Fotofacesua: sistema de gestão fotográfica da Universidade de Aveiro

Nowadays, automation is present in basically every computational system. With the raise of Machine Learning algorithms through the years, the necessity of a human being to intervene in a system has dropped a lot. Although, in Universities, Companies and even governmental Institutions there are some systems that are have not been automatized. One of these cases, is the profile photo management, that stills requires human intervention to check if the image follows the Institution set of criteria that are obligatory to submit a new photo. FotoFaces is a system for updating the profile photos of collaborators at the University of Aveiro that allows the collaborator to submit a new photo and, automatically, through a set of image processing algorithms, decide if the photo meets a set of predifined criteria. One of the main advantages of this system is that it can be used in any institution and can be adapted to different needs by just changing the algorithms or criteria considered. This Dissertation describes some improvements implemented in the existing system, as well as some new features in terms of the available algorithms. The main contributions to the system are the following: sunglasses detection, hat detection and background analysis. For the first two, it was necessary to create a new database and label it to train, validate and test a deep transfer learning network, used to detect sunglasses and hats. In addition, several tests were performed varying the parameters of the network and using some machine learning and pre-processing techniques on the input images. Finally, the background analysis consists of the implementation and testing of 2 existing algorithms in the literature, one low level and the other deep learning. Overall, the results obtained in the improvement of the existing algorithms, as well as the performance of the new image processing modules, allowed the creation of a more robust (improved production version algorithms) and versatile (addition of new algorithms to the system) profile photo update system.Atualmente, a automação está presente em basicamente todos os sistemas computacionais. Com o aumento dos algoritmos de Aprendizagem Máquina ao longo dos anos, a necessidade de um ser humano intervir num sistema caiu bastante. Embora, em Universidades, Empresas e até Instituições governamentais, existam alguns sistemas que não foram automatizados. Um desses casos, é a gestão de fotos de perfil, que requer intervenção humana para verificar se a imagem segue o conjunto de critérios da Instituição que são obrigatórios para a submissão de uma nova foto. O FotoFaces é um sistema de atualização de fotos do perfil dos colaboradores na Universidade de Aveiro que permite ao colaborador submeter uma nova foto e, automaticamente, através de um conjunto de algoritmos de processamnto de imagem, decidir se a foto cumpre um conjunto de critérios predefinidos. Uma das principais vantagens deste sistema é que pode ser utilizado em qualquer Instituição e pode ser adaptado às diferentes necessidades alterando apenas os algoritmos ou os critérios considerados. Esta Dissertação descreve algumas melhorias implementadas no sistema existente, bem como algumas funcionalidades novas ao nível dos algoritmos disponíveis. As principais contribuições para o sistema são as seguintes: detecção de óculos de sol, detecção de chapéus e análise de background. Para as duas primeiras, foi necessário criar uma nova base de dados e rotulá-la para treinar, validar e testar uma rede de aprendizagem profunda por transferência, utilizada para detectar os óculos de sol e chapéus. Além disso, foram feitos vários testes variando os parâmetros da rede e usando algumas técnicas de aprendizagem máquina e pré-processamento sobre as imagens de entrada. Por fim, a análise do fundo consiste na implementação e teste de 2 algoritmos existentes na literatura, um de baixo nível e outro de aprendizagem profunda. Globalmente, os resultados obtidos na melhoria dos algoritmos existentes, bem como o desempenho dos novos módulos de processamneto de imagem, permitiram criar um sistema de atualização de fotos do perfil mais robusto (melhoria dos algoritmos da versão de produção) e versátil (adição de novos algoritmos ao sistema).Mestrado em Engenharia Eletrónica e Telecomunicaçõe

Execução de túneis nas formações vulcânicas da Ilha da Madeira: o caso do túnel 1 da nova ligação Vasco Gil-Fundoa à cota 500

Este trabalho pretende contribuir para um melhor conhecimento ao nível da execução de túneis em formações vulcânicas, mais especificamente na Ilha da Madeira, visto esta região ter sido nos últimos anos palco da construção de inúmeros túneis rodoviários, que forneceram novos dados, experiencias e metodologias na execução de túneis em maciços vulcânicos. Assim sendo, esta tese foca inicialmente a geologia da Ilha da Madeira com o objectivo de dar a conhecer as características litológicas das rochas que compõem os maciços vulcânicos assim como é feita uma abordagem à história e evolução dos túneis existentes na região, com realce para os vários tipos de túneis executados e para os acidentes mais comuns que acontecem durante a escavação neste tipo de maciços. Depois são abordados os estudos geológicos e geotécnicos que são indispensáveis antes do inicio da execução dos túneis e também os métodos de escavação utilizados em maciços vulcânicos. É ainda abordado o estudo das vibrações causadas pelo uso de explosivos na escavação de túneis visto ser o método mais usado na região. Por fim é relatado o acompanhamento realizado durante a execução de um túnel na Ilha da Madeira, com particular destaque ao estudo das vibrações causadas devido à detonação de explosivos.Orientador: Domingos Manuel Martins Rodrigues e Co-orientador Francisco José Campos Martinho de Mour

Electrochemical sensing of the thyroid hormone thyronamine (T0AM) via molecular imprinted polymers (MIPs)

Recent studies have shown that besides the well-known T3 (triiodothyronine) and T4 (thyroxine) there might be other important thyroid hormones, in particular T0AM (thyronamine) and T1AM (3-iodothyronamine). The absence of a large number of studies showing their precise importance might be explained by the limited number of analytical methodologies available. This work aims to show an electroanalytical alternative making use of electropolymerized molecularly imprinted polymer (MIPs). The MIPs' polymerization is performed on the surface of screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCEs), using 4-aminobenzoic acid (4-ABA) as the building and functional monomer and the analyte T0AM as the template. The step-by-step construction of the SPCE-MIP sensor was studied by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). After optimization, by means of square-wave voltammetry, the SPCE-MIP showed suitable selectivity (in comparison with other thyroid hormones and catechol amines), repeatability (intra-day of 3.9%), a linear range up to 10 μmol L-1 (0.23 × 103 μg dL-1) with an r2 of 0.998 and a limit of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) of 0.081 and 0.27 μmol L-1 (1.9 and 6.2 μg dL-1), respectively.This project was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), and FEDER/COMPETE (UID/QUI/00081/2013, UID/QUI/50006/2013, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006980 and NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000028). JGP (SFRH/BPD/101419/2014), PR (SFRH/BD/132384/2017) and LMG (SFRH/BPD/76544/2011) wish to acknowledge FCT for their research grants. FC thanks NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000028 grant.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Influence of seasonality on the quality of oysters from the Sado and Mira rivers

There is a lack of knowledge about the influence of seasonality on the microbial and physicochemical quality of oysters in Sado and Mira rivers. Water, sediment, and oysters (Crassostrea angulata and Crassostrea gigas) were collected for microbiological, nutritional, and sensory analyses. The microbiological water quality and the oyster shell contamination were better during the warmer months. No seasonal effect was observed on sediments and on oyster meat. A good physicochemical and nutritional quality was also observed, with high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids, including omega-3 fatty acids, resulting in good lipid quality indices. From the sensory evaluation, both oysters' species were well scored and presented the highest scores (4) in parameters such as cream-ivory colour, sea smell, firmness and juiciness. These attributes denote the freshness degree at the time of the tasting, reflecting the quality of the bivalve

Serious pervasive games

Serious Pervasive Games extend themagic circle (Huizinga, 1938) to the players’ context and surrounding environment. The blend of both physical and fictive game worlds provides a push in player engagement and promotes situated learning approaches. Space and time, as well as social context, acquire a more meaningful impact on the gameplay. From pervasive learning towards science communication with location-based games, this article presents research and case studies that exemplify their benefits and related problems. Pervasive learning can be defined as “learning at the speed of need through formal, informal and social learning modalities” (Pontefract, 2013). The first case study—the BEACONING project—aims to contextualize the teaching and learning process, connecting it with problem-based game mechanics within STEM. The main goal of this project is to provide the missing connection between STEM subjects and real-world interactions and applications. The pedagogical foundation is supported on problem-based learning (PBL), in which active learning is in the center, and learners have to work with different tools and resources in order to solve problems (quests). Teachers create, facilitate, and assess pervasive and gamified learning activities (missions). Furthermore, these quests are gamified in order to provide non-linear game plots. In a second case study, we demonstrate and evaluate how natural heritage can benefit from pervasive games. This study is based on a set of location-based games for an existing natural park, which have been developed in order to provide enhanced experiences, as well as additional information about some species that are more difficult to observe or that are seasonal. Throughout the research and development of these projects, we have encountered and identified several problems, of different nature, present in pervasive games.This work was financed by the ERDF - European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation - COMPETE 2020 Programme and by National Funds through the Portuguese funding agency, FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia within project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030740 - PTDC/CCICOM/30740/2017. Part of this work has also been supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 - The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation 2014–2020, under grant agreement No. 687676. We would also acknowledge the research grant from the Operation NORTE-08-5369-FSE-000049 supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Social Fund (ESF), and also the FCT-Austin grant Ref. PD/BD/142893/2018.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Obesity, acute kidney injury and mortality in patients with sepsis: a cohort analysis

Although the prognostic effect of obesity has been studied in critically ill patients its impact on outcomes of septic patients and its role as a risk factor for acute kidney injury (AKI) is not consensual. We aimed to analyze the impact of obesity on the occurrence of AKI and on in-hospital mortality in a cohort of critically ill septic patients. This study is retrospective including 456 adult patients with sepsis admitted to the Division of Intensive Medicine of the Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte (Lisbon, Portugal) between January 2008 and December 2014. Obesity was defined as a body mass index of 30 kg/m2 or higher. The Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes classification was used to diagnose and classify patients developing AKI. AKI occurred in 87.5% of patients (19.5% with stage 1, 22.6% with stage 2 and 45.4% with stage 3). Obese patients developed AKI more frequently than non-obese patients (92.8% versus 85.5%, p = .035; unadjusted OR 2.2 (95% CI: 1.04-4.6), p = .039; adjusted OR 2.31 (95% CI: 1.07-5.02), p = .034). The percentage of obese patients, however, did not differ between AKI stages (stage 1, 25.1%; stage 2, 28.6%; stage 3, 15.4%; p = .145). There was no association between obesity and mortality (p = .739). Of note, when comparing AKI patients with or without obesity in terms of in-hospital mortality there were also no significant differences between those groups (38.4% versus 38.4%, p = .998). Obesity was associated with the occurrence of AKI in critically ill patients with sepsis; however, it was not associated with in-hospital mortality.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Numerical optimization of a microchannel geometry for nanofluid flow and heat dissipation assessment

In this study, a numerical approach was carried out to analyze the effects of different geometries of microchannel heat sinks on the forced convective heat transfer in single-phase flow. The simulations were performed using the commercially available software COMSOLMultiphysics 5.6® (Burlington, MA, USA) and its results were compared with those obtained from experimental tests performed in microchannel heat sinks of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Distilled water was used as the working fluid under the laminar fluid flow regime, with a maximum Reynolds number of 293. Three sets of geometries were investigated: rectangular, triangular and circular. The different configurations were characterized based on the flow orientation, type of collector and number of parallel channels. The main results show that the rectangular shaped collector was the one that led to a greater uniformity in the distribution of the heat transfer in the microchannels. Similar results were also obtained for the circular shape. For the triangular geometry, however, a disturbance in the jet impingement was observed, leading to the least uniformity. The increase in the number of channels also enhanced the uniformity of the flow distribution and, consequently, improved the heat transfer performance, which must be considered to optimize new microchannel heat sink designs. The achieved optimized design for a heat sink, with microchannels for nanofluid flow and a higher heat dissipation rate, comprised a rectangular collector with eight microchannels and vertical placement of the inlet and outlet.This work has been funded by Portuguese national funds of FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) through base funding from the following research units: UIDB/00532/2020 (Transport Phenomena Research Center-CEFT), UIDB/04077/2020 (MEtRICs) and UIDP/04436/2020. The authors are also grateful for the funding of Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia-FCT through the projectsLISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-030171/NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-030171 (PTDC/EMESIS/30171/2017), funded by COMPETE2020, NORTE2020, PORTUGAL2020, and FEDER. The authors also acknowledge FCT for partially financing the research under the framework of the project JICAM/0003/2017. Finally, I. Gonçalves acknowledges FCT for supporting her PhD fellowship, ref.: 2020.08646.B

Voxel-based registration of simulated and real patient CBCT data for accurate dental implant pose estimation

"Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging, vol. 16, nr. 42"The success of dental implant-supported prosthesis is directly linked to the accuracy obtained during implant's pose estimation (position and orientation). Although traditional impression techniques and recent digital acquisition methods are acceptably accurate, a simultaneously fast, accurate and operator-independent methodology is still lacking. Hereto, an image-based framework is proposed to estimate the patient-specific implant's pose using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) and prior knowledge of implanted model. The pose estimation is accomplished in a threestep approach: (1) a region-of-interest is extracted from the CBCT data using 2 operator-defined points at the implant's main axis; (2) a simulated CBCT volume of the known implanted model is generated through Feldkamp-Davis-Kress reconstruction and coarsely aligned to the defined axis; and (3) a voxel-based rigid registration is performed to optimally align both patient and simulated CBCT data, extracting the implant's pose from the optimal transformation. Three experiments were performed to evaluate the framework: (1) an in silico study using 48 implants distributed through 12 tridimensional synthetic mandibular models; (2) an in vitro study using an artificial mandible with 2 dental implants acquired with an i-CAT system; and (3) two clinical case studies. The results shown positional errors of 67±34μm and 108μm, and angular misfits of 0.15±0.08 and 1.4, for experiment 1 and 2, respectively. Moreover, in experiment 3, visual assessment of clinical data results shown a coherent alignment of the reference implant. Overall, a novel image-based framework for implants' pose estimation from CBCT data was proposed, showing accurate results in agreement with dental prosthesis modelling requirements.This work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia in the scope of the Ph.D. grant SFRH/BD/68270/2010, SFRH/BD/93443/2013 and the project EXPL/BBB-BMD/2146/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

NOVA MUTAÇÃO DO GENE SDHD EM PACIENTES COM PARAGANGLIOMAS DO CORPO CAROTÍDEO

Paragangliomas (PGLs) are neuroendocrine neoplasms that can occur throughout the body wherever there is paraganglia. Representing 0.03% of all tumours, PGLs are extremely rare. Although predominantly benign and amenable to cure by surgical ressection, up to 6% can be malignant. To date, three genes have been identified that are associated with Familial PGLs. All three encode subunits (D, B and C) of the enzyme succinate dehydrogenase complex (SDH), which is part of the Kreb's cycle and the electron transport chain. We report a novel causative frameshift mutation in the subunit D of SDH (SDHD) in a family with Carotid Body Paragangliomas. This finding contributes for extending the known mutational spectrum of SDHD, and to help the genetic counseling of this family. Noteworthy, is now possible to offer to other relatives, still sub-clinical, a predictive test that would eventually aid an early surveillance/intervention for a better prognosis

A position paper of the Portuguese Society of Cardiology

Copyright © 2023 Sociedade Portuguesa de Cardiologia. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.Global warming is a result of the increased emission of greenhouse gases. This climate change consequence threatens society, biodiversity, food and resource availability. The consequences in health involve the increased risk of cardiovascular (CV) disease and cardiovascular mortality. In this position paper we summarize the data from the main studies that assessed the risks of temperature increase or heat waves in CV events (CV mortality, myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, and CV hospitalizations), as well as the data concerning air pollution as an enhancer of temperature-related CV risks. The data currently supports that global warming/heat waves (extreme temperatures) are cardiovascular threats. Achieving the neutrality in the emissions to prevent global warming is essential and it is likely to have an effect in the global health, including the cardiovascular health. Simultaneously, urgent step is required to adapt the society and individual to this new climate context potentially harmful for the cardiovascular health. Multidisciplinary teams should plan and intervene in heat-related healthcare and advocate for environmental health policy change.proofepub_ahead_of_prin