Spatiotemporal analysis of breast cancer hospitalizations in Portugal in 2002–2016

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer among Portuguese women and it is associated with high hospitalization rates. Therefore, this study aims to characterize the BC hospital admission rate (HAR) in women in the period of 2002-2016, with an additional focus on spatiotemporal patterns of hospitalizations by BC (main code). Methods: After a descriptive analysis of all BC hospitalizations, the main BC code HAR was studied using mapping techniques, analysis of spatiotemporal clusters, and analysis of spatial variations in temporal trends. Results: The BC-HAR was 118.72/105 women, showing a growth of 3.109% per year in this period. The median length of stay (LOS) in these patients was 5 days, and most cases were programmed surgical admissions. Several spatiotemporal clusters and spatial variations in temporal trends were detected. The seaside area of the country showed 4 high HAR clusters in the spatiotemporal analysis. Additionally, the seaside north of the country and 2 isolated counties presented significantly different temporal trends in BC-HAR versus the rest of the country. These clusters suggest regional asymmetries, as they showed differences in terms of: demographic characteristics (age at admission and rurality of county of residence), the type of admission, LOS, and outcomes of hospitalization. Conclusion: This study identified key areas of high BC-HAR and increasing trends for female HAR, providing evidence of spatial heterogeneities in this health indicator.publishersversionpublishe

Emotional contagion and prosocial behavior in rodents

Empathy is critical to adjusting our behavior to the state of others. The past decade dramatically deepened our understanding of the biological origin of this capacity. We now understand that rodents robustly show emotional contagion for the distress of others via neural structures homologous to those involved in human empathy. Their propensity to approach others in distress strengthens this effect. Although rodents can also learn to favor behaviors that benefit others via structures overlapping with those of emotional contagion, they do so less reliably and more selectively. Together, this suggests evolution selected mechanisms for emotional contagion to prepare animals for dangers by using others as sentinels. Such shared emotions additionally can, under certain circumstances, promote prosocial behavior

Morphology and physiology of anaerobic granular sludge exposed to organic solvents

The use of quantitative image analysis techniques, together with physiological information might be used to monitor and detect operational problems in advance to reactor performance failure. Industrial organic solvents such as white spirit are potentially harmful to granular sludge. In preliminary batch assays, 33 mg.Lˉ¹ of solvent caused 50% relative biomass activity loss. In an Expanded Granular Sludge Blanket reactor fed with 40 mg.Lˉ¹ of solvent, during 222 h, the reactor performance seemed to be unaffected, presenting COD removal efficiency constantly above 95 %. However, in the first hours of exposure the specific acetoclastic and the specific hydrogenotrophic methanogenic activities decreased by 29 and 21 %, respectively. The % of projected aggregates area with equivalent diameter (Deq) higher than 1 mm decreased from 81 to 53 % and consequently the % of projected area of small aggregates increased. The average equivalent diameter of the aggregates larger than 2 mm decreased as well as the settling velocity, showed that the granules experienced fragmentation phenomenon caused by the solvent shock load. The ratio between total filaments length and total aggregates projected area (LfA) increased 2 days before effluent volatile suspended solids, suggesting that LfA could be an early-warning indicator of washout events.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - SFRH/BD/13317/2003, POCTI/AMB/60141/2001

Missão Polyedros: um diálogo entre a arte analógica e a digital e o ensino de geometria espacial através de atividades gamificadas

As tecnologias digitais, sobretudo os games, são importantes ferramentas para o estímulo de habilidades e competências artísticas, culturais e curriculares que, quando aliadas ao processo de ensino e aprendizagem, resultam em inúmeros benefícios para alunos e professores de um modo geral. O problema está no fato de que muitos docentes ainda não têm formação adequada para utilizar artefatos digitais, e muitos dos softwares e games educacionais existentes ainda são insuficientes e carentes de interfaces gráficas, funcionalidades, recursos, entre outros parâmetros, quando comparados com os comerciais. O objetivo é de apresentar um estudo sobre o ensino de geometria espacial, através de atividades gamificadas, estabelecendo diálogos entre a arte analógica e a digital, e o ensino de Geometria espacial com alunos do terceiro ano do Ensino Médio de uma escola pública. Dos resultados obtidos, destacam-se o comportamento participativo e o engajamento dos discentes, que se mostraram interessados em compreender o que estava sendo ministrado, graças às mecânicas de jogo empregadas. Os resultados mostraram que, quando aliada à utilização das Tecnologias Digitais da Informação e Comunicação (TDIC) ou a materiais concretos, a gamificação emerge como uma alternativa com grande potencial. Entretanto, por si só, ela não transforma a sala de aula nem garante o sucesso na execução de atividades, razão pela qual é necessária uma boa metodologia e o controle de turma por parte do professor, assim como a colaboração dos alunos para que haja uma aprendizagem tranquila e eficaz.Digital technologies are important tools to motivate artistic, cultural and curricular skills. When added to the teaching and learning process, they result in many benefits for teachers and students. Many teachers, however, still do have not the appropriate instruction to use digital artifacts, and most of the educational software and games are still insufficient and have poor graphical interfaces, resources and others parameters when compared to the commercial ones. The goal of this article is to present a study about spatial geometry’s teaching, through gamified activities, establishing dialogues between analogue and digital arts, in the teaching of third grade high school students from a public school. The results prove the participative behavior and the engagement of students, who have showed interest in understanding what was being taught, thanks to the game mechanics used. The results also show that when allied to Digital Technologies of Information and Comunication (TDIC), or other concrete materials, the gamification process emerges as an alternative with strong potential. However, by itself, it does not transform the classroom nor guarantees the success of the activities. For these reasons, a good methodology and classroom control by the teacher, as well as the collaboration of students, for a quiet and effective learning, is mandatory.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Knowledge-based fuzzy system for diagnosis and control of an integrated biological wastewater treatment process

A supervisory expert system based on fuzzy logic rules was developed for diagnosis and control of a lab- scale plant comprising anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic modules for combined high rate biological N and C removal. The design and implementation of a computational environment in LabVIEW for data acquisition, plant operation and distributed equipment control is described. A step increase in ammonia concentration from 20 to 60 mg N/L was applied during a trial period of 73 hours. Recycle flow rate from the aerobic to the anoxic module and by-pass flow rate from the influent directly to the anoxic reactor were the output of the fuzzy system that were automatically changed (from 34 to 111 L/day and from 8 to 13 L/day, respectively), when new plant conditions were recognized by the expert system. Denitrification efficiency higher than 85% was achieved 30 hours after the disturbance and 15 hours after the system response at an HRT as low as 1.5 hours. Nitrification efficiency gradually increased from 12 to 50% at an HRT of 3 hours. The system proved to properly react in order to set adequate operating conditions that timely led to recover efficient N and C removal rates.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia , Fundo Social Europeu - BD/1299/2000 , BD/13317/2003

A fuzzy-logic based expert system for diagnosis and control of an integrated wastewater treatment

A supervisory expert system based on fuzzy logic rules was developed for diagnosis and control of a lab- scale plant comprising anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic modules for combined high rate biological N and C removal. The design and implementation of a computational environment in LabVIEW for data acquisition, plant operation and distributed equipment control is described. The Fuzzy Logic toolbox for MATLAB was also used for the development of the fuzzy logic rule based system. The fuzzy rules were generated from quantitative and qualitative information, to identify the status of the plant operation and to decide the best commands to be sent to the final control elements to recover the stable operation in case of disturbances of the processes. A step increase in ammonia concentration from 20 to 60 mg N/L was applied during a trial period of 73 hours. Recycle flow rate from the aerobic to the anoxic module and by-pass flow rate from the influent directly to the anoxic reactor were the output of the fuzzy system that were automatically changed (from 34 to 111 L/day and from 8 to 13 L/day, respectively), when new plant conditions were recognized by the expert system. Denitrification efficiency higher than 85% was achieved 30 hours after the disturbance and 15 hours after the system response at an HRT as low as 1.5 hours. Nitrification efficiency gradually increased from 12 to 50% at an HRT of 3 hours. The system proved to properly react in order to set adequate operating conditions that timely led to recover efficient N and C removal rates.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - doctoral research grant BD/1299/2000.União Europeia (UE) - Fundo Social Europeu (FSE) - doctoral research grant BD/13317/2003

Turismo Social Sénior: caracterização do perfil e preferências do idoso institucionalizado na região do Alentejo

O turismo sénior tem vindo, nas últimas décadas, a ser indicado como um novo paradigma determinante para o bem-estar e felicidade do idoso, contribuindo para uma melhor qualidade de vida e estado de saúde, física e psicológica. Pelo crescimento exponencial do envelhecimento da população, principalmente nos países desenvolvidos, as Organizações de Economia Social têm como desafio desenvolver respostas alternativas, que se adaptem a um novo perfil do idoso. Este trabalho, enquadrado no projeto VOLTO JÁ, pretende caracterizar o perfil dos idosos institucionalizados em Estrutura Residencial para Idosos (ERPI) e Centros de Dia, na região do Alentejo, e verificar a disponibilidade para participar em programas de turismo social sénior. Os dados foram recolhidos através de um inquérito por questionário aplicados a idosos institucionalizados em oito ERPI e Centros de Dia, na região do Alentejo, Portugal (Alter do Chão, Castelo de Vide, Odemira, Alcáçovas, Grândola, Golegã, Almeirim e Chamusca). Participaram voluntariamente 134 idosos institucionalizados, com idade igual ou superior a 55 anos, sem comprometimento ao nível da função cognitiva. Os resultados incluem o perfil do idoso, os seus desejos futuros relacionados com o turismo social e a sua disponibilidade para participar em programas de turismo social sénior.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio