Communications in Choreographies, Revisited

Choreographic Programming is a paradigm for developing correct-by-construction concurrent programs, by writing high-level descriptions of the desired communications and then synthesising process implementations automatically. So far, choreographic programming has been explored in the monadic setting: interaction terms express point-to-point communications of a single value. However, real-world systems often rely on interactions of polyadic nature, where multiple values are communicated among two or more parties, like multicast, scatter-gather, and atomic exchanges. We introduce a new model for choreographic programming equipped with a primitive for grouped interactions that subsumes all the above scenarios. Intuitively, grouped interactions can be thought of as being carried out as one single interaction. In practice, they are implemented by processes that carry them out in a concurrent fashion. After formalising the intuitive semantics of grouped interactions, we prove that choreographic programs and their implementations are correct and deadlock-free by construction

Mota-Engil : equity valuation

The purpose of this thesis is to obtain the value of an equity investment through a deep study of the company and industry fundamentals. The selection of the firm was based on my big interest in the construction industry, which I developed from my work experience in a real estate company, as an intern. Particularly, Mota-Engil’s impressive position among the top European players captured my attention leading to the choice of developing a broad analysis of its past and future performance. The valuation methodology results from the analyzed literature review on the topic of equity valuation conciliating the theory and the practice. According to the chosen company specificities, several methods were selected and resulted in an extensive equity valuation project. With this work it has been possible to reach the conclusion that Mota-Engil’s stocks are undervalued in the market with an upside potential of 18% resulting from the obtained price per share of 1,6€. This information can be translated into a Buy recommendation. This is the mirror of the company’s strong international presence in emerging markets and its diversification policy that allows attractive profitability levels

Sustainable postbiotics for cosmetic and skincare applications

Skin is the largest human organ and performs vital functions such as protection, water and electrolytes preservation, thermoregulation and fat storage. Skin maintenance and preservation such as cleaning, protection and alteration is carried out with cosmetic products. In the development of new cosmetic products, the use of postbiotics has been suggested, a new class of molecules derived from probiotics, defined as a “preparation of inanimate microorganisms and/or their components that confers a health benefit on the host”. They can be produced by fermentation, using culture media with glucose as the carbon source, and lactic acid bacteria of the genus Lactobacillus, and/or yeasts, mainly Saccharomyces cerevisiae as fermentative microorganisms. Postbiotics comprise different metabolites, and have important biological properties (antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, etc), which is why their use in cosmetics should be considered. During this work, the production of postbiotics was carried out by fermentation with sugarcane straw and bagasse, as a source of carbon and other active compounds, and as a more sustainable and promising process to obtain more bioactive extracts at the end. For this, the saccharification process of these biomasses was carried out, testing the use of enzymes (Celluclast and Shearzyme Plus), the type of substrate (straw or bagasse) and the duration of the process (24h and 48h). Fermentation was carried out sequentially (SQSF) after saccharification, or simultaneously with saccharification (SSF). The fermentative microorganisms tested were L. plantarum, L. fermentum and S. cerevisiae. The extracts produced (cells-free) were characterized regarding their composition, and main biological properties such as antioxidant and antimicrobial. The most promising extract was also characterized for its cytotoxicity, anti-inflammatory activity, cytokeratin 14/collagen I α1 production, and impact on skin microbiota ex vivo. The best extracts were obtained by performing fermentations in sequential mode (SQSF), with bagasse for 48h and straw for 72h, using L. plantarum and S. cerevisiae, respectively. Among these, the extract that showed the best results was the SQSF S. cerevisiae with straw fermented for 72h (SQSF ScStr 72h). Its use has been shown to be safe at concentrations below or equal to ~2% for keratinocytes and ~0.7% for fibroblasts. It showed antioxidant activity, with Ec50 of 1.88 mg.mL-1, and inhibited elastase and tyrosinase activities by 83.4% and 42.4%, respectively, at the maximum concentration tested (2%). In addition, it promoted the production of cytokeratin 14, and demonstrated anti-inflammatory activity at a concentration of 1%. Finally, in the skin microbiota of human volunteers, the extract inhibited the Cutibacterium acnes bacterium and the Malassezia fungal genus. In short, postbiotics were successfully produced using straw as substrate, and as source of carbon and phenolic compounds. These postbiotics showed bioactive properties that potentiate their use in the development of cosmetic and skincare products, such as the treatment of acne or other skin diseases, due to their anti-inflammatory and inhibitory effect on the bacteria responsible for acne, as well as on potentially colonizing fungi.A pele é o maior órgão humano e desempenha funções vitais como proteção, preservação de água e eletrólitos, termorregulação e armazenamento de gordura. A manutenção da pele como limpeza, proteção e alteração é realizada com produtos cosméticos. No desenvolvimento de novos produtos cosméticos, tem sido sugerido o uso de pós-bióticos, uma nova classe de moléculas derivadas dos probióticos, definidos como uma “preparação de microrganismos inanimados e/ou seus componentes que conferem benefícios à saúde do hospedeiro”. Podem ser produzidos por fermentação, utilizando meios de culturas com glucose como a fonte de carbono, e como microrganismos fermentativos, bactérias láticas do género Lactobacillus, e/ou leveduras, principalmente Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Os pós-bióticos compreendem diferentes metabolitos, e apresentam importantes propriedades biológicas (antioxidante, anti-inflamatória, entre outras), razão pela qual o seu uso em cosméticos deve ser considerado. Neste trabalho, a produção de pós-bióticos foi realizada por fermentação com a palha ou o bagaço de cana-de-açúcar, como fonte de carbono e compostos ativos e como processo mais sustentável e promissor na obtenção de extratos mais bioativos. Foi realizado o processo de sacarificação destas biomassas, tendo sido testado o uso de enzimas (Celluclast e Sherazyme Plus), o tipo de substrato (palha e bagaço) e a duração do processo (24h e 48h). A fermentação foi realizada de modo sequencial (SQSF) após a sacarificação, ou em simultâneo com a sacarificação (SSF). Os microrganismos fermentativos testados foram L. plantarum, L. fermentum e S. cerevisiae. Os extratos produzidos (sem células) foram caracterizados quanto à sua composição e principais propriedades biológicas como a antioxidante e antimicrobiana. O extrato mais promissor foi caracterizado quanto à sua citotoxicidade, atividade anti-inflamatória, produção de citoqueratina 14/colagénio I α1 e impacto na microbiota da pele ex vivo. Os melhores extratos foram obtidos realizando fermentações em modo sequencial (SQSF), com bagaço durante 48h e palha durante 72h, usando L. plantarum e S. cerevisiae, respetivamente. De entre estes, o extrato que apresentou os melhores resultados foi o SQSF S. cerevisiae de palha fermentado durante 72h (SQSF ScStr 72h). O seu uso demonstrou ser seguro em concentrações abaixo ou iguais a ~2% para queratinócitos e ~0,7% para fibroblastos. Apresentou atividade antioxidante, com Ec50 de 1,88 mg mL-1, e inibiu as atividades de elastase e tirosinase em 83,4% e 42,3%, respetivamente, à concentração máxima testada (2%). Para além disso, promoveu a produção de citoqueratina, e demonstrou atividade anti-inflamatória à concentração de 1%. Por fim, na microbiota da pele de voluntários humanos, o extrato inibiu a bactéria Cutibacterium acnes e o género de fungos Malassezia. Em suma, foram produzidos pós-bióticos, com sucesso, com palha como substrato, fonte de carbono e de compostos fenólicos. Estes pós-bióticos apresentaram propriedades bioativas que potenciam o seu uso no desenvolvimento de produtos cosméticos e de skincare como, por exemplo, o tratamento da acne ou outras doenças da pele, devido ao seu efeito anti-inflamatório e inibitório da bactéria responsável pela acne, bem como de fungos potencialmente colonizadores

