A brave new world of Ambient Intelligence in the casinos of Macau: reality or fiction?

The article scrutinizes the brave new world of ambient intelligence in the casinos of the Macau, Special Administrative Region of People´s Republic of China, chiefly in regards to the (candent) issue of privacy of the casino patrons. Moreover, this scientific article provides an overview about the secondary use of big data of the casino patrons for law enforcement purposes

Hamiltonian elliptic systems: a guide to variational frameworks

Consider a Hamiltonian system of type $$-\Delta u=H_{v}(u,v),\ -\Delta v=H_{u}(u,v) \ \ \text{ in } \Omega, \qquad u,v=0 \text{ on } \partial \Omega$$ where $H$ is a power-type nonlinearity, for instance $H(u,v)= |u|^p/p+|v|^q/q$, having subcritical growth, and $\Omega$ is a bounded domain of $\mathbb{R}^N$, $N\geq 1$. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the several variational frameworks that can be used to treat such a system. Within each approach, we address existence of solutions, and in particular of ground state solutions. Some of the available frameworks are more adequate to derive certain qualitative properties; we illustrate this in the second half of this survey, where we also review some of the most recent literature dealing mainly with symmetry, concentration, and multiplicity results. This paper contains some original results as well as new proofs and approaches to known facts.Comment: 78 pages, 7 figures. This corresponds to the second version of this paper. With respect to the original version, this one contains additional references, and some misprints were correcte

Hedonic Prices Indexes for New Passenger Cars in Portugal (1997- 2001)

This paper evaluates the effects of quality change on the price index for new passenger cars in Portugal for the years 1997-2001. Hedonic regression models are studied, giving particular emphasis to the relation between the form of the price index and the specification of the hedonic equation and estimation method used. It is argued that when log-linear hedonic functions are used the effects of quality change should be evaluated using a method akin to the Oaxaca decomposition (Oaxaca R., 1973, "Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets", International Economic Review, 14, 693-709), rather than using the traditional dummy variables method. The results of the empirical part of the paper indicate that the CPI component corresponding to the sales of new passenger cars may have been overestimated by as much as 2.2 percentage points per year. This corresponds to an overestimation of the overall CPI by about 0.15 percentage points per year. As a by- product of this analysis it is also possible to conclude that the quality of new cars sold in Portugal increased on average 4.8 percent per year during this period.CPI bias; Heteroskedasticity; Oaxaca decomposition.

The flipped classroom improves physiotherapy students performance and satisfaction in the discipline of physiology: a quasi-experimental study

Introduction: In a flipped classroom (FC) approach, students study instructional material before class (e.g., by watching online lectures) while traditional class time is reserved for discussion and/or problem solving of the relevant topics. The popularity of this pedagogical approach, also known as flipped learning or the inverted classroom, has been growing rapidly during the last decade. Objective: The objective of this work is to compare FC class (CF) with an expositive approach (EA) in academic performance and satisfaction with the discipline of physiology in physiotherapy students of the School of Health of Alcoitão (ESSA). Methodology: In the year 2013/2014 the discipline of Physiology was taught according to the EA, the students were subjected to two evaluation moments, a first test, which evaluated the first part of the subject taught in the classes, and the second test, which evaluated the knowledge about the second part of the subject. At the end of the disicpline, a questionnaire was applied that evaluated students' satisfaction with the discipline and the teacher's performance. In the following academic year (2014/2015) in the same discipline the FC approach was used and the same evaluation instruments were used. Results: Student's t-test revealed the existence of a significant difference between the EA group(n = 53) and the FC group(n = 57) at the means of the tests. The FC group (mean = 17.096) had a significantly higher mean compared to the EA group (mean = 14.953). Student's t-test revealed the existence of a significant difference between the EA group (n = 53) and the FC group (n = 57) in the satisfaction with the discipline. The group submitted to the FC approach has a significantly higher satisfaction, compared to the group submitted to the expository method, with the discipline (FC average = 6.466, EA average = 5,714) and with the teacher (FC average = 6.462, EA average = 5.849). Discussion and conclusion: This demonstrates that FC, if properly implemented with cooperative learning, can lead to increased academic performance and student satisfaction and is an effective mean to disseminate key physiological concepts to graduate students.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Equilibrium-Based Finite Element Formulation for Timoshenko Curved Tapered Beams

[EN] Curved tapered beams have been widely used in many engineering applications. Their complex geometries pose challenges to the development of robust approaches for the numerical modelling of their mechanical behaviour. The aim of the present contribution is to introduce a novel, simple and effective, finite element formulation for the quasi-static analysis of Timoshenko curved tapered beams. This formulation relies on a complementary variational approach based on a set of approximations that satisfy in strong form all equilibrium conditions of the boundary-value problem, resulting thus in a formulation that is free from both shear and membrane locking phenomena. The effectiveness of the formulation is numerically demonstrated through its application to different beam problems and the obtained results are analysed and discussed.Santos, H. (2022). Equilibrium-Based Finite Element Formulation for Timoshenko Curved Tapered Beams. En Proceedings of the YIC 2021 - VI ECCOMAS Young Investigators Conference. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 119-128. https://doi.org/10.4995/YIC2021.2021.12567OCS11912

COGNITO – The graphics and content delivery module

The poster presents the two main components for the graphics and content delivery module of COGNITO system. One Augmented reality player is presented as well as one editor of multimedia content to be used in the player (augmented information)

A 10-bit 40MS/s Pipelined ADC in a 0.13μm CMOS Process

This paper presents a 10-bit analogue to digital converter (ADC) that will be integrated in a general purpose charge readout ASIC that is the new generation of mixed-mode integrated circuits for Time Projection Chamber (TPC) readout. It is based on a pipelined structure with double sampling and was implemented with switched capacitor circuits in eight 1.5-bit stages followed by a 2-bit stage. The power consumption is adjustable with the conversion rate and varies between 15 and 34mW for a 15 to 40MS/s conversion speed. The ADC occupies a silicon area of 0.7mm2 in a 0.13μm CMOS process and operates from a single 1.5V supply

Fundação Alentejo – Do CRVCC ao CNO: um percurso de maturação, de complexidade e de oportunidades

Foi em Novembro de 2001 que o CRVCC se constituiu oficialmente como um novo dispositivo na área da Formação da Fundação Alentejo, direccionado para adultos maiores de 18 anos, procurando dar resposta ao público alentejano no sentido de elevar as habilitações escolares através da promoção de Processos de Reconhecimento, Validação e Certificação de Competências