Abstract

Abstract
Energy efficiency is a non-functional requirement that developers must consider, particularly when building software for battery-operated devices like mobile ones: a long-lasting battery is an essential requirement for an enjoyable user experience.In previous studies, it has been shown that many mobile applications include inefficiencies that cause battery to be drained faster than necessary. Some of these inefficiencies result from software patterns that have been catalogued, and for which more energy-efficient alternatives are also known.The existing catalogues, however, assume as a fundamental requirement that one has access to the source code of an application in order to be able to analyse it. This requirement makes independent energy analysis challenging, or even impossible, e.g. for a mobile user or, most significantly, an App Store trying to provide information on how efficient an application being submitted for publication is.We study the viability of looking for known energy patterns in applications by decompiling them and analysing the resulting code. For this, we decompiled and analysed 420 open-source applications by extending an existing tool, which is now capable of transparently decompiling and analysing android applications. With the collected data, we performed a comparative study of the presence of four energy patterns between the source code and the decompiled code.We performed two types of analysis: (i) comparing the total number of energy pattern detections; (ii) comparing the similarity between energy pattern detections. When comparing the total number of detections in source code against decompiled code, we found that 79.29% of the applications reported the same number of energy pattern detections.To test the similarity between source code and APKs, we calculated, for each application, a similarity score based on our four implemented detectors. Of all applications, 35.76% achieved a perfect similarity score of 4, and 89.40% got a score of 3 or more out of 4. Furthermore, only two applications got a score of 0.When viewed in tandem, the results of the two analyses we performed point in a promising direction. They provide initial evidence that static analysis techniques, typically used in source code, can be a viable method to inspect APKs when access to source code is restricted, and further research in this area is worthwhile.

Abstract

Abstract
Advancements in semiconductor technology no longer occur at the pace the industry had been accustomed to. We have entered what is considered by many to be the post-Moore era. In order to continue scaling performance, increasingly heterogeneous architectures are being developed and the use of special purpose accelerators is on the rise. One notable example are Field-Programmable-Gate-Arrays (FPGAs), both in the data-center and embedded spaces. Advances in FPGA features and tools is allowing for critical kernels to be accelerated on specialized hardware without fabrication costs. However, re-targeting code to such heterogeneous platforms still requires significant refactoring of the compute intensive kernels, as well as knowledge of parallel compute and hardware design concepts for maximization of performance. We present Tribble, a source-to-source framework under active development, capable of transforming regular C/C++ programs for execution on heterogeneous architectures. This includes transforming the target kernel source code so that it is amenable for circuit generation while keeping the original version for software execution, inserting code for task and memory management and injecting a scheduler algorithm.

Abstract
Companies focus on achieving high service levels and need to combine short service times with the dynamics between cost and quality. Their transportation systems are therefore a fundamental part; they must be reliable and efficient. This study was implemented in a company of the marine industry, and its final product has special characteristics that require special transportation, i.e., they need a truck with a special structure to be able to transport the boats. This situation causes the vehicle to return empty to the company, a route that the company must support economically. The company has already approached several options with logistic service providers (3PL) without obtaining positive solutions. It is in this sense that the present project arises, which aims to develop a tool for the creation of round-trip circuits, given that in the current context the company intends to acquire a vehicle with reduced environmental impact. In a first phase we analyze the company’s needs based on the unique characteristics of the final product, then we study the existing options on the market. Culminating in the proposal of a vehicle that allows performing a circuit in round trip (distribute the final product and return with raw material and not empty) powered by renewable energy. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Abstract
Nowadays, social media are inevitably part of people's daily lives. Thus, political communication should also go through digital communication channels, particularly on social media. In such channels, it is important to define a digital marketing and communication strategy to attract new voters and consecutively more votes. As in offline communication channels and also in digital communication, one of the indispensable points in political communication is the candidate’s image. This image must show its own style and differentiate the candidate from his opponents. The main objective of this study is to understand the influence of social media on Portuguese voters’ decision-making process. Throughout the study, different research questions were also analyzed to access which social media are the most used to follow the online political campaign and which criteria influence the voting decision-making process. To achieve this purpose, exploratory research was carried out through questionnaire surveys. Three surveys were conducted based on the Portuguese presidential elections of January 24, 2021. The surveys were distributed before, during, and after the end of the electoral campaign, and 106 people were questioned and answered all 3 surveys. With the results of this study, it was possible to conclude that only 11% of respondents changed their voting intention due to the political communication made by political parties on social media during this electoral campaign. The social media most used by respondents was Facebook, which is also the one they consider the safest and most trustworthy to follow political communication in online media.