WorldWideScience

Sample records for agente seletivo alternativos

  1. O mutismo seletivo e a ludoterapia/atividade lúdica

    OpenAIRE

    Ribeiro, Célia Margarida da Silva

    2013-01-01

    O Mutismo Seletivo é uma problemática que envolve principalmente crianças em idade escolar, sendo aqui que mais frequentemente este se manifesta, e que compromete a sua performance nos contextos social e escolar. É um transtorno pouco conhecido e reconhecido o que dificulta não só o diagnóstico mas também a definição de estratégias de tratamento. Neste estudo é feito um trabalho ao nível da revisão da literatura existente no que diz respeito ao Mutismo Seletivo e que inclui o c...

  2. Meios de cultura semi-seletivos para Macrophomina phaseolina

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Selma Rogéria de Carvalho Nascimento

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi Golidanich é um fungo habitante do solo importante economicamente devido ao amplo número de espécies de plantas que infectam e da dificuldade do seu controle. Vários estudos envolvendo densidade de inóculo, taxonomia, sobrevivência, necessitam de meios de cultura seletivo ou semi-seletivo. O objetivo do trabalho foi avaliar 16 meios de cultura quanto à especificidade a este patógeno, proporcionando maior porcentagem de detecção do seu crescimento e menor número de contaminações, para substituir o meio semi-seletivo RB modificado, rotineiramente utilizado em estudos deste patógeno. O meio semi-seletivo RB modificado é bastante eficiente e contém em sua composição o fungicida metalaxyl (inibidor de oomycetos, que atualmente não se encontra disponível comercialmente em formulação simples, sem adição do Mancozeb ou Clorotalonil que inibem o crescimento do fungo M. phaseolina. Os meios de cultura avaliados foram repicados com o inóculo do fungo produzido em substrato areno-orgânico, contido em bolsas de náilon, recuperados após 30 dias de um solo não autoclavado, contido em uma bandeja. Cada meio de cultura avaliado tiveram 7 repetições, representadas por uma placa de Petri. Para as comparações das médias das porcentagens do crescimento de M. phaseolina e do número de contaminantes foi utilizado o teste de Scott-knott a 5% de probabilidade e os valores em porcentagem foram transformados em arc sem (√/100. Dentre os meios de cultura avaliados os MSTP 1 [(BDA com tetraciclina 50 mg.L-1 mais propamocarb a 1 mL.L-1(Previcur N® 72,2% p.a.], MSRP 0,5 (BDA com rifampicina 100 mg.L-1 mais fungicida propamocarb a 0,5 mL.L-1 e MSRP 1 (BDA com rifampicina 100 mg.L-1 mais fungicida propamocarb a 1 mL.L-1 proporcionaram maior porcentagem e detecção do fungo M. phaseolina e menor número de contaminações por outros fungos e bactérias. Estes meios de cultura semi-seletivos podem ser

  3. Mutismo seletivo: Projeto tagarela

    OpenAIRE

    Melo, Sara Isabel Cabral

    2017-01-01

    Dissertação de Mestrado realizada sob a orientação de Csongor Juhos apresentada no ISPA – Instituto Universitário para obtenção de grau de Mestre na especialidade de Psicologia Clínica O mutismo seletivo é uma perturbação que consiste na persistente falha em comunicar em contextos sociais específicos onde é esperado que haja comunicação (e.g. na escola, com os colegas ou com o professor) mas falam normalmente noutros contextos familiares (e.g. casa). Como consequência, há um evitamento da ...

  4. AVALIAÇÃO DA DISPENSAÇÃO DE FÁRMACOS PARCIALMENTE SELETIVOS PARA COX-2

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    Cícero Cardoso VALLE FILHO

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Uma pesquisa foi realizada com o objetivo de avaliar um potencial aumento na venda de fármacos anti-inflamatórios não esteroidais (AINEs parcialmente seletivos para a COX-2 durante o período de julho de 2009 a junho de 2011, em uma drogaria localizada no município de Itaperuna, estado do Rio de Janeiro. Durante o período estudado foi dispensado um total de 802 AINEs parcialmente seletivos para a COX-2, dentre os quais 59,85% foram de nimesulida, 5,74% de etodolaco e 34,41% de meloxicam.   No primeiro semestre avaliado a dispensação total de AINEs parcialmente seletivos foi equivalente a 92, no segundo semestre a dispensação total foi equivalente a 159, no terceiro semestre a dispensação total foi de 219 AINEs parcialmente seletivos para COX-2 e no quarto semestre foram dispensados 332.  Os resultados indicaram maior dispensação dos medicamentos desta classe no mês de abril de 2011 sendo que tanto a nimesulida, quanto o meloxicam e o etodolaco foram mais dispensados no último semestre do estudo. De acordo com a metodologia utilizada pode-se concluir que a dispensação dos AINEs parcialmente seletivos vem crescendo a cada ano e que a nimesulida apresenta o maior índice de crescimento; a maior indicação da nimesulida tem sido para crianças; os meses correspondentes ao período de inverno apresentam maior dispensação de AINEs parcialmente seletivos para a COX-2.

  5. Meio semi-seletivo para isolamento de Xanthomonas campestris pv. viticola

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peixoto Ana Rosa

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available O cancro bacteriano causado por Xanthomonas campestris pv. viticola é a fitobacteriose mais importante da videira no Submédio São Francisco. O isolamento de X. campestris pv. viticola de tecidos vegetais infectados é dificultado pela presença de contaminantes bacterianos, entre os quais Microbacterium barkeri. Objetivando-se a formulação de meio de cultura semi-seletivo, 22 isolados de X. campestris pv. viticola foram testados com relação a 30 antibióticos. O meio semi-seletivo NYDAM (extrato de carne 3, peptona 5, glicose 10, extrato de levedura 5, ágar 18 e ampicilina 0,1 em g L-1 inibiu M. barkeri e bactérias fitopatogênicas podendo ser utilizado para isolar X. campestris pv. viticola de hospedeiros com infecção natural em campo.

  6. ESTERILIZAÇÃO QUÍMICA E AGENTES GELEIFICANTES ALTERNATIVOS NA PROPAGAÇÃO VEGETATIVA IN VITRO DO ABACAXIZEIRO ‘VITÓRIA’

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    RODRIGO DA SILVA OLIVEIRA

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available RESUMO O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a eficiência da esterilização química do meio de cultura e de agentes geleificantes alternativos e sua influência no desenvolvimento in vitro e ex vitro de plantas de abacaxizeiro ‘Vitória’. O meio de cultivo utilizado foi composto pelos sais do MS e vitaminas de White, com 30 g L-1 de sacarose e 100 mg L-1 de mioinositol. Foram realizadas duasformas de esterilização dos meios de cultivo e das vidrarias: em autoclave a 121°C e com solução de hipoclorito de sódio (NaClO a 0,003% para enxágue das vidrarias e 0,0003% no meio de cultivo. Os agentesgeleificantes testados foram: M1: ágar (6,0 g L-1; M2: amido de milho (60,0 g L-1; M3: ágar (3,0 g L-1 + amido de milho (30,0 g L-1 e M4: ágar (3,0 g L-1 + amido de mandioca (30,0 g L-1. Após 30 dias de cultivo in vitro, constatou-se que o NaClO e os agentes geleificantes alternativos não interferiram nocrescimento e no desenvolvimento das mudas. Parte das mudas de cada tratamento foi aclimatizada durante 90 dias,após os quais se verificou que não houve influência dos agentes geleificantes no crescimento destas, e,para a maioria dos parâmetros avaliados, as mudas oriundas dos tratamentos envolvendo a esterilização química apresentaram resultados semelhantes ou superiores às dos meios autoclavados.

  7. Fatores de eficácia na intervenção clínica no mutismo seletivo: estudo de caso

    OpenAIRE

    Figueiras, Ana Sofia Neves

    2017-01-01

    Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Psicologia O mutismo seletivo é uma perturbação complexa, bastante resistente à terapia, em que se deve ter em atenção todos os fatores situacionais, contextuais, e características individuais da criança, para um tratamento bem-sucedido. Este estudo de caso demonstra o processo de avaliação e terapêutico de uma menina de 10 anos que apresenta mutismo seletivo. O objetivo principal é compreender mais detalhadamente esta perturbação e as suas ...

  8. Usos alternativos para la biomasa (residuos de madera)

    OpenAIRE

    Romero Guerra, Ricardo D.; Islas Díaz, Andrea A.; Loftus Asseeva, Liam; Madero Hernández, Camila

    2017-01-01

    Tiene por objetivo informar y conscientizar a la población en general y, específicamente, a los trabajadores de sectores medioambientales sobre los usos alternativos de la biomasa (residuos de madera). Se propone disminuir o eliminar la quema de biomasa para elevar el uso de energías sustentables y 100% limpias. De esta manera, un uso alternativo e innovador de la biomasa es la producción de tablas de polimero a base de madera para la construcción sustentable. En este recursos infográfico se ...

  9. Las comparaciones interpersonales y la evaluación de estados sociales alternativos

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Casas , Andrés Fernando

    2003-06-01

    Full Text Available Este ensayo revisa diferentes aproximaciones de la teoría económica para evaluar estados sociales alternativos, a partir de la formulación de una función de bienestar social que admita o niegue comparaciones interpersonales de utilidad. Analiza en especial los puntos de vista de la vieja y la nueva economía del bienestar. Y concluye que con los aportes de Amartya Sen al concepto de bienestar como funcionamiento y al de justicia como capacidad de elegir entre diversos funcionamientos, es posible considerar de manera distinta a los agentes y evaluar opciones alternativas de condiciones de vida.

  10. Teste alternativo para detecção de coliformes em leite humano ordenhado

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    Novak Franz R.

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available Objetivo: comparar um método alternativo com o teste do número mais provável (NMP para detecção de coliformes totais em leite humano ordenhado. Métodos: 343 amostras de leite humano ordenhado, obtidas a partir de frascos oriundos de coleta domiciliar, recebidas pelo Banco de Leite Humano do Instituto Fernandes Figueira - IFF, por doadoras previamente orientadas, foram encaminhadas ao laboratório de controle de alimentos do IFF e empregadas na comparação de dois métodos: 1 - técnica do número mais provável, conforme descrito no Standard methods for the examination of dairy products; 2 - método alternativo proposto. Resultados: os microorganismos do grupo coliformes foram detectados em 31,2% das amostras analisadas, com populações variando de 3,0 x 100 a 1,1 x 104 coliformes totais N.M.P/ml. A comparação do teste clássico com o alternativo revelou resultados semelhantes quanto à recuperação de microorganismos coliformes em amostras de leite humano ordenhado. O método alternativo detectou a presença de coliformes totais em todas as amostras contaminadas e em quatro amostras não contaminadas, segundo o teste de NMP. Conclusão: o teste alternativo permite constatar a presença ou ausência de coliformes, tornando-se útil no controle de qualidade dos frascos de leite humano ordenhado pasteurizados, manipulados nos bancos de leite humano. Portanto, o teste de NMP pode ser substituído pelo teste alternativo, que poderá ser empregado como rotina nos bancos de leite humano, já que seu custo equivale a 1/7 do tradicional.

  11. Agente adaptable, aprendizaje y estructura del ambiente: un enfoque alternativo

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    Arturo Lara Rivero

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available En este trabajo se contrasta el concepto de agente programado con el de agente complejo adaptable, se presenta una nueva visión ligada al aprendizaje y la estructura del agente. La imagen del agente se analiza considerando los modelos internos, la práctica, el concepto de rutina y la influencia en su comportamiento, y la importancia del aprendizaje ex ante y ex post. Por último se muestra que la resolución de problemas está sujeta a restricciones del agente y se describen las formas de explorar el espacio de soluciones mediante tres tipos de exploración: exhaustiva, aleatoria y selectiva.

  12. Mujeres y mercado de trabajo del turismo alternativo en Veracruz

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Isis Arlene Díaz-Carrión

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Resultado de su compromiso con una sustentabilidad social, el turismo alternativo es considerado una actividad para potenciar cambios en la tradicional división del trabajo. En esta investigación cualitativa se revisa la participación de las mujeres en el turismo alternativo del estado de Veracruz y se visibilizan segregaciones ocupacionales y simultaneidad en la realización de trabajo productivo- reproductivo y de cuidados. El enfoque de género se muestra como una herramienta potencial para observar el trabajo productivo de las mujeres y promover el acceso al espacio público y sus recursos.

  13. Conceitos alternativos sobre radicais livres: origens, prevalência e intervenções

    OpenAIRE

    Rosiris Sindeaux de Alencar Pires de Oliveira

    2016-01-01

    Este trabalho teve por objetivos: levantar conceitos alternativos sobre radicais livres na mídia impressa e em livros de Bioquímica; examinar os conceitos alternativos prevalentes em pós-graduandos e em professores de Química e Biologia do Ensino Médio; e, planejar e aplicar intervenção para reduzir a influência destes conceitos. Para o levantamento na mídia impressa, foi selecionada a revista Veja, período de 01/01/2000 a 31/07/2014, e foram criadas as seguintes categorias para classificar o...

  14. APLICAÇÃO DE MATERIAIS ALTERNATIVOS PARA O USO DA ENERGIA SOLAR

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    Miguel Cabral de Macedo Neto

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Sabe-se que a maioria das tecnologias e fontes energéticas utilizadas atualmente, além de não serem renováveis, não são ecologicamente corretas. Nesse contexto, o uso de tecnologias alternativas para preservação do meio ambiente se faz necessário. Este artigo descreve a construção de um coletor solar constituído de materiais alternativos de baixo custo para aquecimento de água, no qual a viabilidade térmica e econômica será avaliada. Palavras – chaves: coletor solar, materiais alternativos, baixo custo.

  15. Desempenho e morfologia intestinal de frangos de corte alimentados com rações contendo aditivos alternativos a antimicrobianos

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aryana Duckur Nunes

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Este estudo avaliou o efeito de um prebiótico e de um probiótico sobre o desempenho e morfologia intestinal de frangos de corte, atuando como aditivos alternativos a antimicrobianos. Foram utilizados 960 pintos de corte, criados sobre cama reutilizada. O delineamento era inteiramente casualizado, com 4 tratamentos: Antibiótico (Avilamicina; Prebiótico (MOS; Probiótico (pool bacteriano; Controle (sem aditivo, sendo 8 repetições/tratamento. Considerando-se o período total de criação, os aditivos alternativos testados pioraram o GP em relação ao antibiótico não demonstrando efeito sobre o ganho de peso (GP e consumo de ração (CR. Por sua vez, a conversão alimentar (CA dos tratamentos com aditivos alternativos foi similar à do antibiótico, entretanto, não diferiu do controle. Não foi possível observar efeito benéfico dos aditivos alternativos testados sobre a morfologia intestinal de frangos de corte.

  16. Estudio del proceso de laminación de módulos fotovoltaicos con materiales alternativos

    OpenAIRE

    Murillo Larrey, Ana

    2016-01-01

    Este Trabajo Fin de Grado (TFG) desarrollará el proceso de laminación de módulos fotovoltaicos (FV) utilizando materiales alternativos a los de los módulos convencionales. Los materiales alternativos son el policarbonato (PC) y un entramado estructural, los cuales sustituyen al vidrio y al marco de aluminio. El objetivo de la utilización de estos materiales es la construcción de un módulo ligero y adaptable a diferentes superficies para facilitar su uso en integración arquitect...

  17. Los materiales alternativos estabilizados y su impacto ambiental

    OpenAIRE

    Rubén Salvador Roux Gutierrez; Víctor Manuel García Izaguirre; José Adán Espuna Mujica

    2014-01-01

    El presente trabajo es resultado de investigaciones desarrolladas a partir de la experimentación de materiales alternativos para la edificación, en especial, relacionado con Bloques de Tierra Comprimida (BTC), que han sido estabilizados con hidróxido de cal y cemento, buscando cumplir con las Normas Mexicanas, en el apartado referente a materiales para uso en mampostería de las edificaciones y así corroborar que estos materiales cumplen con requisitos de calidad, al igual que los materiales c...

  18. Brincar como meio de comunicação na psicoterapia de crianças com mutismo seletivo

    OpenAIRE

    Lia Keuchguerian Silveira Campos; Sérgio Luiz Saboya Arruda

    2015-01-01

    A partir de conceitos da teoria psicanalítica, é feita uma discussão teórico-clínica em que o brincar serve como meio de expressão e de comunicação na psicoterapia psicanalítica de uma menina de nove anos e de um menino de sete anos de idade, ambos com mutismo seletivo, atendidos duas vezes por semana em um hospital público. Trata-se de um estudo qualitativo, que utiliza o método psicanalítico. As discussões teóricas são ilustradas pela história de vida e por vinhetas das sessões nas quais o ...

  19. Modelos alternativos de simulación Bootstrap

    OpenAIRE

    Pino Mejías, Rafael

    1992-01-01

    Se describen las características fundamentales de los métodos Bootstrap. Se analizan diversas problemáticas que presentan tales métodos, por lo que se presentan dos métodos alternativos dentro del método Bootstrap basado en la simulación de muestras (método II de Efron). En el primero se presenta un método, que a partir de un estudio de las propiedades algebraicas y estadísticas del conjunto de posibles muestras, utiliza un criterio probabilístico para detectar muestras "outliers". En el segu...

  20. TERRITÓRIOS ALTERNATIVOS: ESPAÇOS FRONTEIRIÇOS E TRANSFRONTEIRIÇOS

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    Jurany Leite Rueda

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available O livro (Territórios Alternativos é uma coletânea resultante da trajetória do autor pelas trilhas da Geografia, e cobre o período de 1987 a 1998, promovendo um panorama sobre as discussões à volta do espaço geográfico e do território em suas diferentes dimensões.

  1. Advisable alternative fuels for Mexico; Combustibles alternativos convenientes para Mexico

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Aguilar Gonzalez, Jorge Luis [ICA Fluor (Mexico)

    2007-07-15

    The alternative fuels are born with the goal of not damaging the environment; biodiesel, electricity, ethanol, hydrogen, methanol, natural gas, LP gas, are the main alternative fuels. However, the biodiesel and bioetanol are the only completely renewable ones, this makes them ideal to be developed in Mexico, since the agricultural sector could be fortified, the technological independence be favored, improve the conservation of the oil resources and by all means not to affect the environment. On the other hand, also efficient cultivation techniques should be developed to guarantee the economy of the process. [Spanish] Los combustibles alternativos nacen con la meta de no danar el medio ambiente; el biodiesel, electricidad, etanol, hidrogeno, metanol, gas natural, gas LP, son los principales combustibles alternativos. No obstante, el biodiesel y el bioetanol son los unicos completamente renovables, esto los hace ideales para desarrollarse en Mexico, ya que se podria fortalecer el sector agricola, favorecer la independencia tecnologica, mejorar la administracion de los recursos petroleros y por supuesto no afectar al medio ambiente. Por otro lado tambien se tendrian que desarrollar tecnicas de cultivo eficientes para garantizar la economia del proceso.

  2. UTILIZAÇÃO DE ABRIGOS TERMO-HIGROMÉTRICOS ALTERNATIVOS

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    Marcos de Oliveira Valin Júnior

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Este trabalho teve por objetivo levantar os tipos de abrigos alternativos para termo-higrômetros (temperatura e umidade utilizados, reproduzi-los e testa-los para comparação dos dados obtidos a partir de um padrão de referência, instalados em campo aberto para garantir o mesmo ambiente para o estudo, visando avaliar e qualificar esses abrigos quanto ao seu desempenho, custo e praticidade de manuseio para utilização em pesquisas de clima urbano. Com os dados coletados realizaram-se diversas analises gráficas e estáticas. Com base no desempenho dos abrigos alternativos analisados, tem-se que os abrigos fabricados com tubo de PVC na vertical e com pote de sorvete não se demonstram eficientes para a coleta de dados em pontos fixos, principalmente se utilizados durante o dia. Quanto aos demais tipos, o com pratos plásticos, tubo de PVC na horizontal e casa de madeira, se mostraram alternativas viáveis quanto ao desempenho, cabendo analisar o local onde será utilizado para definir qual deles melhor se adapta, pois o horizontal depende de já conhecer o sentido da direção do vento, o de madeira do espaço disponível devido ao seu tamanho e peso e o de pratos depende da disponibilidade de pratos plásticos na cor branca.

  3. Novo meio seletivo-indicador para detecção de Aeromonas e Plesiomonas: ágar UNISC New selective indicator medium for detection of Aeromonas and Plesiomonas: UNISC agar

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    Marion Pereira da Rocha

    2008-08-01

    Full Text Available Avaliou-se um novo meio seletivo-indicador (ágar UNISC para o isolamento de enteropatógenos clássicos e Aeromonas e Plesiomonas shigelloides. A capacidade de fermentação da xilose é indicada pela coloração amarela (fermentadores ou azul (não fermentadores que, aliada à prova da oxidase, constitui-se em indicador para a detecção de Aeromonas spp e Plesiomonas shigelloides. A produtividade e seletividade, avaliadas pelos índice de contagem absoluta e índice de contagem relativa indicam-no como uma alternativa aos coprocultivos clássicos porque permite, num só meio, o isolamento de Escherichia coli, Shigella spp, Salmonella spp, bem como, Aeromonas spp e Plesiomonas shigelloides, favorecendo o diagnóstico laboratorial das gastroenterites.We evaluated a new selective indicator medium (UNISC Agar for isolation of classical enteropathogens, Aeromonas spp and Plesiomonas shigelloides. The xylose fermentation capacity is indicated by a yellow color (fermenting agents or blue (no fermenting agent. This, together with the oxidase test, establishes it as an indicator for detecting Aeromonas and Plesiomonas shigelloides. Its productivity and selectivity, as assessed using the absolute count index and relative count index, indicate it as an alternative to the classical feces culturing media. This is because, in a single medium, it enables isolation of Escherichia coli, Shigella spp and Salmonella spp, in addition to Aeromonas and Plesiomonas shigelloides, thereby favoring the laboratory diagnosis of gastroenteritis.

  4. Rendimento dos meios seletivos para bactérias do gênero Fusobacterium

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    Wilson C. de Araújo

    1968-10-01

    Full Text Available Meios seletivos para Fusobacterium foram, comparados no aspecto de sua eficiência no isolamento dos microrganismos fusiformes e quanto à inibição da flora concomitante. Material não calcificado do sulco gengival foi homogeneizado e diluído em tampão de fosfato (0,067 M - pH 7,2; 0,1 ml foi semeado em agar sangue, no meio de Omata & Disraely, meio de Omata & Disraely sem sôro, meio de McMarthy & Snyder, agar sangue com vancomicina, meio de Onisi, meio de Onisi com sôro de cavalo e meio de Onisi com pH 7,0. Em todos os casos a incubação foi realizada em anaerobiose, em jarra tipo Brewer, com 95% nitrogênio e 5% gás carbônico, durante 4 dias. O meio de McCarthy & Snyder mostrou-se tão eficiente quanto o agar sangue em relação ao isolamento de Fusobacterium, ainda inibindo a flora concomitante, o meio de Omata & Disraely, com cristal violeta e estreptomicina, foi de certo modo inibidor também para Fusobacterium. O meio de Onisi, sugerido, sem sôro, possibilitou o isolamento de pequeno número de fusobactérias, provàvelmente as amostras não exigentes de proteínas naturais.

  5. Brincar como meio de comunicação na psicoterapia de crianças com mutismo seletivo

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lia Keuchguerian Silveira Campos

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available A partir de conceitos da teoria psicanalítica, é feita uma discussão teórico-clínica em que o brincar serve como meio de expressão e de comunicação na psicoterapia psicanalítica de uma menina de nove anos e de um menino de sete anos de idade, ambos com mutismo seletivo, atendidos duas vezes por semana em um hospital público. Trata-se de um estudo qualitativo, que utiliza o método psicanalítico. As discussões teóricas são ilustradas pela história de vida e por vinhetas das sessões nas quais o brincar permitiu o acesso e o trabalho do mundo interno das crianças, possibilitando que começassem a verbalizar e a produzir representações simbólicas.

  6. El rol del transporte público alternativo motorizado en la ciudad / The role of motorized paratransit in the city

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rosa Isabel Amorós Zurita

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available ResumenEl trabajo de investigación presenta una aproximación global sobre las diversas pautas de comportamiento del transporte público alternativo. Es decir, se pretende, a través de la realización de una investigación meramente descriptiva, identificar las diferentes características físicas y de operación de este tipo de transporte en la ciudad. Su estructura incluye el análisis de conceptos y clasificaciones relacionados al transporte público alternativo, la presentación de dos experiencias distintas sobre la utilización de la motocicleta a tres ruedas, uno de los principales tipos de transporte público alternativo motorizado, y finalmente los principales efectos positivos y negativos que causa su circulación a nivel urbano, ambiental, social y económico. Los resultados obtenidos permiten a las instituciones relacionadas con el transporte reflexionar sobre la posibilidad fortalecer esta propuesta de movilidad, necesaria especialmente en países en vías de desarrollo.Palabras claveTransporte público alternativo, ciudad, movilidad.AbstractThis research work presents a new global approach on various paratransit’s behavior patterns in the city. That is to say, through a descriptive research, to allow identifying the physical and operational characteristics of motorized paratransit in the city. The research structure includes the analysis of paratransit’s concepts and classifications, the exposure of two different experiences based on the three-wheeled motorcycle use, one of the main motorized paratransit’s types, and finally its main positive and negative effects in an urban, environmental, social and economic level. The results that were obtained allow transport institutions to reflect on the possibility of strengthen this mobility proposal, required especially in developing countries.KeywordsParatransit, city, mobility.

  7. Medición del desarrollo humano: un índice alternativo al IDH-2010. Especial referencia a los países latinoamericanos

    OpenAIRE

    Veres Ferrer, Ernesto J.

    2014-01-01

    E n este trabajo se presenta un índice alternativo al Índice de Desarrollo Humano ( IDH ). Utiliza la misma información estadística que éste. A partir de él se obtiene un ranking alternativo de países atendiendo a su desarrollo humano. El nuevo índice no se basa en los valores de los indicadores que lo alimentan, sino en la posición que cada uno de ellos tiene con relación al conjunto de los demás. Posteriormente, clasifica cada indicador en el cuartil correspondiente. El diseño del nuevo índ...

  8. Los materiales alternativos estabilizados y su impacto ambiental

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rubén Salvador Roux Gutierrez

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available El presente trabajo es resultado de investigaciones desarrolladas a partir de la experimentación de materiales alternativos para la edificación, en especial, relacionado con Bloques de Tierra Comprimida (BTC, que han sido estabilizados con hidróxido de cal y cemento, buscando cumplir con las Normas Mexicanas, en el apartado referente a materiales para uso en mampostería de las edificaciones y así corroborar que estos materiales cumplen con requisitos de calidad, al igual que los materiales convencionales, aunado a la realización del análisis de ciclo de vida (ACV en dos poblaciones de BTC’s estabilizados con cementantes, buscando determinar su impacto ambiental y finalmente poder contrastarlos con las bases de datos existentes de materiales convencionales.

  9. Empleo de combustibles alternativos en la fabricación de cemento. Efecto en las características y propiedades de los clínkeres y cementos

    OpenAIRE

    Puertas, F.; Blanco-Varela, M. T.

    2004-01-01

    [ES] Se han estudiado clínkeres y cementos obtenidos en procesos industriales que han utilizado combustibles convencionales y combustibles alternativos (harinas cárnicas, neumáticos usados y mezclas de ambos). Los resultados obtenidos han demostrado que los clínkeres fabricados con los combustibles alternativos no presentan diferencias significativas en la composición mineralógica respecto a los obtenidos con combustibles convencionales. Los contenidos de metales pesados en los clínkeres proc...

  10. Feed-water heaters alternative design comparison; Comparacion de disenos alternativos de calentadores

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Torres Toledano, Gerardo [Instituto de Investigaciones Electricas, Cuernavaca (Mexico)

    1988-12-31

    A procedure is presented for the alternative design comparison of feed water heaters, based in the failure records of damaged tubes during operation. The procedure is used for cases in which non-continuous or random inspections are made to the feed-water heaters. [Espanol] Se presenta un procedimiento para comparar disenos alternativos de calentadores, basandose en los registros de fallas de los tubos rotos acumuladas durante su operacion. El procedimiento se emplea para casos en los que se realizan inspecciones a los calentadores no continuas, ya sea periodicas o al azar.

  11. Confecção de jogos com materiais alternativos como estratégia de ensino

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Janete Maria Scopel

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Este trabalho relata a experiência da oficina de confecção de jogos com materiais alternativos como estratégia de ensino durante a execução do Projeto “O Museu de Ciências Naturais vai à Escola”, realizado pelo Museu de Ciências Naturais da Universidade de Caxias do Sul em parceria com uma escola da rede municipal de ensino de Caxias do Sul, RS. A oficina teve como objetivo contribuir com o processo de ensino e aprendizagem por meio da confecção de jogos com materiais alternativos, buscando estimular o raciocínio lógico dos estudantes e sensibilizar quanto a preservação ambiental. Os jogos didáticos são estratégias que estimulam o desenvolvimento cognitivo e afetivo, promovendo a interação social e a construção dos conhecimentos de maneira divertida e descontraída. Ao escolherem materiais alternativos acontece a sensibilização ambiental, com a reflexão sobre impactos dos resíduos no meio ambiente, tempo de degradação e importância da reciclagem e reutilização dos mesmos. A oficina foi ministrada para 185 estudantes do ensino fundamental. Foram confeccionados jogos de memória (imagens, matemática, português, bingo de questões ambientais e dos ecossistemas do Rio Grande do Sul, dominó, quebra-cabeças, dama e xadrez, todos com materiais diversificados como tampas de garrafas pet, papelão, jornal, caixas de leite, revistas. A motivação dos estudantes durante a aplicação dos jogos evidenciou a importância dos mesmos como ferramenta de ensino, onde a atenção, a concentração e a socialização motivam a aprendizagem. E assim, os estudantes se sentem envolvidos para o compartilhamento e a construção de novos conhecimentos de uma maneira lúdica e envolvente.

  12. Impacto del uso de combustibles alternativos sobre la reactividad del clínker

    OpenAIRE

    Serrano-González, K.; Reyes-Valdez, A.; Chowaniec, O.

    2017-01-01

    El uso de combustibles alternativos en la industria cementera ha ido en incremento en las últimas décadas debido a su beneficio ecológico y económico. En línea con los esfuerzos enfocados en incrementar su uso, se han realizado distintos estudios enfocados en determinar su impacto potencial en la reactividad del clínker y en cómo pueden afectar sus propiedades físicas y mecánicas. Este trabajo estudia el efecto de cinco combustibles alternos sobre la reactividad de ocho muestras industriales ...

  13. Turismo masivo y alternativo. Distinciones de la sociedad moderna/posmoderna

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maribel Osorio García

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available El artículo que se presenta caracteriza al turismo como una distinción de la modernidad, desde la teoría de Niklas Luhmann. Para tal efecto se asume que la modernidad es una autodescripción de la sociedad funcionalmente diferenciada, en la cual el turismo actúa como un medio que hace posible acoplar distintos sistemas funcionales para su ejecución. Sobre esta base, se identifica el acoplamiento que logra el turismo entre el sistema económico y el de los medios masivos de comunicación, y se mencionan los dos modelos a los que ha dado lugar: el turismo de masas y el alternativo. Se concluye que dichos modelos no necesariamente son consecutivos, aunque sí presentan una forma diferenciada de practicar el turismo.

  14. Jornalismo alternativo: um potencial para a radicalização da democracia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dennis de Oliveira

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Este artículo analiza el papel de los periódicos alternativos de Brasil (Caros Amigos, Brasil de Fato, Le Monde Diplomatique e Revista Fórum en la esfera pública brasilera. Utilizando el concepto de formación de opinión pública de Walter Lippmann, el de construcción de consenso de Noam Chomsky y la distinción entre libertad de expresión y libertad de prensa, se concluye que el hecho de que estos periódicos amplíen la agenda y la gama de fuentes normalmente ofrecidas por los medios hegemónicos, contribuye a fortalecer la democracia.

  15. Métodos alternativos de maximização da emergência de sementes de Beterraba

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    Lucas Eduardo de Oliveira Aparecido

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available As sementes de hortaliças são produtos onerosos, portanto, faz-se necessário obter o máximo de emergência delas. A adoção de técnicas visando à maximização da emergência das sementes, como o condicionamento osmótico e a aplicação de hormônios é cada vez mais comum. Assim, objetivou-se buscar métodos alternativos de maximização da emergência de mudas de beterraba. O experimento foi em casa de vegetação em Muzambinho (MG. Foram utilizadas duas cultivares de beterraba, Tall Top Early Wonder e Bonel, semeadas em bandejas de poliestireno expandido de 200 células. Trabalhou-se com delineamento em blocos, com três repetições e em esquema fatorial 4 x 2, no qual os métodos alternativos foram a utilização do hormônio Stimulate® (presença e ausência, em diversos  métodos de condicionamento osmótico (água natural corrente por 2 horas, imersão em água deionizada por 2 horas, imersão em água natural em repouso por 2 horas. Posteriormente, as sementes foram secas por 24 horas e semeadas. O hormônio foi aplicado diretamente nas sementes no momento da semeadura. As contagens de plântulas emergidas foram realizadas a cada dois dias, entre o período do 4° ao 14° dia após o plantio, sendo calculado o índice de velocidade de emergência ao final. A utilização dos métodos alternativos visando à maximização da emergência das sementes de beterraba não foram eficazes. O condicionamento osmótico juntamente com a aplicação do hormônio não proporcionaram aumento da emergência das sementes de beterraba. Palavras-chave: Índice de Velocidade de Emergência. Hormônios. Condicionamento Osmótico.

  16. Irritación ocular: Modelos alternativos

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raiza Vega Montalvo

    2001-12-01

    Full Text Available El ojo puede ser dañado accidentalmente por el uso de muchos productos de uso rutinario. Para facilitar la seguridad de los consumidores es necesario estimar el potencial de irritación ocular de estas sustancias químicas. Esta estimación está basada en los resultados obtenidos en el ensayo de Draize llevado a cabo en conejos. Sin embargo, avances en el desarrollo de la toxicología in vitro han permitido el uso de algunas alternativas para la evaluación del riesgo ocular; por lo que se presenta una revisión acerca de los diferentes métodos alternativos disponibles hasta el momento que permiten evaluar de una forma u otra los efectos tóxicos a nivel ocular.The eye may be accidentally damaged by many products of daily use. To guarantee the consumers’ safety it is necessary to estimate the eye irritation potential of these chemical substances. This estimation is based on the results obtained in the Draize rabbit eye irritation test. However, the advances attained in the development of in vitro toxicology have allowed the use of some alternatives to evaluate the ocular risk. Therefore, a review is made on the different alternative methods available up to now that make possible the evaluation in one way or another of the toxic effects at the ocular level.

  17. La decisión de los agricultores del área tropical de Cochabamba (Bolivia) de cultivar coca en lugar de los productos alternativos recomendados por el Estado

    OpenAIRE

    Juan Carlos Barrientos; Walter Schug

    2006-01-01

    A pesar de la prohibición estatal del cultivo de coca desde 1973 y de la reducción rápida de las plantaciones de coca hasta 2002, este arbusto todavía se cultiva en las zonas tropicales de Cochabamba (Bolivia). Tanto aspectos técnicos como económicos, son responsables de que muchos agricultores se decidan por el cultivo de la coca y no por el de cultivos alternativos. Técnicamente, el cultivo de la coca es más adaptable y menos exigente, en comparación con los cinco cultivos alternativos anal...

  18. Potencial forrajero y productividad del agua en patrones de cultivos alternativos

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David Guadalupe Reta Sánchez

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Los sistemas de producción de forrajes se pueden mejorar con la incorporación de especies alternativas con altos atributos nutricionales. El objetivo del estudio fue evaluar el potencial forrajero y productividad del agua (PA en patrones de cultivos forrajeros que incluyeron canola (Brassica napus L., chícharo (Pisum sativum L. y soya (Glycine max L. como cultivos alternativos. Se compararon los patrones alternativos maíz-maíz-canola, sorgo-sorgo-canola, maíz-maíz-chícharo y soya-maíz-avena con los patrones convencionales, alfalfa, maíz-avena y maíz-maíz-avena. El estudio se realizó de abril de 2009 a abril de 2011 en Matamoros, Coahuila, México. Se determinó la composición química del forraje, los rendimientos de materia seca (MS, nutrientes y PA en la producción de MS, proteína cruda (PC y energía neta para lactancia (ENL. La incorporación de canola en los patrones con maíz o sorgo en primavera y verano incrementó el rendimiento de PC (34.4 % y la PA (33.3 %, sin disminuir los rendimientos de MS y ENL, al compararse con el patrón convencional maíz-maíz-avena. Los patrones que incluyeron canola registraron mayores rendimientos de MS y ENL, utilizando el 83 % del volumen de agua requerido por alfalfa, pero con menor rendimiento de PC (19 a 25 %. La PA y el rendimiento de PC se incrementaron en el patrón soya-maíz-avena, pero con menores rendimientos de MS y ENL. En los patrones maíz-maíz-chícharo y maíz-maíz-avena los rendimientos de MS y nutrientes y PA fueron similares. Los resultados indican que la incorporación de canola y soya en los sistemas de producción de forrajes incrementa la productividad del agua.

  19. Um modelo alternativo para a quantificação de multiprodutos em árvores individuais

    OpenAIRE

    Soares,Thelma Shirlen; Leite,Helio Garcia; Vale,Antônio Bartolomeu do

    2004-01-01

    Neste estudo foram conduzidos testes preliminares com o objetivo de avaliar um modelo de taper, proposto a partir da adaptação dos modelos desenvolvidos por Ormerod (1973) e Turnbull (1979), caracterizados pela sua simplicidade e facilidade de ajuste. Em comparação com modelos já consagrados, observou-se que o modelo alternativo apresentou consistência nos ajustes realizados. Portanto, pode-se concluir que o modelo apresentado é recomendável para a quantificação de multiprodutos de árvores in...

  20. Filmes de polipirrol aplicados no desenvolvimento de eletrodos descartáveis seletivos a íons fluoreto

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alyne Cristina Lamy-Mendes

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available O presente manuscrito descreve o desenvolvimento de um sensor descartável sensível e seletivo baseado em filmes de polipirrol dopados (PPy para determinação íons fluoreto. Os íons fluoretos foram incorporados na matriz PPy durante a polimerização eletroquímica realizada em condições galvanostáticas em um eletrodo compósito etileno vinil acetato e negro de fumo. Parâmetros experimentais envolvidos na preparação de película PPy tais como densidade de corrente elétrica, carga elétrica, o pH e a concentração de eletrólito foram otimizados de forma a maximizar a resposta potenciométrica. A resposta do sensor para íons de flúor foi linear no intervalo de concentração de 1,00 × 10- 5 a 1,08 × 10- 2 mol L- 1, com uma inclinação de ~ 40 mV / pF e foi estável suficiente para várias determinações. O método foi aplicado com sucesso na determinação de íons fluoreto em amostras comerciais farmacêuticas. Os resultados demonstraram que o sensor proposto pode ser utilizado como uma alternativa interessante aos métodos analíticos tradicionais para determinação de íons fluoreto.

  1. Desempenho agronômico de maracujazeiros tratados com produtos alternativos e fertilizantes foliares

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    Keize Pereira Junqueira

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available A resistência induzida é um método alternativo de controle de doenças. Entretanto, há poucos estudos relacionando o uso destes produtos e outros métodos alternativos à produtividade das plantas e às características físicas e químicas dos frutos. Objetivou-se avaliar a severidade de doenças, as características físicas e químicas de frutos e a produtividade de plantas tratadas com produtos alternativos e fertilizantes foliares. Plantas de maracujazeiro BRS Gigante Amarelo clonadas, em campo, foram submetidas, por um ano, a pulverizações quinzenais com: água (testemunha, Cuprozeb® (fungicida-padrão, acibenzolar-S-metil - ASM, Agro-mos®, fosfito de potássio, fosetyl-Al, gesso agrícola e CPAC-GE (produto em teste. O delineamento foi o em blocos casualizados, com quatro repetições e 20 frutos por repetição. Para o estudo da produtividade, utilizaram-se quatro repetições e seis plantas úteis por parcela. As colheitas ocorreram de novembro/2008 a abril/2009. As severidades foram avaliadas com escala de notas. Houve redução da severidade da virose, verrugose e bacteriose em todos os tratamentos, com exceção do Cuprozeb® para virose. Não foi observada redução da antracnose. Frutos com maior massa fresca foram obtidos com aplicações de gesso agrícola (236,83 g, CPAC-GE (234,10 g, fosetyl-Al ( 233,79 g, fosfito de potássio (230,64 g e Agro-mos® (221,15 g. Os mesmos resultados foram observados para diâmetro transversal e massa de polpa. Não houve diferenças significativas entre tratamentos para diâmetro longitudinal e espessura de casca. Quanto às características químicas dos frutos, com exceção do Cuprozeb®, que não diferiu significativamente da testemunha, todos os produtos proporcionaram incremento no teor de sólidos solúveis. Maior acidez titulável foi obtida com Cuprozeb®, gesso agrícola, Agro-mos®, fosetyl-Al e ASM. Não foi constatada alteração no pH dos frutos. Em relação

  2. Aditivos alternativos ao uso de antimicrobianos na alimentação de frangos de corte

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    Felipe Santos Dalólio

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Objetivou-se com este trabalho avaliar o efeito de diferentes aditivos alternativos aos antimicrobianos promotores de crescimento sobre o desempenho, o rendimento de carcaça e cortes e a qualidade da carne de frangos de corte no período de 1 a 42 dias de idade. Foram utilizadas 480 pintainhas de corte da linhagem Cobb 500, distribuídas em delineamento inteiramente casualizado, com seis tratamentos e quatro repetições de 20 aves cada. Foi avaliado na fase total de criação, 1 a 42 dias, o ganho de peso (GP, a conversão alimentar (CA, o consumo de ração (CR, a viabilidade criatória (VB e o índice de eficiência produtivo (IEP. O rendimento de carcaça e a qualidade da carne foi avaliado aos 42 dias de idade. Avaliou-se as características de perda de peso por cocção (PPC, a maciez objetiva (MO, a capacidade de retenção de água (CRA e o pH. Os parâmetros de desempenho, de rendimento de carcaça e cortes e de qualidade da carne não foram afetados pela suplementação dos diferentes tipos de aditivos alternativos aos antimicrobianos promotores de crescimento (P>0,05. Conclui-se que, os aditivos promotores de crescimento podem ser utilizados na alimentação de frangos de corte, em substituição ao antibiótico, sem comprometer o desempenho e características de carcaça, no período de 1 a 42 dias de idade.

  3. Substratos alternativos para produção de repolho e beterraba em consórcio e monocultivo

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    Luiz A. de M. Costa

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Objetivou-se, com este trabalho, determinar o desempenho dos substratos alternativos no desenvolvimento radicular e na parte aérea da beterraba e do repolho, tal como no seu comportamento no campo em consórcio e monocultivo. Foram realizados dois experimentos em blocos casualizados cujos tratamentos foram: T0 (substrato Plantmax®; T1 (100% de composto; T2 (50% de composto, 20% de areia, 20% de casca de arroz carbonizada e 10% de pó de basalto; T3 (45% de composto, 20% de areia, 20% de casca de arroz carbonizada e 15% de pó de basalto; T4 (40% de composto, 5% de areia e 15% casca de arroz carbonizada e 20% de pó de basalto e T5 (35% de composto, 5% de areia e 15% de casca de arroz carbonizada e 25% de pó de basalto. O primeiro experimento foi em bandejas de 200 células; o segundo foi no campo em monocultivo e consociado com tratamentos constituídos pelos substratos utilizados em bandeja. No canteiro para o repolho os substratos em monocultivo e consorciado apresentaram acúmulos semelhantes de massa seca da cabeça; já para beterraba o diâmetro da raiz com o substrato comercial apresentou superioridade para o consórcio comparado ao monocultivo, enquanto para a produção de beterraba e repolho em sistema de monocultivo e consorciado podem ser recomendados os substratos alternativos.

  4. Estudio para el desarrollo y optimización del espumado de policarbonato con agentes de siembra en el proceso de inyección

    OpenAIRE

    Vargas Isaza, Carlos Andrés

    2012-01-01

    1 CD-ROM El presente trabajo aborda el desarrollo experimental para obtener piezas inyectadas espumadas en policarbonato (ver anexo 10.1.1), con características de alta densidad de espuma, mediante la incorporación de agentes nucleantes, tales como cargas inorgánicas y/o nanocargas. Con lo anterior, se busca implementar un proceso alternativo de espumado por inyección, el cual sea mas económico que los procesos comerciales, los cuales requieren una gran inversión en equipos. Se comenzó con...

  5. QUALIDADE DE GOIABAS ‘PEDRO SATO’ EM FUNÇÃO DE TRATAMENTOS ALTERNATIVOS EM PÓS-COLHEITA

    OpenAIRE

    PALHARINI,MARIA CECÍLIA DE ARRUDA; FISCHER,IVAN HERMAN; ALVES,AGHATA REGINA DE OLIVEIRA FERREIRA; FILETI,MIRIAN DE SOUZA; NOGUEIRA JÚNIOR,ANTÔNIO FERNANDES

    2016-01-01

    RESUMO Este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar o efeito de produtos alternativos e termoterapia, isoladamente e em associação, na qualidade físico-química e no controle das podridões de goiabas ‘Pedro Sato’. Inicialmente, foi avaliado o efeito dos tratamentos em pós-colheita com cloreto de cálcio, fosfito de potássio, 1-metilciclopropeno (1-MCP), fécula de mandioca, etanol seguido de cloro (etanol+cloro) e termoterapia, durante oito dias de armazenamento dos frutos a 22ºC. Em um...

  6. Uso de Materiais Alternativos em Processos de Adsorção de Corante Azul de Metileno

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    E. L. do Rego

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Este trabalho teve como objetivo empregar materiais alternativos, puros e/ou modificados com 5 ou 10% (m/m de  pentóxido de nióbio (Nb2O5, em processos de remoção de azul de metileno (AM. Entre os materiais alternativos foram utilizadas argila sanitária, argila de resíduo industrial, rochas sedimentares e cinzas de casca de arroz obtida pela queima a 350oC. Estes sólidos foram caracterizados pelas técnicas de difração de raios- X (DRX e espectroscopia na região do infravermelho (FTIR. Os testes de remoção de AM foram realizados em frascos de 125 mL, sob agitação constante, contendo 100 mL de solução de AM (100mg/L a 2000mg/L e adsorvente (0,1 a 0,6g, sob uma mesa agitadora a 200 rpm, em temperatura ambiente. A quantificação da remoção de AM foi realizada com auxílio de um espectrofotômetro UV-Vis da Varian (Cary 50, coletando 2 mL de amostra nos períodos de 2 à 1440 min. Dados de DRX evidenciaram uma mistura de argilominerais nos sólidos baseados em argilas. Nos ensaios de adsorção os materiais demonstraram eficiência para a remoção do corante, com destaque aqueles modificados com 10% de Nb2O5 exibindo 95% de remoção, no tempo de 120min, em solução de pH de ~6,5.

  7. Controle alternativo de Colletotrichum acutatum agente causal da queda prematura dos frutos cítricos Alternative control of Colletotrichum acutatum, causal agent of postbloom fruit drop of citrus

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katia Cristina Kupper

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available A queda prematura dos frutos cítricos (QPFC, causada por Colletotrichum acutatum, dados os grandes prejuízos que têm causado aos produtores, constitui-se numa doença de grande importância econômica. O controle da doença é feito predominantemente mediante uso de fungicidas, que eleva o custo de produção e afeta negativamente o meio ambiente. Diante disso, este trabalho teve por objetivo buscar um método alternativo de controle da QPFC, mediante o uso de agentes de biocontrole ou de biofertilizantes. Diferentes concentrações de biofertilizantes (originários de duas fontes distintas e denominados de Bio1 e Bio 2; três isolados de Bacillus subtilis (ACB-69; 72 e 77 e três isolados de Trichoderma spp. (ACB-14; 37 e 39 foram testados, isoladamente ou em combinação, sob condições de laboratório, quanto à capacidade inibitória da germinação de conídios de C. acutatum. Estudaram-se, ainda, a produção de metabólitos termoestáveis por B. subtilis e o efeito sobre a germinação do patógeno. Quinze isolados de B. subtilis foram testados quanto à capacidade de prevenir a infecção por C. acutatum em flores destacadas de lima- ácida 'Tahiti' e, no campo, foram instalados dois experimentos, visando a testar ACBs e biofertilizantes no controle da doença. Verificou-se que o isolado ACB-72 (B. subtilis e ACB-37 (T. pseudokoningii foram os que mais inibiram a germinação do patógeno. Quanto à produção de metabólitos termoestáveis, ACB-69 e 77 foram os mais eficientes em produzir substâncias antifúngicas, e em quantidades suficientes para inibirem a germinação do patógeno. A mistura dos quatro isolados de Bacillus (ACBs: 69; 72; 77 e AP3 foi o que apresentou maior porcentagem de inibição (73%. Os biofertilizantes (Bio1 e Bio2, em concentrações acima de 10% e, quando em associação com isolados de Trichoderma spp., promoveram maiores inibições na germinação de C. acutatum. Em testes com flores destacadas

  8. Estudio de sistema de calefacción alternativo para estufas de curado de tabaco por bulto (Bulk Curing)

    OpenAIRE

    Andrés, Claudia Raquel; Portal, Alejandra Elizabeth

    2008-01-01

    104 p. il. En el desarrollo del presente trabajo, se estudia un sistema de calefacción alternativo para la alimentación de estufas destinadas al curado de tabaco por bulto. El mismo, hace hincapié en la utilización, conversión y conservación de los recursos energéticos, minimizando los costos de operación y el impacto ambiental. Introducción -- Estado de la cuestión: El tabaco; Proceso productivo; Estufas-Curado; Producción mundial, nacional y provincial -- Definición del problema --...

  9. Competências Implícitas em Processos Seletivos Internos: O Caso de uma Empresa Pública do Setor Bancário

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gabriela Moro

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Diante do cenário competitivo que estão inseridas as organizações do setor bancário, que se caracteriza por mudanças rápidas e inovações tecnológicas, a gestão de pessoas ganha destaque, uma vez que se torna um diferencial competitivo, além de suprir a carência das organizações em responder de forma tempestiva questões como a nova forma de organização do trabalho e a atitude das pessoas na busca por práticas mais eficientes. Face à importância estratégica do modelo de gestão de pessoas por competência nas organizações, este artigo tem como objetivo geral identificar as competências implícitas envolvidas nos Processos Seletivos Internos (PSI de uma Empresa Pública do Setor Bancário (EPSB. O método de pesquisa utilizado foi um estudo de caso de abordagem qualitativa, onde na primeira fase realizou-se uma pesquisa documental e na segunda fase foram entrevistados colaboradores que atuam como avaliadores dos PSI. Como resultado se identificou que: a foi confirmada a existência de competências implícitas e, além disso, b constatou-se a divergência de entendimento acerca do conceito de competência

  10. Estudio de tratamientos alternativos para mejorar la estabilidad dimensional y la dureza de Populus x euramericana y Pinus pinaster

    OpenAIRE

    Hidalgo Tomé, Isabel

    2014-01-01

    La madera es un material que está siendo demandado de nuevo por la sociedad, después de haber sido relegada a un segundo plano por otros materiales alternativos como los plásticos, aceros y hormigones. La madera es un material que posee muchas virtudes como material estructural, sin embargo posee otras propiedades que deben de ser estudiadas. El sector maderero debe resolver este nuevo reto por medio del desarrollo de nuevas tecnologías industriales y la investigación. Este estudio t...

  11. Glyphosate em mistura com herbicidas alternativos para o manejo de plantas daninhas Glyphosate combined with alternative herbicides for vegetation management

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    P.A. Monquero

    2001-12-01

    Full Text Available O uso intensivo de glyphosate como herbicida não-seletivo tem selecionado espécies de plantas daninhas tolerantes. Dessa forma, é importante que sejam estudadas misturas de tanque com herbicidas de mecanismos de ação alternativos e que apresentem efeitos sinergísticos ou aditivos. Por essa razão, foi instalado um experimento inteiramente casualizado, composto por 13 tratamentos e 4 repetições, em casa de vegetação da Universidade de São Paulo - ESALQ/USP, Piracicaba-SP, com as plantas daninhas Richardia brasiliensis, Commelina benghalensis, Amaranthus hybridus, Galinsoga parviflora e Ipomoea grandifolia em misturas de tanque dos herbicidas chlorimuron-ethyl, sulfentrazone, carfentrazone, bentazon ou flumioxazin com glyphosate. As interações foram aditivas para as plantas daninhas I. grandifolia e C. benghalensis, e os herbicidas flumioxazin, sulfentrazone e carfentrazone aplicados isoladamente e em mistura com glyphosate foram os que proporcionaram os melhores níveis de controle. A interação de glyphosate com sulfentrazone foi antagônica em R. brasiliensis; a mistura de glyphosate com os demais herbicidas estudados foi aditiva, sendo os tratamentos com mistura de glyphosate e chlorimuron-ethyl ou flumioxazin os mais eficazes. Em A. hybridus, os tratamentos que apresentaram melhores níveis de controle foram o glyphosate e carfentrazone, aplicados isoladamente, e a mistura de glyphosate com flumioxazin, sulfentrazone, chlorimuron-ethyl e bentazon, sendo estes interações aditivas. No caso de G. parviflora, os tratamentos com flumioxazin e sulfentrazone apresentaram controle total, o mesmo acontecendo com as misturas de glyphosate com carfentrazone, flumioxazin, sulfentrazone, chlorimuron-ethyl ou bentazon.The intensive use of glyphosate as a non-selective herbicide for weed vegetation management has selected some tolerant weed species. Thus, it is important to study the synergistic or antagonic or additive effects of tank

  12. Herbicidas alternativos para o controle de Conyza sumatrensis (Retz. E. H. Walker resistentes aos inibidores da ALS e EPSPs

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    Fernando Machado dos Santos

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available RESUMO A buva (Conyza sumatrensis, uma das principais plantas daninhas já identificadas no sul do Brasil, vem apresentando controle insatisfatório, em resposta à aplicação dos herbicidas chlorimuron-ethyl e glyphosate. Por esta razão, o objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar herbicidas alternativos, visando ao controle de biótipos de C. sumatrensis, com resistência de nível baixo ao herbicida chlorimuron-ethyl e resistentes ao herbicida glyphosate. O experimento foi realizado em casa de vegetação, entre abril e agosto de 2012, no município de Passo Fundo, RS. O delineamento experimental foi o inteiramente casualizado, com quatro repetições, sendo avaliados 15 tratamentos com herbicidas, além de uma testemunha sem aplicação. As variáveis consideradas foram controle percentual, aos 14, 21 e 28 dias após a aplicação dos tratamentos (DAT e a matéria seca da parte aérea, aos 28 DAT. Como resultados, observou-se que os biótipos foram 100% controlados, aos 28 DAT, pelos tratamentos alternativos de paraquat + diuron; ammonium glufosinate; glyphosate + 2,4-D; glyphosate + ammonium glufosinate; 2,4-D; tembotrione e tembotrione + atrazine. O biótipo 17 evidenciou menor sensibilidade aos herbicidas inibidores da ALS e os biótipos 05, 17 e 20 não foram controlados pelo herbicida glyphosate.

  13. Efeito dos anti-inflamatórios não-esteroidais convencionais e seletivos para COX-2 sobre o reparo ósseo Effect of conventional and COX-2 selective non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs on bone healing

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    Teresa Lúcia Lamano-Carvalho

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Na presente revisão de literatura foram relacionados trabalhos experimentais e clínicos dos últimos 15 anos referentes aos efeitos dos antiinflamatórios não-esteroidais (AINEs convencionais e seletivos para COX-2 sobre a formação óssea reparacional. A maioria dos trabalhos mostra que os AINEs convencionais podem atrasar o reparo de fratura de ossos longos e a fusão espinhal, em animais, e interferir negativamente com a taxa de fusão espinhal, em humanos. Apesar da importância comprovada da prostaglandina E2, sintetizada por osteoblastos sob estímulo da enzima ciclooxigenase-2 (COX-2, no controle da formação óssea, os resultados experimentais acerca dos prováveis efeitos inibitórios dos AINEs seletivos sobre o reparo ósseo além de raros são ainda controversos e não há comprovação de que eles interferem com a neoformação óssea reparacional em humanos.In the present literature review, experimental and clinical studies of the last 15 years concerning the effects of conventional and COX-2 selective non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs on bone healing were reported. Most of the data pertaining to conventional NSAIDs have shown to cause delayed fracture healing and impairment of spinal fusion in animal studies, as well as a negative interference on spinal fusion rate in human beings. In spite of the established importance of prostaglandin E2, synthesized by osteoblasts under COX-2 stimulation, in controlling bone formation, the results regarding the potential inhibitory effects of selective NSAIDs on experimental bone healing are still controversial and there is no clinical data to confirm that they interfere negatively with repairing bone formation.

  14. Actualización en los tratamientos alternativos en el síndrome de dolor-disfunción craneomandibular

    OpenAIRE

    Brescó Salinas, Vicente Miguel; Méndez Blanco, Víctor Manuel; Vázquez Delgado, Eduardo; Gay Escoda, Cosme

    1997-01-01

    Realizamos una revisión bibliográfica sobre los diferentes tipos de tratamiento alternativo en aquellos casos en los que fracasa la terapia convencional en el síndrome de dolor-disfunción craneomandibular y en los cuales la cirugía no sea la terapia de elección; haciendo una clasificación actualizada de los mismos, siendo estos: terapia psíquica (terapia de relajación muscular y control y manejo del estrés), terapia física realizada por el propio paciente y asistida por un fisioterapeuta, ter...

  15. Abonos orgánicos como insumo de nutrición vegetal en un sistema hidropónico alternativo

    OpenAIRE

    Cuervo Osorio, Víctor Daniel

    2010-01-01

    El presente trabajo se realizó en los invernaderos del Colegio de Postgraduados, estado de México. Se comparó un sistema hidropónico convencional (inorgánico) y otro propuesto como alternativo (orgánico). En este ensayo la planta se ubicó en un sustrato inerte (tezontle) y sobre esté se colocó un abono orgánico, el cual nutre la planta. Los 3 abonos orgánicos fueron gallinaza, lombricomposta y estiércol bovino dosificados a 3 niveles cada uno (100, 200, 300 kg ha-1 de nitrógeno mineral) uti...

  16. Controle alternativo da murcha bacteriana do pimentão utilizando óleos essenciais vegetais e silicato de cálcio.

    OpenAIRE

    Aldenir de Oliveira Alves

    2012-01-01

    A murcha bacteriana do pimentão, causada por Ralstonia solanacearum (Rs) raça 1, é uma fitobacteriose importante em Pernambuco e outros estados do Brasil. Este trabalho teve como objetivos testar o efeito de óleos vegetais e do silício (Si) no controle alternativo desta doença, seus efeitos diretos sobre Rs e verificar os possíveis mecanismos envolvidos nestes processos. Os óleos essenciais de bergamota, canela, capim limão, copaíba, eucalipto citriodora, eucalipto globulus, funcho, hortel...

  17. Modos de vida alternativos: o caso da comunidade Noiva do Cordeiro

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    Adilson Schultz

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Noiva do cordeiro é uma comunidade rural liderada por mulheres, que desenvolveu um modo de vida alternativo e sustentável, com partilha de bens e fim da religião institucionalizada. Forjado ao longo de mais de um século, num processo de constantes rupturas religiosas, familiares e ideológicas, esse inusitado modo de vida produziu uma comunidade autônoma, com sujeitos autônomos e responsáveis uns pelos outros, que se tornaram lideranças sociais e políticas. No centro de sua história, experiências de sofrimento e rupturas relacionadas à religião, à fome, e à estrutura familiar patriarcal. O estudo do caso de Noiva do Cordeiro tem a intenção de analisar elementos subjetivos deste processo, verificando os indicativos e as implicações de tal fenômeno religioso e social, especialmente os limites e o fim de determinado modelo de religião. Os pressupostos teóricos deste estudo apontam para uma perspectiva transdisciplinar que compreende a teologia, a sociologia e a psicologia da religião e, nestes campos, as teorias feministas.

  18. Influencia del porcentaje de mezcla del aceite de higuerilla en la obtención de combustible alternativo para motores diesel

    OpenAIRE

    Arnoldo Emilio Delgado; Willian Aperador Chaparro; Jorge Réne Silva Gonzalez

    2011-01-01

    En el presente artículo se describe el uso del aceite de higuerilla como combustible alternativo en motores diesel. Para este fi n, se obtiene biodiesel a partir de aceite de higuerilla mediante el proceso de transesterifi cación. Se prueban tres mezclas de biodiesel (B5%, B10% y B20%) en un motor diesel, para el cual se midieron los siguientes parámetros: la potencia, el consumo de combustible, la temperatura del motor, y los gases de combustión;las mezclas fueron caracterizadas mediante la ...

  19. Germinação de Aechmea nudicaulis (L.) Griseb. (Bromeliaceae) em diferentes substratos alternativos ao pó de xaxim

    OpenAIRE

    Anacleto,Adilson; Negrelle,Raquel Rejane Bonato; Koehler,Henrique Soares

    2008-01-01

    Avaliou-se a germinação das sementes de Aechmea nudicaulis (L.) Griseb. (Bromeliaceae). As tentativas de produção desta espécie, a partir de sementes, têm ocorrido de forma empírica, utilizando-se substrato à base de pó de xaxim (Dicksonia sellowiana Hook.), que tem restrições de uso, por estar ameaçada de extinção. Foram testados cinco tipos alternativos de substratos de fácil acessibilidade: húmus de minhoca, areia, fibra de casca de coco, serapilheira e Plantmax®. O experimento foi realiza...

  20. Uso de antagonistas e produtos alternativos no manejo pós-colheita de podridão mole em pimentão

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    Matheus Silva e Silva

    Full Text Available Visando o controle da podridão mole causada por Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum (Pcc em pimentão, foram avaliados 10 tratamentos: Bacillus spp.: isolado C116 (B. pumilus; Leveduras: isolados Lma (Rhodotorula aurantiaca e Lms (R. glutinis; Fosfito de potássio e cálcio; Fontes de cálcio: CaCl2, Ca(CO32 e Ca(SO42; fungicida/bactericida orgânico Antica®; antibiótico Kasumin®. Após a determinação da concentração dos antagonistas e produtos alternativos pelo teste do antibiograma, foi realizado o teste in vivo, pela inoculação do patógeno, seis horas após os tratamentos com os antagonistas e produtos alternativos. Foram determinados o Período de Incubação (PI, Severidade da doença (SEV, Redução da severidade da doença (RSD% e Área abaixo da curva de progresso da doença (AACPD. Todos os tratamentos testados apresentaram maiores valores de PI e RSD% e menores valores de SEV e AACPD quando comparados à testemunha. Fosfito de cálcio, C116, Lms, Lma e fosfito de potássio foram significativamente superiores quando comparados como demais tratamentos. Pcc foi resistente ao Kasumin®, possuindo SEV e AACPD que não diferiram significativamente da testemunha.

  1. Controle alternativo da podridão peduncular em manga

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    Severina Rodrigues de Oliveira Lins

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available O objetivo dessa pesquisa foi verificar o efeito de produtos alternativos em mangas inoculadas com Lasiodiplodia theobromae e a influência desses sobre o crescimento micelial do fitopatógeno. Mangas foram tratadas com fosfato de potássio (FP (50, 100 e 150, ácido hidroxidobenzóico (AH (5, 10 e 15, cloreto de cálcio (CC (0,13, 0,26 e 0,39 (em milimolar, Luz ultravioleta (LUV (10; 20 e 30 min., extratos de alho (EA, melão-de-são-caetano (EM, casca de manga (ECM (25, 50 e 75% e água (testemunha. Inoculou-se 10m de suspensão de 10(6 conídios/mL de L. theobromae imediatamente (T1, 12 horas (T2 e 24 horas, após os tratamentos (T3. No T1, os melhores tratamentos foram FP (50 mmol e CC (0,13 mmol. No T2 foram CC (0,13 mmol, AH (5 mmol, EA (25% e FP (100 mmol. No T3 não houve diferença entre os tratamentos. In vitro, os produtos foram misturados ao meio de cultura. Após solidificação, depositaram-se no centro de cada placa, estruturas do fitopatógeno. Quarenta e oito horas após, mediu-se o diâmetro da colônia. Os melhores tratamentos foram FP (100 e 150 mmol, ECM (50 e 75% e EA (50%.

  2. Pagamentos por serviços ambientais, custos de oportunidade e a transição para usos da terra alternativos: o caso de agricultores familiares do Nordeste Paraense

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    Rosangela Calado da Costa

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Neste artigo, avalia-se o papel que o pagamento por serviços ambientais proposto pela política pública Proambiente (2003-2007 poderia ter tido sobre a substituição do uso da terra tradicional (sistema de “derruba-e-queima” e a adoção de usos da terra alternativos, capazes de fornecer maiores níveis de serviços ambientais, entre agricultores familiares do Nordeste do Pará, Amazônia Brasileira. Para isso, foram estimados custos de oportunidades para os usos da terra tradicional e alternativos (agricultura sem uso do fogo, sistemas agroflorestais, manejo de açaí, enriquecimento de capoeira e apicultura. Os resultados indicaram que o pagamento do Proambiente teria sido insuficiente para incentivar o abandono do uso da terra tradicional e que poderia ter sido mais promissor fornecer condições para que os agricultores familiares realizassem a transição para usos da terra capazes de fornecer maiores níveis de renda no longo prazo, como sistemas agroflorestais e manejo de açaizal.

  3. Solución basada en Roip (radio Over Ip) como sistema alternativo o complemrntario para servicios troncalizados de misión crítica

    OpenAIRE

    Riofrío Córdova, Andrés Aníbal

    2015-01-01

    Este trabajo tiene como propósito establecer una solución basada en RoIP (Radio over IP) como un sistema alternativo y/o complementario de comunicaciones vía radio de misión crítica1, especialmente para servicios troncalizados, el objetivo es presentar un medio de comunicaciones que permita integrarse a cualquier red de comunicación de radio frecuencia, considerando un alto nivel de escalabilidad, bajos costos, con poca infraestructura técnica e interoperabilidad con diversas marcas y modelos...

  4. Controle seletivo do estímulo em uma tarefa de emparelhamento com o modelo com palavras como estímulos compostos: análise de um procedimento de Resposta Diferencial de Observação (DOR) e estímulos com diferenças críticas e múltiplas

    OpenAIRE

    Wegbecher, Samira de Toledo

    2012-01-01

    O objetivo do presente estudo foi avaliar a eficácia de um procedimento que utilizou Resposta Diferencial De Observação (DOR) e estímulos com diferenças críticas para eliminar o controle seletivo em tarefas de emparelhamento simultâneo com o modelo, realizadas por um participante diagnosticado com transtorno do espectro do autismo. Foram utilizados como estímulos três conjuntos, cada um composto por três palavras formadas por três letras e a última era o elemento crítico ou dif...

  5. Esquemas alternativos de hemodiálise Alternative hemodialysis regimens

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    Jorge Paulo Strogoff de Matos

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available A taxa de mortalidade entre os pacientes em hemodiálise (HD é extremamente elevada. A expectativa de vida restante de um paciente ao iniciar HD é apenas cerca de um quarto daquela da população geral com a mesma idade. O esquema convencional de HD, com três sessões semanais de cerca de quatro horas, foi estabelecido de maneira empírica há cerca de quatro décadas e merece ser reavaliado criticamente. Desde a falha do Estudo HEMO em demonstrar benefícios clínicos com o aumento do Kt/V de ureia nos pacientes em esquema convencional de HD, tem havido um crescente interesse pelos esquemas alternativos de HD com o intuito de prover um tratamento associado com uma melhor sobrevida. Dentre os esquemas mais promissores, destacam-se a HD diária de curta duração e a HD noturna prolongada. As limitações econômicas que inibem a aplicação dos conhecimentos emergentes nesta área devem ser vencidas.The mortality rate among patients on hemodialysis (HD is extremely high. Remaining life expectancy for a patient initiating HD is only approximately one quarter of that of the general population at the same age bracket. The conventional HD regimen based on four-hour sessions three times a week was empirically established nearly four decades ago and needs to be revisited. Since the failure of the HEMO Study to demonstrate the clinical benefits of higher urea Kt/V for patients on conventional HD, an increasing interest for alternative HD regimens has emerged aiming at providing a treatment for improving survival rates. Short daily HD and long nocturnal HD stand out as the most promising alternative regimens. Economical obstacles which could hinder the clinical application of emerging knowledge in the field should be overcome.

  6. Estado del Arte del Uso del Gas de Gasificación Termoquímica de Biomasa(GG), en Motores de Combustión Interna Alternativos

    OpenAIRE

    Fonseca González, Natalia Elizabeth

    2003-01-01

    El presente trabajo, desarrollado en el marco del Convenio de Cooperación educativa entre la ETSII - UPM y el Ciemat, se realiza con el fin de determinar líneas futuras de investigación y/o aplicación de la tecnología de gasificación termoquímica de biomasa integrada a motores de combustión interna alternativos (MCIA) para generación de potencia, motivados por la necesidad de reducir las emisiones contaminantes, aumentar el uso de las fuentes renovables de energía, reducir la dependencia econ...

  7. Modos de vida alternativos: o caso da comunidade Noiva do Cordeiro http://dx.doi.org/10.15601/1983-7631/rt.v3n5p152-158

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adilson Schultz

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Noiva do cordeiro é uma comunidade rural liderada por mulheres, que desenvolveu um modo de vida alternativo e sustentável, com partilha de bens e fim da religião institucionalizada. Forjado ao longo de mais de um século, num processo de constantes rupturas religiosas, familiares e ideológicas, esse inusitado modo de vida produziu uma comunidade autônoma, com sujeitos autônomos e responsáveis uns pelos outros, que se tornaram lideranças sociais e políticas. No centro de sua história, experiências de sofrimento e rupturas relacionadas à religião, à fome, e à estrutura familiar patriarcal. O estudo do caso de Noiva do Cordeiro tem a intenção de analisar elementos subjetivos deste processo, verificando os indicativos e as implicações de tal fenômeno religioso e social, especialmente os limites e o fim de determinado modelo de religião. Os pressupostos teóricos deste estudo apontam para uma perspectiva transdisciplinar que compreende a teologia, a sociologia e a psicologia da religião e, nestes campos, as teorias feministas.Palavras-chave: Noiva do Cordeiro; modos de vida alternativos; fim da religião; liderança de mulheres; valores humanos

  8. Componentes émicos del bienestar. Hacia un modelo alternativo de desarrollo

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    Jorge Yamamoto

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available Se presenta una propuesta alternativa a los modelos establecidos de bienestar y desarrollo a través de una metodología émica y post hoc. Esta se aplica a un corredor migratorio desde comunidades rurales hasta urbano marginales. Se aplicó una batería psicométrica desarrollada para este estudio a 550 participantes y una versión modificada del análisis factorial confirmatorio para satisfacer las demandas de teorización post-hoc del estudio. Se proponen modelos alternativos de necesidades universales, satisfacción subjetiva de vida, recursos y valores. Se encuentra una estructura de tres factores de personalidad. Los resultados son discutidos en relación con las teorías establecidas desde el referente europeo y estadounidense y se reflexiona sobre sus perspectivas para el desarrollo. -- An alternative model of well-being and development using an emic and post-hoc approach is presented. This method was applied to a non-educated corridor sample which includes rural and urban shantytowns (n = 550. A psychometric wellbeing battery was developed for this study. Analytical technique includes a modified version of Confirmatory Factor Analysis in order to meet the demands of the post-hoc theorisation rationale. Alternative models of universal needs, subjective life satisfaction, resources, and values are presented. A three factor personality solution is described. Discussion emphasises the advantages of these results compared to theories and approaches from Europe and United States in theoretical and empirical terms. Implications for development are also discussed.

  9. Evaluación de agentes de coagulación para la producción de láminas de caucho seco a partir de Látex multiclonal de “Hevea Brasiliensis”

    OpenAIRE

    Giraldo Díaz, Alejandra María; López Aristizábal, Paulina

    2016-01-01

    El presente trabajo consiste en la evaluación de tres agentes de coagulación, uno convencional (ácido acético) y dos alternativos (ácido cítrico y limoneno) para la producción de láminas de caucho seco a partir del látex de Hevea brasiliensis, extraído del Nordeste Antioqueño en el corregimiento San José del Nus -- Se realizó una caracterización del látex, en la que se obtuvo una densidad de 0,97 gr/ml, un porcentaje de solidos de 31,14%, un porcentaje de caucho seco de 29,4%, un TGA con la p...

  10. Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos (Boletín de Novedades 239). Tecnologías entrañables. ¿Es posible un modelo alternativo de desarrollo tecnológico?

    OpenAIRE

    Miguel Ángel Quintanilla; Martín Parselis; Darío Sandrone; Diego Lawler

    2017-01-01

    Frente al modelo predominante de desarrollo tecnológico alienante, aquí se propone un modelo alternativo, el de tecnologías entrañables. En vez de tecnologías propietarias y cerradas, se trata de optar por diseñar y consumir tecnologías abiertas. En vez de aceptar la obsolescencia programada, se trata de potenciar los mercados de segunda mano, desterrar el principio de usar y tirar y aceptar el pr...

  11. Introducción de un ELISA como ensayo alternativo en la determinación de la potencia de vacunas antitetánicas

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    Juan Carlos Ramírez

    2005-05-01

    Full Text Available Por más de medio siglo de uso, la vacunación con el toxoide tetánico ha mostrado un elevado porcentaje de eficacia en la prevención del tétanos. Este trabajo pretende introducir un ensayo inmunoenzimático en fase sólida (ELISA como método alternativo a la prueba de seroneutralización in vivo utilizada en la evaluación de la potencia de las vacunas antitetánicas.Se desarrolló un ELISA de tipo indirecto para la cuantificación de antitoxina tetánica en suero de curiel a partir de un estándar con 29 UI/mL, previamente calibrado. Se determinó la precisión, exactitud y linealidad del ensayo. Se analizó la correlación entre el ELISA y la prueba biológica mediante la evaluación de un total de 75 muestras de sueros por ambos métodos. Por último, se estudió la respuesta individual de un grupo de animales contra 15 lotes de toxoide tetánico. El ensayo demostró ser preciso y exacto, con imprecisiones inferiores al 20% y valores de recuperación entre el 90–110%. Las desviaciones del paralelismo mostraron coeficientes de variación alrededor del 10%. El análisis por regresión lineal mostró una buena correlación entre el ELISA y el ensayo biológico (R2= 0,989. El método alternativo desarrollado probó ser una herramienta útil para la determinación de la potencia de vacunas antitetánicas a partir de la evaluación independiente de la respuesta de cada animal contra el toxoide tetánico.Los niveles de seroprotección alcanzados se encontraron entre el 83–100%.

  12. Efeito do Tratamento Térmico de Solubilização e Estabilização Convencional e Alternativo na Microestrutura de uma Junta Soldada com Aço Inox 347

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    Renata Barbosa Gonçalves

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Este trabalho estuda a microestrutura formada na zona termicamente afetada (ZTA e na zona fundida (ZF de uma junta soldada pelo processo TIG automático no passe de raiz, processo plasma nos passes de enchimento e soldagem SAW para os passes de acabamento em junta de topo com chanfro “V” simples, usando o aço inoxidável austenítico AISI 347. Foram estudadas as condições: como soldada; após tratamento térmico convencional de solubilização a 1060 °C e estabilização a 900 °C; e após tratamento térmico alternativo, onde a peça foi solubilizada a 1060 °C e mantida no forno que foi resfriado até 900 °C para a estabilização. Os resultados mostram que, na condição como soldado houve crescimento de grão na ZTA e a ZF apresentou 13% de ferrita com diferentes morfologias, tendo sido observada a precipitação de carbetos de Cr e de Nb. Após o tratamento térmico convencional de solubilização e estabilização, foi observada uma diminuição significativa do teor de ferrita na ZTA e na ZF, tendo sido observados carbetos de Nb e Cr, distribuídos de forma mais dispersa e com tamanhos menores, que contribuem para minimizar a possibilidade de ocorrer o fenômeno da sensitização. Após tratamento térmico alternativo de solubilização e estabilização, a microestrutura da ZTA e ZF foi similar à obtida no tratamento convencional, sendo que o teor de ferrita δ na ZF foi ainda mais reduzido, de 4,5%. Foi concluído que o tratamento térmico alternativo de solubilização e estabilização foi tão eficaz quanto o tratamento térmico convencional para a adequação da microestrutura da junta soldada, com uma significativa vantagem do tratamento térmico proposto em reduzir o tempo e o custo desta operação.

  13. Estudo de processos de produção de etanol anidro através da destilação extrativa salina com recuperação do agente de separação

    OpenAIRE

    Eliana Luci Ligero

    1999-01-01

    Resumo: : Uma técnica amplamente utilizada na produção de etanol é a destilação azeotrópica benzeno, cuja propriedade cancerígena é bastante conhecida. Um processo alternativo, ecologicamente viável, é a destilação extrativa salina. O emprego de um sal solúvel na desidratação do etanol possibilita uma redução no consumo energético, além de produzir um etanol livre do agente de separação. Uma etapa importante na produção de etanol anidro através da destilação extrativa salina é a recuperação d...

  14. Tabela de vida de fertilidade de três espécies neotropicais de Trichogrammatidae em ovos de hospedeiros alternativos como critério de seleção hospedeira Fertility life table of three neotropical species of Trichogrammatidae on factitious hosts as a criterion for selection of hosts

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    Nivia da Silva Dias

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available Tabela de vida de fertilidade de três espécies neotropicais de Trichogrammatidae em ovos de hospedeiros alternativos como critério de seleção hospedeira. O objetivo deste trabalho foi selecionar o hospedeiro alternativo que permita o melhor desenvolvimento das três espécies neotropicais de tricogramatídeos, Trichogramma atopovirilia Oatman & Platner, 1983; Trichogramma bruni Nagaraja, 1983 e Trichogrammatoidea annulata De Santis, 1972, utilizando-se como parâmetro comparativo as tabelas de vida de fertilidade nos respectivos hospedeiros. Foram estimados a duração média de uma geração (T, taxa líquida de reprodução (Ro, razão infinitesimal (r m e a razão finita de aumento (λ. A tabela de vida de fertilidade pode ser utilizada para selecionar o hospedeiro alternativo mais adequado para as espécies de tricogramatídeos. Corcyra cephalonica (Stainton, 1865 (Lepidoptera, Pyralidae foi o hospedeiro alternativo mais adequado para criação de T. annulata e de T. bruni, enquanto que para T. atopovirilia, Anagasta kuehniella (Zeller, 1879 (Lepidoptera, Pyralidae e/ou C. cephalonica foram os hospedeiros mais adequados. Sitotroga cerealella (Olivier, 1819 (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae apresentou baixa capacidade de aumento populacional para as três espécies de parasitóides, sendo, portanto, uma espécie inadequada como hospedeiro alternativo para as mesmas.The objective of this work was to select the factitious host that permit the best development of three neotropical Trichogrammatidae species, Trichogramma atopovirilia Oatman & Platner, 1983; Trichogramma bruni Nagaraja, 1983, and Trichogrammatoidea annulata De Santis, 1972, using the fertility life table on their respective hosts as a comparative parameter. Mean generation time (T, net reproductive rate (Ro, intrinsic rate of natural increase (r m and the finite rate of increase (λ were estimated. A fertility life table is useful to select the most adequate factitious hosts for the

  15. La enseñanza del inglés a través de sistemas alternativos de comunicación: accedo a la pantalla con la mirada

    OpenAIRE

    Jiménez Pinilla, Diana

    2017-01-01

    La comunicación es una de las principales actividades del ser humano, cuya forma natural es el habla. Sin embargo, existen Sistemas Aumentativos o Alternativos de Comunicación que sustituyen y/o complementan y/o aumentan la comunicación verbal permitiendo la de otro colectivo con dificultades en la producción del habla. En la Educación Infantil se puede trabajar la enseñanza de una lengua extranjera en el aula ordinaria incluyendo a estos niños apoyándoles a través de los SAACS. Grado en E...

  16. Dinâmica discursiva e o ensino de física: análise de um episódio de ensino envolvendo o uso de um texto alternativo

    OpenAIRE

    Assis, Alice; Teixeira, Odete Pacubi Baierl

    2009-01-01

    Resumo: Este artigo enfoca a análise da dinâmica discursiva entre alunos e professor mediados pelo uso de um texto alternativo intitulado "Nosso Universo", em aulas de Física, em uma sala de educação de jovens e adultos. Para tal, é destacado um episódio de ensino cuja abordagem centra-se na discussão de conceitos físicos. Os resultados evidenciaram que o referido texto mostrou-se potencialmente significativo para os alunos, aguçando a curiosidade e o interesse dos mesmos, que relacionaram os...

  17. Cultivo de Cattleya Lindley (Orchidaceae em substratos alternativos ao xaxim = Alternative substrates for Cattleya (Orchidaceae cultivation to substitute the tree fern fiber

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    Jorge Kaoro Yamakami

    2006-10-01

    Full Text Available Este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar substratos alternativos ao xaxim no cultivo de um híbrido de Cattleya Lindley. Os substratos avaliados foram: xaxim; fibra de coco; casca de pínus + casca de arroz carbonizada (1:1v/v; casca de pínus+casca de arroz carbonizada (2:1v/v; casca de pínus+casca de arroz carbonizada (1:2v/v; casca de pínus e casca de arroz carbonizada. As mudas foram cultivadas em vasos de polipropileno, permanecendo em viveiro com 70% de luminosidade Os parâmetros avaliados um ano após o início do experimento foram: massa de matéria fresca total, altura da parte aérea, comprimento do pseudobulbo, comprimento da maior raiz, número de raízes, número de brotos, número de flores, pH e condutividade elétrica. O substrato constituído de fibra de coco proporcionou bons resultados, podendo ser considerado alternativo ao xaxim no cultivo deCattleya.The objective of this study was to evaluate alternative substrates tosubstitute tree fern fiber for cultivation of hybrids from the Cattleya species. Seedlings were cultivated in polypropylene vases, kept in screen shadowed nursery by a 70% of lighting. The following substrates were evaluated: tree fern fibers; coconut fiber; pinus bark+carbonized rice hull (1:1 v/v; pinus bark+carbonized rice hull (2:1 v/v; pinus bark+carbonized rice hull (1:2 v/v; pinus bark and carbonized rice hull. One year after the experiment, the followingparameters were evaluated: fresh matter mass, aerial part height, pseudobulb length, greater root length, number of buds, number of flowers, pH and electric conductivity. The substrate composed of coconut fiber showed better results, and can be used as the alternative substrate to tree fern fiber in the cultivation of Cattleya.

  18. ENSINANDO SOBRE ADULTERAÇÃO DO LEITE: RELATO DE UMA EXPERIÊNCIA UTILIZANDO MATERIAIS ALTERNATIVOS DOI:10.5007/1807-0221.2011v8n11p116

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    João Rufino de Freitas Filho

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Este trabalho foi conduzido com o objetivo de se utilizarem materiais alternativos na detecção de substâncias estranhas presentes no leite de vaca consumido por estudantes de escolas públicas de Garanhuns/PE. O projeto foi conduzido durante um período de 90 dias, dividido em cinco etapas: I – estudo dos estabelecimentos de ensino objeto de estudo; II – visita in loco; III – pesquisa experimental; IV – demonstração em sala de aula; e V – elaboração e divulgação de jornal e cartilha informativa.

  19. Metodología de Evaluación de Eye-trackers como Dispositivos de Acceso Alternativo para Personas con Parálisis Cerebral

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    A. Clemotte

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Resumen: Los procedimientos de evaluación de los sistemas alternativos de acceso al ordenador son poco rigurosos, sistemáticos y formales. Este trabajo presenta una metodología para la valoración de la interacción usuario-ordenador, cuando los sistemas de eye-tracking son utilizados como herramienta de acceso alternativo al ordenador por personas con Parálisis Cerebral (PC. Para ello, proponemos tres métricas de evaluación: tasa de fallos de calibración, tasa de error en el clic y tiempo de clic. Validamos la metodología, comparando 3 (tres eye- trackers, con 9 (nueve participantes con PC con trastornos motores severos. Los resultados indican que la calibración es un proceso crítico en estos escenarios como refleja la alta tasa de fallos de calibración medida. Los participantes con PC también tienen una alta tasa de error del clic, lo que indica que el uso de eye-trackers para alcanzar un objeto en pantalla es un proceso complejo para estos niveles de discapacidad motriz. Los tiempos de clics son similares entre todos los eye-trackers y participantes. Este trabajo pretende establecer líneas metodológicas para la efectiva evaluación de estos dispositivos, que pueden llegar a ser una interesante alternativa de acceso al ordenador para esta población. Abstract: The procedures for evaluating alternative computer access systems are neither rigorous, systematic nor formal. We present a methodology to evaluate the user-computer interaction, based on three metrics, when people with cerebral palsy (CP use eye- trackers as an alternative access device. We validated the methodology by comparing three commercial eye-trackers with nine participants seriously affected by CP. The results indicate that the calibration is a very critical process in these scenarios because of the high rate of calibration failures measured. The participants with CP also have a high click error rate, indicating that using eye

  20. Tratamiento de los temas soberanía y seguridad alimentarias en medios de comunicación hegemónicos y alternativos (Córdoba, Argentina, 2012-2015

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    Ana Pamela Paz García

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Objetivo: la investigación se propone analizar los discursos de medios de comunicación digitales cordobeses con relación a las temáticas Seguridad y Soberanía Alimentarias. Metodología: bajo el enfoque del Análisis Crítico del Discurso se analiza un corpus de 935 noticias publicadas en el período 2012-2015 por cuatro medios, dos de los cuales presentan una posición dominante en el mercado de la prensa local, mientras los restantes se destacan como medios alternativos ligados a movimientos y organizaciones sociales. Resultados: se estudian críticamente los posicionamientos políticos e ideológico-discursivos de los medios seleccionados y su dinámica informativa en el lapso abordado. Limitaciones: este abordaje no incluye las perspectivas de las audiencias de los productos informativos analizados, cuestión que a nivel micro-político podría complementar el análisis desarrollado en torno al impacto social de la agenda mediática local sobre Seguridad y Soberanía alimentarias. Conclusiones: se advierte cómo tanto medios masivos hegemónicos como alternativos manifiestan una lectura parcial de las temáticas referidas. En el marco de la cobertura mediática abordada, a la novedad y reciente repercusión pública y gubernamental de dichas problemáticas, se añade el peso de una trama de intereses ideológico-editoriales subyacente a la perspectiva informativa de cada medio, aspecto sobre el cual se intenta aportar algunos elementos analíticos.

  1. Evaluación de la toxicidad aguda de extractos de plantas medicinales por un método alternativo (Evaluation of acute toxicity of extracts of medicinal plants by an alternative testing)

    OpenAIRE

    Deodelsy Bermúdez Toledo:; |Emilio Monteagudo Jimenez; Maria Boffill Cárdenas; Luis E. Díaz Costa; Alexander Roca Simeón; Emoe Betancourt Morgado; Enrique A Silveira Prado

    2007-01-01

    Se evaluó la toxicidad a dosis única de seis extractos de plantas medicinales: Psidium guajava L. (guayaba), Eucalyptus citriodoraHooker (eucalipto de limón), Cymbopogon citratus (DC) Stapf (caña santa, hierba de limón), Hibiscus elatus Sw. (majagua), Justicia pectoralis Jacq. (tilo), Plectranthus amboinicus (Lour.) Spreng (orégano francés) mediante un método alternativo e internacionalmente validado y aceptado (procedimiento de dosis fijas) en ratasSprague Dawley. El grupo tratado recibió po...

  2. Sistemas sanitarios alternativos de participación para la construcción social del hábitat residencial rural

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    Beatriz Garzón

    2001-01-01

    Full Text Available El presente trabajo plantea una propuesta para la “Disposición Higiénica de Excretas” a través de ”sistemas cloacales alternativos”. Muestra la experiencia de Investigación-Acción participativa, realizada en dos comunidades rurales de la provincia de Tucumán, Argentina: Balderrama, Simoca, y Colalao del Valle, Tafí del Valle. Dicha experiencia surge como respuesta a: • una necesidad sentida de estas poblaciones y, • a uno de los objetivos planteados en relación a la Promoción del Saneamiento Ambiental. A través de este modelo “tecnológico constructivo-social”, se intenta resolver no sólo problemas materiales de los sectores más carenciados sino también crear espacios de participación que les permitan incrementar su calidad de vida, “re-elaborando” objetivos y estrategias para un mayor ajuste de las soluciones planteadas frente a la realidad. Es decir, que se apunta al mejoramiento material de las condiciones de vida de las comunidades involucradas, pero a partir del fortalecimiento de su organización y de sus redes de solidaridad, con el propósito de alcanzar un desarrollo sostenido del sector. Todo ello se basó en un proceso en el que grupos, comunidades e instituciones del sector popular, con el aporte de agentes externos, se asociaron para investigar, conocer y comprender sus problemas y para proponer sus propias estrategias de acción, en el entendido que ellos son los verdaderos transformadores de su hábitat. Este “Proyecto Compartido” posibilitó “resignificar” la práctica de Investigación y Extensión, ya que los mecanismos empleados permitieron el “hacer juntos” de comunidad y técnicos, de manera que ¨Investigación y Acción¨ dejaran de ser acciones separadas, evitando el desgaste del poblador rural sometido a objeto de estudio e involucrándolo en el proceso de “toma de decisiones” y de “ejecución”.

  3. Produtos Alternativos para Controle de Thaumastocoris peregrinus e Indução de Resistência em Plantas

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    Grasielle Adriane Toscan Lorencetti

    Full Text Available Este trabalho objetivou avaliar o efeito inseticida de produtos alternativos sobre Thaumastocoris peregrinus, bem como o potencial em atuar no processo de indução de resistência em plantas. Folhas de Eucalyptus camaldulensis foram imersas na solução dos produtos Orobor®, Topneem®, Rotenat®, Rotenat CE®, Baicao®, Compostonat®, Pironat®, Assist®, Extrato de Alho e Calda Bordalesa. Posteriormente, foram transferidas para tubos contendo 10 adultos de T. peregrinus, avaliando-se diariamente o número de insetos mortos. Os produtos que apresentaram efeito inseticida foram testados quanto ao seu potencial como indutores de resistência, avaliando-se em cotilédones de soja a síntese da fitoalexina gliceolina (pterocarpanoide e a ativação da rota dos fenilpropanoides pela atividade da enzima fenilalanina amônia-liase. Água foi utilizada como testemunha e quitosana (1% como indutor de referência. Rotenat®, Compostonat®, Rotenat CE® e Topneem® apresentaram efeito inseticida; destes Rotenat CE® e Topneem® apresentaram potencial como indutores de resistência, expressando valores significativos de fitoalexinas e atividade da FAL (fenilalanina-amônialiase.

  4. EL FACTOR DE SOSTENIBILIDAD: DISEÑOS ALTERNATIVOS Y VALORACIÓN FINANCIERO - ACTUARIAL DE SUS EFECTOS SOBRE LOS PARÁMETROS DEL SISTEMA

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    Robert Meneu Gaya

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available La Ley 27/2011, que reforma el sistema de pensiones español, introduce el factor de sostenibilidad, un instrumento que ajusta automáticamente los parámetros del sistema a la evolución de la esperanza de vida a partir del año 2027 y con revisiones cada 5 años, aunque la reciente Ley Orgánica 2/2012 de Estabilidad Presupuestaria y Sostenibilidad Financiera abre la posibilidad de que se anticipe su entrada en vigor si se proyecta un déficit a largo plazo en el sistema de pensiones. Dado que el diseño concreto del factor de sostenibilidad está pendiente, resulta relevante analizar cómo otros países de la Unión Europea han incorporado instrumentos similares en sus sistemas de pensiones y, desde esas experiencias, ofrecer diseños alternativos para el caso español, valorando los efectos de cada uno de ellos sobre los parámetros del sistema, utilizando para ello las recientes proyecciones de esperanza de vida del Instituto Nacional de Estadística. La Ley 27/2011, que reforma el sistema de pensiones español, introduce el factor de sostenibilidad, un instrumento que ajusta automáticamente los parámetros del sistema a la evolución de la esperanza de vida a partir del año 2027 y con revisiones cada 5 años, aunque la reciente Ley Orgánica 2/2012 de Estabilidad Presupuestaria y Sostenibilidad Financiera abre la posibilidad de que se anticipe su entrada en vigor si se proyecta un déficit a largo plazo en el sistema de pensiones. Dado que el diseño concreto del factor de sostenibilidad está pendiente, resulta relevante analizar cómo otros países de la Unión Europea han incorporado instrumentos similares en sus sistemas de pensiones y, desde esas experiencias, ofrecer diseños alternativos para el caso español, valorando los efectos de cada uno de ellos sobre los parámetros del sistema, utilizando para ello las recientes proyecciones de esperanza de vida del Instituto Nacional de Estadística.

  5. APROVEITAMENTO DA CASCA DE MELANCIA (Curcubita citrullus, Shrad NA PRODUÇÃO ARTESANAL DE DOCES ALTERNATIVOS*

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    A. F. SANTANA

    2009-03-01

    Full Text Available

    A melancia, botanicamente classificada como Curcubita citrullus, Shrad é originária da Índia. Devido ao seu alto teor de água, é ideal para ser consurnida no período de calor intenso, mais propriamente no verão. Por ser um fruto que produz considerável quantidade de resíduos não comestíveis, o presente trabalho objetivou aproveitar as cascas da melancia para a produção artesanal de doces alternativos. Os resultados mostraram que os doces cremosos e em calda com e sem adição de coco, obtiveram excelente aceitabilidade entre os consumidores adultos e crianças. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Melancia; cascas; doces crernosos; doces em calda.

  6. Jurisdicción y medios alternativos de resolución de conflictos: una opción para las cuestiones ambientales

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    Carlos Alberto Lunelli

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available A medida que las sociedades se fueron tornando más complejas, comenzaron a surgir nuevas categorías de conflictos, como es el caso de los conflictos ambientales. Sin embargo, el sistema procesal vigente todavía se rige por un ordenamiento jurídico positivista, apegado fundamentalmente a las directrices enmarcadas en la ley, ya que en la actualidad se utiliza la misma estructura judicial para resolver todo tipo de apremios. Como resultado de ello, se observa una deficiencia, por parte del Estado, en tutelar los nuevos derechos que surgen en una sociedad en constante evolución. Dado este contexto, el presente trabajo plantea la necesidad de utilizar medios alternativos de resolución de controversias, tales como la mediación-conciliación como opciones viables para poner fin a los conflictos ambientales, y con ello obtener una solución mediante medidas específicas al caso concreto.

  7. Armazenamento de sementes de feijão submetidas a tratamentos sanitários alternativos

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    Cristina Fernanda Schneider

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available O objetivo do trabalho foi comparar tratamentos alternativos em sementes de feijão visando à conservação da qualidade fisiológica e sanitária em diferentes ambientes de armazenagem. Sementes de feijão cultivar Mulatinho provenientes de cultivo orgânico de Marechal Cândido Rondon-PR, safra 2010/2011, foram submetidas aos tratamentos: testemunha; termoterapia: 60 °C em estufa de circulação forçada por três horas; folhas de Eucalyptus grandis: foram cortadas em pedaços pequenos e misturadas às sementes; e alho+óleo+cinzas: 100 gramas de alho e 500 mL de óleo Glycine max para cada 60 kg de sementes, sendo estes amassados e misturados às sementes, e, ao final, misturadas às cinzas. Após os tratamentos, as sementes foram armazenadas por 120 dias em embalagem impermeável e em condições ambientais controladas (10 ± 3 °C e 36 ± 3% de umidade e não controladas (mantidas em temperatura ambiente. Após o armazenamento foram determinados: grau de umidade, massa de mil sementes, 1ª contagem do teste de germinação, germinação final, índice de velocidade de germinação e sanidade. O tratamento testemunha armazenada em ambiente controlado proporcionou os melhores resultados, conservando a qualidade fisiológica e sanitária das sementes. 

  8. El arbitraje virtual como medio alternativo para la resolución de los conflictos surgidos en el comercio electrónico y su legalidad en la normativa vigente venezolana

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    María Eugenia Canga

    2005-09-01

    Full Text Available La presente investigación se orientó al análisis del Arbitraje Virtual como medio alternativo para la Resolución de los Conflictos surgidos en el comercio electrónico y su Legalidad en la Normativa Vigente Venezolana. Las conclusiones de la misma indicaron que pese a que presenta ciertas dificultades en su aplicación, el arbitraje virtual es una excelente alternativa para resolver conflictos originados en el comercio electrónico y que la aplicación del arbitraje virtual es totalmente legal a la luz de la normativa vigente en Venezuela.

  9. Turismo Alternativo y Educación. Una propuesta para contribuir al desarrollo humano.

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    César David Torres Fernández

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Este trabajo realiza una propuesta para contribuir al desarrollo humano, la problemática a tratar es la falta del mismo en este planeta. Por desarrollo humano se entiende la evolución integral del ser humano desde el punto de vista socioeconómico, político, cultural y espiritual (en armonía consigo mismo, con la naturaleza y con los demás seres humanos. En nuestro país existe pobreza, desempleo, corrupción, desigualdad, una pésima educación y cultura, así como problemas de alimentación que lo ubican entre los países con mayor obesidad adulta e infantil en el mundo, existiendo también en las zonas marginadas la desnutrición infantil. Por ello, debemos propiciar diversas opciones de desarrollo; se considera que el turismo alternativo, vinculado a la educación y a la cultura, puede contribuir de manera importante a contrarrestar la problemática antes planteada. En este sentido, nos interesa trabajar con las nuevas generaciones a manera de prevención, concientizándolas, que conozcan y practiquen los valores éticos, morales, familiares, espirituales, etcétera. En el aspecto metodológico, la investigación es de tipo bibliográfico, trabajo de campo, entrevistas y observaciones propias. Es un proyecto que surge como una alternativa dentro del desarrollo sustentable, con actividades de turismo de aventura y ecoturismo, asociado con talleres educativos relacionados con educación ambiental, valores, formación humana y social, educación para la paz, etcétera.

  10. Alternative procedure for the cold test for soybean seeds Procedimento alternativo para o teste de frio em semente de soja

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    Bruno Guilherme Torres Licursi Vieira

    2010-10-01

    . Uma maneira de conseguir isso é pela melhoria dos testes de vigor. O teste de frio tem sido empregado em sementes de milho, no entanto, tem sido usado também para sementes de algodão (Gossypium spp., soja (Glycine Max, feijão ((Phaseolus vulgaris e ervilha (Pisum sativum. Este estudo foi conduzido com objetivo de ajustar o procedimento do teste para determinar o vigor de semente de soja. Foram utilizados seis lotes comerciais de semente de soja, cultivar BRS 133. O potencial fisiológico dos lotes foi avaliado usando-se os testes de germinação em rolo de papel toalha, tipo germitest, e em caixa com areia, de emergência de plântulas em campo, de tetrazólio, de envelhecimento acelerado e de condutividade elétrica. Determinou-se também o teor de água das sementes. Para composição dos procedimentos do teste de frio foi utilizada temperatura de 10ºC, tempo de permanência no frio por cinco dias, e quatro procedimentos: caixa com terra, rolo de papel com terra, rolo de papel sem terra e metodologia alternativa, rolo de papel sem terra sob água refrigerada. O delineamento experimental utilizado foi inteiramente casualizado com oito repetições e as médias foram comparadas pelo teste de Tukey (p = 0,05. Para verificar a dependência entre o método alternativo e os demais usou-se o coeficiente de correlação linear simples. Os procedimentos para condução do teste de frio apresentaram coeficientes de variação muito próximos (CV com destaque para a metodologia do rolo de papel com terra e procedimento alternativo, em média, com 94% e 93% de plântulas normais e CV de 3,2% e 3,6% respectivamente. O procedimento alternativo teve resultado satisfatório para estimar vigor da semente de soja, produzindo resultados consistentes em comparação ao procedimento tradicional.

  11. Estudo da interferência de diferentes dietas nutricionais sobre as ações antiinflamatória e analgésica do Etoricoxib (Arcóxia®)

    OpenAIRE

    Bianchetti, érica Silva

    2006-01-01

    O etoricoxib (Arcóxia®) um medicamento novo posicionado para liderar a próxima geração de inibidores seletivos de COX-2 é um coxib de segunda geração potente e de ação rápida sendo motivo atualmente de muitos ensaios clínicos É o mais seletivo de COX-2 de todos os coxibs O objetivo deste estudo foi estudar em modelos in vivo a interferência sobre a atividade antiinflamatória e analgésica do etoricoxib antiinflamatório inibidor seletivo de COX-2 associado a diferentes tipos de dietas nutricion...

  12. Cuidados alternativos en la atención del embarazo en Jalisco, México Alternative care options for pregnancy in Jalisco, Mexico

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    Isabel Valadez

    2003-10-01

    Full Text Available En la atención prenatal se ha identificado la cultura de la madre como factor que influye en la utilización de los servicios de salud. Las creencias y prácticas de medicina tradicional y doméstica que realiza la mujer durante el embarazo pueden intervenir en la decisión de acudir a la atención médica. En una muestra no probabilística de 3.250 mujeres se identificaron los cuidados alternativos de atención al embarazo y se estableció su relación con un control prenatal satisfactorio. Para el análisis de asociación se dividió la variable de atención prenatal en (a satisfactoria y (b no satisfactoria de acuerdo a la Norma Oficial Mexicana. Se empleó la prueba de chi², el odds ratio y sus intervalos de confianza. Los cuidados alternativos resultaron asociados a una atención prenatal no satisfactoria. El entrenamiento psicoprofiláctico se comportó como factor protector. La cultura de la gestante es una configuración de significados y comportamientos, con mezcla de concepciones y prescripciones de la medicina doméstica, tradicional y académica, que varían según la etapa del embarazo, que pueden ser únicas o complementarias. Esta situación debe considerarse en los programas educativos en salud.The mother's culture has been identified as a factor in the use of health services for prenatal care. Beliefs and practices concerning traditional and domestic medicine used by women during pregnancy can play a role in the decision to seek medical care. In a non-probabilistic sample of 3,250 women, alternative care during pregnancy and its relationship to satisfactory prenatal care was studied. To analyze the association, the prenatal care variable was divided into (a satisfactory and (b unsatisfactory, according to a list of official Mexican standards. The chi-square test and odds ratio were applied, with p < 0.05. The association of alternative care with unsatisfactory prenatal care was established. Psycho-prophylactic training for

  13. Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos (Boletín de Novedades 239. Tecnologías entrañables. ¿Es posible un modelo alternativo de desarrollo tecnológico?

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    Miguel Ángel Quintanilla

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Frente al modelo predominante de desarrollo tecnológico alienante, aquí se propone un modelo alternativo, el de tecnologías entrañables. En vez de tecnologías propietarias y cerradas, se trata de optar por diseñar y consumir tecnologías abiertas. En vez de aceptar la obsolescencia programada, se trata de potenciar los mercados de segunda mano, desterrar el principio de usar y tirar y aceptar el principio del mantenimiento y reparación continua de nuestros artefactos. Se trata de priorizar el mantenimiento del control sobre nuestras máquinas en vez de empeñarnos en desarrollar máquinas de las que terminaremos siendo esclavos. En definitiva, se trata de preferir las soluciones tecnológicas compatibles con el desarrollo sostenible, con los ideales de la solidaridad y no solo del éxito, o con la participación cooperativa y no solo la competitiva. En palabras de José A. López Cerezo, “este libro constituye un espacio de reflexión sobre la naturaleza de la tecnología y el cambio tecnológico, sobre los rasgos que contribuyen a hacer de la tecnología algo deseable o indeseable. [...] Es una mirada a los matices de las relaciones entre la tecnología y los agentes humanos, al extrañamiento que generan ciertos modos de expresión de la tecnología, basada en un análisis filosófico de calidad y una comprensión cabal del mundo que nos rodea”.

  14. DINÂMICA DISCURSIVA E O ENSINO DE FÍSICA: ANÁLISE DE UM EPISÓDIO DE ENSINO ENVOLVENDO O USO DE UM TEXTO ALTERNATIVO

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    Alice Assis

    Full Text Available Resumo: Este artigo enfoca a análise da dinâmica discursiva entre alunos e professor mediados pelo uso de um texto alternativo intitulado "Nosso Universo", em aulas de Física, em uma sala de educação de jovens e adultos. Para tal, é destacado um episódio de ensino cuja abordagem centra-se na discussão de conceitos físicos. Os resultados evidenciaram que o referido texto mostrou-se potencialmente significativo para os alunos, aguçando a curiosidade e o interesse dos mesmos, que relacionaram os conteúdos abordados com os seus conhecimentos prévios. Esse fator vinculado ao papel mediador do professor, que assumiu uma postura dialógica, resultou na facilitação da aprendizagem significativa crítica por parte dos estudantes.

  15. Métodos de alimentação alternativos para recém-nascidos prematuros Métodos de alimentación alternativa para recién-nacidos prematuros Alternative feeding methods for premature newborn infants

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    Claudia Peyres Lopez

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available OBJETIVO: Apresentar revisão de literatura sobre o uso do copo/xícara como método alternativo de alimentação para recém-nascidos prematuros e verificar se há consenso sobre sua indicação para essa população. FONTES DE DADOS: Revisão de literatura narrativa, tendo sido selecionados artigos nas bases de dados Medline, Lilacs, SciELO e Cochrane, independentemente do ano, usando descritores específicos: alimentação artificial, recém-nascido prematuro, aleitamento materno, métodos de alimentação. SÍNTESE DOS DADOS: Apesar de alguns estudos afirmarem que o método do copo/xícara é eficaz e seguro para alimentar recém-nascidos pré-termo e a termo, tais estudos não avaliam de forma objetiva o efeito do método sobre a deglutição desses pacientes. CONCLUSÕES: Verificou-se não haver consenso na literatura quanto à complementação da alimentação de recém-nascidos prematuros por meio do copo/xícara. Estudos controlados devem ser realizados com a finalidade de rever riscos e benefícios do uso de métodos alternativos na alimentação do recém-nascido prematuro.OBJETIVO: Presentar revisión de literatura sobre el uso de vaso/taza como método alternativo de alimentación para recién-nacidos prematuros y verificar si hay consenso sobre su indicación para esta población. FUENTES DE DATOS: Revisión de literatura narrativa, habiendo sido seleccionados artículos en las bases de datos Medline, Lilacs, SciELO y Cochrane, independientemente del año, usando descriptores específicos: alimentación artificial, recién-nacido prematuro, lactancia materna, métodos de alimentación. SÍNTESIS DE LOS DATOS: Aunque algunos estudios afirmen que el método vaso/taza es eficaz y seguro para alimentar a recién-nacidos pre-término y a término, tales estudios no evalúan de modo objetivo el efecto del método sobre la deglución de estos pacientes. CONCLUSIONES: Se verificó que no hay consenso en la literatura respecto a la

  16. Higher education: free tuition vs. quotas vs. targeted vouchers

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    Eduardo de Carvalho Andrade

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper compares theoretically three alternative university systems: the current one adopted in Brazil, in which students who perform better in the entering exam obtain the right to attend the public university without paying the full tuition; a system of affirmative action quotas in public universities, to benefit low income students; and a targeted vouchers system that can be used either to pay private or public university tuiton. The comparison indicates that the last system leads to: (i a higher quality of the labor force; (ii a more efficient allocation of resources; and (iii a greater social mobility.Este trabalho compara, do ponto de vista teórico, três sistemas universitários alternativos: o atual adotado pelo Brasil, no qual os alunos das universidades públicas, que são praticamente gratuitas, são escolhidos através de um processo seletivo; um sistema de quotas nas universidades públicas para beneficiar estudantes de baixa renda; e um sistema de vouchers direcionados para estudantes de baixa renda que podem ser utilizados nas universidades privadas ou públicas. A comparação destes três sistemas indica que o último é o mais eficiente, pois gera: (i maior qualidade da mão de obra; (ii alocação mais eficiente dos recursos; e (iii maior mobilidade social.

  17. Citibikes de Colombia. La bicicleta publica: sistema alternativo de transporte para Santafe de Bogota

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    Javier Enrique Ramos

    2000-12-01

    Full Text Available EI objetivo del presente artículo es presentar una nueva propuesta en materia de transporte urbano, teniendo en cuenta el cada vez más restringido uso del automóvil particular y la ineficiencia de los actuales médicos de transporte público. En la primera parte del trabajo se presenta un panorama general de la importancia de los sistemas de transporte en las ciudades y cómo afectan la vida de sus habitantes. También se muestra la situación actual del transite en Bogotá y la necesidad de implantar sistemas alternativos de transporte. En la segunda parte, se propone el diseño de un sistema en línea de alquiler de bicicletas denominado Bicicleta Publica, que sea parte integral del Sistema integrado de transporte para Santafé de Bogotá. Para cumplir con este propósito se presentan los lineamientos generales mediante un plan de negocios, que conduzca a la creación de una empresa que administre el sistema y los servicios conexos. EI plan de negocios pretende cubrir la mayor parte de la ciudad, ubicando estaciones de bicicleta publica en diferentes lugares, principalmente en las áreas de influencia de las universidades, parques, centros comerciales y, en un futuro, en las estaciones de Transmilenio y el Metro. Esto le brinda al usuario la posibilidad de tomar una bicicleta en un punto determinado y retornarla en otra estación diferente a donde la alquiló inicialmente. Las ventajas de este mecanismo son apreciables, ya que no representa complicación alguna para el usuario debido a que puede usar la bicicleta el tiempo deseado sin preocuparse por aspectos tales como el estacionamiento, el clima o las diferentes actividades, para lo cual la bicicleta propia sería un completo inconveniente.

  18. Seletividade fisiológica de inseticidas a vespidae predadores do bicho-mineiro-do-cafeeiro

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    GUSMÃO MARCOS RAFAEL

    2000-01-01

    Full Text Available Estudou-se, em laboratório, a seletividade dos inseticidas clorpirifós, deltametrina, dimetoato, ethion, monocrotofós e permetrina às vespas predadoras Apoica pallens Fab., Brachygastra lecheguana Latreille e Polistes versicolor versicolor Olivier (Hymenoptera: Vespidae em concentrações que correspondem a 50% e 100% da dosagem recomendada para o controle do bicho-mineiro-do-cafeeiro, Perileucoptera coffeella Guérin-Meneville (Lepidoptera: Lyonetiidae. Deltametrina foi seletivo em favor de P. versicolor versicolor e A. pallens. O ethion foi medianamente seletivo a A. pallens e P. versicolor versicolor, e seletivo em favor de B. lecheguana. Os demais inseticidas não foram seletivos às vespas predadoras. A ordem crescente de tolerância das vespas a deltametrina foi: P. versicolor versicolor > A. pallens > B. lecheguana. Para o ethion esta ordem foi: B. lecheguana > P. versicolor versicolor > A. pallens. O clorpirifós, deltametrina, dimetoato, monocrotofós e permetrina apresentaram semelhante toxicidade às vespas nas duas dosagens utilizadas. O ethion, por sua vez, reduziu seu impacto sobre A. pallens e P. versicolor versicolor quando aplicado em subdosagem.

  19. Simulação dos efeitos dos preços de produtos e insumos na avaliação econômica de três sistemas alternativos de bovinocultura de cria

    OpenAIRE

    Guimarães,P.H.S.; Madalena,F.E.; Cezar,I.M.

    2005-01-01

    Avaliou-se a sensibilidade de indicadores econômicos de três sistemas alternativos de produção de bovinos à variação de preços de insumos e produtos. Observou-se que o sistema de produção de bezerros F1 Holandês × Gir apresentou maior eficiência econômica que os sistemas de produção de bezerros Nelore e de produção de bezerros F1 Angus × Nelore, principalmente devido ao maior valor agregado de seu principal produto (novilha F1). O preço do sêmen não teve importância econômica sign...

  20. La revolución de los desheredados Participación de las redes de medios comunitarios y alternativos en la construcción de políticas de comunicación en Bolivia

    OpenAIRE

    Ramos Martín, Juan

    2015-01-01

    [ES]A partir del desarrollo del análisis de los procesos de policymaking en la construcción de políticas públicas de comunicación y la participación política de las redes de medios comunitarios y alternativos de Bolivia durante el periodo de propuesta, debate y aprobación de la Ley 164 de Telecomunicaciones de 2011, la investigación tiene como propósito el análisis de la inclusión, por parte de estas redes, de elementos de democratización más inclusivos en la regulación y la ampliación de los...

  1. Um modelo alternativo para a quantificação de multiprodutos em árvores individuais Alternative model for the quantification of multiproducts in individual trees

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    Thelma Shirlen Soares

    2004-12-01

    Full Text Available Neste estudo foram conduzidos testes preliminares com o objetivo de avaliar um modelo de taper, proposto a partir da adaptação dos modelos desenvolvidos por Ormerod (1973 e Turnbull (1979, caracterizados pela sua simplicidade e facilidade de ajuste. Em comparação com modelos já consagrados, observou-se que o modelo alternativo apresentou consistência nos ajustes realizados. Portanto, pode-se concluir que o modelo apresentado é recomendável para a quantificação de multiprodutos de árvores individuais.Preliminary tests were conducted with the objective of evaluating a taper model, proposed from the adaptation of the models developed by Ormerod (1973 and Turnbull (1979, characterized by the simplicity and adjustment easiness. After adjustments and comparisons with other consecrated models, it was observed that the alternative model presented consistency in the carried out adjustments. In conclusion, the presented model can be recommended for multiproduct quantification of individual trees.

  2. Seletividade de Lecanicillium lecanii (Zimm. Zare & W. Gams (classe-forma: Hyphomycetes ao parasitóide Trichogramma atopovirilia Oatman & Platner, 1983 (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae Selectivity of Lecanicillium lecanii (Zimm. Zare & W. Gams (class-form: Hyphomycetes to the parasitoid Trichogramma atopovirilia Oatman & Platner, 1983 (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae

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    Leandro Pin Dalvi

    2007-10-01

    Full Text Available Estudou-se no presente trabalho, as características biológicas de Trichogramma atopovirilia em ovos de Spodoptera frugiperda sob influência do fungo Lecanicillium lecanii, com o objetivo de verificar, em laboratório, se este entomopatógeno é seletivo ao parasitóide. Os estudos foram desenvolvidos no setor entomologia do Núcleo de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico em Manejo Fitossanitário "NUDEMAFI". Os indicativos de seletividade adotados foram: número de ovos parasitados, porcentagem de emergência (viabilidade, número de indivíduos por ovo, razão sexual e longevidade das fêmeas que parasitaram. Nenhum desses parâmetros foi afetado pelo fungo, levando à conclusão de que o mesmo é seletivo a T. atopovirilia, possibilitando ser conveniente a utilização simultânea de ambos os agentes de controle biológico no Manejo Integrado de Pragas.The present work studied the biological characteristics of Trichogramma atopovirilia in eggs of Spodoptera frugiperda under influence of the fungus Lecanicillium lecanii, with the aim of verifing in laboratory if this entomopathogenic fungus is selective to the parasitoid. The studies were carried out in the entomology sector of Nucleus of Scientific & Technological Development in Phytossanitary Management (NUDEMAFI. The indicatives of selectivity adapted used were: number of parasited eggs, emergency percentage (viability, number of individuals for egg, sex ratio and longevity of the females that parasited. None of these parameters were affected by the fungus, leading to the conclusion that the same is selective to T. atopovirilia, possibiliting the simultaneous utilization of both agents of biological control into the Integrated Management of Pests.

  3. Influencia del porcentaje de mezcla del aceite de higuerilla en la obtención de combustible alternativo para motores diesel

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    Arnoldo Emilio Delgado

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available En el presente artículo se describe el uso del aceite de higuerilla como combustible alternativo en motores diesel. Para este fi n, se obtiene biodiesel a partir de aceite de higuerilla mediante el proceso de transesterifi cación. Se prueban tres mezclas de biodiesel (B5%, B10% y B20% en un motor diesel, para el cual se midieron los siguientes parámetros: la potencia, el consumo de combustible, la temperatura del motor, y los gases de combustión;las mezclas fueron caracterizadas mediante la densidad, viscosidad, índice de refracción y calor de combustión. Se determinó que el uso del aceite de higuerilla en la mezcla genera un aumento en la viscosidad y el consumo de combustible, además también infl uye en la reducción del poder calorífico, potencia del motor, los gases de combustión como el CO y CO2, los óxidos de azufre, los hidrocarburos, la opacidad en los humos del escape del motor y ocasiona un equilibrio en el rendimiento observado en el motor diesel, manifi esto en las temperaturas del motor.

  4. Fluidez territorial e logística da produção cafeeira no Sul de Minas

    OpenAIRE

    Ewerton Teixeira Carvalho

    2013-01-01

    Resumo: No atual período histórico, a importância crescente dos fluxos de todas as ordens (mercadorias, pessoas, serviços, dados, informações, capital) remete à necessidade de racionalização, otimização e operacionalização da circulação e comunicação de acordo com a ótica dos agentes econômicos hegemônicos, configurando um uso corporativo e seletivo do território. Novos sistemas técnicos agrícolas se difundiram ancorados em densas cargas científicas, tecnológicas e informacionais, permitindo ...

  5. GERMINAÇÃO E CRESCIMENTO IN VITRO DE Dendrobium nobile LINDL. SEM SUBCULTIVO EM MEIO DE CULTURA ALTERNATIVO / SEED QUANTITY ON IN VITRO CULTIVATION OF Dendrobium nobile LINDL. IN ALTERNATIVE CULTURE MEDIA WITHOUT SUBCULTURE

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    J. S. Soares

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available O cultivo in vitro de orquídeas possibilita elevadas porcentagens de germinação, quando comparadas a germinação natural dessas espécies, pois suas sementes possuem pouca ou nenhuma reserva nutritiva. Objetivou-se avaliar diferentes volumes de suspensão de sementes na propagação in vitro de Dendrobium nobile Lindl. var. nobilius e var. comet king em meio alternativo, sem subcultivos. Foram utilizadas 0,02 g de sementes de cada planta e desinfestadas em solução de hipoclorito de sódio a 0,8%, por 15 minutos, sendo diluídas em água estéril até completar 60 mL. Em ambiente asséptico, procedeu-se a semeadura in vitro. Foram pipetados 2, 3 ou 4 mL de cada suspensão de sementes em frascos de vidro de 600mL providos de tampa metálica e contendo 80 mL do meio de cultura alternativo. As culturas foram transferidas para sala de crescimento com temperatura e fotoperíodo controlados (25 ± 2 ºC; 16 horas permanecendo por seis meses nessas condições. O maior número de sementes potencialmente viáveis (426 mg-1 foi observado em D. nobile var. nobilius, enquanto D. nobile var. comet king apresentou 164 mg-1 sementes potencialmente viáveis. A variedade nobilius apresentou maiores resultados no número de plantas total e de plantas vivas, número de folhas, número e diâmetro de pseudobulbos e comprimento da maior raiz, característica dessa variedade, que é mais vigorosa. A inoculação de 2mL foi mais eficiente para a micropropagação das duas plantas, havendo menos concorrência entre as plântulas no frasco.

  6. ORGANIZAÇÃO DO TRABALHO NA ECONOMIA SOLIDÁRIA - DESAFIOS E LIMITES NA CONSTRUÇÃO DE MODELO ALTERNATIVO AO TAYLORISMO

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    Maico Roris Severino

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Na literatura acerca do tema organização do trabalho encontram-se diversos autores que apontam para a superficialidade dos modelos flexíveis quanto ao rompimento das práticas dos modelos clássicos. Por outro lado, verifica-se a coexistência à economia capitalista de algumas experiências de economia solidária, as quais podem sinalizar potenciais modelos alternativos de processos de trabalho onde coletivos de trabalhadores associados buscam ruptura com a organização taylorista do trabalho, romper plenamente com a separação entre os que planejam e os que executam o trabalho, essência dos modelos clássicos. Desta forma, este artigo tem como objetivo apontar, por meio dos resultados da investigação científica teórica e empírica, as fragilidades dos modelos flexíveis de organização do trabalho e apresentar, através de um estudo de caso, potencialidades e desafios de um modelo de organização autogeastionária do coletivo de trabalhadores associados atuando na economia solidária, mesmo diante da grande dificuldade no rompimento ao padrão clássico.

  7. Mecanismos alternativos de transmissão do Trypanosoma cruzi no Brasil e sugestões para sua prevenção

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    João Carlos Pinto Dias

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available INTRODUÇÃO: Com o avanço no controle da transmissão vetorial e por transfusão sanguínea da doença de Chagas, as formas alternativas de transmissão ganharam relevância. Este artigo de opinião discute a importância de cada uma dessas modalidades e as medidas para sua prevenção. MÉTODOS: Foi realizada uma revisão bibliográfica sobre os mecanismos de transmissão do Trypanosoma cruzi através de modalidades alternativas, vigentes no Brasil, e as possibilidades de sua prevenção. Foram consultadas as bases de dados PubMed e BVS. RESULTADOS: Foram identificadas 25 publicações que discutiam as modalidades alternativas de transmissão da doença de Chagas. CONCLUSÕES: A transmissão oral, pela ingestão de alimentos contaminados, tem sido o modo de transmissão predominante no Brasil nos últimos anos. Os demais modos alternativos de transmissão são de ocorrência menos frequente. É importante conhecer essas ocorrências, sobretudo agora que a veiculação vetorial do parasita está controlada. Conforme os conhecimentos atuais foram apresentadas medidas preventivas, de acordo com cada uma das situações consideradas.

  8. Desenvolvimento vegetativo de genótipos de orquídeas brasileiras em substratos alternativos ao xaxim.

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    Luciana do Valle Rego

    2000-05-01

    Full Text Available Oncidium sarcodes é uma orquídea nativa do Brasil de crescimento lento e que está correndo um sério risco de extinção no seu habitat. Schomburgkia crispa, outra orquídea nativa do Brasil, é muito apreciada internacionalmente pelo colorido e beleza de suas flores. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o crescimento dessas duas espécies, em casa de vegetação, utilizando diferentes substratos. As plantas de 0. sarcodes eram oriundas de coletivos de sementes germinadas in vitro e com altura de 1 cm ± 0,3 cm. As plantas de S. crispa, coletadas já adultas (quatro pseudobulbos às margens do rio Tibagi, no município de Jataizinho (PR, onde será construída uma usina hidrelétrica, foram cultivadas em vasos de cerâmica. As orquídeas permaneceram em casa de vegetação com 50% de luminosidade, sendo regadas três vezes por semana. Os substratos utilizados no experimento foram: TI xaxim (Dicksonia sellowiana Hook. desfibrado; T2 xaxim em cubos; T3 casca de pínus + isopor + carvão; T4 vermiculita + casca de arroz carbonizada + carvão + isopor; T5 casca de pínus e T6 casca de pínus + carvão (este último adotado somente para 0. sarcodes. No caso dos tratamentos em que foram combinados diferentes tipos de substratos, sua proporção foi igual na mistura. Os substratos T3, T4, T5 e T6 podem ser considerados alternativos para 0. sarcodes, assim como T3, T4 e T5, para S. crispa, preservando-se, assim, o samambaiaçu, do qual o xaxim é retirado.

  9. A criocirurgia como tratamento alternativo do xerodema pigmentoso = The criosurgery as alternative treatment of xeroderma pigmentosum

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antunes, Antonio Azoubel

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available A criocirurgia consiste em tratar lesões patológicas da pele e mucosas pelo congelamento intenso da área afetada. Sua indicação deve obedecer a critérios de avaliação, como o aspecto macroscópico da lesão, tamanho, tipo histológico, localização e idade do paciente, sendo indicado para o tratamento das lesões provenientes do Xeroderma Pigmentoso (XP. O objetivo do presente estudo é instituir a experiência dos autores quanto ao uso da criocirurgia no tratamento de 12 pacientes com lesões em pele e mucosa da região da cabeça e pescoço associadas ao XP, em um período de 25 anos, discutindo suas aplicações e aspectos de sucesso e insucesso. Durante o período de abril de 1977 a abril de 2002 (25 anos, foram tratados pela criocirurgia, no Centro de Oncologia (CEON do Hospital Universitário Oswaldo Cruz (HUOC – Universidade de Pernambuco (UPE, Departamento de Cabeça e Pescoço – Hospital de Câncer de Pernambuco e na clínica privada de um dos autores, 1900 (mil e novecentos casos de pacientes portadores de lesões benignas e malignas da pele e mucosa na região de cabeça e pescoço, dos quais 12 pacientes (0,7% eram portadores de XP. Do total da amostra, 66,6% eram do sexo masculino e todos os casos ocorreram na 1ª e 2ª décadas de vida. A criocirurgia constitui-se um excelente método alternativo de tratamento para as lesões de pele e mucosa decorrentes do XP, sempre que indicada de maneira criteriosa

  10. Avaliação de materiais alternativos em substituição à maravalha como cama de aviário Alternative material to replace wood shavings as broiler litter

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valdir Silveira de Avila

    2008-02-01

    Full Text Available Com o objetivo de testar materiais alternativos para cama de aviário na criação de frangos de corte, foram alojados seis lotes consecutivos, cada um contendo 5.600 aves, apenas fêmeas, distribuídas em 35 boxes. Os tratamentos consistiram de sete tipos de material para cama (maravalha; casca de arroz; sabugo de milho triturado; capim-cameron picado; palhada de soja picada; resto da cultura do milho picado; e serragem, cada um com cinco repetições. Avaliaram-se nas aves o peso corporal médio e o consumo médio de ração e, nas camas, os teores de N, Ca, P e pH. Observaram-se ainda a presença de salmonela, a contagem de oocistos de eimeria na cama e o escore de lesões no intestino das aves ao abate. A utilização dos materiais alternativos avaliados como cama de aviário, por seis lotes consecutivos, como alternativas à maravalha não prejudicou o desempenho de frangos de corte. Esses materiais, após o descarte, por apresentarem valor em minerais superior ao da maravalha, podem ser utilizados na adubação de culturas.Aiming to evaluate alternative materials to be used as broiler litter reutilization, six consecutive lots of 5,600 female broilers were allocated to 35 pens. The treatments consisted of seven types of litter materials: wood shavings, rice husk, ground corncob, chopped camerongrass, chopped soybean straw, chopped corn stalk and sawdust, each one with five replications. In the birds, it was evaluated the average body weight, feed consumption and in the litter, it was evaluated the contents of N, Ca, P and pH. The presence of salmoella, the eimeria oocists counting in the litter, and the gut birds lesions score at slaughter were also observed. The use of alternative materials evaluated as litter, per six concecutive lots, as a alternative for wood shavings did no prejudice the performance of broilers. These materials, by presenting mineral values higher than wood shavings, after discarding, could be used as culture

  11. Consumo hídrico e desempenho de Kalanchoe cultivado em substratos alternativos Water absorption and performance of the Kalanchoe grown in alternative substrates

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Angélica Rossana Castro de Souza

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available Com o crescente consumo de flores e plantas ornamentais de vaso, a busca por elementos alternativos para substratos torna-se necessária, a fim de reduzir os custos da produção. Além disso, é importante quantificar as características físico-hídricas de forma a estabelecer o calendário de irrigações com base nesses materiais. A partir disso, este trabalho teve por objetivos avaliar o desempenho e o consumo de água de Kalanchoe blossfeldiana Poelln, cultivar 'Gold Jewel', em 10 substratos alternativos, e definir os mais indicados para a produção comercial nas condições ambientais da região centro-oeste do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Foram testados substratos compostos por diferentes proporções de casca de arroz carbonizada, cinzas de casca de arroz, matéria orgânica doméstica decomposta, esterco bovino e esterco de aves. O experimento foi conduzido em casa de vegetação, em delineamento experimental inteiramente casualizado, com quatro repetições. No final do ciclo, foram avaliados: altura, número de folhas, número de inflorescências, número de flores e diâmetro da copa das plantas nos diferentes tratamentos. Por meio dos resultados, pode-se concluir que, para produção de plantas, os substratos mais indicados são 100% em volume de matéria orgânica e 50% em volume de matéria orgânica +50% em volume de esterco bovino.With the increase in the flowers and ornamental crops consumption, the search for alternative elements to the substrates, became to necessary reduce spends the production. Besides, it's important to quantify the physics - hydric characteristics and the manner to establish the calendar of the irrigations using these materials. Based in this, this research had as the mainly purpose to evaluate the performance and the water consumption of the Kalanchoe blossfeldiana Poelln, cv. Gold Jewel in ten alternative substrates and to define the most indicated to the commercial production in environmental

  12. La utilización de métodos tradicionales y alternativos y su incidencia en la calidad del proceso de enseñanza – aprendizaje de la estadística inferencial en la Escuela de Ingeniería Mecánica

    OpenAIRE

    Albuja Landi, María Verónica

    2016-01-01

    El propósito de este trabajo fue analizar que la utilización de métodos alternativos y métodos tradicionales aplicados en los 74 estudiantes en la catedra de Estadística para Ingenieros en la Escuela de Ingeniería Mecánica de la ESPOCH inciden significativamente en su rendimiento académico. Para lo cual se utilizó un cuestionario dirigido a los docentes con el fin de identificar metodologías de enseñanza; comprobando que el 10% de docentes tienen una formación de tipo pedagógic...

  13. Controle da antracnose na pós-colheita de bananas-'prata' com produtos alternativos aos agrotóxicos convencionais Postharvest control of antracnose in 'prata' bananas with alternatives products to conventional pesticides

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ricardo José Zimmermann de Negreiros

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Produtos alternativos aos agrotóxicos convencionais foram avaliados no controle da antracnose causada por Colletotrichum musae em pós-colheita de bananas 'Prata' [Musa spp. (AAB]. Foram utilizados buquês com três frutos, com diâmetro médio de 32 mm a 36 mm, no estádio pré-climatérico, com coloração de casca totalmente verde. Os frutos foram pulverizados com uma suspensão de conídios de C. musae, na concentração de 2,5x10(5 conídios/mL e mantidos em câmara úmida a 25 ºC, por 24 horas. Após esse período, foram pulverizados com as caldas dos produtos alternativos extrato cítrico 'Biogermex', óleo de nim 'Organic Neem' e óleo de alho 'Probinatu', na concentração de 10,0 mL/L, óleo de pimenta-longa e óleo de cravo-da-índia na concentração de 5,0 mL/L e quitosana na concentração de 10,0 mg/mL, além do fungicida Tectoï SC (tiabendazol na concentração de 0,65 mL/L. Água destilada foi utilizada como tratamento-testemunha. Os frutos tratados com quitosana, óleo de nim e óleo de alho tiveram a severidade da doença reduzida. O óleo de alho foi o produto mais eficiente, com redução também da incidência da doença. A qualidade dos frutos não foi depreciada por nenhum dos tratamentos alternativos nas concentrações utilizadas.Alternatives products to conventional pesticides in the control of anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum musae after harvest of 'Prata' banana [Musa spp. (AAB] were evaluated. Fruits with an average diameter of 32-36 mm were selected at the pre-climacteric stage, with a peel color index of 1 (totally green peel. Hands were subdivided into clusters of three fruits. The fruits were sprayed with a conidial suspension of C. musae at a concentration of 2.5 x 10(5 conidia/mL and were kept in a moist chamber at 25°C for 24 hours. After this period, fruits were sprayed with the alternative products 'Biogermex' citric extract, 'Organic Neem' oil and 'Probinatu' garlic oil at a concentration of 10.0 m

  14. Desempenho de populações híbridas F2 de arroz-vermelho (Oryza sativa) com arroz transgênico (O. sativa) resistente ao herbicida amonio-glufosinate Performance of F2 hybrid populations of red rice (Oryza sativa) with ammonium-glufosinate-resistant transgenic rice (O. sativa)

    OpenAIRE

    J.A. Noldin; S. Yokoyama; H. Stuker; F.T. Rampelotti; M.I.F. Gonçalves; D.S. Eberhardt; A. Abreu; P. Antunes; J. Vieira

    2004-01-01

    O arroz-vermelho e o arroz-preto constituem-se nas principais plantas daninhas infestantes da cultura de arroz irrigado, devido à dificuldade de controle seletivo desta espécie em lavouras comerciais. A utilização de cultivares geneticamente modificados resistentes a herbicidas não-seletivos constitui uma alternativa de controle do arroz-vermelho e arroz-preto em arroz irrigado. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o comportamento de populações híbridas F2 originárias do cruzamento entre o a...

  15. Desempenho de populações híbridas F2 de arroz-vermelho (Oryza sativa) com arroz transgênico (O. sativa) resistente ao herbicida amonio-glufosinate

    OpenAIRE

    Noldin, J.A.; Yokoyama, S.; Stuker, H.; Rampelotti, F.T.; Gonçalves, M.I.F.; Eberhardt, D.S.; Abreu, A.; Antunes, P.; Vieira, J.

    2004-01-01

    O arroz-vermelho e o arroz-preto constituem-se nas principais plantas daninhas infestantes da cultura de arroz irrigado, devido à dificuldade de controle seletivo desta espécie em lavouras comerciais. A utilização de cultivares geneticamente modificados resistentes a herbicidas não-seletivos constitui uma alternativa de controle do arroz-vermelho e arroz-preto em arroz irrigado. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o comportamento de populações híbridas F2 originárias do cruzamento entre o a...

  16. Agent Programming Languages and Logics in Agent-Based Simulation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, John

    2018-01-01

    and social behavior, and work on verification. Agent-based simulation is an approach for simulation that also uses the notion of agents. Although agent programming languages and logics are much less used in agent-based simulation, there are successful examples with agents designed according to the BDI...

  17. Métodos alternativos para el tratamiento de pacientes con heridas infectadas Alternative methods for treating patients with infected wounds

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rafael Rodríguez Ramírez

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Se revisó la bibliografía médica disponible sobre el uso de algunas sustancias de origen natural, utilizadas desde la antigüedad para tratar a personas lesionadas, inicialmente por traumatismos. Con el transcurso del tiempo, los conocimientos trasmitidos de una generación a otra condujeron a emplearlas para desinfectar heridas quirúrgicas y curar o cicatrizar úlceras, escaras y quemaduras, entre otras lesiones. La miel, el azúcar y los peloides, específicamente el limo, han devenido eficaces medicamentos para eliminar infecciones y reparar heridas, con mejores resultados que los derivados de productos industriales y otros métodos alternativos, puesto que además de ser menos costosos y de fácil aplicación, ejercen su acción beneficiosa sin tener que combinarse con antibióticos o compuestos cicatrizantes.The available literature on the use of some natural substances that were used since ancient times for treating injured people due to initial traumatisms was reviewed. Eventually, knowledge transmitted from one generation to another led to the employ of them in order to disinfect surgical wounds and cure or heal up ulcers, sloughs, and burns, among other injuries. Honey, sugar, and peloids, specifically mud, have become an effective therapy to avoid infections and restore wounds, achieving better results than those derived from using industrial products and other alternative methods, since they are less expensive and easy to apply, they provide a beneficial action without combining them with antibiotics or healing compounds.

  18. Agents unleashed a public domain look at agent technology

    CERN Document Server

    Wayner, Peter

    1995-01-01

    Agents Unleashed: A Public Domain Look at Agent Technology covers details of building a secure agent realm. The book discusses the technology for creating seamlessly integrated networks that allow programs to move from machine to machine without leaving a trail of havoc; as well as the technical details of how an agent will move through the network, prove its identity, and execute its code without endangering the host. The text also describes the organization of the host's work processing an agent; error messages, bad agent expulsion, and errors in XLISP-agents; and the simulators of errors, f

  19. Estudio del uso del lodo residual de la empresa Extralum S. A. como material alternativo en la fabricación de cementos especiales

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maricruz Vargas Camareno

    2006-05-01

    Full Text Available La empresa Extralum S. A. es una industria dedicada a la manufactura de aluminio crudo, anodizado y laqueado para uso arquitectónico. En su proceso de tratamiento de aguas residuales, genera alrededor de 90 toneladas al mes de un sólido blanco, el cual ya ha sido caracterizado, y se encontró que es rico en óxidos de aluminio hidratados; en la actualidad este material es desechado en rellenos sanitarios. Considerando que el cemento es un producto con demanda creciente, que para su producción requiere altos consumos de energía, cualquier avance que se realice para disminuir el consumo energético,tiene importantes beneficios económicos y ambientales. Dentro de las soluciones posibles, se encuentra la utilización de materiales alternativos que pueden ser utilizados como materias primas o materiales cementosos de reemplazo parcial o total del cemento Pórtland. Las pruebas realizadas a las diferentes mezclas demuestran que el lodo incorporado al cemento como relleno, modifica sus características iniciales, acelerando los tiempos de fragua, aumentando la porosidad del material, condición que afectó, negativamente, la resistencia del cemento, pero aumentó su capacidad aislante.

  20. Aplicação da Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida na análise de impactos ambientais de materiais de construção inovadores: estudo de caso da pegada de carbono de clínqueres alternativos

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana Carolina Badalotti Passuello

    Full Text Available O setor da construção civil é reconhecido como um grande consumidor de recursos, e responsável por diversas emissões que causam impactos substanciais ao ambiente. Muitos destes impactos estão diretamente relacionados à produção de materiais de construção. Por isso, mundialmente cresce a tendência de se propor o uso de materiais de construção inovadores, que considerem a mitigação de seus impactos ambientais no processo produtivo. Para avaliar todos os impactos ambientais relacionados a estes materiais, é necessário que se avalie todas as fases de seu ciclo de vida. Para isso, propõe-se a aplicação da Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida (ACV, metodologia internacionalmente consagrada na avaliação ambiental de produtos, processos e serviços, sendo também normatizada para o cálculo de declarações ambientais de produtos da construção civil. Sabe-se que a produção cimento emite quantidade pronunciadas de gases do efeito estufa. Por isso, neste trabalho, a ACV é aplicada para o cálculo da pegada de carbono de clínqueres alternativos produzidos em laboratório. Os resultados obtidos demonstram uma redução em 22% da pegada de carbono do clínquer alternativo em relação ao clínquer Portland, indicando as etapas do processo produtivo que mais colaboram para estes valores. Ainda, evidencia-se a ampla aplicabilidade da ferramenta ACV ao setor da construção.

  1. Mobile Agent Data Integrity Using Multi-Agent Architecture

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    McDonald, Jeffrey

    2004-01-01

    .... Security issues for mobile agents continue to produce research interest, particularly in developing mechanisms that guarantee protection of agent data and agent computations in the presence of malicious hosts...

  2. [Alkylating agents].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pourquier, Philippe

    2011-11-01

    With the approval of mechlorethamine by the FDA in 1949 for the treatment of hematologic malignancies, alkylating agents are the oldest class of anticancer agents. Even though their clinical use is far beyond the use of new targeted therapies, they still occupy a major place in specific indications and sometimes represent the unique option for the treatment of refractory diseases. Here, we are reviewing the major classes of alkylating agents and their mechanism of action, with a particular emphasis for the new generations of alkylating agents. As for most of the chemotherapeutic agents used in the clinic, these compounds are derived from natural sources. With a complex but original mechanism of action, they represent new interesting alternatives for the clinicians, especially for tumors that are resistant to conventional DNA damaging agents. We also briefly describe the different strategies that have been or are currently developed to potentiate the use of classical alkylating agents, especially the inhibition of pathways that are involved in the repair of DNA lesions induced by these agents. In this line, the development of PARP inhibitors is a striking example of the recent regain of interest towards the "old" alkylating agents.

  3. EFFICIENCY OF THE ENRICHMENT BROTHES (LEB1 AND LEB2 AND SELECTIVE AGARS (LPM AND LSAB-CAN TO ISOLATE BACTERIA OF THE GENUS Listeria IN MEAT AND RESIDUAL WATER OF WASHING CARCASS EFICIÊNCIA DOS CALDOS DE ENRIQUECIMENTO (LEB1 E LEB2 E DOS ÁGARES SELETIVOS (LPM E LSAB-CAN NO ISOLAMENTO DE BACTÉRIAS DO GÊNERO Listeria EM CARNE BOVINA E ÁGUA RESIDUÁRIA DE LAVAGEM DE CARCAÇA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Albenones José de Mesquita

    2007-09-01

    Full Text Available

    In this paper it was observed the efficiency of enrichment brothes for Listeria (LEB1 and LEB2, associated to the passage of the culture through a 0.25% potassium hidroxide solution, verifying that the secondary enrichment broth (LEB2 and LEB2KOH was better than the primary enrichment broth (LEB1KOH for this purpose. On the other hand, lithium chloride-phenylethanol-moxalactam agar and the selective Listeria agar base, supplemented with cicloheximide, acriflavine and nalidixic acid (LSAIB-CAN showed equivalency, at the statistic point of view (p=0.l442, in relation to the number of positive samples for Listeria spp., although the LSAB-CAN agar had given the greatest number of bacteria isolated from this genus.

    KEY-WORDS: Listeria; enrichment broth; selective agar.

    No presente trabalho verificou-se a eficiência dos caldos de enriquecimento para Listeria (LEB1 e LEB 2 associados à passagem da cultura por uma solução de hidróxido de potássio a 0,25%, constatando-se que o caldo de enriquecimento secundário (LEB2 e LEB2KOH foi superior ao caldo de enriquecimento primário (LEB1KOH. Por outro lado, o ágar cloreto de lítio-feniletanol-moxalactam (LPM e o ágar base seletivo para Listeria, suplementado com cicloheximida, acriflavina e ácido nalidíxico (LSAB-CAN equivaleram-se estatisticamente (p= 0,l442 em relação ao número de amostras positivas para Listeria, embora o ágar LSAB-CAN tenha proporcionado um maior número de isolamentos da bactéria.

    PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Caldo de enriquecimento; ágar seletivo; Listeria.

  4. Síndrome de Gilles de la Tourette associada ao transtorno de déficit de atenção com hiperatividade: resposta clínica satisfatória a inibidor seletivo da recaptura de serotonina e metilfenidato Tourette syndrome associated with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: satisfactory clinical response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor and methylphenidate

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roberta Benitez Freitas Passos

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available A Síndrome de Gilles de la Tourette (SGT, caracterizada pela presença de tiques motores e vocais, apresenta elevada associação com transtorno obsessivo-compulsivo (TOC e transtorno de déficit de atenção com hiperatividade (TDAH. Essas condições frequentemente causam mais prejuízo aos pacientes do que os tiques, propriamente. Relata-se o caso clínico de um paciente com SGT e comorbidade com TDAH e TOC. O tratamento com inibidor seletivo de recaptura de serotonina (ISRS e metilfenidato promoveu melhora significativa dos sintomas de TDAH, sintomas compulsivos e tiques.Tourette Syndrome (TS, characterized by motor and vocal tics, is often associated with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD. These associated conditions frequently cause more impairment in patients than tics themselves. We report the case of TS with comorbid ADHD and OCD. Treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor and methylphenidate, led to significantly improvement of ADHD symptoms, compulsive symptoms and tics.

  5. Valor nutritivo de dietas contendo torta de mamona submetida a métodos alternativos de destoxificação para ovinos

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R.N. Furtado

    2012-02-01

    Full Text Available Avaliaram-se o consumo e a digestibilidade de nutrientes por ovinos alimentados com rações contendo torta de mamona sem tratamento (NT, tratadas com calcário calcítico (CC, ureia (UR, fosfato monobicálcico (FOS e por autoclave (ACL. Foram utilizados 20 ovinos em delineamento em blocos ao acaso, sendo 10 machos inteiros e 10 fêmeas, mestiços de raça Morada Nova. As dietas foram isoproteicas e isoenergéticas. A ricina foi parcialmente desnaturada pelos tratamentos de destoxificação da torta de mamona. Não houve efeito dos tratamentos de destoxificação da torta de mamona sobre o consumo de nutrientes. A digestibilidade da fibra em detergente neutro no tratamento NT foi de 57,5%, maior que no tratamento CC, de 52,4%. A digestibilidade do extrato etéreo foi mais alta no tratamento CC, média de 71,3%, em relação ao tratamento FOS, de 68,2%. Houve maior consumo de fibra em detergente neutro e fibra em detergente ácido dos machos em relação às fêmeas quando o consumo foi expresso em g/dia. A torta de mamona NT pode ser utilizada em dietas de ovinos como alimento proteico alternativo, participando em até 8% da dieta total, sem ocasionar redução expressiva no consumo e na digestibilidade.

  6. Germinação de Aechmea nudicaulis (L. Griseb. (Bromeliaceae em diferentes substratos alternativos ao pó de xaxim = Germination of Aechmea nudicaulis (L. Griseb. (Bromeliaceae in different substracts as alternatives to Dicksonia sellowiana Hook

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adilson Anacleto

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Avaliou-se a germinação das sementes de Aechmea nudicaulis (L. Griseb. (Bromeliaceae. As tentativas de produção desta espécie, a partir de sementes, têm ocorrido de forma empírica, utilizando-se substrato à base de pó de xaxim (Dicksonia sellowiana Hook., que tem restrições de uso, por estar ameaçada de extinção. Foram testados cinco tipos alternativos de substratos de fácil acessibilidade: húmus de minhoca, areia, fibra de casca de coco, serapilheira e Plantmax®. O experimento foi realizado em delineamento inteiramente casualizado, com quatro repetições e 50 sementes por unidade experimental, àtemperatura ambiente, em viveiro rústico, coberto com sombrite (70%. Leituras semanais foram efetuadas, durante 70 dias. A melhor performance, como substituto alternativo, foi a da serapilheira, que apresentou valores de germinação de 79,5% e sobrevivência de 97%,estatisticamente similares aos obtidos com xaxim (78%; 94,75%; Tukey, p For this study, the germination of Aechmea nudicaulis (L. Griseb. (Bromeliaceae was evaluated. Production attempts from seeds for this species have taken place in an empirical form, using substratebased on xaxim (Dicksonia sellowiana Hook. powder, the use of which is currently restricted, as it is an endangered species. Five easily accessible alternative substratum were tested: worm humus, sand, coconut shell fiber, forest litter, and Plantmax®. The experiment wasconducted using a completely randomized design, with four replications and 50 seeds per experimental unit, at room temperature in a rustic nursery covered with 70% shade cloth. Weekly readings were performed during 70 days. The best alternative as a substitute toxaxim was forest litter, due to its germinability of 79.5% and survival rates of 97%, significantly similar to xaxim (78%; 94.75%; Tukey p < 0,05. Additionally, this product features positive characteristics such as high availability, low cost, and easy recycling.

  7. Efeito de promotores de crescimento alternativos no desempenho e no custo de produção de frangos de corte

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrícia Tomazini Medeiros

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-7925.2009v22n3p157 Com o objetivo de avaliar o desempenho e o custo de produção de frangos de corte, foram testados probióticos e prebióticos como promotores de crescimento alternativos aos antimicrobianos (colistina/avilamicina, na ração de 6.450 pintos de corte, machos, da linhagem Cobb, criados de 1 a 42 dias de idade, distribuídos em um delineamento inteiramente casualisado, formado por oito tratamentos de rações experimentais, com 13 – 17 repetições de 50 aves cada por tratamento. Os probióticos foram o Bacillus subtilis em diferentes concentrações e/ou recomendação de uso, uma mistura de Saccharomyces cerevisiae mais Aspergillus oryzae ou um prebiótico composto de mananoligossacarídeos (MOS adicionados em uma ração inicial e outra de crescimento comum a todos os tratamentos. Não se verificou diferenças significativas na conversão alimentar entre tratamentos. Entretanto, o peso médio dos animais que receberam Bacillus subtilis (1,6 x 109CFU/g ou uma mistura de probióticos foi maior ou semelhante ao peso das aves alimentadas com os antimicrobianos. Conclui-se que é possível substituir os antimicrobianos utilizados, pelos probióticos avaliados como promotores de crescimento sem prejuízos no desempenho e no custo de produção de frangos de corte.

  8. Incorporating BDI Agents into Human-Agent Decision Making Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kamphorst, Bart; van Wissen, Arlette; Dignum, Virginia

    Artificial agents, people, institutes and societies all have the ability to make decisions. Decision making as a research area therefore involves a broad spectrum of sciences, ranging from Artificial Intelligence to economics to psychology. The Colored Trails (CT) framework is designed to aid researchers in all fields in examining decision making processes. It is developed both to study interaction between multiple actors (humans or software agents) in a dynamic environment, and to study and model the decision making of these actors. However, agents in the current implementation of CT lack the explanatory power to help understand the reasoning processes involved in decision making. The BDI paradigm that has been proposed in the agent research area to describe rational agents, enables the specification of agents that reason in abstract concepts such as beliefs, goals, plans and events. In this paper, we present CTAPL: an extension to CT that allows BDI software agents that are written in the practical agent programming language 2APL to reason about and interact with a CT environment.

  9. Chemical warfare agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuca, Kamil; Pohanka, Miroslav

    2010-01-01

    Chemical warfare agents are compounds of different chemical structures. Simple molecules such as chlorine as well as complex structures such as ricin belong to this group. Nerve agents, vesicants, incapacitating agents, blood agents, lung-damaging agents, riot-control agents and several toxins are among chemical warfare agents. Although the use of these compounds is strictly prohibited, the possible misuse by terrorist groups is a reality nowadays. Owing to this fact, knowledge of the basic properties of these substances is of a high importance. This chapter briefly introduces the separate groups of chemical warfare agents together with their members and the potential therapy that should be applied in case someone is intoxicated by these agents.

  10. Logics for Intelligent Agents and Multi-Agent Systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Meyer, John-Jules Charles

    2014-01-01

    This chapter presents the history of the application of logic in a quite popular paradigm in contemporary computer science and artificial intelligence, viz. the area of intelligent agents and multi-agent systems. In particular we discuss the logics that have been used to specify single agents, the

  11. Biological Agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... E-Tools Safety and Health Topics / Biological Agents Biological Agents This page requires that javascript be enabled ... 202) 693-2300 if additional assistance is required. Biological Agents Menu Overview In Focus: Ebola Frederick A. ...

  12. Simulación de procesos termodinámicos cuasi ideales orientados a la generación de trabajo mecánico. Evaluación de combinaciones posibles para su aplicación en motores alternativos de combustión o de aportación de calor

    OpenAIRE

    Llop Garcia, Xavier

    2009-01-01

    El objetivo del presente proyecto es la obtención de una herramienta informática que, gracias a un modelo matemático, simule los procesos termodinámicos de la fase cerrada de un motor alternativo de combustión interna. El motor que se pretende simular puede seguir un ciclo Otto o un ciclo Diesel y ser alimentado por distintos tipos de combustible. Para la obtención del modelo matemático se aceptaran ciertas hipótesis de simplificación debido a la complejidad de los procesos que tienen luga...

  13. Contrast agents for cardiac angiography: effects of a nonionic agent vs. a standard ionic agent

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bettmann, M.A.; Bourdillon, P.D.; Barry, W.H.; Brush, K.A.; Levin, D.C.

    1984-01-01

    The effects on cardiac hemodynamics and of a standard contrast agent, sodium methylglucamine diatrizoate [Renografin 76] were compared with the effects of a new nonionic agent (iohexol) in a double-blind study in 51 patietns undergoing coronary angiography and left ventriculography. No significant alteration in measured blood parameters occurred with either contrast agent. Hemodynamic changes occurred with both, but were significantly greater with the standard renografin than with the low-osmolality, nonionic iohexol. After left ventriculography, heart rate increased and peripheral arterial pressure fell with both agents, but less with iohexol. It is concluded that iohexol causes less alteration in cardiac function than does the agent currently most widely used. Nonionic contrast material is likely to improve the safety of coronary angiography, particularly in those patients at greatest risk

  14. PRODUÇÃO DE BIODIESEL POR BIOCATÁLISE UTILIZANDO MÉTODO ALTERNATIVO DE IMOBILIZAÇÃO DA LIPASE EM HIDROGEL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernanda Marder

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available A sociedade vem buscando alternativas para reduzir o processo de destruição ambiental instalada no planeta, porém, a partirdo século passado, uma nova visão sobre o uso indiscriminado dos recursos ambientais passou a ser discutido levando a utilizaçãode tecnologias alternativas de produção de combustíveis mais limpos, como o biodiesel, produzido a partir de óleos vegetais. Osprocessos enzimáticos constituem-se numa alternativa de produção, por serem métodos biotecnológicos e menos impactantes aomeio ambiente, apresentando até então, elevado custo de produção. Com o objetivo de diminuir custos e aumentar a eficiênciainvestigou-se a imobilização das enzimas por método alternativo e o emprego destes biocatalisadores na produção de biodiesel. Aimobilização da lipase PS Amano foi realizada utilizando esferas formadas pela hidratação de hidrogéis comerciais em soluçãoaquosa contendo a enzima. Com a enzima imobilizada realizou-se a transesterificação, na qual obteve-se conversões em ésteresmetílicos com rendimento de até 70%, em solvente orgânico, no tempo de 24h, temperatura de 55°C, 100 rpm e 40 esferas dehidrogel com enzima imobilizada. O método de transesterificação enzimática com as enzimas imobilizadas em hidrogéisapresentou-se como uma tecnologia alternativa e promissora para a obtenção de biodiesel.

  15. A Composite Agent Architecture for Multi-Agent Simulations

    OpenAIRE

    VanPutte, Michael; Osborn, Brian; Hiles, John

    2002-01-01

    CGF Computer Generated Forces and Behavioral Representation The MOVES Institute’s Computer-Generated Autonomy Group has focused on a research goal of modeling complex and adaptive behavior while at the same time making the behavior easier to create and control. This research has led to several techniques for agent construction, that includes a social and organization relationship management engine, a composite agent architecture, an agent goal apparatus, a structure for capturi...

  16. TACtic- A Multi Behavioral Agent for Trading Agent Competition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khosravi, Hassan; Shiri, Mohammad E.; Khosravi, Hamid; Iranmanesh, Ehsan; Davoodi, Alireza

    Software agents are increasingly being used to represent humans in online auctions. Such agents have the advantages of being able to systematically monitor a wide variety of auctions and then make rapid decisions about what bids to place in what auctions. They can do this continuously and repetitively without losing concentration. To provide a means of evaluating and comparing (benchmarking) research methods in this area the trading agent competition (TAC) was established. This paper describes the design, of TACtic. Our agent uses multi behavioral techniques at the heart of its decision making to make bidding decisions in the face of uncertainty, to make predictions about the likely outcomes of auctions, and to alter the agent's bidding strategy in response to the prevailing market conditions.

  17. Relaciones entre el nivel de Desarrollo Moral e Intelectuakm edadm y género, en alumnos de secundaria de un colegio experimental/alternativo Li

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manuel Bello Domínguez

    1993-06-01

    Full Text Available Se aplicaron las pruebas SROM (nivel de juiciomoral y de LONGEOT (nivel de desarrollo intelectuala 34 alumnos/as de educación secundaria delcolegio experimental/alternativo "José Antonio Encinas"de Lima con edad entre 12 y 17 años.Los resultados muestran que existen marcadasdiferencias entre los resultados encontrados y los deestudios anteriores realizados tanto en el país comoen el extranjero. Los sujetos estudiados presentanniveles intelectuales más altos que los del promedioe incluso mayores que los hallados en muestras depersonas de mayor edad, alcanzando la gran mayoríade ellos los niveles de pensamiento formal. En relaciónal juicio moral ocurre algo similar, pues lamayoría de ellos habían logrado un nivel maduro,pese a su corta edad. Se encuentran correlacionesaltas y positivas entre los niveles intelectuales y dejuicio moral. También se encuentran correlacionesaltas y positivas entre nivel de pensamiento y edad,y entre nivel de juicio moral y edad. No se encontrarondiferencias de género en los niveles de pensamientoy de juicio moral.Se discute la probable relación entre los resultadosencontrados y las características del modelo deeducación alternativa aplicado en el colegio "Encinas",que prioriza el desarrollo de habilidades yactitudes y asigna a los propios alumnos un papelactivo y protagónico en el proceso educativo.

  18. Bipolar mood disorder: different occurrences of the same disease

    OpenAIRE

    Braga, Audrey Regina Magalhães; Kunzler, Lia Silvia; Hua, Feng Yu

    2008-01-01

    O presente relato tem por objetivo acompanhar a evolução de um caso que se apresentou como mutismo seletivo e evoluiu para transtorno de humor bipolar e chamar atenção para a diversidade de sintomas possíveis no transtorno de humor. Em geral, o mutismo seletivo tem início na idade pré-escolar, porém os sintomas chamam mais atenção na idade escolar. A importância do diagnóstico e tratamento precoces reside na prevenção das complicações, tais como distúrbios no desenvolvimento social e acadêmic...

  19. Renal function in healthy dogs therapy with anti-inflammatory drugs

    OpenAIRE

    Borges, Marina

    2011-01-01

    Os anti-inflamatórios não-esteroidais têm uso extremamente difundido na clínica de pequenos animais, devido às suas propriedades analgésicas e anti-inflamatórias. Entretanto, o uso desses fármacos pode produzir alterações da função renal. O presente estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a função renal de cães saudáveis, submetidos à terapia com anti-inflamatórios não-esteroidais não seletivos, COX-2 preferenciais e COX-2 seletivos. Foram utilizados 30 cães, sem raça definida, adultos, machos e fê...

  20. Farmacogenética de inibidores seletivos de recaptação de serotonina: uma revisão Pharmacogenetics of selective serotonine reuptake inhibitors: a review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diana Klanovicz Silva

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available A variabilidade da resposta aos medicamentos se deve em grande parte a fatores genéticos, e essa variabilidade afeta os efeitos terapêuticos e as reações adversas, de forma que a mesma dose de um medicamento pode ser benéfica para um paciente mas ineficaz para outro. Os fármacos conhecidos como inibidores seletivos de recaptação de serotonina (ISRSs pertencem a uma classe de medicamentos utilizados para o tratamento de uma série de patologias relacionadas com a serotonina, especialmente a depressão. O objetivo deste trabalho é reunir os dados presentes na literatura sobre a associação de genes candidatos com a resposta a ISRSs, fornecendo assim um panorama sobre o estado atual de conhecimento sobre o assunto. A resposta ao tratamento com ISRSs depende da variabilidade de genes codificantes de proteínas envolvidas com o papel da serotonina no cérebro. Com os avanços conquistados a partir do Projeto Genoma Humano, foi possível detectar essas variações, e várias delas mostraram ter importância farmacogenética. Portanto, alguns dos genes relacionados à farmacogenética dos ISRSs já são conhecidos, o que torna clara a necessidade de maiores investigações prospectivas para determinar a real utilidade desse conhecimento na prática clínica, com relação à possibilidade da determinação da dose adequada do fármaco correto para cada paciente, prática que vem sendo denominada de "medicina personalizada".A large proportion of the variability in drug response is due to genetic factors, and this variability affects therapeutic effects and adverse reactions, so that the same dosage of a drug can be beneficial to some patients, but ineffective to others. The drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI belong to a pharmacological class used in the management of a number of diseases related to serotonin, especially depression. The aim of this paper is to collect data from the literature about the association of

  1. Multi-Agent Pathfinding with n Agents on Graphs with n Vertices

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Förster, Klaus-Tycho; Groner, Linus; Hoefler, Torsten

    2017-01-01

    We investigate the multi-agent pathfinding (MAPF) problem with $n$ agents on graphs with $n$ vertices: Each agent has a unique start and goal vertex, with the objective of moving all agents in parallel movements to their goal s.t.~each vertex and each edge may only be used by one agent at a time....... We give a combinatorial classification of all graphs where this problem is solvable in general, including cases where the solvability depends on the initial agent placement. Furthermore, we present an algorithm solving the MAPF problem in our setting, requiring O(n²) rounds, or O(n³) moves...... of individual agents. Complementing these results, we show that there are graphs where Omega(n²) rounds and Omega(n³) moves are required for any algorithm....

  2. 9th KES Conference on Agent and Multi-Agent Systems : Technologies and Applications

    CERN Document Server

    Howlett, Robert; Jain, Lakhmi

    2015-01-01

    Agents and multi-agent systems are related to a modern software paradigm which has long been recognized as a promising technology for constructing autonomous, complex and intelligent systems. The topics covered in this volume include agent-oriented software engineering, agent co-operation, co-ordination, negotiation, organization and communication, distributed problem solving, specification of agent communication languages, agent privacy, safety and security, formalization of ontologies and conversational agents. The volume highlights new trends and challenges in agent and multi-agent research and includes 38 papers classified in the following specific topics: learning paradigms, agent-based modeling and simulation, business model innovation and disruptive technologies, anthropic-oriented computing, serious games and business intelligence, design and implementation of intelligent agents and multi-agent systems, digital economy, and advances in networked virtual enterprises. Published p...

  3. 10th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems

    CERN Document Server

    Pérez, Javier; Golinska, Paulina; Giroux, Sylvain; Corchuelo, Rafael; Trends in Practical Applications of Agents and Multiagent Systems

    2012-01-01

    PAAMS, the International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems is an evolution of the International Workshop on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. PAAMS is an international yearly tribune to present, to discuss, and to disseminate the latest developments and the most important outcomes related to real-world applications. It provides a unique opportunity to bring multi-disciplinary experts, academics and practitioners together to exchange their experience in the development of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems.   This volume presents the papers that have been accepted for the 2012 in the workshops: Workshop on Agents for Ambient Assisted Living, Workshop on Agent-Based Solutions for Manufacturing and Supply Chain and Workshop on Agents and Multi-agent systems for Enterprise Integration.

  4. Riot Control Agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Submit What's this? Submit Button Facts About Riot Control Agents Interim document Recommend on Facebook Tweet Share Compartir What riot control agents are Riot control agents (sometimes referred to ...

  5. Estudio y uso de chatbots para el aprendizaje de inglés

    OpenAIRE

    Rodríguez Roa, Sergio

    2016-01-01

    Un bot conversacional o chatbot puede definirse como un agente artificial que emula a una persona, animal u otra criatura y que permite mantener conversaciones con humanos. Esta puede ser una conversación por texto o bien una conversación oral. Este proyecto de fin de grado evalúa un método alternativo para el aprendizaje de una segunda lengua, en este caso el inglés, basándose en la tecnología de los bots conversacionales. La falta de motivación las primeras semanas de comenzar a estud...

  6. Constructing Secure Mobile Agent Systems Using the Agent Operating System

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van t Noordende, G.J.; Overeinder, B.J.; Timmer, R.J.; Brazier, F.M.; Tanenbaum, A.S.

    2009-01-01

    Designing a secure and reliable mobile agent system is a difficult task. The agent operating system (AOS) is a building block that simplifies this task. AOS provides common primitives required by most mobile agent middleware systems, such as primitives for secure communication, secure and

  7. Nondestructive Intervention to Multi-Agent Systems through an Intelligent Agent

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Jing; Wang, Lin

    2013-01-01

    For a given multi-agent system where the local interaction rule of the existing agents can not be re-designed, one way to intervene the collective behavior of the system is to add one or a few special agents into the group which are still treated as normal agents by the existing ones. We study how to lead a Vicsek-like flocking model to reach synchronization by adding special agents. A popular method is to add some simple leaders (fixed-headings agents). However, we add one intelligent agent, called ‘shill’, which uses online feedback information of the group to decide the shill's moving direction at each step. A novel strategy for the shill to coordinate the group is proposed. It is strictly proved that a shill with this strategy and a limited speed can synchronize every agent in the group. The computer simulations show the effectiveness of this strategy in different scenarios, including different group sizes, shill speed, and with or without noise. Compared to the method of adding some fixed-heading leaders, our method can guarantee synchronization for any initial configuration in the deterministic scenario and improve the synchronization level significantly in low density groups, or model with noise. This suggests the advantage and power of feedback information in intervention of collective behavior. PMID:23658695

  8. Nondestructive intervention to multi-agent systems through an intelligent agent.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jing Han

    Full Text Available For a given multi-agent system where the local interaction rule of the existing agents can not be re-designed, one way to intervene the collective behavior of the system is to add one or a few special agents into the group which are still treated as normal agents by the existing ones. We study how to lead a Vicsek-like flocking model to reach synchronization by adding special agents. A popular method is to add some simple leaders (fixed-headings agents. However, we add one intelligent agent, called 'shill', which uses online feedback information of the group to decide the shill's moving direction at each step. A novel strategy for the shill to coordinate the group is proposed. It is strictly proved that a shill with this strategy and a limited speed can synchronize every agent in the group. The computer simulations show the effectiveness of this strategy in different scenarios, including different group sizes, shill speed, and with or without noise. Compared to the method of adding some fixed-heading leaders, our method can guarantee synchronization for any initial configuration in the deterministic scenario and improve the synchronization level significantly in low density groups, or model with noise. This suggests the advantage and power of feedback information in intervention of collective behavior.

  9. Peróxido de hidrogênio como agente despirogenizante de componentes para produtos médico-hospitalares

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pinto Terezinha de Jesus A.

    1995-01-01

    Full Text Available A atual busca de solventes alternativos aos fluorados, frente ao problema de depleção de ozônio da estratosfera, obriga a desenvolvimentos de processos aplicáveis à fabricação de produtos médico-hospitalares. Frente ao desafio, e considerando a água estar sendo opção de escolha de outros segmentos industriais, preocupa a rápida proliferação microbiana na mesma, tornando-a fonte potencial de endotoxinas. Tal risco incompatibiliza-se por exemplo, com a produção de itens destinados ao emprego em procedimentos cirúrgicos da área cardiovascular. Desta forma foi ralizada pesquisa com o objetivo de investigar possibilidade de emprego da água como agente de limpeza de componentes para tais produtos, desde que incorporada de peróxido de hidrogênio. Trabalhou-se inoculando água e soluções de peróxido com níveis de 0,1, 0,25, 0,5 e 1,0 UE/ml; obteve-se a confirmação de efetividade de ação a concentração de 5% de peróxido de hidrogênio, através de determinação analítica pelo método "in vitro". Investigou-se, em peças injetadas em policarbonato, destinadas a fabricação de oxigenadores e reservatórios sangüíneos, inoculadas com endotoxina, a efetividade no uso do peróxido. Os resultados permitem concluir pela possibilidade de sucesso do processo proposto, seja pelo aspecto biológico ou pela remoção de sujidades.

  10. Peróxido de hidrogênio como agente despirogenizante de componentes para produtos médico-hospitalares

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Terezinha de Jesus A. Pinto

    1995-02-01

    Full Text Available A atual busca de solventes alternativos aos fluorados, frente ao problema de depleção de ozônio da estratosfera, obriga a desenvolvimentos de processos aplicáveis à fabricação de produtos médico-hospitalares. Frente ao desafio, e considerando a água estar sendo opção de escolha de outros segmentos industriais, preocupa a rápida proliferação microbiana na mesma, tornando-a fonte potencial de endotoxinas. Tal risco incompatibiliza-se por exemplo, com a produção de itens destinados ao emprego em procedimentos cirúrgicos da área cardiovascular. Desta forma foi ralizada pesquisa com o objetivo de investigar possibilidade de emprego da água como agente de limpeza de componentes para tais produtos, desde que incorporada de peróxido de hidrogênio. Trabalhou-se inoculando água e soluções de peróxido com níveis de 0,1, 0,25, 0,5 e 1,0 UE/ml; obteve-se a confirmação de efetividade de ação a concentração de 5% de peróxido de hidrogênio, através de determinação analítica pelo método "in vitro". Investigou-se, em peças injetadas em policarbonato, destinadas a fabricação de oxigenadores e reservatórios sangüíneos, inoculadas com endotoxina, a efetividade no uso do peróxido. Os resultados permitem concluir pela possibilidade de sucesso do processo proposto, seja pelo aspecto biológico ou pela remoção de sujidades.

  11. Organizations as Socially Constructed Agents in the Agent Oriented Paradigm

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    G. Boella (Guido); L.W.N. van der Torre (Leon)

    2005-01-01

    htmlabstractIn this paper we propose a new role for the agent metaphor in the definition of the organizational structure of multiagent systems. The agent metaphor is extended to consider as agents also social entities like organizations, groups and normative systems, so that mental attitudes can

  12. Neuroprotective "agents" in surgery. Secret "agent" man, or common "agent" machine?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andrews, R. J.

    1999-01-01

    The search for clinically-effective neuroprotective agents has received enormous support in recent years--an estimated $200 million by pharmaceutical companies on clinical trials for traumatic brain injury alone. At the same time, the pathophysiology of brain injury has proved increasingly complex, rendering the likelihood of a single agent "magic bullet" even more remote. On the other hand, great progress continues with technology that makes surgery less invasive and less risky. One example is the application of endovascular techniques to treat coronary artery stenosis, where both the invasiveness of sternotomy and the significant neurological complication rate (due to microemboli showering the cerebral vasculature) can be eliminated. In this paper we review aspects of intraoperative neuroprotection both present and future. Explanations for the slow progress on pharmacologic neuroprotection during surgery are presented. Examples of technical advances that have had great impact on neuroprotection during surgery are given both from coronary artery stenosis surgery and from surgery for Parkinson's disease. To date, the progress in neuroprotection resulting from such technical advances is an order of magnitude greater than that resulting from pharmacologic agents used during surgery. The progress over the last 20 years in guidance during surgery (CT and MRI image-guidance) and in surgical access (endoscopic and endovascular techniques) will soon be complemented by advances in our ability to evaluate biological tissue intraoperatively in real-time. As an example of such technology, the NASA Smart Probe project is considered. In the long run (i.e., in 10 years or more), pharmacologic "agents" aimed at the complex pathophysiology of nervous system injury in man will be the key to true intraoperative neuroprotection. In the near term, however, it is more likely that mundane "agents" based on computers, microsensors, and microeffectors will be the major impetus to improved

  13. Aplicación del paradigma alternativo a un estudio de usuarios en el área de la información en Ciencias Sociales en el Uruguay: un aporte metodológico

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María Cristina Pérez, Martha Sabelli

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available se presenta una síntesis teórico-metodológica de la investigación sobre necesidades y comportamientos de uso de información de los especialistas del área Ciencias Sociales, aplicada como primera etapa del estudio internacional de los usuarios reales y potenciales de la Red IDIN. Se enmarca en el paradigma alternativo de los Estudios de Usuarios, ubicando al usuario en tiempo y espacio, analizando su comportamiento en relación a canales, tipos de información, fuentes, tecnologías en diversos contextos. Mediante la Encuesta con entrevista y aplicando la técnica de “incidente crítico”, el usuario puede describir individualmente y desde su percepción sus propias experiencias reales en relación con la información. Los resultados obtenidos, a través de un análisis cuantitativo y cualitativo, son insumo básico para el diseño de productos y servicios de “valor agregado”.

  14. Advances on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 10th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems

    CERN Document Server

    Müller, Jörg; Rodríguez, Juan; Pérez, Javier

    2012-01-01

    Research on Agents and Multi-Agent Systems has matured during the last decade and many effective applications of this technology are now deployed. PAAMS provides an international forum to present and discuss the latest scientific developments and their effective applications, to assess the impact of the approach, and to facilitate technology transfer. PAAMS started as a local initiative, but has since grown to become THE international yearly platform to present, to discuss, and to disseminate the latest developments and the most important outcomes related to real-world applications. It provides a unique opportunity to bring multi-disciplinary experts, academics and practitioners together to exchange their experience in the development and deployment of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. PAAMS intends to bring together researchers and developers from industry and the academic world to report on the latest scientific and technical advances on the application of multi-agent systems, to discuss and debate the major ...

  15. Highlights on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 10th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems

    CERN Document Server

    Sánchez, Miguel; Mathieu, Philippe; Rodríguez, Juan; Adam, Emmanuel; Ortega, Alfonso; Moreno, María; Navarro, Elena; Hirsch, Benjamin; Lopes-Cardoso, Henrique; Julián, Vicente

    2012-01-01

    Research on Agents and Multi-Agent Systems has matured during the last decade and many effective applications of this technology are now deployed. PAAMS provides an international forum to present and discuss the latest scientific developments and their effective applications, to assess the impact of the approach, and to facilitate technology transfer. PAAMS started as a local initiative, but has since grown to become THE international yearly platform to present, to discuss, and to disseminate the latest developments and the most important outcomes related to real-world applications. It provides a unique opportunity to bring multi-disciplinary experts, academics and practitioners together to exchange their experience in the development and deployment of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. PAAMS intends to bring together researchers and developers from industry and the academic world to report on the latest scientific and technical advances on the application of multi-agent systems, to discuss and debate the major ...

  16. Radiographic scanning agent

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bevan, J.A.

    1983-01-01

    This invention relates to radiodiagnostic agents and more particularly to a composition and method for preparing a highly effective technetium-99m-based bone scanning agent. One deficiency of x-ray examination is the inability of that technique to detect skeletal metastases in their incipient stages. It has been discovered that the methanehydroxydiphosphonate bone mineral-seeking agent is unique in that it provides the dual benefits of sharp radiographic imaging and excellent lesion detection when used with technetium-99m. This agent can also be used with technetium-99m for detecting soft tissue calcification in the manner of the inorganic phosphate radiodiagnostic agents

  17. Smart Agents and Sentiment in the Heterogeneous Agent Model

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Vácha, Lukáš; Baruník, Jozef; Vošvrda, Miloslav

    2009-01-01

    Roč. 18, č. 3 (2009), s. 209-219 ISSN 1210-0455 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) LC06075; GA ČR GP402/08/P207; GA ČR(CZ) GA402/09/0965 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : heterogeneous agent model * market structure * smart traders * Hurst exponent Subject RIV: AH - Economics http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2009/E/vacha- smart agent s and sentiment in the heterogeneous agent model.pdf

  18. Asymptotically Optimal Agents

    OpenAIRE

    Lattimore, Tor; Hutter, Marcus

    2011-01-01

    Artificial general intelligence aims to create agents capable of learning to solve arbitrary interesting problems. We define two versions of asymptotic optimality and prove that no agent can satisfy the strong version while in some cases, depending on discounting, there does exist a non-computable weak asymptotically optimal agent.

  19. Traitement de l'hétérogénéité sémantique dans les interactions humain-agent et agent-agent

    OpenAIRE

    Mazuel , Laurent

    2008-01-01

    The main purpose of this thesis is the management of semantic heterogeneity in human-agent and agent-agent interaction. We especially focus on the situation where a software agent, supplied with a knowledge representation model, has to understand requests coming from different interlocutors; either it is a human user or another software agent.Most work in this domain either focus on human-agent interaction or agent-agent interaction. On the contrary, we suggest that it is possible to use a co...

  20. Relay tracking control for second-order multi-agent systems with damaged agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, Lijing; Li, Jing; Liu, Qin

    2017-11-01

    This paper investigates a situation where smart agents capable of sensory and mobility are deployed to monitor a designated area. A preset number of agents start tracking when a target intrudes this area. Some of the tracking agents are possible to be out of order over the tracking course. Thus, we propose a cooperative relay tracking strategy to ensure the successful tracking with existence of damaged agents. Relay means that, when a tracking agent quits tracking due to malfunction, one of the near deployed agents replaces it to continue the tracking task. This results in jump of tracking errors and dynamic switching of topology of the multi-agent system. Switched system technique is employed to solve this specific problem. Finally, the effectiveness of proposed tracking strategy and validity of the theoretical results are verified by conducting a numerical simulation. Copyright © 2017 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Agentes Comunitários de Saúde e os sentidos de "ser agente" Community Health Agents and the meanings of "being an agent"

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Viviane Milan Pupin

    2008-08-01

    Full Text Available O Programa Saúde da Família constitui-se enquanto estratégia de mudança do modelo assistencial. O artigo apresenta os resultados de uma pesquisa qualitativa sobre os sentidos de "ser agente" produzidos, por meio de entrevistas abertas, com Agentes Comunitários de Saúde que trabalham nos cinco Núcleos de Saúde da Família da cidade de Ribeirão Preto - São Paulo, vinculados à Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto - USP. As entrevistas foram gravadas e transcritas na íntegra e analisadas segundo princípios da análise de conteúdo. A análise permitiu a descrição de sentidos acerca de ser agente subdivididos em: Sentidos produzidos na relação com a comunidade e Sentidos produzidos na relação com a equipe. A análise dos sentidos de ser agente possibilitou construir um diálogo sobre as tensões relacionadas a um fazer em saúde ora permeado por concepções atreladas ao modelo biomédico, ora atrelado aos novos paradigmas em saúde.The Family Health Program consists of a strategy to change the health care model. This article presents the results from a qualitative study about the meanings of "being an agent" obtained through open interviews with Community Health Agents who work in five Family Health Centers of the Ribeirão Preto School of Medicine (University of São Paulo, located in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo. Interviews were tape recorded, fully transcribed, and then content analyzed. The analysis allowed for descriptions of meanings toward "being an agent", subdivided into: Meanings produced by relationships with the community, and Meanings produced by relationships with the team. Analyzing the meanings of being an agent provided the establishment of a dialogue about the tensions related to a health practice that is at times influenced by conceptions associated with the biomedical method, and at other times with the new health paradigm.

  2. Métodos alternativos para a detecção de pirogênios em produtos e ambientes sujeitos a Vigilância Sanitária: avanços e perspectivas no Brasil a partir do reconhecimento internacional do Teste de Ativação de Monócitos

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cristiane Caldeira da Silva

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Introdução: A detecção de pirogênios é imprescindível no controle da qualidade de produtos injetáveis. O Teste de Pirogênio em coelhos ainda tem larga aplicação, apesar da existência de métodos alternativos como o Teste de Ativação de Monócitos (MAT. Objetivo: Revisar o uso dos métodos alternativos no teste de pirogênio, apontando avanços e perspectivas a partir do reconhecimento do MAT pela Farmacopeia Europeia e sua aceitação para fins regulatórios no Brasil. Método: Uma busca foi realizada nas bases PubMed e BVS, com posterior classificação, categorização por assuntos e análise crítica dos resultados. Resultados: Foram identificados 24 trabalhos, abordando temas como as aplicações do MAT, sua validação e comparação com testes in vivo. O MAT apresentou melhores resultados quando comparado a outros testes, tanto na avaliação de produtos biológicos como na detecção de pirogênios não-endotoxinas. Limitações para sua difusão incluem a dificuldade de obtenção de sangue total humano como fonte de monócitos, para o qual diversas alternativas têm sido propostas. Conclusões: O MAT se mostra um método promissor, com aplicação na avaliação da segurança de novas tecnologias. Sua aplicação no Brasil depende de uma política nacional de implantação, que inclua maior Integração entre BraCVAM, Concea e RENAMA na busca por seu reconhecimento para fins regulatórios.

  3. Biological warfare agents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Duraipandian Thavaselvam

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available The recent bioterrorist attacks using anthrax spores have emphasized the need to detect and decontaminate critical facilities in the shortest possible time. There has been a remarkable progress in the detection, protection and decontamination of biological warfare agents as many instrumentation platforms and detection methodologies are developed and commissioned. Even then the threat of biological warfare agents and their use in bioterrorist attacks still remain a leading cause of global concern. Furthermore in the past decade there have been threats due to the emerging new diseases and also the re-emergence of old diseases and development of antimicrobial resistance and spread to new geographical regions. The preparedness against these agents need complete knowledge about the disease, better research and training facilities, diagnostic facilities and improved public health system. This review on the biological warfare agents will provide information on the biological warfare agents, their mode of transmission and spread and also the detection systems available to detect them. In addition the current information on the availability of commercially available and developing technologies against biological warfare agents has also been discussed. The risk that arise due to the use of these agents in warfare or bioterrorism related scenario can be mitigated with the availability of improved detection technologies.

  4. Biological warfare agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thavaselvam, Duraipandian; Vijayaraghavan, Rajagopalan

    2010-01-01

    The recent bioterrorist attacks using anthrax spores have emphasized the need to detect and decontaminate critical facilities in the shortest possible time. There has been a remarkable progress in the detection, protection and decontamination of biological warfare agents as many instrumentation platforms and detection methodologies are developed and commissioned. Even then the threat of biological warfare agents and their use in bioterrorist attacks still remain a leading cause of global concern. Furthermore in the past decade there have been threats due to the emerging new diseases and also the re-emergence of old diseases and development of antimicrobial resistance and spread to new geographical regions. The preparedness against these agents need complete knowledge about the disease, better research and training facilities, diagnostic facilities and improved public health system. This review on the biological warfare agents will provide information on the biological warfare agents, their mode of transmission and spread and also the detection systems available to detect them. In addition the current information on the availability of commercially available and developing technologies against biological warfare agents has also been discussed. The risk that arise due to the use of these agents in warfare or bioterrorism related scenario can be mitigated with the availability of improved detection technologies. PMID:21829313

  5. Efeito do cruzamento entre diferentes genótipos para uso em sistemas alternativos de frango de corte = Effect of crossing between different genotypes for use in alternative broiler systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olmiro Bochi Brum

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available Objetivou-se avaliar o desempenho de híbridos avícolas para atender ademanda de material genético em sistemas alternativos de criação. Foram utilizados 648 pintainhos de corte de ambos os sexos, provenientes do cruzamento entre reprodutores de corte e das raças Rhodes Island Red, White Plymouth Rock e Barred Plymouth Rock, distribuídos em seis tratamentos com seis repetições e 18 aves em cada unidade experimental, sendo o período de avaliação de um a 56 dias de idade. As características avaliadas foram: peso corporal (PC, ganho de peso (GP, consumo alimentar (CR, conversão alimentar (CA, e peso de carcaça (PCA, pernas (PCS e peito (PP. O delineamento experimental foi o inteiramente casualizado, com seis tratamentos de seis repetições cada. Foi realizado análise de variância, e quando significativo no nível de 5% de probabilidade aplicou-se o teste de Tukey. O PC aos 56 dias, bem como o GP de um a 56 dias foi significativamente inferior para híbridos oriundos do cruzamento entre machos reprodutores de corte e fêmeas White Plymouth Rock, resultado semelhante também foi encontrado nos parâmetros PCA e PCS, porém o PP não apresentou diferença significativa. Dessa forma, não se recomenda a criação do híbrido resultante deste cruzamento em sistemas alternativos.Aimed to evaluate the performance of poultry hybrids to meet demandfor genetic material in alternative systems of creation. It was used 648 chicks of both sexes from the crossing between, broilers breeders males and of races Rhodes Island Red, White Plymouth Rock and Barred Plymouth Rock, distributed in six treatments with six replicates and 18 birds in each experimental unit, being the period rating from one to 56 days of age. The caracteristics evaluated were: body weight (PC, weight gain (GP, feed intake (CR, feed conversion (CA, and carcass weight (PCA, legs (PCS and chest (PP. The experimental design was completely randomized design with six treatments with

  6. La exportación como destino alternativo para la producción siderúrgica argentina entre 1976 y 1990

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    PATRICIA JEREZ

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available La finalización del proceso de industrialización sustitutivo de importaciones y el inicio de una nueva etapa, signada por el privilegio otorgado a la inversión financiera, es el elemento que caracteriza al período bajo análisis. La importante disminución en el nivel de actividad producida como consecuencia de las políticas económicas implementadas se tradujo en una reducción del tamaño del mercado interno. Paralelamente, a nivel sectorial, convergieron ciertos factores, a saber: la situación de la industria siderúrgica mundial, la incorporación de nueva tecnología, los privilegios otorgados a través de las leyes de promoción y la concentración productiva en una menor cantidad de empresas, los cuales contribuyeron a delinear una nueva estructura para el sector siderúrgico. Bajo estas circunstancias, y ante una marcada disminución en la demanda sectorial local, la exportación se convirtió en el mercado alternativo para la producción siderúrgica nacional. Abstract During the period which is analyzed in this paper, industry was not considered the principal issue of the economic policy. Instead, financial investment was privileged. This fact derived in an important reduction of the economical activity level and, in consequence, the internal market reduced its size as the level of demand descended considerably. Particularly in the iron and steel industry, different elements contributed to establish a new sector´s structure, for example: the international situation of the mentioned industry, new technology, benefits originated in the laws of industrial promotion, less number of iron and steel firms. Considering all these facts, exporting part of the sector’s production emerged as a solution when the demand of iron and steel goods reduced its level in the local market

  7. Simulação dos efeitos dos preços de produtos e insumos na avaliação econômica de três sistemas alternativos de bovinocultura de cria Simulated effects of input and output prices on economic returns from three calf production systems

    OpenAIRE

    P.H.S. Guimarães; F.E. Madalena; I.M. Cezar

    2005-01-01

    Avaliou-se a sensibilidade de indicadores econômicos de três sistemas alternativos de produção de bovinos à variação de preços de insumos e produtos. Observou-se que o sistema de produção de bezerros F1 Holandês × Gir apresentou maior eficiência econômica que os sistemas de produção de bezerros Nelore e de produção de bezerros F1 Angus × Nelore, principalmente devido ao maior valor agregado de seu principal produto (novilha F1). O preço do sêmen não teve importância econômica sign...

  8. 14th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems : Special Sessions

    CERN Document Server

    Escalona, María; Corchuelo, Rafael; Mathieu, Philippe; Vale, Zita; Campbell, Andrew; Rossi, Silvia; Adam, Emmanuel; Jiménez-López, María; Navarro, Elena; Moreno, María

    2016-01-01

    PAAMS, the International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems is an evolution of the International Workshop on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. PAAMS is an international yearly tribune to present, to discuss, and to disseminate the latest developments and the most important outcomes related to real-world applications. It provides a unique opportunity to bring multi-disciplinary experts, academics and practitioners together to exchange their experience in the development of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. This volume presents the papers that have been accepted for the 2016 in the special sessions: Agents Behaviours and Artificial Markets (ABAM); Advances on Demand Response and Renewable Energy Sources in Agent Based Smart Grids (ADRESS); Agents and Mobile Devices (AM); Agent Methodologies for Intelligent Robotics Applications (AMIRA); Learning, Agents and Formal Languages (LAFLang); Multi-Agent Systems and Ambient Intelligence (MASMAI); Web Mining and ...

  9. Developing Agent-Oriented Video Surveillance System through Agent-Oriented Methodology (AOM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cheah Wai Shiang

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Agent-oriented methodology (AOM is a comprehensive and unified agent methodology for agent-oriented software development. Although AOM is claimed to be able to cope with a complex system development, it is still not yet determined up to what extent this may be true. Therefore, it is vital to conduct an investigation to validate this methodology. This paper presents the adoption of AOM in developing an agent-oriented video surveillance system (VSS. An intruder handling scenario is designed and implemented through AOM. AOM provides an alternative method to engineer a distributed security system in a systematic manner. It presents the security system at a holistic view; provides a better conceptualization of agent-oriented security system and supports rapid prototyping as well as simulation of video surveillance system.

  10. Agent Architectures for Compliance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burgemeestre, Brigitte; Hulstijn, Joris; Tan, Yao-Hua

    A Normative Multi-Agent System consists of autonomous agents who must comply with social norms. Different kinds of norms make different assumptions about the cognitive architecture of the agents. For example, a principle-based norm assumes that agents can reflect upon the consequences of their actions; a rule-based formulation only assumes that agents can avoid violations. In this paper we present several cognitive agent architectures for self-monitoring and compliance. We show how different assumptions about the cognitive architecture lead to different information needs when assessing compliance. The approach is validated with a case study of horizontal monitoring, an approach to corporate tax auditing recently introduced by the Dutch Customs and Tax Authority.

  11. A Secure Protocol Based on a Sedentary Agent for Mobile Agent Environments

    OpenAIRE

    Abdelmorhit E. Rhazi; Samuel Pierre; Hanifa Boucheneb

    2007-01-01

    The main challenge when deploying mobile agent environments pertains to security issues concerning mobile agents and their executive platform. This paper proposes a secure protocol which protects mobile agents against attacks from malicious hosts in these environments. Protection is based on the perfect cooperation of a sedentary agent running inside a trusted third host. Results show that the protocol detects several attacks, such as denial of service, incorrect execution and re-execution of...

  12. Moral actor, selfish agent.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frimer, Jeremy A; Schaefer, Nicola K; Oakes, Harrison

    2014-05-01

    People are motivated to behave selfishly while appearing moral. This tension gives rise to 2 divergently motivated selves. The actor-the watched self-tends to be moral; the agent-the self as executor-tends to be selfish. Three studies present direct evidence of the actor's and agent's distinct motives. To recruit the self-as-actor, we asked people to rate the importance of various goals. To recruit the self-as-agent, we asked people to describe their goals verbally. In Study 1, actors claimed their goals were equally about helping the self and others (viz., moral); agents claimed their goals were primarily about helping the self (viz., selfish). This disparity was evident in both individualist and collectivist cultures, attesting to the universality of the selfish agent. Study 2 compared actors' and agents' motives to those of people role-playing highly prosocial or selfish exemplars. In content (Study 2a) and in the impressions they made on an outside observer (Study 2b), actors' motives were similar to those of the prosocial role-players, whereas agents' motives were similar to those of the selfish role-players. Study 3 accounted for the difference between the actor and agent: Participants claimed that their agent's motives were the more realistic and that their actor's motives were the more idealistic. The selfish agent/moral actor duality may account for why implicit and explicit measures of the same construct diverge, and why feeling watched brings out the better angels of human nature.

  13. The Agent of Change: The Agent of Conflict.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hatfield, C. R., Jr.

    This speech examines the role of change agents in third world societies and indicates that the change agent must, to some extent, manipulate the social situation, even if his view of society is a more optimistic one than he finds in reality. If he considers strains and stresses to be the lubricants of change, then his focus on conflict as a…

  14. Interactions of ionic and nonionic contrast agents with thrombolytic agents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fareed, J.; Moncada, R.; Scanlon, P.; Hoppensteadt, D.; Huan, X.; Walenga, J.M.

    1987-01-01

    Both the ionic and nonionic intravascular contrast media have been used before and after the administration of thrombolytic agents to evaluate clot lysis during angioplasty and the treatment of myocardial infarction. In experimental animal models, the authors found that the clot lytic efficacy of streptokinase, streptokinase-plasminogen complex, and tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) is markedly augmented if these agents are administered within 1 hour after the angiographic producers. Furthermore, contrast agents injected after the administration of t-Pa exhibit a synergistic action. In stimulated models administration of one ionic contrast medium (Angiovist, Berlex, Wayne, NJ) and two nonionic contrast agents (Isovue-370, Squibb Diagnostics, New Brunswick, NJ; Omnipaque-350, Winthrop, NY) 15 minutes before the administration of t-PA resulted in marked enhancement of the lytic activity. Although the mechanism of this interaction is unknown at this time, it should be taken into consideration in the treatment of patients with myocardial infarction, in whom contrast agents are continually used to evaluate the therapeutic lysis. Furthermore, this interaction may be partly related to the therapeutic efficacy and/or hemorrhagic actions observed

  15. Survey of agent for intelligent information retrieval; Chiteki kensaku no tame no agent no chosa

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yazawa, T [Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, Tokyo (Japan)

    1996-09-01

    Development of agent systems has been surveyed, to classify and arrange characteristic functions of the agents, and to grasp the realization situation of these agents in their development. In addition, prospective functions of information retrieval systems using the agents at maximum and functions to be developed among these in the future are clarified. The agents are characterized by the expression function, communication function, planning function, adaptive function, and learning function. The agents are desired to be classified into interface agents whose works are to respond to individual workers, coordinator agents which conduct works with high pervasion, such as assignment of works and their control, and task agents which conduct specialized works for individual examples. Thus, design and configuration of the agent system, and improvement and expansion of system functions can be effectively and easily conducted. 52 refs., 5 figs., 3 tabs.

  16. Agent and multi-Agent systems in distributed systems digital economy and e-commerce

    CERN Document Server

    Hartung, Ronald

    2013-01-01

    Information and communication technology, in particular artificial intelligence, can be used to support economy and commerce using digital means. This book is about agents and multi-agent distributed systems applied to digital economy and e-commerce to meet, improve, and overcome challenges in the digital economy and e-commerce sphere. Agent and multi-agent solutions are applied in implementing real-life, exciting developments associated with the need to eliminate problems of distributed systems.   The book presents solutions for both technology and applications, illustrating the possible uses of agents in the enterprise domain, covering design and analytic methods, needed to provide a solid foundation required for practical systems. More specifically, the book provides solutions for the digital economy, e-sourcing clusters in network economy, and knowledge exchange between agents applicable to online trading agents, and security solutions to both digital economy and e-commerce. Furthermore, it offers soluti...

  17. Reasoning about emotional agents

    OpenAIRE

    Meyer, J.-J.

    2004-01-01

    In this paper we discuss the role of emotions in artificial agent design, and the use of logic in reasoning about the emotional or affective states an agent can reside in. We do so by extending the KARO framework for reasoning about rational agents appropriately. In particular we formalize in this framework how emotions are related to the action monitoring capabilities of an agent.

  18. Double agents and secret agents: the emerging fields of exogenous chemical exchange saturation transfer and T2-exchange magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents for molecular imaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daryaei, Iman; Pagel, Mark D

    2015-01-01

    Two relatively new types of exogenous magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents may provide greater impact for molecular imaging by providing greater specificity for detecting molecular imaging biomarkers. Exogenous chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) agents rely on the selective saturation of the magnetization of a proton on an agent, followed by chemical exchange of a proton from the agent to water. The selective detection of a biomarker-responsive CEST signal and an unresponsive CEST signal, followed by the ratiometric comparison of these signals, can improve biomarker specificity. We refer to this improvement as a "double-agent" approach to molecular imaging. Exogenous T 2 -exchange agents also rely on chemical exchange of protons between the agent and water, especially with an intermediate rate that lies between the slow exchange rates of CEST agents and the fast exchange rates of traditional T 1 and T 2 agents. Because of this intermediate exchange rate, these agents have been relatively unknown and have acted as "secret agents" in the contrast agent research field. This review exposes these secret agents and describes the merits of double agents through examples of exogenous agents that detect enzyme activity, nucleic acids and gene expression, metabolites, ions, redox state, temperature, and pH. Future directions are also provided for improving both types of contrast agents for improved molecular imaging and clinical translation. Therefore, this review provides an overview of two new types of exogenous contrast agents that are becoming useful tools within the armamentarium of molecular imaging.

  19. Diseño de una estrategia de comunicación basada en el uso de las redes sociales para la difusión del turismo alternativo con identidad indígena

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Imelda Hernández Morales

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available El propósito de este trabajo es presentar el diseño e implementación de una estrategia de comunicación basada en el uso de las redes sociales de la web 2.0 para promover el turismo alternativo con identidad indígena. Este proyecto ha sido desarrollado por estudiantes de las carreras de Comunicación, Mercadotecnia, y Animación y Arte Digital, bajo la coordinación de dos profesoras del Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Cuernavaca, quienes han aplicado el modelo pedagógico conocido como Aprendizaje -Servicio. Las redes sociales y este modelo pedagógico han permitido establecer canales de comunicación efectivos entre los integrantes de las comunidades indígenas de Amatlán de Quetzalcóatl y de San Sebastián Cuentepec, en el Estado de Morelos, México, y la academia. Esta estrategia ha contribuido al fortalecimiento de la memoria colectiva, impulsa el emprendedurismo social y promueve el ejercicio de un turismo responsable y comprometido con la sustentabilidad de estas comunidades indígenas.

  20. A CSP-Based Agent Modeling Framework for the Cougaar Agent-Based Architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gracanin, Denis; Singh, H. Lally; Eltoweissy, Mohamed; Hinchey, Michael G.; Bohner, Shawn A.

    2005-01-01

    Cognitive Agent Architecture (Cougaar) is a Java-based architecture for large-scale distributed agent-based applications. A Cougaar agent is an autonomous software entity with behaviors that represent a real-world entity (e.g., a business process). A Cougaar-based Model Driven Architecture approach, currently under development, uses a description of system's functionality (requirements) to automatically implement the system in Cougaar. The Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP) formalism is used for the formal validation of the generated system. Two main agent components, a blackboard and a plugin, are modeled as CSP processes. A set of channels represents communications between the blackboard and individual plugins. The blackboard is represented as a CSP process that communicates with every agent in the collection. The developed CSP-based Cougaar modeling framework provides a starting point for a more complete formal verification of the automatically generated Cougaar code. Currently it is used to verify the behavior of an individual agent in terms of CSP properties and to analyze the corresponding Cougaar society.

  1. Controle alternativo de helmintos de Astyanax cf. zonatus utilizando fitoterapia com sementes de abóbora (Cucurbita maxima e mamão (Carica papaya

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rodrigo Y. Fujimoto

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available O objetivo do trabalho foi avaliar a eficácia de sementes de abóbora e mamão desidratadas e moídas, no controle de helmintos parasitos de Astyanax cf. zonatus. Sessenta peixes foram distribuídos em doze recipientes, um peixe/litro. O experimento constituiu de quatro tratamentos e três repetições: TJ = peixes deixados em jejum; TRC = peixes alimentados com ração comercial; TSA = peixes alimentados ad libitum com abóbora, e TSM = peixes alimentados ad libitum com mamão. Após sete dias de alimentação, todos os peixes foram pesados, e o sangue foi retirado para extensão sanguínea. A eficácia foi determinada, verificando a presença de parasitos nas brânquias, no estômago e no intestino. Os peixes do TJ e TSM apresentaram perda de peso (39% e 25%, respectivamente. O TSA apresentou melhor eficácia no controle de nematóides do intestino e do estômago (95,26% e 92,48%. No controle de monogenéticos TSM promoveu 72% de eficácia. Na hematologia observou-se aumento de monócitos nos peixes do TSM e os valores de eosinofilos diminuíram nos tratamentos TSA, TSM e TRC. Assim pode-se concluir que a alimentação com abóbora pode ser utilizado como um controle alternativo eficaz de nematóides intestinais do lambari.

  2. Fundamental studies of oral contrast agents for MR. Comparison of manganese agent and iron agent

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fujita, Osamu; Hiraishi, Kumiko; Suginobu, Yoshito; Takeuchi, Masayasu; Narabayashi, Isamu

    1996-01-01

    We investigated and compared signal intensity and the effect of imaging the upper abdomen with blueberry juice (B.J.), a Mn agent utilizing the properties of paramagnetic metals, and FerriSeltz (F.S.), an iron agent. Since the relaxation effect was much stronger with B.J. than with F.S., the signal intensity required of a peroral contrast agent was able to be obtained at a much lower concentration of B.J. In imaging the upper abdomen, B.J. had a positive effect on imaging in T1-weighted images, and a negative effect in T2-weighted images. F.S. had a positive imaging effect in both, and because it showed extremely high signals in T2-weighted images, motion artifact arose. (author)

  3. Topical antifungal agents: an update.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diehl, K B

    1996-10-01

    So many topical antifungal agents have been introduced that it has become very difficult to select the proper agent for a given infection. Nonspecific agents have been available for many years, and they are still effective in many situations. These agents include Whitfield's ointment, Castellani paint, gentian violet, potassium permanganate, undecylenic acid and selenium sulfide. Specific antifungal agents include, among others, the polyenes (nystatin, amphotericin B), the imidazoles (metronidazole, clotrimazole) and the allylamines (terbinafine, naftifine). Although the choice of an antifungal agent should be based on an accurate diagnosis, many clinicians believe that topical miconazole is a relatively effective agent for the treatment of most mycotic infections. Terbinafine and other newer drugs have primary fungicidal effects. Compared with older antifungal agents, these newer drugs can be used in lower concentrations and shorter therapeutic courses. Studies are needed to evaluate the clinical efficacies and cost advantages of both newer and traditional agents.

  4. Métodos alternativos para contagem de micro-organismos em carcaças suínas Alternative methods for the enumeration of microorganisms in swine carcasses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cristhiane Stecanella de Oliveira Cattani

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Micro-organismos estão presentes em toda a cadeia de processamento da carne, desde a matéria-prima até o produto final e compete aos programas de qualidade industrial verificar se existe contaminação na matéria-prima e nos produtos finais para, dessa forma, garantir um produto seguro ao consumidor. Para tanto, faz-se necessário utilizar metodologias alternativas à convencional na rotina diagnóstica dos laboratórios para obtenção de resultados confiáveis e em menor tempo possível. Com objetivo de verificar e comparar a correlação e o tempo de processamento, da metodologia convencional com as metodologias alternativas do sistema PetrifilmTM (3M e sistema TEMPO® (bioMeriéux, foi realizada contagem de micro-organismos mesófilos, de enterobactérias e de Escherichia coli. As amostras foram coletadas da superfície de carcaças suínas em um abatedouro com Inspeção Federal no Estado de Santa Catarina, Brasil. A contagem de micro-organismos mesófilos, de enterobactérias e Escherichia coli foi feita por meio de ensaios realizados com os métodos alternativos TEMPO®, Petrifilm™ e o método convencional de contagem de micro-organismos em placas. Após análise estatística, o coeficiente de correlação de Pearson (r demonstrou fortes correlações, acima de 0.70 entre as metodologias utilizadas para a contagem de enterobactérias e micro-organismos mesófilos, porém demonstrou moderada correlação, entre 0.30 a 0.70, para o diagnóstico de Escherichia coli. O uso dos métodos alternativos testados em substituição à metodologia convencional pode ser utilizado para diagnóstico de Escherichia coli, enterobactérias e micro-organismos mesófilos, por haver concordância entre os resultados encontrados, acrescido da rapidez dessas metodologias com benefício direto para a indústria de carne suína.Micro-organisms are present throughout the meat processing chain, from raw materials until finished product. Industrial quality

  5. Interacting agents in finance

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hommes, C.; Durlauf, S.N.; Blume, L.E.

    2008-01-01

    Interacting agents in finance represent a behavioural, agent-based approach in which financial markets are viewed as complex adaptive systems consisting of many boundedly rational agents interacting through simple heterogeneous investment strategies, constantly adapting their behaviour in response

  6. Agent-based enterprise integration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    N. M. Berry; C. M. Pancerella

    1998-12-01

    The authors are developing and deploying software agents in an enterprise information architecture such that the agents manage enterprise resources and facilitate user interaction with these resources. The enterprise agents are built on top of a robust software architecture for data exchange and tool integration across heterogeneous hardware and software. The resulting distributed multi-agent system serves as a method of enhancing enterprises in the following ways: providing users with knowledge about enterprise resources and applications; accessing the dynamically changing enterprise; locating enterprise applications and services; and improving search capabilities for applications and data. Furthermore, agents can access non-agents (i.e., databases and tools) through the enterprise framework. The ultimate target of the effort is the user; they are attempting to increase user productivity in the enterprise. This paper describes their design and early implementation and discusses the planned future work.

  7. Radiopharmaceutical scanning agents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1976-01-01

    This invention is directed to dispersions useful in preparing radiopharmaceutical scanning agents, to technetium labelled dispersions, to methods for preparing such dispersions and to their use as scanning agents

  8. Agente adaptable y aprendizaje

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arturo Angel Lara Rivero

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available En este trabajo se contrasta el concepto de agente programado con el de agente complejo adaptable, se presenta una nueva visión ligada al aprendizaje y la estructura del agente. La imagen del agente se analiza considerando los modelos internos, la práctica, el concepto de rutina y la influencia en su comportamiento, y la importancia del aprendizaje ex ante y ex post. Por último se muestra que la resolución de problemas está sujeta a restricciones del agente y se describen las formas de explorar el espacio de soluciones mediante tres tipos de exploración: exhaustiva, aleatoria y selectiva.

  9. Three-agent Peer Evaluation

    OpenAIRE

    Vicki Knoblauch

    2008-01-01

    I show that every rule for dividing a dollar among three agents impartially (so that each agent's share depends only on her evaluation by her associates) underpays some agent by at least one-third of a dollar for some consistent profile of evaluations. I then produce an impartial division rule that never underpays or overpays any agent by more than one-third of a dollar, and for most consistent evaluation profiles does much better.

  10. QUALIDADE DE GOIABAS ‘PEDRO SATO’ EM FUNÇÃO DE TRATAMENTOS ALTERNATIVOS EM PÓS-COLHEITA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    MARIA CECÍLIA DE ARRUDA PALHARINI

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available RESUMO Este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar o efeito de produtos alternativos e termoterapia, isoladamente e em associação, na qualidade físico-química e no controle das podridões de goiabas ‘Pedro Sato’. Inicialmente, foi avaliado o efeito dos tratamentos em pós-colheita com cloreto de cálcio, fosfito de potássio, 1-metilciclopropeno (1-MCP, fécula de mandioca, etanol seguido de cloro (etanol+cloro e termoterapia, durante oito dias de armazenamento dos frutos a 22ºC. Em uma segunda etapa, quatro tratamentos foram selecionados (fécula de mandioca, 1-MCP, termoterapia e etanol+cloro e avaliados em associação de dois, aplicados de forma sequencial, durante oito dias de armazenamento dos frutos a 25ºC. Os tratamentos 1-MCP e fécula foram os mais eficazes em manter a qualidade físico-química das goiabas ‘Pedro Sato’, retardando a perda de massa, a mudança de coloração da casca e contribuindo para a retenção da firmeza. Constatou-se maior redução de frutos com podridão nos tratamentos com termoterapia, fécula de mandioca e 1-MCP. As associações de tratamento com 1-MCP/fécula de mandioca e termoterapia/fécula foram os tratamentos mais eficazes em manter a qualidade das goiabas ‘Pedro Sato’, retardando a perda de massa, a mudança de coloração da casca e a redução da firmeza. As associações de tratamento reduziram a ocorrência de podridões, com destaque para os tratamentos com etanol+cloro/termoterapia e termoterapia/fécula, que foram mais eficientes até o quarto dia de armazenamento. Observou-se correlação entre a incidência de podridões e os parâmetros cor da casca e firmeza da polpa para a maioria das associações de tratamentos. De maneira geral, recomenda-se o tratamento com termoterapia/fécula para goiabas armazenadas a 22-25ºC, como forma de manutenção da qualidade físico-química e atrasando em, pelo menos, dois dias os sintomas de podridões.

  11. Substratos alternativos na produção de mudas de flamboyant e ipê-mirim

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marília Dutra Massad

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available O trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar o efeito do uso de bagaço de cana, casca de urucum e serragem, em diferentes proporções, na composição de substratos alternativos, constituídos a partir da mistura do substrato comercial Rohrbacher®, para a produção de mudas de flamboyant e ipê-mirim. Foi adotado o delineamento experimental de blocos ao acaso, com três repetições, no esquema fatorial (5 x 2, sendo avaliados cinco tipos de substratos e duas espécies. Os substratos avaliados foram: 100% Rohrbacher®; 70% Rohrbacher® + 30% Bagaço de cana; 70% Rohrbacher® + 30% Casca de urucum; 70% Rohrbacher® + 30% Serragem; 50% Rohrbacher® + 16,67% Bagaço de cana + 16,67% Casca de urucum + 16,67% Serragem. Foram avaliados: altura da parte aérea; diâmetro de coleto; massa seca da parte aérea; massa seca da raiz e massa seca total, além das relações H/DC, H/MSPA, MSPA/MSR e Índice de Qualidade de Dickson. Os substratos Rohrbacher®, 70%R+30%CA e 70%R+30%UR promoveram maior ganho em altura nas mudas de flamboyant e ipê-mirim. O substrato Rohrbacher® proporcionou às mudas maior produção de MSR. O flamboyant apresentou valores superiores para H, DC, MSPA, MSR, MST MSPA/MSR e IQD, conferindo um padrão de qualidade de mudas superior ao ipê-mirim.Alternative substrates in the production of seedlings of flamboyant and ipe-mirimAbstract: The study aimed to assess the effect of using sugarcane bagasse, bark and sawdust annatto, in different proportions, the composition of alternative substrates, made from a mixture of commercial substrate Rohrbacher®, to produce flamboyant and seedlings ipe-mirim. The experimental design of randomized blocks was adopted with three replications, in a factorial scheme (5 x 2, being evaluated five types of substrates and two species. The substrates were evaluated: 100% Rohrbacher®; Rohrbacher® 70% + 30% Sugar cane bagasse; Rohrbacher® 70% + 30% annatto bark; Rohrbacher® 70% + 30% sawdust; 50

  12. A Comparison of the Democratic Security Policy in Colombia and Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-09-01

    program. Republica de Colombia. Departamento Nacional de Planeacion , Porgrama de Desarrollo Alternativo, Documento CONPES 2734-DNP-UDA-UJS, Bogotá...Ministry of Defense, 2003. Republica de Colombia. “Departmento Nacional de Planeacion , Porgrama de Desarrollo Alternativo, Documento CONPES 2734-DNP

  13. A Verification Logic for GOAL Agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hindriks, K. V.

    Although there has been a growing body of literature on verification of agents programs, it has been difficult to design a verification logic for agent programs that fully characterizes such programs and to connect agent programs to agent theory. The challenge is to define an agent programming language that defines a computational framework but also allows for a logical characterization useful for verification. The agent programming language GOAL has been originally designed to connect agent programming to agent theory and we present additional results here that GOAL agents can be fully represented by a logical theory. GOAL agents can thus be said to execute the corresponding logical theory.

  14. Extração e caracterização de hemiceluloses de Pinus radiata e sua viabilidade para a produção de bioetanol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pablo Reyes

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available As galactoglucomananas são as principais frações de hemiceluloses presentes nas madeiras moles e contêm, principalmente, as hexoses galactose, glicose e manose. O isolamento eficiente e seletivo dessas hemiceluloses é um obstáculo crítico a superar para sua utilização. Os objetivos deste trabalho foram extrair e caracterizar soluções aquosas ácidas e neutras de hemiceluloses de cavacos de madeira de Pinus radiata, bem como avaliar sua viabilidade para a produção de bioetanol. As hemiceluloses em P. radiata representam 26 g/100 g de madeira (base seca, e as hexoses são responsáveis por aproximadamente 64% dessa quantidade. De acordo com as diferentes condições de extração, cerca de 50% da fração hemicelulósica foi solubilizada e recuperada depois de uma precipitação com etanol. As frações recuperadas de hemiceluloses estavam na forma de oligômeros com peso molecular médio (Mw variando entre 4x10³ e 4x10(5 g/mol. Os oligômeros hemicelulósicos foram hidrolisados com ácido sulfúrico diluído e os hidrolisados concentrados até aproximadamente 70 g/L hexosas e fermentados pela levedura Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Os resultados de fermentação indicaram que os açúcares obtidos dos extratos ácidos e neutros foram fermentados com rendimentos máximos de etanol de 63% e 54% (22 g/L e 19 g/L, respectivamente. A conversão de hemiceluloses da madeira em etanol é viável, porém seu baixo rendimento faz que o processo não seja economicamente atrativo, razão por que melhorias no processo ou usos alternativos das hemiceluloses devem ser avaliados.

  15. Variations on agent-oriented programming

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dalia Baziukė

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Occurrence of the agent paradigm and its further applications have stimulated the emergence of new concepts and methodologies in computer science. Today terms like multi-agent system, agent-oriented methodology, and agent-oriented programming (AOP are widely used. The aim of this paper is to clarify the validity of usage of the terms AOP and AOP language. This is disclosed in two phases of an analysis process. Determining to which concepts, terms like agent, programming, object-oriented analysis and design, object-oriented programming, and agent-oriented analysis and design correspond is accomplished in the first phase. Analysis of several known agent system engineering methodologies in terms of key concepts used, final resulting artifacts, and their relationship with known programming paradigms and modern tools for agent system development is performed in the second phase. The research shows that in most cases in the final phase of agent system design and in the coding stage, the main artifact is an object, defined according to the rules of the object-oriented paradigm. Hence, we say that the computing society still does not have AOP owing to the lack of an AOP language. Thus, the term AOP is very often incorrectly assigned to agent system development frameworks that in most cases, transform agents into objects.DOI: 10.15181/csat.v5i1.1361

  16. Users, Bystanders and Agents

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Krummheuer, Antonia Lina

    2015-01-01

    Human-agent interaction (HAI), especially in the field of embodied conversational agents (ECA), is mainly construed as dyadic communication between a human user and a virtual agent. This is despite the fact that many application scenarios for future ECAs involve the presence of others. This paper...

  17. Crítica e contracrítica dos movimentos de crítica à dogmática jurídica: ensaio sobre as transições da escola do direito livre e do movimento do direito alternativo em homenagem a Amilton Bueno de Carvalho

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Salo de Carvalho

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available O ensaio problematiza a transição histórica que ocorreu, a partir de meados dos anos 90 no Brasil, do Movimento do Direito Alternativo ao garantismo jurídico-penal, desde o marco da criminologia crítica. A hipótese é a de que a adesão ao garantismo representou uma resposta à crítica promovida contra o movimento. São utilizadas as experiências históricas de Magnaud, Kantorowicz e Neumann como recursos interpretativos para compreender as transições e os sentidos da crítica: crítica negativa aos fundamentos e aos pressupostos do positivismo dogmático; crítica positiva de construção de uma práxis jurídica emancipatória.

  18. Effect of fungicides and alternative products in control of anthracnose and black spot of guavaEfeito de fungicidas e produtos alternativos no controle da antracnose e da pinta preta da goiaba

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ivan Herman Fischer

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available This work aimed to evaluate the efficiency of fungicides in controlling in vitro and in vivo the causal agents of anthracnose (Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and C. acutatum and black spot (Guignardia psidii and evaluate the effect of alternative products to control these diseases. Inhibition of mycelial growth of the pathogens was evaluated for ten fungicides at concentrations of 1, 10 and 100 mg L-1 of active ingredient in potato-dextrose-agar medium. The effectiveness of the fungicides azoxystrobin + difenoconazole, cyproconazole, pyraclostrobin, tebuconazole and tebuconazole + trifloxystrobin in controlling disease incidence and severity of anthracnose, through applications in the field, was measured in fruits collected at three stages of maturation, according to the skin color (dark green, light green and yellowish green. In postharvest dipping of fruits, the products evaluated were citric acid, peracetic acid, salicylic acid, sodium bicarbonate, chlorine dioxide, Ecolife® and chitosan. The fungicides azoxystrobin + difenoconazole, pyraclostrobin, tebuconazole and trifloxystrobin + tebuconazole were highly effective in inhibiting the in vitro mycelial growth of G. psidii and moderately to highly effective in inhibiting C. acutatum and C. gloeosporioides. In field conditions, the fungicide azoxystrobin + difenoconazole was effective in controlling anthracnose and black spot in fruit at three maturity stage (skin color yellowish green. The alternative products tested were ineffective in the curative control of anthracnose and early blight at postharvest of guava. Os objetivos deste trabalho foram avaliar a eficiência de fungicidas no controle in vitro e in vivo dos agentes causais da antracnose (Colletotrichum gloeosporioides e C. acutatum e da pinta preta (Guignardia psidii da goiaba e avaliar o efeito de produtos alternativos no controle pós-colheita destas doenças. A inibição do crescimento micelial dos patógenos foi avaliada para

  19. Reboxetina no tratamento da bulimia nervosa Reboxetine in the treatment of bulimia nervosa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Simone Mancini Castilho

    2003-06-01

    Full Text Available É vasta a literatura demonstrando a eficácia dos antidepressivos inibidores seletivos da recaptação de serotonina na Bulimia Nervosa, diminuindo a freqüência do comportamento alimentar compulsivo e dos vômitos. A boa resposta terapêutica aos agentes farmacológicos noradrenérgicos, como a desipramina e a reboxetina, embora menos encontrada na literatura, também já foi documentada. O presente relato de caso descreve o tratamento de uma paciente com Bulimia Nervosa utilizando-se reboxetina na dose de 4 a 8 mg ao dia. A resposta terapêutica vem confirmar os resultados favoráveis do uso desta droga no tratamento da Bulimia Nervosa.There is a substancial body of literature demonstrating the efficacy of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors antidepressants (SSRI in reducing binge eating and vomiting frequency in Bulimia Nervosa. Good therapeutic response to noradrenergic agents, like desipramine and reboxetine, though not frequently reported in literature, has already been demonstrated. This case report describes the treatment of Bulimia Nervosa with reboxetine (4 to 8 mg/day and its favorable therapeutic results.

  20. Hyperthermia and chemotherapy agent

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roizin-Towle, L.; Hall, E.J.

    1981-01-01

    The use of chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of cancer dates back to the late 19th century, but the modern era of chemotherapy drugs was ushered in during the 1940's with the development of the polyfunctional alkylating agent. Since then, numerous classes of drugs have evolved and the combined use of antineoplastic agents with other treatment modalities such as radiation or heat, remains a large relatively unexplored area. This approach, combining local hyperthermia with chemotherapy agents affords a measure of targeting and selective toxicity not previously available for drugs. In this paper, the effects of adriamycin, bleomycin and cis-platinum are examined. The adjuvant use of heat may also reverse the resistance of hypoxic cells noted for some chemotherapy agents

  1. Reasoning about emotional agents

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Meyer, J.-J.

    In this paper we discuss the role of emotions in artificial agent design, and the use of logic in reasoning about the emotional or affective states an agent can reside in. We do so by extending the KARO framework for reasoning about rational agents appropriately. In particular we formalize in

  2. Clustering recommendations to compute agent reputation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bedi, Punam; Kaur, Harmeet

    2005-03-01

    Traditional centralized approaches to security are difficult to apply to multi-agent systems which are used nowadays in e-commerce applications. Developing a notion of trust that is based on the reputation of an agent can provide a softer notion of security that is sufficient for many multi-agent applications. Our paper proposes a mechanism for computing reputation of the trustee agent for use by the trustier agent. The trustier agent computes the reputation based on its own experience as well as the experience the peer agents have with the trustee agents. The trustier agents intentionally interact with the peer agents to get their experience information in the form of recommendations. We have also considered the case of unintentional encounters between the referee agents and the trustee agent, which can be directly between them or indirectly through a set of interacting agents. The clustering is done to filter off the noise in the recommendations in the form of outliers. The trustier agent clusters the recommendations received from referee agents on the basis of the distances between recommendations using the hierarchical agglomerative method. The dendogram hence obtained is cut at the required similarity level which restricts the maximum distance between any two recommendations within a cluster. The cluster with maximum number of elements denotes the views of the majority of recommenders. The center of this cluster represents the reputation of the trustee agent which can be computed using c-means algorithm.

  3. Agents Play Mix-game

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gou, Chengling

    In recent years, economics and finance see the shift of paradigm from representative agent models to heterogeneous agent models [1, 2]. More and more economists and physicists made efforts in research on heterogeneous agent models for financial markets. Minority game (MG) proposed by D. Challet, and Y. C. Zhang [3] is an example among such efforts. Challet and Zhang's MG model, together with the original bar model of Arthur, attracts a lot of following studies [4-6]. Given MG's richness and yet underlying simplicity, MG has also received much attention as a financial market model [4]. MG comprises an odd number of agents choosing repeatedly between the options of buying (1) and selling (0) a quantity of a risky asset. The agents continually try to make the minority decision, i.e. buy assets when the majority of other agents are selling, and sell when the majority of other agents are buying. Neil F. Johnson [4, 5] and coworkers extended MG by allowing a variable number of active traders at each timestep— they called their modified game as the Grand Canonical Minority Game (GCMG). GCMG, and to a lesser extent the basic MG itself, can reproduce the stylized facts of financial markets, such as volatility clustering and fat-tail distributions.

  4. Agent planning in AgScala

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tošić, Saša; Mitrović, Dejan; Ivanović, Mirjana

    2013-10-01

    Agent-oriented programming languages are designed to simplify the development of software agents, especially those that exhibit complex, intelligent behavior. This paper presents recent improvements of AgScala, an agent-oriented programming language based on Scala. AgScala includes declarative constructs for managing beliefs, actions and goals of intelligent agents. Combined with object-oriented and functional programming paradigms offered by Scala, it aims to be an efficient framework for developing both purely reactive, and more complex, deliberate agents. Instead of the Prolog back-end used initially, the new version of AgScala relies on Agent Planning Package, a more advanced system for automated planning and reasoning.

  5. Multi-Agent Systems for E-Commerce

    OpenAIRE

    Solodukha, T. V.; Sosnovskiy, O. A.; Zhelezko, B. A.

    2009-01-01

    The article focuses on multi-agent systems (MAS) and domains that can benefit from multi-agent technology. In the last few years, the agent based modeling (ABM) community has developed several practical agent based modeling toolkits that enable individuals to develop agent-based applications. The comparison of agent-based modeling toolkits is given. Multi-agent systems are designed to handle changing and dynamic business processes. Any organization with complex and distributed business pro...

  6. Antiinflamatórios não-hormonais: inibidores da ciclooxigenase 2 Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs: cyclooxygenase 2 inhibitors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Odete Esteves Hilário

    2006-11-01

    Full Text Available OBJETIVO: Analisar os antiinflamatórios não-hormonais (AINH inibidores seletivos da Cox 2 quanto ao mecanismo de ação, principais indicações, posologia e efeitos adversos mais comuns. FONTES DOS DADOS: MEDLINE e LILACS, sites da Food and Drug Administration (FDA e da Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (ANVISA. Foram selecionados os artigos mais importantes, com destaque para as publicações dos últimos 5 anos. SÍNTESE DOS DADOS: As principais indicações dos AINH são o controle da dor e da inflamação aguda e crônica. Não existem evidências que demonstrem maior efetividade de um AINH sobre outro. Até a presente data, nenhum inibidor da Cox2 foi liberado para uso na faixa etária pediátrica. Apenas o meloxicam e o etoricoxibe podem ser prescritos para adolescentes (13 e 16 anos, respectivamente. Os inibidores seletivos da Cox 2 são indicados em pacientes com efeitos adversos comprovadamente relacionados aos AINH não seletivos. Em alguns casos de alergia à aspirina, os Cox 2 seletivos podem ser prescritos, mas seu uso deve ser cuidadoso. Os principais efeitos adversos incluem os cardiovasculares e os fenômenos trombóticos. CONCLUSÕES: Os inibidores seletivos da Cox 2 são medicamentos que vêm sendo utilizados em algumas situações clínicas bem determinadas e podem oferecer algumas vantagens com relação aos AINH não seletivos. No entanto, devido ao custo mais elevado e aos potenciais efeitos adversos cardiovasculares, seu emprego deve ser criterioso.OBJECTIVE: To analyze selective COX 2 inhibitor nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID in terms of their mechanism of action, principal indications, posology and most common adverse effects. SOURCES: MEDLINE and LILACS databases and Food and Drug Administration (FDA and National Agency for Sanitary Vigilance (ANVISA - Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária websites. The most important articles were selected and preference was given to articles published

  7. Peróxido de hidrogênio como agente despirogenizante de componentes para produtos médico-hospitalares Hydrogen peroxide as depyrogenation agent for medical devices components

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Terezinha de Jesus A. Pinto

    1995-02-01

    Full Text Available A atual busca de solventes alternativos aos fluorados, frente ao problema de depleção de ozônio da estratosfera, obriga a desenvolvimentos de processos aplicáveis à fabricação de produtos médico-hospitalares. Frente ao desafio, e considerando a água estar sendo opção de escolha de outros segmentos industriais, preocupa a rápida proliferação microbiana na mesma, tornando-a fonte potencial de endotoxinas. Tal risco incompatibiliza-se por exemplo, com a produção de itens destinados ao emprego em procedimentos cirúrgicos da área cardiovascular. Desta forma foi ralizada pesquisa com o objetivo de investigar possibilidade de emprego da água como agente de limpeza de componentes para tais produtos, desde que incorporada de peróxido de hidrogênio. Trabalhou-se inoculando água e soluções de peróxido com níveis de 0,1, 0,25, 0,5 e 1,0 UE/ml; obteve-se a confirmação de efetividade de ação a concentração de 5% de peróxido de hidrogênio, através de determinação analítica pelo método "in vitro". Investigou-se, em peças injetadas em policarbonato, destinadas a fabricação de oxigenadores e reservatórios sangüíneos, inoculadas com endotoxina, a efetividade no uso do peróxido. Os resultados permitem concluir pela possibilidade de sucesso do processo proposto, seja pelo aspecto biológico ou pela remoção de sujidades.The current search for alternative solvents to fluorina ted products, in face of the depletion of ozone in the stratosphere calls for the development of alternative processes applicable to the manufacture of medical devices. In view of the challenge and as water is serving particularly as the choice for other industrial segments, the fast macrobial proliferation in it is of concern, as it is a potencial source of endotoxins. Such a risk is inconsistent with the production of items designed for example, for use in surgical procedures in the cardio-vascular field. Thus research was undertaken for the

  8. Automatic Generation of Agents using Reusable Soft Computing Code Libraries to develop Multi Agent System for Healthcare

    OpenAIRE

    Priti Srinivas Sajja

    2015-01-01

    This paper illustrates architecture for a multi agent system in healthcare domain. The architecture is generic and designed in form of multiple layers. One of the layers of the architecture contains many proactive, co-operative and intelligent agents such as resource management agent, query agent, pattern detection agent and patient management agent. Another layer of the architecture is a collection of libraries to auto-generate code for agents using soft computing techni...

  9. Effectiveness testing of spill-treating agents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fingas, M.F.; Stoodley, R.; Laroche, N.

    1990-01-01

    Laboratory effectiveness tests are described for four classes of spill-treating agents: solidifiers, demulsifying agents, surface-washing agents and dispersants. Many treating agents in these four categories have been tested for effectiveness and the results are presented. Solidifiers or gelling agents solidify oil, requiring a large amount of agent to solidify oil-ranging between 16% by weight, to over 200%. Emulsion breakers prevent or reverse the formation of water-in-oil emulsions. A newly-developed effectiveness test shows that only one product is highly effective; however, many products will work, but require large amounts of spill-treating agent. Surfactant--containing materials are of two types, surface-washing agents and dispersants. Testing has shown that an agent that is a good dispersant is conversely a poor surface-washing agent, and vice versa. Tests of surface-washing agents show that only a few agents have effectiveness of 25-40%, where this effectiveness is the percentage of heavy oil removed from a test surface. Results using the 'swirling flask' test for dispersant effectiveness are reported. Heavy oils show effectiveness values of about 1%, medium crudes of about 10%, light crude oils of about 30% and very light oils of about 90%. (author)

  10. BSL-3 laboratory practices in the United States: comparison of select agent and non-select agent facilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richards, Stephanie L; Pompei, Victoria C; Anderson, Alice

    2014-01-01

    New construction of biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) laboratories in the United States has increased in the past decade to facilitate research on potential bioterrorism agents. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention inspect BSL-3 facilities and review commissioning documentation, but no single agency has oversight over all BSL-3 facilities. This article explores the extent to which standard operating procedures in US BSL-3 facilities vary between laboratories with select agent or non-select agent status. Comparisons are made for the following variables: personnel training, decontamination, personal protective equipment (PPE), medical surveillance, security access, laboratory structure and maintenance, funding, and pest management. Facilities working with select agents had more complex training programs and decontamination procedures than non-select agent facilities. Personnel working in select agent laboratories were likely to use powered air purifying respirators, while non-select agent laboratories primarily used N95 respirators. More rigorous medical surveillance was carried out in select agent workers (although not required by the select agent program) and a higher level of restrictive access to laboratories was found. Most select agent and non-select agent laboratories reported adequate structural integrity in facilities; however, differences were observed in personnel perception of funding for repairs. Pest management was carried out by select agent personnel more frequently than non-select agent personnel. Our findings support the need to promote high quality biosafety training and standard operating procedures in both select agent and non-select agent laboratories to improve occupational health and safety.

  11. Agent Persuasion Mechanism of Acquaintance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jinghua, Wu; Wenguang, Lu; Hailiang, Meng

    Agent persuasion can improve negotiation efficiency in dynamic environment based on its initiative and autonomy, and etc., which is being affected much more by acquaintance. Classification of acquaintance on agent persuasion is illustrated, and the agent persuasion model of acquaintance is also illustrated. Then the concept of agent persuasion degree of acquaintance is given. Finally, relative interactive mechanism is elaborated.

  12. Falência é fracasso? O caso da Associação dos Produtores Alternativos de Ouro Preto do Oeste, Rondônia, Brasil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Florent Kohler

    Full Text Available O artigo examina a falência da Associação dos Produtores Alternativos (APA de Ouro Preto do Oeste, em Rondônia, buscando identificar elementos estruturantes e explicativos das relações entre atores locais e evidenciando seus próprios quadros interpretativos. A partir de um breve histórico da implantação do Projeto Integrado de Colonização (PIC Ouro Preto do Oeste, são destacadas a origem social dos colonos, sua cultura política e o tipo de capital social construído nos assentamentos. Por outro lado, apresenta-se a lógica das instituições envolvidas no desenvolvimento desse projeto. As relações entre os diversos atores institucionais são apresentadas como uma rede multiconectada, unindo os níveis local, regional, nacional e internacional. A análise mostra o descompasso entre a visão econômica das instituições de apoio, voltadas para a produção, e as aspirações dos produtores da APA. Ao final, concluímos que a falência pode estar associada a dois fatores interligados: a 'desconfiança' dos produtores da APA em relação aos órgãos de apoio à agricultura familiar (Comissão Executiva do Plano da Lavoura Cacaueira, Agência de Defesa Sanitária Agrosilvopastoril do Estado de Rondônia, Empresa de Assistência Técnica e Extensão Rural e a ausência dos governos estadual e municipal no grupo de atores do sistema de redes multiconectadas, no qual poderiam ter desempenhado um papel de mediadores entre aquelas diferentes aspirações. Finalmente, a questão colocada relativiza a noção de 'fracasso' associada à falência.

  13. Smart Agents and Sentiment in the Heterogeneous Agent Model

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Vácha, Lukáš; Baruník, Jozef; Vošvrda, Miloslav

    -, č. 81 (2010), s. 39-40 ISSN 0926-4981 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA402/09/0965; GA ČR GP402/08/P207 Grant - others:GAUK(CZ) GAUK 46108 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : Smart traders * price movements * smart traders concept Subject RIV: AH - Economics http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2010/E/vacha- smart agent s and sentiment in the heterogeneous agent model.pdf

  14. 10th KES Conference on Agent and Multi-Agent Systems : Technologies and Applications

    CERN Document Server

    Chen-Burger, Yun-Heh; Howlett, Robert; Jain, Lakhmi

    2016-01-01

    The modern economy is driven by technologies and knowledge. Digital technologies can free, shift and multiply choices, often intruding on the space of other industries, by providing new ways of conducting business operations and creating values for customers and companies. The topics covered in this volume include software agents, multi-agent systems, agent modelling, mobile and cloud computing, big data analysis, business intelligence, artificial intelligence, social systems, computer embedded systems and nature inspired manufacturing, etc. that contribute to the modern Digital Economy. This volume highlights new trends and challenges in agent, new digital and knowledge economy research and includes 28 papers classified in the following specific topics: business process management, agent-based modeling and simulation, anthropic-oriented computing, learning paradigms, business informatics and gaming, digital economy, and advances in networked virtual enterprises. Published papers were selected for presentatio...

  15. Security Measures to Protect Mobile Agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dadhich, Piyanka; Govil, M. C.; Dutta, Kamlesh

    2010-11-01

    The security issues of mobile agent systems have embarrassed its widespread implementation. Mobile agents that move around the network are not safe because the remote hosts that accommodate the agents initiates all kinds of attacks. These hosts try to analyze the agent's decision logic and their accumulated data. So, mobile agent security is the most challenging unsolved problems. The paper analyzes various security measures deeply. Security especially the attacks performed by hosts to the visiting mobile agent (the malicious hosts problem) is a major obstacle that prevents mobile agent technology from being widely adopted. Being the running environment for mobile agent, the host has full control over them and could easily perform many kinds of attacks against them.

  16. Mobile agent location in distributed environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fountoukis, S. G.; Argyropoulos, I. P.

    2012-12-01

    An agent is a small program acting on behalf of a user or an application which plays the role of a user. Artificial intelligence can be encapsulated in agents so that they can be capable of both behaving autonomously and showing an elementary decision ability regarding movement and some specific actions. Therefore they are often called autonomous mobile agents. In a distributed system, they can move themselves from one processing node to another through the interconnecting network infrastructure. Their purpose is to collect useful information and to carry it back to their user. Also, agents are used to start, monitor and stop processes running on the individual interconnected processing nodes of computer cluster systems. An agent has a unique id to discriminate itself from other agents and a current position. The position can be expressed as the address of the processing node which currently hosts the agent. Very often, it is necessary for a user, a processing node or another agent to know the current position of an agent in a distributed system. Several procedures and algorithms have been proposed for the purpose of position location of mobile agents. The most basic of all employs a fixed computing node, which acts as agent position repository, receiving messages from all the moving agents and keeping records of their current positions. The fixed node, responds to position queries and informs users, other nodes and other agents about the position of an agent. Herein, a model is proposed that considers pairs and triples of agents instead of single ones. A location method, which is investigated in this paper, attempts to exploit this model.

  17. Stabilized radiographic scanning agents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fawzi, M.B.

    1982-01-01

    Stable compositions useful as technetium 99m-based scintigraphic agents comprise gentisic acid or a pharmaceutically-acceptable salt or ester thereof in combination with a pertechnetate reducing agent or dissolved in pertechnetate-99m (sup(99m)TcOsub(4)sup(-)) solution. The compositions are especially useful in combination with a phosphate or phosphonate material that carries the radionuclide to bone, thus providing a skeletal imaging agent

  18. Use of alternative media and different types of recipients in a laboratory culture of Ankistrodesmus gracilis (Reinsch Korshikov (Chlorophyceae = Utilização de meios alternativos e diferentes tipos de recipientes no cultivo de Ankistrodesmus gracilis (Reinsch Korshikov (Chlorophyceae em laboratório.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lucia Helena Sipauba-Tavares

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available A laboratory culture of Ankistrodesmus gracilis algae was evaluated by studying the biology of the species and its chemical composition in a traditional medium (CHU12 and in two alternative culture media, NPK (20-5-20 and macrophyte (Eichhornia crassipes + NPK, in three different types of recipients (fiberglass, carboy and plastic bag. First peak in the growth curve of Ankistrodesmus gracilis occurred on the ninth day in macrophyte + NPK medium (74.16 x 105 cells mL-1 in a fiberglass recipient. However, highest density (p 0.05 in culture media in the three recipients. Protein and fiber were similar (p > 0.05 in the treatments, but lipids were higher (p O objetivo do estudo foi avaliar os aspectos biológicos e a composição química da alga Ankistrodesmus gracilis em laboratório utilizando um meio tradicional (CHU12 e dois meios alternativos, NPK (20-5-20 e macrófita (Eichhornia crassipes + NPK em três diferentes tipos de recipientes (cuba de fibra de vidro translúcido, garrafões e saco plástico. O primeiro pico de densidade celular de Ankistrodesmus gracilis ocorreu no nono dia da curva de crescimento em meio macrófita+NPK (74,16 x 105 células mL-1 no recipiente de fibra de vidro, porém a maior densidade (p 0,05 nos três recipientes e meios de cultivo. Os teores de proteína e fibra foram similares (p > 0,05 nos tratamentos utilizados, já os de lipídios foram mais elevados (p < 0,05 no meio NPK. Os teores médios de nitrato, amônia, fósforo total e ortofosfato estiveram acima de 1 mg L-1 no meio NPK (p < 0,01. Os resultados obtidos neste estudo indicam a possibilidade do uso de meios alternativos como o NPK e macrophyte +NPK para o cultivo de A. gracilis em larga escala cultivados nos três tipos de recipientes, porém, em saco plástico o custo é baixo e ocupa menos espaço em cultivo de laboratório.

  19. Radiographic scintiscanning agent

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bevan, J.A.

    1979-01-01

    A new technetium-based scintiscanning agent has been prepared comprising a water soluble sup(99m)Tc-methanehydroxydiphosphonate in combination with a reducing agent selected from stannous, ferrous, chromous and titanous salts. As an additional stabilizer salts and esters of gentisic or ascorbic acids have been used. (E.G.)

  20. Agent-Based Optimization

    CERN Document Server

    Jędrzejowicz, Piotr; Kacprzyk, Janusz

    2013-01-01

    This volume presents a collection of original research works by leading specialists focusing on novel and promising approaches in which the multi-agent system paradigm is used to support, enhance or replace traditional approaches to solving difficult optimization problems. The editors have invited several well-known specialists to present their solutions, tools, and models falling under the common denominator of the agent-based optimization. The book consists of eight chapters covering examples of application of the multi-agent paradigm and respective customized tools to solve  difficult optimization problems arising in different areas such as machine learning, scheduling, transportation and, more generally, distributed and cooperative problem solving.

  1. 2015 Special Sessions of the 13th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems

    CERN Document Server

    Hernández, Josefa; Mathieu, Philippe; Campbell, Andrew; Fernández-Caballero, Antonio; Moreno, María; Julián, Vicente; Alonso-Betanzos, Amparo; Jiménez-López, María; Botti, Vicente; Trends in Practical Applications of Agents, Multi-Agent Systems and Sustainability : the PAAMS Collection

    2015-01-01

    This volume presents the papers that have been accepted for the 2015 special sessions of the 13th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, held at University of Salamanca, Spain, at 3rd-5th June, 2015: Agents Behaviours and Artificial Markets (ABAM); Agents and Mobile Devices (AM); Multi-Agent Systems and Ambient Intelligence (MASMAI); Web Mining and Recommender systems (WebMiRes); Learning, Agents and Formal Languages (LAFLang); Agent-based Modeling of Sustainable Behavior and Green Economies (AMSBGE); Emotional Software Agents (SSESA) and Intelligent Educational Systems (SSIES). The volume also includes the paper accepted for the Doctoral Consortium in PAAMS 2015. PAAMS, the International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems is an evolution of the International Workshop on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. PAAMS is an international yearly tribune to present, to discuss, and to disseminate the latest develo...

  2. Combinando intuição e objetividade na construção de cenários alternativos Combining intuition with objectivity in building scenarios

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José Roberto Ribas

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available O planejamento por meio de cenários completou 40 anos de existência. No período compreendido entre seu surgimento, em 1967, e o final da década de 70, observou-se um esforço analítico no sentido de aprimorar a técnica como ferramenta de apoio à decisão. Tal mobilização resultou em três linhas metodológicas distintas - as escolas de lógica intuitiva, de tendências probabilísticas e de análise prospectiva. Desde então, a preferência pela adoção da técnica dos cenários no planejamento não cresceu como se esperava. A limitação no seu uso é explicada pelo sucesso moderado que seus praticantes tiveram em balancear a tecnicalidade excessiva por um lado e a superficialidade relapsa por outro. Ademais, Millett (2003 destaca a reclamação da média gerência de que os cenários não tratam das situações competitivas e tampouco das decisões críticas que eles enfrentam em seus negócios. O autor sugere alguns desafios a serem enfrentados: (a resolver a confusão sobre a definição de cenário e as metodologias para a sua construção; (b esclarecer e ampliar as aplicações apropriadas aos cenários; e (c reduzir os recursos requeridos para executar o planejamento por cenários. O presente artigo tem por objetivo propor um procedimento para a construção de cenários que atenda a esses desafios. Por meio de uma abordagem exploratória, a metodologia proposta combina o julgamento subjetivo, obtido a partir da intuição dos especialistas, com métodos analíticos. O procedimento passo a passo foi aplicado ao longo da construção dos cenários alternativos para o consumo residencial de energia elétrica, no Estado do Paraná, até o ano 2015. As entrevistas estruturadas envolveram 14 especialistas selecionados por julgamento, e as informações secundárias foram coletadas de bases de dados socioeconômicos e do setor elétrico. Ao final, três cenários alternativos, com probabilidades subjetivas associadas, resultaram de

  3. Agent independent task planning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, William S.

    1990-01-01

    Agent-Independent Planning is a technique that allows the construction of activity plans without regard to the agent that will perform them. Once generated, a plan is then validated and translated into instructions for a particular agent, whether a robot, crewmember, or software-based control system. Because Space Station Freedom (SSF) is planned for orbital operations for approximately thirty years, it will almost certainly experience numerous enhancements and upgrades, including upgrades in robotic manipulators. Agent-Independent Planning provides the capability to construct plans for SSF operations, independent of specific robotic systems, by combining techniques of object oriented modeling, nonlinear planning and temporal logic. Since a plan is validated using the physical and functional models of a particular agent, new robotic systems can be developed and integrated with existing operations in a robust manner. This technique also provides the capability to generate plans for crewmembers with varying skill levels, and later apply these same plans to more sophisticated robotic manipulators made available by evolutions in technology.

  4. A Framework for Organization-Aware Agents

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Andreas Schmidt; Dignum, Virginia; Villadsen, Jørgen

    2016-01-01

    This short paper introduces and summarizes the AORTA reasoning framework that can be integrated into BDI-agents to enable organizational decision-making. This work has recently been published in the Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (JAAMAS), as [3].......This short paper introduces and summarizes the AORTA reasoning framework that can be integrated into BDI-agents to enable organizational decision-making. This work has recently been published in the Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (JAAMAS), as [3]....

  5. A Comparison of Organization-Centered and Agent-Centered Multi-Agent Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Andreas Schmidt; Villadsen, Jørgen

    2013-01-01

    Whereas most classical multi-agent systems have the agent in center, there has recently been a development towards focusing more on the organization of the system, thereby allowing the designer to focus on what the system goals are, without considering how the goals should be fulfilled. We have d...

  6. Contrast agents for MRI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bonnemain, B.

    1994-01-01

    Contrast agents MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) have been developed to improve the diagnostic information obtained by this technic. They mainly interact on T1 and T2 parameters and increase consequently normal to abnormal tissues contrast. The paramagnetic agents which mainly act on longitudinal relaxation rate (T1) are gadolinium complexes for which stability is the main parameter to avoid any release of free gadolinium. The superparamagnetic agents that decrease signal intensity by an effect on transversal relaxation rate (T2) are developed for liver, digestive and lymph node imaging. Many area of research are now opened for optimal use of present and future contrast agents in MRI. (author). 28 refs., 4 tabs

  7. Study of Crossling Agent and Couplink Agent Synergism on Mechanical Properties of HDPE-Cu Composites

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mashuri; Sujud, A.A.; Karo Karo, Aloma

    2001-01-01

    The effects of crosslink agents, coupling agents and synergism on mechanical properties of HDPE-Cu composites materials has been investigated. The crosslink was made with dicumyl peroxide as crosslink agents of 2% concentration, so the interface adhesion of matrix-filler was made with 3-amino propyl triethoxysilane as coupling agents of 0.5% concentration. The results of research's showed, that the crosslink and interface adhesion of matrix-filler can increase tensile strength and elongation at break of HDPE-Cu composites. The synergism of two agents can increase tensile strength to 20% and elongation at break to 23% of HDPE-Cu composites materials

  8. Overview of shoreline cleaning agents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Clayton, J.

    1992-01-01

    Chemical cleaning agents may be used to promote release of stranded oil from shorelines for reasons including biological sensitivity of indigenous fauna and flora to the oil, amenity considerations of the shoreline, or concern about refloating of the oil and subsequent stranding on adjacent shorelines. While use of chemical cleaning agents may be appropriate under proper toxic responses in circumstances, certain limitations should be recognized. The potential for toxic responses in indigenous fauna and flora to the cleaning agents must be considered. Enhanced penetration of oil into permeable shorelines following treatment with chemical cleaning agents also is not desirable. However, if conditions related to toxicity and substrate permeability are determined to be acceptable, the use of chemical cleaning agents for treatment of stranded oil can be considered. Chemical agents for cleaning oiled shorelines can be grouped into three categories: (1) non-surfactant-based solvents, (2) chemical dispersants, and (3) formulations especially designed to release stranded oil from shoreline substrates (i.e., shoreline-cleaning-agents). Depending on the specific circumstances present on an oiled shoreline, it is generally desirable that chemical agents used for cleaning will release oil from shoreline substrate(s) to surface waters. Recovery of the oil can then be accomplished by mechanical procedures such as booming and skimming operations

  9. Radiographic scanning agent

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tofe, A.J.

    1976-01-01

    A stable radiographic scanning agent on a sup(99m)Tc basis has been developed. The substance contains a pertechnetate reduction agent, tin(II)-chloride, chromium(II)-chloride, or iron(II)-sulphate, as well as an organospecific carrier and ascorbic acid or a pharmacologically admissible salt or ester of ascorbic acid. (VJ) [de

  10. Agent-Supported Mission Operations Teamwork

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malin, Jane T.

    2003-01-01

    This slide presentation reviews the development of software agents to support of mission operations teamwork. The goals of the work was to make automation by agents easy to use, supervise and direct, manage information and communication to decrease distraction, interruptions, workload and errors, reduce mission impact of off-nominal situations and increase morale and decrease turnover. The accomplishments or the project are: 1. Collaborative agents - mixed initiative and creation of instructions for mediating agent 2. Methods for prototyping, evaluating and evolving socio-technical systems 3. Technology infusion: teamwork tools in mISSIons 4. Demonstrations in simulation testbed An example of the use of agent is given, the use of an agent to monitor a N2 tank leak. An incomplete instruction to the agent is handled with mediating assistants, or Intelligent Briefing and Response Assistant (IBRA). The IBRA Engine also watches data stream for triggers and executes Act-Whenever actions. There is also a Briefing and Response Instruction (BRI) which is easy for a discipline specialist to create through a BRI editor.

  11. Agent Communications using Distributed Metaobjects

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Goldsmith, Steven Y.; Spires, Shannon V.

    1999-06-10

    There are currently two proposed standards for agent communication languages, namely, KQML (Finin, Lobrou, and Mayfield 1994) and the FIPA ACL. Neither standard has yet achieved primacy, and neither has been evaluated extensively in an open environment such as the Internet. It seems prudent therefore to design a general-purpose agent communications facility for new agent architectures that is flexible yet provides an architecture that accepts many different specializations. In this paper we exhibit the salient features of an agent communications architecture based on distributed metaobjects. This architecture captures design commitments at a metaobject level, leaving the base-level design and implementation up to the agent developer. The scope of the metamodel is broad enough to accommodate many different communication protocols, interaction protocols, and knowledge sharing regimes through extensions to the metaobject framework. We conclude that with a powerful distributed object substrate that supports metaobject communications, a general framework can be developed that will effectively enable different approaches to agent communications in the same agent system. We have implemented a KQML-based communications protocol and have several special-purpose interaction protocols under development.

  12. Odor Classification using Agent Technology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sigeru OMATU

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available In order to measure and classify odors, Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM can be used. In the present study, seven QCM sensors and three different odors are used. The system has been developed as a virtual organization of agents using an agent platform called PANGEA (Platform for Automatic coNstruction of orGanizations of intElligent Agents. This is a platform for developing open multi-agent systems, specifically those including organizational aspects. The main reason for the use of agents is the scalability of the platform, i.e. the way in which it models the services. The system models functionalities as services inside the agents, or as Service Oriented Approach (SOA architecture compliant services using Web Services. This way the adaptation of the odor classification systems with new algorithms, tools and classification techniques is allowed.

  13. Believable Social and Emotional Agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1996-05-01

    While building tools to support the creation of believable emotional agents, I had to make a number of important design decisions . Before describing...processing systems, it is difficult to give an artist direct control over the emotion - al aspects of the character. By making these decisions explicit, I hope...Woody on “Cheers”). Believable Agents BELIEVABLE SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL AGENTS 11 Lesson: We don’t want agent architectures that enforce rationality and

  14. The agent-relative/agent-neutral distinction: my two sense(s) | Lerm ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Careful analysis of various metaethics supports that there are these two senses – analysis, in particular, of a neo-Kantian metaethic, according to which reasons are agent-relative in the dependence sense but agent-neutral in the homogeneous sense, and – perhaps surprisingly – of Utilitarianism, according to which ...

  15. SECOND BUYING AGENT

    CERN Multimedia

    SPL - SERVICES ACHATS

    2000-01-01

    Last year the buying agent LOGITRADE started operations on the CERN site, processing purchasing requests for well-defined families of products up to a certain value. It was planned from the outset that a second buying agent would be brought in to handle the remaining product families. So, according to that plan, the company CHARLES KENDALL will be commencing operations at CERN on 8 May 2000 in Building 73, 1st floor, offices 31 and 35 (phone and fax numbers to be announced).Each buying agent will have its own specific list of product families and will handle purchasing requests up to 10'000 CHF.Whenever possible they will provide the requested supplies at a price (including the cost of their own services) which must be equivalent to or lower than the price mentioned on the purchasing request, changing the supplier if necessary. If a lower price cannot be obtained, agents will provide the necessary administrative support free of charge.To ensure that all orders are processed in the best possible conditions, us...

  16. A waterproofing agent

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shchipanov, A.I.; Bass, U.M.; Belousov, E.D.; Chernova, S.P.; Gioev, K.A.; Perlin, L.M.; Shapiro, B.O.; Silantev, U.R.

    1979-12-25

    A waterproofing agent is proposed with improved physiomechanical properties. The agent contains (by parts): bitumens: 100; emulsifier: .6-5; polyvinylpyrrolidone: .4-8; synthetic latex: 5.24; a corrosion inhibitor: .2-10; SPL methyl methacrylate with chloroprene: 2.24; hydrochlorinated amine of adduct diethylene triamine with diglycidyl diamine: 2-10, water: 118-220. The agent is prepared using either periodic or continuous action in emulsifying dispersion machines. The bitumen is dispersed in the machine in an aqueous emulsifying solution in which polyvinylpyrrolidone and the corrosion inihibitor are first introduced. Then a synthetic latex solution is introduced into the bitumen emulsion while being mixed in rotor-type turbulent mixers; a solution and a hydrochlorinated amine of adduct diethylene triamine with diglycidyl diamine solution until a homogeneous mixture is obtained. Example: a waterproofing agent is obtained in parts: bitumen 100, emulsifyer (oxidized petrolatum): .6; polyvinylpyrrolidone: .4; synthetic latex (nitrile): 5; corrosion inhibitor (guanidine chromate): .2, SPL:2; and water 118. The properties of the proposed composition are better than the properties of the composition currently used.

  17. Agent control of cooperating satellites

    OpenAIRE

    Lincoln, N.K.; Veres, S.M.; Dennis, Louise; Fisher, Michael; Lisitsa, Alexei

    2011-01-01

    A novel, hybrid, agent architecture for (small)swarms of satellites has been developed. The software architecture for each satellite comprises ahigh-level rational agent linked to a low-level control system. The rational agent forms dynamicgoals, decides how to tackle them and passes theactual implementation of these plans to the control layer. The rational agent also has access to aMatLabmodel of the satellite dynamics, thus allowing it to carry out selective hypothetical reasoningabout pote...

  18. Assurance in Agent-Based Systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gilliom, Laura R.; Goldsmith, Steven Y.

    1999-05-10

    Our vision of the future of information systems is one that includes engineered collectives of software agents which are situated in an environment over years and which increasingly improve the performance of the overall system of which they are a part. At a minimum, the movement of agent and multi-agent technology into National Security applications, including their use in information assurance, is apparent today. The use of deliberative, autonomous agents in high-consequence/high-security applications will require a commensurate level of protection and confidence in the predictability of system-level behavior. At Sandia National Laboratories, we have defined and are addressing a research agenda that integrates the surety (safety, security, and reliability) into agent-based systems at a deep level. Surety is addressed at multiple levels: The integrity of individual agents must be protected by addressing potential failure modes and vulnerabilities to malevolent threats. Providing for the surety of the collective requires attention to communications surety issues and mechanisms for identifying and working with trusted collaborators. At the highest level, using agent-based collectives within a large-scale distributed system requires the development of principled design methods to deliver the desired emergent performance or surety characteristics. This position paper will outline the research directions underway at Sandia, will discuss relevant work being performed elsewhere, and will report progress to date toward assurance in agent-based systems.

  19. Assurance in Agent-Based Systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gilliom, Laura R.; Goldsmith, Steven Y.

    1999-01-01

    Our vision of the future of information systems is one that includes engineered collectives of software agents which are situated in an environment over years and which increasingly improve the performance of the overall system of which they are a part. At a minimum, the movement of agent and multi-agent technology into National Security applications, including their use in information assurance, is apparent today. The use of deliberative, autonomous agents in high-consequence/high-security applications will require a commensurate level of protection and confidence in the predictability of system-level behavior. At Sandia National Laboratories, we have defined and are addressing a research agenda that integrates the surety (safety, security, and reliability) into agent-based systems at a deep level. Surety is addressed at multiple levels: The integrity of individual agents must be protected by addressing potential failure modes and vulnerabilities to malevolent threats. Providing for the surety of the collective requires attention to communications surety issues and mechanisms for identifying and working with trusted collaborators. At the highest level, using agent-based collectives within a large-scale distributed system requires the development of principled design methods to deliver the desired emergent performance or surety characteristics. This position paper will outline the research directions underway at Sandia, will discuss relevant work being performed elsewhere, and will report progress to date toward assurance in agent-based systems

  20. From SMART to agent systems development

    OpenAIRE

    Ashri, R; Luck, M; d'Inverno, M

    2005-01-01

    In order for agent-oriented software engineering to prove effective it must use principled notions of agents and enabling specification and reasoning, while still considering routes to practical implementation. This paper deals with the issue of individual agent specification and construction, departing from the conceptual basis provided by the smart agent framework. smart offers a descriptive specification of an agent architecture but omits consideration of issues relating to\\ud construction...

  1. Efeito tóxico de alimentos alternativos para abelhas Apis mellifera Toxic effect of alternative feeds for honeybees Apis mellifera

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fábia de Mello Pereira

    2007-04-01

    Full Text Available Esta pesquisa foi realizada com o objetivo de avaliar a existência de efeito tóxico em alimentos protéicos alternativos fornecidos para abelhas Apis mellifera. Medindo-se o tempo médio de mortalidade e o índice de mortalidade de abelhas confinadas, avaliou-se a existência de efeito tóxico do: (a feno das folhas de mandioca (Manihot esculenta; (b feno das folhas de leucena (Leucaena leococephala; (c farinha de vagem de algaroba (Prosopis juliflora; (d farinha de vagem de bordão-de-velho (Pithecellobium cf. saman; (e farelo de babaçu (Orbygnia martiana e (f sucedâneo do leite para bezerros da marca Purina®. O tempo médio de mortalidade variou de 4,46 a 11,74 e o índice de mortalidade variou de 4,58 a 12,80. Durante o experimento, obsevou-se que as abelhas alimentadas com farinha de bordão-de-velho ficavam envoltas em uma crosta de alimento, morrendo asfixiadas posteriormente. Os resultados demonstraram que a farinha de bordão-de-velho não deve ser fornecida às abelhas. Não foi observado efeito tóxico nos demais alimentos estudados.The objective of this research was to study toxic effects of alternative feeds for honeybees Apis mellifera. The average mortality time and the mortality index of cagged honeybees were assessed to evaluate any possible toxic effect of: (a cassava hay (Manihot esculenta; (b leucaena hay (Leucaena leococephala; (c mesquite pod meal (Prosopis juliflora; (d "bordão-de-velho" pod meal (Pithecellobium cf. saman; (e babassu bran (Orbygnia martiana and (f succedaneous for calfskin from Purina®. The mortality time average varied from 4.46 to 11.74 and the mortality index varied between 4.58 and 12.80. It was obseved that honeybees fed with "bordão-de-velho" pod meal got involved by stichy layer of food and died asphyxiated. Results showed that the flour of Pithecellobium cf. saman should not be used for feeding honeybees, considering the early mortality of workers fed with this meal. The other food studied

  2. Towards a Calendar Agent Society with Intelligent Agents in ASP-Updates

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marco A. Ramos C.

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Se presenta el análisis y algunas especificaciones para describir una sociedad multi-agente que representa agendas dinámicas en Answer Sets Programming, por medio de actualización de bases de conocimiento. Se trata de un estudio de caso para representar un grupo de agentes BD Iinteligentes con el fin común de programar una reunión, y se utiliza un ejemplo para mostrar la manera de distribuir y cambiar sus especificaciones bajo circunstancias imprevistas, así como un protocolo sencillo para realizar una reunión consensual. Sostenemos que el marco propuesto es apropiado para tener los beneficios de una base sólida como Answer Sets Programming, de la simplicidad de su programación lógica declarativa, así como de la practicidad para resolvedores existentes implementados, que pueden ser utilizados para un sistema más completo y útil de sociedades de agentes.We present the analysis and some preliminary specifications to describe a multi-agent society to represent dynamic appointments under in Answer-Sets Programming, by means of knowledge-base updates. This is a case study to represent a group of intelligent BDI agents with a common goal of scheduling a meeting, and we use an example to show how to distribute and change their specifications under unforeseen circumstances, as well as a simple protocol to realise a consensual meeting. We claim that the proposed framework is appropriate to have the benefits from a strong foundation like Answer-Sets Programming, simplicity for its declarative logic programming, as well as practicality for existent implemented solvers, which can be used to implement a more-complete and useful system of agent societies.

  3. Knowledge Management in Role Based Agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kır, Hüseyin; Ekinci, Erdem Eser; Dikenelli, Oguz

    In multi-agent system literature, the role concept is getting increasingly researched to provide an abstraction to scope beliefs, norms, goals of agents and to shape relationships of the agents in the organization. In this research, we propose a knowledgebase architecture to increase applicability of roles in MAS domain by drawing inspiration from the self concept in the role theory of sociology. The proposed knowledgebase architecture has granulated structure that is dynamically organized according to the agent's identification in a social environment. Thanks to this dynamic structure, agents are enabled to work on consistent knowledge in spite of inevitable conflicts between roles and the agent. The knowledgebase architecture is also implemented and incorporated into the SEAGENT multi-agent system development framework.

  4. Conversational Agents in E-Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kerry, Alice; Ellis, Richard; Bull, Susan

    This paper discusses the use of natural language or 'conversational' agents in e-learning environments. We describe and contrast the various applications of conversational agent technology represented in the e-learning literature, including tutors, learning companions, language practice and systems to encourage reflection. We offer two more detailed examples of conversational agents, one which provides learning support, and the other support for self-assessment. Issues and challenges for developers of conversational agent systems for e-learning are identified and discussed.

  5. Taskable Reactive Agent Communities

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Myers, Karen

    2002-01-01

    The focus of Taskable Reactive Agent Communities (TRAC) project was to develop mixed-initiative technology to enable humans to supervise and manage teams of agents as they perform tasks in dynamic environments...

  6. Sustainable Society Formed by Unselfish Agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kikuchi, Toshiko

    It has been pointed out that if the social configuration of the three relations (market, communal and obligatory relations) is not balanced, a market based society as a total system fails. Using multi-agent simulations, this paper shows that a sustainable society is formed when all three relations are integrated and function respectively. When agent trades are based on the market mechanism (i.e., agents act in their own interest and thus only market relations exist), weak agents who cannot perform transactions die. If a compulsory tax is imposed to enable all weak agents to survive (i.e., obligatory relations exist), then the fiscal deficit increases. On the other hand, if agents who have excess income undertake the unselfish action of distributing their surplus to the weak agents (i.e., communal relations exist), then trade volume increases. It is shown that the existence of unselfish agents is necessary for the realization of a sustainable society. However, the survival of all agents is difficult in a communal society. In an artificial society, for all agents survive and fiscal balance to be maintained, all three social relations need to be fully integrated. These results show that adjusting the balance of the three social relations well lead to the realization of a sustainable society.

  7. Security Infrastructure and Applicationsfor Mobile Agents

    OpenAIRE

    Shibli, Awais

    2010-01-01

    Research areas of this dissertation are security for mobile agents, for applications based on mobile agents, and for distributed network environments in which mobile agents execute. Mobile agents paradigm has captured researchers’ and industry’s interests long time ago because of its innovative capabilities and attractive applications. The ability of mobile agents to autonomously migrate from host to host, transferring their code and internal state, enables them to accomplish tasks in network...

  8. Efeitos do tratamento neonatal com inibidor seletivo de recaptura da 5-HT sobre o desenvolvimento anatômico crânio-encefálico Neonatal treatment effect with selective inibitor of 5-HT recapture over the cranium-encephalic anatomic development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carolina Peixoto Magalhães

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available Pesquisadas repercussões neonatais do tratamento crônico com inibidores seletivos de recaptura da serotonina (ISRS sobre crescimento somático, do encéfalo e crânio. Ratos machos foram divididos em grupos: controle (NaCl e Cit (10 µL/Kg citalopram 10 mg. Durante 21 dias pós-natais, foram aferidos peso corporal, eixo látero-lateral, ântero-posterior e circunferência do crânio. Aos 8, 15 e 22 dias pós-natais, os animais foram sacrificados para retirada do encéfalo para avaliar as medidas citadas acima. A utilização de ISRS provocou déficit de crescimento corporal, diminuição das medidas craniais e do encéfalo. O retardo é possivelmente decorrência de alteração na magnitude da ação trófica da serotonina sobre morfogênese crânio-facial, reforçando a participação do sistema serotoninérgico sobre o crescimento somático e ontogenético. O possível efeito hipofágico dos ISRS não é descartado.Neonatal repercussion researched of the serotonin selective recapture inibitor (SSRI chronic treatment about the somatic growth, of the encephalon and skull. Male rats were divided into groups: control (NaCl and Cit (10 µL/Kg citalopram 10 mg. In 21 post birth days were measured body weight, side axle , front and rear and skull circle. At 8, 15, 22 days after birth, animals were sacrified for the encephalon withdrawal to evaluate the measurements mentioned above. SSRI use caused body growth deficit, skull and encephalon reduction. The retard is possibly caused by the magnitude change of the trophic serotonin action over the skull-facial morphogenesis, reinforcing the serotoninergic system participation over the somatic and ontogenic growth. The SSRI possible hypophagic effects are not discarded.

  9. Fairness in multi-agent systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jong, de S.; Tuyls, K.P.; Verbeeck, K.

    2008-01-01

    Multi-agent systems are complex systems in which multiple autonomous entities, called agents, cooperate in order to achieve a common or personal goal. These entities may be computer software, robots, and also humans. In fact, many multi-agent systems are intended to operate in cooperation with or as

  10. On Programming Organization-Aware Agents

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Andreas Schmidt

    2013-01-01

    Since it is difficult (or even impossible) to assume anything about the agents’ behavior and goals in an open multi-agent system, it is often suggested that an organization is imposed upon the agents, whichhich, by abstracting away from the agents, specifies boundaries and objectives that the age...

  11. GOAL Agents Instantiate Intention Logic

    OpenAIRE

    Hindriks, Koen; van der Hoek, Wiebe

    2008-01-01

    It is commonly believed there is a big gap between agent logics and computational agent frameworks. In this paper, we show that this gap is not as big as believed by showing that GOAL agents instantiate Intention Logic of Cohen and Levesque. That is, we show that GOAL agent programs can be formally related to Intention Logic.We do so by proving that the GOAL Verification Logic can be embedded into Intention Logic. It follows that (a fragment of) Intention Logic can be used t...

  12. Dynamics of three-agent games

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mungan, Muhittin; Rador, Tonguc

    2008-01-01

    We study the dynamics and resulting score distribution of three-agent games where after each competition a single agent wins and scores a point. A single competition is described by a triplet of numbers p, t and q denoting the probabilities that the team with the highest, middle or lowest accumulated score wins. The three-agent game can be regarded as a social model where a player can be favored or disfavored for advancement, based on his/her accumulated score. We study the full family of solutions in the regime, where the number of agents and competitions is large, which can be regarded as a hydrodynamic limit. Depending on the parameter values (p, q, t), we find six qualitatively different asymptotic score distributions and we provide a qualitative explanation of these results. We also compare our analytical results against numerical simulations of the microscopic model and find these to be in excellent agreement. It is possible to decide the outcome of a three-agent game through a mini-tournament of two-agent competitions among the participating players and it turns out that the resulting possible score distributions are a subset of those obtained for the general three-agent games. We discuss how one can add a steady and democratic decline rate to the model and present a simple geometric construction that allows one to obtain the score evolution equations for n-agent games

  13. Dynamics of three-agent games

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mungan, Muhittin; Rador, Tonguç

    2008-02-01

    We study the dynamics and resulting score distribution of three-agent games where after each competition a single agent wins and scores a point. A single competition is described by a triplet of numbers p, t and q denoting the probabilities that the team with the highest, middle or lowest accumulated score wins. The three-agent game can be regarded as a social model where a player can be favored or disfavored for advancement, based on his/her accumulated score. We study the full family of solutions in the regime, where the number of agents and competitions is large, which can be regarded as a hydrodynamic limit. Depending on the parameter values (p, q, t), we find six qualitatively different asymptotic score distributions and we provide a qualitative explanation of these results. We also compare our analytical results against numerical simulations of the microscopic model and find these to be in excellent agreement. It is possible to decide the outcome of a three-agent game through a mini-tournament of two-agent competitions among the participating players and it turns out that the resulting possible score distributions are a subset of those obtained for the general three-agent games. We discuss how one can add a steady and democratic decline rate to the model and present a simple geometric construction that allows one to obtain the score evolution equations for n-agent games.

  14. Immunological effects of hypomethylating agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindblad, Katherine E; Goswami, Meghali; Hourigan, Christopher S; Oetjen, Karolyn A

    2017-08-01

    Epigenetic changes resulting from aberrant methylation patterns are a recurrent observation in hematologic malignancies. Hypomethylating agents have a well-established role in the management of patients with high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome or acute myeloid leukemia. In addition to the direct effects of hypomethylating agents on cancer cells, there are several lines of evidence indicating a role for immune-mediated anti-tumor benefits from hypomethylating therapy. Areas covered: We reviewed the clinical and basic science literature for the effects of hypomethylating agents, including the most commonly utilized therapeutics azacitidine and decitabine, on immune cell subsets. We summarized the effects of hypomethylating agents on the frequency and function of natural killer cells, T cells, and dendritic cells. In particular, we highlight the effects of hypomethylating agents on expression of immune checkpoint inhibitors, leukemia-associated antigens, and endogenous retroviral elements. Expert commentary: In vitro and ex vivo studies indicate mixed effects on the function of natural killer, dendritic cells and T cells following treatment with hypomethylating agents. Clinical correlates of immune function have suggested that hypomethylating agents have immunomodulatory functions with the potential to synergize with immune checkpoint therapy for the treatment of hematologic malignancy, and has become an active area of clinical research.

  15. Cooperative heuristic multi-agent planning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    De Weerdt, M.M.; Tonino, J.F.M.; Witteveen, C.

    2001-01-01

    In this paper we will use the framework to study cooperative heuristic multi-agent planning. During the construction of their plans, the agents use a heuristic function inspired by the FF planner (l3l). At any time in the process of planning the agents may exchange available resources, or they may

  16. Limonene and tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol cleaning agent

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bohnert, George W.; Carter, Richard D.; Hand, Thomas E.; Powers, Michael T.

    1996-05-07

    The present invention is a tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol and limonene or terpineol cleaning agent and method for formulating and/or using the cleaning agent. This cleaning agent effectively removes both polar and nonpolar contaminants from various electrical and mechanical parts and is readily used without surfactants, thereby reducing the need for additional cleaning operations. The cleaning agent is warm water rinsable without the use of surfactants. The cleaning agent can be azeotropic, enhancing ease of use in cleaning operations and ease of recycling.

  17. Limonene and tetrahydrofurfurly alcohol cleaning agent

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bohnert, George W.; Carter, Richard D.; Hand, Thomas E.; Powers, Michael T.

    1997-10-21

    The present invention is a tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol and limonene cleaning agent and method for formulating and/or using the cleaning agent. This cleaning agent effectively removes both polar and nonpolar contaminants from various electrical and mechanical parts and is readily used without surfactants, thereby reducing the need for additional cleaning operations. The cleaning agent is warm water rinsable without the use of surfactants. The cleaning agent can be azeotropic, enhancing ease of use in cleaning operations and ease of recycling.

  18. Estudo do potencial do pacu (Piaractus mesopotamicus como agente de controle biológico de Egeria densa, E. najas e Ceratophyllum demersum Evaluation of the biocontrol potential of pacu (Piaractus mesopotamicus for Egeria densa, E. najas and Ceratophyllum demersum

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D.M.Y. Miyazaki

    2003-01-01

    Full Text Available Visando fornecer subsídios para elaboração de sistema de manejo integrado das grandes massas de plantas daninhas aquáticas submersas em lagos e represas, o presente trabalho teve como objetivo verificar a eficiência do pacu (Piaractus mesopotamicus como agente de controle biológico de Egeria densa, E. najas e Ceratophyllum demersum. As espécies de plantas daninhas foram oferecidas individualmente, duas a duas e as três espécies juntas. Verificou-se que este peixe tem uma eficiência média de controle dessas plantas daninhas variando entre 28 e 100%, podendo eliminar uma massa verde dessas plantas, com a mesma quantidade de seu peso, em sete dias. A eficiência de controle diária aumentou com o tempo de predação. O pacu é mais seletivo para E. densa ou E. najas quando na presença de C. demersum. Não ocorreu alteração na eficiência de controle do pacu sobre E. densa ou E. najas em todos os tratamentos e nos três períodos estudados (três, cinco e sete dias.In order to provide basic information for the establishment of integrated management systems for submersed aquatic weeds in lakes and reservoirs, this research evaluated the efficiency of pacu (Piaractus mesopotamicus as a biocontrol agent of Egeria densa, E. najas and Ceratophyllum demersum. One, two and the three plant species together were offered to the fish. The average efficacy of this fish to control these plants ranged between 28 and 100%. The fish could eliminate a fresh mass of these plants, equivalent to its body weight, in seven days of predation period. Control efficiency increased with increasing duration of the trials. Pacu is more selective in controlling E. densa or E. najas when in the presence of C. demersum. No decreased efficacy was observed in the control of E. densa or E. najas in any of the treatments nor in any of three time periods studied (3, 5, and 7 days.

  19. Security Framework for Agent-Based Cloud Computing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K Venkateshwaran

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Agent can play a key role in bringing suitable cloud services to the customer based on their requirements. In agent based cloud computing, agent does negotiation, coordination, cooperation and collaboration on behalf of the customer to make the decisions in efficient manner. However the agent based cloud computing have some security issues like (a. addition of malicious agent in the cloud environment which could demolish the process by attacking other agents, (b. denial of service by creating flooding attacks on other involved agents. (c. Some of the exceptions in the agent interaction protocol such as Not-Understood and Cancel_Meta protocol can be misused and may lead to terminating the connection of all the other agents participating in the negotiating services. Also, this paper proposes algorithms to solve these issues to ensure that there will be no intervention of any malicious activities during the agent interaction.

  20. Persuasive Conversational Agent with Persuasion Tactics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Narita, Tatsuya; Kitamura, Yasuhiko

    Persuasive conversational agents persuade people to change their attitudes or behaviors through conversation, and are expected to be applied as virtual sales clerks in e-shopping sites. As an approach to create such an agent, we have developed a learning agent with the Wizard of Oz method in which a person called Wizard talks to the user pretending to be the agent. The agent observes the conversations between the Wizard and the user, and learns how to persuade people. In this method, the Wizard has to reply to most of the user's inputs at the beginning, but the burden gradually falls because the agent learns how to reply as the conversation model grows.

  1. Culturally Aware Agent Communication

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rehm, Matthias; Nakano, Yukiko; Koda, Tomoko

    2012-01-01

    Agent based interaction in the form of Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) has matured over the last decade and agents have become more and more sophisticated in terms of their verbal and nonverbal behavior like facial expressions or gestures. Having such “natural” communication channels...... available for expressing not only task-relevant but also socially and psychologically relevant information makes it necessary to take influences into account that are not readily implemented like emotions or cultural heuristics. These influences have a huge impact on the success of an interaction...

  2. Agentes hemostáticos locais e adesivos teciduais Topical haemostatic agents and tissue adhesives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcus Vinicius H. de Carvalho

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available Nos últimos dez anos os agentes hemostáticos e os adesivos teciduais têm sido usados frequentemente e são uma alternativa positiva para evitar a perda sanguínea excessiva. O objetivo dessa revisão é discutir as características de cada um desses agentes para facilitar a decisão do cirurgião na escolha do produto mais adequado para cada tipo de sangramento e natureza da hemorragia. Uma pesquisa da literatura sobre o assunto, nas línguas inglesa e portuguesa, foi conduzida usando o PubMed (www.pubmed.com e Google (www.google.com.br para encontrar artigos recentes sobre o tema. Com base nestes estudos, os autores fizeram uma revisão didática sobre os agentes hemostáticos e adesivos teciduais e concluem que existe um agente hemostático a ser usado em cada cenário específico.In the last ten years the hemostatic agents and tissue adhesives have been frequently used and they are positive alternatives to prevent excessive blood loss. The objective of this review is to discuss the characteristics of each of these agents to facilitate the surgeon's decision when choosing the most suitable product for every type of bleeding and nature of hemorrhage. A survey of the literature on the subject, in English and in Portuguese, was conducted using PubMed (www.pubmed.com and Google (www.google.com.br to find recent articles on the topic. Based on these studies, the authors conducted a didactic review on the hemostatic agents and tissue adhesives and concluded that there is a hemostatic agent to be used in each specific scenario.

  3. Business Intelligence using Software Agents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana-Ramona BOLOGA

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents some ideas about business intelligence today and the importance of developing real time business solutions. The authors make an exploration of links between business intelligence and artificial intelligence and focuses specifically on the implementation of software agents-based systems in business intelligence. There are briefly presented some of the few solutions proposed so far that use software agents properties for the benefit of business intelligence. The authors then propose some basic ideas for developing real-time agent-based software system for business intelligence in supply chain management, using Case Base Reasoning Agents.

  4. Multi-agent and complex systems

    CERN Document Server

    Ren, Fenghui; Fujita, Katsuhide; Zhang, Minjie; Ito, Takayuki

    2017-01-01

    This book provides a description of advanced multi-agent and artificial intelligence technologies for the modeling and simulation of complex systems, as well as an overview of the latest scientific efforts in this field. A complex system features a large number of interacting components, whose aggregate activities are nonlinear and self-organized. A multi-agent system is a group or society of agents which interact with others cooperatively and/or competitively in order to reach their individual or common goals. Multi-agent systems are suitable for modeling and simulation of complex systems, which is difficult to accomplish using traditional computational approaches.

  5. A Framework for Organization-Aware Agents

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Andreas Schmidt; Dignum, Virginia; Villadsen, Jørgen

    2017-01-01

    boundaries and work towards the objectives of the organization. In this paper, we present the AORTA reasoning framework and show how it can be integrated into typical BDI-agents. We provide operational semantics that enables agents to make organizational decisions in order to coordinate and cooperate without......’ behavior space and describe the expected behavior of the agents. Assuming an open environment, where agents are developed independently of the Organizational structures, agents need to be able to reason about the structure, so that they can deliberate about their actions and act within the expected...

  6. Ambient agents: embedded agents for remote control and monitoring using the PANGEA platform.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Villarrubia, Gabriel; De Paz, Juan F; Bajo, Javier; Corchado, Juan M

    2014-07-31

    Ambient intelligence has advanced significantly during the last few years. The incorporation of image processing and artificial intelligence techniques have opened the possibility for such aspects as pattern recognition, thus allowing for a better adaptation of these systems. This study presents a new model of an embedded agent especially designed to be implemented in sensing devices with resource constraints. This new model of an agent is integrated within the PANGEA (Platform for the Automatic Construction of Organiztions of Intelligent Agents) platform, an organizational-based platform, defining a new sensor role in the system and aimed at providing contextual information and interacting with the environment. A case study was developed over the PANGEA platform and designed using different agents and sensors responsible for providing user support at home in the event of incidents or emergencies. The system presented in the case study incorporates agents in Arduino hardware devices with recognition modules and illuminated bands; it also incorporates IP cameras programmed for automatic tracking, which can connect remotely in the event of emergencies. The user wears a bracelet, which contains a simple vibration sensor that can receive notifications about the emergency situation.

  7. Ambient Agents: Embedded Agents for Remote Control and Monitoring Using the PANGEA Platform

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gabriel Villarrubia

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Ambient intelligence has advanced significantly during the last few years. The incorporation of image processing and artificial intelligence techniques have opened the possibility for such aspects as pattern recognition, thus allowing for a better adaptation of these systems. This study presents a new model of an embedded agent especially designed to be implemented in sensing devices with resource constraints. This new model of an agent is integrated within the PANGEA (Platform for the Automatic Construction of Organiztions of Intelligent Agents platform, an organizational-based platform, defining a new sensor role in the system and aimed at providing contextual information and interacting with the environment. A case study was developed over the PANGEA platform and designed using different agents and sensors responsible for providing user support at home in the event of incidents or emergencies. The system presented in the case study incorporates agents in Arduino hardware devices with recognition modules and illuminated bands; it also incorporates IP cameras programmed for automatic tracking, which can connect remotely in the event of emergencies. The user wears a bracelet, which contains a simple vibration sensor that can receive notifications about the emergency situation.

  8. Radiopharmaceutical agents for skeletal scanning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jansen, S.E.; Van Aswegen, A.; Loetter, M.G.; Minnaar, P.C.; Otto, A.C.; Goedhals, L.; Dedekind, P.S.

    1987-01-01

    The quality of bone scan images obtained with a locally produced and with an imported radiopharmaceutical bone agent, methylene diphosphonate (MDP), was compared visually. Standard skeletal imaging was carried out on 10 patients using both agents, with a period of 2 to 7 days between studies with alternate agents. Equal amounts of activity were administered for both agents. All images were acquired on Polaroid film for subsequent evaluation. The acquisition time for standard amount of counts per study was recorded. Three physicians with applicable experience evaluated image quality (on a 4 point scale) and detectability of metastasis (on a 3 point scale). There was no statistically significant difference (p 0,05) between the two agents by paired t-test of Hotelling's T 2 analysis. It is concluded that the imaging properties of the locally produced and the imported MDP are similar

  9. An Interactive Tool for Creating Multi-Agent Systems and Interactive Agent-based Games

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lund, Henrik Hautop; Pagliarini, Luigi

    2011-01-01

    Utilizing principles from parallel and distributed processing combined with inspiration from modular robotics, we developed the modular interactive tiles. As an educational tool, the modular interactive tiles facilitate the learning of multi-agent systems and interactive agent-based games...

  10. N-grams Based Supervised Machine Learning Model for Mobile Agent Platform Protection against Unknown Malicious Mobile Agents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pallavi Bagga

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available From many past years, the detection of unknown malicious mobile agents before they invade the Mobile Agent Platform has been the subject of much challenging activity. The ever-growing threat of malicious agents calls for techniques for automated malicious agent detection. In this context, the machine learning (ML methods are acknowledged more effective than the Signature-based and Behavior-based detection methods. Therefore, in this paper, the prime contribution has been made to detect the unknown malicious mobile agents based on n-gram features and supervised ML approach, which has not been done so far in the sphere of the Mobile Agents System (MAS security. To carry out the study, the n-grams ranging from 3 to 9 are extracted from a dataset containing 40 malicious and 40 non-malicious mobile agents. Subsequently, the classification is performed using different classifiers. A nested 5-fold cross validation scheme is employed in order to avoid the biasing in the selection of optimal parameters of classifier. The observations of extensive experiments demonstrate that the work done in this paper is suitable for the task of unknown malicious mobile agent detection in a Mobile Agent Environment, and also adds the ML in the interest list of researchers dealing with MAS security.

  11. Continuum deformation of multi-agent systems

    CERN Document Server

    Rastgoftar, Hossein

    2016-01-01

    This monograph presents new algorithms for formation control of multi-agent systems (MAS) based on principles of continuum mechanics. Beginning with an overview of traditional methods, the author then introduces an innovative new approach whereby agents of an MAS are considered as particles in a continuum evolving in ℝn whose desired configuration is required to satisfy an admissible deformation function. The necessary theory and its validation on a mobile-agent-based swarm test bed are considered for two primary tasks: homogeneous transformation of the MAS and deployment of a random distribution of agents on a desired configuration. The framework for this model is based on homogeneous transformations for the evolution of an MAS under no inter-agent communication, local inter-agent communication, and intelligent perception by agents. Different communication protocols for MAS evolution, the robustness of tracking of a desired motion by an MAS evolving in ℝn, and the effect of communication delays in an MAS...

  12. Adrenal imaging agents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Davis, M.A.; Hanson, R.N.; Holman, B.L.

    1980-01-01

    The goals of this proposal are the development of selenium-containing analogs of the aromatic amino acids as imaging agents for the pancreas and of the adrenal cortex enzyme inhibitors as imaging agents for adrenal pathology. The objects for this year include (a) the synthesis of methylseleno derivatives of phenylalanine and tryptophan, and (b) the preparation and evaluation of radiolabeled iodobenzoyl derivatives of the selenazole and thiazole analogs of metyrapone and SU-9055

  13. Privacy-aware mobile agent: Protecting privacy in open systems by modelling social behaviour of software agents

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Meyer, A.P.

    2004-01-01

    In distributed problem solving with multi-agent systems it is assumed that collective behaviour emerges from interaction among rational agents. The dissemination of mobile agents will lead to open systems. Emergent behaviour in open systems must fulfil common goals based on goals of individual

  14. Econophysics of agent-based models

    CERN Document Server

    Aoyama, Hideaki; Chakrabarti, Bikas; Chakraborti, Anirban; Ghosh, Asim

    2014-01-01

    The primary goal of this book is to present the research findings and conclusions of physicists, economists, mathematicians and financial engineers working in the field of "Econophysics" who have undertaken agent-based modelling, comparison with empirical studies and related investigations. Most standard economic models assume the existence of the representative agent, who is “perfectly rational” and applies the utility maximization principle when taking action. One reason for this is the desire to keep models mathematically tractable: no tools are available to economists for solving non-linear models of heterogeneous adaptive agents without explicit optimization. In contrast, multi-agent models, which originated from statistical physics considerations, allow us to go beyond the prototype theories of traditional economics involving the representative agent. This book is based on the Econophys-Kolkata VII Workshop, at which many such modelling efforts were presented. In the book, leading researchers in the...

  15. Building Multi-Agent Systems Using Jason

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Boss, Niklas Skamriis; Jensen, Andreas Schmidt; Villadsen, Jørgen

    2010-01-01

    We provide a detailed description of the Jason-DTU system, including the used methodology, tools as well as team strategy. We also discuss the experience gathered in the contest. In spring 2009 the course “Artificial Intelligence and Multi- Agent Systems” was held for the first time...... on the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). A part of this course was a short introduction to the multi-agent framework Jason, which is an interpreter for AgentSpeak, an agent-oriented programming language. As the final project in this course a solution to the Multi-Agent Programming Contest from 2007, the Gold...

  16. Aspects of agents for safeguards

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kotte, U.

    1999-01-01

    With the development of the Internet and the WWW, information treatment has gained a new dimension. (Intelligent) software agents are one of the means expected to relieve human staff of the burden of information overload, and in the future to contribute to safeguards data acquisition, data evaluation and decision-making. An overview is given for the categories of Internet, intranet and desktop agents. Aspects of the potential application of agents are described in three fields: information access and delivery, collaboration and workflow management, adaptive interfaces and learning assistants. Routine application of agents is not yet in sight, but the scientific and technical progress seems to be encouraging. (author)

  17. Stable agents for imaging investigations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tofe, A.J.

    1976-01-01

    This invention concerns highly stable compounds useful in preparing technetium 99m based scintiscanning exploration agents. The compounds of this invention include a pertechnetate reducing agent or a solution of oxidized pertechnetate and an efficient proportion, sufficient to stabilize the compounds in the presence of oxygen and of radiolysis products, of ascorbic acid or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or ester of this acid. The invention also concerns a perfected process for preparing a technetium based exploration agent, consisting in codissolving the ascorbic acid or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or ester of such an acid and a pertechnetate reducing agent in a solution of oxidized pertechnetate [fr

  18. Radioactive scanning agents with stabilizer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fawzi, M.B.

    1982-01-01

    Stable compositions useful as technetium 99-based scintigraphic agents comprise gentisyl alcohol or a pharmaceutically-acceptable salt or ester thereof in combination with a pertechnetate reducing agent or dissolved in pertechnetate-99m (sup(99m)TcOsub(4)sup(-)) solution. The compositions are especially useful in combination with a phosphate or phosphonate material that carries the radionuclide to bone, thus providing a skeletal imaging agent

  19. Intelligent Agents in E-Commerce

    OpenAIRE

    Valentin LITOIU; Amelia BADICA; Cristian ETEGAN

    2006-01-01

    This paper emphasizes the importance of intelligent agents in e-commerce, with a particular focus on the B2C and B2B context. From the consumer buying behaviour perspective, agents can be used to assist the following stages: need identification, product brokering, buyer coalition formation, merchant brokering and negotiation. Related to B2B commerce, intelligent agents are involved in partnership formation, brokering and negotiation.

  20. Complex responses to alkylating agents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Samson, L.D.

    2003-01-01

    Using Affymetrix oligonucleotide GeneChip analysis, we previously found that, upon exposure to the simple alkylating agent methylmethane sulfonate, the transcript levels for about one third of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome (∼2,000 transcripts) are induced or repressed during the first hour or two after exposure. In order to determine whether the responsiveness of these genes has any relevance to the protection of cells against alkylating agents we have undertaken several follow-up studies. First, we explored the specificity of this global transcriptional response to MMS by measuring the global response of S. cerevisiae to a broad range of agents that are known to induce DNA damage. We found that each agent produced a very different mRNA transcript profile, even though the exposure doses produced similar levels of toxicity. We also found that the selection of genes that respond to MMS is highly dependent upon what cell cycle phase the cells are in at the time of exposure. Computational clustering analysis of the dataset derived from a large number of exposures identified several promoter motifs that are likely to control some of the regulons that comprise this large set of genes that are responsive to DNA damaging agents. However, it should be noted that these agents damage cellular components other than DNA, and that the responsiveness of each gene need not be in response to DNA damage per se. We have also begun to study the response of other organisms to alkylating agents, and these include E. coli, cultured mouse and human cells, and mice. Finally, we have developed a high throughput phenotypic screening method to interrogate the role of all non-essential S. cerevisiae genes (about 4,800) in protecting S. cerevisiae against the deleterious effects of alkylating agents; we have termed this analysis 'genomic phenotyping'. This study has uncovered a plethora of new pathways that play a role in the recovery of eukaryotic cells after exposure to toxic

  1. Monitoring volatile anaesthetic agents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Russell, W.J.

    2000-01-01

    Full text: The methods that have been used for monitoring volatile anaesthetic agents depend on some physical property such as Density, Refractometry, Mass, Solubility, Raman scattering, or Infra-red absorption. Today, refractometry and infra-red techniques are the most common. Refractometry is used for the calibration of vaporizers. All anaesthetic agents increase the refractive index of the carrier gas. Provided the mixture is known then the refractive change measures the concentration of the volatile anaesthetic agent. Raman Scattering is when energy hits a molecule a very small fraction of the energy is absorbed and re-emitted at one or more lower frequencies. The shift in frequency is a function of the chemical bonds and is a fingerprint of the substance irradiated. Electromagnetic (Infra-red) has been the commonest method of detection of volatile agents. Most systems use a subtractive system, i.e. the agent in the sampling cell absorbed some of the infrared energy and the photo-detector therefore received less energy. A different approach is where the absorbed energy is converted into a pressure change and detected as sound (Acoustic monitor). This gives a more stable zero reference. More recently, the detector systems have used multiple narrow-band wavelengths in the infrared bands and by shape matching or matrix computing specific agent identification is achieved and the concentration calculated. In the early Datex AS3 monitors, a spectral sweep across the 3 micron infrared band was used to create spectral fingerprints. The recently released AS3 monitors use a different system with five very narrow band filters in the 8-10 micron region. The transmission through each of these filters is a value in a matrix which is solved by a micro computer to identify the agent and its concentration. These monitors can assist in improving the safety and efficiency of our anaesthetics but do not ensure that the patient is completely anaesthetized. Copyright (2000

  2. Monitoring volatile anaesthetic agents

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Russell, W J [Royal Adelaide Hospital, SA (Australia). Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care

    2000-12-01

    Full text: The methods that have been used for monitoring volatile anaesthetic agents depend on some physical property such as Density, Refractometry, Mass, Solubility, Raman scattering, or Infra-red absorption. Today, refractometry and infra-red techniques are the most common. Refractometry is used for the calibration of vaporizers. All anaesthetic agents increase the refractive index of the carrier gas. Provided the mixture is known then the refractive change measures the concentration of the volatile anaesthetic agent. Raman Scattering is when energy hits a molecule a very small fraction of the energy is absorbed and re-emitted at one or more lower frequencies. The shift in frequency is a function of the chemical bonds and is a fingerprint of the substance irradiated. Electromagnetic (Infra-red) has been the commonest method of detection of volatile agents. Most systems use a subtractive system, i.e. the agent in the sampling cell absorbed some of the infrared energy and the photo-detector therefore received less energy. A different approach is where the absorbed energy is converted into a pressure change and detected as sound (Acoustic monitor). This gives a more stable zero reference. More recently, the detector systems have used multiple narrow-band wavelengths in the infrared bands and by shape matching or matrix computing specific agent identification is achieved and the concentration calculated. In the early Datex AS3 monitors, a spectral sweep across the 3 micron infrared band was used to create spectral fingerprints. The recently released AS3 monitors use a different system with five very narrow band filters in the 8-10 micron region. The transmission through each of these filters is a value in a matrix which is solved by a micro computer to identify the agent and its concentration. These monitors can assist in improving the safety and efficiency of our anaesthetics but do not ensure that the patient is completely anaesthetized. Copyright (2000

  3. Homeostatic Agent for General Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yoshida, Naoto

    2018-03-01

    One of the essential aspect in biological agents is dynamic stability. This aspect, called homeostasis, is widely discussed in ethology, neuroscience and during the early stages of artificial intelligence. Ashby's homeostats are general-purpose learning machines for stabilizing essential variables of the agent in the face of general environments. However, despite their generality, the original homeostats couldn't be scaled because they searched their parameters randomly. In this paper, first we re-define the objective of homeostats as the maximization of a multi-step survival probability from the view point of sequential decision theory and probabilistic theory. Then we show that this optimization problem can be treated by using reinforcement learning algorithms with special agent architectures and theoretically-derived intrinsic reward functions. Finally we empirically demonstrate that agents with our architecture automatically learn to survive in a given environment, including environments with visual stimuli. Our survival agents can learn to eat food, avoid poison and stabilize essential variables through theoretically-derived single intrinsic reward formulations.

  4. Intelligent Agents in E-Commerce

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valentin LITOIU

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper emphasizes the importance of intelligent agents in e-commerce, with a particular focus on the B2C and B2B context. From the consumer buying behaviour perspective, agents can be used to assist the following stages: need identification, product brokering, buyer coalition formation, merchant brokering and negotiation. Related to B2B commerce, intelligent agents are involved in partnership formation, brokering and negotiation.

  5. Comparison of Communication Models for Mobile Agents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xining Li

    2003-04-01

    Full Text Available An agent is a self-contained process being acting on behalf of a user. A Mobile Agent is an agent roaming the internet to access data and services, and carry out its assigned task remotely. This paper will focus on the communication models for Mobile Agents. Generally speaking, communication models concern with problems of how to name Mobile Agents, how to establish communication relationships, how to trace moving agents, and how to guarantee reliable communication. Some existing MA systems are purely based on RPC-style communication, whereas some adopts asynchronous message passing, or event registration/handling. Different communication concepts suitable for Mobile Agents are well discussed in [1]. However, we will investigate these concepts and existing models from a different point view: how to track down agents and deliver messages in a dynamic, changing world.

  6. 2APL: a practical agent programming language

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dastani, M.M.

    2008-01-01

    This article presents a BDI-based agent-oriented programming language, called 2APL (A Practical Agent Programming Language). This programming language facilitates the implementation ofmulti-agent systems consisting of individual agents thatmay share and access external environments. It realizes

  7. 11th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems

    CERN Document Server

    Hermoso, Ramon; Moreno, María; Rodríguez, Juan; Hirsch, Benjamin; Mathieu, Philippe; Campbell, Andrew; Suarez-Figueroa, Mari; Ortega, Alfonso; Adam, Emmanuel; Navarro, Elena

    2013-01-01

    Research on Agents and Multi-agent Systems has matured during the last decade and many effective applications of this technology are now deployed. PAAMS provides an international forum to presents and discuss the latest scientific developments and their effective applications, to assess the impact of the approach, and to facilitate technology transfer. PAAMS started as a local initiative, but since grown to become the international yearly platform to present, to discuss, and to disseminate the latest developments and the most important outcomes related to real-world applications. It provides a unique opportunity to bring multi-disciplinary experts, academics and practitioners together to Exchange their experience in the development and deployment of Agents and Multiagents systems. PAAMS intends to bring together researchers and developers from industry and the academic world to report on the latest scientific and technical advances on the application of multi-agent systems, to discuss and debate the major iss...

  8. Impact of the use of alternative fuels on clinker reactivity; Impacto del uso de combustibles alternativos sobre la reactividad del clínker

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Serrano-González, K.; Reyes-Valdez, A.; Chowaniec, O.

    2017-07-01

    The use of alternative fuels in the cement industry has increased its relevance in the past decades due to their ecological and economic benefits. In concert with the efforts to increase its use, several studies have focused on their potential impact with respect to clinker reactivity and how they could affect the expected physical and mechanical properties. This work studied the effects of five alternative fuels on the reactivity of eight industrial clinker samples, considering several analytical techniques. Differences were identified among the clinker samples after replacing the alternative fuels, mainly with simultaneous eliminations, as in samples S4, S5 and S8. The modifications were related to the polymorph, size and reactivity of tricalcium silicate and to the clinker profile during the hydration process, due to the SO3 consumption rate. These changes were expressed in the higher compressive strengths in comparison with the original reference clinker. [Spanish] El uso de combustibles alternativos en la industria cementera ha ido en incremento en las últimas décadas debido a su beneficio ecológico y económico. En línea con los esfuerzos enfocados en incrementar su uso, se han realizado distintos estudios enfocados en determinar su impacto potencial en la reactividad del clínker y en cómo pueden afectar sus propiedades físicas y mecánicas. Este trabajo estudia el efecto de cinco combustibles alternos sobre la reactividad de ocho muestras industriales de clínker, considerando diferentes técnicas analíticas. Se identificaron diferencias principalmente cuando se realizaron eliminaciones simultáneas de varios combustibles, como en las muestras S4, S5 y S8. Las modificaciones se basan en un cambio en el polimorfo, tamaño y reactividad del silicato tricálcico y del perfil de hidratación de los clínkeres, relacionado con el ritmo del consumo del SO3. Las modificaciones se reflejaron en un incremento en la resistencia a la compresión.

  9. Polar S810 como recurso alternativo ao eletrocardiograma no teste de exercício de 4 segundos Polar S810 como recurso alternativo al electrocardiograma en la prueba de ejercicio de 4 segundos Polar S810 as an alternative resource to the use of the electrocardiogram in the 4-second exercise test

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alan Santos Pimentel

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available FUNDAMENTO: O teste de exercício de 4 segundos (T4s avalia o tônus vagal cardíaco durante o transiente inicial da frequência cardíaca (FC, em exercício dinâmico súbito, por meio da identificação do índice vagal cardíaco (IVC obtido a partir do eletrocardiograma (ECG. OBJETIVO: Testar a utilização do monitor de frequência cardíaca (MFC Polar S810 como recurso alternativo ao ECG na aplicação do T4s. MÉTODOS: Neste trabalho, 49 indivíduos do sexo masculino (25 ± 20 anos, 176 ± 12 cm, 74 ± 6 kg realizaram o T4s. Os intervalos RR foram registrados simultaneamente por ECG e MFC. Calcularam-se média e desvio padrão do último intervalo RR do período pré-exercício ou o primeiro do período de exercício, aquele que for mais longo (RRB, do mais curto intervalo RR do período de exercício (RRC e do IVC obtidos por ECG e MFC. Utilizou-se o teste t de Student para amostras dependentes (p FUNDAMENTO: El test de ejercicio de 4 segundos (T4s evalúa el tono vagal cardíaco durante el transiente inicial de la frecuencia cardíaca (FC, en ejercicio dinámico súbito, por medio de la identificación del índice vagal cardíaco (IVC obtenido a partir del electrocardiograma (ECG. OBJETIVO: Probar la utilización del monitor de frecuencia cardiaca (MFC Polar S810 como recurso alternativo al ECG en la aplicación del T4s. MÉTODOS: En este trabajo, 49 individuos del sexo masculino (25 ± 20 años, 176 ±12 cm, 74 ± 6 kg llevaron el T4s. Los intervalos RR fueron registrados simultáneamente por ECG y MFC. Se calcularon el promedio y la desviación estándar del último intervalo RR del período pre ejercicio o el primer del período de ejercicio, aquel que fuera más largo (RRB, del más corto intervalo RR del período de ejercicio (RRC y del IVC obtenidos por ECG y MFC. Se utilizó la prueba t de Student para muestras dependientes (P BACKGROUND: The 4-second exercise test (T4s evaluates the cardiac vagal tone during the initial heart

  10. Design and simulation of material-integrated distributed sensor processing with a code-based agent platform and mobile multi-agent systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bosse, Stefan

    2015-02-16

    Multi-agent systems (MAS) can be used for decentralized and self-organizing data processing in a distributed system, like a resource-constrained sensor network, enabling distributed information extraction, for example, based on pattern recognition and self-organization, by decomposing complex tasks in simpler cooperative agents. Reliable MAS-based data processing approaches can aid the material-integration of structural-monitoring applications, with agent processing platforms scaled to the microchip level. The agent behavior, based on a dynamic activity-transition graph (ATG) model, is implemented with program code storing the control and the data state of an agent, which is novel. The program code can be modified by the agent itself using code morphing techniques and is capable of migrating in the network between nodes. The program code is a self-contained unit (a container) and embeds the agent data, the initialization instructions and the ATG behavior implementation. The microchip agent processing platform used for the execution of the agent code is a standalone multi-core stack machine with a zero-operand instruction format, leading to a small-sized agent program code, low system complexity and high system performance. The agent processing is token-queue-based, similar to Petri-nets. The agent platform can be implemented in software, too, offering compatibility at the operational and code level, supporting agent processing in strong heterogeneous networks. In this work, the agent platform embedded in a large-scale distributed sensor network is simulated at the architectural level by using agent-based simulation techniques.

  11. Design and Simulation of Material-Integrated Distributed Sensor Processing with a Code-Based Agent Platform and Mobile Multi-Agent Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stefan Bosse

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Multi-agent systems (MAS can be used for decentralized and self-organizing data processing in a distributed system, like a resource-constrained sensor network, enabling distributed information extraction, for example, based on pattern recognition and self-organization, by decomposing complex tasks in simpler cooperative agents. Reliable MAS-based data processing approaches can aid the material-integration of structural-monitoring applications, with agent processing platforms scaled to the microchip level. The agent behavior, based on a dynamic activity-transition graph (ATG model, is implemented with program code storing the control and the data state of an agent, which is novel. The program code can be modified by the agent itself using code morphing techniques and is capable of migrating in the network between nodes. The program code is a self-contained unit (a container and embeds the agent data, the initialization instructions and the ATG behavior implementation. The microchip agent processing platform used for the execution of the agent code is a standalone multi-core stack machine with a zero-operand instruction format, leading to a small-sized agent program code, low system complexity and high system performance. The agent processing is token-queue-based, similar to Petri-nets. The agent platform can be implemented in software, too, offering compatibility at the operational and code level, supporting agent processing in strong heterogeneous networks. In this work, the agent platform embedded in a large-scale distributed sensor network is simulated at the architectural level by using agent-based simulation techniques.

  12. Switching dynamics of multi-agent learning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vrancx, P.; Tuyls, K.P.; Westra, R.

    2008-01-01

    This paper presents the dynamics of multi-agent reinforcement learning in multiple state problems. We extend previous work that formally modelled the relation between reinforcement learning agents and replicator dynamics in stateless multi-agent games. More precisely, in this work we use a

  13. Extinguishing agent for combustible metal fires

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riley, John F.; Stauffer, Edgar Eugene

    1976-10-12

    A low chloride extinguishing agent for combustible metal fires comprising from substantially 75 to substantially 94 weight percent of sodium carbonate as the basic fire extinguishing material, from substantially 1 to substantially 5 weight percent of a water-repellent agent such as a metal stearate, from substantially 2 to substantially 10 weight percent of a flow promoting agent such as attapulgus clay, and from substantially 3 to substantially 15 weight percent of a polyamide resin as a crusting agent.

  14. Stable radiographic scanning agents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1976-01-01

    Stable compositions which are useful in the preparation of Technetium-99m-based scintigraphic agents are discussed. They are comprised of ascorbic acid or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or ester thereof in combination with a pertechnetate reducing agent or dissolved in oxidized pertechnetate-99m (sup(99m)TcO 4 - ) solution

  15. Multi-Agent Framework in Visual Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. M. Molina

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available The recent interest in the surveillance of public, military, and commercial scenarios is increasing the need to develop and deploy intelligent and/or automated distributed visual surveillance systems. Many applications based on distributed resources use the so-called software agent technology. In this paper, a multi-agent framework is applied to coordinate videocamera-based surveillance. The ability to coordinate agents improves the global image and task distribution efficiency. In our proposal, a software agent is embedded in each camera and controls the capture parameters. Then coordination is based on the exchange of high-level messages among agents. Agents use an internal symbolic model to interpret the current situation from the messages from all other agents to improve global coordination.

  16. Estudio de los niveles de emisión de dioxinas a la atmósfera procedentes de plantas cementeras que utilizan combustibles alternativos durante la producción de clínker

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Esteban Abad

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available El objetivo de este estudio fue la evaluación de la influencia en los niveles de dioxinas emitidos a la atmósfera como resultado de la utilización de diferentes residuos, tales como neumáticos usados o harinas animales como combustible alternativo durante la producción de clínker. Con este propósito se seleccionaron tres instalaciones que operan en España que fueron evaluadas en diferentes campañas de muestreo. Además, los diferentes residuos fueron evaluados por separado en cada una de las instalaciones. Así, la primera instalación incluyó la adición de harinas animales en la producción de cemento. En la segunda instalación se evaluaron neumáticos fuera de uso y en la tercera planta fueron incorporados los dos tipos de residuos simultáneamente. En todos los casos, los valores de emisión se mantuvieron por debajo de lo establecido por la Directiva Europea de 0,1 ng I-TEQ/Nm3 con valores que se mantuvieron entre 0,001 y 0,042 ng I-TEQ/Nm3. Además, no se encontraron diferencias significativas entre los valores encontrados en el presente estudio y los determinados en instalaciones que operan habitualmente con combustible convencional.

  17. CEST and PARACEST MR contrast agents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hancu, Ileana; Dixon, W. Thomas; Woods, Mark; Sherry, A. Dean; Vinogradov, Elena; Lenkinski, Robert E.

    2010-01-01

    In this review we describe the status of development for a new class of magnetic resonance (MR) contrast agents, based on chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST). The mathematics and physics relevant to the description of the CEST effect in MR are presented in an appendix published in the online version only. We discuss the issues arising when translating in vitro results obtained with CEST agents to using these MR agents in in vivo model studies and in humans. Examples are given on how these agents are imaged in vivo. We summarize the status of development of these CEST agents, and speculate about the next steps that may be taken towards the demonstration of CEST MR imaging in clinical applications

  18. Susceptibility of Haemophilus equigenitalis, the causal agent of contagious equine metritis, to 31 antimicrobial agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sugimoto, C; Isayama, Y; Kashiwazaki, M; Mitani, K

    1981-01-01

    The minimal inhibitory concentrations of 31 antimicrobial agents were determined for 99 isolates of Haemophilus equigenitalis by the agar dilution method. All the isolates showed good susceptibility to 26 antimicrobial agents tests, minimal inhibitory concentrations of which were less than 3.13 micrograms/ml for more than 90% of the isolates. Of these agents, 4 macrolides (erythromycin, oleandomycin, kitasamycin, tylosin), 3 tetracyclines (tetracycline, chlortetracycline, oxytetracycline), 1 peptide (colistin), 1 penicillin (ampicillin) and 1 pleuromutilin (tiamulin) were the most active agents, showing a minimal inhibitory concentration of less than 0.39 micrograms/ml for more than 90% of the isolates. The growth of more than 90% of the isolates was not inhibited by 800 micrograms/ml of streptomycin.

  19. Imprecise Beliefs in a Principal Agent Model

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rigotti, L.

    1998-01-01

    This paper presents a principal-agent model where the agent has multiple, or imprecise, beliefs. We model this situation formally by assuming the agent's preferences are incomplete. One can interpret this multiplicity as an agent's limited knowledge of the surrounding environment. In this setting,

  20. Individualism and Collectivism in Trade Agents

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hofstede, G.J.; Jonker, C.M.; Verwaart, D.

    2008-01-01

    Agent-Based Modeling can contribute to the understanding of international trade processes. Models for the effects of culture and cultural differences on agent behavior are required for realistic agent-based simulation of international trade. This paper makes a step toward modeling of culture in

  1. Modeling culture in intelligent virtual agents

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mascarenhas, S.; Degens, N.; Paiva, A.; Prada, R.; Hofstede, G.J.; Beulens, A.J.M.; Aylett, R.

    2016-01-01

    This work addresses the challenge of creating virtual agents that are able to portray culturally appropriate behavior when interacting with other agents or humans. Because culture influences how people perceive their social reality it is important to have agent models that explicitly consider social

  2. Multi-agent Cooperation in a Planning Framework

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    De Weerdt, M.M.; Bos, A.; Tonino, J.F.M.; Witteveen, C.

    2000-01-01

    The promise of multi-agent systems is that multiple agents can solve problems more efficiently than single agents can. In this paper we propose a method to implement cooperation between agents in the planning phase, in order to achive more cost-effective solutions than without cooperation. Two

  3. Change Agent Survival Guide

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dunbar, Folwell L.

    2011-01-01

    Consulting is a rough racket. Only a tarantula hair above IRS agents, meter maids and used car sales people, the profession is a prickly burr for slings and arrows. Throw in education, focus on dysfunctional schools and call oneself a "change agent," and this bad rap all but disappears. Unfortunately, though, consulting/coaching/mentoring in…

  4. Modelling an Agent's Mind and Matter

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jonker, C.M.; Treur, J.; Boman, M.

    1997-01-01

    In agent models often it is assumed that the agent maintains internal representations of the material world (e.g., its beliefs). An overall model of the agent and the material world necessarily incorporates sub-models for physical simulation and symbolic simulation, and a formalisation of the

  5. Animated BDP agents in virtual environments

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nijholt, Antinus; Egges, A.; op den Akker, Hendrikus J.A.; Zwiers, Jakob; Krose, B.; de Rijke, M.; Schreiber, G.; van Someren, M.

    2001-01-01

    We introduce a Believes, Desires and Plans (BDP) agent that acts in a virtual environment using multi-modal interaction with the user. The environment is our virtual theatre environment. In this environment different agents have been introduced. In order to obtain a more uniform framework for agent

  6. Principals, agents and research programmes

    OpenAIRE

    Elizabeth Shove

    2003-01-01

    Research programmes appear to represent one of the more powerful instruments through which research funders (principals) steer and shape what researchers (agents) do. The fact that agents navigate between different sources and styles of programme funding and that they use programmes to their own ends is readily accommodated within principal-agent theory with the help of concepts such as shirking and defection. Taking a different route, I use three examples of research programming (by the UK, ...

  7. Agent-based modeling and network dynamics

    CERN Document Server

    Namatame, Akira

    2016-01-01

    The book integrates agent-based modeling and network science. It is divided into three parts, namely, foundations, primary dynamics on and of social networks, and applications. The book begins with the network origin of agent-based models, known as cellular automata, and introduce a number of classic models, such as Schelling’s segregation model and Axelrod’s spatial game. The essence of the foundation part is the network-based agent-based models in which agents follow network-based decision rules. Under the influence of the substantial progress in network science in late 1990s, these models have been extended from using lattices into using small-world networks, scale-free networks, etc. The book also shows that the modern network science mainly driven by game-theorists and sociophysicists has inspired agent-based social scientists to develop alternative formation algorithms, known as agent-based social networks. The book reviews a number of pioneering and representative models in this family. Upon the gi...

  8. [Supramolecular Agents for Theranostics].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deyev, S M; Lebedenko, E N

    2015-01-01

    This mini-review summarizes recent data obtained in the process of creation of a versatile module platform suitable for construction of supramolecular theranostic agents. As an example, we consider multifunctional hybrid agents for imaging and elimination of cancer cells. The use of an adapter protein system barnase:barstar for producing targeted multifunctional hybrid structures on the basis of highly specific peptides and mini-antibodies as addressing modules and recombinant proteins and/or nanoparticles of different nature (quantum dots, nanogold, magnetic nanoparticles, nanodiamonds, upconverting nanophosphores, polymer nanoparticles) as agents visualizing and damaging cancer cells is described. New perspectives for creation of selective and highly effective compounds for theranostics and personified medicine are contemplated.

  9. An Agent Framework of Tourism Recommender System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jia Zhi Yang

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes the development of an Agent framework for tourism recommender system. The recommender system can be featured as an online web application which is capable of generating a personalized list of preference attractions for tourists. Traditional technologies of classical recommender system application domains, such as collaborative filtering, content-based filtering and content-based filtering are effectively adopted in the framework. In the framework they are constructed as Agents that can generate recommendations respectively. Recommender Agent can generate recommender information by integrating the recommendations of Content-based Agent, collaborative filtering-based Agent and constraint-based Agent. In order to make the performance more effective, linear combination method of data fusion is applied. User interface is provided by the tourist Agent in form of webpages and mobile app.

  10. Agent-based land markets: Heterogeneous agents, land proces and urban land use change

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Filatova, Tatiana; Parker, Dawn C.; van der Veen, A.; Amblard, F.

    2007-01-01

    We construct a spatially explicit agent-based model of a bilateral land market. Heterogeneous agents form their bid and ask prices for land based on the utility that they obtain from a certain location (houte/land) and base on the state of the market (an excess of demand or supply). We underline the

  11. Teaching Tourism Change Agents

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stilling Blichfeldt, Bodil; Kvistgaard, Hans-Peter; Hird, John

    2017-01-01

    course that is part of a Tourism Master’s program, where a major challenge is not only to teach students about change and change agents, but to teach them how change feels and ho w to become change agents. The c hange management course contains an experiment inspired by experiential teaching literature...... change in tourism in the future....

  12. Travel Agent Course Outline.

    Science.gov (United States)

    British Columbia Dept. of Education, Victoria.

    Written for college entry-level travel agent training courses, this course outline can also be used for inservice training programs offered by travel agencies. The outline provides information on the work of a travel agent and gives clear statements on what learners must be able to do by the end of their training. Material is divided into eight…

  13. Multi-agent systems simulation and applications

    CERN Document Server

    Uhrmacher, Adelinde M

    2009-01-01

    Methodological Guidelines for Modeling and Developing MAS-Based SimulationsThe intersection of agents, modeling, simulation, and application domains has been the subject of active research for over two decades. Although agents and simulation have been used effectively in a variety of application domains, much of the supporting research remains scattered in the literature, too often leaving scientists to develop multi-agent system (MAS) models and simulations from scratch. Multi-Agent Systems: Simulation and Applications provides an overdue review of the wide ranging facets of MAS simulation, i

  14. The effectiveness testing of oil spill-treating agents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fingas, M.F.; Kyle, D.A.; Laroche, N.; Fieldhouse, B.; Sergy, G.; Stoodley, G.

    1995-01-01

    Laboratory effectiveness tests have been developed for four classes of oil spill treating agents: solidifiers, demulsifying agents, surface-washing agents and dispersants. Several treating agent products in these four categories have been tested for effectiveness. The aquatic toxicity of these agents is an important factor and has been measured for many products. These results are presented. Solidifiers or gelling agents solidify oil. Test results show that solidifiers require between 16% and 200% of agent by weight compared to the oil. De-emulsifying agents or emulsion breakers prevent the formation of or break water-in-oil emulsions. Surfactant-containing materials are of two types, surface-washing agents and dispersants. Testing has shown that effectiveness is orthogonal for these two types of treating agents. Tests of surface washing agents show that only a few agents have effectiveness of 25 to 55%, where this is defined as the percentage of oil removed from a test surface. Dispersant effectiveness results using the swirling flask test are reported. Heavy oils show effectiveness values of about 1%, medium crudes of about 10%, light crude oils of about 30% and very light oils of about 90%

  15. 21 CFR 181.28 - Release agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 3 2010-04-01 2009-04-01 true Release agents. 181.28 Section 181.28 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) FOOD FOR HUMAN... Release agents. Substances classified as release agents, when migrating from food-packaging material shall...

  16. Ontology-based multi-agent systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hadzic, Maja; Wongthongtham, Pornpit; Dillon, Tharam; Chang, Elizabeth [Digital Ecosystems and Business Intelligence Institute, Perth, WA (Australia)

    2009-07-01

    The Semantic web has given a great deal of impetus to the development of ontologies and multi-agent systems. Several books have appeared which discuss the development of ontologies or of multi-agent systems separately on their own. The growing interaction between agents and ontologies has highlighted the need for integrated development of these. This book is unique in being the first to provide an integrated treatment of the modeling, design and implementation of such combined ontology/multi-agent systems. It provides clear exposition of this integrated modeling and design methodology. It further illustrates this with two detailed case studies in (a) the biomedical area and (b) the software engineering area. The book is, therefore, of interest to researchers, graduate students and practitioners in the semantic web and web science area. (orig.)

  17. Chemical Agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... CR) see Riot Control Agents Digitalis Distilled mustard (HD) see Sulfur mustard E Ethylene glycol F Fentanyls and other opioids H Hydrazine Hydrofluoric acid (hydrogen fluoride) Hydrogen chloride Hydrogen cyanide (AC) Hydrogen ...

  18. A principal-agent Model of corruption

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Groenendijk, Nico

    1997-01-01

    One of the new avenues in the study of political corruption is that of neo-institutional economics, of which the principal-agent theory is a part. In this article a principal-agent model of corruption is presented, in which there are two principals (one of which is corrupting), and one agent (who is

  19. Radiation protective agents possessing anti-oxidative properties

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Anzai, Kazunori; Ueno, Emi; Yoshida, Akira; Furuse, Masako; Ikota, Nobuo [National Inst. of Radiological Sciences, Research Center for Radiation Safety, Chiba, Chiba (Japan)

    2005-11-15

    The purpose of studies is to see mechanisms of radiation protection of agents possessing anti-oxidative properties because the initial step resulting in radiation hazard is the formation of radicals by water radiolysis. Agents were commercially available or synthesized proxyl derivatives (spin prove agents), commercially available spin-trapping agents, edaravone and TMG (a tocopherol glycoside). Mice and cultured cells were X-irradiated by Shimadzu Pantak HF-320 or 320S. Survivals of cells were determined by colony assay and of mice, to which the agents were given intraperitoneally before or after X-irradiation, within 30 days post irradiation. Plasma and marrow concentrations of proxyls were estimated by electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrometry. Mechanisms of their radiation protective effects were shown different from agent to agent. TMG was found effective even post irradiation, which suggests a possibility for a new drug development. Some (spin trapping agents and TMG), virtually ineffective at the cell level, were found effective in the whole body, suggesting the necessity of studies on their disposition and metabolism. (S.I.)

  20. Radiation protective agents possessing anti-oxidative properties

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anzai, Kazunori; Ueno, Emi; Yoshida, Akira; Furuse, Masako; Ikota, Nobuo

    2005-01-01

    The purpose of studies is to see mechanisms of radiation protection of agents possessing anti-oxidative properties because the initial step resulting in radiation hazard is the formation of radicals by water radiolysis. Agents were commercially available or synthesized proxyl derivatives (spin prove agents), commercially available spin-trapping agents, edaravone and TMG (a tocopherol glycoside). Mice and cultured cells were X-irradiated by Shimadzu Pantak HF-320 or 320S. Survivals of cells were determined by colony assay and of mice, to which the agents were given intraperitoneally before or after X-irradiation, within 30 days post irradiation. Plasma and marrow concentrations of proxyls were estimated by electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrometry. Mechanisms of their radiation protective effects were shown different from agent to agent. TMG was found effective even post irradiation, which suggests a possibility for a new drug development. Some (spin trapping agents and TMG), virtually ineffective at the cell level, were found effective in the whole body, suggesting the necessity of studies on their disposition and metabolism. (S.I.)

  1. Preemptive mobile code protection using spy agents

    OpenAIRE

    Kalogridis, Georgios

    2011-01-01

    This thesis introduces 'spy agents' as a new security paradigm for evaluating trust in remote hosts in mobile code scenarios. In this security paradigm, a spy agent, i.e. a mobile agent which circulates amongst a number of remote hosts, can employ a variety of techniques in order to both appear 'normal' and suggest to a malicious host that it can 'misuse' the agent's data or code without being held accountable. A framework for the operation and deployment of such spy agents is described. ...

  2. Dynamics of Three Agent Games

    OpenAIRE

    Rador, Tonguc; Mungan, Muhittin

    2007-01-01

    We study the dynamics and resulting score distribution of three-agent games where after each competition a single agent wins and scores a point. A single competition is described by a triplet of numbers $p$, $t$ and $q$ denoting the probabilities that the team with the highest, middle or lowest accumulated score wins. We study the full family of solutions in the regime, where the number of agents and competitions is large, which can be regarded as a hydrodynamic limit. Depending on the parame...

  3. CHI: A General Agent Communication Framework

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Goldsmith, S.Y.; Phillips, L.R.; Spires, S.V.

    1998-12-17

    We have completed and exercised a communication framework called CHI (CLOS to HTML Interface) by which agents can communicate with humans. CHI follows HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) and produces HTML (HyperText Markup Language) for use by WWW (World-Wide Web) browsers. CHI enables the rapid and dynamic construction of interface mechanisms. The essence of CHI is automatic registration of dynamically generated interface elements to named objects in the agent's internal environment. The agent can access information in these objects at will. State is preserved, so an agent can pursue branching interaction sequences, activate failure recovery behaviors, and otherwise act opportunistically to maintain a conversation. The CHI mechanism remains transparent in multi-agent, multi-user environments because of automatically generated unique identifiers built into the CHI mechanism. In this paper we discuss design, language, implementation, and extension issues, and, by way of illustration, examine the use of the general CHI/HCHI mechanism in a specific international electronic commerce system. We conclude that the CHI mechanism is an effective, efficient, and extensible means of the agent/human communication.

  4. VigilAgent for the development of agent-based multi-robot surveillance systems

    OpenAIRE

    Gascueña Noheda, José Manuel; Navarro Martínez, Elena María; Fernández Caballero, Antonio

    2011-01-01

    Usually, surveillance applications are developed following an ad-hoc approach instead of using a methodology to guide stakeholders in achieving quality standards expected from commercial software. To solve this gap, our conjecture is that surveillance applications can be fully developed from their initial design stages by means of agent-based methodologies. Specifically, this paper describes the experience and the results of using a multi-agent systems approach according to the process provid...

  5. What makes virtual agents believable?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bogdanovych, Anton; Trescak, Tomas; Simoff, Simeon

    2016-01-01

    In this paper we investigate the concept of believability and make an attempt to isolate individual characteristics (features) that contribute to making virtual characters believable. As the result of this investigation we have produced a formalisation of believability and based on this formalisation built a computational framework focused on simulation of believable virtual agents that possess the identified features. In order to test whether the identified features are, in fact, responsible for agents being perceived as more believable, we have conducted a user study. In this study we tested user reactions towards the virtual characters that were created for a simulation of aboriginal inhabitants of a particular area of Sydney, Australia in 1770 A.D. The participants of our user study were exposed to short simulated scenes, in which virtual agents performed some behaviour in two different ways (while possessing a certain aspect of believability vs. not possessing it). The results of the study indicate that virtual agents that appear resource bounded, are aware of their environment, own interaction capabilities and their state in the world, agents that can adapt to changes in the environment and exist in correct social context are those that are being perceived as more believable. Further in the paper we discuss these and other believability features and provide a quantitative analysis of the level of contribution for each such feature to the overall perceived believability of a virtual agent.

  6. Radioactive scanning agents with hydroquinone stabilizer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Whitehouse, H.S.

    1982-01-01

    Stable compositions useful as technetium 99m-based scintigraphic agents comprise hydroquinone in combination with a pertechnetate reducing agent or dissolved in pertechnetate-99m (sup(99m)TcOsub(4)sup(-)) solution. The compositions are especially useful in combination with a phosphate or phosphonate material which carries the radionuclide to bone, thus providing a skeletal imaging agent

  7. 21 CFR 178.3860 - Release agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 3 2010-04-01 2009-04-01 true Release agents. 178.3860 Section 178.3860 Food and... and Production Aids § 178.3860 Release agents. Substances listed in paragraph (b) of this section may be safely used as release agents in petroleum wax complying with § 178.3710 and in polymeric resins...

  8. Controle alternativo de podridões pós‑colheita de framboesas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lucimara Rogéria Antoniolli

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito de tratamentos pré-colheita sobre a ocorrência de podridões pós-colheita e sobre os atributos de qualidade de framboesas (Rubus idaeus L. 'Heritage'. As frutas foram pulverizadas com um dos seguintes tratamentos: água destilada (controle, 6 g L-1 de quitosana, 100 mg L-1 de dióxido de cloro, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Curtobacterium pusillum ou Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Foram realizadas colheitas aos 3, 7 e 14 dias após a aplicação dos tratamentos. Após cada uma das colheitas, realizadas no estádio de maturação comercial (coloração rosa, as frutas foram inoculadas individualmente com suspensão de conídios (2x10(5 conídios mL-1 de Botrytis cinerea ou Rhizopus stolonifer. As frutas foram mantidas a 12±0,5ºC por sete dias e avaliadas quanto à incidência de podridões e quanto aos principais atributos de qualidade. Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, C. pusillum e S. cerevisiae proporcionaram menor área abaixo da curva de progresso da incidência das podridões por Botrytis e Rhizopus. Os agentes de controle biológico avaliados não interferem negativamente sobre os atributos de qualidade das frutas, e, portanto, são alternativas potenciais no controle de podridões pós-colheita de framboesas.

  9. Applications of Multi-Agent Technology to Power Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nagata, Takeshi

    Currently, agents are focus of intense on many sub-fields of computer science and artificial intelligence. Agents are being used in an increasingly wide variety of applications. Many important computing applications such as planning, process control, communication networks and concurrent systems will benefit from using multi-agent system approach. A multi-agent system is a structure given by an environment together with a set of artificial agents capable to act on this environment. Multi-agent models are oriented towards interactions, collaborative phenomena, and autonomy. This article presents the applications of multi-agent technology to the power systems.

  10. Improving Multi-Agent Systems Using Jason

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vester, Steen; Boss, Niklas Skamriis; Jensen, Andreas Schmidt

    2011-01-01

    We describe the approach used to develop the multi-agent system of herders that competed as the Jason-DTU team at the Multi-Agent Programming Contest 2010. We also participated in 2009 with a system developed in the agentoriented programming language Jason which is an extension of AgentSpeak. We ...... used the implementation from 2009 as a foundation and therefore much of the work done this year was on improving that implementation. We present a description which includes design and analysis of the system as well as the main features of our agent team strategy. In addition we discuss...

  11. Fault Reconnaissance Agent for Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elhadi M. Shakshuki

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available One of the key prerequisite for a scalable, effective and efficient sensor network is the utilization of low-cost, low-overhead and high-resilient fault-inference techniques. To this end, we propose an intelligent agent system with a problem solving capability to address the issue of fault inference in sensor network environments. The intelligent agent system is designed and implemented at base-station side. The core of the agent system – problem solver – implements a fault-detection inference engine which harnesses Expectation Maximization (EM algorithm to estimate fault probabilities of sensor nodes. To validate the correctness and effectiveness of the intelligent agent system, a set of experiments in a wireless sensor testbed are conducted. The experimental results show that our intelligent agent system is able to precisely estimate the fault probability of sensor nodes.

  12. [Decorporation agents for internal radioactive contamination].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ohmachi, Yasushi

    2015-01-01

    When radionuclides are accidentally ingested or inhaled, blood circulation or tissue/organ deposition of the radionuclides causes systemic or local radiation effects. In such cases, decorporation therapy is used to reduce the health risks due to their intake. Decorporation therapy includes reduction and/or inhibition of absorption from the gastrointestinal tract, isotopic dilution, and the use of diuretics, adsorbents, and chelating agents. For example, penicillamine is recommended as a chelating agent for copper contamination, and diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid is approved for the treatment of internal contamination with plutonium. During chelation therapy, the removal effect of the drugs should be monitored using a whole-body counter and/or bioassay. Some authorities, such as the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements and International Atomic Energy Agency, have reported recommended decorporation agents for each radionuclide. However, few drugs are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, and many are off-label-use agents. Because many decontamination agents are drugs that have been available for a long time and have limited efficacy, the development of new, higher-efficacy drugs has been carried out mainly in the USA and France. In this article, in addition to an outline of decorporation agents for internal radioactive contamination, an outline of our research on decorporation agents for actinide (uranium and plutonium) contamination and for radio-cesium contamination is also presented.

  13. Characterization of chemical agent transport in paints.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Willis, Matthew P; Gordon, Wesley; Lalain, Teri; Mantooth, Brent

    2013-09-15

    A combination of vacuum-based vapor emission measurements with a mass transport model was employed to determine the interaction of chemical warfare agents with various materials, including transport parameters of agents in paints. Accurate determination of mass transport parameters enables the simulation of the chemical agent distribution in a material for decontaminant performance modeling. The evaluation was performed with the chemical warfare agents bis(2-chloroethyl) sulfide (distilled mustard, known as the chemical warfare blister agent HD) and O-ethyl S-[2-(diisopropylamino)ethyl] methylphosphonothioate (VX), an organophosphate nerve agent, deposited on to two different types of polyurethane paint coatings. The results demonstrated alignment between the experimentally measured vapor emission flux and the predicted vapor flux. Mass transport modeling demonstrated rapid transport of VX into the coatings; VX penetrated through the aliphatic polyurethane-based coating (100 μm) within approximately 107 min. By comparison, while HD was more soluble in the coatings, the penetration depth in the coatings was approximately 2× lower than VX. Applications of mass transport parameters include the ability to predict agent uptake, and subsequent long-term vapor emission or contact transfer where the agent could present exposure risks. Additionally, these parameters and model enable the ability to perform decontamination modeling to predict how decontaminants remove agent from these materials. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  14. Evaluation of clot formation in blood-contrast agent mixture: experimental study on ionic/nonionic contrast agents and plastic/ glass syringes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shim, Hyung Jin; Lee, Jong Beum; Lee, Yong Chul; Lee, Kwan Seh; Kim, Kun Sang

    1991-01-01

    Recent introduction of low-osmolar nonionic contrast agents has allowed the performance of angiography with certain advantages such as reduced pain, reduced osmotic load and other potential advantages, over high osmolar ionic contrast agents. But the potential thrombogenic risk of nonionic contrast agent has been debate because of their weak anticoagulation effect. Several reports have recently documented the formation of thrombi in catheters and syringes containing nonionic contrast agent, and thromboembolic episodes have been noted during angiographic procedures. We have also been experienced blood clotting within blood mixed contrast agent syringe during angiography. Thus, we have studied with blood mixed ionic (Diatrizoate, Ioglicate) agents and nonionic (Iopamidol, Iopromide) agents, that used usually in our hospital, and saline in plastic and glass syringes. Each syringes were checked the clot formation on 10,30,60,90 minutes. Total 340 samples were obtained from 8 adults before angiography. Our data showed that nonionic contrast agents had significantly lesser anticoagulation effect than ionic contrast agents (ρ < 0.0001) on Chi-square test), both in plastic and glass syringes. And formation of clotting in glass syringes were significantly greater than that in plastic syringes (ρ < 0.0001). Thus meticulous technique is required to prevent thrombosis during angiographic procedure using nonionic contrast agents

  15. Introducing ALAS: A Novel Agent-Oriented Programming Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mitrović, Dejan; Ivanović, Mirjana; Vidaković, Milan

    2011-09-01

    Agent-oriented programming languages represent a family of programming languages that provide developers with high-level abstractions and constructs necessary for implementing and using agent-related concepts. In this paper a novel agent-oriented programming language for rapid and efficient development of reactive agents, named ALAS, is presented. The simple, but powerful set of language constructs is designed to support the execution of agents in heterogenous environments, and to enable easy employment of advanced agent features, such as mobility and web service integration.

  16. Computational Intelligence Agent-Oriented Modelling

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Neruda, Roman

    2006-01-01

    Roč. 5, č. 2 (2006), s. 430-433 ISSN 1109-2777 R&D Projects: GA MŠk 1M0567 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10300504 Keywords : multi-agent systems * adaptive agents * computational intelligence Subject RIV: IN - Informatics, Computer Science

  17. Reactive agents and perceptual ambiguity

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dartel, M. van; Sprinkhuizen-Kuyper, I.G.; Postma, E.O.; Herik, H.J. van den

    2005-01-01

    Reactive agents are generally believed to be incapable of coping with perceptual ambiguity (i.e., identical sensory states that require different responses). However, a recent finding suggests that reactive agents can cope with perceptual ambiguity in a simple model (Nolfi, 2002). This paper

  18. Los sistemas de barrancos mexicanos, un recurso potencial para el turismo alternativo. El caso de los Barrancos del río Calderón, Estado de México

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José Isabel Juan Pérez

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available El sistema de barrancos del río Calderón, ubicado al sureste del Estado de México,que comprende porciones de los municipios de Villa Guerrero, Ixtapan de La Sal y Zumpahuacán, representa un elemento geográfico de trascendencia para las familias de la región. En este lugar coexisten diversos ecosistemas con elementos geográficos, paisajísticos, geomorfológicos, hidrológicos y amplia biodiversidad que pueden ser utilizados para el turismo alternativo. Mediante el método geográfico, incluyendo cartografía automatizada, fotointerpretación y trabajo de campo, se determinó el potencial natural y sociocultural que posee el sistema de barrancos. La investigación se sustentó en la Teoría General de Sistemas y la Ecología Cultural, complementándose con fundamentos de Geografía Cultural y conceptos de Turismo, que permitieron analizar a los barrancos como un sistema integrado en el que convergen componentes físicos, biológicos y socioculturales. El resultado más relevante es que los elementos bióticos y abióticos del sistema de barrancos están siendo impactados por las actividades económicas y extractivas de los pobladores de la región, sin embargo, aún poseen recursos que mediante un programa de manejo pueden ser utilizados para realizar actividades ecoturísticas encaminadas al desarrollo local, las que al mismo tiempo coadyuven a la protección de los elementos naturales más representativos del sistema.

  19. Noncontraceptive use of contraceptive agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nickles, Monique Collier; Alderman, Elizabeth

    2014-06-01

    • On the basis of strong research evidence, there are many noncontraceptive advantages to use of hormonal contraceptive agents in adolescent girls. (3) (4)(5)(7)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14). • On the basis of research evidence and consensus, most of these agents are safe with minor adverse effects. (2)(3)(4)(5)(7)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14). • On the basis of research evidence and consensus, through application of evidence-based approaches and proper counseling, pediatricians can use various contraceptive agents to treat several medical conditions and to help alleviate many of the undesired symptoms and complications associated with menstrual periods. (2)(3)(4)(5)(7)(10)(11)(12)(13) (14). • On the basis of research evidence and consensus, these agents may be used in sexually active adolescents to simultaneously help prevent unintended adolescent pregnancies. (2)(3)(4)(5)(7)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14).

  20. Cranial nerve contrast using nerve-specific fluorophores improved by paired-agent imaging with indocyanine green as a control agent

    Science.gov (United States)

    Torres, Veronica C.; Vuong, Victoria D.; Wilson, Todd; Wewel, Joshua; Byrne, Richard W.; Tichauer, Kenneth M.

    2017-09-01

    Nerve preservation during surgery is critical because damage can result in significant morbidity. This remains a challenge especially for skull base surgeries where cranial nerves (CNs) are involved because visualization and access are particularly poor in that location. We present a paired-agent imaging method to enhance identification of CNs using nerve-specific fluorophores. Two myelin-targeting imaging agents were evaluated, Oxazine 4 and Rhodamine 800, and coadministered with a control agent, indocyanine green, either intravenously or topically in rats. Fluorescence imaging was performed on excised brains ex vivo, and nerve contrast was evaluated via paired-agent ratiometric data analysis. Although contrast was improved among all experimental groups using paired-agent imaging compared to conventional, solely targeted imaging, Oxazine 4 applied directly exhibited the greatest enhancement, with a minimum 3 times improvement in CNs delineation. This work highlights the importance of accounting for nonspecific signal of targeted agents, and demonstrates that paired-agent imaging is one method capable of doing so. Although staining, rinsing, and imaging protocols need to be optimized, these findings serve as a demonstration for the potential use of paired-agent imaging to improve contrast of CNs, and consequently, surgical outcome.

  1. Institutions, Behavior of Agents and Efficiency

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sukharev Oleg, S.

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available We study the efficiency criterion, describing the behavior and choices of agents, the influence of moral norms on the model of behavior, as well as the criterion of efficiency as an institution to assess the behavior and development of the economic system. Curve proposed institutional compromise that allows to determine the possibility of changes in the welfare of interacting agents and their compliance with ethical standards when welfare increases due to violation or compliance with these standards. For the purposes of this demonstration of the influence of the model of chart-based dilemmas Holmes-Moriarty. Incentives in determining the agents behaviors play a key role in their formation due to the moral principles of behavior. However, in economics there are situations when moral principles are derived certain behaviors or interactions agents. Holmes and Moriarty there is an alternative interaction, which they can not take advantage of, and there is a full range of alternatives that actually programs the strategic outcomes of interactions that reflect the curves of "institutional compromise." Choosing an agent of moral standards as a potential model determines its behavior and, most importantly, interaction with other agents, adhering to certain moral principles. Assess the condition and the possibility of using a static criterion of Pareto efficiency for the analysis of situations where it is important to measure the economic efficiency. Showing institutional aspects that must be considered in the application or formulation of new performance criteria. It is proved that there is a connection microeconomic efficiency / inefficiency and parameters of behavior of agents that actualizes the need to impact on the behavior of agents incentives to solve the task of changing the structure.

  2. [Community health agents: profile and education].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marzari, Carla Kowalski; Junges, José Roque; Selli, Lucilda

    2011-01-01

    This research discusses the profile and education of the community health agents. There is no clarity about the kind of professional needed and the appropriate training to the fulfillment of the function. The research is a case study with exploratory methodology and qualitative approach. The data was collected with a focused group, formed by ten agents, intentional selected from those with more time in service in Family Health Strategy teams from the municipality of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul State. The discussions were recorded and transcribed by the researcher. The data was interpreted by content analysis. The results pointed to some important questions concerning the identity of the community health agents: integration on the health team, insertion in the community, profile and education. The profile which emerges from the research, is not different from the one proposed by the Ministry of Health. However, the difference is the professionalization, an initiative assumed by the agent, guided by reality, which he faces in his activity. The gaps, perceived in his formation, cause the agent to construct his professional identity, determined more by the technical aspect of the scientific knowledge than by his social competence as a community agent.

  3. Agents in E-learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Mencke

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a framework to describe thecrossover domain of e-learning and agent technology.Furthermore it is used to classify existing work and possiblestarting points for the future development of agenttechniques and technologies order to enhance theperformance and the effectiveness of several aspects of elearningsystems. Agents are not a new concept but their usein the field of e-learning constitutes a basis for consequentialadvances.

  4. A Multi-Agent Environment for Negotiation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hindriks, Koen V.; Jonker, Catholijn M.; Tykhonov, Dmytro

    In this chapter we introduce the System for Analysis of Multi-Issue Negotiation (SAMIN). SAMIN offers a negotiation environment that supports and facilitates the setup of various negotiation setups. The environment has been designed to analyse negotiation processes between human negotiators, between human and software agents, and between software agents. It offers a range of different agents, different domains, and other options useful to define a negotiation setup. The environment has been used to test and evaluate a range of negotiation strategies in various domains playing against other negotiating agents as well as humans. We discuss some of the results obtained by means of these experiments.

  5. Agent-Based Negotiation in Uncertain Environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Debenham, John; Sierra, Carles

    An agent aims to secure his projected needs by attempting to build a set of (business) relationships with other agents. A relationship is built by exchanging private information, and is characterised by its intimacy — degree of closeness — and balance — degree of fairness. Each argumentative interaction between two agents then has two goals: to satisfy some immediate need, and to do so in a way that develops the relationship in a desired direction. An agent's desire to develop each relationship in a particular way then places constraints on the argumentative utterances. The form of negotiation described is argumentative interaction constrained by a desire to develop such relationships.

  6. A study on development and applications of agents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Park, Sun Hee; Sohn, Jae Min

    2000-06-01

    An agent study is variously applied from the restricted research of an early AI field to the practical SW development of the design and implementation of a high level, distributed hybrid system. Among the detailed research fields of AI, making a new research field called distributed AI, the trial of resolving a problem based on an agent, has begun. Related to it, the requirement of an intelligent system to offer convenience to easily do a job which the user wants, with the recent trial of an approach for internet agents of various types, were developed to be performed automatically and the agent anticipate the user's need. In this paper, the basic concepts regarding an agent system, research direction and applications were analyzed and outlined. The consisting elements were also analyzed. such as background, needs, basic concepts and properties of the agent. The agent's research status was recently analyzed, and the development and related property of an intelligent agent were written. Application and the instance of a generalized agent about applicable fields in the real world were studied, functions and services about intelligent agents were analyzed. The applicable field of an agent technique becomes various not in information retrieval on a web site, but in the processing of internet information, and in the electronic commerce, industry and medical fields. Through analyzing and comparing the general concept of various agents, this study will aid in establishing a future direction of research in this field

  7. Multi-Agent Information Classification Using Dynamic Acquaintance Lists.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mukhopadhyay, Snehasis; Peng, Shengquan; Raje, Rajeev; Palakal, Mathew; Mostafa, Javed

    2003-01-01

    Discussion of automated information services focuses on information classification and collaborative agents, i.e. intelligent computer programs. Highlights include multi-agent systems; distributed artificial intelligence; thesauri; document representation and classification; agent modeling; acquaintances, or remote agents discovered through…

  8. Artificial agents learning human fairness

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jong, de S.; Tuyls, K.P.; Verbeeck, K.; Padgham, xx; Parkes, xx

    2008-01-01

    Recent advances in technology allow multi-agent systems to be deployed in cooperation with or as a service for humans. Typically, those systems are designed assuming individually rational agents, according to the principles of classical game theory. However, research in the field of behavioral

  9. Requirements Modeling with Agent Programming

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dasgupta, Aniruddha; Krishna, Aneesh; Ghose, Aditya K.

    Agent-oriented conceptual modeling notations are highly effective in representing requirements from an intentional stance and answering questions such as what goals exist, how key actors depend on each other, and what alternatives must be considered. In this chapter, we review an approach to executing i* models by translating these into set of interacting agents implemented in the CASO language and suggest how we can perform reasoning with requirements modeled (both functional and non-functional) using i* models. In this chapter we particularly incorporate deliberation into the agent design. This allows us to benefit from the complementary representational capabilities of the two frameworks.

  10. Trends and developments in MRI contrast agent research

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cavagna, F.M.; Dapra, M.; Castelli, P.M.; Maggioni, F.; Kirchin, M.A.

    1997-01-01

    The currently prevailing trends in industrial contrast agent research for MRI are discussed. Specific mention is made of contrast agents for liver imaging using both static and delayed procedures, of the potential for blood pool agents and the form such agents may take, and of the ultimate challenge for contrast agent R and D: tissue-targeting in a wider sense to both normal and pathologic tissues. (orig.)

  11. Persistent agents in Axelrod's social dynamics model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reia, Sandro M.; Neves, Ubiraci P. C.

    2016-01-01

    Axelrod's model of social dynamics has been studied under the effect of external media. Here we study the formation of cultural domains in the model by introducing persistent agents. These are agents whose cultural traits are not allowed to change but may be spread through local neighborhood. In the absence of persistent agents, the system is known to present a transition from a monocultural to a multicultural regime at some critical Q (number of traits). Our results reveal a dependence of critical Q on the occupation probability p of persistent agents and we obtain the phase diagram of the model in the (p,Q) -plane. The critical locus is explained by the competition of two opposite forces named here barrier and bonding effects. Such forces are verified to be caused by non-persistent agents which adhere (adherent agents) to the set of traits of persistent ones. The adherence (concentration of adherent agents) as a function of p is found to decay for constant Q. Furthermore, adherence as a function of Q is found to decay as a power law with constant p.

  12. Reversal agents in anaesthesia and critical care

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nibedita Pani

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Despite the advent of short and ultra-short acting drugs, an in-depth knowledge of the reversal agents used is a necessity for any anaesthesiologist. Reversal agents are defined as any drug used to reverse the effects of anaesthetics, narcotics or potentially toxic agents. The controversy on the routine reversal of neuromuscular blockade still exists. The advent of newer reversal agents like sugammadex have made the use of steroidal neuromuscular blockers like rocuronium feasible in rapid sequence induction situations. We made a review of the older reversal agents and those still under investigation for drugs that are regularly used in our anaesthesia practice.

  13. Chemical warfare agents identification by thermal neutron detection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu Boxue; Ai Xianyun; Tan Daoyuan; Zhang Dianqin

    2000-01-01

    The hydrogen concentration determination by thermal neutron detection is a non-destructive, fast and effective method to identify chemical warfare agents and TNT that contain different hydrogen fraction. When an isotropic neutron source is used to irradiate chemical ammunition, hydrogen atoms of the agent inside shell act as a moderator and slow down neutrons. The number of induced thermal neutrons depends mainly upon hydrogen content of the agent. Therefore measurement of thermal neutron influence can be used to determine hydrogen atom concentration, thereby to determine the chemical warfare agents. Under a certain geometry three calibration curves of count rate against hydrogen concentration were measured. According to the calibration curves, response of a chemical agent or TNT could be calculated. Differences of count rate among chemical agents and TNT for each kind of shells is greater than five times of standard deviations of count rate for any agent, so chemical agents or TNT could be identified correctly. Meanwhile, blast tube or liquid level of chemical warfare agent could affect the response of thermal neutron count rate, and thereby the result of identification. (author)

  14. Agent-Based Models in Social Physics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quang, Le Anh; Jung, Nam; Cho, Eun Sung; Choi, Jae Han; Lee, Jae Woo

    2018-06-01

    We review the agent-based models (ABM) on social physics including econophysics. The ABM consists of agent, system space, and external environment. The agent is autonomous and decides his/her behavior by interacting with the neighbors or the external environment with the rules of behavior. Agents are irrational because they have only limited information when they make decisions. They adapt using learning from past memories. Agents have various attributes and are heterogeneous. ABM is a non-equilibrium complex system that exhibits various emergence phenomena. The social complexity ABM describes human behavioral characteristics. In ABMs of econophysics, we introduce the Sugarscape model and the artificial market models. We review minority games and majority games in ABMs of game theory. Social flow ABM introduces crowding, evacuation, traffic congestion, and pedestrian dynamics. We also review ABM for opinion dynamics and voter model. We discuss features and advantages and disadvantages of Netlogo, Repast, Swarm, and Mason, which are representative platforms for implementing ABM.

  15. Application Framework with Abstractions for Protocol and Agent Role

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kristensen, Bent Bruun

    2016-01-01

    In multi-agent systems, agents interact by sending and receiving messages and the actual sequences of message form interaction structures between agents. Protocols and agents organized internally by agent roles support these interaction structures. Description and use of protocols based on agent ...... roles are supported by a simple and expressive application framework....

  16. Three essays in agent-based macroeconomics

    OpenAIRE

    Canzian, Giulia

    2009-01-01

    The dissertation is aimed at offering an insight into the agent-based methodology and its possible application to the macroeconomic analysis. Relying on this methodology, I deal with three different issues concerning heterogeneity of economic agents, bounded rationality and interaction. Specifically, the first chapter is devoted to describe the distinctive characteristics of agent-based economics and its advantages-disadvantages. In the second chapter I propose a credit market framework c...

  17. Dendrimer-based Macromolecular MRI Contrast Agents: Characteristics and Application

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hisataka Kobayashi

    2003-01-01

    Full Text Available Numerous macromolecular MRI contrast agents prepared employing relatively simple chemistry may be readily available that can provide sufficient enhancement for multiple applications. These agents operate using a ~100-fold lower concentration of gadolinium ions in comparison to the necessary concentration of iodine employed in CT imaging. Herein, we describe some of the general potential directions of macromolecular MRI contrast agents using our recently reported families of dendrimer-based agents as examples. Changes in molecular size altered the route of excretion. Smaller-sized contrast agents less than 60 kDa molecular weight were excreted through the kidney resulting in these agents being potentially suitable as functional renal contrast agents. Hydrophilic and larger-sized contrast agents were found better suited for use as blood pool contrast agents. Hydrophobic variants formed with polypropylenimine diaminobutane dendrimer cores created liver contrast agents. Larger hydrophilic agents are useful for lymphatic imaging. Finally, contrast agents conjugated with either monoclonal antibodies or with avidin are able to function as tumor-specific contrast agents, which also might be employed as therapeutic drugs for either gadolinium neutron capture therapy or in conjunction with radioimmunotherapy.

  18. Disponibilidade de ferro, digestibilidade de proteína e teor de β-caroteno em formulados alternativos de baixo custo para alimentação enteral de idosos

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karina de Oliveira Calheiros

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available O objetivo geral deste trabalho foi elaborar formulados alternativos à base de mistura de alimentos convencionais provenientes da cesta básica distribuída por entidades do município de Piracicaba-SP, entre outros alimentos, com o intuito de suplementar a alimentação enteral de idosos. Os alimentos utilizados para elaboração dos formulados foram fubá, óleo de soja, arroz, feijão, macarrão, sardinha, leite em pó, amido de milho, ovos, proteína texturizada de soja, couve-manteiga e cenoura. Foram realizadas análises químicas: composição centesimal, digestibilidade de proteína, determinação do mineral ferro, diálise de ferro in vitro, determinação de β-caroteno e fatores antinutricionais, assim como fenólicos totais e ácido fítico; e análise de custos dos formulados. Os resultados obtidos foram submetidos às análises estatísticas empregando o teste de Tukey e análises de regressão. Concluiu-se com este estudo que os formulados líquidos apresentaram os melhores resultados nutricionais e viabilidade econômica. Dentre estes, podem-se eleger duas alternativas. O formulado F3 se destacou na disponibilidade de ferro, quantidades de β-caroteno e digestibilidade. O formulado F4 se destacou na distribuição do valor calórico total de macronutrientes. Os formulados contribuem com percentual médio de 20% de adequação para idosos, quando ingeridas duas porções de 250 mL/dia de formulados líquidos ou em pó.

  19. Agent-based modeling of sustainable behaviors

    CERN Document Server

    Sánchez-Maroño, Noelia; Fontenla-Romero, Oscar; Polhill, J; Craig, Tony; Bajo, Javier; Corchado, Juan

    2017-01-01

    Using the O.D.D. (Overview, Design concepts, Detail) protocol, this title explores the role of agent-based modeling in predicting the feasibility of various approaches to sustainability. The chapters incorporated in this volume consist of real case studies to illustrate the utility of agent-based modeling and complexity theory in discovering a path to more efficient and sustainable lifestyles. The topics covered within include: households' attitudes toward recycling, designing decision trees for representing sustainable behaviors, negotiation-based parking allocation, auction-based traffic signal control, and others. This selection of papers will be of interest to social scientists who wish to learn more about agent-based modeling as well as experts in the field of agent-based modeling.

  20. Mobile Agents in Networking and Distributed Computing

    CERN Document Server

    Cao, Jiannong

    2012-01-01

    The book focuses on mobile agents, which are computer programs that can autonomously migrate between network sites. This text introduces the concepts and principles of mobile agents, provides an overview of mobile agent technology, and focuses on applications in networking and distributed computing.

  1. Exchanging large data object in multi-agent systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al-Yaseen, Wathiq Laftah; Othman, Zulaiha Ali; Nazri, Mohd Zakree Ahmad

    2016-08-01

    One of the Business Intelligent solutions that is currently in use is the Multi-Agent System (MAS). Communication is one of the most important elements in MAS, especially for exchanging large low level data between distributed agents (physically). The Agent Communication Language in JADE has been offered as a secure method for sending data, whereby the data is defined as an object. However, the object cannot be used to send data to another agent in a different location. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to propose a method for the exchange of large low level data as an object by creating a proxy agent known as a Delivery Agent, which temporarily imitates the Receiver Agent. The results showed that the proposed method is able to send large-sized data. The experiments were conducted using 16 datasets ranging from 100,000 to 7 million instances. However, for the proposed method, the RAM and the CPU machine had to be slightly increased for the Receiver Agent, but the latency time was not significantly different compared to the use of the Java Socket method (non-agent and less secure). With such results, it was concluded that the proposed method can be used to securely send large data between agents.

  2. Protecting mobile agents from external replay attacks

    OpenAIRE

    Garrigues Olivella, Carles; Migas, Nikos; Buchanan, William; Robles, Sergi; Borrell Viader, Joan

    2014-01-01

    Peer-reviewed This paper presents a protocol for the protection of mobile agents against external replay attacks. This kind of attacks are performed by malicious platforms when dispatching an agent multiple times to a remote host, thus making it reexecute part of its itinerary. Current proposals aiming to address this problem are based on storing agent identifiers, or trip markers, inside agent platforms, so that future reexecutions can be detected and prevented. The problem of these solut...

  3. Process for preparation of MR contrast agents

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    2002-01-01

    The present invention provides a process for the preparation of an MR contrast agent, said process comprising: i) obtaining a solution in a solvent of a hydrogenatable, unsaturated substrate compound and a catalyst for the hydrogenation of said substrate compound; ii) introducing said solution...... in droplet form into a chamber containing hydrogen gas (H2) enriched in para-hydrogen (p-1H2) and/or ortho-deuterium (o-2H2) whereby to hydrogenate said substrate to form a hydrogenated imaging agent; iii) optionally subjecting said hydrogenated imaging agent to a magnetic field having a field strength below...... earth's ambient field strength; iv) optionally dissolving said imaging agent in an aqueous medium; v) optionally separating said catalyst from the solution of said imaging agent in said aqueous medium; vi) optionally separating said solvent from the solution of said imaging agent in said aqueous medium...

  4. Pinning synchronization of a mobile agent network

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Lei; Sun, You-xian

    2009-01-01

    We investigate the problem of controlling a group of mobile agents in a plane in order to move them towards a desired orbit via pinning control, in which each agent is associated with a chaotic oscillator coupled with those of neighboring agents, and the pinning strategy is to have the common linear feedback acting on a small fraction of agents by random selection. We explore the effects of the pinning probability, feedback gains and agent density in the pinning synchronization of a mobile agent network under a fast-switching constraint, and perform numerical simulations for validation. In particular, we show that there exists a critical pinning density for network synchronization with an unbounded region: above the threshold, the dynamical network can be controlled by pinning; below it, anarchy prevails. And for the network with a single bounded synchronization region, pinning control has little effect as regards enhancing network synchronizability

  5. 22 CFR 51.22 - Passport agents and passport acceptance agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... misdemeanor conviction for crimes involving moral turpitude or breach of trust, including but not limited to...) Safeguarding passport application information under the Privacy Act of 1974. Passport acceptance agents...

  6. Transfection Agent Induced Nanoparticle Cell Loading

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karin Montet-Abou

    2005-07-01

    Full Text Available Loading cells with magnetic nanoparticles, and tracking their fate in vivo by high resolution MRI, is an attractive approach for enhancing the efficacy of cell-based therapies including those utilizing hematopoietic stem cells, neuroprogenitor cells, and T cells. The transfection agent (internalization agent assisted loading with the Feridex IV® nanoparticle is an attractive method of loading because of the low cost of materials, and possible low regulatory barriers for eventual clinical use. We therefore explored the interaction between Feridex IV® and three internalization agents protamine (PRO, polylysine (PLL, and lipofectamine (LFA. Feridex reacted with internalization agents to form aggregates, except when either the internalization agent or Feridex was present in large excess. When Jurkat T cells were incubated with Feridex/LFA or Feridex/PRO mixtures, and washed by centrifugation, nanoparticle aggregates co-purified with cells. With C17.2 cells large iron oxide particles adhered to the cell surface. At 30 μg/mL Feridex and 3 μg/mL LFA, internalization was largely mediated by LFA and was largely cytoplasmic. However, we found that the conditions used to label cells with Feridex and transfection agents need to be carefully selected to avoid the problems of surface adsorption and nanoparticle precipitation.

  7. Anticipatory vehicle routing using delegate multi-agent systems

    OpenAIRE

    Weyns, Danny; Holvoet, Tom; Helleboogh, Alexander

    2007-01-01

    This paper presents an agent-based approach, called delegate multi-agent systems, for anticipatory vehicle routing to avoid traffic congestion. In this approach, individual vehicles are represented by agents, which themselves issue light-weight agents that explore alternative routes in the environment on behalf of the vehicles. Based on the evaluation of the alternatives, the vehicles then issue light-weight agents for allocating road segments, spreading the vehicles’ intentions and coordi...

  8. 31 CFR 10.4 - Eligibility for enrollment as enrolled agent or enrolled retirement plan agent.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ...) Enrollment as an enrolled agent upon examination. The Director of the Office of Professional Responsibility may grant enrollment as an enrolled agent to an applicant who demonstrates special competence in tax... the Office of Professional Responsibility and who has not engaged in any conduct that would justify...

  9. Internet-enabled collaborative agent-based supply chains

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, Weiming; Kremer, Rob; Norrie, Douglas H.

    2000-12-01

    This paper presents some results of our recent research work related to the development of a new Collaborative Agent System Architecture (CASA) and an Infrastructure for Collaborative Agent Systems (ICAS). Initially being proposed as a general architecture for Internet based collaborative agent systems (particularly complex industrial collaborative agent systems), the proposed architecture is very suitable for managing the Internet enabled complex supply chain for a large manufacturing enterprise. The general collaborative agent system architecture with the basic communication and cooperation services, domain independent components, prototypes and mechanisms are described. Benefits of implementing Internet enabled supply chains with the proposed infrastructure are discussed. A case study on Internet enabled supply chain management is presented.

  10. Recent advances in agent-based complex automated negotiation

    CERN Document Server

    Ito, Takayuki; Zhang, Minjie; Fujita, Katsuhide; Robu, Valentin

    2016-01-01

    This book covers recent advances in Complex Automated Negotiations as a widely studied emerging area in the field of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. The book includes selected revised and extended papers from the 7th International Workshop on Agent-Based Complex Automated Negotiation (ACAN2014), which was held in Paris, France, in May 2014. The book also includes brief introductions about Agent-based Complex Automated Negotiation which are based on tutorials provided in the workshop, and brief summaries and descriptions about the ANAC'14 (Automated Negotiating Agents Competition) competition, where authors of selected finalist agents explain the strategies and the ideas used by them. The book is targeted to academic and industrial researchers in various communities of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems, such as agreement technology, mechanism design, electronic commerce, related areas, as well as graduate, undergraduate, and PhD students working in those areas or having interest in them.

  11. Regulated open multi-agent systems (ROMAS) a multi-agent approach for designing normative open systems

    CERN Document Server

    Garcia, Emilia; Botti, Vicente

    2015-01-01

    Addressing the open problem of engineering normative open systems using the multi-agent paradigm, normative open systems are explained as systems in which heterogeneous and autonomous entities and institutions coexist in a complex social and legal framework that can evolve to address the different and often conflicting objectives of the many stakeholders involved. Presenting  a software engineering approach which covers both the analysis and design of these kinds of systems, and which deals with the open issues in the area, ROMAS (Regulated Open Multi-Agent Systems) defines a specific multi-agent architecture, meta-model, methodology and CASE tool. This CASE tool is based on Model-Driven technology and integrates the graphical design with the formal verification of some properties of these systems by means of model checking techniques. Utilizing tables to enhance reader insights into the most important requirements for designing normative open multi-agent systems, the book also provides a detailed and easy t...

  12. Modelling User Preferences and Mediating Agents in Electronic Commerce

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dastani, M.M.; Jacobs, N.; Jonker, C.M.; Treur, J.

    2005-01-01

    An important ingredient in agent-mediated electronic commerce is the presence of intelligent mediating agents that assist electronic commerce participants (e.g. individual users, other agents, organisations). These mediating agents are in principle autonomous agents that interact with their

  13. Modeling culture in intelligent virtual agents

    OpenAIRE

    Mascarenhas, S.; Degens, N.; Paiva, A.; Prada, R.; Hofstede, G.J.; Beulens, A.J.M.; Aylett, R.

    2016-01-01

    This work addresses the challenge of creating virtual agents that are able to portray culturally appropriate behavior when interacting with other agents or humans. Because culture influences how people perceive their social reality it is important to have agent models that explicitly consider social elements, such as existing relational factors. We addressed this necessity by integrating culture into a novel model for simulating human social behavior. With this model, we operationalized a par...

  14. [Biological agents].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amano, Koichi

    2009-03-01

    There are two types of biological agents for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA); monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins. Among the latter, etanercept, a recombinant fusion protein of soluble TNF receptor and IgG was approved in 2005 in Japan. The post-marketing surveillance of 13,894 RA patients revealed the efficacy and safety profiles of etanercept in the Japanese population, as well as overseas studies. Abatacept, a recombinant fusion protein of CTLA4 and IgG, is another biological agent for RA. Two clinical trials disclosed the efficacy of abatacept for difficult-to-treat patients: the AIM for MTX-resistant cases and the ATTAIN for patients who are resistant to anti-TNF. The ATTEST trial suggested abatacept might have more acceptable safety profile than infliximab. These biologics are also promising for the treatment of RA for not only relieving clinical symptoms and signs but retarding structural damage.

  15. Modeling User Preferences and Mediating Agents in Electronic Commerce

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dastani, M.M.; Jacobs, N.; Jonker, C.M.; Treur, J.; Dignum, F.; Sierra, C.

    2001-01-01

    An important ingredient in agent-mediated Electronic Commerce is the presence of intelligent mediating agents that assist Electronic Commerce participants (e.g., individual users, other agents, organisations). These mediating agents are in principle autonomous agents that will interact with their

  16. Evolutionary game theory using agent-based methods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adami, Christoph; Schossau, Jory; Hintze, Arend

    2016-12-01

    Evolutionary game theory is a successful mathematical framework geared towards understanding the selective pressures that affect the evolution of the strategies of agents engaged in interactions with potential conflicts. While a mathematical treatment of the costs and benefits of decisions can predict the optimal strategy in simple settings, more realistic settings such as finite populations, non-vanishing mutations rates, stochastic decisions, communication between agents, and spatial interactions, require agent-based methods where each agent is modeled as an individual, carries its own genes that determine its decisions, and where the evolutionary outcome can only be ascertained by evolving the population of agents forward in time. While highlighting standard mathematical results, we compare those to agent-based methods that can go beyond the limitations of equations and simulate the complexity of heterogeneous populations and an ever-changing set of interactors. We conclude that agent-based methods can predict evolutionary outcomes where purely mathematical treatments cannot tread (for example in the weak selection-strong mutation limit), but that mathematics is crucial to validate the computational simulations. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Metareasoning and Social Evaluations in Cognitive Agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pinyol, Isaac; Sabater-Mir, Jordi

    Reputation mechanisms have been recognized one of the key technologies when designing multi-agent systems. They are specially relevant in complex open environments, becoming a non-centralized mechanism to control interactions among agents. Cognitive agents tackling such complex societies must use reputation information not only for selecting partners to interact with, but also in metareasoning processes to change reasoning rules. This is the focus of this paper. We argue about the necessity to allow, as a cognitive systems designers, certain degree of freedom in the reasoning rules of the agents. We also describes cognitive approaches of agency that support this idea. Furthermore, taking as a base the computational reputation model Repage, and its integration in a BDI architecture, we use the previous ideas to specify metarules and processes to modify at run-time the reasoning paths of the agent. In concrete we propose a metarule to update the link between Repage and the belief base, and a metarule and a process to update an axiom incorporated in the belief logic of the agent. Regarding this last issue we also provide empirical results that show the evolution of agents that use it.

  18. New antithrombotic agents in the ambulatory setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gibbs, Neville M; Weightman, William M; Watts, Stephen A

    2014-12-01

    Many patients presenting for surgical or other procedures in an ambulatory setting are taking new antiplatelet or anticoagulant agents. This review assesses how the novel features of these new agents affect the management of antithrombotic therapy in the ambulatory setting. There have been very few studies investigating the relative risks of continuing or ceasing new antithrombotic agents. Recent reviews indicate that the new antithrombotic agents offer greater efficacy or ease of administration but are more difficult to monitor or reverse. They emphasize the importance of assessing the bleeding risk of the procedure, the thrombotic risk if the agent is ceased, and patient factors that increase the likelihood of bleeding. The timing of cessation of the agent, if required, depends on its pharmacokinetics and patients' bleeding risks. Patients at high risk of thrombotic complications may require bridging therapy. Once agreed upon, the perioperative plan should be made clear to all involved. As there are few clinical studies to guide management, clinicians must make rational decisions in relation to continuing or ceasing new antithrombotic agents. This requires knowledge of their pharmacokinetics, and a careful multidisciplinary assessment of the relative thrombotic and bleeding risks in individual patients.

  19. Agents Within our Midst

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-03-14

    agents; and the development of bio -monitoring protocols for civilian and service personnel during a chemical attack. These efforts have resulted in greater...produced by staphylococcal bacteria that is and is classified as a CDC select agent which has the potential to be used as a biological weapon .1...NMR chemical shift perturbation titrations with Fab (fragment, antigen binding regions) domains of 20B1, 14G8, and 6D3 using deuterated (2H) SEB

  20. Multi-Agent Framework for Virtual Learning Spaces.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sheremetov, Leonid; Nunez, Gustavo

    1999-01-01

    Discussion of computer-supported collaborative learning, distributed artificial intelligence, and intelligent tutoring systems focuses on the concept of agents, and describes a virtual learning environment that has a multi-agent system. Describes a model of interactions in collaborative learning and discusses agents for Web-based virtual…

  1. 14 CFR 29.1199 - Extinguishing agent containers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Extinguishing agent containers. 29.1199....1199 Extinguishing agent containers. (a) Each extinguishing agent container must have a pressure relief to prevent bursting of the container by excessive internal pressures. (b) The discharge end of each...

  2. 14 CFR 25.1199 - Extinguishing agent containers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Extinguishing agent containers. 25.1199....1199 Extinguishing agent containers. (a) Each extinguishing agent container must have a pressure relief to prevent bursting of the container by excessive internal pressures. (b) The discharge end of each...

  3. 14 CFR 23.1199 - Extinguishing agent containers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Extinguishing agent containers. 23.1199... Powerplant Fire Protection § 23.1199 Extinguishing agent containers. For commuter category airplanes, the following applies: (a) Each extinguishing agent container must have a pressure relief to prevent bursting of...

  4. An Important Chemical Weapon Group: Nerve Agents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hakan Yaren

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available As a result of developing modern chemistry, nerve agents, which are one of the most important group of efficient chemical warfare agents, were developed just before Second World War. They generate toxic and clinical effects via inhibiting acetylcholinesterase irreversibly and causing excessive amounts of acetylcholine at cholinergic synapses in the body. Clinical symptoms are occurred as a result of affected muscarinic (stimulation of secretuar glands, miosis, breathing problems etc., nicotinic (stimulation of skeletal muscles, paralyse, tremors etc. and central nerve system (convulsions, loss of consciousness, coma etc. areas. In case of a nerve agent exposure, treatment includes the steps of ventilation, decontamination, antidotal treatment (atropine, oximes, diazepam and pyridostigmine bromide and supportive theraphy. Because of arising possibility of using chemical warfare agents due to current conjuncture of the world, medical staff should know about nerve agents, their effects and how to treat the casualties exposured to nerve agents. [TAF Prev Med Bull 2007; 6(6.000: 491-500

  5. An Important Chemical Weapon Group: Nerve Agents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hakan Yaren

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available As a result of developing modern chemistry, nerve agents, which are one of the most important group of efficient chemical warfare agents, were developed just before Second World War. They generate toxic and clinical effects via inhibiting acetylcholinesterase irreversibly and causing excessive amounts of acetylcholine at cholinergic synapses in the body. Clinical symptoms are occurred as a result of affected muscarinic (stimulation of secretuar glands, miosis, breathing problems etc., nicotinic (stimulation of skeletal muscles, paralyse, tremors etc. and central nerve system (convulsions, loss of consciousness, coma etc. areas. In case of a nerve agent exposure, treatment includes the steps of ventilation, decontamination, antidotal treatment (atropine, oximes, diazepam and pyridostigmine bromide and supportive theraphy. Because of arising possibility of using chemical warfare agents due to current conjuncture of the world, medical staff should know about nerve agents, their effects and how to treat the casualties exposured to nerve agents. [TAF Prev Med Bull. 2007; 6(6: 491-500

  6. Story telling engine based on agent interaction

    OpenAIRE

    Porcel, Juan Carlos

    2008-01-01

    Comics have been used as a programming tool for agents, giving them instructions on how to act. In this thesis I do this in reverse, I use comics to describe the actions of agents already interacting with each other to create a storytelling engine that dynamically generate stories, based on the interaction of said agents. The model for the agent behaviours is based on the improvisational puppets model of Barbara Hayes-Roth. This model is chosen due to the nature of comics themselves. Comics ...

  7. Prostate Activated Prodrugs and Imaging Agents

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Jones, Graham B

    2004-01-01

    .... The substrate chosen was a 3 component system composed of a peptide sequence with affinity for PSA, an imaging agent and a deactivating bridge-linker, which electronically incapacitates the imaging agent...

  8. Reducing Interaction Costs for Self-interested Agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yunqi; Larson, Kate

    In many multiagent systems, agents are not able to freely interact with each other or with a centralized mechanism. They may be limited in their interactions by cost or by the inherent structure of the system. Using a combinatorial auction application as motivation, we study the impact of interaction costs and structure on the strategic behaviour of self-interested agents. We present a particular model of costly agent-interaction, and argue that self-interested agents may wish to coordinate their actions with their neighbours so as to reduce their individual costs. We highlight the issues that arise in such a setting, propose a cost-sharing mechanism that agents can use, and discuss group coordination procedures. Experimental work validates our model.

  9. Learning in engineered multi-agent systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Menon, Anup

    Consider the problem of maximizing the total power produced by a wind farm. Due to aerodynamic interactions between wind turbines, each turbine maximizing its individual power---as is the case in present-day wind farms---does not lead to optimal farm-level power capture. Further, there are no good models to capture the said aerodynamic interactions, rendering model based optimization techniques ineffective. Thus, model-free distributed algorithms are needed that help turbines adapt their power production on-line so as to maximize farm-level power capture. Motivated by such problems, the main focus of this dissertation is a distributed model-free optimization problem in the context of multi-agent systems. The set-up comprises of a fixed number of agents, each of which can pick an action and observe the value of its individual utility function. An individual's utility function may depend on the collective action taken by all agents. The exact functional form (or model) of the agent utility functions, however, are unknown; an agent can only measure the numeric value of its utility. The objective of the multi-agent system is to optimize the welfare function (i.e. sum of the individual utility functions). Such a collaborative task requires communications between agents and we allow for the possibility of such inter-agent communications. We also pay attention to the role played by the pattern of such information exchange on certain aspects of performance. We develop two algorithms to solve this problem. The first one, engineered Interactive Trial and Error Learning (eITEL) algorithm, is based on a line of work in the Learning in Games literature and applies when agent actions are drawn from finite sets. While in a model-free setting, we introduce a novel qualitative graph-theoretic framework to encode known directed interactions of the form "which agents' action affect which others' payoff" (interaction graph). We encode explicit inter-agent communications in a directed

  10. CATS-based Air Traffic Controller Agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Callantine, Todd J.

    2002-01-01

    This report describes intelligent agents that function as air traffic controllers. Each agent controls traffic in a single sector in real time; agents controlling traffic in adjoining sectors can coordinate to manage an arrival flow across a given meter fix. The purpose of this research is threefold. First, it seeks to study the design of agents for controlling complex systems. In particular, it investigates agent planning and reactive control functionality in a dynamic environment in which a variety perceptual and decision making skills play a central role. It examines how heuristic rules can be applied to model planning and decision making skills, rather than attempting to apply optimization methods. Thus, the research attempts to develop intelligent agents that provide an approximation of human air traffic controller behavior that, while not based on an explicit cognitive model, does produce task performance consistent with the way human air traffic controllers operate. Second, this research sought to extend previous research on using the Crew Activity Tracking System (CATS) as the basis for intelligent agents. The agents use a high-level model of air traffic controller activities to structure the control task. To execute an activity in the CATS model, according to the current task context, the agents reference a 'skill library' and 'control rules' that in turn execute the pattern recognition, planning, and decision-making required to perform the activity. Applying the skills enables the agents to modify their representation of the current control situation (i.e., the 'flick' or 'picture'). The updated representation supports the next activity in a cycle of action that, taken as a whole, simulates air traffic controller behavior. A third, practical motivation for this research is to use intelligent agents to support evaluation of new air traffic control (ATC) methods to support new Air Traffic Management (ATM) concepts. Current approaches that use large, human

  11. Real Estate Agent Commission Disputes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anida Duarte

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among Procuring Cause Law, real estate agent years of experience, and real estate commission disputes. A pilot survey was conducted in the southwestern United States among real estate agents, realtor(s, and brokers. After testing the hypothesis, the decision was made to fail to reject the hypothesis and conclude that real estate agent experience and not Procuring Cause Law produced favorable outcomes in disputes. As a result, the following recommendations were made: (a Agency seller and buyer’s agreements should be used in each transaction to avoid disputes, (b proper expectations and guidelines should be reviewed prior to starting any real estate transaction, (c a checklist may assist in the assurance that all valuable information is reviewed, (d agents could benefit from fully understanding Procuring Cause Law and sharing this information with their clients, (e state and national regulatory requirements of the law could be modified for easier understanding and use, and (f consumers who willfully violate the law could be subject to monetary penalties.

  12. Fuzzy Constraint-Based Agent Negotiation

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Menq-Wen Lin; K. Robert Lai; Ting-Jung Yu

    2005-01-01

    Conflicts between two or more parties arise for various reasons and perspectives. Thus, resolution of conflicts frequently relies on some form of negotiation. This paper presents a general problem-solving framework for modeling multi-issue multilateral negotiation using fuzzy constraints. Agent negotiation is formulated as a distributed fuzzy constraint satisfaction problem (DFCSP). Fuzzy constrains are thus used to naturally represent each agent's desires involving imprecision and human conceptualization, particularly when lexical imprecision and subjective matters are concerned. On the other hand, based on fuzzy constraint-based problem-solving, our approach enables an agent not only to systematically relax fuzzy constraints to generate a proposal, but also to employ fuzzy similarity to select the alternative that is subject to its acceptability by the opponents. This task of problem-solving is to reach an agreement that benefits all agents with a high satisfaction degree of fuzzy constraints, and move towards the deal more quickly since their search focuses only on the feasible solution space. An application to multilateral negotiation of a travel planning is provided to demonstrate the usefulness and effectiveness of our framework.

  13. inventory management, VMI, software agents, MDV model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Waldemar Wieczerzycki

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Background: As it is well know, the implementation of instruments of logistics management is only possible with the use of the latest information technology. So-called agent technology is one of the most promising solutions in this area. Its essence consists in an entirely new way of software distribution on the computer network platform, in which computer exchange among themselves not only data, but also software modules, called just agents. The first aim is to propose the alternative method of the implementation of the concept of the inventory management by the supplier with the use of intelligent software agents, which are able not only to transfer the information but also to make the autonomous decisions based on the privileges given to them. The second aim of this research was to propose a new model of a software agent, which will be both of a high mobility and a high intelligence. Methods: After a brief discussion of the nature of agent technology, the most important benefits of using it to build platforms to support business are given. Then the original model of polymorphic software agent, called Multi-Dimensionally Versioned Software Agent (MDV is presented, which is oriented on the specificity of IT applications in business. MDV agent is polymorphic, which allows the transmission through the network only the most relevant parts of its code, and only when necessary. Consequently, the network nodes exchange small amounts of software code, which ensures high mobility of software agents, and thus highly efficient operation of IT platforms built on the proposed model. Next, the adaptation of MDV software agents to implementation of well-known logistics management instrument - VMI (Vendor Managed Inventory is illustrated. Results: The key benefits of this approach are identified, among which one can distinguish: reduced costs, higher flexibility and efficiency, new functionality - especially addressed to business negotiation, full automation

  14. The highly intelligent virtual agents for modeling financial markets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, G.; Chen, Y.; Huang, J. P.

    2016-02-01

    Researchers have borrowed many theories from statistical physics, like ensemble, Ising model, etc., to study complex adaptive systems through agent-based modeling. However, one fundamental difference between entities (such as spins) in physics and micro-units in complex adaptive systems is that the latter are usually with high intelligence, such as investors in financial markets. Although highly intelligent virtual agents are essential for agent-based modeling to play a full role in the study of complex adaptive systems, how to create such agents is still an open question. Hence, we propose three principles for designing high artificial intelligence in financial markets and then build a specific class of agents called iAgents based on these three principles. Finally, we evaluate the intelligence of iAgents through virtual index trading in two different stock markets. For comparison, we also include three other types of agents in this contest, namely, random traders, agents from the wealth game (modified on the famous minority game), and agents from an upgraded wealth game. As a result, iAgents perform the best, which gives a well support for the three principles. This work offers a general framework for the further development of agent-based modeling for various kinds of complex adaptive systems.

  15. Agent review phase one report.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zubelewicz, Alex Tadeusz; Davis, Christopher Edward; Bauer, Travis LaDell

    2009-12-01

    This report summarizes the findings for phase one of the agent review and discusses the review methods and results. The phase one review identified a short list of agent systems that would prove most useful in the service architecture of an information management, analysis, and retrieval system. Reviewers evaluated open-source and commercial multi-agent systems and scored them based upon viability, uniqueness, ease of development, ease of deployment, and ease of integration with other products. Based on these criteria, reviewers identified the ten most appropriate systems. The report also mentions several systems that reviewers deemed noteworthy for the ideas they implement, even if those systems are not the best choices for information management purposes.

  16. Anti-Infectious Agents against MRSA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nobuhiro Koyama

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Clinically useful antibiotics, β-lactams and vancomycin, are known to inhibit bacterial cell wall peptidoglycan synthesis. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA has a unique cell wall structure consisting of peptidoglycan and wall teichoic acid. In recent years, new anti-infectious agents (spirohexaline, tripropeptin C, DMPI, CDFI, cyslabdan, 1835F03, and BPH-652 targeting MRSA cell wall biosynthesis have been discovered using unique screening methods. These agents were found to inhibit important enzymes involved in cell wall biosynthesis such as undecaprenyl pyrophosphate (UPP synthase, FemA, flippase, or UPP phosphatase. In this review, the discovery, the mechanism of action, and the future of these anti-infectious agents are described.

  17. Culture-specific communication management for virtual agents

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Endrass, Birgit; Rehm, Matthias; André, Elisabeth

    2009-01-01

    Human interaction depends on several individual factors such as personality, social relations, age or gender. But also the society we live in influences our behaviour. Thus culture affects the way communication is led. As virtual agents interact in a more and more human-like manner, culture......, the use of pauses in speech as well as the occurrence of overlapping speech was analyzed and integrated into a demonstrator using virtual agents. In a preliminary study, we investigated whether subjects perceive a difference between agent dialogs that are in line with culture-specific findings and agent...

  18. Embodied artificial agents for understanding human social cognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wykowska, Agnieszka; Chaminade, Thierry; Cheng, Gordon

    2016-05-05

    In this paper, we propose that experimental protocols involving artificial agents, in particular the embodied humanoid robots, provide insightful information regarding social cognitive mechanisms in the human brain. Using artificial agents allows for manipulation and control of various parameters of behaviour, appearance and expressiveness in one of the interaction partners (the artificial agent), and for examining effect of these parameters on the other interaction partner (the human). At the same time, using artificial agents means introducing the presence of artificial, yet human-like, systems into the human social sphere. This allows for testing in a controlled, but ecologically valid, manner human fundamental mechanisms of social cognition both at the behavioural and at the neural level. This paper will review existing literature that reports studies in which artificial embodied agents have been used to study social cognition and will address the question of whether various mechanisms of social cognition (ranging from lower- to higher-order cognitive processes) are evoked by artificial agents to the same extent as by natural agents, humans in particular. Increasing the understanding of how behavioural and neural mechanisms of social cognition respond to artificial anthropomorphic agents provides empirical answers to the conundrum 'What is a social agent?' © 2016 The Authors.

  19. Multi-Agent Software Engineering

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mohamed, A.H.

    2014-01-01

    This paper proposed an alarm-monitoring system for people based on multi-agent using maps. The system monitors the users physical context using their mobile phone. The agents on the mobile phones are responsible for collecting, processing and sending data to the server. They can determine the parameters of their environment by sensors. The data are processed and sent to the server. On the other side, a set of agents on server can store this data and check the preconditions of the restrictions associated with the user, in order to trigger the appropriate alarms. These alarms are sent not only to the user who is alarmed to avoid the appeared restriction, but also to his supervisor. The proposed system is a general purpose alarm system that can be used in different critical application areas. It has been applied for monitoring the workers of radiation sites. However, these workers can do their activity tasks in the radiation environments safely

  20. Teaching tourism change agents

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Blichfeldt, Bodil Stilling; Kvistgaard, Hans-Peter; Hird, John

    2017-01-01

    This article discuss es know ledge, competencies and skills Master’s students should obtain during their academic studies and particularly, the differences between teaching about a topic and teaching to do. This is ex emplified by experiential learning theory and the case of a change management...... course that is part of a Tourism Master’s program, where a major challenge is not only to teach students about change and change agents, but to teach them how change feels and ho w to become change agents. The c hange management course contains an experiment inspired by experiential teaching literature...... and methods. The experiment seeks to make students not only hear/learn about change agency and management, but to make them feel cha nge, hereby enabling them to develop the skills and competencies necessary for them to take on the role as change agent s and thus enable them to play key role s in implementing...

  1. Establish an Agent-Simulant Technology Relationship (ASTR)

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-04-14

    collective protection; CP; decontamination ; decon; contamination avoidance; CA; chemical biological radiological; CBR 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION...Within chemical defense, the individual protection (IP), collective protection (CP), decontamination (decon), and contamination avoidance (CA...OT). c. Testing may use chemical warfare agent (CWA), biological warfare agent (BWA), radiological agent, or simulant (surrogate). A simulant is a

  2. Novel insights in agent-based complex automated negotiation

    CERN Document Server

    Lopez-Carmona, Miguel; Ito, Takayuki; Zhang, Minjie; Bai, Quan; Fujita, Katsuhide

    2014-01-01

    This book focuses on all aspects of complex automated negotiations, which are studied in the field of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems. This book consists of two parts. I: Agent-Based Complex Automated Negotiations, and II: Automated Negotiation Agents Competition. The chapters in Part I are extended versions of papers presented at the 2012 international workshop on Agent-Based Complex Automated Negotiation (ACAN), after peer reviews by three Program Committee members. Part II examines in detail ANAC 2012 (The Third Automated Negotiating Agents Competition), in which automated agents that have different negotiation strategies and are implemented by different developers are automatically negotiated in the several negotiation domains. ANAC is an international competition in which automated negotiation strategies, submitted by a number of universities and research institutes across the world, are evaluated in tournament style. The purpose of the competition is to steer the research in the area of bilate...

  3. A real-time architecture for time-aware agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prouskas, Konstantinos-Vassileios; Pitt, Jeremy V

    2004-06-01

    This paper describes the specification and implementation of a new three-layer time-aware agent architecture. This architecture is designed for applications and environments where societies of humans and agents play equally active roles, but interact and operate in completely different time frames. The architecture consists of three layers: the April real-time run-time (ART) layer, the time aware layer (TAL), and the application agents layer (AAL). The ART layer forms the underlying real-time agent platform. An original online, real-time, dynamic priority-based scheduling algorithm is described for scheduling the computation time of agent processes, and it is shown that the algorithm's O(n) complexity and scalable performance are sufficient for application in real-time domains. The TAL layer forms an abstraction layer through which human and agent interactions are temporally unified, that is, handled in a common way irrespective of their temporal representation and scale. A novel O(n2) interaction scheduling algorithm is described for predicting and guaranteeing interactions' initiation and completion times. The time-aware predicting component of a workflow management system is also presented as an instance of the AAL layer. The described time-aware architecture addresses two key challenges in enabling agents to be effectively configured and applied in environments where humans and agents play equally active roles. It provides flexibility and adaptability in its real-time mechanisms while placing them under direct agent control, and it temporally unifies human and agent interactions.

  4. Subjective performance evaluations and reciprocity in principal-agent relations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sebald, Alexander Christopher; Walzl, Markus

    2014-01-01

    . In contrast to existing models of reciprocity, we find that agents tend to sanction whenever the feedback of principals is below their subjective self-evaluations even if agents' pay-offs are independent of it. In turn, principals provide more positive feedback (relative to their actual performance assessment......We conduct a laboratory experiment with agents working on, and principals benefiting from, a real effort task in which the agents' performance can only be evaluated subjectively. Principals give subjective performance feedback to agents, and agents have an opportunity to sanction principals...... of the agent) if this does not affect their pay-off....

  5. Teamwork in Multi-Agent Systems A Formal Approach

    CERN Document Server

    Dunin-Keplicz, Barbara Maria

    2010-01-01

    What makes teamwork tick?. Cooperation matters, in daily life and in complex applications. After all, many tasks need more than a single agent to be effectively performed. Therefore, teamwork rules!. Teams are social groups of agents dedicated to the fulfilment of particular persistent tasks. In modern multiagent environments, heterogeneous teams often consist of autonomous software agents, various types of robots and human beings. Teamwork in Multi-agent Systems: A Formal Approach explains teamwork rules in terms of agents' attitudes and their complex interplay. It provides the first comprehe

  6. Magnetic Resonance Imaging Contrast Agents: A Review of Literature

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zahra Sahraei

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available  Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI contrast agents most commonly agents used in diagnosing different diseases. Several agents have been ever introduced with different peculiar characteristics. They vary in potency, adverse reaction and other specification, so it is important to select the proper agent in different situations. We conducted a systematic literature search in MEDLINE/PUBMED, Web of Science (ISI, Scopus,Google Scholar by using keywords "gadolinium" and "MRI contrast Medias", "Gadofosvest", "Gadobenate" and "Gadoxetate". The most frequent contrast media agents made based on gadolinium (Gd. These are divided into two categories based on the structure of their chelating parts, linear agents and macrocyclic agents. All characteristics of contrast media factors, including efficiency, kinetic properties, stability, side effects and the rate of resolution are directly related to the structure of chelating part of that formulation.In vitro data has shown that the macrocyclic compounds are the most stable Gd-CA as they do not bind to serum proteins, they all possess similar and relatively low relaxivity and the prevalence of Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis (NSF has decreased by increasing the use of macrocyclic agents in recent years. No cases of NSF have been recorded after the administration of any of the high-relaxivity protein interacting agents, the vascular imaging agent gadofosveset trisodium (Ablavar, the hepatic imaging agent gadoxetate meglumine (Eovist, and the multipurpose agent gadobenate dimeglumine (MultiHance. In pregnancy and lactating women, stable macrocyclic agent is recommended.

  7. Intelligent Agent Transparency in Human-Agent Teaming for Multi-UxV Management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mercado, Joseph E; Rupp, Michael A; Chen, Jessie Y C; Barnes, Michael J; Barber, Daniel; Procci, Katelyn

    2016-05-01

    We investigated the effects of level of agent transparency on operator performance, trust, and workload in a context of human-agent teaming for multirobot management. Participants played the role of a heterogeneous unmanned vehicle (UxV) operator and were instructed to complete various missions by giving orders to UxVs through a computer interface. An intelligent agent (IA) assisted the participant by recommending two plans-a top recommendation and a secondary recommendation-for every mission. A within-subjects design with three levels of agent transparency was employed in the present experiment. There were eight missions in each of three experimental blocks, grouped by level of transparency. During each experimental block, the IA was incorrect three out of eight times due to external information (e.g., commander's intent and intelligence). Operator performance, trust, workload, and usability data were collected. Results indicate that operator performance, trust, and perceived usability increased as a function of transparency level. Subjective and objective workload data indicate that participants' workload did not increase as a function of transparency. Furthermore, response time did not increase as a function of transparency. Unlike previous research, which showed that increased transparency resulted in increased performance and trust calibration at the cost of greater workload and longer response time, our results support the benefits of transparency for performance effectiveness without additional costs. The current results will facilitate the implementation of IAs in military settings and will provide useful data to the design of heterogeneous UxV teams. © 2016, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

  8. Reaching High Interactive Levels with Situated Agents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guzmán-Obando J.

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available El documento presenta un proceso coordinado a través del cual los agentes situados son capaces de trabajar en forma conjunta con el conocimiento de sus habilidades para interactuar con otras entidades similares. Una buena coordinación se deriva de que cada agente situado es capaz de representar sus tasas de idoneidad para llevar a cabo cualquier acción de una manera eficaz. Además de utilizar dichas tasas, un agente puede coordinar sus acciones con otros agentes. En este sentido, cada agente situado trata de seleccionar y realizar sólo las acciones con los mayores índices de ejecución. Algunos experimentos en un verdadero fútbol robótico banco de pruebas están diseñadas para poner en práctica el enfoque coordinado propuesto. Observaciones finales concluir la eficacia y las ventajas de la obra presentada con el fin de aumentar el rendimiento de un equipo integrado por agentes situados cuando tienen que resolver tareas complejas en un escenario dinámico, competitivo e impredecible.

  9. Mechanisms of resistance to alkylating agents

    OpenAIRE

    Damia, G.; D‘Incalci, M.

    1998-01-01

    Alkylating agents are the most widely used anticancer drugs whose main target is the DNA, although how exactly the DNA lesions cause cell death is still not clear. The emergence of resistance to this class of drugs as well as to other antitumor agents is one of the major causes of failure of cancer treatment. This paper reviews some of the best characterized mechanisms of resistance to alkylating agents. Pre- and post-target mechanisms are recognized, the former able to limit the formation of...

  10. Hospedeiros alternativos de Acidovorax avenae subsp. citrulli Alternative hosts of Acidovorax avenae subsp. citrulli

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana Rosa P. Nascimento

    2004-09-01

    Full Text Available Uma das principais doenças que afeta o meloeiro é a mancha-aquosa, causada pela bactéria Acidovorax avenae subsp. citrulli (Aac. Visando conhecer hospedeiros alternativos de Aac, plantas no estágio de primeiras folhas definitivas, de várias espécies/cultivares, incluindo cucurbitáceas, solanáceas, gramíneas, leguminosas e caricáceas, foram inoculadas pela atomização da parte aérea com suspensão dos isolados Aac 1.49 e Aac 12.13, oriundos de melão e melancia, respectivamente. A suscetibilidade das plantas aos isolados foi avaliada pelo período de incubação (PI e incidência da doença (INC. Caupi, feijão, fumo e milho não apresentaram sintomas. Os menores PIs foram observados em cucurbitáceas (3,0 d, com exceção da bucha (6,83 d. Incidências da doença acima de 90% foram observadas em cucurbitáceas, excetuando a bucha e em solanáceas, para ambos os isolados de Aac. Em outro experimento, frutos de abóbora, abobrinha, berinjela, mamão, maxixe, melancia, melão, pepino, pimentão e tomate foram analisados quanto à suscetibilidade aos isolados Aac 1.49 e Aac 12.13. Os frutos foram inoculados pelo método de injeção subepidérmica, determinando-se PI, INC e severidade, avaliada pelo diâmetro da lesão externa (DLE e profundidade da lesão (PL. Menores PIs (2,0 d foram detectados em frutos de mamão, melancia, melão e pimentão. Incidência de 100% foi observada em todos os frutos inoculados, com exceção da abobrinha (93,75% e da abóbora (34,37%. Maiores DLEs foram observados em pepino (1,47 cm para o isolado Aac 1.49 e em melancia (1,60 cm e melão (1,07 cm para Aac 12.13. As maiores PL foram constatadas em melancia (1,72 e 0,75 cm respectivamente para Aac 1.49 e Aac 12.13. Frutos de berinjela não apresentaram sintomas externos embora as lesões internas tenham sido profundas.One of the most important melon diseases is the bacterial blotch caused by Acidovorax avenae subsp. citrulli (Aac. Alternative hosts of this

  11. A survey of the sequence-specific interaction of damaging agents with DNA: emphasis on antitumor agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murray, V

    1999-01-01

    This article reviews the literature concerning the sequence specificity of DNA-damaging agents. DNA-damaging agents are widely used in cancer chemotherapy. It is important to understand fully the determinants of DNA sequence specificity so that more effective DNA-damaging agents can be developed as antitumor drugs. There are five main methods of DNA sequence specificity analysis: cleavage of end-labeled fragments, linear amplification with Taq DNA polymerase, ligation-mediated polymerase chain reaction (PCR), single-strand ligation PCR, and footprinting. The DNA sequence specificity in purified DNA and in intact mammalian cells is reviewed for several classes of DNA-damaging agent. These include agents that form covalent adducts with DNA, free radical generators, topoisomerase inhibitors, intercalators and minor groove binders, enzymes, and electromagnetic radiation. The main sites of adduct formation are at the N-7 of guanine in the major groove of DNA and the N-3 of adenine in the minor groove, whereas free radical generators abstract hydrogen from the deoxyribose sugar and topoisomerase inhibitors cause enzyme-DNA cross-links to form. Several issues involved in the determination of the DNA sequence specificity are discussed. The future directions of the field, with respect to cancer chemotherapy, are also examined.

  12. A Novel Security Approach in Mobile Agent Using Encryption

    OpenAIRE

    Nidhi Gupta; Dr. Anurag Dixit

    2012-01-01

    The appearance of software agents has given rise too much discussion of what such an agent is and how it differs from programs in general. An agent is anything that can be viewed as perceiving its environment through sensors & acting upon that environment through actuators. The existing systems can be classified in the context of singleagent systems and multi-agent systems. Mobile agents cantransport themselves from one host to another. Mobile agents have been developed as an extension to and...

  13. Intelligent Design of Nano-Scale Molecular Imaging Agents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Takeaki Ozawa

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Visual representation and quantification of biological processes at the cellular and subcellular levels within living subjects are gaining great interest in life science to address frontier issues in pathology and physiology. As intact living subjects do not emit any optical signature, visual representation usually exploits nano-scale imaging agents as the source of image contrast. Many imaging agents have been developed for this purpose, some of which exert nonspecific, passive, and physical interaction with a target. Current research interest in molecular imaging has mainly shifted to fabrication of smartly integrated, specific, and versatile agents that emit fluorescence or luminescence as an optical readout. These agents include luminescent quantum dots (QDs, biofunctional antibodies, and multifunctional nanoparticles. Furthermore, genetically encoded nano-imaging agents embedding fluorescent proteins or luciferases are now gaining popularity. These agents are generated by integrative design of the components, such as luciferase, flexible linker, and receptor to exert a specific on–off switching in the complex context of living subjects. In the present review, we provide an overview of the basic concepts, smart design, and practical contribution of recent nano-scale imaging agents, especially with respect to genetically encoded imaging agents.

  14. Detection of Alkylating Agents using Electrical and Mechanical Means

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gerchikov, Yulia; Borzin, Elena; Gannot, Yair; Shemesh, Ariel; Meltzman, Shai; Hertzog-Ronen, Carmit; Tal, Shay; Stolyarova, Sara; Nemirovsky, Yael; Tessler, Nir; Eichen, Yoav

    2011-08-01

    Alkylating agents are reactive molecules having at least one polar bond between a carbon atom and a good leaving group. These often simple molecules are frequently used in organic synthesis, as sterilizing agents in agriculture and even as anticancer agents in medicine. Unfortunately, for over a century, some of the highly reactive alkylating agents are also being used as blister chemical warfare agents. Being relatively simple to make, the risk is that these will be applied by terrorists as poor people warfare agents. The detection and identification of such alkylating agents is not a simple task because of their high reactivity and simple structure of the reactive site. Here we report on new approaches to the detection and identification of such alkylating agents using electrical (organic field effect transistors) and mechanical (microcantilevers) means.

  15. Detection of Alkylating Agents using Electrical and Mechanical Means

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gerchikov, Yulia; Borzin, Elena; Gannot, Yair; Shemesh, Ariel; Meltzman, Shai; Hertzog-Ronen, Carmit; Eichen, Yoav; Tal, Shay; Stolyarova, Sara; Nemirovsky, Yael; Tessler, Nir

    2011-01-01

    Alkylating agents are reactive molecules having at least one polar bond between a carbon atom and a good leaving group. These often simple molecules are frequently used in organic synthesis, as sterilizing agents in agriculture and even as anticancer agents in medicine. Unfortunately, for over a century, some of the highly reactive alkylating agents are also being used as blister chemical warfare agents. Being relatively simple to make, the risk is that these will be applied by terrorists as poor people warfare agents. The detection and identification of such alkylating agents is not a simple task because of their high reactivity and simple structure of the reactive site. Here we report on new approaches to the detection and identification of such alkylating agents using electrical (organic field effect transistors) and mechanical (microcantilevers) means.

  16. Method and apparatus to characterize ultrasonically reflective contrast agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pretlow, Robert A., III (Inventor)

    1993-01-01

    A method and apparatus for characterizing the time and frequency response of an ultrasonically reflective contrast agent is disclosed. An ultrasonically reflective contrast agent is injected, under constant pressure, into a fluid flowing through a pump flow circuit. The fluid and the ultrasonically reflective contrast agent are uniformly mixed in a mixing chamber, and the uniform mixture is passed through a contrast agent chamber. The contrast agent chamber is acoustically and axially interposed between an ultrasonic transducer chamber and an acoustic isolation chamber. A pulse of ultrasonic energy is transmitted into the contrast agent chamber from the ultrasonic transducer chamber. An echo waveform is received from the ultrasonically reflective contrast agent, and it is analyzed to determine the time and frequency response of the ultrasonically reflective contrast agent.

  17. Detection of Alkylating Agents using Electrical and Mechanical Means

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gerchikov, Yulia; Borzin, Elena; Gannot, Yair; Shemesh, Ariel; Meltzman, Shai; Hertzog-Ronen, Carmit; Eichen, Yoav [Schulich Department of Chemistry, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Technion City, 32000, Haifa (Israel) (Israel); Tal, Shay [Present address: Systems Biology Department, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115 (United States); Stolyarova, Sara; Nemirovsky, Yael; Tessler, Nir, E-mail: chryoav@tx.technion.ac.il [Department of Electrical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Technion City, 32000, Haifa (Israel)

    2011-08-17

    Alkylating agents are reactive molecules having at least one polar bond between a carbon atom and a good leaving group. These often simple molecules are frequently used in organic synthesis, as sterilizing agents in agriculture and even as anticancer agents in medicine. Unfortunately, for over a century, some of the highly reactive alkylating agents are also being used as blister chemical warfare agents. Being relatively simple to make, the risk is that these will be applied by terrorists as poor people warfare agents. The detection and identification of such alkylating agents is not a simple task because of their high reactivity and simple structure of the reactive site. Here we report on new approaches to the detection and identification of such alkylating agents using electrical (organic field effect transistors) and mechanical (microcantilevers) means.

  18. Seletividade de inseticidas a Doru luteipes (Scudder, 1876 (Dermaptera: Forficulidae e Cotesia sp. (Hymenoptera: Braconidae inimigos naturais de Ascia monuste orseis (Godart, 1818 (Lepdoptera: Pieridae Selectivity of insecticides to Doru luteipes (Scudder, 1876 (Dermaptera: Forficulidae and Cotesia sp. (Hymenoptera: Braconidae natural enemies of Ascia monuste orseis (Godart, 1818 (Lepdoptera: Pieridae

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcelo Coutitnho Picanço

    2003-04-01

    Full Text Available Este trabalho objetivou estudar a seletividade dos inseticidas carbaril, deltametrina, paratiom metílico, permetrina e triclorfom em favor do predador Doru luteipes (Scudder (Dermaptera: Forficulidae e do parasitóide Cotesia sp. (Hymenoptera: Braconidae, em relação ao controle do curuquerê Ascia monuste orseis (Godart (Lepidoptera: Pieridae. Foram determinadas as CL90 para A. monuste orseis e estas foram utilizadas como doses discriminatórias para se avaliar o grau de seletividade dos inseticidas. Deltametrina e permetrina foram altamente seletivos em favor de D. luteipes. Deltametrina foi medianamente seletiva em favor de Cotesia sp. e a permetrina não apresentou seletividade em favor deste parasitóide. Triclorfom foi altamente seletivo em favor de ninfas de quarto estádio e adultos de D. luteipes e mediamente seletivo em favor de Cotesia sp. e de ninfas de primeiro estádio do predador. Carbaril foi medianamente seletivo em favor de Cotesia sp. mas não apresentou seletividade em favor de D. luteipes. Paratiom metílico não foi seletivo em favor de Cotesia sp. e D. luteipes. Adultos de D. luteipes foram menos sensíveis a deltametrina, permetrina e triclorfom do que adultos de Cotesia sp., sendo que o inverso ocorreu com o carbaril. Esses inimigos naturais apresentaram alta sensibilidade ao paratiom metílico. Ninfas de quarto estádio e adultos de D. luteipes foram mais sensíveis ao paratiom metílico e triclorfom que ninfas de primeiro estádio. Ninfas e adultos de D. luteipes apresentaram semelhante sensibilidade ao carbaril, deltametrina e permetrina.This work aimed to study the selectivity of the insecticides carbaryl, deltamethrin, methyl parathion, permethrin and trichlorfon in favor of the predator Doru luteipes (Scudder (Dermaptera: Forficulidae and of the parasitoid Cotesia sp. (Hymenoptera; Braconidae in relation to the control of the kale leafworm Ascia monuste orseis (Godart (Lepidoptera: Pieridae. LC90 were determined

  19. Learning Sequences of Actions in Collectives of Autonomous Agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turner, Kagan; Agogino, Adrian K.; Wolpert, David H.; Clancy, Daniel (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    In this paper we focus on the problem of designing a collective of autonomous agents that individually learn sequences of actions such that the resultant sequence of joint actions achieves a predetermined global objective. We are particularly interested in instances of this problem where centralized control is either impossible or impractical. For single agent systems in similar domains, machine learning methods (e.g., reinforcement learners) have been successfully used. However, applying such solutions directly to multi-agent systems often proves problematic, as agents may work at cross-purposes, or have difficulty in evaluating their contribution to achievement of the global objective, or both. Accordingly, the crucial design step in multiagent systems centers on determining the private objectives of each agent so that as the agents strive for those objectives, the system reaches a good global solution. In this work we consider a version of this problem involving multiple autonomous agents in a grid world. We use concepts from collective intelligence to design goals for the agents that are 'aligned' with the global goal, and are 'learnable' in that agents can readily see how their behavior affects their utility. We show that reinforcement learning agents using those goals outperform both 'natural' extensions of single agent algorithms and global reinforcement, learning solutions based on 'team games'.

  20. Intelligent agents for e-commerce applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vuppala, Krishna

    1999-12-01

    This thesis focuses on development of intelligent agent solutions for e-commerce applications. E-Commerce has several complexities like: lack of information about the players, learning the nature of one's business partners/competitors, finding the right business partner to do business with, using the right strategy to get best profit out of the negotiations etc. The agent models developed can be used in any agent solution for e-commerce. Concepts and techniques from Game Theory and Artificial Intelligence are used. The developed models have several advantages over the existing ones as: the models assume the non-availability of information about other players in the market, the models of players get updated over the time as and when new information comes about the players, the negotiation model incorporates the patience levels of the players and expectations from other players in the market. Power industry has been chosen as the application area for the demonstration of the capabilities and usage of the developed agent models. Two e-commerce scenarios where sellers and buyers can go through the power exchanges to bid in auctions, or make bilateral deals outside of the exchange are addressed. In the first scenario agent helps market participants in coordinating strategies with other participants, bidding in auctions by analyzing and understanding the behavior of other participants. In the second scenario, called "Power Traders Assistant" agent helps power trader, who buys and sells power through bilateral negotiations, in negotiating deals with his customers.

  1. Modelling of robotic work cells using agent based-approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sękala, A.; Banaś, W.; Gwiazda, A.; Monica, Z.; Kost, G.; Hryniewicz, P.

    2016-08-01

    In the case of modern manufacturing systems the requirements, both according the scope and according characteristics of technical procedures are dynamically changing. This results in production system organization inability to keep up with changes in a market demand. Accordingly, there is a need for new design methods, characterized, on the one hand with a high efficiency and on the other with the adequate level of the generated organizational solutions. One of the tools that could be used for this purpose is the concept of agent systems. These systems are the tools of artificial intelligence. They allow assigning to agents the proper domains of procedures and knowledge so that they represent in a self-organizing system of an agent environment, components of a real system. The agent-based system for modelling robotic work cell should be designed taking into consideration many limitations considered with the characteristic of this production unit. It is possible to distinguish some grouped of structural components that constitute such a system. This confirms the structural complexity of a work cell as a specific production system. So it is necessary to develop agents depicting various aspects of the work cell structure. The main groups of agents that are used to model a robotic work cell should at least include next pattern representatives: machine tool agents, auxiliary equipment agents, robots agents, transport equipment agents, organizational agents as well as data and knowledge bases agents. In this way it is possible to create the holarchy of the agent-based system.

  2. Towards Culturally-Aware Virtual Agent Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Endrass, Birgit; André, Elisabeth; Rehm, Matthias

    2010-01-01

    Globalization leads to an increase in intercultural encounters with a risk of misunderstandings due to different patterns of behavior and understanding. Learning applications have been proposed that employ virtual agents as their primary tool. Through their embodiment, learning can be done...... in a game-like environment in a more interesting way than for example learning with a textbook. The authors support the idea that virtual agents are a great opportunity for teaching cultural awareness. Realizing this, the concept of culture needs to be translated into computational models and the advantages...... of different systems using virtual agents need to be considered. Therefore, the authors reflect in this chapter on how virtual agents can help to learn about culture, scan definitions of culture from the social sciences, give an overview on how multiagent systems developed over time and classify the state...

  3. Contrast Agent in Magnetic Resonance Imaging

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vu-Quang, Hieu

    2015-01-01

    Nanoparticles have been employed as contrast agent in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in order to improve sensitivity and accuracy in diagnosis. In addition, these contrast agents are potentially combined with other therapeutic compounds or near infrared bio-imaging (NIR) fluorophores to obtain...... theranostic or dual imaging purposes, respectively. There were two main types of MRI contrast agent that were synthesized during this PhD project including fluorine containing nanoparticles and magnetic nanoparticles. In regard of fluorine containing nanoparticles, there were two types contrast agent...... cancer cells for cancer diagnosis in MRI. F127-Folate coated SPION were stable in various types of suspension medium for over six months. They could specifically target folate receptor of cancer cells in vitro and in vivo thus enhancing the contrast in MRI T2/T2* weighted images. These are preliminary...

