Combining data mining and evolutionary computation for multi-criteria optimization of earthworks

Earthworks tasks aim at levelling the ground surface at a target construction area and precede any kind of structural construction (e.g., road and railway construction). It is comprised of sequential tasks, such as excavation, transportation, spreading and compaction, and it is strongly based on heavy mechanical equipment and repetitive processes. Under this context, it is essential to optimize the usage of all available resources under two key criteria: the costs and duration of earthwork projects. In this paper, we present an integrated system that uses two artificial intelligence based techniques: data mining and evolutionary multi-objective optimization. The former is used to build data-driven models capable of providing realistic estimates of resource productivity, while the latter is used to optimize resource allocation considering the two main earthwork objectives (duration and cost). Experiments held using real-world data, from a construction site, have shown that the proposed system is competitive when compared with current manual earthwork design.

Modelos de simulação de processos por junção de componentes

Com este artigo pretende-se abordar o papel que um repositório de componentes de simulação previamente desenvolvidos pode desempenhar em projetos de simulação de processos de negócio. Recorrendo aos conhecidos padrões workflow (workflow Patterns), resultantes da identificação de situações recorrentemente encontradas em modelos de processos organizacionais, e utilizando mecanismos específicos de componentização disponíveis em algumas ferramentas de simulação, constroem-se componentes a (re)utilizar no desenvolvimento de modelos de simulação. Como exemplo, usou-se um processo de negócio - “Reclamação de Encomendas de Clientes” - em vigor numa empresa do sector têxtil, em que um dos autores colabora.

Algorithms and tools for in silico design of cell factories

PhD thesis in Bioengineering

Modelos volumétricos para a Floresta Nacional do Tapirapé-Aquirí, Serra dos Carajás (PA)

Medidas precisas de volume de madeira são ferramentas importantes no planejamento do uso do recurso florestal. Neste estudo, foram investigados modelos volumétricos para a Floresta Nacional do Tapirapé-Aquirí, na Serra dos Carajás (PA), baseados numa cubagem rigorosa de 55 árvores para obter o diâmetro, altura comercial do fuste e volume sólido. Um total de 8 modelos de dupla entrada e 4 de simples entrada foram testados para o diâmetro mínimo de 14 cm. Para seleção do melhor modelo foram usadas as estatísticas do coeficiente de determinação, erro padrão da estimativa e distribuição dos resíduos. Entre os modelos de simples entrada o modelo logarítmico de Husch se ajustou melhor aos dados (R² = 0,9105) e entre os de dupla entrada o logarítmico de Schumacher & Hall se ajustou melhor (R² = 0,9942). O uso do modelo da Flona de Tapajós ou o uso do modelo de volume cilíndrico com fator de forma 0,7 subestimam a volumetria na Flona do Tapirapé. Isso enfatiza a importância de modelos volumétricos locais para melhorar a precisão da estimativa de madeira.

Seleção de modelos polinomiais para representar o perfil e volume do fuste de Tectona grandis L.f.

A precisão do volume de um povoamento florestal torna-se importante à medida que as empresas florestais integram verticalmente suas atividades e o resíduo da elaboração de um produto torna-se matéria-prima para outros. Os estudos realizados objetivaram avaliar a acurácia dos modelos polinomiais propostos por Schöepfer (1966), Hradetzky (1976) e Goulding & Murray (1976), na estimativa dos diâmetros e volumes ao longo do fuste de Tectona grandis L.f. de quatro povoamentos localizados na microrregião do Baixo Rio Acre e, ainda, testar a identidade do melhor modelo polinomial, avaliando-se a adequação de manter as áreas agrupadas ou segregá-las em grupos menores ou individualmente. A base de dados foi constituída de 159 árvores cubadas rigorosamente. Na avaliação da acurácia dos modelos foram empregadas estatísticas de desvio médio, desvio padrão das diferenças, soma dos quadrados dos resíduos relativos e resíduos percentuais. O modelo Goulding & Murray (1976) gerou as melhores estimativas de diâmetros e volumes ao longo do fuste, seguido pelos modelos Hradetzky (1976) e Schöepfer (1966). O teste de identidade de modelo mostrou ser mais adequado realizar ajustes independentes para as áreas 1 e 4 e para o subgrupo 2 e 3.

Soil mineral N dynamics beneath mixtures of leaves from legume and fruit trees in Central Amazonian multi-strata agroforests

Long term applications of leguminous green mulch could increase mineralizable nitrogen (N) beneath cupuaçu trees produced on the infertile acidic Ultisols and Oxisols of the Amazon Basin. However, low quality standing cupuaçu litter could interfere with green mulch N release and soil N mineralization. This study compared mineral N, total N, and microbial biomass N beneath cupuaçu trees grown in two different agroforestry systems, north of Manaus, Brazil, following seven years of different green mulch application rates. To test for net interactions between green mulch and cupuaçu litter, dried gliricidia and inga leaves were mixed with senescent cupuaçu leaves, surface applied to an Oxisol soil, and incubated in a greenhouse for 162 days. Leaf decomposition, N release and soil N mineralization were periodically measured in the mixed species litter treatments and compared to single species applications. The effect of legume biomass and cupuaçu litter on soil mineral N was additive implying that recommendations for green mulch applications to cupuaçu trees can be based on N dynamics of individual green mulch species. Results demonstrated that residue quality, not quantity, was the dominant factor affecting the rate of N release from leaves and soil N mineralization in a controlled environment. In the field, complex N cycling and other factors, including soil fauna, roots, and microclimatic effects, had a stronger influence on available soil N than residue quality.

Development of computational tools for the integrated analysis of DNA microarray data with applications in cancer research

The MAP-i Doctoral Program of the Universities of Minho, Aveiro and Porto

Instrumentos de políticas públicas do turismo: uma análise empírica dos municípios portugueses

Tese de Doutoramento em Ciências da Administração

Estudo de materiais fibrosos para aplicação em modelos cerebrais

Neste trabalho, multifilamentos ocos de polipropileno foram estudados com o objetivo de construir um fantoma cerebral adequado à validação e controlo de qualidade de uma modalidade de imagem clínica inovadora: High-Definition Fiber Tractography. Foram investigadas e discutidas a análise à secção transversal e a redução da área de multifilamentos ocos de polipropileno, através de estiramento. De acordo com os resultados experimentais, a dimensão da secção transversal dos multifilamentos é proporcional à massa linear dos mesmos, existindo uma irregularidade, relativamente, à forma deste tipo de materiais.

Towards high performance and multi-functional structural membranes using advanced fibrous and textile materials

Scientific and technological advancements in the area of fibrous and textile materials have greatly enhanced their application potential in several high-end technical and industrial sectors including construction, transportation, medical, sports, aerospace engineering, electronics and so on. Excellent performance accompanied by light-weight, mechanical flexibility, tailor-ability, design flexibility, easy fabrication and relatively lower cost are the driving forces towards wide applications of these materials. Cost-effective fabrication of various advanced and functional materials for structural parts, medical devices, sensors, energy harvesting devices, capacitors, batteries, and many others has been possible using fibrous and textile materials. Structural membranes are one of the innovative applications of textile structures and these novel building skins are becoming very popular due to flexible design aesthetics, durability, lightweight and cost benefits. Current demand on high performance and multi-functional materials in structural applications has motivated to go beyond the basic textile structures used for structural membranes and to use innovative textile materials. Structural membranes with self-cleaning, thermoregulation and energy harvesting capability (using solar cells) are examples of such recently developed multi-functional membranes. Besides these, there exist enormous opportunities to develop wide varieties of multi-functional membranes using functional textile materials. Additionally, it is also possible to further enhance the performance and functionalities of structural membranes using advanced fibrous architectures such as 2D, 3D, hybrid, multi-layer and so on. In this context, the present paper gives an overview of various advanced and functional fibrous and textile materials which have enormous application potential in structural membranes.

Search for low-scale gravity signatures in multi-jet final states with the ATLAS detector at s√ = 8 TeV

We search for evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model in the production of final states with multiple high transverse momentum jets, using 20.3 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector at s√ = 8 TeV. No excess of events beyond Standard Model expectations is observed, and upper limits on the visible cross-section for non-Standard Model production of multi-jet final states are set. Using a wide variety of models for black hole and string ball production and decay, the limit on the cross-section times acceptance is as low as 0.16 fb at the 95% CL for a minimum scalar sum of jet transverse momentum in the event of about 4.3 TeV. Using models for black hole and string ball production and decay, exclusion contours are determined as a function of the production mass threshold and the gravity scale. These limits can be interpreted in terms of lower-mass limits on black hole and string ball production that range from 4.6 to 6.2 TeV.

Search for heavy long-lived multi-charged particles in pp collisions at √s = 8 TeV using the ATLAS detector

A search for heavy long-lived multi-charged particles is performed using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Data collected in 2012 at s√=8 TeV from pp collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb−1 are examined. Particles producing anomalously high ionisation, consistent with long-lived massive particles with electric charges from |q|=2e to |q|=6e are searched for. No signal candidate events are observed, and 95% confidence level cross-section upper limits are interpreted as lower mass limits for a Drell--Yan production model. The mass limits range between 660 and 785 GeV.

Modelos de apoio às decisão na conceção e planeamento de um armazém

Programa Doutoral em Engenharia Industrial e de Sistemas.

A educação como empoderamento na ótica do desenvolvimento: uma discussão de modelos

Apresentamos nesta comunicação uma tese de ressignificação da educação como empoderamento tendo como foco uma agenda de desenvolvimento justo, digno e inclusivo, e equacionamos os seus principais tipos ou modelos, partindo do princípio que o empoderamento, pelo facto de remeter para diversas conotações ideológicas, não permite almejar consensos quando se trata de o tomar como sinal distintivo ou imagem de marca de uma educação cuja aposta principal é a promoção de um desenvolvimento humano verdadeiramente empenhado em corresponder às expectativas normativas das pessoas em termos de justiça, respeito, dignidade, liberdade e direitos fundamentais para todos.

Combining non-dominance, objective-order and spread metric to extend firefly algorithm to multi-objective optimization

In this paper, we propose an extension of the firefly algorithm (FA) to multi-objective optimization. FA is a swarm intelligence optimization algorithm inspired by the flashing behavior of fireflies at night that is capable of computing global solutions to continuous optimization problems. Our proposal relies on a fitness assignment scheme that gives lower fitness values to the positions of fireflies that correspond to non-dominated points with smaller aggregation of objective function distances to the minimum values. Furthermore, FA randomness is based on the spread metric to reduce the gaps between consecutive non-dominated solutions. The obtained results from the preliminary computational experiments show that our proposal gives a dense and well distributed approximated Pareto front with a large number of points.