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- Uma Introdução à Filosofia da MatemáticaPublication . Castro, Eduardo Jorge de SousaEste livro é um manual para um primeiro curso de Filosofia da Matemática. Pode ser usado ao nível de uma graduação ou de uma pós -graduação, de Filosofia ou de Matemática. Restantes académicos e investigadores, bem como professores do ensino não -universitário, podem também encontrar aqui uma referência e uma orientação para o seu trabalho e investigação. O livro apenas pressupõe conhecimentos de matemática e de filosofia, de nível pré -universitário.
- Action of Curcumin on Glioblastoma Growth: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis of Animal Model StudiesPublication . Luís, Ângelo; Amaral, Leonor; Domingues, F.C.; Pereira, L.; Cascalheira, JoséGliomas are aggressive brain tumors with poor prognosis even after surgical removal and radio-chemotherapy, stressing the urgency to find alternative therapies. Several preclinical studies evaluating the anticancer effect of curcumin in animal models of glioma are reported, but a systematic review with meta-analysis of these studies, considering the different experimental conditions used, has not been made up to this date. A search in different databases (Pubmed, Web of Science, Scopus, and SciELO) following the PRISMA statement was conducted during November 2023 to systematically identify articles assessing the effect of curcumin in murine xenograft models of glioma and identified 15 articles, which were subdivided into 24 studies. Tumor volume before and after treatment with curcumin or vehicle was extracted and the efficacy of curcumin was evaluated by performing a random effects meta-analysis of the data. Publication bias and the impact of different experimental conditions on curcumin efficacy were assessed. Treatment with curcumin decreased tumor volume. Comparing curcumin with control groups, the overall weighted standardized difference in means was −2.079 (95% CI: −2.816 to −1.341; p-value < 0.001). The curcumin effect was observed for different animal models, types of glioma cells, administration routes, and curcumin formulations. Publication bias was identified but does not invalidate curcumin’s effectiveness. The findings suggest the potential therapeutic efficacy of curcumin against glioma.
- Therapeutic Potential of Resveratrol for Glioma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Animal Model StudiesPublication . Luís, Ângelo; Marcelino, Helena; Domingues, F.C.; Pereira, L.; Cascalheira, JoséGliomas are aggressive malignant brain tumors, with poor prognosis despite available therapies, raising the necessity for finding new compounds with therapeutic action. Numerous preclinical investigations evaluating resveratrol’s anti-tumor impact in animal models of glioma have been reported; however, the variety of experimental circumstances and results have prevented conclusive findings about resveratrol’s effectiveness. Several databases were searched during May 2023, ten publications were identified, satisfying the inclusion criteria, that assess the effects of resveratrol in murine glioma-bearing xenografts. To determine the efficacy of resveratrol, tumor volume and animal counts were retrieved, and the data were then subjected to a random effects meta-analysis. The influence of different experimental conditions and publication bias on resveratrol efficacy were evaluated. Comparing treated to untreated groups, resveratrol administration decreased the tumor volume. Overall, the effect’s weighted standardized difference in means was −2.046 (95%CI: −3.156 to −0.936; p-value < 0.001). The efficacy of the treatment was observed for animals inoculated with both human glioblastoma or rat glioma cells and for different modes of resveratrol administration. The combined administration of resveratrol and temozolomide was more effective than temozolomide alone. Reducing publication bias did not change the effectiveness of resveratrol treatment. The findings suggest that resveratrol slows the development of tumors in animal glioma models.
- Divided-difference operators from the geometric point of viewPublication . Rebocho, M. N.It is presented a study of general divided-difference operators having the fundamental property of leaving a polynomial of degree n−1 when applied to a polynomial of degree n.
- On the second order holonomic equation for Sobolev-type orthogonal polynomialsPublication . Rebocho, Maria das NevesIt is presented a general approach to the study of orthogonal polynomials related to Sobolev inner products which are defined in terms of divided-difference operators having the fundamental property of leaving a polynomial of degree $n-1$ when applied to a polynomial of degree $n$. This paper gives analytic properties for the orthogonal polynomials, including the second order holonomic difference equation satisfied by them.
- Estudo Longitudinal sobre Eficácia Diferencial e Equidade Social no BrasilPublication . Ferrão, Maria EugéniaO estudo de eficácia diferencial e equidade social entre o 5º e 9º ano do ensino funda-mental segue orientações teórico-metodológicas de eficácia educacional. Modelos de coeficientes aleatórios são aplicados aos dados longitudinais da Prova Brasil 2011 em-parelhados com os da Prova Brasil 2015, envolvendo mais de 1.2 milhões de alunos. A proficiência aferida no 9ºano e conhecimento prévio aferido no 5ºano, na escala SAEB, foram padronizados para o propósito do artigo. Foram testadas ainda variáveis socio-demográficas do aluno, tais como sexo, etnia/raça autodeclarada, nível socioeconómi-co, situação face ao trabalho e se a mãe é ou não alfabetizada. Os resultados sugerem que a relação linear entre conhecimento prévio e proficiência no 9º ano apresenta va-riação ténue entre escolas, municípios ou entre UFs e o mesmo acontece com a relação entre nível socioeconómico e proficiência do 9º ano, apesar de alguns dos parâmetros aleatórios serem estatisticamente significativos. Os indicadores de equidade social e eficácia diferencial por conhecimento prévio variam pouco. Os resultados reforçam a relevância da investigação institucional, especialmente quanto aos fatores intra-es-colares, porque a razão entre a variância do nível Aluno e o somatório de variâncias de nível Escola-Município-UF é maior de 10 em Português e quase 8 em Matemática.
- Escala do índice de exposição da criança à privação material em Portugal: validação e interpretaçãoPublication . Alves, Maria Teresa G.; Bastos, Amélia; Ferrão, Maria EugéniaNeste artigo pretende-se contribuir para a validação e interpretação da escala do índice de exposição da criança à privação material no domicílio com base na amostra portuguesa do EU- -Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-Silc) de 2017. O índice foi desenvolvido a partir de itens do questionário dos domicílios por meio da aplicação de um modelo da teoria da resposta ao item. Para a sua validação, realizou-se análise descritiva da escala segundo variáveis sociais do EU- -Silc. A interpretação se deu pela descrição das categorias dos itens segundo perfis de domicílios agrupados em clusters. Os resultados mostram que 14,3% dos agregados familiares com crianças podem ser classificados como em situação de privação extrema e 25,6% num nível intermédio de privação. Tendo em conta que o EU-Silc é aplicado em todos os países da União Europeia, a metodologia pode ser extensível a esses países, permitindo o monitoramento anual da pobreza infantil.
- Statistical Methods in Recent Higher Education ResearchPublication . Ferrão, Maria EugéniaA broad consensus regarding the need for universities to cultivate academic success has emerged because many students do not achieve their goals or optimally benefit from their higher education (HE) experiences (Altbach, 2014; Davidson & Wilson, 2014; Ferrão & Almeida, 2019; Meggiolaro, Giraldo, & Clerici, 2017; Tinto & Pusser, 2006). [...]
- A Measure of Child Exposure to Household Material Deprivation: Empirical Evidence from the Portuguese EU-SILCPublication . Ferrão, Maria Eugénia; Bastos, Amélia; Alves, Maria Teresa G.Although monitoring and evaluating child poverty has been recognized as important, there is little statistical information focused on children. Because the annual EUStatistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey does not include child-specific information on an annual basis, this study proposes a measure of child exposure to household material deprivation based on this dataset. The study considers four domains of deprivation that have a direct impact on child development: housing conditions, household financial capacity, household durable goods, and environmental living conditions. Although developing a child-centered measurement of child deprivation is important, the EU-SILC considers the household as the unit of measurement. Therefore, our proposal is household-based, allowing annual monitoring of children’s exposure to deprivation—an important insight for social policy purposes to tackle the problem of child poverty. Using the 2017 Portuguese sample, we applied graded response models to assess the psychometric properties of the EU-SILC items and fit separate indexes per domain and the composite index. Item selection was based on their characteristic curves and information functions. The results allow for the selection of more informative items for every domain to obtain the composite index. In general, the empirical analysis confirmed the theoretical approach for item selection. The methodology may be directly applied to the full EU dataset or to each country individually.
- Differential effect of university entrance scores on graduates’ performance: the case of degree completion on time in PortugalPublication . Ferrão, Maria EugéniaDegree completion on theoretical time is a phenomenon seldom explored in the higher education literature. We applied variance components models and random coefficients models to the microdata of an entire entrant cohort of first-time, full-time undergraduate students who completed their three-year programme at a Portuguese institution during the theoretical period. The study showed that the variance partition coefficient is 0.27, considering the hierarchical structure of students nested in programmes. The differential effect of students’ university entrance scores on degree completion grade point average is stronger across programmes than across faculties, controlling for students’ sociodemographic background (gender, age and parents’ level of education), social scholarship granted, and preference regarding the institution and programme attended. The fixed effects related to the areas of study and type of institution (e.g. university or polytechnic) were also quantified. The estimates indicated that secondary school preparation is the most important predictive factor for the final grade point average of degree completion among the variables at enrolment. Moreover, differences based on gender, age, and areas of study were found.