Discovery and efficient reuse of technology pictures using Wikimedia infrastructures. A proposal

Multimedia objects, especially images and figures, are essential for the visualization and interpretation of research findings. The distribution and reuse of these scientific objects is significantly improved under open access conditions, for instance in Wikipedia articles, in research literature, as well as in education and knowledge dissemination, where licensing of images often represents a serious barrier. Whereas scientific publications are retrievable through library portals or other online search services due to standardized indices there is no targeted retrieval and access to the accompanying images and figures yet. Consequently there is a great demand to develop standardized indexing methods for these multimedia open access objects in order to improve the accessibility to this material. With our proposal, we hope to serve a broad audience which looks up a scientific or technical term in a web search portal first. Until now, this audience has little chance to find an openly accessible and reusable image narrowly matching their search term on first try - frustratingly so, even if there is in fact such an image included in some open access article.

Investigating wetting characteristics on microstructured surfaces for superhydrophobicity and metal microcasting

The engineering of liquid behavior on surfaces is important for infrastructure, transportation, manufacturing, and sensing. Surfaces can be rendered superhydrophobic by microstructuring, and superhydrophobic devices could lead to practical corrosion inhibition, self-cleaning, fluid flow control, and surface drag reduction. To more fully understand how liquid interacts with microstructured surfaces, this dissertation introduces a direct method for determining droplet solid-liquid-vapor interfacial geometry on microstructured surfaces. The technique performs metrology on molten metal droplets deposited onto microstructured surfaces and then frozen. Unlike other techniques, this visualization technique can be used on large areas of curved and opaque microstructured surfaces to determine contact line. This dissertation also presents measurements and models for how curvature and flexing of microstructured polymers affects hydrophobicity. Increasing curvature of microstructured surfaces leads to decreased slide angle for liquid droplets suspended on the surface asperities. For a surface with regularly spaced asperities, as curvature becomes more positive, droplets suspended on the tops of asperities are suspended on fewer asperities. Curvature affects superhydrophobicity because microscopic curvature changes solid-liquid interaction, pitch is altered, and curvature changes the shape of the three phase contact line. This dissertation presents a model of droplet interactions with curved microstructured surfaces that can be used to design microstructure geometries that maintain the suspension of a droplet when curved surfaces are covered with microstructured polymers. Controlling droplet dynamics could improve microfluidic devices and the shedding of liquids from expensive equipment, preventing corrosion and detrimental performance. This dissertation demonstrates redirection of dynamic droplet spray with anisotropic microstructures. Superhydrophobic microstructured surfaces can be economically fabricated using metal embossing masters, so this dissertation describes casting-based microfabrication of metal microstructures and nanostructures. Low melting temperature metal was cast into flexible silicone molds which were themselves cast from microfabricated silicon templates. The flexibility of the silicone mold permits casting of curved surfaces, which this dissertation demonstrates by fabricating a cylindrical metal roller with microstructures. The metal microstructures can be in turn used as a reusable molding tool. This dissertation also describes an industrial investment casting process to produce aluminum molds having integrated microstructures. Unlike conventional micromolding tools, the aluminum mold was large and had complex curved surfaces. The aluminum was cast into curved microstructured ceramic molds which were themselves cast from curved microstructured rubber. Many structures were successfully cast into the aluminum with excellent replication fidelity, including circular, square, and triangular holes. This dissertation demonstrates molding of large, curved surfaces having surface microstructures using the aluminum mold. This work contributes a more full understanding of the phenomenon of superhydrophobicity and techniques for the economic fabrication of superhydrophobic microstructures.

Maude Object-Oriented Action Tool

MAIDL, André Murbach; CARVILHE, Claudio; MUSICANTE, Martin A. Maude Object-Oriented Action Tool. Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science. [S.l:s.n], 2008.

