BioRePortAP, an electronic clinical record coupled with a database : an example of its use in a single

Aims: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of the treatment of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonists in the Rheumatology Department of Hospital de Santa Maria using the BioRePortAP. Methods: The Portuguese Society of Rheumatology (SPR) developed an electronic medical chart coupled with a database for the follow up of PsA patients, the BioRePortAP, which was launched in May 2009. This evaluation was based on all the PsA patients that were on active treatment with TNF antagonists in September 2009 and were registered in the BioRePortAP. All the previous data on these patients were introduced in BioRePortAP using the prospective paper based follow up protocol that this Department was using since 1999. Only patients with more than 9 months of treatment were analyzed. Results: Forty-two patients with PsA, actively treated with anti-TNF agents in September 2009, for at least 9 months, were analyzed in BioRePortAP. Twenty-three patients were male (55%) and nineteen were female (45%). The average age of these patients was 49.8±10.9 years old, the average disease duration was of 10.7±5.6 years and the mean duration of biological therapy was of 37.8±27.8 months. For the 81% of patients with peripheral joint disease there was a mean reduction of more than 80% in the swollen and tender joint counts, and almost 50% in the health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) value. In the 19% of the patients with axial involvement the reduction of BASDAI and BASFI was not statistically significative. On top of that, PASI score suffered a reduction of 64%. Fourteen patients (33.3%) had to switch their TNF antagonist treatment. 58.8% of the switches were due to adverse effects and 41.2% due to therapy failure. Regarding the 56 adverse reactions registered, only one was a severe reaction. The remaining adverse reactions were not severe and 67% of them were due to infections. Discussion: The results of this first report of the use of the BioRePortAP in clinical practice confirm the efficacy and safety of TNF antagonist treatment in PsA. The results shown here elucidate the potential applications of BioRePortAP as a tool for efficacy and safety assessment of PsA patients treated with biotechnological drugs

Melhoria das condições de realização da ordenha em explorações de caprinos de raça Serrana em Trás-os-Montes

Os caprinos de raça Serrana têm uma significativa importância socioeconómica na região de Trás-os- Montes. As cabras desta raça são exploradas pela sua aptidão leiteira, sendo o leite destinado ao fabrico de queijo. Esta actividade pode contribuir para o desenvolvimento / manutenção do meio rural da região e proporcionar rendimento que permita a fixação da população rural. Para o crescimento e desenvolvimento da criação de cabras de raça Serrana é necessário aumentar os efectivos por exploração, melhorar as técnicas de produção e melhorar as condições de trabalho, principalmente a melhoria das condições de realização da ordenha. O ordenha manual, realizada de forma tradicional, é um trabalho fatigante, penoso e desagradável. É, muitas vezes, um factor que condiciona o aumento do número de animais na exploração. Os criadores mostram alguma resistência à adopção de novas técnicas de ordenha (ordenha mecânica, por exemplo) pelo receio que têm quanto aos investimentos necessários. Porém, a utilização de alguns equipamentos que exigem menor investimento, como a plataforma de ordenha e o cornadis autoblocante, pode melhorar bastante as condições da ordenha manual e de trabalho do ordenhador. Como resultado das acções de demonstração e divulgação realizadas, alguns criadores da região trocaram a ordenha manual tradicional pela ordenha com recurso a uma plataforma e cornadis. A utilização destes equipamentos permite melhorar as condições de realização da ordenha, principalmente nos aspectos relacionados com a postura do ordenhador; na redução dos tempos de operação necessários para a execução dos trabalhos; e na eficiência do trabalho

Electrochemistry combined-surface plasmon resonance biosensors: A review

Over the years, most of the literature reported applications of electrochemical and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) immunoassays for biosensing but, so far, the combination of the two methods in the same sensing spot for analytical purposes is much less explored and discussed. The aim of this Review is to highlight the great potential of electrochemistry combined-SPR (eSPR) as analytical tool for screening chemically and biologically relevant (bio)molecules by combining the unique features of SPR integrated with electrochemical readout. In the first part of the Review, we describe the urgent need of innovative methods for screening clinical biological markers (General Introduction), briefly discuss general concepts of SPR and electrochemical sensing (Concepts behind eSPR biosensors) and highlight the hyphenation of two methods to developed combined biosensing systems (Set-up configuration and eSPR principles). Firstly, we briefly give an overview of the setup for implementation of eSPR technique and discuss some relevant experimental conditions to perform the combined optical and electrochemical measurements. Then, the principles and fundamentals of eSPR biosensors are presented and described. We also present representative examples of eSPR biosensors in the literature (Applications of eSPR biosensors). In the second part, we review studies on how combined electrical and plasmonic detection contributed to the biosensing field, in particular, for the successful screening of clinically relevant biomolecules, namely proteins (Detection of proteins), nucleic acids (Detection of nucleic acids), small size chemical species (Detection of small molecules) and cells (Living-cell Analysis). Finally, we discuss the current limitations of eSPR biosensors performance and suggest possible ways to overcome these limitations (Limitations and optimization) and then we explore aspects about the development of the method and its applications and discuss areas of likely future growth (Conclusions and perspectives).This research had the financial support of FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) and co-financed by the European Union (FEDER funds) under the Partnership Agreement PT2020, Research Grant Pest-C/QUI/UIDB/00081/2020 (CIQUP). J.A. Ribeiro (ref. SFRH/BPD/105395/2014) and C.M. Pereira (ref. SFRH/BSAB/150320/2019) acknowledge FCT under the QREN – POPH – Advanced Training, subsidized by European Union and national MEC funds. The authors acknowledge the research project MyTag (ref. PTDC/EEI-EEE/4832/2021), funded by FCT, for financial support.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Livro de atas do XVI Congresso da Associação Portuguesa de Investigação Operacional

Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FC

Grado de interiorización de los sistemas de gestión medioambiental: una revisión de la literatura

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar las principales características de los trabajos sobre interiorización de las normas de gestión medioambiental que fueron identificados a partir de una búsqueda electrónica en las bases de datos Web of Science, Science Direct, ProQuest y Emerald. Estos trabajos muestran que las empresas pueden tener un mayor o menor compromiso con los requisitos de una norma de gestión medioambiental, lo que puede llevar a niveles heterogéneos de interiorización e implantación. Además, los resultados de estos trabajos muestran que una mayor interiorización conlleva un mejor rendimiento medioambiental.The purpose of this paper is to analyze the main characteristics of studies that examine the internalization of environmental management standards. These studies were identified through an electronic search in Web of Science, Science Direct, Proquest and Emerald. These works show that firms may have a higher or lesser commitment with the requirements of an environmental management standard, and this issue may suppose different levels of internalization and implementation. Moreover, the findings of these studies show that a higher internalization leads to a better environmental performance

Wood beam repairing with carbon-epoxy composites

Wood damaged beams submitted to bending loads were repaired using carbon-epoxy patches. The effect of patch thickness as well as adhesive filleting were both studied experimentally and numerically. The objective was to verify the influence of these aspects on the strength and failure of the repaired structural components. Cohesive zone modeling considering mixedmode (I+II) loading was carried out to simulate the observed experimental behavior. It was concluded that repair can successful recover the original bearing capacity, although patch thickness and adhesive filleting did not reveal a significant gain on strength

Numerical simulation of galvanized rebars pullout

The usage of rebars in construction is the most common method for reinforcing plain concrete and thus bridging the tensile stresses along the concrete crack surfaces. Usually design codes for modelling the bond behaviour of rebars and concrete suggest a local bond stress – slip relationship that comprises distinct reinforcement mechanisms, such as adhesion, friction and mechanical anchorage. In this work, numerical simulations of pullout tests were performed using the finite element method framework. The interaction between rebar and concrete was modelled using cohesive elements. Distinct local bond laws were used and compared with ones proposed by the Model Code 2010. Finally an attempt was made to model the geometry of the rebar ribs in conjunction with a material damaged plasticity model for concrete

Internalization of Quality Management Standards: A Literature Review

This work examines the literature on the internalization of quality management standards via database searches (Web of Science, Emerald, ScienceDirect, and ABI/Inform-ProQuest). This review describes the characteristics of the relevant literature (theoretical or empirical, countries of study, and methods used), the internalization process (two constructs to measure internalization and items under each construct), drivers (reasons for seeking certification, quality culture, leadership, and training), and the effects of internalization (customer, people, and social results). Engineering managers can consider these aspects and associated drivers when they seek to improve the current processes and performance of their firms. On the basis of this review, this article identifies gaps in the literature and proposes future research areas.This work has been carried out as part of the research project ECO2012-36316 funded by the Science and Innovation Ministry (Plan Nacional de I+D+i)

A Taxonomy of Quality Standard Adoption: Its Relationship with Quality Management and Performance in Tourism Organizations In Spain

This work aims to identify quality standard adoption levels and their relationship with quality management practices and performance (customer, employee and social results, and organizational performance) in tourism organizations in Spain. This work uses 279 tourism organizations in the following subsectors: hotels, travel agencies, restaurants, and rural accommodations. The work applies cluster and regression analyses. Results show three levels of adoption and a lower degree of development of the continuous improvement dimension. Organizations with a significantly lower level of development of the quality standard have started to integrate the quality requirements in their daily practices to some extent and where continuous improvement practices are little developed. These organizations have significantly lower results than those organizations with higher adoption of quality. The results also indicate that a greater level of adoption of a quality standard leads to a higher development of QM practices. These results are interesting for managers, destination managers, and the wider tourism professional community. It contributes to supplementing previous studies about taxonomies of quality standard adoption in the particular case of tourism organizations in Spain and may serve as a starting point for further research on that topic.This study has been carried out as part of research project ECO2012-36316, funded by the Spanish government (National R&D&i Plan)

Echinoderms of Cabeço da Ladeira : a case of geological heritage

O presente trabalho pretende descrever o processo de intervenção no geossítio Equinodermes do Cabeço da Ladeira, concelho de Porto de Mós. Este local foi assim classificado por conter fósseis de equinodermes detentores de importância científica significativa, merecendo especial atenção e medidas de preservação. Expõem-se os passos tomados desde a sua identificação ate às ações mais recentes, que envolveram a inventariação dos exemplares fósseis. O futuro do local é também abordado, pretendendo-se que passe pela requalificação do local como espaço de visitação musealizado.This paper aims to describe the process of intervention in the geosite “Equinodermes do Cabeço da Ladeira”, municipality of Porto de Mós. Exceptionally preserved fossil echinoderms were found in this locality, bearing scientific importance and deserving special attention and conservation measures. Here are described the steps taken from identification of the site, until the most recent actions that ensure the preservation of that fossil locality. The future ideas for that area are also explained, aiming to transform what was once a quarry to an open-air museum.LNEG, ICN