Polytechnic Institute of Viseu

About: Polytechnic Institute of Viseu is a education organization based out in Viseu, Portugal. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Agriculture. The organization has 392 authors who have published 989 publications receiving 14134 citations. The organization is also known as: IPV.

Therapeutic effect of localized vibration on alveolar bone of osteoporotic rats

Abstract: Objectives Vibration, in the form of high frequency acceleration (HFA), stimulates alveolar bone formation under physiologic conditions and during healing after dental extractions. It is not known if HFA has an anabolic effect on osteoporotic alveolar bone. Our objective is to determine if HFA has a regenerative effect on osteoporotic alveolar bone. Methods and materials Adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into five groups: 1) Ovariectomized Group (OVX), 2) Sham-OVX Group that received surgery without ovariectomy, 3) OVX-HFA Group that was ovariectomized and treated daily with HFA, 4) OVX+Static Force Group that was ovariectomized and received the same force as HFA, but without vibration, and 5) Control Group that did not receive any treatment. All animals were fed a low mineral diet for 3 months. Osteoporosis was confirmed by micro-CT of the fifth lumbar vertebra and femoral head. HFA was applied to the maxillary first molar for 5 minutes/day for 28 and 56 days. Maxillae were collected for micro-CT, histology, fluorescent microscopy, protein and RNA analysis, and three-point bending mechanical testing. Results Micro-CT analysis revealed significant alveolar bone osteoporosis in the OVX group. Vibration restored the quality and quantity of alveolar bone to levels similar to the Sham-OVX group. Animals exposed to HFA demonstrated higher osteoblast activity and lower osteoclast activity. Osteogenic transcription factors (RUNX2, Foxo1, Osterix and Wnt signaling factors) were upregulated following vibration, while RANKL/RANK and Sclerostin were downregulated. HFA did not affect serum TRAcP-5b or CTx-1 levels. The osteogenic effect was highest at the point of HFA application and extended along the hemimaxillae this effect did not cross to the contra-lateral side. Conclusions Local application of vibration generated gradients of increased anabolic metabolism and decreased catabolic metabolism in alveolar bone of osteoporotic rats. Our findings suggest that HFA could be a predictable treatment for diminished alveolar bone levels in osteoporosis patients.

Modelling consumer preferences for electric vehicles in Portugal: an exploratory study

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand consumer preferences concerning electric vehicles (EV) in Portugal, based on comparisons with other vehicles with different powertrains. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis incorporated two survey-based approaches: choice-based conjoint analysis (CBC) and multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) based. The survey interviewed 252 respondents. The criteria characterizing each vehicle are purchase price, range, fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Another criterion was added to verify the potential of EV privileges to influence consumer preferences. A sensitivity analysis on the influence of purchase price and fuel price in the global utility of the vehicles was performed. Findings – The results showed that monetary criteria are those influencing vehicle purchase decisions the most, whereas the existence of privileges for EV owners has little relevance. EV are chosen by the consumer only if their price decreases or if gasoline and diesel prices increas...

Energy and Water Consumption Variability in School Buildings: Review and Application of Clustering Techniques

Abstract: In developed countries, the building sector is responsible for a very significant share of the total energy consumption. School buildings, because they are places where children are educated and learn to become active members of the society, should be a good example of an efficient use of energy and water. In this study, data of the energy and water consumption of 23 Portuguese schools and their main building characteristics and properties were gathered. This information was normalized to homogenize the data set and then analyzed using advanced clustering techniques. The results show a significant variability in the consumption of different schools, even with similar characteristics, suggesting that the user behavior plays an important role in their efficiency. The complete linkage and Ward’s clustering methods were applied, both produced three clusters, and reference values for electricity and water consumption were defined.

Strategy planner

Abstract: One of the research topics on multi-agent systems focuses on the development of mechanisms such as plans to empower a team of agents to cooperate in order to perform complex tasks. In many cases, the definition of these plans are based on a specific and rather complex grammar and stored in structured text files.In the context of the 2D simulated Robotic Soccer domain, a set-play language was proposed to coordinate the execution of teammates' behaviors to improve a team's overall performance. The process of manually writing set-play definitions is hazardous and can benefit from the use of a graphical tool to reach new users and allow typical users to become more productive.This work presents such a tool for which several experiments were run to measure its usability with forty two users by having them perform a set of tasks for which their execution time, number errors and satisfaction were recorded.The tool reduced the previous average time required to completely define a set-play by 90% and enabled even non-expert users to use it. Moreover, users were on average satisfied with SPlanner having ranked it with a score of 77 (out of 100) using a System Usability Scale questionnaire.