A decision support system for IST academic information

This article describes the Decision Support System (DSS) for Academic Information being developed at Instituto Superior Técnico, the Engineering School of the Technical University of Lisbon. In Portuguese, this project has been given the acronym SADIA (Sistema de Apoio à Decisão da Informação Académica). This paper focuses on the early phases of the DSS development process, i.e., the business requirements definition and the dimensional modelling. First, we show how the business requirements of the School drive the definition of the DSS dimensional model. Second, we detail the logical dimensional model for a selected business process, the IST Student Admission process. Third, the corresponding physical design decisions are reported. The results obtained from the three phases were successfully validated by business users

Deformidade em supinação na paralisia obstétrica do plexo braquial - Resultados do procedimento de Zancolli

Objetivo: a deformidade em supinação por paralisia obstétrica do plexo braquial (POPB) é atualmente rara e resulta de um desequilíbrio muscular entre pronadores e supinadores. A deformidade é progressiva e disfuncional e, quando a redução passiva é possível, o redireccionamento lateral do tendão distal do bíceps está indicado. Na deformidade fixa do antebraço a membrana interóssea deve ser libertada. Este estudo avalia os resultados do procedimento de Zancolli em doentes com POPB.Doentes e métodos: seis doentes com POPB foram submetidos ao procedimento de Zancolli associado à libertação da membrana interóssea e imobilização pós-operatória por 4 semanas. A idade média foi de 4 anos, com 3.3 anos de seguimento.Resultados: a pronação ativa melhorou em média 70° (50°-90°). Clinicamente, verifica-se melhoria funcional global do membro superior. A única recidiva foi erradamente indicada para o procedimento por insuficiência do bíceps. Comparativamente com estudos prévios com a mesma técnica, a idade de intervenção é baixa e o ganho de pronação ativa elevado. Relativamente a outras técnicas cirúrgicas, a recidiva é menor e não se registam complicações major. Os pais estão satisfeitos.Conclusão: o procedimento de Zancolli pode prevenir deformidade óssea ou luxação da cabeça radial, por isso, em fase precoce esta técnica associa-se a melhores resultados funcionais do que procedimentos cirúrgicos em fase mais avançada. A limitação funcional e deformidade estética da contractura em supinação na POPB são importantes e a técnica de Zancolli apresenta bons resultados

A Portuguese East Indiaman from the 1502-1503 Fleet of Vasco da Gama off Al Hallaniyah Island, Oman: An interim report

Two Portuguese naus from Vasco da Gama's second voyage to India, left behind to disrupt maritime trade between India and the Red Sea, were wrecked in May 1503 off the north-eastern coast of Al Hallaniyah Island, Oman. The ships, Esmeralda and São Pedro, had been commanded by da Gama's maternal uncles, Vicente and Brás Sodré, respectively. A detailed study and scientific analysis of an artefact assemblage recovered during archaeological excavations conducted in Al Hallaniyah in 2013 and 2014 confirms the location of an early 16th-century Portuguese wreck-site, initially discovered in 1998. Esmeralda is proposed as the probable source of the remaining, un-salved wreckage

Studies of the collision-based Xe VI and Xe VII spectra

Collision-based spectroscopy of a Xeq+ (q = 6, 7) beam with a target T (T = Na, Ar) has been performed in the 35-800-nm wavelength region. Twenty-five new Xe VI lines and twenty-two new Xe VII lines were classified, twelve new energy levels of Xe VI and nine new energy levels of Xe VII were established, and one energy level of Xe VI was revised from the classified transitions. The analysis was supported by Hartree-Fock calculations. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America [S0740-3224(97)00512-2].14123277328

Factor analysis, a more accurate method to be used in epidemiological studies of blood pressure in children

The aim of our study is to evaluate whether factor analysis is better able to explain the variability of systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) when compared with regression analysis, which is the usual tool to study a set of variables related to blood pressure (BP). SBP, DBP, weight, height, BMI, triceps skin-fold, sexual maturation and rurality were studied in 889 children aged 5-18 years (389 boys and 500 girls). The proposed method transforms any set of variables into a set of new variables (factors) which are uncorrelated with each other. One of the factors obtained clearly explains the BP variance of the. With this method, the algorithm accepts all meaningful variables, while regressions reject most of them. This method also explains a larger amount of BP variability, losing as little information as possible. In our sample the percentage of the total variance (communality) explained by the three factors was 80.3% for SBP, 88.1% for DBP in males, 79.3% for SBP and 90.7% for DBP in females. For the same sample, regressions only explained 41.2% in males and 41.9% in females for SBP, 40.9% in males and 47.2% in females for DBP. In conclusion, this method is more accurate for epidemiological studies producing a better overall score than regression analysis, losing almost no information from the sample. Two important strengths of the proposed methodology are as follows. First, it yields a unique, easy to calculate and flexible cardiovascular index for children, thus circumventing the problem of making decisions based on two variables (SBP and DBP). Second, such an index is the result of a methodology where specific BP variability is isolated rather than explained.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A SPECTROSCOPIC STUDY OF RADIATION PRODUCED IN A THETA-PINCH

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