Análise das abordagens e estratégias de intervenção usadas na equitação com fins terapêuticos

Objectivos: Com este trabalho pretendemos identificar e sistematizar linhas orientadoras referentes a boas práticas na implementação da equitação com fins terapêuticos, bem como, examinar as dimensões de impacte desta intervenção sobre crianças/jovens em situação de incapacidade. Método: Este trabalho desenvolveu-se em torno de três planos de estudo. O primeiro consistiu numa revisão sistemática da literatura, onde foram analisados 60 estudos que reportavam a implementação da intervenção em foco. Num segundo estudo, focado na perspectiva de peritos na implementação da terapia, foram desenvolvidos dois grupos focais com 12 participantes, recrutados mediante amostragem de conveniência. No terceiro estudo, exploramos a perspectiva de dez pais sobre esta terapia - também eles selecionados por conveniência -, através da realização de uma entrevista semi- estruturada. Os grupos focais e as entrevistas foram objeto de gravação áudio, com posterior transcrição e análise de conteúdo. Resultados/ Discussão: Os resultados deste estudo parecem sugerir um consenso alargado no que se refere ao impacte positivo da Equitação com Fins Terapêuticos em dimensões da funcionalidade que se reportam, não só, a aspectos da mobilidade, mas também, a aspectos da interação/ comunicação e competências subjacentes à aprendizagem - frequentemente nomeados na análise do impacte em contexto escolar. Abordagens associadas ao sucesso e às boas práticas, foram alocadas a factores relativos à qualidade técnica dos profissionais, à segurança e à necessidade de avaliar e definir objetivos para cada criança/ jovem.

Holistic Analysis for Fork-Join Distributed Tasks supported by the FTT-SE Protocol

11th IEEE World Conference on Factory Communication Systems (WFCS 2015). 27 to 29, May, 2015, TII-SS-2: Scheduling and Performance Analysis. Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

RoutesMobilityModel: easy realistic mobility simulation using external information services

Workshop on ns-3 (WNS '15). 13, May, 2015. Castelldefels, Spain.

Allocation of Parallel Real-Time Tasks in Distributed Multi-core Architectures supported by an FTT-SE Network

Distributed real-time systems such as automotive applications are becoming larger and more complex, thus, requiring the use of more powerful hardware and software architectures. Furthermore, those distributed applications commonly have stringent real-time constraints. This implies that such applications would gain in flexibility if they were parallelized and distributed over the system. In this paper, we consider the problem of allocating fixed-priority fork-join Parallel/Distributed real-time tasks onto distributed multi-core nodes connected through a Flexible Time Triggered Switched Ethernet network. We analyze the system requirements and present a set of formulations based on a constraint programming approach. Constraint programming allows us to express the relations between variables in the form of constraints. Our approach is guaranteed to find a feasible solution, if one exists, in contrast to other approaches based on heuristics. Furthermore, approaches based on constraint programming have shown to obtain solutions for these type of formulations in reasonable time.

Bringing Context Awareness to IoT-Based Wireless Sensor Networks

IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom). 23 to 26, Mar, 2015, PhD Forum. Saint Louis, U.S.A..

A framework for using real data with distributed low cost sensors

Currently, due to the widespread use of computers and the internet, students are trading libraries for the World Wide Web and laboratories with simulation programs. In most courses, simulators are made available to students and can be used to proof theoretical results or to test a developing hardware/product. Although this is an interesting solution: low cost, easy and fast way to perform some courses work, it has indeed major disadvantages. As everything is currently being done with/in a computer, the students are loosing the “feel” of the real values of the magnitudes. For instance in engineering studies, and mainly in the first years, students need to learn electronics, algorithmic, mathematics and physics. All of these areas can use numerical analysis software, simulation software or spreadsheets and in the majority of the cases data used is either simulated or random numbers, but real data could be used instead. For example, if a course uses numerical analysis software and needs a dataset, the students can learn to manipulate arrays. Also, when using the spreadsheets to build graphics, instead of using a random table, students could use a real dataset based, for instance, in the room temperature and its variation across the day. In this work we present a framework which uses a simple interface allowing it to be used by different courses where the computers are the teaching/learning process in order to give a more realistic feeling to students by using real data. A framework is proposed based on a set of low cost sensors for different physical magnitudes, e.g. temperature, light, wind speed, which are connected to a central server, that the students have access with an Ethernet protocol or are connected directly to the student computer/laptop. These sensors use the communication ports available such as: serial ports, parallel ports, Ethernet or Universal Serial Bus (USB). Since a central server is used, the students are encouraged to use sensor values results in their different courses and consequently in different types of software such as: numerical analysis tools, spreadsheets or simply inside any programming language when a dataset is needed. In order to do this, small pieces of hardware were developed containing at least one sensor using different types of computer communication. As long as the sensors are attached in a server connected to the internet, these tools can also be shared between different schools. This allows sensors that aren't available in a determined school to be used by getting the values from other places that are sharing them. Another remark is that students in the more advanced years and (theoretically) more know how, can use the courses that have some affinities with electronic development to build new sensor pieces and expand the framework further. The final solution provided is very interesting, low cost, simple to develop, allowing flexibility of resources by using the same materials in several courses bringing real world data into the students computer works.

Marine Operations with the SWORDFISH Autonomous Surface Vehicle

IEEE Robótica 2007 - 7th Conference on Mobile Robots and Competitions, Paderne, Portugal 2007

Task partitioning and priority assignment for distributed hard real-time systems

In this paper, we propose the Distributed using Optimal Priority Assignment (DOPA) heuristic that finds a feasible partitioning and priority assignment for distributed applications based on the linear transactional model. DOPA partitions the tasks and messages in the distributed system, and makes use of the Optimal Priority Assignment (OPA) algorithm known as Audsley’s algorithm, to find the priorities for that partition. The experimental results show how the use of the OPA algorithm increases in average the number of schedulable tasks and messages in a distributed system when compared to the use of Deadline Monotonic (DM) usually favoured in other works. Afterwards, we extend these results to the assignment of Parallel/Distributed applications and present a second heuristic named Parallel-DOPA (P-DOPA). In that case, we show how the partitioning process can be simplified by using the Distributed Stretch Transformation (DST), a parallel transaction transformation algorithm introduced in [1].

Students’ reading behavior: digital vs. print preferences in portuguese context

The aim of this paper is to present the main Portuguese results from a multi-national study on reading format preferences and behaviors from undergraduate students from Polytechnic Institute of Porto (Portugal). For this purpose we apply an adaptation of the Academic Reading Questionnaire previously created by Mizrachi (2014). This survey instrument has 14 Likert-style statements regarding the format influence in the students reading behavior, including aspects such as ability to remember, feelings about access convenience, active engagement with the text by highlighting and annotating, and ability to review and concentrate on the text. The importance of the language and dimension of the text to determine the preference format is also inquired. Students are also asked about the electronic device they use to read digital documents. Finally, some demographic and academic data were gathered. The analysis of the results will be contextualized on a review of the literature concerning youngsters reading format preferences. The format (digital or print) in which a text is displayed and read can impact comprehension, which is an important information literacy skill. This is a quite relevant issue for class readings in academic context because it impacts learning. On the other hand, students preferences on reading formats will influence the use of library services. However, literature is not unanimous on this subject. Woody, Daniel and Baker (2010) concluded that the experience of reading is not the same in electronic or print context and that students prefer print books than e-books. This thesis is reinforced by Ji, Michaels and Waterman (2014) which report that among 101 undergraduates the large majority self-reported to read and learn more when they use printed format despite the fact that they prefer electronically supplied readings instead of those supplied in printed form. On the other side, Rockinson-Szapkiw, et al (2013) conducted a study were they demonstrate that e-textbook is as effective for learning as the traditional textbook and that students who choose e-textbook had significantly higher perceived learning than students who chose to use print textbooks.

XDense: A Dense Grid Sensor Network for Distributed Feature Extraction

XXXIII Simpósio Brasileiro de Redes de Computadores e Sistemas Distribuídos (SBRC 2015), III Workshop de Comunicação em Sistemas Embarcados Críticos. Vitória, Brasil.

Information professionals in business context: new professionals, old skills

This communication aims to present some reflections regarding the importance of information in organizational context, especially in business context. The ability to produce and to share expertise and knowledge among its employees is now a key factor in the success of any organization. However, it’s also true that workers are increasingly feeling that too much information can hurt their performance. The existence of skilled professionals able to organize, evaluate, select and disseminate information in organizations appears to be a prerequisite for success. The skills necessary for the formation of a professional devoted to the management of information and knowledge in the context of business organizations will be analysed. Then data collected in two focus group discussion with students from a graduate course in Business Information, from Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal, a will be examined.

Fractional Dynamics and Control of Distributed Parameter Systems

Fractional Calculus (FC) goes back to the beginning of the theory of differential calculus. Nevertheless, the application of FC just emerged in the last two decades, due to the progress in the area of chaos that revealed subtle relationships with the FC concepts. In the field of dynamical systems theory some work has been carried out but the proposed models and algorithms are still in a preliminary stage of establishment. Having these ideas in mind, the paper discusses a FC perspective in the study of the dynamics and control of some distributed parameter systems.

Partilha de Pontos de Interesse, Vídeos e Experiências Sensoriais Baseada no Contexto do Utilizador

A evolução tecnológica das últimas décadas na área das Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação (TIC) contribuiu para a proliferação de fontes de informação e de sistemas de partilha de recursos. As diversas redes sociais são um exemplo paradigmático de sistemas de partilha tanto de informação como de recursos (e.g. audiovisuais). Essa abundância crescente de recursos e fontes aumenta a importância de sistemas capazes de recomendar em tempo útil recursos personalizados, tendo por base o perfil e o contexto do utilizador. O objetivo deste projeto é partilhar e recomendar locais, artigos e vídeos em função do contexto do utilizador assim como proporcionar uma experiência mais rica de reprodução dos vídeos partilhados, simulando as condições de gravação dos vídeos. Este sistema teve como inspiração dois projetos anteriormente desenvolvidos de partilha e recomendação de locais, artigos e vídeos turísticos em função da localização do utilizador. O sistema desenvolvido consiste numa aplicação distribuída composta por um módulo cliente Android, que inclui a interface com o utilizador e o consumo direto de serviços externos de suporte, e um módulo servidor que controla o acesso à base de dados central e inclui o serviço de recomendação baseado no contexto do utilizador. A comunicação entre os módulos cliente e servidor utiliza um protocolo do nível de aplicação dedicado. As recomendações geradas pelo sistema têm por base o perfil de utilizador, informação contextual (posição do utilizador, data e hora atual e velocidade atual do utilizador) e podem ser geradas a pedido do utilizador ou automaticamente, caso sejam encontrados pontos de interesse de grande relevância para o utilizador. Os pontos de interesse recomendados são apresentados com recurso ao Google Maps, incluindo o período de funcionamento, artigos complementares e a reprodução imersiva dos vídeos relacionados. Essa imersão tem em consideração as condições meteorológicas, temporais e espaciais aquando da gravação do vídeo.

Negotiation context analysis in electricity markets

Contextualization is critical in every decision making process. Adequate responses to problems depend not only on the variables with direct influence on the outcomes, but also on a correct contextualization of the problem regarding the surrounding environment. Electricity markets are dynamic environments with increasing complexity, potentiated by the last decades' restructuring process. Dealing with the growing complexity and competitiveness in this sector brought the need for using decision support tools. A solid example is MASCEM (Multi-Agent Simulator of Competitive Electricity Markets), whose players' decisions are supported by another multiagent system – ALBidS (Adaptive Learning strategic Bidding System). ALBidS uses artificial intelligence techniques to endow market players with adaptive learning capabilities that allow them to achieve the best possible results in market negotiations. This paper studies the influence of context awareness in the decision making process of agents acting in electricity markets. A context analysis mechanism is proposed, considering important characteristics of each negotiation period, so that negotiating agents can adapt their acting strategies to different contexts. The main conclusion is that context-dependant responses improve the decision making process. Suiting actions to different contexts allows adapting the behaviour of negotiating entities to different circumstances, resulting in profitable outcomes.

Coalition of distributed generation units to Virtual Power Players - a game theory approach

Smart Grids (SGs) have emerged as the new paradigm for power system operation and management, being designed to include large amounts of distributed energy resources. This new paradigm requires new Energy Resource Management (ERM) methodologies considering different operation strategies and the existence of new management players such as several types of aggregators. This paper proposes a methodology to facilitate the coalition between distributed generation units originating Virtual Power Players (VPP) considering a game theory approach. The proposed approach consists in the analysis of the classifications that were attributed by each VPP to the distributed generation units, as well as in the analysis of the previous established contracts by each player. The proposed classification model is based in fourteen parameters including technical, economical and behavioural ones. Depending of the VPP strategies, size and goals, each parameter has different importance. VPP can also manage other type of energy resources, like storage units, electric vehicles, demand response programs or even parts of the MV and LV distribution network. A case study with twelve VPPs with different characteristics and one hundred and fifty real distributed generation units is included in the paper.