Exploring the real costs of healthcare-associated infections: an international review

Healthcare-associated infections acquired a high degree of dissemination, being considered a serious public health problem and assumed as one of the most common adverse events associated with healthcare. They have a significant impact on health systems by increasing hospital expenses, and compromising the healthcare quality and effectiveness. Surgical site infections (SSI) are considered one of the most serious complications that can occur after an orthopaedic surgery. The aim of this study is to contribute to the development of a framework to analyse the costs of infections related to hip and knee arthroplasties. A literature review was conducted on databases, and articles published between January 2005 and April 2016 were searched. A total of 14 articles met the inclusion criteria. Costs were grouped in hospitalization and treatment dimensions. For hospitalization, the indicators were the length of stay (LOS) and/or monetary costs; For treatment, the indicators were number of surgeries and LOS, or monetary costs. We observed that LOS is the most commonly used to estimate SSI direct costs. Patients who developed hip or knee arthroplasty infections remained in hospital 2.5–3 times longer and incurred hospital costs almost three times higher, when compared with an uninfected patient.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Solar radiation prediction using wavelet decomposition

Nowadays, a substantial part of the agricultural production takes place in greenhouses, which enable to tune the crop growing by modifying, artificially, the environmental conditions and the plant’s nutrition. The main goal is to optimise the balance between the production economic return and the operation costs of the climate actuators. Severe environment and market restrictions jointly with an increasing tendency of the fuel price motivate the development of more “intelligent” energy regulators. In order to formulate the best options for a production plan, this type of artificial supervisors must be able to formulate close predictions on a large set of variables. Considering, for instance, the air temperature control inside a greenhouse, the system must be able to close predict the evolution of the solar radiation since this is the exogenous variable which most influences the thermal load during the day. In this paper, an artificial neural network, in conjunction with a wavelet decomposition strategy, is used for forecasting, an hour ahead, the instantaneous solar radiation energy density sampled at one minute interval. The results obtained from this work encourage further exploitation of this kind of signal processing techniqu

Autoselecció de la velocitat de marxa dels adults amb sobrepès. és suficient la intensitat escollida per potenciar els beneficis de la salut?

Caminar és la modalitat d’activitat física sovint més indicada per augmentar el nivell d’activitat física de la població amb l’objectiu de millorar-ne l’estat de salut. No obstant això, es desconeix com seleccionen la intensitat de la pròpia velocitat de marxa els adults amb sobrepès. L’objectiu d’aquest estudi fou avaluar l’autoselecció de la velocitat de marxa dels adults amb sobrepès

Implementação de uma nova linha de produção de painéis para autorrádios

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia e Gestão IndustrialO presente trabalho foi desenvolvido tendo como base a instalação de uma linha de produção de painéis para autorrádios Skoda25 na empresa Delphi Automotive Systems Portugal, em Braga. Tendo instalado uma unidade de injeção de plásticos num dos edifícios da unidade produtiva de Braga, tem vindo produzir novos painéis. A linha de montagem de um novo painel de autorrádio Skoda25 requereu a análise das diversas operações de injeção, pintura e montagem final das blendas e análise da capacidade de produção de dois dos principais produtos desta unidade. Foi realizada uma revisão bibliográfica sobre pensamento Lean, nomeadamente sobre os respetivos pilares, princípios, desperdícios, Just-in-Time e um conjunto de técnicas Lean que viriam a ser aplicadas no sistema de montagem das blendas. Foram utilizadas as técnicas Lean, de sistemas à prova de erro, trabalho normalizado, gestão visual e Kaizen. A técnica Kaizen foi aplicada num evento específico na empresa e resultou na determinação do stock mínimo e máximo de blendas e de botões, assim como as áreas de arrumação. Foi analisado em pormenor os elementos constituintes de máquinas e requisitos de processo dando-se particular atenção aos fornecimentos de materiais. As dificuldades no posto de cravação mereceram também especial atenção dado constituírem processos distintos nos processos Vw Low e SK25.This work was developed in the installation of a production line for manufacturing of Skoda25 car-radio panels at Delphi Automotive Systems Portugal in Braga. Having installed a plastic injection facility in one of the buildings of the Delphi company in Braga, it has been increasingly gaining the production of new products. The production line of a new car-radio panel required the analysis of several operations of injection, paint and assembly of the panels and production capacity analysis of production of two of the main products. A literature review was conducted on Lean thinking, namely on Lean pillars, principles, wastes, Just-in-Time and a set of Lean tools which were applied to the assembly system. Poka-Yoke, standard work, visual management and Kaizen techniques were applied. Kaizen technique was applied during a specific event held on the company which has resulted in determination of minimum and maximum stock levels of panels and buttons, as well as storage areas. Detailed analysis was conducted to some elements of machines and process requirements, and given some particular attention to materials supply. The difficulties within the heat stake process was subject of special attention given that they were distinct for each product

Self selected walking speed in overweight adults: Is this intensity enough to promote health benefits?

Walking is the most often indicated physical activity modality to increase population physical activity levels aiming to improve health-related conditions. However, we do not know how overweight adults self-selected the intensity of their walking speed. The objective was to evaluate the self-selected walking speed in overweight adults

Is there a Brazilian solution for every African problem? Brazilian Health Cooperation in Angola (2006-2015)

The international system in general, and the international cooperation for development specifically, have been through important changes in the last decades. The emergence of South-South Cooperation (SSC) has become a trending topic among academics, practitioners and policy-makers. The assumption that the common problems and shared experiences of countries in the global South would make SSC more legitimate and perhaps more effective is frequently mentioned, as a former Brazilian minister of foreign affairs once said, “for every African problem there is a Brazilian solution”. This paper challenges this assertion synthesizing key findings, contextual information and analysis required for understanding Brazil’s engagement in Angola, within the sector of public health, from 2006 to 2015

Local versus foreigners´emotion-motivational responses towards traditional and non-traditional food

Rita, P., Arriaga, P., Guerreiro, J., & Moura, A. (2022). Local versus foreigners´emotion-motivational responses towards traditional and non-traditional food. Spanish Journal of Marketing - ESIC. https://doi.org/10.1108/SJME-11-2021-0213----- Paulo Rita (P.R.) and Patrícia Arriaga (P.A.) were supported by national funds through the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia; P.R. through Centro de Investigação em Gestão de Informação (MagIC/NOVA IMS) (UIDB/04152/2020); and P.A. through Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Social (Cis-Iscte) (UID/PSI/03125/2020).Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to study responses to traditional food of a country, focusing on emotion-motivational responses by locals and foreigners. Design/methodology/approach Through an experimental design study, Portuguese and Foreign participants were exposed to both traditional and nontraditional food pictures of a country and asked to evaluate their emotional and motivational responses while physiological responses of electrodermal activity were being continuously recorded. Predisposition factors of body dissatisfaction, food neophobia and food involvement were also evaluated given their potential role in predicting the responses to the visualization of the food pictures. Findings: This study found that local traditional food received a higher positive evaluation than nontraditional food with locals evaluating it even higher than foreigners. Higher feelings of arousal and desire as well as willingness to try in response to traditional food were also found as well as higher feelings of pleasure by locals. However, interestingly, and contrary to expectations derived from previous literature, emotion-motivational responses were not significantly different between locals and foreigners. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research addressed an identified research gap in the literature, being the first one evaluating the autonomic responses of consumers to traditional food by exploring how local and foreign consumers respond to traditional food versus nontraditional food using psychophysiological measures of emotion.publishersversionepub_ahead_of_prin

Fundos de investimento imobiliário : das relações entre os participantes e a sociedade gestora

O presente estudo versará sobre a figura dos fundos de investimento imobiliário, considerados como instrumentos financeiros e como uma alternativa de investimento à disposição dos investidores, através da subscrição de unidades de participação, visando uma repartição do risco e uma maior liquidez, pressupondo uma série de direitos e deveres, entre os quais a não ingerência na normal atividade de gestão do fundo de investimento. Para o efeito, a sua administração e representação, é realizada por uma sociedade gestora de fundos de investimento imobiliário, através de uma atuação independente e diligência profissional, em que a principal função da sociedade gestora é atuar no exclusivo interesse dos participantes do fundo de investimento imobiliário, tendo em vista um incremento patrimonial na esfera do participante individualmente considerado, procurando cumprir todas as disposições legais e regulamentares, sob pena de incorrer em responsabilidade, atuando a CMVM, como órgão supervisor dos fundos de investimento imobiliário. Todavia, existem outros intervenientes, tais como, o depositário financeiro ou as entidades comercializadoras. Assim, a sociedade gestora face aos participantes, deverá adotar um comportamento tendo em vista a proteção dos legítimos interesses dos clientes, segundo ditames de boa-fé, da própria eficiência do mercado e de acordo com elevados padrões de diligência, lealdade e transparência. Para a constituição e regular funcionamento de um fundo de investimento imobiliário, serão necessários entre outros, os documentos constitutivos, nomeadamente, o regulamento de gestão, documento com informações fundamentais destinada aos investidores ou o prospeto. Por fim, em virtude da forte assimetria informativa entre a sociedade gestora do fundo de investimento imobiliário e os participantes, o legislador criou uma panóplia de direitos e deveres para cada um dos intervenientes no mercado de capitais, no sentido de proteger os participantes e dotar o sistema jurídico de uma eficaz operacionalidade e transparência.The present study will deal with real estate investment funds, considered as financial instruments and as an investment alternative available to investors, through the subscription of units, aiming at a risk sharing and greater liquidity, assuming a series of rights and duties, including non-interference in the normal management of the investment fund. For this purpose, it’s management and representation is carried out by a real estate investment fund management company, through independent action and professional diligence, in which the main function of the management company is to act in the exclusive interest of the participants of the investment fund in order to comply with all legal and regulatory provisions, under penalty of incurring liability, acting the CMVM, as supervisory body of real estate investment funds. However, there are other players, such as the financial depositary or the marketing entities. Thus, the management company vis-à-vis the participants must adopt a behavior aimed at protecting the legitimate interests of the clients, according to good faith beliefs, of the market's own efficiency and according to high standards of diligence, loyalty and transparency. For the constitution and regular operation of a real estate investment fund, the constitutive documents, namely the management regulation, a document with key investor information or the prospect, will be necessary, among others. Finally, due to the strong information asymmetry between the management company of the real estate investment fund and the participants, the legislator created a panoply of rights and duties for each of the capital market participants, in order to protect the participants and provide the legal system of effective operationality and transparency

Insights into the study of saxophonists' body language: capturing and analyzing expressive performative movement

Body movement constitutes an essential part of music performance. Although physical consciousness in instrumental learning is highly approached from technical and injury-preventive perspectives, research conducted over the past two decades has evidenced musician’s ability to connect and express themselves through their moving bodies. Gestural elements may facilitate structural and expressive intentions (e.g., singers bend forward to execute loud passages), establish communication with the audience and co-performers (e.g., flutists and clarinettists nod rhythmically for coordination purposes) and illustrate musical characters and atmospheres (large, exposed gestures in opposition to contained, introverted ones) (Bishop & Goebl, 2018; Davidson, 2001, 2012). The fact that biomechanical features of musical instruments restrict performer’s ability to move freely leads to the development of specific motion cues per instrument type, which brings us to the main questions of this research. How do saxophonists move while performing? What gestures are the core of the sax player’s body language, and what inherent intentions do they carry? Are we able to augment meaningful performances by matching our body talk with the impeccable musical result we practice for countless hours? In this paper we present the early stage of an on-going PhD research, involving multimodal data collection and processing of saxophone performances. A hybrid presentation is intended, coarticulating theoretical discussion with video extracts of motion capture sessions demonstrating several procedures of data gathering in the studio. Eleven saxophone players were invited to play five excerpts of standard saxophone repertoire (including works by Creston, Debussy, Ibert and Glazounov) in two different modes: immobile and projected expressiveness. Each individual session combined audio and video recording with motion capture from an optical-passive system comprising ten infrared cameras, which allows for precise movement tracking and mapping into computational 3D models. These models translate into uncharacterized animations evidencing performer’s movements only (no visual appearance attached), from which parameters such as trajectory or amplitude may be analysed. An integrated analysis of synchronized motion and audio data will be posteriorly conducted to compare interpretations of each excerpt in the two performative modalities and understand how bodily movements relate to musical parameters. We expect this research to build new insights concerning the development of an expressive gesture vocabulary for saxophone performance and pedagogy.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio