GAINDroid: General Automated Incompatibility Notifier for Android Applications

With the ever-increasing popularity of mobile devices over the last decade, mobile apps and the frameworks upon which they are built frequently change. This rapid evolution leads to a confusing jumble of devices and applications utilizing differing features even within the same framework. For Android apps and devices, representing over 80% of the market share, mismatches between the version of the Android operating system installed on a device and the version of the app installed, can lead to several run-time crashes, providing a poor user experience. This thesis presents GAINDroid, an analysis approach, backed with a classloader based program analyzer, that automatically detects three types of mismatches to which an app may be vulnerable across versions of the Android API it supports. Unlike all prior techniques that focus on identifying a particular problem, such as callback APIs issues, GAINDroid has the potential to greatly increase the scope of the analysis by automatically and effectively analyzing various sources of incompatibilities that may lead an app to crash at run-time. We applied GAINDroid to 3,590 real-world apps and compared the results of our analysis against state-of-the-art tools. The experimental results demonstrate its ability to outperform the existing analysis techniques in terms of both the number and type of mismatches correctly identified as well as run-time performance of the analysis. Adviser: Hamid Bagher

Investigating the antitumoral activity and mechanism of action of a xanthone derivative

Chapter I refers to the introduction, and has the role of providing an initial overview of the issues addressed directly or indirectly in the rest of the study. Initially, an overview of the cell cycle, its regulation and control is given. In the sequence, a greater emphasis is given to mitosis, which is described in detail from its cascade of events to the molecular machinery of the mitotic spindle. Still at this stage, the dynamics that occur between kinetochore-microtubules, correlated errors and their due corrections are described. Next, we provide an overview of the Spindle Assembly Checkpoint (SAC), dissecting the functions triggered by this mechanism, as well as the proteins involved in this important cellular control mechanism. Following, an introduction was given about drugs that use the targeting of mitosis for cancer therapy, namely through microtubules, providing an overview of current approaches, their limitations and future directions. Finally, a correlation was made between xanthones and cancer, demonstrating how this class of compounds (as well as their derivatives) is already used as a starting point in the development of new anticancer drugs. Chapter II concerns what motivated the project, as well as its specific objectives. Chapter III refers to the materials and methods used throughout the study, so that it was possible to dissect the mechanism of action of the compound. Chapter IV will demonstrate the results about the compound's mechanism of action, through: in vitro characterization of the compound's antimitotic activity, identification of the underlying mechanism of action and evaluation of the combined treatment of PX2 with paclitaxel in promoting cell death of tumoral cells. Chapter V provides a discussion, correlating previous studies and the present study. Chapter VI provides general conclusions about the mechanism of action of PX2 and the prospects for future research. Chapter VII contains a list of all references cited in the course of the thesis.This work was supported by CESPU - Cooperativa de Ensino Superior Politécnico e Universitário Crl [grant number ComeTarget_CESPU_2017 and ComeTax-PFT-IINFACTS-2019]. This research was partially supported by FCT/MCTES - Foundation for Science and Technology from the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the projects, co-financed by COMPETE 2020, Portugal 2020, PTDC/SAU-PUB/28736/2017 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028736) and within the scope of UIDB/04423/2020, UID/QUI/5000612019, and UIDP/04423/2020 (Group of Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry). ACH thanks FCT for her PhD grant (SFRH/BD/140844/2018). DRPL thanks FCT for her PhD grant (SFRH/BD/140844/2018). JXS thanks for the FCT PhD Programmes, specifically by the BiotechHealth Programme (PD/00016/2012), and for the grants (SFRH/BD/98105/2013 and SFRH/BD/116167/2016). To Departamento de Química da Universidade de Aveiro (Portuguese NMR network) for the NMR analysis

On the edge of the knife: The establishment of public-private partnerships in education: England and Portugal (1980-2015)

Public-Private Partnerships have been a strategy adopted by governments to share responsibility with the private sector, control public spending and enhance efficiency through market competition. Education has been no exception to this trend, yet it happens differently across the countries. In this thesis, the aim was to understand how various parts of the education system have been transferred to private entities. The observation that encouraging legislation is far from being enough to warrant that schools move into the hands of private providers, implied that other variables might influence the possibility of policy establishment, here measured by the growth in the number of schools that are directed by private entities while paid by the state. Based on the Multiple Streams Framework variables, which emphasises the interaction of policy, problems, politics, and entrepreneurs, an algorithm was developed to reveal the configurations that, at the legislative moment, favour the establishment of policies. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of empirical cases show that the number of schools under PublicPrivate Partnership agreements increased substantially in England since the 80s, following a long path of adjustment and perseverance, while in Portugal the few experiences that subsist are strongly supported on the imbalance between demand and supply, as private providers are called for temporarily replacing the state. These different outcomes are a result of distinct configurations achieved at the time of legislation, as the equilibrium among the diverse policy dimensions influences the possibility of policy goal achievement. This conclusion points to the fact that legislation inefficiency can be mitigated if the required configuration is carefully assessed at the time of policy adoption, and the identification of weak points is recognised and corrected. Stakeholders perseverance, policy re-designing, active entrepreneurs and a favourable political scenario are crucial aspects for increasing the possibility of long-term policy acceptability.As Parcerias Publico Privadas têm constituído uma estratégia adotada pelos governos por forma a partilhar responsabilidade, controlar custos e aumentar a eficiência através da implementação de mecanismos de concorrência. A educação não é exceção, no entanto as respostas têm sido diferenciadas entre países. Tentar compreender o modo como a gestão das escolas sai da esfera do estado e passa para as mãos dos privados, foi o mote desta tese. Partindo do entendimento de que não basta criar um contexto legislativo favorável para garantir a implementação das políticas, procurou-se identificar que outras variáveis influenciam a possibilidade de estabelecimento deste tipo de acordos, que foi medido pelo número de escolas geridas por entidades privadas, mas pagas pelo estado. Neste sentido, e partindo da Teoria dos Fluxos Múltiplos que destaca a interação entre políticas, problemas, atores políticos e empreendedores, desenvolveu-se um algoritmo que permite determinar quais as configurações observáveis durante a fase de adoção de políticas que conduzem a um aumento de possibilidade de implementação. A análise qualitativa e quantitativa dos casos empíricos mostra que diversos tipos de parcerias público-privadas foram bem implementados em Inglaterra desde os anos 80, na sequência de uma longa caminhada de adaptação e perseverança. Em Portugal têm existido menos experiências, sendo que todas elas surgiram ancoradas no argumento do desequilíbrio entre procura e oferta, onde a iniciativa privada se limita a substituir temporariamente a oferta pública, conduzindo a uma reduzida presença deste tipo de parcerias. As diferenças de implementação verificadas são resultado de configurações distintas no momento da legislação, dado que o equilíbrio entre as diferentes dimensões condiciona a possibilidade de se atingirem os objetivos. Esta conclusão aponta para o facto de ser possível mitigar a ineficiência da legislação se a configuração das diferentes variáveis propostas for considerada durante a fase de adoção de políticas. Os pontos fracos das diversas dimensões devem ser reconhecidos e corrigidos. Perseverança, redesenho de política, empreendedores ativos e um cenário político favorável, são aspetos cruciais para que este tipo de política possa ter maior possibilidade de se tornar aceitável no longo prazo

George Floyd at the UN: Whiteness, International Law, and Police Violence

This article applies discursive analysis of the UN Human Rights Council debate after the killing of George Floyd in June 2020. It assesses state members’ speeches delivered during the UN session convened in June 2020, as well as the ensuing landmark report by the UN Human Commissioner for Human Rights on police violence and racism released one year later, in June 2021. Through its analysis of the current global debate on police violence against black people at the United Nations, it shows how racialized violence is and is not considered in international law. The underlying task is to unmask whiteness-coping mechanisms used in international law when issues of racism arise, as well as to light fire on the disruptive nature of black movements’ engagement with the UN to dismantle racism in a structural manner. This article is particularly interested in international law as legal imaginations shared, colliding, and contested in multiple fora, among them the United Nations. Using this case study of the debate on racism and police violence at the United Nations in 2020, the article examines how different views of racism and international human rights law come into play on the global stage of the United Nations. It thereby highlights what those differing views reveal about international law in relation to racism

Aborto provocado: sua dimensão e características entre mulheres solteiras e casadas da cidade de São Paulo, Brasil

This article presents the results of a study in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, aimed at estimating the frequency of induced abortion among women 15 to 49 years of age. The objective was to characterize the occurrence of induced abortion by comparing the ideal number of children, age, and contraceptive use between married and single women. Based on random sampling, 1,749 interviews were held, including 764 married women, 658 single women, and 327 with other marital status. The analysis included: mean number of abortions per woman by analysis of variance and proportions of abortions and pregnancy, using the chi-square test. The mean abortion rate for married women (45 per thousand) did not differ statistically from that of single women. However, the pregnancy rate was much lower in single women, and when single women became pregnant they used abortion more frequently; while fewer than 2% of pregnancies in married women ended in induced abortions, among single women the abortion rate exceeded 18%. Therefore, the priority in the reproductive health field should be to invest in the supply and dissemination of appropriate contraceptive methods for women's early sexually active life.Apresenta-se uma pesquisa realizada na cidade de São Paulo, Brasil, para dimensionar o aborto provocado entre mulheres de 15 a 49 anos. O objetivo é caracterizar a ocorrência do aborto provocado analisando o número ideal de filhos, idade e uso de contraceptivos comparando-se as casadas e solteiras. Mediante sorteio aleatório foram realizadas 1.749 entrevistas, sendo 764 com mulheres casadas, 658 com solteiras e 327 de outras categorias maritais. A análise inclui: a média de abortos por mulher, por meio de análise de variância e proporções de aborto e de gestação, usando-se o teste do qui-quadrado. Verificou-se que a média de abortos, 45 por mil, por mulheres casadas não difere da das solteiras. No entanto, as solteiras engravidam numa escala muito menor e, ao engravidarem, recorrem mais largamente ao aborto provocado - enquanto que menos de 2% das gestações das casadas resultam em aborto provocado, entre aquelas esta cifra supera 18%. A prioridade na área de saúde reprodutiva, sem dúvida, deve ser investir na oferta e divulgação de métodos contraceptivos adequados ao início da vida sexual

Understanding success according to crowdfunding project’s initiators

Over the past few years, a large number of projects related to entrepreneurship ideas have appeared daily in the media, due to the fact that they were sold as new solutions for companies or gave origin to new companies. These projects were mainly created by individuals who were students, unemployed persons or working people and, consequently, did not have a company of their own and, in most of the cases, also did not have the means to finance their idea. In some situations, the creation of a crowdfunding project presents itself as a convenient and riskless option for funding and this is frequently the reason why some project initiators decide to launch a campaign. The assessment of each campaign depends on the expectations of the project creator, who is in the best position to decide whether it was actually successful. Untangling how a project owner can assess the performance of its project is of major importance, namely when projects are launched by individuals who ultimately carry all the tasks involved in the initiative. This is a field of research within crowdfunding that remains, to the best of our knowledge, under researched. We propose a framework for the analysis of the success of these projects and we test it on six crowdfunding projects launched in Portugal. Our goal is to shed light to the factors that can be used by project creators in the assessment of the performance of their initiatives.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Exploration of the hair combing forces resulting from different cosmetic treatments

Trabalho Final de Mestrado Integrado, Ciências Farmacêuticas, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Farmácia, 2019O cabelo é um dos aspetos mais importantes do ser humano devido às suas características fisiológicas, culturais, psicológicas e estéticas. O cabelo é sujeito a diversos cuidados, incluindo a lavagem, o pentear, a escovagem, a secagem, a modelagem e os tratamentos químicos e físicos. Naturalmente, os cabelos ficam danificados, especialmente se não for feita uma rotina de cuidados capilares adequada. Ao pentear, uma das técnicas de cuidado realizadas diariamente, é importante avaliar se novos produtos podem facilitar este processo, evitando a quebra dos fios de cabelo. Neste trabalho foram estudadas as forças necessárias para pentear os fios de cabelo. Inicialmente avaliou-se qual seria a força necessária para manter uma velocidade constante do pente de 40mm/s. Ao ser aplicada mais força, esta demonstrava que o pente encontrava mais nós ou nós mais fortes, inviabilizando o pentear. Foram realizadas experiências em cabelo seco e molhado para determinar se o inchaço dos fios capilares, com os tratamentos utilizados, teria influência no processo de pentear. Para além destes ensaios, foram aplicados nos cabelos tratamentos com várias substâncias, nomeadamente o ácido málico e um péptido. O uso de um alfa-hidroxiácido, ácido málico, foi aplicado em cabelos virgens, cabelos que não foram submetidos a nenhum tratamento químico permanente e em cabelos descolorados. Para além disto, num segundo ciclo de testes, foi adicionado um péptido para verificar se a interação com o ácido málico beneficiaria ou prejudicaria a ação do ácido málico isoladamente. Os resultados demonstram que geralmente se aplica mais força ao processo de pentear, mostrando que o uso dos tratamentos não facilitou o processo de pentear. Além disto, foi também estudada a força de tensão e extensão dos cabelos virgens e descolorados. Para isto, os fios capilares molhados foram colocados em molduras com cortes longitudinais para permitir a extensão do fio capilar até ao ponto de rutura. Foi possível observar um aumento significativo da extensibilidade nos cabelos virgens e descolorados, enquanto que os dados da força de tensão foram inconclusivos. Este tema necessita de ser mais aprofundado no futuro, dado que o número de amostras foi reduzido e as amostras testadas eram de apenas cabelos caucasóides, sendo importante aumentar o número de amostras testadas e os tipos de cabelos testados.Hair is one of the most important aspects of the human being due to its physiological, cultural, psychological and aesthetically characteristics. Hair is subjected to grooming, including washing, combing, brushing, drying, styling, chemical and physical treatments. Naturally, hair will become more damaged especially if not appropriate hair care routine is made. Being combing one of the most grooming techniques done daily, it is important to assess if new hair care products can facilitate the combing experience, avoiding hair breakage. In the combing experience, it was studied what force would be necessary to apply in order to keep a constant velocity of 40mm/s. If more force was applied, it explained that the comb encountered either more tangles or stronger tangles, thus the hair was not easier to comb. Experiments were conducted in both dry and wet conditions to determine if the hair swelling, carrying the treatments applied, would play a crucial role. It was analysed the use of an alpha hydroxy acid, Malic Acid, on both virgin hair, hair that was not subjected to any permanent chemical treatment, and bleached hair. Also, in a second cycle of testing, a peptide was added in order to see if the interaction with the Malic Acid would benefit or impair the action of Malic Acid alone. The results showcase that more force for the combing process was generally applied, pointing out that the use of the treatments did not ease the combing process. Furthermore, it was studied the tensile strength and extensibility of the virgin and bleached hair. For this, hair fibres were placed in cases with longitudinal cuts to allow the extensibility of the hair fibre until the breakage point, under wet condition. It was possible to see a significant increase of the extensibility in both virgin and bleached hair whilst the tensile force data was inconclusive. The topic needs to be further developed in the future since the number of samples was small. Also, as all tested tresses were Caucasoid hair, it is important to increase both the number of tested hair tresses and the types of hair tested.University of the Arts London - London College of Fashio