The Implication of Using NVivo Software in Qualitative Data Analysis: Evidence-Based Reflections

For a long time, electronic data analysis has been associated with quantitative methods. However, Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) are increasingly being developed. Although the CAQDAS has been there for decades, very few qualitative health researchers report using it. This may be due to the difficulties that one has to go through to master the software and the misconceptions that are associated with using CAQDAS. While the issue of mastering CAQDAS has received ample attention, little has been done to address the misconceptions associated with CAQDAS. In this paper, the author reflects on his experience of interacting with one of the popular CAQDAS (NVivo) in order to provide evidence-based implications of using the software. The key message is that unlike statistical software, the main function of CAQDAS is not to analyse data but rather to aid the analysis process, which the researcher must always remain in control of. In other words, researchers must equally know that no software can analyse qualitative data. CAQDAS are basically data management packages, which support the researcher during analysis.

Data, Software, and Advanced Computational Usage of University of Washington Research Leaders

Scientific research is increasingly data-intensive, relying more and more upon advanced computational resources to be able to answer the questions most pressing to our society at large. This report presents findings from a brief descriptive survey sent to a sample of 342 leading researchers at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle, Washington in 2010 and 2011 as the first stage of the larger National Science Foundation project “Interacting with Cyberinfrastructure in the Face of Changing Science.” This survey assesses these researcher’s use of advanced computational resources, data, and software in their research. We present high-level findings that describe UW researchers’: demographics, interdisciplinarity, research groups, data use, software and computational use—including software development and use, data storage and transfer activities, and collaboration tools, and computing resources. These findings offer insights into the state of computational resources in use during this time period as well as offering a look at the data intensiveness of UW researchers.

Online versus postal questionnaires: a comparison between two data collection methods

Objectives : The purpose of this article is to find out differences between surveys using paper and online questionnaires. The author has deep knowledge in the case of questions concerning opinions in the development of survey based research, e.g. the limits of postal and online questionnaires. Methods : In the physician studies carried out in 1995 (doctors graduated in 1982-1991), 2000 (doctors graduated in 1982-1996), 2005 (doctors graduated in 1982-2001), 2011 (doctors graduated in 1977-2006) and 457 family doctors in 2000, were used paper and online questionnaires. The response rates were 64%, 68%, 64%, 49% and 73%, respectively. Results : The results of the physician studies showed that there were differences between methods. These differences were connected with using paper-based questionnaire and online questionnaire and response rate. The online-based survey gave a lower response rate than the postal survey. The major advantages of online survey were short response time; very low financial resource needs and data were directly loaded in the data analysis software, thus saved time and resources associated with the data entry process. Conclusions : The current article helps researchers with planning the study design and choosing of the right data collection method.

Ontologies for reusing data cleaning knowledge

The emergence of new business models, namely, the establishment of partnerships between organizations, the chance that companies have of adding existing data on the web, especially in the semantic web, to their information, led to the emphasis on some problems existing in databases, particularly related to data quality. Poor data can result in loss of competitiveness of the organizations holding these data, and may even lead to their disappearance, since many of their decision-making processes are based on these data. For this reason, data cleaning is essential. Current approaches to solve these problems are closely linked to database schemas and specific domains. In order that data cleaning can be used in different repositories, it is necessary for computer systems to understand these data, i.e., an associated semantic is needed. The solution presented in this paper includes the use of ontologies: (i) for the specification of data cleaning operations and, (ii) as a way of solving the semantic heterogeneity problems of data stored in different sources. With data cleaning operations defined at a conceptual level and existing mappings between domain ontologies and an ontology that results from a database, they may be instantiated and proposed to the expert/specialist to be executed over that database, thus enabling their interoperability.

Das conceções às práticas de avaliação formativa no 1.º ciclo do ensino básico

Relatório de estágio apresentado à Escola Superior de Educação de Lisboa para obtenção de grau de mestre em Ensino do 1.º e 2.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico

Deteção e extinção de incêndios em Data Centers

São muitas as organizações que por todo o mundo possuem instalações deste tipo, em Portugal temos o exemplo da Portugal Telecom que recentemente inaugurou o seu Data Center na Covilhã. O desenvolvimento de um Data Center exige assim um projeto muito cuidado, o qual entre outros aspetos deverá garantir a segurança da informação e das próprias instalações, nomeadamente no que se refere à segurança contra incêndio.

PIASA: A power and interference aware resource management strategy for heterogeneous workloads in cloud data centers

Cloud data centers have been progressively adopted in different scenarios, as reflected in the execution of heterogeneous applications with diverse workloads and diverse quality of service (QoS) requirements. Virtual machine (VM) technology eases resource management in physical servers and helps cloud providers achieve goals such as optimization of energy consumption. However, the performance of an application running inside a VM is not guaranteed due to the interference among co-hosted workloads sharing the same physical resources. Moreover, the different types of co-hosted applications with diverse QoS requirements as well as the dynamic behavior of the cloud makes efficient provisioning of resources even more difficult and a challenging problem in cloud data centers. In this paper, we address the problem of resource allocation within a data center that runs different types of application workloads, particularly CPU- and network-intensive applications. To address these challenges, we propose an interference- and power-aware management mechanism that combines a performance deviation estimator and a scheduling algorithm to guide the resource allocation in virtualized environments. We conduct simulations by injecting synthetic workloads whose characteristics follow the last version of the Google Cloud tracelogs. The results indicate that our performance-enforcing strategy is able to fulfill contracted SLAs of real-world environments while reducing energy costs by as much as 21%.

Ressonância magnética nuclear com recurso a um transreceptor rádio controlado por software

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores

Classificação Internacional de Funcionalidade, Incapacidade e Saúde : uma dimensão do neurodesenvolvimento

RESUMO: Objetivo Principal • Determinar a consistência da utilização dos instrumentos de avaliação da capacidade intelectual – escalas de Griffiths e WISC III – no enquadramento dos domínios e dos qualificadores da CIF-CJ, restrita às funções mentais do corpo. Objetivo secundário: • Estudar a efetividade e concordância inter-observador da aplicação da CIF, com base na leitura dos dados obtidos em avaliação efetuada com os instrumentos referidos, por duas observadoras independentes, em contexto de articulação saúde, respetivamente educação e segurança social Métodos • Estudo observacional, descritivo, transversal e prospetivo. • Foi estudada uma amostra de conveniência 355 crianças, num período de três anos (Maio de 2010 a 30 de Abril de 2013), com patologia da área da pediatria do neurodesenvolvimento (total de 4000 consultas) no Centro de Desenvolvimento (CD) do Hospital de Dona Estefânia (HDE), Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central, EPE (CHLC, EPE). • Critérios de inclusão: crianças de ambos os sexos, observadas no CD do HDE, CHLC (primeiras consultas e consultas de reavaliação) com idade ≥12 meses e ≤17 anos e incapacidade intelectual definida de acordo com os critérios da DSM-IV-TR, DSM 5 e CID-10. • Critérios de exclusão: crianças com autismo, perturbações específicas da linguagem, hiperatividade, défice de atenção e concentração, défices sensoriais congénitos (baixa visão e ou audição), ou com outros diagnósticos de perturbações de neurodesenvolvimento. • O estudo teve duas fases: na primeira, a investigadora principal colheu ou atualizou a história clínica, observou clinicamente as crianças solicitando os exames complementares considerados necessários e foi efetuada avaliação psicológica com os instrumentos adiante descritos, pela mesma psicóloga clínica, devidamente credenciada, e com larga experiência nas escalas referidas. Com base nos dados colhidos, quer por observação direta, quer através dos resultados das escalas Griffiths e WISC – III, a investigadora aplicou a CIF-CJ, circunscrita aos domínios e funções (variáveis): 1. FUNÇÕESMENTAIS GLOBAIS (b110- Funções da consciência, b114- Funções da orientação no espaço e no tempo, b117 – Funções intelectuais, b122- Funções psicossociais globais, b125- Funções intrapessoais, b126- Funções do temperamento e da personalidade); 2.FUNÇÕES MENTAIS ESPECÌFICAS (b140- funções da atenção, b147- Funções psicomotoras, b152- Funções emocionais, b156- Funções da perceção, b163- Funções cognitivas básicas, b164- Funções cognitivas de nível superior, b167- Funções mentais da linguagem 3. FUNÇÕES DA VOZ E DA FALA (b320- Funções da articulação, b330- Funções da fluência e do ritmo da fala). Numa segunda fase, foi solicitada a colaboração de duas co-investigadoras, com formação específica nas escalas utilizadas e na CIF-CJ, a aplicação da CIF nos mesmos domínios e funções. Estas observadoras não efetuaram observações diretas das crianças envolvidas. • Para efetuar a análise estatística e analisar a relação entre os qualificadores (0 a 4) das variáveis da CIF em estudo (b117, b122, b147, b163, b164, b167, b320 e b330) e os instrumentos psicométricos (escalas de Griffiths e WISC III), que constitui a primeira parte do estudo, recorreu-se à técnica estatística não paramétrica do coeficiente de correlação de Spearman, que quantifica a intensidade e sinal da eventual correlação existente entre as variáveis em estudo. • Para determinar as correlações referentes à segunda parte do estudo, foram utilizados os programas SPSS®, (IBM SPSS Statistics) e Statistica® (StatSoft, Inc., 2011). STATISTICA (data analysis software system, version 10. www.statsoft.com.), tendo-se dado preferência aos gráficos deste último. Resultados 1. Observou-se um predomínio do sexo masculino (relação de 1:1,9); relativamente à idade no momento de avaliação, 242 crianças (68,1%) tinham entre zero e seis anos e, dentro destas, a maioria (189) situava-se entre os três e os seis anos. 2. De acordo com a DSM-IV e DSM-5, 261 (73,4%) crianças apresentavam incapacidade intelectual ligeira. 3. A avaliação da competência intelectual pelas escalas de Ruth Griffiths e WISC III (QI), revelaram correlação negativa predominantemente forte e muito forte (índice de Spearman) com os qualificadores das funções do corpo estudadas (funções mentais, mentais específicas e da voz). Os resultados obtidos pela co-investigadora A foram sobreponíveis aos da investigadora principal. Os resultados obtidos pela co-investigadora B revelaram correlação negativa moderada e forte, correlação inferior à da investigadora principal; Conclusões Os resultados permitem inferir que as escalas de Ruth Griffiths e WISC-III são instrumentos adequados para caracterizar a incapacidade intelectual na CIF-CJ; a concordância inter-observador, moderada, nos qualificadores atribuídos nas funções em análise pela investigadora e co-investigadoras, permite concluir que as escalas de Ruth Griffiths e WISC IIIl são bons instrumentos para caracterizar os qualificadores nos domínios e funções estudados, por diferentes grupos de profissionais ligados à infância. Subsistem dificuldades na diferenciação entre qualificadores, designadamente entre os qualificadores 1 e 2, o que tem necessariamente implicações na elegibilidade das crianças para os apoios preconizados pelo DL 3/2008. ------------------------ ABSTRACT: Main objective • To determine the consistency of the use of assessment tools for intellectual ability - Griffiths and WISC III scales - in the context of domains and qualifiers for the ICF-CY, restricted to the mental functions of the body. Secondary objective • Studying the effectiveness and inter-observer concordance concerning the application of the ICF, based on the data recovered from the assessment made with the mentioned instruments, carried out by two independent observers including their perspective on health, education and social security. Methods • Observational, descriptive, cross-sectional and prospective study. • A convenience sample of 355 children was studied over a period of three years (May 2010 to April 2013), with a pathology in the area of pediatric neurodevelopment – intellectual disability (total of 4000 consultations, including first consultations and revaluations) were observed in the Development Centre (CD) in Hospital de Dona Estefânia (HDE), Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central, EPE (CHLC). • Inclusion criteria: children of both sexes aged ≥12 months and years ≤17 and intellectual disability defined according to the criteria in the DSM-IV-TR, DSM 5 and ICD-10. • Exclusion criteria: children with autism; specific language impairment, hyperactivity; attention deficit disorder; severe birth sensory deficits (eg, impaired vision and hearing); amongst other diagnoses for neurodevelopmental disorders. • The study was conducted in two phases: in the first phase the principal investigator collected or updated medical history, clinically observed children requesting additional investigations if she deemed necessary. Psychological evaluation was performed by a single, duly licensed clinical psychologist with extensive experience in the referred scales using the instruments described below. Based on data collected, either by direct observation or through the results of Griffiths scales and WISC - III, the researcher applied the ICF-CY confined to the following fields and functions (variables): 1. GLOBAL MENTAL FUNCTIONS (b110- functions of consciousness, b114- Functions referring to space and time orientation , b117 - intellectual functions, b122- global psychosocial functions, b125- intrapersonal functions, b126- functions related to temperament and personality); 2. SPECIFIC MENTAL FUNCTIONS ( b140- attention functions, b147-psychomotor functions, b152- Emotional functions, b156- perception functions, b163- basic cognitive functions and cognitive functions b164- top level b167- language related mental functions. ) 3. VOICE AND SPEECH FUNCTIONS (b320-articulation functions, b330- fluency and rhythm of speech functions). • In the second phase, two co-investigators, with specific training on the scales used and the ICF-CY have applied the ICF in the domains and functions mentioned above, based on the scales results. These co-investigators did not make any direct observation of the studied children. • To perform the statistical analysis and analyze the relationship between the qualifiers (0-4) of the variables in the ICF study (b117, b122, b147, B163, B164, b167, b320 and B330) and psychometric instruments (Griffiths scale and WISC III), which is the first part of the study, the statistical technique of non-parametric Spearman correlation coefficient was used, which quantifies the strength and sign of the possible correlation between the variables under study. • For submission of correlations related to the second part of the study, SPSS (IBM SPSS) and Statistica (StatSoft, Inc., 2011) programs were used. STATISTICA (data analysis software system, version 10 www.statsoft.com.). Preference was given to graphs computed in Statistica. Results • Male predominated (ratio of 1: 1.9). 242 children (68.1% of the sample) were aged between zero and six years and, among these, the majority (189) was aged largest number between three and six years. • According to the DSM-IV and DSM-5, 261 (73.4%) children had mild intellectual disability. The correlation between the assessment of intellectual competence by Ruth Griffiths scales and WISC III (QI), was predominantly negative strong and very strong correlation with the qualifiers of body functions studied (specific mental functions, mental and voice functions using Spearman index). The levels of correlation obtained by the co-investigatores were in agreeance with the results from the principal investigator. The results obtained by co-investigator B showed moderate to strong negative correlation, levels that were lower to the those registered by the principal investigator; Conclusions These results indicate that Ruth Griffiths and WISC-III scales are adequate tools to characterize intellectual disability in the ICF-CY; moderate inter-observer agreement in the qualifiers assigned the functions under analysis by the researcher and co-researchers, shows that the scales are also good tools to measure CIF qualifyers by diferent technicians with different professional orientations, related to children. However, there are still difficulties in differentiating qualifiers, namely between qualifiers 1/2 and 3/4, which necessarily has implications for the eligibility of children for the state support advocated by the Portuguese Decret Law 3/2008.

Data supporting the role of enzymes and polysaccharides during cassava postharvest physiological deterioration

This data article is referred to the research article entitled The role of ascorbate peroxidase, guaiacol peroxidase, and polysaccharides in cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) roots under postharvest physiological deterioration by Uarrota et al. (2015). Food Chemistry 197, Part A, 737746. The stress duo to PPD of cassava roots leads to the formation of ROS which are extremely harmful and accelerates cassava spoiling. To prevent or alleviate injuries from ROS, plants have evolved antioxidant systems that include non-enzymatic and enzymatic defence systems such as ascorbate peroxidase, guaiacol peroxidase and polysaccharides. In this data article can be found a dataset called newdata, in RData format, with 60 observations and 06 variables. The first 02 variables (Samples and Cultivars) and the last 04, spectrophotometric data of ascorbate peroxidase, guaiacol peroxidase, tocopherol, total proteins and arcsined data of cassava PPD scoring. For further interpretation and analysis in R software, a report is also provided. Means of all variables and standard deviations are also provided in the Supplementary tables (data.long3.RData, data.long4.RData and meansEnzymes.RData), raw data of PPD scoring without transformation (PPDmeans.RData) and days of storage (days.RData) are also provided for data analysis reproducibility in R software.

Generació automàtica de l'esquema de bases de dades relacional d'una aplicació a partir del seu diagrama de classes representat en XML i creació automàtica d'interfícies de control d'intercanvi d'informació

En aquest projecte, amb la finalitat d'analitzar per mitjà d'un exemple (la base de dades d'una botiga que opera en línia) algunes de les possibilitats que dóna XML, s'ha construït un sistema que permet generar bases de dades relacionals (amb SQL) a partir de diagrames de classes definits en XML. D?aquesta manera es mostra la flexibilitat que aporta XML a la definició, el processament i la transformació dels documents.

Migración a Eucalyptus

En este trabajo se abordan todas las fases del ciclo de vida de un proyecto de migración de un Data Center hacia IAAS (Infraestructura como Servicio). La solución seleccionada ha sido el software open source Eucalyptus. El trabajo práctico ha consistido en la creación de un Live CD de demostración de esta tecnología, desarrollado con la herramienta SuseStudio y publicado en SuseGallery.

CODAPACK3D. A new version of Compositional Data Package

The statistical analysis of compositional data should be treated using logratios of parts,which are difficult to use correctly in standard statistical packages. For this reason afreeware package, named CoDaPack was created. This software implements most of thebasic statistical methods suitable for compositional data.In this paper we describe the new version of the package that now is calledCoDaPack3D. It is developed in Visual Basic for applications (associated with Excel©),Visual Basic and Open GL, and it is oriented towards users with a minimum knowledgeof computers with the aim at being simple and easy to use.This new version includes new graphical output in 2D and 3D. These outputs could bezoomed and, in 3D, rotated. Also a customization menu is included and outputs couldbe saved in jpeg format. Also this new version includes an interactive help and alldialog windows have been improved in order to facilitate its use.To use CoDaPack one has to access Excel© and introduce the data in a standardspreadsheet. These should be organized as a matrix where Excel© rows correspond tothe observations and columns to the parts. The user executes macros that returnnumerical or graphical results. There are two kinds of numerical results: new variablesand descriptive statistics, and both appear on the same sheet. Graphical output appearsin independent windows. In the present version there are 8 menus, with a total of 38submenus which, after some dialogue, directly call the corresponding macro. Thedialogues ask the user to input variables and further parameters needed, as well aswhere to put these results. The web site http://ima.udg.es/CoDaPack contains thisfreeware package and only Microsoft Excel© under Microsoft Windows© is required torun the software.Kew words: Compositional data Analysis, Software