Critical Digital Pedagogies in Modern Languages – a Tutorial Collection

This introduction sets out the context for this special collection of self-learning online tutorials exploring critical pedagogies in Modern Languages. Previous research has demonstrated that, while some areas within the Modern Languages (such as language pedagogy) have a long history of engagement with digital mediation through approaches such as CALL, MALL and TELL, broader experience with digital culture and technology within the field is characterised by uncertainty, scepticism and sometimes anxiety. This is particularly apparent in the area of digital literacy acquisition – a survey we carried out in 2019 demonstrated significant interest in acquiring digital literacies appropriate to Modern Languages education and research, but also doubts about which literacies needed to be acquired and how to acquire them. This collection consists of practical and open educational resources for use in the Modern Languages, but it also represents an interrogation of the affordances and limitations generated by digital mediation. In this introduction we highlight some of the challenges that the collection had to overcome, and in so doing, we hope to foster wider discussion about how digital learning resources can be better integrated into Modern Languages education and research across languages, across educational levels and across digital platforms

The Impacts of MERCOSUR on Brazil

International Relations/Trade,

Regular string-like braneworlds

In this work, we propose a new class of smooth thick string-like braneworld in six dimensions. The brane exhibits a varying brane-tension and an $AdS$ asymptotic behavior. The brane-core geometry is parametrized by the Bulk cosmological constant, the brane width and by a geometrical deformation parameter. The source satisfies the dominant energy condition for the undeformed solution and has an exotic asymptotic regime for the deformed solution. This scenario provides a normalized massless Kaluza-Klein mode for the scalar, gravitational and gauge sectors. The near-brane geometry allows massive resonant modes at the brane for the $s$ state and nearby the brane for $l=1$.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures. Some modifications to match the published version in EPJ

Widening siamese architectures for stereo matching

Computational stereo is one of the classical problems in computer vision. Numerous algorithms and solutions have been reported in recent years focusing on developing methods for computing similarity, aggregating it to obtain spatial support and finally optimizing an energy function to find the final disparity. In this paper, we focus on the feature extraction component of stereo matching architecture and we show standard CNNs operation can be used to improve the quality of the features used to find point correspondences. Furthermore, we use a simple space aggregation that hugely simplifies the correlation learning problem, allowing us to better evaluate the quality of the features extracted. Our results on benchmark data are compelling and show promising potential even without refining the solution

On Mixed Convection in a Horizontal Channel, Viscous Dissipation and Flow Duality

The conditions defining a stationary fluid flow may lead to a multiplicity of solutions. This circumstance is widely documented in the literature when mixed convection in a vertical channel or duct is accompanied by an important effect of viscous dissipation. Usually, there are double stationary solutions with a parallel velocity field which satisfy given temperature boundary conditions and with a prescribed mass flow rate. However, in a vertical internal flow, the dual solutions can be determined only numerically as they do not have a closed analytical form. This study shows that, in a horizontal channel, stationary mixed convection with viscous dissipation shows up dual flow branches whose mathematical expressions can be determined analytically. The features of these dual flows are discussed

Evidence for entanglement at high temperatures in an engineered molecular magnet

The molecular compound [Fe$_{2}$($\mu_{2}$-oxo)(C$_{3}$H$_{4}$N$_{2}$)$_{6}$(C$_{2}$O$_{4}$)$_{2}$] was designed and synthesized for the first time and its structure was determined using single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The magnetic susceptibility of this compound was measured from 2 to 300 K. The analysis of the susceptibility data using protocols developed for other spin singlet ground-state systems indicates that the quantum entanglement would remain at temperatures up to 732 K, significantly above the highest entanglement temperature reported to date. The large gap between the ground state and the first-excited state (282 K) suggests that the spin system may be somewhat immune to decohering mechanisms. Our measurements strongly suggest that molecular magnets are promising candidate platforms for quantum information processing

Costs and benefits of agricultural price stabilization in Brazil

In recent years, agricultural price stabilization policies have been recommended in Brazil as a way to reduce government intervention and open the sector for international trade without internalizing the instability of world prices. The proposal discussed (and eventually implemented in 1987) was to establish a system of price bands around a moving average of past prices, with the government relying on stocks to defend the bands. The authors evaluated the"band proposal"for six commodities, using historical data and posing this question: what would have happened if price bands had been adopted in the past six to ten years (compared with free trade)? There were two major findings. First, the implications of adopting a band-rule policy depend heavily on the specific characteristics of the commodities. Second, the welfare gains for risk reduction through agricultural price stabilization are unlikely to be large relative to the welfare gains from price reform that reduces market distortions for these six agricultural commodities. More research into the macroeconomic implications of price stabilization policies is necessary, particularly in countries with unstable but moderate rates of inflation.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Markets and Market Access,Access to Markets,Insurance&Risk Mitigation

HAPNet: hierarchically aggregated pyramid network for real-time stereo matching

©Recovering the 3D shape of the surgical site is crucial for multiple computer-assisted interventions. Stereo endoscopes can be used to compute 3D depth but computational stereo is a challenging, non-convex and inherently discontinuous optimisation problem. In this paper, we propose a deep learning architecture which avoids the explicit construction of a cost volume of similarity which is one of the most computationally costly blocks of stereo algorithms. This makes training our network significantly more efficient and avoids the needs for large memory allocation. Our method performs well, especially around regions comprising multiple discontinuities around surgical instrumentation or around complex small structures and instruments. The method compares well to the state-of-the-art techniques while taking a different methodological angle to computational stereo problem in surgical video

Pustumeira: uma nova e boa opção forrageira para áreas de sequeiro.

Qualidade da pustumeira; Onde, como e quando plantar a pustumeira?; Formas de uso da pustumeira.bitstream/item/17803/1/INT90.pd

Determinação de Elementos Traço em Petróleos e em Águas de Produção por Espectrometria de Absorção Atômica

Este trabalho apresenta o desenvolvimento de procedimentos utilizando as técnicas de espectrometria de absorção atômica em chama (F AAS) e a espectrometria de absorção atômica em forno de grafite (GF AAS) para determinação de elementos traço em petróleos e em águas de produção. Ca, Mg e Sr foram determinados em petróleos e em águas de produção por F AAS enquanto que o Ba e o Cr foram determinados em petróleos por GF AAS. Ca, Mg, Sr e Ba foram determinados nos petróleos (13 a 38°API) após estabilização das amostras por formação de emulsão, e para a determinação de Cr em amostras de petróleo (8 a 38º API), três procedimentos de prétratamento foram desenvolvidos e comparados: diluição com tolueno, formação de emulsão e amostragem direta. Para a determinação de Ca, Mg e Sr em águas de produção, as amostras foram diluídas em HNO3 0,2% v/v. As determinações de Ca, Mg, Sr, Ba e Cr em petróleos foram realizadas utilizando curvas analíticas com padrões aquosos como método de calibração, sendo que para a determinação de Cr pelo procedimento de diluição com tolueno foi utilizado o padrão organometálico. A precisão e a exatidão dos procedimentos desenvolvidos foram verificadas através de estudos de recuperação, análise de uma amostra de referência (NIST 1085b) e da comparação com outros procedimentos. Os valores de recuperação situaram-se entre 96 e 104% para os procedimentos desenvolvidos e os resultados para o material certificado de referência foram concordantes com os valores obtidos para Ca, Mg, Ba e Cr. Todos os procedimentos apresentaram boa linearidade (R2>0,996) e os limites de detecção (LD) obtidos, na amostra, foram: 0,54 Fg g-1 para Ca; 0,089 Fg g-1 para Mg; 0,10 Fg g-1 para Sr; 40 ng g-1 para Ba; 1,9 ng g-1 para Cr com diluição da amostra com tolueno; 2,8 ng g-1 para Cr com formação de emulsão e 0,73 ng g-1 para Cr com amostragem direta. Assim, verificou-se que os procedimentos desenvolvidos foram adequados para as determinações de Ca, Mg, Sr, Ba e Cr nas amostras de petróleo. No entanto, os resultados para Cr indicam que a diluição da amostra com tolueno não é recomendado para amostras com grau API abaixo de 15. As determinações de Ca, Mg e Sr em águas de produção foram realizadas utilizando curvas analíticas aquosas para a calibração dos procedimentos. Os limites de detecção obtidos nas amostras foram: 87,1 Fg g-1 para Ca, 128 Fg g-1 para Mg e 7,61 Fg g-1 para Sr. Para verificar a exatidão dos procedimentos desenvolvidos, foram realizados estudos de recuperação e comparação com os procedimentos ASTM D511-08, para Ca e Mg, e ASTM D3352-08, para Sr. Bons resultados foram obtidos para o teste de recuperação (94 a 111%) e para comparação entre os procedimentos desenvolvidos e os procedimentos comparativos (teste-t pareado, p<0,05). Desta forma, a determinação de Ca, Mg e Sr em amostras de água de produção por F AAS após diluição das amostras com HNO3 0,2% v/v, mostrou-se adequada