UNCERTAINTY AND DECISION-MAKING IN THE HUMAN BRAIN

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D degree in Biology, Neuroscience

Application of FTA and the perceived impact on employment policies: the case of nanotechnology in the Netherlands, Germany and Portugal

In this paper we will analyse the usage of FTA to support decision-making in employment policy relate to specific occupational groups. The examples can be better understood if one focus on the nanotechnology and its implications on some sectors (clothing, bio-medical engineering, micro-electronics). When this is done will be clear which occupations will engage a restructuring process (engineers, specialised technicians, qualified machine operators, quality controllers) and what policies are being designed to cope with it. This means toward which extend social partners have driven specific policies on these issues (focused in their sectors).

Electron and photon induced processes in SF5CF3

The photo-absorption cross section of trifluoromethyl sulphur pentafluoride, SF5CF3 has been measured using synchrotron radiation in the range of 4–11 eV (310 nm > l > 110 nm) and comparison made with electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). The measured VUV cross sections are used to derive the photolysis rate of SF5CF3 in the terrestrial atmosphere. It is estimated that the lifetime for this molecule is the order of a 1000 years and the calculated global warming potential (GWP) is found to be between 17000 and 18100, making it one of the most potent global warming gases in the terrestrial atmosphere.

An information model for lean, agile, resilient and green supply chain management

Dissertação para a obtenção de Grau de Mestre em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial

Health care needs and resources distribution: How to allocate financial resources in primary care trust?

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

Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning in Behavior and the Brain

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D degree in Biology, Neuroscience

Landscape composition and climatic parameters significant in the spread of an invasive species (Pine wood Nematode)

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia do Ambiente

Knowledge management framework based on brain models and human physiology

The life of humans and most living beings depend on sensation and perception for the best assessment of the surrounding world. Sensorial organs acquire a variety of stimuli that are interpreted and integrated in our brain for immediate use or stored in memory for later recall. Among the reasoning aspects, a person has to decide what to do with available information. Emotions are classifiers of collected information, assigning a personal meaning to objects, events and individuals, making part of our own identity. Emotions play a decisive role in cognitive processes as reasoning, decision and memory by assigning relevance to collected information. The access to pervasive computing devices, empowered by the ability to sense and perceive the world, provides new forms of acquiring and integrating information. But prior to data assessment on its usefulness, systems must capture and ensure that data is properly managed for diverse possible goals. Portable and wearable devices are now able to gather and store information, from the environment and from our body, using cloud based services and Internet connections. Systems limitations in handling sensorial data, compared with our sensorial capabilities constitute an identified problem. Another problem is the lack of interoperability between humans and devices, as they do not properly understand human’s emotional states and human needs. Addressing those problems is a motivation for the present research work. The mission hereby assumed is to include sensorial and physiological data into a Framework that will be able to manage collected data towards human cognitive functions, supported by a new data model. By learning from selected human functional and behavioural models and reasoning over collected data, the Framework aims at providing evaluation on a person’s emotional state, for empowering human centric applications, along with the capability of storing episodic information on a person’s life with physiologic indicators on emotional states to be used by new generation applications.

Importance of decision-making in a purchasing context – DPS Case Study

This work project has the objective of exploring the importance of making good decisions on supplier selection, so that the purchasing department can contribute to the success of a company. For that it is presented a short bibliography review of the latest insights that were found relevant, on the subjects of purchasing, technology, outsourcing, supplier selection and decision-making techniques. For a better understating on how to deal with a decision-making situation, a case study is also presented: Digital Printing Solutions (DPS) is a Portuguese company that provides complete and integrated printing solutions and has been planning to contract a software supplier. DPS has no formal supplier-selection model and it has to choose between 2 suppliers. The case study was solved using the M-MACBETH software. I have found that complex decisions-making situations can be easily overcome by using the M-MACBETH decision model. Moreover, the usage of a model, instead of decision that follows no formal procedure, provides the decision maker with insights that can be useful to negotiate with the supplier.

Integrating early aspects with goal-oriented requirements engineering

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática

Type System for the ComponentJ Programming Language

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática.

Intelligent decision support systems for collaboration in industrial plants

Dissertação apresentada para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Sistemas de Informação Industriais, Engenharia Electrotécnica, pela Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia

Technology governance in radiology: the example of magnetic resonance imaging

Based on the report for the unit “Project III” of the PhD programme on Technology Assessment in 2011. The unit was supervised by Prof. António B. Moniz (FCT-UNL).

Evaluating Dynamic Signage for Emergency Evacuation using an Immersive Video Environment

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

Semantic web approach for dealing with administrative boundary revisions: a case study of Dhaka City

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