220 research outputs found
Intelligent decision support in beds management and hospital planning
Worldwide, due to the constant overcrowding experienced in hospitals, hospital beds are one of the most needed resources, proving to be an extremely important feature in hospitalization planning and management, since the main purpose is to optimize their occupancy rate. This study aims to predict the future flow of patients after admission to a particular inpatient specialty to allow a more assertive planning based on demographic data. All data sources were made available by the Centro Hospitalar do Tâmega e Sousa (CHTS) and are relative to a 5-year period, 2017 to 2021. From the results achieved with the Machine Learning (ML) models developed was possible to conclude that these can prove to be an asset for the hospital, since being known the flow of patients allows a more informed and careful management of the management of beds.The work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020
The role of ion channels in the transmission of signals along axons
This work proposes a two-dimensional electrophysiological model for
describing neuronal responses to external electric stimuli under patch-clamped
conditions. Our proposed model successfully captures the key features of the
Hodgkin-Huxley model, while offering improved informativeness and numerical
efficiency.
By analysing bifurcation diagrams from various reduced models, we describe
the contributions of different ionic channels to the stability or instability
of the neurones' response. We also explore the influence of various cell
parameters in the neurone's spiking frequency, including the membrane
capacitance and the ionic channels' conductivities and Nerst potentials.
Additionally, we suggest a spatial model for the axon that effectively
simulates unidirectional signal transmission along neurons unaffected by
membrane potential perturbations. After analysing the characteristics of this
compartmental model, including the impact of intracellular resistance and
membrane capacitance on the signal's velocity, we observed considerable
discrepancies between our findings and those predicted by the cable equation
model for signal propagation.
Moreover, our investigation reveals that when the transmission of neuronal
signals occurs in multiple peaks, there is a transient variation in their
wavelength and frequency, resulting in different peak velocities. Furthermore,
our findings consistently demonstrate that the first peak - in some cases, the
only peak observed - maintains a relatively constant velocity along the axon
regardless of the stimulus intensity and is always faster than the subsequent
peaks.Comment: 40 pages, 48 figure
The Role of Gene Duplication and Unconstrained Selective Pressures in the Melanopsin Gene Family Evolution and Vertebrate Circadian Rhythm Regulation
Melanopsin is a photosensitive cell protein involved in regulating circadian rhythms and other non-visual responses to light. The melanopsin gene family is represented by two paralogs,OPN4x and OPN4m, which originated through gene duplication early in the emergence of vertebrates. Here we studied the melanopsin gene family using an integrated gene/protein evolutionary approach, which revealed that the rhabdomeric urbilaterian ancestor had the same amino acid patterns (DRY motif and the Y and E conterions) as extant vertebrate species, suggesting that the mechanism for light detection and regulation is similar to rhabdomeric rhodopsins. Both OPN4m and OPN4x paralogs are found in vertebrate genomic paralogons, suggesting that they diverged following this duplication event about 600 million years ago, when the complex eye emerged in the vertebrate ancestor. Melanopsins generally evolved under negative selection (ω = 0.171) with some minor episodes of positive selection (proportion of sites = 25%) and functional divergence (θI = 0.349 and θII = 0.126). The OPN4m and OPN4x melanopsin paralogs show evidence of spectral divergence at sites likely involved in melanopsin light absorbance (200F, 273S and 276A). Also, following the teleost lineage-specific whole genome duplication (3R) that prompted the teleost fish radiation, type I divergence (θI = 0.181) and positive selection (affecting 11% of sites) contributed to amino acid variability that we related with the photo-activation stability of melanopsin. The melanopsin intracellular regions had unexpectedly high variability in their coupling specificity of G-proteins and we propose that Gq/11 and Gi/o are the two G-proteins most-likely to mediate the melanopsin phototransduction pathway. The selection signatures were mainly observed on retinal-related sites and the third and second intracellular loops, demonstrating the physiological plasticity of the melanopsin protein group. Our results provide new insights on the phototransduction process and additional tools for disentangling and understanding the links between melanopsin gene evolution and the specializations observed in vertebrates, especially in teleost fish
Moldes mutantes : Variação em série
Através de uma série de estratégias diferentes, pretendo desenvolver processos de
conformação cerâmica de objectos que permitam variação de forma a partir de um
mesmo molde.
A variação de forma é conseguida através de moldes mutantes onde a transformação
é obtida através das seguintes estratégias:
1. Montagem e empilhamento - construção de moldes através de uma
combinação/sobreposição controlada ou aleatória de blocos de gesso em camadas,
sendo a fixação da forma final feita por elementos de aperto, como grampos, fitas
ou elásticos.
A construção deste tipo de molde assemelha-se a jogos e brinquedos de construção,
tais como Lego®.
2. Articulação e flexibilidade de superfĂcie - construção de moldes
compostos por elementos ligados entre si por um material tĂŞxtil de modo a tornar
possĂvel a manipulação formal da superfĂcie.
Um molde “plano” articulado transforma-se num molde tridimensional com forma
variável.
3. Ligações - molde de um arquétipo de jarra que pode ser reconfigurado
múltiplas vezes, pois tem uma ligação elástica entre todas as partes. Desta forma,
qualquer movimento de um elemento terá como consequência a alteração da posição
de todos os restantes elementos.
4. Novos materiais - desenvolvimento de novas técnicas no processo de
produção por moldes, através da inserção de materiais que normalmente não estão
presentes nos moldes para cerâmica.
Com as 4 estratĂ©gias enunciadas criarei moldes flexĂveis que permitam variações de
forma, tipologia e escala
A formação em contexto municipal : um contributo para uma polĂtica integrada de educação - formação
Relatório de estágio de mestrado em Educação (área de especialização em Formação,Trabalho e Recursos Humanos)O mundo globalizado imprime aceleradas mudanças às realidades sociais e económicas,
movidas pela permanente adaptação aos desafios que uma economia aberta e mundializada
desencadeia. Nesse sentido, evidenciam-se as assimetrias que caracterizam a Europa e o
mundo e, por isso, tambĂ©m a Administração Local enfrenta novos desafios face Ă
desconcentração e descentralização das atribuições e competências em várias áreas
operacionais, assumindo um papel estratégico nas respostas de proximidade à prossecução do
interesse pĂşblico. Nesse sentido, os MunicĂpios sĂŁo actores privilegiados para essa actuação,
porquanto dispõem de recursos humanos altamente qualificados para a prossecução das suas
atribuições e para o desenvolvimento de um trabalho interdisciplinar de planeamento, gestão e
controlo, subsidiário de uma qualquer estratĂ©gia polĂtica integrada de intervenção no territĂłrio
que administra. Importa, assim, o reconhecimento e a atribuição do valor e atenção que lhes é
devida, pois configuram-se como factor-chave de resposta de proximidade Ă complexidade dos
novos desafios, onde o conhecimento é convocado e, consequentemente, o sucesso alcança
impactes de desenvolvimento certamente mais sustentados.
Este relatório de estágio (que também constitui um trabalho de investigação), sustentado
em várias perspectivas teóricas que tocam as várias dimensões que se entrelaçam numa
qualquer polĂtica integrada de educação/formação, visa obter inferĂŞncias sobre as percepções
dos actores dos vários nĂveis hierárquicos do MunicĂpio, nomeadamente sobre as profundas
alterações nos processos de trabalho provocadas pela evolução das novas tecnologias de
informação e comunicação e normativos legais, quer sobre o lugar e o papel que a
educação/formação tem no seio da organização, nomeadamente como instrumento estratégico
de gestão de recursos humanos, sob uma pressão normativa para a racionalização dos efectivos
e sem prejuĂzo da eficiĂŞncia e eficácia dos serviços prestados.
Os resultados deste estudo revelaram, por um lado, percepções de práticas formativas
de dominação reiterada, de mera reciclagem, actualização, adaptação e aperfeiçoamento numa
lógica de especialização para a realização de trabalho prescrito, evidenciando também a
exclusão dos menos qualificados. Por outro lado, sustenta a reivindicação à adopção de uma
polĂtica integrada de educação/formação que convoque, para o efeito, a efectivação da
estruturação do serviço interno de formação segundo uma lógica de ruptura com o tradicional
“Modelo Sistémico Geral da Actividade de Formação”, que potencie a livre escolha de percursos
formativos com suporte na motivação e a credibilidade dos trabalhadores.A global world leads to quick changes concerning social and economic realities, caused
by permanent adjustment to challenges brought by an open and global economy. Therefore one
can notice the differences that characterize Europe and the world and for that reason Local
Administration also faces new challenges in view of the devolution and decentralization of power
and abilities concerning many operational areas, taking on a strategical role in close response to
the pursuit of public interest. Therefore municipalities play an important role in that context since
they have high quality human resources to deal with power and to develop an interdisciplinary
work of planning, managing and control, supporting any strategical integrated politics of field
intervention. Appreciation and attention are important because they are the key points
concerning a close response to the complexity of new challenges in which knowledge is needed
and consequently the success matches with a well-balanced development.
This report (which is also a research paper) is based on several perspectives related to
the different dimensions that get mixed in any integrated politics of Education/Training, and aims
to get conclusions about the perceptions of the actors of different hierarchical ranks of the
municipality, mainly those related to the deep changes in the work processes caused by the
evolution of new information and communication technologies and legal rules, concerning the
place and role that Education/Training has in the heart of an organization, mainly as strategical
instrument of managing human resources, under rule pressure to rationalize staff without
damaging the efficiency and the efficacy of the services provided.
On the one hand, the results of this study have shown perceptions of repeated training,
mere recycling, updating, adjustment and improvement having in mind the specialization to
perform assigned tasks, bringing forward the exclusion of the less qualified. On the other hand,
they support the demand for choosing an integrated politics of education/training which calls for
real constitution of internal training service and puts an end to the traditional “Global Systemic
Training Model”, leading to the free choice of training pathways based on the workers’ motivation
and credibility
Aortic valve endocarditis by a rare infectious agent in a patient with a rare congenital mitral valve abnormality
© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] description:
A 66-year-old woman with a past medical history of high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes mellitus and no clinical evidence of immunocompromise, presented to the emergency room with fever and acute pulmonary oedema. The patient had presented low-grade fever and anorexia in the previous 3 weeks.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
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