The optimality of continuous cover versus rotation forestry in the presence of fire risk

This paper investigates the optimal harvesting decisions of a fire-exposed forest stand.An economic model is used to determine analytical continuous-time solutions for theoptimal schedule of thinnings and clearcuts. We offer new results by proposing that,while thinnings should be anticipated in the presence of fire hazard, forest rotations donot necessarily need to be shortened and may, under certain conditions, be lengthened.In fact, for sufficiently high levels of risk, clearcut forestry can be suboptimal, leading tothe adoption of a continuous cover regime

Planning elective surgeries Analysis and comparison in a real case

This work focus on hospital surgical suite optimization, mainly in the efficient use of the operating rooms when planning elective surgeries. We studied a real case in a hospital in Lisbon. An integer linear programming model was developed to weekly schedule elective surgeries for the hospital surgical suite. The model was tested with real data collected from the hospital records. Non-optimal solutions obtained were improved with a simple and efficient improving heuristic. All solutions have actually improved through this process. These results were finally analyzed and compared with the ones the hospital really performed. The analysis shows that the solutions obtained by our approach improve the use of the surgical suite while respecting the conditions imposed by the hospital. The analysis also shows that the plans obtained by the proposed approach can be implemented

Atividade Física no Tratamento da Doença Depressiva do Adulto Jovem

Introdução: A depressão é uma causa muito frequente de morbilidade a nível mundial. O tratamento desta patologia é complexo e exige muitas vezes o recurso a medicação com inúmeros efeitos secundários. Os profissionais de saúde devem estar cientes da disponibilidade de outras estratégias para tratamento da perturbação depressiva, sem as reações adversas próprias da terapêutica farmacológica. Entre estas estratégias, a atividade física pode ter um papel muito importante, nomeadamente no que diz respeito à população jovem. Objetivo: Avaliar o efeito benéfico da atividade física no tratamento da doença depressiva. Métodos: Para a elaboração desta revisão, numa primeira fase, foi realizada uma pesquisa bibliográfica no PubMed, com as palavras chave “exercise”, “physical activity”, “depression”, “treatment”, “young adults” limitada a artigos publicados em inglês, português, ou espanhol, até à atualidade. Depois da pesquisa inicial, foram consultados livros e estudos publicados em revistas científicas com relevância para o tema. Resultados: A terapêutica da perturbação depressiva com recurso à atividade física tem demonstrado resultados idênticos aos da terapêutica farmacológica, com a vantagem de que a prática de atividade física tem muitos outros benefícios sem a adversidade encontrada na medicação antidepressiva e com uma taxa de recidiva menor. Conclusões: Desde há muito, que são reconhecidos os inúmeros benefícios, em diversas áreas da saúde, da atividade física regular, quer no âmbito da prevenção, quer no âmbito do tratamento. Nos últimos anos, diversos trabalhos científicos, têm vindo a debruçar-se sobre a relação atividade física/doença depressiva, demonstrando a eficácia da prática de atividade física no tratamento da doença depressiva, nomeadamente nos jovens.Introduction: Depression is a very frequent cause of morbidity worldwide. The treatment for this condition is complex and often requires medication which encompass several side effects. Health professionals must be aware of the availability of healthier alternative strategies for the treatment of depressive disorder, without the adverse changes applied by traditional pharmacological therapy. Among these strategies, physical activity can play a key role, especially in what regards the younger population. Objective: To evaluate the beneficial effect of physical activity on depressive illnesses. Methods: For the elaboration of this dissertation, in an initial phase, a bibliographic search was conducted in PubMed, with the keywords “exercise”, “physical activity”, “depression”, “treatment”, “young adults”. This search was limited to articles published in English, Portuguese or Spanish to date. After the initial research, books were consulted as well as scientific articles published in journals with relevance to the theme. Results: Depressive disorder's therapy by using physical activity has shown similar effects to pharmacological therapy. Physical activity has proven to offer many supplementary benefits counterposing adversity found in antidepressant medication associated to high recurrence rate. Conclusion: It has been proved, time and again, that different aspects of our health show signs of improvement as a consequence of regular physical activity, either in prevention or in treatment. In recent years, a lot of scientific articles have been focusing on the relationship between physical activity and depression, showing just how effective physical activity can really be in treating clinical depression, especially in young adults

Association between handgrip strength, walking, age­related illnesses and cognitive status in a sample of Portuguese centenarians

Abstract Background: Centenarians are a growing population in Europe and present significant variability in motor and cognitive functions. The aim of our study was to characterize health status, as well as cognitive and motor functions in a group of Portuguese centenarians. In addition, our study also aimed at analyzing the relationship between cognitive functions and the burden of diseases affecting the elderly. Methods: Fifty-two centenarians were evaluated using the Mini-Mental State Examination, short version. Walking- related parameters (velocity and time spent in the 3 m walk test), grip strength and number of age-related illnesses were also measured. The relationship between cognitive scores and time spent in the three metre walk test, velocity, grip strength and number of diseases was analysed. Results: Cognitive scores showed a positive correlation with both handgrip strength and time spent in the three metre walk. In contrast, no association was found between cognitive scores and the presence/absence of disease, walking velocity or number of diseases present. Conclusions: These results suggest that in centenarians, cognitive functions may be related with motor functions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Objective Assessment of Sleep Movements in Neurodegenerative Patients Trough an Electrotextile Tool

The present research work aims at the integration of textile materials and electronic components for the development of a new electrotextile structure to be used in human medicine and healthcare, specifically, in monitoring sleep movements of patients with neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer and Parkinson’s. In this context, we sought the development of a new technological solution that allows not only to assess sleep quality, but also to establish a link between the nocturnal movements (body area, number of movements, direction, intensity) of demented patients and their polysomnographic recorded data. For this purpose, the authors developed an electroactive textile system, in order to acquire biomechanic information during the patients’ night rest. The collected data will be statistically processed to verify any relation between night movements and the stage of the disease. Keywords: Smart textiles, Sleep assessment, Polysomnography, Electrotextiles, Neurodegenerative disease

Translation and validation of Convergence Insufficiency Symptom Survey (CISS) to Portuguese - psychometric results

Purpose: Translate and adapt the Convergence Insuficiency Symptom Survey (CISS) questionnaire to the Portuguese language and culture and assess the psychometric properties of the translated questionnaire (CISSvp). Methods: The CISS questionnaire was adapted according to the methodology recommended by some authors. The process involved two translations and back-translations performed by independent evaluators, evaluation of these versions, preparation of a synthesis version and its pre-test. The final version (CISSvp) was applied in 70 patients (21.79 ± 2.42 years) students in higher education, and at two different times, by two observers, to assess its reliability. Results: The results showed good internal consistency of the CISSvp (Cronbach's alpha - α=0.893). The test re-test revealed an average of the differences between the first and second evaluation of 0.75 points (SD ± 3.53), which indicates a minimum bias between the two administrations. The interrater reliability assessed by intraclass correlation coefficient ranged from 0.880 to 0.952, revealing that the CISSvp represents an appropriate tool for measuring the visual discomfort associated with near vision tasks with a high level of reproducibility. Conclusions: The CISS Portuguese version, showed good psychometric properties and has been sown to be applicable to the Portuguese population, to quantify the visual discomfort associated with near vision, in higher education students

PLEKHG5 deficiency leads to an intermediate form of autosomal-recessive Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) comprises a clinically and genetically heterogeneous group of peripheral neuropathies characterized by progressive distal muscle weakness and atrophy, foot deformities and distal sensory loss. Following the analysis of two consanguineous families affected by a medium to late-onset recessive form of intermediate CMT, we identified overlapping regions of homozygosity on chromosome 1p36 with a combined maximum LOD score of 5.4. Molecular investigation of the genes from this region allowed identification of two homozygous mutations in PLEKHG5 that produce premature stop codons and are predicted to result in functional null alleles. Analysis of Plekhg5 in the mouse revealed that this gene is expressed in neurons and glial cells of the peripheral nervous system, and that knockout mice display reduced nerve conduction velocities that are comparable with those of affected individuals from both families. Interestingly, a homozygous PLEKHG5 missense mutation was previously reported in a recessive form of severe childhood onset lower motor neuron disease (LMND) leading to loss of the ability to walk and need for respiratory assistance. Together, these observations indicate that different mutations in PLEKHG5 lead to clinically diverse outcomes (intermediate CMT or LMND) affecting the function of neurons and glial cell

Streptococcus pyogenes Causing Skin and Soft Tissue Infections Are Enriched in the Recently Emerged emm89 Clade 3 and Are Not Associated With Abrogation of CovRS

Although skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI) are the most common focal infections associated with invasive disease caused by Streptococcus pyogenes (Lancefield Group A streptococci - GAS), there is scarce information on the characteristics of isolates recovered from SSTI in temperate-climate regions. In this study, 320 GAS isolated from SSTI in Portugal were characterized by multiple typing methods and tested for antimicrobial susceptibility and SpeB activity. The covRS and ropB genes of isolates with no detectable SpeB activity were sequenced. The antimicrobial susceptibility profile was similar to that of previously characterized isolates from invasive infections (iGAS), presenting a decreasing trend in macrolide resistance. However, the clonal composition of SSTI between 2005 and 2009 was significantly different from that of contemporary iGAS. Overall, iGAS were associated with emm1 and emm3, while SSTI were associated with emm89, the dominant emm type among SSTI (19%). Within emm89, SSTI were only significantly associated with isolates lacking the hasABC locus, suggesting that the recently emerged emm89 clade 3 may have an increased potential to cause SSTI. Reflecting these associations between emm type and disease presentation, there were also differences in the distribution of emm clusters, sequence types, and superantigen gene profiles between SSTI and iGAS. According to the predicted ability of each emm cluster to interact with host proteins, iGAS were associated with the ability to bind fibrinogen and albumin, whereas SSTI isolates were associated with the ability to bind C4BP, IgA, and IgG. SpeB activity was absent in 79 isolates (25%), in line with the proportion previously observed among iGAS. Null covS and ropB alleles (predicted to eliminate protein function) were detected in 10 (3%) and 12 (4%) isolates, corresponding to an underrepresentation of mutations impairing CovRS function in SSTI relative to iGAS. Overall, these results indicate that the isolates responsible for SSTI are genetically distinct from those recovered from normally sterile sites, supporting a role for mutations impairing CovRS activity specifically in invasive infection and suggesting that this role relies on a differential regulation of other virulence factors besides SpeB

Equity research - corsair gaming Inc: main trends and analysis

This equity research report aims at Corsair Gaming Inc. This report analyses the company and its strategy, while discussing its fit within the Gaming Components and Systems, and Gamer and Creator Peripherals industries, taking into consideration the valuation objective. A series of important trends are afterwards examined, as well as a peer financial analysis. Both chapters treat important determinants for the future of the company and most of its conclusions are used as drivers in the valuation

Relatório estágio profissional

Relatório final do estágio profissionalizante do 6.º ano