Η παρούσα διπλωματική εκπονήθηκε στο εργαστήριο Αλληλεπίδρασης Ανθρώπου Υπολογιστή του τμήματος Ηλεκτρολόγων Μηχανικών και Τεχνολογίας Υπολογιστών του Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών. Σα στόχο είχε τη μελέτη της αλληλεπίδρασης σε ομάδες συνεργασίας με τη χρήση φορητών υπολογιστών, και εστίασε στις δυνατότητες που παρέχει ο υπολογιστής ταμπλέτας με σκοπό τη βελτιστοποίηση της ποιότητας διδασκαλίας. Η εφαρμογή η οποία χρησιμοποιήθηκε αρχικά ήταν το Synergo Supervisor Station, το οποίο αποτελεί εργαλείο της γενικότερης πλατφόρμας Synergo. Επανασχεδιάστηκαν ορισμένα τμήματα της διεπιφάνειας της εφαρμογής αυτής αλλά και υλοποιήθηκε ένα νέο εργαλείο για την παρακολούθηση των επιφανειών εργασιών των ομάδων συνεργασίας σε πραγματικό χρόνο. Το εργαλείο αυτό ονομάζεται Synergo Vision και είναι και αυτό μέρος της γενικότερης πλατφόρμας Synergo. Το Synergo Vision μπορεί να λειτουργήσει και αυτόνομα αλλά και ως πρόσθετο στο Synergo Supervisor Station. Με το Synergo Vision ο καθηγητής μπορεί να βλέπει σε πραγματικό χρόνο τους χώρους εργασίας των συνεργαζόμενων ομάδων, τις κινήσεις των μελών κάθε ομάδας, να αποστέλλει δραστηριότητες στις ομάδες, να επικοινωνεί μαζί τους μέσω μηνυμάτων, εκμεταλλευόμενος τις δυνατότητες που του προσφέρει η πένα των υπολογιστών ταμπλέτας αλλά και ο προβολέας σαν εναλλακτική μορφή διαδραστικού πίνακα. Κατά τη διαδικασία ανάπτυξης ακολουθήθηκε επαναληπτική διαδικασία σχεδίασης με διαδοχικούς σχεδιασμούς, υλοποιήσεις και αξιολογήσεις. / This diploma thesis was prepared for the Human – Computer Interaction (HCI) Group of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of University of Patras. The main object of this thesis was the study of the interaction on collaborative groups using portable computers, and focused on the possibilities provided by the tablet computer to optimize the teaching process. The application that was used firstly was Synergo Supervisor Station, which is part of the wider platform Synergo. Some parts of its user interface were redesigned, and a new application was developed for watching the workspaces of collaborative groups in real time. That application is called Synergo Vision and it is part of the wider platform Synergo, as well. Synergo Vision can run as a standalone application and as plug-in for Synergo Supervisor Station. Using Synergo Vision the teacher is able to watch in real time the workspaces of the collaborative groups, the moves of each group member, send activities to the groups, communicate with them using text messages, taking the advantages of the table computers’ stylus and the use of the projector as an alternative form of an interactive whiteboard. During the development phase, we use recursive design with consecutive design, implementation and evaluation strategies.

As an output of the HERA Travelling Texts project, created with the aim of uncovering the realities of women’s literary culture on the fringes of Europe during the long nineteenth century, this study was conceptualised to find out more about the networks of women writers in Spain around 1900, using the digitised corpuses of contemporaneous periodicals as the primary source material. Each chapter of the study centres on a particular periodical, which is used as the starting point for the community of writers and readers, both real and imagined. This thesis looks at the realities of the literary culture for creative women in the late nineteenth century-early twentieth century, exploring the strategies used by women (and men) to support each other in their literary endeavours, how they took inspiration and courage from each other, how they promoted their own names, and how they were received by wider society. The study will also focus on the transnational nature of this literary culture, looking at how women of different nations influenced each other’s work, with a view to understanding more about how cultural change takes place. Finally, this thesis hopes to persuade the reader that the periodical is a rich and under-utilised resource for discovering more about the lives of women writers and their network of relationships.

Devido às crescentes exigências da sociedade, das legislações ambientais e do próprio meio ambiente pela sua preservação, é imprescindível a tomada de providências, especialmente no que tange ao projeto de produto (Design de Produto). Nesta fase, deve ser possível prever o desempenho do produto e de seus materiais em todo o ciclo de vida, desde a produção até os processos de reaproveitamento, reciclagem e descarte final. Para que essa previsão seja possível, são necessários dados de propriedades dos materiais, viabilizando a seleção destes conforme a finalidade a que se destinam. O presente trabalho se deteve, assim, aos estudos relacionados ao Ecodesign, especificamente ao Design para Reciclagem, de óculos oriundos de apreensão pela Receita Federal do Brasil. O objetivo foi propiciar subsídios técnicos para gerar soluções viáveis para um encaminhamento adequado desses resíduos provenientes de apreensão. Como possibilidade para reciclagem, foi sugerida a produção de blendas com os polímeros constituintes dos óculos, policarbonato (PC) e polimetilmetacrilato (PMMA). As blendas e os polímeros puros, tanto de material virgem quanto provenientes dos óculos, foram caracterizados via espectroscopia de infravermelho por transformada de Fourier (FTIR), análise termogravimétrica (TGA), ensaios de tração e de impacto, inspeção visual e testes de chama e de solubilidade. Os dados obtidos foram, então, comparados para o decorrer de quatro ciclos de processamento, entre as diferentes composições e para o material virgem e dos óculos, proporcionando noções a respeito das tendências no comportamento das propriedades dos materiais reciclados. As blendas consideradas total ou parcialmente miscíveis via calorimetria diferencial exploratória (DSC) foram 90PC10PMMA, 80PC20PMMA e 70PC30PMMA (composições mássicas). / Increasing demands from society, environmental legislation, and environment itself make it imperative that we take actions concerning product design. In this phase, one should be able to predict product and materials performance in all of the product's life cycle, from its production up to reuse, recycling and final disposal. In order to make this prediction possible, one needs data about materials properties. These data enable material selection in accordance to their usage. This work consists in a study related to Ecodesign and, more specifically, Design for Recycling, of counterfeit glasses apprehended by Brazilian internal revenue service (Receita Federal). Its goal is providing a technical basis and presenting viable solutions for an adequate disposal of these residues after apprehension. This dissertation suggests the production of blends with the polymers that constitute the glasses, namely PC and PMMA, as a possibility to carry out recycling. The blends, as well as the polymers in their pure state, either from virgin material or from the counterfeit glasses, were characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), tension and impact tests, and visual inspection, as well as with flame and solubility tests. The data thus obtained was compared along four processing cycles regarding the different compositions, yielding valuable information about trends in the behavior of the recycled materials' properties. The blends considered miscible or partially miscible by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were 90PC10PMMA, 80PC20PMMA e 70PC30PMMA (mass fractions).

Nesse trabalho, a equação de estado PC-SAFT é combinada com um método de contribuição de grupos (GC) para estimação dos seus parâmetros. Para tanto, foram utilizados dados experimentais dos componentes puros (pressão de vapor e volume específico do líquido) e em mistura (equilíbrio líquido-vapor - VLE e coeficiente de atividade em diluição infinita - IDAC). Através de uma análise de sensibilidade, verificou-se que o parâmetro volume de associação poderia ser mantido constante, reduzindo o número de parâmetros a serem estimados. O objetivo principal foi estudar misturas que apresentassem associação cruzada ou forte interação entre os compostos. Com os parâmetros estimados, avaliou-se o desempenho do modelo GC-PC-SAFT no cálculo de propriedades de n-alcanos, 1-álcoois, aminas, clorofórmio e acetona. Os desvios médios obtidos no cálculo do equilíbrio líquido-vapor (VLE), entre as diferentes misturas estudadas, mostraram que a estratégia adotada para a estimação do parâmetro energia de associação apresentou bons resultados, com desvios relativamente baixos para a maioria dos casos estudados. Para IDAC, as predições foram muito semelhantes àquelas obtidas por outros modelos. Os resultados de VLE são importantes, pois fornecem informações sobre as concentrações intermediárias de uma mistura, enquanto que o IDAC fornece uma medida eficiente do grau de não-idealidade da mistura. Essas propriedades foram escolhidas com o objetivo de conseguir uma melhor representação das misturas, buscando eliminar a necessidade de parâmetros de interação binária. Os resultados obtidos revelam que o modelo GC-PC-SAFT proposto pode ser utilizado para predizer o equilíbrio líquido-vapor com uma precisão satisfatória para sistemas binários entre os diferentes compostos estudados, sem nenhum parâmetro de interação binária. / In this work, the PC-SAFT EoS is combined with a group contribution method (GC) for parameter estimation. To achieve this, experimental data for pure components (vapor pressure and liquid volume) and mixtures (vapor-liquid equilibria - VLE and infinite dilution activity coefficient -IDAC) has been used. Through sensitivity analysis, it has been found that the association volume parameter could be set constant, thus reducing the amount of parameters that needed to be estimated. The aim of this work was to study mixtures that presented cross association or strong component interaction. With the estimated parameters, GC-PC-SAFT performance in properties calculation of n-alkanes, 1-alcohols, amines, chloroform and ketone has been evaluated. The average deviations obtained in the calculation of vapor-liquid equilibria (VLE), in the different mixtures considered, have shown that the strategy for association energy parameter estimation has presented good results, with relatively low deviations for most of the cases. For IDAC, the predictions presented very similar results to those obtained by other models. VLE results are important because they provide information about mixtures’ intermediary concentrations, whereas IDAC offers an efficient measure of mixtures’ degree of non-ideality. These properties have been chosen with the aim of getting a better representation of the mixtures, seeking to eliminate the need for binary interaction parameters. The obtained results show that GC-PC-SAFT can be used to predict vapor-liquid equilibria for binary systems among the different studied components with satisfactory accuracy with no binary interaction parameter.

This thesis aims to investigate the nature of ideologies of language, and specifically to understand what kinds of linguistic, social, political and historical factors impact upon and inform ideologies of standardisation. I consider the particular case of the Spanish language, and examine how public debates in Spain’s press constitute discursive sites in which the ideologies of language authorities are evidenced. There are few studies which identify and critique the social actors in Spanish standardisation, and this thesis is a contribution to addressing that absence. By adopting a Critical Discourse Analysis approach , I seek to relate the microstructures of texts from two of Spain’s best-selling daily newspapers (El País and ABC) to the socio-political macrostructures in which press discourse is produced, and in which hegemonic ideologies underpin debates about Spanish. The press is a crucial vehicle of transmission in which language ideologies are staked out, and the large data corpus allows me to identify recurring aspects of discourse which become ‘naturalised’ and form ‘common sense’ beliefs about Spanish, its role, its authorities, and the practices of those who ‘guard’ the language. The principal guardian of Spanish, the Real Academia Española (RAE), is the particular focus of this thesis. I interrogate RAE discourse and shed light on this institution’s role in producing and maintaining a ‘standard’ Spanish in the contemporary context. Discourses of language unity and community are central, as are themes which form a vision of Spanish on an international scale. I argue that the RAE’s discourse serves to reinforce its authority and leadership in standardisation. I further argue that this centralisation of linguistic authority is occurring simultaneously with a rescaling and expansion of standardisation practices which go beyond the nation-state paradigm in pursuit of a ‘total Spanish’ guided by ‘panhispanic norms’. The role of other elite institutions in the panhispanic language policy is also legitimised in press discourse, with important social, cultural and commercial implications for not just Spain, but the entire Spanish-speaking world.

Jineterismo, frequently used as a synonym of prostitution, became a widely used term in Cuba in the 1990s. Perceived by some as a social problem that needed to be eliminated, and as a liberating economic strategy by others, the term is discussed in major studies on contemporary Cuba and often mentioned by travel writers outside of Cuba. Some scholars define jineterismo as the new female strategy adopted by young women to obtain hard currency, on the other hand, an influential Cuban politician, criticised jineteras, stating that they were immoral and embarrassing to Cuba. This study seeks to understand the meanings and practices of jineterismo from a bottom up perspective. Using ethnography to locate answers about jineterismo, I explore the meanings of the concept based on the views of those that Cuban society labels as jineteras. The central argument put forward in this study is that jineterismo has to be analysed as a diverse set of practices caused by a diverse set of factors, and that it involves a heterogeneous group of individuals. Jineterismo, I argue, ranges from the struggle to obtain hard currency to the practices involved in developing and maintaining romantic relationships with tourists, and is strongly informed by the desire to emigrate abroad. While jineterismo currently appears to be embedded in discourses of prostitution, this thesis highlights the romantic side of jineterismo and brings to the fore young Cuban women’s perceptions of Cuban men and life in Cuba, views that contrast significantly with their positive images of Europeans and the Western world. More importantly, the thesis improves our knowledge of jineterismo by offering a new perspective into the reasons that lead young Cuban women to seek relationships outside Cuba.

The aim of the project is to utilise fly ash (PFA), a waste material/industrial byproduct, with metakaolin (MK), as a partial replacement for Portland cement (PC) in mortar and paste. The influence of various compositions of MK-PFA-PC blends on the resistance to the action of sulphate and synthetic seawater solutions, setting time and heat of hydration will be examined. MK is calcinated clay and is a relatively new pozzolanic material. Although it is a very effective pozzolan it is also very expensive. Using FA, which is a much less expensive material, as a PC replacement material, is problematic, as there is slow and low early strength development whereas MK enhances early strength development. Combining these materials in ternary blends should therefore produce a high performance material at an acceptable cost for use as a pozzolan. However the properties and performance of such a material still need to be fully established. The results of the research show, for the initial and final setting time of binary MK-PC pastes there is a substantial increase at 5% MK and then decreases at 10 and 15% MK before increasing again at 20% MK replacement level. However, with PFA there are different trends to those observed when using MK alone. The initial and final setting time of binary PFA-PC pastes shows a slight increase at 10% PFA and then systematically increases with increase in PFA content up to 40% PFA. Evaluation of sample preparation for porosimetry found that, overall, the compression tested samples show a lower proportion of 'fine pores' (volume (%) 0.05) jam than the cored and cut paste disks. It is deducted that this is due to the widespread microcracking during failure of the cubes under compressive loading thus modifying the pore structure present in the compressive tested samples. In strength development of mortar there is very little advantage in using MK over binary PFA-PC mortar blends when exposed to sulphate solution for up to 2 years. The strength behaviour in seawater is however quite different from that observed in mortar exposed to sulphate solution. As the MK replacement levels increase relative to the PFA levels the resistance to seawater attack improves significantly. In mortar exposed to sulphate solution the durability is greatly improved at high replacement levels in both binary and ternary blends. The durability of mortar exposed to seawater is greatly improved at 30 and 40% total replacement in ternary blended mortars.

Interactive touchscreens such as tablet PCs (TPC) and interactive whiteboards (IWB) are becoming more and more common in classrooms around the world. To date, very little research has been conducted on the impact of the new technology on physics education. This systematic literature review aims to investigate research on what impact tablet PCs and interactive whiteboards might have on the education in upper Secondary School. The review was performed in response to the following questions: 1. What is the influence of IWBs and TPCs on students’ active participation in physics education? 2. How can an IWB or TPC improve students’ learning about physics concepts? 3. How can educational research on touchscreen technology help inform effective teaching strategies in physics education? To respond to the questions of the study, relevant research about interactive whiteboards and/or tablet PCs was consulted and analysed. Twelve articles were located, mainly through the ERIC and Scopus databases, but also through Google Scholar. The included articles reported empirical research about physics education with interactive whiteboards or tablet PCs. The results from the articles indicate that interactive touchscreens might help improve learners’ active participation in physics education. Interactive whiteboards can, for example, be used to display interactive simulations during group work, something students are found to appreciate and easily engage in. A tablet PC can be used in the same way, but also allows students to receive anonymous support and feedback from the teacher during class which seems to be beneficial for learning. Results show that it is possible to improve students’ understanding of physics concepts by using interactive whiteboards or tablet PCs. However, further research is required to compare results from students using touch technology and students taught in traditional manner to be able to draw any general conclusions about observed learning effects.

A modelagem termodinâmica do equilíbrio de fases e a determinação de propriedades termodinâmicas de sistemas em que as moléculas apresentam associação é um problema desafiador na indústria química. Embora o uso de equações de estado tenha sido durante muito tempo restrito aos sistemas de fluidos simples, há uma crescente demanda por modelos que também sejam adequados a compostos complexos e macromoleculares. O avanço teórico mais aparente para equações de estado com tais capacidades foi conseguido por aplicação dos princípios da mecânica estatística, o qual considera as forças de associação entre as moléculas em sua teoria molecular. Um exemplo desta categoria é a equação de estado PC-SAFT (Perturbed Chain-Statistical Associating Fluid Theory), cuja formulação requer apenas um pequeno conjunto de parâmetros para cada componente e estas interações são computadas através de regras de mistura. Desta forma, os objetivos deste trabalho foram a implementação do termo de associação desta equação e o desenvolvimento de ferramentas para o cálculo de propriedades termodinâmicas de sistemas contendo fluidos associados e não-associados, bem como para o cálculo do equilíbrio de fases. Todas as funções foram desenvolvidas no software MATLAB e a verificação da implementação foi feita através de comparação entre os resultados obtidos com estas ferramentas e dados experimentais e/ou outras equações de estado presentes na literatura. Através da comparação com dados de equilíbrio de fases disponíveis na literatura, foi analisado o desempenho da equação PC-SAFT com associação para diferentes sistemas multicomponentes e múltiplas fases envolvendo substâncias polares e apolares. Os resultados obtidos foram satisfatórios quando comparados a dados experimentais e aqueles obtidos através de outras equações de estado. / Modeling the phase equilibrium and thermodynamic properties of systems in which molecules exhibit associating interactions remains a challenging problem in chemical industry. Although the use of equations of state has for a long time been restricted to systems of simple fluids, there is an increasing demand for models that are also suitable for complex and macromolecular compounds. Progress toward this goal has been achieved by applying principles of statistical mechanics, which takes molecular theories into account. One example of such approach is the PC-SAFT (Perturbed Chain-Statistical Associating Fluid Theory) equation of state, which requires only a small set of parameters for each component and whose interactions are obtained by mixing rules. The goals of this work have been the implementation of the PC-SAFT association term and the development of tools for thermodynamic properties calculation of associating and non-associating systems, as well as for phase equilibria calculation. All the functions have been developed using MATLAB software and their implementation analysis has been made by comparing obtained results to experimental data and those obtained by other equations of state available in literature. Through these comparisons, PC-SAFT performance has been analyzed for different multicomponent and multiphase systems involving polar and non-polar substances. The obtained results have shown good correlation to both experimental data and those obtained by other equations of state.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:58:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 MarceloRanieriCardoso2006.pdf.jpg: 20525 bytes, checksum: cb02cf185729fbf010524ffa49c56808 (MD5) MarceloRanieriCardoso2006.pdf.txt: 160371 bytes, checksum: d6ddb266f0c466c2ef36717c95385680 (MD5) MarceloRanieriCardoso2006.pdf: 574671 bytes, checksum: cde9a9b19328edc2b573c671264fe6e4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-12-15T00:00:00Z / It´s consensus that in antitrust analysis that the concentration act taken by firms with significant market share must to go through some investigation in due to its approval, because of harmful effects that it might bring to the competition on industry. Competition is always desirable for the benefits that it generates in the economical welfare. Under the light of the economic investigations that the competition policy system performs, this work analyzes the measures of simulations of unilateral effects of horizontal concentrations. The evaluations carried out here test the use of PC-AIDS model (Proportionaly Calibrated AIDS) from Epstein and Rubinfeld (2002). Among some of the conclusions extracted from the use of this model we have: (i) for markets with low economic concentration, the model evaluated for a confidence interval of estimated own-price elasticities shows robust measures, and (ii) for markets with high economic concentration, more attention must be paid for the correlation between calibrated and estimated values of own-price elasticities, in order to ensure that will not occur an under or overestimation of unilateral effects of concentration acts. This result is analyzed in Nestlé/Garoto’s case. / É consenso na análise antitruste que o ato de concentração de empresas com participação significativa deve sofrer averiguações quanto a sua aprovação em decorrência dos efeitos prejudiciais que pode gerar sobre a concorrência na indústria. Concorrência é sempre desejável por favorecer melhores níveis de bem-estar econômico. À luz das investigações econômicas que os sistemas de defesa da concorrência realizam, este trabalho analisa as mensurações da simulação de efeitos unilaterais de concentrações horizontais. As avaliações realizadas testam a utilização do modelo PC-AIDS (Proportionaly Calibrated AIDS), de Epstein e Rubinfeld (2002). Dentre algumas conclusões que se extraem do uso do modelo temos que: (i) em mercados com baixa concentração econômica, o modelo avaliado para um intervalo da vizinhança da elasticidade-preço própria estimada, traz mensurações robustas, e (ii) para mercados com alta concentração econômica uma atenção maior deve ser dada à correspondência dos valores calibrados e estimados das elasticidades-preços próprias, para que não ocorra sub ou superestimação dos efeitos unilaterais do ato de concentração. Esse resultado é avaliado no caso Nestlé/Garoto.