Prometheus: a generic e-commerce crawler for the study of business markets and other e-commerce problems

Dissertação de mestrado em Computer ScienceThe continuous social and economic development has led over time to an increase in consumption, as well as greater demand from the consumer for better and cheaper products. Hence, the selling price of a product assumes a fundamental role in the purchase decision by the consumer. In this context, online stores must carefully analyse and define the best price for each product, based on several factors such as production/acquisition cost, positioning of the product (e.g. anchor product) and the competition companies strategy. The work done by market analysts changed drastically over the last years. As the number of Web sites increases exponentially, the number of E-commerce web sites also prosperous. Web page classification becomes more important in fields like Web mining and information retrieval. The traditional classifiers are usually hand-crafted and non-adaptive, that makes them inappropriate to use in a broader context. We introduce an ensemble of methods and the posterior study of its results to create a more generic and modular crawler and scraper for detection and information extraction on E-commerce web pages. The collected information may then be processed and used in the pricing decision. This framework goes by the name Prometheus and has the goal of extracting knowledge from E-commerce Web sites. The process requires crawling an online store and gathering product pages. This implies that given a web page the framework must be able to determine if it is a product page. In order to achieve this we classify the pages in three categories: catalogue, product and ”spam”. The page classification stage was addressed based on the html text as well as on the visual layout, featuring both traditional methods and Deep Learning approaches. Once a set of product pages has been identified we proceed to the extraction of the pricing information. This is not a trivial task due to the disparity of approaches to create a web page. Furthermore, most product pages are dynamic in the sense that they are truly a page for a family of related products. For instance, when visiting a shoe store, for a particular model there are probably a number of sizes and colours available. Such a model may be displayed in a single dynamic web page making it necessary for our framework to explore all the relevant combinations. This process is called scraping and is the last stage of the Prometheus framework.O contínuo desenvolvimento social e económico tem conduzido ao longo do tempo a um aumento do consumo, assim como a uma maior exigência do consumidor por produtos melhores e mais baratos. Naturalmente, o preço de venda de um produto assume um papel fundamental na decisão de compra por parte de um consumidor. Nesse sentido, as lojas online precisam de analisar e definir qual o melhor preço para cada produto, tendo como base diversos fatores, tais como o custo de produção/venda, posicionamento do produto (e.g. produto âncora) e as próprias estratégias das empresas concorrentes. O trabalho dos analistas de mercado mudou drasticamente nos últimos anos. O crescimento de sites na Web tem sido exponencial, o número de sites E-commerce também tem prosperado. A classificação de páginas da Web torna-se cada vez mais importante, especialmente em campos como mineração de dados na Web e coleta/extração de informações. Os classificadores tradicionais são geralmente feitos manualmente e não adaptativos, o que os torna inadequados num contexto mais amplo. Nós introduzimos um conjunto de métodos e o estudo posterior dos seus resultados para criar um crawler e scraper mais genéricos e modulares para extração de conhecimento em páginas de Ecommerce. A informação recolhida pode então ser processada e utilizada na tomada de decisão sobre o preço de venda. Esta Framework chama-se Prometheus e tem como intuito extrair conhecimento de Web sites de E-commerce. Este processo necessita realizar a navegação sobre lojas online e armazenar páginas de produto. Isto implica que dado uma página web a framework seja capaz de determinar se é uma página de produto. Para atingir este objetivo nós classificamos as páginas em três categorias: catálogo, produto e spam. A classificação das páginas foi realizada tendo em conta o html e o aspeto visual das páginas, utilizando tanto métodos tradicionais como Deep Learning. Depois de identificar um conjunto de páginas de produto procedemos à extração de informação sobre o preço. Este processo não é trivial devido à quantidade de abordagens possíveis para criar uma página web. A maioria dos produtos são dinâmicos no sentido em que um produto é na realidade uma família de produtos relacionados. Por exemplo, quando visitamos uma loja online de sapatos, para um modelo em especifico existe a provavelmente um conjunto de tamanhos e cores disponíveis. Esse modelo pode ser apresentado numa única página dinâmica fazendo com que seja necessário para a nossa Framework explorar estas combinações relevantes. Este processo é chamado de scraping e é o último passo da Framework Prometheus

Participation of the agonist and antagonist knee extensor muscles in drop kick, placing kick and up and under kick, in rugby athletes

Poster presented at the 3rd International Congress of CiiEM - Research and Innovation in Human and Health Sciences. 20-22 June 2019, Campus Egas Moniz, Monte de Caparica, PortugalN/

Coincidence or correlation?

Rationale:Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) is a familial syndrome that results from the disruption of a tumor suppressor protein called MENIN. Its management is challenging, as MEN1 affects different endocrine tissues and predisposes to both benign and malignant tumors. MENIN-deficient cells have recently been recognized to play a role in triggering autoimmunity. Herein, we present a case of MEN1 with multiple endocrine and autoimmune disorders.Patient concerns:A 50 years old female with a 25 years history of complicated nephrolithiasis presented with primary hyperparathyroidism.Diagnoses:Over several decades, she was diagnosed with recurrent primary hyperparathyroidism, autoimmune thyroiditis, multinodular goiter, pernicious anemia, metastatic gastric type 1 neuroendocrine tumor, macroprolactinemia, gonadotropin deficiency, mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma of the thyroid gland, positive anti-calcium sensor receptor antibodies, and BRCA 1/2-negative invasive breast cancer. The autoimmune regulator gene was sequenced, but no pathogenic variants were found. Next-generation sequencing revealed both a pathogenic MEN1 mutation and a benign CDC73 gene variant. Familial genetic screening revealed a large kindred with multiple carriers of one or both genetic variants (MEN1 = 19; CDC73 = 7).Interventions:The patient underwent surgical excision of three parathyroid glands, total thyroidectomy and breast tumorectomy plus tamoxifen, and monthly injections of octreotide. The patient and family members with the MEN1 mutation are under a life-long surveillance program for MEN1 prototypic tumors.Outcomes:The patient was stable and alive during a 24-years follow-up period.Lessons:With the present case, the authors highlight a new interplay between MENIN and the immune system, which may have implications for future targeted life-long surveillance and treatment of MEN1 patients.publishersversionpublishe

Human immunodeficiency virus and carotid artery disease – single center experience and literature review

INTRODUCTION: People infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) - People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) - seem to have an increased risk of incidence and prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, namely stroke of ischemic nature. Additional etiological mechanisms, in addition to aging, appear to lie in chronic virus-mediated inflammation as well as in antiretroviral therapy (ART). The aim of this study was to carry out a retrospective review with descriptive analysis of cases of PLWHA and with a diagnosis of carotid atherosclerotic disease in a tertiary referral center as well as a non-systematic review of the literature. METHODS: All patients diagnosed with HIV infection and concomitantly diagnosed with carotid atherosclerotic disease, in a tertiary center, between October 2007 and December 2019, were selected. A descriptive analysis of the sample and additionally a non-systematic review of the literature using the MEDLINE database, were performed. RESULTS: Nine patients who met the inclusion criteria were selected, 7 (78%) being male. The mean age at diagnosis of carotid disease was 59 years. The diagnosis of HIV infection preceded, on average, 12 years before the diagnosis of carotid disease, while the start of ART preceded this diagnosis by about 11 years. The most common cardiovascular risk factors are dyslipidemia (89%), high blood pressure (56%) and smoking (56%). Approximately 33% had peripheral arterial disease and 22% had coronary artery disease. Only two (22%) patients underwent carotid endarterectomy over a median follow-up of 5 years, both for asymptomatic stenosis. Since the diagnosis of carotid disease, there have been no major cardiovascular events (stroke or acute myocardial infarction). During follow-up there were two deaths. CONCLUSION: PLWHA have a high prevalence of multisite artery disease, manifesting it at a relatively earlier age compared to the general population. These patients benefit from multidisciplinary follow-up for therapeutic optimization in order to obtain better results. However, larger prospective studies are needed to clarify the results in these patients and to improve the therapeutic approach, particularly in those with concomitant carotid disease

Growth and nutritional status of adolescents of public education system

Introduction: The prevalence of obesity in children and adults has increased worldwide exponentially over the past two decades, becoming an important issue of global public health. Objective: To describe the growth and nutritional status of adolescents of  public schools. Methods: Epidemiological, cross-sectional study, a representative sample of students aged 10 to 14 years of the public schools of the Metropolitan Region of Grande Vitória (MRGV), State of Espírito Santo, Brazil. Data on gender, age, skin colour/race, pubertal stage, socioeconomic class, weight and height were obtained. In the nutritional evaluation, the Height/Age (H/A) and Body Mass Index/Age (BMI/A) indexes, in z-score, of the WHO reference (2007) were considered. For statistical analysis, we used the Qui-square test and Student's t test (Mann-Whitney test for non-normal distribution), and significance level of p <0.05. Study approved by the Institutional Research Ethics Committee. Results: There were assessed 818 adolescents, with average age of 12.8 ± 1.1 years, female predominance (58.3%), mixed skin colour/race (41.7%), post-pubertal stage (53, 4%) and socioeconomic class C (59.5%). It was identified very low stature in 0.4% and low stature in 1.8% of adolescents. Overweight was diagnosed in 227 (27.7%) students, represented by overweight (18.7%), obesity (8.4%) and severe obesity (0.6%); While 0.2% presented severe thinness and 2.7% thinness.  The mean z-score of girls' height (p = 0.024) was higher than the WHO reference, as well as the BMI z-score of girls (p = 0.0001) and boys (p = 0.0002). Conclusion: Adolescents of public schools of MRGV achieve adequate growth, even higher, on average, proposed by WHO (2007). However, they also present a high prevalence of overweight, indicating that the region is at an advanced stage of nutritional transition

Portuguese recommendations for the use of ultrasound in rheumatology

© 2001-2021 Sociedade Portuguesa de Reumatologia.Introduction: Ultrasound (US) is a relatively cheap, easily available and reliable method to improve the care of rheumatic patients. However, its use in rheumatology practice is very heterogeneous and needs to be standardized. Objectives: To develop recommendations for the use of US in rheumatic diseases endorsed by the Portuguese Society of Rheumatology. Methods: A systematic literature review of the available recommendations on the use of ultrasound in rheumatic diseases was performed and presented in a Portuguese Society of Rheumatology meeting to a subgroup of rheumatologists and rheumatology trainees with special interest in the subject. The most important topics to be addressed were selected and assigned to subgroups for literature review and draft recommendations. Following an iterative process of consensus, the final recommendations were developed, and their level of agreement voted anonymously online. A recommendation was approved when the average level of agreement was ≥ 7.5 in a 10-point Likert scale. Results: Fourteen recommendations were produced regarding nine rheumatology topics: rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthritis, connective tissue diseases, polymyalgia rheumatica, vasculitis, crystal-deposition diseases, soft tissue rheumatism, osteoarthritis and ultrasound-guided procedures. Conclusion: We developed an up-to-date guidance in the form of recommendations for the use of US in nine different areas of rheumatology. As ultrasound is an important imaging modality with increasing use in the rheumatology setting, and there are frequent technological advances in the ultrasound machines and probes, in parallel with continuous associated research, these recommendations should be regularly updated.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Portuguese Football Federation consensus statement 2020: nutrition and performance in football

Nutrition is an undeniable part of promoting health and performance among football (soccer) players. Nevertheless, nutritional strategies adopted in elite football can vary significantly depending on culture, habit and practical constraints and might not always be supported by scientific evidence. Therefore, a group of 28 Portuguese experts on sports nutrition, sports science and sports medicine sought to discuss current practices in the elite football landscape and review the existing evidence on nutritional strategies to be applied when supporting football players. Starting from understanding football's physical and physiological demands, five different moments were identified: preparing to play, match-day, recovery after matches, between matches and during injury or rehabilitation periods. When applicable, specificities of nutritional support to young athletes and female players were also addressed. The result is a set of practical recommendations that gathered consensus among involved experts, highlighting carbohydrates periodisation, hydration and conscious use of dietary supplements.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Estudo do campeonato nacional do desporto escolar, 2005

O desempenho e a eficácia no jogo dos jovens voleibolistas devem constituir orientação fundamental para a planificação do processo de formação desportiva. No presente estudo é analisada a prestação das equipas juvenis participantes na fase final do campeonato nacional de voleibol do Desporto Escolar em 2005. Foram observadas onze equipas, num total de 37 registos de jogo (18 femininos, 19 masculinos) utilizando um sistema de observação centrado no resultado (positivo, indiferente ou negativo) de quatro acções de jogo: serviço (SRV), recepção (RCP), ataque (ATQ) e defesa (DEF). Os resultados: a) evidenciaram diferenças no perfil de desempenho típico entre sexos, com os rapazes a alcançarem as melhores prestações na RCP (54%) e no ATQ (20%) e as raparigas no SRV (19%), ATQ (17%) e DEF (15%); b) sugeriram valores mínimos de eficácia a obter em cada acção de jogo para assegurar a vitória no jogo (masc. - 8%, 56%, 20% e 10%; fem. - 17%, 9%, 17% e 15%, respectivamente no SRV, RCP, ATQ e DEF); c) permitiram inferir das principais lacunas a privilegiar no trabalho técnico-táctico com as equipas.4811-99FE-2ECD | Luis Paulo Rodriguesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Proposta de métricas de avaliação da qualidade da informação médica para Sistemas de Recomendação baseados no perfil do usuário

A Web é uma fonte de busca onde as pessoas procuram informações sobre cuidados em saúde. Entretanto, é aberta a vários tipos de publicação e provedores de informação, portanto a qualidade das informações em saúde que são publicadas são altamente variáveis e dinâmicas.  Um usuário leigo que busca informação nem sempre possui o conhecimento e educação suficientes para avaliar e validar a informação disponível. Neste relatório aborda-se um sistema de recomendação baseado no perfil do usuário e na qualidade da informação recomendada