The layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly of polyelectrolyte pairs on temperature and pH-sensitive cross-linked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-co-(methacrylic acid), poly(NIPAAm-co-MAA), microgels enabled a fine-tuning of the gel swelling and responsive behavior according to the mobility of the assembled polyelectrolyte (PE) pair and the composition of the outermost layer. Microbeads with well-defined morphology were initially prepared by synthesis in supercritical carbon dioxide. Upon LbL assembly of polyelectrolytes, interactions between the multilayers and the soft porous microgel led to differences in swelling and thermoresponsive behavior. For the weak PE pairs, namely poly(l-lysine)/poly(l-glutamic acid) and poly(allylamine hydrochloride)/poly(acrylic acid), polycation-terminated microgels were less swollen and more thermoresponsive than native microgel, whereas polyanion-terminated microgels were more swollen and not significantly responsive to temperature, in a quasi-reversible process with consecutive PE assembly. For the strong PE pair, poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride)/poly(sodium styrene sulfonate), the differences among polycation and polyanion-terminated microgels are not sustained after the first PE bilayer due to extensive ionic cross-linking between the polyelectrolytes. The tendencies across the explored systems became less noteworthy in solutions with larger ionic strength due to overall charge shielding of the polyelectrolytes and microgel. ATR FT-IR studies correlated the swelling and responsive behavior after LbL assembly on the microgels with the extent of H-bonding and alternating charge distribution within the gel. Thus, the proposed LbL strategy may be a simple and flexible way to engineer smart microgels in terms of size, surface chemistry, overall charge and permeability.The layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly of polyelectrolyte pairs on temperature and pH-sensitive cross-linked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-co-(methacrylic acid), poly(NIPAAm-co-MAA), microgels enabled a fine-tuning of the gel swelling and responsive behavior according to the mobility of the assembled polyelectrolyte (PE) pair and the composition of the outermost layer. Microbeads with well-defined morphology were initially prepared by synthesis in supercritical carbon dioxide. Upon LbL assembly of polyelectrolytes, interactions between the multilayers and the soft porous microgel led to differences in swelling and thermoresponsive behavior. For the weak PE pairs, namely poly(l-lysine)/poly(l-glutamic acid) and poly(allylamine hydrochloride)/poly(acrylic acid), polycation-terminated microgels were less swollen and more thermoresponsive than native microgel, whereas polyanion-terminated microgels were more swollen and not significantly responsive to temperature, in a quasi-reversible process with consecutive PE assembly. For the strong PE pair, poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride)/poly(sodium styrene sulfonate), the differences among polycation and polyanion-terminated microgels are not sustained after the first PE bilayer due to extensive ionic cross-linking between the polyelectrolytes. The tendencies across the explored systems became less noteworthy in solutions with larger ionic strength due to overall charge shielding of the polyelectrolytes and microgel. ATR FT-IR studies correlated the swelling and responsive behavior after LbL assembly on the microgels with the extent of H-bonding and alternating charge distribution within the gel. Thus, the proposed LbL strategy may be a simple and flexible way to engineer smart microgels in terms of size, surface chemistry, overall charge and permeability.

For years the development of software artifacts was the sole domain of developers and project
managers. However, experience has taught us that the Users play a very important role in
software development and construction. On Domain Specific Languages the inclusion of the
domain experts directly in the development cycle is a very important characteristic, as they have
often an important role in making and constraining the domain of the language.
DSLs are credited with increased productivity and ease of use, but this fact is hardly ever proven.
Moreover, usability tests are frequently only performed at the final stages of the project when
changes have a significant impact on the budget. To help prevent this, in this paper we present a
pattern language for evaluating the usability of DSLs. Our patterns can help show how to use an
iterative usability validation development strategy to produce DSLs that can achieve a high
degree of usability.

Sandstone building stones are important in the building elements of Portuguese monuments, particularly in the western and southern regions. Alveolization due to salt crystallization was the most important degradation pattern found in the old sandstone façades of buildings in the village of Atouguia da Baleia. Because weathering progressively increases porosity in stones, experimental research was conducted on the most porous variety of sandstone, which is similar to the type of stones found in the façades of ancient buildings in that village. An automatic salt crystallization accelerated ageing chamber was developed. Monotonic and cyclic uniaxial compressive tests were carried out on samples after sodium chloride crystallization ageing tests had been performed, in order to assess the compressive mechanical behavior of sandstone during accelerated ageing. The results of stress–strain compression diagrams showed a clear decreasing trend in the values of mechanical parameters during the salt crystallization ageing progress. The difference in compressive strength values between monotonic and cyclic compression also decreases with as salt crystallization ageing progresses. A predictive equation that correlates the compressive strength of sandstones with salt crystallization ageing cycles is proposed.

This paper presents an automatic verification technique for transactional memory Java programs executing under snapshot isolation level. We certify which transactions in a program are safe to execute under snapshot isolation without triggering the write-skew anomaly, opening the way to run-time optimizations that may lead to considerable performance enhancements. Our work builds on a novel deep-heap analysis technique based on separation logic to statically approximate the read- and write-sets of a transactional memory Java program. We implement our technique and apply our tool to a set of micro benchmarks and also to one benchmark of the STAMP package. We corroborate known results, certifying some of the examples for safe execution under snapshot isolation by proving the absence of write-skew anomalies. In other cases our analysis has identified transactions that potentially trigger previously unknown write-skew anomalies.>

This paper proposes a new optimization methodology for supply chain design, using ant colony optimization. The objective of this methodology is to choose the facilities that will take part in a multi-product closed-loop supply chain, such as factories, warehouses and disassembly centers, in order to minimize the costs related to these facilities and those related to transportation costs, both in the forward and reverse chains. Considering that total production quantities for factories, expected cross-docking stocks for warehouses, and disassembly centers are determined by this methodology, it can be considered that it undertakes both strategic and tactical Supply Chain Management (SCM) problems at once. The developed algorithm, SCant-Design, is sufficiently general to solve any SCM configuration, with linear and nonlinear cost functions and constraints. The algorithm results were compared to a MILP approach for a particular case study and the obtained value for the cost function is very similar, although using less facilities.

Recent issues of global heating and energy shortages are imposing a need to change our paradigm around transportation. Somehow, electric vehicles are progressively standing as a strong and necessary alternative for the society. Technically and technologically the acceptance of the EV is easier now than ever but the psychology of the consumers and the running business of internal combustion vehicles, the whole existing infrastructure are too much conservative to be changed easily. The changes in technology require changes in the engineering society and its human resources. The objective of this paper is to give a contribution to the discussion and reflection of potential future scenarios where EV/HEV‘s are spread across the society. It gives an overview of the range of knowledge and competences necessary for a sustainable and streamlined development of those. In fact, it is expected that a new kind of professional profiles need to be created or developed to supply the work market with the right human resources. The paper provides some discussion on the creation of new profiles or adaption of existing ones. Among different possible scenarios the creation of post-graduation courses for students holding undergraduate profiles in the fields referred to earlier would be an interesting and viable solution for fast response. The post graduation would be focused in specific key areas of the EV/HEV. Several factors are pointed out to endorse this scenario

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Currently, the energy supply for the portable and autonomous equipment comes almost exclusively from the battery. Unfortunately the maintenance of those sources of energy brings disadvantages due to the need for frequent recharging or replacement. In many cases the battery brings extra weight and volume to the electronic equipment, limiting its autonomy. Some possible alternative methods to replace the batteries as power source, or to achieve better maintenance of existing (or smaller) batteries, are the so called Energy Harvesting (EH) methods, i.e. to obtain energy from the environment. For the medical equipment, there is also a possibility to recover and store energy generated by the human body in its usual activities. To harvest energy from the human body or from the environment requires specific technology and materials. The electronic circuits must have extremely high efficiency both in energy conversion and energy consumption. Experiments were performed in order to calculate the power that could be generated from the chest during breathing, from the feet, during walking, etc. For the experiments, mostly piezoelectric effect was explored.