Automatic generation of ETL physical systems from BPMN conceptual models

ETL conceptual modeling is a very important activity in any data warehousing system project implementation. Owning a high-level system representation allowing for a clear identification of the main parts of a data warehousing system is clearly a great advantage, especially in early stages of design and development. However, the effort to model conceptually an ETL system rarely is properly rewarded. Translating ETL conceptual models directly into something that saves work and time on the concrete implementation of the system process it would be, in fact, a great help. In this paper we present and discuss a hybrid approach to this problem, combining the simplicity of interpretation and power of expression of BPMN on ETL systems conceptualization with the use of ETL patterns to produce automatically an ETL skeleton, a first prototype system, which has the ability to be executed in a commercial ETL tool like Kettle.

Information systems assessment in pathologic anatomy service

Information technologies changed the way of how the health organizations work, contributing to their effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability. Hospital Information Systems (HIS) are emerging on all of health institutions, helping health professionals and patients. However, HIS are not always implemented and used in the best way, leading to low levels of benefits and acceptance by users of these systems. In order to mitigate this problem, it is essential to take measures able to ensure if the HIS and their interfaces are designed in a simple and interactive way. With this in mind, a study to measure the user satisfaction and their opinion was made. It was applied the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) on a HIS implemented on various hospital centers (AIDA), being used the Pathologic Anatomy Service. The study identified weakness and strengths features of AIDA and it pointed some solutions to improve the medical record.

Improving quality of medical service with mobile health software

An increasing number of m-Health applications are being developed benefiting health service delivery. In this paper, a new methodology based on the principle of calm computing applied to diagnostic and therapeutic procedure reporting is proposed. A mobile application was designed for the physicians of one of the Portuguese major hospitals, which takes advantage of a multi-agent interoperability platform, the Agency for the Integration, Diffusion and Archive (AIDA). This application allows the visualization of inpatients and outpatients medical reports in a quicker and safer manner, in addition to offer a remote access to information. This project shows the advantages in the use of mobile software in a medical environment but the first step is always to build or use an interoperability platform, flexible, adaptable and pervasive. The platform offers a comprehensive set of services that restricts the development of mobile software almost exclusively to the mobile user interface design. The technology was tested and assessed in a real context by intensivists.

Analysis of integrated management systems from various perspectives

This article compiles the main topics addressed by management systems (MSs) literature concerningMSs integration by performing a systematic literature review. In this paper, it is intended to present themain limitations of non-integratedmanagement systems (IMSs), the main motivations driving an IMS implementation, the major resistances faced, the most common resultant benefits, the suitable guidelines and standards and the critical success factors. In addition, this paper addresses the issues concerning integration strategies and models, the integration levels or degrees achieved by an IMS and the audit function in an integrated context. The motivations that drive companies to integrate their management subsystems, the obstacles faced and the benefits collected may have internal or external origins. The publishing of standards guiding companies on how to integrate their management subsystems has been done mainly at a national level. There are several models that could be used in order to support companies in their management subsystems integration processes, and a sequential or an all-in strategy may be adopted. Four audit typologies can be distinguished, and the adoption of any of these typologies should consider resource availability and audit team know-how, among other features.

Integrated management systems: A model for maturity assessment

Maturity models are adopted to minimise our complexity perception over a truly complex phenomenon. In this sense, maturity models are tools that enable the assessment of the most relevant variables that impact on the outputs of a specific system. Ideally a maturity model should provide information concerning the qualitative and quantitative relationships between variables and how they affect the latent variable, that is, the maturity level. Management systems (MSs) are implemented worldwide and by an increasing number of companies. Integrated management systems (IMSs) consider the implementation of one or several MSs usually coexisting with the quality management subsystem (QMS). It is intended in this chapter to report a model based on two components that enables the assessment of the IMS maturity, considering the key process agents (KPAs) identified through a systematic literature review and the results collected from two surveys.

Strategic planning of electricity systems: Integrating renewable energies

Tese de Doutoramento - Programa Doutoral em Engenharia Industrial e Sistemas (PDEIS)

Cationic Liposomes as antigenic delivery systems: development of an immunoprotective strategy against Candida albicans

Tese de Doutoramento Biologia Molecular e Ambiental - Especialidade em Biologia Celular e Saúde

A cost study of common surface finish systems for steel structures

This paper presents part of a study aimed at finding a suitable, yet cost-effective, surface finish for a steel structure subject to the car washing environment and corrosive chemicals. The initial, life cycle and average equivalent annual (AEAC) costs for surface finishing methods were calculated for a steel structure using the LCCC algorithm developed by American Galvanizers Association (AGA). The cost study consisted of 45 common surface finish systems including: hot-dip galvanization (HDG), metallization, acrylic, alkyd and epoxy as well as duplex coatings such as epoxy zinc and inorganic zinc (IOZ). The results show that initial, life cycle and AEAC costs for hot dip galvanization are the lowest among all the other methods, followed by coal tar epoxy painting. The annual average cost of HDG for this structure was estimated about €0.22/m2, while the other cost-effective alternatives were: IOZ, polyurea, epoxy waterborne and IOZ/epoxy duplex coating.

Prognostics health management: perspectives in engineering systems reliability prognostics

The Prognostic Health Management (PHM) has been asserting itself as the most promising methodology to enhance the effective reliability and availability of a product or system during its life-cycle conditions by detecting current and approaching failures, thus, providing mitigation of the system risks with reduced logistics and support costs. However, PHM is at an early stage of development, it also expresses some concerns about possible shortcomings of its methods, tools, metrics and standardization. These factors have been severely restricting the applicability of PHM and its adoption by the industry. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review about the PHM main general weaknesses. Exploring the research opportunities present in some recent publications, are discussed and outlined the general guide-lines for finding the answer to these issues.

Abstract computation in schizophrenia detection through artificial neural network based systems

Schizophrenia stands for a long-lasting state of mental uncertainty that may bring to an end the relation among behavior, thought, and emotion; that is, it may lead to unreliable perception, not suitable actions and feelings, and a sense of mental fragmentation. Indeed, its diagnosis is done over a large period of time; continuos signs of the disturbance persist for at least 6 (six) months. Once detected, the psychiatrist diagnosis is made through the clinical interview and a series of psychic tests, addressed mainly to avoid the diagnosis of other mental states or diseases. Undeniably, the main problem with identifying schizophrenia is the difficulty to distinguish its symptoms from those associated to different untidiness or roles. Therefore, this work will focus on the development of a diagnostic support system, in terms of its knowledge representation and reasoning procedures, based on a blended of Logic Programming and Artificial Neural Networks approaches to computing, taking advantage of a novel approach to knowledge representation and reasoning, which aims to solve the problems associated in the handling (i.e., to stand for and reason) of defective information.

Influence of constituent yarn systems on the moisture management performance of terry fabrics

Objetivo do presente trabalho foi estudar a influência dos diferentes sistemas de fios (trama, teia de base e teia da argola) no desempenho dos tecidos de felpos, no que concerne às propriedades de absorção, capilaridade e libertação de humidade. Para este estudo usaram-se quatro tipos de combinações destes sistemas de fios, para a mesma estrutura de tecidos de felpo, na teia de base utilizou-se somente fios de Tencel®, na teia de argola e da trama varou-se a composição dos fios entre fios de algodão e de Tencel®. Os resultados obtidos demonstram que quando a utilização fios de Tencel® em qualquer dos sistemas (trama ou teia da argola) favorece a capacidade de difusão de líquidos na estrutura, a utilização de fios de algodão na teia de argola favorece a capacidade de absorção.

Effect of NaCl additive on solute-solvent interactions in aqueous polyethylene glycol-sodium sulfate two-phase systems

Abstract Partition behavior of eight small organic compounds and six proteins was examined in poly(ethylene glycol)-8000-sodium sulfate aqueous two-phase systems containing 0.215 M NaCl and 0.5 M osmolyte (sorbitol, sucrose, TMAO) and poly(ethylene glycol)-10000-sodium sulfate-0.215 M NaCl system, all in 0.01 M sodium phosphate buffer, pH 6.8. The differences between the solvent properties of the coexisting phases (solvent dipolarity/polarizability, hydrogen bond donor acidity, and hydrogen bond acceptor basicity) were characterized with solvatochromic dyes using the solvatochromic comparison method. Differences between the electrostatic properties of the phases were determined by analysis of partitioning of sodium salts of dinitrophenylated (DNP-) amino acids with aliphatic alkyl side-chain. The partition coefficients of all compounds examined (including proteins) were described in terms of solute-solvent interactions. The results obtained in the study show that solute-solvent interactions of nonionic organic compounds and proteins in polyethylene glycol-sodium sulfate aqueous two-phase system change in the presence of NaCl additive.

Filamentous fungi in free water and biofilms from Brazilian drinking water systems

In some regions of Brazil, especially where the water is scarce, drinking water is stored in water storage tanks. This practice gives the consumer the guarantee of available water. The water storage conditions such as the exposure to hot weather when the tanks are on rooftops allow the development of microorganisms and microbial biofilms which can deteriorate the water quality and increase the risk to human health [1,2]. This study describes the filamentous fungi (FF) detected in free water and biofilms in drinking water storage tanks in Recife - Pernambuco, Brazil. Five sampling times in triplicate were performed at two distinct points. Colony-forming units (CFU) of FF fungi were determined with 0.45 µm filtration membranes using peptone glucose rose Bengal agar (PGRBA). From the 30 samples analysed a total of 1136 CFU were obtained. The water biofilms were collected from samplers consisting of polyethylene coupons, previously installed in the reservoirs. These coupons were transferred to PGRBA plates and incubated using with the same conditions described for free FF. For the in situ detection of FF in biofilms the Calcofluor White staining technique was used. This procedure demonstrated FF forming biofilms on the surfaces of the coupons. Brazilian legislation does not define limits for FF in drinking water. However considering the potential risk of fungal contamination, the data obtained in this study will contribute to developing future quantitative and qualitative parameters for the presence of fungi in drinking water distribution systems in Brazil. [1] HageskaL, G, Lima, N, Skaar, I. The study of fungi in drinking water. Mycological Research, 113, 2009, 165-172. [2] Skaar I, Hageskal G. Fungi in Drinking Water. In.: Paterson RRM, Lima N. (Eds.) Molecular Biology of Food and Water Borne Mycotoxigenic and Mycotic Fungi. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, 2015, 597-606.

Testing Nelder-Mead based repulsion algorithms for multiple roots of nonlinear systems via a two-level factorial design of experiments

This paper addresses the challenging task of computing multiple roots of a system of nonlinear equations. A repulsion algorithm that invokes the Nelder-Mead (N-M) local search method and uses a penalty-type merit function based on the error function, known as 'erf', is presented. In the N-M algorithm context, different strategies are proposed to enhance the quality of the solutions and improve the overall efficiency. The main goal of this paper is to use a two-level factorial design of experiments to analyze the statistical significance of the observed differences in selected performance criteria produced when testing different strategies in the N-M based repulsion algorithm. The main goal of this paper is to use a two-level factorial design of experiments to analyze the statistical significance of the observed differences in selected performance criteria produced when testing different strategies in the N-M based repulsion algorithm.

OPM3® Portugal project: information systems and technologies organizations: outcome analysis

Increasing the maturity in Project Management (PM) has become a goal for many organizations, leading them to adopt maturity models to assess the current state of its PM practices and compare them with the best practices in the industry where the organization is inserted. One of the main PM maturity models is the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®), developed by the Project Management Institute. This paper presents the Information Systems and Technologies organizations outcome analysis, of the assesses made by the OPM3® Portugal Project, identifying the PM processes that are “best” implemented in this particular industry and those in which it is urgent to improve. Additionally, a comparison between the different organizations’ size analyzed is presented.