9,831 research outputs found

    Annual SHOT Report 2018

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    SHOT is affiliated to the Royal College of PathologistsAll NHS organisations must move away from a blame culture towards a just and learning culture. All clinical and laboratory staff should be encouraged to become familiar with human factors and ergonomics concepts. All transfusion decisions must be made after carefully assessing the risks and benefits of transfusion therapy. Collaboration and co-ordination among staff is vital

    Anuário científico da Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde de Lisboa - 2021

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    É com grande prazer que apresentamos a mais recente edição (a 11.ª) do Anuário Científico da Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde de Lisboa. Como instituição de ensino superior, temos o compromisso de promover e incentivar a pesquisa científica em todas as áreas do conhecimento que contemplam a nossa missão. Esta publicação tem como objetivo divulgar toda a produção científica desenvolvida pelos Professores, Investigadores, Estudantes e Pessoal não Docente da ESTeSL durante 2021. Este Anuário é, assim, o reflexo do trabalho árduo e dedicado da nossa comunidade, que se empenhou na produção de conteúdo científico de elevada qualidade e partilhada com a Sociedade na forma de livros, capítulos de livros, artigos publicados em revistas nacionais e internacionais, resumos de comunicações orais e pósteres, bem como resultado dos trabalhos de 1º e 2º ciclo. Com isto, o conteúdo desta publicação abrange uma ampla variedade de tópicos, desde temas mais fundamentais até estudos de aplicação prática em contextos específicos de Saúde, refletindo desta forma a pluralidade e diversidade de áreas que definem, e tornam única, a ESTeSL. Acreditamos que a investigação e pesquisa científica é um eixo fundamental para o desenvolvimento da sociedade e é por isso que incentivamos os nossos estudantes a envolverem-se em atividades de pesquisa e prática baseada na evidência desde o início dos seus estudos na ESTeSL. Esta publicação é um exemplo do sucesso desses esforços, sendo a maior de sempre, o que faz com que estejamos muito orgulhosos em partilhar os resultados e descobertas dos nossos investigadores com a comunidade científica e o público em geral. Esperamos que este Anuário inspire e motive outros estudantes, profissionais de saúde, professores e outros colaboradores a continuarem a explorar novas ideias e contribuir para o avanço da ciência e da tecnologia no corpo de conhecimento próprio das áreas que compõe a ESTeSL. Agradecemos a todos os envolvidos na produção deste anuário e desejamos uma leitura inspiradora e agradável.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    On the Mechanism of Building Core Competencies: a Study of Chinese Multinational Port Enterprises

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    This study aims to explore how Chinese multinational port enterprises (MNPEs) build their core competencies. Core competencies are firms’special capabilities and sources to gain sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) in marketplace, and the concept led to extensive research and debates. However, few studies include inquiries about the mechanisms of building core competencies in the context of Chinese MNPEs. Accordingly, answers were sought to three research questions: 1. What are the core competencies of the Chinese MNPEs? 2. What are the mechanisms that the Chinese MNPEs use to build their core competencies? 3. What are the paths that the Chinese MNPEs pursue to build their resources bases? The study adopted a multiple-case study design, focusing on building mechanism of core competencies with RBV. It selected purposively five Chinese leading MNPEs and three industry associations as Case Companies. The study revealed three main findings. First, it identified three generic core competencies possessed by Case Companies, i.e., innovation in business models and operations, utilisation of technologies, and acquisition of strategic resources. Second, it developed the conceptual framework of the Mechanism of Building Core Competencies (MBCC), which is a process of change of collective learning in effective and efficient utilization of resources of a firm in response to critical events. Third, it proposed three paths to build core competencies, i.e., enhancing collective learning, selecting sustainable processes, and building resource base. The study contributes to the knowledge of core competencies and RBV in three ways: (1) presenting three generic core competencies of the Chinese MNPEs, (2) proposing a new conceptual framework to explain how Chinese MNPEs build their core competencies, (3) suggesting a solid anchor point (MBCC) to explain the links among resources, core competencies, and SCA. The findings set benchmarks for Chinese logistics industry and provide guidelines to build core competencies

    Exploring differences in electromyography and force production between front and back squats before and after fatigue and how this differs between the sexes

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    Limited research has been conducted to explore sex differences in biomechanical and physiological demands of the front and back squat, especially in response to fatigue where technique may be altered. Therefore, this study investigated differences in electromyography and force production in performance of back and front squats before and after a fatigue protocol and how this differed between males and females. 35 participants (5 female, 30 male) performed a fatigue protocol for back and front squats with measures of maximal performance pre and post. Main findings were that mean and peak activation of the semitendinosus was greater in the back squat than the front squat suggesting that the back squat has greater hamstring activation possibly for hip stabilisation and knee flexion (p < 0.05). There were no differences in quadricep activation between back and front squats, disputing the notion that front squats have a greater quadricep focus, however, lending support to the hypothesis that quadricep activation equal to the back squat can be achieved with lighter absolute load in a front squat. There were no differences in electromyography as a result of fatigue however force production decreased for back squats following fatigue (p < 0.01). This decrease could result from decreased acceleration out of the bottom position and into the concentric phase. This study also presents preliminary findings of greater mean and peak rectus femoris activation in females compared to males in both front (p < 0.01) and back squats (p < 0.05). This was suggested to be in order to support the knee and in an attempt to prevent knee valgus and excess hip adduction. These findings have implications in programming for both high performance sport and for rehabilitation of lower limb injuries

    Predictive Maintenance of Critical Equipment for Floating Liquefied Natural Gas Liquefaction Process

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    Predictive Maintenance of Critical Equipment for Liquefied Natural Gas Liquefaction Process Meeting global energy demand is a massive challenge, especially with the quest of more affinity towards sustainable and cleaner energy. Natural gas is viewed as a bridge fuel to a renewable energy. LNG as a processed form of natural gas is the fastest growing and cleanest form of fossil fuel. Recently, the unprecedented increased in LNG demand, pushes its exploration and processing into offshore as Floating LNG (FLNG). The offshore topsides gas processes and liquefaction has been identified as one of the great challenges of FLNG. Maintaining topside liquefaction process asset such as gas turbine is critical to profitability and reliability, availability of the process facilities. With the setbacks of widely used reactive and preventive time-based maintenances approaches, to meet the optimal reliability and availability requirements of oil and gas operators, this thesis presents a framework driven by AI-based learning approaches for predictive maintenance. The framework is aimed at leveraging the value of condition-based maintenance to minimises the failures and downtimes of critical FLNG equipment (Aeroderivative gas turbine). In this study, gas turbine thermodynamics were introduced, as well as some factors affecting gas turbine modelling. Some important considerations whilst modelling gas turbine system such as modelling objectives, modelling methods, as well as approaches in modelling gas turbines were investigated. These give basis and mathematical background to develop a gas turbine simulated model. The behaviour of simple cycle HDGT was simulated using thermodynamic laws and operational data based on Rowen model. Simulink model is created using experimental data based on Rowen’s model, which is aimed at exploring transient behaviour of an industrial gas turbine. The results show the capability of Simulink model in capture nonlinear dynamics of the gas turbine system, although constraint to be applied for further condition monitoring studies, due to lack of some suitable relevant correlated features required by the model. AI-based models were found to perform well in predicting gas turbines failures. These capabilities were investigated by this thesis and validated using an experimental data obtained from gas turbine engine facility. The dynamic behaviours gas turbines changes when exposed to different varieties of fuel. A diagnostics-based AI models were developed to diagnose different gas turbine engine’s failures associated with exposure to various types of fuels. The capabilities of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique have been harnessed to reduce the dimensionality of the dataset and extract good features for the diagnostics model development. Signal processing-based (time-domain, frequency domain, time-frequency domain) techniques have also been used as feature extraction tools, and significantly added more correlations to the dataset and influences the prediction results obtained. Signal processing played a vital role in extracting good features for the diagnostic models when compared PCA. The overall results obtained from both PCA, and signal processing-based models demonstrated the capabilities of neural network-based models in predicting gas turbine’s failures. Further, deep learning-based LSTM model have been developed, which extract features from the time series dataset directly, and hence does not require any feature extraction tool. The LSTM model achieved the highest performance and prediction accuracy, compared to both PCA-based and signal processing-based the models. In summary, it is concluded from this thesis that despite some challenges related to gas turbines Simulink Model for not being integrated fully for gas turbine condition monitoring studies, yet data-driven models have proven strong potentials and excellent performances on gas turbine’s CBM diagnostics. The models developed in this thesis can be used for design and manufacturing purposes on gas turbines applied to FLNG, especially on condition monitoring and fault detection of gas turbines. The result obtained would provide valuable understanding and helpful guidance for researchers and practitioners to implement robust predictive maintenance models that will enhance the reliability and availability of FLNG critical equipment.Petroleum Technology Development Funds (PTDF) Nigeri

    Exploring the effects of spinal cord stimulation for freezing of gait in parkinsonian patients

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    Dopaminergic replacement therapies (e.g. levodopa) provide limited to no response for axial motor symptoms including gait dysfunction and freezing of gait (FOG) in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Richardson’s syndrome progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP-RS) patients. Dopaminergic-resistant FOG may be a sensorimotor processing issue that does not involve basal ganglia (nigrostriatal) impairment. Recent studies suggest that spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has positive yet variable effects for dopaminergic-resistant gait and FOG in parkinsonian patients. Further studies investigating the mechanism of SCS, optimal stimulation parameters, and longevity of effects for alleviating FOG are warranted. The hypothesis of the research described in this thesis is that mid-thoracic, dorsal SCS effectively reduces FOG by modulating the sensory processing system in gait and may have a dopaminergic effect in individuals with FOG. The primary objective was to understand the relationship between FOG reduction, improvements in upper limb visual-motor performance, modulation of cortical activity and striatal dopaminergic innervation in 7 PD participants. FOG reduction was associated with changes in upper limb reaction time, speed and accuracy measured using robotic target reaching choice tasks. Modulation of resting-state, sensorimotor cortical activity, recorded using electroencephalography, was significantly associated with FOG reduction while participants were OFF-levodopa. Thus, SCS may alleviate FOG by modulating cortical activity associated with motor planning and sensory perception. Changes to striatal dopaminergic innervation, measured using a dopamine transporter marker, were associated with visual-motor performance improvements. Axial and appendicular motor features may be mediated by non-dopaminergic and dopaminergic pathways, respectively. The secondary objective was to demonstrate the short- and long-term effects of SCS for alleviating dopaminergic-resistant FOG and gait dysfunction in 5 PD and 3 PSP-RS participants without back/leg pain. SCS programming was individualized based on which setting best improved gait and/or FOG responses per participant using objective gait analysis. Significant improvements in stride velocity, step length and reduced FOG frequency were observed in all PD participants with up to 3-years of SCS. Similar gait and FOG improvements were observed in all PSP-RS participants up to 6-months. SCS is a promising therapeutic option for parkinsonian patients with FOG by possibly influencing cortical and subcortical structures involved in locomotion physiology

    Industry 4.0: product digital twins for remanufacturing decision-making

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    Currently there is a desire to reduce natural resource consumption and expand circular business principles whilst Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is regarded as the evolutionary and potentially disruptive movement of technology, automation, digitalisation, and data manipulation into the industrial sector. The remanufacturing industry is recognised as being vital to the circular economy (CE) as it extends the in-use life of products, but its synergy with I4.0 has had little attention thus far. This thesis documents the first investigating into I4.0 in remanufacturing for a CE contributing a design and demonstration of a model that optimises remanufacturing planning using data from different instances in a product’s life cycle. The initial aim of this work was to identify the I4.0 technology that would enhance the stability in remanufacturing with a view to reducing resource consumption. As the project progressed it narrowed to focus on the development of a product digital twin (DT) model to support data-driven decision making for operations planning. The model’s architecture was derived using a bottom-up approach where requirements were extracted from the identified complications in production planning and control that differentiate remanufacturing from manufacturing. Simultaneously, the benefits of enabling visibility of an asset’s through-life health were obtained using a DT as the modus operandi. A product simulator and DT prototype was designed to use Internet of Things (IoT) components, a neural network for remaining life estimations and a search algorithm for operational planning optimisation. The DT was iteratively developed using case studies to validate and examine the real opportunities that exist in deploying a business model that harnesses, and commodifies, early life product data for end-of-life processing optimisation. Findings suggest that using intelligent programming networks and algorithms, a DT can enhance decision-making if it has visibility of the product and access to reliable remanufacturing process information, whilst existing IoT components provide rudimentary “smart” capabilities, but their integration is complex, and the durability of the systems over extended product life cycles needs to be further explored

    The International Political Economy of Land Reform and Conflict in Colombia 1936-2018

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    Why did land reforms attempted in 1936, 1961 and 1994 not lead to more equality, stability, and peace in Colombia? Using a theoretical framework informed by Gramscis theory of passive revolution, this study examines the origin of inequality and the propagation of conflict in Colombia by exploring the relationship between international political economy, production relations and class conflict surrounding three cases of land reform (1936, 1961 and 1994). I argue that land reforms have failed to address inequality and have exacerbated class conflicts for three interrelated reasons: 1) though campesinos demanded the redistribution of large estates, pro-capitalist land reforms left productive plantations intact and instead promoted access to lands in frontier areas where the state had little effective control over property rights; 2) demands for reforms emerged during 'commodity booms', when a bourgeois-peasant alliance in favour of capitalist expansion was possible, but during phases of subsequent crisis and price collapse, agrarian reforms were coopted by landlord-bourgeois alliances that pushed the consolidation of larger, more productive holdings; 3) the failure of reforms to address popular demands for land contributed to an atmosphere of instability in which reactionary elites used popular unrest as a pretext for repression against opponents of capitalism with the support of international financial and military power. The result has been the intensification of land conflicts and several waves of landlord-led dispossession, popular resistance, and counterinsurgency in the 1940s-50s, 1960s-1970s and 1980s-2000s. Political instability in Colombia is indicative of the dynamics of passive revolution as the case lends itself to a Gramscian analysis of uneven development in the 20th century Latin American context. Colombia's experience shows the limits of "passive revolutionary" land reforms which may unite diverse constituencies under certain conditions, but which leave the material and social foundations of conflict fundamentally unchanged, leaving campesinos vulnerable to shifts in global market conditions. This leads me to the conclusion that there will be no stable peace in Colombia without redistributive land reform. Redistribution has been the demand of the agrarian social movement since the 1930s but has been consistently denied in land reforms during broader processes of passive revolution that favour large-scale corporate farming, natural resource development and the debasement and exploitation of labour through dispossession in a context of unevenly expanding capitalism

    The geographies of care and training in the development of assistance dog partnerships

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    Human-assistance-dog partnerships form a significant phenomena that have been overlooked in both animal geographies and disability geographies. By focusing on one Assistance Dogs UK (ADUK) charity, ‘Dog A.I.D’., a charity that helps physically disabled and chronically ill people to train their own pets to be assistance dogs, I detail the intimate entangled lifeworlds that humans and dogs occupy. In doing so, I also dialogue between the sub-disciplinary fields of animal geographies and disability geographies, by exploring two broad thematic areas – embodiment and care. As such, this thesis examines the geographies of assistance dog partnership, the care and training practices involved, the benefits and challenges of sharing a lifeworld with a different species, and the changing relationship from a human-pet bond to a human-assistance-dog partnership. Drawing on lived experience and representations of assistance dog partnerships gathered through qualitative (and quantitative) research methods, including a survey, semi-structured interviews (face-to-face, online, and telephone), video ethnography, and magazine analysis, I contribute to research on the assistance dog partnerships and growing debates around the more-than-human nature of care. The ethnomethodological approach to exploring how training occurs between disabled human and assistance dog is also noteworthy as it centres the lively experiences of practice at work between species. The thesis is organised around interconnected themes: the intimate worlds of assistance dog partnerships, working bodies, and caring relations. These thematics allow for a geographical interpretation into the governance, spatial organisation, and representations of dog assistance partnerships. I also explore the training cultures of Dog A.I.D. whilst also spotlighting the lived experiences of training through the early stages of ‘socialisation’, ‘familiarisation’, ‘life skills training’, through to ‘task work’. Finally, the thesis focuses on the practices of care that characterise the assistance dog partnership, showing how care is provided and received by both human and nonhuman. I pay attention to the complex potentiality of the partnership, illustrating how dogs are trained to assist, but also how dogs appear to embody lively, agentic, moments of care. The thesis contributes original work which speaks to animal and disability geographies and attends to the multiple geographies of care-full cross-species lives
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