The purpose of this qualitive content analysis is to examine and analyse how children are visualized in toy catalogs, depending on their gender, 2014 - 2015.   It is important to observe how advertisement maintains the gender stereotypes norms of our society, since it has a major impact on our self-image and identity. Especially when it comes to children, who absorb everything and also because it is during the childhood the socialization process begins.   It is common that toy stores and toy catalogs distinguish boy toys from girl toys, based on the toy’s colour, form and function. This phenomena has become a topic of public discussion in recent years. Therefore, the two large toy companies, BR-leksaker and Toys “R” Us, claim to have published gender neutral toy catalogs by changing the gender roles and letting boys and girls play together with the same toys.   In order to gain more knowledge of toys impact on gender roles, we studied previous research by scientist in the field of gender, e.g. Almqvist, Butler and Connell. By using a qualitative method with a semiotic perspective, we found recurrent underlying aspects in the advertisements, by the selection of twelve pictures. The studies result implies that the studied toy catalogs are not yet equal, although a certain level of progress can be ascertained. Not even the three most equal advertisements visualized girls and boys equally, because of details such as stereotypical hairstyles, accessories and clothing. Furthermore, the study shows that girls are portrayed with boy toys than vice versa, which implies that boys are to a greater extent regarded as abnormal.

Using a sequential mixed-method methodology, this dissertation study set out to understand the emic and etic perspectives of the knowledge encompassed in the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework and to develop fixed answer questions based on that knowledge. While there have been many studies examining ways to measure TPACK in in-service and pre-service teachers, very few have addressed measuring TPACK using fixed-answer questions. Through the use of the mixed-methods, a snapshot of the emic (inside) and etic (outside) perspectives on the TPACK framework was obtained. This study used a focus group with in-service teachers (emic perspective) and interviews with teacher educators (etic perspective) to understand the kind of knowledge attributed to the TPACK framework. Six themes were derived from the focus group and interviews, from which fixed-answer questions were developed. Those six themes included such issues as access to technology, the use of technology for solid teaching and learning purposes, and passive versus active learning when using technology. Following best practices, the eleven questions included a scenario that gave context to the questions asked and the answers provided. In-service teachers reviewed the items to assure that the language and context were appropriate to classroom practice. Four experts on the TPACK framework reviewed the items for face validity. Across the experts six of the eleven items were rated as valid. Although only the experts saw a small number of items as valid, this study indicates that this kind of measurement for the TPACK framework may be possible.

Following successful implementation of inerters for passive mechanical control in racing cars, this research studies potential innovative solutions for railway vehicle suspensions by bringing the inerter concept to the design of mechatronic systems. The inerter is a kinetic energy storage device which reacts to relative accelerations; together with springs and dampers, it can implement a range of mechanical networks distinguished by their frequency characteristics. This thesis investigates advantages of inerter-based novel devices to simplify the design of active solutions. Most of the research work is devoted to the enhancement of vertical ride quality; integrated active-plus-novel-passive solutions are proposed for the secondary suspensions. These are defined by different active control strategies and passive configurations including inerters. By optimisation of the suspension parameters, a synergy between passive and active configurations is demonstrated for a range of ride quality conditions. The evidence of cooperative work is found in the reduction of the required active forces and suspension travelling. This reveals a potential for reducing the actuator size. Benefits on power requirements and actuator dynamic compensation were also identified. One of the strategies features a nonlinear control law proposed here to compensate for 'sky-hook' damping effects on suspension deflection; this, together with inerter-based devices attains up to 50% in active force reduction for a setting providing 30% of ride quality enhancement. The study is developed from both, an analytical and an engineering perspective. Validation of the results with a more sophisticated model is performed. The lateral stability problem was briefly considered towards the end of the investigation. A potential use of inerter-based devices to replace the static yaw stiffness by dynamic characteristics was identified. This leads to a synergy with 'absolute stiffness', an active stability solution for controlling the wheelset 'hunting' problem, for reducing the creep forces developed during curve negotiation.

Title: The ifluence of active and passive recovery for repetitive short-term motorised exercise Objectives: To explore and discover the influence of active and passive recovery for repetitive short-term motorised exercise. Methods: Research of the professional publications used during the process. Target group sample consists of female footballers of FK Dukla Praha, who actively play the chosen sport - football. The entire sample were divided into two groups containing 5 members. Each group completed 2 tests with a different type of recovery and a 48 hour break. The results were measured with a photocell and then evaluated and utilised. Results: We discovered that during repetitive short-term motorised exercise passive recovery is better than active recovery. For passive recovery, the overall average of the measured values of 10.6 and active recovery, it was 10.67. Keywords: active recovery, passive recovery, motorised excercise, agilities of performance

O método da análise multicanal de ondas superficiais foi empregado em um estudo de caso no sítio controlado do Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas da Universidade de São Paulo - IAG-USP, localizado no campus Butantã, São Paulo, em terrenos da bacia sedimentar de São Paulo. O estudo visou à investigação geológica rasa, ou seja, ao mapeamento dos estratos sedimentares presentes e do contato sedimentos-embasamento. Além disso, procurou-se, através de testes de diversos parâmetros de aquisição, chegar-se a uma rotina para a aquisição e tratamento dos dados provenientes de fontes ativas (marreta e queda de peso) e passivas (tráfego de veículos) que possa ser indicada para ensaios em outras áreas da cidade de São Paulo que apresentem condições semelhantes às da área estudada. Na aquisição com fontes ativas foram registrados dados com diversos offsets mínimos e na passiva foi aplicada a técnica Passive Roadside com o arranjo de geofones disposto próximo e paralelamente à via de tráfego. Foram realizadas as etapas de pré-processamento dos dados, geração das imagens de dispersão, extração das curvas de dispersão e inversão. A combinação de imagens geradas a partir de dados adquiridos com diferentes fontes resultou numa imagem com melhor razão sinal-ruído, e consequentemente na produção de melhores curvas que foram invertidas para a geração dos perfis 1D das velocidades da onda S. De modo geral, os perfis de velocidades obtidos a partir dos dados obtidos com o emprego de uma marreta para geração da onda mapearam as interfaces geológicas mais superficiais, já os perfis resultantes dos dados adquiridos com o uso de uma fonte tipo queda de peso alcançaram profundidades maiores, por vezes amostrando o embasamento. No caso das fontes passivas, as principais interfaces de contato foram imageadas, conseguindo-se com sucesso o mapeamento do embasamento, que na área está a mais de 50 metros de profundidade. Correlações com o perfil litológico e de dados de ensaios SPT de um furo de sondagem localizado no centro do arranjo revelaram que as diferenças na determinação da profundidade das interfaces foram menores do que 10%. Desta forma, o método mostrou ser uma ferramenta prática e eficiente nas aplicações geotécnicas, principalmente em ix áreas urbanas onde o ruído é elevado, o que muitas vezes inviabiliza o uso da investigação sísmica convencional (refração ou reflexão). / The multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW) method was employed in a case study on the controlled site in the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences (IAG), University of São Paulo (USP), located on the campus Butantã, São Paulo, in the grounds of the sedimentary basin São Paulo. The study aimed to shallow geological investigation, in other words, mapping of sedimentary strata present and the sediment-basement contact. In addition, It is sought to, by testing with different acquisition parameters, to get a routine for the acquisition and processing of data from active sources (sledgehammer and drop weight) and passive (vehicle traffic) that can be suitable for testing in other areas of the city of São Paulo who have similar conditions of the study area. In the acquisition with active sources were registered data with many different offsets and passive acquisition has been applied to the Passive Roadside MASW technique with the conventional linear receiver array disposed near and parallel to the traffic lane. Were performed, pre-processing of the data, generation of images of dispersion, extraction of dispersion curves and inversion. The combination of images generated based on data acquired from various sources resulted in image with improved signal to noise ratio and consequently in the production of finest curves that have been inverted to generate the 1D shear-wave velocities profiles. In general, the velocity profiles obtained from the data were acquired with the use of a sledgehammer to the wave generation mapped shallowest geological interfaces, but the resulting profiles of the acquired data using a font type \"drop weight\" reached greater depths, sometimes sampling the basement. In the case of passive sources, the main contact interfaces were imaged, achieving successful mapping of the basement, which in this area is over 50 meters deep. Correlations with the lithological profile and SPT data from a borehole located in the center of the array revealed that the differences in the depth determination of the interfaces was less than 10%. Thus, the method showed to be an efficient and practical tool in geotechnical applications, especially in urban areas where the noise is high, which often prevents the use of conventional seismic survey (reflection or refraction).

Measuring Internet performance for home users can provide useful information for improving network performance. Such measurements typically require users to install special software on their machines, a major impediment to use. To overcome this impediment, we designed and implemented several scripting techniques to predict Internet performance within the tightly constrained sandbox environment of a Web browser. Our techniques are integrated into a Web site project called "How's My Network" that provides performance predictions for common Internet activities, with this thesis concentrating on the performance of online news, social networks, and online shopping. We started our approach by characterizing news sites to understand their structures. After that, we designed models to predict the user's performance for reading news online. We then implement these models using Javascript and evaluate their results. We find out that news sites share common characteristics in their structures with outliers for some. Predicting the page load time according to number objects coming from dominant domain, the one providing the most number of objects, gives more accurate predictions than using total number of objects across all domains. The contributions of this work include the design of new approaches for predicting Web browser performance, and the implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of our approach to predict Web browser performance.

O método da análise multicanal de ondas superficiais foi empregado em um estudo de caso no sítio controlado do Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas da Universidade de São Paulo - IAG-USP, localizado no campus Butantã, São Paulo, em terrenos da bacia sedimentar de São Paulo. O estudo visou à investigação geológica rasa, ou seja, ao mapeamento dos estratos sedimentares presentes e do contato sedimentos-embasamento. Além disso, procurou-se, através de testes de diversos parâmetros de aquisição, chegar-se a uma rotina para a aquisição e tratamento dos dados provenientes de fontes ativas (marreta e queda de peso) e passivas (tráfego de veículos) que possa ser indicada para ensaios em outras áreas da cidade de São Paulo que apresentem condições semelhantes às da área estudada. Na aquisição com fontes ativas foram registrados dados com diversos offsets mínimos e na passiva foi aplicada a técnica Passive Roadside com o arranjo de geofones disposto próximo e paralelamente à via de tráfego. Foram realizadas as etapas de pré-processamento dos dados, geração das imagens de dispersão, extração das curvas de dispersão e inversão. A combinação de imagens geradas a partir de dados adquiridos com diferentes fontes resultou numa imagem com melhor razão sinal-ruído, e consequentemente na produção de melhores curvas que foram invertidas para a geração dos perfis 1D das velocidades da onda S. De modo geral, os perfis de velocidades obtidos a partir dos dados obtidos com o emprego de uma marreta para geração da onda mapearam as interfaces geológicas mais superficiais, já os perfis resultantes dos dados adquiridos com o uso de uma fonte tipo queda de peso alcançaram profundidades maiores, por vezes amostrando o embasamento. No caso das fontes passivas, as principais interfaces de contato foram imageadas, conseguindo-se com sucesso o mapeamento do embasamento, que na área está a mais de 50 metros de profundidade. Correlações com o perfil litológico e de dados de ensaios SPT de um furo de sondagem localizado no centro do arranjo revelaram que as diferenças na determinação da profundidade das interfaces foram menores do que 10%. Desta forma, o método mostrou ser uma ferramenta prática e eficiente nas aplicações geotécnicas, principalmente em ix áreas urbanas onde o ruído é elevado, o que muitas vezes inviabiliza o uso da investigação sísmica convencional (refração ou reflexão). / The multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW) method was employed in a case study on the controlled site in the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences (IAG), University of São Paulo (USP), located on the campus Butantã, São Paulo, in the grounds of the sedimentary basin São Paulo. The study aimed to shallow geological investigation, in other words, mapping of sedimentary strata present and the sediment-basement contact. In addition, It is sought to, by testing with different acquisition parameters, to get a routine for the acquisition and processing of data from active sources (sledgehammer and drop weight) and passive (vehicle traffic) that can be suitable for testing in other areas of the city of São Paulo who have similar conditions of the study area. In the acquisition with active sources were registered data with many different offsets and passive acquisition has been applied to the Passive Roadside MASW technique with the conventional linear receiver array disposed near and parallel to the traffic lane. Were performed, pre-processing of the data, generation of images of dispersion, extraction of dispersion curves and inversion. The combination of images generated based on data acquired from various sources resulted in image with improved signal to noise ratio and consequently in the production of finest curves that have been inverted to generate the 1D shear-wave velocities profiles. In general, the velocity profiles obtained from the data were acquired with the use of a sledgehammer to the wave generation mapped shallowest geological interfaces, but the resulting profiles of the acquired data using a font type \"drop weight\" reached greater depths, sometimes sampling the basement. In the case of passive sources, the main contact interfaces were imaged, achieving successful mapping of the basement, which in this area is over 50 meters deep. Correlations with the lithological profile and SPT data from a borehole located in the center of the array revealed that the differences in the depth determination of the interfaces was less than 10%. Thus, the method showed to be an efficient and practical tool in geotechnical applications, especially in urban areas where the noise is high, which often prevents the use of conventional seismic survey (reflection or refraction).

In multicellular organisms, all the cells are genetically identical but turn genes on or off at the right time to promote differentiation into specific cell types. The regulation of higher-order chromatin structure is essential for genome-wide reprogramming and for tissue-specific patterns of gene expression. The complexity of the genome is regulated by epigenetic mechanisms, which act at the level of DNA, histones, and nucleosomes. Epigenetic machinery is involved in many biological processes, including genomic imprinting, X-chromosome inactivation, heterochromatin formation, and transcriptional regulation, as well as DNA damage repair. In this review, we summarize the recent understanding of DNA methylation, cytosine derivatives, active and passive demethylation pathways as well as histone variants. DNA methylation is one of the well-characterized epigenetic signaling tools. Cytosine methylation of promoter regions usually represses transcription but methylation in the gene body may have a positive correlation with gene expression. The attachment of a methyl group to cytosine residue in the DNA sequence is catalyzed by enzymes of the DNA methyltransferase family. Recent studies have shown that the Ten-Eleven translocation family enzymes are involved in stepwise oxidation of 5-methylcytosine, creating new cytosine derivatives including 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, 5-formylcytosine, and 5-carboxylcytosine. Additionally, histone variants into nucleosomes create another strategy to regulate the structure and function of chromatin. The replacement of canonical histones with specialized histone variants regulates accessibility of DNA, and thus may affect multiple biological processes, such as replication, transcription, DNA repair, and play a role in various disorders such as cancer.

Recently, the debate on passive versus active fund management has been a major focus on the Swedish capital market. Passive management is gaining more and more market shares. However, theories and previous research show that Smart Beta strategies outperform their passive benchmark index. The Smart Beta strategy is described as a hybrid between active and passive fund management, where it takes advantage of the low management cost of passive fund management and active fund management’s ability to select. This study presents three new Smart Beta strategies based on the key ratios ROA, profit margin and gross margin. The purpose of the study is to investigate whether any of the three Smart Beta portfolios can perform better than the Swedish market based on OMXS30 from a risk-adjusted perspective. Previous studies have shown that Smart Beta portfolios outperform their benchmark index. However, this study's contributing key figures show no excess return for the investigated period on the Swedish stock market.

The aim of this study was to investigate the passive and active parameters affecting energy efficiency of two office buildings with sun spaces, namely the MATPUM Building and the Solar Building on the Middle East Technical University (METU) Campus, Ankara and the effect of sun spaces on temperature patterns within mentioned buildings. Both buildings were oriented in the same direction, namely south. However, the location and the type of the sunspaces differed from each other. The sun space in the MATPUM Building is an atrium which has southerly glazed fa&ccedil / ade. On the other hand, the sun space in the Solar Building is an enclosed conservatory which has southerly glazed fa&ccedil / ades and roof. The effect of sun spaces on temperature patterns within case study buildings was determined by collecting internal temperature and humidity data from different locations within the buildings and external temperature and humidity data on certain days of the week from May to August and October and November. Data loggers were used to collect these data. The collected data was then compared for the two buildings and also for the different months. In conclusion, more heat gain resulting in temperature increase inside the buildings was obtained in conservatories when compared to the atria which have glazed fa&ccedil / ade instead of glazed roof. This was also proved by the analysis of variance method which was used for the comparison of temperature data of two buildings