Fault Tolerant Reconfigurable Control of a Water Delivery Canal - Actuators Faults

This work addresses the problem of designing fault tolerant controllers for a water delivery canal that tackle actuators faults. The type of faults considered consists of blocking of one of the gates. The detection of the fault is made by comparing the gate position command with the actual (measured) gate position. Both centralized and distributed controllers are made for local upstream water level control. Centralized controllers are multivariable LQG-LTR controllers that use a model of the system with all the available manipulated inputs (gate positions) and all the available outputs (pool levels). Initially, three gates and three pools are controlled. After the fault detection, the controller is reconfigured to use the only two still operating gates and the corresponding two pool water levels. Distributed control uses local (SISO) LQG-LTR controllers that negotiate with their neighbors in order to be coordinated. When a fault occurs, this negotiation takes place only among the controllers connected to the actuators that are not in a fault state. Experimental results obtained in a pilot canal are presented

THE ADOLESCENT AND THE CHRONIC ILLNESS: AN ADOLESCENT WITH KLIPPEL-TRENAUNAY SYNDROME

Introdução: A relação do adolescente com a doença cró- nica é complexa e causa desequilíbrios no seu desenvolvimento biopsicossocial. A adolescência constitui uma fase crítica de mudança que pode afectar e ser afectada pela doença, independentemente da sua especificidade. Caso Clínico: Adolescente de 16 anos do sexo masculino, portador de síndrome de Klippel-Trenaunay, que apresenta sintomatologia do foro depressivo e ansioso, alteração de atitudes e comportamentos face à doença e dificuldade na adesão terapêutica, relacionados com o processo de integração e gestão da sua doença, com impacto físico, psíquico e social. Conclusão: As alterações desenvolvimentais da adolescência colocam desafios acrescidos à gestão da doença crónica. Por isso, impõe-se aos serviços de saúde a compreensão do seu impacto global - com especial atenção à percepção da qualidade de vida e bem-estar - e a criação de espaço para que este possa ser abordado e minimizado

How sensitive are price sensitive events?

According to the Portuguese law and in line with the regulatory framework of the majority of the European capital markets (namely the UK market), security issuers have the obligation to reveal, in an appropriate way, publishable information, in order to avoid information asymmetry. This information is classified into two categories: the first called "Price Sensitive Events" and the second under the designation "Other Events/Communications" and, as it is expected, it does not necessarily influence share prices in a material way. The Portuguese regulator (CMVM - Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários) defines its website as the appropriate manner to disseminate this publishable information through the market. This study aims to find out how price sensitive these revealed price sensitive events are, and how timely the market reaction to their disclosure is. We applied the traditional event studies methodology, not only concerning stock prices, but also the trading volume (number of traded shares). Thus, we tested the hypothesis of the existence of an abnormal stock price returns and abnormal trading volume around or about the day, on which the price sensitive event was disclosed. Using a database of 1828 events that were considered significant for this purpose by issuers and collected from the regulators' website from 01/1/2000 to 31/12/2002, we found an average abnormal return of 0.23% on the announcement day with a subsequent price stabilization. However, when the sample was split up into good and bad news, we found an average abnormal return of +1.92% and -0.93% respectively. Although the return to equilibrium proved to be slower with regard to the trading volume, we found that, on average, there was an excess of activity around the announcement day. We can therefore conclude that the disclosure of price sensitive events classified as such contain useful market information, and that this information is incorporated in an efficient way in the share price formation process. However, the release of information seems to be done in a delayed way in comparison to what we would expect

Regulatory disclosure via the internet : does it make financial markets more efficient?

In line with the regulatory framework of the majority of the European capital markets, the Portuguese Securities Market Commission imposes to security issuers the disclosure of any event that could influence share prices in a material way. These events are classified as “Price Sensitive Events”. Through the analysis of market reaction to this kind of event, this study attempts to assess the appropriateness of this disclosure rule. Additionally, since the regulator defines its website as the appropriate manner to disseminate this publishable information through the market, we will also be providing evidence about the efficiency of this system.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

In-shoe sensor system with an embedded user interface and wearable leg unit

In-shoe sensor systems are of great interest to monitor foot health, sports activities and rehabilitation strategies. Among the potential users are people with diabetes, a large part of the population for which monitoring foot pressure and temperature is critical to avoid ulceration, and even amputation. Despite all these reasons the use of foot monitoring devices is still uncommon compared to other accessories such as fitness tracking devices. This work describes the development of an instrumented insole for monitoring pressure, temperature and humidity taking advantage of widely available wearable components. This is made possible by additionally developing a shield board for time-division multiplexing of the pressure signals and an embedded user interface which is stored in the microcontroller's memory and uploaded to a smartphone at start-up via Bluetooth Low Energy. The user interface runs on a smartphone to provide both real time monitoring and averages of sensor data. The system is described in detail and validated by monitoring pressure patterns during stance, by testing response to temperature variations and observing patterns in individuals with pes planus posture.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Survival in transthyretin familial amyloid polyneuropathy : a review

© 2019 Costa J. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International LicenseTransthyretin-associated familial amyloid polyneuropathy (TTR-FAP) is a neurological disease that affects severely patients and their families and caregivers over generations. It is a rare, progressive, and if untreated fatal autosomal dominant hereditary disorder. The disease may affect multiple organ systems and if untreated progress rapidly to death. TTR-FAP affects nearly 10,000 people worldwide, with known endemic regions in Portugal, Sweden, and Japan. Until recently only liver transplantation and tafamidis were treatment options across several world regions. Despite the worldwide use of these disease-modifying treatments to delay disease progression, challenges in clinical assessment and management remain because of disease heterogeneity, phenotypic diversity, small patient populations, incomplete natural history and uncertainty of treatment effect in survival. The two new treatment options (inotersen and patisiran) appear to provide important benefits for patients, based on clinical trials short-term evidence. In this review, we discuss the disease natural survival course and currently available treatments impact on survival. We also discuss the importance of treatment choice (and or sequence of treatments) to maximize survival, while preserving the patient’s health-related quality of life.Mónica Inês is PhD candidate and Outcomes & Evidence full-time employee of Pfizer in Portugal and hold stock and/or stock options.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Proposal of Methodology for Technical Inspection and Rehabilitation Intervention for Multi-family Building of the 60’s in Portugal

The rehabilitation of old buildings has been increasing over the last few years due to the lack of maintenance and there is an advanced degradation of the Portuguese built park. This sector of the civil construction has as objective the full reutilization of the existing buildings maintaining its identity. Since Portugal has a large percentage of buildings where it is possible to identify constructive times that accompanied the implementation of different trends and technological evolutions, defining differentiated strategies for intervention. The 1960s deserve some prominence in Portugal because it is composed of a significant set of buildings with reticulated structure in reinforced concrete and without concerns from the point of view of thermal behaviour, which are now inhabited mainly by elderly people, often residing alone. The following work aims to present a methodology proposal and apply it to a case study. The proposed methodology includes the detailed inspection of a building from the 60s in Covilhã, the consultation of residents and the definition of intervention proposals based on the main nonconformities detected. In the first stage, a detailed analysis of the existing situation is proposed, which includes a technical inspection report on the common parts and the different fractions of the building and a survey of residents in order to know their opinions and expectations regarding the work to be carried out. In the second phase we propose a set of measurements, the realization thermograms and the thermal analysis of the different habitable fractions of the building based on the current thermal regulation. After analysing all the data collected, the intervention proposals are defined according to the needs of the building and the residents, in a phased way and with the aim of creating better accessibility, comfort and use conditions

Optical coherence tomography angiography in herpetic leucoma

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) keratitis remains a leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide. Although all forms of HSV keratitis are commonly recurrent, the risk is greatest in stromal keratitis, which is the most likely to result in corneal scarring, thinning, and neovascularization. Recent studies showed the ability of Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCTA) to detect and study vascular abnormalities in the anterior segment, including abnormal corneal vessels. This study intends to investigate the potential of OCTA device to image and describe quantitatively the vascularization in eyes diagnosed with herpetic leucoma and to discuss and review the usefulness of this technique in this pathology. A Cross-sectional study was made, including 17 eyes of 15 patients with leucoma secondary to herpetic keratitis. All eyes underwent anterior segment Slit-Lamp photography (SLP), and OCTA with en-face, b-scans and c-scans imaging. The vessel density (VD) was analyzed in the inferior, nasal and temporal corneal margin in all patients, and in the central area, in eyes with central corneal neovascularization (CoNV). The measurements were calculated after binarization with ImageJ software, using OCTA scans with 6 × 6 mm in a depth of 800 μm. Patients included had a mean age 53.267 ± 21.542 (years ± SD). The mean total vessel area was 50.907% ± 3.435%. VD was higher in the nasal quadrant (51.156% ± 4.276%) but there were no significant differences between the three analyzed areas (p = 0.940). OCTA was able to identify abnormal vessels when SLP apparently showed no abnormal vessels; OCTA was able to distinguish between larger and smaller vessels even in central cornea; OCTA scans allowed the investigation of several corneal planes and the relation of them with clinical findings. OCTA can be useful in both qualitative and quantitative follow-up of patients and may become a non-invasive alternative to objectively monitor treatment response in eyes with corneal vascularization due to herpetic infection.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio