Percepção dos professores sobre a influência da alergia no comportamento e desempenho cognitivo das crianças em idade escolar

Os sintomas de rinite alérgica são os mais referidos pelos professores, seguidos das manifestações dermatológicas, sendo apontado como causas principais as alterações ambientais e mudanças de temperatura, nomeadamente no início da Primavera. Segundo a percepção dos professores, cerca de 20% das crianças não possuem diagnóstico clínico; quando há, a maioria é feita pelo Médico de Família e em menor percentagem pelos Médicos Alergologistas e Dermatologistas. O recurso profiláctico à vacinação é o método mais frequente; em segundo lugar a medicação por via oral e tópica. A maioria dos professores respondeu haver boa colaboração entre eles e os familiares. Consideraram ainda que a maioria das escolas e habitações dos alunos estão localizadas em zonas pouco poluídas, embora uma diminuta percentagem refira existirem explorações agro-pecuárias nas proximidades. A maioria das construções é recente e bem conservada, com uma boa relação de espaço por pessoa; contudo, algu mas delas apresentam sinais de humidades e bolores. Maioritariamente os professores afirmam que estes alunos brincam normalmente e são estudiosos, embora 30% refiram que muitos deles apresentam comportamentos apáticos, alterações de sono, baixa capacidade de concentração e resistência ao esforço. Este estudo vai ao encontro de outros autores que referem ser esta patologia capaz de influenciar capacidades cognitivas e comportamentais dos alunos

Percepções dos professores sobre a influência da alergia nos comportamentos e desempenho cognitivo das crianças em idade escolar

Estudos realizados pela Sociedade Portuguesa de Alergologia e Imunologia Clínica (SPAIC) em 1998 apontam para uma prevalência de rinite alérgica de 9,55% na população portuguesa. Neste estudo, pretende-se saber qual a percepção dos Professores do 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico sobre o impacto da patologia alérgica em crianças em idade escolar. Foram distribuídos 230 inquéritos em zona rural e urbana, sendo recolhidos 108, elaborados a partir de 10 questões consideradas fundamentais na área da saúde, do ambiente, e de colaboração entre a família e a escola. Os sintomas de rinite alérgica são os mais referidos pelos professores, seguidos das manifestações dermatológicas, sendo apontado como causas principais as alterações ambientais e mudanças de temperatura, nomeadamente no início da Primavera. Segundo a percepção dos professores, cerca de 20% das crianças não possuem diagnóstico clínico; quando há, a maioria é feita pelo Médico de Família e em menor percentagem pelos Médicos Alergologistas e Dermatologistas. O recurso profiláctico à vacinação é o método mais frequente; em segundo lugar a medicação por via oral e tópica. A maioria dos professores respondeu haver boa colaboração entre eles e os familiares. Consideraram ainda que a maioria das escolas e habitações dos alunos estão localizadas em zonas pouco poluídas, embora uma diminuta percentagem refira existirem explorações agro-pecuárias nas proximidades. A maioria das construções é recente e bem conservada, com uma boa relação de espaço por pessoa; contudo, algumas delas apresentam sinais de humidades e bolores. Maioritariamente os professores afirmam que estes alunos brincam normalmente e são estudiosos, embora 30% refiram que muitos deles apresentam comportamentos apáticos, alterações de sono, baixa capacidade de concentração e resistência ao esforço. Este estudo vai ao encontro de outros autores que referem ser esta patologia capaz de influenciar capacidades cognitivas e comportamentais dos alunos.LIBEC/CIFPEC - Unidade de investigação 16/644 da FCT

Abordagem da nutrição em manuais escolares: um estudo longitudinal

No âmbito do Projeto Europeu “BIOHEAD-CITIZEN”, desenvolveu-se em 19 países Europeus, Africanos e do Médio Oriente uma grelha de análise para o estudo de manuais dos ensinos básico e secundário, acerca de Educação para a Saúde. Neste estudo procedeu-se à análise histórica de manuais portugueses. Verificamos que é dado progressivamente mais ênfase ao tópico nutrição nos manuais analisados, o que poderá estar relacionado com uma progressiva alteração nos hábitos alimentares dos Portugueses.undação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - CIEC unidade de investigação 31

Optimized in-vehicle multi person human body pose detection

The number of Shared Autonomous Vehicles (SAV) will increase in the coming years. The absence of human driver will create a new paradigm for in-car safety. This paper addresses this problem by presenting an approach to estimate the human body pose inside a vehicle. We propose to use a customized version of the OpenPose framework, to perform the task of human body pose detection for the front passengers inside a vehicle. The OpenPose method was been evaluated with three different backbones: VGG19, MobileNetV1 and MobileNetV2, using different hyperparameters and ablation scenarios. Moreover, synthetic images were used, which simulate a depth sensor perspective from the center of the front seats. The dataset is comprised by images with 1 and 2 passengers, from 18 different subjects inside of 7 different vehicles, thus making a total of 45360 different images. The OpenPose method with the MobileNetV2 backbone showed the most efficient results between precision and performance, achieving a mean Average Precision (mAP) of 90%, Area Under ROC Curve (AUC) of 73%, and 0.0189 seconds per image (s/img).- (undefined

A region-based algorithm for automatic bone segmentation in volumetric CT

In Computed Tomography (CT), bone segmentation is considered an important step to extract bone parameters, which are frequently useful for computer-aided diagnosis, surgery and treatment of many diseases such as osteoporosis. Consequently, the development of accurate and reliable segmentation techniques is essential, since it often provides a great impact on quantitative image analysis and diagnosis outcome. This chapter presents an automated multistep approach for bone segmentation in volumetric CT datasets. It starts with a three-dimensional (3D) watershed operation on an image gradient magnitude. The outcome of the watershed algorithm is an over-partioning image of many 3D regions that can be merged, yielding a meaningful image partitioning. In order to reduce the number of regions, a merging procedure was performed that merges neighbouring regions presenting a mean intensity distribution difference of ±15%. Finally, once all bones have been distinguished in high contrast, the final 3D bone segmentation was achieved by selecting all regions with bone fragments, using the information retrieved by a threshold mask. The bones contours were accurately defined according to the watershed regions outlines instead of considering the thresholding segmentation result. This new method was tested to segment the rib cage on 185 CT images, acquired at the São João Hospital of Porto (Portugal) and evaluated using the dice similarity coefficient as a statistical validation metric, leading to a coefficient mean score of 0.89. This could represent a step forward towards accurate and automatic quantitative analysis in clinical environments and decreasing time-consumption, user dependence and subjectivity.The authors acknowledge to Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) - Portugal for the fellowships with the references: SFRH/BD/74276/2010; SFRH/BD/68270/2010; and, SFRH/BPD/46851/2008. This work was also supported by FCT R&D project PTDC/SAU-BEB/103368/2008

An electromagnetic tracker system for the design of a dental superstructure

Nowadays, different techniques are available for manufacturing full-arch implant-supported prosthesis, many of them based on an impression procedure. Nevertheless, the long-term success of the prosthesis is highly influenced by the accuracy during such process, being affected by factors such as the impression material, implant position, angulation and depth. This paper investigates the feasibility of a 3D electromagnetic motion tracking system as an acquisition method for modeling such prosthesis. To this extent, we propose an implant acquisition method at the patient mouth, using a specific prototyped tool coupled with a tracker sensor, and a set of calibration procedures (for distortion correction and tool calibration), that ultimately obtains combined measurements of the implant's position and angulation, and eliminating the use of any impression material. However, in the particular case of the evaluated tracking system, the order of magnitude of the obtained errors invalidates its use for this specific application.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 and the project EXPL/BBB-BMD/2146/2013

Electromagnetic tracker feasibility in the design of a dental superstructure for edentulous patients

The success of the osseointegration concept and the Branemark protocol is highly associated to the accuracy in the production of an implant-supported prosthesis. One of most critical steps for long-term success of these prosthesis is the accuracy obtained during the impression procedure, which is affected by factors such as the impression material, implant position, angulation and depth. This paper investigates the feasibility of 3D electromagnetic motion tracking systems as an acquisition method for modeling full-arch implant-supported prosthesis. To this extent, we propose an implant acquisition method at the patient mouth and a calibration procedure, based on a 3D electromagnetic tracker that obtains combined measurements of implant's position and angulation, eliminating the use of any impression material. Three calibration algorithms (namely linear interpolation, higher-order polynomial and Hardy multiquadric) were tested to compensate for the electromagnetic tracker distortions introduced by the presence of nearby metals. Moreover, implants from different suppliers were also tested to study its impact on tracking accuracy. The calibration methodology and the algorithms employed proved to implement a suitable strategy for the evaluation of novel dental impression techniques. However, in the particular case of the evaluated electromagnetic tracking system, the order of magnitude of the obtained errors invalidates its use for the full-arch modeling of implant-supported prosthesis.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 and the project EXPL/BBB-BMD/2146/2013

ISO23247 Digital twin approach for industrial grade radio frequency testing station

The Digital Twin approach has increased in interest in recent years. Without well defined specifications, it is common for different researchers to use different approaches. Digital Twin concept emerged to support Industry 4.0, so it is of utmost importance to specify a best methodology, and tools, for its implementation for industrial use cases. This work proposes a Digital Twin architecture that follows manufacturing-centric standards of an industrial prototype testing station, for a new car infotainment system. Testing is performed by low-cost Software-Defined Radio equipment that aims to replace expensive metrological equipment. Moreover, an environment sensing device is also used to monitor the physical environment around prototype. We present the development of a solution that allows manage hardware processing, real-time monitoring of machine states in the virtual environment, and control of the overall system through a logical sequence supported by its Digital Twin. With the implementation of a standard like ISO23247, helps in the identified problem of having various Digital Twins and improves an interaction with test equipment. All steps made for the development of our architecture approach, as well as some results, are shown and explained for our use case.This work has been supported by FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020.The author would also like to acknowledge FCT for the attributed Doctoral grant PD/BDE/150500/2019

Synthesis, Bioavailability, and Cytotoxicity Studies

Funding Information: This work was supported by Portuguese funds from FCT/MCTES through the Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry—LAQV (UIDB/50006/2020 and UIDP/50006/2020) and the project numbers PTDC/QUI-QOR/32406/2017 and PTDC/EAM-AMB/2023/2021. Ana R. Jesus and Ana Rita C. Duarte acknowledge the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, under grant agreement No ERC-2016-CoG 725034. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.Thyroid diseases affect a considerable portion of the population, with hypothyroidism being one of the most commonly reported thyroid diseases. Levothyroxine (T4) is clinically used to treat hypothyroidism and suppress thyroid stimulating hormone secretion in other thyroid diseases. In this work, an attempt to improve T4 solubility is made through the synthesis of ionic liquids (ILs) based on this drug. In this context, [Na][T4] was combined with choline [Ch]+ and 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-3-methylimidazolium [C2OHMiM]+ cations in order to prepare the desired T4-ILs. All compounds were characterized by NMR, ATR-FTIR, elemental analysis, and DSC, aiming to check their chemical structure, purities, and thermal properties. The serum, water, and PBS solubilities of the T4-ILs were compared to [Na][T4], as well as the permeability assays. It is important to note an improved adsorption capacity, in which no significant cytotoxicity was observed against L929 cells. [C2OHMiM][T4] seems to be a good alternative to the commercial levothyroxine sodium salt with promising bioavailability.publishersversionpublishe

Automatic modeling of an orthotic bracing for nonoperative correction of Pectus Carinatum

Pectus Carinatum is a deformity of the chest wall, characterized by an anterior protrusion of the sternum, often corrected surgically due to cosmetic motivation. This work presents an alternative approach to the current open surgery option, proposing a novel technique based on a personalized orthosis. Two different processes for the orthosis' personalization are presented. One based on a 3D laser scan of the patient chest, followed by the reconstruction of the thoracic wall mesh using a radial basis function, and a second one, based on a computer tomography scan followed by a neighbouring cells algorithm. The axial position where the orthosis is to be located is automatically calculated using a Ray-Triangle intersection method, whose outcome is input to a pseudo Kochenek interpolating spline method to define the orthosis curvature. Results show that no significant differences exist between the patient chest physiognomy and the curvature angle and size of the orthosis, allowing a better cosmetic outcome and less initial discomfort.The authors acknowledge to Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) - Portugal for the fellowships with the references: SFRH/BD/74276/2010; SFRH/BD/68270/2010; UMINHO/BI/95/2012; and, SFRH/BPD/46851/2008. This work was also supported by FCT R&D project PTDC/SAUBEB/103368/2008