Meeting Notes 2006-03-09

Caracterización de la variabilidad climática en la Cordillera de los Andes necesita un de un análisis especial debido a que en esto región, la precipitación y temperatura ser extremadamente variables tanto a escala espacial como en escala temporal. En este artículo se examina las anomalías de datos mensuales de precipitación y temperatura media observada en 25 y 16 estaciones respectivamente, que datan desde inicios de 1960 hasta 1990, y los compara versus las anomalías de diferentes influencias climáticas externas de la región en bloques de periodos anuales y trimestrales. Las estaciones están ubicadas en la cuenca del Río Paute en el sur de los andes ecuatorianos. Las estaciones se encuentran en un rango de elevación entre 1800 y 4200 m s.n.m. y principalmente están afectados por influencias climáticas externas correspondientes al Pacifico tropical, la Amazonía y el Atlántico tropical. Los resultados muestran variaciones de temperatura homogéneas en toda la región, las mismas que están altamente influenciadas por el ENSO (El Nino South Oscillation) especialmente durante el trimestre Diciembre-Enero-Febrero. Durante Junio-Julio-Agosto, la correlación es menor, mostrando posibles influencias de otros factores climáticos. Se encontró valores altos y significativos de anomalías en temperatura en sitios de alta elevación, mientras que en los valles interandinos las anomalías son menores y de menor grado significativo. La variación en precipitación depende, además de la elevación, a factores adicionales como la orientación del terreno, la pendiente y el MASKANA, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2011 Revista semestral de la DIUC 32 régimen hidrológico. Los valores altos y significativos de anomalías en precipitación fueron encontrados en los sitios ubicados en la región oriental de la cuenca.Characterization of climate variability in the Andes mountain range needs special assessment as rainfall and temperature are extremely variable in space and time. This paper examines the anomalies of observed month rainfall and temperature data of respectively 25 and 16 stations, from the early 1960‟s to the 1990‟s and compare them against anomalies from different external climate influences in annual and 3-month seasonal block periods. The stations are located in the Río Paute Basin in the Ecuador‟s southern Andes. All stations are within the elevation band 1800 and 4200 m a.s.l. and affected by the Tropical Pacific, Amazon and Tropical Atlantic climate. The results show similar temperature variations for the entire region, which are highly influenced by the ENSO, especially during the DJF season. During JJA, the correlation is weaker showing the influence of other climate factors. Higher temperature anomalies are found at the high elevation sites while in deep valleys the anomalies are less significant. Rainfall variations depend, in addition to elevation, on additional factors such as the aspect orientation, slope and hydrological regime. Highest and most significant rainfall anomalies are found in the eastern sites.CuencaVol. 2; no. 1 (julio 2011

Copernicus’ Role in the Scientific Revolution: Philosophical Merits and Influence on Later Scientists

Nicolaus Copernicus\u27 publication of De Revolutionibus Orbium Coesltium marks the beginning of a revolution in the field of astronomy and physics. Within 150 years, a heliocentric system became almost universally accepted in the scientific community. Copernicus’ model was significant not because it of its scientific merit, but because of its ideological appeal to scientists during the 16th through 18th century. This paper explores the philosophical foundations of Copernicus\u27 model, and examines his influence in later work of four significant astronomers and physicists, Brahe, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton

Building condition assessment on a heritage building : Dato Abdullah Jaafar building

Building Condition Assessment (BCA) is the assessment done on a building to rate the condition by assessing the defects present, determining the risks if the structure is left in its original condition without maintenance work and finding out the maintenance work that need to be done in order to preserve the building in its working condition. BCA is executed by comparing information which include the data that had been measured, comments on the structural condition either with or without defect and interpretation of the condition of the deformity present. These information were gathered during the preliminary in-situ investigation which was done to determine the masonry textures, decay patterns and the accountability of the materials and structural elements. This paper is focus on implementing the BCA in heritage building in Malaysia. Thus, in this study, the BCA was done in a heritage building in Johor Bharu which is the Dato' Abdullah jaafar building. The objective of this study in the end is to develop a rating system to be used as an identification of the defects present according to the priority of maintenance needed. It is also to identify the applicability of existing BCA on heritage buildings. Furthermore, to find out the material used on the heritage building As for the findings of this project, it was found that the existing BCA can be applied in the process of heritage building inspection. Next, the chemical composition of the existing material of the Dato' Abdullah Jaafar building was found. Furthermore, the main conclusion is that the overall rating of the building managed to be obtained based from data gathered through the BCA process done where the building was rated with rating 3

Revista de la Universidad de Cuenca. Anales

Cuencatomo 55 (julio 2010

Production of violacein nanoparticles via sonication technique with the aid of surfactants as stabilizer

Violacein, a violet pigment produced from Chromobacterium violaceum UTM5, has gained interest due to its biodegradability and pharmacological properties. However, its high production cost and limited solubility in water have become the major stumbling blocks for the pigment to be applied in different industries. In this study, liquid pineapple waste was used as an alternative inexpensive growth medium for bacteria cultivation instead of expensive synthetic nutrient broth, thus reducing the production cost of this pigment. The cultivation of C. violaceum in 50 L bioreactor gave a crude yield of 11846 ± 925 mg L-1, which was comparable to the yield obtained using commercial growth medium. The crude pigment was successfully extracted using ethyl acetate. The presence of violacein, the major active compound of the crude pigment, was confirmed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry (UV-Vis). Thermal gravimetric analysis was used to determine crystallinity and thermal degradation while Zetasizer analyzer was used to identify the isoelectric point, stability at various pHs, and particle size of violacein. Violacein nanoparticles were produced via sonication technique, with the aid of surfactants (Tween 80, Triton X-100, sodium dodecyl sulfate and dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide) as solubilizing and stabilizing agent, to address the violacein’s poor solubility in water. The violacein nanoparticles were characterized using UV-Vis spectrophotometry, FTIR, thermal analysis and Zetasizer analysis. Water soluble violacein nanoparticles were produced at surfactant concentration greater than its critical micelle concentration, as indicated by FTIR. Zetasizer analysis showed the smallest violacein nanoparticle, which was 131.5 ± 2.001 nm, with polydispersity index (PDI) of 0.180 ± 0.018, which indicated a monodispersed violacein nanoparticle distribution. The thermal analysis showed that violacein nanoparticles were in amorphous state and stable upon dispersion in water, with a zeta potential of -49.8 ± 3.49 mV. The violacein nanoparticles have better solubility than the crude violacein pigment. The solubilized violacein nanoparticles remained well-dispersed upon storage in 28 days at different temperatures. In addition, the violet color of the violacein nanoparticles was maintained at pH range of 3 to 11, temperatures of up to 60°C, and under dark condition, despite its nanoscale size. Higher degradation rate was observed at high temperature and upon light illumination, with k = 6.51 × 10-3 h-1, t1/2 = 148 h and k = 6.75 × 10-4 h-1, t1/2 = 1027 h, respectively, following the first-order kinetics. In conclusion, this study confirmed the feasibility of using liquid pineapple waste as cheap growth medium for cultivation of C. violaceum UTM5 in pilot scale (50-L bioreactor) while production of water-soluble violacein nanoparticles via sonication method with the aid of surfactants as stabilizers would increase its usefulness, especially in pharmaceutical industry

Boletín bibliográfico

Cuencanúmero 1 (25 de diciembre de 1945

Memorias. Plan piloto de mantenimiento aplicado en las viviendas de Susudel

El Plan Piloto de Mantenimiento aplicado en las viviendas de Susudel (3=5) debe ser considerado como una experiencia exitosa en la conservación y salvaguardia del patrimonio cultural y un ejemplo de buenas prácticas, pues más allá de la conservación física del patrimonio, claramente detallada en esta memoria, el proyecto se enmarca en una concepción amplia e integral del patrimonio, que involucra los patrimonios diversos, resalta la riqueza de lo vernáculo y de lo cotidiano y, particularmente, recupera el rol de los sujetos y las comunidades en la apropiación y cuidado del patrimonio. Los resultados, cuantifi cables en términos de obra, son amplios en su aspecto cualitativo, pues han permitido vincular la comunidad, la academia y la institucionalidad pública a favor del patrimonio; intercambiar saberes y recuperar prácticas y técnicas tradicionales; -activar la memoria colectiva; fortalecer la solidaridad social mediante el trabajo compartido; y -estamos seguros que- el proceso también habrá contribuido, con un granito de arena, al robustecimiento de la identidad cultural de los susudelences. Creemos que la experiencia de Susudel plantea la posibilidad real de nuevos caminos en la gestión del patrimonio. Confiamos que esta Memoria será una herramienta útil en el anhelo por replicar procesos similares y reiteramos la importancia de continuar trabajando articuladamente con la academia y aunar esfuerzos a favor de la conservación y salvaguardia de nuestros patrimonios.Cuenc

Iterative Flattening Search for the Flexible Job Shop Scheduling Problem

This paper presents a meta-heuristic algorithm for solving the Flexible Job Shop Scheduling Problem (FJSSP). This strategy, known as Iterative Flattening Search (IFS), iteratively applies a relaxation-step, in which a subset of scheduling decisions are randomly retracted from the current solution; and a solving-step, in which a new solution is incrementally recomputed from this partial schedule. This work contributes two separate results: (1) it proposes a constraint-based procedure extending an existing approach previously used for classical Job Shop Scheduling Problem; (2) it proposes an original relaxation strategy on feasible FJSSP solutions based on the idea of randomly breaking the execution orders of the activities on the machines and opening the resource options for some activities selected at random. The efficacy of the overall heuristic optimization algorithm is demonstrated on a set of well-known benchmarks