Transition from endemic behavior to eradication of malaria due to combined drug therapies: an agent-model approach

We introduce an agent-based model describing a susceptible-infectious-susceptible (SIS) system of humans and mosquitoes to predict malaria epidemiological scenarios in realistic biological conditions. Emphasis is given to the transition from endemic behavior to eradication of malaria transmission induced by combined drug therapies acting on both the gametocytemia reduction and on the selective mosquito mortality during parasite development in the mosquito. Our mathematical framework enables to uncover the critical values of the parameters characterizing the effect of each drug therapy. Moreover, our results provide quantitative evidence of what is empirically known: interventions combining gametocytemia reduction through the use of gametocidal drugs, with the selective action of ivermectin during parasite development in the mosquito, may actively promote disease eradication in the long run. In the agent model, the main properties of human-mosquito interactions are implemented as parameters and the model is validated by comparing simulations with real data of malaria incidence collected in the endemic malaria region of Chimoio in Mozambique. Finally, we discuss our findings in light of current drug administration strategies for malaria prevention, that may interfere with human-to-mosquito transmission process.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

How can packaging change children's eating habits from un-healthy food towards healthier options?

Field Lab: Children consumer behaviourThis experiment has the purpose of testing and measure the influence of packaging on children consumer behavior. More specifically, we seek to evaluate the impact that packaging can have on shifting children´s snack preferences from unhealthy food towards healthier options. The study was conducted through individual questionnaires done by 106 children aged from 7 to 9 years-old. There were two distinct groups in the sample (a control group and an experimental group) that were presented with two different visual options of a food snack each – a healthy option and a non-healthy one. The difference between the two groups was the packaging form of the healthy snack that they were presented with. Both groups were presented with the same packaging form for the unhealthy option. Results show that a healthy snack is more likely to have a positive impact on packaging overall evaluation, fun perception and preference over a non-healthy snack, if it is presented in a fun packaging, in contrast to a regular one, although it does not influence the taste perception of the product. Such findings suggest that packaging can be a powerful tool that can be used as a marketing strategy to promote healthy food as well as gain market share to non-healthy products

A stochastic model of malaria transmission

Malaria models have evolved since Ross and Macdonald. By using an agent-based stochastic model we have looked into di erent aspects of disease transmission: 1. Gametocytemia phase transition between epidemic stability and disease elimination, and the potential bene t of combining gametocidal agents and ivermectin. 2. Heterogeneity promotes disease spreading. 3. Disease supression from the combined use of ivermectin and primaquine. 4. Utility of Hurst exponent and Shannon entropy in malaria forecasting. Results and conclusion: Malaria transmission was simulated with a computational agent-based model assuming a small African village. We have con rmed gametocytemia as a critical factor in disease transmission, revealing an abrupt phase transition between epidemic stability and disease elimination [326]. We have also found that synergism between gametocidal agents (primaquine) and ivermectin (a selective Anophelocide drug a ecting parasite maturation after mosquito infection) could e ectively suppress human-to-mosquito disease transmission [326]. We have found that heterogeneity ampli es disease transmission (roughly three times in our model). Different aspects of heterogeneity were analyzed such as human migration, mosquito density, and rainfall [327]. We have con rmed the potential bene t of suppressing heterogeneity-induced disease transmission with the use of gametocidal agents and ivermectin. Hurst exponent has been used in hydrology and in the stock market. No previous evidence of its application to infectious theory has been found. Yet, our data suggests that Hurst exponent and information entropy could be useful in malaria forecasting [328]. Our results support the combined use of gametocidal agents (primaquine or methylene blue) and ivermectin as part of an integrated approach to malaria.Os modelos de malária são úteis desde Ross e Macdonald. Através de um modelo estocástico de agente, foram analisados vários aspectos da transmissão da malária: 1. A existência de uma transição de fase entre estabilidade e eliminação da doença em função da gametocitemia. 2. O uso combinado de fármacos gametocidas e ivermectina na redução da transmissão. 3. O papel da heterogeneidadena propagação da malária. 4. A utilidade do expoente de Hurst e da entropia de Shannon na previão da malária. Resultados e conclusões: Foi utilizado um modelo computacional de agente com simulação da transmissão de malária numa pequena aldeia africana. Confirmámos a gametocitemia como um factor crítico na propagação da malária demonstrando uma transição abrupta de fase entre estabilidade epidémica e eliminação da doença. No nosso modelo foi demonstrado que na presença de heterogeneidade a transmissão de malária pode sofrer uma amplificação significativa, de aproximadamente três vezes. Foram analisados diferentes aspectos da heterogeneidade tais como a migração humana, a densidade vectorial e a precipitação sazonal. Foi confirmado o potencial benefício de supressão da transmissão da malária na presença de heterogeneidade com a utilização de fármacos gametocidas (primaquina) e ivermectina. O expoente de Hurst tem sido aplicado com sucesso nas áreas da hidrologia e do mercado bolsista. Não houve até agora evidência da sua aplicação à área da infecciologia. No entanto, os dados apresentados sugerem a sua utilidade, a par da entropia de Shannon, na previsão da incidência da malária. Foi demonstrado que o uso combinado de agentes gametocidas (primaquina ou azul de metileno) e ivermectina pode constituir uma abordagem eficaz na prevenção da malári

