Práticas Organizacionais e Estrutura de Relações no Campo do Desenvolvimento Metropolitano

The aim of this study is to examine the relationships between the organizations responsible for urban planning in the towns of the Metropolitan Region of Curitiba, Brazil, and how these relationships influence urban development practices. In the article we establish a definition of organizational practices in accordance with social practices and, empirically, we enquire how the urbanism model of the capital city of Paraná State impacts on the towns in the region. The theoretical frame of reference is characterized by the institutional theory in its structurationist approach. When describing the research strategy, we outline the relationships between the organizations of the towns of the Metropolitan Region of Curitiba through a social network analysis. Meanwhile, the urban development practices were identified based on secondary data and statements by 62 public managers. The results show a low density in direct relationships between town halls, with the network becoming more dense when State Government departments are involved. Despite the low level of direct influence of Curitiba’s urbanism on the other towns of the metropolitan region, characteristics of domination, signification and legitimization reveal some isomorphic practices and the presence of Brazilian cultural factors influencing the way public organizations act

Purchase management improvement in a TV company from the industry district of Manaus (PIM)

All rights reserverd. Continuous improvement in quality of products and processes offered by an organization can support companies keep it long in this competitive and dynamic business environment. Therefore, the interaction between the university, government, and Industry (the triple helix) is the opportunity for a Technology Company as TV’s industry to have innovation and new studies developed frequently. This research, studies the improvements of material purchases process to increase knowledge in the TV Purchasing Department inside an Industry from the Industrial District of Manaus, Brazil (PIM) which deals with high technology on their products and must have agility to be the first option to the customers. During the research a checklist was applied to employees from purchasing department and was observed that there was a frequent participation from quality sector in the resolution of the procurement process and that has proven to be positive in the management process. These are facilitators on a daily developers, customers and suppliers.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – The Foundation for Science and Technology within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Information organization and production planning improvement in a clothes company in Portugal

In this paper we followed a qualitative research methodology through a case study, incorporating interviews with institutional actors involved (university, industry and government) in the cooperation project. Although this study is limited to a case study, however, highlight the importance of Triple Helix networks in order to develop the research presents a proposal for improvement for the first methodology of medium-sized textile company to address the modelling conceptual planning, production and control. In order to develop the research, development and innovation with the use of study methods which are: Planning and Production Control (PPC), master Production Planning (MPS), Materials Requirement Planning (MRP) Material, Capacity Planning using Global Factors (CPOF), and Capacity Requirement Planning (CRP). Through the practical perspective of a case study of Triple Helix successful cooperation, we were able to develop the cases considered to be studied on the organization and the production of information for structuring an improvement of data necessary to implement the methods of planning and selected information within the company.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – The Foundation for Science and Technology within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Thrombophilia screening: An artificial neural network approach

Thrombotic disorders have severe consequences for the patients and for the society in general, being one of the main causes of death. These facts reveal that it is extremely important to be preventive; being aware of how probable is to have that kind of syndrome. Indeed, this work will focus on the development of a decision support system that will cater for an individual risk evaluation with respect to the surge of thrombotic complaints. The Knowledge Representation and Reasoning procedures used will be based on an extension to the Logic Programming language, allowing the handling of incomplete and/or default data. The computational framework in place will be centered on Artificial Neural Networks.This work is funded by National Funds through the FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within projects PEst-OE/EEI/UI0752/2014 and PEst-OE/QUI/UI0619/2012

Preface

[Excerpt] The Transportation Geotechnics International Conference series began under the auspices of ISSMGE Technical Committee TC3 on Geotechnics of Pavements, chaired by Prof. A. Gomes Correia (20052009) and was initiated in 2008 at the University of Nottingham [1], UK, as an international event designed to address the growing requirements of infrastructure for societies. The 2nd International Conference on Transportation Geotechnics [2] took place in 2012, in Sapporo, Japan, under the ISSMGE Technical Committee, renamed TC202 on Transportation Geotechnics (2009-2013). Following the previous conferences, the 3rd International Conference on Transportation Geotechnics (3rd ICTG 2016) washeld in Guimarães, Portugal, in September 2016. The conference was co-organised by the University of Minho and the Portuguese Geotechnical Society under the auspices of the ISSMGE Technical Committee TC202 on Transportation Geotechnics chaired by Prof. Erol Tutumluer (2013-2017). The conference ran with the support of TRB, IGS, ICT, RUTGERS, G-I and “Ordem dos Engenheiros”. [...](undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evolución de las actitudes de alumnos ante el aprendizaje del inglés mediante el uso de la pizarra digital interactiva

