Civil economy as a path towards sustainability: An empirical investigation

Contemporary societies face a myriad of challenges that require the modification of patterns, ways of living, being and producing. Although climate change is one of the most glaring problems, it cannot be understood merely by environmental aspects. Many of these challenges are interrelated and have their roots in a set of crystallized structures that are obsolete, namely the economic ones. Contemporary capitalism has been proving its limitations and contribution to less fair, harmonious and sustainable societies. Evidence of this is the policy efforts that many organizations, such as the European Commission, are making to promote environmental transitions, the circular economy, and green innovations. This article argues that the concept of civil economy may be complementary to this green policy agenda for reflecting on current social challenges and emphasize the importance of cultural, environmental, spiritual and economic resources operating together. It pays attention to gift-giving as a form of civil economy, defining a framework inspired by positive sociology. The article uses the case study of "Los Portales", an intentional sustainable community located in Spain, with around 40 inhabitants and more than 40 years of existence. The study is of ethnographic character and based on in-depth interviews with experts on the economic governance of this community. The results show that the principles of the gift economy were crucial to the success and longevity of the community. They also suggest an agency-centred approach in which individuals should engage activities that promote personal happiness, collective happiness and prosperity.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Risk Analysis Study for The Implementation of An Offshore Port in The State of Pará.

The advancement of maritime transport in the world in recent years has proved to be very efficient, leading to the expansion of one of the main ocean transposition channels in the world. Aware of this reality, this work develops an assessment of the implementation of a port project in the northern region of Brazil, using Monte Carlo methodology-based risk analysis software, computer simulations are generated for a 35-year lifespan, resulting in the distribution and tornado readings of the main existing risks and the optimal market rate (14,7%), for 100% of project feasibility

Innovative and transition potential of intentional sustainable communities

The number of ecovillages – intentional sustainable communities – is showing signs of growth all over the world. These self-organized groups can be seen as agents of change that may contribute to the transition to a more sustainable environmental, social, economic and political paradigm. This article seeks to reflect on the ‘transitional potential’ of intentional sustainable communities as mechanisms that foster the development of social innovation practices. It is an exploratory study that debates the articulation between an empirical phenomenon, the existence of this type of communities, and a theoretical perspective, the study of transitions. This study is based on a systematic literature review to identify relevant analytical dimensions and suggests a conceptual model that provides comprehension of the phenomenon of intentional sustainable communities as a mechanism for social innovation and transformative change

Current status

Domino Liver transplant (DLT) is a strategy to address organ shortage and expand the liver donor pool for liver transplantation. Despite offering some unique technical challenges, DLT appears to be a safe and reasonable option to be considered for selected patients who would otherwise not benefit from liver transplantation. However, the benefit of expanding the donor pool must be balanced against the risk of disease transmission.In this review, we present where the DLT currently stands worldwide and our own experience with this procedure.publishersversionpublishe

Marine Operations with the SWORDFISH Autonomous Surface Vehicle

IEEE Robótica 2007 - 7th Conference on Mobile Robots and Competitions, Paderne, Portugal 2007This paper describes the design and development of the Swordfish Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) system. The work focuses the sensors, actuators, communications and C4I of an unmanned vehicle for marine operations. SWORDFISH is an autonomous surface vehicle used as the central communications link between air, undersea, and terrestrial robotic vehicles of a network centric operation. It is used as a test bed platform for deployment and testing of advanced control and operational concepts for multi-vehicles systems. This new unmanned marine vehicle was done in the context of the PISCIS project. The PISCIS project concerns the development, test and evaluation of new vehicles and new concepts of operation for networked vehicle systems in oceanographic data collection. The PISCIS system includes two autonomous underwater vehicles, the Swordfish ASV, an acoustic navigation system, acoustic and radio communications and a distributed command and control system

Impact of Preoperative Chemotherapy Features on Patient Outcomes after Hepatectomy for Initially Unresectable Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastases: A LiverMetSurvey Analysis

Liver metastases; Liver resection; Preoperative chemotherapyMetástasis hepáticas; Resección hepática; Quimioterapia preoperatoriaMetàstasis hepàtiques; Resecció hepàtica; Quimioteràpia preoperatòriaBackground: Prognostic factors have been extensively reported after resection of colorectal liver metastases (CLM); however, specific analyses of the impact of preoperative systemic anticancer therapy (PO-SACT) features on outcomes is lacking. Methods: For this real-world evidence study, we used prospectively collected data within the international surgical LiverMetSurvey database from all patients with initially-irresectable CLM. The main outcome was Overall Survival (OS) after surgery. Disease-free (DFS) and hepatic-specific relapse-free survival (HS-RFS) were secondary outcomes. PO-SACT features included duration (cumulative number of cycles), choice of the cytotoxic backbone (oxaliplatin- or irinotecan-based), fluoropyrimidine (infusional or oral) and addition or not of targeted monoclonal antibodies (anti-EGFR or anti-VEGF). Results: A total of 2793 patients in the database had received PO-SACT for initially irresectable diseases. Short (<7 or <13 cycles in 1st or 2nd line) PO-SACT duration was independently associated with longer OS (HR: 0.85 p = 0.046), DFS (HR: 0.81; p = 0.016) and HS-RFS (HR: 0.80; p = 0.05). All other PO-SACT features yielded basically comparable results. Conclusions: In this international cohort, provided that PO-SACT allowed conversion to resectability in initially irresectable CLM, surgery performed as soon as technically feasible resulted in the best outcomes. When resection was achieved, our findings indicate that the choice of PO-SACT regimen had a marginal if any, impact on outcomes

Design and evaluation of a choreography-based virtual reality authoring tool for experiential learning in industrial training

The use of virtual reality (VR) for industrial training helps minimize risks and costs by allowing more frequent and varied use of experiential learning activities, leading to active and improved learning. However, creating VR training experiences is costly and time-consuming, requiring software development experts. Additionally, current authoring tools lack integration with existing data and are desktop-oriented, which detach the pedagogic process of creating the immersive experience from experiencing it in a situated context. In this article, we present a novel interactive approach for immersive authoring of VR-based experiential training by the trainers themselves, from inside the virtual environment and without the support of development experts. The design includes identifying interactable elements, such as 3-D models, equipment, tools, settings, and environment. The trainer also specifies by demonstration the actions to be performed by trainees, as a virtual choreography. During course execution, trainees’ activities are also registered as virtual choreographies and matched to those specified by the trainer. Thus, trainer and trainee are culturally situated within their area semantics and social discourse, rather than adopting concepts of the VR system for the learning content. We conducted a usability case study with professionals from an international wind energy company, using detailed models of wind turbines and real-world procedures. Trainers set up a training course using the immersive authoring tool, and trainees executed the course. The learning experience and usability were analyzed, and the training was certified by comparing real-world task completion between a user who had undergone virtual training and a user who did not.Manuscript received 25 June 2021; revised 30 November 2021 and 18 February 2022; accepted 2 March 2022. Date of publication 7 March 2022; date of current version 21 October 2022. This work was supported in part by the ERDF - European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation - COMPETE 2020 under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, in part by the Portuguese National Innovation Agency (ANI) under Project POCI-01-0247-FEDER038524, and in part by Portuguese funding agency, FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, under Project UIDB/50014/2020. An earlier version of this paper was presented in part at the 2021 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D UserInterfaces[DOI: 10.1109/VRW52623.2021.00199].(Corresponding author: Fernando Cassola.) Fernando Cassola, Daniel Mendes, and Ant onio Coelho are with the INESC TEC, and Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, 4099-002 Porto, Portugal (e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]). Manuel Pinto and Hugo Paredes are with the INESC TEC and University of Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro, 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal (e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]). Leonel Morgado is with the INESC TEC and Universidade Aberta, 1250-100 Lisboa, Portugal (e-mail: [email protected]). Sara Costa, Luıs Anjos, David Marques, Filipe Rosa, Ana Maia, and Helga Tavares are with the Vestas Wind Systems, 2670-327 Loures, Portugal (email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TLT.2022.3157065info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Dermatologists' attitude towards psoriasis treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic

Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2021 Torres T, Pereira M, Paiva Lopes MJ, Rebelo C, Pedro Andrade P, Henrique M, Oliveira H, Ferreira P, Marques Pinto G, Menezes Brandão F, Rozeira J, Filipe P, Tavares Bello R. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Background: The COVID-19 pandemic introduced new challenges in several dimensions in healthcare services. Herein, we describe the real-life strategies and therapeutic options adopted by dermatologists regarding their patients with psoriasis being treated with or with an indication for systemic therapy during the first COVID-19 lockdown period in Portugal. Methods: The study involves a web-based survey on the clinical management of systemic therapy for psoriasis during the COVID-19 pandemic administered to Portuguese dermatologists. The survey consisted of 55 questions (4 openended questions; 51 closed-ended questions), grouped into 6 sections. Results: A total of 60 dermatologists voluntarily participated in this survey. Nearly 63% of the participants opted for suspending biologics during the COVID-19 lockdown period and 23.3% increased the time between drug administrations. Eighty percent of the participants agreed that biologics did not change the probability of acquiring COVID-19 and 58.4% believed that these drugs decreased or did not change the severity of the disease. Approximately one-third of the participants opted not to prescribe a biological agent in patients despite clinical indication over the duration of the pandemic. Nearly 25% of the participants opted for suspending traditional immunosuppressant administration. Virtual appointments were an option for 93.3% of the participants. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the management of patients with psoriasis being treated with or with an indication for systemic therapy. Some of the decisions made during the first lockdown period were contrary to what we know today. These decisions might have had a significant impact on patients' quality of life and on future therapeutic success. An adequate interpretation and analysis of the available data will be extremely important to an insightful adaptation of the clinical practice in future confinement or restrictive scenarios.publishersversionpublishe

A Cross-Sectional Study

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by S. Karger AG, Basel. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC). Usage and distribution for commercial purposes requires written permission.Background: Listing patients with alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) for liver transplant (LT) remains challenging especially due to the risk of alcohol resumption post-LT. We aimed to evaluate post-LT alcohol consumption at a Portuguese transplant center. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study including LT recipients from 2019 at Curry Cabral Hospital, Lisbon, Portugal. A pretested survey and a validated Portuguese translation of the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) were applied via a telephone call. Alcohol consumption was defined by patients' self-reports or a positive AUDIT. Results: In 2019, 122 patients underwent LT, and 99 patients answered the survey (June 2021). The mean (SD) age was 57 (10) years, 70 patients (70.7%) were males, and 49 (49.5%) underwent ALD-related LT. During a median (IQR) follow-up of 24 (20-26) months post-index LT, 22 (22.2%) recipients consumed any amount of alcohol: 14 had a drink monthly or less and 8 drank 2-4 times/month. On drinking days, 18 patients usually consumed 1-2 drinks and the remainder no more than 3-4 drinks. One patient reported having drunk ≥6 drinks on one occasion. All post-LT drinking recipients were considered low risk (score <8) as per the AUDIT score (median [IQR] of 1 [1-2]). No patient reported alcohol-related problems, whether self-inflicted or toward others. Drinking recipients were younger (53 vs. 59 years, p = 0.020), had more non-ALD-related LT (72.7 vs. 44.2%, p = 0.018) and active smoking (31.8 vs. 10.4%, p = 0.037) than abstinent ones. Conclusion: In our cohort, about a quarter of LT recipients consumed alcohol early posttransplant, all with a low-risk pattern according to the AUDIT score.publishersversionepub_ahead_of_prin

New Tool for Signal Patients at Risk

Introduction: Pancreas transplantation is currently the only treatment that can re-establish normal endocrine pancreatic function. Despite all efforts, pancreas allograft survival and rejection remain major clinical problems. The purpose of this study was to identify features that could signal patients at risk of pancreas allograft rejection. Methods: We collected 74 features from 79 patients who underwent simultaneous pancreas–kidney transplantation (SPK) and used two widely-applicable classification methods, the Naive Bayesian Classifier and Support Vector Machine, to build predictive models. We used the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve and classification accuracy to evaluate the predictive performance via leave-one-out cross-validation. Results: Rejection events were identified in 13 SPK patients (17.8%). In feature selection approach, it was possible to identify 10 features, namely: previous treatment for diabetes mellitus with long-term Insulin (U/I/day), type of dialysis (peritoneal dialysis, hemodialysis, or pre-emptive), de novo DSA, vPRA_Pre-Transplant (%), donor blood glucose, pancreas donor risk index (pDRI), recipient height, dialysis time (days), warm ischemia (minutes), recipient of intensive care (days). The results showed that the Naive Bayes and Support Vector Machine classifiers prediction performed very well, with an AUROC and classification accuracy of 0.97 and 0.87, respectively, in the first model and 0.96 and 0.94 in the second model. Conclusion: Our results indicated that it is feasible to develop successful classifiers for the prediction of graft rejection. The Naive Bayesian generated nomogram can be used for rejection probability prediction, thus supporting clinical decision making.publishersversionpublishe