International mobility in the Pharmacy degree at the school of allied health sciences of Oporto

Background: The Erasmus program is a subprogram of the Lifelong Learning program, exclusive for Higher Education that promotes (among other initiatives), the mobility of students(studies, training or internships). The mobility of students of higher education seeks to improve the quality and development of future professionals, providing a multidisciplinary and multicultural experience. Setting: Academic Pharmacy/Pharmacy Technicians Methods: We conducted a descriptive and transversal study on the implementation of the mobility program and analyze the results, which involved applying a survey to students. Results: Since 2009/2010, the Pharmacy Degree at ESTSP has established 7 SMs protocols resulting in an average mobility of 5 students IN and 7 Students OUT. We have also endeavoured in SMp Protocols for extracurricular training with an average of 3 students OUT. The application process is normally open during the year before the mobility period. For most of the students involved, this was a first time opportunity to be in a foreign country and more than 70% choose the mobility program because it is seen as a possibility to improve their curriculum, for personal development or even to pursue employment opportunities abroad. The mobility for teachers is also encouraged. Conclusions: The exchange of experiences and training, acquired during cooperation activities should be an element of continuous dynamics and institutional affirmation. Initiatives such as the ERASMUS Program contribute to the educational and scientific enrichment, and promote international competitiveness among Higher Education Institutions.

The development and implementation of math projects in a HEI: expectations, objectives, experiences and analysis

An overwhelming problem in Math Curriculums in Higher Education Institutions (HEI), we are daily facing in the last decade, is the substantial differences in Math background of our students. When you try to transmit, engage and teach subjects/contents that your “audience” is unable to respond to and/or even understand what we are trying to convey, it is somehow frustrating. In this sense, the Math projects and other didactic strategies, developed through Learning Management System Moodle, which include an array of activities that combine higher order thinking skills with math subjects and technology, for students of HE, appear as remedial but important, proactive and innovative measures in order to face and try to overcome these considerable problems. In this paper we will present some of these strategies, developed in some organic units of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto (IPP). But, how “fruitful” are the endless number of hours teachers spent in developing and implementing these platforms? Do students react to them as we would expect? Do they embrace this opportunity to overcome their difficulties? How do they use/interact individually with LMS platforms? Can this environment that provides the teacher with many interesting tools to improve the teaching – learning process, encourages students to reinforce their abilities and knowledge? In what way do they use each available material – videos, interactive tasks, texts, among others? What is the best way to assess student’s performance in these online learning environments? Learning Analytics tools provides us a huge amount of data, but how can we extract “good” and helpful information from them? These and many other questions still remain unanswered but we look forward to get some help in, at least, “get some drafts” for them because we feel that this “learning analysis”, that tackles the path from the objectives to the actual results, is perhaps the only way we have to move forward in the “best” learning and teaching direction.

Towards the wide implementation of standards IEC 61968/70 (CIM) and IEC 61850 in the distribution system (CIGRÉ C6-105_2010)

Currently, power systems (PS) already accommodate a substantial penetration of distributed generation (DG) and operate in competitive environments. In the future, as the result of the liberalisation and political regulations, PS will have to deal with large-scale integration of DG and other distributed energy resources (DER), such as storage and provide market agents to ensure a flexible and secure operation. This cannot be done with the traditional PS operational tools used today like the quite restricted information systems Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) [1]. The trend to use the local generation in the active operation of the power system requires new solutions for data management system. The relevant standards have been developed separately in the last few years so there is a need to unify them in order to receive a common and interoperable solution. For the distribution operation the CIM models described in the IEC 61968/70 are especially relevant. In Europe dispersed and renewable energy resources (D&RER) are mostly operated without remote control mechanisms and feed the maximal amount of available power into the grid. To improve the network operation performance the idea of virtual power plants (VPP) will become a reality. In the future power generation of D&RER will be scheduled with a high accuracy. In order to realize VPP decentralized energy management, communication facilities are needed that have standardized interfaces and protocols. IEC 61850 is suitable to serve as a general standard for all communication tasks in power systems [2]. The paper deals with international activities and experiences in the implementation of a new data management and communication concept in the distribution system. The difficulties in the coordination of the inconsistent developed in parallel communication and data management standards - are first addressed in the paper. The upcoming unification work taking into account the growing role of D&RER in the PS is shown. It is possible to overcome the lag in current practical experiences using new tools for creating and maintenance the CIM data and simulation of the IEC 61850 protocol – the prototype of which is presented in the paper –. The origin and the accuracy of the data requirements depend on the data use (e.g. operation or planning) so some remarks concerning the definition of the digital interface incorporated in the merging unit idea from the power utility point of view are presented in the paper too. To summarize some required future work has been identified.

Efficient implementation of a dominance protocol for wireless medium access

Mestrado em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores

Legal and political regulation of higher education in Portugal: an evolutionary perspective on the current policy issues and the problem of order

The higher education system in Europe is currently under stress and the debates over its reform and future are gaining momentum. Now that, for most countries, we are in a time for change, in the overall society and the whole education system, the legal and political dimensions have gained prominence, which has not been followed by a more integrative approach of the problem of order, its reform and the issue of regulation, beyond the typical static and classical cost-benefit analyses. The two classical approaches for studying (and for designing the policy measures of) the problem of the reform of the higher education system - the cost-benefit analysis and the legal scholarship description - have to be integrated. This is the argument of our paper that the very integration of economic and legal approaches, what Warren Samuels called the legal-economic nexus, is meaningful and necessary, especially if we want to address the problem of order (as formulated by Joseph Spengler) and the overall regulation of the system. On the one hand, and without neglecting the interest and insights gained from the cost-benefit analysis, or other approaches of value for money assessment, we will focus our study on the legal, social and political aspects of the regulation of the higher education system and its reform in Portugal. On the other hand, the economic and financial problems have to be taken into account, but in a more inclusive way with regard to the indirect and other socio-economic costs not contemplated in traditional or standard assessments of policies for the tertiary education sector. In the first section of the paper, we will discuss the theoretical and conceptual underpinning of our analysis, focusing on the evolutionary approach, the role of critical institutions, the legal-economic nexus and the problem of order. All these elements are related to the institutional tradition, from Veblen and Commons to Spengler and Samuels. The second section states the problem of regulation in the higher education system and the issue of policy formulation for tackling the problem. The current situation is clearly one of crisis with the expansion of the cohorts of young students coming to an end and the recurrent scandals in private institutions. In the last decade, after a protracted period of extension or expansion of the system, i. e., the continuous growth of students, universities and other institutions are competing harder to gain students and have seen their financial situation at risk. It seems that we are entering a period of radical uncertainty, higher competition and a new configuration that is slowly building up is the growth in intensity, which means upgrading the quality of the higher learning and getting more involvement in vocational training and life-long learning. With this change, and along with other deep ones in the Portuguese society and economy, the current regulation has shown signs of maladjustment. The third section consists of our conclusions on the current issue of regulation and policy challenge. First, we underline the importance of an evolutionary approach to a process of change that is essentially dynamic. A special attention will be given to the issues related to an evolutionary construe of policy analysis and formulation. Second, the integration of law and economics, through the notion of legal economic nexus, allows us to better define the issues of regulation and the concrete problems that the universities are facing. One aspect is the instability of the political measures regarding the public administration and on which the higher education system depends financially, legally and institutionally, to say the least. A corollary is the lack of clear strategy in the policy reforms. Third, our research criticizes several studies, such as the one made by the OECD in late 2006 for the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, for being too static and neglecting fundamental aspects of regulation such as the logic of actors, groups and organizations who are major players in the system. Finally, simply changing the legal rules will not necessary per se change the behaviors that the authorities want to change. By this, we mean that it is not only remiss of the policy maker to ignore some of the critical issues of regulation, namely the continuous non-respect by academic management and administrative bodies of universities of the legal rules that were once promulgated. Changing the rules does not change the problem, especially without the necessary debates form the different relevant quarters that make up the higher education system. The issues of social interaction remain as intact. Our treatment of the matter will be organized in the following way. In the first section, the theoretical principles are developed in order to be able to study more adequately the higher education transformation with a modest evolutionary theory and a legal and economic nexus of the interactions of the system and the policy challenges. After describing, in the second section, the recent evolution and current working of the higher education in Portugal, we will analyze the legal framework and the current regulatory practices and problems in light of the theoretical framework adopted. We will end with some conclusions on the current problems of regulation and the policy measures that are discusses in recent years.

On the implementation of real-time slotbased task-splitting scheduling algorithms for multiprocessor systems

In this paper we discuss challenges and design principles of an implementation of slot-based tasksplitting algorithms into the Linux 2.6.34 version. We show that this kernel version is provided with the required features for implementing such scheduling algorithms. We show that the real behavior of the scheduling algorithm is very close to the theoretical. We run and discuss experiments on 4-core and 24-core machines.

Experiences on the implementation of a cooperative embedded system framework

As the complexity of embedded systems increases, multiple services have to compete for the limited resources of a single device. This situation is particularly critical for small embedded devices used in consumer electronics, telecommunication, industrial automation, or automotive systems. In fact, in order to satisfy a set of constraints related to weight, space, and energy consumption, these systems are typically built using microprocessors with lower processing power and limited resources. The CooperatES framework has recently been proposed to tackle these challenges, allowing resource constrained devices to collectively execute services with their neighbours in order to fulfil the complex Quality of Service (QoS) constraints imposed by users and applications. In order to demonstrate the framework's concepts, a prototype is being implemented in the Android platform. This paper discusses key challenges that must be addressed and possible directions to incorporate the desired real-time behaviour in Android.

Open-ZB: an open-source implementation of the IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee protocol stack on TinyOS

The IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee protocols are gaining increasing interests in both research and industrial communities as candidate technologies for Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) applications. In this paper, we present an open-source implementation of the IEEE 802.15.4/Zigbee protocol stack under the TinyOS operating system for the MICAz motes. This work has been driven by the need for an open-source implementation of the IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee protocols, filling a gap between some newly released complex C implementations and black-box implementations from different manufacturers. In addition, we share our experience on the challenging problem that we have faced during the implementation of the protocol stack on the MICAz motes. We strongly believe that this open-source implementation will potentiate research works on the IEEE 802.15.4/Zigbee protocols allowing their demonstration and validation through experimentation.

Implementation of a dominance protocol for wireless medium access

Consider the problem of scheduling sporadic message transmission requests with deadlines. For wired channels, this has been achieved successfully using the CAN bus. For wireless channels, researchers have recently proposed a similar solution; a collision-free medium access control (MAC) protocol that implements static-priority scheduling. Unfortunately no implementation has been reported, yet. We implement and evaluate it to find that the implementation indeed is collision-free and prioritized. This allows us to develop schedulability analysis for the implementation. We measure the response times of messages in our implementation and find that our new response-time analysis indeed offers an upper bound on the response times. This enables a new class of wireless real-time systems with timeliness guarantees for sporadic messages and it opens-up a new research area: schedulability analysis for wireless networks.

Implementation of the i-GAME mechanism in IEEE 802.15.4 WPANs

This technical report describes the implementation details of the Implicit GTS Allocation Mechanism (i-GAME), for the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol. The i-GAME was implemented in nesC/TinyOS for the CrossBow MICAz mote, over our own implementation of the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol stack. This document provides the implementation details, including a description of the i-GAME software interfaces.

Implementation of fractional-order electromagnetic potential through a genetic algorithm

Several phenomena present in electrical systems motivated the development of comprehensive models based on the theory of fractional calculus (FC). Bearing these ideas in mind, in this work are applied the FC concepts to define, and to evaluate, the electrical potential of fractional order, based in a genetic algorithm optimization scheme. The feasibility and the convergence of the proposed method are evaluated.

Comparison of internet usage habits in two generations of higher education students: a case study

Posters

Implementation of a Campus wide DGPS Data Server

Although the Navigation Satellite Timing and Ranging (NAVSTAR) Global Positioning System (GPS) is, de facto, the standard positioning system used in outdoor navigation, it does not provide, per se, all the features required to perform many outdoor navigational tasks. The accuracy of the GPS measurements is the most critical issue. The quest for higher position readings accuracy led to the development, in the late nineties, of the Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS). The differential GPS method detects the range errors of the GPS satellites received and broadcasts them. The DGPS/GPS receivers correlate the DGPS data with the GPS satellite data they are receiving, granting users increased accuracy. DGPS data is broadcasted using terrestrial radio beacons, satellites and, more recently, the Internet. Our goal is to have access, within the ISEP campus, to DGPS correction data. To achieve this objective we designed and implemented a distributed system composed of two main modules which are interconnected: a distributed application responsible for the establishment of the data link over the Internet between the remote DGPS stations and the campus, and the campus-wide DGPS data server application. The DGPS data Internet link is provided by a two-tier client/server distributed application where the server-side is connected to the DGPS station and the client-side is located at the campus. The second unit, the campus DGPS data server application, diffuses DGPS data received at the campus via the Intranet and via a wireless data link. The wireless broadcast is intended for DGPS/GPS portable receivers equipped with an air interface and the Intranet link is provided for DGPS/GPS receivers with just a RS232 DGPS data interface. While the DGPS data Internet link servers receive the DGPS data from the DGPS base stations and forward it to the DGPS data Internet link client, the DGPS data Internet link client outputs the received DGPS data to the campus DGPS data server application. The distributed system is expected to provide adequate support for accurate (sub-metric) outdoor campus navigation tasks. This paper describes in detail the overall distributed application.

The impact of the implementation of the Basel III recommendations on the capital of portuguese banks

This paper analyses the impact of the implementation of the Basel III recommendations, using the standard method, in Portugal. For our study, we used the annual reports of 31st of December of 2012, and found out that out of the fourteen banks that published annual reports, only six satisfied the minimum ratios laid out by BCBS. Till 2012, Portuguese banks used an internal ratings method based on the Basel II recommendations known as notice 6/2010 of the Portuguese central bank, Banco de Portugal. As the implementation of the recommendations of Basel III in the EU via the Credit Review Directive IV is scheduled for 2014 and later years, Portuguese banks may severely contract credit upon implementation, as that is the easiest, fastest and cheapest way for banks to satisfy the minimum ratio requirements as compared to an increase of capital or credit spreads.

Is There Sufficient Training of Health Care Staff on Noise Reduction in Neonatal Intensive Care Units? a Pilot Study From NeoNoise Project

Evidence indicates that exposure to high levels of noise adversely affects human health, and these effects are dependent upon various factors. In hospitals, there are many sources of noise, and high levels exert an impact on patients and staff, increasing both recovery time and stress, respectively. The goal of this pilot study was to develop, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a training program (TP) on noise reduction in a Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) by comparing the noise levels before and after the implementation of the program. A total of 79 health professionals participated in the study. The measurements of sound pressure levels took into account the layout of the unit and location of the main sources of noise. General results indicated that LAeq levels before implementation of the training program were often excessive, ranging from 48.7 ± 2.94 dBA to 71.7 ± 4.74 dBA, exceeding international guidelines. Similarly following implementation of the training program noise levels remained unchanged (54.5 ± 0.49 dBA to 63.9 ± 4.37 dBA), despite a decrease in some locations. There was no significant difference before and after the implementation of TP. However a significant difference was found for Lp, Cpeak, before and after training staff, suggesting greater care by healthcare professionals performing their tasks. Even recognizing that a TP is quite important to change behaviors, this needs to be considered in a broader context to effectively control noise in the NICU.