PROMETHEE-SAPEVO-M1 a Hybrid Approach Based on Ordinal and Cardinal Inputs: Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Helicopters to Support Brazilian Navy Operations

This paper presents a new approach based on Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), named PROMETHEE-SAPEVO-M1, through its implementation and feasibility related to the decision-making process regarding the evaluation of helicopters of attack of the Brazilian Navy. The proposed methodology aims to present an integration of ordinal evaluation into the cardinal procedure from the PROMETHEE method, enabling to perform qualitative and quantitative data and generate the criteria weights by pairwise evaluation, transparently. The modeling provides three models of preference analysis, as partial, complete, and outranking by intervals, along with an intra-criterion analysis by veto threshold, enabling the analysis of the performance of an alternative in a specific criterion. As a demonstration of the application, is carried out a case study by the PROMETHEE-SAPEVO-M1 web platform, addressing a strategic analysis of attack helicopters to be acquired by the Brazilian Navy, from the need to be evaluating multiple specifications with different levels of importance within the context problem. The modeling implementation in the case study is made in detail, first performing the alternatives in each criterion and then presenting the results by three different models of preference analysis, along with the intra-criterion analysis and a rank reversal procedure. Moreover, is realized a comparison analysis to the PROMETHEE method, exploring the main features of the PROMETHEE-SAPEVO-M1. Moreover, a section of discussion is presented, exposing some features and main points of the proposal. Therefore, this paper provides a valuable contribution to academia and society since it represents the application of an MCDA method in the state of the art, contributing to the decision-making resolution of the most diverse real problems.

Impaired differential learning of fear versus safety signs in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Pavlovian learning mechanisms are of great importance both for models of psychiatric disorders and treatment approaches, but understudied in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Using an established Pavlovian fear conditioning and reversal procedure, we studied skin conductance responses (SCRs) in 41 patients with OCD and in 32 matched healthy control participants. Within both groups, fear acquisition and reversal effects were evident. When comparing groups, patients showed impaired differential learning of threatening and safe stimuli, consistent with previous research. In contrast to prior findings, differential learning impairments were restricted to fear acquisition, and not observed in the reversal stage of the experiment. As previous and present fear reversal experiments in OCD differed in the use of color coding to facilitate stimulus discrimination, the studies converge to suggest that differential learning of threatening versus safe stimuli is impaired in OCD, but manifests itself differently depending on the difficulty of the association to be learned. When supported by the addition of color, patients with OCD previously appeared to acquire an association early but failed to reverse it according to changed contingencies. In absence of such color coding of stimuli, our data suggest that patients with OCD already show differential learning impairments during fear acquisition, which may relate to findings of altered coping with uncertainty previously observed in OCD. Impaired differential learning of threatening versus safe stimuli should be studied further in OCD, in order to determine whether impairments in differential learning predict CBT treatment outcomes in patients, and whether they are etiologically relevant for OCD.

Electrochemical production of active chlorine using platinised platinum electrodes

This paper presents the results obtained during the electrogeneration of active chlorine species. Active chlorine species were generated through the electrolysis of sodium chloride solutions in an undivided cell, employing two platinised platinum electrodes and a polarity reversal procedure. The electrolytic process was conducted at four current densities (0.05, 0.10, 0.30 and 0.50 A/cm2) and three concentrations (0.1, 0.5 and1 mole/L) the polarity reversal period being of 5 min. The brine flow rate was kept constant, namely 1.68 L/h. The results showed a maximum active chlorine concentrations for an initial brine concentration of 0.5 mole/L. The overall concentration of dissolved chlorine in water was quantified as active chlorine, defined as the sum of the three possible species (Cl2, HClO and ClO-).

Analysis of Octree Coding for 3D Point Cloud Frame

The octree coding has been used extensively for 3D point cloud compression. For encoding, the recursive octree partition is used for the 3D point cloud frame until only one point is contained in the cube bin, and the representative bits are recorded. For decoding, the reversal procedure is performed to reconstruct the 3D point cloud frame. During the reconstruction, the reconstructed point in a particular bin is usually quantized to a particular corner of the bin for the reconstructed 3D point cloud frame; this introduces coding distortion in the point location. In this paper, nine reconstructed locations are tested to distinguish their distortion results, and the bit cost is also analyzed.

EXPERIENCE OBTAINED IMPROVES RESULTS OF LAPAROSCOPIC END STOMA CLOSURE

Comparative analysis of laparoscopic reversal procedure after Hartamn's operations on the left half of the colon from 46 patients completed by the single surgeon for 3 year period. The study confirmed that growing number of procedures allowed to expand indications for laparoscopic approach for restoring the continuity of the large intestine. It also decrease the time of intervention, reduces dimensions of operating wounds, blood loss and rate of intra-abdominal complications.

Loschmidt echo in many-spin systems: contrasting time scales of local and global measurements

A local excitation in a quantum many-spin system evolves deterministically. A time-reversal procedure, involving the inversion of the signs of every energy and interaction, should produce the excitation revival. This idea, experimentally coined in nuclear magnetic resonance, embodies the concept of the Loschmidt echo (LE). While such an implementation involves a single spin autocorrelation M 1,1 , i.e. a local LE, theoretical efforts have focused on the study of the recovery probability of a complete many-body state, referred to here as global or many-body LE M MB . Here, we analyse the relation between these magnitudes, with regard to their characteristic time scales and their dependence on the number of spins N . We show that the global LE can be understood, to some extent, as the simultaneous occurrence of N independent local LEs, i.e. M MB ∼( M 1,1 ) N /4 . This extensive hypothesis is exact for very short times and confirmed numerically beyond such a regime. Furthermore, we discuss a general picture of the decay of M 1,1 as a consequence of the interplay between the time scale that characterizes the reversible interactions ( T 2 ) and that of the perturbation ( τ Σ ). Our analysis suggests that the short-time decay, characterized by the time scale τ Σ , is greatly enhanced by the complex processes that occur beyond T 2 . This would ultimately lead to the experimentally observed T 3 , which was found to be roughly independent of τ Σ but closely tied to T 2 .

Loschmidt echo and time reversal in complex systems

Echoes are ubiquitous phenomena in several branches of physics, ranging from acoustics, optics, condensed matter and cold atoms to geophysics. They are at the base of a number of very useful experimental techniques, such as nuclear magnetic resonance, photon echo and time-reversal mirrors. Particularly interesting physical effects are obtained when the echo studies are performed on complex systems, either classically chaotic, disordered or many-body. Consequently, the term Loschmidt echo has been coined to designate and quantify the revival occurring when an imperfect time-reversal procedure is applied to a complex quantum system, or equivalently to characterize the stability of quantum evolution in the presence of perturbations. Here, we present the articles which discuss the work that has shaped the field in the past few years.