Resumo Sustentabilidade tem sido, na atualidade, um termo com crescente utilização no segmento da cerâmica vermelha ou estrutural brasileira, setor em que abordagens como a produção mais limpa (P+L) podem vir a contribuir, uma vez que suas técnicas visam prevenir a geração de desperdícios e de resíduos ao longo do ciclo de vida de produtos e processos. Nessa perspectiva, este estudo buscou analisar a literatura acerca dos temas produção mais limpa, sustentabilidade e cerâmica vermelha, almejando contribuir por meio de elementos teórico-práticos para o aprimoramento sustentável da produção desse ramo fabril. Além disso, objetivou desvendar lacunas e desafios para futuros estudos que envolvam as temáticas citadas. A metodologia foi fundamentada em dados bibliográficos, documentais e de sítios eletrônicos (nacionais e estrangeiros). Para tanto, foi realizada uma pesquisa bibliográfica de artigos científicos no Portal de Periódicos da Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), em que foram selecionados e analisados 23 artigos em um período de cinco anos, a fim de identificar e classificar as técnicas de P+L propostas e, por fim, discutir suas contribuições para a sustentabilidade do setor. Os resultados apontaram que houve vários avanços, mas que ainda restam hiatos e desafios relevantes a serem superados.

Abstract Sustainability has been a term with increasing use in the Brazilian segment of the red or structural ceramic, sector where approaches such as cleaner production (CP) could contribute, since their techniques aim to prevent waste and residue generation along the life cycle of products and processes. In this perspective, this study analyzed the literature about the cleaner production, sustainability and red ceramics, aiming to contribute by theoretical and practical elements for the sustainable improvement of the production of this industrial branch. In addition, it was aimed to search uncover gaps and challenges for future studies involving the above themes. The methodology was based on bibliographic data, documents and electronic sites (Brazilian and foreign). For this, after making a literature survey of scientific articles in the site “Portal de Periódicos” from Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), 23 articles were selected and analyzed over a period of five years, in order to identify and classify technical CP proposals and finally discuss their contributions to the industry’s sustainability. The results showed that there were many advances, but relevant gaps and challenges remain to be overcome.

Resumo O objetivo deste trabalho é avaliar o comportamento e a resistência de um sistema de lajes mistas de aço e concreto, considerando a influência do atrito na interface da fôrma de aço com o concreto na região dos apoios. Para isso foram utilizados os resultados de ensaios realizados no Departamento de Engenharia de Estruturas da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG). O sistema misto Steel Deck 60 foi considerado, o qual consiste em um perfil trapezoidal com mossas em forma de "V". As flechas, os deslizamentos de extremidades e as deformações das fôrmas de aço foram medidos, permitindo a análise do comportamento do sistema de laje mista e a determinação do seu modo de falha. A influência do atrito da região dos apoios na resistência longitudinal ao cisalhamento foi avaliada através do método da interação parcial, que também permitiu estabelecer critérios visando à determinação de expressões analíticas para o cálculo da carga última. As análises comparativas revelaram que a influência do atrito da região dos apoios na resistência ao cisalhamento longitudinal é mais significativa em lajes mistas com pequenos vãos de cisalhamento. São apresentadas expressões de cálculo incorporando o atrito, cujas aplicações em um exemplo permitiram mostrar a eficiência do método no cálculo da resistência ao cisalhamento longitudinal.

Abstract The aim of this work is to evaluate the behavior and strength of composite slabs considering the influence of the friction at the sheeting-concrete interface in the region of the support. Results from tests conducted in the Structural Engineering Department of Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) were used. A Steel Deck 60 system was considered, which consists of a trapezoidal profile with “V” shaped embossments. Deflections, end slips and strains of the steel decks were measured, allowing for the analysis of the behavior of the composite slab system and for the determination of its failure mode. The influence of friction of the region of support in the longitudinal shear resistance was evaluated through the partial shear connection method, which also allowed for establishing criteria and determination of analytical expressions for calculating the ultimate load. Comparative analyses reveal that the influence of the friction of the region of support in the shear-bond resistance is more significant in composite slabs with short shear spans. Design expressions which incorporate friction will also be presented. Their application have demonstrated the efficiency of the method for evaluating the longitudinal shear resistance.

