User-Experience with Haptic Feedback Technologies and Text Input in Interactive Multimedia Devices

Remote control devices are commonly used for interaction with multimedia equipment and applications (e.g., smart TVs, gaming, etc.). To improve conventional keypad-based technologies, haptic feedback and user input capabilities are being developed for enhancing the UX and providing advanced functionalities in remote control devices. Although the sensation provided by haptic feedback is similar to mechanical push buttons, the former offers much greater flexibility, due to the possibility of dynamically choosing different mechanical effects and associating different functions to each of them. However, selecting the best haptic feedback effects among the wide variety that is currently enabled by recent technologies, remains a challenge for design engineers aiming to optimise the UX. Rich interaction further requires text input capability, which greatly influences the UX. This work is a contribution towards UX evaluation of remote control devices with haptic feedback and text input. A user evaluation study of a wide variety of haptic feedback effects and text input methods is presented, considering different technologies and different number of actuators on a device. The user preferences, given by subjective evaluation scores, demonstrate that haptic feedback has undoubtedly a positive impact on the UX. Moreover, it is also shown that different levels of UX are obtained, according to the technological characteristics of the haptic actuators and how many of them are used on the device.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Characterising the agriculture 4.0 landscape - Emerging trends, challenges and opportunities

ReviewInvestment in technological research is imperative to stimulate the development of sustainable solutions for the agricultural sector. Advances in Internet of Things, sensors and sensor networks, robotics, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, etc. foster the transition towards the Agriculture 4.0 era. This fourth revolution is currently seen as a possible solution for improving agricultural growth, ensuring the future needs of the global population in a fair, resilient and sustainable way. In this context, this article aims at characterising the current Agriculture 4.0 landscape. Emerging trends were compiled using a semi-automated process by analysing relevant scientific publications published in the past ten years. Subsequently, a literature review focusing these trends was conducted, with a particular emphasis on their applications in real environments. From the results of the study, some challenges are discussed, as well as opportunities for future research. Finally, a high-level cloud-based IoT architecture is presented, serving as foundation for designing future smart agricultural systems. It is expected that this work will positively impact the research around Agriculture 4.0 systems, providing a clear characterisation of the concept along with guidelines to assist the actors in a successful transition towards the digitalisation of the sectorinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Atividade antifúngica de extratos etanólicos e hexânicos de Jatropha curcas sobre Fusarium solani f.sp. piperis.

Edição dos resumos do XLIII Congresso Brasileiro de Fitopatologia, Cuiabá, ago. 2010

Asparagopsis armata exudate cocktail: the quest for the mechanisms of toxic action of an invasive seaweed on marine invertebrates

The seaweed Asparagopsis armata exhibits a strong invasive behavior, producing halogenated compounds with effective biological effects. This study addresses the biochemical responses to sublethal concentrations of A. armata exudate on the marine snail Gibbula umbilicalis whole body and the shrimp Palaemon elegans eyes and hepatopancreas. Antioxidant defenses superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST), oxidative damage endpoints lipid peroxidation (LPO) and DNA damage, the neuronal parameter acetylcholinesterase (AChE), and the fatty acid profile were evaluated. Results revealed different metabolic responses in both species. Despite previous studies indicating that the exudate affected G. umbilicalis’ survival and behavior, this does not seem to result from oxidative stress or neurotoxicity. For P. elegans, the inhibition of AChE and the decrease of antioxidant capacity is concomitant with the increase of LPO, suggesting neurotoxicity and oxidative stress as contributor mechanisms of toxicity for this species. Fatty acid profile changes were more pronounced for P. elegans with a general increase in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) with the exudate exposure, which commonly means a defense mechanism protecting from membrane disruption. Nonetheless, the omega-3 PUFAs arachidonic acid (ARA) and docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) increased in both invertebrates, indicating a common regulation mechanism of inflammation and immunity responsesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Automatização de grade horária utilizando FET

Um dos problemas das instituições de ensino superior ao iniciar o seu período letivo é a programação dos horários das aulas (em inglês, timetabling problem). Este problema de otimização combinatória é de difícil resolução devido ao grande número de possibilidades a serem analisadas e a necessidade de verificação de uma série de requisitos de várias naturezas, muitos dos quais conflitantes entre si, como horários, disponibilidade dos professores, disciplinas, entre outras. É uma tarefa difícil que demanda tempo e nem sempre se consegue resolver o problema sem conflitos entre as partes envolvidas. Este problema pode ser resolvido por Programação Inteira ou via algoritmos Heurísticos e Metaheurísticos. Atualmente, no Curso de Ciência da Computação do Centro Universitário Serra dos Órgãos (UNIFESO), a grade horária é feita de forma manual, o que demanda tempo para a sua confecção e dificuldade caso seja necessária alguma modificação. O objetivo deste trabalho é automatizar a geração da grade horária do corpo docente do curso de Ciência da Computação do UNIFESO utilizando o software livre Free Timetabling Program (FET). O FET destina-se a resolver problemas de compromissos, tarefas, horários em escolas e universidades e possui como método de busca a Metaheurística Algoritmos Genéticos (AGs). A versão utilizada no projeto é a 5.92, que possibilita o cadastro dos professores, matérias, períodos, início e término de cada aula, número de aulas de cada professor e sua disponibilidade na Instituição. É possível ainda dividir o número de aulas por dia e por semana, colocar matérias como pré-requisitos de outras, além de outros recursos como o cadastro de salas e laboratórios. Durante o processo da geração da grade horária dos professores, caso algum requisito não esteja sendo obedecido, o FET identifica a inconsistência e para automaticamente o processo, exibindo mensagens de erros para correção de suas possíveis causas, evitando que somente no fim do processo os problemas sejam identificados. Além disso, o FET possibilita a exportação dos resultados em XML ou HTML

Atividade antifúngica de extratos etanólicos de espécies de Copaifera sobre Fusarium solani f.sp. Piperis e Fusarium oxysporum.

Edição dos resumos do 44º Congresso Brasileiro de Fitopatologia, 2011, Bento Gonçalves. Resumo 1243

Identify of a tilapia pheromone released by dominant males that primes females for reproduction

Knowledge of the chemical identity and role of urinary pheromones in fish is scarce, yet necessary to understand the integration of multiple senses in adaptive responses and the evolution of chemical communication. In nature, Mozambique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) males form hierarchies and females mate preferentially with dominant territorial males which they visit in aggregations or leks

Practical computational toolkits for dendrimers and dendrons structure design

Dendrimers and dendrons offer an excellent platform for developing novel drug delivery systems and medicines. The rational design and further development of these repetitively branched systems are restricted by difficulties in scalable synthesis and structural determination, which can be overcome by judicious use of molecular modelling and molecular simulations. A major difficulty to utilise in silico studies to design dendrimers lies in the laborious generation of their structures. Current modelling tools utilise automated assembly of simpler dendrimers or the inefficient manual assembly of monomer precursors to generate more complicated dendrimer structures. Herein we describe two novel graphical user interface (GUI) toolkits written in Python that provide an improved degree of automation for rapid assembly of dendrimers and generation of their 2D and 3D structures. Our first toolkit uses the RDkit library, SMILES nomenclature of monomers and SMARTS reaction nomenclature to generate SMILES and mol files of dendrimers without 3D coordinates. These files are used for simple graphical representations and storing their structures in databases. The second toolkit assembles complex topology dendrimers from monomers to construct 3D dendrimer structures to be used as starting points for simulation using existing and widely available software and force fields. Both tools were validated for ease-of-use to prototype dendrimer structure and the second toolkit was especially relevant for dendrimers of high complexity and size.Peer reviewe