Optimising and adapting the QoS of a dynamic set of inter-dependent tasks

Due to the growing complexity and adaptability requirements of real-time systems, which often exhibit unrestricted Quality of Service (QoS) inter-dependencies among supported services and user-imposed quality constraints, it is increasingly difficult to optimise the level of service of a dynamic task set within an useful and bounded time. This is even more difficult when intending to benefit from the full potential of an open distributed cooperating environment, where service characteristics are not known beforehand and tasks may be inter-dependent. This paper focuses on optimising a dynamic local set of inter-dependent tasks that can be executed at varying levels of QoS to achieve an efficient resource usage that is constantly adapted to the specific constraints of devices and users, nature of executing tasks and dynamically changing system conditions. Extensive simulations demonstrate that the proposed anytime algorithms are able to quickly find a good initial solution and effectively optimise the rate at which the quality of the current solution improves as the algorithms are given more time to run, with a minimum overhead when compared against their traditional versions.

Comparação de modelos de assistência ao parto em hospitais públicos

OBJETIVO Comparar os modelos colaborativo e tradicional na assistência ao parto e nascimento. MÉTODOS Estudo transversal realizado com 655 primíparas em quatro hospitais do sistema único de saúde em Belo Horizonte, MG, em 2011 (333 mulheres do modelo colaborativo e 322 do modelo tradicional, incluindo aquelas com trabalho de parto induzido e prematuro). Os dados foram coletados em entrevistas e levantamento de prontuários. Foram aplicados os testes Qui-quadrado para comparação e regressão logística múltipla para determinar associação entre o modelo e os desfechos analisados. RESULTADOS Houve diferenças significativas entre os modelos em relação ao nível de escolaridade e trabalho remunerado. No modelo colaborativo houve menor utilização da ocitocina (50,2% no modelo colaborativo versus 65,5% no modelo tradicional; p < 0,001), da ruptura artificial das membranas (54,3% no modelo colaborativo versus 65,9% no modelo tradicional; p = 0,012) e da taxa de episiotomia (16,1% no modelo colaborativo versus 85,2% no modelo tradicional; p < 0,001), e maior utilização de métodos não farmacológicos para alívio da dor (85,0% no modelo colaborativo versus 78,9% no modelo tradicional; p = 0,042). A associação entre o modelo colaborativo e a redução no uso da ocitocina, da ruptura artificial das membranas e da episiotomia manteve-se após o ajuste para fatores de confundimento. O modelo assistencial não esteve associado a complicações neonatais ou maternas nem à utilização de analgesia de condução. CONCLUSÕES Os resultados sugerem que o modelo colaborativo poderá reduzir as intervenções na assistência ao trabalho de parto e parto com resultados perinatais semelhantes.

Integração e continuidade do cuidado em modelos de rede de atenção à saúde para idosos frágeis

Foi realizada revisão crítica da literatura sobre modelos que tenham avaliado a efetividade de redes assistenciais integradas e coordenadas para a população idosa. Foram pesquisadas as seguintes bases bibliográficas: Pubmed, The Cochrane Library, Lilacs, Web of Science, Scopus e SciELO. Doze artigos sobre cinco modelos diferentes foram incluídos para a discussão. A análise da literatura mostrou que a prestação de serviços pautava-se na atenção básica incluindo serviços domiciliares. Os usuários contavam com a integração de atenção primária, hospitalar, centros dia, serviços domiciliares e serviços sociais. O plano de cuidados e a gestão de caso foram elementos chaves para a continuidade de cuidado. Essa abordagem mostrou-se efetiva nos estudos, reduzindo o uso da atenção hospitalar, o que resultou em economia para o sistema financiador. Houve redução da prevalência de perda funcional, melhora na satisfação e na qualidade de vida dos usuários e de seus familiares. A análise da literatura reforça a necessidade de se modificar a abordagem de assistência à saúde dos idosos, e a integração e coordenação dos serviços são formas eficientes para iniciar essa mudança.

Control of baker’s yeast fermentation: PID and fuzzy algorithms

A MATLAB/SIMULINK-based simulator was employed for studies concerning the control of baker’s yeast fed-batch fermentation. Four control algorithms were implemented and compared: the classical PID control, two discrete versions- modified velocity and position algorithms, and a fuzzy law. The simulation package was seen to be an efficient tool for the simulation and tests of control strategies of the nonlinear process.

Penalty fuzzy function for derivative-free optimization

Penalty and Barrier methods are normally used to solve Nonlinear Optimization Problems constrained problems. The problems appear in areas such as engineering and are often characterised by the fact that involved functions (objective and constraints) are non-smooth and/or their derivatives are not know. This means that optimization methods based on derivatives cannot net used. A Java based API was implemented, including only derivative-free optimizationmethods, to solve both constrained and unconstrained problems, which includes Penalty and Barriers methods. In this work a new penalty function, based on Fuzzy Logic, is presented. This function imposes a progressive penalization to solutions that violate the constraints. This means that the function imposes a low penalization when the violation of the constraints is low and a heavy penalisation when the violation is high. The value of the penalization is not known in beforehand, it is the outcome of a fuzzy inference engine. Numerical results comparing the proposed function with two of the classic penalty/barrier functions are presented. Regarding the presented results one can conclude that the prosed penalty function besides being very robust also exhibits a very good performance.

Indoor location using fingerprinting and fuzzy logic

Indoor location systems cannot rely on technologies such as GPS (Global Positioning System) to determine the position of a mobile terminal, because its signals are blocked by obstacles such as walls, ceilings, roofs, etc. In such environments. The use of alternative techniques, such as the use of wireless networks, should be considered. The location estimation is made by measuring and analysing one of the parameters of the wireless signal, usually the received power. One of the techniques used to estimate the locations using wireless networks is fingerprinting. This technique comprises two phases: in the first phase data is collected from the scenario and stored in a database; the second phase consists in determining the location of the mobile node by comparing the data collected from the wireless transceiver with the data previously stored in the database. In this paper an approach for localisation using fingerprinting based on Fuzzy Logic and pattern searching is presented. The performance of the proposed approach is compared with the performance of classic methods, and it presents an improvement between 10.24% and 49.43%, depending on the mobile node and the Fuzzy Logic parameters.ł

Fuzzy clustering applied to a demand response model in a smatr grid contingency scenario

This paper focus on a demand response model analysis in a smart grid context considering a contingency scenario. A fuzzy clustering technique is applied on the developed demand response model and an analysis is performed for the contingency scenario. Model considerations and architecture are described. The demand response developed model aims to support consumers decisions regarding their consumption needs and possible economic benefits.

Fuzzy, integer and fractional-order control: application on a wind turbine benchmark model

This paper presents a comparison between proportional integral control approaches for variable speed wind turbines. Integer and fractional-order controllers are designed using linearized wind turbine model whilst fuzzy controller also takes into account system nonlinearities. These controllers operate in the full load region and the main objective is to extract maximum power from the wind turbine while ensuring the performance and reliability required to be integrated into an electric grid. The main contribution focuses on the use of fractional-order proportional integral (FOPI) controller which benefits from the introduction of one more tuning parameter, the integral fractional-order, taking advantage over integer order proportional integral (PI) controller. A comparison between proposed control approaches for the variable speed wind turbines is presented using a wind turbine benchmark model in the Matlab/Simulink environment. Results show that FOPI has improved system performance when compared with classical PI and fuzzy PI controller outperforms the integer and fractional-order control due to its capability to deal with system nonlinearities and uncertainties. © 2014 IEEE.

Modelos de planos em blocos incompletos: revisão e perspectivas

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Estatística e Optimização

Famílias estruturadas de modelos com modelo base ortogonal: Teoria e aplicações

Dissertação apresentada para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Matemática com especialização em Estatística pela Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia.

Fuzzy linguistic controllers applied to decouple control loop effects

A fuzzy linguistic controller has been developed and implemented with the aim to cope with interactions between control loops due to coupling effects. To access the performance of the proposed approach several experiments have also been conducted using the classical PID controllers in the control loops. A mixing process has been used as test bed of all controllers experimented and the corresponding dynamic model has been derived. The successful results achieved with the fuzzy linguistic controllers suggests that they can be an alternative to classical controllers when in the presence of process plants where automatic control as to cope with coupling effects between control loops. © 2014 IEEE.

The daily and hourly energy consumption and load forecasting using artifitial neural network method: a case study using a set of 93 households in Portugal

It is important to understand and forecast a typical or a particularly household daily consumption in order to design and size suitable renewable energy systems and energy storage. In this research for Short Term Load Forecasting (STLF) it has been used Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and, despite the consumption unpredictability, it has been shown the possibility to forecast the electricity consumption of a household with certainty. The ANNs are recognized to be a potential methodology for modeling hourly and daily energy consumption and load forecasting. Input variables such as apartment area, numbers of occupants, electrical appliance consumption and Boolean inputs as hourly meter system were considered. Furthermore, the investigation carried out aims to define an ANN architecture and a training algorithm in order to achieve a robust model to be used in forecasting energy consumption in a typical household. It was observed that a feed-forward ANN and the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm provided a good performance. For this research it was used a database with consumption records, logged in 93 real households, in Lisbon, Portugal, between February 2000 and July 2001, including both weekdays and weekend. The results show that the ANN approach provides a reliable model for forecasting household electric energy consumption and load profile. © 2014 The Author.

Políticas e modelos de gestão em unidades de fisioterapia: estratégias para a mudança

Mestrado em Intervenção Sócio-Organizacional na Saúde - Área de especialização: Políticas de Administração e Gestão de Serviços de Saúde

Integração de ambientes industriais colaborativos através da visualização orientada pelos modelos

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

Fuzzy clustering não supervisionado na detecção automática de regiões de upwelling a partir de mapas de temperatura da superfície oceânica

Trabalho apresentado no âmbito do Mestrado em Engenharia Informática, como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática