The Nature of Gravitation

Taking into account the equivalent principle of Einstein and the special relativity equations, we infered, for a flat space time, a new formulae of gravitation. We assume two reference frames, one of these at rest, in the center of gravitatiuonal field, and another one, corresponding to the field itselft. If the gravitational field is an inverse square law, the rest frame field results a modified newtonian force. We applicate the same procedure to the electrical field and results a weak force comparable with gravitation strength. The proportional constant must be the gravitational constant. We calculate the gravitatiobal constant using the value of the electrical constant and the parameter of the electron, and we found a close value with the expererimental results sugesting the the gravitation is a residual product of the electricity

General Boundary Formulation for nn-Dimensional Classical Abelian Theory with Corners

We propose a general reduction procedure for classical field theories provided with abelian gauge symmetries in a Lagrangian setting. These ideas come from an axiomatic presentation of the general boundary formulation (GBF) of field theories, mostly inspired by topological quantum field theories (TQFT). We construct abelian Yang-Mills theories using this framework. We treat the case for space-time manifolds with smooth boundary components as well as the case of manifolds with corners. This treatment is the GBF analogue of extended TQFTs. The aim for developing this classical formalism is to accomplish, in a future work, geometric quantization at least for the abelian case

The Santa Helena Dam on Compressible Foundation

The Paper describes the performance of a 28 m high compacted earthfill dam for water supply in Northeast Brazil. For mainly economic reasons, the dam was founded, in part, over soft to very soft silty clays to a depth exceeding 8 metres. Large diameter sand drains were provided to accelerate consolidation in the foundation during construction. Maximum construction settlements of approximately 240 cm were recorded. Results of settlement of spillway structures, pore pressure measurements in the fill and long term settlements, are described in this paper. Transverse cracking of fill occurred as a result of large deformations in the compressible sediments. The cracks were repaired, and the dam is currently operating satisfactorily

Knowledge and degree of training of Primary Education teachers in relation to ICT taught to disabled students

The integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into the inclusive classroom requires competent teaching staff from both the technological and pedagogical points of view. Within this context, and with the aim of looking at one of these theoretical premises, this study aimed to identify the degree of training and technological knowledge of primary school teachers in Spain with respect to the use of ICT with individuals with disabilities (functional diversity). A descriptive ex post-facto research method was used, where the sample comprised 777 teachers. An ad-hoc questionnaire was used as the data-collection instrument. The results revealed the low skill levels of the teachers with respect to the use of ICT with students with disabilities, where the level of training of the teaching staff was determined by personal (gender, age), professional (teaching experience) or educational (qualifications) variables. The findings of this study point to the need for teacher training that instructs teachers on the use of ICT in order to favour the learning and educational innovation of students with disabilities

Religious beliefs and alcohol control policies: a Brazilian nationwide study

Objective: The connection between lower alcohol use and religiousness has been extensively examined. Nevertheless, few studies have assessed how religion and religiousness influence public policies. The present study seeks to understand the influence of religious beliefs on attitudes toward alcohol use. Methods: A door-to-door, nationwide, multistage population-based survey was carried out. Self-reported religiousness, religious attendance, and attitudes toward use of alcohol policies (such as approval of public health interventions, attitudes about drinking and driving, and attitudes toward other alcohol problems and their harmful effects) were examined. Multiple logistic regression was used to control for confounders and to assess explanatory variables. Results: The sample was composed of 3,007 participants; 57.3% were female and mean age was 35.7 years. Religiousness was generally associated with more negative attitudes toward alcohol, such as limiting hours of sale (p < 0.01), not having alcohol available in corner shops (p < 0.01), prohibiting alcohol advertisements on TV (p < 0.01), raising the legal drinking age (p < 0.01), and raising taxes on alcohol (p < 0.05). Higher religious attendance was associated with less alcohol problems (OR: 0.61, 95%CI 0.40-0.91, p = 0.017), and self-reported religiousness was associated with less harmful effects of drinking (OR: 0.61, 95%CI 0.43-0.88, p = 0.009). Conclusions: Those with high levels of religiousness support more restrictive alcohol policies. These findings corroborate previous studies showing that religious people consume less alcohol and have fewer alcohol-related problems.Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF) Department of MedicineHospital João Evangelista (HOJE)Associação Médico-Espírita InternacionalDuke University Medical CenterUniversidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Department of PsychiatryUniversidade de São Paulo (USP) Department of PsychiatryUNIFESP, Department of PsychiatrySciEL

Effective theories of connections and curvature: abelian case

We introduce a notion of measuring scales for quantum abelian gauge systems. At each measuring scale a finite dimensional affine space stores information about the evaluation of the curvature on a discrete family of surfaces. Affine maps from the spaces assigned to finer scales to those assigned to coarser scales play the role of coarse graining maps. This structure induces a continuum limit space which contains information regarding curvature evaluation on all piecewise linear surfaces with boundary. The evaluation of holonomies along loops is also encoded in the spaces introduced here; thus, our framework is closely related to loop quantization and it allows us to discuss effective theories in a sensible way. We develop basic elements of measure theory on the introduced spaces which are essential for the applicability of the framework to the construction of quantum abelian gauge theories.Comment: 39 page