Developing persuasive interfaces

MSCC Dissertation in Computer Engineering

Planning the medical workforce - an analysis of the third repport of the Medical Workforce Standing Advisory Committee

Arquivos de Medicina 1998; 12(4): 246-248

Innovation assessment in a local branch of a rail transport manufacture industry - A case study

Based on a poster submitted to CONCORD 2011 - Conference on Corporate R&D: The dynamics of Europe's industrial structure and the growth of innovative firms, Sevilla, IPTS, 6 Out. 2011, Seville, http://www.eventisimo.com/concord2011/recibido.html

Structural change: a brief review

This is a short summary of some aspects of structural change models, and is not intended to be comprehensive survey or review. Many important works have been left out. Also, the presentation was not intended to be rigorous nor general. It’s main purpose is only to focus on some recent developments in this area and motivate the reader to learn more.

Velas içadas: navigating emotion in a sea of science

Dissertação para obtencão do grau de Mestrado em Arte e Ciência do Vidro

Context-aware personalization environment for mobile computing

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática

Derivation and consistency checking of models in early software product line engineering

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Engenharia Informática

Estudo da expressão génica da Legionella pneumophila estirpe paris após co-cultura em Acanthamoeba castellanii

RESUMO: A Legionella é um bacilo Gram-negativo que replica dentro de protozoários como Acanthamoeba castellanii (A. castellanii) e no interior de macrófagos alveolares humanos, podendo resultar numa pneumonia grave. A Legionella em meio líquido tem um ciclo de vida bifásico, apresentando traços replicativos na fase exponencial e expressando factores transmissíveis na fase estacionária. Estudos recentes demonstraram que a Legionella precisa de assegurar um tempo preciso no seu ciclo de vida para efectuar com êxito a infecção das células hospedeiras. Muitos modelos de estudo foram desenvolvidos a fim de aumentar o conhecimento sobre o ciclo de vida intracelular e identificar os genes necessários para a modulação da célula hospedeira. Embora o conhecimento sobre a interacção bactéria-hospedeiro ainda seja limitado, parece que esta interacção gera um conjunto de características de virulência permitindo que a bactéria infecte células fagocíticas humanas e cause doença. O objectivo do presente projecto de investigação foi investigar e seleccionar genes críticos para a infecciosidade da Legionella pneumophila estirpe Paris (Lp Paris), desenhar e optimizar uma técnica de PCR em tempo real para o estudo da expressão génica e comparar o perfil de expressão da Lp Paris antes e depois da co-cultura em A. castellanii. Os resultados mostraram que oito dos 12 genes em estudo alteraram a sua expressão relativa após co-cultura em A. castellanii quando os ensaios foram realizados com culturas de Lp Paris na fase estacionária precoce (cinco foram induzidos e três reprimidos) Quando os ensaios foram realizados com culturas de Lp Paris na fase estacionária tardia 11 genes apresentaram repressão na sua expressão relativa. Analisando os resultados, concluímos que o perfil de expressão de Lp Paris foi modificado pela interacção com A. castellanii, no entanto essa mudança foi dependente da fase do seu ciclo de vida.-------ABSTRACT: Legionella is a pathogenic Gram-negative bacterium that replicates not only within aquatic protozoa like Acanthamoeba castellanii (A. castellanii), but also within human alveolar macrophages, which can result in a severe pneumonia. Legionella has a biphasic life cycle in broth, where exponential phase cultures display replicative traits and stationary bacteria express transmissive factors. Recent studies demonstrated that for successful infection of host cells, Legionella needs to ensure a precise timing of its life cycle. Many models of study were developed in order to learn about the intracellular life cycle and to identify the genes necessary for the host cell modulation. Although knowledge about the bacteria-host interaction is still limited, it appears that this interaction generate a pool of virulence traits, allowing the bacterium to infect human phagocytic cells and cause disease. The purpose of the present study was to investigate and select de critical genes for the infectivity of Legionella pneumophila strain Paris (Lp Paris), design and optimize a real time PCR technique for gene expression study and compare the expression profile of Lp Paris before and after co- culture of A. castellanii. The results show that eight of 12 genes in study changed its relative expression after coculture in A. castellanii when we performed the intracellular assays with early stationary phase Lp Paris cultures (five were induced and tree were repressed). When we performed the intracellular assays with late stationary phase Lp Paris cultures 11 genes showed a repressed relative expression. Analysing the results, we conclude that the expression profile of Lp Paris was modified by interaction with A. castellanii but this change was dependent of the timing of its life cycle.

Envelhecimento ativo, capacidade funcional e atividade física: análise de fatores que contextualizam o processo de envelhecimento e sua percepção por parte de pessoas idosas

RESUMO: O envelhecimento populacional saudável ocupa parte da agenda do processo do envelhecimento humano, retratando uma preocupação social com repercussões nas economias societárias. O processo de envelhecimento, quando abordado fora do paradigma do envelhecimento saudável, desconsidera socialmente o potencial humano das pessoas idosas, promovendo a segregação e motivando atitudes de preconceito e discriminação, além de desperdiçar a experiência, o saber, a cultura e a capacidade de participação da pessoa idosa como contributo para a sociedade a que ela está inserida. O foco central da Política Nacional de Saúde do Idoso brasileira se inscreve na promoção de um envelhecimento saudável, nomeadamente por meio da manutenção da capacidade funcional ao valorizar a autonomia, a independência física e a integridade mental da pessoa idosa. O desafio para a viabilização do processo de envelhecimento ativo e bem-sucedido consiste na maximização das capacidades, potencialidades e recursos pessoais, comunitários e políticos. Pressupõe, também, uma concepção ampliada de viver, contextualizada no contínuo da vida, capaz de externar a preocupação com a saúde e o bem-estar, integrando as pessoas em fase de envelhecimento no contexto do ciclo de vida. Diante do exposto, a presente investigação objetivou conhecer os determinantes de envelhecimento ativo e bem-sucedido, numa população em processo de envelhecimento e relacioná-los com as ―práticas/conteúdos‖ e representações / significados‖ sobre o envelhecimento, as atividades físicas e a capacidade funcional. A investigação foi estruturada em três estudos: no primeiro foi criado e testado o instrumento ―Envelhecimento ativo, capacidade funcional e atividade física‖, na cidade de Lisboa, Portugal, e posteriormente realizada sua adaptação cultural e linguística do português de Portugal para o do Brasil. No segundo foi feita uma pesquisa observacional do tipo survey, descritiva e exploratória com o objetivo de conhecer as relações esteabelecidas entre o envelhecimento bem-sucedido, ativo, a atividade física e a capacidade funcional de uma população em processo de envelhecimento; e no terceiro momento foi realizado um estudo de cariz qualitativo com o objetivo de captar as percepções e comportamentos dos entrevistados diante do fato de se sentirem ou não pessoas idosas ou envelhecidas. Foram adotados os seguintes referenciais teóricos: envelhecimento ativo, envelhecimento bem sucedido, concepção muldidimensional do processual do envelhecimento (determinantes pessoais, familiares, sociais, psicocomunicacionais, econômicos e de saúde), atividade física e capacidade funcional e abordados à luz do perfil demográfico e da experiência das realidades européias, americana e brasileira. Foram triagulados métodos e técnicas (entrevista individual gravada, mensurações e questionário). Participaram pessoas com 60 anos de idade ou mais vinculadas que frequentam dois programas públicos destinados às pessoas idosas na cidade de Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brasil e foram excluidas as participações de pessoas com dependência para atividades da vida diária, para as atividades instrumentais da vida diária e com alteração do nível de consciência. Amostra aleatória estratificada composta por 326 participantes na qual foram realizadas mensurações e amostra por tipicidade construída a partir da base amostral composta de 87 participantes na qual foi realizada entrevista individual gravada. Atendidos todos os requisitos éticos e legais de pesquisa envolvendo seres humanos, segundo legislação brasileira. Aplicada Análise Fatorial e selecionados 11 fatores com 31 variáveis que contemplaram os determinantes do processo de envelhecimento ativo. Realizado reajustamento da análise fatorial,por questão de coerência conceptual, sendo selecionado oito fatores nomeados de acordo com o referencial teórico adotado que resultou em 25 variáveis que abordaram a participação em atividades e acesso aos serviços de saúde; à atividade física; à convivência, interação e avaliação do contato social; à escolaridade e renda; à saúde percebida e ao voluntariado. Utilizado como marcador para a atividade aeróbia o perfil da sobrecarga da atividade física semanal em consonância com diretrizes e recomendações de atividades aeróbias de intensidade moderada para as pessoas idosas. Identificado que 60,7% dos entrevistados realizam atividade física insuficiente. Os indicadores antropométricos utilizados evidenciaram índices de sobrepeso e de obesidade tanto entre os homens quanto entre as mulheres. Houve correlação do índice de massa corporal (IMC) com as medidas efetuadas segundo as faixas etárias. A análise inferencial possibilitou relacionar os determinantes do envelhecimento ativo, as medidas antropométricas e as variáveis sociodemográficas (escolaridade e idade), sendo obtidos os seguintes destaques: 1) à medida em que a idade aumenta, diminuem os níveis de prática da atividade física, dos contatos com as pessoas para conversar (das relações de convivência), dos trabalhos de voluntariado e das relações familiares e intergeracionais; 2) foi identificado um alinhamento conceptual dos diferentes determinantes concorrentes para um envelhecimento ativo à luz da prática da atividade física com a convivência e interação com os familiares e com auto-avaliação positiva da saúde percebida e atividade física; 3) quanto maior a idade menor os anos de escolaridade; 4) a diminuição da área transversa do braço e do IMC à medida que a idade aumenta, retratou diminuição da adiposidade corporal que está associada à perda da massa magra. A categorização do discurso dos 87 entrevistados permitiu captar a percepção do processo de envelhecimento por dois critérios antagônicos: preservação da autonomia e presença da deterioração. Foi caracterizado o sistema de crenças dos participantes com 1090 emissões de crenças. Houve tendência do sistema de crenças à centralidade com 638 (58,6%) crenças retratando concepções e situações difíceis de serem modificadas por processos educacionais. Os resultados obtidos diagnosticaram e reiteraram a tendência de incremento numérico de pessoas com 60 anos de idade ou mais na cidade brasileira de Juiz de Fora. Embora o estatuto do idoso esteja alicerçado em princípios do envelhecimento saudável e ativo ficou evidenciado a necessidade de estratégias para implementá-la com vistas a impactos sociais, econômicas e de saúde na perspectiva da prática de atividade física e da preservação da capacidade funcional. Constituem contribuição da presente investigação: 1) fundamentos teóricos e informação sobre juiz-foranos com 60 anos de idade ou mais segundo dimensões social, econômica, cultural e espiritual numa concepção ampliada de saúde; 2) abordagem do envelhecimento de forma processual e integrada, multidimensional e articulada com o ciclo da vida; 3) diagnóstico do grau de autonomia dos participantes permitindo subsidiar decisões para melhorar a capacidade funcional dos mesmos; 4) processo investigativo utilizando modelos teóricos que permitiram estabelecer um diagnóstico local e contextualizar o processo de envelhecimento para os participantes e 5) sobrecarga semanal de atividade física e os indicadores antropométricos dos participantes a ponto de subsidiar parâmetros de indicação terapêutica para manutenção da capacidade funcional.-------- ABSTRACT: The populational healthy aging holds part of the process of the human aging agenda, portraying a social concern with the repercussion in societary economies. The aging process when addressed out of the healthy aging paradigm socially disregard the human potential of the elderly, promoting segregation and motivating acts of prejudice and discrimination, in addition to the waste of experience, knowledge, culture and the participatory capacity of an older person in contributting to the society they are a part of. The Brazilian National Health Policy for the Elderly has its main focus in promoting the healthy aging, namely through the maintenance of the functional capacity by valuing the autonomy, physical independence and the mental integrity of the elderly person. The challenge of enabling the process of a successful and active aging lays in maximazing the capabilities, potencialities and personal, communitary and political resources. It infers additionaly a broad view of living, contextualized in the continuum of life, able to express concern with health and well-being, integrating the people in aging phase to the context of the life cycle. Hence, this research aimed to learn the determinants of active and successful aging in a population in aging process and relate them with the "practices/contents" and "representations/meanings" about aging, the physical activities and functional capacity. The investigation was structured in three studies: in the first it was developed and tested the instrument "Active Aging, Functional Capacity and Physical Activity" in the city of Lisboa, Portugal, and afterwards it was culturally and linguistically adapted from Portugal Portuguese to Brazilian Portuguese. The second study was an observational research with survey, descriptive and exploratory methods which aimed to learn the relations established between the successful aging, active aging, the physical activity and the functional capacity of a population in aging process; and the third comprised a qualitative study with the objective to collect the understanding and behavior of the interviewees based on the fact of either they saw themselves as elder or aged person or not. As theoretical framework were explored: active aging, successful aging, multidimensional concept of aging process (personal, familial, social, psycho-communicational, economic determinants), physical activity and functional capacity and explored based in demographic profile and in the European, American a Brazilian realities. Performed triangulation of methods and tecniques (recorded individual interviews, measurements and questionnaires). Participants were aged 60 or older included in two public services for the elderly population in the city of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil and were excluded persons with dependency in both daily activities and instrumental daily activities and the persons with altered level of conciousness. Stratified ramdon sample of 326 participants in which were performed the measurements and typicality sample constructed from the sample basis of 87 participants whereupon the recorded individual interview was performed. Conforming to all the ethical and legal requirements of research with human beings according to the Brazilian legislation. Applied Factor Analysis and selected 11 factors and 31 variables that convey the determinants of the active aging process. Executed reajustment of factor analysis, for conceptual coherence, being selected eight factors named accordingly to the theoretical framework that resulted in 25 variables which approached the participation in activities and access to health care services; to physical activity; to coexistence, interaction and evaluation of social contact; to scholarity and income; to perceived health and volunteering. Used as marker to aerobic activity the profile of weekly physical activity overload in accordance with guidelines and reccomendations for moderate-intensity aerobic activities for older people. Identified that 60,7% of interviewees practice enough physical activity. Anthropometric markers evidence overweight and obesity levels both within men and women. There was correlation between body mass index (BMI) and measures carried out according to age ranges. The inferential analysis allowed relating the active aging determinants, the anthropometric measurements and sociodemographic variables (scholarity and age), obtaining the following highlights: 1) to the extent that age increases, lowers the levels of physical activity practice, of contact with people to talk to (social relationships), of volunteering work and familial and intergenerational relationships; 2) it was identified a conceptual alignment of diferent determinants concurrent to an active aging in light of the physical activity practice with the relationship and interaction of family and with positive self-assessment of perceived health and physical activity; 3) the older the person, lower are scholarity levels; 4) the decrease of the cross-sectional area of the arm and BMI as the age increases portrayed decreased adiposity of the body that is associated with loss of lean body mass. The categorization of the speech of 87 interviewees allowed to collect the understanding of the aging process by two opposite criteria: preservation of autonomy and existance of decline. It marked the belief system of participants with 1090 beliefs expressed. With tendency of the belief system to centrality with 638(58,6%) beliefs showing concepts and dificult situations to be changed through educational processes. The results diagnosed and reiterated the tendency of increase in the number of people aged 60 or older in the Brazilian city of Juiz de Fora. Although the elderly statute is built upon principles of healthy and active aging it was evident the need of strategies to implement it aiming at social, economic and health impacts in the perspective of physical education and preservation of the functional capacity. Constitute contributions of this study: 1) theoretical fundaments and data about Juiz de Fora citizens aged 60 or more according to social, economic, cultural and spiritual dimensions in a broad concept of health; 2) approach of aging in a procedural and integrative, multidimensional manner, articulated with the life cycle; 3) diagnosis of degree of autonomy of participants enabling decisions on how to improve their functional capacities; 4) investigative process using theoretical models which permit to stablish a local diagnosis and contextualize the aging process of participants and 5) weekly overload of physical activity and anthropometric indexes of participants as to subsidize parameters to therapeutic indication to the maintainence of functional capacity.

