O estudo das funções com as F-Tools: o conceito F-Tool

O presente relatório, orientado pela Doutora Ana Conceição, foi elaborado no âmbito da Prática de Ensino Supervisionada (PES), integrada no plano de estudos do Mestrado em Ensino de Matemática no 3.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico e no Ensino Secundário, da Universidade do Algarve (UAlg). Apresento uma breve caraterização das escolas, dos orientadores cooperantes e das turmas. Menciono as aulas assistidas e as aulas lecionadas com a supervisão da orientadora e relato os trabalhos desenvolvidos em cada escola. Dedico um capítulo à importância das tecnologias no processo de ensino e aprendizagem pois, na minha opinião, na formação atual de qualquer professor deve ser tido em conta o uso de tecnologias em sala de aula. Partilhando a minha orientadora da mesma opinião, colocou-me um desafio: a criação de um software educacional com recurso ao sistema de álgebra computacional Mathematica, tendo em vista a melhoria do processo de ensino e aprendizagem da Matemática (em particular, no estudo das funções reais de variável real). Aceitei de imediato e, juntamente com a Dra. Cristina Simão e o Dr. José Pereira, iniciamos um projeto inovador na área de ensino, posteriormente distinguido com o prémio Timberlake1. Neste relatório apresento o conceito F-Tool2, isto é, ferramentas de ensino visuais, dinâmicas e interativas que permitem explorar de uma forma inovadora alguns dos principais conceitos nas áreas de Pré-Cálculo e Cálculo Diferencial, nos níveis básico, secundário e universitário. O conceito F-Tool foi utilizado nas aulas que lecionei em regime de par pedagógico com a Dra. Cristina Simão. Devido à sua importância na minha PES, ficou claro que o tema do meu relatório teria de ter uma referência explícita ao estudo das funções com as F-Tool. Reflito ainda sobre os seminários que apresentei na UAlg, no âmbito da PES, e apresento uma reflexão final de toda a Prática de Ensino Supervisionada.

Tecnologia lítica da Middle Stone Age da Gruta da Leba (Huíla, SW Angola)

África é hoje o foco principal na investigação sobre a problemática da emergência da humanidade. O registo arqueológico actual sugere que também alinhagem do Homo sapiens surgiu na África subsaariana, tornando a Middle Stone Age no período chave no debate sobre a emergência do comportamento humano moderno. Os primeiros indícios de comportamento humano presumivelmente moderno provêm da África do Sul, mas há um enorme vazio arqueográfico sobre as áreas limítrofes desse território como é o caso de Angola que podem trazer novos dados à discussão. A presente dissertação debruça-se sobre a colecção arqueológica da Gruta da Leba (Huíla, SW de Angola), actualmente parte do Arquivo Científico Tropical (Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical), que permanece inédita, apesar de recolhida em escavação arqueológica pela Junta de Investigações do Ultramar durante os anos 1950, no âmbito da Missão Antropobiológica de Angola. O conjunto é composto por uma indústria lítica com mais de 1500 peças, bem como restos faunísticos e amostras de sedimentos, de uma sequência estratigráfica com três níveis de ocupação da Middle Stone Age. O principal objectivo deste estudo é caracterizar a produção e utilização dos materiais líticos da Middle Stone Age da Gruta da Leba, através da sistematização da informação de cariz tecnológico e tipológico do conjunto artefactual. A partir da análise dos materiais líticos é possível definir padrões de variabilidade na exploração das matérias-primas e cadeias operatórias de produção do sítio. Pretende-se, assim, enquadrar regionalmente as indústrias líticas no panorama mais alargado da Pré-História da África subsaariana, para a validação dos modelos crono-culturais convencionais e avaliação dos parâmetros teórico-metodológicos aplicados na abordagem à tecnologia lítica africana em relação à problemática do comportamento humano moderno.

Development of an operational tool for oil spill forecast: application to oil exposed regions

Tese de doutoramento, Ciências do Mar, da Terra e do Ambiente (Modelação), Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade do Algarve, 2014

Foundation Stone due date card

This is a due date card for the book titled Foundation Stone, with stamped dates from 1941-1943.

The Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire utility as a tool in medication review

Background:Identification of potentially non-adherent patients is a milestone in the way to the rational use of drugs. Detecting beliefs that influence intentional non-adherence behaviours may improve pharmacists[simplequote] counselling. The aim of this study was to assess the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ) as a proxy for necessity..

Population and landscape genetics of the stone marten and red fox in Portugal : implications for conservation management of common carnivores

Tese de doutoramento, Biologia (Biologia da Conservação), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2015

Choosing the Right Promotional Tool in the Hotel Industry: The Case of the Chinese Consumer.

The rapid growth of the Chinese tourism has stimulated competition within tourism-related industries, such as the hospitality industry. The purpose of this study is to examine the Chinese consumer reaction to different promotional tools used by hotels in China and, thus, to provide a deeper understanding for marketers of how to use sales promotion effectively to generate appropriate consumer responses. An experimental survey was administered yielding a total sample of 319 Chinese customers, who were probed using different types of sales promotion tools. Data analysis indicates that bonus packs (e.g. a 3-night stay at a hotel for the price of 2) induced the highest consumer perceived value, brand switching, and purchase acceleration intention, whereas price discounts resulted in the highest intention to spend more. Although this study has its limitations given its reliance on a convenience sample, it offers insightful practical implications for hotel business owners in Asia regarding targeting the right customers with the right promotional tools, where it is proposed that bonus packs successfully attract new Chinese customers and price discounts support in generating more sales.

The Potential of Participedia as a Crowdsourcing Tool for Comparative Analysis of Democratic Innovations

For two reasons, our capacity for systematic comparison of innovative participatory democratic processes remains limited. First, the category of participatory democratic innovations remains relatively vague when compared to more traditional democratic institutions and practices. Second, until recently there existed no large-sample databases that captured relevant variables in the practice of democratic innovation. The lone exception to these patterns is the Participedia database, located online. Participedia is well placed to respond to the two obstacles to systematic comparative research on democratic innovation. First, its crowdsourced data collection strategy means that many of the cases on the platform are not well known and have not been the subject of sustained academic analysis. Second, the data captured in the articles provides the basis for systematic comparative analysis of democratic innovations both within type (e.g., participatory budgeting, mini-publics) and across types. The platform allows for systematic content analysis of text descriptions and/or statistical analysis of the datasets generated from the structured data fields. This article describes the data about innovative participatory democratic processes available from Participedia, and furnishes examples of the kinds of quantitative and qualitative insights about those processes that Participedia enables.

Laccase bio-grafting a versatile modification tool from green chemistry technologies

Today more than 99% of plastics are petroleum-based because of availability and cost of the raw material. The durability of these disposed plastics contributes to the environmental problems as waste and their persistence in the environment causes deleterious effects on the ecosystem. Environmental pollution awareness and the demand for green technology have drawn considerable attention of both academia and industry into biodegradable polymers. In this regard green chemistry technology has the potential to provide solution to this problematic issue. Laccase bio-grafting has recently been the focus of green chemistry technologies due to the growing environmental concerns, legal restrictions and increasing availability of scientific knowledge. In the last several years, research covering various applications of laccases has been increased rapidly particularly in the field of grafting. In principle, laccase-assisted graft co-polymerization may impart a variety of new functionalities to a polymer. The modified polymers through grafting have a bright future and their development is practically boundless. In present work, novel biodegradable graft copolymers combining the advantages of bacterial cellulose backbone and PHB side chains will be prepared by introducing enzymatic grafting technique. The present research will be a first step in the biopolymer modification. To date no report has been found in literature explaining the enzymatic grafting of PHAs. The technique would also provide an efficient modulation approach to improve the biodegradability and biocompatibility of the graft copolymer. The newly grafted copolymers will exhibit unique functionalities with wider range of potential applications mainly in tissue engineering, biosensors, pharmaceutical industry (drug delivery systems) and bio-plastics.

Laccase from Aspergillus niger: A novel tool to graft multifunctional materials of interests and their characterization

In the present study, we propose a green route to prepare poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) [(P(3HB)] grafted ethyl cellulose (EC) based green composites with novel characteristics through laccase-assisted grafting. P(3HB) was used as a side chain whereas, EC as a backbone material under an ambient processing conditions. A novel laccase obtained from Aspergillus niger through its heterologous expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used as a green catalyst for grafting purposes without the use of additional initiator and/or cross-linking agents. Subsequently, the resulting P(3HB)-g-EC composites were characterized using a range of analytical and imagining techniques. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) spectra showed an increase in the hydrogen-bonding type interactions between the side chains of P(3HB) and backbone material of EC. Evidently, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed a decrease in the crystallinity of the P(3HB)-g-EC composites as compared to the pristine individual polymers. A homogeneous P(3HB) distribution was also achieved in case of the graft composite prepared in the presence of 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS) as a mediator along with laccase as compared to the composite prepared using pure laccase alone. A substantial improvement in the thermal and mechanical characteristics was observed for grafted composites up to the different extent as compared to the pristine counterparts. The hydrophobic/hydrophilic properties of the grafted composites were better than those of the pristine counterparts.

An accessibility planning tool for network transit oriented development : SNAP

In the academic debate regarding the influences between urban form, built environment and travel patterns, a specific idea that has taken hold is that more compact urban development around railway stations, often referred to as Transit Oriented Development (TOD), contributes to the control of vehicle travel and to more sustainable metropolitan systems. According to this general principle this work proposes a GIS accessibility tool for the design of polycentric transit oriented scenario: SNAP - Station Network Accessibility Planning tool. In the first part the state of the art on Transit Oriented Development policies in Europe is presented with a focus on three study cases. In the second part the SNAP tool is described, with remarks to the approach, the methodology and the used indicators. Furthermore the paper discusses an application to the metropolitan area of Naples.

A simulation tool for demand response programs implementation

The design and development of simulation models and tools for Demand Response (DR) programs are becoming more and more important for adequately taking the maximum advantages of DR programs use. Moreover, a more active consumers’ participation in DR programs can help improving the system reliability and decrease or defer the required investments. DemSi, a DR simulator, designed and implemented by the authors of this paper, allows studying DR actions and schemes in distribution networks. It undertakes the technical validation of the solution using realistic network simulation based on PSCAD. DemSi considers the players involved in DR actions, and the results can be analyzed from each specific player point of view.

Adaptive tool for automatic data collection of real electricity markets

The study of electricity markets operation has been gaining an increasing importance in last years, as result of the new challenges that the electricity markets restructuring produced. This restructuring increased the competitiveness of the market, but with it its complexity. The growing complexity and unpredictability of the market’s evolution consequently increases the decision making difficulty. Therefore, the intervenient entities are forced to rethink their behaviour and market strategies. Currently, lots of information concerning electricity markets is available. These data, concerning innumerous regards of electricity markets operation, is accessible free of charge, and it is essential for understanding and suitably modelling electricity markets. This paper proposes a tool which is able to handle, store and dynamically update data. The development of the proposed tool is expected to be of great importance to improve the comprehension of electricity markets and the interactions among the involved entities.