Why is CDMA the solution for mobile satellite communication

It is demonstrated that spread spectrum Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems provide an economically superior solution to satellite mobile communications by increasing the system maximum capacity with respect to single channel per carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems. Following the comparative analysis of CDMA and FDMA systems, the design of a model that was developed to test the feasibility of the approach and the performance of a spread spectrum system in a mobile environment. Results of extensive computer simulations as well as laboratory and field tests results are presented

Controle da hanseníase: perspectivas e aspectos epidemiológicos e operacionais

OBJECTIVES: As a starting point, a vast variety of 200 technical papers and documents published during the ten years 1999-2008, from Brazilian and international organizations dedicated to the control of leprosy, was taken. A study was then undertaken to investigate its future evolutive possibilities by employing resources obtained from scenario analyses. DESIGN: The methodological reconstruction in use was of a qualitative nature, based on a bibliographic review and content analysis techniques. The latter were employed in a documental, categorical, contingent, frequency-based format, in compliance with appropriate and pertinent conditions. RESULTS: Nowadays, important elements on epidemiological and operational aspects have been regained, as well as respective perspectives. CONCLUSIONS: A projection is made towards the fact that the maintenance of the disease's present incidence levels constitute economic and sanitary challenges that confront issues ranging from the neoliberal model of global societal organization to specific competences of actions taken by health teams in the field.OBJETIVOS: A partir de acervo de 200 textos acadêmicos e de documentos de organismos nacionais e internacionais voltados ao controle da hanseníase publicados no período de 1999 a 2008, procurou-se estudar respectivas possibilidades evolutivas futuras, empregando-se os subsídios do recurso de análise de cenários. MÉTODOS: A reconstrução metodológica adotada foi de natureza qualitativa, fulcrada nas técnicas de revisão bibliográfica e análise de conteúdo. Esta última foi empregada na tipificação documental categorial frequencial contigencial, de acordo com devida fundamentação pertinente. RESULTADOS: Recuperaram-se elementos atuais importantes de natureza epidemiológica e operacional, bem como de respectivas perspectivas. CONCLUSÕES: Projeta-se que a manutenção dos coeficientes de incidência da doença coloca reptos econômicos e sanitários a desafiar desde o modelo neoliberal de organização societária mundial até competências específicas das ações das equipes de saúde em campo

The Role of Albumin in Human Toxicology of Cobalt: Contribution from a Clinical Case

The distribution and adverse effects, especially to optic and acoustic nerves, of cobalt released from a hip arthroplasty and its association with albumin were studied. The analysis of cobalt was performed in plasma, whole blood, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The fraction of albumin binding the metal was determined by colorimetric assay using dithiothreitol (DTT). In all the biological matrices very high levels of cobalt were measured, but contrary to expected, a higher concentration in whole blood than in plasma was observed. The determination of altered albumin confirmed this hypothesis. This evidence might indicate an alteration in the binding of cobalt to albumin and a consequent increase in the concentration of the diffusible (free) fraction of the metal. This appears an interesting starting point for further investigations for identifying and better understanding cobalt neurotoxicity, apparently not so frequent in occupational medicine and clinical practice

Análise da Inter-relação da Produtividade Agrícola e Característica Climática na Região Sudeste do Estado de Mato Grosso, por Técnicas Multivariadas

A necessidade de entender o relacionamento entre variáveis biológicas faz da análise multivariada uma metodologia com grande potencial de aplicação em várias áreas do conhecimento. Na agricultura, sua utilização vem auxiliando a compreensão e a obtenção de respostas altamente interessantes e práticas, que permitem optar pelo seu emprego, tanto pela eficiência como pela acurácia do método na interpretação dos resultados. Técnicas de estatística multivariada foram empregadas com o objetivo de estudar a inter-relação produtividade agrícola e característica climatológica na região sudeste matogrossense. A partir da utilização de análise fatorial buscou-se identificar as dimensões separadas da estrutura de variação dos dados e interpretar a estrutura das interrelações entre os produtos cultivados na região. Para descrever a associação entre o conjunto de variáveis agrícolas e de produtividade, a incorporação de novos procedimentos multivariados na interrelação desses indicadores utilizou-se a análise de correlação canônica. A análise fatorial estabeleceu dois eixos canônicos para as interrelações entre as culturas, sendo o primeiro fator explicando 42,19% da variância total correlacionado com as culturas anuais, podendo ser denominado de “fator de culturas anuais” e o segundo fator, que explicou 16,10%, “fator de culturas semiperenes”. O resultado da primeira correlação canônica (0,67) mostrou associação significante entre as componentes agrícolas e as condições climáticas

A step towards a reinforcement learning de novo genome assembler

The use of reinforcement learning has proven to be very promising for solving complex activities without human supervision during their learning process. However, their successful applications are predominantly focused on fictional and entertainment problems - such as games. Based on the above, this work aims to shed light on the application of reinforcement learning to solve this relevant real-world problem, the genome assembly. By expanding the only approach found in the literature that addresses this problem, we carefully explored the aspects of intelligent agent learning, performed by the Q-learning algorithm, to understand its suitability to be applied in scenarios whose characteristics are more similar to those faced by real genome projects. The improvements proposed here include changing the previously proposed reward system and including state space exploration optimization strategies based on dynamic pruning and mutual collaboration with evolutionary computing. These investigations were tried on 23 new environments with larger inputs than those used previously. All these environments are freely available on the internet for the evolution of this research by the scientific community. The results suggest consistent performance progress using the proposed improvements, however, they also demonstrate the limitations of them, especially related to the high dimensionality of state and action spaces. We also present, later, the paths that can be traced to tackle genome assembly efficiently in real scenarios considering recent, successfully reinforcement learning applications - including deep reinforcement learning - from other domains dealing with high-dimensional inputs

Os quadrinhos brasileiros de humor autorais no século XXI

The main objective of this work is to identify and analyze the themes of the comics that deal with current topics. Today’s comics authors include Allan Sieber and André Dahmer, who appear on the internet media scene as comics’ creators for virtual domains. The study intends to analyze the phenomenon of the passage from one support to another, an aspect that constitutes a great innovation of the language of comics.Tem como objetivo principal identificar e analisar as temáticas das histórias em quadrinhos que tratam de assuntos candentes e em pauta na atualidade. Dos quadrinistas da atualidade, destacam-se Allan Sieber e André Dahmer, que aparecem no cenário midiático da internet como autores de quadrinhos para domínios virtuais. O estudo tem o intuito de analisar o fenômeno da passagem de um suporte para outro, aspecto que constitui uma grande inovação dessa linguagem

Airborne Pathogens Transport in an Aircraft Cabin

Airborne pathogens can spread within an aircraft cabin from sneezing, coughing or breathing of a sick passenger. This paper reports a 3D numerical study on the transport of airborne pathogens inside Boeing 767 cabin. After cough or sneeze of an infected passenger, the entire unsteady pathogen dispersion process is simulated. Effects under study include the direction of coughing on the pathogens propagation and the spreading times from infected to hosts passengers

Diode Green Laser in the Lid Trichiasis Treatment

Purpose: To validate the standard values and evaluate the success rate in the treatment of minor and major trichiasis using thermoablation with a diode green laser. Methods: In this interventional prospective study, individuals with minor or major trichiasis who were treated with thermoablation using diode green laser were included. The patients’ mean age was 72.1 years; the majority were females (54.1%) and Caucasian (98%). The parameters of the diode laser were wavelength of 532 nm, application time of 200 ms, target size of 50 μm, interval between the shots 150 to 200 ms, and power of 600 to 750 mW. The number of shots was defined by the depth of ablation sufficient to reach the pilus hair bulb. The patients were evaluated by slit-lamp every 3 to 4 months, for up to 15 months. The treatment success rate and the association between variables were analyzed. Results: The study sample was comprised of 98 patients with 135 affected lids and 337 lashes with trichiasis. Minor trichiasis (91.8%), unilateral trichiasis (67.3%), trichiasis affecting the lower eyelid (85.9%), and trichiasis resulting from blepharitis (64.3%) were the most common presentation profiles. The overall cure rate at the end of the study was 85%, with 69% being cured with a single session and 82.8% with two treatment sessions. Conclusion: Thermoablation using a diode green laser applying the specified parameters to treat minor and major trichiasis is effective and results in high cure rate