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Publications

2023

BlanketGen - A Synthetic Blanket Occlusion Augmentation Pipeline for Motion Capture Datasets

Authors
Carmona, J; Karacsony, T; Cunha, JPS;

Publication
2023 IEEE 7TH PORTUGUESE MEETING ON BIOENGINEERING, ENBENG

Abstract
Human motion analysis has seen drastic improvements recently, however, due to the lack of representative datasets, for clinical in-bed scenarios it is still lagging behind. To address this issue, we implemented BlanketGen, a pipeline that augments videos with synthetic blanket occlusions. With this pipeline, we generated an augmented version of the pose estimation dataset 3DPW called BlanketGen3DPW. We then used this new dataset to fine-tune a Deep Learning model to improve its performance in these scenarios with promising results. Code and further information are available at https://gitlab.inesctec.pt/brain-lab/brainlab-public/blanket-gen-releases.

2023

A Novel Approach to Assess Balneotherapy Effects on Musculoskeletal Diseases-An Open Interventional Trial Combining Physiological Indicators, Biomarkers, and Patients' Health Perception

Authors
Silva, J; Martins, J; Nicomedio, C; Goncalves, C; Palito, C; Goncalves, R; Fernandes, PO; Nunes, A; Alves, MJ;

Publication
GERIATRICS

Abstract
The present study aimed to evaluate whether a 14-day period of balneotherapy influences the inflammatory status, health-related quality of life (QoL) and quality of sleep, underlying overall health state, and clinically relevant benefits of patients with musculoskeletal diseases (MD). The health-related QoL was evaluated using the following instruments: 5Q-5D-5L, EQ-VAS, EUROHIS-QOL, B-IPQ, and HAQ-DI. The quality of sleep was evaluated by a BaSIQS instrument. Circulating levels of IL-6 and C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured by ELISA and chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay, respectively. The smartband, Xiaomi MI Band 4, was used for real-time sensing of physical activity and sleep quality. MD patients improved the health-related QoL measured by 5Q-5D-5L (p < 0.001), EQ-VAS (p < 0.001), EUROHIS-QOL (p = 0.017), B-IPQ (p < 0.001), and HAQ-DI (p = 0.019) after balneotherapy; the sleep quality was also improved (BaSIQS, p = 0.019). Serum concentrations of IL-6 were markedly decreased after the 14-day balneotherapy (p < 0.001). No statistically significant differences were observed regarding the physical activity and sleep quality data recorded by the smartband. Balneotherapy may be an effective alternative treatment in managing the health status of MD patients, with a decrease in inflammatory states, along with positive effects on pain reduction, patient's functionality, QoL, quality of sleep, and disability perception status.

2023

Collecting, Processing and Secondary Using Personal and (Pseudo)Anonymized Data in Smart Cities

Authors
Sampaio, S; Sousa, PR; Martins, C; Ferreira, A; Antunes, L; Cruz-Correia, R;

Publication
APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL

Abstract
Smart cities, leveraging IoT technologies, are revolutionizing the quality of life for citizens. However, the massive data generated in these cities also poses significant privacy risks, particularly in de-anonymization and re-identification. This survey focuses on the privacy concerns and commonly used techniques for data protection in smart cities, specifically addressing geolocation data and video surveillance. We categorize the attacks into linking, predictive and inference, and side-channel attacks. Furthermore, we examine the most widely employed de-identification and anonymization techniques, highlighting privacy-preserving techniques and anonymization tools; while these methods can reduce the privacy risks, they are not enough to address all the challenges. In addition, we argue that de-identification must involve properties such as unlikability, selective disclosure and self-sovereignty. This paper concludes by outlining future research challenges in achieving complete de-identification in smart cities.

2023

Automated Assessment in Computer Science: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Literature

Authors
Paiva, JC; Figueira, A; Leal, JP;

Publication
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES AND SYSTEMS, ICWL 2022, SETE 2022

Abstract
Over the years, several systematic literature reviews have been published reporting advances in tools and techniques for automated assessment in Computer Science. However, there is not yet a major bibliometric study that examines the relationships and influence of publications, authors, and journals to make these research trends visible. This paper presents a bibliometric study of automated assessment of programming exercises, including a descriptive analysis using various bibliometric measures and data visualizations. The data was collected from the Web of Science Core Collection. The obtained results allow us to identify the most influential authors and their affiliations, monitor the evolution of publications and citations, establish relationships between emerging themes in publications, discover research trends, and more. This paper provides a deeper knowledge of the literature and facilitates future researchers to start in this field.

2023

Traffic-aware gateway placement and queue management in flying networks

Authors
Coelho, A; Campos, R; Ricardo, M;

Publication
AD HOC NETWORKS

Abstract
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have emerged as adequate platforms to carry communications nodes, including Wi-Fi Access Points and cellular Base Stations. This has led to the concept of flying networks composed of UAVs as a flexible and agile solution to provide on-demand wireless connectivity anytime, anywhere. However, state of the art works have been focused on optimizing the placement of the access network providing connectivity to ground users, overlooking the backhaul network design. In order to improve the overall Quality of Service (QoS) offered to ground users, the placement of Flying Gateways (FGWs) and the size of the queues configured in the UAVs need to be carefully defined to meet strict performance requirements. The main contribution of this article is a traffic-aware gateway placement and queue management (GPQM) algorithm for flying networks. GPQM takes advantage of knowing in advance the positions of the UAVs and their traffic demand to determine the FGW position and the queue size of the UAVs, in order to maximize the aggregate throughput and provide stochastic delay guarantees. GPQM is evaluated by means of ns-3 simulations, considering a realistic wireless channel model. The results demonstrate significant gains in the QoS offered when GPQM is used.

2023

Multiobjective Evolutionary Clustering to Enhance Fault Detection in a PV System

Authors
Yamada, L; Rampazzo, P; Yamada, F; Guimaraes, L; Leitao, A; Barbosa, F;

Publication
OPERATIONAL RESEARCH, IO 2022-OR

Abstract
Data clustering combined with multiobjective optimization has become attractive when the structure and the number of clusters in a dataset are unknown. Data clustering is the main task of exploratory data mining and a standard statistical data analysis technique used in many fields, including machine learning, pattern recognition, image analysis, information retrieval, and bioinformatics. This project analyzes data to extract possible failure patterns in Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Panels. When managing PV Panels, preventive maintenance procedures focus on identifying and monitoring potential equipment problems. Failure patterns such as soiling, shadowing, and equipment damage can disturb the PV system from operating efficiently. We propose a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm that uses different distance functions to explore the conflicts between different perspectives of the problem. By the end, we obtain a non-dominated set, where each solution carries out information about a possible clustering structure. After that, we pursue a-posteriori analysis to exploit the knowledge of non-dominated solutions and enhance the fault detection process of PV panels.

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