Evaluation of inflammatory response induced by different types of daily contact lenses

Dissertação de mestrado em Genética Molecular

Step towards a patient timeline in intensive care units

In Intensive Medicine, the presentation of medical information is done in many ways, depending on the type of data collected and stored. The way in which the information is presented can make it difficult for intensivists to quickly understand the patient's condition. When there is the need to cross between several types of clinical data sources the situation is even worse. This research seeks to explore a new way of presenting information about patients, based on the timeframe in which events occur. By developing an interactive Patient Timeline, intensivists will have access to a new environment in real-time where they can consult the patient clinical history and the data collected until the moment. The medical history will be available from the moment in which patients is admitted in the ICU until discharge, allowing intensivist to examine data regarding vital signs, medication, exams, among others. This timeline also intends to, through the use of information and models produced by the INTCare system, combine several clinical data in order to help diagnose the future patients’ conditions. This platform will help intensivists to make more accurate decision. This paper presents the first approach of the solution designed

Tax compliance and tax complexity in Portugal: essays on the perception of tax professionals

Tese de Doutoramento em Contabilidade.

Maternal attachment representations in relation to emotional availability and discipline behaviour

"Published online: 15 Sep 2015."

Artificial neural networks in diagnosis of liver diseases

Liver diseases have severe patients’ consequences, being one of the main causes of premature death. These facts reveal the centrality of one`s daily habits, and how important it is the early diagnosis of these kind of illnesses, not only to the patients themselves, but also to the society in general. Therefore, this work will focus on the development of a diagnosis support system to these kind of maladies, built under a formal framework based on Logic Programming, in terms of its knowledge representation and reasoning procedures, complemented with an approach to computing grounded on Artificial Neural Networks.

Experimental and numerical studies of hybrid PCM embedded in plastering mortar for enhanced thermal behaviour of buildings

This paper proposes a methodology for improvement of energy efficiency in buildings through the innovative simultaneous incorporation of three distinct phase change materials (here termed as hybrid PCM) in plastering mortars for façade walls. The thermal performance of a hybrid PCM mortar was experimentally evaluated by comparing the behaviour of a prototype test cell (including hybrid PCM plastering mortar) subjected to realistic daily temperature profiles, with the behaviour of a similar prototype test cell, in which no PCM was added. A numerical simulation model was employed (using ANSYS-FLUENT) to validate the capacity of simulating temperature evolution within the prototype containing hybrid PCM, as well as to understand the contribution of hybrid PCM to energy efficiency. Incorporation of hybrid PCM into plastering mortars was found to have the potential to significantly reduce heating/cooling temperature demands for maintaining the interior temperature within comfort levels when compared to normal mortars (without PCM), or even mortars comprising a single type of PCM.

Pervasive patient timeline

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia e Gestão de Sistemas de Informação

Pervasive patient timeline for intensive care units

This research work explores a new way of presenting and representing information about patients in critical care, which is the use of a timeline to display information. This is accomplished with the development of an interactive Pervasive Patient Timeline able to give to the intensivists an access in real-time to an environment containing patients clinical information from the moment in which the patients are admitted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) until their discharge This solution allows the intensivists to analyse data regarding vital signs, medication, exams, data mining predictions, among others. Due to the pervasive features, intensivists can have access to the timeline anywhere and anytime, allowing them to make decisions when they need to be made. This platform is patient-centred and is prepared to support the decision process allowing the intensivists to provide better care to patients due the inclusion of clinical forecasts.