Accessibility and Development in Peripheral Regions. The Case for Beira Interior

Beira Interior is a Portuguese region located at the centre of Portugal, close to the Spanish border, and traditionally seen as a strongly peripheral region. In the last years the decrease in population and weaknesses of the industrial park have been justified on basis of shortness and/or lack of quality in transport infrastructure. In order to evaluate whether there is in fact a case in favour of infrastructure shortage we have developed a methodology that would allow us to identify the accessibility gains in the recent past, the ones foreseeable in the usually adopted planning periods and the ones possible in a asymptotic scenario of strong generalised accessibility, enabling this way to make explicit identification of the gains already achieved and the ones still possible. The evolution of values of the studied region was compared with the corresponding values in the region Litoral Centro – the region that was also used as benchmark in a previous consultation process to industrial key informants operating in Beira Interior. This thematic is extremely important for the region and for the country since the conclusions obtained will enable a better supported discussion on additional investment in transport infrastructure.

Accessibility and Development in Peripheral Regions. The Case for Beira Interior

Beira Interior is a Portuguese region located at the centre of Portugal, close to the Spanish border, and traditionally seen as a strongly peripheral region. In the last years the decrease in population and weaknesses of the industrial park have been justified on basis of shortness and/or lack of quality in transport infrastructure. In order to evaluate whether there is in fact a case in favour of infrastructure shortage we have developed a methodology that would allow us to identify the accessibility gains in the recent past, the ones foreseeable in the usually adopted planning periods and the ones possible in a asymptotic scenario of strong generalised accessibility, enabling this way to make explicit identification of the gains already achieved and the ones still possible. The evolution of values of the studied region was compared with the corresponding values in the region Litoral Centro – the region that was also used as benchmark in a previous consultation process to industrial key informants operating in Beira Interior. This thematic is extremely important for the region and for the country since the conclusions obtained will enable a better supported discussion on additional investment in transport infrastructure

Papel do curador numa indústria criativa num local de baixa densidade

Mestrado em Criação Artística ContemporâneaEste relatório enquadra-se no âmbito de uma investigação na área de estudos de arte realizada durante o período de estágio numa empresa do sector das indústrias criativas num território de baixa densidade populacional (concelho de Óbidos). O estágio teve a duração de nove meses, de Novembro de 2010 a Julho de 2011. Durante esse período foram desenvolvidas tarefas nas áreas da curadoria, comunicação, produção, design e criação artística contemporânea. Neste documento procura-se discutir o papel e o contributo de um curador numa indústria criativa localizada numa região de baixa-densidadeThis report is part of an investigation in the area of art studies develop during the internship’s period in an enterprise from the creative industries sector in a low density area (Óbidos, Portugal). This nine month internship was developed from November 2010 to July 2011. During that period were developed tasks in the area of curatorship, communication, production, design and contemporary artistic creation. The objective with this document is to discuss the role and the contribution of a curator in a creative industry located in a low-density area

A Acessibilidade como um factor chave do desenvolvimento do turismo em regiões periféricas: O caso da Beira Interior

Tourism and accessibilities are interlinked. On one hand tourism is a driving factor for and (often) a stimulator of change in accessibilities; on the other hand accessibilities themselves opened new touristic destination perspectives even helping to develop locally correlated new business models. Beira Interior is located close to the Spanish border and traditionally seen as a peripheral region. In the last years the weaknesses of the tourism industry have been justified on the basis of shortness and/or lack of quality in accessibilities, mainly those concerning transport infrastructures. In order to evaluate whether there is in fact a case in favour of accessibility shortage we developed a methodology that would allow us to identify the accessibility gains in the recent past, the ones foreseeable in the usually adopted planning periods and the ones possible in a asymptotic scenario of strong generalised accessibility, enabling this way to make explicit identification of the gains already achieved and the ones still possible. Finally, this methodology allows evidencing either geographic directions or partner regions for which Beira Interior could get significant contributions in the development of its tourist potential, also targeting the future installation under high competitiveness conditions of new business models associated with this economic activit

Applying Airport Centrality as an Operational Continuity Indicator

Purpose: The research aims to propose a methodology to estimate the reliability of the Brazilian airport network (domestic passenger traffic), based on the centrality of airports (Network Theory). Design/methodology: The applied methodologies are related to Network Theory, a branch of Graph Theory, and reliability. Reliability is associated with the good functioning of a product or system, the absence of breaks or failures in each period and the environmental conditions of use of the item. The data used refer to the period 2000-2018 and were obtained from the sector's regulatory body in Brazil. The study allows to estimate the reliability of the airport network, based on the centrality of airports (Network Theory). Findings: The results allow airports to be classified into three groups: adequate context, worrying context and critical context, thus signalling airports that may stop operating regular domestic traffic. Research limitations/implications: The study does not aim to overlap or replace conventional analyses, recognized by the results, and applied over time. However, to present a new tool that allows the monitoring and preliminary analysis of airport networks, mainly domestic and regional networks, signalling to airport operators, regulators, and airlines the need for intervention (measures to reverse the trend) in the network, thus allowing, economic development and equitable access to all regions. Originality/value: The proposal of a complementary methodology based on the centrality of airports to analyze operational continuity.Peer Reviewe

The Impact of Cognitive Fatigue on Airline Pilots Performance

Purpose: Air transport is a highly regulated branch of aviation, but it continues to show occurrences where human error is present. Fatigue is now recognized as a hazard which degrades human performance and can put flight safety at risk. In this regard, the general objective of this study is to assess the impact of cognitive fatigue on airline pilots and how it can contribute to the occurrence of accidents and incidents. Design/methodology: Three airline pilots participated in the case study. The participants’ cognitive fatigue was monitored according to four methods, being two of them of a subjective nature – the sleep diary (SD) and the Samn-Perelli 7-Point Fatigue Scale (SPS), and the other two of an objective nature – the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) and the actigraphy (actiwatch ReadibandTM 5). During their flight duty periods (FDPs), the pilots’ performance was also assessed according to the score delivered by a fatigue management software (FAID®). Findings: The obtained results allowed to understand whether the pilots are aware of their alertness and to identify factors which affect their performance levels. Between the beginning and the end of each FDP, significant changes were observed concerning the assessment on the SPS scale, the reaction time (RT) and the fatigue score generated by the biomathematical models associated to the technique of the actigraphy and the software FAID®. Originality/value: The risk of accident or serious error was classified according to the four methodologies used. Thus, it is possible to verify if there is a correspondence between the different scales or if there are scales more conservative (with a higher associated risk) than others.Peer Reviewe

Relationship between anthropometric variables and body image dissatisfaction among fitness center users

The purpose of this study was to identify the anthropometric dimensions related with body image dissatisfaction among fitness center users. Participants were 276 Brazilian members of fitness centers (168 males and 108 females) with ages between 17 and 39 years (mage = 23.93, sd = 5.17). After body mass (BM), body mass index (BMI) and body fat (% BF) were measured, participants indicated their current (cs) and ideal (Is) silhouettes, allowing the calculation of body dissatisfaction as the difference between Is and cs. BMI and % BF were grouped by body dissatisfaction category and analyzed using one-way and repeated measures ANoVA. results revealed that only 1.2 % of men and 6.5 % of women considered themselves satisfied with their body. comparisons of global ratings of their cs and Is revealed that male and female individuals reported that their current bodies were significantly less muscular than their ideal bodies (p < .001), although the degree of dissatisfaction revealed no significant difference between sexes. Moreover, results demonstrated that the relationship between body composition and body dissatisfaction only occurs in individuals that feel very dissatisfied with their body image and appearance

Exploring inhalable polymeric dry powders for anti-tuberculosis drug delivery

The growing interest on polymeric delivery systems for pulmonary administration of drugs anticipates a more direct and efficient treatment of diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) that uses the pulmonary route as the natural route of infection. Polymeric microparticles or nano-in-microparticles offer target delivery of drugs to the lungs and the potential to control and sustain drug release within TB infected macrophages improving the efficiency of the anti-TB treatment and reducing side effects. In a dry powder form these inhalable delivery systems have increased stability and prolonged storage time without requiring refrigeration, besides being cost-effective and patient convenient. Thus, this review aims to compile the recent innovations of inhalable polymeric dry powder systems for the delivery of anti-TB drugs exploring the methods of production, aerodynamic characterization and the efficacy of targeted drug delivery systems using in vitro and in vivo models of the disease. Advanced knowledge and promising outcomes of these systems are anticipated to simplify and revolutionize the pulmonary drug delivery and to contribute towards more effective anti-TB treatments.The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for the postdoctoral grant of M.S.M (SFRH/BPD/110868/2015), M.T.R (SFRH/BPD/111729/2015) and R.M.A.D (SFRH/BPD/112459/2015), FCT grant of E.T. (IF/01390/2014) and Recognize project (UTAP-ICDT/ CTM-BIO/0023/2014). This article is also a result of the project “Accelerating tissue engineering and personalized medicine discoveries by the integration of key enabling nanotechonologies, marine-derived biomaterials and stem cells”, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The authors acknowledge the financial support from the European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation HORIZON 2020, under the TEAMING Grant agreement No 739572 - The Discoveries CTR.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Development of Inhalable Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (SPIONs) in microparticulate system for antituberculosis drug delivery

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease which affects millions of people worldwide. Inhalable polymeric dry powders are promising alternatives as anti-TB drug carriers to the alveoli milieu and infected macrophages, with potential to significantly improve the therapeutics efficiency. Here, the development of a magnetically responsive microparticulate system for pulmonary delivery of an anti-TB drug candidate (P3) is reported. Microparticles (MPs) are developed based on a cast method using calcium carbonate sacrificial templates and incorporate superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles to concentrate MPs in alveoli and enable drug on demand release upon actuation of an external alternate magnetic field (AMF). The MPs are shown to be suitable for P3 delivery to the lower airways and for alveolar macrophage phagocytosis. The developed MPs reveal unique and promising features to be used as an inhalable dry powder allowing the AMF control over dosage and frequency of drug delivery anticipating improved TB treatments.The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for the postdoctoral grant of M.S.M. (SFRH/BPD/110868/2015) and R.M.A.D (SFRH/BPD/112459/2015), FCT grant of E.T. (IF/01390/2014) and Recognize project (UTAP-ICDT/CTM-BIO/0023/2014). This article is also a result of the project “Accelerating tissue engineering and personalized medicine discoveries by the integration of key enabling nanotechnologies, marine-derived biomaterials and stem cells,” supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The authors acknowledge the financial support from the European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation HORIZON 2020, under the TEAMING Grant Agreement No. 739572 – The Discoveries CTR.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio