P2P and SOA architecture for digital libraries

Doutoramento em Engenharia InformáticaIn an information-driven society where the volume and value of produced and consumed data assumes a growing importance, the role of digital libraries gains particular importance. This work analyzes the limitations in current digital library management systems and the opportunities brought by recent distributed computing models. The result of this work is the implementation of the University of Aveiro integrated system for digital libraries and archives. It concludes by analyzing the system in production and proposing a new service oriented digital library architecture supported in a peer-to-peer infrastructureNuma sociedade em que o volume e o valor da informação produzida e disseminada tem um peso cada vez maior, o papel das bibliotecas digitais assume especial relevo. O presente trabalho analisa as limitações dos actuais sistemas de gestão de bibliotecas digitais e as oportunidades criadas pelos mais recentes modelos de computação distribuída. Deste trabalho resultou a implementação do sistema integrado para bibliotecas e arquivos digitais da Universidade de Aveiro. Este trabalho finaliza debruçando-se sobre o sistema em produção e propondo uma nova arquitectura de biblioteca digital sustentada numa infrastrutura peer-to-peer e orientada a serviços

A importância da implementação de um sistema de gestão da qualidade no planeamento e na qualidade dos serviços e no desempenho organizacional – Estudo comparativo em lares residenciais para idosos, na região do Alentejo

A gestão da qualidade, na generalidade das organizações, é um fator crítico de sucesso, e assumido há várias décadas como tal. No entanto, o sector social e, especificamente, os lares para pessoas idosas chegaram mais tarde ao patamar de preocupação com esta temática. O presente trabalho pretende analisar a importância da implementação de um Sistema de Gestão da Qualidade (SGQ) no Planeamento e na Qualidade dos Serviços e no Desempenho Organizacional, através da comparação de dois Lares Residenciais para Idosos, na Região do Alentejo. Definiu-se como objetivo geral, analisar a importância da implementação de um Sistema de Gestão da Qualidade no planeamento e na qualidade dos serviços e no desempenho organizacional, em lares residenciais para idosos, na Região do Alentejo. Os objetivos específicos definidos pretendem verificar o impacto da implementação de um Sistema de Gestão da Qualidade no planeamento e na qualidade dos serviços e no desempenho organizacional, realizar a comparação entre lares residenciais para idosos com e sem um SGQ implementado, e identificar as vantagens e desvantagens da implementação de um SGQ como fator diferenciador. Para dar cumprimento aos objetivos enunciados, optou-se por, metodologicamente, fazer uma análise e revisão de literatura que permita, do ponto de vista teórico e científico, compreender e enquadrar melhor o que se pretende estudar, bem como, comparar as instituições em estudo. O instrumento de recolha de dados, utilizado, foi o inquérito por questionário. O trabalho realizado permite concluir que a implementação de um sistema de gestão da qualidade em lares residenciais para idosos traz importantes vantagens comparativas, como na imagem interna e externa, e impactos positivos no planeamento, qualidade dos serviços e desempenho organizacional. Destacam-se os impactos na comunicação interna, satisfação dos colaboradores, qualidade e pertinência da formação, planificação e definição estratégica, qualidade e manutenção de equipamentos e edifícios; Title: The importance of the implementation of a Quality Management System (QMS) in the planning, the services quality, and the organisational performance – comparative study in residential homes for the elderly, in the Alentejo region. Abstract: Quality management, in most organizations, is a critical factor of success, and assumed as such for several decades. However, the social sector and, specifically, the residential homes for the elderly, arrived later to that level of concern with this matter. This work intends to analyse the importance of the implementation of a Quality Management System (QMS) in the Planning, the Services Quality, and the Organisational Performance, trough the comparison of two Residential Homes for the Elderly, in the Alentejo region. It was defined as the main objective, to analyse the importance of the implementation of a Quality Management System in the planning, the services quality, and the organisational performance in residential homes for the elderly, in the Alentejo region. The defined specific objectives intend to verify the impact of the implementation of a Quality Management System in the planning, the services quality, and the organisational performance, to conduct a comparison between a residential home for the elderly with a QMS implemented and a residential home for the elderly without a QMS, to identified the advantages and disadvantages of the implementation of a QMS as a differentiating factor. In order to fulfil the enunciated objectives, it was chosen to, methodically, do an analysis and a review of literature that allows, from a theoretic and a scientific point of view, to better understand and better frame the object of the study, and compare the studied institutions as well. The data collection instrument utilized, was a survey by questionnaire. The accomplished work allows to conclude that the implementation of a quality management system in residential homes for the elderly brings important comparative advantages, as in the internal and external image, and positive impacts in the planning, in the services quality, and in the organisational performance. It standouts the impact in internal communication, collaborator satisfaction, training quality and pertinence, strategical planning and definition, building and equipment quality and maintenance

Bambu: Caminhos para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável

publicação de livroEste livro foi produzido a partir da iniciativa de construção de uma rede de pesquisa em bambu. Desta forma, colaboraram na construção coletiva do material, pesquisadores da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), Universidade Tecnológica do Paraná (UTFPR), Universidade Estadual de Londrina (UEL), UNESP (Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho) e Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Em uma linguagem acessível apresenta o conteúdo voltado ao entendimento das características biológicas do bambu, suas propriedades e etapas da cadeia produtiva como forma de estimular o desenvolvimento produtivo sustentável no Brasil.Sem financiamento

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Studies of the mass composition of cosmic rays and proton-proton interaction cross-sections at ultra-high energies with the Pierre Auger Observatory

In this work, we present an estimate of the cosmic-ray mass composition from the distributions of the depth of the shower maximum (Xmax) measured by the fluorescence detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. We discuss the sensitivity of the mass composition measurements to the uncertainties in the properties of the hadronic interactions, particularly in the predictions of the particle interaction cross-sections. For this purpose, we adjust the fractions of cosmic-ray mass groups to fit the data with Xmax distributions from air shower simulations. We modify the proton-proton cross-sections at ultra-high energies, and the corresponding air shower simulations with rescaled nucleus-air cross-sections are obtained via Glauber theory. We compare the energy-dependent composition of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays obtained for the different extrapolations of the proton-proton cross-sections from low-energy accelerator data

Study of downward Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes with the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The surface detector (SD) of the Pierre Auger Observatory, consisting of 1660 water-Cherenkov detectors (WCDs), covers 3000 km2 in the Argentinian pampa. Thanks to the high efficiency of WCDs in detecting gamma rays, it represents a unique instrument for studying downward Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) over a large area. Peculiar events, likely related to downward TGFs, were detected at the Auger Observatory. Their experimental signature and time evolution are very different from those of a shower produced by an ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray. They happen in coincidence with low thunderclouds and lightning, and their large deposited energy at the ground is compatible with that of a standard downward TGF with the source a few kilometers above the ground. A new trigger algorithm to increase the TGF-like event statistics was installed in the whole array. The study of the performance of the new trigger system during the lightning season is ongoing and will provide a handle to develop improved algorithms to implement in the Auger upgraded electronic boards. The available data sample, even if small, can give important clues about the TGF production models, in particular, the shape of WCD signals. Moreover, the SD allows us to observe more than one point in the TGF beam, providing information on the emission angle

Combined fit to the spectrum and composition data measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory including magnetic horizon effects

The measurements by the Pierre Auger Observatory of the energy spectrum and mass composition of cosmic rays can be interpreted assuming the presence of two extragalactic source populations, one dominating the flux at energies above a few EeV and the other below. To fit the data ignoring magnetic field effects, the high-energy population needs to accelerate a mixture of nuclei with very hard spectra, at odds with the approximate E$^{-2}$ shape expected from diffusive shock acceleration. The presence of turbulent extragalactic magnetic fields in the region between the closest sources and the Earth can significantly modify the observed CR spectrum with respect to that emitted by the sources, reducing the flux of low-rigidity particles that reach the Earth. We here take into account this magnetic horizon effect in the combined fit of the spectrum and shower depth distributions, exploring the possibility that a spectrum for the high-energy population sources with a shape closer to E$^{-2}$ be able to explain the observations

Investigating multiple elves and halos above strong lightning with the fluorescence detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory

ELVES are being studied since 2013 with the twenty-four FD Telescopes of the Pierre Auger Observatory, in the province of Mendoza (Argentina), the world’s largest facility for the study of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. This study exploits a dedicated trigger and extended readout. Since December 2020, this trigger has been extended to the three High levation Auger Telescopes (HEAT), which observe the night sky at elevation angles between 30 and 60 degrees, allowing a study of ELVES from closer lightning. The high time resolution of the Auger telescopes allows us to upgrade reconstruction algorithms and to do detailed studies on multiple ELVES. The origin of multiple elves can be studied by analyzing the time difference and the amplitude ratio between flashes and comparing them with the properties of radio signals detected by the ENTLN lightning network since 2018. A fraction of multi-ELVES can also be interpreted as halos following ELVES. Halos are disc-shaped light transients emitted at 70-80 km altitudes, appearing at the center of the ELVES rings, due to the rearrangement of electric charges at the base of the ionosphere after a strong lightning event