Generating Road Network Graph with Vision-Based Unmanned Vehicle

With the advancement of technology and its cheapness, robotic vehicles have gained a large number of applications. The spread of their use is growing also because they are getting smaller, lighter and easier to build. In this paper we present a simple and effective way to map a road network with the help of a driverless vehicle. Our approach consists of only three parts: vision-segmentation, angle variation and travelled distance. A video camera attached to a Lego® NXT Mindstorm vehicle guides it by image segmentation using Matlab® Image processing toolbox, along a road network, in which is represented by black tape over a white floor. The algorithm makes the vehicle travel all over the road memorizing main coordinates to identify all crossroads by keeping track of the travelled distance and the current angle. The crossroads and road’s end are the nodes of the graph. After several simulations have been performed, the modelling proved to be successful in that small scale approach. Consequently, there are good chances that driverless cars and UAVs also make use of the strategies to map route networks accordingly. The algorithm presented in this paper is useful when there is no localization signal such as GPS, for example, navigation on water, tunnels, inside buildings, among others.Faculty Sponsor: Francisco de Assis Zampiroll

Identifying dependability requirements for space software systems

Computer systems are increasingly used in space, whether in launch vehicles, satellites, ground support and payload systems. Software applications used in these systems have become more complex, mainly due to the high number of features to be met, thus contributing to a greater probability of hazards related to software faults. Therefore, it is fundamental that the specification activity of requirements have a decisive role in the effort of obtaining systems with high quality and safety standards. In critical systems like the embedded software of the Brazilian Satellite Launcher, ambiguity, non-completeness, and lack of good requirements can cause serious accidents with economic, material and human losses. One way to assure quality with safety, reliability and other dependability attributes may be the use of safety analysis techniques during the initial phases of the project in order to identify the most adequate dependability requirements to minimize possible fault or failure occurrences during the subsequent phases. This paper presents a structured software dependability requirements analysis process that uses system software requirement specifications and traditional safety analysis techniques. The main goal of the process is to help to identify a set of essential software dependability requirements which can be added to the software requirement previously specified for the system. The final results are more complete, consistent, and reliable specifications

Cytotoxic factor secreted by Escherichia coli associated with sepsis facilitates transcytosis through human umbilical vein endothelial cell monolayers

Culture supernatant of sepsis-associated Escherichia coli (SEPEC) isolated from patients with sepsis caused loss of intercellular junctions and elongation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). The cytotoxic factor was purified from culture supernatant of SEPEC 15 (serogroup O153) by liquid chromatography process. PAGE (polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) showed that the purified SEPEC cytotoxic factor had a molecular mass of ∼150 kDa and consisted of at least two subunits. At the concentration of 1 CD50 (40 μg/mL) did facilitate transcytosis through the HUVEC cells monolayer of SEPEC 15 as much as E. coli K12 within 30 min without affecting cell viability. These results suggest that this cytotoxic factor, named as SPF (SEPEC's permeabilizing factor), may be an important SEPEC virulence factor that facilitates bacterial access to the bloodstream.203298302COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESSem informaçã

Weed identification in sugarcane plantation through images taken from remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) and kNN classifier

The sugarcane is one of the most important crops in Brazil, the world´s largest sugar producer and the second largest ethanol producer. The presence of weeds in the sugarcane plantation can cause losses up to 90% of the production, caused by the competition for light, water and nutrients, between the crop and the weeds. Usually sugarcane plantations occupy large fields, and due to this, the weeds control is mostly chemical, which is more practical and cheaper than mechanical control. In the chemical control, the dosage and type of herbicides has been calculated by sampling, which causes problems of waste and misapplication of herbicides, since the degree of infestation may be variant from one location to another, as well as the species presents in the plantation. In order to avoid unnecessary waste in the herbicides application, there are some studies about weed identification using images taken from satellites, solution that have proved to have the advantage of covering the whole plantation, solving the problems of sample surveying, nevertheless, this method its dependent of a high weed density to ensure a good pattern recognition and its affected by the influence of clouds in the imagery quality. This work proposes a system for weed identification based on pattern recognition in imagery taken from a Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA). The RPA is able to fly at low altitude, so it is possible to take images closer to the plants and make the weed identification even in low infestation levels. In an initial evaluation, the system reached an overall accuracy of 83.1% and kappa coefficient of 0.775, using k-Nearest Neighbors (kNN) classifier.5621121

