A middleware for service oriented computing in dynamic environments

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para a obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática

A calculus for modeling and analyzing conversations in service-oriented computing

Dissertação apresentada para a obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Informática pela Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia

Disposable immunosensor using a simple method for oriented antibody immobilization for label-free real-time detection of an oxidative stress biomarker implicated in cancer diseases

This work proposes a novel approach for a suitable orientation of antibodies (Ab) on an immunosensing platform, applied here to the determination of 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8OHdG), a biomarker of oxidative stress that has been associated to chronic diseases, such as cancer. The anti-8OHdG was bound to an amine modified gold support through its Fc region after activation of its carboxylic functions. Non-oriented approaches of Ab binding to the platform were tested in parallel, in order to show that the presented methodology favored Ab/Ag affinity and immunodetection of the antigen. The immunosensor design was evaluated by quartz-crystal microbalance with dissipation, atomic force microscopy, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and square-wave voltammetry. EIS was also a suitable technique to follow the analytical behavior of the device against 8OHdG. The affinity binding between 8OHdG and the antibody immobilized in the gold modified platform increased the charge transfer resistance across the electrochemical set-up. The observed behavior was linear from 0.02 to 7.0 ng/mL of 8OHdG concentrations. The interference from glucose, urea and creatinine was found negligible. An attempt of application to synthetic samples was also successfully conducted. Overall, the presented approach enabled the production of suitably oriented Abs over a gold platform by means of a much simpler process than other oriented-Ab binding approaches described in the literature, as far as we know, and was successful in terms of analytical features and sample application.

Oriented Tailoring of Plastic Antibodies for Prostate Specific Antigen and Application of the Imprinted Material as Ionophore in Potentiometric Detection

Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) is the biomarker of choice for screening prostate cancer throughout the population, with PSA values above 10 ng/mL pointing out a high probability of associated cancer1. According to the most recent World Health Organization (WHO) data, prostate cancer is the commonest form of cancer in men in Europe2. Early detection of prostate cancer is thus very important and is currently made by screening PSA in men over 45 years old, combined with other alterations in serum and urine parameters. PSA is a glycoprotein with a molecular mass of approximately 32 kDa consisting of one polypeptide chain, which is produced by the secretory epithelium of human prostate. Currently, the standard methods available for PSA screening are immunoassays like Enzyme-Linked Immunoabsorbent Assay (ELISA). These methods are highly sensitive and specific for the detection of PSA, but they require expensive laboratory facilities and high qualify personal resources. Other highly sensitive and specific methods for the detection of PSA have also become available and are in its majority immunobiosensors1,3-5, relying on antibodies. Less expensive methods producing quicker responses are thus needed, which may be achieved by synthesizing artificial antibodies by means of molecular imprinting techniques. These should also be coupled to simple and low cost devices, such as those of the potentiometric kind, one approach that has been proven successful6. Potentiometric sensors offer the advantage of selectivity and portability for use in point-of-care and have been widely recognized as potential analytical tools in this field. The inherent method is simple, precise, accurate and inexpensive regarding reagent consumption and equipment involved. Thus, this work proposes a new plastic antibody for PSA, designed over the surface of graphene layers extracted from graphite. Charged monomers were used to enable an oriented tailoring of the PSA rebinding sites. Uncharged monomers were used as control. These materials were used as ionophores in conventional solid-contact graphite electrodes. The obtained results showed that the imprinted materials displayed a selective response to PSA. The electrodes with charged monomers showed a more stable and sensitive response, with an average slope of -44.2 mV/decade and a detection limit of 5.8X10-11 mol/L (2 ng/mL). The corresponding non-imprinted sensors showed smaller sensitivity, with average slopes of -24.8 mV/decade. The best sensors were successfully applied to the analysis of serum samples, with percentage recoveries of 106.5% and relatives errors of 6.5%.

