Engaging the reluctant reader through active reading strategies

The objective of this workshop is to demonstrate not only how to overcome the fear of reading among young adults but also how to develop affection for it by adjusting studentcentred learning strategies to the individual needs of the learners. Reading then becomes an active dialogue session with the author culminating in writing in any genre rather than a passive boring activity. The workshop begins with an incidental lead-in activity connected to the topic of the reading passage, which aims to generate student-centred discussions. This is then followed by a timed individual reading session, where the students have a ‘dialogue’ with the author of the passage by scribbling and writing in any language or by drawing graphic presentations of their feelings that are generated. A group discussion of the students’ reactions to the reading would result in seeing the text in a new light or angle. This is then followed by a spin-off activity, where the students are to translate their reaction to the whole passage or any portion of it into any genre and present it to the others. Once the students have come to grips with the essence of the reading passage, they are to formulate their own question which needs further probing into as a free writing or academic writing piece. An outline of the writing is done in groups and monitored by the facilitator while leaving the complete writing as a take-home assignment

Impact of infant feeding on the development of preterm gut microbiota

Background: Preterm infants are especially vulnerable to dysbiosis since their early gut microbiota is less abundant and diverse. When the first microbial colonizers reach infants’ gut remains an open question. It is assumed that maternal microbiota can influence the infants’ gut colonization, making it a critical player in the offspring’s immune and endocrine systems, as well as in metabolic health. Infant feeding has been reported as a major factor influencing the gut microbiota. Thus, studying the preterm infant gut microbiota is a research priority to complement nutritional neonatal care. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of different types of infant-feeding on the gut microbiota preterm infants. In addition, it was evaluated the preterm infants’ meconium colonization and the influence of vertical microbiota transmission. Methodology: The FEEDMI Trial is an observational longitudinal study that included very preterm infants (≤ 32 weeks of gestational age), hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit of Maternidade Dr. Alfredo da Costa. A total of four meconium and fecal samples from preterm infants were collected. Mothers were also asked to collect their fecal samples. Bacterial DNA present was extracted from samples and specific bacterial groups were quantified by RT-PCR. Results: In total, 453 fecal samples were processed from 117 preterm infants and their mothers. 88% of meconium samples were colonized. Proteobacteria and Firmicutes were the most abundant phyla during the first 26th postnatal days of infants. Meconium microbiota of preterm infants born between 28 and 32 weeks gestation showed stronger correlations with their mothers’ microbiota, as well as infants born by cesarean. Maternal factors significantly influenced the offspring’s microbiota, specially the pre-gestational body mass index. Mode of delivery had a limited impact on infants’ meconium with C-section promoting a greater amount of E. coli. Infant feeding takes time to influence the gut microbiota of preterm infants. When adjusted for gestational age, antibiotherapy and maternal diet, mothers’ own milk (MOM) promoted a healthier gut microbiota with higher levels of total bacteria and Bifidobacterium compared to donor human milk (DHM) and formula. Nevertheless, these differences were lower in DHM than formula fed infants. It was also observed lower levels of Firmicutes in infants fed with formula after adjusting for the same factors. Conclusions: The findings of this thesis suggest that infants’ meconium may have bacterial DNA prior to birth and maternal factors may have a central role in this process. Furthermore, this thesis highlights the importance of human milk on gut microbiota composition of infants prematurely-delivered with MOM promoting higher levels of total bacteria and Bifidobacterium, which may be translated in future healthier outcomes.Introdução: Os bebés prematuros são especialmente vulneráveis a disbiose intestinal, uma vez que o seu microbiota é pouco abundante e diverso. O momento em que os primeiros microrganismos colonizam o intestino do recém-nascido é uma questão em aberto. Sabe-se que o microbiota materno pode influenciar a colonização do intestino dos bebés, tendo um papel crucial no desenvolvimento dos sistemas imunitário e endócrino, assim como na saúde metabólica dos mesmos. A alimentação tem sido descrita como um dos fatores mais importantes que influencia o microbiota da criança. Neste sentido, estudar o microbiota intestinal de bebés prematuros é uma prioridade para complementar os cuidados alimentares neonatais. Objetivo: O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a influência dos diferentes tipos de alimentação infantil no microbiota intestinal de bebés prematuros. Mais ainda, foi analisada a colonização microbiana do mecónio destes bebés e a influência da transmissão vertical. Metodologia: O FEEDMI é um estudo observacional e longitudinal que inclui bebés muito prematuros (≤ 32 semanas de gestação) hospitalizados nos cuidados intensivos neonatais da Maternidade Dr. Alfredo da Costa. Foram recolhidas quatro amostras de mecónio e fezes de bebés prematuros. Às mães também foi pedido que fizessem uma recolha das suas fezes e que respondessem a um questionário de frequência alimentar. O ADN bacteriano foi extraído das amostras e grupos específicos de bactérias foram quantificados por RT-PCR. Resultados: No total, foram processadas 453 amostras fecais de 117 bebés prematuros e das suas mães. 88% das amostras de mecónio estavam colonizadas. Proteobacteria e Firmicutes foram os filos mais abundantes durante os primeiros 26 dias. O microbiota do mecónio de bebés nascidos entre as 28 e 32 mostrou ter correlações mais fortes com o microbiota das suas mães, assim com nos bebés nascidos por cesariana. A via de parto teve um efeito reduzido no mecónio dos bebés, sendo que a cesariana promoveu quantidades mais elevadas de E. coli. A influência da alimentação infantil no microbiota dos bebés prematuros não é imediata. Quando ajustado para idade gestacional, antibioterapia e dieta materna, o leite da própria mãe (LPM) promoveu um microbiota intestinal mais saudável com quantidades mais elevadas de bactérias totais e Bifidobacterium, quando comparado com o leite de dadora (LD) e formula. Contudo, estas diferenças foram inferiores nos prematuros alimentados com LD do que com formula. Também foram observados quantidades inferiores de Firmicutes nos bebés alimentados com fórmula, quando ajustado para os mesmos fatores. Conclusão: Os resultados desta tese sugerem que o mecónio poderá ter ADN bacteriano antes do nascimento e fatores maternos podem ter um papel central neste processo. Mais ainda, esta tese evidência a importância do LPM na composição do microbiota intestinal de bebés nascidos prematuramente

Pullback attractor for a nonlocal discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation with delays

We consider a nonlocal discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation with delays. We prove that the process associated with the non-autonomous model possesses a pullback attractor. As a consequence of our discussion, the existence of a global attractor for the autonomous model is derived

The influence of culture in international organizations

The numerous amount of studies that have been done through the years within the field of culture and, specifically organizational culture, says a lot regarding the important of the matter in organizations. Nowadays, it seems more and more important to demystify the concept of culture, so that organizations, especially those operating worldwide, may take the most advantage possible from it, in order to have satisfied employees, satisfied managers and satisfied investors. The objective of this study is to help understanding, from theory to practice, why and how important culture is for an international organization, how important it is for an international organization to have a common culture and to adapt and change it, the importance of knowledge management and, lastly, the role of the leader as influencer of culture and transmitter of culture top-to-bottom.O número de investigações publicadas ao longo dos anos relacionados com o tema da cultura e, especificamente com cultura organizacional, revela imenso no que diz respeito à importância do mesmo para as organizações. Nos dias de hoje, parece ser cada vez mais importante desmistificar o conceito de cultura, de forma a que as organizações, especialmente aquelas que operam mundialmente, possam tirar dele o maior partido possível de forma a ter empregados satisfeitos, gestores satisfeitos e investidores satisfeitos. O objetivo deste estudo é ajudar a perceber, da teoria à prática, porquê e como é que a cultura é importante para organizações internacionais, quão importante é para uma organização internacional ter uma cultura comum e adaptá-la e mudá-la, a importância da gestão do conhecimento e, por último, o papel do líder enquanto influenciador da cultura e transmissão da mesma, top-to-bottom

Medical Applications of Materials Manufactured by the AM Process

The use of 3D printing for manufacturing parts has made it possible to produce components with complex geometries according to drawings made on the computer. 3D printing offers many advantages in the manufacture of polymers and composites, including high precision, low cost, and custom geometry. Several techniques are used in 3D printing, the ones discussed in this monograph are the main ones for polymers. These are: fused deposition modeling (FDM), Injection 3D printing (3DP), Stereolithography (SLA), and finally selective laser sintering (SLS). The 3D printing technique has several applications, however, the focus in this project is to analyze the various medical applications and the main advantages and disadvantages associated with it. Some of the main applications of this type of technology that will be described throughout the project are: - Bioprinting of tissues and organs - Customized Implants and Protheses - Anatomical Models for Surgical Application - Pharmaceutical Application The main objective will be to analyze, for these procedures, what are the advantages associated with the use of 3D technology and what are the goals for the future in this field. In addition, it will be important to mention the advantages and disadvantages of this combination (3D printing and medicine) in a more general overview, identifying numerous advantages but also potential risks that need to be taken into account. In order to deepen the analysis further, two practical cases will be studied, ensuring their contextualization for the project and also a verification of the improvements and processes facilitated by the application of 3D technology in these fields

The space-time torsion in the context of the Exact Foldy-Wouthuysen Transformation for a Dirac fermion

In this work we focus our attention in the inconsistency that appears when the Semi-Exact Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation for the Dirac field interacting with space-time torsion field is performed. In order to solve this problem, we present a new involution operator that makes possible to perform the exact transformation when torsion field is present. Such operator has a structure, well known in the literature, composed of the product of an operator that acts in the matrices space and another one that acts in the function space. We also present the bound state of this theory and discuss the possible experimental analysis

Extractability and mobility of mercury from agricultural soils surrounding industrial and mining contaminated areas

This study focussed on a comparison of the extractability of mercury in soils with two different contamination sources (a chlor-alkali plant and mining activities) and on the evaluation of the influence of specific soil properties on the behaviour of the contaminant. The method applied here did not target the identification of individual species, but instead provided information concerning the mobility of mercury species in soil. Mercury fractions were classified as mobile, semi-mobile and non-mobile. The fractionation study revealed that in all samples mercury was mainly present in the semi-mobile phase (between 63 and 97%). The highest mercury mobility (2.7 mg kg-1) was found in soils from the industrial area. Mining soils exhibited higher percentage of non-mobile mercury, up to 35%, due to their elevated sulfur content. Results of factor analysis indicate that the presence of mercury in the mobile phase could be related to manganese and aluminum soil contents. A positive relation between mercury in the semi-mobile fraction and the aluminium content was also observed. By contrary, organic matter and sulfur contents contributed to mercury retention in the soil matrix reducing the mobility of the metal. Despite known limitations of sequential extraction procedures, the methodology applied in this study for the fractionation of mercury in contaminated soil samples provided relevant information on mercury's relative mobility

Aprender matemática em ambientes online

Nesta comunicação apresentam-se indicadores, resultantes de uma investigação, sobre a utilização de ambientes online por alunos do 5.º ano de escolaridade, na resolução de problemas de matemática. Os problemas, contextualizados no programa oficial de matemática do 5.º ano de escolaridade, foram apresentados em fóruns de discussão na plataforma moodle. Dos aspectos analisados na investigação serão enfatizados o nível de satisfação dos alunos quando utilizam ambientes online na resolução de problemas de matemática e o tipo de interacção desenvolvida entre eles durante a resolução de problemas. O nível de satisfação dos alunos relativamente à utilização de ambientes online foi elevado. As interacções desenvolvidas durante a resolução de problemas foram caracterizadas em interacção convergente, monólogo e interacção divergente. O tipo de interacção mais frequente entre os alunos foi sob a forma de monólogo

Energy resources scheduling in competitive environment

The increasing use of distributed generation units based on renewable energy sources, the consideration of demand-side management as a distributed resource, and the operation in the scope of competitive electricity markets have caused important changes in the way that power systems are operated. The new distributed resources require an entity (player) capable to make them able to participate in electricity markets. This entity has been known as Virtual Power Player (VPP). VPPs need to consider all the business opportunities available to their resources, considering all the relevant players, the market and/or other VPPs to accomplish their goals. This paper presents a methodology that considers all these opportunities to minimize the operation costs of a VPP. The method is applied to a distribution network managed by four independent VPPs with intensive use of distributed resources

Influência do instrumento de preparo protético e da estratégia de cimentação adesiva na resistência de união à dentina

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde, 2017.Os diferentes instrumentos disponíveis para o preparo protético podem produzir padrões de smear layer distintos e alterar a interação da dentina com os sistemas adesivos e cimentos resinosos. Os objetivos da presente pesquisa foram caracterizar a smear layer decorrente do preparo protético com diferentes instrumentos e avaliar a resistência de união à dentina de diferentes combinações de instrumentos de preparo protético e estratégias de cimentação adesiva. Material e método: 50 terceiros molares humanos foram utilizados para o estudo. 4 discos de dentina foram utilizados para a caracterização sob microscopia eletrônica de varredura da morfologia da smear layer produzida pelos diferentes instrumentos de preparo protético testados, ponta diamantada rugosa (C), ponta diamantada fina (F), broca multilaminada (L) e jateamento com óxido de alumínio (O). 96 hemi-dentes tiveram dentina coronária média exposta e planificada com lixas. A dentina foi então preparada com os quatro instrumentos para preparo protético (C, F, L e O). Três diferentes estratégias de cimentação foram utilizadas, condicione e lave (ER), autocondicionante (SE) e autoadesiva (SA) para cimentar à dentina preparada em blocos de resina composta. Os hemi-dentes (n=8 para cada combinação de instrumento e estratégia de cimentação) foram então seccionados em palitos e submetidos ao teste de resistência de união à microtração. Os dados foram submetidos à análise estatística por ANOVA a 2-critérios e teste post hoc de Tukey (α=0,05). Os padrões de fratura foram analisados sob microscopia óptica e microscopia eletrônica de varredura (MEV). Resultados: O tipo de instrumento utilizado promoveu smear layers com características morfológicas distintas. A variável instrumento de preparo não teve efeito estatisticamente significativo na resistência de união à dentina (p=0,531). A variável estratégia de cimentação apresentou diferença estatisticamente significativa entre grupos (p<0,001). As estratégias de cimentação ER e SE apresentaram resistência de união significativamente superior à estratégia SA. Conclusões: Dentro das limitações deste estudo in vitro, o uso de diferentes instrumentos de preparo não alterou a resistência de união de restaurações indiretas à dentina para as estratégias de cimentação testadas. A cimentação autoadesiva promoveu valores de resistência de união à dentina inferiores às estratégias condicione e lave e autocondicionante.The different tools available for teeth preparation for dental prosthetics can produce different patterns of smear layer and alter the interaction of the dentin with the resin cements and bonding agents. The objectives of the present research were to characterize the residual smear layer that results from the teeth preparation with different burs and air abrasion and evaluate the tensile bond strength to the dentin with the association of different resin cementation strategies and different preparation instruments. Materials & Methods: 50 human fresh extracted teeth were used. 4 dentin discs were used to characterize the smear layer morphology produced by the tested tools under scanning eletron microscopy, coarse diamond bur (C), fine diamond bur (F), multibladed bur (L) and air abrasion with aluminium oxide (O). 96 hemi-teeth were ground flat to expose mid-coronal occlusal dentin surface with grit SiC paper. Dentin was then further prepared with four different preparation instruments (C, F, L e O). Three different cementation protocolos were used, etch & rinse (ER), self- etching (SE) and self-adhesive (SA) to bond resin-based composite blocks to the dentin surface. Simple shaped specimens were fabricated and microtensile bond strengths were determined. The sub- sequent debond pathway and micromorphological structures of representative dentin surfaces were examined under scanning electron microscopy (MEV). 2- way ANOVA and post hoc Tukey (α=0,05) were used to data analysis. Results: The instrument used in teeth preparation produced smear layers with distinct morphologic characteristics. The instrument variable did not produce significant satistical differences in the dentin bond strength (p=0,531). The cementation strategy variable presented significant statistical differences between the groups (p<0,001). ER and SE strategies produced higher bond strength values in comparison to the SA strategy. Conclusions: Within the limitations of our in vitro study, the use of different teeth preparation instruments did not alter the bond strength of indirect resin composites to the cementation strategies tested. The SA strategy resulted in lower bond strength results then those produced with ER and SE strategies