In this work we present a fully automated plasma-enhanced reactive thermal evaporation system (rf-PERTE) that can be used for the deposition of transparent metal oxide films without intentional heating of the substrate. The system and developed software enables the full control over critical deposition conditions such as mass flow of oxygen, process pressure, current flowing through crucible and rf-power. These parameters are automatically adjusted during the deposition thus keeping them in a narrow process window. This way, highly transparent and conductive coating can be deposited with a high degree of reproducibility of the optical and electrical characteristics. The resistivity of 9×10^-4 Ω-cm and the peak transmittance of 90% in the visible spectral range were achieved for indium oxide films deposited on glass substrates. This technique is also suitable for the deposition of transparent conducting coatings in a wide range of plastic materials for flexible solar cells. In particular, we have successfully deposited indium oxide on PEN (polyethylene naphtalate) sheets with electrical and optical properties approaching the ones for films on glass.

Many errors in spreadsheet formulas can be avoided if spreadsheets are built automatically from higher-level models that can encode and enforce consistency constraints in the generated spreadsheets. Employing this strategy for legacy spreadsheets is difficult, because the model has to be reverse engineered from an existing spreadsheet and existing data must be transferred into the new model-generated spreadsheet. We have developed and implemented a technique that automatically infers relational schemas from spreadsheets. This technique uses particularities from the spreadsheet realm to create better schemas. We have evaluated this technique in two ways: First, we have demonstrated its applicability by using it on a set of real-world spreadsheets. Second, we have run an empirical study with users. The study has shown that the results produced by our technique are comparable to the ones developed by experts starting from the same (legacy) spreadsheet data. Although relational schemas are very useful to model data, they do not fit well spreadsheets as they do not allow to express layout. Thus, we have also introduced a mapping between relational schemas and ClassSheets. A ClassSheet controls further changes to the spreadsheet and safeguards it against a large class of formula errors. The developed tool is a contribution to spreadsheet (reverse) engineering, because it fills an important gap and allows a promising design method (ClassSheets) to be applied to a huge collection of legacy spreadsheets with minimal effort.

Abstract Adaptive building envelopes can provide improvements in the building energy efficiency and economics, through their capability to change their behaviour in real time according to indoor-outdoor parameters, by means of materials, components and systems. Therefore, adaptive façades can make a significant and viable contribution to meeting the EU's 2020 targets. Several different types of adaptive façade concepts have already been developed, and an increase in emerging, innovative solutions is expected for the near future. The objective of this paper is to contribute to these developments by presenting the findings of an analysis of the existing concepts and case studies and by proposing a new approach for characterization of these elements.

The present article addresses the study of an adaptive-passive beam structure with a shape-memory alloy based actuator. In order to mitigate adverse dynamic effects resulting from externally induced vibrations, the structure is able to automatically tune its natural frequency to avoid resonance. The adaptive-passive beam configuration is based on an underslung cable-stayed girder concept. Its frequency tuning is achieved by temperature modulation of the shape-memory alloy elements through a closed-loop control process based on a proportional-integral-derivative algorithm. The effectiveness of the proposed control solution is substantiated by numerical simulations and experimental tests on a small-scale prototype. The validated numerical model enables the simulation of the proposed control approach in a real-scale footbridge, subjected to a prescribed pedestrian loading. The results are very encouraging and show that, by activating the shape-memory alloy elements, the system is able to successfully shift its natural frequency and to mitigate the effects of induced vibrations.

Power Quality is a generic term focusing on several issues, going from reliability to the quality of service provided by the energy supplier. It addresses limiting aspects such as harmonic distortion, flicker, sags, swells and transients... It is important for the students to understand the differences between the large amounts of events that fit into poor power quality category. Moreover it is important for them to analyze real time non-laboratory events. To provide this experience to the students this paper presents a remote m-learning experimental system where several types of poor power quality events can be tested. The developed system is based on a power quality analysis distributed network and can be remotely accessed from a remote computer or smart phones.

This article presents the comparison between 6 theoretical models of axially confined concrete columns with the experimental results of 7 tested columns of different authors. This study analysed the accuracy of 6 different confinement models for square columns taking into account the results of experimental tests on 7 RC columns confined with CFRP sheets with different dimensions and carried out by different authors. The profile of curves, the peak/failure values, the stress–strain and axial–to–lateral relations were studied to conclude which models show the best correlation with the experimental test results. Quantification of this deviation was carried out for key parameters. Some models predicted peak values with reasonable accuracy – Manfredi & Realfonzo, Campione & Miraglia, Lam & Teng, Pellegrino & Modena – although for the whole load–strain behaviour only the model of Faustino, Chastre & Paula seemed to be reasonably accurate in most cases.

Technology assessment (TA) had never been treated as a relevant topic within the International Sociological Association (ISA) before. The first steps towards establishing this association were taken in 1948, at the initiative of the Social Science Department of UNESCO. Its formal foundation was in 1949. The World Congress of Sociology in Japan was hopefully the beginning of continuous integration of TA into the thematic sessions within the ISA.

In Statistics of Extremes, the tail shape second order parameter is a relevant parameter whenever we want to improve the estimation of first order parameters. We shall consider two semi-parametric estimators of the shape second order parameter, parameterized with a tuning parameter. We provide a Monte Carlo comparative simulation study of several algorithms for the choice of such tuning parameter and for an adaptive estimation of the shape second order parameter.In Statistics of Extremes, the tail shape second order parameter is a relevant parameter whenever we want to improve the estimation of first order parameters. We shall consider two semi-parametric estimators of the shape second order parameter, parameterized with a tuning parameter. We provide a Monte Carlo comparative simulation study of several algorithms for the choice of such tuning parameter and for an adaptive estimation of the shape second order parameter.

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The influence of mathematical communication over the students’ learning led to this research, whose main goal is to understand the impact on problem solving of the students’ communication difficulties. The study adopts a qualitative and interpretative methodology, undertaking two case studies of 10th grade students. The reached conclusions point to the students’ difficulties at the interpretation of the problem, namely at the interpretation of figures, and at the interpretation of the available data, especially when part of them is irrelevant to the problem. Some difficulties were also identified at the communication level, in relation to the arguments used by the students to support their ideas, where a clear preference to restrict them to mathematic calculations was identified.

Resumo
A importância da comunicação matemática sobre a aprendizagem dos alunos, levou à realização desta investigação que pretendeu compreender o impacto sobre a resolução de problemas das dificuldades de comunicação evidenciadas pelos alunos. Optou-se por uma metodologia de natureza qualitativa e interpretativa e pela realização de estudos de caso envolvendo dois alunos do 10.º ano. As conclusões alcançadas apontam para dificuldades na interpretação do enunciado, nomeadamente relativamente às figuras e a dados em quantidade superior ao necessário. Também ao nível da comunicação da resolução foram identificadas dificuldades em fundamentar ideias, evidenciando uma preferência pelo recurso ao cálculo.