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Publications

2023

INNOVATION AND KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER FOR MONITORING, PREDICTING AND PREVENTING PRESSURE ULCERS: THE SENSOMATT APPROACH

Authors
Silva, A; Santos, O; Reinaldo, F; Fidalgo, F; Metrôlho, J; Amini, M; Fonseca, L; Dionísio, R;

Publication
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 5TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PRODUCTION ECONOMICS AND PROJECT EVALUATION, ICOPEV 2022

Abstract
Pressure ulcers are skin injuries that develop mainly over bony areas as the result of prolonged pressure caused by the immobility of bedridden patients. They constitute not only a source of additional suffering for these patients but also contribute to the burnout of healthcare professionals who must maintain continuous monitoring of these patients. Data from countries such as the UK or the USA allows the cost of this problem to be estimated to be, respectively, near 2 pound billion and $80 billion. In this article, we describe the SensoMatt approach to pressure ulcer prevention and management, which is being developed as a research project that includes partners from industry, healthcare, and academia. The SensoMatt solution is centered on a pressure sheet that is placed under the patient's mattress, complemented by an online management portal and a mobile app. These provide patients and healthcare providers with an unparalleled set of services that include personalized analysis, prevention warnings and recommendations.

2023

Compressed Models Decompress Race Biases: What Quantized Models Forget for Fair Face Recognition

Authors
Neto, PC; Caldeira, E; Cardoso, JS; Sequeira, AF;

Publication
International Conference of the Biometrics Special Interest Group, BIOSIG 2023, Darmstadt, Germany, September 20-22, 2023

Abstract
With the ever-growing complexity of deep learning models for face recognition, it becomes hard to deploy these systems in real life. Researchers have two options: 1) use smaller models; 2) compress their current models. Since the usage of smaller models might lead to concerning biases, compression gains relevance. However, compressing might be also responsible for an increase in the bias of the final model. We investigate the overall performance, the performance on each ethnicity subgroup and the racial bias of a State-of-the-Art quantization approach when used with synthetic and real data. This analysis provides a few more details on potential benefits of performing quantization with synthetic data, for instance, the reduction of biases on the majority of test scenarios. We tested five distinct architectures and three different training datasets. The models were evaluated on a fourth dataset which was collected to infer and compare the performance of face recognition models on different ethnicity.

2023

Blockchain in supply chain management: A case study in the automotive industry

Authors
Barroso, S; Castro, G; Corrêa, M; Godinho, RS; Niemann, L; Rocha, R; Barbosa, B;

Publication
Integrating Intelligence and Sustainability in Supply Chains

Abstract
Blockchain technology has been the focus of much attention and discussion recently. Its unique characteristics, such as immutability, transparency, and decentralization, create a great potential solution for many industries. Especially the automotive sector, which is known for its complex supply chains, large amounts of data, and wide-reaching infrastructure, can profit in many aspects by incorporating blockchain technology. To illustrate the advantages and potential of blockchain in supply chain management, this chapter includes a case study of one of the leading corporations in the automotive industry that has been increasingly committed to adopting this technology. The analysis uses a set of strategic analysis tools frequently used by managers for strategic planning to highlight the benefits and challenges of this approach. Besides contributing to the literature on blockchain and supply chain management, this chapter offers valuable insights for managers, namely in the automotive sector, who are considering adopting blockchain technology in their operations and processes. © 2023, IGI Global. All rights reserved.

2023

Persuasive Determinants in the Hotel Industry's Newsletter Opening Rates

Authors
Araujo, CR; Pires, PB; Delgado, C; Santos, JD;

Publication
SUSTAINABILITY

Abstract
Email marketing plays a key role in business communications and is one of the most widely used applications by consumers. The literature review points to several determinants that, when applied, increase the open rate of newsletters. This research evaluates the impact of six determinants of persuasion on the opening rate of a newsletter in the hotel industry. The determinants are the day of sending, the time of sending, subject line personalization, scarcity appeal, curiosity appeal, and authority figure. The chosen methodology focused on real experiments, using a high-end luxury hotel, and the respective customer database. The newsletter was sent to the subscriber list, where one part received the control and the other part received a variant with the test version. Ten A/B tests were conducted for each determinant. The results obtained were not in line with what is indicated in the literature review. Although the literature review yielded results that showed that the application of determinants increased the open rate of newsletters, this study obtained findings to the opposite and did not confirm what was prescribed by the reviewed literature. The results of the A/B tests were conclusive and revealed that the determinants did not increase the open rate of newsletters.

2023

DyGCN-LSTM: A dynamic GCN-LSTM based encoder-decoder framework for multistep traffic prediction

Authors
Kumar, R; Moreira, JM; Chandra, J;

Publication
APPLIED INTELLIGENCE

Abstract
Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are gaining attraction in large cities for better traffic management. Traffic forecasting is an important part of ITS, but a difficult one due to the intricate spatiotemporal relationships of traffic between different locations. Despite the fact that remote or far sensors may have temporal and spatial similarities with the predicting sensor, existing traffic forecasting research focuses primarily on modeling correlations between neighboring sensors while disregarding correlations between remote sensors. Furthermore, existing methods for capturing spatial dependencies, such as graph convolutional networks (GCNs), are unable to capture the dynamic spatial dependence in traffic systems. Self-attention-based techniques for modeling dynamic correlations of all sensors currently in use overlook the hierarchical features of roads and have quadratic computational complexity. Our paper presents a new Dynamic Graph Convolution LSTM Network (DyGCN-LSTM) to address the aforementioned limitations. The novelty of DyGCN-LSTM is that it can model the underlying non-linear spatial and temporal correlations of remotely located sensors at the same time. Experimental investigations conducted using four real-world traffic data sets show that the suggested approach is superior to state-of-the-art benchmarks by 25% in terms of RMSE.

2023

Systematising experts' understanding of traditional burning in Portugal: a mental model approach

Authors
Souza, MEB; Pacheco, AP; Teixeira, JG;

Publication
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF WILDLAND FIRE

Abstract
Background. Traditional burning is a practice with social and ecological value used worldwide. However, given the often improper and negligent use of fire, this practice is often associated with rural fire ignitions.Aims. Systematise experts' understanding of traditional burning and identify its challenges in the Portuguese context.Methods. Twenty-eight Portuguese experts from industry, academia, NGOs and public entities with in-depth involvement in fire and forest management were interviewed to create a mental model of traditional burning in Portugal.Key results. Eight dimensions were identified: motivations behind traditional burning, alternative solutions, risks before a traditional burn, risks during a traditional burn, underlying causes of risk, exogenous elements and factors, potential impacts, and activities leading to a successful traditional burn.Conclusions. This study provides a comprehensive understanding of traditional burn practice in the Portuguese context and offers a baseline to support stakeholders and policymakers in managing traditional burning's social and environmental impacts in the future.Implications. This research offers several implications across the eight dimensions identified, including the need to improve regulations on the use of fire and fuel reduction policies, promote fire use education and feasible and affordable alternatives to traditional burning, and increase communities' commitment to mitigation actions.

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