This paper presents a methodology for automated disturbance analysis and fault location on electric power distribution systems using a combination of modern techniques for network analysis, signal ...processing, and intelligent systems. New algorithms to detect, classify, and locate power-quality disturbances are developed. The continuous process of detecting these disturbances is accomplished through statistical analysis and multilevel signal analysis in the wavelet domain. The behavioral indices of the current and voltage signals are extracted by employing the discrete wavelet transform, multiresolution analysis, and the concept of signal energy. These indices are used by a number of independent Fuzzy-ARTMAP neural networks, which aim to classify the fault type and the power-quality events. The fault location is performed after the classification process. A real life three-phase distribution system with 134 nodes-13.8 kV and 7.065 MVA-was used to test the proposed algorithms, providing satisfactory results, attesting that the proposed algorithms are efficient, fast, and, above all, intelligent.
The description of the genus
as the causative agent of leishmaniasis occurred in the modern age. However, evolutionary studies suggest that the origin of
can be traced back to the Mesozoic era. ...Subsequently, during its evolutionary process, it achieved worldwide dispersion predating the breakup of the Gondwana supercontinent. It is assumed that this parasite evolved from monoxenic Trypanosomatidae. Phylogenetic studies locate dixenous
in a well-supported clade, in the recently named subfamily Leishmaniinae, which also includes monoxenous trypanosomatids. Virus-like particles have been reported in many species of this family. To date, several
species have been reported to be infected by
RNA virus (LRV) and
(LBV). Since the first descriptions of LRVs decades ago, differences in their genomic structures have been highlighted, leading to the designation of LRV1 in
. (
) species and LRV2 in
. (
) species. There are strong indications that viruses that infect
spp. have the ability to enhance parasitic survival in humans as well as in experimental infections, through highly complex and specialized mechanisms. Phylogenetic analyses of these viruses have shown that their genomic differences correlate with the parasite species infected, suggesting a coevolutionary process. Herein, we will explore what has been described in the literature regarding the relationship between
and endosymbiotic
viruses and what is known about this association that could contribute to discussions about the worldwide dispersion of
Summary The prevalence and risk factors of radiographic vertebral fracture were determined among Brazilian community-dwelling elderly. Vertebral fractures were a common condition in this elderly ...population, and lower hip bone mineral density was a significant risk factor for vertebral fractures in both genders. Introduction The aim of the study was to estimate the prevalence of radiographic vertebral fracture and investigate factors associated with this condition in Brazilian community-dwelling elderly. Methods This cross-sectional study included 943 elderly subjects (561 women and 382 men) living in São Paulo, Brazil. Thoracic and lumbar spine radiographs were obtained, and vertebral fractures were evaluated using Genant's semiquantitative method. Bone mineral density (BMD) was measured by dual X-ray absorptiometry, and bone biochemical markers were also evaluated. Female and male subjects were analyzed independently, and each gender was divided into two groups based on whether vertebral fractures were present. Results The prevalence of vertebral fracture was 27.5% (95% CI 23.8-31.1) in women and 31.8% in men (95% CI 27.1-36.5) (P = 0.116). Cox regression analyses using variables that were significant in the univariate analysis showed that age (prevalence ratio = 1.03, 95% CI 1.01-1.06; p = 0.019) and total femur BMD (PR = 0.27, 95% CI 0.08-0.98; p = 0.048) were independent factors in predicting vertebral fracture for the female group. In the male group, Cox regression analyses demonstrated that femoral neck BMD (PR = 0.26, 95% CI 0.07-0.98; p = 0.046) was an independent parameter in predicting vertebral fractures. Conclusions Our results suggest that radiographic vertebral fractures are common in Brazilian community-dwelling elderly and that a low hip BMD was an important risk factor for this condition in both genders. Age was also significantly correlated with the presence of vertebral fractures in women.
Pseudomonas chlororaphis subsp. aurantiaca DSM 19603 was cultivated on apple pulp, a glucose- and fructose-rich waste generated during juice production, to produce medium-chain length ...polyhydroxyalkanoates. A cell dry mass of 8.74 ± 0.20 g/L, with a polymer content of 49.25 ± 4.08% were attained. The produced biopolymer was composed of 42.7 ± 0.1 mol% 3-hydroxydecanoate, 17.9 ± 1.0 mol% 3-hydroxyoctanoate, 14.5 ± 1.1 mol% 3-hydroxybutyrate, 11.1 ± 0.6 mol% 3-hydroxytetradecanoate, 10.1 ± 0.5 mol% 3-hydroxydodecanoate and 3.7 ± 0.2 mol% 3-hydroxyhexanoate. It presented low glass transition and melting temperatures (−40.9 ± 0.7 °C and 42.0 ± 0.1 °C, respectively), and a degradation temperature of 300.0 ± 0.1 °C, coupled to a low crystallinity index (12.7 ± 2.7%), a molecular weight (Mw) of 1.34 × 105 ± 0.18 × 105 Da and a polydispersity index of 2.70 ± 0.03. The biopolymer's films were dense and had a smooth surface, as demonstrated by Scanning Electron Microscopy. They presented a tension at break of 5.21 ± 1.09 MPa, together with an elongation of 400.5 ± 55.8% and an associated Young modulus of 4.86 ± 1.49 MPa, under tensile tests. These attractive filming properties of this biopolymer could potentially be valorised in several areas such as the fine chemicals industry, biomedicine, pharmaceuticals, or food packaging.
This paper presents a new methodology based on multiobjective optimization techniques to perform an optimized, coordinated, and selective allocation of control and protection devices in distribution ...networks with distributed generation (DG). The proposed mathematical model consists of two objective functions that consider economic issues and the network continuity index. Physical and operational constraints are taken into account, with emphasis on the set of constraints based on practical rules of distribution companies and international technical standards, which require the specification, coordination, and selectivity of the protection devices installed in the network. The possibility of load transfer from neighboring feeders and islanded DG operation is also considered. The proposed model is a mixed integer nonlinear programming, and we use NSGA-II (Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm) to solve it. The proposed methodology is applied in a real 135-bus system found in the literature.
Dynamic recrystallization occurs at room temperature during high-pressure torsion (HPT) leading to the formation of ultrafine grains with high angles of misorientation. There are questions concerning ...whether dynamic recrystallization occurs due to the temperature rise during severe plastic deformation or due to the effect of lattice defects. In this study, the real temperature rise was measured by directly placing a thermocouple separately on disc samples of tin, aluminum, silver, copper and titanium. The measurements, which are consistent with finite element simulations, show that the temperature rise is of minor significance in initiating dynamic recrystallization. A relationship is developed to predict the temperature rise in HPT.
Summary
In a cross-sectional cohort of 450 healthy women aged 20 to 85 years, data on the density, structure, and strength of the distal radius and tibia were obtained using high-resolution ...peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) and were adjusted for age, weight, and height. Age-dependent patterns of change differed between the sites and between the trabecular and cortical compartments. In postmenopausal women, the trabecular bone remained relatively stable at the distal tibia, but the cortical compartment changed significantly. Cortical porosity exhibited a very weak correlation with stiffness.
Introduction
The aim of this study is to provide information on age-related, weight-related, and height-related changes in the volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD), structure, and biomechanical parameters of the cortical and trabecular compartments in a healthy female population using HR-pQCT.
Methods
For a cross-sectional Brazilian cohort of 450 women aged 20 to 85 years, age-related reference curves of the vBMD, structure, and biomechanical parameters of the distal radius (DR) and distal tibia (DT) were constructed and adjusted for weight and height, and comparisons between premenopausal and postmenopausal women were performed.
Results
Reference curves were obtained for all parameters. At the DR, age-related changes varied from −8.68% (cortical thickness Ct.Th) to 26.7% (trabecular separation Tb.Sp). At the DT, the changes varied from −12.4% (Ct.Th) to 26.3% (Tb.Sp). Cortical porosity (Ct.Po) exhibited the largest percent changes: 342.2% at the DR and 381.5% at the DT. In premenopausal women, Ct.Th remained constant; in postmenopausal women, structural trabecular parameters (trabecular number (Tb.N), trabecular thickness (Tb.Th), Tb.Sp) did not change, whereas cortical parameters and stiffness were significantly altered. Cortical vBMD showed the greatest absolute decrease at both sites, and the slopes were highly negative after menopause. Pearson correlations between stiffness (S) and HR-pCT parameters revealed a significant correlation between the densities and structures of the trabecular and cortical compartments. A weak correlation was observed between S and Ct.Po (DR
r
= −0.162, DT
r
= −0.273;
p
< 0.05).
Conclusions
These data provide reference curves from healthy women and demonstrate that density and structural and biomechanical parameters differ between the radius and tibia and between the trabecular and cortical compartments. In postmenopausal women, the trabecular bone remained relatively stable at the tibia site, whereas the cortical compartment changed significantly.
The co-culture of
DSM 428 and
NRRL B-2504 was performed using apple pulp waste from the fruit processing industry as the sole carbon source to produce poly(3-hydroxybutyrate), P(3HB) and medium-chain ...length PHA, mcl-PHA, respectively. The polymers accumulated by both strains were extracted from the co-culture's biomass, resulting in a natural blend that was composed of around 48 wt% P(3HB) and 52 wt% mcl-PHA, with an average molecular weight of 4.3 × 10
Da and a polydispersity index of 2.2. Two melting temperatures (T
) were observed for the blend, 52 and 174 °C, which correspond to the T
of the mcl-PHA and P(3HB), respectively. P(3HB)/mcl-PHA blend films prepared by the solvent evaporation method had permeabilities to oxygen and carbon dioxide of 2.6 and 32 Barrer, respectively. The films were flexible and easily deformed, as demonstrated by their tensile strength at break of 1.47 ± 0.07 MPa, with a deformation of 338 ± 19% until breaking, associated with a Young modulus of 5.42 ± 1.02 MPa. This study demonstrates for the first time the feasibility of using the co-culture of
and
strains to obtain a natural blend of P(3HB)/mcl-PHA that can be processed into films suitable for applications ranging from commodity packaging products to high-value biomaterials.
Summary
We ascertained the incidence of non-vertebral fracture in a low-income Brazilian elderly cohort. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first population-based study to demonstrate the ...frequency of non-vertebral fracture in elderly Latin Americans. Age, prior fracture, and bone mineral density (BMD) at hip were predictors of fracture.
Introduction
No data on incidence of osteoporotic non-vertebral fracture have been reported in low-income countries where the population’s aging has been faster. Even in developed countries, currently available prospective data on major fracture rates beyond hip are scarce. The aim of this study is to describe the incidence and risk factors for non-vertebral fracture in a longitudinal prospective Brazilian population-based elderly cohort.
Methods
Seven hundred seven older adults (449 women, 258 men) were evaluated at baseline and after a mean follow-up of 4.3 ± 0.8 years. Clinical questionnaire, bone mineral density (BMD), and laboratory tests were performed at baseline. New non-vertebral fracture (hip, proximal humerus, rib, forearm) was determined during the follow-up. Multivariate Poisson regression models were used to identify independent predictors of fracture.
Results
The age-standardized incidence of non-vertebral fracture was 1562.3/100,000 (1085.7–2248.1/100,000) person-years (pyr) in women and 632.8/100,000 (301.7–1327.3/100,000) in men. Concerning to hip fractures, the incidence was 421.2/100,000 (210.7–842.3/100,000) pyr in women and 89.9/100,000 (12.7–638.5/100,000) in men. In a multivariate analysis, age (RR 2.07, 95% CI 1.13–3.82,
p
= 0.019, each 10-year increase), prior non-vertebral fracture (RR 3.08, 95% CI 1.36–6.95,
p
= 0.007), and total hip BMD (RR 1.68, 95% CI 1.11–2.56,
p
= 0.015, each 1 SD decrease) were predictors of new non-vertebral fracture. In men, fitting a model of risk factors for fracture was prevented by the limited number of events in male sample.
Conclusion
This is the first population-based study to ascertain the incidence of major non-vertebral fractures in elderly Latin Americans, confirming the high frequency of the disorder. Age, prior fracture, and hip BMD were predictors of the short-term incidence of fracture.
Calculation of ligand-binding affinity is an open problem in computational medicinal chemistry. The ability to computationally predict affinities has a beneficial impact in the early stages of drug ...development, since it allows a mathematical model to assess protein-ligand interactions. Due to the availability of structural and binding information, machine learning methods have been applied to generate scoring functions with good predictive power.
Our goal here is to review recent developments in the application of machine learning methods to predict ligand-binding affinity.
We focus our review on the application of computational methods to predict binding affinity for protein targets. In addition, we also describe the major available databases for experimental binding constants and protein structures. Furthermore, we explain the most successful methods to evaluate the predictive power of scoring functions.
Association of structural information with ligand-binding affinity makes it possible to generate scoring functions targeted to a specific biological system. Through regression analysis, this data can be used as a base to generate mathematical models to predict ligandbinding affinities, such as inhibition constant, dissociation constant and binding energy.
Experimental biophysical techniques were able to determine the structures of over 120,000 macromolecules. Considering also the evolution of binding affinity information, we may say that we have a promising scenario for development of scoring functions, making use of machine learning techniques. Recent developments in this area indicate that building scoring functions targeted to the biological systems of interest shows superior predictive performance, when compared with other approaches.
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