Structure and Challenges of a Security Policy on Small and Medium Enterprises

( Fernando Almeida ),( Ines Carvalho ),( Fabio Cruz ) 한국인터넷정보학회 2018 KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Syst Vol.12 No.2

Information Technology (IT) plays an increasingly important role for small and medium-sized enterprises. It has become fundamental for these companies to protect information and IT assets in relation to risks and threats that have grown in recent years. This study aims to understand the importance and structure of an information security policy, using a quantitative study that intends to identify the most important and least relevant elements of an information security policy document. The findings of this study reveal that the top three most important elements in the structure of a security policy are the asset management, security risk management and define the scope of the policy. On the other side, the three least relevant elements include the executive summary, contacts and manual inspection. Additionally, the study reveals that the importance given to each element of the security policy is slightly changed according to the sectors of activity. The elements that show the greatest variability are the review process, executive summary and penalties. On the other side, the purpose of the policy and the asset management present a stable importance for all sectors of activity.

Fertirrigation for Vegetables Grown in Greenhouses

Fernando Ferrari Putti,Camila Pires Cremasco,Luís Roberto Almeida Gabriel Filho,André Rodrigues do Reis 한국농업기계학회 2014 바이오시스템공학 Vol.39 No.4

Purpose: Concerns over the quantity of available freshwater for agriculture have triggered the development of technologiesintended to increase efficiency of water use, especially with regard to irrigation. A new technique called fertirrigation hasbeen developed to use the same irrigation equipment for fertilization. Methods: Since the above-mentioned techniquerequires care during installation and use on farms, current analysis focuses on some of its characteristics. Results: Highuniformity irrigation systems provide the best distribution of fertilizers, especially when used in combination with dripirrigation or micro-aspersion. The factors purity, compatibility, acidification, salinity, and solubility should be taken intoaccount. Conclusions: Fertirrigation provides a significant increase in productivity as it allows for highly controlled nutrientapplication during the entire growing season. However, it may cause serious problems if misused or overused.

Fertirrigation for Vegetables Grown in Greenhouses

Putti, Fernando Ferrari,Cremasco, Camila Pires,Filho, Luis Roberto Almeida Gabriel,Reis, Andre Rodrigues Do Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery 2014 바이오시스템공학 Vol.39 No.4

Purpose: Concerns over the quantity of available freshwater for agriculture have triggered the development of technologies intended to increase efficiency of water use, especially with regard to irrigation. A new technique called fertirrigation has been developed to use the same irrigation equipment for fertilization. Methods: Since the above-mentioned technique requires care during installation and use on farms, current analysis focuses on some of its characteristics. Results: High uniformity irrigation systems provide the best distribution of fertilizers, especially when used in combination with drip irrigation or micro-aspersion. The factors purity, compatibility, acidification, salinity, and solubility should be taken into account. Conclusions: Fertirrigation provides a significant increase in productivity as it allows for highly controlled nutrient application during the entire growing season. However, it may cause serious problems if misused or overused.

Control and Reorganization of Heterogeneous Vehicle Platoons after Vehicle Exits and Entrances

Daniel Almeida Godinho,Armando Alves Neto,Leonardo Amaral Mozelli,Fernando de Oliveira Souza 제어·로봇·시스템학회 2022 International Journal of Control, Automation, and Vol.20 No.8

Platoons are efficient solutions to improve road transportation, traffic throughput, and other demands. But problems such as environmental disturbances, network imperfections, and unaware surrounding vehicles increase the necessity for resilient methods that ensure stability and connectivity among the platoon members. Hence, in this paper, we study the problem of decentralized control for platoons of heterogeneous vehicles under a limited communication range with a constant spacing policy. The goals are to guarantee inter-vehicle distances in steady-state, and resourcefulness to overcome entrances and exits of vehicles. Our main result is a resilient strategy, composed of a reconfiguration protocol and some simple rules for tuning the control law, based on local information about the relative connectivity to neighbors. It guarantees, in a decentralized manner, the automatic reorganization of the platoon under the entry and exit of agents. We conclude by illustrating our approach with simulated experiments on platoons with different numbers of vehicles, and by comparing it with the current state-of-the-art.

Revision of Infected Total Knee Arthroplasty: Two-Stage Reimplantation Using an Antibiotic-Impregnated Static Spacer

Antonio Silvestre,Fernando Almeida,Pablo Renovell,Elena Morante,Raúl López 대한정형외과학회 2013 Clinics in Orthopedic Surgery Vol.5 No.3

Background: A two-stage revision remains as the “gold standard” treatment for chronically infected total knee arthroplasties. Methods: Forty-five septic knee prostheses were revised with a minimum follow-up of 5 years. Static antibiotic-impregnated cement spacers were used in all cases. Intravenous antibiotics according to sensitivity test of the culture were applied during patients' hospital stay. Oral antibiotics were given for another 5 weeks. Second-stage surgery was undertaken after control of infection with normal erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein values. Extensile techniques were used if needed and metallic augments were employed for bone loss in 32 femoral and 29 tibial revisions. Results: The average interval between the first-stage resection and reimplantation was 4.4 months. Significant improvement was obtained with respect to visual analog scale pain and clinical and functional scores, and infection was eradicated in 95.6% of cases following a two-stage revision total knee arthroplasty. Radiographic evaluation showed suitable alignment without signs of mechanical loosening. Conclusions: This technique is a reasonable procedure to eradicate chronic infection in knee arthroplasty and provides proper functional and clinical results. However, it sometimes requires extensile surgical approaches that could imply arduous surgeries. Metallic augments with cementless stems available in most of the knee revision systems are a suitable alternative to handle bone deficiencies, avoiding the use of bone allografts with its complications.

Knowledge of Diabetes Mellitus: Does Gender Make a Difference?

Patrı´cio Fernando Lemes dos Santos,Poliana Rodrigues dos Santos,Graziele Souza Lira Ferrari,Gisele Almeida Amaral Fonseca,Carlos Kusano Bucalen Ferrari 질병관리본부 2014 Osong Public Health and Research Persptectives Vol.5 No.4

Objective: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic disease considered an important public health problem. In recent years, its prevalence has been exponentially rising in many developing countries. Chronic complications of DM are important causes of morbidity and mortality among patients, which impair their health and quality of life. Knowledge on disease prevention, etiology, and management is essential to deal with parents, patients, and caregivers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge regarding DM in an adult population from a Middle-western Brazilian city. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study covering 178 adults, aged 18-64 years, who answered a diabetes knowledge questionnaire. In order to identify the difference between groups, analysis of variance was used. Results: Higher knowledge scores were found regarding the role of sugars on DM causality, diabetic foot care, and the effects of DM on patients (blindness, impaired wound healing, and male sexual dysfunction). However, lower scores were found amongst types of DM, hyperglycemic symptoms, and normal blood glucose levels. Females tended to achieve better knowledge scores than males. Conclusion: Women had better knowledge regarding types of DM, normal blood glucose values, and consequences of hyperglycemia revealed that diabetes education should be improved.

Effect of Subchronic Selenium Treatment in the Liver of BALB/C Mice with Transplantable Ehrlich Tumor

Jose´ Francisco Ramos dos Santos,Tania Passeti,Giuliana Petri,Adriana Helena de Almeida,Glaucia Luciano da Veiga,Juliana Veridiano,Bruno Bertassoli,Fernando Luiz Affonso Fonseca,Beatriz da Costa Aguia 한국식품영양과학회 2022 Journal of medicinal food Vol.25 No.11

Selenium has an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and possibly antitumoral action. Thus, we hypothesized that this element could be an ally in cancer treatment. We evaluated the effect of chelated selenium treatment of BALB/c mice with Erhlich Tumor on tumor size, histology, and biochemical parameters of the liver. A total of 96 male mice were treated for 7, 15, and 30 days with different doses of chelated selenium. During the 7 days of treatment, livers presented mild hydropic degeneration; after 15 days, the livers presented mild hydropic degeneration, inflammatory infiltrate, and steatosis, which was intensified in the animals treated for 30 days. Biochemical analysis showed an increase of the alanine transaminase enzyme in those animals, indicating hepatotoxicity. At the beginning of treatment, selenium was able to inhibit tumor growth. After 30 days of treatment, however, hepatotoxicity could be seen.

Safety Assessment of Oil from Pequi (Caryocar brasiliense Camb.): Evaluation of the Potential Genotoxic and Clastogenic Effects

Giseli Karenina Traesel,Flavio Henrique Souza de Araujo,Luis Henrique Almeida Castro,Fernando Freitas de Lima,Sara Emilia Lima Tolouei Menegati,Priscilla Narciso Justi,Candida Aparecida Leite Kassuya 한국식품영양과학회 2017 Journal of medicinal food Vol.20 No.8

Genotoxic data of medicinal plants and functional foods are required as part of the risk assessment by international regulatory agencies. Due to its food consumption and ethnopharmacological relevance, pequi oil (Caryocar brasiliense Camb.) is one of these compounds to be studied. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cytotoxic, genotoxic, and clastogenic effects of the oil from the pulp of C. brasiliense (OPCB) in vivo and in vitro. Initially, the Artemia salina in vitro assay was conducted to determine the cells viability rate of different doses of the OPCB. Subsequently, comet assay (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD 489) and micronucleus test (OECD 474) were performed in blood and bone marrow of Wistar rats treated orally with a 125, 250, 500, or 1000 mg/kg/bw of the OPCB for 4 weeks. The chemical analysis indicated the presence of β-carotene and lycopene in the oil. In the A. salina test, all OPCB doses maintained cell viability rates statistically similar to the negative control. The in vivo tests performed showed that OPCB did not show significant genotoxic or clastogenic effects in cells analyzed with the four doses tested. Altogether, these results indicate that, under our experimental conditions, C. brasiliense fruit oil did not reveal genetic toxicity in rat cells.

Clustering Wear Particle Using Computer Vision and Self-Organizing Maps

Marcos Alessandro C. Ramos,Bruno Cesar C. Leme,Luis Fernando de Almeida,Francisco Carlos P. Bizarria,Walter P. Bizarria 제어로봇시스템학회 2017 제어로봇시스템학회 국제학술대회 논문집 Vol.2017 No.10

This work presents the implementation of a method for classification of wear particle contaminant present in industrial oil by using image processing and neural networks. It is based on morphological data obtained from a computer vision system and employs Self-Organizing Maps to classify particles’ features intro different wear debris groups. The dataset used for training the neural network and further validation of the results was gathered using reports provided by a specialist company in wear particle analysis. The objective is to develop a system feasible for most industries to turn the process of particle classification more autonomous and faster. The results demonstrate that our proposed system could classify particles considering their shape in a reliable and autonomous way.

The conserved and divergent roles of carbonic anhydrases in the filamentous fungi <i>Aspergillus fumigatus</i> and <i>Aspergillus nidulans</i>

Han, Kap-Hoon,Chun, Yoon-Hee,de Castro Pimentel Figueiredo, Bá,rbara,Soriani, Frederico Marianetti,Savoldi, Marcela,Almeida, Agostinho,Rodrigues, Fernando,Cairns, Charlie Timothy,Bignell, Elaine Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2010 Molecular microbiology Vol.75 No.6

<P>Summary</P><P>Carbon dioxide (CO<SUB>2</SUB>) and its hydration product bicarbonate (HCO<SUB>3</SUB><SUP>-</SUP>) are essential molecules in various physiological processes of all living organisms. The reversible interconversion between CO<SUB>2</SUB> and HCO<SUB>3</SUB><SUP>-</SUP> is in equilibrium. This reaction is slow without catalyst, but can be rapidly facilitated by Zn<SUP>2+</SUP>-metalloenzymes named carbonic anhydrases (CAs). To gain an insight into the function of multiple clades of fungal CA, we chose to investigate the filamentous fungi <I>Aspergillus fumigatus</I> and <I>A. nidulans</I>. We identified four and two CAs in <I>A. fumigatus</I> and <I>A. nidulans</I>, respectively, named <I>cafA-D</I> and <I>canA-B</I>. The <I>cafA</I> and <I>cafB</I> genes are constitutively, strongly expressed whereas <I>cafC</I> and <I>cafD</I> genes are weakly expressed but CO<SUB>2</SUB>-inducible. Heterologous expression of the <I>A. fumigatus cafB</I>, and <I>A. nidulans canA</I> and <I>canB</I> genes completely rescued the high CO<SUB>2</SUB>-requiring phenotype of a <I>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</I>&Dgr;<I>nce103</I> mutant. Only the &Dgr;<I>cafA</I>&Dgr;<I>cafB</I> and &Dgr;<I>canB</I> deletion mutants were unable to grow at 0.033% CO<SUB>2</SUB>, of which growth defects can be restored by high CO<SUB>2</SUB>. Defects in the CAs can affect <I>Aspergilli</I> conidiation. Furthermore, <I>A. fumigatus</I>&Dgr;<I>cafA</I>, &Dgr;<I>cafB</I>, &Dgr;<I>cafC</I>, &Dgr;<I>cafD</I> and &Dgr;<I>cafA</I>&Dgr;<I>cafB</I> mutant strains are fully virulent in a low-dose murine infection.</P>