A região que abrange municípios do Norte de Minas, dos vales do Rio Doce, Jequitinhonha, São Mate... more A região que abrange municípios do Norte de Minas, dos vales do Rio Doce, Jequitinhonha, São Mateus e Mucuri, tendo por referência as cidades de Teófilo Otoni e Governador Valadares configura uma das principais regiões produtoras de gemas do planeta, tanto em variedade, como em qualidade e quantidade de suas ocorrências. O APL de Gemas e Artefatos de Pedra de Teófilo Otoni abrange 21 municípios nas microrregiões de Teófilo Otoni e Araçuaí, ambas pertencentes à região de planejamento Jequitinhonha/Mucuri. Existem alguns estudos e diagnósticos do setor, que são referência para projetos, ações de apoio, pesquisa e desenvolvimento em diferentes segmentos do APL de Gemas e Artefatos de Pedra de Teófilo Otoni. Estes estudos são bases de estudos obrigatórias para o desenvolvimento de pesquisa sobre o setor.
The design and evaluation of the imaging system Clear-PEM for positron emission mammography, unde... more The design and evaluation of the imaging system Clear-PEM for positron emission mammography, under development by the PEM Consortium within the framework of the Crystal Clear Collaboration at CERN, is presented. The proposed apparatus is based on fast, segmented, high atomic number radiation sensors with depth-of-interaction measurement capabilities and state-of-the-art data acquisition techniques. The camera consists of two compact and planar detector heads with adequate field-of-view dimensions for breast and axilla imaging. Low-noise integrated electronics provide signal amplification and analog multiplexing based on a new data-driven architecture. The coincidence trigger and data acquisition architecture makes extensive use of pipeline processing structures and multi-event memories for high efficiency up to a data acquisition rate of one million events/s. Experimental validation of the detection techniques, namely the basic properties of the radiation sensors and the ability to measure the depth-of-interaction of the incoming photons, are presented. System performance in terms of detection sensitivity, count-rates and reconstructed image spatial resolution were also evaluated by means of a detailed Monte Carlo simulation and an iterative image reconstruction algorithm.
The design and evaluation of the imaging system Clear-PEM for positron emission mammography, unde... more The design and evaluation of the imaging system Clear-PEM for positron emission mammography, under development by the PEM Consortium within the framework of the Crystal Clear Collaboration at CERN, is presented. The proposed apparatus is based on fast, segmented, high atomic number radiation sensors with depth-of-interaction measurement capabilities, and state-of-the-art data acquisition techniques. The camera consists of two compact and planar detector heads with dimensions 16.5 14.5 cm 2 for breast and axilla imaging. Low-noise integrated electronics provide signal amplification and analog multiplexing based on a new data-driven architecture. The coincidence trigger and data acquisition architecture makes extensive use of pipeline processing structures and multi-event memories for high efficiency up to a data acquisition rate of one million events/s. Experimental validation of the detection techniques, namely the basic properties of the radiation sensors and the ability to measure the depth-of-interaction of the incoming photons, are presented. System performance in terms of detection sensitivity, count-rates and reconstructed image spatial resolution were also evaluated Manuscript by means of a detailed Monte Carlo simulation and an iterative image reconstruction algorithm.
We have previously demonstrated in rats that Chagas' disease affects the salivary glands, by prom... more We have previously demonstrated in rats that Chagas' disease affects the salivary glands, by promoting an enlargement of the submandibular gland. In order to further investigate possible functional alterations on infected submandibular glands, the objective of the present study was to analyze epidermal growth factor (EGF) expression on rat submandibular glands during Trypanosoma cruzi infection. Results demonstrated that infected rats presented lower levels of testosterone, and morphological changes in the granular convoluted tubule (GCT) cells of the submandibular glands, along with acinar enlargement and delayed ductal maturation at the developing granular ducts. Immunohistochemistry analysis additionally showed that only few cells immunolabelled with anti-EGF on infected rats during the acute phase of Chagas' disease, while after 64 and 90 days (chronic phase) of infection, EGF expression was similar to non-infected rats. The present findings suggest that at the acute phase of Chagas' disease, lower levels of testosterone may lead to a delayed maturation of GCT, which positively correlates with decreased EGF production by submandibular glands cells.
We present the case of a 31-year-old woman with recurrent pneumonia. A chest roentgenogram, a che... more We present the case of a 31-year-old woman with recurrent pneumonia. A chest roentgenogram, a chest computed tomographic scan, and a rigid bronchoscopy revealed a mass in the left mainstem bronchus, which was protruding into the trachea and right mainstem bronchus, with no extraluminal component. Endoscopic biopsies confirmed an inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor. The patient was treated with two sessions of bronchoscopic resection, followed by medical therapy with corticosteroids and azathioprine. She has been followed-up for 31 months without complications or recurrence. Although the usual treatment for this type of entity is surgical excision, endoscopic resection may be an adequate oncologic procedure when the tumor is completely endoluminal, as in this case.
Abstract. This paper proposes a reactive agent architecture for the integration of solid modellin... more Abstract. This paper proposes a reactive agent architecture for the integration of solid modelling processes into more general design processes. The basic idea is to focus on reactivity rather than on symbolic representations of design knowledge. Also an Application Programming ...
Dioctophymosis is a worldwide renal parasitosis caused by the Dioctophyma renale nematode, which ... more Dioctophymosis is a worldwide renal parasitosis caused by the Dioctophyma renale nematode, which results in progressive destruction of renal tissue. Aquatics annelids are considered the main intermediate hosts and the literature refers as permanent hosts of dogs, wild mammals and even humans. During procedures for population control of coatis (Nasua nasua) in the Ecological Park of Tietê (PET), was noticed the presence of parasitosis by D. renale. From 68 animals, males and females, young and adults, submitted to exploratory laparotomy, 51 were positive for the presence of worms, 9 were found only in the right kidney. In 10 cases, in addition to right kidney parasitism, worms were also observed in the abdominal cavity. In 24 cases D. renale was found only in the abdominal cavity and in 8 animals the right kidney was reduced to a small rigid structure. The study showed that the preferred site for parasitism of the worm, considered erratic, was the abdominal cavity in 66.66% of the cases.
This paper is an evolution of a previous article by the authors [ 1 ] motivated by the need to pr... more This paper is an evolution of a previous article by the authors [ 1 ] motivated by the need to provide computational support to an agent-based implementation of design processes. It presents a new programming environment to support the development of CAD systems based on a hybrid agent architecture in which the symbolic reasoning is carried out by first-order logic. The reactive behaviour of the agents can be achieved through a number of characteristics proposed for the object-oriented environment. This environment is also a general proposal for representing engineering design knowledge in which logic is integrated into an object-oriented paradigm.
PURPOSE: to evaluate T cell proliferation and cytokine production in HIV-1-infected pregnant wome... more PURPOSE: to evaluate T cell proliferation and cytokine production in HIV-1-infected pregnant women and their impact on in vitro virus replication. METHODS: peripheral blood from 12 HIV-1-infected pregnant women and from their neonates was collected. As control, 10 samples from non-infected pregnants were also colleted. The CD4+ and CD8+ T cell counts were assayed by flow cytometry. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and plasma were obtained by centrifugation with and without Ficoll-Hypaque gradient, respectively. The freshly purified PBMC were kept in cultures for seven days with PHA plus r-IL-2, and the lymphoproliferative response was assayed by Trypan blue dye exclusion. In some experiments we added anti-IL-10 monoclonal antibody. The plasma samples and supernatants from cell cultures were stored to determine both peripheral cytokine levels, by ELISA sandwich, and viral load, by RT-PCR. RESULTS: the results showed that the lymphoproliferative response was smaller in cultures obtained from HIV-1-infected women than in control cultures [4.2±0.37 vs 2.4±0.56 (x 106 cell/mL), p<0.005]. In both control and infected pregnant women who had low plasma viral load, the level of IL-10 was higher than in those with high viral replication (9.790±3.224 vs 1.256±350 pg/mL, p=0.002). The elevated TNF-a production detected in serum (7.200±2.440 pg/mL) and supernatants (21.350±15.230 pg/mL) was associated with higher plasma viral loads and vertical infection. The IL-10 blockade by anti-IL-10 antibodies augmented viral replication in the cell cultures. CONCLUSION: these results indicate that IL-10 production exerts a negative influence on virus replication, diminishing the probability of intrauterine HIV-1 infection.
... All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain 09541810 97 S17.00 An agentbased paradigm for bu... more ... All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain 09541810 97 S17.00 An agentbased paradigm for building intelligent CAD systems J. Bento Department of Civil Engineering, Instituto Superior Tecnico, 1096 Lisboa Codex, Portugal B. Feijo Intelligent CAD Laboratory (ICAD). ...
Summary: This paper attempts to lay a common framework for building and evaluating design models ... more Summary: This paper attempts to lay a common framework for building and evaluating design models according to cognitive needs of human designers. Design modelling is referred at three levels-Real, Cognitive Definition and Representation Schemes. A Basic Representation ...
The rule-based approach from traditional AI and the conventional constraint satisfaction algorith... more The rule-based approach from traditional AI and the conventional constraint satisfaction algorithms are not adequate to cope with the unpredictable events and interactive computations in distributed CAD environments. This paper claims that the problems faced by distributed CAD systems require solutions based on the concepts of emergence, reactivity, and online algorithms. The present paper presents Extended Constraints Graphs (ECGs) as online algorithms supporting emergence in a network of reactive agents. ECGs represent an effective solution for the nonlinear constraint problem in cyclic graphs, which are distributed over a heterogeneous computer network. The relationships between agents in an ECG are generic, distributed, recursive and nonlinear Ð a problem not solved in the literature. Also this paper presents a CORBA model integrated with a Geometry Bus to support distributed virtual prototype whose variables can be de®ned in terms of ECGs.
The rule-based approach from traditional AI and the conventional constraint satisfaction algorith... more The rule-based approach from traditional AI and the conventional constraint satisfaction algorithms are not adequate to cope with the unpredictable events and interactive computations in distributed CAD environments. This paper claims that the problems faced by distributed CAD systems require solutions based on the concepts of emergence, reactivity, and online algorithms. The present paper presents Extended Constraints Graphs (ECGs) as online algorithms supporting emergence in a network of reactive agents. ECGs represent an effective solution for the nonlinear constraint problem in cyclic graphs, which are distributed over a heterogeneous computer network. The relationships between agents in an ECG are generic, distributed, recursive and nonlinear Ð a problem not solved in the literature. Also this paper presents a CORBA model integrated with a Geometry Bus to support distributed virtual prototype whose variables can be de®ned in terms of ECGs.
As matrizes e a fundação: As matrizes e a fundação: As matrizes e a fundação: As matrizes e a fun... more As matrizes e a fundação: As matrizes e a fundação: As matrizes e a fundação: As matrizes e a fundação:
A região que abrange municípios do Norte de Minas, dos vales do Rio Doce, Jequitinhonha, São Mate... more A região que abrange municípios do Norte de Minas, dos vales do Rio Doce, Jequitinhonha, São Mateus e Mucuri, tendo por referência as cidades de Teófilo Otoni e Governador Valadares configura uma das principais regiões produtoras de gemas do planeta, tanto em variedade, como em qualidade e quantidade de suas ocorrências. O APL de Gemas e Artefatos de Pedra de Teófilo Otoni abrange 21 municípios nas microrregiões de Teófilo Otoni e Araçuaí, ambas pertencentes à região de planejamento Jequitinhonha/Mucuri. Existem alguns estudos e diagnósticos do setor, que são referência para projetos, ações de apoio, pesquisa e desenvolvimento em diferentes segmentos do APL de Gemas e Artefatos de Pedra de Teófilo Otoni. Estes estudos são bases de estudos obrigatórias para o desenvolvimento de pesquisa sobre o setor.
The design and evaluation of the imaging system Clear-PEM for positron emission mammography, unde... more The design and evaluation of the imaging system Clear-PEM for positron emission mammography, under development by the PEM Consortium within the framework of the Crystal Clear Collaboration at CERN, is presented. The proposed apparatus is based on fast, segmented, high atomic number radiation sensors with depth-of-interaction measurement capabilities and state-of-the-art data acquisition techniques. The camera consists of two compact and planar detector heads with adequate field-of-view dimensions for breast and axilla imaging. Low-noise integrated electronics provide signal amplification and analog multiplexing based on a new data-driven architecture. The coincidence trigger and data acquisition architecture makes extensive use of pipeline processing structures and multi-event memories for high efficiency up to a data acquisition rate of one million events/s. Experimental validation of the detection techniques, namely the basic properties of the radiation sensors and the ability to measure the depth-of-interaction of the incoming photons, are presented. System performance in terms of detection sensitivity, count-rates and reconstructed image spatial resolution were also evaluated by means of a detailed Monte Carlo simulation and an iterative image reconstruction algorithm.
The design and evaluation of the imaging system Clear-PEM for positron emission mammography, unde... more The design and evaluation of the imaging system Clear-PEM for positron emission mammography, under development by the PEM Consortium within the framework of the Crystal Clear Collaboration at CERN, is presented. The proposed apparatus is based on fast, segmented, high atomic number radiation sensors with depth-of-interaction measurement capabilities, and state-of-the-art data acquisition techniques. The camera consists of two compact and planar detector heads with dimensions 16.5 14.5 cm 2 for breast and axilla imaging. Low-noise integrated electronics provide signal amplification and analog multiplexing based on a new data-driven architecture. The coincidence trigger and data acquisition architecture makes extensive use of pipeline processing structures and multi-event memories for high efficiency up to a data acquisition rate of one million events/s. Experimental validation of the detection techniques, namely the basic properties of the radiation sensors and the ability to measure the depth-of-interaction of the incoming photons, are presented. System performance in terms of detection sensitivity, count-rates and reconstructed image spatial resolution were also evaluated Manuscript by means of a detailed Monte Carlo simulation and an iterative image reconstruction algorithm.
We have previously demonstrated in rats that Chagas' disease affects the salivary glands, by prom... more We have previously demonstrated in rats that Chagas' disease affects the salivary glands, by promoting an enlargement of the submandibular gland. In order to further investigate possible functional alterations on infected submandibular glands, the objective of the present study was to analyze epidermal growth factor (EGF) expression on rat submandibular glands during Trypanosoma cruzi infection. Results demonstrated that infected rats presented lower levels of testosterone, and morphological changes in the granular convoluted tubule (GCT) cells of the submandibular glands, along with acinar enlargement and delayed ductal maturation at the developing granular ducts. Immunohistochemistry analysis additionally showed that only few cells immunolabelled with anti-EGF on infected rats during the acute phase of Chagas' disease, while after 64 and 90 days (chronic phase) of infection, EGF expression was similar to non-infected rats. The present findings suggest that at the acute phase of Chagas' disease, lower levels of testosterone may lead to a delayed maturation of GCT, which positively correlates with decreased EGF production by submandibular glands cells.
We present the case of a 31-year-old woman with recurrent pneumonia. A chest roentgenogram, a che... more We present the case of a 31-year-old woman with recurrent pneumonia. A chest roentgenogram, a chest computed tomographic scan, and a rigid bronchoscopy revealed a mass in the left mainstem bronchus, which was protruding into the trachea and right mainstem bronchus, with no extraluminal component. Endoscopic biopsies confirmed an inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor. The patient was treated with two sessions of bronchoscopic resection, followed by medical therapy with corticosteroids and azathioprine. She has been followed-up for 31 months without complications or recurrence. Although the usual treatment for this type of entity is surgical excision, endoscopic resection may be an adequate oncologic procedure when the tumor is completely endoluminal, as in this case.
Abstract. This paper proposes a reactive agent architecture for the integration of solid modellin... more Abstract. This paper proposes a reactive agent architecture for the integration of solid modelling processes into more general design processes. The basic idea is to focus on reactivity rather than on symbolic representations of design knowledge. Also an Application Programming ...
Dioctophymosis is a worldwide renal parasitosis caused by the Dioctophyma renale nematode, which ... more Dioctophymosis is a worldwide renal parasitosis caused by the Dioctophyma renale nematode, which results in progressive destruction of renal tissue. Aquatics annelids are considered the main intermediate hosts and the literature refers as permanent hosts of dogs, wild mammals and even humans. During procedures for population control of coatis (Nasua nasua) in the Ecological Park of Tietê (PET), was noticed the presence of parasitosis by D. renale. From 68 animals, males and females, young and adults, submitted to exploratory laparotomy, 51 were positive for the presence of worms, 9 were found only in the right kidney. In 10 cases, in addition to right kidney parasitism, worms were also observed in the abdominal cavity. In 24 cases D. renale was found only in the abdominal cavity and in 8 animals the right kidney was reduced to a small rigid structure. The study showed that the preferred site for parasitism of the worm, considered erratic, was the abdominal cavity in 66.66% of the cases.
This paper is an evolution of a previous article by the authors [ 1 ] motivated by the need to pr... more This paper is an evolution of a previous article by the authors [ 1 ] motivated by the need to provide computational support to an agent-based implementation of design processes. It presents a new programming environment to support the development of CAD systems based on a hybrid agent architecture in which the symbolic reasoning is carried out by first-order logic. The reactive behaviour of the agents can be achieved through a number of characteristics proposed for the object-oriented environment. This environment is also a general proposal for representing engineering design knowledge in which logic is integrated into an object-oriented paradigm.
PURPOSE: to evaluate T cell proliferation and cytokine production in HIV-1-infected pregnant wome... more PURPOSE: to evaluate T cell proliferation and cytokine production in HIV-1-infected pregnant women and their impact on in vitro virus replication. METHODS: peripheral blood from 12 HIV-1-infected pregnant women and from their neonates was collected. As control, 10 samples from non-infected pregnants were also colleted. The CD4+ and CD8+ T cell counts were assayed by flow cytometry. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and plasma were obtained by centrifugation with and without Ficoll-Hypaque gradient, respectively. The freshly purified PBMC were kept in cultures for seven days with PHA plus r-IL-2, and the lymphoproliferative response was assayed by Trypan blue dye exclusion. In some experiments we added anti-IL-10 monoclonal antibody. The plasma samples and supernatants from cell cultures were stored to determine both peripheral cytokine levels, by ELISA sandwich, and viral load, by RT-PCR. RESULTS: the results showed that the lymphoproliferative response was smaller in cultures obtained from HIV-1-infected women than in control cultures [4.2±0.37 vs 2.4±0.56 (x 106 cell/mL), p<0.005]. In both control and infected pregnant women who had low plasma viral load, the level of IL-10 was higher than in those with high viral replication (9.790±3.224 vs 1.256±350 pg/mL, p=0.002). The elevated TNF-a production detected in serum (7.200±2.440 pg/mL) and supernatants (21.350±15.230 pg/mL) was associated with higher plasma viral loads and vertical infection. The IL-10 blockade by anti-IL-10 antibodies augmented viral replication in the cell cultures. CONCLUSION: these results indicate that IL-10 production exerts a negative influence on virus replication, diminishing the probability of intrauterine HIV-1 infection.
... All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain 09541810 97 S17.00 An agentbased paradigm for bu... more ... All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain 09541810 97 S17.00 An agentbased paradigm for building intelligent CAD systems J. Bento Department of Civil Engineering, Instituto Superior Tecnico, 1096 Lisboa Codex, Portugal B. Feijo Intelligent CAD Laboratory (ICAD). ...
Summary: This paper attempts to lay a common framework for building and evaluating design models ... more Summary: This paper attempts to lay a common framework for building and evaluating design models according to cognitive needs of human designers. Design modelling is referred at three levels-Real, Cognitive Definition and Representation Schemes. A Basic Representation ...
The rule-based approach from traditional AI and the conventional constraint satisfaction algorith... more The rule-based approach from traditional AI and the conventional constraint satisfaction algorithms are not adequate to cope with the unpredictable events and interactive computations in distributed CAD environments. This paper claims that the problems faced by distributed CAD systems require solutions based on the concepts of emergence, reactivity, and online algorithms. The present paper presents Extended Constraints Graphs (ECGs) as online algorithms supporting emergence in a network of reactive agents. ECGs represent an effective solution for the nonlinear constraint problem in cyclic graphs, which are distributed over a heterogeneous computer network. The relationships between agents in an ECG are generic, distributed, recursive and nonlinear Ð a problem not solved in the literature. Also this paper presents a CORBA model integrated with a Geometry Bus to support distributed virtual prototype whose variables can be de®ned in terms of ECGs.
The rule-based approach from traditional AI and the conventional constraint satisfaction algorith... more The rule-based approach from traditional AI and the conventional constraint satisfaction algorithms are not adequate to cope with the unpredictable events and interactive computations in distributed CAD environments. This paper claims that the problems faced by distributed CAD systems require solutions based on the concepts of emergence, reactivity, and online algorithms. The present paper presents Extended Constraints Graphs (ECGs) as online algorithms supporting emergence in a network of reactive agents. ECGs represent an effective solution for the nonlinear constraint problem in cyclic graphs, which are distributed over a heterogeneous computer network. The relationships between agents in an ECG are generic, distributed, recursive and nonlinear Ð a problem not solved in the literature. Also this paper presents a CORBA model integrated with a Geometry Bus to support distributed virtual prototype whose variables can be de®ned in terms of ECGs.
As matrizes e a fundação: As matrizes e a fundação: As matrizes e a fundação: As matrizes e a fun... more As matrizes e a fundação: As matrizes e a fundação: As matrizes e a fundação: As matrizes e a fundação:
Uploads
Papers by Bruno Bento