We begin to be aware of the huge change our education has experimented recently as a consequence of the use of some technological resources so common nowadays. This situation has created new teaching-learning processes and roles, causing new pupils’ attitudes toward those subjects that are taught. The present work focuses on the attitudinal changes that several pupils from a school of Badajoz experiment when the Interactive Digital Whiteboard is taken into the English classroom and used as part of an experimental process, developed in three sessions, with different activities such as vocabulary games or recipes. An attitude scale based on the Osgood’s Semantic Differential has been developed in order to adapt it to our sample (8 years old). The results we get from the pretest-postest show an improvement of those pupils’ attitudes toward English, so we can somehow relate the use of this technological tool and a higher interest for the subject studied.Desde hace unos años la educación está experimentando grandes cambios, en gran parte debido a la incorporación de recursos o herramientas tecnológicas presentes en nuestro mundo actual. Esto, sin duda, ha generado cambios en los procesos de enseñanzaaprendizaje, promoviendo, como consecuencia, nuevas actitudes de los alumnos ante las materias. Este trabajo aborda los cambios actitudinales de un grupo de alumnos de un centro educativo de la provincia de Badajoz al introducir la Pizarra Digital Interactiva en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de la lengua inglesa durante un periodo de tres sesiones, en las que se han desarrollado diferentes actividades. Para la evaluación de estos cambios se ha utilizado una escala de actitudes según el modelo de Diferencial Semántico de Osgood, Succi y Tannenbaum (1957), adaptada a la edad de los alumnos de la muestra, ocho años. Los datos obtenidos, mediante un contraste pretest-postest, muestran una mejoría de las actitudes de dichos alumnos hacia dicha materia, por lo que podemos vincular el uso de este recurso tecnológico con un mayor interés por ella

Creating new functional biomaterials: construction and production of Bone Morphogenetic 2-ELP hybrid proteins

Bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2) is a potent osteoinductive cytokine from the TGF-β superfamily that triggers the development of stem cells into osteoblasts. Its therapeutic interest has led to the development of various production systems for recombinant variables of BMP-2. Production has been achieved in expression systems ranging from animal cells to bacteria, but is always associated with three major drawbacks: low production rates (in animal cells), low activity (bacterial cells) and low solubility due to aggregation in inclusion bodies (bacterial cells) [1]. In this study we have developed a strategy to overcome the low production levels as well as the insolubility of BMP-2 in E. coli by fusing it with an elastin like polymer (ELP). This recombinant ELP, based on repetitions of the main monomer VPAVG, displays no measurable cytotoxicity [2] and exhibits thermoresponsive properties as well as hysteresis behaviour [3]. By exploring this thermal responsiveness we are able to purify the fusion protein using a simple and low cost method and thus avoid expensive chromatographic techniques. The mature human-BMP2 domain was cloned in frame to the N-terminus of the (VPAVG)n (n = 60 or 220) polymers. The production of the genetic constructs was achieved in E. coli BL21 (DE3) with Lysogeny Broth (LB) supplemented with lactose for auto-induction. Purification of the hybrid BMP2:(VPAVG)n polymers was accomplished by exploring the thermal responsiveness of the ELP tail. Physical and chemical characterization as well as bioactivity studies of both constructs are currently in progress. 1. Bessa P. C., Casal M., Reis R. L. (2008) “Bone morphogenetic proteins in tissue engineering: the road from laboratory to the clinic, part I (Basic concepts)”, Journal of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine 2, 1-13; 2. Bessa, P., Machado, R., Nürnberger , S., Dopler, D., Banerjee, A., Cunha, A. M., Rodríguez-Cabello, C., Redl, H., van Griensven, M., Reis, R.L., Casal, M. 2010. Thermoresponsive self-assembled elastin-based nanoparticles for delivery of BMPs. Journal of Controlled Release 142: 312–318. 3. Machado R., Ribeiro A., Padrão J., Silva D., Nobre A., Teixeira J., Arias F., Cunha A., Rodroguez-Cabello J., Casal M. (2009) “Exploiting the natural ocurring elastin: construction, production and characterization of a recombinant thermoplastic protein-based polymer”, Journal of Nano Research, 6, 133-145

Endothelial dysfunction: a comprehensive appraisal

The endothelium is a thin monocelular layer that covers all the inner surface of the blood vessels, separating the circulating blood from the tissues. It is not an inactive organ, quite the opposite. It works as a receptor-efector organ and responds to each physical or chemical stimulus with the release of the correct substance with which it may maintain vasomotor balance and vascular-tissue homeostasis. It has the property of producing, independently, both agonistic and antagonistic substances that help to keep homeostasis and its function is not only autocrine, but also paracrine and endocrine. In this way it modulates the vascular smooth muscle cells producing relaxation or contraction, and therefore vasodilatation or vasoconstriction. The endothelium regulating homeostasis by controlling the production of prothrombotic and antithrombotic components, and fibrynolitics and antifibrynolitics. Also intervenes in cell proliferation and migration, in leukocyte adhesion and activation and in immunological and inflammatory processes. Cardiovascular risk factors cause oxidative stress that alters the endothelial cells capacity and leads to the so called endothelial "dysfunction" reducing its capacity to maintain homeostasis and leads to the development of pathological inflammatory processes and vascular disease. There are different techniques to evaluate the endothelium functional capacity, that depend on the amount of NO produced and the vasodilatation effect. The percentage of vasodilatation with respect to the basal value represents the endothelial functional capacity. Taking into account that shear stress is one of the most important stimulants for the synthesis and release of NO, the non-invasive technique most often used is the transient flow-modulate "endothelium-dependent" post-ischemic vasodilatation, performed on conductance arteries such as the brachial, radial or femoral arteries. This vasodilatation is compared with the vasodilatation produced by drugs that are NO donors, such as nitroglycerine, called "endothelium independent". The vasodilatation is quantified by measuring the arterial diameter with high resolution ultrasonography. Laser-Doppler techniques are now starting to be used that also consider tissue perfusion. There is so much proof about endothelial dysfunction that it is reasonable to believe that there is diagnostic and prognostic value in its evaluation for the late outcome. There is no doubt that endothelial dysfunction contributes to the initiation and progression of atherosclerotic disease and could be considered an independent vascular risk factor. Although prolonged randomized clinical trials are needed for unequivocal evidence, the data already obtained allows the methods of evaluation of endothelial dysfunction to be considered useful in clinical practice and have overcome the experimental step, being non-invasive increases its value making it use full for follow-up of the progression of the disease and the effects of different treatments

A novel multilevel solid-state transformer for hybrid power grids

This paper presents a new proposed topology of a solid-state transformer (SST) for application in hybrid power grids (ac and dc), in which the possibility of operating with various voltage levels (multilevel) in both sides is the main characteristic. At the interface with the power grid (primary side), the proposed SST consists of an ac-dc converter in Y configuration that guarantees operation with five levels in each phase-to-neutral voltage. To establish the hybrid power grid on the secondary side, the SST is composed of a dc-ac converter in Y configuration to establish an ac-grid, also operating with five levels in each phase-to-neutral voltage, and by a dc-dc converter to establish a dc-grid, which operates with three voltage levels. The interface between the converters of the primary side and the secondary side is guaranteed by an intermediary isolated dc-dc converter. As fundamental requirements, the proposed SST operates with balanced and sinusoidal currents on the primary side, and with balanced and sinusoidal voltages on the secondary side (ac-grid), as well as controlled voltages and currents on the dc-grid. Throughout the paper, the proposed topology for the SST is described in detail, with the operating principle of each converter being presented. The obtained results, both on steady-state and transient-state, for several main operating conditions, prove the correct functioning of the proposed SST, highlighting important features that contextualize the operation of the proposed SST in smart grids.This work has been supported by FCT -Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020. This work has been supported by the FCT Project newERA4GRIDs PTDC/EEI-EEE/30283/2017, and by the FCT Project DAIPESEV PTDC/EEI-EEE/30382/2017. Tiago Sousa is supported by the doctoral scholarship SFRH/BD/134353/2017 granted by FCT

A framework for representing, building and reusing novel atate-of-the-art three-dimensional object detection models in point clouds targeting self-driving applications

The rapid development of deep learning has brought novel methodologies for 3D object detection using LiDAR sensing technology. These improvements in precision and inference speed performances lead to notable high performance and real-time inference, which is especially important for self-driving purposes. However, the developments carried by these approaches overwhelm the research process in this area since new methods, technologies and software versions lead to different project necessities, specifications and requirements. Moreover, the improvements brought by the new methods may be due to improvements in newer versions of deep learning frameworks and not just the novelty and innovation of the model architecture. Thus, it has become crucial to create a framework with the same software versions, specifications and requirements that accommodate all these methodologies and allow for the easy introduction of new methods and models. A framework is proposed that abstracts the implementation, reusing and building of novel methods and models. The main idea is to facilitate the representation of state-of-the-art (SoA) approaches and simultaneously encourage the implementation of new approaches by reusing, improving and innovating modules in the proposed framework, which has the same software specifications to allow for a fair comparison. This makes it possible to determine if the key innovation approach outperforms the current SoA by comparing models in a framework with the same software specifications and requirements.This work has been supported by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020 and the project “Integrated and Innovative Solutions for the well-being of people in complex urban centers” within the Project Scope NORTE-01-0145-FEDER 000086. The work of Pedro Oliveira was supported by the doctoral Grant PRT/BD/154311/2022 financed by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), and with funds from European Union, under MIT Portugal Program. The work of Paulo Novais and Dalila Durães is supported by National Funds through the Portuguese funding agency, FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia within project 2022.06822.PTDC