Motivation drivers of millenniums for engaging in crowdsourcing ventures

Double DegreeCrowdsourcing, as the name implies, runs and succeeds on the crowd – the individuals who voluntarily dedicate their time towards this problem solving approach. Therefore, understanding the participation’s underlined motivations is a crucial requirement towards an effective crowdsourcing venture. Current research struggles with assessing these motivations while taking into consideration the variety of crowdsourcing scenarios. Simultaneously, there is a lack of a common motivational variable framework, on which literature can develop upon. To contribute towards these gaps, this research deploys a factorial survey to 174 respondents of the Millennium generation, through which it assesses this particular crowd’s perception of four commonly analyzed motivational dimensions in current crowdsourcing motivation literature: Sense of Cooperation & Community; Monetary Compensation; Sense of Efficacy; and Signaling & Human Capital Advancement. Results found Monetary Compensation and Sense of Efficacy to be motivations supporting the millennial generation participation in crowdsourcing ventures. Research and managerial contributions are discussed, as well the limitations of this study

Chilltime’s online game expansion into targeted countries in the MENA and East-Asia region

Being the most innovator Portuguese company in the online gaming industry, Chilltime aims to expand its leading game, World War Online, into targeted countries in the MENA and East- Asia countries. Already present in more than 100 countries and with more than 10 000 active players, the company expects to have his game released worldwide for the mobile platform, with players from every country fighting to be the ultimate winner. The motivation for this dissertation was to write a case study about a company in its early years and analyse the strategic and marketing approaches that better suits its final objective of having an effective and efficient market development. The main challenge of the company is to understand the feasibility of investing in the marketing development in countries with cultures and behaviours much different from the Europeans. With a study of the market potential in each country, it is concluded that countries in the Middle East and East-Asia have a higher probability of becoming profitable for the company. Such is due to the higher number of online people and smartphone users, the easiness to adapt the game to the local culture and the monetization potential that these regions offer to the company. It is given some recommendation on the best online and offline marketing strategies that can lead to an efficient market development.Sendo a empresa portuguesa mais inovadora na indústria de jogos online, Chilltime tem como objetivo expandir o seu jogo, World War Online, para mercados selecionados do Médio Oriente, Norte de África e Este Asiático. Disponível em mais de 100 países e com mais de 10 000 jogadores ativos, a empresa pretende ter o seu jogo distribuído por todo o mundo, com jogadores de todos os países a lutar com o objetivo de serem o vencedor final. Este projeto tem a intenção de escrever um caso de estudo sobre uma empresa nos seus anos iniciais, analisando as estratégias de marketing que combinam com o seu objetivo de ter um desenvolvimento de mercado eficiente. O desafio principal é entender a viabilidade de investimento no desenvolvimento de mercado em países com culturas e comportamentos diferentes dos europeus. Ao analisar o potencial de mercado de cada país, conclui-se que os países do Médio Oriente e Este Asiático têm um maior potencial de serem mais lucrativos para a empresa, devido ao elevado número de pessoas online e de usuários de smartphones, à facilidade de adaptação do jogo à cultural local e ao potencial de monetização destas regiões. Por fim, são dadas recomendações das formas online e offline mais eficazes para um desenvolvimento de mercado eficiente

The computational content of atomic polymorphism

We show that the number-theoretic functions de nable in the atomic polymorphic system (Fat) are exactly the extended polynomials. Two proofs of the above result are presented: one reducing the functions' de n- ability problem in Fat to de nability in the simply typed lambda-calculus and other directly adapting Helmut Schwichtenberg's strategy for de nability in the simply typed lambda-calculus to the atomic polymorphic setting. The uniformity granted in the polymorphic system, when compared with the simply typed lambda-calculus, is emphasized.This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [UID/MAT/ 04561/2013, UID/CEC/00408/2013 and grant SFRH/BPD/93278/2013 to G.F.]. The first author is also grateful to Centro de Matemática, Aplicações Fundamentais e Investigação Operacional and to Large-Scale Informatics Systems Laboratory (Universidade de Lisboa).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Quality assessment of manufactured ceramic work using digital signal processing

Tese de mestrado. Engenharia Mecânica. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 199

Prediction of Methanol Production in a Carbon Dioxide Hydrogenation Plant Using Neural Networks

[EN] The objective of this research was to design a neural network (ANN) to predict the methanol flux at the outlet of a carbon dioxide dehydrogenation plant. For the development of the ANN, a database was generated, in the open-source simulation software "DWSIM", from the validation of a process described in the literature. The sample consists of 133 data pairs with four inputs: reactor pressure and temperature, mass flow of carbon dioxide and hydrogen, and one output: flow of methanol. The ANN was designed using 12 neurons in the hidden layer and it was trained with the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. In the training, validation and testing phase, a global mean square (RMSE) value of 0.0085 and a global regression coefficient R of 0.9442 were obtained. The network was validated through an analysis of variance (ANOVA), where the p-value for all cases was greater than 0.05, which indicates that there are no significant differences between the observations and those predicted by the ANN. Therefore, the designed ANN can be used to predict the methanol flow at the exit of a dehydrogenation plant and later for the optimization of the system.Chuquin-Vasco, D.; Parra, F.; Chuquin-Vasco, N.; Chuquin-Vasco, J.; Lo-Iacono-Ferreira, VG. (2021). Prediction of Methanol Production in a Carbon Dioxide Hydrogenation Plant Using Neural Networks. Energies. 14(13):1-18. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14133965S118141

O comércio externo e a especialização vertical da produção : o caso do setor da madeira e cortiça

Mestrado em Economia Internacional e Estudos EuropeusA crescente interligação entre economias tem conduzido a alterações na forma como os produtos são fabricados, tendo o processo produtivo passado a realizar-se em diferentes países e não apenas num único local. O setor da madeira e cortiça é um dos ramos em que Portugal é mais competitivo a nível global, pelo que o presente trabalho propõe-se estudar as transformações que têm vindo a ocorrer no setor e a forma como as economias de Espanha, Itália, França e, em particular a portuguesa, têm vindo a adaptar-se à nova realidade. Analisar-se-ão as alterações registadas no comércio externo e nos principais indicadores económicos, bem como o nível de integração nas Cadeias Globais de Valor de cada um dos setores nacionais. Para o decorrer deste estudo foi fundamental o suporte teórico do Modelo Input-Output de Leontief, da Especialização Vertical, e dos elementos obtidos através do Banco de Portugal, United Nations Comtrade Database (Comtrade) e World Input-Output Database (WIOD).The increasing interdependence between economies has led to changes on how products are manufactured, as now the productive process is taking place in different places and not just in one place. The sector of wood and cork is one of the most competitive portuguese branches at global level, so this research proposes to study the transformations that have been taking place in this sector and how the economies of Spain, Italy, France and, mainly, the Portuguese, have been adapting to the new reality. The changes in external trade and the main economic indicators, as well as the level of integration in the Global Value Chains of each of the national sectors, will be analyzed. For the course of this study, has been decisive the theoretical support of the Leontief Input-Output Model, Vertical Specialization, and the elements obtained through the Bank of Portugal, the United Nations Comtrade Database (Comtrade) and the World Input-Output Database (WIOD).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The analysis of primary metered half-hourly electricity and gas consumption in municipal buildings.

This thesis addressed the need for improved analysis and interpretation of primary meter half-hourly energy consumption data. The current work offers a novel benchmarking technique that was tested for 6 types of municipal buildings. This approach is different from conventional annual benchmarking mainly because it uses electricity and gas data in half-hourly periods, together with outside temperature data. A survey to European local authorities’ metering and monitoring practices was conducted in order to assess municipal energy managers' current procedures and needs in terms of data analysis to assess building energy performance and to identify potential energy saving opportunities. The benchmarking approach was developed considering the energy managers’ needs, but also the state-of the art in terms of building energy monitoring techniques, particularly building energy signatures, and the analysis techniques used on electricity grid demand forecasting. The benchmarking approach is based on the use of a metric composed of several indicators that are related to the load demand shape profile and the building energy signature. The comparison of indicators for buildings of the same type using standard scores identifies uncommon load demand profile characteristics and/or gas dependency on outside temperature in specific buildings. The metric is able to support the identification of potential energy wastage, which is linked to the detection of opportunities to save energy. The benchmarking technique was tested in 81 municipal building owned by Leicester City Council. This methodology can be applied to any non-domestic building equipped with primary meters for registering half-hourly electricity and gas consumption. In theory, this approach can also be applied to residential buildings, and to other short time series data types, for example quarter-hourly or 10 minutes interval data. The main contribution of this thesis is to improve the objectivity of building primary meter half-hourly electricity and gas consumption data analysis and interpretation by using quantitative parameters, instead of subjective visualisation techniques. The interpretation of building consumption data in short time series periods can now be streamlined, automated and perhaps incorporated in existing energy analysis software. This thesis raises questions that can lead to future research projects aiming to improve the metric and also to enlarge the scope of its application to national and European scale, to other building types and to other utilities

