A organização e a descrição de documentos musicais aplicada ao Arquivo da Sé de Portalegre

Versão corrigida e melhorada após a sua defesa públicaOs documentos musicais apresentam características próprias intrínsecas à sua especificidade musical. A total compreensão da documentação musical apenas é viável se os profissionais da informação forem habilitados para a leitura musical e conhecimento das características composicionais associadas, bem como para o entendimento dos contextos de produção. Assim, para o correcto tratamento da documentação musical considera-se necessária uma convergência de conhecimentos entre a Ciência da Informação e a Musicologia. A presente dissertação de mestrado tem como corpus a documentação musical do Arquivo da Sé de Portalegre. A sua observação e análise permitiram levantar uma série de questões, como por exemplo: o que é uma obra musical no âmbito da música sacra?; os documentos musicais manuscritos são documentos de arquivo ou documentos de biblioteca?; como deve ser organizada e descrita a documentação musical?; quais as normas mais adequadas para descrever esta documentação? Desta forma, este trabalho de investigação tem como propósito reflectir sobre as questões acima referidas, aliando os conhecimentos da Musicologia e da Ciência da Informação, com vista a compreender como as teorias da comunidade científica podem ou não aplicar-se na organização e na descrição da documentação musical do Arquivo da Sé de Portalegre

Os fatores que influenciam a escolha das empresas de auditoria em Portugal

O objetivo deste estudo é verificar quais são os fatores determinantes para a escolha das firmas de auditoria em Portugal e ainda verificar se esses fatores influenciam positivamente a escolha das big 4, face às restantes empresas de auditoria ou não. O presente estudo é justificado pela falta de estudos semelhantes aplicados à realidade portuguesa e pela necessidade crescente de as firmas de auditoria conhecerem os principais fatores que influenciam a sua escolha, de forma a adotarem estratégias que permitam captar e reter os seus clientes, num setor cada vez mais regulado e competitivo. Assim, a contribuição deste estudo revela-se particularmente importante para as firmas de auditoria e para os reguladores deste setor em Portugal. Trata-se do primeiro estudo acerca dos fatores que influenciam a escolha das firmas de auditoria aplicado à realidade portuguesa, o qual incide sobre empresas não cotadas e baseia-se em questionários com um número significativo de respostas. O desenho de investigação também único visto usar uma regressão do comum uso de estatística descritiva. A revisão de literatura tem como objetivo identificar quais os fatores que influenciam geralmente a escolha dos auditores pelos seus clientes, permitindo formular as hipóteses a testar neste estudo. A amostra corresponde a 347 empresas portuguesas, com diferentes dimensões e pertencentes a vários setores de atividade. Os resultados mostram que a proximidade geográfica da firma de auditoria, e o fator recomendação aumentam a probabilidade de seleção das big 4, face às restantes firmas de auditoria. Pelo contrário, a orientação para o cliente e a competência técnica dos colaboradores da firma de auditoria, diminuem a probabilidade de seleção das big 4 em relação às restantes firmas de auditoria. A dimensão do cliente e um mau desempenho surgem como características do cliente que influenciam positivamente a seleção das big 4, relativamente aos restantes auditores, de acordo com os resultados obtidos.The purpose of this study is to verify the determining factors for audit firm’s selection in Portugal and also to verify if these factors positively influence the choice of the big 4 rather than other audit firms. The present study is justified by the lack of similar studies applied to the Portuguese reality and by the increasing need for audit firms to know the main factors that influence their choice, in order to adopt strategies to capture and retain their clients, in a growing regulated and competitive sector. The contribution of this study proves to be particularly important for the audit firms and for the regulators of this sector in Portugal. This is the first study on the factors influencing the choice of audit firms applied to Portuguese reality, which focuses on unlisted companies and is based on questionnaires with a significant number of responses. The literature review enables the identification of factors that generally influence the choice of auditors by their clients, allowing us to formulate the hypotheses to be tested in this study. The random application of questionnaires aims to measure the degree of agreement with those factors, from the respondent’s perspective. From the responses of 347 Portuguese companies, with different dimensions and from various activity sectors, a log-it regression was developed in order to obtain the information to validate the hypotheses under investigation. Thus, the results of this study point out that the geographical proximity of the audit firm and the recommendation factor, increase the likelihood of a big 4 selection, compared to the other audit firms. On the contrary, the client orientation and the technical competence of the audit firm's employees decrease the likelihood of selecting a big 4 in relation to the other audit firms. Customer size and a poor performance, translated as a negative net result, appear as customer characteristics that positively influence the selection of a big 4, relative to the other auditors, according to obtained results

Aerobiologia do pólen de cupressáceas em Portugal

Introduction: Cupressaceae pollen type is considered a cause of pollen allergy in winter, throughout the world, mainly in the Mediterranean countries. Objective: To analyze the prevalence and aerobiological behavior of Cupressaceae pollen (Cupressaceae pollen type) in Portugal. Material and methods: This study used Cupressaceae pollen data of the Portuguese Aerobiology Network (RPA-SPAIC) and meteorological data, from 2002 to 2017, of 9 monitoring centers (mainland and islands). The influence of meteorological factors on Cupressaceae airborne pollen concentrations was analyzed by Spearman’s correlation. Results: Cupressaceae pollen type is one of the most abundant pollen types in the atmosphere of Portuguese cities with a representation in the pollen spectrum ranging from 5% (Portimão) to 24% (Coimbra and Vila Real). This pollen type was recorded during all year but, in average terms, Cupressaceae pollen season was of medium duration: in general began in December/ January and ended in March/April, depending on the region and the year. The highest pollen levels were observed in Vila Real, Évora and Coimbra. It was observed a clear influence of the meteorological variables on the Cupressaceae pollen counts, in particular of the temperature followed by global radiation and sunshine. Conclusion: Given the predominance of this pollen in the air over a long period of time and its allergenic potential, the dissemination of the information from this study is useful and relevant in order to correlate with possible sensitization and symptomatology of pollinosis. It should be noted that in Portugal, the highest levels of airborne Cupressacea pollen occur in winter and early spring and that allergy to this pollen type will certainly be more frequent during this period.publishersversionpublishe

Prognostic value of MGMT promoter methylation in glioblastoma patients treated with temozolomide-based chemoradiation : a Portuguese multicentre study

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive primary brain tumor. The identification of novel molecular prognostic markers of GBM has recently been an area of great interest in neuro-oncology. The methylation status of the MGMT gene promoter is currently a promising molecular prognostic marker, but some controversial data have precluded its clinical use. We analyzed MGMT methylation by methylation-specific PCR in 90 GBM patients from four Portuguese hospitals, uniformly treated with radiotherapy combined with concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide (Stupp protocol). The Kaplan-Meier method was used to construct survival curves, and the log-rank test and a Cox-regression model were used to analyze patient survival. The methylation status of MGMT was successfully determined in 89% (80/90) of the tumors. The frequency of tumoral MGMT promoter methylation was 47.5%. The median overall survivals (OSs) were 16 months (95% CI 12.2-19.8) and 13 months (95% CI 13.3-18.7) for patients whose tumors had a methylated or unmethylated MGMT, respectively. Univariate and multivariate analyses did not show any statistically significant association between MGMT methylation status and patient OS (P=0.583 by the log-rank test; P=0.617 by the Cox-regression test) or progression-free survival (P=0.775 by the log-rank test; P=0.691 by the Cox-regression test). None of the patient clinical features were significantly correlated with survival. This is the first study to report the frequency of MGMT methylation among Portuguese GBM patients. Our data did not show statistically significant associations between MGMT promoter methylation and the outcome of GBM patients treated with temozolomide. Additional robust prospective studies are warranted to clarify whether the MGMT status should be used in clinical decisions.This project was sponsored, in part, by Schering-Ploug Farma (Portugal). B.M.C. and O.M. are recipients of fellowships from the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (SFRH/BPD/33612/2009 and SFRH/BD/36463/ 2007). The funding institutions had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, interpretation of the results, the preparation of the manuscript, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication

On tail trend detection: modeling relative risk

The climate change dispute is about changes over time of environmental characteristics (such as rainfall). Some people say that a possible change is not so much in the mean but rather in the extreme phenomena (that is, the average rainfall may not change much but heavy storms may become more or less frequent). The paper studies changes over time in the probability that some high threshold is exceeded. The model is such that the threshold does not need to be specified, the results hold for any high threshold. For simplicity a certain linear trend is studied depending on one real parameter. Estimation and testing procedures (is there a trend?) are developed. Simulation results are presented. The method is applied to trends in heavy rainfall at 18 gauging stations across Germany and The Netherlands. A tentative conclusion is that the trend seems to depend on whether or not a station is close to the sea.Comment: 38 page

revista de Ciências da Arte

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Downregulation of RKIP Is Associated with Poor Outcome and Malignant Progression in Gliomas

Malignant gliomas are highly infiltrative and invasive tumors, which precludes the few treatment options available. Therefore, there is an urgent need to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying gliomas aggressive phenotype and poor prognosis. The Raf Kinase Inhibitory protein (RKIP), besides regulating important intracellular signaling cascades, was described to be associated with progression, metastasis and prognosis in several human neoplasms. Its role in the prognosis and tumourigenesis of gliomas remains unclear

revista de ciências da arte

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Extraction and microencapsulation of bioactive compounds from olive oil processing solid wastes

Mestrado em Engenharia Alimentar - Instituto Superior de AgronomiaThe food industry by-products such as olive oil processing solid waste are an important source of natural bioactive compounds. The aim of the present work was to extract bioactive compounds from olive pomace using supercritical carbon dioxide extraction and to investigate the viability of their encapsulation in a food-stuff carrier as a way of protection from antioxidant properties losses. Several supercritical extractions were performed at a 250 bar and a 40 ºC with and without pre-treatments and levels of moisture content were also tested. Yields between 8 and 12% (w/w) were achieved and fatty acid content, sterols and total poliphenolic compounds were evaluated in all supercritical extracts. Since there are a strong correlation between antioxidant activity and poliphenolic compounds, the two most representative phenols, hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol, were identified and quantified. Antioxidant activity was also investigated using ORAC and HORAC methods. Extraction of bioactive compounds from olive pomace in soxhlet apparatus were also carried out for control and yields of 13% (w/w) were achieved. Encapsulation of the most bioactive extract achieved was performed by spray-drying using inulin as the wall material and antioxidant activity was evaluated