Measuring factors affecting sustainable water supply in the Province of Western Cape

M.Tech.Abstract: Water is the most vital source of life anywhere in the world, however it is becoming an increasingly scarce resource especially in the Western Cape as a result of climate changes. Key adaptive strategies that might alleviate or avoid the worst impacts of climate change have also been identified.To this end, this study aimed at measuring factors affecting sustainable water supply in the Province of Western Cape. This led in developing three objectives noting that (1) to determine water usage practices in the City of Cape Town; (2) to determine the extent to which consumers have knowledge regarding water pricing policy; and (3) to examine the relationship between water saving habits, the demand for water and attitudes towards different water management policies. To achieve the aforementionedgoal, this study adopted two approaches, firstly the study critically analyzed a set of previous studies that were conducted on the sustainable water supply strategies within various countries.This led in identifying existing gaps in the current literature. Secondly, the study adopted a quantitative approach and administered questionnaires to various respondents from different areas in the City of Cape Town. As mentioned earlier on,the data used in this study were derived from both primary and secondary sources. The secondary data for the study were derived from the review of literature. The primary data were obtained through the use of a structured questionnaire. The data collected from various households were analyzed using deductive reasoning techniques. The participants that took part in this study were chosen by means of a convenience sampling approach. This method was preferred due to its ability to give the researcher an opportunity to select participants that were easily accessible. Findings enacting, the survey revealed that the major factors affecting sustainable water supply in the Province of Western Cape, particularly in the City of Cape Town from is lack of water reuse plants, leaking taps, lack of knowledge regarding the scarcity of water and lack of protection for Cape Town river has had a huge impact in terms of loss of water which has led to water crisis in Western Cape

Spin transport in graphene nanostructures

Graphene is an interesting material for spintronics, showing long spin relaxation lengths even at room temperature. For future spintronic devices it is important to understand the behavior of the spins and the limitations for spin transport in structures where the dimensions are smaller than the spin relaxation length. However, the study of spin injection and transport in graphene nanostructures is highly unexplored. Here we study the spin injection and relaxation in nanostructured graphene with dimensions smaller than the spin relaxation length. For graphene nanoislands, where the edge length to area ratio is much higher than for standard devices, we show that enhanced spin-flip processes at the edges do not seem to play a major role in the spin relaxation. On the other hand, contact induced spin relaxation has a much more dramatic effect for these low dimensional structures. By studying the nonlocal spin transport through a graphene quantum dot we observe that the obtained values for spin relaxation are dominated by the connecting graphene islands and not by the quantum dot itself. Using a simple model we argue that future nonlocal Hanle precession measurements can obtain a more significant value for the spin relaxation time for the quantum dot by using high spin polarization contacts in combination with low tunneling rates

Spin transport in high quality suspended graphene devices

We measure spin transport in high mobility suspended graphene (\mu ~ 10^5 cm^2/Vs), obtaining a (spin) diffusion coefficient of 0.1 m^2/s and giving a lower bound on the spin relaxation time (\tau_s ~ 150 ps) and spin relaxation length (\lambda_s=4.7 \mu m) for intrinsic graphene. We develop a theoretical model considering the different graphene regions of our devices that explains our experimental data.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures; Nano Letters, Article ASAP (2012) (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl301050a

O cyberbullying entre adolescentes do ensino m?dio do Instituto Federal Baiano-Campus Guanambi- e o uso das TDIC nos programas escolares voltados para seu enfrentamento

Embora a m?dia social possibilite a intera??o entre seus usu?rios, algumas pessoas a utilizam para comportamento agressivo, marcado por intimida??o e/ou medo, conhecido como cyberbullying, que consiste na manifesta??o da viol?ncia por meio das tecnologias digitais da informa??o e comunica??o (TDIC). No contexto escolar, este ? um problema para os alunos, professores e fam?lias, devido ao seu impacto negativo na sa?de mental das v?timas. Nesse sentido, este estudo buscou inicialmente identificar as manifesta??es de cyberbullying e seus desdobramentos psicol?gicos e sociais entre alunos do ensino m?dio do Instituto Federal Baiano-Campus Guanambi-BA (IF BAIANO-Campus Guanambi). Os dados foram coletados por meio de question?rio online e analisados por meio da estat?stica descritiva e inferencial, em que se buscou o entendimento das rela??es dos estudantes com o cyberbullying. Os resultados mostraram que as v?timas possuem abalos psicol?gicos e problemas sociais, como consequ?ncias do cyberbullying, al?m de testemunhas das pr?ticas de viol?ncia virtual possu?rem not?ria sensibilidade e vontade de ajudar a v?tima. Isso refor?a a necessidade de se estabelecer um canal de comunica??o eficiente na unidade escolar para receber notifica??es e, ent?o, proceder com as estrat?gias de investiga??o e controle, para o enfrentamento do cyberbullying. Nesse sentido, considerando que as TDIC tamb?m podem ser utilizadas no sentido inverso ao dessas agress?es, para promover o bemestar emocional, f?sico e social dos seus usu?rios, foi realizado um mapeamento sistem?tico da literatura, no qual buscouse pesquisar como elas t?m sido utilizadas em programas para prevenir e combater o cyberbullying no ambiente escolar. Tais programas foram caracterizados de acordo com as estrat?gias de design adotadas por suas interven??es para o enfrentamento do cyberbullying. Com isso, foi poss?vel estabelecer uma vis?o geral dos programas mediados por tecnologia com foco na mitiga??o do cyberbullying no ambiente escolar. No entanto, os resultados mostram um pequeno n?mero desses programas nos ?ltimos anos (apenas quatro em um intervalo de cinco anos). Assim, a literatura mapeada aponta uma lacuna sobre programas institucionais anticyberbullying mediados por tecnologia.Disserta??o (Mestrado Profissional) ? Programa de P?s-Gradua??o em Educa??o, Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri, 2021.Although social media provides interaction among users, some people use it for aggressive behaviors, characterized by intimidation and/or fear, known as cyberbullying, which consists of violence manifestation through Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). In the context of schools, this is a problem for students, teachers, and families due to its negative impact on the mental health of the victims. In this sense, this research initially looked to identify the manifestations of cyberbullying and its psychological and social consequences among high school students of the Instituto Federal Baiano-Campus Guanambi-BA (IF BAIANO-Campus Guanambi). The data was collected via online questionnaires and analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics to identify the students? relationship with cyberbullying. The results have shown that the victims present psychological traumas and social problems as a consequence of cyberbullying, and witnesses of virtual violence have a notorious sensitivity and willingness to help the victim. These results reinforce the need to stablish an efficient communication channel in the education unit to receive notifications and then to proceed with the strategies of investigation and control to combat the cyberbullying. In this sense, considering that ICTs can also be used to counteract these aggressions, in order to promote the emotional, physical, and social wellbeing of the users, a systematic mapping of literature was done to search how ICTs have been used in programs to prevent and combat the cyberbullying in the school environment. Those programs were categorized according to the design strategies adopted by their interventions to combat the cyberbullying. Therefore, it was possible to establish an overview of the programs mediated by technology that are focused on mitigating cyberbullying in the school environment. However, the results demonstrate a limited number of those programs created in the recent years (only four programs in five years). Thus, the mapped literature points to a gap of institutional anticyberbullying programs mediated by technology

A influ?ncia do posicionamento corporal sobre a prova de fun??o pulmonar em indiv?duos adultos saud?veis.

Programa de P?s-Gradua??o em Ci?ncias Biol?gicas. N?cleo de Pesquisas em Ci?ncias Biol?gicas, Pr?-Reitoria de Pesquisa de P?s Gradua??o, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto.A prova de fun??o pulmonar ou espirometria ? um exame validado, reconhecido mundialmente, que contribui para o diagn?stico, o estadiamento e acompanhamento longitudinal de pneumopatias. Para a realiza??o do exame, a posi??o sentada ? a mais utilizada na pr?tica cl?nica, n?o existindo ainda valores previstos para sua realiza??o em outras posi??es, como em diferentes dec?bitos. O presente estudo objetivou avaliar os efeitos do posicionamento sobre a prova de fun??o pulmonar em indiv?duos adultos saud?veis. Foram examinados 42 volunt?rios de ambos os sexos, eutr?ficos e saud?veis, divididos em: grupo masculino (GM) e grupo feminino (GF), que foram submetidos ao question?rio respirat?rio e, posteriormente, realizada a prova de fun??o pulmonar para avaliar os par?metros ventilat?rios de capacidade vital for?ada (CVF), volume expirat?rio for?ado no primeiro segundo (VEF1) e a rela??o VEF1/CVF nas posi??es sentada (S), dec?bito dorsal (DD), dec?bito lateral direito (DLD) e dec?bito lateral esquerdo (DLE). Os dados foram expressos em m?dia ? erro padr?o da m?dia. Para a avalia??o da normalidade das amostras foi utilizado o teste D?Agostino & Pearson. A compara??o dos dados param?tricos foi realizada atrav?s da an?lise de vari?ncia do teste One- Way ANOVA seguido pelo p?s-teste de Tukey, bem como as correla??es entre as vari?veis na posi??o sentada e as demais posi??es atrav?s do teste de Pearson e as diferen?as significativas foram consideradas quando o valor de p < 0,05. Todas as an?lises foram realizadas utilizando o software GraphPad Prism vers?o 5.00 para Windows 7, GraphPad Software (San Diego, CA, USA). Os valores de CVF do GM nas posi??es DD (4,39?0,16L), DLD (4,17?0,14L) e DLE (4,12 ? 0,14 L) foram menores quando comparados a posi??o S (5,05?0,13 L). Houve uma forte correla??o positiva entre os valores de CVF, VEF1 e VEF1/CVF na posi??o S em rela??o demais posi??es analisadas em ambos os grupos. O posicionamento corporal alterou os par?metros da prova de fun??o pulmonar em indiv?duos adultos saud?veis.Pulmonary function testing or spirometry is a validated, globally recognized test that contributes to the diagnosis, staging and longitudinal follow-up of lung diseases. In order to perform the exam, the sitting position is the most used in clinical practice, and there are not yet predicted values for its performance in other positions, such as in different decubitus. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of positioning on the pulmonary function test in healthy adult subjects. Forty-two healthy volunteers of both genders, divided into: male group (MG) and female group (FG), who were submitted to the respiratory questionnaire and, subsequently, to the pulmonary function test to evaluate the ventilatory parameters of the forced vital capacity (FVC), one-second forced expiratory volume (FEV1), and the FEV1 / FVC ratio in the sitting (S), dorsal decubitus (DD), right lateral decubitus (RLD) and left lateral decubitus (LLE) positions. Data were expressed as mean ? standard error of the mean. For the normality evaluation of the variables, the D?Agostino & Pearson test was performed. A comparison of the parametric data was performed through the analyses of variance One-Way ANOVA followed by Tukey post-test, as well as the correlations between the sitting position variables along with the other positions through the Pearson Test and significant differences were considered when the value of p <0.05. All analyzes were performed using GraphPad Prism software version 5.00 for Windows 7, GraphPad Software (San Diego, CA, USA). The FVC values of the MG at positions DD (4.39 ? 0.16 L), DLD (4.17?0.14 L) and DLE (4.12 ? 0.14 L) were lower when compared to S (5.05 ? 0.13 L). There was a strong positive correlation between the values of FVC, FEV1 and FEV1 / FVC in position S in relation to other positions analyzed in both groups. Body positioning altered the parameters of the pulmonary function test in healthy adult subjects

Esquetes teatrais como ferramenta did?tica para o ensino de evolu??o nos anos finais do ensino fundamental

O presente artigo consiste em um relato de experi?ncia de projeto desenvolvido com estudantes do 9? ano do Ensino Fundamental II da Escola Municipal de Ensino B?sico Reunida Padre Tavares, na cidade de Tavares- PB, e tem por objetivo discutir o ensino de Evolu??o atrav?s do debate entre ci?ncia e religi?o utilizando esquetes teatrais como metodologia ativa com intuito de facilitar a compreens?o e abordagem dessa tem?tica em sala de aula, tendo em vista que a mesma ? considerada um grande desafio a ser trabalhado devido a m?ltiplos fatores. O trabalho foi desenvolvido em tr?s etapas: aula expositivo-dialogada, na qual foi introduzida o conte?do de evolu??o; montagem dos esquetes teatrais, onde os discentes, em grupo, criaram o roteiro de seus esquetes por meio de um passo a passo criado para auxili?-los; e apresenta??o dos esquetes, onde os alunos apresentaram para pr?pria turma o seu trabalho. Posteriormente foi debatido um artigo sobre Evolu??o e Criacionismo. Os resultados obtidos foram advindos das observa??es feitas no desenvolvimento de cada etapa e mostram que o uso de esquetes teatrais como metodologia de ensino torna o conte?do mais atrativo e faz do/a aluno/a protagonista na busca do seu pr?prio conhecimento, al?m de facilitar a abordagem da tem?tica, o que faz dessa metodologia ativa uma ferramenta positiva de ensino e aprendizagem

The dialectic of the end of art in Adorno : repression and rescue of the repressed sensibility.

Embora Adorno tenha abordado predominantemente o problema do ?fim da arte? como um processo repressivo de liquida??o da arte levado adiante pela domina??o da ind?stria cultural, ele viu uma possibilidade promissora para o conceito de desartifica??o (Entkunstung) em sua Teoria Est?tica. Ali, ele reconheceu uma tend?ncia evolutiva desse conceito pela intensifica??o do tremor de uma subjetividade fixa atrav?s da experi?ncia da n?o?identidade e de uma poss?vel reconcilia??o com uma natureza n?o inteiramente submetida ? explora??o. O objetivo deste trabalho ? examinar a articula??o de duas teses em Adorno: uma que antecipa o fim da arte em uma sociedade sem classes, relacionado ? supera??o da tens?o entre o real e o poss?vel, e uma segunda que reconhece na express?o art?stica conhecida alguma promessa de felicidade, ao apontar para uma realidade latente que insiste em retornar, na medida em que as obras de arte s?o a ?historiografia inconsciente de si mesma de sua ?poca.?Although Adorno has predominantly approached the problem of the ?end of art? as a repressive process of liquidation of art carried out by the domination of the cultural industry, he saw a promising possibility for the concept of de?arting (Entkunstung) in his Aesthetic Theory. There he recognized an ?evolutionary tendency? of the concept from the intensification of the shudder of a fixed subjectivity through the experience of non?identity and a possible reconciliation with a nature not entirely subject to exploitation. The aim of this work is to examine the articulation of two theses in Adorno: one that anticipates the end of art in a society without classes, related to the overcoming of the tension between the real and the possible, and the second that recognizes in the known artistic expression a promise of happiness by pointing out a latent reality that insists on returning, insofar as artworks are the ?self?unconscious historiography of their epoch?

Visual encoding quality and scalability in information visualization

Information visualization seeks to amplify cognition through interactive visual representations of data. It comprises human processes, such as perception and cognition, and computer processes, such as visual encoding. Visual encoding consists in mapping data variables to visual variables, and its quality is critical to the effectiveness of information visualizations. The scalability of a visual encoding is the extent to which its quality is preserved as the parameters of the data grow. Scalable encodings offer good support for basic analytical tasks at scale by carrying design decisions that consider the limits of human perception and cognition. In this thesis, I present three case studies that explore different aspects of visual encoding quality and scalability: information loss, perceptual scalability, and discriminability. In the first study, I leverage information theory to model encoding quality in terms of information content and complexity. I examine how information loss and clutter affect the scalability of hierarchical visualizations and contribute an information-theoretic algorithm for adjusting these factors in visualizations of large datasets. The second study centers on the question of whether a data property (outlierness) can be lost in the visual encoding process due to saliency interference with other visual variables. I designed a controlled experiment to measure the effectiveness of motion outlier detection in complex multivariate scatterplots. The results suggest a saliency deficit effect whereby global saliency undermines support to tasks that rely on local saliency. Finally, I investigate how discriminability, a classic visualization criterion, can explain recent empirical results on encoding effectiveness and provide the foundation for automated evaluation of visual encodings. I propose an approach for discriminability evaluation based on a perceptually motivated image similarity measure

Esquetes teatrais como ferramenta did?tica para o ensino de evolu??o nos anos finais do ensino fundamental

O presente artigo consiste em um relato de experi?ncia de projeto desenvolvido com estudantes do 9? ano do Ensino Fundamental II da Escola Municipal de Ensino B?sico Reunida Padre Tavares, na cidade de Tavares- PB, e tem por objetivo discutir o ensino de Evolu??o atrav?s do debate entre ci?ncia e religi?o utilizando esquetes teatrais como metodologia ativa com intuito de facilitar a compreens?o e abordagem dessa tem?tica em sala de aula, tendo em vista que a mesma ? considerada um grande desafio a ser trabalhado devido a m?ltiplos fatores. O trabalho foi desenvolvido em tr?s etapas: aula expositivo-dialogada, na qual foi introduzida o conte?do de evolu??o; montagem dos esquetes teatrais, onde os discentes, em grupo, criaram o roteiro de seus esquetes por meio de um passo a passo criado para auxili?-los; e apresenta??o dos esquetes, onde os alunos apresentaram para pr?pria turma o seu trabalho. Posteriormente foi debatido um artigo sobre Evolu??o e Criacionismo. Os resultados obtidos foram advindos das observa??es feitas no desenvolvimento de cada etapa e mostram que o uso de esquetes teatrais como metodologia de ensino torna o conte?do mais atrativo e faz do/a aluno/a protagonista na busca do seu pr?prio conhecimento, al?m de facilitar a abordagem da tem?tica, o que faz dessa metodologia ativa uma ferramenta positiva de ensino e aprendizagem

A leitura liter?ria e a mulher privada de liberdade: um estudo realizado na APAC feminina de Governador Valadares

A orientadora do trabalho n?o mencionada na lista da Folha de Aprova??o.O direito ? educa??o ? para todos, inclusive para pessoas que estejam sob pena privativa de liberdade em institui??es prisionais. Analisar as condi??es e os reflexos dessa educa??o ofertada no c?rcere ? de suma import?ncia para que esse direito seja garantido e ofertado de forma eficiente ao indiv?duo preso. O exerc?cio da leitura ? usual nas pr?ticas educacionais de modo geral, inclusive no ambiente escolar carcer?rio. Ler, numa perspectiva mais complexa que a simples decodifica??o do c?digo lingu?stico, ? instrumento importante tamb?m para o processo educacional do sujeito privado de liberdade. Dessa forma, o objetivo do estudo ? analisar as rela??es estabelecidas entre a leitura liter?ria e as mulheres presas que cumprem pena privativa de liberdade na APAC feminina de Governador Valadares. Para isso, a abordagem metodol?gica ocorre pelo cruzamento de dados gerados pela aplica??o de um question?rio e de sequ?ncias did?ticas desenvolvidas por meio de textos liter?rios. Algumas das mulheres presas, participantes da pesquisa, s?o alunas frequentes da EJA, Educa??o de Jovens e Adultos, com aulas oferecidas na pr?pria institui??o. Trata-se de um estudo explorat?rio e descritivo, desenvolvido atrav?s de pesquisa de campo. A pesquisa revelou que a mulher presa que cumpre pena na APAC/GV, denominada recuperanda, l? por outros motivos al?m da remi??o de pena pela leitura. Ela tamb?m l? como forma de se ?afastar? da pris?o atrav?s da evas?o; para ocupar o tempo ocioso; por apre?o pela fic??o. As rela??es estabelecidas entre a mulher presa na APAC e a leitura liter?ria ? ?ntima, cotidiana e interativa.Disserta??o (Mestrado Profissional) ? Programa de P?s-Gradua??o em Educa??o, Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri, 2020.The right to education is for everyone, including people who are under custodial penalty in prison institutions. It is extremely important to analyze the conditions and reflexes of this education in prison in order that this right will be guaranteed and efficiently offered to the prisoner. Reading is a common activity in educational practices in general, including in the school environment inside prisons. Reading, in a more complex perspective other than the simple act of decoding the language code, is also an important tool for the educational process of the person deprived of liberty. Thus, the objective of this study is to analyze the relationships established between literary reading and female prisoners who are serving a custodial sentence in the female APAC (?Associa??o de Assist?ncia aos Condenados? ? Association of Assistance to convicted people) in Governador Valadares. For this, the methodological approach was accomplished by crossing-checking data which were provided by the application of a questionnaire and didactic sequences developed through literary texts. Some of the prisoners, participating in the research, are assiduous students of EJA, ?Educa??o de Jovens e Adultos? (Education for Adults and Young People), attending classes inside the institution. It is an exploratory and descriptive study developed through survey fieldwork. The research revealed that the imprisoned woman in custody in the APAC / GV, called ?recuperanda? (in the process of rehabilitation), reads for other reasons, not only the reduction of her penalty, but she also reads to ?get away? from prison through evasion; as a pastime activity; for fiction?s appreciation. The relationships established between the individuals in APAC and literary reading are intimate, daily and interactive