A Block-based Programming Approach

Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2022 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved.Simple computer activities have been used for a long time for cognitive and physical training in the context of rehabilitation or mental stimulation. An example is training the skills needed by users with special needs to access the computer through scanning access, which is an access method used by persons with major motor difficulties. The increased availability of less expensive mobile devices with large displays provides an ideal platform for these applications. This work-in-progress paper presents an ongoing work to empower rehabilitation therapists and special education teachers with no previous computer programming experience with a set of highly configurable apps supporting several types of activities for scanning access training. The apps are made available as open projects written in a block-based programming language. This way, they may be configurable by non-programmers while also allowing further changes depending on the programming skills of each rehabilitation therapist or special education teacher. This study intends to validate this approach among this group of users and formulate a set of guidelines concerning software architecture and organization and user interaction, to be used in the development of this kind of application.publishersversionpublishe

User involvement in production: a case study of a technology firm

Um dos fatores possíveis na construção tecnológica que mais interessam compreender é o do utilizador. Em especial porque corresponde ao agente não produtor comum e aquele que menos tradição tem nessa intervenção. Neste artigo analisa-se a presença deste agente no desenvolvimento tecnológico através de um estudo de caso a uma empresa portuguesa de sistemas de navegação (gps). Se bem que algumas perspetivas se centrem exclusivamente na produção ou no consumo, neste estudo articulam-se os dois polos e delineia-se um quadro conceptual crítico em relação a uma efetiva interferência do utilizador na conceção de tecnologia.One of the most interesting factors that might be present in the construction of technology is the one derived from the user, mainly because it is the one that corresponds to the non-producer and the one that has less tradition in this respect. This article makes an analysis of the presence of this agent in the technological development through a case study of a Portuguese company of navigation systems (gps). Even though some approaches are focused exclusively on production or consumption, in this work both fields are articulated in order to define a conceptual framework that is critical of the user’s effective interference in the conception of technology

Morphometric and molecular characterization of Kudoa encrasicoli n. sp. (Myxozoa: Myxosporea) from the European anchovy, Engraulis encrasicolus (L.) (Clupeiformes: Engraulidae)

Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade de Vigo/CISUGThe European anchovy represents the main fisheries for countries in the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins. The skeletal muscle of 13 of 48 (27.1%) Engraulis encrasicolus (L.) specimens from North East Atlantic waters (FAO 27.8.c) was found infected with interfibrillar elongated plasmodia (130-980 µm in length) containing mature myxospores belonging to the genus Kudoa Meglitsch, 1947. No flesh softening was found associated with infection. Fresh myxospores were 10.8 ± 0.7 (9.1-12.3) µm in width 1, 11.3 ± 0.9 (9.5-13.4) µm in width 2, 6.7 ± 0.4 (5.8-7.4) µm in thickness, and 6.9 ± 0.5 (5.8-7.5) µm in length. They were almost stellate in apical view having three pointed-edged shell valves bearing three small polar capsules equal in size 5.0 ± 0.3 (4.4-5.4) μm long and 2.4 ± 0.2 (2.0-3.0) μm wide, and one rounded- to rarely bluntly pointed-edged shell valve bearing a large and particularly wide polar capsule 6.8 ± 0.4 (5.9-7.6) μm long and 4.1 ± 0.2 (3.6-4.4) μm wide. Morphological and morphometrical comparisons between these myxospores and those of Kudoa thyrsites (Gilchrist, 1923) from the clupeid Sardina pilchardus (Walbaum) (North East Atlantic waters, FAO 27.9.a), with which exhibited a similarity of 98.9% and 96.2% using SSU and LSU rDNA sequences, respectively, support the creation of Kudoa encrasicoli n. sp. Morphometrical analysis of the polar capsules of flattened myxospores is suggested as a useful approach to differentiate phylogenetically related kudoids with stellate or almost stellate myxospores bearing four polar capsules.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia | Ref. UIDB/04423/2020 442Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia | Ref. UIDP/04423/2020Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia | Ref. PTDC/BIA-BMA/6363/2020Xunta de Galici

Liquid mixtures involving hydrogenated and fluorinated alcohols: thermodynamics, spectroscopy, and simulation

This article reports a combined thermodynamic, spectroscopic, and Computational study on the interactions and structure of binary mixtures of hydrogenated and fluorinated substances that simultaneously interact through strong hydrogen bonding. Four binary mixtures of hydrogenated and fluorinated alcohols have been studied, namely, (ethanol + 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFE)), (ethanol + 2,2,3,3,4,4,4-heptafluoro-1-butanol), (1-butanol (BuOH) + TFE), and (BuOH + 2,23,4,4,4-heptafluoto-1-butanol). Excess molar volumes and vibrational spectra of all four binary mixtures have been measured as a function of composition at 298 K, and molecular dynamics simulations have been performed. The systems display a complex behavior when compared with mixtures of hydrogenated alcohols and mixtures of alkanes and perfluoroalkanes. The combined analysis of the results from different approaches indicates that this results from a balance between preferential hydrogen bonding between the hydrogenated and fluorinated alcohols and the unfavorable dispersion forces between the hydrogenated and fluorinated chains. As the chain length increases, the contribution of dispersion increases and overcomes the contribution of H-bonds. In terms of the liquid structure, the simulations suggest the possibility of segregation between the hydrogenated and fluorinated segments, a hypothesis corroborated by the spectroscopic results. Furthermore, a quantitative analysis of the infrared spectra reveals that the presence of fluorinated groups induces conformational changes in the hydrogenated chains from the usually preferred all-trans to more globular arrangements involving gauche conformations. Conformational rearrangements at the CCOH dihedral angle upon mixing are also disclosed by the spectra

A ubiquitous service-oriented automatic optical inspection platform for textile industry

Within a highly competitive market context, quality standards are vital for the textile industry, in which related procedures to assess respective manufacture still mainly rely on human-based visual inspection. Thereby, factors such as ergonomics, analytical subjectivity, tiredness and error susceptibility affect the employee's performance and comfort in particular and impact the economic healthiness of each company operating in this industry, generally. In this paper, a defect detection-oriented platform for quality control in the textile industry is proposed to tackle these issues and respective impacts, combining computer vision, deep learning, geolocation and communication technologies. The system under development can integrate and improve the production ecosystem of a textile company through a properly adapted information technology setup and associated functionalities such as automatic defect detection and classification, real-time monitoring of operators, among others.This work was financed by the project “Smart Production Process” (No. POCI-01-0247-FEDER-045366), supported under the Incentive System for Research and Technological Development - Business R&DT (Individual Projects)

Abnormal NK cell lymphocytosis detected after splenectomy: association with repeated infections, relapsing neutropenia, and persistent polyclonal B-cell proliferation

Abnormal NK cell lymphocytosis detected after splenectomy: association with repeated infections, relapsing neutropenia, and persistent polyclonal B-cell proliferation. Granjo E, Lima M, Fraga M, Santos F, Magalhães C, Queirós ML, Moreira I, Rocha S, Silva AS, Rebelo I, Quintanilha A, Ribeiro ML, Candeias J, Orfão A. Department of Hematology, Hospital S. João, Porto, Portugal. [email protected] Abstract We report the case of a boy with hereditary spherocytosis who presented with mild microcytic hypochromic anemia and recurrent leg ulcers that had been present since childhood. Chronic natural killer (NK) cell and B-cell lymphocytosis was detected 1 year after therapeutic splenectomy during investigation of recurrent episodes of neutropenia and persistent lymphocytosis. NK cells proved to be abnormal at immunophenotyping studies, and B-cells were polyclonal and displayed a normal immunophenotype. Genotypic analysis of T-cell receptor (TCR)-beta and TCR-gamma genes showed a germ-line pattern. The clinical course of this patient was characterized by multiple pulmonary infections and amygdalitis. We discuss the potential roles of persistent immune stimulation due to chronic hemolysis and severe leg ulcers and of splenectomy in the origin of NK cell lymphocytosis and the relationship between NK cells and recurrent infections, relapsing neutropenia, and polyclonal B-cell response

Vitamin D-related polymorphisms and vitamin D levels as risk biomarkers of COVID-19 disease severity

© The Author(s) 2021. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Vitamin D is a fundamental regulator of host defences by activating genes related to innate and adaptive immunity. Previous research shows a correlation between the levels of vitamin D in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 and the degree of disease severity. This work investigates the impact of the genetic background related to vitamin D pathways on COVID-19 severity. For the first time, the Portuguese population was characterized regarding the prevalence of high impact variants in genes associated with the vitamin D pathways. This study enrolled 517 patients admitted to two tertiary Portuguese hospitals. The serum concentration of 25 (OH)D, was measured in the hospital at the time of patient admission. Genetic variants, 18 variants, in the genes AMDHD1, CYP2R1, CYP24A1, DHCR7, GC, SEC23A, and VDR were analysed. The results show that polymorphisms in the vitamin D binding protein encoded by the GC gene are related to the infection severity (p = 0.005). There is an association between vitamin D polygenic risk score and the serum concentration of 25 (OH)D (p = 0.04). There is an association between 25 (OH)D levels and the survival and fatal outcomes (p = 1.5e-4). The Portuguese population has a higher prevalence of the DHCR7 RS12785878 variant when compared with its prevalence in the European population (19% versus 10%). This study shows a genetic susceptibility for vitamin D deficiency that might explain higher severity degrees in COVID-19 patients. These results reinforce the relevance of personalized strategies in the context of viral diseases.This project was supported by the “Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia”, program “Research 4 Covid-19 Apoio especial a projetos de implementação rápida para soluções inovadoras de resposta à pandemia de COVID-19”. It was also partially supported by each institution.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

European Red List of Trees

The European Red List is a review of the status of European species according to IUCN regional Red Listing guidelines. It identifies those species that are threatened with extinction at the regional level – in order that appropriate conservation action can be taken to improve their status. This publication summarises results for all Europe’s native species of tree (454 species), of which 265 species (over 58%) are endemic to continental Europe, with 56% (252 species) endemic to the 28 EU Member States. Of these, 168 (42%) of the species are threatened with extinction at the European level, however, for 57 species (nearly 13%) there was insufficient information to assign a conservation status, and are therefore classified as Data Deficient, and in need of further research. The main threat to tree species in Europe has been identified as invasive or problematic species, impacting 38% of tree species, followed by deforestation and wood harvesting, and urban development (both affecting 20% of tree species). For threatened species, livestock farming, land abandonment, changes in forest and woodland management, and other ecosystem modifications such as fire are the major threats, impacting the survival of trees.Peer reviewe