Uso do m��todo das interfaces coesivas na an��lise da simula����o do comportamento de fratura em materiais fr��geis

Este trabalho apresenta uma abordagem num��rica da fratura baseada no M��todo dos Elementos Finitos na qual s��o considerados materiais fr��geis como objeto de estudo. As simula����es realizadas s��o poss��veis atrav��s de um algoritmo computacional que consiste na implementa����o de molas entre as faces dos elementos finitos. Esta composi����o constitui o m��todo denominado Interfaces Coesivas. As molas fornecem o efeito de coes��o e �� representado por leis constitutivas do tipo bi-linear. Sua descri����o �� apresentada, bem como sua implementa����o na an��lise. Tanto o modo I como o modo II de ruptura s��o considerados. Com o objetivo de verificar o presente modelo com outros resultados e solu����es, s��o analisados exemplos num��ricos e experimentais extra��dos da literatura. Tais exemplos tratam da nuclea����o, propaga����o e eventuais paradas de trincas em pe��as estruturais submetidas aos mais diversos carregamentos e condi����es de contorno. �� ainda discutido como os par��metros de fratura do material interferem no processo de ruptura. Uma tentativa �� feita de determinar estes par��metros, em especial no caso de concreto.

Burocracia e participa����o popular na pr��tica: uma an��lise do cotidiano de dois or��amentos participativos atrav��s de seus implementadores e suas interfaces

Essa disserta����o busca compreender processos de implementa����o de or��amento participativos pelo vi��s da burocracia de n��vel de rua. Para tal, foram estudados os casos de Guarulhos e S��o Bernardo do Campo, utilizando como metodologia a an��lise de interface proposta por Long. Parte-se do pressuposto que �� poss��vel identificar, atrav��s do cotidiano destes profissionais, pontos de inflex��o da participa����o popular no Brasil, que, al��m de ainda se encontrar em desenvolvimento, j�� apresenta diversos desafios para ser bem sucedida. Assim, como problema de pesquisa, tem-se ���qual �� o papel dos servidores p��blicos dos or��amentos participativos que est��o em contato direto com o p��blico na implementa����o dos mesmos?���. O estudo do dia a dia desses atores demonstra, com grande for��a, uma desconfian��a da sociedade civil para o governo, sendo necess��rio recriar uma imagem do poder municipal enquanto parceiro; a for��a do or��amento participativo enquanto processo pedag��gico, tanto para quest��es de funcionamento da m��quina p��blica, quanto para a pr��pria cidadania; a necessidade de mobiliza����o da popula����o para al��m dos momentos das plen��rias; a relativa depend��ncia da organiza����o e legitima����o interna do or��amento participativo na estrutura de governo, para um trabalho orientado da burocracia de n��vel de rua; a legitima����o do governo nas comunidades atrav��s da a����o dessa categoria; e a constata����o que estes profissionais configuram, na verdade, uma nova categoria, que ser��o aqui chamados de agentes de interface, por n��o se enquadrarem na l��gica tradicional da burocracia. Tamb��m pelo seu papel fundamental na cria����o de novos sentidos, prop��e-se a interface enquanto lugar.

Do virtual platforms impact user behavior? An experimental comparison between messages on the company's website and Facebook page.

Companies have looked for many new ways to communicate with their customers. In the current scenario, Facebook has proven to be an efficient communication tool between consumers and businesses. This study aims to understand the differences in the complaint messages sent to companies, through an experiment that measured the emotional tone and the lack of formality in each message received by the website and the Facebook page of the company. As expected, people are more informal on Facebook. However, contrary to our intuition, participants tended to display more emotions on the company website. The social norms theory and the impression management contributed to explain the phenomena found.

The impact of content marketing on attitudes and purchase intentions of online shoppers : the case videos & tutorials and user-generated content

This thesis was written as part of a Double-Degree Masters program in Management, with focus in Marketing. Aligned with the nature of the degree, this study aims to be a useful tool for managers and marketers, which conduct business online. This thesis is a study of Content Marketing in the content of online commercial product pages. Its aim is to understand how to use content marketing to drive conversion, by understanding consumer attitudes and purchase intention towards content. A in-depth study of existing theories and exploratory primary research was developed in other to attain these objectives. Business-to-consumer electronic commerce (B2C e-commerce) has provided consumers and online retailers with a more effective medium to perform online transactions through commercial websites. Although consumers have realized that the benefits of online shopping; such as time saving, minimizing effort, convenience, broader selection, and wider access to information, they are still greatly unwilling to shop online. Consumers shop essentially for two motives, to meet experiential (fun) or goal-oriented (efficiency) needs (Wolfinbarger & Gilly, 2001). The information provided by content marketing seeks to focus on consumers need for information and entertainment, instead of focusing on the brand. Thus, it is expected that the type of content format will have different effects on the attitudes and purchase intention on the online shopper, depending on the online shopping purpose. Concretely, a goal-oriented shopper should find user generated content (UGC) to be more valuable content formats, since they decrease the amount of search effort. While on the other hand, videos & tutorials (VT) might be perceived as more valuable for a consumer looking to spend time and being entertained through online shopping. The exploratory research was characterized by a survey experiment with online consumers. Participants were exposed to stimuli of content marketing tested according to their attitudes and purchase intention. The focus was to understand the impact of two different content marketing tactics���User-generated content and Videos & Tutorials���on attitudes and purchase intentions and how they interact with content complexity. The results indicate that content marketing in commercial product pages is relevant in driving consumer attitudes and purchase intentions. Consumers are not motivated by a specific content marketing tactic, unless that content has a certain level of complexity. In that case, Ur-Generated Content becomes a relevant tactic in product pages, however VT is not.

Gera����o autom��tica de interfaces com o utilizador: uma abordagem baseada em MDA para a plataforma PHP

Os modelos e as t��cnicas de modela����o s��o, hoje em dia, fundamentais na engenharia de software, devido �� complexidade e sofistica����o dos sistemas de informa����o actuais.A linguagem Unified Modeling Language (UML) [OMG, 2005a] [OMG, 2005b] tornou-se uma norma para modela����o, na engenharia de software e em outras ��reas e dom��nios, mas �� reconhecida a sua falta de suporte para a modela����o da interactividade e da interface com o utilizador [Nunes and Falc��o e Cunha, 2000].Neste trabalho, �� explorada a liga����o entre as ��reas de engenharia de software e de interac����o humano-computador, tendo, para isso, sido escolhido o processo de desenvolvimento Wisdom [Nunes and Falc��o e Cunha, 2000] [Nunes, 2001]. O m��todo Wisdom �� conduzido por casos de utiliza����o essenciais e pelo princ��pio da prototipifica����o evolutiva, focando-se no desenho das interfaces com o utilizador atrav��s da estrutura da apresenta����o, com a nota����o Prot��tipos Abstractos Can��nicos (PAC) [Constantine and Lockwood, 1999] [Constantine, 2003], e do comportamento da interac����o com a nota����o ConcurTaskTrees (CTT) [Patern��, 1999] [Mori, Patern��, et al., 2004] em UML.�� proposto, tamb��m, neste trabalho um novo passo no processo Wisdom, sendo definido um modelo espec��fico, constru��do segundo os requisitos da recomenda����o Model Driven Architecture (MDA) [Soley and OMG, 2000] [OMG, 2003] elaborada pela organiza����o Object Managent Group (OMG). Este modelo espec��fico ser�� o intermedi��rio entre o modelo de desenho e a implementa����o da interface final com o utilizador. Esta proposta alinha o m��todo Wisdom com a recomenda����o MDA, tornando poss��vel que sejam gerados, de forma autom��tica, prot��tipos funcionais de interfaces com o utilizador a partir dos modelos conceptuais de an��lise e desenho.Foi utilizada a ferramenta de modela����o e de metamodela����o MetaSketch [N��brega, Nunes, et al., 2006] para a defini����o e manipula����o dos modelos e elementos propostos. Foram criadas as aplica����es Model2Model e Model2Code para suportar as transforma����es entre modelos e a gera����o de c��digo a partir destes. Para a plataforma de implementa����o foi escolhida a framework Hydra, desenvolvida na linguagem PHP [PHP, 2006], que foi adaptada com alguns conceitos de modo a suportar a abordagem defendida neste trabalho.

Wow!: objects

Nowadays computers have advanced beyond the desktop into many parts of everyday life and objects. To achieve this we have to make the computer invisible, and making a computer invisible is not a matter of size of the hardware, it���s all about how the human perceives the computer. To make this possible, the interaction with the computer has to be done in an alternative way, such that the user doesn���t notice the usual computer interfaces (mouse and keyboard) when using it. Therefore this thesis focuses on physical objects that are interactive to achieve various purposes like persuasive objects for stress relief, persuasive objects to help the process of teaching, persuasive objects for fun, persuasive objects to display internet information and persuasive objects to make people feel more in community (exchange virtual emotions), persuasive objects are going to be created and evaluated to see if they have the power to simplify and turn our lives better. The persuasive objects developed employ technology like sensors, actuators, microcontrollers, and computer/web services��� communication. This Master thesis starts by presenting a comprehensive introduction of what are persuasive objects and some general information about several areas that are related to our persuasive objects like stress relief, work experience, multimedia education and other major aspects. It continues by describing related work done in this area. Then we have a detailed view of each persuasive object and finally this thesis finishes with a general conclusion and notion of future work.