Digital Transformation Integration & API Management Framework

Digital transformation is revolutionizing the way organizations reuse legacy systems and connect them with the ever-increasing number of enterprise applications. These applications are usually hosted in the cloud with the legacy and other systems in the companies’ own data centers. This means that hybrid integration architectures are becoming a crucial part of the day-to-day processes inside organizations. The problem with different platforms is that it produces challenges. The same data is spread across different data structures, with different names and formats. This dissertation, devised with Deloitte, aims to design and implement a hybrid integration framework that connects and reuses the legacy systems with the cloud enterprise applications seamlessly to utilize the same data across all systems. Firstly, the existing integration platforms and integration software that could support the development of the API framework will be presented and described. A set of architectural patterns will be presented and described with their respective advantages and disadvantages and the way they fit in the API framework that will be created. The solution will then be evaluated with the Quantitative Evaluation Framework as well as by using system testing to see if the developed solution has quality.A transformação digital está a revolucionar a maneira como as organizações reutilizam sistemas legacy pré-existentes, e os ligam com aplicações enterprise, que sofreram um aumento significativo nos últimos anos. Estas aplicações estão regularmente hospedadas em plataformas cloud com outros sistemas e os sistemas legacy hospedados em datacenters próprios da empresa. Isto significa que, atualmente, as arquiteturas de integração assumem um papel crucial nos processos de dia-a-dia das organizações. O problema com a utilização de várias plataformas diferentes é que criam desafios ao cliente como a diferença de mapeamentos e de formatos de dados que usam, criando dificuldades em perceber como a mesma informação é armazenada e apresentada nas diferentes plataformas. Esta dissertação, elaborada em contexto empresarial com a Deloitte, tem como objetivo o design e implementação de uma camada de integração híbrida que ligue e reutilize os sistemas legacy nos datacenters do cliente com as aplicações enterprise que o cliente usa de maneira ininterrupta. Primeiramente, as plataformas de integração existentes e software de integração que podem suportar o desenvolvimento da framework de APIs, serão apresentados e descritos. Padrões arquiteturais que possam ser utilizados na framework de integração híbrida serão apresentados e descritos bem como as suas respetivas vantagens e desvantagens. A solução será depois avaliada com a Quantitative Evaluation Framework e com a testagem do sistema para avaliar se o sistema satisfaz os requisitos

"Estratégia ou Consequência?": atitudes face a estratégias de segmentação comportamental e o impacto na intenção de compra

O retargeting é referido como uma técnica de publicidade digital inovadora e define-se como uma estratégia de segmentação que se baseia nos comportamentos reais dos utilizadores, com o principal objetivo de potenciar a apresentação de anúncios mais adequados e qualificados às preferências de cada indivíduo. Estas estratégias permitem exibir anúncios com conteúdo específico e adaptado aos utilizadores que visitaram anteriormente determinado website e, com o seu desenvolvimento, vieram transformar radicalmente a forma como as empresas fazem negócios e, especialmente, os métodos que utilizam para comunicar os seus produtos e serviços online. Em prol de compreender os seus efeitos mais práticos, é fundamental estudar a forma como as atitudes dos utilizadores face a estas estratégias podem diferir e influenciar as suas intenções de compra, sendo a Informatividade, a Irritabilidade e a Credibilidade percebidas, as variáveis responsáveis por marcarem o início das investigações sobre esta temática. No estudo desenvolvido colaboraram 139 sujeitos com idades compreendidas entre os 19 e os 59 anos, respondendo a questões através de escalas do tipo Likert, permitindo confirmar cinco das seis hipóteses formuladas para esta investigação. Para compreender as atitudes dos utilizadores face a estas estratégias, foi adaptado um modelo concetual que permitiu estudar o impacto positivo das dimensões Entretenimento, Informatividade e Credibilidade e negativo da Irritabilidade sobre as Atitudes. Permitiu ainda estudar a correlação entre as Atitudes e a Intenção de Compra e explorar correlações entre a idade e as respetivas dimensões do modelo. Com base nos resultados obtidos conclui-se que quanto maior se registou a Atitude, maior a Intenção de Compra. O Entretenimento, Informatividade e Credibilidade relacionaram-se de forma positiva com a Atitude e a Irritabilidade relacionou-se de forma negativa com esta. Estas conclusões são consistentes com os resultados obtidos na investigação sobre as atitudes face à publicidade de Tsang et al. (2004), de onde se adaptou o modelo concetual. A idade não apresentou qualquer correlação significativa com as dimensões presentes no modelo de investigação.Retargeting is referred as an innovative digital advertising technique and is defined as a targeting strategy that is based on the actual behaviors of users, where its main objective is to enhance the presentation of ads more appropriate and qualified to the preferences of each user, as single individual. These strategies allow the advertisers to deliver ads with specific and tailored content to users who have previously visited a particular website and, with their development, have radically transformed the way companies do business and especially the methods they use to communicate their products and services online. In order to understand retargeting’s most practical effects, it is essential to study how users attitudes towards these strategies may differ and influence their purchase intentions, with Informativity, Irritability and perceived Credibility being the variables responsible for the beginning of investigations on this subject. In the developed study there was a collaboration of 139 subjects aged between 19 and 59 years, answering questions through Likert scales, allowing to confirm five of the six hypotheses formulated for this research. In order to understand users attitudes towards these strategies, a conceptual model was adapted to study the positive impact of the Entertainment, Informativeness and Credibility and the negative impact of the Irritability on Attitudes. It also allowed studying the correlation between Attitudes and Purchase Intention and exploring correlations between age and all model dimensions. Based on the results obtained it is concluded that the higher the Attitude was registered, the higher the Purchase Intention. These conclusions are consistent with the results obtained in the research on attitudes towards advertising of Tsang et al. (2004), from which the conceptual model was adapted. Age did not show any significant correlation with the dimensions present in the research model

DeepWings©: automatic wing geometric morphometrics classification of honey bee (Apis mellifera) subspecies using deep learning for detecting landmarks

Honey bee classification by wing geometric morphometrics entails the first step of manual annotation of 19 landmarks in the forewing vein junctions. This is a time-consuming and error- prone endeavor, with implications for classification accuracy. Herein, we developed a software called DeepWings © that overcomes this constraint in wing geometric morphometrics classification by automatically detecting the 19 landmarks on digital images of the right forewing. We used a database containing 7634 forewing images, including 1864 analyzed by F. Ruttner in the original delineation of 26 honey bee subspecies, to tune a convolutional neural network as a wing detector, a deep learning U-Net as a landmarks segmenter, and a support vector machine as a subspecies classifier. The implemented MobileNet wing detector was able to achieve a mAP of 0.975 and the landmarks segmenter was able to detect the 19 landmarks with 91.8% accuracy, with an average positional precision of 0.943 resemblance to manually annotated landmarks. The subspecies classifier, in turn, presented an average accuracy of 86.6% for 26 subspecies and 95.8% for a subset of five important subspecies. The final implementation of the system showed good speed performance, requiring only 14 s to process 10 images. DeepWings © is very user-friendly and is the first fully automated software, offered as a free Web service, for honey bee classification from wing geometric morphometrics. DeepWings© can be used for honey bee breeding, conservation, and even scientific purposes as it provides the coordinates of the landmarks in excel format, facilitating the work of research teams using classical identification approaches and alternative analytical tools.Financial support was provided through the program COMPETE 2020—POCI (Programa Operacional para a Competividade e Internacionalização) and by Portuguese funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) in the framework of the project BeeHappy (POCI-01- 0145-FEDER-029871). FCT provided financial support by national funds (FCT/MCTES) to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Relatório de atividade clínica

Este Relatório de Atividade Clínica fará uma abordagem epidemiológica dos atos clínicos dos grupos nos quais estive incluído (n.º 69 e n.º 63) realizados no 5º ano do Mestrado Integrado em Medicina Dentária, na Faculdade de Medicina Dentária da Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Em cada disciplina será apresentado um enquadramento teórico e respetivos atos realizados como operador. Por fim, serão apresentados três casos clínicos diferenciados realizados nas áreas disciplinares de Endodontia/Dentisteria e Medicina Oral, sob a forma de artigo tipo caso clínico. O primeiro caso clínico aborda o tratamento duma lesão cariosa profunda com recurso a uma proteção pulpar direta com Biodentine®. O segundo caso clínico aborda uma osteonecrose dos maxilares relacionada com medicação e, por fim, o terceiro caso clínico descreve o tratamento de lesões intraorais do tipo “venous-lake”.This clinical report will make an epidemiologic and statistical approach of all the clinical acts performed by my groups (nº69 and nº63) during the 5th year of the Masters in Dentistry, in the Faculdade de Medicina Dentária of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Furthermore, it will be presented theorical frameworks per disciplinary area and the respective performed acts as an operator. Lastly, three differentiated clinical cases will be presented, the first combining Endodontics/Operative Dentistry and the last two regarding Oral Medicine. The first clinical case addresses the treatment of a deep caries lesion with a direct pulp cap with Biodentine®. The second clinical case gives a treatment approach to a medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw and, lastly, the third clinical case describes the treatment of venous-lake intraoral lesions

Qualidade de Vida: Uma análise à escala local

O tema deste artigo enquadra-se no âmbito do projecto “Custos e Benefícios, à escala local, de uma Ocupação Dispersa”. Esta investigação assenta a sua problemática na dispersão e procura chegar a conclusões e recomendações sobre o fenómeno do alastramento da dispersão; e sobre cenários desejáveis de evolução da ocupação dispersa existente, no que respeita à infra-estrutura e/ou à mobilidade e/ou à carga construtiva. Assim, o objectivo do projecto, essencialmente operativo, é o de confrontar os custos e os benefícios (Qualidade de Vida) para uma diversidade de contextos territoriais, as cidades alargadas de Aveiro/Ílhavo e Évora e respectiva subdivisão em Unidades Territoriais de Base UTBs. Para atingir este objectivo, o percurso metodológico desta investigação integra, para além de outros objectivos específicos, a formulação do conceito de Qualidade de Vida e a sua tradução em algoritmo, que aqui desenvolvemos

Qualidade de Vida: uma análise à escala local

O tema deste artigo enquadra-se no âmbito do projecto "Custos e Beneficos, à escala local, de uma Ocupação Dispersa". Esta investigação assenta a sua problemática na dispersão e procura chegar a mnclusões e recomendações sobre o fenómeno do alastramento da dispersão; e sobre cenários desejáveis de evolução da ocupação dispersa existente, no que respeita à infra-estrutura e/ou à mobilidade e/ou à carga construtiva. Assim, o objectivo do projecto, essencialmente operativo, é o de confrontar os custos e os beneficios (Qualidade de Vida) para uma diversidade de contextos territoriais, as cidades alargadas de Aveirol/ Íhavo e Évora e respectiva subdivisão em Unidades Territoriais de Base UTBs. Para atingir este objectivo, o percurso metodológico desta investigação integra, para além de outros objectivos específicos, a formulação do conceito de Qualidade de Vida e a sua tradução em algoritmo, que aqui desenvolvemos

Stability of hybrid versus vaccine immunity against BA.5 infection over 8 months

© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.The coverage of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in large parts of the world, together with the high number of breakthrough infections, especially following the emergence of Omicron subvariants, makes hybrid immunity (resulting from vaccine and infection) common. Hybrid immunity, particularly after BA.1 or BA.2 infection, confers substantial protection against the BA.5 infection. However, although the waning of protection afforded by natural infection in non-vaccinated individuals or by vaccination has been well documented, the stability of hybrid immunity, specifically against the BA.5 subvariant, now dominant in many countries, has not been thoroughly addressed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Aging increases oxidative stress and renal expression of oxidant and antioxidant enzymes that are associated with an increased trend in systolic blood pressure

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the effects of aging on oxidative stress markers and expression of major oxidant and antioxidant enzymes associate with impairment of renal function and increases in blood pressure. To explore this, we determined age-associated changes in lipid peroxidation (urinary malondialdehyde), plasma and urinary hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) levels, as well as renal H2O2 production, and the expression of oxidant and antioxidant enzymes in young (13 weeks) and old (52 weeks) male Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats. Urinary lipid peroxidation levels and H2O2 production by the renal cortex and medulla of old rats were higher than their young counterparts. This was accompanied by overexpression of NADPH oxidase components Nox4 and p22phox in the renal cortex of old rats. Similarly, expression of superoxide dismutase (SOD) isoforms 2 and 3 and catalase were increased in the renal cortex from old rats. Renal function parameters (creatinine clearance and fractional excretion of sodium), diastolic blood pressure and heart rate were not affected by aging, although slight increases in systolic blood pressure were observed during this 52-week period. It is concluded that overexpression of renal Nox4 and p22phox and the increases in renal H2O2 levels in aged WKY does not associate with renal functional impairment or marked increases in blood pressure. It is hypothesized that lack of oxidative stress-associated effects in aged WKY rats may result from increases in antioxidant defenses that counteract the damaging effects of H2O2

Pegasus: Performance Engineering for Software Applications Targeting HPC Systems

Developing and optimizing software applications for high performance and energy efficiency is a very challenging task, even when considering a single target machine. For instance, optimizing for multicore-based computing systems requires in-depth knowledge about programming languages, application programming interfaces, compilers, performance tuning tools, and computer architecture and organization. Many of the tasks of performance engineering methodologies require manual efforts and the use of different tools not always part of an integrated toolchain. This paper presents Pegasus, a performance engineering approach supported by a framework that consists of a source-to-source compiler, controlled and guided by strategies programmed in a Domain-Specific Language, and an autotuner. Pegasus is a holistic and versatile approach spanning various decision layers composing the software stack, and exploiting the system capabilities and workloads effectively through the use of runtime autotuning. The Pegasus approach helps developers by automating tasks regarding the efficient implementation of software applications in multicore computing systems. These tasks focus on application analysis, profiling, code transformations, and the integration of runtime autotuning. Pegasus allows developers to program their strategies or to automatically apply existing strategies to software applications in order to ensure the compliance of non-functional requirements, such as performance and energy efficiency. We show how to apply Pegasus and demonstrate its applicability and effectiveness in a complex case study, which includes tasks from a smart navigation system

Personalized dynamic phantom of the right and left ventricles based on patient-specific anatomy for echocardiography studies — Preliminary results

Dynamic phantoms of the heart are becoming a reality, with their use spread across both medical and research fields. Their purpose is to mimic the cardiac anatomy, as well as its motion. This work aims to create a dynamic, ultrasound-compatible, realistic and flexible phantom of the left and right ventricles, with application in the diagnosis, planning, treatment and training in the cardiovascular field for studies using echocardiography. Here, we focus on its design and production with polyvinyl alcohol cryogel (PVA-C), to be assembled with a pump and an electromechanical (E/M) system in a water tank. Based on a patient-specific anatomical model and produced using a 3D printing technique and molding, the PVA-C phantom mimics the ventricles' natural anatomy and material properties, while the pump and E/M systems mimic the natural movements and pressures. The PVA-C phantom was assessed by imaging and measuring it using a four-dimensional ultrasound machine. The PVA-C phantom demonstrated to be a versatile option to produce patient-specific biventricular models, preserving their shape after manufacturing and presenting good echogenic properties. Both chambers were clearly seen in the ultrasound images, together with the interventricular septum and the myocardial wall. Automated left ventricle measures revealed a decrease of its volume with regard to the designed model (98 ml to 74 ml). Overall, the preliminary results are satisfactory and encourage its use for the abovementioned purposesFEDER funds through the Competitiveness Factors Operational Programme (COMPETE), and by National funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the project POCI -01-0145-FEDER-007038 and EXPL/BBB-BMD/2473/2013, and by the projects NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000013 and NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-024300, supported by the NORTE 2020, under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). J. Gomes-Fonseca, P. Morais, S. Queirós, and F. Veloso were funded by FCT under the Ph.D. grants PD/BDE/113597/2015, SFRH/BD/95438/2013, SFRH/BD/93443/2013, and SFRH/BD/131545/2017info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio