Evaluation of water quality : proposal for a new index founded on the Fuzzy logic

Qualidade da água é um aspecto fundamental do ambiente para a saúde. Índices de Qualidade das Águas – IQA’s são operadores matemáticos que processam um conjunto de indicadores analíticos, produzindo um resultado numérico indexado, capaz de expressar a qualidade da água. O IQA mais difundido e aceito mundialmente é o proposto pela National Sanitation Foudantion - NSF, estando fundamentado na lógica clássica. No presente artigo, apresenta-se um novo IQA, alicerçado na lógica fuzzy, cujos conjuntos não têm fronteiras rigidamente definidas e incluem variáveis linguísticas em sua matriz de decisão, produzindo estimativas de um sistema não linear complexo, sem recorrer a modelos matemáticos. Para validá-lo, comparou-se os seus resultados com os obtidos pela aplicação do IQA da NSF durante 24 meses, fazendo uso das amostras de água do Rio Pimenta Bueno (Rondônia, Brasil). As comparações realizadas indicam que o IQA fuzzy é mais sensível do que o IQA da NSF às variações dos valores dos parâmetros que os compõem. O IQA fuzzy configurado por meio do software MATLAB, com as funções de agregação gaussianas, mostrou-se viável, seguro e mais flexível para avaliação da qualidade da água, podendo, portanto, ser considerado válido para classificação da qualidade da água de outros mananciais hídricos. _________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTWater Quality Indexes (IQA) are mathematical operators that process a set of analytical indicators, producing a indexed numeric result, able to express the water quality. The IQA most world widely used and accepted is proposed by the National Sanitation Foundation - NSF and is based on classical logic. This work presents a new IQA based on fuzzy logic, whose boundaries are not rigidly defined and include linguistic variables in its decision matrix, producing estimates of a complex nonlinear system, without resorting to mathematical models. In order to validate it, the results were compared with those obtained using the IQA of NFS for 24 months, using water samples from the Pimenta Bueno River (Rondônia, Brazil). The comparisons realized indicates that the fuzzy IQA is more sensitive than the NSF IQA to variations of parameter values that compose them. The fuzzy IQA set by the MATLABÒ software, with Gaussians aggregations functions, revealed viable, safe and more flexible to evaluate water’s quality, therefore it can be considered valid valid to classify the water’s quality from other water’s sources

Neuronal Assembly Detection and Cell Membership Specification by Principal Component Analysis

In 1949, Donald Hebb postulated that assemblies of synchronously activated neurons are the elementary units of information processing in the brain. Despite being one of the most influential theories in neuroscience, Hebb's cell assembly hypothesis only started to become testable in the past two decades due to technological advances. However, while the technology for the simultaneous recording of large neuronal populations undergoes fast development, there is still a paucity of analytical methods that can properly detect and track the activity of cell assemblies. Here we describe a principal component-based method that is able to (1) identify all cell assemblies present in the neuronal population investigated, (2) determine the number of neurons involved in ensemble activity, (3) specify the precise identity of the neurons pertaining to each cell assembly, and (4) unravel the time course of the individual activity of multiple assemblies. Application of the method to multielectrode recordings of awake and behaving rats revealed that assemblies detected in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus typically contain overlapping neurons. The results indicate that the PCA method presented here is able to properly detect, track and specify neuronal assemblies, irrespective of overlapping membership

Frequency-domain processing of electroencephalography signals measured under a moderated-stress protocol

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Tecnologia, Departamento de Engenharia Elétrica, 2009.Nesta pesquisa foi desenvolvida uma ferramenta computacional batizada Protolize! que possibilita o processamento de sinais biológicos, principalmente sinais de eletroencefalografia, no domínio do tempo e da freqüência. A ferramenta permite a análise desses sinais por meio de métodos como a transformada de Fourier, transformada de Fourier de curta duração, transformada discreta de wavelets, transformada contínua de wavelets, e disponibiliza interfaces gráficas para a edição dos sinais no domínio do tempo e o cálculo de parâmetros estatísticos básicos. O desempenho e a utilidade da ferramenta foram avaliados através do uso da mesma no processamento de sinais de eletroencefalografia, coletados em 21 voluntários, durante a aplicação de uma variação do protocolo TSST, no qual cada um dos voluntários realizou operações de subtração de um número de dois dígitos a partir de um número de quatro dígitos. Como resultado, além da validação de Protolize!, foi proposto um método, utilizando a transformada discreta de wavelets, com o qual conseguiu-se minimizar os artefatos derivados do sinal de eletroculografia. Além disso, foram encontradas, por meio da análise no domínio da freqüência, relações entre o desempenho dos voluntários durante a aplicação do protocolo e o aumento, na fase de teste do mesmo, da componente de freqüência de 44 Hz no sinal eletroencefalografico do lobo frontal. Determinaram-se também, relações entre a variação de tal potência na região pré-frontal e a velocidade de cálculo e de digitação de resultados, assim como relações, na região frontal, entre a citada variação e o desempenho do sujeito caracterizado por número de acertos e de erros durante o teste. _________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTIn this research a computational tool named Protolize! was developed for biological signal processing, with emphasis on electroencephalographic signals, in the frequency and time domains. The tool performs analysis using the Fourier transform, the short-time Fourier transform, the continuous wavelet transform and discrete wavelet transform. Other interfaces allow the signal edition in the time domain and calculation of some basic statistical parameters. Performance and usefulness of Protolize! were evaluated by processing electroencephalography signals collected, in 21 volunteers, under a variation of a TSST protocol, in which each subject made subtractions calculations of a two digit number from a four digit number. As a result, besides the validation of Protolize!, a method was proposed using the discrete wavelets transform, to minimize the electroculogram effects in the EEG signal. Through Fourier analysis, we found relations between the subject’s performance during the test and the power increase of the 44 Hz component in the EEG signal of the frontal lobe. Relations between the variation of that power in the prefrontal region and the speed of calculations and between this same power and the volunteer performance characterized by his number of correct and wrong answers were also found

Callosal Influence on Visual Receptive Fields Has an Ocular, an Orientation-and Direction Bias

One leading hypothesis on the nature of visual callosal connections (CC) is that they replicate features of intrahemispheric lateral connections. However, CC act also in the central part of the binocular visual field. In agreement, early experiments in cats indicated that they provide the ipsilateral eye part of binocular receptive fields (RFs) at the vertical midline (Berlucchi and Rizzolatti, 1968), and play a key role in stereoscopic function. But until today callosal inputs to receptive fields activated by one or both eyes were never compared simultaneously, because callosal function has been often studied by cutting or lesioning either corpus callosum or optic chiasm not allowing such a comparison. To investigate the functional contribution of CC in the intact cat visual system we recorded both monocular and binocular neuronal spiking responses and receptive fields in the 17/18 transition zone during reversible deactivation of the contralateral hemisphere. Unexpectedly from many of the previous reports, we observe no change in ocular dominance during CC deactivation. Throughout the transition zone, a majority of RFs shrink, but several also increase in size. RFs are significantly more affected for ipsi- as opposed to contralateral stimulation, but changes are also observed with binocular stimulation. Noteworthy, RF shrinkages are tiny and not correlated to the profound decreases of monocular and binocular firing rates. They depend more on orientation and direction preference than on eccentricity or ocular dominance of the receiving neuron's RF. Our findings confirm that in binocularly viewing mammals, binocular RFs near the midline are constructed via the direct geniculo-cortical pathway. They also support the idea that input from the two eyes complement each other through CC: Rather than linking parts of RFs separated by the vertical meridian, CC convey a modulatory influence, reflecting the feature selectivity of lateral circuits, with a strong cardinal bias

Essential Oils from Colombian Plants: Antiviral Potential against Dengue Virus Based on Chemical Composition, In Vitro and In Silico Analyses

Currently, there are no therapies to prevent severe dengue disease. Essential oils (EOs) can serve as primary sources for research and the discovery of phytomedicines for alternative therapy. Fourteen EOs samples were obtained by distillation from six plants used in Colombian folk medicine. GC/MS analysis identified 125 terpenes. Cytopathic effect (CPE) reduction assays revealed differences in antiviral activity. EOs of Lippia alba, citral chemotype and carvone-rich fraction; Lippia origanoides, phellandrene chemotype; and Turnera diffusa, exhibited strong antiviral activity (IC50: 29 to 82 µg/mL; SI: 5.5 to 14.3). EOs of Piper aduncum, Ocimum basilicum, and L. origanoides, carvacrol, and thymol chemotypes, exhibited weak antiviral activity (32 to 53% DENV-CPE reduction at 100 µg/mL; SI > 5.0). Cluster and one-way ANOVA analyses suggest that the strong antiviral activity of EOs could be attributed to increased amounts of non-phenolic oxygenated monoterpenes and sesquiterpene hydrocarbons. Docking analyses (AutoDock Vina) predicted binding affinity between the DENV-2 E protein and terpenes: twenty sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (−8.73 to −6.91 kcal/mol), eight oxygenated monoterpenes (−7.52 to −6.98 kcal/mol), and seven monoterpene hydrocarbons (−7.60 to −6.99 kcal/mol). This study reports for the first time differences in the antiviral activity of EOs against DENV, corresponding to their composition of monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes