7,678 research outputs found

    AnuĂĄrio cientĂ­fico da Escola Superior de Tecnologia da SaĂșde de Lisboa - 2021

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    É com grande prazer que apresentamos a mais recente edição (a 11.ÂȘ) do AnuĂĄrio CientĂ­fico da Escola Superior de Tecnologia da SaĂșde de Lisboa. Como instituição de ensino superior, temos o compromisso de promover e incentivar a pesquisa cientĂ­fica em todas as ĂĄreas do conhecimento que contemplam a nossa missĂŁo. Esta publicação tem como objetivo divulgar toda a produção cientĂ­fica desenvolvida pelos Professores, Investigadores, Estudantes e Pessoal nĂŁo Docente da ESTeSL durante 2021. Este AnuĂĄrio Ă©, assim, o reflexo do trabalho ĂĄrduo e dedicado da nossa comunidade, que se empenhou na produção de conteĂșdo cientĂ­fico de elevada qualidade e partilhada com a Sociedade na forma de livros, capĂ­tulos de livros, artigos publicados em revistas nacionais e internacionais, resumos de comunicaçÔes orais e pĂłsteres, bem como resultado dos trabalhos de 1Âș e 2Âș ciclo. Com isto, o conteĂșdo desta publicação abrange uma ampla variedade de tĂłpicos, desde temas mais fundamentais atĂ© estudos de aplicação prĂĄtica em contextos especĂ­ficos de SaĂșde, refletindo desta forma a pluralidade e diversidade de ĂĄreas que definem, e tornam Ășnica, a ESTeSL. Acreditamos que a investigação e pesquisa cientĂ­fica Ă© um eixo fundamental para o desenvolvimento da sociedade e Ă© por isso que incentivamos os nossos estudantes a envolverem-se em atividades de pesquisa e prĂĄtica baseada na evidĂȘncia desde o inĂ­cio dos seus estudos na ESTeSL. Esta publicação Ă© 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 cientĂ­fica e o pĂșblico em geral. Esperamos que este AnuĂĄrio inspire e motive outros estudantes, profissionais de saĂșde, professores e outros colaboradores a continuarem a explorar novas ideias e contribuir para o avanço da ciĂȘncia e da tecnologia no corpo de conhecimento prĂłprio das ĂĄreas que compĂ”e a ESTeSL. Agradecemos a todos os envolvidos na produção deste anuĂĄrio e desejamos uma leitura inspiradora e agradĂĄvel.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Educating Sub-Saharan Africa:Assessing Mobile Application Use in a Higher Learning Engineering Programme

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    In the institution where I teach, insufficient laboratory equipment for engineering education pushed students to learn via mobile phones or devices. Using mobile technologies to learn and practice is not the issue, but the more important question lies in finding out where and how they use mobile tools for learning. Through the lens of Kearney et al.’s (2012) pedagogical model, using authenticity, personalisation, and collaboration as constructs, this case study adopts a mixed-method approach to investigate the mobile learning activities of students and find out their experiences of what works and what does not work. Four questions are borne out of the over-arching research question, ‘How do students studying at a University in Nigeria perceive mobile learning in electrical and electronic engineering education?’ The first three questions are answered from qualitative, interview data analysed using thematic analysis. The fourth question investigates their collaborations on two mobile social networks using social network and message analysis. The study found how students’ mobile learning relates to the real-world practice of engineering and explained ways of adapting and overcoming the mobile tools’ limitations, and the nature of the collaborations that the students adopted, naturally, when they learn in mobile social networks. It found that mobile engineering learning can be possibly located in an offline mobile zone. It also demonstrates that investigating the effectiveness of mobile learning in the mobile social environment is possible by examining users’ interactions. The study shows how mobile learning personalisation that leads to impactful engineering learning can be achieved. The study shows how to manage most interface and technical challenges associated with mobile engineering learning and provides a new guide for educators on where and how mobile learning can be harnessed. And it revealed how engineering education can be successfully implemented through mobile tools

    The Immersive Mental Rotations Test: Evaluating Spatial Ability in Virtual Reality

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    Advancements in extended reality (XR) have inspired new uses and users of advanced visualization interfaces, transforming geospatial data visualization and consumption by enabling interactive 3D geospatial data experiences in 3D. Conventional metrics (e.g., mental rotations test (MRT)) are often used to assess and predict the appropriateness of these visualizations without accounting for the effect the interface has on those metrics. We developed the Immersive MRT (IMRT) to evaluate the impact that virtual reality (VR) based visualizations and 3D virtual environments have on mental rotation performance. Consistent with previous work, the results of our pilot study suggest that mental rotation tasks are performed more accurately and rapidly with stereo 3D stimuli than with 2D images of those stimuli

    Stratigraphy, chronology, and correlation of the Plio-Pleistocene (c. 2.2-0.8 Ma) Kauroa Ash sequence, western central North Island, New Zealand

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    The Kauroa Ash beds (K-beds) comprise a 12-20 m-thick sequence of extremely weathered, clay-rich (40-95% <4 ÎŒm clay) beds of tephra and loess, and associated paleosols. Found in isolated remnants throughout the western central North Island, the sequence comprises 15 defined members, with as many as 44 constituent macroscopic beds. The type site, ‘Woodstock’, near Raglan, is the most comprehensive sequence known, but other sites (e.g. Papakura Creek and Tiritirimatangi Peninsula) contain units not found or poorly defined at Woodstock. Field properties as well as magnetic susceptibility measurements and particle-size analysis characterise the facies in the sequence. Field properties (in particular colour, consistence, macrofabric) describe the lithostratigraphy. The sequence contains five interpretive (i.e. genetic) ‘facies’: paleosols, primary tephra, very weathered tephra (possibly composite beds), loess and ‘tephric loess’ beds. At least seven loess beds are (newly) identified in the sequence: K4a, K5, K6ai, K8ai, K8bi, K10a and K14ai. Mass-specific susceptibility and frequency-dependent susceptibility results partly conform to established models (developed mostly on Chinese loess-paleosol deposits) of susceptibility enhancement in paleosols and depletion in loess. Many parts of the sequence do not appear to conform to this model and the results more closely resemble the inverse relationship found on Alaskan loess-paleosol beds. Frequency-dependent susceptibility is reliable in delineating paleosols by their ‘ultrafine’ ferrimagnetic mineral content, and citrate-bicarbonate-dithionite treatments successfully remove all iron oxides so that remeasurement of susceptibility isolates a strictly ‘pedogenic’, rather than lithogenic, fraction. Laser diffraction particle-size analysis shows that the Kauroa Ash beds are texturally reasonably homogenous. They have bimodal particle-size distributions with the most dominant mode at around 11.25 Éž inferred to be the product of intense and prolonged weathering. Other modes are variously centred on 7-8.5 Éž and, despite weathering and pedogenesis, have some relationship to the original depositional particle-size distributions because trends between facies (i.e. genetic units) are delineated. Principal components analysis objectively characterises these modes as (Wentworth size classes) ‘very fine clay’ and ‘coarse silt’, although there is no proportional relationship between them, supporting a post-depositional origin for the former mode. The chronology of the sequence, previously poorly defined, is greatly improved by a combination of tephrochronologic correlations, fission-track dating, and paleomagnetism. Five zircon fission-track dates provide independent age ‘spikes’ and range from 2.24 ± 0.29 Ma in the basal member, K1, to 1.28 ± 0.11 Ma for the distal ignimbrite unit K12a. Paleomagnetism is invaluable in providing additional age information. The top of the sequence, member K15, is dated as >0.78 Ma (Brunhes-Matuyama boundary) because of its reversed polarity; two episodes of normal polarity are found in beds K14b and K2b and are inferred to represent the Jaramillo (1.07-0.99 Ma) and Olduvai (1.95-1.79 Ma) subchrons, respectively. Beds underlying the Kauroa Ash sequence are also of normal polarity, indicating that they were deposited in the Gauss Chron (>2.6 Ma). Identification and correlation of tephras by conventional means (fingerprinting by their lithological or geochemical properties) is impossible in the Kauroa Ash sequence because the beds have no remaining volcanic glass, which has instead been altered to an assemblage of authigenic phases (clays) by weathering and pedogenesis. However, a new technique analysing fresh glass found as melt inclusions in quartz grains is successful in circumventing this problem. Inclusions represent samples of non-degassed magma that became entrapped during phenocryst growth prior to eruption. The glass has remained unaltered because it is hermetically sealed in a chemically resistant phenocryst, which has protected it from weathering processes. Electron microprobe analysis of the glass inclusions yield results which are wholly reasonable for glass (totals ranging from 93-97%; low standard deviations of <1 %), and a number of provisional correlations are established by comparing the major element composition of Kauroa Ash tephra beds with those of proximal deposits. The Kauroa Ash sequence may contain deposits correlated with at least seven major TVZ eruptions, in many cases expanding the known extent of the (distal) deposit and, for the first time answering the question as to the origin of the Kauroa Ash beds. These correlations, together with an improved chronology, enable the Kauroa Ash sequence to be placed in a regional stratigraphic framework alongside other New Zealand Plio-Pleistocene sequences such as those in the Wanganui Basin, Wairarapa, Cape Kidnappers and Port Waikato. Using paleosols as chrono- and climatostratigraphic entities (correlated to warm periods in global climate), the sequence can also be placed alongside a global reference, the marine oxygen isotope stratigraphy. A further correlation to the Chinese loess-paleosol record suggests that large parts of the Kauroa Ash sequence were deposited in an incremental manner akin to deposition of loess, so that the sequence is not only a record of TVZ volcanism, but also of Plio-Pleistocene paleoclimate

    Management Matters : Organizational Storytelling within the Anthroposophical Society in Sweden

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    The Anthroposophical Society, founded by the Austrian polymath Rudolf Steiner, came to Sweden in 1913, but for the generation of present-day Swedish Anthroposophists whose voices are heard in this study, the great flowering of the movement occurred in the second half of the twentieth century. The movement had by then expanded into a large milieu with many largely independent enterprises and institutions, from the formal organization itself, to various schools, farms, shops, medical facilities, etc., all based on interpretations of Steiner’s legacy. Since then, many members of the movement feel, there has been a decline. A movement of this size and complexity can be seen as a large organization with a corporate-like structure. Taking its point of departure in ideas from the vast field of organization studies, and specifically in the study of storytelling as part of the creation of a corporate culture where many voices and many perspectives co-exist, this study investigates how Anthroposophists in Sweden, both rank and-file members and some who served in leadership positions, tell the story of the putative Golden Age, decline, and projected future of Anthroposophy in Sweden. Twenty-eight interviews were collected, recurrent themes identified, and the plots of the various individual stories analyzed by means of a version of the actantial model developed by the semioticist Algirdas Greimas. The basic storyline, of which the interviewees’ individual stories constitute variations, is that the Golden Age, when charismatic leaders could draw crowds of enthusiastic young people and a vibrant Anthroposophical milieu was built up, came to an end with the demise of those leaders. The present, i.e., the time at which the interviews were conducted, is narratively framed as a period of sharp decline. The vistas for the future come across in most stories as quite bleak. An actantial analysis reveals that the past, an epoch that is on one hand held up as a shining example is on the other hand also described as a time characterized by innumerable problems and conflicts. Disagreement is rampant regarding the reasons for the current decline, and a vast number of problems are identified in the individual narratives. The future is for some interviewees impossible to speculate about, whereas others have specific suggestions for change. These suggestions, when held up against each other, show that there is no unified vision of what the necessary changes might be or who must bring them about. The interviewees agree that Anthroposophy plays a vital role as a spiritual path. When asked how they would describe Anthroposophy and what it more specifically can offer, answers diverge, but substantive descriptions of core concepts or practices are rarely alluded to. Rather, their explanations of what Anthroposophy is are in almost all cases metaphorical or negative, i.e., they represent Anthroposophy as elusive or undefinable. Interviewees can suggest that the lack of a clear Anthroposophical “brand” is a major reason for its current perceived crisis. An analysis of the ways in which Rudolf Steiner is portrayed in the interview material shows that there are a variety of descriptions of him rather than a unified representation of a charismatic leader that members can rally around. This, the study suggests, is because four different forms of charisma can be distinguished on theoretical grounds, and the particular form that permeates the narratives collected for this study does not readily support the dissemination of a centralized, dominant narrative.Antroposofiska SĂ€llskapet, grundat av österrikaren Rudolf Steiner, kom till Sverige redan i 1913, men för den generation av nutida svenska antroposofer vars röster hörs i denna studie intrĂ€ffade rörelsens stora blomstringstid först under nittonhundratalets andra hĂ€lft. Vid det laget hade rörelsen expanderat och blivit till en omfattande miljö med mĂ„nga stort sett oberoende institutioner och verksamheter, frĂ„n sjĂ€lva det Antroposofiska SĂ€llskapet i strikt mening till olika skolor, lantbruk, butiker, kliniker, osv., som alla byggde pĂ„ tolkningar av arvet efter Steiner. MĂ„nga medlemmar i rörelsen menar att det sedan dess har skett en nedgĂ„ng. En rörelse med den storlek och komplexitet som det rör sig om i det aktuella fallet kan betraktas som en organisation med en företagsliknande struktur. Denna studie tar dĂ€rför sin utgĂ„ngspunkt i ett organisationsteoretiskt perspektiv, i synnerhet i den gren av organisationsteorin som studerar berĂ€ttande som ett led i hur en organisationskultur med mĂ„nga samexisterande röster skapas. I det aktuella fallet handlar det om berĂ€ttelser som antroposofer i Sverige, bĂ„de vanliga medlemmar och personer i ledarstĂ€llning, framför om den blomstringstid de menar rörelsen en gĂ„ng hade, den nedgĂ„ng de sĂ€ger sig uppleva och den framtid de förestĂ€ller sig att antroposofin i Sverige kommer att möta. TjugoĂ„tta intervjuer genomfördes och de berĂ€ttelser som förmedlas i dessa intervjuer analyserades med hjĂ€lp av en variant av den aktantmodell som utvecklats av semiotikern Algirdas Greimas. Den grundlĂ€ggande handling man Ă„terfinner i intervjupersonernas olika berĂ€ttelser Ă€r att blomstringstiden var en guldĂ„lder dĂ„ karismatiska ledare kunde samla stora grupper av entusiastiska ungdomar och en levande antroposofisk miljö byggdes upp, men att denna guldĂ„lder upphörde nĂ€r ledarna gick ur tiden. Nuet, alltsĂ„ den tid dĂ„ intervjuerna genomfördes, beskrivs i berĂ€ttelserna som en tid av förfall. Framtidsutsikterna som mĂ„las upp i de flesta berĂ€ttelser Ă€r dystra. Aktantanalysen visar att berĂ€ttelserna om det förflutna bĂ„de beskriver denna tid i mycket positiva termer och nĂ€mner otaliga problem och konflikter. Nuets pĂ„stĂ„dda förfall Ă„terkommer i de flesta berĂ€ttelser, men Ă„sikterna gĂ„r vitt isĂ€r nĂ€r det gĂ€ller vad nutidens problem Ă€r och vad som orsakat dem. Framtiden beskrivs av vissa intervjupersoner som omöjlig att spekulera nĂ€rmare om, medan andra har specifika förslag till förĂ€ndringar. Sammantaget visar analysen att det saknas en enhetlig förestĂ€llning om vad som behöver göras för att lösa rörelsens problem och vem som ska ta ansvar för dessa förĂ€ndringar. Intervjupersonerna Ă€r eniga om att antroposofin spelar en viktig roll. FrĂ„gan hur de skulle beskriva antroposofin och vad den har att erbjuda besvaras pĂ„ olika sĂ€tt, men sĂ€llan i termer av konkreta beskrivningar av för antroposofin centrala förestĂ€llningar eller praktiker. Tendensen Ă€r snarare att svara i metaforiska eller negativa termer, alltsĂ„ genom att berĂ€tta att de menar att antroposofin inte gĂ„r att definiera. Samtidigt kan intervjupersonerna förklara att bristen pĂ„ en tydlig antroposofisk identitet Ă€r ett huvudskĂ€l till vad de ser som rörelsens nuvarande kris. En analys av de sĂ€tt pĂ„ vilka Rudolf Steiner beskrivs i intervjumaterialet visar att det ocksĂ„ finns en rad divergerande uppfattningar av honom snarare Ă€n en sammanhĂ„llen beskrivning av en karismatisk ledare som medlemmarna kan samlas kring. Studien konkluderar att karisma pĂ„ teoretiska grunder kan delas in i fyra olika typer, och att den specifika form av karisma som intervjuerna Ă„terspeglar inte harmonierar sĂ€rskilt vĂ€l med spridandet av en centralt utformad dominerande berĂ€ttelse

    Identification of Hindbrain Neural Substrates for Motor Initiation in the hatchling Xenopus laevis Tadpole

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    Animal survival profoundly depends on the ability to detect stimuli in the environment, process them and respond accordingly. In this respect, motor responses to a sensory stimulation evolved into a variety of coordinated movements, which involve the control of brain centres over spinal locomotor circuits. The hatchling Xenopus tadpole, even in its embryonic stage, is able to detect external sensory information and to swim away if the stimulus is considered noxious. To do so, the tadpole relies on well-known ascending sensory pathway, which carries the sensory information to the brain. When the stimulus is strong enough, descending interneurons are activated, leading to the excitation of spinal CPG neurons, which causes the undulatory movement of swimming. However, the activation of descending interneurons that marks the initiation of motor response appears after a long delay from the sensory stimulation. Furthermore, the long-latency response is variable in time, as observed in the slow-summating excitation measured in descending interneurons. These two features, i.e. long-latency and variability, cannot be explained by the firing time and pattern of the ascending sensory pathway of the Xenopus tadpole. Therefore, a novel neuronal population has been proposed to lie in the hindbrain of the tadpole, and being able to 'hold' the sensory information, thus accounting for the long and variable delay of swim initiation. In this work, the role of the hindbrain in the maintenance of the long and variable response to trunk skin stimulation is investigated in the Xenopustadpole at developmental stage 37/38. A multifaceted approach has been used to unravel the neuronal mechanisms underlying the delayed motor response, including behavioural experiments, electrophysiology analysis of fictive swimming, hindbrain extracellular recordings and imaging experiments. Two novel neuronal populations have been identified in the tadpole's hindbrain, which exhibit activation patterns compatible with the role of delaying the excitation of the spinal locomotor circuit. Future work on cellular properties and synaptic connections of these newly discovered populations might shed light on the mechanism of descending control active at embryonic stage. Identifying supraspinal neuronal populations in an embryonic organism could aid in understanding mechanisms of descending motor control in more complex vertebrates

    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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