A divulgação do ciclo urbano da água através da internet

Este estudo foi desenvolvido tendo em conta: a importância do ciclo urbano da água, para a formação de cidadãos mais responsáveis e para a preservação do meio ambiente; a escassa divulgação de informações sobre o ciclo urbano da água, na Internet e na escola; a importância da Internet, como recurso pedagógico,e do trabalho de projecto, como metodologia de ensino/aprendizagem, para a aquisição de conhecimentos e para o desenvolvimento de outras competências essenciais, previstas no currículo nacional do ensino básico. Foi neste contexto que se tentou responder às seguintes questões: Como é o ciclo urbano da água no concelho de Torres Novas?; Como divulgar o ciclo urbano da água de uma forma atractiva e educativa?; Como aplicar o ciclo urbano da água aos conteúdos do ensino básico?; Como é que os alunos do 3º ciclo do ensino básico reagem à consulta de informação sobre o ciclo urbano da água na Internet?; Que influência exerce a consulta de um site sobre o ciclo urbano da água, nas competências desenvolvidas pelos alunos durante o trabalho de projecto? Partindo destas questões, definiram-se um conjunto de objectivos e realizaram-se as seguintes actividades: Caracterização do ciclo urbano da água no concelho de Torres Novas;Recolha de recursos educativos em sites portugueses relacionados com a água e o seu ciclo urbano; Criação e divulgação de um site para a Divisão de Águas e Saneamento da Câmara Municipal de Torres Novas (www.cm-torresnovas.pt/das), de modo a disponibilizar na Internet a informação recolhida; Realização de projectos sobre o ciclo urbano da água, por alunos de uma turma do 8º ano, no âmbito das disciplinas de Ciências, e recorrendo à consulta do site; Análise das opiniões e das competências dos alunos referidos, de modo a avaliar o site e a recolher informações sobre como reagem à consulta de conteúdos sobre o ciclo urbano da água na Internet e ao trabalho de projecto. Os dados foram recolhidos e analisados de acordo com um estudo de caso. Utilizaram-se os seguintes instrumentos: documentos, inquérito por entrevista, inquérito por questionário e observação participante. A análise dos resultados permitiu chegar às seguintes conclusões: Em 2006, cerca de 98% da população do concelho de Torres Novas tinha acesso a água potável, através dos sistemas de abastecimento de água, enquanto que apenas cerca de 62% da população era servida pelos sistemas de saneamento de águas residuais; O site foi muito apreciado pelos alunos e professores, pelo modo como foi construído, pelos seus conteúdos didácticos e atractivos, e pelas informações sobre o ciclo urbano da água; A realização de projectos sobre o ciclo urbano da água, recorrendo à utilização do site, foi considerada muito útil pelos alunos, por ajudar a adquirir conhecimentos importantes e a compreender melhor os conteúdos, e por contribuir para o desenvolvimento de competências. Tendo em conta que a maioria dos alunos apresentou muitas dificuldades na realização dos projectos,estes devem ser realizados com mais frequência e em várias disciplinas.

CoS: a new perspective of operating systems design for the cyber-physical world

Our day-to-day life is dependent on several embedded devices, and in the near future, many more objects will have computation and communication capabilities enabling an Internet of Things. Correspondingly, with an increase in the interaction of these devices around us, developing novel applications is set to become challenging with current software infrastructures. In this paper, we argue that a new paradigm for operating systems needs to be conceptualized to provide aconducive base for application development on Cyber-physical systems. We demonstrate its need and importance using a few use-case scenarios and provide the design principles behind, and an architecture of a co-operating system or CoS that can serve as an example of this new paradigm.

Enhancing the real-time capabilities of the Linux Kernel

The mainline Linux Kernel is not designed forhard real-time systems; it only fits the requirements of soft realtimesystems. In recent years, a kernel developer communityhas been working on the PREEMPT-RT patch. This patch(that aims to get a fully preemptible kernel) adds some realtimecapabilities to the Linux kernel. However, in terms ofscheduling policies, the real-time scheduling class of Linux islimited to the First-In-First-Out (SCHED_FIFO) and Round-Robin (SCHED_RR) scheduling policies. These scheduling policiesare however quite limited in terms of realtime performance.Therefore, in this paper, we report one importantcontribution for adding more advanced real-time capabilitiesto the Linux Kernel. Specifically, we describe modificationsto the (PREEMPT-RT patched) Linux kernel to supportreal-time slot-based task-splitting scheduling algorithms. Ourpreliminary evaluation shows that our implementation exhibitsa real-time performance that is superior to the schedulingpolicies provided by the current version of PREMPT-RT. Thisis a significant add-on to a widely adopted operating system.

Marketing : a (ir)racionalidade dos consumidores, numa perspetiva empreendedora

Mestrado em Gestão e Empreendedorismo

A vision of cyber-physical internet

When the Internet was born, the purpose was to interconnect computers to share digital data at large-scale. On the other hand, when embedded systems were born, the objective was to control system components under real-time constraints through sensing devices, typically at small to medium scales. With the great evolution of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the tendency is to enable ubiquitous and pervasive computing to control everything (physical processes and physical objects) anytime and at a large-scale. This new vision gave recently rise to the paradigm of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). In this position paper, we provide a realistic vision to the concept of the Cyber-Physical Internet (CPI), discuss its design requirements and present the limitations of the current networking abstractions to fulfill these requirements. We also debate whether it is more productive to adopt a system integration approach or a radical design approach for building large-scale CPS. Finally, we present a sample of realtime challenges that must be considered in the design of the Cyber-Physical Internet.

Design and implementation of a behaviorally typed programming system for web services

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

Prescription, dispensation and marketing patterns of methylphenidate

OBJECTIVE To analyze the patterns and legal requirements of methylphenidate consumption. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional study of the data from prescription notification forms and balance lists of drugs sales – psychoactive and others – subject to special control in the fifth largest city of Brazil, in 2006. We determined the defined and prescribed daily doses, the average prescription and dispensation periods, and the regional sales distribution in the municipality. In addition, we estimated the costs of drug acquisition and analyzed the individual drug consumption profile using the Lorenz curve. RESULTS The balance lists data covered all notified sales of the drug while data from prescription notification forms covered 50.6% of the pharmacies that sold it, including those with the highest sales volumes. Total methylphenidate consumption was 0.37 DDD/1,000 inhabitants/day. Sales were concentrated in more developed areas, and regular-release tablets were the most commonly prescribed pharmaceutical formulation. In some regions of the city, approximately 20.0% of the prescriptions and dispensation exceeded 30 mg/day and 30 days of treatment. CONCLUSIONS Methylphenidate was widely consumed in the municipality and mainly in the most developed areas. Of note, the consumption of formulations with the higher abuse risk was the most predominant. Both its prescription and dispensation contrasted with current pharmacotherapeutic recommendations and legal requirements. Therefore, the commercialization of methylphenidate should be monitored more closely, and its use in the treatment of behavioral changes of psychological disorders needs to be discussed in detail, in line with the concepts of the quality use of medicines.

Scheduling a cutting and treatment stainless steel sheet line with self-management capabilities

With advancement in computer science and information technology, computing systems are becoming increasingly more complex with an increasing number of heterogeneous components. They are thus becoming more difficult to monitor, manage, and maintain. This process has been well known as labor intensive and error prone. In addition, traditional approaches for system management are difficult to keep up with the rapidly changing environments. There is a need for automatic and efficient approaches to monitor and manage complex computing systems. In this paper, we propose an innovative framework for scheduling system management by combining Autonomic Computing (AC) paradigm, Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) and Nature Inspired Optimization Techniques (NIT). Additionally, we consider the resolution of realistic problems. The scheduling of a Cutting and Treatment Stainless Steel Sheet Line will be evaluated. Results show that proposed approach has advantages when compared with other scheduling systems

Sistemas de localização e de medida de distância na Internet – contribuição para a avaliação da sua integração com algoritmos P2P

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

An internet remote laboratory to teach industrial automation

This paper presents the new internet remote laboratory (IRL), constructed at Mechanical Engineering Department (MED), Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa (ISEL), to teach Industrial Automation, namely electropneumatic cycles. The aim of this work was the development and implementation of a remote laboratory that was simple and effective from the user point of view, allowing access to all its functionalities through a web browser without having to install any other program and giving access to all the features that the students can find at the physical laboratory. With this goal in mind, it has been implemented a simple architecture with the new programmable logic controller (PLC) SIEMENS S7-1200, and with the aid of several free programs, programming technologies such as JavaScript, PHP and databases, it was possible to have a remote laboratory, with a simple interface, to teach industrial automation students.

Sistemas de informação geográfica na Internet aplicados ao turismo na natureza nos Açores: projecto ZoomAzores

Dissertação apresentada como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciência e Sistemas de Informação Geográfica

Physical layer aware network architecture for the future internet

In this article, physical layer awareness in access, core, and metro networks is addressed, and a Physical Layer Aware Network Architecture Framework for the Future Internet is presented and discussed, as proposed within the framework of the European ICT Project 4WARD. Current limitations and shortcomings of the Internet architecture are driving research trends at a global scale toward a novel, secure, and flexible architecture. This Future Internet architecture must allow for the co-existence and cooperation of multiple networks on common platforms, through the virtualization of network resources. Possible solutions embrace a full range of technologies, from fiber backbones to wireless access networks. The virtualization of physical networking resources will enhance the possibility of handling different profiles, while providing the impression of mutual isolation. This abstraction strategy implies the use of well elaborated mechanisms in order to deal with channel impairments and requirements, in both wireless (access) and optical (core) environments.

O impacto da distância entre países na estratégia de marketing internacional: o caso das empresas subsidiárias portuguesas em Espanha

A natureza dinâmica do negócio internacional e os contextos diferenciados ditados pelas diferenças entre países, leva a que as empresas internacionais enfrentem o desafio de encontrar o equilíbrio entre estandardizar e adaptar a sua estratégia de marketing mix nos mercados externos de modo a terem sucesso. O propósito deste estudo é contribuir para a compreensão do modo como as empresas portuguesas desenvolvem a sua estratégia de marketing no mercado espanhol. A nossa investigação parte da análise do quadro teórico do modelo CAGE (Ghemawat, 2007) para avaliar as diferenças entre países e averiguar qual o seu impacto na estratégia de marketing das empresas subsidiárias. O nosso estudo é qualitativo e adota a metodologia de estudo de caso através da realização de entrevistas semiestruturadas em duas PME para alcançar uma melhor compreensão sobre o processo de formulação da estratégia de marketing internacional. Os nossos resultados indiciam que as dimensões de distância que têm maior influência na estratégia de marketing da empresa subsidiária no mercado espanhol são as dimensões culturais, administrativas e económicas, sendo a dimensão geográfica a menos relevante. As adaptações que se revelaram ser condições necessárias para o sucesso do negócio, consubstanciam-se na proposta de valor aos clientes através da marca, da diferenciação dos produtos,do design, do preço e da comunicação.

Estratégia de internacionalização da Grande Porto: seleção, modos de entrada e marketing-mix na abordagem dos mercados internacionais

Dissertação apresentada ao Instituto Politécnico do Porto para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Gestão das Organizações, Ramo de Gestão de Empresas Orientada pelo Professor Doutor José Freitas Santos

The impact of national cultures on international marketing strategy and subsidiary performance of portuguese SME’s

The dynamic of the international business and its multidimensional nature requires the understanding of the complexities of different contexts dictated by cultural differences between countries. The purpose of this paper is to study, in depth howsmall and medium-sized companies develop their international marketing mix strategy in their overseas subsidiaries. We use the theoretical construct of Hofstede (1980, 1991) in the dimensions of Power Distance (PD), Uncertainty Avoidance (UA), Individualism (IND), Masculinity (MASC) and Long-Term Orientation (LTO) to assess the cross cultural differences between countries and the business practices to analyze the adaptation or standardization of the international marketing mix strategy of foreign Portuguese subsidiaries. Ourstudy uses an exploratoryand qualitative methodology. We conducted semi-structured interviews in order to achieve a good understanding ofinternational marketing mix strategy of four companies from different sectors. Our results show that the national cultural differences have great influence in the marketing strategy of the subsidiary. The business practices adjustments in the subsidiary company that proved to be necessary conditions for their performance are conducted by the products augmented offerings concerning the characteristics of the product, design and brand name in order to meet the requirements and specificities of the host country of the subsidiary.