Influence of Soil Chemistry and Plant Physiology in the Phytoremediation of Cu, Mn, and Zn

Different anthropogenic sources of metals can result from agricultural, industrial, military, mining and urban activities that contribute to environmental pollution. Plants can be grown for phytoremediation to remove or stabilize contaminants in water and soil. Copper (Cu), manganese (Mn) and zinc (Zn) are trace essential metals for plants, although their role in homeostasis in plants must be strictly regulated to avoid toxicity. In this review, we summarize the processes involved in the bioavailability, uptake, transport and storage of Cu, Mn and Zn in plants. The efficiency of phytoremediation depends on several factors including metal bioavailability and plant uptake, translocation and tolerance mechanisms. Soil parameters, such as clay fraction, organic matter content, oxidation state, pH, redox potential, aeration, and the presence of specific organisms, play fundamental roles in the uptake of trace essential metals. Key processes in the metal homeostasis network in plants have been identified. Membrane transporters involved in the acquisition, transport and storage of trace essential metals are reviewed. Recent advances in understanding the biochemical and molecular mechanisms of Cu, Mn and Zn hyperaccumulation are described. The use of plant-bacteria associations, plant-fungi associations and genetic engineering has opened a new range of opportunities to improve the efficiency of phytoremediation. The main directions for future research are proposed from the investigation of published results.

Knowledge management in higher education institutions: a framework to improve collaboration

The purpose of this paper is to present a framework that increases knowledge sharing and collaboration in Higher Education Institutions. The paper discusses the concept of knowledge management in higher education institutions, presenting a systematization of knowledge practices and tools to linking people (students, teachers, researchers, secretariat staff, external entities)and promoting the knowledge sharing across several key processes and services in a higher education institution, such as: the research processes, learning processes, student and alumni services, administrative services and processes, and strategic planning and management. The framework purposed in this paper aims to improve knowledge practices and processes which facilitate an environment and a culture of knowledge collaboration,sharing and discovery that should characterize an institution of higher education.

Automatização de testes à framework myMIS

Atualmente, verifica-se um aumento na necessidade de software feito à medida do cliente, que se consiga adaptar de forma rápida as constantes mudanças da sua área de negócio. Cada cliente tem os seus problemas concretos que precisa de resolver, não lhe sendo muitas vezes possível dispensar uma elevada quantidade de recursos para atingir os fins pretendidos. De forma a dar resposta a estes problemas surgiram várias arquiteturas e metodologias de desenvolvimento de software, que permitem o desenvolvimento ágil de aplicações altamente configuráveis, que podem ser personalizadas por qualquer utilizador das mesmas. Este dinamismo, trazido para as aplicações sobre a forma de modelos que são personalizados pelos utilizadores e interpretados por uma plataforma genérica, cria maiores desafios no momento de realizar testes, visto existir um número de variáveis consideravelmente maior que numa aplicação com uma arquitetura tradicional. É necessário, em todos os momentos, garantir a integridade de todos os modelos, bem como da plataforma responsável pela sua interpretação, sem ser necessário o desenvolvimento constante de aplicações para suportar os testes sobre os diferentes modelos. Esta tese debruça-se sobre uma aplicação, a plataforma myMIS, que permite a interpretação de modelos orientados à gestão, escritos numa linguagem específica de domínio, sendo realizada a avaliação do estado atual e definida uma proposta de práticas de testes a aplicar no desenvolvimento da mesma. A proposta resultante desta tese permitiu verificar que, apesar das dificuldades inerentes à arquitetura da aplicação, o desenvolvimento de testes de uma forma genérica é possível, podendo as mesmas lógicas ser utilizadas para o teste de diversos modelos distintos.

Criação de uma Framework Modular Vocacionada para o Desenvolvimento de Videojogos

Os videojogos são cada vez mais uma das maiores áreas da indústria de entretenimento, tendo esta vindo a expandir-se de ano para ano. Para além disso, os videojogos estão cada vez mais presentes no nosso dia-adia, quer através dos dispositivos móveis ou das novas consolas. Com base nesta premissa, é seguro de afirmar que o investimento neste campo trará mais ganhos do que perdas. Esta Dissertação tem como objetivo o estudo do estado da indústria dos videojogos, tendo como principal foco a conceção de um videojogo, a partir duma Framework Modular, desenvolvida também no âmbito desta Dissertação. Para isso, é feito um estudo sobre o estado da arte tecnológico, onde várias ferramentas de criação de videojogos foram estudadas e analisadas, de forma a perceber as forças e fraquezas de cada uma, e um estudo sobre a arte do negócio, ficando assim com uma ideia mais concreta dos vários pontos necessários para a criação de um videojogo. De seguida são discutidos os diferentes géneros de videojogos existentes e é conceptualizado um pequeno videojogo, tendo ainda em conta os diferentes tipos de interfaces que são mais utilizados na indústria dos videojogos, de forma a entender qual será a forma mais viável, conforme o género, e as diferentes mecânicas presentes no videojogo a criar. A Framework Modular é desenvolvida tendo em conta toda a análise previamente realizada, e o videojogo conceptualizado. Esta tem como grande objetivo uma elevada personalização e manutenibilidade, sendo que todos os módulos implementados podem ser substituídos por outros sem criar conflitos entre si. Finalmente, de forma a unir todos os temas analisados ao longo desta Dissertação, é ainda desenvolvido um Protótipo de forma a comprovar o bom funcionamento da Framework, aplicando todas as decisões previamente feitas.

An integer programming framework for sequencing cutting patterns based on interval graph completion

We derived a framework in integer programming, based on the properties of a linear ordering of the vertices in interval graphs, that acts as an edge completion model for obtaining interval graphs. This model can be applied to problems of sequencing cutting patterns, namely the minimization of open stacks problem (MOSP). By making small modifications in the objective function and using only some of the inequalities, the MOSP model is applied to another pattern sequencing problem that aims to minimize, not only the number of stacks, but also the order spread (the minimization of the stack occupation problem), and the model is tested.

A Data Mining Framework for Electric Load Profiling

This paper consists in the characterization of medium voltage (MV) electric power consumers based on a data clustering approach. It is intended to identify typical load profiles by selecting the best partition of a power consumption database among a pool of data partitions produced by several clustering algorithms. The best partition is selected using several cluster validity indices. These methods are intended to be used in a smart grid environment to extract useful knowledge about customers’ behavior. The data-mining-based methodology presented throughout the paper consists in several steps, namely the pre-processing data phase, clustering algorithms application and the evaluation of the quality of the partitions. To validate our approach, a case study with a real database of 1.022 MV consumers was used.

Stochastic Framework for Strategic Decision-making of Load-serving Entities for Day-ahead Market

The deregulation of electricity markets has diversified the range of financial transaction modes between independent system operator (ISO), generation companies (GENCO) and load-serving entities (LSE) as the main interacting players of a day-ahead market (DAM). LSEs sell electricity to end-users and retail customers. The LSE that owns distributed generation (DG) or energy storage units can supply part of its serving loads when the nodal price of electricity rises. This opportunity stimulates them to have storage or generation facilities at the buses with higher locational marginal prices (LMP). The short-term advantage of this model is reducing the risk of financial losses for LSEs in DAMs and its long-term benefit for the LSEs and the whole system is market power mitigation by virtually increasing the price elasticity of demand. This model also enables the LSEs to manage the financial risks with a stochastic programming framework.

Desenvolvimento de uma framework para a criação de videojogos

Os videojogos são cada vez mais parte integrante da sociedade, sendo que a massificação dos vários dispositivos que se encontram atualmente veio ajudar os videojogos a estarem mais presentes no dia-a-dia das pessoas. Mas a criação de jogos só é possível através de ferramentas bem específicas, as frameworks ou motores de videojogos. Com estas é possível criar os mais diferentes géneros de videojogos para os mais diferentes dispositivos. Contudo, nem todas essas ferramentas são gratuitas, e as que são encontram-se pouco documentadas ou limitadas em determinadas funcionalidades, o que poderá levar mais tempo no desenvolvimento de um videojogo. O trabalho desenvolvido nesta dissertação visa a criação de uma framework capaz de suportar diferentes géneros de videojogos, mas também que facilmente possibilite a alteração ou substituição de diferentes partes internas da framework sem que esta deixe de funcionar. Para isso, foi realizada uma análise ao estado atual do mercado dos videojogos, bem como das ferramentas que possibilitam a criação dos mesmos, passando também pelas interfaces gráficas existentes nos videojogos. Como forma de demonstrar as funcionalidades implementadas na framework, foi desenvolvido um protótipo de um videojogo de luta, tirando-se, assim, partido de algumas das características dessa ferramenta.

Reflections on the legal framework for relations between cooperatives and subsidiaries.

In the light of Portuguese legal system, cooperative enterprises may include an enterprise carried out by a subsidiary, provided they conform to certain requirements. The aim of this paper is to reflect on the issue of the legal framework of the relationship between the cooperative and the subsidiary. There are several problems to be addressed in this paper: (i) How to qualify such a relationship since corresponding to mere investments made by the cooperative? Should it be classified as non-member cooperative transactions or as extraordinary activities? (ii) How to qualify such a relationship when related to the development of preparatory or complementary activities for the economic activity developed between the cooperative and its members? May we speak, in this situation, of a concept of “indirect mutuality”, as provided in other legal systems? (iii) How should we classify and what is the regime of the economic results from the activity developed by the subsidiary? We will conclude, advocating: (i) That the cooperative enterprise may include an enterprise carried out by a subsidiary if this is deemed necessary to satisfy the interests of the members; (ii) The inadmissibility of the concept of “indirect mutuality”; (iii) The inadequacy of qualifying the legal relationship between the cooperative partner (iv) The application, to the economic results coming from the activity developed by the subsidiary, of the regime provided for in the Portuguese Cooperative Code to the results from non-member cooperative transactions; (v) The economic results coming from the activity developed by the subsidiary cannot be appropriated by individual co-operators members, and so should be allocated to indivisible reserves.

A framework for memory contention analysis in multi-core platforms

The last decade has witnessed a major shift towards the deployment of embedded applications on multi-core platforms. However, real-time applications have not been able to fully benefit from this transition, as the computational gains offered by multi-cores are often offset by performance degradation due to shared resources, such as main memory. To efficiently use multi-core platforms for real-time systems, it is hence essential to tightly bound the interference when accessing shared resources. Although there has been much recent work in this area, a remaining key problem is to address the diversity of memory arbiters in the analysis to make it applicable to a wide range of systems. This work handles diverse arbiters by proposing a general framework to compute the maximum interference caused by the shared memory bus and its impact on the execution time of the tasks running on the cores, considering different bus arbiters. Our novel approach clearly demarcates the arbiter-dependent and independent stages in the analysis of these upper bounds. The arbiter-dependent phase takes the arbiter and the task memory-traffic pattern as inputs and produces a model of the availability of the bus to a given task. Then, based on the availability of the bus, the arbiter-independent phase determines the worst-case request-release scenario that maximizes the interference experienced by the tasks due to the contention for the bus. We show that the framework addresses the diversity problem by applying it to a memory bus shared by a fixed-priority arbiter, a time-division multiplexing (TDM) arbiter, and an unspecified work-conserving arbiter using applications from the MediaBench test suite. We also experimentally evaluate the quality of the analysis by comparison with a state-of-the-art TDM analysis approach and consistently showing a considerable reduction in maximum interference.

Development of paper-based color test-strip for drug detection in aquatic environment: Application to oxytetracycline

The wide use of antibiotics in aquaculture has led to the emergence of resistant microbial species. It should be avoided/minimized by controlling the amount of drug employed in fish farming. For this purpose, the present work proposes test-strip papers aiming at the detection/semi-quantitative determination of organic drugs by visual comparison of color changes, in a similar analytical procedure to that of pH monitoring by universal pH paper. This is done by establishing suitable chemical changes upon cellulose, attributing the paper the ability to react with the organic drug and to produce a color change. Quantitative data is also enabled by taking a picture and applying a suitable mathematical treatment to the color coordinates given by the HSL system used by windows. As proof of concept, this approach was applied to oxytetracycline (OXY), one of the antibiotics frequently used in aquaculture. A bottom-up modification of paper was established, starting by the reaction of the glucose moieties on the paper with 3-triethoxysilylpropylamine (APTES). The so-formed amine layer allowed binding to a metal ion by coordination chemistry, while the metal ion reacted after with the drug to produce a colored compound. The most suitable metals to carry out such modification were selected by bulk studies, and the several stages of the paper modification were optimized to produce an intense color change against the concentration of the drug. The paper strips were applied to the analysis of spiked environmental water, allowing a quantitative determination for OXY concentrations as low as 30 ng/mL. In general, this work provided a simple, method to screen and discriminate tetracycline drugs, in aquaculture, being a promising tool for local, quick and cheap monitoring of drugs.

Novel LTCC-potentiometric microfluidic device for biparametric analysis of organic compounds carrying plastic antibodies as ionophores: Application to sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim

Monitoring organic environmental contaminants is of crucial importance to ensure public health. This requires simple, portable and robust devices to carry out on-site analysis. For this purpose, a low-temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) microfluidic potentiometric device (LTCC/μPOT) was developed for the first time for an organic compound: sulfamethoxazole (SMX). Sensory materials relied on newly designed plastic antibodies. Sol–gel, self-assembling monolayer and molecular-imprinting techniques were merged for this purpose. Silica beads were amine-modified and linked to SMX via glutaraldehyde modification. Condensation polymerization was conducted around SMX to fill the vacant spaces. SMX was removed after, leaving behind imprinted sites of complementary shape. The obtained particles were used as ionophores in plasticized PVC membranes. The most suitable membrane composition was selected in steady-state assays. Its suitability to flow analysis was verified in flow-injection studies with regular tubular electrodes. The LTCC/μPOT device integrated a bidimensional mixer, an embedded reference electrode based on Ag/AgCl and an Ag-based contact screen-printed under a micromachined cavity of 600 μm depth. The sensing membranes were deposited over this contact and acted as indicating electrodes. Under optimum conditions, the SMX sensor displayed slopes of about −58.7 mV/decade in a range from 12.7 to 250 μg/mL, providing a detection limit of 3.85 μg/mL and a sampling throughput of 36 samples/h with a reagent consumption of 3.3 mL per sample. The system was adjusted later to multiple analyte detection by including a second potentiometric cell on the LTCC/μPOT device. No additional reference electrode was required. This concept was applied to Trimethoprim (TMP), always administered concomitantly with sulphonamide drugs, and tested in fish-farming waters. The biparametric microanalyzer displayed Nernstian behaviour, with average slopes −54.7 (SMX) and +57.8 (TMP) mV/decade. To demonstrate the microanalyzer capabilities for real applications, it was successfully applied to single and simultaneous determination of SMX and TMP in aquaculture waters.

A Visual Programming Framework for Wireless Sensor Networks in Smart Home Applications

International Conference on Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information Processing (ISSNIP 2015). 7 to 9, Apr, 2015. Singapure, Singapore.

A framework for using real data with distributed low cost sensors

Currently, due to the widespread use of computers and the internet, students are trading libraries for the World Wide Web and laboratories with simulation programs. In most courses, simulators are made available to students and can be used to proof theoretical results or to test a developing hardware/product. Although this is an interesting solution: low cost, easy and fast way to perform some courses work, it has indeed major disadvantages. As everything is currently being done with/in a computer, the students are loosing the “feel” of the real values of the magnitudes. For instance in engineering studies, and mainly in the first years, students need to learn electronics, algorithmic, mathematics and physics. All of these areas can use numerical analysis software, simulation software or spreadsheets and in the majority of the cases data used is either simulated or random numbers, but real data could be used instead. For example, if a course uses numerical analysis software and needs a dataset, the students can learn to manipulate arrays. Also, when using the spreadsheets to build graphics, instead of using a random table, students could use a real dataset based, for instance, in the room temperature and its variation across the day. In this work we present a framework which uses a simple interface allowing it to be used by different courses where the computers are the teaching/learning process in order to give a more realistic feeling to students by using real data. A framework is proposed based on a set of low cost sensors for different physical magnitudes, e.g. temperature, light, wind speed, which are connected to a central server, that the students have access with an Ethernet protocol or are connected directly to the student computer/laptop. These sensors use the communication ports available such as: serial ports, parallel ports, Ethernet or Universal Serial Bus (USB). Since a central server is used, the students are encouraged to use sensor values results in their different courses and consequently in different types of software such as: numerical analysis tools, spreadsheets or simply inside any programming language when a dataset is needed. In order to do this, small pieces of hardware were developed containing at least one sensor using different types of computer communication. As long as the sensors are attached in a server connected to the internet, these tools can also be shared between different schools. This allows sensors that aren't available in a determined school to be used by getting the values from other places that are sharing them. Another remark is that students in the more advanced years and (theoretically) more know how, can use the courses that have some affinities with electronic development to build new sensor pieces and expand the framework further. The final solution provided is very interesting, low cost, simple to develop, allowing flexibility of resources by using the same materials in several courses bringing real world data into the students computer works.

An automated maneuver control framework for a remotely operated vehicle

OCEANS, 2001. MTS/IEEE Conference and Exhibition (Volume:2 )