A real-time distributed software infrastructure for cooperating mobile autonomous robots

Cooperating mobile autonomous robots have been generating a growing interest in fields such as rescue, demining and security. These applications require a real time middleware and wireless communication protocol that can effecient and timely support the fusion of the distributed perception and the development of coordinated behaviors. This paper proposes an affordable middleware, based on low-cost and open-source COTS technologies, which relies on a real-time database partially replicated in all team members, containing both local and remote state variables, in a distributed shared memory style. This provides seamless access to the complete team state, with fast non-blocking local operations. The remote data is updated autonomously in the background by a WiFi-based wireless communication protocol, at an adequate refresh rate. The software infrastruture is complemented with a task manager that provides scheduling and synchronization services to the application processes on top of the Linux operating system. Such infrastructure has been successfully used for four years in one RoboCup middle-size soccer team, and it has proved to be dependable in the presence of uncontrolled spurious traffic in the communication channel, using an adaptive technique to synchronizating the robots in the team and reconfiguring the communications dynamically and automatically according, to the number of currently active team members

Supervisão pedagógica: teoria e prática

O artigo resulta de uma investigação no âmbito do doutoramento em Educação, especialidade em Liderança EducacionalPretende-se com esta reflexão contribuir, de algum modo, para a clarificação do conceito supervisão pedagógica procurando retirar-lhe a carga depreciativa que o termo comportava. A importância da sua implementação duma forma aceite pelos agentes envolvidos também será aqui exaltada onde tentaremos destacar as vantagens que tem na construção de uma escola sustentável. Revisitaremos a emergência do conceito bem como as suas características, onde abordaremos as suas principais ações e a sua indissociável relação com a liderança.With this reflection we intend, somehow, to contribute to the clarification of the concept of pedagogical supervision trying to remove the depreciatory weight it may suggest. The importance of its being implemented with the agreement of all the parties involved will also be exalted here and we will try to highlight its advantages in building a sustainable school. We will approach the emergence of the concept and its characteristics, by presenting its main activities as well as its inseparable relationship to leadership

Estilos e perfis de líderes intermédios com funções de avaliação de desempenho docente : discussão conceptual

Congresso realizado na Universidade do Porto de 19-22 de Junho de 2012Pretendemos neste texto discutir os conceitos “perfil de liderança” e “estilo de liderança” a partir das lideranças intermédias que têm a função de avaliar o desempenho dos docentes. Esta reflexão é baseada na investigação em curso de um dos autores no âmbito do Programa de Doutoramento em Educação, especialidade em Liderança Educacional, da Universidade Aberta, com o título “Estilos e perfis dos líderes intermédios na escola com funções de avaliação do desempenho docente”. Neste contexto, procuramos distinguir os dois conceitos partindo do entendimento de “perfil” enquanto predominantemente relacionado com as características profissionais/académicas existentes/exigidas e de “estilo” mais ligado às características pessoais moldáveis e relacionadas com os traços de personalidade ou eventualmente com as formas de atuação impostas pelo líder de topo. Os recentes desenvolvimentos das políticas educativas têm vindo a colocar as instituições escolares no centro das preocupações sociais. Concretamente, medidas como a generalização dos programas de avaliação de desempenho docente e a sua relação com a implementação de um novo modelo de gestão da escola têm contribuído para a reconfiguração da organização escolar ao nível das suas dinâmicas internas de funcionamento. Neste sentido, interessa compreender os modos como a organização escolar reage a este tipo de imperativos, de que forma recria as suas dinâmicas através da compreensão das práticas e olhares dos sujeitos nos seus contextos de ação. Debruçar-nos-emos, então, por mobilizar os conceitos referidos tendo por referência a conjuntura atual de acentuados condicionalismos, o quadro de reflexividade social e a complexidade da organização escolar.In this article we intend to discuss the concepts of ”leadership profile” and “leadership styles” of the intermediate leaders, whose function is to evaluate teachers’ performance in schools. This reflection is based upon the investigation being led by one of the authors within his PhD in Education, specialty in Educational Leadership, at Universidade Aberta, entitled “Styles and profiles of the school intermediate leaders with teacher evaluation functions”. In this context, we try to distinguish both concepts by considering “profile” as mainly related to professional/academic characteristics existing/required and “style” as connected to personal, flexible, personality-related traits or, eventually, with courses of action imposed by the top leader. Recent developments on education policies have been putting educational institutions in the centre of social concerns. Specifically, measures such as the generalizations of the teacher evaluation programs and its relation to the implementation of a new model of school management, have contributed to rearrange school organization in its internal functioning dynamics. In this sense, it is important to understand how schools reply to these impositions, how they recreate their dynamics through the understanding of practices and the perspectives of the subjects in action. We then start to summon the referred concepts, regarding the current juncture with marked constraints, the framework of social reflexivity and the complexity of school organization

Impact on consumer well-being from imagining dream purchases

Individuals often find themselves imagining about a desired product. While this activity does not imply an actual consumption, it is considered to play an important role in consumer behavior and brands largely attempt to capitalize on this through strategic marketing communications. This between-subjects experiment investigates the impact on consumer well-being from imagining dream purchases, more particularly on life satisfaction. Dream purchases refer to items that consumers dream about buying one day and can realistically afford during their lifetime. Research findings suggest that imagining dream purchases increases life satisfaction and that this relationship is not mediated by gratitude, envy, nor materialism

Machine and mechanism design at UMinho: research-teaching interaction

Publicado em: "New trends in mechanism and machine science: from fundamentals to industrial applications. ISBN 978-3-319-09410-6. Series: Mechanisms and machine science, vol. 24, ISSN 2211-0984"The Multiweave project involved the design of a prototype machine with several mecha-nisms, namely gear trains and various conjugate cams with oscillating roller followers. For this design phase the research team integrated postgraduate student work. In order to evaluate the quality of the manufactured cam profiles as well as the accuracy of the follower’s displacement, an experimental work has been designed. This study, which was carried out within a final year Mechanical Engineering student’s group project, was of great importance in the development of the prototype machine to pro-duce multidirectional woven fabrics, which was the main objective of the Multiweave project. The whole set-up is presented with the experimental details and the results are analysed and discussed. This measurement system is based on a laser triangulation sensor Micro-Epsilon ILD 1302-50 to measure with no contact and high resolution. The obtained results were compared with the expected theoretical values and it could be concluded that, in general, the experimental results adjust very well to the theo-retical ones. However it was possible to conclude about the existence of some differences due to clear-ances in joints, geometric differences in the kinematic chain and manufacturing defects on the follower in terms of irregularities and surface roughness as well as some manufacturing imperfections of the cam surface

TerrorScale: A Scale to Measure the Contact of International Tourists with Terrorism

Terrorism is unfortunately part of our lives and will not simply disappear. Accepting its presence, the management and prevention of its negative consequences is a key issue. This is imperative not only for countries where terrorist attacks occur, but also for countries that may be affected indirectly. It is necessary to further consider this issue and create more effective instruments for crisis management, ideally based on cooperative solutions among industry, government agencies and tourism-related academic institutions. Although research on terrorism has been undertaken in the tourism domain, the specific concept of tourists’ contact with terrorism has never been operationalized. In this paper we develop a scale that measures the contact of tourists with terrorism. Insights from an empirical study of 600 international tourists indicate that this multi-dimensional scale incorporates three types of contact: 1) Direct, 2) Indirect and 3) Attention to/ Interest in Terrorism on the Media. Discussion centers on implications of this scale for theory development and in the context of strategic destination crisis management decisions. Directions for future research are also presented

Comparing CB-SEM and PLS-SEM Results: An empirical example

Many scholars view PLS-SEM as less rigorous than CB-SEM, namely due to is less restrictive assumptions. The main objective of this research is to compare the results of both approaches, for a given model, to examine if there are, indeed, noteworthy differences. The study shows that the results obtained in both approaches are very similar. These findings provide useful insights to researchers

As Pilhas de Pesos de Dom Manuel I: Contributo para a sua caracterização, inventariação e avaliação

No âmbito da importante reforma dos forais que empreendeu, Dom Manuel I foi particularmente cuidadoso quanto à reforma do sistema de pesos, distribuindo padrões em bronze a um número significativo de municípios. A existência destes padrões, que têm a forma de pilha de pesos e estão datados de 1499, é bem conhecida. No entanto, ainda não existe um inventário exaustivo dos exemplares que existem ou terão existido. Depois de resumir os aspectos essenciais da reforma manuelina dos pesos, apresenta-se uma caracterização das pilhas de pesos manuelinas e discute-se a cronologia da sua produção. Recorrendo a várias fontes literárias, com destaque para os relatórios das avaliações realizadas em 1857-1860, e à procura directa em museus, foi possível referenciar 128 exemplares e, para 71 deles, identificar os municípios a que pertenceram. Foi também possível obter avaliações para 265 peças provenientes de 42 pilhas manuelinas, com base nas quais foi calculada uma estimativa do valor do arrátel manuelin