Development of a new client -server architecture for context aware mobile computing

This dissertation studies the context-aware application with its proposed algorithms at client side. The required context-aware infrastructure is discussed in depth to illustrate that such an infrastructure collects the mobile user’s context information, registers service providers, derives mobile user’s current context, distributes user context among context-aware applications, and provides tailored services. The approach proposed tries to strike a balance between the context server and mobile devices. The context acquisition is centralized at the server to ensure the reusability of context information among mobile devices, while context reasoning remains at the application level. Hence, a centralized context acquisition and distributed context reasoning are viewed as a better solution overall. The context-aware search application is designed and implemented at the server side. A new algorithm is proposed to take into consideration the user context profiles. By promoting feedback on the dynamics of the system, any prior user selection is now saved for further analysis such that it may contribute to help the results of a subsequent search. On the basis of these developments at the server side, various solutions are consequently provided at the client side. A proxy software-based component is set up for the purpose of data collection. This research endorses the belief that the proxy at the client side should contain the context reasoning component. Implementation of such a component provides credence to this belief in that the context applications are able to derive the user context profiles. Furthermore, a context cache scheme is implemented to manage the cache on the client device in order to minimize processing requirements and other resources (bandwidth, CPU cycle, power). Java and MySQL platforms are used to implement the proposed architecture and to test scenarios derived from user’s daily activities. To meet the practical demands required of a testing environment without the impositions of a heavy cost for establishing such a comprehensive infrastructure, a software simulation using a free Yahoo search API is provided as a means to evaluate the effectiveness of the design approach in a most realistic way. The integration of Yahoo search engine into the context-aware architecture design proves how context aware application can meet user demands for tailored services and products in and around the user’s environment. The test results show that the overall design is highly effective, providing new features and enriching the mobile user’s experience through a broad scope of potential applications.

Design and construction of a portable force-reflecting manual controller for teleoperation systems

A man-machine system called teleoperator system has been developed to work in hazardous environments such as nuclear reactor plants. Force reflection is a type of force feedback in which forces experienced by the remote manipulator are fed back to the manual controller. In a force-reflecting teleoperation system, the operator uses the manual controller to direct the remote manipulator and receives visual information from a video image and/or graphical animation on the computer screen. This thesis presents the design of a portable Force-Reflecting Manual Controller (FRMC) for the teleoperation of tasks such as hazardous material handling, waste cleanup, and space-related operations. The work consists of the design and construction of a prototype 1-Degree-of-Freedom (DOF) FRMC, the development of the Graphical User Interface (GUI), and system integration. Two control strategies - PID and fuzzy logic controllers are developed and experimentally tested. The system response of each is analyzed and evaluated. In addition, the concept of a telesensation system is introduced, and a variety of design alternatives of a 3-DOF FRMC are proposed for future development.

Design and implementation of a web based shop floor control system to maintain schedule feasibility in a dynamic job shop environment

The effective control of production activities in dynamic job shop with predetermined resource allocation for all the jobs entering the system is a unique manufacturing environment, which exists in the manufacturing industry. In this thesis a framework for an Internet based real time shop floor control system for such a dynamic job shop environment is introduced. The system aims to maintain the schedule feasibility of all the jobs entering the manufacturing system under any circumstance. The system is capable of deciding how often the manufacturing activities should be monitored to check for control decisions that need to be taken on the shop floor. The system will provide the decision maker real time notification to enable him to generate feasible alternate solutions in case a disturbance occurs on the shop floor. The control system is also capable of providing the customer with real time access to the status of the jobs on the shop floor. The communication between the controller, the user and the customer is through web based user friendly GUI. The proposed control system architecture and the interface for the communication system have been designed, developed and implemented.

Data compilation on the biological response to ocean acidification: environmental and experimental context of data sets and related literature

The exponential growth of studies on the biological response to ocean acidification over the last few decades has generated a large amount of data. To facilitate data comparison, a data compilation hosted at the data publisher PANGAEA was initiated in 2008 and is updated on a regular basis (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.149999). By January 2015, a total of 581 data sets (over 4 000 000 data points) from 539 papers had been archived. Here we present the developments of this data compilation five years since its first description by Nisumaa et al. (2010). Most of study sites from which data archived are still in the Northern Hemisphere and the number of archived data from studies from the Southern Hemisphere and polar oceans are still relatively low. Data from 60 studies that investigated the response of a mix of organisms or natural communities were all added after 2010, indicating a welcomed shift from the study of individual organisms to communities and ecosystems. The initial imbalance of considerably more data archived on calcification and primary production than on other processes has improved. There is also a clear tendency towards more data archived from multifactorial studies after 2010. For easier and more effective access to ocean acidification data, the ocean acidification community is strongly encouraged to contribute to the data archiving effort, and help develop standard vocabularies describing the variables and define best practices for archiving ocean acidification data.

Uma estratégia para otimizar a geração de arranjos em subestações virtuais de energia elétrica

The Virtual Reality techniques applied in Electricity Environments provide a new supervisory control paradigm. The fact of existing a virtual environment (VE), geometrically similar to a real substation, reduces the difference of mental models built by field operators compared with those built by system center operation improving the communication. Beside this, those systems can be used as visualization interfaces for electricity system simulators, training systems for professors and undergraduate students, field operators and maintenance professionals. However, the development process of these systems is quite complex, combining several activities such as implementation, 3D modeling, virtual sceneries construction, usability assessment and management project techniques. In this context, this work present a GUI strategy to build field arrangements based on scene graphs, to reduce time in Virtual Electricity Substations Arrangement development. Through this, mistakes during the VE building can be avoided making this process more reliable. As an concept proof, all toolkits developed in this work were applied in the virtualization of the substations from a Brazilian power concessionary named CEMIG.

Mutation of SLC35D3 causes metabolic syndrome by impairing dopamine signaling in striatal D1 neurons

Funding: This work was partially supported by grants from National Basic Research Program of China (2013CB530605; 2014CB942803), from National Natural Science Foundation of China 1230046; 31071252; 81101182) and from Chinese Academy of Sciences (KSCX2-EW-R-05, KJZD-EW-L08). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Relatório de Estágio na Inficon AG e na PT Inovação & Sistemas

This document focuses the projects developed during two independent internships, which were carried out at Inficon AG and PT Inovação & Sistemas. Since the research areas of both internships are unrelated, individual abstracts are presented.

Measured parental weight status and familial socio-economic status correlates with childhood overweight and obesity at age 9

Background: Parental obesity is a predominant risk factor for childhood obesity. Family factors including socio-economic status (SES) play a role in determining parent weight. It is essential to unpick how shared family factors impact on child weight. This study aims to investigate the association between measured parent weight status, familial socio-economic factors and the risk of childhood obesity at age 9. Methodology/Principal Findings: Cross sectional analysis of the first wave (2008) of the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) study. GUI is a nationally representative study of 9-year-old children (N = 8,568). Schools were selected from the national total (response rate 82%) and age eligible children (response rate 57%) were invited to participate. Children and their parents had height and weight measurements taken using standard methods. Data were reweighted to account for the sampling design. Childhood overweight and obesity prevalence were calculated using International Obesity Taskforce definitions. Multinomial logistic regression examined the association between parent weight status, indicators of SES and child weight. Overall, 25% of children were either overweight (19.3%) or obese (6.6%). Parental obesity was a significant predictor of child obesity. Of children with normal weight parents, 14.4% were overweight or obese whereas 46.2% of children with obese parents were overweight or obese. Maternal education and household class were more consistently associated with a child being in a higher body mass index category than household income. Adjusted regression indicated that female gender, one parent family type, lower maternal education, lower household class and a heavier parent weight status significantly increased the odds of childhood obesity. Conclusions/Significance: Parental weight appears to be the most influential factor driving the childhood obesity epidemic in Ireland and is an independent predictor of child obesity across SES groups. Due to the high prevalence of obesity in parents and children, population based interventions are required.

Development of a New Client-Server Architecture for Context Aware Mobile Computing

This dissertation studies the context-aware application with its proposed algorithms at client side. The required context-aware infrastructure is discussed in depth to illustrate that such an infrastructure collects the mobile user’s context information, registers service providers, derives mobile user’s current context, distributes user context among context-aware applications, and provides tailored services. The approach proposed tries to strike a balance between the context server and mobile devices. The context acquisition is centralized at the server to ensure the usability of context information among mobile devices, while context reasoning remains at the application level. Hence, a centralized context acquisition and distributed context reasoning are viewed as a better solution overall. The context-aware search application is designed and implemented at the server side. A new algorithm is proposed to take into consideration the user context profiles. By promoting feedback on the dynamics of the system, any prior user selection is now saved for further analysis such that it may contribute to help the results of a subsequent search. On the basis of these developments at the server side, various solutions are consequently provided at the client side. A proxy software-based component is set up for the purpose of data collection. This research endorses the belief that the proxy at the client side should contain the context reasoning component. Implementation of such a component provides credence to this belief in that the context applications are able to derive the user context profiles. Furthermore, a context cache scheme is implemented to manage the cache on the client device in order to minimize processing requirements and other resources (bandwidth, CPU cycle, power). Java and MySQL platforms are used to implement the proposed architecture and to test scenarios derived from user’s daily activities. To meet the practical demands required of a testing environment without the impositions of a heavy cost for establishing such a comprehensive infrastructure, a software simulation using a free Yahoo search API is provided as a means to evaluate the effectiveness of the design approach in a most realistic way. The integration of Yahoo search engine into the context-aware architecture design proves how context aware application can meet user demands for tailored services and products in and around the user’s environment. The test results show that the overall design is highly effective,providing new features and enriching the mobile user’s experience through a broad scope of potential applications.

Cuando el sindicato se tiñe de género. El caso de la secretaría de Derechos Humanos, Género e Igualdad de la Asociación Bancaria Argentina en el período 2013-2016

Tanto el sindicalismo argentino, como el impulso de la perspectiva de género en Argentina tienen una característica peculiar, que no se da en otros países del Cono Sur. Estas dos situaciones generan una retroalimentación entre los debates de género y sindicalismo. En este contexto se encuadra el caso a analizar, a saber, la "Asociación Bancaria" de Argentina, en el período 2013-2016. Nuestro objetivo general consistió en observar la implementación de las políticas de género de la Secretaría de Derechos Humanos, Género e Igualdad (SDHGI) de la Asociación Bancaria. Encarando el trabajo de identificar la representatividad estadística o descriptiva (cantidad de mujeres en cargos y las tareas realizadas) y la representatividad política (si está presente y de qué forma la incorporación de la perspectiva de género en las actividades que planea y desarrolla) Esto nos llevó a ver si había una articulación entre estas dos representaciones. La hipótesis que guió esta investigación es que, si bien se desarrollaron distintas estrategias para visibilizar la problemática de género, estas no fueron suficientemente efectivas para avanzar sobre las desigualdades generizadas a la hora del acceso a los cargos más importantes. El trabajo se divide en tres capítulos. El primero, construye un estado de la cuestión, en relación a lo escrito sobre sindicalismo, género y los bancarios. El segundo ofrece una breve reconstrucción histórica del sindicato bancario. En el tercer capítulo analizamos la SDHGI, a partir de los documentos generados y las actividades realizadas, así como de la composición del secretariado nacional del sindicato. Por último, en las conclusiones, elaboramos algunas reflexiones finales, y nos planteamos otras preguntas que fueron surgiendo a lo largo de la investigación y que pudieran orientar otras líneas de acción

Cuando el sindicato se tiñe de género. El caso de la secretaría de Derechos Humanos, Género e Igualdad de la Asociación Bancaria Argentina en el período 2013-2016

Tanto el sindicalismo argentino, como el impulso de la perspectiva de género en Argentina tienen una característica peculiar, que no se da en otros países del Cono Sur. Estas dos situaciones generan una retroalimentación entre los debates de género y sindicalismo. En este contexto se encuadra el caso a analizar, a saber, la "Asociación Bancaria" de Argentina, en el período 2013-2016. Nuestro objetivo general consistió en observar la implementación de las políticas de género de la Secretaría de Derechos Humanos, Género e Igualdad (SDHGI) de la Asociación Bancaria. Encarando el trabajo de identificar la representatividad estadística o descriptiva (cantidad de mujeres en cargos y las tareas realizadas) y la representatividad política (si está presente y de qué forma la incorporación de la perspectiva de género en las actividades que planea y desarrolla) Esto nos llevó a ver si había una articulación entre estas dos representaciones. La hipótesis que guió esta investigación es que, si bien se desarrollaron distintas estrategias para visibilizar la problemática de género, estas no fueron suficientemente efectivas para avanzar sobre las desigualdades generizadas a la hora del acceso a los cargos más importantes. El trabajo se divide en tres capítulos. El primero, construye un estado de la cuestión, en relación a lo escrito sobre sindicalismo, género y los bancarios. El segundo ofrece una breve reconstrucción histórica del sindicato bancario. En el tercer capítulo analizamos la SDHGI, a partir de los documentos generados y las actividades realizadas, así como de la composición del secretariado nacional del sindicato. Por último, en las conclusiones, elaboramos algunas reflexiones finales, y nos planteamos otras preguntas que fueron surgiendo a lo largo de la investigación y que pudieran orientar otras líneas de acción

Cuando el sindicato se tiñe de género. El caso de la secretaría de Derechos Humanos, Género e Igualdad de la Asociación Bancaria Argentina en el período 2013-2016

Tanto el sindicalismo argentino, como el impulso de la perspectiva de género en Argentina tienen una característica peculiar, que no se da en otros países del Cono Sur. Estas dos situaciones generan una retroalimentación entre los debates de género y sindicalismo. En este contexto se encuadra el caso a analizar, a saber, la "Asociación Bancaria" de Argentina, en el período 2013-2016. Nuestro objetivo general consistió en observar la implementación de las políticas de género de la Secretaría de Derechos Humanos, Género e Igualdad (SDHGI) de la Asociación Bancaria. Encarando el trabajo de identificar la representatividad estadística o descriptiva (cantidad de mujeres en cargos y las tareas realizadas) y la representatividad política (si está presente y de qué forma la incorporación de la perspectiva de género en las actividades que planea y desarrolla) Esto nos llevó a ver si había una articulación entre estas dos representaciones. La hipótesis que guió esta investigación es que, si bien se desarrollaron distintas estrategias para visibilizar la problemática de género, estas no fueron suficientemente efectivas para avanzar sobre las desigualdades generizadas a la hora del acceso a los cargos más importantes. El trabajo se divide en tres capítulos. El primero, construye un estado de la cuestión, en relación a lo escrito sobre sindicalismo, género y los bancarios. El segundo ofrece una breve reconstrucción histórica del sindicato bancario. En el tercer capítulo analizamos la SDHGI, a partir de los documentos generados y las actividades realizadas, así como de la composición del secretariado nacional del sindicato. Por último, en las conclusiones, elaboramos algunas reflexiones finales, y nos planteamos otras preguntas que fueron surgiendo a lo largo de la investigación y que pudieran orientar otras líneas de acción

Coagent Modified Polypropylene Prepared by Reactive Extrusion: A New Look Into the Structure-Property Relations of Injection Molded Parts

Peroxide-mediated reactive extrusion of linear isotactic polypropylene (L-PP) was conducted in the presence of trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate (TMPTMA) and triallyl trimesate (TAM) coagents, using a twin screw extruder. The resulting coagent-modified polypropylenes (CM-PP) had higher viscosities and elasticities, as well as increased crystallization temperature compared to PP reacted only with peroxide (DCP-PP). Additionally, deviations from terminal flow, and strain hardening were observed in PP modified with TAM, signifying the presence of long chain branching (LCB). The CM-PP formulations retained the modulus and tensile strength of the parent L-PP, in spite of their lower molar mass and viscosities, whereas their elongation at break and the impact strength were better. This was attributed to the finer spherulitic structure of these materials, and to the disappearance of the skin-core layer in the injection molded specimens.

Design of information architecture of the web site of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Tourism of the Universidad Central “Marta Abreu” de Las Villas (Cuba)

The information architecture supports information retrieval by users in Web environment. The design should be center in the information user, favoring usability. The Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Tourism of the Universidad Central "Marta Abreu" de Las Villas, lacks a site that enhances the disclosure of information to its members. Are presented as objectives of the study: 1) conduct a user survey to identify information needs of users, 2) establish guidelines for information architecture for the institution focused on users, 3) designing the information architecture for the institution and 4) designed to evaluate the proposal. Are presented as objectives of the study: 1) to realize a user study to identify the information needs of users, 2) establish guidelines for information architecture for the institution focused on users, 3) to design the information architecture for the institution and 4) to evaluate the proposal designed. To obtain results are used methods in the theoretical and empirical levels. Besides, are use techniques that favored the design and evaluation. Is designed the intranet of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Tourism. Is evaluated the proposed design for the validation of the results.

El impacto de la presencia online en las cuentas de Twitter de las universidades vascas y navarras

Las Universidades han tenido que adaptarse a los nuevos modelos de comunicación surgidos en la época de Internet. Dentro de estos nuevos paradigmas las redes sociales han irrumpido y Twitter se ha establecido como una de las más importantes. El objetivo de esta investigación es demostrar que existe una relación entre la presencia online de una Universidad, definida por la cantidad de información disponible en Internet, y su cuenta en Twitter. Para ello se analizó la relación entre la presencia online y los perfiles oficiales de las cinco universidades del País Vasco y Navarra. Los resultados demostraron la existencia de una correlación significativa entre la presencia online de las instituciones y el número de seguidores de sus respectivas cuentas. En segundo lugar, esta investigación se planteó si Twitter puede servir para potenciar la presencia online de una Universidad. Es por eso que se formuló una segunda hipótesis que buscaba analizar si tener varias cuentas en Twitter aumentaría la presencia online de las Universidades. Los hallazgos para esta segunda hipótesis demostraron una correlación muy significativa entre tener varios perfiles en Twitter y la presencia online de las Universidades. Así queda demostrada la importancia de la presencia online para las cuentas de Twitter y la relevancia de Twitter a la hora de potenciar la presencia online de los centros.