Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco
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Collaborative teaching in higher education : A case study examining the decision-making process of English for specific purposes and content teachers involved in collaborative teaching
No full textTese apresentada à Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Ciências das Línguas.This PhD thesis explores the receptiveness of professors, participating students, and faculty directors towards interdisciplinary collaboration with an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teacher at the Castelo Branco Polytechnic University, focusing on the implementation and outcomes of collaborative teaching involving ESP and content teachers from various disciplines. Conducted in three stages and using a mixed-method approach, the research first assesses collaboration receptiveness through questionnaires. Stage Two focuses on implementation involving content selection, lesson planning, and assessments and finally captures feedback, reflections, and reactions from teachers and students. The study reveals the positive impact of interdisciplinary collaboration on content and language learning, with academic staff and school directors showing a strong commitment to integrating language instruction with disciplinary content. Drawing from Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT), the findings demonstrated that self-efficacy and task value influenced participants' motivation and engagement with teachers, showing greater receptiveness when they had higher selfefficacy and positive outcome expectations. At the same time, students were more engaged when they recognised the value of interdisciplinary learning for their academic and professional goals. Although collaboration was generally welcomed, some teachers and students needed additional linguistic support and incentives to increase their confidence in engaging with such initiatives. Reflections on the collaboration highlight its success and the need for continuous improvement, stressing the importance of a supportive institutional culture, stakeholder collaboration, and interdisciplinary approaches for enhancing educational outcomes
Decoding urinary tract infection trends: A 5-year snapshot from Central Portugal
No full textIntroduction: This study analyzes urinary tract infections (UTIs) in a hospital in Central Portugal over a five-year period, focusing on bacterial prevalence, patient demographics, and antibiotic resistance patterns. This investigation aims to provide insights that can guide improved infection control and treatment strategies. Methods: A total of 6161 positive urine cultures collected over five years were examined, with particular emphasis on 2019 due to a peak in infection rates. The analysis explored bacterial prevalence, demographic
factors such as sex and clinical service origin, and antibiotic resistance. Special attention was given to hospitalized patients, especially those undergoing invasive procedures, due to their increased vulnerability to infection. Results: This study found that UTIs were more prevalent in female patients, reflecting anatomical susceptibilities. Hospitalized individuals, particularly those requiring invasive procedures, were at greater risk. The predominant bacteria were Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Enterococcus faecalis, with differences in prevalence by patient sex and service origin. Resistance to Imipenem
in E. coli increased, raising concerns about last-resort treatments. However, resistance to other antibiotics declined, suggesting improvements due to recent stewardship measures. During the COVID-19 pandemic, overall antibiotic consumption decreased due to changes in clinical practices. Conclusion: The findings highlight the importance of strict infection control, targeted prevention measures, and rational antibiotic use to combat resistance. Ongoing surveillance and personalized treatment approaches are essential to improve UTI management and outcomes.N/
A emoção na performance musical
No full textRelatório de estágio apresentado à Escola Superior de Artes Aplicadas do Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ensino de Música – Instrumento e Música de Conjunto.O presente Relatório de Estágio, realizado no âmbito da Prática de Ensino Supervisionada do Mestrado em Ensino de Música, especialização em Instrumento e Música de Conjunto, encontra-se dividido em duas partes. A primeira parte é referente à Prática de Ensino Supervisionada, realizada no Conservatório Regional de Castelo Branco, no ano letivo 2023/2024. Esta prática foca-se no acompanhamento de três alunos de guitarra (dois alunos do 4º grau e um aluno do 5º grau) e no acompanhamento de uma classe de conjunto (orquestra de guitarras). A segunda parte do trabalho consiste no Projeto de Investigação, intitulado “A Emoção na Performance Musical”. Este estudo, de natureza maioritariamente qualitativa, utiliza a metodologia de investigação-ação e foi realizado com quatro alunos de guitarra clássica (dois do 4º grau e dois do 5º grau). Esta investigação tem como objetivos compreender de que forma o intérprete transmite emoções numa performance musical e com que precisão essas emoções são percebidas pelo público. Para tal, são analisadas as perspetivas do músico e do público, obtidas por meio de entrevistas e de um inquérito por questionário. As conclusões apontam para a importância da implementação de estratégias pedagógicas que aprimorem a comunicação emocional na performance, mostrando que o público consegue captar emoções expressas durante uma performance musical. Este trabalho destaca a relevância de integrar o desenvolvimento emocional no ensino, contribuindo para uma ligação mais profunda entre o aluno, o repertório e o público, e para performances musicais mais expressivas e envolventes.Abstract: This Internship Report, carried out as part of the Supervised Teaching Practice of the Master's Degree in Music Education, specialization in Instrument and Ensemble Music, is divided into two parts. The first part refers to the Supervised Teaching Practice carried out at the Regional Conservatory of Castelo Branco during the 2023/2024 academic year. This practice focuses on accompaniment three guitar students (two 4th grade students and one 5th grade student) and the accompaniment of an ensemble class (guitar orchestra). The second part of the report consists of the research project titled "Emotion in Musical Performance". This study, mainly qualitative in nature, utilizes an action research methodology and was carried out with four classical guitar students (two from 4th grade and two from 5th grade). This research aims to understand how the performer conveys emotions during a musical performance and how accurately these emotions are perceived by the audience. To this end, the perspectives of both the musician and the audience are analyzed, obtained through interviews and a questionnaire survey. The conclusions points to the importance of the implementation of pedagogical strategies that enhance emotional communication in performance, demonstrating that audiences can perceive emotions communicated during a musical performance. This study emphasizes the relevance of integrating emotional development into education, contributing for a deeper connection between the student, repertoire and audience, and for more expressive and engaging performances
Ontological framework for high-level task replanning for autonomous robotic systems
No full textSeveral frameworks for robot control platforms have been developed in recent years. However, strategies that incorporate automatic replanning have to be explored, which is a requirement for Autonomous Robotic Systems (ARS) to be widely adopted. Ontologies can play an essential role by providing a structured representation of knowledge. This paper proposes a new framework capable of replanning high-level tasks in failure situations for ARSs. The framework utilizes an ontology-based reasoning engine to overcome constraints and execute tasks through Behavior Trees (BTs). The proposed framework was implemented and validated in a real experimental environment using an Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) sharing a plan with a human operator. The proposed framework uses semantic reasoning in the planning system, offering a promising solution to improve the adaptability and efficiency of ARSs.This work is financed by national funds through FCT - Foundationfor Science and Technology, I.P., through IDMEC, under LAETA, projectUIDB/50022/2020. The work of Rodrigo Bernardo was supported bythe PhD Scholarship BD/6841/2020 from FCT. This work has indirectlyreceived funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programmeunder StandICT.eu 2026 (under Grant Agreement No.: 101091933)
Unveiling the chemistry and bioactivity of bee products and their derivatives
No full textApiculture, or beekeeping, refers to the cultivation and management of honey bees for honey and byproducts, including the extraction, bottling, and sale of hive products such as honey, propolis, royal jelly, bee venom, bee pollen, bee bread and other fermented bee products [1].
Honey is a supersaturated solution or semi-solid natural sweet product produced by both honey bees (Apis subfamily) and stingless bees (Meliponinae subfamily) from carbohydrate-containing exudates produced by plants, mainly from nectar sources. The most common honey bee is Apis mellifera L., whereas stingless bees comprise multiple genera, including Scaptotrigona, Melipona and Trigona, with the last two being the most domesticated worldwide [1–3]. Honeydew honey is also a sweet natural product produced by bees from honeydew (sugary substance that aphids release on the bark or other parts of plants after assimilating the lymph) [1–4].
Honey is a complex mixture of carbohydrates along with other less common components like vitamins, minerals, lipids, organic acids, proteins, amino acids, flavonoids, pigments, waxes, pollen grains, various enzymes, and other phytochemicals. The first method for identifying the botanical source of bee honey is pollen analysis. With this information, one may identify pollen grains and use them to describe the honey-producing region [5].
According to the pollen analysis, honeys can be classified as (a) monofloral/unifloral if honeys contain predominantly pollen grains from an unique plant species (≥45% of all nectariferous pollen grains counted); (b) bifloral honeys contain pollen grains from two plant species with a frequency of 15–45% per nectariferous species; (c) plurifloral/
multifloral honeys contain pollen grains from three or more nectariferous plant species with frequencies in the 3–15% (“important minor pollen types,) or <3% (“minor
pollen types) [5]. working on developing an ISO standard for this purpose.This research was financed by National Funds through FCT-Foundation for Science and Technology under the Projects MED UIDB/05183 (doi:10.54499/UIDB/05183/2020 and doi:10.54499/UIDP/05183/2020) and CHANGE (doi:10.54499/LA/P/0121/2020) and project CERNAS-IPCB (UIDB/00681)
A global dataset of near-natural basins for climate change detection
No full textROBIN Network:
Albert Bi Tié Goula, Andrew Watson, Anja Iselin Pedersen, Anne Fleig, Ansoumana Bodian, Benjamin Renard, Berit Arheimer, Camila Alvarez-Garreton, Caroline Kan, Chaiwat Ekkawatpanit, Conor Murphy, Cosmo Ngondondo, Daniel Kingston, El Mahdi El Khalki, Ernest Amoussou, Giuseppe Formetta, Glenn Hodgkins, Gregor Laaha, Gunnar Sigurðsson, Hammouda Boutaghane, Hamouda Dakhaoui, Hong Xuan Do, Jan Daňhelka, Jari Uusikivi, Jiabo Yin, Jón Ottó Gunnarsson, Juan Diego Giraldo Osorio, Kerstin Stahl, Koichiro Kuraji, Luis Medeiro, Maria Albuquerque, Martin Hanel, Michele Toucher, Mikołaj Piniewski, Mohamed Elmehdi SAIDI, Narayan Gautam, Nelson Venegas Cordero, Nuno De Almeida Ribeiro, Paul O'Connor, Paul Whitfield, Petra Schmocker, Pham Thanh Hung-Khoa, Prof Guy Midgley, Rachdane Mariame, René Capell, Rita Fonseca, Sarah Mager, Seth Westra, Sharad Jain, Shimizu Takanoir, Sophie Horton, Supattra Vissesri, Tomasz Berezowski, Walszon Lopes, Yannis Markonis, Yuko Asano, Yves TramblayAs hydrological extremes become more severe in the warming world, impacts to livelihoods, infrastructure, and economies worsen. To attribute emerging trends to climate change, we need to remove the signal of anthropogenic activities, such as, the presence of dams, land-cover change, channelisation and the abstraction of water for public water supplies, industry and agriculture. These human disturbances can obscure climate change signals and distort trends in river flows and, in some cases, lead to a complete reversal of true, natural trends
O convento de Santo António de Idanha-a-Nova : registos funerários
No full textEstudo e transcrição dos registos funerários do convento de Santo António de Idanha-a-Nova.Abstract: Study and transcription from the death registration of the convent of Santo António in Idanha-a-Novainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Analysis of the relationship between the weather index of fire danger and occurrences of rural fires. Case study: centro region of Portugal
No full textThe aim of this study was to design an approach for establishing a plausible relationship between FWI and the monthly average burned area (ABA) and the average number of ignitions (ANI) supported by geographic information systems (GIS). The application of these results will allow the projection of burned areas in forest fires in the future, making mitigation actions possible. This approach was applied to the region of Central Portugal, and to achieve the aims of the study, the following steps were completed: (1) geoprocessing the spatial data of the daily FWI indices, burned area and number of fire ignitions and (2) developing statistical regression models capable of reproducing the variability in burned area and ignition occurrence series from FWI data during the 2001–2017 period. The predicted equations for the burned area as a function of the FWI presented high coefficients of determination for most of the considered periods, thus allowing the projection, with a high degree of confidence, of the monthly burned area values according to the various future climate scenarios. The prediction of the average number of ignitions from the FWI values class proved to be effective for establishing highly adjusted forecast models for July and August. In the spatial analysis at the district level, the ABA and ANI estimation equations were obtained from the FWI values with determination coefficients above 0.90 for most of the districts. Significant differences were observed between the districts in the number of ignitions analysed.This work is supported by: European Investment Funds by FEDER/COMPETE/POCI Operational Competitiveness and Internationalization Program, under POCentro-PT2020-FEDER project Centro-01-0145-FEDER-024253. The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to CERNAS-IPCB (UIDB/00681/2020; https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDP/00681/2020) and MED (UIDB/05183/2020, https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDB/05183/2020; https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDP/05183/2020); CHANGE (https://doi.org/10.54499/LA/P/0121/2020).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Serological evidence of antibodies to Flaviviridae in wild birds in Portugal
No full textEmerging infectious diseases are a major threat to biodiversity and an important public health issue. Flaviviruses are the cause of several emerging vector-borne zoonotic arboviruses whose distribution is currently increasing in Europe.
The evidence that West Nile virus (WNV) circulates in resident and migratory species has implications for both animal and public health and should therefore be studied in depth. USUTU (USUV), Bagaza (BAGV) and tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) are other viruses that are beginning to spread more widely. An integrated surveillance program, namely in birds, is essential for reducing the risk of infection in human populations within the One Health principles.
In the present study, wild birds admitted to wildlife rehabilitation centers in Portugal were sampled. Two hundred
eight blood samples were assayed serologically for antibodies to faviviruses by using a commercial ELISA kit. An overall seroprevalence of 19.6% (95% confdence interval [CI]: 13.7–26.7%) was observed. Antibodies against faviviruses were detected in 13 (35.1%) diferent species of wild birds. Accipitriformes (26.7%; 95% CI: 18.5–36.2%) and Strigiformes (26.7%; 95% CI: 14.6–42.0%) were the orders with the highest seroprevalence rates recorded. There were no statistically signifcant diferences (p=0.725) between the geographical regions (NUTS II) studied, but a statistically signifcant diference (p=0.017) was found between sex (male: 34.4%; female: 4.8%). A higher seroprevalence was detected in adults (32.1%) than in juvenile birds (9.3%) (p=0.014), and age was considered a risk factor for favivirus infection in wild birds (odds ratio 1.4; 95% CI: 0.5–4.0). More epidemiological studies are needed in Portugal since the actual spread of the genus Flavivirus throughout the country is unknown.CERAS, CRAS-HVUTAD, CERVAS, CIARA and RIAS teams for their help in collecting samples and data. Inês Cabaça, for her help and companionship in the analyses, and the technicians of the Laboratory of Microbiology, IPCB.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Recent land use land cover change tendencies in Continental Portugal: Are they sustainable?
No full textThe Land Use Land Cover (LULC) pattern of landscapes is a key element of basic landscape structure; accordingly, this pattern has a vital role in landscape management, nature conservation, and preservation. On the other hand, the human impact on the ecological environment has attracted significant attention. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between human disturbance intensity and landscape pattern configuration and quality. The objectives are: (1) to analyze the spatiotemporal dynamics of landscape and human disturbance in the process of land use change in Continental Portugal between 1990 and 2018, and (2) to explore the relationship between the landscape change trajectories and human disturbance/ naturalness metrics, to reveal how landscape-pattern-change tendencies can be used as indicators of the level of sustainability. We quantified the landscape configuration through a set of land use metrics, such as Mean Patch Size, Mean Shape Index, Total Edge, and Mean Patch Fractal Dimension. The LULC Corine Land Cover databases from 1990, 2006, and 2018 were used to calculate the landscape metrics. Patch level and landscape level metrics were calculated for 163 quadrats of 25 km2 each, covering the country, with the Patch Analyst extension of the Arc GIS 10.8 software. The Hemeroby Index (HI) was calculated to measure the level of human-induced disturbance in the landscape. Correlation analysis revealed the statistical connections between the change in landscape metric parameters and the change in HI. The change in Total Edge metrics negatively correlates with the change in human disturbance. That suggests that the increase in complexity of the landscape corresponds to low levels of disturbance. Landscape metrics could be appropriate for describing the landscape's human disturbance/naturalness status, confirming the results obtained in previous studies. Using a set of structural and quality indicators can be helpful for planners and decision-makers to analyze trends in land use patterns at a regional level.This work is supported by Portuguese national funds from the FCT Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., within the GEOBIOTEC Project UIDB/04035/2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio