A study on the economic impact of the 2001 Madeira airport enlargement

O alargamento do Aeroporto da Madeira em 2001 supunha-se catalisador da procura turística e capaz de reconverter o turismo madeirense e, assim, reforçar a dinâmica de desenvolvimento regional. Sete anos volvidos, importa avaliar os seus impactos, mormente no que respeita à criação de novas rotas turísticas e desenvolvimento da procura. Baseados em dados estimámos o impacto do alargamento em termos de procura e PIB. Os resultados mostram um crescimento moderado a partir de 2001, mas é de admitir que, sem ele, ter-se-ia assistido a um desempenho menos favorável. A metodologia proposta constitui, contudo, um ponto de partida na abordagem à problemática dos transportes em geral e da oferta de transporte aéreo no contexto do desenvolvimento regional em particular.The expansion works at the Madeira Airport in 2001 were expected to foster tourist demand and to structurally change the tourism industry in Madeira, thereby reinforcing the dynamics of regional development. Seven years on, it is now important to assess the various areas where it impacted, namely with regards to the creation of new tourist destinations and the expansion of demand. Using data on passengers’ travels and tourism demand, and making estimated the impact of the expansion both in terms of demand and GDP. The results show a decreasing rate of growth from 2001 on, although a concession must be made to allow for the fact that, without the expansion, a not so favourable result might have emerged. The proposed methodology is, however, a starting point for the approach to the transport sector in general and the supply of air transport within the context of regional development in particular.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Design of interactive user interfaces for advanced web applications

Tese de Mestrado Integrado. Engenharia Informática e Computação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

Behçet's Disease and Pregnancy: A Retrospective Case-control Study

Background: Behçet's disease (BD) is a rare chronic multisystemic vasculitis of unknown etiology. It is usually diagnosed between the 2nd and 4th decades of life, so its association with pregnancy is not unusual. This study aims to characterize the evolution of pregnancy in a group of pregnant women with BD and the impact of this pathology in embryo-fetal morbidity. Methods: A retrospective case-control study included 49 pregnancies in women suffering from BD, followed in our institution. Pregnancy outcomes were compared with a control group of healthy pregnant women. Two controls per case were randomly selected. Statistical analysis used SPSS 25.0, and a p-value of 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Forty-nine pregnancies were included in 27 patients with BD. BD exacerbation occurred in 32.6% of the pregnancies. There were no significant statistical differences between the two groups regarding the rate of preterm delivery, gestational diabetes, and preeclampsia (p>0.05). In the BD group, we found a higher rate of miscarriage (24.5%) and fetal growth restriction (FGR, 13.3%, p0.05). The birth weight of newborns did not differ significantly between the groups. There was no association of BD with maternal morbidity and neonatal complications. Conclusion: In this study, the majority of pregnant with BD did not present clinical exacerbation of their pathology. However, BD may have an adverse influence on pregnancy outcomes. FGR and miscarriage rates were significantly higher in the study group.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evalution of global self-concept in higher education students

"International Conference on New Horizons in Education", realizada na Guarda, de 5-7 de Junho de 2011A presente investigação centra-se nos processos de mudança do auto-conceito no período designado por pós-adolescência e traduz-se num estudo comparativo entre os níveis de auto-conceito global de estudantes do ensino superior iniciantes e finalistas. Recorrendo a uma metodologia de cariz quantitativo, a nossa amostra foi constituída por 552 sujeitos. Para a avaliação do nível de auto-conceito global valemo-nos da adaptação do Self Description Questionnaire III realizada por Faria e Fontaine (1992) a estudantes universitários portugueses. Concluímos que não existem diferenças significativas entre os dois grupos de estudantes, apesar dos iniciantes apresentarem um nível de auto-conceito global inferior aos finalistas. Estes resultados podem ser compreendidos a partir das experiências e ansiedades vivenciadas pelos estudantes do ensino superior, quer no processo de adaptação ao contexto académico, no caso dos que estão a iniciar a formação, quer na antecipação de reais dificuldades de inserção no mercado de trabalho, no caso dos finalistas

Timing analysis of an embedded architecture for a real-time power line communications network

Tese de mestrado. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores (Área de especialização de Telecomunicações). Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto, Instituto Superior de Engenharia. Instituto Politécnico do Porto.. 200

Managing contention of software transactional memory in real-time systems

The foreseen evolution of chip architectures to higher number of, heterogeneous, cores, with non-uniform memory and non-coherent caches, brings renewed attention to the use of Software Transactional Memory (STM) as an alternative to lock-based synchronisation. However, STM relies on the possibility of aborting conflicting transactions to maintain data consistency, which impacts on the responsiveness and timing guarantees required by real-time systems. In these systems, contention delays must be (efficiently) limited so that the response times of tasks executing transactions are upperbounded and task sets can be feasibly scheduled. In this paper we defend the role of the transaction contention manager to reduce the number of transaction retries and to help the real-time scheduler assuring schedulability. For such purpose, the contention management policy should be aware of on-line scheduling information

Open and networked education: learning the future of learning

The analysis about Education and current educational settings (or educative technological contexts) leads to the need for reflection and study on the state of school as a public space and on their role in relation to the promotion and development of skills of children and youth, either at European or international levels. To understand the future of education there are multiple lines of analysis, as well as several authors speculating about the school's future and the future of this young technological society. In this paper we intend to discuss the state of the art about the school of the future and reflect on possible connections, developed under a doctoral project in Portugal, reflecting about some of these central issues.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Dificuldades em estocástica de uma futura professora do 1.º e 2.º ciclos do ensino básico

Neste estudo investigou-se o impacto do ensino da unidade de Estatística do 6º ano de escolaridade sobre as dificuldades em estocástica de uma aluna estagiária (Joana). Para tal, antes de ter qualquer experiência de ensino, Joana respondeu a um questionário sobre o tema, tendo sido identificadas as suas dificuldades conceptuais; seguidamente, leccionou a unidade de Estatística numa turma do 6º ano; e, finalmente, foi entrevistada sobre as questões em que tinha revelado dificuldades no questionário. Dos resultados do estudo, salienta-se que o ensino da unidade de Estatística teve um sucesso relativo na superação das suas dificuldades, já que muitas alterações de resposta e/ou raciocínio não foram resultado da sua própria iniciativa, antes foram consequência do questionamento da investigadora. Além disso, as dificuldades sentidas na relacionação das medidas de localização e nos seus significados e na comparação de probabilidades não foram de todo superadas. Verificou-se ainda que o conhecimento de Joana em estocástica, além de bastante limitado, era acentuadamente algorítmico e rotineiro e apresentava pouca integração.This study researched the impact of the teaching of Statistics unit to 6th graders on the difficulties of a student-teacher (Joana) in stochastic. Before any experience of teaching, Joana answered a questionnaire about the theme, in order to allow the identification of their conceptual difficulties; afterwards, she taught the Statistics unit; finally, she was interviewed about the issues in which she had shown difficulties when answering the questionnaire. The results of the study indicated that the teaching of the Statistics unit had a moderate success in overcoming the student-teacher’s difficulties, as many changes on her answers and/or reasoning were not a result of her own initiative, but were a consequence of the questioning of the researcher. In addition, the difficulties to relate the localization measures and their meanings, as well as the comparison of probabilities were not at all overcome. It was verified yet that, besides being very limited, Joana’s knowledge in stochastic was greatly algorithmic and routinised and seems to have a reduced level of integration.Dans cet étude on a fait des recherches sur l’impact de l’enseignement de l’unité de Statistique en 6ème année de scolarité sur les difficultés en stochastique d’une stagiaire (Joana). À cet effet, et sans avoir aucune expérience dans l’enseignement, Joana a répondu à un questionnaire sur le thème, qui a permis de repérer ses difficultés; ensuite, elle a enseigné l’unité de Statistique dans une classe de 6ème année; et, finalement, elle fut interrogée sur des questions où elle avait révélé des difficultés dans le questionnaire préalable. De les résultats de l’étude, on constate que l’enseignement de l’unité de Statistique a eu un succès relatif pour surmonter ses difficultés, vu que beaucoup de changements dans la réponse et/ou raisonnement ne furent pas le résultat de sa propre initiative, mais plutôt la conséquence des questions posées par l’investigatrice. En plus, les difficultés senties dans le relationnement des mesures de localisation, dans ses significations et dans la comparaison de probabilités n’ont pas été surmontées. On a encore vérifié que la connaissance de Joana en stochastique, bien que très limitée, était fortement algorithmique et routinière et présentant une faible intégration