Suchergebnisse

This dissertation addresses the timely problem of designing Integrated Personal Health Records (PHR). The goal is to provide citizens with digital user experiences, sustainable and flexible enough, for gaining control over their personal health information in a seamless way. Most importantly, so that people are able to reflect and act upon their selfknowledge, towards the accomplishment of their good health and wellbeing. Towards this end, the Integrated PHR as an emerging model in the field of Health IT, was the framework that set this research forward on exploring how communication and collaboration between patients and providers can be improved, which naturally impacts the field of HCI. Acknowledging that today patients are the ones who own all that is recorded about their health data, this new model was object of a design strategy that shaped the results presented in this dissertation. These have showed how patients can have more control of their health over time, through a patient-centered, organic system, which has the ability of combining multiple sources of data both from patient and provider side. As this new type of PHR fosters the creation of integrated networks, this milestone was achieved in this research by interacting with cross-channel user experiences that took part of nationwide healthcare ecosystems. The work presented herein, has demonstrated through the analysis and development of two use cases in cooperation with organizations connected to the Portuguese Ministry of Health, how an Integrated PHR can be a powerful personal tool, to be used by the citizen with undeniable value to the demands of an aging society. The use cases structured the thesis into two parts. The first part in collaboration with the Portuguese National Patient Portal, combines an Integrated PHR and incorporates the Portuguese Data Sharing Platform (PDS), which can be used by any Portuguese citizen. This use case study led to a proposal of the portal by also creating a foundational model for designing Integrated PHRs. The second part in collaboration with the Portuguese National Senior Telehealth Program (Saúde 24 Sénior), led to another proposal for an Integrated PHR, applying the outcomes from Part 1 and the requirements that derived from the findings explored in this second use case study. The proposed solution, has the potential to be used by the Portuguese senior community in the scope of home assistive care. Both proposals applied a user experience design methodology and included the development of two prototypes. The engagement of the stakeholders during the two case studies was accomplished with participatory design methods and followed a multidisciplinary approach to create solutions that would meet the human, politics and behavior interdependencies that were inherent to the process of working with large healthcare organizations. The provided contributions from this thesis intent to be part of a transition process that is changing the behavior of the healthcare sector, which is increasingly moving towards the improvement of the patient-provider relationship, patient engagement, collaborative care and positive computing, where digital technologies play a key role.

In the early nineties, Mark Weiser wrote a series of seminal papers that introduced the concept of Ubiquitous Computing. According to Weiser, computers require too much attention from the user, drawing his focus from the tasks at hand. Instead of being the centre of attention, computers should be so natural that they would vanish into the human environment. Computers become not only truly pervasive but also effectively invisible and unobtrusive to the user. This requires not only for smaller, cheaper and low power consumption computers, but also for equally convenient display solutions that can be harmoniously integrated into our surroundings. With the advent of Printed Electronics, new ways to link the physical and the digital worlds became available. By combining common printing techniques such as inkjet printing with electro-optical functional inks, it is starting to be possible not only to mass-produce extremely thin, flexible and cost effective electronic circuits but also to introduce electronic functionalities into products where it was previously unavailable. Indeed, Printed Electronics is enabling the creation of novel sensing and display elements for interactive devices, free of form factor. At the same time, the rise in the availability and affordability of digital fabrication technologies, namely of 3D printers, to the average consumer is fostering a new industrial (digital) revolution and the democratisation of innovation. Nowadays, end-users are already able to custom design and manufacture on demand their own physical products, according to their own needs. In the future, they will be able to fabricate interactive digital devices with user-specific form and functionality from the comfort of their homes. This thesis explores how task-specific, low computation, interactive devices capable of presenting dynamic visual information can be created using Printed Electronics technologies, whilst following an approach based on the ideals behind Personal Fabrication. Focus is given on the use of printed electrochromic displays as a medium for delivering dynamic digital information. According to the architecture of the displays, several approaches are highlighted and categorised. Furthermore, a pictorial computation model based on extended cellular automata principles is used to programme dynamic simulation models into matrix-based electrochromic displays. Envisaged applications include the modelling of physical, chemical, biological, and environmental phenomena.

The main objective of the research work described in this manuscript was to develop methods (hardware/software) for three-dimensional data acquisition in order to perform morphological analysis in sandy shore environments. This system, when concluded, intends to estimate the volumetric variations in beaches being eroded at high rates, directly contributing for studies focused on the protection of the coastline. This work is particularly focused on the development of software to estimate the 3D positions using a dedicated low-cost hardware device that was also developed in the framework of this project. Several methods have been used to study these phenomena, such as classical topography by surveying discrete points with the utilization of theodolites and/or total stations that are highly time-consuming. Other methods that start recently being used, like terrestrial or airborne LiDAR, are very costly and are not suitable to be used in many locations due to governmental requirements (like permits, environment, and security issues). Similar limitations also occur with Mobile Mapping Systems (MMS) with laser scanners that permit the survey when the vehicle is moving on the beach. In order to minimize the issues presented by the techniques described above, it was developed a simple, economic, ef cient and accurate system that can be used to study the erosion phenomena in coastal area. This system should allow one to acquire accurate GNSS positioning data on beaches, using a simple acquisition device in order to enable the creation of a three- -dimensional surface of the study area, which temporal variation can permit to quantify the erosion rates. This system is formed by an acquisition device, a GNSS receiver and antenna, and a Android Tablet/Smartphone that allows us to collect the antenna attitude from it's internal orientation sensors. To collect information from the angles of the sensors, an Android application was developed. With the Tablet/Smartphone attitude angles, it is possible to correct the GNSS observations in order to obtain the vertical position - a dedicated C# application was developed with this objective. This corrections allows the creation of surfaces that accurately represent the terrains where the observations were conducted. In the future, using several observations at different times, it is possible to study the variations of sand volumes of the surveyed beaches and analyse the morphological variations. Some preliminary tests were performed concerning the creation of the surfaces, in order to evaluate the internal accuracy of the entire system. For this goal, we developed several scripts, using GMT (Generic Mapping Tools), that can also be used in the future to calculate the variations of the beach volume. In this respect, the results of some tests carried out to evaluate the accuracy of the developed technology are presented. In particular, by analysing the deviations with respect to a reference surface and by evaluating the sensitivity when measuring on an irregular surface. ; O principal objetivo do trabalho de investigação descrito neste manuscrito foi, desenvolver métodos (software/hardware) para aquisição de dados em três dimensões, de forma a realizar a análise morfológica em ambientes de costa arenosa. Este sistema, quando estiver concluído, pretende estimar as variações volumétricas em praias que estão a ser erodidas a taxas elevadas, contribuindo diretamente para estudos voltados para a proteção da zona costeira. Este trabalho está focado principalmente no desenvolvimento de software para estimar as posições em 3D utilizando um dispositivo de hardware de baixo custo dedicado que também foi desenvolvido no âmbito deste projecto. Têm sido utilizados vários métodos para estudar estes fenômenos, tais como topografia clássica através do levantamento de pontos discretos, com a utilização de teodolitos e/ou estações totais que são altamente demoradas. Outros métodos que começam recentemente a ser utilizados, é o LiDAR terrestre ou aéreo, são muito caros e não são adequados para serem utilizados em muitos locais, devido a exigências governamentais (como licenças, meio ambiente e questões de segurança). Também ocorrem limitações semelhantes com o Mapeamento de Sistemas Móveis (MMS) com scanners a laser que permitem o levantamento, quando o veículo estiver em movimento na praia. Para minimizar os problemas apresentados pelas técnicas acima descritas, desenvolveu-se um sistema simples, económico, eficiente e preciso que possa ser utilizado para estudar os fenómenos da erosão da zona costeira. Este sistema deve permitir adquirir dados de posicionamento GNSS precisos nas praias, utilizando um dispositivo simples de aquisição, para permitir a criação de uma superfície tridimensional da área de estudo, o que pode permitir a variação temporal para quantificar as taxas de erosão. Este sistema é formado por um dispositivo de aquisição, um receptor GNSS e uma antena e um Tablet/Smartphone Android que nos permita recolher a atitude da antena apartir dos sensores de orientação internos. Para a recolha da informação a partir dos ângulos dos sensores, foi desenvolvida uma aplicação Android. Com os ângulos da atitude do Tablet/Smartphone, é possível corrigir as observações GNSS, para obter uma posição vertical - foi desenvolvida uma aplicação C# com este objectivo. Esta correcção permite a criação de superfícies que representam com precisão os terrenos onde foram realizadas as observações. No futuro, utilizando várias observações em momentos diferentes, é possível estudar as variações do volume da areia das praias estudadas e analisar as variações morfológicas. Foram realizados alguns testes preliminares sobre a criação de superfícies, para avaliar a precisão interna de todo o sistema. Para este objectivo, foram desenvolvidos alguns scripts, utilizando o GMT (Generic Mapping Tools), que também podem ser utilizados no futuro, para calcular as variações de volume da praia. Assim, são apresentados os resultados de alguns testes realizados para avaliar a precisão da tecnologia desenvolvida. Em particular, através da análise dos desvios em relação a uma superfície de referência e pela avaliação da sensibilidade na medição sobre uma superfície irregular.

Dupla diplomação com a UTFPR - Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná ; Much has been discussed recently related to population ascension, the reasons for this event, and, in particular, the aspects of society affected. Over the years, the city governments realized a higher level of growth, mainly in terms of urban scale, technology, and individuals numbers. It comprises improvements and investments in their structure and policies, motivated by improving conditions in population live quality and reduce environmental, energy, fuel, time, and money resources, besides population living costs, including the increasing demand for parking structures accessible to the general or private-public, and a waste of substantial daily time and fuel, disturbing the population routinely. Therefore, one way to achieve that challenge is focused on reducing energy, money, and time costs to travel to work or travel to another substantial location. That work presents a robust, and low computational power Smart Parking system adaptive to several environments changes to detect and report vacancy states in a parking space oriented to Deep Learning, and Embedded Systems. This project consists of determining the parking vacancy status through statistical and image processing methods, creates a robust image data set, and the Convolutional Neural Network model focused on predict three final classes. In order to save computational power, this approach uses the Background Subtraction based on the Mixture of Gaussian method, only updating parking space status, in which large levels of motion are detected. The proposed model presents 94 percent of precision at the designed domain. ; Muito se discutiu recentemente sobre a ascensão populacional, as razões deste evento e, em particular, os aspectos da sociedade afetados. Ao longo dos anos, os governos perceberam um grande nível de crescimento, principalmente em termos de escala urbana, tecnologia e número de indivíduos. Este fato deve-se a melhorias e investimentos na estrutura urbana e políticas motivados por melhorar as condições de qualidade de vida da população e reduzir a utilização de recursos ambientais, energéticos, combustíveis, temporais e monetários, além dos custos de vida da população, incluindo a crescente demanda por estruturas de estacionamento acessíveis ao público em geral ou público-privado. Portanto, uma maneira de alcançar esse desafio é manter a atenção na redução de custos de energia, dinheiro e tempo para viajar para o trabalho ou para outro local substancial. Esse trabalho apresenta um sistema robusto de Smart Parking, com baixo consumo computacional, adaptável a diversas mudanças no ambiente observado para detectar e relatar os estados das vagas de estacionamento, orientado por Deep Learning e Embedded Systems. Este projeto consiste em determinar o status da vaga de estacionamento por meio de métodos estatísticos e de processamento de imagem, criando um conjunto robusto de dados e um modelo de Rede Neuronal Convolucional com foco na previsão de três classes finais. A fim de reduzir consumo computacional, essa abordagem usa o método de Background Subtraction, somente atualizando o status do espaço de estacionamento em que grandes níveis de movimento são detectados. O modelo proposto apresenta 94 porcento da precisão no domínio projetado.

The use of applications for mobile devices applied to advertising has been increasing during the last few years, being more interactive, not requiring a large monetary investment and reaching a large number of users. The aim of this dissertation is to create an application in mobile Augmented Reality for advertising/divulgation (MARA), and it was decided that an application for turism divulgation in Covilhã would be developed. The developed application aims to present a tourist route in Covilhã, which gives information through Augmented Reality, in the various waypoints. This application also makes use of geolocation systems (GPS) that guides users through the various points. Augmented Reality (AR) is like a supplement to the real world using virtual objects created with computer graphics. This technology is expanding, its applications are varied and their diversity has been increasing, being used in several areas. In this dissertation there are examples of applications in areas such as advertising and marketing, medical, entertainment, military, education and finally tourism. The application described in this paper was developed for Android using the Apache Cordova, Wikitude and Google Maps. Android is an operating system (OS) for mobile devices based on Linux. It is the OS for mobile devices with more users in the world. Being open source it facilitates the work of developers in the application development process as well as its publication in the Play Store (Android application store). Being this application a browser application, Apache Cordova was needed to its execution. This framework facilitates the creation of applications for mobile devices, since these will be developed using HTML, CSS and JavaScript, without having to code in Java. To create the functionalities of the application it was necessary Wikitude, a plugin to perform the AR, as well as Phonegap Google Maps plugin for maps and directions, presented in the application. ; As aplicações para dispositivos móveis aplicadas à publicidade têm visto a sua utilização a crescer massivamente. São mais interativas, não necessitam de um grande investimento monetário e chegam a um grande número de utilizadores. Esta dissertação tem como alvo criar uma aplicação para publicidade/divulgação em Realidade Aumentada para dispositivos móveis (MARA), tendo-se optado por desenvolver uma aplicação de divulgação turística para a Covilhã. A aplicação desenvolvida pretende dar a conhecer um percurso turístico na Covilhã, no qual é apresentada informação através da Realidade Aumentada, nos diversos pontos do percurso. Esta aplicação faz ainda uso de sistemas de geolocalização (GPS) permitindo assim guiar os utilizadores ao longo dos vários pontos do percurso. A Realidade Aumentada (RA) funciona como um suplemento para o mundo real usando objetos virtuais criados em computação gráfica. Esta é uma tecnologia em grande expansão, com aplicações cada vez mais variadas e diversificadas, podendo ser utilizada em diversas áreas. Nesta dissertação são apresentados exemplos de aplicações em áreas como publicidade e marketing, medicina, entretenimento, militar, educação e finalmente turismo. A aplicação descrita nesta dissertação foi desenvolvida para Android utilizando o Apache Cordova, Wikitude e Google Maps. O Android é um sistema operativo (SO) para dispositivos móveis baseado no Linux. É o SO para dispositivos móveis com mais utilizadores do mundo. Por ser open source facilita aos programadores o processo de desenvolvimento de aplicações, bem como a sua publicação na Play Store (loja de aplicações do Android). Sendo esta aplicação uma aplicação de browser foi necessário o Apache Cordova para a sua realização. Esta framework facilita a criação de aplicações para dispositivos móveis, já que estas serão desenvolvidas utilizando HTML, CSS e JavaScript sem ser necessário código em Java. Para criar as funcionalidades da aplicação foi necessário um plugin para realizar a RA, Wikitude, assim como os mapas e direções, Google Maps plugin para phonegap, presentes na aplicação.

This project described in this dissertation is being carried out for the Ministry of Social and Economic Inclusion (MIES) of Ecuador based on its current problems. The de ciencies that government entities have to help their citizens with information and paperwork has exceeded their operational capacity. The MIES currently has a Marketing and Information department that is saturated with questions through channels such as call centers, information centers in their of- ces and social networks outside their o ce hours. In recent years there has been an increase in requests for information through digital channels such as its Facebook page, since internet access to places far from the big cities has increased. This has been seen as an opportunity for improvement by creating an chatbot agent that helps citizens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Most of the queries can be made through a query to their internal data and this allows the operational burden of the operators to be released to carry out management processes and not just information. Many public and private companies have resorted to using chatbots to help their users with simple information tasks. They have also relied on these technological tools to create registration and management functions. Today we can use chatbots development tools and platforms such as Dialog ow that allow to create chatbots in a manageable and scalable way according to needs. Facebook has multiple connection tools that allow it to integrate safely and e ciently with its platforms such as Facebook Messenger, allowing customers to create applications that will reach the majority of citizens who have internet access. Developing a chatbot agent can be a simple and straightforward task, but in which the remaining time must be invested in training and helping the chatbot agent to understand words or idioms of language used in di erent regions of the same country. In the development of a chatbot, the training cycle is constant and allows the chatbot to increase its ability to understand the ...

Trabalho de Projeto de Mestrado em Informática, 2021, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências ; A tremenda importância que a privacidade assumiu no quotidiano do ser humano está a tornar-se cada vez mais uma preocupação de cada um. O crescente e progressivo valor das informações de identificação pessoal está a ficar cada vez mais óbvio para o indivíduo comum, consequência da constante busca por parte das empresas em obter informação acerca da população. Este tipo de realidade deixou de constituir uma preocupação exclusiva do universo digital e respetivos técnicos. Face a esta nova realidade, a atenção de profissionais e académicos das mais diversas áreas tem vindo a crescer exponencialmente, desde a matemática ao direito, num sinal evidente de que estamos a entrar num assunto tão poderosamente delicado, tao suscetível de alterar o quotidiano do cidadão comum, tão terrível e potencialmente ameaçador das liberdades, direitos e garantias tão custosamente adquiridas ao longo do passado século. Sendo uma matéria de tal forma importante, entrou nas agendas das principais organizações internacionais dando origem em reação, a diplomas de cariz legislativo - atente-se, a título meramente exemplificativo, no Regulamento Geral de Proteção de Dados aprovado pelas instituições da União Europeia e em vigor na generalidade dos seus Estados-membros - que visam obstar aos efeitos inegavelmente nocivos que ameaçam modelar as sociedades do futuro. Contudo, hoje em dia, a grande maioria das atividades praticadas por cada indivíduo e que envolvam a tecnologia são meios para, de alguma forma, extrair este tipo de informação. Desde dispositivos do dia a dia, como smartphones e smartwatches, até dispositivos criados apenas com o propósito de recolher informações, existe uma grande abundância de dispositivos que, de uma forma constante, recolhem dados, o que significa que a grande maioria da população está suscetível de ter as suas informações pessoais serem recolhidas diariamente. Um tipo de dados muitas vezes associado a estes ...

This paper describes an approach for automatic capitalization of text without case information, such as spoken transcripts of video subtitles, produced by automatic speech recognition systems. Our approach is based on pre-trained contextualized word embeddings, requires only a small portion of data for training when compared with traditional approaches, and is able to achieve state-of-the-art results. The paper reports experiments both on general written data from the European Parliament, and on video subtitles, revealing that the proposed approach is suitable for performing capitalization, not only in each one of the domains, but also in a cross-domain scenario. We have also created a versatile multilingual model, and the conducted experiments show that good results can be achieved both for monolingual and multilingual data. Finally, we applied domain adaptation by finetuning models, initially trained on general written data, on video subtitles, revealing gains over other approaches not only in performance but also in terms of computational cost. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

This work addresses the information exchange between System Operator for opera tional planning purposes. These System Operators are responsible for the correct func tioning of their electrical grid. With the increasing usage of renewable energy sources the coordination and information exchange between system operators must be improved. Amid the several potential areas of coordination between System Operators (TSO and DSO) the focus of this work relied on information exchange concerning the three phase Short circuit currents at the interface buses between TSO and DSO In order to make this information exchange a web-service Architecture is proposed. The web-service Architecture used was the RESTful which needs to follow the European Union's specifications of data exchange. A structure for the type of information to be exchanged between Service Operators was developed and mapped to the Portuguese case, the information that was exchanged was the values of Scc and Icc of a given electrical grid (Short Circuit Power, Short Circuit Current) during a 24 hour period. An API (application programming interface) was developed that retrieves the information from a given grid and allows the required calculation. To test the implementation of the solution developed, a IEEE 14 based grid was de veloped using profiles of generation and loads based on real case data from REN (Redes Energéticas Nacionais). To simulate a 24 hour scenario 24 different cases were developed and tested in order to get a profile of the evolution of Scc. As for the RESTful Server it was tested with the API's output files to ensure the correct transmission of data between the API and the Server. The results obtained on both the API and the Server are positive and reflected the expected outcome. The information retrieved from the API is validated, its output is well structured and contains the necessary information for the data exchange. As for the Server, the tests made were successful in testing the performance and fidelity of the information exchange and all developed functionalities. ; Neste trabalho é abordado a troca de informação entre Operadores de Sistema, para alcançar um melhor planeamento operacional. A responsabilidade destes Operadores de Sistema baseia-se em zelar pelo correto funcionamento da sua rede elétrica. Com a maior produção de energia renováveis, têm de ser melhorados as vias de coordenação e a troca de informações entre os Operadores do Sistema. O foco deste trabalho foi a partilha de informações sobre correntes de curto-circuito trifásicas nos barramentos de interface entre os Operadores de Sistema (TSO e DSO). Para a troca de informação entre Operadores de sistema ser realizada foi desenvolvido um web-service. O web-service desenvolvido tem como estructura a arquitectura RESTful, tendo por base as normas definidas pela União Europeia. Para o desenvolvimento da troca de informação entre Operadores de Serviço a estrutura do conteúdo da informação foi de finida, e aplicada num caso baseado na realidade Portuguesa. O conteúdo da informação trocada é retirada dos barramentos de uma rede eléctrica, esta informação é referente a valores de corrente de curto-circuito trifásica simétrica para o horizonte temporal de 24 horas. Tendo para este efeito sido desenvolvido uma API (interface de programação de aplicativos). Os testes feitos à API usaram uma rede baseada na IEEE 14, os valores usados para os perfis de geração e de cargas foram baseados em dados de casos reais da REN (Redes Energéticas Nacionais). Os cenários desenvolvidos corresponderam a discretizações de 1 hora no horizonte de 24 horas, serviu para obter um perfil de Scc em cada barramento da rede. Após a correr a API os ficheiros resultantes foram utilizados para testar a troca de informação com o servidor RESTful. Os testes realizados à API e ao servidor foram bem-sucedidos e os resultados retira dos refletem o resultado esperado. Recorreu-se à validação dos valores retirados da API recorrendo a software próprio, com isto constatou-se que a informação retirada da API está valida e passível para a troca de dados. Em relação ao Servidor, todos os testes às funcionalidade do mesmo obtiveram a resposta esperada.

The region that served as the basis for this work is characterized by the abundance of different types of granite. In some places, the predominance of certain uraniferous minerals, the existence of faults and mines may even be responsible for the existence of very high levels of natural radioactivity, especially with regard to radon. The main motivation for studying the effects of population exposure to radon is based on the fact that this gas, radioactive, odorless, colorless and tasteless, has been recognized since 1988 by the World Health Organization as the 2nd leading cause of death from lung cancer for the general population, after tobacco. Approximately 80 % of the background radiation to which populations are exposed daily comes from natural sources, which can include radioactive materials of natural origin, NORM, present in the earth's crust, in food, in some drinks and, including certain building materials. In December 2018, a new legislation was approved in Portugal, DL no 108/2018, transposed from European Directive 59/2013 / Euratom, which establishes uniform basic safety standards for the protection of the health of people subject to exposure professional, public and medical professionals against the dangers arising from ionizing radiation. The radon isotope, 222Rn, which results from radio disintegration, 226Ra, and one of the uranium decay products, 238U, is the main radionuclide of radiological interest in terms human health. This radioactive gas is spontaneously released from some rocks and, being slightly denser than air, it tends to accumulate in ground areas of closed spaces and is responsible for the majority of the radiation dose received by the population. Some traditional solutions have been applied in order to solve the problem, however, after the detection of the radon they do not use the data collected in order to combat and prevent the gas from accumulating in the interior spaces. In Portugal it is a problem that has not been given due attention. Taking into account the possible harmful effects of radon on the population, the main motivation of this work was the development of an IoT (Internet of Things) system with the objective of detecting, mitigating and predicting the levels of radon gas inside homes. Based on this assumption, it will be possible to create a healthier environment that will reduce health risks in closed environments. To achieve this goal, an IoT system was developed, consisting of a radon sensor and an automated switch, which allows the fans installed and / or switched off to be installed in the residence, as well as predicting and making decisions in the face of a potentially dangerous situation based on the records provided by the sensors. This system also includes a web application that allows the user to consult the statistical data related to the average radon concentration. On the other hand, through the web application, it is possible to not only activate the fans manually, but also to edit the limit at which the fans are activated. This system was tested in a real context and, therefore, it is possible to compare two radon gas mitigation methods and identify which would be the most effective. Once the method to be used was determined and after stabilizing the data obtained by the sensor, the results obtained by the system were analyzed, which allowed us to conclude that the system reduced considerably the levels of radon in the house. On average, there was a 93% reduction in the concentration of radon gas. This result demonstrates that the implementation of the system was successful and allows us to conclude that it can be applied on a larger scale. ; A região que serviu de base para a realização deste trabalho é caracterizada pela abundância de diversos tipos de granitos. Em alguns locais, a predominância de determinados minerais uraníferos, a existência de falhas e minas podem, inclusivamente, ser responsáveis pela existência de níveis de radioatividade natural bastante elevados, especialmente no que se refere ao radão. A principal motivação para se estudar os efeitos da exposição das populações ao radão baseia-se no facto de este gás, radioativo, inodoro, incolor e insípido, ser desde 1988, reconhecido pela Organização Mundial de Saúde como a 2a causa de morte por cancro pulmonar para a população geral, depois do tabaco. Cerca de 80% da radiação de fundo a que as populações estão, diariamente, expostas tem origem em fontes naturais nas quais se podem incluir os materiais radioativos de origem natural, NORM, presentes na crosta terrestre, na comida, em algumas bebidas e, inclusivamente, em certos materiais de construção. Em dezembro de 2018, foi aprovada, em Portugal, uma nova legislação, o DL no 108/2018, transposta da Diretiva Europeia 59/2013/Euratom, que estabelece normas de segurança de base uniformes para a proteção da saúde de pessoas sujeitas a exposição profissional, da população e médica contra os perigos resultantes das radiações ionizantes. O isótopo radão, 222Rn, que resulta da desintegração do radio, 226Ra, e um dos produtos de decaimento do urânio, 238U, é o principal radionuclídeo com interesse radiológico em termos de saúde humana. Este gás radioativo liberta-se, espontaneamente de algumas rochas e, sendo ligeiramente mais denso do que o ar, tem tendência a acumular-se em zonas térreas de espaços fechados e é responsável pela maioria da dose de radiação recebida pela população. Algumas soluções tradicionais têm sido aplicadas de modo a resolver o problema, no entanto, depois da deteção do radão estas não usam os dados recolhidos de forma a combater e a prevenir que o gás se acumule nos espaços interiores. Em Portugal é um problema que não tem a devida atenção. Tendo em conta os possíveis efeitos nocivos do radão na população, a principal motivação deste trabalho consistiu no desenvolvimento de um sistema IoT (Internet das Coisas) com o objetivo de detetar, mitigar e prever os níveis do gás radão no interior das habitações. Partindo deste pressuposto, será possível criar um ambiente mais saudável que permitirá reduzir os riscos para a saúde em ambientes fechados. Para se concretizar este objetivo foi desenvolvido um sistema IoT que consiste em um sensor de radão e um interruptor automatizado, que permite ligar e/ou desligar os ventiladores instalados na residência, bem como prever e tomar decisões perante uma situação potencialmente perigosa com base nos registos fornecidos pelos sensores. Este sistema integra também uma aplicação web que permite ao utilizador consultar os dados estatísticos relativos à concentração média de radão. Por outro lado, através da aplicação web, é possível não só ativar os ventiladores manualmente, como também editar o limite em que os ventiladores são accionados. Este sistema foi testado num contexto real e, por isso, possível comparar dois métodos de mitigação do gás radão e identificar qual seria o mais eficaz. Uma vez determinado o método a ser utilizado e após a estabilização dos dados obtidos pelo sensor, analisaram-se os resultados obtidos pelo sistema que permitiram concluir que o sistema reduziu consideravelmente os níveis de radão na habitação. Foi verificada, em média, uma redução de cerca de 93% na concentração de gás radão. Este resultado demonstra que a implementação do sistema foi um sucesso e permite concluir que poderá ser aplicado numa escala maior.

Nowadays, 31% of the population worldwide still classified as Underbanked. These do not have access to mainstream financial services or institutions, and this is a problem that especially haunts the emerging markets. As the mobile phone penetration rate is tremendous, financial companies are investing in the development of mobile banking solutions to solve this issue. M-Pesa is one of those solutions that currently is being developed and deployed in several of these markets as in Tanzania, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of the Congo and others. The appearing of solutions like M-Pesa allowed its users to have an online bank account and perform operations as deposit, transfer or withdraw money. Despite the innovation and these solutions give them the possibility of pay taxes, bills or services, they continue excluded from the online shopping world. This exclusion happens because payment gateways are not prepared to support users that do not use the traditional banking systems. Online Payments platform aims to allow M-Pesa users to shop online. This platform is an online payment gateway that recurring to a third-party payment processor allows M-Pesa users to purchase on online stores. Is part of the prototype a web platform, that is composed by the following portals: i) merchant; ii) developer; iii) checkout; iv) documentation and v) demo and the Android M-Pesa application that was used to add support to new features for the Online Payments platform. This platform is a proof of concept developed during an internship at WIT Software, that is the company responsible for the development process of the M-Pesa mobile applications. Finally, as far as the final phase of the project is concerned, have been obtained proof of concept thought which can see that it is possible to implement it.

Denial of service (DDoS) is a persistent and continuously growing problem. These attacks are based on methods that flood the victim with messages that it did not request, effectively exhausting its computational or bandwidth resources. The variety of attack approaches is overwhelming and the current defense mechanisms are not completely effective. In today's internet, a multitude of DDoS attacks occur everyday, some even degrading the availability of critical or governmental services. In this dissertation, we propose a new network level DDoS mitigation protocol that iterates on previous attempts and uses proven mechanisms such as cryptographic challenges and packet-tagging. Our analysis of the previous attempts to solve this problem led to a ground-up design of the protocol with adaptability in mind, trying to minimize deployment and adoption barriers. With this work we concluded that with software changes only on the communication endpoints, it is possible to mitigate the most used DDoS attacks with results up to 25 times more favourable than standard resource rate limiting (RRL) methods.

Information systems are widespread and used by anyone with computing devices as well as corporations and governments. It is often the case that security leaks are introduced during the development of an application. Reasons for these security bugs are multiple but among them one can easily identify that it is very hard to define and enforce relevant security policies in modern software. This is because modern applications often rely on container sharing and multi-tenancy where, for instance, data can be stored in the same physical space but is logically mapped into different security compartments or data structures. In turn, these security compartments, to which data is classified into in security policies, can also be dynamic and depend on runtime data. In this thesis we introduce and develop the novel notion of dependent information flow types, and focus on the problem of ensuring data confidentiality in data-centric software. Dependent information flow types fit within the standard framework of dependent type theory, but, unlike usual dependent types, crucially allow the security level of a type, rather than just the structural data type itself, to depend on runtime values. Our dependent function and dependent sum information flow types provide a direct, natural and elegant way to express and enforce fine grained security policies on programs. Namely programs that manipulate structured data types in which the security level of a structure field may depend on values dynamically stored in other fields The main contribution of this work is an efficient analysis that allows programmers to verify, during the development phase, whether programs have information leaks, that is, it verifies whether programs protect the confidentiality of the information they manipulate. As such, we also implemented a prototype typechecker that can be found at http://ctp.di.fct.unl.pt/DIFTprototype/.

A soundscape is the representation of an acoustic environment in a specific context and time. Soundscapes evolve over time according to the changes in social, cultural and political contexts, and they constitute a unique way of experiencing auditory memories of a specific period in history. Considering that the soundscape of a place is ever-changing and it can provide us with important information about a location's context in time, the study and preservation of soundscapes, in particular historic soundscapes, has gained relevance in the cultural heritage protection and promotion process. Soundscapes enrich the history of places and contribute to enhance the visitors experience in tourism contexts. However, it is impossible to go back in time and record the acoustic experiences from centuries ago. For that reason, the closest we can get to experience an historic soundscape is by trying to recreate it. This can be done with the support of historic documentation and audio immersion technology. We created a solution that allows users to construct scenes that provide immersive auditory experiences. The immersive audio files generated are obtained by combining different current sound recordings, and by composing an immersive auditory scene that can be recorded by the user. Here, we propose Immerscape, a tool that non-expert users can easily use to create immersive historical soundscapes. This work was validated by a user study that evaluated the tool's functionalities and its acceptance by users. The proposed work is a contribution to the PASEV project, whose main purpose is to preserve and promote Évora's rich cultural heritage, in particular, their historic soundscapes corresponding to the period between 1540 and 1910. ; A paisagem sonora é uma representação de um ambiente acústico num contexto e período de tempo específicos. As paisagens sonoras evoluem ao longo do tempo de acordo com mudanças em contextos sociais, culturais e políticos, e constituem uma maneira única de experienciar memórias auditivas de um ...

The contract is the sovereign tool employed to manage agreements between entities in today's society. It plays a crucial role in a variety of different fields, ranging from politics to finance. This fact implies the efficiency of these applications is determined in part by the efficiency of the contracts they rely on. Despite their important role, contracts have changed relatively little in the last few centuries and remain based on an outdated technology of bureaucracy and procedures done by hand. Such systems are full of unnecessary complications, are incredibly wasteful in terms of time, money and resources, and are susceptible to human failure. In the last few years, a type of contract represented by a computer program has appeared. This concept, known as a smart contract, is based on the emerging blockchain technology. Blockchain is a type of distributed system which assures the immutability of data via the use of mathematically secure cryptographic techniques and that, as will be discussed, is well-suited for the implementation of smart contract systems. Transitioning contracts into the digital era would not only allow them to catch up to the technological pace of society but also would be advantageous from a safety and efficiency standpoint. This body of work will test the feasibility of using blockchain-based smart contracts to facilitate the first steps of this evolution. This thesis assembles a proof of concept platform that supports the specification and execution of smart contracts on a blockchain network. This proof of concept will in particular target the use case of opening a bank account, aiming to create an efficient, permanent, reliable and safe process. To achieve this, we constructed a Hyperledger Fabric network. We present herein the system developed and discuss the nuances pertaining to deploying a codebase on a blockchain, the evaluation of our system, and finally some visions for further development of this and related use cases.