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Publications

2014

Towards a dependable cardiovascular surveillance system

Authors
Oliveira, CC; da Silva, JM;

Publication
IFMBE Proceedings

Abstract
An aneurysm is a life-threatening condition,which left untreated may burst or rupture, causing massive blood loss. One of the currently available treatments for aortic aneurysms is endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR). However, in spite of major advances in the surgical techniques, complications are still likely to occur making it recommendable to maintain lifelong surveillance. In order to reduce and even eliminate current surveillance imaging exams, as well as to reduce follow-up costs, new technological solutions are being pursued. The work presented herein aims to develop a novel and dependable non- invasive coronary stent-graft monitoring system based on RFID technology. The monitoring system uses an inductive coupling interface to capture the pressures given by a cluster of sensors placed on the stent-graft's wall. The application of multimodal data fusion techniques enables the improvement of the surveillance system performance in terms of accuracy, robustness and reliability. The processing of the pressure signalsmeasured inside the aneurysm sac with other physiological signals - electrocardiogram (ECG) and arterial blood pressure (ABP) - will allow obtaining better monitoring resolution and reliability. The techniques utilized to diagnose deviations fromthe normal operation or faults in the flexible pressure sensors are described and tested, showing promising results for achieving a highly reliable system. © 2014, Springer International Publishing Switzerland.

2014

Some Aspects Concerning a Generic Service Process Model Building

Authors
Borangiu, T; Oltean, VE; Dragoicea, M; Falcao e Cunha, JFE; Iacob, I;

Publication
EXPLORING SERVICES SCIENCE, IESS 2014

Abstract
In the context of globalization of contemporary service economies there is an increasing need for interoperability, standardization and submission of service processes to common norms and regulations. This stimulates the research effort in elaboration of generic, unified approaches in service processes design. Service Science emerged in the past decade as an interdisciplinary specialization of systems theory, but there is still lack of consensus on its theoretical foundations. Starting from the comparative analysis of some relevant generic service models reported in the literature, the paper raises some specific questions regarding the research effort in this area and, based on a Service Science worldview of a service system and on the generic phases of a business process, deduces a generic model of a service process lifecycle, including part of the ISPAR states. Finally, a simple example from the educational service sector is discussed.

2014

DIET QUALITY IN ELDERLY PORTUGUESE HOUSEHOLDS

Authors
Santos, DM; Rodrigues, SSP; De Oliveira, BMPM; De Almeida, MDV;

Publication
JOURNAL OF NUTRITION HEALTH & AGING

Abstract
Objective: to identify diet quality time trends in Portuguese elderly households and the association of diet quality with sociodemographic characteristics. Design: Set of four cross-sectional studies. Setting: Portuguese population. Subjects: nationally representative samples from Household Budget Surveys (1989-1990, 1994-1995, 2000-2001 and 2005-2006 versions). Households with members aged >= 65 years were categorized as solitary elderly female, solitary elderly male, or elderly couple (composed of one elderly female and one elderly male) and compared with adult households with the same composition. Methods: Diet quality was assessed through a revised version of the Healthy Diet indicator (HDIr). Univariate and multiple backward linear regression models were used to study the association with sociodemographic characteristics. Results: Mean values of dietary index were low and the proportion of elderly households with low diet quality (HDIr <= 4) was high (between 47.4% and 68.4%). However, the frequency of HDIr inadequacy for adult household was even higher (P<0.05). in general, adjusted coefficients for survey year, educational level of the household head, and eating out expenses were inversely associated with HDIr; whilst semi-urban and rural location of the households predicted higher HDIr values. exceptions were found in elderly male households where the educational level of the household head was positively associated with HDIr values. Conclusions: overall, diet quality was low and decreased over time but lonely elderly female and elderly couple households had higher values of HDIr. adherence to a healthier diet was associated with lower educational level of the household head and location of the household in less urbanized areas.

2014

Formal Verification of kLIBC with the WP Frama-C Plug-in

Authors
Carvalho, N; Sousa, CD; Pinto, JS; Tomb, A;

Publication
NASA FORMAL METHODS, NFM 2014

Abstract
This paper presents our results in the formal verification of kLIBC, a minimalistic C library, using the Frama-C/WP tool. We report how we were able to completely verify a significant number of functions from < string.h > and < stdio.h >. We discuss difficulties encountered and describe in detail a problem in the implementation of common < string.h > functions, for which we suggest alternative implementations. Our work shows that it is presently already viable to verify low-level C code, with heavy usage of pointers. Although the properties proved tend to be shallower as the code becomes of a lower-level nature, it is our view that this is an important direction towards real-world software verification, which cannot be attained by focusing on deep properties of cleaner code, written specifically to be verified.

2014

State Estimation in Distribution Smart Grids Using Autoencoders

Authors
Barbeiro, PNP; Krstulovic, J; Teixeira, H; Pereira, J; Soares, FJ; Iria, JP;

Publication
2014 IEEE 8TH INTERNATIONAL POWER ENGINEERING AND OPTIMIZATION CONFERENCE (PEOCO)

Abstract
This work proposes an innovative method based on autoencoders to perform state estimation in distribution grids, which has as main advantage the fact of being independent of the network parameters and topology. The method was tested in a real low voltage grid (incorporating smart grid features), under different scenarios of smart meter deployment. Simulations were performed in order to understand the necessary requirements for an accurate distribution grid state estimator and to evaluate the performance of a state estimator based on autoencoders.

2014

Imposing Fermi momentum cut-off on the channel- and density-dependent effective interaction and the ground-state properties of closed shell nuclei

Authors
Mariji, H;

Publication
The European Physical Journal A

Abstract

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