Using a Systematic Approach To Develop a Chemistry Course Introducing Students to Instrumental Analysis

A systematic approach to develop the teaching of instrumental analytical chemistry is discussed, as well as a conceptual framework for organizing and executing lectures and a laboratory course. Three main components are used in this course: theoretical knowledge developed in the classroom, simulations via a virtual laboratory, and practical training via experimentation. Problem-based learning and cooperative-learning methods are applied in both the classroom and laboratory aspects of the course. In addition, some reflections and best practices are presented on how to encourage students to learn actively. Overall, a student-centered environment is proposed that aims to cultivate students' practical abilities and individual talents.

A computational intelligent approach to multi-factor analysis of violent crime information systems

Various scientific studies have explored the causes of violent behaviour from different perspectives, with psychological tests, in particular, applied to the analysis of crime factors. The relationship between bi-factors has also been extensively studied including the link between age and crime. In reality, many factors interact to contribute to criminal behaviour and as such there is a need to have a greater level of insight into its complex nature. In this article we analyse violent crime information systems containing data on psychological, environmental and genetic factors. Our approach combines elements of rough set theory with fuzzy logic and particle swarm optimisation to yield an algorithm and methodology that can effectively extract multi-knowledge from information systems. The experimental results show that our approach outperforms alternative genetic algorithm and dynamic reduct-based techniques for reduct identification and has the added advantage of identifying multiple reducts and hence multi-knowledge (rules). Identified rules are consistent with classical statistical analysis of violent crime data and also reveal new insights into the interaction between several factors. As such, the results are helpful in improving our understanding of the factors contributing to violent crime and in highlighting the existence of hidden and intangible relationships between crime factors.

Embracing an integromic approach to tissue biomarker research in cancer: Perspectives and lessons learned

Modern approaches to biomedical research and diagnostics targeted towards precision medicine are generating ‘big data’ across a range of high-throughput experimental and analytical platforms. Integrative analysis of this rich clinical, pathological, molecular and imaging data represents one of the greatest bottlenecks in biomarker discovery research in cancer and other diseases. Following on from the publication of our successful framework for multimodal data amalgamation and integrative analysis, Pathology Integromics in Cancer (PICan), this article will explore the essential elements of assembling an integromics framework from a more detailed perspective. PICan, built around a relational database storing curated multimodal data, is the research tool sitting at the heart of our interdisciplinary efforts to streamline biomarker discovery and validation. While recognizing that every institution has a unique set of priorities and challenges, we will use our experiences with PICan as a case study and starting point, rationalizing the design choices we made within the context of our local infrastructure and specific needs, but also highlighting alternative approaches that may better suit other programmes of research and discovery. Along the way, we stress that integromics is not just a set of tools, but rather a cohesive paradigm for how modern bioinformatics can be enhanced. Successful implementation of an integromics framework is a collaborative team effort that is built with an eye to the future and greatly accelerates the processes of biomarker discovery, validation and translation into clinical practice.

Integrated approach to teaching English in primary and preschool

O presente trabalho de investigação apresenta um estudo que procurou observar comportamentos de literacia emergente numa língua estrangeira (Inglês) em contexto da educação pré-escolar. Procedeu-se à conceção e implementação de uma abordagem integrada ao ensino da língua inglesa, através numa abordagem metodológica inspirada no paradigma investigação-ação, percecionada como oportunidade de inovação pedagógica e de formação de professores. O estudo foi desenvolvido em simultâneo no 1ºCEB, tendo como principal objetivo comparar os comportamentos e atitudes dos alunos de outra faixa etária relativamente aos comportamentos de literacia em língua estrangeira. Os dados foram recolhidos através da observação, gravação de aulas, posteriormente transcritas, diários do investigador, questionários, portfolios dos alunos e entrevistas semi-estruturadas a especialistas na área da pedagogia de línguas estrangeiras, analisados através da aplicação de técnicas de análise de conteúdo como procedimento de análise do corpus. Os resultados demonstram a relevância de abordagens integradas de cariz lúdico na promoção de comportamentos de leitura e escrita emergente, estimulando assim motivação intrínseca nas crianças pela aprendizagem da língua e cultura-alvo. Por conseguinte, os comportamentos observados de literacia emergente em língua estrangeira permitem estabelecer uma analogia com as crianças bilingues, na medida em que ao aprenderem uma outra língua desenvolvem em sincronia a sua flexibilidade mental e estratégias de auto-regulação em diversas áreas de conhecimento. Os resultados permitem ainda concluir que estratégias promotoras de motivação intrínseca como o lúdico e o storytelling são vitais na sensibilização à diversidade linguística e cultural, por oposição aos resultados evidenciados pela estratégia nacional para o ensino de línguas estrangeiras no 1.ºCEB. As principais implicações deste estudo sugerem a possibilidade de generalização da língua estrangeira na educação pré-escolar, sendo esta etapa compreendida como um período privilegiado na prevenção de insucesso na leitura e escrita na aprendizagem de uma língua estrangeira. Deste modo, a educação pré-escolar pode ser considerada como um tempo fundador do futuro linguístico das crianças, numa perspetiva de educação linguística ao longo da vida.

A creative approach to isometries integrating Geogebra and Italc with ‘paper and pencil’ environments

Creativity is recognized nowadays as a basic skill. However, the educational system fails in promoting their development. On the other hand, a growing acknowledgement of the importance of geometry emerges. Conceptual renewal, namely on isometries, requires new approaches based on mathematically significant tasks. The digital revolution has brought powerful tools but demands changes in the educational process. The use of Dynamic Geometry Environments (DGE), complementing ‘paper and pencil’, can contribute to provide rich learning environments, enhanced by Classroom Management Systems (CMS) such as iTALC. Indeed, the qualitative case study we carried out suggests that: the creation of an "atmosphere" of cooperation, collaboration and sharing seems to increase creativity dimensions; the use of DGE can facilitate the emergence of more creative productions; development of knowledge and geometrical capabilities seems to benefit from a complementary approach that combines DGE and ‘paper and pencil’ environments. Different approaches, with a more technological and exploratory nature seem to promote more favourable attitudes towards mathematics in general, and geometry, in particular.

Renaturing cities using a regionally-focused biodiversity-led multifunctional benefits approach to urban green infrastructure

If a ‘Renaturing of Cities’ strategy is to maximise the ecosystem service provision of urban green infrastructure (UGI), then detailed consideration of a habitat services, biodiversity-led approach and multifunctionality are necessary rather than relying on the assumed benefits of UGI per se. The paper presents preliminary data from three case studies, two in England and one in Germany, that explore how multifunctionality can be achieved, the stakeholders required, the usefulness of an experimental approach for demonstrating transformation, and how this can be fed back into policy. We argue that incorporating locally contextualised biodiversity-led UGI design into the planning and policy spheres contributes to the functioning and resilience of the city and provides the adaptability to respond to locally contextualised challenges, such as overheating, flooding, air pollution, health and wellbeing as well as biodiversity loss. Framing our research to encompass both the science of biodiversity-led UGI and co-developing methods for incorporating a strategic approach to implementation of biodiversity-led UGI by planners and developers addresses a gap in current knowledge and begins to address barriers to UGI implementation. By combining scientific with policy learning and defined urban environmental targets with community needs, our research to date has begun to demonstrate how nature-based solutions to building resilience and adaptive governance can be strategically incorporated within cities through UGI.

An integrated and comparative approach to genetic selection of the aquaculture species Dicentrarchus labrax

The European sea bass, Dicentrarchus labrax, is one of the most important marine species cultivated in Southern Europe and has not benefited from selective breeding. One of the major goals in the sea bass (D. labrax) aquaculture industry is to understand and control the complexity of growth associated traits. The aim of the methodology developed for the studies reported in the thesis was not only to establish genetic and genomic resources for sea bass, but to also develop a conceptual strategy to efficiently create knowledge in a research environment that can easily be transferred to the aquaculture industry. The strategy involved; i) establishing an annotated sea bass transcriptome and then using it to, ii) identify new genetic markers for target QTL regions so that, iii) new QTL analysis could be performed and marker based resolution of the DNA regions of interest increased, and then iv) to merge the linkage map and the physical map in order to map the QTL confidence intervals to the sea bass genome and identify genes underlying the targeted traits. Finally to test if genes in the QTL regions that are candidates for divergent growth phenotypes have modified patterns of transcription that reflects the modified whole organism physiology SuperSAGE-SOLiD4 gene expression was used with sea bass with high growth heterogeneity. The SuperSAGE contributed to significantly increase the transcriptome information for sea bass muscle, brain and liver and also led to the identification of putative candidate genes lying in the genomic region of growth related QTL. Lastly all differentially expressed transcripts in brain, liver and muscle of the European sea bass with divergent specific growth rates were mapped to gene pathways and networks and the regulatory pathways most affected identified and established the tissue specific changes underlying the divergent SGR. Owing to the importance of European sea bass to Mediterranean aquaculture and the developed genomics resources from the present thesis and from other studies it should be possible to implement genetic selection programs using marker assisted selection.

Enzymatic grafting: A novel approach to develop multifunctional materials of interest

Today more than 99% of plastics are petroleum-based because of the availability and cost of the raw material. The durability of disposed plastics contributes to the environmental problems as waste and their persistence in the environment causes deleterious effects on the ecosystem. Environmental pollution awareness and the demand for green technology have drawn considerable attention of both academia and industry into biodegradable polymers. In this regard green chemistry technology has the potential to provide solution to this issue. Enzymatic grafting has recently been the focus of green chemistry technologies due to the growing environmental concerns, legal restrictions, and increasing availability of scientific knowledge. Over the last several years, research covering various applications of robust enzymes like laccases and lipases has been increased rapidly, particularly in the field of polymer science, to graft multi-functional materials of interest. In principle, enzyme-assisted grafting may modify/impart a variety of functionalities to the grafted composites which individual materials fail to demonstrate on their own. The modified polymers through grafting have a bright future and their development is practically boundless. In the present study series of graft composites with poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (P(3HB) as side chain and cellulose as a backbone polymer were successfully synthesised by introducing enzymatic grafting technique where laccase and lipase were used as model catalysts [1-3]. Subsequently, the resulting composites were removed from the casting surface under ambient environment and characterised by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) in detail. Moreover, the thermo-mechanical behaviours of the grafted composites were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic mechanical analyser (DMA) measurements, respectively. In addition, hydrophobic and hydrophilic characteristics of the grafted polymers were studied through drop contour analysis using water contact angle (WCA). In comparison to the individual counterparts improvement was observed in the thermo- mechanical properties of the composites to varied extent. The tensile strength, elongation at break, and Young’s modulus values of the composites reached their highest levels in comparison to the films prepared with pure P(3HB) only which was too fragile to measure any of the above said characteristics. Interestingly, untreated P(3HB) was hydrophobic in nature and after lipase treatment P(3HB) and P(3HB)-EC-based graft composite attained higher level of hydrophilicity. This is a desired characteristic that enhances the biocompatibility of the materials for proper cell adhesion and proliferation therefore suggesting potential candidates for tissue engineering/bio-medical type applications [3]. The present research will be a first step in the biopolymer modification. To date no report has been found in literature explaining the laccase/lipase assisted grafting of P(3HB) [1-3]. The newly grafted composites exhibit unique functionalities with wider range of potential applications in bio-plastics, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics industries, tissue engineering, and biosensors. [1] H.M.N. Iqbal, G. Kyazze, T. Tron and T. Keshavarz, Cellulose 21, 3613-3621 (2014). [2] H.M.N. Iqbal, G. Kyazze, T. Tron and T. Keshavarz, Carbohydrate Polymers 113, 131-137 (2014). [3] H.M.N. Iqbal, G. Kyazze, T. Tron and T. Keshavarz, Polymer Chemistry In-Press, DOI: 10.1039/C4PY0 0857J (2014).

An intelligent tutoring approach to support students and technicians in electrical installation design

Designing electric installation projects, demands not only academic knowledge, but also other types of knowledge not easily acquired through traditional instructional methodologies. A lot of additional empirical knowledge is missing and so the academic instruction must be completed with different kinds of knowledge, such as real-life practical examples and simulations. On the other hand, the practical knowledge detained by the most experienced designers is not formalized in such a way that is easily transmitted. In order to overcome these difficulties present in the engineers formation, we are developing an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS), for training and support concerning the development of electrical installation projects to be used by electrical engineers, technicians and students.

A director’s approach to art and religion : o quadro, um musical da Paixão segundo o sr. João (The masterpiece, a musical of The passion according to John): trabalho de projecto

Trabalho de Projecto submetido à Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Teatro - especialização em Encenação.

Data Mining Approach to support the Generation of Realistic Scenarios for Multi-Agent simulation of Electricity Markets

This paper presents the Realistic Scenarios Generator (RealScen), a tool that processes data from real electricity markets to generate realistic scenarios that enable the modeling of electricity market players’ characteristics and strategic behavior. The proposed tool provides significant advantages to the decision making process in an electricity market environment, especially when coupled with a multi-agent electricity markets simulator. The generation of realistic scenarios is performed using mechanisms for intelligent data analysis, which are based on artificial intelligence and data mining algorithms. These techniques allow the study of realistic scenarios, adapted to the existing markets, and improve the representation of market entities as software agents, enabling a detailed modeling of their profiles and strategies. This work contributes significantly to the understanding of the interactions between the entities acting in electricity markets by increasing the capability and realism of market simulations.

From Consciousness to Knowledge – The Explanatory Power of Revelation

Epistemology in philosophy of mind is a difficult endeavor. Those who believe that our phenomenal life is different from other domains suggest that self-knowledge about phenomenal properties is certain and therefore privileged. Usually, this so called privileged access is explained by the idea that we have direct access to our phenomenal life. This means, in contrast to perceptual knowledge, self-knowledge is non-inferential. It is widely believed that, this kind of directness involves two different senses: an epistemic sense and a metaphysical sense. Proponents of this view often claim that this is due to the fact that we are acquainted with our current experiences. The acquaintance thesis, therefore, is the backbone in justifying privileged access. Unfortunately the whole approach has a profound flaw. For the thesis to work, acquaintance has to be a genuine explanation. Since it is usually assumed that any knowledge relation between judgments and the corresponding objects are merely causal and contingent (e.g. in perception), the proponent of the privileged access view needs to show that acquaintance can do the job. In this thesis, however, I claim that the latter cannot be done. Based on considerations introduced by Levine, I conclude that this approach involves either the introduction of ontologically independent properties or a rather obscure knowledge relation. A proper explanation, however, cannot employ either of the two options. The acquaintance thesis is, therefore, bound to fail. Since the privileged access intuition seems to be vital to epistemology within the philosophy of mind, I will explore alternative justifications. After discussing a number of options, I will focus on the so called revelation thesis. This approach states that by simply having an experience with phenomenal properties, one is in the position to know the essence of those phenomenal properties. I will argue that, after finding a solution for the controversial essence claim, this thesis is a successful replacement explanation which maintains all the virtues of the acquaintance account without necessarily introducing ontologically independent properties or an obscure knowledge relation. The overall solution consists in qualifying the essence claim in the relevant sense, leaving us with an appropriate ontology for phenomenal properties. On the one hand, this avoids employing mysterious independent properties, since this ontological view is physicalist in nature. On the other hand, this approach has the right kind of structure to explain privileged self-knowledge of our phenomenal life. My final conclusion consists in the claim that the privileged access intuition is in fact veridical. It cannot, however, be justified by the popular acquaintance approach, but rather, is explainable by the controversial revelation thesis.