Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2017"
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- Occurrence, genetic diversity and antibiotic resistance of Arcobacter sp. in a dairy plantPublication . Ferreira, Susana; Oleastro, Mónica; Domingues, F.C.Aims The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence, diversity and resistance to antibiotics of Arcobacter sp. in a dairy plant samples. Methods and Results A total of 75 samples from dairy plant surfaces and materials and several food products collected in different steps of the cheese production process were analysed by culture, under aerobic and microaerobic atmospheric conditions, and by enrichment molecular detection. Isolates were identified and genotyped by ERIC‐PCR, and their susceptibility to nine antibiotics was evaluated by agar dilution. Global prevalence of Arcobacter sp. was 42·7%, where 20 of the 42 food samples analysed were positive for A. butzleri by both culture and molecular detection, one for A. marinus by culture and one for A. cryaerophilus by molecular detection only; 10 of the 30 analysed materials and plant surfaces were positive for A. butzleri. All A. butzleri isolates were resistant to nalidixic acid and showed high resistance rates to ampicillin (56·2%) and cefotaxime (97·9%), being all strains susceptible to gentamicin and erythromycin. Conclusions Contamination of dairy plant environment with A. butzleri and its progression along cheese production process were observed, however, the cheese ripening process may have a relevant role in the reduction of the contamination. Significance and Impact of the Study This study showed the presence of Arcobacter sp. in a dairy plant, displaying its high prevalence and genetic diversity and highlighting its high resistance rates. The data obtained could contribute to further acknowledge the Arcobacter food contamination as a potential health hazard.
- On the Evaluation of Energy-Efficient Deep Learning Using Stacked Autoencoders on Mobile GPUsPublication . Falcao, Gabriel; Alexandre, Luís; Marques, J.; Frazão, Xavier; Maria, J.Over the last years, deep learning architectures have gained attention by winning important international detection and classification challenges. However, due to high levels of energy consumption, the need to use low-power devices at acceptable throughput performance is higher than ever. This paper tries to solve this problem by introducing energy efficient deep learning based on local training and using low-power mobile GPU parallel architectures, all conveniently supported by the same high-level description of the deep network. Also, it proposes to discover the maximum dimensions that a particular type of deep learning architecture—the stacked autoencoder—can support by finding the hardware limitations of a representative group of mobile GPUs and platforms.
- Identifying top relevant dates for implicit time sensitive queriesPublication . Campos, Ricardo; Dias, Gaël; Jorge, Alípio; Nunes, CéliaDespite a clear improvement of search and retrieval temporal applications, current search engines are still mostly unaware of the temporal dimension. Indeed, in most cases, systems are limited to offering the user the chance to restrict the search to a particular time period or to simply rely on an explicitly specified time span. If the user is not explicit in his/her search intents (e.g., ‘‘philip seymour hoffman’’) search engines may likely fail to present an overall historic perspective of the topic. In most such cases, they are limited to retrieving the most recent results. One possible solution to this shortcoming is to understand the different time periods of the query. In this context, most state-of-the-art methodologies consider any occurrence of temporal expressions in web documents and other web data as equally relevant to an implicit time sensitive query. To approach this problem in a more adequate manner, we propose in this paper the detection of relevant temporal expressions to the query. Unlike previous metadata and query log-based approaches, we show how to achieve this goal based on information extracted from document content. However, instead of simply focusing on the detection of the most obvious date we are also interested in retrieving the set of dates that are relevant to the query. Towards this goal, we define a general similarity measure that makes use of co-occurrences of words and years based on corpus statistics and a classification methodology that is able to identify the set of top relevant dates for a given implicit time sensitive query, while filtering out the non-relevant ones. Through extensive experimental evaluation, we mean to demonstrate that our approach offers promising results in the field of temporal information retrieval (T-IR), as demonstrated by the experiments conducted over several baselines on web corpora collections.
- Dry-land strength and conditioning for prepubertal and peripubertal swimmersPublication . Amaro, Nuno; Marinho, Daniel; Marques, MC; Batalha, Nuno; Morouço, PedroSwimming success depends on several factors. The ability to apply in-water force is crucial, particularly in short distances (13,15). Among others methodologies, dry-land strength and conditioning training is a common practice in competitive swimming. [...]
- Towards Rural Land Use: Challenges for Oversizing Urban Perimeters in Shrinking TownsPublication . Sá, João Paulo Costa e; Virtudes, Ana L.This article, based on the literature review, aims to study the challenges of the urban dispersion and oversizing of urban perimeters, in the cases where the towns are shrinking or spreading to the rural land-use. It is focused on the case of Portugal where during the last decades there was an escaping to the big cities alongside to the sea (Atlantic and Mediterranean) shore. In the Interior part of the country, which means near to the border with Spain, several towns are shrinking, despite their huge urban perimeters, proposed by the municipal master plans, since the middle of the nineties. Consequently, these urban perimeters are nowadays oversizing, with empty buildings and non-urbanized areas. At the same time, the social patterns of occupation of this territory have changed significantly, moving from a society with signs of rurality to an urban realm, understood not only in territorial terms but also regarding the current lifestyle. This deep changing has occurred not only in urbanistic terms but also in the economic, cultural and social organizations of the country, under a movement that corresponds to a decline of the small urban settlements in rural areas, far away from the cosmopolitan strip of land nearby the sea, in between the capital city, Lisbon and the second one Oporto. These transformations were not driven by any significant public policy for landuse actions. On the contrary, the production of urban areas, supporting the new model of economic and social development was largely left to the initiative of economic and social private agents and land owners. These agents were the leading responsible for the new urban developments and housing. In this sense, this research aims to present some strategies for the short time period regarding the devolution of urban areas to rural land use. In this sense, the next steps of spatial planning policies, under the role of local authorities (the 308 municipalities including Madeira and Azores islands, plus the continental part of the country), which are their main promoters, will be motivated by the need of advocating the swap of many urban areas towards the rural land use, shrinking many existent urban perimeters in depressed territories. How will the non-urbanized spaces, included in the urban perimeters, twenty years ago, by the pivotal instrument of spatial planning in Portugal, the Municipal Master Plans turn back to the rural land-use, losing their market value? This is the base of the challenges ahead, analysed in this article.
- Surface Analysis of Materials by Elastic Scattering of MeV IonsPublication . Carvalho, José Pacheco de; Pacheco, Cláudia Ribeiro; Reis, AntonioAbstract—This article is about computer simulation for surface analysis through nuclear techniques, which are non-destructive. The energy analysis method is used. Energy spectra are computer simulated and compared to experimental data, giving sample composition and concentration profiles. The method, using elastic scattering of (4He)+ ions, is successfully applied to depth profiling in a target containing a thin film deposited on a thick substrate and in a thick target.
- Phase Synchronism Loops of Carrier and DataPublication . Reis, António; Rocha, José Ferreira da; Gameiro, Atilio; Carvalho, José Pacheco deThis work presents a Phase Lock Loop for Carrier Wave (CPLL) and a Phase Lock Loop for Data Bits (DPLL). Each one of these devices is constituted by a phase comparator, a loop gain, a low pass filter and a voltage controlled oscillator. The objective is to study these synchronizers and evaluate their performance in presence of noise. We measure the output jitter UIRMS (Unit Intervals Root Mean Square) versus input SNR (Signal Noise Ratio).
- Effects of order and sequence of resistance and endurance training on body fat in elementary school-aged girlsPublication . Alves, Ana R.; Marta, Carlos C.; Neiva, Henrique; Izquierdo, Mikel; Marques, Mário CThe purpose of this study was to analyse the effects of order and sequence of concurrent resistance and endurance training on body fat percentage (BFP) in a large sample of elementary school-aged girls. One hundred and twenty-six healthy girls, aged 10-11 years (10.95 ± 0.48 years), were randomly assigned to six groups to perform different training protocols per week for 8 weeks: Resistance-only (R), Endurance-only (E), Concurrent Distinct Endurance-Resistance (CDER), Concurrent Parallel Endurance-Resistance (CPER), Concurrent Parallel Resistance-Endurance (CPRE), and a Control group (C). In R and E, the subjects performed single sessions of resistance or endurance exercises, respectively (two days per week). In CDER, resistance-endurance training was performed on different days each week (four days per week). CPER and CPRE performed single-session combined endurance-resistance training or combined resistance-endurance training, respectively, each week (two days per week). After an 8-week training period, BFP decreased in all experimental groups (CPER: 13.3%, p< 0.05; CPRE: 13.8%, p<0.001; E: 1.9%, p>0.05; R: 5.0%, p>0.05; and CDER: 5.6%, p>0.05). However, a significant difference was found in CPER and CPRE when compared to CDER, E, and R, indicating that training sequence may influence BFP. All programmes were effective, but CPER and CPRE obtained better results for BFP than CDER, E, or R. The effects of concurrent resistance and endurance training on body fat percentage can be mediated by order and sequence of exercise. These results provide insight into optimization of school-based fat loss exercise programmes in childhood.
- Multi-GPU-Based Detection of Protein Cavities using Critical PointsPublication . Dias, Sérgio; Nguyen, Quoc; Jorge, Joaquim A; Gomes, AbelProtein cavities are specific regions on the protein surface where ligands (small molecules) may bind. Such cavities are putative binding sites of proteins for ligands. Usually, cavities correspond to voids, pockets, and depressions of molecular surfaces. The location of such cavities is important to better understand protein functions, as needed in, for example, structure-based drug design. This article introduces a geometric method to detecting cavities on the molecular surface based on the theory of critical points. The method, called CriticalFinder, differs from other surface-based methods found in the literature because it directly uses the curvature of the scalar field (or function) that represents the molecular surface, instead of evaluating the curvature of the Connolly function over the molecular surface. To evaluate the accuracy of CriticalFinder, we compare it to other seven geometric methods (i.e., LIGSITE-CS, GHECOM, ConCavity, POCASA, SURFNET, PASS, and Fpocket). The benchmark results show that CriticalFinder outperforms those methods in terms of accuracy. In addition, the performance analysis of the GPU implementation of CriticalFinder in terms of time consumption and memory space occupancy was carried out.
- Exploring citizens’ judgments about the legitimacy of public policies on refugeesPublication . Canelo, Maria José; Oliveira, Evandro; Luoma-aho, VilmaPurpose To introduce a theoretical frame regarding the meaning of legitimacy as an intangible asset of the public sector; to test a way of operationalizing legitimacy typologies that allows exploring and comparing how citizens from two countries evaluate the legitimacy of public policies; to suggest implications for governments’ legitimacy-building strategies in shared international crisis, such as the refugees coming from the Syrian-region. Design/methodology/approach Building on Suchman’s typology, it was defined and categorized different types of legitimacy into concrete measurable, communication related statements concerning consequential, procedural, structural and personal. For the illustrative example, four focus groups were conducted in two different European societies as a mean to have two poles of comparison. Findings The paper reports current understanding of legitimacy by citizens, discusses how different legitimacy types might demand different communication and public diplomacy approaches. The basis for hypothesis for further research on how governments should build legitimacy during emerging societal issues such as immigration policies is set. Practical implications It proposes a typology and its operationalization, discusses how communication might shape legitimacy and profiles the challenge governments have in building it. Within a public diplomacy context, it brings clues for new strategies to the challenge of explaining policies on international crisis combining the tension of domestic with foreign publics. Originality/value There is little research so far in search for clues for communication strategies for the legitimacy of policies on the 2015 European refugee´s crisis. This contributes to the emerging area of intangible assets in the public sector and tests a focus group research strategy with both hermeneutical and pragmatic aims. Combine public diplomacy theory with public sector intangible assets theory to respond to the tension of internal and external publics demands.