A multi-driven approach to requirements analysis of data warehouse model: A case study

In this paper, a multi-driven approach to data modeling in data warehousing will be presented, which integrates three existing approaches normally used separately: goal-driven, user-driven and data-driven; and two approaches usually not used in data warehousing field: process-driven and technology-driven. Goal-driven approach produces subjects and KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) of main business fields. User-driven approach produces analytical requirements represented by measures and dimensions of each subject. Process-driven approach propose improvements in business processes (by using and creating subject oriented enterprise data model) to satisfy the KPI’s, measures and dimensions identified in the previous approaches. Technology-driven approach is an enabler or an obstacle to be considered in a data warehouse model. Data-driven approach is a combination of the results of previous approaches and results in a data warehouse model. By using a multi-driven approach with five stages, a layered data warehouse model more aligned with business and individual needs can be obtained. This will be illustrated by using examples of a case study

Information systems development course: integrating business, IT and IS competencies

Information systems development (ISD) is a capstone course in the Information Systems and Technology undergraduate program at School of Engineering, University of Minho, Portugal. ISD is viewed as an organizational change project that aims at improving an organization through the adoption of IT applications. The course is designed following a project led approach. The project involves describing an organization as a system, describing its information handling activities and proposing a set of IT applications that could be adopted and used. Students are guided by a ISD methodology that demands the application of previous developed competencies in areas such as: organization theory, accounting, marketing, information systems fundamentals, data bases, software engineering, computer networks and several other IT courses. Together with the ISD course, students are also taking courses on organizational behavior and data-warehousing. Students are organized into large teams of 10 to 12 members. Several roles are distributed among team members: e.g., team leader, analyst, document officer, technology officer, methodologist, development tools specialist, IT specialist. Students are suggested a fictional organization in a specific business area. Ideally students should deal with a real organization. As the course is having around 100 students enrolled this is not possible. However it is common that each project team finds an organization in the proposed business area where they go and have actual contact with an organization. The main outputs of the project include: project plan; organization description including - purpose, environment, main activities, business ontology, main performance indicators; general information systems description using UML; requirements for an IT application; IT architecture. One of the most important steps of the project is to decide on what IT to suggest to the organization. The decision should take into consideration the capability of current IT, the specifics of the business area and its current practices. Besides the reports, each team makes two public presentations. The first one is to present the organization description making sure business is clearly understood. The final one is to present the solution in terms of information systems and IT architecture. These presentations are attended by industry guests that focus their attention on the students' communication skills from the perspective of a manager. The evaluation of students' performance is based on: reports corresponding to the outputs mentioned above; public presentations; weekly assessments of the teams' progress. The final mark attributed to each team (a numerical value from 0 to 20, where above 10 is a pass) can be re-distributed among team members, by themselves, in order to account for different levels of commitment or effort within the team. Several other rules are set in order to promote professional behavior.(undefined

MUSICEMBRIOLOGY IN CHILDREN EURODEVELOPMENT: A REVIEW

Introdução: A musicoembriologia engloba a audição de música durante a gravidez, com o objetivo de melhorar a relação materno-fetal e o neurodesenvolvimento infantil. Contudo, a relação entre estes ainda não está bem estabelecida, pelo que permanece um tema controverso. Objetivo: Rever a evidência disponível sobre o impacto da audição de música durante a gravidez no neurodesenvolvimento infantil. Material e Métodos: Pesquisa de meta-análises (MA), revisões sistemáticas (RS), ensaios clínicos aleatorizados e contro- lados (ECAC), e normas de orientação clinica (NOC), em inglês e português, publicados entre 01/2004 e 04/2014, nas bases de dados Pubmed/Medline, sítios de medicina baseada na evidência e Índex de Revistas Médicas Portuguesas, utilizando os termos MeSH: music; pregnancy; child; neurodevelopment. Para a avaliação dos níveis de evidência (NE) e atribuição de forças de recomendação (FR) foi utilizada a escala SORT (Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy) da American Family Phisician. Resultados: Foram encontrados onze artigos, dos quais quatro foram selecionados: três ECAC e uma RS. Um ECAC (NE 1) mostrou melhoria significativa do comportamento neonatal nas crianças cujas mães ouviram música durante a gravidez. Outro ECAC (NE 2) demonstrou uma melhoria da relação ma- terno-fetal com a musicoembriologia. Outro ECAC (NE3) e a RS (FR B) demonstraram que o ambiente intrauterino é importante no neurodesenvolvimento neonatal, sobretudo no desenvolvi- mento do córtex cerebral motor e neurosensorial. Conclusões: A evidência disponível demonstrou que a au- dição de música durante o período embrionário apresenta benefício no neurodesenvolvimento infantil. (FR B) No entanto os estudos obtidos são em número reduzido e apresentam grande heterogeneidade em termos metodológicos. São necessários mais estudos, com populações controladas e metodologia semelhantes, para a recomendação global desta medida.Introduction: Musicembriology is music listening during pregnancy, in order to improve maternal-fetal relationship and child neurodevelopment. However, their relationship is not well established, so it remains a controversial issue. Objective: Review of the available evidence on the impact of music listening during pregnancy on children’s neurodevelopment. Methods: Meta-analysis research, systematic reviews, randomized controlled trials, and standards of clinical orientation, in English and Portuguese languages, published between 01/2004 and 04/2014, on the basis Pubmed / Medline, medical sites based on evidence and Portuguese Index of Medical Journal, using the MeSH terms: music; pregnancy; child; neurodevelopment. For the assessment of levels of evidence (NE) and award recommendation forces (FR) scale SORT was used (Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy) of the American Family Physician. Results: Eleven articles were found, four of which were selected: three randomized controlled trials and one systematic review. A randomized controlled trial (NE 1) showed significant improvement in neonatal behavior in children whose mothers listened to music during pregnancy. A randomized controlled trial (NE 2) showed an improvement of maternal-fetal relationship with musicoembriology. Another randomized controlled trial (NE3) and a systematic review (B FR) showed that the intrauterine environment is important in the neonatal brain development, especially the development of the motor and sensorineural cerebral cortex. Conclusion: The available evidence showed that music listening during the embryonic period shows benefit in children’s neurodevelopment. (FR B) However, those obtained studies are few in number and have great heterogeneity in methodological terms. Further studies are needed with controlled populations and similar methodology for the overall recommendation of this measur

Framework de rede tolerante a falhas

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia InformáticaUma Fault Tolerant Network é uma estrutura de Redes que tem como objetivo garantir a comunicação entre Nodos de uma Rede mesmo que esta seja propícia à perda de Datagramas e à consequente perda de Informação. Estas perdas podem acontecer por vários motivos, mas este projeto tem como alvo analisar três casos, o da mobilidade de Nodos na Rede, o da conexão intermitente e o da conexão esporádica. Todos estes ambientes onde se pretende assegurar a troca de Informação entre Nodos apresentam uma característica em comum, um possível volume elevado de perda de Datagramas a qualquer instante que limita a quantidade de Dados que podem ser trocados bem como a Qualidade de Serviço destas mesmas trocas de Dados. Esta é a principal característica que se pretende atenuar com o desenvolvimento deste Projeto, porém existem outras relacionadas como a interrupção prolongada de uma Transmissão e a sua retoma que também foram analisadas. Como todos os ambientes referidos anteriormente apresentam adversidades semelhantes ou que podem ser tratadas como tal, optou-se pelo desenvolvimento de um Protocolo de Transferência de Dados adaptado a tais adversidades. Este encontra-se entre a Camada de Transporte e a Camada de Aplicações da Network Stack e pode ser utilizado como base para o Desenvolvimento de Arquiteturas que possibilitem a Troca organizada de Informação entre Nodos. Neste Projeto foi Desenhado e Implementado um Protocolo de Transferência de Dados que possibilita a troca de informação nos ambientes anteriormente referidos, apresentando resiliência a Drops de Datagramas, grandes Delays na transmissão destes e movimentações de Nodos na Rede. Para além deste Protocolo, foi Desenhada uma simples Arquitetura de Redes baseada em Redes Ad Hoc onde cada Nodo tem uma visualização da Rede centralizada nele próprio e os restantes Nodos visíveis encontram-se organizados em Níveis de Vizinhança consoante a sua distância ao Nodo central. Foi tamb´em definido o objetivo de desenho de uma Arquitetura de Redes baseada em Redes DTN, que fortemente influenciou o Protocolo de Transferência de dados devido às suas grandes exigências. Por fim foram realizados testes em determinados cenários reais pertinentes ao Protótipo Implementado de forma a provar que os objetivos delineados inicialmente foram atingidos.A Fault Tolerant Network is a Network structure that aims to guarantee Node communication in certain Network environments that are prone to Datagram Drops and consequent loss of Information. These Drops can be present due to a multitude of reasons but this Project aims to analyze three specific cases where these can occur, Node Mobility, Intermittent Network Connection and Sporadic Network Connection. All these cases present the same challenge to Node Communication, there’s a possibility of a high volume of Datagram Drops that can happen unexpectedly, limits the amount of Data that can be exchanged between Nodes and lowers the Quality of Service of said exchanges. The main objective of this Project is to address these limitations that are innate in these specific cases as well as other topics that are derivative of said limitations such as extensive interruptions in Data Transfers and subsequent resume of these. Since all the cases described previously present the same challenges, or they can be treated like they are similar, it was decided to develop a Data Transfer Protocol fitted for these limitations. This Protocol is between the Transport and Application Layers of the Network Stack and it’s purpose is to improve Data Transfer and Reception between Nodes. In this Project, a Data Transfer Protocol was designed and implemented that enables Data transmission between Nodes in the cases previously referred, showing resilience against Datagram Drops, Transmission Delays and Node Mobility. In addition to this Protocol, a simple Ad Hoc Network Architecture was designed using said Protocol where each Node has a view of the Network centralized onto itself and the Neighboring Nodes organized in Neighbor Levels depending on their distance to the central Node. The objective of designing a simple version of a DTN was also established bringing new challenges that strongly influenced the design of the Data Transfer Protocol due to its strict requirements. Lastly, some tests were performed in real world scenarios in such ways that all the features designed and developed in this Project could be shown to be working properly and that all objectives delined were met

As plataformas digitais de suporte à comunicação do projeto "Merak(i) - Chypre: en franchissant la Ligne Verte"

Nota: 15 valoresO presente projeto consiste na criação e desenvolvimento de algumas plataformas digitais de forma a dar visibilidade a uma intervenção artística - Merak(i): en franchissant la Ligne Verte - que pretende aliar a arte a uma vertente mais social, de consciencialização da situação de conflito vivida até hoje no Chipre. Esta intervenção artística foi criado por uma cidadã cipriota, atualmente a viver em Bruxelas, que tenciona apresentar o mesmo em diversos pontos da Europa e, com isso, tentar criar um espaço para o diálogo entre os próprios cipriotas, envolvendo também a comunidade da União Europeia. Com este trabalho de projeto foi criada uma ponte que ligou o marketing digital a outros conhecimentos como o design e as artes. Foram exploradas estratégias e criados conteúdos que auxiliaram à divulgação do projeto nos planos físico e digital. A criação de um website que serve de plataforma para apresentar e informar sobre a intervenção artística e a estratégia SEO para o mesmo, a utilização de redes sociais como um palco digital ou a solução de conseguir um financiamento a partir de uma campanha crowdfunding, são alguns dos pontos apresentados e explicados no projeto apresentado.This essay consists of the creation and development of digital platforms to present the artistic project - Merak(i): en franchissant la Ligne Verte. It aims to conciliate art with a social approach and to bring awareness to the conflict situation which remains until today in Cyprus. This artistic project was created by a Cyprian citizen, currently living in Brussels, who wishes to present her project in different cities of Europe and create a space for people to dialogue and express themselves, not only between Cyprian citizens but also the entire European community. With this essay, it is intended to understand and create a bridge that connects digital marketing to other areas of expertise like design and arts. Some strategies and content will be created in order to help spread the artistic project in the physical and the digital plan. Some of the main goals are the creation of a website, that will be a platform to present the artistic project, and the SEO strategy; the use of social media as a digital stage; and the solution of finding some financial support via a crowdfunding campaign

Introduction of robotic surgery for endometrial cancer into a Brazilian cancer service: a randomized trial evaluating perioperative clinical outcomes and costs

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcome and costs after the implementation of robotic surgery in the treatment of endometrial cancer, compared to the traditional laparoscopic approach. METHODS: In this prospective randomized study from 2015 to 2017, eighty-nine patients with endometrial carcinoma that was clinically restricted to the uterus were randomized in robotic surgery (44 cases) and traditional laparoscopic surgery (45 cases). We compared the number of retrieved lymph nodes, total time of surgery, time of each surgical step, blood loss, length of hospital stay, major and minor complications, conversion rates and costs. RESULTS: The ages of the patients ranged from 47 to 69 years. The median body mass index was 31.1 (21.4-54.2) in the robotic surgery arm and 31.6 (22.9-58.6) in the traditional laparoscopic arm. The median tumor sizes were 4.0 (1.5-10.0) cm and 4.0 (0.0-9.0) cm in the robotic and traditional laparoscopic surgery groups, respectively. The median total numbers of lymph nodes retrieved were 19 (3-61) and 20 (4-34) in the robotic and traditional laparoscopic surgery arms, respectively. The median total duration of the whole procedure was 319.5 (170-520) minutes in the robotic surgery arm and 248 (85-465) minutes in the traditional laparoscopic arm. Eight major complications were registered in each group. The total cost was 41% higher for robotic surgery than for traditional laparoscopic surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Robotic surgery for endometrial cancer presented equivalent perioperative morbidity to that of traditional laparoscopic surgery. The duration and total cost of robotic surgery were higher than those of traditional laparoscopic surgery

Recent emission channeling studies in wide band gap semiconductors

We present results of recent emission channeling experiments on the lattice location of implanted Fe and rare earths in wurtzite GaN and ZnO. In both cases the majority of implanted atoms are found on substitutional cation sites. The root mean square displacements from the ideal substitutional Ga and Zn sites are given and the stability of the Fe and rare earth lattice location against thermal annealing is discussed

The Composite Aortic Wall Graft Technique: An Option for a Short Coronary Artery Bypass Graft

for a short coronary artery bypass graft. Clinics. 2009;64(8):815-8. SUMMARY: During coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, the saphenous vein is sutured through its proximal segment to the aorta. Intimal hyperplasia is one of the possible causes of graft occlusion. Notably, blood turbulence can induce wall shear stress that may also play an important role in this process. OBJECTIVE: We propose a new technique for performing proximal anastomosis to avoid CABG failure. METHOD: An 80 kg pig was subjected to open heart surgery. Four stitches were placed in the anterior ascending aorta, which formed a 2 cm by 4 cm patch. This patch was isolated through the application of a tangential clamp that was oriented parallel to the axis of the aorta. After releasing the patch, which was held to the aorta through its cranial end pedicle, the rims were sutured to each other creating a conduit with a length of 4 cm and an internal diameter of 4 mm. The rest of the aortotomy was closed by placing a direct suture between its rims. RESULT: This novel technique created an “in situ ” aortic wall graft that was 4 cm long and characterized as being of uniform 4 mm caliber