A Lightweight Regression Method to Infer Psycholinguistic Properties for Brazilian Portuguese

Psycholinguistic properties of words have been used in various approaches to Natural Language Processing tasks, such as text simplification and readability assessment. Most of these properties are subjective, involving costly and time-consuming surveys to be gathered. Recent approaches use the limited datasets of psycholinguistic properties to extend them automatically to large lexicons. However, some of the resources used by such approaches are not available to most languages. This study presents a method to infer psycholinguistic properties for Brazilian Portuguese (BP) using regressors built with a light set of features usually available for less resourced languages: word length, frequency lists, lexical databases composed of school dictionaries and word embedding models. The correlations between the properties inferred are close to those obtained by related works. The resulting resource contains 26,874 words in BP annotated with concreteness, age of acquisition, imageability and subjective frequency.Comment: Paper accepted for TSD201

Micros, pequenas e médias empresas: atores importantes no espaço regional do Mercosul?

A temática desse artigo é o papel de Micro, Pequenas e Médias Empresas (MPME) em países membros do Mercado Comum do Sul (MERCOSUL). Objetiva-se responder à questão: As MPME constituem atores relevantes na consolidação do espaço regional conformado pelas economias mercosulinas? A hipótese é que sim. Após destacadas as diferentes conceituações desses atores e enfatizadas as suas relevâncias enquanto promotores do crescimento econômico e do desenvolvimento social em cada Estadoparte - a partir de revisão da literatura e da análise de dados - encontram-se evidências que permitem confirmar a hipótese

Fitness but not weight status is associated with projected physical independence in older adults.

Obesity and fitness have been associated with older adults' physical independence. We aimed to investigate the independent and combined associations of physical fitness and adiposity, assessed by body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) with the projected ability for physical independence. A total of 3496 non-institutionalized older adults aged 65 and older (1167 male) were included in the analysis. BMI and WC were assessed and categorized according to established criteria. Physical fitness was evaluated with the Senior Fitness Test and individual test results were expressed as Z-scores. Projected ability for physical independence was assessed with the 12-item composite physical function scale. Logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) for being physically dependent. A total of 30.1 % of participants were classified as at risk for losing physical independence at age 90 years. Combined fitness and fatness analysis demonstrated that unfit older adults had increased odds ratio for being physically dependent in all BMI categories (normal: OR = 9.5, 95 %CI = 6.5-13.8; overweight: OR = 6.0, 95 %CI = 4.3-8.3; obese: OR = 6.7, 95 %CI = 4.6-10.0) and all WC categories (normal: OR = 10.4, 95%CI = 6.5-16.8; middle: OR = 6.2, 95 %CI = 4.1-9.3; upper: OR = 7.0, 95 %CI = 4.8-10.0) compared to fit participants that were of normal weight and fit participants with normal WC, respectively. No increased odds ratio was observed for fit participants that had increased BMI or WC. In conclusion, projected physical independence may be enhanced by a normal weight, a normal WC, or an increased physical fitness. Adiposity measures were not associated with physical independence, whereas fitness is independently related to physical independence. Independent of their weight and WC status, unfit older adults are at increased risk for losing physical independence.D.A.S. is supported by a scholarship from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (SFRH/BPD/92462/2013). L.S. conducted this work during a visiting scholar period to the Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Lisbon, Portugal, supported by the Capes Foundation within the Ministry of Education, Brazil (Process: 88887.065407/2014-00). UE was partly funded by the MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK (Grant MC_UU_12015/3)This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-016-9911-

Antimicrobial silver coating using PVD-PECVD system

Physical Vapor Deposition - Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PVD-PECVD) systems are used exclusively for deposition and doping of carbonaceous films. However, this technique presents promising characteristics for the deposition of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) on textiles, which meet the industrial demand for a more versatile and efficient methodology than the Magnetron Sputtering (MS) technique. In this regard, cotton textiles were coated with Ag-NP films produced by PVD-PECVD, and compared in terms of technical Physical vapor deposition - plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PVD-PECVD) system has been used exclusively for deposition and doping of carbonaceous films [silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs)] on cotton fabrics and the findings are compared, in terms of technical efficiency and microbial inhibition, with those of the magnetron sputtering (MS) technique. It is found that the proposed technique presents promising characteristics for the deposition of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) on textiles, which meet the industrial demand.efficiency and microbial inhibition, with findings in the literature for the MS technique

Entomofauna associada à matéria orgânica em bainhas foliares de Attalea phalerata Mart. Arecaceae), na região norte do Pantanal de Mato Grosso

Entomofauna associated to organic matter in leaf sheaths of Attalea phalerata Mart. (Arecaceae), in the northern region of Pantanal of Mato GrossoEspécies arbóreas que acumulam matéria orgânica suspensa possuem maior diversidade de habitats, propiciando abrigo, local de nidificação e refúgio a uma diversa fauna de artrópodes. No Pantanal, as palmeiras são consideradas espécies-chave, formando adensamentos monodominantes, e devido a presença de bainhas foliares aderidas ao caule mesmo após a morte de suas folhas, geram um importante habitat explorado por diversos táxons. Com o objetivo de inventariar a entomofauna associada à matéria orgânica em bainhas foliares de Attalea phalerata Mart. (Arecaceae), foram amostradas 40 palmeiras em duas áreas, natural e manejada, ao longo dos quatro períodos sazonais do Pantanal mato-grossense. Em cada área foram selecionadas cinco palmeiras para amostragem da matéria orgânica acumulada em três bainhas foliares, distribuídas em diferentes alturas em relação ao solo. Coletou-se 4.588 insetos, distribuídos em 13 ordens taxonômicas, dos quais 2.658 indivíduos (58,0%) na área natural, e 1.930 indivíduos (42,0%) na área manejada. Collembola (1.507 ind.; 32,8%), Coleoptera (1.004 ind.; 21,9%), Formicidae (642 ind.; 14,0%), Diptera (543 ind.; 11,8%) e Psocoptera (290 ind.; 6,3%), corresponderam a 87,0% dos indivíduos amostrados. Os adultos de Coleoptera estão distribuídos em 18 famílias, dos quais 71,6% correspondem a predadores, sendo Staphylinidae (73,0%) a família mais representativa. Dentre os períodos sazonais avaliados, 72,5% dos insetos foram coletados durante a cheia e apenas 27,5% nos períodos de vazante, seca e enchente. Os dados obtidos foram comparados aos estudos desenvolvidos na mesma área em serapilheira, solo e copa. Os resultados demonstram que A. phalerata sustenta uma rica e abundante entomofauna que utiliza a matéria orgânica acumulada em suas bainhas foliares, tanto como recurso alimentar, quanto local de reprodução

Conteúdos formadores voltados aos estudos de usuários em currículos de Biblioteconomia: um estudo de caso multiplo

The work discusses user’s information studies through bibliographical critical review and its conceptual historical evolution. It maps the foundations of the area, as well as its reflection in the curriculum of undergraduate courses in Library and Information Science at the University of São Paulo (USP), São Paulo State University (UNESP), Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) and University of Brasilia (UnB). The obtained data indicates that the user’s studies should be taken into account in the Librarian curriculum programs and in the definition of Information Services offered by the library.O artigo contextualiza a discussão sobre os Estudos de Usuários de Informação através de revisão bibliográfica crítica e da evolução histórica do conceito e mapeia os fundamentos da área bem como seu reflexo nas grades curriculares dos cursos de graduação em Biblioteconomia na Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) e Universidade de Brasília (UnB). Os dados obtidos permitem afirmar que os Estudos de Usuários devem ocupar uma posição relevante no processo de formação do Bibliotecário e na definição dos Serviços de Informação oferecidos pela Biblioteca.El articulo contextualiza la discusión sobre los Estudios de Usuarios de Información a través de la revisión bibliográfica critica y de la evolución histórica del concepto y mapea los fundamentos del área así como su reflejo en los planes de estudios de los cursos de graduación en Biblioteconomía en la Universidad de São Paulo (USP), Universidad Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Universidad Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) y Universidad de Brasília (UnB). Los datos obtenidos permiten afirmar que los Estudios de Usuarios deben ocupar una posición relevante en el proceso de formación del Bibliotecario y en la definición de los Servicios de Información ofrecidos por la Biblioteca

Construcción de un cuestionario transcultural de motivos de abandono de la enseñanza superior

O abandono no Ensino Superior é um tema relevante pela sua incidência e consequências negativas no estudante, família, instituição e sociedade em geral. Procurando conhecer os motivos da intenção de abandono, investigadores do Brasil, Espanha e Portugal convergiram na construção de um questionário de avaliação transcultural. Atendendo à multidimensionalidade das causas de abandono, o questionário abarca seis dimensões: Social, Acadêmica, Professores, Saúde e Bem-estar, Institucional e Financeira. A análise fatorial, com amostras autônomas de estudantes do 1º ano do Brasil, Espanha e Portugal, mostrou uma distribuição adequada dos itens nas seis dimensões, com alguma discrepância na dimensão Professores na amostra do Brasil. Os índices de consistência interna atingiram níveis adequados nas seis dimensões (valores entre 0,74 e 0,91). Futuros desenvolvimentos devem testar a dimensionalidade do questionário e a sua invariância nos três países, incluindo já variáveis psicológicas e académicas para análise da validade de critério.The dropout in higher education assumes relevant percentages, with negative consequences for the students, family, institution and society in general. In order to know the reasons for the dropout intention, researchers from Brazil, Spain and Portugal converged on the construction of a transcultural questionnaire. Face the multidimensional nature of dropout causes, the questionnaire assesses six dimensions: Social, Academic, Faculty, Health and Wellbeing, Institutional, and Financial. The factorial analysis, with autonomous samples of first-year students from Brazil, Spain and Portugal, showed an adequate distribution of the items by the six dimensions, with some difficulties in Faculty dimension in Brazilian sample. The internal consistency of items reached adequate levels in those six dimensions (values range from .74 to .91). Future developments should test the dimensionality of the questionnaire and its invariance in all three countries, including other psychological and academic variables for criterion validity analysis. Keywords: higher education; dropout reasons; first-year studentsEl abandono en la enseñanza superior es un tema relevante por su incidencia y por sus consecuencias negativas a nivel personal, familiar, institucional y social. En búsqueda de conocer las razones de intención de abandono, investigadores de Brasil, España y Portugal participaron en la construcción de un cuestionario de evaluación transcultural. Dicho instrumento, de naturaleza multidimensional, se organiza en seis dimensiones: Social, Académica, Profesorado, Salud y Bienestar, Institucional y Financiera. El análisis factorial, con muestras independientes de los estudiantes del primer año de Brasil, España y Portugal, mostró una distribución adecuada de los ítems en las seis dimensiones, con alguna discrepancia en la dimensión Profesorado en la muestra brasileña. Los índices de consistencia interna alcanzaron niveles adecuados (valores entre .74 y .91), si bien que se debe realizar nuevos estudios para probar la dimensionalidad del cuestionario y su invariancia en los tres países, incluyendo las variables psicológicas y académicas para analizar la validez de criterio(undefined

Antimicrobial and Photoantimicrobial Activities of Chitosan/CNPPV Nanocomposites

Multidrug-resistant bacteria represent a global health and economic burden that urgently calls for new technologies to combat bacterial antimicrobial resistance. Here, we developed novel nanocomposites (NCPs) based on chitosan that display different degrees of acetylation (DAs), and conjugated polymer cyano-substituted poly(p-phenylene vinylene) (CNPPV) as an alternative approach to inactivate Gram-negative (E. coli) and Gram-positive (S. aureus) bacteria. Chitosan's structure was confirmed through FT-Raman spectroscopy. Bactericidal and photobactericidal activities of NCPs were tested under dark and blue-light irradiation conditions, respectively. Hydrodynamic size and aqueous stability were determined by DLS, zeta potential (ZP) and time-domain NMR. TEM micrographs of NCPs were obtained, and their capacity of generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) under blue illumination was also characterized. Meaningful variations on ZP and relaxation time T2 confirmed successful physical attachment of chitosan/CNPPV. All NCPs exhibited a similar and shrunken spherical shape according to TEM. A lower DA is responsible for driving higher bactericidal performance alongside the synergistic effect from CNPPV, lower nanosized distribution profile and higher positive charged surface. ROS production was proportionally found in NCPs with and without CNPPV by decreasing the DA, leading to a remarkable photobactericidal effect under blue-light irradiation. Overall, our findings indicate that chitosan/CNPPV NCPs may constitute a valuable asset for the development of innovative strategies for inactivation and/or photoinactivation of bacteria. Keywords: photoantimicrobial activity; blue-light irradiation; chitosan; CNPPV; nanocomposites; E. coli; S. aureu