Acidentes domésticos e de lazer na população portuguesa: quem está em risco?

Poster sobre acidentes domésticos e de lazer em Portugal, com base no Inquérito Nacional de Saúde de 2014N/

Development and application of NMR techniques to study water-in-CO2 microemulsions

Self-assembly is a phenomenon that occurs frequently throughout the universe. In this work, two self-assembling systems were studied: the formation of reverse micelles in isooctane and in supercritical CO2 (scCO2), and the formation of gels in organic solvents. The goal was the physicochemical study of these systems and the development of an NMR methodology to study them. In this work, AOT was used as a model molecule both to comprehensively study a widely researched system water/AOT/isooctane at different water concentrations and to assess its aggregation in supercritical carbon dioxide at different pressures. In order to do so an NMR methodology was devised, in which it was possible to accurately determine hydrodynamic radius of the micelle (in agreement with DLS measurements) using diffusion ordered spectroscopy (DOSY), the micellar stability and its dynamics. This was mostly assessed by 1H NMR relaxation studies, which allowed to determine correlation times and size of correlating water molecules, which are in agreement with the size of the shell that interacts with the micellar layer. The encapsulation of differently-sized carbohydrates was also studied and allowed to understand the dynamics and stability of the aggregates in such conditions. A W/CO2 microemulsion was prepared using AOT and water in scCO2, with ethanol as cosurfactant. The behaviour of the components of the system at different pressures was assessed and it is likely that above 130 bar reverse microemulsions were achieved. The homogeneity of the system was also determined by NMR. The formation of the gel network by two small molecular organogelators in toluene-d8 was studied by DOSY. A methodology using One-shot DOSY to perform the spectra was designed and applied with success. This yielded an understanding about the role of the solvent and gelator in the aggregation process, as an estimation of the time of gelation

Cost/benefit analysis in the implementation of sustainable construction principles in a residential building

The construction sector is one of the major contributors for the increase of pollution and environmental degradation. The uncontrolled increase on the consumption of natural resources, the way they are used and the high emissions they arise, are impelling the study and implementation of policies and procedures which ensure a sustainable future for construction and for the sustainability of the planet. The objective of this paper is to present the work developed in order to assess and optimize the sustainability of a residential building at the design stage, through the application of a sustainability assessment tool, SBToolPT-H. A first evaluation was done, when conventional solutions were adopted. After this, a proposal was developed with several improvements in order to create a sustainable building that corresponds to the Portuguese best practices. This case study was developed taking into account the twenty-five sustainability indicators of the SBToolPT-H assessment system. Additionally, dynamic thermal simulation was used in order to support the optimization of the thermal performance and the indoor thermal comfort

BPFlexTemplate: A Business Process template generation tool based on similarity and flexibility

In large organizations with multiple organizational units, process variants emerge due to many aspects, including local management policies, resources or socio-technical limitations. Organizations then struggle to improve a business process which has no longer a single process model to redesign, implement and adjust. In this paper, we propose an approach to tackle these two challenges: decrease the proliferation of process variants in these organizations, and foresee, at the same time, the need of having flexible business processes that allow for a certain degree of adjustment. To validate our approach, we first conducted case studies where we collected six real-world business process variants from two organizational units of the same healthcare organization. We then proposed an algorithm to derive a template process model from all the variants, which includes common and flexible process elements. We implemented our approach in a software tool called BPFlexTemplate, and tested it with the elicited variants

Towards an Effective Decision Support System for Diabetic Foot Ulcers Diagnostic and Treatment Assessment

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a fast-growing metabolic condition that threatens human population quality of living in the overcoming decades. One of its severe consequences is diabetic foot ulcers (DFU), which affect up to a quarter of the DM patients in their lifetime. This consequence leads to high health costs and significant decrease of the patients’ quality of life and self-esteem. In order to cope with the rising demands of heath resources and shortage in clinical human assets intelligent computational tools are required to aid in the decision where a patient is in an early stage of a DFU development and on the appraisal of a DFU treatment. It is aim of this research to provide a critical overview of the existing decision support systems (DSS) and publicly available research datasets for diabetic foot ulcers early diagnosis and treatment assessment, and thus proposing a new infrastructure system to deal with it overcoming the past attempts. The existing DFU DSS failed in being introduced in clinical practice due to total discrepancy with current daily clinical practice with DFU and the publicly available DM research datasets are shorter in data for feeding a new DSS. This research presents the actual and promising future data required for effective decisions and discloses a proposed architecture for a DSS applicable to DFU early diagnosis and treatment evaluation. Implementing the proposed system will take time but it will definitely contribute to cope with the patient demands, associated cost reduction and promotion of patients care.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Towards Portuguese Sign Language Identification Using Deep Learning

In Portugal there are above 80,000 people with hearing impairment with the need to communicate through the sign language. Equal opportunities and social inclusion are the major concerns of the current society. It is aim of this research to create and evaluate a Deep Learning model that using a dataset with images of characters in Portuguese sign language can identify the gesture of a user, recognizing it. For model training, 5826 representative samples of the characters ‘C’, ‘I’, ‘L’, ‘U’ and ‘Y’ in Portuguese sign language. The Deep Learning model is based on a convolutional neural network. The model evaluated using the sample allowed for an accuracy of 98.5%, which is considered as a satisfactory result. However, there are two gaps: the existence of datasets with the totality of the alphabet in the Portuguese sign language and with the various representations of movement that each word has at the layout of letters. Using the proposed model with more complete datasets would allow to develop more inclusive user interfaces and equal opportunities for users with auditory difficulties.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Desempenho de sistemas de comunicações full-duplex

O aumento do volume de tráfego gerado em redes sem fios e a elevada taxa de ocupação do espectro Rádio-Eléctrico tem levado à procura e desenvolvimento de sistemas de elevada eficiência espectral. Recentemente, diversos grupos de investigação têm abordado a possibilidade de um dispositivo sem fios transmitir e receber dados em simultâneo na mesma banda. Estes dispositivos enquadram-se nos denominados “sistemas de comunicação Full-Duplex”, os quais, no limite, podem duplicar a capacidade da rede, quando comparados aos sistemas Half-Duplex. A grande dificuldade de implementação destes sistemas está associada ao cancelamento da auto-interferência. Esta interferência é provocada pela transmissão do próprio nó e, uma vez que apresenta uma potência muito superior à do sinal transmitido por outro dispositivo, impossibilita a captura desse sinal. Para permitir a transmissão e recepção de dados em simultâneo, os dispositivos Full-Duplex utilizam mecanismos de cancelamento do sinal auto-interferente, reduzindo-o para valores de potência próximos do nível de ruído. Nesta dissertação são abordados diversos tipos de mecanismos de redução da autointerferência, caracterizando as suas vantagens, desvantagens e limitações de utilização. De forma a estudar o funcionamento dos sistemas Full-Duplex, é caracterizado o efeito residual do cancelamento da auto-interferência e a capacidade de transmissão deste tipo de sistemas, incluindo a capacidade de recepção de múltiplos pacotes. Por fim, é proposto um protocolo de acesso ao meio para cenários onde vários dispositivos desejam comunicar com um nó receptor, utilizando um sistema de comunicação Full-Duplex

Relatório final

Neste trabalho pretende-se refletir sobre todo o trabalho desenvolvido ao longo do ano letivo, quer em aula quer em estágio, evidenciando sempre as experiências-chave. Estas foram fontes de aprendizagem preponderantes para o resto da sua formação e futura profissionalização. A reflexão deve ser uma prática recorrente em educação. Ela dá a oportunidade de resolver problemas, tomar decisões e acima de tudo avaliar a postura do adulto. Só através da reflexão o educador pode compreender as necessidades mais intrínsecas de cada criança e apropriar a sua prática educativa. Permite ainda ver as crianças como seres competentes que devem ser escutadas e respeitadas, para que cresçam inseridas num ambiente centrado nelas. Em suma, a reflexão permite ao educador fornecer instrumentos a si próprio para construir conhecimentos sobres os processos e resultados educativos. Esta ideia é sugerida também por Bruner (1986) quando afirma que refletir e experienciar permite construir significados dando origem a novas possibilidades. Refletir implica também pensar nas experiências-chave de cada estágio. As grandes aprendizagens desta prática passaram pela Abordagem de Mosaico, Autismo, as Artes no Jardim de Infância e ainda a Importância das brincadeiras no espaço Exterior

Editorial: mHealth tools for patient empowerment and chronic disease management

The authors would like to acknowledge the Health Sciences Research Unit: Nursing (UICISA:E), of the Nursing School of Coimbra (ESEnfC).Modern societies are facing new healthcare challenges with the integration of digital health interventions as a part of their healthcare systems. However, the digital transformation of healthcare requires active patient engagement as a core component of healthcare interventions. In the case of chronic diseases, new digital tools are believed to help maintain and improve patient health and care, by optimizing the course of disease treatment. Indeed, facilitating access to quality health services and building the capacity to reduce risk are key priorities around the world. Nevertheless, health systems are facing unprecedented financial pressures at a time of growing demand for their services. Technology can help people use care services less by promoting healthier lives. Prompt advances in wearable sensor technologies and mobile communications could close the gap between home- and clinic-based care delivery models by linking accessibility, availability, and responsive, tailored clinical oversight. Digital health solutions can help democratize access to medical care. Even though mobile health (mHealth) tools are widely recognized as a promising resource capable of changing healthcare, additional research is needed to enhance knowledge about their limitations and benefits for chronic disease management and patient empowerment. Nota: Extrato retirado do corpo do artigo.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio