Ulcerative colitis: let's talk about extent

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory disease in which clinical course varies substantially between patients. The extent of the disease is usually pointed out as one of the factors responsible for this variation. With this study, we pretended to evaluate the differences in natural history and pharmacological therapy prescription between left-sided and extended UC

Performance indicators in the construction industry: a study with Portuguese companies

This paper aims to study the use of performance indicators (PIs) by business managers in the civil construction sector in a region that encompasses eight districts located in the north of Portugal. Through the literature review, it was possible to gather a list of twenty potential PIs used in this sector. Subsequently, a questionnaire was applied to a sample of construction companies from this region. A statistical analysis of the data collected allowed to identify the twelve most used and most important PIs for the companies surveyed. The results indicate that the companies involved in this study mainly use the traditional financial measures, however, recognize that non-financial measures, namely the customer satisfaction index, employee satisfaction, internal customer satisfaction index, and the training of employees, are increasingly important for the success of companies. The study also analysis the criteria to select PIs, its main benefits, and difficulties faced by companies on their usage.INCT-EN - Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia para Excitotoxicidade e Neuroproteção(UID/CEC/00319/2019

O combate à exclusão social através de programas de Turismo Social para famílias economicamente carenciadas

O turismo oferece oportunidades para explorar novos ambientes e para participar em novas situações, que podem proporcionar vários benefícios para os turistas. Apesar do reconhecimento desses potenciais benefícios e de o turismo ser uma actividade em crescimento, permanecem algumas dúvidas acerca dos impactes sociais do turismo para os turistas e existem, ainda, muitos constrangimentos à prática turística. O baixo nível de rendimento é um desses constrangimentos, transformando o turismo numa actividade inacessível para muitos grupos na sociedade, mesmo nas economias desenvolvidas. Neste contexto, o Turismo Social aparece como tentativa de restaurar a igualdade de acesso ao turismo, integrando objectivos relacionados com o combate à pobreza e exclusão social. Não obstante esta realidade, existem poucos estudos que analisam o turismo para grupos economicamente carenciados, sendo esta uma área de investigação pouco estudada. Este estudo visa analisar os potenciais benefícios de Programas de Turismo Social para famílias economicamente carenciadas e estudar alguns Programas de Turismo Social existentes para este segmento. Com esse intuito, efectuou-se uma análise de conteúdo de diversas publicações, que permitiu: (i) conhecer o tipo de benefícios da prática turística para famílias carenciadas; (ii) verificar o surgimento recente de alguns Programas de Turismo Social para este segmento; e (iii) apresentar as principais características de cada um desses Programas

Caracterização de populações microbianas em reactores "jet-loop" para tratamento de efluentes agro-industriais

Tese de doutoramento, Biologia (Microbiologia), 2009, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de CiênciasOs métodos clássicos de microbiologia não permitem determinar a exaustiva composição duma comunidade microbiana, tendo por isso de ser complementados com ferramentas moleculares para inferir a dinâmica das populações presentes. A monitorização de consórcios em sistemas de biotratamentos é um bom exemplo da eficácia dos métodos moleculares, possibilitando o controlo de problemas de estabilidade e predição das flutuações ambientais, contribuindo para a optimização dos processos. Nesta dissertação efectuou-se a monitorização de consórcios microbianos nos biotratamentos de dois efluentes recorrendo a métodos clássicos e a métodos moleculares. Nos biotratamentos dos efluentes de adega, a identificação por métodos clássicos revelou a predominância dos géneros Bacillus e Pseudomonas. Molecularmente, as sequências nucleotídicas das bandas dos perfis DGGE afiliaram com os géneros Acetobacter, Actinobacterium, Burkholderia, Comamonas, Exiguobacterium, Frateuria, Geobacter, Microbacterium e Novosphingobium. Por LHPCR detectaram-se 7 fragmentos (469, 496, 517, 519, 522, 525 e 528 bp) em amostras com as taxas de remoção de CQO e de fenóis totais superiores a 70%. A dinâmica das comunidades mostrou ser correlacionável com as variações de tempo de retenção hudráulico, temperatura e teor em NO3. Nos biotratamentos dos efluentes de lagar de azeite, identificaram-se cinco isolados bacterianos, pela metodologia clássica: Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus sphaericus, Brevibacillus brevis, Ewingella americana e Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. Os clones obtidos dos perfis TGGE afiliaram com Gluconacetobacter, Klebsiella, Lactobacillus, Pseudomonas, Prevotella, Ralstonia, Sphingobium, Sphingomonas e Novosphingobium. A análise por LH-PCR revelou 9 fragmentos (468, 471, 474, 496, 499, 521, 524, 555 e 559 bp) em amostras com taxas de remoção de CQO entre 67 e 75%. Relacionaram-se as alterações na composição das comunidades com as variações de temperatura e de teor em O2. A análise comparativa dos consórcios microbianos revelou que a maioria das bactérias detectadas pertence a géneros com capacidade de degradação de compostos fenólicos. A não detecção pelos métodos moleculares de estirpes cultivadas (e.g. Bacillus) evidencia a necessidade de implementar estratégias que inter-cruzem os métodos clássicos com os moleculares.Molecular tools are a solution to overcome the bias of culture-dependent methods that don't allow either a complete assessment of the microbial community composition or its dynamics. Monitoring of microbial consortia involved in a biotreatment system is an excellent example of the efficiency of molecular methods, to solve and predict problems due to environmental perturbations, contributing to a better optimization of the treatment process. In this thesis, monitoring of microbial consortia was carried out during biotreatments of two effluents using both classical and molecular methods. Monitoring of winery effluent biotreatments revealed the predominance of genera Bacillus and Pseudomonas, identified by classical methods. Nucleotidic sequences of DGGE profile bands affiliated to genera Acetobacter, Actinobacterium, Burkholderia, Comamonas, Exiguobacterium, Frateuria, Geobacter, Microbacterium and Novosphingobium. LH-PCR analysis have shown 7 fragments (469, 496, 517, 519, 522, 525 and 528 bp) from samples with COD and phenol removal rates higher than 70%. A notable correlation was found between the community dynamics shifts observed on the hydraulic retention time, temperature and NO3 contents. Along olive oil wastewater five bacterial isolates were identified by classical methods: Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus sphaericus, Brevibacillus brevis, Ewingella americana and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. Clones obtained from TGGE profiles affiliated with Gluconacetobacter, Klebsiella, Lactobacillus, Pseudomonas, Prevotella, Ralstonia, Sphingobium, Sphingomonas and Novosphingobium. In what concerns LHPCR analysis 9 fragments (468, 471, 474, 496, 499, 521, 524, 555 and 559 bp) were detected in samples with COD removal rates of 67 up to 75%. Microbial consortia shifts composition can be attributed to changes of temperature and O2 level. Comparative analysis of microbial consortia revealed that the majority of the bacteria found in those communities are known to be degraders of phenolic compounds. The lack of detection of cultivated strains (e.g. Bacillus) in this study by molecular techniques emphasized the need to implement new strategies that allow a feasible intercross of classic and molecular methodologies

PHM overview on battery models approaches

The Battery Management Systems (BMS) brought a new impetus to the battery energy management which lead to an increase in battery life. But the BMS fails when the State of Charge (SoC), State of Health (SoH), State of Life (SoL) or Remaining Useful Life (RUL) prognostics systems do not provide the required accuracy. Despite the increase of complexity and accuracy of battery models, the poor performance with floating temperature and load profiles persists. With the development of innovative products on wide-ranging applications, the battery materials, technologies, reliability and safety are being pressed to their limits. Therefore, a huge amount of work is still necessary, not only on the development of new battery technologies but also on the BMS, battery models and metrics accuracy improvements. The paper gives a comprehensive overview of the applicability, accuracy, weaknesses and advantages of the most recent battery models. The paper will also discuss how the Prognostics Health Management (PHM) can support a technologic impetus on battery affairs with battery models and metrics accuracy improvements.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

O Impacto do Derby de Futebol Lisboeta no Perfil de Admissões a um Serviço de Urgência

BACKGROUND: Variations in emergency department admissions have been reported to happen as a result of major sports events. The work presented assessed changes in volume and urgency level of visits to a major Emergency Department in Lisbon during and after the city's football derby. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Volume of attendances and patient urgency level, according to the Manchester Triage System, were retrospectively analyzed for the 2008-2011 period. Data regarding 24-hour periods starting 45 minutes before kick-off was collected, along with data from similar periods on the corresponding weekdays in the previous years, to be used as controls. Data samples were organized according to time frame (during and after the match), urgency level, and paired accordingly. RESULTS: A total of 14 relevant periods (7 match and 7 non-match) were analyzed, corresponding to a total of 5861 admissions. During the match time frame, a 20.6% reduction (p = 0.06) in the total number of attendances was found when compared to non-match days. MTS urgency level sub-analysis only showed a statistically significant reduction (26.5%; p = 0.05) in less urgent admissions (triage levels green-blue). Compared to controls, post-match time frames showed a global increase in admissions (5.6%; p = 0.45), significant only when considering less urgent ones (18.9%; p = 0.05). DISCUSSION: A decrease in the total number of emergency department attendances occurred during the matches, followed by a subsequent increase in the following hours. These variations only reached significance among visits triaged green-blue. CONCLUSION: During major sports events an overall decrease in emergency department admissions seems to take place, especially due to a drop in visits associated with less severe conditions

Acquired-Transient Factor X Deficiency in a Teenager with Extensive Burns

Acquired factor X deficiency is an extremely rare situation. It has shown to be associated with systemic amyloidosis, respiratory mycoplasma infection, factor X inhibitors, antiphospholipid antibodies, vitamin K defi ciency/liver disease as well as the use of certain medications (meropenem, valproic acid). The pathogenesis and transient nature of this deficit remain poorly understood. The authors describe the case of a teenager hospitalised for extensive burns that developed active bleeding after removal of central venous catheter. He was diagnosed with transient factor X deficiency. Normalisation of coagulation status and factor X levels occurred spontaneously 10 days after the bleeding episode

Risk Analysis and Behavior of Electricity Portfolio Aggregator

The scope of this paper is to adapt the standard mean-variance model of Henry Markowitz theory, creating a simulation tool to find the optimal configuration of the portfolio aggregator, calculate its profitability and risk. Currently, there is a deep discussion going on among the power system society about the structure and architecture of the future electric system. In this environment, policy makers and electric utilities find new approaches to access the electricity market; this configures new challenging positions in order to find innovative strategies and methodologies. Decentralized power generation is gaining relevance in liberalized markets, and small and medium size electricity consumers are also become producers (“prosumers”). In this scenario an electric aggregator is an entity that joins a group of electric clients, customers, producers, “prosumers” together as a single purchasing unit to negotiate the purchase and sale of electricity. The aggregator conducts research on electricity prices, contract terms and conditions in order to promote better energy prices for their clients and allows small and medium customers to benefit improved market prices

Effective radio resource management for multimedia broadcast/multicast services in UMTS networks

WOS:000242097300001 (Nº de Acesso Web of Science)Broadcast and multicast offer a significant improvement of spectrum utilization, and become particularly important where information channels are shared among several users. Mobile cellular environments are expected to evolve with the technological approaches necessary to facilitate the deployment of multimedia services, such as streaming, file download, and carousel services. The perspective that video streaming in wireless networks services is an attractive service to end-users has spurred the research in this area. To provide for a video delivery platform in UMTS, the third generation partnership project (3GPP) addressed this problem with the introduction of the multimedia broadcast and multicast services (MBMS) in 3GPP Release 6. In this document we analyse several effective radio resource management techniques to provide MBMS, namely, use of nonuniform QAM constellations, multicode, and macrodiversity to guarantee the optimal distribution of QoS depending on the location of mobiles.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Commercial agents portfolio optimization in electricity markets

As it is well known, competitive electricity markets require new computing tools for power companies that operate in retail markets in order to enhance the management of its energy resources. During the last years there has been an increase of the renewable penetration into the micro-generation which begins to co-exist with the other existing power generation, giving rise to a new type of consumers. This paper develops a methodology to be applied to the management of the all the aggregators. The aggregator establishes bilateral contracts with its clients where the energy purchased and selling conditions are negotiated not only in terms of prices but also for other conditions that allow more flexibility in the way generation and consumption is addressed. The aggregator agent needs a tool to support the decision making in order to compose and select its customers' portfolio in an optimal way, for a given level of profitability and risk