Acessibilidade na Web 2.0: criação de uma interface de apoio à leitura de tag clouds por utilizadores com deficiência visual

Mestrado em Comunicação MultimédiaActualmente, assiste-se a uma crescente utilização da folksonomia e da presença de tag clouds na Web, no entanto esta tendência não compreende princípios de design universal. Por esse motivo, os utilizadores invisuais não conseguem aceder de forma eficiente a este tipo de informação. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho tem como principal objectivo a concepção, implementação, teste e avaliação da Clouds4All, uma extensão para o browser Internet Explorer que adiciona uma interface de leitura de tag clouds. Esta extensão resulta de uma investigação na área da acessibilidade Web que pretende responder a questões relacionadas com o aparecimento da Web 2.0. Deste modo, pretende-se compreender as necessidades dos utilizadores invisuais e os novos modelos de informação e de acessibilidade relacionados com a Web 2.0, nomeadamente no que diz respeito ao impacto da presença de tag clouds na interface do utilizador. ABSTRACT: The presence of folksonomy and related tag clouds in web is currently increasing but not following a standard global design approach. For this reason, visual impaired users can not efficiently access to this type of information. In this context,the aim of the current report is the conception, implementation, test and evaluation of Clouds4All, an Internet Explorer browser extension that adds a tag clouds reader interface. This extension is result of a research on Web accessibility that aims to answer to some issues related to Web 2.0 sprouting. Therefore, the study relies on understanding visual impaired users’ needs and new accessibility and information models inherent to Web 2.0, namely in what concerns the impact of the presence of tag clouds on user interface

Promoção da acessibilidade em televisão interativa (iTV) : proposta de um serviço adaptado a utilizadores com défice visual

Doutoramento em Informação e Comunicação em Plataformas DigitaisAs infraestruturas de televisão interativa atualmente existentes possibilitam a integração de uma grande variedade de recursos e serviços, possibilitando aos utilizadores novas experiências de interação e participação. Para a maioria dos telespetadores, o uso de serviços interativos não acarreta grandes dificuldades; no entanto, para públicos com necessidades especiais, por exemplo para pessoas com défice visual, essa tarefa torna-se complexa, dificultando, ou mesmo impedindo, que estes utilizadores possam beneficiar deste tipo de serviços. Portugal não é uma exceção neste contexto, existindo um número significativo de utilizadores com défice visual (UDV) que não beneficiam totalmente das potencialidades do paradigma televisivo atual. Neste âmbito, o projeto de investigação que suporta esta tese explora a problemática do Design Universal aplicado à Televisão Interativa (iTV) e tem como objetivos a conceptualização, prototipagem e validação de um serviço de iTV adaptado especificamente a UDV, visando promover a sua inclusão digital. Para cumprir estes objetivos, a investigação dividiu-se em três etapas distintas. Na primeira etapa, a partir da Teoria Fundamentada nos Dados, foram identificadas as dificuldades e necessidades dos UDV enquanto consumidores de conteúdos televisivos e serviços de audiodescrição; foi selecionada a plataforma tecnológica mais adequada para o suporte do serviço prototipado; e foi definido um conjunto de princípios orientadores de design (POD’s) de interfaces de televisão interativa específico para este público-alvo. Inicialmente foram efetuadas duas entrevistas a 20 participantes com défice visual, para determinar as suas dificuldades e necessidades enquanto consumidores de conteúdos televisivos e serviços de audiodescrição. De seguida, foi realizada uma entrevista a um perito responsável pelo processo de transição para a TDT em Portugal (inicialmente considerou-se que a TDT seria uma plataforma promissora e poderia suportar o protótipo) e efetuada a revisão da literatura sobre POD’s para o desenvolvimento de interfaces para serviços iTV dirigidos a pessoas com défice visual. A partir dos resultados obtidos nesta etapa foi possível definir os requisitos funcionais e técnicos do sistema, bem como os seus PODs, tanto ao nível da componente gráfica, como de interação. Na segunda etapa foi concetualizado e desenvolvido o protótipo iTV adaptado a UDV ‘meo ad+’, com recurso à plataforma tecnológica IPTV da Portugal Telecom, seguindo os requisitos e os princípios de design definidos. Relativamente à terceira etapa, esta contemplou a avaliação do serviço prototipado, por parte de um grupo de participantes com défice visual. Esta fase do trabalho foi conduzida através do método de Estudo Avaliativo, possibilitando, através de testes de usabilidade e acessibilidade, complementados com entrevistas, compreender se o serviço prototipado ia efetivamente ao encontro das necessidades deste tipo de utilizadores, tendo-se observado que os participantes que estiveram envolvidos nos testes ao protótipo mostraram-se satisfeitos com as funcionalidades oferecidas pelo sistema, bem como com o design da sua interface.The currently existing interactive television infrastructures enable the integration of a wide variety of resources and services, enabling users with new interaction and participation experiences. For the majority of viewers, the use of interactive services does not imply significant difficulties, however, for audiences with special needs, for example for people with visual impairment, this task becomes complex, hindering, or even preventing these users to benefit from such services. Portugal is not an exception in this context, since there are a significant number of visually impaired users (VIU) who do not entirely benefit from the capabilities of the current television paradigm. In this framework, the research project that supports this thesis explores the Universal Design problem applied to Interactive Television (iTV) and its main aims are the conceptualization, prototyping and validation of an iTV service adapted specifically for VIU, promoting their digital inclusion. To accomplish these goals, the research was divided into three different stages. In the first stage, from the Grounded Theory, the difficulties and needs of the VIU as consumers of television contents and audio description services was identified; the most appropriate technological platform to support the prototyped service was selected; and a specific set of design principles and guidelines (DPG’s) of interactive television interfaces for this target audience were defined. Initially two interviews were conducted with 20 visually impaired participants, to determine their difficulties and needs as consumers of television contents and audio description services. Thereafter, an interview with an expert responsible for the DTT transition process in Portugal was carried out (initially it was considered that the DTT would be a promising platform and could support the prototype) and a literature review of DPG’s for the development of iTV interfaces for services focused on persons with visual impairment was performed. Based on the results obtained in this stage it was possible to define the functional and technical requirements of the system, as well as its DPG’s, relating to the graphical and interaction components. In the second stage the iTV prototype adapted to VIU ‘Meo ad+’ was conceptualized and developed, using the ‘Portugal Telecom’ IPTV technology platform, following the defined requirements and design principles. Regarding the third stage, it included the prototyped service evaluation by a group of visually impaired participants. This stage was conducted through the Evaluative Study method, enabling, via usability and accessibility tests, complemented by interviews, to understand whether the prototyped service effectively met the needs of this type of users, of the evaluation, having being observed that the participants who were involved in the prototype tests showed satisfaction with the features offered by the system as well as with the design of its interface

An iTV audio description service: suggesting requirements and features for visually impaired users

The ongoing Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) switchover leads to an interesting opportunity for the implementation of advanced television services. Actually, these services can even be interactive, since it is foreseen that the required Set-Top Boxes (STB) could be equipped with an Internet connection. However, among the future clients of DTT there are a large number of elderly and visually impaired people who can not entirely benefit of these services due to their physical limitations. Nevertheless, considering that Interactive Television (iTV) services can contribute to improve life quality of this type of users, it is essential to apply accessibility, usability and design-oriented guidelines for their development. In this context, this paper introduces a research related to universal design applied to iTV, being its aim to propose an advanced and accessible audio description service. In order to perceive the visually impaired users’ problems and needs, a group of individuals was asked to participate in an interview

Genomic analysis of two novel bacteriophages infecting Acinetobacter beijerinckii and halotolerans species

Bacteriophages are the most diverse genetic entities on Earth. In this study, two novel bacteriophages, nACB1 (Podoviridae morphotype) and nACB2 (Myoviridae morphotype), which infect Acinetobacter beijerinckii and Acinetobacter halotolerans, respectively, were isolated from sewage samples. The genome sequences of nACB1 and nACB2 revealed that their genome sizes were 80,310 bp and 136,560 bp, respectively. Comparative analysis showed that both genomes are novel members of the Schitoviridae and the Ackermannviridae families, sharing ≤ 40% overall nucleotide identities with any other phages. Interestingly, among other genetic features, nACB1 encoded a very large RNA polymerase, while nACB2 displayed three putative depolymerases (two capsular depolymerases and one capsular esterase) encoded in tandem. This is the first report of phages infecting A. halotolerans and beijerinckii human pathogenic species. The findings regarding these two phages will allow us to further explore phage—Acinetobacter interactions and the genetic evolution for this group of phages.This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UIDB/04469/2020 unit, and by LABBELS—Associate Laboratory in Biotechnology, Bioengineering and Microelectromechnical Systems, LA/P/0029/2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pre-neoplastic lesions associated with liver and colon responses to 1,2-dimethylhydrazine in an animal model of colorectal cancer

Background: The high incidence and mortality of colorectal cancer (CRC) combined with the lack of an effective method for early diagnosis and effective treatments make CRC one of the most relevant cancers to be studied. Thus, our work aims to study the spectrum of liver and colon lesions induced in rats by the 1,2-Dimethylhydrazine (DMH). Materials and Methods: Twenty-nine male Wistar rats were randomly divided into two control groups (CTRL1 (n = 6) and CTRL2 (n = 6)) administrated with ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA)-saline; and two induced groups (CRC1 (n = 8) and CRC2 (n = 9)) administrated with DMH (40 mg/kg) for 7 consecutive weeks. The CRC1 and CTRL1 groups, and the CRC2 and CTRL2 groups were sacrificed 11 and 17 weeks after the first administration, respectively. A complete necropsy was performed. Liver and colon sam- ples of all animals were collected, fixed in formalin, and pro- cessed for histopathological analysis. The animals' blood and a small portion of the liver were collected to analyze serum markers of inflammation and to validate chemical induction through the comet assay, respectively. Results: Half of the animals belonging to the CRC1 group presented mild to moderate dysplasia foci (n = 3) in the colon. The incidence of neoplasia was only 16.7% (n = 1) in the CRC2 group. Moreover, one animal from the CRC2 group also exhibited severe dysplasia and two presented mild to moderate dysplasia foci. Inflammatory lesions in colon samples were present in all animals from CRC groups. Although the animals showed local inflammation, there was no evidence of systemic inflammation (normal CRP and IL-6 serum levels). Lymphoid inflammatory aggregates were observed in the liver of all animals. Furthermore, DMH induced other changes, such as hepatocyte megalocytosis and single-cell necrosis. Results from liver comet assay showed a lower genetic damage index in control groups when compared to DMH-exposed groups (p < 0.05), i.e. DMH induced DNA damage in rats’ liver. Conclusions: Once animals showed predominantly pre- neoplastic lesions, our data suggest that the disease was at an early stage. In the future, we intend to change the dose of the carcinogen and the time of exposure to observe advanced stages of CRC development. We consider that this model is useful in the study of CRC chemoprevention associated with local inflammation

Discovering TV contents in a second screen app: perspectives from Portuguese and Brazilian markets

The actual trends in the TV ecosystem present considerable social, organisational and technological challenges in the value-chain of Pay-TV operators. Among these is the global increase in bandwidth, the shifting of the storage capacity in the cloud, and the affordability of traditional content providers when facing the competitiveness of OTT content. In this framework, Pay-TV operators are presenting their customers with a huge offer of contents available from linear-TV, Catch-up TV and VoD services. However, this overloaded TV ecosystem is likely to lead viewers to get lost and face difficulties when deciding what to watch on TV. To overcome these difficulties and be competitive, operators need to provide innovative and trustable solutions, alternative to traditional EPGs, enabling users to discover the right content for a specific context. To target this problem, a second screen application (GUIDER) was developed to offer an original user interface, based on a multidimensional spatial representation of TV contents for those mindless zapping situations where viewers do not know, in advance, what they are in the mood to watch. This paper reports on the evaluation of the GUIDER App, aiming to determine the level of interest in the several features implemented and in the filtering criteria available; identify usability issues; and predicting the future uses of the App in domestic scenarios. The evaluation was made in Portugal and Brazil with a convenience sample of 20 participants in each country. Despite the differences in the TV ecosystems, both countries appear to be promising markets for this new kind of second screen applications, with Brazilians showing a higher perception of the added value of GUIDER

Refinement of animal model of colorectal carcinogenesis through the definition of novel humane endpoints

This study aimed to define appropriate humane endpoints (HEs) for an animal model of colorectal carcinogenesis (CRC). Twenty-nine male Wistar rats were divided into two control groups (CTRL1 and CTRL2) injected with ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA)–saline solutions and two induced groups (CRC1 and CRC2) injected with 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH) for seven weeks. A score sheet with 14 biological parameters was used to assess animal welfare. Groups CRC1 and CTRL1 and groups CRC2 and CTRL2 were euthanized 11 and 17 weeks after the first DMH administration, respectively. Five animals from the induced groups died unexpectedly during the protocol (survival rates of 75.0% and 66.7% for groups CRC1 and CRC2, respectively). The final mean body weight (BW) was smaller in the CRC groups when compared with that in the CTRL groups. A uniformity of characteristics preceding the premature animals’ death was observed, namely an increase of 10% in mean BW, swollen abdomen, diarrhea, and priapism. The surface abdominal temperature of group CRC2 was significantly higher, when compared with that of group CTRL2. The parameters already described in other cancer models proved to be insufficient. For the CRC model, we considered assessing the abdominal temperature, priapism, and sudden increase in the BW

Morphometric analysis of rat parameters during an animal model of colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer is one of the leading causes of death by cancer worldwide. Animal models have been used in experimental research to find new solutions for old biomedical questions. This research aimed to make a contribution to characterize the rat model of colorectal cancer. Twelve male Wistar rats obtained from Charles River were randomly divided into two groups: control group and induced group. All ethical issues were considered, following the guidelines of the Portuguese Direção Geral de Alimentação e Veterinária (approval number 010535). Animals from induced group received a weekly intraperitoneal injection of N, N’-Dimethylhydrazine (DMH), for seven consecutive weeks. All rats were monitored for signs of distress, weight loss, and food and water consumption. Abdominal ultrasound examinations were performed before the first DMH administration and the animals’ sacrifice. Thirteen weeks later, all surviving animals were sacrificed, organs and blood were collected. Animals from control group showed a higher mean body weight. The mean relative weight of soleus was lower in induced animals when compared to the control animals (p<0.005), which may suggest the development of anorexia. Although there were no significant differences in colon’s weight, induced animals had shorter colon. The microhematocrit was not different between groups. The ultrasound examination showed a high vascularized abdominal mass in induced animals. Some induced animals had a swollen abdomen which difficult the ultrasound examination. The animals showed little changes in their biological parameters, suggesting that the disease was at an early stage. Histological analysis of animals’ organs will provide a better perception of the colorectal cancer induction

Morphometric analysis of rat parameters during an animal model of colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer is one of the leading causes of death by cancer worldwide. Animal models have been used in experimental research to find new solutions for old biomedical questions. This research aimed to make a contribution to characterize the rat model of colorectal cancer. Twelve male Wistar rats obtained from Charles River were randomly divided into two groups: control group and induced group. All ethical issues were considered, following the guidelines of the Portuguese Direção Geral de Alimentação e Veterinária (approval number 010535). Animals from induced group received a weekly intraperitoneal injection of N, N’-Dimethylhydrazine (DMH), for seven consecutive weeks. All rats were monitored for signs of distress, weight loss, and food and water consumption. Abdominal ultrasound examinations were performed before the first DMH administration and the animals’ sacrifice. Thirteen weeks later, all surviving animals were sacrificed, organs and blood were collected. Animals from control group showed a higher mean body weight. The mean relative weight of soleus was lower in induced animals when compared to the control animals (p<0.005), which may suggest the development of anorexia. Although there were no significant differences in colon’s weight, induced animals had shorter colon. The microhematocrit was not different between groups. The ultrasound examination showed a high vascularized abdominal mass in induced animals. Some induced animals had a swollen abdomen which difficult the ultrasound examination. The animals showed little changes in their biological parameters, suggesting that the disease was at an early stage. Histological analysis of animals’ organs will provide a better perception of the colorectal cancer induction

Perception and consumption habits regarding functional foods

Nos dias de hoje, os consumidores questionam cada vez mais a relação entre saúde, alimentação e bem-estar. A procura de alimentos com efeitos benéficos para a saúde é um dos grandes impulsos para o desenvolvimento de alimentos funcionais, que contêm ingredientes com esse efeito. Este trabalho apresenta os resultados de um inquérito que avaliou a perceção do consumidor e os seus hábitos de consumo relativamente a alimentos funcionais. Foram inquiridos 233 indivíduos, com idades compreendidas entre os 18 e os 77 anos. Dos inquiridos, 87% afirmam saber que existem alimentos com efeitos mais significativos na saúde e bem- -estar, apesar de só 58% dizerem saber o que são alimentos funcionais. A maioria da população inquirida (97%) considera necessário melhorar o nível de informação relativa a este tipo de alimentos, apontando as campanhas de informação, criação de símbolos para a rápida identificação do produto/benefício, educação nas escolas e melhoria da informação dos rótulos das embalagens, como algumas das medidas necessárias.Currently, consumers are increasingly interested in the relationship between health, food and well-being. The demand for food with beneficial effects on health is one of the great impulses for the development of functional foods that contain ingredients with this effect. This work presents the results of a survey that aimed to assess the consumer's perception and consumption habits regarding functional foods. A total of 233 individuals, aged between 18 and 77 years, were surveyed. Of the respondents, 87% know that there are foods with more significant effects on health and well-being, although only 58% know what functional foods are. The majority of the surveyed population (97%) agrees that it is necessary to improve the level of information on this type of food, pointing out information campaigns, creation of symbols for fast identification of the product/benefit, education in schools and improvement of information on packaging labels, as some of the necessary measures.Este trabalho foi financiado pelo INSA, I.P., no âmbito do projeto MELON4FOOD (2018DAN1492) e pela FCT/MCTES através de fundos nacionais (UID/QUI/50006/2019).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio