Design of a case-based reasoner for information security in military organizations

Information security is concerned with the protection of information, which can be stored, processed or transmitted within critical information systems of the organizations, against loss of confidentiality, integrity or availability. Protection measures to prevent these problems result through the implementation of controls at several dimensions: technical, administrative or physical. A vital objective for military organizations is to ensure superiority in contexts of information warfare and competitive intelligence. Therefore, the problem of information security in military organizations has been a topic of intensive work at both national and transnational levels, and extensive conceptual and standardization work is being produced. A current effort is therefore to develop automated decision support systems to assist military decision makers, at different levels in the command chain, to provide suitable control measures that can effectively deal with potential attacks and, at the same time, prevent, detect and contain vulnerabilities targeted at their information systems. The concept and processes of the Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) methodology outstandingly resembles classical military processes and doctrine, in particular the analysis of “lessons learned” and definition of “modes of action”. Therefore, the present paper addresses the modeling and design of a CBR system with two key objectives: to support an effective response in context of information security for military organizations; to allow for scenario planning and analysis for training and auditing processes.

Using the GPU to design complex profile extrusion dies

In the present work the benefits of using graphics processing units (GPU) to aid the design of complex geometry profile extrusion dies, are studied. For that purpose, a3Dfinite volume based code that employs unstructured meshes to solve and couple the continuity, momentum and energy conservation equations governing the fluid flow, together with aconstitutive equation, was used. To evaluate the possibility of reducing the calculation time spent on the numerical calculations, the numerical code was parallelized in the GPU, using asimple programing approach without complex memory manipulations. For verificationpurposes, simulations were performed for three benchmark problems: Poiseuille flow, lid-driven cavity flow and flow around acylinder. Subsequently, the code was used on the design of two real life extrusion dies for the production of a medical catheter and a wood plastic composite decking profile. To evaluate the benefits, the results obtained with the GPU parallelized code were compared, in terms of speedup, with a serial implementation of the same code, that traditionally runs on the central processing unit (CPU). The results obtained show that, even with the simple parallelization approach employed, it was possible to obtain a significant reduction of the computation times.

The impact of work clothing design on workers’ comfort

Physical and physiological comfort, at work and during leisure time, is important to human health and motivation. A growing number of jobs require workers to sit. Most clothes, except those intended for wheelchair users, were designed for walking or the standing position. Clothing designs should be user-oriented and meet users’ needs. Garment design should conform to body position and posture, not just shape and size. In this paper we present the ergometric impact of a new type of trousers designed to adapt to changes in position. Concentrations of compression forces, temperature and pressure were documented in an exploratory pilot study and contrasted to traditional designs. The new trousers showed significant decreases in compression force concentration, especially in and around the knees and waist. Most participants identified comfort as an important factor when purchasing a pair of trousers and that, for working purposes, they would prefer these special trousers rather than traditional designs.

Methodology for real-time adaptation of tunnels support using the observational method

The observational method in tunnel engineering allows the evaluation in real time of the actual conditions of the ground and to take measures if its behavior deviates considerably from predictions. However, it lacks a consistent and structured methodology to use the monitoring data to adapt the support system in real time. The definition of limit criteria above which adaptation is required are not defined and complex inverse analysis procedures (Rechea et al. 2008, Levasseur et al. 2010, Zentar et al. 2001, Lecampion et al. 2002, Finno and Calvello 2005, Goh 1999, Cui and Pan 2012, Deng et al. 2010, Mathew and Lehane 2013, Sharifzadeh et al. 2012, 2013) may be needed to consistently analyze the problem. In this paper a methodology for the real time adaptation of the support systems during tunneling is presented. In a first step limit criteria for displacements and stresses are proposed. The methodology uses graphics that are constructed during the project stage based on parametric calculations to assist in the process and when these graphics are not available, since it is not possible to predict every possible scenario, inverse analysis calculations are carried out. The methodology is applied to the “Bois de Peu” tunnel which is composed by two tubes with over 500 m long. High uncertainty levels existed concerning the heterogeneity of the soil and consequently in the geomechanical design parameters. The methodology was applied in four sections and the results focus on two of them. It is shown that the methodology has potential to be applied in real cases contributing for a consistent approach of a real time adaptation of the support system and highlight the importance of the existence of good quality and specific monitoring data to improve the inverse analysis procedure.

Design de superfície biomimética para aplicação em atividades desportivas

Tese de Doutoramento Engenharia Têxtil.

Sustentabilidade no Design: uma abordagem aos resíduos limpos das indústrias do calçado

Dissertação de mestrado em Design e Marketing

Design of mechatronic system for handling bedridden people

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia Mecatrónica

Systems biology approaches for the design of novel Saccharomyces cerevisiae winemaking strains for enhanced flavour compounds synthesis

Tese de Doutoramento em Biologia Ambiental e Molecular

Multithreading RTOS processor design

Tese de Doutoramento Plano Doutoral em Engenharia Eletrónica e de Computadores.

Design of bio-based supramolecular structures through self-assembly of α-lactalbumin and lysozyme

Bovine α-lactalbumin (α-La) and lysozyme (Lys), two globular proteins with highly homologous tertiary structures and opposite isoelectric points, were used to produce bio-based supramolecular structures under various pH values (3, 7 and 11), temperatures (25, 50 and 75 °C) and times (15, 25 and 35 min) of heating. Isothermal titration calorimetry experiments showed protein interactions and demonstrated that structures were obtained from the mixture of α-La/Lys in molar ratio of 0.546. Structures were characterized in terms of morphology by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS), conformational structure by circular dichroism and intrinsic fluorescence spectroscopy and stability by DLS. Results have shown that protein conformational structure and intermolecular interactions are controlled by the physicochemical conditions applied. The increase of heating temperature led to a significant decrease in size and polydispersity (PDI) of α-La–Lys supramolecular structures, while the increase of heating time, particularly at temperatures above 50 °C, promoted a significant increase in size and PDI. At pH 7 supramolecular structures were obtained at microscale – confirmed by optical microscopy – displaying also a high PDI (i.e. > 0.4). The minimum size and PDI (61 ± 2.3 nm and 0.14 ± 0.03, respectively) were produced at pH 11 for a heating treatment of 75 °C for 15 min, thus suggesting that these conditions could be considered as critical for supramolecular structure formation. Its size and morphology were confirmed by TEM showing a well-defined spherical form. Structures at these conditions showed to be stable at least for 30 or 90 days, when stored at 25 or 4 °C, respectively. Hence, α-La–Lys supramolecular structures showed properties that indicate that they are a promising delivery system for food and pharmaceutical applications.

A proteção cumulativa do design pelo Direito de Autor e pelo Direito da Propriedade Industrial: o caso especial do contrato de trabalho

Dissertação de mestrado em Direito dos Contratos e das Empresas