Leaning an University Department: a life experiment

The European Quality Assurance methodology is pushing hard Portuguese Universities so that they should improve their overall performance. Working at a Portuguese University more than a decade ago, one of the authors experienced several life cycles in different Departments and the experience acquired in foreign Universities (USA) teached him a couple of simple things in order to positively participate in this kind of processes. However, he found it quite difficult to apply his knowledge without other’s contribution, due to several endogenous and exogenous reasons, including age and generation viewpoints. Together with the second author we started to apply some theoretical new insights we were discussing together during her PhD research. The purpose of this paper is to describe the experiment we are in now, following a social network methodology used in my Economics PhD together with three theoretical influences we think are inter twinkled like the lean thinking, the value focus thinking and the complication in innovation diffusion processes. After a brief literature review we describe the basic pillars we used to achieve the main goal of improving performance in a young university department. Using some coaching and economic tools and knowledge, we were able to gather a group of different people – students, staff and teachers - deeply involved in our proposal methodology. Preliminary results are briefly identified, as much as further research challenges.Lean thinking; quality improvement; social networks analysis; decision making; Portuguese Universities

The phenomenology of beyond Horndeski gravity

We study the phenomenology of the beyond Horndeski class of scalar-tensor theories of gravity, which on cosmological scales can be characterised in terms of one extra function of time, $\alpha_{\rm H}$, as well as the usual four Horndeski set of free functions. We show that $\alpha_{\rm H}$ can be directly related to the the damping of the matter power spectrum on both large and small scales. We also find that the temperature power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is enhanced at low multipoles and the lensing potential is decreased, as a function of $\alpha_{\rm H}$. We find constraints on $\alpha_{\rm H}$ of order ${\cal O}(1)$ using measurements of the temperature and polarisation of the CMB, as well as the lensing potential derived from it, combined with large scale structure data. We find that redshift space distortion measurements can play a significant role in constraining these theories. Finally, we comment on the recent constraints from the observation of an electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational wave signal; we find that these constraints reduce the number of free parameters of the model but do not significantly change the constraints on the remaining parameters.Comment: 33 pages; 10 figures; 4 tables; Version as accepted for publication in JCA

Effect of low glycinin soymilk on body composition, biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress and gut microbiota in overweight men

Several studies suggest that consumption of soy protein has positive effects on preventing obesity. Preliminary in vitro studies with ??-conglycinin showed significant reduction in lipid accumulation and inflammatory parameters compared with glycinin. The objective of this study was to compare the effect of low glycinin soymilk (LGS) (48% ??-conglycinin) with conventional soymilk (S) (28% ??-conglycinin) and bovine milk (M) (0% ??-conglycinin) on body composition, serum lipids, biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation and gut microbiota in overweight men. A randomized, double-blind study was conducted with 64 overweight men (BMI > 25; 18-45 years old). Subjects consumed 500 mL of each beverage daily for 3 months. Fasting blood samples, fecal samples, dual x ray absorptiometry scans, anthropometrics, lipid profile, plasma and serum biomarker analyses were executed at baseline and after 3 months. Glycemic index measurements were also performed. Total energy, total fat and total protein content were standardized among treatments. LGS and S contained similar levels of total isoflavones. Energy intake (p = 0.40), moderate physical activity (p = 0.21) and strenuous physical activity (p = 0.49) did not change during the study period. Oxidized low density lipoprotein (LDL) was dramatically decreased after LGS consumption (-61%) in comparison to S (-36%, p = 0.0007) and M (-12%, p = 0.002). Serum antioxidant capacity increased significantly in LGS (18%, p = 0.001) and S (28%, p 0.05). Changes in total phyla of microorganisms (p=0.36), Lactobacillus (p=0.06) and Bacteroides (p=0.27) were not significant among treatments. However, universal microbiota increased after three months with all treatments. Bifidobacteria changes among treatments were short to significant (p=0.06), showing a decrease with both soymilks consumption however general Actinobacteria increased with S (p=0.06) and LGS (p=0.07). Relative abundance of Bacteroidetes increased with soymilk consumption (LGS: 30%??11, p0.05). However, dietary sodium (p=0.02) and vitamin C (p=0.0002) intakes were reduced with LGS consumption. LGS, S and M are low glycemic index products (41??7, 40??10 and 29??6 respectively). In conclusion, 3 months of LGS consumption, which is a low glycemic index food, inhibited a modest but significant accumulation of body fat, reduced inflammation and oxidative stress, and promoted positive intestinal microbiota composition in overweight men. Stronger effects of LGS consumption may be observed in combination of a low caloric diet and moderate physical activity

My Home Is Your Castle: Roost Making Is Sexually Selected in the Bat Lophostoma silvicolum

Shelters are important for the survival and reproduction of many animals and this is particularly true for bats. Depending on the future use and effect of shelters on the fitness of individuals, not all members of a group of animals may contribute equally to shelter making. Thus, knowledge about the identity of shelter-making individuals may teach us much about the social system and mating strategy of species. To exemplify this, we review what is known about the roost-making behavior and the social system of Lophostoma silvicolum, a neotropical bat that excavates roost cavities in active arboreal termite nests. Roosts in termite nests are highly beneficial for the bats because they offer improved microclimate and possibly are responsible for the lower parasite loads of L. silvicolum in comparison to bat species using other, more common, roost types. Examination of observational field data in combination with genetic analyses shows that roost cavities excavated by single males subsequently serve as maternity roosts for females and that this improves reproductive success of the male who excavated the roost. This suggests that roosts in termite nests serve as an extended male phenotype and roost making is a sexually selected behavior. Roost-making behavior is tightly linked to the species' social organization (single-male-multifemale associations that stay together year-round) and mating system (resource-defense polygyny). The case study of L. silvicolum shows that it is important to learn more about the implications of shelter making in bats and other animals from ongoing and future studies. However, differences in costs and benefits for each group member must be carefully evaluated before drawing conclusions about social systems and mating strategies in order to contribute to our current knowledge about the evolution of sociality in mammal

Breastfeeding Education on Mother about Exclusive Breastfeeding in Mamuju Regency, West Sulawesi Province

Breast milk is the best food that can meet the growth and development needs of babies until the age of 6 months. The purpose of the study was to assess the effect of breastfeeding education on the level of knowledge of mothers about exclusive breastfeeding in Mamuju. This type of research is experimental with a quasi experimental using a non-randomized control group pretest-posttest design. The samples were pregnant women at Puskesmas Beru - Beru and PuskesmasTampapadang who met the sample criteria. The number of Samples are 32, using purposive sampling technique. The results showed that there was an increase in knowledge about exclusive breastfeeding in the intervention group after being given breastfeeding education (p = 0.02); there was a difference in knowledge about exclusive breastfeeding between the intervention group and the control group after the intervention (p = 0.000). This study recommends that health workers, especially midwives, play an active role in providing breastfeeding education to pregnant women through breastfeeding counseling activities in Antenatal Care and Postnatal Care services so as to increase the coverage of exclusive breastfeeding in Mamuju

Mechanical design of an affordable adaptive gravity balanced orthosis for upper limb stroke rehabilitation

In this paper, a novel design of a non-powered orthosis for upper limb stroke rehabilitation is reported. Its design exploits the gravity balancing theory. Designed for home-based use, it is the first affordable, passive design to incorporate an assistive level that can be adaptively varied within a closed-loop control scheme. This allows the device to be integrated with a dual robotic and electrical stimulation control scheme, to thereby enable full exploitation of the motor relearning principles which underpin both robotic therapy and Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) based stroke rehabilitation. This embeds the potential for more effective treatment. The article focuses on the mechanical design of the non-powered orthosis, providing detailed design, dynamic analysis and evaluation. Publisher statement: “This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Mechanics Based Design of Structures and Machines on 14 June 2015, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/15397734.2015.1054513

Patrón de reconocimiento de bellotas procedentes de diferentes especies Quercus basado en el contenido de aceite y en el perfil de ácidos grasos

