Avaliação do comportamento de uma ponte metálica centenária sujeita à ação de tráfego ferroviário ligeiro

A presente dissertação tem como objetivo principal a análise numérica do comportamento dinâmico de uma ponte ferroviária, sob ação de tráfego ligeiro ferroviário. Neste contexto são apresentados alguns fundamentos teóricos a ter em conta nestes domínios, visando uma melhor compreensão dos fenómenos existentes no comportamento dinâmico de pontes ferroviárias quando sujeitas ao tráfego. O caso de estudo teve como foco a ponte Luiz I, uma ponte metálica situada sobre o rio Douro, que liga as cidades do Porto e Vila Nova de Gaia, sob ação de tráfego ligeiro ferroviário no seu tabuleiro superior para a condição anterior aos trabalhos de reabilitação e reforço realizados entre 2004 e 2005. Para o efeito foi desenvolvido um modelo numérico de elementos finitos da ponte realizado com recurso ao programa ANSYS, assim como um modelo numérico do veículo do Metro de Lisboa. Com base nestes modelos foram obtidos os parâmetros modais, nomeadamente as frequências naturais e os modos de vibração de toda a estrutura e do veículo. O estudo do comportamento dinâmico da ponte foi realizado por intermédio de uma metodologia de cargas móveis e de interação veículo-estrutura, através da ferramenta computacional Train-Bridge Interaction (TBI). As análises dinâmicas foram efetuadas para a passagem dos veículos de passageiros das redes de Metros do Porto e Lisboa. Nestas análises é estudada a resposta da estrutura em função da variabilidade ao nível da secção transversal, dependência do tramo, influência do veículo, da sua velocidade de circulação e impacto das frequências de vibração estimadas pelo modelo numérico.

ROTAVIRUS GENOTYPES CIRCULATING IN BRAZIL, 2007-2012: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE VACCINE PROGRAM

SUMMARY Regarding public health in Brazil, a new scenario emerged with the establishment of universal rotavirus (RV) vaccination programs. Herein, the data from the five years of surveillance (2007-2012) of G- and P-type RV strains isolated from individuals with acute gastroenteritis in Brazil are reported. A total of 6,196 fecal specimens were investigated by ELISA and RT-PCR. RVs were detected in 19.1% (1,181/6,196). The peak of RV incidence moved from June-August to September. RV was detected less frequently (19.5%) among children ≤ 5 years than in older children and adolescents (6-18 years) (40.6%). Genotype distribution showed a different profile for each year: G2P[4] strains were most prevalent during 2007-2010, G9P[8] in 2011, and G12P[8] in 2012. Mixed infections (G1+G2P[4], G2+G3P[4]+P[8], G2+G12P[8]), unusual combinations (G1P[4], G2P[6]), and rare strains (G3P[3]) were also identified throughout the study period. Widespread vaccination may alter the RV seasonal pattern. The finding of RV disease affecting older children and adolescents after vaccine implementation has been reported worldwide. G2P[4] emergence most likely follows a global trend seemingly unrelated to vaccination, and G12, apparently, is emerging in the Brazilian population. The rapidly changing RV genotype patterns detected during this study illustrate a dynamic population of co-circulating wildtype RVs in Brazil.

Five-Year Review of an International Clinical Research-Training Program

The exponential increase in clinical research has profoundly changed medical sciences. Evidence that has accumulated in the past three decades from clinical trials has led to the proposal that clinical care should not be based solely on clinical expertise and patient values, and should integrate robust data from systematic research. As a consequence, clinical research has become more complex and methods have become more rigorous, and evidence is usually not easily translated into clinical practice. Therefore, the instruction of clinical research methods for scientists and clinicians must adapt to this new reality. To address this challenge, a global distance-learning clinical research-training program was developed, based on collaborative learning, the pedagogical goal of which was to develop critical thinking skills in clinical research. We describe and analyze the challenges and possible solutions of this course after 5 years of experience (2008-2012) with this program. Through evaluation by students and faculty, we identified and reviewed the following challenges of our program: 1) student engagement and motivation, 2) impact of heterogeneous audience on learning, 3) learning in large groups, 4) enhancing group learning, 5) enhancing social presence, 6) dropouts, 7) quality control, and 8) course management. We discuss these issues and potential alternatives with regard to our research and background.

Program Catapultas: Education for development in Bairro Padre Cruz

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Economics from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Contract-program evaluation: Impact of the DRG classification system on hospitals' outputs

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

The effectiveness of a teacher’s training workshop on Media Smart Program

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Consulting to social entrepreneurship initiatives - using business skills to help solve social problems: ERG: A sustainable approach

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

The effectiveness of the Media Smart Program on promoting the critical thinking of children towards the use of celebrities in television advertising

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Control of intestinal helminths in schoolchildren in Low-Napo, Ecuador: impact of a two-year chemotherapy program

A school-based control program of intestinal helminths was undertaken among schoolchildren in the Low-Napo region, north-eastern Ecuador. Forty-eight percent of children were infected with one or more helminths at the first examination. The prevalence at the baseline was Ascaris 33.2% followed by hookworm 24.1% and Trichuris 6.5%. Sex was found to be a significant factor influencing the prevalence of hookworm and Trichuris. Prevalence was compared 9 months and 18 months after treatment. After 9 months, Ascaris and Trichuris prevalence had decreased but not hookworm. All of them increased after 18 months. The findings suggest that only a course of mebendazol had a minor effect on the control of helminth infections.

TURISMO, CIDADES E PAISAGEM/TOURISM, CITIES AND LANDSCAPE

Os espaços públicos das cidades, sobretudo os daquelas para onde converge o turismo mundial, são sujeitos a múltiplos mecanismos de representação que os fragmentam e, em última análise, os reduzem a imagens idealizadas. Os autores dessas imagens, e dos seus sentidos, são muito diversificados, mas os profissionais ligados ao turismo (agências de viagem, revistas turísticas, documentaristas, etc.) e as instâncias públicas interessadas na divulgação turística das cidades (câmaras municipais, governos regionais, etc.) são, sem dúvida, duas das instâncias que mais operam no interior desses processos complexos de representação (e de mercadorização) do espaço das cidades. E se esses processos se associam hoje à relação feliz que milhões de pessoas estabelecem com as cidades no mundo inteiro, é no entanto necessário não esquecer que parte dessas paisagens são cuidadosamente construídas de forma, por um lado, a obliterar a lamentável realidade do urbanismo envolvente e, por outro, a delas excluir todos aqueles que inviabilizam a dinâmica cultural de construção de paisagens. We consider that the public spaces of cities, especially those which converge to the global tourism, are subject to multiple mechanisms of representation that fragment and, ultimately, reduce its idealized images. The authors of these images, and their senses are very diverse, but the professionals linked to tourism (travel agencies, tourist magazines, documentaries, etc.) and the government stakeholders interested in the dissemination of tourist cities (municipalities, regional governments, etc.) are undoubtedly two of the actors that operate within these more complex processes of representation of all urban space. And if these processes are associated today with the happy relationship that millions of people have with cities worldwide, it is however necessary not to forget that part of these landscapes are carefully constructed in a way, on one hand, to obliterate the unfortunate reality of the urban environment and, secondly, to delete all those that prevent the construction of dynamic cultural landscapes.

Geospatial technologies for public participation: better decisions for smarter cities?

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.

Marketing plan for Le Coq Sportif Russia

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Development of a satellite based PM10 concentration product for urban areas

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Engenharia do Ambiente