Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:37:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 KellyCFR_DISSERT.pdf: 3831133 bytes, checksum: a54a3539750464b7f4f3a501900891d7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-03-11 / Meditation is described as a method for improving attention and promoting psychological and emotional stability, presenting favourable results on memory and stress tolerance as well. Studies have shown differences in physiological and psychological measurements between meditators and non-meditators. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of regular meditation practice on working memory, psychological measurements and quality of life of healthy practitioners. We carried out a comparative study with meditators and non-meditators. Working memory tests and standard inventories of life quality, anxiety, mood, sleep quality, depression and stress were applied. Our study showed that meditators presented better scores in parameters indicative of life quality, mood, depression and stress when compared with non-meditators. Moreover, there was a trend in best performance of meditators in memory tasks (forward digit span task and Hanoi tower). These findings corroborate other studies showing that regular meditation can provide an improvement in general quality of life and affecting positively the behavioral and attentional functions in individuals / A medita??o ? um m?todo proposto para amplia??o da aten??o e promo??o da estabilidade psicol?gica e emocional, com resultados favor?veis tamb?m em rela??o ? melhora da mem?ria e ? adapta??o ao estresse. Muitos estudos t?m demonstrado que h? diferen?as de medidas psicol?gicas e fisiol?gicas entre indiv?duos que praticam medita??o regularmente (meditadores experientes) e n?o meditadores. O objetivo principal deste estudo foi investigar os efeitos da pr?tica regular de medita??o sobre a mem?ria operacional, par?metros psicol?gicos e de qualidade de vida de indiv?duos saud?veis. Para tanto, comparamos o desempenho de praticantes e n?o praticantes de medita??o em testes de mem?ria, invent?rios de qualidade de vida, ansiedade, humor, qualidade de sono, depress?o e estresse. Nosso estudo demonstrou que meditadores experientes apresentam diferen?as significativas em rela??o a aspectos como qualidade de vida, humor, depress?o e estresse quando comparados com n?o meditadores. Al?m disso, houve uma tend?ncia ao melhor desempenho dos praticantes na manipula??o da informa??o (repeti??o de d?gitos na ordem inversa). Estes achados corroboram outros estudos que ap?iam a id?ia de que a pr?tica meditativa regular pode melhorar a qualidade de vida e afetar positivamente fun??es comportamentais e atencionais em indiv?duos

This diploma thesis deals with the principle of the abrasive jet and describes the devices needed to create it. The thesis presents an analysis of technological parameters and their impact on the quality of the cut. Subsequently, this thesis deals with an experiment, which consists in the design of technology for a sample component, followed by evaluation of surface quality and the economic evaluation.

The wastewater treatment process is one of the most important processes which contributes to the protection of the environment. This process can also potentially recover necessary and scarce raw materials, such as phosphorus. Research of the wastewater treatment technology is an increasingly relevant topic and more innovative knowledge should be gradually implemented into existing plants. However, the implementation of such technology involves increased investment and often operating costs. This is, why there is a growing interest in improving the energy intensity and hydraulic efficiency of the installed wastewater plant machinery. The optimization of operating parameters in such machinery can also bring significant savings, which can be potentially re-invested into other technologies. This work deals with the issue of proper evaluation of installed machinery for the selection of operating parameters and assessment of their significance. As the challenge, wastewater treatment technology is very sensitive towards the combination of technological equipment and incorrect operational parameters can lead to erroneous evaluation of the efficiency of individual equipment or inappropriate engineering proposals. To eliminate these risks, an analytical procedure for the selection and evaluation of parameters is proposed in this work. This procedure is demonstrated on six types of equipment. To verify the conclusions of the proposed procedure, a model design of the equipment was performed, in which the influence of individual parameters was concisely assessed. By using the data, the proposed procedure could be validated more specifically. In this work, the necessary data for the design was obtained by experimental research and extensive testing. The results confirm the practical applicability of the proposed procedure.