Desenvolvendo aprendizagens integradas

Relat��rio de est��gio de mestrado em Educa����o Pr��-Escolar

Patente farmac��utica: especificidades e tutela

Disserta����o de mestrado em Direito dos Contratos e da Empresa

Trabalho cooperativo como finalidade e estrat��gia de aprendizagem. Um estudo de caso em biologia humana

A aprendizagem cooperativa �� concebida como uma estrat��gia pedag��gica que privilegia uma aprendizagem personalizada e que potencia o sucesso educativo n��o s�� individual mas tamb��m coletivo. �� conseguida atrav��s da coopera����o de todos os membros do grupo, em que o desempenho de cada um influencia e �� influenciado pelo desempenho do Outro. O grupo �� concebido como uma organiza����o social cuja efici��ncia implica a capacidade de constru����o e manuten����o do grupo como um todo e de promo����o do sucesso educativo de todos os elementos. �� este quadro te��rico que enforma a conce����o, implementa����o e avalia����o de uma interven����o pedag��gica em Biologia Humana do 10�� ano do Curso Tecnol��gico de Desporto. A estrat��gia pedag��gica carateriza-se pela operacionaliza����o articulada de estruturas e pap��is de coopera����o na abordagem da unidade did��tica - Transforma����o e Utiliza����o de Energia - com a finalidade de promover a aprendizagem integrada de compet��ncias de coopera����o e de conhecimento substantivo da ��rea da Biologia. A avalia����o da interven����o pedag��gica incidiu nos objetivos de investiga����o - 1) Identificar o impacto da estrat��gia de interven����o pedag��gica no desenvolvimento de compet��ncias de coopera����o e 2) Identificar o impacto da estrat��gia de interven����o pedag��gica no desenvolvimento de compet��ncias disciplinares ���, efetuada a partir da an��lise de tarefas de aprendizagem e de um question��rio de avalia����o final global aplicado aos alunos. A estrat��gia de interven����o pedag��gica �� percecionada pelos alunos como tendo contribu��do para a promo����o do desenvolvimento n��o s�� de compet��ncias de coopera����o mas tamb��m do conhecimento substantivo e do pensamento cr��tico.

Development of computational tools for the integrated analysis of DNA microarray data with applications in cancer research

The MAP-i Doctoral Program of the Universities of Minho, Aveiro and Porto

Hand gesture recognition system based in computer vision and machine learning: Applications on human-machine interaction

Tese de Doutoramento em Engenharia de Eletr��nica e de Computadores

An R package for the integrated analysis of metabolomics and spectral data

Recently, there has been a growing interest in the field of metabolomics, materialized by a remarkable growth in experimental techniques, available data and related biological applications. Indeed, techniques as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Gas or Liquid Chromatography, Mass Spectrometry, Infrared and UV-visible spectroscopies have provided extensive datasets that can help in tasks as biological and biomedical discovery, biotechnology and drug development. However, as it happens with other omics data, the analysis of metabolomics datasets provides multiple challenges, both in terms of methodologies and in the development of appropriate computational tools. Indeed, from the available software tools, none addresses the multiplicity of existing techniques and data analysis tasks. In this work, we make available a novel R package, named specmine, which provides a set of methods for metabolomics data analysis, including data loading in different formats, pre-processing, metabolite identification, univariate and multivariate data analysis, machine learning, and feature selection. Importantly, the implemented methods provide adequate support for the analysis of data from diverse experimental techniques, integrating a large set of functions from several R packages in a powerful, yet simple to use environment. The package, already available in CRAN, is accompanied by a web site where users can deposit datasets, scripts and analysis reports to be shared with the community, promoting the efficient sharing of metabolomics data analysis pipelines.

