A self-organizing map approach to characterize hydrogeology of the fractured Serra-Geral transboundary aquifer

Abstract The aim of this work is to understand the exchange of water between the Serra Geral aquifer system (SGAS) and Guarani aquifer system (GAS). The objectives are two-fold. First, introduce the capability of the modified self-organizing maps (MSOM) as an unbiased nonlinear approach to estimate missing values of hydrochemistry and hydraulic transmissivity associated with the SGAS, a transboundary groundwater system spanning parts of four South American countries. Second, identify areas with potential connectivity of the SGAS with the GAS based on analysis of the spatial variability of key elements and comparison with current conceptual models of hydraulic connectivity. The MSOM is employed to calculate correlations (trends) between 27 variables from 1,132 wells. Hydraulic transmissivity is calculated from specific capacity values from well-pump tests in 157 locations. Hydrochemical facies estimates appear unbiased and consistent with current conceptual-connectivity models indicating that vertical fluxes from GAS are influenced by geological structure. The MSOM provides additional spatial estimates revealing new areas with likely connections between the two aquifer systems

Microstrucure and thermal features a-Si:H and nc-Si:H thin films produced by r.f. sputtering

Amorphous and nanocrystalline silicon thin films have been produced by reactive r.f. sputtering and their microstructure, optical and thermal properties were evaluated. A good correlation was found between the microstructure determined by Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction and the thermal transport parametersFCT Project POCTI / CTM / 39395 / 200

Study of the kinematics of a high-course steering system

30th International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing (FAIM2021) 15-18 June 2021, Athens, GreeceIn a context of mobility disruption, due to the accelerated growth of new technologies and sustainability policies, a new class of vehicles is emerging, depending on the type and its function, requiring new technologies suited to its goal. The autonomous modular platforms emerged, in this scenario, to reduce the time of placing electric vehicles on the market, the complexity of the supply and the total cost of production of the vehicle. To facilitate and adapt maneuverability of vehicles to the future challenges of mobility, this paper presents the study of different solutions for a steering system integrated in a modular platform already existing, that enables the vehicles 360° and 90° movements. The difficulty of developing this project is to find a mechanism that meets all kinematic requirements, without compromising the other systems of control and stability of the movement. Thus, considering the parameters of traction and suspension, possible solutions are developed, subsequently tested with the use of the SolidWorks software. Finally, it is concluded that of the solutions tested, the most satisfactory is the one that presents the best kinematic characteristics allied to the smallest course, despite being one of the solutions with more components.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

DNA damage induced by hydroquinone can be prevented by fungal detoxification

© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).Hydroquinone is a benzene metabolite with a wide range of industrial applications, which has potential for widespread human exposure; however, the toxicity of hydroquinone on human cells remains unclear. The aims of this study are to investigate the cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of hydroquinone in human primary fibroblasts and human colon cancer cells (HCT116). Low doses of hydroquinone (227-454 μM) reduce the viability of fibroblasts and HCT116 cells, determined by resazurin conversion, and induce genotoxic damage (DNA strand breaks), as assessed by alkaline comet assays. Bioremediation may provide an excellent alternative to promote the degradation of hydroquinone, however few microorganisms are known that efficiently degrade it. Here we also investigate the capacity of a halotolerant fungus, Penicillium chrysogenum var. halophenolicum, to remove hydroquinone toxicity under hypersaline condition. The fungus is able to tolerate high concentrations of hydroquinone and can reverse these noxious effects via degradation of hydroquinone to completion, even when the initial concentration of this compound is as high as 7265 μM. Our findings reveal that P. chrysogenum var. halophenolicum efficiently degrade hydroquinone under hypersaline conditions, placing this fungus among the best candidates for the detoxification of habitats contaminated with this aromatic compound.This work was partially supported by a Gulbenkian Foundation research grant (#96526/2009) awarded to JF, and PD received support from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia/FCT-Portugal (SFRH/BD/45502/2008).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Numerical simulation of adhesively-bonded T-stiffeners by cohesive zone models

30th International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing (FAIM2021) -15-18 June 2021, Athens, GreeceNowadays, the adhesive bonding method has a strong presence in the most varied industries. The bonding of composite materials with structural adhesives became more relevant in the industry, such as the aeronautical industry, which takes advantage of stiffener structures in composite materials using adhesive bonds. In any area of industry, large-scale application of a particular bonding technique requires reliable tools for the design and prediction of failure. This work evaluates the performance of a structural adhesive (Araldite® 2015) on a T-stiffener with composite adherends composed of an epoxy matrix reinforced with carbon fibers. The aim of the work is to numerically study, by the Finite Element Method (FEM) and Cohesive Zone Models (CZM), the behavior of different T-stiffener configurations under peel loads. A parametric study was carried out, including elastic stress analysis and maximum load (Pm) prediction, considering four geometrical parameters: flat adherend thickness (tP), stiffener thickness (t0), overlap length (LO) and curved deltoid radius (R). A significant effect was found for all studied parameters, on both stress distributions and Pm, enabling to define the optimal joint parameters for the T-stiffeners.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Concept and Design of Automated Moving Device for Healthcare Equipment

The physical wear of health professionals arises mainly from the movement of people with reduced mobility, transport of stretchers, hospital beds and hospital carts. There is a lack of equipment that helps these professionals to move patients in hospital beds or stretchers. This work aims to design an equipment that removes health professionals’ function of moving patients from beds to stretchers, being able to move patients around the hospital in a bed. Added to this challenge was the diversification of models of hospital beds, making it necessary for the equipment to adapt to all beds. The design process included several finite element method analyses to validate the structure, and also a structural optimization, to reduce costs and reduce the weight of the equipment. This work successfully designed an optimized automated solution that can improve working conditions in the healthcare industry.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The epidemiology ontology: an ontology for the semantic annotation of epidemiological resources

BACKGROUND: Epidemiology is a data-intensive and multi-disciplinary subject, where data integration, curation and sharing are becoming increasingly relevant, given its global context and time constraints. The semantic annotation of epidemiology resources is a cornerstone to effectively support such activities. Although several ontologies cover some of the subdomains of epidemiology, we identified a lack of semantic resources for epidemiology-specific terms. This paper addresses this need by proposing the Epidemiology Ontology (EPO) and by describing its integration with other related ontologies into a semantic enabled platform for sharing epidemiology resources. RESULTS: The EPO follows the OBO Foundry guidelines and uses the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) as an upper ontology. The first version of EPO models several epidemiology and demography parameters as well as transmission of infection processes, participants and related procedures. It currently has nearly 200 classes and is designed to support the semantic annotation of epidemiology resources and data integration, as well as information retrieval and knowledge discovery activities. CONCLUSIONS: EPO is under active development and is freely available at https://code.google.com/p/epidemiology-ontology/. We believe that the annotation of epidemiology resources with EPO will help researchers to gain a better understanding of global epidemiological events by enhancing data integration and sharing

Multicomponent complex formation between vinpocetine, cyclodextrins, tartaric acid and water-soluble polymers monitored by NMR and solubility studies

This work deals with multicomponent complex formation of vinpocetine (VP) with [beta]-cyclodextrin ([beta]CD), sulfobutyl ether [beta]-cyclodextrin (SBE[beta]CD) and tartaric acid (TA), in the presence or absence of water-soluble polymers, in aqueous solution. Complexation was monitored by phase-solubility and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) studies. TA demonstrated a synergistic effect on VP solubility, and in the complexation efficiency of [beta]CD and SBE[beta]CD. Additionally, water-soluble polymers increased even more the complexation efficiency of the CDs that was reflected by a 2.1-2.5 increase on KC values for VP-CD-TA-polymer multicomponent complexes. SBE[beta]CD was more effective in VP solubilization, as KC values of VP-SBE[beta]CD-TA multicomponent complexes were notably higher than in corresponding [beta]CD complexes. The large chemical shift displacements from protons located in the interior of the hydrophobic CD cavities (i.e., H-3 and H-5) coupled with significant chemical shift displacements of VP aromatic protons suggested that this moiety was included in the cavity of both [beta]CD and SBE[beta]CD. Two-dimensional rotating frame nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy (ROESY) experiments were carried out in order to obtain information about the multicomponent complex geometry in solution. Inspection of ROESY spectra allowed the establishment of spatial proximities between all aromatic protons of VP and the internal protons of the CDs, confirming that the aromatic moiety of VP is included in CD cavities being deeply inserted in SBE[beta]CD multicomponent complexes, since additional interactions with the sulfobutyl side chains were evidenced.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6T25-4DT2KX7-1/1/a543ba03bff16fe4ef579956893c94b

Exactly Solvable Interacting Spin-Ice Vertex Model

A special family of solvable five-vertex model is introduced on a square lattice. In addition to the usual nearest neighbor interactions, the vertices defining the model also interact alongone of the diagonals of the lattice. Such family of models includes in a special limit the standard six-vertex model. The exact solution of these models gives the first application of the matrix product ansatz introduced recently and applied successfully in the solution of quantum chains. The phase diagram and the free energy of the models are calculated in the thermodynamic limit. The models exhibit massless phases and our analyticaland numerical analysis indicate that such phases are governed by a conformal field theory with central charge $c=1$ and continuosly varying critical exponents.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure

Case-based product development of a high-pressure die casting injection subset using design science research

High pressure die casting is widely used in metalworking industry. Many of the components and devices directly linked to the hot parts are subjected to severe wear. However, some design updates can enlarge the lifespan of these components and devices. This paper proposes to show how a sustainable maintenance can be obtained by focusing resources on the analysis of the critical problem and its consequent mitigation, whereas they are originated on the human, machine/process or supplier level. Design science research (DSR) was the iterative research methodology chosen to integrate this work. The completion of the objective with the implementation of this new injection subset concept brought extremely beneficial results, such as reduction of its consumption, reduction of acquisition cost and waste generated, and reduction of the intervention time during maintenance operations, as well as increase in equipment availability time.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio