953 resultados para approach-oriented coping


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Recent changes in regulatory requirements and social views on animal testing have incremented the development of reliable alternative tests for predicting skin and ocular irritation potential of products based on new raw materials. In this regard, botanical ingredients used in cosmetic products are among those materials, and should be carefully reviewed concerning the potential presence of irritant constituents. In particular, cosmetic products used on the face, in vicinity of the eyes or that may come in contact with mucous membranes, should avoid botanical ingredients that contain, or are suspected to contain, such ingredients. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of a new cosmetic ingredient, namely, coffee silverskin (CS), with an in vitro skin and ocular irritation assay using reconstructed human epidermis, EpiSkin™, and human corneal epithelial model, SkinEthics™ HCE, and an in vivo assay. Three different extracts of CS were evaluated. The histology of the models after extracts applications was analysed. The in vitro results demonstrated that extracts were not classified as irritant and the histological analyses proved that extracts did not affect both models structure. The content of caffeine, 5-hydroxymethyl furfural and chlorogenic acid was quantified after the epidermal assay. The in vivo test carried out with the most promising extract (hydroalcoholic) showed that, with respect to irritant effects, these extracts can be regarded as safe for topical application.

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The excessive use of pesticides and fertilisers in agriculture has generated a decrease in groundwater and surface water quality in many regions of the EU, constituting a hazard for human health and the environment. Besides, on-site sewage disposal is an important source of groundwater contamination in urban and peri-urban areas. The assessment of groundwater vulnerability to contamination is an important tool to fulfil the demands of EU Directives. The purpose of this study is to assess the groundwater vulnerability to contamination related mainly to agricultural activities in a peri-urban area (Vila do Conde, NW Portugal). The hydrogeological framework is characterised mainly by fissured granitic basement and sedimentary cover. Water samples were collected and analysed for temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, chloride, phosphate, nitrate and nitrite. An evaluation of groundwater vulnerability to contamination was applied (GOD-S, Pesticide DRASTIC-Fm, SINTACS and SI) and the potential nitrate contamination risk was assessed, both on a hydrogeological GIS-based mapping. A principal component analysis was performed to characterised patterns of relationship among groundwater contamination, vulnerability, and the hydrogeological setting assessed. Levels of nitrate above legislation limits were detected in 75 % of the samples analysed. Alluvia units showed the highest nitrate concentrations and also the highest vulnerability and risk. Nitrate contamination is a serious problem affecting groundwater, particularly shallow aquifers, especially due to agriculture activities, livestock and cesspools. GIS-based cartography provided an accurate way to improve knowledge on water circulation models and global functioning of local aquifer systems. Finally, this study highlights the adequacy of an integrated approach, combining hydrogeochemical data, vulnerability assessments and multivariate analysis, to understand groundwater processes in peri-urban areas.

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Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a global epidemic, and diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is one of its most serious and costly complications. DFUs result from a complex interaction of a number of risk factors. Once the protective layer of skin is broken, deep tissues are exposed to bacterial infection that progresses rapidly. Patients with DFUs frequently require amputations of the lower limbs and, in more than half the cases, infection is the preponderant factor. Given the challenges of treating these complex infections, this paper aims to provide a hospital-based framework for the diagnosis and treatment of diabetic foot infections (DFIs). We propose a treatment-oriented assessment of DFIs based on a cross-examination of the medical, foot, and wound history; a systemized and detailed physical examination; and the results of complementary diagnostic procedures. We stress the need for a clinical diagnosis of DFIs and the importance of microbiological evaluation for antibiotic therapy guidance. Regarding treatment, we propose a multidisciplinary approach prioritizing invasive infection drainage, necrosis debridement, and the prompt start of empirical antibiotic therapy, followed by complete and appropriate vascular reconstruction. For severe DFIs, we suggest that negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) be included in the treatment pathway. We also provide rules for managing particular situations, such as osteomyelitis. It is our hope that this protocol will improve the hospital management of DFIs and, ultimately, the prognosis of DFI patients.

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Spent coffee grounds (SCG) represent a high-volume food waste worldwide, and several reuse approaches have been attempted. Herein, a greenhouse field experiment was carried out by cultivating Batavia lettuce with 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 30% (v/v) espresso SCG directly composted in the soil. Healthy vegetables were obtained for all treatments, without yield loss for up to 10% SCG. A progressive increment of green color intensity with increasing SCG content was observed, corroborated by the increase of their photosynthetic pigments (chlorophylls and carotenoids). Furthermore, total ascorbic acid and tocopherols showed statistical significant increases (p < 0.001) between control and all tested groups. Marked variations of nutritionally relevant minerals, particularly potassium, phosphorous and sodium were also revealed at higher percentage treatments (20% and 30%). This approach constitutes a clean, direct, simple and cost-effective measure to produce value-added vegetables, while reducing food waste disposal.

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A voltammetric biosensor for Ara h 6 (a peanut allergen) detection in food samples was developed. Gold nanoparticle-modified screen-printed carbon electrodes were used to develop a sandwich-type immunoassay using two-monoclonal antibodies. The antibody-antigen interaction was detected through the electrochemical detection of enzymatically deposited silver. The immunosensor presented a linear range between 1 and 100 ng/ml, as well as high precision (inter-day RSD ≤9.8 %) and accuracy (recoveries ≥96.7 %). The detection and quantification limits were 0.27 and 0.88 ng/ml, respectively. It was possible to detect small levels of Ara h 6 in complex food matrices.

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Background Over the years, food industry wastes have been the focus of a growing interest due to their content in high added-value compounds. A good example are the olive oil by-products (OOBP), which retain a great amount of phenolic compounds during olive oil production. Their structure and biological properties justify their potential use as antioxidants in other food products. The efficient recovery of phenolic compounds has been extensively studied and optimized in order to maximize their reintroduction in the food chain and contribute to a higher valorization and better management of wastes from olive oil industry. Scope and approach This paper reviews the most representative phenolic compounds described in OOBP and their biological properties. New extraction procedures to efficiently recover these compounds and the most advanced chromatographic techniques that have been used for a better understanding of the phenolic profile of these complex matrices are also referred. Finally, this paper reports the main applications of OOBP, with emphasis on their phenolic content as natural antioxidants for food applications. Key findings and conclusions Besides their antioxidant activity, phenolic compounds from OOBP have also shown antimicrobial and antitumoral properties. Their application as food antioxidants requires new extraction techniques, including the use of non-toxic solvents and, in a pilot scale, the use of filters and adsorbent resins. The inclusion of phenolic compounds from OOBP in some food matrices have improved not only their antioxidant capacity but also their sensory attributes.

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A vitamin E extraction method for rainbow trout flesh was optimized, validated, and applied in fish fed commercial and Gracilaria vermiculophylla-supplemented diets. Five extraction methods were compared. Vitamers were analyzed by HPLC/DAD/fluorescence. A solid-liquid extraction with n-hexane, which showed the best performance, was optimized and validated. Among the eight vitamers, only α- and γ-tocopherol were detected in muscle samples. The final method showed good linearity (>0.999), intra- (<3.1%) and inter-day precision (<2.6%), and recoveries (>96%). Detection and quantification limits were 39.9 and 121.0 ng/g of muscle, for α-tocopherol, and 111.4 ng/g and 337.6 ng/g, for γ-tocopherol, respectively. Compared to the control group, the dietary inclusion of 5% G. vermiculophylla resulted in a slight reduction of lipids in muscle and, consequently, of α- and γ-tocopherol. Nevertheless, vitamin E profile in lipids was maintained. In general, the results may be explained by the lower vitamin E level in seaweed-containing diet. Practical Applications: Based on the validation results and the low solvent consumption, the developed method can be used to analyze vitamin E in rainbow trout. The results of this work are also a valuable information source for fish feed industries and aquaculture producers, which can focus on improving seaweed inclusion in feeds as a source of vitamin E in fish muscle and, therefore, take full advantage of all bioactive components with an important role in fish health and flesh quality.

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O desenvolvimento teórico dos Mecanismos de Coping (MC) tem como base uma dialéctica relacionada com os seus principais factores determinantes: individuais e situacionais (na base das duas abordagens do coping: disposicional e constitucional). Actualmente a classificação dos MC mais utilizada é baseada em duas dimensões: coping focado na emoção, e coping focado na resolução de problemas. Considera-se essencial que os métodos de classificação dos MC tenham em conta a coexistência de elementos disposicionais estáveis com uma variabilidade situacional dos MC. São abordados alguns instrumentos de medição de coping, baseados em diferentes pressupostos teóricos. O coping pode influenciar a saúde através de vários mecanismos (sistema neuroendócrino, comportamentos relacionados com os riscos para a saúde e adesão terapêutica) e é incluído em dois dos principais modelos teóricos de saúde (Moos & Schaefer e modelo de Leventhal). Com base numa revisão da literatura, concluiu-se que os estilos de coping mais prevalentes no pré transplante foram: aceitação, coping activo, e procura de suporte, sendo os menos utilizados: auto culpabilização e evitação. No pós transplante o coping activo e procura de suporte continuam a ser os estilos de coping preferenciais, a par da confrontação, autoconfiança, recurso à religião e coping focado no problema. Os estilos de coping (Evasivo, Emotivo, Fatalistico) estão associados a uma menor capacidade de controlo pessoal sobre a doença, a confrontação a uma maior qualidade de vida, o evitamento à redução da qualidade de vida e ao aumento dos níveis de depressão e a negação ao aumento da não adesão. A compreensibilidade, a sensação de controlo sobre a doença, os estilos de coping «relacionados com a expressão dos afectos» e a negação variam ao longo da evolução do doente transplantado.

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Smart Grids (SGs) have emerged as the new paradigm for power system operation and management, being designed to include large amounts of distributed energy resources. This new paradigm requires new Energy Resource Management (ERM) methodologies considering different operation strategies and the existence of new management players such as several types of aggregators. This paper proposes a methodology to facilitate the coalition between distributed generation units originating Virtual Power Players (VPP) considering a game theory approach. The proposed approach consists in the analysis of the classifications that were attributed by each VPP to the distributed generation units, as well as in the analysis of the previous established contracts by each player. The proposed classification model is based in fourteen parameters including technical, economical and behavioural ones. Depending of the VPP strategies, size and goals, each parameter has different importance. VPP can also manage other type of energy resources, like storage units, electric vehicles, demand response programs or even parts of the MV and LV distribution network. A case study with twelve VPPs with different characteristics and one hundred and fifty real distributed generation units is included in the paper.

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This study proposes a new methodology to increase the power delivered to any load point in a radial distribution network, through the identification of new investments in order to improve the repair time. This research work is innovative and consists in proposing a full optimisation model based on mixed-integer non-linear programming considering the Pareto front technique. The goal is to achieve a reduction in repair times of the distribution networks components, while minimising the costs of that reduction as well as non-supplied energy costs. The optimisation model considers the distribution network technical constraints, the substation transformer taps, and it is able to choose the capacitor banks size. A case study based on a 33-bus distribution network is presented in order to illustrate in detail the application of the proposed methodology.

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In order to increase the efficiency in the use of energy resources, the electrical grid is slowly evolving into a smart(er) grid that allows users' production and storage of energy, automatic and remote control of appliances, energy exchange between users, and in general optimizations over how the energy is managed and consumed. One of the main innovations of the smart grid is its organization over an energy plane that involves the actual exchange of energy, and a data plane that regards the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure used for the management of the grid's data. In the particular case of the data plane, the exchange of large quantities of data can be facilitated by a middleware based on a messaging bus. Existing messaging buses follow different data management paradigms (e.g.: request/response, publish/subscribe, data-oriented messaging) and thus satisfy smart grids' communication requirements at different extents. This work contributes to the state of the art by identifying, in existing standards and architectures, common requirements that impact in the messaging system of a data plane for the smart grid. The paper analyzes existing messaging bus paradigms that can be used as a basis for the ICT infrastructure of a smart grid and discusses how these can satisfy smart grids' requirements.

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In recent years, organizational culture has become one of the common themes of interest of scientific and academic research. Each organization has its own unique cultural identity. Based on the recognition that organizational culture is considered important to an organization’s results, and social economy organizations are concerned with improving managerial practices and results, our objective is to study organizational culture in cooperatives: identifying their organizational culture as a specific type of organization of the social economy, recognized as increasingly important economic agents; and in doing so, explore the usage of a widely known model, the Competing Values Framework (Quinn & Rohrbaugh 1983). Three cooperatives were studied. Their presidents were interviewed, and a questionnaire was applied to cooperative members to obtain demographic and organizational culture data. Differences between the cooperatives’ cultural profiles seem to be consistent with both the circumstances of Portuguese social economy organizations (SEOs), and to the organizations’ uniqueness regarding their trade, focuses, and history. International firm trends were compared with this study’s results, and also appear to be explained by the SEO’s management practices evolution standpoint: lack of structured way of working, and the need to improvise and innovate in order to get things done. The importance of our research is held in the fact that social economy, and the cooperative movement in particular, has a developing importance in the expansion of many economies, the lack of literature on culture in SEOs, and the exploratory usage of a well-known model of management literature in cooperatives.

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Dissertation presented to obtain the degree of Doctor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, specialization on Collaborative Enterprise Networks

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This work explores the use of fluorescent probes to evaluate the responses of the green alga Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata to the action of three nominal concentrations of Cd(II), Cr(VI), Cu(II) and Zn(II) for a short time (6 h). The toxic effect of the metals on algal cells was monitored using the fluorochromes SYTOX Green (SG, membrane integrity), fluorescein diacetate (FDA, esterase activity) and rhodamine 123 (Rh123, mitochondrial membrane potential). The impact of metals on chlorophyll a (Chl a) autofluorescence was also evaluated. Esterase activity was the most sensitive parameter. At the concentrations studied, all metals induced the loss of esterase activity. SG could be used to effectively detect the loss of membrane integrity in algal cells exposed to 0.32 or 1.3 μmol L−1 Cu(II). Rh123 revealed a decrease in the mitochondrial membrane potential of algal cells exposed to 0.32 and 1.3 μmol L−1 Cu(II), indicating that mitochondrial activity was compromised. Chl a autofluorescence was also affected by the presence of Cr(VI) and Cu(II), suggesting perturbation of photosynthesis. In conclusion, the fluorescence-based approach was useful for detecting the disturbance of specific cellular characteristics. Fluorescent probes are a useful diagnostic tool for the assessment of the impact of toxicants on specific targets of P. subcapitata algal cells.

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The painting activity is one of the most complex and important activities in automobile manufacturing. The inherent complexity of the painting activity and the frequent need for repainting usually turn the painting process into a bottleneck in automobile assembly plants, which is reflected in higher operating costs and longer overall cycle times. One possible approach for optimizing the performance of the paint shop is to improve the efficiency of the color planning. This can be accomplished by evaluating the relative merits of a set of vehicle painting plans. Since this problem has a multicriteria nature, we resort to the multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) methodology to tackle it. A recent trend in the MCDA field is the development of hybrid approaches that are used to achieve operational synergies between different methods. Here we apply, for the first time, an integrated approach that combines the strengths of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE), aided by Geometrical Analysis for Interactive Aid (GAIA), to the problem of assessing alternative vehicle painting plans. The management of the assembly plant found the results of value and is currently using them in order to schedule the painting activities such that an enhancement of the operational efficiency of the paint shop is obtained. This efficiency gain has allowed the management to bid for a new automobile model to be assembled at this specific plant.