A lightweight distributed super peer election algorithm for unstructured dynamic P2P systems

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de ComputadoresNowadays with the current growth of information exchange, and the increasing mobility of devices, it becomes essential to use technology to monitor this development. For that P2P networks are used, the exchange of information between agencies is facilitated, these now being applied in mobile networks, including MANETs, where they have special features such as the fact that they are semi-centralized, where it takes peers more ability to make a greater role in the network. But those peer with more capacity, which are used in the optimization of various parameters of these systems, such as optimization\to research, are difficult to identify due to the fact that the network does not have a fixed topology, be constantly changing, (we like to go online and offline, to change position, etc.) and not to allow the exchange of large messages. To this end, this thesis proposes a distributed election algorithm of us greater capacity among several possible goals, enhance research in the network. This includes distinguishing characteristics, such as election without global knowledge network, minimal exchange of messages, distributed decision made without dependence on us and the possibility of influencing the election outcome as the special needs of the network

The impact of international fiscal and monetary spillovers on Shanghai stock exchange returns

In responding to subprime crisis with its peak with the bankruptcy of investment bank Lehman brothers in September of 2008, marking the end of the “great moderation”, several governments and central banks of developed and emerging economies change the respective fiscal and monetary policies, in order to stimulate the economy, some more than others, creating spillovers and transmit them by different channels through the stocks market worldwide. Furthermore, due to recent debate of the implementation of similar monetary stimulus program in China, like to the ones implemented in US and in currently in development in Euro Area, is relevant access the f policies consequences in China. The present work particularly focusses on the consequences of monetary and fiscal policies implemented in the United States, United Kingdom, Euro Area, Japan in China. The results show that the spillovers of the international fiscal and monetary policy are overall nonexistent or weak at best. However, there are significant spillovers of United States and Japan with China, the monetary policy of US has positive impact and the fiscal has negative impact on Shanghai stock returns, the same is true of the Japanese monetary policy.Na resposta a crise do subprime com o seu auge com a falência do banco Lehman Brothers em setembro de 2008, marcando o fim da “grande moderação”, vários governos e bancos centrais de países desenvolvidos e em desenvolvimento mudaram as suas respetivas fiscais e monetárias, em ordem a estimular a economia, alguns com maior ímpeto que outas, criando spillovers e transmitindo os mesmos por diferentes canais para os mercados acionistas a nível mundial. Para alem do mais, devido ao recente debate de implementação de um programa de estímulos monetários semelhante na China aos que foram implementados nos EUA e atualmente em desenvolvimento na Área do Euro, é pertinente avaliar se os impactos das consequências destas politicas nos países desenvolvidos nos países emergente e viceversa. O presente trabalho foca-se nas consequências das politicas fiscais implementas nos Estados Unidos, Reino Unido, Área do Euro, Japão e China. Os resultados mostram que os spillovers das politicas monetária e fiscais seguidas por estes países são nulos ou muito residuais. Contudo, existe spillovers significativos dos Estados Unidos e do Japão com a China, a politica monetária dos Estados Unidos tem um impacto positivo e a politica fiscal tem um impacto negativo nos retornos do mercado acionista de Shanghai, o mesmo é verdade para a politica monetária japonesa

Structured Linearization of Discrete Mechanical Systems for Analysis and Optimal Control

Variational integrators are well-suited for simulation of mechanical systems because they preserve mechanical quantities about a system such as momentum, or its change if external forcing is involved, and holonomic constraints. While they are not energy-preserving they do exhibit long-time stable energy behavior. However, variational integrators often simulate mechanical system dynamics by solving an implicit difference equation at each time step, one that is moreover expressed purely in terms of configurations at different time steps. This paper formulates the first- and second-order linearizations of a variational integrator in a manner that is amenable to control analysis and synthesis, creating a bridge between existing analysis and optimal control tools for discrete dynamic systems and variational integrators for mechanical systems in generalized coordinates with forcing and holonomic constraints. The forced pendulum is used to illustrate the technique. A second example solves the discrete LQR problem to find a locally stabilizing controller for a 40 DOF system with 6 constraints.Comment: 13 page

Emergent social NPC interactions in the Social NPCs Skyrim mod and beyond

This work presents an implementation of a social architecture model for authoring Non-Player Character (NPC) in open world games inspired in academic research on agentbased modeling. Believable NPC authoring is burdensome in terms of rich dialogue and responsive behaviors. We briefly present the characteristics and advantages of using a social agent architecture for this task and describe an implementation of a social agent architecture CiF-CK released as a mod Social NPCs for The Elder Scrolls V: SkyrimComment: Originally a chapter for Game AI Pro, contains 14 pages, 3 figure

Electronic Noses Applications in Beer Technology

This chapter describes and explains in detail the electronic noses (e-noses) as devices composed of an array of sensors that measure chemical volatile compounds and apply classification or regression algorithms. Then, it reviews the most significant applications of such devices in beer technology, with examples about defect detection, hop classification, or beer classification, among others. After the review, the chapter illustrates two applications from the authors, one about beer classification and another about beer defect detection. Finally, after a comparison with other analytical techniques, the chapter ends with a summary, conclusions, and the compelling future of the e-noses applied to beer technology

A Framework for the Design and Implementation of Learning Objects: a Competence-based Approach

This paper presents a framework for the design and implementation of learning objects using a competence-based approach. This framework is illustrated by the development of a standalone Windows application (Trilho GOA) whose primary purpose is to create standardized pedagogical contents trough the aggregation and standardization of instructional resources in several formats that can be used later on a Learning Management System (LMS) supporting SCORM 1.2. The paper contains a brief introduction to the developed software, its system architecture, main features and several pedagogical advantages for its users