A Fitoterapia como tratamento complementar na Diabetes mellitus

Projeto de P��s-Gradua����o/Disserta����o apresentado �� Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obten����o do grau de Mestre em Ci��ncias Farmac��uticas

Engenharia de Tecidos na substitui����o de tecido ��sseo

Projeto de P��s-Gradua����o/Disserta����o apresentado �� Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obten����o do grau de Mestre em Ci��ncias Farmac��uticas

Nutrigen��mica

Projeto de P��s-Gradua����o/Disserta����o apresentado �� Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obten����o do grau de Mestre em Ci��ncias Farmac��uticas

Upin & Ipin: Promoting malaysian culture values through animation

Malaysian children lately have been exposed or influenced heavily by digital media entertainment. The rise of such entertainment tends to drive them away from understanding and appreciating the values of Malaysian culture. Upin and Ipin animation has successfully promoted Malaysian folklore culture and has significantly portrayed the art of Malaysian values including Islamic values by providing the platform for harmonious relationship among different societies or groups or religious backgrounds. The focus of this research is to look into the usage of Malaysian culture iconic visual styles such as backgrounds, lifestyles, character archetypes and narrative (storytelling). Therefore, we hope that this research will benefit the younger generation by highlighting the meaning and importance of implicit Malaysian culture.

Privacy in next generation networks

In the modern society, communications and digital transactions are becoming the norm rather than the exception. As we allow networked computing devices into our every-day actions, we build a digital lifestyle where networks and devices enrich our interactions. However, as we move our information towards a connected digital environment, privacy becomes extremely important as most of our personal information can be found in the network. This is especially relevant as we design and adopt next generation networks that provide ubiquitous access to services and content, increasing the impact and pervasiveness of existing networks. The environments that provide widespread connectivity and services usually rely on network protocols that have few privacy considerations, compromising user privacy. The presented work focuses on the network aspects of privacy, considering how network protocols threaten user privacy, especially on next generation networks scenarios. We target the identifiers that are present in each network protocol and support its designed function. By studying how the network identifiers can compromise user privacy, we explore how these threats can stem from the identifier itself and from relationships established between several protocol identifiers. Following the study focused on identifiers, we show that privacy in the network can be explored along two dimensions: a vertical dimension that establishes privacy relationships across several layers and protocols, reaching the user, and a horizontal dimension that highlights the threats exposed by individual protocols, usually confined to a single layer. With these concepts, we outline an integrated perspective on privacy in the network, embracing both vertical and horizontal interactions of privacy. This approach enables the discussion of several mechanisms to address privacy threats on individual layers, leading to architectural instantiations focused on user privacy. We also show how the different dimensions of privacy can provide insight into the relationships that exist in a layered network stack, providing a potential path towards designing and implementing future privacy-aware network architectures.

Infection mechanism of Diplodia corticola

Diplodia corticola is regarded as the most virulent fungus involved in cork oak decline, being able to infect not only Quercus species (mainly Q. suber and Q. ilex), but also grapevines (Vitis vinifera) and eucalypts (Eucalyptus sp.). This endophytic fungus is also a pathogen whose virulence usually manifests with the onset of plant stress. Considering that the infection normally culminates in host death, there is a growing ecologic and socio-economic concern about D. corticola propagation. The molecular mechanisms of infection are hitherto largely unknown. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to unveil potential virulence effectors implicated in D. corticola infection. This knowledge is fundamental to outline the molecular framework that permits the fungal invasion and proliferation in plant hosts, causing disease. Since the effectors deployed are mostly proteins, we adopted a proteomic approach. We performed in planta pathogenicity tests to select two D. corticola strains with distinct virulence degrees for our studies. Like other filamentous fungi D. corticola secretes protein at low concentrations in vitro in the presence of high levels of polysaccharides, two characteristics that hamper the fungal secretome analysis. Therefore, we first compared several methods of extracellular protein extraction to assess their performance and compatibility with 1D and 2D electrophoretic separation. TCA-Acetone and TCA-phenol protein precipitation were the most efficient methods and the former was adopted for further studies. The proteins were extracted and separated by 2D-PAGE, proteins were digested with trypsin and the resulting peptides were further analysed by MS/MS. Their identification was performed by de novo sequencing and/or MASCOT search. We were able to identify 80 extracellular and 162 intracellular proteins, a milestone for the Botryosphaeriaceae family that contains only one member with the proteome characterized. We also performed an extensive comparative 2D gel analysis to highlight the differentially expressed proteins during the host mimicry. Moreover, we compared the protein profiles of the two strains with different degrees of virulence. In short, we characterized for the first time the secretome and proteome of D. corticola. The obtained results contribute to the elucidation of some aspects of the biology of the fungus. The avirulent strain contains an assortment of proteins that facilitate the adaptation to diverse substrates and the identified proteins suggest that the fungus degrades the host tissues through Fenton reactions. On the other hand, the virulent strain seems to have adapted its secretome to the host characteristics. Furthermore, the results indicate that this strain metabolizes aminobutyric acid, a molecule that might be the triggering factor of the transition from a latent to a pathogenic state. Lastly, the secretome includes potential pathogenicity effectors, such as deuterolysin (peptidase M35) and cerato-platanin, proteins that might play an active role in the phytopathogenic lifestyle of the fungus. Overall, our results suggest that D. corticola has a hemibiotrophic lifestyle, switching from a biotrophic to a necrotrophic interaction after plant physiologic disturbances.This understanding is essential for further development of effective plant protection measures.

Processamento de emo����es em traumatismos cr��nio-encef��licos frontais

Os traumatismos cr��nio-encef��licos (TCE) s��o a causa mais frequente de les��o cerebral em jovens adultos, integrando o campo de interven����o mais frequente na pr��tica neuropsicol��gica (Portellano, 2005), sendo o lobo frontal uma das estruturas cerebrais mais vulner��veis ao impacto que ocorre no c��rebro durante um TCE. Les��es nesta estrutura cerebral est��o frequentemente associadas a sequelas em diferentes fun����es cognitivas, altera����es a n��vel do comportamento emocional e social e que podem alterar gravemente o estilo de vida do doente. Est�� bem documentado na literatura a rela����o entre o reconhecimento visual de emo����es e o lobo frontal (ver, por exemplo Green, Turner, & Thompson, 2004; Croker & McDonald, 2005; Radice-Neumanet al., 2007). Os estudos indicam uma marcada dificuldade por partes destes sujeitos no reconhecimento visual de emo����es b��sicas e uma associa����o entre esta dificuldade e as sequelas comportamentais (ver, por exemplo, Radice-Neumanet al., 2007). Relativamente �� val��ncia das emo����es, investiga����es pr��vias indicam que existe uma maior dificuldade no reconhecimento das emo����es negativas, comparativamente ��s emo����es positivas, sendo consensual que a alegria �� a emo����o b��sica mais bem reconhecida no grupo cl��nico de sujeitos com TCE, quando comparados com grupos n��o-cl��nicos. Pretendemos com a presente investiga����o dar continuidade ao estudo sobre o processamento de emo����es e verificar se existe um compromisso no reconhecimento visual de emo����es b��sicas em doentes com TCE frontais. Adicionalmente, procuramos investigar se existe uma associa����o entre o reconhecimento de emo����es e o desempenho dos sujeitos em provas que avaliam o funcionamento executivo. Participaram no estudo 17 sujeitos com TCE recente no lobo frontal, e/ou em regi��es subcorticais com conex��o aos lobos frontais, recrutados nas unidades de Neurotraumatologia, Neuropsicologia e de Neurocirurgia do Hospital de S. Jos��, em Lisboa. Este grupo foi emparelhado a um grupo de controlo constitu��do por 17 sujeitos saud��veis. A ambos os grupos foi aplicada uma entrevista cl��nica para recolha de dados s��cio-demogr��ficos e cl��nicos, testes neuropsicol��gicos para avalia����o das fun����es executivas e cinco sub-testes adaptados da Florida Affect Battery (FAB) para avaliar o processamento de emo����es. No geral, os resultados revelam um desempenho estatisticamente inferior no grupo TCE nas provas de avalia����o do reconhecimento visual de emo����es, quando comparado com o grupo de controlo, sobretudo para as emo����es ���triste��� e ���zangada���. Contudo, n��o existe compromisso no reconhecimento da emo����o ���alegria���. Relativamente ��s fun����es executivas, os resultados do estudo indicam que existe correla����o entre a maioria das componentes avaliadas e o reconhecimento de emo����es. Em suma, o nosso estudo indica a exist��ncia de um compromisso no reconhecimento visual de emo����es no grupo cl��nico com TCE, sendo a dificuldade superior no reconhecimento de emo����es negativas. Demonstramos tamb��m uma correla����o inequ��voca entre a disfun����o executiva e a dificuldade no reconhecimento de emo����es nos doentes com TCE.

Revis��o das orienta����es terap��uticas da Hipertens��o Arterial em ambulat��rio

Disserta����o de mestrado, Ci��ncias Farmac��uticas, Faculdade de Ci��ncias e Tecnologia, Universidade do Algarve, 2014

Envelhecimento ativo e o recurso �� medicina tradicional chinesa : entre a responsabilidade individual e os fatores sociais determinantes da saúde

Tese de doutoramento, Antropologia (Antropologia da Saúde), Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto de Ci��ncias Sociais, 2015

Feasibility study on multifunctional artificial reefs for the Azores

Tese de Doutoramento, Geografia (Ordenamento do Territ��rio), 25 de Novembro de 2013, Universidade dos A��ores.

O Sistema custeio baseado em atividades e a melhor afeta����o dos recursos

Orientada pela Prof. Doutora Cl��udia Lopes

Projecto de AVAC de um edif��cio com multiutiliza����o

Trabalho Final de Mestrado para obten����o do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Mec��nica

Diversity and characterisation of coagulasenegative staphylococci isolated from healthy individuals in Portugal

In the past few years the interest in coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) has significantly increased in human medicine. CoNS are common commensal colonisers of the human skin, although now also recognised as major nosocomial pathogens. Over the last decades, several studies have been carried out in order to understand the pathogenicity mechanisms of CoNS. The well known determinants in the pathogenesis of CoNS infections are their ability to form biofilms and an exceptional resistance to several antibiotics. Nevertheless, there is a lack of studies regarding the commensal lifestyle of these microorganisms. Additionally, it is now hypothesised that commensal bacteria might be a reservoir of pathogenic determinants. Therefore, the work described throughout this thesis was aimed to perform a phenotypic and genotypic characterisation of different CoNS species isolated from healthy Portuguese individuals. A total of 61 CoNS isolates, comprising 7 different species, were obtained and characterised at the level of biofilm formation and antibiotic susceptibility profiles. According to the results, biofilm formation ability and presence of biofilm-associated genes were commonly found features, highlighting their pivotal role in the colonising lifestyle of CoNS. This study also addressed the correlation between phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of biofilm formation, corroborating and raising questions about the importance of some genes in this process. Moreover, it was observed a great proportion of isolates with decreased susceptibility and multiple resistances to some important antibiotics. A significant association between antibiotic resistance and biofilm formation was also demonstrated, and some hypotheses about the nature of such association were provided. Lastly, the expression patterns of two biofilm-associated genes at two distinct biofilm developmental stages were determined, confirming their importance in the accumulative stage of biofilm formation. Overall, the results presented in this thesis indicate that staphylococcal skin flora might be an important reservoir of potentially pathogenic bacteria and, simultaneously, bring to light new perceptions about the molecular basis of staphylococcal biofilm formation, and the nature of the association between antibiotic resistance and biofilm formation.

Perspetivas dos profissinais e dos pais de crian��as com incapacidades sobre autodetermina����o

Mestrado em Educa����o Especial: Multidefici��ncia e Problemas de Cogni����o

Simula����o e an��lise do escoamento no habit��culo de um autom��vel

Trabalho Final de Mestrado para obten����o do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Mec��nica