Adaptation as a part of system resilience. insights from fish producers organizations in Portugal

Complex problems of globalized society challenge its adaptive capacity. However, it is precisely the nature of these human induced problems that provide enough evidence to show that adaptability may not be on a resilient path. This thesis explores the ambiguity of the idea of adaptation (and its practice) and illustrates the ways in which adaptability contributes to resilience of social ecological systems. The thesis combines a case study and grounded theory approach and develops an analytical framework to study adaptability in resource users’ organizations: from what it depends on and what the key challenges are for resource management and system resilience. It does so for the specific case of fish producers’ organizations (POs) in Portugal. The findings suggest that while ecological and market context, including the type of crisis, may influence the character of fishers’ adaptation within POs (i.e. anticipatory, maladaptive and reactively adaptive), it does not determine it. Instead, it makes agency even more crucial (i.e. leadership, trust and agent’s perceptions in terms of their impact on fishers’ motivation to learn from each other). In sum, it was found that internal adaptation can improve POs’ contribution to fishery management and resilience, but it is not a panacea and may, in some cases, increase system vulnerability to change. Continuous maladaptation of some Portuguese POs points at a basic institutional problem (fish market regime), which clearly reduces fisheries resilience as it promotes overfishing. However, structural change may not be sufficient to address other barriers to Portuguese fishers’ (PO members) adaptability, such as history (collective memory) and associated problematic self-perceptions. The agency (people involved in structures and practices) also needs to change. What and how institutional change and agency change build on one another (e.g. comparison of fisheries governance in Portugal and other EU countries) is a topic to be explored in further research.

Bases del coaching en la práctica docente: su posible aplicación en una clase de ELE de la Enseñanza Básica portuguesa

El presente informe tiene como propósito definir las bases esenciales del coaching y su posible adecuación al campo educativo, en una época en la que el alumnado parece un poco «desconectado» de la Escuela, no entendiendo a priori su importancia para su propio crecimiento personal y enriquecimiento profesional en el futuro. En el primer capítulo, empezaremos por la definición del concepto de coaching, su origen y principios fundamentales. En el segundo, el foco se centrará en la importancia de la aplicación de las bases del coaching en el proceso enseñanza-aprendizaje, el papel fundamental del profesor coach y sus competencias. En el tercero capítulo se dará cuenta de algunas herramientas internas (asociadas a la propia capacidad del profesor coach) y externas (aquellas que puede utilizar el docente al echar mano de recursos externos a él mismo) importantes en un proceso de coaching. En el cuarto capítulo, se procederá a la experiencia práctica de la metodología en clase, mencionando algunas limitaciones a su adaptación a la realidad, aún en este capítulo se pondrá en destaque la importancia de generar empatía desde las primeras clases; por último, se trazará la experiencia en una clase ELE (la que fue objeto de estudio en la Práctica de la Enseñanza Supervisionada) de acuerdo con el Modelo Grow, la técnica más frecuente en coaching, describiendo el perfil de la reality y el plan de acción a llevar a la práctica a lo largo del curso según los objetivos planteados, culminando en la análisis de los resultados obtenidos y su evaluación con respecto a la efectiva prosecución de la metodología aplicada. Al final, se procederá a una reflexión generalizada sobre el coaching en la educación y sus supuestos beneficios, no solo en el espacio restricto del aula, sino en el espacio más alargado del Colegio, en una perspectiva de crear alumnos más motivados y responsables, involucrados en «aprender a aprender», «aprender a hacer», «aprender a vivir» y «aprender a ser» - aspectos fundamentales en la creación de una Escuela de futuro.

A public transport bus assignment problem: parallel metaheuristics assessment

Combinatorial Optimization Problems occur in a wide variety of contexts and generally are NP-hard problems. At a corporate level solving this problems is of great importance since they contribute to the optimization of operational costs. In this thesis we propose to solve the Public Transport Bus Assignment problem considering an heterogeneous fleet and line exchanges, a variant of the Multi-Depot Vehicle Scheduling Problem in which additional constraints are enforced to model a real life scenario. The number of constraints involved and the large number of variables makes impracticable solving to optimality using complete search techniques. Therefore, we explore metaheuristics, that sacrifice optimality to produce solutions in feasible time. More concretely, we focus on the development of algorithms based on a sophisticated metaheuristic, Ant-Colony Optimization (ACO), which is based on a stochastic learning mechanism. For complex problems with a considerable number of constraints, sophisticated metaheuristics may fail to produce quality solutions in a reasonable amount of time. Thus, we developed parallel shared-memory (SM) synchronous ACO algorithms, however, synchronism originates the straggler problem. Therefore, we proposed three SM asynchronous algorithms that break the original algorithm semantics and differ on the degree of concurrency allowed while manipulating the learned information. Our results show that our sequential ACO algorithms produced better solutions than a Restarts metaheuristic, the ACO algorithms were able to learn and better solutions were achieved by increasing the amount of cooperation (number of search agents). Regarding parallel algorithms, our asynchronous ACO algorithms outperformed synchronous ones in terms of speedup and solution quality, achieving speedups of 17.6x. The cooperation scheme imposed by asynchronism also achieved a better learning rate than the original one.

Semantic adaptability for the systems interoperability

In the current global and competitive business context, it is essential that enterprises adapt their knowledge resources in order to smoothly interact and collaborate with others. However, due to the existent multiculturalism of people and enterprises, there are different representation views of business processes or products, even inside a same domain. Consequently, one of the main problems found in the interoperability between enterprise systems and applications is related to semantics. The integration and sharing of enterprises knowledge to build a common lexicon, plays an important role to the semantic adaptability of the information systems. The author proposes a framework to support the development of systems to manage dynamic semantic adaptability resolution. It allows different organisations to participate in a common knowledge base building, letting at the same time maintain their own views of the domain, without compromising the integration between them. Thus, systems are able to be aware of new knowledge, and have the capacity to learn from it and to manage its semantic interoperability in a dynamic and adaptable way. The author endorses the vision that in the near future, the semantic adaptability skills of the enterprise systems will be the booster to enterprises collaboration and the appearance of new business opportunities.

Relatório de estágio curricular

The purpose of the current internship report is to share the opportunity I have had to learn during my stay in CMVM as an intern, specifically in relation to the exercise of private equity supervision in Portugal, in order to contribute to the study of private equity legal framework. Private equity is the activity to finance or acquire enterprises with growth potential (normally consider as genuine industry), for a limited period of time, in order to support the enterprise’s development to benefit from future profit sales of participations. By observing and studying the registration procedures, as well as the specific legislation and reality of other jurisdictions, it is concluded that supervision specifically related to private equity is one of the most important aspects in this industry, as it is the best way to know and control it. To improve the performance of supervisory functions, and the very development of private equity, it is essential to have a legislative review in order to simplify the rules enforcement necessary for the proper running of the industry as well as for more efficient supervision and control of this activity, thus developing it and making it more attractive in a national and international basis.

Portuguese footwear

This case study deals with the reasons why the Portuguese Footwear Cluster evolved from a small industry focused on the Portuguese internal market into a high-tech industry capable of designing and producing some of the best and most expensive shoes in the world. It went from using the low labor costs of an under-developed economy to produce long series of shoes for pre-designated brands in Northern Europe to having the ability to produce some of the highest quality shoes in the world, in small orders, designed and delivered in record timing, while offering a service of excellence. In 1960, when Portugal became a founding member of EFTA, the footwear industry in Portugal was globally irrelevant, producing low quality shoes directed to the puny internal market and its African colonies. The new free trade zone with economies much more developed that itself, led to the transfer of the labor-intensive, low skilled manufacture from the UK and Scandinavian countries to Portugal. Mostly through joint ventures, the industry was able to mechanize itself so it could produce shoes in long series at low prices. It grew based on that model up until the 1990s, when the emergence of the Asian countries meant either a different strategy or extinction. Taking advantage of a clarified leadership of its trade association, it used the European funds made available to it during the 1990s, to modernize its factory floors, so it could become more nimble and flexible, expand its design capabilities and dramatically change its image abroad. The role of the trade association, APICCAPS, was instrumental throughout the process going well beyond what came to be expected of trade associations. It used its privileged position to provide understanding regarding the current situation and competitive landscape, alerting for changes ahead and at the same time providing a strategic vision on how to deal with the challenges. Moreover, it helped companies get the resources they needed by creating a research center in collaboration with a University, by creating a process that allowed companies to learn from each other via the show casing of projects sponsored by the association or by helping industrials traveling to locations where new customers could be found. The case study provides insight on how the trade association leadership, which has no formal authority over its members, was able to guide and motivate an industry through a consistent positive approach. That approach focused on the solutions, on the opportunities and on the success stories of companies in the cluster rather than on what was wrong or needed to be addressed. Based on this case, one could use the leadership role of the trade association to discuss and change leaders’ roles and styles in other sectors or even companies.