VC2-providing awareness in off-the-shelf version control systems

Version control systems have been used to help groups of people working at the same or distributed sites to cooperatively create documents. In particular, these systems are very popular in distributed collaborative software development. However, even using these systems, users often perform concurrent changes that require manual con ict resolution. Important causes for this situation are the lack of mutual awareness and coordination, among developers, and reluctance to commit unstable modifications. The paper addresses this problem by providing a tool that integrates with offthe-shelf version control systems and monitors filesystem accesses to relevant files in order to enhance the awareness among developers. With VC2 users can be aware of uncommitted changes made by remote users; receive request to commit their own changes; be advised to update their local versions. While the final decision is always under user control, the team is made aware of the level of risk when delaying commits and updates

Safety of ground masses under loading conditions. Some new developments for its evaluation

O presente trabalho descreve e discute os métodos de cálculo à rotura de maciços terrosos por métodos rígido-plásticos, métodos elasto-plásticos e métodos elásticos, apresentando-se novos programas de computador para o cálculo do coeficiente de segurança. Apresentam-se exemplos e fazem-se comparações entre resultados obtidos através de vários métodos.This work describes and discusses the calculation methods for evaluation of the safety factor in relation to rupture of ground masses: rigid-plastic methods; elastic-plastic methods; and elastic methods. New computer programs are presented for the safety factor. Also, examples are presented and comparisons of results are done between the methods.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - PEst-C/MAT/UI0013/2011Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) - Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade (COMPETE

Hybrid adaptive control of a dragonfly model

Dragonflies show unique and superior flight performances than most of other insect species and birds. They are equipped with two pairs of independently controlled wings granting an unmatchable flying performance and robustness. In this paper, it is presented an adaptive scheme controlling a nonlinear model inspired in a dragonfly-like robot. It is proposed a hybrid adaptive (HA) law for adjusting the parameters analyzing the tracking error. At the current stage of the project it is considered essential the development of computational simulation models based in the dynamics to test whether strategies or algorithms of control, parts of the system (such as different wing configurations, tail) as well as the complete system. The performance analysis proves the superiority of the HA law over the direct adaptive (DA) method in terms of faster and improved tracking and parameter convergence

Application of fractional algorithms in the control of a robotic bird

In this paper, it is studied the dynamics of the robotic bird in terms of time response and robustness. It is analyzed the wing angle of attack and the velocity of the bird, the tail influence, the gliding flight and the flapping flight. The results are positive for the construction of flying robots. The development of computational simulation based on the dynamic of the robotic bird should allow testing strategies and different algorithms of control such as integer and fractional controllers

Application of Fractional Calculus in Mechatronics

Fractional Calculus (FC) goes back to the beginning of the theory of differential calculus. Nevertheless, the application of FC just emerged in the last two decades. In the field of dynamical systems theory some work has been carried out but the proposed models and algorithms are still in a preliminary stage of establishment. Having these ideas in mind, the paper discusses a FC perspective in the study of the dynamics and control of mechanical systems

Using the NIST reference model for refining logical architectures

The emergence of the Internet as a ubiquitous means of communication fostered the growth of new business and service models based on Cloud Computing. Information and Communication Technology companies use reference models to define their Cloud Computing strategies. NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture is one of these reference models that assist in the design of business, services, and architecture models. This paper aims to present the use of NIST reference architecture in the design of Cloud Computing architectures by employing a method that enables the application of the reference architecture to the refinement of logical architectures. © 2014 Springer International Publishing

A fuzzified systematic adjustment of the robotic Darwinian PSO

The Darwinian Particle Swarm Optimization (DPSO) is an evolutionary algorithm that extends the Particle Swarm Optimization using natural selection to enhance the ability to escape from sub-optimal solutions. An extension of the DPSO to multi-robot applications has been recently proposed and denoted as Robotic Darwinian PSO (RDPSO), benefiting from the dynamical partitioning of the whole population of robots, hence decreasing the amount of required information exchange among robots. This paper further extends the previously proposed algorithm adapting the behavior of robots based on a set of context-based evaluation metrics. Those metrics are then used as inputs of a fuzzy system so as to systematically adjust the RDPSO parameters (i.e., outputs of the fuzzy system), thus improving its convergence rate, susceptibility to obstacles and communication constraints. The adapted RDPSO is evaluated in groups of physical robots, being further explored using larger populations of simulated mobile robots within a larger scenario

Application of fractional algorithms in control of a quad rotor flight

This paper studies the application of fractional algorithms in the control of a quad-rotor rotorcraft machine. The main contribution of this paper focuses in the development a flight simulator to provide the evaluation model of the quad-rotor. Several basic maneuvers are investigated, namely the elevation and the position control.N/

Competitive initial adhesion between Lactobacillus spp. and Gardnerella vaginalis strains against vaginal epithelium

Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a common disorder in women of reproductive age. BV is characterized by the replacement of vaginal lactobacilli, such as Lactobacillus crispatus, by predominantly anaerobic microorganisms. However, Lactobacillus iners is frequently found in the BV. Gardnerella vaginalis, commonly associated with BV, can also be present in 50-95% of BV patients and in 20-30% of healthy women. The capacity of G. vaginalis to form biofilms on the vaginal epithelium has recently been demonstrated. Our goal was to study the colonization of endogenous vaginal microflora from Lactobacillus spp. and G. vaginalis 5-1 (isolated from a healthy woman) and G. vaginalis 101 (isolated from a BV patient), at different initial concentrations and consequently to analyze the competition and interaction during the primary step of biofilm formation: initial adhesion. ME-180 and HeLa epithelial cell monolayers were challenged with the two G. vaginalis strains with different adhesion conditions. For the competition assays, cultures of Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus crispatus or Lactobacillus iners were mixed G. vaginalis strains at different concentrations and allowed to adhere to the two cell lines for 30 minutes. To analyse interference of lactobacilli in G. vaginalis initial adhesion, different lactobacilli concentrations were allowed to adhere to the cell monolayer for 4 hours and then G. vaginalis strains at different concentrations were added and allowed to adhere for 30 minutes. These adhesion times were previously optimized. All adhesion assays were quantified by fluorescence microscopy, using DAPI for total cell count and PNA-FISH probe for G. vaginalis quantification. Our results showed that G. vaginalis 101 (pathogenic strain) had a greater adhesion capacity than G. vaginalis 5-1 in all cases tested. Also, L. casei was the least adherent of the all lactobacilli used in this study. L. casei was included in this study as a non-sense control, since this lactobacilli strain is not a common colonizer of the vagina epithelium. L. crispatus showed decreased adherence to epithelial cells in the presence of G. vaginalis 101. In contrast, adherence of L. iners did not decrease in presence of G. vaginalis 101. Our study suggests that adherence of the G. vaginalis to epithelial cells is a critical step during the stage of vaginal colonization. It was found that adherence of Lactobacillus spp to epithelial cells was influenced by a specific G. vaginalis strains. These studies help to provide insight into the clinical situation in which indigenous vaginal lactobacilli can interfere with G. vaginalis presence