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Publications

2023

Industry 4.0 technologies' adoption by industrial companies - a literature review on the impacts in sustainability dimensions

Authors
Almeida, D; Simões, AC;

Publication
Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Engineering, Technology, and Innovation: Shaping the Future, ICE 2023

Abstract
Industrial companies live in a context of dynamic technological innovation, in which new technologies are adopted with a high impact internally and externally, leveraging their competitive advantages. A usual situation is managers deciding to adopt technologies, often without realising the impacts on the company but mainly supported by a strategic vision and the pursuit of differentiation factors. This article aims to present the results of a literature review on the impacts of Industry 4.0 technologies adoption in sustainability dimensions by industrial companies. These impacts were presented according to the three dimensions of sustainability: economic, environmental and social. The results of this study can be used by practitioners and researchers for an overview of the I4.0 technologies adoption by manufacturing companies and their impacts on sustainability dimensions, summarising the knowledge concerning this topic. © 2023 IEEE.

2023

Review apps to evaluate stroke risk in prehospital setting

Authors
Oliveira, E; Ferreira, J; Alves, J; Henriques, M; Rodrigues, NF;

Publication
2023 IEEE 11TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SERIOUS GAMES AND APPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH, SEGAH

Abstract
Mobile applications have experienced exponential growth in recent years, including mHealth apps related to stroke, one of the most prevalent diseases worldwide. This review aims to analyze the characteristics of available stroke apps designed to assist in assessing stroke severity. Initially, 809 apps were retrieved from both the App Store and Google Play Store. These apps were then filtered, primarily excluding those that did not implement a prehospital stroke scale with a resulting score. A total of 36 apps met the criteria for further analysis in this review. The majority of these apps displayed scale items using text only. Certain scales, such as RACE, VAN, and NIHSS, are supported by studies demonstrating their ability to accurately assess stroke severity. Consequently, apps featuring these scales are more likely to be useful in achieving the objective of this study. Improvements to these apps could be made by expanding the functionalities they offer and enhancing their user experience.

2023

Using survey data to estimate the impact of the omicron variant on vaccine efficacy against COVID-19 infection

Authors
Rufino, J; Baquero, C; Frey, D; Glorioso, CA; Ortega, A; Rescic, N; Roberts, JC; Lillo, RE; Menezes, R; Champati, JP; Anta, AF;

Publication
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS

Abstract
Symptoms-based detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection is not a substitute for precise diagnostic tests but can provide insight into the likely level of infection in a given population. This study uses symptoms data collected in the Global COVID-19 Trends and Impact Surveys (UMD Global CTIS), and data on variants sequencing from GISAID. This work, conducted in January of 2022 during the emergence of the Omicron variant (subvariant BA.1), aims to improve the quality of infection detection from the available symptoms and to use the resulting estimates of infection levels to assess the changes in vaccine efficacy during a change of dominant variant; from the Delta dominant to the Omicron dominant period. Our approach produced a new symptoms-based classifier, Random Forest, that was compared to a ground-truth subset of cases with known diagnostic test status. This classifier was compared with other competing classifiers and shown to exhibit an increased performance with respect to the ground-truth data. Using the Random Forest classifier, and knowing the vaccination status of the subjects, we then proceeded to analyse the evolution of vaccine efficacy towards infection during different periods, geographies and dominant variants. In South Africa, where the first significant wave of Omicron occurred, a significant reduction of vaccine efficacy is observed from August-September 2021 to December 2021. For instance, the efficacy drops from 0.81 to 0.30 for those vaccinated with 2 doses (of Pfizer/BioNTech), and from 0.51 to 0.09 for those vaccinated with one dose (of Pfizer/BioNTech or Johnson & Johnson). We also extended the study to other countries in which Omicron has been detected, comparing the situation in October 2021 (before Omicron) with that of December 2021. While the reduction measured is smaller than in South Africa, we still found, for instance, an average drop in vaccine efficacy from 0.53 to 0.45 among those vaccinated with two doses. Moreover, we found a significant negative (Pearson) correlation of around - 0.6 between the measured prevalence of Omicron in several countries and the vaccine efficacy in those same countries. This prediction, in January of 2022, of the decreased vaccine efficacy towards Omicron is in line with the subsequent increase of Omicron infections in the first half of 2022.

2023

The Influence of Social Media on Voters’ Decision-Making Process in Portugal: A Case Study

Authors
Garcia J.E.; Vega E.G.; Purificação P.; Fonseca M.J.;

Publication
Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies

Abstract
Nowadays, social media are inevitably part of people's daily lives. Thus, political communication should also go through digital communication channels, particularly on social media. In such channels, it is important to define a digital marketing and communication strategy to attract new voters and consecutively more votes. As in offline communication channels and also in digital communication, one of the indispensable points in political communication is the candidate’s image. This image must show its own style and differentiate the candidate from his opponents. The main objective of this study is to understand the influence of social media on Portuguese voters’ decision-making process. Throughout the study, different research questions were also analyzed to access which social media are the most used to follow the online political campaign and which criteria influence the voting decision-making process. To achieve this purpose, exploratory research was carried out through questionnaire surveys. Three surveys were conducted based on the Portuguese presidential elections of January 24, 2021. The surveys were distributed before, during, and after the end of the electoral campaign, and 106 people were questioned and answered all 3 surveys. With the results of this study, it was possible to conclude that only 11% of respondents changed their voting intention due to the political communication made by political parties on social media during this electoral campaign. The social media most used by respondents was Facebook, which is also the one they consider the safest and most trustworthy to follow political communication in online media.

2023

Identification of words in whispered speech: The role of cues to fricatives' place and voicing

Authors
Jesus, LMT; Ferreira, JFS; Ferreira, AJS;

Publication
JASA EXPRESS LETTERS

Abstract
The temporal distribution of acoustic cues in whispered speech was analyzed using the gating paradigm. Fifteen Portuguese participants listened to real disyllabic words produced by four Portuguese speakers. Lexical choices, confidence scores, isolation points (IPs), and recognition points (RPs) were analyzed. Mixed effects models predicted that the first syllable and 70% of the total duration of the second syllable were needed for lexical choices to be above chance level. Fricatives' place, not voicing, had a significant effect on the percentage of correctly identified words. IP and RP values of words with postalveolar voiced and voiceless fricatives were significantly different.

2023

Variations and interpretations of naturality in call-by-name lambda-calculi with generalized applications

Authors
Santo, JE; Frade, MJ; Pinto, L;

Publication
JOURNAL OF LOGICAL AND ALGEBRAIC METHODS IN PROGRAMMING

Abstract
In the context of intuitionistic sequent calculus, naturality means permutation-freeness (the terminology is essentially due to Mints). We study naturality in the context of the lambda-calculus with generalized applications and its multiary extension, to cover, under the Curry-Howard correspondence, proof systems ranging from natural deduction (with and without general elimination rules) to a fragment of sequent calculus with an iterable left-introduction rule, and which can still be recognized as a call-by-name lambda-calculus. In this context, naturality consists of a certain restricted use of generalized applications. We consider the further restriction obtained by the combination of naturality with normality w.r.t. the commutative conversion engendered by generalized applications. This combination sheds light on the interpretation of naturality as a vectorization mechanism, allowing a multitude of different ways of structuring lambda-terms, and the structuring of a multitude of interesting fragments of the systems under study. We also consider a relaxation of naturality, called weak naturality: this not only brings similar structural benefits, but also suggests a new weak system of natural deduction with generalized applications which is exempt from commutative conversions. In the end, we use all of this evidence as a stepping stone to propose a computational interpretation of generalized application (whether multiary or not, and without any restriction): it includes, alongside the argument(s) for the function, a general list - a new, very general, vectorization mechanism, that structures the continuation of the computation.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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