Sistema distribuído de monitorização de consumos e de qualidade de energia elétrica

Este artigo descreve a implementação e teste de um sistema distribuído de medição de grandezas elétricas, concebido para utilização com cargas tipicamente existentes nas residências, que possibilita a monitorização remota do consumo e também possui capacidade de deteção de eventos de qualidade de energia elétrica. O sistema é operado pelo utilizador a partir de um computador, através de um programa monitorizador dotado de interface gráfica, que recebe os dados recolhidos por um conjunto de nós sensores ligados às cargas que se deseja monitorizar. A comunicação de dados assenta sobre uma rede de sensores sem fios desenvolvida com base nos protocolos IEEE 802.15.4 e ZigBee. Os nós da rede são baseados no circuito integrado CC2530, da Texas Instruments, que integra um microcontrolador e um transceiver RF num mesmo chip. A implementação do sistema envolveu a concepção e desenvolvimento do hardware dos nós sensores, que efetuam a medição das grandezas elétricas, do software embebido nos nós da rede de sensores sem fios, que gere a aquisição e envio dos dados dos nós sensores até ao computador, e do software monitorizador no computador. Os resultados obtidos nos testes realizados excederam as expetativas iniciais, tendo os erros de medição ficado abaixo do patamar de 1%.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Development of an Internet of things system for smart home HVAC monitoring and control

This paper presents the development and test of an Internet of Things (IoT) system applied to the monitoring and control of an HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) system that includes parameters such as temperature, humidity, air quality, human presence and smoke detection. For this purpose, a hybrid wireless network combining Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and IEEE 802.11/Wi-Fi was implemented inside a house. An online database for the synchronization of the HVAC data, which was developed using the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform, allows the user to access the data and control the system parameters through the Internet using an Android mobile app. A smart temperature control system was also developed in the BLE/Wi-Fi gateway to keep the room temperature inside a user-defined range. The functionalities and performance of the proposed system were both validated through experimental tests.This work is supported by FCT with the reference project UID/EEA/04436/2019

Avaliação da vulnerabilidade de redes de abastecimento de água

A teoria da vulnerabilidade de redes hidráulicas de abastecimento de água (TVRAA) é uma teoria emergente que tem vindo a ser desenvolvida no Departamento de Engenharias, da Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD). O conceito de vulnerabilidade é traduzido pela desproporcionalidade existente entre um esforço e o dano resultante numa rede de abastecimento de água (RAA). Esta teoria tem como principal objectivo identificar os elementos mais vulneráveis de uma RAA e, desta forma, dar um contributo quer na fase de projecto quer na fase de gestão e de exploração dos sistemas. Na fase de projecto ajudará o projectista a decidir acerca do reforço ou redimensionamento das zonas da rede estruturalmente ou hidraulicamente mais vulneráveis. Na fase de gestão e exploração da RAA auxiliará na elaboração de planos de manutenção e de reabilitação, bem como na selecção das componentes da rede mais importantes em termos das consequências produzidas por um ou mais cenários de dano, permitindo a sua monitorização e uma priorização criteriosa das intervenções mais adequadas. A aplicação da TVRAA a um sistema de abastecimento de água permite identificar diferentes tipos de cenários de dano, sendo o cenário de dano de máxima vulnerabilidade aquele em que um pequeno esforço origina um dano desproporcional na RAA. A acção que provoca o esforço na rede pode ser de vários tipos, tais como: excesso de pressão hidráulica, envelhecimento das condutas, agressividade do meio envolvente, erro de projecto, erro de construção, sabotagem, alteração da qualidade da água. O dano é considerado como sendo uma perda da RAA ou de parte da RAA, correspondente a um ou mais troços. A TVRAA proposta neste trabalho efectua uma análise da vulnerabilidade de RAA independentemente do tipo de acção que pode originar-lhe dano e tendo como premissa fundamental que a vulnerabilidade de uma RAA será tanto menor quanto melhor for a sua qualidade de forma. Esta teoria utiliza a construção de um modelo hierárquico e, como tal, não necessita de estudar todas as combinações possíveis de danos na rede. Neste artigo far-se-á uma breve descrição da TVRAA, focando essencialmente o processo de desaglutinação no qual se utiliza o conceito de extensão da sub-rede de referência

Development of a monitoring system for electrical energy consumption and power quality analysis

This paper presents the development of a monitoring system for electrical energy consumption and power quality analysis, also known as power quality analyser (PQA). The internal architecture of the developed monitoring system is described in detail along the paper, highlighting the signal conditioning circuit and analogue to digital conversion (ADC) stage, the advanced RISC machine (ARM) processor, and the digital signal processor (DSP), which are used, respectively, for data acquisition, data communication and power quality calculations. This paper also describes the software developed for a Raspberry Pi, which receives the processed information from the ARM processor and presents it in real-time using a touch screen user-friendly interface. Among all the available features of the developed system, the paper presents the most relevant experimental results obtained with linear and nonlinear loads, showing the main functionalities of the different menus available in the developed user interface, mainly the menus “Scope”, “Harmonics” and “Data”.This work is supported by FCT with the reference project UID/EEA/04436/2013, by FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) with the reference project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006941.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Unified architecture of single-phase active power filter with battery interface for UPS operation

This paper presents a shunt active power filter with battery interface for uninterruptible power supply (UPS) operation. The proposed unified architecture is composed by a single-phase ac-dc converter from the power grid side and by a bidirectional isolated dc-dc converter to interface the batteries, allowing the operation in three distinct modes: (1) Shunt active power filter; (2) Off-line UPS to supply a set of priority loads during power outages; (3) Energy storage system to support the power grid. The proposed architecture and the developed control algorithms were validated with a reduced-scale laboratorial prototype in all the three different operation modes. The presented experimental results highlight the benefits of the proposed architecture.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Cutaneous Sarcoma. From Diagnosis to Treatment

O diagnóstico dos sarcomas cutâneos é desafiante, devido à complexidade e heterogeneidade deste grupo de lesões, cuja apresentação nos tecidos superficiais (pele e tecido celular subcutâneo) impõe diagnóstico diferencial obrigatório com tumores benignos e processos inflamatórios. Apesar de serem tumores pouco frequentes alguns tipos assumem grande importância por serem localmente invasivos, com elevada morbi-mortalidade associada, taxas de recidiva local e metastização significativas. Os autores apresentam cinco casos clínico-patológicos de sarcomas cutâneos – sarcoma de Kaposi, dermatofibrossarcoma protuberans, fibroxantoma atípico, leiomiossarcoma e angiossarcoma – e fazem uma breve revisão da literatura sobre os tipos de sarcoma cutâneo com maior interesse na Dermatologia, salientando os aspectos fisiopatológicos, clínicos, histopatológicos e terapêuticos particulares

Design and experimental validation of a compact low-cost weather station for solar photovoltaic applications

This paper presents a compact low-cost weather station specially dedicated to renewable energy applications based on solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies. The main objective of the weather station is to verify which technology of solar PV modules would be more suitable for the specific location where the weather station is installed. Therefore, the developed weather station includes three technologies of PV modules (polycrystalline, monocrystalline, and amorphous silicon), each one connected to a dedicated DC-DC power converter with a maximum power point control (MPPC) functionality, as well as a set of sensors (solar irradiance, temperature, humidity, wind speed, and wind direction) used to measure the local weather. The acquired data is processed and stored locally in the weather station and, when necessary, the user can download the data to an Android mobile device through a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) wireless network connection using the developed mobile app, where the transferred data is stored in a SQLite database and can be visualized in graphs. Throughout the paper, the design of the developed weather station and the associated technologies are described, as well as the details of the mobile app. The developed system comprising the weather station and the mobile app was validated through a set of experimental tests ranging from the data acquisition to its visualization, as well as the achieved wireless data transfer performance.This work was supported by FCT national funds, under the national support to R&D units grant, through the reference project UIDB/04436/2020 and UIDP/04436/2020

Anaplastic thyroid cancer: how far can we go?

Globally, thyroid cancer accounts for 2 % of all cancer diagnoses, and can be classified as well-differentiated or undifferentiated. Currently, differentiated thyroid carcinomas have good prognoses, and can be treated with a combination of therapies, including surgical thyroidectomy, radioactive iodine therapy and hormone-based therapy. On the other hand, anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, a subtype of undifferentiated thyroid carcinoma characterized by the loss of thyroid-like phenotype and function, does not respond to either radioactive iodine or hormone therapies. In most cases, anaplastic thyroid carcinomas are diagnosed in later stages of the disease, deeming them inoperable, and showing poor response rates to systemic chemotherapy. Recently, treatment courses using multiple-target agents are being explored and clinical trials have shown very promising results, such as overall survival rates, progression-free survival and tumor shrinkage. This review is focused on thyroid carcinomas, with particular focus on anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, exploring its undifferentiated nature. Special interest will be given to the treatment approaches currently available and respective obstacles or drawbacks. Our purpose is to contribute to understand why this malignancy presents low responsiveness to current treatments, while overviewing novel therapies and clinical trials.This research was funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) through the Project Reference UID/DTP/04138/2019.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Anaplastic thyroid cancer: How far can we go?

This research was funded by Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT) through the Project Reference UID/DTP/04138/2019.Globally, thyroid cancer accounts for 2 % of all cancer diagnoses, and can be classified as well-differentiated or undifferentiated. Currently, differentiated thyroid carcinomas have good prognoses, and can be treated with a combination of therapies, including surgical thyroidectomy, radioactive iodine therapy and hormone-based ther-apy. On the other hand, anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, a subtype of undifferentiated thyroid carcinoma character-ized by the loss of thyroid-like phenotype and function, does not respond to either radioactive iodine or hormone therapies. In most cases, anaplastic thyroid carcinomas are diagnosed in later stages of the disease, deeming them inoperable, and showing poor response rates to systemic chemotherapy. Recently, treatment courses using multi-ple-target agents are being explored and clinical trials have shown very promising results, such as overall survival rates, progression-free survival and tumor shrinkage. This review is focused on thyroid carcinomas, with particular focus on anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, exploring its undifferentiated nature. Special interest will be given to the treatment approaches currently available and respective obstacles or drawbacks. Our purpose is to contribute to understand why this malignancy presents low responsiveness to current treatments, while overviewing novel therapies and clinical trials.publishersversionpublishe

Development and evaluation of smart home IoT systems applied to HVAC monitoring and control

This work describes the development and evaluation of two smart home-based Internet of Things (IoT) systems applied to HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) monitoring and control, including parameters such as temperature, humidity, air quality, smoke detection, and human presence. These systems are based on a flexible hybrid wireless network architecture combining Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and IEEE 802.11/Wi-Fi, in order to adapt to the requirements of different types of sensor and actuator devices. The original implemented network is based on Cypress PSoC 4 BLE boards and HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), whereas the new network uses ESP32 boards and includes Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT), a lightweight messaging protocol suitable for IoT devices which provides additional quality of service (QoS) mechanisms to guarantee the delivery of messages. A smart temperature control system was implemented in the BLE/Wi-Fi gateway (Raspberry Pi) to keep the room temperature inside a user-defined range. An online database was also developed using the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform, allowing the users to access the HVAC data and control the system parameters, through the Internet, using a mobile app developed for Android devices. Experimental tests were performed to validate the functionalities and performance of the developed systems. The obtained results demonstrate that the new network provides lower delay values compared with the original implementation.This work was supported by FCT national funds, under the national support to R&D units grant, through the reference project UIDB/04436/2020 and UIDP/04436/2020