Model Based Development of Quality-Aware Software Services

Modelling languages and development frameworks give support for functional and structural description of software architectures. But quality-aware applications require languages which allow expressing QoS as a first-class concept during architecture design and service composition, and to extend existing tools and infrastructures adding support for modelling, evaluating, managing and monitoring QoS aspects. In addition to its functional behaviour and internal structure, the developer of each service must consider the fulfilment of its quality requirements. If the service is flexible, the output quality depends both on input quality and available resources (e.g., amounts of CPU execution time and memory). From the software engineering point of view, modelling of quality-aware requirements and architectures require modelling support for the description of quality concepts, support for the analysis of quality properties (e.g. model checking and consistencies of quality constraints, assembly of quality), tool support for the transition from quality requirements to quality-aware architectures, and from quality-aware architecture to service run-time infrastructures. Quality management in run-time service infrastructures must give support for handling quality concepts dynamically. QoS-aware modeling frameworks and QoS-aware runtime management infrastructures require a common evolution to get their integration

The approach to international markets by SMEs : a case study of a consultancy firm specialised on the internationalisation of enterprises

Given the role that international trade has for companies, economies, and societies, this works focus on the internationalisation of companies, more precisely of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), to shed more light into a field that should be relevant for any manager, even if the internationalisation of its company’s operations is not in its short-term strategy. It is of paramount importance for any company to take an in-depth examination of its business; its products/services; its business environment; its country; and foreign countries’ business environments. This work begins by making a thorough analysis of the process of internationalisation, in all its dimensions, and proposes a step-by-step process of analysis of the different aforementioned factors, based on the contributions of Svend Hollensen’s (2014) work, completed with other remarkable authors’ recommendations to the fields of international management and international marketing. The critical analysis of the literature is complemented with a case study of the operations of a consultancy firm, Konsulting Group International, specialised on the internationalisation of enterprises. Among other relevant findings, the case study highlighted that business networks and close relationships with relevant stakeholders are crucial for the success of the internationalisation process, but also that it is essential to carefully contextualise the company’s product in the international target

eABC: scientific publications bibliografic archive

The paper intends to present eABC – Scientific Publications Bibliographic Archive of University of Aveiro’. It describes the motivation that induced its implementation, advantages for users and for all those whom the system serves. Some of the systems functionalities will be presented, along with a description on how to use them. Finally, the current status of the system - as it is being used by the University of Aveiro - will be presented, with the addition of an explanation on how this system helps in the creation of mechanisms that enable the adaptability and flexibility of systems to improve the scientific community dynamics

Análise de factores que influenciam a classe energética de uma fracção autónoma

O conforto térmico nas habitações e nos locais de trabalho é uma condição essencial para o bem-estar e produtividade. O novo Regulamento das Características de Comportamento Térmico dos Edifícios identifica as características fundamentais para esse conforto, e estabelece um patamar mínimo para todos os edifícios de habitação novos. A nova legislação sobre a certificação energética permitirá que cada fracção autónoma apresente um “Certificado de Desempenho Energético e do Ar Interior”, que dependerá das soluções adoptadas a nível construtivo e de projecto. Neste contexto, o principal objectivo deste estudo é o de sensibilizar todos os intervenientes do meio da construção, desde a fase de projecto até à fase final de obra, das opções mais vantajosas, levando em consideração os investimentos e respectivos períodos de retorno, que proporcionem um melhor desempenho energético dos edifícios do nosso país. Para tal, estudou-se o comportamento de duas fracções autónomas diferentes, mediante a consideração de várias características que influenciem a sua classificação energética, obtendo-se variações significativas

A importância do plano de trabalhos à luz do novo código dos contratos públicos sob o ponto de vista do empreiteiro

O Plano de Trabalhos é a previsão do desenvolvimento futuro de um empreendimento, devidamente quantificado no tempo, no espaço e nos respectivos custos de execução de uma obra. O Planeamento de uma obra, com a sequência de execução das suas actividades, estabelece os menores dos prazos de execução parciais, a identificação de todas as actividades, referenciando as que são chave em termos de prazos e custos, os meios necessários: financeiros, mão-de-obra, materiais, equipamentos, subempreitadas, etc. A presente dissertação tem como objectivo apresentar uma possível forma de elaborar, controlar, actualizar, alterar, etc., o plano de trabalhos. Apresenta-se seguidamente uma análise do CCP nos artigos que podem ser influenciados pelo plano de trabalhos, nomeadamente os prazos de execução, prorrogações de prazo, multas, suspensões de obra, etc., sob o ponto de vista do Empreiteiro

Cu(I)-based electrodes for glucose monitoring in biofermentation processes

In this document, Cu2O, was widely studied due to its amazing electrodeproperties that will be discuss later. It was modified a total of four sensors (SPCE-DropSens), despite that two of them (P25 and HS-1), due to lack of preparationmethod and characterization were not main focus. Nevertheless, NC-9 and NC-10structured crystalline nanocubes were deeply worked on. Electrochemical testswere run in all four sensors.The structured nanocubes previously referred, NC-9 and NC-10, present sizesof 150-200 nm and 200-900 nm, respectively. The size differences is the mainjustification of the following NC-10 results conclusions. It was visible the lixingof NC-10 modified sensor material to the solution, which were probably due tosort of adherent difficulties.Cuprous oxide in cubic nanostructured material, NC-9, shown a sensitivity,which is the main parameter to characterize the sensor yield, of 840μA mM−1cm−2. Comparing this value with others in the literature is a competitive valuedue to the simplicity of the process and the high sensitivity value. Likewise selec-tivity and repeatibility parameters were also consider good to probably proceedto further future work. The electrooxidation reaction of this sensor that spikesthe current signal undergoes in absorption controlled reaction, against the othersthree sensors.NC-10 electrochemical trials were performed, firstly CV test were successfullyran but later trials were no more consider viable due to the lixing phenomenonreferred previously. That is the reason why it was not calculated NC-10 sensitivity

Development of a Smart Sensor Node based on BITALINO

This dissertation is framed in the scope of the European Project SelSus, which aims to develop a new life cycle based and distributed upon probabilistic diagnostic and predictive maintenance environment for repairing and renovation activities. To promote all the previously addressed issues, the innovative concept of Sensor Cloud is presented. This concept is intimately related with the development of both Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA), along with capabilities for processing, reduction and generation of sensor data. As a point of interest and ease of implement of this Sensor Cloud, the Smart Node concept is explored as intermediate between sensors, considered lower capacity devices, and components that may require certain services from the Cloud. The application scenario is the automotive industry. The main purpose of this dissertation is the study how this Smart Node's concept can be extended in order to include humans in the sensing process, both for accessing their conditions (Body Wearable Sensors) and to use the human as an active sensor (Sensor Probe), promoting the integration of a diverse type of sensors (like ECG, EMG, ACC, Vision, etc) and software algorithms that will be embedded within this platform to facilitate collaboration and decision making on a distributed peer-to-peer basis. This new node will use BITALINO (http://bitalino.com/) as main implementation platform

Dynamic Network Slicing Using Deep Reinforcement Learning

Nowadays network slicing is one of the biggest drivers of new elements in the 5G network business. This is because this paradigm allows the creation of independent slices, with their virtually and logically separated radio, network and computational resources. Using network slicing, operators sell infrastructure resources of any kind to tenants, while tenants use these resources to sell services to their customers, the end users. In this context, a problem that is essential to solve is how to improve the operator’s profit, ensuring compliance with the requests’ SLAs and distributing network resources in order to increase its usage rate. This dissertation proposes to design two algorithms based on DRL for slice admission in the transport network, learning which request to accept and reject while guaranteeing the requirements of the tenants requests. The contributions of this study start with the formalization of the problem of slice admission, followed by its simulation and implementation of DRL agents using Containernet, the Ryu controller, OpenAI Gym and the PyTorch framework. The result is two DRL-based algorithms capable of achieving good performances in this simulated scenario.Atualmente o network slicing é um dos maiores potenciadores de novos elementos no negócio das redes 5G. Isto deve-se ao facto de este paradigma permitir a criação de slices independentes, com os seus recursos rádio, de rede e computacionais virtual e logicamente separados. Utilizando network slicing, as operadoras poderão vender recursos de infraestrutura de qualquer tipo a tenants. Os tenants utilizam estes recursos para vender serviços aos seus clientes, os utilizadores finais. Neste contexto, um problema que é fundamental resolver é o de como melhorar o lucro da operadora, garantindo o cumprimento dos SLAs dos pedidos e distribuindo os recursos da rede de forma a aumentar a sua utilização. Nesta dissertação propõe-se desenhar dois algoritmos baseados em DRL para a admissão de slices na rede de transporte, aprendendo que pedidos aceitar e rejeitar, procurando satisfazer sempre os requisitos dos pedidos dos tenants. Os contributos deste estudo passam pela formalização do problema da admissão de slices na rede, seguindo-se a sua simulação e implementação dos agentes utilizando conjuntamente o Containernet, o controlador Ryu, o OpenAI Gym e o framework PyTorch. O resultado são dois algoritmos baseados em DRL capazes de atingir boas performances neste cenário simulado