Linear and multiplicative 2-forms

We study the relationship between multiplicative 2-forms on Lie groupoids and linear 2-forms on Lie algebroids, which leads to a new approach to the infinitesimal description of multiplicative 2-forms and to the integration of twisted Dirac manifolds.Comment: to appear in Letters in Mathematical Physic

Reusable Verification Environment for a RISC-V Vector Accelerator

This paper presents a reusable verification environment developed for the verification of an academic RISC-V based vector accelerator that operates with long vectors. In order to be used across diverse projects, this infrastructure intends to be independent of the interface used for connecting the accelerator to the scalar processor core. We built a verification infrastructure consisting of a Universal Verification Environment (UVM) which is capable of validating the design performing co-simulation of the vector instructions. Moreover, we provided a set of tests and an automated test generation, simulation and error reporting infrastructure. This paper shares our experience on verifying a complex accelerator used in two distinct projects, with different interfaces.This research has received funding from the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (JU) under Framework Partnership Agreement No 800928 (European Processor Initiative) and Specific Grant Agreement No 101036168 (EPI SGA2) and No 956702 (eProcessor) . The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and from Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The EPI-SGA2 project, PCI2022-132935_N1618737 is also co-funded by MCIN/AEI /10.13039/501100011033 and by the UE NextGenerationEU/PRTRPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Fortalecimento de marca empresarial por meio de práticas sustentáveis, marketing digital e tecnologia Blockchain

A adoção de práticas sustentáveis pelas empresas, traz diferencial competitivo e fortalece a marca das organizações que adotam essas práticas, uma vez que a sociedade, sobretudo os consumidores, mas também, o governo, os investidores, os acionistas, os funcionários e os fornecedores, tem valorizado cada vez mais o papel exercido pelas empresas nas questões sociais e ambientais. Isto é resultado de uma sociedade cada vez mais preocupada com a preservação do meio ambiente e com a sustentabilidade, devido à ocorrência cada vez mais frequente de eventos extremos, como tempestades, furacões, inundações e secas. Consequentemente, valorizando as empresas que tem uma postura pró-ativa nas questões ambientais. Nesse sentido, informações sobre a qualidade dos produtos, processos produtivos sustentáveis e origem das matérias-primas utilizadas em sua produção podem agregar valor e auxiliar na abertura de mercados mais exigentes, que aceitam pagar mais por produtos ambientalmente corretos e socialmente justos. Sendo que a confiabilidade das informações apresentadas passa a ser fator primordial. A tecnologia blockchain apresenta-se como ótima solução no quesito integridade dos dados, principalmente pela sua característica de imutabilidade dos dados. Este trabalho descreve um sistema que utiliza tecnologia blockchain para armazenar de forma segura dados de qualidade, processos produtivos e rastreabilidade no intuito de agregar valor ao açúcar mascavo da Usina Granelli. Neste caso de uso, a disponibilização das informações é uma ferramenta de marketing digital para alavancar a venda do produto e fortelecer a marca Granelli

Consorciação de forrageiras com milho outonal em plantio direto: produção de grãos e palha

O consórcio entre culturas graníferas e espécies forrageiras tropicais tem se mostrado eficiente, na formação de pastagem e de palha para o sistema plantio direto. O presente trabalho foi conduzido com o objetivo de identificar, no sistema de integração agricultura-pecuária, o melhor arranjo de consorciação de milho outonal com quatro forrageiras (Urochloa brizantha, Urochloa ruziziensis, Panicum maximum cv. Tanzânia e Panicum maximum cv. Áries) em três modalidades de semeadura: na linha de semeadura misturado ao adubo do milho, a lanço em área total no mesmo dia da semeadura do milho e a lanço na época de adubação de cobertura do milho e uma testemunha (milho sem consorciação). O delineamento experimental foi em blocos casualizados em esquema fatorial 4x3+1 com quatro repetições. Segundo os resultados para produção de grãos e palha do milho não houve diferenças significativas entre os tratamentos de consorciação e tampouco entre os mesmos e o milho exclusivo. A semeadura das forrageiras na linha do milho proporcionou maior produtividade de matéria seca de palha, porém não houve diferenças entre as espécies estudadas

