From puzzle pieces to masterpiece: connecting strengths between risk analysis, incomplete block designs, data science, and artificial intelligence

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Problem based learning. A brief review

Teaching is a complex mission that requires not only the theoretical knowledge transmission, but furthermore requires to provide the students the necessary skills for solving real problems in their respective professional activities where complex issues and problems must be frequently faced. Over more than twenty years we have been experiencing an increase in scholar failure in the scientific area of mathematics, which means that Teaching Mathematics and related areas can be even a more complex and hard task. Scholar failure is a complex phenomenon that depends on various factors as social factors, scholar factors or biophysical factors. After numerous attempts made in order to reduce scholar failure our goal in this paper is to understand the role of “Problem Based Learning” and how this methodology can contribute to the solution of both: increasing mathematical courses success and increasing skills in the near future professionals in Portugal. Before designing a proposal for applying this technique in our institutions, we decided to conduct a survey to provide us with the necessary information about and the respective advantages and disadvantages of this methodology, so this is the brief review aim.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A asma induzida pelo exercício na criança

A Asma Brônquica é a doença crónica mais comum nas crianças. É definida como uma disfunção inflamatória crónica das vias aéreas que provoca uma resposta exacerbada das mesmas, levando ao aparecimento recorrente de episódios de pieira, dispneia, opressão torácica e tosse associada a obstrução do fluxo de ar que pode ser reversível, quer de uma forma espontânea quer por terapêutica. Nas crianças, o exercício contínuo e intenso pode levar a um aumento transitório da resistência das vias aéreas, conduzindo a obstrução brônquica ao aparecimento da tosse, pieira, dispneia e opressão torácica, a chamada asma induzida pelo exercício

Statistics and big data: Different perspectives

Trabalho apresentado em International Conference of Numerical Analysis and Applied Mathematics 2019, 23-28 setembro 2019, Rhodes, Gréciainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Envelhecer adoptando um estilo de vida saudável... a actividade física!

O envelhecimento é um processo universal que acarreta problemas físicos, psíquicos e sociais. Os problemas de saúde aumentam não só com o avanço da idade mas também com a inactividade. Comparando com os adultos mais jovens, indivíduos com idade superior a 65anos têm uma maior incidência de condições crónicas, como a osteoartrite, a diabetes, a depressão, os acidentes vasculares cerebrais,etc. A progressão e a severidade de muitas destas doenças podem ser prevenidas, minimizadas ou “retardadas” com a participação em programas de promoção da saúde, exercícios terapêuticos e/ou actividade física

Modeling non-life insurance price for risk without historical information

How should an insurer price a risk for which there is no history? This work intends to show, step by step, which main mechanisms are needed to capture the tariff model of another insurance company minimizing the risk involved. The document generally deals with the price-making mechanisms in non-life insurance through the GLM regression models — Generalized Linear Model, more precisely the Poisson, Gamma and Tweedie models. Given the complexity of the application of these models in experimental design, it is studied a simpler way to characterize the rate, namely considering the Box–Cox transformation with SUR — Seemingly Unrelated Regression. An orthogonal experimental design to collect information is also presented as well as an application of these methods in the motor industry considering different companies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Skewness into the product of two normally distributed variables and the risk consequences

The analysis of skewness is an essential tool for decision-making since it can be used as an indicator on risk assessment. It is well known that negative skewed distributions lead to negative outcomes, while a positive skewness usually leads to good scenarios and consequently minimizes risks. In this work the impact of skewness on risk analysis will be explored, considering data obtained from the product of two normally distributed variables. In fact, modelling this product using a normal distribution is not a correct approach once skewness in many cases is different from zero. By ignoring this, the researcher will obtain a model understating the risk of highly skewed variables and moreover, for too skewed variables most of common tests in parametric inference cannot be used. In practice, the behaviour of the skewness considering the product of two normal variables is explored as a function of the distributions parameters: mean, variance and inverse of the coefficient variation. Using a measurement error model, the consequences of skewness presence on risk analysis are evaluated by considering several simulations and visualization tools using R software.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Semi-parametric models: an application in medicine

Conferência realizada em Rhodes, Grécia, de 23-28 de setembro de 2019.Modeling of medical data often requires the inclusion of non-linear forms of the predictors and, the Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) can provide an excellent fit in the presence of non-linear relationships and significant noise in the predictor variables. The accurate assessment of QT interval is of paramount importance since its prolongation (LQTS) is a life threatening condition. The QT interval is affected by heart rate and gender and may be adjusted to improve the detection of patients at increased risk. Bazett's formula is the most commonly used QT correction formula, and takes into account only the heart rate assessed by the RR interval, and cut-of values of corrected QT are defined according to gender. In this work we analyzed relevance of QRS, together with gender and RR to explain QT length using GAMs. Results showed that QRS and gender are significant to non-pathological QT modelling.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Approximating the distribution of the product of two normally distributed random variables

The distribution of the product of two normally distributed random variables has been an open problem from the early years in the XXth century. First approaches tried to determinate the mathematical and statistical properties of the distribution of such a product using different types of functions. Recently, an improvement in computational techniques has performed new approaches for calculating related integrals by using numerical integration. Another approach is to adopt any other distribution to approximate the probability density function of this product. The skew-normal distribution is a generalization of the normal distribution which considers skewness making it flexible. In this work, we approximate the distribution of the product of two normally distributed random variables using a type of skew-normal distribution. The influence of the parameters of the two normal distributions on the approximation is explored. When one of the normally distributed variables has an inverse coefficient of variation greater than one, our approximation performs better than when both normally distributed variables have inverse coefficients of variation less than one. A graphical analysis visually shows the superiority of our approach in relation to other approaches proposed in the literature on the topic.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Development of a non-isothermal method for determination of diffusional parameters

A non-isothermal method for determination of diffusional parameters was developed. The dependence of diffusivity on temperature was described by an Arrhenius type equation, 'with the pre-exponential factor and the,activation energy as parameters. These parameters were obtained by optimization of the fit between experimental and theoretical values, using the Simplex method of minimization. Equilibrium conditions were described with a constant unit partition coefficient. This model was applied to the diffusion of acetic acid into turnips. Results compared well with values obtained with the conventional method, using a set of experiments at isothermal conditions. The non-isothermal method has significant advantages, nameiy the need for much less experimental data and better insight into the statistical significance of the results