Implementação da manutenção autónoma numa empresa de mobiliário

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial

Innovation in “low-tech” industries: Portuguese footwear industry

ICEIM – International Conference in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, Roma, 17-18 de setembro de 2015.

Modelação de governo electrónico para países emergentes: O caso de São Tomé e Príncipe

Tese de Doutoramento em Tecnologias e Sistemas de Informação

Avaliação da eficiência de projetos de reabilitação ambiental de áreas mineiras abandonadas: o caso da área mineira de Covas

Dissertação de mestrado em Geociências (área de especialização em Valorização de Recursos Geológicos)

Construcción de un Test de Conocimiento General. Development of a General Knowledge Test

Entre los factores que contribuyen a predecir el rendimiento académico se pueden destacar aquellos que reflejan capacidades cognitivas (inteligencia, por ejemplo), y aquellas diferencias individuales consideradas como no-cognitivas (rasgos de personalidad, por ejemplo). En los últimos años, también se considera al Conocimiento General (CG) como un criterio para el éxito académico (ver Ackerman, 1997), ya que se ha evidenciado que el conocimiento previo ayuda en la adquisición de nuevo conocimiento (Hambrick & Engle, 2001). Uno de los objetivos de la psicología educacional consiste en identificar las principales variables que explican el rendimiento académico, como también proponer modelos teóricos que expliquen las relaciones existentes entre estas variables. El modelo teórico PPIK (Inteligencia-como-Proceso, Personalidad, Intereses e Inteligencia-como-Conocimiento) propuesto por Ackerman (1996) propone que el conocimiento y las destrezas adquiridas en un dominio en particular son el resultado de la dedicación de recursos cognitivos que una persona realiza durante un prolongado período de tiempo. Este modelo propone que los rasgos de personalidad, intereses individuales/vocacionales y aspectos motivacionales están integrados como rasgos complejos que determinan la dirección y la intensidad de la dedicación de recursos cognitivos sobre el aprendizaje que realiza una persona (Ackerman, 2003). En nuestro medio (Córdoba, Argentina), un grupo de investigadores ha desarrollado una serie de recursos técnicos necesarios para la evaluación de algunos de los constructos propuesto por este modelo. Sin embargo, por el momento no contamos con una medida de Conocimiento General. Por lo tanto, en el presente proyecto se propone la construcción de un instrumento para medir Conocimiento General (CG), indispensable para poder contar con una herramienta que permita establecer parámetros sobre el nivel de conocimiento de la población universitaria y para en próximos trabajos poner a prueba los postulados de la teoría PPIK (Ackerman, 1996). Between the factors that contribute to predict the academic achievement, may be featured those who reflect cognitive capacities (i.g. intelligence) and those who reflect individual differences that are considered like non-cognitive (i.g. personality traits). In the last years, also the General Knowledge has been considered like a criterion for the academic successfully (see Ackerman, 1997), since it has been shown that the previous knowledge helps in the acquisition of the new knowledge (Hambrick & Engle, 2001). An interesting theoretical model that has proposed an explanation for the academic achievement, is the PPIK (intelligence like a process, interests and inteligence like knowledge) proposed by Ackerman (1996), who argues that knowledge and the acquired skills in a particular domain are the result of the dedication of cognitive resources that a person perform during a long period of time. This model proposes that personality traits, individuals interests and motivational aspects are integrated as complex traits that determine the direction and the intensity of the dedication of cognitive resources on the learning that a person make (Ackerman, 2003). In our context, (Córdoba, Argentina), a group of researcher has developed a series of necessary technical resoures for the assesment of some of the theoretical constructs proposed by this model. However, by the moment, we do not have an instrument for evaluate the General Knowledge. Therefore, this project aims the construction of an instrument to asess General Knowledge, essential to set parameters on the knowledge level of the university population and for in next works test the PPIK theory postulates.

