Differential Benefit: Preschool Children, Quality of Early Childhood Education Environment and Developmental Gains Important for School Readiness

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2014

Relationship between happiness, stress and musculoskeletal disorders in portuguese dentists

Tese de doutoramento, Medicina Dentária (Dentisteria Conservadora), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Medicina Dentária, 2016

Best practice factory for freight transport in Europe: demonstrating how ‘good’ urban freight cases are improving business profit and public sectors benefits

The objective of this study is to better understand why selected urban freight solutions represent innovations that are technically feasible, economically profitable in different contexts, sustainable, transferable, and with tangible beneficial impacts. A total of 15 solutions are evaluated in the fields of Urban Consolidation Centre, clean and electric vehicles, IT solutions, use of urban waterways, and others. Three solutions are analysed more thoroughly, the Cityporto Padova, the Basel Exhibition Centre logistics support system, and the Berlin laboratory area test of the Bentobox. This paper ends with a transversal analysis of the solutions observed, and with methodological conclusions.

Best practice factory for freight transport in Europe: demonstrating how ‘good’ urban freight cases are improving business profit and public sectors benefits

The objective of this study is to better understand why selected urban freight solutions represent innovations that are technically feasible, economically profitable in different contexts, sustainable, transferable, and with tangible beneficial impacts. A total of 15 solutions are evaluated in the fields of Urban Consolidation Centre, clean and electric vehicles, IT solutions, use of urban waterways, and others. Three solutions are analysed more thoroughly, the Cityporto Padova, the Basel Exhibition Centre logistics support system, and the Berlin laboratory area test of the Bentobox. This paper ends with a transversal analysis of the solutions observed, and with methodological conclusions.

Development of novel antibacterial active, HaCaT biocompatible and biodegradable CA-g-P(3HB)-EC biocomposites with caffeic acid as a functional entity

We have developed novel composites by grafting caffeic acid (CA) onto the P(3HB)-EC based material and laccase from Trametes versicolor was used for grafting purposes. The resulting composites were designated as CA-g-P(3HB)-EC i.e., P(3HB)-EC (control), 5CA-g-P(3HB)-EC, 10CA-g-P(3HB)-EC, 15CA-g-P(3HB)-EC and 20CA-g-P(3HB)-EC. An FT-IR (Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy) was used to examine the functional and elemental groups of the control and laccase-assisted graft composites. Evidently, 15CA-g-P(3HB)-EC composite exhibited resilient antibacterial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains, respectively. Moreover, a significant level of biocompatibility and biodegradability of the CA-g-P(3HB)-EC composites was also achieved with the human keratinocytes-like HaCaT cells and soil burial evaluation, respectively. In conclusion, the newly developed novel composites with multi characteristics could well represent the new wave of biomaterials for medical applications, and more specifically have promising future in the infection free would dressings, burn and/or skin regeneration field due to their sophisticated characteristics.

Developing a Technoself System to Improve Lifelong Learning Engagement

Lifelong learning exists today in the context of a cultural and societal shift to a knowledge-based, technology-enhanced, and rapidly-changing economy. It has a significant impact on people’s lives and has become of vital importance with the emergence of new technologies that change how people communicate, collect information, and collaborate with others. The emerging technologies, such as social networking, interactive media and game technology, have expanded a new dimension of self – ‘technoself’ driven by socio-technical innovations and taken an important step forward in lifelong learning through the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). The TEL encourages learners as producers to embed personalized knowledge and collective experience on individualized learning within professional practice. It becomes more personal and social than traditional lifelong learning, especially about the ‘learning as socially grounded’ aspects. This paper studies the development of technoself system during lifelong learning and introduces technoself enhanced learning as a novel sociological framework of lifelong learning to couple the educational dimension with social dimension in order to enhance learner engagement by shaping personal learning focus and setting. We examine how people construct their own inquiry and learn from others, how people shift and adapt in these technoself-enhanced learning environments, and how learner engagement is improving as the involvement of learners as producers in lifelong learning. We further discuss the barriers and the positive and negative unintended consequences of using technology for lifelong learning.

Climatic patterns and physical controls of chlorophyll-a in the Northeast Atlantic

Tese de Doutoramento, Física, 17 de Dezembro de 2013, Universidade dos Açores.

Comparative study of amine solutions used in CO2 absorption/desorption cycles

Trabalho Final de Mestrado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Química

NZEB e os novos revestimentos

Dissertação de natureza científica para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Civil na Área de Especialização de Edificações

Heat transfer coefficients from Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids flowing in laminar regime in a helical coil

This study aimed to carry out experimental work to obtain, for Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids, heat transfer coefficients, at constant wall temperature as boundary condition, in fully developed laminar flow inside a helical coil. The Newtonian fluids studied were aqueous solutions of glycerol, 25%, 36%, 43%, 59% and 78% (w/w) and the non-Newtonian fluids aqueous solutions of carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), a polymer, with concentrations 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%, 0.4% and 0.6% (w/w) and aqueous solutions of xanthan gum (XG), another polymer, with concentrations 0.1% and 0.2% (w/w). According to the rheological study performed, the polymer solutions had shear thinning behavior and different values of elasticity. The helical coil used has internal diameter, curvature ratio, length and pitch, respectively: 0.004575 m, 0.0263, 5.0 m and 11.34 mm. The Nusselt numbers for the CMC solutions are, on average, slightly higher than those for Newtonian fluids, for identical Prandtl and generalized Dean numbers. As outcome, the viscous component of the shear thinning polymer tends to potentiate the mixing effect of the Dean cells. The Nusselt numbers of the XG solutions are significant lower than those of the Newtonian solutions, for identical Prandtl and generalized Dean numbers. Therefore, the elastic component of the polymer tends to diminish the mixing effect of the Dean cells. A global correlation, for Nusselt number as a function of Péclet, generalized Dean and Weissenberg numbers for all Newtonian and non-Newtonian solutions studied, is presented.

Reconhecimento de língua gestual

Trabalho Final de Mestrado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática e Computadores

Shared resources and precedence constraints with capacity sharing and stealing

This paper proposes a new strategy to integrate shared resources and precedence constraints among real-time tasks, assuming no precise information on critical sections and computation times is available. The concept of bandwidth inheritance is combined with a greedy capacity sharing and stealing policy to efficiently exchange bandwidth among tasks, minimising the degree of deviation from the ideal system's behaviour caused by inter-application blocking. The proposed capacity exchange protocol (CXP) focus on exchanging extra capacities as early, and not necessarily as fairly, as possible. This loss of optimality is worth the reduced complexity as the protocol's behaviour nevertheless tends to be fair in the long run and outperforms other solutions in highly dynamic scenarios, as demonstrated by extensive simulations.

Iniciação ao violoncelo: estratégias e recursos pedagógicos

Resumo I (Prática Pedagógica) - No mundo actual, repleto de desafios, em que a sociedade exige cada vez mais do cidadão, é importante que os professores, como elementos fundamentais na formação para a cidadania, desenvolvam profissionalmente capacidades e competências que os façam pensar e reflectir sobre esta realidade. Uma orientação pedagógica construtiva, por parte do professor, não só em termos de aprendizagem dos alunos, mas também na construção do seu saber e prática pedagógica, torna-se fundamental. A Prática Pedagógica a que reporta este relatório foi desenvolvida no ano lectivo de 2012/2013 na Escola de Artes do Norte Alentejano (EANA). O mestrando desenvolveu a orientação pedagógica do ensino do violoncelo a três alunos que, conforme o regulamento em vigor do estágio do Mestrado em Ensino da Música, deve ser ministrada a discentes a frequentar níveis diferentes do ensino especializado da música, neste caso, Iniciação, 3º Grau e 5º Grau. Nesta primeira secção do relatório de estágio elabora-se a caracterização da escola e dos alunos, bem como a explanação das práticas educativas desenvolvidas, fornecendo uma descrição e levantamento das actividades adoptadas e das problemáticas que surgiram no decurso do estágio, identificando as opções tomadas para a resolução das mesmas. A partir dos resultados obtidos no estágio e de uma auto-avaliação da prática educativa, elaborou-se uma análise crítica da actividade docente que permitiu identificar aspectos positivos e menos positivos, que possam ser futuramente melhorados.

Analysis of pesticide residues in strawberries and soils by GC-MS/MS, LC-MS/MS and two-dimensional GC-timeof- flight MS comparing organic and integrated pest management farming

This study analysed 22 strawberry and soil samples after their collection over the course of 2 years to compare the residue profiles from organic farming with integrated pest management practices in Portugal. For sample preparation, we used the citrate-buffered version of the quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) method. We applied three different methods for analysis: (1) 27 pesticides were targeted using LC-MS/MS; (2) 143 were targeted using low pressure GC-tandem mass spectrometry (LP-GC-MS/MS); and (3) more than 600 pesticides were screened in a targeted and untargeted approach using comprehensive, two-dimensional gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC-TOF-MS). Comparison was made of the analyses using the different methods for the shared samples. The results were similar, thereby providing satisfactory confirmation of both similarly positive and negative findings. No pesticides were found in the organic-farmed samples. In samples from integrated pest management practices, nine pesticides were determined and confirmed to be present, ranging from 2 μg kg−1 for fluazifop-pbutyl to 50 μg kg−1 for fenpropathrin. Concentrations of residues in strawberries were less than European maximum residue limits.

A survey of wireless technologies coexistence in WBAN: analysis and open research issues

Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) is the most convenient, cost-effective, accurate, and non-invasive technology for e-health monitoring. The performance of WBAN may be disturbed when coexisting with other wireless networks. Accordingly, this paper provides a comprehensive study and in-depth analysis of coexistence issues and interference mitigation solutions in WBAN technologies. A thorough survey of state-of-the art research in WBAN coexistence issues is conducted. The survey classified, discussed, and compared the studies according to the parameters used to analyze the coexistence problem. Solutions suggested by the studies are then classified according to the followed techniques and concomitant shortcomings are identified. Moreover, the coexistence problem in WBAN technologies is mathematically analyzed and formulas are derived for the probability of successful channel access for different wireless technologies with the coexistence of an interfering network. Finally, extensive simulations are conducted using OPNET with several real-life scenarios to evaluate the impact of coexistence interference on different WBAN technologies. In particular, three main WBAN wireless technologies are considered: IEEE 802.15.6, IEEE 802.15.4, and low-power WiFi. The mathematical analysis and the simulation results are discussed and the impact of interfering network on the different wireless technologies is compared and analyzed. The results show that an interfering network (e.g., standard WiFi) has an impact on the performance of WBAN and may disrupt its operation. In addition, using low-power WiFi for WBANs is investigated and proved to be a feasible option compared to other wireless technologies.