A methodological approach in order to support decision-makers when defining Mobility and Transportation Politics

Nowadays Portugal is under a large process of creation/revision of studies and plans related with land use and territorial planning, mainly due to the end of the lifetime period of the actual Municipal Master Plan, but also because of the creation of the new Metropolitan Authorities of Transportation, which will require Mobility Plans. Even though the Portuguese law doesn’t impose these Mobility Plans at the present moment, there is a general feeling about the importance of the mobility system for the society and economics in general. This is the case in highly density areas, where the need and complexity of the system requires these specific studies in order to obtain an efficient management; or in the case of low-density areas where the risk of loosing competitiveness is too high to ignore the importance of the transportation and mobility system, and the advantage of gaining local and regional competitiveness might increase the importance of the municipality in regional context. This paper intends to provide an innovative approach regarding the provision, at an early stage, of technical support to decision-makers in order to define Mobility and Transportation Policies. The opportunity provided by using adapted SWOT analysis (among others) to identify weakening or potential factors, and how to take advantage of the results, always using a cause and effect approach and a coherent policy in order to obtain high quality and effective studies and politics. The methodology relies on a two-stage process. In the first stage a summary diagnose is provided, using inputs which are supposed to well characterise the territory’s mobility patterns. Afterwards, in a second phase, these are inter-related and evaluated in order to build-up a table of options, where policies are proposed with a careful attention to its qualitative cross impact with the measures and objectives intended to be achieved. The proposed methodology was applied in the Alcobaça´s Municipality case study, which provided different lines of action in diverse subjects, such as, public and private transportation networks, parking policies and organisation, and territory competitiveness. This study was particularly relevant, since this Municipality is under great pressure of its neighbour municipalities, has a low level of regional importance and a low intra-municipal cohesion. Finally, the general opinion of the decision-makers about this technical approach is presented. Keywords: Mobility; Transportation; Land Planning and Policies; Decision-making Support

Foundation fieldbus : from theory to practice

This paper describes the main characteristics of the Foundation Fieldbus (FF) technology considering both communication levels, namely H1 and H2, which have bit rates of 31.25 K and 100 Mbit/s, respectively. Several details about the physical layer, communication stack and user layer will be highlighted. Topics related with the configuration of instruments, as well as the design and implementation of supervision software, based on a LabVIEW interface, will be presented. A pilot plant that includes temperature, pressure, level and flow variables will be used to test and validate the capabilities of FF systems. Experimental results will be analyzed, their meaning discussed and the overall performance evaluated

Balanced Scorecard: A Powerful Method to Improve the Management of Educational Institutions

Trabalho apresentado em 2nd International Academic Conference on Teaching, Learning and Education (TLE 2020), Novembro 2020; Munique, AlemanhaTeaching, learning and education are the main activities related with any higher education institution (HEI), be they public or private. In this context, the balanced scorecard (BSC) is a powerful method that helps the successful application of performance measurements in terms of the efficiency of the programs, processes and people of any educational institution. The key performance indicators (KPI) are crucial indicators to translate the strategy into action, improving the synergies of all the people that contribute to management success. This paper underlines the importance of the BSC model in private, governmental and non-profit organizations highlighting its implementation in a HEI. In order to clarify the main concepts of the application of the BSC method in a HEI, a hypothetical institution (IPX) is considered and a set of strategic objectives are considered in terms of financial, clients, business, learning and growth perspectives. The key parameter indicators and the action plan are defined according to the HEI vision.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Psychological meanders of dependence – Pathological gambling

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada ao Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada para obtenção de grau de Mestre na especialidade de Psicologia Clínica.O estudo apresentado tem como objectivo fornecer uma melhor e mais profunda compreensão do jogo patológico e fortalecer a ponte teórica entre as dependências de substâncias e as dependências de condutas comportamentais. Utilizámos a metodologia de estudo de caso e recorremos a uma análise do discurso através de categorias formuladas com base nos seguintes conceitos teóricos: defesa dos afectos, omnipotência narcísica, dependência objectal, raiva narcísica, superego arcaico, compulsão à repetição e buraco negro. Foi observada uma perfeita aplicação dos conceitos teóricos propostos ao funcionamento do sujeito e foi concluído que o jogo patológico exibe propriedades equivalentes a uma dependência de substâncias. É assim fortalecido o peso do paradigma psicológico das dependências e futuras investigações devem ser dirigidas no sentido de um maior aprofundamento de significados das patologias da adicção com o objectivo de providenciar uma intervenção mais eficiente.The objective of the following study is to give a better and more profound comprehension of pathological gambling and to strengthen the bridge between substance addiction and conduct addiction. We used case study methodology and we utilized discourse analysis through formulated categories based on the following concepts: affect defense, narcissistic omnipotence, object dependency, narcissistic rage, archaic superego, repetition compulsion and black hole. The proposed theoretical concepts were perfectly suited to the subject psychic functioning and it was concluded that pathological gambling shows psychological proprieties equivalent to a substance dependence. It is, therefore, strengthened the weight of the psychological paradigm of addictions and future investigations should be directed to the deepening of meanings regarding addiction pathologies, with the objective to provide a more efficient intervention

An integrated application of zoning for mobility analysis and planning: the case of Paris Region

