Comparison of on-line learning algorithms for RBF models in greenhouse environmental control problems

The problem with the adequacy of radial basis function neural networks to model the inside air temperature as a function of the outside air temperature and solar radiation, and the inside relative humidity in an hydroponic greenhouse is addressed.

On-line adaptation of neural network

The Proportional Integral and Devirative (PID) controller autotuning is an important problem, both in practical and theoretical terms. The autotuning procedure must take place in real-time, and therefore the corresponding optimisation procedure must also be executed in real-time and without disturbing on-line control.

Reinventing America on the battlefields of Spain or following the party line: conflicting perceptions of the Spanish Civil War in the present and in the past

Isolationism and neutrality are two of the recurrent themes in the study of the history of the U.S. foreign policy in the interwar years. The trauma of the Great War, which had swept away 130.000 U.S. lives and had cost $30 billion, had led public opinion to strongly oppose any involvement with European affairs. Besides, the urgent need for economic recovery during the dismal years of the Great Depression did not leave Roosevelt much room for manoeuvre to influence international events. His positions regarding the intentions of the Fascist states remained, at best, ambivalent. These facts notwithstanding, about 2800 U.S. citizens crossed the Atlantic and rushed in to help democratic Spain, which was on the verge of becoming one more hostage in the hands of the Fascism. They joined the other British, Irish and Canadian volunteers and formed the XV International Brigade. 900 Americans never returned home. This alone should challenge the commonly held assumption that the American people were indifferent to the rise of the Fascist threat in Europe. But it also begs other questions. Considering the prevailing isolationist mood, what really motivated them? With what discursive elements did these men construct their anti Fascist representations? How far did their understanding of the Spanish democracy correspond to their own American democratic ideal? In what way did their war experience across the Atlantic mould their perception of U.S. politics (both domestic and foreign)? How far did the Spanish Civil War constitute one first step towards the realization that the U.S. might actually be drawn into another international conflict of unpredictable consequences? Last but not the least, what ideological, political and cultural complicity existed between the men from the English-speaking battalions? In order to unearth some of the answers, I intend to examine their letters and see how these men recorded the historical events in which they took part. Their correspondence emerged from the desire to prove their commitment to a common cause and spoke of a common war experience, but each letter, in its uniqueness, ends up mirroring not only the social and political background of each individual fighter, but also his own particular perspective of the war, of world politics and of the Spanish people. We shall see how these letters differ and converge and how these particular accounts weave, as in an epistolary novel, a larger-than-life narrative of outrage and solidarity, despair and hope.

On-line operation of an intelligent seismic detector

This study describes the on-line operation of a seismic detection system to act at the level of a seismic station providing similar role to that of a STA /LTA ratio-based detection algorithms. The intelligent detector is a Support Vector Machine (SVM), trained with data consisting of 2903 patterns extracted from records of the PVAQ station, one of the seismographic network's stations of the Institute of Meteorology of Portugal (IM). Records' spectral variations in time and characteristics were reflected in the SVM input patterns, as a set of values of power spectral density at selected frequencies. To ensure that all patterns of the sample data were within the range of variation of the training set, we used an algorithm to separate the universe of data by hyper-convex polyhedrons, determining in this manner a set of patterns that have a mandatory part of the training set. Additionally, an active learning strategy was conducted, by iteratively incorporating poorly classified cases in the training set. After having been trained, the proposed system was experimented in continuous operation for unseen (out of sample) data, and the SVM detector obtained 97.7% and 98.7% of sensitivity and selectivity, respectively. The same type of ANN presented 88.4 % and 99.4% of sensitivity and selectivity when applied to data of a different seismic station of IM. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Evaluation and Potential Cost-Effectiveness of Active Surveillance Pharmacovigilance for First-Line HAART in Namibia

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-02

Active design of tooth profiles using parabolic curve as the line of action

This paper proposes a method for the design of gear tooth profiles using parabolic curve as its line of action. A mathematical model, including the equation of the line of action, the equation of the tooth profile, and the equation of the conjugate tooth profile, is developed based on the meshing theory. The equation of undercutting condition is derived from the model. The influences of the two design parameters, that present the size (or shape) of the parabolic curve relative to the gear size, on the shape of tooth profiles and on the contact ratio are also studied through the design of an example drive. The strength, including the contact and the bending stresses, of the gear drive designed by using the proposed method is analyzed by an FEA simulation. A comparison of the above characteristics of the gear drive designed with the involute gear drive is also carried out in this work. The results confirm that the proposed design method is more flexible to control the shape of the tooth profile by changing the parameters of the parabola.

Rights, Rationality and Reproduction: Balancing Interests in the Abortion Debate

As medical technology has advanced, so too have our attitudes towards the level of control we can or should expect to have over our procreative capacities. This creates a multidimensional problem for the law and family planning services in terms of access to services – whether to avoid conception or terminate a pregnancy – and the negligent provision of these services. These developments go to the heart of our perception of autonomy. Unsurprisingly, these matters also raise a moral dilemma for the law. Distinctively, discourse in this area is dominated by assertions of subjective moral value; in relation to life, to personal choice and to notions of the archetypal family. Against this, I stress that a model of objective morality can answer these challenging questions and resolve the inherent problems of legal regulation. Therefore, I argue that notions of autonomy must be based on a rational, action-based understanding of what it means to be a ‘moral agent’. I claim that from this we might support a legal standard, based on objective rational morality, which can frame our constitutional norms and our conception of justice in these contentious areas. This paper claims that the current regulation of abortion is outdated and requires radical reform. It proposes a scheme that would shift the choice towards the mother (and the father), remove the unnecessarily broad disability ground and involve doctors having a role of counsel (rather than gatekeeper).

Balancing market integration in MASCEM electricity market simulator

With the restructuring of the energy sector in industrialized countries there is an increased complexity in market players’ interactions along with emerging problems and new issues to be addressed. Decision support tools that facilitate the study and understanding of these markets are extremely useful to provide players with competitive advantage. In this context arises MASCEM, a multi-agent simulator for competitive electricity markets. It is essential to reinforce MASCEM with the ability to recreate electricity markets reality in the fullest possible extent, making it able to simulate as many types of markets models and players as possible. This paper presents the development of the Balancing Market in MASCEM. A key module to the study of competitive electricity markets, as it has well defined and distinct characteristics previously implemented.

Dgenco market balancing - cost repartition under light regulation markets

In this paper we present a new methodology, based in game theory, to obtain the market balancing between Distribution Generation Companies (DGENCO), in liberalized electricity markets. The new contribution of this methodology is the verification of the participation rate of each agent based in Nucléolo Balancing and in Shapley Value. To validate the results we use the Zaragoza Distribution Network with 42 Bus and 5 DGENCO.

On-line self-healing of circuits implemented on reconfigurable FPGAs

To boost logic density and reduce per unit power consumption SRAM-based FPGAs manufacturers adopted nanometric technologies. However, this technology is highly vulnerable to radiation-induced faults, which affect values stored in memory cells, and to manufacturing imperfections. Fault tolerant implementations, based on Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR) infrastructures, help to keep the correct operation of the circuit. However, TMR is not sufficient to guarantee the safe operation of a circuit. Other issues like module placement, the effects of multi- bit upsets (MBU) or fault accumulation, have also to be addressed. In case of a fault occurrence the correct operation of the affected module must be restored and/or the current state of the circuit coherently re-established. A solution that enables the autonomous restoration of the functional definition of the affected module, avoiding fault accumulation, re-establishing the correct circuit state in real-time, while keeping the normal operation of the circuit, is presented in this paper.

Do impresso ao on-line: o caso da revista Sábado.

Relatório de estágio apresentado à Escola Superior de Comunicação Social como parte dos requisitos para obtenção de grau de mestre em Jornalismo.

A comunicação on-line das ONGs e a angariação de fundos

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentado ao Instituto de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Marketing Digital, sob orientação da Mestre Inês Veiga Pereira “Esta versão contém as críticas e sugestões dos elementos do júri”