Evaluation and performance of reading from big data formats

The emergence of new application profiles has caused a steep surge in the volume of data generated nowadays. Data heterogeneity is a modern trend, as unstructured types of data, such as videos and images, and semi-structured types, such as JSON and XML files, are becoming increasingly widespread. Consequently, new challenges related to analyzing and extracting important insights from huge bodies of information arise. The field of big data analytics has been developed to address these issues. Performance plays a key role in analytical scenarios, as it empowers applications to generate value in a more efficient and less time-consuming way. In this context, files are used to persist large quantities of information, which can be accessed later by analytic queries. Text files have the advantage of providing an easier interaction with the end user, whereas binary files propose structures that enhance data access. Among them, Apache ORC and Apache Parquet are formats that present characteristics such as column-oriented organization and data compression, which are used to achieve a better performance in queries. The objective of this project is to assess the usage of such files by SAP Vora, a distributed database management system, in order to draw out processing techniques used in big data analytics scenarios, and apply them to improve the performance of queries executed upon CSV files in Vora. Two techniques were employed to achieve such goal: file pruning, which allows Vora’s relational engine to ignore files possessing irrelevant information for the query, and block pruning, which disregards individual file blocks that do not possess data targeted by the query when processing files. Results demonstrate that these modifications enhance the efficiency of analytical workloads executed upon CSV files in Vora, thus narrowing the performance gap of queries executed upon this format and those targeting files tailored for big data scenarios, such as Apache Parquet and Apache ORC. The project was developed during an internship at SAP, in Walldorf, Germany.A emergência de novos perfis de aplicação ocasionou um aumento abrupto no volume de dados gerado na atualidade. A heterogeneidade de tipos de dados é uma nova tendência: encontram-se tipos não-estruturados, como vídeos e imagens, e semi-estruturados, tais quais arquivos JSON e XML. Consequentemente, novos desafios relacionados à extração de valores importantes de corpos de dados surgiram. Para este propósito, criou-se o ramo de big data analytics. Nele, a performance é um fator primordial pois garante análises rápidas e uma geração de valores eficiente. Neste contexto, arquivos são utilizados para persistir grandes quantidades de informações, que podem ser utilizadas posteriormente em consultas analíticas. Arquivos de texto têm a vantagem de proporcionar uma fácil interação com o usuário final, ao passo que arquivos binários propõem estruturas que melhoram o acesso aos dados. Dentre estes, o Apache ORC e o Apache Parquet são formatos que apresentam uma organização orientada a colunas e compressão de dados, o que permite aumentar o desempenho de acesso. O objetivo deste projeto é avaliar o uso desses arquivos na plataforma SAP Vora, um sistema de gestão de base de dados distribuído, com o intuito de otimizar a performance de consultas sobre arquivos CSV, de tipo texto, em cenários de big data analytics. Duas técnicas foram empregadas para este fim: file pruning, a qual permite que arquivos possuindo informações desnecessárias para consulta sejam ignorados, e block pruning, que permite eliminar blocos individuais do arquivo que não fornecerão dados relevantes para consultas. Os resultados indicam que essas modificações melhoram o desempenho de cargas de trabalho analíticas sobre o formato CSV na plataforma Vora, diminuindo a discrepância de performance entre consultas sobre esses arquivos e aquelas feitas sobre outros formatos especializados para cenários de big data, como o Apache Parquet e o Apache ORC. Este projeto foi desenvolvido durante um estágio realizado na SAP em Walldorf, na Alemanha

Water, human development and economic growth: some international perspectives

Water resources developmentInvestmentWater storageEconomic aspectsSocial aspects

Assessement of the Portuguese building thermal code: Newly revised requirements for cooling energy needs used to prevent the overheating of buildings in the summer

In this paper, cooling energy needs are calculated by the steady-state methodology of the Portuguese building thermal code. After the first period of building code implementation, re-evaluation according to EN ISO 13790 is recommended in order to compare results with the dynamic simulation results. From these analyses, a newly revised methodology arises including a few corrections in procedure. This iterative result is sufficiently accurate to calculate the building’s cooling energy needs. Secondly, results show that the required conditions are insufficient to prevent overheating. The use of the gain utilization factor as an overheating risk index is suggested, according to an adaptive comfort protocol, and is integrated in the method used to calculate the maximum value for cooling energy needs. This proposed streamlined method depends on reference values: window-to-floor area ratio, window shading g-value, integrated solar radiation and gain utilization factor, which leads to threshold values significantly below the ones currently used. These revised requirements are more restrictive and, therefore, will act to improve a building’s thermal performance during summer. As a rule of thumb applied for Portuguese climates, the reference gain utilization factor should assume a minimum value of 0.8 for a latitude angle range of 40-41ºN, 0.6 for 38-39ºN and 0.5 for 37ºN

New roles for farming in a differentiated countryside: the Portuguese example

Throughout Europe, the role of farming as the private provider of public goods and services increasingly valuated by society is today generally acknowledged. Furthermore, in the turn towards rural development concerns, multifunctionality as an attribute of rural space has emerged, justifying the territorial approach of farming. The situation facing the multifunctionality demand is nevertheless not the same in all European regions, which by all means is getting strengthened in the transition towards post-productivism. In some regions, there is a productivist orientation and production has a dominant economic role, while others will need to be supported on other functions to survive economically and socially, or may be best suited to environmental functions alone. The vocation of the rural territories is different, and thus also the functions they are able to support. This paper discusses the concept of multifunctionality of the rural areas, and defines a possible methodological approach towards the identification of the different types of rural areas in Europe, based on the identification of ideal types, through the analysis of selected indicators. The empirical application has been developed for the Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture, aiming at assessing the differentiated characteristics and dynamics of the Portuguese rural territory. Analyzing data from 1990 and 2000, at municipal level, three dimensions have been considered: the land cover, the agricultural sector and the rural community. Combining the three analyses, it was possible to identify different vocations of the rural space, and the role that farming could have in the future for the multifunctionality of the territory. Accordingly, the municipalities have been grouped in types, pre-defined as ideal types. This was a first attempt to understand the differentiation of the rural territory in Portugal. For decision-making it should be further developed. It nevertheless shows that there is clear differentiation concerning the possible landscape functions to be developed between regions and a possible way to assess. It also shows that a territorial approach to agriculture may be the key for the maintenance of the sector in many areas where production by itself, as it has been know until now, may be severely threatened

Environmental risk assessment of enhanced oil recovery solutions

PhD thesis in Risk management and societal safetyThe overall objective of the research presented in this thesis is to contribute new knowledge about the environmental risk related to shortlisted products and processes developed at the National Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) Centre of Norway and about how to assess such risk. According to the World Energy Outlook report presented by the International Energy Agency in 2021, oil and natural gas will continue to be important contributors to the energy mix over the next 20 years. Implementing enhanced oil recovery (EOR) solutions is important to maintain oil production from existing fields, as it is becoming increasingly difficult to discover new oil and gas reserves. An EOR screening study conducted across 53 reservoirs in 27 of the largest fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) found significant potential for additional oil recovery through EOR solutions. The (IOR) Centre of Norway has been developing new products and processes as part of EOR solutions to improve oil recovery on the NCS. Using these products and processes offshore poses an environmental risk to the marine environment and atmosphere, which needs to be assessed and managed. This thesis explores existing environmental risk assessment (ERA) approaches for offshore oil production and identifies knowledge gaps related to assessing the environmental risk of EOR solutions. The knowledge gaps are filled by using laboratory studies to generate new data, using this data in models to generate key insights, and by developing new methods for ERA of EOR solutions and proposing improvements to existing methods. The research conducted in this thesis has resulted in five scientific papers that are summarized below. Paper I presents a literature review on ERA guidelines relevant to offshore oil production. A review of the primary sources of environmental impacts and key environmental stressors resulting from offshore oil and gas production is also conducted. The main sources of environmental impacts from offshore oil production include operational discharges of produced water (PW), drilling waste to the marine environment, and air emissions from energy production using fossil fuels. The literature review indicates that current ERA practices may form a basis for ERA of EOR solutions; however, there are also knowledge gaps related to the ERA of new products and processes planned to be used as a part of EOR solutions. Based on the review, a generalized ERA framework for PW and drilling waste into the sea and for air emissions is proposed in Paper I. Several products and processes are developed at the IOR Centre to quantify and increase oil recovery as a part of EOR solutions. Using these new products and processes results in their back-production with PW, which is typically discharged into the marine environment. As a result, the main focus of this thesis is on the ERA of PW discharges caused by the implementation of EOR solutions. Quantifying residual oil saturation is important for the successful implementation of EOR solutions. The IOR Centre has proposed a group of seven chemicals (tracers) for potential use in quantifying residual oil saturation in oil reservoirs. Using these tracers in offshore oil fields results in their operational discharges (e.g., with PW) into the marine environment. Once released into the sea, marine organisms may become exposed to the tracers, thereby posing an environmental risk to the ecosystem. Paper II first reports on laboratory experiments conducted to measure the biodegradability and toxicity of seven tracer compounds. A hypothetical case of using tracer compounds on the NCS is then assumed. Discharge of PW containing tracers, along with other production chemicals from the Brage field (used as a proxy case), is simulated using the dynamic risk and effects assessment model (DREAM), which estimates the contribution to the environmental impact factor (EIF) values from each tracer. In addition, the seven tracer compounds are ranked from low to high in terms of their environmental impact. This ranking of the tracers can be used to shortlist the tracer(s) with minimum environmental impact for offshore applications. Polymer flooding is a process in which high molecular weight synthetic polymers are injected into an oil reservoir to increase oil recovery. Injected polymers are usually back-produced with the PW, which is typically discharged into the sea. These synthetic polymers have slow microbial degradation rates under aerobic conditions, unless the molecular weight is reduced to less than 3 kilodaltons. Photocatalytic depolymerization rates for several different synthetic EOR polymers have been measured as a part of another project at the IOR Centre. In Paper III, a novel method is proposed to estimate the residual lifetime of synthetic polymers in the marine environment. Residual lifetime is the amount of time the discharged synthetic polymer takes to reach a molecular weight, below which it becomes biodegradable in the sea. The proposed method uses the DREAM model to estimate the concentration distribution of polymers in the sea. Subsequently, the concentration distribution is linked with the depolymerization rate equations to estimate the residual lifetime of synthetic polymers in the sea. The applicability of this developed procedure is demonstrated by estimating the residual lifetime of synthetic polymers discharged from single and multiple oil fields on the NCS. Paper IV assesses the exposure and effects of discharging synthetic EOR polymers into the sea. Two main approaches are used: The first is based on estimating the EIF values of discharging PW-containing polymers using near-field simulations (where the discharge point is placed within a 50*50-kilometer grid). The estimated contribution to EIF values from synthetic polymers suggests negligible environmental impact when no assessment factor (AF) is used and low/moderate impact when an AF of 50 is used. The AF is a simple way to account for uncertainty in the assessment. The second approach, based on far-field simulations (where the discharge point is placed within a 1200*1800-kilometer grid), is primarily studied to assess polymer build-up in the sea, as synthetic EOR polymers show resistance to microbial degradability. In one of the farfield simulations, polymers are repeatedly released annually over a 10-year period from seven arbitrarily chosen oil fields on the NCS. The highest concentration values (based on the 75 percentiles) during the first and tenth years of discharge are used in a regression analysis against the amount of polymer discharged each year. The regression analysis indicates that polymers will not build up within the simulation area at the expected amounts of polymers discharged each year. Moreover, there is a considerable margin of safety between the highest concentration values calculated by the model and the concentration at which harmful effects in aquatic species are predicted. Paper V focuses on the use of species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) in ERA. An SSD is used to determine the threshold effect levels of stressors, below which unacceptable effects on a group of species are not expected. A literature review is performed to understand how risk is currently defined and how uncertainties are addressed when using SSDs in ERA. It is found that current ways of handling uncertainties while using SSDs are not based on unified guidance provided by the field of risk science. In Paper V, a risk-oriented framework is proposed that addresses uncertainties in a systematic manner while using SSDs. The proposed framework addresses uncertainties due to both lack of knowledge and variability. Furthermore, a scheme for assessing bias in theoretical and practical assumptions underlying SSDs is included in the framework. Lastly, a qualitative method is proposed to characterize the strength of knowledge underlying the SSDs

IIMA in HealthCare Management: Abstract of Publications (2000-2010)

The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), was established in 1961 as an autonomous institution by the Government of India in collaboration with the Government of Gujarat and Indian industry. IIMA’s involvement in the health sector started with the establishment of the Public Systems Group in 1975. In the initial period, our research focused on the management of primary healthcare services and family planning. We expanded our research activities to include the management of secondary healthcare services in the 80s and to tertiary healthcare services in the 90s. Currently our research interests focus on the governance and management issues in the areas on Rural Health, Urban Health, Public Health and Hospital Management. In June 2004, IIMA Board approved the setting up of a Centre for Management Health Services (CMHS) in recognition of IIMA’s contributions to the health sector in the past and the felt need to strengthen the management of health sector in the context of socio-economic developments of our country. The overall objectives of CMHS are to address the managerial challenges in the delivery of health services to respond to the needs of different segments of our population efficiently and effectively, build institutions of excellence in the health sector, and influence health policies and wider environments. All our research projects are externally funded and we have developed research collaborations with 15-20 international universities in USA, UK, Europe, and Asia. CMHS has also established strong linkages with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare at the national and state government levels, particularly in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Orissa, and Bihar. This working paper is a compilation of the abstracts of all our publications in the last 10 years, which include 40 referred journal articles, 54 Working Papers, 19 Chapters in Books and 18 Case Studies.

Regulation and marketisation in the Portuguese higher education system

This paper builds on the ongoing discussion on the regulation and marketisation of the higher education system. Its aim is to study the higher education market (des)equilibrium. Teixeira, Rosa and Amaral (2004) have analysed the presence/absence of market mechanisms in the Portuguese higher education sector. This paper describes supply and demand in the Portuguese system. On the supply side, it looks at indicators such as place distribution and diversity, whereas on the demand side, indicators based on the revealed preferences are computed. It goes a step further in quantifying the (mis)match between the two sides of the market, by suggesting and computing a set of strength and weakness indicators. These indicators are then used in predicting the potential impact of changes in higher education regulations on the market equilibrium and stability

English for Specific Purposes and Academic Literacies: Eclecticism in academic writing pedagogy

Academic Literacies and English for Specific Purposes perspectives on the teaching of academic writing tend to be positioned as dichotomous and ideologically incompatible. Nonetheless, recent studies have called for the integration of these two perspectives in the design of writing programmes in order to meet the needs of students in the increasingly diverse and shifting landscape of academia. The aim of the present paper is to reflect on how this theoretical integration could be put into practice. Drawing on the design of a research-based writing workshop for postgraduate anthropology students, we argue that rather than a ‘hybrid’ model of writing pedagogy, a theoretically grounded but eclectic approach is needed in order to respond to students’ personal, local, and disciplinary contexts

Digital Color Imaging

This paper surveys current technology and research in the area of digital color imaging. In order to establish the background and lay down terminology, fundamental concepts of color perception and measurement are first presented us-ing vector-space notation and terminology. Present-day color recording and reproduction systems are reviewed along with the common mathematical models used for representing these devices. Algorithms for processing color images for display and communication are surveyed, and a forecast of research trends is attempted. An extensive bibliography is provided

Wellbeing, law, and marriage Recognition of Nikah in multicultural Britain and the Finnish welfare state

Peer reviewe