Relatório de Estágio: Análise da eficiência do Sistema de controlo de tráfego da cidade do Porto

No âmbito da unidade curricular Dissertação/Estágio/Projeto, foi desenvolvido, durante um estágio na Câmara Municipal do Porto, o estudo da eficiência do sistema inteligente de controlo de tráfego implementado na cidade. Este sistema é designado como Sistema Inteligente de Gestão Autónoma - SIGA e tem como base de funcionamento o software de gestão de tráfego GERTRUDE da empresa GERTRUDE SAEM. O sistema de controlo de tráfego encontra-se repartido em 10 zonas interligadas, focadas essencialmente no centro da cidade do Porto. O estudo foi aplicado apenas a uma parte da zona da Constituição, nomeadamente a rua da Constituição, desde a Praça Marquês até à rua Antero de Quental. A eficiência mediu-se pela comparação de duas situações, a circulação e comportamento das correntes de tráfego com o sistema em funcionamento normal e com o sistema desativado. Por sua vez, o indicador utilizado que permitiu avaliar o sistema, foi o nível de serviço obtido pelo atraso médio por veículo em cada ramo de cada interseção. Para determinação do atraso, foram testados diferentes métodos, para se tentar perceber qual aquele que melhor se adequava à situação e que exigia menor número de recursos humanos. À frente serão exaradas algumas conclusões acerca da metodologia de cada um deles e condicionantes que levaram à não utilização de todos os métodos. Depois de aplicadas as metodologias que permitiram determinar o nível de serviço em cada grupo semafórico das diferentes interseções, percebeu-se que existe uma grande diferença na circulação entre as duas situações, sendo que a mais-valia que este sistema apresenta é a coordenação das diferentes interseções que se encontram abrangidas pelas 10 zonas pertencentes ao SIGA.

Impacto da influência de um Sistema de Gestão Técnica Centralizada na redução dos custos de exploração de um edifício

É de conhecimento do meio, que os Sistemas de Gestão Técnica Centralizada (SGTC) são uma mais-valia para a redução de utilização de energia associados principalmente aos sistemas de Aquecimento, Ventilação e Ar Condicionado (AVAC) apesar das potencialidades serem abrangentes a outras áreas. No entanto, existe alguma lacuna quanto à quantificação dessa mais-valia, facto importante sobretudo para a alteração de mentalidades dos promotores e proprietários dos edifícios, que por falta de prova, normalmente apenas associam o SGTC a um investimento num serviço desnecessário. As potencialidades dos SGTC são muitas, a título de exemplo, redução na utilização de fontes de energia, gestão da manutenção de sistemas e equipamentos, análise de eficiências de equipamentos, entre muitas outras, sendo nesta dissertação estudado com mais profundidade a questão associada à diferença dos custos de exploração resultantes da utilização de energia num edifício por parte dos sistemas de AVAC, isto é, quais serão os ganhos na utilização da energia, associados ao sistema AVAC, que podem ser obtidos com a implementação de um SGTC. Para o efeito, utilizou-se os sistemas e equipamentos existentes no edifício ECOTERMOLAB, pertencente ao Instituto de Soldadura e Qualidade (ISQ), com o objetivo de verificar as diferenças de utilização de energia resultantes do funcionamento do edifício em normal atividade, isto é, o edifício com todos os seus sistemas operacionais, incluindo o SGTC, e o edifício em funcionamento sem o auxílio do SGTC, ou seja, todos os sistemas associados ao sistema AVAC em funcionamento em modo manual e sem recurso a variação de caudal na rede aeráulica e hidráulica. Em termos anuais, o ECOTERMOLAB consome, aproximadamente, cerca de 38,1 MWh de energia elétrica e 39,2 MWh de gás natural, o que representa uma utilização de energia primária de 14,4 tep/ano. Esta energia, representa um encargo financeiro anual de, aproximadamente, 9500€/ano, correspondente a 7000€/ano de energia elétrica e 2500€/ano de gás natural. Após a análise desenvolvida neste trabalho, conclui-se que o funcionamento do edifício sem controlo do sistema de AVAC por SGTC representaria em termos anuais a um aumento de, aproximadamente, 25,2 MWh e 6,2 MWh de energia elétrica e de gás natural, respetivamente. Em termos de energia primária, a diferença entre soluções origina um acréscimo na utilização de energia de 7,8 tep/ano o que representa um aumento de emissão de CO2 na ordem das 9,4 ton/ano. A avaliação económica, recaiu sobre a determinação de indicadores para avaliação da viabilidade de implementação de um SGTC, nomeadamente, o período de retorno simples, o valor atual líquido e a taxa interna de rentabilidade. Todos estes indicadores se revelaram positivos, apresentando um período de retorno ligeiramente superior a oito anos, um valor atual líquido positivo (8864,1€) e uma taxa interna de rentabilidade superior à taxa de custo de capital (11,2%).

Architecture to Support Quality of Service in Arrowhead Systems

Presented at INForum - Simpósio de Informática (INFORUM 2015). 7 to 8, Sep, 2015. Covilhã, Portugal.

Determining the receptivity to the bluetooth marketing by the portuguese consumer

With increasing technological innovation, the concept of marketing and its applications become more functional and wide. Today, we witness a steady growth in the development of mobile marketing campaigns, i.e., marketing campaigns targeting mobile devices (mobile phones, Smartphones, PDAs, tablets). Among the several mobile technologies available (Bluetooth networks, Wi-Fi, WAP, SMS service, MMS), Bluetooth seems to have the biggest potential for the least invasive consumer mobile marketing strategy. This study seeks to answer the question "what factors may motivate the Portuguese consumer to accept Bluetooth marketing?.“ We propose a conceptual model capable of investigating the relationships between the several responsiveness factors to Bluetooth marketing. The development of a set of hypotheses supported by an online questionnaire to a valid sample of 755 participants, demonstrates that there is a relationship between factors such as expanded knowledge of the technology, and Bluetooth marketing receptivity. Additionally, we find that the information value of mobile advertising messages, such as entertainment value and personalization, relates well to responsiveness. The ability to accept/dismiss promotional messages sent to mobile phones and other safety features also correlated well with Bluetooth marketing receptivity.

Análise das determinantes à receptividade ao bluetooth marketing pelo consumidor português – um estudo empírico

With the increasing technological innovation, the concept of marketing and its applications become more functional and wide. Today is visible the development of mobile marketing campaigns, ie marketing campaigns for mobile devices (mobile phones, smartphones, PDAs, tablets). Taking advantage of mobile devices services (bluetooth networks, Wi-Fi, WAP, SMS service, MMS) as a vehicle to approach and communicate with consumers, bluetooth technology is a potential way of mobile marketing to become increasingly less invasive to consumers. This study seeks to answer the question "what factors may motivate the Portuguese consumer to adopt the bluetooth marketing?". According to the literature review on the concept of mobile marketing, bluetooth marketing and consumer behaviour theories, we propose a conceptual model capable of investigating the relationships between the determinants of responsiveness to bluetooth marketing. The empirical study developed from a set of hypotheses and implementation of an online questionnaire to a sample of 755 respondents, demonstrated that there is a relationship between factors such as, technology ease of use, file exchanging and influence of peers, and the receptivity to bluetooth marketing. Also information value of mobile advertising messages, such as entertainment and personalization relates to responsiveness. The consumer’s perceived control over mobile promotional messages and the safety features of the technology, also showed a positive relationship with the receptivity to bluetooth marketing.

Frequency of toxocara infection in children attended by the health public service of Maringá, south Brazil

The lack of specific laboratorial diagnosis methods and precise symptoms makes the toxocariasis a neglected disease in Public Health Services. This study aims to determine the frequency of Toxocara spp. infection in children attended by the Health Public Service of Hospital Municipal de Maringá, South Brazil. To evaluate the association of epidemiological and clinical data, an observational and cross-section study was carried out. From 14,690 attended children/year aged from seven month to 12 years old, 450 serum samples were randomly collected from September/2004 to September/2005. A questionnaire was used to evaluate epidemiological, clinical and hematological data. An ELISA using Toxocara canis larval excretory-secretory products as antigen detected 130 (28.8%) positive sera, mainly between children from seven month to five years old (p = 0.0016). Significant correlation was observed between positive serology for Toxocara, and frequent playing in sandbox at school or daycare center (p = 0.011) and the presence of a cat at home (p = 0.056). From the families, 50% were dog owners which exposed soil backyards. Eosinophilia (p = 0.776), and signs and symptoms analyzed (fever p = 0.992, pneumonia p = 0.289, cold-like symptoms p = 0.277, cough p = 0.783, gastrointestinal problems p = 0.877, migraine p = 0.979, abdominal pain p = 0.965, joint pain p = 0.686 and skin rash p = 0.105) could not be related to the presence of anti-Toxocara antibodies. Therefore, two asthmatics children showed titles of 1:10,240 and accentuated eosinophilia (p = 0.0001). The authors emphasize the needs of prevention activities.

Prognostic Value of a New Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing Parameter in Chronic Heart Failure: Oxygen Uptake Efficiency at Peak Exercise - Comparison with Oxygen Uptake Efficiency Slope

INTRODUCTION: A growing body of evidence shows the prognostic value of oxygen uptake efficiency slope (OUES), a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) parameter derived from the logarithmic relationship between O(2) consumption (VO(2)) and minute ventilation (VE) in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prognostic value of a new CPET parameter - peak oxygen uptake efficiency (POUE) - and to compare it with OUES in patients with CHF. METHODS: We prospectively studied 206 consecutive patients with stable CHF due to dilated cardiomyopathy - 153 male, aged 53.3±13.0 years, 35.4% of ischemic etiology, left ventricular ejection fraction 27.7±8.0%, 81.1% in sinus rhythm, 97.1% receiving ACE-Is or ARBs, 78.2% beta-blockers and 60.2% spironolactone - who performed a first maximal symptom-limited treadmill CPET, using the modified Bruce protocol. In 33% of patients an cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) or cardiac resynchronization therapy device (CRT-D) was implanted during follow-up. Peak VO(2), percentage of predicted peak VO(2), VE/VCO(2) slope, OUES and POUE were analyzed. OUES was calculated using the formula VO(2) (l/min) = OUES (log(10)VE) + b. POUE was calculated as pVO(2) (l/min) / log(10)peakVE (l/min). Correlation coefficients between the studied parameters were obtained. The prognosis of each variable adjusted for age was evaluated through Cox proportional hazard models and R2 percent (R2%) and V index (V6) were used as measures of the predictive accuracy of events of each of these variables. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves from logistic regression models were used to determine the cut-offs for OUES and POUE. RESULTS: pVO(2): 20.5±5.9; percentage of predicted peak VO(2): 68.6±18.2; VE/VCO(2) slope: 30.6±8.3; OUES: 1.85±0.61; POUE: 0.88±0.27. During a mean follow-up of 33.1±14.8 months, 45 (21.8%) patients died, 10 (4.9%) underwent urgent heart transplantation and in three patients (1.5%) a left ventricular assist device was implanted. All variables proved to be independent predictors of this combined event; however, VE/VCO2 slope was most strongly associated with events (HR 11.14). In this population, POUE was associated with a higher risk of events than OUES (HR 9.61 vs. 7.01), and was also a better predictor of events (R2: 28.91 vs. 22.37). CONCLUSION: POUE was more strongly associated with death, urgent heart transplantation and implantation of a left ventricular assist device and proved to be a better predictor of events than OUES. These results suggest that this new parameter can increase the prognostic value of CPET in patients with CHF.

Quality-of-service aware routing for static and mobile IPv6-based low-power and lossy sensor networks using RPL

The Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as a paradigm over the last few years as a result of the tight integration of the computing and the physical world. The requirement of remote sensing makes low-power wireless sensor networks one of the key enabling technologies of IoT. These networks encompass several challenges, especially in communication and networking, due to their inherent constraints of low-power features, deployment in harsh and lossy environments, and limited computing and storage resources. The IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) [1] was proposed by the IETF ROLL (Routing Over Low-power Lossy links) working group and is currently adopted as an IETF standard in the RFC 6550 since March 2012. Although RPL greatly satisfied the requirements of low-power and lossy sensor networks, several issues remain open for improvement and specification, in particular with respect to Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees and support for mobility. In this paper, we focus mainly on the RPL routing protocol. We propose some enhancements to the standard specification in order to provide QoS guarantees for static as well as mobile LLNs. For this purpose, we propose OF-FL (Objective Function based on Fuzzy Logic), a new objective function that overcomes the limitations of the standardized objective functions that were designed for RPL by considering important link and node metrics, namely end-to-end delay, number of hops, ETX (Expected transmission count) and LQL (Link Quality Level). In addition, we present the design of Co-RPL, an extension to RPL based on the corona mechanism that supports mobility in order to overcome the problem of slow reactivity to frequent topology changes and thus providing a better quality of service mainly in dynamic networks application. Performance evaluation results show that both OF-FL and Co-RPL allow a great improvement when compared to the standard specification, mainly in terms of packet loss ratio and average network latency. 2015 Elsevier B.V. Al

P2P service exposer

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores

Crowdsourcing innovation intermediaries functions

Open innovation is a hot topic in innovation management. Its basic premise is open up the innovation process. The innovation process, in general sense, may be seen as the process of designing, developing and commercializing a novel product or service to improve the value added of a company. The development of Web 2.0 tools facilitates this kind of contributions, opening space to the emergence of crowdsourcing innovation initiatives. Crowdsourcing is a form of outsourcing not directed to other companies but to the crowd by means of an open call mostly through an Internet platform. Innovation intermediaries, in general sense, are organizations that work to enable innovation, that just act as brokers or agents between two or more parties. Usually, they are also engaged in other activities like inter-organizational networking and technology development and related activities. A crowdsourcing innovation intermediary is an organization that mediates the communication and relationship between the seekers – companies that aspire to solve some problem or to take advantage of any business opportunity – with a crowd that is prone to give ideas based on their knowledge, experience and wisdom. This paper identifies and analyses the functions to be performed by an intermediary of crowdsourcing innovation through grounded theory analyses from literature. The resulting model is presented and explained. The resulting model summarizes eight main functions that can be performed by a crowdsourcing process, namely, diagnoses, mediation, linking knowledge, community, evaluation, project management, intellectual property governance and marketing and support. These functions are associated with a learning cycle process which covers all the crowdsourcing activities that can be realized by the broker.

A Quantitative Model for Decomposing & Assessing the Value for the Customer

The research presented in this paper proposes a novel quantitative model for decomposing and assessing the Value for the Customer. The proposed approach builds on the different dimensions of the Value Network analysis proposed by Verna Allee having as background the concept of Value for the Customer proposed by Woodall. In this context, the Value for the Customer is modelled as a relationship established between the exchanged deliverables and a combination of tangible and intangible assets projected into their endogenous or exogenous dimensions. The Value Network Analysis of the deliverables exchange enables an in-depth understanding of this frontier and the implicit modelling of co-creation scenarios. The proposed Conceptual Model for Decomposing Value for the Customer combines several concepts: from the marketing area we have the concept of Value for the Customer; from the area of intellectual capital the concept of Value Network Analysis; from the collaborative networks area we have the perspective of the enterprise life cycle and the endogenous and exogenous perspectives; at last, the proposed model is supported by a mathematical formal description that stems from the area of Multi-Criteria Decision Making. The whole concept is illustrated in the context of a case study of an enterprise in the footwear industry (Pontechem). The merits of this approach seem evident from the contact with Pontechem as it provides a structured approach for the enterprises to assess the adequacy of their value proposition to the client/customer needs and how these relate to their endogenous and/or exogenous tangible or intangible assets. The proposed model, as a tool, may therefore be a useful instrument in supporting the commercialisation of new products and/or services.

