Events of daily living classification on an ambient assisted living environment

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia Eletrónica Industrial e ComputadoresPopulation ageing is a global demographic challenge and countries all around the world are facing significant pressure on their health and social care systems in order to mitigate the effects of it. The emerging social aspect introduced some crucial challenges to society and greater demands on the actual health care sector, which led to the emergence and increased integration of agefriendly innovative welfare technological-based care services for safe and independent ageing, including the assisted living technologies based on Ambient Intelligence (AmI) paradigm and Pervasive HealthCare. The Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) systems intend to provide caregivers with a detailed overview of their Events of Daily Living (EDL), which constitutes a clinical criteria to evaluate activity limitations. This dissertation addresses these challenges and contributes to the Ambient Assisted Living research, by means of a holistic solution composed of a beyond the state-of-the-art AAL technologies, representing a novel approach to assist in the investigation and on the modeling of a subset of Events of Daily Living (EDL), for sustaining independent living and a continual naturalistic assessment of health. The investigation was focused on 1) developing a multisensorial pervasive Research Data Acquistion (RDA) Platform with embedded Ambient Intelligence (AmI), 2) COTS to verify their validity and reliability for healthcare applications. The proposed solution has been thoroughly evaluated in the Ambient Assisted Living Laboratory that showed its effectiveness classifying EDL through the application of the AAL paradigm in the real world.O envelhecimento populacional é um desafio demográfico global e os países em todo o mundo estão sob com enorme pressão nos seus sistemas de saúde a fim de mitigar os efeitos que poderão advir. O aspecto social emergente introduziu alguns desafios cruciais para a sociedade e uma maior sobrecarga no setor de saúde, o que levou ao surgimento e aumento da integração de serviços inovadores de assistência social, de modo a que haja um envelhecimento seguro e independente, incluindo as tecnologias de assistência à vida com base no paradigma de Ambient Intelligence (AmI) e no Pervasive HealthCare, os sistemas de Ambient Assisted Living (AAL). Eles pretendem fornecer aos profissionais de saúde uma visão detalhada de seu Events of Daily Living (EDL), que constitui um critério clínico para avaliar as limitações da atividade. Para enfrentar estes desafios, esta dissertação contribui para a pesquisa na área de Ambient Assisted Living, por meio de uma solução holística composta por uma tecnologia além das tecnologias state-of-the-art, representando uma nova abordagem para auxiliar na investigação e na modelação de um subconjunto de Events of Daily Living (EDL), para sustentar uma vida independente e uma avaliação naturalística contínua da saúde. A investigação foi focada em 1) desenvolver uma plataforma multisensorial pervasiva Research Data Acquistion (RDA) com Ambient Intelligence (AmI), 2) COTS para verificar a sua validade e fiabilidade para aplicações de assistência médica. A solução proposta foi avaliada no Ambient Assisted Living Laboratory, que mostrou bastante eficácia ao classificar EDL através da aplicação do paradigma AAL no mundo real

As relações União Europeia – Mercado Comum do Sul

Lusíada. Política internacional e segurança. - ISSN 1647-1342. - S. 1, n. 13-14 (2016). - p. 39-68.O presente trabalho encontra-se subordinado ao tema: «As relações União Europeia-Mercado Comum do Sul». O objectivo da presente investigação é esclarecer a possibilidade de se verificar um acordo de associação inter-regional entre a União Europeia e o Mercado Comum do Sul, visando igualmente analisar alternativas ao mesmo no âmbito de uma parceria entre União Europeia e Brasil. Procuramos da mesma forma percepcionar, qual o papel que Portugal poderá vir a exercer no desenrolar das negociações, por via a promover um futuro acordo entre as partes supramencionadas. A nossa investigação permitiu-nos concluir que dificilmente assistiremos a um desfecho positivo no âmbito do acordo de associação inter-regional, sendo que a alternativa mais forte será um acordo de preferência entre a União Europeia e o Brasil, num contexto em que Portugal poderá desempenhar um papel marginal.This present work is entitled: «As relações União Europeia-Mercado Comum do Sul». The purpose of this research is to clarify the possibility to verify an interregional association agreement between the European Union and the Southern Common Market, also aiming to examine alternatives to it through a partnership between the European Union and Brazil. At the same time we seek to perceive what role Portugal can play in the development of the negotiations and helping to promote a future agreement between those mentioned parties. Our investigation allowed us to conclude that hardly will be seen a positive outcome for a interregional association agreement, with the strongest alternative being a preferential agreement between the European Union and Brazil, in a context where Portugal may play a marginal role

Co-design of a marine protected area zoning and the lessons learned from it

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are a tool to safeguard marine natural systems, yet their effectiveness depends on how well they are integrated into the existing socioeconomic context. Stakeholder engagement in MPA design can contribute to increasing integration. This study focuses on the co-design of an MPA between researchers, public administration, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations. The proposed MPA is in Portugal and includes an area that is a hotspot for biodiversity and economic activities. This is the first MPA proposal in mainland Portugal co-designed using a participatory approach. This study highlights the steps of the zoning process and synthesizes the eight main lessons learned, useful for other cases, particularly for relatively small coastal MPAs with multiple socioeconomic activities. Three zoning proposals were developed and discussed within the participatory process. The proposals considered the best scientific and local knowledge available and were defined using ecological, socioeconomic, and shape-area guiding principles. In an iterative manner and following a participatory approach, compromises with stakeholders were achieved, and a final proposal, scientifically sound and socially accepted by most stakeholders, was delivered to the government. The final zoning plan will achieve ambitious conservation goals, including the largest fully protected area to be declared in mainland Portugal, while minimizing the impacts on the existing economic activities and promoting its sustainability. This process resulted in valuable lessons that may be applied elsewhere and guide future MPA implementation or rezoning of existing ones. These transdisciplinary and participatory processes can be time and resource-consuming but are vital for ensuring MPA effectiveness.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCTinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL : A data set of terrestrial, volant, and marine mammal occurrences in P ortugal

Mammals are threatened worldwide, with 26% of all species being includedin the IUCN threatened categories. This overall pattern is primarily associatedwith habitat loss or degradation, and human persecution for terrestrial mam-mals, and pollution, open net fishing, climate change, and prey depletion formarine mammals. Mammals play a key role in maintaining ecosystems func-tionality and resilience, and therefore information on their distribution is cru-cial to delineate and support conservation actions. MAMMALS INPORTUGAL is a publicly available data set compiling unpublishedgeoreferenced occurrence records of 92 terrestrial, volant, and marine mam-mals in mainland Portugal and archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira thatincludes 105,026 data entries between 1873 and 2021 (72% of the data occur-ring in 2000 and 2021). The methods used to collect the data were: live obser-vations/captures (43%), sign surveys (35%), camera trapping (16%),bioacoustics surveys (4%) and radiotracking, and inquiries that represent lessthan 1% of the records. The data set includes 13 types of records: (1) burrowsjsoil moundsjtunnel, (2) capture, (3) colony, (4) dead animaljhairjskullsjjaws, (5) genetic confirmation, (6) inquiries, (7) observation of live animal (8),observation in shelters, (9) photo trappingjvideo, (10) predators dietjpelletsjpine cones/nuts, (11) scatjtrackjditch, (12) telemetry and (13) vocalizationjecholocation. The spatial uncertainty of most records ranges between 0 and100 m (76%). Rodentia (n=31,573) has the highest number of records followedby Chiroptera (n=18,857), Carnivora (n=18,594), Lagomorpha (n=17,496),Cetartiodactyla (n=11,568) and Eulipotyphla (n=7008). The data setincludes records of species classified by the IUCN as threatened(e.g.,Oryctolagus cuniculus[n=12,159],Monachus monachus[n=1,512],andLynx pardinus[n=197]). We believe that this data set may stimulate thepublication of other European countries data sets that would certainly contrib-ute to ecology and conservation-related research, and therefore assisting onthe development of more accurate and tailored conservation managementstrategies for each species. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite thisdata paper when the data are used in publications.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mammals in Portugal: a data set of terrestrial, volant, and marine mammal occurrences in Portugal

Mammals are threatened worldwide, with ~26% of all species being included in the IUCN threatened categories. This overall pattern is primarily associated with habitat loss or degradation, and human persecution for terrestrial mammals, and pollution, open net fishing, climate change, and prey depletion for marine mammals. Mammals play a key role in maintaining ecosystems functionality and resilience, and therefore information on their distribution is crucial to delineate and support conservation actions. MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL is a publicly available data set compiling unpublished georeferenced occurrence records of 92 terrestrial, volant, and marine mammals in mainland Portugal and archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira that includes 105,026 data entries between 1873 and 2021 (72% of the data occurring in 2000 and 2021). The methods used to collect the data were: live observations/captures (43%), sign surveys (35%), camera trapping (16%), bioacoustics surveys (4%) and radiotracking, and inquiries that represent less than 1% of the records. The data set includes 13 types of records: (1) burrows | soil mounds | tunnel, (2) capture, (3) colony, (4) dead animal | hair | skulls | jaws, (5) genetic confirmation, (6) inquiries, (7) observation of live animal (8), observation in shelters, (9) photo trapping | video, (10) predators diet | pellets | pine cones/nuts, (11) scat | track | ditch, (12) telemetry and (13) vocalization | echolocation. The spatial uncertainty of most records ranges between 0 and 100 m (76%). Rodentia (n =31,573) has the highest number of records followed by Chiroptera (n = 18,857), Carnivora (n = 18,594), Lagomorpha (n = 17,496), Cetartiodactyla (n = 11,568) and Eulipotyphla (n = 7008). The data set includes records of species classified by the IUCN as threatened (e.g., Oryctolagus cuniculus [n = 12,159], Monachus monachus [n = 1,512], and Lynx pardinus [n = 197]). We believe that this data set may stimulate the publication of other European countries data sets that would certainly contribute to ecology and conservation-related research, and therefore assisting on the development of more accurate and tailored conservation management strategies for each species. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications