Monstros : a ciência do mito e a sua utilidade nos videojogos

Since the classic era that monsters have been both the subject of worship and fear. Greeks used to valorize them making up new races which lived in faraway lands, in the East. There were traveler’s reports made up, from a moralist and religious point of view, always with veracity in mind, where anatomical weird beings were described. Saint Augustin tried to prove their existence, classifying them as wonders and focusing on stopping the idea of the corruption of the human soul by denying their relation between monstrous births and divine punishment. Monsters present then two distinct aspects when it comes to their origins: one that pushes back to monstrous births, seen as omens, and other that points to the existence of fantastic races in faraway places. However when it comes to structure these fantastic beings display finite compositions, not looking too different from each other. With the passage of time, besides their fearful role, monsters were being observed as scientific curiosities and at last, as recreation subjects, first in freak shows, now in several industries, being the most well know the cinematographic industry and the videogames one. Two creatures from the world known videogame World of Warcraft from Blizzard Entertainment were selected to be analyzed from a scientific point of view, were based on their features, there will be a comparative analysis with diverse anomalies and diseases (prognathism, acromegaly, cyclopia) existent , as well as comparative anatomy with other animals

Videogames, persuasion & deceit

Tese de doutoramento, Informática (Engenharia Informática), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2014

The Portuguese Version of the Placental Paradigm Questionnaire at the Third Trimester of Pregnancy

The purpose of this article is to present the adaptation and factorial validation of the Placental Paradigm Questionnaire (PPQ) for the Portuguese population. Method: The original PPQ was translated into Portuguese (designated as ‘Questionário do Paradigma Placentário’, QPP) and then back-translated into English; the Portuguese and the back-translated versions were evaluated by a panel of experts. The participants were 189 pregnant Portuguese women, interviewed twice while waiting for sonogram examinations. At first, between 20 and 24 weeks of gestation, an Informed Consent was obtained as well as sociodemographic information. Between 28 and 36 weeks of gestation, participants answered the QPP. Results: The principal components analysis showed items to load mainly on two factors: in factor one, loads ranged between .778 and .522, while in factor 2, loads ranged between .658 and .421. Accordingly, two subscales of prenatal maternal orientation to motherhood were considered: (1) Facilitator Factor (α = .815) and Regulator Factor (α = .770). Conclusion: Overall, these data suggest that the Portuguese version of the QPP is a reliable and valid measure for the assessment of prenatal orientation for motherhood. In the future, QPP measurements will allow to relate maternal orientation to motherhood with other variables of psychic organisation in pregnancy and after birth.

Bone fragility as a possible complication of chronic kidney disease in early stages

Trabalho Final do Curso de Mestrado Integrado em Medicina, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, 2014