Life-cycle performance of structures: combining expert judgment and results of inspection

Life-Cycle Civil Engineering – Biondini & Frangopol

A plugin for spatial and thematic comparison in the cadastral domain.

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.

Quidgest’s internationalization plan to Norway

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Repairs of databases with null values

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática

Identificação modal e actualização de modelos de elementos finitos

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Civil - Perfil Estruturas

Share the fame or share the blame? The reputational implications of partnerships

We use an adverse selection model to study the dynamics of firms' reputations when firms implement joint projects. We show that in contrast with projects implemented by a single firm, in the case of joint projects a firm's reputation does not necessarily increase following a success and does not necessarily decrease following a failure. We also study how reputation considerations affect firms ' decisions to participate in joint projects. We show that a high quality partner may not be preferable to a low quality partner, and that a high reputation partner is not necessarily preferable to a low reputation partner.

Modelação do risco de incêndio florestal à escala municipal com recurso a dados de detecção remota

Neste projecto é testada uma metodologia para actualização de mapas de ocupação do solo já existentes, derivados de fotografia aérea, usando uma imagem satélite para posterior modelação com vista à obtenção da cartografia do risco de incêndio actualizada. Os diferentes passos metodológicos na fase da actualização dos mapas de ocupação de solo são: Classificação digital das novas ocupações, Produção do mapa de alterações, Integração de informação auxiliar, Actualização da Cartografia Temática. Para a produção do mapa de alterações a detecção de alterações foi efectuada através de expressões de Álgebra de Mapas. A classificação digital foi realizada com um classificador assistido - Classificador da Máxima Verosimilhança. A integração de informação auxiliar serviu para melhorar os resultados da classificação digital, nomeadamente em termos das áreas ardidas permitindo uma resolução temática mais detalhada. A actualização resultou da sobreposição do mapa das áreas alteradas classificadas com o mapa desactualizado. Como produto obteve-se a Carta de Alterações da Ocupação do Solo com Potencial Influência no Risco de Incêndio actualizada para 2008, base para a fase da Modelação do Risco. A metodologia foi testada no concelho de Viseu, Centro de Portugal. A Carta de Uso e Ocupação do Solo de Portugal Continental para 2007 (COS2007) foi utilizada como carta de referência. A nova carta actualizada para 2008, no concelho de Viseu, apresenta 103 classes temáticas, 1ha de unidade mínima e 90% de precisão global. A modelação do risco de incêndio geralmente é feita através de índices que variam, de forma geral, numa escala qualitativa, tendo como fim possibilitar a definição de acções de planeamento e ordenamento florestal no âmbito da defesa da floresta contra incêndios. Desta forma, as cartas de risco são indicadas para acções de prevenção, devendo ser utilizadas em conjunto com a carta da perigosidade que juntas podem ser utilizadas em acções de planeamento, em acções de combate e supressão. A metodologia testada, neste projecto, para elaboração de cartografia de risco foi, a proposta por Verde (2008) e adoptada pela AFN (2012). Os resultados apresentados vão precisamente ao encontro do que diz respeito no Guia Técnico para Plano Municipal de Defesa da Floresta Contra Incêndios, "O mapa de Risco combina as componentes do mapa de perigosidade com as componentes do dano potencial (vulnerabilidade e valor) para indicar qual o potencial de perda face ao incêndio florestal".

Machine ethics via logic programming

Machine ethics is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry that emerges from the need of imbuing autonomous agents with the capacity of moral decision-making. While some approaches provide implementations in Logic Programming (LP) systems, they have not exploited LP-based reasoning features that appear essential for moral reasoning. This PhD thesis aims at investigating further the appropriateness of LP, notably a combination of LP-based reasoning features, including techniques available in LP systems, to machine ethics. Moral facets, as studied in moral philosophy and psychology, that are amenable to computational modeling are identified, and mapped to appropriate LP concepts for representing and reasoning about them. The main contributions of the thesis are twofold. First, novel approaches are proposed for employing tabling in contextual abduction and updating – individually and combined – plus a LP approach of counterfactual reasoning; the latter being implemented on top of the aforementioned combined abduction and updating technique with tabling. They are all important to model various issues of the aforementioned moral facets. Second, a variety of LP-based reasoning features are applied to model the identified moral facets, through moral examples taken off-the-shelf from the morality literature. These applications include: (1) Modeling moral permissibility according to the Doctrines of Double Effect (DDE) and Triple Effect (DTE), demonstrating deontological and utilitarian judgments via integrity constraints (in abduction) and preferences over abductive scenarios; (2) Modeling moral reasoning under uncertainty of actions, via abduction and probabilistic LP; (3) Modeling moral updating (that allows other – possibly overriding – moral rules to be adopted by an agent, on top of those it currently follows) via the integration of tabling in contextual abduction and updating; and (4) Modeling moral permissibility and its justification via counterfactuals, where counterfactuals are used for formulating DDE.

O abuso de informação privilegiada (insider trading)

In the stock market, information takes on special relevance, due to the market’s permanent updating and the great fluidity of information existent therein. Just as in any other negotiations, the party with the better information has a bargaining advantage, as it is able to make more advantageous business decisions. However, unlike most other markets, the proper functioning of the stock market is greatly dependent on investors’ trust in the market itself. As such, if there are investors who, due to any condition they possess or office they hold, have access to relevant information which is not accessible to the general public, distrust is bred within the market and, consequently, investment is lessened. Thus, there is a need to prevent those who hold privileged information from using it in abusive ways. In Portugal, abuse of privileged information is set out and punished criminally in Article 378. of the Portuguese Securities Code (‘Código dos Valores Mobiliários’). In this dissertation, I have set out, firstly, to analyze the inherent conditions for there to be a crime of abuse of privileged information; secondly, to analyze two well-known cases, which took place and were decided in other jurisdictions, and attempt to understand how these cases would fall under Article 378. of the Portuguese Securities Code. Whereas the first case, Chiarella v. United States, was scrutinize under Article 378 of the Portuguese Securities Code, in the second, Lafonta v. AMF, the conclusion arrived at was that the crime taken place was different. This analysis allowed, on one hand, the application to a particular case of prerequisites and concepts which were explained, at a first approach, from a more theoretical perspective; on the other hand, it also allowed the further development of specific aspects of the regime, namely the difference between an insider and a tipee, as well as to more clearly set out the limits to the precise character of the information at hand.