Dias, Ricardo J., Vasco Pessanha, and João M. Lourenço. "
Precise Detection of Atomicity Violations."
Haifa Verification Conference. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Haifa, Israel: Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, 2012.
AbstractConcurrent programs that are free of unsynchronized ac- cesses to shared data may still exhibit unpredictable concurrency errors called atomicity violations, which include both high-level dataraces and stale-value errors. Atomicity violations occur when programmers make wrong assumptions about the atomicity scope of a code block, incorrectly splitting it in two or more atomic blocks and allow them to be interleaved with other atomic blocks. In this paper we propose a novel static analysis algorithm that works on a dependency graph of program variables and detects both high-level dataraces and stale-value errors. The algorithm was implemented for a Java Bytecode analyzer and its effectiveness was evaluated with some well known faulty programs. The results obtained show that our algorithm performs better than previous approaches, achieving higher precision for small and medium sized programs, making it a good basis for a practical tool.
Myers, Timothy S., Neil J. Tabor, Louis L. Jacobs, and Octávio Mateus. "
Palaeoclimate of the Late Jurassic of Portugal: Comparison with the Western United States."
Sedimentology. 59.6 (2012): 1695-1717.
AbstractInvestigation of the palaeoclimatic conditions associated with Upper Jurassic strata in Portugal and comparison with published palaeoclimate reconstructions of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation in western North America provide important insights into the conditions that allowed two of the richest terrestrial faunas of this period to flourish. Geochemical analyses and observations of palaeosol morphology in the informally named Upper Jurassic Lourinhã formation of western Portugal indicate warm and wet palaeoclimatic conditions with strongly seasonal precipitation patterns. Palaeosol profiles are dominated by carbonate accumulations and abundant shrink-swell (vertic) features that are both indicative of seasonal variation in moisture availability. The δ18OSMOW and δDSMOW values of phyllosilicates sampled from palaeosol profiles range from +22·4‰ to +22·7‰ and −53·0‰ to −37·3‰, respectively. These isotope values correspond to temperatures of formation between 32°C and 39°C ± 3°, with an average of 36°C, which suggest surface temperatures between 27°C and 34°C (average 31°C). On average, these surface temperature estimates are 1°C higher than the highest summer temperatures modelled for Late Jurassic Iberia using general circulation models. Elemental analysis of matrix material from palaeosol B-horizons provides proxy (chemical index of alteration minus potassium) estimates of mean annual precipitation ranging from 766 to 1394 mm/year, with an average of approximately 1100 mm/year. Palaeoclimatic conditions during deposition of the Lourinhã formation are broadly similar to those inferred for the Morrison Formation, except somewhat wetter. Seasonal variation in moisture availability does not seem to have negatively impacted the ability of these environments to support rich and relatively abundant faunas. The similar climate between these two Late Jurassic terrestrial ecosystems is probably one of the factors which explains the similarity of their vertebrate faunas.
Bernardo, M., N. Lapa, M. Gonçalves, B. Mendes, F. Pinto, I. Fonseca, and H. Lopes. "
Physico-chemical properties of chars obtained in the co-pyrolysis of waste mixtures."
Journal of Hazardous Materials. 219-220 (2012): 196-202.
AbstractThe present work aims to perform a multistep upgrading of chars obtained in the co-pyrolysis of PE, PP and PS plastic wastes, pine biomass and used tires. The quality of the upgraded chars was evaluated by measuring some of their physico-chemical properties in order to assess their valorisation as adsorbents’ precursors. The crude chars were submitted to a sequential solvent extraction with organic solvents of increasing polarity (hexane, mixture 1:1 v/v hexane:acetone and acetone) followed by an acidic demineralization procedure with 1 M HCl solution. The results obtained showed that the upgrading treatment allow the recovery of 63–81% of the pyrolysis oils trapped in the crude chars and a reduction in the char's ash content in the range of 64–86%. The textural and adsorption properties of the upgraded chars were evaluated and the results indicate that the chars are mainly mesoporous and macroporous materials, with adsorption capacities in the range of 3.59–22.2 mg/g for the methylene blue dye. The upgrading treatment allowed to obtain carbonaceous materials with quality to be reused as adsorbents or as precursors for activated carbon.