Using simulation to compare Aircraft Boarding Strategies

The boarding process has a very important role in t he objective of increase the efficiency, profitability, and customer satisfaction of an airline industry. It is one of the significant elements of the turnaround time, a slow boarding process might lead to financial issues to the company and, of course, cu stomer complaints. In this paper are analyzed three boarding strategies presenting a model and an easy to use tool that implements it. The study suggest that differences exists among them, and proposes the most efficient strategy.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Theory of Mind in Alzheimer Disease

Introduction The ability to understand and attribute mental states, including intentions, knowledge and desires, to both ourselves and other people, is referred to as possession of a ‘Theory of Mind’ (ToM). Some studies have revealed an association between ToM abilities and Executive Functioning (EF) capacities Although many types of research had documented executive dysfunction in Alzheimer Disease (AD), the link between executive functions (EFs) and ToM is not yet fully studied in AD. Therefore the main aim of the present study is to know if patients with early AD are able to resolve a First Order False belief task. Method A total of 22 patients with early Alzheimer´s disease were recruited into the study from a dementia speciality clinic in Zaragoza, Spain. In this study, we tested a first-order belief task. Executive function was assessed using “Executive functions and frontal lobes test” (BANFE-2)

Produção midiática em educomunicação : uma vertente a ser construída

A educomunicação, com base nos estudos defendidos pelo CCA-ECA/USP1, se constituiu a partir de quatro vertentes diferenciadas na interface Comunicação/Educação, sendo: (1) Gestão da Comunicação em espaços educativos; (2) Educação para e pela comunicação; (3) Mediação Tecnológica na Educação e (4) Investigação epistemológica da relação Comunicação/Educação. Ao longo do tempo, novos objetos de estudos se evidenciaram neste campo emergente, sendo que um dos mais recentes, é identificado como a Produção Midiática na Educação. A questão que aqui se coloca é se podemos, efetivamente, defender a existência de uma abordagem genuinamente educomunicativa na produção de mídias. A hipótese será testada com base na análise de produções educomunicativas em busca de elementos que possam comprovar esta idiossincrasia epistemológica. Nossa investigação adotará a metodologia participante, explorando o corpus das produções desenvolvidas na disciplina “CCA 0303-Práticas Laboratoriais em Multimídia” na qual são abordados os aspectos teóricos e práticos do trabalho do educomunicador enquanto produtor de mídia educativa. Ao final, esperamos contribuir para a consolidação de um modus faciendi específico da Produção Multimídia em projetos e atividades educomunicativas visando aprimorar a formação do educomunicador em consonância com as demandas atuais da educação em contextos formais, não-formais e informai

Alteraciones fisarias tras radiación láser

Ante el auge actual de la radiación láser y al no encontrar bibliografía referente al posible efecto sobre el cartílago de crecimiento, hemos decidido hacer una valoración del mismo en un modelo experimental. Se utilizaron 50 ratas, estableciéndose cinco grupos de estudio de 10 animales cada uno, dependiendo de la dosis de radiación aplicada percutáneamente sobre la fisis femoral distal. Tras el estudio ultraestructural, histoquímico y morfométrico, hemos observado una serie de alteraciones indicadoras de un daño celular directo. Los hallazgos permiten concluir que este tipo de radiación está contraindicado absolutamente durante la fase de crecimiento óseo o en el esqueleto inmaduro.In view of the present importance of Laser Radiation, and due to the lack of references about its effects on the growth cartilage, we designed an experimental model in order to asses it. A total of 50 rats were used, establishing five groups of study at 10 animals each, depending on the dosis of radiation applied percutaneously on the distal femoral phisys. After the structural, histochemical and morphometric study, we observed a series of alterations indicating a direct celular damage at the physion. From the results, it is concluded that laser radiation should be on absolute contraindication during the phase of bone growth or in the inmature skeleton

Review of real-life teduglutide experience

Background: teduglutide is an agonist of glucagon-related peptide (aGLP2) effective as a treatment for patients with short bowel syndrome (SBS), an entity that affects quality of life, usually requires home parenteral nutrition (HPN) and generates significant health costs. The objective of the present narrative review was to assess the real-life experience reported with teduglutide.Methods and results: in real life, one meta-analysis and studies published with 440 patients indicate that Teduglutide is effective after the period of intestinal adaptation after surgery, reducing the need for HPN and in some cases even allowing it to be suspended. The response is heterogeneous, increasing progressively up to 2 years after the start of treatment and reaching 82 % in some series. The presence of colon in continuity is a negative predictor of early response, but a positive predictive factor for the withdrawal of HPN. The most common side effects are gastrointestinal in the early stages of treatment. There are late complications related to the stoma or the occurrence of colon polyps, although the frequency of the latter is very low. In adults, data on improved quality of life and cost-effectiveness are scarce.Conclusions: teduglutide is effective and safe and data from pivotal trials for the treatment of patients with SBS are confirmed in real life and can reduce or even stop HPN in some cases. Although it seems cost-effective, more studies are needed to identify those patients with the greatest benefit

Applying Prolog to Develop Distributed Systems

Development of distributed systems is a difficult task. Declarative programming techniques hold a promising potential for effectively supporting programmer in this challenge. While Datalog-based languages have been actively explored for programming distributed systems, Prolog received relatively little attention in this application area so far. In this paper we present a Prolog-based programming system, called DAHL, for the declarative development of distributed systems. DAHL extends Prolog with an event-driven control mechanism and built-in networking procedures. Our experimental evaluation using a distributed hash-table data structure, a protocol for achieving Byzantine fault tolerance, and a distributed software model checker - all implemented in DAHL - indicates the viability of the approach