Dissertations / Theses on the topic '709.040 1'

Traditionally developers and testers created huge numbers of explicit tests, enumerating interesting cases, perhaps biased by what they believe to be the current boundary conditions of the function being tested. Or at least, they were supposed to. A major step forward was the development of property testing. Property testing requires the user to write a few functional properties that are used to generate tests, and requires an external library or tool to create test data for the tests. As such many thousands of tests can be created for a single property. For the purely functional programming language Haskell there are several such libraries; for example QuickCheck [CH00], SmallCheck and Lazy SmallCheck [RNL08]. Unfortunately, property testing still requires the user to write explicit tests. Fortunately, we note there are already many implicit tests present in programs. Developers may throw assertion errors, or the compiler may silently insert runtime exceptions for incomplete pattern matches. We attempt to automate the testing process using these implicit tests. Our contributions are in four main areas: (1) We have developed algorithms to automatically infer appropriate constructors and functions needed to generate test data without requiring additional programmer work or annotations. (2) To combine the constructors and functions into test expressions we take advantage of Haskell's lazy evaluation semantics by applying the techniques of needed narrowing and lazy instantiation to guide generation. (3) We keep the type of test data at its most general, in order to prevent committing too early to monomorphic types that cause needless wasted tests. (4) We have developed novel ways of creating Haskell case expressions to inspect elements inside returned data structures, in order to discover exceptions that may be hidden by laziness, and to make our test data generation algorithm more expressive. In order to validate our claims, we have implemented these techniques in Irulan, a fully automatic tool for generating systematic black-box unit tests for Haskell library code. We have designed Irulan to generate high coverage test suites and detect common programming errors in the process.

Immunosenescence is characterized by a complex remodelling of the immune system, mainly driven by lifelong antigenic burden. Cells of the immune system are constantly exposed to a variety of stressors capable of inducing apoptosis, including antigens and reactive oxygen species continuously produced during immune response and metabolic pathways. The overall homeostasis of the immune system is based on the balance between antigenic load, oxidative stress, and apoptotic processes on one side, and the regenerative potential and renewal of the immune system on the other. Zinc is an essential trace element playing a central role on the immune function, being involved in many cellular processes, such as cell death and proliferation, as cofactor of enzymes, nuclear factors and hormones. In this context, the age associated changes in the immune system may be in part due to zinc deficiency, often observed in aged subjects and able to induce impairment of several immune functions. Thus, the aim of this work was to investigate the role of zinc in two essential events for immunity during aging, i.e. apoptosis and cell proliferation. Spontaneous and oxidative stress-induced apoptosis were evaluated by flow cytometry in presence of a physiological concentration of zinc in vitro on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) obtained from healthy subjects of different age: a group of young subjects, a group of old subjects and a group of nonagenarians. In addition, cell cycle phases were analyzed by flow cytometry in PBMCs, obtained from the subjects of the same groups in presence of different concentration of zinc. We also analyzed the influence of zinc in these processes in relation to p53 codon 72 polymorphism, known to affect apoptosis and cell cycle in age-dependent manner. Zinc significantly reduces spontaneous apoptosis in all age-groups; while it significantly increases oxidative stress-induced late apoptosis/necrosis in old and nonagenarians subjects. Some factors involved in the apoptotic pathway were studied and a zinc effect on mitochondrial membrane depolarization, cytochrome C release, caspase-3 activation, PARP cleavage and Bcl-2 expression was found. In conclusion, zinc inhibits spontaneous apoptosis in PBMCs contrasting the harmful effects due to the cellular culture conditions. On the other hand, zinc is able to increase toxicity and induce cell death in PBMCs from aged subjects when cells are exposed to stressing agents that compromise antioxidant cellular systems. Concerning the relationship between the susceptibility to apoptosis and p53 codon 72 genotype, zinc seems to affect apoptosis only in PBMCs from Pro- people suggesting a role of this ion in strengthening the mechanism responsible of the higher propensity of Pro- towards apoptosis. Regarding cell cycle, high doses of zinc could have a role in the progression of cells from G1 to S phase and from S to G2/M phase. These effect seems depend on the age of the donor but seems to be unrelated to p53 codon 72 genotype. In order to investigate the effect of an in vivo zinc