An approach for automated service selection and ranking using services choreography

In today’s highly competitive market, it is critical to provide customers services with a high level of configuration to answer their business needs. Knowing in advance the performance associated with a specific choreography of services (e.g., by taking into account the expected results of each component service) represents an important asset that allows businesses to provide a global service tailored to customers’ specific requests. This research work aims at advancing the state-of-the-art in this area by proposing an approach for service selection and ranking using services choreography, predicting the behavior of the services considering customers’ requirements and preferences, business process constraints and characteristics of the execution environment.

De touch: extending service channels in an airport through touch technologies

This project aimed to create a communication and interaction channel between Madeira Airport and its passengers. We used the pre-existent touch enabled screens at the terminal since their potential was not being utilised to their full capacity. To achieve our goal, we have followed an agile strategy to create a testable prototype and take advantages of its results. The developed prototype is based on a plugin architecture turning it into a maintainable and highly customisable system. The collected usage data suggests that we have achieved the initially defined goals. There is no doubt that this new interaction channel is an improvement regarding the provided services and, supported by the usage data, there is an opportunity to explore additional developments to the channel.

Analysis of self-interference within DAG tasks

6th Real-Time Scheduling Open Problems Seminar (RTSOPS 2015), Lund, Sweden.

Double power laws, fractals and self-similarity

Power law (PL) distributions have been largely reported in the modeling of distinct real phenomena and have been associated with fractal structures and self-similar systems. In this paper, we analyze real data that follows a PL and a double PL behavior and verify the relation between the PL coefficient and the capacity dimension of known fractals. It is to be proved a method that translates PLs coefficients into capacity dimension of fractals of any real data.

Power Law Behavior and Self-similarity in Modern Industrial Accidents

Advances in technology have produced more and more intricate industrial systems, such as nuclear power plants, chemical centers and petroleum platforms. Such complex plants exhibit multiple interactions among smaller units and human operators, rising potentially disastrous failure, which can propagate across subsystem boundaries. This paper analyzes industrial accident data-series in the perspective of statistical physics and dynamical systems. Global data is collected from the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) during the time period from year 1903 up to 2012. The statistical distributions of the number of fatalities caused by industrial accidents reveal Power Law (PL) behavior. We analyze the evolution of the PL parameters over time and observe a remarkable increment in the PL exponent during the last years. PL behavior allows prediction by extrapolation over a wide range of scales. In a complementary line of thought, we compare the data using appropriate indices and use different visualization techniques to correlate and to extract relationships among industrial accident events. This study contributes to better understand the complexity of modern industrial accidents and their ruling principles.

The Self-Inflicted Burns - Typology and its Prognostic Relevance in a 14-Year Review of Self-Inflicted Burns in a Tertiary Referral Centre

Self-inflicted burns (SIB) are responsible for 2-6% of admissions to Burn Units in Europe and North America, and for as many as 25% of admissions in developing nations. Recently, a promising new tool was proposed to stratify SIB patients in the following subgroups: "typical", "delirious", and "reactive". However, as far as the authors know, the clinical usefulness of this instrument has not yet been validated by others. We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of 56 patients admitted to our Burn Unit with the diagnosis of SIB injury in the past 14 years. The following parameters were evaluated: demographic features; psychiatric illness; substance abuse; mechanism of injury; burn depth, total body surface area (TBSA) involved, Abbreviated Burn Severity Index (ABSI); length of hospital stay, and mortality. All patients were followed up by a psychologist and a psychiatrist, and were classified according to the SIB-Typology Tool, into three classes: "typical", "delirious" and "reactive". There was a slight predominance of the "typical" type (44.6%), followed by the "delirious" type (30.4%), and, finally the "reactive" type (25.0%). Mortality was significantly higher in the "typical" subgroup. In conclusion, the SIB-Typology Tool appears to be a valuable instrument in the clinical management of SIB patients.

Prevalence of Asthma in a Portuguese Countryside Town:Repercussions on Absenteeism and Self-Concept

Background: Childhood asthma represents an increasing health problem and is the leading cause of hospital admission and absenteeism in children with chronic disease. It also compromises quality of life, eventually contributing to disturbances in self-concept. Self-concept is a recent and global perspective of “the self” and relates to skills, self-image and self-esteem. Little information is available on this topic and there are no data from Portuguese countryside towns. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of asthma among all school children in the 5th and 6th grades in a Portuguese countryside town and to establish its possible correlation with absenteeism and self-concept. Methods: In April 2002, two questionnaires were administered in the presence of the researcher to a group of 950 children attending different schools. The children completed the internationally renowned questionnaires: ISAAC and the Self-Concept Scale by Susan Harter. Results: Our sample (n = 818) had a mean age of 11 years (10-15 years) and a male-to-female ratio of 1/1. The cumulative prevalence of asthma was11.9% and that of active asthma was 8.8 %; 63.9% of asthmatics were male and 36.1 % were female. The mean age of asthmatics was 11.34 years and 74 % had active symptoms. Comparison of this group of 97 asthmatic children with the remaining children revealed a statistically significant correlation between the presence of asthma and school absenteeism (global: p = 0.04; gymnastics: 0.05). Regarding the Self-Concept Scale a statistically significant association was found between the presence of asthma and school achievement (p = 0.027), physical appearance (p = 0.015), behavior (p < 0.000) and self-esteem (p < 0.000). No statistically significant correlations were found in social acceptance (p = 0.289) or athletic competence (p = 0.085). Asthmatic boys had higher self-concept scores than girls, except in the domain of behavior. Conclusions: Twelve percent of the population studied was asthmatic. In asthmatic children, absenteeism was higher and self-concept was lower for almost all domains, except social acceptance and athletic achievement, probably due to overprotection.

Comparative study of the fecundity and fertility of Biomphalaria glabrata (Say, 1818) and Biomphalaria straminea (Dunker, 1848) in a laboratory through self-fertilization and cross-fertilization

The aim of this study was to compare the fecundity and fertility of B. glabrata and B. straminea by cross- and self-fertilization. To attain this objective, laboratory-raised strains of B. glabrata and B. straminea were used. The former originated from natural breeding grounds in the municipality Paulista, state of Pernambuco, Brazil. The latter originated from irrigation ditches in the municipality of Petrolândia, in the same state. Snail populations of B. glabrata and B. straminea were maintained for 240 days in laboratory. Their fecundity was evaluated by noting the number of egg-masses, eggs and eggs per mass. Their fertility was evaluated by the number of viable eggs and the hatching rate. B. straminea was markedly more fecund than B. glabrata through cross- and self-fertilization, namely: greater egg-mass; higher egg production and more eggs per mass. Regarding fertility, there seemed to be no preferential period for occlusion to occur or a trend in the rhythm of producing viable eggs.

Screening for pulmonary tuberculosis in Teresópolis, RJ, Brazil: the search for respiratory symptomatic patients in emergency service of "Hospital das Clínicas de Teresópolis Costantino Ottaviano, Fundação Educacional Serra dos Órgãos"

The aim of the present study was to investigate the detection percentage of tuberculosis among patients that are respiratory symptomatic (TB suspects). In this work, we present the preliminary results of research carried out at "Hospital das Clínicas de Teresópolis Costantino Ottaviano da Fundação Educacional Serra dos Órgãos (FESO)" from November 2003 to April 2004. Among the 40 respiratory symptomatic individuals identified and referred to the Tuberculosis Control Program in Teresópolis, two (5.0%) were characterized as smear-positive. These results confirm reports in the literature and underscore the need for and importance of this strategy.

Odin: a service for gamification of learning activities

Existing gamification services have features that preclude their use by e-learning tools. Odin is a gamification service that mimics the API of state-of-the-art services without these limitations. This paper describes Odin, its role in an e-learning system architecture requiring gamification, and details its implementation. The validation of Odin involved the creation of a small e-learning game, integrated in a Learning Management System (LMS) using the Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) specification.

Self-assessment of writing skills: a reliable and valid tool in an efl classroom

Trabalho de projecto apresentado para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ensino da Língua Inglesa

Architecture to Support Quality of Service in Arrowhead Systems

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

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.

Self-diagnosis of active head lice infestation by individuals from an impoverished community: high sensitivity and specificity

To compare sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of self-diagnosis for head lice infestation with visual inspection, we conducted a study in an urban slum in Brazil. Individuals were asked about active head lice infestation (self-diagnosis); we performed visual inspection and thereafter wet combing (gold standard). Of the 175 individuals included, 77 (44%) had an active head lice infestation. For self-diagnosis, sensitivity (80.5%), specificity (91.8%), PPV (88.6%) and NPV (85.7%) were high. Sensitivity of visual inspection was 35.1%. Public health professionals can use self-diagnosis as a diagnostic tool, to estimate accurately prevalence of pediculosis in a community, and to monitor ongoing intervention strategies.