The aim of this study was (i) to characterize different species of Quercus genus and (ii) to discriminate among them on the basis of the content and fatty acid composition of the oil in their fruits and/or their morphological aspects via pattern recognition techniques (Principal Component Analysis, PCA, Cluster Analysis, CA, and Discriminant Analysis, DA). Quercus rotundifolia Lam., Quercus suber L. and Quercus pyrenaica Willd., grown in the same stand in the centre of Portugal, were investigated. When oil content and respective fatty acid composition were used to characterize samples, well-separated groups corresponding to each of the species were observed by PCA and confirmed by CA and DA. The ‘‘width’’ and ‘‘length’’ of acorns exhibited a low discriminant power. Acorns from Q. rotundifolia showed the highest average oil content followed by Q. suber and Q. pyrenaica acorns (9.1, 5.2 and 3.8%, respectively). Fatty acid profiles of Q. rotundifolia and Q. suber oils are similar to olive oil while the oil from Q. pyrenaica acorns is more unsaturated.El objetivo de este estudio fué (i) la caracterización de diferentes especies del género Quercus y (ii) la clasificación de las mismas en base al contenido y composición de ácidos grasos del aceite de sus frutos y/o en sus caracteres morfológicos, via técnicas de patrón de reconocimiento (Análisis de Componentes Principales, ACP, Análisis de Cluster, AC, y Análisis Discriminante, AD). Se han estudiado Quercus rotundifolia Lam., Quercus suber L. y Quercus pyrenaica Willd., pertenecientes a la misma zona del centro de Portugal. Al emplear el contenido de aceite y sus respectivas composiciones de ácidos grasos para caracterizar a las muestras, el ACP reveló grupos bien separados correspondientes a cada especie, los cuales, a su vez, se confirmarón con el AC y el AD. El ‘‘ancho’’ y ‘‘longitud’’ de las bellotas exhibieron un poder discriminante bajo. Las bellotas de Q. rotundifolia mostraron el contenido más elevado de aceite, seguidas de las de Q. suber y Q. pyrenaica (9.1, 5.2 y 3.8%, respectivamente). Los perfiles de ácidos grasos de los aceites de Q. rotundifolia y Q. suber son similares al del aceite de oliva, mientras que el aceite de las bellotas de Q.pyrenaica es más insaturado

Frequency-aware rate adaptation and MAC protocol

There has been burgeoning interest in wireless technologies that can use wider frequency spectrum. Technology advances, such as 802.11n and ultra-wideband (UWB), are pushing toward wider frequency bands. The analog-to-digital TV transition has made 100-250 MHz of digital whitespace bandwidth available for unlicensed access. Also, recent work on WiFi networks has advocated discarding the notion of channelization and allowing all nodes to access the wide 802.11 spectrum in order to improve load balancing. This shift towards wider bands presents an opportunity to exploit frequency diversity. Specifically, frequencies that are far from each other in the spectrum have significantly different SNRs, and good frequencies differ across sender-receiver pairs. This paper presents FARA, a combined frequency-aware rate adaptation and MAC protocol. FARA makes three departures from conventional wireless network design: First, it presents a scheme to robustly compute per-frequency SNRs using normal data transmissions. Second, instead of using one bit rate per link, it enables a sender to adapt the bitrate independently across frequencies based on these per-frequency SNRs. Third, in contrast to traditional frequency-oblivious MAC protocols, it introduces a MAC protocol that allocates to a sender-receiver pair the frequencies that work best for that pair. We have implemented FARA in FPGA on a wideband 802.11-compatible radio platform. Our experiments reveal that FARA provides a 3.1x throughput improvement in comparison to frequency-oblivious systems that occupy the same spectrum.Industrial Technology Research InstituteNational Science Foundation (U.S.)

Binderless zeolite LTA beads with hierarchical porosity for selective CO₂ adsorption in biogas upgrading

In the context of CO2 removal from biogas, a series of binderless zeolite LTA adsorbents with a macroscopic bead format (0.5–1.0 mm) and with hierarchical porosity (i.e. with the zeolitic micropores being accessible through meso- and macropores mainly in the 10–100 nm range) was synthesized with a variety of Si/Al ratios (1.2–3.9) using Amberlite IRA-900 anion-exchange resin beads as a hard template. The CO2 and CH4 adsorption capacity of the beads in Na-form with different Si/Al ratios were measured, reaching higher CO2/CH4 selectivity and similar, yet slightly higher CO2 adsorption compared to commercial zeolite LTA pellets containing a binder. Subsequently, one the zeolitic beads was subjected to different degrees of ion-exchange (0–96%) with KCl and then tested in the adsorption of CO2 and CH4. The best performance among all the ion-exchanged beads was achieved with Na58K42-LTA beads, which gave very high CO2/CH4 selectivity (1540). Although essentially no CH4 was adsorbed on these beads, the CO2 adsorption capacity was still substantial (1.9 mmol g−1 at 0.4 bar CO2, i.e. the partial pressure of CO2 in biogas)