Residual de gesso e manejos conservacionistas sobre atributos físicos do solo

Com o intuito de estudar os manejos de solo sobre os atributos físicos do solo, foi realizado experimento na Fazenda de Pesquisa e Extensão pertencente a UNESP, Campus de Ilha Solteira - SP. Adotou-se delineamento experimental em blocos ao acaso, combinando quatro sistemas de cultivo: Semeadura Direta Contínua (SPD-SPD) e Alternada (SPD-CM), Cultivo Mínimo Continuo (CM-CM) e Alternado (CM-SPD) sem ou com o uso de gesso. Foram avaliados os atributos físicos do solo, nas profundidades de 0,0-0,10 e 0,10-0,20m. Os resultados revelaram que o sistema de plantio direto possui uma compactação superficial, demonstrada pelos menores valores de porosidade total (Pt) e maiores valores de densidade de solo (Ds) na profundidade de 0,0-010m. Contudo este sistema tem por finalidade, ao longo do tempo, melhorar as características físicas do solo como a manutenção dos agregados e de poros estáveis. As várias formas e métodos de manejo do solo junto ao gesso tiveram por finalidade melhorar as características do solo, porem neste trabalho não foi possível identificar um melhor manejo junto ao gesso. No entanto, independente do manejo utilizado, o gesso proporcionou melhores características físicas e químicas do solo

Estudo Morfoanatômico e Atividade Antimicrobiana do Óleo Essencial, Extrato Bruto e Frações das Partes Aéreas de Miconia cuspidata Naudin

Miconia cuspidate Naudin, widely known as "pixirica"or "sabiazeira-da-folha-fina", is a tree that belongs to Melastomataceae family. The aim of this work was making the morphoanatomical study, and evaluate the antimicrobial activity of essential oil, crude ethanol extract and hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, and aqueous fractions from M. cuspidata leaves. The morphological and anatomical studies were accomplished according to conventional techniques of vegetal anatomy. The essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation in a Clevenger apparatus. Antimicrobial activity was assessed by determining the Minimal Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) using the broth serial microdilution test. The study showed M. cuspidate is a tree about 5m high, has cylindrical stem, grayish bark, simple, opposite and short petiole leaves, white flowers, bacaceous, juicy and purplish fruit. And small, numerous and light brownish seeds. The leaf is hypostomatic with diacytic and anomocytic stomata. The mesophyll is dorsiventral, presenting palisade parenchyma with two layers of cells and spongy parenchyma with 4 to 5 layers of cells. Was observed presence of simple glandular trichomes containing oil inside. The main vein is concave-convex with cortical parenchyma presenting 7 layers of cells, druse and sclerified cells.The petiole has a convex-slightly concave outline. The young twig, in cross-section, has an oval shape with grooves in the central region. The crude ethanol extract and dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, and aqueous fractions from aerial parts showed strong antimicrobial activity (CIM = 4-16 μg/Ml) against Candida glabrata and Candida krusei.Miconia cuspidata Naudin (Melastomataceae) é uma árvore popularmente conhecida como pixirica ou sabiazeira-da-folha-fina. O objetivo do trabalho foi realizar o estudo morfoanatômico, e avaliar atividade antimicrobiana do óleo essencial, extrato bruto e frações hexano, diclorometano, acetato de etila e aquosa das folhas de M. cuspidata.Os estudos morfológicos e anatômicos foram realizados de acordo com as técnicas convencionais de anatomia vegetal. O óleo essencial foi obtido por hidrodestilação em um aparelho de Clevenger. A atividade antimicrobiana foi avaliada pelo teste de microdiluição em caldo.O estudo identificou que M. cuspidata é uma árvore com cerca de 5m altura, possui tronco cilíndrico, casca acinzentada, folhas simples, opostas e curto pecioladas, flores brancas, fruto bacáceo, suculento e purpúreo, e sementes pequenas, numerosas e claro amarronzadas. A folha é hipoestomática com estômatos diacíticos e anomocíticos. O mesofilo é dorsiventral apresentando parênquima paliçádico com duas camadas de células e parênquima lacunoso com 4 a 5 camadas de células. Observou-se tricomas glandulares simples contendo óleo em seu interior. A nervura principal é côncava-convexa com parênquima cortical apresentando 7 camadas de células, drusas e células esclerificadas. O pecíolo tem contorno convexo-levemente côncavo. O caule jovem, em corte transversal, apresenta forma oval com sulcos na região central. O extrato etanólico bruto e as frações diclorometano, acetato de etila e aquosa das folhas de M. cuspidata apresentaram atividade forte (CIM = 4-16 μg/mL) frenteCandida glabratae Candida krusei