Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2017-06"
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- VISIR federation: Initial building steps (PILAR experience – work in progress)Publication . Oros, Ramona; Pester, Andreas; Kreiter, Christian; Castro, Manuel; Fidalgo, André; Alves, Gustavo R.; Gustavsson, IngvarCollaborative working as well as sharing resources and knowledge represent key points in today's development in all fields, including education. Know-how transfer and collaboration in learning and teaching are aspects promoted and sustained by institutional management as well as the European initiatives. Thus, leading to the idea of a federation which will facilitate engineering education. A consortium formed by five European universities decided to join efforts to provide to the community a federation, which could be used by different stakeholders interest in teaching, learning or developing new skills in the field of electronics. The proposed remote system, Virtual Instruments System in Reality, or VISIR in short, offers the possibility of working with real equipment and obtain the real-world/ real-time measurements. By developing such a VISIR federation some of the constraints of using remote labs, the ones associated with development and maintenance costs, and scalability, will be minimized.
- Science Education at High School: a VISIR Remote Lab ImplementationPublication . Evangelista, Ignacio; Farina, Juan; Dobboletta, Elsa; Pozzo, María I.; García-Zubía, Javier; Hernández, Unai; Marchisio, Susana; Concari, Sonia; Alves, Gustavo R.; Gustavsson, IngvarExperimentation is crucial in science teaching at any education level. Students’ motivation and collaborative work are also essential in order to achieve positive learning outcomes. This article portrays the implementation of remote experimentation using VISIR in a Physics subject at high-school level. Qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed for this particular case study in order to shed light on the influence of VISIR on students’ motivation. Results showed that VISIR remote lab is a powerful tool to arouse interest in electronic circuit topics.
- The VISIR+ Project – Helping Contextualize Math in an Engineering CoursePublication . Lima, Natércia; Zannin, Marcelo; Viegas, Clara; Marques, Arcelina; Alves, Gustavo R.; Felgueiras, Carlos; Costa, Ricardo; Fidalgo, André; Silva, Juarez; Pozzo, María I.; Dobboletta, Elsa; Penãlvo, Francisco J.; Gustavsson, IngvarThe long-term goal of engineering education is to prepare students to work as engineers. Being a practical profession, laboratories play a crucial role in illustrating concepts and principles as well as improving technical skills. In the last decades the use of online resources (simulators and remote labs) has been growing, either as a complementary and/or as an alternative way of developing experimental competences. In the scope of the VISIR+ Project, this work presents the first results of a didactical implementation using simultaneously the remote laboratory VISIR (Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality), simulation and calculus in a Math Course at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC). The preliminary results indicate that the use of several resources increases students’ performance, boosting their learning and competence development.
- Investigação qualitativa e métodos mistos em Manuais Escolares: um estudo comparativo europeuPublication . Maia, CristinaO nosso artigo aborda as várias áreas de investigação a que se prestam os manuais escolares e, consequentemente, daí emanam um conjunto de categorias de análise que se enquadram em metodologias qualitativas de análise de conteúdo, de análise de discurso, donde destacamos a narrativa histórica, e de métodos mistos. Esta abordagem parte de um estudo comparativo europeu de grande abrangência: manuais escolares de 17 países de três áreas geográficas europeias bem diferenciadas – Europa Ocidental, Europa de Leste e Europa Nórdica – serviram de mote para compreender o ensino da Guerra Fria entre o período final da Guerra Fria e o pós-Guerra Fria. O objetivo deste trabalho é o de apresentar o desenho de uma investigação com um processo inovador de análise qualitativa e quantitativa de dados, um método misto, embora com prioridade à abordagem qualitativa, e que beneficiou da aplicação de software específico. O estudo revelou que este tipo de investigação pode tirar grandes vantagens da combinação destas duas perspetivas metodológicas, evidenciando o interesse em desenvolver métodos mistos em investigação com manuais escolares.
- Os enfermeiros e a sua saúde no trabalho: a relação entre depressão e burnoutPublication . Quinta, Sílvia; Queirós, Cristina; Marques, António; Orvalho, VeraAtualmente as carreiras profissionais são cada vez mais longas e exigentes, e os riscos psicossociais no trabalho têm sido valorizados devido às suas consequências na saúde física e mental dos trabalhadores. Os enfermeiros, pelas exigências emocionais da exposição constante ao sofrimento humano estão vulneráveis ao burnout e depressão, a qual é um dos temas da OMS para 2017. Pretendem-se conhecer os níveis de depressão e de burnout e suas inter-correlações numa amostra de 301 enfermeiros de um hospital do distrito do Porto. Utilizando o Maslach Burnout Inventory e o Beck Depression Inventory encontraram-se níveis baixos de depressão e de burnout, embora exista já 1% da amostra com depressão e 10% com burnout elevado. Existem correlações positivas significativas entre burnout e depressão, com valores preditivos recíprocos de cerca de 30%, sendo a exaustão emocional o principal preditor da depressão. Os resultados alertam para a pertinência de mais investigação num grupo profissional cujo trabalho é de grande responsabilidade e crucial para a vida dos pacientes, pois os níveis de depressão e burnout podem condicionar a saúde física e mental dos enfermeiros e, consequentemente, afetar negativamente a qualidade dos cuidados prestados aos utentes.
- Bilateral DMPFC-rTMS Leads to Sustained Remission in Geriatric Treatment-Resistant Depression: A Case ReportPublication . Sender, David; Nazar, Bruno Palazzo; Baczynski, Tathiana; Paes, Flávia; Fettes, Peter; Downar, Jonathan; Campos, Carlos; Nardi, Antonio Egidio; Machado, SergioMajor Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a highly prevalent condition that has been labeled the current leading cause of disability adjusted life years (Ferrari et al. 2013). Approximately 30% of MDD patients are treatment resistant, not achieving remission after two or more antidepressant trials (Baldessarini et al. 2015). In the geriatric population, MDD is associated with both lower rates of remission and increased levels of recurrence (Kiosses & Alexopoulos 2013). Geriatric MDD not only shows an impoverished response to pharmacological approaches, but also presents new treatment challenges associated with clinical limitations such as frequent metabolic issues, comorbidity and poly-medication. Hence, additional therapeutic alternatives such as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) might be beneficial in these resistant cases (Downar & Daskalakis 2013).
- A teacher training workshop to promote the use of the VISIR Remote Laboratory for electrical circuits teachingPublication . Arguedas, Carlos; Concari, Sonia; García-Zubía, Javier; Marchisio, Susana; Hernández, Unai; Alves, Gustavo R.; Uriarte-Canivell, Iñigo; Conejo, Marco; Gustavsson, Ingvar; Elizondo, FernandoThe learning of Physics involves building up and using lab experiments. In turn, teachers must be trained in experimenting and using several resources that enable them to design valuable teaching strategies and learning activities. Thanks to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), virtual and remote labs can provide a framework where physical experiments can be developed. Altough remote labs have been in use for over a decade now in several countries and levels of education, its use at secondary schools in Latin America has not been reported yet. The Virtual Instruments System in Reality (VISIR) is one of these remote labs, suitable to practice in the area of electrical circuits. This paper aims at describing how this remote lab was used in a training workshop for secondary school level teachers of Physics in Costa Rica.
- Starting the Study of Electronic Circuits with VISIR. College students’ viewpoints in a Pilot Test in ArgentinaPublication . Marchisio, Susana; Lerro, Federico; Merendino, Claudio; Plano, Miguel; Concari, Sonia; García-Zubia, Javier; Hernández, Unai; Alves, Gustavo R.; Gustavsson, IngvarThis paper aims at introducing the first intensive use of a remote lab named as VISIR by lecturers and students from Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Ingeniería y Agrimensura, Universidad Nacional de Rosario. The research was carried under the VISIR + project. It is a pilot test in which 17 students from the third year of an Electronic Engineering degree took part. The pilot test was developed in order to bring forward possible difficulties, assess successes and failures and eventually suggest other possible ways of curricular incorporation of VISIR in the teaching of the Physics of Electronic Devices subject. VISIR was used as a complement to hands-on lab, after the last experimental design activity of basic circuits with bipolar transistor. The students carried out an individual lab work. Then, they were asked to answer an opinion poll made up of 20 items, 1-4 Likert scale. Descriptive statistical analysis and summary of cases were carried out in order to conclude about four dimensions of analysis linked to the students’ viewpoint. They are: perceived learnings, VISIR acceptance, perceived teachers’ guidance and time and technical restrictions.
- Preprocessing of magnetic resonance images with multiple Sclerosis lesionsPublication . Pinto, Rafaela; Ventura, Sandra Rua; Silva, Vitor; Tavares, Manuel R.S.According to the World Health Organization, it is estimated that multiple sclerosis (MS) affects around 2.5 million people worldwide and more than 5000 in Portugal. Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory, demyelinating, idiopathic, and often disabling central nervous system disease that affects the white matter diagnosed in young adults and predominantly affects womens. Multiple sclerosis is the most common neurological disorder with unexplained causes and major repercussions in the lives of patients, causing the active search for answers by the researchers. Although the disease cannot be cured or prevented at this time, the available treatments only reduce its severity and delay its progression. In recent years, there has been a major development of image processing and analysis techniques in order to facilitate early diagnosis and suitable treatment. In general, images acquired by imaging devices and specialized techniques require transformations and enhancements to make them more suitable in order to extract as much information as desired with greater efficiency. Several authors, have described techniques of image preprocessing and segmentation of MS lesions, making evident the advantages of such computational tools. In this work, different preprocessing algorithms were applied in order to perform the brain extraction from resonance magnetic (RM) images for their easier further analysis.
- Bioelectrochemical Dechlorination of 1,2-DCA with an AQDS-Functionalized Cathode Serving as Electron DonorPublication . Leitão, P.; Nouws, Hendrikus; Danko, A. S.; Aulenta, F.In the present study we describe a simple method to immobilize the redox mediator anthraquinone‐2,6‐disulfonate (AQDS) at the surface of graphite electrodes, by means of a commercial anion exchange membrane. Cyclic voltammetry experiments confirmed the efficacy of the immobilization protocol and the long‐term (over 70 days) electrochemical stability of the AQDS‐functionalized electrode. Potentiostatic (–300 mV vs. SHE) batch experiments proved the capability of the electrode in accelerating the bioelectrochemical reductive dechlorination of the groundwater contaminant 1,2‐dichloroethane (1,2‐DCA) to harmless ethene by a mixed microbial culture, by serving as electron donor in the process. Considering the reported broad range of anodic and cathodic reactions catalyzed by AQDS, the herein described functionalized electrode has a remarkable potential for application in the environmental and industrial sector.