Children and technology: preoccupations, practices and participation in Early Childhood Education

Children live in a complex world where technology plays different roles and influences several spheres of their existence. Research about the presence and educational impact of technology in childhood reveals several challenges. A particular challenge is connected to the need for a high-quality pedagogy regarding technology in Early Childhood Education. This paper contributes to that discussion from a Portuguese perspective. The pedagogical and curricular framework for Early Childhood Education in Portugal supports a significant use of technology in the daily practice and in children’s play. In this context, the paper explores three main axes to understand a high-quality pedagogy for using technology with children in educational contexts: technology presented as a tool with socially authentic practices; technology as supporting multiple languages that are relevant for children to understand the world around them; and technology as an arena for children’s participation. Each axis is supported by the analysis of specific projects developed locally at the School of Education. The projects were selected for highlighting tenets of each axis. Each axis is also connected to the three content areas of the Portuguese Curricular Guidelines and to dimensions of a sociocultural pedagogy for Early Childhood Education.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A deck of cards for creative drawing based on algorithmic thinking

Deck of cards created as a pedagogical tool for the project Algolittle "Algorithmic Thinking Skills through Play-Based Learning for Future’s Code Literates" (2020-1-TR01-KA203-092333). Supports children in creating collaborative drawings based on prompts while learning concepts related to algorithms, especially conditions, and loops.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mobile Application for Real-Time Food Plan Management for Alzheimer Patients through Design-Based Research

Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia that affects many individuals, mainly in an older age group. Over time, it leads to other diseases that affect their autonomy and independence. The quality of food ingestion is a way to mitigate the disease and preserve the patient’s well-being, which substantially impacts their health. Many existing applications for food plan management focus on the prescription of food plans but do not provide feedback to the nutritionist on the real amount of ingested calories. It makes these applications inadequate for these diseases, where monitoring and control are most important. This paper proposed the design and development of a mobile application to monitor and control the food plans of Alzheimer’s patients, focused on informal caregivers and respective patients. It allows both the realistic visualization of the food plans and users to adjust their consumption and register extra meals and water consumption. The interface design process comprises a two-level approach: the user centered design methodology that accounts for users’ needs and requirements and the user experience questionnaire to measure user satisfaction. The results show that the interface is intuitive, visually appealing, and easy to use, adjusted for users that require a particular level of understanding regarding specific subjects.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mediação de conflitos socioambientais: Uma alternativa à efetivação do direito fundamental ao meio ambiente ecologicamente equilibrado

Os problemas ecológicos e o acesso à justiça são temas de constantes discussões no âmbito jurídico. O descrédito no Poder Judiciário brasileiro pode ser considerado um dos responsáveis pelo aumento da procura dos chamados meios alternativos de soluções de conflitos, como a arbitragem, a negociação, a conciliação e a mediação. Em geral, os conflitos resolvidos por meio de soluções alternativas são de caráter privado, nos quais o poder estatal não possui ingerência. No que pese o fato de o direito ambiental ser pautado por normas públicas, de observância obrigatória, muitos conflitos envolvendo esta temática podem ser resolvidos efetivamente com o uso da mediação. Neste contexto, por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica, buscar-se-á analisar a aplicação de meios alternativos de solução de conflitos, em especial a mediação, como forma de resolução dos conflitos ambientais. A escolha desse método de resolução se deu posto que os fatores positivos de sua aplicação superam os fatores supostamente considerados negativos

COMPARISON OF THE ALCOHOL CONTENT OBTAINED IN THE FERMENTATION OF DWARF CAVENDISH BANANA AND ITS PEEL FOR THE PURPOSES OF BRANDY PRODUCTION

Brandy is one of the most consumed alcoholic beverages in Brazil, being produced with sweet vegetables, cereals, sugar cane and fruits that have fermentable sugars. This drink is confused with cachaça, from which it is distinguished by the alcoholic degree and typically Brazilian productivity. Banana stands out in Brazil and in the world as the second fruit in productivity, behind only orange, being an accessible raw material for the production of brandy. This processing is advantageous due to the rapid ripening of this fruit, which can often make it impossible to sell in natura to the consumer. This study aimed to carry out the fermentation through the inoculation of the yeast Sacchamomyces cerevisae separately for pulp and skins of Dwarf Cavendish banana to verify the alcohol content produced. The banana pulp brandy reached an alcohol content of 39,5° GL, within the stipulated by the current legislation, the peel, however, did not allow adequate alcohol levels (7,5° GL). It is concluded that the pulp of Dwarf Cavendish banana is viable for the production of brandy.A aguardente é uma das bebidas alcoólicas mais consumidas no Brasil, sendo produzida com vegetais doces, cereais, cana-de-açúcar e frutas que possuem açúcares fermentescíveis. Esta bebida é confundida com a cachaça, da qual é diferenciada pelo grau alcoólico e produtividade tipicamente brasileira. A banana possui destaque no Brasil e no mundo como a segunda fruta em produtividade, atrás apenas da laranja, sendo uma matéria-prima acessível para a produção de aguardente em razão do processo de amadurecimento rápido, o que acaba muitas vezes por inviabilizar a venda in natura para o consumidor. Este estudo objetivou realizar a fermentação através da inoculação da levedura Saccharomyces cerevisae separadamente para mostos da polpa e cascas de bananas nanica para verificar o teor alcóolico produzido. A aguardente de polpa de banana atingiu teor alcoólico de 39,5° GL, dentro do estipulado pela legislação vigente, a casca, contudo, não permitiu níveis alcóolicos adequados (7,5° GL). Conclui-se que a polpa da banana nanica é viável para a produção de aguardent

Simultaneous Use of Two Observation Hives to Study the Behavior of Honeybee Colonies in Apis mellifera Linnaeus (Hymenoptera: Apidae) / Uso simultâneo de duas colméias de observação para estudar o comportamento das colônias de abelhas em Apis mellifera Linnaeus (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Workers of Apis mellifera L. perform activities in a temporal sequence. In general, this division of labor includes some duties that vary with age, the needs of the colony and environmental conditions. This scientific note describes a technique that facilitates the observation of activities relating to the division of labor among worker bees of different ages, as well as the control of the longevity of these bees when they receive a diet containing a specific substance.

A Therapeutic Maneuver for Oropharyngeal Dysphagia in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease

OBJECTIVE: This study investigates resources to provide better conditions for oropharyngeal swallowing for improvement in the quality of life of Parkinson's disease patients. METHOD: Three men and one woman with an average age of 70.25 years had been afflicted with Parkinson's disease for an average of 9.25 years. The patients were submitted to a rehabilitation program for oropharyngeal dysphagia after a clinical evaluation of swallowing. The rehabilitation program consisted of daily sessions for two consecutive weeks during which a biofeedback resource adapted especially for this study was used. The patients were then reevaluated for swallowing ability at follow-up. RESULTS: The patients presenting difficulties with swallowing water displayed no such problems after rehabilitation. Only one patient exhibited slow oral transit of food and other discrete oropharyngeal food remnants when swallowing a biscuit. The sample variance was used to analyze the pressure measurements, demonstrating a numerical similarity of the results obtained with the swallowing of saliva or of biscuits (VAR = 4.41). A statistical difference was observed between the swallowing of saliva and biscuits, showing a significant pressure increase at the end of the rehabilitation program (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The effortful swallow maneuver reinforced by using biofeedback appears to be a therapeutic resource in the rehabilitation of oropharyngeal dysphagia in Parkinson's disease patients

Recreating tracker music sequencers in modern videogames: an integrated model approach for adaptive music

A música tem um papel fundamental nos vídeo-jogos, contribuindo para o ambiente e imersão do jogo, mas também pelas suas caraterísticas nostálgicas. Diversos clássicos ficaram marcados pelos temas que reproduziam no ecrã inicial ou nos primeiros minutos jogáveis, que ainda hoje são relembrados e dificilmente serão esquecidos. Acompanhando a evolução, várias abordagens tecnológicas foram surgindo, no domínio dos gráficos e do áudio, de forma a obter mais qualidade no produto final. Como resultado, existem hoje várias ferramentas para criação de áudio ou de composição da banda sonora de forma adaptativa. No âmbito musical existe uma questão intrínseca: a música de um jogo deve ser idealmente dinâmica, isto é, cada secção da composição deve acompanhar as ações do jogador, ao contrário de algo estático que se repete continuamente.Um dos softwares que permitem esta abordagem com facilidade é um tipo de sequenciadores, frequentemente denominados por Trackers, que estão algo esquecidos nos dias de hoje. Esta tecnologia, proveniente dos tempos do Commodore Amiga, trouxe vantagens sobre as anteriores com ficheiros que ocupavam muito pouco espaço em disco. Assim, a comunidade de músicos e programadores encontrou uma nova forma de criação e expressão musical, que acabou por marcar a década de 90. Atualmente existe pouco desenvolvimento e suporte para estes sequenciadores, devido ao aparecimento de outras soluções com enorme potencial e versatilidade, apesar de estas não partilharem o mesmo tipo de vantagens dos trackers, sendo difícil substituí-los por completo. Este estudo foca-se no desenvolvimento de uma arquitetura capaz de reproduzir música composta num tracker, recorrendo a ferramentas e soluções atuais, de forma a que seja expansível e compatível com motores de jogo modernos.O projeto foi desenvolvido baseado numa aplicação existente e atualizada, da qual foram estudadas as suas caraterísticas e particularidades, bem como os formatos de ficheiro associados. Depois desta fase, o protótipo foi testado no motor com um jogo desenvolvido para o propósito, onde foram conferidos os resultados esperados. Analisando estes resultados, tornou-se possível criar uma música com controlo de tempo, instrumentos, padrões musicais e muitos outros elementos, armazenada num conjunto de ficheiros com um tamanho substancialmente mais reduzido que a maioria das soluções existentes.Music plays a very important role in video-games contributing to the game's atmosphere and immersion. It also operates at a cognitive level, namely in memory triggering feelings such as nostalgia. Theme songs from several classics, both from gameplay or the main menu are still remembered today and will probably never be forgotten.During video-games' evolution, several technological iterations and increments arose, both for graphics and audio, as means to achieve better quality for the final product. Thus, many editing tools for adaptive audio or soundtracks are available today and pursuing an inherent concern: the game's music should ideally be dynamic, in the sense that it must adapt to the player's actions, as opposed to something that is static and perceived as continuously looping.A software that enables this kind of approach with ease is a kind of music sequencers, commonly named Trackers, that are somewhat underused/obsolete these days. This technology, which comes from the Commodore Amiga times, brought many advantages over previous solutions and offers a very small storage footprint. With this, musicians and programmers found a new method for music creation and expression, that marked many gamers during the 90's. Nowadays there's little development and support for these sequencers, due to new solutions appearing with a lot of potential, although these don't share many of the trackers' advantages, thus being unable to completely replace the tracker.This study focuses on the development of an architecture that can play music composed on a tracker, using current resources and frameworks, offering compatibility with modern game engines and allowing the expansion of the traditional trackers workflow and possibilities.A prototype was developed based on an existing and updated application, from which its features and file formats were studied. Following this phase, the prototype was tested on the engine with a game developed specifically for the purpose, where several results were collected. From the observation and analysis of the results, it was possible to create a song with tempo control, instruments, musical patterns and many other elements. This track can be stored in a group of files with a relatively small size compared to other existing solutions

Baralho de cartas para desenho criativo baseado em pensamento algorítmico

Baralho de cartas concebido como ferramenta pedagógica no contexto do projeto Algolittle "Algorithmic Thinking Skills through Play-Based Learning for Future’s Code Literates" (2020-1-TR01-KA203-092333). Apoia a criação de desenhos colaborativos baseados em pistas associados à aprendizagem de conceitos de pensamento algorítmico, nomeadamente repetições e condições.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio