Misturas Betuminosas Temperadas, do tipo SMA, produzidas com betume aditivado em refinaria e fibras celulósicas

Ao longo dos tempos, tem-se verificado uma maior preocupação e consciência ambiental, pelo que os organismos e associações independentes procuram sensibilizar as empresas e os governos a nível mundial, para um consumo mais racional da energia, tendo em vista uma menor emissão de gases poluentes para a atmosfera. A indústria dos pavimentos rodoviários é bastante dependente das indústrias de extração de petróleo e de rocha, e nesse sentido tem-se desenvolvido esforços com a finalidade de encontrar alternativas mais ecológicas e sustentáveis na produção de misturas betuminosas. Uma das formas de reduzir o consumo de energia, e consequentemente a emissão de gases poluentes associada, centra-se na preferência de produção de misturas betuminosas temperadas em relação às tradicionais misturas a quente. A manutenção e reabilitação de pavimentos acarretam um elevado peso ambiental, nomeadamente no que diz respeito à quantidade de resíduos produzidos e ao consumo de energia e novos materiais, pelo que a necessidade de reduzir a periocidade destas ações torna-se necessária. As misturas betuminosas do tipo Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) são caracterizadas pela sua elevada durabilidade e baixo custo de manutenção ao longo do seu ciclo de vida. Além das diversas vantagens do ponto de vista económico e ambiental que apresentam, destacando-se a redução do consumo de matérias-primas naturais, a redução do volume de resíduos a transportar a vazadouro, a redução do consumo de energia e a redução dos custos de manutenção e reabilitação dos pavimentos. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho pretende contribuir para o desenvolvimento de misturas betuminosas temperadas, do tipo SMA, produzidas com betume aditivado em refinaria. Esta é uma técnica inovadora em que o betume fornecido já é aditivado, dispensando o uso de outros aditivos para reduzir a temperatura de manipulação. Ao longo deste trabalho fez-se um breve enquadramento e uma abordagem histórica da evolução das misturas betuminosas temperadas e descrevem-se as diferentes tecnologias e técnicas de produção, apresentando os seus benefícios e desvantagens. Posteriormente é realizada também uma abordagem histórica e as principais características das misturas betuminosas do tipo Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA), assim com as suas vantagens e desvantagens. Por último, foram realizados estudos experimentais com o intuito de investigar as propriedades volumétricas e o comportamento mecânico de misturas temperadas do tipo SMA, produzidas com betume aditivado em refinaria, contribuindo para o desenvolvimento destas misturas, com o objetivo de promover a sua utilização futura em trabalhos de pavimentação rodoviária. Da análise dos resultados obtidos através dos trabalhos experimentais, foi possível retirar algumas conclusões. As misturas do tipo SMA são misturas um pouco complexas e pequenas variações nos seus elementos traduzem-se em variações significativas no seu comportamento mecânico, que depende muito do tipo de betume e da forma e quantidade dos agregados. Através do estudo realizado conclui-se que tanto o betume aditivado em refinaria, com a composição disponível no mercado, como o betume tradicional, do tipo 35/50, não são os mais apropriados para produzir misturas temperadas do tipo SMA, pois não permitem obter o elevado nível de resistência à deformação permanente esperado para uma mistura deste tipo

Literacia familiar: da educação pré-escolar ao 1º ciclo do ensino básico. Algumas práticas e hábitos de leitura de histórias

Este relatório reflete a investigação realizada em contexto pré-escolar e no 1.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico (CEB), no âmbito das unidades curriculares de Prática Educativa I e II, do Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar e Ensino do 1.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico. A escolha do tema emergiu no decorrer da prática pedagógica supervisionada em Educação Pré-Escolar e intitula-se “Literacia familiar: da Educação Pré-Escolar ao 1.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico. Algumas práticas e hábitos de leitura de histórias”. O estudo empírico foi desenvolvido com um grupo de crianças de idade pré-escolar e os respetivos encarregados de educação, bem como com discentes de uma turma do 1.º ano do 1.º CEB e os encarregados de educação dessa turma. O estudo pretendeu identificar, analisar e comparar as práticas e os hábitos de leitura de histórias das famílias de crianças do jardim de infância (JI) e do 1.º CEB; verificar como promovem hábitos de leitura aos filhos/educandos; e, ainda, conhecer a perspetiva das crianças acerca deste assunto e compará-la com as respostas dos seus encarregados de educação. A investigação é de natureza qualitativa, seguindo um tipo descritivo e incorporou os pressupostos da metodologia de inquérito, através da qual se analisou a problemática, planificou e implementou todo o processo de investigação. Assim, foram utilizadas como técnicas de recolha de dados os inquéritos por questionário e por entrevista. Para analisar os dados obtidos recorreu-se a técnicas estatísticas relativas à estatística descritiva, pelo que são apresentados gráficos ao longo do relatório. A elaboração deste relatório permitiu constatar que a leitura de histórias em contexto familiar tem-se revelado uma prática fundamental, com inúmeras potencialidades para as crianças, devendo ser iniciada desde cedo. Os resultados evidenciam que os pais/encarregados de educação participantes têm consciência da importância de contar histórias aos filhos/educandos

Ambientes da prática profissional na pandemia pela Covid-19: perceção dos enfermeiros de hospitais portugueses

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Parent-led massage and sleep EEG for term-born infants: A randomized controlled parallel-group study

AIM: To examine the impact of parent-led massage on the sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) features of typically developing term-born infants at 4 months. METHOD: Infants recruited at birth were randomized to intervention (routine parent-led massage) and control groups. Infants had a daytime sleep EEG at 4 months and were assessed using the Griffiths Scales of Child Development, Third Edition at 4 and 18 months. Comparative analysis between groups and subgroup analysis between regularly massaged and never-massaged infants were performed. Groups were compared for sleep stage, sleep spindles, quantitative EEG (primary analysis), and Griffiths using the Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS: In total, 179 out of 182 infants (intervention: 83 out of 84; control: 96 out of 98) had a normal sleep EEG. Median (interquartile range) sleep duration was 49.8 minutes (39.1-71.4) (n = 156). A complete first sleep cycle was seen in 67 out of 83 (81%) and 72 out of 96 (75%) in the intervention and control groups respectively. Groups did not differ in sleep stage durations, latencies to sleep and to rapid eye movement sleep. Sleep spindle spectral power was greater in the intervention group in main and subgroup analyses. The intervention group showed greater EEG magnitudes, and lower interhemispherical coherence on subgroup analyses. Griffiths assessments at 4 months (n = 179) and 18 months (n = 173) showed no group differences in the main and subgroup analyses. INTERPRETATION: Routine massage is associated with distinct functional brain changes at 4 months

Electroencephalographic sleep macrostructure and sleep spindles in early infancy

Study Objectives: Sleep features in infancy are potential biomarkers for brain maturation but poorly characterized. We describe normative values for sleep macrostructure and sleep spindles at 4–5 months of age. Methods: Healthy term infants were recruited at birth and had daytime sleep electroencephalograms (EEGs) at 4–5 months. Sleep staging was performed and five features were analyzed. Sleep spindles were annotated and seven quantitative features were extracted. Features were analyzed across sex, recording time (am/pm), infant age, and from first to second sleep cycles. Results: We analyzed sleep recordings from 91 infants, 41% females. Median (interquartile range [IQR]) macrostructure results: sleep duration 49.0 (37.8–72.0) min (n = 77); first sleep cycle duration 42.8 (37.0–51.4) min; rapid eye movement (REM) percentage 17.4 (9.5–27.7)% (n = 68); latency to REM 36.0 (30.5–41.1) min (n = 66). First cycle median (IQR) values for spindle features: number 241.0 (193.0–286.5), density 6.6 (5.7–8.0) spindles/min (n = 77); mean frequency 13.0 (12.8–13.3) Hz, mean duration 2.9 (2.6–3.6) s, spectral power 7.8 (4.7–11.4) µV2, brain symmetry index 0.20 (0.16–0.29), synchrony 59.5 (53.2–63.8)% (n = 91). In males, spindle spectral power (µV2) was 24.5% lower (p = .032) and brain symmetry index 24.2% higher than females (p = .011) when controlling for gestational and postnatal age and timing of the nap. We found no other significant associations between studied sleep features and sex, recording time (am/pm), or age. Spectral power decreased (p < .001) on the second cycle. Conclusion: This normative data may be useful for comparison with future studies of sleep dysfunction and atypical neurodevelopment in infancy. Clinical Trial Registration: BABY SMART (Study of Massage Therapy, Sleep And neurodevelopMenT) (BabySMART). URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/results/NCT03381027?view=results. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0338102

Impact of COVID‐19 on professional nursing practice environments and patient safety culture

Aim: To analyse the impact of COVID-19 on professional nursing practice environments and patient safety culture. Background: The relationship between work environments and patient safety has been internationally recognized. In 2020, the pandemic imposed enormous challenges, yet the impact on these variables remains unknown. Method: This is a quantitative observational study, conducted in a Portuguese hospital, with 403 registered nurses. A self-completion questionnaire was used. Results: The impact on the Structure and Outcome components of nursing professional practice environments was positive. Although the Process component remained favourable to quality of care, a negative trend was confirmed in almost all dimensions. The results regarding safety culture showed weaknesses; ‘teamwork within units’ was the only dimension that maintained a positive culture. Conclusion: Positive responses regarding patient safety were significantly associated with the quality of the nursing professional practice environment. The need to invest in all dimensions of safety culture emerges to promote positive professional environments. Implications for nursing management: Improving professional nursing practice environments can be achieved through managers’ investment in the participation and involvement of nurses in the policies and functioning of institutions, as well as promoting an open, fair and participatory safety culture that encourages reporting events and provides adequate support for professionals.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The COVID-19 pandemic and professional nursing practice in the context of hospitals

The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed challenges to health systems and institutions, which had to quickly create conditions to meet the growing health needs of the population. Thus, this study aimed to assess the impact of COVID-19 on professional nursing practice environments and to identify the variables that affected their quality. Quantitative, observational study, conducted in 16 Portuguese hospitals, with 1575 nurses. Data were collected using a questionnaire and participants responded to two different moments in time: the pre-pandemic period and after the fourth critical period of COVID-19. The pandemic had a positive impact on the Structure and Outcome components, and a negative trend in the Process component. The variables associated with the qualification of the components and their dimensions were predominantly: work context, the exercise of functions in areas of assistance to COVID-19 patients, length of professional experience and length of experience in the service. The investment in professional practice environments impacted the improvement of organizational factors, supporting the development of nurses’ work towards the quality of care. However, it is necessary to invest in nurses’ participation, involvement and professional qualifications, which are aspects strongly dependent on the institutions’ management strategies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Professional Nursing Practice in the Context of Hospitals

The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed challenges to health systems and institutions, which had to quickly create conditions to meet the growing health needs of the population. Thus, this study aimed to assess the impact of COVID-19 on professional nursing practice environments and to identify the variables that affected their quality. Quantitative, observational study, conducted in 16 Portuguese hospitals, with 1575 nurses. Data were collected using a questionnaire and participants responded to two different moments in time: the pre-pandemic period and after the fourth critical period of COVID-19. The pandemic had a positive impact on the Structure and Outcome components, and a negative trend in the Process component. The variables associated with the qualification of the components and their dimensions were predominantly: work context, the exercise of functions in areas of assistance to COVID-19 patients, length of professional experience and length of experience in the service. The investment in professional practice environments impacted the improvement of organizational factors, supporting the development of nurses’ work towards the quality of care. However, it is necessary to invest in nurses’ participation, involvement and professional qualifications, which are aspects strongly dependent on the institutions’ management strategiesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Random Forest-based Algorithm for Sleep Spindle Detection in Infant EEG

The Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC 2020), Virtual Conference, 20-24 July 2020Sleep spindles are associated with normal brain development, memory consolidation and infant sleep-dependent brain plasticity and can be used by clinicians in the assessment of brain development in infants. Sleep spindles can be detected in EEG, however, identifying sleep spindles in EEG recordings manually is very time-consuming and typically requires highly trained experts. Research on the automatic detection of sleep spindles in infant EEGs has been limited to-date. In this study, we present a novel supervised machine learning-based algorithm to detect sleep spindles in infant EEG recordings. EEGs collected from 141 ex-term born infants and 6 ex-preterm born infants, recorded at 4 months of age (adjusted), were used to train and test the algorithm. Sleep spindles were annotated by experienced clinical physiologists as the gold standard. The dataset was split into training (81 ex-term), validation (30 ex-term), and testing (30 ex-term + 6 ex-preterm) set. 15 features were selected for input into a random forest algorithm. Sleep spindles were detected in the ex-term infant EEG test set with 92.1% sensitivity and 95.2% specificity. For ex-preterm born infants, the sensitivity and specificity were 80.3% and 91.8% respectively. The proposed algorithm has the potential to assist researchers and clinicians in the automated analysis of sleep spindles in infant EEG.Science Foundation Irelan

Solid-phase Microextraction Combined With Comprehensive Two-dimensional Gas Chromatography For Fatty Acid Profiling Of Cell Wall Phospholipids.

The combination of solid-phase microextraction (SPME) with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography is evaluated here for fatty acid (FA) profiling of the glycerophospholipid fraction from human buccal mucosal cells. A base-catalyzed derivatization reaction selective for polar lipids such as glycerophospholipid was adopted. SPME is compared to a miniaturized liquid-liquid extraction procedure for the isolation of FA methyl esters produced in the derivatization step. The limits of detection and limits of quantitation were calculated for each sample preparation method. Because of its lower values of limits of detection and quantitation, SPME was adopted. The extracted analytes were separated, detected, and quantified by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (FID). The combination of SPME and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography with FID, using a selective derivatization reaction in the preliminary steps, proved to be a simple and fast procedure for FA profiling, and was successfully applied to the analysis of adult human buccal mucosal cells.352438-4