Stochastic prediction of drought class transitions

This paper aims at the stochastic characterization of droughts applying Markov chains modeling to drought class transitions derived from SPI time series. Several sites in Southern Portugal having updated data on precipitation available were considered. The drought class probabilities, the expected residence time in each class of severity, the expected time for the transition between drought classes and the drought severity class predictions 1, 2, or 3 months ahead have been obtained. Those predictions are then compared with observed drought classes for the recent drought periods of 2003–2006. In addition, the estimation of the cumulated precipitation deficits, amount of monthly precipitation needed to decrease drought severity, and foreseen SPI values depending on different precipitation scenarios are also presented as complementing the prediction of drought class transitions

Sumário executivo

Três espécies de térmitas são conhecidas actualmente nos Açores: Kalotermes flavicollis (térmita de madeira húmida europeia), Cryptotermes brevis (térmita de madeira seca das Índias Ocidentais), Reticulitermes grassei (térmita subterrânea europeia). Destas, duas, a Cryptotermes brevis e a Reticulitermes grassei estão a provocar grandes prejuízos nas cidades principais dos Açores (Angra do Heroísmo, Ponta Delgada e Horta) e prevê-se que nas próximas décadas possam igualmente ocorrer noutras partes do arquipélag

Formulações micelares proteicas e respectivo método de produção

The present invention describes micellar protein formulations for the controlled release of active ingredients, and method for preparing the same. The invention describes a new micelle composition for use in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and detergents. In particular, it describes micelle formation formulations that comprise: an aqueous phase containing a protein or a natural or synthetic peptide; a lipophilic phase containing a hydrophobic compound; an adjuvant dissolved in the aqueous phase to regulate the size and stability of the micelles; the size of the micelles varying from 30 to 5000 nm, preferably from 30 to 100 nm, wherein the micelles can be obtained by two different methods, namely using ultrasound or a high-pressure homogeniser. The preparation method involves two distinct phases: an aqueous phase and a lipophilic phase. The aqueous phase can be water or any buffer that is best suitable for a given use, such as an aqueous solution of bovine serum albumen (BSA); human serum albumen (HSA); silk fibroin or a polypeptide fibroin.A presente invenção descreve em formulações micelares proteicas para libertação controlada de agentes e respetivo método de produção. A invenção descreve numa nova composição de micelas para aplicações farmacêuticas, cosméticas e 0 o0 detergência. Nomeadamente, formulações para a formação de micelas que compreendem: · uma fase aquosa contendo uma proteína ou um péptido natural ou sintético; · uma fase lipofílica que compreende um composto hidrofóbico; · um agente adjuvante dissolvido na fase aquosa que regula o tamanho e estabilidade das micelas; em que os tamanhos das referidas micelas varia entre 30 a 5000 nm, de preferência de 30-100 nm, as referidas micelas podem ser obtidas a partir de duas metodologias diferentes, nomeadamente ultra-sons ou homogeneizador de alta pressão. O método de preparação envolve duas fases distintas: fase aquosa e fase lipofílica. A fase aquosa pode ser água ou qualquer tampão que mais se adeque para uma determinada aplicação, como por exemplo uma solução aquosa de albumina sérica bovina (BSA); albumina sérica humana (HSA); fibroína da seda ou de um polipéptido.Universidade do Minh

Automatic nurse allocation based on a population algorithm for home health care

The provision of home health care services is becoming an important research area, mainly because in Portugal the population is ageing and it is necessary to perform home care services. Home care visits are organized taking into account the medical treatments and general support that elder/sick people need at home. This health service can be provided by nurses teams from Health Units, requiring some logistics for this purpose. Usually, the visits are manually planned and without computational support. The main goal of this work is to carry out the automatic nurse’s allocation of home care visits, of one Bragança Health Unit, in order to minimize the nurse’s workload balancing, spent time in all home care visits and, consequently, reduce the costs involved. The developed methodology was coded in MatLab Software and the problems were efficiently solved by the particle swarm optimization method. The nurse’s allocation solution of home care visits for the presented case study shows a significant improvement and reduction in the maximum time, in the nurse workload balancing, as well as the patients waiting time.This work has been supported by COMPETE:POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the project UID/CEC/00319/2019

In vitro gastrointestinal digestion impact on the antioxidant activity of extracts produced from the macroalgae gracilaria gracilis and ulva rigida

The interest in edible algae has been growing over the years due to their richness in molecules with nutritional and bioactive potential, such as proteins, essential amino acids, vitamins and minerals. Furthermore, due to their interesting protein content, they have been described as a source of bioactive peptides, with scientifically documented antioxidant, anti-hypertensive and antimicrobial properties. In this work, water-soluble extracts were produced from the macroalgae Gracilaria gracilis and Ulva rigida, with focus on their antioxidant potential. Furthermore, the impact of in vitro gastrointestinal (GI) digestion on the antioxidant activity of both extracts was studied, with the goal of evaluating their potential as functional food ingredients. Extracts were produced by enzymatic hydrolysis, with a cellulase and a subtilisin protease, using a previously optimized method. Then, both were submitted to simulated GI conditions, similar to those found in the human digestive system. The antioxidant activity was determined by ORAC and ABTS assays in four stages of GI simulation (before digestion, and after mouth, stomach and intestine digestion). The antioxidant activity did not decrease throughout the different stages of digestion. Interestingly, the antioxidant capacity increased after some phases. For instance, both extracts presented higher ORAC values after all digestion phases, when compared to the non-digested extract, being statistically significant after stomach digestion, for G. gracilis extract (p < 0.05). On this study, both extracts maintained their antioxidant activity during in vitro GI digestion, with an increase after almost all digestion phases, when compared to the non-digested extract. The observed increase may be explained by the production of smaller and more bioactive peptides, by the action of the gastrointestinal enzymes, such as pepsin and pancreatin. In conclusion, since antioxidant activity is maintained throughout the GI tract, these results showed that G. gracilis and U. rigida extracts may be considered potential ingredients for the development of functional foods with antioxidant properties.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Desenvolvimento e avaliação das características psicométricas do inventário de avaliação das percepções dos professores acerca das necessidades ao nível da promoção de competências sociais e emocionais

The objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of an assessment instrument on teachers' perceptions regarding the development of socio-emotional skills. Results revealed a consistent four-factor structure (School/teachers' needs for socio-emotional skills promotion; Needs regarding teaching-learning process; Difficulties in dealing with students' socio-emotional deficits, Socio-emotional needs related to teacher's initial training) with internal consistency values above .79. Confirmatory analyses revealed a good fit of the model to the data. Teachers reported having more needs at the school/ teachers conditions for the promotion of social and emotional needs, and less needs at the level of their Teachers' initial training. The instrument also showed to be sensitive in capturing teachers' perception of schooling social and emotional needs in terms of teachers' gender, pedagogic group and school level.O objectivo deste estudo foi avaliar as características psicométricas de um instrumento de avaliação das percepções dos professores acerca das suas necessidades na promoção das competências sociais e emocionais. Os resultados revelaram uma estrutura de quatro factores (Necessidades ao nível da escola/professor, necessidades ao nível do processo de ensino-aprendizagem, Dificuldades em lidar com défices sócio-emocionais dos alunos e Necessidades ao nível da formação inicial), com valores de consistência interna acima de 0,79. As análises confirmatórias revelaram bom ajustamento do modelo aos dados. Os professores revelaram sentir maiores dificuldades ao nível das condições da escola/ professores e menores ao nível da formação inicial. O instrumento revelou-se também sensível às diferenças de percepções em termos do género, grupo pedagógico, e nível de ensino

Multi-agent system specification for distributed scheduling in home health care

Nowadays, scheduling and allocation of resources and tasks becomes a huge and complex challenge to the most diverse industrial areas, markets, services and health. The problem with current scheduling systems is that their management is still done manually or using classical optimization methods (usually static, time-consuming) and centralized approaches. However, opportunities arise to decentralize solutions with smart systems, which enable the distribution of the computational effort, the flexibility of behaviours and the minimization of operating times and operational planning costs. The paper proposes the specification of a Multi-agent System (MAS) for the Home Health Care (HHC) scheduling and allocation. The MAS technology enables the scheduling of intelligent behaviours and functionalities based on the interaction of agents, and allows the evolution of current strategies and algorithms, as it can guarantee the fast response to condition changes, flexibility and responsiveness in existing planning systems. An experimental HHC case study was considered to test the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed MAS approach, the results demonstrating promising qualitative and quantitative indicators regarding the efficiency and responsiveness of the HHC scheduling.This work has been supported by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia within the R&D Units Projects Scope: UIDB/00319/2020 and UIDB/05757/2020. Filipe Alves is supported by FCT Doctorate Grant Reference SFRH/BD/143745/2019

A prescriptive cost model for demand shaping: an application for target costing

Costing tools and traditional cost models are used primarily to calculate costs. However, these models would be more relevant if used as decision-making support tools. That is, they should allow ex-ante rather than ex-post analyses. Nevertheless, cost models tend to follow a linear logic of resources-activities-products (e.g. as it is the case of Activity Based Costing) when uncertainty, variability and dynamics of the current market demand cost models that help decision makers to define which resources are needed to satisfy market needs (e.g. as it is the case of Target Costing), i.e. in a reverse logic. Such models can be designated prescriptive cost models and require significant computational resources to attend the complexity of the problems for which they can be applied. The prescriptive analysis intends to recommend actions based on specified or desired results and it is the most evolved stage of business analytics, far beyond descriptive and predictive approaches. This paper presents and discusses a prescriptive cost model applied in the context of Target Costing. The relevance and validity of this approach are discussed and several opportunities for further work are presented.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Alzheimer’s Disease: A Clinical Practice-Oriented Review

Investigation in the field of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the commonest cause of dementia, has been very active in recent years and it may be difficult for the clinician to keep up with all the innovations and to be aware of the implications they have in clinical practice. The authors, thus, reviewed recent literature on the theme in order to provide the clinician with an updated overview, intended to support decision-making on aspects of diagnosis and management. This article begins to focus on the concept of AD and on its pathogenesis. Afterward, epidemiology and non-genetic risk factors are approached. Genetics, including genetic risk factors and guidelines for genetic testing, are mentioned next. Recommendations for diagnosis of AD, including recently proposed criteria, are then reviewed. Data on the variants of AD is presented. First approach to the patient is dealt with next, followed by neuropsychological evaluation. Biomarkers, namely magnetic resonance imaging, single photon emission tomography, FDG PET, PiB PET, CSF tau, and Aβ analysis, as well as available data on their diagnostic accuracy, are also discussed. Factors predicting rate of disease progression are briefly mentioned. Finally, non-pharmacological and pharmacological treatments, including established and emerging drugs, are addressed