Production and characterization of thermoresponsive magnetic membranes

In the last years, the electrospinning technique has proven to be very advantageous to produce polymeric membranes since it originates nanometric fibres with a high surface area/volume ratio. As a result, electrospun nanofibers have been used for different biomedical applications, particularly in the development of multifunctional devices. To increase membrane functionality additional materials such as magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) that respond to external stimuli can be combined with electrospun fibres. The incorporation of these nanoparticles into electrospun fibres produces a multifunctional system that can be used for cancer theranostic applications. The main objective of this work was to process a thermoresponsive polymer, polyacrylamide (PAAm), using electrospinning and to incorporate MNPs by their addition to the precursor solution. These membranes will have the ability to respond to two different external stimuli, magnetic field and temperature, being suitable for magnetic hyperthermia application. In the first phase, an optimization study of the electrospinning parameters was made to obtain monodisperse fibres of PAAm. MNPs were synthesized by chemical precipitation technique and then stabilized with oleic acid or dimercaptosuccinic acid to avoid their aggregation. Later the MNPs were added to the precursor polymeric solution and composite membranes were produced, which were characterized in terms of its mechanical properties, and swelling ability. They were also analysed in terms of morphology, chemical properties and structurally by SEM, FTIR and XRD, respectively. PAAm fibres with an average diameter of around 200 nm containing iron oxide nanoparticles were produced. This was confirmed by TEM and EDS analysis showing the presence of NPs and iron in the fibres, respectively. The incorporation of MNPs provided fibre reinforcement by increasing the Young’s modulus. Through magnetic hyperthermia measurements, it was possible to obtain a temperature variation of 1.1ºC, demonstrating the potential of this dual-stimuli responsive membranes for magnetic hyperthermia applications

Business intelligence to support NOVA IMS academic services BI system

Project Work presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Knowledge Management and Business IntelligenceKimball argues that Business Intelligence is one of the most important assets of any organization, allowing it to store, explore and add value to the organization’s data which will ultimately help in the decision making process. Nowadays, some organizations and, in this specific case, some schools are not yet transforming data into their full potential and business intelligence is one of the most known tools to help schools in this issue, seen as some of them are still using out-dated information systems, and do not yet apply business intelligence techniques to their increasing amounts of data so as to turn it into useful information and knowledge. In the present report, I intend to analyse the current NOVA IMS academic services data and the rationales behind the need to work with this data, so as to propose a solution that will ultimately help the school board or the academic services to make better-supported decisions. In order to do so, it was developed a Data Warehouse that will clean and transform the source database. Another important step to help the academic services is to present a series of reports to discover information in the decision making process

Gestão de conhecimento em organizações turísticas: proposta de um modelo de análise

Tourism is an activity-based service sector in which information and knowledge are fundamental to developing realistic strategies and business plans. This article presents a model that was developed in an investigation called “Organisational Knowledge Management in Tourism Organisations,” which was part of a doctoral degree in Sociology, Faculty of Economics, University of Algarve. This study investigated how Algarve tourist organisations manage knowledge by observing how they create, retain, share and use it. This empirical research is based on a study of three cases that used documental investigation, interviews and questionnaires and the analytic model that is introduced here. We present an analytic model that identifies the different stages of knowledge management (acquisition / knowledge creation, retention / storage, transfer / sharing and use) and the management practices that facilitate it (strategic management, organisational culture, structure and work processes, human resource policies, information systems and communications, evaluation of results and relationship with the environment outside the organisation) based on learning promotion.O turismo é um sector de actividade baseado em serviços, no qual a informação e o conhecimento são fundamentais para definir estratégias e planos de negócio adequados à realidade. O presente artigo consubstancia-se na apresentação de um modelo de análise desenvolvido numa investigação designada “Gestão do Conhecimento Organizacional em Organizações Turísticas”, conducente à obtenção do grau de Doutor em Sociologia, na Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Algarve. A investigação tem como objectivo analisar como organizações turísticas no Algarve gerem o seu conhecimento, ou seja, observar a forma como criam, retêm, partilham e utilizam o conhecimento. A investigação empírica a levar a cabo basear-se-á no estudo de três casos através da investigação documental, da realização de entrevistas e da implementação de questionários, tendo como pano de fundo o modelo de análise que aqui se expõe. Nesse sentido, elaborou-se um modelo de análise que identifica as diferentes fases do processo de gestão do conhecimento(aquisição/criação do conhecimento; retenção/armazenamento, transferência/partilha e utilização) e as práticas de gestão facilitadoras do mesmo (gestão estratégica, cultura organizacional; estrutura e processos de trabalho, políticas de recursos humanos, sistemas de informação e comunicação, avaliação de resultados e relação com o ambiente externo da organização) com base na promoção da aprendizagem

Schoolbag Weight Carriage in Children: The Analysis of Ground Reaction Forces during Walking, Running and Jumping

Public society and international scientific community have shown concern about the heavy scholar backpacks carried by children. The possible adverse effects on children’s health of carrying those heavy loads have been in the base of that concern. Thus, the purpose of this thesis was to improve the understanding of school backpacks problem and to contribute to a solution. Specifically, it was our aims: (i) review the existing evidence concerning the characterization of backpack carrying, the known impacts and the solutions; (ii) characterize the loads that students in Portugal carry on their backpacks; (iii) understand how those loads influences the GRF acting on subjects and; (iv) propose modifications on backpack design that do not significantly modifies the main design but can attenuate the GRF magnitude increments. The main conclusions were: (i) scientific community still couldn’t clearly and consistently identified the effects of carrying backpack loads on children health. There are several body structures been studied as they could be affected. Also, there are not a consensus around the load limit that children should carry, however, the limit that seems to be more often recommend is the 10% of the body weight; (ii) the population analysed, students in Portugal, often carried more load than the recommended 10% of body weight. 5th grade students carry more absolute load than the 9th grade students; (iii) the load carried influenced the ground reaction forces. That influence was different in function of the mean of locomotion and the age/school grade, and (iv) with the backpack modification, the introduction of elastic material on the backpack straps, were verified changes on the influence of the backpack carrying in GRF, mainly the decrease of force peaks and loading rate. The main findings of this study confirmed the idea that children in Portugal may be carrying heavier loads on their backpacks than they should, especially the younger ones, and that it influences the ground reaction forces acting on them. However, we saw that is possible to introduce discrete modifications on typical backpacks than can attenuate that effect. It is needed to study, in the future, the way that benefits can be maximized and should not be forgiven the organization/pedagogical measures that may reduce the backpack load.A comunidade científica internacional e a sociedade em geral, têm manifestado preocupação relativamente às elevadas cargas transportadas pelos alunos diariamente para a escola. Os possíveis efeitos adversos do transporte dessas cargas na saúde das crianças têm estado na base da preocupação. Assim, o intuito deste trabalho foi melhorar o conhecimento acerca do problema das mochilas escolares e contribuir para uma solução. Especificamente, foram nossos objetivos: (i) rever as evidências existentes concernentes à caracterização do transporte das mochilas, os impactos conhecidos e as soluções propostas; (ii) caracterizar as cargas que os alunos em Portugal transportam; (iii) perceber como essas cargas influenciam as forças reativas do solo que atuam sobre as crianças, e (iv) propor e estudar modificações no design das mochilas que não o alterem significativamente mas que consigam atenuar o incremento da magnitude das forças reativas do solo. As principais conclusões foram: (i) a comunidade científica ainda não identificou de forma clara e consistente os efeitos do transporte das mochilas na saúde das crianças. São várias as estruturas do corpo que estão a ser estudadas como pudendo ser afetadas, mas os resultados não são consistentes. Também não existe consenso acerca do limite de carga que as crianças devem transportar, porém, o limite que mais é recomendado na literatura é 10% do peso corporal; (ii) a população analisada, alunos em Portugal, transportam frequentemente cargas superiores aos 10% recomendados. Os alunos mais novos, do 5º ano de escolaridade, transportam cargas absolutas superiores aos alunos do 9º ano; (iii) a carga transportada influenciou as forças reativas do solo. Essa influência variou em função do tipo de locomoção e do ano de escolaridade, e (iv) com a modificação proposta para a mochila, a introdução de material elástico nas alças, verificaram-se alterações na influência sobre as forças reativas do solo, principalmente a diminuição da magnitude dos valores de pico e da taxa de carga. Estas conclusões confirmaram a noção de que as crianças podem estar a transportar cargas demasiado elevadas para a escola, especialmente os mais novos, e que isso influencia as forças reativas do solo que atuam sobre eles. Contudo, vimos que é possível realizar alterações discretas nas mochilas escolares típicas, que podem atenuar esse efeito. Será necessário estudar a forma como essa vantagem poderá ser maximizada, sem esquecer as medidas organizacionais e pedagógicas que podem reduzir a carga a ser transportada

Classificação de Argumentos Sintácticos: Aproximação preliminar

Este artigo apresenta uma aproximação preliminar de uma vertente pouco explorada do processamento de linguagem natural para a líıngua Portuguesa, a classificação de argumentos sintácticos. Primeiro é dada uma introdução à classificação de argumentos sintácticos, posteriormente são explicados os passos necessários à criação de um classificador utilizando a ferramenta MinorThird. O desempenho foi verificado nos argumentos sintácticos mais frequentes (predicado, sujeito e complemento directo) num subconjunto do Bosque 8.0. A mesma abordagem foi aplicada a um corpus da língua Inglesa utilizado no CONLL 2004 e os resultados foram comparados com os obtidos na tarefa conjunta do CONLL 2004

A Sequential Multi-Staged Approach for Developing Digital One-Stop Shops to Support Energy Renovations of Residential Buildings

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors.Buildings account for 40% of the European Union’s energy consumption. Deep energy renovation of residential buildings is key for decarbonization and energy poverty alleviation. However, renovation is occurring at far below the needed pace and depth. In this context, building renovation one-stop shops, which bring all project phases under one roof and provide advice, support, and finance to households, are highlighted as a promising solution. Nevertheless, this model is still absent or under-developed in most European countries and remains understudied in the scientific literature. Therefore, the present research goals are as follows: (i) to provide a critical review of emerging one-stop shop models; (ii) to streamline the deployment of building renovation digital one-stop shops by piloting a sequential multi-staged approach for Portuguese households and proposing it for replication elsewhere; and (iii) to compare case-study insights with other one-stop shops and discuss the notion in the context of the European Renovation Wave. In total, for the Portuguese case-study, five steps were conducted. The first three—stakeholder mapping, expert interviews, and customer journey—aimed to gather intel on the local energy renovation market. The results from these stages informed the design of the platform (fourth step). Finally, a post-launch market consultation survey gathered user feedback (fifth step). Insights from this study suggest that digital one-stop shops, while providing a helpful tool to close information gaps and activate specific audiences, may be insufficient on their own. As such, a more comprehensive set of instruments supporting households is needed to accelerate building renovation.publishersversionpublishe