2021
Authors
Martins, P; Rodrigues, P; Martins, C; Barros, T; Duarte, N; Dong, RK; Liao, YY; Comite, U; Yue, XG;
Publication
JOURNAL OF RISK AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Abstract
This paper aims to (1) compare consumers' preferences between individual products and bundles as well as (2) investigate some of the factors involved in bundle characteristics that may affect consumer's preferences. Those factors are complementarity, price level, and discount level. An online survey developed by means of questionnaires were collected from the Portuguese population. Student's t-tests were used to test the hypothesis formulated and to analyze the consumers' preferences. The findings corroborate that in a scenario where the bundle does not offer any discounts, preference of individual products is higher. When a 20% discount is assigned to bundles, the overall preference for individual products is still superior. By offering a discount level of 45%, the overall preference for bundles becomes higher. The positive effect of complementarity bundles valuation is confirmed. This is the first approach to evaluate the preferences between bundles and individual products in the Portuguese market. The findings contribute to clarify the customer map within a Business Model Canvas. Furthermore, this paper analyzes the bundle complementarity and discount level effects simultaneously.
2021
Authors
Bhanu, M; Mendes Moreira, J; Chandra, J;
Publication
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
Abstract
Techniques for using multi-way traffic patterns for traffic prediction is gaining importance. One of the possible techniques for representing the multi-way traffic patterns is tensors. Tensor decomposition is used to generate low-rank approximations of the original tensor that is subsequently used for traffic volume prediction. However, the existing tensor-based approaches do not consider certain important mutual relationships among the locations like temporal traffic reciprocity that can improve the prediction accuracy. In this paper, we introduce TeDCaN, a "Tensor Decomposition method with Characteristic Network" constraints that generate low rank approximations of the original tensor considering the traffic reciprocity at different pair of locations. Investigations using large traffic datasets from 2 different cities reveal that the prediction accuracy of TeDCaN considerably outperforms several state-of-art baselines for cases when complete traffic data is available as well as situations when a certain fraction of the data is missing - a likely scenario in many real datasets. We discover that TeDCaN achieves around 20% reduction in the RMSE scores as compared to the baselines. TeDCaN is applicable in many operations on such a big traffic network where the existing models would either be inapplicable or hard to perform. As one of the major yields, TeDCaN generates a "reduced dimensional network embedding" that captures the similarity of the nodes considering the traffic volume as well as the reciprocity of traffic between the nodes.
2021
Authors
Pereira, R; Couto, M; Ribeiro, F; Rua, R; Cunha, J; Fernandes, JP; Saraiva, J;
Publication
SCIENCE OF COMPUTER PROGRAMMING
Abstract
This paper compares a large set of programming languages regarding their efficiency, including from an energetic point-of-view. Indeed, we seek to establish and analyze different rankings for programming languages based on their energy efficiency. The goal of being able to rank programming languages based on their energy efficiency is both recent, and certainly deserves further studies. We have taken rigorous and strict solutions to 10 well defined programming problems, expressed in (up to) 27 programming languages, from the well known Computer Language Benchmark Game repository. This repository aims to compare programming languages based on a strict set of implementation rules and configurations for each benchmarking problem. We have also built a framework to automatically, and systematically, run, measure and compare the energy, time, and memory efficiency of such solutions. Ultimately, it is based on such comparisons that we propose a series of efficiency rankings, based on single and multiple criteria. Our results show interesting findings, such as how slower/faster languages can consume less/more energy, and how memory usage influences energy consumption. We also present a simple way to use our results to provide software engineers and practitioners support in deciding which language to use when energy efficiency is a concern. In addition, we further validate our results and rankings against implementations from a chrestomathy program repository, Rosetta Code., by reproducing our methodology and benchmarking system. This allows us to understand how the results and conclusions from our rigorously and well defined benchmarked programs compare to those based on more representative and real-world implementations. Indeed our results show that the rankings do not change apart from one programming language.
2021
Authors
Sousa, RB; Costa, PG; Moreira, AP;
Publication
2021 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AUTONOMOUS ROBOT SYSTEMS AND COMPETITIONS (ICARSC)
Abstract
The pose control (position and orientation) of a robot is important to control how and when the robot gets to the desired pose at the desired time in order to perform some task. Controlling omnidirectional robots is of great interest due to their complete maneuverability. So, we use Proportional-Integrative (PI), Proportional-Derivative (PD), and Feed-Forward (FF) controllers to control the pose of an omnidirectional robot in space and in time. The proposed controller approximates the future trajectory (a subset of points) on parametric polynomials for computing the derivatives needed in the FF. In the simulations performed, it was analyzed the size of the future trajectory horizon for the controller depending on the robot's velocity, and the proposed controller was compared to PD-only and a generic GoToXY controller. The results demonstrated that the proposed controller achieves better results than the other two both in space and in time.
2021
Authors
Guerra, E; Dias, AD; Veras, LGDO; Aguiar, A; Choma, J; Da Silva, TS;
Publication
IEEE ACCESS
Abstract
The Adaptive Object Model (AOM) is an architectural style in which domain entity types are represented as instances that can be changed at runtime. It can be used to achieve higher flexibility in domain classes. Due to AOM entities having a distinct structure, they are not compatible with most popular frameworks, especially those that use reflection and code annotations. To solve such limitations, this study aims to propose a model that enables the reuse of frameworks designed for classic object-oriented domain models in an AOM application. The proposed model uses dynamically-generated adapters for AOM entities that encapsulate them in a class with the format expected by the frameworks. A reference implementation was developed in the Esfinge AOM RoleMapper framework to evaluate the viability of the proposed model. Initially, to evaluate the solution feasibility, a case study was carried out using the Hibernate framework. Further, an experiment was conducted to assess how the participants perceived the framework functionality reuse through the proposed model. The feasibility study revealed that the solution could be applied in a complex setting for the chosen object-relational mapping frame. It raised some difficulties that can be addressed in future studies. In the experiment, the development time did not present a significant difference compared to the competing approach. Despite the considerable learning curve, most participants considered that the proposed approach has more advantages than the alternative. Based on the evaluations, we can conclude that the proposed model can be successfully employed to use AOM entities with frameworks that were not designed for AOM applications. The possibility of reusing existing frameworks can reduce the effort required to adopt an AOM architecture and, consequently, be a facilitator in implementing more flexible and adaptive approaches.
2021
Authors
Ribeiro, M; Monteiro Santos, J; Castro, L; Antunes, L; Costa Santos, C; Teixeira, A; Henriques, TS;
Publication
FRONTIERS IN MEDICINE
Abstract
The analysis of fetal heart rate variability has served as a scientific and diagnostic tool to quantify cardiac activity fluctuations, being good indicators of fetal well-being. Many mathematical analyses were proposed to evaluate fetal heart rate variability. We focused on non-linear analysis based on concepts of chaos, fractality, and complexity: entropies, compression, fractal analysis, and wavelets. These methods have been successfully applied in the signal processing phase and increase knowledge about cardiovascular dynamics in healthy and pathological fetuses. This review summarizes those methods and investigates how non-linear measures are related to each paper's research objectives. Of the 388 articles obtained in the PubMed/Medline database and of the 421 articles in the Web of Science database, 270 articles were included in the review after all exclusion criteria were applied. While approximate entropy is the most used method in classification papers, in signal processing, the most used non-linear method was Daubechies wavelets. The top five primary research objectives covered by the selected papers were detection of signal processing, hypoxia, maturation or gestational age, intrauterine growth restriction, and fetal distress. This review shows that non-linear indices can be used to assess numerous prenatal conditions. However, they are not yet applied in clinical practice due to some critical concerns. Some studies show that the combination of several linear and non-linear indices would be ideal for improving the analysis of the fetus's well-being. Future studies should narrow the research question so a meta-analysis could be performed, probing the indices' performance.
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