This work reports the influence of different culture preservation methods on the production of penicillin G acylase (PGA) by Bacillus megaterium ATCC 14945. The initial stock culture, presenting PGA activity of 97 IU l-1, was preserved for two years using different procedures: monthly subculturing and storage in refrigerator (S), freeze-drying using skim milk 10%, plus inositol 5% as cryoprotectors (L1), freeze-drying using sucrose 7%, plus peptone 7% (L2), and freezing with glycerol 10% (F). After cultivations at standard operational conditions, different values of enzyme activity were obtained: 56 IU l-1 for monthly subculturing (S), 15-41 IU l-1 for freeze-dried cells and frozen spores. All the tested methods have failed in preserving the PGA expression. Among all tested cultures, S presented the highest specific activity, and was used to prepare a standard inoculum in cryovials (-50ºC, frozen spores in a 20% glycerol solution). By cultivation of this inoculum under different conditions, it was found that PGA activity raised to 128 IU l-1 when 0.4 g l-1 of salts was added to the medium.

The production of penicillin G acylase (PGA, an important industrial enzyme) from a wild strain of Bacillus megaterium using a pool of free amino acids as substrate was studied in a bench-scale bioreactor. Experiments carried out in shakers showed that the substitution of casein for free amino acids in the presence of cheese whey was the culture medium that provided the highest productivity. Several cultivations were carried out in a bioreactor operated in either batch or fed-batch mode. Batch runs showed that enzyme production is associated with microorganism growth. The following set of amino acids was preferentially consumed: Ala, Arg, Asp, Gly, Lys, Ser, Thr and Trp. On the other hand, the rates of consumption of His, Ile, Leu, Met, Phe, Pro, Tyr and Val were lower.

Penicillin G acylase (PGA) is an important enzyme used as biocatalyst in the production of semisynthetic beta-lactam antibiotics. Many microorganisms produce this enzyme and recombinant Escherichia coli has been preferred use for industrial applications. Bacillus megaterium is one of the microorganisms that excretes this enzyme into the medium. As a consequence, separation and purification steps are simplified. On-line measurement of enzyme activity during cultivation using in-situ sensors is a difficult task in the industrial environment due to the lack of robust and inexpensive instrumentation. This work presents the results of a fuzzy logic algorithm used to determine the moment of maximum enzyme concentration during Bacillus megaterium cultivations in an aerated and stirred, automated lab-scale bioreactor. The fuzzy algorithm was written in Fortran, compiled as a dynamic link library and implemented on a platform developed in MS-Visual Basic. Data were exchanged in real time between the platform and the supervisory system, which was coupled to the bioreactor. It was possible to determine the moment at which maximum enzyme activity was reached in several bioreactor assays. At this point, the end of the process was indicated to the operator. The results illustrate the importance of using reliable computational intelligence-based algorithms in biochemical reactions.

A transferência de energia térmica da superfície corporal para a água é provavelmente o aspecto mais importante do equilíbrio térmico em mamíferos marinhos, mas os respectivos cálculos dependem do conhecimento da temperatura da superfície, T S, cuja medição direta em animais em liberdade constitui um problema difícil de resolver. Um método iterativo é proposto para a predição de T S de cetáceos em liberdade, a partir da temperatura corporal profunda, da velocidade de deslocamento e da temperatura e propriedades termodinâmicas da água.

Heat transfer from skin surface to ambient water is probably the most important aspect of thermal balance in marine mammals, but the respective calculations depend on knowing the surface temperature (T S), the direct measurement of which in free animals is very difficult. An indirect iterative method is proposed for T S prediction in free cetaceans from deep body temperature, swimming speed, and temperature and thermodynamic properties of the water.

In many continuous fermentation processes, the control objective is to maximize productivity per unit time. The optimum operational point in the steady state can be obtained by maximizing the productivity rate using feed substrate concentration as the independent variable with the equations of the static model as constraints. In the present study, three model-based control schemes have been developed and implemented for a continuous fermenter. The first method modifies the well-known dynamic matrix control (DMC) algorithm by making it adaptive. The other two use nonlinear model predictive control algorithms (NMPC, nonlinear model predictive control) for calculation of control actions. The NMPC1 algorithm, which uses orthogonal collocation in finite elements, acted similar to NMPC2, which uses equidistant collocation. These algorithms are compared with DMC. The results obtained show the good performance of nonlinear algorithms.

A new algorithm for model predictive control is presented. The algorithm utilizes a simultaneous solution and optimization strategy to solve the model's differential equations. The equations are discretized by equidistant collocation, and along with the algebraic model equations are included as constraints in a nonlinear programming (NLP) problem. This algorithm is compared with the algorithm that uses orthogonal collocation on finite elements. The equidistant collocation algorithm results in simpler equations, providing a decrease in computation time for the control moves. Simulation results are presented and show a satisfactory performance of this algorithm.