Fifteen years of experience from a medical school' clinical skills laboratory

Medical Education has evolved being defined as a continuum of the medical training from the pre- to the post-graduate period and through a lifetime of medical practice that is mirrored in the competencies framework that several international institutions have established. This creates a challenge to educational institutions (pre- and post-graduate) that traditionally take separate pathways.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Co-designed FreeRTOS deployed on FPGA

Most embedded systems are bound to real-time constraints. Two of the critical metrics presented in these systems are determinism and latency. Due to growing in complexity of embedded applications, real time operating systems (RTOS) are needed, not only to hide the increasingly complex hardware, but also to provide services to the system’s running tasks. Unfortunately, this new layer on an embedded system puts more pressure on the aforementioned metrics. One of the ways to cope with this problem is to offload RTOS run-time services to the hardware layer. This paper presents a hybrid hardware/software implementation of this technique upon the well known FreeRTOS, improving system’s latency and predictability, by migrating critical runtime services to hardware. The developed hardware accelerators were synthesized on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), exploiting the point-to-point bus Fast Simplex Link (FSL) to interconnect to the Xilinx’s Microbaze soft-core processor.This work has been supported by FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology within the Project Scope: PEst-OE/EEI/UI0319/2014

Analysis of a vegetable oil performance in a milling process by MQL lubrication

In this work, we carried out a comparison between the dry machining of an aluminum block with conventional cutting oil and a block with vegetable oil. The two oils had different flow rates. Using the Taguchi method, it was possible to determine the matrices for optimizing the best parameters for each group of tests. Then, we studied the utility of using vegetable oil as a cutting lubricant. We found that the vegetable oil studied in this work had good properties in terms of reducing cutting temperatures but was less effective than conventional cutting oil in reducing the surface roughness of the machined part. Tribological tests were carried out to understand the influence of the selected lubricants in reducing friction and wear. After the sliding experiments, which were performed without lubrication in the presence of the same lubricants that were used in the machining tests and in the presence of distilled water, we concluded that vegetable oil has satisfactory lubricating properties that are similar to those of the conventional cutting fluid, indicating a potential for consideration as an effective alternative to the conventional cutting fluid, with economic, environmental, and health advantages.Financial support was provided by Portugal’s national funding FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to Centro de Investigação de Montanha (CIMO) (UIDB/00690/2020 and UIDP/00690/2020) and SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2020). Additionally, this work was partially supported by Portuguese FCT, under the reference projects UIDB/04077/2020, UIDB/00532/2020 and UIDB/04436/2020. This research was also partially funded by EXPL2021CIMO_01. Inês Afonso acknowledges the financial support of CIMO through EXPL2021CIMO_01.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Analysis of a vegetable oil performance in a milling process by MQL Lubrication

In this work, we carried out a comparison between the dry machining of an aluminum block with conventional cutting oil and a block with vegetable oil. The two oils had different flow rates. Using the Taguchi method, it was possible to determine the matrices for optimizing the best parameters for each group of tests. Then, we studied the utility of using vegetable oil as a cutting lubricant. We found that the vegetable oil studied in this work had good properties in terms of reducing cutting temperatures but was less effective than conventional cutting oil in reducing the surface roughness of the machined part. Tribological tests were carried out to understand the influence of the selected lubricants in reducing friction and wear. After the sliding experiments, which were performed without lubrication in the presence of the same lubricants that were used in the machining tests and in the presence of distilled water, we concluded that vegetable oil has satisfactory lubricating properties that are similar to those of the conventional cutting fluid, indicating a potential for consideration as an effective alternative to the conventional cutting fluid, with economic, environmental, and health advantages.Financial support was provided by Portugal’s national funding FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to Centro de Investigação de Montanha (CIMO) (UIDB/00690/2020 and UIDP/00690/2020) and SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2020). Additionally, this work was partially supported by Portuguese FCT, under the reference projects UIDB/04077/2020, UIDB/00532/2020 and UIDB/04436/2020. This research was also partially funded by EXPL2021CIMO_01. Inês Afonso acknowledges the financial support of CIMO through EXPL2021CIMO_01

O epitélio respiratório em ratos Wistar após 48 horas de exposição contínua ao ruído de baixa frequência

ABSTRACTPrevious studies show that exposure to low frequency noise (LFN) (≤500Hz, including infrasound) produces irreversible lesions in Wistar rat respiratory epithelia. Recovery periods for LFN-induced lesions have thus become an object of interest. Changes in the respiratory epithelia of Wistar rats after continuous short-term exposure to LFN are described. Twelve rats were exposed to continuous LFN for 48hrs, and 10 age-matched rats were kept in silence. Animals were treated in accordance with 86/609/CE. After exposure ceased, two rodents were sacrificed immediately, and another two after 6, 12, 24, 48hrs, and 7 days of post-exposure silence. Respiratory epithelial fragments were prepared for light and scanning/ transmission electron microscopy. Six hours after exposure, intense and irregular cellular tumefaction was visible and rosetta structures, formed by secretory cells (SC) centered on a brush cell (BC), were identifiable. Cilia were shorter and shaggy. BC microvilli tended to group, losing the uniform distribution seen in controls. Twelve hours after exposure, cell balooning was still present, BC shape was highly irregular and microvilli were grouped. SC microvilli were still shorter than controls. Seven days after exposure, controls and exposed were indistinguishable. LFN-induced epithelial lesions seem to be reversible if recovery periods are respected.REV PORT PNEUMOL 2003; IX (6): 473-47

Patient-physician discordance in assessment of adherence to inhaled controller medication: a cross-sectional analysis of two cohorts

We aimed to compare patient's and physician's ratings of inhaled medication adherence and to identify predictors of patient-physician discordance.(SFRH/BPD/115169/2016) funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT); ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) through the operations: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029130 ('mINSPIRERS—mHealth to measure and improve adherence to medication in chronic obstructive respiratory diseases—generalisation and evaluation of gamification, peer support and advanced image processing technologies') cofunded by the COMPETE2020 (Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização), Portugal 2020 and by Portuguese Funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Arquivo de Memória Oral das Profissões da Comunicação (AMOPC)

O AMOPC designa um repositório de memórias orais dos profissionais das várias áreas da comunicação. O objetivo é a criação de um arquivo audiovisual em formato eletrónico, para recolha, recuperação, catalogação, preservação, disponibilização e aproveitamento de registos de memória histórica sobre as profissões da comunicação, aberto à sociedade civil e à comunidade académica mais alargada. O AMOPC poderá ser acedido e pesquisável através da internet, permitindo a rentabilização de materiais que se constituirão como fonte permanente de informação pedagógica e científica. Os media constituem um dos elementos mais determinantes das sociedades contemporâneas. À medida que à escala mundial se vai constituindo um híper sector, assistindo-se a fenómenos de convergência e de homogeneização cultural, os estudos na área da comunicação assumem um papel relevante para a compreensão das reconfigurações da esfera pública. Face à mudança nas atividades profissionais da área da comunicação, em termos tecnológicos, organizacionais e laborais, consideramos como prioridade o resgatar de memórias e vestígios plurais que tendem a ser ignorados e esquecidos, nas fontes oficiais e nos registos institucionais sobre a área da comunicação social. Optámos aqui por tomar a atividade da comunicação social como um todo, rejeitando a perspectiva de uma análise parcelar, por sector ou por suporte tecnológico, colocando as várias áreas ligadas aos media como um conjunto ocupacional (onde muitas trajetórias de vida cruzam diferentes áreas). Procuraremos diversificar as “ vozes” que “contam”, a nossa preocupação recairá na inclusão dos diversos grupos de profissionais, do diretor de informação de um canal de televisão, ao tipógrafo, ao gestor de comunicação, ao jornalista, ao account em comunicação, ao diretor do serviço ao cliente, ao revisor, ao assessor de imprensa, ao operador de imagem, ao copyright, ao fotógrafo, ao regente de estúdios, ao sonoplasta, etc. O caracter interdisciplinar é assegurado por uma equipa que 21 investigadores, de várias instituições do ensino superior, de Portugal e do Brasil. O nosso objectivo é alargar o projeto a outras instituições académicas e associações profissionais da área da comunicação. O projeto está numa fase de arranque, para a qual obteve financiamento em Dezembro de 2017, no Concurso Anual para Projectos de Investigação, Desenvolvimento, Inovação e Criação Artística do IPL-2016.Este trabalho insere-se no projeto de Investigação, Desenvolvimento, Inovação e Criação Artística do Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa (IDI&CA do IPL – 2016) com a referência IPL/2016/AMOPC_ESCS.N/

Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease: prognosis five years after percutaneous revascularization

Fundamentos: O diabetes mellitus (DM) é reconhecidamente fator de risco cardiovascular. Sabendose que a intervenção coronariana percutânea (ICP) melhora o prognóstico da doença coronariana (DC), pretendemos verificar se esse efeito é similar em doentes diabéticos (D) e não diabéticos (ND). Objetivo: Analisar o prognóstico em longo prazo do DM em pacientes submetidos a ICP. Métodos: Estudo de coorte, unicêntrico, retrospectivo, envolvendo pacientes consecutivos submetidos à ICP, eletiva ou de urgência, entre janeiro 2002 e dezembro 2003. Definiram-se dois grupos: pacientes com DM (D) e sem DM (ND). Compararam-se as variáveis clínicas e angiográficas da ICP com o resultado clínico ao final de cinco anos. Definiram-se como eventos maiores cardiovasculares (EMC): morte, nova síndrome coronariana aguda, acidente vascular encefálico (AVE) e nova revascularização cirúrgica ou ICP. Foram ainda avaliadas as taxas de trombose de stent, revascularização do vaso-alvo (RVA) e revascularização da lesão-alvo (RLA). Resultados: O seguimento em cinco anos foi 94%. Foram realizadas 446 ICP em 406 pacientes, média de idade =63,0±11 anos, 70,4% masculino. Destes, 128 (31,5%) eram do grupo D. Em cinco anos o valor de EMC foi 50,7% para D e 36,7% para N. Encontrou-se mortalidade global de 28,1% vs. 14,4% (p=0,0016) e mortalidade cardiovascular de 15,6% vs. 8,3% (p=0,039), respectivamente, para D vs. ND. Os restantes parâmetros não foram estatisticamente significativos. Não houve diferenças em termos de trombose de stent e tipos de stent utilizados nos dois grupos.Background: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a recognized cardiovascular risk factor, and knowing that percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) improves prognoses of coronary artery disease (CAD), we intend to ascertain whether this effect is similar in diabetic (D) and nondiabetic (ND) patients. Objective: To analyze the long term impact of DM in patients undergoing PCI. Methods: Retrospective unicentric cohort study of consecutive patients undergoing elective or urgent PCI between January 2002 and December 2003, divided into two groups: diabetic (D) and non-diabetic (ND). Clinical, angiographic and coronary intervention PCI profiles were compared to clinical outcome at 5 years. Major cardiovascular events (MACE) were defined as death, new acute coronary syndrome (ACS), stroke (S), and new surgical (CABG) or percutaneous (PCI) revascularization. The stent thrombosis, target vessel revascularization (TVR) and target lesion revascularization (TLR) rates were also evaluated. Results: The five year follow-up rate was 94%. During the study, 446 PCIs were performed on 406 patients; 63.0±11 years old, 70.4% male. Among them, 128 (31.5%) were D. At the five-year follow-up, the MACE rate was 50.7% for D and 36.7% for ND (p=0.01). The global mortality rates were 28.1% vs 14.4% (p=0.0016) and the cardiovascular mortality rates were 15.6% vs. 8.3% (p=0.039) for D and ND respectively. The remaining parameters were not statistically significant. No differences were noted between stent thrombosis and the stent types used in both groups.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Human Paraoxonase Gene Polymorphisms and Coronary Artery Disease Risk

Introdução: As doenças complexas como a doença das artérias coronárias (DAC), a hipertensão e a diabetes, são usualmente causadas pela susceptibilidade individual a múltiplos genes, factores ambientais e pela interacção entre eles. As enzimas da paraoxonase humana (PON), particularmente a PON1, têm sido implicadas na patogenia da aterosclerose e da DAC. Dois polimorfismos comuns na região codificante do gene, com substituição Glutamina (Q) /Arginina (R) na posição 192 e Leucina /Metionina na posição 55 influenciam a actividade da PON1. Vários estudos têm investigado a associação entre os polimorfismos da PON1 e a DAC, com resultados contraditórios. Objectivo: 1- Avaliar a associação dos polimorfismos da PON1 com o risco de DAC. 2-Estudar a interacção destes polimorfismos com outros situados em genes candidatos diferentes, na susceptibilidade para o aparecimento da DAC. Material e Métodos: Estudámos em 298 doentes coronários e 298 controlos saudáveis, através de um estudo caso/controlo, o risco de DAC associado aos polimorfismos da PON1, 192Q/R e 55L/M. Numa segunda fase avaliámos o risco das interacções polimórficas PON1 192 RR + MTHFR 1298 AA; PON1 192 R/R + ECA DD; PON1 192 R/R + ECA 8 GG. Finalmente construímos um modelo de regressão logística (no qual entraram todas as variáveis genéticas, ambientais e bioquímicas, que tinham mostrado significância estatística na análise univariada), para determinar quais as que se relacionavam de forma significativa e independente com DAC. Resultados: Verificámos que o genótipo PON155 MM tinha uma distribuição superior na população doente mas não atingia significância estatística como factor de risco para DAC. O PON1 199 RR apresentou um risco relativo 80% superior relativamente à população que o não possuía (p=0,04). A interacção da PON1 192 RR e da MTHFR 1298 AA, polimorfismos sedeados em genes diferentes, apresentou um risco relativo de DAC de 2,76 (OR=2,76;IC=1,20- 6,47; P=0,009), bastante superior ao risco de cada polimorfismo isolado, assim como a associação da PON1 RR + ECA DD (com polimorfismos também sedeados em genes diferentes), que apresentou um risco 337% superior relativamente aos que não possuíam esta associação (OR=4,37;IC=1,47- 13,87; P=0,002). Da mesma forma a associação entre a PON1 RR e ECA 8 GG, revelou um risco ainda mais elevado (OR=6;23; IC=1,67- 27,37; P<0,001). Após modelo de Regressão Logística as variáveis que ficaram na equação representando factores de risco significativos e independentes para DAC, foram os hábitos tabágicos, doença familiar, diabetes, fibrinogénio, Lp (a) e a associação PON1 192 RR + ECA 8 GG. Esta última associação apresentou, na regressão logística, um OR=14,113; p=0,018 Conclusões: O genótipo PON1 192 RR apresentou, se avaliado isoladamente, um risco relativo de DAC 80% superior relativamente à população que não possuía este genótipo. A associação deste polimorfismo com outros polimorfismos sedeados em genes diferentes, codificando para diferentes enzimas e pertencendo a sistemas fisiopatológicos distintos (MTHFR1298 AA, ECA DD e ECA 8 GG), aumentou sempre o risco de eclosão da DAC. Após correcção para os outros factores de risco clássicos e bioquímicos, a associação PON1 192 RR + ECA 8 GG, continuou a ser um factor de risco significativo e independente para CAD.Background: Complex diseases such as coronary artery disease (CAD), hypertension and diabetes are usually caused by individual susceptibility to multiple genes, environmental factors, and the interaction between them. The paraoxonase 1 (PON1) enzyme has been implicated in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and CAD. Two common polymorphisms in the coding region of the PON1 gene, which lead to a glutamine (Q)/arginine (R) substitution at position 192 and a leucine (L)/methionine (M) substitution at position 55, influence PON1 activity. Studies have investigated the association between these polymorphisms and CAD, but with conflicting results. Aims: 1) To evaluate the association between PON1 polymorphisms and CAD risk; and 2) to study the interaction between PON1 polymorphisms and others in different candidate genes. Methods: We evaluated the risk of CAD associated with PON1 Q192R and L55M polymorphisms in 298 CAD patients and 298 healthy individuals. We then evaluated the risk associated with the interaction of the PON1 polymorphisms with ACE DD, ACE 8 GG and MTHFR 1298AA. Finally, using a logistic regression model, we evaluated which variables (genetic, biochemical and environmental) were linked significantly and independently with CAD. Results: We found that the PON1 55MM genotype was more common in the CAD population, but this did not reach statistical significance as a risk factor for CAD, while PON1 192RR presented an 80% higher relative risk compared to the population without this polymorphism. The interaction between PON1 192RR and MTHFR 1298AA, sited in different genes, increased the risk for CAD, compared with the polymorphisms in isolation (OR=2.76; 95% CI=1.20-6.47; p=0.009), as did the association of PON1 192RR with ACE DD, which presented a 337% higher risk compared to the population without this polymorphic association (OR=4.37; 95% CI=1.47-13.87; p=0.002). Similarly, the association between PON1 192RR and ACE 8 GG was linked to an even higher risk (OR=6.23; 95% CI=1.67-27.37; p<0.001). After logistic regression, smoking, family history, fibrinogen, diabetes, Lp(a) and the association of PON1 192RR + ACE 8 GG remained in the regression model and proved to be significant and independent risk factors for CAD. In the regression model the latter association had OR=14.113; p=0.018. Conclusion: When analyzed separately, the PON1 192RR genotype presented a relative risk for CAD 80% higher than in the population without this genotype. Its association with other genetic polymorphisms sited in different genes, coding for different enzymes and belonging to different physiological systems, always increased the risk for CAD. After correction for other conventional and biochemical risk factors, the PON1 192RR + ACE 8 GG association remained a significant and independent risk factor for CAD.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Ludwig Koch and the Music of Nature

Ludwig Koch was a pioneer of outside broadcast, natural history recording in the first half of the 20th century. This programme explores his methods, techniques and personality through archive recordings and interviews, and includes attempts t recreating his experiments using modern equipment