Leveraging facebook’s open graph to develop an environmental persuasive application

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática

Preliminary study of the acoustic behavior concerning an innovative prototype for indoor modular partitioning

This paper presents a preliminary acoustic study concerning the development of the first prototype of a patented removable module for interior partitioning. It is a prefabricated, vertical element for division of interior spaces that does not require the use of gutters or technical support. A set of such modules, linearly disposed, will create a division, allowing the personalization of any indoor area, including open office spaces, rooms, among others. The main characteristic that distinguishes this element from the existing solutions available on the market is that its mobility relies exclusively on a set of integrated bearings at the base of each module. Through an incorporated elevation system, the user can lower the module, move it to the desired position and re-elevate it until pressed against the ledge of the ceiling, making it stable. In this sense, and taking into account its acoustic behavior, several tests were made in the LNEC acoustics lab. Airborne sound insulation tests for different typologies of the prototype were conducted, according to the applicable standards EN ISO 354:2003, EN ISO 717-1:2013 and EN ISO 10140-2:2010. Some important conclusions and analysis of the prototype viability were extracted.

Graph usage in financial reports: Evidence from Portuguese listed companies

When assessing investment options, investors focus on the graphs of annual reports, despite lack of auditing. If poorly constructed, graphs distort perceptions and lead to inaccurate decisions. This study examines graph usage in all the companies listed on Euronext Lisbon in 2013. The findings suggest that graphs are common in the annual reports of Portuguese companies and that, while there is no evidence of Selectivity Distortion, both Measurement and Orientation Distortions are pervasive. The study recommends the auditing of financial graphs, and urges preparers and users of annual reports to be wary of the possibility of graph distortion.

Graph usage in annual reports, evidence from Norwegian listed companies

As investors and other users of annual reports often focus their attention on graphs, it is important that they portray accurate and reliable information. However, previous studies show that graphs often distort information and mislead users. This study analyses graph usage in annual reports from the 52 most traded Norwegian companies. The findings suggest that Norwegian companies commonly use graphs, and that the graph distortions, presentational enhancement and measurement distortion, are present. No evidence of selectivity was found. This study recommends development of guidelines for graphical disclosure, and advises preparers and users of annual reports to be aware of misleading graphs.

Specification of software architecture reconfiguration

In the past years, Software Architecture has attracted increased attention by academia and industry as the unifying concept to structure the design of complex systems. One particular research area deals with the possibility of reconfiguring architectures to adapt the systems they describe to new requirements. Reconfiguration amounts to adding and removing components and connections, and may have to occur without stopping the execution of the system being reconfigured. This work contributes to the formal description of such a process. Taking as a premise that a single formalism hardly ever satisfies all requirements in every situation, we present three approaches, each one with its own assumptions about the systems it can be applied to and with different advantages and disadvantages. Each approach is based on work of other researchers and has the aesthetic concern of changing as little as possible the original formalism, keeping its spirit. The first approach shows how a given reconfiguration can be specified in the same manner as the system it is applied to and in a way to be efficiently executed. The second approach explores the Chemical Abstract Machine, a formalism for rewriting multisets of terms, to describe architectures, computations, and reconfigurations in a uniform way. The last approach uses a UNITY-like parallel programming design language to describe computations, represents architectures by diagrams in the sense of Category Theory, and specifies reconfigurations by graph transformation rules.