Litigation and new technologies in post-conventional societies

The increase in the volume of litigation verified since the 1990’s, having the Brazilian society as context, made the judiciary open itself to new technologies which facilitate the access to justice, as well as to a faster resolution of the demands. However, the intense insertion of technical rationalization in the process and decision operations by the judiciary, during the last years, led to a legalization supported by presuppositions of technical-instrumental regulation. According to the goal policy established by the CNJ, the annoyance of the instrumental rationality is present “with respect to purposes”, which demands, more and more, a mere fulfillment of previously instituted goals from the law operators. The matter is to know if the implementation of new technologies to solve the growing litigation coming from the complexity of societies is enough to adjust the Law to a post-conventional platform. If the social complexity implies resources coming from new technologies, it’s not certain that such technologies, on their own, satisfactorily answer a judicial model which, seen under the eyes of the post- conventional legitimacy and regulation, is adequate to complex societies. This illustrates that a judicial model, able to deal with the social plurality, must take into account not only the rules of instrumental rationality, but also the fundamental issues of communicative rationality. This current work intends to evaluate if the applicability of the instrumental rationality in the judiciary equally allows the law to extent the useful conditions of the communicative rationality to the consensual formation of will and opinion in the Democratic State of Law

Reference and Information Services for the Next Generation

In their article, “Born with the Chip,” Abram and Luther discuss the next generation of library users. At 81 million, NextGens are next in size to boomers. Born between 1982 and 2002, this next generation represents an underserved user group that may not be well understood by current libraries. This generation who grew up using computers does not think of them as technology but as part of their everyday culture. Abram and Luther (2004) reveal the following key points that explain the significant impact this user group will have on the services that libraries provide

Métodos de medição da matriz de transferência de núcleos termoacústicos com aplicação ao projeto de motores termoacústicos

Orientadores: José Roberto de França Arruda, Pierrick Lotton, Guillaume PeneletTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia MecânicaResumo: O projeto de um motor termoacústico (TA) se torna viabilizado à medida da con?abilidade de sua previsão de desempenho. Uma tentativa para o êxito nessa previsão vem do conhecimento da matriz de transferência do núcleo termoacústico (NTA), que pode ser explorada em modelos analíticos para o motor considerado. A matriz de transferência por si só pode ser obtida ou por modelagem analítica ou medições acústicas. As últimas, no entanto, consistem em uma opção interessante para se evitar considerações termo-físicas ou geométricas de estruturas complexas, uma vez que o NTA é tratado como uma caixa preta. No entanto, antes de se prosseguir com a abordagem experimental, uma solução analítica é apresentada, apenas para ?ns de comparação, mas que contempla somente os casos de materiais de geometria simples, tal como um catalisador de cerâmica, por exemplo. Em relação à abordagem experimental, três diferentes métodos são apresentados. Um método clássico de duas cargas é aplicado em duas con?gurações distintas e, além disso, um método alternativo com base em medições de impedância é aqui desenvolvido e aplicado. Uma comparação entre estas três abordagens é realizada por meio de uma avaliação de performance experimental e também por uma análise de sensibilidade, de modo a se conhecer as perspectivas de viabilidade de cada método. Quatro diferentes materiais são testados, cada um sendo usado como o elemento poroso colocado no interior do NTA, que é por sua vez submetido a diferentes regimes de gradiente de temperatura. Estes materiais são escolhidos de tal maneira a cobrir uma vasta gama de porosidades compreendidas entre esperados stack puro e regenerador puro. O método alternativo foi bem sucedido no seu objectivo para todos os materiais, ao contrário do método clássico de duas cargas. Desta forma, as matrizes de transferência medidas são aplicadas em uma modelagem dedicada a prever tanto a frequência operacional como o ganho de ampli?ca- ção TA intrínseca. Tais parâmetros são otimizados em simulações para dois modelos de motores TA básicos, um de onda estacionária e outro progressiva, variando-se parâmetros geométricos dos componentes anexos ao NTA. Uma análise comparativa mostra em que condições o limiar TA é esperado ou não para cada material, e também revela as limitações do aparato experimental no que se refere às dimensões adequadas para melhor se ajustarem às investigações de desempenhoAbstract: The design of a thermoacoustic (TA) engine is improved towards the reliability of its performance prediction. An attempt to succeed in this prediction comes from the knowledge of the TA core (TAC) transfer matrix, which can be exploited in analytical models for the given engine. The transfer (T) matrix itself may be obtained either by analytical modeling or acoustic measurements. The latter consist in an interesting option to avoid thermo-physical or geometrical considerations of complex structures, as the TAC is treated as a black box. However, before proceeding with the experimental approach, an analytical solution is presented for comparison purposes, but it contemplates only cases of materials of simple geometry such as a ceramic catalyst. Concerning the experimental approach, three different methods are put forward. A classical two-load method is applied in two different con?gurations and an alternative method based on impedance measurements is here developed and applied. A comparison between these approaches is evaluated by means of a sensitivity analysis, in order to investigate the feasibility of each method in further explorations. Four different materials are tested, each one playing the porous element allotted inside the TAC, which is in its turn submitted to several different regimes of steady state temperature gradient. These materials are chosen in such a way as to cover the wide range of porosities comprised between expected pure stack and pure regenerator. The alternative method succeeds on its purpose for all materials, contrarily to the classical two-load method. In this manner, the measured transfer matrices are applied into a proper modeling devoted to predict both the operating frequency and the intrinsic TA ampli?cation gain. Such parameters are optimized for two basic TA engine models, either standing or traveling-wave con?guration, by searching for the corresponding geometrical parameters of the TAC surrounding components. A comparative analysis shows in what conditions the TA threshold is expected or not for each material, but it also reveals the limitations of the experimental apparatus in what concerns the appropriate dimensions to better ?t the performance investigationsDoutoradoMecanica dos Sólidos e Projeto MecanicoDoutor em Engenharia Mecânic

Characterization of liquid-liquid flows in horizontal pipes

Diverse flow regimes have been encountered in liquid-liquid flows. Some degree of consistency in the observed flow patterns is shown in reported studies, while inconsistency exits when physical properties of the two phases concerned are wide enough. An attempt was made in this study to investigate the mechanisms behind flow patterns of liquid-liquid flows in horizontal pipes. A literature review on flow patterns of liquid-liquid flows in horizontal pipes was conducted. The ratio of the gravitational force to viscous force was proposed to characterize liquid-liquid flows in horizontal pipes into gravitational force dominant, viscous force dominant and gravitational force and viscous force comparable flow featured with different basic flow regimes. Comparisons of the proposed characterization criterion with the literature data show good agreement

Freiformen mit alter Zahnträgertechnik

Der Architekt und Zimmermann Miro Bannwart hat für seine Masterarbeit eine alte Technik neu interpretiert und weiterentwickelt. So können mit digitalen Methoden gebogene und ineinander verzahnte Vollholzbalken frei geformt werden – ohne Leim und einfach transportierbar

"CyberCity" - die Stadt im Kopf

>CyberCity< ist ein Konzept, das durch ein virtuelles Abbild der räumlichen Realität einer Stadt (Berlin) eine uns bekannte Wahrnehmungsumgebung als Orientierungs- und Navigationserleichterung bereitstellt, um über diesen virtuellen Browser möglichst schnell und anschaulich an eine gewünschte Information zu kommen. Dieses Umgebungsmodell ist auch als Simulationsmodell für die Visualisierung stadträumlicher Beurteilungen neuer Projekte, verkehrstechnischer Massnahmen und ökologischer Belastungen geeignet. Insbesondere ist es als Orientierungsumgebung für die Telepräsenz über die Kommunikationsnetze gedacht, die über die virtuellen Repräsentanten (Avatare) eine besondere gesellschaftliche Brisanz erhält

Interfacial energy during the emulsification of water-in-heavy crude oil emulsions

The aim of this study was to investigate the interfacial energy involved in the production of water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions composed of water and a Brazilian heavy crude oil. For such purpose an experimental set-up was developed to measure the different energy terms involved in the emulsification process. W/O emulsions containing different water volume fractions (0.1, 0.25 and 0.4) were prepared in a batch calorimeter by using a high-shear rotating homogenizer at two distinct rotation speeds (14000 and 22000 rpm). The results showed that the energy dissipated as heat represented around 80% of the energy transferred to the emulsion, while around 20% contributed to the internal energy. Only a very small fraction of the energy (0.02 - 0.06%) was stored in the water-oil interface. The results demonstrated that the high energy dissipation contributes to the kinetic stability of the W/O emulsions321127137CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESThe authors are grateful to PETROBRAS S.A. and FINEP, Brazil, for the financial support to this study. We also acknowledge the grants conceded by CAPES and CNPq, Brazi