Modelação de ambientes ubíquos na plataforma APEX

Dissertação de Mestrado em Engenharia InformáticaO teste e o desenvolvimento de ambientes ubíquos podem tornar-se uma tarefa bastante dispendiosa. A necessidade de adquirir ou de construir espaços físicos, assim como de todos os dispositivos que o compõem, como sensores e similares, levanta questões de cariz económico a ter em consideração. Em complemento, convém ter em consideração que nem todos os obstáculos são meramente monetários. Se ponderarmos uma fase mais avançada de um projeto de computação ubíqua, onde poder a ser necessária a recolha e analise de informação de equipamento presente em espaços delicados ou críticos, como o caso de hospitais ou aeroportos, verificamos que quer a nível politico, quer a nível de segurança publica, estamos deveras limitados. Deste modo, o desenvolvimento de protótipos de ambientes ubíquos utilizando mundos virtuais surge como uma potencial solução. Neste âmbito, este trabalho descreve a modelação de dois ambientes virtuais, uma Biblioteca com informação de lugares disponíveis e um Lar Residencial inteligente com componentes de prevenção e segurança implementados. A ferramenta utilizada neste trabalho, que permite esse desenvolvimento, e a APEX [14], esta plataforma permite modelar um ambiente a imagem do espaço físico pretendido, com o acréscimo de o comportamento dos objetos poder ser modelado. Assim torna-se possível replicar e explorar variados tipos de instalações tecnológicas de forma segura, bem como permitir a recolha generalizada da informação produzida pelos equipamentos. Os protótipos desenvolvidos neste trabalho permitiram avaliar uma solução para uma biblioteca universitária e recolher a opinião dos residentes de um lar, possibilitando desta forma, refinar os requisitos dos sistemas.The development and test of ubiquitous environments may become quite expensive. The necessity of acquiring or building physical spaces, and the technologies needed for these environments, like sensors and similar equipment, are economical aspects that need to be considered. In addition, it is also important to understand that not all obstacles are entirely financial. In a latter phase of a ubiquitous project, when it might be necessary to collect and analyse information from equipment’s in critical spaces, like hospitals or airports, some limitations can emerge. The development of prototypes pf ubiquitous environments using virtual worlds can be a potential solution to this problem. Thus, this work describes the modelling of two virtual environments, a University Library with seats availability information, and a “Smart” Care Home, with prevention and security features. The tool used to accomplish this development is the APEX framework [14]. Modelling an environment of this nature, based on the physical one, using virtual data or real data from real sensors, gave us the opportunity to explore the implications and effects of the design and technological decisions. The developed prototypes allowed to evaluate a solution for a library and gather information on several others solutions for the residents of a Care Home

Design and evaluation of a smart library using the APEX framework

User experience is a key point for successful ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) environments. The envisaged design should be explored as soon as possible to anticipate potential user problems, thus reducing re-design costs. The development of ubicomp environments' prototypes might help, providing feedback on the users' reaction to the environments. This paper describes the design and evaluation of ubicomp environments using APEX, a rapid prototyping framework providing user experience via a 3D application server and connected physical devices. APEX prototypes allow users to explore and experience many characteristics of a proposed design, in a virtual world. The paper focus in particular the design and evaluation of a smart library in the APEX framework.(undefined

Avaliação de ambientes ubíquos na plataforma APEX

Este artigo descreve a avaliação de um ambiente ubíquo utilizando a APEX, uma plataforma de prototipagem rápida de ambientes ubíquos que permite que os utilizadores naveguem num mundo virtual, podendo experimentar muitas das funcionalidades da solução e do design proposto.Este trabalho é financiado por Fundos FEDER através do Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade – COMPETE e por Fundos Nacionais através da FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia no âmbito do projecto FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-015095

Desenvolvimento de Jogos Educativos na plataforma APEX : O Jogo da Asma

National audienceA plataforma APEX foi desenvolvida para a prototipagem de ambientes de computação ubíqua. Neste artigo exploramos a sua aplicabilidade ao desenvolvimento de Jogos Sérios. Ou seja, jogos que para além de uma componente lúdica, possuem uma componente instrutiva e formativa. Em concreto, descrevemos o Jogo da Asma. Um jogo que pretende chamar a atenção das crianças para os factores causadores de ataques de asma, bem como transmitir conhecimento sobre como os evitar. Para além de se descrever o jogo, descrevem-se os resultados de um estudo em que se procurou avaliar quer a viabilidade da utilização da plataforma na criação de jogos sérios, quer a usabilidade do próprio jogo

Rapid development of first person serious games using the APEX platform: the asthma game

Serious games combine a ludic component with instructive and formative goals. They aim to educate and train through play. This paper explores the use of a development framework for dynamic virtual environments to develop serious games. The framework (APEX) was originally developed to prototype ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) environments. Here it is used to develop a first person serious game: the Asthma Game. This game aims to teach children with asthma how to act to prevent attacks by drawing attention to asthma triggers in the home, and by providing information about how to avoid them. Besides the description of the game, results about the viability and utility of the approach are also discussed.This work is funded by ERDF - European Regional Development Fund through the COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness) and by National Funds through the FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-015095. Tiago Gomes and Tiago Abade are funded by grants with references BI2-2013 PTDC/EIA-EIA/116069/2009 UMINHO and BI1-2013 PTDC/EIA-EIA/116069/2009 UMINHO, respectively. The authors also thank the Taipas Group of Schools, and in particular Julia Correia and her students, for their collaboration in the user study

Developing serious games with the APEX framework

APEX was developed as a framework for the prototyping of ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) environments. In this paper we explore its role as a platform for developing serious games. In particular we describe the Asthma game which is aimed at raising awareness of Asthma triggers among children. The game is designed to stimulate a healthier life-style for children with ashma.This work is funded by ERDF - European Regional Development Fund through the COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness) and by National Funds through the FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-015095

A virtual environment based serious game to support health education

APEX was developed as a framework for ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) prototyping through virtual environments. In this paper the framework is used as a platform for developing a serious game designed to instruct and to inform. The paper describes the Asthma game, a game aimed at raising awareness among children of asthma triggers in the home. It is designed to stimulate a healthier life-style for those with asthma and respiratory problems. The game was developed as the gamification of a checklist for the home environment of asthma patients

Supporting the design of an ambient assisted living system using virtual reality prototypes

APEX, a framework for prototyping ubiquitous environments, is used to design an Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) system to enhance a care home for older people. The environment allows participants in the design process to experience the proposed design and enables developers to explore the design by rapidly developing alternatives. APEX provided the means to explore alternative designs through a virtual environment. It provides a mediating representation (a boundary object) allowing users to be involved in the design process. A group of residents in a city-based care home were involved in the design. The paper describes the design process and lessons learnt for the design of AAL systems.EPSRC - Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council(EP/G059063/1)Jose C. Campos acknowledges support by the FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within project UID/EEA/50014/2013. José Luís Silva acknowledges support from project PEST-OE/EEI/LA0009/2015. Michael Harrison was also funded by EPSRC research grant EP/G059063/1: CHI+MED (Computer–Human Interaction for Medical Devices)

Simple method for establishing primary Leporidae skin fibroblast cultures

Research Areas: Cell BiologyCommercial hare and rabbit immortalized cell lines are extremely limited regarding the many species within the lagomorpha order. To overcome this limitation, researchers and technicians must establish primary cell cultures derived from biopsies or embryos. Among all cell types, fibroblasts are plastic and resilient cells, highly convenient for clinical and fundamental research but also for diagnosis, particularly for viral isolation. Here, we describe a fast and cheap method to produce primary fibroblast cell cultures from leporid species, using dispase II, a protease that allows dermal–epidermal separation, followed by a simple enzymatic digestion with trypsin. This method allows for the establishment of an in vitro cell culture system with an excellent viability yield and purity level higher than 85% and enables the maintenance and even immortalization of leporid fibroblastic cells derived from tissues already differentiated.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Genome Characterization and Spaciotemporal Dispersal Analysis of Bagaza Virus Detected in Portugal, 2021

Funding Information: This work received financial support from the Global Health and Tropical Medicine Center (which is funded through Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) contract UID/Multi/04413/2013). This research was also funded by FCT, Project UIDB/00276/2020 and LA/P/0059/2020-AL4AnimalS, and by the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Animal Health (CIISA), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Lisbon (Portugal). Finally, this research was also partially funded by the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Animal Health (Project CIISA-INOV 4/2021), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Lisbon (CIISA, FMV-UL) (Portugal). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.In September 2021, Bagaza virus (BAGV), a member of the Ntaya group from the Flavivirus genus, was detected for the first time in Portugal, in the heart and the brain of a red-legged partridge found dead in a hunting ground in Serpa (Alentejo region; southern Portugal). Here we report the genomic characterization of the full-length sequence of the BAGV detected (BAGV/PT/2021), including phylogenetic reconstructions and spaciotemporal analyses. Phylogenies inferred from nucleotide sequence alignments, complemented with the analysis of amino acid alignments, indicated that the BAGV strain from Portugal is closely related to BAGV strains previously detected in Spain, suggesting a common ancestor that seems to have arrived in the Iberia Peninsula in the late 1990s to early 2000s. In addition, our findings support previous observations that BAGV and Israel turkey meningoencephalitis virus (ITV) belong to the same viral species.publishersversionpublishe