The importance of hope for quality of life in patients with multiple sclerosis

Aims: This study intends to describe the importance of hope for the quality of life in patients with multiple sclerosis. Evidence has indicated that Hope is important as a buffer between risk factors, physical and psychological health status, and quality of life for patients with multiple sclerosis. Methods: The study was exploratory and descriptive. Setting: A general Hospital in Lisbon, Portugal. Participants: 280 patients with Multiple Sclerosis. We explore the relationship between Hope and Quality of Life. The instruments used are the Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life scale (MSQol-54) and the Hope Scale. Results: The correlation between the Hope Scale and the domains of MSQOL-54: Physical Health (r=0.24, p<0.05), Physical Role Limitations (r=0.25, p<0.05), Emotional Role Limitations (r=0.35, p<0.05), Pain (r=0.28, p<0.05),Well-being (r=0.48, p<0.01), Energy (r=0.42, p<0.01), Health in General (r=0.41, p<0.01), Social Function (r=0.45, p<0.01), Cognitive Function (r=0.28, p<0.05), Health Distress (r=0.52, p<0.01), Overal Qol (r=0.49, p<0.01), Sexual function (r=0.33, p<0.05), Change in Health (r=-0.17, p<0.05), and Satisfaction with sexual function (r=0.33, p<0.05). Conclusions: There is a statistically significant correlation between the variables, suggesting that hope can play an important role in the quality of life of patients with multiple sclerosis, especially in domains such as the perception of well-being, health in general, and social function, and distress.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Dissipation-induced long-range order in the one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model

Understanding the stability of strongly correlated phases of matter when coupled to environmental degrees of freedom is crucial for identifying the conditions under which these states may be observed. Here, we focus on the paradigmatic one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model, and study the stability of the Luttinger liquid and Mott insulating phases in the presence of local particle exchange with site-independent baths of non-interacting bosons. We perform a numerically exact analysis of this model by adapting the recently developed wormhole quantum Monte Carlo method for retarded interactions to a continuous-time formulation with worm updates; we show how the wormhole updates can be easily implemented in this scheme. For an Ohmic bath, our numerical findings confirm the scaling prediction that the Luttinger-liquid phase becomes unstable at infinitesimal bath coupling. We show that the ensuing phase is a long-range ordered superfluid with spontaneously-broken U(1) symmetry. While the Mott insulator remains a distinct phase for small bath coupling, it exhibits diverging compressibility and non-integer local boson occupation in the thermodynamic limit. Upon increasing the bath coupling, this phase undergoes a transition to a long-range ordered superfluid. Finally, we discuss the effects of super-Ohmic dissipation on the Luttinger-liquid phase. Our results are compatible with a stable dissipative Luttinger-liquid phase that transitions to a long-range ordered superfluid at a finite system-bath coupling.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figure

The protection of landscape as a resource. Case study - Monte da Guia Protected Area (Faial-Azores)

The evolution of the concept of landscape to incorporate components like cultural and socio-economic factors, in addition to the natural and aesthetic features, influenced the perception of landscape as a resource. On the other hand, the relationships between territorial features as well as the understanding of their temporal dynamics determine the significance of these features for the quality of a landscape and, consequently, for its conservation. This implies that all components – natural and physical, but also cultural and visual – upon which landscape quality is assessed, ought to be considered and studied globally. Natural resources and cultural heritage, however, are usually considered independently when developing protected areas management plans. Here, we present a methodology developed for the Monte da Guia management plan, which allows the interrelated analysis of landscape factors such as geology, geomorphology, pedology, flora and vegetation cover as well as the cultural and visual characters. Using the concepts of biophysical sensitivity and visual quality, we evaluated the relevance of these various factors for the determination of the state of equilibrium/degradation of a landscape, and hence for its conservation value. This methodology may contribute to the development of improved zoning maps and management guidelines determining land use and management strategies for the conservation of individual resources that, together, determine landscape quality

Dynamical properties across a quantum phase transition in the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model

It is of high interest, in the context of Adiabatic Quantum Computation, to better understand the complex dynamics of a quantum system subject to a time-dependent Hamiltonian, when driven across a quantum phase transition. We present here such a study in the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model with one variable parameter. We first display numerical results on the dynamical evolution across the LMG quantum phase transition, which clearly shows a pronounced effect of the spectral avoided level crossings. We then derive a phenomenological (classical) transition model, which already shows some closeness to the numerical results. Finally, we show how a simplified quantum transition model can be built which strongly improve the classical approach, and shed light on the physical processes involved in the whole LMG quantum evolution. From our results, we argue that the commonly used description in term of Landau-Zener transitions is not appropriate for our model.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures; corrected reference

Monitorização do processo de condução e alertas baseados no contexto

Motivação e visão geral do sistema: A fadiga é considerada como um dos principais fatores responsável pela sinistralidade rodoviária. Uma agência norte-americana estimou, em 2013, que condutores com sonolência causada pela fadiga provocaram mais de 70 mil acidentes, resultando mais de 40 mil feridos e cerca de 800 mortos. 4 Tipicamente, para realizar a deteção destes aspetos é realizado processamento de imagem, como por exemplo, da retina. Porém, é possível utilizar outras abordagens, nomeadamente os sinais fisiológicos como é feito pelo Cardiowheel. O CardioWheel é um sistema embebido integrável em automóveis, tem como objetivo detetar automaticamente estados de fadiga e a identidade biométrica. Para tal é medido no volante um elemento biométrico do condutor, o sinal cardíaco, e emitidos alertas de fadiga para o exterior através de comunicações por GPRS.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

An overview of fall-related systems developed in canes

The number of falls is growing as the main cause of injuries and deaths in the geriatric community. As a result, also the cost of treating the injuries associated with falls is increasing. Thus, the development of fall detection and prediction systems with the capability of real-time monitoring without user restriction is imperative. For this reason, canes can be a great choice to embed fall-related systems. This paper aims to achieve a complete state-of-the-art concerning the development of fall detection and prediction algorithms implemented in canes. In order to accomplish this goal, a comprehensive search was performed. This search includes the IEEE, Scopus and Web of Science databases regarding developed systems in the literature. Also, a commercial search on Google and a patent search on Espacenet and the United States Patent and Trademark Office was performed. To this day, it has not been developed any type of cane related system which focuses on the temporal window preceding a fall and that accesses the risk of falling, even though a considerable amount of fall detection systems have already been presented.This work has been supported by the FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - with the scholarship reference PD/BD/141515/2018, by the FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) and P2020 with the Reference Project EML under Grant POCI-01-0247-FEDER-033067, and through the COMPETE 2020 POCI with the Reference Project under Grant POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006941

Swimming abilities of temperate pelagic fish larvae prove that they may control their dispersion in coastal areas

The Sense Acuity and Behavioral (SAAB) Hypothesis proposes that the swimming capabilities and sensorial acuity of temperate fish larvae allows them to find and swim towards coastal nursery areas, which are crucial for their recruitment. To gather further evidence to support this theory, it is necessary to understand how horizontal swimming capability varies along fish larvae ontogeny. Therefore, we studied the swimming capability of white seabream Diplodus sargus (Linnaeus, 1758) larvae along ontogeny, and their relationship with physiological condition. Thus, critical swimming speed (U-crit) and the distance swam (km) during endurance tests were determined for fish larvae from 15 to 55 days post-hatching (DPH), and their physiological condition (RNA, DNA and protein contents) was assessed. The critical swimming speed of white seabream larvae increased along ontogeny from 1.1 cm s(-1) (15 DPH) to 23 cm s(-1) (50 and 55 DPH), and the distance swam by larvae in the endurance experiments increased from 0.01 km (15 DPH) to 86.5 km (45 DPH). This finding supports one of the premises of the SAAB hypothesis, which proposes that fish larvae can influence their transport and distribution in coastal areas due to their swimming capabilities. The relationship between larvae's physiological condition and swimming capabilities were not evident in this study. Overall, this study provides critical information for understanding the link between population dynamics and connectivity with the management and conservation of fish stocks.Funding Agency Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology SFRH/BD/104209/2014 Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology UID/Multi/04326/2019 FCT, under the Transitional Norm DL57/2016/CP[1361]/CT[CT0008 CLIMFISH project-A framework for assess vulnerability of coastal fisheries to climate change in Portuguese coast n2/SAICT/2017-SAICTinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Assessing the environmental and economic performance of alternative car chassis

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the life cycle environmental and economic performance of a car multimedia chassis containing metallic parts, and compare it with new, totally plastic, chassis designs. The Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing methodologies were applied. All systems boundaries consider material and parts production, and the use and End of Life (EoL) phases of the chassis. The results showed that the former system has a higher environmental impact, the material production being the main contributor followed by the use phase, and Fossil depletion the most burdensome impact category. All total plastic scenarios enable approximately 40% weight reduction, mitigating both the Global Warming Potential and the Cumulative Energy Demand environmental impacts until the end of the use phase. However, this result is inverted including the EoL phase, as recycling the metal is more favourable than incinerating the polymer and recovering energy. All TPC scenarios present a higher cost. Although their assembly and use phases costs are lower than the corresponding BSL ones, this does not mitigate the higher material and production costs. Again, at EoL, recycling the metal is more cost favourable. The present work evidences that to make sustainable decisions environmental and economic considerations should be concurrently contemplated in product development.The present work was partially financed by the Portuguese Incentive System for Research and Technological Development, as co-promotion Project nº 36265/2013 (Project HMIExcel – 2013-2015). The authors thank the support of the Bosch Car Multimedia Portugal, S.A. company throughout the inventory phase of the study. Two of the authors (CAB, AJP) acknowledge the funding received from FCT, the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, through project UID/CTM/50025/2013 and from the COMPETE 2020 Programme under project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-00768

Characterization of the workspace and limits of operation of laser treatments for vascular lesions of the lower limbs

The increase of the aging population brings numerous challenges to health and aesthetic segments. Here, the use of laser therapy for dermatology is expected to increase since it allows for non-invasive and infection-free treatments. However, existing laser devices require doctors’ manually handling and visually inspecting the skin. As such, the treatment outcome is dependent on the user’s expertise, which frequently results in ineffective treatments and side effects. This study aims to determine the workspace and limits of operation of laser treatments for vascular lesions of the lower limbs. The results of this study can be used to develop a robotic-guided technology to help address the aforementioned problems. Specifically, workspace and limits of operation were studied in eight vascular laser treatments. For it, an electromagnetic tracking system was used to collect the real-time positioning of the laser during the treatments. The computed average workspace length, height, and width were 0.84 ± 0.15, 0.41 ± 0.06, and 0.78 ± 0.16 m, respectively. This corresponds to an average volume of treatment of 0.277 ± 0.093 m3. The average treatment time was 23.2 ± 10.2 min, with an average laser orientation of 40.6 ± 5.6 degrees. Additionally, the average velocities of 0.124 ± 0.103 m/s and 31.5 + 25.4 deg/s were measured. This knowledge characterizes the vascular laser treatment workspace and limits of operation, which may ease the understanding for future robotic system development.The authors acknowledge Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal and the European Social Fund, European Union, for funding support through [the “Programa Operacional Capital Humano” (POCH) in the scope of the PhD], grants number [SFRH/BD/136721/2018 (B. Oliveira) and SFRH/BD/136670/2018 (H. Torres)]. Moreover, authors gratefully acknowledge the funding of the projects “NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000045” and “NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000059”, supported by [Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)]. It was also funded by [national funds, through the FCT and FCT/MCTES in the scope of the projects UIDB/05549/2020, UIDP/05549/2020, and LASI-LA/P/0104/2020]

Computational Simulation of an Agricultural Robotic Rover for Weed Control and Fallen Fruit Collection—Algorithms for Image Detection and Recognition and Systems Control, Regulation, and Command

The continuous rise in the world’s population has increased the need for food, resulting in a rise of agricultural holdings to ensure the supply of these goods directly to the populations and indirectly to all processing industries in the food business. This situation has led agriculture to reinvent itself and introduce new technics and tools to ensure tighter control of the crops and increase yields in food production. However, the lack of labor coupled with the evolution of weeds resistant to herbicides created a crisis in agricultural food production. However, with the growing evolution in electronics, automation, and robotics, new paths are emerging to solve these problems. A robotic rover was designed to optimize the tasks of weed control and collection of fallen fruits of an orchard. In weed control, a localized spraying system is proposed, therefore reducing the amount of applied herbicides. With fruit collection, it is possible to direct fallen fruits for animal feeding and possible to reduce microbial activity on the next campaign crops, therefore avoiding damage. This study proposes the simulation of this robotic rover on robotic simulation software. It also proposes the replication of a similar environment of an orchard to generate an algorithm that controls the rover on the tasks of localized spraying and fallen fruit collection. Creating and testing these algorithms by using a robotic simulator speed up and ease the evaluation of different scenarios and hypotheses, with the added benefit of being able to test two tasks simultaneously. This method also allows greater freedom and creativity because there are no concerns about hardware damage. It should also be noted that development costs are very low.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio