Comparing the Teaching-Learning Process With and Without the Use of Computerized Technological Resources

Computerized technological resources have become essential in education, particularly for teaching topics that require the performance of specific tasks. These resources can effectively help the execution of such tasks and the teaching-learning process itself. After the development of a Web site on the topic of nursing staff scheduling, this study aimed at comparing the development of students involved in the teaching-learning process of the previously mentioned topic, with and without the use of computer technology. Two random groups of undergraduate nursing students from a public university in São Paulo state, Brazil, were organized: a case group (used the Web site) and a control group (did not use the Web site). Data were collected from 2003 to 2005 after approval by the Research Ethics Committee. Results showed no significant difference in motivation or knowledge acquisition. A similar performance for the two groups was also verified. Other aspects observed were difficulty in doing the nursing staff scheduling exercise and the students' acknowledgment of the topic's importance for their training and professional lives; easy access was considered to be a positive aspect for maintaining the Web site.

Determinação da distribuição de um nível de turbidito na formação Macaé no campo de Namorado através de uso de atributos sísmicos

This study was developed on the basis of petrophysics characterization, 3D seismic interpretation, and rock-wire-log integration. The results were integrated with amplitude attribute through cross plot (rock attribute x amplitude value). 3D seismic data also allowed inteipreting the top of Lagoa Feia, Macaé, and Carapebus formations, and Outeiro Member. The analyses of the maps of structures and attributes, integrated with wire-log data, suggest that Namorado turbidite level is candidate to be mapped with stratigraphic attributes like AverageTroughAmplitude, RMS velocity and Total AbsoluteAmplitude. Lagoa Feia Formation attribute maps (Dip-Azimuth and TotalEnergy) allows to interpret a low fault density at the carbonate coquina level in the Namorado field. This level is also considered one at the best seismic reflector and an important reservoir of the Campos Basin.

Sucessão sedimentar do Grupo Bauru na região de Pirapozinho (SP)

There is yet enthusiastic debate in the literature about the environmental conditions that originated the Cretaceous deposits of the Bauru Group, despite many authors accept that arid climatic conditions widely dominant at the base, evolved to chiefly fluvial-lacustrine conditions at the intermediate portion, and to arid conditions again at the top of the unit. The Bauru Group covers an area of about 117.000 km 2 of the Paraná Basin in São Paulo State territory. Core samples of this lithostratigraphic unit collected from a drill hole at Pirapozinho (Southwest of the São Paulo State) are described and together with well log data brought new information that do not agree with the described model. It was identified in this well the Caiuá, Pirapozinho, Santo Anastácio, Araçatuba and Adamantina formations. The study of these core samples clearly showed the dominance of hydrodynamic sedimentary structures and high to medium intensity of bioturbation in whole profile. These characteristics observed in core samples and compared to patterns of geophysical logs testify the dominance of fluvial processes in the Bauru Group deposition at the studied area. These new data suggests that the paleo-environmental evolution of the unit was much more complex, showing strong lateral and vertical changes that diverges from the model more widely accepted in the literature.

A Generalized Log-Normal Model for Grouped Survival Data

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Interactive Correlation Environment (ICE) - A Statistical Web Tool for Data Collinearity Analysis

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

A framework for monitoring and runtime recovery of web service-based applications

Service provisioning is a challenging research area for the design and implementation of autonomic service-oriented software systems. It includes automated QoS management for such systems and their applications. Monitoring, Diagnosis and Repair are three key features of QoS management. This work presents a self-healing Web service-based framework that manages QoS degradation at runtime. Our approach is based on proxies. Proxies act on meta-level communications and extend the HTTP envelope of the exchanged messages with QoS-related parameter values. QoS Data are filtered over time and analysed using statistical functions and the Hidden Markov Model. Detected QoS degradations are handled with proxies. We experienced our framework using an orchestrated electronic shop application (FoodShop).

Choosing between Cox proportional hazards and logistic models for interval-censored data via bootstrap

This work develops a new methodology in order to discriminate models for interval-censored data based on bootstrap residual simulation by observing the deviance difference from one model in relation to another, according to Hinde (1992). Generally, this sort of data can generate a large number of tied observations and, in this case, survival time can be regarded as discrete. Therefore, the Cox proportional hazards model for grouped data (Prentice & Gloeckler, 1978) and the logistic model (Lawless, 1982) can befitted by means of generalized linear models. Whitehead (1989) considered censoring to be an indicative variable with a binomial distribution and fitted the Cox proportional hazards model using complementary log-log as a link function. In addition, a logistic model can be fitted using logit as a link function. The proposed methodology arises as an alternative to the score tests developed by Colosimo et al. (2000), where such models can be obtained for discrete binary data as particular cases from the Aranda-Ordaz distribution asymmetric family. These tests are thus developed with a basis on link functions to generate such a fit. The example that motivates this study was the dataset from an experiment carried out on a flax cultivar planted on four substrata susceptible to the pathogen Fusarium oxysoprum. The response variable, which is the time until blighting, was observed in intervals during 52 days. The results were compared with the model fit and the AIC values.

Can seasonal differences influence food web structure on preserved habitats? Responses from two Brazilian streams

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Influence of Prey Size on the Capture of Social Wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) by the Orb-Web Spider Nephilengys cruentata

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Towards Interoperability in P2P World: an Indexing Middleware for Multi-Protocol Peer-to-Peer Data Sharing

Despite the abundant availability,of protocols and application for peer-to-peer file sharing, several drawbacks are still present in the field. Among most notable drawbacks is the lack of a simple and interoperable way to share information among independent peer-to-peer networks. Another drawback is the requirement that the shared content can be accessed only by a limited number of compatible applications, making impossible their access to others applications and system. In this work we present a new approach for peer-to-peer data indexing, focused on organization and retrieval of metadata which describes the shared content. This approach results in a common and interoperable infrastructure, which provides a transparent access to data shared on multiple data sharing networks via a simple API. The proposed approach is evaluated using a case study, implemented as a cross-platform extension to Mozilla Fir fox browser; and demonstrates the advantages of such interoperability over conventional distributed data access strategies.

Towards interoperability in P2Pworld: An indexing middleware for multi-protocol peer-to-peer data sharing

Despite the abundant availability of protocols and application for peer-to-peer file sharing, several drawbacks are still present in the field. Among most notable drawbacks is the lack of a simple and interoperable way to share information among independent peer-to-peer networks. Another drawback is the requirement that the shared content can be accessed only by a limited number of compatible applications, making impossible their access to others applications and system. In this work we present a new approach for peer-to-peer data indexing, focused on organization and retrieval of metadata which describes the shared content. This approach results in a common and interoperable infrastructure, which provides a transparent access to data shared on multiple data sharing networks via a simple API. The proposed approach is evaluated using a case study, implemented as a cross-platform extension to Mozilla Firefox browser, and demonstrates the advantages of such interoperability over conventional distributed data access strategies. © 2009 IEEE.

A multi-agent architecture for intelligent data analysis

The present study introduces a multi-agent architecture designed for doing automation process of data integration and intelligent data analysis. Different from other approaches the multi-agent architecture was designed using a multi-agent based methodology. Tropos, an agent based methodology was used for design. Based on the proposed architecture, we describe a Web based application where the agents are responsible to analyse petroleum well drilling data to identify possible abnormalities occurrence. The intelligent data analysis methods used was the Neural Network.

A model for analysing data portal performance: The biodiversity case

Currently, many museums, botanic gardens and herbariums keep data of biological collections and using computational tools researchers digitalize and provide access to their data using data portals. The replication of databases in portals can be accomplished through the use of protocols and data schema. However, the implementation of this solution demands a large amount of time, concerning both the transfer of fragments of data and processing data within the portal. With the growth of data digitalization in institutions, this scenario tends to be increasingly exacerbated, making it hard to maintain the records updated on the portals. As an original contribution, this research proposes analysing the data replication process to evaluate the performance of portals. The Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN) biodiversity data portal of pollinators was used as a study case, which supports both situations: conventional data replication of records of specimen occurrences and interactions between them. With the results of this research, it is possible to simulate a situation before its implementation, thus predicting the performance of replication operations. Additionally, these results may contribute to future improvements to this process, in order to decrease the time required to make the data available in portals. © Rinton Press.

Sistema WEB para gerenciamento de informações agrícolas

Pós-graduação em Agronomia (Energia na Agricultura) - FCA

Recursos tecno-metodológicos para descrição e recuperação de informações na Web

Pós-graduação em Ciência da Informação - FFC