Middleware de integração de diferentes plataformas e sistemas inteligentes IoT

Trabalho de projeto de mestrado, Engenharia Informática (Engenharia de Software) Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2021Atualmente existe um grande foco na eficiência e flexibilidade energética, onde os dispositivos IoT tem uma grande importância devido as suas capacidades de monitorização e controlo. Considerado este contexto, o projeto SATO (Self Assessement Towards Optimization) tem como principais objetivos a auto-avaliação e otimização dos recursos energéticos dos edifícios, através de um sistema de gestão de edifícios autónomo que recorre ao uso de dispositivos inteligentes. Para que a plataforma desenvolvida atinja um maior número de dispositivos disponíveis no mercado, são necessárias soluções de integração dessas plataformas e sistemas inteligentes IoT, da qual resultam variadíssimos problemas. No âmbito desta tese, desenvolveu-se uma solução de middleware que permite lidar com as questões de interoperabilidade resultantes da integração dos diferentes sistemas. O trabalho desenvolvido consistiu no desenho, desenvolvimento e teste de uma solução de middleware que permite a integração de serviços de um conjunto heterogéneo de plataformas e sistemas IoT. Esta solução e capaz de abstrair a complexidade da integração, fornecendo os serviços das plataformas e/ou sistemas IoT através de uma API unificadora. Dada a integração que esta solução garante, existe a necessidade de uniformização dos dados, das plataformas/sistemas integrados, para que estes possam ser facilmente interpretados por toda a plataforma SATO. Adicionalmente, esta solução oferece a capacidade de uniformização dos metadados produzidos pelas plataformas e/ou sistemas IoT, permitindo através destes a capacidade de enriquecimento de dados e ainda a possibilidade de extensão de novos serviços, de controlo e gestão dos dispositivos, que facilitam a otimização do consumo energético. No desenvolvimento da solução proposta e utilizada uma abordagem de micros-serviços que garante assim uma solução robusta, extensível e escalável, permitindo a integração de plataformas e/ou sistemas IoT de forma simples, baseada no desenvolvimento de um novo serviço por plataforma a integrar. Para concluir o trabalho, foi construído um protótipo experimental com base na especificação do middleware proposto, onde é possível avaliar a performance resultante da especificação proposta. Deste protótipo foi possível retirar resultados promissores e também alguns aspetos a melhorar para que o middleware atinja a totalidade dos requisitos do projeto SATO.Nowadays, there is a focus on energy efficiency and flexible energy where IoT devices can introduce some advantages due to their monitoring and remote control capabilities. In this context, the SATO (Self Assessment Towards Optimization) project was proposed. This project aims to develop a platform and a set of services for self-assessment and optimization of energy resources in buildings by using an autonomous management system for buildings through smart devices. For these devices to be available for the SATO platform to use, it relies on the integration of existing IoT energy-focused platforms and existing IoT smart systems. However, the integration of different parts of building management systems results in a common problem, due to the existence of diverse appliances, devices and technologies that must be integrated. To solve this issue, this thesis designs, implements and tests a middleware component that abstracts the specification of different proprietary solutions and exposes a generic API to ease the management of the integrated devices by abstracting the underlying details of the proprietary interfaces. Additionally, since the platform intends to receive the data events generated by the devices and make optimizations through the usage of Machine Learning, this solution standardizes all the data injected by the integrated platforms/systems, for it to be easily interpreted by the remaining SATO components, and uses solutions which allow for the future extension of new services. For the development of the proposed solution, a micro-services approach was used. It allows developing a robust, extensible and scalable solution, where the integration of any platform can be done easily. For that integration, just a new service must be implemented. In order to do a proof-of-concept, a prototype was developed. This prototype allowed us to test the solution, where we concluded that the proposed architecture enables the integration required to the SATO project. However, to improve the performance of a real platform, some parts of the prototype must be changed/improved