Concurrency in Android development – Kotlin Coroutines and RxJava

A faulty concurrency system may have an impact in the user experience of the software product and consequently to the company that owns that product. The main goal of this research is to understand the impact of concurrency in Android development and further help developers/companies to discretise the best approaches for concurrency. The research initially centres on the importance of concurrency in Android applications as well as the main approaches for concurrency/threading in Android development. It further illustrates why some asynchronous programming approaches do not fit modern Android development. This allowed the research to concentrate on the most relevant approaches to concurrency and consequently produce more pertinent results for the current state of Android development. After acknowledging Kotlin Coroutines and RxJava as the most relevant approaches to concurrency for Android (at the time of writing this document), this research moved on with the development of a case study application. This application was implemented using both Kotlin Coroutines and RxJava while reusing as much code as possible. There is a single module dedicated to the main user interface of the application and two modules (one for Kotlin Coroutines and one for RxJava) dedicated to concurrently run the necessary steps for each feature and further propagating the necessary data to the user interface. This allowed a clear separation of the specific code needed to perform the same features with Kotlin Coroutines and RxJava, facilitating its later comparison. The design of this application and its features required prior assessment of common use cases for concurrency in Android to form a fitting case study. With the intent of assessing the impact of using Kotlin Coroutines and RxJava in Android applications, we discretised the main software quality attributes to consider for Android development. By taking this step, we were able to focus mainly on the Performance and Maintainability of an Android application and understand how the usage of both Kotlin Coroutines and RxJava affects these attributes. The impact of each library in the performance and maintainability of an Android application was measured using software metrics that were provided by a combination of static analysis, benchmarks, and profiling tests. The process of designing the set of tests, setting up the required tools and the overall development of the test environment for this research is also explored in this document. The results for Kotlin Coroutines and RxJava were then illustrated, compared, and interpreted to fulfil our objective of understanding if, at the time of writing this document, there is a more sensible approach to concurrency for Android development according to our set of tests. The results for our set of tests and case study application revealed that RxJava and Kotlin Coroutines do not differently compromise the performance and maintainability of an Android application, for what developers and companies should not be limited when choosing between these libraries

The fitting of the German yield curve: a dynamic approach using latent, macroeconomic and stock market variables

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and EconomicsThe purpose of this Work Project is to build a yield curve model for the German Government yield curve containing latent variables (Level, Slope and Curvature), macroeconomic variables (German IFO and Inflation Rate) and a stock market variable (German Stock Index DAX), while studying the yield curve dynamics. The model incorporates the Nelson and Siegel (1987) factor model under a State-Space framework and the estimation results provided a good fitting of the historical yield curve. Additionally, after doing a Variance Decomposition analysis, this project proves the existence of an interaction between the yield curve and the German Macroeconomy/Stock Market

E-learning in mixed reality landscape: emerging issues and key trends in scientific research

E-Learning aims to apply information and communications technology to enhance and support the learning process and is a popular mode of delivering educational materials in universities throughout the world. Recently, due to the advancements of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual reality (VR), the E-learning process has great challenges and opportunities ahead. This study intends to explore the current trends in the field of AR/VR applied to distance education research. Using bibliographic data extracted from the Scopus® database and social network analysis techniques were able to analyse author keyword toward the identification of major trends. For the analysis, we collected keywords from research papers published in international journals related to E-learning, AR and VR, between 2006 and 2017, and constructed a co-word network, and then conducted the keywords network analysis. Retrieving the "E-learning" ego-network we could find some clusters that define major trends like virtual environments or evaluations process. The study reveals that E-learning process fits better in AR than VR research. The findings obtained in this study may be useful in the exploration of potential research areas in the field of distance education.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

ITV services for socializing in public places

Watching TV in public locations is very different from watching at Home, but it can also be a worthy experience, especially in the context of certain collective events, such as live football. The increasingly rich features of iTV services may even provide the ground for making the Television infrastructure an alternative framework for the deployment of public display services. In this paper, we present and discuss integration scenarios in which the iTV infrastructure and public display services conceived for multi-user interaction in public spaces are combined to generate new types of services offer. It reveals a considerable potential on the idea of leveraging iTV infrastructures for supporting new types of public display services benefiting from content generated and social interactions of the co-located audience. The successful use of these approaches will require a clear understanding of the properties of the iTV infrastructure and a focus on the type of applications in which those properties may provide more added-value than limitations.(undefined

Ecriture et mémoire: écrire après la Shoah

Tese de Doutoramento em Ciências da Literatura - Ramo do Conhecimento de Literatura FrancesaLe vaste domaine de la littérature des écrivains de la «deuxieme génération» de I'Holocauste est intimement marqué par la recherche des moyens d'expression de l'absence et du manque de tout ce qui a disparu. Robelt Bober, Raymond Federman, Patrick Modiano et Georges Perec engagent leur pratique littéraire dans un travail profond sur les modes d'écriture qui semblent être le seul moyen de parvenir à la résolution de la problématique de l' «indicible» qui obsede la plupart des auteurs de cette génération. Notre étude portera sur Quoi de neuf sur la guerre ? de Robert Bober, La voix dans le cabinet de débarras de Raymond Federman, Dora Bruder de Patrick Modiano et Récits d'Ellis Island de Georges Perec et Robert Bober. La Shoah et les traces qu'elle a laissées dans le monde d'aujourd'hui résonnent dans toutes ces reuvres tout en s'insérant dans un univers de la discrétion que nous considérons une «écriture en creux», c'est-à-dire une écriture marquée par la fragmentation, par l'obliquÍté et qui raconte sans raconter explicitement. Elle emploie des mécanismes et des structures qui révelent des points communs au sein de ce groupe d'auteurs, malgré les différences d'écritures et d'expériences personnelles. L'«écriture en creux» les réunit et devient la meilleure manifestation du travail de transmission et de recherche de la mémoire qui est le leur. L'Holocauste les a marqués d'une manÍere indélébile et a laissé, d'tm côté, le besoin de l'expression du manque de sens de tout ce qui est arrivé, de l'autre, celui de la quête d'un sens à la vie elle-même. Le corpus d'reuvres choisi est analysé selon des approches narratologique et thématique qUI mettent en lumiere les caractéristiques de cette forme particuliere d' écriture. L' approche narratologique nous permet une étude méticuleuse des procédés structurels mis en place par ces écrivains pour organiser une stratégie du fragmentaire et de l'incomplétude permettant de décrire le vi de sur lequel doit se, construire la vie apres le drame de la guerre. L'approche thématique aborde des contenus essentiels : le traitement de I'Histoire et une écriture autobiographique, ni tout à fait vraie ni tout à fait imaginaire. Des liens, à la fois étroits et problématiques se tissent alors entre Histoire collective et écriture de soi, brouillant les frontieres entre réalité et fiction et faisant apparaitre davantage le travail de quête de la mémoire que la mémoire elle-même. Ces reuvres constituent ainsi, non seulement une forme différente d'écrire sur la Shoah, mais encore une réflexion et une recherche de renouvellement au niveau des moyens d'expression et des gemes littéraires traditionnels.O vasto campo da literatura da «segunda geração» do Holocausto está intimamente marcado pela busca de meios que possam expressar a ausência e o vazio deixados por tudo aquilo que desapareceu. Robert Bober, Raymond Federman, Patrick Modiano e Georges Perec desenvolvem a sua prática literária num profundo trabalho sobre os modos de escrita que parecem ser a maneira de resolver a problemática do <\indizível» que se tornou numa obsessão para grande parte dos autores desta geração. O presente estudo debruçar-se-á sobre as seguintes obras: Quoi de neufsur la guerre? de Robert Bober, La voix dans le cabinet de débarras de Raymond Federman, Dora Bruder de Patrick Modiano e Récits d'Ellis lsland de Georges Perec e Robert Bober. O tema do Holocausto, assim como as marcas que deixou ecoam em todas elas inserindo-se numa atmosfera da descrição que consideramos uma «écriture en creux», isto é, uma escrita marcada pela fragmentação, pela obliquidade e que conta sem contar explicitamente. Esta escrita utiliza mecanismos e estruturas que revelam pontos comuns entre estes escritores, apesar das diferenças nas escritas e nas experiências pessoais. A «écriture en creux» reúne-os e revela ser a melhor manifestação do trabalho de transmissão e de busca da memória no qual eles se envolvem. O Holocausto marcou¬os de uma forma indelével e deixou, por um lado, a necessidade da expressão da falta de sentido de tudo o que aconteceu e, por outro, a necessidade da procura de um sentido para a própria vida. O corpus de obras escolhido é aqui analisado seglmdo as vertentes narratológica e temática que evidenciam as características desta forma de escrita peculiar. A vertente narratológica permite-nos um estudo pormenorizado dos processos estruturais escolhidos por estes autores para a criação de estratégias que evidenciam o fragmentado e o laeunar, permitindo assim descrever o vazio sobre o qual se constroi a vida depois do drama da guerra. A vertente temática aborda conteúdos essenciais: o. tratamento da História e uma escrita autobiográfica situada entre fronteiras, nem totalmente verdadeira nem totalmente ficcional . Criam-se, então, laços estreitos e problemáticos entre a História colectiva e a escrita pessoal que esbatem as fronteiras entre realidade e ficção e mostram mais o trabalho de procura da memória do que a própria memória. Estas obras constituem então, não só uma forma diferente de escrever sobre o Holocausto, como também uma reflexão e uma busca de renovação ao nível dos meios de expressão e dos géneros literários tradicionais.Prode

Diagnóstico de enfermería Protección Ineficaz: validación de contenido en pacientes en hemodiálisis.

O presente constitui-se de um estudo de validação de conteúdo, sobre as Características Definidoras (CD) do Diagnóstico de Enfermagem (DE) Proteção Ineficaz em pacientes em hemodiálise. Da amostra, fizeram parte 63 enfermeiros peritos, eleitos pelo método de seleção de peritos, adaptado da literatura. A coleta de dados ocorreu por meio de um instrumento, no qual constavam dados do participante e uma escala Likert para avaliação das CD. Às 18 CD contidas na Taxonomia da North American Nursing Diagnosis (NANDA) para o DE em estudo foi acrescentada a Desnutrição. Como resultados, foram obtidos 5 Indicadores Principais Provisórios: Deficiência na Imunidade, Alteração Neurossensorial, Dispnéia, Prurido e Desnutrição. Concluiu-se que os Indicadores Principais são relacionados com a doença renal crônica e podem conduzir ao DE Proteção Ineficaz nos sujeitos que realizam hemodiálise.The present study is a content validation, to validate the defining characteristics (DC) of the nursing diagnosis (ND) Ineffective Protection in patients under hemodialysis. For the sample delimitation, the experts selection method used was adapted from the literature. The data search was carried out with an instrument that bore the participant’s data. Besides that, there was a Likert to each one of the DC. To the 18 DC was added the characteristic Malnutrition. 5 temporary primary indexes were obtained as results: Immunity Deficient, Neurossensory Alteration, Dyspnea, Itching and Malnutrition. It was concluded that the characteristics listed as primary indexes are related to the chronic kidney disease and can lead to the Ineffective Protection nursing diagnosis in those patients who go through hemodialysis.El presente trabajo constituye un estudio de validación de contenido sobre las Características Definidoras (CD) del Diagnóstico de Enfermería (DE) Protección Ineficaz en pacientes en hemodiálisis. Formaron parte de la muestra 63 enfermeros peritos elegidos a través del método de selección de peritos, adaptado de la literatura. La toma de datos se hizo por medio de un instrumento en el que constaban datos del participante y una escala Likert para evaluación de las CD. A las 18 CD contenidas en la Taxonomía de la North American Nursing Diagnosis (NANDA) para el DE en estudio, se agregó la Desnutrición. Como resultado se obtuvieron 5 Indicadores Principales Provisorios: Deficiencia en la Inmunidad, Alteración Neurosensorial, Disnea, Prurito y Desnutrición. Se concluyó que los Indicadores Principales están relacionados con la enfermedad renal crónica y pueden llevar al DE Protección Ineficaz en los sujetos que hacen hemodiálisis