Metais, ambiente e vida: Interferência dovanádio nos sistemas vivos e sua contextualização no ensino das ciências experimentais

A actividade aqui descrita teve como objectivo aproximar alunos do ensino secundário a uma abordagem fisiológica e molecular sobre os efeitos dos metais nos seres vivos. Os alunos ficaram familiarizados com abordagens teóricas e experimentais que permitiram avaliar o crescimento celular por observação qualitativa, determinação do conteúdo proteico e da actividade específica fosfatase alcalina (ALP), recorrendo a centrifugação diferencial, leituras de absorvência e tratamento informático dos resultados. Os estudantes concluíram que a presença de metavanadato de amónio inibiu o crescimento da levedura vínica Saccharomyces cerevisiae UE-ME3, causando um decréscimo significativo do conteúdo proteico e da actividade específica ALP, um marcador da proliferação celular. A avaliação de competências adquiridas, bem como, os inquéritos de opinião mostraram que a maior parte dos alunos do 10° e 12° ano da Escola Secundária Dom Manuel Martins de Setúbal, envolvidos nesta acção, atingiram com sucesso e satisfação os objectivos previamente traçados, revelando uma aprendizagem significativa. ABSTRACT: The work described here aimed to bring high school students to a physiological and molecular approach on the effects of metals in living organisms. The students were familiar with theoretical and experimental approaches that allowed them to evaluate cell growth by qualitative observation, protein contents and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) determination, using differential centrifugation, absorbance readings and computational analysis of data. The students concluded that the presence of ammonium metavanadate inhibited the wine-wild yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae UE-ME3 growth, and cause a significant decrease of protein content and ALP specific activity, a cell proliferation marker. The assessment of acquired skills, as well as opinion surveys showed that the vast majority of students of 10th and 12nd years of High School Dom Manuel Martins of Setúbal, involved in this project have reached with success and satisfaction the goals previously set for this action and reveals a significant learning.

Healthcare Computer Reasoning Addressing Chronically Ill Societies Using IoT: Deep Learning AI to the Rescue of Home-Based Healthcare

The authors present a proposal to develop intelligent assisted living environments for home based healthcare. These environments unite the chronical patient clinical history sematic representation with the ability of monitoring the living conditions and events recurring to a fully managed Semantic Web of Things (SWoT). Several levels of acquired knowledge and the case based reasoning that is possible by knowledge representation of the health-disease history and acquisition of the scientific evidence will deliver, through various voice based natural interfaces, the adequate support systems for disease auto management but prominently by activating the less differentiated caregiver for any specific need. With these capabilities at hand, home based healthcare providing becomes a viable possibility reducing the institutionalization needs. The resulting integrated healthcare framework will provide significant savings while improving the generality of health and satisfaction indicators.