Autonomic hardware manager: uma arquitetura de hardware autonômico usando a solução de repositório ativo de componentes

This Thesis main objective is to implement a supporting architecture to Autonomic Hardware systems, capable of manage the hardware running in reconfigurable devices. The proposed architecture implements manipulation, generation and communication functionalities, using the Context Oriented Active Repository approach. The solution consists in a Hardware-Software based architecture called "Autonomic Hardware Manager (AHM)" that contains an Active Repository of Hardware Components. Using the repository the architecture will be able to manage the connected systems at run time allowing the implementation of autonomic features such as self-management, self-optimization, self-description and self-configuration. The proposed architecture also contains a meta-model that allows the representation of the Operating Context for hardware systems. This meta-model will be used as basis to the context sensing modules, that are needed in the Active Repository architecture. In order to demonstrate the proposed architecture functionalities, experiments were proposed and implemented in order to proof the Thesis hypothesis and achieved objectives. Three experiments were planned and implemented: the Hardware Reconfigurable Filter, that consists of an application that implements Digital Filters using reconfigurable hardware; the Autonomic Image Segmentation Filter, that shows the project and implementation of an image processing autonomic application; finally, the Autonomic Autopilot application that consist of an auto pilot to unmanned aerial vehicles. In this work, the applications architectures were organized in modules, according their functionalities. Some modules were implemented using HDL and synthesized in hardware. Other modules were implemented kept in software. After that, applications were integrated to the AHM to allow their adaptation to different Operating Context, making them autonomic.

Qualidade dos serviços hoteleiros: percepções dos turistas de negócios de Teresina-PI

Business tourism is one of tourist segments with different market characteristics in relation to others segmentations, such as low seasonality, there is no requirement of natural attractions, it serves as destination projection and it generates profitable larger numbers. Due to the context around business travels, the hotel so many times has a fundamental whole among the elements of the production chain in this segmentation. Business tourism in Teresina is the primary segmentation of the capital, since it represents almost 70% of hotel demand; hence this research has as objective to evaluate through the perceptions of business travelers, the level of quality services of hotels of Teresina. The research is exploratory and descriptive, of functionalist character. This study is characterized by qualitative and quantitative research, supported by a basis of methodological pluralism. For primary data collection was performed applying a suitable research instrument of SERVPERF model (Service Performance). The universe of this study were Teresina's accommodations, restricted to only those that fit in hotel category and it was inside metropolitan area of Teresina. The study subjects were business travelers who were hosted in these hotels. For the analysis, it was considered certain factors: descriptive analysis, factor analysis, correlation matrix analysis of the variables; It was still compiling a graphic of lexicons obtained in the survey about respondent's the notion of quality of vision in the hotel service; Finally, qualitative analysis was based on the theories of marketing, targeting and quality of tourism services applied. The results show that the Teresina hotel service is on a regular average, especially for Reliability and Safety dimensions were highlighted. Whereas, the factor analysis showed the emergence of two factors to explain "Empathy" dimension, one of this is about the organization and the other one is about consumer. And by Lexicometria was possible to observe the importance to the customer of other variables such as: personal aspects, price and location for this tour segmentation.

LCD-OpenPACS: sistema integrado de telerradiologia com auxílio ao diagnóstico de nódulos pulmonares em exames de tomografia computadorizada

Lung cancer is one of the most common types of cancer and has the highest mortality rate. Patient survival is highly correlated with early detection. Computed Tomography technology services the early detection of lung cancer tremendously by offering aminimally invasive medical diagnostic tool. However, the large amount of data per examination makes the interpretation difficult. This leads to omission of nodules by human radiologist. This thesis presents a development of a computer-aided diagnosis system (CADe) tool for the detection of lung nodules in Computed Tomography study. The system, called LCD-OpenPACS (Lung Cancer Detection - OpenPACS) should be integrated into the OpenPACS system and have all the requirements for use in the workflow of health facilities belonging to the SUS (Brazilian health system). The LCD-OpenPACS made use of image processing techniques (Region Growing and Watershed), feature extraction (Histogram of Gradient Oriented), dimensionality reduction (Principal Component Analysis) and classifier (Support Vector Machine). System was tested on 220 cases, totaling 296 pulmonary nodules, with sensitivity of 94.4% and 7.04 false positives per case. The total time for processing was approximately 10 minutes per case. The system has detected pulmonary nodules (solitary, juxtavascular, ground-glass opacity and juxtapleural) between 3 mm and 30 mm.

Diagnóstico e tratamento do TDA/H: investigação dos critérios utilizados por diferentes categorias profissionais da cidade de Natal-RN

TDA/H is usually considered among the most frequent psychological malfunctions in both childhood and adolescence. It covers a complex combination of neurocognitive deficits leading to developmental troubles linked to attention failure, hyperactivity and impulsivity. On the other hand, diagnosis of TDA/H is frequently a hard task, since sociocultural aspects concerning the evaluation of symptoms lead to some etiologic vagueness. Additionally, the large extent of evaluation tools, together with the diversity of therapeutic approaches referred by specialized literature justify the interest of investigating the diverse ways of diagnosing and treating TDA/H by medical doctors, psychologists and psycho-pedagogues developing professional activities in Natal-RN (Brazil) in the assistance of children and teenagers with TDA/H diagnosis hypothesis. A sample of thirty-four professionals participated in this study in a convenience-basis, and submitted to a semi-directed interview. Information from this procedure was analyzed, categorized and submitted to a multidimensional descriptive analysis (cluster analysis procedure), allowing to verify the partition of the sample in two groups: Group 1, basically composed by medical professionals, and Group 2, composed by psychologists and psycho-pedagogues. The categorized variable “Number of sessions” – average time used for arriving to a diagnosis – was the partition-variable showing the larger amount of statistical contribution for the partition, followed by the variables “Professional formation” and “Use of diagnostic tools”. Variables such “Comorbidity”, “TDA/H Definition” and Modalities of Intervention” also showed contribution to the partition obtained, even though their lesser amount of statistical contribution. Despite some similarity between these two groups, data allowed to demonstrate specific association between academic source-formation of the professional concerned and diagnosis and intervention modalities shown by these professionals when dealing with TDA/H. These data confirm relevant heterogeneity in dealing with TDA/H due to professional formation of professionals involved in diagnosis and treatment tasks.

Diagnóstico e tratamento do TDA/H: investigação dos critérios utilizados por diferentes categorias profissionais da cidade de Natal-RN

TDA/H is usually considered among the most frequent psychological malfunctions in both childhood and adolescence. It covers a complex combination of neurocognitive deficits leading to developmental troubles linked to attention failure, hyperactivity and impulsivity. On the other hand, diagnosis of TDA/H is frequently a hard task, since sociocultural aspects concerning the evaluation of symptoms lead to some etiologic vagueness. Additionally, the large extent of evaluation tools, together with the diversity of therapeutic approaches referred by specialized literature justify the interest of investigating the diverse ways of diagnosing and treating TDA/H by medical doctors, psychologists and psycho-pedagogues developing professional activities in Natal-RN (Brazil) in the assistance of children and teenagers with TDA/H diagnosis hypothesis. A sample of thirty-four professionals participated in this study in a convenience-basis, and submitted to a semi-directed interview. Information from this procedure was analyzed, categorized and submitted to a multidimensional descriptive analysis (cluster analysis procedure), allowing to verify the partition of the sample in two groups: Group 1, basically composed by medical professionals, and Group 2, composed by psychologists and psycho-pedagogues. The categorized variable “Number of sessions” – average time used for arriving to a diagnosis – was the partition-variable showing the larger amount of statistical contribution for the partition, followed by the variables “Professional formation” and “Use of diagnostic tools”. Variables such “Comorbidity”, “TDA/H Definition” and Modalities of Intervention” also showed contribution to the partition obtained, even though their lesser amount of statistical contribution. Despite some similarity between these two groups, data allowed to demonstrate specific association between academic source-formation of the professional concerned and diagnosis and intervention modalities shown by these professionals when dealing with TDA/H. These data confirm relevant heterogeneity in dealing with TDA/H due to professional formation of professionals involved in diagnosis and treatment tasks.

Sistema inteligente para o processamento de imagens digitais intrabucais oclusais

Several are the areas in which digital images are used in solving day-to-day problems. In medicine the use of computer systems have improved the diagnosis and medical interpretations. In dentistry it’s not different, increasingly procedures assisted by computers have support dentists in their tasks. Set in this context, an area of dentistry known as public oral health is responsible for diagnosis and oral health treatment of a population. To this end, oral visual inspections are held in order to obtain oral health status information of a given population. From this collection of information, also known as epidemiological survey, the dentist can plan and evaluate taken actions for the different problems identified. This procedure has limiting factors, such as a limited number of qualified professionals to perform these tasks, different diagnoses interpretations among other factors. Given this context came the ideia of using intelligent systems techniques in supporting carrying out these tasks. Thus, it was proposed in this paper the development of an intelligent system able to segment, count and classify teeth from occlusal intraoral digital photographic images. The proposed system makes combined use of machine learning techniques and digital image processing. We first carried out a color-based segmentation on regions of interest, teeth and non teeth, in the images through the use of Support Vector Machine. After identifying these regions were used techniques based on morphological operators such as erosion and transformed watershed for counting and detecting the boundaries of the teeth, respectively. With the border detection of teeth was possible to calculate the Fourier descriptors for their shape and the position descriptors. Then the teeth were classified according to their types through the use of the SVM from the method one-against-all used in multiclass problem. The multiclass classification problem has been approached in two different ways. In the first approach we have considered three class types: molar, premolar and non teeth, while the second approach were considered five class types: molar, premolar, canine, incisor and non teeth. The system presented a satisfactory performance in the segmenting, counting and classification of teeth present in the images.

Sistema inteligente para o processamento de imagens digitais intrabucais oclusais

Several are the areas in which digital images are used in solving day-to-day problems. In medicine the use of computer systems have improved the diagnosis and medical interpretations. In dentistry it’s not different, increasingly procedures assisted by computers have support dentists in their tasks. Set in this context, an area of dentistry known as public oral health is responsible for diagnosis and oral health treatment of a population. To this end, oral visual inspections are held in order to obtain oral health status information of a given population. From this collection of information, also known as epidemiological survey, the dentist can plan and evaluate taken actions for the different problems identified. This procedure has limiting factors, such as a limited number of qualified professionals to perform these tasks, different diagnoses interpretations among other factors. Given this context came the ideia of using intelligent systems techniques in supporting carrying out these tasks. Thus, it was proposed in this paper the development of an intelligent system able to segment, count and classify teeth from occlusal intraoral digital photographic images. The proposed system makes combined use of machine learning techniques and digital image processing. We first carried out a color-based segmentation on regions of interest, teeth and non teeth, in the images through the use of Support Vector Machine. After identifying these regions were used techniques based on morphological operators such as erosion and transformed watershed for counting and detecting the boundaries of the teeth, respectively. With the border detection of teeth was possible to calculate the Fourier descriptors for their shape and the position descriptors. Then the teeth were classified according to their types through the use of the SVM from the method one-against-all used in multiclass problem. The multiclass classification problem has been approached in two different ways. In the first approach we have considered three class types: molar, premolar and non teeth, while the second approach were considered five class types: molar, premolar, canine, incisor and non teeth. The system presented a satisfactory performance in the segmenting, counting and classification of teeth present in the images.

Capacitação tecnológica em usina do setor sucroalcooleiro

PEDRO, Edilson da Silva; ASSUMPÇAO, Maria Rita Pontes. Capacitação tecnológica em usina do setor sucroalcooleiro. In: ENCONTRO NACIONAL DE ENGENHARIA DE PRODUÇAO, 23., Ouro Preto,MG, 2003. Anais...Ouro Preto, MG: UFOP, 2003.

Gestão do marketing de relacionamento: um estudo em empresas hoteleiras de Natal - RN

The present study it analyzes the Management of the Marketing of strategy Relationship as distinguishing for the host s companies of the city of Natal - RN. To carry through this analysis interviews with managers had been carried through, as well as the direct comment of processes, documents, actions and strategies developed for the hotels, with intention to know the level of perception and valuation of the relationship with customers, to verify resources and technologies used in the Management of the Relationship Marketing, identification, segmentation and differentiation of customers, personalization of products and services, and results of the emphasis in the relationship with customers for the host s companies. The research can be classified as exploratory - descriptive, and its universe is limited to the city of Natal, having enclosed hotels that have carried through tourist activity in 2005 and 2006. Still on the criteria of election of the sample, the study it investigated host s companies who if fit in the category superior luxury, or either, five stars, pertaining the national nets and international. How much to the treatment and analysis of the data the was made to leave of the theoretical support of the authors who work the thematic one and of the analysis of the interviews with managers, documents and processes observed for the researcher in the studied hotels. The research sample that the interviewed ones understand the importance to work the Management of the Marketing of Relationship in the host s companies me intention to get sustainable competitive advantage. One still evidenced that the searched hotels make use of strategies and instruments of Management of the Marketing of Relationship, however without an ample theoretical knowledge and yes only as base in the experience of the managers and spread processes already, generating one moment competitive advantage and not relationships of long duration