Actividade ígnea pós-paleozóica no continente português (elementos para uma síntese crítica)

The Author presents a synopsis about the post-Paleozoic igneous activity in continental Portugal. Subvolcanic massifs of Sintra, Sines and Monchique and the basaltic complex of Lisbon-Mafra are interpreted. The large network of dikes and sills occuring at north of Tagus river in Lisbon- Torres Vedras region as the dikes of Algarve and also those of diapiric formation are studied and compared. Also the doleritic dikes cuting the Hesperic Massif and the Great dike of Alentejo are studied. The Author presents an attempt of petrological and geochemical correlation-among these post-Paleozoic igneous rocks. For this more than 350 chemical analysis are used in order to elaborate several diagrams and some general conclusions are derived from them. The correlation between the origin of these igneous rocks and the opening of North Atlantic and the counter-clockwise rotation of the Iberia are also tried.

Optimal controllers with complex order derivatives

This paper studies the optimization of complex-order algorithms for the discrete-time control of linear and nonlinear systems. The fundamentals of fractional systems and genetic algorithms are introduced. Based on these concepts, complexorder control schemes and their implementation are evaluated in the perspective of evolutionary optimization. The results demonstrate not only that complex-order derivatives constitute a valuable alternative for deriving control algorithms, but also the feasibility of the adopted optimization strategy.

Chromian spinels in the basalts from the Lisbon volcanic complex (portugal) and their petrogenetic implications

Chromian spinels are common in the late Cretaceous alkali basalts of the Lisbon volcanic Complex in Portugal. They occur as unzoned inclusions in magnesian olivines of all basalt types and as large spectacularly zoned grains in the groundmass of porphyritic basalts. Microprobe analysis indicate complex cationic exchange in the groundmass zoned spinels due to simple peritectic reactions and in response to changing composition of the basalt liquid. The variation of cationic distribution in zoned chromian-Spinels, reflects very accurately the changing chemistry of the cooling silicate melt and the paragenetical relations of mineral oxides and silicates. Crystallization of initial chromian spinels occurred at T~1200°C and fO2~10-8.5 atm. earlier or contemporaneously with magnesian olivine. The titanomagnetite mantles of zoned chromian spinels crystallized at T~1200°C and much lower fO2.

sMapReduce: a programming pattern for wireless sensor networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are increasingly used in various application domains like home-automation, agriculture, industries and infrastructure monitoring. As applications tend to leverage larger geographical deployments of sensor networks, the availability of an intuitive and user friendly programming abstraction becomes a crucial factor in enabling faster and more efficient development, and reprogramming of applications. We propose a programming pattern named sMapReduce, inspired by the Google MapReduce framework, for mapping application behaviors on to a sensor network and enabling complex data aggregation. The proposed pattern requires a user to create a network-level application in two functions: sMap and Reduce, in order to abstract away from the low-level details without sacrificing the control to develop complex logic. Such a two-fold division of programming logic is a natural-fit to typical sensor networking operation which makes sensing and topological modalities accessible to the user.

Assessing usual dietary intake in complex sample design surveys: the National Dietary Survey

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) method allows the distributions of usual intake of nutrients and foods to be estimated. This method can be used in complex surveys. However, the user must perform additional calculations, such as balanced repeated replication (BRR), in order to obtain standard errors and confidence intervals for the percentiles and mean from the distribution of usual intake. The objective is to highlight adaptations of the NCI method using data from the National Dietary Survey. The application of the NCI method was exemplified analyzing the total energy (kcal) and fruit (g) intake, comparing estimations of mean and standard deviation that were based on the complex design of the Brazilian survey with those assuming simple random sample. Although means point estimates were similar, estimates of standard error using the complex design increased by up to 60% compared to simple random sample. Thus, for valid estimates of food and energy intake for the population, all of the sampling characteristics of the surveys should be taken into account because when these characteristics are neglected, statistical analysis may produce underestimated standard errors that would compromise the results and the conclusions of the survey.

Synechocystis ferredoxin/ferredoxin-NADP+-reductase/NADP+ complex: Structural model obtained by NMR-restrained docking

FEBS Letters 579 (2005) 4585–4590

A further investigation of the cytochrome b5–cytochrome c complex

J Biol Inorg Chem (2003) 8: 777–786

Open-ZB: an open-source implementation of the IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee protocol stack on TinyOS

The IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee protocols are gaining increasing interests in both research and industrial communities as candidate technologies for Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) applications. In this paper, we present an open-source implementation of the IEEE 802.15.4/Zigbee protocol stack under the TinyOS operating system for the MICAz motes. This work has been driven by the need for an open-source implementation of the IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee protocols, filling a gap between some newly released complex C implementations and black-box implementations from different manufacturers. In addition, we share our experience on the challenging problem that we have faced during the implementation of the protocol stack on the MICAz motes. We strongly believe that this open-source implementation will potentiate research works on the IEEE 802.15.4/Zigbee protocols allowing their demonstration and validation through experimentation.

Engineering a search and rescue application with a wireless sensor network - based localization mechanism

The advent of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) technologies is paving the way for a panoply of new ubiquitous computing applications, some of them with critical requirements. In the ART-WiSe framework, we are designing a two-tiered communication architecture for supporting real-time and reliable communications in WSNs. Within this context, we have been developing a test-bed application, for testing, validating and demonstrating our theoretical findings - a search&rescue/pursuit-evasion application. Basically, a WSN deployment is used to detect, localize and track a target robot and a station controls a rescuer/pursuer robot until it gets close enough to the target robot. This paper describes how this application was engineered, particularly focusing on the implementation of the localization mechanism.

Towards a unified theory of health-disease: II. Holopathogenesis

This article presents a systematic framework for modeling several classes of illness-sickness-disease named as Holopathogenesis. Holopathogenesis is defined as processes of over-determination of diseases and related conditions taken as a whole, comprising selected facets of the complex object Health. First, a conceptual background of Holopathogenesis is presented as a series of significant interfaces (biomolecular-immunological, physiopathological-clinical, epidemiological-ecosocial). Second, propositions derived from Holopathogenesis are introduced in order to allow drawing the disease-illness-sickness complex as a hierarchical network of networks. Third, a formalization of intra- and inter-level correspondences, over-determination processes, effects and links of Holopathogenesis models is proposed. Finally, the Holopathogenesis frame is evaluated as a comprehensive theoretical pathology taken as a preliminary step towards a unified theory of health-disease.

A complex protocol layer as a linux user-space process

With the current complexity of communication protocols, implementing its layers totally in the kernel of the operating system is too cumbersome, and it does not allow use of the capabilities only available in user space processes. However, building protocols as user space processes must not impair the responsiveness of the communication. Therefore, in this paper we present a layer of a communication protocol, which, due to its complexity, was implemented in a user space process. Lower layers of the protocol are, for responsiveness issues, implemented in the kernel. This protocol was developed to support large-scale power-line communication (PLC) with timing requirements.

Repeater-based hybrid wired/wireless PROFIBUS network simulator

This technical report describes the Repeater-Based Hybrid Wired/Wireless PROFIBUS Network Simulator that implements a simulation model of the repeater-based approach. This approach defines the mechanism to extend the PROFIBUS protocol to supprot wireless communication, in which the interconnection of the wired and wireless segments is done by a intermediate system operating at Physical Layer, as repeater.

Web-based application programming interface to solve nonlinear optimization problems

Nonlinear Optimization Problems are usual in many engineering fields. Due to its characteristics the objective function of some problems might not be differentiable or its derivatives have complex expressions. There are even cases where an analytical expression of the objective function might not be possible to determine either due to its complexity or its cost (monetary, computational, time, ...). In these cases Nonlinear Optimization methods must be used. An API, including several methods and algorithms to solve constrained and unconstrained optimization problems was implemented. This API can be accessed not only as traditionally, by installing it on the developer and/or user computer, but it can also be accessed remotely using Web Services. As long as there is a network connection to the server where the API is installed, applications always access to the latest API version. Also an Web-based application, using the proposed API, was developed. This application is to be used by users that do not want to integrate methods in applications, and simply want to have a tool to solve Nonlinear Optimization Problems.

Wind resource modelling in complex terrain using different mesoscale–microscale coupling techniques

Wind resource evaluation in two sites located in Portugal was performed using the mesoscale modelling system Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) and the wind resource analysis tool commonly used within the wind power industry, the Wind Atlas Analysis and Application Program (WAsP) microscale model. Wind measurement campaigns were conducted in the selected sites, allowing for a comparison between in situ measurements and simulated wind, in terms of flow characteristics and energy yields estimates. Three different methodologies were tested, aiming to provide an overview of the benefits and limitations of these methodologies for wind resource estimation. In the first methodology the mesoscale model acts like “virtual” wind measuring stations, where wind data was computed by WRF for both sites and inserted directly as input in WAsP. In the second approach, the same procedure was followed but here the terrain influences induced by the mesoscale model low resolution terrain data were removed from the simulated wind data. In the third methodology, the simulated wind data is extracted at the top of the planetary boundary layer height for both sites, aiming to assess if the use of geostrophic winds (which, by definition, are not influenced by the local terrain) can bring any improvement in the models performance. The obtained results for the abovementioned methodologies were compared with those resulting from in situ measurements, in terms of mean wind speed, Weibull probability density function parameters and production estimates, considering the installation of one wind turbine in each site. Results showed that the second tested approach is the one that produces values closest to the measured ones, and fairly acceptable deviations were found using this coupling technique in terms of estimated annual production. However, mesoscale output should not be used directly in wind farm sitting projects, mainly due to the mesoscale model terrain data poor resolution. Instead, the use of mesoscale output in microscale models should be seen as a valid alternative to in situ data mainly for preliminary wind resource assessments, although the application of mesoscale and microscale coupling in areas with complex topography should be done with extreme caution.

A wireless sensor network platform for structural health monitoring: enabling accurate and synchronized measurements through COTS+custom-based design

Structural health monitoring has long been identified as a prominent application of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), as traditional wired-based solutions present some inherent limitations such as installation/maintenance cost, scalability and visual impact. Nevertheless, there is a lack of ready-to-use and off-the-shelf WSN technologies that are able to fulfill some most demanding requirements of these applications, which can span from critical physical infrastructures (e.g. bridges, tunnels, mines, energy grid) to historical buildings or even industrial machinery and vehicles. Low-power and low-cost yet extremely sensitive and accurate accelerometer and signal acquisition hardware and stringent time synchronization of all sensors data are just examples of the requirements imposed by most of these applications. This paper presents a prototype system for health monitoring of civil engineering structures that has been jointly conceived by a team of civil, and electrical and computer engineers. It merges the benefits of standard and off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and communication technologies with a minimum set of custom-designed signal acquisition hardware that is mandatory to fulfill all application requirements.