ToPI - uma abordagem online para identificar locais de interesse utilizando fotografias geo-referenciadas

Due to the growing use of social networks people no longer just consume data, they also produce and share it. Geo-tagged information, i.e., data with geographical location, have been used in many attempts to identify popular places and help tourists that will visit unfamiliar cities. This Master Thesis presents an online strategy that uses geo-tagged photos and their metadata in order to identify places of interest inside a given geographical area and retrieve relevant related information. The whole process runs automatically in real time, returning updated information about places. The proposed strategy takes into account the inherent dynamism of social media, and thus is robust under inconsistencies and/or outdated information, a common issue in solutions that rely on previously stored data. The analysis of the results showed that our approach is very promising, returning places that present high agreement with those from a popular travel website.

Occupational exposure to asthmagens and adult onset wheeze and lung function in people who did not have childhood wheeze : A 50-year cohort study

Acknowledgements Funding: Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland, grant ref. R13/A148. The funder had no role in study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation, writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. All authors had full access to all the data in the study. The corresponding author had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.

Type 2 diabetes, but not obesity, prevalence is positively associated with ambient temperature

Acknowledgements This study was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB13030000), the National Science foundation of China (microevolution program NSFC91431102) and the 1000 talents program. We are grateful to members of the Molecular Energetics group in Beijing and the Energetics group in Aberdeen, UK for valuable discussion of the data and analysis. All data analysed in this paper are already available in the public domain.

International expert opinion on the management of infection caused by azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus

Acknowledgements We thank Gilead Sciences Europe Ltd., UK for financially supporting logistical aspects of this study. The logistics of the meeting were handled by Congress Care, Den Bosch, The Netherlands. The sponsor was not involved in the selection of the participants or procedures, or in the discussion, data collection, analysis or writing of the manuscript. The medical writer was financially supported by the Dutch Society for Medical Mycology and the Department of Medical Microbiology, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Identifying the Structure and Fate of Wastewater Derived Organic Micropollutants by High-resolution Mass Spectrometry

Human activities represent a significant burden on the global water cycle, with large and increasing demands placed on limited water resources by manufacturing, energy production and domestic water use. In addition to changing the quantity of available water resources, human activities lead to changes in water quality by introducing a large and often poorly-characterized array of chemical pollutants, which may negatively impact biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems, leading to impairment of valuable ecosystem functions and services. Domestic and industrial wastewaters represent a significant source of pollution to the aquatic environment due to inadequate or incomplete removal of chemicals introduced into waters by human activities. Currently, incomplete chemical characterization of treated wastewaters limits comprehensive risk assessment of this ubiquitous impact to water. In particular, a significant fraction of the organic chemical composition of treated industrial and domestic wastewaters remains uncharacterized at the molecular level. Efforts aimed at reducing the impacts of water pollution on aquatic ecosystems critically require knowledge of the composition of wastewaters to develop interventions capable of protecting our precious natural water resources.

The goal of this dissertation was to develop a robust, extensible and high-throughput framework for the comprehensive characterization of organic micropollutants in wastewaters by high-resolution accurate-mass mass spectrometry. High-resolution mass spectrometry provides the most powerful analytical technique available for assessing the occurrence and fate of organic pollutants in the water cycle. However, significant limitations in data processing, analysis and interpretation have limited this technique in achieving comprehensive characterization of organic pollutants occurring in natural and built environments. My work aimed to address these challenges by development of automated workflows for the structural characterization of organic pollutants in wastewater and wastewater impacted environments by high-resolution mass spectrometry, and to apply these methods in combination with novel data handling routines to conduct detailed fate studies of wastewater-derived organic micropollutants in the aquatic environment.

In Chapter 2, chemoinformatic tools were implemented along with novel non-targeted mass spectrometric analytical methods to characterize, map, and explore an environmentally-relevant “chemical space” in municipal wastewater. This was accomplished by characterizing the molecular composition of known wastewater-derived organic pollutants and substances that are prioritized as potential wastewater contaminants, using these databases to evaluate the pollutant-likeness of structures postulated for unknown organic compounds that I detected in wastewater extracts using high-resolution mass spectrometry approaches. Results showed that application of multiple computational mass spectrometric tools to structural elucidation of unknown organic pollutants arising in wastewaters improved the efficiency and veracity of screening approaches based on high-resolution mass spectrometry. Furthermore, structural similarity searching was essential for prioritizing substances sharing structural features with known organic pollutants or industrial and consumer chemicals that could enter the environment through use or disposal.

I then applied this comprehensive methodological and computational non-targeted analysis workflow to micropollutant fate analysis in domestic wastewaters (Chapter 3), surface waters impacted by water reuse activities (Chapter 4) and effluents of wastewater treatment facilities receiving wastewater from oil and gas extraction activities (Chapter 5). In Chapter 3, I showed that application of chemometric tools aided in the prioritization of non-targeted compounds arising at various stages of conventional wastewater treatment by partitioning high dimensional data into rational chemical categories based on knowledge of organic chemical fate processes, resulting in the classification of organic micropollutants based on their occurrence and/or removal during treatment. Similarly, in Chapter 4, high-resolution sampling and broad-spectrum targeted and non-targeted chemical analysis were applied to assess the occurrence and fate of organic micropollutants in a water reuse application, wherein reclaimed wastewater was applied for irrigation of turf grass. Results showed that organic micropollutant composition of surface waters receiving runoff from wastewater irrigated areas appeared to be minimally impacted by wastewater-derived organic micropollutants. Finally, Chapter 5 presents results of the comprehensive organic chemical composition of oil and gas wastewaters treated for surface water discharge. Concurrent analysis of effluent samples by complementary, broad-spectrum analytical techniques, revealed that low-levels of hydrophobic organic contaminants, but elevated concentrations of polymeric surfactants, which may effect the fate and analysis of contaminants of concern in oil and gas wastewaters.

Taken together, my work represents significant progress in the characterization of polar organic chemical pollutants associated with wastewater-impacted environments by high-resolution mass spectrometry. Application of these comprehensive methods to examine micropollutant fate processes in wastewater treatment systems, water reuse environments, and water applications in oil/gas exploration yielded new insights into the factors that influence transport, transformation, and persistence of organic micropollutants in these systems across an unprecedented breadth of chemical space.

Meniere’s, Migraine & Motion Sickness

CONCLUSION Elevated MSS in MD is likely to be a consequence of the onset of MD and not migraine per se. OBJECTIVES Pathologies of the vestibular system influence motion sickness susceptibility (MSS). Bilateral vestibular deficits lower MSS, vestibular neuritis or benign paroxysmal positional vertigo have little overall effect, whereas vestibular migraine elevates MSS. However, less is known about MSS in Meniere’s disease (MD), a condition in which many patients experience vestibular loss and migraine symptoms. METHODS We conducted an online survey that posed diagnostic and disease questions before addressing frequency of headaches, migraines, visual display dizziness (VDD), syncope, social life and work impact of dizziness (SWID4) and motion sickness susceptibility (MSSQ). The two groups were: diagnosed MD individuals with hearing loss (n=751) and non-MD individuals in the control group (n=400). RESULTS The MD group showed significantly elevated MSS, more headache and migraine, increased VDD, higher SWID4 scores, and increased syncope. MSS was higher in MD than controls only after the development of MD but not before, nor in childhood. Although elevated in MD compared with controls, MSS was lower than migraine patients from past data. Multivariate analysis revealed VDD, SWID4 and MSS in adulthood as the strongest predictors of MD, but not headache nor migraine.

Chinese export competition, declining exports and adjustments at the industry and regional level in Europe

We analyze how a set of 22 European countries was affected by increased Chinese export competition between 1995 and 2008. Employing product-group level data, we observe a reduction in the export volumes of European countries due to increased Chinese export competition. This deceleration in the export sector induces changes within the manufacturing industries, especially a decline in employment. When using more aggregated, regional-level data, our analysis shows that the industry sector as a whole declines, resulting in an increased unemployment rate. The importance of Chinese export competition for Europe is attributable to its high export intensity.

Erfarenheter av att vårda personer med demenssjukdom : En kvalitativ intervjustudie med distriktssköterskor

Bakgrund: Demenssjukdom är vanligt förekommande och denna patientgrupp ingår i distriktssköterskors uppdrag. Syfte: Att belysa distriktssköterskors erfarenheter av att möta personer med demensdiagnos och hur de anpassar vården utifrån vårdtagarens behov. Metod: En kvalitativ intervjustudie genomfördes med fyra stycken distriktssköterskor. För bearbetning av insamlad data användes innehållsanalys. Resultat: Analysen ledde till fram till fyra stycken kategorier: att möta en komplex vårdsituation, att bli utmanad, att ta till vara resurser och att anpassa sina vårdåtgärder till den enskilde eller till demenssjukdomen. Deltagarna förmedlade att personer med demenssjukdom är en utsatt och sårbar grupp och att vårda dem innebar en utmaning på flera olika plan. Det kräver fördjupade kunskaper och en förmåga att se till alla faktorer som omger denna patientgrupp, det är både utmanande, komplext och spännande. Att arbeta personcentrerat är något som både eftersträvas och görs i praktiken, även att ta till vara resurser som kommer vårdtagaren till godo. Slutsats: Distriktssköterskornas glädje och engagemang var framträdande och verkade vara kopplat till att de hade utbildning och kunskap. Forskning på personer med demenssjukdom och andra med nedsatt beslutsförmåga behövs och är önskvärt. Deras deltagande skulle ge värdefull kunskap som kan leda till att utveckla vården för denna patientgrupp.

Eficiência técnica dos produtores familiares no Projeto de Irrigação do Baixo Açu/RN

SILVA, Jorge Luiz Mariano da. Eficiência técnica dos produtores familiares no projeto de irrigação do Baixo Açu/RN.In: CONGRESSO SA SOCIEDADE BRASILEIRA DE ECONOMIA E SOCIOLOGIA RURAL,42., 2004, Cuiabá - MT. Dinâmcias Setorias e Desevolvimento Regional, 2004.

Sentiment classification with case-base approach

L’augmentation de la croissance des réseaux, des blogs et des utilisateurs des sites d’examen sociaux font d’Internet une énorme source de données, en particulier sur la façon dont les gens pensent, sentent et agissent envers différentes questions. Ces jours-ci, les opinions des gens jouent un rôle important dans la politique, l’industrie, l’éducation, etc. Alors, les gouvernements, les grandes et petites industries, les instituts universitaires, les entreprises et les individus cherchent à étudier des techniques automatiques fin d’extraire les informations dont ils ont besoin dans les larges volumes de données. L’analyse des sentiments est une véritable réponse à ce besoin. Elle est une application de traitement du langage naturel et linguistique informatique qui se compose de techniques de pointe telles que l’apprentissage machine et les modèles de langue pour capturer les évaluations positives, négatives ou neutre, avec ou sans leur force, dans des texte brut. Dans ce mémoire, nous étudions une approche basée sur les cas pour l’analyse des sentiments au niveau des documents. Notre approche basée sur les cas génère un classificateur binaire qui utilise un ensemble de documents classifies, et cinq lexiques de sentiments différents pour extraire la polarité sur les scores correspondants aux commentaires. Puisque l’analyse des sentiments est en soi une tâche dépendante du domaine qui rend le travail difficile et coûteux, nous appliquons une approche «cross domain» en basant notre classificateur sur les six différents domaines au lieu de le limiter à un seul domaine. Pour améliorer la précision de la classification, nous ajoutons la détection de la négation comme une partie de notre algorithme. En outre, pour améliorer la performance de notre approche, quelques modifications innovantes sont appliquées. Il est intéressant de mentionner que notre approche ouvre la voie à nouveaux développements en ajoutant plus de lexiques de sentiment et ensembles de données à l’avenir.

Do tratamento das reclamações à gestão da insatisfação: o comportamento de empresas hoteleiras mediante a insatisfação de seus clientes

Consumer dissatisfaction, when properly handled, is a significant information source for the manager. Studies in this area allow broadening the understanding of certain customer attitudes and behaviors, such as loyalty, repurchase intention or satisfaction and trust increase. Above and beyond supporting consumer feedback, dissatisfaction can provide significant opportunities for organizational learning. Starting from dissatisfied customer information, companies can detect service flaws and develop new products. This work presents the results of an investigation on the behavior of businesses belonging to the hotel sector in Natal, RN, through the dissatisfaction of their customers. We have sought to map the main problems presented by customers to hotels, in the perception of managers and employees, as well as to understand both the process of dissatisfactionrelated data collection, analysis, and processing, and the utilization of such information by businesses. Beyond this, we have compared the habits of organizations to the company reaction approaches described in the literature: Complaint Handling, Complaint Management, and Dissatisfaction Management. The used methodology has been based on case study. Data was collected via indepth interviews with managers and employees in six hotels, two independent ones and four belonging to national and international hotel networks. We have also made use of documents provided by the organizations, such as guest complaint registers and reports from satisfaction surveys on which content analysis was subsequently performed. The results of the investigation point to a high level of awareness in the companies concerning the importance of consumer dissatisfaction. Even though the maximum grade in the procedure scale is not achieved, it has been observed that answer to dissatisfaction is given in planned and systematic form, geared towards consumer satisfaction and improvement of products and processes. Hotel businesses still have to look into other possibilities for mapping consumer dissatisfaction, which implies, among other aspects, articulation with a range of public and private organizations in such a way as to guarantee sustainability of touristic activities in the long term

Sistemas de gerenciamento de bibliotecas: riscos decorrentes do processo de migração de dados

This work aims to analyze risks related to information technology (IT) in procedures related to data migration. This is done considering ALEPH, Integrated Libray System (ILS) that migrated data to the Library Module present in the software called Sistema Integrado de Gestão de Atividades Acadêmicas (SIGAA) at the Zila Mamede Central Library at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) in Natal/Brazil. The methodological procedure used was of a qualitative exploratory research with the realization of case study at the referred library in order to better understand this phenomenon. Data collection was able once there was use of a semi-structured interview that was applied with (11) subjects that are employed at the library as well as in the Technology Superintendence at UFRN. In order to examine data Content analysis as well as thematic review process was performed. After data migration the results of the interview were then linked to both analysis units and their system register with category correspondence. The main risks detected were: data destruction; data loss; data bank communication failure; user response delay; data inconsistency and duplicity. These elements point out implication and generate disorders that affect external and internal system users and lead to stress, work duplicity and hassles. Thus, some measures were taken related to risk management such as adequate planning, central management support, and pilot test simulations. For the advantages it has reduced of: risk, occurrence of problems and possible unforeseen costs, and allows achieving organizational objectives, among other. It is inferred therefore that the risks present in data bank conversion in libraries exist and some are predictable, however, it is seen that librarians do not know or ignore and are not very worried in the identification risks in data bank conversion, their acknowledge would minimize or even extinguish them. Another important aspect to consider is the existence of few empirical research that deal specifically with this subject and thus presenting the new of new approaches in order to promote better understanding of the matter in the corporate environment of the information units

A liderança e suas relações com o comprometimento organizacional

This study presents the results of field research of an exploratory descriptive character that seeks to identify the latent dimensions of leadership and organizational commitment as well as to discover the relationship between these two sets of indicators. In the study, 236 respondents were interviewed, 84 being managers or owners and 152 being sales personnel. The research was undertaken in five shopping centers in the municipality of Natal, capital of Rio Grande do Norte, and employed two different questionnaires. One of them was developed by Bass and Avolio, 1992 (in NORTHOUSE, 2004), contained 21 indicators of leadership and was completed by store managers. The other instrument, completed by sales personnel in the stores, was developed by Medeiros, Albuquerque, Marques and Siqueira (2003) and contained a total of 28 indicators of organizational commitment. For the analysis of the data, factor analysis techniques and structural equations modeling were used. Using the factor analysis, five dimensions of leadership and seven dimensions of organizational commitment were found, all of which have a theoretical basis for their explanation. Through the structural equations modeling, a relationship was established between leadership and organizational commitment, in which it was possible to observe that certain leadership styles influence in a positive form the commitment of the employee

Eficiência técnica dos produtores familiares no Projeto de Irrigação do Baixo Açu/RN

SILVA, Jorge Luiz Mariano da. Eficiência técnica dos produtores familiares no projeto de irrigação do Baixo Açu/RN.In: CONGRESSO SA SOCIEDADE BRASILEIRA DE ECONOMIA E SOCIOLOGIA RURAL,42., 2004, Cuiabá - MT. Dinâmcias Setorias e Desevolvimento Regional, 2004.

Possibilidades interativas nos vídeos de comunicação de ciência

No atual ecossistema audiovisual, os vídeos promocionais, sejam estes dirigidos ao sector empresarial ou científico, procuram ingredientes arrojados que lhes permitam ser eficientes e veicular a informação de uma forma objetiva, clara e incisiva. As possibilidades interativas, a duração e a infografia, aliados a uma publicação e promoção faseada, poderão ser alguns desses ingredientes com potencial de enriquecer um vídeo promocional de forma a capitalizar a sua eficiência. O presente estudo tem como objetivo inicial investigar e analisar os mais diversos vídeos promocionais, de forma a ser possível identificar quais os ingredientes de maior relevo que conduziram os mesmos ao sucesso pretendido. Neste contexto, esta investigação incide sobre a caraterização de vídeos promocionais interativos, mais precisamente sobre as principais caraterísticas presentes em cada um deles. Com base nessa caraterização, foi produzido um vídeo promocional com uma vertente de comunicação de ciência (relativo à aplicação 2nd Vision), passível de funcionar como use case de suporte à Investigação. A investigação fica concluída após haver um cruzamento de dados relativos a análises e também de avaliação em laboratório.