Cumprimento de ordens, obediência hierárquica e disciplina militar versus perpetração (in)voluntária de crimes

Following orders, hierarchical obedience and military discipline are essential values for the survival of the armed forces. Without them, it is not possible to conceive the armed forces as an essential pillar of a democratic state of law and a guarantor of national independence. As issuing orders as well as receiving and following them are inextricably linked to military discipline, and as such injunctions entail the workings of a particular obedience regime within the specific kind of organized power framework which is the Armed Forces, only by analysing the importance of such orders within this microcosm – with its strict hierarchical structure – will it be possible to understand which criminal judicial qualification to ascribe to the individual at the rear by reference to the role of the front line individual (i.e. the one who issues an order vs the one who executes it). That is, of course, when we are faced with the practice of unlawful acts, keeping in mind the organizational framework and its influence over the will of the executor. One thing we take as read, if the orders can be described as unlawful, the boundary line of the duty of obedience, which cannot be overstepped, both because of a legal as well as a constitutional imperative, will have been crossed. And the military have sworn an oath of obedience to the fundamental law. The topic of hierarchical obedience cannot be separated from the analysis of current legislation which pertains to the topic within military institutions. With that in mind, it appeared relevant to address the major norms which regulate the matter within the Portuguese military legal system, and, whenever necessary and required by the reality under analysis, to relate that to civilian law or legal doctrine.

An interactive learning approach to accounting classes

This working paper explores the use of interactive learning tools, such as business simulations, to facilitate the active learning process in accounting classes. Although business simulations were firstly introduced in the United States in the 1950s, the vast majority of accounting professors still use traditional teaching methods, based in end-of-chapter exercises and written cases. Moreover, the current students’ generation brings new challenges to the classroom related with their video, game, internet and mobile culture. Thus, a survey and an experimentation were conducted to understand, on one hand, if accounting professors are willing to adjust their teaching methods with the adoption of interactive learning tools and, on the other hand, if the adoption of interactive learning tools in accounting classes yield better academic results and levels of satisfaction among students. Students using more interactive learning approaches scored significantly higher means than others that did not. Accounting professors are clearly willing to try, at least once, the use of an accounting simulator in classes.

Numerical simulation of galvanized rebars pullout

The usage of rebars in construction is the most common method for reinforcing plain concrete and thus bridging the tensile stresses along the concrete crack surfaces. Usually design codes for modelling the bond behaviour of rebars and concrete suggest a local bond stress – slip relationship that comprises distinct reinforcement mechanisms, such as adhesion, friction and mechanical anchorage. In this work, numerical simulations of pullout tests were performed using the finite element method framework. The interaction between rebar and concrete was modelled using cohesive elements. Distinct local bond laws were used and compared with ones proposed by the Model Code 2010. Finally an attempt was made to model the geometry of the rebar ribs in conjunction with a material damaged plasticity model for concrete.

Simulation of humidity fields in concrete: experimental validation and parameter estimation

The moisture content in concrete structures has an important influence in their behavior and performance. Several vali-dated numerical approaches adopt the governing equation for relative humidity fields proposed in Model Code 1990/2010. Nevertheless there is no integrative study which addresses the choice of parameters for the simulation of the humidity diffusion phenomenon, particularly in concern to the range of parameters forwarded by Model Code 1990/2010. A software based on a Finite Difference Method Algorithm (1D and axisymmetric cases) is used to perform sensitivity analyses on the main parameters in a normal strength concrete. Then, based on the conclusions of the sensi-tivity analyses, experimental results from nine different concrete compositions are analyzed. The software is used to identify the main material parameters that better fit the experimental data. In general, the model was able to satisfactory fit the experimental results and new correlations were proposed, particularly focusing on the boundary transfer coeffi-cient.

Aprender a debater: o debate como atividade de interação e de participação democrática

Relatório de estágio de mestrado em Ensino de Inglês e de Espanhol no 3º Ciclo do Ensino Básico e no Ensino Secundário

Programa de atividade física e saúde - Projeto M&M: análise da intervenção relativamente ao IMC e aptidão cardiorrespiratória

Relatório de estágio de mestrado em Ensino de Educação Física nos Ensinos Básico e Secundário

Numerical simulation of the punching shear behaviour of self-compacting fibre reinforced flat slabs

This paper presents the numerical simulations of the punching behaviour of centrally loaded steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete (SFRSCC) flat slabs. Eight half scaled slabs reinforced with different content of hooked-end steel fibres (0, 60, 75 and 90 kg/m3) and concrete strengths of 50 and 70 MPa were tested and numerically modelled. Moreover, a total of 54 three-point bending tests were carried out to assess the post-cracking flexural tensile strength. All the slabs had a relatively high conventional flexural reinforcement in order to promote the occurrence of punching failure mode. Neither of the slabs had any type of specific shear reinforcement rather than the contribution of the steel fibres. The numerical simulations were performed according to the Reissner-Mindlin theory under the finite element method framework. Regarding the classic formulation of the Reissner-Mindlin theory, in order to simulate the progressive damage induced by cracking, the shell element is discretized into layers, being assumed a plane stress state in each layer. The numerical results are, then, compared with the experimental ones and it is possible to notice that they accurately predict the experimental force-deflection relationship. The type of failure observed experimentally was also predicted in the numerical simulations.

Aprender a gostar de poesia: contributos para uma didática do texto poético em contexto de Educação Pré-Escolar e Ensino do 1º Ciclo

Relatório de estágio de mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar e Ensino do 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico

Os contributos do texto literário para o ensino-aprendizagem de PLE: elaboração de uma proposta de didatização de um conto de Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen

Dissertação de mestrado em Português Língua Não Materna (PLNM) – Português Língua Estrangeira (PLE) e Língua Segunda (PL2)

Evaluating ubiquitous computing environments using 3D simulation

Human activity is very dynamic and subtle, and most physical environments are also highly dynamic and support a vast range of social practices that do not map directly into any immediate ubiquitous computing functionally. Identifying what is valuable to people is very hard and obviously leads to great uncertainty regarding the type of support needed and the type of resources needed to create such support. We have addressed the issues of system development through the adoption of a Crowdsourced software development model [13]. We have designed and developed Anywhere places, an open and flexible system support infrastructure for Ubiquitous Computing that is based on a balanced combination between global services and applications and situated devices. Evaluation, however, is still an open problem. The characteristics of ubiquitous computing environments make their evaluation very complex: there are no globally accepted metrics and it is very difficult to evaluate large-scale and long-term environments in real contexts. In this paper, we describe a first proposal of an hybrid 3D simulated prototype of Anywhere places that combines simulated and real components to generate a mixed reality which can be used to assess the envisaged ubiquitous computing environments [17].

Process simulation support in BPM tools: The case of BPMN

Due to the increasing acceptance of BPM, nowadays BPM tools are extensively used in organizations. Core to BPM are the process modeling languages, of which BPMN is the one that has been receiving most attention these days. Once a business process is described using BPMN, one can use a process simulation approach in order to find its optimized form. In this context, the simulation of business processes, such as those defined in BPMN, appears as an obvious way of improving processes. This paper analyzes the business process modeling and simulation areas, identifying the elements that must be present in the BPMN language in order to allow processes described in BPMN to be simulated. During this analysis a set of existing BPM tools, which support BPMN, are compared regarding their limitations in terms of simulation support.

Interaction paradigms versus age-related user profiles: an evaluation on content selection

Novel input modalities such as touch, tangibles or gestures try to exploit human's innate skills rather than imposing new learning processes. However, despite the recent boom of different natural interaction paradigms, it hasn't been systematically evaluated how these interfaces influence a user's performance or whether each interface could be more or less appropriate when it comes to: 1) different age groups; and 2) different basic operations, as data selection, insertion or manipulation. This work presents the first step of an exploratory evaluation about whether or not the users' performance is indeed influenced by the different interfaces. The key point is to understand how different interaction paradigms affect specific target-audiences (children, adults and older adults) when dealing with a selection task. 60 participants took part in this study to assess how different interfaces may influence the interaction of specific groups of users with regard to their age. Four input modalities were used to perform a selection task and the methodology was based on usability testing (speed, accuracy and user preference). The study suggests a statistically significant difference between mean selection times for each group of users, and also raises new issues regarding the “old” mouse input versus the “new” input modalities.

Blast loading of masonry infills: testing and simulation

This work intends to present a newly developed test setup for dynamic out-of-plane loading using underWater Blast Wave Generators (WBWG) as loading source. Underwater blasting operations have been, during the last decades, subject of research and development of maritime blasting operations (including torpedo studies), aquarium tests for the measurement of blasting energy of industrial explosives and confined underwater blast wave generators. WBWG allow a wide range for the produced blast impulse and surface area distribution. It also avoids the generation of high velocity fragments and reduces atmospheric sound wave. A first objective of this work is to study the behavior of masonry infill walls subjected to blast loading. Three different masonry walls are to be studied, namely unreinforced masonry infill walls and two different reinforcement solutions. These solutions have been studied previously for seismic action mitigation. Subsequently, the walls will be simulated using an explicit finite element code for validation and parametric studies. Finally, a tool to help designers to make informed decisions on the use of infills under blast loading will be presented.

A spectrum-driven damage Identification technique : application and validation through the numerical simulation of the Z24 Bridge

The present paper focuses on a damage identification method based on the use of the second order spectral properties of the nodal response processes. The explicit dependence on the frequency content of the outputs power spectral densities makes them suitable for damage detection and localization. The well-known case study of the Z24 Bridge in Switzerland is chosen to apply and further investigate this technique with the aim of validating its reliability. Numerical simulations of the dynamic response of the structure subjected to different types of excitation are carried out to assess the variability of the spectrum-driven method with respect to both type and position of the excitation sources. The simulated data obtained from random vibrations, impulse, ramp and shaking forces, allowed to build the power spectrum matrix from which the main eigenparameters of reference and damage scenarios are extracted. Afterwards, complex eigenvectors and real eigenvalues are properly weighed and combined and a damage index based on the difference between spectral modes is computed to pinpoint the damage. Finally, a group of vibration-based damage identification methods are selected from the literature to compare the results obtained and to evaluate the performance of the spectral index.