Quantum b-functions of prehomogeneous vector spaces of commutative parabolic type

We show that there exists a natural q-analogue of the b-function for the prehomogeneous vector space of commutative parabolic type, and calculate them explicitly in each case. Our method of calculating the b-functions seems to be new even for the original case q=1.Comment: 24 pages, LaTeX2

Museo de Arte Moderno: arte, arquitectura y vida

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An investigation of the relationship between Japanese university students' English syntactic awareness and their use of cognitive and meta-cognitive reading stratagies.

The main aim of this study was to explore the relationship between Japanese university students’ English syntactic awareness and their use of cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies. A total of 48 Japanese second-year university students from a computer engineering department in a Japanese university participated in the study, which employed a quasi-experimental approach (one-group pre-test/post-test design) and quantitative analyses. A pre-test was composed of a syntactic awareness section and a reading comprehension section. It was followed by six 60-minute lessons (one lesson per week) focusing on cognitive and metacognitive reading strategy training and then by a post-test composed of a reading comprehension section. Immediately after the post-test, an anonymous questionnaire was administered to check whether the participants actually attempted to use cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies. The results of the pre-test and post-test were analyzed with paired two-sample t-tests and correlation calculations (calculations of Pearson product-moment coefficients). The analyses with the t-tests were verified through calculations of Cohen’s d and Pearson product-moment coefficient (r) and the analyses with the correlation calculations were verified through significance tests. The findings of the study indicate that cognitive and metacognitive reading strategy training enabled the Japanese university students to use cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies (e.g., recalling background information relating to the subject matter) and leads them to rely on their syntactic awareness less frequently than before when identifying the relations among words in a sentence. They also indicate that, through reading strategy training, the students were able to use cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies, irrespective of their level of English syntactic awareness. The training helped even participants with low level of English syntactic awareness use reading strategies and improve their reading comprehension in English. This result was inconsistent with the notion of the linguistic threshold hypothesis (LTH), which claims that second/foreign language readers are not able to use cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies unless they satisfy a certain level of syntactic awareness in the target language. It is suggested that teachers’ ways of administering reading strategy training, rather than students’ level of syntactic awareness, determine whether or not students become able to use reading strategies to increase their reading comprehension

Resgates e ressonâncias: Mariana Coelho

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-Graduação em LiteraturaEsta tese tem por objetivo o estudo da vida e da obra de Mariana Coelho, escritora e educadora portuguesa que, ainda jovem, se estabeleceu em Curitiba, no Paraná. Procuramos mostrar como, em décadas de intensa atuação social, na terra adotada,  Mariana Coelho foi muito influenciada pelo feminismo e  dedicou-se sempre a difundir, em sua obra, os ideais feministas que a guiavam. Mulher à frente de seu tempo, mantinha-se informada sobre as principais questões políticas, além de atuar diretamente para o encaminhamento de uma sociedade mais desenvolvida, o que ela acreditava ser possível com a atuação feminina efetiva

P300 EM FRENTISTAS DE POSTOS DE GASOLINA NO MUNICÍPIO DE JOINVILLE-SC

TCC(graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Centro de Ciências da Saúde. Fonoaudiologia.Introdução: Os trabalhadores estão expostos a diversos agentes físicos e químicos em seu ambiente de trabalho, os quais se revertem em riscos à saúde. Dentre todas as funções realizadas pelos frentistas de postos de gasolina a mais conhecida é a manipulação de agentes químicos, que os deixam expostos às substâncias nocivas presentes no combustível. A literatura mostra que a ototoxidade dos solventes orgânicos pode atingir o sistema auditivo, não apenas em nível coclear, mas também afetando as estruturas centrais da audição. Objetivo: Analisar os resultados obtidos no exame de P300 de frentistas de postos de gasolina do município de Joinville-SC. Metodologia: A coleta de dados foi realizada mediante análise de informações constantes nos prontuários do Centro de Referência em Saúde do Trabalhador (CEREST) de Joinville - SC, nos quais continham informações com relação à exposição dos trabalhadores aos produtos químicos e ruído, sintomas auditivos e não auditivos apresentados pelos mesmos, dados dos exames audiológicos realizados e sobre o exame P300. A população estudada foi composta por 22 frentistas que realizaram o exame P300 no CEREST de Joinville-SC no período de fevereiro de 2013 a dezembro de 2013. Os parâmetros que foram analisados no P300 foram a latência e a amplitude. Para a comparação entre as diferenças nos valores de amplitude e latência entre as orelhas foi utilizado o Teste Test t de Student para dados pareados. Para testar a associação entre o tempo de trabalho e a idade com os valores de amplitude e latência do P300 foi utilizado o Teste exato de Fisher. O nível de significância estabelecido para todos os testes foi de 5%. Resultados: A maioria dos sujeitos (63,63%) apresentou limiares auditivos dentro dos padrões da normalidade bilateralmente. No resultado do exame P300, com relação à latência, obteve para orelha direita o valor médio de 317 ms, mínimo de 256 ms e máximo de 368 ms, e a orelha esquerda apresentou o valor médio de 314 ms, mínimo 274 ms e máximo 362 ms. Com relação à variável amplitude para a orelha direita obteve-se o valor médio de 4,09 µV, mínimo 1,41 µV e máximo 8,68 µV, a orelha esquerda apresentou o valor médio de 3,89 µV, mínimo 0,43 µV e máximo 10,09 µV. Os achados do exame P300 foram relacionados com estudos existentes na literatura, feitos com sujeitos com faixa etária semelhante ao do presente estudo, sem queixas auditivas e com avaliação audiológica normal. Os valores de latência do P300 obtidos no presente estudo não se apresentaram alterados quando comparados aos citados na literatura. No entanto, as médias da amplitude do P300 de ambas as orelhas encontraram-se diminuídas, quando relacionadas aos resultados da literatura. Ocorreu o mesmo quando comparado aos valores máximos e mínimos de amplitude. Os achados de latência e amplitude foram relacionados com as variáveis idade e tempo de serviço, porém não se observou diferença estatisticamente significante. Conclusão: Os resultados obtidos na amplitude do P300 sugerem a presença de alterações no Sistema Nervoso Auditivo Central, a nível cortical, dos frentistas estudados. No entanto, os resultados obtidos na latência do P300 não foram alterados. As variáveis idade e tempo de serviço não influenciaram os resultados do P300 dos frentistas estudados.Introduction: Workers are exposed to various agents physical and chemical in your workplace, there are agents reversed in health risks. Among all the functions performed by gas station attendants more familiar is the handling of chemicals agents, exposes them to the harmful substances present in the fuel. The literature shows that the ototoxicity of organic solvents can reach the auditory system, not only in the cochlea, but also affecting the central structures of the hearing. Objective: To analyze the results about the exam P300 at gas station attendants when work in Joinville-SC. Methodology: The collection about the information was performed by withdrawing the information contained in the files of the Reference Center for Occupational Health in Joinville - SC, in this files contained information about the exposure of workers to chemicals agents and noise, auditory symptoms and symptoms not related to auditory by them, results about the audiology exams and audiological findings on examination of P300 at gas station attendants in Joinville. The study population was comprised of 22 attendants who doing the P300 exam at Reference Center for Occupational Health in Joinville-SC from February 2013 to December 2013. Parameters that were analyzed the P300 were amplitude and latency. To compare the differences with amplitude and latency between the ears was used the Student's t test for paired information. To test the association between working time and age with the amplitude and latency of the P300 was used Fisher's exact test. The level of significance for all tests was 5%. Results: Most people 63.63% had hearing thresholds within normal limits bilaterally. In the result of P300 about to latency, obtained for the right ear mean value of 317 ms, 256 ms minimum and maximum of 368 ms, and the left ear had a mean value of 314 ms, 274 ms minimum and maximum 362 ms . About the variable amplitude for the right ear had a mean value of 4.09µV, minimum 1.4µV and maximum 8.68 µV, the left ear had the mean value of 3.89µV, minimum 0.43µV and maximum 10.09µV. The findings of the exam P300 are related with studies in the literature, made with similar people to the present study, with the similar age, without audiology complaints and normal audiometry. The values about P300 latency in the present study were not normal compared to those cited in the literature. However, the mean amplitude of P300 in both ears met decreased when compared to the literature. The same situation occurred when compared to the maximum and minimum amplitude. The findings of latency and amplitude were associated to age and length of service, but don’t was observed difference statistically significant. Conclusion: The results about the amplitude in P300 suggests the presence of changes in the central auditory nervous system, in the cortical level at gas station attendants. However, the results obtained in P300 latency were not changed. The variables age and length of service doesn’t affect the results of P300 gas station attendants

Probing the switching mechanism in ZnO nanoparticle memristors

We investigate the resistance switching mechanism in memristors based on colloidal ZnO nanoparticles using electroabsorption (EA) spectroscopy. In this EA experiment, we incorporate a small amount of low-bandgap polymer, poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene-cobenzothiadiazole) (F8BT), as a probe molecule in ZnO-nanoparticle memristors. By characterizing this polymer, we can study the change of built-in potential (VBI) in the device during the resistance switching process without disturbing the resistance state by the EA probe light. Our results show that VBI increases when the device is switched to the high resistance state, suggesting a shift of effective workfunction of the electrode. Thus, we attribute the resistance switching to the field-dependent migration of oxygen vacancies associated with the adsorption and desorption of oxygen molecules at the Al/ZnO interface. This process results in the modulation of the interfacial injection barrier which governs the resistance state of the device.This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [Grant Number EP/G060738/1]Copyright 2014 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. This article "Probing the switching mechanism in ZnO nanoparticle memristors" has been accepted by Journal of Applied Physics. After it is published, it will be found at http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/ja

Biocompatible and Sustainable Optical Strain Sensors for Large-Area Applications

By a simple two-step procedure, large photonic strain sensors using a biocompatible cellulose derivative are fabricated. Transient color shifts of the sensors are explained by a theoretical model that consideres the deformation of cholesteric domains, which is in agreement with the experimental results. The extremely simple fabrication method is suitable for both miniaturization and large-sale manufacture, taking advantage of inexpensive and sustainable materials.Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (David Phillips fellowship (Grant ID: BB/K014617/1)), The Isaac Newton Trust Cambridge (Grant ID: 76933), European Research Council (Grant ID: ERC-2014-STG H2020 639088