ABSTRACT Spray drift leads to wastage of spraying material and poses a threat to non-targeted crops and the environment. Therefore, the spray drift characteristics of a Ronnie Baugh (RB) tractor-trailed boom sprayer were determined through computational fluid dynamics to assist in designing the tractor for boom spraying with minimized spray drift. The wake region of the RB tractor was characterized by investigating its velocity profile, turbulent kinetic energy, and drag coefficient at different forward speeds. Additionally, spray droplet sizes and drift distances from the boom sprayer were measured at forward speeds of 4, 6, and 8 km/h, along with different wind directions. The RB tractor exhibits an estimated drag coefficient of 0.7. The results further demonstrate that, at varying forward speeds, the wake experiences low turbulent kinetic energy and minimal velocity profile variations. No spray drift was observed at tractor speeds below 4 km/h, whereas a drift of 0.19 m and 0.33 m is predicted at 6 km/h and 8 km/h, respectively. The tractor's wake is significantly influenced by changes in wind direction, resulting in varying drift distances from each nozzle due to exposure to both free and obstructed airflow. To minimize drift at higher travel speeds, it is recommended that the tractor be operated in line with the prevailing wind direction.

RESUMO A aplicação de baterias baseadas em informações táteis para diagnóstico e acompanhamento de pacientes com doença de Alzheimer e outras demências não é muito difundida na prática clínica. Ao passo que a capacidade de reconhecimento tátil de objetos em crianças recebe bastante atenção dos pesquisadores, o mesmo não ocorre com indivíduos mais idosos. Existem ainda menos estudos abordando avaliação de memória episódica em pacientes idosos, com ou sem limitações sensoriais, como cegueira e surdez. O presente estudo propõe avaliar aplicabilidade de teste para avaliação de memória tátil em paciente com doença de Alzheimer. Objetivo: Aplicar em pacientes com doença de Alzheimer uma bateria baseada na percepção e reconhecimento táctil de objetos de uso cotidiano, avaliando a memória e reconhecimento tardio, comparado com testes visuais e verbais validados. Métodos: Foi avaliado o desempenho de baterias baseadas em informação táteis, visuais e verbais em 21 pacientes diagnosticados com a doença de Alzheimer. Resultados: Com a exceção da percepção tátil, foi demonstrada uma boa correlação entre as três modalidades de apresentação das informações a serem resgatadas tardiamente. Houve um desempenho aparentemente melhor do reconhecimento tátil quando comparado com apresentação de figuras impressas. Conclusões: A determinação da memória tátil em pacientes com doença de Alzheimer demonstrou ser aplicável como instrumento de avaliação dos distúrbios de memória presentes em portadores de doença de Alzheimer com comprometimento leve a moderado. As limitações do estudo, com reduzido tamanho da amostra, aponta para a necessidade de novos estudos com a devida validação, incluindo determinação de sensibilidade e especificidade, assim como pareamento, de acordo com sexo e idade com grupo controle.

ABSTRACT The validity and applicability of tactile battery tests for the diagnosis and medical follow-up of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia syndromes do not have their usefulness well understood in clinical practice. While haptic abilities in older individuals receive less attention, in earlier stages of human life they are well focused on. There are even fewer studies on tactile memory, including episodic memory of demented individuals with or without sensorial limitations. The applicability of a new haptic memory battery was evaluated in patients with Alzheimer’s disease with mild or moderate commitment. Objective: The aim of this study is to apply a battery based on tactile perception, recognition, and recollection of everyday objects in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, testing tactile delayed recall memory discrimination and late recognition to compare validated visual and verbal tests. Methods: Tactile-, visual-, and verbal-based memory performance was registered in 21 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Results: Except for tactile identification, it showed that there was a close relationship between the three sensory modalities of memory, with an apparent better performance of tactile incidental memory and recognition compared with the test with pictures. Conclusions: The haptic evaluation of memory demonstrated applicability in the evaluation of memory dysfunction in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Further studies are needed to establish the sensibility and specificity of the proposed test that had a small sample size and many limitations.

Abstract The Troschel’s Pampas Snake, Phimophis guianensis (Troschel, 1848), is widely distributed in Amazonian Savannas at northern South America and a small portion of southern Central America, being recorded to Brazil based on three historical records, that ranged from 1997 to 2002, in Amapá and Pará states. In this study, we revise all known records of P. guianensis, providing an updated distribution map, and the first record to Roraima state.

This paper presents a performance analysis of source, shortest path, hierarchical and geographical routing strategies, which are the three most commonly, implemented strategies employed by wireless ad-hoc and sensor networks. Source routing was selected because it does not require costly topology maintenance, while shortest path routing was chosen because of its simple discovery routing approach and hierarchical and geographical routing was elected because it uses location information via Global Positioning System (GPS). Many current applications require precise knowledge of physical positioning information, particularly in the areas of health, military, agriculture, robotics, and environmental and structural monitoring. Additionally, the shortest path routing technique was chosen because it is employed in several data-centric wireless sensor network algorithms such as Direct Diffusion, Rumor Routing, Gradient-Based Routing and the ZigBee standard. The performance of these three routing strategies is evaluated by providing simulation results based on latency, End to End Delay (EED), packet delivery ratio, routing overhead, overhead and routing load. Source routing only improves shortest path and hierarchical and geographical routing in terms of latency, hierarchical and geographical routing performs the worst because it must send hello packets in order to acquire and transmit location information. However, despite these significant disadvantages, hierarchical and geographical routing remains the routing option most often used in health, military, agriculture, robotic, and environmental and structural monitoring.

OBJETIVO: Com a finalidade de estudar a morfologia da articulação do joelho de coelhos após a reparação de um defeito osteocondral padronizado com fio de sutura polidioxanone, procedeu-se a criação de um defeito osteocondral em côndilo femoral medial do joelho de 80 coelhos, albinos, machos, com idade entre 5 a 8 meses e peso entre 2.600 e 3.000g. MÉTODOS: Os animais foram distribuídos em 2 grupos com seguimentos de 7 e 42 dias e submetidos à técnica A (ressecção e retirada do fragmento osteocondral; recolocação e síntese de fio PDX-00), técnica B (ressecção e retirada do fragmento osteocondral; reposição como enxerto autólogo no joelho contralateral, após rotação de 180º no sentido ântero-posterior; síntese com fio PDX-00) ou técnica C (ressecção e retirada do fragmento osteocondral deixando o defeito padrão vazio, nos joelhos contralaterais aos operados pela técnica A ou B) como controle. RESULTADOS: Fez-se estudo clínico, radiográfico, macroscópico e histológico nos dois grupos mostrando que a recolocação do fragmento ou enxerto autólogo osteocondral facilita a perfeita integração dos fragmentos aos côndilos femorais, sem deslocamento ou necrose cartilaginosa ou óssea; que nos joelhos submetidos a ressecção simples do fragmento com seguimento de 42 dias, não houve formação de cartilagem na superfície articular, havendo predisposição à formação de osteofitos, mostrando relação significante entre a técnica C e a presença de osteofitos. CONCLUSÃO: Concluiu-se que a reconstituição da superfície articular com recolocação do fragmento ou o enxerto autólogo osteocondral fixado com fio de sutura PDX é exeqüível e apresentou melhor resultado do que a ressecção simples do fragmento.

OBJECTIVE: To study the morphology in the rabbit's knee joint after the reparation of a defect in the osteochondral's standardized with suture wire polidioxanone, proceeded a criation of one osteochondral's defect in the medial condyle femoral in 80 rabbit's knees, albinos, males, aged between 5 and 8 months and weight between 2600 and 3000g. METHODS: The animals were distributed into 2 groups with following by 7 and 42 days and submitted to the technique A (resection and withdrawal of osteochondral's fragment in the medial condyle femoral and replacement with suture wire monofilament absorbable polidioxanone - PDX), technique B (resection and withdrawal of osteochondral's fragment in the medial condyle femoral and it is used as a autograft, after 180º rotation, in anteroposterior sense and synthesis in contralateral's knee with monofilament suture wire absorbable polidioxanone - PDX) or technique C (resection and withdrawal of osteochondral's fragment in the medial condyle femoral, leaving the standard defect empty in contralateral's knees in those which they were operated by techniques A or B) as control. RESULTS: They did clinical, radiographic, macroscopic and histological's studies in these 2 groups, showing the replacement of fragment or osteochondral's autograft, which facilities the perfect integration of fragment in the femoral condyle without shift or necrosis cartilaginous or osteal, in which knees were submitted by a simple resection of fragment, with following 42 days, there weren't cartilaginous formation in articular's surface having predispose to the osteophyte's formation, showing a significant relation between technique C and the presence of osteophytes. CONCLUSION: It comes to a conclusion that reconstitution of joint surface with replacement of fragment or osteochondral's graft fixed with suture wire PDX is feasible and it presented better result than a simple resection of the fragment.