Effect of alloying on mechanical properties of as cast ferritic nodular cast irons

The development of low temperature applications for ferritic nodular cast irons calls for improved materials in the as cast state, e.g. for off-shore windmills components. Within this line of work, a series of 68 castings were prepared with the same casting procedure and slight changes in composition. The tensile properties at room temperature, as well as the impact energy for rupture at room temperature, 220 °C and 240 °C, were measured. Outputs from multivariate analysis performed on the data are then discussed and compared to literature results, putting emphasis on the properties of the ferritic matrix

Modelling the Interaction Levels in HCI Using an Intelligent Hybrid System with Interactive Agents: A Case Study of an Interactive Museum Exhibition Module in Mexico

Technology has become a necessity in our everyday lives and essential for completing activities we typically take for granted; technologies can assist us by completing set tasks or achieving desired goals with optimal affect and in the most efficient way, thereby improving our interactive experiences. This paper presents research that explores the representation of user interaction levels using an intelligent hybrid system approach with agents. We evaluate interaction levels of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) with the aim of enhancing user experiences. We consider the description of interaction levels using an intelligent hybrid system to provide a decision-making system to an agent that evaluates interaction levels when using interactive modules of a museum exhibition. The agents represent a high-level abstraction of the system, where communication takes place between the user, the exhibition and the environment. In this paper, we provide a means to measure the interaction levels and natural behaviour of users, based on museum user-exhibition interaction. We consider that, by analysing user interaction in a museum, we can help to design better ways to interact with exhibition modules according to the properties and behaviour of the users. An interaction-evaluator agent is proposed to achieve the most suitable representation of the interaction levels with the aim of improving user interactions to offer the most appropriate directions, services, content and information, thereby improving the quality of interaction experienced between the user-agent and exhibition-agent

Priority areas for watershed service conservation in the Guapi-Macacu region of Rio de Janeiro, Atlantic Forest, Brazil.

Introduction: Land use intensification and urbanisation processes are degrading hydrological ecosystem services in the Guapi-Macacu watershed of Rio de Janeiro. A proposal to pay farmers to restore natural watershed services might be an alternative to securing the water supply in the long-term for the around 2.5 million urban water users in the study region. This study quantifies the costs of changing current land use patterns to enhance watershed services and compares these costs to the avoided costs associated with water treatment for public supply. Methods: We use farm-household data to estimate the opportunity costs of abandoning current land uses for the recovery of natural vegetation; a process that is very likely to improve water quality in terms of turbidity due to reduced inputs from erosion. Opportunity cost estimates are extrapolated to the watershed scale based on remote sensing land use classifications and vulnerability analysis to identify priority zones for watershed management interventions. To assess the potential demand for watershed services, we analyse water quality and treatment cost data from the main local water treatment plant. Results: Changing agricultural land uses for watershed services provision generally comes at high opportunity costs in our study area near to the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro. Alternative low cost watershed conservation options do exist in the livestock production sector. These options have the potential to directly reduce the amount of sediments and nutrients reaching the water bodies, and in turn decrease the costs of treatment needed for drinking water. Land cover changes at the scale needed to improve water quality will, nonetheless, likely exceed the cost of additional investments in water treatment. Conclusions: The state water utility company?s willingness to pay for watershed services alone will not be enough to induce provision of additional watershed services. We conclude that monetary incentives conditioned on specific adjustments to existing production systems could still have a complementary role to play in improving watershed services. However, we note that our willingness to pay analysis focusses on only one of the potentially wide range of ecosystem services provided by natural vegetation in the Guapi-Macacu watershed. Factoring these ecosystem services into the willingness to pay equation is likely to change our assessment in favour of additional conservation action, be it through PES or other policy instruments

Peer tutoring: Wiki as a tool for learning in the pedagogues training

Esta comunicación presenta los resultados de un trabajo de investigación desarrollado en la Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación (US) por un equipo de profesores y alumnos adscritos al departamento de Didáctica y Organización Educativa, dentro de las asignatura Prácticum I y II de la Licenciatura de Pedagogía. Bajo el objetivo principal de detectar las necesidades formativas de los/as alumnos/as de Pedagogía sobre las condiciones académicas requeridas en las asignaturas Practicum I y II, se elaboró en cursos anteriores, un Programa de Acción Tutorial entre Iguales (PATI) en el que quedaron plasmadas las principales carencias formativas que los alumnos encontraron en sus prácticas externas. Para ello se administró un Cuestionario sobre detección de necesidades formativas del alumnado del prácticum de Pedagogía a una muestra de 104 estudiantes. Una vez recogidos los datos y analizados los resultados, se construyó de manera colaborativa un wiki (http://proyectopati.wikispaces.com). Durante el curso académico 2010-2011, continuando con la segunda fase del proyecto, los alumnos de quinto de Pedagogía han elaborado el wiki, bajo la supervisión de sus tutores, y se ha establecido un sistema de tutoría entre iguales con los alumnos de tercero de Pedagogía. Nuestro espacio wiki puede ser considerado como una biblioteca dónde compartir información, recoger, añadir notas o responder a preguntas de sus compañeros.This paper presents the results of a research work developed at the Faculty of Educational Sciences (U.S.) developed by a team of teachers and students assigned to the Department of Didactics and Educational Organization, within the subject Practicum I and II of the Degree of Education. Under the main objective to identify the training needs of the pupil of Pedagogy on the academic conditions required subjects Practicum I and II, was developed in previous courses, a Program of Action Tutorial Peer (PATI ), which were embodied the main training gaps were students when developing their placement. This questionnaire was administered on identification of training needs of students of pedagogy practicum in a sample of 104 students. Once data are collected and analyzed the results, the program was developed and built a wiki to collaboratively (http://proyectopati.wikispaces.com). During the 2010-2011 academic year, continuing the second phase of the project, students in grades 5 of Education have developed the wiki, under the supervision of their tutors, and has established a system of peer tutoring with students in 3 of pedagogy. Our wiki space has been like a library where we have shared information and consequently the students of 3 rd have used it to obtain information and gather ideas and students in grades 5 have been able to add notes or answer questions from their peers

Implementation and Performance of the tau trigger in the ATLAS experiment

Triggering on hadronic taus at the LHC is a difficult task due to the high rate and occupancy of the events. On the other hand, the tau trigger increases the discovery potential of ATLAS in many physics channels, among others the Standard Model or SuperSymmetric Higgs (charged or neutrals) production. In order to cope with the rate and optimize the efficiency on important physics channels, the results of the current simulation studies indicate that the ATLAS tau trigger should be used either with relatively high transverse momentum thresholds alone, or with more relaxed threshold requirements in combination with other triggers, like the missing transverse energy trigger or a leptonic or jet trigger. In this contribution we describe the ATLAS tau trigger, and we present some of the current results from the simulation studies, focusing both on early physics and on physics at high luminosity