BAM framework for OMS using open source technologies

No início da década de 90, as empresas começaram a sentir a necessidade de melhorar o acesso à informação das suas actividades para auxiliar na tomada de decisões. Desta forma, no mundo da informática, emergiu o sector Business Intelligence (BI) composto inicialmente por data warehousing e ferramentas de geração de relatórios. Ao longo dos anos o conceito de BI evoluiu de acordo com as necessidades empresariais, tornando a análise das actividades e do desempenho das organizações em aspectos críticos na gestão das mesmas. A área de BI abrange diversos sectores, sendo o de geração de relatórios e o de análise de dados aqueles que melhor preenchem os requisitos pretendidos no controlo de acesso à informação do negócio e respectivos processos. Actualmente o tempo e a informação são vantagens competitivas e por esse mesmo motivo as empresas estão cada vez mais preocupadas com o facto de o aumento do volume de informação estar a tornar-se insustentável na medida que o tempo necessário para processar a informação é cada vez maior. Por esta razão muitas empresas de software, tais como Microsoft, IBM e Oracle estão numa luta por um lugar neste mercado de BI em expansão. Para que as empresas possam ser competitivas, a sua capacidade de previsão e resposta às necessidades de mercado em tempo real é requisito principal, em detrimento da existência apenas de uma reacção a uma necessidade que peca por tardia. Os produtos de BI têm fama de trabalharem apenas com dados históricos armazenados, o que faz com que as empresas não se possam basear nessas soluções quando o requisito de alguns negócios é de tempo quase real. A latência introduzida por um data warehouse é demasiada para que o desempenho seja aceitável. Desta forma, surge a tecnologia Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) que fornece análise de dados e alertas em tempo quase real sobre os processos do negócio, utilizando fontes de dados como Web Services, filas de mensagens, etc. O conceito de BAM surgiu em Julho de 2001 pela organização Gartner, sendo uma extensão orientada a eventos da área de BI. O BAM define-se pelo acesso em tempo real aos indicadores de desempenho de negócios com o intuito de aumentar a velocidade e eficácia dos processos de negócio. As soluções BAM estão a tornar-se cada vez mais comuns e sofisticadas.

Design of improved rail-to-rail low-distortion and low-stress switches in advanced CMOS technologies

This paper describes the efficient design of an improved and dedicated switched-capacitor (SC) circuit capable of linearizing CMOS switches to allow SC circuits to reach low distortion levels. The described circuit (SC linearization control circuit, SLC) has the advantage over conventional clock-bootstrapping circuits of exhibiting low-stress, since large gate voltages are avoided. This paper presents exhaustive corner simulation results of a SC sample-and-hold (S/H) circuit which employs the proposed and optimized circuits, together with the experimental evaluation of a complete 10-bit ADC utilizing the referred S/H circuit. These results show that the SLC circuits can reduce distortion and increase dynamic linearity above 12 bits for wide input signal bandwidths.

Digital radiography detectors - A technical overview: Part 1

During the last two decades screen-film (SF) systems have been replaced by digital X-ray systems. The advent of digital technologies brought a number of digital solutions based on different detector and readout technologies. Improvements in technology allowed the development of new digital technologies for projection radiography such as computed radiography (CR) and digital radiography (DR). The large number of scientific papers concerning digital X-ray systems that have been published over the last 25 years indicates the relevance of these technologies in healthcare. There are important differences among different detector technologies that may affect system performance and image quality for diagnostic purposes. Radiographers are expected to have an effective understanding of digital X-ray technologies and a high level of knowledge and awareness concerning the capabilities of these systems. Patient safety and reliable diagnostic information are intrinsically linked to these factors. In this review article - which is the first of two parts - a global overview of the digital radiography systems (both CR and DR) currently available for clinical practice is provided.

Knowledge and technologies in innovative information systems

7th Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems, MCIS 2012, Guimaraes, Portugal, September 8-10, 2012, Proceedings Series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, Vol. 129

Digital radiography detectors: a technical overview

Developments in digital detector technologies have been taking place and new digital technologies are available for clinical practice. This chapter is intended to give a technical state-of-the-art overview about computed radiography (CR) and digital radiography (DR) detectors. CR systems use storage-phosphor image plates with a separate image readout process and DR technology converts X-rays into electrical charges by means of a readout process using TFT arrays. Digital detectors offer several advantages when compared to analogue detectors. The knowledge about digital detector technology for use in plain radiograph examinations is thus a fundamental topic to be acquired by radiology professionals and students. In this chapter an overview of digital radiography systems (both CR and DR) currently available for clinical practice is provided.

Technical considerations concerning digital technologies

This chapter addresses technical issues concerning digital technologies. Radiological equipment and technique are briefly introduced together with a discussion about requirements and advantages of digital technologies. Digital technologies offer several advantages when compared to conventional analogical systems, or screen–film (SF) systems. While in clinical practice the practitioners should be aware of technical factors such as image acquisition, management of patient dose, and diagnostic image quality. Thus, digital technologies require an up-to-date scientific knowledge concerning their use in projection radiography. In this chapter, technical considerations concerning digital technologies are provided.

Practical insights into digital radiology

Digital radiography detectors—based on different technological solutions—are currently available for clinical applications and widespread in clinical practice. Computed radiography (CR) and digital radiology systems have been available for clinical applications and the trend over the last few years has become digital. Radiology departments have been changing from traditional screen–film technology to digital technology. This chapter is intended to give the reader a practical understanding about the key aspects concerning digital systems, related to the performance of different technologies, image quality, and dose and patient safety/protection. The discussion around an optimization framework for digital systems is provided.

Importance of technologies characteristics for VPPs

The large increase of renewable energy sources and Distributed Generation (DG) of electricity gives place to the Virtual Power Producer (VPP) concept. VPPs can reinforce the importance of these generation technologies making them valuable in electricity markets. One of the most important tasks of a VPP is the conjugation of technologies to obtain a consistent set of associated producers and allow them to operate in the electric market. This paper presents some characteristics regarding already existent technologies and relevant aspects for producers and for VPP.

Information and communication technologies in education – a web-based intelligent tutoring system on teaching and learning electrical project

Electrical activity is extremely broad and distinct, requiring by one hand, a deep knowledge on rules, regulations, materials, equipments, technical solutions and technologies and assistance in several areas, as electrical equipment, telecommunications, security and efficiency and rational use of energy, on the other hand, also requires other skills, depending on the specific projects to be implemented, being this knowledge a characteristic that belongs to the professionals with relevant experience, in terms of complexity and specific projects that were made.

Monte Carlo simulation of the basic features of the GE Millennium MG single photon emission computed tomography gamma camera

Objective - To describe and validate the simulation of the basic features of GE Millennium MG gamma camera using the GATE Monte Carlo platform. Material and methods - Crystal size and thickness, parallel-hole collimation and a realistic energy acquisition window were simulated in the GATE platform. GATE results were compared to experimental data in the following imaging conditions: a point source of 99mTc at different positions during static imaging and tomographic acquisitions using two different energy windows. The accuracy between the events expected and detected by simulation was obtained with the Mann–Whitney–Wilcoxon test. Comparisons were made regarding the measurement of sensitivity and spatial resolution, static and tomographic. Simulated and experimental spatial resolutions for tomographic data were compared with the Kruskal–Wallis test to assess simulation accuracy for this parameter. Results - There was good agreement between simulated and experimental data. The number of decays expected when compared with the number of decays registered, showed small deviation (≤0.007%). The sensitivity comparisons between static acquisitions for different distances from source to collimator (1, 5, 10, 20, 30cm) with energy windows of 126–154 keV and 130–158 keV showed differences of 4.4%, 5.5%, 4.2%, 5.5%, 4.5% and 5.4%, 6.3%, 6.3%, 5.8%, 5.3%, respectively. For the tomographic acquisitions, the mean differences were 7.5% and 9.8% for the energy window 126–154 keV and 130–158 keV. Comparison of simulated and experimental spatial resolutions for tomographic data showed no statistically significant differences with 95% confidence interval. Conclusions - Adequate simulation of the system basic features using GATE Monte Carlo simulation platform was achieved and validated.

Lá contribution des technologies a l'apprentissage du français à l'ecole primaire georgienne

Les méthodes modernes d’enseignement exigent de recréer le milieu de la langue étudiée, de faire parler les élèves dans des situations différentes. En Géorgie, l’enseignement de la langue étrangère s’effectue à partir de 6 ans, en même temps que celui de la langue maternelle. Les élèves apprennent à écrire en français après l’apprentissage de l’écriture en géorgien. A l’âge de 7-10 ans, ils connaissent déjà 3 alphabets différents : le géorgien, le latin et le cyrillique. L’objectif de cet article est de proposer une méthode qui pourra faciliter l’apprentissage du français aux non francophones grâce aux moyens audiovisuels qui sont très efficaces surtout au moment quand l’enfant ne sait ni lire, ni écrire en langue étrangère. Cependant, les moyens audiovisuels doivent être utilisés à des doses normales sans empêcher l’activité de l’élève.

Validação do uso de cone-beam computed tomography de kilovoltagem de um LINAC para a realização de estudos dosimétricos

Mestrado em Radioterapia

Radioterapia adaptativa: utilização do cone-beam computed tomography para o cálculo de dose em radioterapia

Mestrado em Radiações Aplicadas às Tecnologias da Saúde - Ramo de especialização: Terapia com Radiações

Du télégraphe à internet: enjeux politiques liés aux technologies de l’information

Parmi les questions centrales portant sur les implications d’Internet, certaines présentent des points en commun avec celles qui ont vu le jour à l’époque du bouleversement dans les communications provoqué par l’apparition du télégraphe au XIXe siècle.

User-interface technologies for the industrial environment: towards the cyber-factory

In the past few years the so-called gadgets like cellular phones, personal data assistants and digital cameras are more widespread even with less technological aware users. However, for several reasons, the factory-floor itself seems to be hermetic to this changes ... After the fieldbus revolution, the factory-floor has seen an increased use of more and more powerful programmable logic controllers and user interfaces but the way they are used remains almost the same. We believe that new user-computer interaction techniques including multimedia and augmented rcaliry combined with now affordable technologies like wearable computers and wireless networks can change the way the factory personal works together with the roachines and the information system on the factory-floor. This new age is already starting with innovative uses of communication networks on the factory-floor either using "standard" networks or enhancing industrial networks with multimedia and wireless capabilities.