Promoting Physical Exercise Participation: The Role of Interpersonal Behaviors for Practical Implications

he number of people engaging in physical exercise has been decreasing every year. These behaviors are known to be related with non-communicable chronic diseases and to drastically increase premature morbidity and mortality. Since “the lack of motivation” has been pointed out as one of the main reasons for not engaging in physical exercise, several theoretical and empirical studies have been conducted aimed at understanding what influences behavior regulation. According to literature, gym exercisers who perceive exercise instructors as supportive are more likely to maintain physical exercise participation over the long-run. Supporting autonomy, competence, and relatedness should be carefully considered when interacting with health club clients as a way to promote more autonomous motivation. Overall, it seems that exercise instructors should foster a supportive environment for gym exercisers, in order to encourage exercise as a habitual behavior.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Behavioral Regulation Sport Questionnaire: Gender and Sport Invariance in Portuguese Athletes

Versão depositada: post-printThis study aimed to analyze measurement invariance of the Behavioral Regulation Sports Questionnaire (BRSQ) across the gender and four different sports. In addition, we examined nomological validity via basic psychological needs satisfaction. Participants totaled 1,812 Portuguese athletes (1,220 males and 592 females; aged 15–59 years, Mage ¼ 17.72, SD ¼ 5.51) from football (n ¼ 596), basketball (n ¼ 273), swimming (n ¼ 800), and parasport (n ¼ 143). The BRSQ measurement model was invariant across the gender and these four sports. The scale confirmed nomological validity in that satisfaction of the basic psychological needs positively predicted autonomous forms of motivation and negatively predicted more controlled motivation and amotivation as suggested by self-determination theory. In light of this evidence for BRSQ construct validity, composite reliability, nomological validity, and invariance across the gender and four different sports, this scale is a useful tool for the coaches of the aforementioned sports in their efforts to evaluate their athletes’ motivation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sistemas de abastecimento de água e saneamento básico

O presente relatório de estágio enquadra-se no âmbito do Trabalho Final de Mestrado (TFM) do curso de Engenharia Civil, área de especialização de Hidráulica, do Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa, e baseia-se na temática dos sistemas de abastecimento de água e drenagem de águas residuais. O estágio, intitulado de “Sistemas de Abastecimento de Agua e Saneamento Básico”, decorreu numa empresa de consultaria de engenharia denominada ENGIDRO – Estudos de Engenharia, Lda., vocacionada para a realização de estudos e projectos na área de Hidráulica, com particular incidência na Hidráulica Urbana e Saneamento Básico. O estágio iniciou-se com um adequado enquadramento profissional na empresa e incidiu principalmente no desenvolvimento de trabalhos de concepção e dimensionamento, a nível de projectos de execução, de sistemas de abastecimento de água e de saneamento básico, para 21 localidades da província de Lunda Sul, em Angola, com prestação de serviços para o Governo Provincial de Lunda Sul – Direcção Provincial da Energia e Aguas, juntamente com empresa CENGA – Consultores de Engenharia de Angola, S.A. Na prestação de serviços à entidade contratante foram efectuados trabalhos de campo, que consistiram principalmente em reconhecimentos do terreno, levantamentos topográficos e recolha de informação relevante sobre elementos condicionantes dos projectos (origens e disponibilidades de água, natureza e declive dos terrenos, tipos de infra-estruturas locais) e trabalhos de gabinete para compilação e análise da informação recolhida na elaboração dos projectos de execução, incluindo pecas desenhadas (desenhos pormenorizados) e peças escritas (memórias descritivas e justificativas, medições e orçamentos). Sendo os projectos destinados a aglomerados populacionais pouco desenvolvidos e com carências e condicionantes de diversa ordem (falta de energia eléctrica, de acessos, de telecomunicações, de meios técnicos e materiais, entre outros), prestou-se especial atenção aos aspectos da concepção, privilegiando soluções de baixa tecnologia, mais fáceis de explorar e manter com os recursos locais disponíveis.This report is part of the internship for the final project of the masters degree in Civil Engineering, hydraulics area of expertise, from the ISEL and was based on the theme of water supply systems and wastewater drainage. The internship, titled "Systems of Water Supply and Sanitation" was held in a consulting engineering firm called ENGIDRO – Estudos de Engenharia, Lda., dedicated to studies and projects in the area of hydraulics, with particular focus on urban hydraulicsand sanitation. The internship began with an appropriate professional introduction in the company and focused mainly on the development in design and sizing of water supply and sanitation systems to 21 villages in the province of Lunda Sul in Angola, with services to the Provincial Government of Lunda Sul - Provincial Energy and Water, alongwith company CENGA – Consultores de Engenharia de Angola, S.A. In providing services to the customer, fieldwork consisted mainly in reconnaissance of the land, surveying and collecting relevant information on determining factors of the projects (sources and water availability, nature and slope of land, typesof local infrastructure) and office work for compilation and analysis of information gathered in the preparation of project implementation, including plans (detailed drawings) and written documents (descriptive documents, measurements and budgets). Since the projects are aimed for undeveloped populations with several needs and constraints (lack of electricity, access, telecommunications, technical and material means, among others), special attention was given to aspects of design, privileged solutions lowtech, easier to operate and maintain with local resources available. With the guidance and coordination of the engineer Luís Mendes it waspossible to perform the work and activities inherent to the internship, accurately and efficiently, with the crucial collaboration of a multidisciplinary team

Regeneration Studies in the African Spiny Mouse

Across the Metazoa, organisms vary in terms of how they respond to injury. The two basic responses are regeneration or fibrotic scarring. While some groups such as axolotls, amphibians and fish show high regenerative capacity, mammals tend to heal wounds by fibrotic scarring. The African Spiny Mouse (Acomys) has been reported to have the capacity of closing 4-mm full thickness wounds in the ear pinna with full regeneration of the original tissue architecture, including dermis, epidermis, cartilage and hair follicles. In contrast, Mus musculus heals the border wounds by fibrotic scarring. Therefore, Acomys and Mus constitute a powerful comparative framework for the study of mammalian regeneration. The goal in this work was to answer two independent questions. First, we asked whether mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) were present in ear tissue of both species and compared their differentiation capabilities in vitro. Primary cell cultures were established from uninjured ears of both species, immune-phenotyped and cultured in vitro in adipocyte, chondrocyte and osteocyte differentiation media. Differentiation was characterized by staining and marker expression. We found that Mus cells tend to differentiate to adipocytes, while Acomys cells tend to differentiate to chondrocytes. Second, we asked whether telomerase was differentially upregulated in Acomys vs Mus in response to wounding. Both species were subjected to ear wounds and allowed to heal or regenerate. Tissues were harvested at different time points and analyzed for TERT expression by RT-qPCR. Our results were inconclusive. This work constitutes a further step in understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms that distinguish Acomys as an emerging mammalian regeneration model

GIS-based site selection and dynamic modelling of Magallana oyster in the Sado Estuary, Portugal

A case study was developed to assess the viability of Portuguese oyster (Magallana angulata) and Pacific oyster (Magallana gigas) aquaculture in the Sado Estuary, Portugal. It applies an integrative methodology for site selection of shellfish aquaculture, complemented with a farm-scale carrying capacity model to evaluate production, environmental effects and socio-economic outputs. The site selection methodology uses a Multi Criteria-Evaluation (MCE) through Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software. When combined, both tools generate a holistic overview of aquaculture opportunities to support strategic planning decisions. The used MCE in this study, considers suitability factors based on water quality and food sources, as well as subsequent factors describing socio-economic and product quality suitability. Combining these to the regulatory and spatial constraints in the study area, a final site selection map was generated, screening out suitable areas for aquaculture. The dynamic model, FARM – Farm Aquaculture Resource Management, was later applied to the identified suitable areas for aquaculture practice, where the production and environmental effects of two different locations were estimated and compared at a farm-scale level. This methodology illustrates how GIS-based models may be used in conjunction with farm-scale carrying capacity models to assist decision-makers in developing a sustainable approach to aquaculture

A multi-age group cost-effectiveness analysis of lockdown to mitigate the spread of Covid-19

There is a growing recognition of the damage the lockdown has caused to economic and social life. A Markov model incorporates population susceptible (S) to infection, population infected (I) and contagious, and population removed (R). The removed group includes people who have died from the disease. The SIR model of disease propagation, informed by the retrospective clinical course of COVID-19 positive cases in Portugal was developed to assess the cost effectiveness of the lockdown. The data are taken from the Business Intelligence of the information technology support platform for the National Epidemiological Surveillance System (BI SINAVE). The confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 infection data are between March 3, 2020 until July 12, 2022. The data on transitional probabilities, costs and utilities were retrieved from both the retrospective data and published literature. This manuscript also explores that the cost of preventing economic activity through lockdowns is heterogeneous within the population. The mortality risk for those over 65 years old from infection is substantially higher than those aged 20-49. The differences in mortality within the population merit examining the cost-benefits of lockdown for different age groups. We simulate the Markov model for three groups, young (20- 49), middle-aged (50-64) and old (65+). Our main result in this paper is that distancing measures can be significantly improved with targeted policies that apply differential lockdowns on the various risk groups. In the Portuguese public healthcare system and under specific hypotheses, from a societal perspective, lockdown provides more QALYs at lower cost for old than for both middle-aged and young population.Existe um reconhecimento crescente dos danos que o confinamento tem causado à vida económica e social. A motivação original para o confinamento foi o receio de que o sistema de saúde entrasse em colapso se a doença ficasse fora de controlo. O confinamento de longa data pode ser explicado pelos valores atribuídos à vida (VOL) de potenciais vítimas do COVID-19. Um modelo de Markov incorpora a população suscetível (S) à infecção, população infectada (I) e infecciosa e população removida (R). O último grupo inclui pessoas que morreram da doença. O modelo SIR de propagação da doença, informado pelo curso clínico retrospectivo dos casos positivos da COVID-19 em Portugal, foi desenvolvido para avaliar a relação custo-eficácia do confinamento. Os dados são retirados da plataforma de suporte à tecnologia de informação do Sistema Nacional de Vigilância Epidemiológica (BI SINAVE). Os dados sobre os casos confirmados de infecção por SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 dizem respeito ao período de 3 de março de 2020 a 12 de julho de 2022. Os dados sobre probabilidades de transição, custos e utilidades foram recuperados tanto dos dados retrospectivos como da literatura publicada. Este manuscrito também explora que o custo da prevenção da actividade económica através de confinamentos é heterogéneo dentro da população. O risco de mortalidade das pessoas com mais de 65 anos de idade por infecção é substancialmente mais elevado do que o das pessoas com 20-49 anos. As diferenças de mortalidade dentro da população merecem examinar o custo-benefício do confinamento para diferentes grupos etários. Simulamos o modelo Markov para três grupos, jovens (20-49), de meia-idade (50-64) e idosos (65+). O nosso principal resultado neste artigo é que as medidas de distanciamento podem ser significativamente melhoradas com políticas específicas que aplicam bloqueios diferenciais nos vários grupos de risco. No sistema de saúde português e sob hipóteses específicas, de uma perspectiva social, o confinamento proporciona mais QALYs a um custo menor para os idosos do que para a população de meia-idade e jovem

Testing Assumptions of the Physical Activity Adoption and Maintenance Model: A Longitudinal Perspective of the Relationships Between Intentions and Habits on Exercise Adherence

In this study, we aimed to examine empirically the Physical Activity Adoption and Maintenance model (PAAM). We collected data on these variables at baseline (T0) and 6-months later (T1). We recruited 119 participants (42 male, 77 female) aged 18– 81 years old (Mage = 44.89, SD = 12.95). who reported, at baseline, that they exercised an average of 3.76 days per week (SD = 1.33) in training periods lasting 15–60 minutes (M = 38.69; SD = 23.28). We conducted hierarchical multiple regression analysis to test the association between each determinant (intentions, habits, and frequency) and future exercise adherence. We tested four models by entering blocks of predictors according to PAAM assumptions. The variance change (R2 ) between the first and fourth models (ΔR2 = .391) was statistically significant, showing that the fourth model accounted for 51.2% of variance for future exercise adherence, F (6, 112) = 21.631, p < .001, R2 = .73, adjusted R2 = .512. Exercise intention at T1 maintained its significantassociation (p = .021) with exercise frequency at T1 in all tested models. Exercise frequency at T0 was the most significant predictor (p < .01) of future exercise adherence, with past experience the second most significant predictor (p = .013). Interestingly, exercise habits at T1 and T0 did not predict exercise frequency at T1 in the fourth model. Among the variables we studied, having constantly high exercise intentions and high regular exercise frequency are significantly associated with maintaining or increasing regular future exercise behavior.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio