Comparative study of patients knowledge on osteoarthritis treatment options to ACR guidelines

Portuguese population is growing older, according to national data in 2011 the aging index was 129. The number of elderly population is higher than the younger; average life expectancy is 79,2 years (1). Because knee Osteoarthritis increases with age, and according to WHO 80% of these subjects will have some degree of impairment and 25% will not be able to do their daily living activities (2), OA has a big impact on the sustainability of both health and social care as populations grow older. Our goal was to compare current guidelines of managing knee OA, to the degree of information each patient has about their treatment options.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Light Clusters and Pasta Phases in Warm and Dense Nuclear Matter

The pasta phases are calculated for warm stellar matter in a framework of relativistic mean-field models, including the possibility of light cluster formation. Results from three different semiclassical approaches are compared with a quantum statistical calculation. Light clusters are considered as point-like particles, and their abundances are determined from the minimization of the free energy. The couplings of the light-clusters to mesons are determined from experimental chemical equilibrium constants and many-body quantum statistical calculations. The effect of these light clusters on the chemical potentials is also discussed. It is shown that including heavy clusters, light clusters are present until larger nucleonic densities, although with smaller mass fractions.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in Physical review

Teaching Crossroads: 8th IPB Erasmus Week

We are proud to present the second number of Teaching Crossroads, within the 8th IPB Erasmus week which took place in May 2012. This publication is the result of the papers delivered during our Erasmus Week that is becoming increasingly popular among teaching and non-teaching staff from several Erasmus partner Universities. Similarly to last year, we are continuing the publication of Teaching Crossroads whose main purpose is to reach students and teaching staff of the IPB (Polytechnic Institute of Bragança) and of other IPB partner universities. With this in view, the authors also made an attempt to present material in a manner which can be readily grasped by students and non-specialists. Likewise, we also believe it is important to have a written register of what is being studied by some researchers in Europe and make it available to students. Bearing in mind the open spirit of this publication, everyone is invited to participate with their papers delivered during the Erasmus Week at the IPB. The result was pleasantly rewarding as we had enthusiastic participants who very willingly made their texts available for publication. The organisation of the Erasmus week has been a tradition since started in 2005 aiming at a more efficient collaboration with our European partners so that they would become more familiar with the IPB campus, its schools, the city and the region. During the IPB Erasmus Week, the Institute organises teaching and staff training (STT) and the seminars arranged under Staff Teaching Assignment (STA) that are scheduled and introduced in the regular timetable of Bachelors and Masters’ degrees classes. Having now participated in the Erasmus mobility programme for more than twelve years, the IPB is acknowledged as one of the Portuguese institutions that promotes students and teaching mobility the most, positioning IPB on the top of the European HEIs and on a high level in the current international scene. The review of these articles has been thorough, yet some unexpected flaws may still occur. Nevertheless, the content of the texts remains intact, without distorting the aims of the texts, and the references are the authors’ own responsibility. Therefore, we accept no liabilities for any error or theoretical inconsistency or any missing information. The research areas are quite multidisciplinary, touching on areas as different as business sciences and law, agricultural sciences and natural resources, chemistry, multimedia and education. These areas comply with the areas of study that the IPB has on offer. This publication is hence rather beneficial for our students, as well as teachers and researchers. Ziemowit Kukulski, with his customary precision, expands on a topic that is truly current and relevant nowadays: ‘The elimination of double taxation in juridical sense from Polish perspective’. Notwithstanding the fact that the study focused on a particular country, the author is also concerned with comparing both the Polish and the Portuguese juridical taxation framework. Rosa Vásquez presents a study on how the environment plays an important role in the economy and can contribute to making the business sector more dynamic. Emphasising the importance of state policies that affect the environment, her text outlines the different instruments available to public administration in order to enable environmental control of productive activities and promote good conduct in favour of environmental conservation. Bodgan Vlad Avarvarei presents the results of an analysis of commodity for some yoghurt assortments sold on Iasi market, in Romania. The author also aims to inform the consumers regarding not only all the information which must be marked on, such as fat content, nutritive value, shelf life, storage temperature, etc., but also to give some hints on the product design. Mario de la Fuente Lloreda gives a lesson on different ways of Spanish viticulture, exposing examples of one of the most emblematic D.O. (denominación de origen, i.e. protected designation of origin) quality brands and their evolution up to today. Igor Barényi’s text delves into spectral analysis, focusing on the description of several spectroscopic methods to examine chemical composition of metal and alloys. Esteban Galán-Cubillo takes us on a tour to the use of systems of virtual scenography, along with the use of other digital technologies. Cláudia Martins’s text gives us a very insightful glimpse on Portuguese meteorological adages and proverbs bearing the highly suggestive title ‘Nine months of winter, three months of scorching hell’. Besides that, the author also presents a thorough linguistic explanation on fixed language, ranging from collocations to idiomatic expressions, based on several keynote authors, with a particular focus on pragmatic phrases, i.e. proverbs and adages. Jan Michalko makes an introduction to Cyber Space Economics and its relevance for such an important area as education or even training of citizens as it is in the case of public services for increasing levels of e-government. The author also emphasises the importance of Internet applications that provide a number of opportunities for education, communication and business. Slawomir Sztajer presents a deep reflection on religion, establishing a link between cognition and religion. The author expands on this new approach of religion, explaining and interpreting religious phenomena from the perspective of cognitive science. The ingredients for a gainful and stimulating reading are now served. We hope that this publication works for the interest of many students and teachers who find here information for their own studies and learn a bit more about the countries referred to here, sharing learning experiences and scientific knowledge, as well as cultural heritage. That is also the essence of the Erasmus programme

Teaching Crossroads: 10th IPB Erasmus Week

This is the fourth number of a project which started in 2011 when the idea of publishing the lectures delivered by guest teachers in our Erasmus Week came up. This annual event is organised by the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB) and takes place normally in the beginning of May. The title was not difficult to find as the main purpose with this publication was to include every research and teaching areas fitting a multidisciplinary journal with a very specific European approach, however centred in Portugal, at the IPB. Therefore Teaching Crossroads was born aiming at reaching the largest number of readers within both the Portuguese and the international academic community. In the first three years of publication, we published more than 30 articles including areas as different as business sciences and law, agricultural sciences and natural resources, chemistry, multimedia, tourism, nursing and health care, economics, education, information technology and applied sciences, but yet so far-reaching. Always intending to improve the quality and rigour of this journal, the two last numbers have already been peer-reviewed. This is now the number regarding the 10th Erasmus Week that took place in May 2014. This year, the focus of our attention is placed on Education and Chemistry. Concerning the whole publication, we present you with a brief description of each article. Astrid Ebenberger focuses on the Austrian Educational system, demonstrating how it has been influenced by early 20th century pedagogues, namely Ellen Key, Maria Montessori and Helen Parkhurst, whose ideas and actions became paramount in the transformation of the educational system in Austria. The author also puts forth an outline of further developments of teacher education, drawing some critical guidelines regarding the sustainability of the Austrian education system in the future. Cláudia Martins, who lectures a seminar on the Portuguese language and culture to the guest teaching and non-teaching staff during our Erasmus Weeks, enlightens us about cognitive linguistics, particularly focusing on figurative language and tropes. Metaphors are here the crux of the matter and the author shows how they are omnipresent in languages in our daily lives. That is, one needs to understand metaphors as conceptual sources that reveal crucial for the understanding of the semantic meaning of both synchronic and diachronic cultural and social categories and concepts that define human experience and therefore language. The author focuses on the area of Portuguese food expressions serving us delightful metaphors, getting our taste buds tingling at the Portuguese language and culture. Kamil Mielnik gives us an account of the Polish gymnasium, 3rd Cycle of Basic Education or junior high school, for pupils aged 13 to 16, with regard to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), while he also describes formative assessment and its features, as well as the European Language Portfolio, explaining ultimately how the latter can strongly support self-regulated learning in Polish Gymnasium. Katarzyna Morena deals with a very common problem as far as learning a new language is concerned, that is language anxiety. The author focuses on the speaking skill by highlighting problems and effects associated with speaking in front of the others, either in a formal or informal context. In the study the author carried out, some strategies are presented so that teachers can teach their students how to overcome anxiety problems. Elżbieta Wojaczyńska demonstrates in her article how the area of organic chemistry can appear to be fairly pertinent in our daily lives be it, for instance, on pharmaceutical, cosmetic, or agrochemical industries. Even though we’re not aware of it or never question the existence of the product compounds, this is of the utmost importance for health issues. Therefore, the author focuses on the methods of preparation of nonracemic sulfoxides and examples of their various applications in asymmetric synthesis as chiral substrates and inducers, organocatalysts or in complexes with different metals. We would like to seize the opportunity to thank all the contributors that so far have participated in the consolidation of Teaching Crossroads, namely authors and reviewers. It is also worth mentioning the helpful and valuable work of Soraia Maduro, the designer of the most appealing and well-adjusted cover, and Atilano Suarez who sets the book layout in a very perfectionist way. Being all said, we are once more proud of making interesting and relevant studies available to the academic community, not only to the IPB, but also to the rest of the European and other international universities, IPB partners in the educational promotion and cooperation. Therefore, we wish you a very enjoyable and meaningful readin

Teaching Crossroads: 11th IPB Erasmus Week

In the wake of the latest news regarding IPB’s award for best Polytechnic Institute in Portugal, we would like to congratulate the IPB community who has always striven for the quality of the institution within the national and international academic milieu. We are, undoubtedly, bowled over by the 1st place in the national context (out of the 27 national institutions under evaluation) and the 7th position in the international scope. In fact, it is worth mentioning that the IPB has won this award, three years in a row, being in a leading position in the ranking promoted and sponsored by the European Union. This year’s edition has selected and evaluated over 1300 world higher education institutions. Teaching Crossroads intends thus to give a watershed contribution to the IPB’s successful and most valued pathway. Numbers indicate that Teaching Crossroads has had over 2550 downloads since it first came out. But let’s cut to the chase. Once again, we are delighted to present the 5th number of Teaching Crossroads. This wholly calculated and well-sustained editorial adventure started in 2012 when the first number of Teaching Crossroads first saw the light. This year’s publication includes the areas of Human Geography/anthropology, Information Technology and Forensics and Language and culture, focusing on minority languages. Alongside this, as in the two last previous numbers, we’ve included the specific area for International mobility, Intensive Programmes and Erasmus+ Mobility of Individuals, being the latter financed by the European Union within the Erasmus+ Programme, whereas the former is sponsored uniquely by the foreign partner institution, in this case, Lillebaelt Academy in Denmark. These types of programmes convey very positive and overarching ideas, resonant in cross-cultural and educational benefits, valuable for all the involved partners. We would very kindheartedly like to thank the authors for having contributed with much enlightening and serious articles on a wide array of areas. Pablo M. Orduna Pórtus’s article focuses on border culture and heritage management. The author’s study is placed on two borderlands of the Iberian Peninsula: Roncal Valley (Navarre) and Riverbanks of Douro. Going beyond the linear or physical conception of the border, the author centres his study on the metaphysical and symbolic ideas of the frontier that sustain his anthropological analysis. Michal Popdora manages to find evidence for his proposal of a new conception of teaching Image Processing, based on the student-centered approach. A hands-on experience on a Project-based Learning methodology sustains the teaching project. Grounded on “a forensic-flavored style”, using the author’s own words, he shows how students can become engaged in a highly effective learning process. Cláudia Martins is already a confirmed habitué of this publication, as in every Erasmus Week she delivers a lecture on Portuguese language and culture to visiting teaching and non-teaching staff. This time, the author decided to delve into a Portugal’s official language, Mirandese, spoken in a small designated area in the northeastern part of Portugal, Miranda do Douro and its surrounding area. The author gives account of some thought-provoking facts about the language, from the origin and the survival of the language, however still a minority language, up to the moment when it was acknowledged Portugal’s second official language, together with the challenges that nowadays faces. Luís Frölen Ribeiro, João Eduardo Ribeiro, Carlos Casimiro Costa, António Duarte, Carlos Andrade from the Polytechnic Institute and Arne Svinth, John Madsen, Morten Thomsen, Kent Smidstrup, Carsten John Jacobsen from the Lillebaelt Academy, in Denmark, participate in a joint project which they describe, outlining the main goals and gains of the project. To overcome teaching difficulties regarding the engineering degrees, a 12-ECTS joint course from Lillebaelt Academy and Polytechnic Institute of Bragança was created based on the Danish model. The course Product Development and Industrial Processing was hence created. Rui Pedro Lopes presents an insightful and acute account of the Internationalization programmes in Higher Education in Europe. At one go, the author describes his own experience as a visiting lecturer, within the Erasmus+ programme, to Università Politecnica delle Marche in Ancona, Italy, in a Master’s degree in computer science, bringing to light a personal reflection on the goals and benefits of the mobility for both students and teachers. Finally, the author puts forth some suggestions that would improve the whole mobility process. We sincerely hope to have stimulated you to keep on reading, upholding the belief that these texts can represent valuable sources for both teachers and students in their research work

Design of simulated moving bed and Varicol processes for preparative separations with a low number of columns

Simulated moving bed (SMB) chromatography has received significant attention in the last decade, particularly as regards the production of very valuable products, such as enantiomerically pure pharmaceutical compounds. Recent applications in the pharmaceutical industry use SMB systems containing a low total number chromatographic columns, usually four to eight. This paper deals with the modeling and simulation of SMB systems with only four, five and six columns. In particular, two modeling strategies, the equivalent true moving bed and the real SMB models, are compared for these units in terms of separation regions and system productivity. Also, the recently proposed Varicol process is analyzed and compared with the classical SMB operation, and the advantages of this new operation mode are shown for systems using a low number of columns

Teaching Crossroads: 13th and 14th IPB Erasmus Weeks

The Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB) has been organising its Erasmus Week since 2004. It is held yearly in May, normally during the second week of May. The Erasmus week’s main purposes are three-fold. First, the IPB aims at enforcing closer, more dynamic and more efficient institutional relations amongst the European Higher Education Institutions. Lectures are then organised and introduced in both undergraduate and master classes in accordance with the area of interest. Meetings with directors of the 5 IPB schools and Erasmus coordinators are also scheduled. The second and third goals, which naturally derive from the first, are to facilitate familiarity with the IPB campus, its schools and with the cities of Bragança and Mirandela, where the IPB schools are settled, and with the surrounding area, namely the Montesinho Natural Park and the Alto Douro Wine Region (UNESCO World Heritage). This information can be found on the IPB International Relations Office website. Overall, all these three goals lie behind what is considered an umbrella goal which is to promote the IPB in its numerous valences and strengthen the mobility ties with the different European Higher Institutions which have established cooperation agreements with the IPB. This has revealed fruitful and far-reaching as more than 20 partner countries visit us every year. If one takes into account the two last editions’ numbers, Poland is the country with a higher percentage of participants (37.1% and 29%), followed by Spain (11.4% and 15.9%), France, Romania and Czech Republic1. Regarding the lectures delivered during this week, teachers show a high level of satisfaction and find it rather rewarding according to the evaluation results obtained every year. One of the most visible results of these lectures is the publication of Teaching Crossroads. It started being published aiming ultimately at the dissemination of the research work that was presented at the IPB. We then extended it to all activities related to Teachers Erasmus+ mobility and international projects. The idea was not only to disseminate studies from other European researchers but also to give to the IPB teaching staff the opportunity to publish their research work and what they presented during their mobility. So far, the adhesion to this project has been rather steady and compliant with the publication’s main goal. In hindsight, this project, which started in 2011, continues to persevere in its academic path, making thus available to students and teachers the most valuable research studies and relevant data in regard to a myriad of study areas which underlie the spirit of Higher Education, multifaceted, multilayered and plural. In Higher Education we hope never to be at a crossroads, but we dare to constantly thrive when faced with obstacles and embrace the challenges of knowledge. All areas of study are important and meaningful and must be continually promoted. This has been the leading motto of Teaching Crossroads since its very beginning. This would have never been possible without the valuable help of regular contributors to whom we are very grateful, from the authors, the reviewers, the designer to the IPB Image Services. A thanking note must also go to the IPB which has embraced this project by agreeing to publish it. As a result of the close cooperation work with the researchers who submitted their proposals to blind review, we selected five texts from diverse areas but nonetheless complementary. As such, this year, areas of study vary from comparative literature, education, social education and sociology, finance to business and entrepreneurship. A brief summary of each is presented next. María Antonia Mezquita Fernández, whose research has been focusing on the modern subject of ecocriticism bearing in mind the new approach to the close relationship between environmental issues and literature, a concern that always permeated literature, discusses the ecocritical identity in the light of literary figures and their poetical messages regarding nature. By highlighting and comparing two British poets, William Wordsworth and Dylan Thomas, and a Spanish poet, Claudio Rodríguez, the author introduces an ecocritical stance to the analysis of the poems under discussion. Sharing the common ground of nature, the poems are worth reading due to the powerful messages they convey, not only bearing in mind the period when they were written but because the topics explored resonate with the environmental defenders’ main principles. What the author brings to the fore of discussion is a thought-provocative, challenging and relevant essay which found in literature its main driving force to call the attention to the importance of the defence of nature in a time where environmental issues, such as global warming and the melting of glaciers, are at the centre of the world’s political agenda, despite the constant scepticism that still persists to endure. Beata Sufa & Anna Szkolak-Stępień delve into the idea of creativity fostered within the teaching context, by both teachers and students. In their article entitled “Creative Teacher-Creative Pupil – a Study Report”, the authors argue that, having in mind all the technological advances and (advanced) use of learning technology, the new conditions of school and learning context require new challenges to the way the teaching-learning process is dealt with. The teacher’s creative attitude will thus become paramount for children’s development of creativity which will help them to improve communication skills. Kazimiera Król studies the phenomenon of begging in Poland, analyzing the spatial and social framework of such reality which results from many factors and underlies consequences to the places chosen for begging and to the beggars themselves. The author puts forth an empirical study bearing in mind the age, gender, civil status and nationality of mendicants, presenting thus in-depth data which allow her to reach interesting and relevant conclusions regarding the whole phenomenon of begging in nowadays Poland. Eliza Komierzyńska-Orlińska sheds some light on a common unknown part of the financial system to the majority of people, which is the security of the banking system. When one deposits or withdraws money one is never aware of (or simply does not care about) how our money is held safe or how the banks protect their assets. The article “Security of the Banking System in Poland. Fundamental Assumptions” deals precisely with security issues within the Polish banking system highlighting the crucial role of the central bank in the whole process of surveillance and regulation. Legal issues are therefore discussed. By using simple and straightforward language, the author is able to reach a non-specialist audience who will become more informed about this issue in a rather clear way. Erik Kubička focuses on organizational culture explaining how well-succeeded, renowned, top companies in the technology sector foster effectiveness in the work environment. In this regard, the author describes several technological companies, such as Google, Apple and IBM, just to name a few. Innovation, informal leadership, less red tape and closer contact with the workers are features that are common to all these companies which represent the key to their success.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Lentiviral vectors with amplified beta cell-specific gene expression.

An important goal of gene therapy is to be able to deliver genes, so that they express in a pattern that recapitulates the expression of an endogenous cellular gene. Although tissue-specific promoters confer selectivity, in a vector-based system, their activity may be too weak to mediate detectable levels in gene-expression studies. We have used a two-step transcriptional amplification system to amplify gene expression from lentiviral vectors using the human insulin promoter. In this system, the human insulin promoter drives expression of a potent synthetic transcription activator (the yeast GAL4 DNA-binding domain fused to the activation domain of the Herpes simplex virus-1 VP16 activator), which in turn activates a GAL4-responsive promoter, driving the enhanced green fluorescent protein reporter gene. Vectors carrying the human insulin promoter did not express in non-beta-cell lines, but expressed in murine insulinoma cell lines, indicating that the human insulin promoter was capable of conferring cell specificity of expression. The insulin-amplifiable vector was able to amplify gene expression five to nine times over a standard insulin-promoter vector. In primary human islets, gene expression from the insulin-promoted vectors was coincident with insulin staining. These vectors will be useful in gene-expression studies that require a detectable signal and tissue specificity