52 research outputs found
Conceptual multi-agent system design for distributed scheduling systems
With the progressive increase in the complexity of dynamic environments, systems require an
evolutionary configuration and optimization to meet the increased demand. In this sense, any
change in the conditions of systems or products may require distributed scheduling and resource
allocation of more elementary services. Centralized approaches might fall into bottleneck issues,
becoming complex to adapt, especially in case of unexpected events. Thus, Multi-agent systems
(MAS) can extract their automatic and autonomous behaviour to enhance the task effort
distribution and support the scheduling decision-making. On the other hand, MAS is able to
obtain quick solutions, through cooperation and smart control by agents, empowered by their
coordination and interoperability. By leveraging an architecture that benefits of a collaboration
with distributed artificial intelligence, it is proposed an approach based on a conceptual MAS
design that allows distributed and intelligent management to promote technological innovation in
basic concepts of society for more sustainable in everyday applications for domains with
emerging needs, such as, manufacturing and healthcare scheduling systems.This work has been supported by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a
Tecnologia within the R&D Units Projects Scope: UIDB/00319/2020 and UIDB/05757/2020.
Filipe Alves is supported by FCT Doctorate Grant Reference SFRH/BD/143745/2019.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
A hybrid approach to operational planning in home health care
Home health care (HHC) management needs to plan their operations to synchronize professionals and allocate resources to perform several HHC services needed by patients. The growing demand for this type of service dictates the interest of all the stakeholders (professionalsand patients) in finding high-quality daily solutions and logistics. Routing and scheduling are problems of combinatorial nature, extremely complex, and require sophisticated optimization approaches. This work aims to contribute to cost-efficient decision-making in the general improvement of the service quality. Thus, a mixed integer linear programming model, a genetic algorithm, and a hybrid approach were used to solve the operational planning through test instances of different sizes for public home care providers. Computational results are presented, followed by a discussion on the advantages and shortcomings, highlighting the strength of each approach.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to CeDRI (UIDB/05757/2020 and UIDP/05757/2020), SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2021) and ALGORITMI Center (UIDB/00319/2020). Filipe Alves thanks the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for supporting its research with the PhD grant SFRH/BD/143745/2019.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Climate change potential effects on grapevine bioclimatic indices: a case study for the Portuguese demarcated Douro Region (Portugal)
In this work, bioclimatic parameters and indices relevant to the grapevine are estimated for the years 2000 (recent-pat), 2049 (medium-term future) and 2097 (long-term future), based on very high resolution (1 km × 1 km) MPI-WRF RCP8.5 climate simulations. The selected parameters and indices are the mean temperature during the grapevine growing season period (April to October, Tgs), the cumulative rainfall during the grapevine growing season period (Pgs), the Winkler index (WI), the Huglin heliothermic index (HI), the night cold index (CI) and the dryness index (DI). In general, a significant increase in mean temperature during the grapevine growing season period is observed, together with a significant decrease in precipitation. The recent-past WI is associated with the production of high-quality wines; the higher values predicted for the future represent intensive production of wines of intermediate quality. The HI shows the passage of a grapevine growing region considered as temperate-warm to a warm category of higher helio-thermicity. The recent-past CI indicates very cool conditions (associated with quality wines), while in the future there is a tendency for temperate or warmer nights. Finally, DI indicates an increase in water stress considered already high under the recent-past climate conditions. These results point to an increased climatic stress on the Douro region wine production and increased vulnerability of its vine varieties, providing evidence to support strategies aimed to preserve the high-quality wines in the region and their typicality in a sustainable way.The authors wish to thank the financial support of the
DOUROZONE project (PTDC/AAG-MAA/3335/2014; POCI-
01-0145-FEDER-016778) through the Project 3599 – Promoting
the scientific production and the technological development,
and thematic networks (3599-PPCDT) and through
FEDER, and the national funds from FCT-Science and
Technology Portuguese Foundation for the doctoral grants of Blanco-Ward, D. (SFRH/BD/139193/2018) and Silveira, C. (SFRH/BD/112343/2015). Thanks, are also due for the financial
support to CESAM (UID/AMB/50017 - POCI-01-0145-FEDER-
007638), to FCT/MEC through national funds (PIDDAC), and
the co-funding by the FEDER, within the PT2020 Partnership
Agreement and Compete 2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Grapevine bioclimatic indices in relation to climate change: a case study in the Portuguese Douro Demarcated Region
Climate change is of major relevance to wine production as most of the wine-growing regions of the world, in
particular the Douro region, are located within relatively narrow latitudinal bands with average growing season temperatures limited to 13-21ºC. This study focuses on the temporal variability of three grapevine bioclimatic indices, which are commonly used as part of the Geoviticulture Multicriteria Climatic Classification System (MCC) to classify the climate of wine producing regions worldwide. Dynamical downscaling of MPI-ESM-LR global data forced with RCP8.5 climatic scenario is performed with the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model to a regional scale including the Douro valley of Portugal for recent-past (1986-2005) and future periods (2046-2065; 2081-2100). Results indicate significant shifts towards warmer and dryer conditions during
the growing season and higher night temperatures during the grape ripening period. An assessment on the statistical significance of the differences between the recent-past and the future scenarios and the potential impact on wine production in the study area is performed. These results will provide evidence for future strategies aimed to preserve the high-quality wines in the region and their typicality in a sustainable way.The authors wish to thank the financial support of the
DOUROZONE project (PTDC/AAG-MAA/3335/2014; POCI-
01-0145-FEDER-016778) through the Project 3599 –
Promoting the scientific production and the technological
development, and thematic networks (3599-PPCDT) and
through FEDER, and the national funds from FCT – Science
and Technology Portuguese Foundation for the doc grant of C.
Silveira (SFRH/BD/112343/2015).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Analysis of climate change indices in relation to wine production: a case study in the Douro region (Portugal)
Climate change is of major relevance to wine production as most of the wine-growing regions of
the world, in particular the Douro region, are located within relatively narrow latitudinal bands with average
growing season temperatures limited to 13–21◦C. This study focuses on the incidence of climate variables and
indices that are relevant both for climate change detection and for grape production with particular emphasis
on extreme events (e.g. cold waves, storms, heat waves). Dynamical downscaling ofMPI-ESM-LR global data
forced with RCP8.5 climatic scenario is performed with the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model to
a regional scale including the Douro valley of Portugal for recent-past (1986–2005) and future periods (2046–
2065; 2081–2100). The number, duration and intensity of events are superimposed over critical phenological
phases of the vine (dormancy, bud burst, flowering, v´eraison, and maturity) in order to assess their positive
or negative implications on wine production in the region. An assessment on the statistical significance of
climatic indices, their differences between the recent-past and the future scenarios and the potential impact
on wine production is performed. Preliminary results indicate increased climatic stress on the Douro region
wine production and increased vulnerability of its vine varieties. These results will provide evidence for future
strategies aimed to preserve the high-quality wines in the region and their typicality in a sustainable way.The authors wish to thank the financial support of the DOUROZONE project (PTDC/AAG-MAA/3335/2014; POCI- 01-0145-FEDER-016778) through the Project 3599 – Promoting the scientific production and the technological development, and thematic networks (3599-PPCDT) and through FEDER.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Climate change impact on a wine-producing region using a dynamical downscaling approach: Climate parameters, bioclimatic indices and extreme indices
Climate change is of major relevance to wine production as most of the winegrowing
regions of the world are located within relatively narrow latitudinal bands
with average growing-season temperatures (GSTs) limited to 13–21 C. This study
focuses on the incidence of climate variables and indices that are relevant both for
climate change assessment and for grape production, with emphasis on grapevine
bioclimatic indices and extreme events (e.g., cold waves, storms, heatwaves).
Dynamical downscaling of European Reanalysis-Interim and Max Planck Institute
Earth System low-resolution global simulations forced with a Representative Concentration
Pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5) greenhouse gas emission scenario was performed
with the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model to a regional scale including
the Douro Valley of Portugal for recent-past (1986–2005) and future periods
(2046–2065, 2081–2100). The number, duration and intensity of events were superimposed
over critical phenological phases estimated by using a specific local
grapevine varietal phenological model in order to assess their positive or negative
implications for wine production in the region. An assessment of the relevance of
climate parameters and indices and their progression in recent-past and future climate
scenarios with regard to the potential impact on wine production was performed.
Results indicate a positive relation between higher growing-season heat
accumulations and greater vintage yields. A moderate incidence of very hot days
(daily maximum temperature above 35 C) and drought from pre-véraison phenological
conditions have a positive association with vintage ratings. However, the
mid- and long-term WRF-MPI RCP8.5 future climate scenarios reveal shifts to
warmer and drier conditions, with the mean GST not remaining within range for
quality wine production in the long-term future climate scenario. These results indicate
potential impacts that suggest a range of strategies to maintain wine production
and quality in the region.The authors wish to thank the DOUROZONE project
(PTDC/AAG-MAA/3335/2014; POCI-01-0145-FEDER-
016778) for financial support through Project 3599 – Promoting
the Scientific Production and the Technological
Development, and Thematic Networks (3599-PPCDT) – and
through FEDER, and the national funds from FCT-Science
and Technology Portuguese Foundation for the doctoral
grant of D. Blanco-Ward (SFRH/BD/139193/2018). Thanks
are also due for the financial support to CESAM
(UID/AMB/50017 - POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007638), to
FCT/MEC through national funds, and the co-funding by
FEDER within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and
Compete 2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Chronic wasting disease risk assessment in Portugal: analysis of variability and genetic structure of the Portuguese roe deer population
Among the Transmissible Spongiform
Encephalopathies, Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in
cervids is now the rising concern in wildlife within
Europe after the first case detected in Norway in
2016. CWD shows a notable horizontal transmission,
affecting both free-ranging and captive cervids.
Furthermore, several genetic variants in the Prion
Protein (PRNP) gene coding sequence of the cervid
were identified, which increase the susceptibility to
the disease.This work was supported by the project
WastingPrionRisk [POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029,947/
PTDC/CVT-CVT/29947/2017] funded by the
Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology
(FCT). FCT PhD grant [SFRH/BD/146961/2019]
financed by FCT through FSE (Fundo Social
Europeu). This work was also supported by national
funds [UIDB/CVT/00772/2020], [LA/P/0059/2020] and
[UIDB/04033/2020] by FCT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
IPR 126 white oat forage potential under free growth, cutting and grazing at two management heights
Concentrações bioquÃmicas séricas de jacaré-açú (Melanosuchus niger) machos, adultos de vida livre
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