A misleading answer generation system for exam questions

University professors are responsible for teaching and grading their students in each semester. Normally, in order to evaluate the students progress, professors create exams that are composed of questions regarding the subjects taught in the teaching period. Each year, professors need to develop new questions for their exams since students are free to discuss and register the correct answers to the various questions on prior exams. Professors want to be able to grade students based on their knowledge and not on their memorization skills. Each year, as discovered by our research, professors spend over roughtly 2:30 hours each year for a single course only on multiple answer questions sections. This solution will have at its core a misleading answer generator that would reduce the time and effort when creating a Fill Gap Type Questions through the merger of highly biased lexical model towards a specific subject with a generalist model. To help the most amount of professors with this task a web-server was implemented that served as an access to a exam creator interface with the misleading answer generator feature. To implement the misleading answer generator feature, several accessory programs had to be created as well as manually edditing textbooks pertaining to the question base topic. To evaluate the effectiveness of our implementation, several evaluation methods were proposed composed of objective measurements of the misleading answers generator, as well as subjective methods of evaluation by expert input. The development of the misleading answer suggestion function required us to build a lexical model composed from a highly biased corpus in a specific curricular subject. A highly biased model is probable to give good in-context misleading answers but their variance would most likely be limited. To counteract this the model was merged with a generalist model, in hopes of improving its overall performance. With the development of the custom lexical model and the server the professor can receive misleading answers suggestions to a newly formed question reducing the time spent on creating new exams questions each year to assess students’ knowledge

Magnetoliposomes as new approach for bone cancer therapies

Dissertação de mestrado em Physics EngineeringCancer, notably osteosarcoma, poses detection and treatment challenges, with its relentless progression and resistance to conventional therapies. Innovative approaches are imperative to overcome limitations like toxicity and adverse effects on healthy cells. Nanotechnology, particularly magnetoliposomes, offers promise in this pursuit. Osteosarcoma’s intricate nature demands precision and enhanced effectiveness in treatment strategies. Conventional therapies, such as radiotherapy, often fall short of delivering optimal results due to their limitations, such as the resistance of bone cancer to radiation requiring higher doses, prompting the exploration of alternative methods. Notably, liposomes have proven to be a successful vehicle for drug delivery, significantly improving the efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents like doxorubicin. The integration of superparamagnetic nanoparticles further enhances the potential of these systems by enabling localized drug delivery. This innovative approach not only addresses the challenges associated with conventional treatments but also marks a significant stride towards improving the preci sion and overall effectiveness of combating osteosarcoma. This project involves the processing of magnetoliposomes containing encapsulated doxorubicin, magnesium, and calcium ferrites (with a diameter of 8.75 ± 0.35nm, saturation magnetization of 4.39emu/g, and Eg = 1.35eV ), along with a com prehensive study of their respective physical characteristics. The results reveal magnetoliposomes with a diameter of 542.54 ± 71.78nm and a polydispersity index of 27.48 ± 3.84%. Notably, the systems exhibit nearly complete encapsulation of doxorubicin and a magnetic nanoparticle encapsulation efficiency of 49.00±5.17%. The investigation into drug release kinetics under static and dynamic conditions unveils significant variations in release rates. Particularly, when subjected to an alternating magnetic field with dif ferent frequencies and on-cycles (time the magnetic stimuli are applied), the drug release rates are nearly 30% higher under magnetic stimulation over 5h compared to static conditions. This emphasizes how external stimuli affect controlled substance release, showcasing their potential in targeted drug delivery.O cancro, incluindo o osteossarcoma, apresenta desafios na deteção precoce e tratamento eficaz. Abordagens inovadoras são necessárias devido à resistência às terapias convencionais. A nanomedicina, como os magnetolipossomas, surge como uma alternativa promissora, superando limitações dos tratamentos tradicionais. O tratamento do osteossarcoma requer precisão e eficácia aprimoradas, pois terapias convencionais, como a radioterapia, são pouco eficazes. Isso impulsiona a exploração de métodos alternativos, como os magnetolipossomas na nanotecnologia. Lipossomas têm se mostrado eficazes na entrega de fármacos, melhorando a eficácia de agentes quimioterapeuticos como a doxorrubicina. A integração de nanopartículas superparamagnéticas eleva ainda mais o potencial desses sistemas ao permitir a entrega localizada de fármacos. Esta abordagem inovadora não só enfrenta os desafios associados aos tratamentos convencionais, mas também representa um avanço significativo para melhorar a precisão e a eficácia global no combate ao osteossarcoma. Este projeto envolve a síntese de magnetolipossomas contendo doxorrubicina encapsulada e nanopartículas de ferrites de cálcio e magnésio (com um diâmetro de 8.75 ± 0.35nm, magnetização de saturação de 4.39emu/g, e Eg = 1.35eV ), juntamente com um estudo das suas características físicas. Os resultados revelam magnetoliposomas com um diâmetro de 542.54 ± 71.78nm e um índice de polidispersividade de 27.48 ± 3.84%. Notavelmente, os sis temas exibem uma encapsulação quase completa da doxorrubicina e uma eficiência de encapsulação de nanopartículas magnéticas de 49.00 ± 5.17%. A investigação das cinéticas de libertação de fármacos sob condições estáticas e dinâmicas revela variações significativas nas taxas de libertação. Em particular, quando sujeitos a um campo magnético alternado com diferentes frequências e ciclos-ON (tempo em que os estímulos magnéticos são aplicados), as taxas de libertação de fármacos no caso com estimulação magnética é ≈ 30% superior relativamente ao estático ao fim de 5h. Isso realça o impacto de estímulos externos na libertação controlada de substâncias encapsuladas, destacando as potenciais aplicações desses sistemas na entrega direcionada de medicamentos

On the performance of WebAssembly

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Informatics EngineeringThe worldwide Web has dramatically evolved in recent years. Web pages are dynamic, expressed by pro grams written in common programming languages given rise to sophisticated Web applications. Thus, Web browsers are almost operating systems, having to interpret/compile such programs and execute them. Although JavaScript is widely used to express dynamic Web pages, it has several shortcomings and performance inefficiencies. To overcome such limitations, major IT powerhouses are developing a new portable and size/load efficient language: WebAssembly. In this dissertation, we conduct the first systematic study on the energy and run-time performance of WebAssembly and JavaScript on the Web. We used micro-benchmarks and real applications to have more realistic results. The results show that WebAssembly, while still in its infancy, is starting to already outperform JavaScript, with much more room to grow. A statistical analysis indicates that WebAssembly produces significant performance differences compared to JavaScript. However, these differences differ between micro-benchmarks and real-world benchmarks. Our results also show that WebAssembly improved energy efficiency by 30%, on average, and show how different WebAssembly behaviour is among three popular Web Browsers: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox. Our findings indicate that WebAssembly is faster than JavaScript and even more energy-efficient. Our benchmarking framework is also available to allow further research and replication.A Web evoluiu dramaticamente em todo o mundo nos últimos anos. As páginas Web são dinâmicas, expressas por programas escritos em linguagens de programação comuns, dando origem a aplicativos Web sofisticados. Assim, os navegadores Web são quase como sistemas operacionais, tendo que interpre tar/compilar tais programas e executá-los. Embora o JavaScript seja amplamente usado para expressar páginas Web dinâmicas, ele tem várias deficiências e ineficiências de desempenho. Para superar tais limitações, as principais potências de TI estão a desenvolver uma nova linguagem portátil e eficiente em tamanho/carregamento: WebAssembly. Nesta dissertação, conduzimos o primeiro estudo sistemático sobre o desempenho da energia e do tempo de execução do WebAssembly e JavaScript na Web. Usamos micro-benchmarks e aplicações reais para obter resultados mais realistas. Os resultados mostram que WebAssembly, embora ainda esteja na sua infância, já está começa a superar o JavaScript, com muito mais espaço para crescer. Uma análise estatística indica que WebAssembly produz diferenças de desempenho significativas em relação ao JavaScript. No entanto, essas diferenças diferem entre micro-benchmarks e benchmarks de aplicações reais. Os nossos resultados também mostram que o WebAssembly melhorou a eficiência energética em 30%, em média, e mostram como o comportamento do WebAssembly é diferente entre três navegadores Web populares: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge e Mozilla Firefox. As nossas descobertas indicam que o WebAssembly é mais rápido que o JavaScript e ainda mais eficiente em termos de energia. A nossa benchmarking framework está disponível para permitir pesquisas adicionais e replicação

Intervention of anti-violence in school: implementation and results

Publicado em: Atención primaria, vol. 46 (Espec Cong 1). ISSN 0212-6567Introduction: Health Education in schools has had an important role in raising awareness of issues that go beyond the curriculum. School violence is a phenomenon with potentially dramatic consequences, especially in the victim, bully, family and the whole school community. In this sense, we developed a project in a Vertical Group of Schools of Portugal (VGSP) that energized the school about the bullying prevention. Objectives: To characterize bullying in a group of students attending the VGSP and evaluate a program of prevention / intervention, involving the whole school community. Methodology: We performed a diagnostic evaluation (1st time: n = 313) in a random, stratified sample of students through questionnaire “Diagnosis of Bullying at School” of the Directorate-General of Health. Subsequently, an intervention program called “We and the Others”. In the end, further evaluation was conducted (2nd time: n= 298). Results: The extent of bullying found is consistent with the results of the literature decreasing from 14.6% to 10.7% of students who reported having been victims in the past two months. With regard to bully provokers, the results showed differences in the intensity of the phenomenon, revealing a decrease of verbal aggressiveness behaviors between the two points in time (t(280) = 2.40, p = 0.017). Conclusions: It is important that this topic be part of the educational program of the AVENP. Bullying has changing characteristics and the School has the role of monitoring this phenomenon in a longitudinal logic to modify behaviors. This program has implications for pedagogical practices that promote the mental health of students

Clonagem: desafio bioético

O autor efectua uma abordagem bioética acerca da clonagem humanaThe author make an bioethics approach about the human clonin

Advance directives in Portugal: a qualitative survey

(1) Background: Advance directives (ADs) in Portugal have been legalized since 2012. What has been observed over time, from the few studies carried out, is that despite the positive attitudes in the population, there is a low level of adherence to ADs. To try to understand the reasons for these data, the current study aimed to explore and describe the experiences of the Portuguese population regarding AD. (2) Methods: For this exploratory and descriptive qualitative study, the researchers conducted open (unstructured) interviews with a convenience sample aged over 18 years until data saturation was achieved. (3) Results: A total of fifteen interviews were conducted—eight with women and seven with men. The following four categories emerged from the content analysis of the interviews: (1) AD literacy, (2) AD relevance, (3) AD attitudes, and (4) conditionalities for compiling the ADs. (4) Conclusions: The study pointed out the good receptivity of the participants to the ADs; however, literacy on this subject was low, and identifying the conditionalities in the development of ADs could contribute to improvements in implementation in the population. The data from this study suggest the need to implement measures to increase the literacy of the Portuguese population on ADs and review the legal framework for improving the accessibility of the citizen population. There is also a need to continue researching and obtain more evidence about the ways in which the Portuguese population perceives ADs; thus, in this way, a society can better respond to its citizens’ right to freely exercise their prospective autonomy at the end of their lives.(undefined

Rethinking death education as part of public health policy

Death and dying are still taboo subjects in today's society. In most western countries, people die mostly in hospitals, surrounded by health professionals and high technology, but with no real humanisation of care. This transfer of death from the home to hospitals, which began in the 1960s of the last century, has brought social and cultural consequences for the way we deal with the end of life. We will have to save the work of some experts, like Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926-2004), to consider the need for death education. Based on the work of this paradigmatic author and other studies over time, we present a set of proposals for implementing death education as part of public health policy