Atividades digitais através do Edilim no 1º ciclo do ensino básico : resultados de uma investigação na prática de ensino supervisionada

As TIC fazem parte fundamental da nossa vida sendo indispensáveis para as atividades diárias de cada cidadão. Naturalmente, no sistema educativo as TIC também transformam o dia a dia na comunidade educativa. Neste sentido, a formação dos jovens em TIC para adquirirem competências digitais é um aspeto fundamental para os preparar para a sociedade atual e que deve ser inicializada através da sua utilização em contexto de sala de aula. O Relatório de Estágio pretendeu averiguar as potencialidades da utilização das TIC e o impacto, em particular, da implementação de um software de autor «EdiLim» através dos seguintes objetivos: promover a utilização de recursos digitais nas aprendizagens do 1.° Ciclo; identificar qual a utilização das TIC que os professores fazem no contexto de sala de aula; implementar atividades pedagógicas com atividades através do EdiLim; avaliar o contributo para as aprendizagens através da utilização do EdiLim. Esta investigação foi desenvolvida no âmbito da Prática de Ensino Supervisionada no 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico (PES1CEB), no 2º ano do Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar e Ensino do 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico. A turma era constituída por 22 alunos com idades compreendidas entre os 9 e os 10 anos. A investigação assumiu um caráter qualitativo no qual se realizou uma abordagem de estudo de caso e de investigação-ação. O principal instrumento de recolha de dados consistiu na observação participada com recurso a registo fotográfico e notas de campo, tendo como participantes, para além da investigadora e dos alunos, a «Orientadora Cooperante» e o «Par Pedagógico». Houve ainda necessidade de realizar inquéritos por questionários aos alunos e entrevistas semiestruturadas à «Orientadora Cooperante» e a um professor do 1º CEB da Instituição, como forma de conhecer a opinião dos inquiridos e entrevistados face à utilização das TIC e de softwares educativos como recurso no Ensino Básico. Em suma, os resultados da investigação, através da triangulação de dados possibilitaram a perceção de que a utilização do EdiLim veio promover maiores e melhores níveis de motivação dos alunos, favorecendo o processo de ensino e de aprendizagem.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Bisphenol A exposure and cardiac electrical conduction in excised rat hearts

BACKGROUND: Bisphenol A (BPA) is used to produce polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins that are widely used in everyday products, such as food and beverage containers, toys and medical devices. Human biomonitoring studies have suggested that a large proportion of the population may be exposed to BPA. Recent epidemiological studies have reported correlations between increased BPA urinary concentrations and cardiovascular disease; yet the direct effects of BPA on the heart are unknown. OBJECTIVES: The goal of our studies was to measure BPA\u27s effect (0.1-100 μM) on cardiac impulse propagation ex vivo, using excised whole hearts from adult rats. METHODS: We measured atrial and ventricular activation times during sinus and paced rhythms using epicardial electrodes and optical mapping of transmembrane potential. Atrioventricular activation intervals and epicardial conduction velocities were computed using recorded activation times. RESULTS: Cardiac BPA exposure resulted in prolonged PR segment and decreased epicardial conduction velocity (0.1 - 100 μM), prolonged action potential duration (1 - 100 μM) and delayed atrioventricular conduction (10 - 100 μM). Importantly, these effects were observed after acute exposure (≤ 15 min), underscoring the potential detrimental effects of continuous BPA exposure. The highest BPA concentration used (100 μM) resulted in prolonged QRS intervals, dropped ventricular beats and eventually resulted in complete heart block. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that acute BPA exposure slows electrical conduction in excised hearts from female rats. These findings emphasize the importance of examining BPA\u27s effect on heart electrophysiology and determining whether chronic in vivo exposure can cause/exacerbate conduction abnormalities in patients with pre-existing heart conditions and other high-risk populations

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

Key factors behind autofluorescence changes caused by ablation of cardiac tissue

Radiofrequency ablation is a commonly used clinical procedure that destroys arrhythmogenic sources in patients suffering from atrial fibrillation and other types of cardiac arrhythmias. To improve the success of this procedure, new approaches for real-time visualization of ablation sites are being developed. One of these promising methods is hyperspectral imaging, an approach that detects lesions based on changes in the endogenous tissue autofluorescence profile. To facilitate the clinical implementation of this approach, we examined the key variables that can influence ablation-induced spectral changes, including the drop in myocardial NADH levels, the release of lipofuscin-like pigments, and the increase in diffuse reflectance of the cardiac muscle beneath the endocardial layer. Insights from these experiments suggested simpler algorithms that can be used to acquire and post-process the spectral information required to reveal the lesion sites. Our study is relevant to a growing number of multilayered clinical targets to which spectral approaches are being applied

Key factors behind autofluorescence changes caused by ablation of cardiac tissue

© 2020, The Author(s). Radiofrequency ablation is a commonly used clinical procedure that destroys arrhythmogenic sources in patients suffering from atrial fibrillation and other types of cardiac arrhythmias. To improve the success of this procedure, new approaches for real-time visualization of ablation sites are being developed. One of these promising methods is hyperspectral imaging, an approach that detects lesions based on changes in the endogenous tissue autofluorescence profile. To facilitate the clinical implementation of this approach, we examined the key variables that can influence ablation-induced spectral changes, including the drop in myocardial NADH levels, the release of lipofuscin-like pigments, and the increase in diffuse reflectance of the cardiac muscle beneath the endocardial layer. Insights from these experiments suggested simpler algorithms that can be used to acquire and post-process the spectral information required to reveal the lesion sites. Our study is relevant to a growing number of multilayered clinical targets to which spectral approaches are being applied

Toward Real-time Lesion Detection for Cardiac Ablation from Auto-fluorescence Hyperspectral Images

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common cardiac arrhythmia caused by abnormal electrical activity originating in ectopic foci in the left atrium. AF can be treated by creating scar tissue to eliminate that activity. Recently, radiofrequency ablation (RFA) has been used to treat the tissues, and electrical conduction testing is used to determine the ablated region. Electro-anatomical mapping can improve RFA therapy success rates. That method must visualize the ablated region directly during the procedure. MRI and CT had been proposed for visualization, but those methods are expensive, space-consuming, and do not provide real-time monitoring. This study seeks to make practicable another visualization approach called auto-fluorescence hyperspectral imaging (aHSI). In that approach, ultraviolet light illuminates the tissues in the left atrium and then tissues emit auto-fluorescence light. We wish to detect the loss of fluorescence of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (indicating loss of cells\u27 viability, and thus successful ablation) even in the presence of the auto-fluorescence of atrial collagen. This requires detailed separation of the fluorescence spectra arising from successfully-ablated lesions and from unablated tissue. We use a camera that acquires aHSI data in bands (every 10nm from 420nm to 720nm) with a tunable filter. Light is delivered to and recorded from the cardiac tissue by fiber-optic light guides contained in a catheter. The goal of providing real-time identification of ablated tissue using low signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) signals requires that the minimum number of bands of wavelengths be acquired and used in classification. A clustering method (k-means) was applied to detect the lesions in the aHSI images. Results show that the detected lesion areas are correct and clearly visible. Further study was conducted to decrease the number of bands from 31 to 4 (using bandpass filters) without reducing the accuracy of lesion detection. This assists in making the approach fast and robust to noise – an important consideration because the total light power that the catheter can deliver is limited. The power therefore should be allocated to the most useful wavelength bands. Through an optimization procedure, we divide the 31 original bands into four contiguous groups. We add the bands in each group to create new, increased-SNR images that are used to detect lesion areas by k-means. We find that four bands are sufficient for accurate lesion detection. These studies provide promising methods to realize real-time intraoperative monitoring and identification of ablated and unablated tissues during the procedure

Application of unsupervised learning to hyperspectral imaging of cardiac ablation lesions.

© 2018 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia. It is being effectively treated using the radiofrequency ablation (RFA) procedure, which destroys culprit tissue and creates scars that prevent the spread of abnormal electrical activity. Long-term success of RFA could be improved further if ablation lesions can be directly visualized during the surgery. We have shown that autofluorescence-based hyperspectral imaging (aHSI) can help to identify lesions based on spectral unmixing. We show that use of k-means clustering, an unsupervised learning method, is capable of detecting RFA lesions without a priori knowledge of the lesions\u27 spectral characteristics. We also show that the number of spectral bands required for successful lesion identification can be significantly reduced, enabling the use of increased spectral bandwidth. Together, these findings can help with clinical implementation of a percutaneous aHSI catheter, since by reducing the number of spectral bands one can reduce hypercube acquisition and processing times, and by increasing the spectral width of individual bands one can collect more photons. The latter is of critical importance in low-light applications such as intracardiac aHSI. The ultimate goal of our studies is to help improve clinical outcomes for atrial fibrillation patients