Incremental compilation and deployment for OutSystems Platform

OutSystems Platform is used to develop, deploy, and maintain enterprise web an mobile web applications. Applications are developed through a visual domain specific language, in an integrated development environment, and compiled to a standard stack of web technologies. In the platform’s core, there is a compiler and a deployment service that transform the visual model into a running web application. As applications grow, compilation and deployment times increase as well, impacting the developer’s productivity. In the previous model, a full application was the only compilation and deployment unit. When the developer published an application, even if he only changed a very small aspect of it, the application would be fully compiled and deployed. Our goal is to reduce compilation and deployment times for the most common use case, in which the developer performs small changes to an application before compiling and deploying it. We modified the OutSystems Platform to support a new incremental compilation and deployment model that reuses previous computations as much as possible in order to improve performance. In our approach, the full application is broken down into smaller compilation and deployment units, increasing what can be cached and reused. We also observed that this finer model would benefit from a parallel execution model. Hereby, we created a task driven Scheduler that executes compilation and deployment tasks in parallel. Our benchmarks show a substantial improvement of the compilation and deployment process times for the aforementioned development scenario.

A intervenção dos orgãos de polícia criminal em sede de julgamento

Currently, Portugal assumes itself as a democratic rule of substantive law State, sustained by a legal system seeking the right balance between the guarantee of fundamental rights and freedoms constitutional foreseen in Portugal’s Fundamental Law and criminal persecution. The architecture of the penal code lies with, roughly speaking, a accusatory basic structure, “deliberately attached to one of the most remarkable achievements of the civilizational democratic progress, and by obedience to the constitutional commandment”, in balance with the official investigation principle, valid both for the purpose of prosecution and trial. Regarding the principle of non self-incrimination - nemo tenetur se ipsum accusare, briefly defined as the defendant’s right of not being obliged to contribute to the self-incrimination, it should be stressed that there isn’t an explicit consecration in the Portuguese Constitution, being commonly accepted in an implicit constitutional prediction and deriving from other constitutional rights and principles, first and foremost, the meaning and scope of the concept of democratic rule of Law State, embedded in the Fundamental Law, and in the guidelines of the constitutional principles of human person dignity, freedom of action and the presumption of innocence. In any case, about the (in) applicability of the principle of the prohibition of self-incrimination to the Criminal Police Bodies in the trial hearing in Court, and sharing an idea of Guedes Valente, the truth is that the exercise of criminal action must tread a transparent path and non-compliant with methods to obtain evidence that violate the law, the public order or in violation of democratic principles and loyalty (Guedes Valente, 2013, p. 484). Within the framework of the penal process relating to the trial, which is assumed as the true phase of the process, the witness represents a relevant figure for the administration of criminal justice, for the testimonial proof is, in the idea of Othmar Jauernig, the worst proof of evidence, but also being the most frequent (Jauernig, 1998, p. 289). As coadjutant of the Public Prosecutor and, in specific cases, the investigating judge, the Criminal Police Bodies are invested with high responsibility, being "the arms and eyes of Judicial Authorities in pursuing the criminal investigation..." which has as ultimate goal the fulfillment of the Law pursuing the defense of society" (Guedes Valente, 2013, p. 485). It is in this context and as a witness that, throughout operational career, the Criminal Police Bodies are required to be at the trial hearing and clarify the Court with its view about the facts relating to occurrences of criminal context, thus contributing very significantly and, in some cases, decisively for the proper administration of the portuguese criminal justice. With regards to the intervention of Criminal Police Bodies in the trial hearing in Court, it’s important that they pay attention to a set of standards concerning the preparation of the testimony, the very provision of the testimony and, also, to its conclusion. Be emphasized that these guidelines may become crucial for the quality of the police testimony at the trial hearing, thus leading to an improvement of the enforcement of justice system. In this vein, while preparing the testimony, the Criminal Police Bodies must present itself in court with proper clothing, to read before and carefully the case files, to debate the facts being judged with other Criminal Police Bodies and prepare potential questions. Later, while giving his testimony during the trial, the Criminal Police Bodies must, summing up, to take the oath in a convincing manner, to feel comfortable, to start well by convincingly answering the first question, keep an attitude of serenity, to adopt an attitude of collaboration, to avoid the reading of documents, to demonstrate deference and seriousness before the judicial operators, to use simple and objective language, to adopt a fluent speech, to use nonverbal language correctly, to avoid spontaneity responding only to what is asked, to report only the truth, to avoid hesitations and contradictions, to be impartial and to maintain eye contact with the judge. Finally, at the conclusion of the testimony, the Criminal Police Bodies should rise in a smooth manner, avoiding to show relief, resentment or satisfaction, leaving a credible and professional image and, without much formality, requesting the judge permission to leave the courtroom. As final note, it’s important to stress that "The intervention of the Police Criminal Bodies in the trial hearing in Court” encloses itself on a theme of crucial importance not only for members of the Police and Security Forces, who must welcome this subject with the utmost seriousness and professionalism, but also for the proper administration of the criminal justice system in Portugal.

Process virtualization theory (PVT) and institutional theory (INT) to explain SAAS adoption

Software as a service (SaaS) is a service model in which the applications are accessible from various client devices through internet. Several studies report possible factors driving the adoption of SaaS but none have considered the perception of the SaaS features and the pressures existing in the organization’s environment. We propose an integrated research model that combines the process virtualization theory (PVT) and the institutional theory (INT). PVT seeks to explain whether SaaS processes are suitable for migration into virtual environments via an information technology-based mechanism. INT seeks to explain the effects of the institutionalized environment on the structure and actions of the organization. The research makes three contributions. First, it addresses a gap in the SaaS adoption literature by studying the internal perception of the technical features of SaaS and external coercive, normative, and mimetic pressures faced by an organization. Second, it empirically tests many of the propositions of PVT and INT in the SaaS context, thereby helping to determine how the theory operates in practice. Third, the integration of PVT and INT contributes to the information system (IS) discipline, deepening the applicability and strengths of these theories.

Contribution to a strategic plan for the implementation of continuous improvement process in an MRO

This Work Project studies the Continuous Improvement and Processes (CIP) department at TAP Maintenance & Engineering. The project has the objective to provide insights to align the activities of the department with the strategy of the organization. For such, two focuses were taken: (i) an internal analysis which highlighted a need for transversal change to ensure the adoption of Continuous Improvement at TAP, and (ii) a process which outlined objectives and projects to be pursued to prioritize CIP’s activities in accordance with the organization’s goals. The outcome includes (a) important recommendations concerning strategic planning and competition evaluation and (b) a process’ output that reflects a balance among factors influencing the priority of projects.

Decision-making process of Nova Executivos’ students

Field lab: Consumer insights

Visual and verbal processing effects on human memory

In this study in the field of Consumer Behavior, brand name memory of consumers with regard to verbal and visual incongruent and congruent information such as memory structure of brands was tested. Hence, four experimental groups with different constellations of verbal and visual congruity and incongruity were created to compare their brand name memory performance. The experiment was conducted in several classes with 128 students, each group with 32 participants. It was found that brands, which are presented in a congruent or moderately incongruent relation to their brand schema, result in a better brand recall than their incongruent counterparts. A difference between visual congruity and moderately incongruity could not be confirmed. In contrast to visual incongruent information, verbal incongruent information does not result in a worse brand recall performance.

Integration of speech-processing technologies into Activobank's client interaction process

This dissertation analyzes the possibilities of utilizing speech-processing technologies to transform the user experience of ActivoBank’s customers while using remote banking solutions. The technologies are examined through different criteria to determine if they support the bank’s goals and strategy and whether they should be incorporated in the bank’s offering. These criteria include the alignment with ActivoBank’s values, the suitability of the technology providers, the benefits these technologies entail, potential risks, appeal to the customers and impact on customer satisfaction. The analysis suggests that ActivoBank might not be in a position to adopt these technologies at this point in time.

Sustainable urban planning: parameters to the operational process

In modern society, energy consumption and respect for the environment have become essential aspects of urban planning. The rising demand for alternative sources of energy, coupled with the decline in the construction sector and material usage, gives the idea that the thinking on modern cities, where attention is given to reduced energy consumption, savings, waste recycling and respect for the surrounding environment, is being put into practice. If we examine development of the city over recent centuries, by means of the theories of the most famous and influential urban planners, it is possible to identify the major problems caused by this type of planning. For this reason, in recent urban planning the use of systems of indicators that evaluate and certify land environmentally and energetically guides the master plan toward a more efficient city model. In addition the indicators are targeted on key factors determined by the commissioner or the opportunities the territory itself provides. Due the complexity of the environmental mechanics, the process of design and urban planning has become a challenging issue. The introduction of the indicators system has made it possible to register the life of the process, with a spiral route that allows the design itself to be refined. The aim of this study, built around the creation of a system of urban sustainability indicators that will evaluate highly eco-friendly cities, is to develop a certification system for cities or portions of them. The system will be upgradeable and objective, will employ real data and will be concerned with energy production and consumption.

Detection of purkinje images for automatic positioning of fixation target and interferometric measurements of anterior eye chamber

In cataract surgery, the eye’s natural lens is removed because it has gone opaque and doesn’t allow clear vision any longer. To maintain the eye’s optical power, a new artificial lens must be inserted. Called Intraocular Lens (IOL), it needs to be modelled in order to have the correct refractive power to substitute the natural lens. Calculating the refractive power of this substitution lens requires precise anterior eye chamber measurements. An interferometry equipment, the AC Master from Zeiss Meditec, AG, was in use for half a year to perform these measurements. A Low Coherence Interferometry (LCI) measurement beam is aligned with the eye’s optical axis, for precise measurements of anterior eye chamber distances. The eye follows a fixation target in order to make the visual axis align with the optical axis. Performance problems occurred, however, at this step. Therefore, there was a necessity to develop a new procedure that ensures better alignment between the eye’s visual and optical axes, allowing a more user friendly and versatile procedure, and eventually automatizing the whole process. With this instrument, the alignment between the eye’s optical and visual axes is detected when Purkinje reflections I and III are overlapped, as the eye follows a fixation target. In this project, image analysis is used to detect these Purkinje reflections’ positions, eventually automatically detecting when they overlap. Automatic detection of the third Purkinje reflection of an eye following a fixation target is possible with some restrictions. Each pair of detected third Purkinje reflections is used in automatically calculating an acceptable starting position for the fixation target, required for precise measurements of anterior eye chamber distances.

Video metadata extraction in a videoMail system

Currently the world swiftly adapts to visual communication. Online services like YouTube and Vine show that video is no longer the domain of broadcast television only. Video is used for different purposes like entertainment, information, education or communication. The rapid growth of today’s video archives with sparsely available editorial data creates a big problem of its retrieval. The humans see a video like a complex interplay of cognitive concepts. As a result there is a need to build a bridge between numeric values and semantic concepts. This establishes a connection that will facilitate videos’ retrieval by humans. The critical aspect of this bridge is video annotation. The process could be done manually or automatically. Manual annotation is very tedious, subjective and expensive. Therefore automatic annotation is being actively studied. In this thesis we focus on the multimedia content automatic annotation. Namely the use of analysis techniques for information retrieval allowing to automatically extract metadata from video in a videomail system. Furthermore the identification of text, people, actions, spaces, objects, including animals and plants. Hence it will be possible to align multimedia content with the text presented in the email message and the creation of applications for semantic video database indexing and retrieving.

Southern Modernisms. Critical Stances through Regional Appropriations. Conference proceedings

The hegemonic definition of Modernism has been subjected to an intense critical revision process that began several decades ago. This process has contributed to the significant broadening of the modernist canon by challenging its primal essentialist assumptions and formalist interpretations in the fields of both the visual arts and architecture. This conference aims to further expand this revision, as it seeks to discuss the notion of “Southern Modernisms” by considering the hypothesis that regional appropriations, both in Southern Europe and the Southern hemisphere, entailed important critical stances that have remained unseen or poorly explored by art and architectural historians. In association with the Southern Modernisms research project (FCT – EXPL/CPC-HAT/0191/2013), we want to consider the entrenchment of southern modernisms in popular culture (folk art and vernacular architecture) as anticipating some of the premises of what would later become known as critical regionalism. It is therefore our purpose to explore a research path that runs parallel to key claims on modernism’s intertwinement with bourgeois society and mass culture, by questioning the idea that an aesthetically significant regionalism – one that resists to the colonization of international styles and is supported by critical awareness – occurred only in the field of architecture, and can only be represented as a postmodernist turn. (...)

Nestle's dynamic forecasting process: Anticipating risks and opportunities

Nestlé’s Dynamic Forecasting Process: Anticipating Risks and Opportunities This Work Project discusses the Nestlé’s Dynamic Forecasting Process, implemented within the organization as a way of reengineering its performance management concept and processes, so as to make it more flexible and capable to react to volatile business conditions. When stressing the importance of demand planning to reallocate resources and enhance performance, Nescafé Dolce Gusto comes as way of seeking improvements on this forecasts’ accuracy and it is thus, by providing a more accurate model on its capsules’ sales, as well as recommending adequate implementations that positively contribute to the referred Planning Process, that value is brought to the Project

Antioxidant extraction process for Andean Oca by a photodiode array detector using response surface methodology

Application of Experimental Design techniques has proven to be essential in various research fields, due to its statistical capability of processing the effect of interactions among independent variables, known as factors, in a system’s response. Advantages of this methodology can be summarized in more resource and time efficient experimentations while providing more accurate results. This research emphasizes the quantification of 4 antioxidants extraction, at two different concentration, prepared according to an experimental procedure and measured by a Photodiode Array Detector. Experimental planning was made following a Central Composite Design, which is a type of DoE that allows to consider the quadratic component in Response Surfaces, a component that includes pure curvature studies on the model produced. This work was executed with the intention of analyzing responses, peak areas obtained from chromatograms plotted by the Detector’s system, and comprehending if the factors considered – acquired from an extensive literary review – produced the expected effect in response. Completion of this work will allow to take conclusions regarding what factors should be considered for the optimization studies of antioxidants extraction in a Oca (Oxalis tuberosa) matrix.