Mapping non-suicidal self-injury in adolescence: Development and confirmatory factor analysis of the impulse, self-harm and sucidal ideation questionnaire for adolescents (ISSIQ-A)

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is the deliberate, self-inflicted destruction of body tissue without suicidal intent and an important clinical phenomenon. Rates of NSSI appear to be disproportionately high in adolescents and young adults, and is a risk factor for suicidal ideation and behavior. The present study reports the psychometric properties of the Impulse, Self-harm and Suicide Ideation Questionnaire for Adolescents (ISSIQ-A), a measure designed to comprehensively assess the impulsivity, NSSI behaviors and suicide ideation. An additional module of this questionnaire assesses the functions of NSSI. Results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) of the scale on 1722 youths showed items' suitability and confirmed a model of four different dimensions (Impulse, Self-harm, Risk-behavior and Suicide ideation) with good fit and validity. Further analysis showed that youth׳s engagement in self-harm may exert two different functions: to create or alleviate emotional states, and to influence social relationships. Our findings contribute to research and assessment on non-suicidal self-injury, suggesting that the ISSIQ-A is a valid and reliable measure to assess impulse, self-harm and suicidal thoughts, in adolescence.

Influence of long-term wearing of unstable shoes on compensatory control of posture: An electromyography-based analysis

Purpose: This study investigated the influence of long-term wearing of unstable shoes (WUS) on compensatory postural adjustments (CPA) to an external perturbation. Methods: Participants were divided into two groups: one wore unstable shoes while the other wore conventional shoes for 8 weeks. The ground reaction force signal was used to calculate the anterior– posterior (AP) displacement of the centre of pressure (CoP) and the electromyographic signal of gastrocnemius medialis (GM), tibialis anterior (TA), rectus femoris (RF) and biceps femoris (BF) muscles was used to assess individual muscle activity, antagonist co-activation and reciprocal activation at the joint (TA/GM and RF/(BF + GM) pairs) and muscle group levels (ventral (TA + RF)/dorsal (GM + BF) pair) within time intervals typical for CPA. The electromyographic signal was also used to assess muscle latency. The variables described were evaluated before and after the 8-week period while wearing the unstable shoes and barefoot. Results: Long-term WUS led to: an increase of BF activity in both conditions (barefoot and wearing the unstable shoes); a decrease of GM activity; an increase of antagonist co-activation and a decrease of reciprocal activation level at the TA/GM and ventral/dorsal pairs in the unstable shoe condition. Additionally, WUS led to a decrease in CoP displacement. However, no differences were observed in muscle onset and offset. Conclusion: Results suggest that the prolonged use of unstable shoes leads to increased ankle and muscle groups’ antagonist co-activation levels and higher performance by the postural control system.

Aplicação do Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) na demolição, movimento de terras e execução da estrutura em edifícios

Mestrado em Engenharia Civil - Ramo Tecnologia e gestão das Construções

Validação do questionário de desenvolvimento emocional em adultos – QDE_A

O tema da inteligência emocional tem vindo a ganhar protagonismo no plano pessoal, organizacional e societário. A emocionalidade e a racionalidade devem ser ambas consideradas e valorizadas de forma equilibrada. Este estudo teve como amostra 507 enfermeiros a trabalhar em organizações do ramo da saúde. Estes profissionais têm uma tarefa complexa, uma vez que lidam diariamente com pessoas, que devido à sua situação de saúde fragilizada, estão mais vulneráveis e com o seu estado emocional mais alterado, o que remete para a necessidade de avaliar o desenvolvimento emocional dos mesmos. Definimos como objetivo geral contribuir para um maior conhecimento empírico sobre o desenvolvimento emocional em adultos. Os objetivos específicos são: a tradução e validação do questionário de desenvolvimento emocional em adultos (QDE_A) de Pérez-Escoda, Bisquerra, Filella e Soldevila (2010), adaptado à situação portuguesa, em enfermeiros; e a avaliação do desenvolvimento emocional dos mesmos. No que respeita à metodologia, o estudo é de carácter quantitativo, descritivo, exploratório e inferencial. Numa amostra de 507 enfermeiros, de duas regiões com caraterísticas socioeconómicas distintas, foi aplicado o QDE_A.A validação do mesmo foi concretizada através de uma análise fatorial exploratória e de uma análise fatorial confirmatória (CFA). Como objetivado foi conseguida a validação do QDE_A, tendo sido obtido um modelo constituído por cinco dimensões do desenvolvimento emocional, muito aproximado ao modelo proposto por Goleman (1995), sendo, assim, possível a sua utilização em investigações futuras e em intervenções na área da gestão dos recursos humanos e coaching. Relativamente ao objetivo de estudo, sobre o desenvolvimento emocional dos enfermeiros, verificámos que estes possuem níveis médios a elevados de desenvolvimento emocional global e que, dentro das dimensões, a auto motivação e a gestão das emoções são as mais evidenciadas, tendo em vista o incremento do desenvolvimento da inteligência emocional destes profissionais.

Desenvolvimento de Ontologia para Apoio ao Diagnóstico de Distúrbios do Humor

Mestrado em Computação e Instrumentação Médica

Study on the changes of soil chemical characteristics as result of prescribed fire

Every year, particularly during the summer period, the Portuguese forests are devastated by forest fire that destroys their ecosystems. So in order to prevent these forest fires, public and private authorities frequently use methods for the reduction of combustible mass as the prescribed fire and the mechanical vegetation pruning. All of these methods of prevention of forest fires alter the vegetation layer and/or soil [1-2]. This work aimed the study of the variation of some chemical characteristics of soil that suffered prescribed fire. The studied an area was located in the Serra of Cabreira (Figure 1) with 54.6 ha. Twenty sampling points were randomly selected and samples were collected with a shovel before, just after the prescribed fire, and 125 and 196 days after that event. The parameters that were studied were: pH, soil moisture, organic matter and iron, magnesium and potassium total concentration. All the analysis followed International Standard Methodologies. This work allowed to conclude that: a) after the prescribed fire; i) the pH remained practically equal to the the initial value; ii) occurred a slight increase of the average of the organic matter contents and iron total contents; b) at the end of the sampling period compared to the initial values; i) the pH didn´t change significantly; ii) the average of the contents of organic matter decreased; and iii) the average of the total contents of Fe, Mg and K increased.

Characterization of soils in an area of prescribed fire

The prescribed fire is a technique that is often used, it has several advantages. Pedological and hydropedological techniques were tested to assess the prescribed fire changes may cause in soils. This work was performed in Tresminas area (Vila Pouca de Aguiar, Northern Portugal), during February and March 2011. In the present study we applied several techniques. For the field sampling was followed the ISO 10381-1[1], ISO 10381-2[2], and FAO rules [3], as well as were used a grid with 17 points for measuring the soil parameters. During the fire, we have tried to check, with the assistance of the Portuguese Forestry Authority, some important parameters such as, the propagation speed, the size of the flame front and the intensity of energy emitted per unit area. Before the fire, was collected carefully soil disturbed and undisturbed samples for laboratory analysis, and measured soil water content; we also have placed four sets of thermocouples for measuring soil temperature. After the fire, were collected the thermocouples and new soil samples; the water content were measured in the soil and collected ashes. In the laboratory, after preparing and sieving the samples, were determined the soil particle size. The soil pH and electrical conductivity in water was also determined. The total carbon (TC) and inorganic carbon (IC)[4] was measured by a Shimadzu TOC-Vcsn. The water content in soil has not varied significantly before and after the fire, as well as soil pH and soil electrical conductivity. The TC and IC did not change, which was expected, since the fire not overcome the 200° C. Through the various parameters, we determined that the prescribed fire didn’t affect the soil. The low temperature of the fire and its rapid implementation that lead to the possible adverse effects caused by the wild fire didn’t occurred.

Fuzzy Boolean nets investigation of the alteration of some physical forest soil properties due to a prescribed fire action

Portuguese northern forests are often and severely affected by wildfires during the summer season. Some preventive actions, such as prescribed (or controlled) burnings and clear-cut logging, are often used as a measure to reduce the occurrences of wildfires. In the particular case of Serra da Cabreira forest, due to extremely difficulties in operational field work, the prescribed (or controlled) burning technique is the the most common preventive action used to reduce the existing fuel load amount. This paper focuses on a Fuzzy Boolean Nets analysis of the changes in some forest soil properties, namely pH, moisture and organic matter content, after a controlled fire, and on the difficulties found during the sampling process and how they were overcome. The monitoring process was conducted during a three-month period in Anjos, Vieira do Minho, Portugal, an area located in a contact zone between a two-mica coarse-grained porphyritic granite and a biotite with plagioclase granite. The sampling sites were located in a spot dominated by quartzphyllite with quartz veins whose bedrock is partially altered and covered by slightly thick humus, which maintains low undergrowth vegetation.

Impact of prescribed fire on the chemical properties of soil

Prescribed fire is a common forest management tool used in Portugal to reduce the fuel load availability and minimize the occurrence of wildfires. In addition, the use of this technique also causes an impact to ecosystems. In this presentation we propose to illustrate some results of our project in two forest sites, both located in Northwest Portugal, where the effect of prescribed fire on soil properties were recorded during a period of 6 months. Changes in soil moisture, organic matter, soil pH and iron, were examined by Principal Component Analysis multivariate statistics technique in order to determine impact of prescribed fire on these soil properties in these two different types of soils and determine the period of time that these forest soils need to recover to their pre-fire conditions, if they can indeed recover. Although the time allocated to this study does not allow for a widespread conclusion, the data analysis clearly indicates that the pH values are positively correlated with iron values at both sites. In addition, geomorphologic differences between both sampling sites, Gramelas and Anjos, are relevant as the soils’ properties considered have shown different performances in time. The use of prescribed fire produced a lower impact in soils originated from more amended bedrock and therefore with a ticker humus covering (Gramelas) than in more rocky soils with less litter covering (Anjos) after six months after the prescribed fire occurrence.

Domesticated domesticated! Some comments on the translation into English of José Carlos Somoza's La Caverna de las ideas

In order to cater for an extended readership, crime fiction, like most popular genres, is based on the repetition of a formula allowing for the reader's immediate identification. This first domestication is followed, at the time of its translation, by a second process, which wipes out those characteristics of the source text that may come into conflict with the dominant values of the target culture. An analysis of the textual and paratextual strategies used in the English translation of José Carlos Somoza's La caverna de las ideas (2000) shows the efforts to make the novel more easily marketable in the English-speaking world through the elimination of most of the obstacles to easy readability.

Negotiation mechanism for self-organized scheduling system with collective intelligence

Current Manufacturing Systems challenges due to international economic crisis, market globalization and e-business trends, incites the development of intelligent systems to support decision making, which allows managers to concentrate on high-level tasks management while improving decision response and effectiveness towards manufacturing agility. This paper presents a novel negotiation mechanism for dynamic scheduling based on social and collective intelligence. Under the proposed negotiation mechanism, agents must interact and collaborate in order to improve the global schedule. Swarm Intelligence (SI) is considered a general aggregation term for several computational techniques, which use ideas and inspiration from the social behaviors of insects and other biological systems. This work is primarily concerned with negotiation, where multiple self-interested agents can reach agreement over the exchange of operations on competitive resources. Experimental analysis was performed in order to validate the influence of negotiation mechanism in the system performance and the SI technique. Empirical results and statistical evidence illustrate that the negotiation mechanism influence significantly the overall system performance and the effectiveness of Artificial Bee Colony for makespan minimization and on the machine occupation maximization.

Miocene marine-continental correlations in the Lisbon area and some discussion related to personnal experience

Sandpit exploitation near Lisbon allowed collecting of many Miocene, non marine fossils. These sands are part of the mostly marine Miocene series in the Lower Tagus basin. The particularly favourable situation led several researchers to deal with marine-continental correlations. Difficulties often concern methodologic aspects. Some poorly based interpretations exerced a lasting influence. A critical approach is presented. Analysis requires data. Methods based upon models often lead to the temptation of fitting data in order to confirm a priori conclusions, or of mixing up data as if of equal statistic value while they have not at all the same weight. Erroneous interpretations' uncritical repetition for many years "upgraded" them into absolute truth. Another point is endemism vs. europeism. Miocene mammals from Lisbon compared well with corresponding French, contemporaneous taxa, while this was apparently not true for Spanish ones. Too much accent had been put on the endemic character of Spanish, or even regional, mammalian faunas. Nationalist bias and sensationalism also weigh, albeit negatively. Meanwhile nearly all the more evident examples as the rhinoceros Hispanotherium are discredited as Iberian endemisms. Taxa may appear as endemic just because they have not yet been found elsewhere. At least for the medium to large-sized mammals, with their huge geographic distribution, faunal differences depend much more on ecology, climate and environmental conditions. Emphasis on differences may also result from researchers that are often in a precarious situation and need very much to achieve short-term, preferably sensational results. Overvalued differences may mask real similarities. Unethic and not scientific behaviour are further enhanced by "nomina nuda" tricks that may simply be a way to circunvent or cheat the Priority Rule. On the other hand, access to communication networks may present as sensational novelties items that are not new at all, misleading the audience. A new class of "science people" arose, created by the media and not by the value of their real achievements. Discussion is presented on sedimentation processes and discontinuities that are often regarded as absolute precision dating tools, as well as on some geochemical and paleomagnetic interpretations. A very good chronologie frame has been obtained for the basin under study on the basis of an impressive set of data, providing a rather detailed and accurate frame for Miocene marine-continental correlations.

Optimization of River Water Quality Surveys by Multivariate Analysis of Physicochemical, Bacteriological and Ecotoxicological Data

This study aims to optimize the water quality monitoring of a polluted watercourse (Leça River, Portugal) through the principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA). These statistical methodologies were applied to physicochemical, bacteriological and ecotoxicological data (with the marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri and the green alga Chlorella vulgaris) obtained with the analysis of water samples monthly collected at seven monitoring sites and during five campaigns (February, May, June, August, and September 2006). The results of some variables were assigned to water quality classes according to national guidelines. Chemical and bacteriological quality data led to classify Leça River water quality as “bad” or “very bad”. PCA and CA identified monitoring sites with similar pollution pattern, giving to site 1 (located in the upstream stretch of the river) a distinct feature from all other sampling sites downstream. Ecotoxicity results corroborated this classification thus revealing differences in space and time. The present study includes not only physical, chemical and bacteriological but also ecotoxicological parameters, which broadens new perspectives in river water characterization. Moreover, the application of PCA and CA is very useful to optimize water quality monitoring networks, defining the minimum number of sites and their location. Thus, these tools can support appropriate management decisions.

Dynamic Analysis and Pattern Visualization of Forest Fires

This paper analyses forest fires in the perspective of dynamical systems. Forest fires exhibit complex correlations in size, space and time, revealing features often present in complex systems, such as the absence of a characteristic length-scale, or the emergence of long range correlations and persistent memory. This study addresses a public domain forest fires catalogue, containing information of events for Portugal, during the period from 1980 up to 2012. The data is analysed in an annual basis, modelling the occurrences as sequences of Dirac impulses with amplitude proportional to the burnt area. First, we consider mutual information to correlate annual patterns. We use visualization trees, generated by hierarchical clustering algorithms, in order to compare and to extract relationships among the data. Second, we adopt the Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) visualization tool. MDS generates maps where each object corresponds to a point. Objects that are perceived to be similar to each other are placed on the map forming clusters. The results are analysed in order to extract relationships among the data and to identify forest fire patterns.

Fonte de Iluminação LED – Avaliação dos Efeitos Fotobiológicos no Olho e Pele

Tendo por referência a diretiva 2006/95/CE, o trabalho desenvolvido no contexto da disciplina de Dissertação/Projeto/Estágio do Mestrado de Engenharia de Instrumentação e Metrologia, decorreu nas instalações do IEP (Instituto Electrotécnico Português) e teve como objetivo principal o desenvolvimento de um procedimento de avaliação dos efeitos fotobiológicos no olho e pele provocados por fontes de emissão contínua (LED), doravante designado método alternativo ao de referência. Os dois métodos, alternativo e de referência, utilizam respectivamente um foto-radiómetro multicanal e um espetro-radiómetro. O procedimento desenvolvido (método alternativo) de acordo com a norma EN/IEC62471) consiste na aquisição dos valores de irradiância com recurso a um foto-radiómetro e posterior determinação dos valores da radiância, com os quais se faz a avaliação dos efeitos fotobiológicos, para fontes de luz LED (Light Emitting Diode) ou GLS (General Lighting Service). A consulta detalhada da norma EN/IEC62471 e a pesquisa sobre os conceitos, definições, equipamentos e metodologias relacionadas com o tema em causa, constituiu o primeiro passo deste projecto. Com recurso aos dois equipamentos, uma fonte de luz LED (módulo de 12 lâmpadas LED) é avaliada em relação aos perigos (ou riscos) actínico UV e UV-A, ao perigo da luz azul e ainda o perigo térmico na retina e térmico na pele, permitindo fazer uma análise comparativa dos resultados. O método alternativo revelou-se bastante flexível e eficaz, proporcionando bons resultados em termos da irradiância e radiância dos referidos efeitos fotobiológicos. A comparação destes resultados com os valores limites de exposição mencionados na norma EN/IEC6247 permitiu afirmar que a fonte de luz LED avaliada não representa perigo fotobiológico para a saúde humana e classifica-se no grupo de risco “isento”. Uma vez cumpridos os objectivos, entendeu-se que seria uma mais-valia para o trabalho já realizado, estudar outro caso prático. Sendo assim, fez-se a avaliação da radiação de apenas um dos LED´s que constituíam a fonte usada nos ensaios anteriores, com o espetro-radiómetro (método de referência) e com uma distância de 200 mm entre a fonte e o medidor. Neste caso verificaram-se diferenças significativas nas quantidades obtidas quando comparadas com os valores normativos. Concluiu-se que o efeito fotobiológico da luz azul insere-se no grupo de “isento”, sem perigo para a saúde. Contudo, o efeito térmico da retina apresenta um aumento considerável da quantidade de radiância, embora dentro do grupo de risco “isento”. Esta classificação de grupos de risco. Face aos resultados obtidos, pode confirmar-se que as lâmpadas LED apresentam segurança fotobiológica, atendendo aos baixos valores de irradiância e radiância dos efeitos fotobiológicos estudados. Pode ainda afirmar-se que a utilização do foto-radiómetro em alternativa ao espetro-radiómetro se revela mais eficaz do ponto de vista de metodologia prática. Este trabalho demonstra a robustez desses dois equipamentos de avaliação dos efeitos fotobiológicos, e procura estabelecer uma linha de orientação para a prevenção dos efeitos adversos na pele e olhos de todos os seres humanos sujeitos à radiação ótica artificial. Quanto às incertezas de medições, em relação ao processo de medição com foto-radiómetro, a sua estimação não se realizou, devido a não rastreabilidade entre as medições indicadas pelo fabricante, no certificado de calibração e as medidas realizadas por outras entidades. Contudo, é propõe-se a sua realização em trabalhos futuros dentro desse âmbito. As incertezas dos resultados de medições com espetro-radiómetro foram parcialmente estimadas. Atendendo às potencialidades do sistema de medição, propõe-se como trabalho futuro, a aplicação da norma IEC62478, que faz parte da aplicação da norma EN/IEC62471 na avaliação do efeito da luz azul, com base na determinação da temperatura de cor correlacionada (CCT) de lâmpadas ou sistemas de lâmpadas incluindo luminárias. Os valores de irradiância e radiância adquiridos nos processos de avaliação, tanto com foto-radiómetro como espectro-radiómetro foram gravados em ficheiro Excel para um CD e anexados a este trabalho.