Temperature-dependent vortex matter in a superconducting mesoscopic circular sector

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

Dinâmica de vórtices em filmes finos supercondutores de superfície variável

Pós-graduação em Ciência e Tecnologia de Materiais - FC

Developments and extensions of Roth's method of double Fourier series with applications to the solution of electromagnetic field problems

The first part of the thesis compares Roth's method with other methods, in particular the method of separation of variables and the finite cosine transform method, for solving certain elliptic partial differential equations arising in practice. In particular we consider the solution of steady state problems associated with insulated conductors in rectangular slots. Roth's method has two main disadvantages namely the slow rate of con­vergence of the double Fourier series and the restrictive form of the allowable boundary conditions. A combined Roth-separation of variables method is derived to remove the restrictions on the form of the boundary conditions and various Chebyshev approximations are used to try to improve the rate of convergence of the series. All the techniques are then applied to the Neumann problem arising from balanced rectangular windings in a transformer window. Roth's method is then extended to deal with problems other than those resulting from static fields. First we consider a rectangular insulated conductor in a rectangular slot when the current is varying sinusoidally with time. An approximate method is also developed and compared with the exact method.The approximation is then used to consider the problem of an insulated conductor in a slot facing an air gap. We also consider the exact method applied to the determination of the eddy-current loss produced in an isolated rectangular conductor by a transverse magnetic field varying sinusoidally with time. The results obtained using Roth's method are critically compared with those obtained by other authors using different methods. The final part of the thesis investigates further the application of Chebyshdev methods to the solution of elliptic partial differential equations; an area where Chebyshev approximations have rarely been used. A poisson equation with a polynomial term is treated first followed by a slot problem in cylindrical geometry.

Leveraging the network information for evaluating answer quality in a collaborative question answering portal

Collaborative question answering (cQA) portals such as Yahoo! Answers allow users as askers or answer authors to communicate, and exchange information through the asking and answering of questions in the network. In their current set-up, answers to a question are arranged in chronological order. For effective information retrieval, it will be advantageous to have the users’ answers ranked according to their quality. This paper proposes a novel approach of evaluating and ranking the users’answers and recommending the top-n quality answers to information seekers. The proposed approach is based on a user-reputation method which assigns a score to an answer reflecting its answer author’s reputation level in the network. The proposed approach is evaluated on a dataset collected from a live cQA, namely, Yahoo! Answers. To compare the results obtained by the non-content-based user-reputation method, experiments were also conducted with several content-based methods that assign a score to an answer reflecting its content quality. Various combinations of non-content and content-based scores were also used in comparing results. Empirical analysis shows that the proposed method is able to rank the users’ answers and recommend the top-n answers with good accuracy. Results of the proposed method outperform the content-based methods, various combinations, and the results obtained by the popular link analysis method, HITS.

Labour, social and health outcomes of immigrants in Australia : effects of language proficiency using the IV approach

Language has been of interest to numerous economists since the late 20th century, with the majority of the studies focusing on its effects on immigrants’ labour market outcomes; earnings in particular. However, language is an endogenous variable, which along with its susceptibility to measurement error causes biases in ordinary-least-squares estimates. The instrumental variables method overcomes the shortcomings of ordinary least squares in modelling endogenous explanatory variables. In this dissertation, age at arrival combined with country of origin form an instrument creating a difference-in-difference scenario, to address the issue of endogeneity and attenuation error in language proficiency. The first half of the study aims to investigate the extent to which English speaking ability of immigrants improves their labour market outcomes and social assimilation in Australia, with the use of the 2006 Census. The findings have provided evidence that support the earlier studies. As expected, immigrants in Australia with better language proficiency are able to earn higher income, attain higher level of education, have higher probability of completing tertiary studies, and have more hours of work per week. Language proficiency also improves social integration, leading to higher probability of marriage to a native and higher probability of obtaining citizenship. The second half of the study further investigates whether language proficiency has similar effects on a migrant’s physical and mental wellbeing, health care access and lifestyle choices, with the use of three National Health Surveys. However, only limited evidence has been found with respect to the hypothesised causal relationship between language and health for Australian immigrants.

Orientation robust transmit polarization diversity techniques

Polarisation diversity is a technique to improve the quality of mobile communications, but its reliability is suboptimal because it depends on the mobile channel and the antenna orientations at both ends of the mobile link. A method to optimise the reliability is established by minimising the dependency on antenna orientations. While the mobile base station can have fixed antenna orientation, the mobile terminal is typically a handheld device with random orientations. This means orientation invariance needs to be established at the receiver in the downlink, and at the transmitter in the uplink. This research presents separate solutions for both cases, and is based on the transmission of an elliptically polarised signal synthesised from the channel statistics. Complete receiver orientation invariance is achieved in the downlink. Effects of the transmitter orientation are minimised in the uplink.

Some experiments on solving multistage stochastic mixed 0-1 programs with time stochastic dominance constraints

In this work we extend to the multistage case two recent risk averse measures for two-stage stochastic programs based on first- and second-order stochastic dominance constraints induced by mixed-integer linear recourse. Additionally, we consider Time Stochastic Dominance (TSD) along a given horizon. Given the dimensions of medium-sized problems augmented by the new variables and constraints required by those risk measures, it is unrealistic to solve the problem up to optimality by plain use of MIP solvers in a reasonable computing time, at least. Instead of it, decomposition algorithms of some type should be used. We present an extension of our Branch-and-Fix Coordination algorithm, so named BFC-TSD, where a special treatment is given to cross scenario group constraints that link variables from different scenario groups. A broad computational experience is presented by comparing the risk neutral approach and the tested risk averse strategies. The performance of the new version of the BFC algorithm versus the plain use of a state-of-the-artMIP solver is also reported.

Determinantes e eficácia da lealdade partidária no Brasil: uma análise das estratégias dos candidatos a prefeito e vereador

O sistema político brasileiro atual é marcado pelo número expressivo de partidos e também pelo forte trânsito interpartidário: hoje, mais de 30 partidos disputam eleições e, tanto em cargos do legislativo quanto do executivo, o número de políticos com filiação exclusiva a uma única legenda vem caindo consideravelmente. Nesse cenário, a investigação das características do processo de migração entre partidos torna-se fundamental para a melhor compreensão do sistema político-partidário brasileiro. Buscando aprofundar o conhecimento sobre esse tema, nos propusemos a responder duas questões: 1. Como o resultado das eleições municipais e estaduais afetam a decisão dos prefeitos e vereadores de permanecerem fiéis ou migrarem de partido? 2. Qual a eficácia das estratégias de migrar ou permanecer fiel? Para responder a essas questões, utilizamos dados das eleições municipais para prefeito e vereador de 2000 a 2012 e estimamos os efeitos descritos acima por meio do Desenho de Regressão Descontínua e também utilizando o método de Variáveis Instrumentais.

Superconducting boundary conditions for mesoscopic circular samples

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

Vortex state in a mesoscopic flat disk with rough surface

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Vortices in a mesoscopic superconducting circular sector

In the present paper we develop an algorithm to solve the time dependent Ginzburg-Landau equations, by using the link variables technique, for circular geometries. In addition, we evaluate the Helmholtz and Gibbs free energy, the magnetization, and the number of vortices. This algorithm is applied to a circular sector. We evaluate the superconduting-normal magnetic field transition, the magnetization, and the superconducting density. Our results point out that, as we reduce the superconducting area, the nucleation field increases. Nevertheless, as the angular width of the circular sector goes to small values the asymptotic behavior is independent of the sample area. We also show that the value of the first nucleation field is approximately the same independently of the form of the circular sector. Furthermore, we study the nucleation of giant and multivortex states for the different shapes of the present geometry.

Estudo de filmes supercondutores de espessura finita em forma de SQUID

Pós-graduação em Ciência e Tecnologia de Materiais - FC

Aplicação da computação simbólica na resolução de problemas de condução de calor em cilindros vazados com condições de contorno convectivas

Pós-graduação em Engenharia Mecânica - FEG

Numerical solution of the time dependent Ginzburg-Landau equations for mixed (d plus s)-wave superconductors

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

Relação entre postura, queixa dolorosa e lesão em bailarinas clássicas

Introduction: Due to the high recurrence of pain complaints and the increasing incidence of musculoskeletal injuries and postural changes in dance practice, researches related to this issue gained greater importance in scientific community. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate complaints and pain threshold, postural misalignments and the incidence of injuries in dancers noting if there is a relationship between these variables. Method: Participants were 15 ballet dancers in Marília - SP. We used photogrammetry for postural analysis, the McGill Pain Questionnaire for pain location of the volunteer, algometry pressure for measuring the threshold of pain perception and Referred Morbidity to verify and characterize the incidence of injuries this population. In the data analysis we use to percentage to quantify the data from questionnaires and Pearson correlation test angles of photogrammetry correlating with the values of the threshold of pain perception. Results: 73.33% of dancers reported to have suffered some kind of injury in the last year. The area of greatest pain complaint checked at McGill, was the region of the foot (73.30%). Conclusion: There was an agreement between regions of injury and pain, however, there wasn’t a correlation between the threshold of pain tolerance and postural angles.