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Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2021-02-03"

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  • A Mobile Application As a Tool for Sustainable Development in Protected Areas (a proposal for the case of Arrabida Natural Park)
    Publication . Khodzhaeva, Valeriia; Oliveira, Fernanda Maria Fernandes; Eurico, Sofia Teixeira
    Protected natural areas are designed to preserve biological and landscape diversity and ensure sustainable environmental development. Huge territories face great challenges in the management of sustainable tourism, which are very difficult to control due to uncontrolled traffic capacity and the lack of awareness of visitors about the uniqueness of the park. The best way to convey information to the masses is information technology, which almost every modern person has. The goal of this project is to develop and promote a mobile application to help developing sustainable tourism in protected areas using the case of Arrabida Natural Park.
    2021-02-03Master thesis Open access Show more
  • Minimal Clinically Important Difference for Quadriceps Muscle Strength in People with COPD Following Pulmonary Rehabilitation
    Publication . Oliveira, Ana; Rebelo, Patrícia; Paixão, Cátia; Jácome, Cristina; Cruz, Joana; Martins, Vitória; Simão, Paula; Brooks, Dina; Marques, Alda
    Quadriceps strength training is a key component of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR). Clinical interpretability of changes in muscle strength following PR is however limited due to the lack of cut-off values to define clinical improvement. This study estimated the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) for the isotonic and isometric quadriceps muscle strength assessed with the one-repetition maximum (1RM) and hand-held dynamometry (HHD) in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) following PR. A secondary analysis of a real life non-randomised controlled study was conducted in people with COPD enrolled in a 12-week community-based PR programme. Anchor and distribution-based methods were used to compute the MCIDs. The anchors explored were the St. George's respiratory questionnaire (SGRQ) and the six-minute walk test (6MWT) using Pearson's correlations. Pooled MCIDs were computed using the arithmetic weighted mean (2/3 anchor, 1/3 distribution-based methods) and reported as absolute and/or percentage of change values. Eighty-nine people with COPD (84% male, 69.9 ± 7.9 years, FEV1 49.9 ± 18.9% predicted) were included. No correlations were found between changes in 1RM and the SGRQ neither between changes in HHD and the SGRQ and 6MWT (p > 0.05). Thus, anchor-based methods were used only in the MCID of the 1RM with the 6MWT as the anchor. The pooled MCIDs were 5.7Kg and 26.9% of change for the isotonic quadriceps muscle strength with 1RM and 5.2KgF for isometric quadriceps muscle strength assessed with HHD. The MCIDs found are estimates to improve interpretability of community-based PR effects on quadriceps muscle strength and may contribute to guide interventions.
    2021-02-03Journal article Open access Show more