29 research outputs found

    Aplicação de instruções de trabalho para o processo de controlo da qualidade numa empresa produtora de limas

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    O relatório representa o trabalho realizado no âmbito do Mestrado em Engenharia Mecânica: Gestão industrial, em ambiente industrial, realizado na SNA Europe, empresa produtora de ferramentas manuais. Este projeto teve como principal objetivo a padronização das atividades de controlo da qualidade na secção de picagem. As empresas necessitam de se diferenciar das restantes implementando estratégias capazes de aumentar a produtividade e diminuir desperdícios, e é neste âmbito que a padronização das atividades e operações se torna imprescindível. Para alcançar o principal objetivo do trabalho, é realizado um estudo de temas que incluem a qualidade, o controlo, a inspeção e o Standard Work. O estudo da secção em análise é, também, uma etapa fundamental para a deteção de problemas e oportunidades de melhoria. Posto isto, são detetados, através de observação direta dos processos e a aplicação de questões aos operadores, alguns problemas no processo de controlo da qualidade tais como, a incoerência do processo de autocontrolo e a dificuldade de deteção dos defeitos visuais. De maneira a solucionar os problemas encontrados, apresentam-se ferramentas acessíveis, nomeadamente instruções de trabalho (IT) e lições de um ponto (LUP), que incluem informação detalhada das atividades a realizar e das características a verificar. A aplicação destas propostas resulta num aumento da percentagem de não conformidades detetadas na secção de picagem assim como, a consequente redução da quantidade total de produto não conforme. Tratando-se a picagem de uma atividade com um custo elevado para a empresa a deteção precoce dos defeitos produzidos é de tremenda importância e resulta numa redução substancial de custos de não qualidade. A introdução destas ferramentas práticas nas empresas resulta em melhorias significativas que se estendem por toda a organização, podendo ser adaptadas e aplicadas a qualquer área empresarial.The report represents the work done within the master's degree in mechanical engineering: industrial management in industrial environment, held in SNA Europe, manufacturer of hand tools. This project had as main objective the standardization of quality control activities in the chipping section. Companies need to differentiate from other implementing strategies able to increase productivity and reduce waste, and it is in this context that the standardization of activities and operations becomes essential to achieve the main objective of the work is carried out a study of topics that include the quality, control, inspection and Standard Work. The study of the section in question is also a fundamental step for the detection of problems and opportunities for improvement. Having said that, are detected, through direct observation of the processes and implementation of questions to the operators, some problems in the process of quality control such as, the incoherence of the self-control process and the difficulty of detection of visual defects. In order to solve the problems encountered are accessible tools, in particular working instructions (WI) and one-point lessons (OPL), including detailed information on the activities to be carried out and characteristics to verify. The implementation of these proposals will result in an increase on the percentage of non-conformities detected in the chipping and the consequent reduction of the total amount of non-compliant product. When it comes to chipping, an activity with a high cost for the company, the early detection of defects produced is of tremendous importance and results in a substantial reduction of costs of nonequality. The introduction of these practical tools in companies result in significant improvements that extend throughout the whole organization and can be adapted and applied to any business area

    Os custos da aterosclerose em Portugal

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    Copyright © 2020 Sociedade Portuguesa de Cardiologia. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.© 2020 Sociedade Portuguesa de Cardiologia. Published by Elsevier Espa ̃na, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Introduction and objectives: Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in Portugal and atherosclerosis is the most common underlying pathophysiological process. The aim of this study was to quantify the economic impact of atherosclerosis in Portugal by estimating disease-related costs. Methods: Costs were estimated based on a prevalence approach and following a societal perspective. Three national epidemiological sources were used to estimate the prevalence of the main clinical manifestations of atherosclerosis. The annual costs of atherosclerosis included both direct costs (resource consumption) and indirect costs (impact on population productivity). These costs were estimated for 2016, based on data from the Hospital Morbidity Database, the health care database (SIARS) of the Regional Health Administration of Lisbon and Tagus Valley including real-world data from primary care, the 2014 National Health Interview Survey, and expert opinion. Results: The total cost of atherosclerosis in 2016 reached 1.9 billion euros (58% and 42% of which was direct and indirect costs, respectively). Most of the direct costs were associated with primary care (55%), followed by hospital outpatient care (27%) and hospitalizations (18%). Indirect costs were mainly driven by early exit from the labor force (91%). Conclusions: Atherosclerosis has a major economic impact, being responsible for health expenditure equivalent to 1% of Portuguese gross domestic product and 11% of current health expenditure in 2016.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Práticas artísticas no ensino básico e secundário

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    A mediação entre os conteúdos culturais e a Educação Artística formal tem emergido como uma distinta área de inovação e de intervenção, como o mostram os 18 artigos selecionados nesta nona edição da revista Matéria-Prima.Entre a identidade, fundada nos focos de conhecimento local, e uma inserção integrada nos problemas e conteúdos globais joga-se a problematização da Educação Artística. As propostas articulam quer discursos curatoriais (museu, bienal, exposição), como ações de mediação visando uma expansão das atividades, a que se juntam as reflexões sobre a realidade da formação de professores, nas suas diversas modalidades, em diversas realidades sociais.Propiciam-se oportunidades de ações de intervenção, concertadas ou não, entre os agentes artísticos e os educadores. O resultado pode ser potenciado se se conseguir uma perspetiva informada e integrada das realidades artísticas: pede-se a todos os intervenientes mais integração e disponibilidade para um conhecimento mútuo consequente.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

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    Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

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    Energy Resolution Performance of the CMS Electromagnetic Calorimeter

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    The energy resolution performance of the CMS lead tungstate crystal electromagnetic calorimeter is presented. Measurements were made with an electron beam using a fully equipped supermodule of the calorimeter barrel. Results are given both for electrons incident on the centre of crystals and for electrons distributed uniformly over the calorimeter surface. The electron energy is reconstructed in matrices of 3 times 3 or 5 times 5 crystals centred on the crystal containing the maximum energy. Corrections for variations in the shower containment are applied in the case of uniform incidence. The resolution measured is consistent with the design goals

    Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

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    Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

    Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

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    Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

    Omecamtiv mecarbil in chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, GALACTIC‐HF: baseline characteristics and comparison with contemporary clinical trials

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    Aims: The safety and efficacy of the novel selective cardiac myosin activator, omecamtiv mecarbil, in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is tested in the Global Approach to Lowering Adverse Cardiac outcomes Through Improving Contractility in Heart Failure (GALACTIC‐HF) trial. Here we describe the baseline characteristics of participants in GALACTIC‐HF and how these compare with other contemporary trials. Methods and Results: Adults with established HFrEF, New York Heart Association functional class (NYHA) ≥ II, EF ≤35%, elevated natriuretic peptides and either current hospitalization for HF or history of hospitalization/ emergency department visit for HF within a year were randomized to either placebo or omecamtiv mecarbil (pharmacokinetic‐guided dosing: 25, 37.5 or 50 mg bid). 8256 patients [male (79%), non‐white (22%), mean age 65 years] were enrolled with a mean EF 27%, ischemic etiology in 54%, NYHA II 53% and III/IV 47%, and median NT‐proBNP 1971 pg/mL. HF therapies at baseline were among the most effectively employed in contemporary HF trials. GALACTIC‐HF randomized patients representative of recent HF registries and trials with substantial numbers of patients also having characteristics understudied in previous trials including more from North America (n = 1386), enrolled as inpatients (n = 2084), systolic blood pressure < 100 mmHg (n = 1127), estimated glomerular filtration rate < 30 mL/min/1.73 m2 (n = 528), and treated with sacubitril‐valsartan at baseline (n = 1594). Conclusions: GALACTIC‐HF enrolled a well‐treated, high‐risk population from both inpatient and outpatient settings, which will provide a definitive evaluation of the efficacy and safety of this novel therapy, as well as informing its potential future implementation
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