1,475 research outputs found
GuiMarket Specification Using the Unified Modeling Language
AbstractGuiMarket is an e-Marketplace of health care, social care services developed as a pilot project in a Northern Portuguese Municipality, with the main objective of improving the well-being of elderly people and people with special needs staying at home, or their caregivers. This paper makes a brief introduction of this platform, explains its overall implementation and operation using an IDEF0 (Integration DEFinition) diagram, and presents the specification of the main services of the e-Marketplace using UML (Unified Modeling Language)
Patterns of biomechanical demands are associated with musculoskeletal pain in the beginning of professional life: a population-based study
Objectives This study aimed to describe patterns of occupational biomechanical demands in the beginning of professional life and to quantify their association with the presence and intensity of regional musculoskeletal pain.
Methods Cross-sectional data from 21-year-old participants were collected during the third wave of the EPITeen cohort study (N=1733, 37.5% were workers). Ten different work-related biomechanical tasks were characterized. Latent class analysis was conducted to identify empirical patterns of occupational biomechanical demands. The presence and intensity of regional musculoskeletal pain in the previous year were also evaluated.
Results Four patterns of occupational biomechanical demands were found: âlow demandsâ, âsitting demandsâ, ârepetitive and asymmetric demandsâ, and âhigh and vibrational demandsâ. When compared to workers with low demands, those with repetitive and asymmetric demands or high and vibrational demands presented 80% higher adjusted odds ratio (ORadj) of reporting neck/shoulder pain. High and vibrational demands occupations were significantly associated with upper-/lower-back pain in comparison to low demands [ORadj 1.80, 95% confidence interval (95% CI%) 1.09â2.96]. In addition, workers with sitting demands were more likely to report any or severe upper-/lower-back pain [ORadj 1.56 (95% CI 0.99â2.45) and 1.66 (95% CI 1.03â2.66), respectively] when compared to those with low demands.
Conclusions Patterns of high work-related physical demands were associated with the presence of neck/shoulder pain and severity of upper-/lower-back pain. This emphasizes that even short-term biomechanical exposures at the workplace may be involved in the etiology of musculoskeletal complaints
Virtual Enterprise integration management based on a Meta-enterprise - A PMBoK approach
A Virtual Enterprise (VE) can be viewed as a project, with a lifecycle corresponding to the period between its creation and integration of the constituting elements until its dissolution, comprehending its operation and including its reconfigurations. The authors propose that the VE lifecycle is aligned and can be managed using the frameworks provided by several bodies of knowledge, such as the PMBoK Guide. In this paper the authors propose an alignment referential between the Project Management phases defined by PMBoK and management processes during the VE lifecycle.This work has been supported by (1) COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 (2) FCT â Fundação para a CiĂȘncia e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Development and validation of psoriatic arthritis switch quality assessment tool (PASQAL)-an outcomes measurement tool to assess the quality of biologic switch decisions in psoriatic arthritis
Background: Switching between biologic therapies is a recommended strategy for Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) patients that show an insufficient response or adverse events. Although the choice of the subsequent biologic may be dependent on many factors, assessing the quality of the switch decision is of utmost relevance. Objectives: To develop and validate two outcomes measurement tools (for patients with peripheral and axial PsA phenotypes) that address the quality of treatment decisions in PsA regarding the switch of biologic therapies in clinical practice. Methods: A Task Force and an Expert Panel were specifically assembled for this purpose. The Psoriatic Arthritis Switch Quality Assessment tool (PASQAL) de-velopment comprised a modified-Delphi method in a four-step procedure: 1) literature search and experts' opinion collection about quality indicators for PsA management; 2) Delphi design to address the development of the measurement tool; 3) three Delphi questionnaire rounds; 4) final consensus meeting. This phase resulted in the definition of two measurement tools, one to evaluate the quality of biologic switch in peripheral (pPASQAL) and another one in axial PsA (axPASQAL). For the validation of PASQAL, 12 experienced rheumatologists were asked to evaluate and classify the biologic switch of 80 clinical cases (40 with predominant peripheral and 40 with predominant axial PsA). Clinical judgement was defined to be the "gold standard" against which the performance of PASQAL was assessed. The results were used to assess tools' performance (sensitivity/specificity analysis) and the agreement between the tools and the gold standard (Cohen's kappa). Results: PASQAL consists of 6 domains (joint disease activity, dactylitis, enthesis, physical function, quality of life, and skin and nail manifestations), respective instruments and thresholds. The classification of the biologic switch was divided into three quality levels: "Good", based on treat-to-target thresholds; "Mode-rate", based on improvement from baseline; and the remaining as "Insufficient". pPASQAL was found to be highly sensitive (92%) with the "Good" quality level and specific (97%) with the "Insufficient" quality le vel. Whilst axPASQAL showed overall higher sensitivity and specificity for all quality levels, as well as a higher level of agreement between the tool and the gold standard than pPASQAL (k=0.87 vs k=0.71). Conclusion: PASQAL was developed and showed good criterion validity for the evaluation of the quality of switch in both peripheral and axial PsA phenotypes. These tools may be used in research as well as in clinical practice, to support rheumatologists in making more informed therapeutic decisions.publishersversionpublishe
The Interactive Sphere for Three-Dimensional Control in Games and Virtual Reality
In electronic games, the controller is the mean through which the player can interact with the gameâs virtual world, being an essential factor in all of the user experience. New controllers may, therefore, completely modify the player experience, also serving as a tool to investigate new ways of interacting with interactive systems of various purposes. In this context, this paper presents the Interactive Sphere, a spherical device to be employed specially with games and virtual reality environments. This novel device combines the pressing of certain regions of the sphere with gestural interaction, in addition to providing haptic, auditive and visual feedback. The paper describes all of the rationale behind the decisions taken during the design and development process of the device, in addition to the techniques employed for implementing the detection of the acts of pressing and moving the Interactive Sphere. In this project, accessible, low-cost materials and techniques were prioritized, which could be more easily adapted to other contexts. We envision that the lessons learned and the guidelines derived from its design and development process may assist in the idealization and construction of new ways of interacting, by providing a set of methods, techniques and technologies that were employed in the development of a new physical artifact of interaction presented in this work
Perfil sensorial do requeijĂŁo cremoso condimentado elaborado com leite de bĂșfala, em BelĂ©m, ParĂĄ.
Este trabalho visa elaborar trĂȘs formulaçÔes de requeijĂŁo cremoso condimentado, com leite de bĂșfala: A ? orĂ©gano; B ? manjericĂŁo; e C - pimenta calabresa, com intuito de adicionar novos sabores ao derivado e caracterizĂĄ-los sensorialmente. Os derivados foram elaborados a partir da massa dessorada, obtida pela acidificação do leite de bĂșfala, com adição de manjericĂŁo, orĂ©gano e pimenta calabresa, 0,7% em cada formulação. Foi realizado o teste de aceitação com 60 julgadores, dentre os quais, 53,8% do sexo feminino e 46,2% do masculino, entre os quais 87,2% com idade entre 16 e 25 anos e 35,9% raramente consumiam o derivado. Na interação Sexo vs. Idade vs. Na intenção de compra, 79,5% dos provadores comprariam requeijĂŁo cremoso de leite de bĂșfala condimentado e 20,5% nĂŁo comprariam. O derivado A foi diferente de B e C (p<0,05), nos atributos aroma, sabor e avaliação global. No derivado B foi observada diferença estatĂstica (p<0,05) entre sabor, aparĂȘncia e avaliação global, enquanto que a amostra C diferiu apenas no atributo aparĂȘncia. Nos atributos avaliados, as notas estiveram entre "gostei ligeiramente" e "gostei muito", com base na escala hedĂŽnica de nove pontos, o que indica boa aceitação e viabilidade para inovar a cadeia produtiva de derivados de leite bĂșfala
Detailed assignment of normal and resonant Auger spectra of Xe near the L edges
We present a comprehensive experimental and theoretical investigation on the LMM, LMN, and LNN normal Auger spectra of xenon, which reveal excellent agreement with theory when core-hole lifetimes of the two-hole final states are taken into account. Generally, the spectra turned out to be highly complex due to a strong overlap of the Auger transitions subsequent to 2sâ11/2, 2pâ11/2, and 2pâ13/2 ionization. This overlap is due to the splitting of the three initial L core holes and the different final M and N core holes being on the same order of magnitude of several hundred eV. The Auger transitions are assigned in detail based on the theoretical results. Most of the MM, MN, and NN final states are described well based on jj coupling. In addition, we present a detailed assignment of the resonant LM45M45 Auger transition subsequent to the 2sâ6p, 7p and 2pâ5d, 6d excitations
Predictors of response to TNF blockers in patients with polyarticular psoriatic arthritis
Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a chronic inflammatory
rheumatic disease with a broad clinical spectrum. PsA
can affect the axialskeleton, peripheral joints, entheses,
synovial sheaths of tendons, skin, nails and extra-articular
organs. Tumour necrosis factor alpha blockers
(TNF blockers) were a breakthrough development in
the treatment of PsA. Identifying predictors of response
to biological therapiesin patients with PsA is of utmost
importance, especially in view of the costs and potential
side effects of these agents. The aims of the present
study were to determine baseline predictive factors of
response to biological therapies, at 3 and 6 months, in
PsA patients with polyarticular involvement (with or
without axial involvement). Data were collected from
the RheumaticDiseases Portuguese Register(Reuma.pt).
Eligible patients had to be anti-TNF-naive at baseline
and to have at least 3 months of follow-up after the beginning
of TNF blocker therapy. Only patients with information
on at least one of the response measures (at
3 or 6 months of follow-up) were included in the analysis.
Univariable logistic regression analysis of potential
baseline predictors of European League Against Rheu-matism (EULAR) good clinical response, EULAR good/
/moderate response, 28-joint Disease Activity Score
with three variables including the erythrocyte sedimentation
rate (DAS28-3V-ESR) remission and Health
Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) response were performed.
Multivariable logistic regression using a forward
selection procedure was used until the best-fit
model was obtained, taking confounding effects into
account. A total of 180 patients were eligible for the
study (mean age 52 years, 54% women). In multivariable
analysis at 3 months, females were less likely to attain
a good EULAR response [OR=0.082 (95%
CI=0.024, 0.278)], a DAS28-3V-ESR remission
[OR=0.083 (95% CI=0.017, 0.416)], a moderate or
good EULAR response [OR=0.091 (95% CI=0.011,
0.091)] and a HAQ response [OR=0.074 (95%
CI=0.009, 0.608)]. At 6 months, female gender was
also less likely to achieve a good EULAR response
[OR=0.060 (95% CI=0.011, 0.325)], DAS28-3V-ESR
remission [OR=0.060 (95% CI=0.012, 0.297)], and a
HAQ response [OR=0.138 (95% CI= 0.029, 0.654)]. In
this study we found that gender was the most consistent
predictor of response to TNF blocker therapy in
patients with polyarticular PsA, with females having a
lower probability ofresponse compared to males. These
findings suggest that gender-related biochemical, hormonal
and psychological factors could play an importantrole
in the response to TNF blockertherapy in PsA
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