquecimento (A1 - solarizador, A2 - estufa a 80ºC (12h), A3 - estufa a 80ºC (4h/3dias), A4- sem aquecimento) e três níveis do fator escarificação (E1 - escarificação física, E2 - escarificação química e E3 - sem escarificação), totalizando 12 tratamentos com cinco repetições de 25 plantas por parcela. O teste F a 1% de probabilidade indicou a ocorrência de interação significativa entre os fatores aquecimento e escarificação, resultado da menor germinação dos frutos escarificados. O fator aquecimento afetou positivamente a germinação. O menor desempenho associado aos maiores custos e riscos para manipulação desencorajam a utilização da escarificação química na quebra de dormência em teca. A alternância de temperaturas favoreceu a germinação, sendo que o coletor solar mostrou-se uma alternativa prática, viável e de menor custo para a superar a dormência de diásporos de teca.bitstream/CPAF-RO-2010/13270/1/bpd57-teca-.pd

Cellular-to-dendritic and dendritic-to-cellular morphological transitions in a ternary al-mg-si alloy

The study is focused on the influence of solidification thermal parameters upon the evolution of the microstructure (either cells or dendrites) of an Al-3wt%Mg-1wt%Si ternary alloy. It is well known that the application properties of metallic alloys will greatly depend on the final morphology of the microstructure. As a consequence, various studies have been carried out in order to determine the ranges of cooling rates associated with dendritic-cellular transitions in multicomponent alloys. In the present research work, directional solidification experiments were conducted using either a Bridgman (steady-state) device or another device that allows the solidification under transient conditions (unsteady-state). Thus, a broad range of cooling rates (dot T), varying from 0.003K/s to 40K/s could be achieved. This led to the identification of a complete series of cellular/dendritic/cellular transitions. For low cooling rate experiments, low cooling rate cells to dendrites transition happens. Moreover, at a high cooling rate, a novel transition from dendrites to high cooling rate cells could be observed for the Al-3wt%Mg-1wt%Si alloy. Additionally, cell spacing λC and primary dendritic spacing λ1 are related to the cooling rate by power function growth laws characterized by the same exponent (-0.55) for both steady-state and unsteady-state solidification conditions529CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESP23038.000069/2015-042012/08494-0; 2012/16328-2; 2013/23396-7; 2014/25809-

Uso da solarização para a quebra de dormência de sementes de teca (Tectona grandis).

Uma das principais limitações para a produção de mudas de teca é a germinação lenta e irregular das sementes inseridas em fruto de endocarpo e mesocarpo duros e de alta resistência. Tais limitações incentivaram o desenvolvimento de pesquisas na Embrapa Rondônia com o objetivo de quantificar o efeito benéfico da temperatura para a quebra de dormência da teca e oferecer uma alternativa prática para a produção de mudas em viveiro. Com este objetivo a técnica de solarização que normalmente é utilizada para desinfestação de substratos foi adaptada para promover a quebra de dormência a partir de resultados de experimentos que evidenciaram o aumento da velocidade e uniformidade de germinação com a exposição dos frutos ao calor seco no interior do coletor solar.bitstream/CPAF-RO-2010/13272/1/ct102-teca.pd

Topology and phase transitions: a paradigmatic evidence

We report upon the numerical computation of the Euler characteristic \chi (a topologic invariant) of the equipotential hypersurfaces \Sigma_v of the configuration space of the two-dimensional lattice $\phi^4$ model. The pattern \chi(\Sigma_v) vs. v (potential energy) reveals that a major topology change in the family {\Sigma_v}_{v\in R} is at the origin of the phase transition in the model considered. The direct evidence given here - of the relevance of topology for phase transitions - is obtained through a general method that can be applied to any other model.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure