Integração de gráficos vectoriais e informação estruturada em ambientes distribuídos

Dissertação de Mestrado em Ciência de Computadores apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Port

Durability of CFRP-concrete bond in EBR and NSM systems under natural ageing for a period of three years

This work aims at assessing the durability of the CFRP-concrete bond exposed to different outdoor ageing environments for a period of three years.Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composites have been shown to possess desirable properties for strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. The application of CFRP composites is mainly through Externally Bonded Reinforcement (EBR) or Near Surface-Mounted (NSM) techniques. The main objective of the present work was to provide insights on durability of bond between concrete and CFRP strips installed according to EBR and NSM techniques under the effects of ageing induced by outdoor conditions for a period of three years. Specimens were placed in four different outdoor environments (E3-E6) with ageing mainly induced by freeze-thaw attacks, carbonation, airborne chlorides, and elevated temperatures. Besides, the study included a reference environment (E1: ≈20 C / 55% RH) and another environment (E2: ≈20 C / water immersion). The bond test results for the specimens collected from the aforementioned outdoor environments showed a low degradation of the CFRP-concrete bond after three years.This work was carried out in scope of the project FRPLongDur POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016900 (FCT PTDC/ECM-EST/1282/2014) and Durable-FRP (PTDC/ECI-EGC/4609/2020) funded by national funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and co-financed by the European Fund of the Regional Development (FEDER) through the Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI) and the Lisbon Regional Operational Program. This work was partly financed by FCT / MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB/04029/2020. This work is financed by national funds through FCT under grant agreement [DFA/BD/08403/2021] attributed to the first author

Analytical approaches for flexural analysis of RC slabs strengthened with prestressed or non-prestressed CFRP laminates

The 15th International Conference on Fibre-Reinforced Polymers for Reinforced Concrete Structures (FRPRCS-15) & The 8th Asia-Pacific Conference on FRP in Structures (APFIS-2022), 10-14 December 2022, Shenzhen, China.Analytical approaches are developed for predicting the flexural behaviour of reinforced concrete slabs strengthened with carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates applied according to (i) near-surface mounted (NSM) and (ii) externally bonded reinforcement (EBR) as non-prestressed strengthening techniques, as well as according to the EBR with (iii) mechanical anchorage (MA) and with (iii) gradient anchorage (GA) systems as prestressed strengthening techniques. The approaches are based on a trilinear relationship of force-deflection curve, in which the formulations depend on the type of failure mode, strengthening type, and initial concrete and CFRP strains. In order to predict the ultimate load, different formulations existing in the literature for the calculation of the CFRP failure strain are applied and compared. Experimental results previously published by the authors are compared with the results from the developed analytical approaches and a good agreement is found.This work was carried out in scope of the project FRPLongDur POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016900 (FCT PTDC/ECM-EST/1282/2014) and Durable-FRP (PTDC/ECI-EGC/4609/2020) funded by national funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and co-financed by the European Fund of the Regional Development (FEDER) through the Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI) and the Lisbon Regional Operational Program. This work was partly financed by FCT / MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB/04029/2020. This work is financed by national funds through FCT under grant agreement [DFA/BD/08403/2021] attributed to the first author

Analytical prediction of flexural behaviour of RC slabs strengthened with non-prestressed and prestressed CFRP strips

The flexural behaviour of reinforced concrete (RC) slabs strengthened with carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates is analytically addressed in this work. Analytical approaches are developed for (i) near-surface mounted (NSM), (ii) externally bonded reinforcement (EBR), and the EBR prestressed using (iii) mechanical anchorage (MA) and (iv) gradient anchorage (GA) systems. The analytical results show a good agreement with those from experimental program. Besides, the performance of two existing formulae for predicting the mid-span deflection is assessed, and the performance of the recent fib Bulletin 90 technical report for predicting the ultimate capacity of the strengthened RC slabs is appraised.This work was carried out in scope of the project FRPLongDur POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016900 (FCT PTDC/ECM-EST/1282/2014) and Durable-FRP (PTDC/ECI-EGC/4609/2020) funded by national funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and co-financed by the European Fund of the Regional Development (FEDER) through the Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI) and the Lisbon Regional Operational Program. This work was partly financed by FCT / MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB / 04029/2020. This work is financed by national funds through FCT under grant agreement [DFA/BD/08403/2021] attributed to the first author

Durability of CFRP-concrete bond and corresponding involved materials under different natural environmental exposures for a period of four years

Ageing of interfaces between Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) laminates and concrete, applied according to externally bonded reinforcement (EBR) and near-surface mounted (NSM) techniques, and their constitutive materials was investigated. That is, experimental tests on the ageing of concrete, epoxy adhesive, CFRP laminate, and the CFRP-concrete interface were performed for specimens after being exposed to different natural outdoor environments to promote degradation due to carbonation, chlorides, freeze-thaw attacks, and high temperatures. Besides, tests of the reference specimens, kept under a control environment of 20 °C and 55% RH, and of specimens continuously immersed in water with a controlled temperature of 20 °C were also included for comparison purposes. The characterization of physical and mechanical properties of the involved materials, and the degradation of CFRP-concrete interface for the specimens strengthened according to EBR and NSM techniques were assessed for a study period of up to four years. The results generally showed significant variations in the properties of the concrete and adhesive while the ageing of CFRP was found insignificant in all the studied environments. Besides, slight variations of the bond strength were observed, probably as a result of changes in the constitutive materials’ mechanical properties with time and environmental exposure

Analysis of the quality of hospital information systems Audit Trails.

BACKGROUND: Audit Trails (AT) are fundamental to information security in order to guarantee access traceability but can also be used to improve Health information System's (HIS) quality namely to assess how they are used or misused. This paper aims at analysing the existence and quality of AT, describing scenarios in hospitals and making some recommendations to improve the quality of information. METHODS: The responsibles of HIS for eight Portuguese hospitals were contacted in order to arrange an interview about the importance of AT and to collect audit trail data from their HIS. Five institutions agreed to participate in this study; four of them accepted to be interviewed, and four sent AT data. The interviews were performed in 2011 and audit trail data sent in 2011 and 2012. Each AT was evaluated and compared in relation to data quality standards, namely for completeness, comprehensibility, traceability among others. Only one of the AT had enough information for us to apply a consistency evaluation by modelling user behaviour. RESULTS: The interviewees in these hospitals only knew a few AT (average of 1 AT per hospital in an estimate of 21 existing HIS), although they all recognize some advantages of analysing AT. Four hospitals sent a total of 7 AT - 2 from Radiology Information System (RIS), 2 from Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), 3 from Patient Records. Three of the AT were understandable and three of the AT were complete. The AT from the patient records are better structured and more complete than the RIS/PACS. CONCLUSIONS: Existing AT do not have enough quality to guarantee traceability or be used in HIS improvement. Its quality reflects the importance given to them by the CIO of healthcare institutions. Existing standards (e.g. ASTM:E2147, ISO/TS 18308:2004, ISO/IEC 27001:2006) are still not broadly used in Portugal.publishersversionpublishe

Simulation study

Publisher Copyright: © 2023 JMIR Publications Inc.. All rights reserved.Background: Contact tracing is a fundamental intervention in public health. When systematically applied, it enables the breaking of chains of transmission, which is important for controlling COVID-19 transmission. In theoretically perfect contact tracing, all new cases should occur among quarantined individuals, and an epidemic should vanish. However, the availability of resources influences the capacity to perform contact tracing. Therefore, it is necessary to estimate its effectiveness threshold. We propose that this effectiveness threshold may be indirectly estimated using the ratio of COVID-19 cases arising from quarantined high-risk contacts, where higher ratios indicate better control and, under a threshold, contact tracing may fail and other restrictions become necessary. Objective: This study assessed the ratio of COVID-19 cases in high-risk contacts quarantined through contact tracing and its potential use as an ancillary pandemic control indicator. Methods: We built a 6-compartment epidemiological model to emulate COVID-19 infection flow according to publicly available data from Portuguese authorities. Our model extended the usual susceptible-exposed-infected-recovered model by adding a compartment Q with individuals in mandated quarantine who could develop infection or return to the susceptible pool and a compartment P with individuals protected from infection because of vaccination. To model infection dynamics, data on SARS-CoV-2 infection risk (IR), time until infection, and vaccine efficacy were collected. Estimation was needed for vaccine data to reflect the timing of inoculation and booster efficacy. In total, 2 simulations were built: one adjusting for the presence and absence of variants or vaccination and another maximizing IR in quarantined individuals. Both simulations were based on a set of 100 unique parameterizations. The daily ratio of infected cases arising from high-risk contacts (q estimate) was calculated. A theoretical effectiveness threshold of contact tracing was defined for 14-day average q estimates based on the classification of COVID-19 daily cases according to the pandemic phases and was compared with the timing of population lockdowns in Portugal. A sensitivity analysis was performed to understand the relationship between different parameter values and the threshold obtained. Results: An inverse relationship was found between the q estimate and daily cases in both simulations (correlations >0.70). The theoretical effectiveness thresholds for both simulations attained an alert phase positive predictive value of >70% and could have anticipated the need for additional measures in at least 4 days for the second and fourth lockdowns. Sensitivity analysis showed that only the IR and booster dose efficacy at inoculation significantly affected the q estimates. Conclusions: We demonstrated the impact of applying an effectiveness threshold for contact tracing on decision-making. Although only theoretical thresholds could be provided, their relationship with the number of confirmed cases and the prediction of pandemic phases shows the role as an indirect indicator of the efficacy of contact tracing.publishe

Reforma de la Justicia en Portugal: la satisfacción de los usuarios de los Medios RAL

En el marco de las recomendaciones de la Comisión Europea para la Eficacia de la Justicia (CEPEJ), para la reforma de la justicia de los Estados miembros del Consejo de Europa, se firmó en Portugal el Protocolo de Colaboración para el Seguimiento de los Medios de Resolución Alternativa de Litigios (RAL). El objetivo de este artículo era medir y modelar la satisfacción de los usuarios de los Medios RAL en Portugal, aplicando la metodología de Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) a los datos recogidos por el protocolo antes mencionado. La escala y el modelo del documento de Catarino y Correia (2017) para el Arbitraje se han adaptado en este artículo para todos los Medios RAL - Arbitraje, Conciliación y Mediación (entre octubre de 2013 y julio de 2017). Los resultados obtenidos han permitido revalidar la escala y el modelo adaptados, y se ha llegado a la conclusión de que los usuarios han quedado “muy satisfechos” con las siete dimensiones de los Medios RAL (Información, Funcionamiento, Responsable, Recursos, Instalaciones, Aspectos Generales y Lealtad). Este trabajo constituye una contribución para cumplir con las recomendaciones de la CEPEJ (2010 y 2014) y para ampliar los resultados de Catarino y Correia (2017), en un conjunto de Medios RAL y en un intervalo de tiempo más largo.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Identification of lignocellulose-degrading enzymes using metagenomic approaches

Composting units which handle lignocellulosic residues are suitable sources of novel and promising lignocellulose-degrading enzymes such as cellulases, xylanases and amylases. These enzymes have practical application in many industries where lignocellulose is converted into several added-value bioproducts. However, the effective conversion of lignocellulose by a sustainable process is currently incomplete. Therefore, there is a need to find novel and robust catalysts to overcome this fact. Function- and sequence-based metagenomic approaches were used to identify novel lignocellulose-degrading enzymes with interesting industrial applications.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio