Gestão do conhecimento e cultura organizacional: barreiras e facilitadores

Este trabalho incide sobre a gestão do conhecimento e cultura organizacional, as suas barreiras os seus facilitadores na Parque Escolar E.P.E. Este estudo teve por base o método quadripolar. Várias foram as atividades ao longo deste trabalho, inicialmente foi recolhida a documentação interna, nomeadamente diplomas legais, regulamentos, manuais de procedimentos, manuais de formações internas, entre outros documentos, que serviram de base ao reconhecimento da instituição, a sua evolução estrutural e de funcionamento. Para identificar as barreiras e os facilitadores na recuperação da informação nos três principais meios para o efeito: arquivo físico, file system e aplicações informáticas foram aplicados inquéritos aos produtores/ utilizadores de informação da Parque Escolar, E.P.E. Com base neste estudo foi possível identificar qual o recurso de recuperação de informação que traz mais dificuldades na sua utilização, se existem documentos exclusivos em papel ou exclusivos em formato digital, se os mesmos são recuperáveis com facilidade. Foi possível averiguar se os colaboradores da Parque Escolar, E.P.E. consideram os documentos que constam no Arquivo Físico mais fidedignos do que os documentos em formato digital guardados no file system ou nas aplicações informáticas. Em relação às aplicações informáticas foi ainda possível averiguar se os colaboradores consideram uteis as suas atualizações, ou se demonstram alguma resistência à mudança, e se consideram que tiveram o acompanhamento necessário para compreender e aplicar as alterações. Com este estudo esperamos ter contribuído para dar uma maior visibilidade à temática da gestão do conhecimento e como a cultura organizacional pode influenciar, criando barreiras ou facilitadores.

Application of Visual-Inertial SLAM for 3D Mapping of Underground Environments

The underground scenarios are one of the most challenging environments for accurate and precise 3d mapping where hostile conditions like absence of Global Positioning Systems, extreme lighting variations and geometrically smooth surfaces may be expected. So far, the state-of-the-art methods in underground modelling remain restricted to environments in which pronounced geometric features are abundant. This limitation is a consequence of the scan matching algorithms used to solve the localization and registration problems. This paper contributes to the expansion of the modelling capabilities to structures characterized by uniform geometry and smooth surfaces, as is the case of road and train tunnels. To achieve that, we combine some state of the art techniques from mobile robotics, and propose a method for 6DOF platform positioning in such scenarios, that is latter used for the environment modelling. A visual monocular Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (MonoSLAM) approach based on the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), complemented by the introduction of inertial measurements in the prediction step, allows our system to localize himself over long distances, using exclusively sensors carried on board a mobile platform. By feeding the Extended Kalman Filter with inertial data we were able to overcome the major problem related with MonoSLAM implementations, known as scale factor ambiguity. Despite extreme lighting variations, reliable visual features were extracted through the SIFT algorithm, and inserted directly in the EKF mechanism according to the Inverse Depth Parametrization. Through the 1-Point RANSAC (Random Sample Consensus) wrong frame-to-frame feature matches were rejected. The developed method was tested based on a dataset acquired inside a road tunnel and the navigation results compared with a ground truth obtained by post-processing a high grade Inertial Navigation System and L1/L2 RTK-GPS measurements acquired outside the tunnel. Results from the localization strategy are presented and analyzed.

Previsão do Diagrama de Carga de Subestações da REN utilizando Redes Neuronais

A presente dissertação apresenta o estudo de previsão do diagrama de carga de subestações da Rede Elétrica Nacional (REN) utilizando redes neuronais, com o intuito de verificar a viabilidade do método utilizado, em estudos futuros. Atualmente, a energia elétrica é um bem essencial e desempenha um papel fundamental, tanto a nível económico do país, como a nível de conforto e satisfação individual. Com o desenvolvimento do setor elétrico e o aumento dos produtores torna-se importante a realização da previsão de diagramas de carga, contribuindo para a eficiência das empresas. Esta dissertação tem como objetivo a utilização do modelo das redes neuronais artificiais (RNA) para criar uma rede capaz de realizar a previsão de diagramas de carga, com a finalidade de oferecer a possibilidade de redução de custos e gastos, e a melhoria de qualidade e fiabilidade. Ao longo do trabalho são utilizados dados da carga (em MW), obtidos da REN, da subestação da Prelada e dados como a temperatura, humidade, vento e luminosidade, entre outros. Os dados foram devidamente tratados com a ajuda do software Excel. Com o software MATLAB são realizados treinos com redes neuronais, através da ferramenta Neural Network Fitting Tool, com o objetivo de obter uma rede que forneça os melhores resultados e posteriormente utiliza-la na previsão de novos dados. No processo de previsão, utilizando dados reais das subestações da Prelada e Ermesinde referentes a Março de 2015, comprova-se que com a utilização de RNA é possível obter dados de previsão credíveis, apesar de não ser uma previsão exata. Deste modo, no que diz respeito à previsão de diagramas de carga, as RNA são um bom método a utilizar, uma vez que fornecem, à parte interessada, uma boa previsão do consumo e comportamento das cargas elétricas. Com a finalização deste estudo os resultados obtidos são no mínimo satisfatórios. Consegue-se alcançar através das RNA resultados próximos aos valores que eram esperados, embora não exatamente iguais devido à existência de uma margem de erro na aprendizagem da rede neuronal.

Are coffee silverskin extracts safe for topical use? An in vitro and in vivo approach

Recent changes in regulatory requirements and social views on animal testing have incremented the development of reliable alternative tests for predicting skin and ocular irritation potential of products based on new raw materials. In this regard, botanical ingredients used in cosmetic products are among those materials, and should be carefully reviewed concerning the potential presence of irritant constituents. In particular, cosmetic products used on the face, in vicinity of the eyes or that may come in contact with mucous membranes, should avoid botanical ingredients that contain, or are suspected to contain, such ingredients. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of a new cosmetic ingredient, namely, coffee silverskin (CS), with an in vitro skin and ocular irritation assay using reconstructed human epidermis, EpiSkin™, and human corneal epithelial model, SkinEthics™ HCE, and an in vivo assay. Three different extracts of CS were evaluated. The histology of the models after extracts applications was analysed. The in vitro results demonstrated that extracts were not classified as irritant and the histological analyses proved that extracts did not affect both models structure. The content of caffeine, 5-hydroxymethyl furfural and chlorogenic acid was quantified after the epidermal assay. The in vivo test carried out with the most promising extract (hydroalcoholic) showed that, with respect to irritant effects, these extracts can be regarded as safe for topical application.

QuEChERS: a sample preparation for extraction of carbaryl from rat feces

Carbamate compounds are an important group of cholinesterase inhibitors. There is a need for creating awareness regarding the risks of the inadequate carbamate use in the residential areas due to potential adverse human effects. Carbaryl is a commonly used pesticide worldwide. A simple, fast, and high throughput method was developed employing liquid chromatography with fluorescence detector to determine carbaryl residues in rat feces. The extraction was performed by using a rapid, easy, cheap, effective, reliable, and safe (QuEChERS) method, using acetonitrile as the extracting solvent. The parameters for the performance of the extraction method were optimized, such as ratio of mass of sample per volume of extraction solvent, QuEChERS content, and cleanup columns. Linear response was obtained for all calibration curves (solven and matrix-matched) over the established concentration range (5 500 mg/L) with a correlation coefficients higher than 0.999. The achieved recovery was 97.9% with relative standard deviation values of 1.1% (n D 4) at 167 mg/kg fortified concentration level and the limits of detection and quantification were 27.7 and 92.3 mg/kg respectively.

Validation of QuEChERS method for organochlorine pesticides analysis in tamarind (Tamarindus indica) products: Peel, fruit and commercial pulp

In this study a citrate-buffered version of QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe) method for determination of 14 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) residues in tamarind peel, fruit and commercial pulp was optimized using gas chromatography (GC) coupled with electron-capture detector (ECD) and confirmation by GC tandem mass spectrometry (GC–MS/MS). Five procedures were tested based on the original QuEChERS method. The best one was achieved with increased time in ultrasonic bath. For the extract clean-up, primary secondary amine (PSA), octadecyl-bonded silica (C18) and magnesium sulphate (MgSO4) were used as sorbents for tamarind fruit and commercial pulp and for peel was also added graphitized carbon black (GCB). The samples mass was optimized according to the best recoveries (1.0 g for peel and fruit; 0.5 g for pulp). The method results showed the matrix-matched calibration curve linearity was r2 > 0.99 for all target analytes in all samples. The overall average recoveries (spiked at 20, 40 and 60 μg kg−1) have been considered satisfactory presenting values between 70 and 115% with RSD of 2–15 % (n = 3) for all analytes, with the exception of HCB (in peel sample). The ranges of limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) for OCPs were for peel (LOD: 8.0–21 μg kg−1; LOQ: 27–98 μg kg−1); for fruit (LOD: 4–10 μg kg−1; LOQ: 15–49 μg kg−1) and for commercial pulp (LOD: 2–5 μg kg−1; LOQ: 7–27 μg kg−1). The method was successfully applied in tamarind samples being considered a rapid, sensitive and reliable procedure.

Voltammetric analysis of mancozeb and its degradation product ethylenethiourea

The purpose of this work was to develop a reliable alternative method for the determination of the dithiocarbamate pesticide mancozeb (MCZ) in formulations. Furthermore, a method for the analysis of MCZ's major degradation product, ethylenethiourea (ETU), was also proposed. Cyclic voltammetry was used to characterize the electrochemical behavior of MCZ and ETU, and square-wave adsorptive stripping voltammetry (SWAdSV) was employed for MCZ quantification in commercial formulations. It was found that both MCZ and ETU are irreversibly reduced (− 0.6 V and − 0.5 V vs Ag/AgCl, respectively) at the surface of a glassy carbon electrode in a mainly diffusion-controlled process, presenting maximum peak current intensities at pH 7.0 (in phosphate buffered saline electrolyte). Several parameters of the SWAdSV technique were optimized and linear relationships between concentration and peak current intensity were established between 10–90 μmol L− 1 and 10–110 μmol L− 1 for MCZ and ETU, respectively. The limits of detection were 7.0 μmol L− 1 for MCZ and 7.8 μmol L− 1 for ETU. The optimized method for MCZ was successfully applied to the quantification of this pesticide in two commercial formulations. The developed procedures provided accurate and precise results and could be interesting alternatives to the established methods for quality control of the studied products, as well as for analysis of MCZ and ETU in environmental samples.

Real-Time Support in the Proposal for Fine-Grained Parallelism in Ada

Presented at Work in Progress Session, IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium (RTSS 2015). 1 to 3, Dec, 2015. San Antonio, U.S.A..

Real-Time Support in the Proposal for Fine-Grained Parallelism in Ada

Presented at Work in Progress Session, IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium (RTSS 2015). 1 to 3, Dec, 2015. San Antonio, U.S.A..

Countries three Wise Men: Sustainability, Innovation, and Competitiveness

Purpose: The studies on links between sustainability, innovation, and competitiveness have been mainly focused at organizational and business level. The purpose of this research is to investigate if there is a correlation between these three variables at country level. Using international well recognized rankings of countries sustainability, innovation, and competitiveness, correlation analysis was performed allowing for the conclusion that there are indeed high correlations (and possible relationships) between the three variables at country level. Design/methodology/approach: Sustainability, innovation, and competitiveness literature were reviewed identifying a lack of studies examining these three variables at country level. Three major well recognized indexes were used to support the quantitative research: The World Economic Forum (2013) Sustainability-adjusted global competitiveness index, the Global Innovation Index (2014) issued by Cornell University, INSEAD, and WIPO and the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook (2014). After confirming the distributions normality, Pearson correlation analysis was made with results showing high linear correlations between the three indexes. Findings: The results of the correlation analysis using Pearson correlation coefficient (all correlation coefficients are greater than 0.73) give a strong support to the conclusion that there is indeed a high correlation (and a possible relationship) between social sustainability, innovation and competitiveness at country level. Research limitations/implications: Further research is advisable to better understand the factors that contribute to the presented results and to establish a global paradigm linking these three main constructs (social sustainability, innovation, and competitiveness). Some authors consider that these measurements are not fully supported (e.g. due to different countries standards), however, it is assumed these differing underlying methodological approaches, by being used in conjunction, can be considered as a set of reliable and useful performance indicators. Practical implications: The results highlight the simultaneous relationship between social sustainability, innovation and competitiveness superior performance and the need to take that these considerations into business and operating models. Social implications: This research suggests that sustainability and innovation policies, strategies and practices are relevant for countries competitiveness and should be promoted particularly in countries ranked low on sustainability and innovation global scoring indexes. Originality/value: This is one of the few studies addressing the relationships between sustainability, innovation and competitiveness at country level.

mRPL: Boosting mobility in the Internet of Things

The 6loWPAN (the light version of IPv6) and RPL (routing protocol for low-power and lossy links) protocols have become de facto standards for the Internet of Things (IoT). In this paper, we show that the two native algorithms that handle changes in network topology – the Trickle and Neighbor Discovery algorithms – behave in a reactive fashion and thus are not prepared for the dynamics inherent to nodes mobility. Many emerging and upcoming IoT application scenarios are expected to impose real-time and reliable mobile data collection, which are not compatible with the long message latency, high packet loss and high overhead exhibited by the native RPL/6loWPAN protocols. To solve this problem, we integrate a proactive hand-off mechanism (dubbed smart-HOP) within RPL, which is very simple, effective and backward compatible with the standard protocol. We show that this add-on halves the packet loss and reduces the hand-off delay dramatically to one tenth of a second, upon nodes’ mobility, with a sub-percent overhead. The smart-HOP algorithm has been implemented and integrated in the Contiki 6LoWPAN/RPL stack (source-code available on-line mrpl: smart-hop within rpl, 2014) and validated through extensive simulation and experimentation.

Energy-efficient MAC protocols for WBANs: Opportunities and challenges

Wireless body area networks (WBANs) are expected to play a significant role in smart healthcare systems. One of the most important attributes of WBANs is to increase network lifetime by introducing novel and low-power techniques on the energy-constrained sensor nodes. Medium access control (MAC) protocols play a significant role in determining the energy consumption in WBANs. Existing MAC protocols are unable to accommodate communication requirements in WBANs. There is a need to develop novel, scalable and reliable MAC protocols that must be able to address all these requirements in a reliable manner. In this special issue, we attracted high quality research and review papers on the recent advances in MAC protocols for WBANs.

FAS -670A>G genetic polymorphism Is associated with Treatment Resistant Depression

Background Hippocampal neurogenesis has been suggested as a downstream event of antidepressants (AD) mechanism of action and might explain the lag time between AD administration and the therapeutic effect. Despite the widespread use of AD in the context of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) there are no reliable biomarkers of treatment response phenotypes, and a significant proportion of patients display Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD). Fas/FasL system is one of the best-known death-receptor mediated cell signaling systems and is recognized to regulate cell proliferation and tumor cell growth. Recently this pathway has been described to be involved in neurogenesis and neuroplasticity. Methods Since FAS -670A>G and FASL -844T>C functional polymorphisms never been evaluated in the context of depression and antidepressant therapy, we genotyped FAS -670A>G and FASL -844T>C in a subset of 80 MDD patients to evaluate their role in antidepressant treatment response phenotypes. Results We found that the presence of FAS -670G allele was associated with antidepressant bad prognosis (relapse or TRD: OR=6.200; 95% CI: [1.875–20.499]; p=0.001), and we observed that patients carrying this allele have a higher risk to develop TRD (OR=10.895; 95% CI: [1.362–87.135]; p=0.008).Moreover, multivariate analysis adjusted to potentials confounders showed that patients carrying G allele have higher risk of early relapse (HR=3.827; 95% CI: [1.072–13.659]; p=0.039). FAS mRNA levels were down-regulated among G carriers, whose genotypes were more common in TRD patients. No association was found between FASL-844T>C genetic polymorphism and any treatment phenotypes. Limitations Small sample size. Patients used antidepressants with different mechanisms of action. Conclusion To the best of our knowledge this is the first study to evaluate the role of FAS functional polymorphism in the outcome of antidepressant therapy. This preliminary report associates FAS -670A>G genetic polymorphism with Treatment Resistant Depression and with time to relapse. The current results may possibly be given to the recent recognized role of Fas in neurogenesis and/or neuroplasticity.

Reliability of Two Methods for Identifying the Postural Phase of Gait Initiation in Healthy and Post-stroke Subjects

This study aims to compare two methods of assessing the postural phase of gait initiation as to intrasession reliability, in healthy and post-stroke subjects. As a secondary aim, this study aims to analyse anticipatory postural adjustments during gait initiation based on the centre of pressure (CoP) displacements in post-stroke participants. The CoP signal was acquired during gait initiation in fifteen post-stroke subjects and twenty-three healthy controls. Postural phase was identified through a baseline-based method and a maximal displacement based method. In both healthy and post-stroke participants higher intra-class correlation coefficient and lower coefficient of variation values were obtained with the baseline-based method when compared to the maximal displacement based method. Post-stroke participants presented decreased CoP displacement backward and toward the first swing limb compared to controls when the baseline-based method was used. With the maximal displacement based method, there were differences between groups only regarding backward CoP displacement. Postural phase duration in medial-lateral direction was also increased in post-stroke participants when using the maximal displacement based method. The findings obtained indicate that the baseline-based method is more reliable detecting the onset of gait initiation in both groups, while the maximal displacement based method presents greater sensitivity for post-stroke participants.

Segurança de Redes em Sistemas de Experimentação Remota

O crescimento dos sistemas de informação e a sua utilização massiva criou uma nova realidade no acesso a experiências remotas que se encontram geograficamente distribuídas. Nestes últimos tempos, a temática dos laboratórios remotos apareceu nos mais diversos campos como o do ensino ou o de sistemas industriais de controlo e monitorização. Como o acesso aos laboratórios é efectuado através de um meio permissivo como é o caso da Internet, a informação pode estar à mercê de qualquer atacante. Assim, é necessário garantir a segurança do acesso, de forma a criar condições para que não se verifique a adulteração dos valores obtidos, bem como a existência de acessos não permitidos. Os mecanismos de segurança adoptados devem ter em consideração a necessidade de autenticação e autorização, sendo estes pontos críticos no que respeita à segurança, pois estes laboratórios podem estar a controlar equipamentos sensíveis e dispendiosos, podendo até eventualmente comprometer em certos casos o controlo e a monotorização de sistemas industriais. Este trabalho teve como objectivo a análise da segurança em redes, tendo sido realizado um estudo sobre os vários conceitos e mecanismos de segurança necessários para garantir a segurança nas comunicações entre laboratórios remotos. Dele resultam as três soluções apresentadas de comunicação segura para laboratórios remotos distribuídos geograficamente, recorrendo às tecnologias IPSec, OpenVPN e PPTP. De forma a minimizar custos, toda a implementação foi assente em software de código aberto e na utilização de um computador de baixo custo. No que respeita à criação das VPNs, estas foram configuradas de modo a permitir obter os resultados pretendidos na criação de uma ligação segura para laboratórios remotos. O pfSense mostrou-se a escolha acertada visto que suporta nativamente quaisquer das tecnologias que foram estudadas e implementadas, sem necessidade de usar recursos físicos muito caros, permitindo o uso de tecnologias de código aberto sem comprometer a segurança no funcionamento das soluções que suportam a segurança nas comunicações dos laboratórios remotos.