Search

In this paper, we propose the replication of scientific experiments, with the participation of the general public, as one of the possible strategies to confront science deniers. Using the social media of the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA), the project entitled : The Magic of Physics and the Universe, invited the public to reproduce the experiment carried out by the Greek Eratosthenes over 2,100 years ago, which he proved that the Earth is spherical. We present a report of this experience to suggest that it is possible for citizens to experience scientific knowledge and observe the phenomena in a simple way, in order to develop a critical interpretation of false information that circulates in society. This proposal distinctively geeks to deconstruct the denial of the Earth's curvature through direct and collective participation of citizens in Eratosthenes' experiment, which permit more reflection on how the scientific method used to study this subject works., Comment: This article is written in Portuguese

This paper analyzes the redistributive impacts of indirect taxation reforms in Brazil inspired by PEC 45/2019, particularly in the version that led to EC 132/2023. Comparisons are made between the current system and the simulated reforms, considering the distribution of the tax burden among families in different income classes, as well as the impact on poverty and inequality indicators. The simulations are conducted based on the combination of effective tax rates that apply to goods and services consumed by households, using nationally representative microdata from family budgets., Comment: in Portuguese language

Women and gender-diverse people represent an important constituency in the food value chain. Among all working women globally, about one in three works upstream in the food value chain. These women face increasing barriers to safety, recognition and advancement. Yet very little about their experiences has been documented. In the limited instances where the women who power global supply chains have been put into focus, most have concentrated on the experiences of women workers in the apparel sector., Through desktop research, one-on-one interviews with local organizations, case studies and workshops, this paper provides information and guidance on how investors, who are well-positioned to encourage companies to advance gender equity upstream in company supply chains, can help reshape this narrative and encourage companies to act.

This study aims to discuss the impacts of a low-cost airline on the air transport market and, especially, to present the most recent findings from specialized literature in the field. To this end, various works on this topic, published since 2015, were selected and analyzed. From this analysis, it was possible to categorize the main topics discussed in the papers into five groups: (i) the impacts of a low-cost airline on competing airlines; (ii) impacts on airports; (iii) general impacts on the demand for air transport; (iv) effects on passengers' choice process; and (v) general effects on a geographical region., Comment: This article is written in Portuguese

The conservation of tropical forests is a current subject of social and ecological relevance due to their crucial role in the global ecosystem. Unfortunately, millions of hectares are deforested and degraded each year. Therefore, government or private initiatives are needed for monitoring tropical forests. In this sense, this work proposes a novel framework, which uses of distribution estimation algorithm (UMDA) to select spectral bands from Landsat-8 that yield a better representation of deforestation areas to guide a semantic segmentation architecture called DeepLabv3+. In performed experiments, it was possible to find several compositions that reach balanced accuracy superior to 90% in segment classification tasks. Furthermore, the best composition (651) found by UMDA algorithm fed the DeepLabv3+ architecture and surpassed in efficiency and effectiveness all compositions compared in this work., Comment: in Portuguese language. Best Paper Award at the Workshop of Undergraduate Works (WUW), SIBGRAPI 2023

This paper presents a comparative analysis of three routing strategies in opportunistic quantum networks. Quantum communication networks face unique challenges, such as the fragility of qubits and the need to create and maintain pairs of entangled states for reliable transmission. In this context, efficient and reliable routing is crucial to maximize the fidelity of the established routes, minimize the creation of new entangled pairs, and reduce the need for route recalculation. The routing strategies are compared based on the fidelity of the chosen routes, the number of entangled pairs created, and the number of route recalculations. The results obtained provide valuable information for the design and optimization of opportunistic quantum networks, contributing to advances in the efficiency and reliability of quantum communications., Comment: XIII Confer\^encia Nacional em Comunica\c{c}\~oes, Redes e Seguran\c{c}a da Informa\c{c}\~ao, in Portuguese language

Training machine learning models for predicting stock market share prices is an active area of research since the automatization of trading such papers was available in real time. While most of the work in this field of research is done by training Neural networks based on past prices of stock shares, in this work, we use iFeel 2.0 platform to extract 19 sentiment features from posts obtained from microblog platform Twitter that mention the company Petrobras. Then, we used those features to train XBoot models to predict future stock prices for the referred company. Later, we simulated the trading of Petrobras' shares based on the model's outputs and determined the gain of R$88,82 (net) in a 250-day period when compared to a 100 random models' average performance., Comment: in Portuguese language, Presented at: 1o Semin\'ario de Ci\^encia de Dados do IFSP. Campinas: 2023

In this article, we present several apparent paradoxes of special relativity and their respective solutions. These paradoxes have appeared since the advent of relativity in 1905, and in fact they are never paradoxes. From a didactic point of view, paradoxes are an excellent learning tool. They lead the student to confront, and abandon, several central concepts of Galilean theory, such as simultaneity and rigidity of extended bodies. In particular, we review a new and simple solution to the twin paradox, recently found by one of the present authors [1]. It does not need to consider reference accelerators or light signals, which are the solutions presented in the literature., Comment: in Portuguese language, paper accepted for publication in Revista Brasileira do Ensino de F\'isica

Recent works have demonstrated how Linear Parameter Varying Model Predictive Control (LPV MPC) algorithms are able to control nonlinear systems with precision and reduced computational load. Specifically, these schemes achieve comparable performances to state-of-the-art nonlinear MPCs, while requiring the solution of only one quadratic programming problem (thus being real-time capable). In this tutorial paper, we provide a step-by-step overview of how to implement such LPV MPC algorithms, covering from modelling to stability aspects. For illustration purposes, we consider a realistic implementation for a gas-lift petroleoum extraction process, comparing the LPV approach with the becnhmark nonlinear MPC software CasADi., Comment: Main text in portuguese, submitted to the 2023 Simp\'osio Brasileiro de Automa\c{c}\~ao Inteligente (SBAI 2023)

Application services often support mobile and web applications with REST interfaces, implemented using a set of distributed components that interact with each other. This approach allows services to have high availability and performance at a lower cost than a monolithic system. However, the existence of multiple components makes the development process of these systems more complex and therefore susceptible to errors. In this paper, we present JepREST, a system that automates the use of Jepsen libraries to test the correctness of distributed applications that provide a REST interface. Based on a service interface specification, JepREST generates and executes a set of tests with multiple clients performing operations concurrently, subsequently verifying if the system behaviour is linearizable. The preliminary evaluation shows that JepREST simplifies the testing of REST applications., Comment: in Portuguese language

We present the second part of a series of papers proposing a novel teaching sequence for Particle Physics in high school. The topic of the present work is Nuclear Physics. The goal of the sequence is to approach the subject in a way as to stimulate scientific literacy, from a perspective involving Science, Technology, Society and Environment (STSE). We evaluate the potentialities and effectiveness of the material proposed here, allied to a dialogical approach by the teacher, by analyzing the presence of scientific literacy and engagement indicators during interventions applied to a public school in Esp\'irito Santo, Brazil., Comment: 31 figures, in portuguese

Currently, transport planning has changed its paradigm from projects oriented to guarantee service levels to projects oriented to guarantee accessibility to opportunities. In this context, a number of studies and tools aimed at calculating accessibility are being made available, however these tools depend on job location data that are not always easily accessible. Thus, this work proposes the creation of a database with the locations of formal jobs in Brazilian cities. The method uses the RAIS jobs database and the CNEFE street faces database to infer the location of jobs in urban regions from the zip code and the number of non-residential addresses on street faces. As a result, jobs can be located more accurately in large and medium-sized cities and approximately in single zip code cities. Finally, the databases are made available openly so that researchers and planning professionals can easily apply accessibility analyzes throughout the national territory., Comment: 9 pages, in Portuguese language, 3 figures, 1 table, Data presentation paper

The importance of implementing unitarity constraints in meson spectroscopy is very briefly outlined for Portuguese students of engineering sciences and therefore non-experts in the field. After explaining the profound differences between meson spectroscopy and atomic spectroscopy, attention is paid to the shortcomings of standard Breit-Wigner parametrisations in the case of broad and/or overlapping resonances. Finally, the manifestly unitary Resonance-Spectrum-Expansion model, which lies at the heart of a recent invited review paper by the present authors, is graphically presented, together with a simple yet typical application to the long-controversial $K_0^\star(700)$ resonance., Comment: in Portuguese. Invited paper for the first new edition (no. 504) of the students journal "T\'{e}cnica" published on 3 November 2021 by the "Associa\c{c}\~{a}o dos Estudantes do Instituto Superior T\'{e}cnico" of IST in Lisbon, Portugal. Article is in Portuguese language, with an English abstract; 4 pages, 5 figures. Link to published version: https://www.paperturn-view.com/?pid=MTk197448&p=25&v=1.1

