Multimedia Content Distribution Management Using a Distributed Topology

Advertising plays an important role in order for many companies to promote their products and services. It can be expensive to place advertisements with no guarantees that the message will reach the intended persons. In this field, targeted advertising is the mainstream strategy to captivate the potential consumer. People are used to see advertisements everywhere they go in many different forms. One of those is the use of screen displays that are believed to make the ads more engaging. However, using digital screens to advertise may lead to some issues, like down times or unwanted error messages from the device that controls the screens. This can cause a bad experience for both the target audience and the advertiser. This thesis was developed within the scope of a project called Vixtape. It’s a platform with the goal of turning any public screen into an ads displaying device and in the process reward the screen owner by exposing ads to the target audience. It also has the mission of giving the end user a optimal technological experience, no flaws and highly efficient. All these characteristics are accomplished by the use of a new open source technology called Interplanetary File System (IPFS), that allow devices to share content between them in a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) topology. This content distribution method saves Internet bandwidth to the end user (i.e., the Vixtape service client) and also enables the devices to work offline in case their Internet connection drops. This will greatly reduce the common problems seen with ads screen, thus giving a better experience to both the audience and the end user. By the end of this document one can see that, adding a distributed topology to the Vixtape platform increased the Internet usage efficiency of the ads devices by always having up-to-date content available. This avoids that a device unnecessarily requests content from any of the other devices that had previously requested it. Additionally, a strategy to target a given audience was employed in order to choose the right ads to play. This further increases the maximum potential consumers the advertisements are shown to

Bioprocess engineering of induced pluripotent stem cells for application in cell therapy and pre-clinical research

Dissertation to obtain Master Degree in Biotechnolog

Identity Management and Authorization Infrastructure in Secure Mobile Access to Electronic Health Records

We live in an age of the mobile paradigm of anytime/anywhere access, as the mobile device is the most ubiquitous device that people now hold. Due to their portability, availability, easy of use, communication, access and sharing of information within various domains and areas of our daily lives, the acceptance and adoption of these devices is still growing. However, due to their potential and raising numbers, mobile devices are a growing target for attackers and, like other technologies, mobile applications are still vulnerable. Health information systems are composed with tools and software to collect, manage, analyze and process medical information (such as electronic health records and personal health records). Therefore, such systems can empower the performance and maintenance of health services, promoting availability, readability, accessibility and data sharing of vital information about a patients overall medical history, between geographic fragmented health services. Quick access to information presents a great importance in the health sector, as it accelerates work processes, resulting in better time utilization. Additionally, it may increase the quality of care. However health information systems store and manage highly sensitive data, which raises serious concerns regarding patients privacy and safety, and may explain the still increasing number of malicious incidents reports within the health domain. Data related to health information systems are highly sensitive and subject to severe legal and regulatory restrictions, that aim to protect the individual rights and privacy of patients. Along side with these legislations, security requirements must be analyzed and measures implemented. Within the necessary security requirements to access health data, secure authentication, identity management and access control are essential to provide adequate means to protect data from unauthorized accesses. However, besides the use of simple authentication models, traditional access control models are commonly based on predefined access policies and roles, and are inflexible. This results in uniform access control decisions through people, different type of devices, environments and situational conditions, and across enterprises, location and time. Although already existent models allow to ensure the needs of the health care systems, they still lack components for dynamicity and privacy protection, which leads to not have desire levels of security and to the patient not to have a full and easy control of his privacy. Within this master thesis, after a deep research and review of the stat of art, was published a novel dynamic access control model, Socio-Technical Risk-Adaptable Access Control modEl (SoTRAACE), which can model the inherent differences and security requirements that are present in this thesis. To do this, SoTRAACE aggregates attributes from various domains to help performing a risk assessment at the moment of the request. The assessment of the risk factors identified in this work is based in a Delphi Study. A set of security experts from various domains were selected, to classify the impact in the risk assessment of each attribute that SoTRAACE aggregates. SoTRAACE was integrated in an architecture with requirements well-founded, and based in the best recommendations and standards (OWASP, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-57), as well based in deep review of the state-of-art. The architecture is further targeted with the essential security analysis and the threat model. As proof of concept, the proposed access control model was implemented within the user-centric architecture, with two mobile prototypes for several types of accesses by patients and healthcare professionals, as well the web servers that handles the access requests, authentication and identity management. The proof of concept shows that the model works as expected, with transparency, assuring privacy and data control to the user without impact for user experience and interaction. It is clear that the model can be extended to other industry domains, and new levels of risks or attributes can be added because it is modular. The architecture also works as expected, assuring secure authentication with multifactor, and secure data share/access based in SoTRAACE decisions. The communication channel that SoTRAACE uses was also protected with a digital certificate. At last, the architecture was tested within different Android versions, tested with static and dynamic analysis and with tests with security tools. Future work includes the integration of health data standards and evaluating the proposed system by collecting users’ opinion after releasing the system to real world.Hoje em dia vivemos em um paradigma móvel de acesso em qualquer lugar/hora, sendo que os dispositivos móveis são a tecnologia mais presente no dia a dia da sociedade. Devido à sua portabilidade, disponibilidade, fácil manuseamento, poder de comunicação, acesso e partilha de informação referentes a várias áreas e domínios das nossas vidas, a aceitação e integração destes dispositivos é cada vez maior. No entanto, devido ao seu potencial e aumento do número de utilizadores, os dispositivos móveis são cada vez mais alvos de ataques, e tal como outras tecnologias, aplicações móveis continuam a ser vulneráveis. Sistemas de informação de saúde são compostos por ferramentas e softwares que permitem recolher, administrar, analisar e processar informação médica (tais como documentos de saúde eletrónicos). Portanto, tais sistemas podem potencializar a performance e a manutenção dos serviços de saúde, promovendo assim a disponibilidade, acessibilidade e a partilha de dados vitais referentes ao registro médico geral dos pacientes, entre serviços e instituições que estão geograficamente fragmentadas. O rápido acesso a informações médicas apresenta uma grande importância para o setor da saúde, dado que acelera os processos de trabalho, resultando assim numa melhor eficiência na utilização do tempo e recursos. Consequentemente haverá uma melhor qualidade de tratamento. Porém os sistemas de informação de saúde armazenam e manuseiam dados bastantes sensíveis, o que levanta sérias preocupações referentes à privacidade e segurança do paciente. Assim se explica o aumento de incidentes maliciosos dentro do domínio da saúde. Os dados de saúde são altamente sensíveis e são sujeitos a severas leis e restrições regulamentares, que pretendem assegurar a proteção dos direitos e privacidade dos pacientes, salvaguardando os seus dados de saúde. Juntamente com estas legislações, requerimentos de segurança devem ser analisados e medidas implementadas. Dentro dos requerimentos necessários para aceder aos dados de saúde, uma autenticação segura, gestão de identidade e controlos de acesso são essenciais para fornecer meios adequados para a proteção de dados contra acessos não autorizados. No entanto, além do uso de modelos simples de autenticação, os modelos tradicionais de controlo de acesso são normalmente baseados em políticas de acesso e cargos pré-definidos, e são inflexíveis. Isto resulta em decisões de controlo de acesso uniformes para diferentes pessoas, tipos de dispositivo, ambientes e condições situacionais, empresas, localizações e diferentes alturas no tempo. Apesar dos modelos existentes permitirem assegurar algumas necessidades dos sistemas de saúde, ainda há escassez de componentes para accesso dinâmico e proteção de privacidade , o que resultam em níveis de segurança não satisfatórios e em o paciente não ter controlo directo e total sobre a sua privacidade e documentos de saúde. Dentro desta tese de mestrado, depois da investigação e revisão intensiva do estado da arte, foi publicado um modelo inovador de controlo de acesso, chamado SoTRAACE, que molda as diferenças de acesso inerentes e requerimentos de segurança presentes nesta tese. Para isto, o SoTRAACE agrega atributos de vários ambientes e domínios que ajudam a executar uma avaliação de riscos, no momento em que os dados são requisitados. A avaliação dos fatores de risco identificados neste trabalho são baseados num estudo de Delphi. Um conjunto de peritos de segurança de vários domínios industriais foram selecionados, para classificar o impacto de cada atributo que o SoTRAACE agrega. O SoTRAACE foi integrado numa arquitectura para acesso a dados médicos, com requerimentos bem fundados, baseados nas melhores normas e recomendações (OWASP, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-57), e em revisões intensivas do estado da arte. Esta arquitectura é posteriormente alvo de uma análise de segurança e modelos de ataque. Como prova deste conceito, o modelo de controlo de acesso proposto é implementado juntamente com uma arquitetura focada no utilizador, com dois protótipos para aplicações móveis, que providênciam vários tipos de acesso de pacientes e profissionais de saúde. A arquitetura é constituída também por servidores web que tratam da gestão de dados, controlo de acesso e autenticação e gestão de identidade. O resultado final mostra que o modelo funciona como esperado, com transparência, assegurando a privacidade e o controlo de dados para o utilizador, sem ter impacto na sua interação e experiência. Consequentemente este modelo pode-se extender para outros setores industriais, e novos níveis de risco ou atributos podem ser adicionados a este mesmo, por ser modular. A arquitetura também funciona como esperado, assegurando uma autenticação segura com multi-fator, acesso e partilha de dados segura baseado em decisões do SoTRAACE. O canal de comunicação que o SoTRAACE usa foi também protegido com um certificado digital. A arquitectura foi testada em diferentes versões de Android, e foi alvo de análise estática, dinâmica e testes com ferramentas de segurança. Para trabalho futuro está planeado a integração de normas de dados de saúde e a avaliação do sistema proposto, através da recolha de opiniões de utilizadores no mundo real

Relationship marketing in the pharmaceutical industry

Background: Patients trust the treatment choices that can make a difference to their health to physicians, giving room for an agency relationship to be established between both stakeholders. Additionally, pharmaceutical companies, which belong to one the most profitable sectors, invest a lot of money to get recognition of their brands by physicians, which may include, many times, a transfer of value from the manufacturers to medical doctors. These ways of working can be viewed with caution by the general 4 public, as it can give room for a potential conflict of interest towards the ultimate endpoint, that is improving patients’ health. Despite this potential misperception, pharmaceutical companies keep their ways of working. The objective of this work is to study the relationship between pharmaceutical industry and physicians on prescription behaviour, and the exact role it may play. Methods: To study this problem statement, in an attempt to answer it, a combination of methods will be used. Literary review will be conducted to assess updated information on the problem being studied. This also includes checking information in Plataforma da Transparência of INFARMED, I.P. Nonetheless, the subject of this dissertation work will be mainly assessed through primary data collected via a market research study targeted to HIV physicians. Results: Fourty two HIV specialists participated in this market research. Efficacy was by far the most important attribute they value when selecting a treatment regimen. The combined three attributes that matter the most when choosing a treatment were efficacy, safety and convenience. The effectiveness on how companies communicated these attributes was found to have a positive impact on their prescription choices. Additionally, it was found that promotional sessions positively impact the prescription behaviour of physicians. Conclusion: No major effects on prescription behaviour were found for most of the marketing activities performed by pharmaceutical companies, with exception for promotional sessions, that were found to have a positive impact on the prescription behaviour for naïve patients

Developing and validating process-aware GUIs in an industrial setting

With classic cars being worth hundreds of thousands to even millions of euros, it is a deal of great importance that any restoration processes that these vehicles go through are following national and international regulations. Certification of the authenticity of restored cars plays a major role in this context. There is also a need to keep their owners informed about the process remotely, especially since these cars are often sent overseas to be repaired. This research is about assessing how monitoring the progress of classic cars’ restora- tion processes can be helpful for involved stakeholders: plant shop managers, certifica- tion bodies, and classic car owners. For that purpose, we developed a process monitoring platform that combines data gathered from plant shop sensors with input provided by a plant shop manager using a process-aware graphical user interface (GUI). The under- lying process is compliant with the best practices expressed in FIVA’s Charter of Turin and any evidence generated can be attached to its tasks to facilitate certification. After the process ends, an automatically generated PDF file that contains a summary of the process and the evidence attached to it can be downloaded. Last, but not least, a plat- form was developed where video-conference sessions with remotely controlled cameras can be performed to allow car owners to witness and record important milestones in the restoration/preservation process. This work allows for workshops using the developed system to show their quality and that the best practices identified by FIVA are followed. For this reason, it has gathered a lot of interest from several parties invested in the industry, including several national classic car workshops. If our system becomes widespread, it could not only distinguish the best workshops but also differentiate the country’s industry from others worldwide. It can also become a fundamental tool for the analysis performed by classic car certification companies in their tasks.Com carros clássicos a serem avaliados em centenas de milhares, ou em alguns casos mi- lhões, de euros, é muito importante que os seus processos de restauro estejam de acordo com as normas nacionais e internacionais. A certificação da autenticidade de carros res- taurados desempenha um papel importante neste contexto. Também é necessário manter os seus proprietários informados sobre o processo remotamente, especialmente visto que estes carros são frequentemente enviados para o estrangeiro para serem reparados. Esta pesquisa trata de avaliar como o monitoramento do progresso dos processos de restauração de carros clássicos pode ser útil para as partes envolvidas: gerentes de oficinas, órgãos de certificação e proprietários de carros clássicos. Para isso, desenvolvemos uma plataforma de monitoramento de processos que combina dados recolhidos por sensores com dados fornecidos pelos gerentes da oficina através duma GUI consciente dos pro- cessos. O processo subjacente está em conformidade com as práticas expressas na Carta de Turim da FIVA e as evidencias generadas podem ser anexadas às suas tarefas, para facilitar a certificação. No fim do processo, um ficheiro PDF gerado automaticamente que contém um resumo do processo e as suas evidências pode ser transferido. Por último, mas não menos importante, uma plataforma foi desenvolvida onde sessões de videoconferên- cia com câmaras remotamente controladas podem ser realizadas para permitir que os proprietários dos carros testemunhem e registem marcos importantes durante o processo de restauro/preservação. Este trabalho permite às oficinas que utilizem o nosso sistema mostrarem a sua qua- lidade e que as boas práticas identificadas pela FIVA são seguidas. Por este motivo, tem suscitado grande interesse pelas diversas partes envolvidas, incluindo diversas oficinas de automóveis clássicos nacionais. Se o nosso sistema ganhar popularidade, poderá não apenas distinguir as melhores oficinas, mas também diferenciar a indústria nacional das restantes mundialmente. Também pode se tornar uma ferramenta fundamental para a análise realizada pelas empresas de certificação de carros clássicos nas suas tarefas

Uso de redes mosquiteiras em crianças menores de 5 anos, numa zona rural de Angola

As crianças com menos de 5 anos são um dos grupos mais vulneráveis à malária. O uso de redes mosquiteiras tratadas com inseticida (MTIs) é considerada uma medida eficaz de prevenção e tem sido alvo de investimento internacional como forma de reduzir a morbilidade e mortalidade desta doença. O objetivo deste estudo é avaliar o uso de redes mosquiteiras nesta faixa etária

Individual determinants of food choice in a new decade

Edição Especial de "Determinantes Individuais da Escolha Alimentar na Nova Década", com Editores de edições especiais: Luís Miguel Cunha e An Pinto de MouraIn recent decades, rapid changes in diets and lifestyles have occurred with industrialization, urbanization, economic development, and market globalization, with those drivers promoting the acculturation process of diet Westernization among other cultures/countries, namely toward upper-to middle-income developing economies, but also in populations having rich and deeply rooted culinary traditions, such as Japan or Southern European countries. Food consumption, in fact, has seen the rise of different and contrasting trends: globalization pushing towards a homogenization of tastes and a standardization of consumption models, and market niches emerging which are characterized by a greater sensitivity to quality, intended as organoleptic properties, healthiness, and respect for the natural and cultural environment of the production territories, and even pushing the boundaries for novel and alternative food/protein sources, with a strong view on sustainability. In the present moment, the world is experiencing great turmoil due to the worldwide pressures and tensions created by the COVID-19 pandemic that force consumers to change their habits and even re-shape the supply chain, creating a global change from farm to fork. Food choice is a complex behavior influenced by many interrelating factors, as consumers are faced with several factors every time decisions about food are made. These factors may be categorized as those related to food, the individual making the choice, and the external economic and social environment within which the choice is made. Within the limitations of dietary domains, the individual food choice is most often concerned with the more immediate aspects, such as sensory attributes, convenience, wellbeing, self-expression, variety, and monetary constraints, i.e., the cost of the product against the income, and sustainability. This Special Issue intends to be the union of multidisciplinary areas of knowledge, in order to understand the main individual food choice drivers, among consumers from different cultures, particularly under the scope of the current factors affecting the food system and shaping food choice during this decade. For this, the editors are looking for high-quality research and practical initiatives which investigate drivers of food choice.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio