Abstract
This paper investigates sampling strategies within latent spaces for music generation, focusing on (chordified) J.S. Bach Chorales and utilizing MusicVAE as the generative model. We conduct an experiment comparing three sampling and interpolation strategies within the latent space to generate chord progressions - from a discrete vocabulary of Bach's chords - to Bach's original chord sequences. Given a three-chord sequence from an original Bach chorale, we assess sampling strategies for replacing the middle chord. In detail, we adopt the following sampling strategies: (1) traditional linear interpolation, (2) k-nearest neighbors, and (3) k-nearest neighbors combined with angular alignment. The study evaluates their alignment with music theory principles of functional harmony embedding and voice-leading to mirror Bach's original chord sequences. Preliminary findings suggest that knearest neighbors and k-nearest neighbors combined with angular alignment closely align with the tonal function of the original chord, with k-nearest neighbors excelling in bass line interpolation and the combined strategy potentially enhancing voice-leading in upper voices. Linear interpolation maintains aspects of voice-leading but confines selections within defined tonal spaces, reflecting the nonlinear characteristics of the original sequences. Our study contributes to the dynamics of latent space sampling for music generation, offering potential avenues for enhancing explainable creative strategies. © 2024. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original.

Abstract

Abstract
Objective: This study aims to present the developmental stages of a Mobile App Prototype designed to enhance patient participation in the rehabilitation process after hip replacement. Methods: To ensure effective interaction between the system and the end user, a User-Centered Design methodology was followed, encompassing three phases: Requirements gathering, Prototyping, and Evaluation. Usability tests were conducted to assess the usability of the developed system. Results: The RehabApp for mobile devices was created, and the testing results were positive. Users expressed satisfaction with the outcome, deeming it a valuable tool for their recovery. This outcome demonstrates the high receptiveness of these technologies in the healthcare sector, making it a project that can readily be expanded into other areas of rehabilitation. Conclusion: This study demonstrated the potential of the RehabApp in the rehabilitation process after hip replacement surgery. This accomplishment was realized by ensuring the active participation of patients, potential users, and healthcare professionals throughout the app's development. Innovation: The RehabApp is a mobile application to provide users with all the necessary knowledge, enabling them to undergo a smoother and safer rehabilitation. Feedback from both patients and healthcare professionals played a crucial role in refining the app's features and addressing usability concerns.

Abstract
Socially responsible investments, also referred to as ethical or sustainable investments, have experienced rapid global growth in recent years. They represent an investment approach that incorporates social, environmental, and ethical considerations into decision-making processes. Consequently, the significance of socially responsible investments has captured the attention of academics, prompting inquiries into the impact of integrating social criteria on portfolio performance. The primary objective of this work was to conduct a comparative study of the performance between socially responsible and non-socially responsible investment funds, using funds domiciled in Portugal and Spain. Various multi-factor models, including the three-factor model of Fama and French, the four-factor model of Carhart, and the five-factor model of Fama and French, were employed to assess performance. The sample comprised 125 investment funds, with 43 identified as socially responsible and 82 as non-socially responsible. The study's findings indicate that there are no significant differences between socially responsible funds and their conventional counterparts. The majority of funds experience performance alterations during periods of crisis compared to crisis-free periods. Additionally, when comparing non-conditional models with conditional models, an improvement in the explanatory power of the latter is observed. This suggests that the inclusion of the dummy variable enhances the quality of fit for the models.

Abstract
Background: Approaches to documenting the software patterns of a system can support intentionally and manually documenting them or automatically extracting them from the source code. Some of the approaches that we review do not maintain proximity between code and documentation. Others do not update the documentation after the code is changed. All of them present a low level of liveness. Approach: This work proposes an approach to improve the understandability of a software system by documenting the design patterns it uses. We regard the creation and the documentation of software as part of the same process and attempt to streamline the two activities. We achieve this by increasing the feedback about the pattern instances present in the code, during development-i.e., by increasing liveness. Moreover, our approach maintains proximity between code and documentation and allows us to visualize the pattern instances under the same environment. We developed a prototype-DesignPatternDoc-for IntelliJ IDEA that continuously identifies pattern instances in the code, suggests them to the developer, generates the respective pattern-instance documentation, and enables live editing and visualization of that documentation. Results: To evaluate this approach, we conducted a controlled experiment with 21 novice developers. We asked participants to complete three tasks that involved understanding and evolving small software systems-up to six classes and 100 lines of code-and recorded the duration and the number of context switches. The results show that our approach helps developers spend less time understanding and documenting a software system when compared to using tools with a lower degree of liveness. Additionally, embedding documentation in the IDE and maintaining it close to the source code reduces context switching significantly.

Abstract
Objetivo: descobrir a razão pela qual resultados inesperados foram gerados na determinação das publicações historicamente mais influentes (landmarks) de Ciência da Informação e Biblioteconomia (CI&B) da Web of Science (WoS). Metodologia: Recuperamos dados de todos os artigos e revisões do CI&B, do período 1980-2017 (N=93.330), identificamos e analisamos as áreas de periódicos dos artigos que citaram os landmarks. Resultados: Mostramos que os periódicos que mais citam os dois primeiros landmarks da CI&B são da área de Gestão, Negócios e Sistemas de Informação. Mostramos também que cinco dos dez primeiros landmarks possuem conteúdos fortemente voltados para Gestão, Sociologia, Marketing, Comunicação e Sistemas de Informação e que só aparecem como landmarks da CI&B porque são citados por periódicos da área de Gestão, categorizados no WoS, também, como CI&B. No caso da área “Métricas da Informação”, o resultado revela publicações reconhecidas na literatura como cruciais. Conclusões: Quando se desenvolve um estudo de uma área de pesquisa utilizando a categorização da WoS como base para a amostra, outra área pode interferir neste estudo, produzindo resultados inconsistentes. A análise da categorização dos periódicos, conforme realizada por este estudo, é fundamental para avaliar corretamente o impacto de um artigo, pois as métricas de produção utilizadas na avaliação acadêmica precisam ser normalizadas por área.