The influence of intraoral devices on sports performance: a study report

Poster presented at the 3rd International Congress of CiiEM - Research and Innovation in Human and Health Sciences. Campus Egas Moniz, Monte da Caparica, Portugal, 20-22 June 2018N/

Bringing Order into Things Decentralized and Scalable Ledgering for the Internet-of-Things

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is simultaneously the largest and the fastest growing distributed system known to date. With the expectation of 50 billion of devices coming online by 2020, far surpassing the size of the human population, problems related to scale, trustability and security are anticipated. Current IoT architectures are inherently flawed as they are centralized on the cloud and explore fragile trust-based relationships over a plethora of loosely integrated devices, leading to IoT platforms being non-robust for every party involved and unable to scale properly in the near future. The need for a new architecture that addresses these concerns is urgent as the IoT is progressively more ubiquitous, pervasive and demanding regarding the integration of devices and processing of data increasingly susceptible to reliability and security issues. In this thesis, we propose a decentralized ledgering solution for the IoT, leveraging a recent concept: blockchains. Rather than replacing the cloud, our solution presents a scalable and fault-tolerant middleware for recording transactions between peers, under verifiable and decentralized trustability assumptions and authentication guarantees for IoT devices, cloud services and users. Following on the emergent trend in modern IoT architectures, we leverage smart hubs as blockchain gateways, aggregating, pre-processing and forwarding small amounts of data and transactions in proximity conditions, that will be verified and processed as transactions in the blockchain. The proposed middleware acts as a secure ledger and establishes private channels between peers, requiring transactions in the blockchain to be signed using threshold signature schemes and grouporiented verification properties. The approach improves the decentralization and robustness characteristics under Byzantine fault-tolerance settings, while preserving the blockchain distributed nature

Influence of habitat structure on the fish prey consumption by largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides, in experimental tanks

The largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides, was introduced into the Iberian Peninsula in the 50's and has developed important populations in systems naturally lacking native piscivores. As a consequence, the displacement of native cyprinids has been associated with its predatory behaviour, particularly in reservoirs. In order to study the capture rate of largemouth bass in relation to an Iberian native cyprinid, Squalius alburnoides, and also to pumpkinseed, Lepomis gibbosus -another exotic species introduced to Iberia that is able to coexist sucessfully with bass in Iberian systems-tanks were used to simulate the absence of structure, and the presence of vegetation struture and bottom structure. The number of fish captured by largemouth bass were influenced by both structure and prey effects, as well as by their interaction. The bottom and vegetation structure reduced the number of pumpkinseed captured when compared with the absence of structure, whereas only the vegetation reduced the number of Squalius alburnoides captured. Neither the pumpkinseed nor the cyprind were eaten more frequently by largemouth bass in the absence of structure or in the vegetation structure, but the cyprinid was eaten more frequently in the bottom structure.El black bass, Micropterus salmoides, fue introducido en la Península Ibérica en los años 50 y ha desarrollado importantes poblaciones en sistemas naturalmente carentes de ictiófagos nativos. Como consecuencia, el aparente desplazamiento de los ciprínidos nativos ha sido asociado con su comportamiento predador, particularmente en embalses. Con el objetivo de estudiar la captura del black bass sobre un ciprínido ibérico nativo, el calandino, Squalius alburnoides y sobre el pez sol, Lepomis gibbosus -otra especie exótica introducida en Iberia que es capaz de coexistir con éxito con el black bass en los sistemas ibéricos- se utilizaron tanques simulando tres situaciones: ausencia de estructuras, estructuras vegetales y estructuras de ladrillos. Se comprobó que el número de peces capturados por el black bass estaba influenciado por el efecto de las estructuras y de las presas, así como por su interacción. Las estructuras vegetales y de ladrillo provocaban una reducción en el número de pez sol capturadas en comparación con la ausencia de tales estructuras, mientras que instalando sólo estructuras vegetales el número de calandinos, Squalius alburnoides, capturados disminuía. El black bass no capturó ninguna de las dos especies en mayor número en ausencia de estructuras o en estructuras vegetales, pero capturó el calandino más frecuentemente en presencia de estructuras de ladrillo

Uma perspetiva sobre assuntos médicos

Mestrado em Biomedicina FarmacêuticaOver the last 10 years, the Pharmaceutical Industry has been under great scrutiny from regulators, healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients in general, as in the past it was criticized for the use of aggressive sales and marketing tactics and unethical behaviour. To increase the transparency on the activities developed and its relationship with physicians, it has undergone significant changes in the way that it develops and markets medicines and medical devices. Many of these changes have led to an increase in the responsibility of Medical Affairs to inform the healthcare professionals’ community on the safe and appropriate use of the company´s medicines. Additionally, there is a trend to greatly limit physician access to traditional sales representatives who traditionally were industry’s vehicle of information and replace them by unbiased subject matter experts, the Medical Affairs colleagues. Much of this communication activity involves engaging and developing longterm relationships with key scientific opinion leaders in the disease area of interest. These scientific partnerships are crucial for the improvement of health outcomes that the pharmaceutical companies aim to achieve. The methods used by Medical Affairs to communicate the science vary from manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals, to congresses, continuous medical education meetings and discussion groups. More recently, digital channels have also been more frequently used to engage HCPs and even patients in this scientific exchange. Medical Affairs have significantly impacted the relationship with customers, continuing to build trust and value, transparency in all engagements, providing a balanced discussion of benefits and risks, and leveraging clinically robust dialogues on a peer-to-peer level. Medical Affairs activity, helping to address patients and physicians’ needs and promoting the appropriate use of medicines, will contribute to improve the reputation of the pharmaceutical industry.No decurso dos últimos 10 anos, a Indústria Farmacêutica (IF) tem estado sob grande escrutínio por parte das Agências Regulamentares, profissionais de saúde e doentes no geral, sobretudo por ter sido criticada no passado pelas suas táticas de marketing e vendas agressivas e comportamento não ético. De forma a aumentar a transparência tanto das atividades desenvolvidas como da sua relação com os médicos, a Indústria alterou significativamente a forma como desenvolve e promove os medicamentos e dispositivos médicos. Muitas destas alterações levaram a uma maior responsabilização dos Assuntos Médicos (AM) na informação prestada à comunidade de prestadores de cuidados de saúde sobre o perfil de segurança e o uso apropriado dos medicamentos de uma empresa farmacêutica. Adicionalmente, verifica-se uma tendência para limitar significativamente o acesso dos delegados de informação médica aos prescritores, que tradicionalmente eram o veículo de informação da Indústria, substituindo-os por colegas imparciais especializados nos medicamentos (os colegas de Assuntos Médicos). Grande parte desta atividade informativa envolve estabelecer e desenvolver relações de longa duração com líderes de opinião numa determinada área terapêutica de interesse. Estas parcerias científicas são cruciais para a melhoria dos resultados em saúde que as companhias farmacêuticas pretendem alcançar. Os métodos utilizados pelos AM para comunicar ciência são diversos, abrangendo publicações em jornais com revisão por pares, congressos, sessões de educação médica contínua e grupos de discussão. Recentemente, os meios digitais passaram a ser também mais utilizados para envolver profissionais de saúde e doentes nesta partilha científica. Os AM impactaram significativamente o relacionamento com os clientes e continuam a construir uma relação de confiança e valor, de transparência, de discussão franca sobre benefícios e riscos e promovendo um diálogo clinicamente robusto entre pares. A atividade dos AM, que ajuda a colmatar as necessidades dos doentes e médicos e promove o uso correto dos medicamentos, contribuirá para melhorar a reputação da IF

Verification of the dualism ordering method by the canonical correspondence analysis: fish community samples

AbstractTwo ordination techniques (Romaniszyn diagram, RD, and Canonical correspondence analysis, CCA) were applied to the same data set (fish assemblage composition along two Paraná river tributaries and associated environmental variables), to identify spatial community patterns and further to evaluate the performance of RD. The major patterns in these Brazilian streams were successfully revealed by both methods (i.e. clear separation of both tributaries on the basis of fish assemblage composition and environmental factors), but more complex situations may limit the application of RD in comparison with CCA

The organisation of fish assemblages in the regulated Lima basin, Northern Portugal

In order to understand the structure of fish assemblages in the modified Lima basin (Northern Portugal), two distinct datasets concerning the presence and abundance of fish species were subjected to multivariate analysis. On the River Lima two types of flow modification are present within kilometres of one another: (a) a reduced and constant flow due to hypolimnetic release; and (b) an intense and irregular flow. A comparison of their influence on fish assemblages revealed a gradient of assemblage types from tributaries to main river sites. The latter were characterised by a strong dominance of cyprinids, particularly Iberian barbel (Barbus bocagei). The former harboured two kinds of fish assemblages: those closer to the river mouth were dominated by the cyprinids Iberian chub (Squalius carolitertii) and Iberian nase (Chondrostoma polylepis), which were also frequently present in the main river; while in those further upstream the predominant species was the brown trout (Salmo trutta). Although explanatory variables such as distance from source, altitude, substrate coarseness and width were the primary correlates of fish assemblage composition, dam construction and flow regulation also had a significant effect upon assemblage structure, particularly by: i) reducing the importance of migratory species; ii) constraining the presence of trout in the regulated segments; and iii) simplifying the community, especially in the case of the constant and reduced flow regimeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Plano de negócios: sochoc chocolataria

JEL Classification: L – Industrial Organization L6 – Industry Studies L66 – Food; Beverages; Cosmetics; Tobacco; Wine and Spirits M – Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting M1 – Business Administration M13 – New Firms; StartupsEste trabalho foi realizado no contexto de conclusão do Mestrado em Gestão e tem por objetivo a elaboração de um plano de negócios e posterior implementação de uma empresa de venda de chocolate belga, através de venda presencial (loja e feiras) e venda através da internet. Pretende-se também que, para além de rentável, a empresa crie valor para o cliente final, pelo que a aposta se focará na utilização de matérias-primas de qualidade e em servir segmentos para os quais atualmente existe uma oferta limitada de produtos de qualidade (a gama de produtos para diabéticos atual é bastante limitada e cinge-se a bolachas e algum chocolate). Nesse sentido, o objetivo será apostar na utilização de stévia, uma planta com baixo teor de glicose que, aliada ao chocolate, permite que o mesmo seja consumido por pessoas que sofram de diabetes. De modo a averiguar se existe espaço no mercado, foram realizados estudos de mercado, percebendo assim se os consumidores estão dispostos ou não a adquirir os produtos oferecidos. Foi também realizada uma análise à envolvente da empresa e desenvolver estratégias de posicionamento e desenvolvimento, bem como a definição do target e objetivos de curto e longo prazo. No fim foram definidas políticas de implementação do negócio e analisados os custos e potenciais ganhos do projeto, incluindo também possíveis variações de mercado.This work was done in the context of completing the MSc in Management and aims to draw up a business plan and subsequent implementation of a company focused on selling Belgian chocolate through face selling (on store and market/fairs) and selling over the internet. It is also intended that, as well as profitable the company create value for the end customer, so focus will be on the use of high quality products and serve segments for which there is currently a limited supply of quality products (current range of products for diabetics is quite limited and is confined to crackers and some chocolates). In this sense the goal will be to bet on the use of stevia, a plant with low glucose content which, combined with chocolate, allow it to be consumed by people suffering from diabetes. In order to ascertain whether there is space in the market, it was necessary to do market studies, thus realizing whether or not consumers are willing to buy the products offered. It was also necessary to do an analysis of the business environment and develop positioning and development strategies, as well as defining the target consumer and goals for the short and long term. Finally implementation of business policies were defined, and the potential costs and gains of the project, also including possible market variations will be analyzed

Social participation in times of COVID-19: effects on depression in the elderly

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio