Application of the GUM approach to estimate uncertainty in measurements of sustainability systems

This work incorporates measurement uncertainty estimation into the model framework proposed by dos Santos and Brandi (Clean Technol Environ Policy, doi: 10.1007/s10098-015-0919-8, 2015). It brings the metrology science procedures to sustainability situations by incorporating the use of the GUM framework (GUF) together with the Monte Carlo method (MCM) (BIPM, Evaluation of measurement data—guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement 2008a; Evaluation of measurement data—Supplement 1 to the “Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement”—propagation of distributions using a Monte Carlo method 2008b). The GUF uses the law of propagation of uncertainties and the MCM the propagation probability distributions. This scheme is applied to analyze the Integration and Logistic Infrastructure sustainability dimension of a biofuel supply chain in six countries (Santos et al. 2014). An initial set of specific indicators (input quantities) satisfying well-established criteria is used to aggregate indicators in a methodological manner into a single aggregate indicator. The Canberra and the normalized Euclidean distances are assumed as model functions. As recommended by the GUM approach, Supplement 1 (BIPM, Evaluation of measurement data—Supplement 1 to the “Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement”—propagation of distributions using a Monte Carlo method 2008b) is used to compare the GUF and the MCM results, adopting the GUM recommendation to perform the MCM with 10⁶ random trials. This allows the determination of the numerical statistical results with the precision level required for comparing the sustainability level of the six countries. It was shown that the use of the GUF is not validated to treat the adopted model functions. The two fundamental reasons are the limitation of the GUF concerning the truncation of the Taylor’s expansion and the deviation of the probability density function from the normal distribution (BIPM, Evaluation of measurement data—Supplement 1 to the “Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement”—propagation of distributions using a Monte Carlo method 2008b; Couto et al., Theory and applications of Monte Carlo simulations 2013). This result was predictable because of the nonlinear dependence on the indicators of the Canberra and the normalized Euclidean distances. The MCM calculations have shown that the uncertainties depend on the choice of the aggregate metrics, consequently affecting the countries sustainability ranking. The results demonstrate that Canberra and the Euclidean metrics separate the developed from the developing countries in clusters. The calculations for the single sustainability indicator and its uncertainty suggest that the Euclidean distance separates the countries better than the Canberra distance and, thus, it may be considered more adequate to represent the sustainability metrics Integration and Logistic Infrastructure sustainability dimension of a biofuel supply chain.     

Satisfiability solving for software verification

Declarative techniques for software verification require the availability of scalable, predictable, and flexible satisfiability solvers. We describe our approach to build such solvers by combining equational theorem proving, Boolean solving, arithmetic reasoning, and some transformations of the proof obligations. The proposed techniques have been implemented in a system called haRVey and the viability of the approach is shown on proof obligations generated in the certification of aerospace code.     

A decision support system for fund raising management based on the Choquet integral methodology

The employment of a decision support system for optimizing fund raising strategies is crucial to the management of non‐profit organizations. Commonly considered methodologies utilize the organization's donor database in order to gather and analyse information. However, many organizations, especially small‐ and medium‐sized ones, do not own or efficiently manage a database, and consequently, the usual methods are inapplicable. In this paper, a decision support system is developed that is able to identify the most promising fund raising strategies on the basis of the organization's profile. The profile factors of a non‐profit organization are analysed and hierarchically organized in a decision tree in order to effectively employ the Choquet integral methodology, which is recommended in these kinds of multi‐criteria decision problems. The results obtained in the real operational context show the effectiveness of the proposed system.     

Accelerating Time and Depth Seismic Migration by CPU and GPU Cooperation

In this paper, we discuss the porting strategy and the achieved performance of Petrobras production code that implements Kirchhoff prestack time and depth seismic migration algorithms on a cluster of 64 GPUs and 256 CPU cores. The time migration of a real-world survey was 20 times faster in the full cluster with GPUs than in the full cluster without GPUs. The introduction of GPUs accelerated the depth migration of another real-world survey by a factor of 5. In both cases, a large fraction of the achieved gains were due to the porting strategy that privileges CPU-GPU cooperation instead of pure GPU speed. Another strategy that contributed to the high gains was GPU overloading by multiple MPI processes. To cope with the heterogeneous load of real-world data, we developed a dynamic load balancing scheme that significantly speeds up computation.     

Prototyping flexible touch screen devices using collocated haptic-graphic elastic-object deformation on the GPU

Rapid advances in flexible display technologies and the benefits that they provide are promising enough to consider them for futuristic mobile devices. Current prototyping methods lack facilities to simulate such flexible touch screen displays and the interaction with them. In this paper, we present a technique that provides product developers a tool to interactively simulate products featuring flexible displays, using Augmented Reality and Haptics. This GPU-based algorithm is computationally inexpensive and efficient to deform a polygonal mesh in real time while maintaining an acceptable haptic feedback. The implementation of the algorithm has been found to be successful when applied to a variety of product simulations. This simulation tool can enhance or even replace traditional prototyping and facilitate testing of the prototype at various stages of the design cycle.     

Conserved quantities in discrete dynamics: what can be recovered from Noether’s theorem, how, and why?

The connections between symmetries and conserved quantities of a dynamical system brought to light by Noether??s theorem depend in an essential way on the symplectic nature of the underlying kinematics. In the discrete dynamics realm, a rather suggestive analogy for this structure is offered by second-order cellular automata. We ask to what extent the latter systems may enjoy properties analogous to those conferred, for continuous systems, by Noether??s theorem. For definiteness, as a second-order cellular automaton we use the Ising spin model with both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic bonds. We show that??and why??energy not only acts as a generator of the dynamics for this family of systems, but is also conserved when the dynamics is time-invariant. We then begin to explore the issue of whether, in these systems, it may hold as well that translation invariance entails momentum conservation.     

Porous Calcium Phosphate Ceramic Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering

1Introduction Thereisamajorclinicalandsocio economicneedtogeneratenewboneforskeletaluse.Autogenousgraftsandallogenicbonegraftshavebeenusedformanyyearsbutbothhavedisadvantages,includingthefailureofcompleteresorptionofautogenousbone,difficultiesinshapingthe…     

Activated carbon from sewage sludge for removal of sodium diclofenac and nimesulide from aqueous solutions

Sludge based activated carbons (ACs) were used to remove selected pharmaceuticals such as diclofenac (DCF) and nimesulide (NM) from aqueous solutions. The powered sewage sludge was mixed with different proportions of ZnCl₂. The mixture was pyrolyzed in a conventional oven using three different temperatures under inert atmosphere. Afterwards, in order to increase the specific surface area and uptake capacity the carbonized materials were acidified with 6mol L^?1 HCl under reflux at 80 °C for 3 hours. The characterization of ACs was achieved by scanning electron microscopy, FTIR, TGA, hydrophobicity index by water, n-heptane vapor adsorption and nitrogen adsorption/desorption curves. The specific surface area (S _BET ) of adsorbents varied between 21.2 and 679.3m²g^?1. According to the water and n-heptane analysis data all ACs had hydrophobic surface. Experimental variables such as pH, mass of adsorbent and temperature on the adsorption capacities were studied. The optimum pH, mass of adsorbent and temperature for adsorption of DCF and NM onto ACs were found to be 7.0 (DCF) and 10.0 (NM), 30mg and 25 °C, respectively. The kinetic adsorption was investigated using general-order, pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order kinetic models, while the general-order model described the adsorption process most suitably. The maximum amounts of DCF and NM adsorbed were 156.7 and 66.4mg g^?1 for sample 1(500-15-0.5), respectively.