Agile programming methods have become popular in software development projects. These methods increase productivity and support teamwork processes. In this thesis, we have analyzed three well-known Agile methods - Scrum, Extreme Programming and Crystal Orange - from the perspective of situated cognition to investigate how well the methods support cognition. Specifically, we looked at how the methods aid memory and attention through the use of external representations. The study suggests that the methods support different aspects of situated cognition reasonably well. However, among the investigated methods, Scrum stands out due to aspects of task representation (progress charts), its approaches to externalize what-to-do (memory), and the means to focus on the important programming tasks for the day (attention).

For children with intractable seizures, surgical removal of epileptic foci, if identifiable and feasible, can be an effective way to reduce or eliminate seizures. The success of this type of surgery strongly hinges upon the ability to identify and demarcate those epileptic foci. The ultimate goal of this research project is to develop an effective technology for detection of unique in vivo pathophysiological characteristics of epileptic cortex and, subsequently, to use this technology to guide epilepsy surgery intraoperatively. In this PhD dissertation the feasibility of using optical spectroscopy to identify unique in vivo pathophysiological characteristics of epileptic cortex was evaluated and proven using the data collected from children undergoing epilepsy surgery. In this first in vivo human study, static diffuse reflectance and fluorescence spectra were measured from the epileptic cortex, defined by intraoperative ECoG, and its surrounding tissue from pediatric patients undergoing epilepsy surgery. When feasible, biopsy samples were taken from the investigated sites for the subsequent histological analysis. Using the histological data as the gold standard, spectral data was analyzed with statistical tools. The results of the analysis show that static diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and its combination with static fluorescence spectroscopy can be used to effectively differentiate between epileptic cortex with histopathological abnormalities and normal cortex in vivo with a high degree of accuracy. To maximize the efficiency of optical spectroscopy in detecting and localizing epileptic cortex intraoperatively, the static system was upgraded to investigate histopathological abnormalities deep within the epileptic cortex, as well as to detect unique temporal pathophysiological characteristics of epileptic cortex. Detection of deep abnormalities within the epileptic cortex prompted a redesign of the fiberoptic probe. A mechanical probe holder was also designed and constructed to maintain the probe contact pressure and contact point during the time dependent measurements. The dynamic diffuse reflectance spectroscopy system was used to characterize in vivo pediatric epileptic cortex. The results of the study show that some unique wavelength dependent temporal characteristics (e.g., multiple horizontal bands in the correlation coefficient map g(λref = 800 nm, λcomp,t)) can be found in the time dependent recordings of diffuse reflectance spectra from epileptic cortex defined by ECoG.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The present investigation aims to, from an archaeological perspective, observe and understand the processes of social change in the city of Salvador of eight hundred, through from the glass’s interpretative potential. Aims to understand behaviors and social practices related to modernity in the nineteenth century in the Salvador city through from the analysis of the vitreous material recovered at house 14, in the São Francisco Street - Centro Histórico de Salvador. The approach enabled understand features and peculiarities of consumption behavior in the 19th century in Salvador through the vitreous objects, as containers of information on everyday living space and of the changes in Brazilian cities, under socio-economic, political and cultural aspects, immersed in the construction of a project of modernity imported. / A presente investigação visa, a partir de uma perspectiva arqueológica, observar e entender os processos de mudança social na cidade de Salvador dos oitocentos, a partir do potencial interpretativo imiscuído no vidro. Tem como objetivo, portanto, compreender práticas e comportamentos sociais relacionados à modernidade na Salvador oitocentista a partir da análise do material vítreo recuperado na casa 14, da Rua São Francisco, no Centro Histórico de Salvador. A abordagem possibilitou perceber características e peculiaridades do comportamento de consumo no século XIX em Salvador através dos objetos vítreos, como contentores de informações sobre o espaço de vida cotidiano e das mudanças ocorridas nas cidades brasileiras, sob aspectos socioeconômicos, políticos e culturais, imersos na construção de um projeto de modernidade importado.

A interação entre instituições heterogêneas tem sido cada vez mais necessária para obter e disponibilizar informações e serviços para seus usuários internos e externos. Esta interação tem sido sustentada principalmente pelo uso das novas tecnologias da informação e comunicação. A interoperabilidade entre instituições heterogêneas garante esta interação e proporciona vários benefícios como, por exemplo, utilizar toda a plataforma legada das instituições e ainda permitir a interação entre os sistemas. Entretanto, para que esta interoperabilidade seja possível é necessária a definição de conceitos comuns que padronizam e orientam as interações entre as instituições. Através destes conceitos comuns, as instituições podem trocar informações entre si e ainda manter sua independência e as particularidades em seus sistemas internos. Em nosso trabalho, propomos um Modelo para Interoperabilidade entre Instituições Heterogêneas (MIIH). A especificação das regras de interação e, especificamente, os protocolos de interoperabilidade entre as instituições são escritas usando JamSession, que é uma plataforma para a coordenação de serviços de software heterogêneos e distribuídos. O modelo também define uma arquitetura baseada em Artefatos do Conhecimento Institucionais para lidar com as conexões com os sistemas das instituições. Estes Artefatos do Conhecimento Institucionais são baseados no conceito geral de Artefatos do Conhecimento, ou seja, \"objetos que contêm e transmitem uma representação utilizável do conhecimento\". Os Artefatos do Conhecimento Institucionais são padrões arquitetônicos recorrentes que são observados no projeto de mecanismos de interoperabilidade para conectar instituições heterogêneas e são usados como uma descrição de alto nível da arquitetura para um projeto de sistema. Eles funcionam como padrões arquiteturais pré-concebidos que norteiam e padronizam as interações e, portanto, a interoperabilidade organizacional e semântica entre as instituições. Os Artefatos do Conhecimento Institucionais são fundamentados sobre uma ontologia de conceitos relevantes para os serviços destas instituições, cujo nível de abstração pode variar, dependendo do nível de integração necessário para as instituições - quanto mais sofisticada a interação, mais detalhes devem ser representados explicitamente na ontologia. Os Artefatos do Conhecimento Institucionais implementados também se comunicam com a camada de interação com o usuário, baseada em mundos virtuais, para garantir a comunicação adequada com estes usuários. Além do modelo conceitual proposto, apresentamos como resultado deste trabalho, um exemplo de uso do MIIH no contexto das instituições relacionadas à herança cultural (museus, galerias, colecionadores, etc.). Tendo reconhecido que este contexto dos museus é importante para toda a sociedade, verificamos mais profundamente o funcionamento dos museus e suas interações entre si e com seus usuários. Identificamos neste cenário a aplicação direta de nosso projeto, uma vez que a interoperabilidade entre os museus é fundamental para o desempenho de suas funções e a interoperabilidade com seus usuários define a razão de sua existência, conforme identificamos na definição de museu apresentada pela UNESCO. Este exemplo de uso é construído seguindo a metodologia proposta neste trabalho e serve para mostrar a utilização do nosso modelo no desenvolvimento de uma aplicação concreta para uso em instituições de arte e também por seus usuários. / Heterogeneous institutions interactions have increasingly been required to obtain and provide information and services to their internal and external users. This interaction has been sustained mainly by the use of new information and communication technologies. Interoperability between heterogeneous institutions ensures this interaction and provides various benefits such as, use the legacy platforms of the institutions and still allow the interaction between their systems. However, to make this interoperability possible it is necessary to define common concepts that standardize and guide the interactions between institutions. Through these common concepts, institutions can exchange information with each other and maintain the independence and particularities in their internal systems. In our work, we propose a Model for Interoperability between Heterogeneous Institutions (MIHI). The specification of the interaction rules and specifically the protocols for interoperability between institutions are written using JamSession, which is a platform for the coordination of heterogeneous and distributed software services. The model also defines an architecture based on Institutional Knowledge Artifacts to handle the connections to the systems of the institutions. These Institutional Knowledge Artifacts are based on the general concept of Knowledge Artifacts, i.e., \"objects that convey and hold usable representation of knowledge\". The Institutional Knowledge Artifacts are recurring architectural patterns that are observed in the design of mechanisms for interoperability to connect heterogeneous institutions and are used as a high-level description of the architecture for a system design. They function as pre-designed architectural patterns that guide and standardize the interactions and therefore the organizational and semantic interoperability between institutions. The Institutional Knowledge Artifacts are based on ontology of concepts relevant to these services institutions whose level of abstraction can vary, depending on the level of integration necessary for institutions - the more sophisticated interaction, more details should be represented explicitly in the ontology. The Institutional Knowledge Artifacts implemented also communicate with the use interface layer, based on virtual worlds, to ensure proper communication with these users. Besides the proposed conceptual model, we present as a result of this work, an example of the use of MIIH in the context of institutions related to cultural heritage (museums, galleries, collectors, etc.). Having recognized that the context of museums is important for the society, we studied more deeply the operation of museums and their interactions with each other and their users. We identified in this scenario the direct application of our project, since interoperability among museums is vital to the performance of its functions and interoperability with its users define the reason for its existence, as we verified in the definition of museum presented by UNESCO. This example of use is constructed following the methodology proposed in this work and serves to show the use of our model in the development of a practical application for use in art institutions and also by its users.

The aging population requires new and innovative approaches to monitor and supervise medical and physical conditions in residential environments. For this purpose, various sensor and hardware systems are being developed by researchers and industrial companies. One way to monitor health status is the electrocardiogram (ECG), which noninvasively measures heart activity on the body surface. These measurements provide a simple and easy way to monitor health on a continuous basis. However, the use of ECG measurements outside a confined clinical setting, beyond purely medical purposes, is associated with considerable disadvantages resulting from the given freedom of movement. In this work, a substantial noise source in mobile ECG is examined: Motion artifacts. We study the spectral characteristics of motion artifacts for a set of different motions representing everyday activities, namely: standing up, bending forward, walking, running, jumping, and climbing stairs. Furthermore, we investigate to what extent the reference sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, and skin-electrode impedance) are able to characterize and remove the recorded motion artifacts from the measurements. Our results demonstrate that motion artifacts markedly change their characteristics with a change in motion. While lowintensity movements manifest in lower frequency bands, higher intensity exercises provoke motion artifacts that are much more complex in their composition. These characteristics are correspondingly reflected in the correlation between reference sensors and artifacts. To overcome the drawbacks of motion artifacts in mobile measurements, we propose the application of tensor decomposition using canonical polyadic decomposition (CPD) as an example. A significant advantage of tensor factorization is that it can decompose the data without artificial constraints, unlike matrix factorization. We use CPD along with measurements obtained from different reference sensors to remove the artifacts. Wavelet transformation is utilized to transform ECG and reference data from vector to matrix format. Subsequently, a tensor is constructed by combining the heterogeneous measurements into a three-dimensional tensor. In this way, it is possible to access temporal and spectral features within the data simultaneously. Subsequently, we propose a methodology to predict the decomposition rank based on statistical features in the ECG that quantify the signal quality. To evaluate the performance of the decomposition process, we combine isolated motion artifacts recorded at the back with ECG obtained in rest to generate artificially corrupted data. The results suggest that CPD successfully removes motion artifacts from the data for all reference sensors regarded.

[pt] As organizações vêm passando por significativas transformações impulsionadas pela tecnologia, e que impactam mercados, sociedade e, particularmente, as profissões. (FARAJ et al., 2018). As High Growth Firms, fundos de investimento e aceleradoras se tornaram importantes vetores de capital e empregos (ISENBERG, 2013; IBGE, 2017). O sucesso neste chamado ecossistema de inovação e novos negócios é medido principalmente pela velocidade de crescimento das empresas, pela capacidade de antecipar produtos e processos, e pela rapidez com que dominam novos mercados (JOHNSON e LAFLEY, 2010; SALVATO e RERUP, 2018). São características que influenciam as noções temporais dos atores organizacionais, afetando suas percepções sobre competência e as expectativas dos tempos de execução e resposta (D ADDERIO et al, 2019; ORLIKOWSKI, e SCOTT, 2016). O presente estudo parte da experiência dos profissionais deste ecossistema para, à luz de uma abordagem fenomenográfica e processual (LANGLEY e TSOUKAS, 2010), compreender como a competência no uso do tempo é percebida nas rotinas organizacionais pressionadas por inovação e crescimento. Identificaram-se três maneiras por meio das quais o fenômeno é concebido por quem o vivencia: Otimizar atividades; Realizar objetivos; e Explorar possibilidades. No espaço de resultado foram identificadas ainda seis dimensões que estruturam e distinguem as concepções: Horizonte da atenção, Artefatos de estruturação temporal, Norteador da competência, Objetivos organizacionais priorizados, Nível da Competência, e Foco temporal. Os achados sugerem que inovação e crescimento influenciam de modos distintos a concepção de competência no uso do tempo. A partir deles, propôs-se um modelo teórico sobre a relação entre temporalidades, artefatos e sensemaking na geração de ciclos de aprendizagem generativa. Acrescenta-se ainda que a fenomenografia foi considerada como alternativa propícia para discutir as teorias atuais sobre temporalidade nas organizações. / [en] Organizations have been going through significant changes driven by technology, impacting markets, society and, particularly, professions. (FARAJ et al., 2018). High Growth Firms, investment funds and accelerators have become important vectors of capital and jobs (ISENBERG, 2013; IBGE, 2017). Success in this so-called innovation and new businesses ecosystem is mainly measured by the speed of growth, the ability to anticipate products and processes, and the velocity to dominate new markets (JOHNSON and LAFLEY, 2010; SALVATO and RERUP, 2018). These are characteristics that influence the temporal notions of organizational actors, affecting their perceptions of competence and expectations response times (D ADDERIO et al, 2019; ORLIKOWSKI and SCOTT, 2016). This study draws from the experience of professionals in this ecosystem to, in the light of a phenomenographic and process approach (LANGLEY and TSOUKAS, 2010), understand how competence in the use of time is perceived in organizational routines pressured by innovation and growth. Three ways in which the phenomenon is conceived by those who experience it were identified: Optimizing activities; Accomplishing goals; and Exploring possibilities. In the outcome space, six dimensions that structure and distinguish the conceptions were identified.: horizon of the attention, temporal artifacts, competence reference, prioritized organizational objectives, level of competence, and temporal focus. The findings suggest that innovation and growth influence the concept of competence in the use of time in different ways. From them, a theoretical model on the relationship between temporalities, artifacts and sensemaking in the generation of generative learning cycles was proposed. It is also added that phenomenography was considered as a suitable alternative to discuss current theories about temporality in organizations.

No description available.

The diploma thesis deals the cretion of the ECG signal and its potential morphology. A signal is generated using a program that is created in MATLAB. On the basis of these methods of describing the signal, was chosen method, based on the similarity of ECG with sinus respectively. triangular pattern. Generated by the program can draw the ECG signal by assignment of pulse rate, lenght of the signal, sampling rate and modifications of the waves and oscillations. One or more predefined noise can be added to the signal. Generated signal is possible to save to the format that supports program MATLAB.

No description available.

E-readers have been available for many years, yet many people are still hesitant towards reading digitally in their spare time. In previous studies in the field of Human-Computer interaction (HCI), new e-readers have been designed, e-readers have been evaluated, and the attitude towards digital reading have been studied. The need to look at books from a larger perspective have been identified, to understand what properties desirable e-readers should have. Now, e-readers almost exclusively let users read books but fails to enable other actions that paper books allows. In this study, to allow for an analysis of books in different contexts and what roles books play in those contexts,DeLanda’s assemblage theory have been used. The research question this thesis answer is: what material and expressive properties of paper books are important in different contexts and how should these be implemented into e-reader? The study followed an ethnographic approach by collecting data from interviews with eleven book lovers, at home observations, and public observations in places where books were present. From the gathered data, ten assemblages were identified and four of them, namely ‘Evening with friends in the living room’, ‘Time for bed’, ‘Let time fly by during the flight’, and ‘Browsing the library’, were described in depth. After identifying what material and expressive roles of paper books were important in these contexts, seven implications for design of e-readers were presented. Inconclusion, aspects that should be implicated into e-readers are ‘Travel compatible’, ‘Reminding’, ‘Personalized organization’, ‘Display collections’, ‘Encourage nostalgia’, ‘Provide inspiration’, and ‘Security and continuity’ to accommodate for the goals users have when using books in different contexts.