The purpose of this paper (which, in many passages, I take the liberty of writing in the first person singular for bringing a personal experience) is to show how teachers of Physics and Mathematics in Basic Education can teach, through a simple and playful activity, the rules of signs that are related to basic arithmetic operations involving positive and negative numbers. How? By using a ruler, or any other object that can be interpreted as a number line, and a flat mirror. By the way, as the justification of why this method works is physical and mathematical, this paper provides a succinct review on the formation of images by flat and spherical mirrors since some teachers of Mathematics may (just as a possibility) not know how it happens. Lastly, given the interdisciplinary nature of this activity, some additional considerations are also presented regarding how these teachers can use it to instigate the students to observe how Physics and Mathematics, together, are part of everyday life for all of us., Comment: 35 pages, 16 figures (this paper was purposely/exceptionally written in portuguese)

Linguistic ambiguity continues to represent a significant challenge for natural language processing (NLP) systems, notwithstanding the advancements in architectures such as Transformers and BERT. Inspired by the recent success of instructional models like ChatGPT and Gemini (In 2023, the artificial intelligence was called Bard.), this study aims to analyze and discuss linguistic ambiguity within these models, focusing on three types prevalent in Brazilian Portuguese: semantic, syntactic, and lexical ambiguity. We create a corpus comprising 120 sentences, both ambiguous and unambiguous, for classification, explanation, and disambiguation. The models capability to generate ambiguous sentences was also explored by soliciting sets of sentences for each type of ambiguity. The results underwent qualitative analysis, drawing on recognized linguistic references, and quantitative assessment based on the accuracy of the responses obtained. It was evidenced that even the most sophisticated models, such as ChatGPT and Gemini, exhibit errors and deficiencies in their responses, with explanations often providing inconsistent. Furthermore, the accuracy peaked at 49.58 percent, indicating the need for descriptive studies for supervised learning., Comment: in Portuguese language, 16 p\'aginas, 5 p\'aginas de ap\^endice e 4 imagens

Introduction and Objective. Assuming the need to rethink Education and its function as an element of social transformation and generator of a profound ethical change and promoter of other ways of being on planet Earth, this study seeks to understand the possible dialogues between Earth Pedagogy and Astrobiology in the construction and proposition of continuing education processes for science teachers. Methodology. A mini-course was promoted aimed at teachers and an attempt was made to report the construction process of the training process and, using Content Analysis, to analyze the contributions pointed out by the participants to their training and teaching practice. Results and Conclusion. The dialogue between knowledge in the continuing education of teachers contributes with fundamental elements to teaching practice, covering cognitive, emotional, individual and collective aspects, as well as highlighting the role of the university in promoting initiatives that bring Education and Complexity together., Comment: This article is written in Portuguese

In the research on FANETs (Flying Ad-Hoc Networks) and distributed coordination of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), also known as drones, there are many studies that validate their proposals through simulations. Simulations are important, but beyond them, there is also a need for real-world tests to validate the proposals and enhance results. However, field experiments involving drones and FANETs are not trivial, and this work aims to share experiences and results obtained during the construction of a testbed actively used in comparing simulations and field tests., Comment: in Portuguese language

We propose a physical mechanism for fine-tuning the phase of a domain wall around the equilibrium directions involving the application of an external field and a spin polarized current in opposite directions. In this way, the position of the domain wall remains unchanged, but its phase can be slightly modified around the initial equilibrium positions, applying the external field/current smoothly. We point out a few applications to which this fine tuning may lead., Comment: Written in portuguese. Submited to Revista Brasileira de Ensino de Fisica on March 15 2024

Blockchain technology has emerged as a necessity for the decentralization of payment methods and transactions, but it has brought with it many properties of distributed systems that have made it a crucial technology for overcoming some of society's challenges, especially in the context of decentralizing services, transparency of information, availability, and security. Its architecture and communication methods, although possessing some complex nuances to understand, particularly for the lay audience in the field of distributed systems, protocols, and computer networks. In this article, we will explore some topics of distributed systems related to blockchain technology., Comment: in Portuguese language