“Colorir para agir”: educar pela arte, para a paz

O projeto “Colorir para agir” foi concebido e implementado com o objetivo de alertar para a problemática crescente da violência escolar e contribuir para a prevenção e diminuição das práticas agressivas de crianças em idade escolar, procurando valorizar a convivência harmoniosa entre pares. Aliando a educação não formal às artes, este programa de intervenção desenvolveu um conjunto de atividades no âmbito das artes plásticas, abrangendo 21 crianças, com idades compreendidas entre os 6 e os 13 anos de um Agrupamento de Escolas de Valongo do Vouga, no concelho de Águeda (Portugal). Estas culminaram na realização de um mural gigante pintado na parede exterior da instituição, que ficou como símbolo da não violência escolar e da educação para a paz

Adverse childhood experiences and empathy: the role of interparental conflict

Communication abstract: Proceedings of the 5th International Congress of CiiEM - Reducing inequalities in Health and Society, held at Egas Moniz’ University Campus in Monte de Caparica, Almada, from June 16th to 18th, 2021.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.The literature shows that adverse life experiences may harm individuals. The main objectives of this research were to study the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and empathy in adulthood and analyse differences between victims and nonvictims of interparental conflict. Our research evidenced that adverse childhood experiences affect individuals’ empathy in adulthood, and victims of interparental violence experienced other childhood victimization.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Model-based user interface testing with Spec Explorer and ConcurTaskTrees

Analytic usability analysis methods have been proposed as an alternative to user testing in early phases of development due to the cost of the latter approach. By working with models of the systems, analytic models are not capable of identifying implementation related problems that might have an impact on usability. Model-based testing enables the testing of an implemented software artefact against a model of what it should be (the oracle). In the case of model-based user interface testing, the models should be expressed at an adequate level of abstraction, adequately modelling the interaction process. This paper describes an effort to develop tool support enabling the use of task models as oracles for model-based testing of user interfaces.FCT -Fuel Cell Technologies Program(POSC/EIA/56646/2004

Perceção dos utentes acerca da terapêutica medicamentosa prescrita após consulta médica e após dispensa na farmácia

A promoção do uso racional do medicamento é fundamental para assegurar a eficácia terapêutica e minimizar os riscos. É considerável o número de utentes que não compreende o tratamento prescrito, muitas vezes por ausência de informação verbal e/ou escrita aquando da consulta médica e dispensa na Farmácia, o que resulta em grandes dificuldades para uma correta terapia medicamentosa, levando à ineficácia do tratamento. Determinar a perceção do conhecimento sobre a terapêutica medicamentosa a realizar, após consulta médica e após dispensa na Farmácia, e identificar fatores relacionados. Este estudo transversal e descritivo-correlacional, obteve-se uma amostra de 150 utentes de centros de saúde e farmácias do norte de Portugal, 64,0% do sexo feminino e 36,0% do sexo masculino, com idades entre 18 e 90 anos (média de 57,1). foi aplicado um questionário de autopreenchimento, incluindo a escala de classificação da perceção do conhecimento (Frohlich, 2010). Na análise dos dados foi utilizada estatística descritiva e o teste t-Student, com nível de significância de 5%. A perceção do conhecimento sobre a terapêutica medicamentosa dos utentes é insuficiente tanto após dispensa na farmácia (70,7%) como após a consulta médica (70,7%), só uma minoria dos utentes tiveram um bom conhecimento após consulta médica (5,3%) e após dispensa na farmácia comunitária (2,7%). Das questões realizadas as que obtiveram nível de conhecimento mais baixo foram as relacionadas com o esquecimento de uma ou mais doses, as interações com medicamentos ou alimentos e os efeitos secundários. Não foram verificadas diferenças entre a perceção dos utentes da farmácia e da consulta médica (p=0,191), provavelmente devido ao limitado tamanho da amostra. Contrariamente ao esperado, a escolaridade não está associada à perceção do conhecimento sobre a terapêutica (centro de saúde p=0,842; farmácia p=0,307). A perceção do conhecimento da terapêutica medicamentosa é insuficiente, tanto após consulta médica e como após dispensa na farmácia. Não se encontraram diferenças entre a perceção do conhecimento entre os utentes de centros de saúde e de farmácias, provavelmente devido à dimensão limitada da amostra. A escolaridade não parece estar associada com a perceção do conhecimento sobre a terapêutica medicamentosa

MicroRNA deregulation and chemotaxis and phagocytosis impairment in Alzheimer's disease

AbstractIntroductionMononuclear phagocytes play a critical role during Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis due to their contribution to innate immune responses and amyloid beta (Aβ) clearance mechanisms.MethodsBlood-derived monocytes (BDMs) and monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs) were isolated from blood of AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients, and age-matched healthy controls for molecular and phenotypic comparisons.ResultsThe chemokine/chemokine receptor CCL2/CCR2 axis was impaired in BDMs from AD and MCI patients, causing a deficit in cell migration. Changes were also observed in MDM-mediated phagocytosis of Aβ fibrils, correlating with alterations in the expression and processing of the triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2). Finally, immune-related microRNAs (miRNAs), including miR-155, -154, -200b, -27b, and -128, were found to be differentially expressed in these cells.DiscussionThis work provides evidence that chemotaxis and phagocytosis, two crucial innate immune functions, are impaired in AD and MCI patients. Correlations with miRNA levels suggest an epigenetic contribution to systemic immune dysfunction in AD

Perception of users about the prescribed drug therapy after medical consultation and after pharmacy dispensing

Promoting rational use of medicines is crucial to ensure therapeutic efficacy. Many users do not understand prescribed treatment, often for lack of information during the medical consultation and pharmacy dispensing, which results in difficulties for correct drug therapy. Objectives: Determine the perception of knowledge about the drug therapy, after medical consultation and after Pharmacy dispensing, and identify related factors. Methods: This cross-sectional and study, had a sample of 150 users of health centers and pharmacies in the north of Portugal, 64% females and 36% males, aged between 18 and 90 years (mean 57). A self-administered questionnaire was applied, including knowledge perception scale (Frohlich'10). In data analysis was used descriptive statistics and t-student test (significance level 5%). Results: The perception of knowledge about drug therapy is insufficient either after medical consultation (70.7%) or after pharmacy dispensing (70.7%), only a minority of users had a good knowledge after medical consultation (5.3%) and after dispensing in community pharmacy (2.7%). The lowest knowledge was related with forgetting doses, drugs/food interactions and side effects. No differences were found between the perceptions of users of medical centers and pharmacy (p=0.191), neither between the educational level (health center p=0.842, p=0.307 pharmacy). Conclusions: The perception of knowledge about drug therapy is quite insufficient both after medical consultation and after pharmacy dispensing. There were no found differences between the perceptions of users of medical centers and pharmacy, probably due to the limited sample size. Contrary to expectation, the education level is not associated with the perception of knowledge about drugs therapy.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

PIC-Score: Probabilistic Interpretable Comparison Score for Optimal Matching Confidence in Single- and Multi-Biometric (Face) Recognition

In the context of biometrics, matching confidence refers to the confidence that a given matching decision is correct. Since many biometric systems operate in critical decision-making processes, such as in forensics investigations, accurately and reliably stating the matching confidence becomes of high importance. Previous works on biometric confidence estimation can well differentiate between high and low confidence, but lack interpretability. Therefore, they do not provide accurate probabilistic estimates of the correctness of a decision. In this work, we propose a probabilistic interpretable comparison (PIC) score that accurately reflects the probability that the score originates from samples of the same identity. We prove that the proposed approach provides optimal matching confidence. Contrary to other approaches, it can also optimally combine multiple samples in a joint PIC score which further increases the recognition and confidence estimation performance. In the experiments, the proposed PIC approach is compared against all biometric confidence estimation methods available on four publicly available databases and five state-of-the-art face recognition systems. The results demonstrate that PIC has a significantly more accurate probabilistic interpretation than similar approaches and is highly effective for multi-biometric recognition. The code is publicly-available

Semi-Automatization of Support Vector Machines to Map Lithium (Li) Bearing Pegmatites

Machine learning (ML) algorithms have shown great performance in geological remote sensing applications. The study area of this work was the Fregeneda–Almendra region (Spain–Portugal) where the support vector machine (SVM) was employed. Lithium (Li)-pegmatite exploration using satellite data presents some challenges since pegmatites are, by nature, small, narrow bodies. Consequently, the following objectives were defined: (i) train several SVM’s on Sentinel-2 images with different parameters to find the optimal model; (ii) assess the impact of imbalanced data; (iii) develop a successful methodological approach to delineate target areas for Li-exploration. Parameter optimization and model evaluation was accomplished by a two-staged grid-search with cross-validation. Several new methodological advances were proposed, including a region of interest (ROI)-based splitting strategy to create the training and test subsets, a semi-automatization of the classification process, and the application of a more innovative and adequate metric score to choose the best model. The proposed methodology obtained good results, identifying known Li-pegmatite occurrences as well as other target areas for Li-exploration. Also, the results showed that the class imbalance had a negative impact on the SVM performance since known Li-pegmatite occurrences were not identified. The potentials and limitations of the methodology proposed are highlighted and its applicability to other case studies is discussed.The authors would like to thank the financial support provided by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., with the ERA-MIN/0001/2017—LIGHTS project. The work was also supported by National Funds through the FCT project UIDB/04683/2020—ICT (Institute of Earth Sciences). Joana Cardoso-Fernandes is financially supported within the compass of a Ph.D. Thesis, ref. SFRH/BD/136108/2018, by national funds from MCTES through FCT, and co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) through POCH—Programa Operacional Capital Humano. The Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades (Project RTI2018-094097-B-100, with ERDF funds) and the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) (grant GIU18/084) also contributed economically

Disseminated Well-Differentiated Gastro-Entero-Pancreatic Tumors Are Associated with Metabolic Syndrome

The association of well-differentiated gastro-entero-pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (WD GEP-NETs) with metabolic syndrome (MetS), abdominal obesity, and fasting glucose abnormalities was recently described. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the presence of MetS or any MetS individual component was also influenced by GEP-NET characteristics at diagnosis. A cohort of patients with WD GEP-NETs (n = 134), classified according to primary tumor location (gastrointestinal or pancreatic), pathological grading (G1 (Ki67 ≤ 2%) and G2 (>3 ≤ 20%) (WHO 2010), disease extension (localized, loco-regional, and metastatic), and presence of hormonal secretion syndrome (functioning/non-functioning), was evaluated for the presence of MetS criteria. After adjustment for age and gender, the odds of having MetS was significantly higher for patients with WD GEP-NET grade G1 (OR 4.35 95%CI 1.30-14.53) and disseminated disease (OR 4.52 95%CI 1.44-14.15). GEP-NET primary tumor location or secretory syndrome did not influence the risk for MetS. None of the tumor characteristics evaluated were associated with body mass index, fasting plasma glucose category, or any of the individual MetS components. Patients with GEP-NET and MetS depicted a higher risk of presenting a lower tumor grade and disseminated disease. The positive association between MetS and GEP-NET characteristics further highlights the potential link between the two conditions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio