Antibacterial activity of textiles for wound treatment

Major advances in the development and use of antimicrobial textiles to control bacterial proliferation on wound beds continue. However, wound dressings are, in general, not included in standardized regimens for measuring and monitoring their antimicrobial effectiveness. This work adapts these methods to assess the antibacterial activity of textiles designed for wound healing purposes. Environmental conditions representative of those present at the wound site (i.e., moisture levels, infection, and available nutrients) were evaluated. This work shows that moisture levels were the environmental factor that had the greatest influence on the antimicrobial agent activities tested. These results suggest that it is possible to use the more representative environmental conditions present on the wound bed for in vitro screening of textile antimicrobial activity.

General and mental health of poor and multiproblematic families

The main feature of the so called multiproblem families is the persistence along time of a set of problems in various areas of the individual’s functioning in several family members.This research study aims: a) To identify and characterise the major health problems faced by the members of these families; b) To explore the perceived relevance of these problems; c) To explore the perceived effectiveness of health care interventions received by respondents; d) To explore the level of control perceived over these problems.

Programa de intervenção em contexto escolar para a melhoria da força geral dos membros inferiores

Relatório de estágio de mestrado em Ensino de Educação Física nos Ensinos Básico e Secundário

Measuring end-to-end delay in real-time auralisation systems

One of the major challenges in the development of an immersive system is handling the delay between the tracking of the user’s head position and the updated projection of a 3D image or auralised sound, also called end-to-end delay. Excessive end-to-end delay can result in the general decrement of the “feeling of presence”, the occurrence of motion sickness and poor performance in perception-action tasks. These latencies must be known in order to provide insights on the technological (hardware/software optimization) or psychophysical (recalibration sessions) strategies to deal with them. Our goal was to develop a new measurement method of end-to-end delay that is both precise and easily replicated. We used a Head and Torso simulator (HATS) as an auditory signal sensor, a fast response photo-sensor to detect a visual stimulus response from a Motion Capture System, and a voltage input trigger as real-time event. The HATS was mounted in a turntable which allowed us to precisely change the 3D sound relative to the head position. When the virtual sound source was at 90º azimuth, the correspondent HRTF would set all the intensity values to zero, at the same time a trigger would register the real-time event of turning the HATS 90º azimuth. Furthermore, with the HATS turned 90º to the left, the motion capture marker visualization would fell exactly in the photo-sensor receptor. This method allowed us to precisely measure the delay from tracking to displaying. Moreover, our results show that the method of tracking, its tracking frequency, and the rendering of the sound reflections are the main predictors of end-to-end delay.

A violência entre pares na adolescência: desenvolvimento e implementação de um programa de prevenção

Tese de Doutoramento em Psicologia (área de especialização em Psicologia da Justiça).

Intervention program on adolescent’s creativity representations and academic motivation

Creativity and its promotion are widespread concerns in education. However, few efforts have been made to implement intervention programs designed to promote creativity and other related aspects (e.g., academic motivation). The Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI), aimed for training creativity representations and creative problem solving skills in young people, has been one of the most implemented programs. This intervention’s materials and activities were adapted for Portuguese students, and a longitudinal study was conducted. The program was implemented during four months, in weekly sessions, by thirteen teachers. Teachers received previous training for the program and during the program’s implementation. Intervention participants included 77 Basic and Secondary Education students, and control participants included 78 equivalent students. Pretest-posttest measures of academic motivation and creativity representations were collected. Results suggest a significant increase, in the intervention group, in motivation and the appropriate representations of creativity. Practical implications and future research perspectives are presented.

The economic crisis in Portugal and children’s rights to non-discrimination

The consequences that arose from the ‘global economy’ have been significant in Portuguese children’s lives and we believe it is fundamental to reflect on the ongoing structuring of childhood through this global culture/ideology and the concrete implications that they have. It is also important to understand how childhood is constructed and experienced, as well as to consider the impacts of political economic conditions on children’s lives and in childhood in general, taking into account the effects brought on by public policies. The aim of this paper is to reflect on the ways through which the economic crisis affecting the general Portuguese population has impacted children in particular and promoted discrimination and a lack of opportunities in childhood. We will focus on two dimensions: first, on general data about the ongoing policies that have been reducing social rights, increasing poverty rates and threatening basic rights such as educational and health rights, to show their impact on children´s lives. Second, we will discuss some data collected with children throughout different research projects in order to characterize the meanings and impacts of the crisis in their lives from their points of view

Spatial and temporal evolution of family-farming land use in the Tapajós region of the Brazilian Amazon

Pressures on the Brazilian Amazon forest have been accentuated by agricultural activities practiced by families encouraged to settle in this region in the 1970s by the colonization program of the government. The aims of this study were to analyze the temporal and spatial evolution of land cover and land use (LCLU) in the lower Tapajós region, in the state of Pará. We contrast 11 watersheds that are generally representative of the colonization dynamics in the region. For this purpose, Landsat satellite images from three different years, 1986, 2001, and 2009, were analyzed with Geographic Information Systems. Individual images were subject to an unsupervised classification using the Maximum Likelihood Classification algorithm available on GRASS. The classes retained for the representation of LCLU in this study were: (1) slightly altered old-growth forest, (2) succession forest, (3) crop land and pasture, and (4) bare soil. The analysis and observation of general trends in eleven watersheds shows that LCLU is changing very rapidly. The average deforestation of old-growth forest in all the watersheds was estimated at more than 30% for the period of 1986 to 2009. The local-scale analysis of watersheds reveals the complexity of LCLU, notably in relation to large changes in the temporal and spatial evolution of watersheds. Proximity to the sprawling city of Itaituba is related to the highest rate of deforestation in two watersheds. The opening of roads such as the Transamazonian highway is associated to the second highest rate of deforestation in three watersheds.

Alfabetização de jovens e adultos no estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil: o significado de um desafio para a inclusão social

Tese de Doutoramento em Ciências da Educação

Aplicação da linha de equilíbrio no planeamento e controlo da construção

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia Civil

A study of risk-aware program transformation

In the trend towards tolerating hardware unreliability, accuracy is exchanged for cost savings. Running on less reliable machines, functionally correct code becomes risky and one needs to know how risk propagates so as to mitigate it. Risk estimation, however, seems to live outside the average programmer’s technical competence and core practice. In this paper we propose that program design by source-to-source transformation be risk-aware in the sense of making probabilistic faults visible and supporting equational reasoning on the probabilistic behaviour of programs caused by faults. This reasoning is carried out in a linear algebra extension to the standard, `a la Bird-Moor algebra of programming. This paper studies, in particular, the propagation of faults across standard program transformation techniques known as tupling and fusion, enabling the fault of the whole to be expressed in terms of the faults of its parts.

Influência do tipo de adesivo no comportamento de elementos de betão reforçados com laminados de CFRP de acordo com a técnica NSM

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia Civil

Historical analysis of the Brazilian cervical cancer screening program from 2006 to 2013: a time for reflection

BACKGROUND: The Cervical Cancer Database of the Brazilian National Health Service (SISCOLO) contains information regarding all cervical cytological tests and, if properly explored, can be used as a tool for monitoring and managing the cervical cancer screening program. The aim of this study was to perform a historical analysis of the cervical cancer screening program in Brazil from 2006 to 2013. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The data necessary to calculate quality indicators were obtained from the SISCOLO, a Brazilian health system tool. Joinpoint analysis was used to calculate the annual percentage change. RESULTS: We observed important trends showing decreased rates of low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL) and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) and an increased rate of rejected exams from 2009 to 2013. The index of positivity was maintained at levels below those indicated by international standards; very low frequencies of unsatisfactory cases were observed over the study period, which partially contradicts the low rate of positive cases. The number of positive cytological diagnoses was below that expected, considering that developed countries with low frequencies of cervical cancer detect more lesions annually. CONCLUSIONS: The evolution of indicators from 2006 to 2013 suggests that actions must be taken to improve the effectiveness of cervical cancer control in Brazil.

As políticas tecnológicas para a educação e a literacia digital: o caso do programa governamental ‘e.escolinha’

Em 2008, o Governo português anunciou a iniciativa ‘e.escolinha’ que contemplou a distribuição de computadores ‘Magalhães’ aos alunos do 1º ciclo do ensino básico, durante três anos letivos consecutivos. Atualmente suspenso, o programa foi bandeira do XVII Governo Constitucional, liderado por José Sócrates, mas alvo de controvérsias por parte da oposição política e da comunidade escolar, sobretudo pela aparente tónica no acesso à tecnologia em vez de uma maior preocupação com a formação e as práticas pedagógicas. Ao abrigo do Plano Tecnológico da Educação, o ‘e.escolinha’ inseria-se numa política mais ampla para o desenvolvimento de uma economia competitiva e dinâmica, através das metas estabelecidas pela União Europeia na Estratégia de Lisboa 2000. A iniciativa foi apresentada ao país com objetivos ambiciosos, no que diz respeito às esperadas mudanças ao nível das práticas pedagógicas dos professores, do processo de aprendizagem das crianças e do sucesso escolar em geral. Porém, a face mais visível da política, embora possa compreender outros matizes, poderá ter ficado reduzida à questão do acesso, apostando pouco nas outras dimensões da literacia digital. Com base em entrevistas realizadas a atores-chave envolvidos no processo de conceção e implementação do ‘e.escolinha’, e nos documentos oficiais que enquadram o programa, o presente artigo pretende dar a conhecer a forma como decisores políticos e empresas enunciam e avaliam os objetivos desta iniciativa. Pretende-se, em particular, conhecer se partilham a ideia de uma deriva tecnológica desta medida governamental ou se entreveem, na mesma, objetivos de literacia digital. Este trabalho decorre do projeto de investigação “Navegando com o Magalhães: Estudo sobre o Impacto dos Media Digitais nas Crianças”, em curso no Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Sociedade da Universidade do Minho, financiado pela Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia ((PTDC/CCI-COM/101381/2008) ) e co-financiado pelo FEDER (COMPETE: FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-009056).

Programa com abordagem probabilística do sistema de avaliação de qualidade de taludes Slope Quality Index (SQI)

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia Civil