Using recommendations to help novices to reuse design knowledge

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21530-8_35. Copyright @ Springer 2011.The use of pattern languages is not so straightforward since its users have to identify the patterns they need, browsing the language and understanding both the benefits and trade-offs of each pattern as well as the relations and interactions it has with other patterns. Novice designers might benefit from tools that assist them in this learning task. In this paper we describe a recommendation tool embedded in a visual environment for pattern-based design which aims at suggesting patterns to help novice designers to produce better designs and understand the language.Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovatio

Development of the Multidimensional Scale of Irrational Beliefs (MSIB)

The Multidimensional Scale of Irrational Beliefs (MSIB) is a brief and theoretically founded measure of irrational thinking as conceptualized by Albert Ellis in his most recent works on Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (e.g., Ellis, 2003). With a total of 18 items, it captures demandingness, negative self-evaluation, and low frustration tolerance as the three core aspects of irrationality. Unlike previous irrationality instruments, it is a highly reliable, purely cognitive measure and avoids measuring aspects which are consequences or correlates of irrational thinking (e.g., emotions). Three studies (N = 757) are reported that repeatedly indicate high internal consistency of all subscales (Cronbach’s alpha: .85-.90), factorial validity, and convergent validity with earlier measures

Intravitreal injection of low-dose Gentamicin: an alternative method of management for equine recurrent uveitis

Die Technik der intravitrealen Gentamicin Injektion darzulegen, die Auswirkungen dieser auf die klinischen Symptome von Uveitiden, sowie die möglichen unmittelbaren Komplikationen (innerhalb von 24 Stunden) und längerfristigen Komplikationen (30 bis 780 Tage) die mit dieser Technik verbunden sein können, zu beschreiben. Zusätzlich wurde der okuläre und systemische Leptospiren- Status ermittelt und der Einfluss dieser auf das Behandlungsergebnis untersucht.:Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION 1 2 LITERATURE OVERVIEW 2 2.1 Etiology and pathogenesis 2 2.1.1 Proposed etiologies 2 2.1.2 ERU: an immune mediated disease 3 2.2 Leptospirosis and ERU 4 2.2.1 Genetic predisposition for ERU 6 2.3 Definition of ERU 7 2.3.1 Classification and syndromes 7 2.3.2 Clinical symptoms 8 2.4 Diagnostic testing for ERU (Leptospira) 8 2.4.1 Sample collection (aqueous humor, vitreous humor, serum) 8 2.4.2 Methodology 9 2.4.2.1 Microagglutination test (MAT) 9 2.4.2.2 Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) 10 2.4.2.3 Cultures 10 2.5 Treatment of ERU 10 2.5.1 Medical management 10 2.5.2 Intravitreal and suprachoroidal injections 11 2.5.2.1 Intravitreal rapamycin injections 11 2.5.2.2 Intravitreal triamcinolone injections 11 2.5.2.3 Suprachoroidal triamcinolone injections 12 2.5.2.4 Low-dose intravitreal gentamicin injections 12 2.5.3 Surgical procedures 13 2.5.3.1 Suprachoroidal cyclosporine implants 13 2.5.3.2 Pars plana vitrectomy 14 3 PUBLICATIONS 16 3.1 Intravitreal injection of low-dose gentamicin for the treatment of recurrent or persistent uveitis in horses: Preliminary results 16 3.2 Medical and Surgical Management of Equine Recurrent Uveitis 29 4 DISCUSSION 47 5 ZUSAMMENFASSUNG 51 6 SUMMARY 52 7 REFERENCES 53To describe the intravitreal gentamicin injection technique, report the effects of the injection on the clinical signs of uveitis and to describe the associated peri-injection (within 24 hours) and post-injection complications (30 to 780 days). Additionally, evaluation of the systemic and ocular Leptospira status and its effects on the treatment outcome was performed.:Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION 1 2 LITERATURE OVERVIEW 2 2.1 Etiology and pathogenesis 2 2.1.1 Proposed etiologies 2 2.1.2 ERU: an immune mediated disease 3 2.2 Leptospirosis and ERU 4 2.2.1 Genetic predisposition for ERU 6 2.3 Definition of ERU 7 2.3.1 Classification and syndromes 7 2.3.2 Clinical symptoms 8 2.4 Diagnostic testing for ERU (Leptospira) 8 2.4.1 Sample collection (aqueous humor, vitreous humor, serum) 8 2.4.2 Methodology 9 2.4.2.1 Microagglutination test (MAT) 9 2.4.2.2 Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) 10 2.4.2.3 Cultures 10 2.5 Treatment of ERU 10 2.5.1 Medical management 10 2.5.2 Intravitreal and suprachoroidal injections 11 2.5.2.1 Intravitreal rapamycin injections 11 2.5.2.2 Intravitreal triamcinolone injections 11 2.5.2.3 Suprachoroidal triamcinolone injections 12 2.5.2.4 Low-dose intravitreal gentamicin injections 12 2.5.3 Surgical procedures 13 2.5.3.1 Suprachoroidal cyclosporine implants 13 2.5.3.2 Pars plana vitrectomy 14 3 PUBLICATIONS 16 3.1 Intravitreal injection of low-dose gentamicin for the treatment of recurrent or persistent uveitis in horses: Preliminary results 16 3.2 Medical and Surgical Management of Equine Recurrent Uveitis 29 4 DISCUSSION 47 5 ZUSAMMENFASSUNG 51 6 SUMMARY 52 7 REFERENCES 5

Statistical periodicity in driven quantum systems: General formalism and application to noisy Floquet topological chains

Much recent experimental effort has focused on the realization of exotic quantum states and dynamics predicted to occur in periodically driven systems. But how robust are the sought-after features, such as Floquet topological surface states, against unavoidable imperfections in the periodic driving? In this work, we address this question in a broader context and study the dynamics of quantum systems subject to noise with periodically recurring statistics. We show that the stroboscopic time evolution of such systems is described by a noise-averaged Floquet superoperator. The eigenvectors and -values of this superoperator generalize the familiar concepts of Floquet states and quasienergies and allow us to describe decoherence due to noise efficiently. Applying the general formalism to the example of a noisy Floquet topological chain, we re-derive and corroborate our recent findings on the noise-induced decay of topologically protected end states. These results follow directly from an expansion of the end state in eigenvectors of the Floquet superoperator.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures. This is the final, published versio

Formação de professores em tempos da matemática moderna: uma proposta de investigação histórica

Disponível em: http://www2.pucpr.br/reol/index.php/dialogo?dd99=pdf&dd1=2439O estudo propõe questões de investigação acerca das ações voltadas à formação de professores ao tempo do Movimento da Matemática Moderna, desenvolvidas por três dos grupos de estudo que atuaram no Brasil nas décadas de 60 e 70. Constitui-se num estudo inicial, que pretende investigar, histórico-comparativamente, aspectos relacionados aos trabalhos desenvolvidos pelos grupos GEEM, NEDEM e GEEMPA, que atuaram, respectivamente, nos estados de São Paulo, Paraná e Rio Grande do Sul

Boletins do CPOE/RS (1947-1966): recortes sobre o ensino da matemática e a gestão dos processos avaliativos

Disponível em:http://www.periodicos.ulbra.br/index.php/acta/article/download/1457/1147Este estudo, voltado para o passado, investiga alguns aportes do ensino da matemática e avaliação a partir de pesquisa documental. Como base empírica, foram rastreados doze Boletins do Centro de Pesquisas e Orientação Educacionais da Secretaria de Educação e Cultura do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, datados de 1947 a 1966. Assim, busca saber se, e como, nestes Boletins se fazia referência ao ensino de matemática e à respectiva gestão de processos avaliativos deste componente curricular no então ensino primário. O texto apresenta a identidade do CPOE, o contexto sociopolítico do período, os elementos empíricos que alimentaram a investigação e respectivos procedimentos metodológicos observados para análise, encerrando com algumas considerações em torno de possível continuidade da pesquisa. Entre as conclusões, destaca-se a atuação e importância do CPOE quanto a orientações pedagógicas, sempre de acordo com pesquisas e reformulações legais

A experiência das classes-piloto organizadas pelo GEEMPA, ao tempo da matemática moderna

Disponível em: http://www2.pucpr.br/reol/index.php/dialogo?dd99=pdf&dd1=580O texto aborda o estudo, em desenvolvimento, da experiência realizada nas classes-piloto, organizadas pelo Grupo de Estudos sobre o Ensino da Matemática de Porto Alegre – GEEMPA, em 1972. O estudo investiga a experiência realizada nessas classes e, por meio de procedimentos envolvendo documentos orais e escritos, procura analisar as práticas desenvolvidas que, segundo se sabe, marcaram a história da Educação Matemática nas escolas de Porto Alegre. Este estudo integra a pesquisa que busca traços dos cotidianos escolares deixados por professores, durante um tempo que correspondia a um movimento internacional de renovação do ensino da matemática. A metodologia da pesquisa transita entre a pesquisa documental e a história oral, dado que as fontes são professoras das classes e os arquivos do GEEMPA, onde se encontram documentos relativos ao planejamento e desenvolvimento de tais classes, entre outros. Até o momento, pelos depoimentos das professoras, pode-se verificar que a experiência representou uma importante contribuição, tanto na formação docente como na dos alunos das classes. A investigação busca responder a algumas questões: como a escola acolhia a experiência, realizada numa de suas classes? Como era a relação com as demais turmas da mesma série? Foi possível socializar os resultados da experiência com outras turmas e escolas de Porto Alegre ou do Estado? Como é que se desenvolveu uma experiência tão positiva – numa análise preliminar – quando o Movimento da Matemática Moderna já dava sinais de fracasso mundialmente

Factors Influencing Trust-Supporting Mechanisms in European Agri-Food Chains

The role of trust in eight selected agri-food chains in four EU countries is explored. The empirical analysis is based on a qualitative assessment of 28 expert interviews conducted in summer/autumn 2005. The findings suggest that trust is more pronounced among SMEs which are characterised by the existence of personal relationships between business partners. However, as is clear for pork breeders, if a source of distrust exists, trust may not fully develop. Also, if the general economic situation is difficult, the development of trust may be hampered, because all chain participants are struggling to command a share of a diminishing margin within the chain. Finally, if economic power is distributed unevenly, as is the case in Germany, Ireland, Spain and the UK where retailers dominate most chains, trust towards the more powerful may be limited.trust, economic relationships, EU, agri-food chains, Agribusiness,

Measurement of the production cross section of a top-antitop quark pair in association with a Z boson at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The coupling of the top quark to the Z boson is precisely predicted within the Standard model of particle physics via the electroweak interaction. However, experimentally it is not yet well constrained and its value can vary significantly in many models featuring physics beyond the Standard Model. A process that is particularly sensitive to this coupling is the associated production of a top-antitop quark pair with a Z boson. The large centre-of-mass energy of the LHC and the tremendous amount of data collected in recent years have opened up the possibility to study this rare process which was previously inaccessible due to its small production cross section. The production cross section of the tt̄Z process is measured, using 139 fb −1 of proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC in the years from 2015 to 2018. In order to estimate the expected number of events for both signal and the associated Standard Model background, Monte Carlo simulations are employed. The Z boson is identified by targeting events featuring a pair of electrons or muons with opposite electric charge and an invariant mass consistent with the parent particle. The final targeted signature is then characterised by the number of leptons from the decay of the associated tt̄ system. The first part of this thesis presents several studies conducted in the context of a tt̄Z cross-section measurement that targets the most sensitive decay modes of the tt̄Z process with three or four isolated leptons with high transverse momentum in the final state and reports measurements of both the inclusive and differential cross sections. A series of validation studies are performed for sets of simulated Monte Carlo samples used in the analysis to describe the signal process as well as one of the dominant backgrounds featuring the associated production of single top quarks with both a W and a Z boson. Furthermore, an attempt to reduce the contributions from the dominant background processes in these tt̄Z decay channels – the production of pairs of vector bosons and single top quarks in association with vector bosons – is shown by exploiting the discrimination provided by an algorithm based on a partial reconstruction of the tt̄ system. In the second part of this thesis, a new approach for a measurement of the tt̄Z production cross section in the dilepton channel, labelled 2lOS, is introduced. In contrast to the tt̄Z decay modes with three or four isolated leptons in the final state, the 2lOS channel suffers from significantly larger background rates. In order to isolate the signal from the two dominant background processes – dileptonically decaying tt̄ events and the associated production of a single Z boson with jets – two Boosted Decision Trees are independently trained, with each dedicated to a unique one of the two major background contributions. The output of the two classifiers is then combined in order to select phase space regions highly enriched in events from either signal or either one of the two dominant background processes. A profile-likelihood fit of the Monte Carlo prediction to the data within those regions is employed to determine the inclusive tt̄Z production cross section, which is measured to be σ(tt̄Z) = 0.91 ± 0.08 (stat.) ± 0.14 (syst.) pb with an observed statistical significance of 5.9 σ. The result is found to be in agreement with the most precise theoretical prediction.Die Kopplung des Topquarks an das Z-Boson ist ein elektroschwacher Prozess und im Standardmodell der Teilchenphysik genau vorherbestimmt. Experimentell konnte die Stärke dieser Kopplung bislang nicht genau genug bestimmt werden, um mögliche Beiträge von Prozessen, die von über das Standardmodell hinausgehenden theoretischen Modellen vorhergesagt werden, sicher ausschließen zu können. Ein für diesen Zweck geeigneter Prozess ist die assozierte Produktion von Paaren von Topquark und Antitopquark mit einem Z-Boson. Aufgrund des kleinen Produktionswirkungsquerschnitts ist es erst mit der hohen Schwerpunktsenergie des LHC und der großen Datenmenge, die innerhalb der letzten Jahre gesammelt wurde, möglich geworden, die Produktion von tt̄Z-Ereignissen zu vermessen. Dazu wird eine Datenmenge von 139 fb −1 an aufgezeichneten Proton-Proton-Kollisionen, die in den Jahren 2015 bis 2018 vom ATLAS-Detektor am LHC mit einer Schwerpunktsenergie von 13 TeV aufgezeichnet wurden, verwendet. Die Anzahl zu erwartender Ereignisse des Signalprozesses und der durch das Standardmodell beschriebenen Untergrundprozesse wird mit Monte-Carlo-Simulationen abgeschätzt. Das Z-Boson wird anhand seiner Zerfallsprodukte identifiziert, die aus einem Elektron- oder Myonpaar mit entgegengesetzter elektrischer Ladung bestehen, dessen invariante Masse mit der des Z-Bosons kompatibel ist. Die Signatur der untersuchten tt̄Z-Ereignisse wird somit durch die Zerfallsprodukte des assoziierten tt̄-Systems bestimmt. Der erste Teil dieser Disseration beinhaltet mehrere Studien, die im Rahmen einer Messung des inklusiven und differentiellen tt̄Z-Wirkungsquerschnitts durchgeführt wurden. Hierzu werden die sensitivsten tt̄Z-Zerfallskanäle mit drei oder vier isolierten Leptonen mit großem Tranversalimpuls im Endzustand verwendet. Mehrere simulierte Monte-Carlo-Datensätze zur Beschreibung tt̄Z bzw. der assoziierten Produktion einzelner Topquarks mit einem Z- sowie einem W-Boson werden validiert. Des Weiteren wird ein Versuch zur Minimierung der Beiträge dominanter Untergrundprozesse – der Produktion zweier Vektorbosonen sowie der assoziierten Produktion einzelner Topquarks mit Vektorbosonen – aufgeführt. Um dabei tt̄Z von den genannten Untergründen hinreichend abzugrenzen, wird das tt̄-System teilweise rekonstruiert. Im zweiten Teil der vorliegenden Disseration wird ein neuer Ansatz zur Messung des inklusiven Produktionswirkungsquerschnitts von tt̄Z-Ereignissen mit zwei isolierten Leptonen im Endzustand, dem sogenannten 2lOS-Zerfallskanal, eingeführt. Im Gegensatz zu den Zerfallskanälen mit drei oder vier isolierten Leptonen im Endzustand ist der Anteil an Untergrundereignissen wesentlich größer. Zur Trennung von Signalereignissen von den beiden dominanten Untergrundprozessen – dileptonisch zerfallender tt̄-Ereignissen und der assoziierten Produktion eines Z-Bosons mit Jets – werden zwei Boosted Decision Trees unabhängig voneinander auf jeweils einen dieser beiden Untergründe trainiert. Mithilfe des Unterscheidungsvermögens beider Boosted Decision Trees können Phasenraumbereiche mit einer hohen Reinheit Signal- bzw. Untergrundereignissen ausgezeichnet werden. Der Produktionswirkungsquerschnitt wird mittels eines profile-likelihood-Fits der Anzahl von simuliertem Monte-Carlo-Ereignissen an die Daten in diesen Regionen bestimmt, wobei ein Wert von σ(tt̄Z) = 0,91 ± 0,08 (stat.) ± 0,14 (syst.) pb mit einer statistischen Signifikanz von 5,9 σ gemessen wird. Der gemessene Wert des Produktionswirkungsquerschnitts stimmt mit den genauesten theoretischen Vorhersagen überein