A domain specific language for domotic systems

To cope with modernity, the interesting of having a fully automated house has been increasing over the years, as technology evolves and as our lives become more stressful and overloaded. An automation system provides a way to simplify some daily tasks, allowing us to have more spare time to perform activities where we are really needed. There are some systems in this domain that try to implement these characteristics, but this kind of technology is at its early stages of evolution being that it is still far away of empowering the user with the desired control over a habitation. The reason is that the mentioned systems miss some important features such as adaptability, extension and evolution. These systems, developed from a bottom-up approach, are often tailored for programmers and domain experts, discarding most of the times the end users that remain with unfinished interfaces or products that they have difficulty to control. Moreover, complex behaviors are avoided, since they are extremely difficult to implement mostly due to the necessity of handling priorities, conflicts and device calibration. Besides, these solutions are only reachable at very high costs, yet they still have the limitation of being difficult to configure by non-technical people once in runtime operation. As a result, it is necessary to create a tool that allows the execution of several automated actions, with an interface that is easy to use but at the same time supports all the main features of this domain. It is also desirable that this tool is independent of the hardware so it can be reused, thus a Model Driven Development approach (MDD) is the ideal option, as it is a method that follows those principles. Since the automation domain has some very specific concepts, the use of models should be combined with a Domain Specific Language (DSL). With these two methods, it is possible to create a solution that is adapted to the end users, but also to domain experts and programmers due to the several levels of abstraction that can be added to diminish the complexity of use. The aim of this thesis is to design a Domain Specific Language (DSL) that uses the Model Driven Development approach (MDD), with the purpose of supporting Home Automation (HA) concepts. In this implementation, the development of simple and complex scenarios should be supported and will be one of the most important concerns. This DSL should also support other significant features in this domain, such as the ability to schedule tasks, which is something that is limited in the current existing solutions

Developing innovation strategies within multinational enterprises

Mestrado em Ciências EmpresariaisResearch on multinational enterprises and innovation is widely available and in continuous development. The issue is how to organize such amounts of information. A review of the main theories of innovation is presented and a model for its conceptualization is proposed. Both general and specific research and development strategies are analyzed. Moreover, external organizational modes are discussed with a main focus on the innovation perspective. In addition, the innovative capabilities of national enterprises are questioned, in terms of their limitations. Then, gradual processes of internationalization are contrasted with those of born globals and three main challenges multinationals may face while managing innovation, are presented. The comparison of innovation in multinational enterprises and national enterprises is established. Based on the literature, it seems that multinational diversity provides higher innovation levels. The propositions generated in this thesis suggest support to this assumption, which may be confirmed in future research tests.Existe uma extensa e crescente literatura sobre multinacionais e inovação. Para os interessados nestes temas é por vezes complicado organizar e absorver tamanhas quantidades de informação. Uma revisão das teorias principais de inovação são apresentadas bem como um modelo para a sua conceptualização. As estratégias de pesquisa e desenvolvimento são analisadas tanto a um nível geral como a níveis mais específicos. Além disso, são analisados os diferentes modos de organização externos na perspectiva da inovação. As capacidades inovadoras das empresas nacionais são discutidas em relação às suas limitações. Seguidamente, os processos graduais de internacionalização são contrastados com aqueles das bom globais. São ainda apresentados três desafios à gestão da inovação com que as multinacionais se podem deparar. Posteriormente, as vantagens e desvantagens das multinacionais face às empresas puramente nacionais são discutidas em matéria de inovação. Com base na literatura, parece que a diversidade multinacional contribui de forma positiva para aumentar os níveis de inovação nas empresas. As proposições desenvolvidas neste estudo sugerem que o seu teste em estudos futuros poderá suportar esta asserção

Attentional orienting to biologically fear-relevant stimuli: data from eye tracking using the continual alternation flicker paradigm

Journal of Eye Tracking, Visual Cognition and EmotionSnakes are thought as fear-relevant stimuli (biologically prepared to be associated with fear) which can lead to an enhanced attentional capture when compared fear-irrelevant stimuli. Inherent limitations related to the key-press behaviour might be bypassed with the measurement of eye movements, since they are more closely related to attentional processes than reaction times. An eye tracking technique was combined with the flicker paradigm in two studies. A sample of university students was gathered. In both studies, an instruction to detect changes between the pair of scenes was given. Attentional orienting for the changing element in the scene was analyzed, as well the role of fear of snakes as a moderator variable. The results for both studies revealed a significant shorter time to first fixation for snake stimuli when compared to control stimuli. A facilitating effect of fear of snakes was also found for snakes, presenting the highly fear participants a shorter a time to first fixation for snake stimuli when compared to low-feared participants. The results are in line with current research that supports the advantage of snakes to grab attention due their evo-biological significance

Hemispheric asymmetries in recognition memory for negative and neutral words

Journal of Eye Tracking, Visual Cognition and EmotionFedermeier and Benjamin (2005) have suggested that semantic encoding for verbal information in the right hemisphere can be more effective when memory demands are higher. However, other studies (Kanske & Kotz, 2007) also suggest that visual word recognition differ in function of emotional valence. In this context, the present study was designed to evaluate the effects of retention level upon recognition memory processes for negative and neutral words. Sample consisted of 15 right-handed undergraduate portuguese students with normal or corrected to normal vision. Portuguese concrete negative and neutral words were selected in accordance to known linguistic capabilities of the right hemisphere. The participants were submitted to a visual half-field word presentation using a continuous recognition memory paradigm. Eye movements were continuously monitored with a Tobii T60 eye-tracker that showed no significant differences in fixations to negative and neutral words. Reaction times in word recognition suggest an overall advantage of negative words in comparison to the neutral words. Further analysis showed faster responses for negative words than for neutral words when were recognised at longer retention intervals for left-hemisphere encoding. Electrophysiological data through event related potentials revealed larger P2 amplitude over centro-posterior electrode sites for words studied in the left hemifield suggesting a priming effect for right-hemisphere encoding. Overall data suggest different hemispheric memory strategies for the semantic encoding of negative and neutral words

Hydraulic-hydrologic model for the Zambezi River using satellite data and artificial intelligence techniques

The development of hydraulic-hydrologic models is a challenge in the case of large catchment areas with scarce or erroneous measurement data and observations. With his study Mr. Dr. José Pedro Matos made several original contributions in order to overcome this challenge. The scientific developments were applied at Zambezi River basin in Africa in the framework of the interdisciplinary African Dams research project (ADAPT). First of all, procedures and selection criteria for satellite data regarding topography, rainfall, land use, soil types and cover had to be developed. With the goal to extend the time scope of the analysis, Dr. Matos introduced a novel Pattern-Oriented Memory (POM) historical rainfall interpolation methodology. When POM interpolated rainfall is applied to hydrologic models it effectively opens up new possibilities related to extended calibration and the simulation of historical events, which would otherwise be difficult to exploit. A new scheme for rainfall aggregation was proposed, based on hydraulic considerations and easily implemented resorting to remote sensing data, which was able to enhance forecasting results. Dr. Matos used machine-learning models in an innovative way for discharge forecast. He compared the alternative models (e.g. Autoregressive Moving-Average (ARMA), Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Support-Vector Regression (SVR)). Dr. Matos made then significant contributions to the enhancement of rainfall aggregation techniques and the study of limitations inherent to SVR forecasting model. He proposed also a novel method for developing empirical forecast probability distributions. Finally Dr. Matos could successfully calibrate, probably for the first time, a daily hydrological model covering the whole Zambezi River basin (ZRB)

Excited-State Quantum Phase Transitions in the Anharmonic Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick Model II: Dynamical Aspects

The standard Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model undergoes a second-order ground-state quantum phase transition (QPT) and an excited-state quantum phase transition (ESQPT). The inclusion of an anharmonic term in the LMG Hamiltonian gives rise to a second ESQPT that alters the static properties of the model [https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2202.11413]. In the present work, the dynamical implications associated to this new ESQPT are analyzed. For that purpose, a quantum quench protocol is defined on the system Hamiltonian that takes an initial state, usually the ground state, into a complex excited state that evolves on time. The impact of the new ESQPT on the time evolution of the survival probability and the participation ratio after the quantum quench, as well as on the microcanonical out-of-time-order correlator (OTOC) are discussed. The anharmonity-induced ESQPT, despite having a different physical origin, has dynamical consequences similar to those observed in the ESQPT already present in the standard LMG model

Excited-state quantum phase transitions in the anharmonic Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model: Static aspects

The basic Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model displays a second-order ground-state quantum phase transition and an excited-state quantum phase transition (ESQPT). The inclusion of an anharmonic term in the Hamiltonian implies a second ESQPT of a different nature. We characterize this ESQPT using the mean field limit of the model. The alternative ESQPT, associated with the changes in the boundary of the finite Hilbert space of the system, can be properly described using the order parameter of the ground-state quantum phase transition, the energy gap between adjacent states, the participation ratio, and the quantum fidelity susceptibility.I + D + i Projects - MCIN/AEI PID2019-104002GB-C21 PID2019104002GB-C22 PID2020-114687GB-I00 MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033Junta de AndaluciaEuropean Commission UHU-1262561 US-1380840Junta de Andalucia P20_01247ERDF-A Way of Making Europe European CommissionSpanish Government UNHU-15CE-2848European Union NextGenerationEU/PRT