International audienceIn most transport planning studies one of the first steps is the definition of a zoning scheme with which the study area is divided and the corresponding space is disaggregated. There are no clear rules on how to carry out this operation in an optimal way, and the dominating practice is to do it based on experience, trying to mix a certain degree of within-zone homogeneity and the convenience of using administrative borders as zone limits. Firstly, this paper starts by presenting a set of quality criteria for a general zoning scheme and an algorithm that constructs an initial zoning based on a sample of geo-referenced trip extreme points and improves it in successive steps according to those criteria. This kind of zoning fits perfectly well to traffic assignment purposes. But this paper will investigate an improvement of this approach in order to give a better understanding of the mobility determinants and its externalities on the environment. In doing so, the new zone is determined not only by the trips generation and distribution but also constrained by other indicators. In our case, we have selected a combination of the following: 1/ air pollution emissions, 2/ population density, 3/ work and study density and 4/ public transport accessibility. The integration of these 4 indicators allows us not only to picture the mobility within the region and to identify at the very precise level the main zones of activities and traffic exchanges. This integration relates the picture to the land use and the clustering of the economic activities location at a very discrete level. Furthermore, it relates the density of the mobility in dense, large and economically dynamic urban area to its externalities in terms of air pollution. In order to be effective for mobility analysis and policy purposes, this kind of approach cannot only rely on the cell grid unit but a hierarchical aggregation should be set up. This aggregation allows analyses within the administrative and political boundaries but with a more disaggregated perspective. A case study based on the Mobility Survey for the Paris Metropolitan Area in 2001 is developed to illustrate this new approach to zoning. The magnitude of those resulting improvements is very significant especially when compared with the already existing zoning as the department zoning or the IAURIF zoning. It then shows that more attention should definitely be given to this initial process in the transport planning studies

Transducer Electronic Data Sheets: Anywhere, Anytime, Anyway

Transducer electronic data sheets (TEDS) are a key element of smart transducers because they support core features such as plug and play, self-calibration, and self-diagnostics. The ISO/IEC/IEEE 21451-4 standard defines templates to describe the most common types of transducers and suggests the use of one-wire memories to store the corresponding data. In this paper we explore new ways to store and access TEDS tables, including near field communication (NFC) tags and QR codes. We also present a mobile TEDS parser, compatible with Android, that is capable of reading TEDS data from all supported mediums (one-wire memories, NFC tags, and QR codes) and decoding them as human-readable text. The idea is to make TEDS available in the easiest way possible. We also underline the need to extend the 21451-4 standard by adding support for frequency–time sensors. A new TEDS template is proposed, and filling examples are presented. The main novelties of the paper are (i) the proposal of new ways to store 21451-4 TEDS tables using NFC tags and QR codes; (ii) the release of new tools to access TEDS tables including a mobile parser; and (iii) the definition of a new TEDS template for frequency–time sensors.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Next Generation Application Processor Based on the IEEE 1451.1 Standard and Web Services

Over the last decade, the 1451.1 Std has been a reference model to develop smart and open distributed measurement and control systems. Now, that the 1451.1 Std is about to be revised, there is the opportunity to enrich it with emergent and successful technologies as is the case of Web Services. Following this idea, we present a prototype of Network Capable Application Processor (NCAP) that runs on the .NET Framework and exposes its functionality through a set of Web Services. The prototype takes advantage of three key technologies: (i) the abstraction layer proposed by the 1451.1 Std; (ii) the interoperability provided by Web Services; and (iii) the productivity supplied by the .NET Framework

Using a Commercial Framework to Implement and Enhance the IEEE 1451.1 Standard

In 1999, the 1451.1 Std was published defining a common object model and interface specification to develop open, multi-vendor distributed measurement and control systems. However, despite the well-known advantages of the model, few have been the initiatives to implement it. In this paper we describe the implementation of a NCAP – Network Capable Application Processor, in a well-known and well-proven infrastructure: the Microsoft .NET Framework. The choice of a commercial framework was part of our strategy: to take advantage of several “of the shelf” technologies and adapt them to produce a NCAP prototype, called NCAP/XML. In addition, a solution to enhance the 1451.1 Std is presented by proposing a new format for inter-NCAP communication based on XML (eXtended Markup Language)

Performance Evaluation of a Web-Service-Based DMCS

The paper describes a set of experiments conducted on a service-oriented middleware infrastructure in order to evaluate its performance and applicability in the context of Distributed Measurement and Control Systems (DMCS). The infrastructure, entirely based on Web Services, was built using the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), a software package released by Microsoft to develop distributed applications. The experiments were performed on a real plant equipped with all the instrumentation needed to run control loops for pressure, level, flow and temperature, quantities widely found in the process industry. The work focus on measuring the time delays associated with control loops and remote calls. The methodology of each experiment is described, results are presented and conclusions are drawn

IEEE 1451.1 Standard and XML Web Services: a Powerful Combination to Build Distributed Measurement and Control Systems

In 2005, we presented the NCAP/XML, a prototype of NCAP (Network Capable Application Processor) that runs under the .NET Framework and makes available its functionality through a set of Web Services using XML (eXtended Markup Language). Giving continuity to this project, it is time to explain how to use the NCAP/XML to build a Distributed Measurement and Control System (DMCS) compliant with the 1451.1 Std. This paper is divided in two main parts: in the first part, we present the new software architecture of NCAP/XML (which suffered some changes since the first version), and secondly, we describe the network configuration of a Web-enabled DMCS, which includes several NCAP/XML stations, a database and a Web Server