19 research outputs found
The reciprocal value of Doctoral Design Research when housed within a Creative Business Center: a case study in Porto, Portugal
[EN] This paper presents the case study of a pilot partnership between a Doctoral Program in Design and a Science and Technology Park located in Porto, Portugal. The partnership has been in effect since 2013; the Doctoral Program has resided within the premises of the Science and Technology Park, as an immersive research environment, in order to foster knowledge transfer and collaborations through gradual, mutual and informal recognition of reciprocal assets. We contextualise the premises and stakeholders in this partnership, outline the empirical methodologies employed, and provide examples of selected projects that illustrate the implementation of these methodologies. Furthermore, we provide an inventory of challenges detected throughout the development of the partnership, as well as information on how these challenges are being overcome. We conclude by summarising the main accomplishments of this partnership, as well as outlining validation by various external agents and opening up prospects for future development. These will include thorough materials that may be of use for implementation in other academic, scientific and entrepreneurial environments. Keywords: Design research; entrepreneurship; knowledge transfer; creative industries.The authors wish to thank the Foundation for Science and Technology for the financial support of PhDDesign through the grant ref. PD/00048/2012.Alvelos, H.; Barreto, S.; São Simão, F. (2014). The reciprocal value of Doctoral Design Research when housed within a Creative Business Center: a case study in Porto, Portugal. En Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Higher Education Advances. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1263-1270. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD17.2017.5580OCS1263127
Self-initiated practices in the urban community of Balteiro: design challenges in a post-pandemic setting
This research aims to identify, document, interpret and disseminate self-initiated practices
in social housing neighborhoods, in the city of Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal. The
study aims to assess the consequences that the COVID-19 pandemic had on these practices
and how Design can contribute to the resonance of these initiatives in other
equivalent social contexts. Two local initiatives were identified: Recreational Association
Clube Balteiro Jovem (ARCBJ) and School Workshop of cartoning and sewing
(Escola Oficina). Preliminary work has been carried out with the Vila Nova de Gaia
City Council and the aforementioned residents' associations ARCBJ and Escola Oficina.
Emic data is being collected through methods of direct and indirect observation,
including ethnographic interviews, focus groups, and participant observation. This
paper presents the ongoing research project and the results of the preliminary work
done
Exploring Visual Analysis in Design Research: Insights from Workshops with PhD Students at the University of Porto, 2022
Communicating the experience of the pandemic through memes: a design approach in higher education.
Just Between Meme and You: Online Memes as Health Communication Tools in Design and Media Arts Higher Education Curricula.
This study posits that current online trends of mistrust in health policies may be partly overcome through an exploratory employment of memes. It aims at filling a critical gap whereby unexpected communication channels might succeed in addressing subjective bias seemingly immune to fact-based cognitive persuasion channels. We propose that the classroom may be a particularly apt context for this exploration: as part of the core lexica of younger generations, memes may act as pathways to stimulating actual research. Furthermore, by hypothesising that scientific knowledge and policies may incorporate aesthetics and semantics of online media, we aim at unpacking an often polarised debate around health communication – as particularly evident during the recent pandemic. These premises inform a set of assignments under implementation in various higher education Design and Media Arts courses in Portugal; exercises cover a range of approaches to pandemic-related health communication, trust and behaviour, employing visual languages and semantics of memes as a primary mechanism; we aim to create an ambivalence that dilutes expectations of formality and univocal authority, thus facilitating engagement. Assignments include: translation of scientific jargon, unexpected perspectives, before/after dynamics, humour and non-threatening irony, personal testimonies, and random image-text coupling. Visual outcomes and relevant testimonies from participants are currently under validation and will be presented. We further envision a scalability and visibility beyond both the classroom environment and the disciplines in question. The study is developed under the framework of the project “An Infodemic of Disorientation: communication design as mediator between scientific knowledge and cognitive bias.”info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Stress and psychological health: testing the mediating role of cognitive appraisal
This study tested the mediating role of primary (e.g., threat and challenge perceptions) and secondary (e.g., coping potential and control perception) cognitive appraisal in the relationship between occupational stress and psychological health. This mediation was tested using a cross-sectional study based on self-reported measures. The total sample consisted of 2,302 nurses, 1,895 females (82.3%) and 407 males (17.7%), who completed an evaluation protocol with measures of occupational stress, cognitive appraisal, and psychological health. To test the mediating role of cognitive appraisal in the relationship between cognitive appraisal and psychological health, we used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results confirmed that primary and secondary cognitive appraisals partially mediated the relationship between occupational stress and psychological health; however, the direct effects of stress on psychological health cannot be ignored. The findings indicated that cognitive appraisal is an important underlying mechanism in explaining adaptation at work.This study was conducted at Psychology Research Centre (UID/PSI/01662/2013), University of MInho, and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through national funds and co-financed by FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653)
Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial
Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials.
Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure.
Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen.
Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049
Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries
Abstract
Background
Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres.
Methods
This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries.
Results
In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia.
Conclusion
This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries
The right path to health: the walkability of a European medium sized city called Guimaraes
Book of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017The relationship between the act of walking and city space has been over the years object of numerous approaches both by academics and researchers. Nowadays there is an increase in empirical research, above all from areas such as public health, urban planning and transportation, that results from the application of measurement instruments both of the built environment (BE) and of walking, understood here as a form of physical activity (PA) with recognised benefits for health. The exploration of the BE-PA relationship is based on validated instruments that seek to clarify this equation. Developed in countries like USA, Canada or Australia these are less common in the European context. This paper intends to demonstrate that the combined use of information resulting from spatial audits and population surveys are important tools in the planning of proximity of medium sized cities like the case study, Guimarães, thus incorporating the human dimension in the planning process as advocated by Jan Gehl. The measurement instruments developed in recent years are diversified, containing objective and subjective measures. This research was based on the following BE audit tools: the Systematic Pedestrian and Cycling Environmental Scan; the Analytic Audit Tool; the Irvine-Minnesota Inventory; the Measurement Instrument for Urban Design Qualities; the Pedestrian Environment Data Scan; and the Microscale Audit of Pedestrian Streetscapes; incorporating too, the urban elements referred by Gehl. Despite the study aim focus on the development and confirmation of objective measures, two subjective tools were observed: the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale because is the most used internationally; and the Assessing Levels of Physical Activity for being that developed for the evaluation of environments for PA in Europe. In these studies, PA is usually measured using internationally validated questionnaires, such as the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Thus, after identifying the city areas according to their degree of walkability, assessment tools of the variables to be explored were applied. So, a new audit tool was developed having as reference the above mentioned ones, Gehl theories, and the urban context found. With regards the inhabitants survey, PA evaluation questions were based on IPAQ, being reformulated to better understanding by respondents. Given the relatively small scale of the city of Guimarães respondents were asked to indicate on a map appended to the survey the routes they made to six utilitarian destinations and six leisure destinations in order to assess both transportation and leisure walking. The routes made by the subjects were mapped and correct destinations identified, being that, their features were evaluated according to the items of the developed audit tool. The assessments were made using CAD surveys, orthophotomaps, Google Street View and by direct observation through site visits. The developed audit tool presents itself as an instrument that can be easily replicated in similar contexts. Data collected allow the analysis of the correlation between spatial variables, reported walking levels and health indicators, thus identifying the elements that have the greatest relevance in this equation.Published versio