Aspect-oriented domain analysis

Dissertação de Mestrado em Engenharia Informática

DSAAR: distributed software architecture for autonomous robots

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

Experimenting through the web a linear variable differential transformer

Aiming for teaching/learning support in sciences and engineering areas, the Remote Experimentation concept (an E-learning subset) has grown in last years with the development of several infrastructures that enable doing practical experiments from anywhere and anytime, using a simple PC connected to the Internet. Nevertheless, given its valuable contribution to the teaching/learning process, the development of more infrastructures should continue, in order to make available more solutions able to improve courseware contents and motivate students for learning. The work presented in this paper contributes for that purpose, in the specific area of industrial automation. After a brief introduction to the Remote Experimentation concept, we describe a remote accessible lab infrastructure that enables users to conduct real experiments with an important and widely used transducer in industrial automation, named Linear Variable Differential Transformer.

Complex variable positive definite functions

In this paper we develop an appropriate theory of positive definite functions on the complex plane from first principles and show some consequences of positive definiteness for meromorphic functions.

A CMOS variable width short-pulse generator circuit for UWB RADAR applications

IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, pp. 2713 – 2716, Seattle, EUA

O sistema de controlo interno nas autarquias locais: o caso do Município de Espinho

Dissertação de Mestrado Apresentada ao Instituto de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Auditoria Orientador: Doutor Carlos Mota Coorientadora: Doutora Ana Paula Lopes

Supervisory control of a variable speed wind turbine with doubly fed induction generator

This paper is on an onshore variable speed wind turbine with doubly fed induction generator and under supervisory control. The control architecture is equipped with an event-based supervisor for the supervision level and fuzzy proportional integral or discrete adaptive linear quadratic as proposed controllers for the execution level. The supervisory control assesses the operational state of the variable speed wind turbine and sends the state to the execution level. Controllers operation are in the full load region to extract energy at full power from the wind while ensuring safety conditions required to inject the energy into the electric grid. A comparison between the simulations of the proposed controllers with the inclusion of the supervisory control on the variable speed wind turbine benchmark model is presented to assess advantages of these controls. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Optimal brake specific fuel consumption trajectory for stand-alone variable speed Diesel Gen-Set

Energy efficiency plays an important role to the CO2 emissions reduction, combating climate change and improving the competitiveness of the economy. The problem presented here is related to the use of stand-alone diesel gen-sets and its high specific fuel consumptions when operates at low loads. The variable speed gen-set concept is explained as an energy-saving solution to improve this system efficiency. This paper details how an optimum fuel consumption trajectory based on experimentally Diesel engine power map is obtained.

O relato integrado e a responsabilidade social da empresa no contexto da economia social

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada ao Instituto de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Contabilidade e Finanças, sob orientação de Doutora Ana Maria Alves Bandeira e de Doutora Deolinda Aparício Meira

Multiple sequence alignment correction using constraints

Trabalho apresentado no âmbito do European Master in Computational Logics, como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Computational Logics

Human enterovirus infection in stray dogs. Some aspects of interest to public health

To investigate the possible role of domestic animals as reservoirs of human enteroviruses, we studied 212 stray dogs captured in different areas of the municipality of São Paulo. The captured animals were divided into 19 groups of 10 to 20 dogs each; faeces of 126 of the 212 dogs were processed for enterovirus isolation. The following viruses were isolated from 12 dogs: poliovirus type 1 (2 dogs), poliovirus type 3 (1 dog), echovirus type 7 (8 dogs) and echovirus type 15 (1 dog). Of the 12 infected animals, four had specific homotypic neutralizing antibody titres > 16. All 212 animals were tested for the presence of neutralizing antibodies to human enteroviruses. The frequency of neutralizing antibodies present in titres of > 16 was 10.3%, 3,8% and 4.3% for vaccinal prototypes of polioviruses 1, 2 and 3 respectively; 1,9%, 1.4% and 1.5% for wild prototypes of the same viruses, 11.3% for echovirus 7, and 2.4% for echovirus 15. The proportion of dogs with neutralizing antibodies varied with the virus studied. Some indication of the susceptibility of dogs to infection with human enteroviruses was demonstrated, and the importance of this fact for the Plan for Global Eradication of the Wild Poliovirus is discussed.

Rapid Characterization of S. mansoni Expression Library Clones of Potential Interest

A S. mansoni adult worm cDNA expression library was screened with sera from baboons in a early phase after infection. The clones that were positive with the early infection sera were examined for reactivity with pre-infection sera and heterologous infection sera. In order to discriminate a positive antibody reaction from the reactivity due to residual anti-E. coli antibodies, an unrelated cDNA clone was plated with the positive clone. The unrelated clone provided the negative background and the contrast necessary to discern a positive antibody reaction. In this way, we were able to eliminate selected clones that were positive with the pre-infection sera or heterologous infection sera. This characterization of the expression library clones enabled us to quickly target only clones with the desired pattern of antibody reactivity for sequencing, subcloning, and expressing

Inserção de todos os consumidores no mercado liberalizado de energia elétrica: oportunidades e desafios

O processo de liberalização do setor elétrico em Portugal Continental seguiu uma metodologia idêntica à da maior parte dos países europeus, tendo a abertura de mercado sido efetuada de forma progressiva. Assim, no âmbito do acompanhamento do setor elétrico nacional, reveste-se de particular interesse caracterizar a evolução mais recente do mercado liberalizado, nomeadamente em relação ao preço da energia elétrica. A previsão do preço da energia elétrica é uma questão muito importante para todos os participantes do mercado de energia elétrica. Como se trata de um assunto de grande importância, a previsão do preço da energia elétrica tem sido alvo de diversos estudos e diversas metodologias têm sido propostas. Esta questão é abordada na presente dissertação recorrendo a técnicas de previsão, nomeadamente a métodos baseados no histórico da variável em estudo. As previsões são, segundo alguns especialistas, um dos inputs essenciais que os gestores desenvolvem para ajudar no processo de decisão. Virtualmente cada decisão relevante ao nível das operações depende de uma previsão. Para a realização do modelo de previsão de preço da energia elétrica foram utilizados os modelos Autorregressivos Integrados de Médias Móveis, Autoregressive / Integrated / Moving Average (ARIMA), que geram previsões através da informação contida na própria série temporal. Como se pretende avaliar a estrutura do preço da energia elétrica do mercado de energia, é importante identificar, deste conjunto de variáveis, quais as que estão mais relacionados com o preço. Neste sentido, é realizada em paralelo uma análise exploratória, através da correlação entre o preço da energia elétrica e outras variáveis de estudo, utilizando para esse efeito o coeficiente de correlação de Pearson. O coeficiente de correlação de Pearson é uma medida do grau e da direção de relação linear entre duas variáveis quantitativas. O modelo desenvolvido foi aplicado tendo por base o histórico de preço da eletricidade desde o inicio do mercado liberalizado e de modo a obter as previsões diária, mensal e anual do preço da eletricidade. A metodologia desenvolvida demonstrou ser eficiente na obtenção das soluções e ser suficientemente rápida para prever o valor do preço da energia elétrica em poucos segundos, servindo de apoio à decisão em ambiente de mercado.

Photoelectron spectroscopy of nitrogen containing molecules of biological and industrial interest

A thesis submitted for the degree of Ph. D. in Physics

Detection of Trypanosoma cruzi and Trypanosoma rangeli infection in triatomine vectors by amplification of the histone H2A/SIRE and the sno-RNA-C11 genes

Trypanosoma rangeli is non pathogenic for humans but of important medical and epidemiological interest because it shares vertebrate hosts, insect vectors, reservoirs and geographic areas with T. cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas disease. Therefore, in this work, we set up two PCR reactions, TcH2AF/R and TrFR2, to distinguish T. cruzi from T. rangeli in mixed infections of vectors based on amplification of the histone H2A/SIRE and the small nucleolar RNA Cl1 genes, respectively. Both PCRs were able to appropriately detect all T. cruzi or T. rangeli experimentally infected-triatomines, as well as the S35/S36 PCR which amplifies the variable region of minicircle kDNA of T. cruzi. In mixed infections, whereas T. cruzi DNA was amplified in 100% of samples with TcH2AF/R and S35/S36 PCRs, T. rangeli was detected in 71% with TrF/R2 and in 6% with S35/S36. In a group of Rhodnius colombiensis collected from Coyaima (Colombia), T. cruzi was identified in 100% with both PCRs and T. rangeli in 14% with TrF/R2 and 10% with S35/S36 PCR. These results show that TcH2AF/R and TrF/R2 PCRs which are capable of recognizing all T. cruzi and T. rangeli strains and lineages could be useful for diagnosis as well as for epidemiological field studies of T. cruzi and T. rangeli vector infections.