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- Investigation of urinary volatile organic metabolites as potential cancer biomarkers by solid-phase microextraction in combination with gas chromatography-mass spectrometryPublication . Silva, C. L.; Câmara, J. S.BACKGROUND: Non-invasive diagnostic strategies aimed at identifying biomarkers of cancer are of great interest for early cancer detection. Urine is potentially a rich source of volatile organic metabolites (VOMs) that can be used as potential cancer biomarkers. Our aim was to develop a generally reliable, rapid, sensitive, and robust analytical method for screening large numbers of urine samples, resulting in a broad spectrum of native VOMs, as a tool to evaluate the potential of these metabolites in the early diagnosis of cancer. METHODS: To investigate urinary volatile metabolites as potential cancer biomarkers, urine samples from 33 cancer patients (oncological group: 14 leukaemia, 12 colorectal and 7 lymphoma) and 21 healthy (control group, cancer-free) individuals were qualitatively and quantitatively analysed. Dynamic solid-phase microextraction in headspace mode (dHS-SPME) using a carboxenpolydimethylsiloxane (CAR/PDMS) sorbent in combination with GC-qMS-based metabolomics was applied to isolate and identify the volatile metabolites. This method provides a potential non-invasive method for early cancer diagnosis as a first approach. To fulfil this objective, three important dHS-SPME experimental parameters that influence extraction efficiency (fibre coating, extraction time and temperature of sampling) were optimised using a univariate optimisation design. The highest extraction efficiency was obtained when sampling was performed at 501C for 60min using samples with high ionic strengths (17% sodium chloride, wv 1) and under agitation. RESULTS: A total of 82 volatile metabolites belonging to distinct chemical classes were identified in the control and oncological groups. Benzene derivatives, terpenoids and phenols were the most common classes for the oncological group, whereas ketones and sulphur compounds were the main classes that were isolated from the urine headspace of healthy subjects. The results demonstrate that compound concentrations were dramatically different between cancer patients and healthy volunteers. The positive rates of 16 patients among the 82 identified were found to be statistically different (Po0.05). A significant increase in the peak area of 2-methyl3-phenyl-2-propenal, p-cymene, anisole, 4-methyl-phenol and 1,2-dihydro-1,1,6-trimethyl-naphthalene in cancer patients was observed. On average, statistically significant lower abundances of dimethyl disulphide were found in cancer patients. CONCLUSIONS: Gas chromatographic peak areas were submitted to multivariate analysis (principal component analysis and supervised linear discriminant analysis) to visualise clusters within cases and to detect the volatile metabolites that are able to differentiate cancer patients from healthy individuals. Very good discrimination within cancer groups and between cancer and control groups was achieved.
- A Madeira e a descolonização: da história às narrativas de vidaPublication . Sousa, José Luís Ferreira de; Coelho, Leonor MartinsEste trabalho intitulado “A MADEIRA E A DESCOLONIZAÇÃO – Da História às Narrativas de Vida” é, talvez sobretudo, o resultado dos desafios constantes que esta temática implica: actual, dolorosa e relacional. Foi necessário imprimir alguma sensibilidade para tratar este tema complexo, porque se cruzam contrastes culturais que foram abordados na suposta e conveniente distância das gerações imediatas. No início do trabalho, julgou-se propícia essa suposição, porque se evitariam diálogos exacerbados, quando as paixões já tivessem esmorecido. Não foi essa a conclusão a que chegámos. É nesta problemática que se enquadra o tema e o estudo que concluímos e que, no entanto, permanece em aberto. Serão os futuros trabalhos que abrirão novas perspectivas. Privilegiámos esta nuance porque a descolonização é a consequência da remota política “novecentista” que evoluiu no percurso do século XX e nele encontrou o desfecho. Questionámos as motivações de todos os intervenientes e procurámos interpretações comuns com introdução de soluções para um futuro promissor. Assim, e dadas as dimensões que o tema proporciona, optámos por contextualizar a questão, dando mais ênfase às memórias de uma época expostas nos relatos dos entrevistados. Algumas conclusões foram retiradas dos pontos comuns dessas narrativas autobiográficas. Outras permanecerão na insondável e complexa memória dos que viveram esse fenómeno. O que se pretendia, à partida, vincular a uma visão nova do mundo, só parcialmente contribuirá para um entendimento nas relações entre a Europa, Portugal em particular, e as regiões de África. Com efeito, houve sofrimento no antagonismo das perspectivas de opositores que encontraram no belicismo a forma de atingir os objectivos divergentes, obviamente. Estudámos palcos de guerra onde a sentença internacional já fora determinada. À revelia dos convénios internacionais, nomeadamente da ONU, o regime salazarista teimou no “orgulhosamente sós”. Através deste projecto jamais pretendemos constatar a dicotomia simplista entre colono e colonizado, mas sim analisar as relações entre o europeu e o africano como forma de apreender mundos distintos, sabendo que em África a noção do presente é que prevalece. Esta perspectiva aberta e dialogante permite apresentar aos alunos das escolas do 3º Ciclo e Secundárias da RAM um tema marcante que envolveu as gerações de meados do século XX, mas que ainda é actual. Os meios audiovisuais e a internet facilitarão a tarefa pedagogico-didáctica.
- Quiosque multimédia FNACPublication . Santos, Fábio Leandro; Peralta, Laura Margarita RodríguezCurrently, the adaptation of new information and communication technologies has become an asset for the growing of business organizations, approaching the citizens to these same technologies and strengthening the ties between them and the organizations. In this context arises the Multimedia Kiosk as a powerful and innovative tool. Through its interactive system, dynamic movement, and synchronization of audiovisual content, it helps users to navigate among the topics desired by the organizations. This project arises from the need of innovation by FNAC Madeira, because this is a company that wants to be at the forefront of technology and innovation and the development of such a tool increases their competitiveness in a market increasingly demanding. Thus, this dissertation of Master Degree in Computer Engineering aims to develop an application for a multimedia kiosk. Therefore, this project needs to achieve all objectives proposed by FNAC Madeira, i.e., develop an innovative and interactive product that permits the disclosure of store products and offers a personalized selfservice to all the customers’ store. The multimedia kiosks are an increasingly indispensable tool for organizations that want to be one step forward, providing a number of features adjusted to specific needs.
- Obras marítimas de acostagem: o caso do porto de abrigo da Ilha do Porto SantoPublication . Sousa, Nuno Miguel Barros de; Lopes, Luiz Carlos GuerreiroO projecto e a execução de estruturas costeiras, marítimas e portuárias apresentam elavada complexidade, envolvendo a consideração de um grande número de factores e restrições e a utilização sinergética de conhecimentos oriundos de diferentes áreas do saber. Nesta dissertação, efectua-se inicialmente uma breve descrição das questões e preocupações que decorrem destas obras, bem como dos métodos de auxílio e validação dos cálculos utilizados no dimensionamento dessas estruturas, de modo a melhor aproximar o projecto à realidade, permitindo com isto antecipar e corrigir potenciais problemas. Além disso, nesta dissertação são apresentados os diferentes tipos de obras marítimas, as suas funções e os objectivos de cada uma delas, bem como os materiais utilizados e alguns dos seus métodos constructivos, descrevendo-se as diversas soluções que podem ser implementadas consoante as necessidades locais, a realidade económica existente e os materiais mais adequados a aplicar, sendo dada especial ênfase às obras marítimas de acostagem, tendo como caso de estudo a obra de recuperação do porto de abrigo da Ilha do Porto Santo, no Arquipélago da Madeira, sendo focados neste estudo os seus parâmetros essenciais, como o enquadramento climático e geográfico, os estudos preliminares e diagnósticos realizados, a caracterização da obra e da solução implementada, bem como a ordem de trabalhos e os meios necessários à sua execução. São também expostas as metodologias de cálculo das dimensões e do peso dos blocos de protecção e do enrocamento, bem como das espessuras das diferentes camadas por estes formadas, projectadas para dissipar a energia da agitação marítima, sendo ainda apresentados os resultados da aplicação de tais metodologias simplificadas de cálculo à obra de reabilitação portuária escolhida para este estudo.
- I2miner: uma aplicação de busca e análise de dados quantitativosPublication . Nóbrega, Miguel Pestana; Campos, Pedro Filipe PereiraIn the present days there is a great need for information that is reliable, consistent and easy to understand, that need is getting bigger and bigger with the course of time. The fact is that most of the information we need is already present in digital form, whether in the web or in documents owned by the user, the hard task is to get that relevant information, organize, process and deliver it to the user so that he can easily understand and create reasoned meaning. In this master thesis those steps are studied, whilst the i2miner application is being built, basing each step of is implementation on the research of themes like, information retrieval, interface design, visualization information and visual analysis. Each of those steps has its associated difficulties, since the implementation of the application is a joint effort with another student, in this thesis i will only address themes like interface design, visualization information, and visual analysis, the information retrieval and processing, will be in charge of José Nelson (PhD student). The appearance of larger screens, faster processors and new algorithms makes possible to produce information from gigabytes of data at stunning speeds, and now it’s possible to create increasingly adapted visualizations to humans. Is therefore important to know the capabilities of humans, like the human sight and human reasoning. This application is made for users who are grounded in economy, and that are many times requested to make important decisions. So the interface of the application must allow the user to rapidly get all the information he needs from reliable sources (that the user thrusts) and make its reasoning, in order to get sufficient and reasoned knowledge to make decisions.
- Atendimento personalizado FNACPublication . Santos, José Xavier Ferro; Sampaio, Paulo Nazareno MaiaMost of the companies all over the world have adopted different strategies to address and keep their customers. With this aim and the increasingly competitive market, it is crucial the existence of a personalized customer service that is aware of customers preferences. Marketing One-to-One arises in this context since it allows the company to match accurately their activities with the characteristics of each client. The Marketing One-to-One provides a personalized relationship with customers becoming feasible to provide a range of services and products that meet the needs of each client. As a result of technological development, the information and communication technologies are one of the most important tools used in promoting the services and products, thus facilitating the interaction between customer and companies. In this sense, the FNAC personalized assistance project aims at studying and developing solutions / strategies to be implemented at the Multimedia Kiosk FNAC in order to promote more personalized FNAC customer assistance. The implemented interactive solution provides the FNAC customer with a personalized experience that meets their preferences and needs, and always will be made available in an automatic and customized way in the FNAC multimedia kiosks. The work presented in this Master in Informatics Engineering dissertation was proposed by FNAC Madeira, and has as main goals: (i) The implementation of a personalized system where the FNAC customer is served automatically in the FNAC multimedia kiosks, (ii) The study and development of strategies in order to identify and differentiate each FNAC client, (iii) The implementation of these strategies in order to guide the customers to the product offerings of their choice, and (iv) the development of skills in the areas of interactive multimedia applications and multimedia kiosk.