Relevance of Target-Organ Lesions as Predictors of Mortality in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus

Background: Patients with diabetes are in extract higher risk for fatal cardiovascular events. Objective: To evaluate major predictors of mortality in subjects with type 2 diabetes. Methods: A cohort of 323 individuals with type 2 diabetes from several regions of Brazil was followed for a long period. Baseline electrocardiograms, clinical and laboratory data obtained were used to determine hazard ratios (HR) and confidence interval (CI) related to cardiovascular and total mortality. Results: After 9.2 years of follow-up (median), 33 subjects died (17 from cardiovascular causes). Cardiovascular mortality was associated with male gender; smoking; prior myocardial infarction; long QTc interval; left ventricular hypertrophy; and eGFR <60 mL/min. These factors, in addition to obesity, were predictors of total mortality. Cardiovascular mortality was adjusted for age and gender, but remained associated with: smoking (HR = 3.8; 95% CI 1.3-11.8; p = 0.019); prior myocardial infarction (HR = 8.5; 95% CI 1.8-39.9; p = 0.007); eGFR < 60 mL/min (HR = 9.5; 95% CI 2.7-33.7; p = 0.001); long QTc interval (HR = 5.1; 95% CI 1.7-15.2; p = 0.004); and left ventricular hypertrophy (HR = 3.5; 95% CI 1.3-9.7; p = 0.002). Total mortality was associated with obesity (HR = 2.3; 95% CI 1.1-5.1; p = 0.030); smoking (HR = 2.5; 95% CI 1.0-6.1; p = 0.046); prior myocardial infarction (HR = 3.1; 95% CI 1.4-6.1; p = 0.005), and long QTc interval (HR = 3.1; 95% CI 1.4-6.1; p = 0.017). Conclusions: Biomarkers of simple measurement, particularly those related to target-organ lesions, were predictors of mortality in subjects with type 2 diabetes.

Carlos Chagas Discoveries as a Drop Back to Scientific Construction of Chronic Chagas Heart Disease

Abstract The scientific construction of chronic Chagas heart disease (CCHD) started in 1910 when Carlos Chagas highlighted the presence of cardiac arrhythmia during physical examination of patients with chronic Chagas disease, and described a case of heart failure associated with myocardial inflammation and nests of parasites at autopsy. He described sudden cardiac death associated with arrhythmias in 1911, and its association with complete AV block detected by Jacquet's polygraph as Chagas reported in 1912. Chagas showed the presence of myocardial fibrosis underlying the clinical picture of CCHD in 1916, he presented a full characterization of the clinical aspects of CCHD in 1922. In 1928, Chagas detected fibrosis of the conductive system, and pointed out the presence of marked cardiomegaly at the chest X-Ray associated with minimal symptomatology. The use of serological reaction to diagnose CCHD was put into clinical practice in 1936, after Chagas' death, which along with the 12-lead ECG, revealed the epidemiological importance of CCHD in 1945. In 1953, the long period between initial infection and appearance of CCHD was established, whereas the annual incidence of CCHD from patients with the indeterminate form of the disease was established in 1956. The use of heart catheterization in 1965, exercise stress testing in 1973, Holter monitoring in 1975, Electrophysiologic testing in 1973, echocardiography in 1975, endomyocardial biopsy in 1981, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging in 1995, added to the fundamental clinical aspects of CCHD as described by Carlos Chagas.

Biologia do saguirú (Characidae, Curimatinae)

In Brazil all the fishes belonging to the sub-family Curimatinae are called « saguirú ». The present work gives a biological study of the Curimatus elegans Steind., a small fish without any economical importance, which is to be found along the whole brazilian coast, down till Paraguay. The specimens utilized for the present study come from Fortaleza (Ceará, north-eastern Brazil). The C. elegans is « ilyophagus », that means, it feeds itself exclusively with those organic materials to be found in mud, specially with microscopical algae. The intestines are very extent, some of them measuring about 9 to 11 times body's length. Studies have been made about growth and age of the C. elegans; the biggest sizes found were of 153 mm. for females and 88 mm. for males. The C. elegans shows developed sexual glands during a long period (April to September). The movements of the spermatozoa, in contact with water is of 40 to 50 seconds of intense movements, ceasing after 70 to 100 seconds. In contact with 0.5% NaCl-solution spermatozoa show a big increase in movements-time, that can last till about 25 minutes. The eggs' diameter measures 0.70 to 0.73 mm., mature and hydrated it attains 0.93 to 1,00 mm. There is a certain correlation between the size of the body and the quantity of eggs. Big specimens can produce a total of 200.000 eggs. The average quantity contained in 1 gr. and 1 cc. is 6018 and 6229 eggs, respectively. Maturity and spawning in laboratory has been obtained due to injections of suspension of fish-hypophysis. Three or four hours after the injection, fishes show more movement and evident signs of excitation, proceeding spawning after 5 to 6 hours. Males, persecuting females, describe successive circles (merry-go-round) - carroussel), swimming side by side with females up to water's surface, where sexual products are start beating dry, for there is no blood yet. Circulation-scheme is to be found on fig. 4 and 5. The swim-bladder and the stomach are but delineated; the intestine is formed by a cylindric tube, all closed. At the place, where later on there will open the mouth, we find a group of ciliary hairs that produce a liquid current, very evident by the semi-circle formed by attached solid particles. After 36 hours, opening of the mouth and formation of the gill slits begin. At the age of 90 hours (4 mm.) the larvas swim well and start to feed themselves; the digestive tube is now all open and the swimbladder works already. During the first days of life, larvas have an adhesive organ situated at their frontal region (fig. 7) in form of a crescent, by means of which they hang to surrounding vegetation (fig. 6). When the larva begins to swim and to feed itself and its yolk are having been absorbed. the adhesive organ retracts and disappears. While larvas and alevins feed themselves with plancton, they have small eye-teeth, which disappear,. when fishes become « ilyophagus ». There exist too, during their life as larvas, pharyngeal-teeth. The lateral line appears in the larva after 16 to 18 days; more or less at the same time all fins are completely developed. Shortly after, first scales appear (20 to 23 days). Evolution of intestines twisting followed (fig. 9). Larvas show at different parts of their bodies small of organs excretory functions, that are constituted by bottons in serial disposition, every one with an excretory canal that opens towards the outside. These formations disappear suddenly when larvas attain their phase of alevin. The existence of a great number of said formations at the caudal fin (fig. 12) is of great interest. In our experiences of breeding we have employed several thousands of C. elegans larvas in different environs and we made conditions of surrounding change (illumination), depth of water, temperature, presence of sand at bottom of aquariums and without sand, food). In this way we could compare the results obtained, estimate the action of each factor for the realisation of a good bring-up of larvas.

The retained capacity of Lutzomya longipalpis (Lutz & Neiva) to transmit Leishmania chagasi (Cunha & Chagas) after eight years (64 generations in a closed laboratory colony

A closed Lutzomyia longipalpis colony, from Ceará has been used to transmit Leishmania chagasi isolated from a fox in Pará state. The last time this colony was successfully used in similar transmission experiments was eight years (64 generations) ago indicating that this colony of Lu. longipalpis has fully maintained its vectorial capacity in spite of such a long period of maintainance in the laboratory.

BORN AT 27 WEEKS OF GESTATION WITH CLASSICAL PKU: CHALLENGES OF DIETETIC MANAGEMENT IN A VERY PRETERM INFANT

Only few cases of classical phenylketonuria (PKU) in premature infants have been reported. Treatment of these patients is challenging due to the lack of a phenylalanine-free amino acid solution for parenteral infusion. The boy was born at 27 weeks of gestation with a weight of 1000 g (P10). He received parenteral nutrition with a protein intake of 3 g/kg/day. On day 7 he was diagnosed with classical PKU (genotype IVS10-11G>A/IVS12+ 1G>A) due to highly elevated phenylalanine (Phe) level in newborn screening (2800 micromol/L). His maximum plasma Phe level reached 3696 micromol/L. Phe intake was stopped for 4 days. During this time the boy received intravenous glucose and lipids as well as little amounts of Phe-free formula by a nasogastric tube. Due to a deficit of essential amino acids and insufficient growth, a parenteral nutrition rich in branched-chain amino-acids and relatively poor in Phe was added, in order to promote protein synthesis without overloading in Phe. Under this regimen, Phe plasma levels normalized on day 19 when intake of natural protein was started. The boy has now a corrected age of 2 years. He shows normal growth parameters and psychomotor development. Despite a long period of highly elevated Phe levels in the postnatal period our patient shows good psychomotor development. The management of premature infants with PKU depends on the child's tolerance to enteral nutrition. It demands an intensive follow-up by an experienced team and dedicated dietician. Appropriate Phe-free parenteral nutrition would be necessary especially in case of gastro-intestinal complications of prematurity.

Cohort effects within firms, and their implications for labour market outcomes and the business cycle

The project aims to achieve two objectives. First, we are analysing the labour market implications of the assumption that firms cannot pay similarly qualified employees differently according to when they joined the firm. For example, if the general situation for workers improves, a firm that seeks to hire new workers may feel it has to pay more to new hires. However, if the firm must pay the same wage to new hires and incumbents due to equal treatment, it would either have to raise the wage of the incumbents, or offer new workers a lower wage than the firm would do otherwise. This is very different from the standard assumption in economic analysis that firms are free to treat newly hired workers independently of existing hires. Second, we will use detailed data on individual wages to try to gauge whether (and to what extent) equity is a feature of actual labour markets. To investigate this, we are using two matched employer-employee panel datasets, one from Portugal and the other from Brazil. These unique datasets provide objective records on millions of workers and their firms over a long period of time, so that we can identify which firms employ which workers at each time. The datasets also include a large number of firm and worker variables.

IgM immunoglobulins reacting with the phenolic glycolipid-1 antigen from Mycobacterium leprae in sera of leprosy patients and their contacts

For the first time in Brazil it was investigated the occurrence of IgM anti-PGL-1 in the sera of household contacts of leprozy patients using the ELISA methodology. The sera of the multipatients. It was observed a high subclinical infection incidence among household contacts (19.4%). The percentage of leprosy development was 5% (1/21) among the seropositive contact group. This finding suggests that serology could be useful as prognostic test, but for better definition is necessary to tet a population from endemic area for long period time.

Els primers llums del Delta

Treball de recerca realitzat per un alumne d'ensenyament secundari i guardonat amb un Premi CIRIT per fomentar l'esperit científic del Jovent l'any 2009. El treball és un estudi de l’evolució, tan tècnica com estètica dels fars paral•lela als avenços tecnològics i prenent com a protagonistes els singulars fars de ferro que es varen construir durant la segona meitat del segle XIX i varen funcionar durant un llarguíssim període en el delta de l’Ebre. L’estructura de ferro, ancorada directament sobre les sorres del delta va donar un caràcter especial a aquestes construccions que, d’altra banda, constituïen una tipologia única a Catalunya i a Espanya. Aquests fars van rebre el nom del lloc on foren ubicats estratègicament. De sud a nord: far de la Banya, far de Buda i far del Fangar. Els van projectar conjuntament, es van encendre per primera vegada el mateix dia, van ser l’habitatge dels seus faroners, van anar evolucionant tècnicament tots tres però el final de cadascun d’ells va ser molt diferent. La història dels fars de ferro ha anat lligada al paisatge i la vida d’aquestes singulars terres del Delta i després de més d’un segle de servei foren substituïts per altres que estèticament i tècnicament res tenen a veure amb els seus antecessors.

Integrated control measures against Culex quinquefasciatus, the vector of filariasis in Recife

Integrated control measures against Culex quinquefasciastus have been implemented in a pilot urban area in Recife, Brazil. About 3,000 breeding sites found within the operational area were responsible for very high mosquito densities recorded during the pretrial period. Physical control measures have been applied to cess pits before starting a series of 37 treatments of the other sites with Bacillus sphaericus strain 2362, over 27 months. In spite of the difficulties due to environmental conditions, very significant reductions in preimaginal population of C. quinquefasciatus were achieved and, as a consequence, low adult mosquito densities were maintained for a relatively long period of time. Entomological and environmental data gathered in this pilot project can contribute to design an integrated mosquito control program in Recife city.

Schistosomiasis vaccine development: approaches and prospects

Mounting evidence for acquired immunity to schistosomiasis in humans supports the case for immunological intervention. On the other hand, rapid reinfection poses a threat to younger age groups due to the slow maturation of natural resistance. However, rational approaches, based on advances in immunology and molecular biology, have substantially increased the odds of producing an effective vaccine. Since the parasite cannot replicate in the human host and serious morbidity generally occurs only after a relatively long period of heavy worm burden, complete protection against infection is not essential. The chances of success would increase if more than one of the various host/parasite interphases were targeted, for example reducing morbidity through decreased worm loads as well as through suppression of egg production. Several promising schistosome antigens have now reached an advanced phase of development and are currently undergoing independent confirmatory testing according to a standardized protocol. A few molecules are being contemplated for scaled-up production but, so far, only one has reached the stage of industrial manufacture and safety testing. Since schistosomiasis cannot realistically be controlled by a single approach, vaccination is envisaged to be implemented in conjunction with other means of control, notably chemotherapy.