Planejamento e zoneamento ambiental da bacia hidrográfica do manancial Balneário da Amizade nos municípios de Álvares Machado e Presidente Prudente - São Paulo/Brasil

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

Relações pedagógicas socialmente compartilhadas entre bolsista de iniciação à docência pibid pedagogia e professora colaboradora: elementos formadores da atuação docente nos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Quality Metric to Assess Video Streaming Service over TCP considering Temporal Location of Pauses

There is a wide range of video services over complex transmission networks, and in some cases end users fail to receive an acceptable quality level. In this paper, the different factors that degrade users' quality of experience (QoE) in video streaming service that use TCP as transmission protocol are studied. In this specific service, impairment factors are: number of pauses, their duration and temporal location. In order to measure the effect that each temporal segment has in the overall video quality, subjective tests. Because current subjective test methodologies are not adequate to assess video streaming over TCP, some recommendations are provided here. At the application layer, a customized player is used to evaluate the behavior of player buffer, and consequently, the end user QoE. Video subjective test results demonstrate that there is a close correlation between application parameters and subjective scores. Based on this fact, a new metrics named VsQM is defined, which considers the importance of temporal location of pauses to assess the user QoE of video streaming service. A useful application scenario is also presented, in which the metrics proposed herein is used to improve video services(1).

Ontology for Data Representation in the Production of Cotton Fiber in Brazil

An important feature in computer systems developed for the agricultural sector is to satisfy the heterogeneity of data generated in different processes. Most problems related with this heterogeneity arise from the lack of standard for different computing solutions proposed. An efficient solution for that is to create a single standard for data exchange. The study on the actual process involved in cotton production was based on a research developed by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) that reports all phases as a result of the compilation of several theoretical and practical researches related to cotton crop. The proposition of a standard starts with the identification of the most important classes of data involved in the process, and includes an ontology that is the systematization of concepts related to the production of cotton fiber and results in a set of classes, relations, functions and instances. The results are used as a reference for the development of computational tools, transforming implicit knowledge into applications that support the knowledge described. This research is based on data from the Midwest of Brazil. The choice of the cotton process as a study case comes from the fact that Brazil is one of the major players and there are several improvements required for system integration in this segment.

Evolution of signal form

Visual signals, used for communication both within and between species, vary immensely in the forms that they take. How is it that all this splendour has evolved in nature? Since it is the receiver’s preferences that cause selective pressures on signals, elucidating the mechanism behind the response of the signal receiver is vital to gain a closer understanding of the evolutionary process. In my thesis I have therefore investigated how receivers, represented by chickens, Gallus gallus domesticus, respond to different stimuli displayed on a peck-sensitive computer screen. According to the receiver bias hypothesis, animals and humans often express biases when responding to certain stimuli. These biases develop as by-products of how the recognition mechanism categorises and discriminates between stimuli. Since biases are generated from general stimulus processing mechanisms, they occur irrespective of species and type of signal, and it is often possible to predict the direction and intensity of the biases. One of the results from the experiments in my thesis demonstrates that similar experience in different species may generate similar biases. By giving chickens at least some of the experience of human faces as humans presumably have, the chickens subsequently expressed preferences for the same faces as a group of human subjects. Another kind of experience generated a bias for symmetry. This bias developed in the context of training chickens to recognise two mirror images of an asymmetrical stimulus. Untrained chickens and chickens trained on only one of the mirror images expressed no symmetry preferences. The bias produced by the training regime was for a specific symmetrical stimulus which had a strong resemblance to the familiar asymmetrical exemplar, rather than a general preference for symmetry. A further kind of experience, training chickens to respond to some stimuli but not to others, generated a receiver bias for exaggerated stimuli, whereas chickens trained on reversed stimuli developed a bias for less exaggerated stimuli. To investigate the potential of this bias to drive the evolution of signals towards exaggerated forms, a simplified evolutionary process was mimicked. The stimuli variants rejected by the chickens were eliminated, whereas the selected forms were kept and evolved prior to the subsequent display. As a result, signals evolved into exaggerated forms in all tested stimulus dimensions: length, intensity and area, despite the inclusion of a cost to the sender for using increasingly exaggerated signals. The bias was especially strong and persistent for stimuli varying along the intensity dimension where it remained despite extensive training. All the results in my thesis may be predicted by the receiver bias hypothesis. This implies that biases, developed due to stimuli experience, may be significant mechanisms driving the evolution of signal form.

Making Research Relevant to Development - Experience from the NCCR North-South

Making research relevant to development is a complex, non-linear and often unpredictable process which requires very particular skills and strategies on the part of researchers. The National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North-South provides financial and technical support for researchers so that they can effectively cooperate with policy-makers and practitioners. An analysis of 10 years of experience translating research into development practise in the NCCR North-South revealed the following four strategies as particularly relevant: a) research orientation towards the needs and interests of partners; b) implementation of promising methods and approaches; c) communication and dissemination of research results; and d) careful analysis of the political context through monitoring and learning approaches. The NCCR North-South experience shows that “doing excellent research” is just one piece of the mosaic. It is equally important to join hands with non-academic partners from the very beginning of a research project, in order to develop and test new pathways for sustainable development. Capacity building – in the North and South – enables researchers to do both: To do excellent research and to make it relevant for development.

Webinar Training: an acceptable, feasible and effective approach for multi-site medical record abstraction: the BOWII experience

Background Abstractor training is a key element in creating valid and reliable data collection procedures. The choice between in-person vs. remote or simultaneous vs. sequential abstractor training has considerable consequences for time and resource utilization. We conducted a web-based (webinar) abstractor training session to standardize training across six individual Cancer Research Network (CRN) sites for a study of breast cancer treatment effects in older women (BOWII). The goals of this manuscript are to describe the training session, its participants and participants' evaluation of webinar technology for abstraction training. Findings A webinar was held for all six sites with the primary purpose of simultaneously training staff and ensuring consistent abstraction across sites. The training session involved sequential review of over 600 data elements outlined in the coding manual in conjunction with the display of data entry fields in the study's electronic data collection system. Post-training evaluation was conducted via Survey Monkey©. Inter-rater reliability measures for abstractors within each site were conducted three months after the commencement of data collection. Ten of the 16 people who participated in the training completed the online survey. Almost all (90%) of the 10 trainees had previous medical record abstraction experience and nearly two-thirds reported over 10 years of experience. Half of the respondents had previously participated in a webinar, among which three had participated in a webinar for training purposes. All rated the knowledge and information delivered through the webinar as useful and reported it adequately prepared them for data collection. Moreover, all participants would recommend this platform for multi-site abstraction training. Consistent with participant-reported training effectiveness, results of data collection inter-rater agreement within sites ranged from 89 to 98%, with a weighted average of 95% agreement across sites. Conclusions Conducting training via web-based technology was an acceptable and effective approach to standardizing medical record review across multiple sites for this group of experienced abstractors. Given the substantial time and cost savings achieved with the webinar, coupled with participants' positive evaluation of the training session, researchers should consider this instructional method as part of training efforts to ensure high quality data collection in multi-site studies.

[Needs and expectations of Tamil women attending an antenatal care department at a Swiss university hospital]

It has been noted that immigrant women often initiate prenatal care late in their pregnancy and thus may be inadequately prepared for their birth experience. This leads to poorer maternal outcomes and higher morbidity statistics compared to Swiss women. Tamil women of Sri Lanka represent the largest group of immigrant women being seen at the antenatal care clinic of a Swiss University Hospital. To get a deeper understanding of their needs and expectations relative to their antenatal care, a qualitative study was undertaken. Problem centred interviews were conducted with seven Tamil women before and after delivery. An interpreter was consulting. Data were analyzed using content analysis methods as described by Mayring. Four main themes emerged, demonstrating the need of the women and their resulting expectation: 1) to receive esteem--to show respect and attention; 2) to consult with somebody--to ensure communication; 3) to alleviate worries and fear--to give a sense of security and be in charge; and 4) to make up for lack of experience and knowledge--to pass on experience and knowledge. The quality of the relationships to caregivers is viewed as pivotal and seems to influence Tamil women's satisfaction and their motivation to receive prenatal care.

The Effect of Impurities on the Electrodeposition of Zinc from Zinc Sulfate Solution Containing Antimony.

It has been proven by research and years of experience, that before electrolytic zinc is possible, the electrolyte, as zinc sulfate solution must be prepared as pure as is economical. In other words, the ideal electrolyte must only be a solution of one metal - zinc. Every other metal and carbon must be excluded if good recovery and a firm deposit is to be obtained.

Valorization of agrobiodiversity products and strengthening of local identities in the Peruvian Andes: Experiences from the BioAndes Programme

In the Peruvian Andes, a long history of interaction between the local populations and their natural environment has led to extraordinary levels of agrobiodiversity. However, in sharp contrast with this biological wealth, Andean indigenous populations live under most precarious conditions. Moreover, natural resources are undergoing severe degradation processes and local knowledge about biodiversity management is under serious pressure. Against this background, the BioAndes Programme is developing initiatives based on a biocultural approach that aim at fostering biodiversity through the enhancement of cultural processes. On the basis of intercultural dialogue, joint learning and capacity development, and transdisciplinary action-research, indigenous communities, development practitioners, and researchers strive for the creation of innovative ways to contribute to more sustainable economic, socio-cultural, and political valorization of Andean biodiversity. Project activities are diverse and range from the cultivation, transformation, and commercialization of organic Andean fruits in San Marcos, Cajamarca Department, to the recuperation of natural dying techniques for alpaca wool and traditional weaving in Pitumarca, Cusco Department, and the promotion of responsible ecotourism in both regions. Based on the projects’ first two-years of experience, the following lessons learnt will be presented and discussed: 1. The economic valorization and commercialization of local products can be a powerful tool for the revival and innovation of eroded know-how; at the same time it contributes to the strengthening of local identities, in parallel with the empowerment of marginalized groups such as smallholders and women. 2. Such initiatives are only successful when they are embedded within activities that go beyond the focus on local products and seek the valorization of the entire natural and cultural landscape (e.g. through the promotion of agrotourism and local gastronomy, more sustainable management of local resources including the restoration of ecosystems, and the realization of inventories of local agrobiodiversity and the knowledge related to it). 3. The sustainability of these initiatives, which are often externally induced, is conditioned by the ability of local actors to acquire ownership of projects and access to the knowledge required to carry them out, which also means developing the personal and institutional capacities for handling the whole chain from production to commercialization. 4. The confrontation of different economic rationalities and their underlying worldviews that occur when local or indigenous people integrate into the market economy implies the need for a dialogical co-production of knowledge and collective action by local people, experts from NGOs, and political authorities in order to better control the conditions relating to the market economy. The valorization of local agrobiodiversity shows much potential for enhancing natural and cultural diversity in Southern countries, but only when local communities can participate in the shaping of the conditions under which this happens. Such activities should be designed in the mid- to long-term as part of social learning processes that are carefully embedded in the local context. Supporting institutions play a crucial role in these processes, but should see themselves only as facilitators, while ensuring that control and ownership remain with the local actors.

Theory and Practice: A Matter of Words. Language, Knowledge and Professional Community in Social Work

The relation between theory and practice in social work has always been controversial. Recently, many have underlined how language is crucial in order to capture how knowledge is used in practice. This article introduces a language perspective to the issue, rooted in the ‘strong programme’ in the sociology of knowledge and in Wittgenstein’s late work. According to this perspective, the meaning of categories and concepts corresponds to the use that concrete actors make of them as a result of on-going negotiation processes in specific contexts. Meanings may vary dramatically across social groups moved by different interests and holding different cultures. Accordingly, we may reformulate the issue of theory and practice in terms of the connections between different language games and power relationship between segments of the professional community. In this view, the point is anyway to look at how theoretical language relates to practitioners’ broader frames, and how it is transformed while providing words for making sense of experience.

Neoliberalism, the Third Way and Social Work: the UK experience

For most of the past two decades, the notion that there is no alternative to the market as a basis for organising society has constituted a kind of global 'common sense', accepted not only by the neo-liberal Right but also by social democratic thinkers and politicians, in the form of 'the Third Way'. This paper will critically assess the central claims of neoliberalism in the light of experience in the UK and internationally, evaluate the ways in which Third Way policies are shaping social work in the UK, and in the final section, begin to explore some of the ways in which the anti-capitalist movement which has emerged in recent years might contribute to the development of a new, engaged social work, based on social justice.

Impact Study of Nonverbal Facial Cues on Spontaneous Chatting with Virtual Humans

Non-verbal communication (NVC) is considered to represent more than 90 percent of everyday communication. In virtual world, this important aspect of interaction between virtual humans (VH) is strongly neglected. This paper presents a user-test study to demonstrate the impact of automatically generated graphics-based NVC expression on the dialog quality: first, we wanted to compare impassive and emotion facial expression simulation for impact on the chatting. Second, we wanted to see whether people like chatting within a 3D graphical environment. Our model only proposes facial expressions and head movements induced from spontaneous chatting between VHs. Only subtle facial expressions are being used as nonverbal cues - i.e. related to the emotional model. Motion capture animations related to hand gestures, such as cleaning glasses, were randomly used to make the virtual human lively. After briefly introducing the technical architecture of the 3D-chatting system, we focus on two aspects of chatting through VHs. First, what is the influence of facial expressions that are induced from text dialog? For this purpose, we exploited an emotion engine extracting an emotional content from a text and depicting it into a virtual character developed previously [GAS11]. Second, as our goal was not addressing automatic generation of text, we compared the impact of nonverbal cues in conversation with a chatbot or with a human operator with a wizard of oz approach. Among main results, the within group study -involving 40 subjects- suggests that subtle facial expressions impact significantly not only on the quality of experience but also on dialog understanding.

Learning Curves of Temporary Workers in Manual Order Picking Activities

Person-to-stock order picking is highly flexible and requires minimal investment costs in comparison to automated picking solutions. For these reasons, tradi-tional picking is widespread in distribution and production logistics. Due to its typically large proportion of manual activities, picking causes the highest operative personnel costs of all intralogistics process. The required personnel capacity in picking varies short- and mid-term due to capacity requirement fluctuations. These dynamics are often balanced by employing minimal permanent staff and using seasonal help when needed. The resulting high personnel fluctuation necessitates the frequent training of new pickers, which, in combination with in-creasingly complex work contents, highlights the im-portance of learning processes in picking. In industrial settings, learning is often quantified based on diminishing processing time and cost requirements with increasing experience. The best-known industrial learning curve models include those from Wright, de Jong, Baloff and Crossman, which are typically applied to the learning effects of an entire work crew rather than of individuals. These models have been validated in largely static work environments with homogeneous work contents. Little is known of learning effects in picking systems. Here, work contents are heterogeneous and individual work strategies vary among employees. A mix of temporary and steady employees with varying degrees of experience necessitates the observation of individual learning curves. In this paper, the individual picking performance development of temporary employees is analyzed and compared to that of steady employees in the same working environment.

Does flow experience lead to risk? How and for whom

Background: Previous research has focused on the positive consequences of flow, an intrinsically rewarding state of deep absorption. In contrast, the present research links flow to impaired risk awareness and to risky behaviour. We expected flow to enhance self-efficacy beliefs, which in turn were hypothesised to result in low risk awareness and risky behaviour in sports. In addition, we predicted that individuals' level of experience in the activity would moderate the expected effects. Methods: One study with kayakers (Study 1) and two studies with rock climbers (Studies 2 and 3) were conducted. Kayakers completed a survey while still on the river; climbers responded during and upon completion of a climb. Results: In all studies flow was related to risk awareness. Study 2 additionally showed its association with risky behaviour. Studies 2 and 3 revealed that these relationships were mediated by self-efficacy. The mediations were moderated by level of experience (Study 3). Conclusions: The results indicated that inexperienced but not experienced participants respond to self-efficacy beliefs evoked by flow with impaired risk awareness and with risky behaviour. Theoretical implications for flow and risk research as well as practical implications for risk prevention are discussed.