O contributo do Projeto Curricular Integrado no desenvolvimento das compet��ncias de pesquisa

Relat��rio de est��gio de mestrado em Educa����o Pr��-Escolar e Ensino do 1.�� do Ensino B��sico

Crescer com os outros: a aprendizagem cooperativa e o trabalho de grupo como estrat��gias fundamentais no desenvolvimento de compet��ncias sociais: o contributo do Projeto Curricular Integrado

Relat��rio de est��gio de mestrado em Educa����o Pr��-Escolar e Ensino do 1�� Ciclo do Ensino B��sico

The tutor's role in student learning

Higher education in Portugal, in the last forty years, has undergone profound changes with the enlargement of public higher education network, the appearance of new institutions, the quantity and the heterogeneity of students. The implementation of the Bologna Process in European community countries led to the redesign of higher education Portuguese courses as well as their corresponding curricula. In recent years, the use of Project-led education was one of the most significant changes in teaching and learning, particularly in engineering in higher education in Portugal. This teaching methodology encourages students and teachers to undertake new roles, new responsibilities and a new learning perspective. This study aims at understanding whether the role of the tutor is to be suitable to the needs and expectations of Project-led education students. These changes however are not only structural. At the University of Minho, new teaching and learning methodologies were adopted, which could guide the training of professionals on to the twenty-first century. The opportunity arising from the implementation of Project-led education in Engineering methodology was used in the University of Minho���s courses. This teaching method is intended to provide students with educational support programs that benefit the academic performance, allowing the opportunity to upgrade, train and develop the ability to study and learn more effectively. Through the Project-led education it is possible to provide students with techniques and procedures and develop the ability to communicate orally and in writing. Students and teachers have assumed new roles in the teaching-learning process allowing in one hand the students to explore, discover and question themselves about some knowledge and on the other hand the teachers to change to a tutor, a companion and to a student project guide. Therefore, surveys were analyzed, comprising questions about the most significant contribution of the tutor as well as if there are some initial expectations that have not been foreseen by the tutor.

Saber cooperar para saber aprender: contributos da aprendizagem cooperativa na promo����o de compet��ncias sociais e no sucesso educativo atrav��s do desenvolvimento de um projeto curricular integrado

Relat��rio de est��gio de mestrado em Educa����o Pr��-Escolar e Ensino do 1.�� Ciclo do Ensino B��sico

An integrated system for human action recognition from video using hidden Markov model

In this paper, we present an integrated system for real-time automatic detection of human actions from video. The proposed approach uses the boundary of humans as the main feature for recognizing actions. Background subtraction is performed using Gaussian mixture model. Then, features are extracted from silhouettes and Vector Quantization is used to map features into symbols (bag of words approach). Finally, actions are detected using the Hidden Markov Model. The proposed system was validated using a newly collected real- world dataset. The obtained results show that the system is capable of achieving robust human detection, in both indoor and outdoor environments. Moreover, promising classification results were achieved when detecting two basic human actions: walking and sitting.

A constru����o de um curr��culo de project-based learning: o curr��culo ideal e o curr��culo formal

O objetivo deste trabalho �� apresentar os resultados da an��lise das concep����es de dois protagonistas de uma reforma curricular que est�� sendo implementada numa escola de engenharia. A principal caracter��stica do novo curr��culo �� o uso de projetos e oficinas como atividades complementares a serem realizadas pelos estudantes. As atividades complementares acontecer��o em paralelo ao trabalho realizado nas disciplinas sem que haja uma rela����o de interdisciplinaridade. O novo curr��culo est�� sendo implantado desde fevereiro de 2015. Segundo Pacheco (2005) h�� dois momentos, dentre outros, no processo de mudan��a curricular, o curr��culo ���ideal���, determinado por dimens��es epistemol��gica, pol��tica, econ��mica, ideol��gica, t��cnica, est��tica, e hist��rica e, que recebe influ��ncia direta daquele que idealiza e cria o novo curr��culo e, o curr��culo ���formal��� que se traduz na pr��tica implementada na escola. S��o essas duas etapas estudadas nesta pesquisa. Para isso ser��o considerados como fontes de dados dois protagonistas, um mais ligado �� concep����o do curr��culo e outro da sua implementa����o, a partir dos quais se busca compreender as motiva����es, cren��as e percep����es que, por sua vez, determinam a reforma curricular. Entrevistas semiestruturadas foram utilizadas como t��cnica de pesquisa, com o prop��sito de se entender a g��nese da proposta e as mudan��as entre essas duas etapas. Os dados revelam que mudan��as aconteceram desde a idealiza����o at�� a formaliza����o do curr��culo, motivadas por demandas do processo de implementa����o, revela ainda diferen��as na vis��o de curr��culo e a motiva����o para romper com padr��es na forma����o de engenheiros no Brasil.

Assessing student individual performance within PBL teams: findings from the implementation of a new mechanism

This paper reports on the experience of the implementation of a new mechanism to assess individual student contribution within project work, where students work in teams to solve a large-scale open-ended interdisciplinary project. The study takes place at the University of Minho, with first year engineering students, enrolled in the Industrial Management and Engineering (Integrated Masters) degree. The aim of this paper is to describe the main principles and procedures underlying the assessment mechanism created and also provide some feedback from its first implementation, based on the students, lecturers and tutors perceptions. For data collection, a survey was sent to all course lecturers and tutors involved in the assessment process. Students also contributed with suggestions, both on a workshop held at the end of the project and also by answering a survey on the overall satisfaction with PBL experience. Findings show a positive level of acceptance of the new mechanism by the students and also by the lecturers and tutors. The study identified the need to clarify the criteria used by the lecturers and the exact role of the tutor, as well as the need for further improvement of its features and procedures. Some recommendations are also issued regarding technical aspects related to some of the steps of the procedures, as well as the need for greater support on the adjustment and final setting of the individual grades.

Sustainability education in PBL education: the case study of IEM-UMINHO

Sustainability-related skills are becoming more and more relevant for a proficient and professional engineering practice. Industrial engineers in particular, given their broad field of intervention and being at the heart of industrial activity, hold a great deal of potential and responsibility in providing and delivering best industrial practices, that support enhanced industrial systems and products. Therefore making a real contribution in generating wealth and income for all the companies��� stakeholders, including local communities, as well as adding up to more sustainable ecosystems. Previous work by the authors focused on studying the inclusion of this subject on the education of industrial engineers, especially through active-learning methodologies, as well as presenting results on the use of one such approach. The study conducted tried to identify the impacts on sustainability learning using a given specific activity, i.e. a workshop on industrial ecology, held in the 2014/2015 academic year on the Integrated MSc degree on Industrial Engineering and Management at the University of Minho, Portugal. The study uses content analysis of student teams��� reports for two consecutive academic years. The former did not include one such workshop, while the latter did. The Fink taxonomy was used in the discussion of results and reflection. The study outcomes aimed at supporting decision making on worthiness of investment on similar education instruments for sustainability competency development. Some results of the study highlight that: (1) the workshop seem to globally have a positive contribution on the sustainability learning; (2) a number of dimensions of the Life cycle design strategy wheel was developed, but the approach was not broadly used, (3) There was a mismatch on the workshop schedule; (4) students enjoy the workshop; (5) a clearer endorsement on relevance of this aspect is required. Suggestions for future work are also issued.

Analysis of integrated management systems from various perspectives

This article compiles the main topics addressed by management systems (MSs) literature concerningMSs integration by performing a systematic literature review. In this paper, it is intended to present themain limitations of non-integratedmanagement systems (IMSs), the main motivations driving an IMS implementation, the major resistances faced, the most common resultant benefits, the suitable guidelines and standards and the critical success factors. In addition, this paper addresses the issues concerning integration strategies and models, the integration levels or degrees achieved by an IMS and the audit function in an integrated context. The motivations that drive companies to integrate their management subsystems, the obstacles faced and the benefits collected may have internal or external origins. The publishing of standards guiding companies on how to integrate their management subsystems has been done mainly at a national level. There are several models that could be used in order to support companies in their management subsystems integration processes, and a sequential or an all-in strategy may be adopted. Four audit typologies can be distinguished, and the adoption of any of these typologies should consider resource availability and audit team know-how, among other features.