From particle cascade simulations (FLUKA) to finite element heat transfer and structural deformation analyses (ANSYS)

Particle cascade simulations coupled with subsequent finite element thermal and mechanical calculations are an advanced, extremely useful, and sometimes the only available and reliable tool for solving practical as well as general engineering problems related to design and construction of accelerator components. The FLUKA Monte Carlo code and the ANSYS Finite Element system are extensively used by us for this purpose. In this paper we discuss physical assumptions made when using these programmes, modes of their applications, and their interface. Successful application of their mainframe for estimating spatial distributions and time evolution of temperatures and stresses in the accelerator domain are shown as examples : for the LHC and SPS beam dumps, and for the neutrino target at the SPS

Solving the woolly mammoth conundrum: amino acid 15N-enrichment suggests a distinct forage or habitat

Understanding woolly mammoth ecology is key to understanding Pleistocene community dynamics and evaluating the roles of human hunting and climate change in late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions. Previous isotopic studies of mammoths’ diet and physiology have been hampered by the ‘mammoth conundrum’: woolly mammoths have anomalously high collagen δ15N values, which are more similar to coeval carnivores than herbivores and which could imply a distinct diet and (or) habitat, or a physiological adaptation. We analyzed individual amino acids from collagen of adult woolly mammoths and coeval species and discovered greater  15N enrichment in source amino acids of woolly mammoths than in most other herbivores or carnivores. Woolly mammoths consumed an isotopically distinct food source, reflective of extreme aridity, dung fertilization and (or) plant selection. This dietary signal suggests that woolly mammoths occupied a distinct habitat or forage niche relative to other Pleistocene herbivores

Surface EMG decomposition using a novel approach for blind source separation

We introduce a new method to perform a blind deconvolution of the surface electromyogram (EMG) signals generated by isometric muscle contractions. The method extracts the information from the raw EMG signals detected only on the skin surface, enabling longtime noninvasive monitoring of the electromuscular properties. Its preliminary results show that surface EMG signals can be used to determine the number of active motor units, the motor unit firing rate and the shape of the average action potential in each motor unit

Análise da disfunção cognitiva em pacientes depressivos unipolares e bipolares

Anais do VI Encontro de Iniciação Científica e II Encontro Anual de Iniciação ao Desenvolvimento Tecnológico e Inovação – EICTI 2017 - 04 a 06 de outubro de 2017 - temática Ciências da SaúdeDéficits cognitivos em pacientes psiquiátricos tem sido muito estudado nos últimos anos. Uma das principais populações de estudo são os pacientes com transtornos de humor, devido à elevada prevalência e à grande perda observada em alguns ao longo do estadiamento da doença. Por esta razão, o objetivo do presente estudo foi avaliar, por meio da aplicação de alguns instrumentos de avaliação cognitiva de fácil aplicação, se há ou não perdas ou déficits cognitivos entre pacientes com transtorno depressivo maior e transtorno afetivo​ ​ bipolarUniversidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana (Unila); Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq); Fundação Araucária; Parque Tecnológico Itaipu (PTI) e Companhia de Saneamento do Paraná (SANEPAR

GEOPOLITICS AND GEOPOETICS IN STANISŁAW KOLBUSZEWSKI’S BALTIC ESSAYS

The paper discusses Stanislaw Kolbuszewski’s essays devoted to the capitals of the Baltic states (W stolicach państw bałtyckich, Poznań 1939; (In the Capitals of the Baltic States).) the author visited in the 1930s. Kolbuszewski’s aim was to familiarize the Polish reader with modern Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia as seen through the eyes of a (friendly) stranger. His book clearly transcends the conventional limits of its genre (travel writing, journalism, reportage). The three capitals function there as extended conceptual metaphors of the Baltic states, their history, architecture, urban layout, and local color being viewed by the Polish “tourist” as symbolic manifestations of their inhabitants’ national mentality. The paper focuses on the geopolitical and geopoetic ideas implicit in Kolbuszewski’s account, exploring the connections between “imagined” geographical space and the nation’s collective memory. Curiously enough, though a Polish nationalist at heart, Kolbuszewski does not make any territorial claims on what was once “Polish Livonia”. Instead, he enthusiastically endorses Baltic nationalisms, dismissing the German and Russian cultural contributions as hostile foreign intrusions. The tropes of ethnic “purity” and folk cultures viewed as pillars of national identity, recurrent in Kolbuszewski’s Baltic essays, bring to mind the anti-German propaganda employed by Polish National Democrats after WW1 and Polish communists after WW2 in their attempt to justify Poland’s annexation of German Silesia, Pomerania, and Masuria, symbolically redefined in the Polish political discourse as the so-called Regained Territories. The connection between Kolbuszewski’s Baltic essays and his affinities with the Regained Territories narrative, as developed by Polish Western Thought and the Piast historiography, is our focus in this article

GEOPOLITICS AND GEOPOETICS IN STANISŁAW KOLBUSZEWSKI’S BALTIC ESSAYS

The paper discusses Stanislaw Kolbuszewski’s essays devoted to the capitals of the Baltic States (W stolicach państw bałtyckich, Poznań 1939) that the author visited in the 1930s. Kolbuszewski’s aim was to familiarize the Polish reader with modern Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia as seen through the eyes of a (friendly) stranger. The authors of the paper focus on the geopolitical and geopoetic ideas implicit in Kolbuszewski’s account of his travels to Riga, Tallinn and Kaunas, searching for the connections between geographic space, culture, civilization, history, traditions and the collective memory. What seems particularly intriguing about Kolbuszewski’s report is the dynamic interplay between the personal perspective of “the Other” and the numerous historical affinities between Poland and the Baltic states modifying that “otherness.

Avaliação socioeconômica e análise do relato verbal de pais de crianças portadores de síndromes genéticas na região da tríplice fronteira

Anais do V Encontro de Iniciação Científica e I Encontro Anual de Iniciação ao Desenvolvimento Tecnológico e Inovação – EICTI 2016 - 05 e 07 de outubro de 2016 – Sessão Ciências BiológicasA genética clínica vem adquirindo uma importância cada vez maior, que pode ser justificada pelo aumento da incidência das doenças genéticas em vários países, sendo que na maioria dos casos, as pessoas desconhecem suas condições médicas e não são diagnosticadas corretamente para tal. Diante desse quadro o aconselhamento genético se apresenta com fundamental, já que tem como princípio investigar adequadamente problemas genéticos, proporcionando melhor entendimento aos portadores, para que esses lidem de melhor forma com as doenças genéticas. Além disso, a um grande déficit na literatura sobre correlações entre o perfil comportamental e doenças genéticas. Dessa forma, esse trabalho teve como relevância diminuir a escassez de estudos no Brasil e na América Latina, em especial na região da tríplice fronteira, tendo como objetivo avaliar o perfil com síndromes genéticas, a partir do relato dos pais