A comunicação interna e a sua relação com a motivação dos trabalhadores

A presente proposta de Dissertação tem como objetivo principal analisar três canais de Comunicação Interna da empresa do Grupo Probos: Revista Interna; Self-Service; Caixa de Sugestões; e avaliar se estes contribuem para a motivação dos trabalhadores. O estudo da população envolveu 119 trabalhadores da empresa divididos por três secções: Administrativos, Técnicos e Operários que registaram as suas opiniões através de respostas a um instrumento de medição, o questionário. O questionário está dividido em quatro secções: Dados Sociodemográficos, Revista Interna, Caixa de Sugestões e Self-Service. As opiniões foram analisadas através do Excel da Microsoft e de uma escala de Likert de cinco pontos com o software para tratamento de dados quantitativos – IBM SPSS (versão 22). Como conclusão, no que diz respeito à Revista Interna os resultados apontam que nem todos os colaboradores inquiridos da empresa em estudo, consideram este canal comunicacional interno motivador para o seu desempenho profissional, mas valorizam a divulgação dos méritos e das novidades por seu intermédio. Relativamente aos canais Self-Service e Caixa de Sugestões, conclui-se que estes são ambos contributos para a motivação dos trabalhadores.

Análise das determinantes da e-lealdade no comércio eletrónico

Objetivo – O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar e medir os determinantes da e-lealdade de um cliente no comércio eletrónico em Portugal. Metodologia – Foi realizado um estudo quantitativo empírico confirmatório e explicativo, a partir da identificação de um modelo teórico, suportado pelo levantamento bibliográfico sobre variáveis latentes, suscetível de investigar as relações entre os determinantes da e-lealdade. Os dados foram recolhidos através de um instrumento de medida, disponível online, o qual, permitiu obter uma amostra válida de 394 respondentes. As hipóteses foram testadas através de um modelo de equações estruturais. Resultados e conclusões – Estudaram-se e comprovaram-se a maioria das relações previstas e hipóteses, nomeadamente, a relação positiva das várias dimensões da e-confiança, e-satisfação e da e-qualidade de serviço na e-lealdade. A e-satisfação e a e-qualidade de serviço apresentam, também, um contributo interessante para a e-confiança que os consumidores têm nos produtos/serviços online. Quanto à e-satisfação dos consumidores foi possível verificar que a mesma apresenta uma variação, de acordo com a e-qualidade de serviço e a e-confiança, por parte dos consumidores online. Foi cumprida a validade convergente e discriminante das escalas de medida e a boa qualidade psicométrica das variáveis. Estas evidenciaram bons níveis de correlação e capacidades preditivas. Limitações/implicações – Os resultados obtidos precisam ser analisados com toda a precaução, não podendo ser objeto de generalizações, face ao uso de uma amostra de conveniência. O facto de os inquiridos avaliarem um website que estão já familiarizados pode constituir uma outra limitação. A ausência de estudos nacionais homólogos teve algumas implicações na discussão dos resultados. Originalidade/valor – O principal contributo deste estudo é constituir o primeiro realizado em Portugal, à data, onde se investigou e estimou um modelo proposto sobre os determinantes e antecedentes da e-lealdade no comércio eletrónico.

Tuberculosis among HIV-1-infected subjects in a tertiary out-patient service in São Paulo city, Brazil

TB is currently considered to be the most important infectious disease among HIV-1-infected subjects in developing countries, such as Brazil. A retrospective analysis of TB cases was performed, occurring from January 1995 to December 2010 in our cohort of 599 HIV positive patients. The primary outcome was the occurrence of active TB. Forty-one TB cases were diagnosed over this period of 16 years, among 599 HIV positive patients in an open cohort setting in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. All-time lowest mean CD4 T cell count at the time of TB diagnosis was 146 and 186 cells/mm³, respectively. The mean HIV viral load was 5.19 log10 copies/mL, and 59% of the patients were on HAART. TB incidence was 1.47 per 100 person-years, for a total follow-up time of 2775 person-years. The probability of surviving up to 10 years after diagnosis was 75% for TB patients as opposed to 96% for patients with other, non-TB opportunistic diseases (p = 0.03). TB can be considered a public health problem among people living with HIV in Brazil despite of the widespread use of antiretrovirals for the treatment of HIV infection/AIDS.