Francisco Miranda

Who needs delight?: The greater impact of value, trust and satisfaction in utilitarian, frequent-use retail

Purpose – The aim of this study is to determine whether the cumulative effects of satisfaction, trust, and perceived value may, under certain conditions, provide more explanatory power for customer loyalty intentions than the often studied and more elusive customer delight. Herzbergs two-factor theory is used to explain why the frequent nature of grocery shopping, a primarily utilitarian experience, might introduce considerations that have not yet been addressed in the study of delight. Design/methodology/approach – A survey is administered to a quota sample of Portuguese supermarket shoppers via phone, using a CATI system. Findings – Research findings suggest that perceived value, trust, and satisfaction have a greater impact on behavioural outcomes than customer delight in the grocery shopping setting. In such a setting, cognitive drivers may be even more important for customers who are primarily concerned with hygiene factors (rather than motivators). Research limitations/implications – Retailers are ...

QoS-based management of biomedical wireless sensor networks for patient monitoring

Biomedical wireless sensor networks are a key technology to support the development of new applications and services targeting patient monitoring, in particular, regarding data collection for medical diagnosis and continuous health assessment. However, due to the critical nature of medical applications, such networks have to satisfy demanding quality of service requirements, while guaranteeing high levels of confidence and reliability. Such goals are influenced by several factors, where the network topology, the limited throughput, and the characteristics and dynamics of the surrounding environment are of major importance. Harsh environments, as hospital facilities, can compromise the radio frequency communications and, consequently, the network’s ability to provide the quality of service required by medical applications. Furthermore, the impact of such environments on the network’s performance is hard to manage due to its random and unpredictable nature. Consequently, network planning and management, in general or step-down hospital units, is a very hard task. In such context, this work presents a quality of service based management tool to help healthcare professionals supervising the network’s performance and to assist them managing the admission of new sensor nodes (i.e., patients to be monitored) to the biomedical wireless sensor network. The proposed solution proves to be a valuable tool both, to detect and classify potential harmful variations in the quality of service provided by the network, avoiding its degradation to levels where the biomedical signs would be useless; and to manage the admission of new patients to the network.

Smart context-aware QoS-based admission control for biomedical wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks are being used as the enabling technology that helps to support the development of new applications and services targeting the domain of healthcare, in particular, regarding data collection for continuous health monitoring of patients or to help physicians in their diagnosis and further treatment assessment. Therefore, due to the critical nature of both medical data and medical applications, such networks have to satisfy demanding quality of service requirements. Despite the efforts made in the last few years to develop quality of service mechanisms targeting wireless sensor networks and its wide range of applications, the network deployment scenario can severely restrict the networks ability to provide the required performance. Furthermore, the impact of such environments on the network performance is hard to predict and manage due to its random nature. In this way, network planning and management, in complex environments like general or step-down hospital units, is a problem still looking for a solution. In such context, this paper presents a smart context-aware quality of service based admission control method to help engineers, network administrators, and healthcare professionals managing and supervising the admission of new patients to biomedical wireless sensor networks. The proposed method was tested in a small sized hospital. In view of the results achieved during the experiments, the proposed admission control method demonstrated its ability, not only to control the admission of new patients to the biomedical wireless sensor network, but also to find the best location to admit the new patients within the network. By placing the new sensor nodes on the most favourable locations, this method is able to select the network topology in view of mitigating the quality of service provided by the network.

Evaluation and optimization of the performance of frame geometries for lithium-ion battery application by computer simulation

Tailoring battery geometries is essential for many applications, as geometry influences the delivered capacity value. Two geometries, frame and conventional, have been studied and, for a given scan rate of 330C, the square frame shows a capacity value of 305,52 Ahm−2, which is 527 times higher than the one for the conventional geometry for a constant the area of all components.

Handbook of Research on Computational Simulation and Modeling in Engineering

Multiple disciplines depend on computer programs and software to predict project challenges, outcomes, and solutions. Through the use of virtual prototyping, researchers and professionals are better able to analyze data and improve projects without direct experimentation, which can be costly or dangerous. The Handbook of Research on Computational Simulation and Modeling in Engineering is an authoritative reference source on the computer models and technologies necessary to enhance engineering structures and planning for real-world applications. This publication is an essential resource for academicians, researchers, advanced-level students, technology developers, and engineers interested in the advancements taking place at the intersection of computer technology and the physical sciences. This publication features chapters on the advanced technologies developed within the field of engineering including prediction tools, software programs, algorithms, and theoretical and computational models.

Differential inclusions and optimization problem on time scales

In this paper, we present conditions of existence of solution to an optimization problem on time scales. Based on the classical results for continuous-time case, a convergence theorem for delta-differential inclusions is proved. It is applied to establish an existence results for an optimization problem governed by delta-differential inclusion.

Guidance Stabilization of Satellites Using the Geomagnetic Field

In the last years the small satellites have played an important role in the technological development. The attractive short period of design and low cost of them and the capacity to solve problems that are usually considered as problems to big and expensive spacecrafts lead us to study the control problem of these satellites. Active three-axis magnetic attitude stabilization of a low Earth orbit satellite is considered in this work. The control is created by interaction between the magnetic moment generated by magnetorquersnmounted on the satellite body and the geomagnetic field. This problem is quite complex and difficult tonsolve. To overcome this difficulty guidance control is considered, where we use e-strategies introducednby Pontryagin in the frame of differential games theory. Qualitative analysis and results of numericalnsimulation are presented.

Numerical Methods of Stabilizer Construction via Guidance Control

This work concerns guidance stabilization of non‐autonomous control systems. Global stabilization problems are usually quite complex and difficult to solve. To overcome this difficulty guidance control is used. Guidance stabilizer uses a trajectory of a globally asymptotically stable auxiliary system as a guide. A local stabilizer keeps the trajectory of the system in a neighborhood of a solution of the auxiliary system. In this way the trajectory of the system tends to the equilibrium position.

Magnetic Attitude Stabilization of Satellites Using Guidance Control

The technological achievements allow to create small satellites capable to solve problems usually considered as problems for a big and expensive spacecraft. These small satellites are of interest because have an attractive short period of design and low cost. The guidance stabilization problem for these satellites is considered. The torque is created by interaction between the magnetic field generated by magnetic coils installed on the satellite body and the geomagnetic field. Qualitative analysis and results of numerical simulation are presented.

Thermal analysis of lithium-ion batteries with square frame geometries by theoretical simulations

Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the nframework of the Strategic Funding UID/FIS/04650/2013. n The authors thank FEDER funds through the nCOMPETE 2020 Programme and National Funds through nFCT - Portuguese Foundation for Science and nTechnology under the projects PTDC/CTM-ENE n/5387/2014 and UID/CTM/50025/2013 and grants nSFRH/BPD/112547/2015 (C.M.C.). SLM thanks financial nsupport from the Basque Government Industry nDepartment under the ELKARTEK nProgram. F. Miranda was also n supported by Portuguese funds nthrough the CIDMA - Center for Research and Development in Mathematics a nnd Applications, and the nPortuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (“FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia”), nwithin project UID/MAT/04106/2013