supplementation on apoptosis and cell cycle, PBMCs from a group of aged subjects were studied before and after six weeks of oral zinc supplementation. Zinc supplementation reduces spontaneous apoptosis and it strongly reduces oxidative stress-induced apoptosis. On the contrary, no effect of zinc was observed on cell cycle. Therefore, it’s clear that in vitro and in vivo zinc supplementation have different effects on apoptosis and cell cycle in PBMCs from aged subjects. Further experiments and clinical trials are necessary to clarify the real effect of an in vivo zinc supplementation because this preliminary data could encourage the of this element in all that disease with oxidative stress pathogenesis. Moreover, the expression of metallothioneins (MTs), proteins well known for their zinc-binding ability and involved in many cellular processes, i.e. apoptosis, metal ions detoxification, oxidative stress, differentiation, was evaluated in total lymphocytes, in CD4+ and in CD8+ T lymphocytes from young and old healthy subjects in presence of different concentration of zinc in vitro. Literature data reported that during ageing the levels of these proteins increase and concomitantly they lose the ability to release zinc. This fact induce a down-regulation of many biological functions related to zinc, such as metabolism, gene expression and signal transduction. Therefore, these proteins may turn from protective in young-adult age to harmful agents for the immune function in ageing following the concept that several genes/proteins that increase fitness early in life may have negative effects later in life: named “Antagonistic Pleyotropy Theory of Ageing”. Data obtained in this work indicate an higher and faster expression of MTs with lower doses of zinc in total lymphocytes, in CD4+ and in CD8+ T lymphocytes from old subjects supporting the antagonistic pleiotropic role of these proteins.

Strategies to promote active aging and counteract the development of age-related diseases are among the most challenging researches in the framework of Horizon 2020, accordingly with the World Health Organization's declaration that "increased longevity without quality of life is an empty prize”. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the role of blood circulating microRNAs (miRs) and their expression profile characterizing aging and longevity trajectories, and particularly to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy longevity. To this purpose two experimental designs were defined, the former applied the advanced technology of smallRNA-sequencing (Illumina platform) to screen circulating miRs in a small cohort of different aged people, the latter was based on selected miRs analyzed on a larger cohort. The protocol for sequencing analysis, including library preparation, was optimized and applied on 12 donors, i.e. 3 young healthy donors, 3 old healthy donors, 3 healthy centenarians and 3 unhealthy centenarians. Significant miRs identified by sequencing, i.e. miR-30a-5p, -766-3p, -598-3p, were measured on a larger cohort of 48 subjects. Aging-related miRs previously described, i.e. miR-133a-3p, -206, -16, were analyzed in the same cohort of 48 donors. Circulating miR-206 and miR-16 levels described significant trajectories of aging, while miR-598-3p and miR-133a-3p levels characterized longevity trajectories. All these miRs are involved in the PI3K-Akt signaling, a central pathway for aging process. Finally, blood circulating molecules able to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy were obtained by joining the identified miRs and hemato-biochemical parameters, opening the possibility for further studies on therapeutic approaches.

The objective of this thesis is twofold: on one hand, the design of nonliner observers, on the other, the design of internal-model regulators to solve the robust output regulation problem. In the observer theory a key role is played by the so called high-gain observers. The purpose of the first part of the thesis is to propose novel techniques which allow to overcome or at least to mitigate some of the main drawbacks characterizing this class of observers. Firstly, we study the possibility of writing an observer for multi-input multi-output observable systems in the original coordinates. Then, we propose a novel class of high-gain observers, denoted as ``low-power'', which allows to overcome numerical problems, to avoid the peaking phenomenon and to improve the sensitivity properties to high-frequency measurement noise. The second part of the thesis addresses the output regulation problem, solved for linear systems during the 70's by Francis and Wonham who coined the celebrated ``internal model principle''. Constructive solutions have also been proposed in the nonlinear framework but under restrictive assumptions that reduce the class of systems to which this methodology can be applied. In this thesis we focus on the output regulation problem in presence of periodic disturbances and we propose a novel approach which allows to consider a broader class of nonlinear systems. With the proposed design the stabilization problem and the regulation problem are substantially decoupled and output regulation is achieved in presence of uncertainties or disturbances, as long as the trajectories of the resulting closed-loop system are bounded.

L’obiettivo di questa tesi è rilevare se e quanto i medical dramas abbiano contribuito a ridefinire conoscenze, aspettative e pratiche dei telespettatori/pazienti rispetto a questioni concernenti la salute e il loro ruolo all’interno della relazione medico-paziente. Grazie ad un lavoro di campo, fatto di questionari e interviste con utenti, operatori della sanità di Centro e Nord Italia e studenti di Medicina, sono state poi registrate le modalità di interazione che i protagonisti della scena della cura dichiarano di sperimentare quotidianamente. Ciò ha permesso di rendere conto delle trasformazioni più recenti della professione medica e di come viene elaborato oggi il sapere sulla malattia da parte dei soggetti implicati, fra tecnicismi, atteggiamenti difensivi, sfiducia e affidamento. La tesi restituisce anche alcune modalità sperimentali di interazione fra pazienti e medici, messe in atto in contesti locali, che testimoniano l’esigenza di approdare a un sapere partecipato delle relazioni di cura. Infine, raccogliendo la sfida posta dalle medical humanities, immagina un utilizzo del medical drama nella formazione degli studenti di medicina per l’apprendimento di competenze narrative necessarie ad una pratica medica più umana e efficace.
The aim of this thesis is to identify whether and to what degree medical dramas have contributed to redefine TV viewers/patients’ knowledge, expectations, and practices with regard to health-related issues and their role in the doctor-patient relationship. The fieldwork, conducted through questionnaires and interviews with users, medical students and health professionals from Central and Northern Italy, has revealed the interactional modes the key players in medical care declare to experience in everyday life. This has made it possible to access the most recent transformations within the medical profession and the way the involved actors acquire knowledges about illness, amidst technical jargon, defensive behaviours, mistrust and entrustment. Moreover, the thesis offers insight into some experimental modes of interaction between patients and physicians taking place in local contexts, revealing the need to achieve participatory understandings of health care relationships. Finally, embracing the challenge posed from the medical humanities, it conceives of medical dramas as a training tool for medical students to acquire the narrative competence necessary to a more human and effective medical practice.

Questa ricerca indaga come il “caso Ustica” si è articolato nell’opinione pubblica italiana negli anni compresi tra il 1980 e il 1992. Con l'espressione “caso Ustica” ci si riferisce al problema politico determinato dalle vicende legate all’abbattimento dell’aereo civile DC-9 dell’Itavia, avvenuto il 27 giugno 1980 in circostanze che, come noto, furono chiarite solamente a distanza di molti anni dal fatto. L’analisi intende cogliere le specificità del processo che ha portato la vicenda di Ustica ad acquisire rilevanza politica nell’ambito della sfera pubblica italiana, in particolare prendendo in considerazione il ruolo svolto dall’opinione pubblica in un decennio, quale quello degli anni ’80 e dei primi anni ’90 italiani, caratterizzato da una nuova centralità dei media rispetto alla sfera politica. Attraverso l’analisi di un’ampia selezione di fonti a stampa (circa 1500 articoli dei principali quotidiani italiani e circa 700 articoli tratti dagli organi dei partiti politici italiani) si sono pertanto messe in luce le dinamiche mediatiche e politiche che hanno portato alla tematizzazione di una vicenda che era rimasta fino al 1986 totalmente assente dall’agenda politica nazionale. L’analisi delle fonti giudiziarie ha permesso inoltre di verificare come la politicizzazione del caso Ustica, costruita intorno alla tensione opacità/trasparenza del potere politico e all’efficace quanto banalizzante paradigma delle “stragi di Stato”, sia risultata funzionale al raggiungimento, dopo il 1990, dei primi elementi di verità sulla tragedia e all’ampiamento del caso a una dimensione internazionale.
This research investigates how the "Ustica case" developed in the Italian public opinion between 1980 and 1992. The term "Ustica case" refers to the political problem determined by the vicissitudes of slaughter happened to the civil place DC-9 Itavia, which occurred June the 27th 1980 in circumstances which, as noted, were clarified only after many years after the fact. The analysis is intended to capture the specificity of the process that led to the events of Ustica to acquire political relevance in the context of the Italian public sphere, in particular taking into account the role played by public opinion in a decade, such as that of the '80s and early 90s in Italy, characterized by a new centrality of the media with respect to the political sphere. Through the analysis of a wide selection of printed sources (about 1500 items of the main Italian newspapers and about 700 articles taken from the organs of Italian political parties) have therefore highlighted the media and political dynamics that led to the theming of an issue that had remained until 1986 completely absent from national politics agenda. The analysis of judicial sources also allowed to check how the politicization of the “Ustica case”, built around the tension opacity / transparency of political power and around effective as trivializing paradigm of "massacres of State", is found at the achievement, after 1990, of the first elements of truth about the tragedy and of the widening of the issue to an international dimension.

Although democracy promotion initiatives have spread around the world and supported transition, many countries have fallen back into autocracy or stalled on their way to democracy. However, the events in the Middle East and Northern Africa have revitalised the issue of democratization. On the other hand, this cry for democracy seems to be homegrown, casting doubts about the efficacy of external democracy promotion. Nevertheless, stalled and setback democracies cannot be blamed solely on the flawed strategies of democracy promoters or autocratic stubbornness of democracy targets. Similarly, labelling democracy promotion as “the grand failure” of the West is an argumentative overstretch, which lacks any practical application. This dissertation argues that democracy can be achieved from outside, but the obstacles associated with it are more serious than anticipated by promoters. More specifically, the chances of liberal democracy being exported from outside will increase provided the utility of domestic adaptation to democracy is at least moderate, promoters are actively involved in resolution of pressing national issues, and there is no regional actor that blocks democracy and receives support for its policies from the target country. By structurally and conceptually expanding Schimmelfennig’s international socialization framework, this study develops an analytical framework to decipher mechanisms, strategies, and subsequent outcomes of democracy promotion and democratization. While applied to Armenia, the proposed framework is a useful reference for both academics and practitioners as it provides tools for researching the outcome of democracy and democratization and provides policy recommendations. This dissertation introduces the concept of democracy blocker—a powerful authoritarian regional actor capable and willing to influence domestic policy choices of a democracy promotion target in order to block democratization. This study also makes an empirical contribution by comparing democracy promotion policies in a country that has long been neglected by the academic literature. Using process-tracing, within-case, and before-after analyses, this study compares democracy promotion policies of the EU and the USA within three different target-sectors in Armenia. The analysis of three different target-sectors of democracy promotion—elections, parties, and the media—shows democratic transformation on the macro level of a country and micro level of specific sectors. This study argues that increased political and economic interdependence and interconnectedness of different realms within a democratizing country has led to merging of international democracy promotion and domestic democratization. In addition, the mere adoption of a law or a code of conduct does not guarantee the establishment of democracy and democratic behaviour by domestic stakeholders. Consequently, a likely upgrade of a formal democratic transformation into a behavioural one, would require democracy promoters to guarantee consistency in their efforts and follow-up on their activities, without assuming that a formally adopted rule or a completed project will necessarily assure rule-based behaviour. Thus, democracy promotion needs to be simultaneously cross-sectoral, offering material incentives for democratic transformation. Democracy promotion has the potential to not only produce numerous academic and policy analyses but also to result in a genuine democratic transformation, if promoters rationally choose their strategies and base them on existing domestic conditions.

This work is situated at the intersection between the historiographies on European integration, the Cold War, and human rights, and scrutinizes the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE, 1973-75) from the specific angle of the history of European integration. According to a narrative that has become standard in historiography, the EC countries achieved remarkable cohesion in the CSCE process through the newly-created European Political Cooperation (EPC), an informal intergovernmental mechanism set up in 1970. This thesis argues instead that the EPC was less successful in achieving cohesion and a common position of the EC’s member states than has been claimed so far. Human rights was a divisive issue, and ideas of détente differed widely in the West European camp. The thesis emphasizes the political fault lines among the nine member states, and in particular between West Germany and the Netherlands, two countries that stand out for their quite different negotiating style and equally different political goals. The author argues that while West German and Dutch foreign policy eventually achieved a degree of coordination, common understanding was lacking. West Germany and the Netherlands often fought for very different goals. In the case of West Germany, its key goal at the CSCE was human relief, a long-standing goal of West German policy that had marked Ostpolitik since its very beginnings: the conspicuous sufferings of German people and the personal experiences of German leaders had a powerful impact on West German foreign policy. The Dutch by contrast thought of human rights as a principle of international law to be used in an ideological confrontation. The work emphasizes the multifaceted nature of the domestic discussions about human rights at the time, points out that the very idea of human rights needs to be historicized, and highlights the role played by domestic influences and by individuals, with a specific focus on domestic political actors, like the Dutch foreign minister Max van der Stoel, who emerges as a staunch – and relatively poorly known - key-advocate of human rights.

This research tries to fill a gap between two very different scales of enquiry: the local (i.e. hillslope) scale, where detailed investigations are possible but difficult to generalize over large areas, and the landscape (i.e., catchment) scale, where representation of the physics is minimised, the resolution in space and time is maximised, and the focus is upon predicting emergent properties rather than system details. Specifically, this Thesis focused on an aspect of the geosciences that is of critical current concern: the representation of the interface between hydrological response and geomorphic processes, notable mass movements. At present there remains a great difficulty at this interface: detailed geotechnical and hydrological studies of mass movements reveal exceptionally complex interlinkages between water and the surface sediment mass, notably dynamically at the onset and during mass release; but these kinds of studies are only possible with a very detailed description of the three-dimensional structure of the porous media and its hydrological and mechanical response during (and after) rainfall events. Such analyses are feasible but tend to result in analyses that are restricted in terms of geographical generalisation. On the other hand, approaches that apply to larger spatial scales tend to over-simplify the representation of critical failure processes, such as in the assumptions that infinite slope stability analysis can be applied to failures that are finite in their slope length, or that upslope contributing area can always act as a surrogate for the hydrologic response at a point in the watershed. The innovative element in this research lies on the assessment of rainfall-induced shallow landslide occurrence over large spatial scales, whilst accepting that shallow landslides triggering may be influenced by processes that operate over much smaller scales. Specifically, this Thesis focuses upon connection by subsurface flow pathways. New model approaches that incorporate connectivity are required to address the findings of field hydrologists. Thus, this Thesis starts from the understanding of small-scale hydrological processes to develop a large-scale topographic index-based shallow landslide model that includes the concept of subsurface hydrological connectivity. The research aims to provide a tool for more realistic assessments of when shallow landslides may occur and where landsliding may occur at the catchment scale to support decision makers in developing more accurate land-use maps and landslide hazard mitigation plans and procedures.

A partir de l'anàlisi d'una sèrie d'obres programades a Catalunya en aquests darrers anys, s'analitzen les aportacions de la tecnologia digital a l'escenari de la dansa actual i les seves repercussions tant en l'àmbit teòric com en el de la producció. S'arriba a la conclusió que la dansa amb mediació digital no deixa de ser dansa contemporània, per bé que el concepte de corporalitat i de tot el que se'n deriva resulti inevitablement alterat. Per tal de poder argumentar el rol de la tecnologia en la dansa actual, ha estat necessari realitzar un estudi diacrònic de l'ús de les tecnologies al llarg del temps, subratllant-ne continuïtats i ruptures. Un dels aspectes que ha resultat més complex ha estat el d'ordenar la pluralitat i diversitat de conceptes que se solen emprar, essent la seva reconceptualització una de les aportacions principals d'aquesta tesi.
A partir del análisis de una serie de obras programadas en Cataluña en estos últimos años, se analizan las aportaciones de la tecnología digital en el escenario de la danza actual y sus repercusiones tanto en el ámbito teórico como en el de la producción. Se llega a la conclusión de que la danza con mediación digital no deja de ser danza contemporánea, aunque el concepto de corporalidad y de todo lo que de ella se deriva resulte inevitablemente alterado. Para poder argumentar el rol de la tecnología en la danza actual, ha sido necesario realizar un estudio diacrónico del uso de las tecnologías a lo largo del tiempo, subrayando continuidades y rupturas. Uno de los aspectos que ha resultado más complejo ha sido el de ordenar la pluralidad y diversidad de conceptos que se suelen emplear, siendo así su reconceptualización una de las principales aportaciones de esta tesis.
Based on an analysis of various performances given in Catalonia in recent years, we carried out a study of the contributions of digital technology to the modern dance scene as well as its repercussions in terms of both theory and production. The present study concludes that dance with digital mediation is still contemporary dance, in spite of the fact that it inevitably leads to a shift in the notion of corporeality and all this entails. To develop our position on the role of technology in contemporary dance, we conducted a diachronic study of uses of technology, highlighting continuums and points of rupture over time. One of the most complex aspects was categorising the multiple and diverse concepts that are currently in use, and their reconceptualisation is one of the foremost contributions of this thesis.

This research seeks to explore whether and in what way cinematic pieces can philosophize and theorize on the restriction of individual freedom through/by technology, and thus contribute in their own right to cinematic philosophy. In order to test their ability to theorize on the relationship between individual freedom and technology, four types of restrictions of individual freedom are established inductively. Following the theoretical path spanning from Foucault's "disciplinary society" to Deleuze's "control society", in connection with Deleuze and Guattari's account of "desire", one of these types is shown to be an overlooked, novel form of restriction emerging with the advent of digital technologies. With the aim of revealing the potential of cinematic pieces to provide theoretical insight into these four types of restriction, and following philosophical methodology, close reading analysis is carried out on specific cinematic pieces, focusing on their macrostructural and microstructural cinematic elements. The results of this analysis show that cinematic philosophy is a distinct channel of philosophy, that it is capable of inductively explaining the four types of restriction of individual freedom through/by technology, as well as the "click consent" theory, and thus that it makes unique theoretical contributions to contemporary philosophy.
Esta investigación se propone comprobar si las obras cinematográficas pueden pensar, y de qué forma, la restricción de la libertad individual por parte de las nuevas tecnologías, entendiendo que las propias obras son productoras de teoría que contribuye a la filosofía cinematográfica. Para comprobar esta capacidad, se establecen inductivamente cuatro tipos de restricción de la libertad individual, y, siguiendo el camino teórico marcado por Foucault con la sociedad disciplinaria y por Deleuze con la sociedad de control, en diálogo con Deleuze y Guattari con el deseo, se concluye que uno de estos tipos de restricción ejercidos por la tecnología se ha pasado por alto en la filosofía contemporánea, puesto que aparece con la emergencia de las nuevas tecnologías digitales. Con el objetivo de revelar esta capacidad de las obras cinematográficas, se aplica un análisis de close reading a obras concretas para analizar sus elementos cinematográficos macro y microestructurales. En referencia a este análisis, se concluye que la filosofía cinematográfica es una rama propia y diferenciada de la filosofía contemporánea, capaz de explicar de forma inductiva los cuatro tipos de restricción de la libertad individual por parte de la tecnología, junto con la teoría del click consent, como contribución única a la filosofía contemporánea.
Aquesta recerca es proposa comprovar si les obres cinematogràfiques poden pensar, i de quina manera, la restricció de la llibertat individual per part de les noves tecnologies, entenent que les obres mateixes són productores de teoria que contribueix a la filosofia cinematogràfica. Per comprovar aquesta capacitat, s'estableixen inductivament quatre tipus de restricció de la llibertat individual, i, seguint el camí teòric marcat per Foucault amb la societat disciplinària i per Deleuze amb la societat de control, en diàleg amb Deleuze i Guattari amb el desig, es conclou que un d'aquests tipus de restricció exercits per la tecnologia s'ha passat per alt en la filosofia contemporània, ja que apareix amb l'emergència de les noves tecnologies digitals. Amb l'objectiu de revelar aquesta capacitat de les obres cinematogràfiques, s'aplica una anàlisi de close reading a obres concretes per analitzar els seus elements cinematogràfics macro i microestructurals. En referència a aquesta anàlisi, es conclou que la filosofia cinematogràfica és una branca pròpia i diferenciada de la filosofia contemporània, capaç d'explicar de manera inductiva els quatre tipus de restricció de la llibertat individual per part de la tecnologia, junt amb la teoria del click consent, com a contribució única a la filosofia contemporània.
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Dissertação de de Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar e Ensino do 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico
Este relatório, teoricamente fundamentado, incide sobre a prática pedagógica, realizada durante dois estágios, em contextos distintos: Educação Pré-Escolar e Ensino do 1.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico. Estando dividido em três partes – Caracterização do Meio; Educação para os Valores; e A Atividade Educativa – visa justificar as metodologias e estratégias utilizadas no decorrer da prática realizada. Desta forma, são explicitados vários conceitos, como a importância da relação entre a escola e a família/meio; a importância da qualidade na educação; o papel do docente, realçando as suas especificidades em cada contexto educativo; o currículo e a sua importância; a organização e gestão do tempo em ambos os contextos, bem como os tipos de atividades desenvolvidas; a importância de planificar; e a avaliação em ambos os contextos. Será feita, também, uma revisão bibliográfica em torno da Educação para os Valores. Neste ponto será exposta a pertinência da escolha deste tema e o desenvolvimento histórico do mesmo. Além disso, dado a sua relevância, será abordado o desenvolvimento moral das crianças de acordo com as investigações de Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg e Robert Selman, de forma a promover um melhor entendimento da educação para os valores. Por fim, serão expostas as perspetivas de vários autores sobre fo conceito de Educação para os Valores, sobre o papel do professor na Educação para os Valores, bem como alguns métodos e técnicas utilizados no decorrer da mesma. Tendo em conta o tema deste trabalho – a Educação para os Valores – o qual será fundamentado, sendo expostas perspetivas de vários autores, como já foi referido anteriormente, serão ainda fundamentadas as escolhas de determinadas atividades, metodologias e estratégias, tendo em conta a educação para os valores. Por fim, será exposta uma conclusão acerca do percurso educativo realizado, as dificuldades sentidas, os obstáculos ultrapassados, as limitações impostas e as aprendizagens feitas.
This dissertation aims at the justification of the pedagogical practice that occurred during two practicums, in distinct contexts: Pre-School and Elementary School. While it’s divided into three parts – Characterization of the Environment; Value Education; and The Educative Act – it targets the validation of the methods and strategies used during the practice. There for, various concepts are elucidated, like the importance of the connection between school and families/communities; the importance of quality in education; the role of the teacher, distinguishing the specifications of the early childhood educator and the classroom teacher; the curriculum and its importance; the organization and controlling of time, in both contexts, and the types of activities executed; the importance of planning; and evaluation in both contexts. A bibliographic review about Value Education will be developed. In this topic, the relevance of the choice of this theme will be explained, as will be its historical development. Accounting its significance, moral development in children will also be described through the investigations of Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg and Robert Selman, allowing a better understanding of Value Education. Lastly, the perspectives of various authors about Value Education, the role of teachers in Value Education, and methods and techniques used in Value Education will be exposed. Given the theme of this dissertation – Value Education – that will be validated by exposing the perspectives of various authors, as was stated before, the choices of the activities, methods and strategies will also be explained, keeping value education in mind. To sum up, a conclusion about the education itinerary concluded, the difficulties felt, the obstacles succeeded, the established limitations and the learning accomplished will be exposed.

Die Arbeit adressiert die empirisch beobachtete Fehleranfälligkeit einer populären Teilmenge modellgetriebener Decision Support Systeme (MDSS), die mit Spreadsheet-Werkzeugen erstellt werden. Der Fokus liegt bei diesen DSS auf der logischen Formulierung realer Zusammenhänge im multidimensionalen Kontext. Analysen einer empirisch belegten Fehlerrate weisen auf proprietäre, oft wenig intuitive Modellierungssprachen der am Markt befindlichen Produkte hin, die eine unnatürliche, fehleranfällige Modellierung provozieren. In Analogie zu den positiven Erfahrungen einer konzeptuellen Datenmodellierung schlägt die vorliegende Arbeit eine konzeptuelle Modellierungsebene vor, um diesem Problem zu begegnen. Eine Untersuchung vorhandener konzeptueller Modellierungsansätze kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass bei der Konstruktion der konzeptuellen Modellierungsebene für MDSS eine Erweiterung oder Änderung eines bestehenden konzeptuellen Modellierungsansatzes nicht in Betracht gezogen werden kann. Basierend auf diesen Erkenntnissen wird eine konzeptuelle Modellierungsebene entwickelt, welche aus den drei Phasen Modellkonfiguration, Modelltransformation und Modellkompilierung besteht. In der Konfigurationsphase werden sämtliche Modellelemente (Dimensionen, Dimensionsausprägungen, Gruppen und Formeln) definiert und die Überlagerung von (vektoriellen) Formeln innerhalb des Modells bewusst zugelassen. Die Transformationsphase stellt die Konsistenz der modellierten Strukturen in Bezug auf deren Eindeutigkeit sicher, indem sämtliche Überschneidungen von Formeln innerhalb von Modellzellen in einem systemunterstützten Benutzerdialog beseitigt werden. Im dritten Teil des Konzepts, der Kompilierungsphase, werden die überschneidungsfreien, konzeptuellen Modelle in proprietäre Modellinstanzen übersetzt, sodass sie in Anwendungssystemen für Analysen verwendet werden können. Die prototypische Implementierung erfolgt anhand eines Modellierungseditors (Java) zur Umsetzung der Konzeptphase Modellkonfiguration. Modelltransformation und –kompilierung werden auf Basis von Microsoft Excel und VBA Programmen prototypisch umgesetzt. Abschließend kann mittels einer Evaluation auf positive Effekte des erarbeiteten Konzepts für die Qualität modellgetriebener Decision Support Systeme geschlossen werden.

There exist numerous approaches to index either spatio-temporal or high-dimensional data. None of them is able to efficiently index hybrid data types, thus spatio-temporal and high-dimensional data. As the best high-dimensional indexing techniques are only able to index point-data and not now-relative data and the best spatio-temporal indexing techniques suffer from the curse of dimensionality, this thesis introduces the Spatio-Temporal Pyramid Adapter (STPA). The STPA maps spatio-temporal data on points, now-values on the median of the data set and indexes them with the pyramid technique. For high-dimensional and spatio-temporal index structures no generally accepted benchmark exists. Most index structures are only evaluated by custom benchmarks and compared to a tiny set of competitors. Benchmarks may be biased as a structure may be created to perform well in a certain benchmark or a benchmark does not cover a certain speciality of the investigated structures. In this thesis, the Interface Based Performance Comparison (IBPC) technique is introduced. It automatically generates test sets with a high code coverage on the system under test (SUT) on the basis of all functions defined by a certain interface which all competitors support. Every test set is performed on every SUT and the performance results are weighted by the achieved coverage and summed up. These weighted performance results are then used to compare the structures. An implementation of the IBPC, the Performance Test Automation Framework (PTAF) is compared to a classic custom benchmark, a workload generator whose parameters are optimized by a genetic algorithm and a specific PTAF alternative which incorporates the specific behavior of the systems under test. This is done for a set of two high-dimensional spatio-temporal indices and twelve variants of the R-tree. The evaluation indicates that PTAF performs at least as good as the other approaches in terms of minimal test cases with a maximized coverage. Several case studies on PTAF demonstrate its widespread abilities.