Rice husk-earth based composites: A novel bio-based panel for buildings refurbishment

With the aim of developing economic and ecological bio-based composite panels to be used on indoor wall or ceiling coating systems, contributing to hygrothermal comfort and health, three different composite formulations were produced, differing on the content and pre-treatment of rice husk: 15% and 30%, only dried or previously boiled. Composite samples were tested for biological development and several physic-mechanical characteristics. Increasing on rice husk content decreases thermal conductivity due to bulk density decrease, decreasing ultrasound velocity, flexural strength, abrasion and fire resistance, but improving the moisture buffering capacity at least in 20%. For high rice husk-content composites, its pre-boiling decreases biological susceptibility although decreasing resistance to fire, most probably due to destruction of the cellulose wall, but significantly increases abrasion resistance and compressive strength, probably because of a better bond between the rice husk and the earthen matrix, quicker reaching a high water vapour adsorption limit

Qualidade nos cuidados de enfermagem: que realidade?

Este trabalho de revisão bibliográfica foi realizado no âmbito do IX Programa de Doutoramento em Enfermagem, do Instituto de Ciências da Saúde da Universidade Católica Portuguesa do Porto. A existência de sistemas de saúde que garantam a prestação efectiva de cuidados de qualidade é, actualmente uma das prioridades de variadas organizações, entre elas constam: a ODCE, OMS, SNS e OE. A qualidade dos cuidados de enfermagem para além da importância que tem para a instituição e doente, deve ter uma importância máxima para o prestador de cuidados. O enfermeiro deve almejar a qualidade em cada gesto realizado, deve procurar que o desempenho da sua função seja mais do que uma simples execução de tarefas (Ascensão, 2010). Objectivos: Conhecer o estado da arte em língua portuguesa em termos da qualidade dos cuidados de enfermagem. Conhecer as metodologias usadas no estudo da qualidade dos cuidados de enfermagem. Material e Tratou-se de uma revisão de literatura tendo por finalidade identificar o conhecimento existente sobre esta temática. Foi realizada uma pesquisa na base de dados B-On, tendo em conta Dissertações de Licenciatura, de Mestrado, de Doutoramento e artigos, disponíveis em texto integral, que tivessem como palavras-chave no título: Cuidados, Qualidade e Enfermagem. A pesquisa foi efectuada para documentos em português entre os anos de 2000 e 2013. Resultados: A pesquisa encontrou, na B-on dezoito documentos, artigos de periódicos da área da saúde. Destes dezoito um artigo encontrava-se em quadruplicado e outro em duplicado. Quatro deles não foram incluídos por não dizerem respeito à área em questão. No final, após aplicação dos critérios de pesquisa, reunimos um conjunto de dez documentos (cinco teses, três artigos e duas comunicações em conferências) que se constituíram como o nosso corpus de análise. Os documentos estão disponíveis em texto integral. Discussão e Conclusão: Depois de analisados os documentos encontrados concluímos que os enfermeiros proporcionam um importante contributo na melhoria da qualidade das organizações (Aleixo, 2010). Conclui-se também que existe uma urgência na execução de ações de educação continuada, uma vez que a formação é considerada instrumento de reflexão e mudança, sendo esta um dos pilares para a prestação de cuidados de enfermagem de excelência (Padilha, 2010; Castro, 2007). Paralelamente, conclui-se que os principais resultados da qualidade dos cuidados de enfermagem envolvem mais trabalho e decisão em equipa multidisciplinar, mais recursos materiais e humanos e melhores condições físicas (Carvalhais, 2010)

Parallel strategies for Direct Multisearch

Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.Direct multisearch (DMS) is a derivative-free optimization class of algorithms, suited for computing approximations to the complete Pareto front of a given multiobjective optimization problem. In DMS class, constraints are addressed with an extreme barrier approach, only evaluating feasible points. It has a well-supported convergence analysis and simple implementations present a good numerical performance, both in academic test sets and in real applications. Recently, this numerical performance was improved with the definition of a search step based on the minimization of quadratic polynomial models, corresponding to the algorithm BoostDMS. In this work, we propose and numerically evaluate strategies to improve the performance of BoostDMS, mainly through parallelization applied to the search and to the poll steps. The final parallelized version not only considerably decreases the computational time required for solving a multiobjective optimization problem, but also increases the quality of the computed approximation to the Pareto front. Extensive numerical results will be reported in an academic test set and in a chemical engineering application.preprintpublishe

Neuropatia do Femoral Associada à Anticoagulação profilática num Doente com COVID-19 Grave: Caso Clínico

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Nutrition Day in nursing homes – risk factors for malnutrition

Introduction: Malnutrition in institutionalized older adults has a significant prevalence, and is associated with cognitive decline, higher morbidity and mortality rates. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess risk factors for malnutrition in nursing home residents. Methods: Through Nutrition Day audit (2016–2018), demographic and anthropometric data was collected, as well as medical history and nutritional status according to Mini Nutritional Assessment. Results: Sixty-three individuals were included (57.1% male), with a mean age of 849 years. Mean Body Mass Index was 21.55.1 kg/m2. Malnutrition was identified in 47.6% of the patients and nutritional risk in 28.6%. Most of the sample (61.9%) was bedridden or in wheelchair. Most of the individuals showed dementia (82.5%) and depression (79.3%). A positive moderate significant correlation was found between nutritional status and cognitive status (r = 0.407;p=0.001); and between nutritional status and functional capacity (r = 0.474;p=0.000). Considering the diagnosis which caused institutionalization, brain pathologies were the most prevalent (79.4%), followed by cardiovascular diseases (49.2%) and skeletal muscle diseases (27.0%). Mean number of medications taken daily was 74 and 74.6% of the residents were polymedicated. The majority (61.9%) was taking antipsychotics and/or neuroleptics and 28.6% were taking antidepressives. Conclusions: In this sample, individuals are essentially older adults with a high prevalence of malnutrition. The high level of dependence and the presence of dementia are significant risk factors for the development of this condition. Disturbed emotional status and the use of multiple drugs associated with impaired appetite, although without statistically significant associations with nutritional status, are highly prevalent in this sample. Nutritional screening in this population is essential and timely necessary, aiming to prevent deterioration or improve nutritional status.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Editorial

Apresentação do nº 55 da Revista Lusófona de Educação

Activated sugarcane bagasse ash as efficient admixture in cement-based mortars: Mechanical and durability improvements

Biomass ashes can be used in cementitious materials as cement or sand substitution. Nevertheless, ashes resulted from the combustion of biomass in generation plants present drawbacks that can reduce their potential use if they are not previously treated. In this research, industrial sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA) was mechanically activated by grinding and its effects evaluated when used as mineral admixture in cementitious materials. Four different substitution rates (0%, 10%, 20% and 30%) where used to investigate the influence of the amount of ashes replaced on the durability and mechanical performance of mortars and identify the optimal substitution rate. To get a thorough comprehension, results were also compared to mortars containing untreated ashes. The combination of a performance-based testing campaign (compressive and flexural strength, open porosity, apparent density, water capillary absorption, surface electrical resistivity, rapid chloride migration coefficient) and a set of analytical techniques (XRD, FT-IR, SEM and TGA-DTA) enabled to characterise the mechanical and durability properties of mortars and identify the mechanisms behind the results. The research concluded that, at 28 days, the incorporation of ground SCBA enhances the compressive strength of mortars up to 62%, decreases the porosity of samples by 35%, highly improves the resistance to the diffusion of chlorides by 10 times and improve the interfacial transition zone by narrowing and closing the gap between aggregates and pastes

Bilateral Foot Drop Following Compression Stockings Use

As meias de compressão elástica constituem uma medida profilática da trombose venosa profunda no período pós-operatório, estando a sua eficácia bem documentada na literatura científica. A paralisia do nervo peroneal é a principal neuropatia compressiva do membro inferior e pode ter múltiplas etiologias sendo que a principal corresponde à compressão externa direta a nível do colo do perónio. Os autores relatam o caso de uma doente de 20 anos de idade, submetida a transplante hepático, com necessidade de permanência na Unidade de Cuidados Intensivos durante 25 dias, período após o qual se retiraram as meias de compressão de coxa, à data, enroladas até ao nível dos joelhos. Constatou-se lesão por pressão a nível do joelho e pé pendente bilateral. O estudo electrofisiológico foi compatível com polineuropatia sensitivo-motora grave. O presente artigo tem por objetivo reforçar a importância do reconhecimento precoce dos sintomas de lesão nervosa periférica, principalmente no doente crítico com múltiplas comorbilidades, cujo risco de lesão neurológica grave é muito superior.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sustainable and affordable prefab housing systems with minimal whole life energy use

Housing units of around 20 million need to be constructed in India by 2022. One key challenge for government and industry is high demand for sustainable and affordable housing. This paper introduces the results of an industry focus group meeting with Indian Concrete Institute (ICI) and industrial associates, regarding needs for housing construction, novel products design and service life increase. Results show that present design methods for buildings and structures in India need improvement, from a whole life energy use perspective at a material and system level, service life improvement and real monitoring of buildings and structures. More than 50% of respondents are not happy with the existing buildings design codes as they do not help on energy use minimisation. Materials inefficiency in design, disconnection with real operational use and lack of durability tend to increase with high construction speed. It is highlighted that many of the technologies are not proven in local environments which is inhibiting their use, including reusing of blended ashes from agro-industry waste. Almost 240 million tonnes of CO2eq are emitted per year by Indian agricultural industry, which justify their re-use. Precast components are highlighted as a suitable solution in modular housing construction

A 1000-year-old mystery solved: Unlocking the molecular structure for the medieval blue from Chrozophora tinctoria, also known as folium

The molecular structure of the medieval watercolor known as folium has finally been solved in the 21st century. The interdisciplinary approach taken was the key to producing extracts that had been prepared following medieval instructions, and shows the blue/purple chromophore as the major dye in Chrozophora tinctoria fruits (shell). A multi-analytical characterization of its structure was made using HPLC-DAD-MS, GC-MS, NMR (1H, 13C, COSY, HSQC, HMBC, INADEQUATE), and computational studies. The results demonstrate that the blue compound corresponds to 6'-hydroxy-4,4'-dimethoxy-1,1'-dimethyl-5'-{[3,4,5-trihydroxy-6-(hydroxymethyl)tetrahydro-2H-pyran-2-yl]oxy}-[3,3'-bipyridine]-2,2',5,6(1H,1'H)-tetraone, a hermidin derivative, which we named chrozophoridin. Experimental data and computational modeling studies show that this mono-glycosylated dimer is represented by two stable isomers (atropisomers). This is an indispensable piece of knowledge for the characterization of this medieval dye in works of art such as medieval manuscript illuminations and for testing its stability and contributes to the preservation of our cultural heritage.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio