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Projeto Demola Portugal: um contributo de cocriação para promover a aprendizagem disruptiva e as competências digitais
No full textO modelo convencional de ensino-aprendizagem não atende mais as demandas do mercado de trabalho atual, exigindo a formação de profissionais capacitados em competências trans-versais e transferíveis que se mantenham relevantes ao longo da vida. As Instituições de Ensino Superior Portuguesas (IESP) desempenham um papel crucial na qualificação profis-sional e, desde a implementação do Processo de Bolonha, foram incentivadas a criar novas ecologias de aprendizagem que favoreçam o desenvolvimento dessas competências nos es-tudantes. Destaca-se, nesse contexto, a metodologia de cocriação de inovação como uma ferramenta valiosa para o aprimoramento de competências transversais e transferíveis, como a criatividade, o pensamento crítico, o trabalho colaborativo e o domínio de tecnologias digitais, entre outras. O Projeto de Cocriação Demola Portugal, financiado pelos programas POCH – Programa de Capacitação de Professores em Processos de Cocriação e COMPETE 2020 Co-creation Portugal – Link Me Up 1000 Ideas, durante o período de 2020/2021 a 2022/2023, promoveu a formação de professores e estudantes por meio da metodologia de cocriação Demola, envolvendo um consórcio de 14 IESP portuguesas. Este estudo de caso, com uma abordagem mista, apresenta os resultados alcançados nos três anos do projeto, a partir da perspetiva de três grupos: coordenadores, professores e estudantes participantes, com o objetivo de avaliar se os programas de formação contribuíram para a inovação peda-gógica e o aumento da literacia digital nas 14 IESP do consórcio. Para a população de coor-denadores, foram realizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas, resultando em 16 participações. No caso dos grupos amostrais de professores e estudantes, utilizou-se a metodologia não probabilística por conveniência, por meio de questionários semiestruturados, abrangendo uma amostra de 106 professores (n) e 59 estudantes (n). Os resultados indicam que a parti-cipação no projeto contribuiu significativamente para a inovação pedagógica e para o au-mento da literacia digital nas 14 IESP envolvidas, promovendo a aprendizagem disruptiva e as competências digitais.The conventional teaching-learning model no longer meets the demands of today's labour market, which requires professionals to be trained in transversal and transferable skills that remain relevant throughout their lives. Portuguese Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) play a crucial role in professional qualification and, since the implementation of the Bologna Process, have been encouraged to create new learning ecologies that favour the development of these skills in students. In this context, the innovation co-creation methodology stands out as a valuable tool for improving transversal and transferable skills, such as creativity, critical thinking, collaborative work and mastery of digital technologies, among others. The Demola Portugal Co-creation Project, funded by the POCH - Teacher Training Programme in Co-creation Processes and COMPETE 2020 Co-creation Portugal - Link Me Up 1000 Ideas programmes, from 2020/2021 to 2022/2023, promoted the training of teachers and students using the Demola co-creation methodology, involving a consortium of 14 Portu-guese HEIs. This case study, with a mixed-methods approach, presents the results achieved in the three years of the project from the perspective of three groups: coordinators, teachers and student participants, with the aim of assessing whether the training programmes con-tributed to pedagogical innovation and increased digital literacy in the 14 HEIs in the con-sortium. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with the population of coordinators (N), resulting in 16 participants (N). In the case of the sample groups of teachers and stu-dents (n), a non-probabilistic convenience methodology was used, using semi-structured questionnaires, covering a sample of 106 teachers (n) and 59 students (n). The results indi-cate that the involvement in the project has made a significant contribution to pedagogical innovation and has increased digital literacy in the 14 HEIs involved, promoting disruptive learning and digital competences
Interconnection between lifestyle, health, and academic outcomes: an analysis on study habits and well-being
No full textBalancing academic demands with personal and professional responsibilities has become an increasingly challenging task, making it difficult to maintain well-being and potentially leading to serious health problems. The stress resulting from these multiple daily tasks, combined with the pressure to perform at high academic levels, directly impacts students’ mental and emotional health, significantly compromising their quality of life. In this work, statistical and clustering techniques are employed to analyze the dataset “Daily Lifestyle and Academic Performance of Students”. The objective of this work is to explore the relationship between students’ daily habits, level of stress, and the impact on academic performance. The results point out that many students have difficulty managing time and maintaining well-being (low-stress levels) with high academic performance since, according to the results, the higher the academic outcome, the higher the student’s stress level.This work has been supported by FCT Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope UIDB/00319/2020, UIDB/05757/2020 (DOI: 10.54499/UIDB/05757/2020), UIDP/05757/2020 (DOI: 10.54499/UIDP/05757/2020) and Erasmus Plus KA2 within the project 2021-1-PT01-KA220-HED-000023288 and HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ACCESS-03-01 STEP - STEM Research and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Project, under Grant Agreement No. 101078933
Digital marketing in health and wellness tourism
No full textThe dissemination of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has altered how society functions, creating the denominated information society. Consequently, digital technologies are significantly reducing information asymmetries between customers and providers. The evolving of internet-based applications improves marketing efforts by enabling organisations to implement innovative forms of communication besides moving for ‘co-creating’ content with customers. Digital marketing strategies offer marketers new ways to cultivate customer relationships, which can lead to increased customer loyalty. This is important because the effects of customer loyalty on health and wellness profitability are known to be significant. Therefore, this study discusses the digital marketing strategies that health and wellness tourism organisations must master to ‘conquer’ and retain customers. Considering that, a semi-systematic secondary research method was used based on the existing literature. This method explores digital marketing and how it can be adapted to the sector of health and wellness tourism. Essentially, this first stage consists of a reflexive work that uses different approaches and meanings to define conceptual analytical dimensions. The second stage consisted of an overview on Southern Europe real-world examples analyses; considering its possible contribution to consolidating our results and questioning, our option was taken. This chapter formulates a series of recommendations for the sector that may help improve decision-making in the digital marketing implementation and practice of digital marketing. The study also contributes to address the existing lack of literature. We conclude the chapter by identifying, providing and discussing possible avenues for future research.</jats:p
Can the region of production affect the quality and composition of olive oil? Comparative study on two olive cultivars
Full text linkPortugal is a notable olive oil-producing country, gaining prominence in the last decade. This study examined how geographic origin influences olive oil quality by analyzing samples from three key regions (Alentejo, Beira Interior, and Trás-os-Montes) and two major cultivars: Cobrançosa and Galega. All oils met the extra-virgin classification criteria, with free acidity consistently below 0.30%, and peroxide values ranging from 2.3 to 6.7 mEq O₂/kg. Alentejo oils were sensorially more intense, showing higher bitterness and pungency (up to 6.1 and 6.8, respectively). Significant chemical differences were also observed: Trás-os-Montes oils presented the highest monounsaturated fatty acid content (up to 76% MUFA), whereas Alentejo showed the greatest concentrations of hydroxytyrosol-based compounds (up to 450 mg/kg) and strong antioxidant activity (DPPH inhibition up to 80%). Beira Interior oils exhibited the highest α-tocopherol levels (up to 428 mg/kg). Heatmaps and principal component analysis (PCA) revealed clear chemical differences based on origin, demonstrating that environmental factors significantly influence composition, oxidative stability, and antioxidant potential. These results highlight the role of terroir in shaping both the sensory and chemical properties of Portuguese olive oils.This work was supported by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC): CIMO, UIDB/00690/2020 (DOI: 10.54499/UIDB/00690/2020) and UIDP/00690/2020 (DOI: 10.54499/UIDP/00690/2020); and SusTEC, LA/P/0007/2020 (DOI: 10.54499/LA/P/0007/2020); LAQV/Requimte, LA/P/0008/2020 (DOI 10.54499/LA/P/0008/2020), UIDP/50006/2020 (DOI 10.54499/UIDP/50006/2020) and UIDB/50006/2020 (DOI 10.54499/UIDB/50006/2020). National funding by FCTFoundation for Science and Technology, through the institutional scientific employment program-contract with Nuno Rodrigues
Performance benchmarking of or-tools methods for capacitated vehicle routing problems with time windows
No full textThe Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (CVRPTW) is a significant challenge in combinatorial optimization, with extensive practical applications in logistics and transportation. This study aims to conduct a comparative analysis of the various methods available in OR-Tools for solving the CVRPTW across datasets of different sizes and types using the Solomon and the Gehring and Homberger benchmarks. The analysis provided insights into the relative strengths of each method, with a primary focus on Guided Local Search (GLS) and Tabu Search (TS), showing consistent performance and adaptability to different dataset characteristics. The results indicate that GLS is the most robust method overall, and TS can outperform it in specific scenarios. In conclusion, this study offers insights for selecting the most effective method to solve vehicle routing problems based on the characteristics and scale of the problem.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to CeDRI, UIDB/05757/2020 (DOI: 10.54499/UIDB/05757/2020) and UIDP/ 05757/2020 (DOI: 10.54499/UIDB/05757/2020) and SusTEC, LA/P/0007/2020 (DOI: 10.54499/LA/P/0007/2020). The authors are grateful to Sociedade Ponto Verde for the finantial support through the project “A digitalização como ferramenta para melhorar a sustentabilidade do processo de recolha seletiva”
The diversity of insecticide target site mutations in Apis mellifera
No full textInsecticides are widely used to combat agricultural pest species, such as aphids, caterpillars, planthoppers and locusts, or to limit the spread of disease-carrying mosquitos. However, these insecticides do not only affect their target species but also non-target species such as pollinators which inadvertently encounter them while foraging. Over one hundred different pesticides and pesticide derivatives have been found in honey bee hives. Insecticides are one of the factors behind the decline of pollinator populations.
Pest species, such as aphids and Lepidoptera, have developed widespread resistance to a large number of compounds. However, research on insecticide resistance in honey bees is rather limited and focuses on only one type of resistance: metabolic resistance. Therefore, we aim to expand the available data on insecticide resistance in honey bees by studying another type of insecticide resistance: target site resistance. In this study, we screened 4897 publicly available Apis mellifera genomes for mutations in 17 insecticide target site genes covering all commonly used insecticides. These genomes originated from 54 countries and cover more than 20 subspecies and honey bee breeds. A total of 5269 synonymous and 4465 non-synonymous mutations were identified. These mutations show differing geographical and functional patterns of diversity. While the majority of mutations were classified as rare mutations or could not be linked directly to insecticide resistance, several potential insecticide resistance mutations have been identified. Furthermore, mutations potentially associated with previously reported local adaptation to high altitude and Varroa destructor are described. This study serves as a basis for further research on insecticide resistance and local adaptation in pollinators
Optimization, Learning Algorithms and Applications: 5th International Conference - Part 2
No full textThe volumes CCIS 2617 and 2618 contain the refereed proceedings of the V International Conference on Optimization, Learning Algorithms and Applications (OL2A 2025), a
hybrid event held on April 28–30.
OL2A provided a space for the research community on optimization and learning to get together and share the latest developments, trends and techniques as well as develop new paths and collaborations. OL2A had the participation of more than two hundred participants in an online and face-to-face environment throughout three days, discussing topics associated with areas such as optimization and learning and state-of-the-art applications related to multi-objective optimization, optimization for machine learning, robotics, health informatics, data analysis, optimization and learning under uncertainty and the 4th industrial revolution.
Four special sessions were organized under the topics Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Medicine, Optimization in the SDG Context, Optimization in Control Systems Design, and Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in Robotics. The event had 38 accepted papers. All papers were carefully reviewed and selected from the 92 received submissions, with each paper receiving three double-blind reviews on average.
All the reviews were carefully carried out by a scientific committee of 115 researchers from twenty-one countries
Drivers of seedling emergence and early growth of 12 European oak species: Results from a cross-continental experiment
No full textSeedling emergence constitutes a critical recruitment step, and early growth relates to plant competitive ability. Understanding their drivers has implications for forestry and forest ecosystem conservation, restoration, and adaptation to climate change. We seeded 6984 acorns in an experiment with 97 cases at 45 sites in 15 European countries, encompassing 12 oak species. We tested whether the quality of the acorn batch, site-level weather and soil characteristics, year of seeding, and species' mean specific leaf area (SLA) affected the emergence and early growth of seedlings after the first summer. Germination potential and acorn dry weight, measured under controlled conditions, were positively associated with emergence and early growth. Seedling emergence was negatively associated with the mean monthly temperature and cumulative winter precipitation, and it was higher in the seedling cohort that was spared from the 2021 drought. Additionally, seedling emergence was positively related to soil nutrient concentration and negatively to increasing soil pH, but not to water-holding capacity, and growth was unrelated to soils. Species-level SLA was not related to either response. The four main study species -Quercus cerris, Q. ilex, Q. petraea, and Q. robur- responded similarly to weather but not to soil conditions. We conclude that, at a continental scale, and assuming that species establish within their current distributions, (a) oak seedling emergence and early growth are associated with acorn quality rather than species identity or SLA, (b) they are highest at sites with low winter precipitation and temperature, (c) emergence is reduced in dry years, and (d) soil properties play a secondary role at this early recruitment stage.This research was funded by grants TED2021–130976B-I00, funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union Next GenerationEU/PRTR; RESISTRES (C-EXP267-UGR23) from University of Granada/ Junta de Andalucía/ FEDER; and SMART-OAK, funded by the European Union through FORWARDS (Horizon Europe Project No. 101084481) grants to third parties managed by European Forest Institute. The participant network stemmed primarily from the PEN-CAFoRR COST Action (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). The work at each field site was funded by variable sources granted to co-authors. ABL acknowledges mobility grant Salvador de Madariaga (PRX23/00558) and from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation while writing this manuscript. Funding statements and acknowledgments from the field sites are provided in Appendix S2. Funding for open access charge was provided by Universidad de Granada/ CBUA
Editorial: Building health through physical activity in schools, volume II
No full textBuilding health through physical activity in schools remains a global priority, as educational systems face persistent challenges related to declining physical activity levels, increasing sedentary behavior, and growing concerns about physical, psychological, and social health among children and adolescents. Schools represent a uniquely powerful setting to influence lifelong health behaviors, yet effective promotion of physical activity requires evidence that integrates individual, pedagogical, environmental, and structural dimensions. The 19 articles included in “Building Health Through Physical Activity in Schools – Volume II” collectively provide a comprehensive and multidimensional perspective on how physical activity, health, and well-being can be fostered through educational contexts across diverse populations and sociocultural settings
Targeting Skin Aging Hallmarks In Vitro: Antioxidant, Anti-Inflammatory, and Anti-Senescence Effects of Phenolic-Rich Extracts from Cistus L. Species
No full textPlant-based extracts are rich sources of phenolic compounds, which may act as skin antiaging mediators. Herein, Cistus albidus L. (Ca), Cistus ladanifer L. subsp. ladanifer (Cl) and Cistus salviifolius L. (Cs) were selected to test whether their phytochemical profile and bioactive potential align to target human skin aging. Hydroethanolic extracts (HEs) were prepared and characterized using infrared vibrational spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Non-toxic concentrations were screened, and cytoprotective and antioxidant effects were studied in tert-butyl hydroperoxide-stimulated normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDFs). Lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages were used to assess anti-inflammatory activity, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Test Guideline No. 439 was used to assess irritant effects, and the anti-senescence potential was assessed in etoposide-stimulated NHDFs. A series of enzymatic inhibition assays was performed. All extracts comprised ellagic acid derivatives, as well as myricetin and quercetin derivatives in Cs and Ca. The HE of Cs was also markedly composed of ligstroside. At non-toxic concentrations, cytoprotective effects were observed in NHDFs. However, only Cs and Cl exhibited significant antioxidant activity in these cells (p < 0.001 and p < 0.0001, respectively). In addition to that, Cl demonstrated highly significant anti-inflammatory (p < 0.0001) and anti-senescence (p < 0.0001) effects. Cs and Cl showed a remarkable potential to inhibit elastase; in addition, Cs also showed anti-hyaluronidase and anti-tyrosinase activities. Meaningfully, Cs and Cl extracts did not exhibit skin irritant effects. The unveiled potential of Cl in skin aging offset highlights the need to elucidate the detailed mechanisms of action, paving the way for the development of skin anti-aging formulations.This work was co-funded by the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility and Portuguese national funds via FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, under projects, LA/P/0058/2020 (DOI: 10.54499/LA/P/0058/2020), UID/PRR/4539/2025 (DOI: 10.54499/UID/PRR/04539/2025) and UID/04539/2025 and by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC): CIMO UID/00690/2025 (10.54499/UID/00690/2025) and UID/PRR/00690/2025 (10.54499/UID/PRR/00690/2025); SusTEC, LA/P/0007/2020 (DOI: 10.54499/LA/P/0007/2020). It was also supported by FCT through the projects UID/04567/2025 (DOI: 10.54499/UID/04567/2025) (CBIOS) and UID/50006/2025 (DOI: 10.54499/UID/50006/2025) (LAQV/REQUIMTE). We also thank national funding by FCT, P.I., through the institutional and individual scientific employment program contract for M. I. Dias (CEECINSTLA/00032/2022/CP3032/CT0001), PhD grant for M. P. Marques (PRT/BD/153391/2021, DOI: 10.54499/PRT/BD/153391/2021) and PhD grant for E. Landim (PRT/BD/154364/2022, DOI: 10.54499/PRT/BD/154364/2022)