Label-free human chorionic gonadotropin detection at picogram levels using oriented antibodies bound to graphene screen-printed electrodes

Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is a key diagnostic marker of pregnancy and an important biomarker for cancers in the prostate, ovaries and bladder and therefore of great importance in diagnosis. For this purpose, a new immunosensor of screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) is presented here. The device was fabricated by introducing a polyaniline (PANI) conductive layer, via in situ electropolymerization of aniline, onto a screen-printed graphene support. The PANI-coated graphene acts as the working electrode of a three terminal electrochemical sensor. The working electrode is functionalised with anti-hCG, by means of a simple process that enabled oriented antibody binding to the PANI layer. The antibody was attached to PANI following activation of the –COOH group at the Fc terminal. Functionalisation of the electrode was analysed and optimized using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). Chemical modification of the surface was characterised using Fourier transform infrared, and Raman spectroscopy with confocal microscopy. The graphene–SPE–PANI devices displayed linear responses to hCG in EIS assays from 0.001 to 50 ng mL−1 in real urine, with a detection limit of 0.286 pg mL−1. High selectivity was observed with respect to the presence of the constituent components of urine (urea, creatinine, magnesium chloride, calcium chloride, sodium dihydrogen phosphate, ammonium chloride, potassium sulphate and sodium chloride) at their normal levels, with a negligible sensor response to these chemicals. Successful detection of hCG was also achieved in spiked samples of real urine from a pregnant woman. The immunosensor developed is a promising tool for point-of-care detection of hCG, due to its excellent detection capability, simplicity of fabrication, low-cost, high sensitivity and selectivity.

Formation Control Driven by Cooperative Object Tracking

In this paper we introduce a formation control loop that maximizes the performance of the cooperative perception of a tracked target by a team of mobile robots, while maintaining the team in formation, with a dynamically adjustable geometry which is a function of the quality of the target perception by the team. In the formation control loop, the controller module is a distributed non-linear model predictive controller and the estimator module fuses local estimates of the target state, obtained by a particle filter at each robot. The two modules and their integration are described in detail, including a real-time database associated to a wireless communication protocol that facilitates the exchange of state data while reducing collisions among team members. Simulation and real robot results for indoor and outdoor teams of different robots are presented. The results highlight how our method successfully enables a team of homogeneous robots to minimize the total uncertainty of the tracked target cooperative estimate while complying with performance criteria such as keeping a pre-set distance between the teammates and the target, avoiding collisions with teammates and/or surrounding obstacles.

Message-oriented middleware for smart grids

In order to increase the efficiency in the use of energy resources, the electrical grid is slowly evolving into a smart(er) grid that allows users' production and storage of energy, automatic and remote control of appliances, energy exchange between users, and in general optimizations over how the energy is managed and consumed. One of the main innovations of the smart grid is its organization over an energy plane that involves the actual exchange of energy, and a data plane that regards the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure used for the management of the grid's data. In the particular case of the data plane, the exchange of large quantities of data can be facilitated by a middleware based on a messaging bus. Existing messaging buses follow different data management paradigms (e.g.: request/response, publish/subscribe, data-oriented messaging) and thus satisfy smart grids' communication requirements at different extents. This work contributes to the state of the art by identifying, in existing standards and architectures, common requirements that impact in the messaging system of a data plane for the smart grid. The paper analyzes existing messaging bus paradigms that can be used as a basis for the ICT infrastructure of a smart grid and discusses how these can satisfy smart grids' requirements.

A simplified four-branch model for the analytical study of the out-of-plane performance of regular stone URM walls

During the last years, several studies have been made aiming to assess the out-of-plane seismic response of unreinforced stone masonry structures. This fact led to the development of a wide variety of models and approaches, ranging from simple kinematic based analytical models up to complex numerical simulations. Nevertheless, for the sake of simplicity, the out-of-plane seismic response of a masonry wall pier may be obtained by means of a simple single-degree-of-freedom system while still providing good results. In fact, despite the assumptions associated with such a simple formulation, it is also true that the epistemic uncertainty inherent with the selection of appropriate input parameters in more complex models may render them truly ineffective. In this framework, this paper focuses on the study of the out-of-plane bending of unreinforced stone masonry walls (cantilevers) by proposing a simplified analytical approach based on the construction of a linearized four-branch model, which is used to characterize the linear and nonlinear response of such structural elements through an overturning moment-rotation relationship. The formulation of the four-branch model is presented and described in detail and the meaningful parameters used for its construction are obtained from a set of experimental laboratory tests performed on six full-scale unreinforced regular sacco stone masonry specimens. Moreover, a parametric analysis aiming to evaluate the effect of these parameters’ variation on the final configuration of the model is presented and critically discussed. Finally, the results obtained from the application of the developed four-branch model on real unreinforced regular sacco stone masonry walls are thoroughly analysed and the main conclusions obtained from its application are summarized.

Experimental characterization of the out-of-plane performance of regular stone masonry walls, including test setups and axial load influence

Stone masonry is one of the oldest and most worldwide used building techniques. Nevertheless, the structural response of masonry structures is complex and the effective knowledge about their mechanical behaviour is still limited. This fact is particularly notorious when dealing with the description of their out-of-plane behaviour under horizontal loadings, as is the case of the earthquake action. In this context, this paper describes an experimental program, conducted in laboratory environment, aiming at characterizing the out-of-plane behaviour of traditional unreinforced stone masonry walls. In the scope of this campaign, six full-scale sacco stone masonry specimens were fully characterised regarding their most important mechanic, geometric and dynamic features and were tested resorting to two different loading techniques under three distinct vertical pre-compression states; three of the specimens were subjected to an out-of-plane surface load by means of a system of airbags and the remaining were subjected to an out-of-plane horizontal line-load at the top. From the experiments it was possible to observe that both test setups were able to globally mobilize the out-of-plane response of the walls, which presented substantial displacement capacity, with ratios of ultimate displacement to the wall thickness ranging between 26 and 45 %, as well as good energy dissipation capacity. Finally, very interesting results were also obtained from a simple analytical model used herein to compute a set of experimental-based ratios, namely between the maximum stability displacement and the wall thickness for which a mean value of about 60 % was found.

Análise da tradução e legendagem da sátira no mockumentary

O presente trabalho foi elaborado no âmbito da dissertação do Mestrado em Tradução e Interpretação Especializadas, e tem como objectivo estudar o formato mockumentary, no qual se baseia a minha análise, e compreender as especificidades da tradução do elemento satírico de que este híbrido se pode revestir, enquanto elemento potenciador de comicidade. A Tradução Audiovisual é um fenómeno com que nos deparamos diariamente, seja a partir de uma televisão, de um ecrã de computador ou de um dispositivo móvel, em que estamos perante um conjunto de elementos semióticos diversos, para os quais concorre uma combinação essencial de quatro canais, a saber, o canal visual, acústico, verbal e não-verbal. O tradutor deve ter em consideração não só o código verbal, como também os elementos que não são estritamente linguísticos, como gestos, música, expressões faciais, etc. Dado que Uma Família Muito Moderna, sobre a qual baseei a minha análise, é uma série humorística com um forte pendor satírico, afigurou-se como primeiro objecto de estudo por descrever o mockumentary e analisar como esse humor se verifica na versão portuguesa. Deste modo, impõe-se abordar a questão da tradução do humor, neste caso de trocadilhos (wordplay), puns e casos de polissemia, bem como da tradução de referências culturais e intertextuais. Para esse efeito, procedi a uma análise contrastiva entre o texto original, em língua inglesa, e verificar a recuperação do tom satírico potenciador de humor nas legendas, na língua de chegada, em língua portuguesa. Em conjunto, estes elementos concorrem para a construção de um texto que, no caso deste mockumentary, se reveste de um forte tom satírico - mock - para a criação de humor, apresentando uma série que, apesar de indubitavelmente fictícia, revela determinados traços associados a formatos televisivos informativos - documentary - , transmitindo ao espectador uma ilusão de realidade e de factualidade.

Emotion-oriented interventions for environment and the facilitation of pro-environmental behavior

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Ambiente, pela Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia

People and object tracking for video annotation

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática

NEGOSEIO: framework for the sustainability of model-oriented enterprise interoperability

Dissertation to obtain the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering(Industrial Information Systems)

Towards improving WEBSOM with multi-word expressions

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática