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This study discusses on the condition assessment of the profile and non-structural factors of the buildings in the University of Eastern Philippines was undertaken to determine the level of functionality of the building as perceived by the end users, to find out the serviceability of the buildings structure, and to assess the profile and non-structural factors of the buildings in the University of Eastern Philippines. The study utilized ocular/visual inspection, data and documents review, applying the instrument made by Coronilli [1], survey questionnaire as perceived by the end users, and the American Concrete Institute (ACI) guidelines on the condition of the selected buildings in the University of Eastern Philippines-Main Campus. Cracking of concrete are classified into structural and non-structural cracks. Non-structural cracking was observed in the buildings inspected and the College of Nursing is the most critical building in terms of cracks of the building. Furthermore, College of Science obtained 3.07 was perceived as most functional building according to the end users. The school buildings which are in need of repair is the College of Nursing buildings.

Brazilian livestock with a herd of more than 215 million animals is distributed over a vast area of 160 million hectares, leading the country to the first position in the world beef exports and second in beef production and consumption. Animals risen in the biomes Amazônia, Caatinga, Cerrado, Pampa and Pantanal were selected for this study. Beef samples were analyzed for their elemental content by neutron activation analysis and classified according to their origin by three machine learning algorithms (Multilayer Perceptron, Random Forest and Classification and Regression Tree). Significant differences (p 0.0001) were observed between the beef elemental content from the different biomes for all multivariate contrasts using NPMANOVA. The highest classification performance was obtained for the biomes Amazônia and Caatinga using Multilayer Perceptron. Results showed the feasibility of combining trace element content and machine learning approaches for the Brazilian beef traceability.

This study focuses on the level of awareness and extent of practices in green technology of college students. The differences in their level of awareness and extent of practices when grouped according to sex, community, academic standing, secondary school and family income were also taken into account. Finally, the relationship between awareness and practices in green technology was ascertained. A descriptive-correlational method of research using a researcher-developed questionnaire was employed. The participants of this study were the Bachelor of Education students of Philippine Normal University Visayas. Data were analyzed using mean, t-test, one-way ANOVA and Pearson Product-Moment of Correlation. Findings revealed moderate level of awareness but low extent of practices in green technology. When participants were grouped according to variables, significant differences in their level of awareness and extent of practices were observed. Furthermore, the level of awareness and extent of practices were positively correlated to a moderate degree. In conclusion, the findings do not confirm popular hypotheses that establish direct link between affluence and environmental behaviour; education and environmental concern; and, degree of urbanization and environmental awareness (biophilia hypothesis). Based on the foregoing, this study suggests the development of a holistic program that integrates concepts and applications of green technology in tertiary education to engage students’ active participation in the promotion of environmental sustainability.

This brief report presents a review of the literature on health implications of crafting practices, as well as secondary analysis of data from the National Endowment for the Arts’ Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. The secondary data analysis focuses on trends in crafting practices in the United States. The findings indicate a greater prevalence of craft-based practices compared with fine arts media, as well as, distinct differences in arts participation based on gender, ethnicity and income levels. Using these data sources, implications for craft-based expressive practices as a therapeutic tool in art therapy practice are discussed.

This paper presents a variant of Snay’s algorithm for profile reduction of matrices. The new heuristic for profile reduction shows better results when compared with the results of several reordering algorithms with regards to reducing the computational cost of the zero-fill incomplete Cholesky-preconditioned conjugate gradient method applied to small linear systems arising from a computational fluid dynamics problem.

Previous publications analyzed a large number of heuristics for bandwidth and profile reductions, and 14 heuristics were selected as promising low-cost heuristics for these problems. Based on extensive numerical experiments, this paper evaluates these heuristics when applied to matrices contained in systems of linear equations arising from computational fluid dynamics problems and the most promising heuristics are identified when reducing the zero-fill incomplete Cholesky-preconditioned conjugate gradient method.

An engineering application case study on a two-fluid flow model for the control of industrial drying operations is reported. The mathematical model of this process was numerically solved by a computer code developed in FORTRAN language and was validated through data taken from PVC drying performed in an industrial continuous fluidized-bed dryer. The predicted steady-state outlet temperature and PVC moisture content values agree with the real data observed on the industrial plant. This model was also used to predict the temperature and concentration profiles inside the dryer as a function of time as a response to the disturbances and variations on the PVC water content at the dryer inlet.

OBJECTIVE: To correlate clinical prognosis to the expression of p65, c-Fos, GRalpha and GRbeta in patients with nasal polyps. METHODS: A biopsy was obtained at the first evaluation for patients with nasal polyps (20), and at rhinoplasty for control mucosa (8). Patients with nasal polyps were treated with glucocorticoids and followed for at least 30 months. The expression of each gene (p65, c-Fos, GRalpha and GRbeta) was determined by Real Time-PCR and correlated to clinical outcome. The indication for surgery was considered the end-point of resistance to glucocorticoid therapy. RESULTS: Patients with nasal polyps presented a higher expression of p65 (P

This work proposes a technique to enhance fingerprint images through the Gabor filter with adaptive parameters. Firstly, the average ridge and valley of each region as well as their direction are evaluated by a specific directional field algorithm. Secondly, since the filter orientation and the frequency parameters vary according to the fingerprint area, the fingerprint topological structure is enhanced by the Gabor filter with adaptive parameters. Finally, experimental tests show accurate final results for the matching step of an on-line recognition process.

The introduction of quality systems in laboratories at universities is a difficult task. Test services for external customers are provided to generate additional budget, and there may be a clear awareness about the need for systematic QA/QC actions. However, offering services is not of the highest priority within most university environments. The staff performance is commonly evaluated on basis of published papers and teaching activities, giving little or no weight for the test services. Therefore, implementation of a quality system is often pushed back to a lower priority leading to postponement. The efforts for creating a quality system in a laboratory from a Brazilian university are described in this paper, along with the results produced.

Text clustering is a theme that is receiving considerable attention nowadays in areas such as text mining and information retrieval. A starting point for clustering methods applied on unstructured document collection is the creation of a vector-space model usually known as bag-ofwords model [1J. Documents are then usually described by a matrix which happens to be huge and extremely sparse which is due to the exceeding number of terms describing the set of documents. Although several techniques can be employed to reduce this number, the final figure is still high thus leading to a feature space of high dimensionality. This paper presents a simple procedure that not only considerably reduces the dimensionality of the feature space and hence the processing time, but also produces clustering performances comparable or even better when confronted with the full set of terms.

The widening of the QTc is a mortality predictor in acute coronary syndromes and cerebral vascular accident.

Resume Apres avoir montre dans une precedente etude l'efficacite de l'immunoenzymologie ( elisa ) et d'un antigene brut de Trypanosoma cruzi dans le depistage des donneurs de sang atteints de la maladie de Chagas, les auteurs montrent cette fois l'interet de la fraction microsomiale de ce parasite comme antigene. Cette fraction, comparee a un autre extrait antigenique brut, Trypanosa R , se montre non seulement plus sensible, mais aussi plus specifique, donnant moins de reactions croisees avec les leishmanioses.

In this work, a systematic review of heuristics for profile reduction of symmetric matrices is presented. 74 heuristics tested for reduction profile were found. Researchers compared results of their heuristics with results of other heuristics. In this review, these comparisons were analyzed and 8 heuristics were identified as the possible best for the problem. In addition, exchange methods, a form of local search, were identified that can benefit heuristics identified as the best ones for the task.

A new technique for the diagnosis of wuchereriasis is described. Microfilariae treated with proteolytic enzyme were used as antigen for the immunofluorescent reaction. The specificity of the reaction is demonstrated in sera from persons who have a microfilariaemia, individuals with clinical symptoms of the disease but no microfilariaemia, those who have no clinical symptoms, but harbour other parasites, and in persons living in France, where the Wuchereria bancrofti filariasis is absent.