Gene expression alterations in central nervous system neoplasms with EGFR amplification

Tese de mestrado, Biologia (Biologia Molecular Humana), 2009, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de CiênciasCentral Nervous System (CNS) Neoplasms are characterized by their cell of origin and their histopathological features. Tumors of glial cell origin (Gliomas) are the most frequent, with Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) rising as the most common. GBM tumors of grade IV accordingly with the World Health Organization (WHO), are generally lethal, with a median survival time of 4.9 months, and their most striking histopathological features are the high degree of vascularization and necrosis. The most common genetic alterations in GBM are the amplification, overexpression and mutation of the EGFR gene, and the deletion of the long arm of chromosome 10, where, among others, the PTEN gene is located. These genes are related, respectively, with the activation and inhibition of pathways like the MAPK cascade, the PIP-mediated signaling and STAT signaling which are involved in cellular proliferation and inhibition of apoptosis. Deregulation of these pathways renders them the logical target for inhibition of growth and proliferation of tumoral cells, and some anti-EGFR therapies have been tried, but with relatively poor success. The goal of this work is to analyse the genetic expression of the genes that make up the EGFR-activated signaling pathways in gliomas, and identify those molecules where targeted intervention would make sense in such a way that cellular proliferation would cease, and differentiation and apoptosis would be induced. Tumor samples (n=100) were characterized by Multiplex Ligation-dependent Amplification (MLPA) and Chromosomal Comparative Genomic Hybridization (cGGH). Further analysis of tumors samples (n=15) was done by using Gene Expression Arrays GeneChip® HuGene 1.0ST and data analysis softwares Partek Genomics Suite and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis, in order to determine the expression values of the various genes that make up the EGFR-activated signaling pathways. This allowed us to identify a particular pathway that appears to have its components constantly overexpressed, the STAT signaling pathway, mainly through the STAT3 gene. The STAT3 protein is activated by various receptors and is implicated in tumorigenesis and immune evasion, and as such, may be a suitable target for anti-neoplasic therapies.Resumo largado em português disponível no document

Multilabel classification of unstructured data using Crunchbase

Our work compares different methods and models for multilabel text classification using information collected from Crunchbase, a large database that holds information of more than 600000 companies. Each company is labeled with one more categories, from a subset of 46 possible, and the proposed models predict the categories based solely on the company textual description. A number of natural language processing strategies have been tested for feature extraction, including stemming, lemmatization, and Part-of-Speech Tagging. This is a highly unbalanced dataset, where the frequency of each category ranges from 0.7% to 28%. The first experiment, is a Multiclass classification problem that tries to find the most probable category using only one model for all categories, with an overall score of 67% using SVM, Naive Bayes and Fuzzy Fingerprints. The second experiment uses makes use of multiple classifiers, one for each category, and tries to predict the complete set of categories for each company, with an overal score of 73% precision and 47% recall. The resulting models may constitute an important asset for automatic classification of texts, not only consisting of company descriptions, but also other texts, such as web pages, text blogs, news pages, etc.Este trabalho compara diferentes métodos e modelos para classificação de texto utilizando informação proveniente do Crunchbase, uma grande base de dados que contém dados sobre mais de 600000 empresas. Cada empresa está associada a uma ou mais categorias, de 46 possiveis, e os modelos propostos utilizam apenas a descrição de cada empresa para prever a sua categoria. Foram aplicadas várias técnicas de processamento de linguagem natural para extração de informação incluindo "stemming", lematização e "Part-of-Speech Tagging". Este "dataset" é altamente desiquilibrado, a frequência de cada categoria vai desde 0.7% a 28%. A primeira experiência, é um problema multiclasse que tenta encontrar qual a categoria mais provável para uma empresa utilizando apenas um modelo para todas as categorias, obtendo um resultado global de 67% de "accuracy" utilizando SVM, Naive Bayes e Fuzzy Fingerprints. A segunda experiência utiliza vários classificadores, um por cada categoria, para atribuir todas as categorias de uma determinada empresa obtendo resultados de 73% de precisão e 47% de "recall". Os modelos resultantes do nosso trabalho podem ser um ativo importante para a classificação automática de texto, não só para descrições de empresas mas também para outros textos, como páginas de Internet, blogs, notícias, entre outros

HapWheel: in-car infotainment system feedback using haptic and hovering techniques

Abstract—In-car devices are growing both in complexity and capacity, integrating functionalities that used to be divided among other controls in the vehicles. These systems appear increasingly in the form of touchscreens as a cost-saving measure. Screens lack the physicality of traditional buttons or switches, requiring drivers to look away from the road to operate them. This paper presents the design, implementation, and two studies that evaluated HapWheel, a system that provides the driver with haptic feedback in the steering wheel while interacting with an Infotainment System. Results show that the proposed system reduced both the duration of and the number of times a driver looked away from the road. HapWheel was also successful at reducing the number of mistakes during the interaction.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Integrating wind generation in the distribution network

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Energias Renováveis – Conversão Eléctrica e Utilização SustentáveisOne of the current challenges the electricity grid has is to actively connect future generation to its network without the need to fully reinforce it. This dissertation will study the use of dynamic ratings on overhead lines to increase its capacity and thus defer major investment on infrastructure reinforcement. The amount of current an overhead line can withstand in a given time is defined by the distance towards the ground, which is proportional to the conductor´s temperature, which is given by a static rating stated in the P27 standard – “Current Rating Guide for High Voltage Overhead Lines Operating in the UK Distribution System”. This rating changes from season to season and depends on specific values for ambient temperature, wind speed, wind direction and the probability that in a year the conductor exceeds its design temperature. This standard is seen as being very restrictive and a limiting factor on overhead line capacity for both future generation connections and demand. Wind speed and direction are extremely important on the cooling of overhead lines and in times of strong winds the conductor cools down, allowing extra amount of current to flow through it. By using real time weather data, it´s possible to obtain the maximum current that can flow in an overhead line for a specific operating temperature and assess the amount of headroom possible given by the difference between the static ratings and the new dynamic ratings is assessed. A view on the extra amount of energy produced, as well as CO2 emission savings and profit will also be presented, giving a practical result by applying dynamic ratings

IEVCC - A Mesh Managed Network for Electric Vehicle Charging

The implementation and management of Electric Vehicle (EV) charging points in parking spaces (whether in multifamily condominiums or in private company parking lots) presents a challenge, since the available contracted power may be insufficient for the building devices needs and for EV chargers to work simultaneously. The available power is limited to a fixed value generally determined by the expected peak power consumption of the building. An increase in the contracted power leads to unwanted costs and, sometimes, this is not possible without a complete rework of the electrical installation at even higher costs. The available power is not fully used all the time, since not all the buildings devices are always working simultaneously. These spare power can be monopolized by a mesh network of chargers, taking advantage of the full contracted power without increasing costs. In this work we present a manager of a mesh network of chargers that can distribute the available power to an array of chargers based on several conditions, e.g. load balancing, priority of chargers or charging.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio