Developing an engineering approach for migrating from prescriptive to performance-based specification for concrete

The integral variability of raw materials, lack of awareness and appreciation of the technologies for achieving quality control and lack of appreciation of the micro and macro environmental conditions that the structures will be subjected, makes modern day concreting a challenge. This also makes Designers and Engineers adhere more closely to prescriptive standards developed for relatively less aggressive environments. The data from exposure sites and real structures prove, categorically, that the prescriptive specifications are inadequate for chloride environments. In light of this shortcoming, a more pragmatic approach would be to adopt performance-based specifications which are familiar to industry in the form of specification for mechanical strength. A recently completed RILEM technical committee made significant advances in making such an approach feasible.
Furthering a performance-based specification requires establishment of reliable laboratory and on-site test methods, as well as easy to perform service-life models. This article highlights both laboratory and on-site test methods for chloride diffusivity/electrical resistivity and the relationship between these tests for a range of concretes. Further, a performance-based approach using an on-site diffusivity test is outlined that can provide an easier to apply/adopt practice for Engineers and asset managers for specifying/testing concrete structures.

Propriedades Psicométricas do Teste Stroop numa Amostra de Adultos da População Portuguesa: estudo preliminar

Objetivos: O presente estudo insere-se no Projeto - Estudos Normativos de Instrumentos Neuropsicologicos (ENIN) e tem por objetivo analisar as propriedades psicométricas do Teste Stroop, fornecendo dados normativos de uma amostra da População Portuguesa. Métodos: Selecionámos e inquirimos 671 sujeitos. As variáveis independentes estudadas foram idade, sexo, escolaridade e profissão. Foram utilizados vários testes neste estudo, contribuindo para a obtenção de validade convergente: Bateria de Avaliação Frontal-FAB, Figura Complexa de Rey-Osterrieth e Teste do Relógio. Foram estudadas a consistência interna e a estabilidade temporal do Teste Stroop. Resultados: A nossa amostra ficou constituída por 310 sujeitos (46,2%) do sexo masculino e 361 (53,8%) do sexo feminino, com idades compreendidas entre os 18 e 100 anos (M = 41,12; DP = 20,85). No que se refere ao nível de escolaridade (M = 5,71; DP = 1,45), este variou entre o 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico e o Ensino Superior. As profissões, exercidas inseriram-se maioritariamente na categoria das profissões intelectuais (N = 281; 84,9%). Relativamente às variáveis sociodemográficas, verificámos que a idade, sexo, escolaridade e profissão influenciam nas provas de Leitura e Nomeação de Cor do Teste Stroop. No que diz respeito à validade convergente, observámos que a prova de Nomeação de Cor apresentou correlações positivas fracas com o FAB, Figura Complexa de Rey-Cópia (FCR-Cópia) e Teste do Relógio, e correlações positivas moderadas com a prova de Leitura. A consistência interna do Teste Stroop apresentou uma elevada confiabilidade (α = 0,99). A correlação teste-reteste apenas se mostrou significativa para a prova de Nomeação de Cor. Conclusão: Este estudo mostra que o Teste Stroop é promissoriamente confiável como instrumento de avaliação neuropsicológica, podendo potencialmente ser utilizado para qualquer faixa etária da população. Em estudos futuros são necessárias amostras com números mais elevados de participantes nas faixas etárias acima dos 30 anos, representativas dos níveis de escolaridade abaixo do 9ºano, a exercerem profissões manuais, e com residência noutras regiões geográficas para além do Centro. / Objectives: The present study is part of the Project - Estudos Normativos de Instrumentos Neuropsicologicos (ENIN) and aims to analyze the psychometric properties of the Stroop test. Methods: We have selected, and we also enquired 671 subjects. The independent variables studied were age, gender, education and profession. Several tests were used in this study for analysis of convergent validity: convergent validity: Frontal Assessment Battery-FAB, Complex Figure Rey-Osterrieth and the clock test. We also studied the internal consistency and the temporal stability of the Stroop test. Results: Our sample was composed of 310 subjects (46.2%) male and 361 (53.8%) females, with ages between 18 and 100 years (M = 41.12; SD = 20.85). The level of schooling (M = 5.71; SD = 1.45) ranged between the 1st cycle and the Higher Education. The professions were mainly intellectual ones (N = 281; 84.9%). On sociodemographic variables, we found that the age, sex, education and profession influenced reading and Color naming of Stroop test. Regarding convergent validity, Color naming showed weak positive correlations with the FAB, Complex Figure Rey-Copy, and the clock test. Color naming moderate positive correlations with the reading. The internal consistency of the Stroop test was high (α = 0.99). The test-retest correlation was significant only for Color naming. Conclusion: This study shows that the Stroop test is promissory reliable instrument of neuropsychological assessment and may potentially be used for any age range of the population. In future research, it is necessary to enroll samples with higher numbers of participants above 30 years, representative of the levels of schooling below the 9º grade, with more manual professions represented, and with residence in other geographic regions in addition to the Center region of Portugal.

Manganese toxicity in Portuguese Cambisols derived from granite: causes, limitations of soil analyses and possible solutions

Cambisols are the major soil type in Portugal. The yield of annual crops in these soils is generally poor, and the situation is aggravated in wet winters. In the south of Portugal, manganese toxicity has been identified as the major cause of poor growth and leaching as the main reason for the negative effect of rainfall observed in Cambisols derived from granite Manganese toxicity also appears to be present in the Cambisols in other regions of Portugal. Manganese toxicity is cross-related to the magnesium concentration, either in the soil solution or in plant shoots. Therefore soil amendment using dolomitic limestone is needed to overcome the problem. Current soil test methods are unable to predict the level of Mn toxicity. However, new approach using the extraction of soil solution is proposed, although further work is needed to fully implement the method.

Prática de ensino supervisionada relativo ao ano letivo 2014/2015, realizada na Escola Básica de 2º e 3º ciclos com Ensino Secundário Cunha Rivara

O presente relatório é fruto da Prática de Ensino Supervisionada, realizada no ano letivo 2014/2015 na Escola Básica 2, 3 com Ensino Secundário Cunha Rivara, no âmbito do Mestrado em Ensino do Português no 3.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico e Ensino Secundário e de Espanhol nos Ensinos Básico e Secundário, sob a orientação do Professor Doutor António Ricardo Mira. Esta fase prática do mestrado assume-se como momento charneira na formação de futuros professores, porquanto representa o espaço ideal para aferir e testar métodos e técnicas aplicáveis aos processos de ensino/aprendizagem. Nesse sentido, e partindo do pressuposto de que o aluno deve ser o ator principal ao longo deste processo, este relatório assume uma função descritiva, mas, em simultâneo, outra dimensão, tão ou mais importante, no domínio da reflexão e da interiorização de práticas pedagógico-didáticas e de comportamentos relacionais, assumidos durante este processo. Assim, desenvolve-se em cinco componentes, que se complementam: preparação científica, pedagógica e didática; planificação e condução de aulas e avaliação de aprendizagens; análise da prática de ensino; participação na escola e desenvolvimento profissional; ABSTRACT: This report is the result of Supervised Teaching Practice, held in the school year 2014/2015 at the Basic and Secondary School 2, 3 “Cunha Rivara”, within the Master degree: “Teaching Portuguese in the 3rd cycle of Basic Education and Secondary Education and Spanish in basic and secondary education”, under the guidance of Professor Ricardo Antonio Mira. This practice of master stage is assumed as a key moment in the training of future teachers, because it is the ideal place and moment to measure and test methods and techniques applicable to teaching / learning processes. Accordingly, and assuming that the student must be the main actor throughout this process, this report takes a descriptive function, but at the same time, another dimension, equally important in the field of reflection and practices internalization, pedagogical-didactic and relational behaviors made during this process. Thus it develops into five components, which complement each other: scientific, pedagogical and didactic preparation; planning and conducting classes and learning evaluation; analysis of the teaching practice; participation in school and professional development.

Part 2. MOO methods for multidisciplinary design using parallel evolutionary algorithms, game theory and hierarchical topology. (Part 2.) Numerical aspects and implementation of model test cases

These lecture notes describe the use and implementation of a framework in which mathematical as well as engineering optimisation problems can be analysed. The foundations of the framework and algorithms described -Hierarchical Asynchronous Parallel Evolutionary Algorithms (HAPEAs) - lie upon traditional evolution strategies and incorporate the concepts of a multi-objective optimisation, hierarchical topology, asynchronous evaluation of candidate solutions , parallel computing and game strategies. In a step by step approach, the numerical implementation of EAs and HAPEAs for solving multi criteria optimisation problems is conducted providing the reader with the knowledge to reproduce these hand on training in his – her- academic or industrial environment.

Contrasting high-resolution characteristic shock-capturing methods in aeroacoustic test problems

Two shock-capturing methods are considered. One is based on a standard conservative Roe scheme with van Leer's MUSCL variable extrapolation method applied to characteristic variables and a Runge-Kutta time stepping scheme. The other is based on the novel CABARET space-time scheme, which uses two sets of staggered variables, one for the conservation step and the other for characteristic splitting into local Riemann invariants. The methods are compared in a range of 2-D inviscid compressible flow test cases. Copyright © 2008 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved.

A preliminary study on methods for retaining data quality problems in automatically generated test data

Data in an organisation often contains business secrets that organisations do not want to release. However, there are occasions when it is necessary for an organisation to release its data such as when outsourcing work or using the cloud for Data Quality (DQ) related tasks like data cleansing. Currently, there is no mechanism that allows organisations to release their data for DQ tasks while ensuring that it is suitably protected from releasing business related secrets. The aim of this paper is therefore to present our current progress on determining which methods are able to modify secret data and retain DQ problems. So far we have identified the ways in which data swapping and the SHA-2 hash function alterations methods can be used to preserve missing data, incorrectly formatted values, and domain violations DQ problems while minimising the risk of disclosing secrets. © (2012) by the AIS/ICIS Administrative Office All rights reserved.

New algorithms of the TSM and TOM methods for calibrating microwave test fixtures

Based on the conventional through-short-match (TSM) method, an improved TSM method has been proposed in this Letter. This method gives an analytical solution and has almost all the advantages of conventional TSM methods. For example, it has no phase uncertainty and no bandwidth limitation. The experimental results show that the accuracy can be significantly improved with this method. The proposed theory can be applied to the through-open-match (TOM) method. (C) 2002 Wiley Periodicals. Inc.

Unification of the probe and singular sources methods for the inverse boundary value problem by the no-response test

In this article, we use the no-response test idea, introduced in Luke and Potthast (2003) and Potthast (Preprint) and the inverse obstacle problem, to identify the interface of the discontinuity of the coefficient gamma of the equation del (.) gamma(x)del + c(x) with piecewise regular gamma and bounded function c(x). We use infinitely many Cauchy data as measurement and give a reconstructive method to localize the interface. We will base this multiwave version of the no-response test on two different proofs. The first one contains a pointwise estimate as used by the singular sources method. The second one is built on an energy (or an integral) estimate which is the basis of the probe method. As a conclusion of this, the probe and the singular sources methods are equivalent regarding their convergence and the no-response test can be seen as a unified framework for these methods. As a further contribution, we provide a formula to reconstruct the values of the jump of gamma(x), x is an element of partial derivative D at the boundary. A second consequence of this formula is that the blow-up rate of the indicator functions of the probe and singular sources methods at the interface is given by the order of the singularity of the fundamental solution.

Simultaneous prediction of symptom severity and cause in data from a test battery for Parkinson patients, using machine learning methods

The main purpose of this thesis project is to prediction of symptom severity and cause in data from test battery of the Parkinson’s disease patient, which is based on data mining. The collection of the data is from test battery on a hand in computer. We use the Chi-Square method and check which variables are important and which are not important. Then we apply different data mining techniques on our normalize data and check which technique or method gives good results.The implementation of this thesis is in WEKA. We normalize our data and then apply different methods on this data. The methods which we used are Naïve Bayes, CART and KNN. We draw the Bland Altman and Spearman’s Correlation for checking the final results and prediction of data. The Bland Altman tells how the percentage of our confident level in this data is correct and Spearman’s Correlation tells us our relationship is strong. On the basis of results and analysis we see all three methods give nearly same results. But if we see our CART (J48 Decision Tree) it gives good result of under predicted and over predicted values that’s lies between -2 to +2. The correlation between the Actual and Predicted values is 0,794in CART. Cause gives the better percentage classification result then disability because it can use two classes.

A comparison of two agar gel immunodiffusion methods and a complement fixation test for serologic diagnosis of Brucella ovis infection in experimentally infected rams

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Coastal flood vulnerability assessment with geomatic methods: Test sites of western Thailand, Sydney (Australia) and aeolian islands (south tyrrhenian sea, Italy)

The work undertaken in this PhD thesis is aimed at the development and testing of an innovative methodology for the assessment of the vulnerability of coastal areas to marine catastrophic inundation (tsunami). Different approaches are used at different spatial scales and are applied to three different study areas: 1. The entire western coast of Thailand 2. Two selected coastal suburbs of Sydney – Australia 3. The Aeolian Islands, in the South Tyrrhenian Sea – Italy I have discussed each of these cases study in at least one scientific paper: one paper about the Thailand case study (Dall’Osso et al., in review-b), three papers about the Sydney applications (Dall’Osso et al., 2009a; Dall’Osso et al., 2009b; Dall’Osso and Dominey-Howes, in review) and one last paper about the work at the Aeolian Islands (Dall’Osso et al., in review-a). These publications represent the core of the present PhD thesis. The main topics dealt with are outlined and discussed in a general introduction while the overall conclusions are outlined in the last section.