The use of learning management platforms in school context - a national study

This report results from a national study carried out under the Project “Educational application of learning management platforms”, supported and funded by the Computers, Networks, and Internet in Schools department of the Portuguese Ministry of Education- General Directorate for Innovation and Educational Development. This report has been developed by the ICT Competence Centre of the Faculty of Sciences- University of Lisbon, during the school year 2007/2008

Entangled coherent states and squeezing in N trapped ions

We consider a resonant bichromatic excitation of N trapped ions that generates displacement and squeezing in their collective motion conditioned to their ionic internal state, producing eventually Scrhodinger cat states and entangled squeezing. Furthermore, we study the case of tetrachromatic illumination or producing the so called entangled coherent states in two motional normal modes.Comment: 4 Revtex pages, no figures. To appear in Proceedings of "Mysteries, Puzzles and Paradoxes in Quantum Mechanics", Garda Lake, Italy (2001

Discovery and Selection of Certified Web Services Through Registry-Based Testing and Verification

Reliability and trust are fundamental prerequisites for the establishment of functional relationships among peers in a Collaborative Networked Organisation (CNO), especially in the context of Virtual Enterprises where economic benefits can be directly at stake. This paper presents a novel approach towards effective service discovery and selection that is no longer based on informal, ambiguous and potentially unreliable service descriptions, but on formal specifications that can be used to verify and certify the actual Web service implementations. We propose the use of Stream X-machines (SXMs) as a powerful modelling formalism for constructing the behavioural specification of a Web service, for performing verification through the generation of exhaustive test cases, and for performing validation through animation or model checking during service selection

Two Distinct, Geographically Overlapping Lineages of the Corallimorpharian Ricordea Florida (Cnidaria: Hexacorallia: Ricordeidae)

We examined the genetic variation of the corallimorpharian Ricordea florida; it is distributed throughout the Caribbean region and is heavily harvested for the marine aquarium trade. Eighty-four distinct individuals of R. florida were sequenced from four geographically distant Caribbean locations (Curaçao, Florida, Guadeloupe, and Puerto Rico). Analysis of the ribosomal nuclear region (ITS1, 5.8S, ITS2) uncovered two geographically partially overlapping genetic lineages in R. florida, probably representing two cryptic species. Lineage 1 was found in Florida and Puerto Rico, and Lineage 2 was found in Florida, Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe, and Curaçao. Because of the multi-allelic nature of the ITS region, four individuals from Lineage 1 and six from Lineage 2 were cloned to evaluate the levels of hidden intra-individual variability. Pairwise genetic comparisons indicated that the levels of intra-individual and intra-lineage variability (\u3c1%) were approximately an order of magnitude lower than the divergence (~9%) observed between the two lineages. The fishery regulations of the aquarium trade regard R. florida as one species. More refined regulations should take into account the presence of two genetic lineages, and they should be managed separately in order to preserve the long-term evolutionary potential of this corallimorpharian. The discovery of two distinct lineages in R. florida illustrates the importance of evaluating genetic variability in harvested species prior to the implementation of management policies

Axisymmetric Stationary Solutions as Harmonic Maps

We present a method for generating exact solutions of Einstein equations in vacuum using harmonic maps, when the spacetime possesses two commutating Killing vectors. This method consists in writing the axisymmetric stationry Einstein equations in vacuum as a harmonic map which belongs to the group SL(2,R), and decomposing it in its harmonic "submaps". This method provides a natural classification of the solutions in classes (Weil's class, Lewis' class etc).Comment: 17 TeX pages, one table,( CINVESTAV- preprint 12/93

Quintessence and Scalar Dark Matter in the Universe

Continuing with previous works, we present a cosmological model in which dark matter and dark energy are modeled by scalar fields $\Phi$ and $\Psi$, respectively, endowed with the scalar potentials $V(\Phi)=V_{o}[ \cosh {(\lambda \sqrt{\kappa_{o}}\Phi)}-1]$ and $\tilde{V}(\Psi)=\tilde{V_{o}}[ \sinh {(\alpha \sqrt{\kappa_{o}}\Psi)}] ^{\beta}$. This model contains 95% of scalar field. We obtain that the scalar dark matter mass is $m_{\Phi}\sim 10^{-26}eV.$ The solution obtained allows us to recover the success of the standard CDM. The implications on the formation of structure are reviewed. We obtain that the minimal cutoff radio for this model is $r_{c}\sim 1.2 kpc.$Comment: 4 pages REVTeX, 3 eps color figures. Minor changes and references updated. To appear in Classical and Quantum Gravity as a Letter to the Editor. More information at http://www.fis.cinvestav.mx/~siddh/PHI

Learning mathematics and competences: Bringing together three theoretical perspectives

The symposium aims to bring into analysis and discussion a possibility of articulating and integrating theoretical concepts from Activity Theory, Situated Learning and Critical Mathematics Education in order to contribute to understanding learning in practices where mathematics and technology seem to be relevant