Association between dietary calcium intake and blood pressure among portuguese children

[Resumo][Abstract

Ceramic additive manufacturing in architecture: computational methodology for defining a column system

The present paper describes a research that explores the design and production of customised architectural ceramic components defined through parametric relations of biomorphic inspiration and to be built through additive manufacturing. In this sense, is presented a case study that develops a system of both architectural and structural components - a column system. The definition process of the system is mediated by computational design, implementing not only structural analysis and optimization strategies, but also mimetic formal characteristics of nature to an initial grid, creating a model that adapts its formal attributes, depending on its assumptions and the material constraints. This process resulted in the definition of a set of solutions that better answer to a specific design problem

Shape acquisition of rotating objects based on Laser Line Scanning

The present work proposes a methodology for 3D shape acquisition of objects through rotation-based Laser Line Scanning. This enables the acquisition of an object's 3D shape from multiple views, which leads to a more complete and accurate model

Therapeutic use of VR serious games in the treatment of negative schizophrenia symptoms : a systematic review

Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder that affects 1 in every 300 people worldwide. This study intended to perform a systematic review to describe the state-of-the-art of interventions involving patients with negative symptoms of schizophrenia that use Virtual Reality (VR) games as a complement to therapy, and to analyze the key features of such games. Literature research was conducted in three databases, namely, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Scopus, and PubMed, to identify relevant publications dated from 2010 to 2021. Of the initial 74 publications found, only 11 satisfied the eligibility requirements and were included in this study. The results were then organized and displayed in a flow diagram. Overall, the results from the studies suggest that the use of VR in therapies enables an increase in social skills and a decrease in anxiety symptoms. The use of such technology in therapy has proven to be effective, although it still lacks features to provide better long-term results.2411-78B2-7CDB | Pedro Miguel MoreiraN/

Human motion analysis and simulation tools: a survey

Computational systems to identify objects represented in image sequences and tracking their motion in a fully automatic manner, enabling a detailed analysis of the involved motion and its simulation are extremely relevant in several fields of our society. In particular, the analysis and simulation of the human motion has a wide spectrum of relevant applications with a manifest social and economic impact. In fact, usage of human motion data is fundamental in a broad number of domains (e.g.: sports, rehabilitation, robotics, surveillance, gesture-based user interfaces, etc.). Consequently, many relevant engineering software applications have been developed with the purpose of analyzing and/or simulating the human motion. This chapter presents a detailed, broad and up to date survey on motion simulation and/or analysis software packages that have been developed either by the scientific community or commercial entities. Moreover, a main contribution of this chapter is an effective framework to classify and compare motion simulation and analysis tools

Salt reduction in vegetable soup does not affect saltiness intensity and liking in the elderly and children

Study background: Reduction of added salt levels in soups is recommended. We evaluated the impact of a 30% reduction of usual added salt in vegetable soups on elderly and children's saltiness and liking evaluation. Methods: Subjects were elderly and recruited from two public nursing homes (29 older adults, 79.7 +/- 8.9 years), and preschool children recruited from a public preschool (49 children, 4.5 +/- 1.3 years). This study took place in institutional lunchrooms. Through randomization and crossover, the subjects participated in two sensory evaluation sessions, on consecutive days, to assess perceived saltiness intensity (elderly sample) and liking (elderly and children samples) of a vegetable soup with baseline salt content and with a 30% salt reduction. Elderly rated perceived liking through a 10 cm visual analogue scale ['like extremely' (1) to 'dislike extremely' (10)] and children through a five-point facial scale ['dislike very much' (1) to 'like very much' (5)]. Results: After 30% added salt reduction in vegetable soup, there were no significant differences in saltiness noted by the elderly (p = 0.150), and in perceived liking by children (p = 0.160) and elderly (p = 0.860). Conclusions: A 30% salt reduction in vegetable soup may be achieved without compromising perceived saltiness and liking in children and the elderly

Challenges of 3d printed architectural ceramic components structures: controlling the shrinkage and preventing the cracking

The use of ceramic materials in the additive manufacturing (AM) of architectural components has more and more examples and undeniably shows the potential of its application. However, one of the main characteristics inherent to this material, which happens in drying and firing phases, is the shrinkage of the material, which causes deformations and cracks in the surface of the produced elements. Thus, the shrinkage of the ceramic material may constitute an obstacle to the regular use of this material in the AM of architectural components. In this sense, it is important to study and point out ways and strategies to mitigate this drawback, making possible the correspondence between the final produced models and the digital ones in which they are based. This paper presents the main challenges and outcomes of several projects that use Liquid Deposition Modelling (LDM) of clay-paste as construction methodology.This work has the financial support of the Project Lab2PT – Landscapes, Heritage and Territory laboratory – AUR/04509 and FCT through national founds and when applicable of the FEDER cofinancing, in the aim of the new partnership agreement PT2020 and COMPETE2020 – POCI 01 0145FEDER 007528

Stigmatizing attitudes toward patients with psychiatric disorders among medical students and professionals

Introduction: Stigma attached to mental health encompasses discrimination and exclusion of psychiatric patients and hinders their opportunities to have more productive and fulfilling lives. Moreover, stigma also exists among health professionals, and therefore, it hampers the provision of treatment and care and the promotion of mental well-being. This manuscript intends to assess and compare the levels of stigmatization toward patients with mental illness between medical students and doctors from different specialties. Methods: The Portuguese version of Attribution Questionnaire (AQ-27) was used to assess the attitudes of medical students (n = 203), non-psychiatry doctors (n = 121), and psychiatry specialists (n = 29) from the University of Minho and three hospitals in the region of Braga, Portugal (Hospital de Braga, Hospital Senhora da Oliveira, and Hospital de Fafe). Results: Psychiatrists were the group that displayed lower levels of stigmatizing attitudes in all the items of the AQ-27, followed by the students. The regression analyses revealed that professional group and presence of a relative with mental illness were the factors that have a significant impact on the levels of stigmatization. Conclusions: Mental illness stigma is widely spread in community and reaches not only general population but also health professionals. Psychiatrists presented lower levels of stigma compared with non-psychiatry physicians and medical students. We found that stigma is related with age and the presence of relatives with psychiatric disorders. These findings highlight the critical relevance of raising awareness on this topic and, therefore, break stereotypes to reduce the negative consequences of stigma.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio