An Efficient Monte Carlo-based Probabilistic Time-Dependent Routing Calculation Targeting a Server-Side Car Navigation System

Incorporating speed probability distribution to the computation of the route planning in car navigation systems guarantees more accurate and precise responses. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for dynamically selecting the number of samples used for the Monte Carlo simulation to solve the Probabilistic Time-Dependent Routing (PTDR) problem, thus improving the computation efficiency. The proposed method is used to determine in a proactive manner the number of simulations to be done to extract the travel-time estimation for each specific request while respecting an error threshold as output quality level. The methodology requires a reduced effort on the application development side. We adopted an aspect-oriented programming language (LARA) together with a flexible dynamic autotuning library (mARGOt) respectively to instrument the code and to take tuning decisions on the number of samples improving the execution efficiency. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed adaptive approach saves a large fraction of simulations (between 36% and 81%) with respect to a static approach while considering different traffic situations, paths and error requirements. Given the negligible runtime overhead of the proposed approach, it results in an execution-time speedup between 1.5x and 5.1x. This speedup is reflected at infrastructure-level in terms of a reduction of around 36% of the computing resources needed to support the whole navigation pipeline

A comunicação de valores éticos através de livros ilustrados: os casos de «Que luz estarias a ler?» (2015) e «Clube Mediterrâneo - doze fotogramas e uma devoração» (2017), de João Pedro Mésseder e Ana Biscaia

Que luz estarias a ler? e Clube Mediterrâneo - doze fotogramas e uma devoração, genuinamente ilustrados por Ana Biscaia e espontaneamente escritos por João Pedro Mésseder, são os livros estudados nesta dissertação. Através destes dois livros, pretendemos refletir acerca da ilustração enquanto estímulo de transformação dos contextos socioculturais e de valores éticos, reconhecendo na ilustração uma forma de comunicação visual narrativa, educacional, crítica e de comentário e (re)ação social. Desde sempre, a ilustração e as histórias têm um papel forte na vida do ser humano, bem como na forma de participar e de viver no mundo, procurando explicá-lo, compreendê-lo, torná-lo mais acessível e percetível. Para compreendermos a ilustração enquanto mecanismo de mudança social, principalmente junto do público infantojuvenil, propomos entender se esta permite que a mensagem chegue aos públicos de forma simples, rápida e direta, possibilitando uma transmissão capaz de impactar, alterar mentalidades e a forma de pensar; compreender se a capacidade de transformação cultural através da ilustração está sujeita a um conjunto de fatores que condicionam a sua eficácia; e, finalmente, entender se a ilustração, mesmo que não tenha capacidade de transmitir valores éticos e morais, é capaz de contextualizar os problemas da atualidade e traduzi-los de forma simples. Para entender estas questões, deslocamos a ótica do plano da receção para o da criação, em que os principais sujeitos desta investigação são os produtores culturais. A ilustração, ‘dizendo sem dizer’, trabalha no sentido de uma reconstrução da sociedade, de partilha, de valores, de reflexão.Que luz estarias a ler? e Clube Mediterrâneo – doze fotogramas e uma devoração, genuinely illustrated by Ana Biscaia and spontaneously written by João Pedro Mésseder, are the books studied in this dissertation. Through these two books, we intend to reflect on illustration as a stimulus for the transformation of socio-cultural contexts and ethical values, recognizing in the illustration a form of visual communication narrative, education, criticism, social commentary and (re)action. Illustration and stories have always played a strong role in human life, as well as in the way of participating and living in the world, trying to explain it, understand it, make it more accessible and noticeable. In order to understand illustration as a mechanism for social change, especially among children and adolescents, we propose to understand if it allows the message to reach audiences in a simple, fast and direct way, allowing a transmission capable of impacting, changing mentalities and the way of thinking; understand if cultural transformation’s capacity through illustration is subjected to factors that condition its effectiveness; and, finally, understand if illustration, even if it does not have the capacity to transmit ethical and moral values, is able to contextualize the today’s problems and translate them in a simple manner. In order to understand these issues, we shift the focus from the recipients to the creators in which the main subjects are the cultural producers. The illustration, ‘saying without saying’, works towards the reconstruction of society, through sharing, values, reflection

Variações no calibre das varizes esôfago-gástricas após tratamentos cirúrgicos de hipertensão portal

Um dos mais importantes fatores que levam à hemorragia digestiva por hipertensão portal é o calibre das varizes esôfago-gástricas. Visamos, no presente trabalho, avaliar endoscopicamente as variações de calibre antes e após diferentes cirurgias de hipertensão portal, realizadas em 73 pacientes com esquistossomose hépato-esplênica, no contexto de um estudo controlado e aleatorizado, sendo 24 deles submetidos a Anastomose Espleno-Renal (AER), 24 a Descompressão Portal Seletiva (DPS) e 25 a Desconexão Azigo-Portal com Esplenectomia (DAPE). As avaliações endoscópicas foram realizadas antes e até 10 anos após as cirurgias. O calibre das varizes foi classificado, segundo Palmer como de grau 1- até 3mm, grau 2 de 3 a 6 mm e grau 3 quando maiores do que 6mm de diâmetro, analizadas em quatro localizações anatômicas a saber: terços inferior, médio e superior do esôfago e estômago proximal. A somatória do número de pontos na gradação pré-operatória menos a somatória dos pontos na gradação evolutiva forneceu um número correspondente ao diferencial, que permitiu a comparação estatística entre os diferentes grupos cirúrgicos. Na avaliação qualitativa, bons resultados, correspondendo ao desaparecimento ou diminuição do calibre da varizes, foram encontrados mais freqüentemente após a AER do que DPS ou DAPE - respectivamente 95,8%, 83,3% e 72%. A análise estatística dos diferenciais de gradação demonstrou diferença estatisticamente significante favorecendo a AER em relação à DAPE, não havendo diferenças entre AER e DPS. Em conclusão, as cirurgias de anastomose ("shunt") foram mais eficientes do que a desvascularização, em termos de diminuir o calibre de varizes esôfago-gástricas.The size of gastroesophageal varices is one of the most important factors leading to hemorrhage related to portal hypertension. An endoscopic evaluation of the size of gastroesophageal varices before and after different operations for portal hypertension was performed in 73 patients with schistosomiasis, as part of a randomized trial: proximal splenorenal shunt (PSS n=24), distal splenorenal shunt (DSS n=24), and esophagogastric devascularization with splenectomy (EGDS n=25). The endoscopic evaluation was performed before and up to 10 years after the operations. Variceal size was graded according to Palmer's classification: grade 1 -- up to 3 mm, grade 2 -- from 3 to 6 mm, grade 3 -- greater than 6 mm, and were analyzed in four anatomical locations: inferior, middle or superior third of the esophagus, and proximal stomach. The total number of points in the pre-operative grading minus the number of points in the post-operative grading gave a differential grading, allowing statistical comparison among the surgical groups. Good results, in terms of disappearance or decrease of variceal size, were observed more frequently after PSS than after DSS or EGDS - 95.8%, 83.3%, and 72%, respectively. When differential grading was analyzed, a statistically significant difference was observed between PSS and EGDS, but not between proximal and distal splenorenal shunts. In conclusion, shunt surgeries were more efficient than devascularization in diminishing variceal size

Viral Clearance and Serological Response to SARS-CoV-2 in Kidney Transplant Recipients

Objectives Knowledge about the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) concerning viral shedding and humoral immune response against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is limited. The aim of this study is to analyze viral dynamics and the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 in KTRs with COVID-19 and study their association with clinical data. Materials and methods Consecutive KTRs diagnosed with COVID-19 at our center were evaluated for clinical presentation and outcome; duration of viral shedding and viral burden by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assay cycle threshold; and magnitude of seroconversion to SARS-CoV-2. Results Six KTRs identified with COVID-19 were hospitalized. Presenting symptoms were similar to those in the general population. Four patients had severe disease and, of these, 2 required mechanical ventilation, 4 had acute kidney injury, and 3 had secondary bacterial infections. Immunosuppression was reduced in all patients. Five patients were treated with hydroxychloroquine. No patient required dialysis or died. Patients with severe disease had a longer duration of viral shedding, which lasted more than 40 days, and had IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, which were detected from 3 weeks to as long as 10 weeks after symptom onset. In patients with less severe disease no IgG antibodies where detected between 9 and 14 weeks after symptom onset. Conclusions In our series, KTRs with severe COVID-19 had prolonged viral shedding and a stronger humoral immune response to SARS-CoV-2. These preliminary data need to be confirmed with further studies and over a longer period of time

Pegasus: Performance Engineering for Software Applications Targeting HPC Systems

Developing and optimizing software applications for high performance and energy efficiency is a very challenging task, even when considering a single target machine. For instance, optimizing for multicore-based computing systems requires in-depth knowledge about programming languages, application programming interfaces, compilers, performance tuning tools, and computer architecture and organization. Many of the tasks of performance engineering methodologies require manual efforts and the use of different tools not always part of an integrated toolchain. This paper presents Pegasus, a performance engineering approach supported by a framework that consists of a source-to-source compiler, controlled and guided by strategies programmed in a Domain-Specific Language, and an autotuner. Pegasus is a holistic and versatile approach spanning various decision layers composing the software stack, and exploiting the system capabilities and workloads effectively through the use of runtime autotuning. The Pegasus approach helps developers by automating tasks regarding the efficient implementation of software applications in multicore computing systems. These tasks focus on application analysis, profiling, code transformations, and the integration of runtime autotuning. Pegasus allows developers to program their strategies or to automatically apply existing strategies to software applications in order to ensure the compliance of non-functional requirements, such as performance and energy efficiency. We show how to apply Pegasus and demonstrate its applicability and effectiveness in a complex case study, which includes tasks from a smart navigation system

A NOÇÃO DE CONHECIMENTO DA EDUCAÇÃO FÍSICA ABORDADO NA FORMAÇÃO CONTINUADA EM SANTA CATARINA

A NOÇÃO DE CONHECIMENTO DA EDUCAÇÃO FÍSICA ABORDADO NA FORMAÇÃO CONTINUADA EM SANTA CATARIN

A NOÇÃO DE CONHECIMENTO DA EDUCAÇÃO FÍSICA ABORDADO NA FORMAÇÃO CONTINUADA EM SANTA CATARINA

A NOÇÃO DE CONHECIMENTO DA EDUCAÇÃO FÍSICA ABORDADO NA FORMAÇÃO CONTINUADA EM SANTA CATARIN

SOCRATES - A seamless online compiler and system runtime autotuning framework for energy-aware applications

Configuring program parallelism and selecting optimal compiler options according to the underlying platform architecture is a difficult task. Tipically, this task is either assigned to the programmer or done by a standard one-fits-all policy generated by the compiler or runtime system. A runtime selection of the best configuration requires the insertion of a lot of glue code for profiling and runtime selection. This represents a programming wall for application developers. This paper presents a structured approach, called SOCRATES, based on an aspect-oriented language (LARA) and a runtime autotuner (mARGOt) to mitigate this problem. LARA has been used to hide the glue code insertion, thus separating the pure functional application description from extra-functional requirements. mARGOT has been used for the automatic selection of the best configuration according to the runtime evolution of the application.

Significant papers from the First 25 Years of the FPL Conference

The list of significant papers from the first 25 years of the Field-Programmable Logic and Applications conference (FPL) is presented in this paper. These 27 papers represent those which have most strongly influenced theory and practice in the field.postprin