The huge landfills from solid waste generated by the massive utilisation of different products from domestic sources are badly affecting the environment. About 70% of the solid municipal waste, two thirds of which comprises of household waste, is dumped as landflll all over the world. For efficient product lifecycle management via upgrade, maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, and reclamation of components etc., storage of product related information throughout its lifecycle is indispensable. Efficient use of information technology integrated with product design can enable products to manage themselves in a semiautomatic and intelligent manner. It means that products themselves should contain informationú that what to do with them when they are of no use. More advanced products may locate themselves and communicate with their recyclers through internet or some other communication technology. In this regard, different types of technologies have been investigated. These technologies are broadly classified as passive embedded information devices and active embedded information devices. Methods of automatic identification in combination with information technology can act as passive Embedded Information Devices (EID) to make products intelligent enough in order to manage associated information throughout their life cycles. Barcodes, Radio Frequency Identification tags, and a new technology called i-button technology were investigated as possible candidates for passive EIDs. The ibutton technology from the perspective of product lifecycle management is presented for the very first time in the literature. Experiments demonstrated that RFID and i-button technologies have potential to store not only the static but dynamic data up to some extent, such as small maintenance logs. As passive EIDs are unable to store the sensory data and detailed maintenance logs regarding a product, therefore, in addition to these demonstrators for passive EIDs, an advanced active EID demonstrator for lifecycle management of products with high functional complexity is also presented. Initially, the idea is presented as smart EID system that r~cords the sensory data of a refrigerator compressor and stores the detailed maintenance logs into the product itself. However, this idea is extended as intelligent EID that is implemented on a gearbox in order to predict the gearbox lifetime under an accelerated life test. This involves developmen,t of a novel on-chip life prediction algorithm to predict the gearbox lifetime under accelerated life testing scenario. The algorithm involves a combination of artificial neural networks and an appropriate reliability distribution. Results of accelerated life testing, simulation for the choice of appropriate reliability distribution and the life prediction algorithm are presented. Bi-directional communication software that is developed in order to retrieve lifecycle data from the intelligent EID and to keep intelligent EID updated is also explained. Overall, embedded information devices can be proposed as a good solution to support a sustainable approach to lifecycle management.

Esta dissertação é um estudo exploratório sobre o processo de mediação e apropriação cultural de informação em um contexto social, marcado historicamente pela expropriação cultural - Cambury - uma comunidade rural formada por pescadores e quilombolas que vivem na Mata Atlântica. A análise de campo e as reflexões teóricas se debruçaram sobre o papel do mediador e dos dispositivos informacionais, tendo como referência metodológica a pedagogia dialógica das Oficinas de Memória, espaço privilegiado para experimentação de saberes, trocas culturais e simbólicas. Como resultado, formulamos categorias significativas de análise do mediador cultural, cujo amálgama de saberes (informacionais; procedimentais e atitudinais) julgamos indispensável aos processos de significação em territórios simbólicos diferenciados. Como produto de conhecimento no campo da pesquisa social aplicada, criamos o dispositivo infoeducativo - Estação Memória Cambury - conjugado à interface de comunicação digital; e desenvolvemos referenciais teóricos e metodológicos que podem contribuir em futuras práticas infoeducativas que favoreçam a produção, circulação e apropriação social de saberes com os sujeitos do saber, confrontando-os com a questão do sentido da vida, do mundo e de si mesmos. / This dissertation is an exploratory study about the mediation process and cultural appropriation of information in a social context which is historically marked by the cultural expropriation - Cambury - a rural community formed by fishermen and other native citizens living nowadays in the Atlantic Forest. The field analysis and the theoretical reflections are based on the role of the mediator and on informational devices. As methodological reference we have the dialogical pedagogy collected from Oficinas de Memória (Workshops of Memory), a privileged space for experimentation of knowledge, cultural and symbolic trading. As a result, we have elaborated important analytical categories for the cultural mediator whose amalgam of knowledge (informational, procedural and attitudinal) is indispensable to the processes of meaningfulness in differentiated symbolic territories. The output in the field of practical social research, is nevertheless the creation of an info-educative device - Estação Memória Cambury - (Cambury Memory Station) - linked to digital communication interface. Finally, methodological and theoretical references have also been developed to possibly contribute in further info-educative practices to enable social production, circulation and knowledge basis together with the subjects of the referred basis, confronting people with life; the meaning of life and of the world and themselves amongst it all.

Esta dissertação é um estudo exploratório sobre o processo de mediação e apropriação cultural de informação em um contexto social, marcado historicamente pela expropriação cultural - Cambury - uma comunidade rural formada por pescadores e quilombolas que vivem na Mata Atlântica. A análise de campo e as reflexões teóricas se debruçaram sobre o papel do mediador e dos dispositivos informacionais, tendo como referência metodológica a pedagogia dialógica das Oficinas de Memória, espaço privilegiado para experimentação de saberes, trocas culturais e simbólicas. Como resultado, formulamos categorias significativas de análise do mediador cultural, cujo amálgama de saberes (informacionais; procedimentais e atitudinais) julgamos indispensável aos processos de significação em territórios simbólicos diferenciados. Como produto de conhecimento no campo da pesquisa social aplicada, criamos o dispositivo infoeducativo - Estação Memória Cambury - conjugado à interface de comunicação digital; e desenvolvemos referenciais teóricos e metodológicos que podem contribuir em futuras práticas infoeducativas que favoreçam a produção, circulação e apropriação social de saberes com os sujeitos do saber, confrontando-os com a questão do sentido da vida, do mundo e de si mesmos. / This dissertation is an exploratory study about the mediation process and cultural appropriation of information in a social context which is historically marked by the cultural expropriation - Cambury - a rural community formed by fishermen and other native citizens living nowadays in the Atlantic Forest. The field analysis and the theoretical reflections are based on the role of the mediator and on informational devices. As methodological reference we have the dialogical pedagogy collected from Oficinas de Memória (Workshops of Memory), a privileged space for experimentation of knowledge, cultural and symbolic trading. As a result, we have elaborated important analytical categories for the cultural mediator whose amalgam of knowledge (informational, procedural and attitudinal) is indispensable to the processes of meaningfulness in differentiated symbolic territories. The output in the field of practical social research, is nevertheless the creation of an info-educative device - Estação Memória Cambury - (Cambury Memory Station) - linked to digital communication interface. Finally, methodological and theoretical references have also been developed to possibly contribute in further info-educative practices to enable social production, circulation and knowledge basis together with the subjects of the referred basis, confronting people with life; the meaning of life and of the world and themselves amongst it all.

Este trabalho apresenta um estudo sobre a busca de informação em Educação, e tendo em vista requalificá-la como parte essencial dos processos de apropriação de conhecimentos, de construção de significados e de identidade na contemporaneidade. Para tanto, defende a necessidade de dispositivos informacionais, constituídos a partir de um ordem informacional dialógica, em oposição à ordem monológica. Sistematiza referências teóricas e metodológicas para sua criação, a partir da implantação e acompanhamento de uma biblioteca escolar, para crianças de educação infantil e ensino fundamental, na cidade de São Bernardo do campo, em São Paulo. / This work presents a study about the search for information in education, keeping in mind requalifyng it as an essential part of the processes of knowledge acquiriment, construction of meaning and it´s identity in the contemporary. For in such a way, defends the necessity of informational devices, built from dialogical informational order, in opposition to monologic. Systemizes theoretic and methodological references for its creation, from the implantation and accompaniment of a school library, for kindergarten and fundamental education children, inthe city of São bernardo do campo, São Paulo.

Este trabalho apresenta um estudo sobre a busca de informação em Educação, e tendo em vista requalificá-la como parte essencial dos processos de apropriação de conhecimentos, de construção de significados e de identidade na contemporaneidade. Para tanto, defende a necessidade de dispositivos informacionais, constituídos a partir de um ordem informacional dialógica, em oposição à ordem monológica. Sistematiza referências teóricas e metodológicas para sua criação, a partir da implantação e acompanhamento de uma biblioteca escolar, para crianças de educação infantil e ensino fundamental, na cidade de São Bernardo do campo, em São Paulo. / This work presents a study about the search for information in education, keeping in mind requalifyng it as an essential part of the processes of knowledge acquiriment, construction of meaning and it´s identity in the contemporary. For in such a way, defends the necessity of informational devices, built from dialogical informational order, in opposition to monologic. Systemizes theoretic and methodological references for its creation, from the implantation and accompaniment of a school library, for kindergarten and fundamental education children, inthe city of São bernardo do campo, São Paulo.