  4. Intelligent agents in data-intensive computing

    CERN Document Server

    Correia, Luís; Molina, José

    2016-01-01

    This book presents new approaches that advance research in all aspects of agent-based models, technologies, simulations and implementations for data intensive applications. The nine chapters contain a review of recent cross-disciplinary approaches in cloud environments and multi-agent systems, and important formulations of data intensive problems in distributed computational environments together with the presentation of new agent-based tools to handle those problems and Big Data in general. This volume can serve as a reference for students, researchers and industry practitioners working in or interested in joining interdisciplinary work in the areas of data intensive computing and Big Data systems using emergent large-scale distributed computing paradigms. It will also allow newcomers to grasp key concepts and potential solutions on advanced topics of theory, models, technologies, system architectures and implementation of applications in Multi-Agent systems and data intensive computing. .

  5. Agentes de software móviles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Crisman Martínez Barrera

    2001-10-01

    Full Text Available Los agentes móviles son programas de software inteligentes que realizan un objetivo que involucran desarrollos soportados en técnicas de Inteligencia Artificial, los cuales pretenden facilitar la interoperabilidad de sistemas. Este artículo define las disciplinas, plataformas y herramientas necesarias para el desarrollo de agentes móviles, sus características principales y las arquitecturas predominantes de éstas; presenta además una evaluación de sus perspectivas futuras.Mobile agents are intelligent software programs that can obtain an objective that involucrates developments supported in Artificial Intelligence techniques. These pretend to facilitate the interoperability of systems. This article defines disciplines, platforms and tools necessary for the development of mobile agents, their principal characteristics and the predominant architectures of these. A final evaluation and future perspectives are offered.

  6. AORTA: Adding Organizational Reasoning to Agents

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Andreas Schmidt; Dignum, Virginia

    2014-01-01

    the expected behavior of the agents. Agents need to be able to reason about the regulations, so that they can act within the expected boundaries and work towards the objectives of the organization. This extended abstract introduces AORTA, a component that can be integrated into agents’ reasoning mechanism......, allowing them to reason about (and act upon) regulations specified by an organizational model using simple reasoning rules. The added value is that the organizational model is independent of that of the agents, and that the approach is not tied to a specific organizational model....

  7. Optimization of extinguishing agents for nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boleman, M.; Lipar, M.; Balog, K.

    1998-01-01

    Focus is placed on use of extinguishing agents in nuclear power plants. The advantages and disadvantages of these agents are compared. Further perspectives for using particular extinguishing agents in nuclear power plants are outlined. (author)

  8. Bridging humans via agent networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ishida, Toru

    1994-01-01

    Recent drastic advance in telecommunication networks enabled the human organization of new class, teleorganization, which differ from any existing organization in that the organization which is easy to create by using telecommunication networks is virtual and remote, that people can join multiple organizations simultaneously, and that the organization can involve people who may not know each other. In order to enjoy the recent advance in telecommunication, the agent networks to help people organize themselves are needed. In this paper, an architecture of agent networks, in which each agent learns the preference or the utility functioin of the owner, and acts on behalf of the owner in maintaining the organization, is proposed. When an agent networks supports a human organization, the conventional human interface is divided into personal and social interfaces. The functionalities of the social interface in teleconferencing and telelearning were investigated. In both cases, the existence of B-ISDN is assumed, and the extension to the business meeting scheduling using personal handy phone (PHS) networks with personal digital assistant (PDA) terminals is expected. These circumstances are described. Mutual selection protocols (MSP) and their dynamic properties are explained. (K.I.)

  9. Participação popular no controle da esquistossomose através do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS, em Taquaraçu de Minas, (Minas Gerais, Brasil, entre 1985-1995: construção de um modelo alternativo An alternative model for schistosomiasis control with active participation by the population through the Unified Health System (SUS in Taquaraçu de Minas (Minas Gerais, Brazil from 1985 to 1995

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pedro Coura-Filho

    1998-01-01

    Full Text Available Foi avaliado o programa de controle da esquistossomose realizado em Taquaraçu de Minas, MG, entre 1985 e 1995. A medida de controle adotada foi a participação popular nas ações de controle: tratamento seletivo, saneamento e educação popular. A equipe de saúde local foi capacitada para gerenciar o programa, conforme proposta do SUS. O fornecimento de água potável foi oferecido a 97% das residências no núcleo do Município. Em 1995, foi realizada análise para identificação dos fatores de risco responsáveis pela manutenção da transmissão da esquistossomose. A prevalência da infecção entre 1985-1995 apresentou-se sete vezes menor, passando de 30,9% para 4,3%, respectivamente. A intensidade de infecção também sofreu significativa redução, passando de 91,2 ± 6,1 para 30,7 ± 2,5 (p = 0,00 no mesmo período. A municipalização desse programa de controle da esquistossomose através do SUS, usando-se um tratamento seletivo, fornecimento de água potável intradomiciliar com participação popular nas medidas de controle, seguido de atendimento da demanda espontânea, apresentou resultados duradouros, apontando a possibilidade de uso deste modelo para outras áreas endêmicas com características semelhantes.This study evaluated the schistosomiasis control program implemented in Taquaraçu de Minas, Minas Gerais, from 1985 to 1995. In 1995, we measured the prevalence and intensity of infection for a retrospective comparison with the data from 1985. The local health team was trained to manage all the program activities. The work involved stool tests (Kato-Katz, selective specific treatment, medical care for patients spontaneously visiting the local Health Center, definition of measures to be adopted, and popular education focusing on information about the endemic disease. The safe drinking water supply covered 97% of the households in the county seat. Prevalence of infection between 1985 and 1995 was reduced 7.0 fold, from 30

  10. Using Cognitive Agents to Train Negotiation Skills

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christopher A. Stevens

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Training negotiation is difficult because it is a complex, dynamic activity that involves multiple parties. It is often not clear how to create situations in which students can practice negotiation or how to measure students' progress. Some have begun to address these issues by creating artificial software agents with which students can train. These agents have the advantage that they can be “reset,” and played against multiple times. This allows students to learn from their mistakes and try different strategies. However, these agents are often based on normative theories of how negotiators should conduct themselves, not necessarily how people actually behave in negotiations. Here, we take a step toward addressing this gap by developing an agent grounded in a cognitive architecture, ACT-R. This agent contains a model of theory-of-mind, the ability of humans to reason about the mental states of others. It uses this model to try to infer the strategy of the opponent and respond accordingly. In a series of experiments, we show that this agent replicates some aspects of human performance, is plausible to human negotiators, and can lead to learning gains in a small-scale negotiation task.

  11. Using Cognitive Agents to Train Negotiation Skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stevens, Christopher A; Daamen, Jeroen; Gaudrain, Emma; Renkema, Tom; Top, Jakob Dirk; Cnossen, Fokie; Taatgen, Niels A

    2018-01-01

    Training negotiation is difficult because it is a complex, dynamic activity that involves multiple parties. It is often not clear how to create situations in which students can practice negotiation or how to measure students' progress. Some have begun to address these issues by creating artificial software agents with which students can train. These agents have the advantage that they can be "reset," and played against multiple times. This allows students to learn from their mistakes and try different strategies. However, these agents are often based on normative theories of how negotiators should conduct themselves, not necessarily how people actually behave in negotiations. Here, we take a step toward addressing this gap by developing an agent grounded in a cognitive architecture, ACT-R. This agent contains a model of theory-of-mind, the ability of humans to reason about the mental states of others. It uses this model to try to infer the strategy of the opponent and respond accordingly. In a series of experiments, we show that this agent replicates some aspects of human performance, is plausible to human negotiators, and can lead to learning gains in a small-scale negotiation task.

  12. History of chemical and biological warfare agents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Szinicz, L.

    2005-01-01

    Chemical and biological warfare agents constitute a low-probability, but high-impact risk both to the military and to the civilian population. The use of hazardous materials of chemical or biological origin as weapons and for homicide has been documented since ancient times. The first use of chemicals in terms of weapons of mass destruction goes back to World War I, when on April 22, 1915 large amounts of chlorine were released by German military forces at Ypres, Belgium. Until around the 1970s of the 20th century, the awareness of the threat by chemical and biological agents had been mainly confined to the military sector. In the following time, the development of increasing range delivery systems by chemical and biological agents possessors sensitised public attention to the threat emanating from these agents. Their proliferation to the terrorists field during the 1990s with the expanding scale and globalisation of terrorist attacks suggested that these agents are becoming an increasing threat to the whole world community. The following article gives a condensed overview on the history of use and development of the more prominent chemical and biological warfare agents

  13. History of chemical and biological warfare agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Szinicz, L

    2005-10-30

    Chemical and biological warfare agents constitute a low-probability, but high-impact risk both to the military and to the civilian population. The use of hazardous materials of chemical or biological origin as weapons and for homicide has been documented since ancient times. The first use of chemicals in terms of weapons of mass destruction goes back to World War I, when on April 22, 1915 large amounts of chlorine were released by German military forces at Ypres, Belgium. Until around the 1970s of the 20th century, the awareness of the threat by chemical and biological agents had been mainly confined to the military sector. In the following time, the development of increasing range delivery systems by chemical and biological agents possessors sensitised public attention to the threat emanating from these agents. Their proliferation to the terrorists field during the 1990s with the expanding scale and globalisation of terrorist attacks suggested that these agents are becoming an increasing threat to the whole world community. The following article gives a condensed overview on the history of use and development of the more prominent chemical and biological warfare agents.

  14. Alkylating agents for Waldenstrom's macroglobulinaemia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Kun; Tan, Jianlong; Wu, Taixiang

    2009-01-21

    Waldenstrom's macroglobulinaemia (WM) is an uncommon B-cell lymphoproliferative disorder characterized by bone marrow infiltration and production of monoclonal immunoglobulin. Uncertainty remains if alkylating agents, such as chlorambucil, melphalan or cyclophosphamide, are an effective form of management. To assess the effects and safety of the alkylating agents on Waldenstrom's macroglobulinaemia (WM). We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (Issue 1, 2008), MEDLINE (1966 to 2008), EMBASE (1980 to 2008), the Chinese Biomedical Base (1982 to 2008) and reference lists of articles.We also handsearched relevant conference proceedings from 1990 to 2008. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing alkylating agents given concomitantly with radiotherapy, splenectomy, plasmapheresis, stem-cell transplantation in patients with a confirmed diagnosis of WM. Two authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data. We contacted study authors for additional information. We collected adverse effects information from the trials. One trial involving 92 participants with pretreated/relapsed WM compared the effect of fludarabine versus the combination of cyclophosphamide (the alkylating agent), doxorubicin and prednisone (CAP). Compared to CAP, the Hazard ratio (HR) for deaths of treatment with fludarabine was estimated to be 1.04, with a standard error of 0.30 (95% CI 0.58 to 1.48) and it indicated that the mean difference of median survival time was -4.00 months, and 16.00 months for response duration. The relative risks (RR) of response rate was 2.80 (95% CI 1.10 to 7.12). There were no statistically difference in overall survival rate and median survival months, while on the basis of response rate and response duration, fludarabine seemed to be superior to CAP for pretreated/relapsed patients with macroglobulinaemia. Although alkylating agents have been used for decades they have never actually been tested in a proper randomised trial. This

  15. Agent-based method for distributed clustering of textual information

    Science.gov (United States)

    Potok, Thomas E [Oak Ridge, TN; Reed, Joel W [Knoxville, TN; Elmore, Mark T [Oak Ridge, TN; Treadwell, Jim N [Louisville, TN

    2010-09-28

    A computer method and system for storing, retrieving and displaying information has a multiplexing agent (20) that calculates a new document vector (25) for a new document (21) to be added to the system and transmits the new document vector (25) to master cluster agents (22) and cluster agents (23) for evaluation. These agents (22, 23) perform the evaluation and return values upstream to the multiplexing agent (20) based on the similarity of the document to documents stored under their control. The multiplexing agent (20) then sends the document (21) and the document vector (25) to the master cluster agent (22), which then forwards it to a cluster agent (23) or creates a new cluster agent (23) to manage the document (21). The system also searches for stored documents according to a search query having at least one term and identifying the documents found in the search, and displays the documents in a clustering display (80) of similarity so as to indicate similarity of the documents to each other.

  16. Agent Control for Reconfigurable Open Kinematic Chain Manipulators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Janez Sluga

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a method for the autonomous control of differently structured open kinematic chains based on multi-agent system technology. The appropriate level of distributing local autonomy (agents to a manipulative structure is defined, which makes it possible to dynamically change the number, type and structure of manipulative components without modifying their behavioural logic. To achieve fast reconfigurable and scalable manipulative systems, a new multi-agent method is developed for controlling the manipulator kinematics. The new method enables independent manipulator structure from the control system because of its structural and system modularity. The proposed method consists of kinematic equations for use in an agent environment, agent motion-planning algorithms, evaluation functions, agent control logic and kinematic algorithms. The results of simulations and real-world experiments demonstrate the usefulness of the approach for different non-redundant and redundant manipulation structures.

  17. Do you get it? User-evaluated explainable BDI agents

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Broekens, J.; Harbers, M.; Hindriks, K.; Bosch, K. van den; Jonker, C.; Meyer, J.J.C.

    2010-01-01

    In this paper we focus on explaining to humans the behavior of autonomous agents, i.e., explainable agents. Explainable agents are useful for many reasons including scenario-based training (e.g. disaster training), tutor and pedagogical systems, agent development and debugging, gaming, and

  18. Java-based mobile agent platforms for wireless sensor networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Aiello, F.; Carbone, A.; Fortino, G.; Galzarano, S.; Ganzha, M.; Paprzycki, M.

    2010-01-01

    This paper proposes an overview and comparison of mobile agent platforms for the development of wireless sensor network applications. In particular, the architecture, programming model and basic performance of two Java-based agent platforms, Mobile Agent Platform for Sun SPOT (MAPS) and Agent

  19. Collaborative Information Agents on the World Wide Web

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, James R.; Mathe, Nathalie; Wolfe, Shawn; Koga, Dennis J. (Technical Monitor)

    1998-01-01

    In this paper, we present DIAMS, a system of distributed, collaborative information agents which help users access, collect, organize, and exchange information on the World Wide Web. Personal agents provide their owners dynamic displays of well organized information collections, as well as friendly information management utilities. Personal agents exchange information with one another. They also work with other types of information agents such as matchmakers and knowledge experts to facilitate collaboration and communication.

  20. Non-radiological contrast agents (MRI)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bonnemain, B.; Lautrou, J.; Meyer, D.; Doucet, D.

    1987-01-01

    Over the past few years, extensive research has been carried out in an attempt to develop contrast agents that could help improve both the performance (acquisition times) and the diagnostic efficacy of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques. On the basis of physicochemical and pharmacological criteria discussed in this presentation, a few efficacious, well-tolerated compounds could be developed. Two of them, the gadolinium complexes Gd-DOTA and Gd-DTPA, are currently being tried in man. This first generation of contrast agents, which are aspecific markers of the intravascular space, has been shown to have good diagnostic potential in conventional MRI procedures. The diagnostic contribution of these contrast agents will probably be a most essential factor in new MRI techniques using low field strengh or fast imaging sequences [fr

  1. Prophylaxis and Therapy Against Chemical Agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-11-01

    Hematopoietic Consequences F. Dorandeu 5) pH Dependent Toxicity of Sulphur Mustard In Vitro J. Mikler Nerve Agents / Scavengers 1) Mutagenesis...symptoms such as salivation or shortness of breath and lower level exposures could be rendered inconsequential. B.2 CURRENT THERAPY FOR NERVE AGENT

  2. Deliberate Evolution in Multi-Agent Systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brazier, F.M.; Jonker, C.M.; Treur, J.; Wijngaards, N.J.E.; Gabbay, D.

    2001-01-01

    Evolution in societies of agents is a challenging phenomenon, both from a fundamental perspective and from an applied perspective. In the literature often genetic programming approaches are used and relatively simple agents are considered, which have no deliberate influence on the direction of the

  3. Vivid agents : theory, architecture, and applications

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schroeder, M.; Wagner, G.R.

    2000-01-01

    Vivid agents (Wagner, 1996) are software-controlled systems whose state comprises the mental components of knowledge, perceptions, tasks, and intentions, and whose behavior is represented by means of action and reaction rules. An execution model for vivid agents is presented, which is based on an

  4. Mansion, A Distributed Multi-Agent System

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van t Noordende, G.; Brazier, F.M.; Tanenbaum, A.S.

    2001-01-01

    In this position summary we present work in progress on a worldwide, scalable multi-agent system, based on a paradigm of hyperlinked rooms. The framework offers facilities for managing distribution, security and mobility aspects for both active elements (agents) and passive elements (objects) in the

  5. The design of interacting agents for use in interfaces

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Connah, D.M.; Brouwer-Janse, M.D.; Harrington, T.L.

    1994-01-01

    In this paper situated agents are contrasted with agents which rely on a planning-based model of action. It is suggested that situated agents are particularly appropriate for skill-based tasks and that skill forms the basis of many important applications. The impact of situated agents on

  6. Agent Based Modeling Applications for Geosciences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stein, J. S.

    2004-12-01

    Agent-based modeling techniques have successfully been applied to systems in which complex behaviors or outcomes arise from varied interactions between individuals in the system. Each individual interacts with its environment, as well as with other individuals, by following a set of relatively simple rules. Traditionally this "bottom-up" modeling approach has been applied to problems in the fields of economics and sociology, but more recently has been introduced to various disciplines in the geosciences. This technique can help explain the origin of complex processes from a relatively simple set of rules, incorporate large and detailed datasets when they exist, and simulate the effects of extreme events on system-wide behavior. Some of the challenges associated with this modeling method include: significant computational requirements in order to keep track of thousands to millions of agents, methods and strategies of model validation are lacking, as is a formal methodology for evaluating model uncertainty. Challenges specific to the geosciences, include how to define agents that control water, contaminant fluxes, climate forcing and other physical processes and how to link these "geo-agents" into larger agent-based simulations that include social systems such as demographics economics and regulations. Effective management of limited natural resources (such as water, hydrocarbons, or land) requires an understanding of what factors influence the demand for these resources on a regional and temporal scale. Agent-based models can be used to simulate this demand across a variety of sectors under a range of conditions and determine effective and robust management policies and monitoring strategies. The recent focus on the role of biological processes in the geosciences is another example of an area that could benefit from agent-based applications. A typical approach to modeling the effect of biological processes in geologic media has been to represent these processes in

  7. Priming of supernatural agent concepts and agency detection

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Elk, M.; Rutjens, B.T.; van der Pligt, J.; van Harreveld, F.

    2016-01-01

    In evolutionary approaches to religion it is argued that belief in supernatural agents is strongly related to a perceptual bias to over-detect the presence of agents in the environment. We report five experiments that investigate whether processing concepts about supernatural agents facilitates

  8. Social Psychology Of Persuasion Applied To Human-agent Interaction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shenghua Liu

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper discusses and evaluates the application of a social psychologically enriched, user-centered approach to agent architecture design. The major aim is to facilitate human-agent interaction (HAI by making agents not only algorithmically more intelligent but also socially more skillful in communicating with the user. A decision-making model and communicative argumentation strategies have been incorporated into the agent architecture. In the presented content resource management experiments, enhancement of human task performance is demonstrated for users that are supported by a persuasive agent. This superior performance seems to be rooted in a more trusting collaborative relationship between the user and the agent, rather than in the appropriateness of the agent's decision-making suggestions alone. In particular, the second experiment demonstrated that interface interaction design should follow the principles of task-orientation and implicitness. Making the influence of the agent too salient can trigger counterintentional effects, such as users' discomfort and psychological reactance.

  9. Agent-based Simulation of the Maritime Domain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    O. Vaněk

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, a multi-agent based simulation platform is introduced that focuses on legitimate and illegitimate aspects of maritime traffic, mainly on intercontinental transport through piracy afflicted areas. The extensible architecture presented here comprises several modules controlling the simulation and the life-cycle of the agents, analyzing the simulation output and visualizing the entire simulated domain. The simulation control module is initialized by various configuration scenarios to simulate various real-world situations, such as a pirate ambush, coordinated transit through a transport corridor, or coastal fishing and local traffic. The environmental model provides a rich set of inputs for agents that use the geo-spatial data and the vessel operational characteristics for their reasoning. The agent behavior model based on finite state machines together with planning algorithms allows complex expression of agent behavior, so the resulting simulation output can serve as a substitution for real world data from the maritime domain.

  10. Macroeconomic Policies and Agent Heterogeneity

    OpenAIRE

    GOTTLIEB, Charles

    2012-01-01

    Defence date: 24 February 2012 Examining Board: Giancarlo Corsetti, Arpad Abraham, Juan Carlos Conesa, Jonathan Heathcote. This thesis contributes to the understanding of macroeconomic policies’ impact on the distribution of wealth. It belongs to the strand of literature that departs from the representative agent assumption and perceives agent heterogeneity and the induced disparities in wealth accumulation, as an important dimension of economic policy-making. Within such economic envir...

  11. Business Intelligence using Software Agents

    OpenAIRE

    Ana-Ramona BOLOGA; Razvan BOLOGA

    2011-01-01

    This paper presents some ideas about business intelligence today and the importance of developing real time business solutions. The authors make an exploration of links between business intelligence and artificial intelligence and focuses specifically on the implementation of software agents-based systems in business intelligence. There are briefly presented some of the few solutions proposed so far that use software agents properties for the benefit of business intelligence. The authors then...

  12. Anti-inflamatórios não esteroides: Efeitos cardiovasculares, cérebro-vasculares e renais Antiinflamatorios no esteroides: efectos cardiovasculares, cerebrovasculares y renales Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs: cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and renal effects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michel Batlouni

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available Os anti-inflamatórios não esteroides (AINEs encontram-se entre os medicamentos mais prescritos em todo o mundo. Essa classe heterogênea de fármacos inclui a aspirina e vários outros agentes inibidores da ciclo-oxigenase (COX, seletivos ou não. Os AINEs não seletivos são os mais antigos, e designados como tradicionais ou convencionais. Os AINEs seletivos para a COX-2 são designados COXIBEs. Nos últimos anos, tem sido questionada a segurança do uso dos AINEs na prática clínica, particularmente dos inibidores seletivos da COX-2. As evidências sobre o aumento do risco cardiovascular com o uso de AINEs são ainda incompletos, pela ausência de ensaios randomizados e controlados com poder para avaliar desfechos cardiovasculares relevantes. Entretanto, os resultados de estudos clínicos prospectivos e de meta-análises indicam que os inibidores seletivos da COX-2 exercem importantes efeitos cardiovasculares adversos, que incluem aumento do risco de infarto do miocárdio, acidente vascular cerebral, insuficiência cardíaca, insuficiência renal e hipertensão arterial. O risco desses efeitos adversos é maior em pacientes com história prévia de doença cardiovascular ou com alto risco para desenvolvê-la. Nesses pacientes, o uso de inibidores da COX-2 deve ser limitado àqueles para os quais não há alternativa apropriada e, mesmo assim, somente em doses baixas e pelo menor tempo necessário. Embora os efeitos adversos mais frequentes tenham sido relacionados à inibição seletiva da COX-2, a ausência de seletividade para essa isoenzima não elimina completamente o risco de eventos cardiovasculares, de modo que todos os fármacos do largo espectro dos AINEs somente devem ser prescritos após consideração do balanço risco/benefício.Los antiinflamatorios no esteroides (AINEs se encuentran entre los medicamentos más prescriptos en todo el mundo. Esta clase heterogénea de fármacos incluye la aspirina y varios otros agentes

  13. AFECS. multi-agent framework for experiment control systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gyurjyan, V; Abbott, D; Heyes, G; Jastrzembski, E; Timmer, C; Wolin, E [Jefferson Lab, 12000 Jefferson Ave. MS-12B3, Newport News, VA 23606 (United States)], E-mail: gurjyan@jlab.org

    2008-07-01

    AFECS is a pure Java based software framework for designing and implementing distributed control systems. AFECS creates a control system environment as a collection of software agents behaving as finite state machines. These agents can represent real entities, such as hardware devices, software tasks, or control subsystems. A special control oriented ontology language (COOL), based on RDFS (Resource Definition Framework Schema) is provided for control system description as well as for agent communication. AFECS agents can be distributed over a variety of platforms. Agents communicate with their associated physical components using range of communication protocols, including tcl-DP, cMsg (publish-subscribe communication system developed at Jefferson Lab), SNMP (simple network management protocol), EPICS channel access protocol and JDBC.

  14. AFECS. Multi-Agent Framework for Experiment Control Systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vardan Gyurjyan; David Abbott; William Heyes; Edward Jastrzembski; Carl Timmer; Elliott Wolin

    2008-01-23

    AFECS is a pure Java based software framework for designing and implementing distributed control systems. AFECS creates a control system environment as a collection of software agents behaving as finite state machines. These agents can represent real entities, such as hardware devices, software tasks, or control subsystems. A special control oriented ontology language (COOL), based on RDFS (Resource Definition Framework Schema) is provided for control system description as well as for agent communication. AFECS agents can be distributed over a variety of platforms. Agents communicate with their associated physical components using range of communication protocols, including tcl-DP, cMsg (publish-subscribe communication system developed at Jefferson Lab), SNMP (simple network management protocol), EPICS channel access protocol and JDBC.

  15. AFECS. multi-agent framework for experiment control systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gyurjyan, V; Abbott, D; Heyes, G; Jastrzembski, E; Timmer, C; Wolin, E

    2008-01-01

    AFECS is a pure Java based software framework for designing and implementing distributed control systems. AFECS creates a control system environment as a collection of software agents behaving as finite state machines. These agents can represent real entities, such as hardware devices, software tasks, or control subsystems. A special control oriented ontology language (COOL), based on RDFS (Resource Definition Framework Schema) is provided for control system description as well as for agent communication. AFECS agents can be distributed over a variety of platforms. Agents communicate with their associated physical components using range of communication protocols, including tcl-DP, cMsg (publish-subscribe communication system developed at Jefferson Lab), SNMP (simple network management protocol), EPICS channel access protocol and JDBC

  16. Cognitive agent programming : A semantic approach

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Riemsdijk, M.B. van

    2006-01-01

    In this thesis we are concerned with the design and investigation of dedicated programming languages for programming agents. We focus in particular on programming languages for rational agents, i.e., flexibly behaving computing entities that are able to make "good" decisions about what to do. An

  17. Agentes comunitários de saúde: perfil e formação Community health agents: profile and education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carla Kowalski Marzari

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available A pesquisa discute o perfil e a formação dos agentes comunitários de saúde. Não existe ainda clareza sobre o tipo de profissional necessário e a formação adequada para o desempenho da função. Trata-se de um estudo de caso com metodologia exploratória e abordagem qualitativa. A coleta de dados foi com grupo focal formado por dez agentes, selecionados intencionalmente entre aqueles com mais tempo de serviço nas Equipes da Estratégia Saúde da Família do município de Santa Maria (RS. As discussões foram gravadas e transcritas. Os dados foram trabalhados através da análise de conteúdo. Os resultados apontaram para algumas questões centrais sobre a identidade dos agentes: integração na equipe de saúde, inserção na comunidade, perfil e formação. O perfil que emerge da pesquisa não é diferente daquele proposto pelo Ministério da Saúde. No entanto, o diferencial é a busca por profissionalização, iniciativa assumida pelo próprio agente, efetivada e pautada pela realidade que ele enfrenta a partir da sua atuação. As lacunas percebidas na sua formação levam o agente a construir sua própria identidade profissional, pautada mais pelo aspecto técnico do conhecimento científico do que pela sua competência social como agente comunitário.This research discusses the profile and education of the community health agents. There is no clarity about the kind of professional needed and the appropriate training to the fulfillment of the function. The research is a case study with exploratory methodology and qualitative approach. The data was collected with a focused group, formed by ten agents, intentional selected from those with more time in service in Family Health Strategy teams from the municipality of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul State. The discussions were recorded and transcribed by the researcher. The data was interpreted by content analysis. The results pointed to some important questions concerning the identity of

  18. Competing intelligent search agents in global optimization

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Streltsov, S.; Vakili, P. [Boston Univ., MA (United States); Muchnik, I. [Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States)

    1996-12-31

    In this paper we present a new search methodology that we view as a development of intelligent agent approach to the analysis of complex system. The main idea is to consider search process as a competition mechanism between concurrent adaptive intelligent agents. Agents cooperate in achieving a common search goal and at the same time compete with each other for computational resources. We propose a statistical selection approach to resource allocation between agents that leads to simple and efficient on average index allocation policies. We use global optimization as the most general setting that encompasses many types of search problems, and show how proposed selection policies can be used to improve and combine various global optimization methods.

  19. Agent-Based Decentralized Control Method for Islanded Microgrids

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Li, Qiang; Chen, Feixiong; Chen, Minyou

    2016-01-01

    as a local control processor together with communication devices, so agents can collect present states of distributed generators and loads, when communication lines are added between two layers. Moreover, each agent can also exchange information with its neighboring agents of the network. After information...

  20. Putative neuroprotective agents in neuropsychiatric disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dodd, Seetal; Maes, Michael; Anderson, George; Dean, Olivia M; Moylan, Steven; Berk, Michael

    2013-04-05

    In many individuals with major neuropsychiatric disorders including depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, their disease characteristics are consistent with a neuroprogressive illness. This includes progressive structural brain changes, cognitive and functional decline, poorer treatment response and an increasing vulnerability to relapse with chronicity. The underlying molecular mechanisms of neuroprogression are thought to include neurotrophins and regulation of neurogenesis and apoptosis, neurotransmitters, inflammatory, oxidative and nitrosative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, cortisol and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and epigenetic influences. Knowledge of the involvement of each of these pathways implies that specific agents that act on some or multiple of these pathways may thus block this cascade and have neuroprotective properties. This paper reviews the potential of the most promising of these agents, including lithium and other known psychotropics, aspirin, minocycline, statins, N-acetylcysteine, leptin and melatonin. These agents are putative neuroprotective agents for schizophrenia and mood disorders. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Quitina y carboximetilquitosana como agentes desintegrantes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sol A Fernández Monagas

    1998-08-01

    Full Text Available Se realizó un estudio comparativo de la quitina y la carboximetilquitosana como agentes desintegrantes, y se evaluó la influencia ejercida por el método empleado en la elaboración de las tabletas sobre la actividad desintegrante de ambos polímeros. La quitina presentó buenas características como agente desintegrante independientemente del método utilizado en la elaboración de las tabletas, mientras que la actividad desintegrante de la carboximetilquitosana fue afectada por el proceso de granulación.A comparative study of chitin and carboxymethylchitosan as disintegrating agents was wade made. The influence exerted bu tje method used in the preparation of the tablets on the disintegrating activity of both polymers was evaluated. Chitin proved to have good characteristics as a disintegrating agent independently of the method used to make tablets. The disintegrating activity of carboxymethylchitosan was affected by the granulation process.

  2. Pharmacological stress agents in nuclear cardiology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Buscombe, J.R.

    2004-01-01

    Treadmill test combined with myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS) is a commonly used technique in the assessment of coronary artery disease. However there are a group of patients who may not be able to undergo treadmill tests. Patients with underlying conditions like neuromuscular disease, musculoskeletal disorder, heart failure and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) on renal dialysis would find it difficult to perform exercise on a treadmill or bicycle ergometer. These conditions prevent them from performing adequate exercise. Such patients would benefit from pharmacological stress procedures combined with MPS. Nuclear medicine departments use various pharmacological agents while performing stress tests on cardiac patients. The most commonly used pharmacological agents for cardiac stress are coronary vasodilators and catecholamines. In addition to these agents, adjuvant use of nitrates and atropine is also a common practice in nuclear cardiology. This review addresses various physiological and pharmacological properties of the commonly used pharmacological stress agents in MPS and critically analyses their advantages and disadvantages, as well as their safety and efficacy. (author)

  3. Unibot, a Universal Agent Architecture for Robots

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saša Mladenović

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Today there are numerous robots in different applications domains despite the fact that they still have limitations in perception, actuation and decision process. Consequently, robots usually have limited autonomy, they are domain specific or have difficulty to adapt on new environments. Learning is the property that makes an agent intelligent and the crucial property that a robot should have to proliferate into the human society. Embedding the learning ability into the robot may simplify the development of the robot control mechanism. The motivation for this research is to develop the agent architecture of the universal robot – Unibot. In our approach the agent is the robot i.e. Unibot that acts in the physical world and is capable of learning. The Unibot conducts several simultaneous simulations of a problem of interest like path-finding. The novelty in our approach is the Multi-Agent Decision Support System which is developed and integrated into the Unibot agent architecture in order to execute simultaneous simulations. Furthermore, the Unibot calculates and evaluates between multiple solutions, decides which action should be performed and performs the action. The prototype of the Unibot agent architecture is described and evaluated in the experiment supported by the Lego Mindstorms robot and the NetLogo.

  4. Multi-Agent System for Recruiting Patients for Clinical Trials

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-05-01

    Managing Agent: The Trial Managing Agent has been implemented in Java , with support from a MySQL back-end database. This is used to conveniently exchange...these principles via simulation. • Recruitment Agent: The Recruitment Agent has been imple- mented in Java and has been used by 124 GPs so far

  5. Bacterial agents and sensitivity pattern of neonatal conjuctivitis in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Introduction: In Africa alone, between 1000 – 4000 children are blinded annually by conjunctivitis. In view of the changing aetiological agents documented in other parts of the world and evolving resistance of infective agents to therapeutic agents, the present study was designed to define the bacterial agents, their antibiotic ...

  6. Modern approaches to agent-based complex automated negotiation

    CERN Document Server

    Bai, Quan; Ito, Takayuki; Zhang, Minjie; Ren, Fenghui; Aydoğan, Reyhan; Hadfi, Rafik

    2017-01-01

    This book addresses several important aspects of complex automated negotiations and introduces a number of modern approaches for facilitating agents to conduct complex negotiations. It demonstrates that autonomous negotiation is one of the most important areas in the field of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems. Further, it presents complex automated negotiation scenarios that involve negotiation encounters that may have, for instance, a large number of agents, a large number of issues with strong interdependencies and/or real-time constraints.

  7. San Telmo, backpackers y otras globalizaciones

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernando Firmo

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Este artículo pretende contribuir al debate sobre otras formas de globalización  presentando una etnografía realizada en el barrio de San Telmo sobre mochileros que combinan en sus experiencias viaje y trabajo. Su objetivo es viajar al mismo tiempo que sacan provecho de esto para conseguir el capital necesario que les permita continuar en movimiento alrededor del globo. En este texto quiero hablar sobre estos auténticos actores de la globalización popular que ponen el foco en procesos y agentes alternativos no hegemónicos y que en este caso desarrollan su actividad en el contexto de la experiencia mochilera en San Telmo, siendo mi intención enriquecer las reflexiones sobre la globalización desde abajo.

  8. Software agent constrained mobility for network performance monitoring

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bohoris, C.; Liotta, A.; Pavlou, G.

    2000-01-01

    During the recent years of research on mobile agents, significant effort has been directed towards the identification of models of agent mobility suitable for network management applications. Also, a lot of research work is currently being carried out trying to provide an assessment of mobile agent

  9. Heterogenous Agents Model with the Worst Out Algorithm

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Vácha, Lukáš; Vošvrda, Miloslav

    -, č. 8 (2006), s. 3-19 ISSN 1801-5999 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : efficient market hypothesis * fractal market hypothesis * agents' investment horizons * agents' trading strategies * technical trading rules * heterogeneous agent model with stochastic memory * Worst out algorithm Subject RIV: AH - Economics

  10. Strategic farsighted learning in competitive multi-agent games

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    t Hoen, P.J.; Bohté, S.M.; Poutré, la J.A.; Brewka, G.; Coradeschi, S.; Perini, A.

    2006-01-01

    We describe a generalized Q-learning type algorithm for reinforcement learning in competitive multi-agent games. We make the observation that in a competitive setting with adaptive agents an agent's actions will (likely) result in changes in the opponents policies. In addition to accounting for the

  11. A Multi-Agent Traffic Control Model Based on Distributed System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qian WU

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available With the development of urbanization construction, urban travel has become a quite thorny and imminent problem. Some previous researches on the large urban traffic systems easily change into NPC problems. We purpose a multi-agent inductive control model based on the distributed approach. To describe the real traffic scene, this model designs four different types of intelligent agents, i.e. we regard each lane, route, intersection and traffic region as different types of intelligent agents. Each agent can achieve the real-time traffic data from its neighbor agents, and decision-making agents establish real-time traffic signal plans through the communication between local agents and their neighbor agents. To evaluate the traffic system, this paper takes the average delay, the stopped time and the average speed as performance parameters. Finally, the distributed multi-agent is simulated on the VISSIM simulation platform, the simulation results show that the multi-agent system is more effective than the adaptive control system in solving the traffic congestion.

  12. Deliberate normative agents : principles and architecture

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dignum, F.P.M.; Castelfranchi, C.; Jonker, C.; Treur, J.; Jennings, N.R.; Lespérance, Y.

    2000-01-01

    In this paper norms are assumed to be useful in agent societies. It is claimed that not only following norms, but also the possibility of ‘intelligent’ norm violation can be useful. Principles for agents that are able to behave deliberatively on the basis of explicitly represented norms are

  13. 13 CFR 120.952 - Fiscal agent.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... Fiscal Agent to assess the financial markets, minimize the cost of sales, arrange for the production of... 13 Business Credit and Assistance 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Fiscal agent. 120.952 Section 120.952 Business Credit and Assistance SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION BUSINESS LOANS Development Company...

  14. Human-Agent Decision-making: Combining Theory and Practice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sarit Kraus

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Extensive work has been conducted both in game theory and logic to model strategic interaction. An important question is whether we can use these theories to design agents for interacting with people? On the one hand, they provide a formal design specification for agent strategies. On the other hand, people do not necessarily adhere to playing in accordance with these strategies, and their behavior is affected by a multitude of social and psychological factors. In this paper we will consider the question of whether strategies implied by theories of strategic behavior can be used by automated agents that interact proficiently with people. We will focus on automated agents that we built that need to interact with people in two negotiation settings: bargaining and deliberation. For bargaining we will study game-theory based equilibrium agents and for argumentation we will discuss logic-based argumentation theory. We will also consider security games and persuasion games and will discuss the benefits of using equilibrium based agents.

  15. Building Agents to Serve Customers

    OpenAIRE

    Barbuceanu, Mihai; Fox, Mark S.; Hong, Lei; Lallement, Yannick; Zhang, Zhongdong

    2004-01-01

    AI agents combining natural language interaction, task planning, and business ontologies can help companies provide better-quality and more costeffective customer service. Our customer-service agents use natural language to interact with customers, enabling customers to state their intentions directly instead of searching for the places on the Web site that may address their concern. We use planning methods to search systematically for the solution to the customer's problem, ensuring that a r...

  16. Endotoxins, Glucans and Other Microbial Cell Wall Agents

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Basinas, Ioannis; Elholm, Grethe; Wouters, Inge M.

    2017-01-01

    During the last decades an increasing interest in microbial cell wall agents has been established, since exposure to these agents has been linked to a wide range of adverse and beneficial health effects. The term microbial cell wall agents refers to a group of molecules of different composition that

  17. The mobile agent rendezvous problem in the ring

    CERN Document Server

    Kranakis, Evangelos; Marcou, Euripides

    2010-01-01

    Mobile agent computing is being used in fields as diverse as artificial intelligence, computational economics and robotics. Agents' ability to adapt dynamically and execute asynchronously and autonomously brings potential advantages in terms of fault-tolerance, flexibility and simplicity. This monograph focuses on studying mobile agents as modelled in distributed systems research and in particular within the framework of research performed in the distributed algorithms community. It studies the fundamental question of how to achieve rendezvous, the gathering of two or more agents at the same n

  18. An Emotional Agent Model Based on Granular Computing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jun Hu

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Affective computing has a very important significance for fulfilling intelligent information processing and harmonious communication between human being and computers. A new model for emotional agent is proposed in this paper to make agent have the ability of handling emotions, based on the granular computing theory and the traditional BDI agent model. Firstly, a new emotion knowledge base based on granular computing for emotion expression is presented in the model. Secondly, a new emotional reasoning algorithm based on granular computing is proposed. Thirdly, a new emotional agent model based on granular computing is presented. Finally, based on the model, an emotional agent for patient assistant in hospital is realized, experiment results show that it is efficient to handle simple emotions.

  19. Global optimization of minority game by intelligent agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Yan-Bo; Wang, Bing-Hong; Hu, Chin-Kun; Zhou, Tao

    2005-10-01

    We propose a new model of minority game with intelligent agents who use trail and error method to make a choice such that the standard deviation σ2 and the total loss in this model reach the theoretical minimum values in the long time limit and the global optimization of the system is reached. This suggests that the economic systems can self-organize into a highly optimized state by agents who make decisions based on inductive thinking, limited knowledge, and capabilities. When other kinds of agents are also present, the simulation results and analytic calculations show that the intelligent agent can gain profits from producers and are much more competent than the noise traders and conventional agents in original minority games proposed by Challet and Zhang.

  20. Selling culture? Between commoditisation and cultural control in Indigenous alternative tourism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gabriela Coronado

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Las culturas indígenas son turísticamente significativas, pero sus portadores han sido sistemáticamente excluidos de sus beneficios y control. En contra de ello algunas organizaciones indígenas han incursionado en el turismo eco -cultural alternativo. Su nicho de mercado es social y ecológicamente consciente pero aún así se espera “autenticidad” basada en ideologías postcolonialistas. Para tener éxito el turismo alternativo requiere manejar las tensiones entre cultura e identidades propias y las que el mercado demanda. Mediante la noción de control cultural evalúo cómo proyectos alternativos en México y Perú afrontan, en sus propios términos, el desafío de la mercantilización de cultura y naturaleza. Para comprender las paradojas a que se enfrentan analizo sus representaciones culturales, identidades organizativas y alianzas a través de una lectura etnográfica de sus historias en la Red.

  1. Halon firefighting agents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pope, P.R.; Dalzell, G.A.

    1991-01-01

    This paper examines the current state of the International agreements on the use of halons and the subsequent National and industry approaches to the subject. It examines the definition of Essential Use and gives particular examples to clarify its interpretation. Alternative methods of loss control are reviewed. It does not address alternative active firefighting agents but examines the need for protection in particular areas. It addresses reduction of the hazards and consequences so that the need for protection can be minimized. Practical measures to minimize the installed quantities of halon are described. This covers specifications for new, essential, systems and the short term reduction of inventories in existing systems. The causes of leakage and accidental releases are studied and preventive measures are proposed. The paper concludes with an overview of the current research into replacement agents and the future outlook

  2. Multi-issue Agent Negotiation Based on Fairness

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zuo, Baohe; Zheng, Sue; Wu, Hong

    Agent-based e-commerce service has become a hotspot now. How to make the agent negotiation process quickly and high-efficiently is the main research direction of this area. In the multi-issue model, MAUT(Multi-attribute Utility Theory) or its derived theory usually consider little about the fairness of both negotiators. This work presents a general model of agent negotiation which considered the satisfaction of both negotiators via autonomous learning. The model can evaluate offers from the opponent agent based on the satisfaction degree, learn online to get the opponent's knowledge from interactive instances of history and negotiation of this time, make concessions dynamically based on fair object. Through building the optimal negotiation model, the bilateral negotiation achieved a higher efficiency and fairer deal.

  3. Towards Agent-Based Model Specification in Smart Grid: A Cognitive Agent-based Computing Approach

    OpenAIRE

    Akram, Waseem; Niazi, Muaz A.; Iantovics, Laszlo Barna

    2017-01-01

    A smart grid can be considered as a complex network where each node represents a generation unit or a consumer. Whereas links can be used to represent transmission lines. One way to study complex systems is by using the agent-based modeling (ABM) paradigm. An ABM is a way of representing a complex system of autonomous agents interacting with each other. Previously, a number of studies have been presented in the smart grid domain making use of the ABM paradigm. However, to the best of our know...

  4. Reactivity of Dual-Use Decontaminants with Chemical Warfare Agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-07-01

    REACTIVITY OF DUAL-USE DECONTAMINANTS WITH CHEMICAL WARFARE AGENTS ECBC-TR-1384... Decontaminants with Chemical Warfare Agents 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) Willis, Matthew P...extraction) of chemical warfare agents from materials. 15. SUBJECT TERMS GD HD Decontamination Hazard mitigation VX Chemical warfare agent Liquid-phase

  5. Liposomes as carriers of imaging agents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Caride, V.J.

    1985-01-01

    This review discusses the utilization of liposomes as imaging agents or as vehicles for contrast materials. The initial approach was the use of radiolabeled liposomes for scintigraphy. To this end liposomes were either labeled in the lipid membrane or aqueous radiotracers were incorporated inside the lipid vesicles. The lipid labeling provides a more stable association of the radioactive tracer and the lipid vesicles, while the use of water-soluble radiotracers provides a wider selection of compounds. Early attempts at selective tumor imaging using radiolabeled liposomes were unsuccessful. The use of monoclonal antibodies attached to liposomes offers new hopes. Several strategies have been proposed in this respect and several others can be envisioned. The use of liposomes permits the use of several administration routes for imaging agents. Of particular interest is the subcutaneous administration for lymph node visualization. Liposomes offer clear advantages over most radiocontrast agents for prolonged hepatosplenic contrast enhancement. This is particularly relevant in the diagnostic evaluation of the abdomen with computed tomography. Important research efforts are being conducted in this area. Two different approaches have been advanced: the incorporation of contrast agents into liposomes and the preparation of radiopaque liposomes from radiodense lipids. Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging can also benefit from contrast agents. Several centers are investigating this exciting field using liposomes loaded with paramagnetic elements.152 references

  6. Agents for navigating virtual reality E-commerce environments

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nijholt, Anton; van Dijk, Betsy; Sebaaly, Milad Fares

    2001-01-01

    We report about work in progress on capabilities of navigation agents in virtual environments. These agents may help a user to explore the environment: where to go, where to buy, where to find, etc. The agents may make suggestions based on a user profile, earlier visits and earlier given advice and

  7. A multi-agent system for coordinating international shipping

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Goldsmith, S.Y.; Phillips, L.R.; Spires, S.V.

    1998-05-01

    Moving commercial cargo across the US-Mexico border is currently a complex, paper-based, error-prone process that incurs expensive inspections and delays at several ports of entry in the Southwestern US. Improved information handling will dramatically reduce border dwell time, variation in delivery time, and inventories, and will give better control of the shipment process. The Border Trade Facilitation System (BTFS) is an agent-based collaborative work environment that assists geographically distributed commercial and government users with transshipment of goods across the US-Mexico border. Software agents mediate the creation, validation and secure sharing of shipment information and regulatory documentation over the Internet, using the World Wide Web to interface with human actors. Agents are organized into Agencies. Each agency represents a commercial or government agency. Agents perform four specific functions on behalf of their user organizations: (1) agents with domain knowledge elicit commercial and regulatory information from human specialists through forms presented via web browsers; (2) agents mediate information from forms with diverse otologies, copying invariant data from one form to another thereby eliminating the need for duplicate data entry; (3) cohorts of distributed agents coordinate the work flow among the various information providers and they monitor overall progress of the documentation and the location of the shipment to ensure that all regulatory requirements are met prior to arrival at the border; (4) agents provide status information to human actors and attempt to influence them when problems are predicted.

  8. Glutamic acid as anticancer agent: An overview

    OpenAIRE

    Dutta, Satyajit; Ray, Supratim; Nagarajan, K.

    2013-01-01

    The objective of the article is to highlight various roles of glutamic acid like endogenic anticancer agent, conjugates to anticancer agents, and derivatives of glutamic acid as possible anticancer agents. Besides these emphases are given especially for two endogenous derivatives of glutamic acid such as glutamine and glutamate. Glutamine is a derivative of glutamic acid and is formed in the body from glutamic acid and ammonia in an energy requiring reaction catalyzed by glutamine synthase. I...

  9. Emotional Storytelling using Virtual and Robotic Agents

    OpenAIRE

    Costa, Sandra; Brunete, Alberto; Bae, Byung-Chull; Mavridis, Nikolaos

    2016-01-01

    In order to create effective storytelling agents three fundamental questions must be answered: first, is a physically embodied agent preferable to a virtual agent or a voice-only narration? Second, does a human voice have an advantage over a synthesised voice? Third, how should the emotional trajectory of the different characters in a story be related to a storyteller's facial expressions during storytelling time, and how does this correlate with the apparent emotions on the faces of the list...

  10. Modeling of a production system using the multi-agent approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gwiazda, A.; Sękala, A.; Banaś, W.

    2017-08-01

    The method that allows for the analysis of complex systems is a multi-agent simulation. The multi-agent simulation (Agent-based modeling and simulation - ABMS) is modeling of complex systems consisting of independent agents. In the case of the model of the production system agents may be manufactured pieces set apart from other types of agents like machine tools, conveyors or replacements stands. Agents are magazines and buffers. More generally speaking, the agents in the model can be single individuals, but you can also be defined as agents of collective entities. They are allowed hierarchical structures. It means that a single agent could belong to a certain class. Depending on the needs of the agent may also be a natural or physical resource. From a technical point of view, the agent is a bundle of data and rules describing its behavior in different situations. Agents can be autonomous or non-autonomous in making the decision about the types of classes of agents, class sizes and types of connections between elements of the system. Multi-agent modeling is a very flexible technique for modeling and model creating in the convention that could be adapted to any research problem analyzed from different points of views. One of the major problems associated with the organization of production is the spatial organization of the production process. Secondly, it is important to include the optimal scheduling. For this purpose use can approach multi-purposeful. In this regard, the model of the production process will refer to the design and scheduling of production space for four different elements. The program system was developed in the environment NetLogo. It was also used elements of artificial intelligence. The main agent represents the manufactured pieces that, according to previously assumed rules, generate the technological route and allow preprint the schedule of that line. Machine lines, reorientation stands, conveyors and transport devices also represent the

  11. Fluid extraction using carbon dioxide and organophosphorus chelating agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smart, Neil G.; Wai, Chien M.; Lin, Yuehe; Kwang, Yak Hwa

    1998-01-01

    Methods for extracting metalloid and metal species from a solid or liquid material by exposing the material to a fluid solvent, particularly supercritical CO.sub.2, and a chelating agent are described. The chelating agent forms a chelate with the species, the chelate being soluble in the fluid to allow removal of the species from the material. In preferred embodiments the extraction solvent is supercritical CO.sub.2 and the chelating agent comprises an organophosphorous chelating agent, particularly sulfur-containing organophosphorous chelating agents, including mixtures of chelating agents. Examples of chelating agents include monothiophosphinic acid, di-thiophosphinic acid, phosphine sulfite, phosphorothioic acid, and mixtures thereof. The method provides an environmentally benign process for removing metal and metalloids from industrial waste solutions, particularly acidic solutions. Both the chelate and the supercritical fluid can be regenerated and the contaminant species recovered to provide an economic, efficient process.

  12. Perspectives in the development of hybrid bifunctional antitumour agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Musso, Loana; Dallavalle, Sabrina; Zunino, Franco

    2015-08-15

    In spite of the development of a large number of novel target-specific antitumour agents, the single-agent therapy is in general not able to provide an effective durable control of the malignant process. The limited efficacy of the available agents (both conventional cytotoxic and novel target-specific) reflects not only the expression of defence mechanisms, but also the complexity of tumour cell alterations and the redundancy of survival pathways, thus resulting in tumour cell ability to survive under stress conditions. A well-established strategy to improve the efficacy of antitumour therapy is the rational design of drug combinations aimed at achieving synergistic effects and overcoming drug resistance. An alternative strategy could be the use of agents designed to inhibit simultaneously multiple cellular targets relevant to tumour growth/survival. Among these novel agents are hybrid bifunctional drugs, i.e. compounds resulting by conjugation of different drugs or containing the pharmocophores of different drugs. This strategy has been pursued using various conventional or target-specific agents (with DNA damaging agents and histone deacetylase inhibitors as the most exploited compounds). A critical overview of the most representative compounds is provided with emphasis on the HDAC inhibitor-based hybrid agents. In spite of some promising results, the actual pharmacological advantages of the hybrid agents remain to be defined. This commentary summarizes the recent advances in this field and highlights the pharmacological basis for a rational design of hybrid bifunctional agents. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  13. Use of contrast agents for liver MRI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ward, Janice

    2007-01-01

    Contrast-enhanced MRI is recognised as one of the most accurate imaging methods for investigating diseases of the liver. Uniquely several different types of contrast agents are available for liver MRI. They can be divided into non-specific extracellular fluid space (ECF), hepatocyte specific and reticulo-endothelial system (RES) specific agents. They are used to improve the detection of focal liver lesions by increasing normal-abnormal tissue contrast and to assist in lesion characterisation by demonstrating tissue perfusion and cellular function. ECF-gadolinium (Gd) chelates have been widely used in abdominal MRI for many years. They provide valuable information regarding the vascularisation and perfusion characteristics of lesions and assist in lesion detection, particularly of hypervascular lesions. The hepatocyte and RES-specific agents further improve lesion detection, provide important functional information and allow the distinction between hepatocellular and non-hepatocellular tumours. This article describes the different MR contrast agents and discusses their current status for diagnosing focal liver lesions. The importance of optimised technique and appropriate selection of contrast agent is emphasised

  14. Analytical interference by contrast agents in biochemical assays

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Otnes, Sigrid; Fogh-Andersen, Niels; Rømsing, Janne

    2017-01-01

    Objective. To provide a clinically relevant overview of the analytical interference by contrast agents (CA) in laboratory blood test measurements. Materials and Methods. The effects of five CAs, gadobutrol, gadoterate meglumine, gadoxetate disodium, iodixanol, and iomeprol, were studied on the 29...... most frequently performed biochemical assays. One-day-old plasma, serum, and whole blood were spiked with doses of each agent such that the gadolinium agents and the iodine agents reached concentrations of 0.5mMand 12mg iodine/mL, respectively. Subsequently, 12 assays were reexamined using 1/2 and 1...

  15. Improving Disability Awareness among Extension Agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahadevan, Lakshmi; Peterson, Rick L.; Grenwelge, Cheryl

    2014-01-01

    Increasing prevalence rates and legislative mandates imply that educators, parents, and Extension agents will need better tools and resources to meet the needs of special populations. The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service addresses this issue by using e-learning tools. Extension agents can take advantage of these courses to gain critical…

  16. An Agent-Based Monetary Production Simulation Model

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bruun, Charlotte

    2006-01-01

    An Agent-Based Simulation Model Programmed in Objective Borland Pascal. Program and source code is downloadable......An Agent-Based Simulation Model Programmed in Objective Borland Pascal. Program and source code is downloadable...

  17. AGENTES DE SOFTWARE MÓVILES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Crisman Martínez Barrera

    2001-01-01

    Full Text Available Los agentes móviles son programas de software inteligentes que realizan un objetivo que involucran desarrollos soportados en técnicas de Inteligencia Artificial, los cuales pretenden facilitar la interoperabilidad de sistemas. Este artículo define las disciplinas, plataformas y herramientas necesarias para el desarrollo de agentes móviles, sus características principales y las arquitecturas predominantes de éstas; presenta además una evaluación de sus perspectivas futuras.

  18. The interaction of MRI contrast agents with phospholipids

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jendrasiak, Gordon L.; Smith, Ralph L.; Ribeiro, Anthony A.

    2000-01-01

    The molecular interactions of three clinically used MRI contrast agents with lipid vesicles, consisting of egg phosphatidylcholine (EPC), have been studied using high-field NMR techniques. At a molar ratio of one contrast agent molecule to five phospholipid molecules, a significant increase in the proton resonance line width occurred for certain lipid head group moieties. A large decrease in the T 1 relaxation times for the head group moieties was also observed. These two effects occurred regardless of the ionic status and the chelate structure of the three contrast agents. The structure of the contrast agents did, however, affect the magnitude of the two NMR parameter changes. These NMR effects also differed in magnitude amongst the various head group entities. The NMR effects were greatest for the head group moieties at or near the vesicle-water interface. The results are discussed in terms of the structure of the phospholipid-water interface. Since the use of contrast agents has become routine in clinical MRI, our results are of importance in terms of the interaction of the agents with physiological surfaces, many of which contain phospholipids. The understanding of such interactions should be of value not only for improved diagnostics, but also in the development of new contrast agents. (author)

  19. Monitoring presence of chemical agents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Preston, J.M.

    1984-01-01

    The specification describes a case for use with a hand-portable chemical agent detector for continuously monitoring an atmosphere for the presence of predetermined chemical agents. The detector having means for ionizing air samples and providing at an output terminal electrical signals representative of the mobility spectrum of ionized chemical vapours produced by the ionizing means. The case comprises means for defining a chamber in the case for supporting and removably enclosing the detector, means for communicating ambient atmosphere to the chamber, electrical circuit means in the case, the circuit means being adapted to be detachably connected to the detector output terminal when the detector is positioned in the chamber and being responsive to the electrical signals for producing an alarm signal when the signals detect a chemical agent concentration in the atmosphere exceeding a predetermined concentration level, and alarm means responsive to the alarm signal. (author)

  20. 21 CFR 178.3295 - Clarifying agents for polymers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 3 2010-04-01 2009-04-01 true Clarifying agents for polymers. 178.3295 Section... SANITIZERS Certain Adjuvants and Production Aids § 178.3295 Clarifying agents for polymers. Clarifying agents may be safely used in polymers that are articles or components of articles intended for use in contact...