Eficácia dos protocolos modificados de constraint induced movement therapy na função motora e desempenho de atividades diárias

Projeto de Graduação apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Licenciada em Fisioterapia

Gymnasielärares skrivpraktiker : Skrivande som professionell handling i en digitaliserad skola

The aim of this thesis is to contribute to deeper knowledge about the writing practices of teachers in upper secondary school. Schools are under constant pressure to respond to the needs and expectations of an ever-changing society and political intentions. A major factor in this change which is taking place in schools is digitalization. Another factor is the adoption of new governing principles for schools involving management by goals and results, which brings increased demands for written documentation of teachers' work. In order to describe and problematize this development the thesis is based on a combination of Critical Discourse Analysis and New Literacy (Clark and Ivanič, 1997). The theoretical framework rests upon an understanding of writing as social action and the idea that texts both affect and are affected by the social environment. The empirical study focuses on twelve teachers and their writing practices, analyzed during week-long field visits over three years. The teachers' talk about their writing is used together with analyses of texts and images to investigate parts of teachers' writing which, according to the teachers, are considered complex and problematic. The findings indicate significant differences between the writing practices of the individual teachers, where each teacher has his or her own system of texts fulfilling different purposes. Despite these differences it is still possible to identify recurrent themes in the discursive conditions for teachers' writing: efficiency, reuse, authority, audit, relationships to addressees, and room to maneuver. The study illustrates possible dilemmas for teachers' writing at the intersection of teachers' professional responsibility and demands for accountability.

Constraint-Informed Information Systems in Space Management Utilization

Declarative techniques such as Constraint Programming can be very effective in modeling and assisting management decisions. We present a method for managing university classrooms which extends the previous design of a Constraint-Informed Information System to generate the timetables while dealing with spatial resource optimization issues. We seek to maximize space utilization along two dimensions: classroom use and occupancy rates. While we want to maximize the room use rate, we still need to satisfy the soft constraints which model students’ and lecturers’ preferences. We present a constraint logic programming-based local search method which relies on an evaluation function that combines room utilization and timetable soft preferences. Based on this, we developed a tool which we applied to the improvement of classroom allocation in a University. Comparing the results to the current timetables obtained without optimizing space utilization, the initial versions of our tool manages to reach a 30% improvement in space utilization, while preserving the quality of the timetable, both for students and lecturers.

Proposal and Validation of a Scale of Composite Measure Reactivity Score to Characterize the Reactivity in Horses During Handling

This study aimed to identify the parameters related to the expression of the reactivity in horses during handling and based on that proposed and validated a scale of composite measure reactivity score to characterize horse's reactivity. To this end, the first stage (S1) proposed the scale and the second (S2) validated it. In S1, 364 Lusitano horses were evaluated, 188 were adult breeding mares (4–12 years old), and 176 were foals (males/females, aged from 2 months to 2 years). During hooves trimming, vermifuge application, palpation scores were assigned to behaviors of movement, ears and eyes position, breathing, vocalization, and urination. A response parameter called reactivity was attributed to each animal, ranging from score 1 (nonreactive/calm) to score 4 (very reactive/aggressive). The verification of the possible parameters (age, behavior), which explains the response parameter (reactivity), was taken using ordinal proportional odds model. Movement, breathing, ears and eyes position, vocalization, and age appear to explain the reactivity of horses during handling (P < .01). Therefore, based on these parameters, it was possible to propose two scales of composite measure reactivity score: one to characterize the mares and another the foals. On S2, the proposed scale was validated by the simultaneous application of Forced Human Approach Test, another commonly used test to evaluate the reactivity in horses, with a correlation of 0.97 (P < .05). The assessment of the reactivity of horses during handling by a composite measure reactivity score scale is valid, and easy to apply, without disrupting daily routine and override the impact of individual differences.

Load balancing for constraint solving with GPUs

Solving a complex Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) is a computationally hard task which may require a considerable amount of time. Parallelism has been applied successfully to the job and there are already many applications capable of harnessing the parallel power of modern CPUs to speed up the solving process. Current Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), containing from a few hundred to a few thousand cores, possess a level of parallelism that surpasses that of CPUs and there are much less applications capable of solving CSPs on GPUs, leaving space for further improvement. This paper describes work in progress in the solving of CSPs on GPUs, CPUs and other devices, such as Intel Many Integrated Cores (MICs), in parallel. It presents the gains obtained when applying more devices to solve some problems and the main challenges that must be faced when using devices with as different architectures as CPUs and GPUs, with a greater focus on how to effectively achieve good load balancing between such heterogeneous devices.

Constraint Programming-based Job Dispatching for Modern HPC Applications

A High-Performance Computing job dispatcher is a critical software that assigns the finite computing resources to submitted jobs. This resource assignment over time is known as the on-line job dispatching problem in HPC systems. The fact the problem is on-line means that solutions must be computed in real-time, and their required time cannot exceed some threshold to do not affect the normal system functioning. In addition, a job dispatcher must deal with a lot of uncertainty: submission times, the number of requested resources, and duration of jobs. Heuristic-based techniques have been broadly used in HPC systems, at the cost of achieving (sub-)optimal solutions in a short time. However, the scheduling and resource allocation components are separated, thus generates a decoupled decision that may cause a performance loss. Optimization-based techniques are less used for this problem, although they can significantly improve the performance of HPC systems at the expense of higher computation time. Nowadays, HPC systems are being used for modern applications, such as big data analytics and predictive model building, that employ, in general, many short jobs. However, this information is unknown at dispatching time, and job dispatchers need to process large numbers of them quickly while ensuring high Quality-of-Service (QoS) levels. Constraint Programming (CP) has been shown to be an effective approach to tackle job dispatching problems. However, state-of-the-art CP-based job dispatchers are unable to satisfy the challenges of on-line dispatching, such as generate dispatching decisions in a brief period and integrate current and past information of the housing system. Given the previous reasons, we propose CP-based dispatchers that are more suitable for HPC systems running modern applications, generating on-line dispatching decisions in a proper time and are able to make effective use of job duration predictions to improve QoS levels, especially for workloads dominated by short jobs.

Before It's Too Late: INGOs' Handling of Conflict Risk in South Sudan

What do international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) do before and during the escalation of conflicts? The academic literature primarily focuses on these organisations' behaviour during an evident crisis rather than on how they anticipate the escalation of conflicts, assess the situation in which they find themselves, and decide on strategies to cope with the possibility of upcoming violence. Such lopsided focus persists despite calls for INGOs to become more proactive in managing their programmes and their staff members' safety. Mindful of this imbalance, the present study provides a causal explanation of how decision-makers in INGOs anticipate and react to the risk of low-level violence escalating into full-blown conflicts. This thesis aims to explain these actors' behaviour by presenting it as a two�step process involving how INGOs conduct risk assessments and how they turn these assessments into decisions. The study performs a structured, focused comparison of seven INGOs operating in South Sudan before the so-called Juba Clashes of 7 July 2016. Based on an analytical framework of INGO decision�making stemming from political risk analysis, organisational decision-making theory and conflict studies literature, the study reconstructs decision-making via process-tracing combined with mixed methods of data collection.

Trajectory planning of single and dual-arm robots for time-optimal handling of liquids and objects

This Thesis studies the optimal control problem of single-arm and dual-arm serial robots to achieve the time-optimal handling of liquids and objects. The first topic deals with the planning of time-optimal anti-sloshing trajectories of an industrial robot carrying a cylindrical container filled with a liquid, considering 1-dimensional and 2-dimensional planar motions. A technique for the estimation of the sloshing height is presented, together with its extension to 3-dimensional motions. An experimental validation campaign is provided and discussed to assess the thoroughness of such a technique. As far as anti-sloshing trajectories are concerned, 2-dimensional paths are considered and, for each one of them, three constrained optimizations with different values of the sloshing-height thresholds are solved. Experimental results are presented to compare optimized and non-optimized motions. The second part focuses on the time-optimal trajectory planning for dual-arm object handling, employing two collaborative robots (cobots) and adopting an admittance-control strategy. The chosen manipulation approach, known as cooperative grasping, is based on unilateral contact between the cobots and the object, and it may lead to slipping during motion if an internal prestress along the contact-normal direction is not prescribed. Thus, a virtual penetration is considered, aimed at generating the necessary internal prestress. The stability of cooperative grasping is ensured as long as the exerted forces on the object remain inside the static-friction cone. Constrained-optimization problems are solved for 3-dimensional paths: the virtual penetration is chosen among the control inputs of the problem and friction-cone conditions are treated as inequality constraints. Also in this case experiments are presented in order to prove evidence of the firm handling of the object, even for fast motions.

Sviluppo e validazione di un algoritmo di Vehicle Routing per un caso di logistica distributiva in collaborazione con Toyota Material Handling Italia

L’elaborato descrive le fasi di progettazione, programmazione e validazione di un programma sviluppato in ambiente Java per il Vehicle Routing Problem. L’algoritmo implementato è di tipo euristico costruttivo primal e presenta funzionalità specifiche per la gestione di un elevato numero di vincoli e l’applicazione a casistiche reali. La validazione è stata effettuata su una base dati reale e in confronto a dataset di cui è nota la soluzione ottima. Il programma è stato progettato per risultare flessibile alle richieste dell’utente e utilizzabile per valutazioni economiche in ambito consulenziale.

Il ruolo del controllo posturale per il movimento selettivo degli arti superiori attraverso la facilitazione con trunk constraint nel paziente neurologico: case report

Background Recentemente la letteratura scientifica ha dimostrato come un corretto controllo posturale faciliti i movimenti dell’arto superiore. Ci sono evidenze secondo cui, applicando al paziente dei contenimenti sul tronco, si ha un miglioramento della funzionalità dell’arto superiore. Obiettivi L’obiettivo principale della tesi era quello di verificare come il sostegno del tronco con l’utilizzo di una stabile struttura assiale, attraverso un supporto esterno definito “trunk constraint”, incrementi il controllo posturale, per facilitare i movimenti frazionati degli arti superiori in persone con esiti di patologie neurologiche. Materiali e metodi Il caso clinico riguarda un uomo di 60 anni con esiti di emiparesi sinistra da ictus ischemico destro. E’ stato eseguito un protocollo di dieci sessioni di trattamento, di un’ora ciascuna, in cui veniva applicata la facilitazione attraverso trunk constraint in diversi setting riabilitativi. I dati sono stati raccolti tramite le scale: Trunk Control Test, Trunk Impairment Scale e Fugl-Meyer Assessment. Inoltre, è stata eseguita l’analisi osservazionale, attraverso videoripresa, di un gesto funzionale dell’arto superiore. Risultati I dati rilevati dimostrano degli effetti positivi rispetto alle ipotesi di partenza. Infatti sono stati riscontrati miglioramenti negli item delle scale somministrate e nella valutazione qualitativa dell’arto superiore. In particolare, si è evidenziato un miglioramento nel controllo del tronco nella scala Trunk Control Test e nella Trunk Impairment Scale e della funzione dell’arto superiore alla scala Fugl-Meyer Assessment. L’analisi osservazionale dei video dimostra un miglioramento del timing di attivazione durante la fase di reaching. Conclusioni I risultati ottenuti supportano il fatto che un incremento dell’attività antigravitaria del tronco, anche attraverso supporti esterni come la trunk constraint, possono facilitare un miglioramento funzionale dell’arto superiore.

Machine Learning in Automatic Tabulation for Constraint Model Reformulation

Combinatorial decision and optimization problems belong to numerous applications, such as logistics and scheduling, and can be solved with various approaches. Boolean Satisfiability and Constraint Programming solvers are some of the most used ones and their performance is significantly influenced by the model chosen to represent a given problem. This has led to the study of model reformulation methods, one of which is tabulation, that consists in rewriting the expression of a constraint in terms of a table constraint. To apply it, one should identify which constraints can help and which can hinder the solving process. So far this has been performed by hand, for example in MiniZinc, or automatically with manually designed heuristics, in Savile Row. Though, it has been shown that the performances of these heuristics differ across problems and solvers, in some cases helping and in others hindering the solving procedure. However, recent works in the field of combinatorial optimization have shown that Machine Learning (ML) can be increasingly useful in the model reformulation steps. This thesis aims to design a ML approach to identify the instances for which Savile Row’s heuristics should be activated. Additionally, it is possible that the heuristics miss some good tabulation opportunities, so we perform an exploratory analysis for the creation of a ML classifier able to predict whether or not a constraint should be tabulated. The results reached towards the first goal show that a random forest classifier leads to an increase in the performances of 4 different solvers. The experimental results in the second task show that a ML approach could improve the performance of a solver for some problem classes.

Calcolo strutturale tramite simulazione agli elementi finiti ed analisi delle criticità di macchinari della linea di prodotto Handling

Questa tesi si propone di analizzare due macchinari della linea di “Handling” della divisione Active di IMA S.p.A., ovvero la macchina “Cyclops” e la macchina “Hercules”. Per entrambe le macchine si vuole svolgere un’analisi completa dei rischi strutturali: si vogliono individuare, infatti, i componenti strutturalmente critici al fine di proporre migliorie e soluzioni per evitare problematiche o danneggiamenti alle macchine. Per l’individuazione delle criticità strutturali, la prima cosa effettuata è stata un’analisi del funzionamento dei macchinari, attraverso uno studio dei singoli componenti e dei loro montaggi, a cui è seguita un’analisi dei carichi e delle sollecitazioni agenti su entrambe le macchine in condizioni di lavoro standard. A valle di queste analisi è stato possibile, quindi, individuare i componenti maggiormente sollecitati e, con l’ausilio di un software di nome Creo Simulate, ovvero un’estensione del software PTC Creo, molto diffuso nell’ambito della progettazione 3D di componenti industriali, sono state eseguite delle simulazioni virtuali di calcolo agli elementi finiti. Dall’analisi dei risultati delle simulazioni eseguite al calcolatore si sono evidenziate le eventuali criticità di ogni componente proponendo modifiche di progettazione, sia in termini di modifica della geometria del componente, sia riguardo a possibili modifiche nella scelta dei materiali. In aggiunta alle simulazioni virtuali, per completezza d’analisi, sono state svolte anche analisi strutturali di tipo analitico per la verifica di collegamenti bullonati e collegamenti saldati e per la verifica a fatica di alberi in rotazione.

Introduzione di un piano di campionamento indicizzato secondo l'AQL per i materiali in ingresso nel settore del material handling e dell'intralogistica. Il caso System Logistics S.p.A.

L’elaborato si è sviluppato all'interno dell’azienda System Logistics S.p.A. di Fiorano Modenese, leader nel settore del material handling e dell’intralogistica. Il focus dell'elaborato è sulla progettazione di un piano di campionamento indicizzato secondo il livello di qualità accettabile. Successivamente ad una presentazione più approfondita dell’azienda e dei prodotti offerti, si passa all’introduzione teorica dei temi dell’intralogistica e della qualità. Questo permette di comprendere il contesto operativo più generale in cui si inserisce il progetto. Infatti, la parte centrale è dedicata alla presentazione delle origini, degli obiettivi e della metodologia del progetto, in particolare, anticipando le procedure che si sono poste come basi strutturali della progettazione. La parte finale descrive il processo statistico che ha portato all’ottenimento del nuovo piano di campionamento e la sua applicazione empirica ai componenti più critici della navetta del LogiMate, il più recente prodotto dell’azienda. In quest’ultima fase si pone il focus sul processo di raccolta e analisi dei dati presentando, in particolare, un’analisi comparativa rispetto alla situazione iniziale dal punto di vista del rischio e un’analisi effettuata con le Carte di Controllo sul processo produttivo di un fornitore. L’esposizione è realizzata anche mediante grafici, ottenuti principalmente attraverso il supporto di Excel e Minitab, al fine illustrare in modo più agevole ed esplicito i risultati ottenuti.

Dna Extraction From Filter-paper Spots Of Vaginal Samples Collected After Sexual Violence.

To detect the presence of male DNA in vaginal samples collected from survivors of sexual violence and stored on filter paper. A pilot study was conducted to evaluate 10 vaginal samples spotted on sterile filter paper: 6 collected at random in April 2009 and 4 in October 2010. Time between sexual assault and sample collection was 4-48hours. After drying at room temperature, the samples were placed in a sterile envelope and stored for 2-3years until processing. DNA extraction was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction for human β-globin, and the presence of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) was quantified. The presence of the Y chromosome was detected using primers for sequences in the TSPY (Y7/Y8 and DYS14) and SRY genes. β-Globin was detected in all 10 samples, while 2 samples were positive for PSA. Half of the samples amplified the Y7/Y8 and DYS14 sequences of the TSPY gene and 30% amplified the SRY gene sequence of the Y chromosome. Four male samples and 1 female sample served as controls. Filter-paper spots stored for periods of up to 3years proved adequate for preserving genetic material from vaginal samples collected following sexual violence.

Evidences Of Endocytosis Via Caveolae Following Blood-brain Barrier Breakdown By Phoneutria Nigriventer Spider Venom.

Spider venoms contain neurotoxic peptides aimed at paralyzing prey or for defense against predators; that is why they represent valuable tools for studies in neuroscience field. The present study aimed at identifying the process of internalization that occurs during the increased trafficking of vesicles caused by Phoneutria nigriventer spider venom (PNV)-induced blood-brain barrier (BBB) breakdown. Herein, we found that caveolin-1α is up-regulated in the cerebellar capillaries and Purkinje neurons of PNV-administered P14 (neonate) and 8- to 10-week-old (adult) rats. The white matter and granular layers were regions where caveolin-1α showed major upregulation. The variable age played a role in this effect. Caveolin-1 is the central protein that controls caveolae formation. Caveolar-specialized cholesterol- and sphingolipid-rich membrane sub-domains are involved in endocytosis, transcytosis, mechano-sensing, synapse formation and stabilization, signal transduction, intercellular communication, apoptosis, and various signaling events, including those related to calcium handling. PNV is extremely rich in neurotoxic peptides that affect glutamate handling and interferes with ion channels physiology. We suggest that the PNV-induced BBB opening is associated with a high expression of caveolae frame-forming caveolin-1α, and therefore in the process of internalization and enhanced transcytosis. Caveolin-1α up-regulation in Purkinje neurons could be related to a way of neurons to preserve, restore, and enhance function following PNV-induced excitotoxicity. The findings disclose interesting perspectives for further molecular studies of the interaction between PNV and caveolar specialized membrane domains. It proves PNV to be excellent tool for studies of transcytosis, the most common form of BBB-enhanced permeability.