Several hydrocarbon discoveries in the Marar Formation (Tournaisian and Viséan) were recently made in the Lower Carboniferous strata of the Ghadames and Murzuq Basins situated in SW Libya. Despite large exposures exhibiting thick sections, there is an absence of regional studies focusing on this stratigraphic interval and only rare case studies provide new sedimentary data. More generally, geological knowledge of Carboniferous in North Africa (Saharan Platform) is also understudied when compare to other regions of the world. Detail analyses of the sedimentary record on Saharan Platform may noticeably contribute to refine the current understanding of global geological episodes such as the Late Paleozoic Ice Age. The main aim of this study is to produce valuable field data for both industry and interpretations for assessing academic hypothesis. In order to develop accurate and detail correlations of sedimentary strata over long distances (over 350 km) a primary aims is to define a synchronous key marker horizon that is ideally detectable in both surface and subsurface datasets. A secondary aim is to characterise spatial variability and geometries of sedimentary bodies. Acquired during three fieldwork seasons in the area (along ca 385 km), over 4800 m of sedimentary logging, facies analyses and 800 outcrop gamma ray readings are compiled in this study. I therefore characterise the micro, meso, macro-scale geometries, regional distribution, gamma ray response and mineralogy of the Collenia stromatolites that mark the uppermost part of the Marar Formation. Mainly based on series of detailed sedimentary logging and photographic panoramas, two types of reservoirs facies are described: 1- several metres thick shorefaces sandstones that are continuous for several tens of kilometres; 2- several tens of metres thick incised valley in filled with fluvial sandstones of fewer lateral extend. A sea level curve, produced on basis of the detailed sequence stratigraphic framework of the area, reveals that eustasy almost solely explains relative changes of sea level during the Viséan. Considering the glacial record preserved on northern Gondwana during the same interval, we conclude that the onset of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age is older than uppermost Viséan and more gradual than previously thought.

This master thesis deals with the analysis of the possibilities of Cloud Computing for information system solutions in small and medium businesses. The main objective is to analyze these options, identify key areas for the transition to the cloud and propose an approach to develop Information system in this direction. The main contribution of this work is the practical experience which is involved in a view of the problems being solved and an emphasis on aspects that have been verified in practices. The main text of the work is divided into five chapters. The first chapter defines the basic concepts and limitations on which further work is based. The second chapter deals with the current form of IS in SMEs, its description and identifying problems. The third chapter analyzes the Cloud Computing from the perspective of the suitability of various models for SMEs, identifies the major trends that affect the Cloud Computing and describes some basic elements on which Cloud Computing is based. It also analyzes the issue of security. The fourth chapter deals with the state of Cloud Computing market and identification of key problem areas which need to be solved in various stages of market development. The last chapter uses several case studies to show a meaningfulness and readiness of Cloud Computing for running information system. In the end the recommended approach to the adoption of cloud services is defined.

Nowadays, decision-making is not only made in the office with a PC. With a dramatic increase of mobile devices (such as smartphones and tablets) and internet access, the approach to reaching and delivering key, strategic data has changed over the last decade. The diploma thesis analyses the market of business intelligence platforms, dedicated for mobile devices, by comparing selected vendors in this segment. The first, theoretically oriented chapters focus on explaining the key concepts of business intelligence and mobile business intelligence and appropriate context, especially the growing market of mobile devices and internet access availability. Furthermore, the theoretical part is followed by a list of criteria, amongst which will selected platforms be compared. These criteria include not only a user view, but also a technical view of the compared products -- IBM, MicroStrategy, SAP and Oracle. Two methods are used to evaluate the best product. The first comparison is based on average scores gained across all criteria, while the second method applied is a pairwise comparison. The following, practically oriented chapter contains a step-by-step user guide of downloading, installing, configuring and especially the process of creating and deploying reports and documents suited directly for mobile devices, such as the iPad. The whole process is described for the winning platform MicroStrategy, which not only earned the highest scores, but also won the pairwise comparison over all other platforms. This thesis serves as basic orientation in the young market of business intelligence platforms enhanced with dedicated modules for mobile devices and carries a recommendation for one of them to select.

Der Beitrag geht der Fragestellung nach, welche Gamedesign-Elemente sich als attraktive und strategisch sinnvolle Ergänzung für die sächsische Lernplattform OPAL identifizieren lassen und wie mithilfe solcher Elemente die Motivation zur OPAL-Nutzung und im Zuge dessen auch zum Studium gesteigert werden kann.

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Atualmente, a customização apresenta-se como um importante diferencial competitivo para as empresas. No entanto, ao consumir bens customizados, o cliente está, em geral, sujeito ao pagamento de altos preços e à espera de longos tempos de entrega. Portanto, quanto mais as empresas desenvolverem soluções customizadas com altos níveis de eficiência, maior será a tendência de conquista do cliente. Nesse cenário, a customização em massa (CM), que está relacionada à produção de altos volumes de produtos e serviços customizados a um custo semelhante ao de itens padronizados, surge como solução. Verifica-se, porém, que, apesar da importância do setor de serviços no contexto atual, existe pouco conhecimento sobre a utilização da CM neste ramo de atividade. Dado isso, o objetivo desta dissertação é aplicar conceitos da CM, já difundidos na manufatura, no setor de serviços. Para atingir o objetivo, foram desenvolvidos três artigos. No primeiro artigo, foi realizada uma revisão da literatura a fim de identificar linhas de pesquisa já existentes sobre o tema e oportunidades possíveis de serem exploradas. No segundo artigo, foi proposta uma classificação para a customização de serviços, apresentando diversos tipos de customização possíveis de serem realizados nesse setor. No terceiro artigo, foi desenvolvido um dos tipos de customização apresentado no artigo anterior (mais especificamente, o tipo “Modularização e Plataforma de Serviços”) através da adaptação de um método de modularização, já utilizado para modularizar produtos, para o setor de serviços. Como conclusão geral, confirmou-se a expectativa de que a CM em serviços está em um nível baixo de maturidade, pois existem poucos estudos desenvolvidos sobre o tema. Além disso, verificou-se que as poucas soluções propostas pela literatura raramente são viáveis de serem utilizadas pelas empresas. Por fim, acredita-se que os habilitadores da CM em serviços devem considerar as características específicas desse setor, visto que, atualmente, os estudos introduzem no setor de serviços o que já foi desenvolvido para produtos, sem, no entanto, considerar as diferentes características desses dois setores. / Customization has been viewed as an important competitive advantage by companies. However, when consuming customized goods, customers are likely to pay higher prices and wait longer for the items purchased. Therefore, the more the companies develop customized solutions with high levels of efficiency, the greater the tendency to hold customers. In such context Mass Customization (MC), defined as the production of high volumes of customized products and services at mass production costs, arises as a solution. It is verified, however, that, despite the importance of the service industry, there is insufficient knowledge about the use of MC in such application context. The objective of this thesis is to apply MC concepts, already used in the manufacturing sector, in the service industry. We achieve that through the papers that compound this document. In the first paper, we present a literature review on MC in services and point to promising research opportunities. In the second paper, we propose a classification for service customization, presenting many types of customization feasible to be carried out in that sector. In the third paper we developed one of the customization types proposed in the second paper (namely, "Modularization and Platform of Services") by adapting a modularization method already used in manufacturing to the service sector. In general, we concluded that MC in the service industry is indeed at a low maturity level. Furthermore, it was found that the solutions proposed by authors are rarely applicable in practice. Finally, it is believed that MC enablers in the service industry should consider its specific characteristics instead of using solutions developed for products, without considering the specifics of the service industry.

Maintaining postural control in standing requires the center of mass (COM) to be kept within the boundaries of the base of support (BOS). As the COM moves to a region outside the BOS, a step is often required, increasing the risk of falling, and therefore injury. All too often, humans are subjected to different perturbations while maintaining upright stance, and so to control the COM in these situations, postural activity through musculature at the ankle, knee, and hip are recruited according to demand associated with the level of perturbation. It is also believed that control of the head allows components of the visual and vestibular systems to contribute stable reference values. In order to understand human response to, and in preparation for perturbation, researchers have employed a number of experimental techniques, including i) loading and subsequent unloading of body segments such as the arm or leg; ii) single discrete platform movements; and iii) continuous platform movements. While many studies have focussed on examining postural control mechanisms during discrete perturbations in children and adolescents, these mechanisms in response to continual perturbation have not been well documented in observable developmental stages of youth, nor have they been well documented in special populations. Therefore, the primary aim of this doctoral dissertation was to characterize the reactive and anticipatory postural control mechanisms in children and adolescents, as well as to examine and characterize them in the Cerebral Palsy population. To achieve this overarching goal, three separate studies were performed. The first study characterized the anticipatory and reactive mechanisms of postural control in typically developing children aged 7 to 17 years. Specifically, postural muscle activity in the lower limbs, an index of head anchoring strategy, and body segment cross-correlations were characterized in response to, and in anticipation of, continuous platform oscillation movement at various frequencies. The second experiment characterized these same mechanisms in children of similar ages with cerebral palsy, and compared the results to those found in the first study. The results of these studies indicated a slight shift to anticipatory measures after repeated exposure to a specific frequency of platform oscillation, however, each transition to a greater platform speed resulted in more conservative measures of postural control. Furthermore, youth with cerebral palsy tended to control their posture much in the same way of typically developing children and adolescents under less challenging conditions however, with the increased difficulty associated with higher frequency oscillation were not able to generate adequate postural responses. The final study in this dissertation investigated the effects of a one-week intensive virtual reality-based exercise programme. In this study, postural control mechanisms were observed before and after a one-week time period, during which half of the participants received the enhanced exercise while the remaining participants received no treatment at all. The results from this study indicated there was no effect of a 5-day VR-based intervention on postural control mechanisms used in response to oscillating platform perturbations. Taken together, the results from these studies extend the current understanding of reactive and anticipatory mechanisms of postural control in children and adolescents, both typically developing and those with cerebral palsy.

Smart City technologies emerge as a potential solution to tackle common problems in large urban centers by using city resources efficiently and providing quality services for citizens. Despite the various advances in middleware technologies to support future smart cities, there are yet no widely accepted platforms. Most of the existing solutions do not provide the required flexibility to be shared across cities. Moreover, the extensive use and development of non-open-source software leads to interoperability issues and limits the collaboration among R&D groups. Our research explores the use of a microservices architecture to address key practical challenges in smart city platforms. More specifically, we are concerned with the impact of microservices on addressing the key non-functional requirements to enable the development of smart cities such as supporting different scalability demands and providing a flexible architecture which can easily evolve over time. To this end, we are developing InterSCity, a microservice-based open source smart city platform that aims at supporting the development of sophisticated, cross- domain applications and services. Our early experience shows that microservices can be properly used as building blocks to achieve a loosely coupled, flexible architecture. Experimental results point towards the applicability of our approach in the context of smart cities since the platform can support multiple scalability demands. We expect to enable collaborative, novel smart city research, development, and deployment initiatives through the InterSCity platform. The full validation of the platform will be conducted using different smart city scenarios and workloads. Future work comprises the ongoing design and development effort on data processing services as well as more comprehensive evaluation of the proposed platform through scalability experiments. / As tecnologias de Cidades Inteligentes surgem como uma potencial solução para lidar com problemas comuns em grandes centros urbanos, utilizando os recursos da cidade de maneira eficiente e fornecendo serviços de qualidade para os cidadãos. Apesar dos vários avanços nas tecnologias de middleware para suporte às cidades inteligentes do futuro, ainda não existem plataformas amplamente aceitas. A maioria das soluções existentes não oferece a flexibilidade necessária para ser compartilhada entre as cidades. Além disso, o vasto uso e desenvolvimento de software proprietário levam a problemas de interoperabilidade e limitam a colaboração entre grupos de P&D. Nesta dissertação, exploramos uso de uma arquitetura de microsserviços para abordar os principais desafios práticos em plataformas de cidades inteligentes. Mais especificamente, estamos preocupados com o impacto dos microsserviços sobre requisitos não-funcionais para permitir o desenvolvimento de cidades inteligentes, tais como o suporte a diferentes demandas de escalabilidade e o fornecimento de uma arquitetura flexível que pode evoluir facilmente. Para esse fim, criamos a InterSCity, uma plataforma para cidades inteligentes de código aberto baseada em microsserviços que visa apoiar o desenvolvimento de aplicativos e serviços sofisticados em múltiplos domínios. Nossa experiência inicial mostra que os microsserviços podem ser usados adequadamente como blocos de construção para obter uma arquitetura flexível e fracamente acoplada. Resultados experimentais apontam para a aplicabilidade de nossa abordagem no contexto de cidades inteligentes, já que a plataforma pode suportar diferentes demandas de escalabilidade. Esperamos permitir pesquisas colaborativas e inovadoras em cidades inteligentes, assim como o desenvolvimento e iniciativas de implantações reais através da plataforma InterSCity. A validação completa da plataforma será realizada usando diferentes cenários de cidades inteligentes e cargas de trabalho. Os trabalhos futuros compreendem o esforço contínuo de projetar e desenvolver novos serviços de processamento de dados, bem como a realização de avaliações mais abrangentes da plataforma proposta por meio de experimentos de escalabilidade.

O futuro da Regulação do setor elétrico, tema central desta Tese, deve ser analisado no contexto da evolução tecnológica e do desenvolvimento sustentável, considerados seus três pilares fundamentais: a economia, o meio ambiente e a sociedade. No século XXI, um dos grandes desafios do setor elétrico mundial é a regulação de temas inseridos no amplo contexto da smart energy, com mais fontes renováveis na matriz, outras formas de atuação do consumidor e novos modelos de negócios. Análises, dados, fatos e evidências empíricas obtidas em pesquisas e apresentadas nesta Tese permitem afirmar que há razões suficientemente consistentes para que se busque uma nova abordagem da Regulação do setor elétrico brasileiro. Assim, é apresentado um novo caminho para a Regulação, consubstanciado numa Engenharia Regulatória, com maior visão sistêmica e prospectiva para tratar das questões da sustentabilidade, da economia verde e da sociedade mais digital e hiperconectada. Nesta Tese são apresentadas duas propostas: (1) premissas para a adoção de uma Regulação Evolutiva e (2) premissas para uma Plataforma Regulatória. Pela Regulação Evolutiva, há uma maneira diferenciada de regular o setor elétrico, caracterizada por tratar de forma mais convergente, dinâmica, equilibrada, interativa e qualificada as demandas da própria sociedade e do mercado, em que o consumidor assume papel mais decisivo como ator na transição para um setor diferenciado (geração distribuída, micro e minigeração, resposta da demanda, smart city, smart grid, smart metering, energy storage, entre outros). A Plataforma Regulatória deve ser uma ferramenta/sistema de suporte para estruturar a informação e auxiliar na adoção de soluções regulatórias, com maior participação, consistência e transparência. A Plataforma Regulatória busca agregar mais valor à inteligência regulatória, com a observação imediata de temas da agenda nacional e mundial, para verificar sua aderência aos temas a serem regulados. O trabalho visa contribuir de forma original para o debate e aprimoramento da Regulação, para atender a essa realidade de interrelação entre a evolução tecnológica e o desenvolvimento sustentável no setor que tende a ser cada vez mais 4D - digitalizado, descarbonizado, descentralizado e democrático. O futuro não deve ser mais o que foi projetado no passado, mas o que se estruturar a partir de uma consciência presente sobre os cenários, tendências e possíveis disrupturas, além da adoção de ações conjuntas na sociedade, entre as quais se inclui a Regulação do setor elétrico. / The future of the regulation of the electricity sector, the central theme of this Thesis, must be analyzed in the context of technological change and sustainable development, considered their three fundamental pillars: the economy, the environment and society. In the 21st Century, one of the great challenges of the world electricity sector is the regulation of themes included in the broad context of the smart energy, with more renewable sources in an array, other forms of consumer activity and new business models. Analysis, data, facts and empirical evidence obtained in research and presented in this Thesis allow to assert that there are consistent reasons to seek out a new approach to the Regulation of the Brazilian Electric Sector. Therefore, a new way to adjust is presented, organized in a Regulatory Engineering, with greater systemic vision and foresight to address the issues of sustainability, green economy and a more digital and hyperconnected society. In this Thesis, there are two proposals: (1) premises for the adoption of an Evolutionary Regulation and (2) premises for a Regulatory Platform. By Evolutionary Regulation, there is a different way to regulate the electricity sector, characterized by treating in a more convergent, dynamic, balanced, interactive and qualified way the demands of the society and the market, in which the consumer assumes a more decisive role as an actor in the transition to a distinguished sector (distributed generation, micro and minigeneration, demand response, smart city, smart grid, smart metering, energy storage, among others). The Regulatory Platform must be a tool/support system for structuring the information and assisting in the adoption of regulatory solutions, with greater participation, consistency and transparency. The Regulatory Platform seeks to add more value to regulatory intelligence, by immeditately observing national and global agenda issues to analyze its adherence to the themes to be regulated. The work aims to contribute to the debate and improvement of the Regulation in an original way, to meet this reality of interrelation between technological progress and sustainable development in the sector, which tends to be more and more 4 D - Digitalized, Decarbonized, Decentralized and Democratic. The future must no longer be what was designed in the past, but what is structured from a present conscience on the scenarios, trends and possible disruptions, in addition to the adoption of joint actions in society, including the Regulation of the electricity sector.

En esta investigación se analizaron las características de los elementos visuales utilizados en videojuegos independientes de plataforma en el Perú durante los últimos cinco años, a lo cual se formuló la hipótesis de que estas características generan su propia categorización de los elementos visuales, lo cual aporta a la narrativa visual e interacción de los usuarios. Para comprobarla, se analizaron 8 videojuegos independientes de plataforma desarrollados en Perú en los últimos cinco años. Además, se entrevistó a dos profesionales del área para conocer la situación real del desarrollo en la industria y ampliar los conocimientos para el análisis visual. Los resultados del análisis visual demuestran que el 50% de los juegos presentan un estilo pixel art, con elementos similares entre las diferentes entregas; sin embargo, tienen diferentes formas de expresar su temática usando los personajes y el entorno. La interfaz de los juegos mantiene las mismas características y solo cumplen la función de informar. Se concluyó que la mayoría de los videojuegos independientes de plataforma optan por el estilo pixel art para sus gráficas por ser fáciles de trabajar, pero solo se centran en la utilidad y no en el impacto visual. Por otro lado, se determinó la falta de experiencia de los desarrolladores al trabajar sus propuestas, lo que conduce a usar plantillas predeterminadas de los motores gráficos. / In this research, the characteristics of the visual elements used in platform independent video games in Peru during the last five years were analyzed, to which the hypothesis was formulated that these characteristics generate their own categorization of the visual elements, which contributes to the visual narrative and user interaction. To verify it, 8 independent platform games developed in Peru in the last five years were analyzed. In addition, two professionals from the area were interviewed to learn about the real situation of development in the industry and expand their knowledge for visual analysis. The results of the visual analysis show that 50% of the games have a pixel art style, with similar elements between the different installments; However, they have different ways of expressing their theme using the characters and the environment. The interface of the games maintains the same characteristics and only fulfill the function of informing. It was concluded that most of the independent platform video games choose the pixel art style for their graphics because they are easy to work with, but they only focus on utility and not on visual impact. On the other hand, the lack of experience of the developers when working on their proposals was determined, which leads to using predetermined templates of the graphics engines. / Trabajo de investigación