Distributed Belief Revision and Environmental Decision Support

This article discusses the development of an Intelligent Distributed Environmental Decision Support System, built upon the association of a Multi-agent Belief Revision System with a Geographical Information System (GIS). The inherent multidisciplinary features of the involved expertises in the field of environmental management, the need to define clear policies that allow the synthesis of divergent perspectives, its systematic application, and the reduction of the costs and time that result from this integration, are the main reasons that motivate the proposal of this project. This paper is organised in two parts: in the first part we present and discuss the developed - Distributed Belief Revision Test-bed - DiBeRT; in the second part we analyse its application to the environmental decision support domain, with special emphasis on the interface with a GIS.

Distributed Belief Revision and Environmental Decision Support

This article discusses the development of an Intelligent Distributed Environmental Decision Support System, built upon the association of a Multi-agent Belief Revision System with a Geographical Information System (GIS). The inherent multidisciplinary features of the involved expertises in the field of environmental management, the need to define clear policies that allow the synthesis of divergent perspectives, its systematic application, and the reduction of the costs and time that result from this integration, are the main reasons that motivate the proposal of this project. This paper is organised in two parts: in the first part we present and discuss the developed ; in the second part we analyse its application to the environmental decision support domain, with special emphasis on the interface with a GIS.

Intelligent Distributed Environmental Decision Support System

This article discusses the development of an Intelligent Distributed Environmental Decision Support System, built upon the association of a Multi-agent Belief Revision System with a Geographical Information System (GIS). The inherent multidisciplinary features of the involved expertises in the field of environmental management, the need to define clear policies that allow the synthesis of divergent perspectives, its systematic application, and the reduction of the costs and time that result from this integration, are the main reasons that motivate the proposal of this project. This paper is organised in two parts: in the first part we present and discuss the developed Distributed Belief Revision Test-bed — DiBeRT; in the second part we analyse its application to the environmental decision support domain, with special emphasis on the interface with a GIS.

Environmental Decision Support: a Distributed Artificial Intelligence Approach

Decision making in any environmental domain is a complex and demanding activity, justifying the development of dedicated decision support systems. Every decision is confronted with a large variety and amount of constraints to satisfy as well as contradictory interests that must be sensibly accommodated. The first stage of a project evaluation is its submission to the relevant group of public (and private) agencies. The individual role of each agency is to verify, within its domain of competence, the fulfilment of the set of applicable regulations. The scope of the involved agencies is wide and ranges from evaluation abilities on the technical or economical domains to evaluation competences on the environmental or social areas. The second project evaluation stage involves the gathering of the recommendations of the individual agencies and their justified merge to produce the final conclusion. The incorporation and accommodation of the consulted agencies opinions is of extreme importance: opinions may not only differ, but can be interdependent, complementary, irreconcilable or, simply, independent. The definition of adequate methodologies to sensibly merge, whenever possible, the existing perspectives while preserving the overall legality of the system, will lead to the making of sound justified decisions. The proposed Environmental Decision Support System models the project evaluation activity and aims to assist developers in the selection of adequate locations for their projects, guaranteeing their compliance with the applicable regulations.

Semi-destructive in situ tests as support to the assessment of a conservation process

This paper refers to the assessment on site by semi-destructive testing (SDT) methods of the consolidation efficiency of a conservation process developed by Henriques (2011) for structural and non-structural pine wood elements in service. This study was applied on scots pine wood (Pinus sylvestris L.) degraded by fungi after treatment with a biocidal product followed by consolidation with a polymeric product. This solution avoids substitutions of wood moderately degraded by fungi, improving its physical and mechanical characteristics. The consolidation efficiency was assessed on site by methods of drill resistance and penetration resistance. The SDT methods used showed good sensitivity to the conservation process and could evaluate their effectiveness. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Creation and extension of ontologies for describing communications in the context of organizations

Thesis submitted to Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Computer Science

Decision Support Concerning Demand Response Programs Design and Use – A Conceptual Framework and Simulation Tool

Demand response can play a very relevant role in the context of power systems with an intensive use of distributed energy resources, from which renewable intermittent sources are a significant part. More active consumers participation can help improving the system reliability and decrease or defer the required investments. Demand response adequate use and management is even more important in competitive electricity markets. However, experience shows difficulties to make demand response be adequately used in this context, showing the need of research work in this area. The most important difficulties seem to be caused by inadequate business models and by inadequate demand response programs management. This paper contributes to developing methodologies and a computational infrastructure able to provide the involved players with adequate decision support on demand response programs and contracts design and use. The presented work uses DemSi, a demand response simulator that has been developed by the authors to simulate demand response actions and programs, which includes realistic power system simulation. It includes an optimization module for the application of demand response programs and contracts using deterministic and metaheuristic approaches. The proposed methodology is an important improvement in the simulator while providing adequate tools for demand response programs adoption by the involved players. A machine learning method based on clustering and classification techniques, resulting in a rule base concerning DR programs and contracts use, is also used. A case study concerning the use of demand response in an incident situation is presented.

Hydrogenating activity of Pt/zeolite catalysts focusing acid support and metal dispersion influence

Toluene hydrogenation was studied over catalysts based on Pt supported on large pore zeolites (HUSY and HBEA) with different metal/acid ratios. Acidity of zeolites was assessed by pyridine adsorption followed by FTIR showing only small changes before and after Pt introduction. Metal dispersion was determined by H2–O2 titration and verified by a linear correlation with the intensity of Pt0–CO band obtained by in situ FTIR. It was also observed that the electronic properties of Pt0 clusters were similar for the different catalysts. Catalytic tests showed rapid catalyst deactivation with an activity loss of 80–95% after 60 min of reaction. The turnover frequency of fresh catalysts depended both on metal dispersion and the support. For the same support, it changed by a 1.7-fold (HBEA) and 4.0-fold (HUSY) showing that toluene hydrogenation is structure-sensitive, i.e. hydrogenating activity is not a unique function of accessible metal. This was proposed to be due to the contribution to the overall activity of the hydrogenation of adsorbed toluene on acid sites via hydrogen spillover. Taking into account the role of zeolite acidity, the catalysts series were compared by the activity per total adsorbing sites which was observed to increase steadily with nPt/(nPt + nA). An increase of the accessible Pt atoms leads to an increase on the amount of spilled over hydrogen available in acid sites therefore increasing the overall activity. Pt/HBEA catalysts were found to be more active per total adsorbing site than Pt/HUSY which is proposed to be due to an augmentation in the efficiency of spilled over hydrogen diffusion related to the proximity between Pt clusters and acid sites. The intervention of Lewis acid sites in a greater extent than that measured by pyridine adsorption may also contribute to this higher activity of Pt/HBEA catalysts. These results reinforce the importance of model reactions as a closer perspective to the relevant catalyst properties in reaction conditions.

25 kV bipolar solid-state Marx generator for industrial food applications

The preliminary results from a bipolar industrial solidstate based Marx generator, developed for the food industry, capable of delivering 25 kV/250 A positive and negative pulses with 12 kW average power, are presented and discussed. This modular topology uses only four controlled switches per cell, 27 cells in total that can be charged up to 1000V each, the two extra cells are used for droop compensation. The triggering signals for all the switches are generated by a FPGA. Considering that biomaterials are similar to resistive type loads, experimental results from this new bipolar 25 kV modulator into resistive loads are presented and discussed.

Algorithms and methodologies for decision support in energy efficiency on buildings

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

Toroid inductor development for a SIC DC-DC converter up to 150kW, based on finite element method

Dissertação para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica Ramo de Energia

Rheology of the cytoskeleton as a fractal network

We model the cytoskeleton as a fractal network by identifying each segment with a simple Kelvin-Voigt element with a well defined equilibrium length. The final structure retains the elastic characteristics of a solid or a gel, which may support stress, without relaxing. By considering a very simple regular self-similar structure of segments in series and in parallel, in one, two, or three dimensions, we are able to express the viscoelasticity of the network as an effective generalized Kelvin-Voigt model with a power law spectrum of retardation times L similar to tau(alpha). We relate the parameter alpha with the fractal dimension of the gel. In some regimes ( 0 < alpha < 1), we recover the weak power law behaviors of the elastic and viscous moduli with the angular frequencies G' similar to G" similar to w(alpha) that occur in a variety of soft materials, including living cells. In other regimes, we find different power laws for G' and G".

Microencapsulation of herbicide MCPA with native beta-cyclodextrin and its methyl and hydroxypropyl derivatives: An experimental and theoretical investigation

When a pesticide is released into the environment, most of it is lost before it reaches its target. An effective way to reduce environmental losses of pesticides is by using controlled release technology. Microencapsulation becomes a promising technique for the production of controlled release agricultural formulations. In this work, the microencapsulation of chlorophenoxy herbicide MCPA with native b-cyclodextrin and its methyl and hydroxypropyl derivatives was investigated. The phase solubility study showed that both native and b-CD derivatives increased the water solubility of the herbicide and inclusion complexes are formed in a stoichiometric ratio of 1:1. The stability constants describing the extent of formation of the complexes have been determined by phase solubility studies. 1H NMR experiments were also accomplished for the prepared solid systems and the data gathered confirm the formation of the inclusion complexes. 1H NMR data obtained for the MCPA/CDs complexes disclosed noticeable proton shift displacements for OCH2 group and H6 aromatic proton of MCPA provided clear evidence of inclusion complexation process, suggesting that the phenyl moiety of the herbicide was included in the hydrophobic cavity of CDs. Free energy molecular mechanics calculations confirm all these findings. The gathered results can be regarded as an essential step to the development of controlled release agricultural formulations containing herbicide MCPA.

Chronic disease prevention and health promotion. Public policies and social network analysis of the hospitals services and oyhers health and social organizations to support joint action for children with diabetes

Comunicação apresentada na 18th Conference International of Health Promotion Hospitals & Health Services "Tackling causes and consequences of inequalities in health: contributions of health services and the HPH network", em Manchester de 14-16 de april de 2010

Virtual Communities of Practice: Design and Development of Support Platforms and Participation Fostering

Mestrado em Engenharia Informática - Área de Especialização em Sistemas Gráficos e Multimédia