Arterial Baro- And Chemoreceptor Projections To The Amygdala In The Cat

In this study baro- and chemoreceptor input to the amygdala was investigated with electrophysiological experiments in chloralose-anesthetized cats and with the neuroanatomical tracing method of retrograde transport of horseradish peroxidase.;Stimulation of the carotid sinus (CSN) and aortic depressor (ADN) nerves altered the firing frequency of 30% (73/241) and 20% (50/251), respectively, of single units in the central, lateral and basal nuclei of the amygdala.;Selective activation of carotid baro- and chemoreceptors altered the firing frequency of 23% (35/154) and 16% (24/154), respectively, of amygdalar units, with chemoreceptor responsive units located primarily in the dorsomedial amygdala and baroreceptor responsive units located primarily in the ventrolateral amygdala.;Retrograde transport of horseradish peroxidase demonstrated many brain sites, including the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVH) and the parabrachial nucleus (PB) with direct projections to the nuclei of the amygdala receiving cardiovascular input.;Stimulation of the CSN and ADN altered the firing frequency of 34% (64/189) and 24% (18/185), respectively, of PB units. Furthermore, stimulation of the amygdala and PVH antidromically and orthodromically activated PB units, of which approximately half also responded to buffer nerve stimulation.;Stimulation of the PVH elicited a response in 19% (27/140) of amygdalar units, of which 33% also responded to chemoreceptor activation while 31% (46/150) of amygdalar units responded to stimulation of the PB, of which 24% also responded to chemoreceptor activation and 4% responded to baroreceptor activation.;A model is proposed indicating that chemoreceptor input to the dorsomedial amygdala is an important component of behavioral arousal while the baroreceptor input to the ventrolateral amygdala inhibits this system. In addition, the PB plays a key role in relaying cardiovascular information to the forebrain and in receiving converging descending forebrain information and ascending cardiovascular input and then sends an integrated signal to autonomic and respiratory effectors. Finally, both the PVH and PB were demonstrated to be likely sites of relay of cardiovascular afferent information from the medulla to the amygdala

Upgrading biogas with novel composite carbon molecular sieve (CCMS) membranes: Experimental and techno-economic assessment

The use of biogas as feedstock for hydrogen production was widely proposed in the literature in the last years as a strategy to reduce anthropogenic carbon emissions. However, its lower heating value compared to natural gas hampers the revamping of existing reforming plants. The use of composite carbon molecular sieve membranes for biogas upgrading (CO2 removal from biogas) was investigated experimentally in this work. In particular, ideal perm-selectivities and permeabilities above the Robeson plot for CO2/CH4 mixtures have been obtained. These membranes show better performances compared to polymeric membranes, which are nowadays commercialized for CO2 separation in natural gas streams. Compared to polymeric membranes, carbon membranes do not show deactivation by plasticization when exposed to CO2, and thus can find industrial application. This work was extended with a techno-economic analysis where carbon membranes are installed in a steam methane reforming plant. Results have been first validated with data from literature and show that the use of biogas increases the costs of hydrogen production to a value of 0.25 €/Nm3 compared to the benchmark technology (0.21 €/Nm3). On the other hand, the use of biogas leads to a decrease in carbon emissions up to 95%, thus the use of biogas for hydrogen production is foreseen as a very interesting alternative to conventional technologies in view of the reduction in the carbon footprint in the novel technologies that are to be installed in the near future

Advances and Perspectives of H2 Production from NH3 Decomposition in Membrane Reactors

Hydrogen is often regarded as an ideal energy carrier. Its use in energy conversion devices does in fact not produce any pollutants. However, due to challenges related to its transportation and storage, liquid hydrogen carriers are being investigated. Among the liquid hydrogen carriers, ammonia is considered very promising because it is easy to store and transport, and its conversion to hydrogen has only nitrogen as a byproduct. This work focuses on a review of the latest results of studies dealing with ammonia decomposition for hydrogen production. After a general introduction to the topic, this review specifically focuses on works presenting results of membrane reactors for ammonia decomposition, particularly describing the different reactor configurations and operating conditions, membrane properties, catalysts, and purification steps that are required to achieve pure hydrogen for fuel cell applications

Cortical Circuitry Associated With Reflex Cardiovascular Control in Humans: Does the Cortical Autonomic Network Speak or Listen During Cardiovascular Arousal

Beginning with clinical evidence of fatal cardiac arrhythmias in response to severe stress, in epileptic patients, and following stroke, the role of the cerebral cortex in autonomic control of the cardiovascular system has gained both academic and clinical interest. Studies in anesthetized rodents have exposed the role of several forebrain regions involved in cardiovascular control. The introduction of functional neuroimaging techniques has enabled investigations into the conscious human brain to illuminate the temporal and spatial activation patterns of cortical regions that are involved with cardiovascular control through the autonomic nervous system. This symposia report emphasizes the research performed by the authors to understand the functional organization of the human forebrain in cardiovascular control during physical stressors of baroreceptor unloading and handgrip exercise. The studies have exposed important associations between activation patterns of the insula cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate, and the medial prefrontal cortex and cardiovascular adjustments to physical stressors. Furthermore, these studies provide functional anatomic evidence that sensory signals arising from baroreceptors and skeletal muscle are represented within the insula cortex and the medial prefrontal cortex, in addition to the sensory cortex. Thus, the cortical pathways subserving reflex cardiovascular control integrate viscerosensory inputs with outgoing traffic that modulates the autonomic nervous system. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Pathological Changes in Microvascular Morphology, Density, Size and Responses Following Comorbid Cerebral Injury

Aberrations in brain microcirculation and the associated increase in blood-brain-barrier (BBB) permeability in addition to neuroinflammation and Aβ deposition observed in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and ischemia have gained considerable attention recently. However, the role of microvascular homeostasis as a pathogenic substrate to disturbed microperfusion as well as an overlapping etiologic mechanism between AD and ischemia has not been thoroughly explored. In this study, we employ temporal histopathology of cerebral vasculature in a rat model of β-amyloid (Aβ) toxicity and endothelin-1 induced-ischemia (ET1) to investigate the panorama of cerebral pathology and the protein expression on d1, d7, and d28 post-injury. The combination of Aβ and ET1 pathological states leads to an alteration in microvascular anatomy, texture, diameter, density, and protein expression, in addition to disturbed vessel-matrix-connections, inter-compartmental water exchange and basement membrane profile within the lesion epicenter localized in the striatum of Aβ+ET1 brains compared to Aβ and ET1 rats. We conclude that the neural microvascular network, in addition to the neural tissue, is not only sensitive to structural deterioration but also serves as an underlying vascular etiology between ischemia and AD pathologies. Such investigation can provide prospects to appreciate the interrelationships between structure and responses of cerebral microvasculature and to provide a venue for vascular remodeling as a new treatment strategy

MaquiAR: uma solução com realidade aumentada aplicada no e-commerce de maquiagem

TCC(graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Centro Tecnológico. Sistemas de Informação.Compras online estão cada vez mais populares, e receberam um impulso ainda maior com a pandemia da COVID-19. Assim, foram evidenciados tanto suas vantagens em relação ao comércio em lojas físicas, como a comodidade, quanto suas desvantagens. Uma delas é a impossibilidade de tocar o produto com as mãos. É difícil ter certeza quanto de como o produto é no mundo real já que a maior parte dos produtos são apresentados em fotos 2D e breve descrição. Com isso muitos consumidores acabam desistindo da compra ou se arrependendo dela porque o produto não era o esperado. O objetivo deste trabalho é desenvolver um aplicativo com Realidade Aumentada de maquiagem para dispositivos móveis, com o propósito de levar aos usuários uma experiência diferente na apresentação de maquiagem online e maior segurança para comprá-las. Para sustentar a proposta do aplicativo, foi estudado na literatura os impactos do uso de Realidade Aumentada na intenção de compra dos consumidores e foram analisados aplicativos populares relacionados ao comércio eletrônico de maquiagens. A proposta deste trabalho é um aplicativo Android que permitirá os usuários experimentarem diferentes tipos de maquiagem através da câmera do smartphone, por meio de filtros com Realidade Aumentada e terá acesso a informações das maquiagens que estão experimentando e de como comprá-las. É descrito o processo de desenvolvimento do aplicativo, a arquitetura utilizada e as dificuldades encontradas. Por fim, são apresentados testes realizados com usuários e os seus resultados.Online shopping is increasingly popular, and has received a boost with the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, both its advantages in relation to shopping in physical stores, such as convenience, and its disadvantages were evidenced. One of the disadvantages is the impossibility to touch the product with your hands. It is hard to evaluate how the product looks in real world since most of the products are presented in 2D photos and a brief description. As a result, many consumers end up giving up on the purchase or regretting it because the product was not what they expected it to be. The goal of this work is to develop a makeup Augmented Reality application for mobile devices, with the purpose of bringing users a different experience in how makeup is presented online and greater security to buy them. To support this application's proposal, the impacts of the use of Augmented Reality on consumers' purchase intentions were studied in the literature and popular applications related to makeup e-commerce were analyzed. The proposal of this work is an Android application that will allow users to try different types of makeup through the smartphone's camera, through filters with Augmented Reality and the users will have access to information about the makeup they are trying and how to buy them. The application development process, the architecture used and the difficulties encountered are described. Finally, tests performed with users and their results are presented

Ultra-pure hydrogen production via ammonia decomposition in a catalytic membrane reactor

In this work two alternatives are presented for increasing the purity of hydrogen produced in a membrane reactor for ammonia decomposition. It is experimentally demonstrated that either increasing the thickness of the membrane selective layer or using a small purification unit in the permeate of the membranes, ultra-pure hydrogen can be produced. Specifically, the results show that increasing the membrane thickness above 6 μm ultra-pure hydrogen can be obtained at pressures below 5 bar. A cheaper solution, however, consists in the use of an adsorption bed downstream the membrane reactor. In this way, ultra-pure hydrogen can be achieved with higher reactor pressures, lower temperatures and thinner membranes, which result in lower reactor costs. A possible process diagram is also reported showing that the regeneration of the adsorption bed can be done by exploiting the heat available in the system and thus introducing no additional heat sources.This project receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and nnovation under grant agreement No. 862482 (ARENHA project)

Meritocracia : avaliação sistemática de processos comportamentais presentes nos contextos de ocorrência do conceito em amostra da literatura especializada

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Alexandre DittrichDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Humanas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia. Defesa : Curitiba, 15/04/2020Inclui referências: p. 112-122Resumo: O primeiro registro do termo meritocracia se deu em 1956, mas seus princípios podem ser encontrados desde Confúcio, a partir do século V AC, no contexto da alocação de cargos na burocracia governamental chinesa. No ocidente, os princípios protestantes, apontados como os principais pilares filosóficos do que veio a constituir o ideal meritocrático ocidental, foram levados por seus pregadores, que fugiam da perseguição da coroa inglesa, para as colônias inglesas nos EUA A fim de aumentar a visibilidade sobre a relevância dos debates sobre meritocracia para a comunidade analítico-comportamental e oferecendo subsídios a partir do behaviorismo radical para possíveis discussões, buscou-se avaliar criticamente o uso do termo 'meritocracia' em amostra da literatura acadêmica especializada. A partir da organização dos resultados, buscou-se: (a) definir o problema: identificar as condições de estímulo que controlam o uso do termo meritocracia (ou meritocracy) em literatura selecionada e avaliar criticamente tais usos, buscando subsidiar uma possível interpretação do conceito, a partir de conceitos do behaviorismo radical e da análise do comportamento; (b) especificar as informações: identificar os controles mais recorrentes no uso do termo na literatura em geral; (c) selecionar as fontes: adoção do Portal de Períodicos CAPES como base de dados com amostra representativa da literatura acadêmica de alta qualidade sobre o tema, selecionando artigos revisados por pares em inglês, português e espanhol que apresentassem o termo 'meritocracia' ou 'meritocracy' no título e no corpo do texto; além de uso do critério SCImago Journal & Country Rank (SJR) ? 1 para os periódicos; (d) levantar as informações: sistematização das ocorrências de palavras com o radical merit- nos textos; classificação nas áreas do saber, segundo classificação do SJR e; divisão dos estudos em teóricos e empíricos, e, por fim; (e) tratar as informações: além da própria seleção da literatura; identificação dos controles mais recorrentes em termos (1) das áreas do saber, (2) do tipo de estudo, (3) dos disparadores de debate mais frequentes, (4) das metodologias e (5) das conclusões. Esse tratamento das informações também envolveu uma avaliação crítica, a partir dos princípios do behaviorismo radical, dos usos mais frequentes de 'meritocracia'. As áreas que mais tiveram publicações sobre o tema foram: Ciências Sociais, Psicologia e Educação. Nas discussões contemporâneas nessas áreas, a distinção entre a proposta oriental e ocidental atravessa boa parte dos artigos aqui analisados. Quando a discussão orbita em torno de métodos de seleção (ou admissão, promoção etc.), a meritocracia é tratada como sistema de justiça distributiva, segundo o qual os bens sociais (i.e.: acesso à saúde) seriam distribuídos da maneira mais justa. Quando é discutida à luz do "Sonho Americano", costuma ser tratada como ideologia hierarquizante, ou que justifica o sistema como está (desigual e estratificado). Além disso, outros temas recorrentes nos trabalhos aqui expostos são as relações entre crença na meritocracia e percepção de desigualdades e de discriminação; os critérios utilizados para aferir mérito; a ênfase nas credenciais acadêmicas como demonstradoras de mérito; e os efeitos do discurso meritocrático no sistema educacional. Algumas possibilidades de debates são apontadas para os analistas do comportamento, envolvendo agências de controle, a discussão skinneriana sobre liberdade e dignidade e a teoria das molduras relacionais. Palavras-chave: mérito, meritocracia, análise do comportamento, ideologia, sistema de distribuição.Abstract: The first register of the term 'meritocracy' is found in 1956, but its principles date back do Confucius, from the 5th century BC and onwards, in the context of professional assignment in the Chinese government bureaucracy. In the West, Protestant principles, pointed out as the main philosophical pillars of what came to constitute the Western meritocratic ideal, were taken by their preachers, who fled from the persecution of the Crown of England, to the English colonies in the U.S.A. In order to increase visibility on the relevance of the debates on meritocracy for the analytic-behavioral community and, also, to offer insights from radical behaviorism for possible discussions, the use of the term 'meritocracy' was critically evaluated in a sample of specialized academic literature. After organizing the results, we sought to: (a) define the problem: identifying the stimulus conditions that control the use of the term meritocracy in selected literature and critically evaluating such uses, seeking to provide a possible interpretation of the concept, based on concepts of radical behaviorism; (b) specify the information: identifying the most recurrent controls in the use of the term in literature overall; (c) select the sources: adoption of the Portal de Periódicos da CAPES as a database with a representative sample of high-quality academic literature on the subject, selecting peer-reviewed articles in English, Portuguese and Spanish that present the term 'meritocracia' or 'meritocracy' in the title and body of the text; in addition to using the SCImago Journal & Country Rank (SJR) ? 1 criterion for journals; (d) gather the information: systematization of the occurrences of words with the radical merit- in the articles; categorization in the fields of scientifical knowledge, according to the SJR classification and; division into theoretical and empirical researches, and, finally; (e) treat the information: besides the literature selection itself; identification of the most recurrent controls regarding the (1) fields of knowledge, (2) type of study, (3) most frequent debate triggers, (4) methodologies and (5) conclusions. This treatment of information also involved a critical evaluation, based on the principles of radical behaviorism, of the most frequent uses of 'meritocracy'. The areas that had most publications on the subject were: Social Sciences, Psychology and Education. In contemporary discussions in these areas, the distinction between the Eastern and Western proposal populates most of the articles analyzed here. When the discussion revolves around methods of selection (or admission, promotion, etc.), meritocracy is treated as a system of distributive justice, according to which social goods (i.e.: works) would be distributed in the most equitable manner. When discussed in the light of the "American Dream", it is usually treated as a hierarchical ideology, or one that justifies the system as it is (unequal and stratified). In addition, the relationships between belief in meritocracy and the perception of inequalities and discrimination; the criteria used to assess merit; the emphasis on academic credentials as demonstrators of merit; and the effects of meritocratic discourse on the educational system are other recurrent themes in the articles presented here. Some possibilities of debates are pointed out for behavior analysts, including control agencies, the Skinnerian discussion about freedom and dignity, and the relational frame theory. Keywords: merit, meritocracy, behavior analysis, ideology, distribution syste

H2 production via ammonia decomposition in a catalytic membrane reactor

The membrane reactor is proposed in this work as a system with high potential to efficiently recover the hydrogen (H2) stored in ammonia (NH3), which has been recently proposed as an alternative for H2 storage. With this technology, NH3 decomposition and high-purity H2 separation are simultaneously performed within the same unit, and high H2 separation efficiency is achieved at lower temperature compared to conventional systems, leading to energetic and economic benefits. NH3 decomposition was experimentally performed in a Pd-based membrane reactor over a Ru-based catalyst and the performance of the conventional packed bed reactor were used as benchmark for a comparison. The results demonstrate that the introduction of a membrane in a conventional reactor enhances its performance and allows to achieve conversion higher than the thermodynamic equilibrium conversion for sufficiently high temperatures. For temperatures from and above 425 °C, full NH3 conversion was achieved and more than 86% of H2 fed to the system as ammonia was recovered with a purity of 99.998%. The application of vacuum at the membrane permeate side leads to higher H2 recovery and NH3 conversions beyond thermodynamic restrictions. On the other hand, the reactor feed flow rate and operating pressure have not shown major impacts on NH3 conversion.This project receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation under grant agreement No. 862482 (ARENHA project)