Uudelleenkäytettävän kuljetuspakkauksen liiketoimintamalli

Tässä työssä tutkitaan uudelleenkäytettävän kuljetuspakkauksen liiketoimintamahdollisuutta. Esimerkkinä tutkimuksessa on todellinen tilanne Suomalaisen kalustealan yrityksen pakkausprosessista. Tavoitteena on laatia liiketoimintamalli, jota hyödyntämällä voidaan aloittaa liiketoimintakumppanuus pakkausten käytössä. Työssä tutkitaan pakkauksen ja pakkaamisen nykytilanne ja tutkitaan mahdollisia hyötyjä yleisesti, sekä mahdollisia liiketoimintamalleja pakkauksen käyttöönottoon. Nykytilassa pakkaaminen kertakäyttöpakkaukseen on kustannustehoton ja käytettävyydeltään ongelmallinen ratkaisu. Pakkauksen käyttöönotto mahdollistaa merkittävän parannuksen pakkausprosessiin. Työn tuloksena esitellään kolme liiketoiminta mallia. Yksi liiketoimintamalleista on perustellusti toimivin ja sitä ehdotetaan käyttöönotettavaksi uudelleenkäytettävän pakkauksen käytössä kalusteiden kuljettamiseen. Mallissa kuljetuspakkaus toimii ammattilaistyökaluna sisäisesti omistajansa, eli tuotteita valmistavan yrityksen, sekä kuljetusyrityksen kesken. Kapea-alaista ratkaisua perustellaan mm. selkeällä kulurakenteella ja kokemuksen puutteella konseptin ja tuotteen toimivuudesta. Malli mahdollistaa koealustan pakkauksen käytölle ja lisäkokemus pakkauksen todellisesta toimivuudesta voi muuttaa liiketoimintamallia jatkossa laajempialaiseksi.

Evolution feature oriented model driven product line engineering approach for synergistic and dynamic service evolution in clouds: A04BPEL3.0 proposal.

Model Driven based approach for Service Evolution in Clouds will mainly focus on the reusable evolution patterns' advantage to solve evolution problems. During the process, evolution pattern will be driven by MDA models to pattern aspects. Weaving the aspects into service based process by using Aspect-Oriented extended BPEL engine at runtime will be the dynamic feature of the evolution.

Reordenamento viário da Rua da República e acompanhamento da instalação da Biblioteca Ary dos Santos em Sacavém

Relatório de estágio para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Civil na Área de Especialização de Edificações

An assessment of data leakage in Firefox under different conditions.

Data leakage is a serious issue and can result in the loss of sensitive data, compromising user accounts and details, potentially affecting millions of internet users. This paper contributes to research in online security and reducing personal footprint by evaluating the levels of privacy provided by the Firefox browser. The aim of identifying conditions that would minimize data leakage and maximize data privacy is addressed by assessing and comparing data leakage in the four possible browsing modes: normal and private modes using a browser installed on the host PC or using a portable browser from a connected USB device respectively. To provide a firm foundation for analysis, a series of carefully designed, pre-planned browsing sessions were repeated in each of the various modes of Firefox. This included low RAM environments to determine any effects low RAM may have on browser data leakage. The results show that considerable data leakage may occur within Firefox. In normal mode, all of the browsing information is stored within the Mozilla profile folder in Firefox-specific SQLite databases and sessionstore.js. While passwords were not stored as plain text, other confidential information such as credit card numbers could be recovered from the Form history under certain conditions. There is no difference when using a portable browser in normal mode, except that the Mozilla profile folder is located on the USB device rather than the host's hard disk. By comparison, private browsing reduces data leakage. Our findings confirm that no information is written to the Firefox-related locations on the hard disk or USB device during private browsing, implying that no deletion would be necessary and no remnants of data would be forensically recoverable from unallocated space. However, two aspects of data leakage occurred equally in all four browsing modes. Firstly, all of the browsing history was stored in the live RAM and was therefore accessible while the browser remained open. Secondly, in low RAM situations, the operating system caches out RAM to pagefile.sys on the host's hard disk. Irrespective of the browsing mode used, this may include Firefox history elements which can then remain forensically recoverable for considerable time.

An aspect-oriented framework for orthogonal persistence

The life cycle of software applications in general is very short and with extreme volatile requirements. Within these conditions programmers need development tools and techniques with an extreme level of productivity. We consider the code reuse as the most prominent approach to solve that problem. Our proposal uses the advantages provided by the Aspect-Oriented Programming in order to build a reusable framework capable to turn both programmer and application oblivious as far as data persistence is concerned, thus avoiding the need to write any line of code about that concern. Besides the benefits to productivity, the software quality increases. This paper describes the actual state of the art, identifying the main challenge to build a complete and reusable framework for Orthogonal Persistence in concurrent environments with support for transactions. The present work also includes a successfully developed prototype of that framework, capable of freeing the programmer of implementing any read or write data operations. This prototype is supported by an object oriented database and, in the future, will also use a relational database and have support for transactions.

Génération de patrons de conception et restructuration de code vers un patron de conception pour Java

(POO) est l’utilisation de patrons de conception (PC). Un PC est un arrangement caractéristique de classes permettant d’offrir une solution éprouvée, tout en obtenant un code réutilisable et compréhensible. Plusieurs PC sont définis, dont 24 par la GoF [12] et plusieurs autres sont apparus par la suite. Le concept de PC est abstrait ce qui peut amener différentes interprétations. Ces différences peuvent aussi causer une mauvaise implémentation qui peut réduire les avantages d’utiliser ce patron. Ce projet consiste à concevoir un outil facilitant l’utilisation des PC. L’outil Génération et Restructuration de Patrons de Conception(GRPC) permet la génération automatique du squelette d’un patron de conception ainsi que la restructuration d’un code en le transformant structure respectant un PC. La génération et la restructuration automatique permettent d’obtenir un code uniforme et de qualité tout en respectant le patron de conception. La compréhension et la maintenance du code sont ainsi améliorées. GRPC est module d’extension pour l’environnement de développement Eclipse écrit en Java. Le code est conçu pour être facilement compréhensible et extensible. Les deux principaux objectifs de GRPC sont de restructurer (refactoring) une section de code vers l’architecture d’un patron de conception et de générer des squelettes de patrons de conception. Une interface graphique permet de guider l’utilisateur et d’aller chercher toutes les informations importantes pour le fonctionnement du logiciel. Elle permet aussi de configurer les éléments du patron de conception. Pour s’assurer de la possibilité d’effectuer une restructuration, chaque patron est associé avec une ou plusieurs règles qui analysent le code pour détecter la présence d’une structure particulière. Des procédures aident les développeurs à ajouter de nouveaux PC dans GRPC. GRPC fournit des fonctionnalités permettant d’implémenter quelques patrons de conception de la POO définis dans le livre Design Patterns : Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software.

¿Es la ingeniería del software una ingeniería madura?

La construcción en 1946 del primer computador electrónico de uso general que funcionó satisfactoriamente, el ENIAC, se puede tomar como el de punto de la historia del hardware y el software, esto implica cincuenta años de desarrollo en estas dos áreas. Durante los primeros años del hardware, el principal reto era incrementarlo de forma que se redujera el costo de procesamiento y almacenamiento de datos, lo cual se logró a lo largo de la década de los años 80 con los grandes avances en microelectrónica. Hoy el problema es diferente el principal objetivo es producir software de calidad, reusable, económico, fácil de mantener y confiable, pero aún no se ha logrado un avance comparable al de la microelectrónica que permita al software alcanzar los niveles del hardware.

POSTDATA – Towards publishing European poetry as linked open data

POSTDATA is a 5 year's European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant Project that started in May 2016 and is hosted by the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Madrid, Spain. The context of the project is the corpora of European Poetry (EP), with a special focus on poetic materials from different languages and literary traditions. POSTDATA aims to offer a standardized model in the philological field and a metadata application profile (MAP) for EP in order to build a common classification of all these poetic materials. The information of Spanish, Italian and French repertoires will be published in the Linked Open Data (LOD) ecosystem. Later we expect to extend the model to include additional corpora. There are a number of Web Based Information Systems in Europe with repertoires of poems available to human consumption but not in an appropriate condition to be accessible and reusable by the Semantic Web. These systems are not interoperable; they are in fact locked in their databases and proprietary software, not suitable to be linked in the Semantic Web. A way to make this data interoperable is to develop a MAP in order to be able to publish this data available in the LOD ecosystem, and also to publish new data that will be created and modeled based on this MAP. To create a common data model for EP is not simple since the existent data models are based on conceptualizations and terminology belonging to their own poetical traditions and each tradition has developed an idiosyncratic analytical terminology in a different and independent way for years. The result of this uncoordinated evolution is a set of varied terminologies to explain analogous metrical phenomena through the different poetic systems whose correspondences have been hardly studied – see examples in González-Blanco & Rodríguez (2014a and b). This work has to be done by domain experts before the modeling actually starts. On the other hand, the development of a MAP is a complex task though it is imperative to follow a method for this development. The last years Curado Malta & Baptista (2012, 2013a, 2013b) have been studying the development of MAP's in a Design Science Research (DSR) methodological process in order to define a method for the development of MAPs (see Curado Malta (2014)). The output of this DSR process was a first version of a method for the development of Metadata Application Profiles (Me4MAP) (paper to be published). The DSR process is now in the validation phase of the Relevance Cycle to validate Me4MAP. The development of this MAP for poetry will follow the guidelines of Me4MAP and this development will be used to do the validation of Me4MAP. The final goal of the POSTDATA project is: i) to be able to publish all the data locked in the WIS, in LOD, where any agent interested will be able to build applications over the data in order to serve final users; ii) to build a Web platform where: a) researchers, students and other final users interested in EP will be able to access poems (and their analyses) of all databases; b) researchers, students and other final users will be able to upload poems, the digitalized images of manuscripts, and fill in the information concerning the analysis of the poem, collaboratively contributing to a LOD dataset of poetry.

Sintered Sewage Sludge As Support Material Used In Drinking Water Filtration

The processing of industry and domestic effluents in wastewater treatment plants reduces the amount of polluted material and forms reusable water and dehydrated sludge. the generation of hazardous municipal sludge can be decreased, as well as the impact on surface and underground water and the risk to human health. The aim this study is to verify the possibility to use sintered sewage sludge as support material after thermal treatment in the production of a filtering material to water supply systems. After thermal treatment the sewage sludge ash was characterized by X-ray fluorescence (XRF), leaching test and water solubilization. Dehydration of sludge was performed by controlled heating at temperatures of 180 degrees C, 350 degrees C, 600 degrees C, 850 degrees C and 1000 degrees C for 3 hours.

Designing Hydrogels that Transform their Shape in Response to Molecular Cues

There has been considerable interest in developing shape-changing soft materials for potential applications in drug delivery, microfluidics and biosensing. These shape- changing materials are inspired by the morphological changes exhibited by plants in nature, such as the Venus flytrap. One specific class of shape-change is that from a flat sheet to a folded structure (e.g., a tube). Such “self-folding” materials are usually composed of polymer hydrogels, and these typically fold in response to external stimuli such as pH and temperature. In order to develop these hydrogels for the previously described applications, it is necessary to expand the range of triggers. The focus of this dissertation is the advancement of shape-changing polymer hydrogels that are sensitive to uncommon cues such as specific biomolecules (enzymes), the substrates for such enzymes, or specific multivalent cations. First, we describe a hybrid gel that responds to the presence of low concentrations of a class of enzymes known as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). The hybrid gel was created by utilizing photolithographic techniques to combine two or more gels with distinct chemical composition into the same material. Certain portions of the hybrid gel are composed of a biopolymer derivative with crosslinkable groups. The hybrid gel is flat in water; however, in the presence of MMPs, the regions containing the biopolymer are degraded and the flat sheet folds to form a 3D structure. We demonstrate that hydrogels with different patterns can transform into different 3D structures such as tubes, helices and pancakes. Furthermore, this shape change can be made to occur at physiological concentrations of enzymes. Next, we report a gel with two layers that undergoes a shape change in the presence of glucose. The enzyme glucose oxidase (GOx) is immobilized in one of the layers. GOx catalyzes the conversion of glucose to gluconic acid. The production of gluconic acid decreases the local pH. The decrease in local pH causes one of the layers to swell. As a result, the flat sheet folds to form a tube. The tube unfolds to form a flat sheet when it is transferred to a solution with no glucose present. Therefore, this biomolecule- triggered shape transformation is reversible, meaning the glucose sensing gel is reusable. Furthermore, this shape change only occurs in the presence of glucose and it does not occur in the presence of other small sugars such as fructose. In our final study, we report the shape change of a gel with two layers in the presence of multivalent ions such as Ca2+ and Sr2+. The gel consists of a passive layer and an active layer. The passive layer is composed of dimethylyacrylamide (DMAA), which does not interact with multivalent ions. The active layer consists of DMAA and the biopolymer alginate. In the presence of Ca2+ ions, the alginate chains crosslink and the active layer shrinks. As a result, the gel converts from a flat sheet to a folded tube. What is particularly unusual is the direction of folding. In most cases, when flat rectangular gels fold, they do so about their short-side. However, our gels typically fold about their long-side. We hypothesize that non-homogeneous swelling determines the folding axis.

Microfabricated elastomer tactile sensors for robotic fingertip systems

Tactile sensing is an important aspect of robotic systems, and enables safe, dexterous robot-environment interaction. The design and implementation of tactile sensors on robots has been a topic of research over the past 30 years, and current challenges include mechanically flexible “sensing skins”, high dynamic range (DR) sensing (i.e.: high force range and fine force resolution), multi-axis sensing, and integration between the sensors and robot. This dissertation focuses on addressing some of these challenges through a novel manufacturing process that incorporates conductive and dielectric elastomers in a reusable, multilength-scale mold, and new sensor designs for multi-axis sensing that improve force range without sacrificing resolution. A single taxel was integrated into a 1 degree of freedom robotic gripper for closed-loop slip detection. Manufacturing involved casting a composite silicone rubber, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) filled with conductive particles such as carbon nanotubes, into a mold to produce microscale flexible features on the order of 10s of microns. Molds were produced via microfabrication of silicon wafers, but were limited in sensing area and were costly. An improved technique was developed that produced molds of acrylic using a computer numerical controlled (CNC) milling machine. This maintained the ability to produce microscale features, and increased the sensing area while reducing costs. New sensing skins had features as small as 20 microns over an area as large as a human hand. Sensor architectures capable of sensing both shear and normal force sensing with high dynamic range were produced. Using this architecture, two sensing modalities were developed: a capacitive approach and a contact resistive approach. The capacitive approach demonstrated better dynamic range, while the contact resistive approach used simpler circuitry. Using the contact resistive approach, normal force range and resolution were 8,000 mN and 1,000 mN, respectively, and shear force range and resolution were 450 mN and 100 mN, respectively. Using the capacitive approach, normal force range and resolution were 10,000 mN and 100 mN, respectively, and shear force range and resolution were 1,500 mN and 50 mN, respectively.

Multivalent reuse of web data about temporary art exhibitions: The Exhibitium Project

Our proposal aims to display the analysis techniques, methodologies as well as the most relevant results expected within the Exhibitium project framework (http://www.exhibitium.com). Awarded by the BBVA Foundation, the Exhibitium project is being developed by an international consortium of several research groups . Its main purpose is to build a comprehensive and structured data repository about temporary art exhibitions, captured from the web, to make them useful and reusable in various domains through open and interoperable data systems.