O impacto da Educação de Infância no desenvolvimento e aprendizagem das crianças: revisão da literatura

A bibliografia tem sido unânime na saliência dos benefícios da Educação de Infância para o sucesso educativo e na vida futura das crianças. Este estudo analisa alguns estudos longitudinais, que acompanham diversos programas centrados no desenvolvimento das crianças nos domínios cognitivo, emocional, interacional, social e moral, identificam impactos positivos da frequência desses programas a nível académico, qualidade de emprego, rendimento financeiro, retorno financeiro para o estado, bem como nos comportamentos sociais penalizáveis. Metodologicamente, o estudo segue uma linha de pesquisa qualitativa, analisando o conteúdo da bibliografia que resulta do levantamento dos estudos longitudinais realizados em diferentes países. Da análise emergiram duas categorias fundamentais: efeitos da educação de infância a curto e a longo prazo; a influência da Educação de Infância no desenvolvimento e aprendizagens curriculares das crianças ao nível emocional, da comunicação, linguagem e literacia, do raciocínio e saberes matemáticos e do conhecimento do mundo. Os programas analisados destacam benéficos a curto e a longo prazo, assinalando melhorias significativas ao nível do desenvolvimento cognitivo, emocional, social e moral das crianças, bem como a construção de atitudes relativas à de saúde e segurança. Adicionalmente, a perceção das famílias sobre a importância da escola para a construção de ambientes seguros e calorosos é também melhorada, contribuindo para potenciar o sucesso.The literature refers the benefits of early childhood education on educational success and in the children’s life. This study analyzes longitudinal studies about different programs focusing on children’s cognitive, emotional, interactive, social and moral development. The studies identify positive impacts on the academic level, the quality of employment, the economic performance, crime prevention, family relationships, and health and cost-benefits for the State. We follow a qualitative research methodology analyzing the content of the monographs held about longitudinal studies, conducted in different countries. The analysis shows two key categories: effects of early childhood education in the short and the long term; the influence of early childhood education in curricular development and learning (emotional, language and communication literacy, reasoning and mathematical knowledge. The programs highlight benefits in the short and long term, revealing significant improvements in children’s cognitive, emotional, social and moral skills, as well as the construction of attitudes towards health and safety. In addition, the perception of the families about the importance of school for building safe and warm environments is also improved, contributing to increase the success.La bibliografía evidencia los beneficios de la educación infantil en el suceso educativo y en la vida futura de los niños. Este trabajo analiza los estudios longitudinales que inciden sobre programas centrados en el desarrollo de los niños. Estos estudios identifican los impactos positivos de haber frecuentado estos programas a nivel académico, cognitivo, emocional, interactivo, social y moral, de la calidad del empleo, de los beneficios financieros, así como de los comportamientos socialmente punibles. Metodológicamente, este estudio sigue una línea de investigación cualitativa, analizando el contenido de la literatura que resulta de la investigación producida sobre de los estudios longitudinales. El análisis reveló dos categorías: los efectos de la Educación Infantil en el corto y el largo plazo; la influencia de la Educación Infantil en el desarrollo curricular y el aprendizaje de los niños. Los programas analizados destacan los beneficios a corto y largo plazo, teniendo en cuenta las mejoras cognitivas, a nivel emocional, social y moral, así como la construcción de las actitudes hacia la salud y la seguridad. Además, también afirma la mejora la percepción de las familias sobre la importancia de la escuela para la construcción de entornos seguros y cálidos, lo que contribuye a aumentar el suceso

Important Contribution to Aerosol Oxidative Potential from Residential Solid Fuel Burning in Central Ireland

Numerous studies have shown negative health effects related to exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM), likely due to induced oxidative stress. In this study, we have examined ambient PM samples from Birr, a small (~5000 inhabitants) town in central Ireland, for their water-soluble DTT-based oxidative potential (OP_DTT) with a resolution of 6 h, together with online chemical characterization measurements, to assess the OP of organic aerosols, in particular from residential solid fuel burning. The OP_DTT normalized by the volume of sampled air shows a high variability, ranging from −1 m−3, and a high correlation with PM mass. A lower variability was associated with the mass-normalized OP. Nevertheless, both tended to present higher values during night-time pollution episodes. Simple and multivariate linear regression approaches linked OP_DTT to residential solid fuel burning, and in particular to wood (~87%) and peat (~13%) combustion. The results of the present study show how residential solid fuel burning can have a severe impact on air quality, even in small towns, with potential negative health effects on the exposed population

Development and validation of a prediction model for severe respiratory failure in hospitalized patients with SARS-Cov-2 infection: a multicenter cohort study (PREDI-CO study)

We aimed to develop and validate a risk score to predict severe respiratory failure (SRF) among patients hospitalized with coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19)

APE-100 Computer: (i) The Architecture

We describe APE-100, a SIMD, modular parallel processor architecture for large scale scientific computations. The largest configuration that will be implemented in the present design will deliver a peak speed of 100 Gflops. This performance is, for instance, required for high precision computations in Quantum Chromo Dynamics, for which APE-100 is very well suited. Keywords: Parallelism, architectures, floating point, VLSI. 1. Overview. In the years 1985\Gamma1987, the APE collaboration has been involved in a major effort to design and build a parallel computer in the 1 Gflops range. APE [1] has been one among several projects [2] that have built floating point engines mainly tailored to the requirements of numerical simulations of Lattice Gauge Theories (LGT) and especially of Lattice Quantum Chromo Dynamics [3] (QCD), the gauge theory which, in the continuum limit, is supposed to describe the strong interactions between elementary particles. Three APE units, featuring floating poi..

Development and validation of a prediction model for severe respiratory failure in hospitalized patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection: a multicentre cohort study (PREDI-CO study)

Objectives: We aimed to develop and validate a risk score to predict severe respiratory failure (SRF) among patients hospitalized with coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19).Methods: We performed a multicentre cohort study among hospitalized (>24 hours) patients diagnosed with COVID-19 from 22 February to 3 April 2020, at 11 Italian hospitals. Patients were divided into derivation and validation cohorts according to random sorting of hospitals. SRF was assessed from admission to hospital discharge and was defined as: SpO(2) <93% with 100% FiO(2), respiratory rate >30 breaths/min or respiratory distress. Multivariable logistic regression models were built to identify predictors of SRF, beta-coefficients were used to develop a risk score. Trial Registration NCT04316949.Results: We analysed 1113 patients (644 derivation, 469 validation cohort). Mean (+/- SD) age was 65.7 (+/- 15) years, 704 (63.3%) were male. SRF occurred in 189/644 (29%) and 187/469 (40%) patients in the derivation and validation cohorts, respectively. At multivariate analysis, risk factors for SRF in the derivation cohort assessed at hospitalization were age >= 70 years (OR 2.74; 95% CI 1.66-4.50), obesity (OR 4.62; 95% CI 2.78-7.70), body temperature >= 38 degrees C (OR 1.73; 95% CI 1.30-2.29), respiratory rate >= 22 breaths/min (OR 3.75; 95% CI 2.01-7.01), lymphocytes <= 900 cells/mm(3) (OR 2.69; 95% CI 1.60-4.51), creatinine >= 1 mg/dL (OR 2.38; 95% CI 1.59-3.56), C-reactive protein >= 10 mg/dL (OR 5.91; 95% CI 4.88 -7.17) and lactate dehydrogenase >= 350 IU/L (OR 2.39; 95% CI 1.11-5.11). Assigning points to each variable, an individual risk score (PREDI-CO score) was obtained. Area under the receiver-operator curve was 0.89 (0.86-0.92). At a score of >3, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 71.6% (65%-79%), 89.1% (86%-92%), 74% (67%-80%) and 89% (85%-91%), respectively. PREDI-CO score showed similar prognostic ability in the validation cohort: area under the receiver-operator curve 0.85 (0.81e0.88). At a score of >3, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 80% (73%-85%), 76% (70%-81%), 69% (60%-74%) and 85% (80%-89%), respectively.Conclusion: PREDI-CO score can be useful to allocate resources and prioritize treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic. (c) 2020 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved