Questões acerca do coping: a propósito do estudo de adaptação do Brief Cope

O objectivo do presente estudo é investigar as propriedades psicométricas da versão reduzida do questionário de coping desenvolvido por Carver a partir da versão longa do mesmo questionário e, simultaneamente, discutir alguns aspectos de coping que se colocam no virar do século. Participaram no estudo 364 indivíduos, 41,5% do sexo masculino, com características idênticas aos participantes do estudo de Carver. O questionário Brief COPE foi submetido a tratamentos estatísticos idênticos ao original e os resultados encontrados são também idênticos à versão original. A versão encontrada em português é uma boa adaptação da versão original que sugere a sua utilidade em estudos no Campo da saúde? ------ ABTRACT ------ The primary purpose of the present paper is to identify the psychometric properties of the short form of the COPE scale named Brief-COPE. Participants are 364 individuals, 41.5% males, with similar characteristics of the participants in Carver’s study. The translation of the Brief-COPE followed standard procedures (translation, back translation, reconciliation, cultural equivalence verification of translation, identification of content validity, cognitive debriefing). Statistical procedures followed the original model. Portuguese version that emerges from the present study shows similar patterns to the original version. The Portuguese version proposed seems to be a good adaptation of the original one, and a useful instrument to be used in health psychology

Guest Editorial

[Excerpt] The 13th European Meeting on Ferroelectricity (EMF-13) has welcomed participants to Portugal for the first time in the history of these meetings. EMF-13 was held, from 28th June to 3rd July 2015, in the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto. The conference has been organized by the group “Polarized Materials and Functional Nanostructures” of the Materials Physics Institute, IFIMUP-IN, (IN - Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology), in the Physics and Astronomy Department of the Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto. The Local Organizing Committee included members of the Universities of Porto, Minho and Aveiro. Three hundred and sixty six attendees from thirty four countries in Europe, Asia, America, and Africa were fully registered at EMF-13 meeting. These participants took active part in the sessions and informal discussions that had place along the 5 days of the meeting. Five plenary talks, given by Vladimir Fridkin, David Field, Annette Bussmann-Holder, Manuel Bibes, and Stephen Rowley, sixty invited talks, and one hundred thirty five oral contributions covered a wide number of topics ranging from basic research to new characterization techniques or novel applications of ferroelectrics and related materials. Complementary to the program of the meeting, a one day satellite workshop on “Inelastic scattering in ferroic materials” took place on Sunday 28th. [...]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Contribuição para o estudo da adaptação portuguesa das escalas de ansiedade, depressão e stress (EADS) de 21 itens de Lovibond e Lovibond

A ansiedade e depressão são claramente distintas do ponto de vista fenomenológico mas empiricamente tem sido difícil separar os dois construtos. O modelo tripartido foi desenvolvido para clarificar a relação entre ansiedade e depressão. A escala aqui estudada propõe-se avaliar empiricamente a ansiedade depressão e stress segundo o modelo tripartido: mais especificamente o objectivo do presente estudo é adaptar as escalas de depressão ansiedade e stress de 21 itens numa perspectiva conservadora, ou seja, privilegiou-se um modelo de construção com base na teoria tal como os autores sugerem, tentando encontrar uma solução em língua Portuguesa semelhante à original. A Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) que aqui designaremos de Escalas de Ansiedade Depressão e Stress (EADS-21) em que o número designa o número de itens, constituem uma escala de 21 itens distribuídos em número igual pelas três dimensões: Depressão, Ansiedade e Stress. Os sujeitos respondem em que medida experimentaram cada sintoma na última emana assinalando numa escala de frequência de quatro pontos. Participaram 200 sujeitos, idade M=19,79, DP=1,11, variando entre os 18 e os 23 anos, que construíram uma amostra de conveniência. Os resultados apontam para uma estrutura semelhante à Australiana apontando para a possibilidade de ser utilizada em Português. A variância comum às duas variáveis- -ansiedade e depressão é de cerca de 27% o que constitui uma aproximação satisfatória ao objectivo da utilização destas escalas que é de reduzir a variância comum. ------ ABSTRACT ------ Anxiety and depression are clearly distinct from a phenomenological point of view. Nevertheless it has proven to be difficult to distinguish these constructs empirically. The scale in the present study intends to evaluate these constructs under the perspective of the tripartite model. The aims of the present study is the adaptation to Portuguese of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales that in Portuguese become Escalas de Ansiedade Depressão e Stress (EADS-21) with the number 21 designating the number of items distributed in equal numbers by three scales, Depression, Anxiety and Stress. The subjects rate the extent to which they have experienced each symptom over the past week, on a 4-point severity/frequency scale. The EADS items were developed following a theoretical methodology confirmed by an empirical study of the theoretical model. Participants were a convenience sample of 200 Ss, between 18 and 23 years of age (M=19.79, SD=1.11). Results show a structure identical to the original Australian version, with the same items in the same scale. Common variance shared by anxiety and depression is around 27%, suggesting that the solution found in the Portuguese version reduces the traditional overlap found between the depression and anxiety

Design of a hexapod robotic system

The main purpose of this work was to design a prototype of an autonomous hexapod robot. This paper reports on an initial phase, where the basic geometry of the system was specified and improved through a kinematics and dynamic study, using a motion analysis software. This also allowed the design of all mechanical components and the definition of motion generation needs. In this paper the importance of legged robots on mobile research is emphasised. The capabilities of the computational programs specially dedicated to the analysis of mechanical systems are demonstrated. The mobility of the geometric model presented in this paper is a trade-off between natural idea and technical feasibility. Some results of the virtual simulation of the movement of this hexapod robotic system are presented

Kinematics and dynamics study of a hexapod robotic system using computational packages’ capabilities

The main purpose of this work was to perform kinematics and dynamics analysis of a prototype of an autonomous hexapod robot. This paper reports on an initial phase, where the basic geometry of the system was specified and improved through a kinematics and dynamic study by using a motion analysis software. This study also allowed the design of all mechanical components and the definition of motion generation needs. In this paper the importance of legged robots on mobile research is emphasised. The capabilities of the computational programs specially dedicated to the analysis of mechanical systems are also discussed. The mobility of the geometric model presented in this paper is a trade-off between natural idea and technical feasibility. Some results of the computational simulations of the movement of the proposed hexapod robotic system are presented and discussed under the premises and assumptions adopted in this work

Review of fiber-optic pressure sensors for biomedical and biomechanical applications

As optical fibers revolutionize the way data is carried in telecommunications, the same is happening in the world of sensing. Fiber-optic sensors (FOS) rely on the principle of changing the properties of light that propagate in the fiber due to the effect of a specific physical or chemical parameter. We demonstrate the potentialities of this sensing concept to assess pressure in biomedical and biomechanical applications. FOSs are introduced after an overview of conventional sensors that are being used in the field. Pointing out their limitations, particularly as minimally invasive sensors, is also the starting point to argue FOSs are an alternative or a substitution technology. Even so, this technology will be more or less effective depending on the efforts to present more affordable turnkey solutions and peer-reviewed papers reporting in vivo experiments and clinical trials.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Electric mobility in Portugal : municipal plans for its promotion

The electric mobility program in Portugal is based on four strategic areas, namely the business model, infrastructure, incentives and communication, also supported by a completely adjusted legislation, which is subjacent to the priorities defined in the Portuguese Program for Electric Mobility. A Model for Electric Mobility was also defined, supported by four main components: the value chain, actors, charging network and operation of the pilot-phase. In this work the different phases of implementation of this Program will be identified, with particular emphasis to the measures and incentives in the pilot-phase to promote the use of electric vehicles, such as the development of 25 municipal plans to promote the electric mobility at a local level, covering the principal municipalities of the country to generate a coherent and logical charging network. This paper presents the first steps in electric mobility planning in Portugal in order to justify the decisions taken by the municipalities in this very early stage of its implementation. As an example, the results for the municipality of Beja, located in South of Portugal, will be presented

Indoor Position System Based on a Zigbee Network

TAIS group has developed an indoor position system prototype based on a fingerprint positioning algorithm. The prototype uses IEEE 802.15.4 mote and BitCloud Stack, a full-featured ZigBee Compliant, second generation embedded software stack from Atmel. The design requirements of the prototype were only to determine the actual position in a room of a user in a building, so the prototype accuracy is room accuracy. TAIS group decided to compete in the second edition of EvAAL Competition. This paper presents all the step made to adapt the prototype to the EvAAL environment, the found drawbacks and the obtained results. One of the most important drawback was that the Smart House Living Lab of the Polytechnic University of Madrid has only two rooms, the required accuracy was meters (error less than or equal to 0,5 meters the higher score, higher than 4 meters no score) and the room accuracy was substituted by areas of interest so the behavior of our prototype was going to work was an incognita.Junta de Andalucía p08-TIC-363

Interpretation of gravity data to delineate structural features connected to low-temperature geothermal resources at Northeastern Portugal

A great number of low-temperature geothermal fields occur in Northern-Portugal related to fractured rocks. The most important superficial manifestations of these hydrothermal systems appear in pull-apart tectonic basins and are strongly conditioned by the orientation of the main fault systems in the region. This work presents the interpretation of gravity gradient maps and 3D inversion model produced from a regional gravity survey. The horizontal gradients reveal a complex fault system. The obtained 3D model of density contrast puts into evidence the main fault zone in the region and the depth distribution of the granitic bodies. Their relationship with the hydrothermal systems supports the conceptual models elaborated from hydrochemical and isotopic water analyses. This work emphasizes the importance of the role of the gravity method and analysis to better understand the connection between hydrothermal systems and the fractured rock pattern and surrounding geology. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved