Repensar a gestão de crises em redes sociais: o caso do voo MH370

Dissertação de mestrado em Ciências da Comunicação (área de especialização em Publicidade e Relações Públicas)

Lipids under stress - a lipidomic approach for the study of mood disorders

The emerging field of lipidomics has identified lipids as key players in disease physiology. Their physicochemical diversity allows precise control of cell structure and signaling events through modulation of membrane prop- erties and trafficking of proteins. As such, lipids are important regulators of brain function and have been implicated in neurodegenerative and mood disorders. Importantly, environmental chronic stress has been associated with anxiety and depression and its exposure in rodents has been extensively used as a model to study these diseases. With the accessibility to modern mass- spectrometry lipidomic platforms, it is now possible to snapshot the extensively interconnected lipid network. Here, we review the fundamentals of lipid biology and outline a framework for the interpretation of lipidomic studies as a new approach to study brain pathophysiology. Thus, lipid profiling provides an exciting avenue for the identification of disease signatures with important implications for diagnosis and treatment of mood disorders.

Avaliação externa de escolas: efeitos no desenvolvimento de projetos de educação para a saúde

Dissertação de mestrado em Ciências da Educação (área de especialização em Desenvolvimento Curricular e Inovação Educativa)

Os sentidos da educação religiosa na construção do eu contemporâneo: espiritualidades juvenis

Dissertação de mestrado em Ciências da Educação (área de especialização em Sociologia da Educação e Políticas Educativas)

Avaliação na educação pré-escolar: perspetivas e práticas

Dissertação de mestrado em Ciências da Educação (área de especialização em Desenvolvimento Curricular e Inovação Educativa)

Participação estudantil no Facebook: processos, modalidades e motivações

Tese de Doutoramento em Ciências da Comunicação.

Implementation of a customer relationship management system in an SME

The research conducted for this thesis has been carried out over a two year period as part of the Mobile Tools and Technology for customer care (MOTTO) project. The project was funded under the Applied Grant scheme administered by Enterprise Ireland and Nortel Networks Ltd. It was a partnership project between Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, University of Limerick, National University of Ireland Galway, and a global Internet and communications company, Nortel Networks. The project aimed to investigate the enabling mobile communications technologies in e-Business and mobile communications in the area of Business-to-Business (B2B) customer care. The development of the application discussed in this thesis was developed in conjunction with the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, University of Limerick and AMT Ireland. The decision to develop the application in the Electronics Company of AMT in Limerick came about as a result of the contact established by Mark Southern from the University of Limerick. Mark was involved in overseeing the development and assisted in establishing the user requirements.

Sources of Competitiveness in Tourist Local Systems

At the end of the XIX Century, Marshall described the existence of some concentrations of small and medium enterprises specialised in a specific production activity in certain districts of some industrial English cities. Starting from his contribute, Italian scholars have paid particular attention to this local system of production coined by Marshall under the term industrial district. In other countries, different but related territorial models have played a central role as the milieu or the geographical industrial clusters. Recently, these models have been extended to non-industrial fields like culture, rural activities and tourism. In this text, we explore the extension of these territorial models to the study of tourist activities in Italy, using a framework that can be easily applied to other countries or regions. The paper is divided in five sections. In the first one, we propose a review of the territorial models applied to tourism industry. In the second part, we construct a tourist filiere and we apply a methodology for the identification of local systems through GIS tools. Thus, taxonomy of the Italian Tourist Local Systems is presented. In the third part, we discuss about the sources of competitiveness of these Tourist Local Systems. In the forth section, we test a spatial econometrics model regarding different kinds of Italian Tourist Local Systems (rural systems, arts cities, tourist districts) in order to measure external economies and territorial networks. Finally, conclusions and policy implications are exposed.

Altered NKG2D function in NK cells induced by chronic exposure to NKG2D ligand-expressing tumor cells.

NKG2D is an activation receptor that allows natural killer (NK) cells to detect diseased host cells. The engagement of NKG2D with corresponding ligand results in surface modulation of the receptor and reduced function upon subsequent receptor engagement. However, it is not clear whether in addition to modulation the NKG2D receptor complex and/or its signaling capacity is preserved. We show here that the prolonged encounter with tumor cell-bound, but not soluble, ligand can completely uncouple the NKG2D receptor from the intracellular mobilization of calcium and the exertion of cell-mediated cytolysis. However, cytolytic effector function is intact since NKG2D ligand-exposed NK cells can be activated via the Ly49D receptor. While NKG2D-dependent cytotoxicity is impaired, prolonged ligand exposure results in constitutive interferon gamma (IFNgamma) production, suggesting sustained signaling. The functional changes are associated with a reduced presence of the relevant signal transducing adaptors DNAX-activating protein of 10 kDa (DAP-10) and killer cell activating receptor-associated protein/DNAX-activating protein of 12 kDa (KARAP/DAP-12). That is likely the consequence of constitutive NKG2D engagement and signaling, since NKG2D function and adaptor expression is restored to normal when the stimulating tumor cells are removed. Thus, the chronic exposure to tumor cells expressing NKG2D ligand alters NKG2D signaling and may facilitate the evasion of tumor cells from NK cell reactions.

Congested hubs

Hub congestion is a major problem and a relevant policy issue because it causes delays and many organizational problems at airports that end up implying unpleasant consequences both for air travelers and airlines. In a competitive framework in which carriers choose aircraft size, this paper suggests that airlines schedule too many flights using overly small aircraft, which constitutes a major contributor to congestion. Two- part congestion tolls, accounting for the congestion imposed on other carriers and the congestion imposed on all passengers, are needed to recover e¢ ciency. Finally, we analyze the validity of the results by studying the effects of network size, airport capacity, competition in layover time, and the formation of airline alliances. Keywords: congestion; hub-and-spoke networks; overprovision of frequency; con- gestion internalization; congestion tolls JEL Classiffication Numbers: L13; L2; L93

Plataforma para la búsqueda de talento usando programario libre y web 2.0

El objetivo de este proyecto es el de crear una plataforma para conectar a empresas con la necesidad de cubrir puestos de trabajo muy concretos con los mejores candidatos. Más allá del proyecto descrito en este documento, se pretende crear una empresa integradora de servicios de terceros tanto para empresas como para candidatos. Este proyecto se centra en el desarrollo de una plataforma Web basada en programario libre. La plataforma gira entorno a un portal que integra servicios de búsqueda de candidatos, reclutamiento y selección de personal. El portal utilizará la Web 2.0 y las redes sociales para llevar a cabo su cometido. El portal está disponible en http://www.sntalent.com.

Community Development Health Network

The Community Development and Health Network (CDHN) aim to end health inequalities using a community development approach - campaigning, influencing policy and developing best practice work which shows that communities, both geographical and of interest & identity, can define their own health needs and design and implement preventative and radical solutions. It believes that health is affected by more than access to health services, individual lifestyle choices and our own genetic make-up. These other factors can include poverty, the environment, education, living and working conditions, housing, access to food and social and community networks. This resource is part of the Public Health Advocacy Website Collection.

Multiple imputations applied to the DREAM3 phosphoproteomics challenge: a winning strategy.

DREAM is an initiative that allows researchers to assess how well their methods or approaches can describe and predict networks of interacting molecules [1]. Each year, recently acquired datasets are released to predictors ahead of publication. Researchers typically have about three months to predict the masked data or network of interactions, using any predictive method. Predictions are assessed prior to an annual conference where the best predictions are unveiled and discussed. Here we present the strategy we used to make a winning prediction for the DREAM3 phosphoproteomics challenge. We used Amelia II, a multiple imputation software method developed by Gary King, James Honaker and Matthew Blackwell[2] in the context of social sciences to predict the 476 out of 4624 measurements that had been masked for the challenge. To chose the best possible multiple imputation parameters to apply for the challenge, we evaluated how transforming the data and varying the imputation parameters affected the ability to predict additionally masked data. We discuss the accuracy of our findings and show that multiple imputations applied to this dataset is a powerful method to accurately estimate the missing data. We postulate that multiple imputations methods might become an integral part of experimental design as a mean to achieve cost savings in experimental design or to increase the quantity of samples that could be handled for a given cost.

Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project (MINAP)

The Myocardial Infarction Audit Project (MINAP) began in late 1998 when a broadly based steering group developed a dataset for acute myocardial infarction (AMI). This allowed clinicians to examine the management of myocardial infarction within their hospitals against targets specified by the National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease (NSF). The audit project produces annual reports "How the NHS manages heart attacks" to show the performance of hospitals, ambulance services and cardiac networks in England and Wales against national standards and targets for the care of heart attack patients. MINAP has recently changed its name from the Myocardial Infarction National Audit Project to the Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project to reflect the importance of all acute coronary syndromes.

The impact of social relationships on the maintenance of independence in advanced old age: findings of a Swiss Longitudinal Study .

The impact of social relationships on the maintenance of independence over periods of 12-18 months in a group of 306 octogenarians is assessed in this study. The study is based on the results of the Swilsoo (Swiss Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study on the Oldest Old). Participants (80-84 years old at baseline) were interviewed five times between 1994 and 1999. Independence was defined as the capacity to perform without assistance eight activities of daily living. We distinguished in our analyses kinship and friendship networks and evaluated social relationships with the help of a series of variables serving as indicators of network composition and contact frequency. Logistic regression models were used to identify the short-term effects of social relationships on independence, after controlling for sociodemographic and health-related variables; independence at a given wave of interviews was interpreted in the light of social factors measured at the previous wave. Our analyses indicate that the existence of a close friend has a significant impact on the maintenance of independence (OR=1.58, p<0.05), which is not the case with the other variables concerning network composition. Kinship contacts were also observed to have a positive impact on independence (OR=1.12, p<0.01).