Plataforma digital para interação social dos Engenheiros sem Fronteiras - núcleo Belo Horizonte

In this work, we developed a digital communication and social interaction platform for the Civil Society Organization named Engineers Without Borders - Belo Horizonte Center. The organization provides social support in Belo Horizonte and in its surrounding metropolitan area. Since its foundation, it has worked on more than 50 projects, directly benefiting more than 3,500 people. The platform consists of a responsive website and an application for mobile devices. The objective of developing the website was to disseminate institutional information, promote volunteering and enable acceptance of financial donations. On the other hand, the objective of developing the mobile device application was to create a network connecting third sector entities and needy communities. Thus, the mobile device application promotes interaction between service providers and underprivileged population. We conducted the work based on the Scrum methodology for agile development. The justification of our work was the expansion of the organizational presence in the digital environment. Besides, the relevance of our work for the organization and society was the strengthening of institutional communication, improvement of the donation acceptance process, and creation of a solidarity network connecting Civil Society Organizations, communities and citizens in situation of social vulnerability. Thus, our work joined other efforts to combat social inequalities in the region. The result was a platform that follows principles for improving usability and user experience, expanding the organization's capacity for action. The platform helped to promote social and professional development of citizens in the areas assisted by the institution.Neste trabalho, foi desenvolvida uma plataforma digital de comunicação e interação social para a Organização da Sociedade Civil Engenheiros Sem Fronteiras - Núcleo Belo Horizonte. A organização presta apoio social em Belo Horizonte e região metropolitana. Desde sua fundação, já atuou em mais de 50 projetos, beneficiando diretamente mais de 3.500 pessoas. A plataforma é composta por um website responsivo e um aplicativo para dispositivos móveis. O objetivo de desenvolver o website foi divulgar informação institucional, promover o voluntariado e possibilitar o recebimento de recursos financeiros através de doações. Por outro lado, o objetivo de desenvolver o aplicativo foi criar uma rede entre entidades do terceiro setor e comunidades carentes, promovendo interação entre prestadores de serviço e a população. O trabalho foi conduzido com base na metodologia Scrum para desenvolvimento ágil. A justificativa para desenvolvimento da plataforma foi a ampliação da presença organizacional no ambiente digital. A relevância do trabalho para a organização e para a sociedade foi o fortalecimento da comunicação institucional, a melhoria do recebimento de doações e a criação de uma rede solidária entre Organizações da Sociedade Civil, comunidades e cidadãos em situação de vulnerabilidade social. Assim, o trabalho se juntou a outros esforços para o combate às desigualdades sociais na região. O resultado do trabalho foi uma plataforma que segue os princípios para melhoria de usabilidade e da experiência do usuário, ampliando a capacidade de atuação da organização. A plataforma ajudou a promover o desenvolvimento social e profissional dos cidadãos nas áreas assistidas pela instituição

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

Identification of clusters of asthma control: A preliminary analysis of the inspirers studies

This work was funded by 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”) co-funded by the COMPETE2020 (Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização), Portugal 2020 and by Portuguese Funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia).© 2020, Sociedade Portuguesa de Alergologia e Imunologia Clinica. All rights reserved. Aims: To identify distinct asthma control clusters based on Control of Allergic Rhinitis and Asthma Test (CARAT) and to compare patients’ characteristics among these clusters. Methods: Adults and adolescents (≥13 years) with persistent asthma were recruited at 29 Portuguese hospital outpatient clinics, in the context of two observational studies of the INSPIRERS project. Demographic and clinical characteristics, adherence to inhaled medication, beliefs about inhaled medication, anxiety and depression, quality of life, and asthma control (CARAT, >24 good control) were collected. Hierarchical cluster analysis was performed using CARAT total score (CARAT-T). Results: 410 patients (68% adults), with a median (percentile 25–percentile 75) age of 28 (16-46) years, were analysed. Three clusters were identified [mean CARAT-T (min-max)]: cluster 1 [27(24-30)], cluster 2 [19(14-23)] and cluster 3 [10(2-13)]. Patients in cluster 1 (34%) were characterised by better asthma control, better quality of life, higher inhaler adherence and use of a single inhaler. Patients in clusters 2 (50%) and 3 (16%) had uncontrolled asthma, lower inhaler adherence, more symptoms of anxiety and depression and more than half had at least one exacerbation in the previous year. Further-more, patients in cluster 3 were predominantly female, had more unscheduled medical visits and more anxiety symp-toms, perceived a higher necessity of their prescribed inhalers but also higher levels of concern about taking these inhalers. There were no differences in age, body mass index, lung function, smoking status, hospital admissions or specialist physician follow-up time among the three clusters. Conclusion: An unsupervised method based on CARAT--T, identified 3 clusters of patients with distinct, clinically meaningful characteristics. The cluster with better asthma control had a cut-off similar to the established in the validation study of CARAT and an additional cut-off seems to distinguish more severe disease. Further research is necessary to validate the asthma control clusters identified.publishersversionpublishe

Cross-protection to new drifted influenza A(H3) viruses and prevalence of protective antibodies to seasonal influenza, during 2014 in Portugal

Em colaboração com a Rede Portuguesa de Laboratóros para o Diagnóstico da GripeIntroduction: Immune profile for influenza viruses is highly changeable over time. Serological studies can assess the prevalence of influenza, estimate the risk of infection, highlight asymptomatic infection rate and can also provide data on vaccine coverage. The aims of the study were to evaluate pre-existing cross-protection against influenza A(H3) drift viruses and to assess influenza immunity in the Portuguese population. Materials and methods: We developed a cross-sectional study based on a convenience sample of 626 sera collected during June 2014, covering all age groups, both gender and all administrative health regions of Portugal. Sera antibody titers for seasonal and new A(H3) drift influenza virus were evaluated by hemagglutination inhibition assay (HI). Seroprevalence to each seasonal influenza vaccine strain virus and to the new A(H3) drift circulating strain was estimated by age group, gender and region and compared with seasonal influenza-like illness (ILI) incidence rates before and after the study period. Results: Our findings suggest that seroprevalences of influenza A(H3) (39.9%; 95% CI: 36.2–43.8) and A(H1)pdm09 (29.7%; 95% CI: 26.3–33.4) antibodies were higher than for influenza B, in line with high ILI incidence rates for A(H3) followed by A(H1)pdm09, during 2013/2014 season. Low pre-existing crossprotection against new A(H3) drift viruses were observed in A(H3) seropositive individuals (46%). Both against influenza A(H1)pdm09 and A(H3) seroprotection was highest in younger than 14-years old. Protective antibodies against influenza B were highest in those older than 65 years old, especially for B/Yamagata lineage, 33.3% (95% CI: 25.7–41.9). Women showed a high seroprevalence to influenza, although without statistical significance, when compared to men. A significant decreasing trend in seroprotection from north to south regions of Portugal mainland was observed. Conclusions: Our results emphasize that low seroprotection increases the risk of influenza infection in the following winter season. Seroepidemiological studies can inform policy makers on the need for vaccination and additional preventive measures.This work was supported by the National Institute of Health Doutor Ricardo Jorge, IP Lisbon, Portugal.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone

As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved