NAVPRO 3.0: tutorial de instalação e utilização.

Este documento apresenta os procedimentos para instalação e utilização do sistema NAVPRO 3.0, desenvolvido para o processamento automático e geração de produtos de imagens do sensor Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) a bordo dos satélites da National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). O sistema NAVPRO foi criado pela Embrapa Informática Agropecuária em parceria com a Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), que contou com o repasse do pacote computacional NAV (NAVigation), desenvolvido pelo Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR), da Universidade do Colorado, Boulder, EUA. O diferencial do sistema é seu método de georreferenciamento automático e preciso, capaz de gerar imagens com deslocamentos máximos de 1 pixel, valor aceito em aplicações envolvendo dados de baixa resolução espacial.

Shells do Unix: tutorial.

2009

Tutorial SGP: Sistemas Gestor de Publicações da Embrapa Informática Agropecuária. Versão 2.0

O Sistema Gestor de Publicações - SGP é uma ferramenta que tem como objetivo principal registrar todos os passos do processo das publicações internas da Embrapa Informática Agropecuária. Baseado nos softwares de submissão mais utilizados pela comunidade científica internacional, contempla as funções de submissão de documentos, acompanhamento, emissão de relatórios e pareceres, além do acompanhamento, pelo autor, do andamento do trabalho de seu trabalho. Todas suas funções serão detalhadas, porém separadas em processos mais complexos do menu principal: Trabalhos, Acompanhamento e Administração. Este manual, apesar de ser utilizado por vários usuários - autor, revisor, membros do CP, Administrador do sistema, Bibliotecário e Revisor de Português, terá sua linguagem direcionado para a(o) Secretária(o) e Presidente do Comitê de Publicações. Que, pela natureza de suas funções, serão a interface principal entre todos usuários e a real utilização do sistema.

Tutorial TaxTools.

A ferramenta TaxTools foi desenvolvida pelo Laboratório de Inteligência Computacional (Labic) do Instituto de Ciência Matemática e de Computação (ICMC) da Universidade de São Paulo (USP), campus de São Carlos, SP, com o objetivo de auxiliar no processo de mineração de textos. Atualmente, ela tem sido mantida e evoluída pelo Laboratório de Inteligência Computacional (LabIC) da Embrapa Informática Agropecuária. Esse tutorial abrange apenas as opções disponíveis na TaxTools, que completam o processo de obtenção de uma taxonomia de tópicos (MOURA et al., 2008); como clusterização, cálculos de medidas intercluster e de joinability, métodos de podas, métodos de visualização de resultados e algumas opções auxiliares.

Tutorial do comando Awk.

Mesmo que o Windows ainda seja, disparado, o sistema operacional mais utilizado e conhecido pelas pessoas no mundo todo, o Linux vem se difundindo cada vez mais em diversos nichos da população, sejam profissionais de informática ou não. Uma das grandes vantagens do Linux sobre seu concorrente é a diversidade de comandos que seu terminal shell (interface de linha de comando) possui, o que se tornou uma característica forte deste sistema operacional. O awk é um desses comandos que faz o terminal shell do Linux ser a marca forte desse sistema. É um comando tão importante e com tantas funcionalidades que muitos o confundem com uma linguagem de programação. O presente trabalho procura fazer uma pequena introdução sobre as principais possibilidades de utilização do awk, desde a construção de simples linhas de comando até a programação de pequenos scripts para execução no shell do Linux.

Checklists for grading object-oriented CS1 programs: concepts and misconceptions

Sanders, K. and Thomas, L. 2007. Checklists for grading object-oriented CS1 programs: concepts and misconceptions. In Proceedings of the 12th Annual SIGCSE Conference on innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (Dundee, Scotland, June 25 - 27, 2007). ITiCSE '07. ACM, New York, NY, 166-170

DSpace Basic Tutorial

PDF of powerpoint slides presented at DSUG 2007 Roma

Patient Retention in Antiretroviral Therapy Programs in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review

Paper published in PLoS Medicine in 2007.

OS Support for Portable Bulk Synchronous Parallel Programs

Predictability -- the ability to foretell that an implementation will not violate a set of specified reliability and timeliness requirements -- is a crucial, highly desirable property of responsive embedded systems. This paper overviews a development methodology for responsive systems, which enhances predictability by eliminating potential hazards resulting from physically-unsound specifications. The backbone of our methodology is the Time-constrained Reactive Automaton (TRA) formalism, which adopts a fundamental notion of space and time that restricts expressiveness in a way that allows the specification of only reactive, spontaneous, and causal computation. Using the TRA model, unrealistic systems – possessing properties such as clairvoyance, caprice, infinite capacity, or perfect timing -- cannot even be specified. We argue that this "ounce of prevention" at the specification level is likely to spare a lot of time and energy in the development cycle of responsive systems -- not to mention the elimination of potential hazards that would have gone, otherwise, unnoticed. The TRA model is presented to system developers through the Cleopatra programming language. Cleopatra features a C-like imperative syntax for the description of computation, which makes it easier to incorporate in applications already using C. It is event-driven, and thus appropriate for embedded process control applications. It is object-oriented and compositional, thus advocating modularity and reusability. Cleopatra is semantically sound; its objects can be transformed, mechanically and unambiguously, into formal TRA automata for verification purposes, which can be pursued using model-checking or theorem proving techniques. Since 1989, an ancestor of Cleopatra has been in use as a specification and simulation language for embedded time-critical robotic processes.

Hidden Type Variables and Conditional Extension for More Expressive Generic Programs

Generic object-oriented programming languages combine parametric polymorphism and nominal subtype polymorphism, thereby providing better data abstraction, greater code reuse, and fewer run-time errors. However, most generic object-oriented languages provide a straightforward combination of the two kinds of polymorphism, which prevents the expression of advanced type relationships. Furthermore, most generic object-oriented languages have a type-erasure semantics: instantiations of type parameters are not available at run time, and thus may not be used by type-dependent operations. This dissertation shows that two features, which allow the expression of many advanced type relationships, can be added to a generic object-oriented programming language without type erasure: 1. type variables that are not parameters of the class that declares them, and 2. extension that is dependent on the satisfiability of one or more constraints. We refer to the first feature as hidden type variables and the second feature as conditional extension. Hidden type variables allow: covariance and contravariance without variance annotations or special type arguments such as wildcards; a single type to extend, and inherit methods from, infinitely many instantiations of another type; a limited capacity to augment the set of superclasses after that class is defined; and the omission of redundant type arguments. Conditional extension allows the properties of a collection type to be dependent on the properties of its element type. This dissertation describes the semantics and implementation of hidden type variables and conditional extension. A sound type system is presented. In addition, a sound and terminating type checking algorithm is presented. Although designed for the Fortress programming language, hidden type variables and conditional extension can be incorporated into other generic object-oriented languages. Many of the same problems would arise, and solutions analogous to those we present would apply.

Untangling unstructured programs

A method is presented for converting unstructured program schemas to strictly equivalent structured form. The predicates of the original schema are left intact with structuring being achieved by the duplication of he original decision vertices without the introduction of compound predicate expressions, or where possible by function duplication alone. It is shown that structured schemas must have at least as many decision vertices as the original unstructured schema, and must have more when the original schema contains branches out of decision constructs. The structuring method allows the complete avoidance of function duplication, but only at the expense of decision vertex duplication. It is shown that structured schemas have greater space-time requirements in general than their equivalent optimal unstructured counterparts and at best have the same requirements.

Are State legislatures responding to public opinion when allocating funds for tobacco control programs?

This study explored the factors associated with state-level allocations to tobacco-control programs. The primary research question was whether public sentiment regarding tobacco control was a significant factor in the states' 2001 budget decisions. In addition to public opinion, several additional political and economic measures were considered. Significant associations were found between our outcome, state-level tobacco-control funding per capita, and key variables of interest including public opinion, amount of tobacco settlement received, the party affiliation of the governor, the state's smoking rate, excise tax revenue received, and whether the state was a major producer of tobacco. The findings from this study supported our hypothesis that states with citizens who favor more restrictive indoor air policies allocate more to tobacco control. Effective public education to change public opinion and the cultural norms surrounding smoking may affect political decisions and, in turn, increase funding for crucial public health programs.

Information relaxations and duality in stochastic dynamic programs

We describe a general technique for determining upper bounds on maximal values (or lower bounds on minimal costs) in stochastic dynamic programs. In this approach, we relax the nonanticipativity constraints that require decisions to depend only on the information available at the time a decision is made and impose a "penalty" that punishes violations of nonanticipativity. In applications, the hope is that this relaxed version of the problem will be simpler to solve than the original dynamic program. The upper bounds provided by this dual approach complement lower bounds on values that may be found by simulating with heuristic policies. We describe the theory underlying this dual approach and establish weak duality, strong duality, and complementary slackness results that are analogous to the duality results of linear programming. We also study properties of good penalties. Finally, we demonstrate the use of this dual approach in an adaptive inventory control problem with an unknown and changing demand distribution and in valuing options with stochastic volatilities and interest rates. These are complex problems of significant practical interest that are quite difficult to solve to optimality. In these examples, our dual approach requires relatively little additional computation and leads to tight bounds on the optimal values. © 2010 INFORMS.