The use of nutritional supplements by elite Portuguese swimmers

[resumo][abstract

BlueFriends: measuring, analyzing and preventing social exclusion between elementary school students

Social exclusion is a relatively recent term, whose creation is attributed to René Lenoir(Lenoir, 1974). Its concept covers a remarkably wide range of social and economic problems, and can be triggered for various reasons: mentally and physically handicapped, abused children, delinquents, multi-problem households, asocial people, and other social “misfits” (Silver, 1995, pp. 63; Foucault, 1992). With an increasingly multi-cultural population, cultural and social inequalities rapidly ascend, bringing with them the need for educational restructuring. We are living in an evermore diverse world, and children need to be educated to be receptive to the different types of people around them, especially considering social and cultural aspects. It is with these goals that inclusive education has seen an increased trend in today’s academic environment, reminding us that even though children may be taught under the same roof, discriminatory practices might still happen. There are, however, a number of developed tools to assess the various dimensions of social networks. These are mostly based on questionnaires and interviews, which tend to be fastidious and don’t allow for longitudinal, large scale measurement. This thesis introduces BlueFriends, a Bluetooth-based measurement tool for social inclusion/exclusion on elementary school classes. The main goals behind the development of this tool were a) understanding how exclusion manifests in students’ behaviors, and b) motivating pro-social behaviors on children through the use of a persuasive technology. BlueFriends is a distributed application, comprised by an application running on several smartphones, a web-hosted database and a computer providing a visual representation of the data collected on a TV screen, attempting to influence children behaviors. The application makes use of the Bluetooth device present on each phone to continuously sample the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) from other phones, storing the data locally on each phone. All of the stored data is collected, processed and then inserted into the database at the end of each day. At the beginning of each recess, children are reminded of how their behaviors affect others with the help of a visual display, which consists of interactions between dogs. This display illustrates every child’s best friends, as well as which colleagues they don’t interact with as much. Several tips encouraging social interaction and inclusiveness are displayed, inspiring children to change their behaviors towards the colleagues they spend less time with. This thesis documents the process of designing, deploying and analyzing the results of two field studies. On the first study, we assess how the current developed tools are inferior to our measuring tool by deploying a measurement only study, aimed at perceiving how much information can be obtained by the BlueFriends application and attempting to understand how exclusion manifests itself in the school environment. On the second study, we pile on the previous to try and motivate pro-social behaviors on students, with the use of visual cues and recommendations. Ultimately, we confirm that our measurement tool’s results were satisfying towards measuring and changing children’s behaviors, and conclude with our thoughts on possible future work, suggesting a number of possible extensions and improvements

Controlo linear de um servoactuador pneumático

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Mecânica. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 200

Holiday weight gain in university students

The main objective of our study was to analyse body weight and fat mass variation during Christmas holidays in university students. We assessed body mass index (BMI) and fat mass in four occasions: pre-holiday, holiday period, post-holiday and one year after the first visit, and 54 female university students completed the study. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for repeated measures was used to compare BMI and body composition data in the follow-up period. Weight, BMI, and fat mass increased significantly (p < 0.05) from pre-holiday to post-holiday; BMI and fat mass decreased significantly (p < 0.05) from post-holiday to one year after the first visit, but the mean values were still higher than those obtained in the first visit (p < 0.05). These differences should be considered in clinical interventions for individuals seeking a better body weight control

Effect of a 1000m kayak sprint on redox status, muscle damage and inflammation markers in elite male kayakers

[resumo][abstract

Optimizing high-volume ultrasonic melt degassing using synchronized kinematic translation

Ultrasonic vibration is a physical processing technique that has been gathering support as an environmentally friendly approach to degas light alloy melts. Since metallic sonotrodes promote melt inclusions due to erosion, ceramic sonotrodes have also been shown as a viable solution for ultrasonic melt degassing in industrial scales. This study shows that resonant ceramic sonotrodes are characterized by a complex low-amplitude radial eigen mode, while particle image velocimetry reveals that their efficiency depends on the angular direction. An approach based on synchronized kinematic translation was designed to optimize the degassing efficiency in ultrasonic approaches, assuring its angle with higher cavitation is always facing the center of the crucible. Results show that this approach can reach lower degassing thresholds (Hmin ¼ 0.13 ml/100 g Al) at higher degassing rates, relatively to both Argon inflation (Hmin ¼ 0.22 ml/100 g Al) and static Ultrasound (Hmin ¼ 0.18 ml/100 g Al) methods. An enhanced grain refinement further supports the hypothesis that promoting a synchronized kinematic translation enhances the ultra sonic degassing efficiency. Considering these results, this approach is suggested as a reliable route to implement efficient ultrasonic degassing techniques in industrial light alloy melt treatment.This work was supported by PTDC/EMEEME/30967/2017 and NORTE-0145-FEDER-030967, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (COMPETE 2020), under Portugal 2020, and by the Fundação para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia e FCT I.P. national funds. Also, this work was supported by Portuguese FCT, under the reference project UIDB/04436/2020 and Stimulus of Scientific Employment Application CEECIND/03991/2017

Manufacturing methodology on casting-based aluminium matrix composites: systematic review

Ongoing industrial demand for lightweight materials has spiked the research interest in aluminium-based metal matrix composites for its specific properties. The amount of scientific publication available on the matter has led to the vast production of knowledge, which highlights the need for a systematic assessment if further progress is expected. In this paper, a systematic review of the published literature is conducted, according to the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, on the Scopus and Web of Science databases were used in the literature search, which was completed on the 29 August 2020. The data of the research work is structured in the particle pre-processing stage and the melt processing stage. The present review clarifies the combined pair-wise effect of particles and the melt treatment performed on their wettability or dispersive or de-agglomerative capability, which allows to achieve their final mechanical properties.This work was supported by PTDC/EMEEME/30967/2017 and NORTE-0145-FEDER030967, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (COMPETE 2020), under Portugal 2020, and by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia—FCT I.P. national funds. Also, this work was supported by Portuguese FCT, under the reference project UIDB/04436/2020, Stimulus of Scientific Employment Application CEECIND/03991/2017, research doctoral Grant 2020.08564.BD

Mixofibrosarcoma da parede abdominal

There are few cases described of abdominal wall Myxofibrosarcoma. The authors describe the case of a 71 years old patient, who underwent urgent surgical excision of an 11 cm tumoral mass, of the internal inguinal orifice. Two months later, an excision of an 18 cm long inguinal tumor mass and multiple implants was performed. Because of a new recurrence after 4 months, a segmental bowel resection and end colostomy was performed. Patient died 6 months after first surgery. This case represents a high-grade myxofibrosarcoma, with an increasingly aggressive behavior and very short disease-free intervals, which was quickly fatal. Sarcomas are rare lesions, which initial approach should respect surgical principles and be treated by experienced teams. Keywords: Myxofibrosarcoma, high-grade, recurrence, debulking, abdominal wall. Existem poucos casos descritos de Mixofibrosarcoma da parede abdominal. Os autores apresentam o caso de um doente de 71 anos, submetido, de urgência, a exérese de massa tumoral com 11 cm, do orifício inguinal interno. Dois meses depois, realizou exérese de recidiva iliaco-inguinal com 18 cm e de múltiplos implantes sarcomatosos. Por nova recidiva, 4 meses depois, procedeu-se a enterectomia segmentar e colostomia terminal. O doente faleceu 6 meses após a cirurgia inicial. Fica aqui representado um caso de um mixofibrosarcoma de alto grau com um comportamento progressivamente agressivo, com intervalos livres de doença muito curtos, que foi rapidamente fatal. Os sarcomas são tumores raros, cuja abordagem inicial deve respeitar princípios cirúrgicos próprios, e devem ser orientados por equipas experientes. Palavras-chave: Mixofibrosarcoma, alto-grau, recidiva, redução tumoral, parede abdominal.