A logic for n-dimensional hierarchical refinement

Hierarchical transition systems provide a popular mathematical structure to represent state-based software applications in which different layers of abstraction are represented by inter-related state machines. The decomposition of high level states into inner sub-states, and of their transitions into inner sub-transitions is common refinement procedure adopted in a number of specification formalisms. This paper introduces a hybrid modal logic for k-layered transition systems, its first-order standard translation, a notion of bisimulation, and a modal invariance result. Layered and hierarchical notions of refinement are also discussed in this setting.Comment: In Proceedings Refine'15, arXiv:1606.0134

An Ada framework for QoS-Aware applications

In this paper we present a framework for managing QoS-aware applications in a dynamic, ad-hoc, distributed environment. This framework considers an available set of wireless/mobile and fixed nodes, which may temporally form groups in order to process a set of related services, and where there is the need to support different levels of service and different combinations of quality requirements. This framework is being developed both for testing and validating an approach, based on multidimensional QoS properties, which provides service negotiation and proposal evaluation algorithms, and for assessing the suitability of the Ada language to be used in the context of dynamic, QoS-aware systems

Ensaios em teoria da decisão

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Economia, Administração, Contabilidade e Ciências da Informação e Documentação, Departamento de Economia, 2013.Neste trabalho são abordados dois temas relacionados à teoria da decisão individual. O primeiro tema, é abordado em duas partes deste trabalho. Na Parte II, denominada Teoria da P(R)eferência Revelada com Aspirações, apresentamos a modelagem do comportamento de um agente que executa suas escolhas do seguinte modo. Dado um problema de escolha, o agente elege uma aspiração que deseja de atingir. No caso em que sua aspiração não pode ser alcançada, ele identi.ca um ponto de referência, a alternativa factível que é mais semelhante possível à sua aspiração, e que pode enviesar seu comportamento de escolha ao atrair sua atenção para uma certa região do conjunto de alternativas. Na Parte III, denominada Teoria da P(R)eferência Revelada com Aspirações, aplicamos este modelo aos seguintes tópicos: equilíbrio geral em economias de troca pura e equilíbrio de Nash em jogos com .nitos agentes. O outro tema é abordado na Parte IV, chamada de Nota à "Equivalent Comparisons of Information Channels". Nela desenvolvemos o modo adequado de utilizar o arcabouço apresentado por Dekel, Lipman e Rustichini (2001) para representar preferências ex ante sobre canais de informação cujas peças são conhecidas ex post

Mechanisms for reflection-based monitoring of real- time systems

Monitoring is a very important aspect to consider when developing real-time systems. However, it is also important to consider the impact of the monitoring mechanisms in the actual application. The use of Reflection can provide a clear separation between the real-time application and the implemented monitoring mechanisms, which can be introduced (reflected) into the underlying system without changing the actual application part of the code. Nevertheless, controlling the monitoring system itself is still a topic of research. The monitoring mechanisms must contain knowledge about “how to get the information out”. Therefore, this paper presents the ongoing work to define a suitable strategy for monitoring real-time systems through the use of Reflection

A realização de trabalho nas organizações: estudo de cenários para formação de equipas viáveis

Much of the work done in organizations is performed in teams, so it becomes crucial that the teams that will perform it are viable and successful teams. Therefore, it becomes relevant that the constitution of a team takes into account some factors that can more easily guarantee its success. In this context, an important issue in the formation of viable teams is the psychological characterization of the constituent members. To support that characterization there are a number of frameworks that present several characteristics of personality, as well as describe the expected behaviors of an individual with these personality traits. Individuals with different characteristics will have different behaviors that can lead to team failure or success. It is therefore important to understand which types of personalities are able to work together in order to find the most appropriate and therefore more viable mixtures. For this purpose, it is intended to use as a research approach the agent-based simulation, currently very much in vogue in the area of computational sociology. In this sense, agents will possess certain personality characteristics that, according to the rules of team formation, will lead to the emergence of teams, whose "mix" of personalities correspond to viable teams.Grande parte do trabalho realizado nas organizações faz-se em equipa, pelo que se torna fundamental que as equipas que o vão realizar sejam equipas viáveis e que obtenham sucesso. Desta forma, torna-se relevante que na constituição de uma equipa se tenha em conta alguns fatores que poderão mais facilmente garantir o seu sucesso. Neste âmbito, uma questão importante na formação de equipas viáveis é a caracterização psicológica dos membros que a constituem. Para essa caracterização existem diversos frameworks que apresentam várias características de personalidade, assim como descrevem também quais os comportamentos esperados num individuo com esses traços de personalidade. Indivíduos com diferentes características terão diferentes comportamentos que podem levar ao fracasso ou sucesso da equipa. É pois importante perceber quais os tipos de personalidades que são capazes de trabalhar em conjunto de modo a permitir encontrar as “misturas” mais adequadas e, portanto, mais viáveis. Para esse efeito, pretende-se usar como abordagem de investigação a simulação baseada em agentes, atualmente muito em voga na área da sociologia computacional. Nesse sentido, os agentes possuirão determinadas características de personalidade que, de acordo com as regras de formação de equipas, farão emergir equipas cuja “mistura” de personalidades corresponde a equipas viáveis.FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (UID/CEC/00319/2013

Communities of practice as a tool to support the GCIO function

A Community of Practice (CoP) allows practitioners of a clearly defined domain to share knowledge, experience,and best practices. It provides a social context for practitioners,often distributed across multiple organizations,and emerged over the last few decades as a fundamental mechanism for knowledge sharing, management,and generation within organizations. Best practices, innovations,and solutions to shared problems first emerge within CoPs. These are, and must be perceived as, an investmentin organizations’ future and competitiveness.Establishing a CoP is a straightforward process, the most challenging factor being the recruitment of members to attain critical mass. The challenge is to maintain the CoP active, with members contributing with high quality, innovative content. Increasing a CoP’smedium / long-termsurvival probabilities requires careful planning to avoid incurringinsome well-known pitfalls.This paper proposes and discusses a set of nine guidelines for establishing and maintaining a community of practice within the context of Electronic Governance (EGOV) and Government Chief Information Officers (GCIO). This research was motivated by the initiative of the government of a developing country. Results are based on a review of the relevant literature, together with the detailed analysis of interviews to members or coordinators of large communities of practice. This analysis was further validated against the opinions of public servantsdirectly involved on EGOV-GCIO-related functions during two focus groups meetingsSmartEGOV: Harnessing EGOV for Smart Governance (Foundations, Methods, Tools) NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000037, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (EFDR

Modeling families of public licensing services: a case study

Software Product Lines (SPLs) enable the development of families of software systems by taking advantage of the commonalities and variabilities of the members of the family. Despite its many advantages, it is an unexplored area in the electronic government domain, an area with evident families of services, and with high demands to develop faster and better services to citizens and businesses while reducing costs. This paper discusses the need of formal methods to model SPLs for such domain. It presents a case study of a family of public licensing services modeled in UPPAAL and based on Featured Timed Automata, an extension of Timed Automata to model realtime SPLs. It analyzes the suitability of FTA to model distributed families of services, while provides hints on a possible enrichment of FTA to better support modularization and compositionality of services.This work is part of the project SMARTEGOV: Harnessing EGOV for Smart Governance (Foundations, Methods, Tools) / NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000037, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The first author is further supported by FCT under grant PD/BD/52238/2013

Behavior of foodborne pathogens in soils incorporating lactic acid bacteria

Foodborne pathogens can be introduced into the soil through various sources of contamination : the use of animal faecal matter as fertilizer, irrigation water, poor agricultural practices or naturally occurring. The ability of these microorganisms to survive in manure used as fertilizer and potentially in the soil is a threat to the safety of agricultural products. [1] Subsequently, vegetables and fruits grown on these soils can be come a source of contamination. This can lead to serious health problems for consumers, especially as they are ready-to-eat products.[2] In an attempt to minimize these problems, some studies in corporating lactic acid bacteria (LAB)-producing bacteriocins against pathogens have been reported.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio