Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2020-09"
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- Correspondência de Afonso Lopes Vieira com algumas intelectuais | ‘mulheres de letras'Publication . Nobre, CristinaNo espólio da Biblioteca Municipal de Leiria existem XIV volumes com a correspondência recebida por Afonso Lopes Vieira. Entre esse mundo de personalidades nacionais e internacionais, encontram-se algumas intelectuais da sua época, que se destacaram nas mais diversas áreas. Seleciona-se a correspondência a ele destinada por Matilde Bensaúde, Ana de Castro Osório e Fernanda de Castro e Quadros Ferro.
- Sim, (também) sou capaz Projeto Integrado e Inovador de Combate ao Insucesso Escolar Relatório final. Relatório Técnico no âmbito territorial dos municípios integrados na Comunidade Intermunicipal da Região de LeiriaPublication . Milhano, Sandrina; Mangas, Catarina; Reis, Susana
- A Diversificação da Sociedade e a Mediação Intercultural como Pedagogia Social: o caso portuguêsPublication . Marques, José Carlos Laranjo; Vieira, Ana Maria de Sousa Neves; Vieira, RicardoA integração das populações imigrantes e das minorias étnicas nas sociedades nacionais constitui um desafio importante e decisivo de diferentes países. As soluções apresentadas para acolher as várias e, por vezes, contraditórias, dimensões do processo de integração têm originado o desenvolvimento de diferentes ‘modelos de integração’ que, não obstante serem determinados pelos contextos migratórios específicos dos países, não deixam de refletir os desenvolvimentos nas políticas e práticas de integração dos imigrantes registadas a nível internacional. Através da análise da realidade portuguesa será evidenciada a progressiva adoção de políticas de integração assentes nos princípios e nas práticas de mediação intercultural como pedagogia social. Discute-se o surgimento e o desenvolvimento da interculturalidade, faz-se a descrição da imigração em Portugal e, de seguida, a integração das comunidades imigrantes no país. Na parte final é analisada, particularmente, a mediação intercultural como pedagogia social para o acolhimento e autonomização na promoção de sociedades assentes no interconhecimento das suas diferentes partes constituintes.
- Impact of corporate governance on firm’s performance The case of the Portuguese Listed FirmsPublication . Lisboa, Inês; Luís, InêsPurpose: Corporate governance issues have been particular important in the last years because of diverse international scandals (e.g. Enron e a WorldCom in the US, Parmalt in Italy, and Banco Português de Negócios in Portugal, among others). This calls for the need for a reformulation of governance mechanisms to minimize agency conflicts and restore confidence in capital markets as well as transparency of the company's economic and financial situation. The choice of some corporate governance issues may have impact in the company’s performance, as it may influence agency costs between the principal and managers and between type of investors and may impact the firm’s financial decision. In this sense, this paper aims to analyze the impact of corporate governance’ characteristics on the financial performance of Portuguese listed firms. Design/methodology/approach: A panel data of listed companies on Euronext Lisbon, between 2012 and 2016, and the multiple linear regression model, was used. Findings: We find that results depend on the performance ratio used. The main results suggest that the size and independence of the board of directors have impact on the company’s performance. Moreover, we find that financial investors give relevance to best corporate governance practices. Originality: Most studies analyzing this thematic focus on major countries. This work focuses on a small-size country, where corporate governance mechanisms were questioned due to diverse bankruptcies and financial scandals. Moreover, accounting and market-based performance are addressed to see the main differences and similarities.
- Deep Learning-based Point Cloud Geometry Coding with Resolution ScalabilityPublication . Guarda, André F. R.; Rodrigues, Nuno M. M.; Pereira, FernandoPoint clouds are a 3D visual representation format that has recently become fundamentally important for immersive and interactive multimedia applications. Considering the high number of points of practically relevant point clouds, and their increasing market demand, efficient point cloud coding has become a vital research topic. In addition, scalability is an important feature for point cloud coding, especially for real-time applications, where the fast and rate efficient access to a decoded point cloud is important; however, this issue is still rather unexplored in the literature. In this context, this paper proposes a novel deep learning-based point cloud geometry coding solution with resolution scalability via interlaced sub-sampling. As additional layers are decoded, the number of points in the reconstructed point cloud increases as well as the overall quality. Experimental results show that the proposed scalable point cloud geometry coding solution outperforms the recent MPEG Geometry-based Point Cloud Compression standard which is much less scalable.
- Development of CART model for prediction of tuberculosis treatment loss to follow up in the state of São Paulo, Brazil: A case–control studyPublication . Yamaguti, Verena Hokino; Alves, Domingos; Rijo, Rui, Rui Pedro Charters Lopes; Miyoshi, Newton Shydeo Brandão; Ruffino-Netto, AntônioBackground: Tuberculosis is the leading cause of infectious disease-related death, surpassing even the immunodeficiency virus. Treatment loss to follow up and irregular medication use contribute to persistent morbidity and mortality. This increases bacillus drug resistance and has a negative impact on disease control. Objective: This study aims to develop a computational model that predicts the loss to follow up treatment in tuberculosis patients, thereby increasing treatment adherence and cure, reducing efforts regarding treatment relapses and decreasing disease spread. Methods: This is a case-controlled study. Included in the data set were 103,846 tuberculosis cases from the state of São Paulo. They were collected using the TBWEB, an information system used as a tuberculosis treatment monitor, containing samples from 2006 to 2016. This set was later resampled into 6 segments with a 1-1 ratio. This ratio was used to avoid any bias during the model construction. Results: The Classification and Regression Trees were used as the prediction model. Training and test sets accounted for 70% in the former and 30% in the latter of the tuberculosis cases. The model displayed an accuracy of 0.76, F-measure of 0.77, sensitivity of 0.80 and specificity of 0.71. The model emphasizes the relationship between several variables that had been identified in previous studies as related to patient cure or loss to follow up treatment in tuberculosis patients. Conclusion: It was possible to construct a predictive model for loss to follow up treatment in tuberculosis patients using Classification and Regression Trees. Although the fact that the ideal predictive ability was not achieved, it seems reasonable to propose the use of Classification and Regression Trees models to predict likelihood of treatment follow up to support healthcare professionals in minimising the loss to follow up.
- Metal alginates for polyphenol delivery systems: Studies on crosslinking ions and easy-to-use patches for release of protective flavonoids in skinPublication . Silva, João; Vanat, Pavlo; Marques da Silva, Dorinda; Rodrigues, Joaquim Rui; Lagoa, RicardoIncorporation of bioactive natural compounds like polyphenols is an attractive approach for enhanced functionalities of biomaterials. In particular flavonoids have important pharmacological activities, and controlled release systems may be instrumental to realize the full potential of these phytochemicals. Alginate presents interesting attributes for dermal and other biomaterial applications, and studies were carried here to support the development of polyphenol-loaded alginate systems. Studies of capillary viscosity indicated that ionic medium is an effective strategy to modulate the polyelectrolyte effect and viscosity properties of alginates. On gelation, considerable differences were observed between alginate gels produced with Ca2+, Ba2+, Cu2+, Fe2+, Fe3+ and Zn2+ as crosslinkers, especially concerning shrinkage and morphological regularity. Stability assays with different polyphenols in the presence of alginate-gelling cations pointed to the choice of calcium, barium and zinc as safer crosslinkers. Alginate-based films loaded with epicatechin were prepared and the kinetics of release of the flavonoid investigated. The results with calcium, barium and zinc alginate matrices indicated that the release dynamics is dependent on film thicknesses, but also on the crosslinking metal used. On these grounds, an alginate-based system of convenient use was devised, so that flavonoids can be easily loaded at simple point-of-care conditions before dermal application. This epicatechin-loaded patch was tested on an ex-vivo skin model and demonstrated capacity to deliver therapeutically relevant concentrations on skin surface. Moreover, the flavonoid released was not modified and retained full antioxidant bioactivity. The alginate-based system proposed offers a multifunctional approach for flavonoid controllable delivery and protection of skin injured or under risk.
- Explosive welding of aluminium to stainless steel using carbon steel and niobium interlayersPublication . Carvalho, G.H.S.F.L.; Galvão, I.; Mendes, R.; Leal, R. M.; Loureiro, A.This work aimed to study aluminium to stainless steel explosive welds produced using two different interlayers: carbon steel and niobium. The use of each interlayer was analysed and compared microstructurally and mechanically using many characterisation techniques. The final joints using both interlayers presented favourable interfacial microstructure: waves on both interfaces. However, the joint using the carbon steel interlayer showed the best mechanical properties compared to the joints using the niobium interlayer. All interfaces found on both welds were wavy. However, depending on the metallic alloy combination, the shape of the wave is completely different. The results suggest that the shape of the waves is influenced by the shock impedance mismatch of the materials being welded. The impedance mismatch parameter (IMP) developed for explosive welding in this work proved to be a compelling method to order metallic combinations in a single axis to estimate the tendency to form typical or curled waves. Typical symmetrical waves tend to develop less quantity of IMCs than curled waves. However, the mechanical tests performed did not detect differences that could have been caused by this difference.
- Autoaprendizagem online do webQDA: uma análise de grupos focaisPublication . Freitas, Fábio; Souza, Francislê Neri de; Costa, António PedroO recurso aos Qualitative Data Analysis Software (QDAS) é algo cada vez mais incontornável entres investigadores qualitativos. Porém, o uso destas ferramentas digitais não é pacifico, pois, o processo de aprendizagem pode ser uma barreira para os investigadores. Este estudo é parte integrante de um projeto de investigação e procura analisar esta curva de aprendizagem através da recolha de dados relativos à análise do Protótipo de Aprendizagem online (PAo) do webQDA®. Este estudo de natureza qualitativa teve por base dois grupos focais. Os resultados demonstraram que, apesar do PAo ser uma ferramenta útil na aprendizagem, apresenta limitações em termos de Usabilidade, o que acaba por proporcionar uma má Experiência de Utilizador (UX). Esta análise foi realizada com o próprio webQDA® e mostrou-se essencial na identificação das fragilidades do PAo e para o processo de criação de diretrizes gerais de um Ambiente de Autoaprendizagem online para o webQDA®.
- The Effect of a Naturally Ventilated Roof on the Thermal Behaviour of a Building under Mediterranean Summer ConditionsPublication . Ramos, João; Aires, LuisWith the increasing cost associated with energy consumption, climate change and the greater awareness of the population to issues related to energy and environmental efficiency, energy conservation in buildings has been encouraged, along with the development of several solutions based on a more sustainable construction. Building cooling is the most challenging issue in the Mediterranean climate. The roof is one of the main elements of the building’s opaque envelope, where the choice of materials and the implementation of appropriate passive technologies determine the thermal performance of a building. The present work aims to assess the impact of natural ventilation of a roof cavity on the thermal environment of a dwelling house under Mediterranean summer conditions. An experimental study was developed in a small-scale prototype of a typical dwelling house, comprising a ceramic tile roof with vented eaves and insulated sub-tile panels according to the construction solution of the Humbelino Monteiro SA company. The thermal performance of this roof solution was assessed under real climatic conditions based on continuous measurements of the air velocity inside the air gap, the temperature of the air and the surface temperature of all roof layers. Weather conditions were also monitored continuously. Connected with the heat transfer mechanisms, the obtained temperature and air velocity profiles data were analysed and discussed.